Fire Escape Cast #97

Hello everybody, Welcome back to the fire Escape cast. This is episode ninety seven, the last episode of twenty twenty four fire Escapes fourth.

Year operating something like that.

Yeah, twenty one April twenty twenty one, so wow. Yeah, yes, April will be the five year, no four year anniversary. What we're almost to four years?

Yeah okay, yeah that checks out. Yeah okay, but.

We were doing stuff before that. We did the half year.

Five Game of the Years yeah okay.

So that's what makes it confusing is because we did we did a gody as our very first test EPI, and when we did that, we kind of were like, oh, this is let's let's do it for real.

No, but I consider that a part of the three announcement.

Yeah, preak through twenty twenty is the first one. Then we did the Game of the Year twenty twenty.

Yeah, that was like our pilot episode.

Yeah, and then people were like, I cannot imagine my life without this.

Yeah. Clamor they were emailing there.

There's a lot of clamor and people holding signs outside of our houses.

They sat them, get them away. We said it back back, I.

Say, yeah, be gone, leave the house.

It's like those old clips of the Beatles and there's just like a million people chased them through the streets.

I know, we almost got canceled. Mike said we were bigger than Jesus.

Yeah, but we stay that. We stayed by that. I said that, we all said that.

He stands by it.

The podcast fire Escapecast colon we're bigger than Jesus in numerous ways.

We bought that billboard right, it's.

In Oklahoma somewhere, and us just all like flipping double birds in the airs.

Yeah.

I wore I told you guys this, but I think I didn't post a photo, but I think people would find it funny. I wore my dorky Christmas sweatshirt to my day job, and uh, a person who I like a lot pretty high up my company. This person no no, no, no, not even on the game scene like the wider Oh.

Like she's high up. She's like, what is dorky Christmas? What does that mean?

And I was like, oh god, uh I oh, it's just a podcast I used to listen to. I honestly, it's an inside joke. I forgot how it started. And then I kind of just like sidled away.

You should have been like my friend had a dream that he kind of.

Yeah, it's not even there's no, it's not like that it's inappropriate. It's that the explanation is so weird.

Just separately too.

Yeah, it's inappropriate, definitely, but also like, yeah, he had a dream where someone offered him a dorky Christmas. But in the dream logic it made sense that it was a hand job.

But also in the dream it didn't even happen, so I guess it's not that inappropriate. It was offered using that verbiage.

But happy.

I don't know if like the VP of my company would differentiate between whether the dorky Christmas happened.

I think it's just wasn't finished.

Then yeah, that would be a very fun HR meeting. Yeah, it was, actually it was. It was dry and it was there's no completion. He woke up first, that's true, but it was funny. I made sure to stand in like the front row so you could see the sweatshirt.

I'll send you guys the photo.

That's fantastic, and I really just didn't have any other It was, you know, the theme was as usual, ugly Christmas sweater and that was the old like I have that one with the Santa who's ripped lifting weights. But I was like, that's played out.

I feel like the ugly Christmas sweater thing, like drawing attention to the ugliness that started what like ten years ago?

Yeah about that.

It became it became ironic they were in the nineties.

In nineties, like Christmas films, you'd always see ugly sweaters.

So I was ever like, like I found the ugliest, silliest one.

It was just like that's what people wore.

You know, I'm with you, But I'm sure if we google it, we'd realize we're wrong. I don't feel like googling it though, Yeah, well no I do, Yeah, I do. Actually, when do you think I'm of saying shit and finding out months later I was nowhere near.

I'm trying to just wonder, like the commercialization of it, which is I think what we're talking about, is it kind of when.

It became oh wow, mainstream ruined and a little bit.

I think it's still fun and I think people should still wear their silly sweaters. But there was a point when Spencer's only sold like four hundred terrible looking sweaters with sexual innuendos like jingle my bells, and stuff by stocking honey, and it's just like at some point you were like, I think we've we've jumped the shark on these sweaters.

The proposition of it all. Yeah, we were, as they said, Yeah, we were not far off.

So they originally came to be in the fifties as jingle bell sweaters. However, sixties and seventies counterculture, they became like more like not even ironic, like on purpose to show like more of a low class holiday expression. Eighties, a certain lead in a show called The Cosby Show popularized them with strange patterns.

You like that.

The nineties and two thousands, the style of ugly Christmas sweaters winded down, but was revived by the two thousand and one film Bridget jones Is Diary, where Mark Darcy a shame for wearing an unattractive knit reindeer sweater. And then two thousands and onward, ugly sweater parties become popular and the trend gain camp appeal in the twenty ten So, yes, you're spot on.

And now it's gotten even more fun. Yeah, you know, I go home for the holidays and it's like, oh good, there's a bunch of trump Christmas sweaters.

Great, that's fun. That's a great time.

Yeah, you can be you can be open about those. These days now even more.

People are celebrating down there. It's great, yes, yeah, But I don't have many of these days.

I don't.

I've never really I did it once for like once or twice for we did that for Giant Bomb, where it's like we did christmasweater Steff and I got like a Matchman or any savage thing. But I don't think I've ever been a sweater guy.

I have the best one because Dan gifted me stofers' tis the season for cheese.

And yeah I still have that, right, you took that home the Big Dane.

I get a lot of mments on this. Stofer tis the season for cheese and sweater. I really do, I genuinely do. I got stopped in a supermarket three times by people saying what is that that is so funny? Is there macaroni on the sleeves? And I was like, you bet your buttons there are, and it's just like it's funny, it's ironic, but it's also like genuinely from Stofers and it has a bowl of mac and cheese.

I'll take a photo and share it because it's a funny. Genuinely, it is a funny sweater.

This is how it happened is I went to Dan's unprepared, as per usual.

I think I had to go from a different work trip.

I went literally from a work trip to your place, and I didn't have time to pack for both climates. So I didn't bring enough sweaters and I was cold, and so I asked you for a sweater.

You gave me a what a burger onesie?

Yeah, which I snuggy. Yeah, it was really comfortable, super comfortable.

I loved it. He gave me first. Yeah, how did you get in here?

This is really comfortable.

I got in I got it in the middle of the night for a glass of water, and I laughed and I yelled at Mike and my pajamas.

How Mike got in my pajamas?

I have no idea.

You woke up a lot heavier than when you went to bed.

Just dragging this loaf around.

But anyway, so the water burger onesie was very comfortable and I enjoyed it. And then I was like, damn it, I wish I had like one more sweater because you really shouldn't leave the house in a waterburger onesie. I think you can, but I do think it's frowned upon socially. And so Dan takes a box down from his.

Garage and it is a Stofer's Christmas package and it is filled with several sweaters from Stofers, who I shoes like, just sends you stuff because you love Stowfers so much.

And it included a tis the season for Cheese and ugly sweater. It also included a mac and cheese hoodie, which I think ishilarious because that's what we did last time we visited you.

I do it did my closet, I dude, My carry on was stuffed to the brim.

I was worried at any moment it was gonna snap open and all of my mac and cheese wardrobe was gonna pop out on the plane.

But I got both those babies home.

I am glad you did, because I mean it. I think I might have ruined macaroni and cheese for myself. And I think this has been a big art of like between break, I think my body and brain now have revolted against macaroni and cheese and are like telling it me that, like, hey, you cannot keep doing this

Oh God, I guess I haven't talked to you guys. No, that's not just something you can bring up.

Oh okay, okay, So Wednesday night, so as this recording, this was you know, five days ago, six days ago or whatever. Tim Terry, your friend of mine, was in town for the holidays, and m went out to the Chatterbox pup to kind of catch up, have some drinks, have some food.

I go there and, uh, this place used to be really good.

I looked at more recent uh Google reviews, and it's like, oh, something has happened to this place. And I ordered a menu item called mac amania and it.

Was a ves describe it, okay, so it's it's a vat of macaroni and cheese. Great awesome, which.

By the way, I also got a appetizer of a big soft pretzel and a beer cheese dip.

So I had a bunch of to get there.

Did your cheese appetite for your cheese maine.

For the vat?

Yes, and yeah, that's what I said, yes, yeah. And so the thing with Macamania is it's just the biggest fucking bowl of macaroni cheese you've ever seen.

I get to know about.

Macamania is not a bowl.

It's a deep cooking dish that's like flat auldron.

It's like a cauldron.

Yeah, and it's we're familiar with these containers.

Yeah, I am too, unfortunately.

And so you picked three add ons and I picked pulled pork, sage, sausage, and chili.

That I wanted.

They didn't that I didn't pick chili as the third add on. They thought I wanted a separate order of chili. So they brought me the vat of Macamania and a big ass bowl of chili. And I told him like, oh, I hope I'm not getting charged for this because I wanted this as an add on, And she's like, oh, okay, I'll just take it off, but you can just pour it in there, like okay, And I just dumped the entire bowl of chili into my macamania file. Oh my god, so or uh something something.

Yeah, I don't know. Yeah.

So the nanosecond I'm done, actually, before I finish eating this thing, I start feeling terrible.

Did you finish it? I just want to know I.

Did finish it.

And also like they didn't bring like forks, and there's just like a weird like mug thing on the table that like I didn't know. There was just like two forks in there that I couldn't tell if they were clean or not.

And I asked Tim. I was like, do you think these are clean?

He's like, yeah, they must have washed it, but it looked like a discard mug for dirty silver or something like.

Yeah.

So I used it and ooh felt real bad by the end, and I'm like, okay, all right, see it, Tim, you know, go home.

I have a beer and go to bed.

Uh.

Next morning, I wake up a couple hours where I normally do, and it's just gurgling and a burglin in there. It is just like the stomach is just rolling over itself. I'm laying next to she's asleep, and I know she's going to hear this, so I hate to give this detail, but I'm like she's asleep and this is not a like I try not to fart around her too much, you know, like she just told me, Am, I just feel weird just you know, farting willy nilly around my wife all the time.

But I'm just going to town.

It's like, I, this is gonna be an issue if I don't, and I thought it would ease the stomach percolating and oh, I.

Hope you shit your pants.

Well we're gonna get some more details here because keep in mind, I've never shipped my pants past diaper's age.

So, oh god, victory lap for you.

Yeah, I take I think going back to diaper's age.

So I had to get up and I'm just feeling real bad. I go downstairs. I have a couple of Mountain Dews and then calm the gurgle. They said carbon carbonation helps with the gurgling, right.

Yeah, but you're also running with Sue Cross and.

That's fine. So I had a couple of Baja blast zeros. I go down Oh zeros, okay, yeah, yeah, and we've got a morning meeting. It was like an all hands meeting where it was like, you know, there's you know, a different I'm not gonna go to like details or whatever, but like, you know, we're having meetings as a company and stuff about different meals jumble, so what twenty twenty five, what we're doing? You know, there's like a bigger like, hey, we're all gonna get together and talk about the plan

It was just I did a wipe. There was no residue.

Are they still are the are the underwear and questions still intact? I'd like to inspect these myself.

They're totally fine. They're in the right now. If we take the out of the ham for for the laundry, we can save it.

I'm gonna I'm gonna need some time with them. Yep.

So I'm like, okay, cool, Just good to know not to trust any farts today. Run back to the meeting, turn the camera back on. Look, Yes, everything's normally as professional.

Just maybe shit my pen.

No one's the.

Wiser until I talk about it on a podcast.

Uh.

And then I am like five minutes, I'm just like dying.

And it's like a schedule, like forty five minute meeting, and I'm just like, oh, I keep looking at the clock. I'm like, I gotta make it twenty three more minutes. I gotta make it twenty some long time. When you're gurgling and I feel terrible and I have turned the camera off again, I sprint into the bathroom and just puke everywhere.

Just and I what was it? Mac? It was like very watery, It was like.

Do you think it was the fucking Baja Blast.

Zero No, No, I think like two of them that you drank in the morning. Everything was a jumble. The mac and cheese, the Baja Blast. I think the next thirty six.

Hours a jumble. This is a Christmas poem about well the back in Baja Blast for a jumble I drank.

I sprang from my seat to see if my ass was a splatter.

There was no streakage. Nothing was the matter.

March Yeah, you go on for hours, were gonna stop right now.

So I was.

Supposed to be on a podcast that day. I was supposed to start my Blake Club game the next day. And it's just like, there's just no fucking way. It's look for the Blake Club game, I'm doing this Terminator three thing, and I got to wear this elaborate, stupid fucking thing. I'm like, I'm just gonna shit my pants in this for I do this. So I had to, Like I laid in bed for like it felt like two days straight, Like didn't get out of bed, didn't I felt I couldn't even like play a game or anything.

It must be yeah.

Even oh, poisoning.

Absolutely still, I'm still feeling the gurglings and burglans in there went out the dinner gon last night. I was the first like actual like dinner meal I've had since it happened. It went all right, But.

What did you have to cheese?

I had so it was a Japanese Italian fusion restaurant thing, and one of the things was a pasta type thing, but I don't think I would call it mac and cheese.

What was it? Was it pasta with cheese?

Japanese Italian fusion in itself? Sans Shan Sancho John.

None of that is necessary? Was it cheese pasta? Dan?

There was cheese? I can look up the menu. It was a lot though.

It was like almost like Tapa Tapa style where we just like ordered like a ton of different stuff.

Here we go.

Here's the menu, Spanish and Italian and Japanese Spanish. Una. That's not worth explaining.

I had aaron chi, I had porkiosa. I had sweet potato karaque.

I had uh uh some pasta.

But what was the pasta?

Yeah, one of these was like a cheesy ish thing, but I don't think anybody would call it macaroni cheese. But I did have We had two different pizzas, like pesto pizza with mozzarella.

Yeah, skewers of meat and stuff like that.

Have you considered maybe taking it easy on the cheesy.

I think I do.

Think it's my body kind of telling me that, like, hey, you can't just keep having cauldrons of macaroni and cheese and like six beers.

You know, I thought you were gonna say you are finally like developing lactose intolerance, but no, you're saying that you're still associating maca cheese with the food poisoning, which happens. Like I still can't have a burger from a very famous chain in New York because I got food poisoning from it, right, it's weird link to it.

So like I'm eating again and it's mostly fine, but like, if I think of macaronie cheese, it's awful. But also this place now, I looked at the recent reviews and it just seems like it's like I think Tim described it as like a bunch of muppet babies trying to run a restaurant and like so like it was super slow, like all the service like they just wouldn't even look at you.

They're rolling their eyes at the customers.

This one guy, the bartender, for a while was like rubbing his eyes like I got a bunch of worship sire sauce in my eyes. And he just stood there like wow for like a long time. And then there was a Google of you being like, yeah, the bartender cut his thumb open and was bleeding and I said, oh, you need a band aid for that. He's like, no, I'm fine. You just kept bleeding everywhere. So like, I

Itay, the number one rule of all restaurants is is don't make people sick.

That's it.

It's not even make good food. That is secondary to not getting people sick. And the idea that there's like people who need band aids and possibly used silverware in a mug on your table is really vile. And I think that's so stressful that you had to go through that, going getting food poisoning is like one of the worst hells that people can experience that that I can imagine.

I think I maybe had mild versions of it in the past, but this is like this gotcha like knocking me on my ass.

Yeah, it's gone it twice in the last like ten years, and it was so bad the first time. Trying not to get too graphic. There was nothing graphic.

There was nothing.

There was nothing left to come up my bot. No, it was not it did not come out that end. It was all mouth.

Stock, just checking. Yeah.

Yeah, they're in a glass case in the dining room on the wall. Yeah, it's like your body. It just still feels whatever.

It is fox seed. We turned it into a.

No, it's it's texadermat underwear. There wasn't an animal face to it.

Like for the first like I would say, twenty four to thirty six hours, it was puking and shitting and then after that it was mostly just fire hose from the ass.

Nice.

Yeah, yeah, but like with horse where it likes you got to like, okay, I'm sorry, but you know, normally you wipe your ass and I use a bidet, so it's like very nice and clean, but it's all just centralized there. But when you have that fire hose ejection situation going on, it hits the water with such a force that you have to like wipe your asses, your bodies because like.

Get a shower gun blast of all over your whole buttocks.

Disgusting.

It sucks. So you need it.

You need like a second toilet specifically for diarrhea that's really tall, like so you sit way.

Up here, just suit it way in. It's like at this pit like a cave.

Tour splash zone house, and then right diarrhea shack on it so your neighbors know not to go in there.

I told you guys that I got food poisoning at the Game Awards last year, right, and I couldn't eat for like six days.

It's the long I didn't see you after a certain point.

I feel all I had like or dirvs like at a and I think, you know, probably something sat out too long. There's a couple, there's always I think I went to three that night, so there's no guarantee of us. It could be and everybody else was eating the food and I'm the only one who got sick. But I I was ill and I had to take a flight. And so I was like, don't worry, you can get through it. But I hadn't eaten or drinken anything in like, you know, twelve hours, and so I was very thirsty.

And so I had a.

Half a bottle of water and I had some SIPs of my half a bottle of water as I was in the security line for TSA and as it was my turn, I knew I was going to puke.

There was no way I was going to get out of it.

You just know, you know, like you try and repress it, and you think, you try and mentally say like it.

Could be anything, but yeah, it was happening.

And the closest thing that we had was the water receptacle that you can dump your water bottle liquid in, and I puked in that in.

Front of a whole full TSA line.

That sucks.

It was aerful, It was awful. And they didn't stop me. They let me go through and nobody bothered me. And I went through the TSA line and then I just I propped myself up next to a little garbage can and I sat there for twenty minutes until my flight. It was it was a miserable miserable end of the year. I didn't eat for I said, so I couldn't eat for like six days. And on the sixth day, I was like, I genuinely think I was able to drink water.

I thought you had to eat food like three weeks or something. I don't know. I don't trust anything, I said, I recounting.

Fucking doctor, if you haven't eaten. But I think the way I received it was you think I got a bunch of meat on my bones?

Lady?

She kind of was like, oh, you're fine.

If you were skinny, i'd be worried, but you're good, go home, And this is just the plague of the woman. But I was like, how dare you say that I'm not gonna die from not eating for six days?

Tell me I'm gonna die?

Yeah, tell me?

I say I'm deader is just hiding up behind the door.

He's the most toxic reaction. I was so sick. I was like, my body looks incredible.

I would not get I don't approve of this, but yeah, that was like my terrible experience.

After six days, I had some saltines and I was back, baby, But I I still and I don't know again, but like, I think it could have been like some kind of mac and cheese ball situation. And I do think that mac and cheese has a special consistency that might lend itself to food born illness. There's just something about like it's just gooey. It's like half warm, half cool. Anything can be in that goo.

You wouldn't know it if there was like a fingernail in there, because you're just kind of like gulping the whole ball at once. So I just think it lends itself to something you can hide gross stuff in.

I really wonder if it's if I'm gonna shake this like, because it's I could think about eating a steak right now or peanut butter sandwich and be fine, but mac and cheese I'm.

Like, oh god, no, mac and cheese is going to be a tough one, and I agree with what Mike was saying. When you have a physical reaction to food mentally, that can harm you.

For years. I puked my guts out on my sixteenth birthday because I ate a whole rack of ribs. People said I couldn't do it, and I did it, and then I puked that shit out. And now I couldn't have ribs for like five years.

Oh, everyone said the ball, Yeah, the.

Ball you ever did see? I couldn't eat ribs for like five years.

I can eat ribs now, but I had a visceral reaction to to like smoky barbecue sauce for years.

Like I'm feeling like even just thinking about the maca cheese right now, my stomach is.

Stop thinking about it cheese.

Maybe I will.

Yeah, I am planning on like January, like okay, I gotta actually start getting ready for the training for the marathon stuff.

So like I am seeing this, It's.

Like, all right, I've got like a week left, a week and a half to eat like an asshole, drink and stuff, and then I might get pretty serious about it. But for the holidays.

My body is really starting to go away. So I'm thinking in two weeks might give up.

Look, I've got a big resolution guy. I forgot about that yet.

Yeah I'm not New Year's resolution guy, but Traveling Smiths're hosting a New Year's party all that stuff, you know, so, oh god, I've also getting this thing. You get it with the food poisoning, where like you wake up just covered in sweat and like.

It's colder, like fever.

Okay, yeah, because like bank walked, can we sleep with the door open out to the outside and it's like six degrees outside wind chills, you know, cool, So it's like we keep it cold as fuck in the room. But like she'll walk in and be like, oh my god, it's so cold, and I'll be like covered in sweat. I assume that, Yeah, you.

Had a fever, bud, Yeah, yeah, for sure you.

Should tell The sweat is like often when the fever breaks for a bit, like I always could.

My mom always said, but I don't. She won the doctor.

But every time I go I broke my sweat, she'd be like, oh, good, you broke your fever.

Okay.

I don't know why that that made me feel.

Better that she said that, because your body is like I don't know, I imagine it. You'd be your body like, oh there's nothing left we need to kill by overheating you so.

Well, I keep getting that feeling too, like after like these were like violent, loud puking sessions where I'm just like just it was crazy, and then and it feels like it was coming like out of my heart. It felt like like it was wretching like my heart and esophagus, like it was painful. And then afterwards, once it was all out of me, I would just like kind of almost collapse like next to the toilet and I would just be sweaty and light headed. And that's the few

Lay down in my body.

I was like God like yeah, yeah, broken battered bodies, broken souls?

Is that the wrestling term? That's something you heard once that it's stuck with you.

It's the coolest thing I've ever heard. What was that was that announcer Jim Ross thing? Yeah, Jim Ross. Yeah, he's like battered bodies, broken souls. Like that's why have I not been watching wrestling my whole life? It's like Joy Shakespeare, Yeah, are you unless there's any more to add for the food poisoning.

I mean, like I said, I'm grumbling, So just leave the room without saying anything. It's all all back.

All thirty thousand listeners will know why you left now, so you set it up correct.

Well.

Uh, speaking of wrestling, though, Dan, I sent you the other day, I'm enjoying watching videos of this Stephen Flow character in Chicago. Right, he's a He's just a grunge theme wrestler in apparently Chicago area. And yeah, his theme song is just even Flow. But it's not just that they replaced even Flow in the chorus with Stephen Flow. The song is just them saying Steven Flow over and over to the rhythm flo. Yeah.

Yeah, it's really good.

I can always tell when something breaks out of wrestling nerddom and goes into the mainstream through like some about a billion people are like, yeah, I'm gonna text the wrestling guy. Yep, yeah that yep, Steven Flows.

One.

There's the pizza Luigi Primo guy a couple of years ago, like made a pizza.

Well, uh yeah he killed the guy. Yeah, oh gotcha, yeah yeah sick. Yeah yeah. Steven Flow definitely broke out of that mold good for him? Yeah?

Is he is that like an indie circuit he's in?

I mean yeah, he's not like a guy that you would see on I mean maybe there's.

A whole dude whose theme is just an orange in my hands are my pocket because I saw wet hot American summer. So like if he can raise a legit superstar, he's he's very acrobatic. Is he still doing stuff?

Yeah?

Yeah, okay, of course. Yeah, he's the coolest person I've ever laid eyes on.

He's very good.

What else is New Holidays time? New Year's Dan, you're doing your annual New Year's Eve party?

Yep? Doing that?

Got a bunch people coming over for that. Do you have Dad's coming up? You can make it out of the hotel for that?

Oh god? Yeah? Any updates on that?

We were all asking him frequently for updates, and so I'll update you when something happens.

Okay, there's no.

Yeah, he's still in the hotel.

Just in the hotel, okay, yep, Yeah, that's just going to be his home.

Apparently he had like a realtor visit, planned to look at some stuff, and then he canceled the last second because he said he was too busy. But he doesn't have a job and doesn't leave the hotels, so I don't know what the hell that means.

So uh, oh, your dad canceled because he was too busy.

That's real. Yeah, that's cool. Yeah, so we're all, yeah, yeah, it's funny.

I've told this story on on you know, giant bombing here and stuff, and see comments some people like this seems like concerning. You should like It's like, yeah, like the version you get on the podcast is like, oh, so here's this weird thing that we're dealing with. Of course, in real life it's like no real ass conversations about like do we need to like talk to him then?

Yeah, are you guys gonna have like a intervention? I mean, but it's about not having a house.

We're wait to see if he figures him out. I'm checking in on him all the time, others are checking in on him all the time. We're not getting much from him, but yeah, they're very real concern and so I'm fine, I'm fine.

I'm fine. I'll figured out.

I'll get serious aout of two and I'll get seriou It's like, oh man, I just uh it's it's tough.

It is tough.

Parents are tough, you know, because like their full ass grown adults, and parents probably at no point like the idea that as their children grow up, the children start looking at the parent and being like, are you okay.

And the parents like, go fuck yourself.

I fed you, I housed you, I took care of you during your stupidest moments, and now you have the audacity to ask me how long this milk has.

Been in the fridge. Get out of here.

This is a common thing that I think most people experience with their parents, because there is that point of time when you start saying, well, you're getting a little older now, and I am a little worried about you leaving the oven on, you know, or like whatever. It is that parents each have their own unique foibles that

And so it was a huge deal and he was like I'm fine.

I know when I'm walking downstairs and it's like, you, absolutely the fuck do not because you fell down the stairs. And he just relocated to a house with no stairs. He calls it the final move, if you know what I mean. And now he doesn't have any stairs, he has to worry about it anymore. So he solved it on his own.

He didn't need me.

Yeah. I sleepwalk a lot. Yeah, maybe you should not. We talked about this before.

On the fourth floor of a building.

Yet I'd have to get that's true. I would have to there's a fire escape right out back of our bedroom. I would have to get through a door first. I don't know if I could do that in my sleep, although I do a lot of specific stuff when i'm sleepwalking. But I think I've figured it out. You've seen our apartment. I think our bedroom is a bit bigger than it

So it's not like a sleep paralysis thing. It's not like you wake up you can't.

Move and.

Over the place, you can't do you No, I thought about just firing off rounds left and right. No I don't.

It's kind of like Dan's father, like we joked in but I am worried about you. I'm worried about Amanda most of all.

I don't.

I don't think I would ever, cause again, I'm there. It's not like it's completely or unconscious stuff. It's I'm sort of present. I just need it's usually either Amanda or me, who's like, wait a minute, what am I doing? And I'm kind of embarrassed, so I go back to the bedroom like I knew what I was doing. I was in the first place. Yeah, it's a bit, go back to sleep.

It's four. It's a bit.

That's the witching hour or or the place is haunted and I'm actually onto something.

You need to get a gun.

The ghosts are gaslighting me. I need a ghost gun. It's that level from Future perfect where you have the ghost gun and the real gun.

Oh, it'd be so fun to be a ghost. Would love to be a ghost. Yeah, it would be really good.

Sure has guns instead.

Of yeah the steel Yeah, a separate gun, right.

Gun for ghosts, but you actually shoot. Yeah, the neighbors the ghost gun.

Yeah, I wish it could be a ghost, just like I wish I could just go like flip a switch and just be a ghost when I want to, and then go back to just being a guy.

Go to John Drake's house and funk with him.

I do go to John Drake first and foremost when I think of just working with someone like he being a ghost fucking with John Drake.

That's a sitcom.

If you die, or I mean when you die, yeah, I absolutely you will be a ghost.

I have no doubt about it.

You have too much fun resolved back here on Earth that one lifetime cannot contain that, You'll be.

Yeah, it's just farting pooping.

And everybody's underwear to convince them that they ship their pants.

Poop transparent just turns.

Yeah, they're can mean a separate ghost toilet and ghost bidet ghost toilet.

Yeah, yeah, curly hates of Heaven. You will never see that.

Peter's like, what are you doing here?

Guy?

Come on, you go to the gates. They're like, we don't want to.

I don't by requirements. Yeah, place wants to.

Have no after life will take him. Yeah, ghost on Earth. He's too bad ass for Hell and too too chaotic for Heaven.

Too bad ass for Hell, Satan says all the time. Yeah, sorry, Bud, but you're just a little too bad ass for Hell.

I'm gonna get that tattoo across my belly button like a gothic font for Hell.

Number four the god get my way out, too bad ass for Hell.

Yeah, funk my way out of Heaven. Shat my way out of Hell. Yeah, we got, we got, we gotta. Someone's I hope someone's writing down these bumper stickers because we got a lot of Oh.

Yeah, we gotta get in that bumper sticker business. We had that idea.

Funcked my way out of heaven the angels. It ran trained through all the angels. Then I got bored.

Get him out of here.

Cribs at night.

If you if you hear a soft fart in your crib, know that it was us.

Do you want to talk about video games? Yeah?

Sure?

Oh god, she's got the hell. Yeah, God, God, I'm just gonna start hurling. God, oh Mary, that's cool, that's so mean.

Look at how gooey. There's a clear hole.

So fucked up.

It's discussing me and I didn't just hurl my insides out from Okay, we gotta stop.

He's gonna puke.

No, no, this is actually I can't tell this is funny or fucked up. Yeah, all right, let's come back. Let's go all right. If you're just joining on the yeah, alright, okay.

We'd been back.

If you're not watching the video version, Mary has donned the aforementioned macaroni sweatshirt. And it's even through these like cameras. It's real detailed. It's like they put a Night Seen twenty by ten eighty jpeg onto a hoodie. God, uh, it's it's and Dan's got a thing over his face because you can't look at this is kind of fucked up.

That is I'm not kidding. That is making my stomach.

It's really really delay.

Do you need to change out of it?

Dan?

No, I'm a big boy. No, I'm a big boy. Make me sick.

It is a gross sweater, like I think it really it's gone out of its way, Like how look how shiny they made all the cheese?

Sure didn't they? I don't show us your pits, pitt macaroni and cheese. About to say macari heard me, but it's been attacking me for a year now.

But they got nude.

Beaches oh before Yeah, the French babes don't shave their pits. Line just made me, uh reminded me? Have I told you guys, we're watching through all the James Bond movies, like I got the Blu Ray collection finally.

Why would that make you think of that?

Uh? French babes, I don't know. All the women are just items like objects.

That's just such a clear line from Home Alone and you're.

Like, oh, I said that, and then you did a home Alone line. But then I heard about French babes not shaving the pits. It reminded me of all the women in bikinis and James Bond And I haven't told you we're rewatching these.

Have you seen like the early all of them.

I've only seen like the Brasen and like half the craig Ones. You got to stop doing that.

Mary sucks.

If wait with this, it looks like I'm putting my hand in in a noodle.

That's okay, hear me out.

That's how you get out of heaven.

Bad for the camera probably, but anyway, I don't. Yeah, we watched Doctor No and From Russia with Love. It's crazy how slow these movies were.

That's why I struggled to go back because I was like, you know, I love Golden Eye on the Bras and Ones and st Up and I was like, oh, I've heard Connor is the best. And I saw like gold Finger and I was like, okay, I appreciate that, like oh that's where doctor Evil comes from or whatever, but like it wasn't like that was.

Like Russia would love. Oh okay, well what about one?

You could see a million like you know, references and Simpsons bits and stuff that came from these movies.

But it's like I didn't find it like super exciting.

You know, I always forget that Robert Shaw was the Russian the Specter assassin trained to kill him too, which is just funny seeing him when he's not Quint Jaws.

Yeah, but uh yeah, we're rewatching them. It's like Doctor No. The first movie.

Holy shit, it was slow, really, and then out of nowhere, someone gets burned alive and you watch the whole thing. It's it's a very weirdly paced series. And then of course, like even like Pierce Brasen era, they they upped the action a lot.

They went from being these like.

Merely these spy thrillers with some kind of shitty action sequences to all of a sudden, the most finely choreographed fight scenes in any movies ever with Daniel Craig. The Pierce Brosn't set pieces gets crazier and crazier, and then til he's fucking driving a Lamborghini through an ice palace.

Yeah, in top of a car invisible car.

Yeah.

I don't know why I thought it was a Lamborghini, but anyway, we're playing those.

Speaking of.

Old movies, I've been playing Indie in Indiana Jones and the Great.

Show so nice.

Yes, what do you think?

I just got to Giza, the second big area. I like it a lot, However, I don't think I'm could finish it. It just made me want to re download all the Dishonored games.

It's great.

I love that Machine Games went this route and did not feel the need to just make a shooter. I have not fired my gun once and I'm in like a or seven hours in Because there's like the interstitial stuff. I think the moment to moment gameplay is pretty clunky, especially like some of the platforming stuff you're doing. It's not heavy platforming, but when you're going up certain ledges just doesn't feel great. I also think I love scouring

I think it's just interesting that it even took that approach to it. I like, I think Indy is more interesting than it had any right to be, or that I think anybody could have recentably expected it to be. I do share some of the planes, Like, I think a lot of the strengths are in the presentation, the way they use the license, some of the exploration stuff, like really doing like Indiana doing shit throughout the game. But like, yeah, clunky is a good word for a

Where it's like, yeah, I like, oh, yeah, we have people listening.

Yeah, yah, we're recording this. Yeah yeah, yeah. I saw that the game was like, you know, twelve fourteen hours long. It looks like I had like maybe two or three

Yeah, and it keeps.

Going for a while because I was like, you know what, I'm enjoying this game. I've died like ten times through some horse shit here. I'll keep trying. I'll keep trying, and then it would just keep going and I'd be like, all right, I just got to get past this part. I'm sure I'll be on solid ground soon. I don't have to worry about this fucking snake And it's just like I probably died like twenty times, and it's just

Just didn't So you quit because of a snake, which is pretty sertificant in a twelve to fourteen hour game.

Yeah, I mean I kind of was at the point anyway where I was ready to just kind of get to the end, you know, because it was like I was going on this pyramid. I was like, all right, there's just I can see what's gonna happen here. There's gonna be a bunch of puzzles and stuff, and I've done a ton of them in this game already. They're fine, you know, they're good. So I was ready to be done anyway. And I think just that being a very

Is that like the In terms of big areas, there's the Vatican there's Giza.

What's after that, Oh, the the Himalayas, the like snowy area, which is that's a really cool area. It's not it's not like a super long open thing, but it's a it's a cool set piece area.

And all back to the beginning of Raiders, he's in the mountains when he sees what's her name the bartender right.

All right, right in the fire and all that stuff. Yeah, it's like yeah, and then it's like, I'm going to say this perfectly pronunciated. It's like Suku Thai or something. I think it's I don't know if it's like Thailand or Shanghai or something. It's just like it's a jungle boat going around snakes. Sounds more like village kind of looks like, you know, like Pocalypse now when they get to those villages near the end. But yeah, just going down the river and then you get to a pyramid and stuff.

So such a beautiful movie.

Oh yeah, but yeah, great game. But I was I was ready to be done by the end.

Okay, well, I mean good game pass game.

Apparently it's a really good game pass game for sure.

Pick the wrong month to quick game pass.

You know what I mean, yeah, there's other stuff real buck. Astro has a Christmas level that's out and it's it's pretty substantial. It utilizes Yeah, it's it's really cute. It's obviously just superfessedive and there's just some million little jingle bills and stuff that you can spin through and send flying everywhere. There's like seven new bots to get from

Oh, what's what's per rap of the Wrapper from?

I thought you guys were just making up words.

What's Donkey Kong from Mario? I guess technically Mario is from Donkey Kong.

Yeah, do I know more about Mario than Dan does?

Yeah, rubbing her macaroni jpeg.

Well that's fun.

That's nice.

Are they like, is there a roadmap out? Are they going to continue pushing stuff out DLC wise.

For a while?

I think the only thing they really announced early on was that they were going to do the speed run levels, and then I didn't know until I saw the team, the Temasobie team at the Game Awards and they told me like, by the way, there's Christmas level coming out, and I figure, like the next day or something, it was out. So I don't think they're announcing stuff like very far ahead of time, you know. Okay, I hope they do more. I mean, I just I want a

It's a fun game.

It's great that they're continuing to update it too, especially from all the hype from winning Game of the Year and congrats to them for taking home.

The big prize, you know.

I mean, Game of the Year is still quite coveted, and it's cool to see a team that I think.

I think it's a nice Cinderella story.

Considering that as a team originally was like, we're playing with tech for the PlayStation, and we're just an internal team that wants to have fun with this sick ass controllers, So we're gonna have a lot of fun here. But they made a game that was so smooth and so polished and fun that it ended up being their gody.

I just think that's great. It's so good for them.

Yep.

I think it's fantastic, And you know how I feel about that game, So to see any success or praise go its way, I love seeing so very I think.

That's great, so good for them.

I looked as forward to seeing what like the next thing they have in store, because I think maybe now that they've made a full fledged Astrobot with all the bells and whistles, will they branch out and make something.

New is what I'd be interested in.

I think what I want, and I think would probably be likely considering the success is an Astrobot sequel, And I think that since this was the big everything about this story and the way it ended and all the bots was so PlayStation nostallger centric, I would think that the sequel, you know, Okay, well, we've done the PlayStation, you know, Bonanza, Let's just have Astrobot to have his own adventure that's not necessarily as super tight, like maybe

So yeah, I don't know. I'm interested in whatever they do next.

I want it would be great to have an equivalent of Astrobot for like every major publisher. Nintendo does that stuff all the time, but like, yeah, it'd be cool to have like an Xbox thing. Yeah.

It's like, I mean, you got Halo, you got Gears, like a bunch of Forts of Cars. I mean, you can do the deep cuts and stuff. There's all the like originally Blood Wake and you know, Crimson Skies and stuff, but like it's not as like mascot heavy. I guess you could do like Abe's Odyssey and stuff. But yeah, yeah, yeah, because.

They were always trying to go like more mature sort of from the beginning with their post racing.

Yeah, I mean it's a master tat from day one, you.

Know, just every place from Flight Simulator.

Yeah, yeah, there with their little robot butts shaken yeah, they're trying to make them as cute as humanly possible, but it's just all like animatronic items.

That Ox got cake.

I've been playing Bollionaire. Have you heard of this game?

I know if that was a ty no, I have not. I put it in all cats so that.

It would be clear.

Yeah.

So I found out about this because the developer who made Blatro tweeted that he was playing it and he was like, this is a great game, and I hope more people hear about it. And there was something about the trailer that I saw that I thought kind of had Bilatro type mechanics where you're building a deck per se. But Bollionaire is not a card game. It is a plinko game. I don't know if that's actually what you call.

It, but where you drop the ball, but you're not like picking where you drop it. It always comes from the same center thing.

The ball always hits the top of a triangle. And then your deck is all the different things you put in the triangle that your ball can hit, and if it hits it, you make money and you have to solve for how much money you make each round. I think you get five ball drops and the first round it's like, hey, you need to make five hundred dollars, and so every time you dink something, maybe you get

You get to pick something.

So maybe it's a tree that every time you hit it it makes you money, but the tree gains currency each day.

It grows like an actual tree.

And so if you survive today twenty in this game, now it's now it's like worth hundreds of dollars every time you plink it there's other ones I think are really fascinating because they interact with other plinkos. So there's one that lets you every time if you touch it, it takes it with it. It like basically like it carries it on its back. And now you have an item with you. And if you touch another one while you're carrying the thing that you were carrying, sorry, it

This is like clearly like UI art, but it's it's fine. It gets the job done.

What I enjoyed the most was finding commonalities between different plinkos. An example would be that I found that if you carry a cash register and then you hit an item while you were carrying a cash register, you release a coin, which is essentially another plinko, and the coins would make money if you could but get them at a piggy bank, and the piggy banks would accrew money over time, and so by the end of this game, and the reason I ended up winning this game was because I had

Getting it done.

I think that that I could tell that was going to be the case is that you have to like play it, you know, get through a few runs for to click, because like I was playing it on a plane and it was just you know, I'm playing.

I just like turn my brain off.

And sure it is a very turn off game, like you can just plank.

Away once you learn it, because like when I was starting it on a plane, it was very much like, all right, the block of cheese does this and these if I hit it from underneath, this does this and stuff and everything like this seems cool, but I just don't want to think it all on this flight, and so I just love the Vampire Survivors.

But that's funny.

Curious to play more of Baillionaire, I did like the whole vibe of it.

I encourage you to play it another round and like play around with the idea that like, uh, because it's a triangle and because the ball drops in the same spot each way, your's like my main hint, the very top of the triangle is your juice. If you put something there that your ball will now carry, you are guaranteed.

To make multi ball. If that makes sense.

Okay, you can game the system a little bit by saying, Hey, the top of my triangle is going to be a chicken, and every time you hit it, it's going to release eggs, and then the eggs will become food, and then the food will become my main income for that round. And it's I think it's fun. I do not think that this is of blatro status. The Bolotro dev tweeted it, and I was like, oh shit, If Bolotro loved it, this must be a fucking banger. I think it's a fun way to waste some time. I don't think this

This is for you.

I think this is a fun game to waste some time and play around with, but again rudimentary, especially the menu design. The text is weirdly small, and I found that I had to like look like an old grandma where I was like what does that say? And I was like kind of trying to zoom in on the game. But it was a delightful game that I played throughout my Game Awards prots. When I wasn't working or attending the Game wards. I played this in my hotel room.

Kind of reminds me of like almost like that Peglin you know, where it's like, Okay, here's you know, we take a couple ideas from other games and it's kind of a low production thing, but it's you know, a fun.

Hook to it.

It's a good like a good indie dev situation where you're like, this is a good concept, and I can see why it has legs.

Is everything are all the bells and whistles?

There?

No, But you can understand the game, and I think you can have fun with it.

And I absolutely agree with you because I was one hundred percent hooked on Peglin. I think Peglin is a fantastic I think Peglin is better than this game in the sense that it's got like those RPG mechanics and you're.

Like growing your character over time.

Like I'm a huge Peglin advocate, but I think Ballionaire is just an easy way to like spend an hour and play around with these building mechanics. If you have the right things together, crazy shit happens, and it's fun to watch balls drop.

Yeah, uh right and timely.

That's right. I've got the perfect New Year game.

It's a Ballionaire to everyone do that at midnight and years, I'm canceling the party.

Ball drop your balls all at the same time.

Yep.

I don't have a I've been playing a lot more metaphor, I don't have a ton more to say that I didn't during our Game of Year episode. Uh my my uh, criticis not criticism, my praise for how often it shakes up its own structure and pacing that stands. In fact, I honestly think this game like raises the bar pretty substantially for like long form Japanese role playing games.

Uh.

It's every big dungeon I get to, it's like a whole new like consideration and prep that I have to do. And then I'm also just really enjoying the more archetypes classes I on lock. Combining all those it's a it's a great game. I still am liking it a lot.

I'm glad, and then I'm still liking it. How far in it are you? Just for context, because it's not a.

S game, No, I want to say, I don't know that our count it's got to be at least fifty. I'm fourth major Dune, fifth major dungeon Palace whatever you want to call them dungeon. So I'm far in and I've got you know, I've got you know, more party members than I can put in one party. But it's a yeah, enjoying it quite a bit.

Uh.

And then only other thing I have played Warhammer Three's newest dlc omens of destruction and it's fun. They they reworked some factions. I won't go into super detail. Oh I thought, Dan left to go it rose for a second puke or something?

Is this about the mac and cheese?

No, I'm gonna turn off Mary's camera here soon.

Yep. But yeah, No, Warhammer Three's good streak of DLC is ongoing after that clusterfuck. That was a shadows of change about a year and a half ago. Dan, you've been playing Marvel Rivals, which is surprising.

Well, yeah, I mean I normally wouldn't have Well, right, I had the same thought. No, we did it for a stream.

You know.

That's a great thing about I've heard good things to be clear.

But yeah, I have to.

But I just it's not a this podcast game, right, It's.

Part of what's fun about, you know, working in like Giant Bomb for a living, because like I might get

Well, you know, hero shooters.

This was started developing when hero shooters were supposed to be the next big thing, and now it's just there's not that appetite for it. But that failed and people are really liking Marvel Rivals. So is it maybe just that, like, Okay, they made a good one of these. It's free to play and has a bunch of recognizable ip with Marvel, like they just kind of did it right, Whereas Concord was like a new ip no one knew, and then

That's the thing.

It's like Marvel Rivals, No, Marvel Overwatch, Like that's an easy sell and then it's free to play. You can picture a lot of people it's been like, yeah, I'll give it a shot, whereas like Concord's like, here's this thing you've never really heard of and you don't know what it is or how it stands out.

Also give us forty dollars to try it. It's like, that's such a harder cell.

It's ampossible sell when Overwatch is there. And I think, like, ultimately, I actually think Overwatch is the bigger killer because Overwatch people have had lots of time to hear about it and learn about it, and it's free.

So how are you comp You can't compete?

Yeah, absolutely, And yeah, I guess I was just surprised by how much fun I had with it, you know, finding your character where it's gonna You start with like punish crews, a very simple just kind of like shooting like Soldier seventy six type guy, and then I saw, you know, I would fight like some Iron Man on the other team and see them flying around shooting lasers and stuff, and it's like, oh, that looks fun.

I realized I was really good with Ironman. So it's okay. I think I found my guy.

That's really fun. But again, probably not gonna, you know, put fifty one hundred hours into it. But you know, if we did another stream on Giant Blomb or something, I would happily jump in and not be skeptical because it turns out it's actually quite fun.

I feel like everybody's sharing the Shark guy. I don't know who that is.

I don't know what the deal with that dude is.

Everybody likes that shark guy or likes to hate that shark guy.

I don't know's I see him in a lot of matches. Nicky Grayson was the shark on our team and ate me and Minati and barfed us off of a cliff and killed us accidentally.

So that's cool.

It can do that pretty that's pretty cool.

Yeah, barfed you up like back and cheese.

When I play uh.

When when I play Yoshi Uh in the competitive I always try and swallow people and poop them out over the ledge as an egg.

It's a classic yep, yep.

It's my only move. So once they find out that that's my move and I'm I'm in deep shit.

Mine is DKA and I grabbed them and I just like walk off the edge and I just like drag them to their doom along with me.

Maybe I'm a shark girl too. Then I just like to I usually learn one.

Move and then I say, once you guys figure me out, there's a short chess match.

I have one move. It's kind of your thing, so we better get used to it. Yeah, no, thumbs up, it's good.

I'm glad Mary you're playing Rocket League again. And hell Divers too, well, you probably never stopped, but you wrote them down this time, so it must be substantial.

They're connected.

So when Game Awards happened, Hell Divers had an update and the update was a new faction, which we've been waiting for for a long time.

There's a bit of a war that is important.

Yes, so they've been teasing this for a while, but I think there already was an alien, so there's essentially like there's bugs and robots, and then they would keep teasing that something else was coming. Yes, laser stuff there was like and it just kind of we never heard anything for such a long time that I think it kind of the the tension dissipated. It was just like whatever, like release it or don't. Guys, like we're sick of these laser conversations. Like there's only so much you can

Doing zombie mode.

I think that you have to kind of almost a completely different setup because I in bug mode. I would really like fire breaker, incendiary or something that basically lights them on fire.

But because zombies have that extra bit of life, they.

Essentially just run at you on fire, and that they can light you on fire, so fires and is effective. The best is just heavy bullet damage type guns or something that would even do knock back so that you can give yourself a little bit more space.

So I had to completely change up what my build was.

I essentially put everything into light armor that let me run because you need to be able to be very fluid.

I use a.

Jetpack again because it's really fun to jet pack overboards of zombies that are chasing after you.

It's fun, you, guys, like I'm back in the hell. Divers is a great fucking game.

It is, absolutely, It's just really kind of reinvigorated my love of playing games with other people and taking out hordes of mass people, and I've been adoring it. We played it until I don't know, like maybe like one or two in the morning. As soon as I got back and everyone was like, oh, it's going for.

Me to go to bed.

And everyone was like, okay, I'm going to bed, and I kind of just hung out for a second as I was like getting ready to sign off, and uh, Peter Brown was like, you want to play Rocket League? And I was like, oh, you son of a bitch. And at like one thirty in.

The morning, Peter and I booted up rocket League and I played Rocket League for the first time in I mean at least two years. And we played Rocket League until four in the morning and I had I had the best fucking time you guys, and we just kept we just kept playing. At first, I was pretty shitty. I forgot like you have to it's like riding a bike like I was like, I think I remember. But I couldn't fly, I couldn't defend very well. I wasn't

I was killing it. We were winning all of our matches. And then right around four am, I started getting really bad.

That happens.

I had hit my peak.

But what a fantastic experience to be able to play Hell Divers and Rocket League again, which I actually think are similar.

Right.

They are all about teamwork and hanging out with your buds and then just taking out the other team if you can, but win or lose you were having a good time. But they both allow for these moments of absolute grandeur where like I am the reason that we won, I personally saved the day. It will make you feel like main character energy you are the hero in these games, and I think that's why they both are such excellent

So I'm back in on both. I think they're both great games, but Hell Divers too.

For sure.

I think they removed the zombie faction, but they just brought it back, so I believe you can.

Play it right now.

Nice gonna go back at some point when my brother is overseas at the moment, but he was the one I was playing with most, so when he gets back and we're probably gonna dive in and no pun intended, and.

Yeah, I'm still down to play it if you guys want to play it.

It's just a it's it's it's gody for me, Like, it's just such a tremendous accomplishment of like every game, I'm like, this is a movie and I might die, and sometimes I do and sometimes I'm the greatest that ever lived.

It's great.

Dan, What's Castlevania? Dominus collection?

Keep doing this every time you even do game, I'm like, what the fuck is this?

What are you talking to? Cassovnia Collection, Dominatrix Collection, Dominatrix, What's Dominans.

He's getting to it.

It is the.

It's the something.

Cavana Lore, Yeah, donov It's Portrait of Ruin and Order of Ecclesia. And the reason that this is so cool, Like I love that the GBA Collection came out, you know, a year or two ago, because those are great games. But those are easy to play on a million different things. You know, they're GBA games. They're not complicated, whereas like DS three DS games. You can emulate those for sure,

There is quality of life improvements.

Totally, and you can do the rewind stuff, a lot of like emulation type stuff. You just want to make life easier for you. But then there's just stuff that I didn't even think about where it's like, oh shit, these are four by three games, so you have this screen real estate they're putting like the map and enemy information and stuff over on the right. So like to play a castle a Metroid VNEA game where you are live seeing the map is so nice because you pit select.

Yeah, that's a game changer.

Actually, yeah, I didn't even think about that. It's like that's fucking great, And like if I go to attack like oh, this acts Night or something. It'll tell me like all what it's weaknesses and strengths down there, so like no on the fly, like oh, let me switch to this Soul or whatever.

It's.

So it's just a really fantastic way to revisit these games that I've wanted to replay for a long time. I just didn't want to fuck with the touch control stuff. So yeah, I'm playing Down to Sorrow right now. That's kind of the follow up to Ario Sorrow, which I think is the best GBA one. It's just been awesome

That's great.

Steam It's great.

Yeah.

I'm looking at the Steam page and it came out in August and it's got overwhelmingly positive reviews, so people like have obviously been playing it, but I'd never even heard of this new release, so that's very cool.

Oh it's it's good as hell, and it's it's one of those Castlevanians at least Donna Saura that I'm playing, where it's like your weapons and stuff, or as you kill enemies, you know, there's drop rates of like their soul. So if you kill a bat, there's a good chance you are going to get its soul, which you can map to a button and then some in a bat.

So it's like Echoes of the Kingdom.

More about like enemy abilities than it is like inanimate objects.

You know.

Yeah, but you can echo an enemy well right.

There are some that are like familiars like the bat that will follow you around, but a lot of them are just like you will take that weapon or you know, that guy through an axe, so now I'm throwing an axe that type of stuff. And then there's passive souls where it's like, oh, this just increases my strength or whatever. So you can really kind of set your soul set you can. You know, there's just a lot of fun if you can do instead of just I've got my sword and what I just.

Yeah, it's just a battle of attrition. You can actually like have some strategy to it and mimic it. I also love the real estate.

I remember when Zelda wind Waker came out on the Wii you and what a game changer it was to have a secondary screen for the map. This reminds me a lot of that, where it's just like this is the way I wish it always was, right, I just this is the definitive version.

I will no longer think about the other version. This is the better way to play the game. Would you say this is like the definitive version, like you wouldn't go back and play the original?

Well, I mean it's they were great portable games, and like, you know, the DS did have those two screens, so you did have you know, that same like wind Waker type thing like oh, I've got the map in my items and stuff down here, and I've got the gameplay

Better on a big screen.

Did they update the graphics?

No, no, no, I'm just saying it's just like the art is really great and I'd like to see it on a backlit olid you know, Steam deck screen, then a little DS.

Screen you know.

Yeah, okay, yeah, bigger.

Yep, killer killer games great? Yeah?

What about Duck Detective?

Yeah?

What is this?

I started that? Mary? Was you that told me about this?

I did?

I played that on an earlier episode and talked about it. It's a lot like, uh, what's that other game? Dork's like Golden Idol.

It's like you did to talk about this, I remember now.

My My joke was like Golden Idol is like this person has been murdered and you're like solving it, and Duck Detective is like.

Where's my salami? Somebody's been stealing the salami.

So you're solving someone who can celebrate this receptionist birthday and so she yeah, this draft.

Yeah, I'm a couple.

Like I beat Rise the Golden Idol and I really enjoyed it, and I just like that style of gameplay.

It's like that for dummies, little easier.

Because the question is by the end of Rise, the Golden Nidol is like, oh man, that's so blanks. I gotta figure out. And so the idea of just like, oh, I'm a little duck detective, it's like divorced duck walking around trying to figure out why a giraffe.

Duck Detective was a little too long. I think it should have been Dutective. I think they fucked up. I know, I know, but they didn't call it duck Detective. They call it duck Detective, Divorce duck Detective.

It's just it's cute, it's got good voice acting and stuff, and it is just like you're right, it is like Golden Idle Junior, you know, with a totally different type of tone. And yeah, I just I was ready for more of that style of game. And it's a simple one, but I've really been enjoying it. They have like a

It looks like it's charming characters, stickers, yeah, yeah, there, yeah, And.

The story is silly, but it is engaging.

I don't know how to describe it, like, sure the stakes are low, but you are I was interested to figure out who was the bandit. I wanted to know, and it's very similar mechanically, where it's like Blank was the blank stealer and he used blank to get to the blank, and so you still have to figure it out. It's finding words in the scene and then putting them

Don't know, I don't care. But it's the same problem I have with Golden Idol, which is I've solved it. I know what it's saying. I just couldn't put the words in the right fucking order.

It's like, at some point it's semantics, and I get really frustrated with games that are essentially like oh well, it's not a purple hoodie.

It was great. It's like, bitch, he's dead, Like, yeah, can we just say I solved the crime?

Yep, yep. Yeah. Yeah. It's a frustrating.

Yes, Yeah, it's annoying when you know you understand the entire situation, but the game is just kind of like, no, but you need to play by our rules and get this exactly correct. That gets a bit frustrating. Yeah, are you liking Silent Hill too or you were liking Silent Hill too? Fair amount, but it was characters that were annoying you. Mary that so annoying she was she.

Took a nap.

I have a really short update because I've been playing this once a week, so I you know, I'm still playing it. She has been taking a nap for the last three hours, which is great, so I haven't had to deal with her. I got to a very wonderful part in the original Silent Hill too, where you go down this essentially like terrifyingly long staircase, and I got

Uh.

It is just a constant up like fear even as you're like solving a puzzle, which means you should be good for a little bit, they are putting like and weird noises throughout the entire track, going back and forth underneath tunnels and stuff like that. You never feel safe in this game. It is just it is a triumph of how how frightening it will make you feel. I'm in the jail right now, and it is.

Oh, what a horrible, horrible area to put put a player in.

I think it's the scariest game of the year, and so an absolute triumph of scaring the shit out of me.

And I fully recommended.

I was just gonna say I forgot what one audio, but it was hell made.

It was yeah, And I'm not saying like that didn't deserve it. I didn't really hear that game too much.

I'm just saying, show on this game every episode, and my god, stop kicking it while it's done.

Who cares.

I just think, like horror games don't often get their do That's what I think I'm ultimately saying is like a lot of times I feel the same way with Resident Evil is like it usually gets nominated, but it does not win because like they're like sure you deserve a nomination, like it's such a good game, but we're obviously going to give it to this, uh you know, RPG shooter with horny characters, and it's like, come on, like these horror games are there, all the rest of them?

Okay, yeah, just the a Malcolm of all of them.

Uh yeah, that's I've just been playing Warhammer and metaphor long games.

Those are long games. Yeah, they take you forever. I've been playing Silent Hill for like six weeks now.

Every time every time we do our game list, I'm always like, I put Silent Hill on there because I'm still playing it.

But I have to be getting any Caravella update. Yeah, a lot of those where he was you know, journal entry updates from his long form games. Yeah, all right, you wanted you to emails, okay, as usually you can ride into Firescape past at gmail dot com with questions, comments, concerns, stuff you want us to read on potentially the next episode. We got a bunch since last episode, at which point we said send him in to get us through into the next few episodes. And I think we have enough

Yes?

What things in real life do you think are most like Charmander? I can't see there's a thing, okay, charme Leon and Charizard. I can think of a duck, a goose, and a swan, or maybe Dave Franco, James Franco and Jared Leto. It doesn't have to just be living things though. I'm interested in all forms of three stage evolution. So wait, so I don't even know anything about It's just like an evolution. Charland is the most basic and then Charmila is the middle one.

So like so an upgrade and then second upgrade.

I think an appropriate one for this is do candy bars, because we've argued about this before. Like to me, Armander would be three musketeers. All it is, it's just new Gat, and then after that would.

Be milky Way.

You got.

What is it new gat? I got a new gap.

It would be three musketeers, and then Charmeleon would be is it milky Way just adds the caramel?

Yes?

And then it would be third one. Okay, it gets it? Gets good, aren't good.

They're good, They're like, okay, fire escape, who's Charmander? It depends on the criteria.

I take offense that Joseph said that Jared Letto was the final emotion because is a little but good?

Doesn't that kind of suck to like it? So that.

It doesn't have to be good, It doesn't have to be improving it like what is the most what is the most of the series, the most X of this series? And if it's douchebag, then Jared Letto would definitely be chars are right right, right right?

Yeah, Yeah, that's true. It's like the final evolution of being a villain.

Yeah, the guy could see, like, yeah, for us three, you're the final form. I didn't say. I didn't say that just such I put together.

We're too different to be evolutions of each other. Yeah, but like it's more fun if we did it anyway, I like, and if we're.

Going from like you know, but the most basic it was evolution, it would be me Dan, Mike, what I'm not the charis of sickos?

You are a what what makes me a sicko?

All of the horny jokes, the.

Dans one who pooped his pants, the other days, isn't horny?

That's true horny.

Oh yeah, I love that you connected those though.

He's the one who poops his pants all the time.

If anyone should be horniest, it's dand because he's always as hell.

Did you guys have pants every time you get horny? I rest my case your That's why I can't go to strip clubs that just ship my pants right away, turn and leave. Yep, that's where I stink up the joint.

Yeah, Like what would be I know?

Everyone advance, I'm ready, I know, but I like it more when you don't, because then we stumble on it that I could switch.

My head with a bird and then fly. This is what happens when we don't read these in advance, I know.

And that's why that's where you get the best you get the best material from. I'm trying to think, like, what would what would the the evolution, the three stage evolution be for fast food and the criteria the final one?

I think?

And so I think, what's like a couple of shittier McDonald's, like curls. I don't really have a lot of curls Arby's. Arby's is good, though they were all kind of thing.

No, no, no, I got one.

I got when I got on, I got one. Do do do the chicken spots?

Do Popeyes? Chick fil A and KFC? Uh, it's got to be Charie Ard right well whatever the smallest one is would be KFC, which I still love it. Think that would be pop and then Chick fil A and then Popeyes? Yeah yeah, ultimate, Yeah, it checks out. What about SODA's? Oh, it's like r C Cola would be the first one, and then Pepsi and then coke.

Now the creative juice? Do do cheesy pasta dishes?

I refuse. He's a man of principles. Yeah, yam, the final farm.

I've if we were doing the the Italian dishes at that place we went, I think that what was it the pumpkin the dual Tortellini's that would have been chars Ard was dual.

Ravioli's the dope.

Yeah yeah, that was really good for for those who are wondering what the fuck I'm talking about, because it's has I did not contextualize it whatsoever. We went to a place that Dan recommended, and there was this one dish that wasa yeah two like vertical Raviolis that are still connected to each other. And then in one it was like a pumpkin filling and the other was like a cream cheese.

But together they combined, which is exactly what this is meant to make us think about. I would also say dan is not strong enough that mac and cheese maybe like blue Box is probably like the original form. Yeah.

I think when you get to like.

A Velveta level, that's probably second form, where it's like, okay, we've added a cream, it's not powder anymore. There's actual cheese in this. And then the final form I've got one sorry, might be uh okay. When you go to a festival and they have mac and cheese balls fried on.

A stick, that's pretty good.

It's like all of the cheesy goodness it's on a stick and it's been depried. Yeah, they've they've combined so many different forms of food that are for people who want to hurt themselves and they put it in an easy, convenient, walkable form.

For Nebiolo would definitely be longa nebiolo, and then barbaresco, then barolo.

That's a that's an easy one. Johnny Walker is an easy one. You go from like red to black, the.

Blue Snave would be just normal Russo the de Monto Plciano, and then it would be ve No Russia and Multipolciano is not sand As, I'm embarrassed, just regular, and then it would be Kianti and that would be Brunello or maybe Vino Nobile.

Grown in there.

Damn, you need to go to the bathroom.

Oh sorry, I was trying to meet my mic conder.

The morning you've had, I don't think you should be, uh a crying wolf right now?

Yeah, there, there's got to be like, uh, I don't want to do wrestlers because that wouldn't make any sense to me.

Yeah, there's definitely one of that.

Yeah, like a you know, maybe like Stealth series where like, you know, the ultimate would be Middle Year, the middle One.

What about yours your favorite? Uh double O seven.

Mmm? Uh scenes with Zenya on the top of them?

Okay, son scene is the ultimate evolution? Oh really, I would go. I would go the crush.

I guess the basic one is when she just kills that dude.

Yeah, crushes the.

First one, and then maybe the hell gun orgasm and then yeah or guns.

Yeah, yeah, I think so they all work. I mean, yeah, I be. I would love to. I think she would.

Come on, what about the bedazzled lady?

I mean gimmicks there's there's Yeah, she's got the.

Uh fidazzle outfits. Oh, the devil thing, when she got the desk that's oh yeah, and sitting on the car and then uh yeah, wait because he has more of the gangs. She's just a devil all the time.

Wait. No, she's like a teacher here. Oh yeah, you got.

Okay, the snake one yep, yeah, yep, oh I have one. We should we should put Fomky Johnsen and Elizabeth Hurley in like in a in a ring.

Don't you dare?

What?

What what do you mean? Don't I dare?

Can't pick a winner there, I'm not saying I I'd say they would decide who wins. They'll fight, no fight, Oh come on, don't ruin this for me.

Keep say I'm telling you he's the final evolution of Sika.

I absolutely am. They will come back if we come up with any other good ones.

There's got to be. There's probably some good ones, but we have got to be good ones. We have a couple of other questions. Keep that back of mine while we do these next questions. I'm gonna do this one. Hey, Fire, people love the podcast, haven't missed an episode in three years, and you are a light in a dark, dark world.

I'm a man who likes to drink.

I turned twenty one a few years ago and don't feel embarrassed to order any drink I see in the menu. Alcohol is alcohol. It gets the job done. Some people, though, are overly critical about drink choice, for example, saying a type of whiskey or bourbon isn't a good choice, making fun of choosing white wines over red wines, calling different mixed drinks more masculin than others, and it makes no

Sure okay, so I yeah, just.

Immediately, No, no, not at all. You're not as bad as him.

There was definitely a time I was like that in every way with my dad.

Don't was the final form of shaming for what they drink.

If Paul is the charizard of like lowbrow whoa and Dan, let's say Dan, you would be charmander. What's who's the charmion between you two?

A cigarette?

Uh?

Hank Hill, I don't know. Is a cigarette with eyes?

That's just it's just a cigarette judging you with eyes.

And you're better about this and like to be to be clear, I would rather someone be scoff at highbrow stuff than like, think something.

Better than something like that ship Mike and I give backlership with the craft beer stuff. Well, no, there's a difference there because Mike, you will have a butt light with me. I've done that a million times. And you don't look down your nose at all is a billion percent.

Like, might as well drink a can of piss. You should just drink some piss because that's what you're drinking.

But like like.

When you were first really getting into hard Seltzers like four years ago or whatever, and we were at his house, I think he was making fun of you for it.

Like a white claw. He'sis you can of piss? Sure? Yeah?

Backlar is a hipster. Yeah, he's totally that crap beer guy, like for real. Yeah, so he is the look down on people. Get Mike, as much as we give you, you're not, You've never.

I'm dude, I'm not afraid to dive into the mud and.

Frog around shotgun a beard. Yeah yeah, it's you're cool though.

I will all the rest of us.

Oh yeah, I fucking love it. I'll dumpster dive. I literally ran into a bunch of trash cans and dove into them. But the first time Dan hung out in my neighborhood twenty nineteen here, yeah, I know you're Yeah. We I In terms of like things that people do to wine that a lot of people scoff at, Like if you want to put ice in your white wine or rose fucking who cares if you and if that makes you enjoy it more.

Than that example. For me, that's a good example of that.

As I do, I should, I should not, I should just want people to enjoy it more and maybe buy more of it and drink it however they want. And if you want to have red wine with fish, it could probably be better if you had white wine fish, but whatever, fuck it, it's you're ordering it.

I think I went to college in the early two thousands, and back then it was just you had to think about every drink because like everybody was so quick to be like that drink, you ordering that drink means you are gay or a girl like that was just absolutely.

Homophobic as hell, and someday you'll be laughed out of a tavern.

Yeah worse.

And like I would want to get like, oh this thing actually, like I like the taste of this thing or this like green apple shot or whatever. Everyone's gonna call me gay, so like and so like that was a great thing. When you realize you get old enough, me gay problem and it's like drink the thing that tastes good.

You know, I'm gonna swirl my wine, I'm gonna stick I'm gonna and I'm gonna.

Get flexus to order the drink that you like and just be like that.

Then fine, I'm I'm super gay, I'm flaming and and I'm happier and I'm freer than you, dude.

Honestly, the patriarchy is like the biggest chains in the world.

I couldn't imagine not ordering what I want because someone would call me gay. That is so sad, not just for the person who's ordering that's afraid, but just for men in general, that you can't be yourself because someone is going to say that you're gay and that and that is like not good.

It's like who cares?

And the bar it is just was so low too, Like if you've got a March teeny, which I was not ordering Martine when I was young, but like now, I know them to be a very strong, maybe in some ways masculine drink, but they would have made fun of me so much if I got a Martine.

I heard a Martini near my dad today.

He was like, you.

Take a Martine, Just drink a normal beer like a real guy.

Like a real guy I think is like ultimate toxic masculinity energy. Yeah, that's that's the final form as your toxic masculinity is so sad. Yeah, so it says like what drink can you order? Some people think I was thinking, like Mike, you were getting really good examples with with wine right with where you could put ice in it, and it's like who cares for uh.

Mixed drinks.

I think it was always having a decent liquor, maybe like jamison, but then adding something to it that would take away how that liquor tastes. And so like a jamison and coke was something that people would make fun of me for because it's like, well, and you're not tasting the jamison, you're tasting like a.

Very sugary coke or ginger ale or whatever it is.

The mixer with a nice liquor is something that I got shipped for when I was like in my early twenties because I wanted something sweeter.

Yeah.

I mean to answer the question, if there's something you could if you were curious, what you could order to make people think you're better than them. Martinis are very in style right now. If you want to go a step further, order at Gibson. If the bar even has cocktail onions, it's a martini but with a cocktail onion instead.

As a vukure.

It's what.

It's awesome. It's apparently used to be way more common. It's whiskey, brandy, and I'm forgetting maybe some bitters. I forget the third one is, but it's kind of like a French old fashion, but it like, despite the fact that it's French. I think it actually started as a pretty like speak easy underground drink.

Actually good, probably something that you have to tell the bartender how to make it because.

It's so unique.

I really wanted to Alaska, and Alaska would do the trick. A lot of bartenders do not know what that is.

Alaska.

It's just our team, but with sharkshroofs instead of Vermouth and Chartsrus is in short supply and kind of expensive right now in America, so that might make you look like informed. And then when they don't know what your Alaska, whether in Alaska is, you can make fun of the people they made fun of you.

I've been surprised because, like, as I've gotten into cocktail making and stuff like that, Like one of the mo most common ingredients I've seen is orghot, which is that like almost syrup and like to like big mellows drink, And I'll ask, oh, yea, do you guys have orgot here?

And like some people working at liquor stores won't know what it is. I'm like, is this sorry?

I can't hear you with that dick in your mouth? Can you please say that again?

Yeah? Yeah, it's well, it goes by. I think fewer people. Some people would not even recognize it as or shot. They would just be like, oh, you want like decerna, yeah, we have tons of that. Or it's a bit different, right, they are a type of It's not like it's.

A type of shot. But if you can buy a.

Shot that like there's just the almonds syrup that doesn't have the like like a liquor content in it, right, because I buy that off Amazon.

You can't just buy like liquor off Amazon.

Uh, No, or shot usually has alcohol if you want to get like almonds syrup. I don't think it's technically until.

It is alcohol is just such a low percentage that you can buy it.

You might, I mean, I might be wrong. I didn't think it's or shot unless it actually was a liqueur as well almond syrup.

Well then all this stuff I've been using this Tranni almond. Uh yeah, I don't do the same thing flavor wise, but I yeah, I don't know. I'm I completely could be wrong. I just didn't think it was shot. If it's zero alcohol, yeah's the stuff I buying an Amazon is just yeah, almond, orgot syrup, turani no alcohol.

Weird, but like shot more in my life, it's a fun word and it is to say orgy it. And then I heard someone say it correctly. I'm like, oh, man, I think the low brow one here you corrected me, Mike, Yeah, I don't think I corrected you.

I don't think I.

Guess it goes to or over here.

Yeah, heard you. You just said it correctly.

And I was like, okay, I'm gonna say I for all the you know, the times I play up the highbrow stuff, I make it a point to never just outright correct someone because I hate that guy.

I will a thousand percent back you on that. Like you're actually really good about that.

Yeah.

Yeah, And everyone who said that it was Balatroe can suck my dick.

I don't care.

First of all, I'm not doing that. Second of all, shut up, I don't care. I'm not dealing with you right now.

Wait is that how it's supposed to be said?

I don't care.

No one does it.

I refuse to answer the question.

I didn't.

I mean, I know it's Italian technically, I didn't know if like there's a I mean, I don't speak Italian.

So associated with it.

I'm learning a watra.

Rolls off the tongue, off the tongue. Yeah, I think about Yeah.

My dad when he ordered drinks, he told me one of his favorite drinks when he was in college was a Harvey Wallbanger, which I love that name.

I think it's fun.

Oh yeah, it's good and it's a very classic drink. It's vodka orange juice, but it has a little bit of Galliano in it, which is kind of that like black liquorice.

She tastes. So it's not for everybody, ya.

It gives you a little bit of a twist on the classic uh screwdriver.

Screwdriver? Thank you?

And a lot of bartenders will be like, Harvey Wallbanger, it sounds so familiar, but they won't know. But I think it's a flex to go into a bar and say I want a Harvey Wallbanger, because when the bartender knows, they've obviously they're obviously a drinker and has been in the game for a long time.

Because it's an old school drink. I think it's a classy looking drink.

But let's be real here, it's just vodka orange juice, which gives you that sweetness.

It's totally fair.

I think that you'd be hard pressed for someone to make fun of you for ordering a Harvey Wallbanger.

Also, it sounds.

Cool, yeah, mm hmm, it's uh.

I also will say two other things that's reminded me of. A bartender at a pretty prestigious cocktail bar in New York said that they include photos of what the drink is going to look like in the glass, because every once in a while, a like guy who is maybe they're on his first date or something kind of complain when you bring it to it. Bring it to him in like a feminine glass, Yeah, like a long stem glass with like some flowers in it and stuff.

So I was like, they hear that much.

It's like, dude, they'll send it back and ask you to put it in a different drinks or like in a tumblr.

Glass or I think that happens all the time.

And this is like a this is a like well known like world, like prestigious cocktail bart and even they have to deal.

With, like the patriarchy run so deep in our society you can see it fucking everywhere. The idea that the vessel in which your drink comes in could maybe make you gay is.

Because it's too fat fat glass.

Yeah, it is so sad to me.

And I actually I pity people who like bullied whoever, like uh, like just going back to Nathan here, like that is that is more of a reflection on the people that are making fun of you than it ever is of like whatever you have ordered. And I think it is a really sad reflection of someone who thinks who wants to make sure that no one thinks they're gay by saying like, hey, whatever you order, I am, I am observing it with great interest so that I can ensure everybody knows how super manly I am. I

Yeah. But yeah, I mean as Nathan or as we already said, like if you have a friend who's like giving you shit for stuff like that, and it's not just a bit and it's an ongoing thing, then oh, maybe they need to get some stuff off there.

Order them a Seaman spritzer.

Yeah, that'd be great and ask the bartender for the real thing. They'll know what you mean.

That's a great thing about getting older is that you just be so selective with like, Okay, I'm not gonna have anyone in my life that's doing that ivy ship versus like you're living in the dorms, you're going to parties and it's like, well, this is the that's around me, and like, wow, a lot of them are assholes, you know, like we don't have to deal with that when you get older.

I had this conversation with a man the other day.

I was like, I don't.

I mean, I think we have exercised all of the like those people out of our life completely. Like we looked around the other day, We're like we really genuinely love all the people we.

Hang out with.

That's wonderful.

I think that's also an evolution, right, Like maybe your first stage of friendship is like, hey, I'm.

In middle school.

Whoever's around me, I hope they like me because I'm very sensitive.

I am a baby.

And then the second evolution of that is college, which is like, I know a little bit about myself, but I also desperately want to be liked by you. And the final stage is somewhere around mid thirties, where you're like, actually, don't give a flaming fuck yeah anymore about anything. I'll cut you out so fast because it's my comfort in my happiness is pure.

And I think that is like the ultimate victory.

Yeah, oh, Charmander, Charmelian, Charzard. It would be old fashioned. Uh huh uh a sazarak okay. And then as the chars are, some people might argue the sasak is the chars are.

I could. I would hear that out. I would hear them argue with them, you are so gay, God, damn what you look like? Come back.

Like dick shaped glass.

I'm not, I'm not. I'll do that guy in college, Ye, twenty of those guys.

Slam and ass left and right, all right, Mary, I want to read this one from Yeah.

Got you? I did Zephyr.

I did cut out a bit just for time constraints, but I left the spirit intact.

Cool.

I know exactly this is high fire Escape team. This is Zephyr from Mary's Mary Monday twitch streams.

How cool.

Thank you for I think I told you to do this. This is very cool. People who watch me play.

Silent Hill right now on my Monday streams asked me questions and I said, that's a fire escape question.

Send it it.

They also said something really nice about Kneval, which I think is worth mentioning. Create gaming stream of my own called Crossing Chords on YouTube. It ran for four years and it was an absolute blast, and I think that's really great, Canevil. Not only I'm glad it inspired you, it actually inspired us in many ways to make this podcast.

One of the things is, like Mike and.

Dan were very close from working, especially in the New York office. You guys got really close. But what made Mike and I very close was Knieval. We worked in the office together like everybody does. We all have like work companions and friendships, but it was Knieval. I think that's like when we really learned and tested our friendship. It's like where we had our first fight.

Yeah.

Yeah, so where we had our first fight.

It's where we like really kind of bonded and learned to trust each other to a certain degree. Kannevl's kind of like where it all start. I think without Caneval this podcast would not exist, and probably not so you.

Were out all the time together, but like in terms of like professional creative endeavors, yeah, I think we learned where we can definitely push each other a bit too much. Maybe not these days, but at that time I was more of a hot head.

Yeah, and I'm a button pusher, there's no question.

I mean, I know I've learned boundaries from our friendship where I've recognized that I will almost say anything for a laugh.

And it is.

It has happened multiple times in my life where my friends have said, hey, you actually hurt my feelings and I'm like, I need to fucking sit down.

You have said so many awful things about me, and I've never had my feelings hurt.

Why. I think it's I know, Dan, you are very patient. Well, I think we're both patient with each other. I'll say that because you're actually a real son of a bitch. I have said some vile things to you this year. I do believe that you've earned them.

But I dick stones.

You could have messaged me on the side and been like, actually, that was very rude and possibly too too personal, and.

You've never done it.

I've never even considered did.

For a second a smile on your face something I think human soul. I thought to kill your dog during good of the year.

No, I extanded it really well, and the next morning, as we were like packing up our ship, I said, I am sorry I threatened to kill your dog.

No, I would never kill your dog, right, And Dan was like, dog, don't even mention it.

How me get in my hooper and everything, And I was like, I'm really sorry I threatened to kill your dog.

I still think about You're not important enough to be this annoying. I think that is one of the most perfectly crafted insults I've ever heard. My Yeah, that's really good, fantastic.

It's a really brutal one.

I heard somebody else write in and say, like, uh that earlier we had someone write in and say your soul is cat piss is now in my lexicon, And I think that that's also really sweet that other people have found my insults to you not only tantalizing and brutal, but something that could actually be utilized in their every day You sent to them like go forth and prosper.

But you're like the Tony Hinchcliff of fire Escape, is what I say, Mary?

Is not you?

Yeah, you're the roast specialist. Yeah, I'm the really like cerebral, intelligent joke the podcast comic.

What if I used the prop.

Eight know?

I don't know who I am?

Yeah?

Yeah, people always say I'm like a mix of uh Bilburr, a bit of George Carlin, Eddie Murphy and yeah all the big ones all did we finish the question or.

Onto the question?

During Mary's stream last night, I asked a question she thought would be good for the podcast That is exactly what happened. What is the cruelest thing you have encountered in a game? Just a total dick move by the developers? For example, she is in the middle of Silent Hill to remake and opening a complicated box involving multiple locks

Zephyr, Thank you, Zephyr.

I got a good one.

Okay, the coreux seeds in breadth the wild there being a golden piece of shit that does nothing. Yeah, it's the craziest nine things you have to get, and you assume it's got to be a fucking master's sword you can surf on across the land.

Like an unbreakable sword.

Yeah. Yeah, it's a fierce deity mask that. Yeah. No, it's a golden piece of shit that you can't do anything. What do they actually call it? What is its item name? I forget? Yeah, I don't we want to talk about that? So fucking funny the uh.

I guess anything like Dark from software does that often, especially like I feel like the first time I because if you're talking like the evolution of dark souls, you can't not start with demon souls. Demon souls did some of that, but it was really sends Fortress and dark Souls where they could tell when you're on your last legs and you're out of flasks, and then all of a sudden, this boulder just comes out of nowhere down a stairs stairway and smashes into you, and you're dead.

Is it a Ocarina the Fire Temple where there's those doors where it just looks like a normal door and just falls over you.

No, yeah, it like headbuts you and wobbles. Yeah, there's a lot of Zelda stuff, you like even Metaphor does the monsters that are living in treasure chests that then come out and suck up your whole party.

Yeah, yeah, I like.

Arcane does that a lot in like Prey the mimic stuff, or they'll just put explosive barrels all around this one thing that you need to get to very carefully in a tense situation.

Disrespectful too. I'm trying to think of like a nice old school exam.

Well.

I think that culturally, one of the biggest ones was mass effect of like having a game franchise that was all about choice, and then the final game had basically three very similar ends and so I think that was a bit of defeatist to have a game that was all about story and then just not have that that matter.

I think yeah, that was more they fucked up, yeah, than like the yeah messing with you, but I it is.

But I mean I think.

Zelda does that a lot. It's like, oh, look at this great item you got and it's just like a wooden stick.

Yeah, like not so triumphant, you know.

Yeah, I win Waker did stuff like that. Often there's from software just all over it, like Eldon Ring does that a lot. You'll do a really difficult dungeon and then the reards like they have to know this sucks.

Even like linked to the Pass where it's like, oh, this thing hits you and then you're a fucking bunny. They can't do anything. It's like, oh great, this is fun.

You know.

It's like the beginning of Indie when that dude ditches you and then he runs through and it turns out he just got speared. Yeah, Like it's the shit like that where you think you're out and then all of a sudden they fuck you up. But yeah, there's definitely I enjoy when developers can pull that off because like usually they it's in a game that is so well crafted otherwise that it works, it's funny and then not actually frustrating. Yeah.

Yeah, I would think that metal Gear would do that to the player. Does that ever happen in metal Gear? Where it's like setting you up for a big thing, then it's like, ah, go fuck yourself.

Uh there's fun thing.

Oh you O.

There's stuff where it's like, uh, I think it was in the old ones where you would get an item but it would have like like a snake in it or worm like you get like I'm getting this wrong, but it's like you get an apple and it would have like a worm in it or something, and it would go through and eat all of your rations and eat all of your health items until you realize it

What the fuck is that?

Oh the thing I put if it's a fucking bombit and you gotta throw it out, Like, yeah, there's some fun stuff like that.

Yeah, anytime it does.

The Fourth Wall type stuff where like you know, the the Sorrows River and Meddle of your Solid three where you have to like basically just kill yourself and at the game over screen you have to revive yourself.

Like weird stuff like that.

Yeah, I'm trying to think of other ones that are just like massive fuck us. I'm sure there's even achievements that are also fuck used, right where it's just like the waste of time achievement, or like you've wasted your life trying to get all these pieces and bits and bobs, and it's just like we know that you've put way too much time into this game, sir.

All right, well, thank you, Zephyr and Nathan and Joseph. All right, Well that's our last episode of twenty twenty four. We're three away from one hundred. We gotta start making plans for that. We gotta got some talks, but we gotta.

We'll do something. It's funny, yeah, yeah, we have to have a gimmick.

Spent a good year? What were your favorite Dan? What was your favorite fire Escape moment? Can you remember from twenty It's.

Always just such a blur, I mean, but the thing that always stands out is the Game of the year, like having you guys here, and yeah, you know, just the way we cram so much fun stuff into just like a short weekend where like, you know, it's nice dinners like the Tyson fight this time was a nice thing to be timed with that and then just hanging out, you know, sitting on the deck making a fire dogs.

Oh, that was a fun tradition and I look forward to it every year now.

Yeah, it's really good. So that stands out. We got to go to Portland this year too.

Yes, yes, that was special for me because much like Mike's party last year, I think it's very special for us to do something that actually isn't about the podcast or about our jobs, but just about seeing each other and reminding each other that we actually like each other's company and we like spending time with each other, and I like spending time with your.

Partners, and it's just kind of great to.

It is always wonderful, no matter what the excuse is, whether it's the podcast, whether it's Game of the Year. I love seeing you, But I think the most special is when it's like, do you guys just want to come to Portland and see this crazy double waterfall with me, and you're like yeah, and.

We're all good about like knowing what trip, like if we're doing a trip like the New York meetup thing, so like that's a fire skift trip. We're making content, we're doing side stuff for the Patreon. But then there's one two where it's like this is a friend trip. You know, this is like we don't even like consider like let's squirrel away and make a podcast or whatever, Like I think it's important in what we do todes.

We didn't even take a photo.

There's only one photo of us from the Portland trip, and I actually don't know whose camera it's on, but it's at night and we're at a fire. Dan is wearing nothing but a towel ands on.

No.

I had a like you could just be laying out long at any time.

But it looks weird because we all got out of the pool and we said, oh, we're gonna go sit by the fire, and so I grabbed a beer. I went by the fire like we said, and you guys went back and changed change. So all of a sudden, you guys are wearing normal ass clothes. I'm in like towels are a robe with swim trunks underneath. There's no dong risk there. But I just it looks weird in the photo, me just full on.

You know.

That's why it never came out.

It's because it looks like I'm just being weird.

Looks like you're just naked for some reason, and everybody else is clothed.

They are full swim trunks down underneath. I'd risk no dong slippage.

There's no proof.

Yep, I got my camera cannot look crystal clear?

Yeah?

Can I send it out?

Send it to me? Why is it still focusing on me? What is my camera down? Your new camera?

Send it? Send it to me.

And you can't see it. You can't tell from the photo.

But my my shirt pocket and a lot of creases in my clothes are full of goldfish because Dan kept filling my creases with goldfish. I forgot about like fat shirt pocket of goldfish. There's all four of us.

Okay, nice, one of these days did change at that point? Am I still just wearing here?

Now?

You changed in the marine layer?

Sure?

I think? Okay, seamoon right there? You can't see it. Yeah, It's been a fun year. It was a busy year.

I'm looking forward to next year to travel nearly as much for leisure stuff. I get to just hang out more.

I'm hoping. I mean, I'll be traveling for work. I mind up for early in the year. I think I actually might just be able to be home for a while. That'll be nice.

Yeah, I hopefully soon we'll have my full Irish citizenship and thus EU citizenship. I think I'm at the final step based on stuff I've read. Uh, now I just have to fight a leprechaun and then beat on nice and then I'm a citizen. Going to Ireland. I think in the spring, maybe early summer.

Nice.

Maybe maybe you go maybe get even more annoying about wine. That's my new year's resolution.

Yeah, you got I love it. You should text my dad more. Yeah, I've been about wine.

About wine.

Me and him talk about wine a lot. Yeah, it would really brighten his hotel room to have does have nice some veno, just just wine and cigarette smoke. I want to get the hotel address and his room number and send him bottles of wine.

Oh god, yeah, I know.

May he would hate that. Maybe it'll it'll be what propels him to go get a house. He has to get out to get out.

Of this space the house, and then he sells that house to keep it from doing that. Yees.

He goes into a bunker, which I've already stocked with wine.

That's that's the Pokemon evolution of fall record living situations, as bunker is the last one.

I'm going to advertise a bunker that someone can live in and purposely get him to move in. It turns out just my wine cellar you live. Yeah, yep, we both do.

Mary, What do you have going on outside of the show of ours?

Trying to finish uh?

But up Silent Hill too.

Was trying to say Portal Silent Hill two. I don't know where Portal came from.

They're very similar, same developer.

Yeah, same quirky humor. Anyway, I'll probably try and finish Silent Hill two.

Uh.

And because it's usually I like to have a game while I'm on break, I need to actually find the game that I'm going to pour lots of hours into to beat before. It usually is a Zelda, because you know, you could just put mad hours into Azelda and enjoy it. But I don't have a backlog of a Zelda that I need to get through, so I'm actually not sure what my Christmas break game should be.

Where you at with Mario stuff?

I like the Mario. I think I'm more of a Metroid Vania person, is like my favorite place to be. But I love obviously.

Do you play Metroid Dread?

Uh?

Was that the remake?

Oh?

I haven't wait, Sorry it was, but it was a remake of the original.

It's original zero mission that they have done remakes.

But they did metroc Prime remaster, but is a brand new one switch specific new one.

I think that could be good for me.

I would love to hear your thoughts on that.

Okay, let me let me look it up on the switch, because I yeah, I usually I take my steam Deck everywhere, so it's kind of weird.

To be like dusting off the old switch.

I haven't. I haven't.

I haven't looked at that in four years. Like I've forgotten what it even is.

I got my year in review stuff from all the big platforms. It's like, I barely touched this thing this year.

I don't know what it is.

It's still outdated. It just has no value anymore.

Dan, what are you have going on?

Odd holiday stuff? But yeah, I'm on Blue Sky, Instagram, Twitch, I do think. Yeah, looking like next year, early next year, I might be able to stream a little more frequently. So yeah, hoping to take a little easy after a very busy year.

I played dread God. Damn it. I played the shit out of this game. It's really good, it's really fun. Moss fights.

The last boss fight is like such a song. At some point I was like, I don't know if I want to beat this anymore.

What else do you got for me?

Mmmmmmm? Turn to think games from recent I mean, are you up for going old?

Yeah?

Interesting? Okay, so that's Zelda.

She played Zelda like old school Zelda's, but I think I've caught up. I don't know if there's any Zelda's I haven't played anymore.

I would say Snake Eater if there wasn't a remake coming out soon. Obviously, got Resident Evil taken care of.

I always like looking for like a hidden gem that you could just pour like thirty hours into.

Okay, I'm looking at my top one hundred games of all time.

Okay, thank you find one here?

Okay, all right, thank you. I want to go down until she hasn't played one Okay, well, I mean Mario, it's gonna be a lot of old stuff.

It's all Mario.

All right, here's my top one hundred games of all time. Okay, here's the list. We're gonna start from the top. Bret the While, Link to the Past, Yeah, okay, Mario World, Meddle, your Solid Soul Calle or some of these.

I've never played any uh not, Mario. I've never played a Metal I've never played a Metal game.

Do you know the story at all? I know that nobody knows the story.

Try.

Kayla just went through all them for the first time.

And what else you got?

My caveat that.

I think I would be very interested to see what Okay, I guess if you play the Blue Point Collection, then the controls are.

A bit more collection thing.

Yeah, yeah, I'm assuming that's what Kayla played.

Yeah, she played the Master Collection. Okay. Do you play Link between Worlds? Marry the three D s? Zelda?

Do you go into paintings as like a two dimensional.

I started it, I don't think I finished it, which is odd one. Okay, finish it.

It's it's really, really, really good. I have a lot of old games on this list. Weird play Total War Warhammer three?

What else you got.

And super very old Mary.

We should finish resume before remake sometime soon.

Dude, you, why is that on me?

You're the busier one.

No, I'm not busier than you are.

I think we're both equally busy.

But we got we should.

Let's finish finish.

I'm away this week.

I'm free next week.

Okay, I should be as well.

All right, let's finish it. Dan, name me more games.

Look to my entire list and they're just all very old. I don't know if they're the ones you want to go.

For right now. Like play like Bloodstain. If you like Metro a Venus, that sounds awesome, that's a really good one.

Yeah, okay, I really think God Med you're would be so fun to hear you talk about.

I don't know if you would be able to stomach a lot of the like dated design stuff, but.

That's interesting to hear about. Yeah, it is.

But I just don't even know if Mary would fight through it.

I don't think I would. I've played I've played Ritual of the Night.

That's the one, that's the main one.

Okay, I've played that. It's so good, The evolutions of the character crazy. All right, I'll keep thinking, and then I'll let you know the next time we record. What game I poured forty hours into?

You played the Mario Galaxies?

I mean I've played Mario Galaxy.

Is there more? There's Galaxy too, which is better?

Oh?

Very good?

Maybe that'd be kind of you'd have to pull out a Wii for that, a little forgettable.

Yeah, uh, I don't think metal Gear is right there. You would love your top mettal Gear.

No, No, because that would feel too much like a project. I think I don't know if it is a lot, it's so dense.

Although I have been thinking about replaying Phantom Pain lately.

I've been thinking about doing peace Walker. Oh interesting, do you have to pain?

Though?

Like has that first like ten hours?

That could be a slog, But then once you're in the like open world gameplay loop, then it's great.

What's the final evolution of metal Gear? Which game.

Four just kind of ties everything together? I mean, if the evolution of gameplay, it's five, But as far as just the metal geariness, it's four.

I think I'd say Snake Eaters Charmellion, and then Charmander would be the first game.

I wonder if Slime Rancher got better. Maybe I'll just pour forty hours to some kind of cozy ranch game. Yeah, that sounds awesome.

Stard just dropped another update like last week.

Did they though, because now they're just release updates.

But it's the same game, and you're just like, but you can fuck in it and it's just like I don't care, Like.

What what else do you have?

That's the one that brought me back.

Bully.

I've never played Bully.

Bully's really good. Okami. There's HD versions of that.

I played Ocamy okay, Okay, I was proud of beating. I beat that way late in my life. But I have I have completed Okami.

It's eight Paper, Mario thousand your Door.

I don't think I've done Paper, but they.

Got that remake and it's on got that remake and it's it's really it's still very funny, I think, Mary, but it is. And you know, I don't like RPGs, but the charm and the gameplay, like the turn based stuff is very good. I know, I know, like I don't like rbgs either, but this is a good one.

All right.

Just let's offline the rest of this. You got you got suggestions.

We're not done yet now you're still scrolling through giant lists of games.

Yeah, great radio, But anyway, thank you to everybody. Uh, just backchecking a bit. You can go to fires right into Fires, No, that game is not that great.

Fire Escape Cast.

Gmail dot com rending questions. Also, if you're not a patron and you want to get ad free episodes or video versions, you can go to fire Escape pass dot com. That that'll take you to our Patreon. You can also just treat it like a tip jar. If you appreciate what we do, I want to contribute. Uh, pat Treon money is what makes the Game of the Year possible every year and never too early for us to start

Replay Outer Wilds. Mary.

They had that new DLC and they have like the they have like twelve hours of new content, and that two years ago that DLC that came out Forgetting It was called.

I think I would like to replay Outer Wild's like what a fantastic here.

I think I've forgotten enough about the intricacies of the puzzles that it would still be a bit.

Like discovering it.

I think I would have to replay like how to I remember how you eventually have to like get to the final area. I don't think that I'll ever forget that. But there's there's my new Shawn different planets that I have, you know, left my memory. Yeah, you can go to fire skatear dot com if you wanna. Do you want to get We don't have bumper stickers yet that say uh, fuck my way out of Heaven, but we'll get there. That's fire Skate Fire skate Merch dot com. Anyway, that's

I played Time Crisis too. I loved it.

Also good game.

Yeah all right, well I'm gonna cut this off because I'm getting annoyed.

Pick Man, which one I've played the latest.

All right, I went for We'll be back on episode ninety eight.

Thank you so much, everybody, We'll see you then, Sean cut this off here, Hi, everybody paid for Jade Empire