Hello, everyone, Welcome back to the fire Escape Cast. It is episode
seventy seven. We're getting into getting close to the eighties. This is always
a great part of the episode where I just talk about the numbers in a
really straightforward way. I wasn't you remember the eighties? I wasn't here last
episode. I was. I do not remember the eighties? Were you alive
in the eighties? I was a baby. That's been six years there,
Yeah, yeah, how was it. I think it's like the six yiares.
I don't well, I mean, I guess I don't remember like thirty
nine and a half years with my memory, but I definitely don't remember the
eighties. I remember the nineties pretty well. You were not sentient in the
eighties. You were like a lump of meat, and your parents kept you
alive. Yeah. I mean, look, my parents are Mary until I
was like four and a half, and I don't remember them ever being married.
So that cuts off everything up to like eighty, like June nineteen eighty
eight. We're right now, probably about nineteen eighty nine. I don't remember
anything post divorce. I think, what's memory? What's your earliest earliest memory?
Sitting on the floor at my dad's place, post divorce, playing Super
Mario Brothers. Sorry every time you say post divorce some reason in my head,
I'm finishing your sentence. I don't remember anything post abortion, and I'm
like, well you, I'm sorry, I've been tired. I'm i gotta
just let you finish your se No, divorce is a completely different thing.
Oh really Yeah, it's like if you don't remember pre divorce, it's not
like, uh, it's not like you're talking about like uh ad you know
what I mean, Like it's it doesn't make sense because there was no pre
divorce for you. It's just yeah, yeah, that's true. It's it's
just I guess it is like an ad thing, right, like that's the
that's the way to timestamp things. But I guess if I don't have anything
pre time stamp, it's all just kind of Yeah. Nineteen ninety is probably
where I started. It's all a d for you after two fours. Yeah,
just like the Bible. Yeah, it's God intended. I went to
Catholic school. I remember everything ad what was When was the golf war?
And when did Beavis and butt Head get popular? Golf? Like Persian golf
was ninety one I think it was. Okay, so that you keep track
of well, I remember being Dallie North was doing his thing over in the
Persian Golf and then Beavis and Butthead were there. I'm thinking about it earliest
memories. I remember laying in bed trying to sleep, and I could hear
from the living room my dad laughing at Beavis and Butthead. And I remember
the Golf War constantly showing up on CNN, and I didn't know what the
golf was, and I kept thinking it was like a golf war. So
like, I, yes, probably like ninety one is about when I started
coming into full consciousness. I think, yeah, Desert Storm was ninety to
ninety one. Okay, that checks out, Okay, yeah, yeah,
So I know I don't remember the eighties. I don't. I was I
was nine, uh yeah, nine when two thousand hit. I was born
in ninety one, so like, I sort of remember the nineties. But
when you're that young, you're not really participating in the culture all that much
of the time. Like, yeah, sure, I'm into the TV shows
that people are watching, playing the video games, Like I can tell you
that the video games I was playing, But it's not like I still barely
consider myself a nineties kid. I was nine by the time they ended.
I mainly remember the nineties because I was old enough, but also I hadn't
started drinking yet, so like it's like the perfect decade for me to remember,
you know, it's like old and I remembered things too young to be
drinking. I remember the nineties more than any other decade. For sure.
They're coming back. Gen Z's really into nineties fashion at least the pants,
yeah, music, and the most nineties I've ever seen. They're like baggy,
yeah, like with like a metal you know, what do you call
the wall chains? Wallet chains? Yeah? See, that was that was
the thing in high school. Like everyone had Jenko's and wallet chains. But
like I was always way too much of a coward to like participate in the
trends because I thought I would do it wrong. So like my entire goal
was just like what can I do to make sure no one notices me in
any way good or bad, Not like ooh, Dan's got cool pants or
oh what the hell is Dan wearing? I just wanted to blend in and
not be noticed at all. So I never I don't think I ever bought
a piece of clothing that was like in style. You know, yeah,
I've been like holding off on getting you know, like baggier with my clothes.
I'm still holding pretty fast to like twenty tens fashion, and I think
it's going all right. But if you asked like a twenty five year old,
they would probably disagree. What is like timeless fashion jeans? Well,
but it depends on what kind, right, because like Jenko's sorry, like
wide leg baggy jeans are in right now, skinny jeans are out. But
if you asked ten years ago, you would wear skinny jeans and then flared
jeans, which were like popular in like the sixties seventies. Those are back
to now, baby, So like if we're we're back into flares as well.
Is that the same as bell bottoms splare jeans? Sure, but those
are two different like scopes. Bell bottoms are like massive where they cover your
foot and everything, whereas like you could have a flare that's like almost like
a boot cut. So many different types of jeans. Like what's weird is
that if you talk to kids now, it's funny because I was like just
hanging out with a bunch of people who had kids and they were telling me
about all the styles that are in right now. They will tell you to
your face if you wear skinny jeans, those are for moms, like skinny
jeans, or for moms. Don't wear skinny jeans. We wear baggy pants
and we drink Prime and we it's just crazy like to see like the trends.
But yeah, skinny jeans are aged now. Baby. So when I
hear mom jeans, I think of like, you know, the kind of
like they're pulled up to like your belly button, and they're like they like
round the ass, you know, Like, is that not? Are those
not mom jeans anymore? Do those not exist? High waisted jeans are in
style, But in terms of that specific kind of the ones you just described,
no, they're not in style. You're correct, But like high waisted
genes are a big thing right now. I'll never go back. I will
not go back to low rise jeans with my little butt crack showing. I
won't do it. I'm here now, I'm getting off the style train,
and I will just look a fool. I don't care if I look like
a mom, that's fine, I accept it. I won't go back.
But yeah, right now, you could still have high waisted jeans, but
they have to be baggy. And like the other day, I went shopping
at like kind of a trendy g like they call it denim, right,
like when it's a when it's a trendy store and they want to charge one
hundred dollars, it's you're paying for denim, not jeans. And the denim
was high. The cutoff like where the gene ends was high, like almost
bottom. Yeah, it's like where your shin is and you can see your
whole ankle in like some of your leg And I was like it, just
like these are high waters, like they look. I would beat a kid
up for wearing this kind of thing in like middle school because I used to
beat up kids for their clothes all the time. And I got beat up
for wearing high waters. Yeah, and the lady was like a lady was
like, oh no, this is all the rage. You want them high
like this, And I was like, I just can't do it. And
I wanted to, like I went to this trendy store to make sure I
was on trend, and I was like, I'm out. I just can't.
I don't want to wear shoes. I don't want to wear pants that
are that high off the ground. It was weird. So how does this
like, how does that happen? How do how do trends? Like is
it just like one influence, like oh, Kim Kardashian started wearing these tall
jeans and now everybody's doing it or is it just like a cultural ship that
happens without any rhyme or race see Double Wear's product. No, okay,
first of all, you should wear You should watch devil Wears Product's a really
fucking good movie. But there's a really iconic scene in it where who's who's
the devil in Devil's Wears product street? Yes, Oh my gosh, she's
so amazing. Okay, and Devil's Wars Product there was like Glenn Close,
it's always I think it's Meryl Streep, It's Meryl Shape. And uh,
she's like looking at all these different sweaters and her the person she's like training,
she's a kind of new scoff setter because she's like, oh, no,
we need something that's lapis or whatever. And they were like and and
the girl laughs and she goes, why are you laughing? And she's like,
well, because these are all blue. It's all the same, and
Meryl Streep fucking ends this stupid bitch in front of everybody, and this is
like a family friendly movie, and it was a death on camera. And
she goes, you have no idea that the sweater you're wearing, it's not
Crulian, it's not Lapis, and she gives it a very specific color and
she goes, that's from like the nineteen ninety six collection by this guy,
and he came up with this color and everybody thought it was amazing, and
so it became the trend of summer of nineteen ninety six, and then everybody
wore it, and then over time it made its way from the high end
stores to the regular department stores and then eventually into some sad sales bin which
you fished it out of and now you wear it and you think that what
you're wearing doesn't matter. But they decided it a decade ago. And I
think she's fucking amazing, but I also think she's right, which is like
fashion people from like Paris Fashion Week, they decide fashion trends like now,
and then over time it trickles down into like average people's spaces and we get
to find out what's trending like years later when we can afford it. But
it's like it's kind of like a cyclical effect that carries its way down.
But there is also cultural effects, like the fact that all these kids are
super into resale now and I used to didn't. That wasn't a thing when
I was a kid. I've always yeah, resale, like back in my
day was like something that people who like, you know, if you couldn't
ford name brand clothes, that's what you did. But the kids today,
they've turned resale and thrifting into like a really fun hunt. And because the
nineties are back, you can get a really sick outfit for a pretty reasonable
cost thrifting, And so I think thrifting is altering culture as well. Now
it's also but like the last thing I'll say is I think people don't want
to wear what their parents wear, so then they start doing like the opposite,
and then things that were not in style ours are all of a sudden
in style and whatnot. I mean like that's the same thing with food,
beer, wine, anything like service industry is similar to I was kind of
thinking about this recently because I've got a cousin and she's probably like somewhere in
the teens. She's like in junior higher high school, and I noticed,
like when I go back, she's always wearing Nirvana shirts. And I follow
her on Instagram and like she's always posting like Nirvana stuff and everything. And
I thought today, I think I saw one of her stories pop up,
and I was like, god, damn, Like her being into like Nirvana
in twenty twenty four is probably like me wearing Zeppelin shirts. And I no,
but it's crazy to think of that because I remember, yea, that's
just what happens when you get old, I guess. But like, it
is crazy to think about bands that you remember when they had new albums coming
out being like, oh shit, yeah, that person wearing appetype for Destruction
shirt that's their LEDs up and poor or whatever. Like that's that's kind of
crazy. It's all cyclical, and I think that is fair. But I
don't think you can underestimate what Mike said, which is nobody wants to dress
like their fucking mom or dad. And I think like the real cursor here
is that, like whatever your parents are probably rocking, you have to you
have to mix it up, right, Like you have to update your look
somehow and and break the mold. And so I think that really presses the
kids to be like, if my mom is wearing skinny jeans, that is
no longer cool, and I am going with these high water baggy is fuck
pants that I think look dumb as hell, and I won't do it.
I won't do it. I don't care if that's what all the thirteen year
olds are doing. I don't care. I'm glad I'm not at risk of
dressing like my dad because I don't have enough cigarette reward points or casino comps
to get his free shirts that he wears. Oh, Mike, did I
send you the thing? Yeah? I sent you the text he sent me.
Right about the toilet paper? Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know
about his his gig to steal toilet paper, right? I saw it on
Instagram? Yeah, I saw to hear it's it's batshit. Send him two
hundred and two hundred rolls of the cheapest, literally, the cheapest toilet paper
I could find on Amazon. I spent time trying to make sure his quantity
was funnier to me than anything. So I just bought. I sent two
hundred rolls to his house, and he sent me a text like two days
later being like, oh man, I feel like I feel like Mike Maherty
with his fancy pants. Toilet paper is two ply toilet paper to ply.
That's his bar for sophistication is to ply butt shake clean because it's the cheapest
way to go. Also, he has no idea what he's talking about,
because Bianca bottom a bunch of toilet paper three years ago for Christmas that he's
still using, and that was definitely better than two plies. She got an
actual good stuff. And I think he just assumes this is fainancy. And
that's what I cannot believe that a gift for your dad includes toilet paper and
water, just like the basic necessities of life. And he's just like,
well, well well Ladi dah, yeah, I'm a fancy guy, now
look at this. That's that is very funny to me because sometimes he makes
fun of me for like justifiable things of like me being a bit too high
brow about something one thing or another. But other times you use, Mike,
is it like forty I don't know wine labels, it's just wine labels
that squirts out one. My ass has a different taste than my mouth does,
and your ass palette is really refined, working on it. It's getting
better. It's still really into like like Oakie Chardonnais, and we're trying to
move past that. A lot of residual sugar wines. I don't know,
but I have to have someone come in and swap out the bidet bottle once
a week. Mary. Back to what you said about like, you know,
you're fine, you know, dressing like a mom or whatever. Like
I feel like, as you get older, isn't that the more like,
uh gracious, graceful way to dress as we all get older? Is like,
rather than trying to wear what the kids are wearing, isn't it the
more graceful thing to just like wear age appropriate clothes, Like isn't that like
that's probably the way to go, right. I mean, you can't get
away forever. And I'm not gonna get away with wearing Djenkos, Like even
if I do it, I don't think the kids are gonna be like,
you know, hardly been kissed or whatever, it never been kissed where they're
gonna think I like, you know, missed the bus to middle school,
like that ship has sailed. I'm not getting away with anything. I just
look stupid. I'm showing up to Portland like in the Fall or sometime wearing
Jenkos. I'm gonna get my first pair of Jenko's in twenty twenty four.
I would look weirdest in them of all three of us, so stupid in
Shakos, Like I know I do look stupider. He don't, don't cut
me shortier. I think I think I would look stupider. Have some ba
I wear on top of those net tank top like the ones where you can
see through them, like a cross necklace that goes like down to your nipples.
I'm gonna get the shell necklace. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
yeah. I went to I went to a nineties dance night with some girls
a couple of weeks ago. It was actually really fun and we all decided
to dress like we would in the nineties, and I did the craft so
like black skirt like fish nets, blacktop, and like I thought I had,
I had really gone for it. But there was a girl wearing like
really wide leg pants that we used to wear in the nineties and a puka
shell necklace, and I was like, a she did it, she really
went to it. I feel like I remember a bunch of dudes wearing that
when I was nice? Was that popular with girls too? Yes, because
I think it was like a thing where like the boys gave their necklaces to
the girls. And oh wow, sure, fucking deep, I know,
because you know that's how you anymore? Here he goes again, before we
episode Every time, my wife and I talk about this all the time.
Whatever happened to the chival risks, give your puka shell necklace to your girlfriend?
Whatever happened to that? Is that so hard pull a chair out for
a woman? Give her a pukahell necklace? No? But I mean it's
the Seinfeld bit too. In season three or whatever, where uh god,
how does the plot work there? George is trying to sell all his dad's
old Cabana shirts to the thrift store because he doesn't think he's ever gonna use
him again, and then they decide to go on a cruise and then he
needs them, but Kramer accidentally led a moth into the box and ate it
all. But Jerry that they were still doing the They were still opening episodes
with the stand up at that point, so it must have been season five
or before, because uh, Jerry's doing like you ever notice how like men
or like specifically Dad's, you could tell what was the best decade of their
life because they still just they just dressed like that the rest of their life.
So you could pinpoint like which guy really liked the seventies or which guy
really liked the nineties, because that's still how he dresses when he's seventy five.
I'm probably gonna keep dressing the way I'm dressing. I don't know,
because sometimes I wear something that I would not think I would be comfortable,
and then all of a sudden, it's like, man, this might I
need to get like six more of these from my wardrobe. I found it
easiest in college because I never knew what to do in anytime I tried to
actually like get something nice, it never worked or felt right. So I
just switched to like the all band T shirt all the time thing. So
it's nothing but Zeppelin stones, you know, just old bands. Did that
from maybe oh three to twenty, probably several years into Giant Bombs, so
probably like fifteen years. I would say I just did that. And then
as certain points like okay, it seems like like flannels and just like just
nice just plain colored shirts and colored shirts. But that seems like a fairly
like I don't know if timeless is the word, but like it's safe.
It's safe just to like wear a nice flannel shirts. Yeah. I don't
think like button down Oxfords are ever going to go super out of style.
I'm sure like kids see me and they think I look like I'm thirty two,
but I still wear those quite often. The Okay, actually, here's
here's the thing. And I will credit Amando with this because she's definitely she
encourages me to like try something new if I want to do it. I've
very much jumped on the like Tony Soprano shirt train in the last two years.
Like uh, like the short sleeve button downs. It's not a shirt
that says the sopranos, it's the Tony Soprano wardrobe. Yes, is this
similar to the Larry David wardrobe? Uh no, he's cause he does button
down like Polo's. No, not Polos specifically, like those nineteen fifty styles
like like kind of like light billowy button down shirts with like vertical stripes.
Oh okay, oh these are nice. Yeah, I just searched Tony soprano
shirt. Lots of good options here. Wow. Yeah, So like I've
I have like twelve more of those in my closet than I did two years
ago. In the summer, They're like the most comfortable thing to wear.
They're not quite Tommy Bahama shirts. They're not tropical, but like material wise,
they might as well be. Or like yeah those those like again,
I think like it's almost like at the nineteen fifty style came back when The
Sopranos was in fashion and then everybody watched it, and everybody who watched it
in what twenty twenty was the Sopranos biggest year ever, and I think it's
still huge on Max. I think that has definitely influenced it. I feel
like I feel like there is a crossover there. Take a look in the
discord, like what do you you would call this a Tony Soprano shirt?
Right? Like I feel like yes, yeah, yeah, okay, yeah
yeahah yeah. So like early two thousands HBO Dad shirt, Larry David Tony
Soprano? Yeah, yes, like the same person. Wait, which one
is Mike? More like uhrano? Yeah? Because I don't think Larry David
would come to Portland to murder me, yeah, paper Trail, he wouldn't.
He would. Let's go down the line here. So Mike is more
Tony soprano. Absolutely, I'm which one of my closer to You're Larry David.
Yeah, absolutely, You're not as as he is, but yes,
neurotic. Yeah, you're the George Castanza I think of the group. Okay
and Mary, uh wait, we did this like two episodes ago, didn't
we, Larry David or Tony Soprano? We did this? Yeah, yeah,
Mary's more of a Tony soprano. Yeah, so I'm the I'm the
one Larry David. Okay, I think so. Oh absolutely, Jake,
Jake might be more of a Larry David. I could see it. There
has to be a certain amount of terrible danger in violence and Tony soprano,
and I can see that out of both you. Yeah, I'm harmless.
I've seen Mary literally get in fights with Jersey moms in New York, so
like that's something Tony does quite off here the show from New Jersey, and
like half the episodes of the Sopranos started it. Larry's always getting into fights
for their verbal I don't really get into either. I don't get into physical
or verbal fights. Yeah, I'm finding my own fucking business. If somebody
gets in my face, that's on them. I'm just sitting here, live
in my life. Don't get in my face, and I won't fucking threaten
you. I don't see this problem. I don't understand why I'm the aggressor
in these situations. Yeah, we I think you you you calm down when
you need it to that night, largely because I literally carried you away from
the argument picked me up. I always forget with this story where that I
was in the room right, What was I doing the sometime busy though we
had like a bunch of people, this is a meet up, I was
probably Yeah, Mary was in the bathroom and like this woman who h was
just like trying to barge into the door, and it was a one person
bathroom, and Mary kept saying, hey, it's locked, I'm in here,
and I think the she was just based on evidence later, I think
she was just pretty drunk, the woman, not Mary, And yeah,
I would say, trying to barge in. And then Mary came out and
I didn't see any of that happen. All I saw was I look over
after going to talk to Amanda and Jake or someone, and I see Mary,
like clearly on some sort of mission and angry coming out of the bathroom,
which was enough to give me pause or at least like alarm me a
bit. And I saw her just like scan the room, see the table,
and storm over there, at which point I started already following her to
make sure nothing terrible was happening. And then they started just jawing, chirping,
because what's crazy is like I again, I didn't do anything at that
point, and I just said, you have to wait your turn. That's
just how bathrooms work. I think we're all old enough to understand what a
line is, and I expect you to wait in it like everybody else does,
so that you can pee when it's your time. And like usually when
you tell someone like you have to wait, you can't just come into the
bathroom when someone's using it. Usually the person would be like, oh my
god, how embarrassing. I didn't know, and I would be laz fine.
She was like, what did she say to me? I was kind
of I was kind of lit too, so like she but she looked at
me and she goes, she goes, oh, you're gonna come at me.
You're gonna come at me, And I was like, yeah, I
a fuck. And that's when it lit like she just wouldn't let it go
then I and then I was like I'll kill you. Her husband and like
sixteen year old son were both embarrassed. Yeah, they were like I get
the sense that that's either not the first time that had happened, or something
like public had happened for them, or that whole night she had been maybe
you know there's that one. There's the airport guy that I forgot what the
whole deal was there, but there's almost a fighter the airport. What was
Yeah, yeah, and he was like trying to enjoy my dinner and I
was like, oh are you trying to enjoy your fucking dinner? And airport?
The conflict follows you. I get really annoyed when people are just full
volume meetings, calls or whatever. Marry do you take Yeah, I mean
that's not as bad as like, I'm okay. He was like trying to
eat his dry ass steak and a fucking clam bake earrant. It's so stupid.
And his stupid wife was sitting there, she was obviously embarrassed to trying
and enjoy her soup, Like you're not going to have a very romantic dinner
in this experience, like just eat your stupid food, do you Guys?
Being married to someone who's constantly doing that thing where they're like causing trouble and
get into fights and just dramas like that would just be like non stop.
Like I feel like you would never be able to just relax. Yeah,
you should. They they should seek therapy, you know. I think that
would be important because if they're angry that much, that would be a problem
for the marriage. I think I wouldn't want to be around someone like that.
No constantly, yeah, yeah, yeah, every once in a while,
I think confrontation is called for, But yeah, when it's just a
constant thing, it's like, oh man, this person's seeking it out.
Man. I I I pride myself on the diffusing. I think it's a
good it's a good trait to have. It keeps you out of travel,
it keeps you out of fights. It's like, yeah, I escalate and
I I show I. Uh, I just go all in and hope that
that results in fear. If I wasn't a podcaster or maybe I would have
been a cop Nixon loving cop over here. Yeah checks out. Yeah,
Like I don't know. I think about it, Like, you know,
I think back at times like in college where it's like I I distinctly remember
a couple of times like walking with drinks, you know, I bought some
people drinks and walking back to the table or whatever, and some drunk iy
like you know, will like bump into me and he caused like the spill
or whatever and it got on him or whatever. He turns around, yeah,
but he's like obviously some like big drunk ass frat guy or something,
and it's like turns around with it like oh d like obviously Logically in my
head, hey this is your problem, buddy, this is you know,
like but like what is the fucking what is there to be gained by being
like no, you fucking did it? Like and then I get punched in
the face, and then's the whole thing just fucking be like hey, yeah,
sorry, man, yeah my body is. I'm sorry. Let's build
it way that it's the adult way time. I don't give a shit.
I have no pride in that, Like I don't have any kind of like
I got approve that. I nope, nope, I just it's not a
pride thing. I would like to clarify. I think it's a mouth thing.
My issue is that if I feel disrespected before I've processed what is happening,
I will be like, well, that's fucking stupid, and then I
will like and then they will react to me, and I will go,
oh, no, I have gone too far right, like I have fucked
up, and that that happened in San Francisco. Several times I told you
that where like I would I be like minding my own business and someone would
yell at me, and without thinking it through, I would just be like,
eat shit, fucker, and then they would like run at me and
I would have to get out of the way. The famous one was like,
when I was in Australia, I was minding my own business, telling
a story and a group of three pretty burly Australian women were walking the opposite
direction, pretty beefy. But I wasn't paying attention to them. I wasn't
thinking about it, and I was talking about shoes and I said, it
was a really nice pair of shoes. I'm really glad about them. And
as she passed me, the middle girl said, oh, did you really
like your shoes? Nice story, and she was making fun of me.
That's that's kind of fun. Like shit, terrible thing to do, but
still really fun. As we were crossing. As we were crossing, and
without like even thinking it through, as we continued across, I said,
oh, did you like my story, cunt? And then she turned around
and tried to beat the shit out of me. Yes. I had two
people with me and they kept us separated, and she was like, you
fucking started it. And I was like, you fucking started You've talked about
my shoes. Yeah, you were just telling a story. You didn't start
anything with her. I was not starting it, but she got really I
called her a cunt, and she did not like that. Yeah, you
definitely escalated, but you didn't start it. That's the definition. It wasn't.
There's one word you could use something. I think that's that's up there.
My instinct wasn't a fighter. My instinct was you made fun of me,
so now I'm calling you a cunt. And then uh, they eventually
like got her to calm, like her friends kind of like chipped in to
like keep her. I wasn't trying to fight her. I was just sitting
there like, oh, you didn't like that, and they were all holding
her back, and eventually she like, let it go, and she pointed
at me and she goes, I'll find you in the city, and then
she walked away. And someone someone said that to me once and I responded
by telling them my exact address, come find me. Good thing. I
think in their head they're probably well, they'd never intended to find me anyway,
but like even if they did, they thought, well, no one's
dumb enough to give me their real address, So that's not it. I
always forget about it. You've definitely had some some fights in your day,
but like in each of these situations, all of them, I wasn't going
out of my way to say I'm gonna fight you because I'm like offended or
like you hurt my feeling. It is a it is a fight or flight
instinct that I have when someone cuts me down in a situation like that.
And typically not all the time, but typically someone says something really like dastardly
to me out of nowhere, I will just retort, without question, without
thinking it through, without proture. I will just say eat shit, fucker,
and then I will be like, ooh, this person is two hundred
and fifty pounds. They have a bunch of friends and they're fucking coming at
me. I should not have said that. I can't, Like, that's
so funny that that is a kneejerk reaction for you, that like before you
even think, you do that, And like I'm trying to think of what
could possibly get me to like, I don't think even if I had time
to think, I can't think of a scenario in which I would be like,
hey, fuck you dude. Well, I guess I don't know,
Like maybe I just have been lucky and haven't been in those circumstances because certain
things would warranted. But like I feel like every time I've gotten something and
just been like, all right, whatever, I don't encourage you to do
what I'm doing. I think that one day this will haunt me, right,
I do think that one day it will not be a fifty year old
drunk Jersey woman getting into the back. One day, it will be like
an actual person that will beat the shit out of me because I called them
like a stupid bitch when I could have just let it go. So like,
this probably isn't good advice. I'm not asked. I don't think it
is advice. I'm not saying to do it. I'm just saying that I
have built it ingrained in my system, probably from like middle school, when
like I was getting picked on or something that if you say some shit to
me while passing by, I will probably respond, And that's that's that.
That's just it's in there. It's in like the subconscious of my brain.
I don't think about the things that I say. Sometimes I test your levels
on this. Tell me how you react to this, because this to me
so I saw it was very funny and me and Jake laughed a lot about
it. I mentioned that when we were in Belgium and he was shooting a
take with me to do an intro for a video, and then he cut
and then he goes perfect, and then that Belgian guy on the street,
he's like perfect, perfect, hilarious. Mary, Would you go up and
just drop kick him? It depends that kind of sounds like he's just having
a good time. It was funny. Yeah, it depends on like it's
entirely I would it sounds funny to me off him, But if like his
he had a certain face that it would probably annoy me more, or like
if he was just brilliant, if he's stupidest faces that could be that could
be just a delightful, like cheeky he Actually something really simple air happened to
me in Paris. I was getting some stuff from a grocery store and I
tried to give someone a credit card and then it was the wrong credit card
and I went oops, sorry, and a guy who was restocking shelves behind
me went sorry. He kind of repeated me. I don't think he was
making fun of me. I think that the French were like, I've never
heard someone say sorry like that before, and he said it multiple times and
we started laughing because he was like sorry, and it became a catchphrase throughout
the trip, and when we made a mistake, we would look at each
other and go sorry, and it's just like this funny thing. I think
in that exact scenario, I would have found that very funny. I don't
think that's offensive. I don't think he was hurting you. I think he
was like a cheeky language barrier and he was enjoying like hearing you guys say
like piff perfect. Yeah, I think that's funny. I think that's funny.
Yeah. He was like, oh, you guys, could it take
up the whole sidewalk? You know, like to shoot your stupid little thing.
I would have gotten in his face. I was, uh oh,
j Jake killed a guy notorious, Yeah, notorious, like like not at
all level headed. Jake Decker freaked out on somebody in Belgium. He's still
in Belgium right now. They've been detaining him. Raised his voice. In
my entire life, I've never heard this person ever twice, the most even
mood, and I've never seen him get visibly frustrated with anything. I've never
seen him be anything but just incredibly pleasant. I've seen it twice, and
I like, even then, I knew it was like a solar eclipse and
like, I gotta savor this because I'm never gonna see it or it's like
Haley's comment, I don't know. I was not on last episode. I've
been traveling a decent amount with a new job and the way a wedding.
I just got back from San Juan yesterday Puerto Rico. I don't know if
anybody's ever told you this before, but Puerto Rico's like super nice. I
heard that, Yeah, San Juan, I'm joking, of course, it
was awesome. We were only there for two days. I was a quick
turnaround. But we were right in old Town, so like cobblestone streets,
like looking right at like each part of Old Town has this old like fortress
on it where cannons used to be for during the you know, piracy and
East India trading days. It was it was super cool to see those ruins
and whatnot. But before that, I was in Stead and it was my
first time ever in Sweden. Was there for about a week and Stockholm is
unreal. I'm a huge fan of Sweden now, really good food. I
did one night of Swedish food, like Swedish ass Swedish, what what's that
look like? So it turns out I thought Swedish meatballs were some dumb americanization.
They're they're super Swedish. Were they just like they're not like they're not
made out of like lamb eyeballs over there or anything? Are they? Or
they like no, I'm not sure what would be in the Swedish meatballs.
I think what defines them as Swedish meatballs, and it's they're like soaked and
resting in this pool of gravy, like very buttery gravy. All right,
As someone who is developing lactose in tolerance. It was definitely a risk reward
thing for me. I had to like, you know, take a lactate
or two and like acknowledge that I might have like an hour after eating where
it was not worth it, but it was it was worth it. They
were great. I had like this assordid plate of pickled herring with different like
mustards and whatnot on it, and then my favorite thing, they were just
I don't know if I'm curious. I know we have some Swedish listeners.
I didn't get the chance to ask anybody at the restaurant, but they just
gave us toast. But then they gave us row to spread along it.
Yeah, like they're little tiny orange fish eggs you get on sushi sometimes.
Oh yeah, that was great. Like the texture of the row combined with
the toast was awesome. I don't know if that's a dinner thing there or
if that's like every time you have toast, that's an option, but I
can't imagine it's the second one because roe probably gets expensive. But it was
great. And then surprisingly the rest of the nights I didn't realize, like,
I guess it makes sense. The water there is really good water clean
so when they're doing like baked goods, and they're also like bread snobs and
flower snobs, so bakeries were unreal. Pizza and I came from North Jersey
and had more pizza in Stockholm. It was that good. Beer was great.
I had solaris, which is like Sweden's Uh they're native like there,
that's one of the only grapes they grow that no one else does. I
had that. It was surprisingly good, but uh, it was great.
The people that were super cool too, Like I I didn't expect anything else,
but like, I really liked the inhabitants of Stockholm just as much,
which is not always the case when you're traveling. What's the worst city?
And I guess I shouldn't say the like the people suck, but like,
there's definitely been cities where that didn't feel as welcoming. Which city has the
worst people you're walking me into You've traveled a lot, I'm just curious.
I will say that the city where the people liked me the least was Colonne,
Germany, And I have to I can't blame them because I have heard
and I've seen firsthand. I don't think local. I don't know what the
word for people who live in Cologne to be but the Cologne citizens do not
like colonialists. I think, oh that's probably it. Yeah, it was
so, and everybody talks about not liking you know, colonialists, So okay,
okay, wow, that makes sense. But I can't super blame them.
Yes, yep, colonizers. You got to take a colon test to
get a citizenship, yeah, Colonne powellstration. Yeah, I think they just
don't like games. Comm and how many people come to the city like which
is a gorgeous city, which by all means most of the time is fairly
laid back and fun and I always I've done it once. I had fun
there. But they just didn't seem to be happy about games. Colm Happening
did not like the idea of a bunch of games coming to your city.
And I guess it's it's just a sh ton of people descend on it for
a week, and half of them are half of them are from America,
half of them are from I don't know half, but like, you know,
people from all over Europe are coming for one week, and you know,
I think that can be great. But also just like people who like
their city might get a bit annoyed then it's just there's fucking tourist left and
right during games com, which like anytime we walk through Midtown Manhattan, we
want to fucking punch ourselves in the face because of the tourists. So I
sure did, Sure, yeah, But I'm most curious what like people coming
from elsewhere think of New York, Because I know New York has I think
there's the reputation of New Yorkers for having an edge and being like, hurry
up and order your bagel, like you're holding a line up. I find
New Yorkers to be at heart extremely kind. I don't think they're super nice,
but I think they don't put on as, they don't put on airs,
but they're not actively rude. I don't think curious if that translates to
people not feeling welcome here. I think from what I've seen when I had
like family members from Kansas come out to New York, I think the overwhelming
thing was not like, oh, people being rude or anything. It was
just like, how do people live like this? Everything's so expensive, everything's
so crowded, the traffic's crazy, Like how do they just go go go
and it's so expensive? Like that seemed to be. I don't know if
they're just my family, but that's that's the overriding thing I always heard.
It wasn't about like, oh, people are assholes like San Francisco. People
are assholes. LA. People are assholes like New York. I think people
kind of respect, Like there's a lot of like blue collar people that are
just going about their day and they're not trying to be rude or anything.
You know, people will, Yeah, I prefer the New York style.
I've met some assholes in LA. I think what I'm saying, LA is
filled with assholes, yearly experienced, some like assholes, just self centered,
tough to get around people, not really giving a shit about anyone else.
Yeah, and San Francisco's right up there too. I think, like,
yeah, LA and San Francisco gotta be like one and two of like asshole
cities. I think, I think San Francisco, but like, I think
it's worth pointing out at least most of the assholes I met in San Francisco
were definitely not like from there like they had They were tech tech guys who
had come in and we thought they were running the world. Oh and it's
same with LA, where it's like a bunch of people from everywhere else that
think they're going to go be the next big star or whatever, and they
go out there and they're just assholes out there, and they get bitterer than
when it doesn't work out. Yeah, asshole in La. Yeah it's not
like the native people, like the people that grew up there necessarily, it's
the people that fucking like came there and yeah, just still shth heads or
shit heads and if they live there, a city full of shit ends.
Not everyone obviously, but people in Stockholm are awesome. People in San Juan
for talk about a fucking touristy city. And we were there, like height,
we're there for a wedding my wife's college friend. But it's spring break
season right now, so like there were some college kids down there as well.
We luckily avoided most of them. I will still say though, the
like servers and the bartenders in San Juan, like to a tee, we're
all incredible, Like they have every right to be annoyed by people, and
they were just unreal. It was great. I mean it's I guess it's
hard to be super annoyed when the weather's eighty five degrees in March but it
was a I like San Juan a lot. We want to go back when
it's not such a quick turnaround. But uh yeah, it's nice traveling for
work again. It's been a while since I've done that. Now it's a
lot all of a sudden, but I'm done. I mean, we're recording
this. All of us are getting ready or Mary, maybe not you,
but Dan, You're going to PAxx East in a couple of days. I'm
going to GC tomorrow. I'm packs and WrestleMania. Yeah, Mary, are
you going to GDC? No. I don't have a good justification. I
think that, Yeah, that's I tried. I was like, Twitch,
listen, my best buds are gonna be there, and they like each shit.
I don't have a good because I don't work in BD, so there's
really no reason for me to go. Now. I have a stronger justification
to go to PAC's East just because there's like a good potential for being on
a panel or something. But almost every year I just find it more,
I don't know, more justifiable to go to PACs West, and I put
my tokens into that. I've just kind of found I'm not going to go
to every game event, so I picked the top the top boys. I
did the same thing when I worked at GameSpot. I used to be like
it was all calculated. I used to be like, you're such a good
person, Jake, why don't you go to PAS East? And I was
like, I'm going to fucking Tokyo Game Show if it killed me, I
will give everybody else everything. And then when Tokyo Game Show comes, get
the fuck out of my way. I do I do that here. I
just kind of think of, like which top game thing should I go to,
and I and I try to go to those also Packs West and like
Summer Games First and Game Awards for you that's like an hour hour nation.
I will say that I love doing the Packs East Boston experience, and like
it's sometimes it's snows and it's like pretty cool, Like it's a cool experience.
I don't regret any year I went to PAX East. I just don't
have the same reasoning for going as I once did. There's more of a
novelty to Packs East, I think because it's like when you work in games,
like I've been to Seattle so many fucking times because like there's so many
no Microsoft, Nintendo, you know, Soccer Punch is a million million developers.
Especially when I was gamingform where it was like four times a year at
least had been going out there. Now it's like, you know, Boston.
The only time I've ever gone out there is for Paxis for the most
part, so there's more of a novelty there. I haven't been there as
many times. Yeah, they were the they were the development hot spot in
like the late nineties, like that immersive sim crowd harmonics like Irrational was popping
up. But yeah, former dev hotspot for sure. But like god,
going to I once. I'm at GDC and this is my first time going
to San Francisco since I want to say, like Game of the Year stuff
for game Spot back in twenty twenty, right before I left. If is
that correct? I think wouldn't that be twenty nineteen because twenty twenty was like
deep in the pandemic there. Nineteen March March of twenty twenty was when they
sent people home. Yeah yeah, good, sorry, sorry, Game of
the Year twenty nineteen into twenty twenty. Yes, yeah, so that was
the last time we were probably out there at the same time. Yeah,
yeah, it's been a while. Every time that all the time. It
just so happens. I'm not going when you're going to be there, and
I'll be there at first. Once i'm there, it's great, But that
fucking the flight from Newark to San Francisco gets longer every time, I swear,
And I just did like Reykovic and Stockholm and that was you know,
those were some decent flights, but like that, flying west and then on
the way back on Friday, you know, you're jumping forward three hours once
you land or as you fly, and the prospect of San Francisco tomorrow compared
to like Boston, it's like, ah, god damn it. But once
I'm there, I'm sure it'll be great. And it's my first GDC largely
being there for like business development, which is new for me. But yeah,
I'm looking forward to it. That has been one of my favorite things
about being back in the Midwest is like any domestic flight is like, I
don't know, three hours on the high end, you know, it's like
no more that, Like, yeah, Newark to San Francisco, like that
was rough. You know, Game of the Year every year. Oh god,
flying to Minneapolis in December was It's always easiest. Shit, Yeah,
the airport's great. Yeah, really eazy. That's an easy one for me
too. You have to like justify all the flying and stuff that we do
anymore. Now, Like I fly a lot. I actually am really looking
forward to. I think I have two weeks where I'm not flying anywhere,
and it's just like, oh that's so nice. Yeah, two whole weeks
where I get to like do nothing. I love that. So my tune
has changed. Whereas in twenty twenty, when we like stopped all flying,
I would have killed to fly somewhere and like experience different city every once in
a while. But now I'm back on the other We're swinging the pendulum the
other way, and I'm I'm I'm out a lot, so I enjoy the
old home now. Yeah, when I get back later this week where our
dating anniversary is going to be this week, so we have like dinner plan
the day like the weekend after I get back, and that's also kicking off
I think three solid weeks of no traveling like anywhere. Can't wait. But
thanks for Jeff Grubb for coming on in my absence, y for most of
the episode. It went. It was it was super fun episode, Yes
it was. He was awesome. Yeah, super He's super fun and it
was a good conversation. We all agreed at the end of it we could
make this work. Yeah. I'm glad I finally had an opportunity to talk
to Jeff Grubb on a podcast. It's so rare. Yeah, so unique
to be able to have Jeff grab on a podcast. Yeah right. He
normally refuses to be anywhere near a podcast, you won't sit in the same
room as a podcast, but owns a microphone. No, no, we
had to ship it to him. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, well Mike
drove it over. So Mananti, do you guys want to talk about video
games? Yes, Mike Dan. Isn't it amazing when you want to order
some wine and you get exactly what you want and you didn't really have to
think about it or do nothing that lazy type of wine mm hmm yeah,
or you didn't even or you got something you didn't even know you wanted,
and all of a sudden you're in love with it. It's so nice when
you're just like not paying attention and life just works itself out for you.
Mike, tell me a little bit about some of the wine you've been ordering.
Yeah, so if you sign up for First Sleeve. Dan, you'll
talk about this more soon, I'm sure. But you go through the steps
to say, like, I like coffee, I like burnt toast, I
don't like walnuts, and they'll kind of curate boxes for you. But like,
my favorite part is finding something I had idea I even liked. You
know, the weather's starting to sort of warm up here in New York and
it's a nice time to start getting back into some rosees. I had a
grenache rose from California that I haven't been doing too many California wines recently,
but this was great in the warm weather out on the pier. I think
I've talked a lot about. One of my favorite wines I've had in a
long time was this Chilean Carmen Air that we had steak, which again would
not have been on my radar if it wasn't for First Leaf. But yeah,
it's great for discovering wines and for just reinforcing the stuff you already like.
But Dan, tell them how they can get involved First Leaf, Well,
you can join pers Leave Today. It's a wine club that really gets
you. Go to try persleave dot com slash fire Escape to get your purse
box of wines. That's t R y F I R S T L e
a f dot com slash fire Escape, try persleaf dot com slash fire Escape.
I'm gonna kick it off with a game that you two have been talking
a lot about, but I have not been on the show since I started
playing it. I think I'm sixteen hours into Bilatro, okay, like like
I out of curiosity, I was like, all right, I told him
I play this, and I was flying to Reykivic. I was like an
hour in my flight. I was like, I'm done reading, I'm gonna
try this game out. And all of a sudden, I looked up and
I was like, in Reykivic, four hours had gone by and I don't
know where they went. That's the way. It seems like the perfect playing
game. I have not traveled since I started playing, but like, I
cannot imagine a better playing game. The touch screen is so easy, like
I could just like have one arm while I'm also sipping coffee or whatever and
then just tapping every once in a while. I it's We've talked about this
before at length on fire Escape, but some of my favorite games in recent
years are the ones that like here's the kingdom, like they want you to
break them, like, and that's just what this game is about, is
juicing the stats how the poker works, because like we've talked, like apologies
if I'm like read or anything, but like you barely even know need to
know how poker works. If you understand the hands, that's fine. It's
broken by the time you figured it out, like I had every time I
stream it. Someone in the chat is like, you have a straight,
you have a straight, And I'm like, listen, you stupid bitch.
Do you know how many points I've put into two pair pair slaps? You
have no idea what you're fucking talking about. That's a joke to me.
This is two pair city I'm getting. I was getting. I don't know
what you guys is like like a number one hand has been but I was
getting. I was getting million dollars scores, like million score, million points
scores on two pair. By the end of my run million. The pair
just pops up a lot, And you can also fashion it pretty well to
like you know, you can copy cards to be like Okay, let's say
you get the two pair thing leveled up quite a bit and you get the
tens and fours, the walkie talkie Joker, and it's like, all right,
I'm going to turn every fucking card I can into a ten or a
four. If it kills me, then you can full house. You can,
yeah, yeah, but seal put a full house is yeah, that's
my bread and butter, like and that that's what Deck was I using.
I forget what Deck I started with, but that becomes almost like so secondary
once you get far enough into a round. So you've beaten the game once,
No, I think I've done it more than twice. I've gotten very
cleve. I've gotten to the final the Final Boss Blind four times, maybe
in sixteen hours. I don't know if sixteen hours are super accurate, that
might just be Idle time as well. But it was like two trips worth
that I played that game. The first time I got to the Boss Blind,
I was very the Final Boss Blind, I was very overconfident, and
I waltzed in and they gave me the modifier was just extra big blind YEP,
so I needed and I just barely missed it because like I had been
that's like the fun of that game, or it's not fun in the moment
because you're losing, but you go like you get through three boss blinds and
like two pairs been working the whole time, and you keep juicing that,
and you get the neptune or whatever does it increases that and then you keep
turning everything into one of two numbers Uranus yeah, go on and Jupiter's slush.
And so I was like so like comfortable in just juicing that that by
the time I got to a boss where I needed like eight hundred thousand or
whatever, the points were like, oh god, damn it, I'm not.
Yeah, I've been getting enough to win everything else. But then all
of a sudden they throw that at me. But they do it all the
time. I love when even when you're not at the final boss right,
when you're like at the third it's like the third round boss and it's like
you've been only you've been getting rid of everything in your deck except for hearts,
right, and you've just been flush flush City, and it's like hearts
don't work no more. Like your boss is just like we're fucking you over.
Or you can only play one hand against you, or you can't play
a hand more than once one andied, well one hand, have you gotten
the one that's like you get one, yeah, like that one that's a
killer. I've had decks that I was just killed it with like all face
cards stuff, and one of my jokers was like all cards are considered face
cards, and then the final joker being like your final boss playing being like,
uh, face cards are rebuffed, dock so screwed. Yeah, they
it's funny too. On the flip side, I guess more than positive or
not that that's negative, but like when the game's not fucking you over,
it's like, Okay, I just got pretty far. I fucked up.
I got to restart, but I got a new joker that I'm trying to
think of what the one joker was. I literally I was like that seems
way too hyper focus. That's never going to be that useful. I put
my steam deck down and I went to the bathroom on the plane, and
while I was pissing, it like dawned on me how I could use the
card you kind of like dropped the copy muguets I joined the Mile High Club.
If the Mile High Club as you have a video game epiphany in the
bathroom like that, I almost had to sprint back to my seat and then
test it out. What joker was it? I should remember. I think
it was the Curious. It was one of the one where if you,
oh, okay, I remember what it was. It was a combo of
one of the jokers where every time you save up more money for each discard
or reshuffle withever that you don't use. So I was like, well,
I've kind of been using those because I'm using those to get full house.
But then I had another one where the joker was if I played a face
card, it would refill one of my like re redeals or whatever for that,
so I could basically game it and still get as much money. And
like those hands that are built around making a shit ton of money surprise make
the game pretty easy because you're actually buying every bonus. You're buying everything you
need, and you're diversifying. So when you hit those bosses that are like
you can only play one hand, you're like, I don't care. I
got my full house is ready to go. And then right before the final
boss, you're just buying everything, rerolling, buying all that stuff rerolling.
It's like, I've got two hundred dollars, a motherfucker, I'm buying everything
here being flush is extremely valuable. You don't want to be poor in Bilatro
and you can scrape by. But usually I find the runs where I win
and I beat the game is because I had enough money to spare. I
had. I had a really good one. I had a really good joker
that was just cashing me out, and I think I got it really early
in the game, and because it added a dollar each round. By the
time I was in seven, I was just getting paid twenty three dollars every
time. It was crazy. I was making so much money I couldn't spend
it anymore. At that point. My favorite joker that I ever got was
I'm curious like your favorite jokers, My favorite was at the very beginning of
any hand, if the very first discard is one card will kill the card.
It won't exist anymore. And I think you even get money for it
or something like that. You get like three bucks. I thought you were
gonna say, it's the one where it shovels it back in your deck,
but it makes a copy. No, that one, it deletes the card
from from the deck, and I was using it. I had enough disc
cards where I could afford to just throw away my first disc card and I
was just getting rid of every spade and uh yeah, I was just getting
rid of decks and that way, I was like all hearts and diamonds.
It was really easy to get a flush and it was super super fun just
being like each time I started a hand, I was like, which card
will I murder this time? It was really fun. I think the one
that you believe you two have talked about it, but the first joker that
truly was like, oh god, they really are trying to let me break
stuff. It's like, uh, you can get a straight, but yeah,
that's the one you can suggest. Golden Gate was well how do I
not get a straight? Now? If you get that? And the one
where flushes and straights can be done with four cards, the hoh choke at
that point, Yeah, like you're not it's so easy. That's a really
fun one. I think that was the first time I ever beat the game
was with the straight that you could skip. You could skip a number.
It's laughing when I was playing it is so stupid. Yeah, I definitely
like unlocked the game for me. Such a good game. God, yeah,
so hot right now. It's great, But uh, newer game that
I know a couple of us have played. Mary. I think you're holding
off for a bit Dragons Dogma two yeah, like five, or you guys
are talking about SpongeBob square Pants Battle for Bikini Bottom Rehydrated, not yeah,
we'll save the best for last. That's what I thought the game. Everybody's
talking about right now about the SpongeBob SquarePants Battle for Rehydrated. Jess Christ,
that's a lot of first game. So many words come up for Gody,
worst title or best. There's not like six colons and a couple of hyphens
and amper sands in it. I have a colon, okay, one or
two colons? Yeah, like a Tilda They yeah, it's so Dragon's dog
wa two. Dan, what is your history? Did you play the first
game? I think the only thing I did with the first one was I
was on a video at Game Informer of it where I created some called Steve
Austin and tried just to have a bunch of monsters in the nuts. That's
all I remember. It was like a thirty minute episode some video. Never
actually like spent any real time with it. So this, for all intents
and purposes, this is my first experience with Dragons Sogma. Okay, So
for those who don't know, Dragons Dogma was made by people at Capcom who
had like previously worked on Devil May Cry like action games, and then they
wanted to make a more open world game. But one of their big things
is they wanted to make it actually feel dangerous and more systems driven. So
I don't think it's that surprising. Having said that that people that I would
say it's like, Dragons Dogma is one of my top like twenty five games.
Ever. I love the first Dragons dog Jesus really yeah, yeah,
wow, I've gone back to it with Darker Risen on PS five when they
re released it. If that maybe it was a PS four versus four,
right, It came out originally on three like three six era, and then
probably got Darker Risen the next one. Yeah, yeah, and it I
like system driven games, immersive sims. I like where I'm just kind of
figuring finding the story for myself. So yeah, I'm about five six hours
into this. I haven't I literally just played like yesterday and today. I
haven't been able to dig super far into it, kind of rough around the
edges, like the game itself, Dan, I think are you playing on
PC. Now. I started on PS five and I actually switched to PC
because, yeah, I could not believe there was not a performance mode and
like I am kind of a I'm not a resolution snob, I'm a frame
rate snob, and like it was kind of killing me. Yeah, I'm
still playing PS five. It's rough. It's not even that they don't have
a performance option, it's there's just there's no like I wouldn't even call the
base default resolution oriented. I mean, it's definitely low frame rate, but
it's it's didn't there's no run great Yeah, no, yeah, it's I
got past it once I started playing more. But yeah, I don't know.
I still am trying to figure out a couple of weeks they've made to
the pond system and how that works. But I'm really enjoying how these quests
you're getting are time based, many of them, and you start to see
this more and more as you play, where it's like, oh, I
guess if I play this one, something could happen in the world that basically
fails this quest because I took too long. But also you'll hire a pond
and those who don't know a pond system is there are these like procedurally generated
characters? Well, they're two things. They're procedurally generated characters you can hire
to be your party members, and you can have four now I think it
was only it was three in Dragon's Dogma. Was it the same thing where
you had like your main one that you created and others could summon, and
then there's just two others that you bring on. Yeah, yeah, okay,
But now they've got a whole bunch of new wrinkles to that where you'll
find these like broken rift stones in the wild that either summon pawns of one
disposition or one vocation but they're really good at it, or you could just
randomly summon a very high level pond. But basically, like the characters in
the game, are these procedurally generated, like if you've played State of Decay
two or there's like shades of the Nemesis system from Middle Earth, how they
react to what you're doing. And you know, now they've added a lot
more where I'll be getting ready to go continue on the main quest as I'm
going to the capital city and Vermond or whatever you want to call the world,
and then this pawn I just hired will be waving her hands and be
like, you got to come check this out, and she'll lead me like
two hundred yards away onto a part of the map where this other emergent kind
of quest pops up. And it's tough to fully judge the game without just
like really getting deep into all of that stuff, the actual you know,
the emergent systems the game, the quest that are coming out of nowhere that
I didn't really plan for, because that's the joy of the first game to
me was sure, you set off on this this journey to go kill the
cyclops, and then you're taking a bit longer, so night's falling and you
don't have camping supply, so it gets a bit tense because there's also you
really need to be resting at ends in order to save, because the auto
save is purposely bare bones in these games. There is a pop up that
says like, hey, don't rely on auto stave, and I was like,
that's interesting. I don't think I've seen a pop up like that.
Yeah, that was very much the first game, Like I think, you
know, they want to to actually make it feel like you're going on this
overnight journey. It should feel dangerous, like if you come across this campground,
you can use camping supplies. However, if you don't clear out enemies
that might be in the vicinity, you can get ambushed at night when you're
like caught off guard with your pants down, so to speak. So that
is that was like why the game, the first game has such an indelible
place in my memory because I remember those kinds of missions that were not really
scripted by or they were scripted by the designers, but not necessarily like cut
scened or you know, part of the main quest. It was just these
these missions that popped up that I kind of dictated myself, and then the
game pushed back when it needed to on certain aspects. So I'm seeing that
a bit here. I think the first game got off to a much faster
start than this game. But so far, I'm intrigued. I want to
keep playing. I wish I didn't have to you know, travel once I
started getting into it. But yeah, I'm curious, what, like what
your impression is, especially as if this is your first one. Yeah,
I came in having no idea what to expect at all. I knew people
generally liked the first one and that dark Horism was a little bit better,
But like I came in, I think I came in expecting what I expect
from most big kind of like fantasy based RPGs, where it's like, all
right, there's probably gonna be some really cool systems here, but like I
always kind of hate slogging through the lore of like as much as I like
like Oblivion and Skyrim and and plenty of fantasy based games, like I don't
need to know like this novel's worth of like the lore of Nerf and Herfin
or whatever the area is, you know, like I don't give a shit
about that stuff or these characters, and this is extremely dewey for a I
guess I would call this like a fantasy action RPG. Is that fair,
Like definitely RPG elements, but it's like it's pretty action heavy. I didn't
I didn't know about the Devil May Cry pedigree. Oh yeah, if you
look up the credits, it's Devil May Cry people. That's that makes a
lot of sense, because like there's a ton of combat here. Are you?
Did you go with a fighter vocation? You know? I? I
almost always do, and I wanted to kind of do things differently this time,
and so I've never played. It's like a thief. So I'm playing
so really fast. Yeah, like so like I've got these double blades and
my main pawn is a wizard who can like imbue my daggers with lightning and
stuff like that, and then I'm hiring these other pawns. Actually, today
I hired a I went into the rift where you can hire random ponds,
and since it's pre released, it's you know, you'll see people pop ups
like, oh, this is clearly a capcom person. I hired a Chris
Plants pawn Apheliah. Yeah, we're not, like we weren't on the same
friends list, so I think I just I was like, oh shit,
I know that. Yeah all right, so yeah Pillia, Chris, I
know you're listening. Pelia is doing great, and I'll send her back with
some beef jerky or something. But you offload them? Was that? Yeah?
I was gonna say, have you hired out your pond yet to other
people? I think so, because like you can set God, I forget,
there's something I like set pond quest or something like that, and I
think I could maybe only set it for like do a day in a night
or whatever. So I haven't really gotten deep into that yet, and I'm
still trying to figure out, Like, Okay, it seems like if I
give upon equipment, like if I give them stuff that they're wearing, that's
going back to their original owner. But I think I can give them any
kind of like weapon upgrade stuff or consumables and that comes back to me when
they go away. Is that correct? Yeah? That sounds generally right.
Yes, Okay, okay, because that's the things. I'm a thief,
and so I want to say super duper lighte and like my abilities are ones
where I'm doing these like concussive jumps and I'm like doing flips and shit,
and so I want to be very mobile. So I just offload everything except
for like the clothes on my back, onto all my different ponds and I'm
just hoping it's all coming back when I fire them or whatever. Yeah.
That was in the first game that was a very popular pawn. Archetype was
a fighter with a very high carry load. They're literally just like your pack
mule. Okay. So I went with Archer specifically because I found Archer to
be the most boring in the first game. They have done a lot to
make that clap. That vocation, I should say, much more fun.
You can get start doing acrobatic stuff early on. You've got more options to
be a sniper. So my pond art, she's a fighter like Gigantic,
just fucks people up. But I'm already building her out to be much more
aggressive and tanky, and I'm really upgrading my And you upgrade vocations at inns,
you learn new skills, and then anytime you rank up, it's just
a basic these twelve numbers went up. Other things change, but and you
can go to other vocations basically whenever you want after a certain point in the
game. But yeah, I'm definitely working on developing my archer, and then
I have two other mages in my party with me and the fighter. Right
now, what are the enemy types like? Generally speaking, like a lot
of dudes, harpies, little goblin dudes, good Greek myth I mean,
it's like Tolkien Fantasy kind of Greek myth like. So there's also like the
monster hunter aspect of this game, where some of your quests are to go
kill this hulking cyclops, troll whatever dragon. Then you get supplies from them,
and then you can use that to craft like more legendary type weapons,
but yeah, it's largely like Tolkien esque enemies. All some monster on are
like in a lot of meat cooking, although when you do it in this
it cuts to actual footage of meat cooking, which I find really funny.
Did the first one do that? I don't remember, I don't think,
so it's I don't know why I love it so much. It's like when
I go to cook at the campsite and I'll see like five different kinds,
like, oh, I don't think I've seen them cook the tiny flank yet,
I'll pick that one. Just here's this nice b roll of just meat
cooking. Yeah, actual meat. There's so much like Little I mean the
first game too, and I'm seeing that a lot here. There are certain
times where the you know, like the AI needs to be good in a
game for the pawn system to work, because it's not just the ponds.
There's also certain parts where in the main quest, someone basically becomes your party
member with their entourage for a long stretch, and there will be some rough
patches where they're like, do you want to join us on the way to
the capitol? Jump in this ox cart with us and kind of basically not
even really fast travel, but just like it's gonna be safe for anyone need
to worry about supplies. And I said, no, I want to kind
of make my way to the capitol. Then I saw, oh, it's
farther than I thought it was, So then I jumped in the ox cart
with them. Wait, is that the early one where you have to go
like when you first need to go to the main city. Yeah, okay,
tell me what I did wrong here, because I went to that ox
cart and it seemed like I need to jump in there, and I jumped
in the back and they were like they said something, and they're like,
oh, you can't do this, And so I went the long way and
I remember thinking like, god, damn, they spend like this is a
five or six hour fucking first mission to like get to this place. So
tell me what the fuck I did wrong there. It took me a while,
and I brought that up because one of two things I didn't realize you
needed to sit on the bench by pressing circle next to the main guy and
then also front of the ox cart. No, on the back there's a
bench he's sitting on. And then secondly, one of the his Ai who
was supposed to get up onto the front seat of the ox cart just was
walking in circles, okay, because no one was in the back of the
ox cart when I was there, But like people like NBCs were talking like
I should, but nobody was back and I didn't see any prompts. I
looked for a while. It's like, I guess I'm And it took like
five buck hours to get to that city, all right, I guess this
is just an extended tutorial. I assume. Yeah, And the game is
much like the first game. I'm getting the sense, you know, like
I'm gonna have to be putting up with some annoying shit like that, because
like, honestly, I think you did the right thing. It like,
this game is very much about the journey, and like literally like those treks
and the shit you come across, And it's annoying in a way that that
main quest giver at the beginning of that quest, when you leave border Watch
or whatever in melv the town where you first have those flashbacks to ship in
your past, you're supposed to be following him on the map. However,
if your PAWD suggests, oh shit, I think there's a treasure chest over
in this area, based on like when I was with another Arisen who guided
me to there, and because basically the lore is that it's a multiverse and
in each one there's one Arisen who commands the ponds. That's basically there in
your world, you're the risin and I'm the risk And that's their way of
saying, like, this is how you're sharing ponds. Because they're jumping between
these realms, They're like, oh, I've been here before in another realm
with a different Orisin, there was a treasure chest. We should joke check
it out. So you go to check that out, and then the main
guy who you were following. Sometimes it works really well where the game is
recognizing that, oh, they should start following you on this little tangent for
a bit. It's coming back to the main road and them kicking back into
follow me Captain Price mode. That is not always smooth. They're path findings
sometimes, like if we go into these ruins that are not technically on a
main road, they'll like go way back to a beginning part of the main
road before coming back to where you just were five feet away. It's like
the path finding and a bad RTS path finding. Mm hmm, there's a
lot of that already, which Darker great too. That there was uh like
it's all time based as well, so if they're like, hey, you
need to do this, if you dick around in enough time, you actually
do lose that pathway. Yeah, some of them means or if people can
die if you don't help them in time, and things like that, and
then it's it is it is yeah, which, again, like Darker Risen
was much better because they like cleaned up a lot of the game and they
added some other things to This feels like the original era of Dragon's Dogma one
where I was putting up with a lot of annoying things because I like the
rest of it so much. And again like that is the danger in a
systems game that's so dependent on AI and these things working smoothly. It's like
you start to see why so many developers don't do stuff like that, because
so much can go wrong. So, to be clear, I'm not saying
that has happened a lot so far in the five hours, but it's noticeable.
The game is just rough around the edges. However, I'm still very
much enjoying I want to keep playing it. Like the pond system did not
truly strike. I didn't fully like understand how amazing it was in the first
game until like twenty hours in. And I'm not saying it'll take you twenty
hours to start liking this game. I enjoyed, you know, some a
decent number of bits early on, but once you start unlocking those high level
ponds that also like have this weird little pond quest about being in someone else's
realm, and it leads you to like finding this gryffin that you kill,
who then lets you craft this new shield that has gryffin feathers on it,
and then you know, you get your your your pond back and like your
friend text you is like I just used Arta that was She'd like saved my
ass like sixteen times. Like that's texting Chris Plant today. I al cool.
Yeah, this is That's when it gets like fun. You know,
the pond system and also just how the vocations work. This world map is
pretty or the world itself is very Siri Diill Elders Girls four as the original
Dragon's Dagma was. But I think they've they've put enough interesting stuff in there
and little side quests stuff that popping up. I really wish I could just
really sink into it for a few days. Unfortunately, I'm gonna have to
put it down for a week. But I'm intrigued for sure. So I
have not fast traveled at all yet. And my assumption was, like the
thing they did teach me that I haven't used is like you can buy those
stones or whatever, the ferry stones or something and warp back to certain areas.
But like, I just got a quest. I don't know if you've
done this in the main city. And it's like a monster hunting thing where
it's like, Okay, there's three spots on the map, you got to
go kill some monsters, and two of them were really close to the city,
and one of them was like as far away as that first you know
mission that sent me to the city. And so I was like, fuck,
I guess that's the game. I guess I'm doing. I guess another
five hour trek out there or whatever. So do I just need to be
looking for like carts? Is that the main thing? Like, like,
how do I am I expected to to make that entire track? Like I
don't hate that all the time. There's stuff later on, I will say
camping supplies are a big thing. Make sure you bring those because you'll come
across campfires in the wild where you can rest refill. I always have the
one. I've got like one graded one that I have my pond carry and
it seems like it's multiple use. So it's just like, yeah, every
time I see a campfire, I cook, I sleep, yeah, oh
yeah one of my my I keep my fighters stocked with camping supplies as often
as I can. I didn't do that specific one, but that's a fairly
common quest structure in the first game. It I think they're expecting you to
really just try to enjoy that trek. Okay, I'd say I'm the wrong
person to ask, because that was the fun of the game to me.
And the first one, well, I just want to make sure I'm not
missing anything, because I did miss that initial thing when I did that long
ass you know tracks, but I did not. I really didn't dislike it,
like that was the game for me. I was just like, you
know, running around from campsite to campsite killing monsters. Yep, it's it's
very much. I mean the way I played the reason I love the first
game it's like make a cocktail, settle in for a long trek, and
like like, okay, the risk reward of do I use camping supplies here?
I hope I can find one higher up. It's like, well,
my maid is doing pretty well, so we'll have healing. My supplies are
low, but I think I can get back. Oh fuck, the sun's
going down now. It's getting scary. It's not like dying light levels of
scary night, but it's up there because bandits are more frequent at night.
In the first game, at least you have finite lantern oil. So yeah,
it's like survival light elements. It's not quite like Suns of the Forest
survival, but it's you know, it's there's survival elements for sure that make
those those those long distance journeys like those are the joy of the game.
I think that's why it's working for me so much, is it does have
these elements that if they're done too much will annoy me, Like too much
story will annoy me, too many like hardcore survival elements will annoy me,
and things like that. This one, it's like there's enough of a story,
it doesn't waste too much time. It's just like, hey, okay,
you're the orisin we got to go prove that you're the Arisen. All
right, let's go to the castle and then the survival stuff. Like you
mentioned, it's there's systems in place there and everything, But I don't feel
like I'm slogging through like a million different tutorial things like I feel like I
get it pretty quickly, and even though it is rep around the edges,
I think it's got the right balance and all of these different systems it's trying
to do. Yeah, it's it is trying to do a lot much like
the first game was, and I think it was a cult classic for the
reason that it was really ambitious for its size and budget and scope, but
it nailed those things really well. I mean, Same State of Decay two
is not the cleanest game I've ever played, but it's one of my favorites
because of the way those systems are all interacting with one another, and I
get so much more attached to those kind of characters or like Nemesis system enemies
than I do in most scripted situations. But yeah, I want to keep
playing it. I'm uha. I made a maybe not surprisingly, I made
a cat man for my main character, the beast string. I believe they're
called Oh yeah, yeah, you can basically just be a person or a
cat person, So of course I'm gonna be a cat. I have a
my uh my main paonnd is like a seven and a half foot tall wizard
with terrible posture. Oh you made it might hunch over? No, no,
no, he leans back when he watchs and it's just like giant Yeah,
like he's got a gumby walk. He walked back in his elbow angle
and his knee angle is both like best man walk. You know. I
actually made my pond like semi normal. I guess she's but then she's she's
kind of a psycho. It's nice in a world where you can be anything.
Mike is a cat and Dan is gumby pon. I'm a cool thief
lady. Yeah, yeah, I want to use your I gotta find your
what's your pawn's name? Uh? Kan okay? R c A N Is
that did you write that? Or is that the Moniker? No? I
picked the Moniker and then I just named I did that with my main character
too, because like I didn't know if it was going to be vocalized.
It like the just have to be the same. Yeah, as I understand,
the moniker shows up in the world like when you're looking at searching for
ponds, but then if you look at their actual stats, the name name
will show up. I could yeah, yeah, but anyway, yeah,
I I I'm excited to play more of that game. I didn't truly love
the first game until like twenty hours in anyway, so I'm maybe that will
happen again. I don't know, we'll see. Yeah, I'm having a
lot of fun with this somewhere, Mary, How's how's it going? Also
a very systems driven AI geeky kind of game, Battle for Bikini Bottom.
I know that's very complex and high brow, more survival stuff, right,
Yeah, this has been a ten year battle because anyone who knows Battle for
Bikini Bottom would understand that this four has happened since two thousand and three,
which is when I first originally played this game. Now rehydrated did refresh the
graphics and some gameplay elements, but the basics of it is the same game
I remember from when I was in high school, which is a platformer where
you collect shiny objects and golden what are they called flippity flues battle flip.
Sorry, I can't believe you're trying to get what I wanted off from a
flippity flu no aspatchela, and you're basically like saving Bikini Bottom from a bunch
of robots that planked and created, but they actually self replicated and now they've
taken over the town. It has a lot of the nostalgia that I was
looking for. This is actually the reason that I purchased an Xbox many many
moonso, so you can thank Battle for Bikini Bottom for how I kind of
got more hardcore into games. Originally I was playing like more simple DS games,
but when Battle for Bikini Bottom came out, I had to get that
Xbox to play it anyway, and that kind of like started a cascading effect
of like playing Gears and a whole bunch of other games. So anyway,
the point is is I actually never finished Bump SpongeBob SquarePants Battle for Bikini Bottoms.
It was such a difficult game back then, and some would say broken,
and so this is kind of my redemption to rehydrated. It's, uh,
it looks a lot better. I do think that the gameplay is still
outrageously stupid and uh, sometimes it just doesn't make sense or I don't know
what they were thinking when they did it. A good example is like you'll
see something that you want, like a golden spatula, and it'll be above
water, and so you'll be like, cool, I'm gonna dive down and
get it, and you dive and you instantly die. Because a SpongeBob can't
swim despite the fact that he's in the fucking ocean. Does he swim in
the show or is he always inside like contained in the game he cannot swim?
Is he went in a show so the the swimming water the whole time,
but I know he was in buildings. I haven't seen the show,
so I don't know if he's like mine to water. I'm sorry. Have
you never seen an episode of Much Mold? Simply generation it transcends, you've
you've never seen one episode? I think. I think Bank showed me one
episode when we first met, and I was like, oh, I would
have loved this if I was, like, I appreciate it now, but
like you know, you get to that age where it's like I don't want
cart doing it anymore, you know, unless Simpsons. But again, it
transcends, like it's no, it's very funny. The chocolate selling episode is
like for all ages. It's not a child's episode, that is for everybody.
Everyone can enjoy that episode. But I find that fascinating that you have
no idea this universe because it's very it's it's clearly developed for people who are
fans of the show. I think you would not understand or give a shit
about this game Dan in any capacity. It's a lot of inside jokes about
all the characters, Mister Crabs obviously, like selling you out for cash money
and squid word being like it's just a selfish prick the whole time. It
just like it's it's the show manifested into a game, but it's it's silly.
The answer to the puzzle where I can't swim is that later on in
the game you it's an underwear dive, and so like they they hook your
underwear and then you like stretch it all the way to the bottom to get
this batula and then it like zip zaxy back up. It's like an ability
that you get is the underwear thing. It's just a random hook and it's
just like, no, you can dive now that you found this hook.
Yeah, it's so stupid. But I was like, they didn't explain it,
so you instinct is to jump in the water, and that's wrong.
The game is dumb. I think the review is this game is stupid as
hell. It's a lot of what I remember when I was in high school.
It is a silly game for silly people. But if you it's on
game Pass right now, which is why I played. I did not kiss
it wow, And I only played it because I saw it on game Pass
and I thought to myself, oh my god, is that the same game
I played like so long ago? And it is. It is the game
that I played many moons ago, and it's just kind of like a nice
to go back and actually beat it. So I'm gonna beat my high school
nemesis. Nice. That's it. You've been playing anything else? Dan briefly
today tried out Windowkill on Jeff Grubbs's recommendation. It is a weird little five
dollar game on Steam that like think Geometry Wars, but it's done on your
desktop and it's opening up a bunch of different windows for like you start in
a box and like, let's say, so it's you know, you're you're
a ship and it's like a dual stix shooter thing and you're shooting other enemies.
But let's say you hit the wall of the window, it expands the
window out, and so the windows kind of trying to box you win all
the time. So you're killing the enemies and you're trying to shoot the windows
window to make it bigger like your playspace, but then bosses will pop up
in other windows, and so you're trying to make your window expand into theirs.
It's it's really it's a cool gimmick. It's it's it's a rogue light
too, So it's like Geometry Wars rogue light that's opening up a bunch of
different windows on your operating system. And uh, it's not like a like
a hypnospace or something like that where it's all a fake operating system. It
is literally like these windows are popping up over whatever you have on your desktop.
So, like I was looking, I had, like in the background
of my game, I had Mike Minatti playing Moratal Combat sub zero and I'm
shooting stuff over it and boxes are popping up over his face and stuff.
It's a it's a cool gimmick. I like it. I like an it
looks fun. Yeah, anything that it kind of plays with like your actual
operating system in a novel manner like that. Like, I think that's pretty
cool. Do you think though that it is like five dollars is such a
reasonable price point, But like, how long can you really see yourself playing
this game? Yeah? I probably not a ton honestly. It's like there's
nothing about the It does not feel as you know, tight as like a
Geometry Wars or anything like that. I mean, you can upgrade your fire
rate and things like that and splash damage and it's not bad by any means.
But I do think the star from what I've played, is the the
hook. They are the novelty, the novelty value of it. Yeah,
I'm looking at it now. I didn't realize I didn't. Maybe you probably
said this. I didn't hear you saying that you can actually move the windows
though, or that's just on the main menu. I don't I might have
missed that. I was playing with controller, and then when I quit to
get on this call, I saw it recommend that like, oh, hey,
you you can use the controller, but we recommend keyboard in the mouse.
So like I am wondering if there's more to it that I don't realize.
But yeah, they get makes seem pretty solid. Okay, cool neat
that might be all the video games this week, kind of like, no,
that's not real, that's not correct. What else? There's two more.
I'm not going to let us go without talking about Hell Divers. There
have been several nights in the last week where I've thought, after we talked
last week about how you're always like excited if someone asked about Hell Divers.
I've had a few nights from like, am I in the mood for some
Hell Divers? Here? I could text Mary, I could ask her,
but I knew if I texted you and we played, I was gonna want
to make a drink. And I was like, ahh, I'll be good
tonight. I'll go to beout at ten o'clock instead of drinking till one o'clock
playing Hell Divers. But I was tempted several times. I'm still playing Hell
Divers. The reason I think it's worth bringing up is that there's been a
really interesting evolution that I think has had an impact in games. That's why
I'm bringing it up. Like if we play every time, we play a
game like eight weeks in a row, you don't have to fucking talk about
it anymore. But hell Divers is doing something really interesting right now. What
they're doing is, you know, like when Destiny has an update, they'll
be like, March twenty fourth, there's a new chapter and here's what it
looks like, and here's the boss you're gonna fight. Okay, hell Divers
is updating the game, and when and when the people are finding out in
the game that they've updated it. I'll give you an example. All of
a sudden, people are playing it and there's bugs that are flying. They
will go to Discord or to Reddit and be like, whoa wait, there
a flying bugs and the developer is like, no, there's absolutely no evidence
that bugs can fly, and saying so is actually counter your kind of like
siding with the bugs on this, and we don't want bug apologists, and
they'll fucking like threaten from the discord. They're denying, they're pulling a propaganda
and the game that are like addicted to they're getting in on it. They're
getting in on it, and they're basically like, get out of here,
get out of here. We promised you there were they said that bugs don't
fly, So what you're saying is actually like out of line, and you
need to be quiet. And the buds are fucking for how many people are
like going on the subreddit for the first time with a very earnest question and
everyone just giving them misinformationists do it for democracy, Like they're evolutionizing game updates
here, because we've had a system where again, like Destiny, you're basically
feeding your audience and saying like, here's a couple of nibbles to let you
be excited because we do have a big update coming and here's the length of
it, and here's like, here's what you can expect from it. This
game is doing the opposite. It is updating the game and denying the updates,
and it is fueling this this game fandom so hard. People who are
addicts of this game are freaking out because they don't because the games are lying
to them or like, who's to say, really, and there's something fucked
happening, Dan, there are people who are like playing this game that are
all of a sudden getting sniped by like lasers and it's never happened before,
It's never happened, and and they're like where's this laser coming from? And
the devs are like, we've never heard of this. I think you friends
whatever, dude, yes, either their own friends are like, you're you
obviously have made that up. You should just like be quiet and eat your
food. Well, I think it's happening. We don't know. But what
what the audience is starting to assume is that there's going to be a new
faction. That's right, that's right, Mike, there was, and so
this one is only bugs and uh and robots, but this blue laser is
hitting people. Another rumor that's hitting the town is that we're using a ship
ton of nukes to get the bugs, and everyone's like are these nukes good
for humanity? Like is this going to impact us? And the devs are
like, don't worry about it. Use as much gas as can, like
get in that gas, like go for it. And there's just like something
fucked about the way they're like feeding us into using as much like gas related
like nukee systems as possible and denying like flying bugs. That makes everyone be
like they're gonna fucking they're gonna drop a new faction and then they're just gonna
deny it. It's that's so cool. It's fucking brilliant. It's so cool
that was happening. That's awesome. That oh my god. Oh wait,
yeah, so the the the last faction in the uh in helldivers was the
Illuminate. They were like the elite aliens that use blue laser shit. Well
well well, and people are getting sniped by blue lasers, like at the
end, like when the drop ship is coming and they're denying it. It's
it's fucking fascinating, you guys. I think this is like a new era
of uh of Dev's slowly unleashing gameplay where there well that's like a way story
too though, like they're using the format of like a live service game to
tell the story, Like they did that a bit with the asynchronous worldwide multiplayer
the first game, but like they did not have the resources. Also,
people were not even then as online as they are today, so I think
they're embracing that in a way. That's like now they're playing like the the
propagandists. Yes, they are the propagandists, and they're playing the role really
well and it's working well for them. There's nothing funnier. The Red is
actually quite interesting. I do encourage everyone to go check out the hell Diver's
read it, because even like not just not the devs, other users will
be like, get out of here, you bug apologist. They said there's
no flying bugs, and you're feeding into the system and the lies and it's
I just looked at a YouTube video about flying bugs and all the comments are
like get out what is this bullshit? Like get out of here, Like
I find this offensive, even though the footage is there of the bugs.
The footage is there, and people are like, you've clearly doctored this.
This is very upsetting. You should go to jail. It's just New World.
I can't tell you how much I'm enjoying it. The drama associated with
like how they're doing this and how much the community is eating it up,
to me is more interesting, Like the game is obviously still phenomenal, like
it's it's just so alluring, Like this is so interesting to me, how
they're how they're getting away with it and how the audience is like feeding into
it. Is this the termicide stuff? Is that the gas ye safety sheets
like saying like it's not safe, it's not saved, and then people being
it's completely safe. Keep using it like that's fuckings are like, there's nothing
that's said that termicide hurts humans, like keep keep go for it. It's
just giant, giant nukes are going off and you're like shooting and everyone's like,
it's fine. They told us it's fine. Don't fucking question them.
Oh my god. Someone I just saw a clip on the Reddit. Someone
died and was coming back into a pod and they landed on a moving drop
ship that was dropping a tank off, and they like got out on the
drop ship and then rode the tank down to the ground. It's it's a
very it's very smart what they're doing. I'm very curious. I think we
all know what's about to happen. But what's so juicy is you don't know
when it's going to happen, you don't know how it's gonna happen. And
they're not going to like play this as a usual update. This will not
be a standard release of a game. They are essentially going to deny it
and and we're going to eat it up because it's brilliant. It's just really
cool what they're doing. Anyway, Like that's my update. I think it's
it's one of the coolest things I've ever seen. I already wanted to play
more of that, and now hearing that, I just super want to get
back in. That's that's so cool. I love that there's little hints throughout
the game that they might be doing something. There's like they're like releasing new
armor suits that are like like, why are you releasing this armor suit right
now? Like the that's right, the world is a buzz to what is
going on but that, but we I gotta find it. There was an
interview that they did back with the first game where they're like, in an
ideal world, we would do shit like that where like you get this new
armoor set that's resistant to this thing, and you're like, well, what
the fuck is this thing? And then all of a sudden, the stuff
like I could see that being the world where these termicide nukes we've been using
are now creating maps where you are just going to gradually lose health if you
don't have that kind of armor and that's our fault. And there an image
on the separator here just titled it's real with this, you know, picture
of a blue laser and then like first thing being like this is like UFO
sidings taken as shittiest potato quality images possible. Oh, I didn't think it
was possible for playground rumors for games just still exists in twenty twenty four.
Oh, this is this is good. You can expose too long to the
thermicide chemicals, fellow, Hell do I ever report the nearest infirmary. It's
chemtrails and conspiracy theories in a game, and everyone's just playing along. Everyone's
just in Kpe about this. I love it. It's eating it up if
you if you're on the post truth era, it's a game of our time.
Conspiracy City like theory City, everyone's playing wrong. I think it's I
think it's the most interesting thing I've ever seen in like recent years. I
can't think of another thing that is like evolutionized. How you would update a
game like this? It's so interesting to me. Yeah, this is awesome.
Yeah, it was very cool. It Mary what you have? Frog
Detective? Oh yeah, I played Frog Detective with my mom. It's not
nearly as interesting as Hell Diverse, but I will say I played another episode
of Frog Detective. Is the most wholesome, sweetest ship you'll ever play in
your life. If you're like, oh, my god, my niece is
coming over. My I've always wanted to like connect with my parents, like
play play one round of like round, play a level of Frog Detective.
It's so cute, it's it's such adorable writing. It's sweet as pie,
cool period. That's a you solve the stupidest mysteries in the whole world,
and it's just adorable. And my mom is a saint. She visited me
this week. Yeah, she was great. We had a good time.
We went to Astoria, which is where they filled the Gooni's oh yeah,
yeah, she loved it. So Long Astoria? That's that? What that?
Or is that a story of Queen's Oh I'm talking about so Long a
Storia from that was a band that you be, the ones who did the
Boys of Summer right, Yes, the ataris or Oregon. It's deaf,
it's got to be the same. I don't know. I can't even like
say that with a straight face. I have no idea. But it was
definitely during the same era of me playing Battle for Bikini Bottom. So two
pieces of nostalgia coming at you hot anyway, that's it. Now I'm looking
at more propaganda on here. The propaganda is so fu, why aren't you.
I love when they give for not playing the game because you're not helping
the war effort. Yeah, yeah, I get. I get. I
was in uh s F this week for work and the people were like,
we're texting me. They're like, we're about ready to drop, and I
was like, I'm sorry, I only got to work there. I have
to work. And they were just like, oh, you are so busy
working that you can't defend humanity. Yeah's your job? What's your job going
to be worth? What's the stock market going to be worth? Mary?
When humanity has been overrun by bunks? Is money that important to you?
Just like I guess I have to work the stock market? Mary, Yeah,
it's absolutely ragging on me. Yes, it is Rob Handler and Peter
Brown. Oh my god, the video you posted of him his voice over
when you were all dropping. I don't uh dan if you've seen that.
But like every time we drop Dan uh Dan, Rob pretends that he's dropping
in real life and screams like this guy. Sometimes he'll be like, tell
my kids, I love them. Does he live with anyone? His dog
freaks out? Mate? So sometimes we'll be like, why didn't you do
it? He'll be like, my dog's really upset. I can't do it
for the rest of the night, does it. I'm just picturing like a
significant other in the house and like, what the fuck is happening around eight
times a night? What are you? Okay, that's really good, Jesus.
I gotta play more of that game. And Dragon's too. But I'm
just gonna be playing Billottro all week in San Francisco. It's so hard.
There's so many good games right now. It is actually quite competitive. Like
my time is precious and my priorities are. If I'm on a plane,
it's Billatro all day, all night, like that's where I'm at. If
I'm home and I'm thinking about playing something, If I get a text,
that's it. It's hell Divers. I'm playing Hell Divers with my buds.
And then if there's nobody and I'm lone skis, it's probably DRAGONSGMA right.
Like it's like there's like there's systems that I have and you have to like
if you're at home, you have to set rules for like, Okay,
I'm not even gonna start Bilatro because I don't know how many nights I've like
planned on playing something else and it's eight thirty and I'm like, I'll do,
like, let me do a quick run of Blatro, get one good
run in and then I'm fucking going to bed and I'm bringing Blotro in there.
You know. The night that I played, I played Blotro for like
five hours. Unexpectedly. I was playing Frog Detective with my mother and we
beat the game. These these levels are so short, they're like an hour,
right and I stream for three hours. So my mom was like,
that was a great level. I'm going to bed now, and my mom
leaves, I have two hours left to stream, and I was like,
whatever, I'll play like a huple hands of Blottro. Four hours later,
I was fucking racking up points on Blatro. I was fucking addicted again.
I was playing it in bed on my Steam deck, like I have to
actually take a break from Blatro. Yeah, I love Volatro so much that
one's like that one's really in there. I also think it's gonna be a
great one for like when we're in the kind of frenzy right now, because
it just came out fairly recently, but I think eight months from now,
if I'm on a plane and I just need to pass the time. And
I haven't played Blattro in two or three months. I think that's gonna be
the most evergreen shit to just pull up and be like, you're not gonna
forget like how the game works, or how poker works or anything like.
I think that's gonna be a plain game for years for me. I I
agree. I think Blatro will stick around. It has extraordinary replayability. I
will say I've played it so much to the point where I've seen I feel
like I've seen a lot of the Jokers and I'm just like, whatever,
I know that Joker's trash and I'm like, I'm burning through runs. But
you can easily update the game with like additional Jokers, and the idea for
me to like get a fresh Joker and play a completely different run. Plus
the different levels of run right, like mistakes and everything. Yeah, yeah,
the different stakes, the different ones that restrict you in different ways.
There's one challenge. Most the challenge modes are nuts, and then there's Endless
Mode. Yep, yep. I played Endless Mode where the small blind was
seven million. I was like, well, I'm fucking dead, like twelve.
It starts getting like that and it's like if you look at like the
breakdown, it gets sound to like, you know, to the twenty seventh
power and should say, Jesus Christ, I've only gotten to any eleven.
That's part as I've gotten I should check. I wonder does it tell you
I got Yeah? The status there's a couple of stat screens, like if
you look at the it's in a weird spot, like it's something like the
blinds or the tags. When you go to the collection, there's a thing
on the left that tells you like what all the anties are. And then
if you go to your profile and the stats, you'll see how many times
you've won. You see what your your highest antie was. Things like that.
You're there's a straight up progress meter and I've played fifty hours of the
game and I'm at like twenty three percent. I want to look I that
sounds really interesting to me of like how how far I've gotten in things like
that profile one is that where it is yeah yeah, God, buttons where
it's just like we can reset your profile is so rude. Why would you
do that? Why would you ever reset a profile? What was your problem?
Did you say it's in collection? If you want to see. If
you go to your profile and then stats, it'll tell you that stuff,
but then there's like the actual like what the the h the anti numbers are
is hidden in some collection thing, But the profile thing will tell you some
interesting ones like your progress meter. I don't see. So if it just
says like Mary or I don't know if you said you're on Steam deck,
Uh, well I'm I've opened it up right now in Steam on my computer.
This is dangerous. I haven't I haven't played on there. But there
should be a part where you just like click like profile or your name or
something like that. I am clicking on profile, but I don't see where
it says all the cool stuff that I've got to options. I'm gonna I'm
gonna let's come back to this in the email section once you find it.
Do you guys want to do emails and also talk about Mary's Balatro stats.
I'm going to play around, okay. As usually, you can read into
fire Escape cast at gmail dot com for questions, comments, concerns, ask
us fun stuff about games or anything else. Married did you find your stats
Fortro? My best hand, Uh, it wasn't as high as I thought.
I think that. Uh oh, I thought I was getting sting.
It's my Auntie was eleven. My highest round was twenty eight, and I
was getting over. I was getting nine hundred and five thousand each hand.
Nine hundred and five thousand. Wait, it tells you like your average.
It says your best hand. And I was getting nine hundred thousand each hand
because I had a system that was essentially giving me the exact same almost number
each time. Crazy, Okay, within like a couple thousand. So what's
your progress, mater at Oh, that's a good question. Twenty seven.
Okay, I'm at twenty seven too, exactly twenty seven. That's so cute.
Yeah, I get fourteen percent of the collection. Yeah, wow,
what are the odds? I'm probably at like six. I have thirty six
percent of the collection. But I don't think I have as many challenges and
stuff as you do. Probably I haven't touched with challenges. I've just made
a point of, like, anytime I see a not discovered joker, if
I'm having like a bad run, I'll just buy stuff from the store just
to like fill out the collection. I see what you're saying. I don't
do that. I go for the like I try and get like the highest
whatever. It's interesting. Cool. Okay. My most played hand is two
pair. I'm gonna play this after how much money? What's your most money?
I'm just curious most money. Let me see. I'm absolutely gonna start
this and play until I go to bed. Collection ninety three joker stickers five
percent. Jesus fucking Christ, I'm at zero percent. That's so sad.
Yes, okay, best hand is four million, highest roundest thirty, highest
antis eleven. Most money is two thirty. What was yours? Two hundred?
Most money? Okay, okay, that was such a good hand.
I was just like, whatever the cost, I'm so rich, you can't
stop me. What's your number one most played joker? Oh? Hold on,
where do you see that? Mike? This is gonna be another two
hours, just so, now go into card stats. This is the last
one. Then we're moving on. Okay. My most common joker is three
times molt. If all cards held in hand are spades, are clubs?
Okay, that's my second one. My first one is plus one multi per
tarot card used. That's a second. Are we best friends? That's crazy?
The exact same setup. Either that or the game is broken and like
you you need these jokers in order the same. Yeah, wow, I
have not used the the three times malt. If your hand's all what's your
number one consumable? Oh? This is it's it's Jupiter. It's Jupiter.
Uranus is number two. Okay, cool is number two. All right,
let's read stupid emails. All right, we're gonna start aside. Ye,
alright, read this. Read this first one from uh Tim from Baldwin Mary.
Okay, hello, fire Escape. The Masters Golf tournament has a tradition
where the last year's winner hosts a dinner where he selects the menu. Only
past champions are invited to this dinner. That's awesome, actually very cool.
That's a very elitist thing to do. But there's stories about some of them,
just like, who fucking love KFC and they just get a ship ton
of it? That's what I would do. That says something about that person.
I wouldn't do that. Okay, back to the email. You have
just won Gamer of the Year and an all expenses paid dinner is being held
in your honor. What are you selecting for your menu? They usually include
a couple of appetizers, soup and salad, and Entrea dessert wine cocktail pairings.
Thanks Tim from Baldwin. That is a good email, Thank you,
Tom. It is and I don't want to do the obvious. So everything's
Scaco Bell thing, even though I literally just had Taco Bell and McDonald's for
dinner in the same meal tonight. What do you mean? Sorry? Well,
okay, so I wanted dinner before this, and Taco Bell just introduced
the new canteena menu, which actually it's kind of a pre release right now.
It's only for rewards members, so I was able to get it,
so I went in. It's true, but it's also the last day for
the Shamrock Shake mcflurry, and I really wanted that, so I drove to
both Taco Bell and McDonald's before this and got a bunch of Taco Bell and
a bunch of McDonald's. And yeah, so that's why that happened. But
I'm not gonna do Taco Bell for this dinner. I do want to do.
I know this is a gimmick thing, but the Oreo and nacho cheese
thing, because I've had enough people try that and it's been like pretty much
one hundred percent success, right, So that's like the ticket to get in,
you gotta try an oreo and anto cheese at the door. Tell me
what you think of it, writing a little notebook like you're signing a wedding
thing, and then you can go in. And I would just have I
think Casey Joe's barbecue, you know, just the best barbecue I've ever had,
barbecue my hometown, my favorite food, A bunch of burn in.
It's just a bunch of Casey Joe's burn ins. I think so good.
That's like one of the number one things to get if I get barbecue mary.
The next time you're here, I get the like the dry ice.
I get it shipped up here from Kansas City. I will we will make
Casey Joe's burn ins, and you will see it is the best cue you
will ever have. I usually when I go to a barbecue place, it's
my instinct to get burn in. It's not only because it tastes really good.
It's usually like so much more affordable than all the other options. It's
like, I don't know, it's like it's like the common man's barbecue dishes,
but it's like, let's messy, Like I never get actual ribs because
like it's just like with burn ins, you can just eat it with a
pork your hands, don't get all fucked up dirty and stuff. Yes,
it's you. You gotta try these. Oh that sounds good. Wait,
so like you do with oreos and nata cheese, you do? That's my
appetizer and the demand thing is the burn ins. Yeah. What what would
you do for dessert and drinks? What? What? Like? What beverages
would you have? Mmm? I'm such a novice in this stuff. You're
probably gonna be an open bar. But like, what would you want served
to them at the dinner table with like their food. My wedding, I
had those Baja Blast champagne flutes. Those are pretty good. I don't know.
There's a few cocktails I've made in my you know, a couple of
months of getting under that that I've really enjoyed. Uh Yeah, I like
Schambourd and I like quantroe. I like, uh is it a curse ow
anything with curs ow in it? Swy am I saying that right now?
This does in this contro is CROs right. That's like orange curse, right,
and this one's blue curse. Ow. I didn't learn this until very
recently. Blue Carousel and orange are the same exact flavor, just blue color
coloring. Yeah, I've been suckered again. Yeah, isn't Quantroe and like
Triple Sack and Grahm Marnier Like that's all kind of the same the Currosow family.
Yea, okay, I think I'm just a big curros ol. Guyra
is like more like acidic and like kind of tart, which I like.
Quantro has got that like cloudy hazy sugary which you can drink both on the
rocks. But but yeah, that type of cocktaire like a Yeah, there's
this one I called the exam that I've made a lot and I like that
a lot. So maybe that and dessert, uh dairy quinn cake or shamrock
shake mcflurry are you asking us or like that? Oh? Those are the
options that's I would have to decide. But to be one of those,
no, you could do both and give people to like the the option.
Yeah, like when you r s v P. Yeah, Marry, what
would your what would your appetizers be? Okay, so I would go with
my favorite meal theme, which is brunch. My appetizer would be Like,
that's harder because I know I would do like eggs, Benny and like hash
Browns eggs and million dollar bacon. You guys know, million dollar bacon something
real. It's the thick bacon. Millionaire's bacon is like so thick and it's
normal strips, but they're really thick and they taste so good and they almost
have like a brown sugary like esque to them. Dessert, obviously you would
choose between pancakes and French toast. Appetizers like how do you. Drinks would
be mimosas and uh, Bloody Mary's. But appetizers like what like nobody has
a salad for brunch unless they're crazy. So there's a place near me that
does little like like shareable French toast. See, it would be like yeah,
like little doughnut holes or something like that. Anthony David's near me,
they do. I think we got it. Yeah, it was just so
good. Yeah, anyway, brunch, I forget what are like breakfast and
brunch person? You are like I dropped the ball with next time you're here,
Mike, when you lived here, did you ever go to Al's breakfast
and thank you town? No? It is like I'm not a breakfast guy
at all, but it is some of the best food I've ever had.
It's like this. I think it's the smallest restaurant in like Minnesota. It
is just in an alley way basically to like get in, you have to
shove behind a bunch of people and stuff. There's like eight seats there and
it's speak easy brunch, but it's just the most like there's nothing fancy about
it. It is just like there's a griddle behind you. You're basically in
a trailer, and it is the pancakes, the bacon and the hash bruns
everything, but it's just marry Okay. If we do wherever we do Game
of the Year or next time you're here, we're doing Al's Breakfast and we're
doing case you do is Barbekeep for dinner. That's so valuable to me.
I think like that will kind of seal the deal for us coming back,
because like I love brunch so much, and obviously every table would have a
bottle of crystal hot sauce because that's like my favorite hot sauce and I would
just douse everything in crystal and it would be like just such a great meal.
I would love that meal. That would also be like if I was
like on death row. That would also be my meal. This is the
last thing I want before I die, or before I'm awarded Gamer of the
Year, whatever it is, like, that's the one. I guess mine
too. Casey Jos would be my death row meal. Is the same question,
Mike, what would you eat if I like had some overarching theme.
I think I would just try to get like do the Joe's Barbecue route and
have like my favorite pizza from the area there, and then also like,
uh, there's it would be hyper specific. There's a seafood restaurant here that
does oddly enough, they do Mexican streetcorn at Lothe and it's like one of
the best things ever. Even though it's you know, it's a seafood restaurant,
you wouldn't particularly associate that. So I think I would go, like,
try to do a little bit of an around the world vibe, start
with Mexican streetcorn, and maybe I don't I know. Oysters are hit or
miss for a lot of people, but I fucking love oysters and like it's
my dinner, So I would do like Prince Edward Island Canadian oysters alongside that.
If you don't like either of those, that's fine, the entre is
gonna be Margarita pepperoni pizza from tenth Street in Hoboken, and then maybe another
entree I would do, like trying to think if there's anything like that's been
No, I already did the entre. It would be tense three pizza.
But then I would pair that with a cabinet franc get that like the green
notes in a little bit of a kind of a fruit forward red that's going
to counteract the pepperoni, but you know, you get a little bit of
green in there alongside the meat. And then the oysters would be with a
sans are no avouvre. Because you can do anything because it's whatever cost,
Like, why not just go with like the most expensive wine you can Findlets
just metal and jewels. Yeah, yeah it's nice, Shut up and eat
it. Covering eggs, put them in my pockets. Yeah, I guess
For dessert, I would end with what do I donant diamonds? Just shred
pooping them out next day? Uh? It would be like, uh,
what dessert do I really like? Actually, at our wedding, I really
liked the dessert approach. It was like a triplet. It was like a
mini cremberlet a mini pie. Didn't you many key lime pie or no?
Yeah, there's a few things on it, but it was great. I
think I would do something along those lines and then give you, like a
Tokayazu from Hungary, some of the best dessert wines in the world, and
then cocktail wise whatever you want. But you know, I'm a sherry guy.
I know I would have sherry there for Dan because I'm assuming you will.
We have to assume we would all be there, because you guys would
probably have one Gamer of the Year, and then I would be able to
invite you exactly. Eligible. It's a question of who I would invite because
if you're like you're making a large assumption that Dan was previously Gamer of the
Year, Well, it'd be like us and Greg Miller and like boogie,
I'm not going oh wait wait, it was like Jack septic that I need
to be here yelling at my dinner. Yeah, Beauty Pie is there.
It's gonna be a weird dinner. Guys, Okay, yeah, I would.
I change my mind. I don't even want to partake it now.
I'm joking. I'm sure they're uh, I'm sure they're lovely people. People
to hang out with. Thank you to, thank you to Uh. Okay,
you can't have any eggs, get out, no fabers, eggs or
diamonds for you. You know, freak. You get nothing. We need
to do like a halfway to Game of the Year here, just so I
can take it to these places marry and show you the casey Joe's and stuff
my way for brunch. I'm also like one of those weird weirdos who will
like gladly wait an hour for brunch you Like some people are like that's insane.
I will not wait an hour for brunch. You need to do that
with that, I will. I will wait as I think it's It's such
a fun experience for me, and I love the whole thing, Like I
get right rally for it. I get excited about it, and I wake
up and I'm like, where am I going to go? Like I love
it. Next time you go across coast, just set up one day that
you stop in Minneapolis, crash here and we'll get up and then head home.
Yeah, okay, I go to Owl's layover Bronchaction. Yes, Dan,
you want to read this one from Phil Yes? Hi find folks first
off, shout out to Mike for convincing me to spend a one hundred europe
dollars for the ingredients for in Alaska. It is now replaced for Net and
Coke as my signature cocktail. Boy, what question on the Lord's work in
that regard? Has a game ever been so good for you that it makes
other games of the same genre just tastes like ash in your mouth? I
used to play a ton of different FPS games up until I started playing Overwatch
back in twenty eighteen. Now, nothing feels as good as flying across the
map as Doomfiss assassinating people in any new shooter I try, I drop after
a couple of hours that is filled from Finland. This is the most boring
possible answer, and for me it's Mario. I mean it's the first.
It's just any platformer two D or three D. It's like, there's a
lot of twoting three D platforms. I like a lot, but outside of
I think the closest has been Astrobot. I think the feel of Astrobot is
up there with the best marios. I just don't think I play them all,
and I like most of them. You know, Penny's Big Breakaway or
Sonic Mania or anything like. I just compare everything to Mario, and Mario
feels the best to me, so that's probably it. Yeah, Mine,
I guess two answers would be I guess first person shooters. I still I've
played a lot of them. I still don't think any has felt as good
as titan Fall two. Yeah, for many reasons, but like the aiming,
the shooting, Like even Doom twenty sixteen is just like stiff compared to
that, which there's such different games, like they're the same genre, sure,
but titan Fall two, it's just like when I think of a good
feeling game, I think of that game, and then in a wider sense,
I know this was I don't know if it was like a meme or
whatnot, but I think when people started getting really into dark souls and demon
souls, those games really just kind of ruined all other games of any genre
when you're really into them. But I had a friend who got like that's
still to this day, for the past fifteen years, that's all he plays.
Fifteen Yeah, so like he really just doesn't play other video games.
He's like, I just want to be playing a from Soft game. I'm
not that extent obviously, but I still like Bloodborne just in terms of like
action RPGs, Bloodborne has kind of ruined how they feel for me and how
they're structured like that there's nothing more rewarding. And then in those games,
just even finding a bonfire or a short cut back to a bonfire that's just
so impactful in the way that, like other games, boss fights don't even
come close to Do you put Bloodborne above like elden Ring in good question overall?
Yeah, I still think I do. Wow, I need to go
I need to go back to it blood Borne there in what sense, like
how they feel or just like in general, what like overall is a game.
The thing is, when I played Bloodborne like that until elden Ring,
that was the only from soft game I'd beaten, or at least as far
as when we say from soft games, I'm not talking about fucking cookies and
cream on PS two, I'm talking about you know the prompts, Yeah,
souls likes. Yeah, And I think I did it through just it wasn't
through skill. I wasn't playing it right, I wasn't recognizing boss patterns.
I was brute force leveling up, and then I was I was streaming it,
and I was doing stuff where it was like, oh, I got
this boss and Eric Tay jumped into my game and I hid in a corner
and Eric Tay did all of the work, and so it's like I feel
like, yeah, I saw credits on Bloodborne, but like I didn't really
play it. And then when I played eldon Ring, you know, properly,
it was like, oh fuck, these might be like absolute masterpieces.
I should probably go back and play Bloodborne. Right. I don't think you
were playing it incorrectly. I think the reason you can grind them in a
way that it's like, that's kind of its difficulty modifier if you're not really
But yeah, I think to your point, now that you played elder Ring,
maybe Bloodborne's a whole different speed than elden Ring. However, I think
because of your history with character action games, Bloodborne will absolutely feel way more
natural to you than Dark Souls. Dark Souls is lumbering, and then Deliver
Is I played. I just never beat them, you know. Oh yeah,
but Bloodborne is one I like the most. Like that's Bloodborne. Your
dashing is such an integral part of it. But yeah, overall, I
still think Bloodborne is a better game as a whole than elden Ring, which
it's hard to compare it because elder Ring is such this gargantuan, fucking ambitious
thing, and maybe that's why. Maybe it's just it's easier for me to
say that, like this more compact thing, and Bloodborn is pretty expansive and
there's a lot of many layers to it, especially once you start doing the
messing with the uh those like love crafty and creatures that are kind of lingering
everywhere. But yeah, I still put it above it put Bloodborn about felden
Ring. I'm going to shortlist that when it's time to replay something, when
game releases actually slow down, then yeah, yeah, I'm gonna write that
down right now, so don't forgot. I also just I think, still
to this day, Bloodborne is my favorite or like just the tonally the most
incredible game world, Like, there's really nothing else like it in the way,
and it's and I don't normally care about lore, but I actually got
into the lore there because it was so potent in the way they present it.
But yeah, I put blood Born about it. Mary, what games
have ruined? Okay? I cannot find another farming game like Stardoo Valley that
even comes close, And it's actually ruined a lot of games that I think
are actually quite good. Slime Rancher is really good, Ublitz Forager, my
time at Portie Coral Island, all of them are like those are pretty good,
but like, why wouldn't I just play Stardoo Valley, Like why wouldn't
I just play the good the good good? And so it's actually kind of
ruined a lot of quite solid games in my opinion, because Stardu Valley is
just the best. Yeah, I Mary, you and I were both pretty
obsessed with starting when it came out, and like anytime I've played one since
then, like, oh, check out this Dorymond story of seasons for a
quickly. So many there's so many, yeah, and I always like it,
you know, like I always like these games. But then like the
whole time, I'm like thinking, like, oh, yeah, this is
reminding of Sturdy Valley. Oh boy, I really like Sturdy Valley. I
should play Stardu Valley. Like that's not a great set. Well, there's
nothing wrong with these games. It's just telling us how fucking good Stardoo Valley
is. That it's just saying the way my brain is wired, I'll tell
you how how wired it is. When everyone got really into animal crossing,
I was playing Starduo Valley. I was like the only idiot who wasn't into
animal crossing. I like, and I understand they're different, they have different
focuses. I would rather play Starduo Valley, and so I was struggling to
play Animal Crossing during the giant animal crossing craze because my instinct was but Stardoo
Valley is the coziest game. And I'm with you because starting when you're like
deep in the throes of one of those runs, it's just like you can
play that for many, many, many hours, and I always did with
stardo. Animal Crossing has been the same since it was on the GameCube,
where it's like I love Animal Crossing, but you know, you play,
you do your thirty minutes a day, and you know, you put some
new thing in your house, shaking trees whatever, like give a hippo a
carpet or something, and then it's like, all right, I'm out of
things to do. Where Stardu It's just like I gotta get to bed because
I got to get back to these mines in the morning, like, oh
shit, o Tomorro's gonna be rainy, dam I'm spent all day in the
mind. It's like I couldn't stop fucking playing that game. Yeah, yeah,
yeah, it's ruined games, I guess. Breath of the Wild also
in just terms of open world games, didn't run Tiers the Kingdom. Yeah,
Breath of Wild, Tiers the Kingdom, I guess have Although Tiers the
Kingdom has ruined many other games that aren't even open world, like Here's the
Kingdom has ruined most immersive sims for me now, which is not to say
I still don't sometimes want to go back and play Dishonnored too, because that's
such a tight game as well. But uh yeah, god, now I
want to play all those games. Yeah, a lot of good games.
I might do any Stardo Run on the Flights if, like, just to
kind of ease off the Lottro if I need to, which I don't think
I will, but like just to vary it up a little bit. I
also curious because I haven't played in almost ten years now, like I haven't
played since like you know, any of the multiplayer updates, any of the
like oh pick a different like Farm template at the beginning, like I played
like Launch Stardo and that's the only one I played, and I played like
one hundred plus hours. Then, yeah, they've added a lot. I
loaded up like two years ago or no, it was twenty twenty. It
was. I got bored of new horizons as well Animal Crossing. I was
like, I don't want to wait until tomorrow, the real tomorrow, to
play the tomorrow in this game. I want to just go to sleep and
wake up and I'm there. And it was a lot. They added all
those new map sets, but like, I still think the original farm and
islands the best from what I I didn't play all of them, but I
think Mary, you'd be more experienced there. But yeah, start is still
great. I can't fucking wait for the Haunted Chocolate Tear. No release date,
No, I think there's He's still like he's still like slow dripping,
like just certain assets. He's like, here's a chair from the castle and
people freak out about it and Reddi goes nuts. There's a blue laser now
yeah, no, sorry, I've never heard of it. No, I
don't think I'm sorry. I'm sorry to take it off Spotify because you mentioned
blue lasers, and I wouldn't. I didn't know it was a referencing Sorry,
okay, are careful doing things like that without doing your research? You
better come with proof, spoke. I'm sorry, Jake, I hope so
oh god, oh man, this is dicey. Now you have to Now
you have to. I A. I'm gonna speak about this in as vague
terms as possible. I found out that someone important in my life, close
to me. It's not my wife, I'll say that, or it's it's
a certain family member very into like conspiracy. We are close. Who doesn't
have a close family member who's super into weird And I come from a big
family, so like each one of them has these things that I don't talk
about when we're hanging out around Christmas. I know this is just a family
thing, but I I just had this weird someone sent into a group chat
I'm in, like a link to something they had retweeted. So that was
a when I learned that they were on Twitter at all. And then that
was b when I went to their Twitter feed and was like, oh my
god, this is it was. It was just it caught me off guard.
It's like, I don't even know some people that I spent most of
my life with blood relation. Let's try to let's do twenty questions here.
Okay, did I meet him at the wedding? Who says it to him?
No? Yeah? Yeah? Did I meet him before the wedding,
like before that weekend or before the wedding day before the weekend? Yes?
Okay, yeah, this is so this is not fun to listen to for
any of the listeners. I got it. How close are we to the
eightieth episode? Again, we're close. We're seventy seven. I think that's
cool. Well, the number eighty and the ancient Gregorian calendar. Here we
go, here we go. If you just do some research, I'll send
you some links. It's actually we're just it's Mary that I'm talking about.
Well, we know how she feels about vaccines. But anyway, oh god,
there's those two back home. Yeah, it's always okay, okay.
Here, here's why I bring it up. It's just funny because my wife
is from a she's an only child. She has a step brother, but
she grew up an only child, smaller family, not many cousins, So
it's always eye opening to her how big my family is. When like any
arch type of person gets brought up, whether it's flat earther or anti vaccine,
and like, I have at least one of them my extended family,
and she's like, I forget that. Like turns out, you know,
more people increases the likelihood of different Oh yeah, world, you're gonna have
a couple in there. Yeah yeah yeah. I was like, I was
like, but again, I think I know well enough to not bring that
stuff up when we go home. Oh that that's yeah, that's I love
all these people with all my heart. They're they're very close to me.
But you know, there's a reason I just don't talk. You gotta do
the fun thing where you do the thing where it's like you went out to
the bar one night and then you go back afterwards and you just like,
all right, here's my chance I actually really talk to, you know,
a person who believes these things, and let's just have it, talk about
it where we get along. Fine, obviously we're not gonna get a fight.
Let's talk about what you that's that's that's my thing when I go home
pretty frequently, and it's it's always interesting. I'll tell you, yeah,
like it's been that the times that that stuff has brought up in my family.
It's always I think, there's always we fall back on the love we
have for each other, so it never gets like out of hand. Yeah,
you don't do it at the dinner table with a bunch of people around
it. They all live there. So when I go home, it's like,
oh, right, the leftist brother is coming back. Yeah, And
I get I get how that's to them. It's like they know they don't
want to bring certain things up around me. It's just always like, let's
desperately talk about the things we know we both like, dude, remember Majora's
mask. Oh let's talk about it for six hours and nothing else. It
kills me when I go back home and I feel like other people see me
as like I'm fucking Noam Chomsky, like I'm just like a hippie liberal firebrand
or something. It's like I never talk about politics at all, but I
bet they think that I'm like, Oh, here comes mister elite coastal guy
or whatever. You Yeah, I live in San Francisco. They must have
gotten to me. Me and Mary are these elite coastal guys on this podcast?
Now? All my family is like, oh, we must be different
in Portland. It's just like we're talking about real standard stuff here, like
like body autonomy. Yeah, I don't understand how we got here. We're
like, I'm insane. America is a big country. There's a whole lot
of different places. Yeah. My family, a lot of my family thinks
I'm just like in a in like just a de Lulu bubble of like flowers
and rainbows where it's ridiculous that I would ever even consider any type of restriction
on any gun of any kind ever, just like there's no room for discussion
here. And they're like absolutely not. You know you like you just think
you can do whatever you want, that nobody will ever break the laws were
we talking about. I am amazed people think I'm insane. It's the Mary.
I think when you and I first started working, or when I first
started working in game Spot and I was getting to know you, I knew
I said that something about being from Syracuse and someone's like, oh, so
like from New York, so it's probably like they're just as liberal as us.
I'm like, no, no, no, no, no, no
no no. And then you you were like you being from Buffalo or like
it is not the same in that part of the state. It's not.
It was A big state is a big state. And if you are not
in this No. The thing you'll find a lot of times if you look
at a map is that cities tend to be more left right in a giant
state. Once you leave Austin, Texas, you're fucked, bun. I
mean, you gotta stay within those city limits. That's Minnesota. You look
at the Twin Cities, that's blue red. You look at Kansas, there's
Lawrence, Kansas blue, just red. It's like you look at just the
map and it's like, well, the thing like Trump is putting up like
maps in the White House is like, look at all this red. It's
like, well, yeah, but a lot of people live in those blue
spots. Oregon is no different. As soon as you get out of the
Portland city limits, you will see the posters and everything and everything goes red.
It's as soon as you leave the city for sure, everything is mostly
rural. If you're just looking at like a map, you know, suburban
roll. Yeah, we very successfully dodged. I'm really proud of us.
Brought that up at the end of the episode risky biz. Honestly, I
don't know that's what we're known for. It was just surprising to me.
It's like, man, I gotta I don't keep up with these people as
much as I should. I'd probably be learning some really cool stuff. If
I talk to this person way more often about their beliefs and everything, my
eyes would be opened. Mm hmm. Man, I'll talk to you guys
more offline about certain things I've I've seen that I didn't know there were even
conspiracies about like X or Y, Like it's an A, B, C,
D, E F G. I mean, it's all of them.
It's conspiracies about everything, man, like things I thought we could all agree
on. No, Nope. Yeah, I remember naively at the beginning of
the pandemic, you know, talking to people and be like, wow,
you know what, this is interesting because it was such a it was an
extremely polarizing time, as all years have been recently, but it was like,
oh, here's this one issue that ever, like, who's gonna who's
gonna not be like, oh yeah, yeah, we should all like you
know, be cool and protect each other and this is a serious issue and
things that we're all on the same page about this here pandemic thing. It's
always gonna be that way like a week later. It's like, put a
blast fighters at my restaurant. What Yeah, it was a no menu.
I've used a QR. Come, I've got a fire bomb this place.
Just let grandma die. I'm not gonna eject a computer into me. All
right, we did it. We got there. We got to the controversial
part. Happy sat Patty's did to you too, Same Patty's Day. While
we're recording this, I'm I'm bombed. We're not going to be in the
same city during Paxy Slash GDC week, but I don't know when we're gonna
be spread to the wind. He might you might see my better half at
GDC. Yeah, I'm going out to East Boston. Mary. You right
here, you're staying alright. I got no travel for like two weeks.
I'm soaking it in. I'm sitting right here, right at this computer.
Although I might visit a couple different planets. Uh to shoot to shoot bugs,
as is the right on the grin. I have to do my part.
There is no other kind. Mike. I don't understand what you're even
just reminding you. Yeah, okay, good, I'm applying. You're inferring.
What are you inferring, I don't make me commy. Commy commy sounds
like a comy is on this podcast. You will never take me a lot
fucking their pro vaccine and pro flying bug. I'm not listening to this ship
anymore because I like fire Escape until they got political. Oh god, okay,
bugs political about the bugs. But as usually, you can write it
the fire escape cast email dot com. Uh, Mary, tell people where
they can get merch. Uh, fire escape cast dot com. Escape tightly
oiled ship here, tightly oiled, tightly oiled ship that's up tightly, that's
up. Okay, that was my nickname in college. All right, fire
State Birds dot com. Go get some beanies, go get some shirts and
mousepads. I was close well. Firescapecast dot com is our patrioton. If
you want to unlock ad free versions of our audio episodes or the video versions
of our episodes, go to Patreon, or you can just treat it like
a tip jar if you like what we do, but the whole archive too.
At this point we have gotten a good amount of Patreon only video stuff
on the Patreon, and if you sign up you get access to all that
and like long full length like podcast up you got, you know, hell
divers play, you got a bunch of game footage stuff, podcast up,
in person stuff. It's a we got a decent amount of stuff. Therapy
if you sign up for the first time. Now, yep, Mary,
tell people what you have going on that they can I stream on Monday,
so check that out and I just update mostly on Instagram. Now that's my
safest space. Same damn, what about you Instagram, That's the main thing.
By the time this podcast goes up, my packs East stuff will be
done, so don't try to find me there. Yeah. Twitch so doing
that. Yeah, Twitch and Instagram. I would say, cool, we're
still talking about pass. We still need to do like some sort of meetup
again somewhere. I would love to do a meetup. I think it'll be
we can talk about this offline, but I'm thinking like Al's Breakfast. Al's
Breakfast. Yeah, for all hundred fire Escape people into that six table restaurant.
I will get French toast sticks for as many as possible as many can
fit in there. He is, Yeah, we should talk about that.
Yeah, because you know, Game of the Year, we're so busy and
it's kind of in and out. Uh, there's got to be some time.
We have no actual plans for this, but we would like to see
more Beia in person. It yeah, all right, all right. We
will be back in a couple of weeks with episode seventy eight. I'm glad
to be back. It's been a while. I think this is the longest
I've been away from the show, and like since maybe I was on vacation
toward the beginning. Might be it. I think take like between like two
and five episodes off. Maybe. Yeah. I've got a much calmer couple
months coming up, so I'm excited to be back here more regularly. I
got some stuff coming up, but I don't know if I'll miss any We'll
see, all right, Well, we will see everybody in a couple of
weeks. Thanks for joining. Thanks everybody, So yeah right, sound like
a muppe.