Speaker 1: What's happening, Charlie, that's it.
Speaker 2: We Gottatroy, what's new? Lucy Lou? There we go, that's
the podcast. Yeah, come on, jakeing in there. Oh I can't.
Speaker 1: I can't, I can't, I can't. I can't think as
quick as his Mike.
Speaker 2: You know, you think of a celebrity or backwards, Jake,
think of a celebrity.
Speaker 1: Uh okay, okay, you saw one Sandra Bullock.
Speaker 2: Okay, now Bullock? That yeah, Bullock? What's uh?
Speaker 1: He they don't even make sense when he does it.
He's like, what scooting Sandro.
Speaker 2: Blugan or something I'm doing?
Speaker 3: Record the intro, i'd be introing putin.
Speaker 2: That's Mary ish uh. And we got Jake Decker here
filling in for Mike Maharty. Uh, hey, crew, how's it going.
Speaker 1: Oh, it's good to be here. Thanks for having me.
I uh, I got yeah, I'm excited. There there are
there are some cool games to talk about and some
other exciting stuff to talk about.
Speaker 2: And it's a it's fun when someone devolves so much
into self parody that it's gonna sound like a joke
when we say what Mike's doing. So those at home
go ahead, and imagine what you think Mike is doing
right now, and it's it's maybe more ridiculous sounding.
Speaker 3: That was a show.
Speaker 4: If there was a gun to your head and we said,
where is Mike Mahardy right now? What would what would
you the listener say to save your life?
Speaker 2: They're probably gonna say you like a vineyard or like
a tasting treat. It's more silly than that, Jake, do
you want to tell the fine folks, uh, why Mike
is not here today?
Speaker 1: Well, Mike packed a bag and he went up the
I assume, I don't know, to a wine camp.
Speaker 2: I yeah, his little knapsack, which I know for a
fact he has luggage that has special little holders in
it for wine bottles. He has special wine luggage that
he took to his wine camp when he's doing right now.
Speaker 1: I think he's paired with like a wine partner too
or something. So they have like a little wine buddy system. Yeah,
like a camp buddy system where they dable I don't know,
maybe wear the same colored shirts, hold hands in case
they get lost so they don't.
Speaker 2: Get make sure they don't get like sick, or like
what is a his wine camp?
Speaker 4: I know, I like to imagine it's like heavyweights and
they have wine hidden in all.
Speaker 3: The areas of their bunk beds.
Speaker 4: So when you like knock on the wood, it's hollow
and when you open up the top, there's wine in there.
Speaker 2: No no, no, no no, because I think it's like wine
is the purpose there, so they wouldn't be hiding wine.
They would have to hide like bud lights or something.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's like they're not drinking wine, so they're going
to get in trouble. Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah. The camp counselors are like, don't drink any bodlines. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Man, that guy likes wine, doesn't he. Yeah, yeah, it's fine,
it's fine. I got nothing.
Speaker 4: Well, I think we should have an anti wine episode,
so we're not allowed to use the word wine for
the rest of the episode.
Speaker 2: Okay, I'm drinking a hot toddy because I've been sick
for a month and Mary did just weird because I'm sick.
Mary did inform me that this will not actually cure
my sickness. It will it'll just maybe make my thurt
less gratch, Is that right?
Speaker 3: I think?
Speaker 1: So?
Speaker 4: Yeah, Dan said, I'm I'm not I'm not you know,
I'm a little sick. He's like, but good news. I
have a hot Toddy, so I'm good to go. And
I hot Toddies won't help you in any other capacity
besides the boat. All of it, the whiskey, the hot water,
the honey and the lemon will coat your throat and
it should help your voice.
Speaker 3: I drink hot Toddies all the time in the winter.
Speaker 2: And Mary you came in clutch here because I read that.
I was like, oh, I because I'm stupid about glass
and dishes and stuff, and I said, can you just
pour boiling water into like a normal whiskey glass And
I looked it up. They're like, if it's then I
can crack. And so they were like, oh, get like
a thick ceramic mug or something and married this from
Multinoma Falls that say that right. Yeah, So yeah, I
got a nice thick little mug here with it thanks.
Speaker 3: To that in your journey.
Speaker 2: Yes with you. Yeah, yeah, that's adorable.
Speaker 4: I love that. That makes me happy. That was a
good memory. Jake, you were there too. We had a
good time.
Speaker 3: At the falls.
Speaker 4: We really didn't capture a lot of those memories publicly.
There's like no like no videos because it was like
more of like a personal trip.
Speaker 3: But I have really really good memories.
Speaker 2: We joined a cult. Yeah, yes, it was a no
photos colt. Yeah, yeah, you know.
Speaker 4: Trip, and I didn't really want to share that with
anyone else unless they were in the cult.
Speaker 1: You made us a lot of our phones and then
you threw them at the bottom of a lake. Yeah
that was an accident, though you didn't mean to throw them.
Speaker 2: You were wasted.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, it's an accidental. Everyone give me your phones,
I'm throwing them overboard situation.
Speaker 2: I mean, if that was a Coult situation, it could
have been a lot worse in terms of colts who
just like went to the woods by a river and
then drank And that was a really good time. I
enjoyed that quite a bit.
Speaker 3: It was a good experience. Well, I'm glad that you
have a hot Toddy to help with your throat. Yeah.
I had a drinking for two. I see.
Speaker 1: The beer is counteracting whatever good the hot Todti is
probably doing.
Speaker 4: Sure, there's like this mental state of like, uh, some
people who are like no, I mean a like one
alcohol is.
Speaker 3: Good for you because they probably read it.
Speaker 4: In a magazine somewhere in the nineties and then just
never decided to undo it.
Speaker 1: Which alcohol all alcohol is non unit. But yeah, well
there's a specific one which we just agreed to not mention.
Speaker 2: I remember the one you always see on like CNN.
It's like doctors say one glass of blank, you know,
can make your heart better.
Speaker 4: It's it's been I mean, it's been debunked in the
sense that like, there's no provable amount of any alcohol
that's good.
Speaker 3: For you period there.
Speaker 1: I don't believe that.
Speaker 4: Some benefits in the sense I think like some types
of blank can make your blood a little thinner, which
could be good if you have like high blood pressure.
Speaker 3: But ultimately drinking is just not good for you from a.
Speaker 4: Health perspective, Like doctors will never be like, yeah, drink
every day, It's totally fine, you're not supposed to.
Speaker 2: I definitely consider myself someone who like I trust medicine,
I trust science. You show me a guy in a
lab coat telling me something, I'm just gonna listen to
him as long as he's not like a whack job
or something. You know, go to a hospital, they got
to wear it's a.
Speaker 3: Lab coat all the time, and that guy doesn't know shit.
Speaker 2: I would trust his dad because his Dad's on the
up and up the sun. Minati. I don't trust him
one bit about the health stuff, but I did to
trust yeah, scientists, doctors and things like that. But then
it is tough when you remember too that it's just like, oh, man,
like we've always been fucking stupid, like you know, as
soon as like our parents were probably alive when the
doctors were saying like cigarettes are good for your T zone,
and it's like, that's not that long ago, and it's like, oh,
just drink as much like, you know, as a high
fat and milk as possible and makes your bone stronger.
Now they're like, oh, don't looks bad for you. So
is it everything that we know and except now, like
the best we can do is just follow the instructions.
But in fifty years is going to be like wow,
I can't believe people thought apples weren't cancerous, you know.
Speaker 1: I mean we used to put lead in the walls,
you know, and we stopped doing that. Yeah. Here here's
what I would say about science.
Speaker 4: You grow, like as they learned, they'll be like, oh,
actually that old science. That's that's a load of huha.
Now now we're all up on this science. So like,
it's not that you were taught lies. It's just at
the time that was as advanced as medical science had.
And now we have more science and we're like that
last you know, don't do that other stuff anymore.
Speaker 2: I don't think anyone actively lying, you know. Well, I
don't know, no, no, no, maybe, but you know, like
I think most doctors and science programs have had like
good intentions until maybe recently.
Speaker 1: Well, okay, I was going to say, it's been proven
that stress is really bad for your heart. It's just
being stressed constantly is not good for you. What if
a little bit of alcohol destresses you, you know, like
could Like I'm not saying it's good for you, right,
Like probably the healthy thing to do would be to
figure out how to distress in a healthy way, but
maybe you can't. And you know, a beer is better
than being a constant state of stress in my opinion.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Dan, Well, doctor Dan says, Look, I have an
Apple Watch, so I'm somewhat of an expert on this
because I wake up and I look at Jake. I
know we've read the same book about sleep and stuff
like that. Like sleep is fascinating and if I drink
and I wake up, I look at my watch and
it's like, oh god, I was just fucking like the
lightest sleep, no deep sleep, just waking up several times
e other night without even realizing it versus like actually,
for like the whole month of April, I didn't have
a drop, And it was like that was so easy
to fucking I'm getting up early, I'm running them, you know,
like I'm just feeling rested and better. I'm not feeling
like I need a nap at you know, six pm
or anything like that. So, yeah, like on top of
all the shitty stuff it's doing to your body, it's
also hurting your sleep, which is super important. Yeah, yeah,
but it is fun.
Speaker 3: That seems good advice.
Speaker 4: The thing too, I wonder is like I love this
like three uninformed. Yeah, don't discuss the impacts of alcohol
in the body.
Speaker 2: I think there's a lot of those podcasts.
Speaker 4: Now, you increase your tolerance, and so then that beer
probably isn't distressing you. Then you need two beers, and
then you need three stars, and then you get yourself
a stew going. And so my worry is that you're
kind of using alcohol is as a crutch, right, instead
of addressing whatever it is that's like really stressing you out. Ultimately,
I drink every day and it's been great, but I
find that I am sleeping the most and I feel
the most rusted when I get up an exercise instead
of drinking. But I like to exercise and drink, not
at the same time. I think that would be tough,
but I've.
Speaker 2: Done the both thing. I thought that would be smart.
It doesn't. It's not smart at all. You shouldn't do it.
Speaker 3: It seems hard because you're thirsty.
Speaker 2: Yeah and dehydrated. Yeah. I just thought, like my logic
in college was that, like I would run home from
the bars sometimes because they'd be like, God, it takes
so long to get home. I'll just run and I'd
be drunk. So the next morning I'd be like, wow,
I don't even really remember running. It's like it just
flew by. So my thought was, ooh, maybe if I
went to the gym drunk and then ran on the treadmill,
it would seem really like it went by really fast,
so I would like crazy get tanked. I think it
was twenty four it might be twenty four seven rec center,
so I'd be like tanked in college and then go
to the rec center. I remember I just got on
the treadmill in like ten minutes in I was like
dizzy and almost falling over, Like this is probably not surprise.
Speaker 1: They let you in.
Speaker 2: Just this drunk college kids showing us stumbling in the
breaking of aeria.
Speaker 3: What's to spot me?
Speaker 2: God lifting?
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, I can imagine.
Speaker 4: I've been trying to get smarter because as I've gotten older,
my hangovers have gotten worse, and so it's very important
for me to not get hungover.
Speaker 3: And so my new system is is.
Speaker 4: Before I go out, if I know I'm going to
be drinking, I drink one of those uh like Gatorade
or like hyper what are those called, like liquid ivs?
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, like an electrolyte tablet and yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4: Before I go out drinking, and that helps ease it ultimately.
Speaker 3: Like one of my favorites husband pedialyte.
Speaker 2: You know that that's a long time, Like I've done
that a lot pedia light. There's those like noon electrolyte
tablets that are like little Alco seltzers throwing. There's the
liquid ivs, there's the emergencies, you know, stuff like that,
Like I travel with those. Yeah, It's great on like
planes and stuff too. If you're just worried about being dehydrated.
Speaker 3: Like I love that, and you just pre prepare yourself
for alcohol.
Speaker 4: I like my body and my skin accordingly because I'm like,
you're drinking tonight, body, so I want you to be
really hydrated because I'm about to fuck you up.
Speaker 3: My body like nose to tense up and be like, Okay,
she's going to a woolhouse, Like we need to.
Speaker 1: Get ready, like all your blood cell.
Speaker 3: They're telling each other and like running around they're battening
the hatches in there. I assume.
Speaker 4: But in the morning I find that I'm I'm just
so much better because I've prepared myself for that alcohol.
Speaker 2: Food. Food's super important to find, like the days where
I get the most fucked up the next day, or
like if I started drinking, like this is all you
know one on one drinking. It's one on.
Speaker 3: One, but a lot of people don't know so that
it ain't bread.
Speaker 4: You want protein because protein breaks down alcohol molecules better
and faster. Bread is more like a soaker. So a
lot of times people will be like, get a piece
of bread in you, Yeah, that will slow the alcohol intake,
which is true because now you have to digest it.
But the same amount of alcohol is getting in your bloodstream,
So you're not preventing anything. You're just delaying the inevitable
of how drunk you're going to be. Eating chicken, eating
like steak, eating meat. Protein breaks down the It helps
your body like break down the alcohol faster, so you
won't get as drunk as quickly with protein. So there's
a fact that maybe not everybody knows.
Speaker 1: So bring some protein powder with me to the bar,
is what you're saying. Maybe I'll in my beer.
Speaker 3: You get drunk at the gym. The biggest secret that
I know.
Speaker 1: That's a double whammie. You know, you're so drunk you
don't remember going to the gym. Plus you have protein.
Are you know you're good to go?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Yeah, next thing, you know, you don't remember how you
became jacked.
Speaker 3: I also, I learned that fact about the protein from
a like a workout instructor, lady, like a trainer, so
I feel like she knows.
Speaker 2: I think I accidentally followed that advice without knowing it
last weekend because jan and I went to North Carolina
last weekend because lovely place. Yeah, I like North Carolina.
It's a barbecue part of the country and I love
trying different barbecues and stuff.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, my sister lives there.
Speaker 2: I have a lot of family in North Really around
we're like Durham and stuff. It's kind of around. We
flew into Raleigh, went to Durham. But it was the
thing we did the Bomaiton thing last year and we
had a million just like silly incentives and stuff where
it's like, oh, fans, you know, if we give this
much or give this many subscriptions, or if we hit
this goal, we do this and this and this, and
we're still like all year we're kind of like, you know,
making sure we're making good on all those incentives. And
one of them was just one of those like we
throw out the occasional crazy idea and it's like, I
wonder if this is actually going to happen, But here
we go. We listed a large number and we said,
if any one person gives this much, contributes this much
to Giant Bomb, me and jan will fly to your
house and hang out with you for a weekend and
make a video about it.
Speaker 3: Did you have fun?
Speaker 2: I had a great time. His name is Andrew. He's
also big fire Escape fan, so he's probably listening right now.
But we flew out to Andrew's place in North Carolina,
and there's the protein part. Me and Jan show up
at his house. He has made the craziest fucking spread
of just a rack of ribs. He's made a giant
tin of wings. He's got just like a salad. He's
got it. He has this smoker on his deck and
he smoked cheese its. He put poured a whole box
of cheese it's into a thing and put a bunch
of like ramp seasoning and oil and stuff on it
and left it in a smoker. And he was just like,
oh my god, like all this shit was incredible. And
then he also has a bar in his house and
he's like this like master cocktail maker. So yeah, we
show up immediately it's just like here's a million pounds
of meat, and then we're gonna go down on my
bar and start taking to kili shots stuff. So I
did get a good amount of protein in before we
just drank for forty eight hours straight basically, But yeah,
that was a great time. Andrew showed us round and
we had.
Speaker 3: A lot of good host. Their barbecue is prolific.
Speaker 4: So my sister lives in Greensboro, which he'll know is
pretty close, and when I visited her a couple of
years ago, she took me to Hornytown, which is no
excuse me, Yeah, it's west of Greensboro, and I wish
I had known, because I would have been like, tell
them to take you to hornytowns take.
Speaker 3: Me to Hornytown.
Speaker 4: And it's crazy because it's like on their gas station,
it's on their shirts and stuff, so you can like
buy like I've been to Hornytown.
Speaker 2: To a magnet.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so they're in on the joke.
Speaker 3: Then I think that at some point they realized their
merch sales were high, they decided to capitalize on the
fact that they are Hornytown.
Speaker 2: All right, Can we check right now before looking on
to Google, who the mayor of Hornytown is and what
do you think? Just describe what you imagine the mayor
of Hornytown looking like or being.
Speaker 3: Do you think they have a mayor?
Speaker 4: How small does your city have to do be before
like doesn't have one?
Speaker 2: You're right, it doesn't have a mayor. It's an unincorporated
community in Forsyth County does not have a formal municipal
government or elected officials. There is the Hornytown Fire Department,
which is led by Chief Kelly Baker, the fire chief
of Hornytown.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm the fire I put out the fires in Hornytown.
Speaker 2: Oh that's good.
Speaker 3: Yeah, wow, that's funny. Yeah. I feel like I could
judge that person. I feel like, uh, they I hope.
Speaker 4: That they have a h what do they call it?
Speaker 3: A fire dog?
Speaker 2: They have an Instagram account, the Hornytown Fire Department.
Speaker 3: Oh good for them.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, it's the location here.
Speaker 3: Okay, yeah, marriage is crazy. They you have to get
merged from this.
Speaker 4: I have a photo of me in Hornytown like at
their gas station, and we like all bought hornytwn shirts
because we thought it was so funny. Like my sisters
were like, this is like such a classic like my
family thing. But it's like you're not gonna be forty
minutes from Hornytown and not go and all take selfies
in front of the Hornytown sign.
Speaker 3: And so that's what we did on our vacation.
Speaker 2: That seems to be the popular thing here is a
lot of people taking pictures in front of the Hornytown sign.
I'll sing ads for the the Hornytown Run for Hospice.
Five k ah.
Speaker 3: They're givers, they are, they are so thoughtful.
Speaker 2: Hornytown and hospice are not two words I would put
next to each other.
Speaker 3: Really horny for hospice. They say, no, they don't there, they.
Speaker 1: Don't horny in hospice.
Speaker 2: So that was that was our weekend. Was was that
And then I was gone overseas for nine days prior
to that, So I've been I've been out and about
quite a bit, and that's why I missed the last episode.
But thanks to Benny for fun and it sounds a.
Speaker 4: Great He's so great, he's so east to talk to,
and we had a really good conversation. I think we'll
probably get to it because we did talk about some games,
but you weren't here, so we just assumed what your
opinion would be on said games, and so it'd be.
Speaker 2: Really nice to Yeah, you know, I think I might
have seen a clip or something or some references to one,
and I can kind of expound upon that a little
bit here once we get to the games. Yes, we
will get to that game and others soon. I did
watch you know, Bonk, and I do our movie nights
and I heard of one recently that I just watched.
Was it last night? Might have been last night? Yeah,
the Dirties. Have you guys heard of us? No, I've
never heard of that, so it's fascinating. It is Matt
Johnson from Nirvana the Band who he's the guy who
directed and wrote in BlackBerry. He's like the kind of
the main guy in Nirvana the Band, and he's in it.
He directed it and wrote it and everything. I think
it actually was made after the first run of Nirvana
the Band the Show, but before like it was like
twenty thirteen. It came out basically, and it is like
imagine a lot of the like Nirvana The Man the
Show stuff where it's like they're using it kind of
found footagey. It's sometimes you can't quite tell who's an
actor or what's really filmed here, what's like scripted or whatever.
But it's about school shootings.
Speaker 4: Jesus, it's a crazy subject line to be like messing
around with as like a found footage situation.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and it's like it is him acting like he's
playing himself. His name is Matt Johnson, and it just
like it is in real life. And in Nirvana the Band.
So it's and it's a crazy thing because he is
like the subject of the movie and he's basically just
like a not super self aware video production nerd that
is trying to put together a movie about like a
school shooting and like these bullies in his school and
stuff like that. And in the midst of it, he
actually starts planning a school shooting.
Speaker 3: God, is this a serious drama or the like?
Speaker 2: It is like, like totally that seems like such a
crazy needle to thread. I think they do it really
really well because it is like the first like thirty
forty whatever minutes, it is like it feels like Nivana
the Band. It's like him and it's not. Jay is
in it, and Jay's the composer, but he's only briefly
like a cameo in it. But it's like him and
a friend and they're playing high schoolers and stuff and
they are just kind of joking around. It is like
they're hanging out in a place with movie posters all
over the walls. There's game cubes and sixty fours everywhere.
They're talking about the same type of stuff. They talk
about Nirvana the Band of the show, but and it's
not dealt with like it's not dealing with the subject
flippantly or anything. It is just the way this character
is talking about it is just like, Okay, this kid's
obviously really like disturbed here, and you see his friend
that he's talking with kind of like get a little
more just like WHOA, Okay, I don't you know, I'm
not super comfortable with this. And it's just so so
crazy to see that same Nirvana the band style and
even humor that delves into a very serious topic but
doesn't ever feel like grosser exploitative or anything like that.
It's kind of a fascinating, like I don't know how
he pulled it off.
Speaker 3: Basically, Can I ask one like question that I don't
think is spoilery?
Speaker 2: Yeah? Yeah.
Speaker 4: Are we supposed to believe that Matthew Johnson is a
student yeah, and doesn't look student aged?
Speaker 2: It kind of works. I mean, they're supposed to be
like high schoolers in this. It's set in like two
thousand and seven to no no, like because the reference
Dark Night in it, so it's like probably eight oh nine,
like early iPhones and stuff. He it's not it's not, uh,
it was. It was in twenty thirteen, so he was
much younger. You know, this is the thirteen year.
Speaker 3: You just put him in some cutoffs and say, you know,
ham it up for the camera, and he does. He
can't wear his hat.
Speaker 2: No, he doesn't have his say his trademark hat or
anything like that.
Speaker 3: But I have a high schooler.
Speaker 2: It was not super distracting, and I thought it was
really really interesting and it was so it's so weird
too because like you know how like, okay, we alluded
to it before and we're gonna talk about it later
like mixtape being like you know, some people who saw
it as like, oh this is a nostalgic this is
what I remember high school being like, and stuff like that.
Now it is very important to give this distinction. If
you subtract every part of the school shooting thing of
the movie, which is a big part of the movie,
this is probably the closest to like a mixtape type
thing of my high school experience of just like the
way they depict bullying, the way they depict like just
these guys are obvious like video production nerds, and like
every movie they reference every poster they've gone. The way
it's the same fight club posters and clockwork, orange references
and all this stuff. It's very much like and you
see them like in the editing bay and stuff, like
making their like and they're making these like kind of
violent short films and stuff like that. And like I
in my editing bay, you know, I worked at the
movie theater. I brought in all the AMC posters to
put all over our editing bay. In video production class,
I was super inspired by like Tarantino stuff and everything.
So I was making these dumbass violent, you know, short
films and stuff. Yeah, we all were, you know, you know,
we were seventeen and getting our friends to make these
kind of like mob Tarantino inspired movies or whatever. I
got banned from the video production class and lab in
my school because like it was a very conservative, you
know teacher and he was like, oh, you know, no
guns and then there's no cussing or whatever. There's literally
like a scene in this where like their video production
teachers like, hey, you can't. You don't do the guns,
don't do the swearing and stuff. So it's like, holy shit,
I can remove all of the school shooting elements to it.
And it's like this was like I turned to Bonk
at one point, It's like, this is like my mixtape,
Like these are like Nintendo nerds. Mine this like Nintendo
nerds because I saw people wouldn't Again, we're gonna talk
about mixtape the game in a bit here, but I've
said my thoughts on Giant Bomb, and people are like, oh,
I bet if they made it about you know, nineties kids,
you know, wearing wrestling shirts and going to wrestling show,
Dan would love it. I was like, no, that sounds stupid.
I wouldn't like that. But watching this, it was like,
oh wow, this is kind of like what hanging out
with my like video production nerd friends was like back
then again until the school shooting stuff like a million times.
I have not shot up any schools, but I would.
It's on YouTube. The whole movie was on YouTube. It's
like an hour twenty three. It's just if if you
like his stuff, like if you saw BlackBerry liked it
or in the Bond of the band. It's obviously a
very very different subject matter, but I just continue to
be fascinated by everything Matt Johnson makes, including this.
Speaker 1: Do you know what he's doing next? Have you seen
the trailer for Isn't that.
Speaker 2: Magic the Gathering or something.
Speaker 1: No, he's uh directing the Anthony Boordain by all. Yeah,
they released a trailer not that long ago. I I'm
pretty sure it was Matt Johnson. I I think that we're.
Speaker 2: Hearing that and then he like signed on to do
a magic thing recently. But yeah, he's doing like then
to do.
Speaker 1: A magic thing, because I think I think he's been
quoted to saying like if he wasn't in the film
and directing, he would be a professional, or he would
have tried to be a professional, like Magic the Gathering player.
Speaker 2: But no, I think magic comes up in this movie.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, that does not surprise me at all. But like, yeah,
I think his next thing is supposed to be this
Anthony Bourdain biopic, which which, like, I think the range
is super impressive. Not that because I kind of followed
the Nirvana the Band the Show stuff back in the day.
Maybe not back in the day, but I caught up
with it later. But then I remember seeing BlackBerry and
the whole thing with BlackBerry, at least from my perspective,
was like, Yeah, it's the Nirvana the band the show guy,
and he directed a movie, and I was like, I
don't think this will be good, but I think I
will enjoy it. And it turned out I really enjoyed it,
and I thought it was good, yeah, mostly because it
was making fun of like that whole genre. But I'm
really curious to see what he'd do with Anthony Bourdain
because even you talking about like the Dirties, it really
seems like he has like untapped range and potential. So
I'm super curious to see like where his career goes.
Because man, watching Nirvana, the band, the show, the movie
all together in New Orleans was so much fun.
Speaker 2: Oh my god, that was a blast. That was my
second time and it held up so well. It's just like, yeah,
he's one of those guys now, like Zach Kreiger is
one of those now too, where it's like, okay, you
just say a name of like this young kind of
visionary film, like I will see anything they attach their
names to, and like there are funny parts too where
it's like they're recording Foley audio and stuff, and like Jake,
you've probably been in these situations. It's like you and
your friend, you're just like he's he's like stopping around
on like leaves and stuff, trying to do Folly stuff,
and he's trying to get like background chatter, and he
starts like bringing up like specific NPC lines from Balder's
Gate and he's like, oh yeah, you know, like when
you passed the end and there's that guy that says
this every time, and it's just like, Wow, this is
a really earnest depiction of like making funny videos with
your friends, you know.
Speaker 3: Wow.
Speaker 2: And then there's the school shooting stuff. Yeah yeah, and
then that too.
Speaker 4: I have something about recording Folly that's I don't think
it's universal for everyone, but it was a part of
my high school experience of like we got to get
this footage so we're like, you know, punching heads of
lettuce or like stomping around that I think is really fun.
And even to this day, I have like a friend
that's like chased my dog Simoon around the apartment to
get his little snorts because it'd be like really fun
to have in the background of it doesn't matter some video,
but it's like Folly is just like so fun record.
It's such a joy to like see if you can
capture magic in a bottle by I don't know, slamming
a you know, slamming an orange against the pavement and
finding out what kind of like weird splu.
Speaker 3: Shit makes well.
Speaker 2: And then we've probably all been to game studios and
development places before, Like I don't know if anyone's been
to like a high end like Foley room where it's
like I love it, where it's like here's the section
of the floor that's like a tic tac toe board,
like a three by three grid of like here's sand,
here's glass, here's dirt, And they've got different shoes and
stuff and they're like clonk clunk, clunk clunk, or bags
of stuff they're wrestling around. Then you like hearing the
stories about like oh yeah, we want to get this
specific train sound. So yeah, this guy stood basically on
the cabooz and pointed like a shotgun mic at the
wheels for like two hours. Like that type of stuff
is so specific and cool. I think that is like.
Speaker 3: My miss of a career.
Speaker 4: If I could have done something else than what I did,
I think it would be so much fun to record
folly for a job. How fucking cool is that to
throw stuff and to like walk on stuff and be
like how do I capture this idea? That there's like
a whistle in the wind a love.
Speaker 1: A few years ago, Jan and I went to the
Capcom studio in Osaka for Monster Hunter, right, and they
gave us like a tour of like we saw the
oh god, the motion capture room or whatever where they
did that, but we also saw where they make the
sounds for Monster Hunter and it was kind of like
what you described, except not high end. It was like
in a tiny little room in the basement. But one
of the cooler things was that for all of the
monsters for the last Monster Hunter game, they invented instruments
to be the sounds of these monsters, so they'd have
the weirdest things you've ever seen in your life. You
wouldn't understand that they're an instrument or they could be
played and they'll like blow into them or like scrape
them and it'll make these terrible sounds. But like, man,
seeing those sound designers light up is they were like
showing like these weird creations they made that are designed
to create these ridiculous sounds for these monsters.
Speaker 2: So cool, Like, yeah, could they be so much fun
utilized to like make actual music if they wanted to?
Or is it like oh it makes this one fucked
up sound.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they'd make like screeching like sort of noises, but
it would do it very well and it would have
some range so they could like like this is when
it gets hurt, this is when it uh, this is
when it breathes fire. Whatever it was, it's pretty cool.
Speaker 2: I think it was that trip I saw it might
have been. You posted a video of like the guys
doing the like mo cap for the different creatures and
stuff and just the wild like motions they're making. Like
that seems like probably a fun one to work on.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I bet I mean like that. Yeah, seeing
all the stuff that happens in that capcom studio is
like kind of kind of magic. It was crazy to
see how just all these different areas work together to
create a game.
Speaker 2: They're they're doing a good job lately, it turns out.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and it keptcon is killing it. And you want
to be able to own all that stuff too.
Speaker 3: Like, there's a lot of places where you can get
free Folly, and I do anyone anyone who's like butting
into this world, you can you can download free Folly
on like a lot of different websites and it's fun.
To be like what kind of fake you know, sounds
footsteps can I make? But there's nothing like recording it
yourself because it's yours, it's uniquely yours, and so you
own it, and so it feels really good when you're
when you're whatever video ends up coming out because every
piece of that you constructed.
Speaker 4: So I can absolutely see why in a game they won't.
They don't want to buy somebody else's sound effects. They
want to own every original.
Speaker 3: Sound effect that they use. And that makes a lot
of sense.
Speaker 4: But that's a part of that behind the curtain view
where you don't think about the fact that every sound
that you heard was constructed in this tiny little room,
not made that's tiny, but like some kind of fake
room where they've orchestrated everything that you're hearing was all
constructed in one space.
Speaker 2: It's crazy a fun thing about like, yeah, being like
making videos in high school stuff like that. I remember,
like I'd make my stupid movies and a mob guy
would have a silence gun and take someone out for something,
and it's like, okay, well I'm just gonna like put
a VHS tape in and record Golden Eye and just
shoot the silence PP seven a bunch and then like
get all the other guns for other ones and then
like feed it into you know, final cut or whatever,
and yeah, it's that stuff was fun as hell.
Speaker 3: So that's not creating sound effects. That was stealing that.
Speaker 1: Child, but through the process, you.
Speaker 3: Know, definitely stole those sound effects from a video game.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, well they're doing things.
Speaker 3: Like the Nintendo suos.
Speaker 2: You Oh yeah, I've made a lot of money off
those fucking shitty Tarantino ripop when I was seventeen.
Speaker 4: Year old, shitty trailers for Tarantino and they find them
in fucking copyrights.
Speaker 3: Strike your ass.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, there's funny parts in the in the dirties
where it's like they want like this girl to be
in it because like at one point Matt Johnson dresses
up like a woman to be like a woman character
in this is like everyone's gonna give me a shit
for this. We need to like we need to like
talk to an actual girl and get her in this.
And there's this girl, there's this girl in their class
and their video production class that they want to be
in and she just has to say this one line
where it's like help, you know, help, please call the
cops or something like that. And so when that girl
in class is showing her movie and they opened it
up questions afterwards, Matt Johnson's like, Hey, what's the part
where you said, you know, help, please call the cops?
And she was like what. He's like, yeah, that part
where you said help please call the cops and I
didn't say that. He's like, didn't say what? And she's like,
you're saying I said help, please call the cops. And
they're filming that and they take that part and put
it into the movie.
Speaker 3: But she's not saying it stressed out, she said, she's
telling please call the cops.
Speaker 2: It doesn't fit at all.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's pretty funny.
Speaker 2: Yeah, all right, Well, we we alluded to some games here.
We alluded to Mixtape. I know, Mary, you talked about
that last week. Me and Jake can kind of talk
about our thoughts a little bit here. But we've got
other games. We've got newer games that we can kick
off with soon. So stick around and we will be
right back. Video games they're here, we're playing them, including
Mina the Hollower. Now this is an interesting one because
we're kind of in this purgatory zone between embargoes here,
so we this is not a spoiler warning here because
we actually have to keep things pretty vague and we
can't talk about later games stuff. We're not gonna talking
about specific boss fights. We're gonna be talking general thoughts
on maybe kind of the early parts in format and
things like that. I mean, the Hollow. It sounds like
we've all played quite a bit a bit.
Speaker 3: It sounds like we have a range of times.
Speaker 4: It sounds like, Jake, you might have rolled credits, so
you've played a good chunk, which is cool.
Speaker 1: I have finished it. Yeah, I have finished it.
Speaker 2: I'm like, oh, I'll say in that regard, Okay, I'm
like ten hours in, Mary, how about you, I'm.
Speaker 4: Like twenty six hours in and I know that I've
I think it's fair you can say that generally what
you're doing is you're like getting these towers and I
have I have gotten four. So that's like a good,
like at least gauge of how far I'm in, because
I think there's about six.
Speaker 2: Yeah, imagine like you know Zelda Dungeons, basically, you know
there's anything Actually.
Speaker 3: A lot of people comparing this to Zelda. Oh it's awakening.
Speaker 2: Yeah, kind of the top downs. Yeah, yeah, it's it is. Yeah,
go ahead.
Speaker 1: I was going to say, I think one of the
interesting things about this embargo with this specific game is
that there are specific dungeons we can talk about. But
the thing is is you can do them in any order.
So in theory, the first two dungeons, like I didn't
do the Bayou, which is when we can talk about
until like my third one, that was my second and
apparently fourth. Yeah, that's crazy that it was your fourth too,
because one of them is like a pain to get
to otherwise, right, So it's it's like, it's very interesting,
like this game doesn't fit that kind of embargo. I
was expecting stricter restrictions, but.
Speaker 4: It's very confusing to me to find out that by
You was one of the ones that it encourages you
to talk about because it's probably early on, probably because
it's easier to get to and maybe it's easier to
get through.
Speaker 3: Than the later ones.
Speaker 4: I've really been crawling my way through this game. This
is a difficult game, is how I'm going to start.
This is a challenging game that is not for the
faint hearted. I think it is difficult to like go.
Speaker 3: The wrong direction. I found it really challenging with the
towers that I picked first took me.
Speaker 4: It took me like ten hours to get my first
tower because it was so fucking hard.
Speaker 3: I could not get through this game. You guys, I
have out loud said multiple times, this game isn't for me.
Speaker 4: This game is not for me. It's too hard. Now
that I'm like twenty twenty five hours in, I'm like,
oh no, I get it now, but holy shit, if
you go the wrong way, it's total dark souls, where
you're just like you're in an area you should not
be in.
Speaker 3: And I didn't know that.
Speaker 1: A couple questions for you both, I take it. No
one looked at the newspapers.
Speaker 2: No I did, and so, okay, because the.
Speaker 1: Newspapers do in theory, they guide you to the dungeons
you should be doing in order from easiest to hardest.
I didn't know this either, though, so I just kind
of blundered around until I went to I finally made
progress in the Crypt, which is the supposed to be
the first first one.
Speaker 4: I went to the other tower we're allowed to talk
about as well, so we'll be talking about the Crypt
and the.
Speaker 3: Bayou Yep, I did not know this.
Speaker 4: I did read that. I thought they were just giving
me hints. And also if you talk to the people
in the town, which we're also allowed to talk about this.
We're allowed to talk about the what's it.
Speaker 2: Called, generally talking to NBCs and stuff and the owner's landing.
Speaker 3: I think that's the town, right.
Speaker 2: No, it's like the ox or something, right, is ANX
the town? Yeah?
Speaker 4: Yeah, okay, there's a town, and every person you talk
to is like I heard there's something going on in
the Bayeu. Like my friend says there's a lot of
bones in the swamp, and I'm like, okay, so I
suppose I should go there. But at no point did
I feel like I was supposed to go to the
bay you first, So I just walked around and when
I got into an area, and.
Speaker 3: This is exactly what happens this game.
Speaker 4: Similarly to Souls, if I can just like back up
for a second and kind of explain a fundamental component
of this game.
Speaker 3: Souls esk but the bones are their dollars.
Speaker 4: You have to kill things to get their bones, and
if you die, your bones are put into a soul
and you need to go to that same spot sure,
and you need to get it. And if the soul
goes into a monster, you need to kill that monster
in order to get your bones back. And if you
die a second time, you lose your bones. They're gone.
And it even it mocks you. It tells you you
lost as many bones, and it's in the newspaper.
Speaker 3: It'll tell you.
Speaker 4: It tallies all your lost bones, and it fucking throws
them in your face. And I've lost tens of thousands
of bones. Anytime when you play this game, you will
be like, oh no, I have five hundred bones. I'm
so scared to lose them. It doesn't even FaZe me anymore.
I've lost five thousand bones in a single life all
the time. It's brutal, dude, like, losing that many bones
will make you hate yourself. But I've lost so many
bones that my soul is hardened into like a concrete lump.
Speaker 3: I just don't care anymore. Anyway.
Speaker 4: These other areas you'll face probably more difficult challenges, and
so it's.
Speaker 3: Harder to get your bones back.
Speaker 4: What I'm saying is the reason I like didn't go
to the Bayou is because once I found myself in
an area I had all these bones, and I was like,
I'm afraid to lose these bones, and if I did die,
I had to go get my bones. So at no
point did I feel like I could just abandon ship
because I needed to go get those bones.
Speaker 1: And then when you get your bones, you're not going
to turn around. You're like, well, I've already made it
this far. I'm going to keep going forward. You know.
Speaker 4: I think, as far as I'm aware, there's not like
a lot of fast travel situations here.
Speaker 3: Like you need to you need to figure.
Speaker 4: It the fuck out, and this area is dangerous. There's
the underground passages. If you go to the underground, which
is like how you save I guess it's like where
you would burrow Ye died. Yeah, you you feel like
you need to like stick it out in those spaces
because once you trap, once you go down there, the
monsters come back to life again.
Speaker 2: It's the bonfire. Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, if you.
Speaker 4: Save, everything is back to life, and so now you're
in danger again. To be sure you can get through it,
but I think this game, you kind of start quite weak,
and over time you build a lot.
Speaker 3: Of your skill set.
Speaker 4: You you grow, you know, more weapons, you grow more
you know your your health bar can expand, and I
think that really helps with getting through it in the
later stages.
Speaker 2: Now I have found it very difficult, but I feel
like in a very different way than you have, Mary,
because I have not died much like I've died, but
I've recovered, like I haven't lost a lot of like
bones basically. But my problem is especially early on, actually
the whole time, it's like the amount of times I'm
just running around in like, Okay, I'm gonna talk to
every NPC a million times, but then I'm just kind
of going around the same area and just kind of
the circuit and it's like, oh, I've been here a
million times. I don't see anywhere I can go forward.
I'm just fiddle farting around forever. And then it's like
it wasn't until I started checking the newspapers where it
was like, oh, go this way, go to the east,
go to the swamp, go to the whatever. And then
I so I think I went in specifically the order
the game was recommending. So I think that's why I
haven't died much, is because it's like kind of ramping
it up appropriately. But it's crazy to me, I didn't
know until an hour ago when we you know, first
offt on this call that you could go in any order,
because I swear I had done a full lap around
this map. And there's not a map. There's not a
quest mark or a quest a log or anything like
that unless that opens up later. So I'm I'm well,
would you not have the map? They're not a specific one, Okay,
there's one that I can just see where generally like yeah,
here's where the swamp is, but not like here's where
I am in relation, not a Zelda style.
Speaker 1: Yeah, not like the tile by tile. But there is
a map that I didn't find until like halfway through
the game. So I was really just kind of every direction.
And then I think someone a GameSpot was like, yeah,
in the map, there's this area and I was like,
there's a map. Where do I get the map?
Speaker 2: It's definitely not I've never seen one.
Speaker 4: Where you can cause conversation with another person who had
a copy, and we had this conversation and I said, well,
it gets it gets better when you find the map,
and they said, oh fucking.
Speaker 3: What, and they were mad at the idea that there's
been a map.
Speaker 1: To me.
Speaker 3: Jake and I were talking about this.
Speaker 4: It's kind of like Tunic, where there are things that
you can get right away. There are things that are
pretty easy for you to acquire, but you don't know
they exist, so you're not looking for them. You don't know,
and thus when you find out it exists, you might
have two different reactions. One might be, oh my god,
thank god, I'm so glad I found this. The other
might be this was here the whole time, the whole time,
whole time, Like you might get mad when you realize
that this thing that was really difficult for you.
Speaker 3: To traverse is actually quite easy once you realize that
you needed to do a very specific thing in order
to alter it. And that will happen in this game.
There are things that the game.
Speaker 1: You could have.
Speaker 4: Done the whole time, and you didn't know because the
game didn't teach.
Speaker 3: That to you yet.
Speaker 4: I think it's cool, but similarly to Tunic, I get
a little pissed off when I find out that I
have been suffering for three hours when it's because I
didn't know that there was this skill. The game will
teach you, but you have to have a lot of
patience with yourself.
Speaker 2: I think so Mary, when you first started describing that,
I assumed you were gonna say, like, oh, it's like
a trinket you can equip or something and then you
can hop over this thing or whatever. But the more
you said it, like if you bring up tunic and stuff,
it makes me think, like, oh God, are there like
control things I haven't even considered.
Speaker 1: So I would say one example that we can talk
about because you can't actually progress through the bayou unless
you know it, but you can you know how you
can burrow. You can burrow in the ground, but you
can also burrow in water, and that's how you like
cover extra gay And I was stuck there for like
thirty minutes. I was like, what am I supposed to do?
My missing some item is there? And then I think
I accidentally just add of frustration, was just jumping and
then like swam and I was like, oh, so I've
been able to do this the whole time and I
had no idea.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a mix of like I like that stuff.
I like those like aha moments that I it's cool
when a game doesn't hold your hand too much, and
because it gives you those moments and you feel like
a genius and like that's great, but it also can
lead to very frustrating moments where it's like, for instance,
I was in the BIB and there's like a group
of characters that are like, hey, we're looking for our buddy,
and then I found a guy who was clearly their buddy,
and he was like, oh, do you want to leave
me back to my friends or whatever. It's like, oh, great, sure,
let's go. And I remember I was trying to do
some like platforming or whatever to bring back to his friends.
And again there's no map, there's no arrow, there's no anything.
So it's just like I think they were this way.
But then if he falls in a hole or you
fall in a hole or whatever, I think it resets.
And a certain point I just had to save the game,
went to bed or whatever, load it back up, and
I remember like, oh, right, I was trying to bring
that guy back to his friends, and where was that
guy at? And so I spent like probably over a
half hour just like going around these same swamp screens
over and over and over, being like, oh man, I
just I don't need a big glowing arrow at all
times telling me what to do. But like I wish
it was a little bit easier to like look back
at a log of some sort and be like, oh,
you found him here, does not.
Speaker 3: Hold your hand.
Speaker 4: This is a gamer ass video game, yes, and especially
with a lot of the commentary right now and what's
considered a video game.
Speaker 3: This is a video game for gamers. The game will
not tell you what to do.
Speaker 4: It will give you some hints and some guidelines. You
need to use your noodle, and if you don't, you
will be punished very harshly for it. I think it
asks a lot of the player visually. And another area
that we're allowed to talk about is the crypt and
there is a lot of hidden areas. There's hidden walls,
there's areas that will give you a very small visual
indicator that you can actually burrow under it. And if
you do not pay attention, you will miss a vital
key or button that you need to progress. And if
you don't find it, you will spend forty five booblus
minutes looking around waiting for something.
Speaker 3: To happen, which happened to me multiple times.
Speaker 4: And when I finally realized that there was a crack
in a wall and I needed to hit the wall
in order to find something, I was actually a little pissed.
I got over it, and I actually, if I can
just say, I feel like I've been complaining a lot.
Speaker 3: I really like this game. I have a very good
experience of this game.
Speaker 4: But I haven't had a game in sol that has
made me verbally say fuck this game in a long time.
And I did say that several times playing this game,
and then I over time I realized.
Speaker 3: The game is teaching me. The game is pushing me,
the game is applying pressure.
Speaker 4: It thinks that you're smart enough that you will just
figure out that there is a hidden door and you
need to find it. That the game thinks you are smart.
It thinks you're capable, and it thinks you are good,
and it asks a lot of the.
Speaker 2: Player it does, but it also like unnecessarily kind of
holds you back sometimes where it's like, you know, in
like Breath the Wild, you run into a thing in
the world and you're like, Okay, well I don't think
I have what it takes to get here now, but
let me I'll leave the stamp on the map or whatever.
Like that was a very very helpful, cool thing in
that game, and many games are done in a sense.
This game everywhere you go in dungeons, the overworld, everything,
there's just like, oh, here's this character that says like, hey,
if you give me a thousand bones, I'll do a thing.
Oh shit, I have four hundred. I need to remember
to come back to this guy later. Or you see
a gap you don't know how to cross. You see
a wall, Like I walked up to this place where
there's like two like lightning bolts going and the near
like kind of this river thing. I was like, what
the fuck is this? I got to remember to Like,
I don't think I can do anything with this now,
but there is no way like it unless you're just
taking notes, which again, like I know Tunic and games
like Fez and things like that like incourage the Witness
encourage you to like take notes and stuff.
Speaker 3: You need a gamer notebook for this game in mind.
Speaker 2: Even then, it's like I don't know, Like I don't
think there's like a oh I need to go to
a seven on the map. I think it's just like yeah,
river lightning, find that again, find the frog and the
bayou he needs help or whatever. It's like even if
I took those notes, I don't think I would know
how to get back to that, so that can be
very frustrating.
Speaker 1: I had a great time with this game. I enjoyed
it a lot. I think probably the main thing that
will throw people off is that this looks like Links Awakening.
I think they've said Links Awakening is a big inspiration
these Game Boy Color Zelda games. The thing is is
this is not like a Zelda game at all. Other
than how it looks. It is a Dark Soul's game. Specifically,
it reminds me a lot of Dark Souls one, and
that there are a lot of routes that you can follow.
You're going to have to do most of them, not
all of them eventually, but if you know your way
around the world, you can find other ways through it.
So this to me feels like more of a top
down two D Dark Souls game, and like we can
be vague, I would say, all the way up to
the very end, Like those comparisons make even more sense
by the time you get to the end. And I
think that is probably why I've enjoyed it so much,
because I love those Dark Souls games and that sort
of world design, and this follows that format, I would
say somewhat strictly in a good way, but yeah, I
had a great time. I definitely had frustrations though, but
it sounds like my frustrations might be a little different.
I would say I'm with you, though, Mary. I think
like the beginning is so brutal, like every direction I
was going, I didn't have a map. I was dying
no matter what I'd try to do. But once you
sort of get a handle, once I just started investing
in strength and defense and ignored everything else, like your
side arm upgrades, because I don't like how side arms
are utilized, like you lose us, like they're not permanent,
so if you die, you lose the side arm, and
then you don't have a side arm, and some of
those side arms you need in order to solve certain puzzles.
So then you're like, where the heck was that sidearm?
And then you're having.
Speaker 2: To go back and to find the bike somewhere.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, yes, So I wish some of those tools
were permanent, and I wish there was more of a
Zelda like side there maybe where like you know, you
get the bike and you've got the bike from now on,
you know. But and then I had some like depth
issues with like your jumps and going under and I
think that's just the nature of the top down perspective.
But yeah, I really enjoyed this game, but I definitely
shared some of those frustrations.
Speaker 2: I feel like, yeah, I am getting very frustrated with it.
But I do think it's telling that I have had
numerous times now where I've been like, you know what,
I respect what they're doing, I don't think it's for me,
and I've like put it down and I've kind of
just been like finding myself being like hmm, picking the
steam deck back up and being like okay, and then
like having a breakthrough and being like ooh, that felt good. Okay,
And so like that's happened a few times with me,
and I think that's pretty telling that, like, it's not
one that I'm just putting away. It's still rattling around
in my craw a bit, and every time I come back,
I'm rewarded.
Speaker 3: You know, the lows are low and the highs are high.
As a result of that, I think.
Speaker 4: I think the frustrations of truly not knowing where to
go and getting stuck in a space is a little mean.
I think there are some things about this game that
I wish they I understand that they wanted to make
a difficult game.
Speaker 3: They succeeded in that. I think the heal animation.
Speaker 4: Is too long, and yeah, it's it's almost brutally long,
where when you were in a boss fight you should
just not count on the ability to heal.
Speaker 2: I mean, or it's so long. It's the dark soult thing.
It's just like, well, okay, this particular attack, he has
such a wind up for it or such a recovery
from it. It's like, this is the time I can
like get away from him real quick and get a
heal in.
Speaker 3: You have me on the boss fights I've done, because
you can't fucking.
Speaker 4: Heal in some of these boss fights, Dan, I am
telling you, there are boss fights where you cannot heal
and like I had to, I was suffering.
Speaker 3: Go ahead, Jake.
Speaker 1: So this too is like kind of interesting as well, though,
because like Hollow Night, I would say this is probably
the best sort of But they have trinkets and there
are ways that sort of change those situations of frustration
based on the trinkets you are holding. But the thing
is is like some of those trinkets, like there's one
really good one at the end of the crypt that.
I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of people just
straight up don't get and then they are playing the
rest of the game without I think the best trinket
that helped you. There's so many very difficult fights.
Speaker 2: Probably Oh wait, okay, wait, no, I think I might
have got it. Does it involve it protects you and
also hurts other things? Nope? Ship did I miss?
Speaker 3: Oh?
Speaker 2: Give me? What did they do?
Speaker 1: Uh? It's big. You have to help a guy. You
have to help a guy at the end of the crypt.
Speaker 3: Oh, he's looking for his lover.
Speaker 2: What the fuck is this?
Speaker 1: It sounds like Mary did this, but.
Speaker 3: I did it towards it.
Speaker 2: I gotta go back to the crypt.
Speaker 1: Go back to the crypt. Maybe check another rum or
two right before the boss, and you might might.
Speaker 2: End My God, I wonder if oh that sucks? Wait?
Is it a thing that helps you recover if die?
Speaker 1: Yes?
Speaker 2: Oh, okay, I think I might have got that. Actually, okay, yeah,
that's a pretty important thing.
Speaker 1: Especially in the later areas or the later bosses. I
don't know how I would have beaten it without that. Okay,
I don't know how I would have equipped.
Speaker 2: Okay, Yeah, I think I got that then all right,
is it a vial of sorts? Yes? Okay, Okay, I
think I got it.
Speaker 3: Okay, Dan, you're not fag at all. Let's just say
it's a vial that helps you heal.
Speaker 2: I read the preview Boker three times.
Speaker 1: You can talk about it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we're good dancing.
Speaker 3: Around literally describing it.
Speaker 2: I think I think we could if we wanted to,
but we're just not spoiling it. But it is a
really cool game. I wonder this is a thing where
I could either fall off two hours from now and
just be like, I respect it, but it's I can't
do it, or it could be a thing that I
pushed through and beat and and it's my favorites of
the year. Like either way, it's a fun one.
Speaker 3: Finishing this game. I have put a lot of time
into this.
Speaker 4: I have sunk so many hours into it, and I've
there's just a bit of a what do you like
a sunk cost fallacy at this point where it's just
like you're so far you got to you gotta see
it to the end now, Like I'm feeling it. I
am excited. I do enjoy playing it. I look forward
to playing it. I've had I've had this opportunity where
I'm like, well, you should really play More Sorrows, and
you should really play you know, fortsa Like, there's all
these things. I keep picking this game up, and I
think it's an excellent game, probably for being in a plane,
just because it will lend itself to the Steam.
Speaker 3: Deck so I will have more to say about it.
Speaker 4: I think it's great, and I think people are going
to really like this game. That my general consensus is,
I think the audiences are going to like this game.
But I am warning you that this is a tough game.
Speaker 1: Yeah, really, just have to push through those first three
four five hours and just get your Bearings level up
a bit and just just look yourself in.
Speaker 3: The mirror and lock in.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you're gonna fucking go for it. You're gonna throw
some bones down the drain, and you just have to
accept it and move on.
Speaker 4: Don't read that part of the newspaper. It's almost laughing
at you.
Speaker 3: It's so mean.
Speaker 4: It's like, here's this really latest update. Do you want
to how many bones you lost?
Speaker 3: You're stupid, bitch. You do want to play this game
at all? It breaks my heart. But I apparently also.
Speaker 4: I did the most difficult spaces first, just to just
because I hate myself, and I really did. I really
hated myself. I said out loud, I'm not a good gamer.
I'm not good enough. I can't do this.
Speaker 1: I honestly don't know how you managed to do one
of those dungeons before the knocks buy you or whatever.
If that was your fourth one, that is crazy.
Speaker 4: I did the BUYO fourth and if I could do
it again. And it's funny too, because I was burning
through the bio you guys, I was like, I was
zip zapping people. I was just like, you're dead, You're
a dead.
Speaker 3: I felt like a god in the Bayou because I
had become so emboldened from these other places. I don't know,
so I don't know. Maybe maybe the rest of the game,
you know, we'll get more difficult and I'll feel it again.
Speaker 4: But it's it's been fun going from a sack of
nothing that is so worthless and can't do anything in
this game to a pretty formidable warrior. Not just in
the game right, not just your character building, but me
the player. I have learned the mechanics of this game
that I am a better player and I am smarter
and I understand it, and I think that is a
well designed video game, right, Like, I am better for
what this game has done to me, but I but
I am scarred from this game.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it'd be hard to argue that this
is not a good video game. I think you're gonna
get a lot of people that say it's not for me,
and that's fine, but I undeniably they had a vision
with this game and they pulled it off in like this,
this is a unique video game experience that I'm really
enjoying poking in.
Speaker 4: I think young people will gravitate towards this because this
kind of reminds me of the games that we had
when we were young. Sure, it's kind of likemind it's
like hearkening back, not just to like Links Awakening, but
like the Lion Kings of the World. It was like,
you're not supposed to finish this. You're not good enough, Timmy,
this isn't for a seven year old to get through.
Speaker 3: This game is going to destroy your self esteem.
Speaker 4: But that's okay, because like, this game isn't really trying
to make.
Speaker 3: Sure everybody finishes it.
Speaker 4: It's very obvious, as you said, that they knew what
they were making with this, They're making a difficult game
that progresses you over time, and there's going to be
a lot of quitters.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Also, just like Tonally, much darker than I expected
for the main character being a cute little mouse, some
of those characters, some of the things you come across,
some of the things you do or I mean not do,
but like things you know, like I'm like, oh, this
is this is I don't know if it's heavy because
it's not heavy dark, but yeah.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and kind of pumped up visuals some like cucked
up boss fights.
Speaker 3: And stuff like that. Oh, can I say something cute
that happened?
Speaker 4: I always love little touches that let you know that
they put a lot of TLC into this game, like
something you'd see once and then it just you never
see it again. It's like, well, they made a custom
animation just for this one thing. Well, there's this area
where if you drop from the sky, if you drop
on some leaves, you kind of crush the leaves and
that helps with mobility and moving around. But the first
time I did it in this one space, I crushed
a leaf and the leaf animated and went no, and
like I broke his leg and he started like crawling
on the ground to try to get away from me,
and then he stretched his arm out and he died.
Speaker 3: And then two other leaves come up to him and they.
Speaker 2: Go, no, oh, wow, you monster.
Speaker 3: And I'm just sitting there like and they mourn him
and they won't talk to you because you killed their friend.
Oh that's great, And they animate this little leaf like
trying to survive. It's like cheeky, it's dark, it's funny.
There was so much energy into it, and I don't
even know why they did it. It's purpose. Rody was
a character. There's no reason for it.
Speaker 1: It's all that shovel night money. I think, take the
time they want, you know, the.
Speaker 4: Opposite of Lazy Doves. There's so much TLC.
Speaker 3: In this you can feel it. You can feel the
love in this game. You can see the background animations,
oh the folly alah. They did a.
Speaker 4: Good job with the animations and the visual style of
this game.
Speaker 3: It's dark and brooding and it.
Speaker 4: It nails the aesthetic that they were going for. And
I respect that they put so much energy. Is well
made game.
Speaker 1: What what a weapon did you guys? Choose?
Speaker 2: The flail?
Speaker 3: Oh?
Speaker 2: Yeah, the flail I did too, like a lot.
Speaker 1: I did the flail and flail.
Speaker 2: Sorry, I don't know, like change like the whipping with
the ball on the Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's what I have too. It's not it's not
my favorite.
Speaker 2: I unlocked the hammer and I haven't really used it much.
I think I like the range of the flail.
Speaker 1: The range of the flail is nice. I've been using
the daggers though, and I've enjoyed because that is more
classic zelbit. It feels right even just like sticks out
the swords, you know, like linked.
Speaker 3: Yes, you guys, I'm all shield all day.
Speaker 1: The shield is really good. I enjoyed using the shield.
Speaker 3: A game changer. I love my shield.
Speaker 1: Oh.
Speaker 4: I will agree that the flail gives you range. The
shield is a short range, but my god, it is
such a game changer for boss or anything that you're
like intimidated by and you're scared.
Speaker 3: It just protects you from one hit and like what
a magical thing, and you can upgrade. Oh my god.
Speaker 4: I we probably can't talk about it too much, but
that's my goat. I love that chield. I would probably
hate this game if it wasn't.
Speaker 3: When I got that, I was like, Okay, I understand.
I think I can do this now.
Speaker 2: Okay, well, I got a lot more to play. We'll
see how I feel about it. We'll see if Mike
is if they let them play games at camp. Yeah,
definitely not the last you will hear about that game here,
but for now, Jake, you and I played some Yoshi
in the Mysterious Book.
Speaker 3: Well.
Speaker 2: I reviewed it. I beat it. I reviewed it on
giant Bomb, give it four out of five stars. Jake,
how much did you play of it?
Speaker 1: I made it through chapter six, so I rolled credit
the first credits and I unlocked the modular UI thing.
Speaker 2: Yeah, which is weird. There's some weird post credit stuff
you can unlock, just odd stuff for a Nintendo game.
But I liked it. I gave it four o five.
At first, I thought I was going to be like,
this is too kind of kiddy, the same reasons I
didn't love Yoshi's story back in the day. It's like,
all right, well, yosh Island on Superintendos, it's like challenging
great platformer, and then they just really dumbed everything down
for your story. I was expecting that with this, based
on the art style and everything. The very storybook esthetic
and everything, but it's just a totally different type of game.
It is a puzzle game. It's an adventure game. It's
like you're basically filling out like a beast area of
these creatures inside this book. So it's like you're going
in and you know, you every level, you go into
a page of the story book and it's like, here's
a new creature, and like you'll try to lick it,
and then you'll see what that does, and then you'll
try to pick it up, see what that does, throw it,
you'll stomp it, you'll do and you kind of learn
what it can do and how it can interact with
the level, and it's just kind of like an undefined
end to every level. Sometimes you got to climb a
tree to the highest point. Sometimes you need to like
introduce this character to this thing. Sometimes you need to
eat all of these things or whatever. But it's it's
just a game about exploration and discovery basically. And I
did definitely grow to respect it and enjoy it by
the end, especially Jake. There's some stuff pet past that
chapter six that like just does some that's when they
kind of get experimental with some of this stuff, like
there's just some weird, weird levels going on there. But
have you enjoyed it, Jake?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm eager to play more. I made it to like,
I made it to the credits yesterday, so I have
not touched anything beyond that because I was tuned to
the holler, to be honest.
Speaker 2: But I really liked it.
Speaker 1: I mean, I think my this is going to sound hyperbolic,
but I don't mean it to be hyperbolic at all.
But I've never played a platform or like this before.
It is like you were talking about, how like a
lot of the objectives are undefined depending on the level
you go to. It's different, but it also doesn't tell
you what those objectives are when you load in. It's
just like, yeah, there's a little guy here, and you
need to interact with the little guy and see what
the little guy tastes like. And then you show up
and you're you're eating the little guy, you're throwing the
little guy, you're like bouncing on the little guy, whatever
whatever it might be, and you just kind of like
naturally come up with some like, yeah, this seems like
what I should be doing, and then you keep doing
it and all of a sudden it's like, congrats, you
figured out the puzzle of this area. So I found
it really compelling to just keep checking out different levels
and seeing what that gimmick would be. And yeah, I
really enjoyed it. I don't think I I don't think
I loved it like I would prefer a Mario platformer
or you know, something of that nature.
Speaker 2: Sure, but.
Speaker 1: I think I think that's a more interesting direction for
Yoshi platformers to go than just making it easy because
it's easy.
Speaker 2: You know, It's like Mario's got just a straight up
platforming thing down, You're not going to be Mario at
a platforming game. Kirby is also a platform but kind
of has its own whole weird thing of like an
inhabiting the enemies and things in the environment and floating around.
It's got a different feel than Mario Yoshi. Like the
move set is the same. You got the flutter jump,
you got the stomp, You're eating things, you're throwing eggs.
It's just the way you were using those is not
just avoiding or attacking enemy or not falling down holes.
It is like poking around at a level and seeing
what happens. And like some of those are kind of
like more low key, and then some of them are
like I kind of compare them in my review to
like the Donkey Kong Country Mine cart levels where it's
like this one is like a weird skateboard looking creature
that you can kind of surf on and you're on
the waves and you're going around finding all these like
little baby skateboards on the ocean and stuff, and it's
much more kinetic or like, you know, this creature is
like a hang glider. This one. Like so there's just
every level you go into you have no idea what
to expect in terms of like what these things do
or what you will be doing with them. So I
just think variety is probably the game's strongest suit.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I would say it not only is it's
the strongest thing, but like it also, like I was
saying it, it just keeps me interested, like I wanted
to keep going just to see what I was going
to see. And I would say some of them were
definitely duds. I'm trying to think of some off off
off the top of my head, but there was certainly
some where I was like I don't really like this gimmick. Thankfully,
once you're done you kind of move on, like sometimes
those creatures will appear again, but a lot of times
they just don't. My favorite, though, the Boomerang was a
lot of fun and how you like figured out ways
to upgrade the boomerang and by the end you're like
really just knocking things down. I that one was really cool. Yeah,
there's a there ones theber one where you have to
hide from that. That one was crazy because this thing
is this and it's like, oh, it just killed me, okay, yeah.
Speaker 2: Because I kept thinking, like, you know, this would be
a great game for kids, and I still think that,
but like that one particular level, it's like it's almost
like a mister X type thing where it's like you
have to kind of stealt their way around and he
is going to like just pursue you and kill you
basically in one hit. Yeah. Yeah, and then uh, you
talked about like some of them, like the Boomerang evolving.
There's one you can name all these and I named
this one a flammer because it was like a flower
hammer type thing and it was like, yeah, it had
this mouth on the hammer. It's like a king DDD
hammer and he's like the more you hit bugs and
butterflies and stuff with it. It eats it, and it
like starts growing more and more, and then at a
certain point it grows big enough to where you can
bring it down on a big boulder, you know, like
crack the boulder and open up new parts of the
level and things like that. So it is just it
is just non stop just discovery, like, oh it does this,
Oh it does this. Oh that's fun. Oh I didn't
know I could do that, or like just fun little
like if I was a kid, like, oh, I'm forty two,
and I thought it was a ton of fun. I
imagine like a kid having a blast with it. And
also it's low stakes. There's no health bar. You're not
dying when you fall down a hole. Even when that
like scary bush thing kills you, you just kind of
get spawned right back. You know.
Speaker 1: Well you say there's no health bar, but I think
that is probably one of the weirder things about it is.
I don't know how because once you roll credits, you
unlock the ability to unlock different aspects of the UI
that weren't present there before.
Speaker 2: The waveform of Yoshi's heart rate.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's super bizarre. Or like the temperature of this
or but one of them is a health bar, Like
you can unlock a health bar, so you can't play
with a health bar. But even if the health bar
is empty, from what I understand, you're still like nothing
really happens. I think Yoshi's animation just changes.
Speaker 2: It's so good as a pedometer that you unlock.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and part of it. I see it, and I'm like,
this is kind of cool because it it shows an
extra level of detail to all these little creatures, right, Like, Okay,
these creatures for some reason have like an internal temperature
or whatever, or a weight, and like you know, you
can tell how much they weigh by Like yeah, it's
it's super bizarre in a way. I almost wish I
think our reviewer at GameSpot talked about this, Steve Watts,
but I almost wish I could unlock some of that
stuff sooner, just to kind of get a better grasp it,
like what these creatures meant in the world. Like one
thing I love about There's many things I love about
Breatha well, but one of the things I really love
about it is like each item kind of has its
own identity and its own use within that world and
interactions with interactions, and Yoshi has this too, but it
feels like a light version of that. But then you
start seeing all these extra details that have gone into
these items, and it's like, man, I kind of wanted
to know that sooner. I guess maybe not. Maybe if
I had it up front, I'd be like, what the
hell is this? Why do I need to know?
Speaker 2: The way?
Speaker 1: It's a very interesting, like postgame mechanic.
Speaker 2: I guess, yeah, it's I mean interesting is the word
I come up with this game lot, because like I
think a lot of previous Yoshi games post Yoshi Island
have not even been interesting. Like there's Wooly World and
Crafted World and stuff like that, which are not bad
games because they're still Nintendo first party platformers. They're like,
they're beautiful, they're they're solid platforms, but there's not anything
particularly interesting about them. This is a game where it's
like pretty much every level there's something where I'm like,
oh that's interesting. Oh okay, that's cool. I didn't expect that. Like,
I think this is a really cool new approach to Yoshi.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I agree. I hope that's what Yoshi games are
going forward, because I like Yoshi. I like the character.
It's one of my best characters in Smash Bros. So
you know, I've got respects for the little Green Dinosaur.
But I've like, you know, like you're saying, the modern
Yoshi games, I've not been able to get through, and
this is the first one where, you know, since way
back where I was like compelled to keep playing, and
I do want to go back and play those extra
chapters and see what's there.
Speaker 2: Yeah, cool stuff, Mary. What is Forbidden Solitaire?
Speaker 3: Forbidden Solitaire was recommended.
Speaker 4: To me last episode by Vinnie, and he's right, it's
pretty fun. Forbidden Solitaire is a solitaire bass but it
also has FMV videos.
Speaker 2: Oh I see y Vinnie was playing it.
Speaker 3: Okay, give you like a nineteen ninety five CD ROM.
Speaker 2: All right, this is all sounding Vinnie. Okay.
Speaker 4: That also has dark scary elements where the way the
game opens is on a desktop and so you click
on the game to play it. But you also have
instant messager with some family members and they're like, I
can't believe you're playing Forbidden Solitaire. I'm looking up all
the cool stuff about that game. Can you believe they
don't sell it anymore because of what happened in as
they're sending you like videos and images of like behind
the scenes. Ultimately, like, as you progress through the game,
there's something very sinister going on with the developers who
constructed this game. There might be something like evil or
like messed up about the actual foundation of the game.
You watch a review, which I think would be funny
if you watched, because it's one of those classic like
pretend to be a nineteen ninety five video game review.
Speaker 2: Oh the Dream, Yeah.
Speaker 4: Yeah, And he's like he's like, I couldn't even finish
the game because of these late game bugs. It's actually
ply problematic, but it's like very funny to like watch
how they reconstructed what they thought game reviews were like
in the nineties.
Speaker 3: It's fun. It's a bit repetitive. You are just straight
up playing.
Speaker 4: So every time you know you'll be in this dungeon,
it'll be like you don't know where to go, or
there's a there's a great without a key and you
got to find the key, or there's a monster that's attacking.
Speaker 3: It's like, well, better play solitaire. When you play solitaire,
and if you win, you get through the situation, and
if you lose you die.
Speaker 4: So I'm playing a lot of solitaire, but they try
and mix it up with like cards that are maybe
they have vines on them, or maybe you have to
click on them three times, or there's cards that hurt you.
Speaker 3: I like that.
Speaker 4: In a boss fight, it's actually not about winning solitaire.
It's about getting enough cards each turn because cards are your.
Speaker 3: Weapon against the boss.
Speaker 4: So you actually at some point want to be like
I want a new solitaire game.
Speaker 3: It's not about you completing this solitaire game. It's about
you getting a lot of cards in one turn to
do damage.
Speaker 2: Did the look of this? I'm looking up some images
like they nailed that? Did they make like fake ads
and stuff for this, Like this looks incredible, like the
box are and all like that. They are nailing that.
Speaker 3: They did, and they do a lot.
Speaker 4: Remember I told you that your family member messages you
and is like, You've got.
Speaker 3: To check this video. They have spoofs of TV shows
back in the day, where like a television show host
would be like, you've heard that maybe some video games
can make you violent, but if you ever heard of
a video game that kills you. Tonight, we're gonna discover
a bitten solid and so it's a going It's like
that old vibe of like a TV show that's investigative
reporting games. It's obviously all actors.
Speaker 4: But it's it's silly and cheeky enough that I kind
of bought it and I just I don't know. I
think this game sets out what it wants to do
in a fun way. It has really fun gimmicks. There
are these upgrades that you can buy with points that
you get in the game, and they're gems, and the
gems get embedded into your hand, like they go into
your skin and into your nails and stuff.
Speaker 3: It's kind of fucked up, like it's it's been a
fun ride. I haven't finished it.
Speaker 4: I feel like I'm probably pretty close. I likely I
have a big plane ride coming up, and I think
it's gonna be one for the plane ride for me
to just mess with.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 3: It's it's been a joy. Vinnie was righter.
Speaker 2: If it sounds that seems like a good Yeah.
Speaker 1: What if you don't like Solitaire, I'm just like it's
just very Solitaire focused on.
Speaker 4: It does some again, you know, like there's some changes
to it, like on the regular ones, you're trying to
win a regular game of Solitaire.
Speaker 3: I think that this game takes liberties.
Speaker 4: It's obvious to me that in certain areas that they
have designed it so that you're going to get through
it right. They're gonna give you a card that's plus
one or minus one of what you need, which I appreciate.
But there's these upgrades that allow you to destroy. There's
like this one card that allows you they're like bonuses.
They're kind of like jokers in uh elatro, and so
you could pick it and it'll just be like, I'm
gonna lightning strike three random cards to get rid of
them for you so you can win faster. Or there's
one that are like I'm gonna turn over six cards
that you know what they are and you can plan accordingly.
Speaker 3: And I've enjoyed the.
Speaker 4: Little additions that they've made that spice up Solitaire so
I don't just feel like I'm playing Solitaire. There's also
like mini games too. There's this creature that is stalking
you and you're hiding from it, and so when you
play Solitaire to hide from this creature, there's a cone
of vision, and you can't play cards in the cone
of vision because it'll seem Yeah, so it's like it
messes with it.
Speaker 3: Ultimately, you're playing a shits on a Solitaire.
Speaker 4: So if you don't like Solitaire, don't fucking play this
miserable good then you're gonna like it.
Speaker 3: That's probably how I would sell it. Then, if you
like Solitaire, I think you're gonna like Forbidden Solitaire. If
you don't like Solitaire, no, this isn't for you. I
don't know how long it is, but I'm suspicious that it's.
Speaker 4: Not super long. But I actually think it's gonna overstay.
It's welcome if it's much longer. To me, I I
am totally getting what it's trying to do. And uh,
there's already been like some spoopy voiceovers in the game
that I think we're not you know, they weren't meant
to be in the final version of This is a
game that they're saying we we planned for you to
play this game. This is a game within a game,
if that makes sense, And so it's clear that they're
starting to say something's wrong with the game that you're playing.
Speaker 1: Sure sounds a lot like Inscription, just based on describing
the story side of it.
Speaker 3: I suppose it's inspired by for Sure. I think it's
going to start breaking the fourth wall soon and I'm
excited about it.
Speaker 4: So anyway, I think it's good. It's I'm still yeah,
I haven't completed it yet, but I do think it's
a great solitaire scary esque, you know, fun nineties adventure
that I that I've I'm glad that I bought it.
Speaker 3: It wasn't that expensive either. I think it was.
Speaker 4: Like my last sell to you is I think there
was a there was a bundle and if you already
own the other game in the bundle on Steam, you
just get ten percent off and so you.
Speaker 3: Just like get it for cheaper. So I love when
you can do that on Steam. Can we talk about
that for a second.
Speaker 4: You already own a game and it's in a bundle,
just gives you ten percent off the game.
Speaker 3: Such a sick deal.
Speaker 2: Nice.
Speaker 3: You wouldn't know because you got that cool fucking account.
Speaker 2: I'm paid for games in two thousand and five, I
don't know.
Speaker 4: I am find bargoons in this world, and you can
get a good deal on this game, and even when.
Speaker 2: They're free, you pay for them. So you know that's
your THINGU can better not be.
Speaker 3: On game pass.
Speaker 2: I don't think anything is anymore? All right, that's forbidden Solitaire.
That sounds awesome. I do want to check that out.
We let's pull the uh, let's pull the mixtape ripcord here.
This seems to be the one that's dominated exhausting, stupid
internet discourse for a while now. Mary, you mentioned that
you did go into it last episode. Your thoughts do
you want to give me the I know you don't
want to rehash, but like your general feelings on.
Speaker 4: It, I mean my TLDR, I think and I played it.
I thought about it a little bit more since the
last time I talked about it. I praised the soundtrack
is great, and I think it's like a fun little
romp of a day in the life of kids, you know,
young coming of age film that you get to like
mess around with.
Speaker 3: I liked it.
Speaker 4: I think it's not everything pulled at me the way
I was hoping it would. And I think it's because
some of the mini games or whatever it is that
you're doing, they're so passive. I didn't get to have
a very deep connect connection because I didn't feel like
I was doing very much gameplay. It would be stuff
like painting a door that's not super that's not going
to push me to be like, wow, I feel like
I was there some of that mini games. I just
didn't think we're that engaging yet.
Speaker 2: That i'd like it, Like like things like the you know,
the head banging and hitting buttons to head bing. Does
that do anything for you?
Speaker 4: I think that sometimes when it came to the connection
with music, I was more likely to be interested in
the game because I really liked the track. I've been
listening to the to the mix on Spotify. It's fun
to listen to the Devo song.
Speaker 2: Yeah, all the hits of the Night of nineteen ninety nine,
Divo enjoy Division. It's what everybody was listening to ATRL
was nothing but Devo in nineteen ninety nine.
Speaker 3: I get to like expand your worldview to the fact that, like,
when you're a kid, you probably listened to all sorts
of different everything.
Speaker 2: I listened to us from the sixties. Yeah.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so it's a it's a fun little escapism. Uh No,
I didn't think that was. And you know what, I
had a friend who was like so obsessed with the
drunk tape picking out minigame where you're like drunk and
you're like, I got a find a tape. I also
thought that one was like a little two pass where
I was like, well, I'm not doing anything, I'm just.
Speaker 3: Drunk and stumbling around in a store. I think that
sometimes I want a task to complete, I want to
be good at something. My favorite one was when the
kids were talking and I was skipping rocks on a
stream and I was able to like skip it through
the tire.
Speaker 2: Things. Yeah, the rock things that you can knock over
and stuff like that.
Speaker 4: There are things to accomplish, and I think that's when
I felt the most invested in the game. So anyway,
but I did, Actually, I do like this game and
I recommend it heavily for people who are looking for
a story based adventure game with a rock and soundtrack.
So that's kind of how I walked away from it.
It's just not usually my forte to play something like this.
Speaker 3: I believe, uh, I'm just going to assume here you
don't love it.
Speaker 2: Dan, So my experience with it was I did not
expect to love it. I you know, I just narrative
games in general. I don't like. It's not really what
I moved towards. But as I was playing it, I
was too I was on a plane and I was
playing it, and I found myself going into that Dan
mode I've gone into before, where I'm just like, God,
best fucking some bah, God, this isn't even blah blah
blah blah blah. And there was a world in which
I just kind of like quit the game there and
then went on and ah, man, this say, you know,
like just ranted and raved about it and everything. And
I made the decision not to do that. I was like, listen,
I can I remember. I still remember read Ded Redemption
two when I hated it so much, and I went
on the Game of the Year thing and I was
sitting next to Gershmann and I was just saying like, Oh,
it sucks, shit, it's fucking it's blah blah blah. And
Gershman said something along the lines of like, Dan, you've
done this for over ten years, use your words, And
He's right, I should have been able to do that then.
Now I've been doing this over twenty years, I should
definitely know how to fucking describe the things I don't
like about this game. Yeah, Tonally, I did not like it.
It you know, I know it's pulling up the nostalgia
thing quite a bit. I was kind of annoyed at
some of the stuff, like insisting that like this was
everyone's teenage nineties experience, and I was like, no, this
is not the type.
Speaker 3: Of that external reviews impacted you.
Speaker 2: Okay, no, no, no, I'm talking about no, no, no, I'm talking
about when the character turns in the first minute of
the game, and the character turns to the camera and
looks at the player and says, soon you won't be
listening to music. You're gonna be listening to who you were,
And then a bunch of stuff happened that is nothing
like it has ever happened in my life ever before,
and I was like, shut the fuck up. So it's
like it was just like one thing like that after
another where I said, get out of your ass, Like
I just fucking like, I was getting really annoyed. I
hated his characters, like I.
Speaker 3: Would have thought that Jeff Gersman has had you grow
as a game reviewer.
Speaker 2: Progress ship. It's get out of your ass, Get out
of your ass. You know, I'm describing my first changed
yeh yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you're telling me you never ram from the cops
while on a shopping cart.
Speaker 2: No, I talked myself out of trouble with the cops.
Yeah speech no, no, it was like they went that way.
Yeah yeah, yeah. I would have hated all these characters.
I this was not my experience at all. I was
not ever an angsty kid or anything. So all this
like coming of age anks stories and stuff do nothing
for me. I can't relate to them whatsoever. I did
like the soundtrack, like, I mean, like like as much
as they say, like, oh, these aren't the actual songs
that were like popular, and they're like that's a good
devo track. That's like there's some good choices there. I like, yeah,
totally totally. But it reminded me of like like it's
the reason I don't like Baby Driver, that movie where
it's like I like Edgar Wright, but that movie. I
just felt like it was like.
Speaker 1: There was a better reason not to like it, but
sure is there.
Speaker 2: Just I just think it was like the playlist thing,
like it feels like he's trying to show off his
eclectic playlist, you know, like what's your reason Kevin's facey
oh shit, I forgot. He was like yeah that's not good. Yeah, yeah,
he's no good.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I just it just felt very like I'm gonna show
off my eclectic you know, and my taste. Like like
it felt like people making the game weren't that far
off from the main character in that they always have
to insist, like, you know, here's why this next track fits,
like the character explaining why this next track will fit
the mood of the scene. It's like show, don't tell.
I just like and I know people are gonna say, like, well,
this character is supposed to be pretentious. She's supposed to
be kind of this know at all, you know, music
snob and stuff like that. She's not supposed to be
like well, but it still doesn't make me enjoy the game,
and none of my complaints or any of the like
I hear that a lot of the dipshit, you know,
discourses that like this isn't even a game, This isn't
I've never been that guy, you know, Like I liked
Gone Home a lot when it came out, Like I'm
not a like a game doesn't have to be this
or that or anything like that. I just found like
this is a tone piece.
Speaker 3: This is always like pretentious.
Speaker 2: I thought it was pretentious. I didn't like the characters.
I didn't like the story. Yeah, I thought it was pandered.
I thought it was also like a pandry nostalgia thing
where it's like that's why it's like stranger things annoys me,
where it's like, hey, remember the eighties, Like I just think, say, yeah, okay,
we don't like. I just find that shit really annoying.
And also like some of the stuff I disliked about
Red Dead too, where it's like, Okay, I like game.
The thing I like in games is agency and discovery.
Always bring this up and I'm talking about you know,
Breath of the Wild, or we're talking about with Mina.
I like to be able to explore as a player,
and it's like, you know, I'd be like walking slowly
around her house whatever, and I'd go to go down
the stairs and she'd be like, can't Bill yet, And
then it's like, oh, great, I gotta go look at
six polaroids or whatever, and hear this witty dialogue before
I can move forward.
Speaker 3: It's like you're trying the game, You're trying to like it.
What do I need to accomplish to get you to
shut the fuck up?
Speaker 4: Which is like the kryptonite of a game like this
which is all about being like, we want you to
enjoy what it's like to be in the room of
a team, which I think is like something you just
have no desire to.
Speaker 2: Do and not not these characters. Like No, I wouldn't
hung out with any of these fucking dorks. No, I
just I, Yeah, it's hard when it there's a tone
piece and a narrative thing in a really character based thing,
and I just don't like any of the tone or
the characters. That's just kind of a it's gonna be
a non starter for me, you know.
Speaker 3: So I respect this opinion. I do.
Speaker 4: I think it's like it's not your cup of tea.
I can see why you are not gravitating towards it,
and I also like, I think we're we are vibing
in one way of there's a there's an era for
this game that people can enjoy because it's nostalgic and
it makes you feel connected. If you don't feel that connection,
this game is dead in the water. I think it
we completely would not connect with a part it did
connect with me. I absolutely tried to score Booze when
I was a teen.
Speaker 3: This is the plot of many of my.
Speaker 2: Weekends I'm calling the cops right now. I don't know
what the statute of limitations is on that one second.
Speaker 4: Yeah, this is like one hundred percent what I was doing.
I was like trying to score drugs, Like I was
like all in. I was like, where do we get
like the craziest things we're allowed to get as children?
Speaker 3: And I and I was bad. I agree with you.
Speaker 4: I think the main character was a little rough around
the edges. I think there was this time when she
was explaining that she doesn't respect motorcycles because they're loud,
and she was like, you have to earn your loud,
and I would like, yeah, do you know how engines work.
It's very difficult to construct them. They've earned that loud, girl, Like,
you don't get to decide that a rock album is
allowed to be louder than a motorcycle.
Speaker 1: Anyway.
Speaker 4: It's like I can feel that tension. But I actually
had a girlfriend in high school that was like really
obnoxious about her music choices.
Speaker 3: So I also was like, I get it.
Speaker 4: This just reminds me of like really fucking annoying music friend.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but even if it's accurate, you know, even if
that is what people were like that doesn't make it
enjoyable necessarily, at least not like maybe you enjoyed being
reminded of that friend, I just get annoyed by it.
And like, also, I am someone who is very nostalgic,
like for that era. Everything on this fucking floor of
this house is from the eighties or nineties. You know.
I've got numerous CRTs and shit like a fucking an alien
back here, a tech and poster like I live basically
in like nineteen ninety eight. I'm watching old ass wrestling
all the fucking time. But that's how I like to
engage with my nostalgia. Is I like to revisit the
actual thing, Like if I were to watch like a
fucking like I don't think I ever saw that was
that Adam Sandler Pixels movie. Like I don't just want
to be like, hey remember bleep bloop, you know, like
this is like I I want to just do the
actual thing. I don't want to be reminded that it
exists or that things used to be, Like I don't
see a polaroid and it's like fuck yeah, you know
it's this is not how I like to engage with
nostalgia and certainly not with characters like this, but I
am curious. Well before I started it, Jake, i'llly you
use the same praising you use with me if you
would like to, But I, uh.
Speaker 1: I wanted to peel my skin off as I was
listening to the characters talk. Yeah, it did not do
anything at all for me. I think, Dan, you're just
very succinctly and well like explained why you didn't like it,
and I agree with a lot of what you said.
It just didn't. It didn't click with me. I I
like some of the music, and I like the visuals
some of the some of the segments I thought were
really like well done and well choreographed. And you know,
as we've been saying, I think the whole like, well,
it's a gamers and not a game, doesn't matter, that's irrelevant.
Who cares if it's if you think it's a game
and you like it cool, if you like it, you
know it doesn't that that is like the least interesting
thing to talk about with this game in my opinion.
But yeah, I I didn't finish it. I got about
I think halfway through. Uh, but I just couldn't. I
couldn't listen to those characters anymore.
Speaker 2: It.
Speaker 1: I wonder if it's because, like my high school experience
wasn't in the nineties, but like I still I when
I was in high school, all I listened to was
nineties music, so I enjoyed some of the soundtrack there,
but like it just it just it just didn't connect
with me at all, and on any level, I would say,
on any level, yeah, but I get why people really
like it. I suppose. Yeah, that's sort of been my thing.
You know, like our reviewer really liked it. I know,
like it's reviewed really well and it's really connected with
some people, and there's some people in the Game Spot
office who really enjoyed it, and I get it, but like,
oh man, those characters.
Speaker 2: Just they're just awful.
Speaker 1: Couldn't I couldn't get through it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, like teenagers in general are just awful. These seem
like just terrible teenagers.
Speaker 1: I would say, I don't think this comparison probably means
anything because I don't think you guys played it, But
I played Dispatch last year, which is sort of similar.
I would say that's more episodic. That's more like tell
Tale games, where you're making decisions that eventually funnel into it,
so like I definitely have an appetite for these kinds
of games. I like these narrative style games. But also,
like you, I played one episode of Life is Strained
and I felt the same way where I was like,
I cannot stand any of these characters. I do not
want to hear any of them talk for a long
time or ever. And but like, I think that's kind
of what it is though. Is it just like my
high school experience wasn't like this. Therefore I was not
able to connect to this. And I think what's even
weirder too, is like these are supposedly high school kids
in California, right, Like they're talking about like one of
the friends, right is going to like UCLA. It's not
called UCLA, but it's basically UCLA. So it's like all
this stuff is like in my realm. I went to
high school in California. I had friends who went to UCLA.
I tried to get you know, like I I think
it should be more up my alley than it is. Right,
it just didn't do it for me.
Speaker 2: Yeah, all right, I think is there all reasonable takes
on this game?
Speaker 4: I agree, I think they're all reasonable takes. I think like,
it's interesting that the gradingness of a kid character can
like break us into whether or not the game is
except And.
Speaker 3: I wonder if that game.
Speaker 4: Would have been better received by this crew if they
had picked different character archetypes.
Speaker 1: Perhaps. I also just think it's so hard to write
convincing teams. Yeah, and I think whichever archetype you pick,
it needs to be well written. And when you're trying
to do that with teens, it's just like, I don't know,
Like some of the slang they were saying. I was like,
did people say this? I don't think so, Like there
were some things that I'm sure they did, but other
things it was just like, yeah, I don't know. I
know it was I think it was written and developed
by an Australian team, right, So, Like I wonder if
maybe some of that slang is just slanging that I
didn't experience. And I didn't grow up in Australia, you know,
I missed. I didn't didn't have that, you know. Yeah,
I don't know.
Speaker 2: I would rather hang out with any of these characters
than with anyone who wants to yell on Twitter about
what a game has to.
Speaker 1: Be though, So yeah, I'll agree to that absolutely at
least they could probably you know.
Speaker 2: Party character yep. So all right, all right, that's didd Mike.
Did Mike talk about it last time?
Speaker 1: He loved it?
Speaker 2: Yeah? Oh Mike loved it? Yeah, okay, cool, all right,
that is a mixtape. A couple we can kind of
touch on here. I'll just mention real quick FORTSA. I've
played maybe six or seven hours of it right now,
and it's very very good. It's good enough where I
assembled the whole wheel situation again, and that's a lot
of fun. It's it's horizon, it's it's better than ever
in that it's toned down the music festival, DJ, social
media bullshit, and it is just driving cool cars through
Japan and everything looks incredible and feels incredible. It's just
got a lot of fun types of different race types
and things like that. Just so fun to look at
the map and point out a thing and be all right,
I'm gonna do that event, I'm gonna do this event.
I'm just gonna drive around the country and break these
mascot things and signs and stuff like that. It's just
it's impossible to be bored playing this game. It's just
so expertly made. It's exactly what I would want out
of a racing game, like not like there's like three
tiers of racing games.
Speaker 1: To me.
Speaker 2: There's like cart racers, which are their own thing, and
I love that. There's sim things. There's the Grand trismos
in the Forts and motorsports of the World, which are
not for me because I don't really give a shit
about cars, and then there's Horizon, where it's like, yeah,
it's real cars, it's all realistic and everything, but it's
arcadie enough and like I don't need to actually give
a shit about the cars or go in and tune
the drive train or anything like that. I can just
drive around and have a good time and it doesn't
get better than Horizon. And this is about the best
I've played in a long time at least, so very
much enjoying that.
Speaker 3: That's great.
Speaker 4: I heard that there's really good hidden stuff, like if
you go off road or you find like a little
I don't know, like you see a shed or something,
or you see an off trail and you go down it,
you're usually rewarded.
Speaker 3: Have you had any of those experiences?
Speaker 2: I Mean, most of what I've found so far has
just been like, yeah, here's the hidden signs, here's the
XP thing. There's like different like mascots and stuff, like
here's like a little moky mascot or something, or here's
this little ramen bowl and these are kind of scattered across.
And then there's the occasional like barn finds and stuff.
It's like, oh, I found this old classic car and
a barn on a hill or something. So yeah, it's
like on those times that you're not specifically doing oh
this rally race or this delivery mission, like you can
drive around and you don't feel like you're wasting time
because you'll find that stuff and level up and stuff
like that. So it's yeah, just just a tremendous game.
Speaker 1: So cool.
Speaker 2: Yeah, uh, Mary, you finished Gecko Gods. Yeah.
Speaker 4: I talked about this when I first started it several
weeks ago, and it's just been in my steam deck.
Speaker 2: Oh this one, Yes, that's right, Okay, I remember seeing this. Yeah.
Speaker 4: People also compared this to win Waker because it's like
visual based puzzles that you do as a Gecko, and
then you get a fun little boat and you travel
to different islands to do all their visual puzzles.
Speaker 3: Well, I finished it.
Speaker 4: I completed every puzzle on every island. It's just such
a cathartic brain scratching puzzler. I did a couple of
times get pretty stuck because I just didn't know what
the game wanted me to do next. And when that happens,
you spend like forty minutes just you know, pitter pattering
around on this island hoping that somebody will tell you
what the fuck to do. And that can be a
little draining. But other than that, I loved the puzzles
and they got pretty fun towards the end. There's like
balls that you need to get into a socket and
then you have to roll them with your little gecko
body to get into the space, and so they put
them into puzzles. The final puzzle is a good head
scratcher with an elevator and power, and so you have
to like turn the power on and off to like
make sure that you can use the elevator and ride
it at very specific times to get where you need
to go. I rolled credits on it, and I said,
that was a really nice experience, and I'm glad that
I finished it. So really just a final reminder that
this game is a simple yet fun puzzle game.
Speaker 3: I think it's great for airplane or something where you
just want to do a little visual puzzle, or what
I love to do is play a game.
Speaker 4: While you're also half watching TV. Perfect for that because
you don't have to really pay attention and get it done.
Speaker 3: So yeah, I really enjoyed Get Go Nice.
Speaker 2: And finally, Jake, you're playing Pokemon Champions.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Actually, though, before I get to that, I do
want to say I played a Creature Kitchen as per
Man's recommendation a couple of weeks ago, and I loved it.
I thought it was so good, very clever, didn't outstay
as welcome. I thought the aesthetic was great, the creatures
are cool. I enjoyed it a lot. So I just
wanted to, you know, shout that game out because because
I thought it was great.
Speaker 2: It was a universal I think all four of us
like that one a lot.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it seems like it one.
Speaker 3: It's silly, isn't it. I love a creative game like
that where you're it's not it's not scary, but it's
kind of eerie. Like I actually screamed once playing. I
didn't expect that thing to be in the tree. I
think I had a good aesthetic to it. I'm glad
you played it and liked it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but yeah, Pokemon Champions, I have been playing a
lot of this. I probably won't say a whole lot
about it, but this is basically just a battle simulation
from the Pokemon games, although it is on a competitive level.
They do dailies, so I kind of clock in every
day through some battles and put it down. They just
had a new season, and the new season's pretty bad.
It's a terrible battle pass that doesn't get you anything.
They didn't add any new items Pokemon. There's probably kind
of like, you know, deep in the weeds here, but
that's kind of been my game. I've been returning to
quite a bit. But like there's this is something that
people have wanted for so long, like a competitive Pokemon
online battler that is official, that can be played at
tournaments that you can return to. You don't need to
wait four or five years for the next Pokemon game
to come out before you can try different metas, try
different teams. Uh, and it streamlines it all so it's
so much easier to train Pokemon. It's so much easier
to put together a team. So it gets a lot
of things right, but the the live service model, they
have not nailed at all, and I really hope they're
able to kind of step things up, especially if this
is supposed to be the the official platform for competitive
Pokemon going forward, which I know is like over everyone's head.
I know you guys don't care too much about that
sort of thing, but it has been. It has been
my main investment, and it is I've been.
Speaker 2: It's my private hobby. Yeah, I don't like yeah, advertising incredible.
Speaker 3: High trade cards like crazy.
Speaker 2: Oh I got a level six go, that's just yeah.
Speaker 1: Hey is a pretty good pull, you know.
Speaker 2: Okay, yeah, yeah, don't.
Speaker 1: You know, like you didn't say Pikachu.
Speaker 2: No, oh no, that's a scrub.
Speaker 1: Yeah, who's that?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Who knows? Anyway, not a lot to say on that
other than live service woes.
Speaker 3: Sure, live service woes.
Speaker 2: All right, Well I believe that will be it for
our games this week. You guys want to move on
to emails, sister, excellent? All right, we've got emails here.
I'll put out a call for some more emails here.
I went through and grabbed a handful. But we could
be we could use a replenish. People want to send
in their questions too. Oh no, Mike usually knows this.
I think it's fire Escape Cast at gmail dot com.
Does that sound right to you? To fire Escape cast
at gmail dot com. Yes, I just saw it. Okay,
there you go. That is the one. Send in your questions,
all of it. Yes, with the with the cast. We
have a handful here. First one, what's up, Billy crudup? Uh, Mike,
what kind of wines have you been drinking lately? That's
Carter from Virginia. Oh no, why do we read that
on this He's not going to be able to talk
about it.
Speaker 3: That's a shame.
Speaker 2: Oh well, geez, Okay, okay, let's go home. Move on. Okay,
how's it going, Julie Bowen? Sorry, Mike, I'll leave the
impeccable intros to you. I just want to know if
any of you all have had a video game company
you dreamt of working for as a kid in the
two thousands, I fantasized about getting a job, but never
Soft Rest in Peace. Behind the scenes videos and the
Tony Hawk games made it look like such a fun
place full of cool people. Love you, guys. Charles from
Philadelphia that is a great answer, Charles, because yeah, they
the Tony Hawk games. Those early ones always had those
cool they had the Baales videos and behind the scenes stuff.
And what's his name Josh Jewett or a Jewel Jewett
guy that retired and probably Gott did a great story
about him recently. He just like lives in the mountains
in Nevada or something, And it just seemed like the
coolest team of guys that just like you know, skater culture,
really laid back, but also these geniuses making like one
of the best game series of all time, Like they
are way way up there. I think back then I
probably would have said single track that was where David
Jaffi and Scott Campbell made stuffing basically Twist the Metal,
Twist Metal one and two specifically, because it just seemed
like such a you know, thirteen year old kids dream
idea of, like what ice cream truck shot Mitchels and
you could run over kids are swimming like it's just
like dumbest shit ever. I wonder now looking back, that
would actually be like a really obnoxious working environment, the
ones I really loved and always wanted e GM. I mean,
these these aren't game developers, but Electronic Gaming Monthly and
Game Informer, like the ones were like you would read
about the editors and the shit they did in the
office and stuff like that, and you have silly photoshops
of the editors at the beginning of the issues, and
it's like that was always the culture I wanted to
work in, and uh yeah yeah, And it turned out
the Game Informer was a really good one. Not Rockstar
or Nintendo. They both seemed fucking weird and bad always
to work for and don't want to do that at all.
So that's that was a note go. So how about you, guys,
I was going to say, so I would.
Speaker 1: Say Game Informer as well. I remember getting that magazine
as a kid, and you know, flipping through those pages
and seeing everyone on staff and being like, that's where
I want to work. I would say Game Studios. Not
as much, however. I remember seeing the Halo two behind
the scenes documentary that came with like the Collector's Edition,
and I thought it would be pretty cool to work
with people who also love and play Halo. I think
I haven't seen that doc in a while, but I remember,
or I vaguely remember it showing like people like sleeping
under their desk during like the build up to like
launch that game and that stuff was you know, you're
a kid, you're naive. I didn't even think about it,
but I was like, yeah, I want to work at Bungee.
Speaker 2: I mean that was always like presented as like this
like romantic, like look how passionate they are. They sleep
under their desk.
Speaker 1: And like they would to make the best game ever.
Speaker 2: Themselves. Would put that out like behind the scenes things
like look how much we love this shit we sleep here.
It's like, wow, it's crazy, which that's changed.
Speaker 3: Yeah, twelve year old us were like dream job ever?
Speaker 2: Want to leave the office.
Speaker 4: I don't know if I ever as a child was
like I got to work for this game.
Speaker 2: Oh my god, I can't.
Speaker 3: How dare you bring up my worst game? My name's
on that. Hell Yeah, working for a publisher is hard,
and it's it really does rip all the joy out
from you.
Speaker 4: It's funny when you do work in games, how much
you're like, man, there's a lot of bad in this place.
There's a lot of people being like, how do we
extrapolate more money from people? The games in that publisher
house Zoo, were designed to always be on sale so
we had a price point when we were constructing them
to say, Okay, if we sell them for five dollars,
we're making a profit. So we'll list them for ten
and have them be endlessly fifty percent off, because that
scratch is an itch in mostly parents' brains.
Speaker 3: It's like, it's fifty percent off, let's get it.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 4: We designed the game to be profitable at fifty percent off,
so that that made money. And so you're just buying
a really shitty game with intention. That's probably a more
egregious answer. That was such a bad experience. But when
I was child and like I was like playing like
or just really old games on my game gear, I
remember like feeling like the Sega logo and that company
was so iconic and how cool it would be to
work for a company like Sega. But I never like
looked it up or even like went to their website.
I just don't know if I was that in when
I was a kid.
Speaker 2: So they were super sleeping under their desks.
Speaker 3: Yeah I think they were. Yeah, Well, it's a shame
I never really got into it and applied.
Speaker 2: Well, thank you for the email, Charles H. We got
one from Austin at Missouri. Here, Hey pals, what are
some of your favorite needle drops and movies? And why?
I no spoilers, but I watched twenty eight years Later
The Bone Temple yesterday and I prompted this thoughts so good.
I've been, We've been, Me and Hanson have been trying
to find a night to watch it for months now, and.
Speaker 3: I'm curious what you think of it because I before, okay,
and you liked the one before I liked it.
Speaker 2: I mean, zombie movies have never been like my thing,
but I remember like seeing twenty years Later that was
that was a good movie. Yeah, I like, yeah, it.
Speaker 3: Getting so crazy.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they had more of an X factor. I guess
that I was into.
Speaker 4: Okay, they took the script of what zombie movies are
supposed to be and they were like, throw that away.
We're going on this crazy tangent with this guy with
his dong out. It's gonna be ninety dong. I hope
you're cool with that. And it's like it does have
a good needle drop.
Speaker 1: Though it does okay, but I think my favorite.
Speaker 3: We should explain what a needle drop is.
Speaker 2: I think we had to google it. It's uh, I'm
assuming it's non diegetic, right, it's stuff that like, oh,
it's the baby Driver thing right where it's just like, yeah,
we're just playing these big songs during all these scenes
and into this big I've bet Marvel movies do this
a lot, right.
Speaker 1: I think it could be both, Like I think you
could probably make a case for either. But in my head, yes,
it's usually like moments where like the cool guy kicks
in the door, right and the music plays and then
it's you know.
Speaker 2: The first thing I thought it was, well, I guess
this was diagetic, so I guess, yeah, digetic probably counts.
But Bad to the Bone and Terminator two, it's just like, yeah,
that is the most just like that is so tied
to that scene and it's so fitting for that scene,
Like that's pretty good.
Speaker 1: Fuck uh, this one's classic. But I always think of
it whenever I hear the song, So I imagine that's probably good.
But Apocalypse, now this is the you know, like that's
a lot, like that has a lot, but like that
scene that is like imprinted into my brain.
Speaker 2: Just blames the napalm on the Oh my god, Waited
sets the tone of a movie better than any opening
I've ever seen before, Like, oh, this is gonna be
a fucking thing, isn't it?
Speaker 4: Like these aren't uh brain busting examples like these are
like the perfect examples to make it, make us hammer
home to you what these are. And when you hear
this song, you might be like skyrocketed into this movie
like Reservoir Dogs Stuck in the Middle with You is
the iconic. I can't hear that song on a radio
without thinking about that fucking scene.
Speaker 2: Ears getting cut off.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, it's fucked up, and it's like such a
such a.
Speaker 2: Like happy goss, Michael Madson's having a lot of fun there.
Speaker 3: Oh, but he takes the ear and he goes hello.
I think he's such a little freak in it. He's
joking the whole time while he's you know, uh hurting someone.
I think that's a classic, probably example of it.
Speaker 2: Tarantino's pretty egregious with it, but like, I don't know.
Speaker 3: He does it in every one of his films.
Speaker 2: He doesn't give else.
Speaker 1: Some are just like all right, you're just doing your fit,
you know, like, but some are really good.
Speaker 2: That's the difference where it's like, yeah, like Edgar Wright,
it was just one thing after another, and it didn't
really feel like with like Tarantinos. It feels like he
can just do Like kill Bill has a lot of
these that don't let me be misunderstood. Is incredible. It
was a fight without honor or whatever. Like kill Bill
has a ton of these that are that the motorcycle one,
the ing like that one, although I guess that wasn't
like a pop song, which I guess that's probably more
what a needle drop is. But oh, big Lebowski, when
what condition my condition was in?
Speaker 3: That's a great one.
Speaker 2: I love that one.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Uh, I think Scorse. I mean maybe this is
not oh this is yeah, but I think Scorsese does
this well. But the one I always think of is
The Departed that opens up to the stones, give me shelter. Yeah,
it's like showing like Boston at the time. And then
in that same movie, I think, when is it DiCaprio,
one of them goes to prison, uh, and they start
playing the drop Kick Murphy and that I remember. I
hadn't heard that song before until I saw that movie
and it started playing and I was like, whoa this
is I gotta get on this. And I started listening
to drop Kick Murphy's because of it.
Speaker 2: I do love Yes. Corsesees are awesome because like, yeah,
it's give me shelter like once or twice in The Departed,
and then there's a part in the bar where they're
playing let it Loose by the Stones, and I was like, man,
this guy loves the fucking Stones. I get it. And
then I watched like Mean Streets, which is from the seventies,
and it's like it's got rolling stones stuff all over
and say, all right, dude loves the Stones. Can't get
Calton for that. H all right, thank you, Austin.
Speaker 3: Finally I have one more yes, Sean of the Dead
Don't Stop Me.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 3: It's like one of the best because not only is
it a good tune and they're killing zombies to it,
but they actually like beat zombies to the beat of it,
where they'll be like, yeah, don't stop me. They're like
actually beating people with pool sticks. And I think that
is very iconic for me because it's funny, it's a
zombie movie, it's action, it's slapstick, and it's a damn
good song.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and that's that Gore right as well, And so
like I think he maybe just like saw how good
that was, and it works so well in Sean of
the Dead, and then maybe just got a little overheal
with it. But Shohna the dad, it works fantastic, all right?
Final email? Hello, how do you all deal with the
constant onslought of recommendations for games, books, movies, and TV
shows from peers, friends or family. I feel like it's
become more and more common for people to drop the
whole you should really play, read, watch, et cetera. This
because I liked it, lying and conversation. For some reason,
it's extremely exhausting to me. There's so many apps like letterboxed,
websites like backloged, and I'm tired of keeping tabs on
what I should and shouldn't spend my time on. How
do you pick what you actually follow through on? Checking
out in your free time? I love the show. You're
a wonderful, funny group of friends, Freddy. I like that question, Freddy.
Thank you. That's the thing. Yeah, anyone who spends any
time on the internet, well, first rule with them is
if anyone starts trying to yell at you about what
Animated wasan don't listen to them. Holy shit. Anime fans
oh my fucking god. Like all of us have an
honeslot of this stuff all the time. The time I
had an anime podcast, the fucking novel length emails, you'd
get like, Oka, you gotta do this, but then only
do this or can this? It's like, oh my god,
don't listen to anime fans.
Speaker 4: They'll just be like, listen to more anime, watch all anime?
What do you mean you haven't watched one piece? And
it's like, get out of here.
Speaker 2: It's only seven thousand episodes.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and just pretend that this character is not fourteen.
Speaker 2: And actlete, you know, yeah, exactly, Yes, ignore them.
Speaker 3: I think like the most boring answer is that I
go with my gut of what I'm actually interested in
at the given time. I really try not to.
Speaker 4: Watch something just because it was recommended. I do try
and keep a notes document, but that doesn't mean it's
gonna be the next thing I watch. That's a mistake.
That's a mistake, and that's not what you should do.
You should be trusting your gut for the genre that
you're interested in it, and then when you're interested in
that genre, you should go into your backlog and be like,
oh my gosh, I've been waiting.
Speaker 3: To watch a drama. Yeah, and so I'm going to
watch this big. Just because everyone and their brother is
telling you to watch this like very, very dark and
depressing based on a true story movie does not mean
that's what you should be watching. After a long Tuesday,
you know, in.
Speaker 4: Your precious two hours, give yourself the room to say
to yourself, what vibe am I in for? And then
pick that thing that you've been recommended for so that
you're not ruining your fucking night.
Speaker 3: I've had I am very horror.
Speaker 4: I'm into like any recommendations of horror, and I feel
like it all the time, and so I have this
big backlog of horror. I can't always watch it, but
if I'm interested, I go into my backlog and I
start watching horror. But there are days where I'm like,
I need a comedy. I need a comedy and I
and I don't want to worry about it too much.
It's gotta be a sitcom. I'll go into the backlog
and I'll find a sitcom comedy that's what I recommend doing.
Speaker 2: Or sometimes you want a short movie, sometimes you want
a long one. Sometimes you want to turn your brain
out of Thing Bank and I have a shared doc
where it's like, Okay, the biggest column is just Dan
Bonk movie Night, and that's just all these movies we
want to watch together, Like when it's movie night. That
is the like, you know, we never look at our phones.
That's the lights down. We're watched on the big, big
screen downstairs. You know, like that's a dedicated night. And
then there's like, Okay, here's the high column. These would
be good to watch when you're high. Here's a Dan
solo column where it's like, Okay, she doesn't she's not
gonna watch this or whatever. Here's background. So if we
just want to like be on our steam decks and
just have something on in the background, it's like, okay,
we could rewatch Arrested Development or something like that, you know.
I The thing with recommendations with me is like, yeah,
we do get so many being on podcasts and stuff
like that that I just have like kind of like
a short list of like there are certain people in
my life that have just had a good track record
of introducing me to things I would like. I account
everyone on this podcast, Mary Jake, Mike Mike. Mike has
a great sense too, of like he likes a lot
of stuff passionately that he just knows that I'm not
going to like, and so like he's not going to
give me the hard sell on something, but like something careful.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I had to be careful with Mike because he'll
have art art picks and I'll be like, I watched it.
I have no idea what I watched, but it was beautiful,
and he'll be like, can't you believe how incredible that was?
And I'll be like, oh, yes, But like I have to,
I have to be really focused. When Mike gives me
a recommendation, it's usually very thoughtful.
Speaker 1: I definitely, I think to dance point, I definitely have
like certain people that I look to or like hear
out their recommendations, and some people I don't. Maybe not people,
just but like if I don't have if someone who's
recommendations I trust doesn't recommend something to me, then I'll
probably not see it or watch your plant. I would say.
With my books, whenever Mike recommends it, yes, usually did that, I'll.
Speaker 2: Pick it up me.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'll read it. I even the ones that he's
recommended that I haven't liked, I've still like enjoy, like
I feel like I've gotten something out of it. So
I would say like him for books especially, UH is
someone I look toward. But I think another key thing
is like do a little research. I guess like I
don't know, Uh. I feel like, you know, like Dan
saying we're getting recommendations constantly being on podcasts, or just
like people saying you gotta play this, you got to
check this out. And sometimes I'd be like okay, and
then I'll just google it and I'll be like, Nope,
this is not for me. This is a bunch of teenagers.
I'm good, you know.
Speaker 3: And I wonder if, based on this listening of this podcast,
if people's takeaway is to play or not play mixtape
right would be based on our individual.
Speaker 4: Personalities and whether or not you identify with us. People
who identify as like a dance style gamer would should
not play that game, right, and people who identify more
with like my vibe might want to give it a try.
Speaker 3: And they're both fine and accurate.
Speaker 4: But I find that really funny is like it doesn't
change whether or not mixtape is a good game, which
is so subjective, it changes whether or not it's for you.
So we can both kind of recommend it or not,
but it's really based on like who do you identify
the most with when you're listening.
Speaker 2: Well, I think that's one of the huge benefits of
like personality based media, because like that's why I always
loved in magazines. We were talking earlier about a game Informer.
I could look at like, you know, it would have
the byline where it's like, Okay, Reiner wrote this review.
I typically like the same type of action games that
Reiner likes. I'll trust him here. Miller gave this a
really high score, but he's a big kind of like
deep RPG guy, So I don't know if i' wouldn't
necessarily go out and by it. Jessicas Miller loved it,
you know, Like I think that really helps. But yeah,
on my short list, it's everyone on this podcast. I
think you guys have a great track record with the
recommending stuff to me. Bonk. If Bonk ever sells me
in something, I'm always she's got fantastic tasting stuff. And
then there's people where you got to like it. It's
it's a categorical Ben Hansen, for one, he is uh,
He's recommended so many great things to me, mostly great things,
like especially like weird things too, like little documentaries and
stuff that like other people like I remember the jings
are like, oh you should watch this Larry Sanders doc
even though you don't really you know, don't know Larry
Sanders or Gary Shandling whatever. Where I got to stop
with Hanson is like he has given me super hard,
passionate like tears welling in his eyes recommendations for like, uh,
Toy Story three or The Incredibles or something, and I'll
be like, man, Ben, I don't it's not my type
of thing. And he'll spend like a year trying to
get me to watch Toy Story three, and then I
finally will, and I'll be like, Ben, I should have
trusted my hands. This is not for me.
Speaker 3: That's a bummer. Wait, so you didn't like Incredibles.
Speaker 2: I just it just seemed like it was just I
don't know, kids.
Speaker 3: Movie, just three. The first one.
Speaker 2: I didn't know they made three was the first one.
He was talking about me, the first one forever, and
I watched the first one was like, okay, well that
was a zero out of not zero out of ten.
It didn't zero me. No, no, no, no, I'm not saying
it was. I wouldn't score it a zero. It's obviously
very well made. I'm saying in terms of affecting me zero,
like did not register on my brain in any way,
shape or form other than I was just waiting for
it to end.
Speaker 3: Everyone, email fire Escape Cast at gmail dot com with
your best recommendations for Dan, specifically.
Speaker 2: Will no one else all of it? For Dance?
Speaker 4: I want to know what you guys think Dan would like.
The idea The Incredibles is like just doesn't register. It's funny,
it's charming, it's interesting, like it has like really witty humor.
Speaker 3: It has a great uh ending.
Speaker 4: Of like why the bad guy does what he does
and like what happens to him?
Speaker 2: It's a good conclusions and did I couldn't tell you
a single thing that happened. It's like, it's not It's
obviously very well made. Like the Pixar, they're incredible at
what they do. I just I don't think I've ever
seen a Pixar movie where I'm like, Wow, that de affected.
Speaker 3: None of what's your favorite Pixar.
Speaker 2: Sounds like that only scene I guess when I was
a child and toy story I thought the CG was impressive.
Speaker 3: Oh my god, dog shit. Compared to now, it was
fucking cool. Ten years old, you weren't like, wow, these
army men are party like. You weren't like excited about.
Speaker 1: Like the.
Speaker 2: Voice. I like Jim Verney, and I was like, it's
cool the Jim Verney's voices in this. And you know what, honestly,
I was ten years old. The thing I probably like
the most about Toy Story was that Don Rickles did
a voice. I was the oldest fucking ten year old ever.
I was like, hell yeah, Don Rickles, the funny guy
from Letterman, He's the big or whatever in.
Speaker 3: This forty five years old when you were.
Speaker 2: Ten, Yeah, hell yeah, I'm just telling you kids movies.
The first movies that affected me were fucking Terminators and
stuff like that. I never ever, like I saw Aladdin.
I was like, all right, that was fine, and then
I was just like I just show me Arnold stuff.
Like I just never cared about kids movies even as
a kid.
Speaker 3: That's so odd, and like, no wonder you didn't like Mixtape.
There's like something about this thing where you're like, I
don't want to pretend to be a youth in any capacity.
Speaker 2: I never felt like a youth. I never liked my peers.
I never liked my generation. I listened to old guy
music from the time I fucking listened to music. I
watched R rated movies from the time I watched movies like.
I never wanted to be a kid or a teenager.
I always just like, man, I like hanging out with
adults and talking to adults.
Speaker 3: You know you didn't like Finding Nemo.
Speaker 2: I never saw it.
Speaker 1: Oh, man, don't see it.
Speaker 2: Yeah I won't.
Speaker 3: I mean, I guess, yeah, it's not gonna hit you.
I'm just like you've never seen Ride of chuey Uh.
Speaker 2: I saw it. Like when I stopped watching kids, I
saw Aladdin, Little Mermaid and Lion King.
Speaker 3: Those are good.
Speaker 2: And then I think I remember by the time, I
think Pocahontas was the first big one. Like Pocahontas and
like Hunchback, those were the ones that came out, and
I was like, I can't be watching Disney movies like
and I was like, I'm gonna.
Speaker 3: Having a cigarette.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm still getting the Happy Meal toys, but I'm
not watching the movies.
Speaker 3: You're the diet of a nine year old. But the
cinematic viewpoints of a sixty year old angry man.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and no, part of this is maybe like, oh
I'm too cool for those who I'm too adult or
growing up. It's like I just never did anything for me.
Speaker 3: I'm not getting that from you. I just feel like
there's like a part of me that's like it's a
bummer that you wouldn't watch. Like some of these that
I think are pretty in Wally could be boring. I
think that's fine. Finding Nemo is pretty universally loved though.
Speaker 2: They never saw it.
Speaker 1: Thinks pretty good. I I feel like it's just maybe
not just the case. But but I was gonna say, like,
maybe you know, you're just born too soon to like
really get it, because because when I was growing up,
I thought Toy Story was incredible. Like I watched Toy
Story every day. I thought it was amazing. But I
I could see myself not giving a shit if I
hadn't seen Toy Story until I was like, I don't know.
Speaker 2: I saw in the theaters fifteen I was eleven.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and that movie rocked my world.
Speaker 4: When Toy Story came out, everyone was like, this is
a game changer, This is like what movies were built
for and it's it still slaps I think. Although I
haven't seen it, I just got it on VHS. You guys,
I'm really excited to watch it, but I instead, my uh,
my friends are all learning that I'm getting VHS.
Speaker 3: It's a nono.
Speaker 4: They're giving them to me as gifts, which I think
is really sweet. And the other day my girlfriend gave
me Running Man, The running Man.
Speaker 2: The running Man, that movie or what a VHS movie
that is so fucking good and.
Speaker 3: It's bold us so good, and I was like, I
can't believe I was gonna watch Bambi so much better
than Bamby right.
Speaker 2: The casting for that movie with Richard from The Match
Game and Family Feud as the evil game show host.
I love that fucking movie so much, so much action.
Speaker 4: Like from the beginning to the end, like there's always
something going on. I was very impressed by this, and
I also realized, I didn't know this will probably upset
you because we've discussed it on the show before. I
don't think I've actually really ever watched The Rock before,
And so I finally watched The Rock. I actually paid
attention from beginning to end, and watch the Rock.
Speaker 2: Oh my god, you guys, it's pretty good. It's I
had no idea.
Speaker 3: I had no idea that it was like you have
to sit down and watch this film. Like the the balls.
Uh that are what a great design for a for
a thing that you need to like contain and use,
but don't touch it. If it drops, you better run
like helt.
Speaker 2: And like this in the atmosphere and.
Speaker 3: If you put in your you got to stab yourself
in the heart.
Speaker 2: What cool. Yeah, there's like all these little.
Speaker 3: Things going on. It is great.
Speaker 2: Apt and Ed Harris as this like conflicted villain. It's
just so fun. But he's got these like jackass cronies
around him, and he's he thinks he's doing the right thing.
And Connory's doing Conrie shit. Oh my god, it's so
fucking good every time.
Speaker 4: I uh, I did not realize. But that was a
good recommendation that I just didn't really process. And so
I think I would. I would listen to you for
action movie recommendations day in and day out, and probably comedies.
Speaker 3: I believe in you. I'm really not over the musical recommendation.
I just don't think.
Speaker 2: I can do it. That's an anomaly. I want to
be clear, I don't like musicals, and this is a
like and that is just a thing that is just
so weird and unlike anything like. I'm not even necessarily
saying it's good or you're going to like it. I'm
just saying it is something so out there it's worth seeing.
That's what I'm saying. I like it now just because
of how fucking nuts and bold it is, and it
does some unbelievably weirdship by the end, and I got
a budget and like major stars and stuff involved. I
can't help but just kind of respect how fucking off
the wall that movie goes. But no, I don't like
when I talk about my favorite movies and stuff like that.
I'm not gonna like.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I just say, it's like such a ridiculous thing
that you're like, it's absurd that it was constructed doesn't
mean that I have to endure it.
Speaker 2: Sure, that's fair. That's fair.
Speaker 1: I will say talking about like Pixar and stuff, and
knowing you, Dan, I can understand why that is just
not your interest. However, the one thing that confuses me
is that you've said before that you don't like horror
movies or at least you don't think you like horror movies. Yeah,
I that means to me because like you can go ahead,
but it's just like those movies are so like not
all of them, but there are some like incredibly stupid
horror movies that are amazing because of how stupid they are.
And like, like I.
Speaker 2: I think maybe here's part of it. And I've never
thought of it this way before, but this is where
my brain went. I like things to have at least
some grounding in reality in terms of like and it
can be wild, like I throw a metal year solid
into that and Command and Conquer games that are say
it's set on Earth, it's dudes with guns, with countries
that exist. That is the type of thing where I
can kind of like be like, Okay, this is within
the realm of reality here. You know, I've never been
the biggest sci fi guy. I definitely become more of
a sci fi guy over the years of just like
you know, like an Annihilation and like really good like
hard sci fi and stuff. Never been a fantasy guidet all,
just because it's just like I go to the magic
and elves and stuff, like I just don't this isn't real.
And this is very Paul Record does, very my brain.
It's still having vestiges of his. But I need to
see a real world scenario and like dudes with guns
and not monsters and like so like like a.
Speaker 3: Friend question, have you seen seven?
Speaker 2: I love seven? Okay, so that's the thing. There are
horror movies I love. I think it's generally the more
like psychological horror pype. Like I mean, seven is kind
of a thriller murder, you know, it's a yeah, it's
type of the Shining. The Shining is probably my favorite
everort The Shine. That's psychological horror, you know, like none
of that well, I mean you could argue some of
that stuff is the burial ground. What about Donnie Darko
didn't like it?
Speaker 3: Children?
Speaker 2: Oh yeah yeah. But also that was a movie that
washyped up to me for like ten years by the
most obnoxious people in college, and by the time I
saw it, I was like, Okay.
Speaker 3: We're such a true soul. You're like such an antipedo.
Like the second there's a cut, kid, you're just like
I am ew.
Speaker 2: I watch it went over by a truck or something.
Speaker 3: I hate this, I'm not watching it.
Speaker 4: And it's just like the hero that we need in
twenty twenty six.
Speaker 1: So is it like creatures and like when a creature
in a horror movie that's just unbelievable to you.
Speaker 2: I don't think I have that anymore because it's like
like Barbarian. I'm not gonna spoil anything, but like Bararion's
not a realistic movie. I've fucking loved it. Weapons, Weapons
is not remote, Like that's not realistic. I thought Weapons
kicked ass sinners, you know. So it's like, I think
I'm kind of over that now. I still can't struggle
with like fantasy and stuff like that, but sci fi
psychological horror, like John, I like it. Dust Done is
a lot of fun.
Speaker 3: Like I'm picking up some vibes based on what you've
said yes to.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, it's just like a slasher stuff never really
like I like Halloween I Finally a temporary finally got
but Jake, I might have watched that with you for
the first time Tim had us over to that house
and Halloween yeah one and two, And I normally I
am not into like slasher type stuff, but the John
Carpenter of it all, like I just love his style
so much that I don't know, And I super don't
like the like kind of gore porn saw hostile type
stuff like that does like just like violence and gore
for for the sake of violence, and CORR doesn't do
anything for me. But yeah, like horrors, it's it depends.
It depends with horror, you know. Yeah, yeah, like The Rock,
Like Mary, I saw that on my twelfth birthday, and
it was like, this is the fucking coolest shit I've
ever seen in my life. Why would I ever go
back to kids movies?
Speaker 4: I can't believe I went so long without really giving
it a good watch.
Speaker 1: Especially living in San Francisco for as long as you did, Like,
how do you know this out? I feel like, okay,
to be fair, I'd go to many bars and it
would be playing, but you're not actually watching it in
a bar, you like, look at you know.
Speaker 4: I have seen The Rock probably ten times, but I
haven't watched The Rock. This was the first time that
I said, we're sitting and we're watching this start pay
attention from start to finish. I actually half the time
I was like, oh, I didn't realize this was like
at the beginning of the movie, like I never had
really really understood it, so yeah, it was very worth
it for me to watch it.
Speaker 3: I think I think it'd be nice maybe the next time.
Speaker 4: We get together for you to have like three where
you're like, these are quintessential ten out of ten banger actions.
You can get more nuanced if you want, but it's
like you have to watch these, uh, and I recommend
them fully with my full chest, like they're they're brilliant.
Speaker 2: We never heard Faceoft, did we, like? I mean, I
think Jake and Mike fell asleep and we stopped fell asleep.
Speaker 3: But we've seen it.
Speaker 1: I've seen it. Yeah, I've seen it.
Speaker 3: We watched it together before.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, Face Off is fantastic. I don't know, it's
quite very good. I think The Rock to me is
the best like traditional action movie as far as there's
nothing sci fi. There's nothing like because you know, I
think the Terminators and stuff like that are kind of
action sci fi horror. I would put t two over
like The Rock, But like as far as just a
straight up in the realm of reality action movie, I
don't think it really gets better than The Rock. And
then there's the other category that's like The Running Man.
Granted that sci fi also that's kind of like Quippi Arnold.
That's kind of like one liner, Like that's kind of
different to me.
Speaker 3: Well, you know, he says, I'll be back in it.
Speaker 2: I couldn't movies, Yeah, he says in a lot of
different movies.
Speaker 3: I can't believe it's not trademarked by his other I'm
amazed they were like, you're allowed to use your coveted line.
Speaker 2: Oh that's Arnold's. Yeah. But yeah, there's like the prestige
action movies like The Rock I put their Predator again.
Predator is like pre also major horror elements there, but
like part is uh that that's a kind of a
genre of bending thing where it starts out like it's
gonna be this like super testosterone action movie and then
this sci fi horror kind of a horror.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's a bitter Predator in the in the realm
of horror.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, man, it's just good excited to think about these.
You've you've both seen Predator, right, m Okay, if.
Speaker 3: You find it on VHS, I want it just you know, Oh, it's.
Speaker 2: A good VHS.
Speaker 1: Keep your eye out, Okay, I'll be watching.
Speaker 4: And we've talked about you know, like, uh my favorite
horror is the thing like that would be like if
I like, you have to watch it.
Speaker 2: Yes, and then that's yes, that is of that caliber totally.
Speaker 4: It's the type of recommendation I give where I'm like, well,
if you don't like this, you wouldn't like, we wouldn't
probably get along exactly.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's that's a fun category. Like what
are the movies if you had to name a few
that like if someone doesn't like them, I think you
can't be no more kind. The one where it's like
if you see this movie and don't understand why this
is so fucking funny, that is just speaking to someone's
sense of humor in a way where it's like, Okay,
we might get along politely, but like we're not gonna
get each other.
Speaker 1: I think comedy is probably the best way to tell
because it's just like I don't know, you can tell
what someone's sense of humor is based on watching a movie,
and if they don't find it's funny, it's just.
Speaker 2: Like all right, I guess we're just gonna talk about it.
Speaker 1: Or if they think it's funny and you're like cringing
at it, then that also, you know, has the opposite
effect ors, just sort of like.
Speaker 2: Yeah, totally.
Speaker 4: I've actually, you know, I met someone at at a party.
It was like a mutual friend's birthday party who said
that they could not get through I think.
Speaker 3: You should leave because it was so cringey.
Speaker 1: And awkward and walk away.
Speaker 4: Yeah, And I was like really polite about it, and
I was like, Okay, like, You're totally allowed to have
that opinion.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna go over here now. And to this day,
I'm like when I see.
Speaker 4: Them, I'm like, I really want to talk to that guy,
like he didn't like a show that has fundamentally altered
how I talk to people, because I think it's so funny.
He's allowed to have that opinion. I'm not saying he's
like a bad person or he's like a loser. I'm
just saying we're not going to probably get along.
Speaker 2: Yeah, level you can't connect on you know, And what
am I.
Speaker 3: Supposed to invest time into this person?
Speaker 1: Yeah. I was at a show last night, at a concert,
and there was a guy in line next to me.
He was wearing an incredibly a shirt with an incredibly
complicated pattern, and the amount of self restraint it took
for me to be like not be like, how much
is that shirt costs? It looks pretty expensive with a
pattern of that complicated, it could cost one thousands of
dollars and I just like held it in. It's like,
don't say anything.
Speaker 2: Don't say anything.
Speaker 3: Don't say anything, don't ruin this social experience.
Speaker 1: Speaking of a show that's changed the way I talk
and think that one probably pretty high up there for
better or worse. I mean, even playing Mina, you know,
I'm the entire time I'm singing the bones are there
at all? Yeah, all the time.
Speaker 3: As soon as I found out, did you know that? Yeah,
leveling up in Mina? It's bone up And I was
like outrageous that you're calling it that, Like I like
that this is a I don't have such an aggressive
opinion about Mina. Like I think if you guys were
like we don't like it, I would be like, Okay,
well this is a bad idea.
Speaker 4: And Dan, you're not a big fan of mixtape and
I think it's pretty good, and like that's okay that
that actually checks out.
Speaker 3: I can like see the.
Speaker 4: Differences in our personalities and I still like really like you.
I think there is like, yeah, I'm a very good person,
and I think that there is like there are things
though in my life that if you didn't like them,
I'd be.
Speaker 3: Like, who is this person? Who is this man?
Speaker 4: Like, it's so weird that you wouldn't like this, and
I'd like to cross those off on the next podcast,
all write like a list of things where I'm like,
you like these?
Speaker 2: Right? I think this was productive though. I think we're
all we're all still friends here. Yeah, No, I.
Speaker 3: Don't think so. I think I'm really open minded about
this stuff.
Speaker 4: It's there's like a rare few pieces of media where
I'm like, it's you're supposed to like these.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's strange. You're just wrong if you don't like these.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean it's funny.
Speaker 4: I bet you there are people out there that like,
don't think mcgruber is funny.
Speaker 2: Oh, they're out there. I mean, honestly, it was a
huge flop. It was a critically panned. It was like
the amount of people was like, oh, I get like
this stupid fucking movie. It's like, no, you just yeah,
you don't get it. You're grown up. I was such
a little film nerd and stuff. In the amount of
times I would try to get like you know, my
mom is great, love my mom. She is not a
film uh kind of swear by any means. And I
would like be like, Mom, you gotta see this, you
gotta see this, and like very quickly, honestly, Yeah, it
was stuff like I was trying to get her watch
like clockwork orange and you know, like I was a
teenager at fight club at the time. To me, it
was like high art or whatever, and it's like she
would just watch the stuff, and you know, it's like, well, like,
can we watch uh that thing you do for the
seven thousandth time instead? Oh. Man.
Speaker 1: To bring it back to the question kind of, I
will say one thing that helped a lot is I mean,
it kind of goes on this, but it's just like
I don't know, I've just accepted that I'm just not
gonna play everything, read everything, see everything that people recommend,
and like you kind of just have to make peace
with that. I do often think about though, like it's
probably just because I wasn't I wasn't getting as many recommendations.
I didn't know a lot of people who had the
same interest as me. But I do wonder how like
when I was a kid, I felt like I played
everything I saw, Yeah, all the movie there was. I
was able to keep up with every Yeah. I mean
that's part of it too. And now it's just very
much like I don't know, Like I loved Disco Elysium.
I thought that game was fantastic, and the new their
new game, Zero Parades is out and I'm just like, oh,
I can't I don't know what I'm gonna have the
time to play this, and I just have to be
okay with that and move on. Even though people are like, well,
you'll probably like it because you're like Disco Lesium, and
it's like, I believe you, you are right, that recommendation makes sense,
But I just don't have the time, so I'm just
gonna have to skip it. Maybe I'll get to it,
maybe I won't.
Speaker 2: One recommendation I learned to disregard very quickly was the
amount of times a Marvel movie would come out during
the height of the Marvel stuff and all these people
like Dan, I know you don't normally like the Marvel stuff,
but this is the one. Even if you don't like
Marvel Door Ragnarok's gonna be the one I watched. No, No,
the sucks too, Like these all suck. I heard that
so many times, and I eventually just like, I'm just
I'm I don't need to try with these anymore.
Speaker 4: I like to try the New Spider Man's I was
thinking about giving it the old.
Speaker 2: College try those you're talking about, the like the Spider
Verse ones, uh not that turns of cool? Uh? Oh no,
the live action one suck. Those were also the ones
people told me, even if you don't like, you know,
the live action one sucks, they'll no way home or
a long way from home or whatever. I never stop
a movie halfway through the one with Michael Keaton, and
I love Michael Keaton. I got halfway through and I
was like, I fucking hate this movie and I stopped it.
The Spider Verse movies, the animated ones, that those are
actually good. I actually liked those. Good. Dude, the fucking
and Andrew Garfield or Tom Holland whoever. The current one is,
oh just fucking suck.
Speaker 3: Really? Oh no, I was That's what I was talking about.
I was like, maybe those are. No.
Speaker 2: Don't waste your fucking life. You have so much time
on this mortal plane. Don't waste a fucking half hour
of it even trying one of these, like I need
more In the loss of a half hour I spent
watching that you.
Speaker 1: Need Toby Maguire's Spider Man on VHS, I think, I
think that's the Spider Man scratch, He's just fine.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I remember liking the first Toby McGuire a lot.
Speaker 1: I think first two pretty good personally.
Speaker 4: I saw those in theaters and I remember being like, yes,
this is the Spider Man that I wanted. And then
I don't think I watched any after that to three.
Speaker 2: It was there.
Speaker 1: Toby maguire one is bad, but it's kind of fun
because it is so bad.
Speaker 2: It's so bad, so Sam Raimi and like weird bad.
Speaker 1: But I think, to your point Dan, about like all
the Marvel the New Spider Man ones, there's just like, no,
I don't know, I feel like all the edges have
been sanded off. It's just Marvel.
Speaker 2: It's like, okay, it's just here's a question over words now.
But slop is how I can do all that stuff?
Just yeah, the same type of fucking same shitty, snarky
humor in all these And yeah, it's yeah, I watch
Hokum instead.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, you were saying, so you're I don't want
any spoilers because I think I'm gonna watch this, but
you said you watched Hokum and it's worth seeing.
Speaker 2: I think, so kum Ye.
Speaker 3: Don't look it up. I think it's one of those ones.
I don't know if you should look it up, although
I think you could look up like a photo. But
I wouldn't watch.
Speaker 2: The trailer because and I closed the tab.
Speaker 4: It's kind of like one of those things where I think,
I think part of what's supposed to be so good
about it is how fucking weird and mysterious it is.
So the more you learn about it, I think the
less you'll be. Jake, you should probably say this.
Speaker 3: You're the one who watched it, But like I saw
half a trailer and I was like, I'm not watching
the rest of this. This is going to spoil the
shit out of this film for me.
Speaker 1: Yeah, It's definitely one of those movies that I think
the less you know going in, the better. I wouldn't
say it's to the level of Zach Kraiger's stuff where
it's like you don't want to know anything, you don't
want to explain anything. I think like, if you know
the general conceit you'll probably still enjoy hokum uh. But yeah,
I would.
Speaker 2: I would.
Speaker 1: I would recommend it for you specifically, Mary Dan. I'm
not I'm not sure about you.
Speaker 3: Is it in theaters?
Speaker 1: It's in theaters right, it's still in theaters. But I
bet it'll come to streaming pretty soon.
Speaker 2: Yeah, would you put it in the like? Is it
like a modern horror like on like a Hereditary or
Midsummer or something like that.
Speaker 1: It's not that, it's it's not that up its own ass.
I would say, Okay, Well, I actually I like those Yeah,
I mean I do too. I like them a lot.
But I feel like those horrors were like really trying
to like elevate sure the genre in a way. And
this feels it's very thoughtful in the horror that it is,
but it doesn't feel like it's trying to say more
than what it's trying to say. I guess. But there's
just some very well constructed, well directed scenes. There's there's
there's a dumb waiter that is used in an incredible
way that ratches up tension. It's very good. I'm excited
a great time. I had to go to the bathroom
at one point in it, and I was pissed because
I didn't want to miss a second, but I also
didn't want to piss my pants in the theater, so
you know, you kind of have to. Just that's what
I get for drink sometimes.
Speaker 4: That's why I do like it when it's home, because
I like being able to like go to the bathroom
or get another drink without missing anything. But I also
think like the theater experience is like one for the books.
Speaker 2: Yeah, there's huge benefits to both, for sure.
Speaker 3: I know it's the peeing that's the problem.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I mean I could just not drink four or
five beers before and then I'd be fine.
Speaker 4: I know that investing in these popcorn buckets, but I
need a piss bucket so that I can stay.
Speaker 3: Like customized.
Speaker 2: To a Dune.
Speaker 3: Three piss bucket. Yeah.
Speaker 2: I nathing for you when you had the like chili
suit with the hoses that would like spray the chili out,
just do an invert thing that just sucks p out
of my wiener and out.
Speaker 3: I don't want to leave.
Speaker 1: Al Right.
Speaker 2: Well that's our movie podcast. Thank you for.
Speaker 3: Your question. Question.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they just got a movie related question. Actually it
wasn't even specifically on movies and we just went on
a tangent. Uh it turns out they're good. All right. Well,
that is it for fire Escape. This week. We've got
merch at fire Escape merch dot com, Deep dish Pussy
dot Com that might go to the Patreon. You can
figure it out, you know, out of Google.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 2: But yeah, follow us on our socials on Instagram and
blue Sky anything in particular. You guys want plug before
we get out of here.
Speaker 4: Nope, next when this goes live, I'll be at twitch
Con in Rotterdam. So this is probably not for most
of you, but if you're in Europe next week, I'll
be at twitch Con, please feel free to stop by
and say hi.
Speaker 3: That would be so cool.
Speaker 4: Other than that, I'll be back on our regularly scheduled posts.
Speaker 2: That's it.
Speaker 4: I'll also be I won't be able to stream this
week because I'm I'm in Europe, so but I'm excited
to see anybody who who I run into there.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and for me it's gime bomb dot com. We've
got summer games for us coming up. We were doing
gime Bomb at night. Make sure you tune in Friday
and Saturday night. We'll be doing some late night shows.
We got a couch full of guests. Tune in. Always
a great time. I'll try not to get assassinated via
confetti canon this time.
Speaker 3: Oh that was funny. That was like one of those
things where you could have been seriously injured. Yes I
could have, but you weren't, so it's funny.
Speaker 2: It felt like I might have been.
Speaker 3: All right, Yes, I think I'm going. I'll see you there.
Speaker 2: I'm in the studio. We got a new new place
and everything. Yeah, yeah, I want to see both of
you there would be great and uh. Until then, we
will be back in a couple of weeks where the
fire Escape cast see y'all.
Speaker 3: Bye, yah
Speaker 2: Yah yah