Fire Escape Cast #89

Hello, everyone, Welcome back to the fire Escape Cast. It is episode eighty nine. I think I'm your host as always, Michael Maharty here once again with Mary kesh Hi and returning to us after a long absence many travels around the world. It was one episode. He's back at Stan Reichert.

All the stars are here. We've all assembled again. Do we only miss one where we all together two episodes ago?

Uh?

Cause we almost had to miss this one, but this out I can't remember.

They're a minute. I've been I've been active. I feel like I've been present. I missed one episode, like in early summer because I was at Twitch Con in Europe. But I'm pretty good and I'm glad I was. We almost missed this week because I have so much family in town, but y'all moved your schedules around for me, which I.

We're doing the same was coming weekend. This is the first time I'll be coming to Portland, not by myself in the middle of the night to stare through your window with a knife. It's gonna be really fun.

I'm really excited you guys are both coming. It's a really cool time to be in Portland and coming is he We are gonna have Jake so to avoid him. Yeah.

God, we were just talking about how much we don't like him air. Yeah, we're trying to Decker.

Yeah, Jake dot Org an organization for us to talk about the sweetest boy in the whole world that we don't like, Jake Decker. I've never done anything wrong in his life.

He killed that.

We don't talk.

About Jake cut that cut, that cut that proud boys.

But he's a nice guy.

Yeah, he's a he's a big conspiracy guy as well.

Oh but like the like dangerous ones ye yeah, yeah, not like the Cooper cut, the moon Land and stuff. It's like he's like dangerous conspiracy theorist.

Yeah. Yeah, So that's Jake. If you want to learn more about him, gonna fuck Jake dot Org.

We haven't bought it yet.

We need to buy Jake dot.

Org goes up. We need to get Fuckjake dot Org and put a photoshop photo of him with a rocket launcher pointed at a hospital a jo. Yeah. Yeah, we'll be in Parland for a couple of nights. Gonna be fun my first time.

Really, it's lovely.

You're gonna enjoy it. I'm gonna take you to some iconic places and we can talk about them on the next EPI. But I'm gonna take you, uh in theory, provided like everybody's everything, everybody's on time, and everything goes well, You're going to see some vistas and I'm going to take you to some waterfalls too.

Oh really, that's awesome, hell y, And we don't even I love this.

We can just show up and then you just take us wherever and we don't have to worry about planning anything.

That's I took care of it. I took care of the boys because I feel like if you're getting your butts here, especially you Dan, after all this travel internationally. You just got back from packs, you are tired, So you get here with vistas, I got you. Yeah, vistas and drinkies open bar.

Oh yes, yes, perfect. This is like kind of the end of like my travel gauntlet. So honestly, the timing is perfect because it's been every weekend the summer since my surgery and this is the last one of the consecutive weekends to just go hang out with you, have some drinks and look at vistas.

Yay, come hang out with me and vistas.

Yeah.

You have jakes there.

Yeah, you takes there. I'm just tell him Dan that it's the beginning of my travel gauntlets. So we're looking forward to like being outdoors and relaxing and hanging out with friends.

You got it's going to be a crisp ninety degrees.

Yeah, so fuck.

I don't understand it. It's really weird, like a weird hot hot pocket situation. The heat, Like I believe they're called heat domes, but I like calling them hot pockets hot pockets for fun.

Left the hot pocket leapt straight from New York to Portland, and I'm following it. I can't wait.

I love the heat. But yeah, for Australians, it's not bad at all. There's a bunch of Australians in town and it's usually like one hundred and ten degrees in Australia. Australia, their summers are brutal, Like is it like Vegas dry heat or is it humid in one hundred and ten It can be humid too.

That that sounds terrible.

Australia gets like every kind of weather. They're the size the United States is. Oh, it's farther south, so it's not just.

Drop out of the sky.

Its just Meltingeez travels in first time in Germany? Correct, yes, yes, did you stick in Cologne? Did you get anywhere else?

I flew into Dusseldorf and then went to Colone But yes, Spence, yeah I think so, yeah, and spent like that was the fastest uber right I've ever had from the airport. I think it was technically the Autobahn and that guy he was I tried to look at the knob thing on the dash, but it was in crazy kilometers. Yeah yeah, but it was in like kilometers, so I didn't know what the fuck it meant. But it felt very fast. But yeah, we just stuck in Cologne and drank a lot of kolshes ate a lot of meat.

Did take about the saga of dj ass Tits No.

I saw a picture of dj ass Tits of game.

Yeah, yeah, okay. I think the video should be up on Giant Bomb by the time this goes up. But there's a whole saga with dj ass hits and give us the tldry because.

I'm not going to watch it. I just want to know what happened.

Basically, we saw a sign that said dj as watching all that. I found her on Instagram a message her being like, Hey, we're at a video game website. We love your name. We're in Cologne. Do you want to do a cameo in a video we're shooting about being in games Com And she said yes. So we met up with dj ass Tits. She was an absolute delight and she did a little cameo for the end of our Giant Bomb video.

It was nice, lady.

Yes, yes, so big dj ass Tits fans over here. Now.

I like that Giant Bomb is building up its own like Channel five roster of characters. Oh yeah, that you just find in the world.

I love that. I love it. It's like, you know, Letterman once found the guys at the bodega next door. He MOODI burns Syergil and had them be his like Olympics correspondence. Like I've always loved that. Like, let's just find a random person, like bring them into the fold, and you know, as long as they're interesting, nice people. And dj assd Tits is interesting and nice. So yes, friend of Giant Bomb for sure.

Yes, a friend of Giant Bomb dj asss. It reminds me this was ages ago, but I remember vividly me and Rob handleary at an E three there was a DJ with just really big boobies DJing with their little MacBook and we were being a little bastards and we were like, I wonder what her name is. We were like, we bet it's DJ fun Bags. And then we came up with a persona for DJ fun Bags and she would always just be like, hi, everyone, put your hands in the r and grab your decks. DJ fun Bags

You probably have not heard the Mike Manatti English story, have you. I'll give you the TLDR on this as well for anyone who may have heard this. But on the first night that went, I was flying in but Jane Bailey and Cologne. So Jan and Bailey had gone out to get food with Manati and they're asking about recommendations. The guys like, oh, you got to go to this bar. This is the best bar. So they go to this

Yeah, and from my experience in Cologne during games come Cologne very nice people. However, bear in mind that like once a year, gamers from all over Europe and the world descend, so they can understandably be a bit touchy when like you're just in posing your americanness on them or English whatever.

An accident, So that makes it even funnier.

Also, I like, I could just hear it in Mike Manatti's voice and I would be.

Like what.

And he thought they were gonna stay in order beers, but Janna Bailey would not be seen in that bar after that.

I would be out of there so fast. That's so embarrassing. I would have uh yeah, I would have anxiety passively Manati.

That happens a lot when you're around Manati. But it's all in good fun. He's a nice boy.

Did what happened?

No, he just turned around. You didn't see. Janna Bailey's like, oh, I guess we're not getting beers here.

Like a man walked in during trivia shouted English, yeah, and.

Some got pissed him and then they all left. Yeah.

Yeah, oh that was so sad. But I was embarrassed. I knew what I had done. Did Manatt even know?

No, he's he's very unaware of a lot of the stuff he does again in a very very nice way. But but yeah, I've heard I can be like that too. I feel like seeing Manati in a lot of circumstances, I am understanding more what people have experienced being out with me and things like that of me just being oblivious two things. Yeah, yeah, but no, he's he's a great guy.

Yeah, you and Manati out by yourselves, that's like you need a straight man there for that.

Yeah, jan and Bailey were the adults for sure, with me a Minati, but the actual show flower and everything. Yes, the show floor was just like, you know, I've done a million eight threes, but this was very different. I

What's the most surprising thing about like everyday German life that you noticed?

You know, it was fairly easy to like, you know, everyone kind of spoke English, so there weren't Oh, the fucking public transportation was the easiest thing in the world.

It just takes you everywhere.

It was confusingly, it seemed free, like we were trying to pay and didn't even see places to pay. Somebody told me it was free, but then it was very confusing. They gave us tickets from games Colm to like, I don't understand it works, but.

It seems to be a good system. Games comp ticket like comps a certain number of rides. Okay, very served at least when I went, Oh.

Here's the thing that surprised me the most. So I was looking forward to having a bunch of pretzels and cheese there because that seemed like a thing in England or Germany. And they have cheese pretzels, but they're all this weird style where they're hanging on hooks and it's like it's like they melted a bunch of cheese over it and just let it dry and then they stick it up. I wanted the biggest pretzel with the biggest

Huh. I wonder if that's a uh just a like German wide thing or a cologne thing.

You might have been in like a more of a like an authentic orza because I did a pizza from a sorry pizza. I did a pretzel from a vendor and it came with dunker.

Oh dunker cheese.

Yeah, so I think you just you got it in a different way.

But four places that had the cheese thing, yeah, flat one.

Yeah, it was imagining dan as actually just at a dry cleaner's eat pulling eating suits off the rack as.

That might have been my problem. Yeah, and he's.

Running up to people going I need dunkers. Yeah, don't you have any dunkers. There was a couple of things that surprised me about did you see anybody wearing they had Like there's like a thing where people wear like a giant cookie in a heart on their neck. No, and you're not supposed to eat it.

It's like a decorative but it's like a real cookie.

Yeah, but I think it's meant to be decorative.

Don't like flies eat it and stuff. I don't know, huh.

We had very different German experiences because I got dunkers and I saw people wearing cookies and you had a dry pretzel and no dunkers.

It was good.

I'm not complaining, like you know, the meat and everything was good overall. I think I like the food in England more what.

Nobody ever fucking says that nobody's ever said that the food in England is better than the food in Germany. Out of your mind.

I pared the reputation with England, but like the stuff I had. They're the best meal I had and all these trips he eup I've had in the last few weeks. Was me and Manati went to a little pub in Brentford and had fish and chips and guinness. The most stereotypical British shit ever, but it was easily the best fish and chips I've ever had.

It was okay amazing, So yeah, fish and chips is definitely really good at England, Did you have anything else?

I went to Nando's because I always heard about that being like a good chain, like Perry Perry Chicken thing, and it was very good I had. You know, I'm not a huge coffee guy. I just kind of have like an espresso little pods in the morning. But this was like the first time I've had coffee at something Queen's Mayfair and England where it's like holy shit, Like like the taste of the coffee was like, oh, this is not a utilitarian I'm waking up in the morning thing. This is like this tastes amazing.

So in America we have like known for a coffee obsession in America.

Yeah, but I don't really know where to like I go to Cariboo if I'm going out, I don't know if that's nation that's.

A big fairly I know, but it's.

It's all good like Caribou, Starbucks all that, so you can get good stuff, but like this is this is strikingly good yet Caribou.

You're just naming the American chains. But we also have, like we have boutique coffee spots. I guarantee you Minneapolis has many of them, like around every corner.

We probably do. I guess I've never looked for a coffee place.

But that's good that you like English food, because I will say England like has great restaurants, but most of the ones I've been to are not like English style food. It's like I don't know any number of different restaurant styles that are they're doing.

There the best ice cream've ever what kind of what was?

What was good about it?

Just it was it was a bit bisc off and honeycomb was one of the flavors. So every night I went there and I got a biscoff and honeycomb scoop and one other scoop that was incredible. Also Europe in general, I found this in Germany, England and Iceland. Fucking Maum. Do you know Maum m ao a m No. It's this candy that comes in all sorts of different forms. There's like fun sticks, there's like little like uh the

We brought these back from France. The wild red berries, the chewy. We have some of these in our jar right now because we're saving them. They're like they look like gum drops, but they're those might oh okay ym red fruit berries and they're covered in like a like sugary kind of substance.

Yeah.

Oh they're awesome. I agree.

Yes, all of the other the joysticks, the stripes, the party mix, the mix. Uh, this is the this is like my favorite candy period now. So like I just load up my bag with Maum when I'm coming home from Europe now.

But yeah, god, it's not like one candy. That's the company that owns a bunch of different candies.

Yeah, but all their shit is awesome and it's all that kind of like fruity Starburst style. Can I get this on Amazon?

Oh?

Yeah, anyone?

And doesn't Harrobo own it? Yeah?

Maybe? Okay, Europe people listening to this, it's just send me a ship ton of maum.

Maw wait wait I like saying it, like, yeah so. Maum is a brand of sweets produced by the German confectionery company Harribo.

Oh okay, Well that's the thing is, I don't love Harrobo because it's all like gummy stuff and I'm not a big gummy bear guy. I don't like the textra gummy beers. I like that Starburst.

I think like the gummy Bears have become synonymous with Haribo, at least in America. Yeah. Yeah, it's a big company. It's like, don't.

Dislike gummy bears, but it's like I don't ever seek them out, whereas like Maum and Starburst, I seek out and I've just been going ape shit on those since I got back.

Yeah, the RedBerry things are awesome and we had a lot of You have ever had these?

You gotta get some molm You're always in Europe.

I got to have my mouth.

Get yourself. It's got a mouth sponsorship.

Dan's gonna wake up in the middle of the night tonight. You're just walking to a German bar one day and shout mouth and then leave without ordering anything. Man.

I got a bunch of like artisanal, awesome cheese in Germany, brought it home. It was fucking great. Like I loved some good ass cheese and bought a big block of it. Travels fine.

Yeah, Europe's cool.

I like it. I'm into it.

Well, how is this cheese wrapped? Like? Was it like plat wheel?

It was like a wedge and then it was like vacuum field.

Yeah.

Yeah, I had like a label on it.

Okay, that makes sense. I still like the I just like the idea of you traveling with cheese.

Well, I bought some in England, but they just wrapped it up in paper that wasn't airtight, and so I didn't think it would travel without stinking up all my clothes. So I just ate like a block of cheese in my hotel room at like two in the morning when I couldn't sleep.

Cheese too much cheese before a big flight.

About my body's used to cheese. It's it's like a block. Before I got on that flight, when I.

Was about the people near you, not you, Oh, farting style anything.

Oh, I didn't fart on the plane, that's when you got fire.

Never would ever believe anyone who says that, ever, I didn't fart on that plane.

I fart plenty, but I have some decorum in my old age, and I will not fart on a plane. I didn't. Maybe maybe if it's feeling a little dicey, I might let one go in the bathroom. Oh, I fart in the bathroom, that's fair game in theres in the bathroom. Yeah, I'll fart up that bathroom, but I'm not doing it. Sit in my seat. What if you're in the window, in the window.

The window off the window seats.

In person all. I haven't had a window seat in fifteen years. But I no, At no point in the cabin would I fart.

Uh Wait, have I told you my fart on a plane story? I must have. This is probably like episode twelve material. I did the thing, you know, when I didn't have a pillow or anything, and I had fallen asleep, and you know how when your head falls, your bodies like goes into shock, where I like jolted awake and it wasn't just that, like my whole upper body kind of went upright, like I it scared me so much that like my legs came off the floor. So I farted not And it was a red eye, so pitch black,

Clear of a fart cut through the air.

Yeah, So of course I start like looking around subtly to see who noticed. And there's a lot of people were asleep, but there was someone watching con air across across the aisle and like on the in the middle seat who was like leaning past the person the aisle to look at me. And they weren't smiling. They didn't. It wasn't a knowing look. I don't. I truly have never seen a more neutral face. And then I went

Nice.

Well, that's cool, glad your European travels were fruitful.

Yes, they're quite good. I might be going to be going to another continent here in the near future, but working that Nice Yeah this month, so we'll see.

Yeah where We'll be be Portland this weekend and then I think I'm doing a quick la leg late September, and then Hawaii for the first time, also around Australians.

Nice.

We're gonna go to Kawhi for a destination wedding for a couple of our good friends and he's Australian and Hawaii. He's exactly halfway between New York and Sydney where most of them are from. Nice and that's also our anniversary week, so we're going a few days early because we're at a super nice resort. We're gonna do some hiking. Kawhai is supposedly like the more rustic island, like, not as active as other ones, not as to receive from what we've heard, but there's a lot of good hiking. I

It's a good thing we decided on this podcast being every other week. That would have been pretty fucking hard.

Yeah, I think it would be almost impossible with our schedules. I'll be in San Diego in two weeks for twitch con so and then I think I just have a couple like more more basic trips, maybe like to suf or something like that, but you never know, like things pop up.

Yeah, we should also probably give the disclaimer since we did just mention that, like all the fire escape is going to be in Portland, if you were worried about hearing like about a meetup or in person stuff. Just want to make sure we're setting expectations. It's not a content fire escape thing we're doing. It's a it's for a personal thing, So I don't expect we love doing it personal stuff in person stuff, but we personally we.

Really enjoy impersonal bars for meetups and then just nag them the whole time.

Yeah, from us, we will probably will definitely do a selfie though. But my favorite was when we got together last year for Mike's big wedding. MiG was like, let's do the thing where we photoshop Marion and I was like, but it's your wedding, and you were like, get over there and we'll take a photo together. And I was like, no, I like made shots in the photo because I was like, no matter how funny this gag is, I'll be pissed if I'm not in this photo.

Yeah, especially when everybody's like dressed up.

Next in person. Actual like fire escape thing would probably be the game of the year. We're doing that here.

We haven't decided I'm up.

To host again, but we can talk about it. But I'm up for whatever.

It's fun at your house, but about it.

I got some new places I could show you guys too.

So what do you mean it's the same fucking house.

In the city. You found some weird Yeah, I've got like an upside down Castlevania castle that I added on.

The shadow world of his house.

Bathroom.

Yeah, pull on this statue head and the wall will rotating.

It's just a house of leaves happening inside his house.

And there's like a closet with a gimp in it.

Yeah.

That will be ready by the time you guys are.

He finished Janitor next to a huge tree. Yeah. So it's busy, busy fall but looking forward to kicking it off in Portland, Mary I saw Alien Romulus. We both did so damn Yeah. When you were gone, Mary was talking it up.

Oh really, really so did.

I did talk this movie up.

That That also did spark me rewatching several alien movies and replaying a few alien related games, which I'll talk about down the episode. But I if I had to place this movie in the franchise, including all the directors like ranking Wise, and bear in mind, I'm a sicco who actually really liked Alien Covenant, so take this, I would put Romulus at like a firm middle or right above middle, considering, you know, like there's some stinkers there.

Game overman when they were playing the video game.

That was.

Much.

There's the there the most famous line from the first movie or is it alien? Sorry? Get away from her? You bitch that? Yeah? Yeah, spot where it didn't really make sense, but a.

Few of them are kind of forced. Like I want to say, I did overall like it. I gave it three out of five on the letterbox. I thought it was good. That's a good three is a good score. Three as I liked The Twisters got three and a half. This got three.

This is way better than Twister Twister.

They're good.

They're both good. No, I'm pro Alien Romulus.

Uh too.

One thing that did actually bug me? How spoilery?

Can we get here? Bug me?

Not too?

Okay, then I'll just say this generally. I think you'll know what I'm talking about. There was a recurring CGI thing that felt unnecessary and weird in a movie where everything looked really good. I left the vibe of it. Yeah, there was, yeah, but then there was one thing that stood out like a sore thumb, and I thought it was very avoidable. I think you didn't even necessarily need to do that. I don't think the way they did it added to any part of the story. It didn't

I mean, you can say, like they have to call back to a movie, that's how what year was Alien seventy seven?

Yeah, but they're trying to call back, calling back to the appearance of a character when it wasn't necessary because the thing we're looking at in this movie is not even supposed to be the same thing we looked at in the old one.

So it was like it didn't even need to look like that person.

You know, it's unnecessary, That's what I'm saying.

It look completely completely avoidable, and I did find it weird and distracting, but I mean, look that alone wouldn't have like ruined a movie or anything. I thought this is solid. I think the end I thought was really cool, Like the last like twenty twenty five minutes, I thought there's some.

Really cool twenty minutes. I've freaked out.

It's cool. Yeah, and then there's like a really cool like, for lack of a better term, like a set piece where there there's certain things in play that I thought were really unique and cool. Yeah. No, I liked it.

I've really enjoyed how it It reminded me of The Force Awakens in the sense that there was some really cool mirroring stuff it was doing with the movies that it's really you know, paying homage to or I guess like really strongly calling back to. I could have done with like a few fewer of the Winks, but it was very entertaining. And again I placed that like right above the middle of the quality of the series.

For me, I put one, two, and maybe three over it, But I think this, I put this above Resurrection, put it above prometheas you put it about Alien fors preada there certainly. Yeah, so yeah, I'd say high middle for me too.

I put those over. I don't know about three, but I'd put Covenant over it. Prometheus is like my least favorite.

I've been meaning to rewatch three Bonk and I watched one and two in recent years but then never got around a three. But I remember thinking it was like bold in a way, like you know, Fincher making some real decisions, especially with the end that pissed off a lot of people. I remember thinking that was kind of a cool, bold thing back when I saw it, but I was a kid.

I like, maybe yearly rewatch one, and every time I watch it, it is one of the few movies that I it genuinely gets better. Every time I watched that.

You put it in the context of nineteen seventy seven and what other movies are doing at the time, and there's just nothing like this. It's a yeah, I'm right there with the Mike Bunk and I watched it again like within the last year, and it's kind of think, this is my face watching of this, you know.

Yeah, And I watched Aliens like three nights ago. That movie still kicks ass. It's awesome, Like the energy of that movie, like velocity once things that that movie takes like fifteen minutes and then all of a sudden, the rest of the movie is just like propulsive toward the end,

I mean obviously a ton but you know, can't can't catch up on a month's worth of stuff in a few minutes. But I'm glad we all got on this.

It was a weekend. Well, yeah, weekend if you're listening now, we are back from Portland, but as of the recording, it's this coming weekend. We'll get to catch up. I'm sure. Yeah, Jake will be there. We'll talk about him.

Oh no, keep keep it on the website.

Yeah, Fuckjake dot Org. Oh Todd, I.

Haven't bought it yet.

Oh my god, Well we'll expense it. No, I shouldn't pretend that's what Patroon money is going to. It's gonna be really funny, just like a little bit of a little bit of how the sausage is made for anybody who doesn't know. Like basically, when we do actual our ad reads, when we submit them to sponsors, they get like a ten second or fifteen second bookends of the ad so they can hear the context that went into the ad. So I just like the idea of being like,

Yeah, I like we we didn't even ease into this bit at all. We always just talk glowingly object Decker, and then we just decided it's a bit where we all hate him.

Is it funnier if we don't explain it.

I don't even know there's much of an explanation.

It's too late. We already explained it.

Fucked that guy.

Okay, do you guys want to talk about video games?

Yes, it's party season, boys, you're gonna get your party on always.

Oh good.

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Well, First Leaf's great because even if you don't really know much about wine, it can help you kind of get into it. It'll ask you, like, what kind of foods do you like? Do you like these bitter things? You like these buttery things, And it'll kind of extrapolate from there, and then you can customize your box. Throughout the years, I've gotten some great stuff from First Leaf but recently been having a lot of like chilled lighter reds like Pino Noire bougelt to wave goodbye to the summer.

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All right, it looks like we've all been dabbling in a bunch of games, diving deeper into a few others since we last spoke as a group. Uh, Dan, I know you have a long history with Astrobot, since you had the was it was it was this the game that it turned out Grub was better than you at.

Yeah, Origin, Well, I actually I was better than him at that on the speed running thing, but this is a new for This one won't be up until Changer.

Because I think we have it in our notes that Grub was well.

Wikipedia says that too, I was there.

I was there. No, No, we'll see when the speed run mode goes up late this year. But hey, it's one of the greatest games of all time, and it's easily I would say, my favorite game since Breath of the Wild.

This new Astrobat is.

The New Astrobat is among my favorite games ever. It is unreal how fucking good it is. It is. I don't know if you played much of Playroom or Rescue Mission. Yeah, they're amazing, but it's like there was like caveats with both where it's like, god, damn it, this is amazing. But you know, Rescue Mission is VR and I don't want to wear this clunky thing and you can't really play it on your PS five. And you know, Playroom is like incredible, but it's very very short. It's it's

What is there? Yeah, what's how is it like a full game? Are they doing like a different like more varied worlds, et cetera.

Oh yeah, yeah, So it's really great with the variety because like some of them, I'd say, a lot of the bigger levels are more I don't want to say,

I I every area.

I go into, I just have to look around at everything because some of the stuff is like, oh, sure, here's a hidden paths to get to a bot, and some of it is just like, oh, I don't know, here's this fun little here's a little bot, you know, squirrel that's like popping out of the ground with a golf ball and you look around and you're like, oh, there's a golf hole over there, and you're trying to like hit the ball into the hole and that might get you a puzzle piece that might just be a

Known for their physics. Like I remember an early like the first Astro bought there was a water world and it was so much fun and there was an area where I think you wore like a floaty tube or whatever and you had to float on the waves of the water. And I remember thinking, like for like a game that a little studio put together, I was like, this is incredible the physics of this water. Yeah, the puzzles they did with it were really cute and innovative too.

Yeah, that's all over this too, Like the uh, there's a lot of water physics, a lot of liquid stuff going on. There's like the some of the powers you get. One of them is like this little elephant backpack you get, and if you go on top of like honey or like goo, you can pull the right trigger to kind of suck it up and that'll give you three charges of like if you jump and you hit our two, the elephant will like spit it down. And so if it's like the uh, if it's this one like green

But uh yeah, without reservation.

Just based on the first two and a half Worlds, I've played, one of the best games of all time and my favorite game at least since twenty seventeen.

Sounds all right fine looking forward to playing it. I that like, it also sounds like gonna be a good palette cleanser. For no, that's not the right word. So many of the games I've loved this year have either been like very very big like open world kind of stuff or small contained, very focused indie things. This sounds like it'll be a good way to get back to that like really creative triple A space.

Yeah, but it's also really good at like if you want to sit down for hours and really like you know,

Wow, I mean that sounds really exciting. I really liked the last Astrobot I played, and it was one of the very few games that when my parents visited me and my parents are not gamers, I was able to give them the controller and they could functionally like run around and understand what was going on. I think it's like it's skilled and challenging, but it's also so lenient to people who are like, what's a game.

That's a great point because really most of what you do is X and square exes jump X again is to do the laser hever squares punch. You can hold square to charge punch, and then like when you get the power ups, it's L two and R two to do some stuff. But it's pretty easy to explain, so I think like a kid or someone who's not a traditional gamer could really enjoy it. But also there's like for someone like me that wants to get everything, like there is a good amount of challenge and like, oh

Yeah, it's three D platformers have been one of those genres for years now. In saying like Nintendo's the only thing keeping it from truly going extinct, like it's extinct is super strong because there are some you know, quote unquote like smaller budget games that have been doing some really cool stuff. But again, it is nice to see like PlayStation come out with its version of its swing

I mean, there was that period in PS one where you know, Crash was kind of a big thing, but like I liked Crash, but well yeah, but you know Spiro at the time, you know, a third party and you know, Crash was very much like the like first party attempt, and even at its peak I liked Crash Bandicoot, it was not on the same level of Mario you know.

Those games same thing as like, you know, like those were great. I love the first one especially, but like those had flaws you had to kind of forgive while you're playing them.

And also like Jack and Ratchet, Like I love both of those series, but like those were kind of action platformers, you know, especially Ratchet with the amount of like you know, guns and level up stuff and everything. It wasn't just like a pure Mario sixty four style platformer. This is a pure three D platformer and it is as good, if not better, than any Mario game I've ever played, and I don't say that likely.

Definitely want to check it out.

Yeah, yeah, it's what a what a referral?

I mean, look, I can't hold back. It's this is it's making me incredibly happy to play.

Wow.

All right, so Mary, you have to follow that up. It is Slider one of the best games you've ever played.

I mean, I don't think it's one of the greatest games of all time.

Move on, Move on, Move on. What about what about Corekeeper?

Wait? Yeah, Corekeeper is actually pretty cool.

Nah, nope, I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. Slider. What's what's going on with Slider?

Okay, Slider is going back to remember how we were like, we don't like the puzzles where you like move a slide down ranger. That's all Slider is wo But they did it with puzzles that are really interesting. So, for example, you start on one block, so it's let's say it's

So I'm looking at a video of this right now. This is free to play, kind of a game Boy style like art style.

It does have a game Boy it's like black and white.

Yeah. Yeah, it says it's free on Steam. Is that the I have to just always wonder like is there end game? Like is there a catch there? Or what's the deal?

How did I acquire this?

I'm looking at it says free.

I guess I just I guess I just downloaded the free game.

Yeah, here's Slider releases for free. Sliders now available three your journey. How did they how do you do that?

I don't know. There's no like secret you know, Dorito's ads in there. I don't know they did it. It's not a virus.

You just don't see that.

I think I found a couple games on Twitter this last these last few weeks, and it won Best Student Game at the IGF. And I'm a big sucker for the IGF. I love when they helped me discover like unique puzzlers. I really have to recommend this. I was very surprised now that I know it's free too, like that changes everything, but like I forgot that I how I acquired this quite frankly, but like so many interesting

And it's nice text.

Base or is it like stuff on the screen, like pointing at things.

It's text. It's like I think it actually takes you to the steam page, and the steam page is like a text based walk through, but again, it gives you multiple hints before it actually just tells you what to do. And I love a hint or too when I'm getting stuck after a certain amount of time. Yeah, it's it's hard to describe, you know, outside of just sliding the world around. But I've had a lot of fun just moving the world around and figuring it out. I'll give

Oh cool.

Stuff like that. It's just neat, But they don't say complete the river. The guys just like these fish ain't bite, no mo And then you have to be like, why aren't the fish biting anymore? Well, the river isn't completed. Hey there's river. If I put all these sliders in a certain order, then the river would be completed. Bing bang boom.

That's a game that sounds better than just like slide puzzles for slide puzzle's sake.

That's one hundred percent. What I don't like about the Nine Slides is that it's you know what you're trying to do. You're like, I'm trying to make a snowflake, but I can't get the one where I want it. I hate puzzles like that. That's not what this is. This is there's four sliders. It's very easy to move them around, but how are you getting them into the spot? And what spot do you want them in? Because there's a puzzle that you're solving, and that's interesting to me.

Nice?

Yeah, I think it's cute. It's free. Can't beat that. I'm also playing a game called core Keeper. Now this one I'm interested in.

It's uh, are you playing on game Pass or what are you playing on? Because it came early last year, I believe.

Yeah, I bought it. I bought it on Steam.

I know. Did you know it was on game Pass?

Yes?

Okay, okay, I.

Think it's an intentional kish because.

If you don't, if you want it on PC and not Xbox.

Then I don't want it on x Well, you can play Xbox games on a PC. Yeah, I want to on my Steam deck.

Okay, fair enough, gotcha.

I didn't know it was on game Pass though, because it only just gets no an educated decision.

But it was like early access early last year, memory serves.

Yeah, this game fucking slaps it is. I want to say, eight player online co op. It has Terraria slash Minecraft vibes. You start in the middle of nowhere, like in a hole in the ground, and you have to make everything. So you have to make your first pick axe, you have to make your first shovel. They're made of dirt or crap, and you just slowly like hack away at

So are the bosses just like like wandering the world? Like is it like, oh, this guy stops around the forest here, so stay away. Yeah, I was taking to Bellheim. It kind of sounds like that.

It does now because they can really they can section off the world better because there's certain areas that you wouldn't be able to get to with your level one axe, Like the dirt won't break. It's like too hard, and so you can't get there till later. So they've kind of determined that you're going to go to certain bosses first and then once you kill them, you'll get an

I've heard great things about it when it was Early Excess last year.

It's smooth too for eight people drop in drop out, like not a lot of technical issues. I was pretty amazed with how seamless it was. Somebody basically hosts and the server and you can have your little characters join, and you can have multiple characters. So I have a character who's more of a farmer, and I have one that's more of a ranger, and I have you know, you can you can really expand the way you want

Would be a fun fire skate game, I think.

So.

I think you're gonna have a lot of fun, like deciding what kind of person you want to be. And it's also nice when someone's like, I've discovered how to make train tracks and or like tracks and then we can all like fast travel different places by getting in a little cart and getting on tracks and stuff like that. You remember, like Dan, the first time you got like a horse in Stardoo, and you're like, this is the

Nice you mentioned to Stardo. Uh, have you played Fields of Mystery?

Yes?

I thought, did. I I like it. My response was, it's very Stardoo, almost to a fault, because I like Stardoo and I can always play Stardoo, and it's just like this is kind of Stardoo, but everyone's smoking hot, and I have enjoyed it, and I've put in not that many you want to say, like eight hours into it, but I just feel like I've already played this game and it's called Stardo.

That's the thing is like I have every time I've recommended this, I'm like Giant Bomber elsewhere. I've like, I'm really enjoying this game a lot. But when it comes time to differentiate it from start, it's kind of like, hey, you can jump. You don't have to fill your watering can. You know it's uh, there's a checkbook on the inventory.

Yeah, yeah, I fill my watering can.

What's that?

I fill my watering can?

I didn't know you could. There's not like a finite there's not like a water bar like there is in Stardoo.

But it says you're out.

Oh I haven't. Maybe I haven't gotten there yet. I have like nine plants. Oh, you can run out.

You can run out of lot.

I want to kild it once. That's a deep fucking can shit. That was like my one talking boy for how it's different. They don't have to fill up the watering can.

You have to fill up the watering can shit.

Yeah, to start do but you can jump. Yeah. That's the things like I'm trying to figure out, like is this game doing anything significantly different or has it just been long enough? And I like playing Stardoo, you know.

And people were starved for something else, right, and the Haunted Chocolateeer hasn't come out. I think people are itching for something like this, and I do think it scratches that itch. I just think for me, I like new experiences. I like trying something I've never tried before. And so for me it was a hard sell because I was like, I just feel like I prefer to start new games as opposed to playing the same game that I feel

It really really is. Yeah, And I've like, i know, Started is added a billion things since last time I played it, and I've always been like, oh, maybe I'll go back to it, and I'm like, I've already played this game, and I think so that this being technically a new game is what kind of like made me okay with like, Okay, it's a new game. I'm not just playing a game from twenty seventeen but or twenty fifteen.

Yeah, and it is good, it's well done.

It's really good. I am really enjoying. I'm going to keep playing it. It's a great playing game. But yeah, it's definitely Stardu.

Yeah.

It also has like the same systems of like collect them all right, oh yeah, the museum, the museum.

Yeah. But and that's another reason I was hesitant to criticize it for being too much like Started, because Starty was just doing Harvest moot. So it's not like Started was like We've invented a genre, you know. It's like, no, it just did a really good one. Modern times you know.

At a perfect time too, when people really looking for something like that right, Like it really says timing is everything. For all we know, somebody right now is making the perfect dig Dug duplicate and now everyone will be like, this game is brilliant. How come it's never been done before? World Steam World dig Doug.

All right, I'm in.

It's like the same thing, but if you do it at the right time, it's brilliant. And I do think that Fields of Mystery is a solid stardoo for the Stardoo enthusiast. I I'm playing other things.

Sure, yeah, there's a lot now right now.

So what else, Mike, we haven't talked to you in a while.

I've been playing several things, but the one I have been enjoying the most is Tactical Breach Wizards.

I started that.

Yeah, I like the game a whole lot. From the developer of Heat Signature, among other things. Look that up just to make sure I'm Tom Francis, I believe. Let me just look that up quick. The x Calm one right, Uh yeah, x Comm.

Camera Squad something Mike would like.

Yeah, Wizards, uct and Druids and ship like that. A Suspicious Developments uh techle Breech Wizards, Heat Heat, floating gunpoint.

It's the same game, but everyone's hotter.

Yeah, with a hot Wizard, Ta Wizards, Bloody Wizards.

X Comm. You have played XCOM Chimera Squad. That game is very much about You're actually uh turn based breaching into these close quarters as opposed to XCOM to Xcom and to be unknown within those were outdoors, largely urban environments, rural. This is small rooms, but you get different characters who have different powers, and the world building here is pretty unique.

One of those is that they make that film.

We watched it at Post or Not. We watched Next Post e three in Venice Mary when we got that Airbnb GameSpot crew. Anyway, he could see one second of the future, which kind of leads to the end of the breach mechanic. So into the breach you get a limited number of.

What fucking value is one second into the future gonna do?

So I was literally about to tell you he can. You can set up I know.

It's gonna happen. You're gonna tell me what's gonna happen in one second.

See, there you go. It's an advantage. You basically can like decide to preview what's gonna happen if you end your turn. That will show you if the stuff you did is going to get anybody hurt, if it's going to take out all the enemies in one fell swoop, or if it's gonna lead to some more catastrophic stuff. As opposed to into the breach, these rewinds that you get. If you don't like that outcome, you get unlimited rewinds.

They're big on like letting you kind of play at your pace and your your skill level, because one thing I noticed early on was that like you can just fucking pick whatever mission you want to do, regardless of if you've gotten that far, Like you could like skip to the last mission in the game if you wanted to and just start it, which it's rare to see that level of just like nap Bucket, Yeah, you can just get this level yep.

Yeah. Then you get like character who like it is, you know, like has a riot shield and you're going up against enemies that are like basically traffic police. Like again, the world building here is very much like there's a lot of humor between missions about like bureaucracy and you're kind of playing detective with these characters. But I actually find a lot of the writing to be quite funny. I wouldn't put it on par with like I'm thank

I would just like credit for hell uh noble, I've been for not saying anything. The forty nine times you've said alien on this podcast.

Thank you.

Yeah, I just want I just want credit for that. Please you also, Mary, you heard it too.

It becomes a problem with one of our sponsors, is like he's pronouncing our name wrong. You got to re record this. No, he's just from Syracuse, ye, And like there's people from upstate New York listening that are like, we don't say that. Let's say I don't know where. Yeah no. Actually a lot of people curl their a's like that up there, but I don't know.

If it's I've never heard.

That instead of a it's like, ah, like curling Italian okay, as opposed to Long Island'd be more like Italian.

Say the Nintendo's mascot's the name.

I grew up saying Mario. But I've now living here, I've I've come around to accepting Mario.

Okay, you've accepted our style. Look it's insane.

Yeah, no, I mean this like around here you But no, I grew up saying Mario Okay, no tactical Breech Wizards. I want to keep playing. I love the variety and the environments too. Some of them you're in office buildings, some of them you're on like tankers out at sea. It's I'm really enjoying the game. It's exactly what I've come to expect from the team that made heat signature. It's just very tight. I again, I don't sorry, I don't even know if I finished my thought x Com

Just you know.

Chess matches that you get into and into the breach and you know, you're like starting to really get a feel for every character's nuances and how they synergize. And then you could pick you can rearrange the doors each character is going to breach through, similar to Kimera Squad. So that adds another layer to like not just what do I want to do? This turns like how do I even want to kick off? This whole puzzle? It's absolutely more of a puzzle game than anything.

So really cool style too, like I like, you know, knocking guys out of windows and the whole like you know kind of cop vibe thing in between missions. Like it's got a real it's got a real unique feel to it, and that I appreciate.

Yeah, I was trying to put my finger on what it looks reminds me of. Visually, It's a cross between like Kentucky Roots zero and twelve minutes.

Remember that they were a big twelve minutes guy.

I never played it. I know people really hated it the more they played it, but it's like it has a similar palette. If sure even makes sense.

I could see that.

Yeah, but cool game, and that's I think twenty bucks well worth it. Go check it out. Nice Dan, you saw some Nintendo stuff.

I just did. I took some Nintendo appointments at packs, which is why this episode is going up with a few hours late. Yes, yes, yeah, I'll start with Zelda Echoes of Wisdom, which I thought, look, anytime there's a new Zelda game announced, my ears perk up. But this one, you know, being like a very unique one where it's oh okay, first full one where you're playing Zelda. It seems like it might be kind of a swan song for the Switch as we go into this last stretch

I was already really excited for it.

But playing it and like messing around with the echo system, which you've seen that trailer where it's like basically what she's doing is like creating echoes of enemies and you know, torches and rocks and sea urchins and things like that, and then using it. Like she does have a sword mode that you can use and like attack traditionally like in a Zelda game, but that's very very limited. That's

Knots, where you would get to a puzzle.

Or something and it would be like, oh, get past this thing or defeat this enemy, and you're thinking, like, you know, you've got this. You know I can type in anything, what do I want to do? Like it's not quite that level of typing in whatever you want, but once you've like assembled a good amount of items, it's like, oh, could I climb up above this thing and just drop beds on this thing's head? Or you know, do I want to spawn a bunch of bats and

Okay, let's try this way here.

Which it's a really funny thing that if you spawn a bed, you can sep in it. I can tuck under the covers with a and like recover hearts, so literally, in the middle of a boss fight, you can just like put a bed in the corner and try to get a quick nap in to get some like health and then pop back up and spawn a bunch of bads or spiders or whatever.

So, yeah, need to break.

I think, Yeah, there's gonna be some crazy speed run stuff for this. I think it's gonna be really cool to watch. And yeah, I went from being very curious too very excited after the ninety minutes we had with it.

Very cool.

Yeah, I think it's I think it's gonna be a really cool one. And yeah, I always wonder with things like this, is this a main line entry in the series technically, And they straight up said this is a main line entry in the Zelda series, So let's put that in the ground right now. It is a main line Zelda game. And yeah, I'm sure it'll be the last like main entry we get on the switch. So yeah, it seems like they're going out with a really interesting one.

Dude, you got to stop with the whole I don't want women in my Zelda games. Maybe that's Mike Manad's gimmick.

That's a Jake Decker. That's Jake Decker.

Yeah, to fuck Jaked if you want to learn more.

Yeah, and also leading this to be the most mean Nintendo appointment I could have. I saw Zelda and Mario Party, so I played Super Mario Party Jamboree. We got some little miniature looks at like several different modes, so we did a few turns of like the standard party game mode, which I liked. It's got seven boards. It's got too If you remember, Superstars was the one that was like all classic mini games and maps. This one is mostly

But it was fun. It sounds like Fall Guys Adjacent or something.

But yes, there were several several parts where it's like, Okay, we're fighting Bowser here and you've got twenty characters and you're all running away from Bowser and there's like fire and the floor is dropping out.

Felt very very fall guys. I definitely had that thought.

Oh yeah, yeah.

Which, you know, I want to try all he's online, Like I love Mario Party, but like you know, I'm not against you know, trying some new things with it as long as we still have that core board game element.

I'm not trying to trigger you, I promise, because I enjoy Mario Party. I'm not. My question is you just mentioned like the core thing here seems to be more. Has that not always been the case? Like what like have mainline Mario Party games introduced like big new wrinkles often?

Yeah, like Mario Party, I want to say nine and ten, definitely ten. The Weiu one had this thing where everyone they're kind of trying to speed up the board game aspect of it, so everybody was in the same like car driving around the maps to try to get you to the minigames faster, and like, honestly, I didn't like that nearly as much because like that's part of it is everyone's kind of taking their own paths through the map.

Right before they get a new switch.

Yeah, yeah, look, please be backwards compatible with anyone, because I want to be able to play all these games.

Still, did Nintendo Swatch be a bad name?

It'd be weird to not be able to play like tears that Kenya on the next one.

Yeah, but you know, we saw with Mario Kart eight Deluxe. It's hey, we're gonna put out that game and charge again for it, and it's going to be like one of the most the high selling games ever. You know.

Yeah, Mary, you've been playing something called crypt Custodian.

Yeah, I'm on my andy shit again. This is a metroid vania that I think has promise but is a bit rough on the edges. You can tell this is a small team, or even smaller than a small team.

But I I like some of the.

That would be interesting because it is popular.

Yeah.

So this is a cat that has gone to hell. They are a custodian cleaning up trash in an afterlife, essentially as punishment for their crimes against humanity. You sweep up trash, you kill any batties that come in your way.

It's almost like a Night In or Knight in the Woods.

The style.

Yeah, I think that's a good I think that's really fair I think it's good to say that this looks good.

Oh there's like yeah, there's almost like hyper light drifter looking environments too.

Yeah, it's got a lot of traversal later on. That's very heavy platforming, So you're gonna want to enjoy your platformings to do this. But I I found that it grew on me after a couple hours. I think it's unfortunate that may be like the first three hours are a little slow, or you might be like this isn't pushing me enough, this isn't innovative enough. But I do think it gets there. You just got to give it probably like five to eight hours for it to warm up to you.

Yeah.

I think it's worth playing, especially for someone who wants a metroidvany in their life.

Well. Yeah, the cat looks just like my cat Luna.

It's got that flat evil face for sure.

Yeah, huge eyes and soulless. No, there's a lot of souls to herd.

It looks like evil.

No, she's very sweet. She just doesn't like.

You evil face, evil presence.

Yeah. I want to try this out.

Yeah, I think it's worth it. I I have enjoyed it so far and do recommend it. I just think that it's got some rough edges still.

Okay, good to know, Dan, anything else you want to set one, let.

Me kind of lightening around some short ones here, just some updates and some new things. While I was in London checking out Metal Year Solid Delta, I also played a game called Deliver at All Costs. It's a new one coming from Kanami. It is like a isometric driving game. You can get out of your car and run around. But it reminded me of like the early GTAs, but you're just like driving around delivering stuff and it's very very weird humor. That was very much working for me.

It's my favorite. Wait wait, I have questions. That's my favorite.

Yeah, yeah game Please.

When you say it's just basically where you want, are they sticking to like are they being super faithful with the like level design and everything, it's still like.

It's section yeah, like one to one, so like you will get to the breaking point between this area and that area, it fades to black, fades back in with the name of the new one at the exact same spot.

You know.

I wonder if they're gonna cause I only play the virtuous mission, so I do wonder what things like the end boss fight. Well, that'd be more of a contiguous, you know, like big open area. But I mean it seems like they are like very cognizant of like we are not straying from Hideo Kajima's vision here. This is as it was. It's just going to play better and look better.

Yeah. When you say play better, are like animations wise? Is it the Phantom Pain engine.

I don't know engine wise, but they had made some control tweaks where it's like switching between weapons is on the dpad now instead of the triggers like you know middle ar one through four where it's got like hot swap stuff with camos, so like you can just hold in a deepad button and like switch CAMO on the fly. You can you know, use the dpad you kind of like just call someone in the without going to the dedicated screen. But if you want to, you can still

Okay, so I asked about the animation specifically just because Phantom Pain and Ground Zeros are like the best feeling third person games that come to mind. The way it transitions from prone to crouch standing.

Here, it's closer.

It's closer to Fano Pain than it was the original Snake Eater.

Yeah.

Absolutely, And there's things where it's like you can roll from a standing position. Now you know it. All the buttons have changed around everything, but in a way that feel immediately recognizable to like a modern gamer where it's like you go back Snake Eater. I'm sure you and I can go back and we remember how to do all this, but it feels weird going back to if you've never played it.

Yeah, I mean I love those games with all my heart, especially Snake Eater. Im I'll be the first to admit it's like or I'll be the first to acknowledge rather it's not the most intuitive button layout. Maybe there's a universe where every game is designed like that, but I think the wider games industry has kind of figured out some more seamless control schemes.

Yeah. I think this is the perfect line of like, people like me and you that love Snake Eater are going to love it. And also if you're coming to it for the first time, both in terms of where it's at in the story and how it controls. I think it will feel great to jump into for the first time now, so very very happy with that. A couple of other quick ones. Castaway is like a little miniature Zelda in the way that like like a minute or half minute hero where these like very condensed experiences

Love.

I love a good Zelda like that has like an interesting little tweak on it, and this being like the super fast Zelda was fun for me.

This is a really good game idea. I love this. The idea of it's like it's a it's a bite sized version of Selda you're meant to like play quickly. I love this.

Yeah, and then when you beat it, there's like a fifty floor like tower mode with almost like a Rogue Light thing where you're leveling up as you go through and you can buy upgrades and stuff. So there's a little bit past that, but yeah, I really really enjoyed my short time with that. And last update is just Steamworldhist two. I've continued to play that and I'm pretty

Yeah, I talked about it last episode and you're gone. I've put a lot of time into it. I'm still playing that too, really really good, like a bunch. I especially like it's one of the more interesting or enjoyable strategy layers in an xcom, like the just the yeah, upgrading the submarine and I like the world itself, the World's it themselves.

Yeah, that loop is amazing. Like going back to your you know, sleeping at the end of the day, you know, going to do your sub upgrades and new personal upgrades and things like that, trying to find like a shop I want to do I want to.

Buy recruit a new member, or do I want that heavy machine gun on my sub Or do I want to get a upgraded sledgehammer for my tank class?

Yeah?

Melee class.

Yeah, a lot of personality, good writing, good visuals, just love that kind of like two D tactical thing that's got going on. It's a lot of fun.

Yeah, marry anything else you've been playing?

Yes, one more. I also found this on the Twitter. A dev was talking about a game that they made and how they were kind of getting good reviews but not enough reviews, and I was looking at the game style and I was like, this kind of looks cool. So I ask them for a key and I've been playing it and I am into this game. Uh rco is.

Yeah, it does sound like oh like Frozen synaps was this was a game that kind of did something along those lines back in like twenty sixteen. But yeah, it's.

Real time, but it pauses that you can like ards me like a Kotour.

I don't know if you ever played that, but like the combat in.

That someone when I was streaming it was like, hey, this kind of reminds me of Transistor, and I was like, oh yeah, like you know where you can like stop and think for a second, but it is real time and you have to be moving around. So this is what that's very similar. This game is a RPG, it blends turn based in real time combat. But I really like that the stories are very raw. It's very bloody, it's very murdery, and it feels like it's kind of in a old American style, like old old Western. And

I'm looking at it now. Yeah, it's got Do you ever play West Torado? Yeah, it's got kind of that, like very pixelated, like Western aesthetic for sure. Like I don't mind that.

The music matches the Western aesthetic to a t. I also think the writing feels quite authentic and genuine. I've played a lot of games like this where they're just like this trown big enough for the two. This is very well written. You can tell that the writers or the people who have made this are quite invested in having authentic representation of the characters that they are having

This is.

A game that I think has a lot of promise, and I also think it's a bit of a hidden gem. I don't think people are talking about Arco enough for how well made it is, how thoughtful it is, and how enjoyable it is, So i'd really this is like the one for me.

Okay, I'm making a note to download this on the Steam deck. That sounds solid cool?

All right? That was all for me was I've been playing some other older stuff. Like I said, I've been mean to try Alien Dark Descent came out last year. Had it downloaded Steam forever. It's like a top down real time Xcom esque or like maybe like top down Republic Commando but set in the Aliens universe. I mean to play that. But I also started a new Xcom two campaign because I love just seeing what new mods people have come up with over the over the years.

Yanks? Do it?

Okay? Before we jump into emails, reminder, you can ride into fire Escape cast at gmail dot com. That is fire Escape cast at gmail dot com for comments, questions, stuff you want to be read on air. If you do have any corrections, I will only read them if they are directed at Dan and Mary. Mary, do you want to read this? First question? We have from Matthew.

Here we go, Hey, Gang, following your discussion about the Alien franchise this week, and I was reminded that I have never seen Alien or Alien's or pretty much any of the other movie that is, actually.

How you alien Aliens?

Alien?

The name Ali, you can't even do it.

It's like alien, Croatian alien.

Yeah, that's you're closer alien.

I'm trying to think of what what word do you are?

You?

Do you actually pronounce the A correctly.

Like that al like Al Bundy, it's alien alien and the letters e in is how he says it end.

Yeah, so could continue to wear it.

The only one I've ever seen is Prometheus, a film that, as far as I can tell, is largely disliked by fans of the series. But I freaking love that movie. I was super hyped when it came out and was not disappointed. The funny thing is that I don't know that it was Alien film until the very end when it shows the Xenomorph, which, if you recall, is literally

I've been to Bentonville. You have not. I absolutely, phil Arkansas, where I went to school, is like an hour from there. Bentonville's famous for its big like Christmas blowout decorations and market. Matthew, correct me if I got any of that wrong, But yeah, I've been to Bentonville. That's really funny that you didn't know that that was an Alley movie till the end.

I was kind of late to Ratchet it was the third one because I just thought they were like kids games. And then like IGN gave the third one, I think up your arsenal and like a nine point eight or something, and I was like, what, that's a really high score, and so I checked it out. It's like, Oh, it turns out these are fucking great, And I went back and played the originals, and.

I mean that's how I was with Metal Gear Solid. What was your first Snake Eater?

Oh, that is a good first one because chron like in the timeline, it's great. Box first one was four, which is fucking crazy.

Is the most fan service, you know.

I hope you've read up on all this stuff before we show you movie length cut scenes. And she liked it.

All right.

Cool.

If ever, there's a game that's going to turn you away, and I love that game. But if there's a game that's going to push you away from the series, that's it.

If you were into the series, though it is the most like here is.

Like, yeah, yes, Snake Eater, and then I went back to play one and immediately missed a lot of the stuff. So yeah, it's funny because Snake Eater introduced so much stuff, like just the fact that it had so many like outdoor stealth options and different movement and the camouflage, survival light kind of elements. I missed those in Metal of Your Solid but going back to see where it's from, uh, Metal of Your Slid one is still my second favorite of the series after Snake Eater. I'm trying to think

But and visuals.

Yeah, Okera enough time is was my first Zelda and now that's become probably my favorite series.

There, you got me.

Shows would be really interesting for games. I definitely played Half Life two first, and I felt fine. I felt totally in control of that situation, that there was nothing that I'm missed other ones let me think, uh you go, I can't think of any I definitely had.

The order I watched Rocky was really fucked up. And it's because of my age. So I was born in eighty four. So the first one I remember seeing was five, which is universally considered the shitty one, the only shitty one.

Might be the weirdest order you could watch those, but I still obviously fucking love it. But it's like from five to like a genuine Oscar worthy movie, to four, which is the best movie ever made, to two, which is like the continuation of the Oscar.

Yeah, three was like late, and by the time Bebo came out, I was pretty caught up.

But yeah, but I love five. I mean I didn't know any better.

It was the first one I saw, and so like it's almost a good way because it's like, oh, man, I love this character, I love this format and this music, and then it's like, oh, now here's the good ones after that.

Yeah, that's the only way you can enjoy Rocky five is if it's the first movie you watch.

Yeah, and you're also, you know, six years old. Yeah.

We also that games were a total war I played the Warhammer games, then went back to the historical stuff, and then they didn't have wizards and dragons and shit. So I was a bit torn on them.

Final Fantasy I didn't really try. I tried a lot of seven, eight and nine or seven and nine. I tried a lot of a good one.

Because he also asks, here, what's a game that you enjoyed where you don't feel like you need to play the other game in the series. I love six, I love was It, I love nine, but I and ten, but I don't. I have no intention of playing any other Final Fantasy at.

This point, I got it the Witcher.

Oh yeah, what even is in there?

Yeah?

How do you play? What's it about? I've never seen it outside of Poland.

It's text based RPG.

Yeah, Poland.

It's a dice game.

You could only play it out of music.

You get it in Poland?

Yeah, like fan hacks and stuff.

Yeah, no, that's a good one because I have I have played the first two and like Jake might disagree, but if you played Richard three and are been like meaning to play one and two, you don't need to look up a synoposive. And that's not to take away from the fact they do some cool stuff.

But I'd be willing to about the large majority of GTA fans started with three, four or five or maybe Vice says today. Yeah, like I started with one and two the top downs, and like I remember thinking those are pretty fucking crazy for their day, But like, I don't know, three is when it kind of entered the like super duper mainstream. Everyone's played this, you.

Know, Oh dude, I mean, I mean, statistically speaking, GTA five is so big that it's it's alive today. I don't know why people who start with four would be dead yet but.

I would suggest one that you can't just hop on now is if you if you're curious about Call of Duty, you need to go back to the first one. Otherwise nothing's gonna make it. So you got to play every Call of Duty in order, every one of them, even like the Big Red One and the DS one, or you're not going to know what the fuck's going on.

I like that you just combined the what you just did with those two titles. Do you realize what you just did? No, you said the Big Red One as if it's like the game is a big red one, because then you said and the DS one big red Bone.

But the Big Red One was the game. Yes one is like Mobilized.

From World War Two. That also reminds me. And now I'm just thinking a series where it's like I played a really good game and now I either went back to try the earlier ones and they didn't hold up, or like I didn't need to fall Out. It's a good example. Fallout three is one of my favorites. I went back to play one and two when I was younger.

On that same track. I would guess that Elder scrolls the same way, yes, because I think, like you know, I definitely know a lot of more wind like big time fans like Bonks the biggest one, and obviously Oblivion Skyrim got huge, but I don't hear anyone talking about one or two.

The Arena and Daggerfall are again, like honestly like they're like the Bethesda catalog of RPGs had like that one to two phase where different developers completely different styles, and then they took some really cool world building and then just went, you know, basically established the formula for like free form open worlds going forward, and from the early adds to the twenty tens.

Yeah you again, I.

Think there's some cool remake material there, like remake not remaster. And again I'm not saying there's not cool stuff in all those but yeah, god, Moroin is still well worth trying out just to like just to see what it's like play five hours that game if you haven't before, and then if it doesn't hook you, that's fine, you've still seen what cool stuff it's doing.

Yeah, I mean, just hearing the stuff Bonk is described about that game, it's like it seems like it was doing some bold, crazy shit, like maybe even before a lot of the hardware, especially the Xbox was ready forward.

It literally wasn't the draw distance in that game you can't see past like.

The load times and stuff where it like actually like shuts down the system and restarts it.

And yeah, yeah, I wrote a very very good article about that game on Polygon. Anybody who hasn't rid it, go look up twenty years later morowin looking back on mor and twenty years later the game that RPG that changed everything. I might be butchering that, but that's those keywords. We'll get you there. Yeah, I mean I think that it's very I'm sure there's like movie series. It's tougher for me to think of specifically because a it's way easier to go back to an early movie and spend

From personal experience that I don't know anything about Marvel, and I haven't been paying attention to the series, but I watched Thor Ragnarok and I thought it was pretty good, and I know, nothing.

Too, Yeah, because it's like that's especially good because that's funny because Marvel the franchise itself is built for you to watch any of them and then like they hope you go back and watch all the thirty five previous ones because they're so interconnected. There's easter eggs. But I like that Taiko whit TD came along in main one where it's like, no, this is just funny on its own, and you don't it's like a heist action. You don't

Or even interesting ones where it's like I could see people getting into Middle Year Solid five because like that gameplay is so good and it's not doesn't really require a ton o story knowledge because there's not that much story in that game, and then like if you went back to the early Middle Years, it's like, well this is a different thing, you know, Like I love five, but it's I love it for very different reasons than one through four.

Yeah. I also wonder if, like Breath of the Wild got some young people into the series and they're like, huh, different, there's some stuff there. It's just funny to think that, like we came into Breath of the Wild thinking, Okay, they took like the eight dungeon format, sprinkled mini ones all over in an open world, whereas those people would go back like, oh, they took shrines and made eight huge ones yeah, with like a pretty bare bones open

Or High Fire Escapers. I know would you rather questions are overdone, but I think there's no better crew to discuss this important question. Would you rather slip and fall every time you enter a new room or have to scream every fifth word you say at the top of your lungs. That's Aaron from Dallas scream. Definitely scream. There's no injury risk.

There's no injury.

I agree.

As we get older, as we enter our older stages, I can't afford to fall.

Yeah, I'd be risking serious injury so many times a day versus like, Oh, I'm gun of embarrassed. Every once in a while.

You could get like a fall guard.

You know.

Have you seen that new thing that like you wear it as a jacket as a person and when you fall just just.

Like take an airbag for your body. Yeah, wantsn't have to wear that. I'll just tell people, Hey, I got this weird thing a Genie cursed me.

No, you wouldn't you like weird thing, like, hey, I've got this weird.

Right down. I'd hand everyone a note when I enter a room or get on a plane.

You wouldn't finish the explanation before you do the thing.

You're explaining why it's the note, That's why it's the note.

I would absolutely at this point in my at any point, I would rather slip and fall because you're twenty. Yeah, I'm twenty years old. I think you're young.

Your bones will be fine.

Fine.

Both are going to do damage your reputation. I think the screaming one is going to do it worse. But yeah, to Mary's point, you could prevent as much as you can some physical stuff.

I would just get like a mobility aid, and then I would I would just avoid. I would I would cheat the system.

You would do the fall thing, yeah, and then I would sit.

Oh see. I feel like as you get older, you worry less about embarrassment and more about physical harm, and so I think it's the long term play to go with the screaming.

There are also people that live with both of these problems for real, but like for the record.

Time to go into a room that I don't know if that's a malady that people that's what.

So then you're thinking it's like, Okay, you're going to a like a not that we any of us really do business lunches unless we're at a convention, but like say you're going to like a professional lunch, do it. You're gonna slip when you walk into the restaurant. Yeah, hopefully you don't have to go to the bathroom, because every.

Time I peel lot, I'm falling on every bathroom floor I've ever gone to.

Is it is it a new room in the sense that it's a room that's never been.

Into before, or is there like a twenty four hour cool down, like you're safe for a bit and then after midnight, though, you fall in that bathroom again.

It would be more it would be more manageable if it was like every brand new room. Yeah for the first time.

So like my house, like when I first move into my house, I'm falling for all of them.

Then you're a plan ahead. You could go to that restaurant that you know you have a business lunch.

At the fall Oh dinners at seven, I'm gonna get there six thirty and fall down break in and just I'll just get there early and I'll explain it. I'll hand the note to the wait. No, I don't have the scream anything. I don't need a note. I can just talk.

I'll have.

Imagine imagine seeing security cameras have a break in and a restaurant and someone just kicks down the door, slips, runs through into the kitchen, slips, goes into the dry storage, slipslips.

And boat bathrooms, runs out, doesn't steal anything. Yep, it comes back for dinner the next day.

It's going to scar the security guard for the rest of his life. What's the worst place? What is the worst situation where like building you could be in where the slip and fall would like be a nightmare more than spike factory.

Mouse trap and glass factory.

Yeah, that's bad.

You guys always made in the same space, or.

Like a every time you go into a new room when you're sprinting to catch a flight at the airport, it's.

All kind of one room though, Like what determines a new room. I think a door. I think it's a door, Like a standard sized doorway is a new room.

TSA is like okay, step forward.

You go to the metal each shit.

Through again.

Yeah, if it's not a new room and you actually, like every time you go through the doorway, you slip coming bit towards TSA and then slip going back.

Getting onto the jetway, getting onto the plane, moving between first class.

And coach, slipping and falling in a plane bathroom.

It's not good.

Uh yeah, I'm just there's got to be like just at the met or the Natural History Museicum, we're not going to every new exhibit. Everybody's being quiet and observing, like you know, just being really respectful. And or a library in general will be funny. Or a ice floor, yeah, like a nice floor building, a hockey rink.

Yeah, that's what you're describing. And that's just kind of one big room, so you're probably okay. You know, like a turf a turf floor bowl, turf floor bowl.

Yeah, go Spelunking The Descent would have been a very different movie with this melody.

You'd never make it.

I would. I would still got the slip and fall regardless of that assigned it.

You're gonna you're gonna regret that.

I gotta go with the yell. I feel like already yell every fifth word.

Yeah, that's the thing. I'm like halfway there, like you might as well as leaning, but what if like what if you just adjusted, you're talking to all your words. No, yeah, just scream everything and then it doesn't even stand out stand out still, I mean, but not as like staccato, you know, like oh man, he keeps doing this weird thing. It's more like, oh he just yells everything.

You get one of the those masks like Baine, and it just mutes you a little bit.

I think that's cheating.

So I was breaking into a restaurant to slip around it for a bit.

That was your idea. I wasn't gonna break the law.

Yeah, you didn't call me out for cheating.

That's true.

Look, we approach these things differently.

Yeah, fair enough, all right, Well thank you Aaron from delas Well. That's our that's our episode. Good stuff, more more stuff. If I want like a genuine I feel like anytime we get a would you rather? We've been pretty it's been fairly civil. It's been pretty cordial. We've never really been like, you're fucking wrong. I want someone to send in a genuine stumper for us that like divides.

Us, come get us.

We're reasonable adults, but yeah, they can test that.

I want one that's really gonna test us, but yeah, I right that into fire Escape Cast at gmail dot com. If you're not a patron, you can go to firescapecast dot com. You can go to Patreon look for us. You can contribute just a few dollars if you want to treat like a tip jar you appreciate what we do. Or you can get the ad free episodes or the video versions of every episode, and you can also get clued into when we're gonna have bonus episodes. You'll let

Oh, you can be getting some hot merch we just had to purchase. I'm not gonna call them b out in case it's a gift. You never know. But we've just been getting some people getting some really nice T shirts. I can't wait to see your banana yellow logos. You're about the author shirts. You post them, I'll retweet them. I love it, enjoy that march.

Dan Yes, does does do the reviews help at all any more of these days? Uh?

It's a I feel like the last I heard about that being a big thing was like when I was at Debitu, Like, oh, yeah, I get the five star reviews, but hey, look, if you're looking to do something, yeah you can give us five stars.

It's not gonna hurt.

It'd be nice if it was like Steam and it said like overwhelmingly positive US reviews, because I feel like we'd get whatever the top tier is. But yeah, of course reviews if you like it. Right outside of that, that's a that's about it for the ways you can support us. But uh, Mary, what do you have going on outside of Firescape?

I did a different podcast. I still love you guys, but I did a podcast called Objectively Positive Podcast, which I really really enjoyed. I was invited on by Tatum. I hung out with Tatum at the Giant Bomb at Night at E three this past year, and we talked about media, any media that's had a really positive influence on your life and or just hugely impactful. And I

Nice Dan, what about you?

Giant Bomb got some fun stuff from Germany That travelog should be up if you go to the YouTube channel. Or also have Mike Benatti playing through Alone in the Dark for the we on Blake Club where we play the worst games ever and that has been hilarious, So check that out. But yeah, Twitch, Now that I'm done with most of the travel stuff, probably doing some more streaming on Twitch Slash Dan Reichert, that's my stuff.

Nice. I'm just here a Firescape cast outside of my day job. Well great, it was episode eight nine. We will be back episode ninety in a couple of weeks. At that point, I'm trying to think there actually might be a couple. Oh that'll be the day after I turn twenty one.

Big planets probably, yeah, yeah, get video first.

Ooh, if you're not a video page? Am I allowed to drink on Patreon?

It? I guess I'm gonna make ane. I'm going to show you some wine.

Wine seems pretentious. You're you're a big boy now, seems a bit too high brow. Do you have any white Zinfandels?

It's my favorite?

Oh nice, I'd like to try.

That's all drink?

Isn't it a bag?

Yes, a goon sack.

I've heard good things. But yeah. We'll be back on September twenty third. The Fall it's here. I like it, me too, holding down this weekend in theory.

Yeah, sorry, all.

Right, well ally right, thank you for joining. We appreciate it. As always, We'll see you on the next episode of fire Escape Cast.

Bye. St