Great Part Two’s with Ashley Esqueda

This is a head gum podcast.

Audival's romance collection has something to satisfy every side of you.

When it comes to what kind of romance you're into, you don't have to choose just one.

Fancy a dalliance with a duke, or maybe a steamy billionaire.

You could find a book boyfriend in the city and another one tearing it up on the hockey field.

And if nothing on this earth satisfies, you can always find love in another realm.

Discover modern rom-coms from authors like Lily Chu and Allie Hazelwood, the latest romanticy series from Sarah J.

Maas and Rebecca Yaros, plus regency favorites like Bridgerton and Outlander, and of course, all the really steamy stuff.

Your first great love story is free when you sign up for a free 30-day trial at audible.com/slash wondery.

That's audible.com/slash wondery.

You buy a pair of socks, that's two socks.

You buy a pair of bombas socks, that's four socks.

Because one purchased is one donated.

Socks are the number one most requested clothing item in homeless shelters.

So when you buy a pair of super comfortable bombas socks you're also donating a pair bombus customers have powered over 150 million donations so bombus would like to thank you 150 million times but we only have like 30 seconds go to bombus.com and use code audio for 20 off your first purchase that's bombbas.com and use code audio at checkout

uh hey uh heather and matt before we get started i actually have some pretty exciting personal news.

Some career news

to be more precise.

And

it involves both of you.

So I thought

a heads up.

Wow, Nick.

Yeah, I just signed a deal

to publish a book that I'm authoring

entitled The Art of Get Played.

Check the chat here because I put a link to a PDF.

This is a proof.

So it's watermarked.

So, you know, don't share this with anyone, but just, yeah, you can kind of get a look at what this is going to look like.

See, I worked really hard on all the layout and, you know, was picking what images would go in there.

So we see this first one is,

you know, kind of giving, there's a little bit of a focus on each of us.

And so this first one is just kind of giving some backstory on Matt and his taste as a gamer.

And we see this.

uh this picture of uh of matt getting into his car uh uh from a from

yeah i have um

I've never even, I've never seen,

I've never seen this photo, and I've never even seen myself from like this angle before.

It looks like it's being taken from like behind a tree.

Is this photo?

There's some tree in it.

Yeah, this was when Matt, this was when you were picking up your Kingdom Hearts 3 order.

Yeah.

And so it's like kind of like, oh, here's like a little, this is what it's like when someone receives a, you know, it picks up a game that they, this was you at GameStop.

And

I thought that's like like a really cool image that was overcome.

Here, here, we got some more here.

This is a, this is kind of a, you know, you can tell it's kind of late at night, uh, and this is a Heather entering her apartment.

Okay, so yeah, these are pretty alarming photos, Nick.

I don't, did you take these photos?

Did you, you took these?

Yeah, you know, there's a bunch of credits for who took whatever photos that are in the back

and then you're both credits.

So you have multiple people taking credits.

A lot of them?

A lot of them are me.

So you know the ones are you?

Okay, so

they're mostly credited to me, but there's a few other stuff images that have been licensed.

There's only one photo credit.

He has given himself a photo credit for each photo in the book.

So there is a list of photo credits, but every one of these is copyright Nick Weiger.

So this is deeply upsetting.

Okay.

There are 179 pages in this book.

What is the rest of this?

Yeah,

there's a lot of photos there.

Look, it's not just photos, okay?

If the photos are upsetting you, there's some really great artists.

No, I was going to say

the drawings are,

in a way, more upsetting than

the pictures because of.

This is a crude sketch, Nick.

Nick, this is a crude sketch of me giving a blowjob to Foghorn Leghorn.

The fuck does that have to do with the show?

Did you draw this?

I mean,

I don't know why you have to editorialize by calling it crude.

I think there's a lot of artistry involved here.

It's photorealistic.

The content is crude.

First off, kudos to your ability to do this art, but absolutely, I do not endorse this nor want this published.

Yeah.

Why does he have a human penis?

That's a tough part to be looking at.

But

another deeply upsetting image in here is me standing next to pregnant Waluigi, implying that I fathered the son or the child of the pregnant Waluigi.

And you look happy about it.

Ecstatic.

I'm concerned.

I wish it would reflect how I feel right now, which is deeply disturbed because the previous photo is a series of photos of the deed.

Well, look, I guess we'll just, I maybe won't even show you my favorite photo in the whole thing.

They just, maybe I won't see it.

I don't want to see if it's.

But I have.

I don't want to see it.

It's just.

It's the three of us.

I don't know if you remember when we all got coffee when we were thinking of the original idea for the show, like, you know,

you know, five something years ago at this point, and we're all just kind of hanging out and having a great time and talking about our shared love of video games.

And just kind of thought we'd capture the moment that was the start of it all, and I thought it'd be a nice, like, little thing to conclude.

We're all sucking off Foghorn Leghorn.

Yeah, we're all sucking off Foghorn Leghorn.

We reset our skill trees and add a subtitle as we discuss what makes a good video game sequel sequel this week on Get Played.

Welcome to Get Played, your one-stop show for good games, bad games, and every game in between.

It's time to get played.

I'm your host, Heatheran Campbell, along with my fellow host, Nick Weiger.

That's me, Nick Weiger, and I'm here with our third host, Matt Abodaka.

Hello, everyone.

Hello, everyone, and welcome back to the Premiere Video Game Podcast, where if you're just joining us for the first time, here's the little onboarding we do.

We used to be a podcast about shitty games, and then we became a podcast about shitty and weird games.

Then we became a podcast where we talked about video games, and now we're a podcast where we don't talk about anything at all.

That's get played.

Get ready for 90 minutes of white noise.

Yeah.

Help me go to the bottom.

You still refer to yourself like that.

That's terrible.

Yeah, yeah.

Oh, two-thirds white noise in the chat.

I would say,

you know, bringing some melon into the stream.

We have a very exciting guest that we're going to get to in one second.

I do want to remind everyone that this month we are doing a We Play You Play that is a full episode dedicated to a single game and that is coming out on Monday, February 26th.

We are finally going to dig into Baldur's Gate 3.

So kind of the biggest game, the most talked about game of 2023.

We finally, at the first part of 2024, are going to really dig into this bad boy and share all our thoughts at length.

That's look forward to that.

It seems like

we're behind the curve on this, but the truth is we wanted to give our listeners and ourselves time to really, I mean,

you you don't assign a

War and Peace read-through and then the discussion of it the next day or a Brandon Sanderson read-through and then discuss it the next day, guys?

You with me?

You with me in the Sanderson reference?

No, I'm gathering that these are books.

I'm more understood with the War and Peace thing, but I guess that's just me.

He's a writer.

He's more Tolstoy guy.

You don't assign an Atlas shrugged read-through and then talk about it an hour later.

later.

Okay, I think just so, just like in case anybody's listening that maybe doesn't know what, doesn't know books, maybe like something else, maybe like a different example.

You don't assign a killers of the flower.

Atlas Shrugged is the one book you should read.

Oh, no.

I read Atlas Shrugged.

I'm just like, well, other books.

I'm like kind of confused.

Just kind of like this holistic life philosophy you'll kind of get from there.

I mean, it's how I get you straight.

I read it every morning, actually.

I read a page from it every single morning.

And right before it goes.

Jesus.

yeah it's because i've read it before it's like a thousand days of alice shrugged one page at a time you're like i'm just constantly chewing in on the you know on the the machinations and the thoughts you know i'm just always thinking about it it's another page of describing steel in a railroad no it's my that's my favorite stuff in it too

uh we should introduce our guest a writer and host and author of the new book the art of psychonauts too ashley escaida is back Hi, Ashley.

Thanks so much for being here.

It's me.

I've returned.

Yay.

It's been too long.

I love that.

It has been a long time.

It has been too long.

I love that when comparing lengths of things to Boulder's Gate, this video game podcast, no one used a video game comparison.

We don't.

It was the old version of the podcast where we talked about video games.

Now we just talk about nothing.

I haven't been here since the pivot to talking about nothing.

I'm so sorry.

You want to just do a gentle hiss?

That's how we do here.

Perfect.

Great.

Love that for me.

Ashley, congrats so much on the book.

It's rad that this thing exists.

It's rad that you made it.

I'm curious.

I mean, can you talk at all about how this came together?

Yes.

I

bullied John Gibson at Iam Ape It into letting me write it.

That's how it came together.

Literally,

this is not an exaggeration.

I basically threatened him with our friendship.

So he tweeted in like April of 2022.

He's like, hey, journalists, like I have a project, secret project that I'm like looking for someone to write.

And I DM'd him and I was like, what's the project?

And he goes, it's the art of psychonauts too.

And I wrote back to him and I said, if you don't let me write this book, I will never speak to you again.

Like I will literally, I will never even be in the same room as you.

We cannot be friends anymore.

I will hate you until the end of time.

Like I, you cannot possibly let someone else write this book.

Um, I am a preeminent psychonaut scholar,

and I, I believe I got a Fulbright scholarship for psychonauts at some point.

Uh, yeah, so I was like, you must let me write this book.

And um, there is no other option.

I'm telling you that right now, no one in this world could do this book justice better than me.

And um, he said, okay, thank you.

Like, thank you for your input.

Like, I appreciate that.

Like, and, and, and he's like, let me just double check with, um, with double fine.

And so, um, fortunately, uh, they were excited about the prospect of me writing the book.

And so a few hours later, he was like, okay, like, you're going to write the book.

And I cried for like two hours straight because I just was in a, I was in a bad place mentally, like at that time.

And, um, and I, I was, uh,

and so I just needed that W like so bad.

And it was such a big win for me that I, I was so excited to be able to make this book.

And

it was really like a weirdly healing pro like, it's so funny this game is about mental health and like generational trauma and like all these other things, but it was like a genuinely healing process for me as a creative to make it.

And so being able to do it was like just one of the just one of the honestly like as a double fine fan, as a Tim Schaefer fan, as a Psychonauts fan, as a video game fan, it's just one of the great like honors of my career to be able to do it.

So I'm very glad that I am such an aggressive dick and made John

literally strong-armed him into letting me write this book.

Well, it's so cool.

And clearly, like, you're not the only person who's engaged and excited about this franchise because, as you were telling us,

this podcast that you're on to promote this book, this book is sold out already.

So

I know.

I felt like such a jerk.

I was like, yeah, the map, like, let's go.

Let's do the podcast.

The book's out.

And literally the day we're recording this, like yesterday, it sold out.

so um sorry to everybody listening looking to get a copy if you haven't bought one yet but i promise there will hopefully be a restock at some point that sounds it sounds like a situation for checking on stock x and seeing if you can get the book at a three or four hundred percent markup on the black market

i have some extra copies that i may put up on ebay just for some extra

yeah just to make the rest of the year look a little nice why not uh yeah yeah i need some birthday money so it's uh it seems like a good idea

I want to step back for a second because, you know, Psychonauts 2 has obviously been out for a couple of years at this point.

It was super well received critically, commercially, and by Psychonauts 1 fans, which includes me, which includes you.

And I'm curious, like...

And maybe

this is a weird question.

I'm thinking more of mindset, but like going back to the game's release to when you're finally playing Psychonauts 2,

was there a moment where you kind of had that feeling of like, this is tangible, like, this game that's that's been we've we've been waiting for for 16 years, like I'm actually experiencing this, you know?

Yeah, well, it was wild because I backed the game, like, at oh, right, of course, yeah.

Tim came out and announced that it was going to be a crowdfund.

That was at the game awards in I think December of 2015.

And so, um, so I had backed it like day one, like that night, I backed it.

And, um, and so I,

it really, they had gone through so much to make the game.

It was like, you know, if you've seen the, um, the psychotic documentary, the docuseries about the making of Psychonauts 2, it's like this 22 hour magnum opus docuseries.

Shout out to the folks at Two Player Productions, like their in-house documentary team, which are amazing.

They sifted through six years of interview or like interviews, meetings, like just so much footage to make this massive documentary about the making of a game.

And it's like, you really kind of get a feeling for what they went through.

And so to know that now, because that I think has been out for about a year,

but to play it, to have it in your hands, like that August, that the 20, I think it was 2021, it was really wild to sit down with it and say, like, oh my God, it's, it has been 16 years since Psychonauts.

And like, it was just such a wild thing to hold this like fully, you know, this fully realized sequel in your hands that not only was not,

you know, I think a lot of people were scared that it wasn't going to be able to be as big as Psychonauts or it wasn't going to be as, you know, oh, this isn't going to be like a triple-A platformer because Double Fine is a mostly like they're publishing now and it'll be a smaller game because it was crowdfunded and they had gone through some like funding issues and, and everything.

And then Microsoft that Microsoft

acquire happened in, I think, 2019.

And so it's like, and then the pandemic happened.

So everybody was working remote.

And it was just like, man, what's going on with Psychonauts 2?

So it's such a long time to get the game and so to yeah have it in your hands not only after 16 years between the first game and the second game but also six years of development time um is was was pretty wild like and and to have it be so good like it was you know because you you get scared when things are in development for so long right yes well and also as a backer and as a fan because you know there was certainly heather's experience with uh mighty number nine which was very very much the opposite yeah and so many crowdfunded games like have not and even you know, like even Broken Age, which is another double fine crowdfunded game, like did not happen the way that people had thought.

And I know that there was criticism about like, oh, well, you've split the game into two parts.

And like, you know, the scope of the game changed based on how much they had crowdfunded.

And, and so it was really, um

it really was like a, it was a, it was a gamble like for a lot of people who backed it.

And so,

you know, I was, I was really happy to be part of the, you know, the backers.

I'm in the game, like in in the hall of brains for Psychonauts 2.

So you can find me.

My cause of death is doom scrolling,

which still

applies today.

So it still applies today.

My cause of death will forever be doom scrolling in Psychonauts 2.

But I'm a brain in a jar.

But yeah, it was really wild to be able to kind of pick it up and be like, I can't believe I'm back in this universe again.

Right.

And kind of, you know, along those lines and also tying into the art of the game, which is what your book focused on, like the art direction, I'm sure, must be such a challenge going from the PS2 Xbox generation and then jumping forward a decade and a half and three console generations and still retaining kind of like what everyone likes about its aesthetic, right?

Like Raz's head is like so, like such a unique shape, you know, and he's so identifiable in silhouette.

And, but it's, it's, it's not just like how, you know, how much detail do we add to the models?

It's also like the textures, like you you don't want the skin or hair or clothing fibers

to rub against what we...

And I think the game just like really excels at pulling that off visually in a way that like Wretched and Clank Future, another game that also does the same sort of thing.

It looks like a better, I think maybe it's just a cleaner way to say all that rambling I just did is like, it looks like how you remember the original game.

Yeah, it's so this is a really interesting thing that I learned while writing the book, which is they actually have like a phrase for this.

It's called

wonk.

And so Scott Campbell, the original artist for the first game who designed, he's, he's the character designer as well on this game, on Psychonauts 2.

They brought him back.

Scott Campbell kind of came up with this,

based on his art, had kind of come up with this idea.

And they had to, for Psychonauts 2, they hired so many new people who hadn't worked on the first game.

And it's like, how do you kind of teach them how to do this kind of aesthetic?

How do you define it?

And so they defined it.

And it's psychonauts wonk is there are no perfect circles, there are no parallel lines, and there are no right angles.

Wow.

And so, um, and so this is like terribly fascinating to me that they had to sort of like really pare this down to like specific rules.

Um, and when you're a programmer used to making things symmetrical, when you're used to making them perfect, that's like a really hard habit to break.

Right.

And so this is like a really you know tim uh schaffer joked about like having to break people of that like wild horses when they originally came on to psychonauts like for the first one and so um so to have this kind of uh this sort of like guideline on how to how to create things and and interestingly like visually in the real world location so you have like the mother lobe or the quarry or the questionable area um or the old colony and psychonauts 2 um it's the wonk is more subtle but then when you get into the mental worlds,

the team is like encouraged to push the art style even farther.

So it looks more dreamlike.

And so that was also another thing that was really interesting to like be able to see how they did that.

And if you look at like the furniture and the mother lobe, it's very mid-century modern.

It's like, you know, it's this really cool sort of retro futurism.

type of aesthetic.

And then you get into like the mental worlds and like that, that same type of furniture, like a bookcase, would be so much more, um you know pronounced it the wonk would be more pronounced so it's it's really interesting like the the the psychonauts wonk is a real thing and it's like you you sort of encapsulated this idea of it being like very unique to the game and also um a thing that i would argue defines it in a lot of ways um and so to be able to kind of dig into that and sort of see um the evolution of it like for everything like every aspect of the game was like really fascinating it's also it's also an aesthetic i think that harkens to a time before visual flattening.

Like all of the stuff that has happened in design in the last 16 years has been to remove the personality and presence in art direction and to make it this sort of uniform icon experience.

And it feels like playing Psychonauts 2 feels like, oh.

It it feels like an old way of looking at stuff and an older way like

Coreline or like, you know, like all of that, the, the, the, the stuff that came out in that generation of, of work that is now like, oh, we want our UI to be perfect and everything to look like matter.

Is that what it, is that the Google stuff?

It's like matter?

I don't remember.

Yeah, I think so.

But it's, yeah, you're, you're, you're right.

Like this sort of, um,

what's the word they use to describe like when in iOS where they used to have notes and it skeuomorphism?

skew morphism where it's like things look real things look textured things look um this game is so bespoke yeah yes like i think that that to me is like the thing that makes it so visually interesting is everything

one of the lead programmers on the game um told me one of the things that is so interesting about psychonauts from a programming standpoint is everyone has a unique skeleton.

So like in like a god of war, like everyone's a human, the humans all have human skeletons.

And then you just like, you model over the top of them.

You can never confuse a Ford crawler skeleton with like

a RAS skeleton.

Like they're all different.

Everybody has a different skeleton.

And every mental world is bespoke.

Everything is bespoke.

There's a mountain of concept art for this game.

And because everything is just like nothing is really recycled, because even the sensors, your enemies, even even in different levels, they look different.

Like they're presented differently.

They're in different costumes.

Like it's just, you know, like in

Compton's cook off, some of the sensors are in like little sequined gold jackets.

Like it's just like such a bizarre, but it's very bespoke.

Like everything is looks handcrafted.

It has that feeling of being like made, made or handcrafted in a way that like we don't, you're right, like Heather, we don't really see that a lot now.

There's a pot, there's a level of like

polish that is not,

or I guess it's like,

to me, it's like visually, it's like, I imagine it's the difference between going to like Kim Kardashian's house, where it's just like everything's white and flat and there's like, it's very minimalist and that's the trend right now versus going to like RuPaul's house, which is like just full of color and texture and maximalism.

And it's just like, it's that sort of bespoke maximalism that really gives the house its personality.

And as opposed to a blank space that allows people to project their personality into it.

And so, this game is like very confident in what it is.

I think I heard a theory about minimalism and millennials, which was that the reason the aesthetic took off was because it was a response to chaos and advertising, that we are so interesting.

We are bombarded by

aggressive visual information in our community spaces.

And so, we wanted to strip out color and information in our private spaces because we were so overwhelmed by it in public.

And that now the scale is tipping back towards these

like bookshelf wealth is like the new curated format on TikTok and is being brought up in the New York Times.

And it's a response to millennial minimalism.

Bookshelf wealth is like,

imagine living in a cluttered, a slightly cluttered attic,

but where paintings are like leaning up against things and there's a bunch of like

bits in your space, like

yarn statues and books and plants and like this, the return of, yeah, all of us.

to some degree are not we've been living that life we've been living that life

but really i'm just a hoarder yeah

I'm just surrounded by stuff I can't afford to have.

There's bookshelf wealth, and then there's like, there's like bookshelf wealth, and then there's like hoarder poor, which is what I am.

So it's like,

that's my aesthetic.

ED is more common than you think and simpler to treat than ever.

Through HIMS, you can connect online with a licensed provider to access personalized treatment options discreetly on your terms.

Through him's you can access personalized prescription treatment options for ED like hard mints and SexRX Plus climax control if prescribed.

HIMS offers access to ED treatment options ranging from hard mints to trusted generics that cost 95% less than the brand names if prescribed.

Now that's quite a savings.

You shouldn't have to go out of your way to feel like yourself.

HIMS brings expert care straight to you with 100% online access to personalized treatments that put your goals first.

This isn't a one-size-fits-all care that forgets forgets you in the waiting room.

It's your health and goals put first, with real medical providers making sure you get what you need to get results.

Think of HIMS as your digital front door that gets you back to your old self with simple 100% online access to trusted treatments for ED and more, all in one place.

To get simple access to personalized affordable care for ED, hair loss, weight loss, and more, visit him.com slash get played.

That's him.com slash get played for your free online visit.

HIMS.com slash get played.

Actual price will depend on product and subscription plan.

Featured products include compounded drug products, which the FDA does not approve or verify for safety, effectiveness, or quality.

Prescription required.

See website for details, restrictions, and important safety information.

This is an absolutely true story.

One time I was in Japan and I had my cell phone with me, but

I was

following somebody around in the city and having a good time.

And then they locked me on a roof of a skyscraper because they were a crazy person.

That's a true story.

And my cell phone didn't have wireless access.

So, this next ad is specifically something that I could have used in the past.

Because if I'd had Wi-Fi, I could have called somebody, but instead I had no cell phone service trapped on a roof in Tokyo.

If you've ever been lost abroad or badly needed an internet connection with no Wi-Fi spot in sight, you'll understand what a difference a local SIM card can make.

An eSIM provides an internet connection wherever you travel and saves you money on roaming fees.

That's where Saley comes in.

Saley is a new e-SIM service app brought to you by the creators of Nord VPN.

Here you can choose from several affordable eSIM plans in over 190 countries and eight regions.

With a Saley eSIM, you'll always have a connection when needed.

Download Saley once and you won't have to install a new eSIM for each country.

You can avoid scammers selling fake SIM cards outside of train stations and airports.

No more wandering around looking for a public Wi-Fi spot.

With a Saley, you're always connected.

They provide 24-7 support, and you get a full refund if your device isn't eSIM compatible.

Download the Saley app in your app store.

Use code GETPLAID at checkout to get 15% off your first purchase, or go to saley.com/slash get played.

That's S-A-I-L-Y dot com slash get played.

I eventually got off that roof when the sun rose.

I think there's also something to in this era, like the still the early 3D era of, you know, gaming,

when there were only so many polygons to work with and render the game in a playable state, it's like you had like character designs like, I know Rayman comes from 2D, but like, you know, like Rayman in 3D or like Banjo-Kazooie or like Raz or like, you know, things that kind of were like, how do we add, have

some sense of style within our limitations?

And then I think like as the technology improves, we got close, more and more of like representations of just like visual reality.

Like that became the goal of like

trying to

present human beings in real environments.

But I think now there's like a desire for something like Psychonauts 2 that like, wait, this has an aesthetic, this has a style, this looks distinct, this looks unique.

And I think that's a big reason why people responded so positively to this game and are so excited for the book.

Yeah.

I mean, I think that aesthetic, it's really interesting.

Like Tim, I guess, had gone to an art show of Scott's and was just like, you know, was so enraptured by his art and found it to be so interesting that he was like, you know, have you ever like made a game before?

And he was like, no, like, but it was just like he really wanted that art style.

Yeah.

Like it was just so interesting.

And he's like, well, how do we translate this to a game?

And so, um, I mean, kudos to Scott Campbell for being able to like create these really iconic kind of characters and like these looks.

And I mean, the book is like full of, it's like amazing.

This book is so full of Scott's character orthos and like how many times characters changed and like the, the visuals of like what that looks like.

I mean, I know people, some people listening are not going to be able to see it, but it's like these characters just changed and changed and changed.

Yeah, you're holding a bunch of just sketches of character designs through various iterations.

Just so many iterations.

I mean, like, I just the Maligula, the main villain of the game is like, I think he had something like 40 different sketch, like pages of it, where it's just five or six different versions of the character on each page.

So it's just, I mean, it's just an insane amount of art.

And that's one person like doing character designs, not counting like the people doing like color work and the people doing 3D modeling, the people doing texturing, the people doing the environment art.

The, you know, it's just really an incredible

Double Finds concept art team is really spectacular in a way that is

just really impressive.

And it was the

gravity of how it was very important to me.

This letter, this book is my love letter to them.

I didn't want to cut anything.

And if it was, it'd be a 600-page book.

But it, but it's 400 pages.

But it's,

I, they are so prolific and they make so many beautiful, weird little doodles and sketches.

And I didn't want to lose any of that in favor of only showing the finished product, which like a lot of art books do.

It's like very kind of sterile.

You have like a white background with like a finished piece of art and then you talk about it a little bit.

And then it's like next page.

I wanted this book to feel like it came from the game.

And so everything was bespoke.

Everything was, you know, I handpicked every piece of art in this book, which took a very long time.

That's so interesting.

That's like,

I'm really interested in that aspect of it.

So like you're going through everything that they have, basically their archive of the art and stuff.

And like, are they, is Double Fine being like, say like this, or like, are you just like given free reign to just say whatever you want about like any of it?

I can't believe how much freedom I had making this book.

Wow.

Literally, like, so the process was originally I got like an 80 gigabyte file

and it was like, here's, here's the art that we, here's the art that we, I am Apex gave that to me.

They were like, this is what we got from Double Find.

So like, look through it.

Let us know like what

is good.

Is this smaller than 80 gigs?

Yes.

That's so many pages.

Like, that's, that's like

an empire state building's worth of sheets of paper.

It is a lot of art.

And so I went through it, though, and like, it was like pretty, like organized it was organized well enough, but it wasn't like perfectly organized.

There was definitely like one artist in particular.

I'm actually just gonna call him out, bagel.

You know who you are.

Uh, he literally just had a folder that just said bagel art.

It was literally everything he had ever made at Double Fine for like 20 years, and some of them were like untitled.psd, untitled one.psd.

I had to go through every single one of these and figure out what they were, if they were even from Psychonauts 2.

Like it was, that was crazy.

That's so fun.

Um, he was 40 gigabytes.

No, No, I'm just kidding.

But I looked through everything and I was like, there's a lot of stuff missing here.

Like, I don't see things that I know exist because I follow Scott Campbell on Instagram.

Like, he, I know he has concept art of Raz from Psychonauts 2 and his outfit change because it's on his highlights.

And so I reached out to Double Fine.

And I was like, hey,

I'd see some stuff that's not here.

And some of the levels only have like, you you know, a handful of pieces of concept art.

Is there anything else that I need to be aware of?

And they're like, oh, let us give you access to our digital asset

library.

And so I got access to that.

And that was like, I saw some more stuff in there.

And I'm like, this is great.

But I still,

because they had just started using this cert like platform.

There wasn't everything.

And I'm like, okay.

And COVID and remote work and everybody's like moving files everywhere.

Some people have stuff on hard drives.

So that was like a process to kind of track down stuff.

And then I reached out to

Spaff, who is their director of comms.

And I'm like, hey, so like, okay, I've looked through all this stuff.

I've spent like a month organizing these files in like a recognizable file structure.

Learn file structures, kids.

You never know when it'll come in handy.

And learn how to make a file, an organized file structure on your computers.

And so He was like, oh, you know, I think the easiest thing would be to just give you access to our forum.

And he gave me access to this like private forum that the team had used for Psychonauts 2 specifically.

And

I logged in and had to walk away from my desk in like a catatonic state because there was so

80 gigabytes of art.

Like there was so much more art on that.

forum.

It was every asset that had been used in the game effectively from the evolution of it in a single thread from start to finish.

And so

I was like, I am going to spend the rest of my life organizing these files.

I had to like center click on them, open them full size, right-click on them, save them, like individually label them.

And it was just, it was a mountain.

It was literally that scene where like Goofy opens up the closet and all of the stuff falls on him.

It was that.

Like, I was just like, oh, no, this is very daunting.

Like, this is probably five times the amount of stuff that I had before in the gigabyte file.

Okay.

And so, um, sound like 400 gigs, it sounds like it's it's a huge.

I'm actually super curious.

I wonder how big that folder is.

I should probably figure it out.

I should go find out how big that folder is now for after saving everything.

But I had to literally spend, then I was like, okay, like now I got to like figure out what chapters I want in the book.

Obviously, each level has to have its own chapter.

If I give 10 pages to each level, that's 100 pages of the book.

And originally, this book was only supposed to be like 150 to 250 pages.

And as soon as I logged into that forum, I'm like, hey guys, this book's going to be bigger than 250 pages.

Like, I can't, there's just no way.

Like, it's just not, that's not possible.

It was a lot of, and they said, nobody told me anything, by the way.

Nobody said, no, we don't want that piece of art in there.

I don't want that.

Like, it was, I had carte block.

This is literally a book that was made like with very little input from anybody else.

I got feedback on like some of the text where it was like, oh, hey, this is actually incorrect or, you know, correct this corrections, but like,

no, no editing, like major edits from anybody where I was like, no, this doesn't, I don't like this piece of art.

Like, everybody was just like, book's beautiful.

We love it.

It's great.

Thank you.

Like, wow.

That's a mentor with big stamps walking around.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It was wild.

Like that process was crazy.

And I sat every day with Lost in Cult designed this.

And there's one woman in particular.

Her name is Eliza.

I have to shout her out because she is literally an angel that walks among us.

This woman logged in every day from the UK at like five at the end of her business day at Lost and Cult to sit with me on Zoom for four to five hours every day laying out art for this book.

Like she would show me the layout and I would be like, we have to move this.

This doesn't belong here.

This is the wrong section.

Or like, can we change the background color here?

Can we add this?

And literally, like, we did this for months, like months for a 400-page book.

It was, it was, it's this book is the hardest thing i've ever done in my life i have adhd a sustained project like this is like impossible for me to even think about finishing and the fact that i actually finished it is like maybe a miracle it's so it's so amazing i'm just like stunned hearing all this like just like obviously you hear so much about like

the

the passion that it takes to like make like a video game at all in particular a video game like psychonauts like the passion that double fine has for making the things that they make but then that passion extends to, or that passion is like met by the fans of their things and they have that same passion.

So like to hear you, a fan of this work,

get to express that passion in

a 400-page book.

to have other passionate fans buy, like, like get it and look at it also and then see like the thing that they already love, it rocks.

Like I'll talk to Von.

This is really amazing.

And I know that you probably already do feel really proud of it.

You should be so proud of it.

This is fucking incredible.

It's so serious.

I am very proud of it.

And also, if there was any game that like, it's very appropriate that the game that this book was was Psychonauts 2, because I now feel like I am so obsessed with it that I belong in a mental institution.

So I think that's.

There were times where I was like, I think this book's actually going to drive me crazy.

I cried a lot about it, but I did it.

But damn it, I did it.

And it's, and it's, it really is the, it's the book I would want to see in the world as a fan, right?

Like, this is the book I would have wanted as a backer getting an art book.

This is the one I wanted.

So I made the book that I thought I would want to see as a fan.

So, and I, I think that that's why it's so, that's why it's so special.

Is is there anything else in your life that you are

this passionate a fan of that you would be like, you would be like, I like, you know, wipe your brow,

take a break, and then dive in.

Is there anything else that comes close to your passion for psychonauts too that you'd be like, ah, okay, I guess I could do the art book for that also?

Oh, Final Fantasy VII.

Easy answer.

Yeah, you've got an Aerith.

This is an old school Aerith.

Yeah, she's old school.

She's the old school one.

Yeah, I've had that.

My husband got that for me when we first started dating.

And that's why I was like, oh, I'm going to marry you.

You bought me an Aerith statue.

Speaking of what's in your backsplash, you got a, it looks like you got a Manny Calavera coffee mug.

I do.

Another Tim Schaefer game, Grim Fandango, that I love.

I made Tim tell me where he got this mug from so I could have somebody make it for me.

Wow.

It's a handmade ceramic mug that is, it's very cool.

I had to stop using it.

It is no longer in use because I'm scared it's going to crack like while being washed or something.

So I just, I've left it alone i'm realizing other people have obviously this observation but like from an even earlier era in 3d where again it was like with the limitations of the of what they could do as models just like oh we'll do a game based around skeletons like these skeletal figures and like the the the art direction you know it it it looks fantastic so simple so elegant it works it works um Well, congrats again on the book.

Psychonauts 2, by the way, on PC is 30.24 gigs on disc.

So yes, you received obviously some answer to compressed, but a little bit more than the game itself we have to talk about some other video games but i did want to ask you about something completely off topic which is that there was a news event that happened wait i think i know what this is yeah um at disneylands it's a small world after all there was a streaker and you were a first-hand witness yes i was uh i was a victim of the small world streaker um that that was wild uh i've been going to disneyland pretty regularly my entire life since i was like two i like live very close to the parks.

We've had annual passes forever.

So my mom and my son and I were riding small world.

Oh no.

And we were like this, I'm going to use like world location.

We were riding through like South America.

Okay, yes.

And both of us noticed like this guy.

walking outside of the ride, like in the like, not the canal part.

He wasn't in the water.

He was in the, like, in the ride part.

And we were just like, I, I kind of looked at him and saw he walked past us going the opposite direction.

And I looked at my mom and we both kind of like, she kind of shrugged at me.

She's like, I don't know.

And we thought maybe it was like a maintenance guy because he was wearing a like a black sweater or a shirt and then like maroon pants.

And we were just like, I'm like, I, like, did I see, I felt like I was going crazy because I'm like, I don't think I saw a name tag, but maybe I missed it.

Like, maybe I just was so like

taken out of the illusion of small world that like it, it was not a a thing.

And so, then

as we were in the final room,

uh, very close to the exit tunnel,

we, the ride stops.

And I looked at my mom immediately.

And I'm like, that guy wasn't supposed to be off the boat.

Like, he got out.

Like, that guy got out.

And so we couldn't, we were just like, oh man, like, somebody got out.

And I was like, I want.

And then someone else behind us was like, well, how long do you think it'll be?

And I'm like, well, here's the thing.

Like, they have to sweep the whole, they have to find find him, number one, and then they have to sweep the whole ride to make sure he doesn't have like friends.

And this is like a huge ride building.

Like he could be hiding anywhere.

Right.

So then my sister-in-law was outside the ride.

She happened to be at Disneyland that day and she was meeting up with us at Small World at the exit.

And she's like, oh, they just cleared the line out.

And I was like, oh, wow.

Like that, I said, oh, we, there's somebody off the boat.

Like somebody got out.

I was like, so I assume that's why.

She's like, oh, okay.

And then I got a picture from her and it is literally a naked man, just full naked in front of the clock tower, like underneath it.

And she's like, I think I see the problem.

And I immediately started scream laughing inside the road.

I was like, no, like I, my mom was like, what's going on?

She's like, oh my God.

And so I showed her.

And of course, my son is four years old.

He's like, mama, I want to see it.

And I'm like, nope.

Yeah.

So I'm showing the people behind me in the ride.

Like we were just like howling.

I started screaming.

It's a streaker at the top of my lungs.

And like everyone in the boats around us like turned around to look at me.

I was going absolutely ballistic.

Like this was like, brought me so much joy, you guys.

It just feels like the type of thing that, because obviously like they're like everything at Disneyland's like pretty buttoned up and like,

they take care of things like that like well they take care of like issues pretty quickly so like the fact that that happened and that there was already a photo of it i would be it would it would make my entire life to have seen part of it at all like in in uh you know same in in real life yeah and so i immediately tweeted it out and i because i was just like everyone needs to know about this right now like i can't i can't live without sharing this and the whole time like the music was playing like the dolls were moving the music was playing and it was the christmas themed one

it was my own personal five nights at freddy's

but but the real fear came when about 15 minutes had passed by the way if you want to know when they shut the music off for a ride when it's broken down it's 15 minutes because we found that out it's about 15 minutes they shut the music off but another fun fact

They can't turn the dolls off in the ride.

Oh, they are on, even when the park is closed at night, those dolls are moving

to prevent rust.

So

those dolls are all just like clicky clacking

and singing absolutely nothing.

The horrors of

the horrors of probably 500 small animatronic children.

clicking at you

was very unnerving and very funny, but so funny.

Oh my God, so funny.

And just, like i said it just brought the whole thing was just like so crazy and i was just living for it the draw you never see drama disneyland like that and i was just like i can't believe this is actually happening to me like to us we are we're not just bystander like it's it is happening and then we actually had a neighbor my literal next door neighbor happened to also be on it's a small world when it happened whoa and and happened to be at the park the same time like it was so weird and um and she, they were like, yeah, we saw him starting to take his clothes off.

Like, a few boats back is like when he, I guess, started like taking his clothes off.

And then he was like walking around in his boxers

at the Taj Mahal.

Yeah.

And he like sat in the, he sullied the fake waters of the Taj Mahal.

He, he assaulted the children.

He was grabbing their heads and like moving, you know, moving the little clicky doll heads.

And then he just like went full naked and swam out

from the entrance of the ride.

He like got in the water and got out.

And my sister-in-law described it as she's like, Yeah, we were all just standing here.

And then all of a sudden, like a ton of security people just like descended upon the ride.

And then the cast members just started telling people to get back, get back, get back.

She's like, We didn't know what was going on, but they really did not want us to see what was happening.

Yeah.

And then he, she goes, and then all of a sudden, like swamp thing, he just like emerged from the water.

and he just looked so out of it like yeah clearly he was go either going through something or go or on something yeah um i i like to think he was on like acid and just really needed to feel uh

it's a small world but yeah like

the water must have been really cold so um

It was, in fact, a very small world.

But yeah, he, he, yeah, so he got out and then they tackled him.

They wrapped him up in a blanket and like carted him off.

Like they hogtied him and like carried him over to the, to the gates.

But yeah, that was wild.

We were stuck in the ride for like 40 minutes.

And of course, the entire time, the second the ride stops, my son turns to me.

And he's like, mama, I got a poop.

And I was like,

buddy.

As soon as I saw the picture of the naked guy, I was like, buddy, we're going to be here for a while.

I will buy you the world's largest Disneyland lollipop if you could just hold it until we're out of here.

That'd be so great.

And he's like, okay.

And he did hold it and he did get a giant lollipop.

So kudos to my four-year-old for no, it's good that he didn't see the naked guy because then he'd just be like, well, I guess rules don't exist anymore.

I'm shitting here.

Yeah.

Well, he asked, he was like, he's very, like, he's very, uh, he's very loquacious.

So he's like, what happened?

Why are we stopped?

And I was like, well, some bozo, some bonehead took all his clothes on the ride.

He broke the rules.

And my kid just thought that was the funniest thing.

He's laughing.

He's like, what a bozo.

Like,

why would you do that?

And I was just like, man, I don't know.

You got a lot of the same questions I do, kid.

I don't have any answers for you.

Yeah.

It's like the first time you see somebody run a red light when you're a child and you're like, wait, nothing.

Nothing happened.

The concept that is all that's keeping things in place.

Yes.

Like somebody can take off their clothes in its ass.

Someone can just break the rules.

My kid yells at me when I go over the speed limit because

I have a Tesla and it shows you what the speed limit is.

And then your speed is right next to it.

He's like, Mama, you are speeding.

And I'm like,

my buddy, I live in LA.

When I can, I will.

Like, just leave me alone.

I got the need, baby.

I remember crying in our car, in our family car, when I was six, because my dad was drinking a Diet Pepsi while he was driving, and I thought he was drinking me driving.

Oh, that's amazing.

Oh, my God.

That's so sweet.

I love that so much.

Oh, my God.

It's adorable.

Meanwhile, my dad had a radar detector when I was growing up and explained to me the minimal amount of speeding that you, the maximum amount of speeding that you could do that would minimize your likelihood of getting a

speeding ticket and also how you always wanted to find a lead car so that somebody else was getting caught in the traps.

So you kept a certain distance from somebody who was your lead car.

And I was like, oh, okay, okay.

And my dad, yeah, my dad instructed me on rule breaking, which has had no effect on me as an adult.

Have you gotten any speeding tickets?

None, huh?

I have no idea.

There you go.

Bishop accomplished.

There you go.

Yeah.

I've never gotten a speeding ticket.

Mission accomplished.

It has had an effect on you.

Holy shit.

I've never gotten a speeding ticket either, but it's because I followed the rules.

What's up?

Oh, drinking and driving for you.

Yeah.

He says,

visually.

Guys, fall is here.

The beers are colder.

The football's back.

And the fits are getting layered.

But if you're still rocking old beat-up boxers under those flannels and jeans, we gotta talk.

It's time to upgrade to Me Undies.

These things are ridiculously soft.

Like, don't want to take them off soft, if you catch my drift.

They're made with micromodal fabric that feels like a cloud, but they still breathe when things heat up.

And just in time for spooky season, Me Undies limited edition Halloween line features festive prints, including glow-in-the-dark underwear, so you can bring the spooky vibes underneath it all because that's what you want your underwear to be scary Me Undies has a cut for every butt with over 20 styles in 100 different colors and prints.

Me Undies signature super soft micromodal fabric is breathable, stretchy, and unbelievably cozy, perfect for crisp mornings, chilly nights, and everything in between.

Whether you're layering up for a hike or lounging in flannel all day, Me Undies moves with you and keeps you comfy.

Want even more seasonal comfort?

Try the Breathe Line, designed for moisture wicking and anti-odor tech to keep you fresh throughout fall workouts or just a long day of pumpkin picking.

I love it.

They use sustainably sourced materials and work with partners that care for their workers.

Not happy with your first pair of undies?

It's on me undies.

With more than 30 million pairs sold and 90,000 five-star reviews, me undies are an essential summer must-have for every drawer.

I've talked about the undies, okay?

I've talked about me undies.

And folks, the me stands for me, mine, me,

i matt i got the undies

and i loves them because guess what the old undies i gone back to them one time in a moment of weakness right laundry day all my me undies are in the freaking wash and i put on an old pair of undies and i'm just like ow ow ah i can't breathe ah it hurts oh no It stinks.

But with the me undies on, those are not my problem anymore.

Right now, as a listener to my show, you can get cozy and spooky for less with deals up to 50% off at meundies.com slash get played and enter promo code get played.

That's meundies.com slash get played, promo code get played for up to 50% off.

Meundies, that's comfort made for all.

Do you struggle with procrastisaving?

You know, when you put off doing something that could save you a ton?

I used to be a huge procrastaver until I heard about Mint Mobile's best deal of the year that's ending soon, 50% off unlimited premium wireless for new customers.

Let me tell you how I procrastisaved.

I would reuse toilet paper.

Stop overspending with big wireless and cut your wireless bill to $15 a month when you switch.

All Mint Mobile plans come with high-speed data and unlimited talk and text on the nation.

largest 5G network.

You can use your current phone and phone number on any Mint Mobile plan and bring along all your existing contacts.

Don't miss out on three months of unlimited premium wireless from Mint Mobile for 15 bucks a month.

But hurry because this deal ends September 22nd.

Look, cell phones are cell phones.

What are we talking about?

Your wireless carrier isn't.

It's all the same, man.

Am I allowed to say f during an ad?

Well, I just did.

And I told you I would reuse toilet paper to save money.

Think about how much you could be saving with Mint Mobile.

Quit stalling and start saving when you make the switch.

Shop plans at mintmobile.com/slash get played.

That's mintmobile.com/slash get played.

Upfront payment of $45 required, equivalent to $15 a month.

Limited time, new customer offer for first three months only.

Speeds may slow above 35 gigabytes on unlimited plan.

Taxes and fees extra.

See Mint Mobile for details.

All right,

let's talk about some video games we're playing right now.

It's time for the question we always ask.

What are you playing?

What are you playing?

Hey, it's me,

the Resident Evil Merchant.

I'm asking you the question, Nick Wager.

What are you playing?

I'm glad you kept it tight there.

I was really kind of embarrassed on our behalf that you're going to show up in front of our guests.

I wasn't quite sure what you were going to do.

So thank you for just getting right to the point there.

I can answer this question.

No, it's actually

a prompt.

It was like, I was just expressing gratitude.

Did you feel time?

Is that what you're asking?

No, no, no, we're good.

We're good on time.

Well, what if I talked about a game show idea I had?

Is that what you're looking for?

It's really not at all.

I mean, I guess you could, at this point, now I'm just curious, like grimly curious.

Cold, how much would it take?

I'm horrified already.

Just

sounding dystopian.

That sounds like there was going to be more.

I thought there would be more to that sentence.

What you do is you present, you present somebody with, it's like, okay, you got this stranger,

and then you've got like

a board of categories.

Okay, so like, like, you, one of the categories is spaghetti, one of the categories is books, one of the categories, name a category.

History.

History, right.

And so it's like,

how much, how much, what?

Pickles.

Pickles.

Great.

Pickles is perfect.

I'm just seeing what could be a category.

I guess it could be anything.

They're either a category because it's either subjects or foodstuffs.

How much would it take?

So, so, like, it's like you got this guy, and it's like, okay,

how many pickles would it take for you to kill this man?

Oh,

yeah, yeah.

No, that's this is a bad game

because I don't know.

One, the answer,

the answer is

there is a limit.

Yeah, we'd have to get there though, and that's tough.

That's a lot.

I mean, for me, I can say that part of the flaw of this game, if I was a contestant, I would just say the number of pickles on this earth are not enough pickles for me to take away.

Yeah, but you named history, so for you, it would be like, how many places in history would you get to experience firsthand

in exchange for this man's life?

Oh, so they're all for

individualized, a little more abstract, but how much would he take?

Well, Nick was already at January 6th, so that sort of does

limit the

answer for him.

The answer for him is one event.

He just wants to relive that one over and over.

Yeah, I want to be there again, baby.

Anyway,

is that enough time?

Did I feel for you?

Yeah, that was good.

Yeah, no, that was great.

I'll answer real quick, which is that last week we talked about PAL World, and we were talking survival games generally.

Are you still stuck in Pal World?

No, Pikachu.

No, I escaped from Pal World.

Oh, okay.

I have uninstalled Pal World.

I freed up some space on my hard drive because I have booted up the Epic Game Store and I played some Lego Fortnite,

which is

you were both kind of evangelizing this game, thinking it would be for me, even though like regular Fortnite, I'm not as much of a battle royale sort of gamer, but this sort of, you know, the survival games

are for me.

And I will say that Legos of Fortnite is a very satisfying and polished execution of the survival game formula.

The aesthetic is gorgeous.

I mean, it just looks, it just looks so great.

You know, I got this widescreen monitor.

It's running at this super high frame rate because it's one of those things where it's just gotten an incredible art direction, but it's not like enormously technically taxing on my video card.

And they do a thing where the player character and NPCs, your allies, like all animate very smoothly, but the enemies seem to be animating like in fours.

Like they're very like, you know, it looks like the Lego movie.

It's really stylized.

And I don't know, that all sits in really well.

There's a thing they have for building structures, which is blueprints, which let you kind of go through, step through,

like you're doing a Lego kit, like you're following all the steps in terms of actually constructing it step by step.

And that's really satisfying.

And that feels really like unique to this specific execution of the survival formula and also just, you know, ties in with the IP.

So yeah, I thought it was it was super duper fun.

Now, look, I got to be careful with these sorts of games because I'll just play them endlessly.

Yeah.

And I got things to do like my second playthrough of Baldur's Gate 3.

But I am, I do absolutely see the appeal of this in the same way I saw the appeal of PAL World and I'm just overall kind of impressed by the by the design in the presentation.

So that's my answer.

Lego Fortnite.

Can I show a thing to camera that happened because

sort of

indirectly, but also directly because of Lego Fortnite?

Oh,

we didn't even answer.

I'm waiting for her to show up in one of your frames.

And it's

just like

running at the top speed.

All of a sudden, she just shows up in Nick's shot.

Just tap.

I built this.

Wow.

I built the Lego Museum.

And it's that is gorgeous.

Inside it's because you can take because Lego, I don't know how much you guys are into Legos, but I built this.

I used to be very into it.

I built this with my mom when she was in town.

And it's, it's enormous.

It's so big.

And each room is detailed and each room has exhibits in it.

And you can take the to I don't, I'm terrified to like it, put it down and it will fall apart, but you can take the it unsnaps itself so that you can examine each floor, right?

Oh, so like this is just the top floor, which you can

hold on, I gotta put it down without breaking anything, and then you can see all of the exhibits on the inside.

Wow, so there's like a dinosaur skeleton, there's like an art room, a gift shop, uh, etc.

But, um, it's like a straight-up brontosaurus Lego skeleton, that's impressive.

Hidden inside of the museum.

So I would say that Lego Fortnite reignited my passion for actual tangible Legos.

How many, do you know roughly how many pieces that is?

And how long did it take you to assemble with your mom?

I have no idea how many pieces it is.

It was a pretty large kit.

I also have Titanic waiting for me.

But I have nowhere to put Titanic because Lego Titanic is their biggest kit and it is

it's, I don't have a shelf that would, uh, that would allow me to put Titanic somewhere.

Um, I would say this took about a week, but I also didn't, I wasn't doing it every day.

Uh, this I looked it up.

This is the Lego Natural History Museum.

It is a 4,000-piece

show.

There you go.

It's a big boy.

How many pieces is Titanic out of curiosity?

Uh, let me look it up.

Uh, are you, uh, Ashley?

Were you ever into Legos?

Are you into Legos?

ADHD?

Don't do it.

Nope.

Yeah.

Nope.

Yeah.

I have a half-finished Lego set.

I literally have a Lego set a friend of mine bought for the glorious and

indomitable Michael J.

Hobbs, which Heather knows, bought me a Lego set of really cool, like,

they're,

guys, this is embarrassing.

It's literally like,

like, Lego posters.

They are mostly flat.

And there's four of them.

And I cannot even open the box.

Like, it's just so bad.

I'm so bad about Legos.

I want to be into, I'm a person who sees it and I'm like, man, that looks really cool.

And I would be super into that.

But then it's like, I, I open the box and then I just get distracted by something.

And I'm just like, six months later, I'm like, oh yeah, those Legos, I lost like five pieces and I'll never finish it now.

It's terrible, it's terrible.

Uh, well, then the Lego Titanic is not for you because it is 9,000 pieces.

9,000?

That's twice as many as it is.

And so, is it the whole boat

or is it like

it's the whole boat?

It looks like the whole boat,

and it also snaps in half, and you can sink it.

Yeah, that's

partially sinking.

It does snap in half and drowns people in the bottom.

The floors and the like the boiler room and stuff.

A foggy window in a little carriage, perhaps, as well.

Yeah.

With a handprint on it.

Yeah.

Anyway, that's what I've been playing.

Matt, what are you playing?

I'll go fast too, because

I'm still playing Final Fantasy VII Remake.

Actually, I had only completed the original Final Fantasy VII very recently.

And so

in anticipation of Rebirth coming out later this month.

And so I just, I was going to play remake, decided to to do it.

I just want to, and I know I said this before,

as a fan of Final Fantasy VII, as Heather is, as Ashley is,

it's great that you went to this game and played it now.

Like you went back to Final Fantasy VII, a game that you were too young for at the time, that you returned to this game with an open mind and played through it in 2024, 2023.

Bless you.

That's great.

I really loved it.

You know, I did play with the modern exploits turned on.

It's made it enjoyable to me because I

if I get annoyed by like random encounters, I will just stop.

I just will stop playing.

Yeah, sure.

But I was enjoying, I was enjoying that.

Enjoyed that, but I'm now.

I have a, I have a, I don't, I have not really been paying attention to rebirth, like the trailers or anything like that.

There was a

just yesterday, there was a state of play that I guess spoiled.

Very spoilery.

Very stoiler.

Don't watch.

And

so I'm not, so I'm not done with remake.

I'm at the part where

I know Cloud's getting close to putting on his beautiful dress.

And I'm so excited to see that.

I'm excited for you to see that.

I'm excited to see Cloud look

gorgeous.

But that's where I'm at in the game.

I am going to finish it before Rebirth comes out.

I've pre-ordered it already.

I'm very excited.

I've also installed the demo that was released just in case I do finish it with enough lead time to mess around with it it a little bit.

Um, there was a part in the in the remake that I'll shout out where you have to go to like

this, like, massage lady,

and like

I paid for like the expensive massage

naturally, sure.

And like,

I was like, Is Cloud gonna nut?

Like, he was like, so like

God damn it.

He was so like,

she was all touching his hands and stuff and he was he was making some he was making some noises

and so

that's what I've been playing

I was kind of everybody loves a good massage everyone loves a good massage that's also the only part of that game I enjoy

I was just surprised how many massages Heather would it take oh no I'm the Resident Evil Merchant oh sorry yeah yeah Resident Evil Merchant how many massages to kill a

Every time I get a massage, I hope they kill me.

Is there like a.

I mean, okay, that's a tough question because I want everyone to know they're valued.

Like, I don't want a guy to hear right before he gets shot in the head, zero massages.

Like, I don't want, like, that would suck.

Well, because massage isn't going to kill him.

It's going to be

the gun to the head.

So I would set it at 10 you know so that he knew his own value sure solid 10.

but for and then afterwards you're like no that was my reward yeah privately it would be you know one maybe two is all it would take

hey matt actually as a fan of

hey what i was just gonna ask her i'll follow up real quick as a fan of final fantasy 7 uh the original like how did you react to remake i i i love it um i'm a i really like uh i like that it's different i like that they have done something a little bit different

I have so many therapy appointments scheduled in March because of rebirth.

I was,

I, I, like, honestly, like the emotional try.

I was a very

impressionable 16-year-old when that game came out and I played it.

And I literally cried so hard for like days.

Like, I was, I was despondent

after Aerith died.

And, um, and so I am not ready for that in high fidelity.

Like I'm,

I hope it's like, it's weird because it's like, if they don't do it, then it's like, then you've kind of, you kind of erase, you kind of retcon what came before it is such a cultural zeitgeist at the time.

Like, I don't know that you can, they are in such a hard position.

And it's just like, I know that they're just telling the story that they want to tell this time around.

And I, I'm super excited for it.

And I'm glad that they're, they feel really confident about it.

Um, because like Hamaguchi-san and and Katase-san and Nomura-san, even like talking to them talking about the game, like amps me up, and um, and it makes me excited to see like what they built.

Um, but yeah, I just like there's some emotional beats in that game, like that is a definitive, like, final fan, that's a definitive moment in gaming for me.

Like, just Final Fantasy VII, I played like 132 hours of an entire PlayStation 1 memory card dedicated to only Final Fantasy saves.

Um, and so, uh, yeah, like, I, I very much am like, I'm not, my, my heart is not prepared for rebirth, but I really liked remake and I thought it was awesome that they blew it out into like a big, you know, standalone game in Midgar.

And then now they're going to have this new thing and then they're going to have a part three.

It's like, what an embarrassment of riches.

We're all so fortunate to be able to like have this thing.

Like it's so cool that we get to have this thing.

Go on to that.

I have a theory.

That a party member is going to die and it won't be Aerith.

I do.

I'm wondering if that's the case too.

I'm wondering if they're going to pull a, like, if it's going to be like Tifa, like, or, I mean, which people would riot.

Like, I know some people who take Tifa very seriously, like, who would be very upset?

But I'm like, okay, well, now you get to experience the pain that I felt in 1997.

But then who's going to do the pull-up contest?

What if, what if, because they've made such a

meal of the

I spent too much time doing it.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Most logged hours in the entire game in the pull-up contest.

That's its own trophy.

Yeah.

As opposed to the massage contest.

How many massages are you getting?

That's Matt's, Matt's trophy.

Look, I haven't left the parlor.

What if they, because they've made such a meal of the like bond, the like party bonds?

What if you effectively choose who we are?

I'm very curious about that, too.

That would be so fascinating.

I mean, the narrative structure of that, I don't know how you build off from that.

Like when you do the third game, like, how do you, because you'd have to effectively make a story that changes for depending on each party character.

But if it was even just the choice between like one to three characters, that would be terribly fascinating.

But yeah, I don't, I, I don't know.

I feel like, I don't know, man.

It's like, I love Aerith, but I also feel like she kind of has to die to serve the story.

So she's the last one.

She's the last of the, it's like, so yeah, I don't know.

I'm, I'm, I'm not ready.

I'm, I'm going to cry so hard.

It's going to be so hard for me.

Like this game is real close to the, like, it's really deep in there.

Like, it's just, it's, man.

Yeah.

Like I said, I, Final Fantasy VII is like my favorite, probably one of my favorite games of all time.

So.

That moment when I played it back in the day on PlayStation 1, I just heard that and another Final Fantasy, Final Fantasy 3 slash 6 on Super Nintendo, both had moments where my reaction was less like

emotional, as may surprise some people, but was more like just like, I can't believe a game could do that.

Like, when they get to the World of Ruin in Final Fantasy VI, I was like, like,

I have not seen this anywhere, not just in any game, in any piece of media.

It really defined for me.

Like, I played a lot of video games as a kid, but then, like, that Final Fantasy VII, to me, like for me, was the game that was like, showed me what games could be, like, and, and, and what they could do with, like, storytelling.

Like, and it just, it really, like, changed me and, like, cemented my love for the entire industry of games, like, just games in general as an art form.

Like, that was the game that was like, this game changed me fundamentally and like made me really believe in the power of storytelling through games.

Like, that was like such a big deal for me.

What if, what if they just blow it with Rebirth?

It just sucks or else the

Rise of Skywalker it and we're like,

somehow.

Somehow Aerith is shot.

Aerith has survived.

She survived.

Since I brought something on the camera for the last, for Nick's thing, I'll bring something on a camera for this.

Yay.

They're stepping away again.

She brings Aerith into frame and kills her.

I just took it right in.

Just

so heartbreaking.

So sad.

Well, as you guys know,

as you guys know,

there was, you know, I was doing chemotherapy.

And so there was a huge, huge likelihood that I was going to lose all my hair.

And I did a freezing cap treatment to mitigate that.

And I was very, very, very, very fucking lucky because it worked 100% for me, which was...

That's amazing.

I mean, they didn't give me a hope of that happening.

And so I've been really grateful for that.

At the beginning of treatment, they were like, so you might want to consider some wig options or hats or whatever.

And I was like, Well, I'm not going to fucking just wear a wig.

Like, there's no way I'm going to go to work in a regular wig.

So, I got a

cloud.

Oh, my God.

So, I got a cloud wig,

which is like just a perfect

thing I've ever seen in my life.

A perfect, a perfect

wig.

That's incredible.

And I communicated with the stylist.

I was like, look,

because they were like, you know, what event do you need it by?

And I was like,

well, I'm not going to be cosplaying.

I'm not going to a convention.

And I explained everything.

And they were like, oh, girl, we've got you.

We've got you.

We will have this ready for you by midway through your treatment.

So I now have this.

perfect cloud wig and I have to figure out where and when to wear it.

But I think all, my answer is all.

Just whatever you want.

I think when that's the time.

I think there was a world where you put that on, showed up to a recording, didn't say anything about it, and then Nick and I don't say anything about it.

We're just like, cool, cool hair, Heather.

We would take it as far.

It feels normal.

Feels like editing.

Ashley, what are you playing these days?

Oh, man.

Well, Foam Stars just came out on PS Plus, and that's really fun.

It's really fun, actually.

Um, as a person who used to do Splatoon casting and like played a lot of that game, like I know there was a lot of like, oh, it's Splatoon.

It really isn't.

It's so different, and it's so cool.

And like, it's so, I don't know.

It's like, it's just a really fun game.

So if you have PS Plus, like, it's worth a download.

And then I've also been picking my way through Alan Wake 2 again,

which like.

So my husband, I am my husband's personal Twitch streamer.

Like, he doesn't actually play video, like, he doesn't play video games.

He just likes to watch me play them so he can see the story.

And, uh, and so I've been working my way through Allen Wake 2 again so that he could see it.

Uh, but it's, uh, it's so, God, I really, I mean,

what a game.

What a game.

Yeah.

I, I'm obsessed with that game.

It's so good.

That's another, I'd come back for it.

I'd do an art book for Allen Wake 2.

Oh, man.

Wow.

Matt's the one of us who's who's played through Allen Wake 2.

I know Matt likes it.

I think it's like such an achievement.

And I think about playing it again, even though

I was scared every second that I was playing it.

Let me tell you, that retirement home overlap, I can't.

Yeah, that's a tough one.

That one was tough.

Creepy tough.

I don't like it.

It sucks because it's such a trope, right?

Like, it's like such an obvious, like, scary trope.

Scary retirement home.

For a reason.

It's a trope for a reason.

It works.

It works 100% of the time.

A scary old person

on Earth.

Old people with superhuman, supernatural supernatural speed and strength is very upsetting.

It's very upsetting.

Wake.

That's a goal.

That's a goal right there.

That's a goal we should all have is to be super fast when we're old.

I don't like it.

It would be, it's like watching a baby run at top speed.

It's upsetting.

It should not be.

It's unnatural.

I don't like it.

I do walk around a lot in the house, though, and I scare Jimmy sometimes because, like, he'll walk around the corner and I'm like, wake!

Like, really?

I do that

all the time.

Like, it's so mean.

I said this before on the show, but my fiancé was watching me play the game a little bit and just like looking at my face and was like, You don't look like you're having any fun at all.

And I was like, I'm not, I'm miserable.

But I am.

I'm miserable, but it's so good.

It's a compelling storytelling.

Very, very good.

I'm obsessed with, I'm obsessed with Sam Lake now.

I think he's,

he's, he's, I didn't know that, like,

you could be like Hideo Kojima, but like a different guy.

Like, he's kind of like horror.

No, it's like horror Hideo Kojima.

He's like, yeah, like David Lynch, the David Lynch of Hideo Kojima.

Is that what we're calling him?

Yeah, he's the David Lynch of Hideo Kojima's for sure.

That's 100% it.

You nailed it.

That's perfect.

I'm going to quote that and I'm going to literally send it to him on the next today.

I'm sure he'll laugh.

I bet you he'd be like, this is exactly it.

Thank you.

Like 100%.

I got to talk to him at like the press preview event.

And I was like, it was so fun to talk to him about like the juxtaposition of light and dark.

Like it's just like, cause it's such a good, like, and there's so many things going on with like, you know, Saga story versus Alan's.

And like, it's just really great.

And like, I, I just had so much fun talking to him about it.

And I had played the game.

So full disclosure, I consult, I, I, I consulted on the game.

So I'm part of the,

I'm in the credits, like, which is really cool.

It was my, my very first game credit is on Alan Wig too.

That's bad.

But I got to play it before it came out.

So I knew all of the game's secrets when I went to that press event in September.

It was like a few weeks before the game came.

It was like a month before the game came out.

And so I had to be the last person to like interview with him so that all the rest of the press had left.

So I could talk to him about like the spoilers of the game.

Yeah.

And like what, what had happened.

And like, and also like we sing was a thing that like no one knew about.

And I was just like, I just need, I have so many questions.

Like I have so, so, so many questions um but it was really fun to uh to talk to him about like that interview is going to be in um lock on the newest issue of lock-on which has some like really gorgeous final fantasy art it's lock-on six wow and i think uh ben star the the lead clive in final fantasy 16 did like a write-up about what final fantasy means to him and it's a really good issue i i don't know if it's still

I think their crowdfunding is closed, but I'm sure they'll sell it at some point.

But it's, yeah, it's going to come out soon-ish.

So look for that.

But yeah, it was really fun to talk to him about that.

And then some of the environment direction and stuff.

Like I love

Noir York, which is Alan's dark place.

It's just so cool.

And like, man, the use of like,

like the use of live action, it's just so good.

I love control too.

So I've like, I, this was like very exciting for me to have, to see all the interconnected tissue of like control and Alan Wake.

And I'm, it's just so exciting to me.

Like, I love that.

Hell yeah

that's become our resident remedy head yeah i played through all i played through alan wake control and and then out straight into alan wake 2 you did the thing you really you really dove in yeah i uh i got i got remedy pilled big time and i i do

i'm gonna play i i plan to play quantum break at some point or i guess watch quantum break um which i know that people don't necessarily love, but I'm I'm interested to get all of the to get all the information.

just to get just i because i love i love info uh

but

heather did did you say what you were playing i have not um but i can say what i'm playing um i'm of course playing fortnite uh the ninja turtles collaboration dropped today and i can't wait to give it a a swing uh i bought my donatello skin because uh myself and my squad all called out who we thought we were and everybody named a different turtle and i was like, that's why we make a good squad.

That never happens.

This is incredible.

Yeah.

So,

so yeah, can't wait to try out that new collab and see what the quests are.

And then beyond that, I'm playing our We Play, You Play, forging ahead, despite our Discord's

demands that I restart without having accidentally slayed half of the map.

And

there have been some story things that have happened that I wonder if you guys have seen.

Because,

you know, I know that, for example,

Nick had to look up

what,

how, like, he had to look up because I was like, one of the NPCs attacked me on site.

Like, one of our party members attacked me on site because of the stuff that I had done.

Carlak.

Yeah, Carlak attacked me on site and I had to kill her.

Oh, no.

So I didn't have a chance.

There's no, I didn't even know who the girl she was.

Fan favorite.

That's my, that's my girl.

Yeah, that's my, that's my girl.

So I, I'm pretty sure I'm down a narrative path that maybe you guys haven't seen because I'm also not playing like with Dark Urge.

Like there's no like story, compelling story issues that I'm unlocking.

I'm just doing it as a criminal thief.

So I get rewarded when I steal from people.

And then additionally, when I, you know, go into places I shouldn't be.

But I had, I had something happen at my, at my camp, and I'm, I'm, I'm looking forward to discussing it because I'm like, did you guys do this?

And maybe you did, and maybe you didn't.

Who knows?

Um, but those are the two games I'm playing.

I don't really have excess free time.

I had to stop playing God of War Ragnarok so that I could focus on BG3.

Um,

but um, it really takes up all your time, you know?

It's such a big, it's such a big game.

It is.

And I'm also one of the things that I've decided to do where I am in my playthrough is that I'm generally a hoarder.

Like I'll keep everything in my inventory.

I won't like, I won't use weapons or ammo or spells when I play other games.

And I'm like,

given that I am robbing everywhere, I have so much shit

that now I'm like free, freely using scrolls in combat.

And it is so nice.

to just be like, ah, fucking, this seems overpowered for this moment.

Sure enough, it is.

And I'm constantly surprised by the AI of the adversaries who, like, if you create an area that's going to damage them, they don't just walk into it.

And that's, you know, something we haven't talked about on the podcast before, but is so satisfying because you don't want characters to be so stupid that they walk into knives or walk onto ice.

Like you want them to be like responding to their environment and they do, which is great.

Too bad that often

often that is a civilian.

I did get an inspiration point that was, congratulations, you've killed an innocent.

And I was like, holy shit.

Who did that, which, which, who did that inspire?

My character.

Who did that inspire your character?

Yeah, my character was inspired.

Your psychopath.

I feel like my character is walking in every town and opening with, there's been a misunderstanding.

because that is that is the avalanche that i'm riding towards end game um you're role-playing leslie nielsen it's like

the leslie nielsen play i like it that's the leslie nielsen playthrough i like it yeah but uh it's been wonderful

we'll talk about it at length in a in a few weeks but right now i i thought we'd dig in a little bit since we're talking about psychonauts too uh since we were earlier uh maybe just spend a little bit of time talking about what like great part twos.

Like when we've had, there's been a sequel, when there's been a number two in the title of a game,

either literally or figuratively.

This is the second entry and it's absolutely clicked like when those times were in the times that we've been playing games.

And I did want to touch on before we get into this, obviously it's not out yet, but Ashley, we talked last time you were on about the Wolf Among Us,

you know, I think both of our favorite Telltale games.

and it's a uh the wolf among us 2 has been you know long in development long delayed it has a 2024 release date we'll see if we if it makes that at all but like is uh like are you excited for a wolf a potential wolf among us 2 i am so excited and i also am uh

so

wild

uh it's so wild to me that bill like just was like i i like I'm just gonna make fables open source.

Like, it's just like public domain now.

Here you go.

Like, that, that, I can't, I, I just lose my mind about that.

Uh, but yeah, I, I, I am very excited for Wolf Among Us too.

I mean, anytime I can go back to that universe, anytime I can go back to that world, like, I'm in.

Like, I, I want to, I just want to like exist in it.

I still argue that there should be a fables team.

I mean, I don't think we'll ever see it now because it's public domain, but like, there should have been a great procedural fables television show, which I like a, like a, you know, cool prestige procedural, um, um, a procedural, um, but that, like, that would have been so amazing.

And like, it would have been really awesome to like be in that world and, and

have this really like dark fairy tale procedural with, you know,

with with Big B.

And like, I just say that it would have been awesome.

Like, I'm really, I'm more than that, but I'm very excited for Wolf Among Us 2.

So many good like part twos, right?

Like in games.

Like, there's so many good ones.

It's a thing where, and, and, you know, I,

it's a, a it's a weird i had someone made this had this observation years ago i remember reading it where it's like so often in in like film like the the the sequel is usually inferior there are notable exceptions like a spider-man 2 an empire strikes back you know a godfather part 2 whatever these are these are all well-known first first examples anyone thinks of but like in general the number two is usually like a like like it's it's not as good and it's it's just uh it's like a cheaper version the first one but oftentimes with games the second entry entry is an improvement because they've iterated on like oh we figured out what works about the first one uh and we've iterated upon it uh and uh and expanded upon it and like you end up with a thing like the first game that i think of uh is a game i've talked about probably too much on this podcast but diablo 2 where they had diablo 1 feels like a prototype versus diablo 2 feels like here is the product here we've finished we figured out exactly how to expand this formula into a game that's not just like a single dungeon crawler but is like a whole world uh and is uh and is just like so like amazingly, you know, fully realized, but it's still the same core concept.

That's so true.

I mean, yeah, like you think about games like Silent Hill 2.

I mean, that's another one where it's like, we know what clicked.

And like, now we're going to make this thing that's like just gangbusters good.

Like, it's just so good because we, we, we put in all the things that were amazing and then we polished all the things that weren't amazing.

And now it's just pure amazing.

It's like so good.

It's so fucking good.

It's so good.

It really is.

It really is.

It's just pinnacle.

It's just so peak, like, so good.

So good.

And yet not in my top 10 games of all time, but so good.

Oh, yeah.

None of us really.

Yeah.

I mean, it wouldn't be in mine because it

horrified me beyond belief.

But that was

such a great game.

I'm thinking

of.

I'm thinking of a few as well.

Metal Gear Solid 2 comes to mind in particular because.

Great pull.

Great pull.

It takes what's good about um metal gear solid one and like makes it good like because like not that metal gear solid one is bad but like it like it it it's harder it's harder to play like it was obviously uh of the time like it it had to be played that way because it was made that way but just the 3d camera in uh in metal gear solid 2 it just helps it out so much more you know

Well,

it was a little cruder.

It was a previous console generation and

they're figuring out both

how stealth worked in 3d and also just 3d gaming in general but like it's interesting you say that because that is a pin that is an opinion that was would have been semi-heretical at the time because that was not a well-received sequel by the fan base it was like in hit oh like it was given the long view of history we're able to see like oh wait this is like a masterpiece but there were a lot of people who like kind of honestly like the the annoying reaction to the last of us part two where it was like a lot of the the fan base was split a lot of people were like this changed what i liked about the original, or this, the story just is so off-putting that I can't even enjoy it.

It's cool that people have always been like this.

Some things never change.

There's also like, there's magazine, there's fanzine,

you know,

scans from around the release of Empire Strikes Back, where people are like, I can no longer call myself a Star Wars fan.

And discontinuing the publishing of this fanzine because the series has moved in a direction that we cannot accept or endorse.

So it's always, you know, like always that.

It's always, I wonder if those people

can suck.

Sucks.

No, I'll tell you what happens to those people is those people like act like they never had those opinions.

Yes.

Like over time, once the tides shift, they're kind of like, oh, yeah, I always liked that one.

I was one of the people who always liked it.

This is, this is, this is only somewhat related, but I had a roommate in college.

His dad saw Empire Strikes Back in theaters opening weekend.

And he said, when Darth Vader had the line, No, I am your father.

One guy in the theater went, no shit.

Like, it was just so novel of an idea.

It's like a genuine cover.

That's pretty interesting, actually.

All right, man.

That's cool.

Man, wow.

I guess dudes rock.

That's awesome.

I can think of a couple sequels that

maybe don't have.

So, like, Mario Kart 64

is such a step up from Mario Kart and the Super NES it wasn't a part two but it was the sequel to Mario Kart and for a generation of gamers people were like I mean it was the it was such the party game that to go to that people will still sometimes have at a party a retro corner where Mario Kart 64 is is running oh yeah um

this game yeah four players

as opposed to two and then

an actual 3D engine as opposed to the Mode 7 kind of cheat of

the original.

That's a good call.

And if they are in that Mario vein, like Mario Galaxy 2 also, like peak platforming.

So good.

Unbelievably good.

And then I also was thinking about,

oh, please don't lose your place, Heather.

Well, this game, so I didn't care for the first one at all.

So when Street Fighter 2 comes out, it felt like a part one to a huge section of games.

Interesting.

But was actually a sequel to a fighting game.

So like,

what are you smiling about, Nick?

No, I just, you know, who else didn't like Street Fighter 1?

Yeah.

It's interesting that they could pivot so hard, like, fix it.

Yeah.

Yeah.

No, that they fixed it.

You're absolutely right.

It was like, it's the recovery.

This is so cool.

Yeah, 100%.

I have high hopes for Death Stranding 2 because of a Kojima tweet where he was talking about how successful sequels totally reinvent the genre of the thing.

And he cited like aliens and he cited like a few other films where he's like, this works because

you take a game or an environment, a story, whatever, and then you put it in a different genre.

And so I'm...

looking forward to the idea that maybe Death Stranding 2 isn't a delivery game, but maybe it's a combat game.

Maybe it's, who knows what it's going to end up being.

Or maybe he just tweeted that when he was like, oh, this game's going to be a failure.

Oh, no.

I've made the same game again.

Alan Wake 2 does this.

Like, Alan Wake 2

is

way more.

I mean, it's like a

survival horror game.

And the first one has elements of that in it, but I wouldn't say it's like the most

definitive thing about it.

It's almost like a, you know, Twin Peaks action-adventure game.

But this, Allen Wake 2, Allen Wake 1 is creepy.

Allen Wake 2 is fucking scary as hell.

It's like so scary.

It's, it's, yeah, it's, it's a horror game.

Yeah.

I mean, it's, it's definitely a horror game.

And they do redefine, like,

they've re they redefined that genre using the technology available, especially with the light and the dark and like

shifting realities, rewriting reality.

Like in the first game, you could, you just like, that was a thing that happened, but it wasn't wasn't a thing you were actively doing like it's like they use the technology to be make it possible and i think like to that point i mean to to do another like sequel tears of the kingdom like also kind of does this where it's like oh shit it literally redefined the game before it that redefined what it meant like it's just that game redefined everything and so it's like it redefined itself which is insane like how do you do that yeah

It's also a thing that Nintendo doesn't do all that often, which is like basically a direct sequel, like without like kind of like, you know, overhauling everything.

Yeah.

And you already mentioned Mario Galaxy 2, and that was, that's another one.

I actually had on my list, and this is maybe being a little stinker, but it's true.

Yoshi's Island is Super Mario World 2.

That's a great.

I'll buy that.

Nick, you're such a stinker.

I'm actually getting so mad.

You're such a stinker.

I can't believe you do something like that, you stinker.

I have a few more on my list.

I mean, Mass Effect 2, I think this is another obvious one.

Portal 2, I mean, Portal is already Portal 2 is great.

Portal, to me, already a perfect game.

They actually prefer Portal 1, but Portal 2 is like such a great follow-up.

But coming from Valve, Half-Life 2 as opposed to Half-Life 1 is such an amazing,

you know,

such an amazing step up.

And especially the, you know, like...

Physics was like a novelty, you know, and that era.

And that one just used physics so well

for gameplay specifically.

But those, those, that's one I remember just like absolutely like

completely exceeding my expectations, having really enjoyed the first game.

Yeah.

I have a question

about a sequel, which is,

is Dark Souls a sequel to Demon's Souls?

Hmm.

Is Dark Souls technically Demon's Souls 2?

Or is it a new game?

Because if you played Demon's Souls and then you played Dark Souls, you were not, there was nothing in it.

Like, it's Estes Flasks and all, like, it's all the same

stuff.

So, is it a sequel?

I think you can argue it's the second game in the same series.

Then it's

on the list because Dark Souls is so fucking great.

Like, it's a near-perfect game.

I'll buy it.

That sounds, I mean, that's good.

I like my one of the ones on my list was Castlevania 2 oh like oh sure like that that was a really because like the first one is like very good it's like a good solid little game and then like you get into the second one and it's like you've got like riddles and you have to like collect it's like it just really blew out the world in a way that i think like even now like i look at it i'm just like wow like that was really ambitious for it for its time and it's And it's kind of like a lot closer to what a modern Castlevania, like Metroidvania is, where it's like Castlevania one is just, you know,

your letters.

Yeah, exactly.

This one,

you can go back, you can explore everywhere.

It's, it really kind of like set the template for everything that came after it, which I think is really awesome.

That's the first time I ever got a bad ending in a game.

Another thing I was like, wow, there's multiple endings.

I got the bad one.

I got to do this again to get the good one.

I just remember like my mom.

I was so little when she played through that game.

Like the first time I saw somebody play through it was when I was probably like between three and five.

Wow.

And I remember seeing her kneeling with the garlic, like for the boat guy.

And I just remember thinking my mom was like a genius.

Like I couldn't, I was like, I don't like, I was like, she, I was like, whoa, she's so good at video games.

Like, I couldn't, it just blew my mind that she, and she found like the invisible, there's like an invisible mansion in that one.

And so she had like discovered that as well.

And I just thought my mom was like the most.

the the smartest person alive like because of that which was just you know it was it was really cool and like that so yeah, that game always comes to mind for me when it's like sequels that kind of redefine their own genre.

It's like that one for me is like a big one.

For me, Pokemon Gold,

like Pokemon Gold, Silver Generation.

That was like the first time I

ever had a game that was like a part two, I think.

And I was like right there, ready for it when it was like coming out because I had played the original.

So I was excited for more of that.

I was like, I'm done playing these other ones.

Give me the new one.

And then the fact that you can go back to

the, the, the Kanto region at the end when you're done with the game and you can go see the places you saw in the first game is like, I wish,

I wish every Pokemon game did that, or you could just go back to the previous place and be like, hey, this is what's going on here now.

Uh, I, that, that was a, that's a huge one to me.

And obviously, like, Kingdom Hearts 2, I've talked about uh forever.

That's my favorite game.

Um,

just takes everything that's good about uh King of Hearts 1 and just makes it more confusing and weird.

But the gameplay is

so much better.

But going back to the NES era,

like Castlevania 2, Mega Man 2 also of that era was one where it's just like

I love Mega Man 1, but Mega Man 2 is

much more cohesive.

And just every element is just better.

Like the art is improved.

The music is better.

There's more bosses, more robot masters you're fighting um and yeah it just really feels like a and there's a there's a password system which the first game doesn't have the first game i think it's all like you know you turn it off you got to start over in my memory i could be wrong uh but it's it's it's just like such a

it's just such a more fully formed uh version of a formula that would obviously be iterated on sonic 2 as well like sonic 2 really big another really big one I love Sonic 2 so that one is in Heather's top 10, right?

It definitely is.

I love Sonic 2 2 more than any other Sonic game.

It's so fucking good.

The music is so good.

It's so good.

It's still rips.

It's still fucking good.

It's just good.

Yep.

Just across the board on every level.

Yep.

It's so good.

When you do a corkscrew run in Sonic 2 on a 16-bit system,

your mind was like, how

can this be?

How can it be that you can make this work?

Because you can't.

I couldn't draw that when I was a child.

Like, I couldn't draw a corkscrew on a piece of paper and have it make visual sense.

So, like, to see it moving and you get to control it was crazy.

Um, I, the, the introduction of Tails as well,

I think it's just like such a huge thing.

And he's such like a, he's like, people think of Sonic and Tails as a, as like an entity, but it's like Tails has no presence in the first Sonic the Hedgehog game.

It's like, and to put this in terms that I know Matt can understand, understand, it's like how in Austin Powers one, there's no mini-me.

It's not till Austin Powers two or mini-me's on the scene.

And I think the Austin Powers franchise, you can't imagine it without me.

It's kind of hard to go back and even watch the first Austin Powers because you're like, where's Mini Me?

He's not in that one.

Everyone here is

just, there's no mini.

I want to know if there is a game

that was worth it.

We all agree that was worth it.

I helped, right?

What I'd like,

no.

What What I'd like to know is, is there a game that,

like Psychonauts,

that you wish had a sequel, that if you could like imagine, no matter how much time has passed, that you're like, man, if a, and it cannot happen, it cannot be a game that already has sequels that suck.

Like, you can't be like, well, I wish they'd make a good,

and this is going to be controversial because

some people really like Chrono Cross, but I would say Chrono Cross.

Like, you can't, I wish there was a good Chrono Cross.

Chrono Cross does not live up to Chrono Trigger, I can say admittedly.

Okay.

It's like it's, yeah.

Well, this is the first game.

Phew, dodge that bullet.

But yeah, is there a game that you're like, man, I wish this game had a part two?

I have an answer right away.

Oh, and we'll see, this will be one where we'll see if anyone agrees with me that this is even eligible.

Please go.

We're talking Final Fantasy earlier.

They've done this before with the franchise.

They've done a part two to an individual entry.

And

I would like to see them take a crack at Final Fantasy VIII 2.

What would that look like?

Wow.

That would be interesting, right?

It's the worst game.

It's one of the worst ones.

So it feels like, yeah, why not?

How dare you?

I will.

I get in fights with people about Final Fantasy VIII.

Well, I will happily get in that fight with you and lose because

I do like that game.

It's fine.

No, I

completely understand why it's polarizing.

It's a very flawed game that I have a lot of affection for.

But I think they could do like the equivalent of a 10-2, you know, for Final Fantasy VIII.

It'd be really interesting to see what that's like.

Or honestly, give it the remake treatment,

which is an enormous amount of labor.

But

that would be a game where, like, hey,

let's do the remaster and kind of fix what's kind of wonky about it.

I'd be into that.

I'd give that a shot.

They did say,

well, first off,

there's not enough of a fan base of Final Fantasy VIII to justify the cost of doing a remake, but one of the developers or one of the producers on Final Fantasy VIII said that if they did a remake, they would completely redo the combat system.

And that was like in an interview recently.

I thought that was interesting because, you know, the

interview or

the battle system is...

so much a part of why people are really hot cold on Final Final Fantasy VIII because before you engage an enemy, you have to suck all of their spells out of them, which I think might be why Nick likes it so much.

I'm so glad I came to that.

I'm lucky because I have like basic taste.

So I feel like a lot of the games that I have played and loved over the years, have sequels.

There's not one that I can even think of off the top of my head that I'm like, gosh, I wish that was coming because it either is or it exists.

I'm like, I right, like, even like a dormant franchise, like a Jack and Daxter or Sly Cooper that maybe you like had sequels back in the day.

So, it's not like they're just one-offs.

Uh, I wouldn't mind a sequel, and this is going to sound nuts.

I was just talking about this game last week.

I wouldn't mind another entry in the Pokemon Legends

franchise, because it's not in the same world as

the mainline games.

I wouldn't mind another game like that, like a Pokemon Legends Arceus, but if it was a different thing.

Because I loved...

That's probably my...

Of the recent entries, of the Switch entries, it's my favorite Pokemon game, certainly.

But

I would like to see more of that because

it just felt great.

I loved it.

It's pretty solid answer.

That's a good one.

I would go with Godhand.

I would love a sequel to Godhand.

I'd love Godhand 2.

That would be fucking awesome.

Again, for the like, God Hands.

For the 30 or 40 of us who've played that game and love it so much,

we'd be really excited about that sequel.

But that's the only one that comes to mind as like a singular

experience that never got a sequel.

Like even Katamari has sequels, you know, like most games that have any market penetration end up getting at least a mobile spin-off, you know?

So it's hard to find or to remember those.

Contact is another one for the for the Nintendo DS.

I would love a sequel to contact.

that probably would never happen um

i've got i've got some ideas too uh let's let's dip into the tim schaefer well obviously brutal legend needs a sequel

i think we can all agree brutal legend definitely needs a two why not um we just gotta have eddie back uh and then also uh grim fandango i want a sequel to grim fandango forever yeah i'll always want more grim fandango in my life uh but the game that if i if i were uh the president of video games and I could just choose any game that could be remade for a modern era with like as a sequel, it's a sports game.

But it's a great sports game, which is Jerry Glanville's Pigskin Football.

Wow.

And I will fight for this game until the end of time because are any of you familiar with this game?

No.

No, I know Jerry Glanville was like not even like the most famous coach.

Like he was like, he was like the Atlanta.

He was no Atlanta Falcons coach, right?

He's like the wish.com version of a famous coach.

But like, so there was this game on Sega Genesis.

I highly encourage everyone to go look at like gameplay of this on YouTube.

Cause, so I used to play this game at lamb parties, and it was so much fun.

I've never had more fun playing a sports game in my life.

Set in medieval times.

Everybody, uh, pigskin football is, it's football, but everybody is like medieval.

So there's like people in armor and there's like people with like maces and shit.

And like, you have to, like, you're basically, it's just chaos.

And whoever is down the most at halftime,

they go

like unleash the troll.

And you get a fucking troll that joins your team that beats the shit out of everybody.

It's, and there's like trapdoors on the playfield.

This game.

So rightfully deserves like to be brought back, resurrected, whatever.

Like, I will do everything in my power to continue to spread the good word of Jerry Glanville's pigskin football.

And I just want it to come back someday because it would make such a good online multiplayer game.

It would be like,

it would be like adjacent, but also

like opposite programming of like a FIFA game.

It's just like, hey, like if you want to play a sports game and have fun with your friends, but you hate sports, here's the game for you.

But it's such a weird game.

What I love about this is that it's like in the arcades, I'm looking this up right now.

And I don't remember this game.

I do remember Mutant League Football, which was a much better known, I think, version of this kind of formula.

But this one, I like that it's specifically medieval.

But in the arcade, it was known by a different title.

It was called like 600,

it was called Pixkin 621 AD.

So when they ported it to Genesis, they were like, you know what's going to sell this thing?

Get this thing moving off of shelves.

Jerry Glanville.

The title splash screen is literally him in sunglasses.

His arms.

What is he?

I remember this.

He's not a medieval man.

He's not a troll.

He's probably the cheapest person related to pro football they can process the passage.

Yeah, couldn't tell you.

Don't know.

His signature is on the game.

It's so bizarre.

But yeah, like I played that game so much on Sega Genesis.

It was so funny.

And like, man, it's just such a great, like, it's such a great multiplayer game, like a party game.

And so to me, I'm like, man, that's like a game I would love to see, like, get a, get like a sequel or remake or remaster or whatever, and just have somebody like really just pick it up and like run with it.

Cause we got dodgeball, yeah, like super dodgeball.

We actually got like an updated remake of it, and that was really fun.

And like, we got, and we even got like a game like Knockout City, which is not a direct like sequel, but it was still very similar.

So, yeah, I think that, like, I mean, some people might say, like, Super Mario RPG deserves a sequel.

Like, that's another one I would say.

I would, I'd play a sequel to Super Mario RPG.

I was, uh, I was, I was kind of amazed they even remastered it.

So, yeah, I mean,

I guess it's possible it could happen.

Final Fantasy Tactics?

Where's that sequel?

That's the Final Fantasy I need a sequel for.

I love Final Fantasy Tactics.

I love that too.

Heather, I think, is a big Final Fantasy Tactics Advance fan.

Maybe that qualifies in your eyes.

Does that qualify?

Do you think it does?

Tactics Advance had a sequel, Tactics Advance 2.

which was for the DS and was based in Evilis and the world of Final Fantasy XII, Evilis.

But Final Fantasy Tactic, I wouldn't call Tactics Advance a sequel to Tactics.

Same genre,

same

gameplay mechanics,

but also, but not

the same world.

So I feel like Tactics deserves a, like, I want that.

I just want a remake.

Honestly, I'll just take a remake.

I'll take anything.

Any Final Fantasy Tactics, please.

I would like to say a thing that just popped up on my,

like, you know, you get news pop-ups, and generally speaking, they're tailored to you.

And this seems to be a massive piece of gaming news that just happened.

Whoa, breaking news.

Which is that as of I think I know what you're going to say.

Okay, great.

So, Walt Disney just announced that they are purchasing a 10% stake in Epic Games and they are creating a Walt Disney

permanent permanent collaboration

entertainment universe in Fortnite.

Wow.

So, like, that's,

there are tons of Disney collabs already in the game, like

Marvel stuff and Star Wars stuff.

And, you know, a lot of Fox properties, which I'd always interpreted as like Disney's hand in Fortnite, because you'll get like

Terminator or

Aliens stuff that like pops up in Fortnite.

But this is a multi-billion dollar deal that was just announced, I guess, moments ago, where Disney is like a permanent partner with Fortnite.

And they're going to create like viewing experiences, shopping experiences, and gameplay experiences.

I really think

they're right on the edge of making the metaverse in Fortnite.

Like, I think that there's going to be a permanent social

tab in Fortnite where you will go as your chosen avatar and fucking watch TV or whatever.

That seems like a very easy, like, get, like leap of logic for me.

Like, based seeing, seeing what they've built already and what they're capable of, it really does feel like that's a place that, you know, that is going to be that for like, I think a lot about my kid.

I'm just like, how will he experience things like games and everything?

I'm like, a lot of it is going to be virtually.

Like, he's going to have a little avatar.

He's going to like walk around.

It's going to be like, people always make comparisons of Snow Crash, but it's like, yeah, like, that's, that's the thing.

We already do that just in individual games, right?

Like, we play Baldur's Gate, we have our calves, and it's like, that's your, that's your avatar.

So it's like, you would just walk around with that, you know, it's just, it's a more open thing where it's like cross, um, cross-brand.

It's not necessarily cross-platform, um, but it's cross-branding and like all that stuff.

So, yeah, that's like super, that's so interesting.

There's the, I'm, I, I sent, or I put a, a link to the article, the press release for this thing that was attached to the news item.

And

one of them is like a world map that's like a hub world for like a Fortnite Walt Disney hub world.

And it's wild seeing an ESPN area

of Fortnite.

Cause what, are you going to like go watch live sports in Fortnite?

Yeah, there's an ESPN area.

There's a Marvel area.

There's a Lucasfilm area.

There's a Disney Plus area.

And this is crazy.

If you like, if you take the image and full screen it and zoom in, you can see a little naked guy running around.

It's wild.

Crazy.

Crazy news.

Well, hopefully that works out well.

I will say that as a

one thing about the Lego Fortnite is that there are, for most of the models, there is a Lego version of the character model,

and there isn't one for Peter Griffin.

So I'm really hoping that gets fixed and maybe

this investment went possible.

Holy crap, Lois.

I'm Lego.

All right, we should take some questions.

It's time for the question block.

All right, these are all from our listeners over in our Discord.

Discord.gg/slash get played.

Here we go.

This first one is from Dirk Lalonde, and Dirk writes, What's the first game you pulled an all-nighter playing?

Alternatively, what's the first game you either went to a midnight release for or downloaded the second it went online?

Okay, I'm gonna have to look up the name of the first one, but I can say, because I mentioned earlier, I did pull an all-nighter playing Final Fantasy VIII when I was towards the end game.

And I remember finishing that game at like 4:30 a.m.

And my roommate, like who was sleeping, hearing the end credits music playing and coming in to see what was going on.

But yeah, it was

that's one I remember.

There was an NES game that was the first time I played.

I stayed up all night playing a game, and that was at a sleepover.

I'm going to look that up.

If anyone else has an answer,

I don't know if it counts.

It doesn't count as an

maybe it doesn't count as an all-nighter, but the day,

the day that Animal Crossing came to the Switch, um,

that was just like a day that I lost like completely.

Like,

cause it was right, you know, the pandemic was new, right?

Uh,

and I didn't have anywhere to go or anything else to do, but I just, the second I woke up, downloaded Animal Crossing and played it until it was basically the next day.

And

on my, um, that year they did the, um, it might have been, I don't know if it was the first year they did this, but but it was definitely the first year I interacted with this where they did the um

uh your your year in review for Nintendo.

And that the day that it came out was like the most I gamed all year.

And it was like, it was, it was insane.

It was just, um, just bad, just bad, like just horrific to be confronted with what you've done.

Um,

the reality of what you've done.

Uh, but I have no regrets because that was the day I met my very best friend, Dom the Sheep.

And uh, you know, I

love him.

I love him.

The game I was thinking of was which I played a sleepover with

my friend Dane

was

the Astianax, the NES port, which is insane that we play that all night because the game sucks.

It's unplayable.

But we were just making progress and got so addicted to just trying to blaze all the way through it.

I played Final Fantasy XI

when I lived in Amsterdam.

And

there were so few.

I imported my PS2

and the game wasn't yet released for European region.

So I was only able to really party up on US time.

So I would get home from a show at 10.30 or 11 p.m.

at night and play on US time until like 6 in the morning, sleep all day long and then go do shows at night.

So for like the first month of release of Final Fantasy XI, I was doing like night shifts to be able to play the game.

So that's my, that's the first answer that I can think of, which was such an intense addiction.

Wow, that's wild.

Yeah, for me, I, I, Mario, Super Mario RPG was the game that I played like all night with my brother and my cousin.

I just remember that summer, we were just so into that game and we would just spend, I mean, because we didn't have school.

So so we would just we were up all night long we would just stay up until five in the morning just playing and like having fun and i remember that last that last run of the game like fighting qlex was like such a thing because we just kept kept going back you know trying our best to to do it and it took days for us to do it and uh finally we we beat qlex and then we we rolled i remember rolling credits on that game and seeing a little parade at like six in the morning or something like that i mean we just like played all night long, like all summer we played that game.

Like we just couldn't get enough of it.

Um, as a kid, as a, as a teenager slash, uh, early adult, like a teenager, it was LAN parties on New Year's Eve with my group of friends where I had to bring my little CRT television and we would hook up a million Xboxes and we would play Halo and Halo.

We'd play like LAN Halo.

um just and and uh like burnout i remember we played burnout

which was very fun.

And we would play pigskin football.

We just have all these games set up and it was so much fun every New Year's Eve for like probably five years.

That was a thing.

And then as an adult, the last game I played all night long was

I was so compelled by Horizon Zero Dawn.

And I got to a place where I was like, this must be the end game.

And I was like, I just am going to finish it.

And then I would play an extra hour.

And the story just hooked me so bad at the end that I was like, I have to finish this game.

And so I finished it at like 7 a.m.

And I remember my husband coming out, like getting ready for work.

And he's like,

and I was like, I had tears rolling down my face.

I was so like moved by the whole thing experience.

And he's like, are you okay?

Like, have you been up all night?

And I was like, this game is just so amazing.

It's so beautiful.

Like, I was just crying and like credits were rolling, sun's coming up.

Like, it was just so like embarrassing, but also like it just, I mean, it really got its hooks in me.

Uh, once you get to like that final, like once you get to like that sort of like final bit of the story in act three, where it's like you realize what everything is and why it is, it was just, man, I had, I had to finish it.

Like I couldn't, I couldn't exist for another minute without knowing what the story, the rest of the story was.

And that was like so exciting.

It's amazing.

Thanks, Dirk, for that, for that first question there.

This next one's from, thanks, Dirk, from Mikey Wombat.

And Mikey Wombat writes, what piece of game physical gaming hardware is the most satisfying to interact with?

Examples might be the click of an SNES power button or clicking the lid shut on the original PlayStation.

Now that's interesting.

Oh, we're talking about the physical console,

not like a controller or accessory.

That's an interesting question.

I am going to say the eject button or the lid button on a Nintendo GameCube or something that is very, very satisfying how that pops up.

Ooh, that's a good answer.

Yeah, nice and tactile.

For me, it would be pressing, like pushing down and hearing the springs on the cartridge of an NES console.

Oh, sure, yeah.

And hoping it works.

I really love the sound of a Game Boy game going in.

Like,

I don't, the analog pocket doesn't fully simulate this because it doesn't go as far in as

the other ones do, but like the sort of the sliding plastic into the click is is really something i think that's a really good one there's also a really good yeah confirming really good hinge click on the final 3ds

like the the most polished most

like the five like nintendo saying goodbye to the idea of a dedicated handheld and they put everything they could into the just the tactile hardware of the 3ds that when i open it up i'm like man this this feels like almost like an Apple product like it is so like

dense pristine solid and clicky it and the the hinge click is so good it's uh

that's a that's a nice feeling I miss buttons there what are you there are buttons I know buttons I know buttons silly but you know it's just like it's like I feel like everything now it's just like so clean it's just like a black cube you've got you know like I want like something like like sticks out or like something I could push in you know not like like like a like a button with like a little bit more give not just like a gentle touch.

Oh, you mean like my like on my PS?

Oh, yeah.

You mean like a like a yeah, not on the controller.

I mean on the on the hardware on the

console.

Yeah, that's that is something we've lost sight of, isn't it?

The like a power, like a mechanical aspect of like an analog button.

It has springs in it.

Gosh.

Great question.

Yeah,

really great question.

And finally, we'll leave it off with this.

This one's from Swearwolf.

And Swear Wolf writes, If VR technology ever got good enough, what is your dream app?

I'd like to pod race.

Wow.

That's like

a great answer.

If you cannot get motion sick pod racing, that would be very fun.

I have my dream app.

It's in my head.

It's ready to go.

Here it is.

A company should create a three-dimensional 360 camera.

that records in all directions at the same time.

And they should put those cameras in locations all over the world so that you can work in live environments

that are not at your fucking desk.

So if you want like,

like on the Apple Vision Pro or on the MetaQuest, they have environments, but they are looped environments that are like the best day ever at Mount Hood.

or like the best, most beautiful version of the sky.

What I want is

I pay for a, and because it would have to be a subscription service in order to maintain the cameras, but I would pay money to be at some fucking cafe in Paris while working here in the United States or pay

like to be on a campground and know that it was like that day, that moment, that environment would be really fucking cool, I think.

That's a great answer.

I think there should be like, I think there should be like a, like a thing that that is like required by law

where you should be able to like hat to sit in on a VR session of like Congress.

Like you can just sit anywhere and just observe everything that's happening in the body.

Like C-SPAN, but like you're inside C-SPAN.

It would be like the boringest shit ever.

But it'd be just like one of those little bits of good governance transparency where you could actually just like sort of like look around and see what someone's, you know, what papers someone's shuffling in their desk or investigate some sort of like off-the-floor conversation that's happening.

You could just kind of like take in absolutely everything that's happening.

I don't know.

I feel like that would be an interesting, boring thing that no one would pay attention to.

Well, it'd be extra exciting for you, too, because you already have a lay of the land from January 6th.

So you kind of already know where everything is, you know?

That's the desk I stood on when I dropped Trow.

That's it.

Gosh.

Ashley, are you much of a VR user?

I like VR.

It's very,

there's a lot of escapism.

It's nice in that way.

It's weird because it's like,

you know, there's the idiot part of me is like, bring back PlayStation home, like, which is just the dumbest possible answer anybody could give.

But yeah, I like, I think it's probably similar to something Heather, like, I mean, I think for me, it's it's like it would have to be a thing that I just couldn't experience like myself in person So it feels like for me like the thing I would really want is like the those types of cameras But in places like in the galaxy that I will never visit Oh shit.

So it's like that's for me like I want to be able to you know like sit at a desk on Mars and like just hang out like like Dr.

Fucking Manhattan

except my desk and I'm like I'm tired of these people their lives like i was like that's that's the existence i want to live sometimes in vr i just want to be left alone um but yeah i think like for me it's the it's the it's a combination of like what heather and nick are saying it's like um i'll never be able to afford 50 yard line seats at the super bowl right so like

a virtual ticket that enables me to be there like it live would be very cool.

But yeah, like things like that, where it's just like these sort of like live once-in-a-lifetime experiences

that you can't necessarily afford to go to in person.

It would be really amazing to give people the opportunity to experience that at least a little bit in virtual reality.

I think that would be pretty, pretty awesome.

Cause there are a lot of people who are just like, I mean, I know that gets a little like ready player one, where we're all living in our little junked up trailers, like going places and stuff.

Like that's kind of depressing.

But I also like, you know, there's some, there's something to be said for that being an equalizer for different classes to like actually be able to, you know, experience something they may not get to otherwise.

Like being able to experience, you know, the, the V, like Vienna orchestra.

Like in person, like most people never experience that in their lives because it's cost prohibitive and also because people have stuff going on, you know, and it's like, that's really cool that VR gives people that opportunity.

So for me, it's that.

Yeah, that I mean, that's that, that's like, that would be the, the, that, that, that, that'd be like the ideal, but I feel like with our reality instead, they'll find a way to like charge for those experiences to like make it like a premium upgrade to actually work with that.

Yeah, yeah, or you see it in person and they figured out a way to just put ads in your field of view.

You know, that's how they're using VR.

That will definitely be VR now.

That will definitely be a thing.

I have seen, I, the one thing I thought was really interesting about using VR is I have seen that a lot of

there are some gains in therapy, like for children, especially who are victims of abuse, where they, to make them feel more comfortable, things like virtual reality have been used to give them a view of like, for example, like a stuffed animal instead of a therapist or like a like making them more comfortable in that space and being able to sort of like share their trauma a little bit easier.

And so, and also exposure therapy is like another thing I've seen people use virtual reality for.

So I think like the application of therapy is a really interesting avenue that hasn't been explored enough.

And I think it could be a really rich well of really helpful types of ways to use it.

So, that's something that's like very fascinating.

Yeah.

Hey, that's this week's Get Played.

Our producer is Rochelle Chen, yard underscore underscore sard.

Our music is by Ben Prunty, BenPruntyMusic.com, and our art is by DuckBrigade Design, DuckBrigade.com.

Also, check out our paywalled show, Get Anime, where we are wrapping up Pluto.

Yeah, so on

we're watching.

If you

if you like anime and also if you don't like anime, uh, you can check out our uh get anime sister podcast.

It's us three bozos in a different uh location uh conceptually, but probably the same location physically.

Uh, we're watching the Netflix series Pluto, where this week we are covering the finale, episode eight of uh the Netflix series.

Uh, well, when this comes out, it'll be episode six that's coming up.

Jesus, what are the new wrapping up?

I almost said it before we got there.

We are wrapping it up towards the back end of the arc.

We're approaching the end of the season.

Keep this in so you can understand a little behind the curtain of how these guys fuck me over week after week.

I know.

Heather's already has so much going on.

We trick her with these releases.

We're watching Pluto episode six

this week.

And you can find that at patreon.com slash get played.

That's patreon.com slash get played.

Wow.

Ashley Skada, what a great conversation.

Thank you much, so much for being here.

The book is The Art of Psychonauts 2.

People should hopefully check it out if they were able to get their hands on it.

Hopefully there'll be a second printing.

But congratulations on the book.

And if there's anything you'd like to plug, please, please take the time to do so.

I mean, yeah, I'd plugged the book, but it sold out.

So I'm sorry.

I feel really bad about that.

God damn it.

Yeah, just, I don't know.

I'm like,

I'm on the internet.

Like, Like, I'm not on Twitter as much anymore.

I kind of like try, I'm trying to like extricate myself from that.

So I'm on Instagram a bunch.

So if you want to see some dank memes that elder millennials post, you probably have already seen them.

If you're on TikTok, you can come to Instagram.

Awesome.

Thanks so much for being here.

This was so fun.

Please come back.

Always.

Yeah.

Thank you, Ashley.

Love it.

It was good to have you.

And hey,

you know what?

Because you've been such an awesome guest, I'm going to say, Matt, it was you who got played.

Okay.

Okay.

That's fine.

It's tough to hear, but it's fine.

And massaged.

All right.

Now I'm listening.

That was a hit gum podcast.