57: The Geekenders: Marvel Rivals Has Someone for EVERYONE!

Start your journey toward the perfect engagement ring with Yadav, family-owned and operated since 1983.

We'll pair you with a dedicated expert for a personalized one-on-one experience.

You'll explore our curated selection of diamonds and gemstones while learning key characteristics to help you make a confident, informed decision.

Choose from our signature styles or opt for a fully custom design crafted around you.

Visit yadavjewelry.com and book your appointment today at our new Union Square showroom and mention podcast for an exclusive discount.

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 begin.

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 begin.

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 Geek Enders.

Happy New Year.

Did you just dab into the new?

It's 2025.

You're dabbing?

Of course.

Wow.

Was I not supposed to?

Is that a mastake?

Should I?

I don't know if it was a Mars sticker, but I am.

Mars sticker.

Yeah, I don't know if it was a Mars sticker, but I do know

that I

found it unexpected.

That's good.

We love a surprise in the new year.

But here's the thing.

It wasn't the surprise of you doing it.

You dab frequently in a way that I am uncomfortable with.

But it was the fact that you decided to do it in 2025 that's the shock to me.

I thought for sure.

You thought I was going to

leave this behind,

yeah.

And ice bucket challenges.

I thought for sure that you were gonna leave it in the past, but no,

to be fair, you brought it with you.

I don't shocking.

I don't ice bucket challenge.

I know.

I'm okay.

Not anymore.

Who does?

Maybe we should bring them back.

What if you have to dab into the ice bucket?

Done.

Solid.

And you dab into the ice bucket and then you plank and freeze.

You dab, somebody dumps ice water on you, and you have to hold the dab.

Right.

But the angle of your hands pours water onto someone planking beneath you that you're standing on.

There we go.

You create the slide

for the ice.

Right.

Right.

And then it pours down onto the, I assume, head and or butt of whoever you're standing on.

I love it.

I think this idea has legs, has butts, if you will.

Right, right.

I mean, if an idea has butts, it's going to be a good idea.

Absolutely.

I agree.

It's going to be a solid idea you know what else i run in the new year with oh boy yeah

i just saw sonic 3 did you like it i haven't seen it yet it was it was a delight

i can't tell

is that a genuine you loved it here's the thing i think for whatever reason

In these movies, the way that they write specifically Sonic's dialogue,

I can't stand.

It drives me absolutely insane.

All right, we're on the same page.

I think all of his, in the commercials, when they show his like

one-liners or his, the things that he says, and you're just like,

dude, there's a part.

It feels very kid-targeting.

Yes.

There's a part at the very beginning of the movie.

Where somebody's like, halt, aliens.

And Sonic goes, there's no aliens here.

Oh, wait.

I guess we are from another planet.

So we are aliens.

And I was like, was that a joke?

You weren't sold on the Konichi

line of dialogue from the trailer.

That was

also in the movie.

That was also another moment in the movie.

Not a fan of any of that.

I absolutely agree with you.

However, having seen the previous two Sonic movies, loved both of them.

Like, loved both of those movies.

Bro, same.

I think they're great.

And honestly, I was just telling someone that I watched an interview with Idris Elba and Keanu Reeves.

They care about Knuckles and Shadow so much.

It's so sweet.

I love it so much.

Like they, they really put their whole ass into these characters.

And it just,

it makes me so happy.

Like, like

Shadow is Keanu's little baby boy.

It's great.

I love it.

Yeah, I had a blast.

I think specifically like the like action scenes in these movies just get better and better and better.

Sure.

There's tropes that they put into these movies that I'm a sucker for, along with just the fact that I've always been a Sonic kid.

So,

yeah.

So, I had a great time.

I was there with two six-year-olds who were,

they, dude, it elevated the experience so much for me because every time they did anything cool, my kid was like, whoa,

it was amazing.

It was so great.

She was so into it.

I don't want to go go with children.

I want to go with like GameCube kids who are the kids, like who are like 30 and they're going to be really excited because

they're going to play the song from that one Sonic game or like, oh my God, that character showed up and all that stuff.

I want to do that because I want to experience them in their full, not even like nerditary.

Like a social awkwardness level that is beyond description.

You know what I mean?

Like

getting,

it's like when you

saw a dude get, you know, he's like in his 40s, but he's like really excited about my little pony.

Yeah, you're like, I'm happy for you that you love this, but also I just want to be around to watch this happening because it is a rarity.

I'm going to see something that not many people see, and I'm very excited to witness this.

So that's, that's what I want in life is to go see it with them.

Yeah.

Yeah.

The people that really love Sonic,

it's like a weird lifer thing.

I don't know what it is.

There will never be a moment in my life where I'm like, you know what?

I just don't think I care about Sonic anymore.

It'll never happen.

It's just been too much of my life.

I was playing rivals with the lovely Amy the Amazonian.

Of course.

And Amy.

In all honesty.

Yes.

Why did you pick the character you picked?

When, when?

What do you mean?

When you were playing Marvel Rivals.

I played two little nasty boys.

Yeah, I'm asking, why did you, like, when you found the two little nasty boys, who are they first off?

And why did you pick them?

When I say,

hold on, let me change.

When you say two little nasty boys, immediately my brain goes to Jeff and Rocket.

Okay, when you say two little nasty boys,

I think Jeff and Rocket.

Okay, Rocket's one of my nasty boys.

I think that Rocket was like a pretty obvious pick for me.

When I asked Sam

who he thought I was playing the most of, he said Rocket immediately.

He had junkrat vibes.

I will say, I think Squirrel Girl, from watching other people play her, I still haven't played her.

Squirrel Girl seems to just literally be Junkrat.

But I don't know.

Rocket's like a really easy support to play, I think.

Like he's, he's very, he's just got the suppressive fire.

He shoots little bouncy balls.

He puts down a everybody's stronger now

thing.

It's, you know, it's pretty simple gameplay.

So he's nasty boy number one.

Absolutely.

I recently branched out into another nasty boy.

And it's not Jeff.

I can't believe you thought that Jeff would be a nasty boy.

Jeff's a little nasty boy.

I don't care what anyone says.

I don't think he's a nasty boy.

He's a sweet little man.

Okay, yeah.

There's a difference between a nasty boy and a sweet little man.

Sure.

My bad.

I have very little experience with nasty boys or sweet little men like you.

Sorry.

Who else?

It's not something I spend a lot of time thinking about is nasty boys and sweet little men.

It's just not on my radar.

Yeah.

I don't, I, I have no idea who, who another nasty boy would be.

Hold on, hold on, hold on.

Loki.

Yes.

There you go.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Loki, I just

like started playing in the last couple of days, but he's so fun.

He's, he's much more complicated, but not

like deeply confusing like Doctor Strange is for me.

I can't get anything done as Doctor Strange.

He doesn't make any sense to me.

But I like Loki a lot because it's just a lot of like, I'm going to stay out of the shit and put little clones in the shit instead.

And

if I can manage to keep them alive, I do a lot of healing or a lot of damage.

Okay.

And that's fun for me.

I think the point I'm trying to get at here is that my Jesse Cox theory of successful video games stands firm because I know you.

You don't overtly go for the sexy characters.

You go for the little gremlin-ass characters.

And this game included gremlin-ass characters.

There's someone for everyone, and they're nailing it.

And then they just said, hey, we're going to release all the Fantastic Four.

Yeah, Fantastic Four are coming out.

It's crazy because that's four characters in the span of how many months that they're putting out compared to Overwatch, which is like four in the course of its lifetime or something wacky like that.

Like, that's crazy.

I mean, fortunately, they have such a deep well of characters to grab from.

And they made it pretty clear.

From scratch.

Yeah.

Yes.

And they made it clear that they're fine with a deep cut, right?

Like they're down to just grab a character from a thing where this person existed once, right?

Yeah.

It's been kind of interesting because some people are like, oh, maybe they'll also add this person.

And in my mind, I'm like, is four characters to add to the roster in season one not enough?

I don't know.

I would rather, and I think most people would rather that they're consistently adding a a couple of characters than that they just blow a load like right at the start and be like here's a ton integrating just a couple at a time i think would be bad i will say the internet is uh very predictable super horny for uh sue storm here's the thing of course you're all wrong it's all about my big orange boy my rocky orange boy you're all fools That's the sexiest one.

And I don't know what your problem is.

You just, you're telling me that a man who his whole powers he just bends a little bit and a woman who turns invisible and then her brother who's just on fire are cool.

No, it's rock man.

It's the rock man.

Yeah.

Ben Grimm, get it through your head.

That's the sexy one.

You don't get it.

Y'all don't get it.

Y'all understand.

I was surprised.

I don't know what else they could have possibly made him into, but it seems like they're kind of going out of their way to subvert what people expect a character is going to be.

And I was like, is the thing going to be a tank?

And it sounds like he probably is.

I don't, again, I don't know what else they could have done with him, but I was like, are they going to somehow.

I feel like it's a counter.

Like, there's a bunch of big guys.

So to have a big guy to counter the big guy, I think would make a lot of sense.

You know, to create someone later in the development of the game.

You know what I mean?

Like, all right, we have a bunch of big dudes.

Well, we need a big dude whose whole thing is like to beat the crap out of big dudes.

I think it would be very clever if they did that, but I don't know.

Yeah,

so it's fun.

Yeah, I'm having a lot of fun with it.

Just like if there was, if there's justice in the world, there'll be a lot of clips of Hulk and Thing just like beating the crap out of each other, but no one takes damage.

And it's just like a fight with, like,

that'd be so funny.

That'd be incredible.

But we'll see.

It's on you.

I currently feel like it's a little too easy to kill the Hulk.

I don't know.

I feel like, and maybe, maybe they decided that because

he Bruce Banners, right?

So, like, yeah, you can get rid of the Hulk, but then you also have to deal with Bruce Banner or the Hulk just comes back, right?

Right.

But, like, I'm always surprised about how easy it is to kill the Hulk.

And then

if Bruce Banner is just out in the middle there with his little pew-pew, he's going to die too, you know?

Yeah, I mean, for those wondering,

Bruce Banner slash the Hulk is literally D.Va from Overwatch.

Just like, if you were curious, that's the vibe.

It's D.Va from Overwatch.

In terms of like, yeah, having a big body that becomes a little body.

You have to protect the little body to be able to get a bad body.

With a big body.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Same mental attitude.

Yeah.

It's a fun game.

It's one of those ones that I definitely can't put time into because I'm a salty little bitch boy.

But,

you know, I wish everyone who enjoys it the best.

But I

get like fun.

You're not even trying to have fun.

You're just ruining my day.

Like, you don't want that.

You don't want that version of me.

I'm the worst in PvP.

You don't want me there.

Like, no one else is the problem.

I am not the problem.

I am a good boy.

You don't want that.

You do know about good boys.

Yeah.

I mean, like, because I am one.

That's like, you know, takes one to know one, as they say in the streets.

Right, of course.

You are a Jeff deep in your heart.

Yeah.

yeah.

I mean, like, I've become the shark.

It's like I'm the Batman of sharks, but I'm Jeff, and I swallow everyone.

Yep, yep, that's what I do.

You play Splatoon

with the other Jeffs.

Yep, that was their seasonal event, it was just Splatoon, but everybody's Jeff's on Jeff's.

Yeah, yeah.

Oh, I saw.

Oh, I saw

lots of Jeff on Jeff violence.

Yeah,

yeah.

Oh my god, did you hear that someone found the butt night clip?

No,

you found it on dropped frames.

I wasn't even there.

I'm taking, I took a graze when I didn't even exist in the situation.

All right,

first off, it was a podcast,

and JP has been on our show often enough

that it's almost an extension of this show.

So, okay, vis-a-vis

concurrently

and concordantly,

I heard it from you.

No,

absolutely not.

After all that last week, I refuse.

I need you to look me in the eyes and be like, I'm so sorry, Dodger, I was wrong.

I

was wrong.

Period.

Bring it up to you, knowing you would gaslight me into thinking it was something else.

I shouldn't have done that.

You're right.

I shouldn't have done that.

I shouldn't have brought it up.

My bad.

I shouldn't have said you told me when I know you suggested it and it leaked into other conversations.

And really, you didn't have to be there.

No.

I'm look.

You're saying the spirit of Dodger, who's with you always,

guided you to that game.

Is that the pitch?

I'm sorry that you feel like I blamed something on you that wasn't your fault.

But

I can't control how you feel about these things.

And

when you get all emotional like you do,

it's hard to have a conversation with you because anything I say, you turn back against me in a way that makes me feel bad.

And I don't know why you're trying so hard to hurt me when I've done nothing wrong but love you.

And I just don't understand

why

you want to hurt someone who's only shown you kindness.

I thought it would take longer for you to break after that.

Yeah, no, I was breaking halfway through.

I was like, I had some break.

I realized, I was like, I'm going to go down this crappy YouTube apology route and let's see how far I can go.

And I got too far, honestly.

I was like, I'm good at this.

This is why you need a dog.

You didn't have a dog.

I could have petted the dog the entire time.

Yeah, it's a pet while you were doing it.

Yeah, it's just me and The Viticus Pooch over here just trying to live our lives.

Oh, Leviticus, how am I going to tell them?

I just don't even know how to bring

it up.

You know what?

There's only one way I can.

They say, Dodger.

Nice.

But that's not even true.

Dodger's okay.

So what am I gonna do?

I'm gonna gaslight Dodger.

Diddley D.

I'm gonna gaslight Dodger.

Diddley-doo.

She told me about a game.

A game where you had to touch some butts.

And I said, Guess what?

I'm gonna play that game all night.

And you said, please don't.

And you said, stop.

And you said, stop it.

Stop it.

I called that song The Internet Judges Me.

Ooh, I like it.

You should release that.

I really should.

New Year, New Year, dude.

Time to start your music career.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

All right.

I do not, I genuinely forgot that it was on drop frames.

Yeah, it's not.

I absolve you of making me play porn games.

I absolve you.

Thank you.

Look.

I would love if I made you almost accidentally play a porn game on stream and I had legitimately told you to play the game, but ironically, it was JP, which seems just as bad, to be honest.

Who knew?

I can't say whether or not it's I, it was just on drop frames.

That's all I know.

I wasn't there.

All right.

That's all I know.

I wasn't there.

Well, we can blame JP, and I don't care whether he's mad at me or not.

It's his fault.

Fantastic.

Clip that.

So

you're moved now.

I am.

Yes.

Aside from your potential internet woes,

the move went well.

You're happy in your neighborhood?

I still haven't hung up the many pictures I have.

And I just today saw that some guy had a commissioned

Pauly Geist skateboard deck.

And I really want to get one of those and put it in the office in my apartment.

That would be amazing.

Yeah.

Yeah, I really want that.

But yeah, I don't have any art up yet.

So the walls are barren.

I have no couch.

So the living room is straight up a TV, TV stand, and nothing.

There's nothing, it's an empty space.

It's weird looking.

My office is also empty.

It has a computer, desk, a computer, a chair, and empty walls, which so I have to go find sound foam to put up and you know that whole thing.

And then my bedroom is a bed, a dresser, and a nightstand.

And that's, it is,

it kind of has a serial killer vibe at the moment.

There's not a lot going on in there.

And I, uh, you got to get that art up lickety split, dude.

I have to make it look like it's lived in.

Right now, it looks like

one of those images where it's like, this is all a guy needs to live, like batch male, male living or whatever.

And it's like a crappy lawn chair and a TV.

That's basically the vibe.

That is, I just, this is not a joke.

I genuinely have the one lawn chair I have that I always put put in the balcony of wherever my apartment is.

Yes.

I have that in the living room to sit there and watch.

I'm literally living that meme until I get a new couch.

Yeah, it's fine.

My plan is I'm probably going to get a couch that can become a bed too.

Ooh, okay.

Yeah.

So that way people, if they stay over, they can stay in that and they don't have to like sleep on the foot of my bed like they usually did.

Like I do.

Yeah.

Right.

Like, yeah.

You sit like a little tiny puppy.

I put, I give you one of those little dog beds.

Yeah.

You just lay down there.

Like, I'll take a bed, but like,

laying at the foot of your bed is also perfectly comfortable.

Right.

Yeah.

Like, it's totally fine.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Plus, a lot less farts blown your way.

So I guess that's true.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I can't help it at night.

Oh, my God.

All farts.

All farts all day.

What could I say?

It's all farts.

Yeah.

So

it's almost done, but it's a pain in the ass, you know, moving.

It's the worst.

You inspired me a little bit, and I rotated my bed.

Girl.

I know, because you were talking about like the fresh start sort of vibes.

And our bedroom has been pissing me off basically since we moved because of where we chose to put the bed.

And I was like, I have decided I hate this.

Hold on.

Where is the bed?

Was it like in the middle of the wall?

Like, where?

So,

our room is like very rectangled.

Interesting.

Okay.

So in our mind, it was like, if we want to have something on either side of the bed, like an end table on either side, then it kind of needs to just be here, right?

Like up against one of the smaller.

Oh, so someone...

One of the two of you is sleeping up against the wall.

No, neither of us.

Oh, you mean the headboard is against the wall?

The headboard is up against this wall with like tiny, with like tiny table on either side, right?

And it created such a weird situation in that room where like there was room on either side, but not enough to ever feel comfortable.

So you were kind of like scooching in to go to bed every night.

Yeah.

So I

again, I

like

the little gremlins because deep down I am a little gremlin, right?

So I was like, I love when a bed's up against the wall.

I love to turning a bed into like a weird little nest, right?

So I summoned up all the strength that I had in my gams and I and I rotated the whole bed and just said, fuck it.

We'll have enough.

So now it's actually up against the wall.

Now it's actually

completely up against the wall.

Yeah.

And it's sick.

So you love jumping in the bed and then rolling across the other side.

I imagine the way you get into the bed is the way that a Lollafell gets into bed in Final Fantasy 14.

Have you ever seen that?

How is that?

I've

watched a Lollafell get into bed.

It's very cute because they're too small to get onto the bed normally.

So they have to push themselves up onto the bed.

And then because the bed's too big, in order to get to the other side, they have to roll across it.

in order to get there.

And then they go, oh, and they lay down.

And then when they get out of bed, they lean up and they roll off and they jump down.

They go, yeah, because they're happy to survive the fall.

It's great.

It's good times.

That's how I imagine you get into bed.

It's similar.

Very much like a Lalafell.

It is similar.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure.

But yeah, so

I haven't fixed everything in that room, but I did rotate the bed and I felt very accomplished.

So thank you for the kick in the butt.

It's the little things.

It's, yeah, there's a reason why all my pictures aren't up because I'm doing one little thing a day.

Right.

Like, I do, uh, I realize most of what I do is not for me.

It's for the potentiality of my mom showing up eventually.

I have for years when I get new drawers in an apartment or whatever, and I have to put, you know, like

the dishes or glasses or whatever on them, right?

Instead of just directly on the wood, I'll go out and buy this like

stuff.

that you cut and then put down first so that it doesn't

Jesse would not do that.

Jesse Cox, son of Susan Cox, would do that.

And so I'm over there just like

our moms have the same name.

I forget it every single time.

Yeah.

So I always do that.

And I, it doesn't matter to me at all, but I'm like, one day she may come over and see that this is a hat, that I just put it on the wood.

She's going to be like, what are you doing?

That's weird.

It's your contact paper.

Yeah.

Yeah.

But it's not the paper.

It's like

this like foamy plastic stuff.

The like

little bubble stuff?

Kind of, yeah.

It's like kind of pattern.

And I put it down for everything.

So I've been doing that and going through the different closets in my apartment where I store, you know, like stuff for the kitchen and put that down.

And it's, yeah, it's like a drawer liner, but it's like, you know, one of the probably too

expensive version of it.

Because I know there are drawer liners that's just paper, but I'm talking about like, this is, it's like like a not a fabric but like a plastic made fabric like it's very interesting okay okay but i everywhere i move i'm like let's do this thing and i do it and it's just so goofy to me that that's i i i'm not doing it for me it's unnecessary i would be fine but i know that she's out there somewhere like what if you didn't screw it up dum dum and i'm like oh

They say your parents' voice is your first internal voice, you know?

Oh, that's true.

Underwear situations, parents' voice.

Yeah, everything.

Cleaning sheets, parents' voice.

You know, making sure I don't just use the same towel for weeks at a time to dry myself, parent voice.

I don't believe that for a second because you hate the possibility of being a sinky boy.

That's true.

But here's the thing.

I think even without your parents, at this point now, it's Jesse who's like,

if I'm taking the time to get that, it's the nature nature over nurture, though.

That's so true.

Did, was I conditioned to be that way, or did I become that way naturally over time?

Dude, these are the questions we seek to answer on our 15-part special series, Jesse.

How messed up is he, dude?

My kid, we were in the car, and my kid randomly was like, If I grew up with different parents, would I be the same person?

And I was like, whoa, damn.

And then I was trying to explain the concept of nature versus nurture to her.

I was like, this is actually like a much heavier question that we don't really have an answer to.

The answer is like, kind of, maybe.

Are you starting to get the, I imagine Clarks of the Age where you're starting to get questions that aren't like, why is blue blue?

But more questions that are like, why do good people die?

Like, you know, are you at that point now where it's real crazy questions where you're like, I don't know how to answer this?

Kids start asking lots of like existential questions around like four

so

basically basically the second they know that death is real sure oh that becomes a whole thing yeah yeah yeah then they start asking a lot of like

weird death questions um but unless they've experienced it at that point it's not coming from a place of like

like personal interest necessarily like like there's they don't

it doesn't feel tangible it just is a thing they've learned about so they ask questions about it right and because there's there's a lack of knowledge I vividly vividly remember being in the backseat of a car and I don't know how old I was I just remember I at that moment the concept of death hit me and I remember asking my parents and I was like

What's the deal?

And my mom and dad were like, it's, don't worry, we'll be here.

And I was like, you're going to die.

I was like crying and stuff.

I was like,

I don't know how old that was, but I remember that because it was like such a crazy, like, I think it's like understanding the concepts of reality for the first time and being like, what the, what do you mean?

I definitely remember that, which is a weird thing to remember on the list of things to remember in your life, but I remember that vividly.

Yeah.

She, you know, she's clearly so kids have like body growth spurts, obviously, but they also have brain growth spurts.

And so the longer that you've been around a kid, sometimes you can tell like something's happening with their brain now.

Like they're, they're just more sensitive than they normally are, or, you know, they're just like,

it seems like everything up there mentally is just more tender, right, than usual.

Sure.

And the explanation is that their brain has made some sort of a new growth where they now understand a concept that they didn't understand before.

And so their brain is like rapidly trying to process what this new concept means to them as a human, right?

It's crazy shit.

So like early on, it'll be like,

holy shit,

colors.

Damn, right?

Like,

yeah, now we're, now we're starting to get

questions,

like chicken and the egg type questions, right?

Where, where sometimes the answer is like, this is actually something that grown-ass adults debate about, right?

I would love it.

Clark was like, mom, I'm sorry, mommy, which came first?

Thank you for the chicken on the egg.

And then you straight up brought out a giant thing that was like, well, actually, the chicken is the offshoot of this.

You start going back through time like dinosaurs and shit.

And you're like, well, actually, so technically.

The compy came before the chicken and just like really science the shit out of that kid and be like, so yeah, there is an answer to your question.

And actually it was this.

And she'd be the smartest kid who would probably get beat up for saying that answer back in school.

But like,

it'd be cool.

I'd like that.

Yeah, I was like, I mean,

there was like the first version of the chicken that we have now, but there were other versions of chickens that came before that.

So it depends like at what point would you say, like, this is now a chicken?

Like, we can't, we personally can't go back that far and like make that decision for ourselves.

But, like, you know, you could argue, well, that whatever we decided was,

like, even if we did go back that far and say, this, this was the chicken, like, then was that the chicken?

Or while it was in the egg, was it the first chicken?

Right.

So, like, who knows, right?

Sure, sure.

And she was going, hmm, hmm, you know, well,

I wonder how much that registers.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

If it's like, okay, thank you for the answer, or I don't know what you said, but I'm going to pretend like I understand because that's what a person would do, you know?

Yeah.

Kids, they crazy.

I don't even know.

Kids are crazy.

Yeah.

So what was your new year?

Did you, was it a, would you, did you spend time with the kiddo or was it?

Um,

we

we grabbed dinner with my in-laws.

Cute.

Sam did a classic and texted his parents and was like, hey, do we have any plans for Christmas Eve?

And they were like, Sam,

Christmas Eve already happened, dude.

And it was like, right.

Do we have any plans for New Year's Eve?

And anyway, yeah, we wound up getting dinner at a place and they had like a cute little bookshelf that had a couple of board games on it.

And so while we were waiting for our food, We tried to teach Clark how battleship works.

Oh, Lord.

Okay.

And she's decided that she's gonna master it and we now have to buy battleship because she found it really interesting but didn't have enough time to like fully understand the grid system.

Sure, sure.

Before the food showed up and ruined everything.

So fair.

I would love it if this is the path Clark takes to be like

really into math and science.

I thought you were going to say a strategy gamer, but yeah.

No, like I'm convinced, and I need you to know this, I'm convinced that

your child will not be interested in the arts or any of that.

Your child's going to be like the person who,

I don't know, science is the shit out of something.

Like, something like that's what I've hoped for, so that the two of you become very awkward parents.

But, Jesse, science is art

anyway.

So, for New Year's,

I uh

had the most adult New Year's I've ever had in my entire life.

Here's the highlights of my New Year's Eve.

Very simple.

Imagine a bunch of adults, like adult adults, get together.

Okay.

And

what counts as adult adults?

What do you mean by that?

Not a 20-year-old in sight.

Okay.

You know, like, like adult adults.

Got it.

Got it.

Got it.

Got it.

Yeah.

The elderly, as we would say.

The millennials now are just old.

Hey, hey, millennials, you're just old now.

We did it.

welcome.

Yeah.

And so

it was very, like, I realized it was adult.

And the reason why I say that is because usually at parties in the past, even last year, for example, I'd go and it'd be just like, yeah, you know, this time

we had a sensible amount of champagne.

A meal was cooked for us in like a kitchen at a person's home that involved chicken, roasted vegetables, a salad, and like a real ass meal.

Like, not making like pizza or whatever.

I'm talking, like,

would you like some more salad for your new like that kind of thing, right?

Yeah.

And then at one point,

I realized that myself and two other people were in the exact same brand of socks.

And we took off our shoes and we're like, oh, they're comfortable, right?

Those are comfortable socks.

Like, best socks in the business, dude.

Those socks are great.

Yeah, yeah, I love the way they.

That's the conversation we had.

I was like, oh my God.

Oh, God.

I'm, oh, no.

And then you listen to me.

I was like, we, we really, truly just spent 20 minutes talking about our socks.

But, like, that sounds like it was lovely.

You had a nice meal.

And it was very lovely.

At the end of the night after New Year's, we played

that Jackbox TKO game, which might be the best game ever made, and laughed ourselves silly.

And then I went home.

And yeah, it was great.

Good timing.

Good.

You know, very fun.

But

absolutely hilarious that we were just like, dude,

while eating chicken breast salad and, again,

the carrots, delicious roast vegetables, talked about the socks.

Like,

that's where we were mentally.

And I realized, like, oh, my God.

Now, admittedly.

I'm leaving out the part where half the people there were just high as kites.

We still got that going going for us.

That's not going anywhere, but

it was very fun.

I enjoyed it tremendously and was like, okay,

that's pretty good.

That's pretty good.

Nope.

That's pretty all right.

That was pretty cool.

I'm glad you had it.

And here we are.

2025.

And now it's the new year.

It's the 3rd of January, dude.

I couldn't, I genuinely couldn't believe the...

Like when I was young, I remember being in my room looking at a calendar that ended in the year 2000.

And I remember, and this might have been like, I don't know, maybe the late 90s.

And I remember looking at it and being like, I wonder what after the year 2000 is going to be like.

And I had so many hopes and dreams.

And let me tell you,

we screwed up.

We don't even have flying cars, dude.

We screwed up.

I think I realized we're in the crap timeline.

Like we are in the bad time.

There's other timelines that are way cooler.

And

we got the crappy one.

There was a tweet from like,

I don't know, like 10 years ago or something that said, by the year 2025, women will be having more sex with robots than human men.

And someone retweeted it the other day and was like, chop, chop, where are they?

I was literally just like, I was like, man, we really thought a lot was going to happen in 10 years, huh?

I was just having a conversation about like, that's, we're nowhere closer than we were.

We're still making robots that are like, oh, oh, eh, oh, oh, oh.

I don't want that.

Where's my sex bot?

Internet, you're letting me down.

Let me down.

Yeah.

Honestly, I want to be a part of that because I feel like it would lead to societal collapse, and I feel like we need one of those.

Like a good old societal collapse.

Like, no one's dating anymore.

It's only sex robots.

And it's only robots.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I feel like that could be fun.

That's how Detroit Become Human actually starts.

Yeah.

yeah yeah you know what also was weird this is crazy to me so obviously everyone kind of knows neil nooben from uh balder's gate 3

right a starian all that stuff however i just didn't realize the amount of previous work he had done and that i love that i like didn't understand

he dude is in detroit become human dude is in all these games and i'm like

did you just did you when you how are you you an actor?

When you went, it slowly, slowly hit me.

I was like, I'm starting to understand you're very talented.

Oh, my goodness.

Yeah.

So,

who knew?

I had no idea.

He had as crazy range as he did.

Yeah.

I was very impressed.

I was like, he does a lot of stuff, which is great because all it does is show you the amount of work it takes to get to everyone knows your name level, you know?

For sure.

Like that kind of thing.

And he has years of busting ass to do that.

I am not the right person, I guess, to contribute to this conversation because the number of times that I'm playing a game and someone shows up in chat and goes, ugh, Troy Baker, I'd know that man's voice anywhere.

And I go, haha, yeah, same.

Like, I just don't, I don't, I don't hear the similarities unless they are like fully pointed out to me.

Honestly,

I feel like even though Troy sometimes does some wacky stuff, as a voice actor, I feel like his range is unmatched.

He's very, very good.

I never, sometimes I'll hear him and be like, that was Troy Baker?

What?

Like, that's, it's very different than Jennifer Hale or Steve Bloom, people who,

or, um,

oh boy.

I'm going to, let's just say the entire cast of Critical Role.

I was about to be like, oh, people, but like,

They all have been so typecast that when they get put in a game, it's literally just their voice.

Like, they don't let them do anything different, even though I'm well aware they can.

Like, a great example is in Dragon Aging, not Inquisition, Vailguard.

Vailguard.

Matt Mercer plays a skeleton character that just goes

the entire time.

And I was like, yes, more of that.

Let's do, let's do that.

Let's take these actors and have them do very cool stuff like that.

And unfortunately, a lot of people, like Jennifer Hale, incredible voice actor, has done many, many, many, many, many roles across all of it.

But every time she gets gets hired for anything, they're just like, hey, yo,

do Commander Shepard.

Right.

Yeah.

It's like, okay, sure.

We'll do.

Yeah, like Laura Bailey's great example, has incredible range.

And they're just like, no, no, no, Jana Proudmore.

That's what we want.

It's like, okay.

And it always, it always upsets me because it's never

about the actors.

It's always about the casting directors and the voice

directing.

Like a great example is a lot of people were very hard on Final Fantasy XIV Dawn Trail, right?

And all I'll say is the best, it is the best example of directing being an issue.

All of the VO recorded stateside, all the American actors that are in like this, like Dinosaur Texas, they sound like they're trying to be in an anime.

Well, all the British actors sound like they're just characters in the world doing a thing.

It's so jarring the difference between the two very obvious styles of what the directors were going for.

Yeah.

That it's like,

was no one communicating?

And it's really noticeable.

And I noticed that in a lot of things now, where I'm like, okay, they just, they didn't have someone in the room who knew what the scene was.

Basically, is what it feels like for a lot of things.

It reminds you of old voice acting back in like the PlayStation 1, PlayStation 2 era, where it's clear no one knew what the story actually was.

They were just reading the lines and no one was in the room together.

So you'd have a character be like, you'll never get in my way, Boltegar.

And the guy would be like, I don't know what you're talking about.

That's right.

I'll defeat you.

You better stop that.

Like, it never sounded like they were.

And that's.

In the same moment.

Yeah.

And that's, that's one of those things that I, I feel is always the case.

There's always a bunch of really great voice actors, and then they're kind of like stuck doing bits.

No, it's a whole thing.

But, you know, I don't know.

I just found that interesting.

You brought up Detroit and I was like, yeah i remember neil was killing it in that yeah and it's weird because when you look back you're like oh yeah that definitely was him it's his face and everything it's just like a weird vibe that it's suddenly like oh okay oh i know who you are now it almost it almost brings the uh i always thought it was funny but i remember winning a golden joystick in 2016 for up and coming YouTuber, even though I've been doing YouTube since 2010.

And I always thought that was funny, but I realized it's one of those like, if people don't know you exist,

then to them, you're brand new.

And I was like, yo, I'll take that award.

I'm no fool.

Yeah.

Suck me up.

100%.

Yeah.

And I think that's, I think that's

something that a lot of people, they, they, you know, it's one of those, it's a trope.

They only see the tip of the iceberg.

Sure.

You don't see all the work that goes into the process of getting there.

So.

Well, and that, that happens all the time, like in our industry, right?

Is that

somebody could be making random YouTube videos for like 10 years

and then suddenly have something that sticks, right?

And works for them.

And then they blow up and everybody

has a general vibe of like, oh, this new guy.

And to them, they're like, I've been doing this for years, right?

But, but they are new to so many people at once that they kind of are.

new in a weird way, you know?

Yeah, it's like, um,

I mean, like the, the best, best, best example of that is

Robert Downey Jr.

is a guy who's been around in acting for years and years and years.

And he like had a bunch of troubles and then he dropped off a little bit and then came back and was like, I'm Iron Man.

And suddenly everyone's like, oh my God, you're just amazing.

And it's like, okay,

sure.

Yeah, that's so true.

I actually totally forgot that.

that he hadn't really been acting for a really long time before

before Tony, before he was Anthony Starkman.

it was kind of everywhere in the 80s and then got caught up in a bunch of stuff in the 90s.

And then in the early 2000s, like came back and

nailed it and has been just doing it ever since.

Yeah.

Which is, which is crazy to me, but that's like, you know,

it is the industry.

It's all about getting eyeballs on you.

Which, if you're ever saying to yourself, why do people do a lot of the

insane things they do on stream or, or you know like picking fights or doing stuff it's because it's all eyeballs baby it's all like a great example is uh today i went to reddit but for one brief moment and my entire feed was about like

some youtube drama about that only fangs wow guild and how people it's like someone got booted and i was like cool oh you know why i know it's because the feed it because the person who got booted was named jesse and that's why it popped up in my feed.

And I was like, What?

Right.

And I was like,

I know a lot of people doing OnlyFans.

I'm very curious now what the drama was.

It's not, it's barely drama.

It's like this person didn't like this person.

And so, but then it like blows up and becomes a thing and then gains traction.

Then people go to those people's chats and ask them what it's about.

And now, suddenly, everyone involved in this has a huge audience for a little bit until another bit of drama comes along.

And it's all about attention.

It really is kind of like

there's no such thing as bad news in showbiz.

It really is just news is news.

So it's very interesting that that's a thing happening, but

what are you gonna do?

I'm gonna do it.

Entertainment.

I'm gonna do a thing.

You ready?

No.

Oh, that's so much better.

Okay.

Oh, it's because it's nighttime there and you just want to like

my head is killing me.

And I had this light on full blast.

I get it.

And I reached the point where I was like,

I think the only thing that can save me now

is to just turn the light down.

I could turn it down more, but it might be creepy in here.

Let's find out.

It's already creepy.

So like, what's the worst that could happen?

Also, what is that?

Do you have a...

Huh?

Do you have like a different colored light?

Oh, you definitely do.

Do you have like a RGB thing?

Because when you lower it, you get like purple.

And in the background, there's definitely an RGB light glowing on the reflection of the picture frame.

It's from my PC.

Whoa.

Oh, so your PC's just bright.

Yeah.

So it must be a powerful PC to have so much RGB in it.

Ooh.

Now it's spookums.

Now it's spook'ems.

Now you just look like you're about to have like a cup of coffee.

Ooh.

Like you're about to tell us about your day at the at the

bespoke dress store.

Uh-huh.

And you're like, I had such a tough day.

This client came in.

Yeah.

She wanted me to do her dress for $50,000.

I couldn't do it for under $60,000.

And I just don't understand why it has to be so difficult.

I'll never be able to pay rent on my four houses.

You know, she came to me.

She says,

well, if I buy the fabric, I might as well just make it myself.

And I I said, go ahead, because you know what she doesn't have is 16 years of sewing experience.

So go for it and come back when you realize that the dress is worth $50,000.

Thank you very much.

Oh my God.

I was just having a conversation the other day about

clothing and merchandise and consumerism and how for many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many years, I would say up until maybe the last

75 we'll say i'll say 75 and that is a pretty uh

i don't know i'll

maybe it's a conservative number i don't know but i will say 75.

up until the last 75 years yes most people you went to a dude they took some fabric they made you an outfit and that's the outfit you wore until it fell apart right

and Most people didn't have multiple outfits.

Closets weren't like for all your clothes.

Like most old homes don't have giant closets because what were you going to put in them?

Right.

Right.

And so most people had that one thing.

Or if you had shoes, you take it to the cobbler.

You wouldn't be like, I got to get my new pair of shoes.

Hell yeah.

And so the fact that we are designing clothes now that falls apart on purpose, kind of like cars that crumple on impact.

Like it's very interesting to see the way that stuff has changed and how getting

something bespoke is considered a rich person thing now.

Where before everyone would go to like the tailor, and the tailor would make you a new outfit.

Now you got to be filthy rich to go get yourself a nice suit that's handmade by some guy named like Jean-Philippe, and he's going to do the measurements, and you're going to look amazing.

But

yeah, at some point, they were like, no, small, medium, large, and XL.

Let's do that.

And that was the thing they did.

And it's crazy to me.

There has been a movement I think is sort of adjacent to like, if I said a capsule wardrobe, would you know what that means?

Sure.

Yeah.

So, like, also real quick, everyone's saying car safety, crumples are for safety.

Yeah, yeah, I understand.

I'm not saying it's bad.

I'm just saying design choices make things different.

Just how when we started doing mass production in, say, World War II, the idea of making things efficiently and quickly, it's like design choices.

I'm not judging anything.

No judgments, just saying it happened.

Anyway, sorry.

Yes, please.

That's okay.

So, more and more people are trying to have what's called like a capsule wardrobe, right?

Which is like, I have a couple of nice shirts, a couple of nice pairs of trousers.

If you're someone who wears skirts, a nice skirt.

And it's basically clothes that you can mix and match to make a couple different nice outfits.

And that's those are your clothes, right?

The Steve Harvey method, as I recall.

Sure, yeah.

Yeah.

And I think along with that, there has been more of an interest in

okay then i'm just gonna save up and get like

really nice tailored trousers then if these are like my pants right if these are the pants that i'm wearing almost every day

then i'm just gonna pump a bunch of money into them but it does feel

inaccessible and I do think part of it is like a social expectation that we be wearing totally different different clothes all the time, right?

Or that we have like a big rotation of things.

And obviously off in the corner of this is people who just love clothes and light and like get a huge kick out of making a totally new killer outfit every day.

The older that I get,

I have like a couple of things in my wardrobe that I'm like, I love that thing.

I could wear that thing every day.

This is one of them, actually.

You know,

I've noticed that about you, first off, but that's also because you are like very comfortable in your mom-ness and living out in the middle of nowhere.

So, like, you don't, you don't fall victim to that.

Is this a nice way to say, you got no one you're trying to impress?

No comment.

So, I think,

no, I was thinking about the fact that, like,

as you were talking about that,

in my mind, I was thinking about the fact that

everyone I know that feels like they need to constantly be changing their outfit and changing stuff up, it's all internalized pressure based on cultural stuff.

So, like,

women in general, culturally, magazines and movies and TV, like everyone's been telling you, you have to look, like, if you wear the same dress at the same event, like, ugh, what's the matter with you?

Like, that's a thing that's been around for a long time.

Right.

But there's also, also like

guy versions of that.

I must like,

again, I'm the whitest man who ever lived.

So take my thoughts on this with a grain of salt.

But like every black friend I have is constantly like trying to look good and have new outfits and change up like hat shoe combos and like different shirts for different things.

Like,

but me,

And I'm going to say this for a bunch of white dudes.

I think we

like excluded ourselves from this.

We found like a white man way to be like, no, we don't need to do that because every white guy friend I have is like,

yeah, I wore the same shirt four days in a row.

And nobody cares.

Nobody cares.

You can have the scuzziest shoes in the world.

Nobody cares.

I don't know what it is.

But I feel like there are, yeah, there are clearly some people that are just like, no, I'm all right.

I've been, I got this t-shirt cardigan combo.

It's the same thing I've had.

It's crazy.

It's, I don't know what it is, but the more I thought about it, I was like, I can sit over here and be like, I've had the same, like, if you go back and watch this podcast, I put on the exact same seven shirts the entire time, and no one said a damn thing.

Sure.

And I don't know if it's because people are like, well, that'd be rude.

In which case, that's my privilege, baby.

You still thought it would be rude to tell me, right?

Like, Like, you're welcome.

It's very funny to me.

I don't know what it is.

Yeah, I guess, like,

I mean, there's probably.

No, I will say real quickly, I don't think it's that people care.

I think it's social conditioning that you think other people care.

That's what I feel it is.

Like, I don't think other people care, so I don't care.

But I think there's a lot of conditioning where you're told that it's wrong.

And so you, just like me, when I think my mom will come over and look at my drawers to be like, Did you put down that thing?

I think it's the same thing.

Like, uh, someone will appear and be like, You're wearing the same thing you were yesterday.

Like, that I think is in people's heads.

Sure.

I was gonna say, I also think that depending on the like group of people that you're talking about, the way

that they approach clothing could also be about sort of like,

I'm trying to think of how to put this, like, like forcing respect.

Does that make sense?

Like, absolutely.

If I dress nicely, you can't, you know, like have these derogatory feelings about how I look, right?

Oh, oh, absolutely.

I mean,

I think that that definitely applies in both situations that you brought up, right?

And this is, I think, everyone, like

putting on a suit, people just think you have it more put together than you might.

You know what I mean?

Like, there's dressing certain ways gives people certain certain appearance, like, thoughts about your appearance.

And that's probably culturally ingrained in us, too.

Yeah.

Or dressing very nicely or, you know, looking the best at a club or going to the office and having like the best drip there.

Like, whatever the case may be, I get it.

Or if you're going to go out or you're going to go see your friends and you want to like make a statement and people like, oh, I completely understand.

I just think it's strange that

every,

literally every single white dude I know is like, no, I wore this and I don't care.

And I just wonder, feels like a societal thing to me where it's like, you know what?

No.

It's like, you know, there's a little bit of like a tinge of privilege there.

I don't know.

For some reason you're talking about it, it just hit me like,

that's very strange.

But yeah,

it is what it is, I guess.

We just happen to both be in social situations where neither of us have to care very much about what we're wearing.

Yes.

Here's the thing, though.

And I should.

And yet we're talking about.

I should, if I don't want to be like the complete mess my entire life, I should, but I don't have the societal expectation that I need to.

Right.

Because for most of my interactions with society, this is it.

This is all you get is this.

That is so true.

And so it's, it's like adjacent to the whole like, I could be just wearing underwear and you wouldn't even know because,

you know, what's on camera is all that exists.

Yeah.

Insofar as like so much of what we do with our life, right?

Yeah.

I don't know.

It's very interesting.

It is interesting.

I don't know how we got here.

I don't know why we got here but it's the first thought i was like

that's so crazy that i don't feel any societal pressure to dress nicely but here's the thing

that seems like a me problem because i should feel societal pressure to dress nicely i should want to look my best yet there's a there's like a switch that's like you're a lazy bitch and i'm like i am I am.

You know what?

Today, I'm not going to shave.

This is reminding me.

This is reminding me of the whole like,

you know, there's like

two different

sort of thoughts that they aren't like sort of next to each other, but I feel like they both sort of apply in this situation.

The first being that people will

always

look

like whatever it is that they choose to wear, if it actually applies to their life or makes sense for them, it will always look

the best in that situation, right?

Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, okay.

If I tried to dress like,

you know, a corporate mega mind, it would be weird, right?

Because

that doesn't appeal to my design sensibilities at all.

And it also doesn't apply to my life, right?

But I feel like if you dress like that and went out in public, the reaction random people would have to you would be different than seeing you like this, for example.

Right.

Like this, you're you're a person where they would be like, walk by, that's a human being.

But if you're dressed up like you're a high-powered mega executive, they might be like, who is she?

What is that?

You know, like that kind of thing.

Sure.

But the other one being that,

you know, there have been write-ups and discussions before about

how there are groups of people who will say, I don't even care about clothes.

And yet a lot of times those groups of people all dress the same.

So in

like sort of a weird way, they do, they're doing the exact same clothing-based social signaling that everybody else is doing to like one another, you know?

Well, you have to signal to other people you're a non-conformist.

That I'm a non-conformist and I don't care about clothes, but we all don't care about clothes and I want you to know that.

And I'm doing that with clothing, right?

Yes.

So I find all of that stuff very interesting, despite not being like a very fashion-forward person.

I do think the way that we use clothes to like signal things to one another

is interesting.

It is very interesting.

Yeah.

And it's honestly, it's a way that people,

I don't want to say judge, but it's an easy,

I can understand about this person a lot just by looking at them far away based on how they're dressed.

Right.

And so, and then, because everyone makes snap judgment decisions.

You can make assumptions.

You know, biases.

Yes.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Everyone has that.

And so like, a great example is you're walking down the street and you see, like, Dodger, you're walking down the street.

You see a man.

He's dressed in rags.

He looks like he is, you know,

like walking funny.

A lot of people would say, I'm going to cross the street and go a different direction.

Same man, put him in a suit.

No one thinks a damn thing.

It's just, it is what it is.

Yeah.

That's true.

Like he could be in a suit walking the exact same funny way and people will be like,

suit guy must have had a crazy night.

And just like, they wouldn't think about it.

But the minute he's in rags, it's like, oh, man that guy he could kill me I got to get away from him right

it is what it is the world ain't fair

yeah that's true that's true

um hey are you aware that I really wanted to go over this list with you because that was pretty funny sure yeah what's the list IGN released a biggest games coming in 2025 list, and I want to get your vibe on this.

These are our biggest games, according to IGN.

I have to agree with them on the first one.

I think it's very, very smart, and they're absolutely correct.

January 17th, Dynasty Warriors Origins comes out.

First full-fledged one since 2018.

Bring it on.

Very excited.

But then Sniper Elite Resistance comes out on January 30th.

Okay.

And I don't know if any of those games are up your alley, but that's their big ones for January, they say.

Okay.

I mean, yeah, I think Dynasty Warriors is a good shout.

I don't know anything about sniper elite, to be honest.

Sniper Elite, all you need to know is that's true.

But when you shoot like a really good shot, it does like bullet cam.

And then when you hit a guy, it does the internal thing of them getting hit.

And one time, and it might be the best thing I've ever done, I shot Adolf Hitler in the ball, and it was great.

In the singular.

You see the bullet go right into the man's scrotum and his nut goes.

It was the single greatest thing I've ever done in a video game.

I loved every moment of it.

Wow, okay, interesting.

And

I got an achievement for it, which is pretty great.

It was good.

It was good stuff.

Okay, okay.

Yeah, I played, yeah, Sips and I played that, and it was a good time.

Good, good time.

All right, then February.

Yes.

Kingdom Come Deliverance 2.

Okay.

The big historical RPG.

Very interested in this one, mostly because they've showcased you can kind of be a piece of shit.

And I really want to be a medieval piece of shit.

I really just want to be like, oh, you there,

you talking about me.

And then I just kill a guy for no reason.

Like, I want to be the hound, but in that game.

I just want to be like a bad guy.

So I'm very, I'm very excited for that.

But I'll be honest.

The first Kingdom Come Deliverance was like, it was all right.

It was all right.

So I'm hoping the second one is like.

I remember this.

I was thinking of a different game.

I remember this game now, though.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

When it came out, everybody was like, there's definitely a nugget of something really cool here, but it's very jank.

So, if the second one isn't jank and still has the nugget of something cool, then, yeah.

I mean, that's, that's one of the things that I, I,

people often are like, why do you like doing some, like playing games as a bad guy?

Oftentimes, it's the shortest version version of the game like you just oh i killed everyone i don't have to do all their quests great let's move on it's really great for streaming

yeah yeah so i'm excited about that we'll see what that deal is and then the game that literally will steal all of my time and i anyone who wants to watch me stream anything else bless your sweet soul civ 7 comes out in february oh my god dude

I'm so excited.

I don't even know how to react.

I love Civ games.

I have.

Hold on.

You know what?

I'm I'm not even gonna look.

Last last time I looked, I had 500 some hours in Civ 6 alone, not to include all the time I spent in Civ 5 and 4.

So, and the one where we went to Mars.

No one played that one.

I played that one like crazy.

So

that's a whole thing.

And then the game that I'm sure everyone will talk about, not in good ways, Assassin's Creed Shadows finally drops on February 14th, Valentine's Day.

That's sweet.

Mm-hmm.

So that'll be a whole thing, and everyone's going to be freaking out about that.

Again, this is IGN's list of the best ones coming out.

Right.

Then,

Date Everything also comes out in February.

Yes.

The most Dodger game that ever existed.

Very excited.

I'm disappointed that

were you asked to do a voice in Date Everything?

There's so many voices.

No one asked you to be in it.

Honestly,

big letdown.

You're telling me that the voice of the

best character in Monster Prom

isn't a voice in your game date everything?

I know.

Look, I wasn't going to say anything about it, but since you are.

I will.

Yeah.

Disappointment.

Disappointed, to be honest.

Disappointed.

Unbelievable.

And then, continuing in February, because this month is going to be absolutely crazy.

Finally, Obsidian's avowed releases.

Ooh.

That is a game that

I

always feel like I know about, and then I see something, and I'm like, I don't know a damn thing about this game every time.

Every single time I'll see footage of it and be like, I don't remember this being the game that I thought this was going to be, which is very weird to me.

But

yeah.

This game's just wiping your memory constantly.

It really feels like it.

I don't know.

Then, because February can't be crazy enough, Like a Dragon, Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii, or Yakuza in Hawaii.

Yakuza looks hilarious, very fun.

That could be great.

However, it doesn't matter what I think about that because everyone will be playing Monster Hunter Wild.

Literally everyone.

It'll just,

you will see every streamer you know playing it at least once.

It's going to happen.

Sam can't stop talking about it.

He's so excited.

Yeah, that's going to be the big release in February.

For sure.

But it comes out at the very end of the month.

So really, it's a March thing people are going to be talking about.

But it'll be the biggest thing 100 you don't have to be a mind reader to figure that out it'll be huge and sam will probably be the one guy who's like i've devoted 500 hours in the first week to this game i have all the good gear

but i need to farm more and people be like why sam why and he's like because

it goes to me uneasy

Yeah, yeah, he really is.

He's like the golem of Monster Hunter.

Yeah.

It's his precious.

His precious

loves it.

He's great to watch for it, though.

He like is

in it.

Yeah.

Yeah.

He's one of those Monster Hunter players.

You're like, I know I'll see someone do some cool shit.

Meanwhile, me, I'll be like, I can't even get it to work.

Imponster keeps beating me up, and I just want his body to use for armor.

Yeah, you don't want that for me.

Really want this cute weapon, and they can't.

My palate needs better gear.

Yeah.

Then

immediately after that, in March, that game that we saw during the Game Awards that is from the It Takes Two No Way Out, a Way Out team, Split Fiction comes out.

Looks very cute.

It's coming out a lot quicker than I thought it was going to.

That's great.

That's what, yeah.

So that's coming out.

That looks very, very cute.

And it's definitely one of those games that if you have a significant other, you should definitely play with them.

Because what that means is by the end, for some reason, you'll both have to fight each other to death.

I don't know why.

You just will because that's what that company does.

They make you be all buddy buddy, and at the end, only one person can live.

That's how it works.

So have fun with that.

Then, uh, the most Dodger game ever, Tales of the Shire comes out March 25th.

Yes, bro.

I'm so excited for Tales of the Shire.

I know.

I could immediately tell when I, the very first trailer I saw, was like, This is a Dodger game.

Yeah,

yeah,

it's gonna be so good.

Speaking of Shire stuff,

also

around the exact same time, two days after that game, is a game called Atom Fall, which is a Shire-like

English countryside Douston Radiation Particles shooter game.

Okay.

I guess it's supposed to be stalker-influenced, but it's in the English countryside, which is very funny to me.

So I hope it's all accents and like ridiculous guns and radiation poisoning.

It should be great.

Then apparently, there is a game called

Dungeon and Finder, which is a big South Korean multiplayer beat-em-up game, and they're releasing a single-player game from that universe called The First Berserker Kazan.

Which I remember from the game awards, but I also don't remember

I can't remember much about it except it looked

like a barbarian just brutally murdering a dragon or some shit.

It looked very cool, but I can't remember.

Can't remember that damn thing at all.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Wait, was this the one with the

dude who had the long flowing hair that never got bloody?

Yes.

Okay.

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And then according to IGN, March 28th is what they say the Sims killer Inzoi hits PC, another South Korean joint, which hands down one of the prettiest games ever made.

I don't know what that means, but apparently it's a Sims.

It's spelled I-N-C-O-I.

Is a

lofty goal.

Oh, is this the game that is like, that look like

AI?

I can't, I don't remember what this is.

I don't know.

This is definitely a game that,

yeah, it looks pretty nice.

I'm not going to lie.

I'm looking at the photos of it.

It looks pretty cool.

I don't understand any of it, but like, okay.

I assume it's pretty sims i assume it's very pretty sims okay

it's very pretty sims yeah i guess not ai it the cats in it look very similar to that game that was ai that everyone was talking about but uh that's not this game this game just looks like imagine incredibly gorgeous people and you get to play as them the sims right so like all right Then in April, Fatal Fury, City of Wolves comes out, and that's April 24th.

So, at least according to IGN, not much releases in April until the 24th, and that is

a fighting game.

So, there you go.

And then, of course, they're saying the big news in April is potentially when the Nintendo Switch 2 will release.

Right.

Yeah.

That's pretty cool.

Well, I get it.

No, I'm happy with my Switch.

I'm fine.

Just like everyone's like, are you going to need PlayStation Pro?

The difference between the Pro and the normal is so negligible, I just don't know why you would.

Yeah.

But if you don't have a PlayStation PlayStation 5, then get it, sure, but I don't know.

Same with the Switch.

Might as well get a Switch 2.

However, I know many Switch people will immediately get a Switch 2 because that's the vibe.

So bless.

Along with that, apparently, is Metroid Prime 4, they're saying, and Pokemon Legends ZA,

which I know actually very little about.

I don't follow Pokemon stuff at all anymore.

Yeah, it's weird.

There was a time when I was super into it, but I also realized that was 25 years ago.

So,

you know

then grand theft auto 6 apparently is going to release at some point they say

but they don't have a thing here okay yeah they say it'll release i don't know that i believe that but blessed i don't either

but we'll see yep yep big fan of that uh also apparently releasing at some point metal gear solid delta uh by the way shameless plug i did a metal gear solid lore for beginners video it's on the channel feel free to watch it if you don't understand Metal Gear 2,

how has that been doing?

Has it been well received?

Yeah, it's very weird.

So, this is something that I'm trying to figure out and solve, and it's very interesting.

Algorithmically, on YouTube, you can see in the background your analytics, right?

Yeah.

When it comes to the lore videos I make, except for Final Fantasy 14, which just like it does great all the time.

So, that's not a big deal.

But anything else that isn't Final Fantasy 14, when it comes to lore stuff,

if you watched, so like a great example is the Hades lore video I did.

It had,

and Dodger, you'll probably understand this more than most people.

It had a watch time that was almost 99% of the entire video was over,

I think 80% people watched through 99% of the video.

Okay.

Which is huge.

That's crazy.

Usually a drop-off is like in the first minute, it drops dramatically because people will tune in and be like, not for me and leave.

This one, whenever people watch it, they watch the entire thing, which is incredible.

However, the click-through rate is 2.1%,

which means people are seeing the thumbnail and saying, nah, and not even clicking the video.

But those who do click the video watch the entire thing, which is one of those things where it's like, okay, clearly, I need to figure out a way to get people in the door.

So we tried to change up stuff for Metal Gear.

I don't have all the analytics yet, but my big hope is that it has a higher click-through because 2.1% is not very good.

That's very, very low.

Your average should be be about 5%.

Yeah.

And so 2.1 is not great.

And so I'm trying to figure out why that is.

Maybe it's because the content, no one like cares, or maybe my audience doesn't care, or maybe because it's not the right time for it.

It's, there's so many factors.

It's all, hey, our job is troubleshooting.

If you want to know what it's like behind the scenes, it's troubleshooting why you don't watch us.

That's really it.

Like, why didn't nobody care?

What's the matter with me?

Am I the problem?

Yeah.

So my hope is this video and the hayden's video and any other lore video because they'll exist on the internet when the time comes if someone finds it they'll watch it in the future that's usually what i try to do with most videos is make them a little evergreen so that someone distant in the future will you know can can tune in be like ah yes of course

some

we'll see

i don't know we'll figure it out

Yeah, then they also have on here later in the year Death Stranding 2 on the beach, which can't wait to play that.

That's going to be absolutely cuckoo bananas.

Dude, if you follow Hideo Kojima on anything,

he just goes through these like weird spurts where he tweets so much shit and then he'll just vanish for a while.

His Instagram is hilarious because it's literally,

these are the types of posts he makes.

One, I ate this weird piece of food.

Two, here's me with a beer.

Three, I'm with a celebrity you know.

four,

something totally insane from a game he's working on that no one understands, and he's going to just be like,

enjoy.

And you're like, what the shit?

That's it.

That's all he has.

Oh, oh, and that the times he goes and watches like eight movies in a day.

Yes.

Sometimes he has a very full day and he decides to tell you all about it.

Yeah.

Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah.

I haven't seen his music, but I, yeah, I hear he shares music too.

But he does.

He'll do just like a screenshot of like a song and nothing else.

Yeah,

it's very interesting.

I love when we let creatives be the weird selves they are.

Even if their weird selves are sometimes like, what the shit?

I love it that we let them do that.

Yeah.

Because a lot of times.

Harmless weirdness is delightful.

Yes.

Yes.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Let's, yeah, that's a good specification.

Yeah.

I like that that happens.

And so very curious about this.

I loved the meta-narrative of Death Stranding.

For those of you who have never played Death Stranding, I don't know

what it would be like now.

That should be your next floor video.

Yeah, I mean, it really should be.

Yeah, I don't know what it would be like now because it's a very interesting mechanic in the game where it's like the more people that play it, the more the world changes.

And so, I remember when I first played getting across the country was a pain in the ass.

And then I came back to it months later, and I could like take a zip line halfway across the country.

Right.

And I wouldn't have to engage in anything.

It's super interesting the way he did it, but the, the way it's set up, the way it works is like, hey, Sam, the way the way it works is

can't wait for you to play Monster Hunter.

But it like is a very good analogy, metaphor, probably metaphor, of

online

life and associating with people online and talking with people online and what being constantly online does to a person or what being like what disassociating yourself from everyone does to you, like that kind of stuff.

And the fact that when you build things, you do it for likes is very like it's that there's a lot of meta-narrative going on that I love.

I think it's a brilliant game, so I can't wait for the second one.

Very excited.

Ghost of Yotai is the next one that I'm sure won't have any controversy and be totally fine.

It's just a normal game.

So that'll happen.

And then apparently, maybe we'll get Fable.

Let's see.

Let's see if that new Fable finally releases.

Along with that, South of Midnight, the Swamp Creature game with magic that they've been showing off a lot lately.

That will eventually happen this year, I guess.

And then,

apparently, Doom the Dark Ages may be coming out this year, according to IGN.

Doom games are great.

I cannot stress that enough.

Then I guess also, there's there's multi-platform games, and what's weird about these games is it's games that I'm kind of like,

okay.

Marvel 1943 Rise of Hydra

is,

I guess, the Skydance new media game that Amy Henning is running.

And I guess it's Captain America and Black Panther teaming up during World War II.

And I have no idea what this game is going to be at all.

Couldn't even tell you.

It doesn't even seem like it would come out this year, but here we are.

Borderlands 4.

Like, all right.

Like, okay.

Skate four.

Like, all right, okay.

Crazy Taxi may finally be getting a re-release and an updated thing.

I guess they're saying on IGN that it's going to be reinvented as an open-world MMO, which

is interesting.

And I guess we'll see if that comes out.

Then there's Dune Awakening, the survival RPG that they've been showing off a bunch.

And then Crimson Desert, which is the single-player Black Desert online game.

And yeah, I mean,

apparently also they're saying that Night Rain, the new Elden Ring, may come out.

Slay the Spire 2 is probably on the way.

Subnautica 2, probably on the way.

A new Bioshock, probably on the way.

Mafia, the old country, probably on the way.

There's

Outer Worlds 2, which I think is confirmed for 2025.

Dying Light has the Beast expansion.

That's probably 2025.

At least it's slated for it.

And then I'm hoping we can get Expedition 33, which is one of those games that I'm very excited for.

Yeah.

And then I guess they're saying that Wolf Among Us 2 may come out and Arc 2 and Masquerade the Vampire Bloodlines 2 may come out, but I don't believe that.

One of the funniest things, though, please note, not a single mention of Silk Song on this IGN article.

Bro, it doesn't say this to me.

Not one mention.

I was curious if they were going to be like, and maybe Sulk song, but I think everyone's just sort of like, we're not going to bother thinking about that game unless we're given a reason to, which is fair.

That sounds right.

Are you?

Do you get the audience or fan base anger about hearing nothing?

Are you like,

are you as equally like, where's the information?

Hollow Knight's my favorite game of all time.

I'm going to give that as a precursor.

Sure, sure, sure.

Okay.

I feel like

we were given so much with Hollow Knight.

Like they, they gave us, for the price of that game, the amount of content that we wound up with by the end of it is crazy.

Sure.

I'm down to wait.

I have no like angry, outraged feelings about not hearing anything about Silk Song.

I feel like

there's a point to be made about

the balance between a dev trying to keep the peace for themselves and just grind out the game and not worry so much about communicating while also, you know, like acknowledging the people that are still supporting them and rooting for them to finish the game.

Like, I get that.

But I personally, I'm fine with not hearing anything until they're like,

yeah, it's happening, right?

Because I think one of the reasons that

everybody feels about it the way that they do right now is because we kept getting like, it's going to happen, guys.

And then there would be nothing, right?

So yes, yes, yes.

I feel like it's almost better to just not hear anything for a while and then hopefully

get a, here's some concrete information about this game.

We've been working on it.

It's happening.

Here it is.

It does feel kind of like the way that

CDP does their games, where it's like, here's a trailer.

The game will be out in five years.

And it's like, why do you do this?

I understand why they do it, but it's also just like, as a fan,

oh my God.

Okay.

I'll wait.

Like, all right, I'll wait.

But yeah, yeah, I get it.

I understand.

But I definitely, it's always funny to me that every time there's a trailer release of anything,

someone's like, is it time for Silk Song?

Is this it?

Is it happening?

I'm like, oh, you sweet little baby.

Bless your sweet soul.

Yeah.

I don't think so.

Yeah.

When it's finally on the horizon, I'll be so excited, but it's okay.

You know, it's okay.

I would it takes a lot of time and love to make a game.

So yeah, I would honestly prefer if they release it as it's like it's done than an early access thing.

Because, again, the jesse cox i'm off early access train is like i just can't do it anymore so i would love yeah yeah oh my god i just looked elder six scrolls trailer or elder scroll what did i say elder scroll six trailer

six years ago now yeah and that was and that was literally they just showed a like landscape and played the elder scrolls song and that was it and everyone's like oh and then nothing yeah that game but anyone who thought that game was going to be done anytime soon is out of their minds.

Just like Grand Theft Auto VI.

Grand Theft Auto VI, it's been years and they're working on it.

But with that said, there was an article this past week that literally said

the expectation of Grand Theft Auto VI is to make a billion dollars in pre-sales.

Bro.

That is like the conservative number.

Crazy.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So I understand them wanting to take their time with stuff, especially when we can spend 500 million on a game and then the pre-sales are a billion.

Like, I get it.

If you're a money guy, that's kind of your shtick.

So I understand.

Crazy, but

buck wild for sure.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Was there anything else in the biggest games thing?

That was it.

That was it.

Was there any other news?

that you know there's one news story i want to talk about because it's very relevant to my life other than that not really kind of like the holiday but um apparently at a recorded concert event, again, this is all kind of secondhand.

I'm piecing this together.

Yes.

But

they had the Primals, the band from Final Fantasy XIV that has Sokin and all the cast of crazy characters in it.

And they went on this show.

But apparently, this is a big controversy in Japan right now.

Mind you, it is the most wonderful version of a Japanese controversy.

If anything, any controversy ever, because it's so silly that you're like, well, of course, this would be a controversy.

While performing live, the band, the primals, Soaken reveals a scroll, and on this scroll, it has the meme for Final Fantasy XIV's like free trial, that kind of thing, right?

Right.

Except, I think that

this happens to me sometimes, so I get it why it would happen to the Primals, but like Sometimes you forget that the rest of the world isn't in your little circle.

And so the people running the show,

because it wasn't about advertising your thing, he did it as a goof because this is what we represent.

This, this meme is a thing.

They censored and edited out the performance because of that, because it was like an ad for the game and they removed it.

And now it's a controversy because people,

some people are like, how could they?

And other people are like, why would they advertise their game on this?

Very cute.

I thought it was really funny.

Oh my goodness.

That's really funny.

So they edited out the

performance and I was like, that's

a thing, all right.

Oh my goodness.

And that happens.

I get it.

I will talk to someone, assuming they know the same inside joke stuff that I do.

Right.

And they'll look at me like I'm a crazy person.

And I'm like, ah,

right.

We do not roll in the same circles.

Person who I'm trying to have a conversation with.

Yes.

Yeah.

Trying to make a joke land land or referencing a meme and having it become extremely apparent the other person has no idea what you're talking about is like, oh no.

Yeah.

And your options are either explain it or let it sit.

And there's no, and both are awkward.

There's no winning in that situation.

So you're just like,

yes.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So I just, there's a, there's an image of it.

I don't know if it's the image from the actual event, but there is an image of Sokin holding a scroll and it's written in, I don't know, some sort of like kanji or something.

And it's just literally the meme.

And I think that's so funny that they were like, you can't advertise on our show.

And I was like,

we're doing a goof.

I'm sorry.

It's so very clearly a goof, but it's like, no, the people, no one knew that it was.

They thought you were genuinely advertising Final Fantasy 14, the critically claimed RPG.

I thought that was very cute.

Yeah.

I love that.

Oh, my goodness.

Well, it sounds like the new year is off to a fantastic start,

personally and professionally.

Yeah.

What have you got going on this week, buddy?

Boy, oh, boy.

Boy, oh, boy.

Everyone bugged us.

And so we sat down yesterday and played Mouthwashing.

That's done.

I don't know if that'll be the first one release because we also

before yesterday played the Christmas DLC for

that hotline game, the one where people call you with their like, there's gremlins in my basement.

How do I deal with them?

Okay.

So

we played that and I love that game.

So I'm very excited to do that as well.

And then I'm not saying we started, but we're not done.

But maybe a little

princess slaying might be occurring in the old Scary Game Squad.

So tune in for that as well.

Oh my goodness.

Very fun times.

That's, yeah, you'll have something Monday for sure.

I'm not sure what, but you'll have something Monday.

Amazing.

There's not much going on with me.

I started playing Sorry We're Closed, which has been fantastic.

Really, really loving that game.

So we're going to be playing more of that next week.

But other than that, in terms of big things,

my kid is going back to what I've been calling an education jail.

So

I'll be able to do longer streams again.

So that'll be nice.

But it's been good.

It's been a good break, a good

holiday, good New Year's.

We watched Sonic.

Like, I'm wanting for nothing, you know?

I love that.

Yeah.

And

as mentioned on the last couple of episodes, we've been doing this show for a year now.

So thanks for coming into 2025 with us, gang.

We appreciate it so much.

It means the world to us.

And hey, if you want to have me get my first tattoo, all you have to do is start pushing these YouTube posts, these YouTube videos, the VODs, 200,000.

If we have consistent 200,000 people watching every episode, I will get a tattoo of Dodger's weird mushroom self on my body.

It'll be the only tattoo I have.

So there you go.

So I'm just saying, also, apparently I froze.

My camera froze.

You did, but it's the exact right time.

So it's fine.

Yeah, perfect freeze.

Here we are.

All right.

Well, that's it, I guess.

Guys, if you want to watch past episodes of Geekenders, go to youtube.com slash jessecox.

You can also find us on all of the podcasty things.

Thank you very much.

I hope you've had a lovely, safe holiday season, and we'll be back next Friday.

That's it.

I think this image of me is either trying to hold in a fart or stop a boner.

It's one of the two.

I can't tell which.

It looks like you're thinking about a meal you're about to have.

Oh, that's exactly what it is.

That's exactly what that face is.

Yeah, you're daydreaming about something you're going to eat after the show.

I love that.

I love that about me.

Bye-bye, everybody.

Have a fantastic day.

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 begin.

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 kid.

Go on, scream and 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 begin.

Go on, scream and shout.

It's Jesse and Dodger.

So give them a follow.

Number one geek podcast, without a doubt.

Start your journey toward the perfect engagement ring with Yadav, family owned and operated since 1983.

We'll pair you with a dedicated expert for a personalized one-on-one experience.

You'll explore our curated selection of diamonds and gemstones while learning key characteristics to help you make a confident, informed decision.

Choose from our signature styles or opt for a fully custom design crafted around you.

Visit yadavjewelry.com and book your appointment today at our new Union Square showroom and mention podcast for an exclusive discount.

The clock is ticking to get the the most of your summer behind the wheel of the upscale all-electric Jeep Wagoneer S and innovative Chrysler Pacifica plug-in hybrid.

And right now, get 0% financing for 72 months on the 2025 Chrysler Pacifica plug-in hybrid and the 2025 Jeep Wagoneer S.

Plus, you may qualify for up to a 7,500 federal tax credit.

See your California Jeep brand dealer and California Chrysler dealer today.

Finance offer not compatible with any other offer.

0% APR financing for 72 months equals $1,389 per month per 1,000 financed for well-qualified buyers through Stellantis Financial, regardless of down payment.

Not all customers will qualify.

Contact dealer for details.

The federal tax credit is offered by a third party and is subject to change without notice.

Please confirm this information to ensure its accuracy and availability.

Consult a tax professional for details and eligibility requirements.

Income and other restrictions may apply.

Purchases are not eligible if the customer exceeds adjusted gross income limitations: $300,000 for married filing jointly taxpayers, $225,000 for head of household filers, and $150,000 for single-filers.

Offers end September 30th.

Chrysler and Jeep are registered trademarks.