894: Sweet as Honey | Giant Bombcast

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Hey everybody. everybody it's tuesday june 10th 2025 welcome to the giant bomb cast episode 894 i'm your host jan ochoa not even the weather can be stay over me i'm not staying under it i'm getting over it baby joining me co -captain of the ship and master blaster of faces jeff grubb what to to watch out I got a party popper and I don't care who fucking dies.

That's right. We collected his ashes in the form of confetti and then brought him back to life by using a series of complicated rituals involving several counts of Mountain Dew, fruit snacks, and too many Skittles.

Dan Reichert. I lived.

My chin still hurts, but my lip's better now.

No lasting damage, I don't believe.

We managed to cover him in enough SPF that Business Dracula did not burn up up in the Los Angeles sun Jeff Bacalar what's going on yeah I used a little bit of sunscreen at play days the sun did not impact me I'm feeling good my skin feels good and it's just business as usual here in my Romanian Dracula castle oh look it's nutter butter yay oh jeff has a kitty oh i got a kitten while i was gone don't don't jump for it all right i'm still got scars from my slash we uh we uh trimmed her claws so she's got like the nice little nubbins on there uh the vet will teach you how to do that if you need to

be oh ours is just like 20 knives flinging around all the time yes speak about 20 knives he's flinging them around himself because he's the master of the grill what is he dan dr meat meat doctor the meat dr mitch Mr. Mitch. Meet Dr. Mitch, the merch master Mitch, the 12th man of the Wu -Tang group, the bad boy of games media, Mike Minotti.

Hi. I slept for 15 hours last night.

Really? Oh, yeah. All kidding aside, I was impressed with how much you are able to sleep just full stop.

and then on top of that with like ruckus and uh chaos going around yeah i'm impressed i've always been i always slept a lot then i got the c -pad but now like i can just sleep i can just go that's i i would sleep constantly if i could just most of the day like a like uh like a bear most like most animals do sleep a lot because it turns out it's a better way to live uh and i think i should it emulate them hey you know what uh animal in la is messed up squirrels squirrels they are so brave urban squirrels are scary yeah they seemed a little um confident in a way that was uh bothersome i had one outside

my window that would harass me every morning it was he was like he said wake up wake up wake up and then he'd just stare at me through the window it was just like knocking on the window basically yeah yeah speaking of scary in la i feel like grub you and i should should talk about our encounter uh on the uh last night there yeah yeah i needed a slurpee i swam to 7 -eleven very glad i i had you with me grub because um i'll let you describe my defense against the situation um yeah we went to 7 -eleven grub got a slurpee i got an ice cream butterfinger and a bunch of big modelo gimmicks and uh i'm

walking back with a bag we are are you know three houses down from the 7 -eleven basically and not a particularly bad area of la i would say or anything but we get away from the 7 -eleven and we start hearing hey hey from like clearly pointing in our direction oh they were yelling at us for sure yelling at us on like a dark street no one else is around and to dan's credit you just started walking fast or didn't look back or anything yeah yep yep and i'm just keep walking just keep walking and i was like I was like, okay, okay, you know, I live in San Francisco.

I know, just kind of ignorant.

But, like, they were clearly latched on to us in a way where it's like, oh, they're going to approach us.

We did stop to turn around once we started to hear them sprinting at us.

We heard the footsteps getting very fast. Yes.

And so, it was this woman sprinting at us, clearly was not in a great way, very wild -eyed.

And she was pointing at my bag, and she's like, you took my bag, motherfucker!

You took my bag! And I was like, I didn't take your bag, I promise you.

And she was just really, really adamant.

and then um grub do you want to describe my my master stroke of how to get out of the situation yeah yeah she's like he took my bag like no no she's like no that's my bag and dan goes and thinking maybe this would help i have a receipt my mistake have a pleasant evening and she goes i don't care let me see it and i'm just like like no grubb barked at her grubb was just like no and like like like he was approaching a bear or something and she kind of backed off before uh screaming the n -word at us a bunch she called us the n -word and then she said i was going to jail she goes you're going to jail

motherfucker and he's like please call the police right now please call the police but i have a receipt i mean i'm like we're just in the living room and i hear like this pounding at our door i'm like oh Oh, dad's being a silly again.

Slowly walk over and open it.

What was he like when you let him in?

Did he seem upset? Let me describe it.

Yeah. He was terrified.

Just like he had run for the first time in a long time.

I've run for, okay, yeah.

Yeah, I guess. I don't know.

Maybe you're walking a lot of that thing.

And he just was exasperated and fear.

I'm not gonna lie, I kind of feel good.

just seeing that like upbringing uh you know the suburban kansas upbringing really came out of me that night just like let me in the fucking house just seeing when the shit really hits the fan uh you know dan tried to later take out a bag of trash or something or like close up the garage or something and uh jan was making a phone call on the other side of the fence he's like grab there's someone on the other side of the fence i'm like let me take a look awesome very interesting saying this because like dan is absolutely fearless about some things he's gonna go 300 miles per hour i don't know if that would kill

me but it'd be fun i'm gonna eat two slices of pizza after handling raw meat without washing my hands but yeah just one encounter like that he's shaking up for the whole evening oh you mean like real life yeah it's when real life comes and knocks on his door dan's the one in the bunker real life accuses me of stealing its bag yeah oh boy but yes i'm glad grub was there i imagine oh yeah mike i'm sure mike manati would have been just real cool tough guy in that situation i'm not gonna lie i think i i think i'd want to be with manati really yeah i had a receipt i know here's my itemized list of last

four my credit card number i i think maybe just manati could potentially be a scarier figure yeah i feel like manati would like plant his ground and start growling and go like youngstown ohio for sure i want manati yes like in a street brawl no offense uh dan you might be last picked in that oh buddy why i've seen so much wrestling mike's a big boy he's gonna he's gonna throw down and be okay i'm not worried with mikey yeah that's a good question i i feel like we both have similar upbringings in a way mike's years was cushier i would have been tougher what right tougher we can't we cannot start

the the the poll debate of who is tougher all right fine dan and us will have a fight on camera all right yeah i feel like the golden nugget casino tattooed on her back for money yeah i will say like like i I had a friend kind of similar, I would say kind of similar to Dan, like this in high school.

And it was this whole thing like, well, who would win in a fight?

So finally it's like, all right, let's have a fight.

And all that happened was like, pinned him to the ground and sat on their throat for a while.

And they're like, all right, do you give up?

Like he kind of just would it.

So he started like, you know, kind of getting in a bad way.

So it's like, all right, I give up.

I don't want to hurt you.

And then they're like, wow, the other guy won.

I can see it going a very similar way.

I learned, Mike. I learned something from staying with y 'all for like, what was it?

Three, four days? Four nights.

Four nights. Dan's farts just sound like a stereotypical fart.

Like a cartoon -like fart.

Fart .Wave. Yeah. I was like, wow, you could make a killing selling that sound effect.

Holy fart man. Holy fart man.

I want to give special shouts out to a couple of homies that helped us get GB at Night and all the shenanigans that we did From the Airbnb up and running Shouts out to Chuck Holy smokes Chuck what a useful dude huh Oh my goodness I don't think it can be overstated How well we used him We rang everything out of that guy Just how important Chuck was to Not only that weekend But how important Chuck has been Since we took ownership Here's the nicest thing I can say about Chuck Because Chuck and I were actually on the same flight Back to Pittsburgh Chuck had to lay over there Chuck got off the plane

first And then, Grubb, he waited for me.

My goodness. Of course he did.

Well, he learned from my mistake.

Of course he did. I waited for Tyler Robertson, who I just met this week and after we were on the same flight together.

Nice. Wow. I'm glad I'm teaching you social cues, buddy.

I just thought I'd be nice because this is a person I just met.

You, it's like, whatever.

Also, special shouts out to our dear friend, Nikki, of course.

uh unfortunately nikki's uh bag got jacked during the vgb bees mixer but uh the community and the internet was very kind to help them reach well past their goal so hopefully they can find a switch to uh replace that as well as their laptop what the fuck y 'all uh yeah that sucked also special shots out to james uh for lending us an obscene amount of gear so much so that we had to politely turn down a good chunk of it also shots out to james for for picking it up because thank you james that's great meeting you bud that's grind style actually from from the community everybody so yeah shout out huge

shout outs to james uh special shout out to our sound engineer cara for uh dealing with our shenanigans the whole week thank you for poor cara like one of the first things that she saw was dan get blasted by confetti knocked off his mic too which she blew my live mic off yeah yeah oh i just okay well let's go go through the thank yous and then circle back around to that i know i know kara had a great time she she confessed to me she's like this is funny you guys are okay i am so glad because like the whole time like in leading converse or conversations leading up to the event i'm like how do i

tell this like professional person that we're a bunch of like doofuses parentheses positive oh but we're like broey but the good broey we're trying to be at least yeah but people who work in pert they they've seen that i you you didn't have i i'm sure she was like this is just weird but it's fine yeah i'm sure that max shirt i'm sorry i'm sorry you're wearing the max shirt i'm sorry sam keith's the max yeah cool all right thank you i'm sure that emma did some like light massaging as well and like giving her expectations as to like the type of people she'd be working with uh and also special special

special shouts out to our sponsors uh warframe anapurna interactive Pop agenda tome to young houses horses.

Sorry, I had to put some stank on it and uh dose of divas uh for for helping sgf happen for us.

Holy smokes guys That was you know, we planned that super fast Yeah, what an amazing outpouring of support from all of all those groups is like I I we're just blown away Our hearts are filled.

Thank you so very much. This is great.

Yeah, I uh, I kind of missed the warframe villa guys i'm not gonna lie i know i woke up in the warframe villa it's not the same i told the owner i said like we absolutely loved it there and we do these shows from la a couple times a year and i would love to return that place was great yeah yep i uh i woke up in my regular apartment today and i was like it's not the same it's not the same as the warframe villa it is not uh all right maybe we probably have differing opinions about staying there forever i think you know it was fun to get at home that's what that was a mere taste if we got a a content

house imagine yeah content house would have to be i think bigger for sure i could get shot in the face every day to wake up yeah i'm back in i'm back in i just man just to go i i don't want to forget this conversation i so so every so this happens to dan 14 sec can we talk about it right now is that okay Oh, yeah.

Let's talk about Dan getting blasted in the face.

Not 14 seconds into this entire weekend is Dan on the ground.

And I'm watching and I'm like, oh, my God.

Like, my entire business Dracula life flashed before my eyes.

Your life flashed before your eyes.

Eh, we're talking about me.

So, you know, you go down and it's that part where it's like, oh, the friend fell.

And is he okay? We're all having fun.

and you know i went in to to get you some ice which i don't think you've said out loud to anybody but um you did well i came back with all the stuff there yeah and then the i mean the best was the conversation that i had just dan and i in the hallway where he's like am i bleeding am i bleeding and i'm like not at all he's like no i think i'm bleeding i think i'm bleeding and his mike is dangling down his shirt and i'm like i'm like we might be live just keep your voice down right and he's and you were just you're incoherent you were you were kind of speaking again i'm not saying there's no reason for it

this is he might have actually been in shock right this is what was so you're this is his mom and then he's also talking to me with the tissue you up against his face so he's like i don't know what's happening i feel like i feel like my face fell off is my face on and i'm like everything's fine buddy don't worry you it was truly an amazing moment for sin it was it was cinema cinema there's a little blood had a little bit of blood tiny tiny little bit mostly numbness uh from like bottom of my nose to my chin the blood was from when you smashed your face all through your mouth it was all like black

in there it was rough yeah yeah i didn't realize that until i was talking to greg miller and he's like the inside of your lip is black and i was like what it's like oh shit okay i when you came back i could not stop laughing when you came back from being from your from your like ice uh and and whatever i i just couldn't stop laughing i was just so relieved to see all his teeth that i was feeling like a million dollars at that point you know what like i it took a while to get up up and running because we had some audio bugs and then i was like it took so long to get the stream up should i really

bring it down right now no no and then grub just carried on the conversation my favorite two of my favorite things right is as soon as it happens like no one actually gets up to check on dan and then yeah i was like i'm like i'm not sure and then once i realized it wasn't film like someone please help him because i'm like my walk away way what happens to the show but that like jesse vitelli just takes a big swig out of his drink and then the so the reddit mike took a hit of his vape yeah exactly the reddit that blew up accused mike of like oh wow that guy's just gonna hit his vape after this not knowing

it's a fucking kazoo wait but did you did you play the kazoo after he got i don't think so maybe i nervously put it back in my mouth for a bit because that was terrifying i get it i get it and i get it too because it's like i'm trying to put myself in your shoes where it's like i don't you know i'm a i'm a worker to an extent and you know like or or i or exaggerate a little bit and so it's like mike talked about once like like last year or something he threw something at me in a bathroom at the sgf party and i sold it and i flew back against the wall and fell down or something and so i could i

work enough to where it's like okay i can see how they think it's a bit but zero percent zero person like that is just me reacting to trauma i will to uh dan and jeff's credit you were both immediately like oh well things happen i'm traumatized i cannot get mad at that and i've done plenty of bullshit had any permanent damage I would be in a bad way I was just like it seems like if like if I was in his shoes and this was the damage I would be feeling the same way as Dan so it's easy to like go on with it but had there been anything that looked like oh I not not the truth a little loose I would have been

devastated okay so so last year Dan blasted grub with a leaf blower this year we're escalating grub blasted Dan with a confetti cannon in heat next year is it just gonna be a full -on like 10 paces duel we shoot mikey out of a cannon there we go turn the aim oh let's shoot a cannonball at mikey oh yeah like that simpsons thing yeah right it felt like it felt like i was witnessing like someone attempt to assassinate somebody it sure felt that way they basically look that way because the look in your eyes grub Like from my point of view You were like this is my chance This is my chance We're gonna get

him folks Let's shoot a buzz ball out of a cannon At Jan Into his mouth How do we shoot a buzz ball away from the house That was disgusting That was perfect People will see it in the vlog that's gonna go up this week But Dan and I and I think Backlar is there We go into the garage Or the void fridge And then Dan just starts laughing and looking at me and then out of nowhere he pulls out the biggie buzz ball and it was already there in the fridge we didn't know it was there yeah unopened yeah it was sealed though it was it was sealed it was and then so was it just like old motor oil no no no i

mean that stuff doesn't expire right no it it was the one thing all weekend that really challenged my religious beliefs thieves how soon the buzz ball pre -loaded into that fridge you know all right maybe there is a god yeah maybe there's a god and then nikki proceeded to tape it to my hands under my own uh demand i think i yelled at poor charlie to get the buzz ball on some tape yeah eddie eddie buzz ball hands yeah and you couldn't see this at home folks but like behind the camera there was a dozen games media and pr people like kneeling on the ground like a cult ritual as jan with his taped

buzz ball is just anointing them just the communion did anyone get any photos of that at all i i i skied it out like a video uh okay yeah i i i it warms my heart that there is a still of me pouring a uh gigantic buzz ball into the mouth of one of like the biggest youtube essayists yeah oh yeah oh yeah dan you had some of it too just on top of your burger yeah that was real fucking gross yeah uh before we move on about the confetti pop thing um i it was maybe like the next morning i was in bed i was looking at my phone and i just like it just started laughing as hard as i possibly could i don't

know if it was reverberating through the i did hear that yes i was wondering what that was you know the house is a lot of hardwood floors so it's echoey and you know the whole thing so i come downstairs and i just start showing this clip if you go back and watch about 30 seconds after dan goes down grub goes oh man dan did i get you right in the face with that and then just goes his mic still within earshot just goes yep it is just i don't know what if it's the timing it's just the funniest like you shot me yep you you got me kind of thing right it is so i much i much i must have listened to it

11 times in a row i could not stop laughing how just you're like yep you got me like oh man it couldn't have been more of a sniper shot it was just direct right center and more above would have probably shoved my glasses into my eyes or it would have been terrible and i was like i have terrible aim uh like of course i didn't do it on purpose and then of course after that i do that perfect shot out to danny o 'dwyer's mouse and now i look like no i definitely that was amazing yeah happy pride by the way i'm glad that miller and danny really hammered it home by playing with a banana cream okay we

have a lot of stuff that will be coming up still from sgf i i interviewed ben star i have a really good interview yeah yeah yeah yeah i heard about that shot it um i was not able i was He was carrying a MacGruber DVD at the Death Stranding premiere for Hideo Kojima.

And PR had asked me, like, I was like, they want to clear everything with Kojima, obviously.

And I was like, all right, well, I want to give him a Gruber.

And PR was like, OK, you can do that, but just ask him a couple of real questions first. And so I asked him a couple of real questions and he was giving very thoughtful, long enough answers to where PR was like, all right, yeah, we're done.

We got to move on. So I'm just I wasn't able to give it to him.

So next time. All right.

Yes, yes, yes. yes i'm glad you had fun at hideo kojima's red carpet event for himself is that the second time you tried to give him a gruber um yes there i brought a copy of mcgruber to japan um but i knew he wasn't going to take it there there i'm pretty sure i can say this but there was a moment like you know they're taking photos at the red carpet right and then like uh hideo kojima is is now flanked by two japanese models uh one i believe is in the game and then i'm not going gonna say who said it but someone like nearby looks at hideo kojima uh surrounded by two japanese models and he just

claps his hands and he goes now that's a shot someone who might be uh friends with hideo kojima uh but yeah that was fun any any other fun mems from from the weekend before we get into the pod learn a lot about mustard that's for sure um oh man yeah all right I was like in a thing, I was seeing a game that we can't talk about yet later this week, I don't know, it doesn't matter, and I catch up with all these guys and there's a I catch up with all these guys and they're in the media area and they got like a whole conclave around them, they're all discussing something obviously and Jesse Patelli

looks at me and says, just walk away and he's like, just leave and I'm like, oh no, not again, and of course the curiosity is too insane at that point and then I'm like, what is it?

and everyone looks at Dan and then Dan's like have you ever had mustard and then i wanted to walk away this was the weekend where where i think i i reached a new level of mutual understanding with jesse as to how we uh collectively feel about you dan where we just sort of from a culinary point of view more specifically but just kind of looking at you and just locking eyes and just being like you know when you see someone you lock eyes and the situation's insane and you don't have to say it out loud your eyes say it all i'm just sort of like it's i know buddy it's unbelievable what we're doing

here speaking about culinary stuff before we get into the mustard of it all um pete i think eka uh the developer behind dosa divas yes instead of taking great hanging out with eka's super dope uh instead of taking the initial bite of the burger he had george from pop agenda come on and take a bite of it people assumed that george died after taking a bite of the burger because he never came back on on set not knowing that he was just a stunt man right yeah my my wife was legit mad at me for biting that burger i got home and she's like but the kids were disgusted watching didn't make that then they

watched you eat it and they were kind of all mad at you it was oh i i had a tough time watching you cook i had a tough time i had a realization you're right i'm gonna i'm gonna try something i had a realization because like i don't remember it was on the air or off the air or whatever we talked about honey and i was like oh i don't know if i'd call honey sweet and then got the oh you know dumb dan reaction and and then later i thought about it and i was like wait a minute no there's a phrase sweet they're sweet as honey i knew that i knew that so like i i had some like introspection i'm like why

did i say honey wasn't sweet if i i think i say things first and then if i just like access my actual thoughts and knowledge i'm like oh that's a ridiculous thing to say i know better than that and then i realized that's cold and then i realized listen i'm on the plane yesterday and my dad's like uh when are you leaving la and i said i'm in the air now and he just goes it's impossible to text from airplanes and i'm like oh oh this is a dad this is me just saying thing that like i i'm gonna try i'm gonna try to think before i say things admirable listen yeah i think it's okay if you say things

and then think as long as the thinking happens at some point i'm gonna be satisfied dan and i did when i back i went to jann i was like no sweeter than honey i know that phrase that's a thing that is a thing so yeah i i'm he's like a dream cast i'm sorry chad just said that it sounds like we are flirting with you making progress uh it's not good enough for me i want to i am always a work in progress and i uh uh you know what amen brother yeah like i just want to i want cheese i want you to see this through though i don't want this to be like a little jaunt that lasts for like 48 hours and then

we move on and we regress to you being a dumbass again i need you calling me out oh oh that won't be a problem buddy i mean what do you mean that's all we do great is you poop on the floor we rub your face in it and and then two steps later like i think i'm gonna shit on the floor again uh other good memories uh just like a bunch of cool people that i hadn't spent a lot of time with before mark mcdonald oh my god they're just so sweet and and great there's so many people like that it's cool industry and we uh you know i'm always proud of the of the you know the party we put on because we invite

the cool people yeah show up for us yeah i was one of my favorite couch segments was uh having just jill groat and kate sanchez um yeah on on the couch i was just like wow look at these like new school of like games journos doing this doing things their own way for sure yeah it's it's awesome to be able to just have them on and have them hang out and want to be a part of it so yeah very cool something that i was shooting for when i was looking for the bnb was like I really wanted to feel like the first ones I did in like the early 2010s where it really was just like you know Ryan and Jeff and those

guys like in a fucking place that they were also staying at and they somehow made it a broadcast place and like you know the hotel stuff was fun the fandom HQ stuff was fun for different reasons but like I wanted this to feel not shitty but you know scrappy you know and it reminded me of those more than any other E3s yeah I enjoyed it a lot I'll say it I think it was my favorite SGF I think it was mine too yeah yeah me too and i think based on all the ones i've been to yeah me too all right let's talk about video games i feel like we were all very polite to each other over the weekend very understanding

and that meant a lot to me you know who was not polite or understanding fucking nintendo because they decided to launch the switch to at the same time as sgf fucking dicks uh mike Mike, you waited in a shoot line for one.

Yeah, that was great.

Me and my brothers were just at the Best Buy together and just waiting in the line.

I actually picked one up there just to make sure I was super ready with it.

Did you get recognized?

I did get recognized.

Well, I got recognized.

What was even better is that they recognized AJ, and he really, really liked that.

Oh, that's cute. See, I'm happy they recognized AJ.

AJ, I am less happy that you reveled in the fact that they later recognized you, like, well, yeah, you know, the star is here.

Well, I know, it's a problem, but it was a ton of fun.

But yeah, you know, a lot of these consoles lately, I usually play them at a preview event or something or another at some point, but this was the first time in a while just opening the box, and there it is for the first time, the Switch 2.

It is still kind of a magical experience.

It was a ton of fun getting something new.

I should open mine.

yeah i'm the only one that doesn't have one nuts i have another one i gotta go pick up still from best buy they probably don't have it anymore i bet they give it to someone else but yeah i mean i i don't know it's i haven't like contacted them let them know hey i'll come get that when i get back from another state but i i did wait in line as well in in orange right next to disneyland and uh there was a ton of people there and i didn't have a pre -order and it was just fine it was real easy to just go in there and get one uh it seemed like it was going to sell x there was like like 500 people at that thing

but i had a i had a really good time it was uh neat to get it and then went back and played it and played mario kart all weekend it's been it's been cool hell yeah hell yeah uh dan you you finally got yours nikki was waiting at their door uh very patiently and uh you you got all the peripherals right everyone got like the camera and stuff i got the camera and then i i got the camera i think i've got a box coming with other stuff but i bought the uh the pro controller and the gamecube controller thing here i haven't had a chance to try them me yet but even just the feel of the pro controller is very

very good i'm sorry i made a face and people asked what the face was i saw this very big daddy long like just crawling on the wall by my computer and i had to go and deal with that everyone sorry uh switch two is cool gaker controller and cool too yeah mine was way from when i got back oh yeah you see it i've been just messing around with it i haven't used it for games yet but i hear it's good i hear what's neat is um if you play mario 3d all -stars like mario sunshine it works perfectly with it now with the click and all that stuff yeah it's like oh that's important okay great great very good

fantastic uh i mean let's just keep rolling along with like switch to stuff mario kart world uh how have y 'all been finding your time with it i know that grub may may be on the slightly more sour side slightly i'm going back and forth i go back and forth with it it's uh i do think it's more bullshit that Mario Kart's ever been in not a great way where it kind of ruins how I like to race in those games, which is to try to win.

And now it's like, hey, maybe you should sit back and make sure you actually get the right items so you have a chance to maybe pull off a last -minute comeback.

Otherwise, that bullshit is guaranteed to get you.

Now, I'm still having fun when I play Knockout Tour.

I still think that's a cool mode.

Online, I've done it maybe six, seven times.

I've never won. I got second a couple times, and so maybe once I went up, like, I like this game because I'm a simple -minded fool like that, but so far, it's just been like, yeah, boy, it feels like I just cannot escape any of this ever.

None of the skill is – it doesn't seem like it's mattering.

Now, I am getting more used to doing things like holding down the jump button while going straight so that you can do that power jump to get up on rails, and I like that that's skill -based, and I like that that is the thing you have to do to get into the wall runs.

And I've not been taking huge advantage of that yet.

So I'm wondering if, like, as I get better at those things, maybe the game unlocks itself to me a little bit.

But so far I'm like, hey, this is a, it looks great.

It does still play great because it still has basically the same fundamental controls and mechanics as Mario Kart 8.

And then there's those extra things on top.

And then there's a lot of cool characters in it.

So like, it's got a lot of the stuff I want.

I just think that when I'm trying to win a race, it doesn't feel as good as some of the previous Mario Kart games so far.

I mean, I am loving the chaos and there are those big, you know, I've seen some people complain about the like wide roads and stuff like that.

And I love it because just when there's like 24 cars going and there's just nonsense everywhere, it feels like Fury Road, you know?

Sure. It's just like just absolute chaos going down the track.

And I do find that there have been times I've gotten ridiculously screwed over and gone from first to 10th right at the finish line or whatever.

But that's kind of always been Mario Kart to an extent.

Yeah, it definitely is.

Yeah. Yeah. So it's like, I don't know.

I feel like I'm pretty good at Mario Kart and I'm able to get mostly like the gold cups on each one.

And if I get screwed over on something, it's like, oh, well, I'm going to play every one of these Grand Prix's a million times anyway.

So just give me more of a reason to keep going back and trying to get that gold cup.

I think knockout mode is great.

I can't wait to play some online.

I haven't been able to really check out online at all, but I do.

I can't wait to maybe do some streams and do like a room code and just play with like 23 members of the community.

Like that sounds awesome.

And play with the camera on.

Yes. Fantastic. Actually did that with the kids and they loved it.

we we also uh tested out the camera i think uh thursday night we played a little bit with aj menotti and it was just absolutely hilarious of how crystal clear while you were racing his portrait looked and it does a whole nvidia cutout thing but if uh aj ran across like a banana peeler got hit by anything his little portrait would like was like spin around spin around yeah it was really it's really funny and like i said the kids loved it and that was local with where you set up the camera to be on your face when you're sitting on the couch with just one camera set up and uh that worked surprisingly

well and i love that idea of oh yeah we're playing together all the time you just assume why would i need a camera but actually seeing the face in the game because you're not staring at someone's face while you're playing seeing their reaction when you do hit him with a shell it it makes it all the more fun uh that dog's not real um i'm i'm enjoying a lot of those aspects of it for sure and the audio on that camera too like when we were playing with cj it was just like we could hear him totally fun we had four of us all talking to him it was great and that might that's the mic that's built into

the switch too actually so but still it was on the other side of the room yeah we could he could hear us like even when like uh Bacalar was in the room adjacent to where we are and we would test it like Bacalar shot something at uh at AJ Minotti and uh AJ would be like you know I can hear him he does sound far away but I can completely understand him so kind of impressive stuff and and just simple basic um uh use cases start to to come together really quick when you're like okay yeah i could see me using this family pretty frequently uh and then like grub we we popped open like the whole game

chat window stuff and then we both kind of tuned it out after a while yeah exactly like when you are using the cameras uh there is no way to make the game then full screen it's going to be a smaller you know slightly smaller window with the cameras below now you can minimize those those cameras to be as small as possible basically and then that'll make the game a little bit bigger and then put black bars around the side of the game and that has the cameras on the bottom and as jan said we both got used to it very quickly i was no i was no longer being like oh i'm like this is a window inside a window

that's a little bit a little annoying it wasn't annoying after five minutes and chad asked if the mic was close to the tv and yeah the switch was like right underneath the tv which was across the room from us and it all just kind of like you know it in the welcome tour game it tells you all about how the the microphones and stuff like cancel out you know it's like it says like oh yeah it's going to cancel out the game noises because it's like it sends the game noises to the microphone so it knows what to cancel out there nvidia is really good at that stuff that's all nvidia tech so yeah and it

worked it really worked so yeah i could see myself using that pretty frequently well you know we brought it up uh let's talk about the switch to welcome tour i want to talk about my cart real quick ah sorry i was too busy getting no no no mitch go for it please please please i i like it i think uh you know what's your history with mario kart that's the thing it's like i'm always like mario kart's fun it's never really more than an eight for me though right it's kind of my thing so you know if you were like oh mario kart 8 deluxe is maybe one of the best games on switch i'm like um i guess here's

my thing i really like this one too but yeah it's still like yeah this is an eight it's still a ton of fun i i like i hear what you're saying jeff about the bullshit but to me it's maybe it is a little bit worse but that's always been a part of mario kart that i don't necessarily love definitely a part of it i wonder if like part of me feels like they could fix it by just making blue shells like a fifth as common as they are, because right now, it's like if you're in first place, at some point you are going to deal with a blue shell no matter what.

You can rewind to not get hit by the blue shell, but you're still rewinding, which is a pretty cool move.

Grub I did it and it felt really cool.

Keeping your momentum is neat.

Now, that doesn't work online, though.

But I don't know. The thing I really care about is like, hey, what are these tracks like?

And there's just so many cool tracks here.

DK Spaceport, The Toad Factory, The Rainbow Road.

great rainbow rainbow road was awesome yeah very very good the freemrome stuff isn't like the most fleshed out but i still think it is fun it's cute more than it is like very exciting like it's there it's not a huge plus it seems like they could have done more with it is there online multiplayer free room free room yeah multiplayer with free room i don't think you can even split screen it i think it's like like when you're in between matches online free roam is like an option i think people are hanging out there but but it's not like oh then we can all just go explore this world together and that's

i was really looking forward to that i mean at the switch launch they showed the thing of like you know getting like three or four cards together and doing photo mode and stuff so i think you okay well let's give that a shot because we haven't had time to like test all this stuff yet so much i said you can split screen free roam i thought you couldn't and that didn't make patrick clubbix try and get children cry yeah yeah yeah all right okay um uh welcome tour i like i know everyone makes fun of it and yes i agree it should have been a pack in it makes a lot of sense as a pack -in but remove the price part

of it and like i think it's a fun little thing and it's a fun way to learn about the the hardware when i was watching i was like wow uh what if i could pay for an eye exam yeah it's like it is kind of fun interesting but there is something medical about it i think Yes.

It's sterile in a weird way.

It's got hospital energy.

There's like that nice, there's like ray tracing on those buttons.

That looks good as hell.

Rotating those around and like sliding around on the screen.

That's fun. There's little mini games and stuff there that are very, very simple.

I'm better at them than you all, too.

Remember that? You all were trying that mouse game.

He was so proud of himself.

He was just like doing these really satisfied sighs.

And I'm like, good for you, Mike.

You all were taking multiple turns.

You couldn't touch 40 of the stars, whatever, while avoiding the mines.

And I got my first try and just wiped the floor.

God, it's embarrassing to not be in the bed.

Me and Greg were good at the finger game.

Yeah, but how did you do in Switch 2?

Ha! Wow, bang. Got us.

Finger blasted. I was more annoyed than that joke of Jan turning the thing off on us when we were trying to do the finger game with each other.

Oh, that was funny.

I think we've got to clip it online.

Good job, Jan. as soon as like it happened i'm like dan's gonna think it was me and he yep he was like yelling him he's like what are you doing grub i'm like i there's no way i could have done this what are you talking about uh and of course jan was filming us and making fun of us uh i thought that was great but that i'm like okay i i i thought i would like a welcome tour more than i do it's uh i i'm i think i'm a little annoyed at like having to like read up on all these things and then take a quiz i didn't think there'd be so many quizzes well how else are you gonna know the speakers come out

at a diagonal angle you're right diagonal angle i didn't know that right oh yeah you do yeah i know it should have been packed in i know there's a lot of people yeah there's a lot of people who are like oh i can't stand these people complaining about paying for this i'm sorry you're wrong like you're just wrong and you've there's a chemical in your brain that forgives certain brands for things more than others and i want you to see someone and get that chemical perhaps removed from your brain i don't know if i've ever seen a more egregious example of oh this should have been a packing game it

looks so bad when you compare it to astro's uh playroom oh my god yeah it's insane it's it's it's gross it's actually actually that's a great example mike because like astro's playroom kind of did the same thing of like check out the dual sense and like all this stuff and all and it is like you're exploring the hardware and history of playstation and stuff so yes even the more basic that's why he said it better like this like even the more basic ones that like came with the uh ps4 for like when it had the new controller that one was much more yeah much more slimmed down compared to playroom even

that is way more impressive than what uh welcome tour is and and it was fun like i know you guys are like acting like you're having fun but like you're basically just you're popping bubble wrap i don't understand in like you're just like ah it's i'm sorry you're mentally ill on a level screen that yeah that looked cool yeah you don't want to do a frame rate gif test and then pay ten dollars play mario in 4k it is fun i think welcome tour is fun but it is a kind of indignant fun that i have sure sure uh while we're still talking about the switch to someone threw down here gamecube games i'm going

to assume that is the ones that you can play only Switch 2.

Yeah, because we got Soul Calibur 2, F -Zero, GX, and Wind Waker.

I haven't touched Wind Waker yet because that's sort of a bigger thing, but especially at the Warframe Villa, we were throwing down on Soul Calibur 2.

First off, it's nice because you can just turn on the widescreen support and that just makes it this widescreen game.

And with the way that their emulator is working with some upres and whatever they're doing, the game just looks Very good.

As far as I can tell, the emulation seems really nice.

Like, when we had N64, at first, that emulation was kind of rough.

They've been making it better.

But the GameCube games just kind of already look great.

And, plus, there is the per -game button mapping that you can do now.

And it's not just like, oh, make it so that this button is A on GameCube.

You can even do some, like, button combinations depending on the game.

It's like in Soulcalibur 2, like, hitting, like, both of the, maybe, like, attack buttons or something at the same time is difficult on an over controller because it was designed for the weird beans and a button there yeah right there you go dan so like but here it's like well you could just map that to the left shoulder button what was it or or the right stick yeah yeah but like the left shoulder button didn't exist on the gamecube that's kind of a free button now so that kind of helps out a lot and then the default is fucked up when you're playing with the pro controller because like the pro

controller face buttons are more like a dreamcast and i'm extremely used to playing soul caliber with the dreamcast uh layout the first one um so i was able to go in and just be like no no no just make this feel like the dreamcast one and now it feels right so and it does it per game yeah so it's like it's not going to mess up the other gamecube games yeah that's it's great yeah so copper 2 is just still a very good video game it it's got it's we played a bunch with each other even last night i was just going through that weapon master mode or whatever.

I was doing that on a plane.

I unlocked Yoshimitsu.

Yeah, same. And it's just like, gosh, this is just the best 3D fighting game still.

I love it. yep. Did you unlock the armor for Link or the weapon for Link that helps him heal that my friend used to cheat when we first played Soul Calibur 2 the first time?

Oh, that sucks. He's like, come over our house and we're gonna play the weapon master mode and no one knew what it was.

And he's like, he kept choosing Link with this certain sword and he kept beating it.

So I'm like, he felt like he should have lost that one.

What happened? And then I finally noticed, like, his health is regenerating.

What the fuck? That's messed up.

So I picked that Link character and then I beat him.

But gosh, that's also just gorgeous still.

Like, that looks so freaking good.

It's awesome. Yeah, the implementation of the GameCube stuff seems very good.

Great. Yes. Speaking of...

Just real quick, getting the GameCube controller is pretty cool because having the sticks, or I'm sorry, the triggers, the analog is important for something like F -Zero, where I like to sort of feather that to left and right a little bit.

Speaking about Link, Dan Ryker, you quickly tested Tears of the Kingdom on the Switch 2.

yes uh just just very briefly just kind of running around a little bit and it's significant it is nuts yeah it runs so much better it looks so much better like i'm going to play through breath the wild again on this thing i'm i don't think there's ever been a time where i've been so used to game running at like 30 frames per second or lower and then just so that when i finally played it at 60 frames per second and they're upscaling it to 4k or whatever they're doing that it actually looks kind of weird like i'm actually a little bit weirded out by how good how good it looks and how smooth it is it's

like no this is like too realistic now um yeah it's incredible the jump that that game gets i'm really surprised by it chat saying the zelda notes thing is cool too is that which which app do i need for that because i'd love to try that is that the nintendo app the nintendo app which i actually have found to be pretty useful because after uh twitter dropped or twitter was going to charge these companies 40 000 a month or whatever to have people upload videos they took that out so you can't just upload your stuff directly to social media so for a while on switch you would have to do this thing

where if you want your video from the switch to your phone you have to take a picture of a qr code and direct and connect your phone directly to the wi -fi of your switch it was annoying now anytime you take a screenshot or a video you can just upload it automatically to the uh the switch app or you can actually have all of them just automatically upload in the background to the switch app and they'll be there for 30 for 30 days.

Yeah, it's really cool.

If I can manage to pick up a Switch 2 in like the next two weeks, I'd be really interested to maybe try and circle back to Pokemon Scarlet Violet.

I just installed that last night, so I'm going to go back to that because that was the first time I just dropped, first off, a mainline Pokemon game, but second off, a game largely because the performance and graphics were so bad.

I'd love to see if I can get into it again.

And there are a lot lot of games that nintendo didn't say anything about that have been running better obviously there's the ones that like link's awakening where they're like there's some improvements oh yeah and and there are and they didn't mention frame rate but of course the frame rate just completely smoothed out uh it looks and runs great i think a lot of people dropped echoes of wisdom and maybe go back so i think that gives a ton of fun and now it's just running smoothly i think it's worth going to and there's just a huge handful of games that are like that uh especially even ones that were like

locked at 30 frames per second they were probably also using uh you know a dynamic dynamic resolution and now they'll just max out at 720p or some of them max out at 1080p even on handheld mode because they were like oh we'll sample 1080p and we'll downscale to 720p for that screen so now they just run natively at 1080p there's yeah there's a huge list that people are complying on uh compiling on a google sheet somewhere and it's just like dozens and dozens of games that run better i might want to check out the splatoon 3 dlc2 then yeah oh yeah like the single stuff there's a yeah there's a roguelite

motor or whatever in there chat says says cruise and blast runs at 60 now yeah i'm gonna i'm gonna play that yeah try that god yeah uh boy in general i just i'm really happy with my switch too i like especially this modern era like i know people like uh switch pro right and i'm like but so what consoles now really like i get that little fault that kind of falls flat to me like i get that when we were having that conversation we got the playstation 5s and the xbox series xs but yeah obviously you know we're in a uh morris law is dead kind of world now i think they could have done some stuff like

you know i i get why you keep the ui the same but it's like oh that's a big part of maybe why some people don't feel like this is as much of a new console leap as it could be but that's sort of just aesthetics at the end of the day this is a huge upgrade as far as i'm concerned yeah i think it's a good thing that's basically a switch pro because i just want them to focus on making the games the big new thing and now this will force them to have to do that they They cannot rely on the excitement of, oh, this is a new way of playing games or here's some stupid new gimmick.

This is like, no, it's that again.

So if you want people to care, you've got to put out a new Mario that matters.

You have to put out a new Zelda that matters, a new Metroid that matters.

So, yeah, that's that's where I'm excited.

Fantastic. Fantastic.

Well, I think it's now time to talk about the video games that we actually checked out at Summer Game Fest. A couple of us got some of them that we can talk about.

There's still a few that are on barcode.

Yeah. The ones that we can talk about, at least. I think Lego Party is great.

A couple of us played Lego Party.

Hell yeah. Yeah, it's really good.

Like imagine Mario Party, but not like annoying.

I mean, but you have to say it is.

It does just take every Mario Party thing.

Oh, it's just the same thing.

Yes, but it's not annoying.

I mean, annoying is part of the charm.

You didn't seem to think that when we did the Demon Slayer one, where you're like, this just doesn't have Mario in it.

No, that just sucked.

No, no, no. Lego Party doesn't have Mario in it.

but like i have to admit it's it is snappier it moves a lot faster like yeah you know one of the things people hate about mario party traditionally is just like it takes a long fucking time to go through every shop thing and everything and like this one everything just kind of moves really quickly we played a full game um six turns i think six rounds it said to expect 45 minutes it felt like more like a half hour maybe or so um but the mini games were a lot of fun they were all very simple does the exact same mario party thing where it takes you to the practice screen everyone readies up it's

like every mario party thing it's you're getting uh studs and bricks instead of coins and stars you know you've got a banana man with a phone that makes monkeys attack you that was great instead of a boo uh it's it's dice but it's not dice it just shows the numbers kind of like yeah that was the one thing i wish they did borrow from mario party actually dice yeah well you know i don't know why we're not doing that but sure yeah no one's ever found a inside the lego world i guess it's a that's nikki's joke not mine but yes yeah yeah Yeah, and a Nintendo copyrighted dice, yeah.

Right, right, right.

That's why D &D had to make a 20 -sided die.

Uh -huh. Right. But just fun gimmicks where it's like you're climbing a volcano in the level we did, and there's like a giant turkey on a spit roast at the top, and if you get to the top, it launches it down, and it falls on someone's head like Mr. Bean, and it steals either a bunch of studs or a full -on brick.

Yeah, that happened to me, but it was fun.

If it happened in Mario, I'd be upset.

This was more fun. Why?

What's the difference?

conference uh because it's like i don't i think i i i i enjoy the or maybe this will sort of wear off maybe it's just the honeymoon period but i do think like the cuteness and the sort of like twee lego stuff it's just it's just more forgiving and i'm just not i don't know there's something about the mario stuff that bothers you perhaps because it's you it could be it could be a dan yeah sure i was gonna say but it also perhaps like lego more than mario um in its own way i don't i don't like no one ever makes fun of you when you say lego you say lego right yeah yeah it's true uh and man we have frosh

stick on the couch and i could have my mario back up there yeah you know what he would say he's from the east coast too no yeah you're both wrong it's fine yeah um so you know um yeah it could be because of dan it could be like you said you know mario party makes a freaking meal at every goddamn round in a way that sucks sure it's terrible um yeah but this is great uh an interesting thing about uh lego party is you can have an item that will send you backwards uh down the map instead of forwards which say you skip past the star or the golden brick and it's only a couple spaces behind you you could actually

go backwards instead of forwards so that's pretty nice uh i i do want to say that uh we had vitelli not vitelli uh Finale, helping us out at the Lego party before, but he had to go dip to an appointment, and he was in last place, so I took over, and then your boy got bricked up and got the golden brick at the end.

Dude, the best was I saw him like an hour later and I hear faintly someone being like Jeff, Jeff, Jeff!

I'm like, what? Who's calling me?

And it's Finale, it's Jason and he comes up to me, he goes who won?

Did I win? Did I win?

I said yeah, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, Jan took over he threw your spot, you won, you share this, so you have to you have to cut that trophy in Athens.

I will gladly share that trophy and glory with Finale Finale what a great deal real quick everyone shut up I'm buying Minds Eye I just did too what?

I didn't realize it was out because like a few weeks ago I got an email being like hey fill out this form if you want to get review code for Minds Eye and I was like alright I'm curious and I fill it out it never came so that's not a great sign that's great yeah yeah we we have to do a quick look at that oh we're gonna we're gonna get in that badass for sure yeah let's do a spoiler cast for mine's eye okay sure yeah yeah mine's eye week here on giant bomb so they're so they're just not sending it out to anyone after just now it's not just that like half of the c -suite left uh they like were um

ghosting big appointments or big appearances they were supposed to be making over the weekend uh leslie benzies was supposed to like go on something and he didn't do it kind of left some people in the lurch so we'll have to check but it sounds like it was just delisted from steam and then came back up at ten dollars more expensive wow let's go shut the fuck up let's see what's going on with this fucking game i uh i like io interactive uh who's publishing this they did they did not make that but they are gonna have to learn some lessons from this i think so oh boy well uh this is their first First

time publishing something, I think, so, yeah, it feels like it.

I think it shows that no one is invincible, but Mikey may be invincible because he played Invincible Versus.

Is that what they're calling it?

Yes, Invincible Versus.

Yep, that's the name.

That's to imply it's a 3v3 fighter, yeah.

Yeah, so I did check this out over at Microsoft's setup adjacent to SGF.

Yeah, 3v3 fighting game, so immediately makes me think Marvel versus Capcom 3.

You definitely have that flavor in there.

But there's a little bit of Mortal Kombat here, specifically Mortal Kombat 1, I think, because it is a very aerial game with the juggles, but also every character has dashes that can be, like, eight -directional air dashes.

Some characters, like Adam, you can just straight -up enter a flying state.

And then also it's very Mortal Kombat because it is a very bloody game.

And if you finish...

You don't have fatalities, per se, but if you finish a character with a super move or something else, else you will you know make their heads explode or rip their arms off that kind of stuff right so it can be very gory and violent but like those kind of capcom versus games the pace is very fast right and a lot of big combos and you know because it's 3v3 you can call in your characters as a sis so they come out do a move but if you like do it during a combo then they will just pick up the combo you can kind of extend your combos a lot there's even a there's even an in -game meter to make sure you're not just

comboing forever. But there also are things you can do defensively to try to stop the combo.

You kind of counter the moment they bring in one of their partners with one of yours to stop it there.

Other things like that.

So, yeah, I was having fun with it.

I'm not like a giant Invincible fan, right?

You know, Mikey, a bit more sunshine and rainbows than ripping.

Yeah, I was wondering, like, the violence.

Was it kind of like being like, ugh?

Because out of context, that stuff can be so in your face.

Yeah, it's a little weird. It's weird, because I'm just so used to Mortal Kombat.

But even Mortal Kombat 1 these days, I'm like, this stuff looks so realistic.

I don't know if it really extracts joy from this anymore.

No, it is just kind of weird to me.

But something about it being a bit more cartoon -looking almost made it, I guess, more palpable.

Palatable, yeah. They had the voice cast from the show for the game.

Yeah, J .K. Simmons just straight up in that game.

I couldn't play as Omni -Man.

And I think they had Invincible, Adam Eve, then two people I didn't recognize.

You know, there's, like, a roster down there.

A lot of it was blanked out.

I was kind of curious because it's even, like, with the blanked out people.

Like, is that going to be the full roster?

Because if it's a 3v3 game, you kind of need a lot of characters.

There are a lot of characters in that show that they could pull from.

So I would imagine that's probably just an early glimpse because they want to.

Because was it grayed out or was it blacked out so you couldn't even see the characters?

I can't remember, but I think it may be.

Yeah, yeah. It's a good point.

so probably can't judge anything there but you know what i can't judge is was it fun yeah cool it was fun so and this is double helix this is uh the other the team that made killer instinct before uh iron galaxy took it over mike i got a question for you oh dan go ahead oh just real quick i'm just seeing screenshots from matt piscatella and daniel dwyer uh it looks like right now the steam page for mind's eye now has two options one is by mind's eye for 59 .99 add to cart the The other one is BuyMindsEye for $79 .99 at Ducard. It doesn't say, like, Deluxe Edition?

No, they both say exactly BuyMindsEye.

Just, do you want to give us $20 more?

That's a good deal.

Sure. All right, yeah.

Fun. Okay, cool. What's it gonna be like that I'm Rich app on iPhone where people are like, well, I just gotta get the more expensive one.

I don't know what this is.

Yeah. Great. It says, okay, when I look at it, it does say BuyMindsEye Deluxe Edition for $80 now.

They might have fixed it, but yeah, there's screenshots.

Okay. This seems to be be going well yeah good launch good launch right yeah um a good kickoff to mine's eye week huh um yep yeah uh mike i was gonna ask since uh in my experience with the marvel versus games i'm kind of just button mashing right i've never taken time to properly learn uh people are semi -concerned with that other marvel versus game coming up um and this from the arc system from the arc system systemworks um having to learn four characters like how essential is it to actually learn learn a character rather than like leaning on a main and just having the assists i mean it's so hard

because it kind of depends on who you're playing against i will say in this game uh it's not like you know the quarter circle push a button for specials there's three attack buttons it was like x y and b and then a was the special but then kind of more like a smash first thing in different directions makes you do different specials even doing the supers wasn't you know like the do a double quarter circle a button thing it was just push a and b together so there are some things being simplified there that might make having to learn three characters easier and some of it is universal too right like

every character has a simple combo which is just smashing the x button uh and it will eventually lead to using a level one super there's also kind of like a a standard combo of going the light attack uh heavy attack special attack this button so like x y b a kind of doing the tour around the face buttons too so i think that this game is definitely aware of that so there is some universal stuff that can at least get you started with each character awesome awesome uh let's continue down the marvel adjacent train mikey because you got to check out i'm kind of jelly marvel cosmic invasion yes this is uh

the the new beat them up from tribute games published by dot emu this is a team that brought us these we did ninja turtles shredders revenge was another retro pixelated beat them up i liked that game a lot so i was looking forward to this and yeah it's a lot of fun i think if you liked that game you're gonna be into this what's neat is you know looking at the trailer i'm like there's kind of some marvel versus capcom inspirations here yeah and there's more of that than i thought lot because you pick two characters and there's a tag system in this as well whoa really didn't know that yeah yeah

that's cool you can like call in your your other character to you know do a move but you can just swap to them uh whenever you want to so that's cool because there's so many characters i like this one but i also want to play as that one that's neat that they give give you the chance to do that right you know there's some of these games like um that power rangers beat them up where it you know all the characters basically kind of feel the same yeah but here it could be radically different uh who you are like some characters have access to certain tools like flying like grabs like range attacks

that other characters don't so you kind of do want to make awesome maybe a more balanced theme that can like you know air juggle into a combo and extend it that way uh so yeah you know and then on top of just the great pixel on everything it was just a very fun time hell yeah um when is that supposed to come out this year i don't think too long from now that's a good question yeah it felt like it should be pretty soon i'm not exactly They announced two new characters during SGF, Rocket, Raccoon, and She -Hulk.

I didn't get to play as them.

I played as Captain America in Spider -Man.

Thank you. New York boys over there.

Yeah, that's right.

Release date still just says 2025 right now, so no specific date.

The art style with Marvel Cosmic Invasion looks really sharp, just as sharp as Shinobi Art of Vengeance.

This is another one I played.

This is probably my favorite game of the show.

Really? It looked awesome.

Awesome. I played a couple minutes of it.

I was watching Mike play, though.

It looked awesome. Right.

So this is Sega team up with Lizard Cube, who did Streets of Rage 4, which is very similar.

Like, hey, let's bring back an old Sega franchise that's going to have just the coolest looking 2D art you've seen.

And this game looks even better.

Just the characters and the backgrounds, it's absolutely gorgeous.

And then it's just this really slick 2D ninja action game that definitely has a lot from those old Shinobi games, But its own flavor as well.

Like, those old Shinobi games, they're practically kind of run and guns.

It's really about throwing the shurikens.

And this one, you still have those, but it's a bit more limited when you get them.

They're powerful, but you kind of want to use them at appropriate times.

Every enemy has this stun gauge on top of just health.

And when you get enemies in that stun gauge, then you can push these buttons so you do an insta -kill on them.

And you can even kind of put multiple enemies in that stun gauge.

when you do the insta kill move you like zoom to each of them and take them out you get more resources and things when you do that it's not a metroidvania but every level is kind of like a not metroidvania but you have the map there's some bonus areas there's some places you may not be able to access you come back later with new power -ups that kind of thing the combat just feels very good very slick you're dodging you know a bit of dodge slop and i'm pro dodge slop Hell yeah.

Right. So, you know, just all these other tools with these other abilities you get.

Like, later in the demo, I had one that kind of was putting me in a counter state.

So, there's, like, this big, kind of, like, I don't know, police guard enemy that is basically behind a shield.

So, he does this really slow, deliberate attack.

So, like, okay, I'll use my water nippon or whatever thing there.

And it's just a good way to deal with most of his health.

But yeah, you know, it's just exactly what I was hoping for.

Very fun, exciting, beautiful 2D Shinobi.

Really like that franchise on the Genesis.

Glad to see it back.

Yeah, I played it for a couple of minutes.

They put me like in the arcade mode after Mike played.

And I got my like when I was watching like, does it play like Mark the Ninja?

And then I've got my hands on it's like not quite.

It's maybe a bit faster paced than that.

and I just always felt like I was in complete control and you're standing in front of an enemy, you can tell when they're about to attack, you can dodge roll on the other side of them, then they complete their attack in the wrong direction, you hit them in the back, the guy's got a shield, so you just want to time that up and make sure that you're getting there, doing your attacks, don't get too greedy everything's a little bit FromSoft inspired these days, so you feel a little bit of that in that combat system, not a ton, just a touch, and I just thought, yeah this feels amazing amazing immediately

and then because of it being lizard cube it looks fantastic uh it just everything you do looks so cool so uh watching mike play was awesome getting my hands on it realizing it played as good as it looked was very encouraging i'm interested to see how uh shinobi and rage bound will do against each other i don't believe i think they're gonna both gonna just kind of amplify one another yeah rage bound was there i didn't get the oh it was i heard good things about it though tick uh something that was there that jeff grove you got to play is directive 80 20 yeah this is the new super massive game and i've

got a little bit of a history of super massive not a ton but this is their one where it's a sci -fi game you're on the moon i believe yeah you're i think you're on the moon maybe that was pragmata you're doing some shit in space doesn't matter and um it's it is still one of their narrative cinematic games but every once in a while there's an action game component to it and now you're running around and trying to avoid a giant monster and it's got a scan tool so you can see where the monster is on the other side of the wall so you can kind of avoid them and I did bad and I didn't avoid him and he

attacked my guy and I'm then I messed up the the qte scene because I was not not ready for it and so I failed that and the game just kept continuing as like okay well you failed that now and now that's what happened there now let's get back into the cinematics and and the normal qtes and the choices so that you can deal with the ramifications of what happened in that action scene i thought that was really cool i think that's a really good idea for this kind of game something like some action scenes that can break up the pacing but it doesn't break the idea of what these games are where something

happens and you have to live with the with the consequences uh the cool thing about this one the guy sat down after i was finishing the demo and he was like giving someone else a demonstration he ran over he was like you got to see this before i let you go and it's there the decision map the decision tree is fully accessible if you want it so at any time at any time when you're playing you make a decision you can rewind and look at the tree and be like here's what you did and you went up in this way now do you want to immediately go back and see what happened what would happen if you did it the other

way and so you can fully sort of explore every possibility of the game on your first playthrough if that's how you like to play now they have a hardcore core mode whatever whatever they're going to call it where it's just going to play a little the way it traditionally does where it doesn't tell you when you can rewind it doesn't tell you what the what the decisions are you just have to live with everything so if that's if you want the purest experience that is there uh but i i thought that was really cool because i know there's a lot of people who are going to be like oh my god i messed that up

or i want to see what else could have happened there and in every moment you can do that so yeah it just seems like they have really thought through what their games are and have like taken the next step of making sure that people can can explore that the way that they want yeah and then i just i thought it looked pretty good of you know they do that thing where they get the real actors and there's a lot of familiar faces people whose names i don't necessarily know but i've seen them their character actors who have shown up in a million things and they look as good as ever the acting the storytelling

was really good so i it wouldn't be over for sure and i definitely like the idea of having these action scenes break up the pacing it seems like a really good idea for what supermassive was already doing yeah that's cool because I have always wanted like after finishing one of those games to go back and make the alternative choice but having to go through the whole rigmarole of all those decisions again uh that's nice to be able to just like all right let me just quickly rewind and check it out I believe the the main actress is Lashana Lynch from uh uh Captain Marvel that's dope that's right that's

what it was yes exactly yes and then she's got like a mentor who I've seen in a million things as well uh a bunch of just a bunch of other actors that are like very very very face familiar to me.

You know who's face is very familiar to me, Grub?

Tony Hawk. And I'm a little jelly because you and Mikey got to check out the demo.

I mean, I could have just grabbed your Steam Deck from you and tried it out.

I had more than the demo.

I actually... Okay, Mike, we get it.

You're best friends with Tony now.

Alright, yeah. I had like an hour with the full game at Xbox.

Record some footage.

Maybe we'll do something with that.

But yeah, Jeff, maybe you should talk about the demo first. That was Foundry, right?

Yes, so there's a demo.

If you pre -order the game, which was a little confusing for a moment, like, where is this demo?

They said it'd be out today, and I went looking for it.

I couldn't find it.

First, it doesn't seem like they're putting it on Switch at all.

But if you pre -order the game on other platforms, including Steam, the demo pops up in your library.

I went to go find that.

I downloaded it, and you can play as Doomguy, maybe because I pre -ordered the Deluxe Edition.

You can play as Doomguy, Tony Hawk, or that very famous Brazilian lady skater who's very good.

I can't remember her name.

I'm sorry. And it was, I played as Doomguy.

And of course, you know, you can pull out the chain when he's grinding and stuff like that or the chainsaw and he's got his other weapons and it just looked pretty cool.

But it's just Foundry.

There are no mission objectives you can complete.

You're just sort of skating around.

But it looks and plays great on the Steam Deck.

And, you know, I'm just, I'm so ready for that game.

But Mike, you got to see a lot more.

How are you feeling about it?

yeah so you know i got the jump between all those levels from three and four i think the best part is the new levels that they added are really good specifically so you know there's that water park and that's just such a great idea for level this abandoned oh yeah yeah but what do you have for jeff bacalar what do i have oh oh yeah because the other one is a pinball level where you're inside a pinball machine come down jeff see a giant tony hawk playing it as you're running going through it for audio listeners jeff's plunger is going insane right now yeah yeah um that what that's not pinball you

can't be vertical just needs you to know it's like a diagonal slant when i go to bed at night and i have the best kind of fantasy fantasy night uh dreams where are we going here listen okay it's uh that's how stories work listen um the my my dream my fantasy is to be a tiny little skater boy as a gigantic over the top tony hawk controls every waking moment of my life well congratulations the the people uh behind the the game heard that cry and now i will be able to live that fantasy in real life thank you tony hawk i'm so glad to hear that the new levels are great because you know i would be perfectly

happy with just like give me three and four playing but like even i'm not even that miffed by the like the four thing you know like yeah i almost wish i had played four more recently so i can know how i felt about the two minute timer on those levels but you know just playing it i was like yeah this feels good that's yeah fine i'm not some people might miss that figure tony it's going to be fine for fans and me but i don't i don't think it's going to bother my enjoyment it's going to be fine i promise and all those tony hawk pro skater three levels that i love right uh suburbs and canada alcatraz

three the cruise ship they all look so friggin airport it all just looks awesome and the game just plays so great i got to play as michelangelo from the turtles oh that's cool yeah and that was fun he's got this great like uh this is a a grinder emmanuel was just spinning in his shell constantly and then i gave that move so i think so he was just spinning around on his game port too i these games are just super good and these remakes seem just as high quality as one plus two did and again those new levels are so good i'd be so happy if they do just get to make a new game with all new levels after this i'd

be really down for that is it just going to be mikey as the turtle just mikey no other yeah they only they the only confirmed like yeah we're just the goofball who doesn't take his job seriously uh -huh yeah a cartoon turtle that is just just not deserving of his job according to dan donatello is a cartoon turtle and he takes his job seriously mike you were taking your job seriously because i think you may have played the most games at sgf actually yeah seriously.

Check out gamesbeat .com soon everybody for some previous interviews.

I've got like three i can't talk about i think mike's got a handful we can't talk about yet as well uh i don't i think lego party is the only time i touch the controller over the weekend uh mike you also got the chance to check out grounded too speaking about a little man inside a pinball you were a little child inside where are they now where are they now um but yes grounded too this is interesting for me because i actually never played grounded one i didn't get around to it i don't know how i feel generally about these survival games sometimes i'm not sure why i'm so iffy about them because then

i play them like oh these are video games.

These are fun, right?

Uh, yeah it's just I don't know.

I was having a good time with this.

It still very much has that honey I shrunk the kids vibe that you want to it.

It's still early 90s setting even, right?

Even though I know there's a multiplayer focus here.

The demo is just single player and it was the beginning.

But I think the beginning is very good.

An onboarding giving you a bit of the plot stuff.

Teaching you the mechanics but not in a slow or boring way.

Like even just by the end of the demo I felt like Like, it had opened up a good amount.

I mean, you know, it's like, okay, I already have a crafting table and I'm already kind of like, you know, going around and getting resources, getting this Omni tool which can be upgraded to do all sorts of things like chopping down big grass stalks so you get material that way, crafting a sphere so I can fight all the ants.

You know, the thing here is that you're in a park instead of a backyard now.

So there's going to be a little bit more variance than what you're seeing in that big area.

area also got to mount an ant uh and i guess that's a new feature in this one not like that dan uh so got to ride around the ant and that was fun because i could then like i thought you said aunt and i was like what kind of game are we doing step on uh no it was it was fun doing that because you can carry all sorts of extra stuff and attack and you know just kind of felt like you were a mega version of yourself when you're on the ant i did we had a we had a group interview with the um the director, executive producer, and, you know, it was a pretty, you know, Rebecca Valentine was there, Steve

Tottillo was there, asking these important questions, and it was my turn.

I was like, now, the sequel to Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, they just made everything, they got a big thing instead of a small thing.

Did you not explore that for the sequel?

And Tottillo was like, Mike, that is an excellent question.

And I was like, thank you very much. um but uh yeah i i had a good time with it i think i would really enjoy uh playing that even alone or with friends so i'm going to be excited to uh check out that full release we should check out grounded too when that comes out i think so you should really commit to that one yeah absolutely remember when the baby and the honey i blew up the kid grabbed the hard rock guitar from the the casino and played it and it made guitar burn into my brain yeah yeah yeah of course it made guitar sense why wouldn't it make guitar sounds it's a shoot guitar right Yeah.

You're right. You're right.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, Sonic racing cross worlds grub, Mike, you two got to check this out.

Yeah. I, I, so I've been playing a lot of Mario cart and then I played this and this game felt much faster.

I think this is a big thing that I noticed.

They also are really, really emphasizing, customizing your cart to kind of an insane degree where, uh, there is one system of, of parts for your cards where it's like, like you can customize it that way.

And then there's another like badge system where you can basically change how your cart behaves on a fundamental level where I set it up.

So here, if I run into somebody, I get a little bit of a boost. And that was one badge I attached.

I could attach something completely different.

So it was like, it worked completely.

So like offensive weapons were more powerful or something like that.

And I, I mean, it's cool, but it felt a bit overwhelming for a cart racer.

but I mean these games do tend to have long lives so at the same time if you're going to be playing it for 5, 6, 7 years maybe you want something that deep to keep it interesting I didn't really even like choosing my cart parts in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe so I'm not sure if I want something that's even deeper than that that it matters even more but at the very least it does create the opportunity to play the game how you want and I was playing it so when I would run into enemies I would get a little bit of a boost and that's just how I'm going to play this game now and it was neat from that perspective

and then the cross worlds element of going through these teleports teleport like portals going on the other side seeing what's going to be on the on the other side it was neat to like see a little bit of a preview yeah like they there's a little bit of shimmer on the portal so you could see what's going to happen like oh i think i'm going to go over here and see the the you know the ship or whatever and you go through and it's seamless and it looks really cool and i don't know it felt really good to me what do you think like yeah that's like the gimmick with the portals is you know you have a racetrack

and maybe it's you're in the jungle but for every track lap two is going to be going through one of these portals and then it's kind of a different roster of of tracks that you do for that one lap it's it's its own set of like roster for the portal at lap right is that what you're saying right so then you do that lap then you're back into the normal track for us for the final lap it's for whoever's in first gets to kind of pick between either a portal you can clearly see or a mystery one so like you You get some agency if you're in first place.

That's kind of fun.

Yeah, I thought the racing felt really good.

I get just a little bit annoyed with this game because it's not Sonic Racing Transformed where it's kind of like all this Sega stuff and a big celebration of Sega.

It's mostly Sonic. And we know there's some guest characters coming.

They announced Joker and Ichiban and whatnot.

So that's cool. Hatsune Miku, come on, Mike.

Yeah, and all this Minecraft stuff.

But Racing Transformed had an afterburner level.

you're on these aircraft carriers and it's so cool and this one's got like a generic like battleship carrier level right it's it's yeah exactly it's like well we're so close here why didn't we just do that there's a level that would like but the cross worlds suggest that to me where it's like we're cross worlds we're gonna bring all these things together what's the point of that if we're not to bring the same things so that was a cool but it's like here's generic dinosaur place or you know there's a my favorite level was in a museum like a natural history museum that's great sega just published

two -point museum right like there's an opportunity there just have it be that thing so like that like frustrates me and confuses me a bit but the game itself is definitely fun it does a good job of being like mario kart but definitely having its own flavor it feeling a bit different and having fun with the sonic stuff but even that it's like like every character from sonic riders is in here and i'm like oh we're having all these these people and i can't you know play as uh joe from the old shinobi or the altered beast yeah yeah give me all give me there's echo you know we got the fucking yeah

dolphin and mario kart now just give me echo floating over a car yeah what or what would you be satisfied like a fish tank on wheels yes that would be even better fully vertical whoa whoa whoa okay all right all right if it was just echo and a fishbowl with wheels that would be the greatest thing i ever saw maybe a little sad actually would that have a soul that would count as having a soul echo definitely has a soul echo might be the only video game character with a soul that's fair you know what i could see it where i could see it all right uh a couple more games before we head to our uh first

break of the show and then we'll get to news I think I'm most curious about this game uh and Mike you played it this is a Pac -Man game kind of Shadow Labyrinth yes Shadow Labyrinth is the uh edgy Pac -Man Metroidvania uh so yeah I was I was kind of excited about this it's sort of based on that uh well they're not that next level did an episode sort of based on this really yeah I realized it was in development or yeah that next level secret level secret level I think secret level yeah that was the one with the Concord episode yes exactly so yeah it's like you're this kind of guy with a sword but Pac

-Man is sort of always there and like you know he'll help you by when you defeat an enemy that you drop pellets of Pac -Man will eat them up but also if you defeat an enemy you push right buttons there's this kind of monster version of pac -man that will then like grab the corpse and devour it good it's about time pac -man killed somebody finally killed somebody right um as the dude you have a sword you have this grapple so there's a lot of platforming around the grapple i got to this segment that reminded me a lot of prince of persia lost crown where it was just this very intense platforming section it's

optional you got a cool reward if you're able to do it and i love that stuff, there's these other different platforming sections where you get to these walls and suddenly you kind of turn into Pac -Man.

He's kind of, you know, going to waka waka waka.

It's not really a maze per se, but he's kind of moving on his own.

Unless you push a brake button, you're kind of jumping between different platforms, doing a different thing there.

It's also a bit more of like other Namco stuff.

At one point I found an enemy from Dig Doug.

To attack him, I shot the grapple hook at him, but then I kept pushing it and you pumped them up yeah just like in dig dug right you can also kind of enter this um like rage mode where you do turn into the monster pac -man for a little bit and now you're just like really wailing on enemies stuff like that so yeah it's just it's just feeling like a good metroidvania with all this weird dark pac -man stuff and that's cool flavor to have there that's what i want all these years they've been like how do we how do we expand on pac -man what do we do we put them in like a bigger screen with more idiots

like no murder murder i felt so bad for the the people giving the demo to me because i couldn't stop making terrible jokes like i don't believe it like is this gonna be mrs pac -man there's like a guy in a lab coat who like looks sexy i'm like is this sexy professor pac -man like oh my god are you insufferable is that who you are and i kept talking i was like i'm pretty good at metroidvanias and i would do do something like right see see how good i am yeah you're burning listen this is an open letter to all of games pr yeah we're sorry i need to see mike's dossier i need to see exactly he's the bad

boy of games media what do you expect something tells me those words are not written on the dossier that character may still actually be professor pacman or something i I gotta see I mean obviously we know Certain words are guaranteed to be there But I wanna get into the real needy greedy Nope I wasn't thinking Apple But we'll get there It's okay Mike It's okay I accept you don't worry Of course we accept them I wanna see that dossier It's right when people have to be nice to you Yeah You don't have to too no no no talking about pr people pr okay you can tell i can always tell when they're just

like disney world too because they also kind of have you really didn't like that dick's last resort so yeah this is where they're intentionally i love dick's last resort yeah that's a big personality to find her right there that's like the difference all right uh we we've chatted about Mikey going vertical and uh Grubb is going to arise from his grave because he played Luminous Arise yeah I have not had much time with Luminous before and as we were like talking about I'm gonna go check this out and Dan had to go talk to Kojima about MacGruber or whatever very important stuff to do Grubb very important

stuff to do Grubb he actually gave me a quick like crash course he's like you know just wait for the line that's when it's gonna come down just make sure you get the thing in place before then I'm like okay that makes sense and then Mark McDonald was there and he gave me a little few more pointers and they force you to go through the tutorial for the thing so i now i understand lumines uh there are like several level levels more of the strategy of how to actually place these blocks that that i'm like figuring out as i'm playing but i got to see what this game is which is tetris effect for lumines

which i think is a really good idea so you know you're you're going through these these sessions and just like tetris effect where um it's going to change its visual aesthetic aesthetic and audio aesthetic every couple of rounds before like an overall are overarching round ends and every single time it changed it was to the coolest shit i've ever seen there's a one point where it's like these mechanical hands that had these wires attached to them that were like controlling the the luminous blocks and it just looked so shit hot i was really into it it sounded incredible incredible um i'm like oh

i'm a lumines guy now uh and now they've also introduced a um i believe this is new and the the kind of the feature from tetris effect where you could slow down time and try to get a massive combo yes so now you slow down time and then one of the two colors because lumines has two colors that you can that you're trying to match up one of the two colors will be chosen as the thing that you try to get as much of a combo in and it's like If you can make the block, a big square block of this color solid, you can get a big 45 -point combo or something like that.

Mark played and he got something like a 50 -point combo.

It was really, really impressive.

Beckler, you were watching it.

What did you think?

Oh, my God. Yeah. There's such an incredible design language going on with this thing, too.

I mean, it definitely helps sitting two feet in front of a 75 -inch screen to see what's going on.

But I was taking all that in.

Not that I was stoned or anything.

I was just sort of like, I'd like to be stoned right now.

I'd like to really be under the, it is.

Yep. Thank you. Yeah.

What an amazing sort of visual presentation and a lot of little things that I was able to kind of really pay attention to with you playing.

And then Frushtick was there with us too.

And he played for a little bit.

And, you know, the attention to detail there, you know, I feel like, and Mark was talking talking about it too where it's like oh like why shouldn't these kinds of games get the big console treatment right like and when you see this thing and you really examine what's going on you're like oh my god there's just so much to explore here not just with the music which is really impressive stuff yeah but each level's design and what's going on in the background and the and the kind of aesthetic choices they make for what each of the binary shapes are or themes are in on the the luminous board man i

was really impressed with this game and again it makes all the sense in the world to give it the tetris effect treatment because it's like that is kind of how luminous worked back in the day on psp is just shifting visuals and things like that and that's kind of what tetris affected so yeah make it official you know yeah and it's like i'm like i was like people mentioned that in chat and i kind of remember seeing luminous before but it's like they are very much going for very different looking visuals that are more in line with tetris effect so it's like even more of lumina so yeah i was just

super into it and i love i love love love tetris effect so them kind of uh being like we're just going to take a few things from that and and kind of have luminous a meat tetris effect there really made it work for me so i'm i'm into this and i'm ready to play a bunch a bunch more bacalar uh what genre of music did you call it again that is in luminous what did i say i think you said edging music oh it's yeah there there is a lot of edging there.

Yeah. It also does the thing where it was, it's like subtle because, and I don't think this is in Luminous or Luminous remastered where the play field is sort of like shifting back and forth depending on the intensity of how you're playing.

So it's like, as you were really getting into it and you start to like lean forward cause it's really starting to go, the play field like moves closer to the screen.

It takes up more of the field of view as well.

And so the pieces are like getting bigger and you don't even realize it's happening unless you were watching someone else play, but it just makes you feel more attached to what's going on and makes it feel more alive and more vibrant.

Yeah, it clicked in every way for me.

I think that could be a fun score competition thing between us.

Do endless on Luminous.

Because I was obsessed with it.

I would like to try to get good at that game for sure.

And they said they're really looking forward to making sure they have the green checkmark on Steam for Steam decks.

They were like, hey, this is a handheld game.

We recognize that, so we're going to go for that here as well.

Well, I remember crying playing the original Luminous, not because it made me emotional, but because it made my eyes hurt.

Oh, because you didn't blink.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Sure. Last game on the list before we go to breaky break is Mixtape.

Jeff Grubb, Jeff Bacalar, you two sat down and checked this out.

You played quite a bit of this.

I played some. We were sitting next to each other and watching this thing.

Boy, this thing really, really worked for me.

What did you think?

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think there's definitely more to understand and unpack with the actual moment to moment, like playing of the game.

It seems like it's vignettes, right?

So, so this is, um, from the people who made the artful escape.

Is that the name of that game?

Um, and I, I didn't play that game, but what I remembered hearing about it was it's got a really strong style and it's really cool to kind of watch being played, but you don't necessarily need to play it yourself.

And this one is, um, I don't know.

It's, I was really enjoying playing it, even though it's it also has a very strong style so it's got um the animation on the twos inspired by into the spider verse uh for sure uh and you're playing as these teenage characters as this one girl's about to go off to college or something like that and she's like narrating the story to the camera right other characters can still hear it and she's like this could be our last night together and they but she's talking to the camera but the other characters can still hear it and they'll do these moments where they explain something and then it'll cut to

a lot of actual documentary footage of them explaining it and and a narrator another narrator will take over and really make it feel i don't know it just pops off the screen it's very very cool and then there's these gameplay sections that are these vignettes of like okay you're running from the cops at the end of this party and you're in a grocery cart and you're just going to go on this high speed chase where these cop cars are chasing you you're in the grocery cart and it's sort of out of your your control but you can like spin it and try to to strip to make it straight uh keep it straight

to make it go right down the street by using the left and right bumpers to to sort of make the go arrow straight down the street and then you can also turn it left and right with a stick and it's like there's just enough here where i'm really into the way that this plays as an action game even though it's just supposed to look cool so it's doing both things really well Yeah, great music.

It is very much getting definitely getting Freaks and Geeks vibes from it a little bit.

And, you know, I think like presentationally speaking, it sort of feels so fresh and unmatched in that the way it kind of tells this story and forces you to interact with it.

even if it's not quote -unquote gameplay there's plenty of moments you know there's one part where you're driving around in a car and you're just sort of meant to like have your have all the passengers in the car head bang together with a song by hitting a button and it just looks so good you cannot not smile you watch this thing and you just instantly smile because you know i was telling um selling woody at the end there i was like i this game is speaking to me in a way That like nothing has really captured for me It's a very familiar thing above Like reminding me of my youth When I walked in on YouTube

There was an x -ray kissing scene happening It was a very extended X -ray kissing Not x -ray But like certainly a close up The camera's inside the mouth Yeah It was incredible And each analog stick controlled The left and right tongues And um um you you know like i mean how can you not just burst out laughing right away like just really really smart stuff even that opening uh presentation there's some like you know uh they they edit in some some uh regular video from you know uh like stock footage from things and just just feels really smart and and fresh and clever and i uh yeah i'm i'm really impressed

with what But we got to see Beethoven and Dinosaurs, the developer, and Mr. Galvatron was there on hand as well.

Really cool dudes on the couch. Yeah.

Yeah, I was glad to be able to talk to them and maybe want to play the game even more.

And then the game just really hit hard. I just, yeah, like Beckler said, it was just always fun.

And the soundtrack isn't just like, you know, oh, good music.

Like they are, the game is about a girl who wants to be a music supervisor.

She wants to go on to be the work on like, I'm going to select the songs and make mixtapes for TV shows and movies and stuff like that, and so they have this really awesome licensed soundtrack Smashing Pumpkins and was it Silverchair?

Silverchair's in there, yep, Devo I think was in there.

Yeah, a lot of Devo actually, yes and it just really was very inspiring actually, I was into it.

Yeah, even as someone that was just observing over y 'all's shoulders, I was like, this is something special, and if like I'd had the added benefit of being able to listen to everything going on, I think it seems already like it really shines so excited for mixtape and i'm excited to take a quick breaky break and then we'll talk about all the news right after this a new era of power has arrived with the alienware area 51 gaming laptops intentionally engineered to push more power to the cpu and gpu for maximum performance this otherworldly power paired with the game -changing ai capabilities of NVIDIA GeForce

RTX 50 -series GPUs with DLSS 4 amplifies performance and image precision for ultra smooth stunning gameplay and with the new cryo chamber design airflow is focused exactly where it's needed most used with Alienware's enhanced thermal solutions it creates a high power output without raising noise levels allowing you to play with confidence even during the most demanding marathon gaming sessions so no matter what you're playing Alienware ensures every game runs precisely as its developers intended a new era of power is here all you have to do is take it discover area 51 today at alienware .com when your

daughter's learning how to drive and says but can i drive you say here we go but what you should say is something that helps protect your ride like a good neighbor State Farm is there.

And that's where State Farm comes in to help you choose the coverage you need so you can relax until you hear...

Can we pick up my boyfriend?

Wait, what? Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there.

State Farm, Bloomington, Illinois.

Before we get to Jeff Grubb with the news...

Yeah, breaking news from Jeff Bacalar.

Jeff Bacalar, you got something you want to talk about?

bow i do thank you jan well as if there weren't enough massive announcements brad's leaving i have to tell you all that once again brad shoemaker is leaving giant bomb no um i've been a bit of a sneaky boy and in the last uh in the last few weeks i know we've had a a ton of announcements but i've got something else that i would like to share with this group with this audience with even my co -workers here they know a little bit my co -owners oh shit uh i've been a guy just get to it because people are freaking out oh no this is good this is called edging i'm an edging expert uh i've been up to something

outside of giant bomb for over a year now i've been working with a uh incredibly talented team of artists and and writers and and letters and colors on a web comic that is based on a story that I created a while back and it's finally almost ready for primetime.

Yeah. Very cool stuff.

It's a, it's, it's like a sci -fi thriller.

It explores paranoia and nostalgia for a little bit of a time when, uh, when we used to respect the computer, you know, when we used to put it on a pedestal.

Um, yeah. Yeah, so the comic is called What Lies Below the Lilies, and you can go to BelowTheLilies .com right now.

And what I'd love for everyone to do, if you would like to, is go check out the website and sign up, because that is going to give you updates about the release for this comic.

Is there any nudity?

Not yet, but I can always add that in.

Okay, yes, then I'll sign up.

Okay, cool. Thank you for signing up.

Will you have vertical panels at some of these?

well it's all vertical panels all right you already went vertical though i put a link in the it's lilies with uh one l apparently that's something we maybe did not account for right away but i will link it everywhere i've linked it in the chat the website's amazing it's like a it's like a geocities throwback website our publisher has done such an amazing job putting this together make sure you click and poke around in there because there's a ton of easter eggs and there's a lot of stuff isn't working i'm trying to play games on this thing how do i play games okay this This is not the technical

support part. Let's just say maybe some things unlock as we get closer to the launch of this comic.

Here's something else that is not going to be - Is that a haunted donut?

Look, there are things I can't talk about just yet.

You'll have to go and play around on the site.

Please sign up if you'd like to, and then what you'll start to do is get one email a week that will also give you more clues about the comic and when it's going to actually release.

least it will be out very soon um but if you register on the on the site below the lilies .com between now and friday the june 20th you'll be automatically entered into a contest where we will if you would like we will put your face your likeness somewhere in the comic book so if you want to like put mike minotti if you're mike minotti and you win the contest we will put mike Mike Minotti, in the comic book, wearing Mickey Mouse ears.

Come on. Actually, we can't do Mickey Mouse ears.

It'll have to be like legally distinct ears.

Okay. If you are having trouble going to belowthelilies .com, do HTTPS because it'll break it if you don't have the privacy thing.

Thank you for saying that.

It said Backlider is trying to take my credit card info.

It's secure. The site is secure.

It's a secure site.

I'll let them know that that's creating an issue here, though.

So I did put links in chat, and we'll help people out finding it if they can't.

Like I said, June 20th, you have until then for the contest. If you don't want to be in it, we'll put your dog or something in it.

Or me. Whatever you want.

Just default back to me.

We'll put your dog or your Mike Minotti in it.

So, again, thank you, everyone, for all the support.

I know it's been a wild couple of months here.

This is something I've been working on for a very long time, very passionate about.

It's super dope, very cool.

cool uh yeah so thank you everyone and go check it out congrats jeff very proud of you big dog thank you guys yeah well done you're very cool it's a very very cool set speaking about leaking sensitive details i think uh i remember this this was maybe our last night at the warframe villa uh the front door is locked and dan was the only one that knew the code to the door off the top of his head like this was oh jan keep i'm sorry keep going even i knew not to do this and then we asked hey dan dan is maybe like a he's not even out the front gate am i am i not you could have you're out you're yeah

you could have turned around walked back to the front door to tell chuck and i the code and then you proceed to keep walking away and yell progressively louder in this neighborhood we don't live in there were people by there were like neighbors and stuff yeah i'm sure there were were no shady characters in that neighborhood?

No, I think we've proven that.

I just, the fumes out of my face, I just...

Everyone immediately was like, Dan, stop it!

No, but we were all just like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, buddy, whoa, whoa, you said eight.

I think you got eight out.

You yelled at me from a distance.

I don't know how you expected me to get my numbers back to you without a certain volume.

We thought you would actually just come and open the door for us.

We actually thought...

But then you should have been like, Dan, come here.

This is on you, the blood's on your hand.

Now, to be fair, Dan did add us all to the Airbnb, so we all could have learned this number.

So, you know, a little bit of it.

The first thing you could have did, right, was just add everyone in our Discord. Hey, here's the coats of the house.

Bam, done. I did. You're all on the thing, and I screenshotted it, and I pinned it to the SGF channel in the Discord. Look, we're all in agreement.

Dan's the worst communicator, right?

We all know this to be true.

Terrible, terrible.

terrible he for you min when you min max you min max that part of it when someone robbed the house you could have just told her to say i have a receipt for the house and then it would all just sorted itself out but officer this is a receipt for an airbnb uh god unbelievable stuff i think night one i was just hanging out outside and then a guy comes up to me he's like hey you see anyone run out here brother uh and then he seemed on something as well but anyway jeff grub the news yeah i got some news uh we'll kind of recap some summer game fest stuff uh some things from the past week but i i also think

maybe later this week we should sit down and catch up on some trailers i would love that trailer park yeah trailer park there we go okay summer game fest happened uh resident evil requiem was announced the uh the q is a nine you see so it's re nine in that requiem uh they told us they wouldn't do this and then they did do it it was a pretty big big surprise it's coming out February 27th for PlayStation 5 Windows Xbox Series X it is going to send players back to Raccoon City in some form even though the parts of that were exploded um I am very curious about this I thought that trailer was really

cool it starts off in an FBI headquarters with a lady named Grace and then she starts remembering some bad stuff that looks like a Resident Evil and it turned out to be a Resident Evil Requiem what y 'all think of this one uh i like the lead up to it for sure yeah i think that got worked yeah it worked i i don't know if the working was necessary i love it like like i it's fine in the blink of an eye it'll be announced sure i mean it's cool i guess it's i'm maybe indifferent about it it didn't hurt for sure it didn't hurt um you know i honestly if i if i had a trailer that sat in between those bookends

i'd be like well kind of fucking intentions off my shit you know not everyone's like either you're either bummed out that re9 wasn't announced or you're like waiting maybe re is going to be announced right yeah that kind of thing but uh but yeah uh obviously horror is the only we've we've talked about this before we left i only give a shit about horror now that's my new arc and um i'm obviously uh very well served with this i think it looks awesome i love that we we don't even know the uh you know like i there are big questions with with Resident Evil and lore, and as goofy as Resident Evil lore is,

I do like it, and I like knowing each one.

Okay, are we going to work in Chris here?

I'm expecting a lot more.

I'm expecting other characters to show up.

I'm expecting the locale that they showed, which kind of looked like maybe an insane asylum or a hospital.

I'm expecting there to be way more than that.

So, yeah, they have a lot more that could show this game between now and February.

I like the Attractment City again.

As much as I love Seven and Village, it's like this kind of feels like it's bringing it back home a bit.

so very excited have they worked in outbreak stuff before because like i saw people saying that this is pulling from some like re outbreak lore outbreak has a character named elissa ashcroft right so and uh that character was referenced to resident evil 7 at some point so yeah this uh this new character was related somehow yeah cool uh project century is now stranger than heaven uh Ryo Ga Kotoku Studio has announced its next game officially.

They teased this before.

I don't think they gave a date or anything, but this is the one that's set in the 1940s.

They teased this at the Game Awards first, right?

That's right, yes. They teased this when it was Project Century.

It looks like a lot of their games, except for it does look like a significant leap forward in terms of tech and assets.

It just looks like a lot of new stuff and then the way that the characters move move around the world looked better than ever and just the way they animated everything just looked really really amazing so i'm rgg is you know we're now becoming one of my favorite studios this looks like another one that could put them over the top uh scott pilgrim ex which i don't think was like any of our thing but i've heard from multiple people who are in the show okay you're into it i love i love scott pilgrim i will say that i like the movie when i watched it and Then I didn't think about it much after that.

I never really liked that beat -em -up.

But this one got apparently a huge reaction from the crowd that was in the room with it.

So people are into this thing.

It's coming out in 2026.

It's tribute games also, though.

So, like, it'll be good.

Yes. Yep. This one will be the tribute.

What else did tribute do?

That's the Turtles guys and the ones doing Marvel Cosmic Invasion.

Oh, cool. They're also making this right now.

Mina the Hollower got a release date.

It's going to be out October 31st. Yacht Club Games just took the stage.

Celia was up there talking about it And they showed off a new trailer But they also released a demo Which is available on Steam now I think Although I tried to find it It's there now I tried to add it but it's like You already have this in your library And I have a demo from like 2022 That was a very early prototype Apparently of course they've done a ton of work Since then to turn it into a real game And looking forward to trying that out You can remove things from your library That's what I'll do yeah Yeah, I just downloaded the demo.

Okay. Lego Voyagers from Annapurna Interactive.

This is a two -player co -op adventure that seems to build on that Lego game that they released a few years ago.

You play as little Lego pieces in a world that looks very realistic because Legos are relatively easy to render and has ray tracing and just looks really, really beautiful.

Capcom was kind of the big publisher at this show.

They also showed off a decent look at Onimusha Way of the Sword, which is coming out next year um i never played much animusha this got me to a point where it's like i should go back and play some of those games because i'm very into what they showed for for this new one um let's see here and then uh the big winner of the show felt that boxing yeah a muppet inspired boxing game made in unreal engine 5 that had um i forget what keely said but like a a muppet to graphics pipeline or something like that to make it look super realistic and it They just look like straight up puppets, but apparently

it's all rendered. It has like a, it also has like a vignette vibe to it, a WarioWare vibe to it a little bit where there's a bunch of mini games.

Plunging toilets and stuff and it was made for me.

Yes, and then there's some punch out stuff to it.

It looks incredible.

It was definitely my favorite game of the show by a long shot.

And it's cool because even if they have to kill some Muppets in the process of making this, it's like, all right, you know?

Yeah, what's a few more dead Muppets?

Not a big deal. Yeah.

Uh, Hitman's getting Casino Royale, Le Chiffre, uh, Le Chiffre?

I thought it was Le Chiffre.

Yeah, I think it's Le Chiffre.

No one knows. And then you sort of stumble into the, uh, Le Chiffre.

Like that. Yeah, there you go.

Uh, obviously, I was making that James Bond game, which, uh, that James Bond game showed up.

Was that at the State of Play?

They did their own, uh, thing, too, that I saw some clips.

It seems like it didn't go great.

It was something that sounded like a hot mess.

Wait, what happened?

It's not Jonathan? MinMac put a clip of Hanson and Leo watching it And it is like a montage of Technical mishaps IOI did a panel thing Like they did their own presentation thing Either way They're making that James Bond game So apparently they're bringing This Casino Royale mission into the game To kind of celebrate that And they're reworking What was it, Paris?

One of the stages I can't wait to talk about the Mind's Eye collaboration With Hitman It's Mind's Eye week oh yeah it's my yeah that was going to be the big come home moment here i'm like we were yeah you ruined it um okay then i have a list of other games which i don't know if you guys could see if there's anything worth calling now i back our atomic heart 2 i know that spoke to you were you into what you saw for that that game is speaking to me it's always been speaking to me i've been speaking to you for a long time and now you got to admit what the voices in your head are i see yeah and and more

more importantly that uh i'm justified i have impeccable taste apparently because they're re they're making another one of these you there's no one on earth who had this on their bingo card there's no one on earth who was like oh this is gonna get a sequel and it's right like am i crazy i mean i'm not i definitely wasn't expecting it although this this show had a lot of like unexpected sequels like uh mortal shell 2 and code vein 2 and yeah there's some others i think I think, you know, I look, I'll be the first to admit, like I bounced off that game because it kind of it kind of blows up and expands

in a way that just didn't feel like I wanted to follow the path it had carved out before me.

Is there hope that like the second one, they can really pull it all together?

I mean, that's what everything that's what I'm hoping about everything is that the second one is just like a better way to do it than the first one did.

so I'm cautiously optimistic there but that world in itself is like very unique yes it is very much a Bioshock kind of thing but also it does its own thing in a way that I find super satisfying so yeah I am very pleasantly surprised about this for sure there was also Mafia the old country lines of P.

Overture anyone stop me if you want to talk about anything L was a big one I thought that was another big one for our spooky boy back a lot but I think we were all into what we saw from that right I think writers everywhere are coming to the realization that with a sans -serif font, it just looks like we're writing the Roman numeral III when we talk about this game.

I just had to make it lowercase i to make sure everyone knew what that was.

It looked pretty sharp.

I agree. That one was a bunch of scary, almost zombie -looking things, but there was more to them than that.

And then there was a giant, gray, scary baby in a hallway.

Yeah, that was pretty impressive stuff.

Sonic Racing Crossroads is coming out September 25th Nicktoons and the Dice of Destiny I think that was like an action RPG starring a bunch of Spongebob characters and things like that yeah like all sorts of Nickelodeon stuff because it was Timmy Turner narrating it yeah I mean I'm into Spongebob these days because of the kids so I'll check it out End of Abyss is an action RPG as well though it kind of looked like a dual stick shooter yeah that one looked cool it looked very cool I always like a um top -down shooter where the character has a laser sight and you can kind of just see where the laser's

pointing yeah that just triggers something in me every time um wu -tang rise of the deceiver another another action rpg uh you know i talked to the brass lions people who have been making this for a long time uh about it on the couch and they said just blaze made a bunch of stems and like really worked on incorporating the music and how it's going to respond to the action and things like that, I'm like, yes, that sounds like the exact right way to do this.

Just Plays also did the NBA Street Vol. 2 soundtrack, so.

Uh -huh. Yes. Yes, exactly.

So I'm like, ooh, I'm very excited about this.

And then they showed it.

It looks very cool.

They didn't show a ton of gameplay, but there was definitely a little hint of it.

And they promised more soon, so we'll probably see exactly what's going on in this game at some point.

Hell yeah. Before the end of the year.

Out of Words, I don't even...

I don't remember this one.

This was a two -player side -scrolling co -op game that kind of kind of looks like a like a co -op limbo but obviously you know we're it you know there's it's it takes two 2d also kind of right it was clay adjacent right it was clay adjacent sorry yes okay um and then let's see here infinitesimals yeah this is another little dude big world thing but i think you play as a grasshopper in like a a power suit A militant grasshopper.

It was giving me Vanquish vibes.

And I don't know if I'm on Facebook, but it was giving me that for sure.

I thought it looked cool.

Wildgate, another one I don't necessarily—oh, this is like a multiplayer one, right?

The kind of—one of the ones that got lost in the crowd a little bit.

Ark Raiders is coming October 30th, so it got its date.

I believe that was the first time we heard about that.

Deadpool VR, this is another one that I heard had an interesting crowd reaction where people were into it.

and then once they once they found out was a vr game they were immediately kind of disappointed yeah if you all saw anybody on play days looking a little green they probably just had a demo with temple vr i think oh really is that is that going around like you're just straight up running around right oh my god you're not trying to do the whole we're gonna make bacalar do it no you can see my my head in my hand i just that oh that i mean there's something just so like inherently strange about that i look i realize like you make the decision to make the vr game and you commit to that and that's

what it is you're wrong you're not wrong though this is weird if it was a regular game right wouldn't it be one of the bigger games of the show for a lot of people i don't care about it but right and like i'm not i'm one of these people who like i'm not done with deadpool like i'm i think he's fine for the most part like maybe it's the pinball machine but like that Deadpool, I still kind of dig some of the Deadpool stuff, and to make it this where it's like it's the thing that Deadpool probably wouldn't want.

He would just be like, no, what?

This is like it would be a joke.

This would have been Deadpool VR, just kidding.

It's not a VR game.

I'm almost shocked anybody makes this decision because it's just limiting your audience so much immediately.

It has to be subsidized by Facebook at a certain point.

I think it's also exclusive to MetaQuest 3 and S.

Chat is saying Deadpool is played by Neil Patrick Harris?

That's what? Weird?

That's insane. I can see that.

I'm okay with that.

I can see it, but it's insane.

That's great. I welcome that.

Is it Disney Adult?

I'm cool off NPH for a while.

Why? What happened?

Just in general. Oh, I thought.

God, you never know.

You really want to end up with Robin, huh?

Did we convince Backler that Weird Al got canceled once?

No. I thought it was me.

it was me and I was devastated I was very upset you did not convince me of come on I was convinced and then Square Enix had their big new game Killer Inn which actually I thought looked pretty cool yeah that did look cool yeah it looked a little like not like the I don't know prettiest game maybe or the most like technically impressive but it looked fun right and it's sort of a multiplayer clue action game it looks like it's got more going on than um foam stars yeah foam thank you mike foam stars that's what i was thinking of yeah it is weird because i feel like this is driven by the same initiative

that gave us right but yeah i agree here uh all right we ran through summer game fest there if there was anything else shout it out in the chat um xbox showcase happened as well persona 4 remake and i don't think anyone cares about this one oh no okay i gotta say mike sitting next to you for that was just not fun well i thought you You were going to say it infused you with excitement yourself.

I didn't know what to do.

I wanted to give you enough space for what was happening to your body.

You kept touching your face.

When people touch their face a lot, it bothers me.

I don't know. You were all up in it.

And I was happy for you.

I was happy for you.

I like Persona 4 a lot.

Now, kind of a weird trailer because we didn't see much, and what they show was kind of basic.

It also didn't even look as sharp as what Persona 3 did.

It seems like they showed us this early, and I don't know if they showed it earlier than they wanted to because of the leaks and the voice actor protest or something like that.

It would have been harder to put something together that fast. But yeah, not the most—we didn't get a ton to see here.

But Persona 3 Reload was very good.

I'm sure this will be great, too.

I'm still kind of upset about the name, Revival.

I don't know why we're not doing a fun TV word like Rewind or Rerun.

The most fun TV word. I'm with you.

Yeah, Rewind. right exactly so but still persona 4 is a fantastic game uh it it does need a remake there's some stuff that they can smooth out content wise and uh just subject matter wise i think it'll make it more accessible to a ton of people mikey judged me for who i chose to romance in that game yeah yukiko wow i am i i know we went into xbox already i just feel so bad that we didn't mention this Going back to Summer Game Fest Lucy James Well done Oh my god Summer James Fest That's what some people are saying I think everyone was saying that Fucking believable So proud of Lucy Yeah she crushed

it Phenomenal work Back at the Xbox showcase Microsoft's Asus' Xbox ROG Ally X Was revealed there's also a non -X variant which is going to be more entry level they didn't give a price or anything on these things uh they are coming out before the end of the year these are those those ROG allies but with an Xbox coating on them I do think they have some improved specs um and Chuck we're looking at it he showed me some uh like there's more RAM on one of them the X has like 24 gigabytes of RAM or something crazy like that really the uh the the big differences here are Unlike the ROG Ally, these things

have big, giant Xbox grips on them, so that it's going to be, I guess, more ergonomic, but also just feel more like an Xbox controller in your hand with a screen in the middle.

So there's that. I don't know how I feel about that, but a lot of people went hands -on with this thing, and a lot of people were saying good things about that, so I'll reserve my judgment.

Most important thing here, though, is that this game is launching apparently.

Well, that's actually not exactly the case.

There's more to it than that.

Uh, yes, I know. Uh, the, the other thing real quick is this is going to have that Windows improved interface.

Some people went hands on with that.

That doesn't seem like people were able to like really dive into that and see how much better, but overall people said it was good.

At least in that first taste.

Now Mike's right. The thing that like the marquee game that they showed with this handheld, this new Xbox handheld was hollow night silk song, which is, this is where this is the only place that game showed up all week.

You know, all of these events, it just showed up as the game that's going to be on the the Roger Ally from Xbox.

And they made it sound like a launch game for that thing.

Well, in the Discord for this game, for the developer, they were saying, well, yeah, it's coming out before the end of the year, and the release date is not tied to the ROG Ally, so it could come out before that, I guess.

I don't forget what the words was, but that was the impression I got from what they were saying.

It was so weird. I guess you could assume that it's going to, like, the game could come out, and then for sure that means the game will be available available when the when the roger lix from xbox launches so yeah it's just such the weirdest way to see anything about this game and to just hear it's still coming out this year it's funny because like this game's marketing has been terrible in a way that has only helped it yeah like i don't understand defies convention like people just can't stop talking about it yeah are we ever gonna get an actual real trailer for this game you can get an actual

shirt for spoon heaven though store .giantbomb .com store .giantbomb .com everybody well if you want the hottest newest games from the leading developers like Game Freak you no longer have to go to Nintendo you can go over to Xbox to get Beast of Reincarnation which looks like a FromSoft inspired action RPG that's built around and this is from them demanding technical combat what the hell is going going on here what are they doing to me y 'all why do they do this to me it's like when you're in a fake relationship or something and then he it turns out like your deadbeat partner that was like poor is actually

a doctor it's like when you're in a fake relationship well you don't know in the moment on that you don't know in the moment that it's a fake relationship you know you're getting again swindled got it bamboozled yeah um i'll just read this whole entire thing here beast of reincarnation is set in post -apocalyptic japan a land ruined by corruption and crawling with monstrous beasts players will explore what it means to be a human and beast of reincarnation an expansive one person one dog action rpg built around demanding technical combat you know we've had a million of these so it's just it's just

so like when game freak does all their games that's even almost weird like oh right they just make their own games sometimes times but usually like you know tempo the bad -ass elephant they're good games but they're kind of you know smaller projects then you have this thing it looks huge and expensive look i think you said this is why pokemon looks so bad because they were putting all their work into this yeah this is why skirtland invite looks like shit and then it actually kind of hurts more to see this because like oh they can make expensive looking games they just don't for pokemon for they

just do it it for xbox yeah right what's going on i'm seeing people say that game freaks hq is located inside the nintendo building yeah really right yeah but the game freak is its own company it has been for forever uh they just also own a third of the pokemon company alongside nintendo so i don't know it's weird uh this game apparently coming out 2026 okay we'll see uh and then of course the big showstopper that everyone couldn't stop talking about the thing that ended the show call of duty black ops 7 which was so confusing not just because they ended the show with this but the trailer was bizarre

uh it looked like a horror game i don't know it's rocky's son i was into it i i well i was i was interested i would you know yeah i was curious i don't know what the end game of like misdirecting black ops 7 does for anybody do you know what i mean like i don't get the play there right like it's it's this sort of like misdirection is is the punch line like ha ha we got you it's just like no that doesn't make sense what good does that do for anyone i've i like i i left this like upset i know i am very prone to that emotional feeling but like you're usually upset i'm usually upset or disappointed

general disappointment but like what the hell's going on here what happened i guess i'm just confused because you know we get a new call of duty every year but they have these sub series within it we just got black ops 6 last year by treyarch and raven and now this year it's not we're not going back to modern warfare we're not doing something else it's just black ops 7 with treyarch and raven and i'm like bizarre bizarre so i was talking to mr call of duty dean takahashi and he was explaining to me that he like his understanding is that um because the development schedule they originally had that like

three teams each taking their turn and then one of like there was a big problem with one of them and so sledgehammer had to do like two games in a row and their solution to that was let's make each studio have a period where they do two of these in a row that's what we did get two modern warfare's in a row right there was the two and three yeah they were back to back and so that That was Infinity Ward's turn.

Now it's Treyarch's turn to do two in a row.

And then after this, they're going to get back on the three studio schedule, I guess.

That's the explanation.

I don't know if it makes sense from us sitting out here being like, is this as exciting?

I don't know. It looks so weird. Black Ops 6 is good, right?

Like, that was good.

Yeah, there's a lot.

And it's like, oh, I guess there's one thing about, like, oh, well, Call of Duty, the Black Ops is making way for the new Modern Warfare.

It's weird. It's like, forget about Black Ops 6 from seven months ago, right?

Get ready for Black Ops 7.

Yep, it's bizarre. I don't fully understand it.

Alright, then there's some other stuff.

Outer Worlds 2, which I thought looked really, really good.

Just kind of I think it seems like they're really nailing what they're going for with this one.

It's what we talked about a little bit ago, these sequels.

It's like they can really bring everything together that they tried or attempted in the first one.

I thought the first Outer Worlds was a really good 7 out of 10 for me, and I think if If they can get this one up to an eight, I will be happy.

Like, that's all they really have to do is get the thing to an eight out of 10.

I'll be like, yeah, that was totally worth it.

I probably would have played it anyway because I enjoyed the first one.

But in a post -avowed world, I'm now more up on Obsidian in general.

So I really hope the action feels as good as it did in Avowed. Yeah, that's a studio that's kind of really figured some things out recently, I think.

Clockwork Revolution may be one of the big standouts of the show.

I think someone mentioned that that showed really well.

You guys just caught up.

when we first saw it it just kind of you know we didn't see a lot of it i was like okay i guess the nx i was gonna try to make kind of a quote unquote bigger game like this and here we got a huge look at it we got a very long going on here and it just it all looks very pristine too it's just kind of top of the line stuff forgive me about time travel it was long yeah man uh i'm gonna hit the rest of these a little bit quicker uh high on life too uh what the heck with the CG trailer.

It was so weird. Yes, really weird. And then Ninja Gaiden 4, October 21st for that one.

That looked fantastic as well.

Gears of War Reloaded also looked pretty great.

That is, let's see, a multiplayer test is coming June 13th.

It is out on August 26th for PS5, Windows PC, and Xbox Series X.

I wonder if we get a Switch 2 version.

Probably not. Super Meat Boy 3D is out on August 26th, and it looked like a Super Mario 3D World, but meat boy i think the thing that really popped me was the um seen all your deaths animated alongside you in the 3d world what a cool what a cool thing obviously that was awesome in meat boy a super meat boy but it looked really awesome in 3d had not been on my radar in a long time as for boy like this is a cool way to bring it back uh mike talked about grounded too it goes into early access july 29th uh aphelion which is that don't nod space action adventure climbing game oh I thought that was interesting

yeah the Jusant like yes they did Jusant looks like they're applying that to to a different genre now slightly different genre it looked awesome I thought uh Keeper was another for me oh new double fine game um where you play as a lighthouse that grows legs and walks around the house moving castle like I hope Willem Dafoe and uh Robert Pattinson make an appearance just a cameo like you just get a glimpse of them arguing inside the thing yes yes um all right uh there are no ghosts at the grand yeah what was this one mike this is like this is that really that's right the ska one the house flipper

thing right yeah spooky house flipper that's right uh we were actually we were all into this this is my like top three reveals the show i think yeah like that a lot uh i was kind of looking forward to the indiana jones in the great circle dlc i still am kind of just want to get my hands on it because i want to go back Back to that game, I was really into it.

The Order of the Giants.

It's going to come out September 4th.

Kronos, the new dawn is Blooper Team's new sci -fi horror game.

They showed off a trailer of that.

That's coming out in the fall.

Invincible Versus, we talked about that.

I don't know if that has a date.

It doesn't look like it.

But that's that 3v3 fighter.

At Fate's End is a new one from the Spiritfarer developer, Thunder Lotus Games.

Oh, right. This is really sick.

Spiritfarer is a good game.

I thought it looked really cool.

Yes, I'm with you guys on that.

Resonance, A Plague Tale Legacy.

A Plague Tale spinoff game that didn't have any rats, but it's coming out in 2026.

That one also looked pretty impressive.

Final Fantasy is coming to Xbox.

Final Fantasy VII Remake Integrated is coming to Xbox.

And then Final Fantasy XVI is out now.

Planet of Lana 2, Children of the Leaf is coming out in 2026.

Promising an ambitious cinematic puzzle adventure that doubles the size and scope of the original.

That was the Limbo -like, right?

Kind of, yeah, I believe so.

so. And then Anemo is a free -to -play creature -catching open -world RPG for mobile, Windows, PC, and Xbox Series X in 2026.

It had that very, I mean, it's a Pokemon game, but it has a very good 3D style that made Pokemon kind of look embarrassing by comparison once again.

All right, let's hit the state of play, which also happened.

I'm just going to pick out some big ones here.

Bloodstained, um, that was nice to see.

They showed more of Ghost of Yotei, Hiragami, 007 First Light.

Real quick, what did everyone think of that 007 First Light trailer?

I thought it was pretty good.

Trailer was fine. It was cool.

Yeah. I was on a plane and I couldn't see it.

Okay. Yeah. Same here at Disney.

Yeah. I don't know how I feel about James Bond being younger than me.

He did look like that was the one thing, or I'm not sure about this James Bond, but I'll give them the chance to win me over.

Let's see here. What else do I have?

Luminous arise arise marvel token uh let's see metal gear solid delta mortal combat collection maybe one of the things i'm most excited about yeah get me in there i'm ready let's have some game boy mortal combat online sessions oh god gonna hell yeah are we losing mike or is that just me i might i heard you i think it's just you okay all right he's back for me he's right here oh let's see uh ninja Ninja Gaiden, Neo 3, Pragmata, Project Defiant.

Oh, no, Mike can't hear me anymore.

Let him know that. Romeo is a Deadman, Sea of Remnants, Silent Hill F, Sword of the Sea, Thief VR, and Tides of Tomorrow.

I think the thing, okay, now he's way out of sync for me.

Mike, whenever I hear you, just like five seconds later, I don't know.

Thank you. you um i think i was most upset about was what when jan said that the thief game should have become the should have been called thievery with vr in the middle of it that was like obviously i'm a master of marketing baby what can i say uh all right last couple of stories here splatoon raiders revealed for nintendo switch 2 nintendo announced splatoon raiders for the nintendo switch 2 teased on the nintendo today app players will be mechanics adventuring with a deep cut in the Spiralite Islands.

Spiralite? I can't say that.

The announcement coincided with a Splatoon 3 update that's coming on June 12th.

It's adding a visual enhancement, new weapons, 30 kits in the Splatlands collection.

It's gonna also increase the levels for all the weapons that are in the game so you can go back and upgrade them even more.

There'll be new stages or a returning stage from Splatoon 1, Urchin Underpass, new badges, a series weapon power stat for Anarchy battles I don't know, a bunch of new things Some of it's gobbledygook to me because I haven't played Splatoon in a while Splatoon Raiders looks pretty cool, although I'm not sure if I fully understand what it even is.

I don't think they've really explained what it is so it's a little, that's confusing I'm excited to go back to Splatoon 3 actually and that's a game that I am curious to see what the Switch 2 improvements are like, I would like to spend more time in there for sure do you think this um the fact that they just kind of announced this on their app or whatever do you think this kills that rumor of there being a direct soon i think so yeah i think well i mean i'm not for sure but i think it's less likely because it's definitely presented like it should have been in a direct so maybe there's not a lot

else to for them to talk about there's no date though so we can still get something where we get a date for that we get a good point they could time for i don't know maybe this is them just trying to really promote the you know the nintendo today app is something that they were uh cracking down on where people were sharing stuff from the nintendo today app in the last couple of weeks they would take screenshots and screen recordings and they would post it on twitter or they post on blue sky and nintendo was dmca in those things maybe that was in in preparation for this this thing where they're

like hey this is why you need to be on the nintendo today app and then you're right maybe they actually tell us what this game is and give us a date in a direct at some point uh the outer world 2 is officially xbox's first 80 game there was a lot of talk about this uh although we were busy we were traveling i didn't like really see a lot of the conversation they told us they would start charging 80 so i'm and i'm a little bit like over this at a certain point but i don't know 80 for outer worlds 2 you guys feeling that it's kind of a rough first one because like yeah people like outer worlds but just

doesn't have the biggest audience in the the world right so yep i don't know you're asking a lot of people to pay 80 bucks for a sequel game that they didn't play to be honest so that just seems difficult all right then uh konami is holding its own showcase later this week a 37 minute presentation called konami press start on june 12th featuring game updates and developers uh developer updates the show will focus on middle gear solid delta snake eater releasing august 28th and silent hill f launching september 25th The Metal Gear Solid Delta is a remake, blah, blah, blah.

They also said, and more.

37 minutes is a long time.

I'm hoping that this is where that rumored Castlevania game finally shows up.

Well, okay. Another thing, the and more, there is going to be a separate stream on the 13th that is just a Metal Gear Solid production hotline where the creators are going to talk about the future of the series.

Oh, wow. The creators of like, you know, Kojima obviously.

collection volume two with malachite four and peace i can see that that is very likely to show up here as well if that happens we are all playing through peace walker together i've never played we have to do that on this website and then they tease the um the online mode for for three coming back as part of this so you probably see a lot more about i could totally see that yeah castlevania i'd love to see a new game maybe they could still do like a castlevania 3d collection with those two and 64 and the two ps2 games right you can have that i would love that maybe time for something new maybe

some more sudoku perhaps yeah you mean sleek it in or no oh okay oh oh that's what i've been yeah um all right let's see here and then finally bend is laying off 30 of its staff i didn't see this someone else i put that in there yeah thank you okay from schreier sony's bend studio which canceled a live service game earlier this year is laying Laying off 30 % of its staff, around 40 people, Bloomberg News has learned the studio has been spinning up a new project following the cancellation.

So, it feels like one of those things where, like, yeah, we're not going to close the studio, but we don't need all these people until we need these people.

You know what? They probably should have just let them make Days Gone 2, actually.

It feels like that would have been a much better use of this time than whatever else has happened at that studio since then.

Although, I get not wanting to do that game just because that one guy is weird, but that's not enough of a reason to not do that game.

It's one of the reasons that 30 people lose their jobs or whatnot.

30%, right? Yep. And this is apparently just a bend.

No other studio is getting hit in this moment, although Sony's had layoffs kind of in a bunch of different places over the last months.

Although not as much as Microsoft and not as much as EA, so hopefully this doesn't spread too much more.

All right. That does it for the news.

I'm handing this show back over to Jan. We're going to go take a quick bricky break, and we'll be back with some emails and super chats right after this.

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You say Here we go But what you should say is something that helps protect your ride Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there And that's where State Farm comes in To help you choose the coverage you need so you can relax until you hear can we pick up my boyfriend wait what like a good neighbor state farm is there state farm bloomington illinois look at this these are the emails for the show emails bombcastagiantbomb .com is the email address send your emails to write in about any and everything you got a fun fact you got some some fun trivia perhaps a quiz we'll go and read it uh and read as many

emails as we can first email comes from simon from saskatchewan simon has provided us with lots and lots fun little tidbits there are our own snapple cap full of fun facts uh simon writes in hello bombcast coffee does make people poo because it acts similar to a mild laxative caffeinated coffee is a stimulant that not only helps with concentration and staying awake but also so helps jumpstart certain involuntary muscles in our bodies.

You guys were talking about poo on the last episode or something?

Well, we were talking about the word diuretic, which is in itself exclusively attached to pee -pee, which I did fine.

But obviously the word laxative, I assume, is like the sister word of diuretic.

If you consider pooping and peeing to be siblings.

It's like one and two, you know, so that's pretty close.

Right, who wouldn't, right?

It doesn't have anything to do with each other.

You're right. You're right.

I've never pooped without pain.

Ever. Right. All poopies are peepees, but not all peepees are poopies.

That's true. Well, not, you know, give it a few more years for me and then we'll see.

Oh, then you might need to get that looked at.

Okay. Well, y 'all are getting around that age.

I won't have to do that for another 30 years because I'm young.

Exactly. Caffeine can jumpstart the intestinal muscles.

Other laxatives do this, but at a much higher level and can send water to the colon to make it softer and easier to get out.

Other caffeinated drinks Can do this But coffee usually Has more caffeine Than caffeinated sodas Like colas And Mountain Dew Most people don't know Mountain Dew is caffeinated Much appreciation Simon from Saskatchewan P .S.

Merchmaster Of all the merch I'd like to buy It'd be a Blake Club mug With a great shirt With that great shirt logo Don't say mugs to Mike Oh I was going to hold back But as soon as I Logged in the work email For the first time this weekend So many more mug fires To put out You guys are going to make Like shoot hot With the mugs Listen And like basically I've been told like You're going to have to like do this like Individual thing with them it's going to be a big pain in the ass I'm like great fantastic Hey back there what if I just Snuck a mug onto the store while Mike wasn't looking amazing

well it's Harder I don't know if it's easy to do but yes Either way yes of course uh sneak Away um Mike I'm with you bud uh but Mugs rule and People love them I love Them everyone loves mugs and We just got to figure out a better way to like work with with maybe a different partner to, like, get mugs that are packed better?

Is that it? Let me put this mug fire out before I even think about mugs, because it's still a very ongoing concern.

Mikey, what about a thermos?

That's fine. Yeah, you can't really break a thermos.

Okay, cool, cool, cool.

Next email comes from...

Oh, I forgot your name.

I'm so sorry. Hey, fellas.

Months back, you guys mentioned about filming on location in Hawaii, and being someone who lived in Hawaii for years, I cannot think of a better piece of content.

Specifically, if Dan is involved.

Now, I know things have changed since then, so it may not be in the cards anytime soon.

But if there is a chance, I think filming Dan trying different kinds of Hawaiian food is prime content.

Foods like Spamasubi, Loco Moco, Lao Lao, even Poi.

He probably has no idea what any of that is.

I appreciate everything you guys do, and you got a fan for life.

P .S. Jan, I work at a local Portland or...

Oh, okay, okay, baby.

I'll holler at you.

Thank you for that email.

meal is it a dispensary uh yes but of coffee so i don't care weed what about that mike we've definitely been talking about traveling uh over the weekend uh there's uh some people are like hey you should go to japan and they were like very insistent about it and we were all like we should try to make that happen but those are the kinds of things where we would have to like really kind of plan around it and make it maybe a big event and kind of do some incentives there we've got some other things to worry about right now business -wise and also like just like packs we're trying to say oh yeah that's

coming up are we doing that gathering of the juggalos that's right which is a priority so these would be the kinds of things that we would plan for for like 2026 exactly but they are the kinds of things that we do think we could pull off as long as we get enough support i just think that uh the giant bomb luau sounds fantastic Oh, as soon as he said, like, oh, if we all went to a luau, that'd be a ton of fun.

Yeah. Guess where the only luau I've ever been was at?

I'm going to say Disney.

Disney. Disney Hawaii was like a Moana thing?

No, the Polynesian Resort, yeah.

Okay. They just got rid of that so they can build a new hotel tower, unfortunately.

Although the tower is nice.

Sorry for your loss.

You can luau in a tower.

Support local Hawaiians when you can, folks.

Don't go to the dull plantation, apparently.

Oh, we didn't address Dan's departure, did we?

No. Why do we have to go?

He shit out some confetti yesterday, so he's got to see a doctor.

This next one comes from Tom from London, UK.

Hi, guys. Do you think Nintendo's tech demo MMO thing will turn into an actual Switch 2 game?

Or was it a tech test for game chat?

Also, any word on a June Direct this year?

Great job on Giant Bomb at Night.

Awesome work for relatively short notice.

Plus, everything else going on too.

cheers tom from london uk yeah i think we had more time like everything would have been even just that much more smooth but for what time we did have really happy with how things went so thank you for saying that and then um the tech demo mmo thing will turn into an actual switch to game or was it just a tech test for game chat it wasn't definitely not just a tech test for game chat it was a tech test for that game uh because as i mentioned before that that tech test has a a fully fleshed out soundtrack already ready to go like they have put a ton of work into that thing already so i think that they

are just trying to figure out maybe how to present it to people um it's a really interesting weird thing and i hope it comes back i i think it will be a real switch game and then probably switch and switch to when it does come out but is it free to play how do they actually what's the business model i think that that's the question that is probably holding it back at this moment cool cool cool uh and then no word on june direct i just who knows We don't know.

Next email comes from Brian from Lancaster.

I don't know who all controls socials for GB, but if Mike ever posts slash Skeets on the account, it should always lead with, this is Tolkoto, as Miyamoto does for Nintendo.

Yeah, I think you can figure it out.

I did sneak a Disney reference into one of the Skeets from the weekend.

I don't know if anybody picked up on it.

It was kind of obscure.

Yeah, next time you see a Skeet from the Giant Bomb Blue Sky account, I need you to also like at Skeet who you think wrote it.

There you go. Yeah, it's a fun.

It's a fun little game.

All right. Next email comes from Tony from Sydney, Australia.

Hi, Bombcast crew. Longtime listener here.

Thanks for all the laughs, insight, and ever comforting chaos you bring each week.

From your end, what makes a good email?

Are there certain things you look for that catch your attention?

Whether it's something you choose to read on the show or something that gets personal reply off air.

Also, do you think you get any AI ring emails these days?

and if so does that make a difference on how to engage with them would love to hear your thoughts whether on air or not thanks again for all the great work warm regards tony from sydney australia are there any good emails they're almost like exactly it's like here's the code for a game that you want i'm like i'd rather not have to deal with this email yeah i ai written emails is not something that bothers me because i just need to give me the info as long as the info is not messed up then i'm fine if you're like vetting the email you're sending then i'll i don't give a shit i don't think it's

also i think it's important to also say like we realize it's not an easy job to like have to be normal i or come off as normal right that's not fun it doesn't sound like like so there is that element of it too which is important i think tony was specifically talking about in regards to a podcast email oh shit all right well that's a whole other thing um well that yeah i i was playing off what mike was saying but um yeah i think shorter the better and like have a good bit like short and sweet but like capture you know time is money yeah right yeah generally whenever we get like a quiz or like a this or that type

of dealio we will read it because that is a lot of effort put into something sometimes people will do like like a stat breakdown of whatever, and I'll make sure to include that, uh, since I wade through the email, uh, wasteland, um, yeah, something shorter, something punchy, I, I do, however, try and say thank you, or at least we'll, we'll say on air, thank you, if you do, uh, email something in regard to a specific person on the show, or is just general kind words, a lot of kind words, of course, since we have gone independent, and a lot of kind words after After GB at night, so love and appreciate

all y 'all for that.

Next email comes from Mike from Loveland.

Appropriate, we were talking about love just then.

Greetings, Chairman of Giant Bomb Zaibatsu.

Every once in a while, Disney adults catch strays on your podcast, which I enjoy, but it has made me wonder if the Nintendo adults on the crew realize how similar they are to Disney adults.

To an outside observer like myself, they are in fact pretty similar.

both have movies theme parks video games merch battled cartoons museums and both are almost exclusively exclusively marketed to children and families both trade on trying to recreate feelings you had as a child both have rabid ultra loyal brand defenders what am i missing yeah if nintendo is the clearly is clearly the disney of games then nintendo adults must be the disney adults of games correct just trying to make a piece here among two groups with a lot of overlap on the venn diagram love the show love all of you uh mike from loveland yeah no a hundred percent i mean you know i don't want to

speak ill about dan with him not being here but he's the worst he's he's the he sounds like you do want to speak ill of him without him being here i don't know what you're talking about i think i think the disease that mike has with disney is like 11 11 -fold within a nintendo yeah like for sure i think you have it too but not as bad yeah and i think it's the same thing i just like for me i if i were to get defensive about it i'd be like has disney done something as as revolutionary as breath of the wild as like i mean for me it's like if you want to come at me like you should as an adult should not care about what this company's

doing uh in video games i'd be like well that's just wrong that's incorrect it's very important they were making these kinds of games and other people are not or did not until they did I will say that Dan may be almost more Nintendo adulty than Mike here is a Disney adult because when Mario shirt.

That's okay. That's a cool shirt.

I like it. When Dan went to the Nintendo museum he bought everything there.

Yeah of course he's worse.

He's worse than Mike.

Yes. That's a good question for chat.

What was Disney's Wii Mike?

mike um bolt the first thing you said i don't know what that is the main thing to say about you know what mike has tried a lot of cuisines for the first time at disney world or land yes just like dan first tried mushrooms for the first time in his life at universal studios yeah or at least a nintendo park you know what gets me is like with this there's not an awareness as much on the perhaps disney adult side because you guys will always uh like amongst ourselves be like out like the mario versus uh mickey question who's more famous right i think it's mickey then you all be like well you're biased

meanwhile it's like us all these video game nintendo fans think it's mario there's no asterisks there for some reason or on the couch when you had all these people who are wrestling fans you were all positing who are we're disney adults or wrestling adults buddy well i'm with the wrestling fans obviously look i'm sure i have something that slots into this category where i'm like equally as mentally ill as you all are with wrestling nintendo and disney uh i'm just it's not coming off top of my tongue right now like i don't know what it is i'm sure it's out there um but yeah you're exactly right

mike it's unfair you're treated unfairly because you're right in the same breath that they make fun of you about just enjoying a multi -national evil well, depends on how you look at it corporation, they are sucking off the teat of big turnbuckle big turnbuckle teat you know, it's definitely a lot of hypocriticism happening alright, alright, next email comes from Haggis hi guys i'm sure you've gotten a ton of emails telling you that nacho is a nickname for ignacio but has anyone ever told you that nachos the food are named after a specific ignacio in 1943 oh wow that's so young it's the other way

around oh my god it makes so much more sense than people being named after nachos in 1943 nachos were invented by uh ignacio anaya who called them nachos special people the good work I guess that's crazy this was like a thing like it was they had like old tortilla shells and then they like fried them up in like it was like Texas or like just south of Texas what you're saying sounds like the Doritos origin story which happened in Disneyland well it could also be that Mike I don't know I'm just saying that's what happened I didn't know Jesus Christ I didn't know that happened at Disney all right

yeah Doritos were invented in Disneyland yeah yeah hey so like it's it's affectionate to have if I were to name my future child Ignacio and then nickname him Nacho now shoe on the other foot here what if I have some friends were thinking about this if they had a daughter they would nickname her Cass but that would be short for casserole well yeah the daughter is just gonna get called Cassie though right Cassie yeah okay but like would you mind being like your full name being casserole no yes Yes, I would rather you not do that.

Don't bother me. Alright, well, they're not together anymore.

So that worked out.

Alright, two more emails before we get near the end of the show.

This one comes from Travis in Fargo.

Thanks, Travis, for not two -timing us.

Obviously, it's probably not feasible for several reasons, but if all the logistics were taken care of, what's the ideal plan for Giant Bomb going on a cross -country tour of live shows and events travis and fargo well the email itself is sort of contradictory right because the email is saying it's not probable for several reasons they're asking you to imagine right but that's my point is is that it could happen if all of the logistics were taken care so if the question is then then what would be the ideal plan if everything else was taken care of we need a tour bus that we can like make our normal

content from still right yeah you yeah i mean that's how travel way so you guys talk about the logistics again like what would be the ideal plan for the actual live events where are we going so presumably yeah presumably it's like a 25 city tour uh that that crosses the country in the uh parabola shape right sure we go to canada a little bit will they let will they have us oh we have to go to canada a lot of it i want to go to mexico city yeah oh i would love that sure you know it's a bigger circle now for sure the parabola is probably i want to visit my people in the caribbean uh okay now it's

a boat now it's a plane boat um no i i think it's possible for sure it's just a lot of fucking money like when bands tour it's a lot of money to the band and that's kind of what this is it's a it's a you know it's a tour and you need support so that's all right you know what here everyone here name a city yeah dallas montreal dubai argentina the city of argentina because we have to visit christian yeah right right uh yeah i mean it would be sick it would be absolutely sick it's definitely doable too like because jermo from from argentina was uh recording something and i thought he was done so i

like jumped in front of the camera and his face Svelkes I've totally ruined his shot and I felt terrible this happened at summer game fest uh I love seeing that Argentina apologized to him I love seeing Guillermo uh what a good dude he brought Grubb and I some more uh Sherba Monte yes he did I brought that home I'm gonna make some today uh Delisio so all right last email from the show before Mike gets to super chats uh this one comes from uh Mike in Loveland again if Jeff is Bischoff Jan is Kevin Nash Grubb is Scott Hall Dan is six Manati is stinging Maquanchy makeup can't read some of this email

you worked yourselves into the ultimate shoot brothers love the show love you all Mike from Loveland thanks Mike that means a lot to me to be compared to Kevin Nash Kevin Nash is really fucking cool yeah it's another win for the good guys I think yep I don't know if this is a win for me as Eric Bischoff do you want to be Hollywood Hulk Hogan no I don't he's very desperate to be Hollywood Hulk i don't have enough sharpie to be to color in the beard we had some of the nitros on and that was the thing everyone commented on was his dark beard and how wet he is also like how unwell his skin looked

it looked too tight he looked like he was wearing a skin suit he was like folding in weird ways uh once again the email is bombcast at giant bomb .com please write in about any and everything.

And we'll try and get on the show.

Meanwhile, Mikey, you got some super chats to read.

Yes, yes. Al Grock says, quoting Dan recently, I'm going to try reference to Dan becoming a better person who thinks before speaking, but I'm going to try quoted by Dan Orange Cassidy record. I have to remember when Orange Cassidy first said he was going to try.

I like Orange Cassidy.

Has he been wrestling?

I did see him on the last pay -per -view.

I like his vibe for sure.

He hasn't been near like the top of the card he's kind of like floating around right now I think they need to give him a title run I think he's deserved that Steven Beetle says hi guys Steven from Scotland here my daughter Emily has just graduated from university she watches the bombcast can you give her a let's fucking go Emily yeah let's fucking go thank you thank you congratulations congratulations Emily Emily.

Oh, wow. There it is.

Did our mics cut out there when we screamed?

No, probably not. Martin Hollis says, Red McFly from Scotland here, let's fucking go, Emily!

Hell yeah. More shouts to Emily.

Martin also says, can we have a my mind's eye week according to eyes?

Hey, buddy, we're already having it.

You're living it, brother.

Then Martin also says, thoughts about absence of Fable and Metroid.

Not sure about Metroid, where that would have shown up, but Fable Fable not being there and Marathon Perfect Dark not being there I'm here I mentioned Perfect Dark and now people are like just mention me I guess I can't verify but like that might be further off than we're even thinking really I mean I don't know for sure but that's that's what I'm hearing I don't know I mean I know they basically announced it when they were making that studio but Fable's a little strange like we got a decent look at that last year to not give us any kind of update kind of strange.

They are going to be at Gamescom, so I guess they have another chance to talk about a few more things, but that to me means that Fable's out early next year at the earliest. And then, last one here, Eggie says, Mike, tell us about when you ate live ant.

Yeah, yeah, me and my buddies in high school were all in kind of a dark basement watching...

I thought you were going to say dark place.

No, no, no. Me too.

No, we were all just ignorant idiots.

We were all happy. You were snorting pixie sticks, yeah.

It's just a very dark basement.

We were watching Pitch Black with Vin Diesel.

And there was just a bag of chips I noticed near me.

Who knows how long they've been down there.

So I just grabbed the bag, just started eating handfuls of the chips.

My one buddy was getting in there too.

And then like once the movie was over, someone turned the lights on.

I noticed that there were just a million tiny ants crawling all over those chippies.

How old were you? Like 16, 17.

I ate so many ants.

This explains a lot.

Felt great though. Turns out ants are fine to eat, I think.

It's okay. I'm sure they're fine.

They can turn him into the man he is today.

Yeah, exactly. Yeah, to just go nutso on mystery chips like that.

It was not the smartest thing I ever did.

That's for sure. You know, it's a little bit more texture, right?

I didn't notice. They were very tiny ants.

Like, you see those, like, micro ants sometimes.

I don't know how they get so small.

They're just sort of like mites almost, not even ants.

yeah it's not as bad as eating mystery couch opened chocolate like danny o'dwyer oh danny oh danny we we love you already you don't need to do that he didn't even so cool he didn't even pause he's so cool he he that was the most metal shit i've ever seen yeah that's dad metal right like half -eaten mystery chocolate's cool and i eat a bag of ants by mistake and that's gross yeah you're fucking weird it's just it's just funny it's true yeah yeah chocolate on his face he did a mark of shame i love it oh gosh all right uh what do we got uh micah does that wrap it up for super chat for super chat thank

you everybody thank you everybody over there uh what do we got going on for the rest of the week boys we got game mess mornings grub wednesday thursday is a friday that's right yeah we'll probably uh find a find some time to record either quick looks or maybe look at some of those demos they're in steam next fest uh you gotta do some switch to stuff man and switch to stuff will be a the main thing that we try to get to this maybe we should do a a knockout tour or knockout mode for upf this week just a long one of those yeah i mean maybe we could try to like extend it a little bit and do some other

switch to stuff maybe we do that on thursday and then we'll do knockout tour on on friday that's a good idea uh blake club returns tomorrow mikey are you ready to get back into looking so cool i guess so i think i'm maybe i don't i don't know if the end is super insight but we're getting there we keep making proggies each time at least the proggies are better than i thought they would be so yeah you're doing all right there we go uh we're gonna grab mentioned uh we're gonna try and get some quick looks recorded and in the can uh lots of stuff to quick look some older stuff as well that I'd still

be interested to see voicemail dump truck popping off on Thursday.

Correct? Yeah. Yeah.

Sick, sick, sick. And also, folks, we understand that you may have been experiencing some audio issues while watching GB at night with some audio out of phase.

I'm going to leave them up, but I'm going to take them, edit the audio.

So everything is all juicy for all y 'all at home.

And we're going to upload them as separate breakout segments as well.

uh and yes we will also have a summer game fest vlog as as well uh a good one -eighth of it is going to be dedicated to dan's discovery of mustard which kind of pains me inside fuckle up folks fuckle up dan and i got to go to a red carpet and uh there will be some footy from there uh interacting with a day as much as we thought there would be but yeah there's not as much uh i was kind of excited to meet a certain celebrity and they just did not show up uh but But Ben Starr was there, so that's cool.

Folks, that about does it for this week's episode of the Giant Bombcast. We'll see you next week for another episode.

He's been Jeff. He's been Jeff.

He's been Mike. Dan was here.

But he's also been Dan.

I've been Jan. And you know what?

I'll say this, and this is just me saying it.

Fuck ice. We'll see you next week for another episode.

Until then, stand by and protect your fucking neighbors because you should love them.

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[Giant Bombcast Episode 894: Post-Summer Game Fest Chaos, Switch 2 Impressions, and Unexpected Sequels]-[894: Sweet as Honey]

📋 Summary

Giant Bombcast Episode 894: A Recap of Summer Game Fest and Hardware Adventures

The SGF Experience and "Content House" Shenanigans

Switch 2: First Impressions and Gameplay

Diving into Summer Game Fest Reveals

Industry News and Future Outlook

🎯Key Sentences

📝Key Phrases

📖 Transcript