842: The Harada Line

What is it? Button's not working now? The music? The music? What the hell? I hate go xlr uh burderer. Hey, everybody, Welcome to the Giant BombCast, Episode eight hundred and forty two, powered by enzxt definitely not freaking powered by go xlr. I'm gonna go bury this in the backyard after this. I'm your host, Chan Shoah, Welcome on this lovely May twenty eighth, twenty twenty four. Holy Smokes joining me co captain

of the ship. As always he is. He's here with his his poop shovel, ready to help show you how to properly dig a latrine and bury it. It's at least six inches, folks. Jeff Kroub, the one of the few knots I remember from Boy Scouts is how to like lash together several logs, not that kindalog, so that you can build a like latrine yourself, like a sit down chair where there's a hole where butt goes, so the poop can go into the hole in the ground. I could I

can lash it together for you at a summer games. Best jan just ask, just say the word what the hell did I miss on Friday? What? Oh? I don't remember Okay, I don't remember either. I don't even remember if we did anything on Friday or if we I thought today was Wednesday. And that's real messed up in joining us the belated birthday boy himself, Heradusan's best friend. They're grabbing donuts, they're they're they're they're splitting some

donkeys together, Turbo Shawn Sean McDowell. Hi, I'm Sean. I'm not fixing any of that in post jan Yeah. Nope, nope, don't. I don't want you to, and I don't want you to, all right, ain't get how's it going, boys, it's oh, actually you know how it's going. It's going to be a lovely live show. June ninth at the Bellevue. We're doing GB at Night bell Weather Bellweather There, hosted by Jeff grub. We got a bunch of lovely folks as guests, popping

on your your normal GB cohort popping there. But we also got Juice and Schreyer. We got a lot of peerists Paris Lily, Patrick Kleppik. We also got Ef weed Way and uh, I guess Mike Manatty's going to be there and with Mike Manatti but we got a bunch of surprises, a bunch of giveaways planned there. We'll see you there six' nine. Nice. I am still offering unsolicited life and spiritual advice. If you bring crystals, I will charge them. Ooh okay, we'll want to uncharged crystals laying around

I'll get I'm top them off. Yeah. I mean, if you're gonna be in Los Angeles, odds are it will be very easy to find crystals. Oh, I'm not even talking about the drug variety. I'm talking about shoot crystals. Uh, how's it going. It's going good. It was a long weekend, but I uh, I spent basically all of it outside doing yard work, and so I'm like, I could use another long weekend.

And it turns out it's like gonna kind of be like a short weekend because we're gonna be doing work and stuff and getting ready for things coming up here pretty soon. So oh well, we'll get on the other side of Summer Game Fest and then I'm going to like hibernate I think until Video Games. Yes, I think. I'm also I think I'm also going to hibernate grub after SGF. Yeah. Also, I'm like, you might be able to hear it. I'm allergies. I think. I'm like, did I

get a cold? And it's like it's like ten percent of a cold constantly, which I think is just allergies. I think that's what that is. Yeah, I don't. Is it normal to develop allergies later in life? Because I feel like way more now than I've ever been. I'm forty one, that's a question. Yes, yes you are, Okay, I'm Yes's why we keep you around, buddy. Yeah, I'm forty one, and

this is definitely not something I'm used to. I don't usually feel like this, so that's why I'm like, that's why for a long time assumed it was a cold. But I'm like, it's got to be allergies. I took a hitsed me last night and it seemed to help. I went backpacking over the weekend and it was a kind of a disaster. Unfortunately. Oh what, Sean, what are you peeling? I just like I'm peeling something

and people like theirs and so that would get them a nice peel. I like that last, like the last peel where it's like staggered a little bit. Sorry, Jane, you mean you mentioned shoot Crystal, and I was like, oh, that's right, I got something at the convention. Is how much perversion did you purchase at this at this event, Jeff, there's a reason those posters are staying, those posters in the background. All right, let's go in dis order. Jan tell us about your disastrous backpacking trip,

and then we'll hear about combo Breaker. Yes, yes, we'll hear about combo Breaker, and then we'll get to the rest of the show, ladies, gentlemen, and envs. So, as I mentioned, it was a surprise to me that it was called backpacking. Over early weekend, cobbled together all the necessary stuff, hop in my partner's best friend's car with our other friend h and two dogs. I was ready to go. I'd looked up the trail, I'd look at the elevation, was gonna be relatively flat,

the whole way, good for entry level backpackers. Friend tells us as soon as we jump in the car, Hey, that trail. I told you all about that. We h we made a camping reservation for it's it's still closed. It's still closed. So instead of going, you know, two hours east of San Francisco, we're gonna go four hours north and go on this other trail that has a steady incline for the first eight miles. Okay, this is getting good. How close were you to the hoe the

hoe being Oh we I was like near the hoe at all. I don't really know California geography. I just wanted to say the hoe. Okay, there were several things. I thought we were still talking about the poop shovel. I thought we were talking about me for a second, and I got offended. But we were about maybe three hours away from Sacramento, close to the California Oregon border, which is not what I had mentally prepared for.

And let me just say my partner is an overpacker, over prepared, and both of our packs were very, very full, and what was supposed to be an eight mile hike to our camp site became a three and a half mile hike where we eventually made camp because everyone was tired. And then, hey, maybe it's not a good idea to set up camp by a lake because there's mosquitoes and it gets really windy there and perhaps you know, bug spray isn't really a fixed all solution to uh to two problems, and it's

more of a repellent, which means it won't repel all the bugs. And it's gone down now. But I had my arm had swollen up where I looked like Popeye because I got a spider bite on my forearm. It's gone down, down. I should have taken a picture, but it was like, oh, I might die. And then you know, we get to night one and I'm thinking, oh, we can make the most of this. I'm very adaptable to things. We packed a lot of good food.

The other dog that came with us on the trip wound up popping my partner's best friends and our other friends sleeping pads and the sleeping packs just like inflatable little bittress right just to separate you from the ground, and everything popped, both of them because he's one hundred and twenty pounds dog. So then we were trying to do the mental gymnastics of are y'all good to sleep on the

ground for another night, or are y'all are we just cutting it? And then we quickly decide, all right, we're just gonna stay here the night and we'll dip out. We'll hike out later, and uh yeah, And then I thought, okay, smooth sailing. We'll go home. I'll have an extra day to play some games, relax. And then it became the

longest drive home. What was supposed to be four hours became twelve because yeah, Memorial Day weekend, huh sure, Nope, nope, no, having to do a bunch of stops and people getting a little bit epy on the road and uh uh making pit stops that maybe, uh, maybe we didn't need to drive another hour north to go to a burger place. Oh hell yeah, okay those kind of pit stops. Maybe we didn't need to go up when we're supposed to go down. Maybe there's gonna be a burger place

between those two places and San Francisco or that place where you're at. Look, let me tell you, let me tell y'all. I I heard big things about this place. It's places. It's very quaint, it's very clectic. I like it. It was okay, but uh, waiting an hour for a burger because the line is so long, and then for yes, yes, And then I was like, okay, cool, this burger is supposed to be really good and they offer a side of rib instead of fries. If you want going there now. Listen, if someone offers you a

side of rib, you go and order the side of rib. All right, But Sean Grubb, I believe barbecue is more accessible where y'all are at versus me and California. It's basically inescapable. Yes, what are your expectations when you order a singular rib? Like when you order ribs, you just tell a person ribs. Yeah, I'm expecting like like the four bones, which I might be like a half rack or something, I don't know, a quarter wreck. I'm expecting the four bones with with like you know,

the meeting between like covered in barbecue sauce. That's what I'm infecting. Yeah. In terms of fall off the bone quality, oh yeah, and I'm expecting it to be very moist in like Finne Parket, Like if you were to shake it, it would fall off. That's what. This was the worst rib of my life. Hell, let's go. Oh it was. I was very excited for this rib, so excited and then like I tried to do the thing where we pulled the bone off, No, that that

sucker was stayed in there. I bite into it, roughest, toughest piece of meat in my life. Oh, worst rib. But all in all, I did enjoy backpacking. I do suggest that it's very fun. Scout loved it anyway. Good. I'd like to hear about potentially a very much more positive and good Sean. How was Combo Breaker? Combo Breaker was great. You know, I've talked about a little bit here and there, but in case people didn't know, Yeah, it's a big fighting game tournament,

one of the biggest in the world. Now we get a very international out and now it takes place in Chicago Land. It's great place for me to go obviously because just you know, it's a drive but a couple hours down and my buddies placed down Mass and then a couple hours from there, so we like space out the drive and everything. It's a fun time though. Combo Breaker. Every fighting game tournament has a vibe to it, and like

EVO is nicknamed the Fighting Game World Championships. I put a ton of production value into it. CEO, you may or may not be familiar with. Down Florida has the wrestling theme that they do every year. People come out to you know, wrestling intros and stuff. Combo Breakers whole theme is music festival. So Rick Thayer and his team what they do is they put on

this event where it is rent out a gigantic convention hall. Now one side is you know, projectors, projector screens, and you just see that these games happening on the other side, same thing, and they're all right next to each other on each side with like directional like stage audio that they use at concerts and stuff. So that way, wherever you're standing, you could be watching Let's say you're watching street Fighter, but you know your your game.

The street Fighter experience. You can hear people popping off, like you know, like one or two games down, and you look over and you're like, what's going on over there? Dragon Ball? Dragon Ball seems cool? I should wander over there, And so it has that music festival vibe of I'm hearing something just like slightly over there, let me go wander over and check it out. And it's it's very fun. I love being able to just meander around and catch different games, sometimes games you're not expecting,

sometimes wild games. They have Chicago's fame famous mystery game tournaments where they just pull the wildest stuff out of the wildest bags. Yeah, well like Top eight included. I don't know the name of the game because it's in Japanese. But it's that game that's like Initial D with trains, and they were playing the for like Top four or something, and it was the wildest stuff. We were all just in this. It was in a separate ballroom because

they had it was very smart. They had all these consoles set up on tables because you know the Unie Step game cubes and PS two's and Super Nintendos and stuff for all these wild games they were running. And uh, but we had this like tiny ballroom packed with people just popping off for Initial DAL with trains and this like indie foosball kind of game and all this wild stuff. I see the look on Jan's face. Jam Let me tell you.

One year, grand finals in the Mystery Game Tournament was Don't Break the Ice the children's Yeah, oh my god, it's wild. This year, this year they did an interesting one. It was Nintendo Switched Sports and they did Chambara. Oh cool, yeah, fighting game exactly. Oh god, yeah. I participate in the Mystery Game Tournament and I played, Ah, what the hell is D See something or other on the Supernintendo made by like Data East back in ninety four or whatever. Game sucks? Who the hell is

Desparrow. I don't know, but he has a dive kick that goes through everything and it is wild. That's the kind of vibe you get from that, and that's a kind of vibe get from Combo Breaker in general. It's a little more grit than the other events, but still having the extremely high production value. It somehow feels very grassroots while being extremely well produced and being extremely professional in earthing. And that's why it's my favorite event of a year

to go to. It's a great time and it's always it's so refreshing to talk to real human beings, y'all like to get Yeah, to get away from the Twitter replies and sometimes comments sections and just people who don't realize that you can't just talk mad ship to the dude next to you, because this seven foot tall dude who plays Kirby and Smash is gonna uncle fill your ass outside himself if you do that. Like, just real people interacting and talking

to each other. It's just it's what I needed. It was so refreshing. Yeah, sending you a fruit basket will send you like a person to talk to, just geez, just just a therapist for a little while. Just oh my god, shouts to all the Giant Bomb FGC that I ran into, though some people walked up and we're like, hey, what's up. I got to meet some people from the the unofficial Giant Bomb FGC discord.

A group of them were there and they were like, they watched me get my ass handed to me and a super barman are in the Mystery Game tournament. Oh god, but yeah, I got to meet them talk with them a little bit, and a whole bunch of other people. I met Herada for a little bit. As I posted on Twitter. It was it was not like a chat or anything. It was one person saw him wandering the halls and was like, cant get a picture and you know Rada, you know he puts on the persona, but he's cool. So he's like,

oh, yeah, you want me to sign something. Yeah, I'll sign that too. And then someone else comes up and it's like can I get that? And yeah, get in line, and then a line starts forming down the hallway like between ballrooms and stuff. It I waited line a while to get picture with but it was nice. It was nice to just yeah, I get picked and everything. I got to meet a couple of my favorite artists, one of whom I had a nice little chat with David Lou I believe his name is d Slugs as I know him one. I

mean Crystal Picks. Did you commission? We don't to talk about that we talk about, but you know I got I got a bunch of T shirts. I got. Oh, hang on, you get something? Yeah, absolutely, I don't oh your funds in her mind. I'm not going to talk anything, Okay, Yeah, don't talk smack, don't talk about what happened before the show. I got. Well, I think are some of the greatest pieces of merch ever. So we have this little combo breaker branded

Salt Plushy. All right, I'm a lily. To me when I'm playing games on this site, I will kill you. I will beat you up. Don't ever saym salty. That's why I bought it. I'm a lily player in tech and so it's just too perfect to get the salt shaker when you know she has her cat named Salt. And then if you're extra salty, they had the combo breaker. Salt is like a stress stress shaker. Yeah, I love it. Yeah, that's great, it's funny. And then I got a bunch of our stuff. The events was so much fun

to lose a lot, and I didn't do particularly well. I continued my tournament luck of running into pro or otherwise high ranking players, so I got washed in almost everything. Look techan, when dude sits down next to you and pulls off his sweatshirt pocket the best buy rock Candy three sixty controller that just hasn't after plugged into the end of it, you know you're screwed because

that guy's been playing competitive tech in for at least a decade. Now you know that his muscle memory is developed in such a way that he can only play like he can only play on this crappy twenty dollars bag you got like fifteen years ago. Do you think he's like fix that thing and repaired it because a rock Candy control, I'm not imagining standing up to the test of time. You can, but like you know, you you get used to

what you get used to. Yeah, right, That's why some people play off frank controllers or whatever, because that's what they bought when they didn't have any money, and then yeah, that they can't plan anything else is the reason why people don't switch between like stick and controller. A lot, you know, right, Is that why there's so many smash folks that swear on

the GameCube controller? Yeah, because they haven't switched off of it since Melee, which yeah, yeah, okay, but then you know, newer players come in with, say the pro controller on switch, and then that's what they played with just because they're used to it. It's not like one thing is good or bad or better than the other. Some things are more accurate for certain things, but it's just wherever you got used to. I did best in Street Fighter, of all things. I wasn't expecting that because I

was very rusty, but maybe it's because of the balance patch. People weren't because I mentioned this on GMM. I think that they were rocking the balance patch that was like a couple days old, because that's what the community voadon since it wasn't a pro tour event and so oh man, some people were

busting out some wild stuff. The whole thing was won by el Chacote, with Lily like widely known to be the worst character in the game, so that that was a great thing to pop off about, and watching all the top eights in general was so much fun. I can't stress this enough. Watching techn live ballroom with thousands of our people is always my favorite thing to do every Yeah, it sounds like a great time. Yeah, yeah,

it's it's not that far away from me. I should go. I was trying to peer pressure you and Mike into it, but he had his thing going on every weekend. And then you you're you, so, yeah, you're busy. But when when you're in when you're in this room, this giant convention hall, I post a video of one of these things. But when everyone kind of knows what's going on, and you can sort of like chant along or like sing along to his NG or something that's always very fun.

Like Techn in particular has that combo structure where you juggle the person and so you can sort of like the thing we do is uh you think tasty Steve for this, I assume, but you can sort of like grunt along with it. So the cowbos like hit hit hit hit, we go like h uh uh oh and just but thousands of people doing that all outs you feel like you're a part of something. And sometimes you get funny ones. Yeah a cult exactly. Yeah, yeah it's great. Sometimes you get really

funny ones. We'll chant to anything. In the FGC like We'll get you know draight that water and just silly stuff like that. And in the Marvel Auction Tournament, another specialty of Chicago, betting on a character or a team and then taking the pot if you win. Uh, there was one with

someone's rocking spider Man. Spider Man, notoriously in Marvel three, has this infant I don't know if it's true infinite, but like an infinite like string where he can use his command grab web swing three to the R side screen, wave dash over web swing to the R side screen and every time he says see you later. And so just this whole crowd twenty times in a

row see you later. That's that's fun to be a part of. And then yeah, attacking was last, and so Top eight just popping off is the kind of thing where you can literally feel the ground sometimes because I guess I didn't finish matching Regional. Wherever you're at, people like cheering for the hometown hero. And so we had one American in Top aid, Joey Fury unfortunately didn't make you very far, but it was so hyped to cheer,

you know, chant Usa and all that stuff. And then whenever you got win, everyone was jumping up and down and everything just shaking the ground. We were all losing our voices. You could hear it outside. It's just so much fun. I can't stress this not I know. I know the events aren't for everyone because you know, you might be a little shy,

or you might just not you you might not like being around people. That's totally cool, I get it. But I will say, when you're at an event where everyone knows what's happening, where you're all there for the same you said, you feel like you're part of something. And also, what's the worst that happens? You're you're watching street Fighter pools, you know, like I'm watching my homies play in pools and they're you know, they're winning

or losing their games. I'm sort of like cheering or like, you know, sort of reserved. But the worst that happens is you lean or to person next to you and say, Yo, that Cam he's doing some crazy stuff, and like boom, you got a conversation going right there. It's it's so easy to get those things rolling. And I can't recommend enough to at least try it if that's the count thing. You're interested in not even

just fighting games, you know other types of conventions too. Because we're in the same room with the same people who all are into the same thing, it's very easy to just like meet our people and start. You don't even need to see them the rest of the week, and you just have a fun interaction and it's just a fun time and like I said, it's refreshing to just be around that crowd. May I say that the only time as of late that I'm cool with people chanting USA and I don't feel like a

weird it fighting game turnout exactly. Yeah, because we're cheering for the one

dude from the US and top eight. We should we should try and make our way over to EVO because despite not being a fighting game person, EVA was probably some of the most fun I've had at a gaming event that wasn't like a PATS or whatever you write John about like the spirit of it, because it feels like it feels like the buzz of like the last three matches of a ww pay per view or premium live event where it's like, okay, all right, there's like a tangible like like like hype that is building

across here that I need to tap into. And I feel like it's different with a fighting game with a fighting and crowd because, as you said, Sean, everyone knows what's up, and everyone also, surprisingly compared to like other gaming events I've been to, very supportive and cool with each other, Like it is a much more approachable environment for whatever is to to lean over and be like, yo, they can't be doing some things exactly and you

see what John just did there? What Like? Yeah great. I also like the level of peacockery happening at We got some personalities, for sure, Yeah, definitely some personalities. I remember the EVO that I went to with Ben a couple of years ago. A guy was just rocking like uh, like an Nes cartridge around his neck with like a gold chain, and I was like, man, this this dude. Oh yeah, you see some wild stuff. People are in cosplay and everything because they have a cosplay contest.

I didn't mention this at the top, but Rick and his team, the team that runs Combo Breaker, when EVO had issues with you know, management, some people being shitheads and they were looking for new management. What they do they just look to Rick's team. So now the Combo Breaker team is running Evo, which is why EVO is being run better than ever. And some of that is also trickling back to Combo Breaker, which is why we had like the Evo setups of like all the Sony motors and headsets and

the ps fives everywhere for every game and everything. Uh yeah, and it's really well run. Jan I've you know, I'm trying to pressure Mic into it, like maybe this would be a good year ago to EVA, like they got they got, Oh no, you're taking your little trip the same weekend or something. Yeah, I think a pantrim. Oh no, I'll go and we'll carry on a CRT and we'll just see when we get people do random cash games for like the dumbest oldest games. I think that would

be so much fun. Yeah, I mean, you know people are running. Look we made the joke and the fuc about people running multi blood sets in the bathroom, of course, but people just set their laptops and steam decks up everywhere. Like even me, I brought my steam deck in my dock so we could play in the hotel room the night before or you warm up. That really has changed the portable setup where you can just sit down in a lobby, Like you know, off to the sides are not anyone's

way. But people just set prop up the steam deck on doc plug that thing in and people are yeah, we're just lying up and like getting sets and in whatever game before their parent rules. Someone please find this initial d train game because I've not been able to stop thinking, oh, I'll rob right up or even nothing else. I'll send you a link to the stream because it was streamed. Every game is streams. So we need to get into he matches with trains. Yeah, this is how the giant bomb evolves

and grows. We're just gonna get all the way into digital trains finally, and then we'll finally finish the train blocks. That's what you need to do. Oh my god, shoo motherfu. Yeah, and then we're all trains and it's just our faces like Thomas the tank Engine terrifying ass show. Oh my god, Sean, I'm glad that you had a lovely time. It makes me makes me miss Evo. I want to go now. I want to go to Combo Breaker. I guess that's a second reason to go to

Florida besides Disney World for Chicago, the other one you make. Yeah, I guess you know, maybe maybe maybe maybe. Anyway, let's talk about video games. Hokey Maine co owns EVO. What well, yeah, her her comp cohnes Evo now with Sony like Sony and Pokemon, but they both equally. Just didn't Sony buy Ebo or Amy making that up? It's it's uh, I'm probably messing up the terminology. But yeah, Sony owns Evo

and then her company has some kind of steak in there or something. Sure, sure, sure yeah, And that's why I like when she tweeted out free MVC to Max lost his mind in earthing you have the power to do that? Yes, oh my god words. Uh, gentlemen, I played a game. Uh and Sean, I believe you may have played it as well. And let me tell you, I had a lot of excitement for this game. Rakugaki Yes, RKGK Yes. The trailers looked super flashy.

It looked like it had a lot of budget behind it. Based off of the trailers, looked super well animated, like it reminded me of some Netflix anime or animation that they've been put out in terms of style. But I

could not gleam at all from the trailers. What type of game this was, and because I'm pretty disappointed with the product of the game, because after that initial hype trailer and like the splash screen it does, it throws you into static images with words, and a lot of the substance of the game kind of falls apart, and it feels like they threw all their budget into making this trailer. I feel like I got original Suicide squatted. Oh okay

the movie, sure yeah, And what Rakugaki is. It is definitely inspired by jet Set Radio Jetset Future where you are parcouring around. It's a three D platformer. You were collecting coins, you're collecting spray cans, and you were just tagging up walls. The method of movement, you're just mostly running

around, hopping and bopping around. You can use your spray can to do a split two un style slide around the level, and then you can also use your spray cans to do a like a glide type of thing where you're spraying down and these movement abilities katana sure, yeah, exactly, exactly, I'm sorry, not not like a glide in Breath of the Wild, a shotgun glide like a dai katana and the neat thing about the movement those methods of movement to assist you as you're running around is you have to use those

to trigger buttons and levers. As you're playing through there's enemies, so there's very very light combat, and even then the combat is like, oh, no, this enemy has a shield on his head. I guess I can't spray him from below with my Dkatana shotgun glide. I have to hit them. And then other enemies will have the inverse of that where you do have to glide over them. And the game just feels very slight. Just feels

very slight in sub stints and everything. Okay, I feel like I could turn my brain off because most of the levels, all of the levels, you're just going from point A to point B, and at point B you just do a giant tag. It doesn't feel like the graffiti elements are involved at all. Other than having to have like the appropriate number of spray can collectibles. They don't really do anything to the environment, which is a little

bit disappointing, and you're just hating a button. At least in Bomber Cyberfunk, you have to trace a pattern real quick to get that going, and I think I'm just disappointed by the state of graffiti video games. Boys. Yeah, I'm like, so, I was like struggling figure out what kind of game this is. So you're describing like a three D platformer basically,

yes, yes, it's a three D platformer. Is it like, uh, just a radio where you like grinding on stuff and trying to like park You know what it looks like when I look at the trailers, it looks like a like a sonic kind of three D platformer where it's like your dad to a lot of stuff, that sort of thing. It's nowhere near as fast as a sonic game, okay, of course, and even the movement, like the three D movement doesn't feel as fluid or as good as perhaps

a mar game, even a ratcheting clank game. It feels like there's a little bit of odd momentum to it. And yeah, it's just pretty much a three D platformer. It's like you ripped out a character from jet Set Radio, threw them into the world of ghost Runner, and gave them a spray can. Yeah, and I really wish I enjoyed it more because the trailer looks super well done and animated, but like the rest of the game is very bare bones, like even though like the little hub area got it's

just very light. You're just buying different outfits and stuff. Even running around the environments, you're mostly just using those movement abilities like a Splatoon like slide and the glide, and you're just running around like normal. The air Dash does not feel good either, Yeah, it doesn't. It doesn't look good either, like it just kind of looks sluggish. Yeah, And I don't know, I was. I think I was really shocked because if folks check

out the trailer, I think it played recently at a showcase. I think it was the Triple I initiative. Yes, yes, yes it was. It was during that and I was expecting something like a pleasant platform or surprise like Pepper Grinder or Penny's Big Breakaway, and I was kind of left the bad taste in my mouth with that. Oh that's a bummer, because yeah, I haven't played it yet. I do have it downloaded, and I was getting ready to play it, but I ended up practicing some fine games

before a tournament instead. But yeah, I was gonna fire that up like tonight or so on. So it's a little a little bit of bummer. That's not him with the IL I'll astot check it out myself and see if you know, maybe it vibes me a little bit more because like I got around to playing much of a bomb Rush Cyberfunk, but as a big just a radio fan that was really hidden with me. I know it didn't really hit with you last year, Jan But yeah, so I really like it

though, so that that could happen with this game. Yeah, it may. It'll just be a different vibe from me. Then I'm interested to try it out for sure. Yeah, real quick. RK GK Rakushi Rockagaki Rokugaki, thank you? Yeah, okay, okay, So that is I believe it does literally mean graffiti. There's there's totally uh strategy going on there with that naming. I think though, because I know a little bit of background this because I follow a lot of Japanese artists on Twitter and they sometimes tongue

in chic refer to uh. Because you can quite literally use it to refer as my understanding refer to it work in progress as r K G K Rockagaki. So you know, yes, sketch, there's there's sort of being being funny with that one. But they also sometimes will tongue in chek post like something that's clearly amazing, really good, and they're like, uh, rock

cocky because it's not done yet. And I was like, this is an amazing piece of art, but you put r kgk, which is what you know, how they abbreviate next time, It's like, alright, alright, so I think they're maybe going for a little c O or something there, but it's also smart, like if it is just it does just mean graffiti or whatever. I am. I'm still chasing, chasing that high of Mark Echoes getting up, which is apparently on Steam most of this. Yeah,

Mark Echo is getting up contents under pressure. I don't know if that's a sequel or definitive edition. Is all right, I'm adding it right now. All right, well we're playing this week? Oh hell yeah, I love this game. I never want to talk about racially ambiguous heroes. That's Tally was the voice. Oh man, man be simple in the sand though on on Steam? Oh what is yeah? I guess this is also low key another stealth game. Well is god? It is? Why is he hiding

from like an arbor? Oh my god? This game is wild. I'm I'm not one to uh normally like buy a lot of like gaming related paraphernalia just because I'm ashamed of myself. Of course, got to hide away. But god, the two things that I always wanted from video games is the Sly Cooper backpack from Infamous and the Mark Echoes getting up sweatshirt with the X in the real Oh my god, thanks, he's getting up. Also a

way of saying I'm gonna do yeah, okay, oh my god. That's that's a that's a whole different side of scumbag jam that we have yet to share. What's your No, there was no tag, it was just a stupid drawing anyway, Penis yep. Yeah. I mean you know, everyone giggles. Even if you're offended by it, you get a reaction. It's like, oh, come on, that's all right. It's it's art. It's art, baby, speaking about more art baby. I and maybe potentially

other folks have been playing Lorali and the Laser Eyes. All right, I intend to start this jan It sounds like exactly like my kind of game. Uh okay, yes you think so okay, finish finished grip. I'm just gonna say, and so it's like, I but I'm Also, it sounds like it's gonna be all consuming, because I don't think I'm gonna be able to think about other things once I started. So I'm like, I've started a thousand year door. We'll talk about that in a second. And then

once I finished that, I am gonna go play Laura LII. I'm gonna tell y'all, I think I'm too stupid to play this game. Everyone's saying that, though, everyone feels that way about this game. So I saw the trailer at what Nintendo director or whatever. What is the game gameplay wise? So it is a puzzle game. It is like a walk and talk

or not walk and talk. It's like a walk and solve type of game where solve them up, right, Yeah, solve them up where you know, the game just throws you in and then it's a one button type of joint where you're just moving around and if you can go walk up to something that is interactable, you interact with it. You have a couple options, and you have the choice to exhaust set options. And as you are going through those options, Laura I, or at least a character you're playing as,

which I'm pretty sure is Laura II. Starts unlocking little key pieces of memory, stuff to remember for you to refer back to in like a little journal Afterwards. Sometimes those clues feed into an immediate puzzle coming up, or

in a puzzle that's coming way later down the line. It does the untitled Goose game thing, where after you interact with something or like a locked door or a path you can't go through yet, it'll mentally take the note for you and have a running to do list of like, okay, cool, supposed to do that. I can't do anything with this now, all right, cool, okay, okay. But one of the first interactions you do is you go into your car, you open your glove compartment. This isn't

spoilers. This happens in the first five minutes. And one of the options when you go into the glove compartment is look at the instruction manual and it is the shoot instruction manual for the game, which is hilarious, and one of the tooltips it tells you is, yo, you are going to need a notebook another piece of paper to play this game, and you need to be locked in. Oh yeah, okay, like you need to focus on

this game. And it's another aspect of it. It has like the Resident Evil save system where you can only save it saved points, and if it's been a minute since you've gone to one and you shut your game off, you lose all your progress. There's no quick save at all, so you gotta find them. You don't have to worry about like ribbon ink or whatever, so you can keep saving as many times as long as you find one. But god, guys, it is a this this game is completely a

vibe. It's monochromatic except for like some uh, some splatters of it looked very stylish in the Nintendo Indie Showcase super or super stylish, and like the puzzles range from stuff like, hey, here is a four digit luck combo. Have you seen any four digit numbers lately? And then it'll do some stuff with light math of like hey, uh, here's this dial with three numbers, another dial with a plus sign and then an equal sign that you have to get to this sum and it's like, okay, all right,

let's just pull out our Texas instruments T I thirty x two. Just listen, literally just did that? Yeah, shouts out, I don't know, shouts out texts, oh, your partner is a teacher that makes sense. Yeah, yeah, and like it gets light like that, but then you come across a grandfather clock with nothing but Greek symbols on it and five layers of dials, where it's like, Okay, I don't know what any of

this means. And then I'd gotten to a point where you walk into this hotel that the game takes place in, and I feel like I had exhausted all of my options and I feel like, oh no, was I not paying enough attention to all of the MISSI Lady's clues I was picking up? And then this game does a brilliant thing where you think you're stupid as hell and you realize maybe you are stupid as hell, but it teases you, and like the breadcrumb trails pops up where oh hey, that locked door where

there was this person talking behind it. Oh, now the persons popped up, and this person's gonna guide you through kind of breadcrumb trail you through the places you need to go. But then from there they opened, they literally opened a door for you, and there's a whole slew of more puzzles and more tools at your disposal. This game talks about Latin phrases to help open

doors. Okay, okay. Roman numerals another a thing in the instruction manuals like, hey, you have to be familiar with Roman numerals and Arabic numbers, just normal numerical stuff, and maybe a moon phases by the way, and also feature Yeah, and you're you gotta know your Myers Briggs personality test And I would have put it past this game to do that, honestly.

And it's neat because from from what it seems like, it is a very, uh, eerily casual game where there isn't any danger, but there is tension building because, uh, you know, are you solving a murder mystery? Is something fishy happening? Who is this person that has invited you to this hotel? What is their deal? What is your deal? Because you

kind of have no memory of the situation, And it's really neat. The only problem is this definitely feels like a game that you have to be locked in and in the zone four, where like if you took a break from it, and too long of a break, I think you kind of be out of place in terms of the world. Terrifies me that idea, like because that's the difficulty with how I play games is I don't ever use a notebook. I do have to keep it all in my head at once.

I will use a notebook if I play this game, I'll break that rule of mind. It's not a rule, but like keeping things in my head is like stressful, but I enjoy it, Like I enjoy a game that forces me to do that. But it's like the kind of thing where once it starts to seep out, well there's no stop in that. It's all just going to leak out and getting it all back in there is such a huge hill to climb back up that I'm like, Okay, once I play this game, I am going to have to lock in. Jen. Let

me ask you, is it where does the difficulty come from? Primarily? Is it like the individual puzzles. Is it figuring out where to start, like to like decode what the puzzles are asking for you? Or is it just this overwhelming sense of there's so much I don't know where even to begin.

It's probably at least where I'm at with a game. It's it's the latter where you have I've come across so many different doors and things to unlock at this point that my to do list has ballooned into like three four pages and I don't know quite know how to proceed, And the fact that it's throwing so many different tools that you in terms of like here's a book that breaks down Latin phrase like normal Latin phrases, and this other book that reteaches

you Roman numerals, another book that teaches you like the Greek alphabet in terms of like alpha, beta, et cetera. Now I'm thinking, crap, is this telling me something that I have to know for a puzzle coming up? Is this important to remember right now? Or should I just like wash this from my brain? Right? Is it just getting in the way of actually solving, Like yeah, is it a red herring? Yeah? Okay. For folks that really like the Witness, I think this will be right

up your alley. So this is why I think this is a Jeff Grub game. Yeah, it sounds like Witness Oberden Oh Curse with Golden Idol. Games that you play primarily in your own head, where it's yes, you are like getting an idea and now you need to unfold it on your own. The gameplay is the thoughts you're having, and then you got to come back to the game with the solution. That's the Jeff grub John right there. Hell yeah, let's go. But like, definitely this game will mentally

test you in like your rote memorization skills or basic knowledge. I guess. I'm I don't know if this would play well like for a stream game, just jumping at it cold because I watching folks solve puzzles can be a little bit frustrating. And then oh god, there was like another book that I picked up where it just had a bunch of several mini puzzles inside of it that I don't know if I was supposed to go solve it then and there.

And then it was like eighteen pages of miscellaneous home puzzles that I don't know if they have any bearing to the actual game. And then one of the ones that I spent like a good ten minutes on is Okay, here's a maze. Solve it in the least amount of turns in terms of like changing your cardinal directions, And I was like, oh no, I thought I was good at mazes, but maybe not. This game is like falling into a cruton factory because it's like breadcrumb okay in terms of like what is

laying out for you? And I'm I'm super excited to like get to all of it, or even get to some of it, because it's building up some intrigue for sure. Jeff Grubb, I'd love to see you and see how your brain functions to play this game. Yeah, it's good. It's gonna happen. I'm gonna hop in there and I'm gonna play this game. It's I remember we were in a meeting a couple of weeks ago and Kurt was talking about He's like, yes, I'm twenty hours in and I'm so

stuck. I need help so bad. And I think next time I like we spoke to him about that, he had gotten over it and he was like, yeah, and that was amazing. So if it's if you're getting stuck in games, is something that that bothers you, sounds like these kinds of games are. This probably wouldn't be for those kinds of people, but

I think that's part of the fun. Even then, Like I didn't think this game would be for me per se, but I think if you get stuck in the early bits of this he kind of definitely rewards you, or at least it really does a good job at like telegraphing where you're supposed to go and I and I'm assuming that process kind of gets better as you have like a refined goal of like Okay, well this is my north Star, let me get there, and if I wind up solving these other side puzzles

on the way, at least like that is in the back of my head. The game does a good job though at kind of identifying your specific list of things. But the environment you're walking around is very maze like, which I am one hundred percent a fan of. It's all like locked angles and everything, so no need to move a camera around or anything. You don't have to play with perspective. The game does that for you, and it also projects where there are doorways and what is interactable, so it's not like

you're doing like an object hunt throughout the different tableaus. It's really done well. I want to I might make this a steam Deck game and this could be the game where I lay in bed frustrated. Yeah, play and everything. It also recommends that you play with headphones. You don't know if that means there's going to be any specific audio cues. If they're saying that probably probably, and that also reminds me of The Witness, which I am kind

of curious. Jane, you mentioned sort of side puzzly stuff or not knowing if like a puzzle is specific specifically necessary to advance. What would any side stuff like that accomplish. Is it just for fun? I think it's probably just unlocking more knowledge and getting more context to the overall story. There's a lot of shortcut doors that the game will put in front of you and it'll say, like, oh, well, you need to solve this from the

other side or figure out how this works into that. Like what are the

early things you come across? Are these movie posters that are shredded up, And at first I thought, oh, maybe I just have to rearrange this, But the only thing you do with it is like you just look at the pieces and then you make the mental note, and then those movie posters become uh, you know you've seen the same movie posters shredded up repeatedly that that title of that movie becomes very familiar in your brain, and then you

see that title somewhere else in the game, and then that leads into another set of clues of like okay, all right, I didn't think I need to pay attention to this, but now I do. And then you think back about that Shredded movie poster and notice that, oh crap, there was like a pattern put a painted onto these movie posters. Maybe I gotta go. Maybe that means something. And I don't think this game is trying to steer you wrong and frustrate you where you know, like puzzles that don't mean

anything. I feel like everything is very purposeful, right, okay, even from the jump where it feels like they're building on one another or one okay, it feels like they're they're building on top of each other and like building to the side as well. In terms of like the different components, it's it's very all done. Also, you can pet the dog. I'm sorry,

there's a dog pissed. Yeah, you know this. It also reminds me of what you're describing is like a single play, single player version of a Scape Academy where uh oh yeah, where like that is you have to be observant and you have to be able to like figure out the know, the brute force of solving these puzzles. And it's like Escape Academy was grea because you could play a multiplayer and I play with Mike, and he was He's very observant, so he was like gathering up all the stuff of like,

here's all the things the game's trying to tell us about. And then once all the pieces were in front of me, I'm like, and here's the solution instantaneously. So it's like it was a good thing of like we could use the two parts of our brains in a way that that were really complimented one another. I'm like, I also like the idea of having a

game that's like no, you're you're expected to do both. And I'm like, Okay, I will probably have to work on my observation skills in this game to make sure that I am gathering up all the information I need.

But yeah, it sounds promising. I'm very curious about this one. Oh. The other aspect I forgot to mention is you know, you'll come across an interactable object or a little puzzle, and sometimes laural I goes into her purse and like, oh, maybe I have to interact with this in my giant Like I think it's sixteen sixteen grid of different objects that she can put into her person. Eventually, interact with the world. And it's funny because

the game starts you just have kerkys and a tampon. And best believe me, I've tried to use that tampon every lock door, every time there was like a resident evil like statue with a hole in its head, and the game says, hmmm, you can put something in that hole in that statue, and you know me, I put that tampon in there. She didn't do shit. Okay, it has the tampon done anything yet? No,

Man, it's gonna be such a hype moment. I want to believe there's like one interactable moment where you toss out founder or something but does nothing else. The entire game the most like hypes it ever, so we can go giant bombs Moment of the year. The tamp really badly want that. I think this is gonna be a low key contender of like maybe the top half

of Game of the year. Folks like developing. Spend enough time with it, sure, and don't get too frustrated with it and give it the time to Breathe shouts out to Kurt for like really putting this on our radar. Yeah, all right, another another game we have here last game that we have on this doc I've also been playing Duck Detective. That game ten out of ten because deductions. Okay, well, we'll talk about that more later in the week. That is a that is a cozy game as well.

But Jeff Grubb, you put on the list here paper Mario the Thousand Year Door. Yeah, so I started this. I've played it a little bit before. I've never gotten anywhere near close to finishing it, and it was on the GameCube. But I'm playing it now and I'm the furthest I've ever been into it. I've been playing it kind of non stop over the last few days when I have time, and I am really impressed by it.

I think a big part of it is it does feel very new, even though you know it's it's kind of a one to one recreation of that of the GameCube game. The visuals do have this extra flourish to them that really makes it pop, and it just looks beautiful. I really enjoy looking at the game. All the characters have a ton of personality. I think a big part of this is the the presentation was really strong for this game right at the time. You know, there's no voice acting, so there's voice

bubbles, but they're not like just doing that. This is not just a means of getting the writing across. This is also part of conveying how things happen in the world. So when there's one person talking, that doesn't mean there's not another character in the background that has like a million little thought bubbles popping up or like they're having their own conversation that you're not a part of.

This is how people in the world speak, so you could like see that happening, and it just adds a ton of flavor and personality to the world. And then I think it's just a really strong Super Mario RPG. Like it's it's got a ton of very fun characters that are great to spend time with that all are really funny. The adventure side of things, where it's like I feel like I am on this epic quest and it's taken me from one thing to another really hits this really kind of in chapter three.

I think this is where this really came across for me. I'm like, Okay, the first two chapters are both kind of lengthy. I'm about seven eight hours in and I'm like, okay, now we're gonna go do another one that's kind of gonna be structured pretty pretty similar to what I've done so far, but I'll have a different setting, a different side character, that sort of thing. It's like, no, We're going to completely change how

the game works. Now it's gonna feel so fresh and so different. I'm like, oh, okay, that's what's possible when you realize you're not just making You're not just like, here's not just one version of what a quest can look like. Your quest can then inform how the game play. And I've been I'm just very happy with that because now it's like I'm like a

wrestling organization and stuff like that, and it's just so much fun. The characters are very different, they all have once again, huge personalities, and I'm really having a good time with it. And then off top of that, it's just like, oh, yeah, this is how RPG combat should probably work in these paper Mario games. I get wanting to freshen things up. But like Orgami King, a game that I adored out for everything except for its combat system. It's like, if it just had this combat system,

that game would be beloved. If people would just be going gaga for it. Here's a game that does have that combat system and does have all that other stuff that you're looking for, and it really just it really just works for me. I'm enjoying myself quite a bit. Yeah. I peeped some the gameplay, like a like an impressions thing, first ten to fifteen minutes of it, which is hard for one of those games yo writing, And you know, forgive me for my naivete, but are all the paper

Mario games just very funny? Treehouse is top tier localization. You know, I really have no frame of reference for the original Japanese scripts. I bet they're also hilarious. I have no idea, but Nintendo Treehouse is well known for like making those things come across very excellent, and yes, they're all

very funny. And that's part of what's happening with me with this is like I am constantly assessing it against the other Super Mario RPG games that I will play and enjoy, and I'm like, is this up there with like Superstar Saga for the Game Boy Advance. It's like, well, not quite in this way, because the writing is so good in that and then another scene will happen here and I'm like Okay, well this is pretty good. This

is up there. I see why people like this game so much. So, Yeah, it's it's definitely the kind of thing where if you get, if you you know, get on its wavelength of the kinds of funny storytelling it's telling, it's like there's not much else out there that matches it for that sort of thing. Yeah, that's awesome. In what really drew me to all of the Mario RPGs Martin Luigi, the first Couple in particular, and then pretty much all the paper Mario games. You know, they all

have different levels of gameplay, but they are always very funny. Their presentation is always what draws me into that stuff because they are incredibly well written. Always. I find the paper s SEC in general charming because they do some funny stuff with that, some clever stuff where they they make some interesting under that or like you can you know, like how do you progress, Well, let's just slip through event, you know, because we just turned sideways

and slip through it or something like that. It's very cute. I always

appreciate the paper Mario games for that. Yeah, And it's like I'm like looking at Rogueport, the opening city and it's like, oh yeah, there's like so much more here because I'm not realizing on paper, and that opens up some possibilities of exploring, like between buildings or between buildings it's or you know, the the great on the ground that you're talking about, that sort of thing, and it's like, oh yeah, this that makes this town

feel more alive and I'm just enjoying spending time in this world. It's it's a really well done update to that game, and if you haven't played it, I fully recommend it, and I think it's the kind of conversion where people who did enjoy it are going to find a lot to like come back and it's like, oh, it's going to look better than ever. Basically it does run at thirty frames per second. I'm over it. I don't notice it. Don't notice it all when I'm playing it, not even a

little bit. It's not the kind of thing where it's like, again, you put them side by side, I might notice, but even this game, there's a chance I might not. Honestly, it's that smooth. I tried. I feel like some people kind of just forgot. I try to remind people paper Mario is usually timing base rather than reaction based, and you don't need uh, you don't need high frame rate for timing. You need right. It is you know, prescriptive, it's it's deterministic. It's going

to happen at the same time every time exactly. So once the thing starts, you're you're filling in the gaps anyhow your brain works, so you're not reacting anymore. You're just waiting for the rhythm to come, and it's zero effect on the combat. As Chad just points out, the windows in these games are usually pretty wide too. Yeah, that's very forgiven here. Yeah,

And I mean I like the systems, like the Badge system. There is one thing where I'm like, okay, I'm about I am getting to like nine ten hours into it. I'm my attack hasn't gone up, but

I don't do more damage with my attack. Ever as I level up and say, oh, I think they're just kind of going to keep it like this low level of attack, and maybe occasionally I will, like very rarely, will get maybe a weapon that improves my stats, but not like in Super Mario RPG, where it's like basically every time you go to you're getting a new weapon. Your attack goes way up, and instead it's like you were just going to keep most of who you're fighting at about like you know,

ten HP the entire game. And that's like, oh, okay, what I think, what it's really doing here is focus on these other things and let's stop doing the pretending that that raising your attack is going to have much of an effect on the world, because when we do that in a video game, we then introduce new enemies that are more powerful so that you kind of are going up at the same speed, so that fights always take

about the same number of attacks to complete. That's like, okay when you put it, when I think about it that way, that's pretty neat. It's but it is like a mental hump I had to get over where it's like, well, I like the number going up, that's that's great,

but there's a plenty of other numbers that do go up. And a thousing your door is the one where you increase attack power with the equipment, right, yeah, right, And like you can get badges that make you do more powerful attacks, but by using flower points, which is like your magic, your manna, and what you need to what you need to realize is like, well, I'm upgrading that constantly. There's only three things to upgrade, either your HP, your FP, or your your BP your badge points.

And so I'm like, well, I'm upgrading my HP a little bit, but I'm like kind of managing most of these fights. So I'm putting

most of my upgrade points into FP, BP. And what that means is now I have way more matches I can attach or yeah I can, I can wear it one time, and that enables that opened a bunch more attacks and things like that, and many of those attacks use more FP, and now I'm like much more comfortable using those attacks because I have a ton more of that, And that's where the actual increase in damage is coming from. I think I think I might be I think I might need this game.

I think I honestly, I think you would have a very good time with this. Have you never played it before? Zan, just like casually at a friend's house, okay, and like I remember, I don't remember which paper Mario was, but like at a Toys r us kiosk once, yeah it was probably this one. Probably yeah, No, this this is what most people say is the best one. I haven't played since I was a kid, when I first came out, but I always love this one the

best out of all of them. It's a fantastic game, and there's a reason people put it up on pestal Yep. I don't love like doing the tier list rankings of things in the series that I like, uh, but like right now. Can't excuse me, I can't help it. I am like, Okay, I think Superstar sag is probably number one, then Super Mario RPG, and then this. We'll see where I land at the end. Okay, okay. I have played the Mario and Luigi games in the

past and really appreciated and dug those. Yes, Mario Luigi Superstar Saga is fantastic. So it's boucer inside story. Yes, a lot of them are pretty good, is all right? Putder stem is all right? What's what's the Sleepy Time one? Uh? Ohm? A meal that came with my my year of Luigi three d s Yes, I had. I got that one too, and that's a sharp one, the silver and gold, Yes,

I like. Steph got it more for me for a Christmas for our birthday, and I stumbled across it in a closet before then, and I went to go peek at it like a child several times before I actually open it. Yeah, it's uh that that one is okay, But it's just it's it's like, got so much of the what's up the game to tell you how to play this part of the game. I think it just got bogged down in that, which was a bummer. Yeah. I wouldn't mind

like a stripped down Final Fantasy game like this. Maybe maybe you don't need the grand grandiose stuff. Yeah, what if they do Final Fantasy Pixel remaster like sixteen they remade basically Yeah, did you play Octopath too yet? Jane? I did? I. I I got to the part where we listened to Michael Hymes presents Octopath two Traveler Octopath Travel I listened to the Yeah, I got to I got to the sacks and it whips. But also, there's too much happening in this game. I love systems, but there's too

much guys. Okay, all right? Oh god, I thought I thought Laura I the Laser Eyes was going to be a lock in terms of like the game I bring down to SGF, But maybe maybe it's gonna be paper Mario instead. Real quick, I am playing on the switch again because this is where that's where this game is and say, okay, so I wrenched the switch back for my children a little bit, they're still trying to take it back. I put my hory Pad Pro like light controllers back on there,

and I just wanted to say I love those things. Yeah, split Pad Compact, Yeah Compact, thank you split Pad Compact. The big part of it is they lock onto the switch much more securely than anything else. Yes, and then the buttons feel pretty good. The build feels pretty good. It's not like none of this stuff is premium about it. It just does its job so well and locks on so much better than anything else that

it's just that much more comfortable. So I like swapped out. I think those nixy ones n y Xi they're okay, but I always feel like they are almost gonna slip off. I don't have to hit the button if I pull hard enough, they'll just come right off, and I hate that.

So yeah, I just wanted to like shout out those horry Pad Compact Company for peripherals in general, like I have the the split Pad pros, the originals background and switch right now, which are bulkier, they're like almost full sized Xbox controllers on either side, and that's why the compact is good. Also, Hory makes the pad that I brought to Combo Breaker over the weekend, So like they make just good stuff for a variety different systems. Yeah,

last thing I have on the list here two things. I have something after Sean, but Sean remembered something. Yeah, I just wanted to rapid fire. I played a bunch of arcade stuff or the weekend. Yesterday for my birthday, we did go to Galloping Ghost Start in the World, thanks

Jeff. But we just played a whole variety of stuff. I want, you know, all the usuals, POSSI want to shout some of the cool stuff, like they did still have the zero Ax machine that Jeff grub destroyed was memory card that one time they had the ww F I'm Not Wrestling Royal Rumbull game by Sega, and I quickly asked Dan, who's topped here in the is It's like play Stone Cold or the Rock and I did not win the Royal Rumbles. I'd say no, that an air guy's machine. God

bless the ring, and you better believe me. And my boy played a Tifa versus Cloud. Oh that game? What that game sucks, but I love it so much because Tifa just like sliding across the ground is taking Cloud's legs out and stuff. So much fun. The grid. Did you mention that? I'm sorry? Yeah, yeah, yeah, definitely the Grid. Good good call out the Grid if anyone doesn't know, this is the kind

of thing. This is why I love going to arcades. It's a kind of hardware where you need to go to an arcade to play it is they have a full step of like six cabinets there and they think like David Busters or my game works because you had a four cab okay, yeah, because they have like the cabinet four and then they added on to like a one person once that you can like because they all network. And what it is is basically you're playing Quake three arena, but with a like a flight stick

for movements and jumping and shooting and a track ball for aiming. So it's very accurate aiming once you get the hang of it, because the track balls really good at that. But it is just quaite through arena. It's midway, you know, at their prime. It's so much fun. I would love a grid machine. What a wonderful future we could have lived in if like, yeah, adopted track balls like that. Yeah, I was thinking about excuse me when you were talking about Laura lining the laser eyes, and

like, we're getting Laura line the laser eyes. So this thought that occurred to me doesn't mean anything, But I'm like man on the DS, I went from like Professor Layton to like a million other like knockoff puzzle games. A shirt in chat like them. There's a match stick puzzle game that's just the match stick puzzles from Professor Layton, and there was like a couple hundred

of those in there, and I would play that. It's like, there was a time where we were just getting games like that on these consoles and that doesn't really happen anymore now. Those things, they they're out there, they're on mobile, they're in a million other places. This is just old man stuff. But it's like, no, there was a beautiful time where we could go to an arcade and someone would make a giant machine that was the first person shooting, and there's no world where we get that anymore.

That was an event that happen. Then. One of my favorites. I spent a little bit of time on this is a silent Scope. Because Silent Scope and the arcade, you have the giant sniper rifle, and the screen on TV is like the broad view of where you're looking. But then on the sniper rifle itself, he's a screen that shows the view as if it were yeah, a sniperscope. It's really really cool. We played some House of the Dead, of course, because you have to a whole bunch of

racing games. They had a I Know It Sonic and Sega All Stars has an arcade version that racing game that was next to also an arcade version of after Burner Climax, like an next BLA game. For a while back. My buddy camped out on the Initial d Machine because of course, and what else. Oh, one of our favorites my group, because there's three of us, the Michael Jackson's Moonwalker Machine. The arcade game is different than the

Genesis game. It's three players and it's an asymmetric view. You're all Michael walking around, uh, beating the batties up and then yeah, saving the kids. Galloping Ghost is just fantastic place against Craig. It's never been Yeah, the base arcade in the world. They just put even more stuff, and they did another expansion or the past summer or whatever. Man, okay, I gotta go back. Yeah, there's so much stuff, some stuff

you'll never see elsewhere nowadays. Like they have the Silent Hill arcade game. They have the Castlevania game that has light gun whips. Yep, the whip yep, yep. Yeah, it's exactly how it sounds, Jane. You got if you want to, If you want to see that, it's in a video on giant bomb dot com. Mm hmm uh. They got a new one in I think it's new. They have a Contra game, like a recent Contra game says, you know, kind of whatever, three D graphics, but hey, it's Contra in the arcade. It's new, so

that's kind of neat. Uh. What made me think of all this, though, besides that is part of my trip or the weekend, was that at Combo Breaker they had a much bigger arcade section than they've ever had, And in addition to all the usual fighting games and stuff, I did get

to play some indie fighting games that were being exhibited there. Tough Love Arena is making a tag team game no one's ever heard Tough Love Arena cool little indie game that you play in your browser, Like it requires nothing you need to play on your phone because it just runs on a browser. And they're making a tag team game. A couple are ones that were really cool.

There's like the shooter one. I forget the name, not to find it, but it basically I think Geometry War is a competitive multiplayer, Like it is pretty cool, like a twin stickcout thing. But then the machines we played mostly usual stuff. I finally got to play my mind that Arcade Rhythm game where people describe it as the washing machine at Games Done Quick, whereas like it's a circular thing at the screen and the buns around it and you

like tap the screen. I finally got to try that because they had a head to head set up. I saw someone like on TikTok with one of those machines at their house. Yeah, just like streaming from it. Insane. Yeah, some people get those, like, yeah, they've showed at GDQ streaming from home. Some people have like BDR machines and stuff that they set up at their homes and stuff. It's really cool. Yeah. I did get to try the new what the PDP riff Master. I believe it's

called the new Guitar Hero Guitar that they just put out. They had set up on an Xbox with just a whole bunch of like rock band, a whole bunch of songs download to it if anyone's curious. It does just feel like a rock band guitar. It worked very well. Me and my friend just got right back into it. We haven't played in years, but that

was awesome. And then, yeah, the one thing I made me think of all this is that I did get to play two XKO again because they brought the arcade machines that they made from that they had EVO, which, if everyone forgot, is what Riot's fighting game is called now project at not your scale. But yeah, get to get in a really long line for that a few different times, because you know, of course everyone wanted to

play it. And I think this is indicative of something where my friend, who is still getting into fighting games, he's he's starting to get actually pretty good at them, to a point of being like being better than me and tech and and stuff, but he still prefers like simple inputs, like he plays Modern Controls and street Fighter and stuff like that, and so him playing two x KO even though it was on stick, because they had the like,

you know, kind of cool arcade machine setups. He said that he usually can't understand what's going on in tag games, but he could totally like suss out what's happening at any given point in two x Kale. It was like just the right speed and just the right amount of effects on it and everything, and uh, yeah, I'm gonna wiggle my sault shakers just for Nicky. Yeah, no, that is is really fun. Can't wait for two s KO to come out at some point in the future. One day.

We're seeing you at at Gallavin. Ghost did make me realize when I went there. I came home and I'm like, there are a bunch of specifically Sega arcade games that never came home or got poor arcade conversions. And I'm going to spend some time getting that set up and play that. And now I'm like, okay that we'll have to make some time on this website to do that. I think, well, maybe we'll do a upf or something that's like all those old Sega arcade games. Oh yes, please yeah.

Also, someone find me this initial D Train game. I still can't stop don't worry last thing I wanted to bring up, you know, but there's a little tech small things that I enjoy, we all enjoy on this website. Jeff Grubb, I fell prey to the TikTok shop. Buy what Chinese handheld did you buy? I did not buy a Chinese handheld. I bought what. Initially it felt like a very uh shoddily put together when I opened the box phone tripod monopod thing. Yeah, and you know, I

was just going backpacking for the first time. I thought, let's let's go try make a video or let's get some some good footy to remember back on the times here and like, you know, it's a pretty long telescoping tripod there listeners, you can't see it roughly. Yeah, I think it goes to like that and then you know, just like a little full down tripod there you get a little small tooth remote, low profile tripod at the bottom of eah if you want. And then it's a quarter three three quarter inch

mount on top. So maybe if I felt comfortable, I could throw my big boy camera on there. Sure, who knows. I do feel some type of way about telescoping stuff because sometimes the tension goes out super quick. But hey, this served me well and it's very lightweight. I might bring this down to SGF and some we'll pull some shinanies down there. It looks handy. Yeah, it looks it's yeah, last thing before we go to brick and break, and we'll talk about the news and then eventually get to

emails. I have so much newfound respect for camping and outdoorsy vloggers or whatever, because they set up the shot, they'll walk walk past the camera or walk away from the camera a pretty decent length, but then they have to go back and grab the fucking car. And when we were all comparing our steps at the end of the day, mine were nearly doubled because I would

have to walk back and grab the camera. This is why, this is why you got to get one of those like AI drones, the ones you could just like throw out and be like, all right, I'm wearing the special belt. Follow me and it will It'll follow you around and like take all the footage for you. I bet that doesn't work. But I like to pretend something that I've wanted to toy around with. But I know that this is going to open too much of a hole to dive into is And

I thought about this when I worked on The Robot Show. But I want an RC controlled camera that is like on a gimbal and then has like something to stabilize the z axis as well, so it's like it's eliminating like the rumbles that you would get. But like, man, what if what if we got into RC cars huh and just mounted cams on them? Yeah, I mean the person shooter like RC car like like event that we put on. Yeah, let's do it, guys, I might I might still know

some folks that work at battle Bots. Maybe we could go in Vegas. You do a flipper one. The flipper one is the you know, yeah, that's that's the go to design. Just like we are about to go to break folks. Well, Jeff Crab's got a whole pipe and hot cup a news for some news. There's some news and we'll get to that right after this. There is nothing I love more than listening to Jeff Grubb tell me about the news. Oh, if I'm being honest, there's like at

least maybe three books in this oh but still top five. Ah, all right, let's do it. There, we lied to you. There's not that much news. There's some things, there's just not that much. I think everyone is in slight hibernation for Jeff Rubin. Was Jeff crub lied again? Yes, we're speaking of listen. I think there's still going to be a state of play this week, but we'll see. So hold on, everybody, hold on to your horse. Yes, okay, grub give me

two minutes and then I have a breaking news thing for you. Okay, sure sounds good. All right, let's start here at the top. The Xbox app confirmed that Call of Duty Black Ops six is coming day one to Game Pass. Call of Duty Black Ops six I want It's called Duty twenty four Black Ops six there will be available in game Pass on day one,

according to a notification sent to Xbox players. The notification was shared widely on social media before being replaced with an airscreen, indicating that it was sent out prematurely. Activision has since confirmed the news in a live action trailer for Black Ops six. This marks the first time a Call of Duty game will be

included in a subscription service at launch, so this isn't too surprising. We were expecting this, although there was rumors that there was some conversation and I think, of course there is you have conversations about all these things, but they are just straight up saying, now Black Op six in game Pass. This, I mean, this kind of limits to what they could do with

those like tier adjustments they were doing that we were talking about previously. Right now it's like maybe they can raise the price, but they said it's going to be in game Pass. It has to be in all versions of game Pass, right, yeah, like PC game Pass as well, right, PC game Pass. I mean I would think I guess there's some wiggle room there, I suppose, but probably not. No, it's first party,

it should just be in game Pass across the board. Call of Duty is also bigger on console, so I don't think those right be an issue honestly, just it seems like it would just help game Pass on PC a lot for it to be on there, like oh yeah, yeah, that audience might be like I'll check it out, but yeah, much much bigger on

console. This is like not going to be the situation where and it's not on Xbox one and PS four, so if you want to like upgrade now you have to get an Xbox. But it does sound like the kind of thing where this should help out both game Pass and the Xbox Console and and like their entire ecosystem, but it's not. God, I don't think it's gonna be an overnight change. What do you guys think? I don't. I think it's gonna definitely incentivize a lot of people to check out game Pass,

but I don't know if this is gonna be a massive spike. Yeah, I think. I mean, it's a joke, right, but it's also real Call Duty twenty four. At a certain point, when you're that far into something, people are settled in their ways, and it's very difficult to get them to like even if you present that with a deal that maybe is in some lights much better or more affordable or whatever. I think a

lot of people are like, no, I've owned all these games. I'm going to keep owning them, and that's the way I want to do it. And I don't think Microsoft wouldn't hate that. That's more money. They're very happy to have that. I think it depends on how they approach the marketing and then how the story is spun, because it's important to keep in mind that this Call of Duty game, it is not for the hardcore crowd.

Anymore. Like we talk about call of Duty and we see it all the time in replies and comments and the live chats, this audience just doesn't care about call of Duty anymore, which is totally fair because we've played so many of them for so long, or maybe just never cared about call of duty to begin with. But the casual audience is still there for these things, and they still show up in droves every single time, even with free to play stuff like Warzone. That being said, I feel like that casual

audience isn't going to flock to an Xbox. I feel like they've kind of developed their patterns of like, but well, I got this PS five, you know I can play it here. I think if the messaging, whether from x Box themselves or just on social media and stuff, is hey, you can play a new Call of Duty for ten bucks, which has always been the thing that I think. I don't know why they don't lean into this marketing. Maybe because they don't want to. Maybe they don't want people

to realize that you can subscribe without staying subscribed. May they don't want people to like figure that out too quickly. But it has always been odd to me that they don't say play for ten bucks, like, yeah, yeah, you can buy an PS five for seventy, play for ten bucks, don't have vaxbucks stream it whatever. Ten bucks. Like that would appeal to a lot of people, especially now I more and more people are talking about the cost of games, like that's how I get my friends to play games.

If it's an expensive game but it's also on game pass, I'm like, yo, guys, re up your game pass ten bucks. There you go. Now bottom Tiery is still ten bucks? Huh? Why do I think it was eleven? They raised all the prices of everything except for that. I think it's like twelve euros or something like that. Okay, I

think there's other territories. That sounds right. I think the reason that they're about the play it for ten bucks thing is if that becomes like the mantra, like five dollars foot long, when you have to raise the price, it's like, well, I remember, well not necessarily, not necessarily the price, but just like play it for less, like this is the exact budget friendly way to play the game. You're gaining the same quality experience.

What's it gonna cost you a lot less? You just got you know, invest in some kind of hardware, Phil, get ready to cut the check. Here's your slogan, play more for less. Yeah, I mean I think we're getting that though, And I agree with with both your guys saying this. The marketing for game Pass somehow still seems lacking. Yeah, and now you're much weird to say yes, But I think a lot of that is like the community's a best deal in gaming, and I feel like somehow

Microsoft has not been able to get that across themselves. Like a lot of us get that, but there is that casual audience out there we're talking about that does not seem to care about that, and I think Microsoft has failed in communicating that to them. Yeah, now with call Duty, you have a new chance to do that once again. Will they be ready for it?

I don't know. I still I'm still skeptical. Yeah, and you said the whole best deal in gaming thing that they had for a while there, Like Nicky points out the chat, if they're not doing like advertising out the ass for this during like NBA finals and NFL season and everything like that,

what are you doing? Because whatever where the price may end up being for a given person, whether it's you know, ten bucks, for a base plan or like you you do need gold on console some you know, fact that, and you need Ultimate or something, but you still with bugs. But even even though you still start with start playing Call of Duty for ten bucks a month or whatever it is, start playing next month or whatever.

And then and then you step up the ladder like once they're in, like, well, now I need online and then what's there already in? It's so much easier. That's also marketing. Yeah, you just you you emit the tiny details and you know, not necessarily something I'm endorsing, but I'm laing with why a Marlin player required for Aline multiplayer? You could say that, and that's true, and you can you could even say that loudly, but start playing it like it's Yeah. This is also creatively spinning the

story. I'm just wondering why the marketing team hasn't been doing that. It's a good question. Puzzles me. Yeah, there, I thought that just popped up in my head. Do you see them offering Call of a Duty on game pass day one and everything, but do you see them also charging an extra premium like a pre order bonus type of situation for early access to a game? Not saying that's gonna happen for Black Op six, but moving

forward in the future, it's probably gonna happen for Black Op six. I think that's one of the ways that they make this all make sense is it's in game Pass. But for you freaks out there who are the biggest fans, the ones most likely to give us the most money, you can start playing five days early if you buy the one version. Now they've done this multiple times, and I mean at a certain point, I'm like the fair

game. I know a lot of people hate that, but it's like I can when it's five days, I can wait five days and I'll save a lot of money. And to me, that feels like I'm getting a deal, even though it's not. It's it's the way it's always been where it's like I'm just getting out the way whether they had done this, uh this promotion or not. It's like, Wow, those suckers are paying a lot of money and I'm just gonna wait and I'll get it. Part of game

pass, it work. It works with Floriza Forza Horizons so very well. People basically paid close to the price of a game to get that deluxe edition of a million players before hit games and the greatest suckering of it all those people don't know the game, they just own the outside. Or do they do that where they offer that that that problem of pay one hundred dollars more or you can play five days early on game Pass? Yeah, maybe maybe

the higher tier. Maybe that's part of like what happens with like they introduce an even higher tier that has that benefit included. Oh you Deluxe game or game Pass Deluxe I guess would be called that is Deluxe Additions on game Pass and that's like twenty the deal includes dec and all that stuff. I hate the thought that I've had haunting me this whole since we brought it up of an ad supported tier of game Pass and just thinking of the monstrosities they would

throw ads in for that. It definitely feels like it could easily mutate into something very ugly, in something that we don't necessarily want. But in this moment, game Pass still looks like something that I find mostly appealing. And when call of duty comes around, I will If I think I have a subscription right now, it could lapse by then I would let it lapse, and then when call of duty comes around, I'll probably be like, that's probably the way I'll do it, and that way I'll be able to catch

up on some of these other games. I'll keep game mess for at least a couple of months. I'll play Indiana Jones. There was some other stuff launching later this year. Now I can't remember avowed. Is it avowed. I'll hit those games and then i'll know, wrap things up and maybe cancel again. And I'm like, oh, that's I've played a lot of games. It got some Call of Duty time, and now I'm not playing Call of Duty anymore, so it's easy to cancel. That's the story I'll tell

myself. Now. Microsoft just needs to get into the trenches and explain people, Hey, that's a viable story, and you're gonna get Call of Duty and all these other games. Maybe you care about that. I don't know. They're gonna have to convey that message though. Yeah, all right. For the first time in three years, Dragon Quest threes HD two D remake has been teased. Scar Yes, Finally, Squaring X has teased since HD two D remake of Dragon Quest three for the first time in the quite some

time. The publisher initially talked about this back in May one, uh and it's it is remade in the HD two D style of Octopath Traveler. However, nothing has been seen of the game since that time, leading some to wonder if it was still in development. Today, to mark Dragon Quest Day, Squaring n x pop posted a teaser video of on the official dragon Quest account on Twitter, suggesting that more information is coming. I'm trying to remember

where did this first appear? Was it at a direct? So that Nintendo direct coming up in June, which I think. I think it's notable because this had platforms on it. I don't remember if we had platforms and ounce beforehand, but is PS five, Xbox Series X and S Switch and PC what this says? Yeah, yes, so that's good news as well. Yep. And I mean, I'm pretty excited about this. I like some

dragon Quest games I've enjoyed. I don't never beaten any of them, but I really like the look of HD two D games, and I think, yeah, if we were to sit here today before this teaser happened and say what do you expect to be in that direct, this definitely would have come up, Like we definitely would have mentioned this as like, oh that makes sense. Maybe we finally see it again and now I think it's teaser all but confirms that it maybe could pop up somewhere else, but I think it's

likely in that direct. Is this one of the good games that Square Inx is going to make? Oh? Yeah, right, they've decided to start making good games. Yes, this is one that they're going to put out because they think it's actually good. Oh cool, I think so, all right. Days of Play twenty twenty four adds new PS two Classics and PSVR two games to PS plus PlayStation Plus monthly game lineup has been kicked off with a new Days of Play, which is like their occasional Like they make a

big deal out of subscribing to PlayStation Plus and it's store. It's an annual thing. It used to be a lot more interesting where they were at have limbed edition hardware to go along with the downt if they even do that anymore. But I remember by yes specific bluing gold controller when you're or something like that. Yeah, this one feels notable because, as Jesse Norris the chatpoints how they remembered PSVR two and they put some games in the PS plus for

that. Let's start here though, First with the monthly games line up for PlayStation Plus, it is getting SpongeBob, SquarePants, The Cosmic Shake, aw Fight Forever, and Streets of Rage four. I listen, I think I didn't play that SpongeBob game that's not the Bikini Bottom a Battle Bikini Bottom. People really like this is the newer one that's not quite up the snuff,

but I think it's probably fine. I like aw Fight Forever, but I would like this is the way to play it in a subscription service that's the right price for that game. And then Streets Rage four is incredible us the best beat him up of all time. I think I really do think that's the case. So more people should play that, uh than ps VR Uh. It's getting for PlayStation Plus, ghost Ghostbusters, Rise of the ghost Lord, which I completely forgot existed, Walk ghost Lords right, Rise up ghost

Lord? Uh, walk about mini golf, synth Riders before your eyes. Oh, which, man, maybe that's how I should play I should just get yeah, because it's gonna have eye tracking while in VR, right, Yes, that's why you can't do it in other VR systems. I think VR two is going to be the only way you do this right now, bud webcam and stuff. But yeah, got you don't buy a PSBR two. Dan sent you the game sent. The least he can do is send you the good Okay, I'm gonna make him send me the PSVR two.

He's not using that thing. Yeah, I think he said PSBR two as well. Yeah, all right, there we go. Uh the Walking Dead Saints and Centers Chapters one to two, which apparently those Walking Dead VR games are very popular. Yeah, Tam and I tried that out at PlayStation before the Pizier two came out. It was okay, yeah, okay, then then that's probably why they're popular. Probably decent. There was also PlayStation two titles Good Firm for PlayStation Plus. These are new like newly emulated games or

new like that. This is they were not part of previous iterations of ps two games showing up on newer PlayStation consoles. Like it's a new batch, starting with tomb Raider, Legend, Star Wars, The Clone Wars, and Sly Cooper the Phoebious Raccoonis, which, hey, that sounds like a good time to me. And then finally the following titles will be added to the PlayStation Plus game catalog Dredge, Lego, Marvel Superheroes five, Cricket twenty four,

and Grand Theft Auto San Andreas the definitive addition. Yeah, sure they improve that, right, they probably? I think they as much as you can as Yeah, I would probably still just play the original pure. I don't think the rain messes you up as bad anymore. Okay, weird, All right, let's move on here to a new Astrobot game will be revealed in weeks. It is claimed a new Astrobot game for PlayStation five could be

announced within the next fifteen days. According to prominent game leaker billbil Coud. The game is said to be simply titled Astrobot and will reportedly feature a desert environment and a new character resembling a robot, Thinnic Fox, which sounds very cute to me. The game will be released for PlayStation five. Unlike the previous full entry, It's not going to be a PlayStation VR two game. There might be some VR component, but this is a PlayStation five two D

screen game. Yeah. Hey, I've heard about this as well. It's supposed to be coming this year. I'm hoping it pops up at a PlayStation event before the end of May, which again I've heard from multiple people. But that's happening, so it'd be weird if it didn't at this point, but I guess there's always a chance that plans changed. Go till Friday. Hey, whatever, we'll see. I'll take my spanks on the bottom if

it doesn't happen. I'm fine with that now. This game, this game, I'm looking forward to it though, because all the Astrobot stuff has been good, even dating back to the PS four launch with that little you know, tech demoid thing like that was still cute at the very least, they just grew it out. Yeah, should we for maybe upf this week? If Dan is around, should we just do some head to head races with you and him? See what muscle memory has retained in Astrobot. I would

love that, all right, sorry myself, I would love that. Yes, that would be fantastic. Please, Yeah, let's do that. Okay. That was one of my favorite tagas on the internet. That's man, it's good stuff. That's basically why you got to know Dan. It's like where we first started to connect. Uh. You know, I always listen to Giant Bomb for a long time. That's where I first discovered dan uh, but yes, we started interacting because of astro. We all remember where

we first discovered dan uh huh. Everyone knows where they were. Yeah, one of the worst days of your life. I remember kind of funny had this guy on a podcast one time. I were like, this dude got married in Taco Bell. Can you believe that? No? I can't. That sounds made up. All right, it's real and he's here with us. All right, let's move along here. Nintendo is opening an official store in San Francisco next year. Hey, Jan, are you excited? Yeah?

Man, I like that Nintendo store in New York a whole bunch. Yeah, we're getting now by so much for us, dude. Oh yeah, you're screwed, dude. And now they're opening one in SF. It's yeah, it's gonna be exactly like that Nintendo store in New York. They have a couple in Japan. I know they've at least won in Japan. But yes, Hey, I don't know where this is. Have you heard about this, Jan? You'd like, do you buy any Okay, So, like what part of town this is going to be in? Union Square?

Union Square has kind of gone down the pits because of how San Francisco is mismanaged as a city and how the poverty gap is the biggest it's ever been. But I'm not going to get into that, and how my city has been fucking ruined and I will never own a home here anyway. It's it's gonna be in a very centralized part of San Francisco, very heavy on the tourist track. It's it's gonna be a very good location. And I think Nintendo is actually going to give the downtown s F area a much needed

one up. Yeah again, he did it. I hate myself. So, Okay, this is different than the Metreon shopping center that I'm in met Okay, very different, maybe a fifteen minute walk away from Okay, okay, all right, cool? Yeah, because like I think I remember there being like some there's a target at that Metrion on and I think at one point there was like a PlayStation store there. I'm like, are they just replacing the PlayStation store? But no, completely different part of town. Okay,

gotcha? Yes. Also it is near the Haunted cupcake shop that I used to work at. Oh yes, also we were a Jack in the box. No, no, yeah, but is are the cupcakes haunted or is the shop the shop Haunted. Okay, we'll get into it. Thanks for the holidays, all right. Fantastic Atari has acquired the television brand,

ending the first ever console war, which is what they said. Atari has acquired the television brand and certain games from a Television Entertainment LLC, ending what they called the first console rivalry, which dates back to the nineteen seventies. The deal does not include the Amico console, which will be continued to be

developed by in Television Entertainment under a license from Atari. The Intellivision console was released by Mattel in nineteen seventy nine and went head to head against the Atari VCS, which was later renamed the Atari twenty six hundred, starting the first ever video game console war. I like Atari. I like that they're doing this sort of thing where they're like, hey, we are going to get very into a mining of nostalgia and bringing stuff back. And they acquired Digital

Eclipse, right, and did they also get Night Dive. Yeah, they have night now, right, And so the whole idea is like, let's get these teams that are very good at knowing what to do when they have an old property or old game, and how to not even just update it, but like represent it to a new audience and let them do that, and now they have more stuff to work with. I don't think there's a ton of people clammoring for in television. But you could do a decent television

fifties like the Atari fifty and I would be all board for that. Yeah, it's disappointing that they're not getting the Amiko because that's sure clearly bread winner and all this. But Tommy Teller could get a payday from this, I don't think so. I think Tommy has been fully separated from the television entity. Okay, yeah, he's just like licensing stuff, right, he probably owes that company money on it. Tommy probably owns a lot of people.

No, But you know, Atari, I feel like a certain point we kind of clowned on them in recent times, says because it's like Atari's doing something like who the hell cares about it? Seems like modern Atari is actually like being very smart about it, a vision of something totally yeah, like Atari fifty. And then the companies that they are buying and working with, it feels like they are being run very well. Now the hotel els might actually happen now, Yeah, they're coming back. I got my Atari Hotel's

hat on a winner. I am so desperate to be there on opening night of the Atari Hotel. I can't have to see what that means. I have to see what that's like. I don't think I'm gonna get Jenny Nicholson out make a four hour video about it. I can't we have the means to get Jenny Nicholson on things. Yeah, I don't know why we haven't tapped that bridge. We will. I rest the peace to Bill Walton. Bill Walton gave me his email address once, and I'm like, I should

have had him on the voicemail dumb truck. That would have been incredible. That guy would have been ame on there. But rip, Oh my god, what if we we we send Jenny Nicholson on assignment to the Atari Hotel. I would that would be amazing? Alright, alright, let me go text. All right, a couple more story, Just one more story here? Uh no, there's another one, says Jan's news story. Okay.

First, Konami confirms Silent Hill live stream for this week. Konami has announced a second excuse me, a second Silent Heil digital showcase from May thirtieth. They're planning to like go over the stuff they've already previously announced. They probably won't have a ton of new announcements, but they still haven't released Silent Hill to remake Silent Hill Townfall and Silent Hill f So I'll probably see all that stuff and then maybe a new season of that Silent Hill YouTube interactive show.

Got I want to get on board on. We need to do a film on forties of that. Oh, that'll do u. And then yeah, real quick, yeah, there's that twenty five piece great deco Diku Deku tree set from the legend from Leo. Yeah, that looks fantastic and it looks really really good. It does absolutely fantastic. All right, Jan, I'm handing the show back over to you, but for a news story. Apparently, yes, I have a news story here, ladies, gentlemen, and

nb's the live show is happening June ninth. Tickets available on ticket Master just search for Giant bomb breaking News Here. We can announce a new guest that'll be there. This is a big get, folks, because one let me just do this, Brad Shoemaker, We'll be there, Brad Shoemaker, we have a seat for you on this couch, sir, and we will be graced to have bread Shoemaker on the giant bomb couch. Big Get, folks, Get. I'm very excited. I'm very excited. I've been excited for

the live show and everything, but I'm one I got. Once I got that confirmation, i started feeling the tingle. It breaks the whole thing together. It feels like, I can't wait. It's gonna be a good time. Yeah, you want to you won't want to miss it. And then I'm like, then I'm thinking like the stuff that Dan's doing and in between segments, which is like gonna be harmless to everybody, but it's like it could be really fun. So I'm like, he'll probably have some ideas for

Brad. Now, all your favorites will be there. It's it's gonna be a good time. And hey, the Nasty Boys have a segment on the couch. Not at the live show, but maybe the King of the Nasty Boys will will have an instrumental part in the live show. Shout out. It's gonna be some good stuff. It's gonna be some amazing stuff. And I'm very very happy to see Brad there later get your tickets now Ticketmasters.

Search for a giant bomb there and you'll be able to get your tickets for the bell Weather, which is what bell Weather, bell Weather, bell Weather, bell Weather. There's also vip uh tickets available as well. It's gonna be a good grand time. And oh god, I got I got the goosebumps, y'all. The hair is standing on the back of the next. I can't wait to see Brad you heard me, you heard Okay, now

go away working out so much he's gotten multiple next now yo. Oh man, I'm so glad I stopped taking the creatine before I went backpacking because the creatine has just been liquefying my guts. And when you got the coffee, when you when you gotta like dig up a hole to go number two in the woods, folks. That does it for news. Thank you, Jeff Grubb. Beautiful selection. I can't wait to see everyone's lovely faces on on June ninth at the bell Weather bell Weather. You got it bell Weather ding

Ding ding Ding folks, And we're gonna take another quick freaking break. We'll be back with some emails and what we learned see after this podcast. Johnbomb dot com is the email address to send your emails too, and read any and everything that you send there, whether it's your daily list, your musings, Miscellini's questions, coupon codes, newsletters you signed us up for. I subscribe from all of them because it clutters up my own personal mailbox, and

lord knows mine is already cluttered. I welcome everything, and folks, I just want to give this quick special shout out to you listening at home. We've got a lot of emails, not with any specific questions or whatever, but just saying, hey, love the show. Start being a new listener about a year or so ago, so I appreciate you. If Jeffy Backler allows it, give you a kiss on the cheek, oh shit, And then here's another on the cheek. It's the other cheek. I mean most

of us have fort cheeks, you know what I'm talking about. But we're not gonna kiss those cheeks. What do you have to do to get Janet binaural microphone set up? So we should not get me that like the ear shaped one. You can lick them and everything. Jan SMR. There's something there. No, No, I can't don't. You can't do it for free? Is what you're saying, the only chance, the only chance. Yeah, let me tell y'all those links are out there. No they're not,

they're switch no joking, no goof He's now, that's right. The creator to Break Money Breakdown is much better at fans exactly. I'm not on there either, guys. Yeah, but hey, if there's an appetite for that. Uh. First email comes from Pocono Paul. This one's about side gigs, dear bombers. On a recent BombCast, Mike made an offhand choke

wanting to grab some billable hours before leaving on a trip. This got me thinking about the crew's very side hustles and how everyone except Janetchoa seems to have one. Dan Record has Fire Escape Cast, Giant Bomb Is, Mike Manatti's, and Jeff Grubb has so many that is hard to tell where the side hustles and the main hustle begins. But jan Jan doesn't seem to have any

side hustle that he's willing to admit publicly. This has inspired me to think about what side hustle would be good a good fit for each member of the crew. The following is what I came up with for y'all. Jeff Backlar Jeff Backlar is the vape king of New Jersey. His Facebook marketplace store isn't limited to the finest of Chinese vapes available with no age verification. He also sells faux gold change in both plus and asterisk styles. Right with spokes versus

Joe Piscopo. I don't even know what he means by asterisk styles. Jeff Grub Grub earns extra spending money working as an exotic dancer. The club he works out out of does it have a license for fully nude entertainment. So Jeff keeps a classy with a gold sequin g string that shines like a disco ball. His stage name is That's Right, That's right, Dan Riker. Dan Riker is big into backyard circus. He mainly performs at children's birthday parties.

That's why Dan has such an aversion to children because of side hustle. It's like work, yes exactly. He doesn't want to give up the ghosts and you know I have people find out. Yeah, I can't be around children for free. Yeah. His action of him in full ring master regalia leading five trained Pomeranians through various tricks like jumping through hoops and balancing on balls. For some reason, he also has a giant snake that he hauls around in a gray plastic tote. This is Dan, That's just Dan. Mike

Menatti. In his spare time, Mike Manatti works as a corrections officer at the local prison. I have this theory that Mike actually has a powerful personal presence that he cuts quite an intimidating figure until he opens his mouth and starts talking about Disney So on the weekends without saying much, Mike works part time as a CEO, shaking down cells and fire hosing dudes. Poke and O, Paul, you got that one hundred percent right, didn't Yeah, that's

Cheff helped me out here. Didn't that happen once where Mike was like mistaken for security at bar and they started talking and they're like, oh, wait a minute, that sounds familiar. I think he told that story. Yeah, I think so. Let's I'm not going to answer this. Who are you? Uh Janna show? At first, I was thinking of something more nefarious for Jan, like black market denim smuggler, But then the perfect side

hustle for him occurred to me. A YouTube cooking show. I know this idea has been flooded many times before, but the version I imagine comes with a personal twist cooking shows. Cooking show hosts will often fill dead air by telling a personal anecdote tangentially related to the dish they're preparing. Jan does the same, but rather than being boring and forced, Jan's pre ran anecdotes become increasingly bizarre and funny as a show progresses. Hey, let me tell you

that's my whole im baby. This way, he can tell his audience about the time his trip to the local municipal playground ended with him punching a baby bear in the face, all the while narrating this test to make the perfect sushi roll. Anyway, That's why I came up with I'm curious to what you think would make a good side hustle. Sincerely, Poke and O Paul. PS. I'm available to help Jan write his cooking show, but part of my fee is that Dan must develop and act and perform it at a

Rollblocks themed birthday party in my backyard. I should warn him that I don't have any kids, but it will be okay because it'll just be me there and we'll work through the awkwardness together. Yeah, that's good. I want, Like, if I was gonna have a side hustle, I a hassle, I would probably want to do something like working outside. And I'm like trying to think of something that's like not gonna be too skill intensive, but something no one wants to do, and I could charge a lot of money

for, so, like cleaning out gutters. I would clean out gutters for like a side gig. I think because like I could like put on a podcast and just zone out or a book on tape or something like that and just do the work and be done and then get a big check at the end. That sounds good to me. Yeah, I could see you. It was it hard work. Yeah, I want hard work, is what I Yes, totally, I could see you realigning satellite dishes on people that still have satellite dishes at home. Yes, the old people. Yes,

that's that's what I'm going for here, the old people. A lot of money that's going after. I was thinking this while I just we're doing a lot of driving or the weekend, I was thinking this, just mowing lawns are riding lawnmower, like working at a landscaping company and doing that. I feel that would be a good way of past time. Again. You just put on those like noise canceling headphones kind of just listen to a podcast and

just go up and down for like a hour or so. Like, I feel it'd be hard to have that company and not like grow it really fast because you're like, you get more business, You're like, well, I guess now I got to hire people. Now suddenly I'm running a small business. And I mean, I guess that's not a bad problem to have, but it's like it could get out of hand fast, I would think. But if you're really good, then you just become the guy everyone comes to

and you're in high demand. So it's just like I need some cashy open booking, let's go. Yeah, I've thought speak about side hustles I and you know, Sean, you kind of like rattled my brain with this, But I do miss talking to shoot people in person. I've thought about picking up weekend shifts at like a coffee shop or something here in a SF, But then I was like, then I have to work, but I like talking to people and I like making coffee. So then I think I'm me

and a homie. We we did ninety percent of the work of starting a pop up. May maybe we'll pop Okay, yeah, I would do some poppy up. Said that up on stage at GB at night. So I can get a coffee when I need one. Oh, Jeff Grub, I'll get you a coffee whenever you want, buddy, Hell yeah, you know what I do. Want to give gifts to the crew. I'll give everyone the good instant coffee. Oh hell yeah, Okay, that sounds good. Sean, and I'll mail you want don't thank you, Dory uh oh god,

Okay, it's so funny. Michael Hym and I have had several pre pro meetings about revitalizing our podcast that only had two episodes. I think it's still on Spotify somewhere. Hell but Spotify messed up the upload and my really good jay Z imitation got muted out, so I think it was too good. I think jay Z tried to clap at your boy is what it was? No competition, U okay boy ows two more emails, but thank you everyone to send an email into the show. I appreciate all of them.

This one comes from Joe from New York. Jan last episode, you said that Nipple DLC has gone away. You're absolutely wrong about that. You're just not playing the right games. Well I'm here quick. PSA for the listeners. Just because your deodorant says seventy two hours doesn't mean you don't have to shower for three days. Jesus Christ, please bathe regularly brush your teeth to love Joe from New York, brought to you by CARLS Junior. How is

the smell at Combo Breaker? Rick had to put out a tweet basically saying, for the love of God, people shower and wear deodorant because, let me tell you, vast majority of people great, you know, like, well captain, it doesn't take a lot to undo that exactly. Just wash your ass, put some deodorant on, and you're fine. But there's always like one person in, you know, a crowd of like a couple hundred, one person walks by. We all get away, and it's like,

what were you doing? What? What has been happening doing? What? Who aren't you doing? Is more important? Yeah? Oh god? Yeah, that's that's the one thing I don't like about going outside. Sometimes it smells people smells grub packs west out we're outside. I couldn't visualize it perfectly because of yeah, the scent memory. Yeah yeah, and you just get a breeze rolls by, and then the gentleman in front of us. It became readily apparent that this man did not shower. Mm hmm, are white

properly? Yeah? Please, for the love of God, wash your hands it. Don't be afraid of your Yeah, yeah, don't be afraid of that. But yeah, words to love by. That's the lesson here. The community. The panels never smelly, and those are always great. You guys are great. Yeah, we're talking about the other the kind of funny panels stink that's from the panel themselves as wild. Yeah, exactly, Wow, Wow, like Greg Miller's dirty beard. Say that about blessing or snow

Black Mica. Nah, they're great, they're great. Yeah, yeah, they're great. They're great. Jane, if I can find the video of you and Mike singing that Lincoln Park song with jay Z, can I put that on the behind the scenes Discord channel? Yes, yes, yes, because my favorite part about that is our good old friend part of the Nasty Boys Moists Tavera saying, Jared, you could say it, I give you the whole past to get him like no, No, I'm not gonna say

you're not allowed. No, all right. Last email comes from Cooper from Santase Hey Cooper, Uh hey, folks. The other day I was talking to my partner and said, I ended up working myself into a shoot. I've never seen a single piece of wrestling media, nor ever had an interest in wrestling. I learned this from you. You've bridged the gap between wrestling fans and mainstream society and now have to live with the knowledge of that wrestling

jargon is just part of my vocabulary. Damn you Wall Cooper from San Jose, Your Damn Dan reicher really, Yeah for being fair. Damn Jeff Jarrett really because he allowed us. Uh huh, yeah, he gave it. He gave us the hall pass. Yeah, yes, yes, that I'm completely fine to say, folks. We got a short week because a Memorial Day, and I'm assuming it is business as per usual this week. Game mess probably Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. Grab Yep, that sounds right to

me. And I believe Mike Manette Naughty is back in town. And unless Dan reichert is terribly destroyed physically, which is always a possibility, possibility should pop back up tomorrow, Voicemail dumb Truck on Thursday. We'll figure out if we're doing another stream on Thursday in between game Mess and Voicemail dumb Truck on professional Fridays. And we're hoping for the return of BCR. Folks, We're trying real hard. It's just we're we're all spinning so many plates here at

Giant Bomb hq U. There is a little bit difficult. Are we all caught up on next min ninety seven? Now? Oh, I've not finished it, but I will. All right, Maybe homework for the end of the week, you and me, Jeff, that sounds good. Oh god, maybe may we get to the fin man Okay that yeah, okay, okay, Oh my god, like as as like amic book nerd like this is just like and hey, you know, maybe this whole time the X Men were better than the Avengers. Oh oh yeah yeah yeah. Uh Chef

Sean, yep. What do we learned today? Oh? I can't wait. We learned that yo? That can we over there? She doing? Thanks? We learned that if a line pops up in front of a Dunkin Donuts to meet a creator. A producer of Tekan Haradusan he'll gladly sign everything, but maybe give him a donuts as a fun, little little thank you. We didn't learn what tampons are for, and we're still figuring that out. We're still on that quest. Maybe sometime we'll find a friend to help

us there. Graffiti just isn't the same, like gun and whips exist, and hey, maybe you shouldn't be afraid of your butt. Go ahead and watch it, especially if you're gonna see a bunch of people. And you can see a bunch of people, including the Brad Shoemaker at givet Bomb Live Gie Bomb at night June nine at the bell Weather Tick thro Veil. Now you can go meet us there, go meet Jeff Grubb. Yeah, tickets are available. We're giving stuff away at the show. I'll be glad to

see you. I'll give you in the kiss in the cheek. Maybe I won't, but I'll shake your hand. I'll charge your crystals for you, and uh and Mike Manatti will be there, and I hate that I gave him the and again I hate that I gave him away. With Mike Manatti, the Nasty Boys will be making appearance, and I hope you also make an appearance. Tickets available now Ticketmaster, dot com search Giant Bomb. I've been Jan, he's been Jeff, he's been Sean, and I exactly play

this again. I'm gonna change this setting on my gogsler. There you go. That's it. We'll be back with another episode of the Giant BombCast next week. Until then, take care of yourselves. I love you, bye. Happy birthday, Bailey, A birthday Baill Yeah, that's the other thing. Happy belated birthday to our own Turbo Sean and a happy birthday to Bailey Myers. We'll see you next week. Maybe maybe we'll have like a little

birthday party stream this week day on Women's Day, Women's Day. About about my HM