912: Married... with Pikmin | Giant Bombcast

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Hey everybody, it's Tuesday.

Welcome to the Giant Bombcast.

I am your host today, Mike Minotti.

And it may no longer be a time for golf, but it is, as always, still a time for video games.

And helping me navigate the choppy waters of the video game world isn't Excellent crew of fellow goobers.

Game goobers.

Oh, we can rebrand to game goobers.

I bet that's what I'll take.

Gamegoobers.com.

Someone look into it.

And co-captain of the ship.

Still, I have not thrown him overboard.

Jeff Grubb, how's it going?

I'm happy to be here, Mike.

Thanks for having me.

It's not golf week, but it's still a week.

So we still have to do this, I think.

Yeah, that's right.

And it's always a good week for Dan, who seems very excited about Game Goobers.

Dan Riker, what is the story about Game Goobers?

Folks, I don't even know if I should say this loud because somebody's going to poach it.

GameGoobers.com is $18.99 and available.

What?

Yeah.

Somebody buy GameGoobers.com.

We need GameGoobers.

Somebody get GameGoobers.

And he is.

Somebody us.

I mean us as in somebody.

He is the biggest goober I know.

In fact, I bet the G on his hat stands for goober.

Ladies and gentlemen, Jeff Bacalar.

You got it.

I'm wearing a shirt.

I'm wearing a hat.

That says G for goober.

Goofy goober.

That's me.

I'm a big Spongebob guy and I love goofy goobers.

There's like a fourth or fifth I Lost Track Spongebob movie coming out.

There's a big billboard for it at the theater.

And the only reason I kind of want to see it is because in front of it is a new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles short based off that newer movie.

And it's a Christmas special.

And I think it might secretly be a sequel to that live action Christmas special that they did.

That I do a caroling play stage version of with my friends every Christmas.

Yes, we know that.

I would be very excited for you if this was somehow an unspoken sequel to that Christmas Ninja Turtle situation.

Well, it's also a reference to Home Alone, Bacalar.

It's called Lost in New Jersey or something like that.

It's called Home Alone or Chrome Alone 2.

Chrome Alone 2 is the name of the short.

So they're doing some Home Alone shit.

Yeah, I see you Googling.

It's about time the turtles found their way across the river.

Now, the one teaser trailer immediately has a chat GPT joke.

So that's a little bit like...

And I guess I guess, you know, 15 year olds are probably using chat GPT.

Oh, for sure.

Probably.

They're probably doing that more than they're talking to their parents.

Yes.

Yeah.

See, I don't I know very little about the current teenager situation.

I've got nephews and nieces that are good, like ranges toddler to 10.

And then I have, you know, a bunch of friends that are my age.

In between then, I really don't know what humanity is up to.

I think it's better that way, Mike, honestly.

Just not knowing.

I was trying to explain the 6-7 thing to Bonk recently and it's just like, as these words are coming out of my mouth, I'm like I'm mad that I know this.

Things are better when you don't know these things.

I don't know why those numbers are important.

It doesn't matter.

We can't do this.

We just can't do this.

It's not good.

You're either in the club or you're not, and we know where you guys stand.

We get it.

It's okay.

I know I'm usually talking about how movies are mid, and I don't see many movies.

I saw two movies this weekend.

You were saddened about the loss of Diane Keaton, so you're going back.

It was The Godfather and Annie Hall, right?

That wasn't a joke.

I posted it on Discord.

I looked at her filmography and I'm like I know this is a very famous person and I know Diane Keaton is.

Have I seen Diane Keaton movies?

Oh my God.

Movies from her filmography i think i've ever seen are look who's talking now, and i think she's the voice of one of the dogs.

And then finding dory, and i assume she's just the voice of, like i don't know the, a dolphin or something that was actually.

I mean, the oscars in memoriam montage is just going to be look who's talking now.

And finding.

You've never seen annie hall.

No, I've never seen any Godfather.

So I've never seen her in a live action movie.

I never saw Father of the Bride.

I think I saw the end of Father on the Bride on TV at a Disney hotel once.

Father on the Bride is a very different movie.

That was a very different motion picture.

He saw that on a streaming platform online.

It's like Farmer on the Dale.

Exactly.

It's exactly that.

Tell me more about Lost in New Jersey, Mike.

Maybe you pivot back to that.

I saw Tron Ares.

Oh, I'm sorry.

You want to see the movie Tron?

No.

I've never heard of so much people shitpiling on a movie.

I'll tell you what, my incredibly low expectations helped me not absolutely hate it, I suppose.

Cool.

Sounds great.

That's the review.

Do you have thoughts on Jared Leto, Mike?

Do you have a version?

Once again, this might be the first thing I've seen him in.

No way!

What?

What else would I see him in?

American Psycho, Fight Club, Blade Runner.

I mean, a million movies.

I've seen Fight Club.

He gets the shit beat out of him in that, which I like.

Yeah, I do like that he gets the shit kicked out of him.

You didn't see Morbius?

You're Mr. Morbius.

I didn't see Morbius or that first Suicide Squad.

That's okay.

That's understandable.

Requiem for a Dream.

I've seen Requiem for a Dream.

What?

Really?

I love it.

The one semester I was a film major, they made me watch that.

That was a sad movie.

Yeah, we know.

Yes, it is.

Hot take.

Nobody had a happy ending at that one.

No.

Maybe that one rich guy, but in a perverse way.

It's there.

He was having a great time.

Yeah, that's a weird movie to watch.

If you have a crush on jennifer connelly because of the rocketeer, oh okay, we have different reasons.

Yeah, oh no, rocketeer is a great reason.

Actually, top gun maverick is that's sure.

Yeah, forever.

Yeah, She's in some kind of movie in the 90s where she's just in a Walmart or a Target for a long period of time.

Yeah, and she rides the horse.

We've all seen The Gift.

Because that reminds me of the other movie I saw, which was Roof Man, which was an actual good movie.

That was just unequivocally a good time with Channing Tatum and Kristen Dunst in it.

I liked that quite a lot.

Roof Man is the movie they're doing the thing where if you go to an Alamo draft house and show your ID and it says Jeff, you get to see the movie for free, because Channing Tatum is apologizing to all Jeffs for the my name, Jeff from that damn 21 Jump Street movie.

So they did a whole deal.

Like his character in this movie is also called Jeff, but like this is an apology to Jeff.

You two should go on a date.

We should go see it.

We should get our reparations.

Yeah, it's about time.

I don't know if I have one of those theaters near me.

Yeah, I don't.

I did in Denver.

It was awesome.

The only time I ever been to one was, I think LA, when we saw Godzilla Minus One when Dan fell asleep during the movie.

Which never ever happens.

It's happened twice in my life.

It happened there and it happened in Killers of the Flower Moon.

Again, the guy who admonishes me because I will look at a text and I get it while watching a movie.

Just falling asleep, getting extra butter.

We literally just got done with our stage show and all that exhaustion of the whole week and we go to a theater and that's why I fell asleep.

Yeah, I think you just don't respect cinema like I do.

I saw two movies, including the Neutron.

How about you all?

Did you get up to anything fun this weekend?

Jeff, you were traveling.

Yeah, yeah.

I was telling you before that it was kind of a bummer ending.

We went to the Toledo Zoo.

It was great.

We did a red panda thing where it's like we got there early and they let us go in there and feed the red pandas.

We got to feed them cranberries.

And the kids were having a great time.

And Steph, that's their favorite animal, was for her birthday.

So we did that.

And I'm filming the whole thing with my new, uh dji osmo pocket 3 and uh, getting all kinds of great stuff and then at somewhere in like the last five minutes of that trip, i lost it and i cannot find my pictures and cameras.

It's uh devastating.

I'm like i've just been bummed out ever since.

I'm constantly on the phone with the zoo seeing if they found it and uh i, i like, i'm like about to just be like hey if, if you just can you like put up signs and say i'll give like 200 just for the sd card.

I just want the pictures, i just want the movies.

I, I know this is about emotional value, but do you think this is hurting your wallet more than when I went to the zoo and accidentally won those two auctions for those signed photos of Mike Tyson?

It's probably pretty close.

I might have edged you out there a little bit.

We keep losing money at zoos, Jeff.

Zoos are bad luck for Giant Bomb, I think we're finding.

We should just buy the zoo.

Clearly the only option we have here is to buy the zoo.

Our solution to everything cannot be buying it.

We did this already.

Let's buy it once a year.

I don't know, it's a lot in company.

Let's buy hydrogen.

Yeah yeah, what's that going for?

I'm sure it's for sale, anything for sale.

The price is right.

Sell us xbox, that'll go great.

I'm sorry about that buddy, but you had a good time, though you know the memories up here are what's important.

Yeah yeah, Absolutely for sure.

We took fewer pictures because I was getting everything on there.

The family likes that stuff.

I don't want to unpack this more than it needs to be.

Rub it in.

What do you think happened?

I think that I was carrying it because I didn't want to lose it.

So I had it in my hand the whole time.

And then at the end of the day, we are going to the gift shop.

And I think I set it down to go help one of the kids with something because I'm about to pay.

And I think I was setting down various things like they had a drink.

And I think I set that down and the drink down.

And I went and dealt with that and came back and picked the drink up and just left it there.

I think it's just like black and it blends in with shit and yeah yeah exactly, it was just there in the can.

Like you know, now i'm holding even more stuff because we just bought a bunch of stuff.

So i think i just my brain was like now i have everything in my hands, i'm good to go.

I think that's what happened.

Any number of other.

It could have fell out of my pocket, it could have been somewhere else, but it definitely was near the end of the day, which is yeah, especially frustrating.

Animal got it, at least i.

Honestly, that would be the i would love that best case scenario.

An animal gets it.

We find it in like five years in a cage.

Be lodged in a lion's esophagus is what we're hoping for.

Yes, exactly right, because it's like it's, it's shady to imagine that somebody did just like see it and took it instead of sending it to lost and found, which i guess you know.

Of course that happens, but of course it happens.

Yeah, i think it happens more than well, i don't know what do you think the?

I think it's about 50, 50.

Yeah, i think that's man, i would say about 50, 50.

It killed me as a kid.

I was at Worlds of Fun, which is like our six flags.

And at the time I was like, my dad was really trying to get me into baseball.

And for some reason I picked the Atlanta Braves were my team.

And I was obsessed with the Braves and Dave Justice and Ron Gant and all this stuff.

And there was one of those pitching games at Worlds of Fun where you pitch twice and it tells you your miles per hour and you guess the next one.

And I guessed it and I won, and they gave me like an Atlanta Braves batting hat and I was wearing it around.

It's my favorite thing in the world.

We get on the Timberwolf, the roller coaster, they make you take it off and put it in the cubby.

By the time it was down, the thing was gone.

Somebody just like taking it and like no loss and found no way to get it.

And just like, oh, just the highs of like, oh, my God, I won this thing.

But like, yeah, gone now.

Yeah.

Bad feeling.

Mm hmm.

I hope I find it.

Sorry.

I hope I just get I hope I get a call during this podcast.

I would just leave you all and go deal with that.

That's fair enough.

Well, maybe Backlord Dan had a more uplifting weekend.

They can balance things out here.

What about a car?

You bought it?

Yeah, well, it's going to be here in, like, six weeks, but we, like, bought it and ordered it.

What kind of car?

Yeah, what'd you get?

I got a hybrid.

I got a Subaru Crosstrek hybrid that's coming in in a little bit.

So, yeah, drove it around, never did a hybrid thing before, kind of learned a little.

I mean, back where I've driven your car, I don't know if that was a hybrid or fully electric.

Fully electric, yeah.

Okay, but yeah, the braking thing, the like regenerative whatever, like it's like charging the battery as you do that, so you don't need to like get the stuff in your house.

You don't have to worry about it.

Like, it runs on gas over, like, 11 miles per hour or something, so...

Yeah, I don't know.

Kind of looking forward to it.

It's not like an SUV or anything, but it's a little higher up than our Impreza.

It's like a mid, it's like halfway there, right?

It's like a crossover.

Yeah, it's higher up than like the Impreza and everything.

But yeah, I don't know.

I liked it.

Like we've had that Subaru since 2020 and it seems good.

People seem to like Subarus.

Good job.

Not everyone's buying a car.

How did you do it?

Did you just go in and be like all right, I'm not going to let anyone toss me around, take advantage of me.

Not going to get buffaloed.

So how'd you ensure that?

I mean, I did completely just fall for a marketing thing in that they sent us a thing in the mail that says like, hey dan we're here at the subaru place and got some people that are really interested in a 2020 subaru uh you want to come in trade it in or whatever and like i recognize it as like oh they want to me to buy a new subaru sure then realize like we've had this for like five years it's not gonna be worth it's just gonna lose value as we go on so might as well uh bump it up a little bit so it was a marketing thing that was not i don't feel like i got buffaloed i think it just got me thinking about upgrading and trading and it seemed like a good time to do it so yeah I mean, yeah, you got the market, the advertising work.

It did, but I don't think it was a bad idea.

Buffaloed is when you get taken advantage of?

Is that what it is?

Yeah, yeah.

When you go to like.

So my grandpa would always say if you went to like a car dealership or whatever to get like, you just need to get your oil changed.

And they tell you like, ooh, you should probably get this and this and this and this and this.

And like, I'll sell you on a bunch of stuff you don't need.

That's getting buffaloed.

So always in the service of you own the last car or you're releasing it.

Owned it.

Yeah.

Nice.

Yeah.

Cool.

Good job.

Way to be.

Yeah.

We don't have to unpack the specifics because I don't want you to find out live on this podcast as you got Buffaloed.

So are they supposed to be good though?

Right.

We did some research and talk to people.

No, Subaru is a great car.

I've had a Forrester for many years.

Okay.

Yeah.

We look at those two.

Yeah.

Right on.

Yeah.

Mike, I got a COVID shot yesterday.

Oh, that's right.

I feel terrible today.

My kid, my dib got one too.

And the nurse, we sit down and, you know, dib's young.

He's not a fan of shots.

Who is at that age?

Who is at all?

No one, right?

It's a relatively painless thing for the most part.

And he was a little nervous.

So the nurse performing the vaccinations starts telling, she's a little squirmy.

Let's call it that.

And she goes, don't worry.

Whatever happens, it can't be worse than the couple, than the family that was here about three hours ago.

I said, well, tell me about this family from three hours ago.

Yeah, I got to know.

She goes, well, it was a six year old, an eight year old and a 10 year old.

And the six year old got the shot, immediately threw up.

And then the eight year old passed out.

And then the 10 year old threw up all over me and the floor.

Oh, it's a throw up sandwich.

And Dylan's just like no, why are you telling me this?

Like he looked at me.

He's like what's wrong with this lady?

Did you see the color?

Leave his face at this point he's just like what like?

And I go.

I said oh cool, now he knows that puking is an option here.

He knows that that's on the table.

No, he took it like a champ.

It was all good.

He feels fine today.

Stacey feels fine today.

For whatever reason, whenever I get this thing, man, I feel like dog shit.

Got progressively better over the years, but I feel bad today.

Interesting.

I probably should get mine.

I feel like I've been feeling worse for some reason each time I get one.

I don't know why, but each time...

It hits me harder than it used to.

I really need to though because, like my Crohn's, medicines are, you know, stuff that is supposed to actually suppress my immune system, because that's what like the Crohn's is is my immune system being overactive and attacking my colon and whatnot.

But it also means I can more easily get things like the flu or Crohn's, so it's good for me to get the shots.

It's a real battlefield out there of germs and viruses, everybody.

You know...

What?

Don't laugh.

You don't know where this is going.

That just reminded me.

Dylan's like, he's like, oh yeah, let's get a flu shot.

Let's get a COVID shot.

He's like, it's all good.

He's like, how many diseases could there be?

30?

And I'm like, yeah, about that.

I'm like 34.

There's 34 that we know about.

It's a battlefield of diseases in this world, everybody.

Speaking of battlefields, Dan and I... Music, I don't know if we got that.

Not in the live version.

Thank you, Mike.

That's beautiful, though.

Dan and I checked out some Battlefield 6 Friday evening.

We played a couple hours of it or so together, actually.

Just running around in that main mode, Conquest, being great soldiers, going...

Oh, KD ratio was unreal.

Yeah, that's one way of putting it.

Hey!

Holy shit.

Oh my gosh, people leave grub.

Just made me a liar like that.

What the fuck?

Wow, piece of shit.

Uh dude, i think we had a good time.

I had a good time in the way that, like anytime i played a battlefield game, it like kind of felt like the exact same brand of good time, which i'm no battlefield scholar.

I i reviewed three for game informer didn't play the old ones because they were pc only and i didn't have that.

And then like four and five and all the future ones and all that i didn't really mess around with.

So like Very limited Battlefield experience.

But everything we played for those couple hours was like yeah, this is fun and this is a Battlefield.

I can't speak to the tiny little tweaks they've made or what they changed from the future, one before that or whatever, but it was fun.

I don't think I'm going to play it more.

I've heard the campaign is not great.

Mike, do you see yourself playing more of it?

It's only if I get invited to play with friends, right?

Like I was having a good time but there's no whirlwind where, like tonight, I'm like ah, I got an hour or two to play video games time to just jump into some random online matches of Battlefield 6.

It was fun playing with you and running around with you and for me to be like hey, I'm in a tank, jump in this tank with me.

We're gonna go, you know, going to point A together and you gotta revive me and I gotta revive you.

It'd be funny if you killed a guy just using your Stimpak thing or whatever it's called.

Defibrillator, yeah.

Right.

I mean, it's a very good one of those, and it's also, like, it's a very good-looking game.

It's running really nicely in a time where, you know, even on a very high-end computer, some games are just kind of running awkwardly.

This one seems like its performance is pretty good all around.

I will say, I'm a little surprised, like, It's a very good one of these.

It's almost a little weird how... I don't know if there's a lot of new juice here, right?

And maybe that's because when they try to do new juice, people don't like it.

This is very much supposed to be kind of a back-to-basics sort of thing.

But there's a weirdness there as somebody who played a lot of Battlefield 1942 and I'm like is this that different of an experience than what I remember playing that game in?

2003 or whatever it was.

No, is that a bad thing?

I guess not necessarily, but it's a little weird.

I mean Counter-Strike 2.

Even though it's called, that is very much still basically that game as it was in 1999 or whatever.

So there just is always kind of room for these experiences. did you guys try any of the close quarters uh one the one that's more like call of duty no i feel like with battlefield like it's when i think battlefield i think of conquest i think of that running around to get points and stuff like that and with i just had the mildest of curiosities about this one and so i figured if i'm gonna probably play this once i want to check out the mode i know like i'm not doing a deep dive on this game i'm not gonna try all the new modes and stuff like that so That mild curiosity was sated by just playing for a couple hours with Mike.

I had a good time and like, I don't know.

It's just, I'm not feeling the draw to check on more of it.

I played that close quarters thing, and I liked it quite a bit.

It's Battlefield, but it's Call of Duty, but I think it's a pretty good sort of not in the middle, I don't know how to say it, but it's like.

No, I had fun playing that.

I think it helped me kind of get a good idea of the feel of the guns and the running around without having the typical for me Battlefield experience of I ran a long way just to die, which I know is a me problem and not a problem with this game.

I should be playing it a different way, But this mode makes it, so I don't have to play it a different way.

I can still just be a jackass running there and have a pretty good time.

That was still when it was bots mostly.

There was a few human players in that match.

But it still felt, I don't know, dynamic and fun.

And I'm like, okay, they kind of got all the basics here right.

And I...

Do I need to play this instead of Call of Duty?

No, probably not.

I also probably won't play much more of this.

But at the very least, I'm like, okay, there's something here.

I don't know if it's anything new.

Like you were saying Mike, not new juice, but they got what they needed to get right.

I like that you could take a blowtorch to tanks, because I was running around at a certain point just jumping on top of tanks and blowing them up with blowtorches.

That was fun.

Right yeah, it's like you know.

There's plenty of opportunities for Dan Irvine to run around and, like you know, have a good time and emergent funny things to happen, like oh, he's trying to res me at the last moment he gets sniped and I see his corpse just fall over.

You know things like that.

So yeah, I think a lot of people were just hoping to get a good one of these, and that's absolutely what they delivered here, and I think we're seeing that reflected in this game being a pretty big success right now.

Speaking of success...

Jeff Bacalar has successfully finished Silent Hill F.

I hear Jeff, this is a game that really should be played through multiple times.

Do you have any drive to do another playthrough to see what changes that second go around?

Or do you feel pretty satisfied seeing credits that one time?

No.

I'm not playing this game again.

Not because I'm not interested in seeing all that stuff.

I just can't do it.

I can't play a game twice this quickly.

To me, it just seems that's not for me.

That's not a thing I can do, I don't think.

I do want to see all the alternate endings.

I do want to see all that stuff.

I find that stuff interesting.

I thought the story really went places and covered a lot of stuff, and I'm happy to know what else is available there.

I think this game is really perfectly paced timing-wise.

This is what I want.

I think I did it in 10 hours give or take, uh and that, and that's what i want.

I, i think that's you know.

Even i know i'm finishing games left and right here guys but um, you know, chronos dragged for sure and uh, i liked where i was at with this one um, i think it.

I think it really uh completed and kind of wrapped things up in a really satisfying way.

I was very hot on it in the beginning.

I know I talked about this maybe last week or the week before and I think I saw everything that it was trying to do and I think that momentum carried all the way through.

This game's very combat-focused, as you probably know, and I've seen a lot of criticism that sort of says like oh, this is.

This is some sort of slap in the face to the purity of Silent Hill.

And it's just like, oh, my God, you have to touch grass.

You fucking freak.

Right.

I don't care what you think.

You're stupid.

It's a different game for sure.

I think there's enough of that horror, survival horror, overlap where I felt more than well served with what it was doing.

Did you finish it?

How did you find it?

I'm pretty close to the end, I think.

To give you an idea, this is not really a spoiler, but I just finished the stuff back at my house.

So yeah, I think pretty deep in there.

I like it.

A ton.

I think it's... And I think it actually kept getting better and more interesting.

I know some people don't like the combat.

I actually really like the combat.

I think it does a good job of feeling very heavy and feeling kind of like I am like Got some chunk.

Yeah, it's got some chunky and it's a bit awkward.

But like, yeah, because I am a teenage girl swinging a steel pipe at monsters.

And it kind of does feel like that.

But there is... still stuff to it.

You do have, you know, dodging.

There is a sort of parry system, not like a traditional parry system, but there are things to think about.

They are not just flailing around, swinging at enemies like a mammoth.

It's even a bit more to it than Silent Hill 2's melee combat, which was mostly just dodging and swinging.

And there's again.

I won't spoil it, but there's something that's interesting, that happens with the combat at a certain point in the game.

Like oh, this is happening now, where suddenly it almost feels a bit more character action-y for a little bit.

And it was really satisfying to see that.

And there were some messed up sequences around there too, Jeff.

Stuff that I was literally doing the finger shields.

I'm like, I don't know if I can watch.

I don't know if I can take a look at this.

Which is horrifying, but also it's kind of fun.

I like being like, I'm not going to look.

Oh, yes I am.

Oh, I'm going to peek through these little fingers right here.

Yeah, exactly.

Yeah, I remember seeing like, oh, this is not as scary as I wanted it to be in the beginning.

Certainly challenges that take as you play on.

There are some truly brutal and gruesome scenes later on in this game where I was just sort of like oh damn, that's fucked up.

But yeah, I think some really striking characters that show up later on too, where I'm just like fuck, look at this person.

That's super sick.

Yeah there's, you know the game when you start off.

The game starts off more traditionally Silent Hill than it ends, right?

Like I think you have the fog and you have all that stuff for a good four or five hours before things kind of you know journey into you know floral horror hell and you kind of uh, have a bit of a different look and feel to the game.

But yeah, I think overall really, really strong.

I, I'm, I was pleasantly surprised.

Did not know what to think of this going into it.

Uh, really glad they were able to stick the landing with this.

And, um, yeah, big fan.

A lot of people have asked me, I know you have to grub, you play this or Kronos.

I'm still going Silent Hill F for sure.

Uh, if you're looking for the spooky game this month.

Yeah, and like I think this is what you guys were getting at a second ago, but people were saying early on that it wasn't very scary, but it sounds like it's at least disturbing.

Yeah.

But it does get there.

Okay.

No one is going to be confused or like say this isn't a horror game.

It just 1 million percent is, right?

Okay.

Yeah.

I think for my you know that aside I think for my taste there's a couple areas that are a little bit too labyrinth-y, where you're sort of just like map spamming.

You're like, what?

What are we doing here?

I push that map button a lot.

That's true.

You're swapping back and forth there a good amount in two really sort of guilty areas that I can think of off the top of my head.

But other than that, you know, really strong stuff.

Really, some of the puzzles I thought... How'd you find some of those puzzles, Mike?

I feel like there's a couple where you're just like...

Huh, like I was stumped in one where I needed to stop and kind of like come back to it.

There's nothing, there's not like tons of levers.

I don't think I struggle too much, but I'm very much in a puzzle mindset right now.

I've been playing so many of these kind of games that I'm on that wavelength at the moment.

There was a couple of them where I sort of flailed around a bit and maybe just sort of brute forced it.

There's one about shadows.

I'm like, did I saw this puzzle?

And I was like, oh, I guess I did.

Okay, fine.

Good enough.

I don't think the puzzles are the strong point of this game for sure.

Agreed.

Yeah, I would have liked to see a little bit more there with the puzzles.

Yeah, but I think overall, you know, things really tied up together.

A couple like inventory management things where you're like Things don't automatically assign to a place on the item select screen.

You have to manually put them there.

We were losing you a little bit back there.

You're getting a little choppy again.

Just for a smidge there.

Yeah, the inventory manager stuff is relatively fine.

It's a quick...

The progression too was like you get all these.

Most of the items you get, you have like, the main healing items.

Then there's a bunch of other stuff that can heal, but mostly you're supposed to sell it for shrine points so that you can get level ups.

So there's a lot of like well, I already have three divine water, so I can't pick up this dried carcass kind of a thing.

Yeah.

And I usually had more than enough healing items.

I don't know about you, but I was not hurting for those at all.

Yes, definitely pretty charitable in that category for sure.

I know I should have stopped playing Hades 2 a while ago.

There's a lot of things to play.

But I kind of still just keep playing Hades 2.

And it's almost becoming a bit of a problem.

But that game is just really fun.

Even just playing a run a day.

They do just keep giving you reasons to play past the credits.

Because there's still some mysteries.

There's kind of a big one I'm sure is tied to...

Kind of like a big story moment still.

Kind of like in Hades 1, right?

Where after you got credits, it was still like, well, invite everybody over for dinner.

Just kind of like one of these things I need to see.

Then there's the Knight's Champion rewards where, if you can do a run with a lot of those modifiers on, you fight the hard mode version of the bosses.

You unlock these kind of in-game statues.

Even though I don't like achievements or trophies, the idea of something in the game that shows me my achievements, I think that somehow is more enticing to me.

And the character relationships, like, oh, I don't, you know, what's up with Dora and her memories?

I gotta give her more ambrosia and things like that, so...

Yeah, there's all these reasons I still keep coming back to it and playing it quite a lot.

It still continues to be really fun.

Is anyone else still playing this one or is everyone else kind of moved on?

I can see myself going back to it on like a flight or something, when I just want to like I'll do a run.

You know, it's been a bit.

But you know there's, clearly there's.

There's three things that I have in the world that are covered.

And like I can tell that some like late postgame type stuff or whatever.

So there's more there if I want to.

But like you said, there's just a lot of shit out right now that I'm focusing on.

But I see myself playing more.

I I've kind of put it aside while in the middle of it.

And I, it's, I, that's not like a reflection on the game.

It's more like I get this experience.

I know.

And I.

It's obviously very good, but it almost feels so refined that it's like uh, it feels like candy.

It's like, I, I like, I can just sort of, I don't know.

I could see where it's going at all times and being like, I know I'll have fun with that.

Let me try some other stuff.

And I'm not necessarily feeling a great pull to go back to it.

But again, that's, it's not a reflection of the game.

It's not me.

You absolutely love Hades once.

I guess I'm a little surprised that you're still like, you know, you don't seem enamored here.

I think I know I would be if I really just kind of like completely gave myself over to it.

But I'm also like, I don't know what it is.

It's...

I feel like the rewards are so frequent and so much that it just feels like I don't have much of a choice in it.

Again, it's not like I don't think it's a bad thing because they are so good at delivering those things.

And they're so important for a roguelite.

But just the way that I'm feeling right now about games, like I'm definitely much more in a baby steps mood than I am like a Hades in this moment right now.

That's all.

I guess, like you know.

So comparing recent experiences here because in a Silksong and you can go out, you can get some upgrades and whatnot, but you're largely sort of pushing through when you hit a roadblock there.

Yeah.

In Hades 2, you're right.

After every run you're usually getting some pretty substantial kind of permanent character upgrades, or sometimes it really is.

Like, you are getting better at the game, too, and that's why you're going to beat bosses.

Of course.

You're also getting stronger all the time as well.

Do you prefer one or the other, or do you think it just kind of depends?

Yeah.

No, I think I'm like, so I oscillate.

There are times when I definitely like to have the game that delivers the.

Hey, you're going to get better, but really let's just let you upgrade the character.

And so the 10th run from now is going to be so different from this run, like you're doing today because your character can have so many more abilities and powers.

So, you know, this run's more like just kind of like unlocking that stuff.

That's really what it's about.

And I think in this moment, right now, I think I am feeling a little bit more towards, I guess, the Spelunky side of the spectrum, where it's like I don't even know if I want any sort of upgrades.

I kind of just want to get better at the game and sort of push against that sort of thing.

Yeah, I think that's where I'm at in this moment, but I wouldn't change Hades 2.

I wouldn't change a thing about it.

I'm glad it exists the way it is.

I think it's a work of art in terms of their ability to deliver something that can make people feel rewarded.

One of the reasons why I think I am finally going to slow down is because I'm playing a sort of similar game.

It's another rogue light experience.

It's called Absalom.

I've been hearing people talk about this.

Yes.

It's a beat-em-up.

So very much in that kind of classic...

Streets of Rage.

There's some Golden Axe vibes here as well, but it's also run-based and it's very much.

You're basically getting the boons kind of system where after a fight it'll drop like well, do you want to add burning to your main attacks?

Or have a thing where if you successfully dodge and you get two little swirly tornadoes that automatically attack people, that kind of stuff.

And you know so all like the Hades-esque roguelike mechanics, and there's the permanent progression to kind of thing and you can unlock more characters.

That's kind of like getting a new weapon, right?

But then, you know, at the core...

It's a beat-em-up, and I do like 2D beat-em-ups quite a bit.

All that stuff feels very good here.

You can do some juggling.

You can grab people and throw them, but there also are a lot of mechanics based around dodging.

The parry system here.

It's not like a parry button, but if you dodge into an enemy then yeah, you kind of parry them.

They're off bounce for a second and you can attack them.

There's even a system where if you do your kind of heavy attack at the same time as the enemy doesn't attack, then you kind of have a clash.

It's kind of like a critical hit scenario there.

So it's even harder to do than a dodge or a parry, but with greater rewards.

So it's just a very good looking game.

It's all 2D and drawn.

It's a very good sounding game.

Very pretty music.

So, yeah, it's just, you know, Hades has a beat them up.

I know it sounds a little reductive, maybe oversimplifying what this is, but also because of that, it's, you know, two players like a lot of great beat them up.

So I haven't tried that yet, but it just is clearly designed with that in mind.

So, on that note, I've been hearing really, really great things about this game and I've intentionally been trying to like not even look at screenshots or anything of it, because you know Grubb are probably good to just kind of like soft-tease this.

You know no specifics.

Yeah, I mean, I'm committed to it.

Let's do it.

Me too.

I have, for a long time, wanted to bring back This is the Run.

If you have not seen it.

It's a run that, or it's a feature that me and Vinny used to do, where several times a week we would play like Contra or Contra Hardcore you know different games and try to beat the game in one run.

So uh, grub and I are going to go in blind uh, starting this week.

You know, keep an eye on our socials and everything for specific timing and things like that.

But we're going to go in totally blind and we're going to do a run.

Uh, we're going to try to do it most days.

Uh, you know, again, stay tuned to our socials and stuff for timing and things like that.

We might have to squeeze it in between things or whatever, but seems like a great way to experience that game play at co-op.

So yeah, this is the run Absalom, uh, starting this week.

Yeah, I think that'll be good.

I like my first real run.

I like maybe got to the second boss.

Even my run after that, I actually died to the first boss again.

So it wasn't like just constantly progressing.

I was like, OK, this build was clearly not as good.

I was maybe playing sloppy, things like that.

So, yeah, I think that I think this would be a pretty good fit for that.

Who knows?

Maybe we'll find out.

It gets really easy on the fourth run.

You beat it.

But I bet it'll take more than that.

I don't know.

I've seen a lot of people in the chat here say it's a great game for this.

And, you know, I had some people doing some recon this weekend playing it.

And yeah, I think we're going to have a lot of fun with the grub.

Exciting.

OK, cool.

Yes.

I'm glad to hear that.

Mike, you said there's like maybe like 10 minutes or whatever for, like you know, kind of like getting into the story.

So like we'll probably just the first episode grub.

Let's just go in totally blind and do whatever.

That might be a little longer one if we have to get past the opening thing.

But yeah, one run per stream.

Yeah.

Yep. yeah because like the first thing you do is not really one of the traditional runs it's more of like a setup thing so sure sure you do that then you do a run and then after that you just do a run each day i'm curious like i mean the first two characters you can bs there's kind of a stocky dwarf and he has a gun just for his special attack and then there's like uh i think kind of like a dark elf with a big sword you guys like know which ones you each want probably i'm not i'm not a stocky dwarf guy i never picked the stocky door i could be a stocky dwarf guy okay yeah that sounds good i like stocky drawers i'm a big stocky fan um kind of continuing on this the rogue liking here uh dan you've still been checking out mega bonk a bit huh I mean, that is still my thing where it's like, you know, if I've got 10, 20 minutes, you know, like that's the one I will play.

I'm not doing the like, you know, multi-hour sessions like I was doing when I started playing.

But yeah, between that, it's just like I'm just playing more Yotei still.

And that's more like, hey, I've got a knight in front of me.

I can really sit down and sink into this for a few hours.

That's I'm doing Yotei and the shorter ones are Megabonk.

Still loving both of them.

Yeah, yo tay, i really am loving i.

I think it's great.

I i am into the story.

I think the way they tell it is is like the cut scenes and stuff are great.

The way that like you'll go to one of the six or whatever to kill him and you think like i thought it was going to be a quicker thing, like an assassin's creed shadows, you could just like find one of the dudes and kill him and this one, it's like i started going after a dude and it became like a multi-hour, multi-part quest line of like you you know setbacks and going back to this area and stuff.

And like, by the time you finally get to the guy and everything, it's a super climactic, cool fight.

Like I just, I love the presentation of it.

I love the open world.

Uh, I just think they're kind of nailing it on, on so many fronts right now.

So, um, yeah.

So Yotei, Megabonk, uh, and then some embargo stuff we'll talk about next week.

Sometimes with these games like Osuyote, I will get into a bit of kind of map fatigue, right?

Like the formula becomes maybe a little bit oppressive or tiring.

Do you feel like that at all with this one?

No, I feel like, because you know I'll finish one of these longer main story quests and then I will like purposefully just kind of warp myself to like oh, I got one of those you know map segments over here for an altar.

And I'll just kind of like ride my horse over there, run into like a few little side things on the way.

I think you can pace it out pretty well because even the multi-part big story ones like, give you the freedom in between.

Like you know, you can tell like oh, talk to this guy and it's going to kick off the next big thing.

Or I can just kind of take a little break, do some side stuff level up a little bit.

Not level up, but you know what I mean.

Yeah.

Do you look up at the sky at all when you're playing that game?

Um, not intentionally, really.

I guess in photo mode a couple times.

Like, I do find myself going to photo mode more than usual.

So you look at the sky.

Have you seen any trails in the sky?

Oh, this one sucks.

This sucks, brother.

Holy crap.

Wow.

We did actually, Dan.

We did.

We did that one photo mode thing, and we did the Aurora Borealis.

We did, but he wasn't actually curious about it.

Aurora Borealis!

I know.

It feels, like, cheap.

It is, yeah.

It stinks, brother.

Move on.

Well, speaking of trails in the sky...

I took out Trolls in the Sky first chapter.

Finally did that.

Finally did that on the Mega Man block.

Dan!

You shut up!

I worked yesterday.

You all were drinking your martinis on your yachts or whatever you do on your days off.

I was putting food on families by playing this anime JRPG.

It's called Trails in the Sky First Chapter.

This is a remake of a game that I played on the PSP originally.

It was kind of one of the best JRPGs of that era.

At a time when we weren't necessarily getting a ton of good ones, like the PS3 era wasn't really good for that stuff.

But this one because it was PSP, it was still sort of pixely and it kind of felt a bit more like a really good PS1 JRPG in a lot of ways.

And it spawned this whole series that is still going.

There's tons of sequels to this game.

I only ever played this one and the second one, which is kind of a single story.

And then from there, it goes into all these big directions.

Yeah, they remade this one with very pretty looking graphics, like slightly cel-shaded, but very colorful.

It just looks very modern and nice.

The music is all of a higher quality as well.

The opening cutscene I think is going to be rough for people to get through if they are not like super familiar, super used to or super in love with that very kind of specific anime presentation.

You know which, which one?

Like the like, kind of like if you say, imagine a standard anime in my head, that one yeah, like you know, you ever see why anime worth like characters massively.

They bonk them on the head like bonk, like that kind of stuff.

Right um, three stooges, not three stooges, it's like anime stooges, it's just i don't know stooges i would watch that.

It's tropey.

He's trying to say that's tropey, it's tropey.

And it's a little grating if you're not super enveloped by that stuff and i'm relatively developed by it just through jrpgs.

But even there like not as much as i used to be.

I don't know why my tolerance for it is actually getting kind of worse, the with age, or even this opening cutscene and just some of the voices and you know, English voice acting, Japanese voice acting it still kind of has the same impact on me because the English voice acting of any things is trying to replicate the inflections and the tones of that original language anyways.

But it's just kind of a lot, and the main character's voice, I don't know what it was.

I just couldn't stand it.

It's just sort of grating to me.

Yeah.

Did you switch to Japanese?

Because everyone was saying, do the subs instead of the dubs.

I switched to Japanese, and it was still like, I don't know.

Was it that much better?

In one, I don't know that language.

So it's, you know?

Yeah, you're the English guy.

Yeah.

I mean, look, sometimes that makes sense.

Like, for Sonho F, actually, I did switch it to Japanese.

I'm like this is such a Japanese game that yeah, like doing this as more like I'm watching a foreign film makes sense to me here.

I'm doing that with the Ote, yeah.

Yeah, here it's like no, I don't.

I think I may as well just keep it on the Japanese, and it really is kind of just the one girl's voice that's grating me.

Now, in the opening cutscene is a lot, and after that, things settle down a little bit there.

But, Again, that's kind of the one minus, because the pluses are very nice.

The combat is excellent.

It's similar to Metaphor Fantasia, which apparently took this from a later Trails game that I didn't play.

Where to start?

It is more of an action RPG.

And then you kind of use that to set yourself up for an advantage once you transition into the turn-based stuff.

And even when you're doing that, when it's your turn, you kind of have free movement range.

And that replicates the original game, which is more grid-based, almost a bit more like a Final Fantasy Tactics in the battles here.

But here, instead of grid, it's more just like...

You have your circle of where you can move and certain attacks have advantages based off of hitting enemies from the side or behind.

Or they're an AOE in a circle around you, or an AOE in a line in front of you.

So you're constantly thinking about movement and placement, even though it is turn-based fighting.

So the combat feels very good.

Would you say, does it share any DNA with Ys VIII, Lacrimosa Evdana?

Well, that's more of a pure action RPG.

So some of the stuff, honestly, before you go into the turn-based, a little bit.

In fact, you know, this is that company.

Falcom has two big pillars.

Of course, you know this, but I'm just telling the audience.

Yeah, Ys and Trails.

So those are the two big ones there for them.

So yeah, the demo actually, even though at first I was a little bit like oh, this is too much for me.

But no, by the end of it, the impression it left was not demo.

My first play session was very strong.

Yeah, you were saying that, like, can you just give me a little bit more on the combat?

You said it's like action, but, like, still has some menu-based stuff, or what?

No, it's like, you played a little bit of metaphor, right?

Yes, yeah, a little bit.

Like, remember how you kind of like you're fighting people in the world, but it's really just to get yourself an advantage for when you transition to the turn-based stuff.

Oh, okay.

Yeah, yeah.

So in here it's almost.

It's a bit more free form here, because you could just keep fighting them in that action.

That's what i saw in the trailers.

I was that's what i was like okay, that's confusing okay, keep going right, but like, eventually you're not dealing that much damage that way.

So what you really want to do is you deal damage and when you get them into a stun state and you transition into the turn-based stuff, then that gives you an advantage.

You can kind of start with your sort of all-out attack or whatever they call it here kind of thing.

So this really is using that action RPG stuff to one either just quickly take out weaker enemies that you don't need to bother going into the whole turn-based combat thing, or to give yourself an advantage leading into it.

Because, you know, you can still just take damage and everything else the same in either mode.

So...

And again, I mean there's probably intricacies there that I didn't completely understand from playing two hours of it, but I already can see where it was going.

A lot of JRPGs.

Sometimes in the very beginning they're very boring because you have like one spell and one attack.

No, Dan says.

Absolutely not.

But this was immediately very interesting.

So...

I like the original game a lot.

I would like to play more of this.

Again, it's definitely a pretty game.

Aesthetically pleasing all around.

I would recommend it, even if some of the tropiness of it throws you off at first.

I think you can kind of push through it and get used to that.

Excellent.

Can I make a quick request before we go to the break?

Can we do a golf week recap?

Actually, can we just since we're experts now, we played all the golf games.

We just do a Mount Rushmore of golf video games.

I think we can do it.

Oh, well, yeah, I've got thoughts on that.

I think Tiger 04 for PS2.

I think Tiger 04 is actually... It's just that four times for me.

Yeah.

I think I would also put Neo Turf Masters on there.

Absolutely.

It looks really good from what we played, yeah.

Yeah, pebble beach golf links for the sega saturn.

Uh, pebble beach golf links is i?

I like it would be right there.

Or links uh, what is it?

Links 386 pro, but i'm willing to give it to craig stabler here.

So uh pebble, pebble golf links.

All right, boy color, mario golf i was gonna say mario golf for game boy color.

Okay yeah, mario golf, you need to be there like toadstool tour for the mario golfs.

Yeah, I like that Mario Golf one because that's like the RPG.

That one's fun, yeah.

Yeah, you know, Hot Shots and the original Mario Golf definitely all could be up there.

Yeah, we're missing Golf Story and Kirby Dream Course now, though.

Sure, yeah.

I didn't like Golf Story, didn't love that.

Oh, Golf Story's fantastic.

Kirby's so cool.

You ever played Kirby's Dream Course?

We tried a couple times, and I just couldn't wrap my head around it.

Like, it seemed so cool.

I just need to understand it more, you know?

It just is so different than normal golf, you know?

Clearly, though, no golden tee.

Golden tee can go to hell.

Yeah.

It's just not a good game.

Wow.

I mean, Golf With Your Friends was good.

Oh, that's fine.

I don't know if it's out in mount rushmore, but yes no, but it's.

I agree, maybe that might have been my favorite game to play over golf.

I mean, it's a mount rushmore, it might be a mount rushmore of like multiplayer games.

Honestly, it's like just so much.

Yeah, it's really really good.

The collision is terrible, but yeah, we can turn that off.

Yeah no, i know it's actually no, it defaults to off.

We turn it on because we're cool.

What a terrible detail.

Okay uh, So our Mount Rushmore of golf games is Tiger 04, Neo Turf Masters, Pebble Golf Links and Mario Golf GBC.

Pebble Beach Golf Links.

God.

Pebble Golf Links.

Pebble.

Pebble Beach Golf Links.

You know what?

I'm replacing it with Links 386 Pro just because you're being a real ass.

I'm nice.

I'm sorry.

All right.

There you go.

Was that on DOS?

Because that might have been the one I played.

Yeah.

Week 36 Pro is really kind of a George Washington.

It's the first kind of popular sim golf on PC.

Craig Stather carried Golf Week, and you are not going to disrespect him like that.

Jeff and I are going to fight once this break happens, everybody.

So we're going to hash things out for a while here.

In the meantime, though, you just chill out.

We'll be right back.

You piece of shit!

How dare you do this?

Ow!

I'm gonna drain this one!

Ow, what does that mean?

Rub, it's okay.

Just look at it, okay?

It's fine.

Wait, uh, wait, uh, Dan, what are you doing here?

Oh, wait, like, like, existentially, or what do you mean?

No, Dan, like, here at Giant Bomb, covering games.

Oh, oh, what I do for a living.

Okay, well...

I'm here because of Game Informer.

That's right.

Way back in 1993, I saw Game Informer magazine and subscribed for the first time.

And it has been a huge part of my life ever since, from you know, working the register at Funkoland and selling subscriptions to starting working there full time in 2009.

Game Informer has been there for me the whole time.

They mean a ton to me.

So it hurt me, just like I know it hurt a lot of you, when the unexpected news came down not too long ago that Game Informer was shutting down.

But nay, fear not, I say.

That's right.

Game Informer is back and with 100% of the staff that was there when it shut down.

Now, Danny boy, I see that you're holding a magazine right there.

Tell me about how that page feels.

I'm telling you, I have held hundreds upon hundreds of Game Informer magazines from 1993 to today, and this is without a doubt the best.

I'm feeling this right now.

This is a smooth cover.

This is a thick, nice paper here.

The print is just good.

This is a wonderful quality print magazine.

It makes my heart feel good, and I know that Game Informer is a team that I can rely on to say something substantial about games and the people who make them, because GI has a stellar crew of editors.

These are people I love to have on the couch at Giant Bomb at night over at Summer Game Fest.

It's people I can always rely to have something interesting to say.

That's why I know when they have those excellent cover stories just like they always did and always will continue to do so It's going to be some of the best coverage in video games.

And another fun bonus, Game Informer donates 5% of every subscription purchased directly to St.

Jude Children's Research Hospital.

You know, earlier this year, the future seemed very uncertain for both Game Informer and Giant Bomb.

That's putting it mildly.

And as someone whose life and gaming hobby has been greatly impacted by both of those outlets.

Go to GameInformercom slash.

Subscribe now.

Magazines.

This stress check, aka friendly reminder that your hobbies matter, is brought to you by State Farm, because you deserve to lose yourself in the stuff that brings you joy.

Here's mine.

Painting my tabletop battle miniatures.

Yeah, seriously.

After a long day I grab a brush, pop in some music and just get into it.

There's no wrong way to do it.

It helps me clear my head, slow down and just breathe, but it works.

Big stress, mini warriors, total reset, no pressure, just paint creativity and a little reminder of what makes me happy.

Some people bake, some people garden me.

I paint warriors with interesting tech and guess what it works.

You don't have to be good at your hobby, you just have to enjoy it.

So carve out that time, tune out the noise and do something that's just for you, like a good neighbor state farm.

Is there all right, grub?

We uh, we both said some things during that fight that we can never take back.

Uh, especially the many hateful, hateful things you said about craig stadler as the company.

He was so embarrassed.

I'm going Club of Walrus right now.

Wow, jeez.

I know we talked about how funny Escalation is during the break.

No, no, everything's great.

Bacalar is tied up for a moment, so we're going to just get going on the news while we wait for him.

There you go.

There it is.

There's that music.

Yeah.

News.

I'm gonna do the news.

Let's get into it here.

A big story from the last day or two is a massive Pokemon leak.

Hack?

Maybe?

I don't know.

Maybe they all got a hold of the same hack.

Again, the sort of origination point of this is a little questionable.

But some information is getting out there recently.

Suggest a major breach at Game Freak, revealing details about the next few years of Pokemon games, including the 10th generation mainline titles, which will be Pokemon, Wind and Wave.

I guess it could be Wind and Waves.

I've seen it both ways.

Set for release in 2026.

These games are rumored to feature procedurally generated islands based on Indonesia and Southeast Asia.

A survival game focus and a new seed Pokemon.

Or new seed Pokemon, not a new seed.

There could be multiple.

And that's seed as in S-E-E-D Pokemon.

Not sure exactly what to make of that.

The leaks also outline potential rivals and enemy organizations, with the antagonists reportedly involved in land development.

Fun.

Reasons to believe the leaks' credibility include the extensive volume and quality of the materials, proposal documents, concept art, beta footage of Pokemon Legends ZA and the granular, uncurated nature of the content, graphs and Excel sheets.

Furthermore, the leak accounts disseminating this information have a proven track record.

That's what I was saying before.

A bunch of accounts here that have done this sort of thing for a while.

This current leak may be related to a 2024 Terra leak that prompted a Nintendo subpoena.

So...

People taking chances out there sharing this stuff.

Nintendo might go after them or say, hey, how did you get this?

However, skepticism is warranted.

Blah, blah, blah.

Actually, the thing is, people could be throwing in plenty of made-up stuff alongside these things.

So yeah, definitely take some of it with a grain of salt.

But they...

Apparently some of these leaks, some people are saying it goes all the way to Gen 11, the plans for that game.

We'll kind of hold off until some of this stuff is a little bit more verified.

But for now yeah, Gen 10 procedurally generated islands in Southeast Asia sounds interesting enough to me.

Mike, what do you think?

I suppose.

I mean, procedural generation makes sense for some things.

I don't quite understand it in a Pokemon.

It seems like you kind of craft an overworld in towns, in dungeons, the very specific ways there, and even like, all right, all right, all right, survival mechanic sounds like you guys need a pokemon expert.

Here he is.

Hello sean, help us save us here.

Yeah, yeah uh.

So a lot of this sounds like an extension of what they've already been doing with the series.

You can tell mike hasn't played scarlet and violet because who boy you could have sworn that world was procedurally generated the way, and so i i think a lot of this lines up with what they've been doing uh, especially combining stuff like arceus into the mainline games, because some people uh heard survival and were like lol, they're going after pal world.

No, arceus was a survival game.

Like they've already done stuff like this.

This just seems like them uh revisiting some of those concepts, folding them into the mainline, and then a lot of this does line up with stuff we've heard from the tarot league, as mentioned.

Uh, this sort of island adventure was also uh rumored as a result of that.

So a lot of the information does seem credible.

I haven't looked into this extensively because i've also heard that there's just like a lot of za stuff that was leaking out as well.

Yeah, there is that.

You know that game's out this week.

I i just want to play that game.

I don't want to see stuff early.

It's kind of like the insomniac leak.

You know there's terrible things that happen with that and also footage of wolverine that was definitely not meant to be seen, and so that's kind of how i'm feeling about this one.

If it's in the news I'll, you know, look into it and we can talk about it and everything like that.

But otherwise I kind of don't want to know everything that's happening over there.

You know, is there much in here about black and white remakes?

Nothing as far as i know, because i feel like it would hurt.

I haven't seen it.

Yeah, and that's also like where it first tipped us all off, that like oh, black and white remix probably is not happening because it wasn't in the terror leak from what last year?

Yeah, the original terror leak, which this might be an extension of, is what people are thinking.

I've seen some budgets floating around, maybe as a part of this.

I wonder if those are real, because it's like, oh wow, all these games cost like 20 million or less.

Are you kidding me?

That is ridiculously cheap.

It's worth pointing out like labor is cheaper in Japan.

But boy, that's a very small number compared to any other major video game.

Again, it makes the initial performance and just graphics of Scarlet and Violet even more insulting.

They rush these games out with barely a budget, and they're like, the biggest games.

Why not give it a little bit more?

They don't have to cost Spider-Man 2 levels of budget, but my God.

$13 million for ZA?

I think hopefully that puts into perspective why these games are like this.

Because you know, there's always corners of the internet where these games come out looking like Scarlet and Violet performing the way they do on Switch 1 and people are like lazy devs.

Ha, ha ha.

No, it really is like...

And some fucko in the company is like, we need to hoard all the money.

And so we can't have a Pokemon that you know, despite the fact that's going to sell 30 million copies, we can't pour, you know, more money into it.

We can't make Game Freak bigger.

As far as I know, it's still only around like 200 employees total, total.

Yeah.

For whatever reason, they think that they just need to keep building up the coffers, I guess.

And it's very, very bizarre.

And yeah, hopefully Scarlet and Violet taught them a lesson that it's clearly taking them more time to put out these new games.

Which will cost more money.

Necessarily, exactly.

And hopefully they do just strengthen the budget and have more contractors and stuff.

Because something is going just wild there with management.

The review embargo for ZA did happen.

Yeah, I was going to bring that up.

82 on OpenCritic.

Let's see, three out of five from Eurogamer.

Luminosa City could do with the work with work.

Excuse me, but Pokemon Legends ZA is a much more tightly focused and delightfully goofy return to better form, at least by modern Pokemon standards.

Four out of five from GamesRadar.

That dream sold to us by the Pokemon anime.

It's right here, clearer than it's ever been.

Um, let's see what else.

Let's give it another one, 10 out of 10, from the sixth axis.

Who says unlike the most recent pokemon, scarlet and violet, uh za is a game that really holds your attention.

The spiritual successor to legends arceus, it's learned from uh, the mistakes of the distant past and beautifully shows what city life is like in the pokemon universe.

I could see myself playing this for another 100 hours as I finish my Pokédex shiny hunt and generally have a great time.

This is easily the best Pokémon game on the market.

And then, let's see, 7 out of 10 from Nintendo Life's Alana Heggs, who says...

ZA should be celebrated for its fabulous real-time combat and its largely smooth jump to the Switch 2, but in condensing things down to one single location, it loses part of the Pokemon magic that Arceus and many other entries managed to amplify.

I'll forever find filling up my Pokedex fun and for the Switch 2 generation, this is a good starting point for the franchise.

But if the Legends series is to continue, it needs to recapture its personality and fuse that real-time system with a bit more freedom.

Yeah, these reviews are pretty in line with what Arceus got, actually.

So yeah, right around there.

I'm excited to see that over at VGC, Jordan gave it five out of five stars because I know that he's a Pokemon freak.

Well, his opinion definitely aligns with mine on how we feel about these games.

I'm like, yeah, you know, when the games look bad, we'll say that when they run bad, we'll say that.

But like, how how is the gameplay like as a Pokemon fan?

How does it feel to play?

And it's got me hype that he's hype.

And a lot of these other reviews are glowing as well.

Which, you know, people really liked Arceus as well.

I liked Arceus a lot, yeah.

I think it's a sign that people like the Pokemon formula being mixed up and not just being baby's first RPG.

And it's a sign that maybe you know everything we heard about this leak.

Maybe they are looking at the games differently now and trying to do something different.

Because Scarlet and Violet kind of was different with the open world and stuff.

But I would like to see them pull more of like a sun and moon, where sun and moon radically overhauled the way those games played.

It did not have the gym structure, you were island hopping, it was story driven and you know that was divisive, but it was a mainline pokemon game that was felt fresh and so i'm hoping that's uh, that's what the future of the series is as well.

All right, let's keep going here.

Following the cancellation of its live-service God of War, Sony's Bluepoint is hiring for a third-person action game.

Bluepoint Games.

Following the cancellation of that God of War title, the spinoff is now hiring for a new third-person action game.

Sony confirmed in January that it had canceled live-service games from both Bluepoint and Ben's studio, with Bluepoint's canceled project believed to be that God of War spinoff.

Bluepoint, known for remaking and remastering PlayStation games like Demon's Souls and Shadows of the Colossus, will be returning to its roots with a new third-person melee action experience.

This new project will mark Bluepoint's first original title since Blast Factor in 2006.

Wow.

Sony has stated that both studios remain valued members of PlayStation Studios and are working with them to determine their next projects.

Yeah, okay.

It still sounds like a new game from them instead of a remake.

Yeah.

Blast Factor was like an early PSN game.

I remember.

That's the only one I can think of that wasn't a remake or remaster.

But they have established themselves as one of the better as far as a straightforward remaster.

I think they've done a great job with that.

Or Demon's Souls was a full remake.

Yeah, they've done a lot of full remakes.

Shadow of the Colossus was a full remake.

Oh, I like the Shadow remakes, yeah.

But this isn't.

This is going to be a brand new game, it sounds like, right?

Sounds like.

I suppose they're hiring for a third-person action game.

Maybe it's still a remake if it is.

I know some people are already speculating, once again, that it's Bloodborne.

It's not Bloodborne.

I mean, I feel like the obvious thing here is they are working on God of War as well.

Let's just remake God of War 1 then instead of that.

I definitely have heard that there is some interest inside of Sony in doing that, whether or not it's moved ahead at all.

I don't know.

And I would probably speculate that probably still hasn't happened yet.

But if it has, maybe this is it.

And it's years and years and years away.

I don't know.

Is there a chance they're making...

Like a new game, but in an established franchise like God of War or something like that.

I mean, maybe a Twisted Metal.

God of War seems like it's just already so busy with that Metroidvania game we're all expecting.

And then, you know, a new game. almost certainly in the works obviously yes yeah so i just don't know like we need blue point making even like you know doing the remake is one thing but a new new game from them also like do you just like like is it like another god of war ascension like here's another story from his greek times we forgot to talk about i don't know how much interest there is in that grub have your kids played or did they talk about jumping flash yeah uh pretty much constantly okay so it could be that to kind of capitalize on that of course the youth are jumping flash clamoring that's for sure okay yes it's the word uh yeah i hope so jumping flash would that be three they did two right there's a third one that was japan only that wasn't really called jumping flash three also not really a the third person or really i guess it's an action game it's more of a shooter i don't think i hate to say it I don't think it's Jumping Flash.

It's probably not.

I don't know.

It just seems like Bluepoint's been fumbled.

They started off so strong with that Demon's Souls remake.

It should have been a really big part of the PS5.

Instead, they had to waste all this time on a God of War life service title.

That went nowhere.

So i hope that this thing gets seen through and kind of puts them back as a uh, going concern parentheses positive, it's a it's i should point out, it's also melee.

I think it's melee focused, not shooter focused, if that right, you know, narrows it down for you at all.

It's like god of war.

I think it might just still be god of war and god of war remake would be would be cool.

Uh, lego party and digital eclipses.

Tetris, time warp will soon be available to stream on netflix.

Uh, this is part of like.

Recently there was some like oh, netflix is going to be doing less of you know, big games or other stuff.

We're going to kind of do more family focused stuff and and party game focused stuff and stuff where you don't even need a controller, you just use your phone.

Um, sounds like this is the angle they're going and i gotta say, hearing this, i was like, oh you know what, that's a pretty good fit.

Like lego party, if people could just like start playing that on their tv through netflix, like right away.

Like i, i could see that really working.

The thing is like a lot of those mini games are you know like oh, you know tracing a line pretty specifically with an analog stick and everything.

So i think you're gonna have to connect a controller, i guess.

Yeah, But still, that's like if that works, if it works.

Well, that's really fucking smart.

Cause again I think about.

I told the story about my very I wouldn't even call them casual gamers family that were like Lego party kicks ass the other weekend.

Like they're single issue gamers.

Yeah.

And if everyone's got Netflix, like that's, that's pretty smart.

And then you could still play cross play with people on console.

Like that's if that works, that sounds cool.

Yeah, let's see.

They've done stuff like, you know, the Oxenfree sequel.

I guess they're going to keep doing stuff with that studio.

Let's see here.

But they're also going to bring in Boggle Party and Pictionary Game Night and Party Crashers for your friends.

So these are the kinds of games.

They're going to do party games, basically.

Do those exist now?

Boggle Party and Pictionary Game Night and Party Crashers?

I don't know, but if they do, we should maybe play some of them.

Bombathon.

Yeah, okay.

Fantastic.

I love Boggle.

I'm not great at Boggle, but I love Boggle.

Uh, all right.

Nintendo says it's close to you.

Pikmin videos were Nintendo pictures, short films rather than a game or a movie teaser.

Uh, so we've talked about this a bunch in a bunch of places, but now it's like okay, we finally got it all wrapped up here.

Uh, they introduced a, a video short that had a baby going around a room chasing things that were floating.

Then the next day released another version that short that showed that really it was Pikmin doing that all along, as suggested by the Pikmin in the background.

That was a blurry and the Pikmin musical stingers that were in there.

Uh, And then everyone's still like, well, what is this for?

And then Nintendo's like, hey, this is about Nintendo pictures doing new Nintendo shorts.

And that's all it's about.

And I'm completely fine with that.

I think that's a fun thing, even though it's not as exciting as some of these other possibilities.

I guess my question is, to what end?

To train them.

Expensive YouTube videos?

No, it's training, basically.

Before Pixar made a Toy Story, they made shorts and commercials for years, right?

This is basically that.

It's like, well, can we do this?

And you know you can look at it and they are clearly following like a Pixar DreamWorks Illumination kind of style in these things.

Nintendo has to partner with people like Universal and Sony to make movies.

They just do.

They would much rather be doing this stuff themselves and they know they don't have the infrastructure to do that today.

They can just make the Pikmin movie or, you know, a Mario movie or what have you.

They would rather be doing this stuff all internally and not have to work with so many partners.

Yeah, and their videos are very successful, very popular.

This one has 10 plus million views I think quite a bit more than that just on the YouTube version, but it's also on social media.

It's probably close to 20 million, if not more.

And those old Pikmin shorts from a long time ago, the ones that Miyamoto basically directed, were very popular.

They eventually put those up on YouTube, but you originally can only get them like on the 3DS and the Wii U, And so they put them up later like way after the fact.

And even then they had like racked up millions and millions of views.

So I think they're like this is a completely fine use of these resources for now, with obviously the point being, as Mike said, to train them up to do full.

It may i bet they don't do a movie anytime soon, but i can see them doing like a show, like a uh like a 10 episode, uh 24 well, maybe like 12 minute uh animated episodes or something like that.

I want it to just be like a 90s like.

Make it like married with children, but with pikmin Okay.

Yeah.

Like a laugh track and everything.

Live studio.

Well, I guess you can't really do that with Pikmin, but you know, like the style of a live studio audience.

Yeah.

We work at a shoe store.

Captain Olimar.

Sure.

Yeah.

Olimar's always got his hand down the front of his pants on the front.

Yeah.

We have an attractive life that he resents.

Yeah.

Married with Pikmin.

There it is, yeah.

Dissidia Duelum.

Final Fantasy is a mobile 3v3 battle game which brings Final Fantasy characters into modern Tokyo for God knows what reason.

Square Enix has announced Dissidia Duelum Final Fantasy, a mobile spinoff set in modern-day Tokyo.

Scheduled for release in 2026.

The iOS and Android game is described as a 3v3 team-boss battle arena where players use powerful abilities to defeat a boss faster than the enemy team.

So you probably assemble your team and race to beat the boss again.

It sounds like a Clash of Clans sort of thing.

Is this an exo-primal grub?

I don't know, i don't think like you're, i bet you just like throw the characters out there and then they mostly auto battle.

Yeah, like there's one section here where it looks like somebody's doing third person shooting all of a sudden.

I don't know what it is.

I can tell you this it's not a fighting game, right like that's the problem.

Why won't they?

That's what the city should be also also hi, i'm back while backlars away.

Uh, why the hell won't they just make a final fantasy fighting game?

Why Are they so averse to going back to where Dissidia started?

Eregeis.

God bless the ring.

Damn it.

Yes.

Everybody likes Dissidia 1 and whatever the sequel is called on PSP.

Then they made that bad one based off the arcade game that was three on three and kind of garish and ugly and too complicated.

And now it's this.

It's just...

It's very pretty mobile slop, but it still looks like mobile slop.

Even the whole, like, oh, they're in modern Tokyo thing.

Like, why?

So that we can put them in modern costumes as well.

So we can sell those and you can also sell their original costumes.

Also, pet peeve.

Stop showing terror with blonde hair.

It was so good when the Magic the Gathering cards just had her with the green hair.

It's just better that way.

I don't know.

It's just another mobile thing here.

There's like at least they're doing some interesting characters like the Final Fantasy 14 representatives, actually Gaia, which is a kind of supporting character from one of the raid series in that game.

And you know, there's some other choices here that are a little bit more interesting than the standard ones.

But I'm sure they're going to throw all sorts of characters at this thing.

Square Enix is always just throwing shit at the wall and seeing what sticks with mobile stuff.

I don't even know if they're sticking around to see what sticks.

I think they're just throwing shit at the wall.

They do have wild swings, though, because sometimes they do have good mobile games.

I know people really liked Record Keeper back in the day.

Record Keeper wasn't bad.

A lot of people did play BraveXVS.

I like BraveXVS.

I thought that was actually really good because it kind of was just a turn-based Final Fantasy 16-bit RPG on your phone.

It was pretty sick.

I don't know.

They take wild swings there.

Uh, there's going to be a closed beta for this thing on November 7th through the 14th uh for players in Japan, the United States and Canada, with applications available on the game's official website.

So I guess, I guess rush run.

Don't, don't walk to go get into the city of Doolam final fantasies open or closed beta.

I should say.

Jeff Backler, what do you think of Dissidia Duel on Final Fantasy?

A mobile 3v3 battle game.

Take place in modern Tokyo.

It's way better.

The first time I ate it, it was delicious.

They've fallen off, though, because I don't know.

Maybe they got like a new sous chef.

I'm not sure.

But it's different.

It's hard.

I get it.

Take away their Michelin star.

I agree.

Yeah, totally.

I heard that the sommelier is like getting a divorce and his mind's just not in the game anymore.

I don't know.

Well, maybe that should fire him.

Hire Mike Mahardy instead.

There you go.

Everyone's going through something, you know?

Avatar Legends, the fighting game, was canceled last year.

And I kind of just put this in here for Jan.

Because now they're bringing it back with a debut game trailer and a new developer whose entire existence is about giving games a second life.

Avatar Legends.

The fighting game is a 2D fighting game based on avatar, the last airbender in the future 12, 12 playable characters at launch, a single player campaign and cross play.

The game is being developed and published by gameplay group international, which just is a name a new studio that acquires and reimagines commercially unrealized games avatar legends.

The fighting game was previously in development at maximum entertainment publisher of them's fighting herds and diesel legacy, the brazen age.

So there's some.

There was some cachet behind that, but was canceled last year and now Gameplay Group International is going to bring it back.

It's coming out summer 2026 on PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC.

Is this where the fighting game scene is at, where it can support even fighting games like this?

I don't know.

Yeah, dog.

Like, there's a scene for everything nowadays, and it's really cool.

In the age of rollback, netcode and cross-playing everything, a game can have a small audience on any given platform.

But if you add like oh, you know, it's got like a thousand players here, a thousand players there, maybe that, you know, dwindles and we only get like a couple hundred on each platform, you can still get a good matchmaking pool of players on every platform.

As long as you get strong initial sales, you're set.

And something like Avatar in a.

This is exactly what we were talking about with final fantasy, where the avatar is coming out with a traditional 2d one-on-one fighting game.

It looks like it's going to have assists in some ways, maybe like mortal combat one.

Um, it looks like it's going to be very like uh, fan service not not in that way, but in the good way.

Uh, to people who love this series, like jan and as a fighting game fan i i didn't get super into avatar back in the day, didn't have cable, you know all that.

But i look at this game and i'm like this looks sick and yeah, i definitely think it has a place, maybe not necessarily on the evo main stage, but you know, at least with people playing online and stuff right yeah, like looking at i'm like man, i wish they would do this for a franchise i care about and avatars you know, by all accounts, very good.

I just haven't been able to watch me like this and invincible.

Even the marvel token like these all look like good games about franchises.

I'm just not super hot on at the moment.

Where's my star trek d space 9 1v1 fighting game or?

Um yeah, what else do i like?

Epcot fighting game.

The 1776 musical.

Epcot fighting game?

What do you mean?

Figment versus Leonardo da Vinci.

Figment versus a Disney adult.

A drunk Disney adult.

He's had too many at the beer garden in Germany.

Oh, no, he's climbing the pyramid in Mexico.

He's not allowed to do that.

I would like to see a Founding Fathers fighting game, though.

Yeah, just Benjamin Franklin versus John Adams and Thomas Jefferson.

You had what Abe Lincoln was in the Fight Club game with Fred Durst.

Of course he was.

Yeah.

Fred Durst was not a Founding Father, though.

Is there a Jared Leto in the Fight Club game?

I'm sure there is.

I bet there is.

How many characters are in Fight Club?

A Tron fighting game wouldn't be terrible.

Still, he's kind of barely in.

I don't think you could really pick Jared Leto out there.

Yeah, but they put Abraham Lincoln in there who was a throwaway jerk line.

But that's because... First of all, he has a huge part in that.

He's got the man tits.

He's the man boobs.

Please also.

Uh yes, and is gandhi in it, because they basically the abraham lincoln and the guy is because he's like which historical figure would you want to fight?

Yeah look, i'm not the fight, i just know.

I know that line, i know that's probably where they got it from right.

Oh yeah, definitely.

I have the roster for the fighting game, and yeah, Meatloaf is in it.

Helena Bonham Carter is selectable, which that must be the only game that you can be Helena Bonham Carter in.

There's not a Harry Potter fighting game?

Guess not.

No, not yet.

Is she in that?

Oh, wow.

Yeah.

Jared Leto is in the 80s later.

Yeah, they got everyone.

All the stars are here.

All right.

Well, wait, so Gandhi was in it or was not in it?

Gandhi's not in the Fight Club game.

Okay.

He's in a Clone High fighting game.

Oh, my God.

I love Clone High.

India will get mad again.

Yeah.

Oh, Clone High.

The first run of Clone High was so good.

Yeah, you get it.

That was so funny back in the day.

I'll bring the beards right back.

Right mikey, all right, moving on with the news, the next xbox should be stronger than ps6 but more expensive.

Reports claim, as a reminder, microsoft still under a bds call for boycott for its involvement in israel and gaza.

Both the playstation 6 and the next xbox consoles are reportedly targeting a 2027 release.

Insider kepler l2 claims sony plans a 2027 release for the ps6.

Separately hardware.

Insider Moore's Law is Dead posted a video discussing the AMD Magnus APU, which he believes will be part of Microsoft's next-gen Xbox and is also planned for a 2027 launch.

My life in gaming is what I was about to say.

Moore's Law is Dead suggests the new Xbox might be a console PC hybrid, potentially stronger and more expensive than the PS6, aiming to challenge the PC gaming market.

Let's see.

He also previously claimed that Sony is planning a PS6 handheld with Nintendo Switch-like docking abilities.

We'll see.

All this stuff does seem like it's probably still a little bit in motion.

Obviously, they're going to have to start solidifying these things now, maybe actually before now.

But the idea here would be that they would start manufacturing these things in early 2027 for a late 2027 release.

Launch, which would be, you know, a seven-year, kind of six, seven-year life cycle.

Six, seven, there it is.

So, yeah, I don't know, like a normal generation.

And then we're going to get on to the next one.

But this generation hasn't felt normal in any other way.

So, still a little odd, but I don't know.

These details are...

Every generation, they are increasingly of less relevance.

Yeah.

Also, when I first read this, I said the Xbox should be stronger.

We're just not sure if it's got it in it.

We don't know what kind of season it's going to have.

I don't care.

You said My Life in Daming.

That's my favorite Judi Dench podcast.

Okay, you said My Life in Daming, and it made me think of a freaking Downton Abbey.

I want to know, would it be funny if I a person who never saw any Downton Abbey anything only went to that last movie that's about to come out now that's the big finale and gave a very in-depth review.

I've watched it because I love Downton Abbey.

I don't know.

I don't think it would be very funny, actually.

It's out?

It came out last month?

There's funnier things you could do with your time.

I think if you did that you would be like hmm, I need to actually do see what's going to happen here.

And I think you would get very into Downton Abbey.

I think I'll just genuinely like it.

Yes, absolutely.

MP Mayu in chat says, just watch Gosford Park.

Is it frightening in the dark?

No, Gosford Park.

Gosford Park was a.

I have a weird connection to that movie because I was interning for Bob Balaban when he was producing Gosford Park, which is this Downton Abbey predecessor.

And I'm strangely familiar with that movie in a way that everyone's like, what?

You, Bacalar?

You know a lot about Gosford Park?

I do.

You're... you're a goss head you're a goss you're a goss i'm goss coded yes it's true i'm goss coded um yeah you interned with bob balaban yeah for three summers yep do you know him well man i know him pretty well yeah could you text him right now i'm not asking you to do but i could text him he probably right back who the fuck is this okay can you get bob balaban on the dump truck That would be pretty funny.

Maybe.

There's a non-zero chance.

I mean, you know, I got his fucking phone number.

I don't know.

That's crazy.

Who is that?

You would know him if you saw his face.

He was a character actor for a long time.

He was in some Seinfeld stuff.

He was the NBC executive.

He's 80.

Yeah, he's up there.

Who fell in love with Elaine, right?

Yeah, that's right.

And he's showing up in a lot of Wes Anderson shit lately.

Character actor in a million things, yeah.

I think the only way forward for Xbox, baby, if they have one, is to get Bob Balaban.

They can't just Bob Balaban.

Many people are saying.

I've had strange instances in my life where he's come back around.

I also knew Richard Dreyfuss' kids for a while.

What?

Yeah, it's a whole story.

Mr. Holland's kids?

Yeah, all the opuses.

Opus 1 and 2.

His opuses.

Yeah, exactly.

And then obviously they know him because they were in what's the alien movie called?

Close Encounters.

I've seen that movie.

And you've seen Bob Balaban.

Who is he in that?

He's the pile of potatoes.

This is important.

Parody, that's the moment in UHF.

I don't talk about that a lot.

That's a second Weird Al reference in this conversation, everybody.

No way, hang on.

Mike, you just said a second Weird Al reference.

You're doing the scary in the dark or whatever?

That was the first one?

Yeah, I wasn't doing MacArthur Park.

You're doing Jurassic Park, the Weird Al version.

Wow, okay.

I was thinking MacArthur Park.

You were thinking about Alapalooza.

Oh, my God.

We are filling pages and pages of wiki lore right now.

I can do the original.

I'm normal.

All the sweet cream frosting rolling down.

Buttercream frosting.

That's MacArthur Park.

Someone left a cake out in the rain.

Microsoft denies claims that Target and Walmart stores are removing Xbox products from shelves.

This popped off over the weekend.

And then someone asked Xbox.

They're like, they're not doing that.

But everyone's like, well, we believed it because it just like that just sounds right now.

Everybody immediately believed it.

Yeah uh, but you know they didn't say.

They did not say this for costco, which did take this stuff down.

Uh, did take xbox products off shelves and off their website um, so yeah, i don't know that they do.

They, when all this stuff was happening, they're like hey, and we're gonna keep making hardware as well.

Just look at this thing where we said we're working with amd and we're making new hardware.

So they do seem dedicated, but dedicated for now, and also Like it's just so easy to dismiss anything they say officially because it has and will change.

So, okay.

Maybe Target and Walmart still has it for now.

But I don't blame anyone for being, like, skeptical about the future of Xbox.

That'll be a real bad sign if Walmart stops selling Xboxes.

Yes.

Yes, definitely.

And uh yeah, i again like where this originated from.

Um, let's see, here they.

I i think destin was like kind of out here trying to find because he's the one that said something about costco and was trying to find out exactly what's happening there, and then windows central came out and countered the story.

Man, all right, that does it for the news, though.

Uh, let's wrap things up and hand the show back over to mike manani, All right?

Thank you so much, Jeff.

We'll take one more bricky break.

We'll come back.

We got some emails.

We got some super chats.

We'll hit all that soon right after this.

This live check-in is brought to you by State Farm.

Porque el bienestar de tu familia también merece protección.

Okay, real talk.

I'm about to become a dad again.

And wow, it hits different the second time.

Hi, I'm Wilmer Valderrama and I've done you know, I've done the red carpets, the long days on set and all that.

But nothing prepares you for that moment when you're building a crib and you realize you're building a future.

Familia is everything to me.

The laughs, the chaos, the unconditional love, but also the pressure, la responsabilidad.

If you're stepping into something big right now starting a family, getting engaged, moving cities you're not alone.

Take one step at a time.

Why breathe?

Be present and lean into the people that got your back.

Y disfruta.

Like a good neighbor, a state farm is there.

Emails!

Hey, everybody.

You can write in to the Bombcast at bombcast at giantbomb.com.

We're always happy to hear from all of you.

It's like we are happy to hear from Mike from Loveland.

He says, hello, great bombs.

What is one game from the first half of this year?

You haven't touched yet, but you swear to God you're going to play before the end of the year.

Time is running out.

Love the show.

Love you all.

Mike from Loveland.

Man, fantastic.

At least for me.

Gameinformer.com slash 2025.

Give me a second.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I feel like the first half of the year is not that much.

For a while, I was like, I have to finish Avowed.

And now I'm like, I don't know if I really need to finish Avowed.

I thought it would probably be in my top ten.

I liked it.

Maybe it would squeeze in my top ten if I finished it.

I don't feel some giant pull.

Even Doom the Dark Ages, which I liked and kind of dropped halfway through.

I'm kind of like, I really liked it.

I don't think I need to go back.

It's not going to be my top 10.

I got probably three quarters of the way through Doom and fell off, but I don't feel the need to go back to that.

I do feel like I've just kind of been playing all the big stuff this year.

I'm looking at the list.

The one I see everyone going back to that I was curious if anyone here would go back to which I don't think they will is Kingdom Come, Deliverance 2.

Yeah.

I don't know.

I think most people here are going to skip on that.

Probably.

Honestly, I'm worried about the stuff that's happening now or is about to happen.

Like Ninja Gaiden, Ghost of Yotei, haven't been able to touch that yet.

Outer Worlds coming soon.

Outer Worlds haven't touched Tactics.

I'm more concerned about this last quarter than anything else.

I feel like I'm pretty up to date outside of that, though.

I never touched South of Midnight.

People are super hot about that.

I don't think anyone was like, oh, this is a train wreck or it's terrible.

I think it was just like it was great in trailers and then it came out and nobody seemed super hot on it.

I think it was just like a very old school style of game.

It wasn't like a fantastic one of those, but I think a lot of people liked it.

I would also like to give Blueprints and Honest to God go.

I played a good amount of it, but I think I just want to get back in there and fuck some shit up.

That's still going to be high on mine.

I liked that a ton.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah, it's definitely high on mine.

Let's see here.

Oh, I just had it, and then I lost it.

Oh, yes.

Split Fiction is one of the nine.

I guess I did touch it, but I've not really played it.

I don't think it's top 10, but it's very good.

It's probably the best one of those.

Yeah, it's definitely going to be.

I mean, barring something catastrophic, I don't see how that doesn't make it there.

It's funny.

I recommended Split Fiction to another kid's dad on Dib's hockey team and he comes back the next day and he's like bro.

He's like, I didn't know games were doing that.

I didn't know we got this far and we're like doing all this.

I'm like, it's pretty good, right?

He's like, I'm going to trust you on games now.

I still never told him what I do.

I'm like, yeah, don't worry about it, bud.

First one's free.

Next one's going to cost you.

I do need to at least try Death Stranding 2 at some point.

I have not touched that.

The thing that's going to happen, though, is if you're not going to play it, play it.

It's not a game that you play for two hours and you get the whole sense of it.

It's a much longer process than that.

Are you saying I shouldn't bother?

I'm saying go all the way in or don't at all, I would say.

All right.

We'll see.

I mean, you don't think in two hours I'll get some sense of like.

Okay, I get this and I want more of it, or I'll be like eh.

I mean, but there's just so many tools and things that you get in the narrative and everything that I feel like if you play two hours of it, you're barely going to scratch any of that.

Pipistrello.

I didn't try Pipistrello.

Oh, that was fun.

It's a good one.

Yeah.

All right, Travis says, hi, ghosts and goblins.

One, do you absolutely certainly remember the last time you ate a bacon cheese bugger?

Yes.

Last time I was at Wendy's.

I had a bacon, junior bacon cheeseburger from Wendy's.

Okay, exactly.

Let's see here.

I could probably figure it out.

It was like last, it was last Friday.

Yeah, because I got Wendy's for the kids.

And that's what I got.

It's got to be bacon.

Yeah junior, it's got to be a bacon cheeseburger.

I could have gotten one yesterday because i went to five guys and i was like i'll just get a regular cheeseburger.

I'm glad i did.

I don't mean to do like the whole.

Can you believe what blank blank, blank costs now?

But your five guys getting a cheeseburger, fries and a soda was 20 bucks and i'm like what the hell is going on.

Yeah, it's a lot.

It's a lot.

Yep, i think the last bacon cheeseburger i had was also a wendy's situation at the beginning of the summer.

Yeah august, i had a.

There's a place called lion's tap and i think i had a bacon cheeseburger there.

Yeah, in august i had one.

There's a place in here called coaches.

I think i had one there.

Uh yeah, we're gonna skip the rest of the questions, just go with those.

Last one here.

What was i wanted to talk about?

The second one okay, all right, back art was is that new taylor swift song?

Any good?

It says that new Taylor Swift.

Oh, I guess the album.

The Diary Downfall book about a line dancer or whatever it's called, right?

I don't dislike Taylor Swift.

This is not a good album.

I've been hearing that.

I've been hearing that this is even the maybe some of the hardcore Swifties.

Not all of them.

I'm sure some of them will be down for anything, but people are saying this is not the best works.

My wife found a way to love it.

Someone explain to me that it's because she's aging out of being a pretty little white girl and all of her music is pretty little white girl music.

So, you know, I kind of push back on all those narratives.

I think it's just like unfair to just be like.

I mean look, just crank out records in record time, right?

It is I find that not like troubling.

I just find that to be like a footnote that needs to be talked about, because musicians putting out like one a year.

I don't know.

I'm always a little suspicious about stuff like that.

Not that like, to discredit the quality of the work.

I'm just like, really, you're, you're pumping out new music.

Like once, like I don't know a lot of my favorite bands every four years I'm lucky if I get a new record out of those uh guys.

Anyway, I just, I think lyrically, I think things are just not there.

I it's, it's very, it's very saccharine.

It's very just sort of not challenging anything interesting.

I just, i just don't find it very interesting.

How's the combat?

The running around's fine, the combat's fine good, i'm good okay uh, i'm just not like overtaken with like wow there's, she's got a lot to say here.

I think some of the lyrics are like actually kind of like remarkably stupid in place.

Yeah, it was kind of like very surface level meme-y stuff i heard, and so i don't.

I don't, i don't have an opinion.

You know what is she?

The borderlands four of music, more popular than that, even though I think the needle drop actually has a really good review of it.

I think it is very thoughtful and well written review.

Go watch that, alright.

Oh, she's a show girl, not a line dancer.

All right, Travis and Fargo.

We'll leave it there for you.

Thank you so much.

And then we'll go to Brandon from Alabama.

He says, Dear Jan, is Marvel Snap a roguelite?

Jan's not here, but I'm going to answer for him and say no.

Of course, no.

No, it's a card game.

It's a digital card game.

Man, you collect things and you spend your deck over time.

I see how you got there, but no.

Valerie from Denver says, hi, Bombers.

Between you chuckleheads and VGBs, my brain has become so fucking infected with the my wife thing.

I just said it reflexively out loud on a packed bus while listening to a podcast.

I hope you're fucking happy.

I'm writing this in mortified silence to avoid having to look at anyone else right now.

Perfect email, Valerie.

Yep.

Perfect fucking email.

Look.

I'm with you, Val, if I may.

I think there is something about what happens to your brain.

Is you're like everyone's in on this joke, right?

This dumb Borat thing that went away 20 fucking years ago.

It's back now.

And you are all aware that it's back now.

And I will say this in public spaces, with the understanding that we have all agreed that it's cool to do this again ironically, as it were.

No, it is not.

Unfortunately, I apologize.

On the Mount Rushmore of like impressions that got overdone immediately.

I think Borat impressions very much up there in like, you know, 08 or whenever.

Yeah.

And then Austin Powers.

Austin Powers.

Early 90s Jim Carrey as Ace Ventura.

Sure.

Just Jim Carrey.

Yeah.

Just Jim Carrey, christopher walken everyone does one of those, or is that like not exactly where this is the whole dude.

Yeah, i think that's fine.

Chad here says schwarzenegger's fine right no, yeah.

But if we're going specific chad here uh, chapelle rick james circa like early 2000s.

Yeah yeah, that was much more flesh in the pan, i feel like that came, but it was everywhere.

Yes yes, At least he has more free speech these days doing his new show.

Finally.

Yep.

Yeah.

Okay, then.

Next one.

Oh, by the way, does anybody else have an Aunt Valerie?

Valerie is such an aunt name to me.

Parentheses positive.

I got a Diane, which is also very auntie name.

I have an Aunt Jan.

Oh, yeah.

Rebecca from Canterbury says Dear Bomb Giants, Is there any piece of art or media that you have revisited following a big life event just growing older that has led to you having a newfound appreciation for said art or media?

Plus, my dad a few years ago recently replayed Spiritfarer.

Fuck, why did I do that?

Anyway, hope you're well.

Trans writes, Rebecca from Canterbury, P.S.

All the giant bombs who independent throw your hands up at me.

There you go.

It's the cliche thing, but Interstellar was different after having kids.

It's stupid, but it's true.

Also, First Man, I think I kind of like didn't really pay attention the first time I watched that, but then watched it.

I think I had kids the first time I watched it, but I like was really feeling it the second time and like that movie is just about like losing kids.

I don't think I could ever watch it again.

It was very affecting.

I feel like I've grown as a person in a lot of ways over the years.

Thank you for the laughter.

But I do think in broad strokes, I'm kind of just the same dude I was in like 1998.

So yeah, I don't really have any.

Like you know, it all kind of hits me the same now as it did back then.

You kind of don't revisit things because you're hardly visiting.

You're just like they're experiencing.

Do you know what I mean?

Do you get what I'm saying?

Like you're just...

Me specifically or humanity?

You.

No, you specifically.

Very clearly you.

But I mean things like Metal Gear Solid impacted me like crazy in 98 and it does in the same way now.

It's not like oh yeah, my clone dad came back at the graveyard and now I can think of this in a different way.

That happens to the rest of us.

I don't know if that's like the same emotional experience that the emailer is talking about, right?

It's like a big life event would be like getting married or having to move somewhere.

I mean there are things that after being married, there are things like I talked about that thing in Spider-Man 2, that little scene on the bench with the guy talking about losing his wife and he proposed her at that pond and stuff.

And like that actually affected me because it very much mirrored like I proposed.

It's wild.

You know but park on a bench and stuff like it, just kind of like I empathize with that, but like I've never gone back to something that I didn't previously have feelings about.

And then I do, you know, I mean, that makes sense.

I mean, a lot of these things for this is usually loss of a loved one or having kids, right?

So those are the big impetus here.

I don't have an answer to this about going back to something, but what remains of Edith Finch is the game that made me ball in a way that I could not understand.

Game made me mad.

Game made me so mad that leaving a baby in a tub and he died.

Big surprise.

Yeah, I guess.

Sorry to spoil it, but fuck that game.

That's so stupid.

Yeah, right?

Like they, yeah, I guess I was just sort of.

I'm supposed to have empathy for these characters?

Why would you do that?

You're not wrong, man.

You know what I mean.

Yeah, either way, i don't know.

There's something about that thing.

That's a pretty good game.

Otherwise uh, my uh, i put on spider-man one uh, yesterday and um, this is just a tangent.

You guys maybe think i was good, brought up spider-man um, and i was watching and the kids are kind of paying attention, kind of playing minecraft.

But then the kissing scene comes on and addy was just like locked in and i'm like oh, this is gonna be like a formative thing.

She's gonna think this is what romance is.

I'm like upside down kiss and yeah, and i like leaned over.

I'm like this won an MTV movie award for best kiss.

It's hot, man.

It's a hot kiss.

What else won that award?

Because it's the only one I think anyone remembers winning.

Oh, that sounds right, yeah.

Chuck and Larry?

Yeah, that came right up the alley of that.

Incredible.

I've watched a lot of Chuck and Larry through YouTube shorts in the last week or so.

Incredible.

That keeps popping up in my algorithm.

I'm getting a lot of Sanford and Sons in my head.

Oh, that's fun.

I prefer that.

Yeah, it's the big one.

The first time I saw Galaxy Quest was before I watched Star Trek.

And then I saw Star Trek and saw it and the movie was funnier.

There's a lot of people out there, Spaceballs before Star Wars kind of people.

I mean, I saw Rocky V a bunch of times before I ever saw any other Rocky movie.

And so I thought Rocky V was awesome.

And then I saw the other ones and I went back and watched it and I was like oh, this is definitely the bad one.

So I guess that counts.

And there you go.

Uh, jones from st paul.

Uh says uh.

Are you guys aware that jimmy fallon has also been on this new york times best selling authors list multiple times?

You're also aware that each time was for children's books?

Are you also aware that these are the most mid children's books that existed, and the only reason they sold as well as they did is because they have the name jimmy fallon on them?

I feel like that should hurt their sales.

Uh, call me when you have a newberry, caldecott jimbo.

Until then, stay in your fucking lane.

Jones from st paul, PS.

Dan Starkey is closing his month.

Get out here.

The Fallon stuff's not surprising.

It's all marketing too with that stuff.

Every child agrees this is the greatest work of fucking literature I ever know.

And I'm sure he did the rounds on every NBC morning show and all that stuff.

You get the end cap on Barnes and Nobles, Jimmy Fallon.

It was those Dada books, right?

It was like the book where the sheep was saying Dada and not Mama or something like that.

I don't Look.

There are very nice people who have wrote children's books, but there's a lot of people who aren't this is my job is writing children's books who then write a children's book and it seems like yeah, it worked.

Should I try?

Yeah, I bet you could.

You could.

Man, most people could.

I feel like You have no idea what children would like or what or need to learn.

I've been extremely successful because of that.

Thank you.

Yeah.

I think it's like so crazy.

It's just my work kind of stuff because Alex Spinello wrote a children's book.

I have that and it's good.

Yeah.

Greg Miller did.

Tankman out of patience.

Like everyone's like, what would it be about?

Okay.

Well, okay.

Okay.

Yeah.

Let's let's workshop this.

Well, I have one idea.

I want to hear yours.

Just real quick.

JimmyFallonMerchandise.com is a sad, sad website.

Now we can continue.

Go to store.giantbomb.com instead.

That's a happy place.

What is the right age for children's books?

What, like a six-year-old?

Is that kind of like the prime time?

Well, I think you're already... Yeah, too old, too young.

Any age, really.

But I mean, you have to like think...

It's a bad question.

A bad question, Dan.

Because there's children's books for every kind of child.

That's the thing.

I've got to figure out what... You're supposed to choose one.

You have to decide.

You have to decide who am I writing this for.

I think smaller kids... Four to ten.

No.

That is a huge difference between a 4 and a 10-year-old.

But that's probably common things that they're like oh, they don't like doing chores or whatever you know.

You know what?

4-year-olds don't have chores.

Guys, I think I'm out.

I think I'm out.

No, no, no.

We don't throw it away.

We're going to get there.

It's universal among children.

They don't like doing chores, right?

I think every kid in your mind is Kevin McAllister.

I think that is what it is.

That was a universal thing across every age and culture and everything.

It's like, man, I don't like doing chores.

A four-year-old is not responsible for chores because that kid's apparently multiple people in chat say that their four-year-olds have chores real chores get out of here after themselves is that that's not a chore that's just cleaning up i don't know they're not taking out the trash that's a this book is for eight to twelve year olds and it's about how incredibly different chores what it's a big eight-year-old gap Okay, 10 to 12-year-olds.

All right, so this is for Dylan.

Dylan, is he ever a stinker about doing chairs or chairs tours?

Yes, he is.

Okay, so this book is aimed at 10-year-olds, not just from New Jersey, from anywhere.

This is universal.

Wow.

And the moral is hey, sometimes you have to do things you don't want to do, but you'll grow as a person and you're helping people.

And so that's the, not the metaphor.

The moral of the story is sometimes you have to do things you don't want to do.

Okay, Dan, by the time we're at 10.

So it's a caterpillar and he's, okay, go ahead, sorry.

At the time we're at 10, kids should be reading like chapter books.

No longer the kind of picture children books we're talking about.

Okay, then we're going for six-year-olds then.

Yeah, maybe younger.

Maybe you should be thinking more about that like three, like two to five range.

Okay, two to five.

And it's about it's never too early to start thinking about what you want to do for a living.

That's the moral, that's fine, that's fine right, right.

Because, like you know, to find your, it's about finding your passion early on and deciding early on to to go after it, and so it's like exploit it for capitalism.

Yes, so maybe it's about.

Okay, it's about a caterpillar who he weaves, he lives on the lawn with his family and every day he looks up at the stars and thinks about uh, space.

And so he, the caterpillar in the sky He loves to show over.

He's fascinated by space.

He looks at the moon every night.

He's like, oh, mom, Caterpillar.

I just what's up there?

And she's like, well, maybe if you work hard enough, you can find out.

And so he goes to like Caterpillar space camp and he like studies space stuff in school and winds up being the first like Caterpillar astronaut.

He becomes an accountant.

Yeah.

No, no, no.

He followed his dreams and he made it.

Is this a world where like humans are also existing, but the caterpillars have their own space program?

There's like caterpillar versions of everything.

So there's a caterpillar like governments and stuff, you know?

Got it.

Yeah.

Do you know what the story is of the very hungry caterpillar?

I can picture, I think, that unique art style, didn't it?

Yeah.

Segmented caterpillar on the front.

No, what is the story of that?

Basically, he just eats a lot.

Yeah, he eats too much.

It's a very hungry caterpillar.

Is it a word of warning for overeating?

Is that the moral?

Yeah, a little bit.

He gets an upset tummy, but he turns into a butterfly.

It's just kind of... No caterpillar.

They already did that.

They already did the caterpillar.

So mine is about a... Yeah, mine's about a woodpecker.

It's a family.

Oh, I'm tired of eating this house every day.

Oh mom, I'm bored of this.

And so the woodpecker starts a little farm where it makes a bunch of like, you know, vegan snacks.

He's a productive member of society now.

Yeah.

So he's like, I'm tired of this thing that I'm eating every day.

I'm going to invent something better for us woodpeckers.

And so he makes a little woodpecker farm.

I'm going to find a need in the market and fill it.

Yeah.

And then he's going to make a bunch of like healthy, like a whole foods for, for birds.

Yeah.

Okay.

All right.

I'd like to make a book about business Dracula.

Oh, yeah.

That's good.

Be more like Bacalar, Dan.

Jesus.

Yeah.

I have all the sharks are invested and it took pulling teeth with you.

I get it.

All right.

We got a few super chats here to get to from the first Andres.

It says mug week when mug master Mitch must stop the hate.

What if the hate is justified?

Whoa.

They can keep going.

Whoa.

Because mugs are bad, and they're awful merchandise.

It's not prejudiced hate.

It's Judas.

He has judged what has happened here, and it says this must be hated.

Yeah.

So there's like, what is mug week?

I mean, we play as Mugman and Cuphead, and then what?

No, we introduce, it's like an advent calendar.

Every day we introduce a new mug to the store.

There you go.

Oh my God.

There you go.

I love that.

We raise money for charity by having you sit on a dunk tank, but we throw mugs at you instead.

That sounds painful.

Pretty cool.

They're going to break and cut me.

And they will break because that's all that mugs do is break.

Great.

BigFresh37 says, has Dan tried Warhammer 40k speed freaks?

No.

What is that?

There's so many Warhammer 40K games.

I love it.

I'm aware that there are cool Warhammer things now.

I can acknowledge that.

We played that co-op years.

I'm going to guess this is a car combat game.

Like Star Wars Demolition?

Yeah, like Star Wars Demolition.

Okay.

Oh, this looks pretty good.

I like that.

It's like Freakstyle from EA Big.

Then you can trademark it.

This looks good.

Oh, it is a car combat game.

What is this?

All right, let's play this.

Yeah, I want to play this.

It came out in May of 23.

What the hell?

Is it play online or with bots?

Does it have like a co-op campaign like Twisted Metal?

I would go through that with you, bro.

Ooh, that'd be cool.

Let's see here.

I'm getting it now.

It says online PvP.

What the hell?

Where'd this come from?

I don't know.

I'll try it out.

It weirds me out, actually, that I haven't even heard of this game.

It's from Caged Element, which has done the, let's see, Grip.

Do you guys remember that, like, recent game?

Yes.

I mean, it has, even though they're very positive, it does not have a lot of Steam reviews.

So it seems like this really went under the radar, even for Warhammer 40K.

Yeah, 250 reviews, not a ton.

I'm getting the supporters back.

Okay, yeah.

AP idiot box says, sharing a picture to the giant bomb discord of my zoo's baby orangutan wielding a knife that somebody threw it to the exhibit a few weeks ago.

Yeah, you don't want one of the exhibit monkeys or apes to get a weapon, right?

Yeah.

Yeah, just give them your camera instead.

That's way better.

Oh, but I'm sorry.

You think they're like excited about the knife?

Do you think they very quickly become afraid of it?

I think if they're holding it, they're excited.

But if any part of them is able to understand ooh, sharp thing.

Do you think they go scared, throw it away.

Or do you think they go weapon?

No.

This is how Planet of the Apes starts, okay?

It was in 2001 in Space Odyssey.

Exactly.

I think they go weapon.

Okay, they're thinking weapon.

I mean it depends on the ape, but yes, for the most part weapon apes together strong, i know that apes with knife very strong.

Matthew madison says for the jam, coffee fun.

Thank you so much, matthew.

And then kitty catman 93 says mike golf at just arriving.

Gotta say as an individual, for the huge ass head this hat is comfy as hell or shit sorry shit, not how good.

Great work, fellas.

Thank you, i'm glad.

I'm glad the merch is arriving and it's uh looking good and feeling good.

Yeah, i have a big one here today, nice.

Usually like hats like that don't fit me very well, but this hat fits great.

I was very happy with it.

So maybe we'll use that style of hat for some other design again in the future because it seemed uh, seemed pretty comfortable cool, uh.

But there we go.

Uh, that's it for the super chats As well.

Folks, what do we have popping off this week now at Giant Bomb?

Some things are getting moved around a little bit, since we missed a good chunk of yesterday for the holiday.

So if you missed Monday morning's Mysteries with Mitch, we're playing Seventh Guest.

We're actually doing that on Friday now.

That's at 1230 Eastern, so kind of in between game-less mornings and upf.

Uh, speaking of upf, i believe our plan is to check out a bunch of the steam next fest demos that are popping up right now.

There's a star trek voyager game.

I want to play.

Everybody, i need it.

The children's book is about a golf ball.

Who um, he's sad because he's owned by a family of golfers and they're bad.

They don't know how to golf well and he wants to fly.

He just he's trying to whack him.

Yeah, he's jealous because he sees all of his friends and they're just flying 300 yards in the air, you know, and he's just got these goobers.

And so he like does the thing where he emancipates himself from his family and gets adopted by a better golfer family.

Yeah.

So child divorce.

Yeah.

Or you can tackle that.

You know, you can do anything.

You know what?

You got a bad situation.

I love it.

Thank you.

It's got a Pulitzer's in your in your future here.

Thank you.

Jeff Bacalar, do we have anyone fun we could talk about for Voice Build Dump Truck this week?

Anything we could announce?

There's got to be a mystery right now.

I don't know if this person has been confirmed yet, so I will save.

I think you said at the end of the last episode, but I don't know for sure.

It's Bob Balaban.

That's right, folks.

We got Bob.

We got BB.

We did it.

All right.

Yeah.

Okay.

Yeah.

And I think jan is actually planning to check out some pokemon legends za thursday night.

If you watch me do some of these kind of opening night uh game streams, i believe jan's planning to do one of his own for that one.

So keep an eye out for that on thursday night.

Some other things like.

So we're probably gonna get that.

This is the run for uh absalom starting here, maybe around thursday as well.

I mean there's, I would say, either tomorrow or Thursday.

You know, it's going to be a thing that we're just going to squeeze in between other things or like maybe sometimes games, morning mess will roll into a run, but just keep an eye out.

You know we'll try to be good on the socials about it and everything, but we want to play a lot of that.

There's some other things with, you know, embargoes and whatnot.

So, yeah, there'll be more.

But, yeah, plenty happening here on all the Game Mess mornings.

Of course, there's tons of fun stuff to check out on Giant Bomb.

Even though we're leaving golf behind, the good times are going to continue to roll.

Backlar can we talk about?

We were going to me and you were going to talk about something after Game's Morning Mess tomorrow after embargoes.

Yeah, I just don't know if we're allowed to say that.

I don't know if we are but Backlar and I have been checking something out that, if you want to stay tuned after Game Morning Mess tomorrow.

Me and him might just kind of chat about something we've been messing with.

Awesome.

All right, then.

I believe we are just about done and we're ready to get out of here, everybody.

He's been Jeff.

He's been Dan.

Thank you so much to Sean for helping us out on the back end this evening.

I have been Mike.

Good times, everybody.

We'll see you all next time right here on the Giant Bombcast.

Woo!

I think I'm supposed to yell things now.

Do it now.

He does that sometimes.

I can't be about golf anymore.

I don't care what you guys say.

I still kind of want to see that Downton Abbey movie with no other context.

Just be like, what do I think is happening here?

[Giant Bombcast: Game Goobers, Animal Encounters, and Modern Gaming Trends]-[912: Married... with Pikmin]

📋 Summary

The "Game Goobers" Branding and Weekend Antics

Movie Reviews and Cultural Commentary

Gaming Discussions: From Battlefield to Silent Hill F

Industry News and Pokémon Leaks

Closing Thoughts

🎯Key Sentences

📝Key Phrases

📖 Transcript

[Giant Bombcast: Game Goobers, Animal Encounters, and Modern Gaming Trends]-[912: Married... with Pikmin]

📋 Summary

The "Game Goobers" Branding and Weekend Antics

Movie Reviews and Cultural Commentary

Gaming Discussions: From Battlefield to Silent Hill F

Industry News and Pokémon Leaks

Closing Thoughts

Deep Learning with ListenLeap

🎯Key Sentences

📝Key Phrases

📖 Transcript

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