815: REVENGEANCE

Hey, Vengeance. It's Friday. That's right, the podcast is back for revenge We've covered at the end of At the end of like the theme tune playing, someone has to shout revengeance to differentiate it. Yes, we we should just have someone just going hold on, let me okay, let's turn that button on, let's do this. Okay, wait, revengeance, vengeance. Every single time we just do like a little bit of audio poison right off the top that for people to just really hate and get into the opinions,

which people will love. You know, people are saying, I'm a very positive and on the internet, and someone has to be. But I'm not about being toxic positivity. I'm about being toxic and positivity. So that's both sides of the coin here. So let's start with hate and then we'll get to the positive stuff later. You know, it's like a toxic positivity is a thing for sure. You're like one of those Amazonian tree frogs that like are so bright and colorful because of their toxicity. It's nice, exactly.

I shine bright like a dime. I heard that song lyric by Rihanna, and I'm like, that's me. It's me, It's me. It's me Jan Ochoa, host of BombCast. Now it just sounds like I'm like ordering something over a drive through. It does sound like that. It's fun though. I like it. I like it all right? One, Oh I can, I can? Yeah, just do Revengeless of an echo. I mean it's pretty good. That's not that's not nothing. That's not nothing. That's not nothing joining me as always is not Jeff Grubs, So he's

not joining me today. It's like the mus the vocal muscle memory kicked in of doing a bomb cast. But you know who is always here, the rock the drop shadow that makes us all look good, Jeff Beckler. What I was not expecting my name to follow that build up. That is very charitable of you, Jam, It's true, it's true. To me. That felt like one of the meaner things I've heard Jan say. Really, drop shadow makes everything look better? Yeah, no, No, it's because

it's got your back. It's always there, always copy that style. Yeah yeah, Beckler is always wearing he's your boss. Wait a minute, Wait a minute, wait a minute, was this bad? Are you telling me

understanding what's a compliment and what's not? I'm having We have him on the ones and two slamming on that soundboard like he's Daniel's son and karate Kid won two and then Cobra Kai two more who's saying exactly and that's what we're trying to do and making her debut on BombCast Bailey Myers, Hello, Hello, Hello. Would you like so if I were to call you the drop shadow of this crew, you'd be offended? Yeah, and you'd be wrong. Also, I gotta say drop shot. It's pretty cool. Wow. See

now that felt I know, an insult. That felt certainly like an insult. The first one flew under my radar. This one was like a shot in the heart. Drop shadow is pretty cool though. If I was like, if that's a cool, like what a good name for it is? Maybe like a wrestling finishing movie. He's gonna do the drop shadow stand back? Yeah? You know, yeah, I've been playing a lot of Sorry, I was just gonna say the universe where that's real? Then sure,

yeah that would be a compliment. Okay, I'm learning, I'm growing, I'm showing growth. I've been playing Call duty as Nicki Minaj a lot. I just want to say good and some of these sound effects are are unfucking believable. I They're the best, and I'm introducing them to a whole new brand of people, and it's really cool. And I never thought I would really enjoy playing as Nicki Minaj so much. But I just want to put this out there. I do think Activision is sleeping on a collaboration that would

go over really well. And buy that team because they face a hockey team. No one cares about you. No, the collaboration they should be doing. I will pivot now is all the HBO properties. Can you are you telling me if Baby Billy was a skin from Righteous Gemstones, Uncle, Baby Billy, are you kidding me? I would I always play Call of Duty if I could play as Tony Soprano? Right, That's what I'm saying.

Imagine Silvio or Paulie Walnuts as fucking in Call of Duty. If we're putting, if we're putting fucking Nicki Minaj in in Call of Duty, we need to do you not think that that Nicki Minaj carries the same cultural weight as Tony Soprano. I I think their neck and neck okay, all right? Who yeah, Like I'm not saying one's better than the other, but I do think if people could play as Silvio in Call of Duty, you would attract an entirely brand new demo of player. That's all I'm saying. It's

great. Call of Duty is in its Fortnite era. That's awesome. Good for them. He a revamp, Well, Larry David's a good one, good call. I mean, there's the whole HBO thing. That's it. It's so easy, it's right there. And Uncle Baby Billy would be amazing, amazing. Mhm. What else is a hot Max property now, especially with like the Discovery stuff you could throw in like a bear grillis perhaps ny Frandresher from The Nanny Done, Cyborg from the the DC movie the black and

white version, and Cyborg from Teen Titans go. Yeah, I can't even remember what that fucking movie, Justice League. Justice League. I'm a DC fan, and that is the most aggressively in my time has been wasted in my lifetime. But yeah, put all of them in black and white only, no color aloud. God, I can't believe I sat through that multiple time is times. Sorry, I was, I just got very lost looking for a very selfish thing to look for. I'm not in that episode anyway.

Uh uh welcome to BombCast Revengeance. You want to you want what else is popping off before we talk about games. I don't want Samantha Jones in Call of Duty. Let's fucking go. That would be sick. Oh yeah, interesting. I could do anything. I could play Call of Duty. I played Alan Wake last night. Let's go, let's do this. I'm in my new trying new games era. We haven't talked about games at Bailey. You're not allowed to talk about duty. I'm not looking at HVO characters.

I mean, yes, all the ladies from Sex in the City. I do think Kendall Roy. Yeah, that's interesting, although the disgusting brothers right, you want to be fucking no, I would want Kendall who tam nailed it, because he's like that kind of dude bro. Yeah, he'd be like loading back. Yeah, imagine and his headphones running around just mumbling all to the o g under his breath, like exactly doing whatever it is

you do Call of Duty. I don't know. I don't have him on a team with like string of Bell and Terry and Lanista and let's let's go there. That is the collaboration of the decade. If we can like if we cannot get that, oh my lord, please Brian Cox in the booth doing fucking Logan Roy voiceovers telling you know, kill confirmed, what the fuck are we waiting for? You know? They they should add my former bosses because I see that that show is now on uh Max, the one to

watch for HBO. They yeah, yeah, that that's true, perfect sense. Anyway, y'all want to talk about video games? Forgot him? I said no. Well then it was like no, we we'd go to break and we we'd go back up for the next segment. You would just be mysteriously gone. Yeah. I Uh. In the ramp up for for Game of the Year, I decided, you know what, you know what I'm gonna I'm gonna conquer this hill. I'm gonna beat several games. I'm gonna

play several games, and then I'm gonna beat them. And then I realized I don't fucking have time to actually beat a game. So you know, that's why I invited Bailey on to neg me and motivate me to finish the actual game. But a couple of games I have been playing, I believe. Jeff Grub chatted about this a couple of weeks ago jus soon. It is a rock climbing or a blaying game, a climbing ring, a boulder ring, please please, a bold take, a bolder like a boulder like,

A bold take on the genre. Uh jue on. It's a it's a neat little game. It's it's a very short one as well. So I think I did beat I'm close to beating this where you were just climbing about three hours in Nice. It's all about climbing. You climb up a mountain and then there's like uncharted style, little handholds, little footholds to hold on to, and that kind of expands as you climb up the mountain and

there are other things to climb onto. The neat thing is that you have these three petons or whatever, like the little climbing hook things, and you set those to wherever you want on the mountain as you're climbing, and those kind of act as your way points and your save points. And when you go from surface to surface, you only have three three of those to latch

onto the surface. And it's neat because I thought at first you were only locked into climbing up and down with the handholds and footholds but then it takes advantage of laying down your piton strategically where you have to do like the rope swing thing and like run back and forth on the mountain side, or you just got to lower yourself like blaying is I think that's what that is. On top of that there you gotta do some some some hot jumps. It

is neat because this there's no enemies in this game. There's absolutely gravity. Just gravity, just gravity, exactly, and your biggest enemy yourself. I love the little blue guy I'm seeing in the photos of that. Oh yeah, little little blue sammy boy. Yeah, a little goofy boy. You should not take a cute little guy rock climbing. That's just my opinion personally. Well, if someone is like as gelatinous as like the little blue boy is and Juan, I'm going to assume that they cannot break any bones.

If they don't have any bones, Okay, you don't have to break bones to die. Jan have your dropped jello? Oh okay, now now I feel bad. Now I feel bad. Yellow like Jan orange yellow exclusively, it's the best flavor. What does jello rarely have flavor? Yes, it's got sugar in it and flavored sugar. What do you say. I've had jello and each time I'm like, this just tastes like it's it's the garbage of its garbage is nothing foods like you know, it's it's it's food puss.

Oh that's not jell is gross, it's total garbage, but vehicles. Jello is yellow is another American sye op where they've convinced the world that it's good, but no one is good. Hello, we have trash for you, and everyone's like, I guess this is good. Sometimes you just want to slurp down something wiggly. Dam come on, there's many things. That's what spaghetti is for. But I'm I've been really digging Juice On. It's on game Pass, so if you have game Pass, it's kind of a

no brainer to check out. It's a nice palette cleanser because I feel like everything else I'm playing is just so either mechanics heavy or story heavy. I'm right on the precipice of finishing Alan Wake two, and I just keep putting it off because I don't want it to end. But Juice On has been

a nice excursion. I don't the problem with the lead up period to Game of the Year is that you are like storming and like bum rushing your way through so many games that some of them aren't sticking at all, or you're just kind of tossing them completely. But jus on sticking in a different way. And I think maybe it's because it gives me that feeling of like, oh, I wish I was outside. I wish I could actually go do this and be outside. But my wish there was some way for me to

be outside. I wonder if it is in this world the most I could one is to be outside bond Fortunately, but my hands are stupid and I can't grip onto things for too long. It's hard. Like rock climbers are just a different breed of human, you know, Yeah, yeah, I I, for the life of me, cannot do it. I try. When I was into bouldering for the hot second I was into it, maybe did like a v one, and then I got to the top, I'm

like, fuck, do you I can't do this anymore? And then I just rolled off another game that I've been playing, and I threw in another three hours into this and I still have no fucking clue what this game is about. I don't understand this. I've also been playing a game, a little game called Little Goody two Shoes. What a Square INNX game. This is a Square NX game. Yes, what So it's that way a top down one, isn't it. It's a weird top down one. I think

it is a survival one. But the main thing that I've been doing in this game as a lease is your main protagonist. Here cut the arts. Cool. The art is very good. It's absolutely amazing. It nails like that Arcade CRT glow on my monitor really well. And I really like the look of everything. It looks like a Arcadie story book. Yeah, it

looks like a yu Gio, like a chiv U yi oh. And I just don't understand what I'm supposed to be doing because the the thing that this game keeps pushing me to do is like, yo, you got to go on dates with all these other ladies, and I'm like, okay, cool, And then it'll do the thing where there are different phases throughout the day. So there's morning, early afternoon, afternoon, evening, et cetera. And as you progress through each portion of the day, it consumes a bread

on your bread meter, and if you run out of bread. You unfingered bread. Okay, that's just what dating women is like. M you know what, You're right, Yeah, yeah, that's that's been my experience. And I don't remember the game explaining that to you, that you had to like stay full the whole time as you're playing the game. So the first segment where I think something major is about to happen happened, and then I woke up, and then I died because I didn't have enough bread. I

was too hungry. I guess that's what being a woman is like. Amen, sister, Amen. But it's it has horror elements to it, and I think it's done really well when like they kick off and everything. It's just the actual flow of the game doesn't feel good because the other thing to progress through the day besides dating ladies is just helping out miscellaneous tasks throughout the town. So this will include something like, hey, go clean this up,

Go get a bunch of apples from me. Mike Minaughty would not be down for that. Another task is go get all of these eggs. And then for some of these side activities, it will want you into a mini game in the style of an old like arcade game like Tapper or something. But they go too But the problem is they go too far. They go too far with it because it feels like garbage is a music good? The music is good. All the wrappings around this game are great, right,

like the visual representation, how everything is. The music's good. It is just the actual playing of the game that is as bad. I think it is supposed to be adjacent to like what's that other top down game? It looks like a Tim Burton joint? Yes, yeah, it's like that, but with dating. I'm on the I'm looking at the developer, Astro Shift, and they say they're an independent game development team which focused on the RPG

genre. A main goal is to send the player on a rich sensorial experience with strong visual and musical elements, as well as mysterious and innovative storytelling. Censorial does it do any of that? Ah yeah yeah yeah, I mean

like the little bits of like the story are really neat. It rolls like a like an anime intro at the top of the game, and then it does the thing where it says the name of the game afterwards like a show would, so it has like its whole like no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, little goody two shoes, and then it's like, oh man, that's great. I wish I like this more mains. I love games. I do that though. Neon White does that. Tokyo Xanadu does that. Just like any any game that gives

me a little bit of a theme song. Every so often, I'm into it. Need that break, It's nice, remind me what I'm playing. The main ride is someone called Evil Hairbrush, which is great. That's neat, that's neat. Okay, right, all right? Has anyone been playing anything else they'd like to talk about? I I've honestly have been playing a lot of Call Duty lately, as you can tell because how good I was

on our stream. And you know that game. It's fun watching normies play it like you guys, because you're right, especially Grub, who's super vocal about how insane that game is. That game is absolutely bananas. Like if you are not exposed to that, it is. It is just like it's like, has it has this? Does does this still have the most dogshit? Ui? Yes, I'm not even paying attention every time I load that

game up, and it's just like, no, I'm done. Yeah, it's somehow like it somehow never gets with year every year passing it somehow gets more convoluted, uh like, and and I'll only reach a point where I can like reliably get to like my load out edit screen, like reliably, and then I forget how to do mostly everything else. And somehow, some way they figure out a new strategy of just really handcuffing you in a really frustrating way. That aside, uh and it is it is a ridiculous game,

But this one, I don't know. There's what the hell's the mode control where it's like a very good game, but inside of Modern Warfare three it's like this this isn't the first time they did it. It's basically like hard point but taking turns uh and you have a finite amount of lives, right, so there's two points that you want to hold down and you run

offense and defense. And I find like there's there's that's been a really satisfying thing to do with my stupid fucking idiot friends, and that's been great, Like We've been having a lot of fun doing that together. And I'm finding that, uh, the the sort of teamwork and the play sort of like playmaking strategy that we had no semblance of in last year's Call of Duty. We're finding it there this year in that mode, and I'm really enjoying it.

And you know what, Like I guess people are really down on the fact that most of these, if not, I think all of the maps are remakes, right, all the maps are remix I believe from other Yeah, basically they're good. Those maps are good. And you know what, if you're like me, you kind of forget what they like really look like and a good you know, fresh coat of pain on this bad boys enough for you to be like reinterested in all that stuff. It's not bad.

You know. Those maps are good because they're good. You know, like you never want to be talking about a game and go, it's not bad looking really a high pitch because that says a lot. Yeah, it does. It says a lot. Where Like I can't recommend people paying for it, you know, I feel like I feel like pretty often we forget that, like people have to pay for this stuff, and I can't. I can't endorse paying for that game, you know, So are you saying you

should steal it? If you could steal it, go for it? You know, I don't know how to do that. I've never done a crime, so never ever done. I don't even know how to do a crime more completely innocent. Who's saying yep, that's what people say about you. I yep, yep, it's true. Barely any interest in checking out Call of Duty or any interest in the past. I'm not really a call of duty person, just because I'm not big on like games of that genre typically.

But I mean again, I just started playing allen Wick too, and I'm not big on horror games, so anything's possible. And I just started playing that fruit drop game and I never dropped fruit. So yes, the world's my oyster here? Yes, okay, this is everyone's been wondering what game am I going to fucking monologue for this year? It might be the stupid fucking fruit game. Anyway, this new is this gonna be your new

Tetris ninety nine? It might be. It only cost me three dollars and I'm really I haven't played it on stream yet, but I'm really excited about it. I got asked Backlar one more question and then we'll circle back to the fruit back Lark. When did war Zone or Call of Duty get so shit? I have a I have a secret. Well, when did it get so bloated and cramped with the UI, because honestly, like we could say it's about the fortnitification of it, of it trying to match Fortnite,

et cetera. But it looks too busy that me watching it yesterday, watching y'all play, I am amazed that you were even able to navigate and join a party together. Warzone sucks. Shit, I fucking hate it. It's the most popular mode for Call of Duty and it's straight dookie. It's it's yeah, it's like people love it. To be fair, people love it and they get really into every time. I feel like I'm losing my mind. I'm just like, this is so annoying in every conceivable way. Yeah,

it's pure uncut doodoo kaka for sure. I was thinking about this the other day. Actually, Like Call of Duty used to have an identity, right, it was something that you could almost write down. You would say, Call of Duty is a video game where you get a four hours, solid, over the top campaign that has memorable moments, and then you have

multiplayer. You don't get that anymore, you like, the latest campaign is just a baffling hodgepodge of like what it's like they took the war zone and like tried to make it a story and it was and it's not good. And then the multiplayer is just a complete clusterfuck for anyone who hasn't been playing it since it first became the clusterfuck. So it's just like, what is the identity of Call of Duty in this day and age? And I don't think I have a good answer for it other than it just exists and if

you like it, lucky. If you don't, you don't. Well, I think I think the multiplayer has an identity still. I agree the campaign. I mean I haven't played through a Call Duty to campaign all the way

through and close to a decade, I bet I agree. But I do think that multiplayer still carries a bit of a personality to it, and I think, and I do think, at the end of the day, like it still works real well, I have a problem with you know, people love to complain about like you know, spawn points and them changing and being super frustrating, and you know, it's obviously a thing they they've kind of struggled with for a really long time, and you know that that would probably

indicate that like, oh, that's probably real hard and it's almost impossible to get right. But I I think pound for pound a technical analysis of how that game plays multiplayer wise, it's pretty fucking good. For what it's worth. It did seem like there was a shift in uh attitude and vibe as soon as you all yesterday switched from playing Won. It's more fun. It's too fun. Modern warfare multiplayer proper, yes, yeah, but it's a

better mode. I don't know what these war Zone freaks are, like drinking. War Zone is just for like the sweatiest of gamers, like totally, that's where they have friends. Totally they are. They have a backwards hat on while they were playing that game. My god, can you imagine being a backwards hat person indoors? Yeah, that's why we're beanies. There's no whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa, there's nothing like that. I'm a backwards person indoors kind of you are, but like you're not. Like it's

mainly because like my hair is out of control. I'm just like I can't. It must be nice, said my fault. You're bold, What the fuck? No, it's not. But it's also you know, maybe something you don't dangle in front of my face all the time, Like I get it. You're like your hair actually, like my my hair has grown so fast since I shaved it in September, like like Stamp shaved my hair. Actually, you need another cut. I can hook you up. I was asked Barbera Jan of like, hey, what do I do? And then

he was like, what if we shave it? Are good? I'm like no, I can't. No one wants to anymore. You can barbierge and quit the game. I thought so too, But then Barbara Jan is still barbaring on the side. You know someone's going how retirement for that? Yeah? Yeah? How is he gonna fund his his his own addictions which are similar, if not almost the same as mine. Does he have a Corgian I have a corgy? Yes? Does he have a crippling Pokemon card addiction? Yes? Do I? Yes? But that is he Filipino? I'm

Filipino? Yes? Is his name Jan? I'm jed. Yes? Is that where the similarities stopped? No? They continue to keep you going. You know I want you know, I want I want Jen. I want to do a cover of the Beach Boys. Barbara and but do it with Barbara Jan He has a deeper voice than I do. So like, I'll just go hard higher Huku lower, Barbier Quartet. Come Onburden, there you go. Oh, I'm gonna clip this. I'm gonna send it over to him. He's gonna get a real kick out of this. Bailey. Yes,

we were talking loosely about the fruit game. Sweaka. I'm assuming we're talking about speak a game. Yeah, sweak a game. Yes. When it comes to a puzzle game like this or like Tetris, does the vibe of it not a puzzle game? Okay? But does the vibe of it change at all when you compare something like Tetris to Tetris ninety nine where there is like a multiplayer component, Yeah, Tetris that doesn't have a multiplayer component for me is much more zen. I'll just like zone out, get really

stoned, make my own Tetris effect happen. I don't need to turn on a game for it. I can do it myself both ninety nine. That is that exists to say, sheime my bloodlust. I do not play Call of Duty. I must murder people in Tetris, and I do regularly,

and it feels great. Uh. I think we we slipped in time with you, Bailey for a second, but I think we caught up now, like very like weirdly emphasized when you went blood lost and then a cut Yeah no, uh yeah no, Tetras nine is good for doing murders and that's not a crime because you've never committed a crime. I've never committed a crime in my life. I got it. It's a couple of years removed now

since you deserve it. That that's what we say about you, Like we go through all of our coworkers in a bullet point list and like, what's what's the new thing we're going to add to them? They're their new aka, uh the dexter of Tetris. Yeah, that's pretty that's actually pretty good. We should put that on shirt Bailey. It's a couple of years removed since when Tetris ninety nine originally released. But how does one get good?

It is? It is? Genuinely, I feel like I'm not good at giving advice about Tetris because it's kind of like asking, like a six year old who can miraculously play Mozart perfectly, how to get good at the piano? Like I don't know. It just comes out of my bones. Are you equating yourself to like an eight year old? Some six year old? Six year old? Do I look eight to you? Please? With this skin tetris? I think you have to remember it is it is not a

puzzle game. It is an action game, and you just have to be fast and able to kill people and afraid of nothing. Okay, all right, well I'm afraid of about organizing blocks. Also focus on organizing the blocks. Keep your box tidy and you'll do great. Hmm, that's what she said. Uh sweaka, though, how are you? How are you enjoying SWEEKA? I'm liking it. I want to be better at it. I'm just obsessed with dropping these fruit. I did just make the green melon happen.

I did start playing a game all you guys were talking about Call of Duty because I just don't care about that game at all. That's okay, that's all right? Response probably, Yeah, it's okay. I'm constantly multitasking. What you what you're playing on? I'm just playing the free browser version, but the one that I'm going to play on stream later today is on twitch yep. What that clicking is? Yeah, you're clicking away. You can hear that. Okay, sure, no, it's fine, click away,

click away. She doesn't even have us like on the Discord call in front of her. It's just like the watermelons, and like, you know, it looks like I'm looking at you, I'm looking at the fruit. Okay, okay, I've never played this game. Should I play this game? I feel fun? Game of the year. I feel like my it's in the back half of the list right now. What is it called again? Sweek a s U I k A, yeah, the cool looking word. Just trying to make the watermelon up here, And that's what I'm constantly

trying to do. What a week for watermelons in gaming? Right? First you have Hans and now Sweeka, Like, that's pretty sick for watermelons in general, the worst possible fruit that earth, What the fuck? What are you talking? Melons are incredible? You just like that because the non whites like it. I'm sorry what you heard me, dude? That is such. That is such a needless fucking thing to say to me about watermelons.

Man, I hate watermelons for reasons well well beyond that, my friend, I'm sure they are I bet you hate mangoes to No, I love mango. Okay, now I'm in this a pointless fucking fruit. What a stupid fruit has all this bullshit inside? What does it have inside that is upsetting to you? All the seeds, dude, all the seeds come another fruit of seeds in it, veins. What it's got like watermelon, like white little veins running through and you're like, oh cool, this string just came

out of my mouth. All we always hate the qualities we see of ourselves and others, don't. I have never eaten a watermelon that has strings coming out. You are eating something that you've been told is a warmlon. It is not a watermelon. This man's eating fucking oranges or some ship raw. And it's like this warmelon sucks. Okay, I'm gonna walk back the vein thing and walk that back a little bit, I'm gonna say. And I think it's insane that there's like those little, weird little white seeds in it,

like the soft ones and then the hard black seeds in it. And don't tell me like, oh they figured out black seeds. Yes, there's white watermelon there are true, that's net to see what eating that's I just see little black seeds and I just like, I don't care about I just pick on my them will take care of it. Bones you eat the watermelon bones is what it sounds like. Well, I wish we could name these

episodes because watermelon bones is an all timer. Who's just we can't. You can eat whatever you want that your little belly will take, but I'm not gonna do that. I don't want to have to work around my fruit being delicious. Here's here's a pro fruit tip. Here's a pro fruit tip. And I love all fruits except boy I'll eat I like watermelon flavor. But it's too much work. It's too much work. But that watermelon pro fruit.

Fruit fruit tip. If you don't like the fruit you're eating or whatever, you have a hard time eating fruit, throw some ta heen on that bad boy. We'll feel in something better. It's it's Trey Magnefik. You go to Disneyland, you go get yourself a dull whip, ask for to heen, and then they'll slide you a couple of packets that I like, pear like honey dew, like cantalope like honeydew, and cantelope all fruits peercied in them. Yeah, but they're not like, they're not hidden. Of

course they did, and they're not watermelon. Have you been playing anything you want to talk about. I've been playing Puzzmo. Have you ever heard of Puzzmo? Oh? This sounds cool, man, I can't get a ticket. Uh. Puzzmo is a collection of puzzle games that I've been bought together. They are the the combined works of Zach Gage. Zach is known for like Type Shift, Really Bad Chess, Spell Tower, and various others.

And what Zach Gage and team have done is collect all of these into like a single place where you click the website and you go in there and there's a bunch of fresh every daily puzzles in there, and you do them, and then you get a daily score and you can add friends and compete with them and have a kind of like a general worldwide leader board as well. The tricky part is that right now, to get in, you need to

be one of the first five hundred people to solve a daily puzzle. I managed to do it, and when I did it, they posted me the key to the game. Well, they posted me, they posted me puzzles, they sent puzzles. Yeah, so I got I got puzzles, and I completed the puzzles, and as part of completing the puzzles, it reveals like certain letters and numbers that fill in the remainder of a key that they

give you, so and that becomes the key that you use. For example, I've got really bad chess hair, which is like a chess thing and it's got four boards in it, and it tells you your players the white h puzzle find the right move to checkmate. And then once you do the right move to checkmate, you get like one, two through four digits that that you can use on the puzzle side to it to unlock it and give yourself entry. And it is it is very very very cool. I just

I just think that's nice. That's neat. I'm trying to get in there. Yep, I'm not smart enough. Maybe maybe it can sharn my way. It's it's it's fairly easy, so and uh and uh. It's it's kind of like an extension of a The New York Times puzzle app, which I'm obsessed with as well. So I am looking for more puzzles. So I was like, yeah, I do the wordl in there. I do the connections, and I do the daily Crossroads connections fux me up so bad.

Some of them are really annoying. They're so all of them are so ship. It is a very annoying game. My wife likes, thank you, she loves it, and she has a pretty good success. Right, I've gotten one correct. I've maybe done like twenty of them and I've gotten only one. It's bullshit. I still play still place to delgu I still do the crossword, you know, but world fucking pisses me off to I

love word or I mean it's fine. I do it, but it's like what, I don't know, It's like, whatever was the last time you got word all wrong? I I actually got it wrong a couple of days ago where it was like I got all the letters except for the starting one right. So it was a case of going through and like one by one guessing if it's you know quite like blaze pays or well, you know, the one thing like that, and then it's like I didn't guess the right

letter, and then he showed me. I was like, okay, it was that one other letter that so yeah, that that is that was the last time I go wrong and it was devastating. What's your what's your what's your opening word for wordles? Dumpy? Nice? Good one, that's good. That's mine's anime? Which is that's good? Pretty good? All good options, all good options. Yeah, I do penis. It's not funny. It's not helpful, but it's funny to me. No, I think

it is helpful. You have to eat, yeah, yeah, you know, yeah about the vowels with the most vowel all right, all right, I think, wow, damn anything else you've been playing, sir, I've been playing Cocoon. I'm like, oh, yeah, I've just been playing. Like that's a wonderful little game. I I how how do you describe this state where you are approaching a puzzle game or a puzzle like game and then you just don't think. You just go and then like it's smoothly opera.

You're just firing on off on all cylinders. You've tapped, you've opened your third eye, and you're just going. Because I've found myself with that with Cocoon, where I just build a momentum of like I don't need to think, I know where this is. Yeah, it's just it feels like it's like an instinctual puzzle game where it's like you don't have to think about it. It's just you don't you don't even need to really consider consider the rules of the game. You just do it through feel mostly like you.

You don't really like, oh now I have this and I need to put this hair. It's just you go with the flow and as you this happening, you're just in that flow state where you're just solving the puzzles to keep going. Yes, yeah, and and and it's yeah, it's it's it's a fantastic I think it's like four or five hours long or something like that. Yeah, it is great. It's it's a I think I clocked in four and a half and then beat it. So is this also in game

Pass? Because this is another no brainer if it's on the game Pass, Yes it is. It is on game Pass. The sound design of this absolutely fantastic. It is very good. You know, you're just a neat little guy running around, but the way they play with scale, just with sound fantastic. Hey, that's at least two games I've beat this year, I think with Liza p and Cocoon. There you go out of you Thanks thanks Bud. All right, I've I got one more game to talk about

before we had to break here. What's up, the folks. I also played NHL twenty four the other day, but I'm not going to talk about it, so I just want to put that out there. No, I'm just because for Tuesday. Yea, Yeah, there's ice is fine. The ice is fine. The ice is seeds in it, called veins in it, called state on it. So easy, Tam, he's loaded. Hey, y'all know me. We're all friends here. Y'all know my odd obsession and fondness for tiles and tile like Tactica, Baby, Persona Tactica. Why

did they do this to me, Tam? Why they say good tile game? It is such a good tile game. First, okay, I thought I I after playing through Persona FIV Royal, I thought, all right, I'm done. I'm out of this. I don't want anything to do with these kids anymore. The great, good, good bunch of eggs. I'm done with them. And then Strikers came out and and I was like, ah, Strikers is gonna be dog shit. It's like gonna be amoso. And you know what, it was great. I absolutely loved Persona five Strikers,

and then this came out. This is wait a minute, r s t oh shit, anyway, you see what they're doing with the titles per so, yeah, okay, cool cool cool cool cool cool cool cool. Uh And I thought Tactica okay, my interest is peaked. And then I saw that everyone was all chea be formed, and I'm like, can't I can't really get into it. But then I saw the saw the tiles. Now, now, how do you feel about the kids? What's up? Now? How do you feel about the kids? Oh? I fucking love

these kids. These kids are great. I can't get God got me all right, he's a clown. He's a clown that's been a BombCast revenge. But hey, all all jokes aside, all grins and giggles aside. Persona five Tactica is an absolutely fantastic tactics game. They've learned a lot and taken

the right lessons learned from more modern tactics games. My one grievance, and this is the silliest grievance I understand, but instead of snapping two tiles, you are running to the tiles, versus like being on a visible grid at all times. But the tools that they give you. A problem in tactics games, at least from the get go, is it doesn't feel like you're synergizing well with your party members at all. It's just like your three separate

entities just going about trying to complete the levels. Objective that happened a lot in the early bits of Mario, the Mario and Rabbids games, where Okay, Luigi's really good at sniping. I'm just gonna keep moving Luigi and snipe everyone and everyone else is gonna like just make it to the finish line. Here. In Persona five Tactica, everything you do can wind up synergizing really

well with each other. One of the biggest instances is that it's been a long time in a tile based tactics game that isn't an xcom where positioning is very very important because cover plays a big role because everyone's got everyone's loaded up, everyone's got a gun, and you can walk up to an enemy, smack them, and then if you do a melee attack, it will physically move them across the map or to a different point of the map, and

you can play with that with knocking them into another enemy, knocking them into an obstacle, but if you manage to down an enemy, it does the whole one more attack that you get in Persona, but here positioning plays a big role because if they are within the radius of all three of your characters that you're playing with at the same time, you could do an all out attack, and whoever's caught in that triangle, whether it's the enemy that's downed

or not, will wind up getting caught up in like the all out scuffle. It's it's really great, and they do smart stuff where they're not completely ripping off like the Overwatch mechanic in x COM. They're doing like charges, so each different character has a different chargeability. One of the first ones you get is if a character is charging, she has the ability to down an enemy even if they're behind cover, because cover is mucho mucco important in this

game. And also it still has all of the Persona rappings that draw people to the series. It's all scaled back in a way, so you don't have to worry, at least where I'm at. You don't have to worry

about social links too much. You don't have to worry about like appeasing all of your different friend groups and the neat thing about how the story is being told out outside of the story missions and cutscenes, it's just like little dialogue bits that you can fast forward through or you can rewind back to and replay almost any time, just to if you miss a little bit of the story. And I'm really digging it. I fucking hate it. I don't need

to dive into each JRPG, but I'm going to. You have such emotional wings with Tile games, man, It's really it really is crazy, like you have these you become infatuated and you're just like off in this new relationship and like it's just must be nice, like may therapies and may therapies with my friends here on the internet. Please. Yes, I think I think I like Tile games because I'm a mess of a human being otherwise order actually, yeah, it's the only order that I get. You know, it's

like that sounds right, you know, I'm a mailstrom inside. Yeah, tactics. I'm about maybe like three and a half hours into this as well. It's I'm at the time, man, You're talking like I'm just I'm just sectioning them off. I'm like, all right, gotta clock out, try a new thing, and then people are putting this other ship on my radar, like paranormal site. What the fuck is this? Oh that sounds cool. It's a ghost game or some ship that was about sixty hours long.

So good luck, man, got good dicks, big old b dicks, right, tell me about it. I thought twenty five hours. Okay, I've made it a forty hour game. You definitely can't go along by right, Yeah, completion is like twenty five to Bailey, I saw before we go to break real quick, if you want to chat about Allen Wake too real quick. I saw that you started playing it on your streams. How's the scare factor been? Because I know that that was a limiting factor

for a while. I am a coward with fear in my heart. I don't play horror games because it's just it puts me too much in the horror situation. I am in the Witch's cabin. I'm like, so the monster can't get me here, and you want me to leave. I don't understand. That's not how I would act in this situation. But I'm not saga, so she's just excited about the case. I guess I have to learn to inhabit other people. I suppose it's very scary. I have been.

I'm so tense the whole time I'm playing it. I'm very stressed out. Anytime someone like follows or sends bits on my end it like does the notification sound? I like have a minor heart attack for it. Like it's just everything is scary to me. Do it? Question from the back, John bum thank you. Question Bailey the Queen of Goosebumps. Yeah, scared. I can't play horror games. I'm very bad at them. I don't understand. I mean it. I'm not bad at them in the technical gameplayway.

I did beat that first boss in one try, but I'm bad at them in the This is shaving years off my life every time I play it. The first Nightingale boss I think is like it's it's a scary boss battle, sure, but like Goosebumps, Goosebumps isn't scary though, but I feel like BOMs is for children. No. I know, but you could say that about like I guess you can't really say that about like something like Beetlejuice or like beatle Juice has like would you say everyone everyone go bump is more like

in the in the realm of like hocus Pocus. It's more like, it's more like the Midnight Society, right, Like, it's more like are you afraid of the Dark? Just because Alan Wick fully ripped off its plot from the Goosebumps book The Blood that everyone doesn't mean it is a Goosebumps book, right, But you're already used to this story, so you should know what to expect and therefore, and I'm used to the ship writing, so I mean is a ship writer canonically, So that's funny. Imagine R l Stein

wrote a quality wise. Rl Stein and Alan Wick are approximately I would never say a word against Arlstein. I take it all back. I take it all back. Have you have you ever met have you ever met are? Oh? No? But I have signed books from him. That's cool. That's almost the same thing. What about that's neat but he really takes his time there? Uh? What about? Like? Uh? I guess,

I guess it's unfair to compare the two in levels of horror. I think Allen Wake is at like a seven and Goosebumps is at like a two and a half at best, right, Like, so I understand, are you gonna you're gonna stick through it? Bailey? I'm gonna try to. I'm very intrigued by it, and I do enjoy the commercials in the town, and I like the story, and I am not bad at the gameplay,

but I am so afraid all the time. And I'll be serious for a second because I do think, Look, this game obviously goes for a lot of cheap scares. I do think like some of the jumpy things when you're entering an area, it's just like, come on, I didn't need that. And I've jumped at the game and I'm just like, come on, come on, stop stupid, dear man. I knew it was come because I saw and not even that like I thought that was like an earned one.

It's the ones where they just literally flash like a dead alan wake for a second, or like a nightingale, you know, uh black and white photo for a second. I think as a whole though, like I think it's more environmentally foreboding than it is actual like pure horror. And again that doesn't mean that like it should you should be more forgiving. But I want I would love to see you play it through. I really would value your

opinion. Join us on Mondays or Wednesdays sometime We're gonna do it Monday, right, Yeah, we're gonna do it Monday, just like we're about to do a quick breaky break, We'll be back with a hot topic. But Tail, I understand you might have to dip. I got a dip. I allocated one hour for revengeance. My revengeance time that it has been reached, well, please leave it. Leave us with your favorite, uh, the soundboard hit of the week. I know you could even imagine it.

First second, I thought it was going to be the whole monologue. All right, see it in just a second. Holy smokes. That was I don't know how long I've been holding in p but it was too long. And then I was surprised, and I'm like, oh man, all right, but we're back with Tam. TAM's still pissing. Tam is still pissing. He he allotted us one hour of his time and then the rest of the time is dedicated to pissing. Yeah, and that's just how life be

sometimes, you know, He's just a piss boy. You know. I appreciate everyone that has reached out to me with their different indie game recommendations. And let me tell you, there is an obscene amount of games that came out this year. Bailey, I know you say that you don't like horror games, but I think you should check out World of Horror. World of Horror. Yes, World of Horror. It's like a text based Jimmy jam that I think I think you might, didn't you, boy? You like

it lends itself, So yeah, I I like text based. I like that, And I mean there are a couple like spookier games that I've been very interested in. This looks scary, but it's not fun the like ah scary, it's like uh yeah, no, I I mean, I mean, please, don't get me wrong. I I enjoy horror content. It's just horror games when you have to physically progress forward in spite of the fact that I would not do that. It's hard, but I do want to.

My sister won't stop talking about fear and hunger, so I want to play that too. Oh that's what's his face? Johnny John's playing that right? Oh yeah, yeah, Hi, patch Wol's been playing this man. There are so many other games. I feel like I got to get off the list before we get to the Game of the Year, and I just made the list longer with all these all these smaller titles. Jane, there was something I wanted to talk about real quick before we get into the discussion.

The magazine feature article of the the topic. Yes, so, uh we've got I've got a bunch of messages in our discord and other places about tickets for our Game of the Year, and uh we have Uh it's showing a sold out status on ticketmaster dot com, which is good and bad. It's good because you feel good and it's bad because you want more people to be able to come to the show. So just want everyone to know we're like actively trying to figure out a way to cramp some more butts into that

venue. So I can't promise anything, but we're actively uh trying to address it, and we'll see how that goes. It's not up to us. I know, I know it's Tam talked about Ticketmaster. We finally sold that, we finally did the real big Fish song. Okay happened. Yeah,

you know, Tam talked about this earlier and gave us more. But I couldn't help but have that fear as soon as the tickets went on sale of like what if no one goes Yeah, that would have been uh what if no one shows up, it would have been what it would have been tough hate me? And then look, we all had to face some demons that morning, didn't we. I was just having those continued existential thoughts of like everyone left, no one likes me, okay, no, it would be

us. It wouldn't just be you, Okay, so don't you wouldn't have to share that burden. No one likes how I say, hey, everybody, it's Tuesday, Like, is jan gonna be there? Then I'm not buying anything. I can sold my lifetime premium subscription because of that brown guy. Whoa god, I'm not racist. The answer you have to stop quoting Backler's emails to you on the podcast. Uh Bailey, Yeah shouts out, shouts out to everyone that bought a ticket, and yeah yeah, back Lar

and and mostly back primarily back Lark. Is uh is doing the Lord's work of getting more tickets available. We're just gonna make the venue bigger, y'all. I mean, look, it's not I. It kind of doesn't end with me, thankfully, but if it did, there be more butts in that venue. We'll see. It's not us, Like I said it up to the fire chief because I made the venue small. Yeah did you make it small? Who made it so small? Oh? No? Anyway,

normal, Suze stand by. We'll we'll tweet, we'll pop stuff up in the in the discord, and we'll let everyone know if it's a if it's a thing. Yes, yes, uh I was going to repeat the date, but it may not matter right now. We'll plug that afterwards. Uh. Hey, Bailey, what is your favorite store at the mall? My favorite store at the mall? Ooh? I like to smell the candles at Bath and body Works. Okay, okay, you know what my favorite store

is. I buy the candles. What's up? What's your favorite what's your favorite store? Hot topic? Oh? Good sag? What if I had said hot topic? Would that fuck you up? No? That would have I would have just didn't. What's straight into it? Oh? I just wanted to talk about candles for a hot second. This one smells like pumpkin clove backlard. Do you think it's hard to sell candles? Can we sell

candles? Uh? Do I think it's hard to sell candles? I don't know if I think for candles it's all the branding, So I think that's all it is. Like you could have the best smelling one thing in the world, but can't smell shit over the internet. I have a good wood Wick. I think we talked about this a lot of time. I know it's the only Wickworth Wick and baby that's it. Anyway. The hot topic of this week is the Game Awards. The nominations this year. Yes,

that's why we're all going to see each other very very soon. Game Awards are happening, and the nominees came out earlier this week, I believe, And you know, like always with any type of awards show, there's some scuttle butt that pops up when the nominees get brought up, so like the snubs stuff that surprisingly did get nominated, confusion over categories, what actually qualifies

as an indie versus not an indie? And I wanted to talk about the Game Awards with y'all, just like, Hey, where's where's where's the vibe at? Where's the feelings at with the Game Awards? Do we have too many categories? Not enough? Backlaw, You've physically attended the Game Awards, so so what are your feelings heading into this one? Yeah? I mean, look, you guys going to the Game Awards is it's nice, and I think the best part about going to the Game Awards is certainly seeing everyone

right, like, without a doubt, full stop. Okay, I would rather hang out with you know, old friends and old colleagues than like stare at fucking al Pacino for like thirty minutes and be like, what's happening that? It was great to be in the same room as mister Puccino, But then today the the award show, it's it's kind of like, I don't know. I I I feel like I could get a little ranty with this stuff, but I just don't. I just don't know how important it is.

I do want to I can't have food in that venue. I do want to say drinks. Shouts out to Jeff Keeley though for like putting this thing together like this is doubt yea, And this is not a criticism of mister Keeley at all. Okay, Fortnite's own Jeff Keeley. Again, this show has to be a certain thing for it to be viable, right, And I just think, like you can't sit there and you know you're it's

it feels very much like a Sony or Microsoft press conference of yesteryear. Of E three yester year, right, we were in that very same arena, although Nintendo historically I believe, was in the place where the Game Awards were. Either way, it does feel like that you're bombarded, you know. I think last year, like the first half hour they carved out for best Performance, and that felt I was like, Oh, this is gonna be

like a very like awards focused kind of thing. But no, it was then the second that ended, which obviously I think it went longer than anyone anticipated, but it was just trailer after trailer and you were just doing that and then literally like Kelley would get on a thing and like show a power point slide and be like, all these games just won too. Up next, let's see the new tra and you're like, all right, So you know, I don't know. I think I don't. I think that's fair

criticism. I also think it's the or is everyone universally shares about that show, and you know, right now, that's what that show has to be until someone comes around and it's like, we want to buy the entire game Awards and we want exclusivity of the buye right, and you can just make everything else like the show, which is never gonna happen. It's just that's that's probably what it's going to be like for the next great while. Yeah,

I think personally I attended one year. I attended the year that the Super Giant team performed some beautiful music and then imagine dragons came out in sweatpants. Yeah, that was a fun year. I think for the Game Awards, first of all, if ever, there was a year that needed a Razzies category, this is the year between Gollum and the Bad King Kong game,

Like, we had so much to work with here. But I think my major criticism of the Awards is that, like everyone may it's like a funny meme now that people are keep going up on the stage, but like it's a security risk. Yeah, it's actually a security risk. Like why has that not been been figured out yet? And I'm praying this year there's

actual security at the event where all these people are. Yeah, because very fair, Like right now we've had kind of best case scenarios with uh oh, someone's on the stage that shouldn't be and I really don't want things to be worse than that. No, Like I don't know how do I put out in the universe, like hey, get security for your event. Yeah. No, I mean I'm sure at the you know, autopsy of last year's show, they were basically like, Okay, what is the thing we

need to do to make sure that never happens again? And maybe that changes the show, I'll be honest, Like, you go to that show, it's a fucking circus, you know, there's no like you get in there and I was. I had never been before, and I'm like, oh, maybe it'll be like assigned seats or something like that. It's like none of that. You just like fill in. Really there's not really Yeah, there's not really like any sort of order that I remember there being. And

maybe that changes now. Maybe it's more legit, a legit event. I don't know, because people treat it like it's not legit because it's video game. It's like it's not the Oscars. It doesn't need a security team. It does kind of be a security team. Absolutely it absolutely you were, you were. It's a show to you know, it is a bit of a closed show, a private show. Not really they sell public tickets. Yeah, it's absolutely open to the games come too, like like what happened

to games come? Another person the stage? Yeah, Oh my gosh, what was it the same person? No, why didn't we see this person again? Somewhere they popped up at like a they popped up at like a WWE event. The kid that stormed the stage last year sucks up with this kid man children on the internet. Don't let them, don't let them have

it. No, and like to be clear, from a production point of view, like it's a tight run ship, like it is a very well executed, the highest professional level like show, seeing it conducted live, like it's definitely an impressive amount of movie parts, right, yeah, like it's it's it's done very very well. I think, you know, And I realized, like, oh, people really probably wouldn't watch it if there wasn't like a new trailer for a game that's not going to be out for three

years, Like I got it. I understand that. I'm very aware of that. That doesn't make it, like doesn't necessarily make it an absolutely great experience overall. Yeah, I think my biggest problem, and you mentioned this earlier, Jeff, but it feels it feels bad when they flash up a

slide of like here's these five winners of five separate categories. That's got to get better, you know, and like I I think the industry definitely needs this some highlighting of the winds that it has this year, especially with the obscene amount of layoffs across the board. And like, I don't know, how do they address that at all? Right, Like do they address any of the bigger problems plaguing the industry, let alone any world events plaguing the

world? Right now? Does that get touched at the Game Awards or is they just keeping that away with a ten foot poll. I'd like to see some type of addressing of like especially the layoffs at least. Yeah, you know, because like Backlard did, were there any big wigs that you recognized or saw attending the Game Awards other than like smaller devs people, publishers, people in marketing and other people in media? I you know what I think too, I think they sell like sweet access also, so like none of

those people were mixing in with the normies. I bet that's just an assumption, But yeah, I mean I think, like, I don't know, I don't know if that's the vibe Achilles going for you know, he might again like that's that's a call that you know, Like it's it's a very it's it's a show funded by the industry right through their ad support, right, so, like you know, I don't know, without a doubt, a crucial detail of the bizarre and inexplicable state of this business right now,

Like games have never sold better, yet layoffs have never been more horrific and widespread, which like seven thousand people laid off total in the industry, to bananas, it's fucking bananas, right, fucking bullshit is what it is. It's it is unconscionable for companies to be making this amount of money and they're only making this amount of money because they're not paying the people who got them

there, because they're there's like there's a human cost. And it's crazy to me that these people who work so hard on the games we play and love are suffering. And it makes me very upset actually, and I'm not going to talk about it. Yeah, it upsets me. Yeah, it's super tragic. And if it affects and it's not just gain, it's like just being a worker in America where you are are valued as a a cog right instead of a person, which is a big problem. Right, it just

goes with it. It's every facet And you know, I do think other industries in the in the country this year have benefited from organizing, right, Like there's been a substantial uh labor you know, empowerment movement. I think this year that you can find a silver lining, that's probably it. But yeah, games industries fucking do Like you know, these people work too hard, too too long on games that make so much money to be treated like

absolute garbage by the people reaping all the reward. Yeah, yeah, one hundred per one hundred percent. Like you know, we even see in the entertainment industry that Marvel's CGI teams are are trying to unionize, right, Like good good because like yo, like those people work stupid, insane ours just

so people can quote Tony Stark for another two decades. But you know, and and and hopefully that's the lesson learned, right, Like, this country is not set up to uh, you know, protect workers in any meaningful way, right, so, uh, the way you combat that is organizing.

And I think some of the successes from other industries have provided demonstrable examples of like how to how to be successful at that uh And thankfully some of those are like uh, worker unions that have like huge spotlights on them, like the w GA, the Writers Guild and UH and and UAW and and even like the ups UH labor movement, like those are big highlight headline worker

unions that paved a bit of a path there. Yeah, my other hope, besides moving towards unionization in the games industry, if that is at all possible, working underneath these giant companies and not getting tamped out by these giant

companies. My other hope is with like the rise and the ability that we've seen with being able to develop and publish a game fully remote, that that is able to create more opportunities for people across the board, right, Like you don't have to force people to live and work in these super expensive cities anymore. They're able to work wherever they can in the world, in the country, as long as you know, like they are accountable and we can

all collectively make this thing together. Hopefully that leads to some type of change within the industry. I mean, we see grub brings us up every now and then, like these people that bounce off of a game, bounce bounce off of like a big studio to form their own studio and they're able to

create dozens, if not hundreds of jobs for their fellow developers. I think that is like the move that I want to start going towards where you just have more smaller companies that can employ people across the board, because otherwise, you know, working underneath like a Ubisoft now a Microsoft or even Sony is not the business. You are not safe. You're never safe, especially the lower you are in like the ladder. Absolutely, And it's just it.

It's not a coincidence you're seeing fewer and fewer games companies because they're just eating each other up while these layoffs are happening, because it's just it's just like a natural thing that happens when companies get acquired, and it just isn't It just is, And it's just something that they want to make like shareholders feel

like the company is worth more now that they've made this big purchase. And we do need just more small studios that are employing people who are really passionate about the games industry, because you have these people who are being held hostage by their love for video games. Yeah, and it's sad to take advantage

of people simply because they want to do something that they care about. Like I personally think that QA testing is an art in itself, right, being able to oh my god, yeah, learn how to exploit a game or like test for specific things in a game. And QA testers are treated like less than dirt. Right, So as an industry crazy we need to acknowledge the ugly side of it, and you know, definitely do some stuff about

it. And you know, there's a certain onus as us working games media to highlight that, and I feel like we do highlight that, but yes, try, it just gets exhausting after a certain while of Like, man, I had friends at that company. They don't work there anymore, and they joined the ever growing talent pool that is trying to search for something the game awards though they're going up. Let's talk about let's breeze through these categories.

Let's let's talk about some snubs. Let's go from the very bottom of what I have listed here best performance we have Ben Starr for Final Fantasy sixteen, Cameron moyn, Star Wars, Jedi Survivor, Idris Elba Cyberpunk, Melanie Lie Bird, Allen Wake two, Neil Neil Nuban, balders Gate three, and Uri Lowenthal and Marvel Spider Man two. Hey, Hey, I'm gonna say this because I really like the guy. I think Ben Starr deserves this. Yeah, I think. I think I think he's got it. I

love Don't don't get me wrong. I love Neil Newban's work in bald Gate. I am currently doing a darkerge run and it is so much easier to romance the Storian when you're being just straight up evil, and he is so good in it. But I do think Ben Starr really, Ben Star's performance really carries Final Fantasy sixteen. And I no offense to I to idrisse alba

I don't know why he's on this list. Well, like, I think he gets the celebrity plug right, he gets the celerity celebrity rub where it's like, oh, this is Hollywood actor taking time out of his busy Hollywood schedule. He I loved Cyberpunk twenty seventy seventh Phantom Liberty, please, don't get me wrong, But the reason I loved it was not Idris Elva's standout performance. If I were to ask you off the top of your head, Bailey, what accent does he have in that game? Could could not fucking

tell you. I literally, like in the Honest Game trailer for it did a whole forty five second detour like, wow, is this what where is this man supposed to be from? It's crazy to me the future. He sounds like he's kind of British, but like I've heard him in interviews and he sounds way more British than that. But he definitely doesn't sound American. But I've heard him in the wire he can sound more American than that.

What's he doing? I think he has a very interesting voice as it is, you know, he just has like a very sort of like almost like the the you know when people say like, oh, your voice is your instrument, Like there's something very specific to Idris Elba that defines that kind of like trope, I think, But yeah, I don't know this. Again, he's nominated because he's Adress Elba, and I don't believe he will win if he does, and okay, yeah, I don't think he'll win.

Honestly, I would have liked to see another woman on this list in lieu of Idris Elba. I think that, uh, there are if you wanted to nominate someone from cyberpunk, like, there are other like female characters in that we turn in excellent performances. The President and Songbird both are great. I think another balders Gate Ian like the woman who voices shadow Heart Coral, I think ar Harlac or Laisell like literally and of any of them turn into

stellar performances. Like it just seems to me like there's one woman on this list and then and there were a lot of great games starring women this year, so I know that there were better performances that could have been nominated, and that just stands out to me as something that's a little bit like, Okay, interesting that we did that instead of nominating someone who kind of should

be nominated. But all right, cool. Yeah. I think the problem sometimes with the nomination process is that there's a heavy recency bias when when electing

a lot of these And that's not an excuse by any means. It's just like, Okay, there's there are so many more people and so many more games to nominate eight Okay we yes, No, I was gonna say, I think recently, but I mean I've been I've been feeling that a lot lately with Alan Wake and how I'm regarding that game, and I feel like, oh, I'm with you, buddy, you know, like, uh, but that said, like, you know, there has been years where like a Q one game is able to you know, withstand right and was

able to persevere through the rest of the year and still be a dominating force. And you know, I think we always knew Alan Wake was going to be out this year, right, and when we when you know that first half of the year was starting to pop off, I just I think, I'm you know, I think recency biases the thing, but I also think being surprised by an entry is also a thing where like I expected to fully

regard Alan Wake in the way that I regarded the first one. I was like, oh, this is like creepy, weird, little flashlight game, and uh, you know whatever. But then it goes and does what it does, and it surprises you and and you know, just goes so above and beyond what you thought you were gonna get out of that package. And I think that's a very powerful thing. Kind of knew what you're getting with Zella. You know you're gonna get one of the best games ever made,

right, Yeah, but you didn't expect that with Alan Mike. Yeah, I mean, like you mentioned Jeff, like elden Ring came out in February of last year and that fell this momentum without a doubt. Definitely. Okay, let's blaze through these because I feel like the more contentious categories they want

to spend some more time chatting about with y'all. Let's go to best narrative, and I feel like this is gonna be a heavy heavy category because we have Alan Wake two, Balder's Gate three, Cyberpunk twenty seventy seven, Phantom Liberty, Final Fantasy sixteen, and Marvel Spider Man two. That list is

very top heavy. Like with those first two nominees. Bailey, I think you speak to it the better than Jeff and I because you've played through bowlers Gate three now several times now, right, Yeah, I really like it's the one that I keep going back to, Like, personally, it's my game of the year, and if it doesn't win, I will be very surprised to make arrangements. Okay, Yeah, I think I think I wouldn't necessarily give it best narrative though, because I mean most narrative. Sure,

Okay, because objectively more story than these other games. Because I was curious about how you felt on it because I'm assuming your experience is drastically different than what I would ever accomplish, right, especially how you were going to create your Bailey versus my block les Block. I yeah, no, I mean I've I've experienced it multiple ways. I've played it through as like a good

character. Now I'm playing it through as like an evil care character, and they're all so hot and it's so fun, and I just this is not the award I would give this game personally. I think I honestly don't know which of these games I would give the award too. Maybe Alan Wick, maybe Final Fantasy and sort of like here you go have this kind of way.

I just it's none of these to me, Like, I don't really know how to say this, Like Cyberpunk Phantom Liberty's narrative was great because I enjoyed Escape from New York, and Alan wik Two's narrative is great because I really love that one Goosebumps book. And Marvel Spider Man narrative is great because I love that Grandpa, Love that Grandpa. None of these are really hitting

for me as like a Best Narrative nominee. Honestly, sure, I think, uh, you know, For me, I'm always like a lot of games tell stories the same way, right, and they tell stories through cut scenes or you know, very sort of like uh audio. Well, yeah, like you know a lot of these narrative environmental story storytelling tropes that we've we've seen and done, and you know, I think like Alan Wick definitely

has a alternative approach at that. You know, like they are at the end of the day, they are just like full motion video cut scenes. But I think there's enough, there's enough sort of like freshness there that for me, it kind of ekes it out just because of the just the sort of like element elemental way that it does that kind of stuff, right, Like again I and again, like I also go back and I'm like, what is this? What does this category even mean? Right? Like what

is the best narrative? Like what is that? What is that? Right? Yeah? And for me, if like we're if you, if we're rewarding the the technicality of like how a narrative is disseminated, right, then for me, I'm like, oh, I think Alan Wake two's story for me is the most sort of like digestible and uh satisfactory kind of like presentation of its story in a way where I'm like, I fucking know what's going

on. I'm I'm intrigued, I'm drawn, I'm I'm engaged, I'm captured, and like, yeah, Like, if that's what we're just grading this on, then for me, it's it seems like it would take it for for that category. I don't want to spoil too much of my my Game of the Year arguments that I've been fucked. I feel like, no, no, no, no, Like the real game awards are Game of the Year awards. I know that the story in Final Fantasy sixteen is really polarizing

for a lot of folks. They go they swing both I either way of like I really enjoy this, I really like this, or this is I No, not for me. Does polarizing mean sleep inducing? Yeah, you could be sleepy. You could be either awake or sleep Okay. I told this to Lex Alexi, friend of the site. I think Final Fantasy sixteen is the better Kingdom Hearts story, and I'll just let it sit there. I'll just let everyone marinate on that and then we'll revisit this in a couple

couple of days. Press and al three and our three to accept the truth. Uh, but best game Direction. Let's skip over that because I have no fucking clue what they mean by that either. And let's go to the Game of the Year. But we voted, we voted, we voted everything we voted, we voted. I didn't. I'm allowed to have an opinion. I think game direction goes to Zelda. Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm with you, a Game of the Year game and

needs to win something. Game of the Year, Alan Wake two, Balder's Gate three, Marvel Spider Man two, Resident Evil four, Super Mario Brothers, Wonder, Legend of Zelda, Tears of the Kingdom. Now, are there any snubs that you think that should have made it onto here? Any surprises? No? I know there there's one game that didn't get any nominations in any category that a lot of people are mad about on the internet, and they suck it Agwarts. Oh okay, yeah, they can suck it

that one. Yeah. Honestly, it's not a good game. Sorry, it's It's not only a problematic IP, it's just straight up not a good game. I played the they had like a free like check it out. We swear it's not that bad just because a big it makes it and like I was like, Okay, it's she's not gonna get any money. I'm just gonna check it out to see, like, is this actually a good game. It's not. It's boring as hell. It sucks. It's a bad game. I'm glad it did not get nominated. It did not deserve

a nomination. I do feel bad for those depths, though, I feel bad for a lot of devs in this industry for a wide variety of reasons. Chan fair enough, fair enough. Yeah, it's especially no, you know what, fuck jk Row, I've said that. Yeah, that's not a controversial take. I thought you were going to say that Armored Corps six got snubbed. Yes, I think that is true. I do think like

as a bubble game, it probably did. Also. I mean, look, there's no way to know how many games were nominated last year, but I'm curious how many were for this category. Right, This category has six nominees. I think it's the only one with six if I'm oh, no,

I'm wrong. Best Performance has six as well. But it seems like there's like a bit of a wiggle room there, right, So in the way that you know, other award shows will sort of like inflate the number of nominees for a certain best of a thing category, like all right, throw a couple of these other games of bone Man, Like yeah, you know, also that would really help us out because then more devs are in LA and we can have them all the time mom to night. That'd be

sick. That'd be sick. Do that? Please? Come on? Yeah, Armored Core six is the one I'm surprised at. I thought that would have taken ARI four's spot. I guess. Also Final Fantasy sixteen. I know that the like I mentioned, people feel some type of way about it, but I feel like it had a lot of momentum behind it. Also, surprise Phantom Liberty didn't make it based off of how much Phantom Liberty popped

up in all these other categories. I think that's a case of people just like not feeling comfortable nominating it because of like the weird gray area of like kind is this a DLC or is this you know? Yeah, I think that's what that guy caught up up. And but no, I really do think like nominating ten games is fair play. You're giving a nod, you're giving a tip of the hat, you know, Uh, you're you're doing that thing, which, like, you know, I think that's fine.

I don't know how many. You know, it would probably spread the voting out a little bit, so you maybe wouldn't have as conclusive as a voting tally as you would with the only six nominees. But I don't know, go for it. Yeah, it's so true, it's all made up. But I do resident evil force presence on here. That did surprise me. Super Mario Brothers Wonder. If we're gonna do a family game, I'd rather it be Pickman. Honestly, I enjoyed. I enjoyed Super Mario Brothers Wonder,

But I do think Hickman feels like it should be here. Yeah, I know Grub agrees wherever he is. He just sat straight up like someone said something that I agree with, and I know I know that, But I do think it doesn't matter because I think Balder'sgate is going to win. Mmmm, okay, so I don't think it will. Let's let's do percentages on that, Bailey. What do you think is the over under? No, No, it's not an over under, it's an odds You do,

like, what's it going off at? So? I think, I mean so so for for if we're designing odds for this, everything has to be like in the plus right, because okay, this is too much more math. Back, I'm sorry, see exactly, this is so much math You've just asked for it. So what, okay, how about this? What do we think the obvious, like the most likely winner would be. There's probably two. I think it's going to be either Zelda or Allan Wake. So I love I love Alan Wake two and I think Ellen Wake two has

now gone down as one of my favorite games of all time. Also, who knew twenty twenty three would be like honest to God, deliver on that. I think it's between Balder's Gate and Tiers of the Kingdom. Okay, and so I think Tiers of the Kingdom wins. To me, Tears of

the Kingdom is the right, is the favorite? Right? Yeah? So like that one has the lowest odds, right, So you say, like, oh, you know you you you you don't you would get better than even money back, right, Because that's if we're doing odds, it's a it's a betting mechanic, right. So I think like for Legend of Zelda, it's probably like a plus four hundred plus two hundred two fifty something like that, right, Okay, I think that in a different year, legend

of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom would be a slam duck. And you know me, I loved Tiers of the Kingdom. But Balder's Gate was a cultural moment much in the way that elden Ring was. I think that's what takes it, the fact that people just wouldn't stop talking about it. It's there's so much of it, it's so good people. It occupied the cultural like space for such a long time, and I feel like that's what's going to push it over the edge. And I and again loved Tears of the Kingdom.

Please do not get me wrong. I think boulders Gate takes it. I mean, you like totally lucid point for sure. You know, I still think that. I still think Zelda it does have a bit of like some sort of like home field advantage in a way, do you know what I mean? Like kind of I kind of know what you mean. But then Mario Brothers Wonder would also have that advantage, right, And I feel

like that is I don't think the same advantage of Zelda. Sure, Okay, Zelda had a moment Zelda had a season, yeah, you know it was, but basically right shaving my head. So if we're like, if we're like playing it all down and was trying to like really understand uh the like what we believe to be like the percentages of all this, Like maybe maybe Zelda's more like a like a plus one seventy and boulders gets like a plus one eighty. You know, like those are right there, neck and

neck. You know. I think I think it comes down to those two, and I think whichever one takes Game of the Year, the other one gets best game direction. And that's what I think. Don't forget who is voting in this, Okay, don't hold me me. That's why I'm pretty sure Baldersgate is going to win. One hundred and fifty chuckle fucks. One hundred and fifty chuckle fucks are voting in this, right, I don't know how many people total, but like it. You know there's that too.

You gotta leave voting audience. Do you see this there being even even enough of a split where we wind up having an upset victory because there's enough chuckleheads in the room, Like a Mike Minatti perhaps saying rather it than even for remake. Let's go. Oh, you're talking about our things. Hold on, I need to interject here. Somebody in chat linked in actual betting sheet for the Game Awards. I've never heard of this site. It's called bet us. Oh I thought it was diabetes. I'm sorry. It's crazy.

This has this has a boulders Gate three at minus seven hundred. That is in stupid. That's not right. What are we doing? How would that be plus two thousand for Spider Man and Mario Brothers Wonder But that to me? But no, but like I think for like, I know, Wonders not winning, right, don't you like, No, that's not going to win. So it could be plus five thousand. What does it matter? Right? Like, that's just some it's weird. Like all the other categories

make sense, but mine, like where are they? I don't know. This is wild, it's clear. What's not winning. It's I mean, it'd be crazy if Spider Man two one resident Evil four is not going to take it sober Mario Brothers Wonder even though it's great, it's not going to take it. It's it is going to come down to the other three. And I just I really do think that that like cultural factor for both is

what's going to push it over. Yeah, you could be right, yeah right, And I know that, like it is just an unexpected phenomenon, just much in the same way as elden Ring and elden Ring took it. It's it's having a massive moment, and I feel like part of that, not part of that, but like, uh, a contributing factor is like with the uptick of D and D over the last couple of years, and how people just love dice now, huh people love rolling dice in games and

in real life. Yeah, now I want to go play craps speaking about dice. Okay, uh, final final answers here, what out of the Game Awards nominees list is going to win Game of the Year? Bailey Myers, Wait, what isn't that what we just said? Definitive answer, definitive answer, ol Gate. Okay, I don't know. Maybe you gotta maybe you assuade yourself. I'm feeling like Alan Wake two. I don't know what I'm talking about, man back. I think Zelda's gonna win. I'm right,

you buy me a drink. And if you're right, you buy me a drink. Yeah, it's not gonna be me. It's gonna be fan in paying buying your drinks. I'll buy you five drinks. It's all good. Yeah, I did the math of that. I think I still come out in the red. I think it all comes down to the Lord of the Rings, gullum baby coming in from the top rope. That's a wrestling thing, right, Look at you wrestling references. I was trying to shore up for the weekend, and then Jan canceled on me. You fucking canceled.

Chance. God, I'm gonna go chancel myself after this, Bailey, I'm curious, what was your Game of the Year last year? And then we'll get out of here. For twenty two, let me remember what the nominees were. It was. It was Elden Ring of Here Twine it before we knew each other. Look at this so long ago, so young that for the for Jeffrey Keeley's The Game Awards, it was Elden Ring, a Plague Tale, God of War, Ragnarok, Horizon, Forbidden West, uh

Stray Stray okay, Xeno Blade Chronicles three. Hell yeah, let me see. I mean, how's Elder Ring not win that? Right like it did? But eldon Ring. Elden Ring was the correct winner. Is I very much enjoyed God of War, Ragnarok and Horizon Forbidden West. I think those were both Cellar games that, unfortunately, for Horizon for Bidden West got fully overshadowed by elden Ring releasing what like a week later, I was rough question for the audience here just year nay Horizon? Yeah yeah, yeah. You

didn't hear her, she said, I heard that. I'm just I didn't know as a whole where Okay, all right, I feel like Jane's not less litening to me. No. I think he's judging you, is what he's doing. No, no, no, no, you know this. This is the good part of a friendship having very differing tastes. Fair enjoy. I enjoy Horizon. I'm sorry. I think that's a game. I think it's I think it's fucking clean. I think it plays really well. I love destroying a tank with an arrow. That's fun. I'm also very

good at it. Maybe your problem is you're not good at it. For you, you're good at games. I'm bad at games. You like Horizon. I don't like Horizon. You have an insatiable blood lust when it comes to multiplayer games. I'm just dog shit. Listen, listen. The Horizon DLC that no one's fucking talking about burning shores was great. You get to explore the ruins of your own city. Jan Don't you want to explore post

apocalyptic San Francisco. It's got better traffic than usual. That's neat. I do that every day at someone to make a post apocalyptic content about New York. Yes, not enough of that or Los Angeles. Huh god love that? All right? All right? Oh, Bailey, what was what was twenty twenty two Game of the Year for you? My for my personal you're personal. I actually think I would go see I agree with them that elden Ring was the right choice, but I think I would go Bailey's heart.

I think i'd go go Out of War Ragnarok. Actually, that's fair. That's my like one a for sure of last year. I don't remember. I loved that game. And that was a good narrative. That is the best narrative. Like, I'm glad that he did it won it won best narrative. Yeah, I'm looking at that. I'm like, good, yeah, man, it was good. That game brocks. Like I think, I think everything just you know, just paled in comparison. I think elden Ring just like was a tidal wave, right, and even Kratos himself was

defenseless against such a momentous moment in games. Yeah, you know, there was a lot of moments in Ragnarrock that left me a little teary eyed, and I'm like, good man, great performances, like yeah, really really compelling stuff. Yeah, oh god, I'm feeling the chills all over again thinking about the story beats at Ragnrock and how much they hit home a little too hard anyway, imagine okay, and Stray was nominated for Game of the

Year. To imagine a Stray like adjacent game right now, Like he would even have a shot this year. This year was heavy, really really heavy, really heavy. Yeah, And like the unfortunate part about best narrative is that it tends to go to like and it is here all the trip A titles, right. Yeah, there's like medium tier games that have hit me from a narrative perspective right in the guts, right in the right in the

emotional gu that did not see the light of day. But you know that's a different not necessarily a problem, but like an issue within the nomination processes. But that has been it for this week's episode of the BombCast, Revengeance. I've been your host, Janet Choa. He was tam he had to leave. He only allotted in an hour because I had said at the very beginning of this that we're only gonna go tops an hour to ninety minutes,

and we're thirteen minutes over that budget. But hey, whatever, we had a lot to talk about, had a lot to talk about, and I love talking about things with my good friend Bailey Myers. I love to be here, love that you're here. And also the drop shadow of the crew

from the top rope Jeff Beckler, of course, of pleasure. Of course, if you were listening to the archive on a Friday, stay tuned to the website this whole weekend because the Giant Bomb Midwest Crew is popping off with Mike Manatti, Jeff Grubb, the wind Bag, and Dan Reikert all streaming together to raise money for the kids, and then Jeff Bakalar raising money for the kids too this weekend, playing some pinball on Sunday, tapping next week

week yep, yep, taking out all the cameras, all the cameras. Next week's a short week, so maybe not an episode of BCR then. But believe me, folks, we got a lot of pods in the bank that we got to go record. And hey, I cannot wait to see you in front of a sold out audience for Giant Bomb Game of the Year Live, the Real Game Orgs show happening in Los Angeles. The whole crew will be there. Our special guest up here, Bailey Myers, will be there as well as well as Nicki, Grayson, Blessing, Audio, Ya

Junior, and more more. I've been Jan, he was Tam, She's Bailey, He's been Jeff. And you go drink some water. Go drink some water and let's get let's live it up. Let's live it up this weekend. I need to go become best friends with pit Bull. I'll see you next week for another episode of the Giant BombCast. Just live it up. Have either of you seen pit Bulls toasted one viral? No? Wow, my god? All right, we're gonna watch this after this. Okay, hold on, okay, bye, Oh I didn't fade the black