917: GOAT SAUCE | Giant Bombcast

Everybody, it's Tuesday, November 18th, 2025.

Welcome to the Giant Bombcast, presented by our friends at Deku Deals.

I am your host, Jan Ochoa.

Joining me, co-captain of the ship.

That's right, he's ready to get his hips moving and swaying this Friday because of y'all.

Jeff Grubb.

Hello.

Hi.

Everyone who has a new PC and has recently installed Discord needs to go in there and turn off Crisp.

It's eating when everyone talks right now, so we'll fix that.

I don't think anyone else is hearing it.

I think we're just hearing it, but still.

Yay.

All right.

Speaking about Crisp, he's the master of all things crispy, all things crunchy.

That includes cheese and the potato variety.

Dan Reichert.

I'm eating like 60 to 70 of those market pantry peanut butter filled little pretzel pockets a day.

I've been having whole meals of those because we've got a big jug for extra life.

That's what the food pyramid says.

Yeah, I've had 40 in the last half hour.

They're the most snackable thing.

Speaking about the most snackable thing.

He's the most snackable.

Member of the podcast, Chef Bacalar.

Yummy, yummy.

I'm a snacky boy.

What can I say?

I love snacks.

I just do.

And you know what?

We love you for admitting that and being brave enough to say that.

Oh, what a brave person I am admitting I like putting shit in my mouth.

Speaking about putting shit in his mouth.

No.

What?

This isn't what he does at all because he's the bad boy of games media.

He's not eating shit.

He's talking shit.

Oh.

Mike Minotti.

I don't want to be associated with poop.

And that's very fair.

And you know what?

That's real of you.

And I'm happy to get that out there in front of everyone.

Thank you.

How's it going, boys?

Podcasting?

I thought yesterday was Tuesday and I panicked that we didn't do the podcast and that no one told me.

Why did you think that?

I don't know.

The days have all been jumbled up.

I can't imagine how it is for these three, plus Sean and Kayla, of what day it feels like.

Yeah, we did the Extra Life stream, which will fuck you up enough, and then I had a bonus day of drinking with Kayla until 3 am, so that'll kind of like You got to taper down.

You go 6 am, 3 am, and now I'm trying to get into a human sleep cycle here, but you still feel a little bit off for a little bit.

Yeah, I think I'm also beginning to fight off a cold as well.

So it's like oh no, what's happening here?

Oh, boy.

Speaking about Extra Life, congrats to y'all raising over 50K for the kids.

Woo!

Shout out to the community.

Parts 1 and 2 are up on...

John Bomb YouTube sans the Crystal Coconuts, because it turns out people care about the Crystal Coconuts.

But boys, what a chaotic day, because every time I would tune in, something would be happening and I don't remember hearing about it at all.

Multiple people were in Grimace costumes.

Everyone was dressed up as Quan Chi at one point.

Yeah, at times.

I was in the Grimace costume as Quan Chi for well over an hour, I want to say to the point where the one little face window I had to see out of was smeared with Quan Chi makeup.

So it was very difficult to see the 300 plus marbles I had to put into that tiny bowl with a teaspoon.

And that was just in one go.

I had a bonus hundred later on.

So yeah, over 400 marbles in a Grimace suit.

That was quite an experience.

Somebody contact Guinness.

That's got to be a record for a man in a Guinness suit.

Oh, without a doubt.

Yes.

Why Grimace?

Kayla had a Grimace suit and I just kind of told everyone that like hey, if you've got any gimmick outfits or anything, bike club suits anything, bring it and we'll see if we can figure something out.

And then the idea of the noob soul evolution really came together once Kayla came to town.

And then she was like, oh, I have a Grimace suit.

And then just things kept getting piled on top of that.

And that's what you wound up seeing.

Grimace, you almost killed a man.

Yeah, I would suggest anyone look at my blue sky of the clip of Grimace, which was Mike at the time and I went in and it is the closest I've been to being choked out, maybe ever, probably.

I was physically attacked by Mike Minotti in a Grimace suit, and it was terrifying.

When I got the email that the stream got taken down, I didn't put together that it was probably because of the Crystal Coconuts bit.

I thought it's because we had...

A video of a grown man in a Grimace costume choking out another man.

Yeah.

I've never seen him move faster.

I honestly haven't.

I don't even know.

I don't know if Creaky Legs on that edit sped it up, but that is how it looked in my first person view.

Although it was like most of my view was purple and moving.

I was like, ah, it's moving around.

And then I was being choked.

Now, Dan, I'm not supporting violence or retaliation.

Sure.

It's very funny.

I was just enforcing rules.

Jan, let me stop you right here.

Okay, let's hear about this.

Do you think I just did this out of the blue?

You think that this wasn't a retaliation?

That's what I'm saying.

I was going to ask Dan.

Yes.

Did you have it coming?

No, I was enforcing rules.

I was on the right side of history here.

You were making up at the time.

No, there was a rule where you had to only move the marbles with the spoon.

And Mike was like doing stuff, where he was like trying to do little gamey things, where he was like kind of cupping his hand around the spoon.

So he'd have a wider area because the part is the marbles fall out of the spoon.

Can you explain this?

Because I got to imagine there's like thousands of people have no idea.

Everyone knows what's happening when you get a grimace and a spoon and marbles together.

This is insanity.

So the short version is instead of being sent to the noob's hole, which is self-explanatory for those who didn't see it, you now go into the blight box which, at thousand dollars, somebody could pick anyone to go into the blight box and you have to get into an inflatable grimace suit, which is giant, and go into a room that is filled with balloons and the bop them, sop them.

Uh, fucking flippy dippies that you punch.

You know the balloon things that go and back up.

You know what i mean?

Yeah yeah yeah, yeah.

Like a punching bag guys.

Yeah yeah, okay.

And then on one side of the room is a stool with a big tepperware bowl and on the other side of the room is the same thing.

One of them's filled with marbles, one of them's not, And for the 1000 donation you have to move 100 marbles from one bowl to the other using only a standard kitchen teaspoon.

Physical challenge.

Mike walked in and said, what is this Double Dare bullshit when he first got there?

And that's exactly what it is.

So the whole point is, you got to move these marbles in this precarious situation in a grimace suit with obstacles, and you got to keep it in the little bowl of the spoon.

And Mike was making it larger by cupping his hand underneath it and thus negating the difficulty.

So I went in there.

That was, you said no touching a spoon with hand.

My hand wasn't touching the spoon.

I never caught a marble with it.

It was just to steady my hand.

You never said that wasn't allowed.

But sure, make up the rules as you go.

Numerous people were reporting you and talking about the stuff you're trying to get away with.

Numerous people said that the coffee mug was a teeny tiny coffee mug for ants.

It's like they like to say things about me.

It's always a conspiracy against Mikey.

So I was enforcing the rules, and I went in there to let him know, and he attacked me.

So this is a charity thing?

It was a charity thing, yes.

I'm just saying, yeah.

It was for our own kicks, yeah.

I'm just making sure to benefit this charity, human suffering had to endure.

Oh, yeah.

I wouldn't take it back.

That's how charity usually works, yeah.

I wouldn't take it back, no.

Yeah.

All right.

Mike, you all right?

Look, Dan almost killed me in a sauna later if it makes everybody feel better, all right?

What happened there?

Oh, it wasn't good.

It wasn't good.

What does that mean?

Get more specific.

I don't know.

Look, the sauna didn't sound like a good idea to me.

Everyone's like, it's fine.

It's a sauna.

Okay.

I sat in that sauna.

He wasn't clothed, to be clear.

He was clothed in a sauna, which is just never good.

It wasn't good.

How long were you in there?

I don't know.

It felt like a long time for me.

I think I lost most of my body weight though, in water, because there was just it was just coming down like a shower.

It was just rough.

I was like, this probably can't.

Then like, I also realized I'm not going to beat this, Mortal Kombat Mythologies level.

By the way, Dan's original idea when he approached me was do you think you could beat Mortal Kombat Mythologies in a sauna?

I'm just saying I'm talking to somebody who brags a lot about being a world record speed runner in that game.

You're number one in the world.

That takes practice, Dan.

You should know by now, Mike.

Dan's got a lot of ideas.

He's got a lot of ideas.

My problem's like I'm afraid to say no because I think he's going to think I'm lame and not like me anymore.

Oh, my God.

You poor sucker.

You say no to everything.

What are you talking about?

What do you say no?

Let's go skydiving.

No, I don't.

Bullshit.

Eat an apple for $5,000.

Mike.

Okay, I say no to the things that are absolutely impossible and you get up to them.

Skydiving?

Of all the things to not say out loud.

Mike, you know what?

I respect you.

What about that?

I respect you.

You don't have to jump into a sauna for me.

Thank you, everybody.

I do appreciate it.

Is your heart rate going up in the sauna, Dan?

Yeah, it's part of it.

Man, I'm like that.

I was in there like 10 hours ago.

I was in there for like 40 minutes.

Yeah, I didn't like the intense heart rate in there.

I was like, this feels bad.

Oh, it's great.

It's the good stuff.

If you want to catch up on all of the Extra Life shenanigans, all of it is now up on YouTube, as I mentioned.

But also special, special shout out to everyone that has been part of the Giant Bomb Extra Life team.

Shouts out to y'all.

A bunch of people streaming last weekend, the weekend before that, raising all sorts of money for the children.

So, shouts out to y'all.

Also, shouts out to your friends at MainGear.

MainGear.com slash Giant Bomb.

Go get yourself a PC.

Go buy yourself...

Good old faceplate.

Don't buy Mike's, though.

It's too specific.

Go buy mine.

Buy mine.

Put me on your PC so I'm constantly watching over you like a good friend that I am.

Apparently he doesn't respect you that much, Mike.

I have a respect problem around here.

I'm going to have to start, really.

I think I have to attack more people.

I would love that.

Dan would admit I bet he respects me a little bit more since I attacked him.

Fear.

Fear and respect.

Folks, I don't want you to fear us, but I want you to help join us.

Grub, how can they help join us and support us?

Yeah, go to giantbomb.com slash join to become a premium member.

It gets you ad-free versions of the show, but what it really gets you is the assurance that Giant Bomb can continue to be out here as independent games media doing what we do creating fun stuff, creating a home base for you on the internet for you to enjoy gaming in a way that is familiar and cool and surprising.

And we're going to keep doing it as long as we have you at our back.

And Thank you to everyone who has supported us.

We see you coming in there.

We see the names on the roster when you join, and it means the world to us.

Thank you so much, and we'll keep at it.

Thank you.

We're going to keep at it, just like Chuck is going to keep at it, because Chuck needs help with the Giant Bomb Wiki.

He's building us a new site, but he's also carrying over the Wiki.

If you think you have any coding experience or whatever.

Chuck language, Chuck speaks, which is responsibility, and codes.

He speaks in terminals, through us.

Join it.

The Giant Bomb Discord.

Go to the Wiki Street Team channel.

Lend your assistance.

Or go to bombcast.com slash wiki.

And I believe that is most, if not all, of the plugs to get out to... Oh, you know what?

Everyone, everyone, put on a jacket.

Because from December 1st to December 5th, the website is going on a site freeze.

That's right.

You won't be able to log in.

You won't be able to add any new articles.

Edit the wiki.

Chuck is hitting the freeze button.

Mike's gonna stick a gun at it and say everybody freeze, nobody move, everybody on the ground.

Everybody get on the fucking ground, fucking stick up there.

It is there you go.

That's right.

No one in the bank would take that seriously.

I'm sorry, i just feel like i respect this.

I'll say that sir, this is a wendy's, you know, kissing the floor uh, And we're freezing the site because we are hoping to get the new site up and running.

So to sync things up, Chuck is going to need to have to do a content freeze.

But don't worry.

If you are already a premium member and you have the RSS hooked up, you'll be able to watch all of the premium content at free podcasts, as you do.

As to what an RSS feed is, I don't know how to help you with that.

Go Google.

Dan, explain to the folks at home what an RSS feed is.

It's a confusing way to describe subscribing to a podcast.

If you have a podcast app, it's utilizing an RSS feed, whatever that means.

It's just a way you download.

It's like when you go to YouTube TV and you subscribe to a show, they just decide to make a stupid acronym for it.

Yeah.

Okay.

Yeah.

And folks, if you have not logged into the old website and opted in, what are you doing?

You want to lose all that?

You want to lose all the fun images you've uploaded over the years?

You want to lose yourself in the music of the moment?

You own it.

You want to be drowning in mom's spaghetti?

Don't do that.

That's for Mike Minotti to do.

Just log into the website.

Please help us out.

Help us help you.

And once again, thank you for your support.

Thanks for extra life.

Shouts at the main gear.

Shouts at Deku Deals.

Go make yourself a list.

Because of Deku Deals, we're going to be.

We might be playing Just Dance. this friday i think we're probably playing just dance yeah it would have to be a tremendous dissent vote happening between now and then yeah everyone dissent dissent exactly uh but let's dissent unless anyone has any dissenting opinions shall we get into games how can people vote on that if they do want to change the art change our fate do they got to go to decodeals.com slash giant bomb is that what it is that's it that's it all right You can take a fun little quiz to figure out which one of us you are most like.

You can see our top 10 games of the decade as well as some other fun lists.

And maybe you can vote for us to play something else besides Just Dance.

I already bought it now.

I actually kind of hope we do play it.

All right.

Well, everyone else is fine.

Everyone else is good.

We fine.

We hanging.

We clanging.

I know you all are recovering and everything.

Yeah.

I'm so tired.

I think Penny's sick.

Poor dog, too.

I don't know.

We'll have to figure that out.

She's just very lethargic right now, the poor pupper.

Gang, over the weekend, I had a Bloody Mary, and they put a giant stalk of celery in it.

Oh, yeah.

Do I eat that?

You can.

I wouldn't.

You kind of clinch it between your butt cheeks and distract enemies, which is what you do.

Okay, okay.

Yeah, I just needed some guidance because I was like, oh, this is fun.

I like how this tastes.

And then it had a gigantic stalk of celery and then three lemons on it.

I'm like, do I... I think I squeezed the lemons into this.

But the celery, do I consume it?

Maybe a hot take here, but I know the gimmicky Bloody Marys are all the rage.

Like oh, we put a whole three-course meal in here and six Slim Jims and a bunch of candy or whatever.

I don't want that.

I don't want a bunch of wet... stuff in my drink really it just seems like a gimmick it seems like a place where you go to get a milkshake and and all the milkshakes look like they're meant to be instagrammed rather than eaten you know what i mean sure okay yes yeah i want this to be an easy thing i want it to be tastes great but like all those like milkshakes and stuff with like eight billion things coming out of it it's like that's because you want people to take pictures it's not yeah that's just plating right or glassing in this case I mean, it's, it's, it's, it's average.

They know that it's Instagram of all people take pictures of it.

Then other people go to the place.

It's advertising basically.

Yeah.

We were also making things pretty before Instagram.

I know, but it's gotten egregious in recent years, I would say.

And like I don't mind a bloody Mary, but like I want a bloody Mary, like an airplane style bloody Mary.

We're just like, here's just red stuff in a cup.

You know, like I don't, I don't even need the celery.

I'm not mad about celery.

Just don't go beyond that.

I do like in some drinks that they give you a little snack.

You know, a martini, they'll give you some olives.

That's fun.

I like having that.

Well, yeah.

It's the best drink.

That's why.

In my quest to become a martini guy, I think I've actually become an olive guy.

Yeah, that just comes with the territory.

I don't know if you all know this.

Have you completed transaction, though?

Have you also become a martini guy or just an olive guy?

I think if someone offered me a bowl of olives, I'd be more excited for that than a martini.

Well, are you like a charcuterie person?

Because that will find its way into Olive's territory.

He's a cutie person.

He's maybe not a charcuterie person.

We all know that.

Oh, Dib does that too.

The little check mark under his chin all the time.

That's the Rizzler.

Oh, is it?

Oh, wow.

He's punished.

Okay.

All right.

He's grounded.

I was at the Mall of America.

Never mind.

We're done catching up.

I don't want to hear about lives.

I want to hear Mike's mall adventures.

I was at the Mall of America.

I saw a Rizzler shirt at the Hot Topic, and I almost wanted to get it for Dan.

Oh, my God.

Hot Topic.

Incredible series of words.

I was at the Mall of America.

I saw a Rizzler shirt at the Hot Topic.

I'm Mike Minotti.

All those things together.

And I want to buy for my friend Dan.

Yeah, thank you.

Thank you, you went there.

Uh, i think tom brady was there when you were there and what cat's eye was that a k-pop group?

Yeah, somebody was there.

Yeah, he kept telling me about, uh like long lines and stuff, and i followed them all of america on instagram.

I was like, oh right, tom brady and a k-pop group were there.

Uh, so mike was there during a busy day.

Were they there together?

No no, tom brady was doing some stupid card store opening that he's got.

No, and then i saw them kiss in the lego store.

There's five of them in an entire k-pop group.

Yeah, did you know that?

Huh, did you know that?

Tom brady's like getting into like cards and shit?

Everybody's getting into cards?

It's the new nfts.

Yeah uh mike, is your bias from cat's eye what?

Who's your bias from cat's eye?

My bias?

Yeah, we're talking a little to the left okay, All right.

Well, never mind.

It's wide into the left, all right?

We're getting more details every week.

Oh, God.

Normally, there's a segue prepped, but I don't have one.

I'm just going to hit the ground running, just like Dan and Grub have hit the ground running with Absalom, and I've joined them because I've finally tried out Absalom.

Boys, I don't want to rub it in.

I don't want to rub it in.

Fourth run. cleared it.

No, you didn't.

Wait, are you doing solo?

Yeah.

I wonder if they scale it with multiplayer.

Maybe we just suck.

No, we don't, Jeff.

We're doing great.

We haven't even tried a run yet.

We haven't even tried it yet.

That's the thing.

That's why we suck.

I don't think you two suck.

I don't think you're like savants, but I do think that not being able to just do back-to-back runs makes any roguelike a lot harder.

I think that's what it is.

I think that's what it is because you guys...

There's so much time in between each run that the information retention is just leaking out of you.

No, me and Jeff Grubb, you want to talk memory.

We are just world-class memory guys.

You just messaged us like, did Ganondorf talk in Tears of the Kingdom?

No, he didn't.

Earlier today, Dan asks, Where are we meeting for the podcast?

And we've been meeting a discord for at least a month.

I feel like we're still like, it could be mesh.

It could be, you know, it could be any number of things, you know, like hit me like a brick last night because like we were talking about voice actors.

Oh cause, we were just doing game of the year talk and we were making jokes about like Ben Star being and everything and everything.

And, um, I mentioned somehow the guy who you brought up some guy.

Yeah.

That was that the Ganondorf guy.

That's Ganondorf.

Okay.

Yeah.

And you're like, yeah, he was the voice of Ganondorf in Tears of the Kingdom.

And I didn't think about it.

And then last night I'm just sitting around and I was like wait a minute, Ganondorf didn't talk, in Tears of the Kingdom.

And I was thinking like, well, he does like laughs and like battle grunts and stuff like that.

And you guys told me there's just full cut scenes of him talking.

And it's, I, boy.

And they're good.

Yeah.

Full sentences.

Yep.

Yeah.

English sentences.

The very beginning of the game, especially pretty heavy on that.

Huh?

You know, you know, Zelda talks in that game, right?

I do remember Zelda talking and especially because, like that was Link go do a thing.

You know, like she does that a lot.

But Ganondorf's just like a lot of that stuff, you know.

You're thinking of Ocarina of Time.

I frequently am, yes.

No, I don't remember.

Like, is it back and forth with a Ganon?

Well, Link doesn't talk, so no, that wouldn't be the case.

Zelda and Ganondorf talked.

Yeah, Link doesn't talk still.

Yeah, or Ganondorf and like Rauru or something like that.

Yeah.

Rauru.

I don't like saying Rauru.

Rauru is a tough.

It's a tough say.

Yeah, I agree.

No, I didn't know.

No, Chet says Dan skipped cut scenes.

I never skip cut scenes.

I never, ever, ever skip cut scenes.

I just don't.

None of the information.

You only skip victory scenes in Lego Party every time because there's a prompt.

I don't know if the one over Extra Life was accidental.

But Absalom.

Holy smokes.

This game fucking bangs.

Yes, it's so good.

I know that y'all... There's plenty of footage now of you two going through it, but when I unlocked Cider... Cider is the female character with the extendo arm.

Holy shit.

Very good things about that character, yeah.

Is that your favorite?

She is absolutely my favorite.

I don't think I've ever felt cooler in a video game than I have playing as Cider, and...

You know there's builds with various roguelites or action-adventure games.

You know, like in A Devil May Cry 3 specifically, where there's moments where you don't hit the ground because you just have an infinite combo going and you are still punishing a dead enemy.

That happens all the time with Cider, and I think the thing that needs to be shouted out about Absalom is that you can stun a boss right.

The bosses are pretty much susceptible as all the other enemy characters.

Like, if you juggle them, They'll be juggled and if you stun them they'll have a little bit of a stun that you can completely get through a phase and rinse them in a couple seconds.

I had a build with Cider eventually, where as soon as I hit them with my extendo arm, which was her special ability, the enemy would be shocked.

Also, the clashes in that game, which is like their version of a parry, absolutely amazing.

I had a power-up where as soon as I would clash with them, the enemy would just explode.

And that's the Y. There's the dash one, and there's the Y one.

You're talking about the Y one, right?

Yeah, the big attack parry, yeah.

Which is like your heavy attack, and once you hit them as they're hitting you or supposed to hit you, it'll do a parry.

And I cannot sing enough praises about this game just because it just feels so good.

It looks very good.

I think they've nailed the progression mechanic, because I thought originally you were just going through the bottom part of the map and I thought the top part of the map was just meant for like, oh that's just, maybe we'll have DLC.

Nope.

Instead of your ship going all the way to the right, your ship is going to go up top this time.

And the different types of boss battles and the different little secrets.

I like how they have used the mission mechanic of like hey, you got to fill up this coal thing or this furnace and you'll have to check up on it your next run.

You're not going to be able to do this run.

So I like how it incentivizes you to keep going and keep playing the game.

I think if you two had the ability to instantly replay and instantly do a run, I think y'all would have beat it by now.

It's the type of game we're good at.

Oh, totally.

The one thing I do kind of struggle with is maybe this is exacerbated with two players, but a lot of times during where there's a ton of ads and a boss fight and stuff, I'll be like where the fuck am I?

I lose track of my character every once in a while for sure.

We'll beat it soon.

You two have the dwarf and the elf.

You have the frog as well.

Yeah, I did one run with the frog and one with Cinder.

And they both seemed cool, too.

Did I do a Cinder one?

I can't remember.

No, I don't think I was fully able to upgrade Cinder.

Cider.

Cider, Cider.

Okay, but I should try that out.

Yeah, yeah.

Those characters seem really fun.

Like Grub getting the dwarf rocket thing.

Rocket dwarf!

Rocket dwarf, yes.

Do you know how it's pronounced, Cider?

Because if it's Tangy and Brown, you're in Cider Town.

Cider Town.

Yeah, yeah.

Look, Jan, four runs is faster than I did it.

So, I mean, I think maybe you were just good.

Maybe you're in...

You were going to say slut.

Let him go.

He's got something.

I always said savant earlier.

What's another good word for something that's really good at things?

We're not going to move on with the podcast.

An Absalom adept.

Adept.

That's what I want.

You're an Absalom adept.

I would have taken slut.

That's fine.

But thank you, Mikey.

You're welcome.

Here's my pitch.

You and I launch a competing series called This is Actually the Run.

Oh, that would be really funny.

Imagine if we just started that and we finished that.

That would be very funny.

We'll be Cider and the Frog.

It'll be the side quest.

Fantastic.

There is a lot of post-game stuff that I didn't really dive into.

Are you interested in any of that, Jan?

I kind of am, but I think I had a satisfying feeling of completing a run before these two are able to, and again, it's because i i'm able to just repeatedly do a run over and over again and uh, i don't have to deal with the mess of uh, losing my character, because this is the only character.

Um, but in terms of the scout please, in terms of the post game content, i am curious because i do want to see how vast the skill tree and the power-ups wind up going.

Um, i love the bubbles too.

Mike, you get into the bubbles.

I had some bubbles.

The bubs were helping.

There's some spicy bubbles.

I'll tell you what.

And how the bubs will synergize with some of the other elements.

Very fantastic.

I like the tornado stuff as well.

The fire stuff's great.

The proximity sparks.

Like all that stuff.

The thorns.

All the thorns.

I couldn't really get into the thorns.

You can get them pretty strong.

And then also where it's like every time you do X, like three thorns come out.

So suddenly you'll have like 20.

And there's a boss.

Just fucking them up.

It's great.

Okay.

All right.

Um, but, uh, the, the boss battles in this game really, really well done.

Um, sometimes I feel like in a beat them up game the bosses are kind of like too big and like they don't quite fit into the world, and it just feels a little bit boring here.

They actually feel like good set pieces.

Um, and I love it when a boss character will be using the same types of abilities that you can use and that shit just hits on a different level.

Yes.

And the animation for everything is just like the design of all the bosses, just all the attacks.

It's just a beautiful game.

I do appreciate, like you were talking about exploring the map Jim, but like, even just like the tiny little secrets, or like the character comes along and say hey, there's a little bit of mist over here.

Let's go over here.

Just all those things where it's like, oh, there's more to this world than I realized.

And kind of finding those things makes each run feel cool and different.

I did get a lot of information from watching you guys.

So I knew to hit the mast.

At one point on the ship to get the dude and all this other stuff.

So I did learn from you two.

So there we go.

The run will continue on, folks.

Do not worry.

Speaking about very pretty looking games, Mike Minotti, you played this last night on Mega Man.

Dan, it looks like you've been playing this as well.

Luminous Arise.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

You know, I have actually not been much of a Luminous guy before.

Same.

Like when that first one came out on the PSP and it seemed like it was the game everybody really loved, I was kind of like I don't know if I get this or completely understand what's happening here.

I mean, I like other drop-down puzzle games.

I like Tetris.

I like Panel to Pawn slash Pokemon Puzzling and Puyo Puyo and all that stuff.

But, you know, I liked Tetris Effect a ton just for the aesthetics and the vibe.

So, you know, knowing that I was going to be getting that basically again with this made me excited for it anyways.

And I was just learning more about what I should actually be doing in luminous.

And I was having more and more fun.

The more I played it, it still doesn't click with me in the way that a Tetris or a paneled upon does.

It's like I still not.

I feel like I have like two layers understood like strategy wise when I'm missing like that third layer, like that fourth layer of like things I should be thinking about when I'm making these squares.

I mean don't overthink.

Like you know, I hear a lot of people talking about the like writing the line thing, like the timeline, like don't overthink that, because it's That's never how I've thought about it, where it's like ooh, I gotta be dropping blocks right behind the line every time.

It's more of just a speed thing and just generally building stuff to the left of the line.

You don't need to hug right up against it.

You just need to set a bunch of things up so the next time the line goes across you're getting a 16x or whatever combo.

But yeah, don't overthink the line part of it.

Yeah, I think that kind of helped.

It also helped a little bit to wait, because at first I was maybe going too fast.

So waiting for the line a little bit was giving me more opportunities to make The bigger squares.

But, you know, the awesome stuff here is just, like, touches effect.

Like, the way it is playing with the music.

Like, each time you move, there's, like, a little note.

And there's different songs.

And each song has a completely different aesthetic.

Like, the blocks themselves will change.

There's always, like, two kinds of blocks, right?

So, at first, it's just, like, you know, a red one and a blue one.

Then, you know, eventually, it's, like, egg and feathers.

Because it's bird-themed.

And there's you know kind of amazing music that's going everywhere, from kind of like soulful or EDM or kind of you know just sort of blissful soothing to rap.

But it all somehow is connected and fits in a really interesting, fun way.

There's also this burst mode.

In terms of fact, that's something similar where basically you can it's almost kind of like your recovery tool because you use it and you can sort of make like a very big clear.

Also a little confusing.

And I don't still entirely understand it.

But I kind of got to the point where, like all right if I sort of just drop stuff and they're kind of touching.

I'll make some very big squares here, and that's good.

Yeah, there's certain thresholds where it turns into a full square.

You want to have, let's say it's blue and orange, and blue is that nucleus or whatever.

You just want to hug as many of those blue blocks next to the nucleus of blue as possible.

I don't know what makes the orange, though, go to heaven.

I think there's a certain threshold where it's like we hit a certain thing.

It's like, okay, we're going to knock all the other ones.

If there's oranges hugging it, yeah boom, we're going to bump them to the top.

Then you can keep kind of making that square, that nucleus, bigger and bigger.

And then, when it ends, you get all the points for the blue, and then all those oranges that you set up there rain down.

And then you can throw a bunch of shit on there again.

Like if you, one of those cross things that connects all, they're like, oh, that shit's great.

Who are the little dudes that pop out after you burst?

They're like loomies?

I don't remember those from the original.

No.

They have like names above them.

They have like online tags.

I think they are other people.

Yeah.

They've been in there the whole time?

I don't understand that.

Yeah.

They've been in wait for us to release them.

I think it's just some cute way for them to make the game like online.

Sure.

Okay.

I've done some online battles and people are, people are good online.

I should wait for the burst until I have one of those cross things.

Cause I'm like I'm just like now getting to the point where I'm when I'm playing it, where I am like looking ahead to another piece a little bit.

And it's like, oh, okay.

So there's a, there's a thought right there.

If I did that and did the opposite color, I could wait and get one of those cross things.

So when they all come back, I can just destroy them all.

That would be awesome.

Okay.

There's a new strategy I learned.

I'm playing in VR.

And you guys are playing in VR.

How?

With the Meta Quest 3 connected to my computer over Wi-Fi 60.

Oh, you're doing the Steam VR link thing?

Yep.

Works perfect.

Okay.

I should try that.

Yep.

It works perfect.

And it's yeah.

You know, remember Tetris Effect and how that felt when you played it in VR, if you ever did.

This does the same thing.

I think that it's perfectly acceptable to play this game on a screen, on a handheld, whatever.

Like, it's going to have similar effects.

But they do build these games with VR in mind.

That's something I think.

Mizuguchi probably was always thinking of VR, even long before he was making VR games.

And I like Mark McDonald's over there, and he's a big VR evangelist as well.

And they, yeah, they did a good job of sort of just... enveloping you in that sound and those feelings and it's um the the effects that they do of having the play field back up and kind of moving more into your face as things are getting more intense uh there it's even more subtle in vr and even more affecting uh so yeah i it's working there that i will try to continue to play through that story mode uh which i think i got about halfway through last night until i finished that up in vr It's tough.

I mean, I'm pretty good at Luminous and I'm on the end of just normal on the journey right now and I'm failing a couple times here.

It's pretty rough.

These games, like...

They had that thing where if you fail, you can push, continue and then you're like you're on the segment you were with no blocks again.

Yeah, you hold B while restarting Super Mario Brothers, yeah.

You can kind of eventually brute force.

You lose points and your score is worse, but yeah, you can brute force it.

I don't give a shit about my score.

Yeah, same.

I gotta try to S-rank everything.

I just want the pretty blocks so far away from S-ranking this game.

I still don't know if I'm good.

I definitely have seen improvement where it just kind of clicked.

I don't know what that's about.

And then I had been progressing pretty quickly.

But yeah, I just want to see all the levels.

I want to hear all the music.

I want to do all the things.

And then I think after that, I'm going to be done.

You know?

Yeah, that's fine.

Yeah.

I got to a point when they eventually ported Luminous to the PS2, where I locked the fuck in and it was cracked out.

I have yet to achieve that in Luminous Arise 2.

Because I think it is too visually overstimulating where I am just getting lost in the sauce.

And that's not a discredit to the game.

I really do enjoy the visuals.

But like, wow, does this game get really, really busy?

Jane, I think you're goaded with the sauce.

Phase rug.

This game is a must cop.

What the fuck is happening?

Oh, you didn't see the best video game commercial ever?

Or the best Alexa Plus commercial, whatever the fuck it is?

No.

What is that?

It's rough.

It's like 30 seconds long.

It's like somebody from the FaZe Clan.

You know the FaZe Clan?

FaZe Rug.

Known gamer.

I do know, yes.

Famously Batman FaZe Group.

FaZe Clan.

Yeah, yeah.

It's just like it's an Alexa commercial, where this guy's just playing games and he's like oh Alexa, like how many kills, was that?

And she's like, oh my, it's like, oh yeah, that was like a lot of kills.

You're really cool.

And he's like, yeah.

And then Alexa's like, yeah, you're coated with the goat sauce.

You're coated.

Goated.

You know what's so sick is like.

I love that so much because that is.

It's a commercial, presumably yeah.

Yes.

That is like literally made for nobody.

It's made for the chief of marketing at him yes, i guess who can like brag to his other silicon valley davidson in phase no, pete davidson's in alexa plus his pocket and he's like hey, should i change my name to peter?

And alexa's like i don't know, it's like the bad commercial.

It's really weird.

And he's like at the end he's like i guess i'll just stick with pete davidson, what are you doing?

What is this?

Um, so bonkers nothing, it's for no one.

It's for no one.

No one exists in the world.

That would be like ah, i'm now impacted by the thing i just saw.

And then he's like alexa, should i send uh, my get good, uh a gift again?

Sure, sending you know, a 20 pack of kleenex to whatever?

Well, how about this time send a thousand tissues to him?

And it's like okay, wow.

So this is all about how maybe Alexa might upsell you on Amazon.

That's what you're getting at here.

It's for your esports feuds.

I hate all of this.

Good idea.

Best of luck, Amazon.

Hope you knock it out of the park with that shit.

Commercials are just getting worse.

And I know they're commercials, but they're getting really bad.

Were they ever good?

I'm trying to think if they were ever actually good.

Christmas one was good.

Budweiser Frogs.

Like Coca-Cola with that kid who gets the jersey from that football player.

That is much better than the AI Christmas commercial.

What about when one of the Jenner sisters ended war and racism with a power of Pepsi?

That was sick.

We used to have war and racism until Pepsi.

The problem is we overcame diversity.

Even the Super Bowl ones have been so bad.

The last, Every fucking Super Bowl commercial now is like here's eight random celebrities and there's Jason Momoa and the Scrubs guys dancing around with the Monopoly dudes.

Like, what the fuck is this?

Or it's always like, we're bringing back Back to the Future as a commercial for Duracell.

It's like, well, that's Lebowski.

It's like, yeah.

Yeah.

Fuck.

Yeah, I got really sad when Bruce Willis was doing a lot of those commercials and you could tell he was not completely cognizant because he was doing stuff for a Russian car battery for a second.

Am I imagining that?

There was some elder abuse going on for sure.

Yeah, too much elder abuse.

Never mind, there's no fun way to phrase that.

Anyway, going from something that feels icky like being coated in the goat sauce to a game that is dripping in swagoo,

We talked about this at length a couple months ago when this came out, but Shinobi, Art of Vengeance.

I finally got the time to check this out.

I know, Dan, you were very into it.

I know Sean is very into it.

Gang.

Holy shit.

Game feel good.

Game look good.

I like that as a very straightforward progression of like go find the hidden object so you can unlock more moves, scrub.

Because then once you do that, wow, this game just sings.

I thought Prince of Persia felt really from last year Game of the Year last year felt really good Lost Crown.

This doesn't quite feel up to that level, but it is still a fantastic feeling throwback game that takes everything that I really enjoyed from the original Shinobi games on the Genesis and modernizes it in such a way that it lives up to my imagination and my rose-colored glasses from the past.

Also, Joe Musashi, A, fantastic name for a ninja, and B, one of the coolest looking ninjas in video games?

Right in red?

Yeah, it's cool looking.

Like a sexy ninja nurse.

Wait, what?

What?

Hello, ninja nurse?

Yeah, because nurses wear the way in the red.

Ninja nurse?

Okay.

Kind of looks like a nurse.

Yeah.

Okay.

Anyway, if you have yet to check this out, then I highly suggest you do before Game of the Year season fully ramps up.

But before we get to the rest of the games, I want to take a quick temp check.

Nothing sexier than just clothing covering every inch of skin.

Some people are really into that, Dan.

Some people really into that.

Yeah, CFCM.

What do you got going on under there?

Yeah.

Damn, Backlar just dropping the acronyms.

Do you like that?

All Asusio people out there, all of you just perked up after hearing Backlar mention that.

You sickos.

You're at work.

What are you doing?

CFs in chat.

I want to take a quick temp check.

I know that there is a couple more games coming out on the horizon.

Metroid Prime 4, of course.

But where are we at with our... feeling of completion and progress towards the end of the years.

There's like a, a loose thread y'all are hoping to tie up before we get to deliberations.

I feel pretty good.

I am beginning to feel like I should try kingdom come deliverance to at least a little bit.

I might go back to that.

Yeah.

Maybe I'll do that.

Um, like I haven't started tactics and I feel bad about that.

I don't, you know, it is still a remaster research remake thing.

I don't know if it's going to be like in my top five, but, no matter how much I like it.

I don't know.

Yeah.

Yotei is kind of the thing.

Last night I was playing Yotei.

I'm near the end of that, I think.

So I definitely, I like the story and I want to see how it winds up.

So it's going to be high on my list as well.

So I definitely need to finish it.

But yeah, there are certain ones like it's been nice when it's like certain ones that I don't feel the pressure to play where it's like.

I feel like Outer Worlds.

You know I was going to.

I liked the first one a lot.

I played through it and I probably will play through two at some point, but that was one where I kind of was like Alright, what I'm hearing about this game.

I don't think there's any chance it's going to crack my top 10, so I put that one on the shelf.

I'm going to focus on Yotei.

Well, Metroid won't be in contention for this year, so Yotei is my big one, and I'll beat that soon.

And do you think some of us should try to finish Death Stranding 2?

Yes!

I mean that's a good game right away, but I think it's a lot of the stuff that happens near the end is the stuff that I'm like.

Oh my god, this is just like Some real peak Kojima stuff going on here.

Yeah, the ending is fantastic.

So, a lot, lot better than the ending of the first one.

I mean that game was just better in every way than the first one, but I love the last four or five hours of that game more than any other part of that.

What's the total clock time of that one?

Oh, fuck.

I mean... It's a big one.

Fuck.

I played 30 hours in Japan, and that was just the first, like, half?

Or what was the first?

Third?

First?

No.

I would guess 50 hours.

Oh.

Now, Dan, were you like gallivanting at all doing like side stuff or like restarting stuff?

I definitely... I wasn't... I was somewhere in between.

I definitely wasn't rushing it, but I wasn't 100%ing it.

I was just doing... I was just playing it at a natural pace.

110 from you?

Person in chat?

What?

Yeah, but...

I remember Brad and Vinny talked about they were like around 100 hours.

Yeah, I'll tell you what.

I'll cancel my Disney vacation and play Death Stranding 2 instead.

I think that's a great idea.

Wait, Mike, you're going to Disney on vacation?

Yeah, it's crazy.

Also, 35 is doable.

40.

Okay.

Oh, I know Brad and Vinny are mentally ill with the amount of time.

They were doing their thing.

Yeah, they were doing the Brad and Vinny thing.

All right.

I really do want to play it, just because I'm thinking about OD, which has nothing well, maybe nothing to do with Death Stranding.

Probably nothing.

I don't know.

I just want to give this freak a chance.

Sure.

The ending is so fun.

It's just fun.

The first one was just opaque and ponderous and didn't make any goddamn sense.

This one, of course, it doesn't make any goddamn sense, but it's fun.

Okay.

Fun wackiness.

Fun in the way that it's a game that is fun to play.

Where I did not have a lot of that.

But also the stuff you're looking at and everything near the end.

It's just like, oh man, they were just having a fun time making this thing.

I bounced off Death Stranding 1 because I was just mostly bored.

You respected yourself.

Yeah, I was like, I got so many better things to be doing with my time here.

And I feel like the opposite is true, not just in quality of life improvements, fidelity improvements, but also fun improvements.

Wait, so you're saying you were finding improvements in 2?

That's what I've been told.

I've not touched to.

Yeah.

I mean, that's the thing.

Like the stuff you're getting, like the coffin board and stuff, really makes a lot of that stuff at the end when you're like going up.

The coffin board.

It's like a snowboard with a coffin.

It is a coffin that is a snowboard.

And like when you're going over these snowy mountains near the end, you're just it's just a snowboarding game at points.

It's fucking great.

Why has no one ever thought of that before?

Yeah, I know.

You can put corpses in it, too.

It's so obvious when you hear the term coffin board, yeah.

Have you heard of the game Gungrave?

Yeah, I have.

All right, well, look, I don't know.

Maybe I'm going to try and touch this.

I'm going to try and touch it.

I'm touching things now.

I'm touching games, more specifically.

I'm touching a few games, so we'll get some touches.

He's coated in the goat sauce.

Exactly.

Yeah.

Okay.

God.

I hope y'alls didn't come coated in the goat sauce and that you could just check it out.

Stop saying stuff.

You could just check it out normal styles.

But Dan and Mike, y'all have checked out and messed around a little bit with the Analog 3D.

Yeah.

We all kind of messed around with it a little bit over Extra Life, which...

Sean really leading the pack with teaching us some Mario 64 speedrun skips and stuff like that and teaching us all how to clip through walls.

He's coded in the goat sauce, right?

Yeah.

Listening.

Yeah, that thing is great.

It's really, really cool.

I think it is great if you are not.

Look, I don't think any of us on this call are Mr Digital Foundry or anything like that.

We just like to play our Nintendo 64 games on a big TV with no input lag.

And that's what this is doing.

It's just making it really sleek, like the actual, like hardware itself, like from the controller to the console itself.

It's really just like it's shorter than the N64, but it's got all the same kind of form factor going on.

And the input lag thing.

Grubb and Sean, you were noticing a little bit via the Bluetooth, like the new controllers, the wireless controllers.

But we also had, to be fair, 8 million things going on in that room at the time for extra life.

Yeah, it happens over distance too.

So we were sitting pretty far away from it.

That'll happen.

Yep.

But luckily, I mean it also has the ports up front where you can just plug in an original 64 controller and it's just like immediately fixes any kind of issue with input lag.

But I am finding like I played some last night and everything and I am not noticing input lag with it.

But, you know, everyone kind of notices that at different levels.

But it's so cool that, like you can do hotkeys on the controller to switch between, like the PVM CVM, CRT scan lines and then just like the clean look.

Um, the new controllers.

You can just do it with the like dedicated analog button and the D pad, but they also have hotkeys.

You can do with the like original 64 controller.

Okay.

I think it's like Z and start or something with the D pad or something along those lines.

So in game you can you don't have to like back out to a menu or anything to switch between all these different modes.

And then if you want to go deep on this stuff, like you know, Sean was really going in there and tweaking like okay, I'm going to turn on D D blur, but turn off uh, anti aliasing.

And then um, you can also uh, You can just force the original hardware to make it exactly as intended.

And then he was doing things to make it look like a PlayStation game, basically.

It's not harsh changes to the way it looks, but it's noticeable, though.

What a little freak.

Oh, he was using parentheses positive, of course.

Yeah, and you can do by game settings where it's like okay, so for Turok, I like to have these things set to this level.

But with Mario 64, I just forced the original hardware.

You can turn on and off the expansion pack, things like that.

You can, with a hotkey, switch between rumble pack and controller pack, things like that.

Lots of cool little UI things where if you put a cart in there it will add it to your library, which is kind of your main screen.

So right now, I look at the top and I see GoldenEye, Star Fox, WrestleMania 2000, Mario 64.

And you can just kind of go between them, see your play time and all that stuff on it.

And so as you add games, it kind of fills out that library.

But you do need to put the card in each time.

It's supposed to work with things like you know.

There's those cards out there that like EverDrive yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

So, like the EverDrive, I have the X7 and I put that in and it popped up on the library as like unknown cartridge.

I was not able to launch it.

It sounds to me like I was talking with Analog about this and it sounds like a thing that would need to be like compatibility.

It's on EverDrive basically where they would have to like do some sort of update to make that work.

Uh, I did hear about summer carts.

Uh, so I should have a summer cart arriving like today or something.

Cause I want to test that on there.

Cause I would love to have just an ease of use cart that I can like a you know multi-cart thing and not have to swap them out every time.

But of course it is, it is supposed to work with those.

Some of those might need updates or something, but um yeah, right now I'm just using actual original carts and it's fantastic.

Yeah.

They eventually released jailbreaks for these things where you can just load off an SD card, but that usually comes later and sometimes there's a pretty big delay.

So don't get this thing with that in mind right away.

Well yeah, even stuff like the Analog Pocket, didn't it take?

It took months, if not longer, for like the actual, like The open FPGA stuff.

Yeah, like, that came out later, right?

I remember, because before that they had the Game Boy Player stuff, where it's like you could, The Game Boy Studio stuff.

Maybe it is where it's like you can make your own games.

People were like, well, what if I just... took this game and put it inside one of those shelves.

And so you could boot up stuff from there.

And then that was a workaround until the open FPGA stuff happened.

So yeah, it'll take some time.

Yeah.

Are you using an N64 controller?

I've been using the new, the 8BitDo ones.

Yeah.

Like they are, I think they're great.

Yeah.

Those started coming out like a year ago.

Those are neat.

Yeah.

They feel great.

Yeah.

Just that kind of standard form factor, but the buttons and the sticks and everything feel very much like that.

Yeah, like if you close your eyes, it basically feels exactly like the buttons outside of the weird pitchfork.

And like, I tried it with like Because, like when I was using mine, I did First, I did No Mercy, which is a D-pad game.

Then I did Chameleon Twist, which is an analog game.

And, like, both of them just felt very good, very natural.

But, yeah, like, this thing is just so easy to use.

Like, I have a RetroTINK, and I love that.

And it is a way for me to play Nintendo 64 on monitor displays.

There's a lot of options in there and a lot of them I don't understand.

So every time I'm kind of going on Google and just finding out what I'm supposed to do with this, it was much easier to just kind of plug and play, basically.

And there are those options to dive into if you want to be a sicko about it.

You can do some neat things.

But it really is just like this is just a modern Nintendo 64 and it just kind of works like that and it's super easy to use.

And uh, you know, do you put lag thing for me like i wasn't noticing it in any real way when i was playing just in my living room with a bluetooth controller.

Yeah, if you're close enough you're not gonna in like, like sean said in chat, it's like it's dropped inputs and that happens across every device on bluetooth if you're far enough away.

And actually yeah, you could just also use a uh, a normal controller.

So i think it's super neat.

I saw i'm super into it.

It's just, it was just kind of wild to me just be in my living room on this big tv playing, you know, chameleon twist right, so that's so.

Yeah, that's my next question mikey, what?

What 64 games are you actually playing?

Because i think that console probably i have the largest blinders on that console and i have a new gadget here that i've loaded up with some games and i just sort of sort of scroll through them all and i'm just like it's funny.

I've been looking at reviews for this and i'm like a little amused by how many like the.

What negative point they have is like I don't like these Nintendo 64 games.

Yeah, I mean, I'm not trying to hate.

I just feel like there's a reason maybe I never had one of these things.

There's just different types of people out there, aren't there?

You know?

I mean, it was the console to have if you had friends at the time.

I played so much multiplayer stuff.

Yeah, a lot of Mario Kart.

Mario Kart, for sure.

Mario Kart, Mario Party, Goldeneye, Perfect Dark, the wrestling games, you know?

Yeah, Bomberman 64.

Like you're going to want, you know, Wave Race 64 1080, which are really good and aren't actually improved upon in any future games.

Really,

Like with Ocarina of Time, I should play the remake.

Wave Race 64, you just actually want that.

There's stuff like Rogue Squadron, Epsilon Racer is a ton of fun.

Even Battle for Naboo, right?

Let's have a battle on Naboo.

Weird things like Space Station, Silicon Valley and Body Harvest, which are kind of strange, sort of more open games, kind of games.

Blast Corps.

Blast Corps was a super fun one.

Even weird relics of that incredible rare era, like Jet Force Gemini.

They made a third-person sci-fi show.

What does that look like?

Diddy Kong Racing.

Chat brings up best version of Blitz.

I agree.

That first Blitz on 64 is my favorite one.

Oh, I remember that.

Oh, Robotron 64.

There's plenty of good games.

Beetle Adventure Racing.

Yeah, plenty of good games on the 64.

No, there sounds like there's twos and threes of games.

I should really check it out.

We gotta play glove or you gotta love the glove?

No, actually you don't.

We've looked back at that and it turns out you do not in fact have to love the glove.

Yeah, they are.

I also have blinders for the n64 because my mom didn't like how the controller looked, so she was like we're not gonna get this.

It does have a penis.

Yeah, oh really, it was like controller bias.

I mean, i remember some people are weird about the 64 controller.

I think it's one of the best ever, if it's a top three controller ever.

I remember back in the SFGB office, Ben Pack and I just had a chill kickback.

Let's stream on the ground N64 stream.

And Ben was appalled at how I was holding the N64 controller.

Oh, you did Vinny style?

Did you do on the D-pad side with your left hand?

That's Vinny style.

Yes, because that's what makes sense to me.

Yeah.

Yeah, I did that too.

That goes completely against why they made the controller that way.

You guys just fucked up.

You gotta hold the nubbin down there.

So I hold the nubbin with my left hand.

Yeah.

Get your left hand up in there, and then the right is cradling the right there.

Yeah, that makes sense.

I think it's fair to point out and I know everyone talks about this, but when that thing came out it was very unclear.

It was just very unclear of what are we doing here?

I remember seeing diagrams of them explaining it and I kept being like I've downloaded this and this will make sense for the rest of my life.

And it still does.

But yeah, if you didn't see them explaining it.

Where was this diagram on the internet?

There is only one context in which you grip it on both ends, and that is if you're playing a wrestling game.

That is it.

Or Pokemon Puzzle League.

Or Pokemon Puzzle League 2.

Or Mortal Kombat Trilogy.

No, you play the PlayStation version of that, even with the load times.

No, you play the N64 version of Trilogy.

No loading times.

Much better.

Also, six face buttons right there.

Come on.

Well, thank you, gentlemen, for teaching me how to get all up in there about it.

Some of you got all up in the Kirby Air Riders test during Extra Life and all the videos I've seen about this game and the test, I don't understand.

Can you all help explain it to me, please?

Yes, I played it, and I don't understand it.

We did city trials online because that was the one online mode.

I then played it later.

I did the racing stuff later.

We'll talk about that too.

But the city trials is like one of those features that people as kids really love.

They brought it back.

There is a couple of rounds to this, where it's like you go around a city and you're picking up power ups.

Some of them are passive.

Some of them give you the ability to attack people.

The passive abilities, like build up your stats, that you then take into, like there's a moment where the game's like okay, everyone's collected all their stuff.

Now choose which mini game you want to do.

And it's not like you're voting for the entire lobby.

It's like, no, you have a certain level of stats.

You should choose the mini game that best fits your stats.

And then you'll go in there with other people who chose that mini game.

And if someone were to say, choose a mini game by themselves, they would just go in there by themselves and automatically win.

So strange out of the box, but it was so chaotic and so like just nonstop overwhelming that, that eventually I kind of came around to it.

Cause it's just like, it's going for it.

They don't care.

They just want to blitz your brain with input.

And, uh, and yeah.

And then then the mini games are stuff like Hey um, drop through these rings and try to get the most points possible.

It's, it's like pretty simple stuff.

The racing.

This is like one of the best looking games I've seen on the switch to it.

Like the, it's got like style visual, like uh uh, fidelity is just up there the, the courses just have so much going on and they look fantastic.

I i still don't know if i love the way the racing works, but i was starting to get it and i was enjoying myself.

Uh mike, i know you did some of the racing too and yeah and like yeah, city trials kind of seems like nonsense to me, like i think we all did like uh, and maybe i would understand it more if i mess around, maybe just some tutorials, but just kind of.

It did seem a bit like i'm just kind of flailing around.

Right, it seems like a flailing around experience The races.

When I was just doing the normal races, I was having a lot of fun with it.

Like you said, the tracks themselves are just very pretty.

I don't have too much trouble rocking the control system here, which I think is a hurdle for some people.

But basically you're always going and you use that one button as sort of your brake and your drift and some other things.

A reverse go-kart.

Yeah.

So basically, it's just like, you know, when there's a turn...

You hold that thing down so you start kind of drifting into it and you turn into the drift and then you release and you get a speed boost and you start going again.

That's largely what you're doing.

It just never drifts as much as I think it's going to.

I mean, that might be because I was choosing the wrong machine.

Yeah, the karts do vary a good bit.

It's one of those things where, like when you're starting out, maybe just use that normie star kart to kind of get the hang of it to begin with.

But yeah, I was having fun doing that.

There are things like there's power-ups.

When you get that, you'll get abilities that you can attack some of the other players with, and whatnot.

Although it doesn't seem quite as offensive slash item-heavy as, say, a Mario Kart, maybe.

Yeah, it's hard to grok the entire thing just from that little play test.

But it seems like it could be fun.

I'm still pretty shocked they made this game, right?

Because it seems like this is going to be just as divisive as Kirby Air Rider was at the time, which was like a game that like did not review very well, but just has people who do really like it.

I bet a similar thing is going to happen this time around.

Yeah.

Types of characters I should expect from Kirby writers.

You got your Kirbys.

You got your King Dedede in this.

You got your Waddle Dees.

You got your Bandana Waddle Dees.

You got your Waddle Doos.

This is just the Joe Dirt sequence.

Yeah.

That's what I was thinking.

Don't forget about Cusker Dees.

Of course you have Gooey.

Who?

Gooey!

The second player from Kirby's Dream Land 3.

Gooey?

Yeah.

This is just a knockoff slime.

What the fuck?

You shut the hell up.

We respect Kirby's friend Gooey.

I played as Gooey and his tongue was just doing all kinds of things, capturing all kinds of power-ups.

It was very impressive.

I don't like that.

I just see an image that says Gooey is here and this little freak has his tongue out.

I don't think it's a good idea to make an entire video game.

The boat in the tunnel.

Sequence from Willy Wonka.

It seems like that's a bad idea.

Oh, when you phrase it like that, I'm all in now.

Yeah, that makes me want to more.

That is kind of a good description of this game.

That should just be one of the music tracks.

I just think like, I don't know.

They all got off that boat quite ill.

And maybe too much of a good thing turns out to be a bad thing is all I'm going to say.

Because that's what this game feels like.

I think I saw there's a hamster in this game as well.

There was a hamster in Kirby.

I don't know if you can play as him.

I don't remember that.

What's that fucking hamster's name?

He's one of the animal friends.

Rick.

Rick, that's right, his name is just Rick.

I'll never fucking Rick, I'll never remember that.

Yeah, that's crazy.

Tomorrow, stepdad name, what the hell I don't know, right like shouts out to Rick just fucking Rick.

I guess all right.

Oh, I'm so with that.

Yeah okay, play as Rick.

Okay, all right, I guess I am all the way back on board.

Okay, um is, this is Kirby Air Riders supposed to come out this year?

It's coming out like days, Two days.

Yeah.

Time on the 20th.

Oh, boy.

All right.

Real quick.

I didn't put it on the sheet, but me and Kayla did try to start that Black Ops 7 campaign.

I don't know what the fuck's going on with that, but that feels bad immediately and I just have a lot of questions about it.

Is it four-player co-op online?

No, Grubb.

I don't want to.

If it is, it is.

Yes yes, it is.

And here's the thing.

I think it's the thing.

We're like me and kayla, we're playing two player and we just saw each other, but then they would do these cut scenes and you see, for like, who the fuck are those people?

Um, maybe they were running around.

It just all feels like like like trashed zombie dlc.

You know, it's like the always online thing is weird.

You might be onto something dan, yeah.

Yeah, it just feels like really weirdly thrown together and there's like mechanics and stuff in it and, like you know, like Diablo loot type colors and stuff in a Call of Duty campaign, but none of the systems seem really fleshed out in any way.

It all just kind of like ran weird and looked weird and like tonally.

I like the idea of Call of Duty campaigns getting weird and like kind of supernatural.

They did some of that in 6 and I liked it, but this just feels like something that was on the cutting room floor or something.

I think it's exactly what it has to be, because this is like these are the you know expansions, but full games versions of these, where it's like black ops seven, right after black ops six.

And it's like, there's no way that they had all this stuff ready to go.

It's like, this is just stuff they cut and scraped together and threw back out there for you.

Um, I want to try it.

I need to try it.

I like Call of Duty campaigns.

I realize it's just kind of the same type.

It's just very comfort food.

Like, oh, big, dumb action set piece.

I like that.

Have you played them all?

Yeah, I think.

Yeah.

Has anyone else here played the majority of them?

I've dipped into the campaign here and there.

I didn't do like Vanguard.

When they went back to World War II for a second, like Vanguard and stuff, I didn't do those.

But I think the rest of them, I did all the campaigns.

Could you do like a quick Mount Rushmore of Call of Duty campaigns?

I'd say Call of Duty 4, the first Modern Warfare, probably number one for me.

I really did like last year's.

I thought Black Ops 6, Black Ops 2, Modern Warfare 2, first time around.

Advanced Warfare, press have to pay respects.

That was pretty good, actually.

I kind of liked Advanced Warfare.

Is that the one with Kit Harington?

No, that's Kevin Spacey.

Kit Harington was Infinite Warfare, the space one, I think.

Infinite Warfare, yeah.

Which was also, the space one was pretty good.

Infinite Warfare.

It was all right, yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, this one sucks.

For folks curious about more Call of Duty Black Ops 7, we did play it for a bit on UPF last week.

Also, friend of the site, Lex Luddy, has a very... very scathing review of it on restart.

I did see that.

Yeah.

The one out of five, I believe one out of five, uh, go, go read that.

Um, I'm not the biggest fan of call of duty, but it is very interesting to see the decisions made to this game.

Uh, and Mike, you had a very, uh, interesting, uh, post on blue sky.

God, the fact that made me go huh.

This is the game that they're like.

We're going to use generative AI for some of our art assets, the game that makes the most some of the most unearned billions of dollars every single year, supported by a literal trillion dollar company.

I had to get art for my computer case and i paid a fucking artist to do it me by myself.

You're fucking microsoft owned call of duty.

Pay people to make your stupid little banners that people unlock at, like apex prestige, level nine, two or whatever the hell.

Holy fuck, what the hell is wrong with you.

It's the ghibli stuff.

But then also like the prestige icons and stuff like that are just this like super over designed ugly slop, like right, it's terrible, it's fucking pathetic.

Reuse those from any of the other games right right, that would be better.

Yeah yeah, modern warfare 2 they got an artist to draw those weed leaves.

Yes, exactly.

Also, if you were getting in my replies like, ah, video games have used AI for a long time.

Like, what people just freak out.

Like there's clearly not a difference between using AI to like randomly generate trees and to just steal the Studio Ghibli art style to make shitty art assets.

Everybody understands the difference.

You're not smart.

You're not finding some interesting, even ground.

Go fuck yourself.

No, they just don't understand.

They don't understand.

Well, going from a very... We did play the multiplayer.

Were you guys moved by that at all?

I guess it was me and Bacalar, right?

Bacalar, did you...

Enjoy that.

You're Mr. Call of Duty.

Yeah.

That's what they call you on the streets.

That is my name.

I got it in college, and I hold it to this day.

I think it's fine.

I mean, I don't know.

I've yet to really explore with the normie friends and sort of see what they're feeling.

That's usually the barometer for me.

It's like, where are they landing on this thing?

It's just so unremarkable, I think.

Yes.

And for me that if there is something there, if there is some you know kind of like magic, that usually will make itself, you know, known in the first couple hours of multiplayer.

I've not kind of seen that yet.

And I just don't know if it's going to happen.

Yeah, i like that they're reusing some maps that i'm familiar with but uh, if that's what i'm excited about, it's probably a bad sign.

Yeah like yeah, kayla and i played like one round and we were planning like oh, let's download this, you can play on the portal and i'll play on the tv.

We'll go through the campaign.

And then the campaign didn't move us and it's like okay let's, let's do some multiplayer.

Multiplayer is always good.

We did like one round and then we like looked at each other and we're like let's go back to simpsons fortnite.

And then we played like six hours of simpsons fortnite.

It's like that way better yes, Fantastic.

Well, if the campaign is four players, maybe it's time for the compadres to ride again.

Um, cause there's, we figured out Mike was the problem.

Me and Grubb do great with Absalom.

We're a team.

Mike was the problem.

You can't, you're throwing options in Absalom are incredibly limited, Dan.

You just have to literally start throwing.

We're a team.

Yeah.

Uh, we're a team, all of us.

And that includes and Roger, uh, Folks, I was seeking out a game to emotionally devastate me.

Over the weekend, I was able to catch up on a bunch of stuff.

Like I mentioned, play through Shinobi.

I'm a savant at... Or an adept at Absalom, as Mikey said.

And I wanted something like mouthwashing from last year to absolutely wreck my insides.

Because I need to feel something.

And I hit up Blue Sky, and this was a top recommendation.

And Roger.

It's about 40 minutes to an hour.

It is a very small game, lovingly made by real people.

No detection of AI at all.

And gang, I don't think I have felt the level of dread and horror that happens in the first 20 minutes of this game.

And it is done masterfully.

And it is...

Definitely a game that I beat it last night and I'm still thinking about it in how it is.

The messaging and the imagery is just kind of sticky.

The gameplay in it, you would think if it is like a very story-driven game, it would be fairly light.

But they really mess with game mechanics in a nice way where initially you were just kind of hitting buttons or hitting a button to progress through, of like.

Okay well, now you gotta like, make sure you're moving from point A to point B stealthily, you're avoiding someone's eyesight, and then that happens.

But then it quickly becomes very apparent and I don't want to spoil anything for the game, but it becomes quickly apparent that everything is not quite as it seems, whether you as a player character or the other character interacting with, and then that just adds up to the tension.

So now suddenly, that one button is is no longer just one button, but it's now a mess of buttons on your screen and you're panically trying to get through the sequence and you're just mashing on all of the buttons to finally find the one that it is to open a door.

Similar to... Dan, what was the eating disorder game?

Consume Me.

Similar to Consume Me.

This uses a bunch of little WarioWare-style minigames to get through the storytelling sequence, and the ups and downs uh, are very dramatic in this.

And if anyone has ever uh been very emotional watching the opening sequence to the Pixar movie up uh, that is, imagine that stretched out into a sequence close to an hour and it emotionally devastating and and wrecks you.

I will say if you are at all sensitive to any uh any content regarding like, adult relations, physical relations or perhaps dealing with elderly family members.

Maybe I wouldn't say steer clear.

I would say tiptoe and approach with caution because, as someone that I can't say is going through similar things or has gone through similar things, this still hits me on a very personal level that I highly recommend.

And thanks again, to everyone that recommended and Roger again, it's, it's like five bucks on steam.

It's 48 minutes to an hour.

Um, also the art style is beautiful.

And the moments when the game is kind of in like a positive upswing, you can't help but smile and and and be happy about it.

And then the way that they pull the rug from underneath you not just once, but several times, I think is a masterful achievement.

And just like despilote and um Other games from this year, it just really shows that indie games are really proving video games as a fantastic medium for telling stories, which is just so funny to hear about the AI slop and how much Call of Duty has just become a titan that's tripping on its own tail versus a small game like Ant Roger that is just two people.

And this is a game that I feel like will stick with me, just like mouthwashing has stuck with me.

Versus Call of Duty.

Where I'll just fucking forget about it.

And remember like.

Oh Milo Ventimiglia.

He was in that one.

Right.

Yeah.

But.

Oh man.

And Roger.

Folks at home.

And Roger.

I don't.

I think it is only on PC.

So.

I may have to dig out.

For sure.

Yeah.

I think it is.

One of those games.

That also runs on a Mac.

So hey.

If you got a Mac out there.

Go.

Go get it.

I like.

Yeah.

I like the look.

It's got that.

Like that strong.

Like two bit style.

Like you know.

Two colors.

In a lot of situations.

And very stylized.

And then.

It's like. is the does the girl i don't know if i'd be able to handle this is the girl gonna feel isolated and alone i just can't do that with kids stuff right now it's uh a bit too much so i that sort of thing i didn't think about it from like a fatherly aspect grub don't do this don't don't yeah yeah that this might be one i have to wait on a couple years we'll see uh you know thinking about it how you would approach this game avoid this like the plague okay yeah thanks i think this sounds good I might try.

I think it would hurt.

I might try.

It looks like it would hurt, actually.

Okay, yeah.

I might go to show.

It's very quick, Dan.

Yeah, again it deals with some heavy stuff at the tippy top, but it gets contextualized and that's not justifying it, but it is, Oh boy.

Oh, boy.

One of those.

I was surprised.

Between mouthwashing, you mentioned, and consume me, those are two that, you know, I don't know.

I'd call them similar based on what you're describing, but I was surprised by you know, I'm usually Mr like oh.

I don't care about narrative.

Games don't affect me.

But those two were like, oh, wait, actually, I see what they're doing here.

And this is really interesting stuff.

Did you try Despilote, Dan?

I think you did.

I did, but there was just a lot of soccer stuff.

I just can't deal with that.

Look, every man's got his lines.

Mine is a soccer ball, and I'm mad.

Well, but we're big Brentford B fans, remember?

That's right.

We love the Bs.

Yeah.

I might try this.

Yeah.

This game is published by Kodansha.

I was going to see if you guys were going to say Cochance.

Yeah.

Okay.

Thanks.

Yeah.

There we go.

Perfect.

You know, I think I'll always have a soft spot for Bonanza just for that.

Oh, yeah.

Just for unlocking that.

We don't need to have deliberations.

It's fine.

Yeah.

Sure.

Speaking about game of the year, we have like a late contender hitting up the party and Jeff Bacalar, you saw it.

You got to ride the bike with Samus.

No, I didn't.

You were like holding onto her hips as she.

She took off her helmet and her hair was just riding through the wind.

You did the bound too, like Kanye and what's her name?

Yeah.

Kim Kardashian.

Yeah.

That's right.

No bikes.

Uh, and then you saw the Rick Moranis character.

Um, and then the internet exploded when they also also saw the Rick Moranis character.

I'm scared.

Grub and Bacalar.

Y'all did a quick look EX video. for the game last Friday.

I highly suggest y'all folks at home go check that out.

But Metroid Prime 4.

You know we did do that quick look, so I'll let Mike, why don't you go ahead and ask your questions back?

Oh, sure, Mike.

Is that what this is?

Go for it.

I don't even have questions.

I know what's happening.

You do?

There's a talky character, and he has a couple quips in the beginning.

And all I'm doing right now is hoping that he's not in it much.

I uh, there are some people who are trying to spit, like here's why it might actually be a good thing.

It won't be a good thing.

It is already a bad thing.

It's like, I don't want to hear like, well, maybe this will make Sam a score.

No, no.

Sam is already as cool as can be.

My question now is just what, what's, what's the minimal damage done by this?

Actually, he does make her seem a bit cooler in moments where she says nothing.

And he, I liked it.

I liked the interactions.

I liked it.

Yeah.

I thought that was positive.

The, the, The line for me was when you were playing the game and he was like, hey, you missed this.

Like, fuck you.

Don't do that.

Let me play Metroid.

If it's that fucking head thing from God of War, that's a problem.

But if it's just a lame character that shows up in a couple early game cut scenes and the rest is just a Metroid Prime game, I can't see that being a big problem.

I think he's there to like soften the transition, to get people into a game like this in a way that they've not done before.

So yeah, I think a lot of people who have played a lot of Metroid games are not going to like them, no matter what.

I don't know the proportionality of like how much these NPCs are in the game whatsoever, but what I do think is this proportion is the amount of like fucking discourse over it, as opposed to like what the goddamn, Who the fuck cares?

Everyone's got to just grow the fuck up.

Mike is extremely weak to Metroid discourse I have found between apparently people were yelling about sand and then this character, and then Mike gets worked the fuck up over that.

I think it's fair for Mike to be... He's our own Anakin.

I think it's fair for your reaction during the trailer stuff, Mike.

I thought because you're coming from the same place.

I was where.

It's just like shut the fuck up nerds.

Now I'm one of the whining nerds.

I don't know if you're whining, but you're certainly flirting with it.

Is he whinging?

Whinging?

I don't even know what that means.

But sure, he's whingy.

Yeah, I mean, I don't even think about that guy.

Now I also am probably more of a normal video game player who is a big boy and has other shit just going on and I don't have time to care that much.

I loved what I played of that thing and I told Grub on the Quick Look.

I'm thinking about this game a lot.

The first time, I'm just like, Man, I want this now.

Like, can't I just, like, do it now?

Like, I'm special.

Let me have it now already.

I'm trying to Veruca Salt my way into this shit.

Game, please.

I want to be clear.

I do not think that, like, oh, no, turns out this is going to be a bad game or anything.

I'm still very excited.

And, like, the game looks very good.

It looks very pretty.

It's got all the fun stuff.

That's the one thing that I think is sort of under-discussed.

Because at least from the trailers, I was even sort of like...

Oh man, this game just like needs a little couple more.

You know, hours in the oven, or something like that.

But no, it looks so good.

Like so very good.

Like, oh my God, this looks phenomenal.

And I was that for me.

Like you know, I I do tend to maybe be disproportionately impressed by visuals.

Sometimes this shit looks phenomenal.

I like what Dr. Ryan said when we were talking about that character.

He said keep the same energy if this guy does talk all game like Mimir or Aloy, and don't just give Nintendo a pass.

Mimir didn't bother me, but I will say fuck this guy.

If it's like Mimir or Aloy, I will say this sucks shit just as much as they suck.

Can you even imagine a world where that could be a thing?

It just doesn't make sense.

I don't.

No, I really don't think that's going to be the case.

Look, I'll say Mimir did not bother me because I...

Connor, fucking like Momir, but like Aloy yes, no one cares.

You know, Aloy is just like alright enough, but yeah, I don't know, I don't know.

I also like have a feeling that, like I don't know, this is complete conjecture based on nothing but a gut feeling.

I do feel like this guy just won't be around after you leave that world.

Maybe you will have another person that fulfills the same sort of role yeah like, but maybe like someone that checks in with like.

But you know, if you meet an NPC every now and then, my expectation that this guy is hanging around with you for the beginning, kind of like a tutorial person, and then he either fucking dies or you see him every once in a while after that and maybe you see some other people.

I don't think there's going to be that many NPCs following you around.

I also don't think it really does a lot in the way of like compromising the isolation, you know perversion that everyone has with Metroid.

I get it.

That's what Metroid is.

But not once was I just like, well, this is a whole different game now.

And I, it's.

It's certainly, you know, easy to kind of like, you know uh, mesh back in and realize like, oh you're, you are in a weird place.

You are a stranger in a strange land kind of thing.

So.

Yeah.

Oh, is the guy that I'm looking at the video we put up?

Is the guy this galactic federation?

Uh, he's got like a goggle helmet on.

He just looks like Carmine from gears, right?

Like just like a weird helmet.

And that's the guy.

It kind of looks like the Autobot Bumblebee.

It does.

Yeah.

No, that's probably that dude.

He has glasses.

Yeah.

Okay.

I do like.

Oh, I do get.

You actually see his face and it really does look like Rick Moranis.

Right.

It is Rick Moranis.

It is voiced by Rick Moranis.

Everyone knows this to be true.

Honey, I shrunk the Samus, i i do.

I like i see a lot of people doing like yeah, equips like mcu and it's like okay, i mean like i just wasn't feeling that way when i was playing.

Like some of them are like a little bit like cute, but it like, first of all people need to find another thing to compare stuff to than just the mcu.

Like it's like it's not everything is exactly, like 400 movies, it's like yeah, But that does describe a very certain type of snark that is just absolute kryptonite to certain people like me.

Yeah, yeah.

You know, it's like Whedon-esque as well.

But there's variations on it.

This was not hitting me in that way necessarily.

Out of context, those lines look exactly like that.

So I get why people are drawing the one-to-one line.

But when I was watching it, I was not feeling that way.

And I was in there watching the gameplay that Bacalar was showing me.

So I don't know.

It's a little bit more subtle than that.

Yeah, like when he showed up during the preview, I was just like, oh wow, this is not a thing I've seen.

And that's kind of where it ended.

I get it.

My tolerance is much more... Yeah, but I want Metroid Prime 1.

That's what I want.

And when I come to this and I'm watching you play, I know how I felt.

And I felt like this game looks good.

This character is worrying me when he does this one specific thing of telling you like hey, you missed something.

If that continues, I'll hate him.

And if that doesn't, everything else was fine.

And that's just how I felt about it.

Like I'm not going to pretend to be upset like the way everyone else is, just because everyone else is upset.

Sure, sure.

So, like, this is what I got for you.

And we're going to be playing this game in fucking two to three weeks, right?

Three weeks.

Two weeks and two days.

Whoa.

So just like, I don't know.

Go do another hobby until then, and then let's play the game and find out.

Yeah, I like that.

Maybe that's the solution to this.

I like that.

No, they're not going to do that, Grub.

I know.

Everyone's got to piss their pants about everything.

I know.

Guys, you don't have to sit in the piss.

Don't sit in the piss.

Change the pants.

Folks, we're going to take a quick bricky break so you at home can go change your pee pee pants or visit the toilet and get all the goat sauce off of you.

Folks, we'll be back with the news right after this.

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Hi everybody.

I have news.

Uh, Hey, the Game Awards Game of the Year nominees were announced, and I mostly don't care.

But hey, we'll talk about the Game of the Year nominees, at the very least, and I guess if you guys notice something else, you can bring it up.

I'm not gonna.

Claire.

Obscure Expedition 33.

Death Stranding 2 on the Beach.

Donkey Kong, Bonanza.

Hades 2.

Hollow Knight, Silksong and Kingdom Come Deliverance 2.

Looks about right to me.

I could see how all these games got there.

I wish Blueprints was on there, but too early in the year to kind of stand up to the likes of Hades 2 and Hollow Knight Silksong, the kind of games that would take its slot.

So I feel like I've heard stuff and rumblings.

People talk about all of these games post launch except Death Stranding 2.

And I know that, like we live in a bubble where, like you know, Dan's very into Kojima, and I've been curious to circle back to Death Stranding 2, but I haven't seen much buzz around it since the initial like week month it came out, so i'm surprised to see it nominated here now.

I i listened to the next lander podcast where that's the only game they talk about.

So it's well yeah, that's right too, is kind of all they've talked about for like the last month and a half, because it's like that.

I was working with them when they were playing uh, death stranding one, and that was when i was fully, like i dropped out after seven hours and like they were continuing and like it kind of seemed like they hated it but they kept playing it.

So interesting to hear that they're into it now.

Yeah, i guess i don't want to be too, but yeah, i mean the game has a 98 average score still, right.

So i think it you know a lot of people did like it.

I think there's also a little bit.

There's no way it's that high right 90 98, you said 98, you said no, i'm sorry.

I meant okay, all right.

I even read 90 when i said i don't know why.

I said eight sorry uh yeah, 90.

So you know yes, i mean i'm i'm not too surprised.

Plus, there's a little bit of a uh, Kojima association with Game Awards factor.

I don't know, not that there's any funny going on, but just speaking of that I was kind of surprised because boy, howdy to the Game Awards.

Love, Joseph Ferris in Split Fiction did not go.

That one, that one yeah, that's interesting.

I think it's just because that game also got very good reviews.

It was relatively early in the year and I think there's a little bit of that was great, very similar to the last one that we thought was great and gave a big award to right.

So I say the same thing about Death Stranding 2 right Yeah, but Death Stranding 2 is improved in all ways by all accounts.

It also has Dollman.

It has Dollman.

Yeah, for sure.

I would have liked to have seen Blueprints.

I'm not shocked it's not here.

It seems like all these games are deserving.

I haven't played Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 yet.

Like I said, maybe I should try that out.

It seems like a lot of people do like it quite a bit.

I'm still pretty sure Expedition 33 is a pretty... safe choice to win it all.

It was the most nominated game with 12 nominations.

That's the most nominated game ever at the Game Awards.

So yeah, seems like it's a favorite in a lot of ways.

Although, you know, surprises could happen.

I didn't realize a thing holding blueprints back was the lack of localization to other languages.

Oh, that makes sense.

This stuff is very global, right?

That's why, even though in the U.S., it seems like Black Myth of Wukong wasn't that big a deal.

Everywhere else.

It was nominated for a bunch of stuff last year.

Kingdom Come Deliverance 2, I think, does very well internationally as well, right?

Yes, I'd imagine.

But yeah, all these games look very good.

Seeing this is the thing that was like oh, maybe I should go back to Kingdom Come Deliverance 2, spend some time with that, more time.

What's helping a exhibition 33 with that record is that it has three people in the best performance category.

By the way,

Yeah.

It kind of dominated that category and kind of pushed everything else out, which makes sense.

I will.

The only, I mean, I cared about a couple of the categories like best mobile game, Uma Musume.

We ride at dawn, everybody.

There you go.

But I was happy to see the voice actress from Silent Hill F also nominated for for Best Actor, Actress or Voice Over Performance, along with all of Expedition 33.

Yep.

Yeah, there's some things worth calling out there.

What was that, Mike?

Two Point Museum for Best Sim.

Let's go.

Oh, yeah.

That seems like I couldn't get that.

What's it up against?

I have to look again.

I mean it helps that some of the other heavy hitters came out, maybe a little late, to really get in on this, like Anno and that Europa Universalis.

I think that's going to benefit that.

I mean, you know, it's like Civilization 7, which everybody hates but me.

So Alright well, let's keep going here.

Fired.

Subnautica 2 leads allege that Krafton's CEO asked ChatGBT how to get out of paying their 250 million bonus.

The co-founders of Unknown Worlds, the studio developing Subnautica 2, have been fired by publisher Krafton.

The founders allege in a pre-trial brief that Krafton's CEO, C.H.

Kim fired them and delayed the game's early access release to avoid paying a 250 million earning bonus or earn out bonus.

The brief claims Krafton's finance department had forecasted a 191 million earn out and that Kim feared the payment would endanger his position.

Basically he was like worried that he would look like a pushover if he paid too much for the studio that made them a lot of money.

So he went to chat GBT and was like, how can I not look like such a schlub?

I need to look like a ruthless leader.

And I guess ChatGBT was like, delay the game so you don't have to pay the bonus.

And he did that.

Krafton denies the claims, stating the founders showed little interest in Subnautica 2's development and the delay was necessary to improve the game, not to avoid the bonus.

Subnautica 2 is now pushed back to 2026.

I'll say from what I've heard inside of that studio, that game was ready to go.

This was, you know, it has been alleged to me that this is explicitly about not paying that bonus.

Wow.

Yeah.

That's a nightmare.

That fucking sucks.

This is, But it's so frustrating because it's like you know not to like get too much on that, but like those Epstein emails, this is how rich people talk.

This is like, they're so fucking stupid.

They are like, they like can't spell.

They don't finish their sentences.

They're all these rich, powerful people that control everything, are just like tell me what to do, JadGBT.

I don't want to look like a nerd to my rich friends.

This is what we're dealing with.

I think a lot of these rich people might be stupid and bad, Jeff.

I think, Dan, I'm glad you said it.

I'm glad you said it.

Take a stand here.

It's very frustrating.

That game will probably eventually come out.

But man, is anyone in that studio going to have the morale to continue working on it?

No, I can't imagine.

This seems like a Kerbal Space Program 2 situation, right?

Like the sequel to the Super Acclaimed thing, and now there's this other big company involved in publishing it and

Eh, this doesn't really quite work this time.

I don't know.

Yep.

We'll see how that shakes out.

220 Rockstar North staff have signed a letter demanding their fired colleagues are immediately reinstated or should be immediately reinstated.

More than 200 current employees at Rockstar North have sent a letter to senior management demanding the immediate reinstatement of 31 colleagues who were recently fired across the UK and Canada offices.

Rockstar claims the employees were dismissed for quote gross misconduct related to leaking company secrets in a public forum.

However, the Independent Workers Union of Great Britain, the IWGB, alleges the firings were an act of victimization and collective dismissal linked to trade union activity, as the fired staff were part of a union channel and attempting to organize.

That's the forum in which they were sharing information about their work, and they were not necessarily sharing details about who you're going to play, as in GTA 6 or whatever, or anything like that.

They planned protests, all this stuff, and now they continue to try to push back against Rockstar Records and Rockstar's not doing a very good job, of sort, of avoiding the allegations here that they did this to shut down unionization.

And again, it's like, I wonder if they asked ChatGPT what they should have done here.

I wouldn't be surprised.

Hey, this isn't me trying to be contrary, but I don't fucking care about GTA 6.

I more so care about the people that are working obscene hours and making sure that they have a life, everything.

So it really sucks that rockstar is uh totally tried to union bust and they're trying to skirt around it.

I would even say that maybe them announcing gta6's delay is just trying to get uh past any of the union busting allegations.

But i i hopefully uh folks at the studio and and people do not let them slide for this one.

Yeah, it's frustrating because uh sure they could maybe reinstate these people and mitigate the damage that has been done here, but this is a company that can withstand just about any amount of damage, like they could pay.

Like they lose a court case which is like this is likely to go to court.

They could lose a court case and be uh ordered by a court to pay hundreds of millions of dollars and they could afford to do that.

It probably won't be that much because rockstar is going to have really good lawyers.

They'll be able to keep that damn those damages down potentially.

But who knows?

Or they might be able to run the clock out and settle.

That's probably what they'll end up doing here and find a number that they're OK with.

And it won't hurt, because this is they're talking about a game that will be an endless money printing factory.

And they factor that into their decision making process here.

It's just, you know, you're right.

All this for how I feel.

I feel pretty similar to Jim.

It's like all this for Grand Theft Auto.

It's just not worth it.

Near Director Yoko Taro assures players he's been working on projects, but they keep getting canceled.

Near Director Yoko Taro said during G-Con 2025, which is a conference, that he has been working on numerous projects in recent years, but none have been released because they keep getting canceled during development.

He addressed comments from people wondering why he hasn't made a near sequel or why he seems inactive, explaining that while he gets paid for the work, the lack of released output makes it appear as though he hasn't been working.

Yoko Taro stated that he doesn't mind the cancellations, preferring not to release a game that isn't up to his standards.

This comes after a 2023 event where he and Nier producer Yosuke Saito mentioned working on a non-Nier project they hope to discuss in 2024, a discussion that never happened.

Yeah, you know, we've heard like Square Enix kind of like reorganizing stuff constantly and shuffling things up and like hey, we're not going to worry about a lot of these other projects.

We're just going to worry about our core stuff.

I wonder if his games got caught up in that.

Yeah, maybe.

I mean, you know, he had that mobile game thing come out, Voice of Cards or something.

That was a Nier game, right?

That was... Nier or Nier Adjacent.

Yeah, I never really quite understood what the heck that thing was.

Oh, Voice of Cards was just like a card game.

I don't think it was... Okay, it was separate.

Yeah.

Okay.

You know, he was a director on that, so he was like, you know, working on that thing.

Um...

So yeah, maybe some other projects.

Look, I don't think any of these projects that were canceled were Nier Automata 2, right?

They would let that one go.

You would think.

Yeah, you would think.

I mean, they put a lot of effort into it and they keep re-releasing those games and investing in them and it seems like that franchise is at an apex, so you might want to cash in on that.

That's right.

There was also Nier Reincarnation was the Nier mobile game.

Yeah so yeah, there was a couple mobile things he's done since then near Tom Tom, which gosh was all the way back in 2017, near automata.

Um, so yeah, maybe that's like the surprising thing is that we haven't really had the sequel.

There was the near, uh, one remake near replicants.

So, you know, there's, there has been things happening.

I think that's what this really is, is everybody is sort of wondering where near automata two is.

And, you know, I wonder if he wants to make that game.

I mean, I talked to him not that long after the first near automata.

And like, I, It was like, hey, do you feel pressure to just make a kind of traditional sequel?

Because this game is so big, and I bet people are going to just want more 2B.

And he's a hilariously unserious person, which makes him so fun.

What he told me is like, yeah, I'll make a game with 2B in it, but maybe she'll be a bug now.

I don't know.

I'm like, yeah, that's great.

So part of me is like, is there weird pushback where he doesn't necessarily want to make that game?

That's all Square Enix wants him to make, or things relatively chill, and again he's kind of being a bit goofy and unserious about it.

It's hard to get a total read on the situation, but I think he's fantastic and I think he should be allowed to do whatever he wants.

Yep, exactly.

He should be kind of in a blank check scenario.

He's kind of only raised his profile and his games are only doing better and better as time goes on.

I mean, he's been making games for a long time now, so yeah, I kind of want to see what he can keep doing.

Xbox announced a partner preview showcase for, what is it, Thursday, November 20th at 10 a.m.

Pacific time, 1 p.m.

Eastern.

They have mentioned specific titles here, including updates on 007, First Light, Tides of Annihilation and Re-Animal.

All games featured will also be Xbox Play Anywhere titles.

You buy them once, play them anywhere.

Microsoft also has a big 2026 in the works.

Supposedly, they should have.

Forza Horizon 6, Gears of War, E-Day, Halo campaign evolved, and maybe Fable, if that's real still.

So they have their first party stuff happening over here.

They have partner stuff happening with this show and they did pretty well with partner stuff in 2025.

I mean, Expedition 33 was a Game, Pass game, and there was several examples of kind of similar big games.

Silksong was too.

Silksong, exactly.

So they seem like they're trying to kind of maintain that going into next year.

But do you guys have any expectations of what could show up here?

I suppose 007 First Light's already kind of a big hit, although we've seen that in a bunch of places now.

Yeah, I guess I'm not sure what else exactly I am hoping for in terms of like partner stuff.

Yeah, I kind of want to see some new exciting things there.

It would be nice if they had another Expedition 33 ready to go.

Not, you know, literally a sequel, but...

This kind of like oh, this game that looks kind of small or maybe we're not sure how it's going to be.

And then it's a giant hit and turns out to be a big deal.

I don't know if they have one of those, but hopefully they have some nice surprises.

Yep.

I don't have any expectations for whatever.

Fable.

Cool.

Let's do it.

I think for this partner showcase that they will probably continue to have some token support from Japanese publishers that they have like been manufactured through like strong efforts to make that happen.

Square Enix will probably be there.

Sega will probably be there.

Didn't we see a lot more of metaphor through Xbox partner showcases than anyone else?

Yes.

Metaphor was like a strong partnership between that was Sega, right?

Sega and Xbox.

Sega and Xbox are still thick as thieves.

So yeah, I think we'll see them show up here as well.

Maybe this is where we get Persona 6, Mike.

Probably not.

I don't even know if we see more Persona 4, whatever that's called.

Maybe another Yakuza spinoff.

Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised.

Okay, let's see here.

More players in the UK, US, and Japan still prefer single-player games to multiplayer.

Survey finds.

A new survey from Ampere Analysis says that they talked to 34000 players across 22 markets and found a majority of players in the UK, Japan and the United States.

That's 58%.

63% and 65% respectively, still prefer single-player games over multiplayer ones.

Preference for single-player games generally increase with age rising from 49 among 16- to 24-year-olds to 64 for the decrepit 55- to 64-year-olds.

Well, decrepit is a fucking choice.

That's just what I'm here for.

You guys are outside of that demo.

You're fine.

Exactly.

Give us some time.

Yeah, listen.

Once I'm there, it won't be decrepit anymore.

Right, it'll be fresh.

Until then.

It'll be the fresh 55.

The findings reaffirm the viability of single-player games, despite the market's focus on live service.

Blah blah, blah.

Yeah, live service games, multiplayer games still tend to actually sell better, make more money.

But I do think that these companies should always kind of keep in mind that there is, like this, solid foundational base of people who like single-player games.

Do you guys think that the trend of like oh, older gamers prefer single-player games, younger players don't.

It's the kind of thing where it's like oh, as those younger players become older, they will begin to prefer single-player games, or they will just change the dynamics and single-player games will become less popular.

You're probably playing the stuff you grew up with and have an affinity for.

For a lot of us, it's old NES and Super Nintendo single-player games.

If I grew up with fucking Roblox and Fortnite and eSports and stuff, I'd probably look for that.

I think maybe may be lost on us.

Is that a lot of?

For a lot of these younger gamers, this is their form of communication with their friends, right?

This is how they gather socially, especially like going through the pandemic Roblox Fortnite blow up.

That's the upside then.

So like as they become older and more insular and less social, right?

And grumpy, then that's when we get them.

That's when we'll get them once they're sad.

Yeah.

We were talking during the break that young millennials and Gen Z are figuring out.

Sit in a bar September because the apps aren't working.

Sooner or later they won't be able to talk through Roblox or Fortnite, so they're going to have to go out to, I don't know, a gym or a mess hall, a community center.

Yeah, my kids still play a lot of Minecraft specifically.

That's still the big one.

They try some other stuff here or there, but Minecraft's still number one.

Tell your kids to do sit in a bar September.

Listen, God, I would love that.

They need to get out of the house.

God, just go drink something.

It's shot o'clock, kids.

Come on.

It's shot o'clock, you six-year-old.

Oh, fuck.

I do like... It is like a cage.

I'll imagine like there is a chance, like one day this will be the last time they ever play Minecraft or something like that, because they could just at any point like lose their interest.

That seems less and less likely.

As they like, It's becoming more and more part of their personality.

So, yeah, I do think they are going to reach a point either where...

They put it away forever, or Minecraft is with them forever and they just kind of are always going back to it.

But I don't know.

I'll see which way they break.

I could see that with some trends with gamers where, specifically on the single player part, where there is a whole generation of gamers younger than us and, I believe, younger than Sean even that grew up watching streamers play like single player games.

So like there's a whole generation subset of this audience that is obsessed with stuff like Five Nights right yeah, there's a reason why, like now, they sell those plushies at Target by those movies do okay enough.

So I'm interested to see where, like that subset of gamers that are younger, the skew younger, if they are interested at all in in staying up to date with, like single-player games, because I also don't see that audience translating into like the triple-a and single player experiences that like PlayStation would be presenting us a couple of years ago.

Yeah.

I think it's going to be interesting as these, these dynamic shifts do happen.

Or the demographic shifts is what I'm trying to say.

Demographic demographic shifts happen.

And these companies are like already so risk averse.

So when they try something and if things shift underneath them, I don't think there'll be like Oh, here's what we learned.

The only thing they'll learn is we're afraid to make any kind of game.

Which is kind of just how I feel about, like all those conversations we were having earlier about all these companies using chat, GPT to have conversations about how not to pay people and firing people who are trying to unionize.

They just seem afraid of everything.

So this little tidbit of information here, while it's certainly reassuring to me, like oh, there's still a lot of people out there who are pretty similar to my style of playing games.

I don't think that gets through to a lot of executives at these companies, because they know that and they're like well yeah, we're already relying on you to buy our slop.

Well, we don't care about you.

We're looking for growth and that happens elsewhere.

And that's frustrating.

OK, Capcom says it's confident Resident Evil Requiem won't suffer from Monster Hunter Wilds style.

PC performance issues.

Capcom has stated it does not expect its upcoming game Requiem, to have the same PC performance issues as Wilds, despite both games using the RE engine.

The company attributes this to differences in Requiem's gameplay system, architecture and network features, assuring a smooth experience across various PC specs.

The game is set to release on February 27th on PS5, Xbox Series X and S, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC.

The director also noted that porting Requiem to Nintendo Switch 2 went more smoothly than anticipated due to the game's highly scalable development.

So that's probably actually a good sign.

It's running on Switch 2.

You would hope it.

It's going to just inherently run better than Wilds did.

They had to learn this lesson though, right?

Yeah.

I mean, that's great.

I kind of hope they can go make Wilds, and even I don't know how Dragon's Dogma 2 is working these days, but I hope it'd be nice if both of those were doing really well on PC, which I don't think is the case.

Yeah, I get the sense that they are going to put out their updates for Wilds and they will fix the real problems with Monster Hunter and the next Monster Hunter.

There's going to be an expansion for Wilds and I wonder That's what I'm saying updates and expansion, yeah.

Yeah, I wonder what that's like.

Yep.

It just feels like, man, if they could have fixed it, they would have done it by now.

It's been almost a whole year.

I guess it's been three quarters of a year, but I don't know.

It feels like forever ago, that game came out there.

It feels...

Yeah.

Like forever.

There's a game that wasn't nominated for game of the year, huh?

Nope.

Or for much.

One of the highest rated games of the year, and it was not nominated.

Yep.

Yeah.

Now I'm like wondering, did it get nominated for anything?

No, I don't think it would have gotten for multiplayer.

Best RPG and... Oh, that's it, I think.

Just best RPG.

Oof.

Well, not going to win that category.

No, probably not.

All right.

Ubisoft postpones earnings call and halts trading with little explanation.

Uh, this is a, this is a strange one.

Uh, they like a half an hour.

Maybe it was a little bit longer than that before their earnings call was supposed to happen last week.

Uh, for the first half of their fiscal year, Ubisoft was like, Oh, Hey, we are not going to do that.

And we are asking the the, the indexes on which we trade, to halt any trades involving our stock, to avoid any problems.

Um, This happens for a variety of reasons.

It doesn't happen very often.

And video games, I can't remember the last time it happened.

There was one company that has done it before.

The speculation here immediately is, oh, Ubisoft's being acquired.

And that does seem like the likeliest scenario.

There's also the possibility that they just legitimately fucked up the math and they could not report what they had in their books because that would be illegal.

So they're like, there's always that possibility and we'll find out.

But this is a company that's already been shifting around and selling off parts of it and creating new entities to do with Tencent.

And I would imagine maybe Tencent's going to step in and just buy the rest.

Or if they're not, maybe the Saudis.

I don't know.

But there is... It's worth reminding people.

There is the new version of Ubisoft that has Rainbow Six, Far Cry, and Assassin's Creed.

And that's their focus.

And that's the real thing that they're actually investing in and working with Tencent on.

And that's the part that the Gimo family... wormed their way into still being in charge of.

And then there is the rest of Ubisoft that got left behind, where you'll find your Splinter Cell remakes and Beyond Good and Evil 2, you know, fucking fairy tales and all these things that you know don't feel real and don't feel like they were ever getting the love they needed.

And something's going to happen with that part of it now?

Maybe.

We really don't know yet, though.

I mean, it's like what do you expect to happen?

Right, so they got bought up by Tencent or the Saudis right, like that's what you're kind of waiting to see happen here.

But uh, could just be a math thing, who knows.

It seems like they've been waiting for.

It seems like they've been waiting for like, the big dramatic thing to happen to Ubisoft forever, and it's always been these kind of weird quarter measures or half measures right yep, weird maneuvering by that family that controls it to like, keep themselves in charge, and that's why it always feels strange.

Uh, This happened last week.

We still haven't had any update on this.

From one family to another, huh?

That seems to be the case, yes.

If there is any updates there, we'll talk about it probably on Game S Mornings.

Hopefully this week we get an answer to that.

Hey, last week, since the Bobcast happened, Valve revealed new hardware a controller, a compact gaming PC and VR-ready headset the Steam Controller.

It's an updated version of the last Steam Controller now that has analog sticks.

Hooray!

The Steam Machine is back.

It's running SteamOS, but now the new improved SteamOS that has really great support for Windows-based games.

It's six times more powerful than a Steam Deck, and it's very tiny and cute and cool.

Has 16 gigabytes of RAM, 8 gigabytes of VRAM.

People are worried about that.

Seems like it might not actually be much of a problem, though.

They have a lot of custom tech in there to help with that.

And then the Steam Frame, the standalone VR headset that has a Snapdragon mobile processor also running SteamOS.

There's a lot of implications there of like ooh, SteamOS on mobile devices going forward.

The next Steam Deck might be a mobile processor.

That could be interesting.

Probably won't be.

Could be, though.

Cool tech like foveated streaming.

So they'll just beam the part of the game from your PC or across the internet just right into your fovea and your eye, which is where you actually see the highest visual acuity.

That sort of thing.

So a lot of cool stuff here.

Dan, Jan, you guys got to see it.

You guys have talked about it in a bunch of places.

That video is excellent.

People are really happy with it.

But any things that you guys have been thinking about since you got a chance to go hands-on with so much of it.

The thing I've been thinking about a lot lately is just like in terms of the current OSs that we have.

You know, like we've all just gotten accustomed to like, okay, this is how PS5 works.

This is how this works.

You know, it's like, oh, the Switch one's pretty clean, but it's pretty basic.

Don't have a lot of flexibility here.

And especially as I've like, I keep playing things on that ROG Xbox ally X where it's okay.

Once I get a game running, I like how powerful this is, but everything surrounding launching a game or configuring anything is a nightmare.

It's like, I am so appreciative of just that steam OS.

It is just so fucking clean.

It's got everything you need.

And now you're going to have all these different devices that all operate under that us with seamless cloud saves and everything.

Like you know the larger thoughts on these devices and everything.

Please, like Reb said, check out our video on YouTube.

Just search, you know, giant bomb valve machine.

I am so excited about these things.

I think the controller.

I think there's going to be a bit of a like I don't know learning curve.

Probably isn't, there's just going to be an adjustment period, I think.

Because, like, there are still things that I didn't quite understand the use for, like the grips where it's like, okay, if you grip it tightly, it turns on kind of the gyroscope aiming.

But if you hold it loosely, like the idea of like, holding a controller tight or loose is like a new thing to me you know yeah that like i had someone explain to me and i'm like i don't know if i'll ever use it this way but like you know you will grip it tight when you want to be actually using the gyroscope in but then maybe you like let go to recenter it and then and then you just quickly grab it again and that becomes second nature after a while it's like okay i can see that for people who play a lot of games that way which on PC is a surprisingly common way that people actually do engage with like first person shooters.

Yeah.

And having the ability to do that, you know, like that's never a bad thing.

You know, I'm sure worst case scenario, you don't like it.

Just turn it off.

Don't utilize that thing.

Um, but ultimately all three of these devices are great.

Uh, from what we've seen, the the steam machine in particular, I think, is the one I'm most excited about.

Like, I love the idea of just having this thing.

That's six times more powerful than the steam deck.

Just HDMI cable to my TV, make it super fucking simple.

Um, but yeah, I hope.

Uh VR, like I mean look, the device is excellent, but there have been numerous VR devices now that I've been like oh okay well, this fixes that problem or this fixes that hardware problem.

But then it's like, I'll be excited about it.

I'm like, all right, what am I going to play?

And even the good ones, like that Batman game.

It's like I'll do once for an hour and then be like all right, I don't like being in VR.

So uh, we'll see if that fixes.

Like, games in general need to be better in VR for any of the hardware to matter.

But at least this feels really nice.

Um, Even, like, the 2D stuff.

Like, I played a bit of Hades in the Steam frame, and it was awesome.

Just made the screen really, really big, really sharp visuals and everything.

I'm very excited about these devices, but I think the Steam machine is number one in my book.

Yeah.

If not for the price.

Oh, go ahead, Jay.

Yeah, we don't know.

Oh, I was going to say I think I'm very surprised at how much the Steam controller seems to be very popular and how excited people are about that.

I'm excited about it, yeah.

I think my biggest takeaway though, from preview event that dan and i went to is wow, these people at valve are very smart and passionate and like they earnestly really like the things that they are making.

It doesn't feel like it is a cash grab or like striking while the iron is hot.

I know a lot of people have, as soon as uh, the gabe cube got announced, that people are saying like take that xbox, get fucked um.

But i don't think that is like Valve's primary motivation.

I think they want to just have the Steam library available in more places for people.

I think they want to create a world where SteamOS is a viable alternative to Windows, and they've done that now.

I think this- Oh, for gaming, yeah.

Yeah, for gaming, which is what they care about, right?

And that's the conversation that we're usually having there.

Like Linux is already a viable alternative for desktop stuff, and people really care about that.

You can get your Bazite going.

But for gaming, it wasn't for a very long time.

And when they tried to do Steam Machines originally and was that like?

It was like more than 10 years ago now.

I want to say that was like the mid-2010s, the third-party stuff.

Yeah, I think it was like 2013, 2014.

What was that again?

They were like licensing out... It was a third-party thing with different... It was PCs, basically.

Asus and Acer and stuff.

Maybe those aren't right, but stuff like that.

And they would build these smaller, not this small, smaller PCs.

They weren't locked specs but they were certainly like, were presented as like hey, they're like this is in this tranche of prices here.

Yeah um, but the idea was really like steam os was the was the thrust there, and that was linux and there's a lot of games on steam that run on linux.

Let's just do those.

Well, since then, they've got proton, they have, they have the steam deck.

Steam deck was has done most of the bulk of the work of establishing steam os as an alternative and people are like hmm, maybe we'll start installing these on desktops.

We're certainly going to install them on other, like windows handhelds, because this is maybe more powerful in some ways or makes games run better, makes the thing more efficient.

But what about desktop?

Well, this is saying, hey, no, this is going to work on desktop as well.

And everyone this time around is going, yeah, we see it, we get it, and we want it.

And that's very different than the way it happened last time.

And it separates us from a world of like Microsoft's whims, of like hey, what are they going to distract us with next time?

What other garbage are they going to throw into this operating system?

And I use Windows all the time.

I'm mostly fine with it on desktop, whatever it's annoying in some cases, but clearly there needed to be an alternative path, and now SteamOS will definitely be that.

And it's open and people can put it on whatever they want.

It doesn't have to just be on a Valve box Steam machine that you buy from Valve.

You're going to be able to install this yourself.

Oh, I didn't know that.

That's great.

I do hope that the Steam frame kind of ushers in another small boom for virtual reality games, because I know a lot of it.

I know a lot of it like right now is locked behind meta and everything and anything I can do to not have Facebook or Zuckerberg anywhere near my life.

I will do.

Um, and I, I also need to emphasize how comfortable in light that headset was like, yeah.

As someone that wears glasses, I know like the meta quest three can be a little bit front heavy and like it hurts my neck after a while.

And also like my glasses will fog up.

Um, but in the brief time checking out the steam frame, um Felt very comfortable to just like onto my face.

Felt good.

Also super duper light.

And I don't understand how the computer is just in the visor part of it, but I don't.

It's just a phone.

It's just a phone, I guess.

There are already Chinese handhelds that use the same exact processor.

And so it's like oh, we're going to be able to put SteamOS on these things and it's going to be optimized for it.

And so running Windows games on Android, something that is possible online already in some ways uh, but you know this is going to streamline that in a significant way.

That's really promising.

Here's a question, here's like a temperature check question.

As it comes to vr i saw it today there are a bunch i don't even know where the rumors came from on blue sky today about half-life 3.

Like oh, is that going to get announced today, or whatever.

Let's say hypothetical, let's say half-life 3 gets announced and it is both fully playable in vr and traditionally, how do you think you would play most of that Like, do you think it'd be a thing like where you try?

Yeah.

I was just thinking that it's like, I would probably try it, you know, to see what it's like.

Cause I mean, Alex is probably the best VR game I've ever played, but ultimately I still would.

If that's a you know 12 15, 20 hour game, I'm going to want to play it on a screen.

I think, you know?

Yeah, of course.

Yeah.

I think so.

It'd be something to check out.

Like Ari seven's VR mode, right.

It was like novel and cool.

Yeah.

Uh, I wouldn't play the whole game like that.

Yeah.

Cause I'd be too scared.

Yeah.

Like I, I don't, I think it doesn't matter who you are.

I don't think humans adapt to playing extended, extended VR sessions.

It's just not like... You can only be on a roller coaster for so many hours.

You speak for yourself.

No, but I'm saying you would eventually fucking lose it.

You just can't do it.

You get motion sickness with VR after that Bonesaw game, right?

With one game.

But I've done plenty of VR since.

I'm okay.

And I like roller coasters.

That was the first thing I did when they put me in a VR.

Uh, for the steam thing is I turned off all of the uh eight way moving, like all of those like guard rails that they put on you in VR.

I just instantly turn all those off.

Cause I just think that is a better experience, you know?

I mean, it makes you sick as fuck, but yeah.

Right, like that's my point.

Like one day, you know, it's just there's only so much you can do.

And I think, you know, I think for something like Alex, that was like a very impressive sort of proof of concept.

But I mean, imagining Half-Life 3 completely VR just seems like a lot of tasks.

Yeah, and it's like if we go like, have this conversation with a normal person, we explain all this to them.

They're like, so I get some benefits from being in VR, being more immersed.

But is that what I'm... is that what I want from when I'm going to play a game?

What I want from a game is to be entertained and to relax and to have a good time.

And immersion is maybe one of those things that helps me get those things, but it's not the only thing.

And you're saying there's a chance I'm going to get sick.

That doesn't seem like a good bargain to me.

And I think that's going to be, that's going to continue to be a problem for for this technology going forward.

So we'll see.

Prices have not been announced for any of this stuff.

These games, these games, these products are shipping early next year though.

So they're going to have to give us prices soon.

They're.

Price is probably a moving target, because stuff like RAM continues to go up and it would cost a lot.

I did just real quick.

I just I was like I've been piecing together a PC for for Emmy for like the last several months, like slowly trying to find deals on stuff.

I was going to use my old, my old NZXT H1, which is like their mini ITX case.

That thing was busted.

So I kind of had to get a new one.

And so I eventually was like you know what?

I'm just going to build one and we're going to use this as kind of like as a family room PC sort of thing, as something I can store media on, pricing it out over time, and i kind of just got the last component, i think, all in to build something that is going to be pretty equivalent to what is um happening with this steam uh machine.

It was like 900, 950 dollars.

I think the pcpu might be a little bit better um, but still it's like okay.

So if they can come in under that for this thing, i i think they'll probably be 600 to 800.

I think they're going to be able to hit a lot of people with that.

That was my guess to Jan when they said there was a 512 and a 2TB.

My just knee-jerk guess was 650 and 800.

Yeah, that sounds right to me.

What was your equivalent GPU?

My GPU?

Yes, I did a low-profile 5060, which might also be a little bit better, but it's not custom.

I don't know if it has FSR for support.

Maybe it does.

Um uh, but yeah, that was.

That was the most expensive thing.

Actually, it was like oh, i needed to get something that could fit in a mini itx case though.

So yeah, but it was fun to build, all right uh, let's get on to the last of the stories here.

Art dink, art dink announces art dink game log catalog title ports for switch and pc.

Art dink has announced art dink game log, a project to port and re-release their previously developed games on modern hardware.

The first title, Tale of the Sun, will launch on Switch and PC via Steam in Japan on December 16th, followed by Aquanauts Holiday in 2026.

A third title is planned for later revelation.

That's got to be Doshin the Giant, right?

That's Doshin the Giant?

You'd think so, yeah.

I hope it is.

What the fuck?

Yeah.

Art Dink in 2025.

Art Dink is back.

They're still out there Art and Dinkin, because if they won't dink art, who the hell will?

That's a good point.

Yeah i, i have not really played aquanauts holiday.

Maybe i did like a five minute thing on game informer of it.

But like i i've done a little dose in the giant.

I've definitely done tail the sun.

I would love to see what that is.

It is just fucking weird that they're still a company and they're putting out tail of the sun on the tail.

The sun's gonna be on switch and pc.

Now it is like they are just putting them out in japan japan, But that's just because they're not localizing.

You don't need to localize those games.

It'll be fine.

You just play those games as is.

You'll be fine, yeah.

Yeah.

Be gay, do crimes, and dink art, everyone.

That's what they say.

That's our motto here at Giant Bomb.

Sony announces a cheaper Japan-exclusive PlayStation 5.

There was a PlayStation State of Play last week.

It was a Japan State of Play.

Kind of felt like, hey, remember us?

We like Japan, too.

You don't have to just play games on Nintendo.

And to help facilitate that, here is a 350 version of the PlayStation 5, as opposed to the 550 600 versions we have been selling you.

That State of Play came along with some announcements here and there, but it was also a reminder about a lot of other games.

This does seem to be though, a strategy by Sony to reestablish themselves in Japan, because Japanese gamers are, while they, you know, have moved on to mobile in a lot of ways they, when they do, come back to consoles.

Apparently, they don't just spend a lot of money on the games, they love spending money on merchandise and and like pop-up stores and all this other stuff.

There's a lot of value there that sony has apparently left on the table and a company like nintendo has gobbled up entirely.

Uh, so sony's like hey, we are going to remind people and give them a way to get on board, But there is a lot of skepticism that this is going to be enough to sort of win that audience back, especially after they have done things like close Japan studio, which might've been able to make games that could really appeal to a Japanese audience.

Do you guys feel like they can make any inroads into Japan with a cheaper PlayStation five and like a bunch of partner games?

No, no.

Yeah.

I'm going to say no.

I feel like it's a real uphill battle.

Everyone that would have really wanted a PS5 in Japan would have already gotten it, and I don't know what is trending amongst Japanese gamers right now.

They're in an awkward spot too, where a lot of the franchises that would have appealed to Japan and a younger audience they have maybe let dormant for too long now to a point where they're incapable of attracting much of an audience outside of the olds like us.

And so how many new things can you spin up in that style, especially if you don't have a japan studios like?

It's pretty difficult.

Third party anime games can only do so much.

They uh, it is certainly something that where it's like if they did care about japan and it seems like they do alarm bells were probably going off there, because for years now the uh japanese audience has been pulled by various uh analytics groups and they're like hey like, what are you playing on?

And since like 2023?

It's very clear that younger gamers in Japan Gen Z and younger do not care about PlayStation at all.

No.

And that's not an overstatement at all.

So when they were asked, hey, what are you playing on?

The DS back in 2023 ranked higher than the PlayStation 5.

The Nintendo DS from 20 years ago.

That's insane.

In 2025, the 3DS ranked higher than the PlayStation 5.

Uh, among gen z and younger.

So older gamers yes, they still care about playstation to a certain extent.

Younger gamers do not care about it at all.

That's the uphill battle is now.

They have to sort of reintroduce themselves to an audience that didn't forget, never learned to care about playstation in the first place and, to some, to some extent um, or if they did, it's like it's they feel like a completely different company now.

Um, you know the things that are working in japan.

It's like splatoon and pikmin Cute, cool games with a lot of style, especially in terms of Splatoon.

I think that PlayStation will probably have to make games like that to have a chance to change the story there.

But rumor is PlayStation 6 will have a portable version of itself.

And if that thing is sleek and cool, maybe they could introduce some games alongside that and that could change the story pretty quick.

Because the Vita was very popular in Japan and maybe they can bring back some of that love.

I don't know, love to see, but i don't think anything's going to change with the playstation 5.

Okay yeah, i just oh yeah, go ahead.

Sorry grub, i just don't see playstation sony able to pivot immediately into doing cutesy, wootsy stuff, especially when they're massacring my boy, ratchet and clank, by giving them a fucking mobile game.

Yeah, there's a lot of news.

I didn't have a chance to get all that.

There's a mobile shooter ratchet and clank game that they're making.

Yes yeah, It's not going to be available on PlayStation.

It's just mobile.

It's weird.

There's a handful of other stories like that, but I don't know.

We'll see what they're thinking.

That does it for the headlines, though, Jim.

This show is back over to you.

Fantastic.

Folks, we're going to go air out and just decompress about the news and we'll be back with emails and YouTube super chats.

Federation Force.

That's funny.

We'll be back right after this.

These are the emails for the show.

Emails.

Bombcastgiantbomb.com is the email address to send your emails to.

You can write in about any and everything, whatever you want.

You want to make a fun quiz?

I'll try and read it.

If there's enough time, you have a miscellaneous question about whatever.

I'll try and read it to the gang.

If you have nice words, I'll keep it to myself and I'll print it out and I'll show my mom and she'll put it on the fridge and then we'll all be happy.

Look at that.

Bombcastgiantbomb.com.

Once again, is the email address.

First email comes from Nick from Vermont.

Nick last week wrote in with what I thought would be fun facts about Vermont.

Instead, kind of highlighted how Vermont can kind of be a little bit of a bummer.

Nick wrote back in with some positive stuff about Vermont this time.

Hey again, duders.

I didn't mean to bring y'all down last week with my Vermont facts.

Here's some more positive leading facts about Vermont.

I'll try to keep this one shorter.

More than 70% of the land in Vermont is forested.

Almost every town has a local farmer's market.

We have some killer cheeses.

Lots of local creameries sell to the surrounding area, but we also have Cabot Creamery which is mass distributed.

FYI, Cabot brand cheddar is lactose-free for any of y'all who are sensitive.

Whoa, okay.

Vermont has the most breweries per capita in the country, which means there's always a beer you'll like and it's legal to grow your own weed recreationally.

One flowering plant per household at a time.

If you're into that, I don't have much of a green thumb.

Thanks as always.

Nick from Vermont.

Yeah.

A lot of the positives seem to be about the way you can like chemically alter your body to make Vermont more tolerable.

Hey, lactose is the chemical.

Get that shit out of here.

Beer, cheese, and weed.

That sounds like a good time.

How do you not put Bernard Sanders on the fucking list of things that are amazing about Vermont?

Last week or this week?

Put him on the dollar bill.

What the fuck, emailer?

I guess you're right.

It seems like Vermont's coated in the goat sauce for sure.

Mike, we can't make this a thing with you.

This is so awful.

We can't do this, Mike.

Now, what if I start saying it instead?

Honestly, I don't mind it.

I think it's great, Mike.

I love everything about it.

I want more of it.

Where can I subscribe to it?

Yeah.

GoatSauce.com.

Is that one taken?

Oh, you know what?

That's one URL I will not be entering into my web browser.

Mike dude, the first time you said coated with the goat sauce, was that deliberate or was that you said you didn't really know what you were saying?

I think that's what I thought it might have actually been.

Okay.

I love that.

That makes it better.

Never mind.

I'm fully on board.

Is it supposed to be goaded with the sauce?

Yeah, it's goaded.

You're goaded with the sauce, Faze Rug.

That's what Alexa says to him.

What I said is not that much more ridiculous than any of the things Alexa said.

I want to go on a Disney cruise with Mike and the NPC from Metroid.

Jesus.

There's so many layers to that back.

It's going to be sick.

Man, GoatSauce.com is $100.

Well, GoatSauce is only $100?

GoatSauce.shop is $0.99.

That's our new merch store.

Ew.

Okay, what about... Sounds like an artificial insemination emporium is what it sounds like.

Coded with... Much like our store, store.shinepump.com.

Coded with the goatsauce.com.

I bet this one, I bet that one I could get real cheap.

Oh, man, imagine this is someone's first podcast.

All of them are.

Rick from Minneapolis writes in.

Why is there a view that Yoshi shouldn't speak in the Super Mario Galaxy movie?

In the games, the very first thing Yoshi does is talk to Mario when you hatch him in the level Yoshi's Island 2.

And he leaves a note in his house informing you that he went to rescue his friends.

In Super Mario RPG.

He acts as translator for Mario on Yoshi's Island and allows you to talk to Boshi.

Yeah, that's right.

You can talk to Boshi.

He's well-read.

Like, what's the problem?

In Super Mario 64?

He doesn't talk, though.

He talks to you.

20 hours of dialogue in the last one, and Matt Mercante did it, and yeah.

Nope, that's it.

Mercer.

Mercer is his last name.

Mercer Mercante did a fusion dance, huh?

Mercer Mercante is our friend.

I don't think Yoshi's ever had sentences, right?

In the cartoon, he spoke in full sentences.

Oh, sure, sure.

Yeah, so did Mega Man, you know?

You're saying he hasn't, yeah, he has not verbalized sentences, but he has, like, voice acted.

He's capable of, like, writing and thinking.

I think you could talk to him and he would understand.

No, he talks back to people.

Like, um, And it sounds like in your door there's that baby Yoshi talks all the time.

It's great.

I like him.

Yeah, baby Yoshi, yeah.

Mario kind of doesn't say shit either.

I wouldn't be upset if Yoshi talked.

Yeah, it's fine.

I'm a big Yoshi guy.

I'm completely for Yoshi talking.

Although, I don't think he will, though.

Yeah, my other safty brother should voice Yoshi.

Yes, absolutely.

No one's ever heard that guy talk.

Yeah, we don't hear from him.

It's just Benny all the time.

It's just Benny.

Rick...

From Minneapolis finishes.

In Super Mario 64.

He talks you on the roof of the castle.

After you get 120 stars.

All this to say.

Would it actually be weirder.

If Yoshi doesn't talk in the movie.

I still think Jenny Slate.

Should voice Yoshi.

You're just empirically correct.

About that.

I think Yoshi will say a word or two.

Like Yoshi.

Or like.

Maybe in a great moment.

Of like plot.

You know tension it'll just be like it's up there.

You know like i'm shy, but this was important for me to say.

That was a really good chris pratt grub.

That sounded like chris pratt's mario voice, thank you.

Yeah, you guys remember the weird tom and jerry anime movie that came out in the 90s where they just talked the whole time actually yes, It was like my dinner with Andre.

They just had a conversation the whole time.

Spike was there.

It got really awkward.

Little Baby Gray Mouse was also there.

Oh, the baby.

He was playable in the Super Nintendo Tom and Jerry game I had.

You know what?

After playing Dispatch, I want Yoshi to be voiced by Jeffrey Wright.

That would be fun.

I would like that quite a bit.

Alright, moving on.

Kenny from Queens writes in Dear Bomb folks question for Mr Grubb or anyone else who wants to weigh in.

Which do you think is most likely?

One, the PlayStation 6 is very expensive, but Sony continues to make and sell the PS5 alongside it.

Two, the PS5 is repackaged as the base model PS6 alongside more premium PS6 SKUs.

Three, the chip inside the rumored Canis or Canis handheld gets put in a box and becomes the base model PS6, alongside a premium SKU and the handheld itself.

Between the Steam Machine announcement and Sony's midway through the generation comments.

There's been a ton of discourse on this and I was curious what your thoughts were.

Keep being awesome, Kenny.

Yeah, I've speculated on Game S Mornings a bunch of times now that I think the PS5 will be reintroduced in some way to make it as relevant as possible.

Whether that's like just trying to diminish the importance of the 5 to the 6 jump or to maybe repackage the PS5 as a Here's what they could do.

They could take the chip architecture of the PS5 and then rebuild that on the same sort of process that they're using for the PS6.

So the chip could be really small.

It could be really energy efficient.

And they could put out like a PS6 Mini.

And that's basically a PS5

But but, like all the games, because they're just not going to make that many games that don't run on the PS5 during the PS6 generation, because there's just not a point to it.

So yeah, I think the PS5 will be reengineered and reimagined by Sony in some real way to keep that thing around so that they can justify supporting it for another like 10 years, because those they've sold a ton of those things.

And, unlike the PS4, it won't be an albatross around their neck in terms of upgrading games, making sure games run, run well.

And the PS4 wasn't even that much of a problem in the first place.

So, yeah, I think it's probably somewhere around that second option.

I don't know.

I'm speculating, though.

I don't know if you guys have any thoughts on that.

Well, what gives you?

I mean, I definitely understand where you're coming from with, like the need to have it be much more seamless, right?

Where it's like, let's not have generational borderlines, right?

And let's kind of make everything a lot more fluid.

I understand that, but...

How do you think they square that by just repackaging it, though?

Or is it just more of a marketing push than an actual new box?

It'll be a combination of marketing and a variety of things.

But yeah, it's mostly going to be marketing.

It's mostly going to be telling people, hey, there's this cheaper PS5.

Like yeah, maybe the PS5 is going away, but you can get this PS6 Mini and it's basically slightly improved in some key ways, but mostly still that same system, because they're going to want to keep making PS5 games for a very long time.

That's, I think, the motivating factor.

I don't want to think about the word PS six for a while.

I don't think you have to worry about it for a minute.

I don't think we'll get that far anyway.

Uh, it's all coming apart.

Yeah.

It's well, it's funny because, like I, I I watch uh, my child and his friends and the way they talk about games and, you know, there is still something of a kind of like generational, like the latest and greatest thing, that is sort of inseparably um, kind of tethered to like what a console is right to a person.

So they'll make a real PS6 to go alongside us, and that thing is going to be extremely expensive though, and yeah right yeah, I just it's interesting how, like they because I do look to them to kind of like you know, answer some of the questions we were talking about earlier in the show, especially with, like you know, game loyalty and whatnot.

But yeah, it's wild to think, I mean, I feel.

But at the same time, I feel like we've been predicting this sort of, like you know, leveling of that playing field for a while now.

Right,

I think it just seemed to need a spot to kind of break through here.

It happened without them even really trying between the PS4 and the PS5.

Right.

They weren't trying to keep the PS4 around as hard as it ended up staying around.

And then it's like, well, that's only going to be worse next time because the PS5 is really good.

It's a really good console.

And all our third-party partners said They might just make games for the PS5 and say that's a PS6 game as well.

And if that's the case, what are we doing here?

Should we really be focusing that much on trying to lop off an entire generation?

And they're not interested in that anymore.

It's worked out really well for them.

They made a lot of money by not doing that.

They're just going to continue going down the route that's made them a lot of money.

How's that Pro selling?

I don't think it's selling as well as the PS4 Pro did, but it's not.

I don't think it's also not outside the range of what they expected.

It's probably like one in every 10, uh, PlayStation fives being sold as a pro.

I feel like when the PS4 pro came out, there was a justification because my base PS4 sounded like it wanted to on a live itself.

Anytime I fired up a game, but I don't have.

My biggest problem with the PS5 right now is I don't know where mine is.

That's a problem, right?

Yours went missing.

Yeah.

Just like your key.

You put a post.

Oh buddy, it's in your butt.

Better.

It's, I check.

If Jan's PS5 is up my butt, we're going to have some serious fun.

How did it get there?

Yeah, how did it get there?

The key's gone, folks.

Say goodbye to the key.

I thought maybe it would show its face over the weekend.

It really wasn't home that much.

Shitting out a PS5 would suck.

Yeah.

How did it get in there?

It's a weird shape yeah.

Yeah, the flaps would like brace itself against your parts.

It's like double tapered.

It like tapers out right.

Yes, it's untapered in every way.

All right, speak uh talking about things.

Uh, that you should probably only talk about on a podcast and not with uh real life people.

Why not admit secrets to a podcast that a bunch of people listen to so anonymous from writes writes in hey bombers.

I was told a few weeks ago that I was going to receive a promotion at my job.

The problem is I was told I can't tell anyone about it until it's announced in another month.

Even my family.

Even your family.

But I have to tell someone.

So why not my favorite podcast?

On that note, what is the most satisfying advancement in gaming?

Is there a music cue, a change in title, a visual change or a full-on cutscene?

That always gets you hyped.

For me, it's unlocking the Hyper Beam in Super Metroid.

Thanks for all you do anonymous.

Oh sure yeah, i like uh, in vampire survivors, when you get both things you're trying to get to the evolution, and then you get the evolution and that really just kind of blows it wide open.

Yeah yeah yeah, that's that's a really good one.

Gosh, like both prince of persia lost crown and stoke song have been very good about, like late game double jump unlocks yeah, that's what i was gonna say.

Yeah, that's a double jump.

Wall jumps good too.

Yeah, either one of those, anytime you get the rush jet in a mega man game.

Remember when we found out that Leisure Suit Larry had a wall jump and a double jump.

Yeah.

We'll see some more of that later today.

Tuesday, Blake.

Tuesday.

Today.

Yeah, let's see what else is in store for us in that game.

And by us, I mean Mike.

Yes, Mike has to do it, yeah.

Wait, wait.

Does this thing still have the Quan Chi on it, by the way?

The wig?

It does.

Do you want me to clean it off or keep it on?

I don't know.

Well, I'll make a game time decision.

I'll see how much of it's still on there.

I'll make a game time decision for us.

All right, all right.

Cool, cool, cool.

I'll do the right thing.

Have you guys bought mannequin heads for your wigs, or are they just kind of loosey-goosey?

Oh, they're loose.

I got a bunch of Al Snow mannequin heads.

I got a ton of Al Snow mannequin heads in my parents' old house, if anyone knows.

Backlar with the wrestling reference.

Nice.

Gosh, always bringing up wrestling.

I just went along on mannequin heads.

I don't know why.

At the time, it seemed like the right move, but I got so close to them.

You were a janitor at the ECW Arena, and you just stockpiled all of them.

Yeah, I just brought my wheelbarrow and took out about 400 of them every night.

So... Yeah, anyway.

Give me your shipping address.

All right.

Andrew from New Jersey writes in.

Hey, members of the Large Explosive.

Love you wonderful people.

Thought of this question on a beach.

What's an element of popular or general culture you wish you knew more about, to help with your perspectives, either on life or in gaming.

Thanks for all you do.

Andrew in New Jersey.

Um... I've...

I'm in the middle of learning lots and lots more about old computers.

That's just something I've been interested in, so I've been diving into that.

I just listened to a whole audiobook about the original Macintosh, which was the first popular computer that had a graphical user interface.

I've been thinking a lot about stuff like that and the... xerox alto and the apple 2 and i want to go to like some old computer museum and get like my hands on things i'm not gonna lie i was on the facebook marketplaces like looking up like super old 80s computers and kind of talking myself out of collecting those because boy that's gonna take up a lot of space real fast did you uh mike did you see that story recently about the mp944 the world's real first microprocessor that's just kind of getting um revealed recently because the u.s government had it and they kept it a secret because they put it in the f14 and it's a secret for 30 years what yeah it was happening right right around the time of the four uh the 4004 uh intel's like first microprocessor oh yeah the one that really kicked things off and everyone's like well we're going to use this for everything now apparently the government like saw that and immediately was like we have our own and we're gonna make something that's like weird it was like 20 times more powerful or something like that it was crazy where'd you where'd they report this uh i saw this on tom's hardware oh wow okay yeah it sounds like a fun read yes it's uh it is absolutely i want to i hope there's like more and more discovered about this because i would love to learn more who's tom i never knew who tom from tom's hardware i think he's the facebook guy he started a hardware website myspace myspace guy thank you myspace guy yeah myspace tom No, not really.

No, hell no.

I think MySpace Tom lives on like a remote island somewhere and still thinks he doesn't know about 9-11 or something.

Untasted.

Yeah, that's amazing.

Yeah.

Oh, that's a great story.

I'm going to read this.

Thanks.

Yep.

I don't know.

Whenever this question gets asked, I feel like this isn't directly answering this question.

I just wish I spoke more languages.

I don't know.

That'd be great.

Japanese.

If you had five minutes in the Matrix machine, I feel like downloading the languages would be one of the first things you want to do.

I want to be 100% fluent in Spanish.

I would be so hot if I could speak Spanish.

You would be.

You'd confuse people though, right?

You'd confuse the hell out of people.

Yeah, I need Spanish so bad.

I need it.

I need it right now.

And I don't want to put in the work.

I don't want to put in the work.

During the pre-show here I was playing some music from Dispatch and there's a moment where Flambe, one of the characters, does karaoke.

There were a couple people in chat legitimately wondering, is Christian singing?

Just because there's a pronounced accent there with Flambe, just like our dear friend Christian.

Yeah, i disagree incredibly with everyone in chat saying kung fu is a must it.

I don't think the matrix machine will make you be in shape.

No, but it teaches you just like you know.

All right, you're gonna pull something though yeah, you're gonna fuck your body up.

I think you'd be able to get in shape a little bit easier because you maybe understand your body better.

Yeah maybe well, maybe your, your body doesn't count in the matrix world, though.

Yeah, the knowledge, the knowledge yeah yeah yeah, you know, The prompt was Dan.

It's like if you had five minutes in the major machine.

So you go in there for five minutes and that's all the time you have.

So you're going to like make a quick roster of like, oh, here's the things I want to get.

And then when you come out, you're back in this world and you have that stuff.

And they've got like fiber there.

So download is pretty quick.

So a lot of attacks would be easy.

Bowling.

Yeah.

All the languages, I guess.

Bowling?

I want to be real good at bowling.

They wouldn't even have that.

They wouldn't even offer that.

They wouldn't even be like... No, they wouldn't.

They'd be like, are you sure you don't want archery?

Because archery is way more complicated.

You would do that, and it would just be the rules of bowling.

You would just like, here's the rules of bowling.

I'm afraid of saying, because maybe this should be my big video game idea.

Have they done the roguelike bowling game yet?

No.

That'd be fun.

I like that.

Good job, Mike.

I have a good idea of Mike going into the Matrix and coming out and he's like I can score frames by hand now.

Imagine if I was just like that guy.

Like just very finite race to bowling is just very finite mike right, you could just get a 300 and that's it.

So you get all the 300s, you get more than anyone else and you get.

You'd be like that guy like, like who did you think you are i am?

So i like, i like the idea of like oh, 300 is cool, but what about three million?

Like yeah, i'm so good, I'm so good.

I'm the first person to ever get a 301.

I think you could download martial arts because there are so many knowledge things.

If someone's coming at you like this, you do this to reverse it or whatever.

Bowling, it's just like you do need the physical aspect.

Just the knowledge is not going to help you at all.

You got to know how to put the spin on the ball and all that stuff.

Mikey, does this include your bowling download from the Matrix?

Does this include the ability to do trick shots?

Yeah.

Anything with a bowling ball and a lane and pins, I could just do it all.

You can just call it one pin, right?

Somehow, I'm only going to clear the back middle pin.

Dude, can you imagine fucking Neo in that white space and he's just like, I want bowling.

But like, instead of the guns, lots of guns, I need balls.

Lots of balls.

Lots of pins and shoes and shit.

And he's like, are you sure, Neo?

I'm going to do the fucking...

Fred Flintstone Twinkle Toes thing.

It's going to be amazing.

Oh, man, that's hot.

All of humanity's knowledge.

You want bowling first?

I like bowling.

It's fun.

It's cheap.

It's accessible.

I don't know.

I guess if sports were an option, basketball would be cool.

Again, it's not going to make you tall.

What's the easiest thing you could download in the matrix world that when you get back you could get rich off of?

Like no doubt you know, i mean just every skill, every laborious skill.

Ever not like.

Yeah, if you knowing languages coding, i mean if you became the world's best person at like designing microprocessors, you would be.

Could you download that off the matrix world?

You can download all the information about it.

Yes, ideally.

I think you can make good money bowling.

Now, I did look up bowling contest.

And the PBA, Mike, you could join the Pro Bowlers Association.

I don't know how much money is involved with it.

You guys are thinking small.

You're going to be so good at bowling that you are a transformative star.

Did I ever tell you my dad was offered to be a pro bowler what?

And he was like nah, i'm good in the 70s and he's like no, i'm good bowling right.

Seriously, i just so want to see this mike minotti version of the matrix where, instead of the like karate fight in the geese with morpheus, it's just mike minotti versus morpheus bowling.

Oh my god mike, can you figure out how to make bowling shirts and put them on the store?

Oh, can we do bowling week?

Can we do Tekken bowling?

Oh, my God.

Bowling week is so hard.

We got a couple of obligated weeks.

I know, I know, but I love bowling.

I like bowling, too.

We'll have to do a bowling week for sure.

I'm so bad at bowling.

This is another reason why I'm a disappointment to my parents.

Wow.

I'll put bumpers up for you, buddy.

It's okay.

I mean, that could be one of your roguelike things.

You get a bumper.

Oh, that's good.

Ooh, I meant to talk about it.

I'll talk about it more next week.

Slots and Daggers, that's a very good roguelike slot machine game.

All right.

Let's see.

One more email.

This comes with a picture, if you all want to pull that up for you all.

This is just a little kind words.

Hi, my little bumbinos.

I've been listening to this podcast for like 16 years, and all I got was this lousy T-shirt.

I do think Disney and Epcot are so cool, though.

See attached photo.

Congrats on independence.

Oh, cool.

I am loving the show and the energy this crew brings.

Speaking of going around the world, do you ever pair drinks or snacks with whatever media you were consuming?

For instance, I would sometimes get soju to drink when streaming a Korean show with my wife.

Thanks for making my commute and day better.

Every day I get to listen to y'all.

Aaron from Warren, Pennsylvania.

Yeah, you got it, bud.

It's PA.

There we go.

It's PA.

Boy.

It does my heart good to see a guy wearing a shirt with my face on it standing in front of the Spaceship Earth in Epcot.

That's neat.

Now, he also has, like, the sunglasses on and a backwards hat.

Was that intentional?

He's rascaling.

Yeah.

He's rascaling hard.

He's got the tuft, even.

The fanny pack is a good addition, too.

I like that.

He's rascal bounding.

Yes, of course.

Going to those Alamo Draft House movie dinners where the chef would prepare a meal and And then they would also work with a local brewery to pair alcohol with the movie and the dinner.

That ruled.

I don't necessarily like to think about it, but ever since watching The Hateful Eight there and having whiskey with that movie, it was like yeah, that's the kind of thing I do enjoy is kind of pairing up stuff in that way.

I associate... Mike, go ahead.

I like to get pizza if I'm going to watch a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie.

Oh, exactly.

Yep, good call.

I associate... round table pizza with the one up show.

Wow.

I would, for whatever reason.

I would often have round table pizza when I would listen to the one up show.

That's cute.

I like that.

Ooh.

Also, uh shouts out to area five because they put me onto a local diner here in SF because we don't have that many.

Uh, so anytime I would eat, uh, over easy eggs, I would think of them.

Oh, we, we got, uh, Menotti on the jets train, uh, Oh, how was it?

It was really good.

It was better than I was expecting.

You know, they're talking about so much and they're saying words.

I know they explained what the words were to me at one point, but I hear the explanation once and I only hear nonsense.

Words like eight corner crusts in turbo crust or whatever, all the time.

Then, like, I see these things like, oh, I see why it's eight corners now.

And I'm so glad to have all those corners because they're the best part.

Yeah, it was really freaking good pizza.

I'm kind of mad I don't have one.

Detroit-style pizza, I tell you.

Can I open a Jets pizza?

I think that's why I like the Pizza Hut Crazy Puffs, because they just got all the crispy corners all around.

You mean the Little Caesars?

Little Caesars, yeah.

Were those the ones we were trying to talk to Jade Cargill about, Jan?

Yep.

Okay, she seems sold on it.

Oh, yeah.

I bet you she's doing it after each match.

Oh, she eats a lot of Little Caesars, I'm sure, yeah.

With Little Caesars.

Yeah.

You look at that physique, and then mine and Dan's.

It's one and the same, really.

Yeah, guess which one eats a lot of crazy puffs.

You'll never guess.

Guess which one doesn't.

You'll guess.

You'll get that.

And that does it for emails.

Bombcastatgiantbomb.com is the email.

Just send your emails to...

I love and appreciate all of you that send emails in.

We get a lot more over the last couple weeks to months, so I am deeply appreciative.

Apologies if your email doesn't get read on the show.

I do try and forward them.

If you have kind words to say, and if you don't have kind words to say, I delete them.

And then I cry a little bit.

Anyway, Mike Minotti, hit me with some super chats if we got them.

Sure.

Warlocks Gaming here.

Follow up to last week, I believe, when they told us that Tron Ares was the best Tron movie.

It says, I swear I don't care about this, but I saw all three Tron movies in the last two months.

Tron Ares is the best one.

Does it bother me you guys don't agree?

Let's see if I send again next week.

Look, I actually kind of liked Tron Ares.

It was not bad.

It's still the worst of those three.

Tron Legacy is just kind of so visually interesting.

What's his name?

The Top Gun guy did that.

Yeah, so I like theories, but a best one Sorry, Saskatchewan says ever heard of tooth and eye surgery?

It's wild.

I sure haven't.

What the fuck?

Tooth and eye surgery.

Tooth and eye?

I don't want to know what this is.

I-N-I.

Complex procedures restore vision in patients with severe corneal damage.

Where else does it fail?

Surgery involves extracting a tooth and planting a plastic lens into it and then attaching the tooth lens complex to the eye.

So teeth are involved.

Oh, jeez.

Yeah, you've got to put a tooth in an eye to give your vision back.

I probably need that at some point here.

I'm getting every other tooth thing done.

I think I have nightmares about eyes with teeth, so I don't need this.

I want to keep this away from me.

Michael McCarty says, I need Mike's reaction to the final image of Death Stranding 2.

Winky face.

Uh, all right, get playing mike.

All right, i'll be right on that.

I'll see you all another 100 hours.

That's our endurance run.

Yeah, could be ally.

Miracle says i have a steam deck legion, go remove windows off the ladder.

And it made the device run so much better.

Windows bogged it down so much.

That's just the truth.

Then jd camp says mikey, make dan do the power line dance on upf.

I think dan's not even gonna be here.

That's from the Goofy Movie, Dan.

There's a decent chance I'll be here.

That's the perfect catch from the Goofy Movie.

Is that the thing?

I think I've seen Xavier Woods cosplay.

Yeah, I was going to say.

I think he's big on it.

We listen to each other's hearts.

That's right.

Don't clap us, YouTube.

Coming soon to you Xavier Woods, Mike Minotti, Janet Choa doing a cover of uh Tevin Campbell's uh eye to eye and stand out from the goofy movie.

Oh, I got to stand out above the crowd.

Even if I got a shout out loud, that movie gave me such unrealistic expectations of what high school would be.

I saw that as a kid.

And the one thing I remember is, isn't it?

Pauly shores character does.

I remember like, Oh, I relate to this character.

Yes.

Every, every time I meet someone named Stacy or see uh your wife back, or I just think of like uh, what Pauly shores character says in the beginning uh, Like yo, Stacy.

Wait, I don't think he's even Pauly Shore.

It's just a random character.

Anyway, thank you for the super chats.

Boys, what do we got going on the rest of this week?

We got a Tuesday Blight Club.

Yes, we do.

So an hour after this wraps, Mike is heading to the Hollywood back lot for some back.

Not going to finish that.

Wednesday, a little bit lighter.

I think it's just going to be the news.

We might have a miscellaneous stream popping up then.

Thursday Wednesday Thursday, Friday Game Miss Mornings, right Grubb.

That's right.

Yep, I'll be back for all that.

I'll probably get back on Dispatch before those as well.

But those are kind of as I can.

But that would be 9 a.m.

Eastern on those days.

Speaking of as we can, this is the run as always as we can.

We never squeeze it in, especially as these runs get longer.

You know, might be taking days off here and there if we can't squeeze it in.

But yeah.

They'll be coming fast and furious.

Don't worry, everybody.

Oh, breaking news.

Someone bought goat sauce.

Goatsauce.org.

That's good.

I'll take it.

The goat org.

Great.

This voicemail dump truck.

We got another special guest.

Lisa Wallen is joining us this week.

Very funny, tall lady.

Her comedy special is out on YouTube.

If you want to get a preview of how Lisa's like, I suggest you go check that out.

I'll go link that. later as well.

Friday boys, we're going to get dancing because it looks like, thanks to our friends at Deku Deals.

We had the stipulation that the community you would vote on what game to play for UPF this week.

It looks like it's just dance.

Oh, I forgot.

Speaking about our friends from Deku Deals, we'll be chatting about our games of the decade on Wednesday, right after Game Mess Mornings, And then as well.

I believe there is another thing.

Oh Thursday, after voicemail dump truck, we're going to have ourselves a little Discord town hall for all of our premium members over there.

Anything else I'm forgetting, boys, or anything else you want to shout out?

Just real quick.

Rest in peace and restful.

Trail star Rebecca Heinemann, who passed away from cancer at 62.

That was the first winner of a... video game tournament, basically in the United States.

She won the Atari VCS space invaders national championship and then went on to develop a lot of games, was one of the co-founders of interplay.

Uh, and, uh, yeah, she passed away this week.

So yeah, rest in peace, real trailblazer in the community and for representation gang.

I believe that does it for this week's episode of the giant bomb cast.

We'll see you next week for another episode.

Shouts out to D good deals.

Once again, he's been Jeff.

He's been Jeff.

He's been Mike.

He's been Dan.

I've been Jan and you at home.

God dang.

You.

Short week next week.

You're covered in the goat sauce.

We'll see you next week.

Bye.

We'll play it again.

Oh, the goat sauce.

It's all over me.

Goat sauce gutters.

Ew.

CGs.

Double Ds.

[Giant Bombcast: Extra Life Chaos, Roguelike Adventures, and the 'Goat Sauce' Phenomenon]-[917: GOAT SAUCE]

📋 Summary

The Extra Life Chaos

Gaming Highlights: Absalom and Luminous Arise

Industry News and Debates

The 'Goat Sauce' and Cultural Commentary

Looking Ahead: Metroid Prime 4 and Game of the Year

🎯Key Sentences

📝Key Phrases

📖 Transcript

[Giant Bombcast: Extra Life Chaos, Roguelike Adventures, and the 'Goat Sauce' Phenomenon]-[917: GOAT SAUCE]

📋 Summary

The Extra Life Chaos

Gaming Highlights: Absalom and Luminous Arise

Industry News and Debates

The 'Goat Sauce' and Cultural Commentary

Looking Ahead: Metroid Prime 4 and Game of the Year

Deep Learning with ListenLeap

🎯Key Sentences

📝Key Phrases

📖 Transcript

ListenLeap Brings You Into Real Context Learning