864: NO MIZ NO MIZ

Hey, everybody, it's October twenty ninth, twenty twenty four. Welcome to the Giant BombCast, Episode eight hundred and sixty four powered Bye NZXT. I'm your host, chan Shoa. Feeling the spooky season in full. That's right. I let the horrors and demons inside of me go outside and now I'm ready to consume candy and scare people. Speaking about scaring people, he's scaring people with how gosh.

Dang handsome he is.

Look at that hair, look at that jaw, Look at that beautiful.

Smile in those piercing eyes. Jeff Grubb. Oh, thank you so much, my sweet little pumpkin boy. Jianna Scholla, I am happy to be here. I got off of my big bean bag just to come here and do this show, and I don't regret it, not for a second.

We got the bean Bag of Producers, And if you're wondering what that means, I'm also wondering what that means. But he's he's full of it, and he's full of hard work, he's full of youth, he's full of energy. The human, the human bean Bag of Producers, Turbo Shaan Sean McDowell, Oh, I.

Thought you were going to Mike. You're going to me first? Shit, Yeah, I know he's a producer. I'm like, what's the mic do around here? What are you talking about?

Hi?

Hi, Turbo Dad, Happy Birthday? He's going, wow, Nor really, Turbo Granny. That's that's a different things.

That's a very different thing. You want to keep that separate.

And we got the Turbo Granny of the website.

That's right.

He's he's haunting ghost tunnels, he's biting off parts of bodies. He's he's possessing people. Mike, don't actually do that. I don't want to. This is an anime character. You don't want to look up the history of We got the bad Boy of games Media from Games b Mike Man's is this.

Another anime character that will depress me?

For a whole wikibo about Turbo Granny.

Let's not gonna not gonna depress you. But it was from Dan to Dan. It's a new anime, Dan to Dan, Dan dud Dan.

Yeah, it's kind of like Dan to Dan, Like I was just pictured like like a ninety sick day, like Dan too Damn like dance like finds his twin brother, like the one's like whacky the other dance like, ah, this gosh.

He's not here and this does remind me of thing. It was like, uh, I know the Statute of Limitations are up on this because it's been a while since you guys were in Germany. But he clearly many times heard Deutsche Land and in his head he's just like Dutch, Dutch Land, and so when he brought up like, oh, they they speak Dutch there, I'm like, it's no, it's not exactly the same thing as Dutch and Deutsch. They're different words. But uh I never yelled at them for

You were still thinking about him not knowing what was going on in Germany, and.

That that one, that one took up a president. That one was more important.

We I know, every time we've talked about the game awards or like getting together in Los Angeles, I've talked about we should go to a batting cage, we should go to top golf.

I think we should go to a museum with Dan.

Yeah, no, or why would you do that to me?

Jan Sean. You have to experience everything. You know you're gonna see, you're gonna get your your your palate wet by hanging out with these two hooligans and then two rekers.

Right you see, Okay, hang on, Jack, You see. The thing is when the three of us are together, me and Mike overpower a grub like. I know, Grubb's a strong personality, but at least some common sense is brought to the room. I can't do that with Dan in a museum, man.

No, it's fine, it's fine. Bailey might be there and she could yell that.

Does What would the funniest museum be to take Dan to? He might actually like the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures.

Yeah, there's a hammer museum. What Oh, I don't think it's actually about hammers. Ship Los Angeles museums, folks keep it to that. Yeah, there's a natural history museum, which are always a great time.

I love that.

That's probably my favorite genre of museum. Uh, yeah, for sure.

Yeah. They usually have like a skeleton of an older human being or something like that. I like that.

I already went to the LaBrea tar Pits with him. He just talked about uh Last Action Hero, the entire hero, Yes, which was fun.

Did we take Dan to the Hall of Presidents in Disneyland.

No, so it's in Disneyland. It's not in Disneyland.

Disneyland just has great most of mister Lincoln, which is also good.

It'd be funny. I think he'd just be bored.

I don't know exactly.

I think you just would it and like it.

Uh.

Yeah.

We did take them to the Liberty of Tarpets because it was super close to the office. You refuse to go. It was my birthday and I said, I.

Want you all to take me to the tarpits and Jeff and did went and Jay was like, I'm not going.

I was busy take care of business and described to Jeff backlar what Arawan was sure.

Oh thank god, Godie's after my birthday is here? Oh thank god.

Yeah right, it's still gonna be kind of.

Yeah.

The threat of a cake is always looming, you know, scares us all.

They just bring the wig and you could just make a normal cake in my face and I'll put the wig on it. I still have this for some reason.

Put the captizing.

Shouts out to uh the baker. I forget her name and her Instagram account, but do you think now at this point she may have made a mold of Mike's face just.

Like annually in December, I'm just going to do this from now on.

Preemptively starts making one in like September October. Boys, I got a I got something that I discovered yesterday during game as Mornings. Yeah, and this is Sean you were you were present in the chat? Yes, right? Did y'all know famic Coms?

Yo?

What a good name? Names like this? What is the switch?

Even? What's a Wee?

What's a super Nintendo? Give glass?

He left out with you because that's so obvious and self explained.

That's like the Wee University. That's where we go to learn, because it's like.

And then yet I.

Do like the idea of like primarily thinking of something like the n as a computer, which of course they are, and at the eighties, like you know, people still would like things like the Conderact before they were computers. Atari was like a computer company, you know, along with games and whatnot, and like yeah, starting with the nes it was like these are kind of a separate thing.

Actually the reason was in Japan they actually did have a lot of applications for it that we never got, Like to your tax you do or something is you could like I think pay bills electronically, h horse betting. I remember it was an app that they had then, you know.

That, you know that was all market positioning, right, like you can we talked about all the time where it's like you can make someone convince themselves to buy something if you give them the story of like, here's what

Right because back then, you know, having a computer in your home was the ideal, and the thought of having you know what would have been at the time, like a two hundred dollars or whatever a computer in your home was extremely appealing to people.

And in America, they it was like a much different market reality where it's like the Apple two had already kind of really won over a lot of people, and so it was like, we're not going to be able to tell people this is a computer, so what do we tell them it's a toy that you know, a robot that comes with a little thing over here, like a control box or whatever.

That's why they because they needed to mark it as something I wasn't. Hey remember the Atari, like you know crash No no, no, no, no no, this isn't one of those. This isn't one of those.

Is really just like an abbreviation slash shortening of service games.

Yeah, yeat as less.

Fun hawaii I believe as a Yeah, yeah, they made a variety of games.

I think Capcom is short for Capsule Communicator. I thought computers. Yeah, that's the NASA short ning. So I made a joke. I'm sorry. I thought Micha would get it because we both listened to that same book.

Yeah, very good.

His thoughts again?

All right, you do like the name?

My brother would en whenever we would like beat a Mega Man game, usually because we use game Genie, and then like the Capcom like logo would like come up from the end of the credits would be.

Like Capcom cap Com.

Did we go run around our parents screaming Capcom at them and they'd be like, we're scared.

Stop Jane. I get sometimes having those you know, phoenix down moments. It was I was probably a teenager, not like late teens, but like early teens when I realized that the reason that Pika choose ours nemesis in the TV shows me out is because Cat and Mouse, right, Like, it took me a long time to catch on that. So sometimes you have those moments, you know.

I listen, folks, I have those moments every single day. You add a little bit of whimsy in your life. Don't learn anything, but learn things. That's the giant bomb motto. How's everyone else doing? You know you celebrate Halloween early or yeah we are?

This weeknd's out trigger treating in Finley, Ohio, And it was really really pretty because you know, tree lined streets and they were all turning colors and it was just like it made me want to play Costume Quest real bad, which running out of time to do that on the website, but I don't know, maybe I'll take an evening one of these nights and play that because it was just like reminded me of that and that's a really fun

It was, yeah, how many.

We saw like one minion.

That's good, you know what?

We did see one bean. We saw one big like inflatable costume that has the active cooling flowing the fan in and they were a bean from Fall Guys.

Not among Us, not among us.

A little girl, a little girl was like, it's among us and the bean stopped, turned around said I'm from Fall Guys.

Eye.

I was like, oh, that's an angry bean. Yeah, but it was that that the kids like that because they have never played Fall Guys. But it looks like a meap, so I'm like, oh, yeah, we should try that.

When Jeff said, Bean, what was the first thing that came into your mind?

Guys?

I thought first mister Bean and then killer Bean in that order.

Sure, Taylor, Oh god, last year.

I think I mentioned this last year, but last year, when I was passing out candy, there was a kid dressed up as Joe Dirt and only one that understood what he was exactly. Why r what nine year old is going to dress up as Joe Dirt? American David Spades? And then like I look at the I look at the dead. I asked, like, did you dress him up as Joe there? It's like, no, he came across the movie and really likes it.

He was he was browsing crackle.

Oh actually probably huh like services is Joe Dirt a wholesome movie moments?

Right, No, there's a part where he makes that lady pretend to be his sister while they.

Yeah, right, there's a whole incest subplot. Right, it's not like the right, the pest is fine, right, as I think.

There's some problematic uh dressing up as Asian people in the beginning of the movie. But yeah, maybe in the first five minutes after that.

All little movies maybe haven't aged all the time.

Yeah, turns out, uh, oh right, friends, we're we're you're, we're all in store for Spooky Weeker at GB dot com. We're gonna, you know, do some spooky things as time permits.

I'm gonna do my thing.

I'm gonna do my thing. But in the meantime, let's talk about video game now. I refuse.

You can't make me all right, bye, Felicia.

Yep, get out of here.

Don't.

Actually it's gonna make it's right there, Come on there.

All right, change my mind?

I play?

Thank you.

There was a new Black Op six, and I've downloaded a portion of it because I was very confused as to what to download and whether or not I should download.

What's wrong with you?

Get it from Steam where they don't give you a choice. They don't. It was does you do.

What is wrong with the olds? At this site? It's a checklist, just check the things you want.

I didn't. I got a check list after I installed it. Yeah, but I Steam three hundred but I did installed three hundred and sixteen gigabytes first, and it was like all my drives are uh huh No, that's.

Like every other Steam game. You unchecked the things you don't want because you got all the DLC.

Yeah, okay, so that's how every game works. Okay. So if I would have gone into the the DLC option on the properties and everything says DLC now, so like Black like Modern Warfare two would have been listened as DLC there.

Yeah, that's probably why that was huge, is yeah Black opps like.

It installed it all. Yes, it installed every single thing that that is in that launcher, and then I just went in afterward in the app itself and de selected some things.

Mostly the Xbox app is weirdly good because it gives you a checklist before it's like these are that's what I'm expecting, and yes, and I like that system that worked really well when I used that in the past, and I was like expecting that here even though and I'm like, I don't remember Steam doing that, so Didnyone occurred to me that would credit to the console players, because if what Nicky showed us that one time, it's

That's messed up.

But at least they made it better.

I like, it just installed the two things for me. But it was annoying because I think this, like the single player game is the one that's actually a separate executable. So he opened the Call of Duty app, I select the campaign. Then it like force closes that app and opens up the different one, and I'm okay, yes, network from there, I try to play multiplayer.

So I clicked that.

It closed that app and then just never actually opened the multiplayer app and then it will never open again.

So I actually haven't played multiplayer yet.

Yeah, So it's that the campaign is a separate app. It is at least smart that the primary thing is the Black Ops six multiplayer, because that's one of the most people launched the game. Yeah, but I also updated the UI. Do you guys find the UI better in the cod app?

At least oh I do. Yeah, I wasn't immediately like furious. Yeah, looking at it.

You launched into war Zone. It's still that absolute god awful mess, but at least not when you watch the Call Duty app. It's like, do you want to play Black Ops six Modern Warfare three or war Zone? And then other stuff is over here.

It's so the thing though, where it's like okay, there's like on the screen. It was like my three options where Black Op six Campaign, Black Ops six multiplayer, or war Zone. So I click campaign but then it just opens a separate thing where I have three options of Black Op six Campaign, Black Ops six Multiplayer, Black Ops six zompies.

I was like, it's not good, But like I said, I'm not immediately furious that ways was looking at the Call of Duty app in the past. So that's that's nice. At least they're improving somewhat. Hey, that's that's Call of Duty and Call of Duty it feels good, right, it's I played probably an hour and a half of the multiplayer. I got to level seven or something like that. I

It feels good. Yeah, it still feels good. The big Black Ops six multiplayer hasn't blown me away because if you have been keeping up with the series, which I don't play every single one, but like I've mentioned on the show before, me and my friends hopped into Modern Warfare three because it was in some ways an old MW two remake in a lot, you know, in presentation because all the maps, guns and everything like that, it

Which is a very realistic. I might say I tried it. It turns out you don't sprint as fast when you're going like.

I could side step so quick like a crab. Man.

It is weird.

Is your do your hips not completely turn independent of where you're facing as you run like a ken dole or whatever, backwards like an owl but only with my ass? Uh?

Cool though, because it's like you can sprint in any direction, you can also like do the you can do direction well we paint it.

That's more interesting because running in a direction actually feels kind of weird if you're used to having like I'm used to moving a direction stops my sprint and so it sort of like stops you dead. Some of my play style revolves around that. So it's been a little weird. The diving in a direction school because you can quickly

That right, we're deep into the Madden upgrade.

Second, Yeah, pretty much.

Here's the truck stick that was cool, right now, here's the hit stick, and here's QB vision that was you guys want that, And it's like we're there with.

But if you haven't played it a long time, you know it's fun. I find the maps to be pretty good. I still prefer Infandy Ward's maps over Trey Arcs in general. I always have yeah, so, but it still feels good to play.

Yeah. I when I when I get to a map that I'm like, oh, I have played this a little bit in one of these games before. It must have been one of the previous Tree Arch games. I guess I don't know where these maps are coming from. I'm like, oh, okay, and I remember some of the stuff and I start poking around like oh yeah. Once I learned the maps,

They have simplified from why I think MW simplified free Boot. Yes, was the one that had the issues of like how do I unlock everything? I need to use guns over here in order to unlock something for the current gun, what the hell is going on? It is back to like traditional leveling, so it's easier to understand.

I think My big takeaway at this point though, with Call of Duty overall, like at a high level, is there was a time when these games each felt like they had their own voice because it was Trey Arc or Infinity War, and that is just that I don't see.

Did you like the parade of developers when you open the game up that that they show, right, like all the people who work on it, and it's like, you know, of course it's Trey Arc and what Raven first, right, and it's like and here's like the fifteen other ones. Even Infinity War kind of help on this starts like all the stars are here.

Oh yeah, because a lot of their tech is in here. Now I actually don't know the engine if it's the new IW engine. So yeah, yeah, the game.

The games are too big that they don't have a choice anymore exactly.

I think maybe more interesting is to talk about the stuff outside of multiplayer, because people are kind of talking about the campaign a lot right now.

Yeah to the campaign. So I'm curious about this. What is the TTBC.

Time to tell Bill Clinton? Yes, Oh, I'm still so like, I'm like, I think I'm still in the Bush administration where I am in it right now.

I haven't seen Clinton. Excuse you, sir, Yeah, I've been born yet.

Mike in the game, but by the time the game is going.

Oh god, what year were you born?

Ninety one?

Oh, I think I'm like around that.

It could be a mission very clear that it's in the nineties out I think it's nebulous.

That's like long legs.

Yeah, I do like that ninety stuff, right, because that's fine because I was say, I remember the nineties, I was there gandolf.

You know, it's fun because I have not.

Played a Call of Duty campaign and a long time. I think the last one I really played was Advanced Warfare, the Kevin Spacey one Slash the Press.

You miss You wouldn't missed a game with Kevin Spacey, of course.

No, right, So yeah, you know it is kind of fun playing. He's like, oh yeah, these are very spiffy. You can't see the money being put into these things. They are very flashy. They definitely feel good to play, and you know, there's still kind of a simplicity to it, right, Like you know, I think people will kind of explain them as gallery shooters, and that is kind of what it does feel like a lot of time, even though there's a stealth mission, right and it's like, Okay, that's neat.

You know.

It does still feel ultimately kind of simple for me, and I think that's fine. I think this is kind of you know, popcorn munchin Call of Duty campaign stuff. Part of it is me just realizing, yeah, maybe like military aesthetic. Is it my favorite biome for videocames? Right, you know, like just kind of running around you know, war torn places and stuff like, you know, okay, this person has a and put your people dancing and it's a piece of shit.

I'm like, yeah, it's all gross.

I agree.

Fun. So have you not gotten to the by way I misspoke, Governor Clinton? Sorry, you haven't gotten to bill at all yet? You haven't seen that level?

No, I've done like the first three levels I've done, so okay, nothing's super crazy far it.

Well, right, but I'm saying you haven't gone to that

It's simple, it's open zone. It's very inspired by Sonic Frontier exactly.

You run the circles. It's like a kind of a big map it's sort of like, hey, remember that crappy thing they did for Modern War for three. It's kind of like that. And so there's a good variety in the campaign I'm enjoying so far. Even if you know the uh, the political intrigue and everything like that, it's seen through the divisor of you know, US military and everything.

It's it's whatever, right, there's an evil paramilitary group or something, and it's the government might.

Be involved, you guys like ever because I'm a dad and an older gentleman like top.

Plenty is what you want to say, Like, I've really playing right October.

It's like I could watch that movie like fifty times. Does it rise to that level?

So?

But curly on and also so there's a lot of returning characters from that Black Ops universe, and that means nothing to me, right, I played Black Ops one. I think if the threads don't tingle.

So I played most Call of Duty campaigns. I think where I fell off was with Vanguard, just because I can't stand you know, World War two stuff at this point, or World War one and whatever.

World War two. It's the ship I wish more games.

I had that I was in a talk about musical acts for something, and I was like, I know the gamer wrapper. I stop myself from.

Saying, yeah, so I've only missed Black Ops Cold War, and immediately starting the campaign, I'm like, what are any of these people talking about it? Like this is Black Ops six and like if you miss the last one, you'll like catch up on like, oh, this person failed a mission, so they're game in trouble. This person did this thing wrong, so they're troubled this way. But yeah, I have no idea what they're talking about, the game, but they.

Starts with the same framing devices PERSONA five. It's an interrogation, not wrong.

But then yeah, and then the last thing is the zombies mode. Me and my friends fired that up last night, you know, spooky time Halloween.

That's good.

You know what. I got tired of cod zombies way back in the day, especially when they tried to do like Aliens in uh was it infinite warfare?

That's not zombies?

Then yeah, are yeah whatever? Why are that a ghost ghosts where they did Aliens? That's good, you know it is. It does. I don't know if God Zombies has gone other places since, because I haven't played it since back in the day. But it does feel like just a more refined version of well you played probably in Black Ops Wonder whatever, if you're like me, you know, back in like your high school and college years playing zombies

All right, Maybe we'll we'll we'll dig up some zombies and play Black Op six on the website, if not this week, very soon. A lot of stuff popping off this week. Yeah, speaking about a game being played on this website, we played Echo Point Nova last week, fantastic first person shooter Jesus Christ. The movement absolutely insane and shouts out to be able to flip by just wiggling your mouse around.

Yep. Yeah, it was like when I was trying to figure that, I'm like, because dam I's doing on the right Segma, how does this working? Then I was like, oh, I clicked, Like oh if I just moved the mouse forward. I'll just do awesome front flips hell yeah. Yeah, yeah. The game has agility orbs. I kind of feel like you don't need to say much more than that, right, like like it has all like an awesome move set, Like I love a game that has a great move set.

And I really like in the multiplayer how you know, there's four of us and we could kind of run around do our own thing. And as soon as somebody finds a combat arena or something where you know, maybe all of us want to be there, you just open the map.

You click on that person, you tell when they're right away. So it's just very easy.

Yep.

Yeah, And I like that progression was completely separate. So Dan was able to like double grapple hook around, and he had a couple more jumps than us, and then I gained the ability to double grapple hook and there's it scratches that Spider Man two itch or that Spider Man itch where I never want to touch the ground. I just want to keep wall riding. And if you get on your hoverboard, you can go. You can wall ride vertically completely up a surface or a silo. It's great.

We're put in the same sentence as Titan Fall two.

Yeahah oh yeah, yeah yeah. I there's an editor in the game that after we dipped out of the game, I checked out for a bit. It's kind of bonkers, and I feel like if the Echo Point Nova community gets behind it and it kind of reaches some some creators that are into map building, you can make some very interesting obstacle courses, which which is incredibly enticing. Get

Yeah, would that like be they want to keep a Fortnite broadly approachable, so we would like complicating the movement even more if be something that they would want. But say, I don't know that that audience just tends to figure out whatever they give to them, So I think it would be fine. Yeah, that'd be cool. But in Fortnite, why not?

Would you all want to see like a like a PvP and Echo Point Nova.

No, sure, I think this game's good at something already and they should elaborate on that.

I don't know. I think, you know, adding like a PvP could like generate some more interest in the game or whatever, just so so it picks up more steam.

Sure, I could see how you can just kind of battle Royality TV.

Right, you could turn on PvP, but it's not like a I mean like a team death team death match shooter in a setup map or something like that.

Oh what would it be then?

Is it just like friendly fires on or I think, yeah, you can like hunt each other down or something like that.

Yeah, it's like duels in the world of warcraft.

Yeah, right, that that point of reference that we all get totally, totally.

If anything, if they don't want to do it like a straight up team death match, they should do a capture the flag in this game.

That's that could be fun.

To capture the flag comes back.

I missed that.

I miss me too.

Yeah, remember kind of hurt hurt my heart a little bit that people were just too wasn't really mostly about capture the flag.

It was like every other kind of mo took off instead of that.

I was like, huh, you guys capture the flag in real life, like at a camp or something. Yeah.

Yeah, Me and my friends all played it in the woods with water balloons.

It was great.

We me and my team went on this awesome excursion to get the enemy flag, and we took a roundabout way back to our base, which my brother aj was defending with our flag. We waded through a creak up to our waist. So we got there and found out that he went home with our flag because it was dinner time.

We're very mad at it.

Hell, at least bring it to the enemy base.

And oh yeah, yes, you did a cart mid Screw you guys.

I'm going home.

I speaking about going home. Uh, Jeff Grubb is going home to the bank, because well, are you currently number one on the second speed run level?

No, no, Sambo nice of the community's got me beat by a little bit, and then uh, Jesse beat me by five one thousands of a seconds. I'm gonna get back in there at some point. I've not had much time. I'm like consistently now, so it's like it's it's basically impossible doing anything lower than like a thirty five point two, but most people are in like thirty five point three at the very top of the leader boards. We're all

It's probably what I'm missing. Like I was grinding this for a bit and I think I have one thirty five point six. I have a point six. But then like grinding for hours, I was just getting point seven point eight every time, and I was kind of getting a little bit ore. It's like, man, I just can not get past this point seven consistency. And it was very consistent, but yeah, it was. It was getting three bit. It was a fun level, but yeah, you probably had me beat on this one also, Jeff.

Yeah, I don't like this level nearly as much as the first one, so ill that I've heard that as well. Yeah, I you know, I tried rynding for a little bit after we did the invitation all that day and I kind of kept getting worse. So I was like, you know what, I'm gonna b this level. I think I'll I'll wait for two weeks from now when we do the next invitational.

I'm beating Dan.

What's important.

That's what's important. That's what's important. Speaking about grinding, I'm very excited to start grinding in this. I just got to remember what tier of PlayStation Plus I have or just wait for Friday, because Mike Manatti, you have dipped into the open beta for Monster Hunter Wilds and I can't wait to start grinding in this.

All right, how do I get into this?

So this is if you have PlayStation Plus whatever that is, I bought that.

Oh yeah, that's very important. Which tier I don't have any.

More? Like Creamium? All right, I'm sorry, that's a that's a timin Eeric reference. Okay, where do I go here? I don't know.

I couldn't find it. I just like, I think I searched for Monster Hunter in the store or something.

I can't thank you.

Yeah, so yeah, this is you play sort of the start of the game. But yeah, just on plastation right now.

I think it comes to PC and Xbox tomorrow and it will have cross Oh wait ye, so you could just wait at this point if you want to. Yeah, you play the opening mission thing, which is actually what I played at Games Come already, and I think that's a little bit weird for the demo because it's like cut scene and story heavy and well, I'm better about cutting the stuff than say Jeffer Dan Monster Hunter. You know, it wasn't a thing I loved in world, I'll cut

Away, or you can maybe decide to just go kill your next monster right then and there go explore and whatnot. Right, and you know, the monster still looks so cool. There are animations. Those fights are so much fun. You could do some neat things here with your your your mounts which is kind of like that little dog thing we had in the last game, but now it looks more like a choco bow, which I'm a big fan of.

Over to like the bow and arrow and use that for a bit.

Right.

Is it like a permanent load out switch until you switch back.

Yeah.

Yeah, and I don't know if it's a foo letout switcher just that weapon, but yeah.

Just meant the weapon.

But yeah, yeah, exactly.

You know it's cool because there are all these moments where you want to get back on the mounts because it's you know, you might have to chase the monster or maybe you're low on health, and it's way safer to get on your mouth and then heal yourself sharpen your weapon.

Then they're trying to do that on the ground. So the night the fights feel very.

Dynamic and interesting.

There's one part where I was fighting this sort of salamander creature and earlier on the fight, he kind of climbed up this you know spire thing it started shooting acid at me. It's like, oh, well, the next time he did that, I realized that I can kind of use my sort of grappling hook thing that wasn't rise and I could bring down that spire while he's on it, which you know, caused him crashing down and that stunned him for a while and was able to get a lot of get hits in.

I'm so excited.

Off was good.

The game does not look great on PlayStation five, right you have you know, performance mode or the fidelity mode, and it's like, like, how do you want the game to look bad?

Is kind of what it is.

It's not like the animation and the art design looks good performance mode. It's not like you're getting steady sixty phrase per second and it you know, I'm not usually a resolution guy. That you all know that it looks kind of rough, right, It is sort of blurry Vassillini, So that's you know, And again it's not like it's not like the trail off.

There is a.

Yes, but then the fidelity mode like, okay, it's sharper, but it's chugging here, it's definitely chugging.

Unfortunately checks out though, because I think we're seeing that the Ari engine is not great at more open air.

It's having a rough transition in.

Talking about two, I had the same thing, and I'll tell you whut.

Even playing it, I'm like, oh, people think the next Ziemele's gonna be up in the world, hunh, because our engine is so good at doing that more kind of corridor, more tightly you know, designed environment. And again, like the gauge still feels good and maybe it does just need a tech boost for things like the pro. I'm very interested to see how the PC version it's going to work. I'm sure Digital Foundry will do video on all of that stuff, so we'll get a better idea.

And again this is a beta.

This game does not come out until you know, a few months into next year. Maybe that stuff will be improved upon but yeah, the performance at least on a base PlayStation five was not amazing.

That I hate sucks to be here.

Yeah, I don't like that sentence.

You just say it sucks the base station five, the phrase base ps five with like apprehension in your voice.

That sucks.

But it's it's not has to be everything you We're gonna talk about veille Guard in a little bit looks great, sure, yeah, and it's very different, right because that game is not very open world. That is kind of more tight knit design. But boy, that game is is kind of a stunner, and you sort of want Master Hunter to be a stunner.

And it's not other than marketing deals. You know, maybe there's a reason why it's it's on open beta on PlayStation first rather than being open beta everywhere.

I mean, there's that stuff a way I looked into it, and so is any tier of PlayStation plus right now, and then starting Thursday night it will be open for anyone PlayStation as well as Xbox or Steam through Sunday.

All right, well, we will fire that up on the website on Friday, and then we'll hold.

An interesting one. Nicky notoriously does not like Foster Hunter.

Well is going away, so it's all right. If anything, we'll just watch me do it. We got some plans for UPF. I also don't know who's in town for ups exactly.

I will be like leaving it right as you guys are starting UPF, so good luck with you already be gone. I think so all right, Nikki. I think that colonialism is should live in video games. That's where it's okay for colonialism to happen. We should go and exploit the resources of other nations only in video games.

Not necessarily reflect dot com.

Yeah you give you give the man a microphone in the spotlight and he forgets how to fear the spotlight.

Okay, I smell done, sir.

That's your best one. Very good.

Yeah you five podcast posts to everyone that clapped and smiled to themselves. I've been playing Fear the Spotlight. We check this out. Was it last week grub UPF or last week grub bag?

We did a grub bag on like Thurstay or something like that, played some spooky games with it. A yeah, a ghost in Greblins and this is the one we wrapped up with and uh so people, if you didn't see the setup is spooky kids go to an abandoned school and a closed school and closed school, and they are gonna go get a Ouiji board and summon some demons and it works.

Yes, yes, it works. And then shenanigans ensue. Your main playable character gets transported to a different time, the scary year of nineteen ninety one.

That's when that fire happened.

That's where when Ninja Turtle's movie came out.

Oh god, I I continue to check out the game, and I wound up completing it and.

It's I beat it.

I it's a it's a very pleasant I think it's a it's a fun little gem and it's it's really neat. They really play on the tension a lot. I enjoyed horror games or scary games where there's maybe actually no combat involved. When you know you're kind of uh, you have a very limited tool set, and your tool set is just a crouch and hide or just run away. The game, I think we saw it while you were playing through a grub kind of has like a pyramid head.

Just one too makes it feel all right, Sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry.

Uh.

The game does a really good job at slowly doling out the the story as as you're progressing through you get transports in nineteen ninety one, as Greb said, there's a major tragedy at the school that happened in ninety one, and you slowly learn how that tragedy may have been related to some bullying and some bad stuff happening at the school. I think they do it really well. The game is pure puzzles, pure puzzles, y'all.

Yeah, it was gonna like so when mister Spotlight did show up, you were like, oh man, I was kind of hoping this would just be vibes based and I know that's what you're saying, and so what like how much does that complicate things? Like how intricate does the you do the encounters get? Are you just ducking, crouching, sneaking past and away from them, or do you ever have to like stand toe to toe and do something about them?

You are pretty much just ducking and running away. There was a portion in the part that Greb played last week where the world starts catching on fire, and that will occasionally happened to during some small set pieces, but for the most part the game is very like quick and very contained, and even those Mister Spotlight segments are very contained to like a portion of the map where you will have to circle back to the hub that Mister Spotlight is patrolling around, but you can kind of

Poorly written word problem for a fourth crater.

It is not fair.

I did not know there would be math on this. I thought it for people like it's PS one style. Yes, it looks like has a really good energy to it where I think it's very easy to get in the mood of oh this is spooky and there are deeper, deeper and maybe scarier implications to everything that you come across. So yeah, it was working for me really well, and I'm gonna spend more time with it. I have it on the Steam Deck now, and I'm like, I'm just gonna play this a couple evenings, play super easy on

What's the superior twenty twenty four indie or game inspired by the PS one? This or crow Country Stroke? I liked Pro Country a lot. I thought that was very impressive.

I like crow Country a lot too, but I didn't quite dig the PS one graphics they were trying to emulate there.

Right, they were going for we mentioned at the time kind of Final Fantasy seven.

STY seven mixed with with Resident Evil.

Yes, which is a cool thing. That's cool, but yeah, it either works for you where it doesn't. Yeah.

Also, this is a Blumhouse game, which is Yeah.

So the actual the history here is pretty interesting. When they talked about in the GB Couch, they put this game out on Steam already, they released it previously. Blumhouse found it and we're like, maybe unrelease it and we'll help you make it even better and give you more time and money and then you can re release it in a bigger way. And that's that's what's happened.

Yeah, it was unavailable for a while. I was wondering, what's going on? There. Interesting.

God, we should just start posting company and do that.

That sounds smart. Let's go right erase your name and write ours next to you.

A polishing company, yeah, the polishing publishing.

Yeah, take the game down. I don't know how we'll make it better, but like I don't know, we'll add like Michael.

Oh, did you just polish your head in the bolomatic.

Uh?

A game that is is for some reason terrifying people online. And it's like the dumb people online for whatever. Sure is Drag the Veilguard. We didn't get. We haven't played it yet, but Mike, I both understand you have played a portion of it.

Yeah, not not a lot.

I'm two or three hours in, so that's it. This is not some comprehensive review or anything.

Like that.

Review.

All right, no, no, no, I I am enjoying it. I'll tell you this.

And you know, talking about Monster Hunter like not llowing. Graphically, this game is gorgeous. Nice playing it on that performance mode where yeah, very smooth frame rate and still looks really stunning, awesome environments.

I think the characters look nice. I feel like there's so much discourse.

Oh, there's a lot of discourse, but there's discourse about like the stylized characters and the fortnitification, and I'm like, you just don't look that different from what I kind of remember Dragon Age characters looking like. And even like Dragon h has done more stylised before Dragon H two was pretty stylized. This isn't even as much is that to me? So I don't know, I don't know about

And again, this might be more early on.

Maybe there's more sort of larger environments, and it feels a bit more RPG right now. It is kind of like a bit more quarter smaller maps, lots of story beats and interactions, not necessarily a big city to you know, to go into, you know, you know, and some of that, like was part of my fear of like how much I'm going to enjoy this kind of game? Is how RPG is it going to be? And how action is

But yeah, when you're like fighting people in this game, it all feels good.

It's all competent, but it's that pretty similar like yeah, like you know, do your heavy attacking lights, attack combos and dodge when you have a thing above your head and use your your code downs, right, Yeah, it all feels good. There's a decent progression system there. I actually like the kind of skill tree and the way it works, and you can spend points to get to specific class specifications.

That's yeah, that's a shame. I I think, I'm The way it's landed with reviewers is kind of right around I think where I was expecting, where it's like, yeah, this thing people like this game. It's mostly pretty good and it just isn't perfect, and it's maybe not like going to be as a Game of the Year contender. It's like a bolder Skate three was last year. It's

That, or.

It was just one game of the year, which is weird.

It's definitely not Mass Effect and Drameda though, right.

Right, exactly, Yeah, in terms of that, absolutely this is a good game.

Like I am enjoying it. It feels very well made.

And they're like, again the aesthetics, like even your kind of home base thing is in this kind of voighty like, oh, things are footing around sort of space that looks really cool. Even you know, the Dragonese conversation trees and you know so and so disapproved this person upproves. You have maybe different choices depending on the backstory you gave your character. I still like all that stuff. Most of my party

Yeah, I'm my appetite is starving for a mass effect like game, even if I have to deal with wizards and stuff. I think I've become pro wizard lately in pro fantasy. That's great over the last couple of years. Thank you, Mike, mostly doing part to your friendship as well as he's maturing.

Yeah, I do better everybody with my friendship.

It's true.

Ye, yes, that's right.

Your life gets improved by becoming friends with Mike Manatti. It's just a factors for sure. I am real curious, you know, because so this game, the Big Christ's plays combat, and like found Phase sixteen made that big bet like, well, we're going to do that more action based combat that's going to bring in all these new players. It sort of did it and mean, well, games, it seems like the RPGs that do have the.

More complicated combat like boulders Gate three or you know, even out in Ring if you kind of want to throw that in that bucket, those are the ones that are actually the really big hits.

It's like, man, is that maybe that's actually where they want?

That is now?

People want that. They wanted something that they can like understand, like for their whole selves into that. I mean, I think that's why kids like Pokemon so much, because like there's always something new you can learn about how all this bullshit works.

There's an argument to be made there, but I always push against that a little bit because I think the big examples we have of this in the RPG space have been sort of outliers a little bit. Like talking about Final Fantasy sixteen's issues, the biggest issue was that that was only on PS five. I think you can't judge anything about sales based on the combat change because you look at Final look no hold on. You look at Final Fantasy fifteen, that's even simpler action RPG combat,

Know, you're more now than ever, because it really it seems that's why that.

Three is getting bigger and bigger than bigger, because snowballing, it's word of mouth than our thing, you know.

Interestingly enough, I feel like the portion of my friends that enjoy games like the sims have really picked up and it started to enjoy Balder's Gate three. So I wonder where the correlation is there.

Top down, Yeah, you got your characters through something, yes, yeah, they give you give your room to role play.

Yeah yeah, Grob was onto something with the depth there. I just think that it's you know, I don't think it's always as simple as specifically.

It's not black and white. It's definitely not just black and white.

Yeah, there's a conversation that we had there, But I just I just hope fewer people just like immediately jump to like, well, if we make it simpler, that it will appeal to more people.

Right. I think that's that's correct.

That's the other side of the argument, right. It's like the action combat was not some silver bullet that solved your problems for Final Fantasy, So you need to do if that, if you want to keep doing that, you're gonna need to do that on top of making some other changes or going back to ground in some other areas. But I mean, I think the move forward Final Fantasy going like if that's what the conversation we're having is, it'll be more of an RPG, be more do what persona is doing.

Like Mike has said exactly. Yeah, like Atlas RPGs are still very traditional dungeon crawling, term based stuff, and they're getting even bigger. But that's because they're getting bigger because people like anime more and more nowadays. You know that younger generations getting older because there's more people to sell to.

I mean, it's finally broke through a lot more seems like when it went turn based. Actually so I don't know. I don't think turn base is this dirty word that some publishers treated as.

A speaking about turn based. I was going to save this for the end, but it's okay. Dan's not here. My metaphor check in, boys, gents, people listening at home. I completed this game. Oh and I am now doing like the mental calculus of either I. I wait for these two and maybe some more friends to finish the game and we'll have ourselves a little spoiler cast or I put in my back pocket and slowly start crafting a Google slides presentation as to why I think this

Even though you didn't understand that that happened to Foul Fantasy remake, but you know, go on, go on, It's.

I just cause kind of boring.

Guys, jan I will fist fight you in December, all right, moving on, all right, all right, I'll start training to the just punch my face.

I'll be the whipping boy.

Ever wants to punch Jeff, I'll do it too.

Yeah that's fair, I get it.

But yeah, this really reminds me of like the story beats from like A Thirteen Sentinels or like a Gardens of the Galaxy, where like, and I think this is Atlas firing off on all cylinders, you know, Like I've loved all of the Persona games, even the portions of three that I've played, where uh, you know, the social links are a very important game. But because you have less social links in this game for some reason, not for some reason, it feels like it matters more and

Yes, it's one of the best, and you know, I'm thirty hours in. It's it's one of the best RPG parties I've ever seen, just so good.

It's so likeable.

Yeah, those social links, like I've gone really deep into some of them, and I you know, like the social systems of the persona games. Yeah, these social links stories just absolutely do laps generally around them, you know, the prisona games.

They usually have like a few that are.

Like weird, pervy ones or just dumb ones. Right, It's like, no, this is this is all killer, no filler, all this shitfin dude.

Yeah, I'm a little I'm still a little bit further and Mike, you's starting to ketch up to me. I'm like, just I have forty hours. Heismey's story almost be breaking down tears multiple times.

Oh, Jeff would love heis Bay. Jeff, I don't. I don't know about anything else you would love this character.

Heis Bay.

He's a sad dad but amazing but like good.

He has the greatest reason in the world to be a said, yeah, so he's so.

Yeah, then I'll start playing again.

And he's a bad person, not bad person a bat like yeah with wings. I'm glad you clarified. I love bad people, oh man, Like for folks that like want a taste, right and to feel like what one of these characters is Heisme. I've seen a couple of people say this online. But he is like the uncle irow

He is learning late in life how to cope with his mistakes and how to grow as a person, even as like a grown ass adult, while also mentoring these this you know party that's you know, all in their late teens early twenties for the most part, and just trying to be a role model while also bettering himself. It's so good.

Maybe Atlas games are better when there's more adults in your party. I'm kind of tired of teenagers. And even the main character is a teenager, but everyone else is an adult and he doesn't act like a young teenager.

I'm like, this is even the MC is like an older adult, you know, sorry, an older teenager young adult.

So he's not like some high school and he doesn't come across like that.

Speaking on the characters, I think it was high on was said in our discussion of Hey, when you don't have to have one character for every you know, tarot card in the deck, Huh, you can you can kind of just make a character you want to make it not to worry about anything characters.

If we don't have the socialik about the guy who's fat and really likes food and that's his whole thing. That's do this so I can make my personas. And you know, it's it's funny that, like the big thing behind this game is that it's dealing with an election, and that doesn't give me like it's.

It's a weird game to play in twenty twenty four. Man, yes, it's a fucking game to play.

I hate that it is giving me an existential crisis as I'm looking at the real world. At the same time, I'm like, oh man, it's.

Like election.

Heard.

But I you know, to echo your point Sean and Mike, I think I think this is where I want Atlas to move forwards to where I do love and I have loved the high school setting for so long now, but I think there's so much more depth that you can reach with adult characters. And I think that's what like a Dragon did so well this year. Is that, like you know, with each Von and the whole gang, it's like these are like people in their like mid to late thirties, early forties that are.

Problems so refreshing about Yeah.

Exactly right, and like, you know, there's parts of me that feel creepy sometimes when I do play the Persona games and I am building such a strong attachment to some of these characters, and it's like, like you really army of children, right, and I do not you know of some people where there's like talking, Oh, there's no romancing this game.

I do not miss it at all. And I think, yeah, maybe we don't need that.

Yeah, I thought I would because they're introducing some really cool characters where it's like, you know, even even like the best friend, I'm like, can dudes be bros? You know, like finally, but no you can't.

I'm like all of them being very very close in like annymtic way is actually good enough.

Yeah, And I think maybe it's Atlas growing up a little bit and some of the younger developers come in and ironically the younger people getting better at telling the mature storytelling and pushing some of the older pervy guys. Open there out is starting to get a little bit better for Atlas as a whole, and I think that reflects.

And also this is definitely going to come up when we if we have a best style category. But I think this is one of those games that does style in fucking spades. I never get tired of stunning an enemy and jumping into combat always hits peril. So good.

Oh and I love how I do any of your party members. So it's like I get excited when it ties me these angry little bat eyes.

Like yeah, let's go.

We keep going about this game because it's going to be all over a Game of Year discussions. It does so many things so freaking well.

So yeah, freaking Sega having an incredible year, right even generation.

Yeah, it's a good game.

That's so like, I'm trying to do this by memory. What do you have? They have infinite wealth, they have Person of three reload, they by extension published Unicorn Overlord, they have Metaphor, they have sonic generations like oh.

Yeah, total War game in there somewhere.

Yeah, And I don't know if you guys think Jeff Sawid, I don't know if you guys saw the league for that Shanobe.

Game over that Lizards Baby. Yeah, Lizard Kids is a fantastic I can't wait.

Yeah, so Metaphor, Yeah, good year for Sega, Good year for Metaphor. We fantasio. Jesus Christ. If you are feeling if you at home or feeling the rush or the crunch time of game of the year and you want to try and fit in one more gigantic RPG, and maybe dragon Age is not your flavor of RPG that you prefer wholeheartedly, you need to check out Metaphor or maybe save it for the winter break and savor it then. But like Jesus Age Christ, it is. It feels like a cannon event playing this game.

What was your final time on your clock? So I did.

I did the thing where I would fall asleep playing the game, so it was like a pause screen and the five going to sleep. So I think it added maybe like in a few hours, yeah, a couple hours. And also I was taking my time, especially because you know we had done the discussion cast review cast. I think I clocked in like seventy ish hours.

Okay, too bad for one of these, because yeah, that's what I'm saying. I got thirty hours. I was like, Okay, it doesn't feel like I'm only a third of the way through this game, Like I'm yeah, right, Like I feel like I'm deepish and like you know, a lot of my social links are kind of filling up.

My virtues are all like getting pretty high.

On my c like ten hours a day. I can have this beat in a week.

That's all you have to think about it, like, yeah, grub, Yeah, I noticed you haven't spoken on any of this. You haven't gotten any farther.

No, No, I have put it aside for spending time with Astro and a secret game that I'm not looking Yeah.

There's a million things to play right now. That's why I have a lot, right.

We still have Brothership, we still have the Dragon Quest three HDT I'm looking forward to, and yeah, Dragon Age coming out and Halloween. So it is hard.

But if you ask to be like, hey, which RPG do you think is the one to play? If I only a fan for one, I would probably say Metal this is.

The one, and yeah it's either this or if no, well, depending on your taste.

Yeah, yeah, yeah definitely yeah, infinite yeah, yeah, I mean infinite wealth. I was going to say, is a more active battle uh system, but like even this can like you can speed through and sometimes it feels like turbo mode. It feels like you're playing a rhythm game. But it's turn that's right, yea turboh mode.

Yeah, just real quick, the secret game is the Nintendo play test. Nintendo, please just let us talk about it, to talk.

About it so bad, so much weird looking from everything crazy.

It's I still don't really understand what I'm doing, but I'm having a pretty good time. That's all I say.

Uh, speaking about having a good time, having a ball, don't stop, you know, if you want to have a good time, just give Mitch a call.

Sorry, Jen, And just like.

You should have done the third mister Spotlight joke that would see be holded back? Ye you did, Like you should have just done that one and it would really hit Yep.

All right, I feel like I'm night Trap, Sean behind you.

Night Trap.

I'll put the music in the audio version.

Yeah.

Speaking of good games, Jan, this is not one of them.

They don't appreciate night Trap.

So yeah, I h night Trap was my spooky Halloween game this week with my friends outside of called Dowey Zombies. It has become our annual tradition, and we you know, we treat it like watching like a B horror movie, you know, like a crappy one that you mystery science theater or whatever. We have been trying to finish the game for many years without using a guide, which is

The cameras at the house.

Though, because the vampire wants to trap innocent people in his house who sucked their blood. You know, it's a messed up game. It's really dumb, really stupid historic if you know the context, because the Senate it.

Yeah yeah, yeah, but can we get that shirt. Lieberman hates me.

I'd hear that, but yeah, I know, for the past few years we've just been sort of firing up, laughing at it. And we eventually switched to the Anniversary because they're in the original you couldn't see the other cameras unless you switch to them, so you had no idea when like, you know, the the girls or the guys at the party were like going to get attacked by one of the enemies, and so they fixed that in the anniversary edition. They cleaned up. It's actually really cool

I don't think I've ever played a second of Night Trips.

Really well at that moment, didn't you get that sega to? And I did not play.

I played Sewer Shark just like back in actual on the.

Right because it's like it's got a lot of the sagacity games.

I'm not sure now, but yeah, serious if it was.

Rights issues but yeah, okay, yeah, maybe maybe it.

Was Mike try Trap Trap.

I can't emphasize this enough though. It's a bad game, to be clear, played to make fun of it, but it sounds like a fun bad game though. Yeah, if you're you know, grab a beer and like, you know, we we get on a discord call every year and then someone played around of course. Oh yeah, but yeah, you know, Halloween.

Tradition fantastic, fantastic, and we're going to go celebrate one of our traditions, which is taking a quick, pricky break before talking about the news. We'll see you on the other side, folks. He's the when I call him it's a spotlight. He's when it makes you feel all right, news breaking news. I've popped open into my secret stash that I've pilfered from the SF fandom office.

Wait, what the hell, Jan, drink's caffeine. That's not coffee? What is this?

This is the only other vice I have when it comes to caffeine. Red Bull, It's a sugar free red Bull.

There we go.

I think my heart would explode if I had a red Bull.

You think, knowing the way you reacted to one cup of coffee that one time.

Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah, caffeine is definitely And listen, I'm not gonna speak for Jance. I'll just speak for myself self medication I am. I'm like definitely, Like ooh, my brain just needs this and it doesn't help. It just makes me vibrate a little bit. But it's I think it's better than without having caffeine.

Yeah. Uh, I want is a Catholic season where you give something up for forty days, forty nights. I gave up caffeine and coffee. No one wanted to be friends with me.

You're not.

It turns out I was very irritable, especially I've developed what some would say a dependency.

Thought.

You know, you can just replace all that with sudo fed it gets do the same thing. I'll sell you something it.

Was even healthier.

Yeah, there's a race and they sell it over there.

Meth use benado. Just to go to sleep every night and start seeing this sleep. That's a bad idea because doing that, I know. I was like, don't ha ha ha. I was like, it's not funny.

Is like a first generation anti histamine. They're like, please, don't even use that anymore.

No, but Coliner's in the chat. How good did that caffeine hit on day forty one? Folks? It hits so perfectly. I decided to have a five hour energy extra strength. Oh yeah, near like a mid term or final go the distance from Hercules kicked in on my radio. Oh don't make me seeing the whole thing. I will I won't, I won't. I saw callers that I saw for the first time in that moment, and then I think I

Except chocolate. You don't get practice, you just give it up, right.

Well, Okay, it's funny.

Chocolate one time, and then like never liked chocolate again since then though, So it could be a dangerous game, like I just gave off my taste for chocolate. Yeah, unfortunately that didn't happen with like when I did it for beer or so.

Folks. The news.

Jeff Grubb music. This is Jeff Grubb with a newses.

Well, everybody, I have news for you. Shout outs to VGC and everywhere else where. I sourced the news from News first story here. Zeno Blake Chronicles X definitive edition has been confirmed again. Who needs switch to when you have this? March twentieth, twenty twenty five. This game originally

Yeah, now you have like your questionable ones, like I guess you could do Starfug Zero or Kirby and the Rainbow Curse made.

Two star fucks game rules.

I like you. I'm also a starfug zero defender. I think that they should. But it's like the one I said, the last obvious one. Yeah, and I've never played it, but it's uh, you know, it's Monolith. It's the open world kind of actionally got here's what I remember. There's a guy that turns into like a mech that can turn into like a vehicle, and then he turns back into a man and goes flying off a cliff.

My understanding is that this is the one that it's it's mechs and it's more open world design. And there's like a lot of people who really like this one and other people who really don't like this one. I'm kind of hoping maybe it's like less story driven in a way I might enjoy, and that's why, like some of the other Zeno Blaite sickles aren't as into it.

Yeah, because that's much. I like this, Yeah much. I like those games.

I think sometimes, well, they definitely all drag on, they're definitely all longer than they need to be in the combat usually gets stale after a point, but there's a lot to like about them. I like Zeno Blay three a lot. I haven't checked out a moment of this

Monolith while it's also upgrading their technology so they could be ready to work on the follow ups to all these games and also help out with probably future Zelda's on the switch to So it's like this sets that up as well because they're basically at the end of that cycle until they make the next new Zeno Blade game, but that will take some time. As I supposed to get.

Switched to news today instead of this what happened, right, So.

Yeah, there's definitely been a lot of rumors, rumor mongering, people like Stern shit. There was a countdown website that said is that countdown up? By the way, did it like actually expire? It went viral a little bit. People thought us Switched To could get announced this week.

Yes for this, maybe this was the countdown.

Most most of the reasoning came down to, there is going to be a Nintendo investor relations meeting. They're going to do their quarterly report here pretty soon, and they're like, oh, well, so when they're probably gonna want to talk about it there and so to talk about it there. They'll have some small video beforehand, and it's happening this week. In fact, it's happening today as we're recording this. We haven't seen anything, you know. I love to get caught up in the hype.

I think it was kitt and christ who said, you know, and they would know that we're a Nintendo, Like, Nintendo's not gonna announce this thing like until election stuff has blown over, and uh boy, let's take.

A long time to blow over one on November sixth and everyone get big.

Well, that's that, and that's that feels like the kind of thang where it's like, if it wasn't Kitt and christ are saying that no one would believe that, believe that reasoning. But of course Nintendo thinks that way. They are the most conservative like company of like we are worried about how or.

What was the news?

What was the thing that they delayed because the queen died like that, Yeah, and I.

Reported that and I said that, and everyone was like, Jeff, you're a liar and you're just trying to say face because you said this was going to happen then. And it's like once they saw it was called Tears of the Kingdom, everyone's like and it's like, yeah, and cares about that stuff in a deeply deep and sometimes weird way, and so that makes a lot of sense.

Well, like you sometimes jokingly say, Jeff, Nintendo of America is a law firm, and so like when talking about the branches of Nintendo, and thinking about like how they're all working together to no something. Obviously the call comes down from like the big office in Japan, but all together they are working together to figure out, oh, when is the best time to release all this? And they do strategically do that all companies.

And NCL Nintendo Company Limited in Japan would be aware of like the American election and stuff like that, and they would they would factor all that.

Don't want sometimes Yeah, yes, definitely, I'm kind of curious at this point. Do y'all ever just get tired of the anticipation, like as like totally people are like any day now, switch dude, this is the big ones, like we know it exists, It's gonna again.

It's the same weariness that I've started to develop when we were talking about Activision buying or Xbox buying Activision for sure. Yeah, and like that just got drawn out for what felt like twelve years of my life. Even though that we'll get to that lack of year breaking Yeah, sorry breaking.

Yeah, I'm my default mode, Sean is uh, this will happen when it happens, right, like when I'm just out there living my life, when I'm playing games, when I'm spending time with my family. I am not like walking around like, oh, the switch to could happen in any minute. When I'm putting together the news for Game Best Mornings, It's like, yeah, that's that's fun to talk about whatever. It's no harm. I know some people get frustrated by it, but it gives us something happen conversation.

On, and it is it's new.

We're like we're in that boat. Yeah, it's like it's worth talking about. But day to day I find it much easier, just like to accept that Nintendo is at the very least difficult to parse, Like you can't just go to the to the pattern of what happened last time that was several several years ago in a completely different world. And so yeah, I think it's best to just not anticipate enjoy the games. I'm looking forward to Brothership. That's where I'm at and I'm just going to keep be in there.

Yeah, I'm ready to visit Concordia.

Yes, speaking of concord Of that was a lob. Yeah, well done, sir, Jason Triert. Were just reported on Twitter that Sony is shutting shutting down Firewalk Studios, the makers of the recent shooter Concord, which, yeah, this kind of this is not too surprising. So Concord came out, got pulled from sales because it sold something like twenty five

It stinks because it feels like this team was kind of uh just Sabotaged Sabage.

They walked up to a buzzsaw of like, just like, you make a game as good as you can and you believe it, and sure not everything is like are these characters as appealing as they could be? It's like, I don't know, but if something look pretty cool and you put it out like you hope it finds its audience. And the audience was just the buzz saw was the audience was so ready to dismiss this game because they

Last four years, right, that's more accurate from.

What Yeah, even you can't anticipate even in that timeframe, what people are gonna want, you know, four years from now. So yeah, I really feel bad for everybody that works.

I still want to really talk to the like part of whatever team who looked at this and said forty dollars, because like, no, no, On top of that, I know there were so many issues but like that was the thing that turned most people away.

On top of that, it just seems like Sony was promoting and acting like this game was an existing franchise that we all had an exist, uh fund they taught us to.

Yeah, and when that was the playbook, right, it was like, here's the cut scenes, so you care about these characters because that's what you come.

Now we're running the Blizzard playbook on that one of why was Overwatch successful? Well, let's just do that.

Yeah, And you know, I know when Conquered got initially taken down, we joked about that next level anthology series of like, oh, it's what's going to happen to that episode? And now I genuinely am curious is to like, why did PlayStation push to have an episode featured in this very limited series if they didn't believe in it or want to put more effort behind it, or like, you know, let it cook.

Yeah, I mean it's probably you know, it's one hand not necessarily known what the other is doing. Where it's right, Sure, Sony doesn't have a massive ad campaign on the sides of buses for Concord because they don't believe it in that way, and they don't believe in it enough to be a seventy dollars game, but they're like, can we get away with forty dollars? We do have a team that does like just go out and make deals. Can you do something? Get creative, think of some way to

Kind I just I'm so curious about like, you know, there's obviously like a lot of you know, lives impacted by this in jobs loss and that's terrible, but like dollars loss because PlayStation bought fire Walk Studios. Yeah, twenty twenty three, which seemed like a big of confidence, right, like whe they do that, lest that they thought it was important. It was, you know, a big part of their push into live service games and all that stuff.

Yeah, I do still wonder, like what is the long term effect of this on how Sony approaches making all kinds of games going forward? I mean, obviously live service games. Uh, they'll have to live service baby. I mean, that's the one that seems like it's still happening, right the rest of them, who knows?

Uh?

And again, who knows if that one even comes out, because they will not want to ever put themselves in this situation again or they have to release a game and then unreleased.

They're not about to start making smaller titles though, Like they're not going to do that.

Well, it affects everything.

The thing about Horizon, though, is at least that's an existing series that you know, the general audience likes. Still at least look at a game that has Horizon in the title. You know, it's something wildly different than what they've done before. Nobody knew what the hell Concord was so like what it just felt odd to hype that one up as our next big thing while also undermining yourself. Like just said, it's it's a spider web of a million bad decisions.

Yeah, and like you know, if you look across the pond to like different like five y five or like Hero shooters, right, like Overwatch is testing a mode where they go back to six.

V sits, So like Overwatch doesn't have the answers either, right, Yeah, like the hero hero shooter model has already troubled and unsustainable as is.

Well. Yeah, once you've lost people, you've lost them period. Like I noticed someone chat brought up like Evolve back in the day, you know, that went free to play because it wasn't doing so hot, and then that didn't help it. But like people are just over the game, you know. I think that's what the problem is here. If you don't set a good first impression, that's when your game is just over. And that's why something like uh, you know, Concord, no free to play would not completely

So yeah, apparently apparently also closed neon KOI. There's an internal email here from Hermann Holst. I know none of this is easy news to hear, particularly with colleagues and friends to party and sie. Both decisions were given serious thought and the ultimately we feel they are the right ones to strengthen the organization Neon Koy and fire Walk. We're home to many talented individuals, and we will work to find placement of some of those impacted within our

Alf can't do that. Every time.

Artifacts was a giant floor and that was shocking.

I think that was another bad first impression thing where Artifact a lot of things wrong out the gate, and so people just wrote it off instantly.

Yep, yeah, it's uh, it's gonna It's gonna happen. But but I think the shock you think for me continues to be prefer it to happen for such a big budget game from a first party that can kind of

And I.

What choice do you have though? When your game's done, you got to put it out. You got to put it out in the environment that exists. So when you're green lighting these games in the first place, like, what are the things you're looking for to make you feel comfortable to say yes to a project these days? And I just don't know what that looks like other than a sequel to a known quantity and Neon.

KUIV they were supposedly working on a Triple A life service game of their own that was supposed to be a strategy man.

Well critically and quickly they were a mobile game developer. So it's like, was that where Sony's genchen is going to come out of there? Yo game? Like, I wonder what all of that was adding up to over there. I don't know a lot of weird decisions in general.

I question for you all, how does a game like Dead by Daylight continue to survive and thrive when we see these gigantic Triple A games as service just crash and burn constantly.

Legacy, Yeah, and like just like appealing to like knowing your audience and having a stranglehold on that audience. That audience knows where to go to get that stuff, and that audience isn't necessarily super well served by a ton of different choices either, there's more. That genre has more than just that game. And yes, but Dead by Daylight is the one that like, you know, first mover's advantage and then also they just continue to make the deals

Yeah. It's something that released in the earlier days of streaming, so streamers, you know, caught on with it, and then the audience said, I want to play the game that my favorite streamer is playing. And so that's why I mean when I say a legacy, it's like it's built up this reputation and so it's cement to itself, you know, That's why Fortnite got so big is because it was available, being free to play. A bunch of people hopped on a train. Popular streamers got even more popular or playing it.

You know, I'm curious to see how Marvel Rivals is accepted. Yeah, it officially comes out, like I know, the betas have been very popular, but I'm curious, like, once that is out, is that gonna capture like the lapsed Overwatch players or people the Marvels. That'sure it does for that reason, I mean, you know, yeah, I mean the one thing we see these light service games doing is depending on IP even you know, outside of its own thing.

Right, That's why I mean Fortnite's been doing it forever. Meet things like magic the Gathering, right like well, yeah, here's the word. The rings card set. Here's the FOM fantasy card set. And I'm always like, oh, that's kind of neat. It's also kind of sad in some way empathetic even, right, or you know, there certainly is a lack of originality these days.

Yeah, yep, all right, let's move along here. US Copyright Office refuses to allow remote access to out of print games for libraries. So the US Copyright Office denied a petition to allow remote access to out of print video games. Basically, the idea was going to be that libraries have physical copies of these games, and they were going to be able to virtualize those games and offer limited access to certain people at a certain number of people at that time.

Yeah, I don't want to misquote anyone, but I remember an old episode of The Video Game History Hour where Frank and Kelsey were talking about this subject, and Frank was sort of like being really agitated because he's like something you kind of said there, Jeff, of these things already exist illegally and we're trying to make it legitimized and have it be regulated or anything like that, and you are preventing us from making this legit, and like you can do where we watch to the illegal stuff,

Yeah, just legalize it, legalize it. Yeah, it would make it, you know, technically probably easier to go after the illegal ones at that point, right, because it'd be very clear how they are violating stuff, and maybe you could build the enforcement of that into the regulation that permits these things to exist legally from library, right.

I mean, I want to quote Frank's post on the subject, word for a word he said. The moment I became the joker is when someone in charge of copyright law watched my GDC talk about how it's wrong to associate emulation with piracy, and their takeaway was emulation is associated with piracy because they quote them in some of this like some of these documents like.

Frank, Yes, Frank Uswalde and Kelsey Lewin were a part of the petition that was trying to make this happen in the first place. So they're doing work on the ground trying to get this to happen, and then the people who are in charge of copyright just don't understand the idiots, yes, the content that they're absorbing to try to understand this issue, and they come out with the exact wrong takeaway. All right. Bungee claims Marathon is on track,

Tag pressures on this one. Wow, I'm glad I'm not working on this game. Holy shit. Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah.

I mean that's the kind of thing I've heard out of Bungie as well, because there were a lot of people either let go or send over to Sony, and it's like apparently a lot of people sent over to Sony are like kind of glad I'm not a Bungee anymore. That's a mess. So it sucks. Yeah. I mean, the thing that Marathon will have that Concord didn't is it's

All runs a whole lot.

It's kind of like Valvet Deadlocke you and say it's the next Valve game. Here, say it's the next Bungee game, and that does hold weight there.

Except people will want to play the new shooter from Bungee every time you say that sentence. So it'll help a little bit. But you know, they're still destiny happening. They're still gonna be updating that.

I am ready to be wrong and I am ready to fall in love with Marathon for the sake of video games. I want Marathon to be okay, yeah, yes.

It would be cool. The you know, the last we heard about this game from recent reports where that the sentiment internally Marathon is not positive. So we'll see.

Well, you know, hey, it's a marathon. It's not a race.

Guys, get the host off the show.

I'm stremely good. You can't kick.

I do wonder what like that larger like Bungee fan base or placeation like fanbase is going to think of the Extraction shooter model. I know that has like a you know, a big fan base with Tarkov and stuff like that, but is it going to kind of cross pollinate.

I did people who maybe are hoping for like old school Halo.

I did lie. I said that the Call of Do Thing installed everything automatically on Steam. The one thing it didn't install was DMC, which they shut down, right, that's that even MC I was like DM DMZ I should say.

Yes, well that's within war zone. Okay, all right, smart was smart. They were like, oh, extraction shooter trend. Let's make it a mode in our free to play games. See if it catches on. And as far as I know, it didn't. Right, So I don't know that you say extraction shooter, I'm immediately like noping on out. I'm immediately gone because google boring concept for a shooter for me.

If you google extraction shooter, the second result is from the marathon subreddit asking what is an extraction shooter?

Yeah, I mean we probably mentioned this all the time, and people are like, the answer that you guys always say is it's like Tarkoff, I still don't know what that is.

Ok So you like, you start the game up, you are in a world and you gather resources by like you know, gathering resources and fighting people, and then you extract hence the name.

And if you extract you get to keep those right, and.

The resources used to do more things in that loop.

Right, like that, it's like that one mode in Division.

Yes, a little bit right. I think that was like a proto.

That's kind of fun.

Yeah, I mean the idea of Okay, so now I have survived several extractions, so I have a very powerful character that can now take on anything. So you get a bit confident. But then what if you mess up and someone kills you, they get to take a lot of your stuff, right, That's my understanding. So it's like makes it more exciting when you kill someone who's been playing for a while, and yeah, and maybe you get

But that's where well, I mean, the thing is though, the loop that is there, And maybe I'm wildly off the mark because I haven't spent much time with any of these outside of you know, like a few hours in DMZ I am KINV had a thing of how is this better than like a closed loop like border Lands back in the day or Master Hunter nowadays, where I go in with my friends, I defeat an objective to get the stuff that looks cool and allows me

People like it's the crack cocaine version right where it's like, yeah, like one, it's like just a little bit more amplified because there's a little bit more on the line. Because if you do die and you can't get out, like that feels bad. So when you do escape extract with that stuff, you get a little bit of a rush. I think that's what people like.

I just don't know if that's going to catch on with a lot of people and might not. I don't know if y'all remember anything from the trailer, but I put it on for myself here, and uh, y'all remember when they're using futuristic space cybernetic space silkworms to three D print someone? No, I do remember that?

Oh what is this game? I just I don't.

I mean, of course, I wish that they were like actually rebooting Marathon into like a new single player shooter that also had like you know, just deathmatch modes or whatnot.

Like why could this not be coming back as sort of like the Wolfenstein versus Doom, you know, like we can have both and they do different things, Like why can't this be maybe their Doom to like, you know, versus Halo. Like I'm mixing metaphors, but you know what I mean.

It would have been a good excuse for them to basically be able to make a Halo game without making a Halo.

Exactly like they have Destiny now and that's like live service. This could have been their more single player offering.

I don't know, do you guys ever play Classic Marathon?

It got released on Xbox three sixty at one point or something like.

I don't know if it's a fan version or something, but a version.

Of it is on PC now I believe, Yeah, there's there is Classic Marathon on Steam. I think it's called Classic Marathon.

It was doomed for Mac users, yes, I remember?

Yeah, all right, all right, let's do this one. Starfield two will be one hell of a game. According to ex Bethesta designer. Bruce Nessmith, a former Bethosta designer, believes that Starfield two will be excellent because Bethesta will learn from those stakes of the first game. Now, this does not sound like he's saying there is a Starfield two, I've seen it. What he's saying is remember Assassin's Creed one,

You and m I said this last time, though, though it used to be that there were two years between those things.

There was two to three years max between A one and A two back then, and now we're talking maybe we get a Starfield two in fifteen years. Yeah, to help anybody, Jeff, I used to say this in our podcast all the time when they were like talking about Starfield and making it.

I said, I don't think they should make Starfield. I think they should just hurry up and make more outer scrolls and fallow up.

And I would get yelled at, like, no, it's good to do something new.

I get it well now that a Starfield two isn't something new, I think I could definitely say no, we shouldn't. It's it's just so hard now if a Skyrim in a fault make eight years to make to interrupt that cycle which is already it's too right. There's too much of a gap between Skyrim and when Old School six come out, it's gonna be too big of a gap between foll four whatever. The next fallout is right, and

I like that Mike has already made this more interesting conversation because this, this statement, why I read this was just the most well, no ship a moment.

Yeah, I've had a long time.

Of course, I actually don't know the context that this came out, Jeff, but like this feels like maybe a statement that people are twisting a little.

Yes, that's what. Definitely, it's just like seeing the Starfield two in headlines. I think people are like, wait, do I even want that?

Yeah?

What would that mean?

That's more interesting conversation I have, Right, that's the conversation.

We were going to have here. Yes, And then I think, you know, okay, so let's talk about like Starfield. Then I would a Starfield to even be the best use of their development resources if they were going to continue Starfield or should they just keep improving Starfield one to make it a better game. I think that's the better.

But that even that expansion that came out this year right kind of seemed like it came with a big what it was bad?

Yeah, it was like most people really really really disliked, except for Greg Miller and then who loves that apparently. But I still think it like the right answers probably move on and go get all guns blazing on Elder Scroll six. But I don't hate the idea of a small, dedicated team doing updates to Starfield once a year, kind of similar to No Man's Sky.

I don't know if I want to say that, like, oh, I get I guess sounds depressing. You have to work on these two franchises only forever. Now, I get that, maybe you try something new again. I don't think you go back to starf but you know, you gave it a shot there and it's something and it can live

Yeah, exactly. I think it may have been a little too high concept for what we can reasonably do in maybe any video game. Ever, with the way Tom was talking about, I mean, I'm curious, like Jeff, I know you like Starfield a lot more than the rest of us.

Yeah, again, where did you where'd you land on?

Like how things are laid out? Because before release you were like, well, yeah, space is empty, You're gonna have some empty space, And then afterwards people looked at him were like, no, actually this is kind of boring.

Maybe you know.

It's like I.

They don't give you the chance to be excited by the emptiness because you never stumble across anything that interesting Like that was the hope is like, it's okay if five moon moons are completely barren, if I stumble across a really cool spoke pirate enclave on this one moon, it's like, no, they're all kind of empty, and they all kind of have the same dispersion of pirate bases as any of the other ones, so it doesn't feel special.

So like the valleys could have made the peak seem higher, except the peaks weren't that high to.

Begin right, It's all just kind of in that middle muck, like even when like some of it like could be a peak, some of it could be a valley, it all feels the same in the end. It's really actually maybe a worst case scenario for Starfield in terms of how that feels, which is why I didn't care enough to get into the loop of playing over and over again in the way the the in game stuff works because it's like for me, I need the early expiration

If you told me it was ten percent just because of like natural shift to digital, I would wouldn't even beat that much of an eye of that.

So yeah, right, ten percent drop in physical sales nothing.

Nothing else to call duty app putting it fun Center as an advertisement could be attributed to people switching more to towards digital as well, because it's so easy to purchase, right Yeah.

Yep, yeah, it's there's a sonic. Sonic Shadow Generations was number three on the chart, just behind EA Sports.

FC like it like so like they sent out the tweets thing it's sold a million, like on release day. Yeap, it seems like that one's.

Doing very well.

Which one yep, absolutely generation general questions.

Yeah, that one's an interesting one. I thought about playing it this weekend, but when I saw it was fifty, I'm like, ah, fifty for I've played half of this game before.

But you get a shadow That shadow campaign is good.

Yeah, it's good. That's all I've been hearing. I'm like, eh, Black Friday's right around the corner. Maybe if I can get a little cheaper, like maybe more towards forty. I know, I not ready get cheaper on PC, you know, through like a green Man Gaming or whatever, but maybe maybe you know, wait for the sales to Brameboard.

Totally shout Hedgehoff the game, not the character.

Is that a Halloween game? Um?

Can he turn into the wear Hog?

Yeah?

Ship, there we go, Jeff, You're welcome.

Hell yeah.

I wonder if they are.

I think that's like the only of the Boost games they haven't remastered. I wonder if they are going to remaster Sonic and least I kind of hope they did.

I mean they that game fix the wear Hog stages. It would actually be a decent game because the daytime stages are actually fantastic, maybe the best of the boost Sonic levels, you know, yeah.

Classic Halloween, Monster, the Wear Hog all right. In sixty four, shadow Man and Trock two have been added to Nintendo Switch Online. They're part of the expansion pack. They're probably in the the m in sixty four.

Uh, it's good to have them in. They're just to fill that thing out because it looks at just the two games and that that's right.

But this is weird because both of these games right are already on the Switch with remastered.

Versions from night Dive, and they're both good remasters, and you know, I don't think any of these are great games, although the remasters are very good. Shadow Man is probably more interesting because it's kind of like Mario sixty four meets Tomb Raider with the like aesthetics of Soul Reaver in al ways, there's something interesting about shadow Man. Yeah, so I can understand people being like, I want to try these games, and I'm okay just.

Playing the original set of spending money.

Based off of the three things you listed, though, Mike, I need everyone to temper their expectations by like a thousand percent.

Yeah, probably it's not as fun as what. I just to be honest, I know that sounded amazing, but like when I say.

Two Raider, I mean like a lot of PS one tomb Raider kind of yeah, much control and vibe in some ways, it's a very interesting game. I don't mind them adding here them here, But if you really wanted to play turrok Too or shadow Man, then you should just wait for one of those Night Dive Studios remasters to go on sale.

Yeah, Yakuza Kawami on Switch is selling like hotcakes, according to Rio, got go to co Studio? What's that? Who claimed that Jeff Rio got go toku okay okay, I'll do my best. The Dictato Switch version of Yakuza Kawami, a remake of the original two thousand and five PS two game, has had a strong start. According to Rio, got go to kut Actually yeah, I think the faster

The prospect of infinite wealth on a switch made me excited and I got the tingles thinking about it, even though I've played it already.

Yeah, because the Sea Deck, like a lot of other people, I know, its like in the same way like I have my like my moroc ally accident's great.

I play a lot of games on there. I'm paying playing Metaphor in the right now.

If you're like they're bringing metaphors switch, I'm like, that's still switch.

No, thinking that game would run like Garbo on the switch. No, it's still is still cool for the people who don't have those, uh you know, portable PCs, which is most people. So it's still cool that these games can get out

Okay uh.

Nintendo details Animal Crossing Pocket Camp Complete, the paid version of its mobile game that is coming to an end. Nintendo's upcaming. Paid version of this game will be twenty dollars, but it's going to have an introductory price of ten dollars until January thirty. First. It will include almost everything from the free to play version, except for some features like leaf tickets and the pocket Camp Club subscription. Players can transfer their save data from the free to play

Yeah, this is an insanely cool thing for them to do. Yeah, all online games that could theoretically support this should do this. You know, It's not like they should have done with drag Allia lost awesome because you know, just an RPG you lost to time is a really weird thing to happen.

Like you know, like I help that fire emblem heroes get exactly done making content.

For that game, and more and more games are doing it, like you know, uh Mega maat x Dive. You know, regardless of how you feel about that game, is cool that Capcom at least preserved it for nothing else, Like preservation is important here as Age just standalone. You can buy it one time, no micro transaction BS way to you know, get back out to players.

Last story here PlayStation Players spends two thousand dollars on twenty four years of PS plus to avoid price hikes. Reddit user and called on Reddit in Class, has made the un conventional decision to spend two thousand dollars up front on PlayStation Plus for the next twenty four years to avoid potential future price increases. They shared a screenshot of the next time they're going to be charged, and

I don't need to cast spurs. But will this person be around until right? Yeah?

Right?

And this isn't some like commentary on like the state of PlayStation but a lot of things can happen. Well, PlayStation should be around it twenty four years, agow No.

Right, it's like such a different world by then paying for multiplayer may legitimately not exist in as soon as like ten years or something.

Yeah, right, yeah, that could be like such a like cause you know, if Steam is like just installable in the next Xbox, that's going to change the way people think about a lot of stuff very quickly. Akersoft won't be able to charge for online play when it comes to Steam games on the Xbox, if that's how it's gonna work, so they won't be able to charge it for the Xbox games anymore. I would think.

So. Yeah, I love the extreme measures people will go through to think that they are saving money in the long run.

Some people buy a lifetime subscription to Star Trek Online and just play that fort.

Jeff, Yeah, I could say there's a lot got back when I used to talk to those people, they told me, this is a lot of people's only game Star Trek Online, the Star Trek sickos man.

You get them, you got like I had, No, they're not friends nor acquaintances. People that I interacted with that would go to Costco and load up on Apple gift cards and like they'd spend like five hundred bucks because I think they got like an extra one hundred dollars for quote unquote free and they would dump all of that into Pokemon Go.

Oh okay. I was gonna say, if it was back in the day and you were like buying soft and movies and stuff over multiple years, I could see it, but nope.

Nope, nope, no, you don't want to lose money on this deal.

I am curious. Have you guys ever done anything like this, because the only thing I think of is Best Buys Gamers Club unlocked. You never believe I got five years ago while they were still doing it.

My grocery store has a fuel perks right, so if you when you buy groceries, you get like save ups of money on gas at their gas station. Before I go to Disney, I'll usually buy Disney gift cards there and then I get the fuel for free for the buddy. I was already gonna spend Itsney World.

I bought a lifetime subscription to Plex. I don't know if they still offer that, but I got that so I didn't have to worry about I'm just gonna have all the features for forever, and I use Plex all the time.

So yeah, I bought wind Rar.

That's the craziest thing I've ever heard anything.

I've never met someone who bought.

That.

Does it for the news. It's all the headlines I got. Jan I'm handing the show back over to you, unless hey didn't intend to announce the switch to while we're.

Doing that I wanted to make that joke.

No fair?

Sorry, what did get announced? Those that Mighty morphrom Power Rangers readers rewind.

Is coming out. I did see that. I meant to include that. Yeah, after my.

Birthday and folks, I filmed an interview what feels like forever ago, and I swear to God, I'm gonna edit it. It is going to come out a lot of fun stuff in that interview. Uh, maybe still some announcements that haven't been broken yet, and I swear to God is going to come out just like I swear to God. We're gonna take a quick break and we'll be back with the emails. Mighty morphin mister spot like Mighty Morphin

Oh this is like that.

Robin Williams movie Flubber. Yes, it's just like Flubber. First email comes from Reg McFly dear BombCast. I'm a WWE guy and my best friend is an AEW guy. We both like each other shows. However, today I described him as.

A shoot mark. This is your fault. Love you all, REGI McFly buck. Reg. Absolutely, it's our fault. Also, regimenc fly sounds like a name if a fly was pretending to be a person.

I like it, but it sounds like I don't. I don't remember what the name of Marty McFly's older brother is. In beck To the future. But if he told me it was Reg McFly, I'd be like, that sounds right.

Yeah.

Travis from Fargo normally dominates or has dominated the email section for the past month or so because of their rapid fire questions. Now emailer Jared has gone in on the mix and provided a bunch of rapid.

Fire questions real quick? Can I can I out Travis? Sure what he's doing? The thing where he Yeah, he writes those emails. He sends it o to all the podcasts, And I heard the same round of questions on the next Lander podcast. This email bus, Harlot, this tramp out there just sending emails. Anybody will have this? All right?

Well, I'm deleting a good chuckle these email Travis.

You hurt my feelings, Travis. I thought we had.

Something, Jared writes. Jared from Everett writes in my two cats like to eat pastries. If I left a croissant out, the older one could easily scarf down a third of it before I could stop him. The younger would just unwrap it like a TUTSI roll. My question, would you still eat a croissant or other pastry if your pet took a little nibble.

Cam Mouse are really dirty? Yes? Would I could I break off like the touched part and like just like create a new then probably now, No, we're not I do it.

I trust my dog if it Scout's clean and yeah no.

See the thing is, my freaking dog has pretty privilege, and we all know that's the thing with people.

It's actually the nat dogs.

Yeah, yes, Like if Scout likes to like kind of hug people or jump on people, and if Scout was maybe a bigger dog, people would think I'm a terrible owner. Uh. Instead they're like, oh my god, this cute little core he wants to hug me.

Yeah.

Uh, Jared's Jared. If I find out you're freaking two timing us on these card doing emails, they write in again, what Pokemon would make a cool sports team mascot and what sport would it be?

Squirtle for water polo that's okay, or like a suicide Town.

Blazer kin for soccer because you know it's got those kicking legs. Sender race is a boring answer about.

What about hit m on Lee for soccer?

Yeah, there's a lot of there's a lot of kick hards, you know.

I I bet Sprigetito is already on stickers for like edibles.

Absolutely, yeah, that's my kind of sports.

Dan, all right? If weed selling?

All right?

Jared also had a question for Dan, but Dan's not here, I'll read it anyway. The discussion discussion about Dan and metaphors made me think about how it blow Dan's mind to read Roland Barth's Death of the Author. How has he not already? I'd love to hear his take on that, Jared. Remember it would.

Blow Dan's mind to listen to himself talk about something. Yeah, you know it does. That's why he is the way he is. Someone posted in a discord the other day about an older Giant Bomb video where Dan says, yeah, people who just like really use the wrestling lingo all the time are so insufferable. I can't say, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, he definitely said that in the past. Yeah that's God.

Look at the growth then folks.

In the wrong direction.

If someone's to send in like did Dan say this or not? Oh, that's quiz that could be a fun one. Maybe we maybe they would do that sometimes.

I still want to is it a metal gear or metaphory? Fantasio quote?

Quick you'll hear people are still playing them the day on fire Escape.

I was really I've been hated any fire Escape for my travels on Fridays.

Okay, gotcha.

Well you're in a.

You're you're in a blood feud with Mike Maharty as far as the emails are concerned, that people are talking about y'all really like Mike.

No, no, no.

I feel terrible to actually call him Matt, but I love I was gonna say, who's Mike?

What are you talking about?

I only know three mics in my life, all right, shocking?

Uh, you know so many white people? How is that possible?

Yeah, how's that possible?

Uh?

Next email comes from Cosmo so white Italian. As Halloween is around the corner. It's the time of the year where I secretly manipulate my six year old into picking the costumes that I already bought for our family. This year, he will be linked so I can began endorf my wife, Zelda and my almost two year old daughter of a coblin.

Yeah.

Yeah, I started him on Ockerina of Time, indisputably the best starting point. When he got to Queen Goma, he was a little scared, but my daughter was fine. However, after the fight, when the Decu Tree started talking, she freaked out and was crying hysterically. This is pretty much her first time ever getting scared, and it was obviously a little confusing. I picked her up and told her

Tree, Oh my god, that's so cute. She's tried to calm herself down to say it's just a tree. Oh my god.

I have two questions for Dan the resident child Expert. Don't worry, we have a father on the team. He can actually address this.

Yeah, Mike, I got this.

Don't worry. Secret families are still families, all right. Yeah, how do I prevent my daughter from being afraid of trees? And Two? What's the scariest fictional tree I could show her? Thanks Cosmo, I think that that tree with the hanging skeletons on him from Nightmare four Christmas is kind of scary. Sure, sure, I think that astrobot tree can kind of be a little weird and off put off. Yeah, he's so sweet.

In Tears of the Kingdom when you are just going through a forest and one of the trees come to life and start chasing you. Oh that that got my like my both my daughters are playing that right now and both of them are like, I hate these trees.

Yeah, dude, that scared me the first I saw them, because it came come offscreen behind me. I was like, why is the tree movie?

Yeah, it's kind of terrifying.

Yeah, snowy seven drawers have scary trees. Harry Potter has the Womping Willow, which is a tree that will kill anybody it comes near it, and they're just like, Oh, should put this next to the school for children?

Yeah, there's a lot of Harry Potter is so fucking stupid, and I hear that.

He had to think about it like less than one layer deeper to get so stupid, And like I liked that.

I liked to like that franchise. Still, it's so fucking stupid. Are so fucking dumb. You have all the magic in the world and you're still gonna look like an unhoused person all the time.

You fucking can create anything with the power of fucking magic and you live in a fucking shack.

Why does serious black look like we can't do this right.

Anybody who wants which which media should be watching Disney's Owl House show that ended last year instead.

Or Agatha all along.

It's very good, it's very gay. And you did like that? Okay, yeah, I'm gonna watch it.

I love the random things kids get afraid of. I remember the miz was in town at our kmart at the time before.

Those kids they're afraid of the maze. Yeah.

So it was like this like three year old kid with us, right, and because he watched them wrestling, so he just had in his mind that the miss was going to attack him. He's like me, so like, hey, you can't talk a bunch and just kept going no miss.

No miss, miss, like no please? Now, So, how do you print prevent your daughter from being afraid of trees down in front of her? Yeah, a certain.

Tree, yes, kill the trees show show your daughter like a wild fire happening just like an YouTube video.

Do you think reading when reading the giving tree help or hurt? That might make you like humans less?

But maybe it just like age too, you know, like after he's a little mora, okay, of the trees, you know.

Which were the rings you're like trees, watch the two.

Taps subject child the Lord of the Rings.

Oh my god, sure safe Dan was in here. Some of these emails actually ask for dantas.

I have an email.

What through it?

Well, somebody sent me an email that they wanted me to read on the show.

No no, no, no no no no no no no no no interesting, go for it, go for excuse me.

The email section is not for other people to read their emails.

You just can't run willy nilly over the show. I like this.

Give mikey a Mike Yeah, Sean said, it's okay. I said, hey, Mike. Jeff from Quebec care breaking the emails met up by asking you to interrupt Jan's email segment with a surprise edition from your personal invice. My question is what do you think is the most widely unused gaming peripheral gathering dust and basements. I vote for the WE balance board cheer No, because that would imply that a lot of people kept their WE balance boards and based off the thrift store I visit on a weekly basis.

Yeah, uh.

There they go from having one to twelve WE balance boards in the span of a week. So people are getting rid of those sports too big, right, So it's like you like, people are like thinking about it, so they do.

Get rid of it. There's got to be like a layer below that where it's small enough to ignore and you just let it sit around. It's got to be the guitar Hero controllers, right, going to say the drum set for some reason.

For me specifically, I imagine the DJ Hero like mixed controller thing, which is kind of big and heavy. But it's like, I don't think many people bothered selling it because it seemed more premium than a we fitbout sports, Like.

Why god, I get I gotta keep this thing, and it ruled, But what the hell are you gonna.

Do with Well? Speaking of fitness, do you think we're already at the point where it could be ring fit Ring Sure?

Sure, yeah, I like that thing. I still like, I don't play the game ever, but I use it for like just like getting those muscles in the back going s. It's handy. But uh, yeah, it could be. They sold a ton of copies too.

Oh Pizver too and the original Pizver, but they they did sell very many of those.

Hero I know it some success, but I'm.

Not sure crazy unopened connect oh sick. Yeah, just then they're they're threatening to give it to me, so I'll connect.

It would probably be Connect.

Specifically the connects that came with Xbox One by default for a while.

Yeah, three sixty because that sold like gang Busters in but nobody has Connect set up anymore.

Is it actually just the mebos?

I wouldn't say.

I don't know if that's a peripheral.

I would even say, just like every asshole in the air, and it has them like displayed in their background for their zoom calls, you know, like my tough off for there.

You can't see mine, okay there Skylanders. Skylanders are definitely collecting dust.

They go horizons.

Man, if anyone's got skylight horizons, who are you talking about? By I want to get my kids in the skylanders. That'd be fun. Simire a lot. I'll give you money my U again. The kids are playing Zelda, so they keep seeing some mebo log on the powers like what is this? And I have like one or two ambos setting around and I showed them and now they're like, hey, maybe you should get more of these. I don't know. I can't become one of the amoebo people.

It's fine.

But everybody.

Does everybody have a favorite Amibo now that you've got so many of them?

I got too Link and I love that one. It's my favorite. Excuse me, Link's Awakening Link.

I only have one Amobo and that's thanks to friend of the site Mike O'Leary shouts out for the Sora Ambo.

Yeah, oh yeah, I tell you, I forgot that's out. I want to get so ridiculous. It's just like how I love the Joker Ambo because I'm like, that shouldn't exist. Really, I have every Metroid ambo, and then like the one that I think is really cool is my friend Gat Waring for my birthday one year. It's the the Rockman eleven Ambo because the only, yeah, the only way who gets a standalone like ambo package is by getting the

Yeah, and I have a I have that one in the collection, and I have I really like the Smash Brothers Megan Man one. I just like the way that one looks. But that Simon Belmont Smash Brothers.

So many did did y'all take them the packaging or did you keep them in? I took him out, took him out, Okay, I took I had a few initially that I, oh my god, Jeff has a labo Labbo.

Labola labbo yea is this well? First of all, Labbo is way better. But no, he's a labbo collecting dust? Or is it just too easy to throw away?

I think people threw it out?

Oh yeah, admit it.

You You would love to throw that thing into like the middle of a bonfire and just kind of see it what happens?

Right, Yeah, I'm satisfying, feel bad, but would it would be like exciting? How bad I feel? Yeah?

Literally aside, I want toss into the middle of a lake so bad? Just watch a slowly stink.

Yeah. Back at the SF Studio, amidst all the moves we had, I played that game of should I keep this labbo piano?

Labbo piano? It's like so intricate, it's kind of one thing worth keeping. Although I tried to keep mine with like a two year old around, and so they destroyed it.

Yeah, you know, sort of sprout, Oh yeah, Ji'll give the show back to you. And I want to clarify, don't don't anybody ever do that to me again?

Mike and I apart.

I already went through the heartbreak of Travis two timing me okay.

Segment for jam Do you I don't have the heart to tell next Lander that that's what happened, because they'll be just as heartbroken.

Do you think that Jared from Everett is just Travis.

Like talented mister Ripley situation. I don't know what that means, but that's probably what's happening.

I thought Travis had a good round up of emails this week, and I included them. Now I'm not going to read them Travis Penalty Box, but how good are they? They were pretty good. I was like, this, this is good podcast discussion stuff, all right, last two emails? Yes, this one is about jeans and things that you like. Hey, y'all, the company I've bought jeans from for the last decade started putting elastic in their jeans, making them less durable. Did I check to see if they had some regular jeens?

Nah?

Fuck that, I'm a raw denim freak. Now I'm making a clothes ladder where I can track how many wears a pair has since I watched it. I'm watching Mustache men explain salvage and different kinds of looms. I like suck, and the people who like what I like suck, does that mean I suck? Thank goodness, I've got giant bomb to keep me cool. Joe and Michigan Joe, come come real close, Come close, Joe. I know I was kind of poop pooing on the dude that spent two thousand

Dog.

They got all the different cuts, all the cuts, all the brands that are too expensive out here. You don't want to be spending five to six racks for a pair of jeans, but you might. Maybe someone you listen to has also poisoned their finances by buying too much denim. And maybe I got the hank ring to buy more denim.

Uh, that's what you can google what nim raw.

It's gonna be better to go to Japan and get your denim. Just do it, dog.

Anyway.

Uh.

Their question was if things I like suck and the people who like what I like suck, does that mean I suck? Is that the transit of property?

Yeah, I mean yeah kind of. That's how it works. You become the average of the five people around you. You could become the average of the five things you're super into. Probably, yeah, that's that's probably fair. I'm sorry, but you suck.

I was gonna say no, but I also don't like to think about it much.

Mike sucks.

Would Wait a minute. One of them is in here right now, and I've been told that he sucks.

Yo.

Also, if you go to Japan, you could make your own jeans at a store dog so you can get the rivets. However, a build a bear like a build a bear, it is gees. I get too excited talking about denim. I think I almost poisoned Nicky's brain into getting into salvage denim as well.

Okay, we're not saying salvage denim.

No, what are we saying?

Salvage sounds like a metal, sounds like a man.

Salvage sell s e l V from the Salvage Illinois, Like what's happening?

Like no, no, no, it is like raw denhim. It's also like, uh, it's not mass manufacturers.

So there's like, oh my god, this term from self finished. It's some salvage bro Okay, hate it so much.

It pains me inside that I left my most recent pair and the pair that fits me fantastic at Nicky's place, and I desperately need Nikki to freaking bail it to be already yesterday should mean.

It's like it's in self finished. Does this mean it's not broken in? And that's the thing. Hold on, I'll be right back. Okay, he's gonna because I like.

The elastics.

More elastic.

I'm a bit Rubenesque, so more elastic and everything, please.

Yeah, the white fluctuates so yeah.

He Also it's like you know that it was a huge advance, like when they started stonewashing jeans, so they came broken in and I don't have to worry about that and all these tricks are like no, I'll do it myself.

Okay, yo, Okay, I don't know what you were talking about, but I'm gonna assume you guys were talking about how there's a resale value for salvage denim. And I'm not saying that I have made money based off of this because I wear my clothes.

The arbitrage salvage denim.

But there are those people out there that want to wear work wear like car Hard, Ben Davis et etched, but they don't want to do the work of breaking the clothes in, so they will buy second hand Selvis denim because they want them sick fades all right.

Again, Like we do have like industrial processes for breaking in jeans now, but people don't like that.

Because what if you broke them down based off of your life?

Right? Okay, I see what's happening here. Organic jeans. Okay, you could have just said that jeans, baby.

See Okay, yeah, look, jan you can have your thing. More part to you, buddy. If I'm just in here thinking about how I went to the store on like Sunday to get my thirty dollars old navy skinny jeans, I was very happy with that.

I'll pick them a parrot Meyer the next time I need one.

Yeah, yo, okay, all right, all right, so here's two pairs. This is going to play very poorly for the audio listeners at home, but we got one pair of jeans here. This is still relatively new. I'm waiting to break these bad boys in.

It looks stiff.

This is when I get This is eighteen ounce, No, this is twenty two ounce denim.

So it's very heavy.

It's very thick. Okay, but this untreated I have. I've only worn these out a couple of times. I've not watched these despite having these for three years. That's right, I hold onto jeans. But this is like a little wider leg. You could see the indigo is very blue. It's it's very very blue. I just said that, mic, so they also heard that. I'm sorry, we're talking about something I really like. And then you know a lot of stitching is like bespoke and everything. But yeah, very

Uh.

You can see here the different the different fades from my life and how my life is when I wear jeans. Look at these fades where my pants cross. Look at this honeycomb pattern behind my knees exactly. This is like the these are like wrinkles.

You know when you see an old person and then they got a hell of wrinkles on their face, You're like, damn dog, you've seen life. Also, you can tell that like, you can't pickpocket me from behind because based off of this fade, I wear my wallet in my front right pocket and then I have AirPods in my front left pocket because you could see there's like a slight indentation of AirPods there.

And then the other part that is terrible, because man, what them thighs do is I have this problem with a lot of my jeans because I am too flexible of a person. I I, oh, Jim, I got crotch holes. Oh sure, this is like backside holes, because like I be high knee and and a high stepping all the time. You know, I'm like, I'm on the shorter side of the crew. So I'm got I gotta be the one

I'm talking Jan. I'm gonna tell you right now, you don't have to.

Do huge stonewashing, Like what a cool idea, Like We'll just throw this jeans and so in this wash with a bunch of stones and it'll break it in for you. I am not anti technology. I'm not a jeans bloodite.

So I really admire your passion.

My friend.

Thank you, Thank you, Mike. We're best friends again.

This is probably how Bailey felt when Ghost.

It's like, oh.

God, God, bless Bailey Myers, because I feel like I've talked her ear off about power Rangers in Germany. But also I was explaining the intricacies and why my white T shirt was super expensive compared to a regular white T shirt. We don't need to get into that all right.

By the way, that dandom like posted that video of Bailey and Jenny Nicholson at that Overlook hotel inspiration place with the gust story so people can watch it judge for themselves.

Now I think yes, Uh, all right, last emails, so many Sweet Jesus, Hey, there would have been more if Travis didn't.

I gotta get out in like five minutes because I'm gonna go pick up Amy. So let's wrap this up.

Let's do it all right, Hey, BombCast, I've been going on a lot of First States lately. Has there ever been a point in your life where you realized you were in the middle of a montage? Thomas from Minneapolis.

That's a good question.

Wow, huh.

I feel that way sometimes whenever I'm doing something new with the kids, and it's like they are gonna remem remember this stuff in like fits and starts, as like flashes, and so I'm like here now to be memories for them, and so that I'm in, I'm in their montage a little bit. It's kind of how I feel.

Okay, And the astro bought speed runs a little bit like that because like it starts on like real bad.

It's like you get like like a little bit better and like you like.

Have like the your coach comes in the house montage.

It's like.

Some day I'll back. I was like, boy, I really had to do all that ship to get to where I am today.

Huh Yeah, you're still waiting for your going up the stairs. You're still running through the streets right.

Now, exactly.

Yep, yep, yep, yep, yep.

And that does it for emails. Bombcasting Giant bomb dot com is the email address to send your emails to.

Uh, we got to get out of here, but this one last check. Uh no, switch to news.

Wow, weird what your business card said? Switch to news? No zeno blade, no switch no miss no miss, no missing. We got games mornings popping off for the rest of the week, right group.

Yeah, yeah, back Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. Even though im traveling Friday, I'm traveling in the late evening, so uh should be able to make that all happen. We'll do a BCR right on Friday. Right, we should be able to make that happen.

Maybe we don't do a BCR. We'll just do a longer upf because I think, oh, there you go.

You guys can't go on with that. Then I think it is just.

Bailly and I holding down the Fort Blake Club popping off tomorrow. Lucy James continues her quest voicemailed dump truck probably on Thursday. Most likely on Thursday, we were thinking about trying to move that up so people can get out and get to trick or treating. But this weekend, friends, the reason why three of these people are traveling is

Yeah, some inexplicable reason.

I did this to myself and I'll do it to myself.

By the way, if people want to get involved with our Extra Life stuff, bit dot ly slash gb XL twenty four two four that will get you to the Extra Life page for the team. That's where you can sign up if you want to stream yourself and That's also where you can donate if you just want to help out with the cause. That's where we'll be collecting donations over the weekend. Where we start someone asked around noon Central is one where you gets start air aiming

Thank you for organizing all of that. Sean also fukes. Hey get ready for some shenanigans around the game awards. Uh been spinning a lot of plates over here at gb HQ and some exciting things be happening GB.

At night the night before h it'll be fun.

Weddle date December eleventh, Yes, yes, yes, folks, that about does it for the Giant BombCast. Thank you for listening. I'm gonna play the music now. He's been Mikey's been, Sean, he's been Grub, I've been Jent and hey, happy Filipido American History. Months to my fellow kuyazannatas out there. Shouts out to Michael Him, shouts out Eliza Kapplin, shouts out to Chastity Visset Show, shouts out to j Phil Gospy, shouts out to every goddamn Filiplato in this fucking industry.

Ext what Goku goad Dad, I don't know, kid, go Oku, Dragon Ball Dime.

It's good.