919: N64 Pro | Giant Bombcast

Tuesday, December 2nd, 2025.

Welcome to the Giant Bombcast.

I am your host, Jan Ochoa.

Joining me...

As always, co-captain of the ship.

That's right.

He's ready to scan every single thing, but he's only ready to scan it in the vicinity of a Walmart.

Jeff Grubb.

That's right, because I can't play it at home yet.

But I got to say and I mean this in a positive way Sandman seems like a wrestler who should definitely be dead right by now.

Oh, yeah.

I mean, most of you see the Raven should be.

Yeah.

Leave Raven alone.

No, I'm not.

I want him dead.

No, you know, like you said, you took the average of Vince.

Yeah, if you take the average events of all their lives and put it into an algorithm, it equals dead.

I can already feel someone emailing the saddest quiz in the world of, is this wrestler dead or not?

And I will ace it and be sad.

I don't know.

You forgot Hogan was dead.

I did forget Hogan was dead.

Yeah.

Well, that gives you a little bit of joy remembering that he is dead.

Yeah, that guy sucked.

Uh, our own raven of the podcast, that's right.

He's hanging from the rafters, he's got flannels tied around his waist.

He's sticking his arms out as a t-pose.

Definitely i am the raven of the group, for sure, It goes without saying.

I've got a lot to talk about up at the top here, mostly airing grievances, but we can introduce the rest of the program first.

Wait, real quick, is Mike your Billy Kidman?

Oh, Billy Kidman.

Oh, I remember.

Okay, that's coming back to me a little bit.

Jan, I'll let you pick whoever I am from UCW.

I would offer I'm probably the Blue Meanie.

Blue Meanie?

I feel like you'd be more than...

No, not Stevie Richards.

I feel like if Grub is Sandman, Backler is Raven.

I'm not Tommy Dreamer.

He's lame.

Yeah, I was thinking Tommy Dreamer, but that doesn't fit.

Oh, I think Stevie Richards.

Menotti is Mikey Wiprek.

Sure.

Okay.

I like that for some reason.

Why is this so easy?

Who else is in?

Oh, do you just want to be Bubba?

No, I don't know.

I don't want to be Bubba Ray.

No, fuck.

Then I'll be the D-Von to that.

No, you're not D-Von.

Can I be RBD?

Okay, all right.

There we go.

You're Jerry Lynn, Jan.

I don't smoke enough to be RBD.

That's the nicest thing anyone's ever said to me today.

My brother's AOL screen name had the letters RVD in it.

Hell yeah.

Did it have the numbers 420 in it?

No comment, no comment.

Rvd, vegeta 420.

That's a real screen game right there.

Camel case x's for sure i'm the sabu.

Oh no no, you're not.

I don't want you to be the sabu.

Brother Is Grubb Shane Douglas.

Take that back.

Shane Douglas was lame as fuck.

And last but certainly not least, rounding out the cast today, Mr Five Stars himself, Mr Monday Night, Dan Rye Kurt, We'll just go with the RVD thing.

Yeah, there we go.

Three syllables.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

There we go.

Yes.

How's it going, Jerry?

Fantastic.

I'm never going to retire.

The bad boy of games media is off somewhere in a rainforest cafe.

We wish him the best.

He's out on assignment.

Taz.

You'll never guess where he is.

Out on assignment at the Brain Force Cafe.

That's what the kids are calling it these days.

I feel like Minotti when he's upsetting Spaghetti is Taz.

Oh, yeah.

I like that.

That's good.

That man threatened to kiss me while we were in Jersey together.

I mean, he did put me in a chokehold while in a Grimace suit.

Did we make a mistake?

With what?

Yeah.

You know, we...

I'll talk to the lawyer and see if we can get that 20% back.

I'll see what I can do.

He's already crossed how many HR thresholds he threatened and physically assaulted you.

It's the only time I've been physically assaulted by someone at Giant Bomb, yeah.

I think he was involved in my kidnapping, personally.

There's no way to prove that.

I think so, though.

Folks!

Thank you for listening to Giant Bombcast.

The site is frozen for this week.

That's right.

From December 1st to the 5th, the site will be frozen.

As Chuck migrates everything over to the new website and for folks that have participated in the premium site beta, y'all know that the new site just works.

And speaking from a user perspective of someone that enters in a lot of stuff and I'll speak for Sean here

It is so much easier to do it on the new website, so shouts out to Chuck.

Everyone, everyone.

I would like to see a I fuck with Chuck out there, because Chuck is doing the back-breaking labor of not only building a new website but transporting everything over.

The wiki will still be under construction and you at home can help out with the wiki.

If you go to bombcastcom slash wiki you can help there.

Or if you join the Giant Bomb Discord, look for the wiki street team Discord channel and you can help Chuck out with getting the wiki up and running other housekeeping things.

Shouts out to our homies at MainGear, maingear.com slash giantbomb.

Black Friday.

The Black Friday deal still going?

I don't know.

Black Friday.

That's right.

That's back.

BFCM.

BFCM cyber Tuesday.

Uh, every time I hear BFCM read BFCM, I think it's something inappropriate.

Uh, but main gear.com slash John bomb.

Go, go buy yourself a face plate.

You know, don't buy mics though.

Go buy everyone else's.

Yeah.

Buy one.

You would use.

Yeah, that's right, one that worships the devil and pinball, where has the macho man on it?

Or you know legally distinct wrestler person?

Yeah, I hate to be cynical, but when Mike was having his health scares with his dogs, do you think he was trying to juice his sales because Penny's on the faceplate of his computer?

He's like oh, if everyone thinks she's sick, I can like, because she got better miraculously, like a half an hour later.

Same day.

As much as I would love to believe that Mike is as sadistic as your scenario portrays him to be.

Machiavellian is how I would describe him.

That would be a wild swing for my man.

Well, I mean you can see proudly displayed behind him in all of his shots is like 48 laws of power or rules of power or whatever that book is.

He's one of those guys.

Yeah.

Is that Sun Tzu?

It's the other one.

That's the art of war over at his house all the time.

Yeah.

So he's on that whole manosphere manosphere blog circuit or whatever it's called.

He's that type.

Yeah.

That's exactly what Taz would do.

You know, that's true.

Other bit of housekeeping gang.

We thought we'd peel back the curtain, give you all a peek behind the scenes and let you all know that a majority of the gang will not be going over to Los Angeles for the Game Awards.

We will still be having a talkover remotely over the Game Awards show itself.

I will be heading boots to the ground.

Be there in person.

So any friends at the website or uh, people in the industry that want to hang chill, say what's up secretly.

Split a buzz ball.

I gotcha um.

But we will be heading back to main gear to record our Game of the Year podcast.

Those should be, fingers crossed, dropping the week of December 22nd until Krimis.

So you'll get yourself a little Krimis gift of Game of the Year from Giant.

Bomb us over here and the whole gang will be headed to main gear.

So that is these four hooligans here.

Myself, Grub, Jerf, Dan.

Mike Minotti will also be there.

Chuck will be there.

And Turbo Sean Sean McDowell will be there.

We'll get the whole gang, the whole band back together.

Where crimes were committed last time.

That's right.

God, I don't even know which one you're referring to at this point.

I can pluralize that.

I should have noticed that.

Yeah.

I'm still thinking, and I don't know which crimes you're specifically mentioning.

I don't either.

I didn't think that was accurate to say.

Mr. Bacalar, you mentioned you had some grievances to air.

How do I follow a cavalcade of important announcements with my bullshit?

That's what we do on the show.

Yeah.

Okay.

Folks, if you bought a candle called 80s Rock, what do you think?

Real quick, I wouldn't do that.

Okay, fine.

That's a weird thing to do.

Regardless of how I came to own the candle.

I normally like sandalwood.

Okay, fair.

That's a lovely fragrance.

Okay, I know.

No one would ever do that.

You're all so fucking cool.

I get it, chat.

You're amazing.

You would never do something like come to acquire an 80s candle.

It's an 80s rock.

And I'm like, it found its way into my office.

So I was like, all right, I'll light this yesterday.

And I lit it.

And I cannot even begin to describe to you cherry pie.

That's more.

Dan is right.

Yeah, hairspray is like... Hairspray is like the obvious one.

It smelled like actual hairspray.

Of course, that's the thing.

That's what you think of with 80s rock.

Okay.

But is that a thing you want to smell in a candle?

No.

That's why I want a cherry pie.

Booger flavored jelly bellies.

Just because they make something doesn't mean it's supposed to be good.

Yeah, but my point... Man, that giant bomb motto.

But my point, guys, is that like...

They make other really good scents that you want your house to smell like.

Well, then buy one that says strawberry and not one that says 80s rock.

I just, like, it should have smelled like cocaine or something.

More than hairspray.

What does cocaine smell like?

Or what does that smell like?

Well, that's the joke, I guess.

Yeah, I just, I couldn't understand.

Like...

Really?

You're going to, like, hairspray is the thing that you're like, oh, open a window.

You're never like, ooh, fill my lungs with that.

What were you thinking it was going to smell like when you bought a gimmick candle?

I was more between expectations, but I was more interested in what it was going to be.

Cause I was like Ooh, maybe that does somehow remind me of like twisted sister and the those types without actual you know.

You want a candle smelling like Dee Snider.

Yeah, I mean, that's fine.

I'd rather smell like that, whatever that is.

Maybe it's just like Long Island musk drop the rock, what would, what would the 80s smell like?

It would smell like it would smell like cocaine and voting for ronald reagan right.

Malls, maybe malls the inside of a mall, Like a Ghostbusters action figure.

No, Nickelodeon Gak.

It should smell like Gak.

Gak is 90s.

Okay, so that could be the 90s candle.

Fine, but no, the 90s candle actually smells... Okay, here's the thing.

I'll bookend it with the other thing.

The 90, they make another candle called 90s mixtape.

And that shit smells amazing.

It's, you want to put it all over your body.

Why are you buying these?

Why are you buying?

What are you doing?

Stacy likes candles.

She buys candles.

She's like, oh, try this.

That's all.

It's harmless.

It's victimless crimes here.

I like a good candle.

Yeah, candles rule.

This one's called Black Sharpie, and it smells like a book.

You know, when Dylan locked me in that closet, it was just candles and crystals.

I was just covered in them.

A video game sent me a candle for their game.

It was that Total Chaos game.

And I'm like, oh, okay.

So I didn't light it, but it definitely smelled like I don't know, like something a video game would send me.

The Warframe candles smell good.

Yeah.

Those smelled great.

Those are good.

Those are very good.

Those are great.

I'm just saying like the scent wasn't named Warframe.

It was like Sandalwood or something.

Well, no, it was Warframe.

It was like a, it was like a sub name in the world.

Yeah.

Like universe.

Also, what's that?

Tenno.

Yeah, Tenno's scent.

This is also like, you know, this isn't like a novelty candle place.

It's not like, joke's on you, this one's farts.

In some ways, every candle place is a novelty candle place.

They all start getting into bullshit scents really fast.

But i like the goods.

I like like teakwood mahogany that smells real nice and that's one they made and it's amazing, oh quick.

Uh, owner's meeting uh it's kind of a failure on his part that we haven't had a giant bomb candle at this point.

Right, oh yeah, we should do.

Yeah, but you gotta like develop a scent that's like i bet they have like off the shelf ones you could slap a.

Have you seen the the nathan for you where they have the poop flavored yogurt and he goes to the place where they just make the like poop essence and you can just put it into whatever.

Like we just got to go to that place and put it in candles.

Yeah, but here's where I'm going to be a little bit uppity.

If we sell a giant bomb candle, I want it to smell nice.

I want several samples.

It's not going to be a joke.

Also, if we can do it, I would love a wood wick.

Y'all ever light a woodwick candle?

Woodwicks are nice, but I think they Jan.

You sound like a candle connoisseur, a like-minded individual.

I'm with you, bud.

The problem with woodwicks is that they crackle And it could be a fire hazard.

And I don't, and I don't like, you know, like the, you hear a crack and sometimes it like scares me.

Like I'll have one burning next to me.

I'm like, what the fuck was that?

Like some campfire thing.

I think we should offer both.

Okay.

Now, Bacalar, are you a single wick person or a tri-wick person?

What about the duo wick?

Whoa, whoa.

I normally skip that option.

I go from one to three.

I'm a solo wick boy, you know.

That's how I roll.

Folks look forward to the feature where Backlore and I learn to make candles and Dan develops the scent.

I tried.

Last time I tried to light a candle.

Jan, I'm sending you photos in the Discord right now.

What do you mean?

It was for Bonk's birthday, and I got a little cake thing.

And you have pictures now, Jan.

Do what you will with those.

Where is this?

And it's in the general in Discord.

And I tried to time it when she was getting off work.

We lived in New York and I was trying to time it from when she got back from the subway.

So I lit like 30 something candles or whatever on this little cake and I timed it really poorly.

So by the time she got home, all of the candles had completely melted and the entire cake was covered in wax.

Okay.

I mean, what else would anyone expect?

Yeah.

I think that's fair.

I'm getting the photos.

I don't mess with fire.

You got it, Jan, because I could bring it up.

It's causing problems for you.

No, no, no.

I got it.

So, you...

Like after a certain period of time you were on like I should just blow these out and then maybe light them again.

I guess I didn't consider that you can relight them.

I've never done that.

Yeah.

Yeah, you could do that.

But you just...

Okay, I just never thought about it.

I did not know they were a multiple-time use.

Okay.

No, don't say that.

Wait.

Don't say that.

It makes sense.

Now that I think about it, I just never considered it prior.

Yeah, don't say out loud on the internet, I didn't know you could relight a candle.

Don't say that.

Okay.

You can't ever tell anyone that, Dan.

Okay, I won't tell anyone.

Sean, cut this out.

All right.

Did the candle burning candles inside your house?

I guess you know it's one of those things where you like glanced at a headline once or like that's not healthy.

And I'm like, yeah, it's probably not.

And I don't like candles all that much.

So I just won't, I won't do that.

Uh, but you guys seem to be really into candles.

You think it's worth it?

Yeah, I like candles.

They smell nice when I go in people's houses.

In the cool seasons.

If you're worried about a candle burning, you can get yourself a candle warmer.

Yeah, right.

That's the news tech, right?

Or probably like 15 years old at this point.

Oh, like one of those lamps?

Yeah, it's like a little heat lamp and you'll still get the smell of the wax melting, because the wax is still melting and everything.

But you don't have to worry about actual live fire.

I probably just need like a A window open is what people are saying.

That makes sense, right?

Candles are... So when Chad is saying candles are bad for pets, what are we talking?

What are the implications?

I need to know.

Inquiring minds.

Additionally...

I had a friend that used to light a candle in his car in the evening to get the smell out.

Well, that's just fancy.

Like, yeah, I'm sure it was like a Rolls Royce, right?

And it was like meant to have a candle holder and stuff.

No, a Toyota Corolla.

Okay.

I put a stink bomb off in my mom's car when I was in junior high.

And it just like, it gets up in the stuff and the seats and everything.

And then it just, your car just smells like farts for weeks.

And she didn't.

Yeah.

Have you used a stink bomb before this?

I am insulted by that question.

I just wanted to establish the facts here.

Do you know how many stink bombs I've bought and used in my life?

Yeah, I'm prosecuting you now.

I wanted to establish the facts.

The moment I realized there was a little glass vial you could buy at the stupid shop S-T-O-O-P-I-D in Olathe Kansas, and then you just crush it under your foot and then suddenly an entire building can smell like farts.

I was obsessed with it.

That shit, it was crazy though.

It was insane.

You knew the effects going into this, you had to like.

I guess maybe you didn't think about consequences when you were like oh, this is going to smell for weeks before and stuff.

But like i don't know if just the ventilation stuff made it not smell as long.

So i figured in my mom's car and i was like it's gonna be stinky for a day and then it's done.

You know, all the stick bombs i've encountered are so putrid and so strong.

The idea of setting off inside of anyone's car feels like an actual crime.

Like a crime, like a war crime.

What season of the year did you do this, Dan?

I don't remember that.

I don't know.

Oh, I hope it wasn't summer.

Well, I was going to say if it was winter, then you couldn't drive with the windows down because it'd be too cold.

Oh, that'd be bad too.

Yeah.

I got one more grievance.

Please.

Hell yeah.

I...

I posted last night because it stayed with me in a way that I just, like, did.

I was sort of stun-locked.

Like, a thing happened to me over the weekend.

I was at a place.

I was, like, at a candy store.

And it was empty.

And presumably...

I don't know if it was the owner, wherever it was.

Seemingly nice lady.

It was cold at the shore.

I was down at the shore.

She commented on my hat.

Like, oh, you got a really nice hat.

Or it was like, yeah.

I was like, oh, thank you.

Nice.

Look, we got to protect our heads, especially with all that Wi-Fi out there.

Yeah.

Hell yeah.

I kind of like didn't know what to do.

Oh, you don't go to Kansas often, do you?

No.

I've only been to Kansas once, and that was like 20 years ago.

They didn't have 4chan.

Yeah.

Or Wi-Fi, yeah.

Or Wi-Fi.

My first thing was a hysterical laugh out loud because I'm like, oh, she's just joshing.

We're just having fun here.

Two adults who presumably paid attention. growing up a little bit.

And then she's like, I'm serious.

She like stopped me laughing and said, no, I'm serious.

Oh, and I just didn't.

You know, I guess I'm not really interested in like making fun of these people anymore, because it's more sad than it is like an opportunity for comedy.

Well, and it's not just like, oh, this one lovable wacko over here.

It's just like, oh, this is just wide swaths of people you run into.

Yeah.

And she's obviously in the minority.

I mean, like, you know, no serious adult is like... through all... This is also not a class thing.

This isn't like, oh, some uneducated idiot thinks this.

Because there are rich, famous, educated people who have all kinds of similar stuff.

I remember thinking it was really weird in...

Yes, man.

When Jim Carrey was holding a cell phone, he would take his finger like this and put it on his head and hold the phone out here.

And I'm like, why does he hold the phone like that?

And I kind of looked into it a little bit.

It's like.

Because he thinks the phone is going to give him a brain tumor.

Wait, wait, wait.

Was that the character in Yes Man?

I haven't seen the movie.

Or is that just Jim Carrey?

It was the character in Yes Man.

But the character in Yes Man had no reason to do it.

Jim Carrey himself thought.

Well, the character didn't ask.

It wasn't like he's eccentric.

Jim Carrey holds it that way.

Oh, yes.

Yeah, Jim Carrey holds it that way is what I'm getting at.

I think that tracks a little bit with.

Yeah, exactly right.

We would hear that, though.

Like, I mean, it was very common when I was growing up that people said that about like microwaves.

So you don't stand near the microwave when it's doing its thing.

Did you guys have that?

Well, microwaves have shielding in them.

Well, right.

Yeah, but people are like, don't look into the microwave and stuff.

Well, that was my point.

You know, I sat there.

I'm like, what do you think the fucking sun is?

Like, I didn't even like... I didn't even...

I wasn't trying to be condescending.

I was just sort of saying like Oh, sweetie you you, you know, I didn't call her a little dumb idiot.

I was just like Hey, you know, if you think wifi is problematic, like what do you think is coming out of that big old star in the middle of the solar system?

Like, and like, you do have to protect your head from that.

Like, and then I'm like, wait a minute.

Does she think beanies protect heads from wifi?

Impenetrable.

It's the type of knitting that happens in a beanie.

That's why I'm always wearing mine.

Right, it's hexclad.

Yeah, that's really hexclad.

I just don't know what to do anymore.

I just don't know, like...

Chad says, I wasn't trying to be condescending the Jeff Bacalar story.

Yeah, no, look.

Almost, no.

First of all, I readily admit.

90% of the time, yes, that is what I'm deliberately trying to do.

Everyone knows that, of course.

But in this moment it was more like I don't know.

It felt like I was sort of like, you know, taking advantage of someone in a bad way.

You know, I didn't want to, I just didn't want to do that.

I don't know what to do anymore in these situations.

Yeah, we tried shame for a while and that clearly just did not work.

And it's like, I don't have the energy in there to shame people anymore for this stuff.

And it's like, you know.

And I'm wrong about enough things, that it's like oh OK yeah, I'm not going to speak to everything.

I know Wi-Fi is not dangerous, but, you know, can I explain it? to this person satisfactorily.

Right.

Like, you know, I thought I was like, what am I going to do?

Am I going to be like, well, you understand like it's the, the, the waves can't penetrate our DNA.

Like it's just not a thing.

Yeah.

I had similar.

Go ahead.

I was going to say there's certain places I stay when I go back home to Kansas, where I've heard before like hey, you know, we got these new blockers plugged in.

So if you stay at our place, you know, you're not going to your anxiety is just going to clear up.

I think I had anxiety before 5G, but okay.

You know, and then a part of me, it's more fascinating than anything else because it's like I can't believe we just allowed this to happen to people.

We were just like, oh, well, we're just okay with this now.

You know, it used to be crazy was just like organic.

And now it seems almost manufactured.

Definitely manufactured.

And that's upsetting to me.

Yeah, right.

Like we used to just let.

These people were just like the town criers in the plaza who would stand on a soapbox.

And that had some charm to it.

That had some charm.

Like that was a character.

They were carnival barkers.

I mean, can you ever see Terrorist with Mel Gibson?

You ever see that?

Yeah, right.

Yeah.

A charming man, Mel Gibson.

What a charmer.

So much passion, that guy.

And then I got depressed, right?

Because it's like, now there's like so many people.

Yeah, that reminds me of a cameraman I used to work with a lot.

I think when I was at the tail end of me being an assistant camera person, the wireless transmitters were becoming a big thing to just for the director to see the image and everything.

But this camera guy would refuse to put them on his camera because he thought also the signals from the camera would fuck up his brain.

So he would insist that the director has a hard... wire straight to his camera so the director would have to have two portable monitors one for everyone else and then one just for him this is also the same guy that we used to call cow bone um because when we were out when we were out in the desert on a shoot once, we would take bathroom breaks very seriously, right?

Because sometimes you'd have to be out waiting for something to happen for a while.

And we called a bathroom break and he was like, no, I'm good.

I'm like, all right, do you want a PA to run you anything?

He's like, nah, I'm good.

He gets back, and we notice there's a little bit.

He personally could have used an 80s metal-themed candle around him because he smelled a little ripe.

And he started telling his stories like, yeah, I didn't need to go take a bathroom break.

Just took a 10-2 out there.

And then one of my producers, she was mortified.

Like, what do you mean you took a 10-2 outside?

And you didn't use the bathroom.

What did you use to wipe?

And this camera guy goes, well, there was a sun bleached cow bone over there.

Just use that to wipe.

What?

You can't do that.

Oh, Bacalar doesn't know about the three seashells or the cow bone.

I know about the three seashells.

I'm picturing the cow.

I was like, how do you wipe your ass with a cow bone?

Is it like one of those earwax candles where you put it in and it just kind of pulls it all out?

No.

Nope.

You got to heat it up, put it in there.

So somewhere in the Mojave Desert...

I mean, it's probably done or cleared off by now.

It's probably over now, yeah.

Yeah, bacteria.

There was a less bleached, sun bleached skeleton.

It's important that it was sun bleached though, so you could see all the damage he did to it for sure.

I do respect that sort of descriptor.

My man's got a way with words.

It's nice.

It's weird how it's like there's a Goldilocks zone, right?

Because there's the people who hear that there's something invisible that they can't see, and then that's the scariest thing imaginable 5G Wi-Fi.

And then there's people who can't see something, so it's not real.

It's like germs or whatever, or gravity.

And it's like you kind of have to be in the sweet spot where it's like I mostly trust these things that are congruent with the way I live my life.

And also some of these things sound weird, but I trust that I don't know everything.

I guess most of you just have to ignore things because...

If you start thinking about it too much, you almost inevitably either end up here or you have to become an actual expert, and no one has the energy to do that.

Yeah.

I think it's harder work to get yourself to that place.

Yeah.

Germans are invisible to me.

I don't believe in German people.

Do you know what I mean?

Like, I think it's harder work.

I think you have to put up a harder defense because you, because it takes so much more effort to think and reflect.

There is thinking involved, but it's thinking about subversion.

It's like how do I block out The very critically clear thing in front of me and then pivot into a way where it fits with my sort of framework and my belief system?

It's scary.

It's really scary.

And I guess it's moments like this where you really are grounded and it's like a...

It's almost traumatic, you know?

It's almost traumatic.

The good news is that we can probably exploit this fight or flight mechanism that people are feeling by producing algorithms that keep them trapped in video content for hours, at a time where they can sort of lose themselves to even deeper conspiracy theories.

I think there's money to be made here, guys.

Hey, speaking about video content, we did release two vlogs over Thanksgiving break.

All of us hanging out around in New York and then some leftovers.

Dib pulls a very, very fun joke on Dan. that I suggest you check out.

Masterful work.

I feel like he planned that himself, right?

There was no conspiracy happening with you, Bacalar?

I mean, it's funny because I didn't even know this really happened or I don't remember it happened.

I don't either remember.

Well, that's weird.

It happened to you.

Right.

I saw the clip and I was like, oh, right.

Yeah.

Oh, okay.

So you remembered when you saw it.

I didn't even really remember when I saw it.

And you could see I'm in the back of the room.

So I was there.

Yeah, what a move.

What a legend.

That was really impressive.

I don't really intentionally fuck with someone.

I don't really understand the joy in that.

Yeah, I think he learned it by watching you, bud.

It's one of those Hallmark movies right there.

Wow, wow.

Dan, what if you created your worst enemy?

What if all the poking and prodding over the years is just hard and dib?

And he's just going to grow to be like your Joker.

Is he going to be better than me?

Could Dan create a troll so large even he couldn't lift it?

I don't know, man.

Consider the forces I was playing with here.

At the rate he's on, he'll be a better hockey player than me in about Two years.

The second he puts on another 20 pounds and grows another couple, he'll just be cooking me.

I still duck in my trivia contest.

Yeah, totally.

I think the second Dib starts rocking a stache, it's going to be game over.

Oh, that's going to suck, actually.

Oh, he's going to have a mullet and a mustache.

Oh, a mullet and a mustache.

What a dirtbag in the making.

I can't wait.

God damn it.

Dib?

Dib bag?

I don't know.

It's almost there.

Don't start that.

We can't undo that.

Any other grievances we need to air?

I think we're good.

I think that's it for now.

I'm sure before the end of the show, another will materialize.

We'll get there.

Yeah, we'll get there.

He watched it back, too.

He was like, he's like, I rule.

Okay, that sounds like Mike Minotti there.

Okay.

No, what if he's going to take all of the worst qualities from the five of us, plus Sean and Chuck, and he's going to be like a Voltron of the good internet and like all the parts of the good internet but also some of the worst qualities of all of us?

He's going to have a mustache.

He's going to gamble.

Don't worry, he won't smoke, but he'll force kids to watch Jaws.

And then he won't shut up about hockey and pinball and wrestling.

What if it gets really into wrestling?

That's bad.

Dan, what if he becomes an indie wrestler?

That's a bad idea.

He shouldn't do that.

But what if he's really good at it?

I don't see that being in the cards for him.

No, even if you're good at it, it's a bad road.

Don't do it.

I don't really know anyone his age, any of his friends rather, who are like all in on wrestling.

It's just not a thing.

I want to say it's doing well, but I think it's just doing well with like corporate partners.

I don't really like everyone.

I know that I used to talk to wrestling about and myself aren't really watching that much right now.

It's internationally very popular.

Yes.

Oh, I'm not doubting its popularity.

I just in a small sample, in a small sample size that I'm looking at, i'm saying, like internet, i'm saying here, the youth don't care internationally, the youth do care.

Oh yeah, those people are still superheroes yeah yes, uh.

Well, let's talk about a world beyond wrestling and that world is metroid prime 4 beyond.

There is a written review by Dan Reichert on the website the old school website and the new school website.

You can check it out there.

We also had a Q&A little roundtable Sean cut together that is now up on YouTube.

But you should pull that up, let that play in mute while you were still listening to this podcast as we discuss Metroid Prime 4 Beyond.

Dan, it's a play club game, right?

Dan, this is garbage.

I heard if you talk to the British journalists.

Yeah, I thought you're OK.

We're in Andy Robinson.

Give it a three out of five.

No, I love it.

I think it's fantastic.

And again, if you want to see the at-length version written review on the site, and then we have a half-hour video review discussion.

Basically, we put on YouTube.

It should be up right now.

I love it.

I adore it.

I've been put under the gun maybe actual gifts of people holding guns at me today to say whether or not it's better than Metroid prime one or not.

And I refuse.

I refuse.

I will let it sink and simmer a little bit here.

Because I think I said oh, Tears of the Kingdom is better than Breath of the Wild when it first came out.

Now I've kind of gone back on it.

So I'm going to sit before I say anything big like that.

I will say...

It is definitely up there with the first one.

It is much, much better than 2 and 3.

I think 2 and 3 kind of had their sidesteps and stuff, which I don't need to go into all that.

But this one is the most similar to the first one but also made me think of Ocarina of Time a lot, which was the thing that surprised me, mainly in the way that the I don't want to say overworld, because I feel like when you say that now that evokes like a Breath of the Wild, huge open world map.

This is not that.

It's.

I equated it to Hyrule Field in Ocarina, where it's like it's this space that is largely empty, connecting major zones.

And there are some things there, some puzzles, a few shrines even.

But ultimately it is a place that you were just kind of.

Instead of riding Epona around from this place to that place, you were riding Viola around your sweet motorcycle that Samus has.

And each of these areas, Fury Green, Volt Forge, Ice Belt.

What's the there's a lava one.

I forget the name of it right now.

But yeah, they are basically giant dungeons like, you know, Ocarina style dungeons.

Basically, you're going around, you're getting an item, you're fighting a boss.

But you do have that Metroid backtracking here.

But I've played through the first Metroid Prime twice in recent years, both the original version and remastered in recent years.

And I always kind of forget when you go back, like the tail end of Metroid Prime, as much as I love that game and think it's one of the best ever.

Some of that backtracking is not the best.

It's easy to get a little bit lost and turned around and it's kind of a pain in the ass to kind of work your way back to the teleporter or the elevators and all that stuff.

This one, the backtracking, is more interesting in that, like you know, when your vault forge is one of the early areas,

And if you've ever seen images of like lightning and towers and stuff like that, I think it's the most visually striking area in the game.

You know, the first time you're going through it it's kind of this kind of almost dark, kind of spooky.

Like you're just kind of going through this like power down lightning tower with enemies and stuff.

It's kind of awesome.

And then, you know, you work your way down, you power it up.

And then like, you will eventually have to go back later as you're cleaning stuff up.

And it's like, just teeming with light and electricity and activity.

And it's just like, it feels different.

So even when you are backtracking in this one, I do think it's more interesting.

The thing that people were really worried about with the uh the miles uh McKinsey, miles McKinsey.

It's not a big deal.

It is not.

Um, I saw people even today after all the reviews came out being like, oh, it's like, it's good.

He's going to be nonstop radio chatter.

It's not most of.

What he says, and especially the annoying stuff, is the stuff that Backlar saw in that preview event and that everyone freaked out about a month or whatever ago.

Yeah, it is jarring in that you see this title card of Fury Green, this area.

That's kind of like I think you said it was like Pandora.

Yeah.

Music kicks in and it's just incredible.

And the sweet title card and everything.

It's just like, you know, it's, it's classic Metroid.

And then you got the guy saying like, Oh, yeah.

And you know, it's like, it's, it is jarring for sure.

And he sucks.

And I hate that type of character more than anyone.

But that part happens in the first hour.

He goes back to like a little base station.

And he's just the dude where it's like oh, you got a fire chip in this dungeon and he's the guy that calls.

He's like, oh, hey, I can put that in your arm cannon.

I can help you with that.

Come back here.

And then it just kind of shows you a little pip on the map and you go do it and you're done with him.

It's not...

He's not calling in all the time like he's the Campbell or something in Metal Gear.

And most importantly, it is not hand-holding.

It is not doing the thing where it's saying like, hey, go here, go there.

I was really worried at Vault Forge because when you first get there he does pull up the map and he's like hey, check this out here.

Maybe if you go down here, here's the map, and then you go down this thing here.

I was like, if he fucking does this every time I enter a new area, I'm going to hate that.

And he doesn't.

He does not.

The question I have for you, Dan, and...

Maybe y'all can speak to this more, because I never really played Metroid, the original Metroid Prime, growing up.

But I've seen.

Dan, you've mentioned the Ocarina of Time influence and the Halo influence.

I've seen online as well.

I don't know.

Does any of that?

Does it feel like it dilutes whatever strong Metroid presence there is supposed to be?

No.

Okay, cool.

The Halo comparisons, I think people are just talking about that first hour.

It's the stuff that Jan, you and I saw in New York.

You know Backlar, you probably played through that kind of like Halo, Call of Duty, almost opening right.

Did you play the opening years, Backlar?

Yeah.

Yeah, it's very much like it reminds me of that first E3 trailer of a gameplay thing of Halo 2, that Battle of Mombasa or whatever, where it's just like screaming and aliens and cannons and everything's.

You know ships coming in and there's a fucking mech and all this stuff.

And it's like, that does not feel like Metroid, but that's just the setup to the story.

It's just that thing happens.

You're going to get this artifact thing and then you get warped to Vros, which is the new area and everything.

And that does have some characters that talk and things like that.

And I guess that's what people are freaked out about.

But it's not like other M, it's not like this is the narrative Metroid or anything.

Like you do find like a crew member basically at each like zone you go to and But it's basically you run into them and they're like hey Samus okay, cool.

Yeah, let's get it.

Let's get out of here.

And then they go back to the base station.

And so you have like a ragtag group you're assembling throughout the game.

But honestly, by the end, I liked them and they don't get in the way of anything at all.

They're just some Galactic Federation folks that you just kind of pick up along the way.

There's a handful of them.

It's not bad.

They don't suddenly start like, oh Miles McKenzie goes away, but now someone else is pointing you in the right direction.

That sort of fades in the background.

I don't think.

I mean there might be exceptions, but I think for the most part Miles is the one who just kind of like, calls you on your radio.

And... you can call it when you go to the map, if you hit, I think it's X, it's the radio button.

And like, anytime you're in a zone, it just straight up says like, Hey, the radio is disabled.

You can't do it.

So like you couldn't talk to him if you wanted to.

It is basically just like if you are in the open world and you're just trying to figure out like man, where do I go?

I just got this fire chip in my gun.

Yeah, what can I do with this?

Then you can call him and he might be like, and he's kind of vague at times too.

He'll be like, hey, you got a new thing.

Maybe you should go back to some places you've been to before and see if you can do more stuff.

And then if you keep bugging him or you keep kind of idling around Soul Valley for a while, he might be like hey, remember that fucking lava river over in the fireplace?

Maybe you can go cross that now, you know?

It just sounds like another way of doing the question mark like objective marker that would pop up after you spend enough time exploring a Metroid Prime.

They'd be like, okay, yeah, you've been going around now.

Hey, we detected something.

And this is just like vocalizing some of that.

What percentage of the game is linear?

My understanding is it's a little bit linear early on and then opens up.

At what point does it open up?

How long were you playing?

Do you agree with that?

I was curious about that, because you need to get five MacGuffins, basically these five teleporter keys.

And by the time soul Valley opens up like the desert hub area, you've got two of them already.

And then miles does get on the radio and he's like, Hey, there's three more keys.

Go do them in whatever order you want.

But I actually don't know if that's the moment when I was like oh, this is going to be Breath of the Wild.

Do I want to go here or there or that mountain or the mines or whatever?

And then I did try to go because, like he pointed me towards, I think it was bolt forge at that point or it might've been the ice place.

He pointed me towards one of them.

And I specifically wanted to go the other way.

So I just basically found a big thing in the desert and rode my bike towards it.

And I did hit a roadblock where it's like I think that was the fire river I talked about, where it's just like I got in there.

I looked at this fire river and it was like, Hey, you can't do this right now.

I think it might've been a pop-up or something.

If it wasn't miles that called me.

And so like, it might actually be linear.

I am gonna play through it again.

And I am curious if there is a way to do the dungeons or the zones out of order.

But it seemed like you pretty much needed A to get to B every time.

But once you're in the zones though, does that still feel like Metroid Fusion, Metroid Dread to a certain extent, especially like once you complete an area.

They're like let's we're going to like basically guide you out of here.

How much of that is there?

Like how many times do you feel like I really can only go forward, even though I'm in this space now?

That is technically kind of an open Metroidvania style exploration.

These areas are different in that like every one of them you go into...

And you know, before you get the map, you'll basically see the map.

You'll see the rooms you've been in and then it'll like pan down in a Metroid Prime style and show you like hey, here's this big obvious like boss room or whatever you need to get to.

And you got to kind of figure out how to get down.

And some of these areas are more like okay.

Well, there's this obvious area like the mines are like okay, I'm just going down.

That's what I'm doing here.

But then there's stuff like Volt Forge, which is like three separate towers.

And you're kind of like.

You know you're trying to power these up and you are going between all three towers trying to work your way around.

And then there are ways you unlock where it's like oh, here's an easier way to get from tower one to tower two.

And then, oh, I unlocked this thing at the bottom.

And now it's almost like a Dark Souls type shortcut thing where it's like now there's this like morph ball elevator I can just hop into and that'll take me right to the top.

So they are, I would not call them linear.

Some are more open than others, but they all are.

Any room you're in, You know, it could be like okay well, there's two different doors here.

I bet one of them is a save room.

Okay, there's a crumbly thing right there.

I can probably blow that up later.

And then there's going to be a morph ball, you know thing I can go through, and who knows where that sends me.

So it's any given room...

It's not like, okay, I'm just going to go towards where an arrow is pointing me.

There is a certain amount of openness without being overwhelming.

Performance-wise, Dan?

Oh, God.

It looks incredible.

It is just incredible. wild how fucking good this game looks.

I didn't handheld with the, the one 20 and then the 4k on the TV.

I mainly played on TV, but Oh God, it's.

It's the most gorgeous, like maybe most gorgeous Nintendo game ever, but definitely the best looking game on the console.

Yeah.

And the, the controls as well.

I really, really liked the gyroscopic controls with the pro controller.

And like, I would recommend anyone go in there and tweak certain settings and stuff.

Cause there are certain things where it's like the motion does feel gimmicky.

Like you get this kind of like grapple thing that can pull shields off, and like I don't need to yank the controller every time.

But the way Metroid Prime aiming works, where it's like you know from the beginning, it's like you hold in the left trigger and it kind of locks on to a character and you can kind of strafe around them and everything.

A lot of these characters have weak spots all over their bodies or it's better to shoot their limbs and things like that.

So you lock on with left trigger and while you're holding that you can kind of set the threshold that you like.

That will cause the reticle to kind of break off of the main lock, if that makes sense.

And then you can just kind of do slight little motions like boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.

Going to hit, hit the limbs while still remaining locked on.

So you can strafe and navigate around them and everything.

It works incredibly well.

So I did that in handheld.

I did the mouse mode stuff, which I don't know.

It's, I think it's interesting that the switch to has a mouse mode.

I mean, I mainly want it for stuff like Mario maker.

Uh, you know, but for this.

You know Jan, you and I went to that New York event and they had the giant flat surface in front of me, which is like the most.

No one has something like that at home, basically in front of their TV.

And it works fine there.

I tried it here on the couch.

I tried it on my leg.

I tried it on the couch.

I brought an actual like couch mouse pad down.

I sat on the floor and put it on like a table in front of me and stuff.

And it really didn't do anything that the gyroscopic controls didn't do better.

And whether you're playing with a pro controller, the joy cons or handheld, you're going to have access to those gyroscopic controls.

So highly, highly recommend turning those on, tweaking them to your liking.

I thought it felt great.

I am very curious and excited to check Metroid Prime 4 Beyond Out as kind of a novice to the series.

Any other closing thoughts, y'all, about Metroid before we move on?

I'm ready to play it.

The reviews are all over the place.

The more I read them, though, the more it's like, oh, this is not going to be a problem for me.

It's not what I was expecting, or I'm kind of okay with this game being what it is.

So...

Still have pretty high hopes, but we'll see.

Dan, I'm glad you like it.

It was kind of fun to follow your journey of you getting it and having early thoughts and kind of getting near the end and thinking you liked it quite a bit and then coming around on it in a huge way at the end.

Five-star review.

That's...

It's good stuff.

People should go read that review.

It's, uh, it really is very insightful.

Yeah.

I thought it was interesting to like just today, the embargo left and seeing everyone's.

And I I don't see a lot of arguments that I like wholly, like you know.

I don't feel like Oh, you're way off base or whatever.

Like I think just, certain aspects of this game, people are going to like more than others.

And it all really worked for me.

But yeah, some of the stuff rubbed people the wrong way.

I get it.

So it's, I mean, read the reviews, see what you think, but I'm in the camp that very much loved it.

Yep.

And it's like I really I don't see anything in the reviews where it's like anything that you didn't say.

It is just how much it's going to bother you.

So I was like kind of like scouring, like trying to find like what is the thing that is turning some people off so much.

And there's no like negative reviews.

There's just some mixed reviews.

And it's like all things you said, and some people, it's just getting to them a little bit more.

And I get wanting the very pure Metroid Prime experience.

I especially get it now, in a world where we've had FromSoft games that are obtuse and we just had a Silksong which is obtuse and isolating and weird.

And it's like these games obviously can work.

So if Metroid Prime went more in that direction, I think it would be mostly just fine, as long as they made a good game.

But them also trying to make things a little bit friendlier and feel like a little bit more bombastic and sci-fi.

That can work as well.

So I do want to bring this up real quick.

Uh, somebody said here that uh Logan at IGN said he was bothered by trophy dialogue.

Uh and uh.

So yeah, I have seen some complaints about the story and stuff.

And listen, I will say right here that you know that I'm not a story person in games.

And so like as much as I loved this game, I would say like 0% of that is the story.

Like I did come around on those characters.

I found them likable by the end.

But I mean the story is, if that's the type of thing that bothers you, it straight up is like you got warped to an alien planet.

Find five things and go home.

It's that.

If you're looking for something deeper than that, I don't know.

That is kind of what I want from a Metroid game.

I just kind of want to get the loosest thread of like go do this stuff and then beat the game, beat the final boss.

I mean, I don't want Other M. There's a reason I did.

Other M was not for me.

You know, I don't need a bunch of story in my Metroid basically.

So that did not bother me at all.

Is there stuff like codex or like audio logs?

Yes.

So if you want to dig deep into, like the lore and everything like that, there's all sorts of like there's, there's spooky ghost, alien priests and there's you know like Oh, what happened to these?

This ancient race of, ghosts or whatever, and a bunch of log books you can read.

I scanned every fucking thing I saw.

I read everything I saw.

It's just, you can go deep on that stuff if you want.

To me, it's just, you know, it's kind of background stuff.

I've only... played a baby's handful of Metroid games.

I think the last one before, I mean, excited to check out Prime 4, was Metroid Dread.

The way that everyone talks about Other M, I really want to check out Other M now.

It's worth checking out just to see how insane it is like with what they did with that story and the characterization of Samus.

It's weird.

Do y'all think that is kind of like the equivalent of telling someone like no, you should watch episode one first before you actually check out?

I think it's worse than that.

I think there's more likable elements to that episode one.

Okay.

All right.

Well, Dan, thank you very much.

Again, there is a written review on the website.

Dan wrote that and as well as a little roundtable discussion QA bit that Sean edited together.

That is now on YouTube.

But moving on with video games.

Sorry, real quick.

I just see a comment saying the only story I want is ancient alien race makes Samus a god.

Play Metroid Prime 4.

You're good.

Yeah, exactly.

I checked out yesterday a game that has been blowing up on Steam, speaking about gigantic open worlds Where the Winds Meet.

This is a game, an open world game, kind of a Souls-like game.

Jimmy Jam set in ancient China.

I don't know what to make of this because it frames itself as kind of like a Souls-like game.

The opening is very dramatic.

It opens with a quick time sequence, a chase on a horse where you're protecting a baby.

So I thought, oh, is this going to be like Death Stranding where I'm protecting a baby but in China?

But no, you quickly grow up and then you wind up becoming... the baby you were protecting.

And the combat is kind of Souls-like, kind of action-adventure-ish.

So there's moments where it reminds me of like Stellar Blade or Bayonetta. but it has the stagger and stamina and the posture for enemies like a Souls game would.

But because I think where the winds meet is supposed to appeal to as big of an audience as popular.

And I've looked at the steam numbers and this game is doing gangbusters online.

It's doing very well.

Yeah.

Um, there are some like built in accessibility features that I kind of enjoy.

Like You can parry in this game or you can dodge, roll out of the way you can block, but the thing that this game will give you, if you enable the feature, is just straight up like here's the button to press when you gotta parry.

I'm gonna slow down...

Almost a full stop so you can parry this game.

And that is treated with your posture meter or your stamina meter.

So if you aren't nailing the parry yourself, the game will just be like, here it is, dude.

You good?

No?

Okay, cool.

And that'll just take off like a little pip on your stamina meter.

The part where I am a little bit overwhelmed by the game is that, because it is a free-to-play game, it is also online, if you enable it.

You can do co-op throughout the story with friends and I believe it's cross-platform so you can.

If someone has this on the PS5, you can go play with them there.

Like, should I be thinking, like, Monster Hunter?

I would... Kind of...

Yeah, a combination of Monster Hunter, a Souls game and an action-adventure game is where the wins meet is.

But as soon as the world starts to open up and I'm maybe like three or four hours in there are so many pips on the map.

And it just feels like map barf.

But I can see where this becomes someone's game for an extended period of time, because you were trying to just tick off all of the boxes.

And on top of that, the combat does feel good.

You don't feel like you were banging your head constantly failing at a boss, like you would in some souls games and I understand that isn't for everyone, but it definitely feels like oh, I can mash out a button and then block and then parry dodge, roll out of the way and have an enjoyable time.

What I will say is this game did uh, I did something in this game that I've never done in another video game, where the first missions, before you get the map for everything is the.

There's a vendor that tells you Hey.

This bear over there, he took my shit.

Can you go get it?

And the game has you approach the bear.

And then you have a quick time event where you learn Tai Chi from the bear.

Because the bear is pawing at a tree.

From the bear.

You learn it from observing the bear.

So you have to do a quick time event of like hitting, timing out and pressing a button when, like a circle turns gold.

Okay, so you do that a couple times and then you just get a gigantic message blasting over the screen saying you learned Tai Chi from this bear.

And then it becomes a martial art that you know forever now.

And then you do a Tai Chi, throw onto a giant brown bear and throw it 20 feet into the air and i thought, oh man, maybe this game's got the juice if i learned how to do tai chi from an animal.

Um, Is that the tone of the game?

Like, it's kind of... Someone in the chat said Yakuza.

Like, yeah.

Does it sometimes feel like Yakuza?

Yeah, I feel like this game is presented very, very seriously.

But as you were playing it, there was more than enough shenanigans constantly happening around the map.

That makes you feel like okay.

All right.

They got a sense of humor.

The movement, and like the air movement as well, kind of reminds me of like Chinese wire work Okay films.

So It is definitely leaning on that influence for sure.

I believe it's like Wuxia or something.

Correct me if I'm wrong, everyone out there, but don't yell at me, please.

The game looks gorgeous.

This is one of those Jimmy Jams where I don't understand how and why this is free to play, why this looks so good.

Wait, how are they trying to get you to spend money on this free-to-play game?

Chad is saying that apparently someone has already spent $50,000 on a boat mount in the game.

So that might answer some of your questions.

Okay.

I mean, like in the three hours that I was playing it, I wasn't really presented initially with anything of like well, now you got to spend money bro.

So I don't know if this is strictly on a cosmetic level or...

If there is anything like that is like a pay to win part of this because I can't I don't know where that would affect the overall loop of the gameplay.

So it sounds like cosmetics.

People are saying it's a, it's only cause warframe.

Okay.

Only cosmetics and it's a war frame.

Battle passes and cosmetics apparently.

But $50,000 on a boat.

Hey, you know, it's a bargain.

Yeah, if this is going to be your main means of talking to someone, I guess, or partying with friends.

Dan, please.

Yes.

Apparently they sponsored a ton of streamers to play it, and there are AI chatbot NPCs that people are fucking with to get rewards fast.

Oh, yeah.

Apparently the game's got a lot of AI is what people are saying.

It's like, yeah, not surprising.

Okay.

Damn, with 50K, couldn't you buy a real shoot boat?

Yeah, well.

That'd be a shitty boat.

Not a good one.

That'd be a real shitty boat.

Like a small boat.

How much is a kayak?

Yeah.

How much is a kayak?

A kayak's a couple hundred bucks, but I mean... Is a kayak a boat?

I guess so.

Yeah.

I was about to say anything that floats is a boat, but My poop floats, and that's not a boat.

That's a boat for someone out there.

Boat for someone.

I don't know.

That's true.

But Where the Winds Meet, it's free to play if you are looking for a grindy game to engage with and you just want to do Tai Chi to a bear.

That sounds fun.

The game also starts with you learning how to shoot an arrow by shooting down a bunch of birds.

And this kind gentleman being like, hey, I've learned so much.

Here's my journal on how to shoot arrows so you can stealthily take down birds.

And then you're just shooting down a bunch of birds with your little kid companion.

And I can't help but feel this is fucked up.

Anyway, where the winds meet.

I feel like this is the kind of thing that Ubisoft has been trying to like get at.

Like they want to make a game like this eventually, but they can't stop making Assassin's Creed for 70.

So they kind of can't. like get away with it.

I feel like this is the kind of thing that could come and eat its lunch and just sort of replace that whole genre of big, massive setting action adventure, open world games with online functionality.

But we'll see.

Egg on my face.

The game is where wins meet, not where the wins meet.

Apologies, gang.

Speaking about meeting things, Jeff Grubb, you and Mike Minotti met virtually to take down a bunch of space baddies in Marvel Cosmic Invasion.

Yeah, that's the new beat-em-up from Tribute.

They did that Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Shredders Revenge game.

People like that quite a bit.

I thought that was a pretty good beat-em-up.

It wasn't one of my favorites of this new era that we're getting.

This one is improved, I think.

Mostly the big thing there is, excuse me, you have a few more defensive options.

So where you could... sort of do that dodge and turtles.

And it would, it was not as a, not always effective.

There was kind of, kind of felt like, no, this is old style beat them up.

Sometimes you're just going to get hit no matter what.

Here the dodge is a little bit more effective, but there's also some characters that have a straight up like shield or a block and that has a parry mechanic to it.

Also, offense is a very good defense here, because any situation you're in, there is always another character that you can tag in.

It is a tag beat-em-up.

So you pick two characters when you start a level.

A lot of times when you're going through the campaign...

There'll be two characters flashing and those are like the story characters and they also have challenges associated within that level, so you know to pick them.

And then you take those two characters in there.

You play as one at a time, But at any time if you are attacking, so you're hitting light attack on X or heavy attack on Y, while pressing that if you tap the left bumper, your assist character will come in and either perform their light attack or their heavy attack.

Now, if you're not doing an attack and you just hit the left bumper, You'll fully swap the characters out.

And this is it's really frantic and hectic.

So it's like, if you are, it kind of feels like you should be spamming those assists as much as possible because they really amplify the amount of damage you can put out.

And it looks cool and it feels like okay, I'm kind of very capable in any situation I find myself in.

As far as like, is this the spiritual successor to the X-Men arcade beat-em-up that people want?

I think mostly.

You know, it's not a direct follow-up to that.

This is, you know, the whole Marvel Universe thing.

They're taking a lot of influence from Marvel versus Capcom, the Capcom fighting game, which I think is a good thing.

A lot of the moves, a lot of the looks of the characters.

Just feel like yeah, we played that game and loved it.

We want to replicate that here.

It even has the tag system.

Um, And so it's like yeah, if you are into any of that stuff or you just have a fondness for that arcade game or you like Marvel stuff in general, it's going to hit really well.

But you're going to have to bring some of that to this game, I think.

If you have no affinity for either those old games or or Marvel itself as an entertainment industry or whatever, you will probably not get enough out of this game to justify it.

It's like 25, 30 bucks or something like that.

So it's delivering for the people who it's meant for, for sure.

I'm into them doing this with all the old classic, you know, like turtles this, like you know, that is the genre that I think has most uh, been hurt as it moved from the arcade, because they were just quarter munchers.

It's figured out now.

They've solved it.

They've solved the problem.

I want them to bring it to Simpsons, especially now that Simpsons and Fortnite had a bit of a gaming revival which, by the way, I had multiple nights up till 4 am, both getting myself and Kayla Homer so.

Got Homer, that battle pass is over.

Boy, that was the most effective fucking marketing tie-in thing ever because that got me from not playing Fortnite in like two years to completely getting into it again.

But yes, I would love to see a new Simpsons game, arcade game, given the sort of treatment that Marvel got here.

Yeah.

And it's, you know, as far as fun as that Simpsons Fortnite thing was, it's like oh, I'm kind of super bummed that it is a temporary thing.

It'll come back at some point.

Sure.

But it's like, oh, that's that awesome Simpsons game they made doesn't exist anymore.

I know.

So I kind of want like some permanent things like a Simpsons beat them up.

That would be awesome to have at this point.

I i i think that this is a very good one.

It is not as good as streets of rage 4.

It's not as good as like absalom.

Like go play absalom instead.

If you haven't played that this year, we're gonna do a run of that one of these days.

Yeah, that's good.

I think we could probably beat that game in one go.

I think so.

You all should stretch a bit before that, then.

Okay.

Yeah, we'll see.

But it's right behind those leaders of the pack and it's totally worthy of being included in this new crop of beat-em-ups, the sort of new golden era that we're in.

Grub, all the characters feel very distinct.

There's a pretty big... uh, character pool.

I, I, what is it?

16, something like that.

Yeah.

But because you can pick two, it actually kind of ended up like you have four players.

You ended up picking half the roster, right?

Cause you need eight characters total in there.

So, uh, Yeah, what's your question?

I can't help but notice there's just like a distinct character from the X-Men missing.

No, I think the guy, everyone that really matters.

I think he joined ICE, actually.

I swear to God.

There's going to be a moment where I shoot break and fuck up everything on his website.

Listen, Jan.

If there was one guy going to ICE... It would be Charles Xavier.

Yeah, that's true.

Would it?

The rich aristocrat?

That, like, kidnaps people from their homes and says, no, come live with me.

I'll tell you where to go and how to use your powers.

Ice clock.

I bet he would sort of be like, I got, what is it called?

His dome?

What's that called?

Cerebro.

No.

Close.

Cerebro.

He could, like, point out all the... Oh, Cerebro.

Yeah, Cerebro.

Cerebro, right.

He'd be like, well, I got this.

I could work from home, you know, kind of thing.

Exactly.

That fucker left his family to go to space to fuck.

I... think Cyclops will end up in this game eventually.

It is ripe for adding a ton of new characters, and the characters are very distinct.

They all play like they... express what you want from each character.

You know, Storm can fly.

Any of the flying characters you double tap jump, she can fly.

She sends out winds and stuff like that.

Her superpower is dropping a bunch of lightning.

There's some...

Sort of golden axe to it a little bit on that front.

And then, you know, every other character is just like, yeah, they play like you expect.

Wolverine is just, you know, fury and claws and things like that.

It's good.

Yeah.

Where the fuck is Nightcrawler?

True.

Yeah, that one, I can see that working as well, yeah.

I hope eventually they get the full roster that they had in the X-Men arcade game.

I do think it's odd some of their inclusions, because they have Nova, which I consider like a low C to D tier Marvel character, but then they also have Beta Ray Bill.

Why are they trying to make better Beta Ray Bill happen?

I don't know.

I thought it did happen.

I don't know anything about Beta Ray Bill, other than he comes up sometimes and people seem very excited.

He's just horse Thor.

I mean the first time he said it.

I thought he said Gatorade Bill and I thought that seems like a pretty cool comic character.

Might as well be that.

I don't...

That sounds like a guy you meet outside a bar in Kansas.

He doesn't drink.

He just shows up with Gatorade.

He does his job.

What's funny is I can only This is such a dumbass old man way to sort of measure the importance of Marvel characters.

And I kind of do that with a little bit of like what the current set of like Marvel cards is kind of like prioritizing Marvel people.

Because it's like well, if they're not in the cards, if they're not in this checklist, they're not important or they're not as important.

I think that's a good measurement.

Yeah.

Sure.

I mean it just it tells you there is some sort of editorial sort of oversight there where they're like well, we're going to give Bill his own fucking card.

So I'm surprised to see this, but they have been trying to, this guy's been in like every set.

I feel like in the last five to six years, which I do not understand.

Is he show up in movies?

What's the deal?

No, I don't think he's shown up in any movies, but it feels imminent.

It feels inevitable at this point.

I bet Taika Waititi.

Yeah, Taika Waititi.

Thank you.

I think he would be all over that if he did another one of those.

He probably won't, but I think he would.

Yeah.

I don't know.

I think some of the characters, like I was surprised to see Cosmic Ghost Rider.

That stoner ghost rider and like he's got like this dome over his head like Mysterio or whatever.

But it's all the fire in there and he's just like he's got like a space gun.

He looks fucking sick.

It's cosmic invasion, because that's if the Punisher became the Ghost Rider.

Oh, so he's ice.

Okay.

Got it.

Yes, definitely.

Frank Castle, I don't think he'd be ice.

I think he'd... No, he would kill him.

Yeah, he would kill everyone.

I'm surprised Daredevil isn't in the game, given... how popular the show has been.

Yeah.

I think they just like, they chose a cosmic theme.

Like what that, why they did that specifically.

It's like you know it.

It works for the story they're telling but, like you know, there's always the rights involved.

And John Drake, he's just got that iron, iron grip around.

What did I do to Drake?

Why won't he put Cyclops and things?

Drake, I thought we were pals.

Huh?

I don't, Do I have to send you a wrestler cameo apology?

Now, I don't know, like, what is, what's the deal?

Like, I just don't think Cyclops is that, is Cyclops like a, is he popular?

Like, is he?

X-Men 97 saved his rep.

I guess.

And that was a long time.

Well, that was actually re recent.

So I was like in the last year.

Yeah.

Um, I don't know.

I just feel like I, I never see anyone dressing up as Cyclops for Halloween.

Never see that.

Never, you know, don't, you don't see that.

I'm going to start vibrating through this podcast.

All right, Jan, who would you rather have in this game, Cyclops or Scarlet Spider?

See, I was thinking that too as Grub was talking.

Yeah, you are, man.

Scarlet Spider's pretty funny.

He's just cool.

I would take Spider-Man and Scarlet Spider and still not be upset.

Does Scarlet Spider usually wear a vest?

Hoodie.

Like a hoodie vest.

A hoodie.

Like a teal hoodie.

Yeah.

All right.

Because he's the coolest.

Yeah.

The Across the Spider-Verse films maybe didn't make him the coolest.

He's kind of a dweeb there, but.

It's Andy Samberg.

It could be way worse.

It could be worse.

Moving on.

Josh Gad.

Josh Gad as Scarlet Spider for sure.

Josh Gad.

That's Olaf, right?

Yes.

Yeah.

I'm also planting a seed for later.

So just hang in there.

No, you can't do that.

No no, but I don't know how clued in any of y'all are to the current MCU, but apparently Josh Gad is going to make a big appearance in the Power Man show as Josh Gad.

Oh.

Power Man 5000.

Within his range.

Yeah, Power Man 5000.

He's going to be Rob Zombie's brother?

Uh-huh.

Was that a shoot?

Yeah.

His name was like Steve Zombie or something.

Steven Zombie.

I didn't know that.

Is that for real?

I didn't know that.

We've been going for a bit here.

Let's cap off Games Talk on the other side of this little bricky break, and we'll also get to the news right after this.

Over the weekend, this isn't a cry for help.

This is like a coming to Jesus moment.

But one of my dear friends, Miles, he's popped up.

He's hung around at the GB at night stuff.

He... had a curiosity to check out a game made by Riot called League of Legends.

And I decided, oh, I used to play a lot of that.

Let me go download that and play with my dear friend Miles.

And I got a lot of concern calls from the Internet, rightfully so.

So thank you, everyone.

But I will say that I think League of Legends as a whole is a garbage product, because I don't understand how this game, in the year of our Lord 2025, we'll still have a launcher and will start to launch a whole separate, windowed instance of when you finally get into the game.

I don't understand how even the setup phase still takes you 30 or upwards to 15 to 20 minutes.

Who the fuck has time to actually play this game on a continual basis?

And also, my biggest gripe of this... My biggest gripe is...

For practice sake, I thought, let me go re-acclimate myself to the controls and everything.

None of the muscle memory has stuck.

So let's see if I can remember the overall flow and how to play the game.

So I entered a training match.

A training match against computer opponents and, for all i know, my teammates were either other people entering in like a training mode or they were also computers.

I could not quit out of this match.

Wait, what Dude you're describing?

Okay, go on.

If I quit out and exited the game, it wouldn't let me launch into another game.

It would just be reconnect.

Reconnect to your training match against AI-controlled opponents.

Yes.

And, as far as I remember, there is nothing to earn or gain from just playing against AI opponents and or teammates.

They're just trying to teach you the lesson that there is no escaping League of Legends.

And now this is the rest of your life.

So I uninstalled it, gang.

Everyone can... It's going to reinstall itself on your computer tonight.

I did look and Riot was still on my computer despite uninstalling that as well.

So I feel like I'm still not in a completely good space.

But speaking about space...

Jeff Grubb.

I'm sorry, real quick, you said it took how long to load up?

No, no, no, no.

Like to get to get out of like the setup phase of a game because got it.

In MOBAs, not just League of Legends, but it takes forever to get going.

And then, after 15, 20 minutes, that's when like all right, shit's starting to hit the fan, let's go.

Okay, got it.

I still think the best MOBA out there is Pokemon Unite, because those games are like three minutes long.

Sure.

Three to five minutes long.

Anyway, moving on back to space, Jeff Grubb, Dan Reichert, you two have been playing Sectori.

Oh.

Yeah.

Uh, so I've talked about this the last several weeks and it is.

Yeah.

Well, the sector already happened.

It's, it's important.

Uh, yeah, no, I'm good.

I'm good.

Yeah.

No, it's, he's right.

That's the, that's the noise you make for sectory.

Um, It really clicked with me in this last week, where it's like I started to find out oh, this is the leaderboard everyone is on.

Oh, here are the other modes.

Here's how some of the scoring system works.

Oh, some of these upgrades I was ignoring are super important.

Dan, you started playing this weekend.

You get it, right?

Yesterday, basically I played it.

It is the ultimate, just like I'm going to do one more here.

And I told myself like okay, like after work yesterday I was like I'm gonna start playing this and I'll do a bunch of this.

And then when I'm getting ready to wind down for bed, I'll switch over to Yotei.

And I just couldn't stop.

And so I literally went from just like eyeballs about to fall out of my head.

Everything just sector is pulsing through my veins from that to laying in bed staring at the ceiling, which is not a good way to do things.

Um, Grub, it is, yeah, it's Geometry Wars, it's Housemarque, it's everything you've said.

It's, I'm trying to kind of figure out, because like they don't spell too much out for you.

The tutorial is pretty short.

So you know, it's that thing of realizing kind of in real time as you're playing, like oh wait, there's a strike multiplier up there.

What does that mean?

Oh shit, if I do that strike move and I chain it with a bunch of these power-ups and stuff, then I'm getting more of a strike multiplier.

Ooh, and then I bet, if I triggered the score thing in the stack upgrades, I bet I can get a super score there.

It is, there's a level of depth to it that like if you just, look at it.

It just looks like twin stick shooter geometry wars, which geometry wars also had more depth than it appeared.

Um, but yeah, it's in that Robotron geometry wars house.

Mark Vane.

Uh Um, and I'm still trying to kind of figure out, like I'm not anywhere near your score yet.

Grub.

I'm at the, you're at like 6 million something.

I'm in like mid twos, I want to say.

Um, I haven't beaten it yet, but I got pretty far, uh, pretty quick.

So it's like, that is an intense, difficult game.

And I think right now I want to try to just beat it on the first difficulty and then start going after score stuff on the next one.

But yeah, just trying to figure out the strategy, because the way like as you level up, there's that stack of like okay, you get one upgrade pip.

Do you want to spend it right now on speed, or do you want to get five or six of those and get your missiles or your blaster, which is, you know, ultimately a bigger upgrade?

And then you can spend it on shields, like one-time use shields and things like that.

So there's really a fun interplay there.

And then there's all the little things in between, where it's like there's the letters that, what does it spell out?

Mirage.

Mirage on the basic mode, Secretary on the middle mode, and then, I think, maybe Revolution on the last one.

Okay.

And that triggers the rainbow mode thing where just everything is exploding and colorful.

It is tremendously satisfying in the way the arena is constantly shifting and everything that strike mechanic is killer.

Yeah.

Grub, you, you unleashed something by pointing me towards this game.

It's incredible.

Yeah.

It has been fun to, like I said was clicking and begin developing new strategies of like you know what.

I am going to go all in on speed early on, because that way I can get around the map faster and pick up more of those pips and turn those in for more upgrades.

And then really the hardest part of a run right now is the early part, at least on the challenge mode, because it's when you're the least survivable and you kind of have to like take some risks to get your survivability up pretty quickly and before the first boss fight happens.

So that means you want to be like taking out as many enemies as possible, zooming around, picking up everything that they drop, so that you can then start chaining together these strikes to get to all these pickups, get the upgrades, and now I can like have a stronger blaster which is going to enable me to blast through these hordes of enemies at a certain point.

That could easily overwhelm me if I just had the little pea shooter.

But if I'm doing that, I'm like not getting, if I'm like saving up five upgrade tokens and to get an upgraded blaster, I am not putting it in strike.

I'm not putting in this other stuff.

So I'm like, what if I tried to like figure out strike even more?

I was already like doing quite a bit of it, but like, what if it was all speed and strike early on?

It's like, yeah, but then I'm not gonna be able to take out the bosses.

I'm like, you know what? what have I tried using strike on the bosses?

So now, instead of just always firing at the bosses, I am trying to just like dodge their bullets, find an opportunity and strike, which again is this dash move where you have iframes into their glowing weak spots and trying to get out of there real quick before I become a damageable again.

And that's been like, Oh, I'm, I've completely flipped how I'm playing this game now.

It's a different game at this point.

I bet there are deeper strategies that I'm not even considering yet.

And also, if you strike into a power-up, you instantly recharge it.

You've been going hard on speed, which I understand because it's so easy to do, because it's just one upgrade for that versus four or three or four for strike.

But strike is offense, defense, and mobility.

So for me, it's like it attacks things.

It creates kind of a shockwave where you land, which is great.

It is defense in that you have those iframes, and it's mobility in that it's like give me the fuck out of here button.

You know?

So, like to me, I go super heavy on strike, which I'm trying to figure out what the upgrade like.

Is that just a cool down thing, or does it actually expand the shock wave?

You know, things like that.

So it definitely expands the range of your dash.

So, and that's, that's huge.

You don't realize how huge that is until there is a wave of like 70 enemies of varying types.

You kind of just can't blast in there, because there could be one that comes in from the side that you're not expecting, that you can't see in that horde, but there's a.

There's an upgrade token right on the other side of them.

And it's like, that's, it's a little bit far for my strike.

Well, if you upgraded it, it's not too far.

You dash halfway across across the map and then your explosion everything is bigger and And it's like once you start put piecing that together that it really does unlock your ability to survive a lot better.

I didn't realize range is a key.

I didn't know range went up with it.

So that's huge.

Okay.

Yes.

Oh yeah.

Just talking about it.

Yeah.

It's just.

It is one of those games that just makes your brain explode the entire time you're flying.

Well, that's, Parentheses positive.

Yeah, I guess.

Oh, yeah.

Okay.

It's a very light roguelite, by the way.

Very light.

It's an arcade game.

There are things that you are unlocking that you can use in future runs, making it technically, I guess, a roguelite.

Those are like cards for your deck.

You have to pick eight cards for your deck.

And these are the packs that unlock once you get... an Evolve token.

So there's the yellow tokens.

That's the Evolve token.

And then there's the blue tokens.

Those are the upgrade tokens.

Once you get an Evolve token, you get these decks.

You can open them up.

One of them stays in your hand.

The other three go back into like the thing that you can shuffle into later, and And these things are like hey, you can get a drone that fires lasers or you can upgrade your the potential for you to get six upgrades for your blaster, or something like that.

And maybe even give you a free one right now.

That's a good version of the card that has some negatives.

So in that case it's like okay, but for the next 100 seconds you can't strike at all.

So there's these gives and takes and all this stuff.

Or spend a million points to get two shields right now.

Like there's some really interesting ones there with the downsides, where it's like hey, we're going to spam enemies for 15 seconds, but you're going to get this extra good upgrade, you know.

So it's like messing around with that.

I was for a long time there.

I was just trying on challenge and I was kind of using the basic deck and I'm like I'm not really making a lot of progress.

So I went back down to the experience difficulty and started doing random for the decks and be like let's just see what happens.

And it was like I discovered like oh, the drones can be very useful, especially if you get some of these other upgrades that causes them to reload faster or fire at a higher rate.

It's like oh, they are actually greatly improving my survivability because they're hitting things off to the side that I am not ready for.

And it's like okay.

So when I Really what you got to do is kind of start playing, have your early on strategy, but like once the deck starts unfolding, it's like here's what's available to you once you have this Evolver options.

It's like, oh, okay, so I'm getting stuff that is good for drones.

I need to start specking in that direction when I get the option.

It's fun to go with the flow at a certain point.

It's all implied.

It's going to be my main thing for a bit here.

Outside of... I didn't put it on the doc, but Jan, Tengus Goose.

Excuse me?

You can't... I don't...

Tingus Goose.

I don't want to tingus a goose.

I haven't played it.

I just got a press release for it this morning and I Googled it.

Look on the Steam page.

Tingus Goose.

Gesundheit.

I think we got to check out Tengus Goose.

What does Tengus mean?

Just look up Tengus Goose.

All right.

Well, Tengus Goose.

I'm very intrigued by whatever Tengus Goose is.

Do we have to goose a Tengus or do we Tengus a goose?

I don't know, man.

It's Tengus goose.

What do you want?

This looks... I don't know.

That's a very pregnant stick figure.

Why is... What?

Tengus goose.

You know, I was going to say something about indie games are saving the industry, but maybe not.

I'm okay with this, actually.

Why are there so many fingers on that finger?

Yeah, I've turned around on this.

I want to play Tengu's Goose.

All right.

Going from outer space... or I guess it contains space and sectory to the underworld.

I've been playing Demon School and gang.

This has all the trappings of something I really, really enjoy.

It's a tactics game.

It looks like a jam game.

That was the thought I had.

I saw like two pieces of art for a minute.

I was like, that's a jam thing.

It's a Texas game.

There are tiles in it.

Anime adjacent looking people.

The art style is absolutely fantastic.

I think my favorite part of this is the stage transitions going from the overworld to a combat instance.

And then the stage completion animations that happen.

Also the time transitions.

So from the morning phase, afternoon phase, to the evening phase.

I really like that.

It's very inspired by Persona.

That being said...

I don't think I like this game.

I don't think I like playing this game.

The tactics portion of it takes too long to get to.

That being said, I'm still very early in.

I fully intend to spend some more time into it.

I've at this point now unlocked like the full party of four and the actual gameplay of it.

I'm not super into um, This is coming off of the heels from also finishing Final Fantasy Tactics Evil East Chronicles one of the best tactics games in my opinion.

But the combat is done in a two-stage sequence.

There's the planning phase, where you have your tileset and your characters and you will, using your ability points, determine your actions of that turn.

So you're either attacking, you're repositioning, you're moving characters.

And at first I was a little bit bothered by how it looks, because it's very light in what happens in the planning phase.

So you'll attack someone and then it'll be like okay cool, you killed them and nothing will happen.

There's no animations that get shown, you just see the HP indicators go off.

And then, after you execute the planning phase, that's when shit hits the fan and where your characters will move into place.

They'll do like team up attacks, pop off their abilities.

The combat is fairly light so far where I'm at, like your main character.

They will just, they're melee focused.

Your second character that you start the game with.

They do like a little swap-a-roo with the enemy characters.

So positioning is very important in this game, like most tactics games.

I'm just not really jiving with the combat and I think a game from last year that has kind of ruined tactics for me in a positive way is Tactical Breach Wizards, because that is so snappy and so fast.

The writing is also great in that.

And I think that game has kind of ruined the tactics or strategy RPG genre for me, because I'm able to pop off moves so fast and find the synergy and get rolling in the game incredibly uh, at a nice pace, versus the hand holding that is kind of stuck with demon school because it is also trying to be a jrpg.

The parts where it is streamlined at least is There's multiple places to go explore but it'll check mark you of like hey, this is where you're supposed to go.

This is the thing you're supposed to interact with or the person you're supposed to talk to to progress the story.

That being said, I'm not really into the story as of right now.

You're college students going to a A demon hunting college.

And yeah, I'm not really liking the combat either.

But the overall presentation I really do enjoy.

Maybe as I unlock more skills or whatever. maybe get a better handle over the combat.

Maybe that'll change.

But as of right now, the whole planning phase, step of like all right, you're going to go telegraph your moves and then you'll go see them play out.

Isn't really sticking with me.

Um, but that is demon school.

If you're looking for a tactics game, I definitely suggest you check out Final Fantasy Tactics.

The Evil East Chronicles.

Moving on from games to things you play games on, Dan Reichert, you have the AYN Odin 3.

I did!

In the ongoing series of me and Grub being sickos about these things.

You saw the video we did about the Thor, which seemed like it made 8 million people buy it because that thing is awesome.

Yeah, I get messages constantly about that.

It's horrendous.

Dan, I don't know if you got it, but right.

Everyone else got it on this call.

I get to get it.

Yeah.

Okay.

Yeah.

I've seen a lot of people say they got it.

Check out that video.

If you haven't seen it, it is tremendous for just about every console you can imagine, but specifically DS and 3ds.

I'm sorry Dan, not to cut you off really, really quickly.

You guys remember what I was complaining about yesterday right on the Thor.

Oh, you gotta be more specific.

I know you're right.

I complain about a lot because everything is bad, it's fine.

I was complaining about the Thor's power button on the bottom lip.

They released an update yesterday that turns off the power button when you close the lid.

And now I don't turn it off.

Turn it on and off.

Sorry, turn it on when it's closed.

This is why you should complain more.

Because it makes things change.

Instant gratification.

It's still a problem when I'm holding it on, but... baby steps, right?

Is, is it a toggle?

Is it an option you have to change or is it, that's another thing.

And maybe you'll talk more about this with the, uh, with the Odin.

Um, a lot of these settings are sort of like hidden, in a way that, as someone who's very fluent with Android, it's like I still can't find where these magic settings are, because or they're either like hiding in plain sight in the settings section, maybe mislabeled for one reason or another, but I can't find some of these settings.

I know the power button update happened in the recent Thor update, but I don't see where to change it.

Anyway.

Yeah, I think there still is that, you know, double tap the power button before it does anything.

But I cannot remember where that setting is.

Couldn't begin to point you in the right direction.

Anyway.

I will say that, you know, whereas the Thor is clearly, you know, with the two screens, great for 3DS and DS, this is more just, kind of like a traditional form factor here.

You know, it looks kind of like maybe a wider Vita.

And it is powerful.

Like I've been running everything on it.

Like I think I wanted.

This is burnout three for those watching the video version and it runs awesome.

You can boost the internal resolution quite a bit.

No, not crash mode.

I didn't do great on that during the bombathon or the extra life.

In some ways, you did better than anyone.

It was incredible, yes.

Um, you can set it up.

Like I did the exact same thing.

I follow the same video I did with uh Joey's retro handhelds uh, where it's like you didn't get that same, just great interface and everything.

Go between a million different consoles and everything.

It's just to me.

It is a, I guess, less interesting version of the Thor because it doesn't have the dual screen thing.

So this is just like a traditional, albeit powerful version of one of those basically.

So I'm going to lean on this mostly for like PS2, GameCube, Dreamcast, things like that.

But also it's like the Thor has that form factor too to where it would fit in your pocket.

It wasn't too wide, you know, even folded up.

It's a little big, but you could put it in a pocket.

Whereas this is a bit too tall for that.

Got to looking at it.

I mean, this looks like it's probably nine or 10.

Yeah, that's a beefy boy to do, but it is beefy.

So it's like a little less kind of you know, throw it in a bag packable, put it in a pocket, type thing.

But if you're looking for something like, solely for like stuff like PS2, which obviously can run all the older stuff for the most part, Except for there are certain cores that will work on the Thor but won't work on here.

So like the N64 cores. the standard one that people recommend, doesn't work on there.

So, like the video I saw was like oh, you gotta get the standalone N64 emulator.

That is either paid or you have ads on it.

So like I don't know if that's the thing that's gonna be fixed at some point here, but like- I'm sure it will be.

At some point, yeah, yeah.

But it wasn't as, just like you know, with the Thor, I followed that Joey's retro handheld video and it was just set up perfectly first time.

This one had a few little tweaks and stuff that were not quite there yet.

So, yeah.

Yeah, so the big issue there is and this is In the weeds this uses the Snapdragon 8 Elite, I think, which is a really, really new chip.

The Thor, I think, used the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, which has been out for a minute.

People in that scene have updated all of their cores and stuff to work really well with the Gen 2.

The Elite's just early on in that process.

So all of the stuff that happened with those previous Snapdragon processors will happen here.

It'll just take time.

I'm pretty sure that's the issue.

I would say, just the ergonomics and everything right now, like the sticks and everything, feel fantastic.

I mean I have found that the AYN stuff has been of a higher quality than some of the other companies I've been trying out lately.

So still very interested in everything they've got coming out, but the Thor is a sexier alternative right now.

Does the Odin 3 have active cooling?

Does it have a fan running inside of it?

Yes, it does have active cooling.

I'm actually looking at this right now.

Yeah, it's got active cooling.

Just a little interesting, because the whole thing with this new Elite, I think, is it's got a very power-efficient process on it.

But yeah, they probably are going to run that thing as high as they can because it should be able to really handle quite a few emulators that other devices have struggled with once all of the support is there.

But that'll take time.

Yeah.

I've seen people mentioning things like PS3 and stuff like that.

I haven't quite got around to messing with that yet, but yeah, that PS2 era, it runs very, very well.

I'm looking forward to getting my Thor back.

I won't be running out and getting an Odin.

I have not gotten an Odin up to this point because every time I think about it, I'll just keep using my steam deck for this.

I'll save the hundreds of dollars and just keep using my using my steam deck, which mostly is going to do a lot of the same stuff, and the support there is off the charts.

So I can kind of rely on the community there in a lot of ways.

And, you know, PS3 has been running on that thing from the beginning.

So I don't need to be rash and go out and get this thing.

The Thor serves a very specific purpose for me.

Speaking about specific purpose, Jeff Grubb, You picked out something that is very specific to you.

You have been using the analog 3D.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, so it's like I've been using it a lot in the last week and there's been some updates to it.

The EverDrive got fully updated.

It's fully compatible now.

That's been great.

So the big thing that did happen recently with that EverDrive update is they put a follow-up update, a follow up update out for it that enables the unleashed power mode to work on the analog 3D, which is basically they're super overclocked.

Basically, it's just like unlock the CPU, unlock the GPU and let these games run as good as possible.

And with that turned on, with 32-bit color turned on and the deblur turned on, and those are like the main ones that make a difference.

This is a it's an N64 Pro.

It really is.

It is a mid-gen refresh.

I know the gen feels like they just started the N64 generation.

We're already getting a mid-gen refresh.

But it really is the best way to play in 64 games in the vast majority of cases, which is not what I was expecting with this thing.

I was thinking I would get something that's just like, another way to play in 64.

It's not.

It's the best way to do it.

I finally have a way to play Mario 64 in the year 2025.

Yes, exactly.

That's the whole thing.

It's like, yeah, okay, we're sickos.

We're doing this.

We all know what's going on here.

I just want another reason to spend money on the Nintendo 64 because I'm nostalgic and stupid.

It's not that.

It's more than that.

It is like the performance of stuff like Perfect Dark matched up with the accuracy, which is not something you get from most emulators.

Like they, most emulators mess up stuff like trilinear filtering which makes the textures look right.

Uh, this gets all that stuff right and then runs the games better.

Now you're not going to get the upscaled resolution.

It would be nice to have that option, I suppose, but I would probably still choose to run N64 games at their original resolution, because that does a good job of hiding things.

And it looks good when you put on the CRT filters, which is how I would mostly play this.

And it's, ah, it's just, An ideal N64 in just about every way.

It makes revisiting that library really, really nice.

It is my favorite way now, too.

And, like, Grub, you and I both have a million ways to play 64 games.

I mean, we've got... retro tanks, multiple and, you know, PC emulators and stuff.

We've got so many different ways to do this.

I got a mister that has an N64 core and everything on it now but, like the idea of this sleek thing that sits underneath my TV, is just one HDMI cable out and it has both Bluetooth and it can just plug in the original controllers there.

And it just looks incredible and has all these great options.

This is my favorite way to play in 64 games right now.

And I know I mentioned before on the Bombcast that my EverDrive, was not working with it.

I didn't go ahead.

Oh, they updated the EverDrive?

Yeah.

Oh, I didn't know they updated the EverDrive.

That's what I'm saying.

I bought a summer cart too because it has better 64DD support.

It's not here yet, but they updated the EverDrive so that you can get the full support of Unleashed and everything.

Yeah, they did that in the last week.

Oh, geez.

That's how I'm using it.

When the quick look goes up, people see my backups.

Link me to whatever I need to do to the EverDrive, because, yeah, I would like to try that, too.

It's super simple.

You'll have to boot it up for the first time with the new bootloader on original hardware.

But once you do that, you're gonna do that.

Yeah yeah okay yeah, but no, the analog 3d is just fantastic like.

They just continue to be like.

And if i'm gonna play like a gba game, i'm doing it on the pocket.

If i'm playing a 64 game, i'm playing it on on the on the 3d.

It's great And I think this is analog's best product so far.

The pocket is so versatile and open and really, really good.

But it's like something about this of them sort of solving problems with the N64 in a way that most other things have not.

And that improved performance.

I keep going back to it, but I kind of can't overstate how much of a difference it makes.

It's huge.

So they really came through with this thing.

And I don't think the $250 that I paid for it was too much.

That's about the right price for it.

I know it just went up to 270, but even then I'm like that seems like a pretty fair price for what this is.

Well, I'm very happy for you guys.

I'm also happy that it's time for the news.

The news keeps coming.

And it won't stop coming.

News.

All right, let's do this news.

Capcom is reportedly working on a new Dead Rising sequel starring...

Frank West.

A new Dead Rising game featuring the original protagonist, Frank West, is reportedly in development at Capcom.

This is not a remaster or remake, but a new main entry according to MP First and VGC Sources.

The sequel is said to take place in Hollywood with a massive or inside of a massive, enclosed movie studio lot.

So it's a leisure suit.

Larry box office bus.

Like, Oh, sure.

Uh, yeah, it sounds like this is the kind of thing where this could be popping up here pretty soon.

They did do that remake slash remaster, mostly a remaster of that first one recently.

And that was well received.

Um, I'm ready for more Dead Rising.

I think it's the kind of thing that makes sense for Capcom right now.

Yeah, it's been long enough.

I remember being one of the defenders of 3, you know, that Xbox One launch.

Oh, yeah, that's right.

I think it was a launch game and I liked it too.

It didn't have the most personality of the series, but I still thought it was super fun.

And then something about 4, even though it wasn't 4, Frank West...

It was like Christmas, Frank West, you know, like general theme.

I think so.

I didn't play that one though.

I played it enough to just know that it wasn't for me.

And I, I, I'd like to go back to that and see what that did wrong.

But especially after the deluxe remaster like man Dead Rising, there's really nothing quite like it.

And there's definitely room for more of that.

So it does sound like this will go back to the clock mechanic, the time mechanic of the first one for this new game.

And it's like, yeah, at this point I can kind of see it.

I think the idea is the enemy that has trapped you, the villain that's trapped you in this movie studio is trying to film the perfect movie And my mind keeps going back to Stuntman, of like trying to get the scenes exactly right in Stuntman.

Or Leisure Suit Larry, box office bust.

Or, well, yeah, I just didn't want to be so obvious.

But yeah, Leisure Suit Larry, box office bust.

Where it's like you're trying to do these runs as you learn the game.

Where it's like okay, now I can go through this scene and I just nailed that perfectly.

Let's get to this next one.

I don't know it quite as well, but maybe I'll get lucky.

I could see that structure working really well with something like that.

So.

Kind of exciting.

And Capcom themselves are making it like it's being done internally, it sounds like.

I think they're going to try to make this like one of the other pillars that holds up next to resident evil and a monster hunter and stuff like that.

I don't think it can reach that tier, but they'll try to like give it a, a modern glow up.

And I think there's a potential for it to hit.

Yeah.

I think there's a lot of runway for dead rising to contemporize, right like I think there's stuff that could be added in terms of quality of life.

So that's exciting.

Trademark for control.

Resident appears to have been filed by remedy.

This is likely a new control game.

It's also the kind of thing that could pop up at like the Game Awards.

It's hard to like read too much into the timing of trademark filings, but they do occasionally happen right before the first public mention and we are mere days away from the Game Awards.

So does it feel like time for new control to you guys?

Because it does to me.

Yes.

100%.

I mean, they have, I think what was the multiplayer, FVC or whatever recently?

Yeah yeah, maybe that's why it's in my head it's like it hasn't been that long, but that's a totally different thing, obviously.

Yeah, it was a different team and everything.

Yeah yeah yeah, i think uh, i think it makes sense for sure, i think um, The DLC.

What was the last controlled DLC?

I don't remember what it was called.

Oh, it's when Alan.

Is that Alan Wake stuff?

Yeah.

Was that the Alan Wake experience?

Yeah.

Oh, yeah.

AWE.

Yeah.

Anyway.

There is a gotcha anime waifu control game out right now.

Jan, we have to stop you.

What did I do?

I don't understand.

I'm not making the games.

We're going to cut your internet cables, Jan.

Say that again slowly and make eye contact.

There is a gotcha anime lady waifu control game out right now.

You know, I heard you.

11 syllables, but it just, I don't know, it felt a lot longer.

That felt like forever.

Unpack this carefully.

There is an anime waifu gotcha control game out right now.

Right, so what does that mean?

I know what some of that means, but what does it present like?

Like, what are we talking about?

I don't know.

I haven't explored it because I know people will judge.

That's what that Prince song's about, right?

Ooh, waifu control, right?

That's...

I need to double check what it's controlling.

All right, I'm going to get out of here.

That's my time, folks.

Listen.

That's all for me.

But Jan, how is it control-like?

What are you saying?

I think it's in terms of the gameplay.

You're shooting.

You're telekinesis stuff.

Hold on.

I swear I didn't have a fever dream about this.

No, I believe it exists.

Anything's possible in 2025.

Of course, now that I'm trying to panically Google this to prove myself, I'm not finding it.

That doesn't mean anything, you know?

It could mean something.

Nintendo is acquiring Bandai Namco's Singapore Studio, and we'll rename it Nintendo Studios Singapore.

This is... It's a small acquisition.

They're spending like 770000, which is probably barely gonna cover lawyer's fees.

After all, this deal is done.

The idea seems to be here that this was a studio that helped out a bunch of companies making assets, But it worked on Pikmin or, I'm sorry, I think it worked on the what's the shooter, Splatoon.

It worked on Splatoon assets for Nintendo and a few other things, but specifically Splatoon.

Varsapura is what the game is called.

This is the anime waifu gacha game?

I'm proud of you.

You found it.

It's part of the Hoyo-verse.

I bet it's actually.

That's what Tengus Goose really is.

Anyway, it sounds like Nintendo's, like we'll start paying these people's salary instead, since you might be considering closing them down.

And we don't want that because they did some work for us.

So we're going to take this on instead.

This is not some...

This is nowhere near like an Activision acquisition or something like that.

It is just them shoring up the support for their future games.

It does show that Nintendo is mindful of these things though.

Like, we want to have a strong pipeline of being able to develop games.

So we use a lot of external partners and if they're threatened unless they're alpha dream we're going to step in and do something about it and make sure that they can keep making games for us.

And they continue their run of having the most creative names for their studios.

I mean, NSS, Nintendo Studio Singapore.

Boy, I just... Nintendo Game Studio B4.

It's great.

Where's the Singapore studio from?

It's all business.

They're in Indiana.

Oh.

Yeah.

Weird.

Splinter Cell Remake has a new director, and it's the same one who left three years ago.

Sounds like just things are going swimmingly over there at Ubisoft, who reappointed David Grivell as the game director for the Splinter Cell Remake, a role he previously held from November 2021 to October 2022.

Gribble announced his return to Ubisoft Toronto on LinkedIn.

Calling it a very special team and project.

Ubisoft confirmed the remake in December 2021, stating it would be built with Snowdrop Engine to update the 2002 original with new generation visuals, gameplay and dynamic lighting.

Since sharing concept art in November 2022, there has been little information.

So yeah, I guess they're still working on that.

At this point, this story of Ubisoft being like, we're working on a game.

It'll happen one day, we promise.

It's like something they've done so many times with like Beyond Good and Evil.

And I guess that Prince of Persia Santa time remake, which does seem like it might be coming out soon, but I just I'm sick of it.

Just tell me when the game actually has something going on that we can really look at.

They should make the first one or so good this time.

Oh, okay.

Is this a Metal Gear versus Splinter Cell thing or is this a stealth thing?

It's both.

It is actually both, because it was always compared the two, and Splinter Cell was one with no personality and also was very annoying to play.

I'm going to be looking at a fucking light meter the entire time.

Fucking not.

No personality.

Light meter is awesome.

I can't.

Like if they put real time ray tracing.

What if you're not good at sneaking?

Well, don't play the game then, Dan.

Metal Gear, let me play it.

Also, it's not no personality.

It's Tom Clancy dad personality.

Oh, okay.

Got it.

Right.

It's a very small difference there.

Jan, we still got to do the co-op mode.

I was going to say.

That is good.

Yes.

Is it Pandora's tomorrow?

Am I making up a title again?

No, Pandora Tomorrow was the second one, and Chaos Theory was the third.

I think it was the Chaos Theory co-op mode.

I did that with Kayla way back in the day.

It was super fun.

Yeah, we should do that in the next year.

Yes.

I've got it on the list, yeah.

Did I just break my stylus from my tablet?

My sock?

Sorry, bud.

I'm a dipshit.

You got hard-ass skin, dog.

I don't know, man.

That's weird.

I barely did anything to it.

Chat, you're wrong.

It's not Spies vs. Mercs.

Spies vs. Mercs was that early Xbox Live version on the original Xbox.

That was a versus mode thing.

Oh, Marino's saying it's Conviction that has the co-op mode.

Conviction was a good one.

Yes, Conviction was the first good Splinter Cell.

You're just a font sicko.

You just liked how all the splash screens with all the titles over the game and everything.

Yeah, Conviction was awesome.

You get a little camera you put under the door.

It's great.

Bacalar and i are the font sickos yeah, so there's only room for two here.

So people are trying to figure out what that game awards mysterious devilish statue means, and that's why i'm going guys, i'm going to get to the bottom of this.

It's in the desert.

And I do think that you're overdue for like a walk in the desert on peyote.

Um, words, a statue.

I need to see what this is like.

Yeah.

Like crazy.

Oh God.

Like the satanic looking one that has like the red tentacles coming out of it.

Anyway.

People are like, it's God of War.

It's not God of War.

There was like reporting.

This is related to Diablo.

That makes sense.

A Diablo DLC drop.

Of course, that's the kind of thing that would do.

They have a lot of money over there at Blizzard.

Apparently, Diablo has been ruled out as well.

So... Maybe it is still Diablo.

I don't know.

But if it's not those two games... Bubsy.

It's gotta be Bubsy, right?

Yeah.

This is cool.

It could be Tengus Goose.

I mean, it's either...

So here's the thing, right?

This is either going to be... His dad said that.

It's just so insane.

Well, Tinkus Goose is now just like the catch-all for anything we don't have words for.

Yeah.

What if Tinga's Goose is very problematic?

Oh, no.

I hope not, yeah.

Well, only when we find out.

I feel like it's...

I don't know.

It feels like very... It's obviously a paid, bought and sold thing.

So when you have something like that, is it the weird thing where it's like?

It's the thing where it's like they couldn't say no to the amount of money that they were going to offer to just you know this like statue thing, or is this a game franchise studio that people actually care about?

I mean, it could be a little column A, column B, I don't know it's.

I don't think people should get their hopes up, because the odds are that this could be where wins meet style game.

It is like a gigantic game that may be mobile or free to play that we've never heard of.

It could just be a collaboration with that.

Do you Maybe it's Echo the Dolphin.

Do you remember when Michael Jackson was going to do that comeback tour and he was planning for a 50-foot robot of himself to roam the desert around Las Vegas?

No, I don't remember this.

I remember thinking that was a really cool idea.

I liked the idea and I wish they would have made that giant robot.

He should have a mech.

It lights up at night.

That's neat.

Yeah.

It could be control.

Maybe.

You think so?

I don't think so.

I don't think so, but it could be.

I just like... It's the...

Diablo made so much sense because it just looked satanic.

So, and it's got like skulls on it or whatever, or is it just people's heads is like a bust, I don't know.

I don't see it being God of War.

It doesn't.

It's not God of War.

Yeah, pretty metal.

Oh, sorrows says lexi.

Oh, i could see that.

George cool.

Yeah, george sorrows.

Oh odd, it's got like a.

I could see sorrows.

I mean i think this door is gonna open up.

I think someone's gonna come out of it.

It will be Half-Life 3.

Actually, I'm almost positive it couldn't be Half-Life 3.

They wouldn't do anything this way.

They would do it their own way.

You're going to open up your Steam deck and it's like, oh, it's been there the whole time.

That'd be incredible.

Alright, let's see.

Here Metal Gear's producer says he's undecided on future remakes.

Metal Gear Solid 4 would be a real challenge.

Basically, what they're saying is they did Delta and now they are assessing things and in the planning like early planning stages for what would come next.

He did say that Metal Gear Solid 4 would be a challenge, especially because they probably would not be able to do the thing they did with 3, which is like let's just

Apply a coat of paint on top because the code is so wonky for four.

That's his words, not mine.

Actually, he didn't say wonky, but that's basically what he said.

It is also kind of it's like that is going to be the marquee game in volume two.

So people are going to be playing the original version of that in some way.

I'm assuming, when the volume two collection comes out here in the near future, something they reconfirmed as well.

So yeah, Dan.

Where do they go with Metal Gear next after this?

Especially after having some space from Delta and being able to look around a little bit and be like where should they go?

I mean, the pie in the sky would be one, but yeah, one you have to just kind of like full-on twin snake style.

But like like, i think i think the coolest thing they could do is a full-on remake of one, but faithful, you know, i like twin snakes.

A lot of people don't um, but i do think a full remake of one would be incredible.

Uh, other than that, you could just do kind of a delta treatment for two.

You know, it's the same console, probably same type of you know backbones in that one.

But yeah, for I would just do an order.

I would just do an order chronologically.

So go from three to one to two to four.

I know I'm skipping Peace Walker because it doesn't matter.

Give me acid.

Acid, yeah.

I got Metal Gear Acid on here and I was tempted to maybe start playing it.

Peace Walker is the one you want to play co-op, right, Dan?

I do want to try that just because I've never played Peace Walker because it was on the fucking PSP.

You mean Greg Miller's best game of all time?

Yeah, it's the craziest thing he's ever said and he continues to say.

Yes, I do want to do co-op.

Peace Walker on this website with the compadres.

All right.

Well, the compadres will write again.

Okay.

Here we go.

Doesn't it have real cut scenes?

It's like a comic book.

It's meh.

Yeah, but that's because Hideo Kojima is busy with his new role in Hollywood.

In Zootopia 2's Japanese dub where he will be replacing a Hollywood star.

Roman Reigns?

Is he replacing Roman Reigns or CM Punk?

The Zebros.

Hold in there.

Hold on there.

Hideo Kojima has confirmed he voices the character Paul Moldebrandt, a mole in the Zootopia Police Department, for the Japanese dub of Zootopia 2, the film which released internationally on November 28th.

Blah blah, blah.

I believe that is the role done by Josh Gad, which confirms what I've always said that Hideo Kojima is Japan's Josh Gad.

A lot of people are saying it.

It's not brave of you to say it.

I think I'm a hero.

I think Josh Gad gets a bad rap.

Is there going to be a version of this movie where it stars at the same time Hideo Kojima, Roman Reigns and CM Punk?

You could probably mishmash that up if you need to.

I mean, they're the zebras in that one.

They're zebra cops, I think, together.

That sounds right.

I didn't know that.

Yeah.

I guess if you watch the credits of the Japanese dub, they would show the American voice cast as well.

So in one credit scroll, there'd be Hideo Kojima and the Zebros.

That's funny to me.

Okay.

Horses, the upsetting horror game previously banned on Steam, gets last minute ban from Epic Game Store as well.

The controversial horror game Horses has been banned from both Steam and the Epic Games Store.

Developer Santa Regione reported that Steam banned the game after submitting an unfinished build vaguely citing content guidelines and a rule against depicting sexual content involving a minor.

So let's hold up.

Like, what is that?

There is a scene in the game or there was a scene in the game.

It's actually been changed, where a naked woman with a horse head is was carrying around a child on her shoulders.

And it's supposed to be introspective and an illusion.

It's a metaphor.

It is not sexual in traditional terms.

But it was against Steam's guidelines.

So the game... was changed by the developer.

He made it two adults instead of one of the people, the person on the shoulder being a kid and seems like well, no too late.

You already did it once.

We're not going to we're not going to reverse our decision now, even though you've complied with our guidelines.

Epic's like, we'll host it.

We're going to put you on the Epic Game Store instead.

And then Epic changed their mind at the very last minute, apparently like an hour before it was going to go live.

They changed it as well.

This is like, especially on Steam.

This has brought up a lot of conversations like there are so many games with like just rampant sex and of all kinds characters that appear to like as if they could be minors, especially in anime style games.

Where's the line drawn here?

And why is this game that is clearly trying to explore something?

And it is an adult game that deals with deep, mature themes.

Why is this the one that is getting banned from sale now, threatening the chance for this game to actually make any money?

Because if you're not on Steam, you're probably dead on PC.

Yeah, I don't know.

I feel like even folks in the chat are pointing this out.

But Baby Steps.

You see a lot of dicks in that game.

He seems quite a few dicks.

And I mean like, you know, a critically acclaimed game, probably on the top of my list dispatch.

You see dong, you see boobs.

Um, and that is, they are explicitly to having intercourse over there and banging um.

So I don't see how that doesn't cross the line.

The initial thing of a child being involved.

I do see that being the issue, but if that's been fixed Yeah, my guess here is is this is probably due to some international laws or not international, but laws in other countries where it's just like it is so harsh against any speech that even brushes up against this in any way.

And if you violate those laws as a service that provides these games from other people, you're pretty protected in America, where it's like you are not liable for something that someone sells on your store.

Typically that's not true everywhere.

And so the way that Epic suddenly was like, oh, wait, no, we're not doing this either.

So that tells me there is a lawyer somewhere that saw a law in some country.

That's like, even if it was ever in there once, you're taking a chance here for potentially being sued and we just can't do that.

So yeah, it's unfair for this game, certainly because they tried to address the issue and it does not seem like it's actually in the spirit of the rule.

But lawyers don't care about that.

Hey, Grub, can I ask a news question?

Yeah, please.

Why was the chat talking about Half-Life 3 on December 11th?

Uh...

There's been ongoing rumors about Half-Life 3 for a while.

I'm seeing specifically December 11th is what I saw the chat bringing up.

So I'm curious.

I want to run it through the grub filter because, you know.

Well, that's Game Awards Day, right?

It is.

Yeah.

Okay, let's go over here three hours ago from Screen Rant.

Let's just read through this and see if we can figure it out together, guys.

Let's look like geniuses and say it right, okay?

We're going to get the news right here.

We're going to do it.

Being a Half-Life 3 fan isn't easy, and it's been a struggle for players to keep their hopes alive after constantly being disappointed by leaks and having no official confirmation from Valve, blah, blah, blah.

A new leak via Reddit has many players raising eyebrows, suggesting that Half-Life 3 is not only in the works, but that an announcement is imminent.

Further, the leaker who goes by Source2LeakAIML, suggests here that Half-Life 3 should be announced on the 11th, which also happens to be this year's date for the Game Awards.

If it's on Reddit, I don't think you can put fake stuff on there.

No, it's against the content policy.

Keep going, because obviously leakers are... uh, have reputations, right?

Like there are people who garner pedigrees.

So like, is this just some random prick who cares?

Yeah.

Look, there's a lot of other people out there who are that do have reputations uh, that have been saying something's happening soon and that they know a date and that it's this year.

Okay.

Uh I, I think that I am buying into uh Keely having this, just because there's been a lot of stuff on Steam in the last month referencing games that have been nominated for the Game Awards, something they've done before.

But it just seems really loud this year, like there's a strong partnership there.

Also, Jeff Keighley does have a strong relationship with Valve.

He did those 24 hours leading those big stories about Half-Life and stuff like that back in the day.

So, and, you know, 100 million people watch the Game Awards.

I know Valve doesn't need it.

They have the biggest audience in the world of people who actually spend money on games on their platform.

But this would be big and splashy, and I'm sure Keeley lobbied to get it.

So...

I'm beginning to believe, I do think Half-Life 3 gets announced before the end of the year.

Really?

I'm fully on board with that.

Wait, now, okay, now let's just travel back about 360 days.

Sure, well, yeah.

And I do feel like we were very, very busy for game awards last year.

There was that sheet and like everything on it was true except for that one.

Yeah.

Yep.

But that's my point is that.

Yeah.

Like, but I think that.

The reason I jumped on board in that moment as well is I had been hearing about Half-Life 3 pretty frequently and then seeing that, for people that don't know, we kind of saw a sheet that was like a bunch of stories that were getting ready to be posted or whatever.

And that included half-life three.

Um, I was like, yeah, that sounds about right.

Now, it didn't happen then, but I'm like, well, I think it's still in the works and it's Valve.

Who knows when they're actually going to announce this, but everyone must be hearing the same things I'm hearing.

That's been this whole last month and a half has been those stories popping off repeatedly.

Half-Life 3 is the only game that I would ever get excited about.

An announcement.

What?

This is the only one?

The only game that can excite you?

Listen, listen, I'm being very specific.

Okay.

About like a surprise announcement.

I don't think there's an any other game where I would like like stand for my chair and be like wow, that's actually.

You just said it.

We're going to do the talk over.

I need you to stand on your chair.

If it happens and go, wow.

Just like that.

I will.

We're going to pause the stream and everything.

I'm not going to stand on my chair, but I will.

He said he would stand up.

Okay, you got to stand up and go, wow.

I'll just be like, wow, they actually did it.

Just because it's like the one unicorn kind of thing, right?

You know what I mean?

Yeah, we got Duke forever.

What else is there?

Where it seems like so improbable.

And even this fucking talk now is, like you know, just tickling the plums in a way that you're sort of like hey, what are you doing, silly Billy?

You know?

Yeah, I mean, Half-Life 2 is probably my favorite game of all time.

I think... Man, fuck this shit.

Last year, you guys were just like... I remember I went to the awards, right?

And you guys were doing the talk over.

And I knew that like, we literally parted ways.

Like I went into the arena and you guys just drank the Kool-Aid.

And you guys went nuts.

Because everything on that sheet was true.

You went nuts.

It's like, oh man, here it comes.

I want to go back in the discord and just see you guys were like, it's really happening.

It's really happening.

I'll say right now if they do announce it by the end of this year, I will do a.

For the first time ever, I will play through the entirety of half-life two and I will do it on this website.

Oh, that's sick.

I love that.

That's probably the only game I know completely from memory.

I play it every year.

Yeah, I fucking love it.

I just think it's also so cursed.

I think this whole, like, I can't get excited about it because it's just so cursed.

You can't get it up.

I get it.

You know, I just can't rise to the occasion.

You know what I mean there?

I will give you the most genuinely ecstatic.

Wow.

Okay.

I'm very much looking forward to that.

We're gonna make shirts to commemorate it.

Yeah, just call it wow.

Uh, keely's also, i guess been seems like teasing something along the lines of half-life 3, but where, what do you mean actually like On, like Reddit and stuff?

Like, he's, like, posting, like, all over the place.

He's posting.

On Reddit.

Yeah.

This is Mike Manatti.

This is Keeley up at, like, 4.30 in the morning.

Like, oh, you guys aren't going to believe what I got for you at the fucking game.

I believe.

I think there was also like his Steam account had some game attached to it that people were like wait, there's no store page for this.

And he was kind of coy about that.

I don't know if that was confirmed to be something more than what it actually appeared to be.

You got people in there now.

You'll be there, bud.

Let's see.

We will all wow.

If it happens at the show, I will stand up in my seat in the theater and loudly go, wow.

If we can hear you on that stream, I'm going to lose my shit.

And then I'm going to go, it's my birthday.

It's just so silly, man.

Hip hop gamer's going to stand up with his belt and Jane's going to stand up and go wow, and i'm gonna steal his belt.

I mean, it's only been 25 years in the fucking making, you know.

That's all.

That's all epics.

Tim sweeney says it makes no sense for game stores to flag when ai's oh, shut the fuck up, tim.

And his argument is like everything's going to use AI.

But everyone else's argument is like, so?

Like, we don't care.

Just tell us when you're using it.

We could still make informed decisions.

And...

He didn't really have an argument back against that.

And everyone was clowning on him like it was like he got a cavalcade of people being like shut up, nerd.

It was quite a sight to see.

I don't get it.

I don't get his point at all.

Like, what is it hurt to tell us what is being used to make a game?

Doesn't make any sense.

Grub, you had a brilliant point yesterday when you held up a bottle of water and you looked at the ingredients and it was like oh, there's no harm in telling me that the ingredients in this bottle of water is water.

Yeah.

It's like, what's Yeah, it didn't hurt anybody.

Everyone's fully informed about an obvious thing.

So what?

Like we can move on with our lives and people can still make decisions based on that.

Paramount is planning a mysterious Sonic the Hedgehog movie spinoff.

Paramount is planning a fifth Sonic the Hedgehog movie, an unnamed Sonic Universe feature, for release on December 22nd 2028, suggesting a spinoff.

This follows the fourth Sonic film set for March 19th, 2027.

That's right near my birthday, the expansion is and Bacalar's birthday.

The expansion is unsurprising given the franchise's success highlighted by Sonic the Hedgehog 3's record-breaking 1 billion in global gross last December.

Holy shit.

It's massively popular, that movie series.

All right, so what do we think here?

Have more kids today seen a Sonic the Hedgehog movie than have played Sonic the Hedgehog 2 for the Sega Genesis?

Yes.

Oh, yes.

It's not even close.

Oh, my God.

Dan, how does it feel that a lot more kids know Jim Carrey from Sonic than anything he's ever done?

That's easy, too.

Here's the truth, Dan.

The movies are better than the original video game.

Oh, you stop that.

That's true.

They are.

Sonic's a better movie character than he is a video game character.

Oh, he's a great Sega Genesis character.

Yeah, it's all right.

I hate those games.

And I like Sonic games.

I bet more kids still know Fire Marshal Bill than his role in Sonic the Hedgehog.

That was the biggest Halloween costume this year was Fire Marshal Bill.

Ben Schwartz, Demon Hunters, and then Fire Marshal Bill.

Yeah, when is Fire Marshal Bill coming to Fortnite?

Fortnite.

Oh my God.

If they did a whole living color season.

That would be sick.

Yeah.

It's one of the.

Yeah.

Hold me the clown in Fortnite.

Homie, the clown in fortnite.

Yeah okay, listen okay.

Now i'm on board.

All right, give me the fly.

Girls in anything but the sonic stuff is not surprising though, like And Ben Schwartz is a fucking treasure.

Who doesn't want to party with Ben Schwartz?

He seems like a delight.

So that's the question.

It's like, this is a spinoff.

Does it not focus on Sonic?

And they've already done... They've done a spinoff of a Knuckles TV show, right?

So...

What would this spinoff movie be if it's not going to focus on Sonic?

Is it like a Shadow... I guess Keanu Reeves was... Yeah.

It's going to be Shadow.

Maybe it's Shadow lore.

Yeah.

Or .exe.

I hope it's just a PG...

John Wick.

What if it's like Shadow, but it's like a mockumentary, like a Waiting for Guffman with Shadow?

What?

I don't know what that is, but I like that in my head.

I want a BoJack Horseman with Bubsy.

That's what I want.

Yeah, that's pretty good.

That'd be too fucked up, Grubb.

Who's going to have the nerve, the bravery to do that?

No one's got the cause.

They should throw us in a Sonic movie.

We have no right to be in one.

We could just be a bunch of chows.

Oh, my God.

Make us a bunch of chows.

We'll do it like the McElroys getting themselves into Trolls.

We're going to get into Sonic as a bunch of chows.

But don't have Minotti be in it because that would drive him insane.

Agreed.

We just have four chows recording a podcast.

Mike could be in the Balan Wonderworld movie.

Get out of here.

Do we think Shadow's got the juice for a... Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah.

You think so?

I think after that third movie made a billion dollars and he was a big part of it.

That's probably what they're thinking.

Shadow is like Vegeta to children. in terms of like, oh, he was just a cool bad guy.

Vegeta's for grown men.

Exactly.

He's a bad man.

All right.

Kids like Shadow because, well, he had his, he turned into the good guy.

So...

Exactly.

That's their first introduction to the trope of an anti-hero.

Does he use a shoot deagle?

Does he use a shoot desert eagle in the movie?

I don't remember.

In the games.

I don't recall seeing a desert eagle in either the film or the video game.

I have not seen the movie.

Chad is saying the shadow is like Steve Austin in the movie.

Is that true?

No not, i mean it's, it's keanu reeves.

Oh okay, he's more like a like a red john wick, like a like a you know, like yeah yeah okay anyway, Not a lot of range in Keanu, but still doing the part we need him to do.

You take that back.

I love Keanu Reeves.

I absolutely adore him.

What do you mean?

Okay, okay.

Adore him.

Steam Machines could cost around $700.

Build analysis estimates.

This is probably a story we're going to keep coming back to until we know the price.

Basically, the story was coming out of the announcement is it's going to be priced like a PC.

And then people kept asking and Valve was like it's going to be like priced, like if you were to build a comparable PC to the performance of this device.

So people did some math. that are speccing out PC parts.

They're like, ah, it's going to be around $700.

I think that's with the caveat that RAM prices could still go up and really drive the price of this thing up to like 700 800.

Grubb, what did I see about, like, GPU prices changing, though?

What is... GPUs are just... a computer you put inside your computer.

It has all of the components of a computer inside a GPU.

So that RAM, which is actually the faster RAM and was already more expensive than DDR5 RAM.

So this is 6 and 6X.

That is something that is going to.

It was already going up in price.

The big thing that happened, and I just I saw this headline when I was checking some financial news because this is like mover and shaker stuff.

NVIDIA apparently is going to stop providing the RAM... themselves to partners that make their GPUs.

So NVIDIA makes GPUs sure, but what they really do is they design GPUs And then third party partners licensed third party partners they make the bulk of those.

Most people have like, you did have an EVGA.

EVGA got out while the getting was good.

They got out before all this nonsense happened.

They made a lot of sense.

But all those partners that are still there are now gonna have to source their own RAM.

And that seems like it's only gonna cause prices to go up, because now there's gonna be multiple vendors bidding for that same stuff against one another to build the same product.

And it's like, oh, that's a nightmare.

So say like the AI bubble just explodes tomorrow.

It would still take years to recover and like the prices to go to a-

Because all the investments already happened, right?

So all the money spent to build up these plants that manufacture that stuff, it hasn't just been earmarked.

It's happened already.

They've already spent their investment over there.

And if the AI market exploded...

They're not suddenly going to have a bunch of money left over to go put back in this thing.

That is more stable.

They're going to have to just live with what they've done.

It would probably drive prices down for that high bandwidth memory, but not enough to make a difference immediately for sure.

Cool.

Well, that does it for the headlines.

I'm handing the show back over to Jan.

All right, folks, we're going to go take another quick bricky break and we will be back with emails.

These are the emails for the show.

Emails.

Bombcast at giantbomb.com is the email address to send your emails to.

Write in about any and everything.

And I will read them.

Thank you, everyone, for sending all of your lovely, lovely emails in.

Each week we are inundated with so many emails.

We only have so much time on the show to get to them.

So I will only be able to get to a few today.

First email comes from John Eyepatchwolf.

Interesting.

What?

He's Irish.

You can tell by the surname.

Hello.

Wolf.

Bombcast.

First time, long time.

Taco Bell recently opened up its first location in Ireland and, under the guidance of one, Dan Reichert, I partook.

Here are my thoughts.

I was surprised how many dishes were some variation of cheese wrapped in a tortilla.

That shouldn't be surprising.

The whole deal, including the cheesy rolls, which were literally just that and nothing else.

I did tell him to get a cheesy roll up.

Yeah.

Despite the simplicity, I could not deny the warm comfort many of these dishes brought.

It was deeply unchallenging, pleasant food.

What's more, the dishes were accented by some truly sensational dips.

Both the lava and jalapeno dip did a lot to add a hint of sweet tang to the soft, safe flavors.

Where the illusion became began to come apart was anytime the dishes moved away from taco, slime tortillas and began to morph into a visage of actual food.

The results were bastard homunculus.

The results were bastard homunculus that were neither slime enough to be Taco Bell or real enough to be food.

Like Pinocchio, if frozen halfway through, transforming into a real boy.

These dishes were uncanny and disturbing.

Oh, half anamorph.

Okay.

Sure.

What came out of my body afterwards made me question if I were still human.

Love the podcast, John Eyepatchwolf.

P.S.

If Bacalar offers to read this in my voice, please do not let him.

This is a bathroom joke.

Everyone's made it.

Again, never had a weird poop after Taco Bell.

Eating Taco Bell.

Thousands of times, no weird foods.

You get that hearty American stomach, though.

My body's used to it, and it just knows how to work it.

Absolutely.

Also John.

I love how he described the food as pleasant and deeply unchallenging, and I do want people to describe me that way now.

You got some work to do, bud.

That's what I strive for.

Of course.

John sent me a photo of of like a table of what must have been $180 worth of Taco Bell.

No.

Well, actually I was going to make the joke about Taco Bell being cheap, but actually it is actually pretty expensive now.

Man.

Yeah.

What an achievement.

You're doing good work, John.

You're doing the Lord's work.

You're doing experimental work.

And I'm glad a Taco Bell has visited your region of the world.

He drove like an hour to get there.

I told him, yeah, you got to get the chicken quesadilla.

I'm curious, did lava and jalapeno dip?

Now they do have a bunch of different, like when they started doing the nuggets and stuff like that.

There are different, like in a little cup, like different avocado ranch and spicy ranch and stuff like that.

So I don't know if it's a situation like that.

Cause like you mentioned dips.

He doesn't say sauce.

I said like, Oh, make sure you get a bunch of fire sauce.

Like to me, Fire sauce is the staple Taco Bell sauce.

Diablo's fine.

It's got kind of a different flavor to it.

Mild's too mild.

I think fire is exactly the sweet spot there, you know?

Yeah, I agree.

I don't know.

Lava?

Was that what he said?

He said lava, yeah.

I mean, there's Diablo.

I'm not familiar with the lava sauce, no.

Yeah.

I've not seen that.

That might be like a Europe thing, but I've seen...

The avocado stuff.

I wasn't a huge fan of that.

Yeah, me neither.

As someone who really likes Taco Bell quite a bit, I think that John's summarization of the experience is dead on.

Except for the poop thing.

I think it's for your poop.

It's John's body.

John's body is the temple, number one.

Number two, Dan, I mean...

I'm sorry, but it's made you poop badly once in your life.

No, I would tell you in great detail if it had.

Look, I don't want to unpack this, but you eat it so much.

Backlar.

As a kid growing up, the only fucking time I had weird poops was when I would like, if it was like Thanksgiving and I had to eat like real food at my grandma's or something.

I would eat nothing at McDonald's and Taco Bell every fucking day, or you know, party pizza and Hot Pockets and poops, double tapered, Perfect.

I take it back.

Perfect digestive system.

Perfect organs.

Perfect system.

I don't know if you saw the leftovers flog Bacalar, but he's kind of a health nut.

Right.

Which part?

The blue chips that you guys were eating?

Double fisting fucking 700 grams of sugar?

I don't understand.

Please, make it make sense.

Yeah, exactly.

I'm going to chase this ice cream with different ice cream.

31 flavors is really gross.

What I said is fine.

All right.

Yeah, there were too many hand motions.

Those were upsetting.

I had to shield my son's eyes.

All right.

Well, that's...

That doesn't quite do it for emails.

We got to take care of some things after the podcast.

So general summarization of the emails.

Congrats to folks for getting jobs.

Sorry to folks for getting let go, but Thank you for tuning into the podcast.

A lot of positive sentiment across the board, and I'm very, very jazzed about that.

I will close off the email segment by, in honor of Cam's homie Please please please please, go check in on your homies during the holidays.

While it can be a very happy celebratory season for some folks, maybe a little bit lonely.

So go check on the homies out there.

Even what you do in text type of dealio.

Uh, shouts out to the homies out there.

Boys, what do we got going on the rest of this week?

It's light because the site is frozen.

We got a couple of quick looks as we've mentioned several times at the tippy top of the show.

There is a Metroid prime for beyond review and a little round table uh up on the website and on YouTube right now.

Gamus Mornings from Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, correct Grub?

Yeah, ready to go.

Got a crew lined up for each of them.

Sick.

Mikey's ducking Larry.

No Blight Club this week because Mr. Minotti had to go out on assignment.

Grub, maybe we'll be into Absalom.

We'll do a run this week.

Yeah, let's do a run in Absalom because I think we could just beat that game and we'll go.

Yeah, definitely.

And then...

For Unprofessional Fridays this week, we are playing through City Trials.

We're going to do Kirby Air Riders, folks.

And my dear friend Matt Shipman is going to be joining us because he is a sicko and told me that he needs to be on it.

Is that game anime?

I didn't put it together, but it seems like it's anime.

Yeah, it is.

Yeah.

I think it's anime.

It seems like it's anime.

Is Metroid Prime 4 anime?

No.

Are you sure?

No.

It's a cool space adventure.

It can be anime.

No anime's in space.

There's a lot, uh folks, anything else.

We got a plug or that i forgot.

Uh, me and sean will have an analog 3d quick look up soon, which i wanted to talk about that even more.

And we went through all the features, including like, maybe a a good guide of like.

Here's the settings you should turn on near the end of that.

He'll get that up as soon as this upload actually completes.

It's a pretty big file.

We did it in 4k.

Lexi just reminded me.

Lexi in the chat, she says, Dan, one of your notes you wrote down was, is this game anime?

Yeah, I forgot.

In my notes.

I took a picture of it and posted it and I literally asked if it was anime in my notes.

So maybe Kirby's anime.

Okay, there you go.

Fantastic fantastic, uh.

Yeah, once again two vlogs came out over the holiday bricky break.

Next week we won't be at the game awards, so i'll be there uh, but we will have a talk over over that to figure out what the statue of the desert is.

Until then, Shouts out to Chuck for the new website.

Shouts out to Sean for editing all this jazz.

Shouts out to Will Crosby as well for doing our socials.

Shouts out to the homie.

He's been Jeff.

He's been Dan.

I've been Jan.

Mike Minotti's somewhere at a Rainforest Cafe.

We'll see you next week for another episode of The Giant Bombcast.

Goodbye.

Fingers goose.

[Giant Bombcast: Metroid Prime 4, Where the Winds Meet, and the Mystery of the Desert Statue]-[919: N64 Pro]

📋 Summary

The Giant Bombcast: A Week of Games, Grievances, and Tech

Metroid Prime 4: Beyond

Where the Winds Meet and Marvel Cosmic Invasion

Hardware Corner: Analogue 3D and AYN Odin 3

News and Miscellany

Final Thoughts

🎯Key Sentences

📝Key Phrases

📖 Transcript

[Giant Bombcast: Metroid Prime 4, Where the Winds Meet, and the Mystery of the Desert Statue]-[919: N64 Pro]

📋 Summary

The Giant Bombcast: A Week of Games, Grievances, and Tech

Metroid Prime 4: Beyond

Where the Winds Meet and Marvel Cosmic Invasion

Hardware Corner: Analogue 3D and AYN Odin 3

News and Miscellany

Final Thoughts

Deep Learning with ListenLeap

🎯Key Sentences

📝Key Phrases

📖 Transcript

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