65: What's the Deal with Modern Video Game Reviews?

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Yeah, yeah, you know what time it is.

It's time for the geek in this podcast.

Mega Rand, Jesse, and Dodger.

What up?

Let's go.

Yo, it's the weekend.

Yeah, it's time to geek out.

Let it be good.

Go on, stream and shout.

It's Jesse and Dodger.

So give them a follow and see what the geekiners are all about.

Yo, it's the weekend.

Yeah, it's time to geek out.

Let it be good.

Go on, stream and shout.

It's Jesse and Dodger.

So give them a follow.

Number one geek podcast, without a doubt.

yo, another end of another long week.

Got a job and a kid, I know that you all beat.

So take a second, grab a drink, and vibe.

While we catch you up in just a matter of time on gaming, comics, whatever you're doing.

If you're nerdy like us, then you know you should tune in.

Thank you for sharing our world with us.

Now follow, subscribe, and turn this up.

Yo, it's the weekend.

Yeah, it's time to geek out.

Let it begin.

Go on, scream and shout.

It's Jesse and Dodger.

So give them a follow.

Number one, geek podcast.

Without a doubt.

Hello, everybody, and welcome to Geekenders.

Hello.

Hi.

Oh, is that our?

I didn't want to interrupt the little dance.

Jesse was doing a little dance.

No, you definitely should, because if anyone's just listening, that was just dead air.

They didn't see a dance.

They just heard the crickets in the background as you said, welcome.

They listened to the crickets dance.

Yeah.

Or my dancing was so loud and powerful, they heard it through their headphones.

And they're like, wow.

Wow.

I can hear that jostling and fabric rubbing together.

And man, that's love this podcast.

Exhilarating.

Today, as our very special guest, we have got Bricky.

Bricky, thank you so much for joining us.

Yuri, thank you very much for having me on.

It was

a couple, couple months in the progress, and then life got ahead of all of us.

And then

we made it happen.

I'm stoked.

No, I'm just glad we got to circle back.

That's what matters.

Absolutely.

If in the end we sync up, you know?

Yes.

No, I'm super, super happy to be here.

I mean, me and Jesse have spoken a little bit about the humor, the humor that comes along with being on this now and then the past and all these kinds of stuff.

So, and then we also had a little episode ourselves of you uh we could go give a take and so uh yeah coming coming coming soon gang

soon so uh and so no i'm i'm stoked i'm very i'm very very happy uh thank you so much for for having me on um it feels good i haven't been like live in like three weeks so

what have you what have you been up to i was in washington for a week doing the twin peaks tour um and then i i bought

that's

we can't you can't brush past that No, no, no.

What do you mean?

I tried to.

Pause, pause, pause, pause, pause.

We're so bad about this.

Bricky, would you like to tell everybody who you are?

Oh, intros.

Yes.

Yes.

That's a whole thing.

Skip past intros almost every single episode and someone be like, I wish I knew who this guy was.

That's very fair.

Bricky, who are you?

Hi, I'm Bricky.

I also am a person who make video and stream.

I don't know in the realm of your guests if I am young or old in terms of time on the internet.

We just need 10 years.

10 years for me, but I don't know about your guests, you know?

I don't know if the guests are younger.

I must know.

Strange, yeah.

Here's how I know you're young because in your 10-year video, you're like, I remember watching co-optional podcasts.

So if that's the case, you're young.

If you weren't on the pod, like you're young.

If you weren't like

old like dodger is then that yeah

see i'm i'm too used to the to the to like the i'm stuck in the vtuber scene and they all started in covid like a 90 of them started in covid so the

the fact the most i get is four to five years and then i say oh i just got my 10 year and then they call me unk so i don't really know what to do about that you won't be called unknown here does that help

In this particular episode, no, I imagine I will not be called unknown.

There's a man, I don't know, again, I'm not like, cut up on all the young cool streamers because there are too many.

But there's one guy I keep seeing on live stream fails all the time.

And I wouldn't say he really fails.

I just think they keep putting him there because, like, you know, the kids.

And

they keep calling him Unk.

And dude is like 29.

And I'm like, bro, we got to cut this out.

Like, look at Unk over here.

I'm like.

Maybe we need to just accept that we're Unk age.

No, know i'm like

brand unknown age apparently

it depends on the person right because because like i i was part of a like a little street fire tournament that that sagem threw together and it was me and my four uh teammates were all like mid 30s and and i'm 29 still i'll be 30 in june but we were team unk that was our uh colloquialism was team unk and i'm like i'm not 30 yet man but it's the fight it's the it's the fighting game community like i don't i don't know sure

Man.

Like, spans a huge age range.

So.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It makes me think that maybe the fighting game community is a little skewed.

Just because if you go, if you go to like an Evo or something,

there is

a lot of young kids, but also like...

old dudes who brought their PS2 from home like anyone challenge me right now bro challenge me bro carry in the giant giant CR-TV because Melee plays better on it and all that stuff.

Right, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Exactly.

Run from home, bro.

Oh, we still skipped the intro.

Um, uh, yeah, I

fuck you.

Sorry.

Um, uh, hi, I'm, I'm Brookie.

I've content creator.

That's, I hate, I hate the word, it's better than influencer.

I don't give a shit.

It's like guy make video for many years.

I did lots of different kinds of stuff.

Uh, right now we're kind of on the funny VTuber Warhammer scene, but we did league, we did by daylight, we we did For Honor Warframe Overwatch, we did it damn everything.

Right now I'm working on my like 400th hour of Balatro.

So that's my life.

Variety, this time for real, not variety like we've all seen where it's one game for 60% of the time and then the rest is variety, like actual variety.

400 hours of Balatro doesn't sound like variety.

Most of it's on my own time and or mobile.

Listen, I go to my Steam and I stare longingly and painfully at my 1300 hours in Dead by Daylight.

And then I just kind of like accept it, you know.

It's like.

Are those like 1300 fun time hours or 1300?

I'm working here hours.

Oh, there's a lot of working here hours in those ones.

There's a lot of work in here hours in those ones.

I haven't played League of Legends in forever, and I'm pretty sure that would also be quite high on the list.

Dead by Daylight is another thing that like really surged over COVID, didn't it?

Yeah, yeah, COVID and a little bit before COVID.

I'm actually like, not to sound like a doomer, but like, I'm actually so surprised they're still rolling because I can't imagine the licensing fees are cheap and they have like 19 licenses now.

I mean, they're still adding people, aren't they, to the game?

Yeah, yeah.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

Consistently.

Games, movies, like they got the alien license.

I can't imagine that's cheap.

Do you?

Well, originally, and

I'm curious if either of you played Dead by Daylight Daylight when it first came out.

Like the very first.

Was it...

I know it was popular, but was it popular enough that like now it's kind of a thing that exists and it's filled with all these different IP and it's something that everyone kind of recognizes.

But at the time, it felt like it was just another one of the many games that came out.

that felt like run from monster, monster is scary,

turn on engine, defeat monster, right?

And it, I don't know what it was, but at some point there a switch flipped and everyone was like, this game rocks, dude.

It's so good.

And I don't know what, I don't know what that was.

I don't, there's something, and I don't know if it's because they got all these IP and people were like, yo, I can play as, you know, the Stranger Things kids.

Awesome.

And that's, I don't know what it was, but something happened where it became kind of,

you know, just in the ethos of gamer culture.

Like, oh, Dead by Daylight, yeah, dude.

I don't know.

I don't know when that was.

I mean, it is fun.

It's still fun.

Oh, it's a great game.

It's a great game, but it feels like when it first came out, it wasn't like,

you know, people weren't, people just didn't care.

But maybe I'm wrong because I wasn't on the train right away.

I don't know.

So the answer I have is, is like.

It's a little bit like a more boring answer, but it's at least somewhat interesting.

I mean, one, it's like the only like slasher, like a classic 80s slasher feel game that I can think of at the moment.

That's like multiplayer, for example.

But what was really interesting is around like

two years into its life cycle, they started adding a bunch of new killers, right?

They had like Michael Myers and the like, but eventually they started to get this really robust kind of perk system.

And the game got like a substantial amount of depth.

And it got kind of interesting that way because like you, you run certain perks that all had these weird interactions, not not just with the map but with the character and then the like survivors would run perks that would counteract those perks and it became this weird like rock paper scissors and it got like just certain you know a killer would come out and then they'd be like oh this is a cool idea but you can actually do this and animation cancel that into this and that's a really good way to beat it got this like weird undercurrent of depth and so eventually it kind of like it was just as fun playing the game as it was to find the weird combos and like break it in a way.

Yeah.

And then I think it got a little bit bloated and then it got too much.

And then that's when I fell off of the game.

But it was pretty good.

I don't know.

Yeah, because I'm trying to remember

during the time period, and chat hopefully will back me up on this, when Dead by Daylight first came out, there were other games very similar to it that dropped roughly the same time.

And I'm trying to think, one was like, I want to say it was like a chainsaw massacre thing, or it was a Friday the 13th thing, or a Halloween thing.

Like, there was a thing that came out very similar to it.

And there's been many things that are very, they all came out roughly the same time.

Friday the 13th.

Yeah.

And that's why I was like, okay, they're all kind of just copying each other.

But Dead by Daylight stood out in that suddenly they were doing Fortnite stuff where they were dropping like, all right.

You can get all the characters from this property.

And it blew, that blew it it up and i have no i guess people really wanted to murder the stranger things kids

i i or that was just me i don't know one of the two the demo gorgon was one of my favorite killers i loved his his uh mechanic and his look so much it was genuinely a really good addition and then i think they got rid of him and i'm very sad because the licensing ran out

oh yeah so apparently the hellraiser guy is also leaving the game because the licensing is running out like that that's a huge thing like issue that is along with it.

I don't know if they're refunding people in like in-game currency or whatever that is, but

people are saying Devin Gordon's back.

Oh, he's back now.

Okay.

That's even weirder, if I'm being honest.

He's like, oh, there he is.

He's gone.

Oh, he's new season on the way.

We got to kill those Stranger Things kids.

They're getting too popular.

We got to take them out.

Yeah.

He had some funny voice acting, too.

Like Stranger Things kids.

Oh, no.

Yeah, yeah.

When they get like put on the hooks, they would make some very odd sounds it was it was a little weird i think steve was the guy who who made this some really weird sounds it was quite funny anyway man should i play dead by daylight again

i haven't played that game forever i'd play with you if you let me be the killer okay bricky you want to play with us

it doesn't work that way

You'd have to make a custom lobby and then we would need two more people.

Yeah, no, that's fine.

We can find two people

that I can kill, as long as you're all the Stranger Things kids.

That's a requirement.

No, that's possible.

You're not, you're not locked into that.

That's a requirement, yeah.

Yeah, that's a requirement.

Okay,

so two Steve's, two Nancy's.

Is this like a weird bit that I'm just like, I hate those Stranger Things kids?

I just want to keep it going because I feel like that's funny.

Like, I hate them, those damn Stranger Things kids.

I can't wait to demiglogen them.

Can you only play the

teens, the Stranger, the Stranger Things older teens you can't play

like kiddos correct so so each each time they added a thing normally it'd just be like one survivor and then so I think it was Nancy and Steve were the ones added um I see I don't yeah because like uh I think oh geez I don't remember all the different characters but but I know like um uh Laura or Lori from from Halloween, right?

Like Michael Myers.

Um, like she was the one who was added with Myers, and then they they always have like the specific one.

Yeah.

I mean, I just, I mean, it's, I mean, if you want to take out the, like, you want, you want to like kill the teens, that's fine.

Like, that's a slasher movie trope there, you know, like that's classic.

Yeah.

This guy from Scream, he's really good at that, you know?

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

I just, you know,

someone's got to give it to those Stranger Things kids.

They're just, they're too cocky.

Gotta tick them out.

They did too well.

I made too much money.

Yeah, there's four seasons just what do you mean there's another season they're like 20.

how are they still kids doesn't make any sense someone's gotta take them out last last season right i believe is it this next one i think yeah i guess

i i haven't seen it was supposed to be one season and then they supernaturaled it and so yeah i think we're finally at the end yeah Season two wasn't that bad.

I didn't love three, though.

And I haven't seen four.

I loved things about every season, if I'm being honest.

But

hearing that they wanted each season to be like Twilight Zone style, like standalone stories made me go, that probably would have been better.

That would have been better.

That sounds lovely.

That would have been really fun.

Damn.

What we could have had.

I totally cut you off earlier to do the screaming intro bit.

You did.

You did.

Would you like to talk about the Twin Peaks tour?

Oh, I thought you were talking about Jesse.

I thought you cut him off.

No, you were going to give us a a whole bunch of stuff about your life, what you've been up to.

And then you said Twin Peaks tour and Dodger.

And then I lost my mind.

Shut up.

Stop talking about that.

Where's Television Watch?

Where are you intro?

Yeah.

Ruined everything.

Twin Peaks.

Sorry.

Yes.

So

I went up to Washington.

It's about like 45 minutes outside of Seattle.

It's

over in

Snoqualmie.

That's the name of that city.

Yeah, I know.

It took me a bit.

And then North Bend.

And basically, so my sister is a huge

Twin Peaks fan.

I was a big Sam Lake Remedy Games fan for like better and for worse.

Don't get me wrong.

Like Alan Wake 1 has its

solid problems, but I love control, you know, the whole thing.

And so we went up and we visited the RR diner, like where they had shot that

the outside or whatever it is.

They had a whole bunch of like, we stayed at the Salish Lodge, which is the lodge by the waterfall.

Just kind of did like the whole little rounds of all that stuff.

And then I hadn't seen

Twin Peaks season two.

So we kind of like watched it over the course of the trip.

And I got, so I haven't seen season three yet, but I got to kind of like see David Lynch's weird little

show and have a nice little PNW trip.

So it was very nice, very low itinerary, just kind of enjoying.

And then I was meeting with a couple

folks up or over in like Seattle just for some work stuff.

I went to like the sub pop music label offices and stuff like that.

And yeah, it was fun.

I friend of a friend also, I do like the merch stuff.

So like I was looking into their fulfillment processes and, hey, here's this big company does these things.

What are we doing wrong versus them?

And I got some good answers on that and had some drinks with some folks.

It was good.

And also I get to write off the trip, which is the most important.

That is always nice.

Yeah.

Yeah.

The coffee was very good.

The pie was not very good.

I will say the Satan...

The Pacific Northwest in general or at the diner.

Pacific places.

I see.

Okay.

At the diner specifically.

Did you ask?

Like, oh, wow.

This is delicious pie.

Do you talk like that to them?

Did you yell at them while you ate it?

No, no, I asked for that.

This pie actually isn't very good.

Are you doing like the David Lynch voice?

Okay.

When he talks to the waitress and he's just very loud.

Oh,

with the with the yes, I missed your reference.

I'm so sorry.

Yes, yes.

It's a solid reference.

I'm out here by myself.

We should talk in the other room so no one can hear us.

This confidential information.

I just want it.

Yeah.

It's so funny because his voice and everything is just

wow.

This is the best coffee.

That was a good reference.

I'm very sad I missed it.

That being said, the Lodges restaurant was actually fantastic.

like like a genuine like five-star place.

Uh, I would highly recommend if anyone does go go up there, they should, they should stay there.

It's, it's really, really nice.

Um, but yeah, it was fun.

And then, and then I got home and then had like a lot of work and a lot of meetings and a lot of like that stuff.

And now I'm just kind of like, oh yay, I get to be on stream after three weeks of not streaming.

And I'm sure my, my own stream is like, what the hell, man?

So

this is the kickstart.

Yeah, but you get to like come back.

And those are always great streams.

Everyone loves a good like, I've been gone forever and now I'm back.

That's also true.

Depends on the context for why you've been gone forever, I think.

Also true.

I don't know that it does, to be honest.

I've seen people come back from some like truly awful things and be like, my first stream back?

And I'm like, yeah.

And it's like 18 million people watched.

It's like, okay, what do I know?

Right.

But

it's not about the quantity.

It's about the quality.

What is the quality of viewership?

Is it?

when you

when you've gone to the

lights?

Yeah.

I don't want 18 million people coming into

paint.

That no, I, you know, I gotta be honest.

I'm I'm with I'm with Dodger on this one.

The um, the wait, that's what reminds me.

Is it still Dodger?

I see dues and I see Dexpones.

Like, I don't know what's I know.

What is it now?

But it's, but it's Dodger on Discord.

It is.

So

dudes was a name that PewDiePie gave me, and it just stuck.

And it's stuck for years now.

Okay.

So it's like a, it's like a horrible nickname of a nickname of a nickname.

Okay, that, that's fine.

That's, that's good enough for me.

Yeah.

I'm just

figuring that part out.

But, but I, I'm with, I'm with you on that one.

18 million viewers is pretty cool, but I don't know.

I've I've seen the chats of the of the younger demographic streamers, and I don't think I want that.

Oh my god, no, I do.

I want all of it, I want the power, I want the power that comes with controlling 18 million people.

We don't even have moms, 18 million tweens.

I want an army of tweens that I can send to go get people, you know, be like, harass them on the internet, my tweens.

They'll be like, kill them.

Yeah, like, you know, like, like, uh, like, orcs.

I'll be their dark lord.

I'll be there, I'll be like, two oh,

and then they'll all like

go off.

I assume, yeah, whatever tweens carry with them, backpacks, a book, their platform shoes, and

I'm sorry, Jesse, I can't revolt today.

I can't call out of, uh, out of math class.

Yeah, like class today, Jesse.

Meet me outside at 4 p.m.

Right?

And then they'll all come out of school.

I'll be like, two war, then they'll all march.

And then I'll go, you got it.

But unlike,

but unlike the Lord of the Rings movies, I want them to be the Lord of the Rings cartoon orcs that sing a happy song while they go to war.

I want to know what they're like.

Yeah.

And they'd sing their song like, oh, we're going to war today or whatever that song is.

That's what I want for my tweens.

And I send and I'll send them to, yeah.

They can call me Unk.

They can call me

the Dark Lord of the Pit, whatever it makes them happy.

It sounds like you want like oompa loompas.

I mean, that's how you have your most tweens, to be honest.

Yeah.

Like little oompa loompas.

Look at them.

They're cute.

Trying to figure out life.

God bless them.

They're not gonna.

Imagine, like, sir, I'm a 40-year-old man.

Oompa Loompas.

I'm on this job to pay my family.

I got four kids.

Yeah.

I work in this goddamn chocolate factory for this wackadoo over here in his purple outfit.

I got four kids.

I got mouths to feed, man.

Last week, I had to clean up a blueberry girl.

You ever seen a blueberry girl?

That shit's crazy.

Dude, we're in deflator for four days.

You know what I mean?

That was so much jerk.

After Charlie took over.

That's true.

He probably cut their benefits.

He was like, why do we pay them so much?

Just imagine.

They got all French

broadway

just like this this like fat cigarette they all just imagine they have this huge cigar they just pass a giant cigar around

but but because they're oopa lubas the cigar is like the size of a hoagie right right right

it's also orange and green for some reason they're like it's with made with oopa grass

made with oober grass rolled in oopa leaves don't even

ask questions man don't worry about it from

umbaloopa land we brought it from home

do you think you think uh um

oh crap i forget uh gene wilder was like growing his own cannabis in the way background of the chocolate factory i would i would bet on it i would bet that

i hope so yeah considering his his attitude one would assume that or he has like tabs And he's just, he's just like popping acid, which is also very possible.

There is a whole scene that definitely seems like it in that movie.

Yeah, a tunnel.

They're going through that tunnel.

That thing's dark.

I don't know what the hell is going on there.

He's just singing.

Yeah, and there's like worms and stuff.

I don't know what that scene is.

It's crazy.

A lot of older

kids' movies have a scene that's oddly psychedelic.

You're like, what is this?

Who decided to make this part?

They're like, that one's for the adults.

We're going to scar every child who watches this.

Yeah.

There's like,

isn't Alice in Wonderland like like aren't the three thick cakes she eats like steroids that's why she gets really big

steroids.

Like they're they're named like certain like the cakes are named like certain like drugs or whatever.

So when she eats them, she gets really, really big and gets stuck.

Not in the book.

I don't remember that in the in the movie, but in the book, it's literally like a cake and stuff that says, eat me.

Oh.

Well, because Alice Wonderland is drugs.

It is drugs, right?

Like that's the whole point of the thing, right?

No, it's about a magic rabbit leading you down a hole into a wonderful land where you find a caterpillar and a lady who wants to cut your head off.

Those are, that's not drugs.

That's life.

That's a drug deal.

You bring this stuff, Alice.

Sure did, oompa loompa.

Good, because we got need for this back in the factory.

Oh, my God.

You stole it all the way from Wonderland.

Yeah.

I imagine it's all very shrekish.

They all live together.

I'm taking the grand Budapest hotel scene where they're in the prison.

I'm just like replacing the ball with Oompa Loompas as they're like cutting open the Myrtle's cake.

Filing their way out.

Yeah.

Who's got the throat slitter?

I forgot that there is a scene in that when they escape where everyone in a room dies.

I just forgot that was a thing.

I was like, that's so dark.

Yes,

they lost the one guy.

Yeah, the one guy jumps down and like kills everyone in the room and then like everyone's dead and you're like,

what?

It happens.

Willem Defoe, as the kids would say, is aura maxing in that film with his four skull brass rings and

his full leather jacket and motorcycle.

What a guy.

I forgot the scene where he's like chasing Jeff Goldblum is like also dark.

And for a movie that's so like everything is happy and we're being silly, there's like a few really dark scenes that I'm like, okay.

All right.

Yes.

I remember

that.

It's phenomenal.

You would look at it.

You would love it.

I think you particularly would love it.

Particularly.

I'll watch it.

It's got like the vibe that I imagine that you would appreciate.

Very colorful, very like kind of quaint and delightful and a little like jovial, but also like weirdly sinister at times.

Yeah, I love that.

Speaking of Willem Defoe, have the two of you gotten around to seeing Nosferatu yet?

No, no, not yet.

I saw that.

I am a Robert Eggers stan.

That's a big second.

Big second.

Good.

I think he is probably one of the best directors working today.

And this is probably his most

easygoing film that he's made so far.

Like, like easily understandable.

You're telling me the lighthouse wasn't easily understandable?

You didn't walk out of that completely understanding what that movie was?

I loved Me the Lighthouse, but god damn it, was it nice to watch a film with like a straightforward plot?

It was very nice.

But Willem Defoe in No Sferat 2 is also hilariously good.

He's a great character.

I don't know your movie tastes,

Dodger, but like, I don't know if that one would be as enjoyable as the Grand Budapest Hotel, but it is a very good movie.

I keep being told to watch it, but but the the sort of scenes that people talk about, I'm like, do I want to watch this movie?

I don't know.

But is it the sex?

Have you seen?

Yeah, like have you seen sex?

Knew it.

What is.

Well, I thought the scenes that everyone's warning you about is like the weird sex scenes, because they are weird.

I will say that.

Yeah, it's

some of the aspects of the scenes, not the fact that the scenes exist themselves.

Does that make sense?

Yes.

Understandable.

Okay.

What were you going to say, Jesse?

You know what?

I'm all right.

The layup.

I just know.

I just know that somewhere out there, there's a soundboard now with Doctor's voice being like, I hate sex or whatever the hell you said.

And that just is out there now.

Yeah.

It was so, like, it was so.

If they wanted to make a soundboard of me, it could be deeply incriminating if they really wanted to, you know,

I'm aware.

That's what I'm saying.

So, it's whatever.

No one should make a soundboard of Dodger.

No one.

Don't do it.

And aside, this may be a random question.

What mixer do the two of you use?

Yeah, Dodger, what mixer do you use?

Oh, no.

Yeah.

Hey, Dodge.

Hey, hey, Dodger,

when you set up this podcast and you're running everything, what mixer do you run us through?

I'm busy.

I'm doing stuff down here.

Oh, you're doing is it to your mixer?

Yeah.

I feel like I'm opened up a can that I did.

What kind of mixer is that?

It sure is a mixer.

She could be mixing.

She, yeah, it's maybe it's a Vitamix, but I don't know what the hell.

What the hell you're using to actually mix?

I don't think, Dodger, I don't think you have one.

Is that what we're learning right now?

What?

But Dodger doesn't have a mixer at all?

I don't think you'd say that.

Is that a USB microphone?

Ma'am.

I don't believe you would accuse me of that.

That's crazy.

Is there no XLR cable on that?

You don't need to know that.

Why are you asking so many intimate questions about my microphone?

I was just trying to make a statement that my beautiful Roadcaster duo, right here, not sponsored,

has lovely soundboard buttons that I make.

And on your statement of the soundboard clip, I was going to press my Google Calendar notification soundboard that I use to troll my chat, but I realized I turned it off.

And so I can't do that.

Hence, my question of your mixers and now the subsequent shenanigans.

Jesse, what mixers do you have?

I have a lot, actually.

I have uh, I've got a road one over there.

I have a the two zoom, one is a portable, one is the big one that we use when we record scary game squad.

So we can record up to 10 people at once, if need be, but four works.

And uh, we use that for that, and I can take that wherever I go.

That thing's great.

And then I have a few of the uh

babyface pros

and the

fire thing, whatever that's called.

The tool mix FX Windows thing in here.

So I got it all, dude.

I got plenty of things.

I've heard really good things about the Zoom one.

I considered swapping that from the Rode.

Also, if my...

That black magic studio camera.

I see in the background there.

Oh, you mean that?

That?

We have two of those.

and we have two other cameras as well.

We do a lot of fun stuff over on patreon.com/slash jessecox.

Wink.

I had a, I had one of those myself, um, and then I used it for quite a few things, but the uh lack of autofocus is what stopped me from continuing to use it, obviously, because it's very much a static position.

I'm assuming scary game squad, you're all sitting there, makes more sense.

Yep, yep, yep, yep, anyway.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, you being here to casually shame Dodger

is honestly what I'm here for.

Well, you're here to competitively shame Dodger.

So like,

it's nice to have like some backup.

Yeah, it's good.

It feels good.

So, Ricky, the situation is I had a babyface

and the babyface died.

It stopped working.

And so I was like, all right, I clearly need to get a new mixer.

And so I was going to get the one that Sam has because Sam has a Rode one that he loves.

And he can't say enough good things about it.

I'm sorry.

Is babyface the name of a mixer yes there yeah

that was like a personal that was like a personal attack i thought it was like i used to have like like a young optimism and then it died the name of a mixer gotcha okay good to notes please

just throwing that in there just for okay

it's an rme if anyone's curious an army babyface pro is what we're talking about yeah gotcha um we got it back in the ancient times jesse and i got our first ones at the same time yep and sam was like it's crazy expensive.

I'll get you one.

And I was like, okay,

I need it for geekenders because Jesse hates me.

So that's amazing.

You want to get it for me.

That's very sweet.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So I occasionally go, hey, just tell me what the name of the mixer is and I'll just buy it.

And he goes, no, no, no, no, no.

I'll buy it for you.

And now here we are.

And we've been doing the show for a year.

I still don't have a mixer.

So

I mean, I'm always

happy to remotely harass Sam in whatever way I can.

So this is perfect to me.

You can be like, hey, I found out live on air that your wife doesn't have a mixer.

What's up with that?

You know what?

I'm going to message him right now.

No, I'm not throwing him under the bus.

He's, he is being a sweetheart and wants to buy me a mixer.

He just forgets.

You have failed as a partner.

Smiley face.

Don't do that.

Message.

Uh-huh.

Dodger says

that

you owe her a mixer.

And that if you don't get it soon,

she is going to

kick you out of the house

and make you live

with the animals.

That's also perfect.

That actually is a great segue.

You have a, was it chickens?

What's the, what do you have now?

We have chickens, we have two pigs, we have four sheep, two tortoises.

There's a bunch of dogs now.

Yeah.

Oh, wow.

We got a bunch of animals.

My sister-in-law tried to come home with a donkey and we convinced her not to.

Do we come home with a

does your sister-in-law live in?

So we, our farm has us, my mother and father-in-law, and my sister-in-law, all in our own living spaces.

That's

so, yeah, my sister-in-law works in like animal husbandry.

So she like goes to different farms basically, like three or four times a week to like help them with various things.

And if you're an impulsive animal person, the downside of that is you might go to the family group chat and be like, guys, what if I came home with a donkey today and we all have to go abort?

Absolutely not.

Please don't do that.

Me and Jesse being like SoCal people, like, sorry, we don't have $95 million to spend on a farm, the land required for a farm in Southern California.

Bro, I do.

SoCal,

Any land at all adds an insane amount of money.

But I do have, I do, look, I'm better now.

I'm like an adult.

I do have exactly one tomato and one pepper plant now.

So

yeah, I'm gonna like make salsa or something.

I'm very adult.

You're better than I'm doing.

I inherited the orange tree at my house currently when I bought it.

But it gets very little sunlights.

The oranges are like the the size of lemons.

They're very small.

And so I get like what, like five glasses of orange juice a year.

Yes.

So it's okay.

That's that's paying for itself.

I mean, this was an investment.

Yeah.

When I was still in LA, one of the lovely ladies, Michelle, who did my makeup when I was hosting a lot.

had an avocado tree in her backyard.

And I think about that all the time because I now live in a country where the avocados don't taste super great.

And I think to myself, man, to be in Long Beach with an avocado tree.

Oh,

were you in Long Beach?

We were in like the Torrance area before we.

Okay, sure, sure, yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

But

the Japanese food is

the Japanese food.

Oh, my God.

So good.

It's so, it's insane.

It's, it's actually,

I'm occasionally a little patriotic about the state I live in because I've been born and raised in Orange County the whole time.

But like, I think some people, one, it's such a giant place.

And so it's like, it's hard to like nail down a one particular stereotype because there's so much.

But one of my favorite ones is that in LA, all the way down to San Diego, each city has like a cultural

demographic that's completely different.

And so like Torrance is like very heavily Japanese over there, but like Westminster is very heavily Vietnamese.

and the kind of stuff.

So just when it comes to like not only the, like what it's like driving through the areas, but also just the foods you get there, it's outstanding.

Yeah.

I'm so I'm always so like gun-ho about it.

It's always exciting.

Yeah.

Whenever people ask me what I miss about being in LA, I always say my friends, but then I go and the food.

I miss the food so much.

And also my friends, but the food.

Yeah.

Friends.

You can make new friends.

Yeah.

The food, though, that's tough to come by.

It is.

I can't.

There ain't no taco trucks out here, dude.

Do you know that every Friday there's a taco truck that just shows up outside my apartment?

Anyway.

Anyway, I just want to rub that in.

Yeah, just want to let you know.

Every Friday, it just shows up and they're like, you want tacos?

I'm like, hell yeah, dude.

One of my favorite experiences.

in like downtown LA was I was I was with the like the League of Legends guys like my my little league group and like the there's some of the pro players and stuff.

And we, and there was this one little taco place.

It was on, it was on like Google or whatever.

And it was like white boy tacos.

And it had like five stars.

And the dude was there and he was like,

and he had all these like big smiling photos of him.

He was all stoked.

And he's like, you know, we'll try this guy out.

And so it was like, it was like a block away.

So he walked a block away and it's him with like the danger dogs,

little,

you know, flat griddle type thing.

And I've never seen a more depressed man in my entire life.

It's like, it's like the Spongebob thing where he's like, look at you all young and happy.

Where did the years go?

And

I will admit his tacos were phenomenal.

But

I think his 10 years of Los Angeles taco stands has taken their toll on his

mental well-being.

Oh,

he was a fun guy.

There's always a ton of cool places around.

Maybe he's on a dip and he's going to come back up.

I mean, this was like 2018.

So

he's on the come up

he's in the come up now

he's a fun guy

anyway um what have the two of you two been uh been playing as of late

boy oh boy me oh me

what i will say uh even though i've been playing a lot of uh absolute nonsense because there's so many demos that are out right now and i'm trying to catch up to dodger who played

the most demos ever.

Here's the thing, though.

I learned that Dodger Dodger is a cheater and will play and then stop early rather than complete the whole demo.

And so I play

enough to know it.

No, I didn't.

You're doing it smartly.

You're getting through them.

I'm like, yeah, I'll play this demo and it's the length of a full ass game.

And I'm like,

six hours later, I'm still in the demo.

How's this possible?

There are some demos that straight up are just games.

Like, I don't even, I don't even, anymore.

I have no clue.

There's, it's kind of how I feel about Civ 7 at the moment.

I've been playing a lot of Civ 7, trying to, like, actually like it.

I'm trying so hard, everyone.

I'm trying to, it's just so drastically different.

And every time I play someone's like, no, no, you're doing it wrong.

I'm like, Artlin, tell me how to do it right.

And so I'm going through and I'm playing.

I'm trying my hardest to love it.

But

it very much feels like we're beta testing a game.

Like there is things in it that I'm just like, what do you mean?

So a great example is even some of the

who are supposed to be special just look like normal units, and I can't tell.

They're like, What's special about this guy?

Nothing.

Well, shouldn't he be special?

And they're like, Oh no, next patch will update that.

I'm like,

Okay,

so there's a lot of that, but I'm trying very,

very hard to like it.

And I'm working on it.

I'm working on it.

It's uh, I'm getting better at it.

I know what I'm doing now.

I found that there's a

oh boy, I want to

Chong Trok, Trung Truck, whatever, whatever her name is, she's like a fearless warrior who fought the Chinese.

It's interesting that they went with

different historical figure this time, like Ben Franklin is one of the leaders, right?

Like, it's not who you would suspect.

And so this woman is like, I guess she revolted against.

the Chinese and like led a freedom fighter group.

But then if you read the bio, it's like it lasted three years.

Then she was brutally killed.

I'm like, okay, well, that's my leader.

So let's go.

And she's, she's at like some really cool stuff.

And the reason why I went with her is because everyone in that game declares war all.

I don't know if they jacked it up to 11, but every single time you do anything, someone just declares war on you.

And you're like, all I want to do was build my beautiful Coliseum.

And now I'm at war with like.

Harriet Tubman for some reason.

Harriet Tubman always declares war.

I don't know what I did to harriet i just exist and it's harriet tubman's like i'll fight you if i have to i'm like i don't even what do you what i've been doing here

it's crazy to me they harriet tubman is the new gandhi they were like no harriet tubman's gonna kick your ass dude and she does she brings wave after wave of infantry and you're like how do i fight this harriet stop it Harriet Tubman has a lot of reasons to be upset.

She's mad.

All right.

But it's like,

it's weird because they'll start you with like,

I'm of diplomatic culture

peoples, right?

Because you can see, like, what the focus of each of the civilizations is.

And it's like, yeah, your civilization focus is culture and trade.

And I'm like, okay, cool.

And we're going to surround you with everyone who is military and expansionism.

And I'm like, What?

What?

So wave.

I'm just surrounded.

It's like, yeah, yeah, yeah.

We're going to send all the guys after you.

So I got like Machiavelli coming down.

He's like, I'm here to make a deal.

And you're like, no, you're not.

You're bringing your army, dude.

And he's like, no, what?

What are you?

The deal was, I invade you or don't.

So give me all your stuff.

And I'm like, all I want to do was

sail up and down the rivers and build some boats.

And now I got a plague to deal with.

What do you mean?

It's just stressful.

But I'm trying to get better at it.

But that's not what I want to talk about.

It just came up because I'm a psychotic who

can't think straight.

The real thing I want to talk about.

Yeah.

Yep.

Is it just came out yesterday?

Split fiction.

Oh.

Oh, it's out?

It is out.

I want to play this with Sam so bad.

It is.

I played it yesterday.

It is

so cute.

All right.

So premise-wise, you know, it's one of those things where the premise isn't very like deep.

Basically, the two main characters, one is a sci-fi writer, and she's kind of like

standoff-ish, standoffish and she doesn't, you know, want to talk that much to people.

She's caught up in her own world and she clearly has like a chip on her shoulder kind of vibe.

And the other one is a fantasy writer and she is British and jovial and loves the world and is just like,

I wrote a story about pigs.

Like that kind of, like that's her vibe.

And so the two of them go to this facility where they're told, if you are part of this trial we're going to run, we will get you published.

They're both non-published authors.

There's a bunch of other people there doing the exact same thing.

Anyway, without spoiling it, it is a system where

much like the, I'm trying to remember the like Book Walker or whatever, Pagewalker, whatever the name of that book was, where it's like

this company is like, hey, we will jack you into this machine and your ideas will come to life and we will record those ideas.

And the entire time you're like, why are you doing that?

What kind of AI bullshit is this?

And that's the vibe, right?

But the two of them, the two opposites, are stuck in one

dream world

where all of their two things,

hence the split fiction, sci-fi and fantasy are forced to mash together.

And so you're moving back and forth in a very like it takes two vibe between fantasy and sci-fi worlds.

But also at the same time, you are discovering very like Bioshock infinite portals to other types of fiction.

And you can go into, so a great example is, you know, we're in one level, we're doing one thing, you see a portal, you go into it, and suddenly it's like, oh, hey, this, this level's all sand.

That looks really cool.

And it's kind of like a journey inspired level where it's all sand.

You're sliding, you're riding.

But at the same time, they're sand sharks and they jump out of the water and try or sand and try to bite you.

And so you have to avoid all that.

One of them is like a hang glide level where you're gliding, you have to like swoop to.

So they're like little mini games in a game that already has tons of mini-game things to do and a ton of references to their other games.

But mechanically, both of you have like different things you can do.

So if you're...

in the sci-fi world, right?

One of the sci-fi stories is straight up like, we're cyberpunk ninjas.

And it absolutely is a spoof of cyberpunk it's like we're we're i'm a cool cyber ninja and you have to go through the story and you're uncovering kind of what the deal is with the writer you know like why did you write this what was the reasoning behind this and so one the the girl who like wrote the sci-fi stuff she has a samurai sword that you can attack guys with or fling and then teleport to and that's like mechanically what you have to do to get through some levels And then the British girl who's like, I'm the fun one.

She has a whip and that whip can be used to grab things and throw them.

So you can use the world as weapons on guys.

Or when, you know, you're doing very like Star Wars episode two scenes where you're jumping from car to car on a flying highway.

You can like grab guys and throw them off the edge or throw them at cars.

It's very cool.

But then, and that's like the like on the tough sci-fi one.

But then you go to the silly fantasy one.

And as an example, in each level, the abilities change up a little bit.

So

i without spoiling all of them right i don't want to do that but there's one level for example where

you the the the girl who wrote the story can turn into a fairy or a treant you can become a little tiny fairy and fly around or become a giant treant and manipulate the world meanwhile the girl from the sci-fi stuff when she shows up her abilities are she can turn into an otter or a giant ape And she's like, what have you done to me?

And she's like, it's cute.

You're wonderful.

Right.

And so you have to work together to get through the levels, as is how all those games work.

And it's very, very charming.

It's super fun.

But also, you're going to have moments where, for example, you have to, as the girl who can become the treant, you can control the physical world around you.

So when you like jack into the world through a tree, you can move branches and you can move spikes.

The thing is, you then have to communicate to the girl who's the monkey as she's climbing through the trees.

I have to lower these spikes, but those other spikes are going to pop.

So you need to drop right when I say drop, or you will instantly be killed.

And so you have those moments where it's about communication, and you literally just are accidentally killing your partner over and over and over again.

You're like,

yeah, all right, my bad.

Well,

yeah, but they also

takes two mentalities.

Yes, yes, yes.

Okay, okay.

And it is so much fun.

It is a very solid two-player co-op.

where just you know find a loved one find a friend and

brutalize them in that game

like there is i don't want to say pvp mode but you can damage your friend so if you're in the middle of combat and you throw a thing and it blows up half the level and you watch your friend go yo it can happen and it's hilarious there's there's one area where it's like uh a fantasy world but ogres have taken over or trolls.

And so the entire level is, you're trying to go through a fantasy world, but trolls are exploding through walls and trying to get you.

It's like there's so much going on in this game.

Love it, love everything about it.

God damn.

Yeah, I mean,

I've only ever heard great things by the studio, and it's also, I saw something.

I was, I was messing with the reviews looking on Steam.

I guess they have that mechanic where if one person buys the game, they can bring in another person who does not own the game.

You don't have to, only one person has to own the game.

That's that.

That's insane.

That's so like consumer forward.

It's just nice.

That's an incredible thing to,

I really do hope they're making their money back.

Like just generally, that's like a studio.

Cause like, obviously, publishing right now is pricey as all hell.

So yeah, I do, I do hope it's doing well because like that, that's a really awesome thing for people.

How much is it?

50 bucks?

Yeah, that's a great question.

I want to say 60.

I see 50 on my side.

Great.

Perfect.

That's even cheaper than I thought it was.

Yeah.

50 bucks in break.

It's so funny, too.

You mentioned Journey-esque.

And I was like, oh, yeah, I remember Journey.

And I kind of, in my mind, I was like, when did Journey come out?

Too long ago.

Don't look it up.

It was.

Yeah.

Yeah, it was 2012.

Sorry.

Yep.

And I was like, 2011.

I was just thinking to myself, like, that's a reference we'll all get, of course, because we remember when Journey came out.

And it's just, I don't know, I kind of, I was like, I feel like half the people I talked to, my chat would be like, what's Journey?

I loved Journey too.

Oh, that was when the walking simulator was like nice and fresh and fun and not too.

Yeah.

Plus, they gave you a lot of things to look.

A lot of walking simulators, it's that first person and you're just like,

this is what.

With that, they gave you something to look at where you didn't have to like.

constantly be turning around.

You were caught up.

It was just like beautiful.

It was a beautiful game that,

you know, one of those,

only comes around every so often.

But it was during that time period where they were giving us that.

And,

oh my God, what's the black and white game?

Limbo?

With the

Inside?

Yeah.

No, Limbo.

Well, no,

Limbo.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Because Inside was like the spiritual

sequel successor.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Abzu.

Yeah.

There's, it was like during that time period, though, they were just like releasing, like, hey, we're going to make a beautiful indie game because that's the point.

And then they moved, like, that's been moved on.

I think probably the Greece team is probably the only ones that are still like, let's just make a thing that's beautiful for the sake of it being beautiful.

Well, yeah, and I think, like, at the time, right, the big pull of that game was,

yeah, you, you sort of walk through a story, but it's like a silent story.

And you can also run into other players and we'll give you really minimal ways to interact with one another and see if you like

you know it's up to you if you want to walk with them walk with another person you know and i at the time that seemed so like novel like you can't really communicate but you can you know like it was like you can infer from one another when you when you're in the desert and then you meet someone

i i i don't know how long we stayed together because eventually we lost each other but like the minute i found a person we were like buds And all we could do is like,

I'm like, yeah, come on, bud.

And then we'd, our scarves would wave as we'd, you know, walk around doing whatever.

I love that game.

I love it so much.

Somewhere around here, I have a print from it that I was going to take home and hang in the office at home.

I love that game.

It's very good.

My, my living room is like, I think,

exclusively, uh, video game artwork frames on the walls.

It's, uh, it's, it's a good, it's a good feeling to kind of like do home decor in that kind of way.

Feels fun.

Yeah.

I was going to say, that's all I played this week is

that

stuff.

I mean, we could talk about Monster Hunter.

I did some.

I hinted Monster Hunter.

I planted some monsters.

Yeah, yeah.

I forgot.

I absolutely forgot that I played that,

which is silly because it's great.

Monster Hunter is great.

And this is what I'll say.

I just made Aloy in-game.

And then I named my Palico Fluffy JC.

And he's a fluffy boy.

That's a fluffy boy.

And within minutes of playing,

I so you like, you know, early on, there's that mission where the bugs come out of nowhere and you have to kill the bug.

It's like one of the first missions in the game.

Well, I went back and, like a smart person, skinned the crap out of them, which was great.

And

turns out you can get badass gold shades with green tint.

I have not taken those off.

I look like an awesome stone cold killer.

Everywhere I go, I've got these awesome outfits, but I just keep the shades on and I look amazing.

And I'm like, yeah,

you can't even mess with this.

It's great.

I love it.

Yeah.

Have you been hunting monsters, Ricky?

Are you seeing a certain trend in the chat right now?

No, I don't.

What do you mean by that?

Can you crash out?

Can you, yeah, talk to us about it.

What's up?

I played Monster Hunter World way back when, for like, for like maybe 15 hours, and I was like, it's fine.

It's not my jam.

CC,

we're adults here.

We grew up in a different age of internet where like a game review is a game review and not like a confirmation of one's own opinion type thing

where things have certainly adjusted.

Monster Hunter is not my vibe.

It's a bit too slow.

It feels a little clunky.

It's not quite like my general gameplay style for the most part.

I also got hard-checked by Wrathlos.

That was kind of when I

crashed.

I crashed out and I was like, oh, okay, I'm stunned.

Okay, antidote.

Okay, health.

Stun pod.

Oh, he's up again.

Let me ask you, what were you playing with?

What weapon?

So I started with Chargeblade, which I am aware was maybe a tough choice.

I swapped to Bow.

I swapped to Bow because it gave me a lot of iframes and I liked that because like the dash, you know?

Bow also is like the least.

can like as a person who wasn't very using yeah as a person who uses bow on my character right now because i'm literally just playing aloy um

yeah it's not the most compelling thing to either watch or play with

but it's super easy and oh it's just great to go through life not even having to interact with things you're just like oh

i'll be over here bow bow it's great

A little bit.

It's just one of those things.

It's not my biggest thing, but Monster Hunter fans are rabid.

They are.

That game.

100%.

And the concept that someone may just not vibe with it is anathema to them.

And so whenever I'm like, ah, don't look like Monster Hunter, they lose their minds.

Monster Hunter is meatloaf.

Yeah.

Yeah.

But I will say,

I like Monster Hunter as

a core.

Yeah.

Okay.

Go with GF.

Monster Hunter at its core, I love.

I love jumping in and playing.

Gameplay loop-wise, not a fan.

Like, I don't like the grind.

I will play through it once, beat the, like,

story, and move on.

I will not try to get all the gear.

I will not try to look the coolest.

I will not do special bonus hunts.

I just don't care.

It's not, I'm there to watch Palicos cook, which they don't even cook right now.

Very upset about that.

And I'm there for, you know, like goofy side characters and monsters that I can fight.

Other than that, I'm not going to, like, oh, cool.

I can try on armor and see what it looks like.

Great.

That's good enough for me.

I don't need to go farm it.

I hate that.

I've never been a fan of the grind.

The only time I need a grind is

if I need it to beat the game.

But this game, you don't need it.

The grind takes place really afterwards.

It's kind of the way I feel about Diablo-esque games or POE.

Like, you can beat it and then it's like, now grind.

I'm like, no, I'm good.

You, you have fun.

You do.

You.

I'll be over here enjoying something new.

Yeah.

That's the issue I occasionally run into where you get a lot of like false equivalency arguments where it's where I played a lot of destiny, a lot of destiny.

And

I don't play it now, but I played like all the way through Final Shape and everything.

And I love me some destiny.

And you get a lot of like, how can you not like the Monster Hunter grind, but you play Destiny?

I'm like, they're different games.

Different

games.

They're completely different.

So I mean, I also have, I also have like 400 hours in Balatro.

So, like, what do I, you know, it's all different.

Plus, objectively in Destiny or an MMO,

there's future content that you need to be powerful enough to do.

So you have to continue getting gear to then go do it.

That's a different vibe.

Like, it isn't just...

oh, I'm moving on to the plus one, plus two, plus three level of the same thing.

It's there's a new patch dropping and there's a whole new dungeon I have to go, like that kind of thing.

It's just a different vibe.

Also, um

uh

oh wait wait so did they they don't have the the cats cooking the cool meals before that was like half the that was my favorite part when I played Warmer for yourself in this one they said in a future patch they're gonna update that but like that should be there from the beginning.

That's a shame.

Yeah.

That's a genuine shame.

What sucks is when you first start you it's like we lost we lost our supply team and supply team of course are all the palicos or the felines and they're like we lost them you got to go find them him like okay cool let's go find him so i go out i find him and it's very cute because the whole cutscene is a monster chasing these cats that have a giant slab of meat and it keeps trying to eat the meat and the cats are like yeah and you're just like i'll save them and fluffy jc is like i'll save you

like it's so cute And then you get them back to camp and I was like, I can't wait for them to cook me a meal.

I'm so excited.

And you walk up to them and they're like, hey, yo, we're your supply cats.

You got any supplies for us?

And you're like, none of you are going to cook.

You're literally at a place with a bunch of food.

Like, yeah, yeah.

That's so then you can go cook, dum-dum.

And I'm like, the shit is this?

Not a fan.

And it's the same quality cutscene.

You get to watch you cook a delicious meal, but it's like, when the cats cooked it, it was great.

And I don't.

Oh, also the cats.

have a voice.

You can turn it back to their old, like, meow, meow, meow, but they have a voice.

Honestly, I kind of want Fluffy JC to have a voice because he's like, Show thing, meowster.

I'm like, Yeah, that's my boy.

Is talking like the thing in Marvel Rivals.

Say, hey, Bub.

You can actually

change the pitch of their voice,

so you can actually have them be like, Hey, hey, what's going on?

It's the same voice, but you can just make it

cheaper, really.

That's pretty good, actually.

That's a good feature.

Yeah, so I played the shit out of try, Monster Hunter Try,

And none of the Monster Hunters that came after that, I could really get into.

So I tried Worlds.

I tried, you know,

all of the other ones that have come out since then.

And I would play it a little bit and go, yeah, all right, I'm good.

You know, I think they definitely want Wilds to be more accessible.

A lot of like hardcore Monster Hunter people are like, The base game is really easy.

And I'm like, yeah, but I think that's kind of the point.

That's the point.

Yeah.

You know, know, I love that it's more open world instead of instance-based.

I love that I can just fuck off out of my campsite and just run around and

like see the whole area and like fight stuff.

And, you know, I think that that's great.

I'm really enjoying this one, but yeah, I think it's because it feels less like.

All right, and now we go fight a monster and we come back to camp and then we queue up the next hunt and we go fight a monster and we come back to camp.

I feel more like I can just

vibe if I want to, you know, but yes, it is missing things like the palicos don't cook for you.

What the fuck?

Also, multiplayer is still kind of jank.

Multiplayer is a bit janky.

Yes.

It works.

It's fine.

You can still shoot off a flare or whatever, but like

still kind of jank.

And it's weird to me that we exist in a world, like no offense to them.

It's clearly not the intent of what they're doing.

But like this and Elden Ring, for example, like you have these games where people are just like, yo, I want to play with friends.

They're like, sure, you can.

It's just going to be the most frustrating experience to get it to work, but enjoy.

And I don't know why.

Like, come on.

We can work with that.

The fighting game thing where it's like, answer my questions three and you may join the lobby.

Yeah.

Why?

I don't know why they make it so difficult.

It's, it's inferior.

It was the exact same issue I had when I played.

I really like Armored Core.

I love it.

It was my game of the year last year.

And it did the same deal.

I was like, why can't I just click?

Match me with person.

And they eventually added it later with like a ranked mode.

But before it was like, click to join lobby of other person.

And then person can kick you out of lobby if they don't like you and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

Like it's, it was a whole thing.

Yeah.

So

cards on the table.

I was.

I was paid to play Wilds

as part of like, I know, as part of like a deal that they were doing where somebody who plays a lot of Monster Hunter would get paired up with somebody who either hasn't played in a long time or has never played.

So they paired me up with Limalicious, which was very fun.

Not

Sams.

Not Sam.

No.

Not Sam.

You need to get the height

equivalency.

That was the thing.

That was the main thing.

Is that what they're looking for in branded pairs?

You can't have a tall person with a short person.

That just looks weird.

It's if there was, if there was any, if there was any person under five foot who would absolutely beat me to shit, it would be Lime Malicious.

Because if I don't mention, if I'm like, ah, Marshall Hunter is not for me, she'd be like, what?

And then she'd kick my ass.

Yeah,

she loves it.

But we were definitely struggling with because they were like, we really want you guys to do the beginning of the game.

And at the beginning of the game,

you can't just like actively play together.

You have to like link your games.

And then when you start a hunt, you get pinged with an invite, you accept the invite, and then they port you all the way back to camp, and you have to run to the other person's hunt.

It's it was not very intuitive at all.

Um, Sam was saying it's better, like later on in the game, they let you just run around together.

I think it's weird that they don't let you just do that anyway, but

yeah, it definitely was a questions three.

I I said that it's like meatloaf because it's one of those games

where,

you know, when you say, I don't really like meatloaf, there's always somebody who's like, oh, but have you ever had it like this?

I think Monster Hunter is like meatloaf where you say, I'm not really into Monster Hunter.

It's not really my kind of game.

And somebody will be like, oh, man, we should play together.

Cause I think.

Maybe you just weren't getting the right experience.

You know, maybe you weren't using the right weapon, right?

Yeah.

That's actually insane.

Can I say that?

I literally did it to you often yeah of course thank you it's it's the thing because like me me reviewing video games 2025 guys it's just my opinion and my opinion might differ from other people and that's okay if you like this game if i don't like this game it's just my personal but maybe it's my fault i didn't like it and it's i lo it makes me lose my mind and so that's a that's a phenomenal metaphor thank you you know how you can tell when someone reads the comments when they say stuff like that

yeah you know i've stopped yeah like for a while now i feel like

Yeah.

You have to do the whole thing of like, look, I understand.

It's just my opinion.

The people that don't read the comments, you'll always know who they are because they never say that.

Because they haven't been beaten down by being told they suck because their one opinion was like not

it.

And you're like, cool.

All right.

I'm going to

make a new video now and spend 20 minutes in that video explaining why.

The thought I just had actually is just a thought and not actually my full opinion on the subject.

Please don't send me 18 emails.

Yes.

Yes.

Thank you.

You're hitting me closer to home at the current moment than I would have initially expected.

But I feel like this is a rite of passage that I think everyone just has to go through at some point.

My rite of passage just happened to be a little bit more recent, but it was,

yeah, it's a good point.

No, go for it.

I'll say, hilariously, I found there's a, I don't know why YouTube doesn't let you do this, but there's a U-block thing that you can remove so when you go to your youtube dashboard you can get rid of the most recent comments thing right there with like ublock to just get rid of it which i i'm so happy i do because they're always like

like random comment on video four years ago that is completely unrelated to anything and generally quite like angry or a bot and it's like i don't every time i look into my dashboard i gotta see that i'm just like slice that up part out and i'm gonna be honest i like the bots i'm here for it we need the bots come to my channel and they're like

Yeah, all of your bots are like

your content.

You're like, you must work really hard.

Damn.

Yeah.

I'm here for that.

I like the first one's there every day.

And every day they post things so nice.

And then the real people come and are like, you could have done better at this.

I'm like,

I wish everyone was a bot.

Minus the wow content.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It's interesting to see what people pick up on.

One of the things I've learned after doing this for a long time is you can spend 25 minutes of a video being completely accurate in your assessment of any topic.

But if you say one thing that they disagree with, that's all they're going to focus on.

And the rest of it doesn't matter.

And there's like, I don't, there's no winning in that situation.

So you just take the hit.

But

yeah, the result is you suddenly make all your videos prefaced and you add stuff to it to be like, oh, this is what I, what I said, what I just said a second ago, what I meant was this.

So we don't have to like,

you know, and then it knows you just, there's going to be some guys like, you don't have to say that.

We all understand.

I'm like, I don't think you do.

I don't think you do.

Yep.

That was, that was literally me last, last year.

That was, that was literally me with the new Space Marine game.

Exact same thing.

I played it.

I liked it.

I was like, this is pretty good.

The campaign feels a little bit mediocre at times.

There's some parts that I didn't much love.

And so the review whole thing through there, the usual type of deal.

And then just the like the instant, like massive wave of problems that kind of came with that.

And then

I kind of like had this little moment to myself where I was like, I've never gotten like death threats over a game before.

Like I clearly must be doing something wrong.

And I had like that little inner point.

So I was like, oh, you know, maybe I should like reform my opinions a little bit better in the next video and talk a little bit more about that.

So I did that.

And then like two months later, I'm like, no, they're just insane.

I shouldn't have made any adjustments because now I'm just like, oh, no, they're just ridiculous.

So I'm not sure.

The internet was for everyone.

Everyone being the key.

Everyone has access to it.

Even people that really probably shouldn't have.

And so you just got to take it.

You just sit there and take the hits.

It was wild.

I think it was just because that was like, like, I've had a really nice, smooth, general career.

And the most heat I've ever gotten about anything was on like this game review.

And I'm like, clearly something must have gone wrong with me because, like, this never happened before.

Nah, nah, I think, nah, people just, you know, they've got problems.

So

it's also humorous because it's not like I didn't like the game.

I liked it.

I just didn't like it enough.

It was like a certain level.

It's like, oh, but how can it ever be an eight?

This is a 10.

That those differences.

That's a tale as old as time, though.

Like, I feel like even when we first started making videos,

a website would give a game an 8 out of 10.

People would be like, why not a 10?

It's the best game ever.

Why not a 10 out of 10?

I guess

the sage wisdom of experience is coming from the two of you that I am now finally getting the character development for.

I must, and I don't know if this is a rant that needs to be done, but what the hell happened

to

people just

like

game reviews are either it's the best game ever or it's shit.

They're like an eight out of ten, seven out of ten.

There's no good games anymore.

There's so many games that came out that are good that aren't perfect.

And people are like, shit game, trash.

That's garbage.

And I don't understand when that occurred in the gaming ethos, but it has to be multiple blame to go around, right?

Like at a certain point, a lot of game companies,

we're not going to to give ones, twos, threes, fours anymore.

Like if your game's trash, we're going to give you a five.

Right?

Like, and that's, that's bad games are getting a five.

And then not average games.

Yeah, yeah.

So the score is already a mess.

And then you have people who are just so passionate about their thing that they'll come at you if it's not a perfect score.

And then you have all the different like

internet things that exist where people are just like, that's trash, and that's trash, and I hate this.

And it's at certain point, we just hit where the game is either perfect and it's the greatest game ever made, or it's garbage.

No one is happy with an eight out of 10.

And to me, I'm like, an eight out of ten, eight out of ten?

That's a great

five.

Yeah, that's like

I find myself, I've caught myself doing that on Steam a few times.

If something

is

very positive or mostly positive, I go, why only mostly positive?

Even though

it's probably still a great game, right?

It's very silly.

I try to catch myself doing that and instead just like go read what people are saying about it because sometimes it's like, oh, I ran into this bug and it ruined the whole experience and I'm giving it a zero, you know?

So, yeah.

I did a little scale.

Like, I shortened my scale a little bit to like a four, it's a four star, four brick, whatever you want to call it.

Where like, where like four is nearly flawless game, absolutely incredible, great stuff.

Three is a positives outweigh the negatives by a pretty good margin.

Two is the opposite, negatives outweigh the positives a bit much.

Um, like for like example, uh, I gave Space Man like a three.

I gave like the new Bacaldi Black Ops like a two out of the four.

And then a one is like major problems, real difficulties.

And I remember someone, a couple people specifically, when I was talking about that, be like, well, there's not much nuance between the four numbers.

And I'm like, that's what the video is for.

That's why you watch the review.

The nuance is in the thing.

The nuance is in the room with us right now.

This is what you get.

And I think that was one of my bigger crash out moments where I was like, we're dying.

The world is dying.

Yeah.

I mean,

and the seven out of 10, I see seven out of 10 IGN, like, even though that's a meme, really truthfully, and this is going against everything I like firmly believe because I love making fun of IGN, but like

truthfully, that's just saying it's a fine game.

A seven or eight out of 10, honestly, you want most of your games in that space because that's kind of what it's like.

It's a solid game.

It's a good game.

The problem is, I think we associate now a five out of 10, strangely enough, with grades in school.

And a 50% is an F, and that's trash.

Yep.

100%.

A five should be, this is an average game.

It is fine.

It's not good.

It's not bad.

It's average.

And if you want to pick it up when it's on sale, go for it.

Like, that's what a five should be.

And a seven or eight is like, yo, this game's good.

Is it something you need to play right away?

No.

But it's like, it's a good game and you should pick it up at some point.

And then a 10 is like, play this right now.

Get caught up in the moment.

You're missing out.

Like, that's what it should.

And we just stop.

And now it's, it's not even about scores.

Now it's like,

I like this game because I'm, I like this game and it's 100% the best game ever.

And everything else is shit.

Like, that's what it is.

And it sucks.

We, there's no game, real

review culture anymore.

It's a lot of reinforcing what you already think about that game.

Yeah, I was talking to my sister about this.

My sister's a really big film person.

She lives in downtown LA.

She goes to all like the screenings, like the Alamon, all those kinds of things.

She's super into that.

And what she was talking specifically about the idea that like she doesn't, she'll see like a general word of mouth for a movie, but if she watches a movie review, it's normally because she likes the film and she's excited to hear other people also talk about them liking the film.

So if they didn't or they had a more nuanced take, it's immediately at odds with her initial preconceived notions, which for her, who is like a normal functioning adult, she's like, oh, damn.

Where for the non-normal functioning adults, then you have a much bigger issue.

I also think to go to your other point when it came down to like game review scores or school grades, I feel like there's another weird thing where there's so many games now.

Where it's like, there are so many nines and tens that for some people, a seven isn't worth bothering with because you can i mean you'll have enough like you won't have enough hours in the day to play all the tens sure and i think like there's a like a weird level of subjectivity that needs to kind of be sprinkled like for example i think metal gear rising revenge is a seven out of ten game but it's metal gear rising revengeance like yeah i will recommend that game to everyone i know because it's absolutely hilarious and amazing in so many ways but like from like an uh i don't know objective sort of standpoint it's got problems you know um but it's weird.

Like, I recently played um Still Wakes the Deep a bit ago.

That's such a good game.

Yeah.

Love that game.

They gave it like a nine.

Incredible.

I'll never play it again.

No.

And it's, it's mostly.

No, it's like a kind of like a walking simulator.

Like, I don't think I would recommend it to everybody because it's maybe just not their jam.

Um, the same reason I wouldn't recommend like Red Alert 3, despite it being one of the funniest games I've ever played, but it's like an RTS.

Like it's not for, it's not for everybody.

So anyway,

it's interesting.

I feel like I don't know if I have you use Letterbox, but they do that thing where like you leave a review and then you can put like a heart.

The heart determines if you like really vibed with it or not.

Sure.

I mean, it's weird to say this because I always complain about Netflix, but I kind of dig the thumb and then two thumbs up.

Like, yes, thumbs, that was good.

But the two thumbs, like, I loved this and I want more of this.

And it's just simple and it's a good way to review.

Like, it isn't,

it isn't like a lot.

It's just, I like it, or I really like it.

And then it determines based on that.

Like, there's very few things where I'm like, I really like that.

And so, when I do that, I'm like, all right, I like that I can have a list of these are my best, my faves.

And then it algorithmically is like, you'll like this insane thing.

And usually I don't, but it's nice.

It's nice that they give me the option.

I saw this in chat.

Did either of you two play Liza P?

Yeah.

Yeah.

I fucking love Lies of P.

I made a video on it and I call it the best souls-like gameplay I've ever played.

And it was not clickbait.

I genuinely think it's the case.

Yeah, I felt like every time I talked about Lies of P, I had to be like, legitimately, it's so good.

And I'm not just saying it's so good as like a Dark Souls-ish game.

Like it is such a good game.

It is so good.

Every time I look at it, I'm like, oh, the Dark Souls got this part wrong.

Like the throwables, for example.

And then you use Throwables and Lies of P and they are like bustedly overpowered because they're finite.

And

I really liked that game.

It's also

really fun to watch people speedrun that game.

It's crazy.

They're so good.

It's fun to watch like a good, you know, games done quick where some guy's like, yeah, I'm going to do Liza P.

It's going to take exactly one hour.

And you're like, how?

And what way?

And he's like, no, so we're not even going to do that entire area.

I'm going to jump over it and I'm going to go fight this boss with my bare hands.

And you're like,

what?

Okay.

And they do.

And you're like, wow.

Love it.

I'm terrible at video games.

You're amazing.

You know.

It was, it was such a 2023.

What a year.

What a year.

What a year, dude.

It was so good.

I'm telling you, the Armored Corps 6.

I'm telling you.

Oh, that reminds me.

Did the two of you watch Secret Level?

I was just about to ask you absolutely did love it dodger did you finally watch it i watched a couple episodes of it did you watch the uh did you watch the armor core

which one is the armor core one cannot reevaluate

there's like the ninth one

it's like the ninth one did you watch the warhammer one god damn it no okay then that's like seven so like

did you wine

which ones did you watch

i don't remember i watched

the robot uprising i will watch the robot uprising one oh unreal tournament That one was great.

I think so good.

I got you.

Did you watch the Swordseneger?

Did you watch Arnold?

And yet.

No, you didn't.

I love the Arnold one.

You watch the Prince

of Son on the Island?

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

Yeah.

I watched that one.

I love the Arnold one.

It almost made me want to play that game, and then I realized I just don't care.

But I liked the Arnold one.

It was very cute.

I liked the Armored Core.

That was very nice.

The Warhammer is the best one.

Hands down the best.

It's the best one.

At first, no one believed me because they're like, oh, yeah, Brookie, of course, it's the best one.

I was like, no, no, trust me.

It's really this one.

The weirdest thing about it is

the Mega Man one.

I was like, wait, did you just make an intro for a 30-year-old game?

Is that what you're...

It's a weird vibe.

Yeah, it's a weird vibe.

I don't know why they did that.

But then...

Pac-Man.

Pac-Man, I was like, that's a fun little spin on Pac-Man.

And then I realized it's literally a game they're making.

I was like, wait, was that the cinematic intro for a game that's coming out?

Love that.

That's cool as hell.

So there's,

I will say, the funniest one to me, even though I like actually enjoyed the video itself, the Concorde one made me once again flash back to when I was watching the trailer during that live stream and was like, I swear to God, if this is a like 6v6, 5v5 shooter, I'm going to lose my damn mind because it doesn't look like it should be.

It looks like it's a story-based game set in a sci-fi world, which is exactly what the video they made was about.

And they're like, no, no, dude, you're shooting and looting.

Like, no wonder that game failed.

Like, why would you make that?

I don't get it, man.

Watching Concorde episode be like a top five was was prophetic.

It was just, it was, well, it was so funny.

It's like, this is great.

If this was not a hero shooter,

I would have played this.

If this was like Guardians of the Galaxy, the video game, I would have absolutely played this.

It has that vibe where it's literally you're like, if the premise of that game was

because, you know, we made a bunch of different characters you can have, you make a crew and you have that Guardians of the Galaxy vibe where you have ragtag band, but like there's a bunch of people you can have on your crew and there's a huge option for a crew.

And each one of those interactions, like that should have been the game.

Is it's like you get up the heists, you do things with your crew, but your crew are like wacky characters that you've assembled and based on every cinematic we've seen none of the crews in them are the same so the idea being oh there's different crews you can assemble with different characters and you like there's so many ways they could have done that game and i just

it obviously was a hey we need our looter shooter said corporate executive

Right.

Yeah.

Hey, we need our PvP shooter, said corporate executive.

Like that's, that's exactly what it's the exact same vibe as when League was blowing up and everyone was like, hey, we need our MOBA set exactly.

And then a wave of MOBAs came out and they all died.

Every single one died, except for like two.

And that's the same thing.

It's happening right now.

Heroes of New Earth.

Han, what a time.

Han.

Oh my God.

I haven't thought about that game.

I'm in that game.

You can hear my terrible voice.

Really?

It's true.

Yeah.

I played it at a PC cafe down in Mission Viejo, California.

Which unfortunately died.

No, it's a days.

I mean, yeah, the same thing.

Like MOBA, Hero Shooter, they all had their moments.

Did I think you two played Deadlock much?

I played it exactly one time and was like,

I don't think so.

I think it actually is going to be something.

I genuinely really enjoyed it, but obviously it's in closed invite beta or whatever that happens in right now.

Yeah.

But so, I mean, I really love the foundation they have for Deadlock.

I think it's pretty phenomenal.

But I am waiting for the obvious.

I think it is to MOBAs what Marvel Rivals was to hero shooters, where it is just going to be a very, very good version of that and therefore will blow past the difficulties that come with making another one of that genre.

Sure, sure.

I think the thing for me is that I think it confirmed that that's not my genre.

Having played it, I was like,

yeah, I'm all right.

So that's like, I don't,

yeah, that's like not a slight against the genre.

I'm just not a MOBA or a PvP shooter or like a Fortnite guy.

It's just not who I am.

I don't like those.

And so it's not against it.

You just don't want to see me play PvP because I'm like, I hate you.

I hate my friends.

I hate the world.

I'm going to burn this place to the ground.

That's like me after five minutes in a PvP game.

If one guy on my team dies and I'm like, what are you doing?

You're terrible.

Like, I shouldn't be like that.

You don't want me to have that power.

I'd be a bad king, is what I'm saying.

I'd be the kind of king you had to kill.

Like, he's gone mad.

18 million tweens.

The Arnold king.

The Arnold King.

With 18 million tween with my one friend who just wants a hand.

Yeah, that's me.

Dang.

I'm trying to think of the other.

What else is coming out this year?

Doom, right?

New Doom.

Yep.

New Doom.

It seems like a pretty light year.

I played Expedition 33.

Okay.

The trailer looked really interesting.

Yeah.

So I played.

I got to play roughly three hours.

I posted it over on the YouTube.

I posted just all three hours.

No edits, no nothing.

I was like, F it, let's go.

I timestamped it.

So if you want to move around, you can,

because it is a weird game, and I love that.

So premise-wise, for those of you who do not know, well, first off, it is an RPG in the old school JRPG fashion.

Mechanically, when you do battles, because it's turn-based battles, you can see the turn order on the left side of the screen.

And those fights...

When you are attacking, you can press A, at least on my controller, it was A, to buff those attacks.

So it's like, go to attack and there's a little QTE, boop, and you hit it the right time, your attack is now stronger.

And this is with physical attacks, magic attacks, whatever the case may be,

you can buff your attacks.

Similarly to like Super Mario RPG, when an enemy attacks you, you can dodge, completely dodge, or you can parry.

Now, if you miss, you'll take damage, obviously.

But you can you can go through fights not taking a bit of damage if you're good at parrying slash dodging.

And there's even a skill in the game called Dodger.

So there you go.

And you can equip it to people.

And when they dodge, they get a little bit of their whatever the MP is back.

They get an action point back whenever they dodge.

But if you parry, you then hit the enemy back and you do some like cool damage.

The interesting thing about it is

there are

layers.

of complexity to the combat.

So first off, each character has their own skills, right?

So, the three characters who got to play at play as were the main character, Gustav.

I think he's the main character.

His thing is swords.

Like, I guess he can magically create swords or guns or whatever with his hands, and he can use those to fight.

Then, there was, oh my god,

Luna.

She is

like a sorceress who can use fire and ice and

earth and lightning/slash wind.

And her thing is cyclical so like uh

a

fire spell if you cast an ice spell on someone uh the fire spell that you cast will eat the ice spell and do more damage if you have lightning on someone you can use earth and it will do more damage so you don't want to keep just dropping the same spell over and over again

ap you know your action point

you know applicable because sometimes you just can't and then mael mele whatever her name is who I think is supposed to be Guvsov's sister I don't have answers for you her thing is she's a fencer and so she switches stances so you can switch between like one attack will make you in the like aggressive stance but then you can take the aggressive stance and turn that into a balanced stance and it just determines how you want to use her in fight then you have pictos and pictos are the things you can add to your character think of it kind of like materia right and when you learn enough of it you can then take it off the character, and now everyone has access to it.

You can spend points so that everyone can unlock it.

So, eventually, one person unlocks Dodger.

And then, yeah, then everyone had Dodger.

And if you put the points into it, then you can really, you know, do that thing.

There is then weapons that you can get, and the weapons can be upgraded.

There is, I'm trying to think of all the different things that are in this game.

There's so many different layers of things you can do just in combat, right?

And then, gameplay-wise,

the basic story is, I guess it's Europe?

Question mark.

And either you're leaving France.

There's not a lot of answers in this demo.

Either you're leaving France or you're going to France.

Either way, you're in sort of a sanctuary for this world in which the Paintress, whoever the hell that is, has

shown up and warped reality.

And people over a certain age, whatever is written on this giant stone monolith, die.

They just get dusted.

And when a new number is written, everyone over that age, dusted.

And so your character is like, this is it.

This is my last year alive.

I got to go do something.

So you go to this land that is like this weird warped version of reality.

One of the things I loved about it is, and I talked about this in the video.

There's an area where like in the background is a giant statue that's like split in half and like open.

And it's like there's weird goop in it.

And there's like giant modelists but also beautiful forest and like gorgeous trees and stuff but then just a park bench and so it's like our world

but not

but also little vestiges of what was left and so as you go through it

you know the the demo that i had was sort of a i don't want to spoil it because it's really cool but like it's sort of an introduction to what's going on they give you a like previously on so they catch you up and then you go into this world and it's about learning how to play and the different mechanics.

But

also,

there's enemies that I don't understand how you're supposed to beat them.

Like, I was walking around and I came across a mime, like just a dude in a mime costume.

And he beat the shit out of me.

Like, I couldn't, I couldn't figure out the timing on his dodges, and my attacks were doing no damage.

I was like, damn, I probably have to come back to this guy at some point in the future.

And eventually, the demo takes you from this sort of forest area to the overworld map, which is what I was really excited about.

And the overworld map kind of has this like,

I don't even know how to describe it.

I don't want to say claymation look, but like, you know, those little tiny models when people do like the wide angle lens on the little tiny models on like a thing they built.

And you can see them, it has that vibe to it.

Stop motion?

Kind of.

Yeah.

But it's only in the overworld and it's really cool looking.

Like diorama.

Yeah, like a until everyone in chat's getting it much more accurately than me but one of the things that's interesting is in that overworld map you can camp and you get the exact same vibe as in balder's gate 3 when you went to the camp there's people sitting around you can talk to people you can have like really deep conversations with people but there's also room where it's very obvious other people are going to show up at your camp like there's just space for people to be yeah and uh i met someone during the demo that it was like yo I'll see you at camp.

And I was like, oh, but then the demo ended shortly after.

So I didn't get to go back in camp to look.

Oh, no.

But I bet you could, right?

If I stopped and left the area and went back out, I bet I could have done that.

Like even in the overworld map, it's pushing you in a direction.

It says go there.

And the place it pushes you is straight up like

a terrifying underwater thing that I don't want to.

It's just like.

One of Jesse's fears, you know?

And so it was funny that there's no like sharks or crazy things, but there's definitely jump scares.

I'm just like, why are you doing this game?

But then there's a whole other area in the overworld that literally the demo is like, do not go in here unless you little bitch.

And I was like, whoa.

But I didn't go in there because I definitely was.

I got beat up by a mime.

So I was like, I can't.

Sure.

So at that point, you're questioning whether you can kill anything, really.

Yeah.

But there's a ton of stuff visually.

It is stunning.

Again, I just threw up all three hours.

Go enjoy.

You can move through.

But the whole premise seems very dark.

Like gameplay-wise,

world-wise, it's beautiful.

It's like very light.

There's all sorts, you know, the light rays come through the trees and the world seems gorgeous and alive.

But like plot-wise, this game is dark.

It is really about like, what if we,

you know, like, you know what?

I'm going to zip it and I'll just say,

go watch the intro alone of that video.

I was like, what the sh?

So it's neat.

It's, it's definitely going going to be the game that I'm like obsessed with for a while.

Also, because it's just supremely weird.

There's things happening in it that make no sense.

There is

like I, one of the fights in the demo is this monster appears because you see a field that's perfectly manicured, and in the middle is one row sticking up, and your character goes over and like pulls the rows.

I was like, huh, and a monster jumps out and it's like, my rows.

And they have to fight this monster over the rows.

And you're like, well, what was that about?

I don't know.

Like, there's something clearly weirdly happening in this game and uh i'm here for it i'm absolutely here for it it looks nice

i i love my dark and and and depressing plots to my favorite things in games so uh that sounds kind of on my eye i saw the trailer at the vgas and i was like this looks weird and cool plus all the characters are like

so close to being real people Like the main character, Gustav, just looks like Robert Pattinson, just looks like him.

The girl, Luna, who's the girl who's like the magic, she looks like someone and I can't figure it out, but she so looks like, and then my eldest sister, she also looks like someone.

They all look like someone.

I just don't know who.

And it's driving me crazy.

Cause when you, they're like so well rendered.

They just look like they are.

People.

Yeah, I don't know.

Yeah.

It's very it's crazy to me, but I love it.

I'm a big fan of that game.

Definitely.

Oh, and for those who are curious, I wanted to figure out how to grind in the game because when I RPG, I go into boss fights way over leveled because I don't want to challenge.

I would just want to murder them.

And I was like, how would you do that?

It's straight up like a souls-like system where there are different flags from previous expeditions you can find.

You go there, you can rest, you can upgrade, you can do whatever.

And then when you rest, the world resets.

And so all the enemies return.

Okay.

And so literally in the demo, there was one right by an enemy.

And I just would kill the enemy, go back, rest, kill the enemy, go back, rest.

And I was like, yeah, I'm going to go fight that mime.

And then was immediately distracted by something else and never went back to the mime.

So the mime still won in the end.

Mime won Jesse Zero

for now.

Right, for now.

You know, I didn't want to spoil it for myself.

Like, what happens if you beat that mime and it's like, here, have the greatest item in the game.

Like, okay, I'll take it.

The first, the first three hours.

Yeah, the greatest thing that you can get right now.

And it also doesn't feel like the first three, if that makes any sense.

They definitely start you with things have already happened.

And when you get, when you first start, the message pops up that's like, the following is not in the game.

This is just a tutorial for the demo.

You're like, okay.

So it teaches you how to fight.

So clearly you've already learned how to fight before this.

I don't know.

I have no idea what to...

I love not knowing what the hell a game is going to be like.

You know?

Yeah.

Sure.

It feels nice.

Ricky, was there any other games that you played that you wanted to chat about or anything else that you wanted to touch on?

In terms of games?

It doesn't have to be a game.

You'll be like, guys, I read the most incredible novella.

Let me tell you all about it.

I mean,

we talked about the Grand Budapest.

I'm in the middle of reading reading Blood Meridian, but I don't really want to talk about that one

because that's not a great time.

And it's pretty awful.

I've always thought about it.

It was yesterday.

Yeah.

Do you recommend Blood Meridian?

Oh, geez.

Okay, so it's so funny.

So have you ever read a Carmack McCarthy book?

No.

Okay, so he doesn't use quotation marks.

Like at all in the whole book.

And like the way he writes is so

like No Country for Old Men does that too, right?

Yep, same thing.

I've read no country as well.

I've read the road.

It's so

like the way he describes stuff.

It's it's not like a particularly well-formatted.

It's got lots of run-on sentences, but it's almost like like epic and not in the term of like of like epic pog champ, like epic, like like the Odyssey, kind of very, like there's this long spanning, almost like poetic, dreamlike way of writing.

So I bought the book and I wanted to read the physical book, but I was having a a real hard time with it.

So

I actually, I started listening to the audio book while reading the book, like the physical book.

And then someone got me in chat and was like, bro is reading with subtitles on.

It's like, yeah.

Whatever helps you experience a book, dude.

Don't let chat shame you.

It is a great, it's a great book.

It's a hard one to read, not just due to the style, but also due to the subject matter.

It is very much like, here is the 1880s,

or maybe 1840s, I forget exactly.

Are you good, bud?

Spider?

Just like a comically giant bug.

That backup took so long.

Yo!

A murder.

Here comes the house now.

Give me a moment.

What?

I'm going to look that up.

What does it even mean?

A tarantula hawk?

Tarantula hawk.

A spider wasp that preys on tarantulas.

Yo,

that's crazy.

That's why you don't live in Orange County.

They got, it's terrible there.

They got spider hawks.

If they sting you, it hurts for 24 hours.

That's why you don't live in Orange County.

This is that good content.

Bro.

This is what people have tuned in for.

Watch us react.

Is this us reacting to someone losing their mind?

Sweating wildly.

Yeah, in like a day or so, Crendor will react to us reacting to this.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Honestly, worth it.

Very worth it.

Yeah.

It's the kind of content we're here for.

Real life Monster Hunter.

You can do it, Meowster.

I'll make you food.

Brings over a weird healing bubble, splashes it on you.

Yeah, like weird bug that we blow its butt out to heal us.

Yeah.

Tosses you an antidote.

Gulp, gulp, gulp.

Yeah, I want to be one of the cats that pulls you away when you're dead.

When you're laying there on the stretcher and I'm like, come on, Meowster.

That's what I want.

Or one of the ones that builds your tent.

I like those guys.

Those guys are cute.

Yeah, they show up and they go, bloop, bloop, blop, bloop, bloop, bloop.

Yeah,

I want to be them.

This is like a comical battle.

I don't know what happened.

Did you get it?

Is he dead?

Are you okay, buddy?

No.

You didn't get it?

He's still here.

I feel dumb.

I don't know where.

I mean, it's a tarantula hawk.

Therefore, it is completely harmless.

And Dodger says if it stings you, it stings for 24 hours.

They don't sting people.

That's what Dodger said.

Dodger said it's going to sting you.

I just Googled it.

Dodger said if you sting it, it lies.

Dodger said, if you stop hunting it, it's going to come and get you purposefully.

They know the concept of revenge.

Monster hunter.

I didn't say anything.

Dodger said that if you don't kill it now, he's going to find where you keep your food and crawl inside of it.

I didn't say any of that.

That's what Dodger said.

I got to be honest.

I think I believe Jesse in the situation.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It's going to, when you sleep, gonna crawl in your ear.

That's what I, that's what I heard Dodger say.

You know, I don't know where it went.

I mean, it's basically like a flying daddy long leg, you know?

I, right, yeah.

I so hope

that this is a Star Wars situation.

We're like, I don't know where it went.

And as you turn around, it's just on your back sitting there.

It's just waiting patiently.

It is in the literal bottom left corner, but it's it's I don't have the ability to hit it with this.

It's my shoes, I wear a size 13.

It's too thick of a shoe, so I'm going to send this like a ballistic missile into the corner.

Allow me a moment.

I believe in you.

Sure, of course, of course.

Did you hear that?

Do you hear that shoe size drop?

Do you hear this man go, I'm size 13.

I wear size 13 shoes.

Look at this.

Oh,

Oh, he hit him up like Gandalf.

The part I messaged this to you, but the part that I didn't read,

creature

is in the past, it was suggested that what's stung, the only response is to lay down and scream.

I see that.

You did it.

Good work.

Such a man.

So, so strong.

Good job, Meowster.

Wait, did you do it, Meowster?

Laser!

Pay turn to skin it.

It's got, you can get glasses off of that.

You can make some

glasses out of that, yeah.

Get a quest complete.

All right, well, that was a bit of a detour.

My apologies.

What was I talking about?

Oh, video games.

That's right.

You were talking about a horrifying book.

Oh, yeah, yeah.

Boomeridian.

Yeah, yeah.

Definitely.

Maybe don't, it's a pretty hardcore subject matter.

Very much the language of like the 1840s, including all of the very bad words.

So good book, but heavy.

Definitely would recommend it to like maybe 5% of the people I know.

Games, though.

Well, I watched Twin Peaks.

There was that.

Oh, that's right.

You've been out of town.

I've been out of town for a little bit.

Maybe haven't touched games as much as well.

I mean, for the most part, you know, when I'm leaving, I play Balatro because of Cork.

Because I'm three cards away from completionist plus plus.

Damn.

We're that card.

You're going to get the Witcher cards, dude.

They're free.

That's what I'm saying.

All the cards are free.

And then just, I've been doing the usual Marvel Rivals grinding.

It's just good.

It's fun.

It's a solid hero shooter.

The characters are good.

I like it a lot.

Besides that,

what have I actually been?

Not much.

I kind of just like rotate between some of my old vices.

I'm a big, um,

I'm a big COD zombies person.

Uh,

still huge on that.

I don't really play the new one too much, but I still go back to like Black Ops one through three and just play them

because they're just, I don't know, I, I joke that like they're like the first roguelite.

They're not, but they, they are basically like a roguelite in a sense.

Sure.

And so I really enjoy those quite a bit.

Uh, and past that, I don't really know.

I got some videos I want to get done.

I need to replay the Mass Effect series.

That's a video I've been, I've delayed for like a whole year.

Oh, fun.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Mass Effect's my favorite game of all time.

So, like, I mean,

I feel like Mass Effect is like the proto-nerd

series.

Like, the really early, hey, this is the

sci-fi video game series that came out like way back when video games were really, you know, showing what they can be in terms of like real stories.

And then I remember, oh, God, I went to

in like 2012,

I went to the Mass March,

which was a Sanyo Comic-Con Mass Effect 3 party thing where everyone got this inflatable Omni blade for their arm and would walk around gas lamp doing all this map, maybe all the cosplayers.

I remember really liking it because back then I was like in high school, sorry.

And then it was a bunch of folks like Mass Effect was a a game that a lot of girls liked.

So I was like, yippee, I'm glad I like this game because now I can talk to girls, which didn't much happen.

But then I got to meet like Jennifer Hale because she was doing a little autograph signing for like, what's femme shep going to look like in Mass Effect 3.

Nice.

And so I've got this like black-haired bob cut femme shepherd because that's the one I chose.

And they went with like the redhead one.

Great times.

Very, very,

very old school nerve when it comes to Mass Effect.

So I wanted to do like a redux, like kind of like a

Mass Effect 3 nowadays, or Mass Effect, how's it doing nowadays?

Um, you know, how the games hold up with my newer 17-year-later brain.

Sure.

How, yeah,

has it been that long since you've played them?

No, no.

I mean, I played the

I played, I played the, well, the first one's in 07, it was in 07, right?

Um, but then like, I played Andromeda the whole way through, and I, I confirm it is not as bad as people say it is.

It's not

but it's not terrible.

Hey, the squad mates were pretty good.

I have no problem with the squad.

The game,

every, like,

it constantly crashed.

I,

oh, really?

The thing that took me over the edge is there's this footage of me playing where I complete the first big mission and I spawn into the world and there's no world.

And my truck, me, I fall through the world and it respawns.

No world.

Literally, game soft locked at no world.

I didn't know what to do.

What?

Yeah.

Literally just

nothing loaded.

I don't know if I broke it.

I don't know what I did, but

not if.

So I just stopped.

I was like, you know what?

I'm done.

Like, it's not that good of a game that I'm going to keep playing because of this.

That's very fair.

That's very fair.

I was too much of a Mass Effect head.

So I played the whole thing.

I mean, that was me coming off of, like, I had, this is when I got COVID and I was out for like two weeks so i literally replayed one two and three loved that experience so much that i went back was like i'll give you know what i didn't give andromeda its shot when it first came out i'm doing it and i started playing and yeah it just consistently was broken and i was like nah And they did the table thing they tried to do in Inquisition.

That's in there too.

And it was like, log online.

I was like, there's no server with which to do that now.

What do you want from me?

Not a fan.

That's pretty fair.

I only remember the like the actual single player stuff for it.

And I remember it being,

I remember liking the squad mates and thinking the combat was decent and everything else being really mediocre.

So that was about where I stood.

But

I played,

I think I have like 700 hours of Mass Effect 3 multiplayer.

I played

so much of that game.

I think the multiplayer is a horrendously underrated product.

And the fact that it did not come back in the Legendary Edition is very sad.

Because it just, wow.

So I occasionally load up my Xbox to play the multiplayer just for my own personal enjoyment.

It's fun.

Like Mass Effect in general,

those first three, so well done.

So well done.

Not perfect.

But

they got issues, especially the third one, but still good.

The third one, no matter what you think about it, that DLC they dropped, that's like one last hurrah, is like one of the fun, most fun things that exist in a game.

It's straight up.

Yeah, it's like, come on, gang, let's give you a dope-ass James Bond pistol.

And as a person who only used pistols in those games, I was like, I'm your god now.

And I just went around blasting dudes at clubs.

Super fun.

Loved that.

That was a really, really, really good DLC.

That was just like a pure pure fan service thing.

But yeah, I don't know.

I'm kind of in between stuff.

I'm trying to get through Warhammer Rogue Trader currently because

I played the demo a bunch.

I think the prologue for Rogue Trader is phenomenal.

It probably is the best

40K game in terms of how it does.

the the the the universe i don't think anything has gotten this good at generally just showing like the concept of the game, how it operates,

how you are as like a high noble and how terrible you can treat people and how it's just so normalized.

It's a very, very, very good game.

I have,

I had no experience with Owlcat games prior.

And so I didn't realize that them launching a game is more like a three-year early access period.

And it's going to be updated and changed a lot over and over again.

So it was pretty buggy and pretty broken in the beginning.

And then I'm slowly kind of getting through it because the DLC they added is phenomenal.

And they're recently another one.

But it also came out like

three months after like Baldur's Gate 3 or something.

Yes.

It came out roughly the same time.

Yeah.

That's what did it in the most.

Because I haven't beaten Baldur's Gate 3, but I never played it until like

four months ago.

Until I was like, you know what?

I know everyone says about Mass Effect.

I I like Baldur's Gate.

So I finally ended up playing Baldur's Gate.

And immediately, I was like, I get it.

Just, just the, the, the quality of voice acting and the, the various characters.

And I got like, I think I just started act two.

I'm barely in this.

Oh, so you're like 120 hours in.

Right, right, right, right.

I'm a good, like, I'm on like 20-something hours.

Sure.

But I just like finished the Tiefling Camp.

section and it was like there was such like a warm feeling playing the game just this like general level of camaraderie and like the camp and everything.

I was, I was genuinely like, I get it now.

I fully get it.

Depending on how you play.

Yeah,

I mean, like, you could choose Manthara, and camaraderie is a whole other thing.

I threw her off a ditch.

She, I, I, she, I, I pushed her off like a cliff.

Also, I killed the dog accidentally.

So, like, this is my first.

Listen, okay, hear me out.

Hear me out.

I go to this, this, so, I, I went in completely blind.

Like, I, I, I knew nothing.

I, I'm just like, oh, I'll do my first-time experience.

La, la, la, besides like, oh, Shadowheart and Carlak are like hot, whatever, joke, the usual.

Yeah.

I was like, la, la, la, la, la, whatever.

And it's like, there's a dog and this like dude's corpse.

And I'm like, this dog is weird.

He's not understanding me.

So I yell at him.

And I'm like, hey, your master's dead.

And the dog attacks me.

and enters combats.

And I'm like, well, I don't, the game never taught me about non-lethal.

So I just threw a fireball at him.

Because I was like, how much must know this, this dog is important as opposed to all the other things I've killed.

And so I killed Scratch.

So, but that was like 10 hours before, so I can't go back to get him.

I must stress to you, you'll never be as bad as me.

I literally made a character called Jesse the Evil, and chat was like, do not hurt Scratch.

I was like, guys, I would never, I would never hurt Scratch.

And then much later in the game, I did the most evil thing, which was return him to his previous owner, who is not a guy.

Like a horrible

Oh, yeah.

And everyone was like, No.

And I was like, You wanted Jesse the Evil?

This is the most evil thing I could do.

And they're like, How could you?

I'm like, I didn't kill that dog.

I just put him in a much worse situation where he would wish for death.

Yeah.

So that's, you know,

Jesse the Evil.

Yeah, you got to be.

It's such a crazy, crazy thing.

As I was playing, and I was like, yeah, damn, the visuals are great.

The characters seem like really good.

I mean, the combat is 5e, which is fine.

5e has it has its issues.

It's probably the weakest part of the game is the combats.

But then as I was talking, I was like, why am I speaking to like a random animal with animal,

like speak to animals, and it's giving me a game of the year voice acting performance?

Why is like Goblin 3 giving me a game of the year voice acting performance?

It's just, it's wild.

My favorite voice line in the entire game is you meet a goblin.

The goblin just looks and goes, tribe?

And you can respond, tribe.

And he goes, tribe.

That's it.

There's, and I was like, this is the best voice acting I've ever heard.

It's so stupid.

It's just like, tribe?

You're like, tribe.

And he goes, tribe.

I don't know what any of that means, dude.

I don't know what that means, but I said it and I meant it.

That's good.

No, it's, it's a time.

I don't know what else I've been really up to.

I did Silent Hill 2 when it came out.

That's kind of somewhat recent, I guess.

Great.

You know, a little long.

Probably could cut the hospital section down by about half.

It's pretty darn long, but, you know, good.

I don't know the name of the voice actor who played

James.

I forget his name, but he was

absolutely stellar.

Really liked him.

But I don't know.

I can't think of really a whole lot else going on right now.

I try not to be like a, I don't think I'm normally like a multiplayer game main person.

I normally do like

single-player stuff when I can.

But right now, it's been, it's just been mainly rivals and stuff.

I don't know.

Cool.

Sometimes it's nice to get into the swing of playing stuff with other people for a while.

Yeah.

And the VTuber scene is so

collab driven that like...

Very true.

Yeah.

It's like, hey, we're doing a thing for rivals.

Like, sure, I'll join.

Then you just have like six random people.

We're in the game now.

Like, okay.

You know, so there's a lot of that.

Yeah.

Really quickly before we do news, there is a game that I really want to pitch to you guys.

Ooh.

That I adored.

So I love a Metroidvania, and I was like, I just really want to play a Metroidvania right now.

So I went on Steam and I literally just searched for Metroidvania to see what would show up as like the

first games, right?

And I own most of them, but one of them is called Mini Shoot Adventures

and it has overwhelmingly positive reviews.

It's a twin stick shooter Metroidvania where you play play a little sentient ship.

And I was like, oh, this looks adorable.

Just looking at it, I could not figure out what it was about it that would make people love it so much.

Guys, this game is so good.

It's so good.

It took me about 10 hours to beat it.

It's adorable.

You're a little sentient ship and you run around saving other sentient ships.

The upgrade system is really nice.

It just feels great to play.

The exploration is fun.

I loved it.

I thought it was so good.

I was like, wait a minute, this is legitimately like such a good game.

You know, clearly it has amazing reviews.

So plenty of people have played it before, but I had never heard of this game.

So

purchased and downloaded.

Yes, it's so good.

It is one and a half gigs.

Lovely.

Yeah.

It doesn't overstay its welcome.

It is not a huge game.

It's fantastic.

Highly ranked.

All your views are like glowing.

Yeah, they're really high.

Now, I mean, it's no Outer Wilds, but what is,

but rarely things are, you know.

Yes, but, but it's also not the greatest video game ever made out of wilds.

So

I give it an eight out of 10 because it's a garbage game.

Right.

I was

going to go

there.

You were getting there eventually.

Yeah.

Shout out to

Afropunk saying it's a good Zeldrovania.

I love that.

That's a perfect way to describe it.

A mix of old Zelda and Castlevania, Zeldrovania.

Yeah.

The style of how you like move around on the map and stuff is very Zelda, but you're a little ship.

It's great.

That's cool.

I love that.

And then literally right before this, I started playing a game called Proverbs.

It's a Minesweeper pit cross crossover where you are making a gigantic painting.

And the painting is like

in Minesweeper.

Yeah.

And so it's like sectioned off into little areas.

And you have to like solve each area at a time.

And once you solve an area, it shows you what that actual part of the painting looks like.

I don't think I'm going to do anything else until I've finished the painting.

Cause I

I love Minesweeper.

So

yeah, it doesn't, if it's only pit cross in that it's you're creating a picture.

It's not like a nonogram-esque game at all.

But yeah, if you like Minesweeper and you want to like combine that with like a goal of, oh, I'm creating a bigger and bigger picture sort of a thing, it's great.

I will be perfectly honest.

I do not like Minesweeper, but I do enjoy it.

Why not?

This is my Monster Hunter right now.

What do you mean?

You're clearly.

Maybe you just haven't played it the right way.

Oh, I mean, I do like these kind of spins on the, I mean, I'll say Balash for the 15th time.

It's a spin on like a normal formula like that, right?

So it's kind of a neat mixture.

Yeah, no, it's a.

I like these indie stuff.

For a long while, my number one thing was like overwhelmingly positive solo developer kind of indie game.

And so a lot of the ones I was, oh, I'm going to play Ultra Kill.

That's a big one.

You know, I'm getting really into.

Well, Hall of Night was not just one person, but like, you know, like very small teams.

Yeah.

And so Balatre was one of them as well.

And then so on.

Did I have you two play RoboQuest?

No.

So RoboQuest is a shooter, shooter roguelite.

It's basically like Risk of Rain and Doom.

kind of mixed together.

It's very fast-paced, but it is, I love it.

Oh, Romanly positive.

Again, still still getting some updates.

Visually, it's kind of like a little bit of a Borderlands cell-shaded kind of vibe, but it is kind of, I guess, like Borderlands, Risk of Rain, Doom.

Like the gameplay is very doom, very fast,

like rail grinding, zipline, or grappling hooks, et cetera.

I think it's, it may look a little generic when you look at the footage, but I would highly recommend it.

I think RoboQuest is fantastic.

Cool.

Definitely.

Wow.

So wait, wait.

Do you guys do news?

Oh, we have news.

Oh, boy.

Yeah.

We've left it very late in the show, so we might have to do it quickly.

But yeah, we normally hit some news.

Going quick.

Okay.

Yeah.

That's it.

Very quick.

In the news.

Stupid.

Metacritic announces 15th annual game publisher rankings.

And Sega.

takes the top of the list for 2024.

Metaphor, Shimegami Tensei, and Like a Dragon pushing it to the top.

It beat out Capcom, which was 2023's winner, and Sony, which was 2022's winner.

Sony dropped to fourth, and still ahead of 2021's winner, Microsoft, who dropped dramatically.

And for those who are curious, because we're talking about the big ones, Nintendo was ranked 22nd.

Here's the top 10 really quick.

Sega, Capcom, Axis Systems, which does visual novels and stuff.

Sony, Focus, Gamera Games, which is like indies like Cross Blitz and Shredder's Revenge and that kind of thing.

Square Enix, Raw Fury, Microsoft, and Anna Perna were the top of the list.

And of course, this all seems to work perfectly because Sega just announced that they're going to put out fewer games and instead focus on the big titles that are winning them so much praise.

So expect more Persona likes and more like a dragon and more Sonic.

That's just going to happen.

Capcom, though, is like, no, we're not out of it yet, dude.

Because Monster Hunter came out.

It hit 1.38 million people playing playing on Saturday, making it the eighth game ever to pass over a million current players.

Doesn't mean there aren't mixed responses to the game.

A lot of bugs, obvious microtransaction nonsense, but all in all, people are really seeming to enjoy the game.

Speaking of weird microtransaction-y things, this is your side of the pond, Dodger.

Yeah.

Sony is leasing PS5,

PS5 Pro, and PS Portal consoles to UK players for a monthly fee.

I don't know why it's just the UK leasing.

They're working with a company there in the UK for a, I guess, a leasing firm called Raylo.

And it's the Flex program.

And you can sign up for 12-month, 24-month, or 36-month terms.

And it's basically a monthly fee cancel at any time.

A PS5

digital is 21 pounds, 22 pounds.

PS5 standard is 24 pounds.

A PS5 Pro is 36 pounds, et cetera, et cetera.

But then a 36-month contract, PS5 Digital, that's down to 11 pounds, dude.

I'm not sure I understand why this exists.

Oh,

for 36 months, technically.

36 months at 10 pounds for a PlayStation, 11, technically cheaper than buying the product altogether.

And if a PlayStation

6 is coming by 2027, 2028,

I mean, then you just

give it away.

It's weird, I don't get it, but

I get it.

Yeah.

How often are people buying a console for a specific game, playing the game, and then not really touching it?

So you're saying they could lease the console for a month.

Lease the console, play the game they want to play, and not be like, God, I wasted 600 bucks on that thing.

Yeah.

I mean, whenever I think about that, I think about like the, the, the dad gamer, John, Jonathan Varsity, who has like two kids and like a normal desk job.

And he, he goes home, he goes home.

He, yeah, he goes home.

He never plays video games, but Marvel Spider-Man 2 came out on the PlayStation 5.

So he bought a PS5, he played Spider-Man 2, and he never touched it again.

It's weird because it feels like it's solving a problem that we created.

Because you would just go to Blockbuster Video and rent a game console slash games.

That's a thing you would do.

We killed that.

And now it's back, baby, which is so weird.

Hollywood Video,

Gamefly.

I was the biggest Gamefly user.

I loved Gamefly.

It was so good.

I loved Gamefly.

And

I mean, subscription services.

How do you get the hardware?

Do they just ship you the PlayStation?

I mean, I guess, I guess since it's UK only,

it seems like it'd be easy to do so.

Because I know about all the problems that come along with shipping pre-built PCs, for example.

Sure.

And like, you know, whenever you go buy a console, you normally just go to like the store and buy it.

It's one of the few things I don't order online is things like consoles.

Because you don't want it getting rattle-addled.

And also, you know, I would rather just, I just get the day of, you know, great, granted, I guess it's a little, it's a little different, but

that is kind of strange.

I don't know.

I mean,

I would say they wouldn't do it if there wasn't a.

Should I lease one?

And then

maybe.

I would love to know what the process is.

Yeah.

Yeah.

What's the company?

Oh, boy, I just closed that window.

I don't know.

Just look up PS5

Lease UK.

You'll probably get an article about it.

Oh, yeah.

Raylo.

Got it.

There you go.

Also, speaking of like things that I didn't know we needed, but like I'm interested in, Amazon's partying with Jackbox to release an app that will be on TVs that is literally just Jackbox games.

And they're going to slowly roll out every single game that's ever been released for Jackbox for that.

It'd probably take some time, but they say they're going to start with a few and then keep rolling them out.

And they're going to start with only a few TV platforms, but eventually it'll be on everything.

Honestly, kind of here for it.

They're like, it'll be something that is an app on your TV.

You can play and it's, you can use and it's free.

There will be commercials, but it's free.

And I guess there's a paid subscription thing.

I wouldn't pay for it, but like, you know, I can see hanging out with friends and playing some TKO on an app on your, like,

you know.

Yeah.

I mean, most people like have a, like, at least the smart TV is pretty darn popular.

Yeah.

And so just having that there is pretty good.

I'm surprised like Roku didn't buy it or something.

You would think they would be the ones.

Yep.

Hmm.

All right.

And then last but certainly not least, this is mostly for Dodger because I know how much you love Disco Elysium.

Oh, hey, me too.

Me too.

Me, me too.

I'm the one who's a girl.

You just love Disco Elysium.

Is he for this Kim?

Gun me, Kim.

Oh, my God.

Did we play the same game?

Some of the team that worked on that game, who is now working on a game called Triple X Night Shift for Dark Maths Games, they just announced that they have

composer and producer joining the team who is like big time Hollywood working with Miley Cyrus and Kanye West and all sorts of different people.

So very interesting to see how that relates musically to this game, especially against.

Yeah, I'm curious what the vibe is.

Yeah, one game.

One pretty good.

One.

Well, yeah, one

currently problematic, but musically pretty brilliant.

True.

Very true.

And so I'm very curious about this because I don't necessarily know what this game is.

Literally, the only information about Triple X Night Shift is it's an ambitious project.

I don't know what this game is,

but I love, I love the

Triple X Night Shift sounds like a game that I would love.

So I don't know what this is, but I'm here for it.

I love when people are like, we're going to make some art right now.

We're going to get real weird with it.

So, sure, let's go for it.

Depending on how you played Disco Elysium, it was a very weird game.

I mean, I think any way you played it, it was a weird game.

I mean, I could never bring myself to be like fascist Harry.

Like, I think I would lose a part of my soul.

And the reason that I was laughing when you said that about Kim is because when I was playing, every time we started playing, I would be like, remember, guys, we do whatever Kim says.

It doesn't matter.

Whatever Kim wants us to do, we'll do it.

And like, I cannot imagine playing as like a hardcore racist in that game.

I can't, I can't do it.

I can't do it.

I can't do it.

I can't physically do it.

No.

There's the, so you know, when you, when you put the gun in your mouth to intimidate Titus, if you fail the check, yeah.

I did that and I tried it again and I failed it again.

And so I went to Kim and I was like, Kim, I have an idea.

And Kim's like, absolutely not.

And then one of the options is, gun me, Kim.

And so I always, I say that quite often.

But yeah,

there's like four studios coming out of Zombs, like ashes in a way.

Yeah.

It's weird.

I don't know.

Because on one hand, Disco Elysium, what happened to it is the most Disco Elysium thing that could have ever happened to it.

As sad as it is, it's very on brand for the story they were telling.

Yeah.

But on the other hand,

someone told me a while ago, it was something kind kind of nice.

It was like

every business has an idealist and a realist.

The idealist wants to hire everyone and has all these grand ideas.

And the realist does the budgeting and fires everyone.

And if one person gets control of the company, the company will die.

And it's this constant like scaling act between the two of them.

I do wonder if all of these spin-offs are a bit more on the idealist.

side of things.

So if I had to garner a guess, I would maybe only think one of them would maybe like really see the light of day or at least be extremely good.

And I'm a little bit unsure if the other ones are going to make it, you know, especially with how hard it is to get funding right now.

Cause getting publisher funds is really tight at the moment.

Yeah.

So I don't know.

Call me cautious more than anything.

Yeah, for sure.

That's news.

Is that the news?

Yep.

We did it.

Fantastic.

Ricky, you have been an amazing guest.

Thank you so much for being on the show.

Absolutely.

Would you like to tell everybody, what are your plans for the upcoming week?

Where can they find you?

What's your vibe?

Well, they can find me at Bricky.

I luckily got Bricky on like every platform except for Instagram, but I'm okay with that.

I know, right?

I know.

I had to pay someone a bunch of money, but it worked out.

Honestly, I'm probably going to try my best to get back into the swing of things and stream tomorrow and Sunday.

I'm probably going to do just some chatting and then maybe I'll play some other game after that.

I haven't played Fire Watch.

I have been

so great things.

So I want to get into that.

But past that,

pretty much just the usual.

I'll be doing my usual type of thing, working on my stuff.

And

I'll be, well,

I actually want to kind of cook up a few like weirdo projects.

So

I can't talk much about it, but I know late March and early April, there'll be a bunch of stuff rolling up.

So yeah, I'll just be around.

You can find me at Bricky.

That's it.

Fantastic.

It's pretty simple.

Go follow Bricky for all

the weird future projects.

Yeah.

Yeah, for stuff that I can't or can't say.

You know, that's about it.

Perfect.

Usual.

Fantastic.

Yeah.

Genuinely, thank you for having me on.

I really appreciate it.

It's been a great time.

It was super fun.

Yeah, it was a great time.

I really appreciate it.

And

it was good to just kind of hit every point of gaming.

I feel like sometimes when I talk with some folks, they have their one facet and then they don't have a little more all-encompassing all-encompassing of the different kinds of games and things and so it's nice to have like a good a really good spread you know yeah absolutely

well i think that's that's what's fun also is when you have somebody on and they're playing stuff that's totally different from what you are right like yeah well i got spurs conversation adventures to play now so it's so good you're gonna have some great

you know maybe mini shoot adventures will be the thing i play next week then here we go wait there's a mini shoot plushie oh it was 2024.

You missed out.

You missed out.

It's just, it's just the big thick ship.

It's a little ship.

It's a little ship.

Yeah.

That's so funny.

All right.

Thank you again so much for having me on.

Of course.

Yes.

Jesse, what's going on with you?

You know, the stuff, all the things.

Man, shamelessly promoting as usual.

The new Monster Prom demo is out.

Please go play the demo and wish list the game.

I will shamelessly keep that going.

Also, this coming Monday is a brand new episode of Tell Me About featuring the wonderful Aim of the Amazonian talking about Magic the Gathering and the new updated Magic the Gathering and how that all works.

I've got a lot of questions about whether I can use my Street Fighter Final Fantasy Assassin's Creed deck legally at competitive tournaments.

I have questions.

Like, is it possible to do that?

I don't know.

So, if you want to find your answers about the current state of Magic Gathering, that is the episode to watch.

Fantastic.

As for me, I'm going to keep trying to finish this

big Minesweeper painting, I guess.

Hard-hitting gameplay over here.

I'm still having a lot of trouble getting rivals to work on my computer, but I would love to play more rivals again.

It's been a while.

Yeah, just

whatever suits my fancy.

I got nothing super exciting happening.

Although, Sam did message me to say, I can't believe I got so harassed in my DMs.

There's a mixer on the way.

So

he bought it.

So

thanks so much.

You're welcome.

I received a, she makes money.

Why do I have to buy a mixer, too?

That's what I said.

I was like, I'll buy it.

Anyways,

I love how your version was very, you must have wrote something clear because to me, he wrote, a mixer, like for alcohol?

What the fuck is a mixer?

That's what he, that's what he sent me.

In the end, it all came together.

It all got

through.

But that's very funny.

That's what matters, really.

Thank you all so much for watching.

Yes, what's up?

No, I was just saying, speaking of, don't know what you're doing in this world.

Mid-May, I will be at London Comic-Con and then flying over to

the place,

Rotterdam, for TwitchCon EU.

I will be in the UK for a couple of weeks.

There should be some shenanigans to be afoot.

I'm sure I will pack a mixer and give it to Sam.

That's awesome.

If Dodger does meet you, I would love to know what that's like.

Why?

What does that mean?

She avoided me

in the UK.

Because I was in the UK.

She avoided me last time.

Oh, shut up, dude.

Literally, she was like, I'm going to see you.

Not true.

I believe that's what happened.

She had the X-Ration 33 perk.

How dare you?

How dare you?

Gang, thanks so much for watching Geekenders.

If you would like to watch past episodes of Geek Enders, all of the VODs are on youtube.com slash Jessecox.

We're also on all of the podcasty things.

But we'll be back same Geekenders time, same Geek Enders channel on Friday.

So take care of yourselves.

Have an amazing weekend.

And we'll see you next time.

So long.

Bye-bye.

Yeah, yeah, you know what time it is.

It's time for the Geekenders podcast.

Mega Rand, Jesse and Dodger.

What up?

Let's go.

Yo, it's the weekend.

Yeah, it's time to geek out.

Let it be kid.

Go on, stream and shout.

It's Jesse and Dodger.

So give them a follow and see what the geek enders are all about.

Yo, it's the weekend.

Yeah, it's time to geek out.

Let it be kids.

Go on, scream a shout.

It's Jesse and Dodger.

So give them a follow.

Number one geek podcast without a doubt.

Yep.

Another end of another long week.

Got a job and a kid, I know that you all beat.

So take a second, grab a drink, and vibe.

While we catch you up in just a matter of time on gaming, comics, whatever you're doing.

If you're nerdy like us, then you know you should tune in.

Thank you for sharing our world with us.

Now follow, subscribe, and turn this up.

Yo, it's the weekend.

Yeah, it's time to geek out.

Let it be good.

Go on, stream and shout.

It's Jesse and Donjon.

So give them a follow.

Number one, Geek Podcast, without a doubt.