838: Hibachi Enthusiasts

Hey everybody, It's Tuesday, April thirtieth, twenty twenty four. Welcome to the Giant BombCast. I am your host, jan Oh Shoa, also powered by ensigs. See we're all powered by enzigs Teeth here joining me co captain of the ship as always Jeff brub We were doing the clapped sync and the seconds felt really long. I think I've had too much Sherva. Mate is he's too tapped into the grand calculus of the universe, and all I see

the music speaking about calculus and seeing the music. He is feeling the music. He's feeling the tones. Jeff Becklar, Oh, Hello, how are you? I was just mixing up my yogurt, but I'm gonna put it down and talk to you instead. How's it going. I'm the one who's weird for drinking a soda. You're mixing up yogurt. Pervert, Well, it's it settles, Bailey. I mean, when it's in the frigid settles,

it needs to be stirred. Talking to us today are correspondent on all things poison the Morning Variety, the Afternoon Variety, and perhaps also talking about poisonous animals. Today we have Bailey Myers am I talking about poisonous animals today? Yeah, it's it's on the rundown. It's on the rundown. We see your lined up for it. I mean shit, I got to read these things more. Yeah, I mean yeah, totally. And a special

guest today, special guest in my heart and in your heart. It is it is ever the season to be to be a little bit more handsome, and that's why we have our boy soon to be or now ign Zone not Chael him. Hey what a do baby, it's what a fucking boy. Thanks for having me, I said, listen, I don't start till tomorrow, so I'm still a free agent, or I'm still free to do whatever I want. So I figured it's like a bachelor party. Sure, yo, it's just crazy. I could I do. I actually have a lot

of work to do today. I'm wrapping up my last freelance things, so I had no days off, you know what I'm saying. So, but I'm out here. Better way to spend it than being on a two and a half to three hour podcast. So very good use of my time. Smart, that's smart. It's a good first impression. Yeah. Yeah, my my bank account is smiling at me. Looking at Jeff Backlar saying you know what I'm saying. My rates is going to go up now, so go from zero dollars to still zero dollars. Yeah, it's all right.

You know, maybe that'll include just having Michael over. I'll cook him dinner again. Yeah, Hey, well we'll do I'll take it. Pay me an exposure. That's what I'm getting paid in right now, good old exposed and speaking about EXPOSU hold on, let me do that again because I'm gonna record vertically. Now. Hey, Jeff Grubb, we have breaking news at the top of the BombCast here at the tippity topity of the BombCast here, and I'm going to toss to you the newsman, to talk about what's happening.

Yeah, I definitely have the what helped me out with the where, the win, the why and the how and all that stuff. Here. In a second, we have a couch and we have a stage in LA and we're gonna put said couch on said stage on June ninth. Is that right? That's right, Jeff Grub, thank you. Hey, listen, we're doing Giant Bomb at night in LA. We're gonna do Friday and Saturday

as it normally has been. That's gonna be a ton of fun. Definitely watch but on Sunday if you want to come be part of the live show for yourself, tickets are going on sale Friday. You can come hang out with us. I'm gonna try to get as quo of an All Star cast to come up on stage and do a couple of panels with us. It's gonna be a really good time. What details am my forgetting Jeff Backlar, I've been like so busy like getting these things set up, I like barely

know anything else. No, that's You've covered all the main bases. That's right. Sunday, June ninth, twenty twenty four, eight pm Pacific time, Giant Balm at Night Colon Capital L, Capital I, Capital V, Capital E, exclamation Point Live in Los Angeles. We're going to be at the Bell Weather, which is music venue in downtown LA. It's going to be very exciting and even larger venue than we did for a Game of the Year back in December. Tickets are going to be going on sale, like

you said, this Friday. We're also going to be doing a special little VIP package as well, offering that to people who want to have an enhanced experience, which feels really cool to say out loud. No, very exciting. Yeah, we're super excited. I can't wait for this to go down. I want to thank everyone here at Fandom who's been on the ground, very supportive putting this together. What an amazing flyer we have here for the for the poster, here for the live events. So thank you to the

design team. Thank you to Emma and Zach, people behind the scenes doing all the heavy lifting. Thank you so very much for the support. This is going to kick ass. Yeah, it's the kind of thing where I have been able to like just started. I really started focusing in the last week or so on actually getting people to be on the couches scheduling things. If you're like wondering, Hey, who who's going to be at the live show, it's it's still mostly up in the air, but we have some

big names that are in the talks to make that happen. I will say maybe the most important name, Patrick Kleppik, did say he would probably be able to do the live show. So there's there's a little tease. Come out, come out and see everybody. It should be a good time. But yeah, like, like Beckler said, thank you everybody who's been helping

with this. It's been very empowering to think, hey, we can come up with this idea and then everyone's going to help, and then hey, in a few weeks in Los Angeles, we're going to be doing this thing. So definitely come by. Yeah, it's gonna kick ass. Like Grubs said, we're gonna do at night Friday and Saturday. We're just gonna be doing that from a new venue as well. So that'll be a lot of fun. But you can't come to that, and that's a no no for you. But yeah, it's it's gonna be a ton of fun. I

can't wait to be out there. I missed last year's SGF. I'm not gonna miss it this year. Not gonna allow that to happen. I don't care how many babies are being born. Okay, I'm missing this week, not this week, not this week last year. No, No, you were thinking of the Game Awards, Damn. I was at the Game Awards. Yeah, okay, Sean, the Gamer Awards, y'all. Are y'all are dragging people out eight pm on a Sunday? Yes there, Yeah,

it's a school night. So what if it's a school night. So yeah, we will will blast off on on all of our accounts and whatnot when we have a link for for tickets on Friday, and yeah, just uh just stay tuned for that. And thanks again to everyone who's helping out here. It's gonna be awesome. I'm excited. Hell yeah, I'm very excited. I'm very I'm very very It's it's also grub very gratifying, satisfying, illuminating to not worry about production because I know that the production God, the

god. Emma five gotten me on deck. She's got she's got my back, and she's longer than any of us at this point, exactly exactly. She's just like, jan shut the fuck up. She's so polite, she's not gonna say that, but I know there's a thought back there of like I got this dog, I got this chill chill, chill, homie. Uh. We we need like twelve more Emma's just to fully encapsulate how we should have we are. We are of a big dog Emma for years and

literally constantly in awe of her. She's always just like, oh, yeah, I know how to do that, and then she does know how to do that about everything. It's crazy. Also, I feel like Emma occupies like Fudge, what is what's his name? In Alan Wake the Janitor. She occupies that space in my brain where it's like, oh, you just have the keys to this whole place and then this other place and alright,

yeah, let's go dog she's got with anyone else. Yeah, I don't worry about it exactly exactly, and just like I'm not worrying about this podcast because what comes next is, you know, video games, That's what's up. Actually, I have something to talk about that. It is not a video game again, Scout that that's your fault that you knock that over. Okay, this is He's like, stay on topic this okay, yeah, Scout accountability. Let's when Scout Scout gets going, that fool does not stop.

Yeah, okay, Scout, I swear all right, I'll move the way, okay, all right, hold on someone else? Sure, Yeah. I hope he talks about disc golf. Not that I'm looking at the rundown or anything like that, but that would be what's what is the deal? What? Why is? Why is disc golf on here? Who's been playing disc golf? It's a popular thing. I think she's about to come at us with And you've been playing disc golf for real, for real? I mean, obviously, here's golf for real, for real. Surprising.

Let's walk that surprising. No, I'm with Bailey, that's not surprising. Dog. I've been trying to go get disc golfing with Jake here in the Bay Area for so long. So now that you are in on it, we like. Dog. You just get slammered, throw a bunch of Frisbees all over the place. Hopefully get in the hole ao. If not, it's a golf too. I just want you to know you can get blitch

and play golf. That's fine. I think clubs and and tea times and fucking green or fees for whatever the fun and then dress dis golf free is free. Yes, you just walk into a park and you can have you have you ever eaten at a restaurant? What do they serve you on a plate that could be a disc? You can toss them ships for free. It is the implication that golf is better because it has a history of exclusionary practices. As I wanted to know just where the ven diagram didn't overlap,

maybe purely on the name it would be. It's an open public park with disc golf and like a sign that just says no Jews is in my head and that's really funny, Like what what's even happening here? Okay? Uh? The games? Yeah, pivott have coffee. This golf is a game. This golf is a game. So my partner was doing a school event

over the weekend and someone had set up a little disc golf course. One of her, the more senior teachers, one of the white teachers, had a disc golf set blow and behold, and I was like, whoa, I've never played disc golf, but I love frisbee and I tried it out and guess what, I'm fucking amazing at disc So like is it eighteen holes? Like how's it work? Like I don't know, it's like a big

chain thing, like that's what the hole is, right. Yeah. I didn't really ask for the rules, but then, like every I kept stepping away progressively further and further and throwing the specific discs and I'm like, I'm kidding this shit like night Time's out of dead. I feel amazing. Yeah, question potentially answer, are there different Frisbees for different scenarios. There's a

driver and stuff, right, that's kind of cool. Yes, yeah, do you have like a fanny pack for all of these discs or how does this work? You know, it's just like a good like h bow and arrow. No, I don't. I don't have a quiver or a caddy. That's what scouts for. She just carries the other discs. This is this is just like the Goosebumps Bookship of Goals, where it's a give yourself

Goosebumps books. So there's like you can do the excursions and you can choose this, and if you choose to do mini golf, you get it turns out you're secretly so good at mini golf that the villain who was chasing you is like super impressed and wants to be your sports agent. And that's how the book ends. Well, you pick, so that's like the ending you chose, but in real life. And that's really cool because there's another ending in that book where you can starve to death in a closet and it's really

great duality of man, it's awesome. Dirty dirty, Dirty Irty, which is a great name. In one of our chats, says, I have a bag with twenty four discs when I play, because even a full golf club bag is like, I don't know, fifteen every day year. That's that's wild. We gotta go. Let's go, because there's a course, a very famous, infinite infamous course in Golden Gate Park. But also I hear from the East Bay homies that Free Easy has also got a really good

course out there. Ye Deep Space got some ship going on there too. I have been. Actually it's funny because I've been talking about disc golf because I've been playing a lot of everybody's golf. I just like download that ship and start playing. I just had the urge to play golf. And then my golfer, Oh she bad as hell too, you know what I'm saying.

Like, and then I just like started playing golf, and I remembered that I was on my high school golf team, and I think I want to rekindle those like now that I have a real job and can get real money, I could pay for two times and I can maybe pay for a nice pack of Taylor Made clubs, and I can nice Taylor Swift makes clubs. Yeah, yeah, she can do anything. Huh does she does it

all? I don't want nothing hit him backstory than Michael Hyam Like the dude's like, oh yeah, I could just like do the the twirly stuff with guns and stuff like that, and I play golf, Like, come on, what was your life before I knew why? Eventually was a magic man? Eventually when I run for office in Daily City, Michael is going to be my campaign man. Oh no, you don't want that. Well, I'm not gonna be a running mane. I could be your campaign manager because

I used to. Yeah, you're tall enough for that, like your vice mayor or anything. He can. He can help fly for me where I can't reach. Exactly. It's all about height in that game. Yeah, exactly, So I got you man, fantastic, fantastic. Uh Michael, how did you describe your character in uh that golf game again? Oh? Oh, she bad? You know what I'm saying speaking about she bad? I feel bad for saying that now. J I finished Stellar Blade. Oh

how long did you clock in with the horny game there about? I'm just gonna say this on the internet. It's gonna hurt my mayoral campaign. It took me eleven and a half hours to beat it. That's what you call are you walking funny? Now? What does that mean? I'm so sorry? No one call? Do you need a doctor? Do you need medical attention? Sean, get that added to the soundboard please if you oh, okay, you finished the game, even you beat the game in eleven hours?

Yes I didn't. How I didn't do any of the side stuff. You've only ever beaten two games, and this is one of them. That's congregulation and they're both Korean games. That's fine, that's that's great. You know what was the other one? Well? Yeah, it's a very very equally sexy protagonist in that one. Facts. Oh yeah, he also changes his hair in that game. Later in the game. We chatted at length

with our homie Amron. Khan shouts out to pros and cons last Friday during BCR about uh, Stellar Blade and a lot of my feelings echo Sean and Amron's feelings from the from completing that game, and uh, it is a lot of flash in the pan and just like not a lot of substance. Have you ever gone to Benny Hanna and they do the flaming volcano the onion volcany on Earth in America? Right? And then like you think, oh cool, why'd you do all that? Is there anything? Are we gonna

eat these onions? Now? Oh? You just put all those onions away? Yeah? Like, oh, okay, cool, this was just for show. Anytime I've ever been to Benny Hanna and they do the they just put them away. Oh, I think they're using that in the thing. I think that's part of the thing you got. I understand the analogy still though, Jane, I get it. Thank you for yes. And I didn't know I was with some hibachi enthusiasts today. A bachi is gonna be

on yours s man time. But Mike does or did believe that Disney invented hibachi except the first place. No, but you know what that like. Honestly, for all of Manani's bullshit, that is a decently okay suggestions the first time. It's just a funny thing to say in public. Allow that in the heartbeat. Yeah, But after completing the game, I I just didn't think about it anymore. And I think I stopped thinking about how Eve was even like scantily clad throughout the game, and it just stopped being a

thing in my brain. About halfway through, I took Sean's suggestion in gearing up even a specific way to have her attack differently and just be a little bit faster, because if you play that demo, you were going to go

in thinking that is a hardcore souls like Gata. By the end of it walking away, my feelings were very similar to Shan's where it started feeling like a Devil May Cry game, not quite to the levels of like DMC three or even the latest Devil May Cry, but like something close enough, where Eve is kind of just anime like Zippity Do dying all over the place. Oh God, man, naw, he's infected my brain. You're just excited

about Disney. I'm just excited about Disney because you know we're gonna you know, the crew is gonna try and go to Disneyland during the shifts as well. Michael, you could come to let me know, just hit me up. But I think my general feelings still remain the same way. This is a completely okay game. I don't think this is gonna be like a barn Burner that is going to change a bunch of things. Desp how portions of the Internet are trying to rally or were trying to rally behind this game.

Yeah, fucking Gate. I mean that stuff is like already like over because they turned against the game because of all the stuff, were like, oh, they added more fabric to these costumes, so it's like, okay, they we're just losing their mind to begin with, and this is the proof, so right, I know, more fabric thenersons. There they are, I know, Gooner's Rights are conners just like rally behind something and it's just

kind of mediocre and inoffensive. Like it kind of reminds you of like when Alita Battle Angel came out at the same time as Birds of Prey and they were like, well, this has to be our movie because the other one's too feminists and Alita Battle Angels like fine, but it's not good. But they had to just be like our movie. Now. They were so behind it and like all right, guys, like, good for you. I

guess I'm glad you got one. I suppose it's definitely more the worst of the two movies, but congrats, and hey, you know the game now audio version? Yeah, good for them. I kind of look at Stellar Blade. I don't know why these are the two like pillars of like the range of these kinds of games that I that surround this. But hear me out for a second, it's not as bad as like a bullet witch was.

Remember this again, I'm going back a little bit bullet right, But I enjoyed more than Dark Sector. Oh okay, And I know there are different games and you're just gonna have to like live with that and understand that. I guess, like wet is also in the conversation too, a little

bit wet, but like that's what, that's how. And I think there's something special about this type of game where it's not this like massive blockbuster thing, but it's also totally serviceable and competent and just like fun to play. And there's a certain kind of game where like I just want to go to it and like have it be, have it work, have it look pretty, have it be fun, and and to the point where I haven't lost

interest. But the second I turn off my PlayStation, I have totally forgotten about it, Like, without a doubt, it has no lasting memory whatsoever. There's something special about this type of game I feel like we haven't been getting in a very long time. It's fast. It's fast food to a certain extent, right, That's what I thought when Janifers said, like, you know, it's a flash in the pan, but it's got no substance. I'm like, yeah, I love that kind of stuff. Taco Bell,

give me a ton of it. I'll eat that. Are you Are you glad you spent eleven and a half hours on a jan or do you regret it at all? Because I'm like, I'm still thinking about it. I feel like, I'm you may not have been the best use of my time considering all that well, considering all the other games out there, because I was probably halfway through Tales of Canzara, and according to Greb that's also like about eleven twelve ish hours, that's right, I think so. Yeah,

and that is a story that is like emotionally pulling me through. I had to put it down because it was actually like kind of hit too close to home at certain points. Yeah, for me, stuff really hits that. I was like, Okay, well, let's check out the game with the vagina bones or lack of vagina Boneschris and I if this was not a seventy dollars title, it would be an easy recommend if this was something that

was available on game pass. I know it's not because it's published by Sony, then easy, easy recommend to to just like blast your way through the game. That being said, I didn't explore any of the side content. I kind of just main quest, main quest, main quest, and after a while I kind of just tuned out of any and all of the uh cutscenes because just like I didn't care what was happening. Yeah, I mean

exactly, Yeah, yeah, I just don't. I don't feel like that is as much as like they want to compare to themselves or the comparison to her. It's just that's just not what that game is trying to do. So not that I give it a pass for not having interesting story content whatever, but if you're not bothered by it, you're not bothered by it,

right, I'm not bothered by that either. Yeah, So it's just like emphasis on different parts of the game and so, uh like I don't necessarily think it needs to be like near or have a story like that, but if you are looking for that, then you ain't gonna find it here. Yeah, yeah, you were not going to find that here. I was also less than impressed with the fishing mini game in this, and then it

was like, no, it's not that it's bad. It's just like okay, like you guys are just going for near here because the fishing mini game and near. I also thought about this weekend, what if I got really into fishing. Huh, you can realize I see disc golf for you. I don't see fishing for you don't see fishing. Where would where would we go fishing? What's like the hot fishing spot out well? Actually, grub there is a fly fishing place in Golden Gate Park. Michael, you know,

we gotta go to Pacifica, Pacifica Pier. We got to hang out with all the Tito's, yeah, and the t O's out there, yeah, and just cast our line and then we just bicking back being bull you know, just sitting on some's been on some bruise. Listen. Fishing fishing out in Pacifica sounds like some real uncle ship. So oh yeah, yeah, it's some real uncle ship. It's it's some real uncle ship because like that's what my pop. Oh, let's let's go. I looked I have

a fishing license from a year ago. I don't know why. Guy, Yeah, you need to get fishing. I think I think it might be a California thing. But back when I state, Yeah, when I worked at a sporting goods store, we sold a lot of fishing licenses. Like that was like one of our pillars of our of our business. I remember why I got the fishing license. It's because I was just grabbing a bunch of sea urchins from the shore. And you can keep them. You can

keep them, you can catch up to thirty sea urchin. They actually they actively want people to take the sea urchins away from the shore because to control the population. Yeah, are they the edible kind like like UNI type ship? Oh yeah, baby, you those bad boys open and you get some

free Unie. I don't know if I want to eat anything out of the out of out of the ocean down here, don't maybe cost doing some math right now and how much I've paid for Unie through my life, like okay, thirty bucks, Bailey, we live in the same state, we do, Uh, Michael. It's also the good water because it's like Foster City water, so for sure for like you know South Bay water where y yeah, we got the t Bell canteena down there too. Oh yeah, oh

yeah yeah. Uh. Speaking about fishing and the sea and how dirty it is, the game that I also checked out and Grub you checked this out for a little bit last week another Crabs Treasure. Uh yeah, this this is a complete surprise for me, Grub, because this is not the game I was expecting. I was expecting like a kind of mascot three D platformer.

Oh right, boy, it's not no, not at all. They weren't like I feel like they weren't hiding this though, right, like now, yeah, you just put it in that basket and then didn't think about it, Like how could you not see this and be like, oh, it's a SpongeBob platform er. Like well, because I just never I never explored it other than just seeing another Crabs treasure. I'm like, okay,

cool, right I am. When I saw this last year, I was like, Okay, I get it, and I think the thing for me when I played it a little bit I did on stream that really hit me is, oh, they really understand the joke that they're telling everything really is is quite funny in terms of the presentation of hey, you are a little sea creature and there's so much human trash in this ocean that it's become their currency. And now here's like seven different riffs on that in a couple of

minutes that all are pretty well done jokes. So I'm like, Okay, this is a good sign for an any depth when they have a good handle on the thing that they're going for and they're not overdoing it. They're they're like deploying it in a strategic way and it actually does it. And then the souls borne stuff is pretty good as well. It's one of those things where it's like, Okay, I have to spend some time with the game to fully understand the conversation it's trying to have with the player, like when

do you want me to perry? When do you want me to dodge? And should I be like trying to get up in that ass of every enemy or should I be falling back? Should I be blocking more? Should should I be going for perfect paris? These are things I have to feel out a little bit more with this game, but by all sort of signs that I've seen from it so far, it seems like it has a pretty good

grasp on that as well. How are you finding it? I find the thing that's appealing to me the most is that the writing has done very well and it is very easy to be too jokey with your dialogue and any of your cut scenes. And I feel like it is riding the line very very well. It's riding the waves very very well. It's surfing through, it's cruising through where it is not too cheesy in terms of like, ha ha, look at all this pollution. The world's fucked. It's kind of funny,

and it is not like pushing that too much. There's points where when you do fail, like a Boston Counter. And we actually experienced this during the stream last week Greb where unfortunately this is just a byproduct of there being only so much dialogue for boss characters, but you were just hearing the same dialogue over and over again as you're failing those missions or those Boston counters. That what I wound up doing is that I just kept the gun on me.

That keep that on you. Yeah, I kept that thang on me. Oh my god. So the gun just for people who are unaware, is an accessibility option. So this is a straight up souls Born. It wants you to to learn the very difficult fighting system being able to overcome these enemies. You know, don't get too greedy going there for two hits.

Then Murtry that sort of game. And then if you go the accessibility options, if you click on give me a Gun, it just gives you a gun that becomes the crabs shell, and then you can shoot things and kill them in one hit and it's incredible. It looks so stupid. Yeah, it's the fucking big ass, fucking nineteen eleven strapped to its back that's like five times its size. It's very cute. Yeah, so whenever I get frustrated with a Boston Counter, I would just like put my controller down and

just just pop them. Yeah, like look all right, just like any crab would do. Yeah, have you you know, I don't know if you all have done this growing up, but have you ever like played with the crabs at a grocery store? Those things are vicious, I'm sorry, play played with them, played with them, But I've the ones. I've seen the tank. So they'll have like they'll have blue crabs just like in in like crates in front of you, like not like the dungeonus stuff or

the big big crabs like dead and you're like making their little clip. They're alive. Okay, I don't know. Okay, So yeah, in Ohio they aren't shipping in live Crab. So no, I've not done this. Hey, let's go to Seafood City and go chill with the crabs, like, oh hell yeah, the thought of doing like so they didn't have that kind of crab where I grow like where I grow with lobster. There's there's lobster. Yeah, there's lobster tanks. Yeah, but you can't. I

can't go oh yeah and play with them. Person would start messing around with those. Well, they got the rubber bands on their clothes. I did want to play with them, they just wouldn't let me. Yeah, okay, but I highly recommend another Crabs Treasure if you were looking for a Soul's like game that it apparently has optional bosses that you can face through certain circumstances. I have no idea. I think I'm going to stick with it because

I want to save the ocean. Speaking about shooting things, Chef Grubb, many shoot adventures, Yeah, many shoot adventures. We talked about this in a few places. Now it's the one the game that Dan told me about. It is a dual stick shooter Zelda game, and it is most similar to the original Zelda and that there's very minimal dialogue, there's a little bit of direction. They do kind of put a waypoint on your map saying you're

supposed to go here. I guess that's pretty similar like something like a Metroid Prime, where it's like, hey, your goal is here, figure out how to get there, and you're gonna get lost a lot, and when you discover where you're supposed to go or discover a secret, it feels really cool. Like any good Zelda game, I am really digging this. I think I'm getting pretty near the end. I think they just get everything right.

So it is like a dual stick shooter in that all of the combat scenarios end up feeling like bullet hell and that like just dodging around the bullets and as they come at you, and there's you know, there are various sizes and there are various speeds, so you have to like be really paying attention to the point where it's like I'm almost always focused on where my ship is at, and then i have the general idea of where the enemies are at, and I'm firing in that direction, but I'm just trying to stay

alive because that's more important. If you take hits, you're gonna die pretty quick in the game, and that feeling of being in the thick of it and just barely scraping by as like a giant you know, enemy attack comes by and you and you kind of just grace along the side of it, and then you know several smaller bullets are coming and you dodge back and forth between those, and then as you're doing that, you can hear like the

pop of killing an enemy. That's a really cool feeling. And you add in like a really good upgrade system, whereas you're you're killing enemies, you're getting these little tokens that go into it like a diamond thing, and as that fills up, that gives you a point to spend on your skill tree.

And like the skills are like shoot faster, shoot farther, do more damage, You make your ship faster, make your boosts go faster, and as you unlock new abilities from the dungeons, you can upgrade those as well, and all this stuff just like feeds into one another to keep you wanting to explore in this world that is really well thought out, and it's just a cute little look like looking game. It's not trying to be gloomy or anything. Like that. It's looks a lot like link to the past,

but you know, HD and with a ship instead of a person. I just I can't recommend this enough. It is really really good. Why is there an apostrophe after the Yeah? Okay, so I wonder if it's like there's like shooting, they're shortening the word, but that doesn't make sense like many shooting adventures and like that doesn't really work. So I don't I actually don't know why there's an apostrophe at the end of They made a mistake, they just decided to commit to it. Yeah, I think so too for

them. Sometimes I feel like a typo that is weird from Taylor Swift album. God, her lyrics are just so good that could be anywhere. That's all. It's just wonder's right. Yeah, tell us how you really feel, Bailey. Oh, I couldn't possibly, I'll get death threats. I mean, being a Swiftie is very a very very hard, serious business man. Fuck it's it's very hellish, just like the world of Shin mcgummy ten. Say it's five vengeance and I believe you are allowed to talk about this

now. I am eighteen minutes ago. Yeah, it fifteen minutes ago, the embargo lifted for SMT five Vengeance, which is the re release of SMT five. If you know about like Persona five, Royal, Persona three e Fess or like Catherine full Body, Strange Journey, Reducks, like all this, all these Atlas always does their re releases right, right, and so they're doing that for SMT five, which I don't think they have. I mean, they did it for Strange Journey, but it's mainline SMT has been.

This game came out in twenty twenty one, is like the first time we've seen SMT in a very long time. So it's really cool that we're getting a royal addition essentially for SMT five. I like that game a lot, but there's also a lot of avenues in which it can could have improved or done more, and that's exactly what this is doing. So I played

a short demo of it that was all of the new content. Like the first half of my playable demo went through a like like an hour chunk that was the original game from the original game, but shows you how the original game has been tweaked with like a new character, new boss fights, new story beats, and then the second half was another hour of like all completely like a new area, new demons, all this other shit, and I

like what they're doing with this. So the way it works is that you could still play through the game through its original route, but there comes a point in which you can choose a completely different route, which is called the Vengeance Path, and it kind of takes a pretty sharp turn in different directions and starts to show you all kinds of new stuff. I'd also did an interview with Atlas the week prior. They said there's seventy five hours worth of

new content. That game was seventy five hours already. I don't know if I fully believe them. I think they're just be like, well, much of that is like the same game, but we've tweaked this, so technically it's new, but this is a significant chunk of new content because it's the story is going in a very different direction. They have a new character. Her name is Yoko, and she's part of the party almost the entire time,

So like this having this new care. They've done this for other re releases, like in Royal, where they inserted a new character, but you can tell that they are trying to be clever about, you know, not having to re record other characters' voice lines by slotting them into this conversation having

them say something that isn't like too consequential to everything else. So they do a little bit of that, but then they have this whole dedicated storyline, these dedicated cut scenes and different plot threads that revolve around her as a new character in the party. So I think they are it seems like they're going the extra vile to justify having a re release, and I'm fascinated by a story. I love Mainline SMT. I think it's it's a good contrast to

Persona. I feel like a lot of people have gotten onto Atlas's RPGs through Persona and haven't necessarily thought of Mainline SMT all that much because there hasn't been I mean, unless you played the three DS games or the re release of three there just hasn't been that much for SMT. So I'm glad that they are kind of investing more in that series because it's cool as fuck, Like

SNT is metal as fuck. That shit is rat as hell. Man, Like there's sad, it's sad, not sad, it's more like existentialism type shit, because it's all about like religion and theology and the warring ideologies and how that like fucks up the whole world and then the like there's a certain attitude about SNT like that I that I like, you know, persona always like pulls out your heartstrings, really cares about character development and as you live

someone else's life, and it really experienced what it's like to be in that character's shoes, and it's very emotional as like naw, fuck that shit. We're going hard. We got like fucking hardcore metal playing in the background. We're fighting demons. We're fighting other devils with their titties out and shit, Yo, if you want to talk about like like hot character designs in a

game, sm T five's new demons are on another level. Dog Like, I'm I'm in love with some of these new devils and demons in this there. I can fix them. I know I can fix them. Don't probably kill me before anything else, but I damn well, we'll try. Yeah. Yeah, that's the thing is that you can kill me. It's fine.

Yeah, I'm kind of How are you feeling, like, are you glad that this is the way that the Atlas does these sort of expansions as these big standalone updates where you kind of have to play through the whole game again. There's clearly a benefit to it. How do you feel about it? Listen, I'm a mark. Yeah, I think that's what it lasting. Yeah yeah, yeah, no, And like someone a lot of people have al like have bring brought that up, and I think there's it's I

think it's a fair thing to be like, what the fuck? Like, oh, two three years later, you're gonna release a new version of the game that is that feels like the full version of a game, and you're gonna charge me another sixty dollars for it. I mean another sixty dollars in a three year span. Listen, there's some broke boys out there. Listen, get your get your money up. First off. Now, I'm just

kidding us, fucked up. But what I think is you ever work on a creative project and then you have to hit a deadline, like I need to get this done on this day, and unfortunately we're going to have to cut certain things that I wish I could put in there. I just don't have time or the mental energy or the capacity to include this in a way that makes sense. So at least I'm going to cut it and I'm just gonna this is the thing that I'm going to put out into the world because

I have to. And then you ever take a step back and look at it and be like, damn, I wish you did this, wish it did that. If I had more time, I can incorporate this thing that I had to cut and then so like, yes, it is. People can call like a like a cash grab whatever. But I think Alice has been good about justifying those re releases by the way they insert that new content. And I like, I play a game once and then three years later,

I want to revisit it. I think that's I think that for me at least, that's worth doing because you know, I my perspective changes, things happen in my life. Especially with Atlas. RPGs are about like these big questions about life and shit. It's like it's nice to come back to it and reflect on that experience and maybe have a new perspective that you didn't

have otherwise. And then you see the new content on top of that that kind of like recontextualize what you thought you knew about the game in some smart ways. And I think, I mean, I have very mixed feelings about Catherine full Body. I kind of respect that they tried what they tried to do with that, but I think that is one instance in which they maybe were probably they were out of their depth with Catherine full Body, That's what

I think. But I think things like Royal things like Reload, which is a little bit of a different case, and then now with SMT five Vengeance and like Persona four Golden before that too. I think these are very smart additions and changes of the game because there's quality of life things too, and they pourt them to different systems. It's no longer a Switch exclusive, so I don't have to play this in fucking two forty p at twenty eight frames per second. This full full four K, sixty fps. I'm like,

yo, this is how I always wanted it to be. So there is that in addition to porting it, you know, quality life, new content, and if you want to play the original version of the game, well yeah now you can too. So uh, this is a at least from what I've seen so far in my hands on preview, this is kind of what I want out of an Atlas re release, and I I fucking love SMT Like I think I wish they would put out four and four Apocalypse again. I know they did the three remaster, but man, Shinnami tense as

fucking hard. That game is hu. I may need to see a four K sixtyn and one goal. Oh yeah, so I kind of need to see that. I need to see the half vampire half that leg lady. Yeah, just shout out to what's the penis monster's name, Mara? I was gonna say, Mike Manatti, Damn Mike maa Nadi. Yeah, Yo, I like it. That dick is so huge, bro, Like it's on a chick. Like if you played any of the set or Persona games, you've seen this demon before. But it is like a massive penis on

a cherry penis on legs. It's a green penis with a mouth on it. Yo. It's one thing I will say, like like top one percent of only fans right there, girth Master got nothing on Mara. You know what I'm saying, Like, uh, speaking about demons, Michael, you've also been playing sand oh San Lan Salem's got demons penis monsters though, Oh dang on nuts yeah nuts. Toriama didn't want to draw those. Huh no, well he kept those for himself. Sandlan. I reviewed Sandlan for i

GM give it a six. I don't need to talk too much about it, then I can. I ask you just real quick, I played the demo. Did you play the demo before you played the Okay? Is it that much different than the demo? The full game is much much better than the dem Okay, because I played the demo, I was like, this is boring as shit, is not enjoying myself. I have never seen a worse representation of a game through a demo. I'm glad to hear that. At least it's like okay, but I mean, okay, so what's different?

Like, what are you doing in the game that is fun? I mean you you actually go through a store, you have battles to fight, there are things that actually happen because you pop in the demo and they put you in a small ass portion of the open region with almost literally nothing to do. You can like drive around and find enemies in the open but they literally do not have any story content in the demo, And it's like, this is a very bad representation of the game because there are there's Sandland is

charming, and I've read the manga. I started watching the anime too after I played the game. The anime is really really good and the original I love the original manga because it's a Curatoryama Ripizza the God that was his one of his side projects, and he just was fascinated with designing vehicles. And if you look bad at a lot of dragon ball art, they have some wild ideas for vehicles and that was all Toriama. They're awesome, yeah, and then so this was kind of his way to just focus on that.

And I think the like, the story of san Land isn't necessarily necessarily complex, but I think it has I say it has its heart in the right place because it does tell a story about you know, corrupt governments and the impacts it has on the people living in society. And like there's a tension between demons because the demons live in this world, they share the same space.

And then you have humans who are struggling. And then you know Beel's above, who's the main character you play as, has this heart of gold. Even though he says like, oh I'm a I'm a badass demon and I'm gonna like fuck shit up no, he's Taylor swiftlyric. I don't think Beels above would be a Swiftie, but yeah, it's a It's a pretty by the by the numbers open world action game. It focuses on vehicles, and I think the vehicle vehicle combat, Like the vehicle system is very good.

I think they control really well. It's just interesting enough when you up grade like your tank, your hover bike, or your your motorbike, then your hover bot and then your jump out. Like there's so many different vehicles and they all are pretty well thought out and fun to use. I mean, but they don't give you that many combat challenges, Like a lot of the enemies you encounter, it's like, well, I'm gonna bust out my

tank and circle around them and splash shots. So it doesn't get creatively challenging, but there is a good field to just like blowing shit up. I know the game is called sand Land, but are you primarily just in like a desert or a waste land all the time. The second half of this game takes place and what's called forest Land, and if you gather as much from the name, takes place in a forest, and no spoilers or anything.

I got an idea what's in there? Yeah, because would you say, this is like kind of like pretty part par for the course for Bandy Namco and anime games. So you know, they did that one piece game a couple of years back, and that was like, yeah, it's all right, okay, right, it's okay, that's what I'm that's what I'm getting from their efforts in anime games. Yeah, if you've played I see

a lot of DBZ Cakarat in this as well. Like sure, a lot of the design ethos kind of carries over and it almost has become their template for anime adaptations, which is I find like Sandland is I like sandal and a lot. There's a lot of potential there, but I feel like that format under sells what Sandland as a game could have been. So you can see that they like have to phone it in on a lot of cutscenes and so it it feels like there's little to no impact when there is like a

big story event happening. I was like, how they don't really sell you on the like the importance of that event in the game. It's like, ah, man, But the manga panels were so good and they communicated so much and the intensity of the battles, and then like the game itself doesn't really capture that, and so it's unfortunate. I had a fun time with it, but it's not something I would recommend to be like, yo,

you need to play this ship right now. It makes me very curious to how Dragon Ball Sparking zero is going to be, whether it's going to be like an evolution of Cacroot or kind of another. Is that mostly an arena fighter? I honestly only pay half attention when it's up, but I got the sense that it's just like a fighting game, but behind the back.

Yeah, it's because folks got super excited because the words ten kaichi were getting invoked, So I think it easy behind the back arena ish fighter with hundreds of characters, says a gender generator and chat and that's a great name. Yeah, I Sparking zero looks pretty promising, But I'm like, I think for all these anime games, anime games, I kind of like, I'm going to set my expectation bar right in the middle, and if you clear that, I'll be happy. Yeah, that's that's pretty much where I feel

like Sandland would fits into that so well. From Michael navigating the wastelands of Sandland to Bailey checking out the nuclear wasteland that is Fallout. Yeah, you've continued. Are you've been streaming this New Vegas right Vegas? Playing NonStop? Yeah? I love New Vegas, and I like, I have like a monthly fundraising goal on my stream and if I hit it, I do a

stream athon. And so this last time I hit it and we did it was like a nine hour Fallout New Vegas stream where I built a character based on like the Pardon Me the Special stats that Beth as the release for Lucy, the main character from the Fallout TV show, and so we tried to like role play as her and make like the decisions she would make. And I it had to like go in a lot of circles to justify randomly killing a couple of people, but god, I just really wanted that bottle cap

necklace. You know, It's fine. I was just mostly trying to just get to New Vegas before the end of the stream so I could play blackjack because Lucy has a seven luck stat which I've never given a character before. It was very exciting. I've never played blackjack as a lucky person in real life or in a game, So it was like really thrilling for me. But also GameSpot has been doing a lot of Fallout content and I have been

working on that and also on his trailers spoiler alert in one minute. The honest trailer on Honest Trailers proper not Honest Game Trailers is for the Fallout TV show, and I wrote on that so like, my life has just been Fallout, and the next Honest Game trailer is not going to be Fallout, but the one after it. So you know how on Honest Game trailer has been going on for like a really long time and I've only been charge of

it for like a year. So sometimes I go through and I'm like, what classic games have we not covered yet that we could just like have as backup for months when there's nothing really to talk about. So sometimes I find an answer I don't want, and in this kind of in this instance, it was Fallout seventy six, So yeah, we tried. We tried to play fall Out seventy six on Frida, and I say, tribe it's because Dan was there and he wasn't having it. So it's like I don't have

a good sense of that game. But everyone else on Earth seems to be enjoying it. I think the key is to not play with other people, which is weird for a multiplayer game. I hear it's better now than when it came out. I did try playing it when it came out and wasn't a fan. So I it's a hardcore New Vegas fan. I bet it's

not gonna I'm not going to do what you want. It's just very it's it's very challenging when like that was my first impression of the series, and like I went on to play like three and four and like check all that shit out, and I just never you know, I couldn't. I couldn't get into seventy six. The storytelling, it just isn't there the way it was in New Vegas. And that's like very important to me in an RPG.

You want good storytelling. That's kind of critical. So us is in seventy six though, Yeah, Jason mus is there, so is it. I don't know, Jason, Yes, out the the NPCs that they added after you played it, Uh, they're there and they have story and I'm just like, Okay, it's very hard for me to gauge it in a quick play like that of like whether or not I care about the story or not, but it does give you stuff to do, and I think that

I like the environment and Fall seventy six. I'll be interested to see how you feel after playing it. Maybe, Yeah, come back on here and tell us the results. I'm going to go in with us open in mind and as open a heart as I can. I always try to with these games, like I really, anytime I play a game for honest game trailers, I'm not going in like I can't wait to fucking wreck this thing. I want to have fun with it. I want to meet it where it

is. I'm not going to like penalize it for not being a game the game that I want it to be when that's not the game it's trying to be, because that's bad criticism, frankly. But if a game's bad, a game's bad, you know. So it's like just I'm gonna try my best and keep hope in my heart. That's what I'm gonna do. Well, Bailey, if you need multiplayer companions, perhaps we could pop out of

the vault one more time. Yeah, I don't want to get installed on my Steam deck and play it here and there after I finished Mini Shit, so call of a character going, that'll be fun. I tuned in for that stream as I was being kicked out of my apartment last week. Grub. I thought, you guys seemed like you were having fun. I think

I think for the most part, we actually were. And I know that Lucy was it was enjoying the game on her own before that, and then when we were playing together, she's like, yeah, I could see how this is fun. I everyone does seem to recommend playing most of it on your own for the vast majority of it, which is like true of a lot of MMOs these days. You kind of wait until you're at the end of the available single player content, then you play the MMO stuff with other

people and do raids or whatever. And that stuff was happening around us, and they give us the option to go do the public events, but but yeah, it was it was still like, Okay, I need to do my story mission, so I'll go in, I'll talk to the person. You guys can kind of stay by me and maybe hear what we're talking about, or do your own thing, and that that just doesn't work very well.

So yeah, I would I would play it by yourself first, and that's what I'm gonna do, So spend a little bit more time with it. Okay, okay, some some very mature criticism here here at a giant bomb dot com Vegas. That's a good game. We're gonna be playing more of that this week. I'm going to be I'm going to be missing the one this week. I'm so sorry. Oats, all right, too bad,

But I made promises to other people at this company. Yeah, just send a text message about something you want me to do, and I'll make poor decisions based on what you say. No problem, Okay, all right, trust me. He's right, Michael. You also have another game here, Final Fantasy sixteen The Pricing Tie. Yeah, real quick. That is probably my last review on game Spot for a good long while. I reviewed the DLC for Final Fantasy sixteen, which is kind of it's send off.

Also, this is like the last piece of content for sixteen, and I liked it a lot. I mean, I still have a lot of love for Final Fantasy sixteen and it was nice to have a reason to come back to it. This is the second part of their DLC package. The first one, Echoes of the Fallen, was fine. It was like a two hour dungeon and I had a really good boss fight against Omega, which was like really dope. But it didn't necessarily like push the game in any particular

direction. It was just kind of like, here's more content. Rising Tide has its own separate storyline. So if you play the original game, they allude to Leviathan, but a love Ethan never shows up in the original game. That's not really spoiler, that's public knowledge at this point, but this is what that DLC is about. So it's a little weird that, if

you sixteen ends on a fairly like this game ends. So it's really weird to go back to a game that has a pretty definitive ending and then hey, we have an extra chapter for you to play, and it's like all right, well fine, I'll see what you got. And it's really nice. It's refreshing in a way because it takes place in a completely different region and it has like a tropical vibe. So a lot of sixteen was just so dark and nasty, and that's what the that's the vibe it was going

for. So it worked for that game. So it's nice to have like this contrast where it's a lot more feels like a place where you would want to be at, and there's like a new society to learn about. There's a new dungeon, and there's a new icon fight and all this stuff is really well done. You get to use Leviathan also as an icon power, and they basically said, Yo, what if we turned this ship into a fucking shooter. Clive's arm turns into like a Leviathan mouth and you shot gun

blast enemies with water that mouth, do some wild ship. You got like a like an SMG bubble blast type thing. And then like you have this other ability to like class ex. Yeah, what is Ben Star saying when he's shooting the cannon. Yeah there's he wasn't a clip of like his last line or whatever. It's just him screaming into the microphone. And that is

what Clive does all the time. So shouts out to Ben Starr's vocal cords because I'm sure they're fried at this point with all those streaming that he did for Clive. But yeah, it's a really funny use. You also get Ultima as an ability to which is like another separate piece of content comes with this DLC that's kind of a like a run based like roguelike dungeon or roguelike like battle challenge whatever. So that's fun because I like the combats interest.

It's just like a run. It's like a run based combat challenge. That's if you want to get If you want to get more challenge out of the combat system, that's where you'll find it. But yeah, I think the dungeon is great. The music that accompanies the dungeon is absolutely incredible. It is up there with Masioshi Silka's best work, to be honest, there's yeah, the icon fight is pretty frustrating, but I think it's still a ton

of fun once you kind of like get past. It's uh, kind of like there's a wild DPS check and a bunch of like mechanics you need to learn. But I liked it overall, and I think the thing the last thing to say about it is it has its own storyline and it's pretty different from the tone of the rest of the game, and I think it's really

sweet actually what it has to say about breaking generational curses. So it feels like there's like a warm side to sixteen that it didn't fully explore in the base game that they kind of show a little bit more here, and even though it's like, Okay, now we need to go back to the main game and finish the final fight of the story, like, it still feels like, in a way, the game was trying to communicate something about, you know, moving on from this story and these characters. So I think

it's a really nice way to cap off sixteen. So yeah, I think it's worth it if you liked sixteen. Fantastic fantastic, And the final thing we have here in the rundown is not a game, but can be precarious enough. Jeff Grub, you fixed the switch light. Yeah, my kids are finally getting to the point where we need to switches at all times. And the plan for a long time was to fix this switch light, which had the right stick. It wouldn't click in anymore. The left stick.

The rubber rubbed off, and I'm like, I could just put something on there, but that always comes off as well, So I'm like, I'm going to take this thing open and replace both. There was a lot more. There was a lot more screws that I was expecting. By the time you get that thing fully open, so you can replace the right sticks specifically, I believe you've got like thirty screws you have to account for, and

I was worried about that. And I'm like following a video guide and I'm working backward taking all these things out, and I'm like, I'm gonna forget where some of these go. But you know, I did my best to keep them separate and got through there. I got the sticks replaced. It wasn't too hard, all things considered. And now I'm like at a point where I'm like I was already in there. I kind of wish M would have replaced that LCD screen with an O Lead, So I started looking into

O LEAD mods from my switch lights. I really like the switch light form factor. I think it is my favorite overall design for a Nintendo handheld ever, at least as an adult, Like as when I was a younger, I really like the Game Boy Advance SP but with you when I had a younger man's hands who could like handle that. But today my hands would explode if I tried to do that. So I'm like, I really like that. Maybe I'll put an OLED screen in there. And it doesn't seem like

that's too difficult either, So I'm looking at that. But in the meantime, I do have a project I forgot. I bought this. I got one of those FPGA game Boy and uh, you gave what color things? Uh, And it's it's basically just the same thing as an analog pocket. I don't know why I got it here, you just wanted to build your own this time. Yeah, I mean I know why I got it. It's because the shell is the exact shape of a game Boy game Boy color,

and that's my favorite looking design of a game Boy. And I just love this thing. So I'm gonna piece this together. And now that's my life. I mean, we you know, we're approaching we're approaching the point where like you gotta count your knockoff little uh handheld devices, and I gotta count my keyboards. I literally did forget that I ordered this, So when I showed up, there was like this level of shame. That's about like, oh my god, that's like the seventh step. So you're you're definitely

tracking. You're playing your your you're playing the I have a problem playbook page by page. Uh huh uh. Yeah, I think we got to start compare wearing our super dumb hobbies. Yeah, you're right, and it's definitely a problem, but man, this thing looks fun. I can't wait to put it there. You go and you're back in. Yeah, we'll put something up on the website about this at some point. I can't wait. Yeah, go ahead, No no, no, no, please please please.

I built Alex Bonniellow a keyboard. Oh yeah, I did. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know if it's public. What's that? What was it themed? Like, I'm curious. It was like just a different Eve pos poses from Stellar Blade for each of the letters. No, no, no, no, no no no. Oh he's wait he's streamed and I don't I didn't realize he's streamed it. I thought he just said he sent me a video, but I didn't know if he was.

So it's like it's it's a gray case and it's got like like uh like Japanese language alpha's on it, so like there's a sub legend underneath each uh you know letter. That's fun. It's like black and white and gray with a knob because you know Alex and his knobs. He's got. That's no, that's awesome. He man, he's been sending me all these photos of like his words per minute scores on monkey Type and oh that's fun. I find out if you're listening to this. Also, my kids of their

own accord started reading Case of This Zapps. Yeah is a book for kids, and they really love that book. So well, great, it's great. But yeah, we'll start doing more Giant Bomb keyboard commissions in the near future, and The Descendant's Rise of Red coming to your Disney Plus screens in July twelve, twenty twenty four, starring Alex Boniello. Folks, that about does it for the first part of the BombCast, unless anyone else has any

things they want to talk about, any games, any miscellaneous thoughts. I played like ten minutes of that tennis game two K twenty five. I'll play more of it. It feels pretty good. Oh, it is a timing mechanic, like kind of like active reload for hitting tennis balls. Isn't Dan the game at? What is happening? When that's like weird? Is there a threesome? Is is the Dane in the game? Is that day question? I'm not listen. I'm forty one, I've been in the movies and

like a half I'm remakeers crazy. I've not seen Challengers now Dune to Dune. I'm going, okay, well is in it? Yeah, but that has nothing to do with tennis. You challenge Challengers is, but it's also a little bit about worms, like Challenge really big worms. Our gaming leaks and rumors. Jeff Grub confirms that final Fast and Nine remake and there search

you're putting it out there, Michael, have we taught you nothing? He Yo, folks, We're gonna break fake news continuously throughout the rest of this podcast, but the next segment will just be regular good old news. I want to play the tennis game. How is the tennis game? How's the tennis game? We should play it? We should be at top Spin. We played on the site tops where all right, I'm also going to pick up another hobby, and that hobby will just be tennis because everyone said I

wouldn't be good at fishing, So I'm gonna go. You give off, like you know, inept fishing energy. What can I tell you? Okay, I'm thankful. That's where this one. We'll see you right after this quick bricky break, Jeff backlar. Can I be at enough fisherman if I have a fishing vest ready to go right now? Oh my god, you're wearing a fishing vest. This is destined to happen. Is this your next Blake clump game? There's no bad fishing games. Yeah no, yeah,

okay, I reverse everything I said in the previous segment. I'm now all in on this Jan fisherman arc. I couldn't find my bucket hat. Otherwise I think full of coopermont I would have. I would have been good to go if you could get like thigh high galoshes and some like, uh, get them out of my closet. I thought you knew me, Jeff, come on. And then those like I don't know the sort of a kootraman these these freaks have with like the flies on their vests and stuff like,

don't make me get the overalls out. We already know I got those. Oh man, I just don't see this for you, but I'm willing to support it. Let's let's let's plan a date Jen. We'll go disc golfing, We'll go fishing. That's a long day. But bumper cars. Bumper cars do bumper cars. You guys are gonna be gonna be sleepies by the

cold hand at the Taco Bell Cantina. I look forward to I know, look forward to my newsletter, but Jeff Grubb delivering the news I personally feel like a disc golfing vlog or a fishing vlog with Michael and I would would just do numbers go off. You've set forth a chain of events that will lead us to hosting Game of the Year at a Bass Pro Shop, right, like, can we go to the pyramid the pyramid? Realize that is what is? And they're going to go back to like where was it?

What was the episode? Oh right when he wore the vest? Yeah, remember why I got this? You know, I think, what's the other one? Cabela's Cabela's Are they the same thing? Now? Cabela's and Bass Pro Shop feels is a hunting more like hunting centric type show. Okay, either way, that's where I take my kids to see Santa and the easter out there. There's no line, am I, there's no line for that Santa. Am I not caught up with the sort of social discussion here where

I sort of continued to hold those brands in not a great regard. Is that? Oh? I mean, I'm not like doing my shopping there I'm going to see Santa. They're free. I just don't know what to think anymore, and I need the internet to Jeff dude. Bps hell had a choke hold on like gen Z and younger. I know they had like trucker hats that were like very popular, like who cares? Can I get my Can I get my car? Heart at BPS? No? No, are they competing like I think they feel like they? Right, Yeah, we

got aria. Alright, I have hot I have headlines for y'all. Let's get into it. Despite hardware decline, Xbox reports record Q three thanks to the Activision boost. Activision Blizzard's acquisition by Microsoft has positively impacted the company's gaming division. During the third quarter, gaming revenue increased by fifty one percent year over year, things largely to Activision's contributions. X Xbox content and services revenue

rose as well, but hardware sales declined by thirty one percent. CEO Sati Na Della highlighted the impact of Activision Blizzard Games, which set records for game streaming hours, console usage, and monthly active users. Diablo Ford's launch on game Pass was good, blah blah blah, But mostly here the story is Xbox overall doing very well because they have made some very strong acquisitions that's going

to help their brand. Console sales have dive dived, and if you take the Activision acquisition out of the numbers, sales for Xbox content and services was down five percent, so they needed those acquisitions. I think that kind of goes hand in hand with the second story. So I'm just going to go and that real quick and then we can have a conversation. Xbox Games Showcase and Redacted Direct are announced for June ninth. Just this morning, Microsoft has

announced two upcoming events, the Xbox Game Showcase and a Redacted Direct. The Xbox Game Showcase will occur on June ninth, twenty twenty four, and will include games from Activision, Blizzard, Befessa, and Xbox Game Studios. It will be followed by the Redacted Direct, which is rumored to be related to the next Call of Duty game, very likely a Black Ops game, because

what other thing has anything to do with being redacted? Okay. Xbox hardware kind of on the decline, and I think that's two years in a row where they saw pretty heavy declines in terms of the number of the number of Xbox consoles sold, or at least the amount of money they're making from that, and yet they're making more money from selling games largely because of something like

Call of Duty that is everywhere. How do you guys, feeling about where Xbox is as a console platform and as a publisher of video games, especially going into what it seems like is going to be a very big show in

June. I think the publisher side they look very appealing. Where from the hardware front, I think if I had only invested in the Xbox ecosystem, I'd be a little bit disappointed because suddenly it turns out that the console war was fake, guys time, this whole time, it's been vague because you know, now my peers that have PlayStation can play some of the titles like

see if Thieves launches today? Right, that sounds right? Yeah, So I think I'd be a little bit disappointed because then not only can PlayStation console owners are taken all of their existing console exclusives, but now that they can get their hooks into the games that I could boast and brag about. But if I am just sitting on the periphery like most of us are, with this publishing side, all right, Cool, go ahead, keep keep pumping

money into these devs. The thing I think, I don't think this is surprising considering what Microsoft's priorities are with Xbox, right, because I mean, their primary concern was always to get as many users on whatever device. It doesn't matter what device you use, if you are on game Pass or if you're using cloudstream, whatever the case is, they got your ass. That's

that's their primary goal. So seeing like hardware sales declining one, we're four years deep into a console generation, so like, yeah, okay, you're going to see some decline fairly steep, I guess in this case, but I don't I like it. I always feel like slanging hardware was is like secondary to everything else. So the fact that they're rising on the publishing side, that's their priority is to be a publisher of games because that's where the

money is. Rarely, if ever, do companies make money off of selling hardware game consoles. So this is this tracks with what I think their priorities are. But like some people will see this like, oh, yeah, the Xbox is taking Matt L's again, It's like, well, I'm right, not really, It's hey, yeah, I'm you're right, The hardware is like going to be It was always going to be a challenging place for them to grow. I think that has been proven at this point. And

so where are they going to get the growth from. Well, they are getting it from selling a bunch of games like frigging Call of Duty and Minecraft and and and those games necessitate them to think bigger than the Xbox because both those franchises are already on other platforms and they've promised to continue keeping that the case, I suppose. Okay, So then, as fans of playing video games, are are there things like, oh man, the Xbox Game Showcase,

They're you know, promising big stuff. We're gonna get updates from you know, Bethesda and all these other studios. Are there things you're looking forward to hearing about? Is there something like, oh man, they're finally going to talk about Perfect Dark? Or is this kind of a wait and see for y'all? I think it's been a wait and see with Microsoft in terms of like games that they themselves are putting out rather than partnering up with I

think it's been the wait and see camp for a while. I think eventually Microsoft is eventually gonna have to Pony up and show us what else they got. I mean, we could potentially see more of Fable this year, right, I hope so likely? Yeah, I don't. I don't know about Perfect Dark though, Greb, Yeah, I mean I My hope is and

this has been my hope for this showcase for a long time. We get updates on all of the franchises that they've talked about before, at least the ones that were announced, you know, four years ago or something like that, anything that was announced near the launch of the Xbox series X and S. I want updates on those, and Perfect Dark would be among those. It can't be that much further. Office suppose it could be another two years,

and at that point maybe they aren't ready to show it. And creating these assets, as we know we've talked about a bunch does take time, you know, anywhere anywhere from two months to six months to create something with even if it's a like a CGI trailer. That stuff does take time, even when it's made externally. Okay, So this redacted showcase, it's it's call of duty black ops, right there? Is there any other theory you guys are harboring? Hm? I don't know if I could do this again.

Guys, Yeah, how you feel on mister Call of Duty? As the premiere expert of Call of Duty? All things Call of Duty? Right, just subscribe to my YouTube channel. I think like it feels time like I have to put myself into like call of duty brain and say that like black car, it's a fine line. My friend stands for call of duty Jesus right, I have to keep one foot on the floor while I do this, while I attempt to drift. Yeah, it seems like from that

perspective it is time for another black ops. So that probably feels okay. It sounds so obligatory. It's like, I guess we're doing this again. I guess we do. Is there any excitement for it? I don't think there's any more excitement in Call of Duty. I do honestly think it is this like expected pull the lever, get the thing. There is very much the crane game where it's, uh, it costs a dollar, but you don't lose until you win something, right, do you know what I mean?

Where it's like you're gonna get a piece of shit, little bouncy ball. I mean it's the rent the maze, right, they hit the button and they only get stuff sometimes. But one of those things eventually is one hundred going to be Call of Duty Black Ops five? Yes, yeah, I mean the you know, the playability for that thing. I just think has been on such a negative trajectory for a couple of years now where I do think it's finally poisoned well enough that there's a substantial sort of shift in

the excitement over that. So okay, so that's what they're doing this summer. I guess I was gonna do a little wrap of like what we know about what's happening this summer for big announcements and showcases. The word still is PlayStation is probably going to do something, likely a showcase in May. So PlayStation will have something. Microsoft is going all out. Nintendo, who knows they could have They could have a direct or, they could completely skip the

summer. No one really knows what they're gonna do, and then everyone else is probably gonna have some stuff going on at at summer game Fest. It doesn't feel like many of these other companies are looking at doing their own specific like hey, let's get everyone out, let's just if we if we're gonna do it, we're just gonna go with Jeff Keeley and I don't know. I'm overall I'm pretty fine with that. How are you guys feeling about the

summer A game showcase announcement season? Let me tell you all about I g N Live Baby, get your mull thefucking tickets Now them ships is selling, bro, this is what I become. Are you gonna have to take down that game spot logo behind you when you're question? Actually, Michael, here's what you do. You just put you you get two more logos. You just put an eye and then that's really good. Yeah, I'll do I like that. I'm sure. Yeah, I can get away with that.

That's really funny. Oh man, I ow fucking the hype to see video games this summer. I don't know. Yeah, me too. I think it's gonna be a good time. Well, we'll see how it goes. All right, my friends to come visit me. We're gonna be in l A. That's true. God, let's go get meat wasted again. We had barbecue again. Oh yeah, KBBQ was hit and that night it really

still tasted. Not to like fully brag about that, but when I found out it was Mike Manatty's birthday when you guys were going to be in town, and I thought to myself, what's the best restaurant I could take Mike Manatty too. I was like, one more, it's just meat, and its nailed it for Mike. I'm also very glad that Mike did not see that some of the meat was resting on a bed of lettuce, and he didn't notice why because he was sitting right next to the voice actor for Actually

Ashley, thank you for rasing evil for literally perfect birthday. It was a perfect birthday. Here's the thing. You trick him into eating vegetables, Like, yes, indeed, Mike, grow up. Here's the thing you know. Susie Sphere Hunter very popular person. Right anytime I see the Homegirl,

it's great. But the thing is she's so well connected that like anytime she's like, oh I got a friend with me, and I'm like, all right, cool, I'm just chilling into the back of the uber and then like I'm just making casual small talk of like, oh, hey, what do you do, Like, oh, I'm the voice actress for Ashley from Resident And I'm like, motherfuck, you can't just drop that shit on me. Some warnings here dog. It was. It was very like Mike didn't

know. He was sitting there for like quite some time, and then I mentioned that and he's like, oh my god, So yeah, we gotta puture. That's very good there. That was a good one, all right, Moving along here, Todd Howard says Bethesda's focused on finding ways to increase

its output. Todd Howard, game director at Bethesda, acknowledges the long wait between the studio's game releases and expresses a commitment to finding ways to increase their output while maintaining a high quality, but is currently focused on the Elder Scroll six and does not have plans for a sequel to fall Out four in the

near future. Howard also discussed the possibility of collaborating with external developers on Fallout projects like mobile spin offs or non numbered series entries, as Bethesta has done in the past. He emphasized the importance of delivering high quality games, and mentioned upcoming content for Fallout seventy six, including a major map expansion called Skyline Valley Cincinnati reference. Oh my god, but that's the previously that would be

right in the right area, But that's the previously turned out. Proposals from Obsidian. I'm like, I love Skyland actually, you know me. They turned out proposals from Obsidian to develop more Fallout in Elder Schull's game, but the acquisition of both studios by Microsoft may open up new opportunities for collaborations.

Of course, we've heard the rumors that they are maybe discussing that. And then he also took a time to took time to say I love New Vegas and we we love New Vegas athesta, are we talking about Todd Howard the television show producer. H yeah, the television time. I'd like you to Yes, that's right. Okay, So like more Fallout we did. This

is a conversation we've had a bunch of times. Now do you think after this conversation where he's like, yeah, maybe things could happen, and we've heard these rumors that they want to have more stuff happen, what do you guys think is the likeliest scenario for getting more Fallout as quickly as possible.

I meant to work with Obsidian again. This is exactly the right set of circumstances that fall Out in New Vegas came in last time is because all their main developers were busy working on Skyrim yep, and now Obsidian is right there, and it wouldn't be some like external deal. It would just be knocking on our neighbor's door and we all live in the same community. So the thing is, like these things take so long to guess rolling, like if

you're if they're if they're considering the idea. Now you're not going to see that ship for another two, three, four years, five years, And I'm assuming the Fallout TV show is like going to have it's major success. It's going to be probably going to have more seasons and yeah, season two is just now so excited. So the the Fallout tail is going to be

long. Of course, you want to strike when the iron's hot, like you'll fall Out is reaching like a critical mass that like for me, I think a Fallout was like, oh, my fun little silly RPG game where I hang out with robots and like have Matthew Perry shoot me in the head at the start of New Vegas and shit. So it's really wild to see

it explode in this way. But in terms of what they can do with games in the immediate future, I would they probably invest in seventy six with like events and extra content and things like that, because that's the thing that they can probably insert the easiest to coincide with the TV show at this point. But in terms of like new projects, it's going to be a while.

Yeah, I think that Fallout has permanently changed though, right, Like I agree with everything you just said, Hi am, It's going to take a while no matter what. Even if they are like, let's do a smaller project with a smaller scope focus, Let's inexile do it top down Fallout RPG that's like a sequel to two, those things could really work. That

would also take two, three four years. But I think regardless when they announce, hey, here is a new Fallout project, if it is three four years from now and that's after a season two, the excitement for that is going to be off the charts no matter what, because I think this is now a franchise that is in people's minds forever. Is that correct?

What do you guys think? Yeah? I think it's enter it. It's like on the precipice of entering, like cultural cannon, where you're getting your normal person talking about Fallout, and you're also getting that normal person kind of disappointed when they go check out the games of like, oh, this is different than the show yet. Yeah, well you're not a huge fan of the show, right, you guys find it kind of boring, you know? I think, well, no, she did. She's a bad person.

But I like, I'm in n watching it alone because I see value and I yeah, I'm into it. But I don't know if it's, like I've realized, it is doing very well as far as Amazon shows go. I feel like it's kind of amazing that the mount Rushmore of Amazon shows is now like Missus masl and like the Gods as a Ghoul. I think that's cool as hell. It's I think it's good. I don't I don't

know if it's on the same level as like other recent stuff. I think it in terms of like video game adaptations, I think that's the cachet they're running with of like this is a really good one of these. Oh no, not that Breakout is a cool to like the Last of Us, Right, I think Last of Us has a bigger footprint, a big footprint. But if I'm gonna be honest, like even though that even though that one was more prestige, that one was more like serious in tone and blah blah

blah. I vibed with Fallout more. Yeah, I think Fallout has like a more fun kind of relationship with its content that The Last of Us is sort of just like you kind of can't always watch this because it's too much, right, everyone on Prime And I don't think everyone has HBO. So I like sixty five million viewers for this Fallout show, you can't watch it on HBO. Grow I'm sorry, Max, the one to watch for HBO. Get it right? The price? Yeah, I mean, I think

that this is going to have a cultural footprint. But Backler, I think I get where you're coming from, because even something like you know, Game of Thrones, there's that rumor that Embark is working on a Game of Thrones game and people don't really care. And Game of Thrones was the biggest show in the world for years and years and years. I'm sure it was like a bad season there at the end really turned most people off. And I think a lot of people are like, well, that's going in the brain

basket. I'm not gonna think about that anymore. But that can happen with Fallout, and you know, these things do have their moment and then they come and go, Like Walking Dead was really popular, way more popular than even Fallout is, and those games, you know, I think they do pretty well, but they're not like the biggest thing in the worldorld. It just feels like Fallout is the right mix of the games already had a lot of cachet among people who care about that sort of thing, and then the

TV show is amplifying that. So I think if they announced here's a fall Out five, there will be way more people who care about that than ever

did before. It's right that it will land. I think the thing too, is that Fallout the game is uniquely benefiting from the show in a way that I don't think other adaptations have in terms of like their relationship, just because of the sort of library of stuff that is available in the Fallout franchise, the uniqueness this sort of personal storytelling kind of element to that I think has found a way to kind of be, you know, in its own

category in terms of like where that's lending success. And as someone who kind of only singularly enjoys Fallout three, I don't really have much to say beyond that, but I will say that like it kind of made me want to go back and see if that's play you know, yeah, I mean that's yeah. It's like with with It's sort of like thinking about it now, honestly, like it's sort of very unique, and like I think of other

good video game man adaptations. When I think of my top three, it would be this one obviously Last of Us, and then I think Arcane almost certainly are can of those Silent Hill, the first Silent Heil move. Okay, but like of those three things I said, which were real, I think from a visually, like just from fidelity, Like I do think that

first Silent Hill looks good, looks cool. That's it. Of those things that I just said, I will say that fall it's kind of the only one where you're like, and now I'm going to go play the game, because with Last of Us you don't have to play the game. The show is for people who don't want to play the game but want to experience the story Arcane. The game is League of Legends. You're not going to get the quality of storytelling from fucking League of Legends. It's fun, but it's

not. It's not what Arcane is doing. Fallout are getting that storytelling in the game, but it's not the story you already know. You get to just play around in this cool new world you just learned about. Like that to me is the most like the funnel is so easy there, it's it makes total sense that people are like obsessed with it now. And the through line here is Ella Pernell because she's also an arcane so yeah, she's she's so good in it. Oh that's right, And I didn't know that.

That's Hailey Steinfeld fellow Cuba by Yeah, Haley Steinel who plays her sister Vi. Okay, this is Seeing the success of the Fallout show really makes me, I guess, nervous for future adaptations to really hit the mark. Not Fallout specifically, but like, yeah, I think that having a mass effect show would have been a no brainer. But now I don't know if they

could deliver on a mass effect show. Yeah, but I think I think it This proves that it's worth getting, like Jonathan Nolan on Board YEA to sort of dictate like the level of quality that you're aiming for and the belief can be there. That's like everyone involved is gonna benefit. You're gonna have the second biggest show ever on Amazon Prime Video and you're gonna sell a ton of video games even though they are between eight and fifteen years old or something

like that. So it's like everyone involved is benefiting and this is what can happen if everything hits. So it encourages everyone to be like, no, let's invest a little bit more time, let's actually do these shows right. Where before it was always like the Twisted Metal show, where I know people really like it. It's like the effort seemed to be like, let's make a good comedy show and that's what we're going for. But I think if they had a world where they had a game ready to go, it probably

could have benefited it. And if the lore was a little bit more important something like that, these things could pay off in a way that they haven't before. Last thing, this interview with Todd Howard happened over on kind of Funny. They talked about a bunch of stuff. He also said that Starfield's a Shattered Space story expansion is launching this fall, So hey, hooray, you think we ever get a Starfield show? Everybody? Yeah, that's about right. All right, Let's play a game. Okay, funk O Fusion.

If you're in the doc don't look. They announced this funk Co Fusion is a I don't know, it's a sumption. Let me let me get the whole MiLB so I say what this game is? A Confusion arrives on

console in PC September thirteenth. Pre Orders open start starting today ten ten games in collaboration with Funko and Universal Products and Experiences, alongside physical distribution partner Skybound Games today revealed a brand new look at Funko Fusion and release dates on the upcoming co op action extravaganza built around some of the biggest brands and characters in pop and Funko pop culture. Okay, what brands do you guys think are

in Funko Fusion. The impossible part of the scrub is that everything is a funk Co pop exactly. That's why it's an impossible question, right, But I want you get to start guessing. That is not one of the listed games. None of the Bit Bender from Futurama, No Futurama or Simpsons in the list. Some kind of some kind of cryptocurrency brand, uh close, penny Wise, the Clown, It's not listed here, but movies were well represented. I'll give you I'll give you guess Chucky's in there were Bailey said

Rick and Morty, I did Ninja. I don't see Rick and Morty. Here's when you won't get Umbrella Academy Academy. Sorry to say that, I met Umbrella Academy. Hey, I watched all three seasons of that. I bet you did have you know, you know I really like my Chemical Romance. Yeah, I like my I like New Jersey's own My Chemical Romance. And also season three was very bad, but they made a fourth one. I think. All right. There are several other movies and cartoons, and

they're pretty old, like nineties earlier, so it's not okay. Hold on, hold on, hold on, doug Hell, what's his name? What's his names? No? No, no, no, no no no. The beard No, the bear be not we bear bears, the bill be the bear. Five nights said Freddy's Bear. Now that's not nineties. What are you talking about? That's not just nineties? Five nights of Freddy's Five Nights is Freddy's is not listed here? But Bass Dar Galactica is Jackington in it? We no, but Jaws is Jaws is in shark? Uh the

shark, not the giant Man from James Bond. No, okay, one of your favorite movies. Back of Are Fifth Element, True Lie Now good movies, Hugh Jackman to the Greatest Showman, Incredible, Bridget Jones's Diary, Bridgie Jones's Diary, The Future, Marty McFly, Yeah, but back to the future in Jurassic World of Drassic Park, Jurassic World, Oh my god, Okay, Masters of the Universe, so he Man will be in there as well as the Walking Dead and Invincible. I guess we could have guess

that from Scotband. Oh, it's shown of the Dead for some reason. Man. I was going to say Marty McFly at the top of this, but felt it was too stupid of an answer. I wanted to be like, who is this for? But like, I think I know? And my next follow up question is who dropped the ball on getting Rick and Morty in here? Rick and Morty? Are they already in Fortnite? Are these like leftovers from forty? Oh? No, you don't want to be that

Fortnight that'll start to actice because such a fucked up pick. Did they watch the show? They don't care about any of that. That's never going to be what they care devastating. What are they doing question for you? Uh, what kind of game is this? Oh you didn't hear. It's the upcoming co op action extravaganza built around some of the biggest brands and characters in pop and funko pop culture. So this sounds amazing. I think this game

will stream very well. Though it pays tribute to Oh my God, Okay, this is a line. Funk co Fusion is an action adventure, single player and online co op experience that pays tribute to NBC Universal's deep roster, a beloved worlds, and irreverent funko pop interpretations of the figures who inhabit that way. Does that mean potentially get WWE Superstars because of cocked and We could? Yeah? I think of anything that's had a funko it seems like it

could be on the table from poker Face. No, No, that's not fantastic. I mean from thirty Rock would Crush, that'd be cooly good Jack McBrayer. I'll just recap the the things that they've announced so far. Jurassic World, Jaws, Back to the Future, the Thing, Sean of the Dead, Chucky let's see here. Yeah, Umbrella Academy the Walking Down Invincible. I'm repeating, miss, I mean yes, and Little Sebastian. That

would be great. We'll play this. I don't give a ship. Yeah, is there another bring your dip to workday scheduled in the school year? Help us understand this. We'll do it during the summer. Actually, I would prefer us to go through these show showing Dylan these pop vinyls and asking him what is this from? I mean, look, he's still riding high from his last from last week. I'm he'll probably be coming down around November, December, September, so oh man, sorry, the next school you're

strong? Yeah, yeah, this will be September thirteenth is when it hits consoles in PC. All right. Also, that Star Wars Hunter's game from Zinga, I think got a release date that's June fourth, So there you go, all right. Moving on with the news, Square Enix has suggested it's canceled or rescoped unannounced game projects as it continues to reassess its overall development strategy. Square Inex has decided has decided to revise its approach to the development

of high definition games, so big console releases. The publisher expects to report content abandonment losses of approximately twenty two point one billion yen, which is around one hundred and forty one million dollars due to this evaluation, suggesting that several projects have been canceled or rescoped. The decision follows the appointment of TAKASHIKIRIU as

the new president last year and the subsequent review of the development process. To improve game quality, the publisher aims to reduce outsourcing and focus on in house development for high profile titles to increase quality and profit margins. Founal Fantasy seven, Rebirth, Square's biggest release of the year, is reportedly underperforming, selling half of what Remakes sold in the same time frame. We've had that conversation.

There's caveats there, of course, but yeah, this was something they talked about a couple months back, where like, we're gonna stop making shitty games. We're just gonna make good games. And I'm okay, cool, weird, that's crazy. Yeah, that was my response. Yeah, do you mean this switch was flipped onto shitty games? Yeah, it was set to evil and shitty. You have to do that with a million subscribers, Why do we do that? Yeah? Exactly what we're gonna make only viral

videos. Now Nikki has changed all the plans. That's my strategy. We don't know what games they are talking about here. People are worried that this means, like, oh, Final Fantasy nine remake is not going to happen. Now, I bet that's one of the ones they're going to keep making it. It has Final Fantasy in the name. That seems like the thing that doubling down on, But I don't know. It's probably several other projects

that we haven't heard about. Uh. The sequel to Quiet Man is that no. I was actually jedubly upset that I almost berthed, We're we're joking. But there was a period where Square Enix put out Quiet Man. Uh, that really bad banger. That's exactly the game I was thinking I left alive of Michael Hyam. There was a couple others in Wonderworld, fucking Babylon's

Fall, I am the Babon's Fall, Michael Hyam's Babylon's Fall. That is like a year after year after year they would have one of these like games that were in the conversation for worst game of the Year, And yeah, it's the kind of thing where uh, hey, maybe it would be a good idea to not do that anymore. And a lot of those projects were like given off to a third party studios to like just make these things that they then wasted resources promote, Like they had a demo for Balance Wonder World.

Well you know why they would do that. How are you feeling, you know him, How are you feeling about Square Inex's future as an RPG fan? I mean, I hope this doesn't mean I like, this could mean many many things, but I hope, Yeah, this doesn't mean like

they're I guess, I don't know how I put it. But the smaller RPG projects where they do get experimental when they do interesting things like Octopath Traveler too, like one like one step below the prestige final fantasies, those are those I think are where I find the most enjoyment and or I like, there's something very memorable about those styles of games where they're not going for these these like as much as I love sixteen and like seven Remake and Rebirth,

those those games are like they have like a prestige level to them, but the way in which they explore different mechanics, different themes, they try and do things like two d HD. That's the area that I hope is still being invested in because that those are the things that have knock on effects for other like they influence other companies or other developers to do interesting things with their RPGs. So and they have a lot of they have a lot of good

brands still under you know, they still have the Bravely Ip Octopath. I hope it has more stuff in the future saga. There's just so many Squarenx has like sitting on a treasure trove of of of RPG brands, Like I know they're they're putting out of visions of Mono laters. I'm not the biggest Mona fan, but I do like that they are still investing in the Mana series in a way. So that's what I hope doesn't get lost in the sauce, is like the lower end of their projects, because yeah, like

I said, those are those are some of my most memorable games. For as much as we were goofing on Square a couple of minutes ago with Balance and Wonderworld and stuff, they did release like a lot of I want to say, like experimental rps that were surprises coming from them, like Dalo Field Chronicles was a pleasant memory, didn't quite stick the landing, but also games like Dungeon Encounters was a very neat idea. And then they had a hard

game, Voice of Cards, Voice of Cards that I really enjoyed. I think it just needed a little bit of editing. So I hope you know to Michael's point, that they don't shy away from those smaller ideas, and that they just stopped making the bad games, like they said, Yeah, stop making bad games, man, all right, so let's move along here. Peripheral firm claim switch to joy Cons use electromagnetic section, have extra buttons

there. It is Moba Pad, a company that specializes in making switch controllers, claims to have new information about the upcoming switch to console. They report that the new joy Cons will be larger and attached to consoles attention to the console using magnetic section instead of the current sliding rail technolo, Yeah, go ahead, please magnetic suction. Yeah, electromagnetic suction. How does that work? Ask your mother? I just came out, I'm gonna go do it.

I was referencing the hit song from a couple of years ago. Oh that's right, magnets nicy p sure I should have gone a that direction. A miracle now up for that and in a wildly different direction. Back did you did you have a specific question about this? I genuinely wanted to know what that meant. We don't know, housed like this is the thing, this is a mobipad. Maybe they know what they're talking about. Maybe they

don't. Maybe they heard magnets and they're assuming that it's going to connect the device. Maybe those are magnetic fields that are the hall sensors for the joysticks. There's a bunch of questions here. Still, my guess would be it's like mag safe, Like you still connected, like there's a lock, but the magnets help to guide it on there and keep it feeling more secure. It does say the word sucks. Maybe they misunderstand how magnets work. I

don't think sucking has anything to do with magnets. I mean, listen, I don't know. I'm I'm not I think for you don't know the attraction could be described as sucking. Right, Well, I'm okay. Did you think but like, if you have like an air locks sort of situation, you think magnets would probably help that whole process, right? I think it's gonna help. I like the idea of magnet sucking. I think, yeah,

we got aft photo on the Taylor Swift album. This is getting out of hand track fifteen Magnet Sucking. I searched magnetic flashlight and it keeps showing me magnetic flashlights. Like I said, what I said, Yeah, you gotta click on that button. That's like, no, I miant it meant that. So you think that's like an interchangeable top high No no, no, no, you didn't. Yeah, like, okay, I stand corrected, Sorry, okay, getting this back on the rail. So I'm gonna

try here. Uh, it's my fault. I recognize that. Okay, good as long as they also pat's like, oh, it's also gonna have a ten ADP screen, a bigger screen. It'll be fully backward compatible both physical and digital games. It'll have a four K DOC. Again, we

don't know if this stuff is real doc. Well, like a doc, then the four K doc is just it's am I going to have to wait a couple more years for an O LED then, So that's There's another rumor that says right now Nintendo has gone into production and they have both an LCD model and maybe a more expensive O lead model. That's cool. I hope the way it goes is there is a more expensive O Lead and that's like

the home console version. That could be the hybrid. And I hope they have like a switch light ready to go that is the LC model that I like. That Apparently those the new iPad pros are gonna have old leads too. I thank you. That's well, I know what I'm gonna I know, I know what are we doing. I forgot we were talking about the switch. I got so wrapped up in the electromatics magnetic section that I completely forgot this is about well, did you discover anything in your search? That's

sorry, I don't know. And I also I don't remember what Jeff said to me, so I was just like so wrapped up. I was like, my bad, I switch to he hear me out, hear me out. What if then the switch to has a magnetic wearable right that you rip off your wrist and you slap onto your switch to. You are obsessed, Jan, I'm gonna just map this console. I'm gonna go to Allie Express. I'm just gonna order a couple of things and I'm gonna make my own

wearable console and brought you by that. You just saw Yu gi oh as a kid, and now you're like that, Scott, it has to exist for me for real. That's exactly, That's what I'm hearing here. Thank you for understanding. At least you want to get to the heart of the cards, and I understand that exactly. You know, my main motivation here at GiantBomb dot com is getting to the heart of the cards and friendship releasing Merge. I just got the press release. Oh really yeah, Oh,

very exciting. We'll have to learn more about electro medicanetic section if Nintendo ever tells us what that means, and that who knows when that will happen. Part of the rumors of like the thing going into production is that, hey, the systems could still launch this year, and everyone else is saying that's not going to happen, So there's a sporadic rumors. Who knows what is real and what's not. We won't know for sure until Nintendo says something.

At the moment, though, I think there's this is smoke, because there's fire. This thing is happening soon ish, in the next twelve months or so, so we're going to get more and more of these stories. That was very close to an Ed Sheeran lyric, Oh no, oh, Jesus, I'm so sorry. All right. Moving along, Escape from Tarkoff Studio attempts partial U turn on two hundred and fifty dollars PvE plans, but fans

remain unhappy. The studio behind the game Escape From Tarkoff planned to add a PV mode exclusively to a new two hundred and fifty dollars edition of the game, but this decision has sparked anger among players. Players who purchased the previous one hundred dollars Edge of Darkness edition, which included a season pass promising access to all future DLC, were upset to learn that they wouldn't get the new

PV mode. The studio initially claimed that the PV mode doesn't count as DLC, but then announced plans to competsate Edge of Darkness owners with additional features and time limited access to the mode. However, players were not satisfied with this offtware and continue to express their dissatisfaction, and a new statement the studio CEO has doubled down on the belief that the PvE mode is not DLC. But has announced that it will be made available free for all Edge of Darkness owners

at the game's release. Players argue that this doesn't resolve the issue, as the game has been in early access for years and the release date is still

uncertain. This was like a relatively big story this week for like this community that has a lot of players, and it feels like one of those moments where a studio that had built up a lot of love and admiration kind of pissed it all down the drain in one go because they're trying to clearly trying to make more money for this game that's in early access, and they did something that feels manipulative and like, oh no, that doesn't count as DLC

when everyone doesn't understand how it doesn't. Is this the kind of thing that a studio like this can bounce back from? What do y'all think? The hundred and fifty dollars is crazy? Yeah, that's the thing I'm like most confused about right, A mode only for people who spend two hundred and fifty dollars on your game? That's bananas to me? How does that even work? But I mean they're, you know, they're trying it I think they

think they could. They think they might have been able to get away with it in certain a certain set of circumstances, but that's not happening here. Everyone is very mad about it. Yeah, this feels like a very different argument than what we're talking about last week, even with the Star Wars job of the Hut mission being behind the Collector's edition. Oh yeah, it's is completely different. Escape from Tarkoff is still an early access, yes, yes,

over years and years and years. Yes. Okay, yeah, that's why I was confused when I saw early access. But yeah, that seems insane. I think it's something they could bounce back from with enough back peddling. For sure. There is that Gray Zone Warfare game I think that's launching today or this week that a lot of fans are talking about, we're gonna go to that instead, And I think if they, if that game, I can withstand that influx of players. That's the kind of thing where you

know your thunder could be stolen. But if people can only get what they're looking for from Tarkoff, which many people I know Christians in chat saying it's like, you know, one of his favorite games ever, it's the best Shooter. Ever, at a lot of fans do feel that way, and if they can only get that action from Tarkoff, they'll return to it as long as the developer, like you know is, apologizes enough. We've I think we've seen over and over again that these studios can make mistakes and bounce

back. CD Project right clearly has done that. Not everyone does, but it seems like it's possible, so I think they'll likely go for that here.

Yeah, I think like Tarkov has, like in that specific genre, there are so many other games that have tried to do what Tarkov does and have just not been able to replicate that level of success, and over time, Tarkov, as the Extraction Shooter is kind of likes has its claws so deep ingrained in like the people who want that kind of game that they just have like a I feel like they have just like a level of staying power that is that they can fumble like this and it'll hurt them in the short

term, but for now, like as everyone else is trying to crack the code on this style of game, they're still going to have the dedicated install base and that kind of legacy to go along with it. Even though they're technically still an early access, which is wild to me. But I mean, yeah, I think Tarkov is it's such a big name at this point. Yeah, there's clearly a pathway for them to fix this. I think

you're right where it's as long as they don't he's doubling down. But I mean if they find a way to like make good with the fans, Like they're definitely trying to still get away with some of this, but I think the fans are like no, fully reversed, completely given to what we want. It feels like middle It feels like they were like turning the knob, like can we try to do this? And then they just fucking crank that ship and they said, oh way yo yo yo, yops. It just

yeah, it just feels like such a like the thing is. It's like I don't know, CD Project Red bounced back from like like Cyberpunk was rushed and came out and like came out a little too early and wasn't really ready for consumption. But this I remember what it was like, and that thing

launched. There was like international news stories about like this terrible game. I remember, I very much remember like the bounce back is great, but like that's sort of like like the game needed to be fixed and that was what was going on. This is like the game's fine. The company was just like, oh, we forgot to mention. We're like really greedy and like yield that at all their fans and like, I don't know, how do you how do you come back from that? I don't know. I hope

they do. I I've heard great things about this game, but like this is just so nakedly greedy. It's crazy. Yeah, it's we'll see. I bet a lot of people will have decided at this moment. They're like, now I'm just done with this. I don't want to deal with the

studio. That's like that that does happen. Speaking of a similar story, We've heard your voices, says two K as they unbanned popular WWE two K twenty four moder What's the Status. Following fan backlash, two K and WWE Games have lifted the indefinite ban on popular moder What's the Status, who had been restricted from the online portion of WWE two K twenty four. The band was initially implemented due to violation of terms, which included mods that negatively impacted

the game experience for other players. However, following a backlash from the community, two K and Status reached an agreement allowing the latter to return with some of his content that doesn't cause stability issues. It remains uncertain what the agreement entails, as some of Status's popular mods, such as allowing female wrestlers to fight male wrestlers, may not be reinstated due to WWE's brand and guidelines.

Status expressed a desire for equal treatment, highlighting that he wasn't the only wasn't the only one to upload intergender content to face the consequences while others went unpunished. This does seem to be based on like, hey, the WWE games themselves didn't like that someone was enabling people to you to have men fight women in the game, And WWE is definitely in a scenario right now where that might look especially bad based on the stories that have come out of that company

in the last year. But it also was the kind of thing where like, people buy this game so they can go into the user generated content and mess around with that stuff, and there was a massive backlash, so I'm not too surprised that they backpedaled a little bit here and found a way to make it work. And also it sounds like what the status was like, Hey, no, this this conversation was good. This is all reasonable, and I'm coming back and I'm going to keep making stuff, so kind of

all was well, that ends well, right. It just feels very weird, and like I understand that an non Nintendo ww is treading on is trying to step carefully because of the current goings on in the legal battling and all

that jazz. Uh, But I don't know. We've had men fighting women in fighting games and what feels like forever Yep, yeah, it's it's it's a weird Like on its face, it feels a little bit weird because we all know what, you know, wrestling is, and it's like, you know, uh, in the video game, it's like one layer more of abstraction from that. So if Raybisterio, you know, can beat up the biggest wrestlers in the world, I kind of feel like, what's why are

we making bones about this? But I think they're just worried about a perception thing and people being like hey, and and I think they're worried about going to court and someone saying something crazy like and in the video game, look at this man beat up this woman. They obviously don't care about about these sorts of issues or something like that, and and the like the amount of stuff that they're gonna have to deal with in court. I sort of don't

blame them because they have a lot to answer for. So why add one more thing to the pile? Or sure? I mean, I don't know. I just see currently where the roster's at that there are women that can out wrestle like so many of the male superstars on that roster. Yep, I would I Ray Ripley should be able to, you know, fight whoever she wants in that video game. I think that'd be great. Let Kyrie sane elbow drop Okay, not Brockleisner u Roman reigns through hell. Yeah,

and yeah, they should add children wrestlers too, says no Luck. Yeah, I want to let kids in there. Yeah, beat up all the wrestlers. I would love that, all right. Last couple of stories,

Gary's Mad Studios removing twenty years of Nintendo uploads following DMC takedowns. Gary's mod is Sandback's game with a large repository of user uploaded content is removing all Nintendo related content from its Steam Workshop following DMCA takedown requests from Nintendo kind of feels like the only reason this is surprising is because it's lasted this long, Right,

That's the only thing, because what are we doing? Well, get because like Valve runs Steam Workshop, that's a corporation offering up, you know, IP infringement on their own service. Like that was never gonna last forever. It's only weird because it lasted this long. So Nintendo showing up and saying please take that down and everyone being like, yeah, of course we're

taking that down is the natural end of that story. And the good news is all that content is available elsewhere online, just like every other mod that infringes on IP. So it like, go do your thing. Everyone, keep doing your thing. It's totally fine. Yes Nintendo is skibbety, but you can keep being skibbity. Yeah. I'm not too worked up about this. I get it, but I get why people are like annoyed by it. But this is this was always gonna happen. Yes, I don't think

it's worth getting worked up over too. It's just you know, at this point, all you can do is sort of just you know, shrug your shoulders grub. Last time we talked about this, I think it was Game US last week. But yeah, of Nintendo of America. Law is just trying to be busy and finding new things to to take down. M M. It feels like Nintendo in the last couple of years has discovered what Steam is. Yeah. I think probably what happens is their conversations expand internally about

like how can we be in more places and have more representation? And someone starts a conversation like okay, PC is big, what can we do to be on PC? And like I don't know, maybe one day we could like license Mario to be on something. And it's like that's forever, Like we're not even sure if we're going to do that. But because they're having the conversation, they are more aware of these platforms, and like someone does start looking into it and the lawyers are like, hey, uh, we

discovered this, so we're going to go after it now. It's like, yeah, of course that's what we always do. That would be a real sketch of like, yeah, twenty twenty four and everyone at is it a boardroom being like you could be you could put any anyone in it, like Louis. You can make Luigi a barrel in this thing? Like what's happening? No, does that mean I can't be like the Mario sixty forehead and Tower Tower unit anymore? Uh? Probably, probably not. I need to

shut the fuck up. Then, yeah, come on, don't put that out there. Listen, that stuff is elsewhere. There's more than one game on Steam. Oh my god, wait until they find out all the Mario clones on mobile for the past twelve decades. Oh yeah, yeah, they'll they'll get around to that in like what like twenty forty. Do you think they've ever they've ever presented something to this board meeting and someone has to check them and like, no, no, no, that's us. Probably yeah,

probably they're like Super Mario Run. That's not a real game. Then wait a minute. There's this yellow Mario. He's kind of fat, he farts a lot, he picks his nose. There's a purple one. Now, oh he needed a doubles tennis partner. My god, show Mario is gonna go crazy all right. Finally, Wrestful trails to Matthew Shell, who is a longtime veteran at LucasArts. He did sadly pass away. Apparently any LucasArts game in the last twenty years. Matthew Show is in the credits a

lot of kind words said about him. So rest in peace and wrestle trails to Matthew Shall. But that does it for the news, Jan I'm handing the show back over to you. I'm gonna take it and realize it needs to go. Take a quick bricky break, maybe take a quick coffee nap, and we'll be back with your emails right after this. So ceb emails. Pomcast giant bomb dot com is the email address to send your emails to. Jeff Backlar has a little rake with him. What's that about? Oh

no, this this is a plate fork? Jen? What This is an accessory for building keyboards. Plate fork like you stabbing that into your steaks. I was like, that's afore fork. This is not as sharp. This is to like make sure you can install switches inflexible plates without worry. I know, look, I'm I'm interesting. Okay, I'm interesting. So I'm sorry I did it. I didn't meet anything. I just thought it was interesting. I may you know people have little zen gardens. Maybe you have

a little pile of leaves on your desk. No, you know this is what I bring every Friday night to the stream. It's a plate fork. You need something to fidget with, right that too? Always always be fidgeting. Uh my meds okay, fidget away. Bombcasts giant bomb dot com is email addressed to send your emails. To send emails about virtually any and everything. You need advice about something you didn't want to have a fun topic. If on quiz you want to avoid awkward situations, perhaps send an email to

bombcasta giant bomb dot com. I'm using all of these coupon codes. Did y'all know that you can potentially get ten percent off your check at Rainforest Cafe with the offer code mom twenty. Try that outa like at like when the when when you get your bill? Or what do you mean? I have no idea? First email, tell your server code. You have to shout it directly into their mouth though or they want yeah, they taste it. They have to taste the commy, mommy disgusting, all right. First email

is a little bit of a heavy one. This comes from Leo from La Hi Bombcasters. I have a short story and a question for you. But first, I've been listening to your podcast now for ten months. Hey, welcome buddy, and I love hearing all your feelings and opinions on games and life. So may be a bit odd parentheses, I'm looking at you, Dan, but you all never fail to entertain and make me smile, so thank you. Okay, now the story. I've been a gamer in my

whole life. I was probably born with a control in my hand, and I met my partner over twenty five years ago. She was not into games when we met, but my love and enthusiasm over gaming convinced her to give it a try. The main game that pulled her in was World of Warcraft and we played it for many years. However, she got a job in an environmental education teaching kids, and since most of her work and time is

spent outdoors, she drifted away from gaming. Two years ago, she was diagnosed with terminal cancer, and although she doesn't let it stop her, she's now becoming unable to have energy to be an educator and be outdoors. This

has led back. This has led her back to us gaming together again, and now the two biggest games she wants to play is Wow and Hogwarts Legacy with the demo and long live chemo and long hospital visits, a laptop is the best option for her, And although I've built both rpcs over the years, when it comes to laptops, I'm at a loss. It feels like it's go big or go home. But I know there must be laptops capable of playing both of those games at a decent frame rate for her. Long

story short, I know too late. Due to medical expenses. The most we can afford is about six hundred dollars for a laptop. I hear guys talking about everything from consoles to keyboards, but is there anything the gang has to uh in terms of suggestions for a good laptop that'll get the job done. Ps, keep doing what you're doing because you're all great at it. Never stop doing what you love and treasure every moment of it. Kisses on the cheek all around and consent and kiss on the lips for you. Jan

all the best, Helly Leo from lare. That was great as long as it's consensual. I'm down. Yeah, and you play Wow on a Steam deck. I know you can play Hogwarts Legacy on a Steam deck. Yeah, you can get Wow running on a steam deck controller support actually yeah, yeah, like you got the touch pads, you can like completely program though, so I bet you can get wow, working pretty decent on that.

Yeah, and you don't even need to get an o LED steam Deck at this point the original LCD models, I think even if you're looking on if you don't mind secondhand peripherals and stuff, go to Craigslist, Facebook, marketplace. As soon as the o LED dropped the US for the LCD steam Deck, Yeah, they created cratered tanking. You could get one for you could both get one for six hundred dollars probably, yeah, probably just get a dock so you can put it on a TV. Get some kind of like

keyboard mouse situation you can hook up to it. I think that's going to be your most cost effective and like best running solution. Yeah, you could really totally. You could also hook up a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse to it if you don't want to have to reconfigure, remap the controls to better fit the steam deck or whatever does the asist roger. I'm assuming that could just fire up wow, no problem, right, yep, that would just work.

Yeah, Because it's essentially it's a touch bad so you would just be playing on a controller there and that's a little bit more challenging. But you can hook up like a like a big dock to like, Yeah, that would work great. Yeah, if leo, I definitely suggest that, Yeah, if you are looking for if you do want to go to the laptop route, though, six hundred bucks is a bit a bit tight on budget.

But the main thing if you're looking for something that's going to run good games, I think the main thing you need to look at is what graphics card it has that will pretty much dictate everything else in terms of its graphical capabilities. Because a lot of high end laptops that have great processors, lots of RAM and a lot of hard drive space like big SSDs on them, they skimp out on the graphics and you end up having to rely on integrated

graphics cards, which aren't the best. So if you can get something with a dedicated graphics card like somewhere in like the like the RTX, I don't know, the three series. Three series laptops are thirty series still pretty good. Yeah, that's and you'd be able to get affordable laptop with like thirty thirty sixty six, thirty fifty definitely would be affordable. Yeah, yeah, so, but if you want to go that route. But otherwise I kind

of I think steam Deck is the most conducive for the situation. I suppose fantastic shouts out to you, Leo and your wife. I hope you can continue gaming together. Next email is about t shirts. Hey, duders, say you have a favorite shirt and you get a stain on it. You try multiple times to remove said stain, but it just won't come off. The stain is definitely noticeable, but the shirt is clean, you still wear it. At what point are you going to replace the shirt? How big

as too big? Is there a stain location that would make it unwearable? Or do you just live your life with a clean stained shirt and hope society accepts you. Get ready, getting ready to go out for a birthday dinner and I need advice. Thanks shirt stained Goomer from Cerritos, Califonia for this. First of all, it really depends on the location and color of the stain. If the stain is below tit level, essentially you can crop that

top no problem or fucking tied eye it's coming back. Do it have fun, have a fun tied I day and then your favorite shirt has a cool new burst of life. I think the answer would be tied. That's awesome, it's fun, fixes everything. Yeah, and the whole shirt is stained. It's a fashionable thing. You can also just do what I do and only own black T shirts. Well, what if you have like black teas with like graphics on them, What if they like got on the graphic.

They can't, You just can't. They can't. Science has uh bested that, uh screen printing technology is above staining, and uh it's never an issue. So I say, I say, you rock that ship. I do think it depends if it's like a very unfortunate location and you're wearing like I don't know, it's I think there's a reason, like if you got if you got like a crispy white tea with like a big ass like Hawaiian punch stain on it that doesn't come out like you look like a fucking child,

you cannot wear that ever in public. So circumstances, it depends. Anywhere on the back of the T shirt, it's totally fine. You can have the worst possible stain imaginable, and as long as it's like in the back, like who cares, so at least you got that going for you. If they are sweat stains from your armpits, though, throw that shit in the trash. Yes, that's garbage. No amount of tie dye can save you from that. Yeah all right. Next email is about avoiding awkwardness.

I forgot to write the emailer's name. Yo ya ya yah, yeah yo yo. I'm at a cool skater bar with a halfpipe in Barcelona, and my two friends went to the bathroom, so I'm guarding the drinks see attached image, and it's going to take a few minutes, so I wanted something to do. I'm a little drunk. I love your pod jan You're such a sweetheart. You are the beating heart of Giina. I always love your vibes and except who should I randomly insult Turbo Sean? Or is it okay?

Still those signs of friends returning? Anyway? This killed two minutes. Now I want two people watch what's your favorite phone game to commute or killing time? And why? I hope they come back soon. I love people and such, but these between moments can be awkward. Thanks again, Bombers, sending love and good vibes to all of you. Hard emoji I see my buds. I don't know. I like these moments where it's like, oh, good they left. I can like not have to talk for a

couple of minks. It's a reprieve favorite podcast you can. I was gonna say, I like into the Breach on Netflix games. Yeah, Slay the Spires one I should try on mobile. It's easy, it's easy. I'll start doing that. But yes, Slay the Spire is my one. If you want to seem cool or whatever not, it's it's going to depend on who the crowd you're with. Just look up like flight data, Like, why is he looking up that? That is weird? Don't do that. No, I like this mode. Don't do that. What do you think

people think when you do that? It's just it's just distasteful in a weird way. I don't I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. It depends where you're wait. I would assume, oh, that's a plane guy right there. That's a guy who's into planes. That's a guy who puts on live YouTube videos about oh, planes are taking off at lax, We'll look at the Airbus three three eighty. Is that that's what I was assuming about this guy. Maybe you can also do you think a terrorists

back alarm? What do you think? It just it's just a suspicious activity. It's just about it. Like admiring. Admiring airplanes is one thing, right, I'm sitting like admiring airplanes is one thing. Admiring trains is one thing. Like in you know, like was the guy who's the British dudes who like loves training the trade guy. We don't the guy with the head

mount this is the best. He's just the best. Love yeah, observing never am I like, we got to keep her eye on that guy, right right, I don't know, you don't need what you're talking about, like the radar, Like I don't know, it's a strange train per's whatever. Yeah, I think it's fair. I think he would embrace that that name for sure. You can also download there's this app that I really like.

I'm like suggesting things based on their question. Fun games you play on your phone, not just like weird plain pervert bullshits that you can look up not my business, but what you do time. But to this guy, this is crazy. No, just it's okay. So this is called the I like, it's called choice of games. It's an app and they do choose your own adventure games that are like for grown ups, and you can play it on your phone and you like, it's a good story. You

can play a little choose your own adventure game on your phone. It's fun. There's like a pajillion of them. They're all really well written and some of them won like Nebula Awards and stuff like it's great, it's good reading. It's a fun game. I have to gems and like, oh fuck, there's a daily limit all nineteen hours before I get refreshed. Like no, it's like normal, like buying a book. You pay like three dollars and you've purchased to like tens of thousands of word. Choose your own adventure

novel that you can that can entertain you for hours. Wear cargo shorts. That's very important. And in the biggest cargo short pocket keep a steam deck or an entire game like a gaming laptop. You can't put a steam deck maybecklar I can even the most charitable and flexible of cargoes cannot support the girth that is, and then just whip that out the second someone walks away, Like the second they walk away pole, like to the point where they're like,

wait, what's going on here? And they're confused. I think that's a cool having your day with a big old steam deck clunking around in your undercarriage. I think not, I can imagine it. Well, that's why you bring your wheely backpack. Yeah that's a move. Yeah all right, Uh let's read two more emails. This one is about researchers. Comes from

Chris and Melbourne Good Day BombCast team. Every time a news story about emulators or digital stores closing down is discussed, there is talk of the impact this loss will have on researchers. Every time I find myself wondering about this research. Who are these researchers? What are they researching? Can you expand on this for me? Thanks Christ from Melbourne. That is not funny question. Yeah, it's fair though, Like who's okay first? There are academics that

are definitely like, hey, my line of research. My line of interest is video games and video game history. But I think anyone counts as a researcher if you are like someone who one day maybe wants to make a game. Being able to go online and playing a bunch of games in a genre, like from the very beginning and be able to find that stuff easily.

I think it is only a benefit to the overall process of making games in the future, and like covering games, I want to be able to go and find something random and be like, hey, either this is something we could show off on the website, or it just informs my opinion when I go to play other games in that series, or that this person this was their first game, and now we could talk about that. Anyone can research these things, but there's definitely an academic bent out there as well, where

these people are like doing this as a profession. So yeah, that's generally who we're talking about. Yeah, you could potentially maybe just lock yourself in like a glass office like bones and just like look at spreadsheets and flight data. All right, never mind, you're right, it's weird, back right, all right? All right, I'm going to show up to SGF. I'm not going to say anything when there's a lull in conversation and pull my

phone out and we'll see if it's weird. All these planes, the fandom office, that the big TV that's in the middle of the cafe area, just have it set up to a bunch of flight data flight tracking. Oh my god, it'll be so fun like looking at it, you know, like look as bonding. Oh my god, they missed their connection from like Phoenix, Arizona. They're never going to make it the flag staff now.

I like in chat don Chiittle said my mew mini plus, which is the thing I got you Jan shut up yesterday with tons of research preloaded on it. Okay, Colleen Rahm's research is maybe a new good thing that I'm gonna start doing. I like that. I love this, I love this. Maybe maybe I will answer that email about how to find research. Guys, we can't. We can't tell you where to find the research, all right, I don't want to get those sites shut down. I'm sorry, exactly

exactly. Next email comes from Corey. Shots out to Corey. Core has been providing us a bunch of blind rankings last couple of weeks here on the Giant BombCast NBCR. You' all know how blind rankings were, so don't look at this email, folks. If you're on the BombCast, doc, everyone knows how a blind ranking works. It's gonna be one through six, and we're gonna rank it as we come across it, so no take backs.

This one comes in the form of snacks. Corey writes, Hey Bombers, I figured I would step away from the games this week and do something different for a blind ranking. This week, it's snacks. It's gonna be a bit vague, but in general, anything that can fit into the categories should be considered. Thanks as always, Corey, Film student at k U all right, one through six? One being the best, six being the worst. First choice nuts out of six? So where does it rank on six?

No? No, yeah, we have to like commit it without doing, without knowing what the other five things are gonna be. I'm gonna put I. I want to put nuts at five, nuts at six being the worst? Yes? Oh no? Two dude, nuts? Are you kidding me? I maybe we're all unaware of my love for nuts. Clip that we know you love nuts, jes love nuts? All right? Can we set it on a three? Then? I think three? I'll take three. Three works for me. Three for nuts, Yes, I don't.

I don't know what else is gonna be on this list. I'll yell at back lar. If it snacks, then we're probably in good shape. Okay, I'm sorry. Where did we land three? Three? Can we can we do three? Can we do three? Sure? Okay with that? Okay, alright, because you see the list? Okay, three? All right? Next one? Gummy candy parentheses? Nohc in these? Ah shit. I'd say for me, it's it's like a four or five. This could be my six. I'll gladly do six with you. Then? All

right? Have you guys lean that way? Wait? Do you hate gummy candy? Yes? I don't hate it, but I never I never gravitate towards it. If I do eat it, I enjoy it, but it's not the thing that I seek exactly. That's the exact correct you guys, don't think we're gonna get something worse than gummy candy. I mean, unless like black licorice is on this fucking list. I think I'm gonna be fucks. Let's go a six going, let's go say some time? What is this compromise? You want to raise it? Yes? To wear five?

About have about five? I'll give you five strongly? A posed is the delicious and delightful nature of gummy candy, the you got and your whimsy in your sad little adult life. But fine, we'll put it out of five I'm very happy for your community and your peat rings and watermelon slices, but I cannot join you on this. Gummy candies goodummy candies are good. Gummy candies are like them? Yes, okay, well she says she likes them

so, and that's the expert. Right. Anything that anything that I have to scoop with a metal sort of handle, like a like a toddler, that's getting in the back of the list. Wait are you talking about like these loose candies at the grocery store. Well, like you know, you don't like them. Treat yourself to some POJOs man from the depression. It's

like the most things a penny candy. It all tastes shot. You're not listening to the candy depot, you know those know those like those places you pay by the pound where you like, you know, like it's sugar place, going to a gas station like a normal person. Yeah, I hate skin. You're just mucus candy. All right, all right, all right? Where are we putting gummy candies? One? Five? Put it at a number that's any worse than a four. It's because you're not listening to

grubs. Adorable child, How dare you that's a good point. She doesn't count. She definitely counts, but also like you know, hey, you count, but also five, you'll lay out of it. It's a person. Okay, are we going to put it four or five? Four? Or I'm riting that's too far far. I guess we're getting bullied into four. That's how Gay with the Year works. Also, all right, I think we should just do Gay with the Year like this insane? All right,

all right, okay. Third option, playing the fire depends on the kind of cooking. It's your favorite cookie. Where do we have nuts at three? Nuts at three? So I'm okay with one or two? Yeah, I'm okay with two. I think I'll go to just not ready to keeping one open? Okay is fine with me. He's good work. Cookies. Cookies are real good. Cookies are good turns out cookies. Next option pretzelst So what do we have open? Five? Six? One? Obviously not one. I think I'm okay with five or six. I'm fine five.

You guys three on nuts, that's your fault. No, I'm I'm starting to regret that it's not higher. We're not talking about like rolls golds. Only it could be like the off pretzel. All right, So then five, I love your hands, bring me, bring me to like a beer garden with a gigantic German pretzel with Yeah, I love that ship, but it's not one. It's not one for me. Okay, you know, okay, I love I love it. We gotta go with five?

Then, yeah, I think I think that's fair. Bang better be ass all right, keep in minds our fate, keep in mind you only have one and six? Right? Next up? Ice cream one? Really, it's cold in my mouth every time I eat it. We are about to elect like we're we're about to elect something heinous as one. Don't you see the game that's happening. They're setting us up for a GA number one or number ice cream is not a snack, it's She's right. I was so

that. Bailey makes a good point. It's not a it's it's it's not it can be a snack. I don't think cares what it slots in, as that's not the task we are given it. And it makes me sick every time. And my experiences are universal. At six, I mean, you're lactose intolerant, it sounds like, but I still think it should. I still think it should be one. Ice scream you guys, I'm the child who doesn't like gummy candy. What are we talking about? Ice cream?

Like? And it's it, it doesn't just don't hurt my teethe's I was able to eat ice cream. Those were the days care of your mouth. I don't know what to tell you. I think they're so sensitive because I do take care of them. I don't know. And coffee flavorite, it's it is, it's so good, listen. I think ice cream probably should be number one because it's a safer bet than like a blind one six blind one, and I think right, and it's gonna be like it's gonna

be like seaweed crackers. But they're not number one, all right, Honestly, if there was sobby Ps, though, I'm back on board with them. Okay, alright, sobby Pas number one for sure. I'm gonna I'm gonna read Corey's PostScript. P s. If you folks want to do a bcr with just these, I can send you a bunch of this week. Just let me know in the show so I can send them. You're right, Corey, I welcome any and all of these. This would be great.

Go for Corey that'd be great. All right, So since we only have one left, I'm gonna read that last recap the snack cure list. Number six is ice cream, inexplicably, number five, pretzels, number four, gummy candy, number three nuts, number two cookies, and number one snack. And this is hilarious because Corey maspelled it. I'm gonna say it how they spelled it. Pickls, number one, picks, calories, salts, they rehydrate you. Pickles. Hey, pickles are great, but they're

not a number one. Number one. To break it, I hate to break it is number one. I can't believe this is how we get canceled. This is a pickle website. Now, yeah, maybe what's what's better? Pickles or ice cream? What do you like exactly? She says, of course, because she sees value. I think I think like pickles. You like bread and butter or half sour? Are we talking about a good deal? Pickle coacher, dill coachher dill love it pickle, not pickle ice

cream? Yeah? All right, look, I feel Look, I'm glad pickles are on the list, is all I'll have to say. But it's certainly not a number one all right, Okay, that that does it for emails this week. Bombcastigiant bomb dot com is the email address to Center Emails two this week, Games Mornings for the rest of the week, starting a new season of Blight Club. Jeff Grub is taking on his blit this week. I can't wait. Who knows what it's gonna be, boy upf voicemail

dumb truck. This week is going to be a power bomb Cast. We are folks, no in the no. We're switching BCR and power Bomb Cast every other fry day. Also, we announced this at the tippity topity of the show. But Jeff Grubb bringing the couch back to La Baby. We are June ninth, the Bellweather Los Angeles Live. Be there special guests. I was in the middle of this show. I was doing emails trying to snack some special guests for that show. Friends of the site, the crew

will be there. It'll be a good time. Dan Record is gonna make some stuff happen between segments. Who knows, You're not gonna want to miss it. It's gonna be a good time. Tickets are going on sale Friday. I'm very excited. Definitely show up and to be clear. We'll also be doing at night for two nights prior as Friday and Saturday will happen as normal, and this will be live streams as well. Right, that's right, that is correct. On the internet, I think we lost Bailey Dan,

but we'll get there. Michael Heim working, folks, find you on the internet. Oh my god. You can find me in all of my bullshit at Michael B Higham on Twitter. Hi am Michael on Instagram, which I am using more than Twitter these days because fuck that shit. And starting tomorrow I will be working. You can find me probably, I don't know. They'll take a couple of days. I'll do a bunch of paperwork and call it a day. But you will find me full time at IGN dot

com, which is really wild to say. You know, I've been doing freelance reviews for ig in for a while now, and always at the end of them, I always have to say and for everything else, stick with IGN, And every time I do it, I'm just like, but now it's like, yeah, now you're now you're really stick. Now it's got to say that shit with my chest. So yeah, it's it's really exciting. I am. This is Yeah, you can find me on IGN doing some stuff. It's crazy. So well, they're lucky to have you.

They're lucky to have anytime I think about you being at I g and I think about the image in that one SpongeBob episode of when SpongeBob had to work at the chum Bucket and Crusty and uh mister Crabs. They have that song duet where they're just the ghost of them are staring, bubbling out to each other, and that's how I feel right now. It's like show Hey joining the Dodgers. It's exactly like that. Does IGN know that you're one of

the Nasty Boys though, or do they improve? Yeah, there's some things you gotta listen. The Nasty Boys always have a home at Giant. Do you think referred to him, Yeah, the Nasty Boys publishing the Nasty Boy's referral. You're in You're in business, Bailey Myers. I feel like we we we now have you, and let's make it take advantage of the good internet work and focus the sunshines. I'm streaming on Bailey and versus Predator and

usually the internet works. They're fine, So I don't know what keeps happening here. But also watch the new Honest trailer. It's for the Fallout show. I wrote jokes on it. Uh check out Honest game trailers every other week. And I'm just around, you know, hanging out. We we love and appreciates you despite the Internet. Bailey, just keeping don't worry, don't worry a big dog. I'm fixing it. I'm trying. I'm sorry. It's okay, and you know you don't have to be sorry, because

what do we learn today? What do we learn this week? Guys? We learned that Michael is into sexy demons. We learned that for some people it takes a while to beat it. Me personally, it took eleven and a half hours. I also learned that I work with a bunch of hibachi enthusiasts that insists that we eat the onion volcano. We learned that Alex buon Yellow might be a freak for knobs. We also learned about the possibility of

seeking out threesomes because of the sport of tennis. That's not the only thing going back and forth. We also learned that everything, virtually, any and everything you yourself will also become a funky pop funko pop. We learned that Jeff might be a little bit of a chili boy. We also didn't quite learn how magnets work today, and some say we'll never learn because it's a miracle of life. And we also learned the tickets will be on sale later

this week for Giant Bomb at Night. Folks. That's been the Giant BombCast. I've been jammed, he's been Jeff, he's been Jeff, he's been Michael. That's been a gimmick. Bailey has been here and there. We'll see you next week for another episode of the Giant Bomb Cast. And that's what we learned today this week. We'll see you next week. Fuckers, deuces, change name.