Fire Escape Cast #120

Hello everybody, Welcome back to the fire Escape Cast. It is Monday, November seventeen. It is fifty two degrees in Cloudy and Tacoma, Washington. Thank you for coming back. It's good to see you. Dan.

Hi, you're back. I'm back. Yeah, yeah, it was gone the last time.

Chris, Chris Plant nobly set in to fill your steed.

If I'm going, you can only bring people from Kansas City. That's the rule. So thank you for Chris.

Yes, how was a contract? He's good? Yeah?

Yeah, good Manue.

I like that. But people liked him. Sure.

I saw him at your wedding, Mike.

Yeah, I know. I love the dude. Mary. You were here, I was here.

Me and Chris get along so well, like peas and carrots. I didn't even think about it.

I was happy. It was bliss. We enjoyed ourselves.

But we're back, and it's really nice to have the three of us together again.

Discovered that none of the games I like this year are cool, and all the games that are truly cool I've never heard of on Steam because they have like twelve reviews. That's what I learned from Plant.

Wait, wait, okay, give me give me three games.

The Plant loved couldn't have even couldn't tell you half a way called oh no no, I got one q up Oh.

Jan was playing that today. I think Jan's into that. I don't really know what it is, but there's a certain thing that's a jam game. Is there gambling in it?

It's a it's supposedly the only fair. It's about an esport esport players, I believe, and the sport is just coin tosses. So it's like, Okay, that's a jam fair. That's a jam game. Yeah, I think its.

Into something that's more than that.

I think he likes Baby Steps, which was.

An interesting like baby Steps.

It's an interesting difference between us. But I think he was like, I live to suffer and love the challenge and got really into the consistency of it.

No Plant was saying, Plant is playing it the opposite of how Grub was playing it. Plant was playing it like anytime they gave him a shortcut, He's like, yeah, I'll use it. Like he was saying, how that game is just about how we don't accept help when it's thrown at our face, often to make things more challenging for us. It's it's Chris Plant he's always got you know, he's got he's got interesting, insightful takes on stuff. That was what he was saying.

I like it when things are easier. Yeah yeah, I like shortcuts and spic Yeah yeah, Like being a coward is underrated, like.

Like right, like you just safer if you're a coward.

Right like after Night eleven, my grandma said she would, like, you know, send me to Canada if they tried to draft me. And it was like that sounds fucking great.

Oh you're a draft dog.

I would have been I would have been a draft dodger.

This only adds to my assumption that you would make such a spectacular politician, not because you know what you're doing, but because you ride the wave of charisma and you know, just ego and maybe just I don't know.

I don't know anything about that, so it's not my problem.

I would do it in like a nice way now, like a you know, malevolent way. Yeah yeah, like I'd kind of.

Like ignorance surfer. You know, you're just like I didn't know about that travesty.

I'm just here to have fun.

The video game industry.

What's that?

I said? You're the eb Farnum of the games industry.

Oh, never mind, I take back the coward thing. I'm a tough, brave man.

You don't know that I do.

Just cowards underrated.

I wasn't talking about myself. I just think if cowards want to do that, that's fine.

Okay. I don't know, Dan, Are you secretly being really brave and tough at night when we're not around, Well we're never around, but you get what I mean.

Yeah, you know, I'm just going to patrol in the streets, you know, just making sure everyone's you know, in line.

Yeah, well, let me get you.

Like a scenario like you're in a mall and somebody in the mall is brandishing.

A knife and they're being threatening. Do you approach?

Why do you rat call the cops?

Yeah, you're a coward?

How about this? So Mike, let me here's the genetics effect.

What would you do, Mary, I would I would pull his pants down, all.

Right, that's okay. That's a better option than trying to, like knife.

Because instinctively he's gonna try and pull him back up.

And that's when you need him in the face.

That's when you chop them. Yeah, you do something?

What is it? Eyes? Ears, foot, face. I don't know, Dan, what was the scenario you were, well, eyeballs.

I've never been in a fight. My dad has not either, but he said there was one time he was like going to the bar decade.

It's a crazy eighties the record.

What that I've never been a fight on both.

Of your accounts that your dad hasn't either, it's crazy to me some official verbal Sorry, let me clarify. I'm surprised you're has your Wait, he's never been in a fight. Has he ever been punched?

Not to my knowledge? No, okay, no, okay. I almost like one of the last times I went home for Christmas and we were drunk and he tried to light my beard on fire and I almost punched him in the face. So I probably almost come the closest to punching him in the face. But he was at a bar once in like the eighties or nineties, and he overheard some like biker guys like, hey, let's fuck this

As well as he's been to a fight, is hiding under the pool table.

Yeah. Meanwhile, my grandpa, his dad was a combat medic in Korea and had to pull the dead bodies off the field and he got a bronze star for valor in combat.

So prentitively, Yeah, that's not far right, Yeah, yeah, yeah, not far from the tree at all.

Yeah, Mary, I.

Want to go back to the knife thing. You pull his pants down, But what if he's coming at you, you never printing at you holding a knife saying I'm about to stab you calmly, so you know he means business. They say it like normal tone. They've been playing this.

I am a dirty fighter, meaning I don't play by the rules and I don't know anyone shit. The winner is the winner, period, And so like, is there sand.

That I can throw?

Is there?

You know what I mean?

Like?

Can I.

Them into move.

Something in front of us?

My goal isn't to like, yeah, do this equally, it's to just ruin him with objects. So I would be looking for something that I could throw at him from a distance while like maintaining space. I would love to tell you that I would like lurch forward and go after him. But when somebody has a knife, I have to create distance and probably hurl shit at them until they're distracted, and then ideally once they're distracted, pantsome and then and then they are super distracted, and that's when

You take out.

Those are the two I would go to. But I was in a fight. I think he wants to.

Fight without their ball.

Do you want to know, oh the throat thing?

Yeah, we.

Are assuming that the knife brander is the boy, which I find really a fun form of misogyny.

You I thought IM a doctor. It's him before we have a part.

Of the problem.

I do assume mostly.

The ernest question here. I am not a doctor or a woman, so I don't know the answer to.

We know this.

Yeah, if you if you were running I was going to get to the vagina. If you were running at someone brandishing a knife and someone kicked you directly in the vagina, yeah, what would that would that be? Like kicking you in the thigh? Or is there more going on there.

Is it the knife brander or somebody else?

There's a third I think is doesn't matter what he's asking, does it get what? Does it hurt to get kicked? Let's right?

Okay, so.

A cooter booter is still pretty intense and does not feel good. I don't think that it will result in you puking, so.

It's not debilitating in the way nuts are.

I think it would be.

I would imagine it's probably like getting kicked in your knee where you'd be like.

Oh, okay, that's nothing.

You wouldn't it would feel bad.

But like the balls, I think is like a removal of like you're conscious, like you have to like sit down.

Yeah, no, balls will just stop you and you're it is a flashing boss weak point in a Resident Evil game.

Yeah, I've been punched in the boob before and it hurts.

Now would that would that be different than because guys have nipples?

So is there a difference there?

Yes, because there's like there's there's like a whole bunch of different stuff before not only we have boobs and the boobs are tender.

There there's not like extra organs in there that are sensitive that we don't have a we.

Have a second heart.

No, but they're like because it just more flesh sensitive tissue.

Okay, okay, yeah, all right, so you have little testicles inside your boobs or anything.

No, but I feel like boobs would be more like the pain would be commensurate would getting kicked on your butt cheek or is it now? It's probably more sensitive, isn't it.

But it's not that bad to get kicked in.

They're like probably the best place to get kicked in. You got all that cushion for the pushing. I don't even notice it. If I were to get punched anywhere on my body, I would probably say ass, And then if I was like my least favorite place, it would probably be my face. But boobs would be up there.

That's miserable, I guess I would say like thigh ass and like shoulder or like you know, kind of like bicep. Like those are all punches that are that's gonna be fine. You're gonna get a's gonna be fine.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, but I think you weld on Dan a couple of summers ago on his arm, did I they're in the pack?

Yeah, I did punch you. I was like when Dan was like, I've never been in a fight. I was like, man, what was the last time I had a fight. It was probably like two tuesdays ago. Oh, always scrapping with somebody.

Mary. I wonder you against my sister. I wonder how that would go.

Your sister seems pretty vicious. I probably would. I probably would brandish a cheat, meaning like pocket sand, you know, some kind of you know, piece of wood.

I would I would have to use.

Something against her. I think if it was if it was a battle of myths, I think she would beat me. But I think if we could, if it was just like to the death, then I would find a way a lot.

And it's like, yeah, her punch is like just even like on the arm or whatever.

Question, she's stronger than me.

Oh, she's nuts because I got punched by like high school bullies all the time in the arm and gym class, and like these are like that's like seventeen year old boys. She punches so much harder than anyone that ever punched me in high school.

Very impressive.

I always liked to have a like my best friend in high school was always like just really strong and pretty impressive, and I felt really cool walking next to her because people didn't want to fight her. She fucked them up. So I I think I take your question, and I think I would. I would find a way to befriend your sister and then we would and then we would beat up men together. I think that would probably.

Be But she does love you, she listens to the podcast and she's a big fan.

So I think I would not punch you in the boob.

Okay, we got a tag team here.

Yeah, I think my if someone's running at me with a knife mm hm in them all, yeah, I like I would start. I would definitely, like if I had no choice, but I would, I would start looking for weapons for sure.

Yeah, it's like.

Such a hit reaction.

What's around you that you could utilize, especially if they're running you, Like Dan, if you're.

Just all is perfect because you got everything, Like if.

You're just gonna ostriche, Dan, like you're making yourself very susceptible.

No, I wouldn't ostrich because that ostriches leave their whole everything out for the whole world to see. I would be.

But you're so embarrassing that sometimes people like ignore you, like you're no longer a threat, so people just like, don't they just like leave you be.

A tactic of mine, like in like a bar or something of somebody who's gonna kick my ass or something. I just look, you got nothing to prove here, like you know, you know you can kick my Ass's fine.

And everyone's embarrassed, like, go, let's go back to your dad. You think that those burly bar guys who were like, let's fucking ruin this place. Do you think they're gonna like grab the ankles of a sniveling little guy peeing his pants under a bar. I don't think so. I think they just were like, that's sad, and then they went and beat up some other guy. Like I just think there's an element of it of like could you beat me, I'm gonna go.

After this guy.

But if you're sad and I think they just leave you alone, right.

It's I think for a lot of yeah, bar type guys who want to get in fights, like you know, uh forever, you know, like per wrestlers when they go to bars after the shows and stuff back in the eighties and nineties and stuff, you would get drunken bar guys. They're like, oh, these wrestlers think they're tough. These fake wrestlers. Let's go start ship. Yeah yeah, And it's like, yeah, we don't do that to you know a record. Yeah yeah, I think.

Yeah, it's the macho thing of like trying to prove your more alpha than the other person. It's like, what's the was it the Coen Brothers Western series on Netflix?

It was like the cumber Batch Tales of the cumber Batches whatever.

Shrubs, Yeah, the patch, Yeah, we got there. It's like, oh, the fastest gun in the West is always fighting because everybody wants to like prove they can beat him and stuff.

So I feel like they're always if you're the slowest gun in the West, you're just living.

The lowest gun in the West is such a tactic.

That'd be That would be you Dan Cool.

I'm I hate I like it, but he's living.

Duel to be like, give me a second because time out, time time out.

Wait, cowboy boots and then you dive under the table.

You call the cops.

Yeah, please.

Second reference.

I've I got Mattsallar sites his book about it, the Deadwood Bible or something. We're gonna I want to rewatch soon and read that along with it. The movie that show is still really good. The movie was good to season four for all intense purposes. Speaking of shows, I a couple of things. I started the Chair Company. It's Great'm not gonna spoil anything. I'm gonna talk about the show.

I like, it's a hard one to spoil.

Yeah, I mean, it's for sure, and it's it's it's one im. I didn't watched last night. I didn't watch the Are you marry?

Yes?

Do you okay? If I were just there was no no, no no.

If there was one part you know what I'm talking about, say.

What your question again?

Mike was protesting if I were to say, there's this one part in the last episode that just made me cackle.

You fucking know that I know what you're talking about.

And we don't even need.

Watlous show.

It's really fun. Yeah it's Mike.

Do us a favor and take a screenshot of the part that you think that Dan and I are referencing right now.

And post it to us on Instagram.

Posted to us, just no content, no context.

Just on the social media.

Something tells me it's probably not appropriate, but do it. I'll try.

I want to know what you think is the most is the funniest part of that episode.

I have been saying, I've got the worst pillow in town. Quite a bit of that, a lot of it.

There's a lot of good lines plurbus.

We started watching that yesterday.

Oh yeah, wait, what is that?

It's his new show one, yes, yes, and he's doing sci fi and it's like, I don't think I realize how badly I wanted that. I know we worked on like X Files back the day, but I never saw that. Uh, this is like one of the most effective pilots I've ever seen. I won't say anything. We went in totally blind and it's on Apple TV. Yeah, I know who the fuck has it? But it's it's incredible. It's so good. All right, yeah TV?

What do I know?

Why do I know that act? Oh she's from she's from Better Cassault. Yeah she's awesome.

Yeah she's great.

That's right, Yeah she's I saw the.

Uh.

I thought that was fantastic.

I think it's such a good ride.

They carry tension throughout the whole film, and you guys are gonna think I'm crazy, but I actually think it's very similar to The Chair Company in the sense that like it's weirdly stressful and then funny, and you're like, I don't know if this should be funny because it's stressful, but I can't help it. And I laughed a lot during Bogonia when I felt like I should be upset or like stress.

I can see because it's got you know, again, without spoiling it, it's very surreal, and there are definitely characters that have some really wild thoughts about what's going on and paring them with the utmost certainty, like you know, Tim Robinson talking about the Chair Company and then just yeahs and stuff in this like it's.

They're both characters that are like taking the situation so seriously that you're almost like laughing at them because you're like, these are ridiculous. The Chair Company has like really good moments where Tim Robinson is still such a ridiculous person, right, Like he has these really weird quirks that carry him in his character. So even though the situation is wild, it's like, why did you make this decision? It's such

Also, I just I realized, like every time I've seen Emma Stone in the last few things I've seen her in, it's just like, is she just incredible at every possible type of role? You could throw her away.

She's one of the best actresses of this of our generation for sure. I mean, she's so so talented comedy, drama, everything. How does she do it? It's just so committed to her roles. Yeah, she's good forget.

Did you see The Curse with Nathan Fielder?

M you did? Yeah?

I actually I haven't finished it.

Oh well that's and I heard that's when it gets good.

Yes, yes, that one has a slow burn.

It does, but and I'll say by the end this specifically the end end is like, oh shit, that makes us all extremely worth it. And not that it was bad ever, but it is a slow burn. But yeah, she's incredible on that too. But yeah, Bogonia incredible. I want to watch the rest of his stuff. I hadn't seen, you know, Bonk is seeing a lot of that of the Lobster and Poor Things and his other.

No.

Oh wow, I wonder what you'd think of that. I find that movie like hard to watch.

I liked it back in the day. I liked uh yeah, I also like the Is it because Jesse Plemmons is in Pogonia? Right? Oh yeah, yeah? I love his He's he's amazing.

This is kind of unlike his other roles, Like he's always just kind of a creepy little freak and everything he's in, but this is maybe his creepiest little freak role, Like he is just uh, really unhinged in this one.

Yeah, he was in Civil War for like two and a half minutes, but it felt like an hour because he's terrifying.

But that's the thing, is like he's really like imposing and genuinely scary and that like he's a scary character in this too, but in the way that he's just like not he's detached from reality and you feel like he can kind of do anything, but he's not this like this threatening Like Mary, how would you describe that you've seen Civil War right, Like there's a difference in the way he's threatening in the.

Yeah, he's insane in one of them, and and this one, I actually think he feels quite sure of himself.

While also being completely.

Insane totally, But I think in this one there's relatability to his character, Like he's sensitive because he's it had really tough experiences and so you empathize with him, whereas like in Civil War, like that's just a it's a psycho.

He just seems like a violent, aggressive, awful person, seems very broken.

And in all every character in Bogonia, I was like, oh, I kind of feel for this character, but they're all wild so excellent acting from everyone. And I know you guys mentioned the main too, but there's a third one in there who's also an excellent actor, and I have no idea who the hell that guy?

Dude?

His family member, Yeah he was. He was fascinating in that too.

He was great.

I really love that movie.

Yeah I saw it.

Oh, I wanted to tell you guys that, yeah, look him up. So while you look up that, I'm going to describe uh a movie theater in Portland that I'm always a surprised that they do this, but it's a movie theater where they they it's like a it only has like eighteen seats and the seats are like couches, and so it kind of feels like a home theater, but it is a legit movie theater with really nice around sound. And then they cook full meals and deliver

That sounds like a perfect experience.

If you ever come visit me again, I think I'm gonna take you because it's so weird. It's just so weird when you're like, I'm gonna go see a movie, but the whole experience. We're gonna go see Pogonia. And he's in the hallway with us, and then the guy before he takes us to our seats, he's like, well, before I do that, let me show you our specials.

He pulls out an iPad and he's like, we have scallops.

Now.

We fly our scallops in three times a week. These are never frozen. So I really want you to consider this Atlantic local salmon and he's like going through all these like super nice high end dishes.

They do surf and turf and shit like.

That, and then you sit down in your little couch and they give you this massive menu of options of like pretty nice high end.

Food that I thought was like cooked quite well.

I was surprised with how high end this kitchen is considering it's a fucking movie theater. And then the people who sat next to us brought their own goddamn blanket and so they're like eating surf and turf with their own blanket on top of their legs.

It's surreal. It's very strange.

I goes.

I know a lot of the stuff started with like Alamo draft houses and stuff before the pandemic, but I do feel like post pandemic theaters just had to kind of like step up their games in a lot of ways. Like, hey, come on, I know you can stream everything, but still come over here, and like you get all these recliners, you get like all the sound, and like everything just seems like I really like going to the theaters now.

It was so advanced and everything about the place just feels so odd, and yeah, I keep going back because it's really nice to have a full meal with your with your movie, plus getting a drink halfway through the movie given to you. I was just like, oh yes, please, I deserve this. It was great.

I'm I miss sneaking vodka in in like gay, I mean, yeah, you can still do it. I wish that was the only option. We're pampered, We've gone soft. I don't need a meal during my movie. I want pailbone to hurt when I get up.

It's still the smart thing to do to sneak it in because it's way way tooper not.

To save money. No, no, no, no, no, you're you're not here what I'm saying. I missed when that was a survival tactic, not just saving ten twelve bucks. In my day, before YouTube came up, we had to I had to boof vodka and then let it out during the movie at like a fucking like a water cooler nozzle.

In my day, I was working at AMC trying to people stuck an alcohol.

And get kicked out. Oh I was. I was on boof patrol twenty four to seven at the movie. Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah.

He's like a little meer cat with a wine bottle sticking out of his ass making sure the police aren't nearby. Alcohol.

No, it's sexual cool.

I've got the far sight from perfect dark looking near rectum yet.

True, let's taste it. This is alcohol.

Get out of here. I'm gonna call your mother that worthiness. I think there's some Brett.

And then lastly, I'm going to see Chris Fleming on Saturday at Carnegie Hall. Uh. For those who don't know, he's a comedian who's been kind of blowing up a bit and like his clips and whatnot is very funny.

Conan loves him, is number one guy. I see her clips.

I heard the podcast saying like he would go to Conan's house for parties and then Conan would just like

Picture Cony like whenever he does that Poe enraged thing, like, yeah, really good.

So I'm looking forward to seeing Chris Fleming. I'll report back. He should be good. Anything else new either, updates? Dan, you've been going like a few weeks?

Yeah, New York City it was, and yeah yeah, Bonaton, did you have.

A good time? What were some of your highlights? So it was like your favorite part.

It's one of those things where it's like twenty four hours, but in your head it felt like it was like a three hour stream or something, just because it's like you're so loopy. And so many things happened, Like at some point I played basketball against Mike Manatti. I kidnapped Jeff Grub and dropped him off in the woods in the middle of the night. I Vinnie and Alex came by. I put Jesse Vittelli in a VR helmet, made him watch Love on a leash, and Nubes did a Mortal

Uh good.

Yeah, just hanging out just it was one of those things where the trip ends and you're flying back and you're like wow, that was just really pulled some stuff off there and had a lot of fun. So yes, very feeling very very very good about Giant Bomb right now. It happened for basically since May.

But especially since the transition.

Yes, yes, so it's looking looking very good.

That makes me happy. I'm glad that you guys are doing well. I saw you guys on Twitch a couple of times and and uh, stop by as my corporate overlord.

It's fun to do that.

Yep, yep, it was fun to seeing you there.

Sometimes the chat will be like I wonder if it's merry or if it's true.

Did did you have access?

Yeah? He does?

Oh really okay, yeah yeah you never know.

But I think he gets a couple of those gen tonics and the and Drew will say anything just because he's a pier soul.

I actually I think that he wouldn't unless he like asked for permish, like, that's the kind of person he is. So if you see someone chatting, it's got to be me, because Drew would never do that without being like, am I allowed?

I would like to say x y Z like he's just.

Too good from a Twitch account, Yeah, yeah.

He would be like more honest.

I think he's a flight risk. I think that guy's nothing but trouble.

Nothing.

There's no one I would feel better about if I got on a plane and they were there greeting me in a Captain Suita. But Drew Scalen, Great, We're going to do just fine.

Oh I meant like as a metaphor, Oh sure, sure yeah, but ironically he has a pilot's license though he does.

Yeah, anything he could be gett an astronaut, no problem, I'm sure.

Now, if somebody was coming at you with a knife in a mall, who would you want next to you?

I'll to be a personal friend. It can't be like you know.

Answer for this. It's someone I've been to a bar with numerous times. It's Samoa Joe. That's that's the guy. I've never felt more secure than drinking with Samoa Joe. I still think I could take him. Oh, my god, Mike, do you know how much I would pay to watch I.

Think actually, like I've been playing a lot of Donkey Kong Bananza. I think like he would punch through me, like you punched through the terrain in the first layer. Once you've upgraded your power, I would just I would just explode or be pakes against a wall.

All the particle effects would look so cool, but you would be super dead.

Yeah, Substance as well, I should I forgot. We watched the Substance. He's awesome. Yeah, yeah, yeah, speaking of there was a point in that movie where I was laughing so fucking hard. I mean, I thought many parts of that were funny intentionally, but there's other parts where it's like just horrific shit, and it was the funniest fucking thing ever. Cathartic but funny. And oh yeah, that movie's awesome.

Yeah, Charlie's Angels full throttle.

She was one of the was she one of the angels, she was the villain.

She was wearing like a bikini the whole time.

I gotta go check.

Just so you know.

I saw the strip to the poster a lot.

Oh yeah, I forgot ab Yeah.

Oh I've seen this.

Yeah. I think I have these downloaded.

Oh yeah, yeah, I had a BlackBerry full of just specifically for photos from that movie from.

Charlie these Angels full Throttle.

Yeah, and dazzled.

Uh.

Do you want to talk about video games?

Yeah?

Dan, Yeah, you've seen some quote unquote Valve stuff. Oh yeah, what's going on with that?

This is my first time getting to talk about it because of the embargo timing and stuff. You So, I haven't even told you guys about what this is. No, okay, we're recording this pre embargo. It will be coming out after embargo. I got I went out to Seattle to go to Valve HQ and checked out three new pieces of hardware that they are working on. Uh, and it's I'm very excited about all three of them. So it is decker is steam jack decker? Yes, yes, they have

I should work in marketing. Tell me more about this Steam upper decker. I'm excited.

So first thing is the steam controller. So that is a controller that basically imagine you took a steam deck and you just cut out the screen anyone and you put it all together. It's got the track pads, it's got the sticks in the same situations and all that. Like all the layouts very very similar. It looks weird if you look at the photo of it, it's gonna

The way if you cut out the screen from steam Deck and you put it together. What I'm imagining it looking like is something like this like the switch to like square ish, because I feel like if you just mash the sides of a steam deck together, it would come out looking square.

Is it square?

What's the silhouette?

It's it's think like Dreamcast. Actually I could send you I will send you here. We'll get a live react here. Okay, I'm sending the image in our private discord here so you two can react to it. Here here is the reveal of the Steam controller. What do you think of that?

Kind of like it looks like the Xbox controller, but somebody pulled its pants down a little bit.

And panting, Yeah, that looks.

Like it's good. I think it's that the Xbox controller has like you know how like the PlayStation controller is skinny and like fits smallly in the hand, and the Xbox controller is like kind of fat and thick.

This is fat and thick and also long. Strange.

Yeah, it's so it's also got stuff that like so it's got the track pad and something can see visually, but then there's stuff too that like I'm sure people are gonna find really weird cool ways to deal with this, but like it's got this capacitive stuff on the grips to where based on like how hard or how far your palms are from it. Like for instance, uh, what was that plane? I was playing a first person shooter?

All like what's up with the double track pad?

I think?

So what they want to do is uh and all the stuff I'm going to talk about here, is they they for the video of folks who were really doing Yeah. Yeah, they want everything to kind of be similar in terms of the Steam UI and the controller experience. Uh, just kind of one to one across this hardware and what people know and like about the same deck and everything. So that's why there's no big swings in terms of control layout.

With what I was going to say, what's yeah, what is what is the Is this meant to become like the de facto PC controller or no?

So let me move on to number two here. Actually, right now, they.

Took this Steam Deck and broke it out into two pieces of hardware. Is it a fucking fat ass controller and a fat ass screen?

Nope, there's number two. Uh yeah, they made a game cube cube. It is the cube that is the stem machine, which out of the three, this is maybe the one I am the most excited about. Uh it is, by the way, So I'm sending you a picture. Now, there's like a bar. There's like an LED bar on the front. It's it's just like a black cube basically, but there's this like LED bar that it can you can customize

Half of a Series X kind of if you were to cut it like a.

It does look it is actually smaller though it is more akin to the size of the game cube, I would say, and power wise, So this is a console. Steam Valve made a console. It is six times more powerful than a Steam Deck. And so if you were to get this and you just it's got an HDMI out and it's got to display pored out. So let's say you just put it under your TV like any

So they made a switch, being that now you can, like.

Now it's easier to play PC games in the living room, et cetera on a TV exactly exactly, but also presumably, what is the hardware like compared to a series extra PS five? Do you know?

So I asked that a bunch, you know, just like, okay, we're talking like base base PS five here we say, And they were they were a little reluctant to say things like that. Okay, Mary is lifting up her keyboard right now and shaking out beer.

We have beer there, So what's happening? Oh cores light. Oh she's still cores light in.

The Oh my goodness, Mary, this is this is I've done this before. This is not good.

That's pretty brute, you guys.

I'm sorry, Mary, keep going.

That's tough.

It is six times more powerful in the Steam That is what they told me basically, So they were not going to I've got the specs here, so I don't know are you Are you a specs guy, Mike.

H enough to all right, get Egg?

What do you want?

What? Like? What's the video card in it?

Uh?

The video card is a semi custom a m D r d n A three twenty six cu supports four K gaming at sixty FBS with fs R rate tracing supported. The CPU is an a m D six scores in four x eighty six, comes in a five twelve gigabyte model and a two terabyte model, and it is going to ship with one of those Steam controllers.

That's the price.

That's the bundle price. They did not announce. So and like, you know, I think it's one of those things where like I think it's the new reality now is like you're going to see a lot of things announced and people being like I I don't know, Like look at the switch, you know, you got announced and they had to change the price of successories and stuff like that. It's just the current state of things.

But no screen. And here's the thing that's like really interesting about this unless the third thing you're going to announce is the screen.

But the thing like, wait, what screen? What are you talking about?

I'm saying there's no screen.

So when you're talking about TV, yeah, it's like a console, as I was saying, when you're talking about a switch or a steam deck, it has a screen built in. And screens are really expensive to produce, right, oh, because of the stuff that's in them. This has no screen, so obviously you have to plug it into one. But what I'm saying is that the price point is going to be distinctly less because it doesn't have to pay for a fucking screen. You're paying only for like a

Oh. I think it's that the specs you just read off are like, I don't disagree with you that, like they're saving money by not having a screen, not making it a handheld. But the specs you were just reading are like the good a decent PC.

Yeah, And when you think about like the price of modern consoles, you know, like they're not three hundred dollars.

It's seven.

I would say, like five six.

I'm operating off of no information here. If they said seven hundred, especially for this two terrible one, I would not be shocked. So but they have not announced it yet, so yeah, I mean I would think of this more akin to like a PlayStation five or Nextbox Series X or something like that, you know, versus comparing with things with screens and stuff like that, like all these components and everything and bringing things in from all over the world. Like I think everything is influx right now.

So you know, wait, let me guess, is it the next VR? Yes, okay, it's.

The Steam frame. It's the Steam frame?

So no, wait was the vibe them?

No, that was if I was HTC, But they worked it was like a third party thing they did, so yes, it was involved. They did the index was I wonder if.

They're going to do a new half life.

Still going on VR?

Yeah, so it's a good one. It's maybe I think it is the best one I've ever used for sure. Like, so I'm showing you the picture here of kind of the whole suite of stuff, the front of that VR headset is the computer. Basically it's all a local thing like like the metic Quest, but it is so light. So it's got the computer basically on the front and it's got the battery in the back, and they have got to balance extremely well. So in terms of comfort level,

No, there's a there's a cool I'll look it up something like that. Yeah.

I think they had a term for it here they called like foviated streaming or something. Yes, I think, yes, they were using the term foviiate of the lot.

I think I think Meta also used that. Yeah. Okay, okay, and maybe not not to the extent you're talking about, but that's I knew I'd heard that phrase before and I didn't see this, but.

It's it's all wireless, and so you're not connected to anything.

At no point will you be wired. I mean, I don't even know if that's the possibility charge.

Though, Like, could you could plug into so you don't have to How would you How do you charge this thing?

I mean I would just seem like anything else, you just plug it in when you're not using it.

Right, But if you have zero if you have zero battery, I'm just refuting the fact that you'll never be wired. If you have zero battery and you want to play it, you're gonna have to have it.

That's probably an option to just play.

I'm being as I'm just yea, how do you charge this thing? Yeah? No, it's it's it's really solid.

I I remain skeptical of just like VR in general, because until they're actually like, look, half Life Alex kicks ass and I played a half Life Alex beaming off of the Good Game. No doubt this will be the best way to play it, just like super easy streaming from going to be a new half didn't say anything about.

That, but Half Life Brad, Oh my god, if they if they in some world did like announce that this is going to launch with a half Life three, they that would just I mean, I know there's that's a no, I'm not actually thinking it's gonna happen. There's in no way what they need to do, if anything. Like I think this lineup's kind of cool. Like, I think it

The console itself, the.

Design of the console itself. I think this, all this stuff is all slick looking.

I like all this Like when I go home for the holidays, I'm not bringing a fucking any modern console outside of the switch. Like, this thing is very packful, and I think more importantly, the thing I kept thinking about here was someone like my sister, who loves video games just her whole life, has loved video games, but has never had never played games on a PC, you know, never never had that. Like this is a way to like, like just just if something's just on Steam, she's not

I will say.

The use case for me is like when I play PC games, I have to go upstairs into my work station where my gaming you know.

Spaces, and that's fine, I can do it.

But the thing I really want to do is play PC games on the couch, like in the comfort of my home.

But I don't have.

Another PC set up there. So I play my Steam Deck on the couch. This I would connect to my TV, and I think that is that is kind of the game changer.

So here's another thing too, is let's say, okay, Haitis two runs great on the Steam deck, you play it on there, then you can also go play it on the Steam machine on your TV.

Same thing I said.

About the SD card works with the Steam frame as well, where you pop it in there and all your games on Steam are there, and so even two D games, so like anything on Steam. I played Hades two in the Steam Frame and did the thing where it blew up the screen super big. The resolution was awesome, Like it was a super comfortable, cool way to play that game.

Do you want to play it in VR?

Like it's really really cool stuff they're doing here.

Yeah, there's like a world in which if I have all of them, I'm in here playing Rainbow six Siege on mouse and keyboard or a strategy game on mouse and keyboard. But then I'm like, oh, I'm done. I'm gonna go hang out in the living room of the mand I bring my Steam deck and then my brother texts me, He's like, hey, do you want to play Apex on Steam? And I'm like sure, and then I bring I come back in and now I'm all of

How much is it because I can make it?

Yeah, I'm saying that particularly it's dan how much is it because I have computers that when I build them, it's nice because then I could replace pieces. What's kind of frustrating about buying a PC console is like again, that's why I bring up the price point, is like, if I'm going to spend seven hundred dollars, I'm going to build my own PC and then replace pieces as I need to.

This is like a one and done Cuba.

Or is it modular? Did they say I doubt it?

Look at the spec sheet here. I want to say they said something about like they might have said like certain elements of a good like storage and things like that, but I don't want to say.

I'm only seeing two USB c's and one no way, Yeah, two USB's and one s port, and it's.

Like okay for USBA ports two USB three in the front, two USB two in the rear. Yeah, okay, I'm not seeing anything on the spec sheet about modification, but you know TVD on that, I don't want to say anything like that.

I doubt it.

I ventually on consoles, they don't want you like opening your up and like fixing it. So it's just like again for a PC situation, especially for people who are like playing multiplayer games, You're gonnaed to hook up your MIC and you know, like other components and so anyway, when I'm like streaming, I need to have a rig. So I probably I would never use this for like streaming, but for gaming casually this has a market, but again only to a certain price. At a certain price, like just build.

These days, any new piece of hardware, I'm just always bracing for it to be more than people want or expect. Yeah, probably fair. I think that's the worst.

Yeah, I'm still so hopeful. I'm so hopeful that it won't crush me with its cost.

Yeah. By the time this episode goes up, the announcement will have officially gone out from Balve. But I don't think they're going to be announcing the price the soon.

I think they know better with what happened plus all the other stuff, it's probably still actually like malleable based on tariffs and a bunch of other factors of what it will end up being.

Ye crazy cool.

Dan, Yeah, very very like.

That's the thing is, like they don't They are very selective and when they reach out to press and stuff like that, and every time they have reached out it's been for a good reason. And so yeah, we took the trip and went out there and it's like, oh, okay, you guys have some real shit cooking here. It's no game. They didn't announce anything about like games or anything like that.

I played.

I played Haites two. I played a Half Life Alex. I played there was I forget the name of this game. It is you're on a boat talking to a dude. I don't know, you know a boat spirit fairer. No, No, it's there's a storm. There's a guy with a hat on a boat.

Mmm.

See if thieves like two games say it.

Was like an indie game. I wasn't aware. Turned I played Cyberpunk, I played Metal Garslid Delta, I played you know, they said like the Steam Library as of now is like it can kind of run everything at like four K sixty the Steam Machine.

So cool.

Yeah.

Oh wait sorry, and they there's no like launch window.

Early next year.

Oh gotcha? Okay, so I would see like I wonder if yeah, I wonderful see price stuff like before the New Year's or not. I don't think so. I think if they're going to they do it right now. But yeah cool. Speaking of new hardware, I caught up and got a switch to and so far I've played a bunch of ports for like work purposes, just to test stuff out. But uh, tried Mario Kart as well. Cool stuff there. That game is like, I don't know that

Played console seller. In my opinion, that game is not.

But fucking uh Dan, I'm not trying to be mean when you talk. When you talk a big game about Nintendo games, I think you you'll be the first to admit like you really like Nintendo games. No, I think you're you're capable of looking past your Nintendo mark.

I have given so many bad reviews to first person Nintendo game awesome up a fucking list. If you need them, Paper, Mario Colors, Black, start Bucks zero, all fucking shit on Nintendo all day.

Yeah those games suck though, But like I'm saying, yeah, you really like Nintendo games, I'm always like, oh cool. And then also when I hear that Giant Bomb likes a three D platform, I'm like, what else is new? So I was like, Okay, I went into this game with high expectations because it's the Super Mario Odyssey team and because it just I've heard a lot of people

Everything's Donkey Kong's not doing witness puzzles, you know.

No, Yeah, there's no secret thing happening in the sky that you need to draw a line across. It's just it went ins out climb something, or you can almost climb nearly anything as well, unless it's a certain surface or break anything like.

Throw a boulder at something.

Yeah, they they're not precious about Like it's just I come across like there's this lagoon that's been drained, or like there's this water source up in the sky has been plugged up by this villain, and you're trying to remove these butt plugs to let the water flow back down.

It's the most like, yeah, just hop into a world and run around and fuck stuff up, and you're gonna you're gonna just come across fun stuff to do in specific challenges and stuff like that. But you really can just aimlessly go through the world and punch stuff and it's not totally mindless in that way, you know.

Right, I was gonna say much of the time it can be mindless and you're just smashing stuff, and I'm like going into a trance just destroying everything because it's so satisfying and the haptic feedback and it's such a crunchy game. It feels amazing to play. But then other times there's like, oh, right, it's the it's this team.

I'm glad.

Mary. What have you been playing.

I've been playing a little game called I should be like one of the best titled games of the year r V there yet, which is a.

Co op or what we've been calling what do you call it?

Like slaugh friends slop game about four people who need to get in an RV and go to a destination on a map, but most of the time you're.

Smoking and drinking and chilling by the water.

It's just a really fun, stupid game to play with your friends because there's nothing truly serious about it. There's a complete dedicated button to smoking, and so you just constantly have a cigarette in your mouth and you're like all smoking while you talk to each other and planning what you're gonna do. It's the actual like the gameplay is that the RV can get stuck on the terrain.

You can also attach the wench to other players. So if you're playing with four players and we were doing a stream, I attached it to Jeff Backlar and suddenly Mike not he's driving the RV and it's dragging Jeff backl.

So funny like the situations that you get into, but like it really is the surprises of the game that I think made us love it so much, Like you know, running into the trees to be like I wonder what's ahead and then running back and being like bear, Bear Bear, And there are bears in the game and elk for some reason that can impact your gameplay.

So we laughed a lot about all the crazy antics we got into.

The RV is a stick shift, which is a very funny thing to play in a video game. So you have to like push in the clutch, go into first in second gear to be able to drive, and the game.

Is it's just very cheeky.

What does it say.

It says like.

In the instructions it goes, oh, if you never learned how to drive a stick shift, it's time to learn. And so it's just kind of like making you try these things for the first time. I think when the coffee cup is full, it has the option to drink, and when the coffee cup is empty and you're holding it, the option for action is to do nothing. It just literally says do nothing because there's nothing in the coffee cup. Like, these guys had fun making this stupid bid game and allowing you to play.

And there's fun stuff you can do too, where it's like almost like air traffic control arms and stuff. So if you're like, you know, you can move arms individually to point like, oh, you're far away, and it's if I told you guys aout the movie Sorcerer where it's a but the truck never had the draw bridge.

It's a lot like that.

It's a lot like there'sious stuff. It's like William Friedkin's Sorcerer to like lay down, you know, planks and stuff across like a river and you're driving an RV across it and one person's on the other side. Okay, go that way, go that way, and you've got the prox chat and all that stuff. You can also just kind

They knew what they were making for sure, and they kind of honed in on that. There's a lot of stuff that isn't really final, but it's fine. Snakes in that game are just like a straight up like it just looks like a long piece of brown. It doesn't have any snake qualities, but if you get close to it, it will bite you and poison you. So they like knew where to put their their energy and it was not in snake animations. This thing looks they put.

In a bunch of chubby little dudes, and they put.

In a bunch of chubby little dudes.

There's hats that you get to wear, so a lot of things to enjoy about the game. I also will just say it's it's lovely to actually sit and rest and look at the beautiful vistas the game puts you in and have a cigarette. I just kept I kept finding myself being like, what's time for lunch? A little lunch break, right, like thiss have little cigarettes and like enjoy the view, and we would we would.

Do that a lot.

The cooking in the game is very silly. So health is you know, you can break bones falling and stuff like that, and one way to get your health back is to eat. So when you first start, there's these frozen patties and if you come across to grill and you light the grill, you put the frozen patties on the grill, and after like I don't know, ten to fifteen seconds literally goes and a full burger with lettuce, cheese, onion, tomato comes out. It just kind of pops out and

They pushed the player to try other things.

I found that in almost every situation would be like, we can winch our ways out of here, but.

It's more interesting to lose.

I think it's more interesting to be challenged with a situation where you cannot use the wench and you have to like brute force your way through it. The way you lose this game is everyone dying or you're RV taking so much damage that it is essentially broken, and then you start back at your last save. But you can repair your RV at every save location. I found that very rarely did we destroy our and had to start back at the save, and so I would have

I'm pro friend slot.

It's like seven dollars too.

I like bring up cost a lot with these things, cause like when you talk about friend slop or like just some random stuff that you're like, I don't know if we're gonna love it, but it'd be nice to try it. I think under fifteen is the amount of money where it's like it's less than fifteen dollars, I'm not going to worry about that. That's the cost of a movie ticket. It's a cost of like a couple of beers at a bar. I will do that for an evening, and if we never play it again, that's

Especially games that like really kind of require you to have friends to really enjoy, Like it's it's smart.

It's easier to say, hey, go come play this with me at seven bucks.

Yeah, baby, that's right.

I think it's.

A very alluring price point for you to have one night with your friends where you try and drive an RV together.

And there's lots of surprises.

I don't want to like spoil them because if people are like, oh, I'm kind of interested, the more I say, the less don't look it up, because like it's the fun part is discovering the stupid things that are in this game.

That's a good point about the money too.

It's like, you know, if you're just trying to convince friend to get it, it's like an uber to a bar is going to cost way more than that.

You know, totally let's just hang out.

Yeah, I think, and I actually think that is what happened and why I played it, is that we were all going to go out and then it didn't work out, and I was like, listen, I think it's eight bucks whatever, it's seven ninety nine for seven dollars and ninety nine cents. This is an easy game evening for you to have fun all night and play this and enjoy it. So I think that alone is why it's a It's sold for me as a quality experience. Does it need work? Absolutely?

Pit, saying, wench, it's not much winch. What wench? I like saying wench, No, the tool as a winch. Say the same w I w e. Oh yeah you're from the you're both Midwest, Yes, yeah, yeah, but you're saying they're different.

It's a gym gym winch winch Yeah whench winch. Yeah, No, they're different things. You're Oh, I know how to spell everything, but I don't know how to say anything.

That's a good Dan impression.

Oh, I got a cool hardware news for you. Uh, speaking of Dan, Yeah, you played Arc Raiders that with Giant Bomb. Folks.

Yes, I've been playing that a lot with different groups, played with Giant Bomb, played with Bomb, play it with my sister Kayla. Uh. It is a fascinating game. I've never played an extraction shooter before. Every time I've read about them, I have been, I guess, more disinterested than actively turned off at the idea. It's just like, oh, okay, so you go into a multiplayer thing and you're just getting loot and then you can die and lose everything,

Attentions of the end of which thing.

Yeah yeah, But it's also prone to like, God, we did a stream. I implore anyone to check this out. It was unprofessional Fridays with me, Jeff Grubb, and Kayla, my sister, playing and it was the funniest fucking thing I have played in so long because Kayla, I am trying to be the voice of reason here and I'm trying to like approach other people like.

Oh, we're cool, We're cool. Hey, hey, no, no, let's work together. Do you want some stuff here?

Go ahead and Kayla is just screaming threats at them and just being the most vulgar, just talking about how she says, I'm gonna full frontal your ass or I'm gonna be your stepmom's mom. Like she doesn't even make sense, but like she was, like she would just get in people's faces and scream so much that most of these the other teams just ran away because I didn't want to deal with her. SOB would be like apologizing for I'm sorry about my sister.

I'm sorry. No, no, no, she's not gonna hurt you. She's not gonna hurt you.

And people are just taking off and like leaving loot for us because they were scared of my sister.

So that's unreal. She's the what's the character and the wild card character in Heat at the beginning? Oh uh oh, what's his name? Yeah?

Not Wayne, not Wayne grow Wayne grow Yeah.

Yeah, she's that, and it's just like what she is.

Just yeah, it's so many different types of gameplay you can get between, like just that peaceful kind of looting and extracting of a solo game, but it's also really good for like a I've been playing on PC and PS five. It is probably the best use case I've ever seen for the PS five mike situation, where it's like you've got the mute button right there. You've got like this game doesn't require if you're playing solos, you don't need a headset on. Like I'm someone who really

For that yeah again.

Sometimes you will have like you know, doing a trios thing. You run into another trio and then it's all six of you fighting against some huge you know, this ambastion creature, this mother like all these these leapers, these big robots and stuff like that, and it's you know, it's the best case of like emergent gameplay I feel, where it's like everyone's kind of getting their own stories and it's really unlike things you would see and like, you know,

Yeah.

Yeah, the social experimentation there is like the compelling thing. I think technically the ability to do that and escape from Tarkov exists, but I would say percentage wise ninety percent of the time in Tarkov you're you're fighting the other people, like right away. The fact that they created this game in this world in which it kind of you can that's an option to be not pacifist, but like team up is really cool, and yeah, that's I agree. I think this is it's a pretty accessible take on

I can't tell you the amount of times of like turn to bonk and be like wow, I've never had an experience like that where it's like me and Bank will be playing together and we'll run into like another couple and we'll just like be like, oh shit, are we about to die? And then we talked for a second and then we're like, oh, now we're just kind of working together and stuff and like oh cool. Then we go our separate ways and everything's like, that's fucking cool.

Yeah, gamifying trust is a really cool thing or distrust, like the I guess among us sort of traded on that when it was blowing up in a different way

Of just there, like yeah, you all have guns, you're all just waiting.

Yeah, you can get like a genuine I felt a genuine sense of betrayal playing that game with just a stranger. Yeah, it's like it's like, oh okay, it makes Journey look like infantile and restaurant on joking, but it's a similar thing where it's like you can have a meaningful experience with someone and then if they fuck you over at the end, it genuinely I'm like, I thought we.

Had something I don't like them as a person. Yeah, to be.

Clear, I have been that the person betraying people fuck you no, mainly to like see how it worked at the beginning.

If there were one thing I would criticize it for, it's that in a genre that I've heard is mostly about getting loot and hanging on to it and getting better loot, it's I find that, like I'm constantly just having to deal with inventory management and like I don't know, I've got a million fucking pieces of plastic and rubber and metal and wires and tubes, and it's like I'm not super sure what I need to you know, like there's certain obvious things to level up, and you can

You know?

What can I get rid of? So that stuff is kind of laborious in between, but I don't know the special moments while you're you know, in the shit are worth it.

I think, yeah, I don't want to forgive it for the inventory just by just because that is a big

Me to myself, I'm mainly playing on PS five, but I cried a little bit of PC. It's kind of I kind of been doing a little mouse and keyboard for inventory management and I switched to control.

Yeah, the actual game. That's what I was going to recommend, because like on PC, those games are so much more doable between the actual runs because you're you can just click and drag stuff right click, left click, et cetera. Scroll. I don't know. Time tails all is time that I think keyboard mouse are better for that kind of stuff.

But which to go back, I'm very excited to hear what you think once the Steam machine and controller come out, because that, like that was the best like mouse on a TV experience I've ever had by a long shot.

Oh, speaking of that, I tried the mouse mode of a switch to. I did not love it. It's I don't know when I would actually just use that, Like I'm not going to play Cyberpunk or I'm not gonna.

Play Metric Prime. It's the thing where you know, by the time Switch Too is done, there will be seven games that fucking utilize it.

Yeah.

One of them was Mario Paint on Nso you know it's.

Yeah, yeah, no, But that's good to hear that.

The is it an accessibility thing where it's opening it up for.

It could be in other ways to utilize it.

To me, like that has value right for other people to be able to be able to play in different ways. I just don't see a good reason that I would use it.

I thought with the Switch Too. I've thought about it in that like I think it'd be cool like on a plane and if I want to play Metroid and like set it up, you know, use the kickstand on the tray and then play with mouse and keyboard. I would at least try that, but I could also see myself doing it for fifteen minutes and being like, oh, play with controller.

Yeah, I don't know what world it would be more than a gimmick.

Yeah for me, but dragon Drag. We're all playing drag and drive esports, right, wheelchair basketball?

No are you playing that? No, no one's playing it.

But we are playing Simpsons Fortnite.

Yeah, married did you check this out or just no?

But I'm curious. Oh, because obviously it's Simpson's I know it's just gonna make funy transition.

No, I didn't have a transition, Dan.

Yeah, I'm like really curious about it because I love the Simpsons game and I always thought that the Simpsons.

Is such a good Uh.

It's just a really it's a really good thing to have as a video game format because it's so playful and stupid. But I don't know how they did.

It historically, Like they have really run the gamut between like some of the worst games I've ever played are Simpsons games and then like some pretty good experiences. I won't say, like I don't think there's an all time great since like the Arcade game. Yes, everyone has fun experiences of I don't know, you play with Infinite Quarters or whatever. Un Free played it's.

The pretty base one, the driving one.

So that's the hit and run. I never went all the way through it, I know. I don't know why I didn't. Like, I loved it was in game PPS two and every I just never played it, I guess not Virtual Bart Bart versus Space Mutants, all these things. Even the Simpsons game for the movie, like Virtual Bart had the egg throwing thing, that tomato thing was good, but like I always wanted to love Simpsons games more

And they do can you go in the house?

Oh yeah, yeah, you go into the house? Isn't Yeah, you can go into the house, And like you can go up to the Simpsons couch and press X and you're sitting on the couch. So I was solid snake sitting on the couch with Kayla who is vegeta and we're doing like a couch gag together, and like Marge

Here's my question. I don't know if you two like have a definitive answer. My impression is that the crossover between Simpsons fans and Fortnite demographics would would not have been that.

Huge, right because the Simpsons isn't really hot now and fortant.

Yeah, I was just surprised. Like everybody talked to you says the same same thing. It's like super faithful and like just packed to the brim with Easter egg kind of stuff. But like someone was saying, maybe it's like you know, like.

Well the children even know the That's the thing I've been thinking about with Fortnite a lot, is that, like, yes, they do have modern stuff where they'll have Sabrina Carpenter or K Pop Demon Hunters or something in there, so they're smart about that, but also you look at how much shit that is, Like here's Ellen Ripley from Alien, Here's the Terminator, here's the Simpsons, here's like, you know,

You automatically get like cool points just by being in for a punt right night, I feel like.

Yeah, but like but also modern current things again, K Pop Demon Hunters huge, they're in there.

You know.

It's yeah, it really is a kind of staggering achievement what they've done with this game. The fact that it is still a really good video game, and it is just objectively the wildest roster of IP in video game history. It's like not even fucking cloakse you know.

Yeah, no, I've I've heard the same thing. I've heard people who they're like I was talking to Bert's he was playing it and showing his daughter because like he understood all the references. I don't know the her knowledge of the Simpsons, but I also imagine there's a decent amount of parents that are like showing their kids stuff in there too, which is kind of cool.

Yeah yeah, I mean yeah, Ellen Ripley and stuff like that. That'd be so cool. Like a kid who's like kind of getting into sci fi or horror something. Oh yeah, oh that's from Alien. Do you want to see that? Yeah, unless you're Jeff Backler and you don't let your kids see anything cool until he turns thirty.

Oh is that happening?

Oh yeah, ja Yeah, his son's like a twenty four year old hockey player and he can't see Jaws.

Wow.

Yeah, it's really Yeah.

Jaws, that's just a rite of passage.

Yeah, that's the coolest movie you can see when you're six, And you should see when you're six.

I haven't thirty four, and it's still one of my top five movies all the time. And I said, yeah, yeah, No, I have this conversation frequently with him. It's insane. Is Backlar a shitty dad?

He's a bad person, I think first and foremost. And I think that translates to the dad thing. Yeah, and you haven't even met a son. It sounds a I've met him a handful of times. Oh really? Oh yeah, so we play hockey together? How much it's missing from your house after he showed up?

No? Wait, have I told you the story when they came over a couple of years ago? What do you do? They all three of them came over and they were in our kitchen for like, you know, you guys have been in my apartment. The kitchen is kind of the first place you go. Not ten seconds in, we're we're starting to catch up, like barely, like took a few breaths to catch up, and he just goes, I'm bored back and show them where the window?

Yeah give him a yo yo.

Yeah, it was the funniest thing. I wasn't even mad. I was just like, this is hilarious.

He's just into this ball and cup. Now, yeah, you gotta give him something.

Not ball and cup but ball x pit. Mary, Oh god, I'm fucking it's pretty good. It's the cinnamon orange clove tea I drank.

That's not alcohol. Ball x Pit is a game I heard other people talking about, and so I was like, I am susceptible to impressionism. I needed to know about this game.

I think I got influence.

Okay, gotcha interesting.

I don't think impressionism is the right use of that word, but I got a ball pit.

This is a.

Vampire Survivors meets Balls with a Z. If you ever played that on your phone?

Balls with a Z?

Wait, you're not talking about balls three D for the Second Genesis and Superintendo?

Are you?

Balls three D with a Z?

Wait? Are a phone game? Ripping up balls three D?

I don't know now, ball I recognize what balls with a Z.

Balls with a Z is a phone act.

I forgot about balls.

A ball balls coming at you, and you wanted to ricochet and hit as many balls as possible and the more that it hits. Kind of like brick Breaker.

But like, okay, it's a bit more.

Strategic. I feel like brick breakers just like, hurry up and shoot?

Uh more than balls? Three D The Battle of the Balls.

I'm yeah, more than the balls THREDY the Battle of the Balls.

With a Z. It's with a Z. I I'm having one of those moments where I I know for one hundred for a fact that I have not accessed this wrinkle in my brain in probably thirty years. Is I don't think something yes from or yeah. I don't know what emotion this is. There's got to be a German phrase for it. Sorry, but ball x pit.

Okay, so half Vampire Survivors, half brick breaker balls, phone balls, phone balls. So you are auto shooting. You can turn it off into like manual shooting. But I don't know why you would do that. Well, yeah, I don't know. And so auto shooting. As you collect the balls from the things that you have killed, you level up with three options. This is very Vampire Survivors, right, And then

All inside of this space.

Doing that is like.

Quite rewarding and feels really good.

And then for some other reason, when you've finished the game and beaten it, and that feels really good. When you get all the way to the end and you've killed the ball. I think there's two mini bosses that you complete, whether different challenges. It ends in a boss fight.

It's a timeline on the side that shows you correct.

That tells you when you're complaint, and when you finally beat it, and that felt really good. It unlocks new levels, new characters. That's what's actually interesting about it. It's not just beating the game. It's beating the game on like different character sets that are a lot more difficult, on different terrain sets that are difficult. And then it has another area that's just straight up farming, and that was very different to me, and I was very shocked by this.

It's like there's a timer for like your your farm or your harvesting time and stuff like that. So like there are ways that you can like, Okay, I need to get a bunch of weeks, so I'm gonna make this corridor here and they're back here. And yeah, I really liked that idea. I thought that was a fun thing, cause, like I really did like just the the actual like missions, like the arcade style, just because they do clever things

Silhouette and there's one person that only shoots balls from the back, and so you're constantly where you're aiming is actually backwards because everything shoots from the behind of the game.

Yeah, and it's got that Vampire Survivors thing where it's like, Okay, I've got this build going where it's like I've got these ghost balls that like will go through things, and so I'm when I try to get all these things, like of all different powers together that work together. Well. So it's very Vampire Survivors in that way, which I'm a huge sucker for. And I do like base building stuff too, and I like Rogue Light stuff, so like it was saying all the right stuff for me, and

I talk to? What can I cash in? What can I upgrade here?

This?

When I get back and I'm like, I guess I'll put a week thing here and then I'll bounce them around like it's I did not love the in between stuff in this game.

I don't care for the in between either. I think it's an interesting choice and it's nice that they're testing it out every time you see another Vampire Survivor esque game, and I do think this is the most different of the Vampire Survivors they've They've made so many Vampire Survivors, but this is a very different take on it. I got really excited by all the ideas here. They're trying a lot of stuff, and a lot of it works and some of it doesn't. I don't think, in my opinion,

More like fucking insane shit on the screen.

Obviously, ball x Pit does get to be fantastic on screen, but you're never it's never as crazy as Vampire Survivors were. Like every square inch of that screen is an arrow or like a dart or some magical force field. This is just like you're shooting balls wildly at the screen and hoping that they kill all of your enemies through their bouncing.

It's very satisfying.

Nevertheless, did you play Megabok.

No, but I have watched people play megabunk on Twitch, so I know what that one.

Is as well.

I think it's one of my favorites the year. I think what you're feeling it is. I think if you try it, it's another one of those cheap ones too. I think it's like, yeah, it's less than ten bucks, yea, marry you.

But it looks like it's less than ten bucks, you know what I mean.

Yeah, but like playing it like it's it really is probably my favorite. Vampire Survivors, Like, I love it. I think you should check it out for a Game of the Year.

Yeah, okay, I'm loving the general fact that that's becoming like a genre into its genres.

Vampire Survivors.

Yeah, auto shooters are interesting and the ability to like push the limits of what you think games should be able to do. Like, remember the first time you played Vampire Survivors there was just so.

Much shit on the screen. You were like, I think I broke it.

And it's just fun to have that control in a game, even if it's intended it doesn't feel like it. I feel like Megabonk gives you that vibe as well, where it's like you shouldn't be able to do this, but it it lets you break it.

Yeah yeah, but yeah yeah, Mary play Mega Bonk. It's very good. Okay, I'm going to try ball x Pig download it. Dan, you also played MK Legacy Collection.

Yeah, I just fucking love Mortal Kombat. It's I think mount rushmore of video game series that have like changed my life. I think it is Mario Medal Year, Zelda, and Mortal Kombat. And so for someone like me, it just loves the history of this game and all of its weird lore and weird characters and everything. And like the era that this focuses on is extremely just the

It's ninety two to three, so first game one, wait, wait, this this collection, well, it's like well, I mean when I think Tournament Edition, well.

I mean there are some like GVA ones on there or anything, but that those are kind of more like Easter Egg, like they've got special forces and mythologies, and those are kind of like bonus add ons. I think the important ones to me are from Mortal Kombat one, Who Ultimate, Mortal Kombat three, and then Mortal kom about four I kind of fell off because it went away from the digitized actors and went into three D and at that point, Virtual Fighter Tech and other things like

No, It's what I wouldn't give to like have something like that for Zelda. Oh it would never happen. I realized that's pipe dream, but like that'd be unreal to see, like the moment when they figure out the hook shot.

Oh yeah yeah. But this is there's something really there's there's there's a less cliche way to put this in like a punk type thing, but like it's just a bunch of fucking twenty somethings in an office in Chicago and they were in the nineties and they were kind of giving carp blanche to like you know, like they keep talking to these documentaries, like nobody was really telling us what to do. Like they were just like come

It was just such a cool for everybody wanted a handy.

Corporate medaling and all that and everything. It was just a bunch of cool fucking dudes that grew up on the same ship and they wanted to put all their cool influences into a game, and they made one of the coolest things ever. And it is such a time capsule that made something so so special. And watching this you can tell how much passion these guys had for it and how much fun they had making it, which always

I love the behind the scenes stuff.

I think that's really cool to to get that kind of lore and that background of the people who love this uh just made this game what it is and to see them care that deeply about it in a game very fun.

Yeah, I uh. That's like one of my favorite things about Command and Conquer Remastered collection. They had so much that behind the scenes stuff. I love the museum aspects of these remasters, these collections. It's it's awesome. I want more people to do it.

But you'll frequently see this stuff where it's like, oh, here's some concept art or whatever, like you know, oh, make a man legacy collection, Like here's a drawing of Cutman.

You know, Oh no, don't have ass it.

This is like digital Clips goes nuts with this stuff, and it is so in depth and like even just little things like oh, from the timeline of the Mortal Kombat two documentaries. You can like press a button and start playing Mortal Kombat two and you can play play the arcade version you want to play the Superintendent version, you want to play, the game Boy version, do you want to play? Like, it's just all of these different versions of these games. It's it's cool, it's it's I love it.

So what about online?

I haven't. I haven't played a single online game yet. I you know, honestly, for me, it's fighting it.

That's a reason, just like Mortal Kombat is so much about like competing.

But to me, I kind of push back on that because like, to me, I was never a hardcore fighting game guy, and I knew even back then that the hardcore fighting game guys went towards Street Fighter, And I also think Street Fighter is a better mechanical fighting series than Mortal Kombat is. But it was the personality of Mortal Kombat. It was just the super over the top nature of the fatality. But they it was so fucking silly. But they also took their stories like seriously. They played

You know, Mary, what is Henry Halfhead?

This is a quick one. It's a puzzler game.

Uh.

You play as Henry.

You do have half of a head, and you can embody a object and then become it, and then you use that to solve puzzles.

So one of the very operator talks the entire time.

There is a narrator. I didn't care for that. But I actually did play this game on my steam deck while watching TV, so I actually didn't have the audio on.

It's probably smart, yeah, because like the idea of like inhabiting all these different things is kind of fun, but it was I kind of tapped out when every I thought it was just like a tutorial. Oh Henry, he.

Liked playing with his ball, He's playing Shut the fuck up, just let me play the game went sleepy by. It's like, oh I hate this. It sounds like Bash, but they're narrating like boring stuff.

I had really different.

Experiences excited that.

The audio on Shut the Up.

It's my God, I was just messing around with it like it would. It has all these puzzles where it'll be like make a party, and so you're I'm I'm inhabiting a plate and setting the table, I'm inhabiting candles and putting them on a cake. I'm inhabiting a match and lighting myself and then lighting the birthday cake. And when I did that, I threw a party and I was like, that's so cute. This is a cute, little

It is that like that did annoy me, but like also like the puzzles, and I played maybe like an hour or so of it. It's sure everything was just the most obviously okay, now gotta it's like you realize them too. So it's like I gotta put the candles on the cake. And then it's like fucking three minutes of like I'm rolling the candle over. Okay, let's get the candle. Okay. Now it's like it's the puzzles weren't really doing it for me either, Like it had a good look to it and everything it.

Has a cute look to it. I think the pet puzzles are simple. I think that's super fair to say. I think it's cute.

I think it's it's probably more for like younger kids.

I think said his daughters were liking it, so I think.

This just had like a.

Yeah, a young vibe to it.

It's very simple.

The the art style is so cute and adorable, and I think it's thoughtful in that sense. But I also did not.

Play it probably more than three hout.

I think I played it one evening for three hours, and I thought that that's nice, and I never went back to it.

Yep, if you're six and listen, Hey, hey, any listeners that yeah listening, asshole? Yeah, let's luminess arise. You don't know what now?

Oh you god, damn fool? What is it?

You don't know? Luminous? No listen.

The PSP, the PlayStation Portable is a dog shit system, but Luminous almost made it worth it. Luminous is a puzzle game. When I say puzzle game means a lot of things, it is like more on the side of like blocks and grids and stuff like that.

It is.

It's got this element of kind of I don't want to say rhythm, but more like timing, Like there is a timeline that goes across the screen and it kind of like clears things out as the timeline passes things. So if you get a two by two grid of the same color like every you're always dealing with two different colors or two different items, Like I just did one that's like ice blocks and taxi cabs and stuff. And I see Mary bobbing her head right now.

Because oh this music is fucking tie all.

About music and visuals. It is the most like it was Tetris Effect before Tetris Effect in terms of the visuals and everything. And just as you progress through the level, it's just like, oh fuck, the music changes completely and all the the blocks look completely different, and uh.

This would hit so hard if you were on drugs.

No.

And it's also like I can't wait to try it in VR because ooh boy, Tetris Effect probably George Washington in The Mount rushmore of good games to play while you're high. Luminous is all about the sound and vision and stuff, So I do want to get very high and play this in VR.

It is.

The little.

Chameleons, oh yeah, yeah, And there's like this fruit level where you're like building huge apples and stuff and they fly at the screen when you break them.

Everything it's I'm not going to describe every fucking puzzle mechanic to you. It is a game where you were dropping blocks and you were matching things together, and you were getting a high score and trying not to let the blocks get to the top of the screen. It is. It sounds a lot like Tetris when I describe it that way.

It is.

It definitely feels very different than Tetris, but it is right up there for me.

Likely has like a Mario uh is that is called doctor Mario.

Would be like og one the pill Mario was just the kind of the two pip pills and stuff like this.

This is a two by two. You're dropping a lot of two by two squares, and so some of them might all let's say it's just blue and orange, you know, some of them might just be all blue, some might be all orange, some might be a mix. And gravity affects the blocks as they fall, and so you were just trying to make big blocks basically to clear them out. And but you can do really cool combos and stuff with it. There's this new burst mechanic that is really awesome.

I know you play a lot on your Steam deck. This is.

I played pretty much all of this on my Steam deck.

I love this. This seems like really up my alley. I really love the old drug binge. So I think I'm gonna I'm gonna think I'm gonna give this a try. This looks great.

This is I've not been high yet playing and I've played through the entire journey mode of this, and it's very good high or not high. I will also be getting high and playing this.

Very drug binge. It's the funny, funniest way podcast.

Good drug binge.

I mean, I think I've had a rough working environment.

I love to like get out of my head when I'm not working right now, and I think like this is the kind of thing that I think would really allow me to transcend reality. That sounds great, So I have.

To sound on with this one because the music is great, totally jaz mode and like, did you did testor sffect right?

Yeah, of course.

You know that journey mode where you're like, it's got the exact same thing here, it's got the journey mode where it's kind of broken up into different like you know, here's here's five little stages basically, and then here's another four, and then it's got all the different like shifts between the music and the visuals and everything.

It's just like that.

It is just a good time.

Damn, this is really cool. Thank you looks awesome.

I want to hear what you think of it. I guess I won't play it because Dan yelled at me about it.

She doesn't even do drugs. Mike, you've been playing Monster Train too, which I heard you could be stone sober for tell us about it.

I talked about it last episode. But yeah, that's probably my favorite thing. I'm still playing now along with Donkey Kong Bananza. That game is really really good. I've unlocked every faction. I have a bunch of new cores to my train, like the Heart of the Train that they're trying to destroy, but you also get ones with different abilities. I still really really hate the art style for the

I like it a lot.

It's also just very satisfying for a deck building game, similar to what I was saying about Donkey Kong. It's got a good like snappiness to it. It feels great. I like that game quite a bit.

I have one more that I thought about last minute.

And what was that look you were giving me? You were going to say something?

Do you know?

I think I was given Mary a look because she said, you don't deserve anything? And I realized, did you know that? I won the McDonald Anopotly game and I won one hundred thousand American Airlines miles just send me and bank to Hawaii round trip.

I saw you on Instagram thank McDonald's and I rolled.

Is that what you're dealing with them?

What did you win?

We haven't decided yet, but they are in my account now. I have one hundred thousand American Airlines miles approximate retail value twenty five hundred dollars that I won of McDonald's monopoly feasts one piece?

How many did you buy it?

You didn't have like Baltic Avenue.

It was like it was one of the quickspans you get bonus spins on the app when you do it, and so I hit the bonus pin and it was like usually it's like you want a free small fry or a small cone and me it was like twenty five hundred dollars worth of flights?

How long did it? How long were you suspicious? Like did this really happen? Or is like there's that there's some pass Like what were the odds that it was?

Like until it was in my account, I was kind of like, all right, hopefully some bullshit doesn't happen or whatever. And then I got an email like a few days ago and it was like, hey, congrats, put this code into your advantage account or whatever. And I put it in and it's like miles available one hundred thousand. And I looked it up and it's like, oh wow, round trip for one person to WHII is forty five k. That's that's pretty good believable.

You should play the lottery the way you flip flops, stumble dip dog your way through life without fucking knowing shit or giving a shit, and you just fucking keep winning unbelievable.

I think I could win the lottery and it's gonna be really funny.

I think you would.

I like, I wouldn't be surprised if you, like went for governor and won.

I'd be like, who knew.

Would do?

I could actually become like a governor.

I a governor. Yeah, if you if you become governor of any state in the country, just governor here I know.

And he's corrupt.

The body, the mind.

This isn't a ring.

I think you go to water.

I don't think you become governor. I think it's more than a popularity. I mean what I can do first, Yeah, just keep trying. Especially, wouldn't be running against like the most whatever. Oh yeah, Minnesota Dan Ker versus Tim Waltz would be never mind, the equivalent of Samoa Joe fighting me physically. All right, No, no, no, I won't go against walt You won't. Yeah, you won't take him down for the good of the state.

Yeah, that's true, for the betterment of Minnesota.

I wonder what state you could become governor and if you try, I don't think. I don't think they would vote for Dan down there if.

I said the stuff they wanted to hear.

Yeah, sure.

Down the road if I wanted to, that'd be the easiest shit in the world. My all right, grip turn, oh, that'd be the easiest fucking fish in a barrel. I would be making millions within a year. The Republican Whip.

Like, if there was a government shutdown and the Democrats are trying to hold out, the Republican Whip would go to Dan in the middle of the night with like one hundred dollars Taco Bell gift card to get into defect and he'd be like, yeah, sure, I don't care. No, I just got one hundred thousand miles from McDonald's. I'm fine, I'll see you in the morning. I have the miles damn inside of Bill McDonald's drill.

I did some value, so fad don't worry about me. I voted for Chastity Bono. I would never.

I won't support you.

I will, I will.

I will move to Florida and vote for the other guy. I won't. I won't be in Florida.

It could be a woman.

There she goes again. I also have been playing I forgot about it, but I was playing another game. I wanted to tell you about called dead Take.

I forgot about this, but I'm going to talk about it. You're so the hosting is easy.

It's hard.

Forgot this. Now I'm gonna enthrall you. Okay, I go dead tape. Okay.

Dead Take is a FMV horror game which should really be right up my alley. It has cut scenes starring Neil Neubin nubn from balders Gate, Iree Asterion and Ben Starr and uh, Laura Bailey, Matthew Mercer, a lot of pretty big names on this f FMV file. You are in a house. I think it's like a producer's house, and I think he's a bad guy, and all these actors are trying to get like good roles in the

Uh.

I didn't think the puzzles were super hard.

I figured everything out. I think I beat this game in four hours with UH with my bud Silver. I think we basically burned through it pretty quickly. But I do love F and B horror, and I think if you're into like weird horror psychological films, UH, it was. It was a cool experience and I'm glad I played it if you like that kind of thing. It's a very unique style of horror game. It's weird to see Ben Starr, like not just his voice, his like physical form.

Names start are so weird to me because it's like he's the guy that I see all the time and I talk to all the time whenever we do a thing and you know, game Awards or SGF or something. But I've never played I guess Entail Expedition thirty three. I never really play games. He's been a voice and so he's just like a dude. I sometimes talk to I don't, so I only know him as just a physical dude. Yeah, it's weird to see him as a dude.

You know.

It's weird because he plays like, uh, I'm not gonna I'm not gonna give it away. But they're all playing characters that are like kind of strange and nuanced, so it is like stressful to watch him get like really angry on set and things like that. There's also that, Yeah, there's just a lot of actors in it where I'm like, I know that guy, but he's playing he's playing like a weirdo.

So yeah, people, Yeah, it's a lot of it's a hard sell for me.

I thought it was an interesting experience, especially a four hours psychological horror puzzler with FMV stuff.

I think it's it's neat what they tried to do here, but a little bit too.

Slow burn for me. A lot of it is like slowly waiting for the next video file and watching it and figuring out what that's uncovering, splicing together video files. Glad I played it. I don't regret that. How much is it?

It's understanding right now, you're making an F and B game, anyone out there, you're making an F and B game that's gonna be a real game, soundstame or something.

I will be in your fm B game.

Free your charge. Let me know and I will. I will go for it, just I would love to be.

He's got the miles.

He will fly there and speed it in the morning. He smells like fries, but he.

Knows how to act. Yeah, people like McDonald's fries.

Dan at a certain time, Like at the Bombiton, we had a room filled with fries that we're sitting there for like six hours, and I tried to take a nap in that room, and look, I love McDonald's. I was like, this is overwhelming. I cannot sleep in this fry room.

I wouldn't let them hear that they might snatch those that.

What do you want, Ronald, Come get me, Ronald. It wouldn't be him. It would be the guy who steals the burglar. He would he would come. Get your mind.

Go for it, Joe on the Hamburgler.

Stop bringing up Samoa Jo. He's not gonna save you.

My good personal friends, Tomojo, who will always see me if I get in trouble.

He doesn't even know unless I then there's no stopping me. Even if you're Samoa Joe, I'll tear through like tissue paper. I think, I think, I actually like he is probably the size of three and a half of me, maybe.

Four, probably more than three.

And now, yeah, I still I maintained you can run for governor Florida. I'll fight Samoa Joe. We'll see who's more successful. Okay, we'll race. What's the how would I race?

You?

Do you have to beatmo Joe before I become a US governor? And I have.

What kind of fight?

Street fight?

Oh? Fuck?

Yeah? Okay, just like bar bar fight one? Do you ask to give up?

I'd have better chance with that than an actual like wrestling match. All right, Okay, can I use weapons?

Whatever's there?

Okay, whatever is around on the ground. Okay, you can stab Samoa Joe.

With Call Joe up. I'll take some shirtless photos and you can send those to him. Be like this guy wants to fight you. Oh, just be a mortal combat fatality. But I would have the like the the cockiness of uh Johnny. Sure?

All right?

Do you want to talk about emails?

Yeah, well we like to discuss about them.

Okay. As always, you can run into the fire escape cast at gmail dot com. That is Firescape cast at gmail dot com. Questions, comments, stuff you want read on the show. We are running low, so fill that inbox back up. We've been getting a lot of good questions throughout the year. We will also be kind of prepping for going into next year as we finish up Game of the Year stuff. So fill up the inbox with

They can never get past it.

Hi, the kick is not super effective, so don't go.

No more effective than a shoulder or.

Yeah, it go over your eyes eyes is anyone's guess?

Hi?

There escapees first time, long time. I recently picked up Mark Oh Lord help me Daniel Luski, Daniel Luski's new book Tom's Crossing.

Now.

I'm not normally one to pick up a book on release day, but finding out that the author of House of Leaves had written a magical realism eighties Western set in my hometown, I could not order fast enough. Reading it has been an absolute delight. Has made me feel seen in a powerful way. Do you have any favorite pieces of media that line up perfectly with your preference and have built in connections to your real life, such as being set in your hometown or fusing on a niche interest of yours.

Love the show, Thanks Tyler.

I would say Annihilation the movie kind of really hit me in a way where I.

Was like, set in your hometown.

I did not grow up in the Everglades, but it was like horror meets sci fi meets fantasy meets I don't know. I'm a sucker for like expeditions in movies, like anytime someone goes into an unknown place where things are they don't know what's going on. I always love that Annihilation felt like it was made for me in that respect. That was probably the one that comes to mind. In terms of movies video games, I would say Alan

It's a I can think of a really good example and a really bad example of So I'm not like, I love wrestling and I love movies, but I like, you know, they tried to make a million movies with fucking John c and a Randy Orton or Diana Ambrose, Like I've never watched any of them. Don't give a shit I've ever seen like The Marine with Johnson. It's like I watched John CNN wrestling. I don't need to watch him in a bad straight to DVD movie, you know.

Was he always into wrestling and wanted to make a movie about it or was it something that like something sparked a fascination and then he did a deep dive and like, I think this is gets to the core of it.

I don't think he's necessarily a guy that's super into wrestling. What I've always heard is he wanted to do I don't know if you want to do it originally as the same movie or as just kind of companion pieces. But Black Swan and The Wrestler when he was out around the same time, where it's like these stories about this like kind of personal trauma and like sacrificing, you know, for your art and stuff like that. But he wanted Black Swan to be the high brow one and the

I think they all were like competing with who got to be the coolest.

I'm sure there's much of a good thing too, you know, I'm sure they all got paid very well to hang out with their buddies.

But that is not what I asked at all.

It's not how much money they made.

I'm saying, like, when you watch a movie like that, you want one of them to be the superhero, and they can't all be important.

I mean, Stallone was definitely supposed to be like the guy there, but it's like it just it was just a stupid movie. And like I like a good stupid movie. This was a bad stupid movie. Like I think I saw the third one. Maybe I might have skipped one of them, but like they're just not good.

Have you seen them? There's a scene that's always sunny. There's an episode where they're basically just like riffing on Shyamalan movies and Charlie and Mack are trying to write a movie together. And bear in mind they have not mentioned this actor the entire show. I want to say, this is season seven, so this comes out of nowhere. It's not like this is a bit in the show. It's just in one scene they're like, you know what

That was a big comeback thing, because yeah, big deal in the early nineties and he made some weird life decisions and career decisions and like tried to become a boxer and then so I was like face got fucked up and all that, Like he was the it was gonna be Nicholas Cage, which also would have been amazing, but work was the right choice.

I don't think I knew that's how his face got so changed so.

Much that he tried to do a boxing run. Yeah, he was so bad that.

His face got pulverized.

Yeah, Jesus Mike, you asked that, like Darrenovski being a wrestling guy. You know who is a big wrestling guy and you see it in a lot of his stuff is Tim Robinson.

Oh yeah, I think I knew that.

On Detroiter's Kevin Nash, like one of my favorite dudes ever is his dad and uh and like I think you should leave. He's got a bunch of wrestlers that show up in that and everything. Uh, Darby Allen, who you know from AW, He's like skates with Darby Allen has had him like any time AW is around, he's always backstage.

So like, yeah, Tim Robbinson's I can see that, Like he's so much. I think he respects people who commit to like commit to the bit. Yeah, and like I feel like wrestling is like a big dramatic bit and I feel like that connects with him.

I also feel like he has a good taste because it's like like he got Kevin Nash to be his dad in the show, and I'm like, all right, that's like the coolest guy you could have possibly picked.

So I would like to meet Tim Robinson. This is extremely an aside, but I was watching him and Zach Canaan went on seth Myers, and I saw a clip and they were doing the thing where it's like, oh, what are some sets like? Or Tim Robinson Zach Canaan, who wrote helps write I think you should leave. He also plays in the show. And same with the Chair Company.

That sounds way more like a Mister Show sketch. Yeah, like that every thing where It's like, I'm sure NBC when you get like, you know, Lauren Michaels and all these kind of like older corporate guys around, you probably can't do, but like a Mister Show type thing.

Yeah, or what did Showalter and Michael ian Black? What was their thing they did? Stella? Stella was very goofy.

Yeah, yeah, the state was earlier and everything.

Yeah. But anyway, sorry, Mary, do you have any things are confluences.

Of I'll say one, which is Ohio is known for a lot of TV shows and movies. It just seems like it's a great place to be, Like what is traditional, you know, Midwest Americana feel like. And I think there's no movie that embodies that better than Tommy Boy. Tommy Boy is not just a real good reflection of Ohio culture, but Ohio people.

There's a lot of.

Blue collar workers, factory workers every day Joe's in that movie, that are not this is not like looked down upon. These are like people who give a shit, and so the joke is not about them or the livelihoods. It's just about what a fucking dumb shit Tommy is. Stupid little kidd heus where.

He looks into that thing and he says, Duke, I am your father.

And they catch him being such a little dumb shit. I was like, oh no, that's me, Like this is I'm such an idiot and I have to be.

A business person now and I have to make money and I.

Have to be important, and there are days where I'm like, I don't I don't deserve any of this because I am I am stupid. I am just a stupid person that somehow has to continue to make a mortgage. And

That movie we watched, me and Bach watched like maybe four or five years ago, and it aged a lot better than I expected. And there are things I forgot where it's like you talk about the different characters that are like dan Aykroyd being like the slimy Midwest you know, car dealership owner. It's like, oh, this is good. It's like I don't remember a lot of like like that's always the thing with like a comedy, especially from like the nineties and earlier.

You're like, uh, wasn't that bad?

Really?

I walked away from it being like I'm glad it aged that way.

I feel like, yeah, Chris Farley could pull off clean humor oh quote unquote clean humor, just because he's such a physical presence, not that he wasn't ever getting dirty, but like.

He could be like in like a kid's movie in the physical force of Nature, you.

Could find a way. Yeah, uh yeah, Beverly Hills Nincha's like all slapstick stupid.

But that did that.

That movie taught me what a pimp was because he gets a jacket at some point and it's got like the tiger or whatever print and somebody says that he looks like a pimp or something. And we're turning to my grandma at the time, being Grandma, what's a pimp.

It's a.

She said, it's a man that slaps women. God, So that's what I thought it was for a while. I mean in a way, I mean I see why she was trying to like say kind of what it was without saying what it was.

Yeah, yeah, I think I told you this.

But in Amsterdam when we did our first the first time I ever went to Amsterdam for work, and we did a little tour, the tour guy said, when the children first come, you know, down in the city and they see all the girls, the teachers tell them they're selling kisses. And I was like, that's an acceptable format for type thing.

Okay, yeahs that's why she didn't.

Say I need tim.

They're selling butthole kisses.

Okay, just just a little smooch on your touch. I learned.

I learned a lot in the in the third grade.

Thank you, Tyler. Dan. You want to read, Oh shit, I'll get the if you want to start it, I'll get the It's from Dalton.

Uh, Dalton's his name's not on here? Are you fool? Okay, he's typing in adult adult. I can't confirm yet. Okay, Dalton with two l's. That's insane, Dalton. Mike fixed this? Okay, Oh thank god. Okay, Dalton says, are there Mike still typing? This is a great bit.

Are there any ongoing doesn't even play on video?

It's just a document that no one can It doesn't even play with me seeing exactly what you're doing.

No joke, And I'm like over it already, Dalton says, are there any ongoing gaming complaints? You're just tired of hearing at this point? Mine is, I'm so tired of hearing people talk about Final Fantasy going back to turn based. Final Fantasy hasn't been turn based in twenty five years, guys, let it go. It has not been turn based longer than it was turn based. The last turn based Final Fantasy game was Final Fantasy ten on the PS two.

Come on, that is Dalton?

Fuck you? You fucking pussy is that can't be his name?

Mike?

Why do you?

Why does that say that in all caps?

It's just insulting you while you read it?

My sorry Dalton?

Yeah, what's a what's a complaint that a lot of people share? Like what somebody you say on Red Air? What's something like that?

I mean, here's a classic one, which is yellow tape or fly This is stupid, but it's like obviously so helpful. You'd be so many people would be lost. You genuinely would not enjoy an experience that didn't give you a little bit of guidance. I think sometimes it can be overdone, but like, so can that complaint?

Like because otherwise, aside from that, God of War would be a masterpiece of literary ambitions.

Wid is like I think we're supposed to turn the clock clockwise.

Yeah, I believe you could break through the wall.

It's about fatherhood and the yellow paint doesn't fatherhood, responsibility, that the responsibilities and how you can't escape your past you have to confront it through.

I feel like I see more complaints from like because I didn't really see like the average like comments or controversies, Like I feel like Manati is my controversy whisperer, So I don't really see.

It's Manati been complaining about recent.

No, I'm saying, well, he reads every comment that's ever been on the internet.

Yeah, what's you know, what's what's he picking up?

Every once in a while, everyone's mad about fast and I'll be like, what the fuck, what is it?

Tell me one?

Uh oh, you're saying people are mad about Metroid and Metroid Prime trailer. They showed too much of like the bike is in the desert too much, and the world looks empty or something, and it's like it all just sounds to me, like like the Puddle Gate shit or whatever of Spider Man Spider Man thing where the puddles got too small or something.

It's just I don't know.

I love video games more than anything like in the world. It's given me my entire life and everything until I met my wife. It's just my entire career. It's just people get too fucking how.

You won twenty five hundred miles.

That was separate. No, I would leave McDonald's no matter what the fuck I was doing, Mary, that had nothing to do with video games. I would have had that McDonald's piece no matter.

What, no matter what differences in your life.

Could be working out fucking gas station on Shawnee Mission Parkway, and I would absolutely still win that thing.

But my this isn't really a complaint. It's kind of a complaint. And I'm I remember I remember one specific Game of the Year meeting. We had a game spot where this like the detractors of Breath of the Wild.

Yeah, like that's a fucking horseshed argument.

Yeah right, Yeah, it annoyed me. Also throw out like remember.

That too hard. It should have like it should have more options to play it easier. I think if a game is if the developers have designed it to be very very difficult, that is like their m O.

Yes, that is totally fine. That game is allowed to be very difficult.

Yeah. I feel like that comes from like like there's stuff where you get a bunch of people talking about like oh, when Bey and Atta first came out, it was like, oh, they had a one button easy mode if you just want to see the cool stuff and you don't want to you're not good at games. And people got mad about that. And then Elder Ring comes out and it's like, oh it's too hard, and people get mad about it. Shut play it, play it.

It doesn't not every game.

It's for you, you know, And I I feel it on both ends, Like I think it's so cool that you said the other end of the spectrum, too, which is like the game's too easy and it's like shut.

Up, that's kind of mya. There was something like this year that was like really hard, and it sparked a bunch of fucking think pieces and stuff and social media bullshit about like, oh it's too.

Hard Hollow Night too.

Oh yeah, well don't play solk song.

So sorry.

Not it's called silk Song, Hollow Night, soil song. But yeah, it's like you sorry, Bud, Like sorry, the game is is extremely challenging.

Some people find that very rewarding, like.

Perrying, I don't play Sechiro. It's not ruining my day, you know, just there's a lot of games out there.

I have low self esteem.

I didn't finish elden Ring.

That's just the way it is sometimes and.

You're doing fine, it's like it's thank you, but I'm not going to.

Sit there and be like the game is wrong. It's like, no, it just wasn't for me, and that's okay.

I do think you can still have criticisms of it, which is just like, hey, like the difficulty spikes for this were a little too much for me, Like I found that challenging. I think that's fair, but to just say this game should be easier is not a valid criticism and kind of annoys me.

I mean that came up, Yeah, solks Soong came up a lot, and there were as much as I fuck love folk song, there were boss fights where I was just like, man, really got to hit this guy like twenty five more times. Yeah, Like, but it's like, Okay, well, do you want to keep playing it or not?

Sure?

Also, maybe, and this will come up later, but like maybe you needed to grind in some other place and sharpen your needle more. Maybe you needed a different badge that would have let you have like a faster speed or a quadruple jump, and that would have also help helped with that boss fight. I suffered on a boss for like three hours, and then I found out that I really really really needed that triple.

Jump dash and I didn't have it. So I was just kind of I was like so convinced that this.

Boss was broken, and it was just like user error that happens all the time. That game humbles the shit out of me.

So I find it a little exhausting for someone to just be like too hard.

She's like, well, did you did you try? Are you good?

Yeah? I think that game has bigger problems than difficulty. I think I think we glazed Team Cherry too much. That's a whole other thing. No, I like that game quite a bit the other day. It's a fucking video game.

Go get some real problems, get go get a mortgage.

It's just it's a fucking just put down the controller and go figure out your life.

Yeah, you go get out hospital bill and if you can't get yeah, fucking babies. Thank you. Okay, Now that we ramped up with that, uh more, Uh what a fun one antagonistic question, Let's get to a very heavy one. Hey there, what's the most important element of a trail mix? Thanks West from Baltimore. Oh, I've we finished our wirery watch. I've been I've been trying to say Baltimore like they do Baltimore, Baltimore.

You've been trying on mirror trying.

I noticed, like they can dialect in the in the show all the like locals say like Baltimore. They I don't say Baltimore, and I have nothing from Baltimore, so I know, I'm just no, I'm not trying to say it like normally to sound cool, literally trying to physically say it. It's hard for my mouth to say, no, it's not it, No, it's not it.

Do you know Mike Manatti can't say chimney because his brain goes into chimney from like Jim Jimminy Jim Jimminy.

Disney stuff doesn't surprise me.

I mean, I'm sure if he's slowed down he could say it.

He's tried probably a hundred times on Giant Bomb and failed a hundred times.

I think it's all for show.

It's probably you don't know, Mike Manattier.

For a stretch goal, I'll say chimney.

Correctly at some point. I love Mike naughty. I'm so sorry.

I did during the Bob on her. Beforehand, I was like, Mike, what's the number for? Like, what is the crazy incentive to get you to eat an apple?

On and stream?

He said, there's not a number, Like, I I know it's not a bit.

Yeah, no, I don't. I don't think that's a bit. I know people. I know someone who was like that with bananas when I was younger. We thought it was a bit, and I'm ashamed to say I like played a prank on him with a banana and it.

No good freaked out.

No.

I to be clear, I was like twelve, and I learned my lesson.

I was going to do that where I was going to present him with a bunch of fruit and stuff and like, no, it's like a like real phobia.

Yeah, not fun. I learned after I was once I was thirteen not to do that. But like I put aim, it wasn't even a creative prank. I just like our friend. He was a friend who did amp up. He he exaggerated a lot of stories and whatnot. So I thought he was being doing the same thing with his fear of bananas, like just being around them. So I like snuck a banana into his glovebox while in like sorry, not his glovebox, his like what do you want to

When you do that stuff.

I didn't know at the time. I was fucking twelve. I'm gonna go back through your childhood and find no, I told.

You, I get fired as a babysitter right from the bee prank. This rings a slight bell, the short one. I was babysitting the neighbor kids. There are three kids, and the youngest one, Nick was uh he was like a pread of bees or something or actually, I don't even think he said that. I think he was just a kid, and kids don't like bees, including myself.

I don't think adults like bees either.

Yeah, you know what, take it back. I don't think it was a phobia thing. I think we were just walking to the pool in the neighborhood and I was like, oh, Nick, oh god, you gotta bee. You gotta be on the back of your head or something, and he just lost his fucking mind and burst out crying and was the whole thing. And he told his mom, Yeah, you could.

Tell us about this.

Yeah, but there was also that I ate the whole box of cheese its, And so I think I can't remember which one was the one that actually got me fired, but uh, yeah, don't do that one.

Traumatize my child.

Uh yeah.

So I was in a good babysitter either. I once let them out on the roof and I said, don't tell your parents. And then the next day, the dad took me aside and was like, you took them out on the roof, didn't you? And I said, yeah, no, And then I looked at the kid and I said, I'm gonna fucking kill you. Yeah, but watching Blues Clues again, you little cunt.

No. I believe Mike when he says he doesn't like apples. I have seen it close. But I'm though, what is the most important part of a trail mix? Oh? Not raisins. There's a lot of.

Different are not really something that I ever enjoy.

I will say that, uh an oatmeal, raisin cookies fresh from the oven.

I can be like, yeah, I'm into this.

It could be a good component. But like when you think about being a kid, like you were always confronted with, like I just have a box of raisins, Who the fuck is like eating boxes of resk?

Some questions for adult?

You dant the little raisins, the little California boxes? Hell, yeah, baby, do you eat?

Oh?

I don't know now anymore? They weren't they sell them anymore? They absolutely sell raisins, I promise you. Is the red box with a lady on it? Like yellow? Was it red with a yellow sun? And the yellow.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure the Rais nineteen ninety six is the last time I've seen one of these.

I've seen raisins.

Maybe they're in like, maybe they're in bags. Maybe they're in gummy bags. Oh wait a minute, how did I not bring this up yet? Speaking of Amazon, which one of you fuckers sent me ten bottles of mustard in an unmarked box. It seems like a merry thing.

That could be anyone, but it is absolutely dass.

I got a package that just said Mike Maharty. There's no return address, just said Amazon Fulfillment Services. And I open it and it's it's ten bottles of mustard. Ten Yes, I counted them, and it was like very like.

Models mustard.

Don't send me any more shit too much. I have to bring it down four flights of stairs to the trash. That sounds really annoying. Yeah, you the only reason you didn't send me the whole fuel drum of chocolate syrup is because Bianca talked you out of it, and she said, a reminder, you're playing the prank on Amanda too. You think that I think you're thinking of Tim Turry. Don't send me any more mustard. No, that sounds really annoying. I'll go toe to toe with you in terms of how annoying I.

Can be someone's getting Raisins.

I would I would welcome a box that size of Raisins. I like Raisins a lot worse than Ladybugs. That was, I will admit, very funny. What was it a one thousand or twenty five hundred or something bugs? But that was back when I was immature. I don't know who sent the mustard. Yeah, I assume you're on stream and someone's like, hey, Dan, this mustard's on sale for US scent each bottle on Amazon. I think raisins play an important part in trail mix because they alter the textures.

But they're not even gross. They're just annoying, like raisins, like the flavor's fine at best. I feel like, if you're making a trail mix thing, why wouldn't everything be good? Because I feel like there's always that Why I want the pretzel.

Well, peanuts are literal, like people use peanuts as a metaphor for things that are just filler.

I think peanuts are great.

I like peanuts. I don't think they're my favorite part, though, Like i'd rather I'd rather take the peanuts out than the raisins.

Oh that's crazy.

No, what trail mikes are we talking here? This one with like M and m's in it.

Yeah, I sums cash cashewsh not have cash is peanuts.

I think walnuts are in there. Sometimes pineapple smells ones with a bigger one on one end, like they're like a decu nut or no, sorry, the decu the spiral thing you get the beginning, the spiritual stone of the forest.

I only want these things if they involve pretzels.

Walnuts look like brains from up top. But walnuts are well, n'ts a lot.

Kind of like nut variety stuff like pecans, walnuts, all that stuff's great.

Almonds.

I love a pecan, although I like them candied.

I feel like a regular pecan feels like it's missing something.

I was gonna say, do you like the little candied squares of like pineapple and some trail mixes.

I love the candied square of pineapple. I'm glad you brought this up. We invented this very important a replacement of the raisin but also cube form.

They could have made it anything. But that guy was like, make it a cube.

Oh my god, I did it again.

That girl was like, it's a cube.

Yeah, it could have been a woman. It could have been.

It probably was.

Look up, look up Phyllis p cube. She invented the pineapple cube.

The Turkish apricot.

I'll take pineapple before raisin, for sure. You know what's good to dried out apples? You don't see that a lot.

Oh yea yeah, but that's a good because those retain a lot of the apple flavor.

I think you're leaning out of trail mix. Dried apple is not a trail mixed situation. You're dodging the question trail mix component Dan, And he's like, I don't like anything because it's all nuts.

I want to I want to make a distinction. Not your favorite, the most important Oh, I mean the nuts. I want to be semantic about this, the nuts.

If it didn't have nuts, it wouldn't be trail mixed exactly.

So it's let's just say nuts in general.

No, no, no, no, because that's that's basically all Like what which nuts and peanuts could Why because they add the filler or because they're the filler they're good, but also they fill. I'm not saying I like them, but they are by definition they're added because they're cheaper and they're easier to they fill. I think hash peanuts infinitely.

More so important. And if trail mix doesn't have cashews, I'm like, this is for a bitch, like it has.

To the cashier.

So okay, So, Mike, you said the peanuts out of the shell. Is this just a mean thing? Like going to baseball games in the nineties and stuff and you get the big thing of peanuts in the shells. I would just put the whole shells in my mouth, you and you and swallow them. No, So I think I knew as a kid that like it would get really dry and like splintery, that's stringy. Yeah, and so but like I did, like they were so so salty. They were super fucking salty. So I just like suck on

Yeah, like a sunflower se just spit out all the fucking like. Uh, I mean, I don't I don't necessarily agree with that. I get why you did it, opinion.

I was angry.

I was eating the entire sunflower seed until I was like eight. Yeah, I didn't know you're supposed to not do that. Yeah, the asshole was bleeding every time I pooped.

That's the entire reason I'm still doing.

I don't remember eating any corn.

Yeah, because of a sunflower seed. Yeah, dismissing tooth was just literally biting surely in.

A week or two, getting the implant finally put in after twenty plus years whatever. Because I was eating a bag of sunflower seeds on the couch washing fucking South Park in two thousand and three or something, and I just bit into it and my tooth shattered and it was bleeding like crazy, and it was a lot of pain. And I did not have health insurance. And I found out you could go to a dental school and they

Simpsons child to imagine.

That kid, we're all out of anesthesia.

Bonks me in the fucking head with the X ray machine and they're like, well that now I'm hurting in a couple different ways, and I'm just I'm in hell right now. And then they say like, well we can, uh, we can we actually save the tooth. And I was like, yeah, how much does that cost? And they were like, oh, it'd be you know, four hundred dollars versus one hundred and fifty or whatever like something like that. It wasn't like thousands or whatever. It's like four hundred or whatever

It fixed backs So Little Timmy was right.

Yeah, So that's my son flower seed story.

So is it your favorite part of the trail mix?

Pretty good?

Yeah, I do really like sunflowers, like hey, but yeah, the barbecue ones. You kidding me? Barbecue ran this thing and in a couple of weeks, I'm gonna get I'm the same on a sunflower, go nuts on the dust, you break three other teeth. Uh yeah, No, I seriously didn't know you're supposed to spit out the seeds, so I was too old.

They're fine, you can swallow.

Uh.

Jeff corrupted something to his asshole by eating too many some flower seeds shells.

Yeah, you don't digest them all the way, and they get.

So many that like fucked up his asshole and he had to have somebody blue sky to Jeff Grabb and asking about his asshole with some flower seeds.

Okay, no, I can imagine. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know all the things I would say. Yeah, I didn't ask for that either.

Uh.

The most important element of a trail mix, you know what I'm gonna be fucking I'm gonna I'm gonna say that the eminem you need some sugar when you're on a hike. They add a lot of like a good flavor profile to it. They give it a bit of a candy. It's like those are the pieces that you're excited to see. It keeps you eating all the peanuts and the walnuts and the cashews and the raisins, the healthy stuff, because then you get to that next eminem You're like, oh this is great and on a hike.

I will never buy a pack of Eminem's, but I'm upset about being confronted with M and ms.

Yeah. I do like the Christmas like sometimes I remember that, Like my Grandpa always had the green and red ones for Christmas.

So I eat a lot of those those. Yeah yeah, no, no, no, just the regular, but there were colored red ones that were they had those two ones.

Yeah, yeah, those were really good, the Prezza ones, the caramel pieces. Fuck them up? All right? Well, thank you Wes first not long time, first time, long time, long time, long time, long time, Western Baltimore. That's our show, fire Scape Cast at gmail dot com. Get the inbox filled up with good questions. If they're not good, good, I'll be pissed. I'll come to your house. Send good questions.

Giant Bomb, I'm just doing a whole lot of stuff. We got a new website launching very very soon. Thank you Chuck for all the work going into that. But yeah, really going nuts over there. So check out Giant Bomb. We got the Twitch channel and all that stuff. But this time of year especially, it's kind of harder to find time there, So buyer escaping Giant Bomb priorities.

Mary about you, Just.

Usually streaming on Mondays when I can and Instagram lots of good dog picks on there. Come check out my happy dog in the fall in Portland. Lots of leaves, guys. It's stunning over here, is.

The recent pictures, like I saw one like today. If you walk and seeming around like Portland looks delightful.

It's so I'm so pretty in the fall here it really is like a it's just a magazine and I love it.

It's a short lived time though, like soon it will be winter and there will be nothing.

But right now I'm bliss, you know, like this is this is like a dream, so so I probably have like I want to say, there's maybe two weeks left of this and then all the leaves will be gone.

What are Portland winters like rainy. Oh gotcha?

Yeah, like really rainy, kind of sad on Oka winters. It's hard, it rains a lot.

Oh tropical, Oh.

Rain sounds incredible, it really does.

And then I feel like I had something else. Yes. December sixth, Fire Escapes Game of the Year annual live stream will be commencing henceforth from Minneapolis, as we do every year. We'll be descending on Dan's house, Jake, Mary, Dan and I. I think we decided it's gonna be on twitch dot tv slash Dan Riiker. We're just gonna keep that going.

And then we have the YouTube for fire Escape.

Yeah, so if you're not, if you're not following the fire Escape YouTube, then go do that because that's where we'll be putting up the video version afterward, the VOD

Usual two week cadence, you will there will be like a bonus week where normally there wouldn't be anything, and now you'll get part one of a Game of the year. Yeah, and then the normal post day you'll get part two.

And then back to regularly regularly scheduled programming once we get toward twenty twenty six. Yeah, lot going on. Busy stuff, good stuff, are busy.

Yeeah, we should uh do we have time? Like it's not. The next one is the Game of the year, right, No? No, this one more before we should each thinking, uh to give each other one homework assignment of like, Okay, this is a game I feel very strongly about, and I will talk about for like game of the year type caliber that we you know, say, at least get a couple hours into it or something.

Okay, I gotta catch up.

Me think I have to think about it like that.

You've got a couple of weeks.

I know.

It's just important because whatever we say, it's like what we're essentially saying is is like listen, this is going to come up during gody. I need you to take this.

Seriously and we have to pick one that like obviously the other two have not really played.

So yeah, okay, But.

Then there's some I'm not even gonna bother recommending to you, Like a lot of people are telling me I would like Kingdom Come Deliverance too. I don't think I'm gonna recommend that to you too, But I know Jake has played it, so I'm gonna see what I think.

Sure, it's good.

Jake's going to be my saving grace for a couple of things because I know there are things that him and I play that you guys probably didn't play that He's gonna come out of the woodwork to protect me.

God, it's a tough one because I would love for you too to play dest Training two a lot, but like.

I've played a lot of deasth Training two.

Yeah, he didn't.

We talked to We talked about it for like thirty minutes.

Yeah. I literally told me that you never played it. I'd be like, oh, okay, you should check it out.

Oh my god, that's what you We're just assuming and I'm refuting it now I know, Okay, So don't assign that I won't or I could have had you assign it to waste yours. Now, it's not a combative assignment, but.

Like it's a strategic ahead to you.

I'm gonna make you guys play like fucking City Defense six your Universalists, and I'll wind up loving it. Yeah, I'm sure. No I made that game up. If you couldn't tell, Well, that's our episode. Thank you everybody for joining. We'll be back in a couple of weeks with episode one twenty one, which is the final episode before our Game of the Year showdown Shenanigans. Should it be a showdown? Does that automatically imply it be combative?

I think it's a discussion. I feel like it's rarely been combative. I think it's like certain silly arguments or whatever, like you know, me pushing for Fortnite or destranding or whatever, and you know, like, I think that's rarer than.

YouTube for me a coalition to push Pickman right at the very end after we gushed the ball.

It's been pretty cool.

It would have been cool because Dan didn't do pick me a giant bomb, but this could have been his Pickman pick I don't know what voice that was. Yeah, it'll be fun. We're gonna do our team dinner the night before, so I'm sure We'll be in great shape the next day.

Oh we will.

Our butts will be ready to go.

My butt's gonna be torn asunder.

I'm gonna eat so many seeds.

Yeah, I'm gonna scread that only trail mix.

We go to the sunflower seed restaurant here in Minnesota, and yeah, I just doesn't get shifts his brains out.

Yeah, yeah, I'm just leaking out of my butt the.

Entire All the seats have paper towels on them.

Perfect. Oh I'm bringing diapers this year, baby, don't you worry about that. All right, we'll be back in a couple of weeks. Until then, see you, h