Dave The Diver with Jon Gabrus

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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 Nick Weiger, along with Matt Abadaka.

Hello, everyone.

Under the sea.

Hello, everyone.

Yes, Matt, we are recording this under the sea.

We're under the sea.

We're under the sea.

Down here, it's wetter.

The podcast is better under the sea.

Yeah.

I'm struggling, man.

Yeah, it's.

This was, I don't know about this idea.

We knew we were going to sort of talk about like water stuff and like water games with games.

David Divers specifically.

We're like, hey, that'll be a fun glare to it.

We'll record in the open ocean.

Yeah, and it's

just a lot harder to do the show

soaked.

And like

you don't really know that you're wet because you're in water.

Yes.

That's sort of a paradox thing that now that's kind of fucking me up, you know?

But

nothing even really works down here.

Yeah, I mean, I'm having trouble hearing you, you know, through all our scuba gear.

Like, I'm just, I'm struggling to even make out what you're saying.

I think you were saying that nothing really works down here.

No, Nick, we can't make out.

Well,

I wasn't saying that.

I was not proposing that.

If you thought that was what I was saying, I'd say.

See,

we're missing each other.

We can't really hear each other down here.

But you know what?

I just want to make it clear that's not what I was saying, because that could put our working relationship in a really weird place if you thought I was actually proposing that.

You know what?

How about this?

How about we open up that text document that we have and we can sort of just text out...

Oh, shh, my computer doesn't work down here.

Let me try mine.

Ah, this thing's fucking.

It's all wet.

Computer's fucking wet.

Computer doesn't work now.

I also think I just ruined my MacBook.

Yeah, my MacBook's fucking ruined.

It has ocean water on it.

Let me try my phone.

Ah, fuck.

It doesn't work.

My phone's all ruined.

I think I just ruined my phone, too.

Well, okay, do you bring on to get some notes on paper?

I was going to say,

I brought these ads that we have to read.

They're printed out.

Fucking shit.

Paper is just turning into fucking mush.

I'm starting to not be able to breathe good.

Yeah, this is the other thing.

I think our oxygen supply is dwindling.

Are we dumb?

Well,

hang on.

No, we're not dumb.

No, we might be dumb.

I think, Matt.

Why do we think this was a good idea?

I think we're dumb.

I think we might be dumb, but.

Oh, too dumb to figure it out, though.

Yeah, I can't really put my finger on why.

I think we can just keep doing the show, and

I guess, is anybody feeling...

I'm feeling crushed.

Yeah, I'm kind of like, I might have the Bens.

Anyway, speaking of Dave the Diver, my my big thoughts are glug, glug, glug, glug, glug.

Glug, glug.

Glug, glug, glug.

It's interesting that you say that because mine are.

We jump into the blue hole and hire a Jason Voorhees lookalike to serve sushi as we deep dive on 2023 surprise hit Dave the Diver this week on Get Played.

Wow, it's Get Played, your one-stop show for good games, bad games, and every game in between.

It's time to get played.

I'm Nick Weiger, along with Matt Abadaka.

Hello, everyone.

Hello, everyone, and welcome back to Get Played.

And with us today,

Heather is out.

Our guest has buried his head in his hands.

I don't know what we did wrong, but I always so far, I think, everything.

I think everything, all this whole thing is a fucking mistake.

Well, when Heather's not here, it's always a little bit chaotic, as we were saying before we started.

Just to sort of like double down on hello, everybody.

Like, I know, like, yes, indeed.

Hello, everybody.

It's like, whoa,

fucking he's

killing it with the catchphrases.

You have no idea how much people like hello everyone that is like that's like matt's thing it's like and when so when people say it in other things i get screenshots they said it they said your thing

man good way to way to corner the market on an actual expression i wish i was anytime

anytime someone said what's up man they were like holy shit it's game

that kind of

That kind of brand recognition is a fucking dream company.

Well, some of the ones that you're known for have fallen out of favor.

Is that correct?

Yeah, a lot of what I'm known for used to be just carved into bathroom stall doors and shit like that.

Our guest today, one of the funniest people on earth from the podcast, High and Mighty in Action Boys, John Gabris is here.

Hi, Gabris.

Thanks for joining us again.

Oh, please.

Hi, Weiger.

This is so fun.

Rather than just texting you guys about games or asking for recommendations, we could record it for strangers to listen to.

Well, I will say because, and part of the origin of this particular episode, we weren't going to do a full episode about this game, but you and I have been texting about your fandom of it.

And we'll get into it in a second, but it's like, I do feel like that's a big part of our

text relationship is you'll just like text me, you know, like, hey, I'm playing this right now, or hey, should I get a Steam Deck?

You know, and we'll kind of go back and forth about things.

Yeah, I have like a handful of people that are adult gamers whose taste I trust that isn't like, I'm like a specific level of gamer.

like with ify friend friend mutual friend iffy he's a little too far he's like oh I gotta get you on divinity original like you know it's always like too much shit that he wants me to do he's like brawl we're going to fucking London to do blah blah blah I'm like okay hold on and then like I text Weiger and I'm like, I like Dave the Diver.

He's like, oh, buddy, it's such good vibes.

And I'm like, okay, this is like the level of conversation.

It's annoying because I'm like into it more than any other person that would want to have a conversation about it.

But I also am wary of getting into, like, I'm like,

I'm not building a PC here.

So, like, just

deal with me on that level of gamer.

And finding people who are on that level of conversation with you is appealing.

Yes, two of them happen to be professional video game podcast hosts.

But

our dialogue, our conversations aren't like in the nitty-gritty per se, but a kind of like

overall scratch the surface type of vibe.

So I'm always always running by you.

And like, I'm pretty up to date on games and stuff, but sometimes I'm worried something will fall through the crack.

So I'll be like, what have you been playing lately?

And shit like that, just to keep, just to stay in the loop.

I mean, I guess I could just listen to your podcast, but that would be like a breach of how friendships in 2023 work.

Is there, well,

here's the thing, because, and I think this is a huge part of like being an adult who plays video games, is how do I budget my time for this very time-intensive time-intensive and also very expensive hobby.

And it's like, if I'm going to commit to a game,

when games retail for $70 and are going to demand, you know, dozens of hours of my time, like I wanna make sure that this is something that's going to, you know, fit for me.

And like, I always feel like that.

To your point, when you are trying to decide what to play next, you know, games are so expensive these days.

The new games retail for $70 and they demand, you know, dozens of hours of your time.

Before you just like jump in or commit to something.

You want to have a sense of what you're in for.

And a lot of times, like the, I mean, honestly, it's so tough to figure that out from like just like looking at things looking at Metacritic and stuff.

Yeah.

Like it's just like someone whose tastes you trust is such a better guidepost.

Yeah, and especially in this, in the online stores where it's like best sell, like every everything we know is like payola and shit like that.

So you never know like what is actually selling a bunch.

You know, like I'm always like, Steam's like, it's a bestseller.

And I look and it's like 8,000 downloads.

And then another game's like, people seem to like this.

It's got 450,000 down.

You know, it's like pornography rules.

It's like, this has 7 million views.

This is probably a little better than this 100K view.

I mean, honestly, too, if you adjust your Steam store settings, pornography rules there as well, I assure you.

You'll start getting wrecks for Tokyo Love Hotel.

Let's take this offline.

If you could just drop in the chat how you change your Steam.

But you're Weiger, you're right.

And also, the time commitment shit only really hits for me in the retroactive of like, fuck, I can't believe I played that game for 18 hours.

Like, I did not love it.

You know, and I'm like, damn it, that was 18 hours I could have.

And this is the sad part: you start being like, that's 18 hours I could have been playing a different game, not like spend time with loved ones or write poetry or see nature or anything like that.

But

that is so interesting, too, because I think about this and I also think about like

how this this narrative only applies to video games and not other things because I won't think, oh, I just watched an entire show and like feel bad about that.

I won't feel bad about having watched like 18 hours of a TV show.

But like for a video game, I'm like, oh, I just, I can't believe I did this.

Maybe it's just the amount of time.

Yeah, maybe.

For me, as a married man, I'm always running into like the, this is a lot of alone time.

Oh, for sure, yeah.

And that's, that's where my guilt kicks in.

Like, yes, like career and productivity and like, wow, I can't believe I haven't gone to the gym in five days.

And it's like, I just don't have the time.

It's like, log into Baldur's Gate and it's like 26 hours into the, you're like, okay,

I'm lying to myself here a little.

Right.

But it's also the relationship shit, too, of just like, not that I'm like, my wife is standing, like, tapping her foot, being like, we're supposed to make love.

And I'm just like jamming on a video game

I'm waiting for the love making

but it's like if you just sit down to something that you know is going to take up 50 hours of your solo time like yes that's like a weird choice you know but if it was a book no one would like I don't think I would think that about myself no no and nobody's gonna be like you read a whole book That's pretty sick up.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Sick fuck.

I do want to talk some more about this week's game, but before we get into it, there's a question we always ask at the top of this show.

And Gabrius, we can start with you, because you just mentioned, I believe, the game you're playing.

What are you playing?

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okay so I downloaded balder's gate about a month ago right when it came out and I haven't touched it until this past weekend.

We're recording on Monday.

I just started on Saturday

because this was a game that I was,

I don't know what,

I can't even think of an analogy.

It's like

you get to fuck Jennifer Connolly, and I'm just like, I don't think I'm ready for this yet.

And you're just like,

it's like, I'm so glad Heather isn't here.

It's like, you know, it's like this huge, this huge, exciting thing that you think, I'm pretty sure I'm going to love, but like, this could take up a lot of my time, or at least like my brain space.

So, like, I have to say, and also, you have insane expectations for it.

I mean, I certainly did going into this game.

Yeah, same, exactly.

And you're like, this is going to be the best.

And you're like, whoa, temper that, temper that.

And then start like, I was like trying to get my affairs in order.

I was like, well, let me just finish one round of Diablo.

It's like, let me play through the game we're going to talk about later.

Let me do this for, and then I'll settle.

And then finally, this weekend, Tiff was out of town.

I wanted to spend some time.

Yeah, finally.

And then

my dog doesn't like to really hang out in the office, which is where my game normally game from.

So I moved the PlayStation into my living room.

And I've just been playing on the big TV in the living room.

And my dog's just been right by my side just as I save scum my way through like one round of combat.

What are you.

Yeah, go on.

I was going to say, I am not good at the game yet.

I am bad.

I am having a lot of difficulties, but I'm impressed.

I'm playing it on PlayStation.

I had an extended conversation with Nick about my fear of not playing with a mouse and keyboard, but it's coming pretty smoothly.

You're right.

The camera stuff is really fun on Baldur's Gate with the two joysticks, makes it a little easier.

But I'm enjoying myself.

What was your question, Wags?

I was going to ask, because I know you're an old school DD guy.

You've played pencil and paper, DD, pen and paper, DD, and you also love high fantasy in general, like fantasy novels.

Is there a class

race build you gravitated towards?

I've been playing tabletop D on and off for now almost 30 years, which is like insane.

I recently did some headgum D live stream and Headgum host of Review Review Riley Anspaugh was like, Gabris, have you ever played D ⁇ D?

And I just got to say for the first time in my life, I'm like, do not take offense by this, but I know that you're young.

So I just get to say this.

I've been playing DD since before you were alive.

And she was like, oh.

And I was like, yeah, I'm sorry.

That sounds so condescending and so old man of me, but it's rare that that's true for an interaction.

So I just had to tell you, I've been playing since you were zero, since you were negative nine months old, since the night of your conception, I've been playing.

I've always been, like, I always mix it up.

Because I read so much fantasy, I get inspired by certain characters, especially like tertiary characters that the main characters run into.

Like, oh, Drizzt Do Erdin, the Drow elf from Menzo-Berenzin, meets a Sverf Nebli guy named.

What the fuck am I talking about here?

Who's with you?

But the Sverf Nebli is a gnome of the deep, and there's Beloir Dysengulp, a guy.

Okay.

But I get caught up in these characters, and I'm actually playing a half-elf ranger kind of archer sub-build, which is a class I play every once in a while.

I like to play like a hippie elf that likes the forest and animals and stuff.

And

I've always loved the bow and arrow as

like an idea.

I now build like

with character in mind, even in a game.

I'm not thinking about maximizing damage.

I'm thinking about, oh, it'd be cool to be like of nature and a bow and arrow guy.

That's badass.

I love that.

It's also like, you know, the Lyrian games are so difficult.

You mentioned it.

It's just like the combat is so complicated.

And

I found myself, and I fell off Baldur's Gate 3, but I am going to return to it in December.

I found myself just playing on the easiest difficulty because that just gives me the leeway to like role play it a little bit more.

And yeah, like you were saying, not worry about min-maxing, which to me just like gives me anxiety of just like, well, shit, I got to make sure that everything is, everything about my build is perfect so I can have a chance in combat.

Right.

I honestly had such trouble with like one of the first big combat encounters that I was like, I have to play for a couple more days before I decide to go down to easy difficulty.

But that's something I've learned that I need to get over.

Like, it's about enjoying the game.

No one's going to be like, oh, you beat it.

Was it on easy?

Like, no one can.

And if

anyone who gives a shit how I beat Baldur's Gate 3 and not just like, you beat Baldur's, like, why, who is this for?

I'm like lying to myself.

The challenge is not, it's already like a 50, 60 hour game.

Like, I don't need to add, like, I spent four hours on like one battle, dying a few times, then save scumming my way through it, and then like finally solving it and blowing all my healing potions and like one-off items.

And I was like, Yeah, this seems like not the way to play this game because this is the first encounter.

I got 100 more days of this.

I got to get my shit together.

But overall, I mean,

is it living up to expectations?

I got to say,

another gamer that I trust is one of my childhood best friends who we played DD and video games growing up together.

And he was like, this is the closest you can get to DD.

It really is.

Wow.

Like, it feels really fucking good when you're playing it.

The storylines are super rich.

All the characterization is very interesting.

You know, like the differentiation amongst the characters is really interesting.

Like the dialogue is a lot of fun.

I couldn't believe how specific you can get with building your character with like subclasses and shit like that and spell memorization.

Like all this shit being part of it is so fucking radical.

Though there is a part of me that really likes the simplicity and the streamlining that Baldur's Gate 3 doesn't have.

You know, like

I found like Skyrim was like a great

perfect encapsulation of how of high fantasy, how much I like, and then how easy it was to play.

Right, 100%.

Yeah, this has so much like granular detail because it's trying to simulate the real thing, but it is daunting.

The turn-based combat is really interesting, but it does slow the game down in a way that is, and then like once you have a party, which is like part of the excitement of DD too, now you have too much shit to deal with.

Now you're like,

fuck, yeah.

Now I'm playing.

But it's a combination of all the shit you like, right?

You're running around, interacting with the environment, and then you're in like an XCOM 2 battle scenario, and that's fun, too.

I would love to come back on after three months

with sunken eyes and grayish skin and talk to you about

how it all played out for me.

I love that.

Matt, so we're, since we're banking this episode, we're a little ahead, I thought instead of just talking about the same game, we could talk about

something

close to the topic of

the main thrust of the episode.

I thought we could talk about a water game.

Okay, yeah.

Do you want to start or you want me to start?

I can start.

Yeah, there's this like, so I have this thing, Gabris.

It's called a play date, and it's a little squared gaming device.

It's a sort of little boutique gaming device, and

it has a crank on it.

Because for a second there, it felt like you were just describing the concept of a handheld, but like

it has a crank on it, and so it has a directional, like a d-pad, and two buttons, and a crank, and that's all it is.

And so, it has no battery or no power.

I love that.

Oh, well, it has it has that as well, yeah, and a screen.

So, what's the crank for it?

The crank is a control element, not oh, yeah, the crank is a is a is a control.

So, it is like um for this for this particular game that I'm talking about called uh Whitewater Wipeout,

it's a surfing game, and you see this wave, and you have to use the crank to manipulate your guy on the surfboard to go up or down the wave to stay afloat.

And it fucking rules.

And you can go up in the air, too, and twist the crank a lot to have him do spins and tricks and stuff.

And it's really, really, it's a great...

That to me is a great water game.

You're surfing.

Who's cooler than surfers, first of all?

It's true.

Hard to beat.

He's talking to a SoCal surfer, dude.

You're like a foot away from one.

Exactly.

Yeah, I guess there are going to be cooler people there, I think.

Wait a minute.

Wait, I'm also realizing how old I sound of like, oh, cool.

And you crank it to power it.

I was thinking, like, that's so green and interesting.

I was doing a bad job of explaining what it was.

But it was a good clarifying question to get me to what the crank is actually for.

And it is to navigate on this wave and do tricks and beat your high score.

That's kind of all there is to it.

It's not like a like you don't really get to go in the water.

So it's like you're on the water on the water.

It's water adjacent.

Yeah.

But it's so it's and if you fall off

you here not actually a water game.

I just saw you sort of I saw your yucks

and I was getting nervous that you were going to start better be immersed in water.

This is going to qualify.

My question for you, I know we're talking water games specifically, but Apodaka, what's your favorite play date game?

What's the best game on the content?

Well, it might be this, because what's cool about

the play date is that it comes with games.

So

you buy this thing, and then

every month there were two new games on it.

Or every week, I think there were two new games.

And so it has these games on it that came for free with the system.

So

White Water Wipeout was one of them.

But there was a game that I purchased and installed on it called Bloom that I really, really love that I talked a lot about on the show, actually.

And what it is, is it's like a slice of life

game where you play this girl who's lying about like

she's lying about going to college.

And in fact, she left college and opened a flower store.

And so she's trying to keep this secret alive, keep her parents happy, and also this

budding relationship uh going and it's it's great it is such a neat just like a sweet little like easy like easy playing like if there's if easy listening is a music genre it's easy playing it's a nice little cozy game oh i like that i like that yeah cool really fun and then but you get you do get

if you're me anyway you do get very stressed out when you have to get to the parts where you have to try to maintain this

benign live but it feels like i'm not trying to get in trouble by my parents I would never lie to my parents.

This game is pushing me in directions I never thought.

Yeah,

straight in the trash.

Tipper Gore was right.

Matt, if we're ever on the same podcast in the future or you know there's a chance we'd run into each other, please pack this play date.

I'd love to take a look at it.

Absolutely.

I will absolutely

know anyone else talking about it.

It's really, really cool.

It's definitely like a very niche thing, but it is, it's very, very fun.

And the thing about it that's cool is that you do have to play it in direct sunlight or else you cannot see what's going on on the screen.

One thing I've learned from this podcast is that if there's a completely impractical piece of hardware, Matt will buy it.

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

Well, Heather will gas me out.

I was about to say,

I follow Heather on social media.

She seems to be purchasing some equipment that seems nearly, I mean, she seems to be like building shit that would

get you reported to the FBI, but

I think it's all for gaming.

Oh, I thought I'd just touch on real quick a game that I had a lot of fondness for when I was when I was a kid.

So the

people I'm sure know the XCOM franchise from its modern incarnation, but the it was

a PC.

I knew it as a PC game back in the 90s that I got on,

I think it was might have predated CD-ROM.

It might have gotten on floppy discs.

But anyway, the first XCOM game, basically, it's like, you know, you're defending the

Earth from alien invasion.

And so it's like you have these, it's a mix of this kind of real-time base building game,

and then there are turn-based tactical combat sequences that are really extended and really difficult.

Honestly, kind of Baldur's Gate 3-esque in terms of just like, you know, positioning your characters.

and,

you know,

there's

permadeath.

So it's like, it's just like this, it feels very, very high stakes in some of these encounters you have to do over and over again.

Well, basically, they were, they had to rush out a sequel, and the sequel is XCOM Terror from the Deep.

It came out like the next year, and it's basically just a reskinned underwater version of the original.

It's basically aliens are invading again, but now they're in the oceans.

And so it basically is just the same game, but way harder and underwater.

But despite that, it's still good because the first game was so good.

Yeah.

That it's one of those things where just like, like, and even reading from the developers, it's just like, yeah, the publisher kind of just made them do this and they just turned it out as a cash grab, but still it's good and was worth playing.

So I kind of, I don't know, I had a lot of fondness for it.

And I think also...

It's also like, I feel like a game that maybe has kind of been memory hold a little bit.

Like, I think people maybe remember the original XCOM,

but but forget about the the the direct sequel and then also they made a bunch of bad xcom games in the aftermath and after that there really wasn't a good xcom game until like the 2012 reboot so uh xcom terror from the deep is the thing i figured i'd shout out for this exercise uh but rochelle also i i wanted to our producer rochelle Before we started recording, you were like, why are we talking underwater games?

And I asked you if you had one, and you mentioned you played through Inside a game that we covered on the podcast.

Yeah, I just finished it this weekend.

Wow.

And it was recommended to me by my friend as a cozy game.

As a cozy game?

A cozy, cookie game.

And I was horrified.

Yes.

Because it was not cozy.

It was very stressful and very scary, especially at the end.

I did not expect there to be so much body horror.

Yes, it absolutely is.

And there are some oceanic sequences.

There's some

pivotal swimming sequence.

But wait, hold on.

Like, is it possible this friend had this confused with a different game?

Because it's so not cozy.

No, I think that

he thought it'd be funny to tell me.

Oh, okay.

You got pranked.

Okay, got it.

I got pranked.

What did you think, though?

I loved it.

Yeah, it is rad, right?

It was gorgeous and so beautiful.

It's one of my favorite games.

It's a game that I think I recommend the most.

Now, up there with Disco Elysium, is like me telling people, you have to play this game.

It's so great.

I love it.

Okay.

I loved Inside as well.

Okay.

It was one of the first games I played that was like indie-ish.

And

it's one of those games that teaches you the game as you play it.

Like, there's no, like, and I really, I really enjoyed that about it.

But wait, talk to me really quick.

I'm sure your listeners don't want to hear about Disco Elysium, but I've heard so many things about this game.

But when I looked it up, it didn't look like something I would be that into for some reason, just based on the imagery.

But is it fucking rad?

You would love it.

I mean, it's like it's great writing.

It honestly is every is a lot like Baldur's Gate

without the combat, which is weird to say, but it's basically all of the role-playing, or maybe weird to conceive of

if you're, if you're expecting that sort of experience, but it is just the role-playing.

It is just the character interaction, some light puzzles, but so much of it is just driven by dialogue and the choices you make as a player character, and you really get to role-play the shit out of this, but also the writing and voice acting and art tracks are all just top-notch.

It is a lot of reading.

There's a lot of text on screen, a lot.

And

I recommended it to a friend of mine who I was in a DD campaign with during the pandemic, and he told me it was the first video game he's finished in 20 years.

He was like, I have not played a game like that.

And I recommended it to him specifically because I was like, you can play this game how we play DD, I think.

Like, it's like, it's so fun, and you can be so, you can be so crazy.

Yeah, that's the other thing is you get to, like, it's got, you know, it's got a lot of leftist politics that are kind of built into it.

And yes, you can play your guy as a complete, like, fucking drunken maniac, or you can just do a total sober playthrough,

you know, because drugs and alcohol are like a huge element of this, of the game.

But, like, I played through it in its entirety twice, and I played two completely different character builds, even though it's the same

amnesiac player character, but I just played them in completely different ways.

It got so saw so much shit I did not see the first time through.

So yeah, I don't know what to do.

Would this be like the modern incarnation of like text adventures, more or less?

Like it's like

with visuals, like would be because

I'm not understanding what gameplay, I guess it's just all the choices you make send you down certain paths and like finding certain characters based on clue or finding certain steps based on clues and shit like that or something like that.

Yeah, well, here's the thing.

Like it's a you're ostensibly a detective.

Well, you are a detective And you have a partner, and there is a case that you are solving.

But it's not like a point-and-click adventure game or even a text adventure game where there's a bunch of puzzles, and I got to figure out all this shit of, like, I got to figure out how to, how do I get the,

I have a slice of bread and a jar of mayonnaise.

How do I get this key out of this keyhole?

Oh, I know.

Okay.

You know what I mean?

It's like none of that shit.

It's just like going around and having like lengthy conversations and making different choices.

And a big part of the gameplay is in the same way that

there are dice rolls and dialogue that happen in Baldur's Gate.

It's the same sort of principle.

In fact, I wouldn't be shocked if Baldur's Gate actually borrowed it from this game.

But it's like

based on a series of different attributes that your character has, because you try to intimidate this guy.

Exactly, yes, yeah, yeah.

I've done like an intimidation build, more or less, so I can like,

I've juiced up my intimidation points so I could like, oh, I like basing it on yourself.

It's funny that that's really only my dynamic amongst comedians.

Like, I'm not like that in real life.

No.

I'm a fucking sociopath.

I just change who I am depending on my environment.

But before we move on from inside, Rochelle, you have to play Limbo.

It's their other game now, too.

And

it's so good.

I'm very scared of spiders.

Then do not play it.

I saw the cover and I was like,

I don't know if I can do it.

Yeah, no, there are a lot of them and

they're bad.

They're bad in the game.

Do not play it.

Maybe this will be some exposure therapy for me.

Well, I will say, if you are looking for a cozy game and a chill game, I do think Dave the Diver qualifies.

And I have put a lot of time into this.

But Gabris, you've put, I think, way more hours into this than me.

And

you also told me you rolled credits on this game.

Yeah.

I think it's one of those games that you could just go back and continue to play forever, obviously.

But yeah,

I beat the narrative.

I finished the narrative storyline in Dave the Diver.

This game, Rochelle, I don't know you.

You're off-camera.

I mean, I think we know each other, but I don't know your taste that well.

If you liked Inside Because of the Underwater part, this game is cozy as fuck.

All the imagery, all the music, everything is fucking

cute in a non-derogatory way.

Like, cute in a positive way.

Not cute the way Appadak is cute.

That's like derogatory.

Why is that so hurtful?

Me doing a bit for a camera that no one can see?

I could barely even see your reaction to this.

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.

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I became obsessed with this game.

A buddy recommended it to me, and I was on board from the jump solely because Dave was fat.

I love this about this game.

He's a

big fat guy with

a little shy smile, and he just seems like a, like, I don't know.

He's like, like,

it's not a body type you ever see as a player character in a video game.

Right, but it's very much a body type you see in scuba divers, which I think is like, which I think is cool that they did.

Cause we are all like, you know.

Once you're underwater, it doesn't matter, you know, like it's the tank, it's the wetsuit, it's all that shit.

So I found that to be really cool.

And I didn't even know about like the sushi restaurant part of the game when I first started playing it.

Like, I had only been recommended about the diving stuff.

And then, when it gets, and I'm like, oh, I don't like shit like that.

And then all of a sudden, I was like, okay, well, Boncho, we need to find this new recipe.

And I immediately got on board to the because I loved the diving parts, and I really liked the sushi parts.

Yes.

It's a very, it's a, it's very fun in that the game doesn't let you get like bored with it because they're like, no.

Well, now you have the sea people storyline.

You're like, oh, shit, okay.

Yeah, a whole nother world, a whole nother

diagnostic.

Like, we're not even trying to catch fish right now.

We're like solving crimes and puzzles and shit like that.

Yeah, it's got so much variance to how it plays and so many mini-games built in.

And you are right that the core gameplay loop, which it kind of, you know, it really parcels out, you know, in a really measured way in the early game, like just introducing like one new thing with each run.

But when it gets to that point, just like the loop of going down and

catching fish and other undersea treasures and using that to

stock your sushi restaurant and then taking the revenue from your sushi restaurant to like upgrade your gear, like that is just so satisfying and so compelling.

And it's like the kind of thing where, you know, I'm impressed you went through and finished the story because part of my thing with playing this game is like it's just so chill and that in and of itself is so satisfying that a lot of times some of the quests I just let linger you know I just sort of like go through and keep living it for a bit the vibes are just so good like just swimming underwater I and I started playing mostly on my PC on Steam but then this game itself

this game and my Nintendo Switch being stolen from my hotel room led me to go to jumping to a steam deck and

that's been really fun I put in a lot of Dave the Diver time on the toilet.

Also, the Steam Deck is really big to be playing on the toilet and stuff.

It's like heavy and like your wrists start to hurt and shit.

You could practically use it as a squatty potty when you get to that part of it.

It's like taking a full laptop into the shitter.

It's just like

too much hardware.

Too much power.

Exactly.

So Dave the Diver came out in June for PC and Mac.

It was ported to Switch in October.

If people

don't have

a gaming PC, you can check it out that way.

It was developed and published by Mitt Rocket, which is a new division of a South Korean publisher called Nexon, which was previously named for free-to-play games like Maple Story.

I think that's free-to-play, Dungeon and Fighter, a lot of mobile games.

But this is like just like a straight-up, like...

like not a cash grab, not like a like, you know, we're going to try to load this thing up with microtransactions.

This is like a straight up just like game.

And a lot of people like,

I think,

me as well, like, I was, I just assumed this was an indie game because it has such an indie aesthetic, but it actually, uh, you know,

the developer themselves are like, this is not an indie game, you know, this came from an established publisher.

Uh, it sold, and development studio, um, it sold 1 million copies in 10 days on Steam, which to me was just like so encouraging in terms of this game that had like no real marketing campaign, no real buzz about it, just kind of comes out and just kind of word of mouth.

And,

you know, I found this through Steam Store.

We were talking about curation earlier.

I found this through a Steam Store recommendation, and I was just like, okay, I'll give this thing a go.

And I'm going to go to the next one.

You turned the corno tab off, and then it wasn't.

Exactly.

And then that one popped right up.

Team sex second base got out of there.

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

So you played the wrong one.

I played the wrong one, but I love it.

Oh, you played the right one, brother.

You came to us in the get played group chat.

Yes.

Has anyone heard of Dave the Diver?

Heather and I were both like, no.

And then you said, Matt, you got to play Dave the Diver.

And then you gifted me Dave the Diver.

And then I started to play it.

And

it is, as described, very chill, very fun.

I like being in the ocean.

Don't get me wrong.

I love the ocean.

Yeah.

I don't know.

I love the ocean.

Don't get me wrong.

I love it.

These loves their batteries are sinking ships.

The windmills are making the whales go crazy.

But

I love the sushi restaurant aspect of it.

This game has so much stuff in it that any part of it could be for anybody at any given time.

It's like, oh, maybe you don't like the swimming in the ocean part.

You might like the restaurant management sim.

That's great.

That's like, because every single part of it works so well and it plays so perfectly.

It's a really great package.

I'm loving it, but I love...

I love managing that sushi restaurant.

It's really fun.

You mentioned Boncho earlier, who is the chef there.

And I think that's just like the NPCs are so good in this.

The whole inciting thing that begins this game is your pal Cobra

and who's just this dude with a Hawaiian shirt and aviators.

Yeah.

He's sort of like a CIA adjacent like guy or something like they kind of they code these in a lot of fun

like pro like stereotypes is not the right word, but clichés rather.

So like

Cobra is Cobra is like like your man on the inside he's got connections to a bunch of weird shit the uh boncho maybe is the one that goes against classic cliches is a badass black sushi chef with like tiny little uh fucking uh uh what's his name gene renault glasses oh yeah yes right yeah then like every character you get introduced

so this is one of the few games i've ever played that i never skipped a cutscene even repeated cutscenes are great sorry keep me on there and they're quick they know that They're just showing you like a cool minute of something.

But every NPC they introduce has a full-on comedy premise in addition to a full-on real-life characterization.

It's like, it's just rich in this way.

It's just deep.

Like, your gun designer guy is like a fucking like dumpy

married to like his anime pillow kind of guy who's like also like and he he makes your guns but he's also really kind of like sleazy seeming the uh like there's like a guy works at the newspaper who pays you for pictures of cool fish, but he's like lightly makes fun of you for being fat all the time.

And like,

but the characters call it out.

It's like, hey, what do you mean?

And then it's like moving on.

Like there's just so much shit going on when you watch.

There's like evil right-wing, like a James Cameron type who's like mining the ground.

It's environmental.

It's like pro-animal.

It's pro-vibes.

It's pro.

Like everyone kind of looks down down on Dave when they first meet him.

Like, everyone's like, but you're a fat diver.

And then he ends up being great.

And then when he meets the sea people, they're like, but you're a human.

And he's like, ends up being great.

Like, all this stuff just keeps playing out.

Like, it's so fucking...

The word I would use is charming.

The game is charming.

So charming.

As fuck.

Yeah.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

Just loaded, just loaded with charm.

Yeah,

all the duff who's the weapons upgrade that you mentioned, the otaku weeb guy, all those cinematics always like crack me up because it's like it's kind of like it it he clearly are using the guy as a punchline but he's also so clearly unapologetically who he is unapologetically this guy who's like doing this all for his figurines that he you know of different uh anime uh female protagonists the charm of of that is it's it's a punchline but it's never it doesn't ever feel like an attack like it nobody is ever being like no one is ever made to feel bad in

I was about to say, you could laugh at him, but if you were a lot like him, I don't think you would be offended by the portrayal.

No, sure.

Yeah, you know, my book is a lot of fun.

There's also the Pokemon guy who comes later on in the game.

Yes, too.

I was going to say, that's my guy, Sato.

He's dressed exactly like Ash Ketchum, and it's really funny.

And they even do bits, right?

Where Dave will be like, isn't this a lot like Poka?

And he's like, quiet.

That's what I like, like, yeah, it is a sort of thing of like,

there's, there's a version where all this comedy would come across as like sweaty, but it's not.

It's all, it's all, it all works.

And, um,

it ties into just kind of like the feeling of that the, that the stakes aren't super high, that you're not going to be punished for failure.

Because even if you fail a run, you basically, it's like, oh, you lose all the fish you've caught except for, you know, you just get to retain one.

It's not like a huge thing.

And there's, since there's not a ton of time pressure in this game, it doesn't feel like it's like this huge setback.

And then you just get back in the ocean.

Exactly.

Then you just hop back in there.

I'll get back in.

Yeah.

Yeah, go on.

You do two dives and a shift at the restaurant.

Two dives and a shift at the restaurant.

Then eventually you'll have like a farm and like a fish farm and shit.

And then that's when it starts to get to be like, I'm getting out of my depth here.

And then, boom, it's end game.

And you're like, oh, thank you.

Yeah.

So about the diving, it absolutely nails the feel of swimming like yeah which i think so many games like it's it's like you dread the water sequences especially if it's not fully water-based but that's the only thing but just like the it's so easy to maneuver on top of the water only you mean is that what you're saying you're still mad about this well i'm just saying it wasn't really a water game um

it it like like just moving around

Just the ability to like just kind of move freely

like as Dave, it just, it feels so good.

And it's one of those things where i think that's a big part of why it's so satisfying because there's also like a dash that you can do uh there's certain like you can grab you know certain items that improve your your maneuver ability but overall it's like not like a it's not a difficult to get where you're trying to go underwater it like kind of really feels like i've never scuba dove but it really feels like what i assumed scuba diving would feel like and certainly what feels like my experience of swimming underwater

yeah and like the way that you move when you have like

when when you're using a particular weapon, for example, too, like that has like its own sort of like you have to, the way you have to angle it and it's like your spear gun or whatever it is.

Like you have to like that has its own sort of feel versus the other gun that you might have too.

They all feel different.

And I'm playing on the Steam Deck also, and I've been using those little touch pads right there.

And I love those little touch pads for a game like this.

You kind of just move on those bad boys itself.

It's pretty nice.

I didn't do that.

I've been using those joysticks like a normal freak.

I, in the last few years, got kind of into scuba diving and I've dove in a few places around the world.

And

it's, you know, it's horrifying.

I am very afraid of it, I should say.

I have like claustrophobia, so putting a bunch of shit on and having the tunnel vision, and only hearing your breath and stuff, and feeling like you're trapped at the bottom of the sea because you can't just push off, you'll or your brain will bleed or whatever.

That shit gets to to you but there is something

when you're doing scuba diving right

when you're in the pocket in the state of flow or whatever or if i want to use more scuba diving technology when you're at zero neutral buoyancy in that you it you are you do not need to do anything to remain afloat You do not need to do anything to sink.

You are just at an even pace, which is something you do with like regulating your BPV, your flotation device.

And when when you get it, BPV is bulletproof vests.

It's definitely, that's not what it is, but BVD.

Once you're BBD is underwear, that's not it either.

But what we're going to do is.

BTE is big dick energy.

Right,

that is actually what I mean, though.

So perfect.

Once you have your dick energy sorted, yeah.

Nope.

We're talking about Dave the Muffdiver, right?

I've rolled credits on Dave the Muffdiver.

You have to give your stepmom an orgasm.

Would have been way easier for Heather.

She seems mad.

Would have been way easier if I knew how to use the touch pads.

But when you achieve, when you're in that zero buoyancy moment, that is, I've had experiences at like 50 feet down where I felt like I was in outer space.

Wow.

Because you are just fully sailing over coral reef with fish swimming and out of it.

All of a sudden, you are like this being flying over a world, and you're not even doing any effort.

You're just lightly moving your feet like this.

And all you can hear is your breath, and all you can see is the bottom of the ocean.

And next thing you feel like you're a fucking asthma, an aquanaut or whatever.

And it's a super ri.

And I feel like the game gives you that feeling by changing the tone of what it sounds like underwater, even like never really hearing dialogue and like just hearing the like, like

shit is, the game is fucking smooth as fuck.

Gameplay, talk about the harpoon, any issue you have wielding it, like you just learn eventually.

Like the game is just a well-made, smooth game, and it makes you feel good when you play it.

And like Nick said, it sucks when you die, but just only because like your health bar is also your oxygen in a way.

So it's slowly going down, keep going, which I love because it's slowly going down the whole time.

And then once you get into combat, you get like in a situation where if you get hurt, now you have like, it's even harder to get out of the water.

Or shit, I wish I would have gotten into combat earlier.

Now I'm already so depleted.

Like I just like that about the game too.

It fucks with your strategy and how it's being played too.

It gives you, like, to me, the, the one health pool, oxygen is both like, you know, how long you can stay underwater.

And you, if you take damage from like a, you know, a Mako shark bites you, you lose oxygen.

Like having that one health pool, it's just like,

it's...

It's a symptomatic of just like how the whole game is so well designed where it's like, it makes the things that you don't want to,

it makes certain elements just so simple and so straightforward and then adds complexity to a lot of the other things like all the resource management

on the sim side of things.

So like, yeah,

it's simple in the right ways, and it's complex in the right ways.

We played Dredge on this show a couple months ago.

Dredge is a fishing

sort of horror game, Gabrius.

I think that might be the next Steam Deck game I download.

I got a list of like good for the deck games, and yeah, okay.

Dredge has been recommended to me pre-deck as well.

Wow, what did you guys think of the game?

Dredge is also great.

It is

kind of very, you know,

the opposite of cozy.

It's much more like a game.

Yeah, it's like a horror.

It's like a Lovecraftian Eldritch horror kind of game, too.

Exactly.

I think it's worth playing.

I think it's really cool.

It's also like a, you know, much, it's short.

It's certainly shorter than Dave the Diver.

The thing is, like, the gameplay loop, and as far as a game where you're catching and trapping fish, is not nearly as satisfying.

So, from that standpoint, it doesn't like compare as well.

But

I do think, just like

as a, as a, as a world, and I think the narrative design is all really cool.

Yeah, but there is no sushi restaurant in Dread.

That's a big issue.

There's no sushi restaurant you're managing.

Well, then maybe I'll like a little bit more of that.

Do you guys, now that everyone's

decked out, if you will,

do you have a like I've been playing a lot of Slay the Spire and Vampire Survivors, but I've been playing those for like months or years now.

Yeah.

But I've gotten really in the habit of like Steam Deck while I watch a bad TV show.

And so I, or like a movie I've seen a hundred times.

Right.

Curious, have you guys stumbled upon any games that you find either has ported really well to the deck or, oh, this is a really fun game.

If you haven't played it, it works well on the deck.

Like,

the main reason I took this, I agreed to do this episode was to get

recommendations for more Steam Deck games.

Deck Rex.

No, I think

hell hell yeah.

So I, yeah, so I, I, in this room, I am the one with the Steam Deck.

Um,

and I, I am the one with the Steam Deck.

I am the one.

You think that is me, Skylar?

Um,

I'm still so mad at Skylar.

Oh, man, Skylar makes me so mad.

Don't even get me started, dude.

Um,

honestly, Baldur's Gate 3, dude, because like

there's, there's stuff in that game where you don't have to, you can be in like a flow state, kind of, like, if you're in a goblin encampment and you're not really paying attention, there's not a lot of story going on.

You just know you have to take down a bunch of guys.

Get Baldur's Gate 3 on the Steam Deck and then just have that with you at all times.

Because let me tell you this, too.

You don't have to be online to be playing Baldur's Gate 3.

So you could take that fucker on an airplane and be playing Baldur's Gate 3 on an airplane, dude.

Whoa.

I've done it.

And it's, depending on what you're doing, you know, you don't want to be doing one of the

horny missions or something.

You don't want to be fucking Eiffel Towering of Dragon Kind.

Yeah, you don't want to be

plus.

You don't want your player character joining the Mile High Club.

You don't want to get caught tugging off to your avatar going.

Baldur's Gate 3.

I like that.

Baldur's Gate 3 on the Steam.

It's a big boy on there, honestly.

So

it's going to require a lot from the Steam Deck.

I find my Steam Deck, I got one of the big ones.

I find it gets hot.

Yes.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So then this, but there's also like, I'll see, because you own it on Steam, right?

You, so you own Baldur's Gay 3.

I own it on PlayStation.

That's my problem.

Oh, I see.

Okay.

Well, then you're probably going to want to double dip in there.

Perfect.

Let me get two different Baldur's Gay 3 campaigns going.

It does cross save.

So it does cross progression.

So you could pick it up on Steam and carry it over

to your PlayStation as well.

Holy shit.

Back and forth.

That's only if you have, you know,

that's not for everybody, of course.

That's for the people that are trying to actually take this shit seriously.

First off,

I'm looking to see if there is one on the Steam store now, but

there's a great curation list on the Steam Store that's just PC, recommended by PC Game Pass, and it just lists all the games that are on Steam that are also on PC Game Pass in case you have that.

So, I would not be shocked if there was a

there, there's a curator that's like, you know, great on Steam Deck that just kind of like lists ones that are lists really good versions.

In the Steam Store, they do have like a

deck recommended or whatever, you know, like works well on the deck or something like that.

Um, did you guys play, um, wait, it was it, it's similar to

have you played into the breach?

That's something I was really doing.

Oh, my God, I love the breach.

Into the breach, that was like my favorite game that came out that year.

I played the shit out of it.

I actually was this, this is a thing I remember going back and forth with you back in the day is that I had played the shit out of Into the Breach.

I had never played FTL, which was subset games, their first game.

And so

it's the same people.

It's the same developer.

And so I went to you and was like, hey, should I like, or I think I maybe just asked generally about, maybe even online when I was posting online about how

if I'd like FTL.

And you actually got me on FTL.

You got me to play it and then also give it a second chance.

I have like over 100 hours in that game.

But

End of the Breach is fucking awesome.

Oh, cool.

I'll check that out.

I enjoyed FTL big time, but if someone was like, you could recommend this to any one of your friends

that you think might like it more than you, you would be the person that would come to mind.

It's like such like,

I've seen you manage chaos like in comedy and on your podcast

so many times in your life that I'm like, this guy's fucking built for this kind of game as far as deck recs go too i gotta say disco elysium great on the steam deck and if you i think you've played hades a little bit right oh yeah

oh i i i've played a lot of hades okay vampire survivors that's a perfect deck you mentioned that yeah i've been playing that countlessly i've unlocked like 15 characters on that yeah okay awesome then that's one of those fun games too that i i never i kind of didn't do this with dave ever either like at some some point, I eventually go on like Reddit or Google or IGN, and I'm just like,

Am I doing this right?

And then it's like, make sure you do blank, blank, and blank.

And you're like, oh, fuck.

Yeah.

Vampire Survivors, I have no idea what I should be trying to complete.

You know what I mean?

In a way, that's kind of fun.

In a way that it's always like, you unlocked Mordecai or whatever.

And I'm like, I don't even know how the fuck I did that.

Pick some character, pick some level, and try to stay alive for as long as possible.

And I have no idea what I'm trying to do with it, but there's something fun about that, too.

Absolutely.

Any other thoughts on Dave the Diver?

I mean, I just, I would heartily recommend this game to anyone who just wants a chill,

fun experience and also a game you could play for a while because I think the campaign is like north of 20 hours.

Yeah, it's a 20-hour game.

Yeah, it's pretty substitute.

It's a decent size.

You could do a lot of it.

And you could play it in 50 hours.

You know what I mean?

Like, exactly.

You You could take your time to it.

Yeah.

Right.

It's really fun.

It's really, again,

so it does something that I think modern games are starting to get right more than any, more than games from when we were younger.

It's like it adds to the game as you play it, where it's like, okay, so you've got all this shit figured out.

Great.

Here's one little layer to the onion.

You're like, yes.

Oh, shit, weird.

And then you're like, all right, you've been living in this kind of realm for a few hours.

Here's another layer.

Here's another, and then you're fully sizzling with everything where you're like, all right, need to take a photo, need to upgrade my tranquilizer gun, need to, and like, you know, and then you're like, I need to get the seaweed for the sea people at my farm.

And all of a sudden you got like 20 things going that if when I turned the game on, they started rattling that shit off, I would have like fucking put a nail gun through my Steam Deck like the killer tonight.

I'm like, I don't know if I can handle this shit.

I'm out, you know?

So I love the way they like,

I think I've talked about this every time I've been on.

Just like, that's like the newest trend in games to me where it's like, the game will teach you the game.

Like, it's built in there.

There's like, look, no one's looking at instruction manuals.

Games don't even come with them anymore.

Just start playing the game, and it'll either tutorial you or give you the most basic introduction and then slowly add shit as the game goes on.

It's fucking cool.

And Dave's, and like, I don't even like sushi, like, restaurant Sims or anything.

I don't like that kind of shit, that, like, idle game shit.

Like, I can't believe how much time I spent pouring green tea and beers in this game.

I'm like, I don't even like doing shit like this, but I better fucking get it right because I need the tips.

The sound.

The sound for pouring the tea and then pouring the tea perfectly is up there with some of the best sounds I've ever heard.

It's really satisfying.

So satisfying.

And then the element,

yeah.

There's this little like, you know, a liquid physics mini-game that's just one element of one part of the game.

It's just like, there's, there's just so many like little delights packed in there.

I got pretty good at pouring the tea.

I'm pretty good at it, too.

I'm bad at pouring beers, but I'm good at the tea.

I can always almost get perfect on the tea.

Beers, I just like never really figured out.

But you're absolutely right, Gabrius.

And I think that is like the

big thing about this game, the big win about this game is that the slow roll of new mechanics, that it just like there's always something new happening.

And for a huge chunk of the game, obviously for most of the game, it's just like you're going through it.

Here's one more thing.

Here's one more thing.

It never comes out in a way that overwhelms you.

And yeah, I love it.

I love all the mini games.

I love the kind of random feel to everything.

I think this has, it also has one of the best in-game smartphones for what it's worth.

So I see a phone in a game.

I'm just like, like, oh, God, I don't want to deal with this shit.

This is what I'm trying to escape right now.

But it's so, like, it's, it's just like another layer of gameplay, and it's like a great,

just, just way to

just a great way to have the UX presented.

Hell yeah.

Right.

It's just like an in-game menu, more or less, but it's presented in such a cool way.

And then it, and, and like a lot of these other, these, these modern games, too, with like that, know how

achievement-based we all are, like, eventually you get like,

now the environmental environmental guy is saying, I need five red shells, five blue shells, five purple shells.

Now, this guy's saying, you need to catch a perfect version of the mitochondrion or whatever.

This guy's saying, get me a photo of the electric eels.

So, your shit starts piling up that you have to do, but it's never overwhelming because

there's almost no time constraints on the game except for when like a celebrity customer is coming to the restaurant.

Yes.

That's the only game.

And I fucked up one celebrity customer so many times.

And here's the thing.

they just decide to come back three days later.

Always.

Yeah.

So, like, if the most stressful part of the game is like, we need to have seaweed here by day three because this Japanese pop star character had in and needs seaweed or whatever.

And you're like, fuck, I'm not going to have it.

He's like, I'll be back.

And you're like, okay, never mind.

I guess it wasn't that big, actually.

I was really spiraling about this for Ohio.

Matt, any other thoughts?

There is an in-game cat, Momo.

Look,

this is a good guy.

Momo is good.

Look, I'm hard-pressed to think of one of these cats from a game that I don't really like.

Yeah, they're all pretty good.

Can you, I mean, can you pet Momo?

I don't think you can.

I don't know if you can pet Momo.

The game is bad.

Actually, not sure.

I'm sure we can figure that out.

Yeah, great game.

I refuse to ever find out.

Fuck Momo.

Great game.

A lot of fun.

So good.

Hey, I got a segment here.

This is a new one we haven't done before.

Everyone alright with the segment?

I'll allow it.

Okay, here we go.

This is Would You Blathers?

This is a video game version of Would You Rather?

I'll give you a video game-related scenario, a couple of video game-related scenarios, and you tell me which one you'd prefer.

Okay.

All right, here we go.

Ooh.

Would you, Blathers,

be a bear with a bird in his backpack like Banjo or be a bird riding in the backpack of a bear like Kazooie?

I'm going to have to go, I'm going to go full banjo here.

Is that how you answer this?

I'm like, no, absolutely.

Okay.

Yeah, I know.

Yeah.

Banjo, Banjo's, yes.

I think I'd have to say the same because, yeah,

if you're Banjo, you're the bear, you're doing a lot of the heavy lifting, but then if you're the bird in the backpack, you're kind of called upon to do stuff maybe that's not at a convenient time for you, you know?

So I think I'm going to go banjo as well.

Are there correct answers?

Sure.

Yeah.

You're both right.

We'll say that.

Oh, thank God.

No,

it's just hypothetical.

Whatever you want to answer.

Rochelle, you got a preference?

Bird or bear?

Bird, because I am a passenger princess.

Oh, there you go.

Go off.

Okay.

All right, next up.

Would you, Blathers, have Johnny Silverhand's personality electronically implanted into your brain like in Cyberpunk 2077, or have a mind flayer parasite burrow into your brain, like in Baldur's Gate 3?

Okay, so this is really tough.

And

this actually is really tough.

Because here's the thing.

Johnny Silverhand, Keanu Reeves, really cool.

Yeah.

But,

and spoilers for cyberpunk, doesn't seem like you can really do anything about that.

Whereas the Mind Flayer,

I believe there is a cure.

I think you can get cured.

Spoilers for Baldur's Gate 3.

I think the...

My case, and I'll let Gabris answer.

My big thing with Silverhand is that as cool as Keanu is, I feel like I wouldn't have any privacy.

Because just at any time, oh no, you caught me jacking off again, buddy.

Yeah, I guess.

Well, because you know what?

There's a whole part of Baldur's Gate 3 that I haven't really explored.

Eating the fucking slugs or whatever it is, and you can upgrade your mind flare powers.

I chose not to do that this run.

Right.

So maybe I go full Mind Flayer and see what we can do.

See what we can cook up together.

Ooh.

I've not played Cyberpunk, and I'm just fresh into Baldur's Gate, but I'm going to go with the Mind Flayer parasite just because I wanted to shout out the fucking visual of the parasite crawling into the eye that they show on the scene of the game.

That is fucking gnarly.

That's histatical.

It's truly crazy.

I loved it.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That's inside-esque body horror.

All right, next up.

Would you, Blathers, have an arm that's a gun like Mega Man's Buster Cannon or have an arm that's a grappling hook like the Wolf and Sekiro?

So one of your arms is being replaced with either a cannon or a grappling hook.

Cannon easily.

Cannon easily.

I have no reason to go up.

I have no reason for a grappling hook.

That's funny.

This is the, for me, this was the easiest decision to make as well.

And I would go grappling hook.

Really?

Yeah, well, to me, you said Sekaro, but for me, Bionic Commando is the game of

the Good that I think about all the time.

That's such fun gameplay.

The idea to have that Batman and/or famously Spider-Man mentality of being able to shoot and swing and like that seems, for me, more useful than

firing buster cannons at people.

even though buster cannons make me feel good.

I feel like everyone, if I was, I was just like, I had a gun that was attached to my body, that would make people nervous.

And so you,

they see me coming with that thing, they know everything's fine.

That's true.

That's like, you've heard of Chekhov's gun, but have you heard of a Weiger's arm gun?

If that comes out in the first act, it's being pressed to his own temple at the cover.

Jesus.

Want to see a magic trick, buddy?

Want to see my jaw disappear?

Have you ever seen that?

Have you ever seen Fight Club?

I'm my own Tyler Durden, buddy.

Let's do one more.

Would you, Blathers,

crash land your plane?

into a lost underwater libertarian utopia like Bioshock or be stranded on an island populated by cute animals like an animal crossing new horizons.

Oh, come on.

I don't got time for all that other bullshit.

Give me those animals.

I'm not going to read Atlas Shrugged to understand what's going on.

Get me with my boy Dom and ketchup, the red duck.

I've only played Bioshock and even that I didn't play too much of.

But the animal, cute animal, I don't know.

When you said trapped on an island full of cute in my head, I was like, oh, yeah.

And then you said animals.

I was like, oh, right.

That makes more sense.

Cute power lifters.

Yeah, no,

I'm game for the island.

And mostly just because I'm an island guy, I don't like the

bio shit kind of sketches me out a little.

Constantly listening to like announcements and shit would drive me.

Exactly.

No, yeah.

People you can hear in hallways talking to themselves, being like, if only they trusted my formula or whatever they're saying.

Yeah.

Yeah, I don't think I'd want to be, I'd want to be in rapture.

Also, you got the threat of big daddies, and you're not really dealing with any sort of,

but

you could be a big daddy as well.

I mean, I guess.

But then, yeah, what fate is that?

Yeah, to what end?

Yeah.

You're walking down the bio and you just hear down the hallways.

It's like, and actually, the crank is not for power.

It stands for game.

Like, oh, get out of here.

They're scraping.

They're just walk out of here.

Scraping their human nails along the wall.

Like, ugh.

We'll take a hey, we might do this again.

If anyone wants to pitch any Woody-Blather scenarios, toss them in our Discord, and maybe we'll use them and credit you in a future episode.

And hey, that's this week's Get Played.

I want to shout out Rochelle, our producer.

Also, check out our paywalled show, GetAnimaid, which is over at patreon.com/slash get played.

Gabris, thank you so much for joining us.

Anything you would like to plug?

Yeah.

Oh, this is probably coming out in a while.

Check out

the two podcasts Weiger mentioned earlier, High and Mighty and Action Boys, and also 101 Places to Party Before You Die is on Macs still.

If you haven't caught it, it might be for you, you gaming nerds.

Great show.

Great, great show.

Also, yeah, Action Boys should know with a Z, Action Boys with a Z.

Check it out on Patreon.

Do you have any unlocked episodes in the High and Mighty feed?

We have a bunch of.

If you go to free.actionboys.biz, there's about eight or nine free episodes you can listen to there as well.

Oh, awesome.

All the ones that have been in the High and Mighty Feed are now just living on that feed for people to check out.

Wow.

There you go.

That's a great show.

One of my favorites.

Thank you.

Gabris, thank you so much for being here.

And

yeah,

I'll say it.

You know what?

In a kind of a gentle, sort of chill, sort of

Dave the Diver fashion, you got played.

You got played.

That was a hit gun podcast.

I'm Tig Notaro.

I'm Mae Martin.

And I'm Fortune Feamster.

And together, we're handsome.

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Handsome is also a podcast hosted by us, three stand-up comedians you may have seen on your TV.

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