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Hey everybody, it's Tuesday.
Welcome to the Giant Bombcast episode 911.
I'm your host, approaching the green, Jan Ochoa.
Welcome to the Giant Bombcast.
Joining me, as always, co-captain of the ship.
He's picked a sand wedge as a driver, and we're just going to see him cook.
Jeff Grubb.
It's a beautiful day out here on the greens, Jan Ochoa.
We are really going to witness some special golfing here today.
Speaking about special golfing, it's all in the hips because he is the most hip person and a hip-moving guy on the podcast, on the website, Jeff Bacalar.
Well, hello.
It's a beautiful day out here in Augusta.
We're experiencing winds out of the north, about three miles an hour.
They do the weather a lot.
Because that matters.
That's like a big part of the golf broadcast.
It's part of the meta.
Back to you at the studio, Jan.
We have the human equivalent of a sand trap, Dan Reichert.
I feel like I'm going to strain something trying to talk quietly for the first time in my life.
Is this how you do it?
Is this good?
It hurts.
It hurts.
I hear it hurting.
We only have to do this until we introduce the last guy.
Okay.
All right.
Who's that?
He's no longer the bad boy of games media because he's a dirty boy.
That's right, because he's out on the, what do you call it?
It's not a field when it's golf.
Is it course?
Is it fairway?
Course?
Course.
There you go.
I still don't know.
The battle zone.
That's right.
Thank you, Dan.
When you're out on the battle zones because he's washing his ball.
That's right.
The merch master, Mike Minati.
Buy all this shit that I'm wearing.
Go to store.giantbomb.com and deposit money.
Get hat and shirt.
Golf hat.
Golf shirt.
Giant Bomb Golf Week.
Is a merch master a Pokemon that can only say the merch he's selling?
I got to say, there's several forms of Mike Minotti, and I think my favorite might be Screaming Merch Man. just hawking wares I really need to edit the video you did Mike just throw some CRT filters on it throw in like a bunch of like PNGs of like you too can buy golf week merch yeah like a local TV ad Mike Minotti I say this in the most positive way possible you exude when you're in merch master mode the biggest Billy Mays energy we need that in the world you know yes jan i forgot how little you know about uh golf vocabulary i remember the last time right what were we doing last time we were just like what do you call the flat carpet part with the hole in it right like you there you just didn't know like what a green was it was awesome I think it was, was it Mario Golf or the Switch?
Maybe.
It might have been.
Yeah, I mean, yeah, it was, oh no, someone suggested it was Bingo Papadopoulos?
No.
No, because that's not quite a golf game.
Yeah, I don't know shit about golf.
I learned that a driver and a sand wedge and an iron are different golf clubs.
But you love Happy Gilmore. i love a lot of adam sandler things but i'm not familiar with the characters familiar with it's a hockey stick yeah sure yeah sure like i can never think of the word pool cue whenever she sees one she calls it a pool pole and then when i say it's a cue she's like i think pole would be better even if so that's not what it's called it's a cue yeah you know okay it's a little bit late to start lobbying the pool industry to change the name of it yeah yes i speak about pool cues and pool poles um i've encountered a lot of old men walking to a pool hall um that bring their own cues oh yeah is that yeah is that like a too much two pieces i have two pool poles in my storage here bowling balls i get right because you you want the weight that feels right for you same thing they're the exact same level you bring your own bowling ball you're going to be the same guy that brings your own pool cue for sure i bet 50 of them have flames on them oh yeah i wish i wish maybe i want to say 51 i want to say it's on the over i can say yeah yeah um do people bring their own darts or is that no yes yes 100 oh yeah absolutely okay yeah any kind of game thing there's always going to be like leagues and people who take it super seriously and they always have their own shit that makes i mean all this makes sense right because all the stock stuff is is it's it's garbage it's you know it's been through the ringer sure sure sure sure sure I'm trying to think of another sport where you would just rock the default stuff but I guess if you're yeah the ones where it has to be provided by the league itself right yeah there's very few I mean I guess yeah not even like people bring their own bats to batting cages obviously your own clubs to the golf course I bet pickleball paddles or rackets or whatever they are yeah okay okay You know what word in the Twitch chat?
Would I use default coffee gear?
You're right.
Now it all makes sense.
It just makes sense, right?
It just had to be put in perspective.
I think I'm letting Golf League get to me.
I think I'm starting to take it too seriously.
I don't know.
I stayed up like watching videos about the actual Pebble Beach, not the Sega Saturday of Crick Stadler, for like three hours last night.
I've learned a lot about that course and why it's special.
Like what?
I think there's just a Golf Digest overview of it.
Then there's some golf influencer who just has a very popular golf channel.
He went to Pebble Beach for the first time, so I watched him play 18 holes on it.
Then there was a restored classic matchup of Jack Nicklaus and some guy that was older than him at the time.
He was just in his 20s then.
He was a legend, and they played 18 on head, and it was this really interesting match.
So yeah, I'm like i don't know if it's the hat or if it's just the the festive golf week atmosphere, but i just i'm like really, in a golf atmosphere, it's an interesting course, right.
It's like very famous, it's like uh oh, it's beautiful, it's very strange, right and difficult, and it's even.
It's even better when you realize it's naturally occurring.
Yeah, You got me for a second.
I was like, wait a minute.
Mike, you're describing young golf influencers and I'm thinking like their videos can't just be like unedited 18 holes, right?
It's got to be like.
Is it like Mr Beasted Up?
Um, not what.
This one wasn't that bad.
It was mostly he played 18 holes and it was cut.
So you know, it was like a 45 minute video of him doing all that and talking about the course, and you know some goose here.
I bet he probably has more gimmicky videos too, but this one, like you know, it's just hey, i'm playing pebble beach for the first time.
This is a dream come true.
You can talk about some of the history.
Like the seventh hole, is that part three.
That's right there on the cliff by the ocean.
So it's very dramatic and I suppose that's a very famous hole.
Craig Stadler did tell me that, and now I understand.
Yes, yes.
He was very supportive.
The grandfather figure I never had.
Until he wasn't.
He got...
I saw a video that he had to control his rage.
I mean, I told you like I have no evidence of this, but he just looks like a person with an anger management problem.
You do have evidence.
There's literally a video where he talks about how he had to control his anger management issues.
And that's why he got really into wine, maybe.
Him and Mike Mahardy, yeah.
Yes, yes, yes.
One and the same.
One and the same.
When I think of Mike Mahardy, I think of a walrus as well.
Of course, for sure.
A smaller, more svelte one.
I so associate wine with mike maharty.
Now that when uh, there was a news story on npr yesterday about how the wine industry has kind of been a lull, like people aren't buying wine the way they used to and so it's like they're they're gonna just let like a metric ton of grapes rot this year because they're not gonna be able to use it for wine, and i was just like legitimately worried about mike.
I'm like he was distraught, he had to miss a couple episodes.
Yeah, he was.
Yeah, that's what I figured.
Just take some time off, bounce back.
I really like wine.
But then I've noticed I think I like wine because it's cheap where I go get wine.
I mean, there's cheap versions of any booze.
Yeah, but I don't like cheap beer, but cheap wine is good.
I'm with you guys there.
The delta between cheap wine and expensive wine is a lot slimmer.
It's a crapshoot, yes.
Yeah.
You're going to summon Mike Mahardy like Beetlejuice if we keep talking.
It's okay.
You're right.
Be careful.
You know what?
It'd be nice to see him.
It'd be nice.
He's a nice guy.
I like him.
He's a nice boy.
He's a nice boy.
And I just remember one time we were at a bar and he looked at me and he just like threw his hands in the air and said Jan, I know you're looking at my ears.
I'm like, what?
No, I'm not.
What?
And then he just goes like, I know I have small ears.
Stop looking.
I can't help but look.
But it's okay if you out there have small ears but big eyes, because the video versions of the podcast that's right, the giant bomb cast, gay mess mornings and voicemail dump truck.
If you are on spotify uh, the video versions are now up there.
Uh, there's like a small little toggle when you go select the podcast and just like that, and then hey, bing bang boom, you can see our lovely mugs on the go.
I believe it also works on the desktop version.
So there we go.
If you've ever only listened to us and you want to see what we look like Hey, what's cooking?
We're sorry.
I have a gorgeous head of hair.
What could be better than that?
Aside from like, I don't know, mugs in the store.
Right.
How up?
Yeah.
Get in on that bit.
A whole golf theme before a coffee mug delivered a huge sales day for us through Golf Week, which you can be a part of by going to storegiantbombcom everybody.
And you're going to join in on this mug bullshit right now.
That was yesterday, Mike.
Today is today.
Yeah, what have you done for me lately?
Selling more golf shirts and hats.
Hey, buy a golf shirt and hat.
That's what I'm doing today.
It's golf week.
What's my idea to do a golf week?
There I am, dressed like an asshole.
I need a stud to sell this shit.
I need high quality merchandise.
Get your story straight.
What do you mean?
Speak about getting the story straight.
We're open to communication.
We're being honest.
And what we're going to be honest about, and I'm going to toss this to Jeff Bacalar.
You're going to get an email in your email inbox.
You might.
Us?
You might, yes.
No, it's not from us.
It's not from us.
See, that's why clear communication.
So I'm going to toss this to the more qualified person to talk about it.
That's right.
Me, the emailer, the one and only true emailer.
No listen folks, depending on the level of engagement that you've had with our website over the last I don't know two years or so, you will likely be getting an email.
I believe the email will come from our from like a no reply at Giant Bomb.
But it is an email that you should take seriously, because it will also include instructions and directions on migrating your account to our brand new website, which is coming later this year.
Fingers crossed.
And yeah, that's just something we want to put out there as a heads up to make sure that you are prepared, so that you know you're hearing it straight from the source and We are authenticating it.
It is not spam.
Just so you know, it is a real ass email that you need to take seriously and read.
And hopefully you know, if you want to join us in our next evolution of our website, you opt in to the new site and we can bring you along for the ride.
That's about it.
Just want to put that out there on everyone's radar.
Make sure you know what's coming.
You might get this email today.
You might get it next week.
You might get it two weeks from now.
But if you do get it, I think the subject will say something about you know, independent giant bomb and all that good news.
Yeah.
Give it a read.
Let us know if you have any questions.
And that's about it, Jan.
Speaking about two weeks give or take.
I just want to say this out loud, because this is an open forum and a safe space to talk.
But I miss seeing y'all in person.
I wish I could see y'all in person.
Dan, can you do anything about that?
I can absolutely do something about that, Jan.
You know, four of the five of us on this call, you know, Mike wasn't born yet.
Mike remember in 2022 we all got together and we had a real fun time on the East Coast and we spent time 15 hours spending time with each other, playing local multiplayer games with each other and doing a whole subscriber drive thing for Giant Bomb back in the day.
That was three years ago.
Now we, including young Mike Minotti and including Chuck and Sean, will be going back to the East Coast.
We did 15 hours last time.
How about 24 hours straight?
Twitch, YouTube, Subscriber Drive, Giant Bombathon.
We got a lot of fun stuff planned, a lot of stuff in the works right now.
We've been talking about it for like two months now.
I think maybe some people here haven't seen Love on a Leash.
We'll see if there's some incentives for that.
But yes, details to come.
But the main thing you need to know is Monday, October 27th, 5 p.m.
Eastern until Tuesday, October 28th at 5 p.m.
Eastern.
We will be doing the Giant Bombathon 2025 in person from the East Coast.
All five of us, Chuck and Sean be there.
Yes uh, let's leave my hair alone this time.
I agree, everyone chat's worried about it.
I should be too.
Yep well, we also got to figure out what we're doing with extra life, and kayla is always a foot, so you never know.
Yeah, she just comes at me with the scissors, that's right.
Yeah, she's a person.
Oh boy, That's awesome.
Oh, hell yeah, Kayla.
Yes.
Yes, it's going to be awesome.
We have a lot of fun stuff planned and it's going to get stupid and fun.
Late night, 24 hours, evening to evening.
You'll want to tune in for this.
Yeah, I'm very excited.
There's been a lot of behind the scenes work going on, gang.
So hats off to y'all here.
I'm very excited to see y'all very soon.
I'm less excited to perhaps witness love on a leash.
Dan, you know what?
There's no guarantee you'll have to watch it.
We'll have a whole lounge for it, Dan.
It'll be great.
The leash lounge.
The leash lounge.
Well, I was going to throw it to Dan to reveal it, Mike, but I guess we can just talk about it.
I got excited.
Mike, why don't you tell us the name of... Motherfucker.
We had the noob's hole at Dan's place in the East Coast.
We're going to have what, Mike?
The Leash Lounge.
Why did you say it like that?
I felt like I had to do something to make it clear.
I'm about to fuck up my Amazon recommendations when I buy seven leashes with human-sized collars.
Yeah, you can do that.
You can go to your local romance store to find the romance store.
ExtremeRestraints.com, everybody.
They're a sponsor now.
Yeah, there you go.
We should sell leashes on the giant bomb store.
Mike, you got all the power to do that.
You say the word, buddy.
You don't even have to say the word.
Yeah, there we go embroidered leashes, oh great yeah, fantastic.
Uh, it's gonna be a fun time.
I'm very excited, but perhaps uh well, we will do a full 24 and who knows what else we're gonna do.
Yeah, it feels like a chance to like really like just set up, set us up for the future and just like really declare hey yeah, all that stuff happened earlier this year.
Now we're going forward and this will be the real start of it.
So very excited about it.
Yes yes uh, will there be singing?
Who knows, we'll probably do a podcast or two in between.
Um, we got during actually yes during, during.
Uh, shenanigans will be afoot.
Uh, i'd like to order a pizza at one point.
Um, they don't have that on the east coast sorry yeah, it's a detroit invention actually.
Yeah yeah, you know i'm gonna say this.
I think i like detroit style pizza better.
Anyway, it's better.
Yeah, i mean, jets has turned me, jets has turned me.
Yep, It's just, it is yes, demonstrably better.
I have no opinions.
I think both are good, probably.
Both are good.
You know what?
That's right.
Just like Jimmy Fallon, we're not going to get political here.
Oh, how dare you?
And everyone loves that guy on account of that fucking bullshit.
Mike Minotti, the Jimmy Fallon of games media.
Oh, no.
The good boy.
Jimmy Fallon has never sold anybody anything.
That's true.
What are you talking about?
No, I think he has.
Somebody has bought a Fever Pitch DVD at some point.
Oh, that's depressing.
I dissent.
I think he has sold a lot of people a whole lot of nothing.
Hang on.
I need to check something right now.
I'm searching.
Is it Drew Barrymore in that movie?
Yes.
She probably sold that movie.
Do you think... I'm going to look this up.
I don't know.
Do you think he put out a comedy album with songs a la Adam Sandler?
Probably.
Probably.
Are you going to look?
Yes.
And if he has one, there's going to be an option in the Leash Lounge where you can just send someone to the Leash Lounge and they have to put on headphones and listen to the entire Jimmy Fallon album.
I don't know if he... Maybe he did...
He collaborated on something?
Yeah, he's popped on stuff and he loves to sing on his show, but I don't know if he's made an album.
We have two.
We have the bathroom wall from 2002 and we have blow your pants off from 2012.
2012?
Yeah, 2012 seems to be an actual music album where he brings in like oh, it's like Timberlake and Paul McCartney and stuff.
Yeah.
It looks like the bathroom wall.
Okay, okay.
I don't think these count.
He released a Christmas album last year, Holiday Seasoning.
Yeah, that's not exciting.
The look of this, I think the bathroom wall is his attempt at a Sandler thing.
Here are the tracks.
Yeah.
Idiot Boyfriend, I Can't Play Basketball.
Drinking in the Woods Road Rage Snowball, Troll Doll Celebrities Dorms, Shower Baskets and the Walk of Shame Roommates.
Chris Rock was my RA.
Gotta Get a Fake ID.
Troll Doll Jingles.
We have two Troll Doll themed songs in 2002 and Hammer Time.
Do you think that's just a cover of Hammer Time by MC Hammer?
It might be.
You ever think about how his movie Fever Pitch is a baseball movie but it's a remake of an English movie about soccer?
And so in the English movie, it's Fever Pitch, as in the field is called a pitch.
And for baseball, it's because they're pitching a ball.
It works.
Same name for both movies.
That's the most interesting thing about that movie.
Absolutely it is.
Yes.
Anyone see Taxi?
Yeah.
With Queen Latifah?
No.
I'd watch that instead of Love on a Leash.
It's got a 9% of Rotten Tomatoes.
9?
Couldn't break double digits, could it?
No, not quite.
You mean a 9 out of 100?
Yes.
That is what I meant.
That's what I meant.
Okay.
Wow.
I was confused there for a second.
So when I was in college I had like a I forget the specific class, but you just kind of had to make like a mini reel for yourself.
And I made this whole thing where I just wanted to take Jimmy Fallon's job of hosting Late Night.
Pfft.
And I just had like under it.
And I thought I did a pretty good job.
I don't fucking know where that file is anymore.
But the whole thing was better than Jimmy Fallon.
And my classmates dug it.
I thought I did a very good job in everything.
But my professor asked to speak with me after class.
But anyway, she pulls me aside and she was like um Jan, I don't.
I don't think it's a quite polite of you to be bashing on a beloved member of the media.
Really?
Is that how people describe Jimmy Fallon?
A member of the media?
No one's ever said that.
Well, I had one.
No, but I think those are the people who do something in him.
He's a nice boy, yeah.
And then she just kept going like, I loved his contributions to Saturday Night Live.
Really?
That's such a fair way to describe it, though.
Contributions.
He didn't make anyone laugh, but he contributed, I guess.
He had a decent Sandler impersonation on Celebrity Jeopardy.
Outside of that, he was mostly known for sucking at like breaking during sketches.
That's like the main thing he's known for.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I don't get it.
I've never understood why he's popular.
No.
What did you say, Mike?
Was your teacher a robot?
It's just as weird.
Got upset on Jimmy Fallon's behalf.
Uh, I don't know.
She was okay the rest of the semester, but I didn't quite trust her and I didn't want to bash Jimmy Fallon anymore.
God, we got to talk about Jimmy Fallon for another 13 minutes, right?
That's the quota.
Oh yeah.
NBC's got to check.
Yeah.
Right.
Okay.
Keep going.
Keep going.
Yeah.
Okay.
Uh, Did we clear the King of Meat threshold as well?
I don't know.
It's insane that Jimmy Fallon has a ride in Universal.
Yeah, that's the crazy thing actually about him.
Would you say the Backlot Tour is a Jimmy Fallon ride?
No, no, no, no, no, no.
In Orlando, Jander's an entire ride that's just about Jimmy Fallon.
You go in, the queue is themed.
The queue is actually the best part because it's a Tonight Show museum.
That was where Twister was, which was more of a show.
Oh, that's such a downgrade.
Yeah.
And it's just a bad simulator, right?
It's really weird.
It's like you're in the audience for a show.
You wear 3D glasses.
Then he races you randomly.
And the whole theater races him.
And you go to the mood.
And all of his beloved characters show up.
Like when he's that girl who goes, eww.
You see her.
Oh, right.
Jimmy Fallon feels like the last celebrity who's famous just because he was on TV.
He's just famous because he happened to be on TV.
I think he's like the harbinger of the death of good late night.
You know, she was kind of coming in.
It's like you're starting to get like Letterman's about to retire.
Yeah, Letterman's about to retire.
The whole Leno, Conan shit's about to go down and Conan kind of like exits, you know, late night, not too long after.
It's just like I think it all got went to shit once Fallon got involved.
You don't.
Oh, OK, because if we don't get Fallon, we don't get James Corden, right?
Or is that a chicken or the egg kind of thing?
Oh, sure.
I don't know.
James Corden was the same time as Fallon, right?
They both started at the same time?
A little bit after.
I think a little bit after.
A little bit after?
Okay.
That being said, I miss Craig Ferguson.
He's not a piece of shit, right?
He's around.
He's doing something, right?
He's okay.
Craig Ferguson was the best.
He was so good at his monologues.
It was incredible.
What's Craig Kilbourne doing?
Remember Yambo?
No, I remember him being in that old, was he in old school?
He was.
He was like the new boyfriend or whatever.
He's the creep.
Was he talk soup?
No, that's Greg Kinnear and the BGA's guy.
I care about is Craig Stadler from Pebble Beach Golf Links.
Speaking of golf, take it away, Mike.
Golf week is happening right now, everybody, on Giant Bomb.
And you can celebrate with your very own Giant Bomb golf hat and Giant Bomb golf shirt.
Go to store.giantbomb.com.
Get one or the other or be a real pro and get both.
Store.giantbomb.com, everybody.
Golf week, it's not just for us.
It's for you.
He was the Daily Show host before Jon Stewart.
That's what I was thinking.
I'm old enough to remember Stewart being the new guy.
And then I also watched Kilborn's Late Late Show after Tom Snyder and before Craig Ferguson.
Yeah, right.
And Tom Snyder was like not funny.
And I was very confused.
It was just a dark room where he talked to boring people.
That was the whole thing.
It came on after Letterman.
Oh, I could do that.
Kilborn came on.
He was pretty funny, actually.
It was fine compared to Tom Snyder.
I could so do that.
Okay gang, if I wind up moving to LA, I'm just going to rent out the shittiest little closet studio possible and we're just going to invite whoever wants to come.
I think they smoke cigarettes, too.
I could be misremembering that.
Even better!
You're speaking his language.
And then they play roulette.
Yeah.
And they open packs of Pokemon cards.
Oh!
Tom Snyder would not shut the fuck up about Pokemon cards.
It's like you guys are reading off of a list of my favorite things.
Tom Snyder, Pokemon cards.
I don't know who Tom Snyder is.
Smoking and overalls there.
Just standing there, Jen.
There you go.
I miss Jeff, the robot host of the Craig Ferguson show.
He was a gay robot, and that was a representation.
We need more of that.
He was the best Jeff ever spelled that way with a G. I'm sorry.
No, you're 100% right.
You know what?
Yeah, maybe we'll compile a list later.
But speaking about lists, Dan Reichert, you came to us early this morning because you got a new magazine.
Please describe the thought process.
Yes, I have not told you the plan for this list.
I only told you I want to have a blank list of 50 entries and I want to see if we can just kind of rapid fire how many of these we can name.
The time and place of this magazine makes me very interested.
The Video Game History Foundation, this is not an ad.
I pay for this every month, and I have for years.
They do a vintage magazine kind of blind box thing.
So every month you get like an old EGM or GamePro or, you know, whatever.
I got a computer gaming world yesterday.
So I was very excited because I've never read one of those.
Only heard good things about it.
It's a good thing.
Yeah, so I got mine yesterday, and it was from October 2001, and it is a PSN.
It was issue number 50 of PSN and at the top here it is Elise from SSX, which I showed it to Bonk, and she pointed out how crappy the face looks and then lovingly drawn breasts like just the stretch marks and everything.
Just get the lips and the tits and you're good.
That's snowboarding.
This is the snowboarding game, Baccalaureate.
I know.
I don't remember that character.
I do.
So what fascinates me about this is for the 50th issue of psm.
You can see the seal is not broken.
I have not opened it yet so i don't know anything.
They list the 50 best playstation games ever as of october 2001, 2001.
So we're like.
So we're like a year into, and keep in mind that probably like got finalized and sent to the printers in like august or whatever.
So that means there was a lot of stuff in that first year of PS2 that they're like eh, kind of a weak first year.
And then, like that holiday season, I feel like it was like GTA 3, Metal Gear Solid 2, Final Fantasy X, like all these huge ones.
So I am so curious.
I mean, this would basically be like from the first PlayStation launch to the first year of the PS2.
Like what would the top 50 games be?
So Jan, you've got a list.
Can the folks at home see that?
Yes, they should be able to see the list.
And Jim, why don't you like call us out one by one, and then Dan you'll, you'll check and then we'll go to the next person.
Does that sound like the best way to do this?
Yeah.
I'm thinking a quick look.
Yeah.
Let's do, let's, let's go around the horn.
I'll call y'all out.
Let's do two games.
Each person.
And don't do me because I'll be checking this and you'll fill out the list.
And let's try to get the top 10 first, guys.
Let's try to like nail the top 10.
They do separate it from the truly tantalizing 10 and the tremendous 25 and then the top 50.
So the truly tantalizing 10.
Okay.
And again, Dan, this is the best, the top 50.
The best PlayStation games ever.
This is PSX, the magazine?
PSN.
P.S.M.
Okay, is that Imagine or was that Future?
Who made this?
Is it Davis?
I don't see right now.
I'm going to lose my spot if I move my fingers.
Jeff knows the different leanings of those magazines.
I see.
And this is according to P.S.
It's not important, Dan.
Jan, just tell us who to start.
Oh, I can see this is after, though.
Okay.
Oh, this is according to you.
Oh, cool.
So it's Imagine.
Bill Donahue's on here.
Yep, yep, yep.
Okay.
And this is according to PSM Magazine, right?
Yes.
October 2001.
This is the company that was starting IGN at this time.
Yes.
Okay.
Okay.
All right.
Let's start with Mr. Minotti.
Okay.
I'm going to suggest Metal Gear Solid.
Metal Gear Solid is the number one PlayStation game of all time.
Yay.
Okay.
Second pick, buddy.
I would also like to suggest a Final Fantasy VII.
Final Fantasy VII is the 12th greatest PlayStation game of all time.
I thought that would be in the top 10 for sure.
That would have been my second guess as well.
Yes.
Okay.
PS1.
PS1.
Okay.
Mr Bacalar uh, crash bandicoot.
All right, crash bandicoot is maybe you can give me both at the same time, so as i'm scanning i can and silent hill.
Okay, crash bandicoot and silent hill.
Uh, silent hill is the 15th best playstation game of all time.
Oh, it's pretty high for silent hill one.
This is before silent hill two, though.
So yeah, Crash Bandicoot.
Okay, well, hang on.
I wonder if they might do the sequels higher than the original, you know?
I'm scanning.
I'm scanning.
I've looked at all of them.
I'm just seeing if I missed anything.
It's already been reconsidered.
I mean, do any of them, right?
Oh, let's just do it that way.
Okay.
Crash Bandicoot Warped is the 10th best PlayStation game.
Okay.
And Crash Team Racing is the 28th best PlayStation game.
Oh, you got two.
Got it.
What number, Dan, for CTR?
CTR is 28.
So we'll go by those rules too.
So if you say like a series or whatever, I'll just go ahead and going forward.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
Mr. Grubb.
Well, wait a second.
Do you want to look right now for the other Final Fantasy?
Because I feel like a nine and an eight might just be showing up there as well.
Tactics is 19.
Oh, Tactics made it.
That's great.
So Tactics at 19.
Final Fantasy 8 is number 21.
Okay.
This was before 9 was reconsidered and is everybody's favorite.
Back then, I think 9 was having a hard time.
Nope.
Final Fantasy 9 is the sixth best PlayStation.
This is a good list.
I feel like Roger Burchill was writing for this magazine.
He was a huge RPG guy.
He probably would have been right there.
Okay, then let's go with.
I'll just say the specific ones I'm thinking of, but you can check the whole thing.
Resident Evil 2.
That is the fourth best PlayStation game of all time.
Okay, that sounds right.
Okay, now I'm split between Tony Hawk or Castlevania Symphony of the Night.
I'm going to go for Castlevania Symphony of the Night because I think it was being reprised right in this moment.
Good answer.
Which is the third best.
Yeah, there we go.
Nailed it.
All right.
Okay, Dan, what about, I guess, any Twisted Metal game?
That'd be way up there on mine.
I don't know.
It's got to be.
That's about the 20s.
Yeah.
Black isn't out yet.
So I'm surprised somewhere.
Folks, I don't see a twisted metal game on this.
Whoa.
It's not like 50 that.
Well, don't forget, at this point, we had, like, Twisted Metal 3 and 4.
People had soured on the series.
Twisted Metal Black came out that summer, which I think would have been in time for... Oh, really?
It was that summer.
Oh, you know what?
This does say PS1 all time.
It did not say that.
It just says PlayStation up here, but this is just PS1, so don't count PS1.
Yeah, that's what I figured.
But Twisted Metal Black should have gone, but yeah.
Okay, gotcha.
Okay, second one.
Gosh, if they had tactics on here.
I'm going to take another shot in the dark for another RPG, the PS1.
Dan, show me Legend of the Dragoon.
Legend of Dragoon.
Yeah, it could be there.
It could be there.
I'm looking.
I'm looking.
I'm looking.
It is the 40th best place.
Nice.
Good job.
All right.
All right.
We got there.
Legend of Dragoon might be.
Mikey, back to you.
Yeah, definitely give me a Gran Turismo 2.
Ah, good choice.
That was number five.
Let's go.
And no looking at the chat.
I'm not looking at the chat.
I know my PS1 and then some of the... There's a big series we haven't said yet.
Yeah, I know, but I think I'm going to go with a Parasite Eve.
Okay.
Oh, interesting choice.
Interesting.
Here.
Wow.
Wow uh folks, nothing.
Parasite eve did not make the list.
Oh wow okay, i don't know.
I don't know if there's 50 better ps1 games than parasite eve, but maybe do we.
It was my turn.
Did we not get the number two?
No, you do not okay, so we did.
Yeah, go ahead.
Let me give you resident evil, because we already did mention resident evil 2, so 3 is number 29.
Right, and then four wasn't on it.
Four would not have been out yet.
And to be fair, I forgot we said Resident Evil.
That was the big franchise I was talking about.
Yes, you did say two.
You were the one who said it.
Listen, I'm a bad person.
I get it, Grubbs.
I get it.
I think number two is probably, it could be Tony Hawk.
It has to be, right?
I think Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 is going to be up in the top ten.
Pro Skater 2 is number nine.
Okay okay, i feel like now we can go to like a group.
Uh, if you just want to call them out, you know yeah, and then my other one was going to be um, siphon filter.
Oh, interesting filter.
If it's not there, just, you know, throw it in the garbage.
Is number two Tekken 3?
Hang on real quick.
Resident Evil, the first one, is number 42.
That makes sense.
Oh, wow.
There's got to be a Tekken 3 up there.
I don't see Siphon Filter.
I do not see Siphon Filter.
Nope.
Where's Tekken 3?
Oh, number 11.
I know.
Okay.
All right.
I know.
A Spyro game.
Yeah.
I think the original Spyro the Dragon would be like, is it?
Year of the Dragon is number 22.
Okay, oh yeah, is that the first story or the third one?
Oh uh, that's the only spyro.
Okay, what was the next one?
Vagrant story, i don't see, i don't know.
Really dude, it was been like it would have been kind of soon for that.
Oh okay, i have two.
Go ahead uh, parappa.
Parappa is number 17.
Okay.
Okay.
My two were Wipeout.
Real quick, I do want to say I'll count Um Jammer as part of the Parappa series.
That's number 16.
Okay.
I'll be a little bit better.
Grub comes in with Wipeout, which is... No, no, that was Bacalar.
Yes, I'm sorry.
I got you guys mixed up.
14 is Wipeout XL.
My other one was Soul Reaver.
Oh.
I'm sorry.
Siphon Filter is on here.
It was number 36.
Sorry.
Soul Reaver, Legacy of Kain.
No.
Get the frick out of here.
Unless it's top 10.
Nope, it's not.
Let's stick to taking turns just because we're stepping on each other.
Drop three games.
Okay.
All right.
Let's see here.
I'm trying to, like, think outside the box of that number two.
Yeah, what could two be?
I know.
Tomb Raider 2?
Tomb Raider?
Let's look at the Tomb Raider series.
You would think so.
I just don't.
To me it's like it'd be weird even by then for them to still be like kind of glazing Tomb Raider.
Number 37 is Tomb Raider The Last Revelation.
That was three or four?
No, three.
Like, four.
Four.
Mm-hmm.
Tomb Raider 4 is the only Tomb Raider on this list.
What?
That's weird.
I think I have a good one.
Hang on.
Let me do a couple.
Well, no, if you have a good one, just go.
That's fine.
Because if this guy likes RPGs, I'm thinking maybe Xenogears is the mysterious number two.
I guess this is a staff list, I would imagine.
Xenogears is number 20.
Okay.
Oh, I'm sorry.
I felt like my confidence was unfounded.
Like, Chrono Cross?
33.
Oh.
Okay, there's a lot more RPGs here than I thought there'd be.
The Magic Staff are RPG weirdos, for sure.
Yeah, if you were a PS1 magazine, you better like JRPGs, actually.
There are still three from the top ten that are not.
Yeah, that's driving me crazy.
Is there a Wild Arms?
Oh, jeez.
I haven't done a Wild Arms in quite a while.
Ooh!
There's another real... Let me just double check Wild Arms.
No Wild Arms.
There's a real sicko JRPG we haven't done yet.
Suikoden II.
Oh, that's a good one.
It might not have risen to that cult status at this point yet, though.
That is number 13.
Okay.
Oh, is there a sports game?
That's what I was wondering.
Madden 0-2 for the PS1 is 18.
That's weird.
I'd definitely play that on PS2.
Weird.
Driver.
Oh, wow.
Good choice.
Very good choice.
That's got to be there.
48.
Oh, yeah, barely.
Jesus.
It does seem like in general they're doing like one entry per series.
Okay.
Oh, they're saying if games of a series are different enough, more than one may appear on the list.
But they're saying like with like Tekken, they just put one.
Okay.
Yeah.
This one did just show up in chat.
I did just glance, but I was thinking this one.
Can we just check Ape Escape?
Yeah, I was wondering.
That's number two.
Ape Escape is number two.
That's amazing.
That's pretty high.
Yeah, so we still have uh, seven and eight.
Yeah, are they ridge racer type?
Four freaks?
Yeah that's, that's a good one.
Number eight one yeah, good magazine, good list, good list.
Wow, this is a lucky list.
Yeah, that was number eight.
Yeah, that's my favorite number, oh my god.
Okay Mikey, back to you.
Give me two more.
Switches are type four.
Okay, back to me.
Two more.
It is getting to a point where boy, those are some really big, impactful ones that we have up there.
Yeah, I don't know.
If anyone's got one, just pipe up at this time, because, yeah, now I'm just trying.
Oh, wait.
Abe's Odyssey?
Oh, good call.
But I don't think so.
I got one before we go to... Yeah, just me.
I got one or two more.
All right.
Was Abe's Odyssey on the top 50, Dan?
No.
No Oddworld.
Oh, wow.
Okay.
This has to be on there, based off of the other games on there er guys, bless the ring, it's not.
Oh, that makes me think of another game that should be on which?
Um okay, er guys is not.
But i think mike is about to guess number 44, einhander.
Yes, that's right.
Yeah, i thought it too, mike.
Games that aren't related, except their names kind of sound exactly the same to me square yeah, Rival schools, Dan.
Or how about Bushido Blade?
Bushido Blade is number 50.
No rival schools.
No rival schools.
Any other ones that we want to know?
Yes, I saw that earlier.
That is number 24.
Okay, good showing for Klonoa there.
I want to look at my collection real quick.
Yeah, okay, let's get one or two more from everyone, and then let's just get through the list.
Was there a Spider-Man?
There was a Spider-Man game on PS1.
They were not bad.
Those were the Neversoft ones.
I don't think that's on here, no.
Yeah, probably not going to make it.
I liked that game a lot, actually.
Yeah, I loved that one.
Oh, I did like a chat at this point, but Star Ocean 2, did that make it?
No, it did not.
Vib Ribbon.
No.
What?
No, it's surprising.
You can't fuck around with Mr. Domino, whatever it was called.
No, no.
Incredible Crisis.
Unfortunately, no.
Samurai Zan.
Colony Wars.
Oh, Colony Wars.
Critics loved that.
That was a good game.
It's number 45.
Colony Wars.
G-Police.
All right, God.
All these things bring me right back.
Okay.
Mega Man Legends.
I don't remember seeing that.
No.
Let's do this.
It's wild that we're missing one in the top ten.
There was a Grand Theft Auto, right?
Yeah, but that series wasn't really... It was a top-down.
It's not really associated.
Maybe on there.
Not associated with PlayStation enough, I guess.
Okay.
Jet Moto?
Oh, that's a good guess there, Greg.
That is a good guess.
Jet Moto 2.
Not here.
Sorry.
That fell off pretty quick.
NFL Blitz? nope no but that yeah jan start uh from the bottom up uh call out blank numbers and i'll tell you what they are all right uh 49 vigilante eight wait didn't we say that is blasphemy didn't we say that there wasn't a twisted metal on this list yeah yeah that's crazy that's insane all right 47 tenchu Oh, eventually.
Yeah.
Yeah.
All right.
Hit me with 46 and 43.
Soul Blade and Fear Effect Retro Helix.
The lesbian game.
Yeah.
These are actually kind of impressive polls.
Is Jumping Flash 2 in the top 10?
It should be.
We're going up from bottom up.
Okay.
All right.
Let's go to 41.
Alone in the Dark 4.
What?
They got to 4?
Yeah.
I didn't even know they ever numbered them.
Wait, above Resident Evil 1?
Oh, it's insane.
Yep, it is one above Resident Evil 1.
That is Infogrames June 2001, Alone in the Dark 4.
Okay, okay, hold on.
I love Soul Blade, but Einhander above Soul Blade?
That's correct.
Oh, no, Einhander, I can see Einhander above Soul Blade.
Oh, Einhander is maybe top 10, Jan, absolutely.
I don't know about that, y'all.
Einhander is not Urgeis.
Einhander is a shmup.
No, if it was our guys, it'd be top 15.
Uh okay dan, hit me with 38 and 30 or 39, 38.
39 is Colin McRae Rally.
Oh, of course.
And 38 is Rayman 2.
Oh, okay.
I never see Rayman.
I don't think it has a PS1 game.
Or OG Rayman for sure.
Dan, 35, 34, please.
35 is Breath of Fire 4.
Yeah, I could have gone there.
Roger Burchill definitely worked on this list.
34 is Dino Crisis.
Oh, okay.
We missed that. so like dino crisis but no parasite eve okay yeah a little little strange or vagrant story okay okay uh dan hit me with 32 31 and 30 32 is ace combat 2 oh we should have got that yes yeah that's a great game yep got it 31 31 grandia Oh, okay.
In 30, how did you guys miss this?
Roll cage stage two.
The hell is that?
What?
The hell is that?
It's the 30th best PlayStation game of all time, Jan.
I retire.
You're right.
This is shame.
It's better than Parasite Eve.
I don't even know what you just said.
Roll cage stage two.
Number 30.
Oh, this looks like Extreme G, but bad.
Yeah, when your cover looks like that, you get number 30 is roll cage stage two.
This is not what I thought it was going to be.
This game actually looks pretty all right.
Okay, keep going.
Only a handful left that we haven't picked.
Okay, Dan hit me with 27, 26, and 25.
27 is FIFA 2001.
Okay.
26 is Need for Speed 3 Hot Pursuit.
Yeah, I forgot Need for Speed.
And what was next?
25.
Medal of Honor 2.
Wasn't that just underground?
That was just underground.
All right.
23.
That would be Super Puzzle Fighter 2.
Okay.
Wow.
Cool.
Okay.
There's only one left.
All right.
Number seven.
Number seven, Dan.
I feel like Mikey should have got this out of all of us.
Is it a Mega Man X4 or something?
Street Fighter Alpha 3.
Okay.
I was wondering.
Yeah.
Okay.
Yeah.
Probably should have.
Yeah.
We should have said Street Fighter Alpha 3.
But also, Mega Man X4 should be on this list.
Okay.
That's the list.
I agree.
No Legends.
Weird.
No.
Yeah.
Legends was not super well liked at that time, honestly.
This came out when?
October 2001.
Which means they probably wrote it in May.
It was right there, yeah.
Right.
And then 9-11 happened.
Sure, of course, yeah.
That was just the last episode.
But it would be pretty comprehensive of the whole PlayStation 1 era outside of like, the sports games they released until like 05 or whatever.
Yeah.
It's an interesting list for sure.
Ape Escape at 2 is crazy to me.
My first two guesses would have been Metal Gear and Final Fantasy 7, and so for FF7 to be down at 12 is kind of crazy.
That's wild.
They are right that 9's better than it.
I usually assume that 7 is going to be put higher than that.
I like... Yeah.
I'm impressed, like, Reducer Type 4 being at number 8, that's right.
Resident Evil 2 at 4, that's right.
Civilian Knight at 3, that's right.
There's nothing too crazy.
There's some admissions that seem a little wild to me, like a Parasite Eve, like a Vagrant story.
Alone in the Dark 4 being above Resident Evil 1 is pretty insane.
That's bizarre, yeah.
I do like seeing how high the OG Silent Hill is on this list, though, so that's pretty cool.
Yeah, yeah.
An interesting list for sure, which is kind of what you go for when you make these.
No Jet Moto, I'm kind of surprised by.
Jet Moto...
It fell off quickly, you're right.
Yeah, it was like an early, when I think like early PlayStation 1, I think of single track.
I think of, you know, Warhawk, Twisted Metal 1, Twisted Metal 2, and Jet Moto.
And like Jet Moto pretty quickly.
It might have been around the same time that Twisted Metal went downhill with the 989 changeover.
But yeah, people forgot about Jet Moto pretty quick.
Yep.
Okay.
Okay.
That's right, Hexproof.
It's an atrocity that there are no golf games on here for Golf Week.
Well, the best golf game was on the Saturn.
It's main competitor.
It's main competitor.
Yeah.
All right, folks.
Enough with old games.
Let's talk about stuff we've been playing.
I know old games.
No, I know, I know, I know.
I can't believe I'm looking up how to play Roll Cage Stage 2.
I am kind of curious.
And it was made by Midway, it says.
I'm kind of curious now.
Dan, remember, you can't play old games on your own time, though.
You've got to be playing new games to do your job here, alright?
As long as that's clear.
Holy shit, that's good.
That's a joke for me.
Man, now I just want to go play a bunch of JRPGs.
Thanks a lot, gang.
Oh, they're good.
They're good.
They're very good.
Very good.
I think Brass of Fire 4 is good.
It's a little overrated.
A little overrated.
A little overrated.
All right.
We got a giant list of games here.
So let's start with a game that someone finished.
They have a note here real quick.
Mr. Bacalar, you finished Kronos.
Yes.
Oh yeah, I finished Kronos.
I don't want to take a lot of time talking about it.
I finished Kronos.
I then had to watch a YouTube summary of the story because it is almost unfollowable.
I wish I don't know, maybe this is a larger issue of.
Can Jeff just simply not pay attention to some stories in games anymore?
I don't know.
I feel like I'm sort of struggling with that a little bit uh, in silent hill f?
Uh as well.
I don't know, we could talk more about that in a second, but i did finish chronos and i and i am mostly happy with it.
I do encourage people to play it now.
It is a very scary, very spooky game that is very ambitious with its storytelling uh, but believe me, i i did it.
I didn't think i could do it, so thank you to all the people who said i could.
You allowed me to persevere and see it through, and that means a great deal to me and for that I thank you.
No gatekeeping here.
I do have a question for you.
You said you're playing this and Silent Hill F.
I know you're going to talk about that in a second, but if I was going to pick one of these to play for October, which one would you recommend at this moment?
I think the better complete package is Silent Hill F.
Okay, it's also like 8 to 10 hours, which sounds real good to me right now after playing so many games that I'm like 20 plus hours into.
And we could just parlay this right into the F conversation if you don't mind, Jan.
Let's go for it.
I was talking to Super Eyepatch Will.
I was talking to John about Silent Hill F and he's like oh yeah, you've got to play it four times.
And I was just like who the fuck are you that's going to play Silent Hill F four times to see all these different endings?
I don't know, I don't understand how you can do that.
I'm like, don't you have a video to make about Garfield or something?
Like, you're going to tell me you can play Silent Hill F four times?
We're playing The Simpsons right now.
We got to know.
I'm like, please, I need you to make videos and not play this game 11 times.
Is it near Automata-like?
Is it Automata?
No, it's...
It's not even like because Zero Nod has the different endings, but it's really kind of a linear progression through them.
It's like Silent Hill 2, where depending on your choices, you get a different ending.
And the people who really like the series, they're like, well, I got to see all of them.
You don't.
I'm going to watch them on YouTube is what I'm going to do.
That's what I did.
I can just watch them on YouTube and mostly get the same effect is what I'm getting here.
For me.
What do you call it when you're just like.
I don't know, maybe this is exclusive to me, but there's this thing I have where I'm just map slopping, where I'm just constantly looking at the map.
I'm in this labyrinthine area and I'm just sort of like, wait, which way is left?
Where's left?
Where am I facing?
Where's my arrow facing?
I have to go up?
Oh, okay.
It's called getting old.
I have the same thing.
No, because that's always been that for me.
That's always been that for me with these games.
Uh, it's like, you know, i don't know it's like.
It's like if you have like google maps in your car and you're not doing north is uh, you're not doing like up is always up.
Right, that's obviously not always north, but like i need that.
I, i need that sort of constant positioning awareness to show me up right.
Like, that's how I coordinate myself.
That's how I coordinate myself.
Subjective map, yeah.
Right, exactly.
What's up?
What's up, Mike?
It's just everyone's chat saying apparently the New Game Plus stuff is more than just a different ending.
So I guess, I bet it's very interesting to play the game more than once.
Again, I doubt you need to to feel like you got a full experience there.
Yeah, I mean, look, I'm happy to have it.
I'm happy that the value's there.
I'm happy that the replayability is there.
I'm never going to look that cross in the face, but it's like I can't do that with your game, especially in such a densely packed fall.
Right, so there's 15 games we need to play right now.
I need to do baby steps.
I haven't even done anything outside of that unfinished baby steps.
Are you kidding me?
You're the baby.
Yeah, I got to take some steps.
Anyway, I really do like Silent Hill.
I think it is really good save for like maybe one or two areas where I'm just like all right, this is maybe a little repetitive.
But yeah, I'm super into it.
What do you think, Mike?
Yeah, yeah, I checked out maybe the first three hours or so and was definitely enjoying myself.
I love just the setting.
Anytime something is set in that very rural kind of Japan, which for me is basically just this Persona 4 and My Neighbor Totoro.
Those are the three things I associate with the setting, but I always really like it.
It's a very interesting kind of vibe and aesthetic.
But yeah, I...
I see people talk about the combat and some people complain about it.
I love it all specifically because it is kind of clunky and unsophisticated, just like how it should feel for just some.
You know Japanese school girl who's wielding a pipe.
Right.
You know, it's not Dark Souls.
It's not some, you know, intense action game.
Yeah.
Don't have a lot of combos.
You know what I mean?
Like.
Yeah, she's just kind of swinging shit.
Just the kid, just the little kid.
But even though there is still like good mechanics to it and good kind of game logic and reasoning there, without it necessarily devolving to just oh, it's Dark Souls or you know oh, it's this or that.
I was actually surprised how good, like I did, like a big boss fight, right where I just actually had a whole boss encounter situation going on.
Mm-hmm.
There were some fun gimmicks, especially with him disappearing and kind of reappearing somewhere.
I had to like listen for him and find him and hit him before he got off some attack.
I was like geez, this is a pretty good boss fight which, you know.
Silent Hill has actually not been bad at that.
The Silent Hill 2 remake had some good ones, too.
But sometimes you don't necessarily associate Silent Hill with bosses.
Having a good experience there was nice.
But yeah, I'm just kind of I'm loving the whole sort of vibe, the whole setup.
The story is intriguing.
You know, I think the themes skirt a fine line of being pretty obvious or what they are, but not feeling spoon fed at the same time.
So all of that is good.
I'm excited to play more.
Feels like a perfect little October game.
Not I don't mean little disparagingly, but, you know, it's a great game for this season.
I will say this may be spoilers for some people, but I'll just keep it as vague as possible.
And for folks that have already completed Silent Hill F, you will be well aware that this game actually shares a lot with Sonic Unleashed.
And that's all I'm going to say about that.
I can't play it now.
You just ruined it.
Yeah, that is not spoiler.
The entire experience for me.
I don't know if you put that on the back of the box, you know yeah, that's gonna.
People won't buy it, though why do i even need to play it now?
That's what a detour.
Is that the one with the werehog?
Yeah uh, jeff grubb.
Uh, speaking about beating games?
Uh, you're not the uh.
Bacalar isn't the only jeff finishing games.
You conquered baby steps.
Yeah, this morning actually uh so uh, i had spent several streams in the morning here on giant bomb, trying to conquer the man breaker, which is this big mountain where they give you the option to go up the stairs, and that was a really powerful, awesome thing to do and uh, It was a lot of fun to actually get through there.
And then there's a little bit more after that.
There's apparently a couple paths you can go to get up to this final bit of the mountain.
But the option I found myself taking without really even knowing it was an option, it just felt like the way to go was this crash train.
It's an uncharted two and it's got a bunch of luggage all over the place and you've got to get your foot in on there.
But because you're inside and it's at a slant, it really is disorienting because you just feel like, okay, am I standing upright?
And it's like, oh, no, I'm going to lean to the left here.
That was a lot of fun to get through, although kind of a little bit child's play after the Man Breaker, which was welcome.
After that, there's just like a small little snow section.
A guy gets trapped under a boulder in a cave and stuff like that.
I got to talk to him.
But yeah, you eventually get up this mountain and you go into a house and you're one of the people that you've been there talking to.
The whole time is in this house, this cabin.
And it just has this such a sweet ending of Nate is this character that you're playing as.
And every conversation he has, he's just trying to get out of it.
He doesn't want to bother anyone.
He doesn't feel worthy of anyone's time.
He doesn't like feel like he's like worthy of any space at all actually.
And uh, the game ends with you knocking on this cabin door and just being afraid still, but kind of you could see he's working up his courage and finally he just asks hey, can i come inside?
He finally asks for help and it was a really like moving, powerful moment for this character that just can't get his shit together at all.
But you, i walked 90 000 steps the game told me 90 000 steps to get to the end of this game And you know he did all that.
He actually did accomplish all that.
He did conquer the man breaker.
He did get through all these things.
And so he kind of is capable.
But the thing that was hardest for him was just asking for help.
And it hit real hard.
And so I got to do that with chat this morning.
And I just I love this game.
It is so well done.
And it's.
It definitely feels like the right way to make one of these right now, where you Sure it's punishing but it's not as punishing as something like Getting Over It, where Getting Over It is another Bennett Foddy game, where you're in the pot and you have the hammer and you're swinging around trying to pull yourself up.
And you could fail in that game to the point where you really do at any moment, can fall all the way back to the beginning.
Here, it's like...
Usually you could fall a long way, but it's going to be to a certain relative checkpoint.
And even when you do that, the game remains funny.
It remains fun to play.
You always feel like you are kind of learning something.
So it feels like the most broadly appealing one of these that has been made.
It feels like it's made by people who have done this many times before and have learned a lot of lessons and know now how to deliver on this idea in a way that is fair but also still brutal, in a way that's very, very fun to watch.
Yeah, it's a game that should have made me rage a lot more than it did.
And I found myself just kind of being like, you know what?
I'm ready to try again.
And yeah, it's up there for me.
I am really impressed with it and really happy with it.
How did you find again, I'm only coming from the first time we touched it but like, how did you find the sort of like understanding of, like what you're really meant to do?
Because I feel like for me.
You know this game.
I have not been able to isolate myself from seeing more.
You know videos about it.
Obviously you playing it.
How do you feel about how all that was presented and whether or not you think it's a really like satisfying way to be presented with the game?
Yeah so yeah, it can be discouraging at first, because you don't know where you're going and you feel lost.
Eventually though, that very quickly settles into being like oh, that's part of what's happening here.
It's not just that he's bad at walking.
He's bad at walking and also doesn't know where to go.
And it's like these dual factors working against the character are really both things to be overcome.
And it's like, well, what do you do to solve this?
I guess I could try to like I can go look it up, or I could just keep walking forward and see if I eventually figure something out.
Now the game does sort of offer up some interesting ways of making you feel like okay, if I do start going forward, even if I might not know if I'm going the right way, maybe I'm going the wrong way, there is a chance.
It's not like...
It's lousy with this stuff, but there's a chance you're going to run into some cut scene that you wouldn't have seen had you not gone the wrong way.
And that's really well done.
So there's one early on where I was super lost.
There's a point in the kind of funny race where both me and Snowbike Mike are trying to find out where to go and we're like neck and neck.
And I went to the left, and he went to the right.
And I was stuck in this place because I didn't see the pathway to the left for a very long time.
So I was going around the map, and it loops.
It's a complete sphere.
So you go to one side of the map, you go one more step and now you're on the far left side of the map.
You can't tell that when you're actually in the game, but there's a map later that kind of showed you that's what was happening.
I was doing that over and over again, and I got to this sandcastle, this giant sandcastle.
I'm like, let me get to the top of this, see if there's anything up there.
And the only thing up there was two little naked men who just kind of yelled at me and i sat on one of them on accident and it was hilarious.
They were all voiced by bennett foddy.
Uh that's, and and finding that felt like oh, its own reward, and there's a ton of that stuff.
There's um, so many hilarious cut scenes.
I think that's the thing, the humor for me.
For a long time i guess for not for a long time for that first couple of play sessions i was like this is funny, but i'm not laughing out loud.
It just keeps getting so much more absurd and you start to realize oh, they're improving this and they're kind of just leaving in the rough cuts of them laughing over each other's lines.
And it's super endearing and trying to like not even trying to find the next one of those, but thinking oh, I might find another one of those as I continue was more than enough to make everything kind of feel worth it.
And then occasionally I'll find a cool little puzzle segment where it's like here is just a little tower that you got to climb to the top of and you'll either get a hat that either does nothing or does something cool, or a fruit.
He yells about finding a parsimon or whatever it's called and uh, that's exciting as well.
So i think it's like happy to be the game it is, which is you should feel lost, you should feel overwhelmed by every taking, every step, but it's not so harsh that it's never going to make you feel like you didn't get a reward.
It has that pretty often cool, awesome.
Uh god, i didn't think i'd have to check this out before game of the year time, but i guess i gotta.
It's very much a me game like it's not like i'm gonna be out there on the streets trying to hock this to everybody, but i i definitely see a lot of people in chat when i was playing being like hey, i wasn't gonna try this out and i've been watching you play and it actually won me over like watching this game be played and it's like yeah, i think there's more to this game than like it's open critic score says.
It's like oh, you know, it's not for everybody, but the people who it's for are really gonna like it.
It's definitely in this like certain class of games for me with like octodad, where it's about moving a character in a weird way, but it's it's telling a lot more about like human nature and about your nature as a player than you might even realize.
Fantastic Grubb.
Fantastic.
Speaking about overwhelming, I have been enjoying, but I've found Ghost of Yotei to be very, very overwhelming.
Dan, you talked about this a little bit last week on the podcast because the embargo lifted.
And I...
I had reserved to myself that I wasn't going to check out Ghost of Yotei until the holidays.
Because we've talked a lot about holiday kind of games.
And this feels like one you have to really sink your teeth into.
And I'll say this up top.
I did not like Ghost of Tsushima.
I did not click with it at all.
I don't quite know why.
Maybe I was expecting a different style of combat.
Maybe I was looking for a Sekiro at the time.
But...
Something about this, and maybe it is God, I already forget her name, but the character that Erika Ishii plays, and just the characterization, I think it just hits a bit better.
Maybe I'm digging the setup to this story, but...
Damn.
Game pretty.
Game look good, y'all.
Game pretty.
Yeah, that's really pretty.
It's unbelievably gorgeous.
And like, Jan, how are you finding like the open world?
Because it's got those elements from the first one with, like the wind, taking you from place to place.
But I am finding myself just enjoying that open world a lot more than Tsushima.
I think that that's what I might be enjoying more.
And that's kind of the friction I'm encountering though, is that, like I do, enjoy the open world more.
But because I'm enjoying the open world more, it's kind of stalling my overall progress in it.
Sure um, and this game just is is full of like the different um cinematic styles you can throw the game into.
I tried playing it in black and white for a second, but then again game too pretty to limit yourself to grayscale.
Um, just like the effect that they have with like the ginkgo leaves and everything like as you're like traipsing through the fields absolutely gorgeous, and i just want to cook every single thing.
And it's kind of a bummer that this game uses the DualSense so well, because what is the last game y'all would even think uses the DualSense?
Yeah, exactly.
Yeah, Astro Bot.
Before that even, maybe the Ratchet and Clank game?
Yeah, maybe Ratchet and Clank.
Yeah, it's great when games do use it really well, because I actually do like a lot of that stuff, even the sort of gimmicky things, but few people really kind of make good use of it.
I mean, sucker punch loves doing that.
They did that with uh second son.
I remember the first time i used a ps4 trackpad was uh, oh right, checking that out and like they would have things where it's like oh, swipe up to pull this tank up and then shoot into it.
And yeah, they love using the hardware.
Like i don't have much more to say about uh ghost of yotei than you already covered last week dan, because i'm still fairly early in.
But, like same um, I can't quite articulate why it is clicking with me more.
Can I ask this?
Because I keep bringing this up in chat.
This was going to be my question.
So the first game was very big on hey, we're still a video game, so we're going to have moral choices.
And you're a samurai do you have to be?
You should be honorable.
And there was like the father character who was like reminding you you should be honorable.
And then you had the option to be a sneaky little assassin guy.
That was dishonorable and the game was saying you were naughty for doing that, or at least that's my how I read it.
I don't know if it was actually going through and like punishing you or anything, but I certainly felt that way And I'm just like at a point where it's like if you're going to put stuff in a game, let me decide if it's good or bad.
I don't really need that.
But whatever, that was the first game.
Does the second game maintain any of that?
I guess you do still have the choice to be, because Dan showed me in the quick look you can still like, do the thing where it's like okay, I'm going to announce that I'm here as a samurai and do a showdown with a guy, which I thought was cool.
But I also think I want the option to be equally weighted to like go be a sneaky little ninja.
Does it kind of open you up or what?
It doesn't like have like a larger system that I've seen yet.
Like, you know, infamous, you know, was very just like, you know, right.
Blue glowy halo guy or red devil horn guy.
This is like you will come upon certain scenes and stuff not even necessarily tied to the story of, just like are you going to loot all these corpses and kill the guy who says that that's shitty?
Or are you going to, like you know, give the guy money and help collect these masks and stuff like that?
Like there's, there's like clear good and bad choices you can make at times, but it doesn't feel like it's a gimmick of the game, you know? and like there's no one coming in to be like oh why'd you do that you know it's okay it's not like that really i i think that's i actually i think that may be what it is for me where i felt like i couldn't play ghost of tsushima in a way that i want to play where like i do want to be a sneaky little guy sometimes and then like if shit hits the fan uh just go into a duel but here it's like I guess it's just like cool with letting you do it and I don't know maybe the character for his there's so many parts of the internet that have such a weird boner for Jin from the original game about like oh I can't believe they're replacing Jin and he's not going to be the main character for the second one. fuck off i find um this main character to be more of a person if that means anything also it does it does like solve that problem of like because she her whole thing is just revenge right like she's just out there to like do this and so who cares how you get revenge it frees them up it answers that question of like how do we deal with this problem in the first game if it was a problem which i think they decided by doing it this way in the second game that maybe it was something they didn't want to repeat so maybe not a problem but they wanted to try something different here and so they were gonna need a different character yeah and anyway i there's so many games coming out but i do just find myself just firing this up and staring at it just like letting the wind blow and now i think i finally understand brad shoemaker oh no really there's just no you don't now okay i'm sorry that's a samurai Many have called him that.
I mean, behind the scenes, we would call him the last samurai.
It was his favorite movie.
It was a biography about him.
Biography.
Civil procedure.
I think you were there.
This might have been either my first or second game of the year, but Brad had gone on about how he had enjoyed so much of Red Dead Redemption 2 and just like living in the world and kind of just like losing time in it.
It'd be like a cowboy simulator.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And then I could easily see myself doing that in Ghost of Yotei.
And kind of like the same way that Brad had enjoyed all the bits and pieces around the main story of Red Dead Redemption 2.
I can see myself just like roaming across the fields and just like basking it in.
This may be the only instance I will say that I think a game set would be cool for.
Yeah. yeah yeah it'd be pretty good for the most part i said like the horse shit and all that i'm with you on the red dead 2 thing but like you know it does do the thing that like makes me like it more than red dead 2 in the way that like if you're riding past a frond is that a word i don't know something you can pick up uh you can just hit r2 and it just picks it up it wears like red dead you don't get off my horse buddy gotta go get this frond you know That's not a bad Arthur you got there.
Thank you, thank you.
It's a tuberculosis.
It's not a tuberculosis.
Perfect, no nuts.
Yeah, I mean this is like not afraid to be video gaming in that way where it's like there's some quality of life stuff.
And every once in a while, it's like, ah, you don't need to do the cooking minigame.
We got you.
Just give you the boost.
So it's not as slavish to that as Red Dead is.
But the thing this also reminded me of is that Assassin's Creed Shadows came out this year.
It sure did.
Oh, boy.
I played a fair amount of that, which is one of the reasons why I'm not chomping at the bit to get into Yotei, which is not fair to Yotei.
But that's just where I'm at.
I think I may be more of a 2D ninja mood because I've yet to check out the Shinobi game.
Dan, you were also super high, so that is on the list.
I feel like all these games are consuming me, but Dan Reichert, you have been playing Consume Me.
I, yeah, I started it last night.
Um, I started it.
I didn't really know what it was.
I don't know.
I feel like I saw some like posts about it where I was like yeah, it's going to be one of those like really narrative games that are probably extremely like like a despilote or something like that, where it's just like okay, I can recognize the craft in this but like typically, I don't enjoy playing those types of games.
And, uh, what's the, what's that smirk?
Backlar.
It's the, isn't it despilote?
Probably.
I assume that was despilote.
Yes.
Yes.
So, but Bonk was playing it and Bonk was really enjoying it and telling me about it.
And she was like, she likened it to WarioWare, which is like, oh, okay.
I'm immediately interested in that with like a lot of little mini games and stuff.
But then she told me it's, it is about disordered eating.
And that is something I did not realize that's what the game was about.
And that is something I learned a lot about, you know, over 10 years ago when I met Bianca.
And one of the first things she told me was that Before meeting me, she had really struggled with anorexia and I didn't really know anything about it.
I had never really known anyone that struggled with disordered eating, at least to my knowledge.
And so yeah, I learned a lot about it early on and it's like it was very eye-opening in that, like You know, if someone's never experienced anxiety, I've run into these people that are like, just chill out.
What are you worried about?
And it's like, yeah, not how it works.
That's not how it works at all.
Boy, I'd love to just chill out.
That'd be great.
The same way that, you know, some people, if they hear about anorexia, will just eat a cheeseburger.
Why don't you just eat a cheeseburger?
And it's like Through talking to her about it I learned so much about what it is and the control factor of it and how it just kind of consumes your thinking every day.
And I remember I read, I wouldn't understand it more than I read Portia de Rossi's book about it.
She was from Arrested Development.
Yeah.
She struggled with that.
Yeah.
Basically, I just I learned a lot about it back then.
And I played this game and talking to Bonk about it, too.
It's like.
She's like yeah, this is like such a interesting way to illustrate the difficulties and the struggles of disordered eating basically.
And it's presented very like it is kind of like warrior like and the presentation is awesome.
It's very, you know, kind of jaunty music and stuff like that.
But it's kind of like Depression Quest or Unpacking, where it's like, I've never had depression.
And in playing Depression Quest I kind of saw that like oh, you have multiple choice of what you can do tonight.
And you keep getting crossed out because you have depression.
It's like, oh, okay, I didn't understand it was like that or whatever.
So with this, there's like different meters you have to just kind of juggle between all the time.
You go day by day, you wake up every day and eat lunch and all this.
And you've got your mood meter, you've got your energy meter and you've got your gut meter, like how full you feel.
But you're also trying to stay under a calorie limit, which is a huge thing.
That people with disorder eating have is like very much obsessing over every calorie that goes into your body.
So you got all these meters, you got to juggle.
And you know one's going down like it's almost impossible to kind of keep them all in like an equilibrium.
And at the same time, you're trying to earn money by doing chores.
Because chapter one is all about, like you're trying to save up money to buy a swimsuit because there's this party and there's this boy you like and you want to go look hot in a swimsuit for this guy, for this party.
So you got like nine days basically to you know you're trying to stay underneath your calorie limit, which it says early on it actually like to avoid, like triggering people with eating disorders.
It just calls them bites.
And so you have like 500 bites you can do each day.
So it starts like you're eating lunch and it's like a Tetris minigame type thing.
Where it's like, okay, so I can fit in.
There's all these hunger spots I need to fill.
And if I don't fill them all, which is impossible most of the time, you're going to like not be hungry.
You're not going to be full enough.
And there's stuff where it's like oh, there's this cookie that I can use for this one slot, but that has a bunch of bites.
So that's going to put me over the limit.
So I'm going to feed that to the dog.
So there's all these like very interesting gameplay mechanics that go into the story they're trying to tell.
So like another thing you're trying to do is level up.
Like you've got skill meters for like diet, athletics, academics, and chores.
And so you're trying to do all of those.
So, you know, your mom's on your ass for like, it's a semi-autobiographical thing.
So like the character's mom is like, Hey, you're, you're getting chunky.
You need to lose weight.
And it's like, Hey, your grades are, you know, slipping.
You need to work on this.
So, like the mini game for when you're studying is like you'll pick a, you'll be on the bus and you have to read a book to study for a test.
And like your head is rotating around and you have to like jam a when your vision is over the book, but it's like rotating around.
And then it's like also these thoughts are popping up and they're visualized by like clouds, like thought bubbles and stuff.
So it's like, Oh, it's your mom yelling at you.
It's the scale.
It's all these other things that are entering her mind.
And that kind of like, like you're the mini game cone bumps against it and makes it so you can't finish it.
So it's, it's just so smart with all these different ways.
It very much gamifies the thinking of someone that's going through this.
Um so, like that, that is the thing is.
Like it's gonna, I assume it's going to become impossible to juggle everything.
You know, I finished chapter one.
I was able to kind of like get everything to a reasonable level, but like, For instance, I was so worried about trying to keep my bites under the limit.
And also, you can exercise, so you can burn.
So if you go over the limit it's like oh, if I burn 15 bites, then I'm under the limit and I'm great.
But you only have a set amount of time every day you can do things.
So if you're just focusing on dieting and exercising, you don't walk the dog.
You can't do your laundry.
You don't have time to study.
You're not cleaning the bathroom, so your mom's pissed at you about that.
So I had a moment where I was so much trying to do all the bite stuff and the diet stuff that you do have to actually do your laundry in the game.
And there's a really kind of fun mini game with it.
But at one point there was like a little vignette where a bus drove by and splashed my character.
And so it's like, oh shit, my clothes are dirty now.
I need to change.
But because I hadn't done the laundry mini game that day, I didn't have any clean clothes.
So the mood meter goes down.
So it's just this like really really tremendous way of like, like it is on its surface, like fun mini games.
And it's, it's just kind of like a time management thing.
But as far as like, getting across um, you know the message of this game and like, as far as, like you know you don't really hear empathy games that much anymore.
It was a kind of a phrase that people threw around a lot.
I think this is like tremendous as far as that goes.
Awesome.
You do.
So you think it accomplishes the goal of like someone like you, who is somewhat familiar with these things but maybe can't necessarily immediately put yourself in those shoes.
Does it bridge that gap a little bit?
Yeah.
And, most importantly, you know, I asked Bianca.
I was like I mean, do you feel like this is effective?
And like, and she's like, this is so relatable.
Like, yes, absolutely.
So yeah, it seems to like absolutely be nailing the message and also the game aspect of what it's going for.
Yeah.
And I was almost expecting it, because it does seem made by people who have, who want to convey these things.
But I think it's one thing to convey it to someone who knows what they're going for and has experienced it.
Yeah.
But, like you know, it does sound like it even can reach out to people who have no frame of reference for this and maybe begin to help them understand it, which is really impressive.
Because yeah again, like so many mental illnesses, I think people that don't understand it or haven't experienced it like it is very hard to Like.
Bianca doesn't have anxiety.
So like I can explain what a panic attack is.
She's seen me have panic attacks.
She knows they're not fun.
But unless you have felt that you can't understand why it's like, It's like, oh hey, you're not going to die.
What's going on?
You know, it's like...
This is a great way to kind of let someone feel that a little bit you know, for as dire as video game news seems to be every single day that we report about it on this website.
I'm very happy that the indie game scene is able to pull off neat things like this.
Um and just other weird stories that, like you know, I talked about last week, can only really be pulled off in in video games.
Like on its face, baby steps is just a frumpy white dude in a onesie.
Uh, that's too dirty home.
He needs a shower.
But you're up to hear you talk about, like the deeper messages that you know you can, that are intentionally laid in there, that you can pull out.
Um uh, seem very it does.
Like you know, I'm not someone who's dealt with a lot of depression, but the game, clearly it's like such a good way of like understanding someone and like kind of what, what they have to overcome or or things like that.
I don't know if it's as good as as consume me, which consume me.
I swore you were saying consume me and i was like google consume me.
I'm like well, that's a lot of dead or alive yeah, which is a very different thing.
Compare it to baby steps.
I'm just seeing this from the chat so i can't like verify myself, but it says fun fact i love to bring up jenny the lead dev is a protege of benefit.
Oh, wow.
Okay.
That's hell yeah.
That rules.
Okay.
Very awesome.
From the Bennett Foddy Learning Tree.
I like that.
I like that.
That's a bright star.
Yes.
No.
Okay.
I was thinking about this where I...
Quick tangent to movies, but I watched Infinity Castle, the Demon Slayer movie, and it is obscenely long.
When it comes to digital, I'm going to download it and make my own edit, because if you were to show this to anyone, you couldn't parse out shit.
Um, and also Zenitsu's fight should be last.
And I think we can all agree on that, right?
Oh yeah.
We're right there with you, bud.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
It's a much more deeper interaction.
Uh, I do like Rengoku though anyway.
Uh, but I am so juiced because if this is the type of like visual assault that we're seeing in animated movies now with uh, infinity castle across the spider verse Mitchell's versus the machines, uh.
I'm so excited for, in 10 years, the fucking visual mayhem that we're going to get from like these weird kids growing up consuming this shit.
Oh, yeah.
Anyway, speaking about consuming things, this is a game that I think has quickly consumed a good chunk of the staff.
Hades 2.
Saw credits yesterday.
Nice.
I saw credits this weekend.
I beat it.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I you know I've talked about it more at length in the past, but I'll just say that now that I'm done with it and the last few weeks have been so Hades 2 and Megabonk heavy and I still am loving Megabonk and I'm still definitely, you know, knocking off, checking off all those boxes and stuff like that.
It is like I beat Hades and I had the thought that like Mega Bonk is a scoop of ice cream and Hades 2 is like a three-course meal.
They're both good.
You like eating both of them for sure, but Hades is just so much more layered in so many different ways.
Obviously, we've talked about the dialogue and everything, but just how different the runs can be and everything, and the fact that the first one, you do need to do a bunch of successful runs to see credits in this game and it does keep that interesting and fun and everything.
Knew this game was going to be good.
It's an absolute killer.
If you said it was the best roguelite of all time, I certainly wouldn't blanket that.
No.
Are you also feeling a pull to kind of keep going and getting the epilogue done?
Are you trying to use this as a break to check out some other games?
Because i feel like i should do that, but i also kind of keep want to play hades too.
It's the exact same approach i had to silk song, where it's like i got to the end of act two and it's like act three started and it's like, all right, i i do want to play this, because this is definitely one of my favorite games of the year, but it's like i feel like i've seen credits, i've seen an ending of this game for sure, like i'm going to focus on other stuff right now and then maybe i'll come back to it at some point.
Yeah, I feel like I kind of need to do that as well.
So many things.
I need to start tactics and I should be trying Trails in the Sky, but gosh, it's just so fun playing Hades 2.
And the first game did this too.
But it's just so smart how, when it starts to almost get kind of easy, it introduces that system where you can make the game harder through various ways that you can pick, and then you get rewards for doing that.
That unlocks more cool stuff.
So you're still, even this late in the game, even after rolling credits, constantly unlocking new things, constantly still getting new dialogue and new story beats and interesting things happening.
It's just insane how dense this game is.
But dense in a good way.
I think that's the most impressive thing.
Uh, is that is like you both you and dan now have touched on that where it's like it just keeps going and the three-course meal of like they just find ways to make everything still feel so worthwhile even though you are still doing these runs over and over again.
It's they could change things up on you.
It just feels like one of the most well thought out games ever made in terms of making sure the player feels like they're never wasting their time.
That starts right away.
I talked about that last week when we were talking about it.
To hear that that continues and there's new things to unlock and see and new systems that late, that is impressive stuff.
Right.
I mean, I still haven't actually completed a romance path or filled out an entire relationship thing.
There's still all of that.
Which god are you trying to fuck?
I feel like you guys aren't going to like these.
You both dislike them.
I like the mean lady with the short hair called babe.
You're not a fucking ghost, are you?
That's a MacGruber Mike also scary movie.
The lady fucks a ghost.
You're gonna fuck a ghost, Mike.
Dan Aykroyd fucked a ghost.
He got blown by a ghost.
But yeah, I mean out of you know sexual relations.
Sure depends on the meaning of his is.
Yeah, of course.
Yeah, the moro seems like a nice guy.
Huh, Good for you, Mike.
You know what?
Hey, do your thing, chicken wing.
I like the lady that's mean to me.
Me too.
Nemesis?
Yeah.
No, no, no.
Nemesis.
Nemesis.
Okay.
Nemesis went too far that one time when she was like, I at least knew my mother.
No, there's no coming back from that.
She doesn't even really apologize for it.
She can go get fucked.
Oh.
I'm a Selenium man.
I get it for sure.
Poor girls.
Can you fuck the moon?
Does Eris show up later?
Harry Carey line, isn't it?
I'm sorry, Grubb.
What did you say?
Does Eris show up later?
Which one's Eris?
She's short hair.
She's the one at the beginning of the game.
Oh, she's the worst.
She's the one who gives you the debuff in the beginning of the game.
Throws trash on the ground.
She sucks ass.
No, you know what, Mike?
I get it.
I get it.
I 100 understand it.
Yeah um, she calls me babe.
You know what?
Hey yeah, that's a cheat code for me as well.
Goddess of strife.
Yeah okay right, all right okay um, i get it.
Mike, did you encounter the person i was alluding to last week that had the cum gutters?
Um i i, i saw somebody with just a massive, i'll just say it, a massive penis bulge.
Yes, that's him.
Dressed like fucking, dressed and acting like Matt Riddle.
Yeah, I didn't notice.
I didn't notice the, I'm not going to call them the CGs.
I didn't notice the CGs as much as you.
I was distracted by his thong bulge.
It was insane.
I think he stuffed it.
You think he stuffed it?
I mean, it's just wild.
It's like he put a grapefruit in there.
Grapefruit?
Or maybe a gourd of some kind.
I don't know.
What are you even trying to say?
You put a grapefruit in there.
Jesus Christ.
Is it that spherical?
It is kind of spherical.
Okay.
All right.
All right.
Well, we talked a lot about Hades 2 and the replayability and unlocking everything.
I want to hear from y'all.
What is the loadout that y'all have been rolling with?
Or the builds that you're trying to... Yeah, I mean...
I generally will do the one that recommends that I switch things up.
Unless it's that axe.
I have not ever made that axe feel good.
That's like my number one.
So wait, give us some tips because I've been struggling with the axe too and I was surprised.
The axe, you do the scythe version, the aspect that turns it into a scythe, because that I think already has some.
Oh yeah yeah, yeah.
So you upgrade the scythe and the attack speed goes up.
So like the big downside of the axe is the swing speed, but it's got like good damage.
It's got this huge range of attack.
And so you focus on getting like, you know, the hammer upgrades and stuff like that.
It'll be like boost your attack speed.
And so and I barely use like sometimes I'll use the special for that one, like knockoff armor, but I put everything else into.
Like you know, you'll get crazy shit where it's like it'll attack in a 360 around you with the normal speed of a swipe.
It'll have a chance to swipe twice.
It's like, you can make that thing a fucking killer.
I did have a good run when I was doing the slash twice.
I got one where it was like slash twice and then also it might slash twice if you do a dash.
So it was actually slashing four times occasionally.
That was insane.
That was really cool.
I think my favorite has been the last one.
You get that just kind of turns you into an armored core robot with all the missiles.
You can just kind of run around spam your special or aiming at people.
I've gotten pretty strong with that.
The one where you and then the one you throw out the skulls i've had good luck with that and then also the wands.
That later in the game becomes pretty easy to just constantly have mana regen, so that that isn't a resource you're worrying about.
So you're just constantly shooting those out and spending the mana on that and you have, and if you have builds that reward you for using mana.
Like you know, if you get any of the selene stuff, that can become pretty powerful And I really didn't like those are the two I didn't like for most of my time with this game was the wands and the skulls.
And I barely ever, even when they were the glowy one, I didn't pick it.
And then, like yesterday, I was picking them a lot and it's like man, any weapon in this game you can kind of tweak it, like with those hammer upgrades.
I love when I'm going up because there's almost always a hammer there in that first half.
And so it's like, I go there first and it's like, I will just get something.
It's like, okay, great.
That makes this a very usable thing.
Or like, you know, the skulls, I didn't necessarily like picking up my ammo when it dropped it down.
So it's like all right, let me get the hammer upgrade that makes them automatically return to me, and a hundred percent faster.
And then it's just like I have this awesome range explodey thing that I used to like kill the main boss going up without even like using a death defiance.
Like.
So these things that I didn't like at all, it's like oh shit, you just get on the right run with them.
And like, they can be, That's the thing with the weapons.
The right run can make anything awesome.
You start getting a sense of what boons you're looking for, what upgrades, or even taking advantage of those items that make certain gods appear more often, because you're looking for something specific.
The bosses are just super good too.
No spoilers, but the third boss on the going up route, I love that fight.
That fight is so much fun.
There's parts of it that remind me of a World of Warcraft raid, with the way you have to dodge certain things.
Is it fire stuff?
Is that what you're thinking of?
Okay, yeah.
Where I'm like, middle, top, bottom.
I can literally hear my raid leader calling it out in my mind.
I was assigning numbers to be like, two, one, two, three.
Yeah, I would do the same thing.
If you like that kind of stuff, that's a lot of what WoW raiding is like.
Well, I didn't like that, so.
I want to recommend it for you then.
Kronos didn't seem like... I'm still pretty early on.
I got to Kronos once and got him the second phase and one-fifth of his health.
I was like, right there.
I'm like, that fight wasn't too bad.
I'm assuming he is an appetizer for what is really happening in this game.
Right.
And there's that yeah, because he thinking of him as like the final boss maybe isn't super correct, because you do have the up path, i will say that he seemed he definitely seemed easier than hades did the first time.
You got to the comparison i'm making.
I think you get to that point with chronos maybe because we're all a bit more trained on this now right, but you got there with hades eventually where that was kind of automatic.
He just knew what he did and you feel that with chronos.
But you know, i you get those things too that make each boss fight harder, and i'm kind of working my way through those right now too.
It's always really interesting to see the ways they do that.
Like you know, for the sirens it's very different.
They sing a different song, there's um different mechanics there, there's a different arena you're fighting them in.
So yeah, it's completely different encounter in a lot of ways.
Yeah i, i love the sirens and like the building lore in between runs uh i, i got fairly early.
They were like You're an agent, right.
Oh, my God.
Help us get a deal.
And then you meet them the next run.
They're like, you're not a fucking agent.
You lied to us.
It's so good.
It's so fucking good.
It's great characterization.
Amazing character.
My favorite depiction of Greek mythology stuff I've ever seen and they made a Disney movie about that shit.
Wow.
Okay.
That's saying something.
Yeah.
Heracles here.
Whew.
Doesn't need to show me any cum gutters.
I'm down for the ride.
Folks, we talked a lot about stuff.
Let's take a quick bricky break.
We'll finish off games talk, and then we'll talk about the news right after this.
Grub, I love podcasts, and I would like to listen to more of them.
Oh boy, I've got the podcast for you then, bud.
Stage Select.
But Grub, I have trust issues, especially with podcasters.
Look, it's always important to be careful and safe about podcasters, but don't worry.
Host Julian Titus and Justin Hamm have over 16 years of combined podcasting experience and the Stage Select is finishing up its second season at the end of the year.
Holy smokes, what a pedigree.
Tell me more grub.
Oh, what about a video game variety show where the hosts act as if they're performing for a live studio audience?
Kind of like the Muppet show.
Do they have reoccurring characters, shenanigans, bits and skits?
Oh, baby, we got bits.
We got skits.
I love bits and skits.
Is there more?
The show is designed to be unexpected, Jan.
They'll go to space, sometimes a surprise game show.
Expect the unexpected.
Space!
Grub, grub.
I'm hearing that episodes 41 and 59 are fantastic points to get a vibe of the show.
Julian and Justin are fiercely independent and do this for the love of video games and podcasts?
Oh yeah, they draw from the best, like the giant bomb cast Nexlander Rebel FM and no one can know about this.
Well, Grubb, I'm glad I know about this podcast.
That's stage select.
Give it a listen.
Bits and skits.
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We still got games to talk about.
I realize my channel is muted, but hey, we still got games.
So the truck, the train is moving along.
That's right, everybody.
No more distractions.
No more pausing for any other bits or any other business, unless it's related to Golf League, merchandise which you can find at storegiantbombcom.
Hey, you look great right now, but I know you would look even better in a Giant Bomb golf shirt and Giant Bomb golf hat not just available in green, like I'm wearing all sorts of fun colors.
You will be the main course on the golf course when you wear the Giant Bomb Golf Week apparel.
Storegiantbombcom.
Um, energy's like gone down since the first time.
It's still working for me now air's coming out of the balloon.
So yesterday i learned in in golf that there's like a beer cart girl.
Can i just go to a golf cart course and just like hang out and and encounter one, or do i have to play golf?
You can hang out at the 19th hole right the bar.
Yeah, what a lot of uh.
They're all uh legally obligated to be called that.
I've never seen one not called that.
A lot of local, at least here.
All the local golf courses have generally a pretty nice restaurant and bar and you can look out on the greens.
They're pretty.
Mike Minotti, I enjoy your business tactics, but you know what I enjoy more than that?
No.
Final fantasy tactics.
Somehow I didn't see where that was going.
That's right.
I'm trying to zig and I thought you were going to zag with me, but you like ziggy ziggy over there.
Jeff Grubb, you, it says on this list here, have peeped Final Fantasy Tactics.
The Evil East Chronicles.
Yeah, yeah.
I've started it.
I've done a handful of battles, and I think it's clicking for me.
I tell you what, it looks really nice, and that helps.
I think the presentation is very good.
I think it took me a second to get used to the camera, but once I realized you could just hit one of the shoulder buttons and it gives you a top-down view, and then that's not even a toggle.
It's just like a hold.
So you hold, you check down, make sure that you got everyone in your sight, you let go.
It goes back to the more cinematic isometric view.
That looks really pretty.
That like helped like unlock the game.
For me.
It's like okay, i'm not like struggling with this camera anymore, i could just quickly pop in, pop out and make my move.
Um, it's got a job system, which i, of course knew, but i love job systems in games and just like barely sort of scraping the surface of that, i'm already like oh, i'm good i'm, i'm super gonna get into this, Because I just can't wait to take these characters and build them out and give this one this job and then that next job.
And oh my God, I bet later on they're going to be able to take the things they learned and do some super special job, because I went down that path.
I'm like, ooh, that's my shit.
So it's hitting sort of the tone that I needed it to hit.
I think like I...
Remember Final Fantasy, Tactics Advance, maybe being getting going a little bit faster and getting me on board with the tactical gameplay, which is what I'm really here for, a little bit faster.
But it's not like this is some slouch.
And, you know, it's always been praised for its story and early on.
I think that's like, oh yeah, I'm getting this.
I get why people think this is high quality, and I can tell that there's some seeds here that if they deliver on them then yes, I will be right on board with everyone else who's super into what this game is doing on that front.
I don't know how many games allow you to work your way up to be a mime, but this is one of those.
Yeah, that rules.
Have you guys played Final Fantasy V?
That's where the Final Fantasy job system style was really perfected.
No, but you've talked to me about it before, and it sounded awesome.
It's so freaking good.
If you like this job system and tactics.
My understanding is that it's very similar to the one from Final Fantasy V.
Got it.
Okay.
I'm glad to hear you're enjoying your time with it, Grub.
I need someone to eventually tell me what the fucking Onion Knight is or was.
It's from Final Fantasy III is where Onion Knights first originated.
It was the name of the starter class in the original version of the game.
In subsequent remakes, it was almost kind of the ultimate class that you could get instead.
But yeah, it's a Final Fantasy III thing.
Original Final Fantasy III.
The one that was on the Famicom.
Ah, ah, ah, I see.
There's lots of layers to it, just like ogres, just like onions, just like a parfait.
And, just like Lego, Voyagers has lots and lots of layers.
Jeff Bacalar, you have been playing this, I'm assuming, with Dib.
Yes, but this is not a story about our time with that game, Jan.
This is a story about how we're not playing that game, Jan.
Oh, okay.
And this is a story how we're not playing Henry Halfhead.
Because I offer these items to my son as a gift, he doesn't know how good he fucking has it.
Getting to play all these goddamn games, like Schmorger's Board of whatever you could possibly conceive all of these free codes.
He he's playing FC 26 the week before it comes out.
Like it ain't no thing.
It's on believable.
And what does this kid want to play instead of Henry half head?
What does this kid want to play instead of Lego voyeurs which, by the way, we did play for two hours?
We played that for two hours.
We had a great time.
Stacy washed.
It was a family moment.
We did the thing.
It was really, really nice.
And we got to like a certain level where he was like Oh you know what dad, I'd really want to go back and play steal the brain rot on fortnight.
Oh, this is in fortnight.
Oh now my kids just started fortnight because of k-pop demon hunters and they've been asking for a brain rot game and i'm like i can't find one.
So now they have.
What does that mean?
What is a brain rot game?
Okay, that's just like.
The kids like like vernacular today they're vernacular like six, seven and all.
Okay, but listen okay, just keep saying things.
Well, most people know what they are.
It's not, it's not your fault, you're just poop.
I'm not googling that No, don't.
But at least not on my browser.
Listen, here's what it is, okay?
Steal the Brain Rot is very loosely adapted from the Roblox game Steal the Brain Rot.
Kind of like a copy of it.
Where you... So it's like a Fortnite, you know, custom game, right?
Where someone built this map area where you get onto a server and out an assembly line comes these quote-unquote brain rots that are just these like insane sort of, I don't know, for lack of a better comparison, amiibos. right it's trippy trophy there the shark in the sneakers there's like all the brain rot classics you've come to know and love all collected in one ridiculous fortnite experience and they come out and you can buy one and then it goes into your base and you collect all of these brain rots Then if there are more people on your server, you basically have to play this game of like fortress where you protect your brain rots.
You have to renew the lock on your base.
And if you allow your base to be unlocked, someone can steal your brain rot.
And that's what this game is.
It's very dumb.
It is very dumb.
It is very bad.
And where I'm really like.
You know where he and I are locking horns.
It's like dude, you play all these like really sort of I don't want to say cerebral, but certainly more engaging in a positive way.
Even Fortnite on its face, like with the strategy and the socializing.
He's getting the socializing with the brain rot shit, but like he's not.
This is not a game.
This is just very dumb.
And I'm like, dude, you got to just stop.
You got to stop.
There's no, like, currency.
There's no, like, V-Buck attachment.
The parents just don't understand.
He's not, like you know, draining the bank account, asking for 7000 V-Bucks just so he can get like a Tiki Tala, Miki Mala, you know whatever.
Is that a Tiki drink?
Yeah, I wish.
It just sucks.
Look, I get it.
He's 10.
He has the worst taste imaginable.
He is just a piece of shit in every sense of the word.
He has no understanding of what is good and what is bad.
No, this is true of every kid.
My kids love garbage.
I've said this for years.
They love trash.
100%.
Like you know.
I mean look, need i say more than the cyber truck right?
The thing that only 10 year old boys think is cool right, there's a reason.
So i get it and my, my patience only lasts so long with this stuff.
But did you get tongue tongue tongue, sahar?
Yeah, we got like 11 of them, and the more brain lots you get, the more your base gains a floor.
So he has like a five-story base with all of these brain rots that generate fake money and you collect all the money so you can buy more.
It's just like a collection thing.
It's a clicker?
It's a time-wasting collection sort of thing.
A lot of these games are basically like idle games with a little bit more going on.
The K-Pop Demon Hunters Tycoon game another Fortnite fan-made game my kids are playing is basically just an idle game.
I watched them.
I was like, what are you guys doing?
Because they had spent 10 minutes straight just punching a box that was spreading out money.
I can't judge.
I've played a lot of idle clicker games.
I get it.
I get it.
Right.
And I know just like most of this slop, it will pass.
Right.
Like, yes, the time is running out on this for sure.
I go, look like you're you play Fortnite.
You've been playing Rocket League and Fortnite for like five years.
Those are the things you come back to.
I promise you in six months you're going to be like, oh, right.
I did play that brain rock game years.
You're gonna have like a, a synapse spark and like wait, did i play that game?
And you're gonna try to find it and it's not gonna be anywhere because it's not worth preserving and shit like that.
Your brain will decide to delete it to make space for other stuff.
So you know, that's the henry henry halfhead.
He played for like two hours.
He loved it.
He's like this is great, this is so much fun.
I'm you know he it brought a lot of like the donut county, you know memories.
Yeah, he really loved And uh, I think that game's cute and very cool.
Uh, and Voyagers is, is great as well.
I just you know, I bring all of these up because he put them on a shelf.
To go back to this goddamn brain rock game.
And, um, if you're a parent, you probably know what it's about, but Holy shit.
I just can't wait till this, this one passes.
Cause this one hurts.
This one is, this one's, uh, scraping at my, uh, scraping at the wounds here a little bit. uh what do you guys back are you know uh jan mike dan what do you guys think tongue tongue tongue sahar is it i'm gonna say it i it feels racist in the mouth uh either racist mouthfeel yeah it definitely has racist mouthfeel and probably there could be something there um but well i mean it originated from indonesian malaysian culture so they're part of the brain rock community absolutely um it is a i think it's a piece of wood with arms and legs that carries a baseball bat Yeah, there's so many weird... It's weird how the Brain Rot stuff turned into statues.
These are characters.
Ballerina Cappuccino.
Yes, Ballerina Cappuccino.
There is a literal one that's a 6'7.
Yep, he's just walking around like i'm a six, i'm a seven.
Hey, how you doing?
You know i'm gonna go live in the woods, you do that's.
That's what they want, dan.
So you're, you're seeding this culture to them.
That's what they want.
Yeah, the old man to go away, i will.
Yeah it's, it's true, that is true.
Uh, i mean.
Look, i think it's mostly harmless.
I get it.
Just like you said grub, we were into pretty dumb shit.
No no no, Yes.
Your parents certainly never felt this way about the things you like.
My dad loved Ren and Stimpy.
My dad watched it with me.
Ren and Stimpy was fucking great.
And I love SpongeBob.
Yeah.
And fucking, you know, Gravity Falls is amazing.
There's a lot of good stuff there for sure.
There is.
Right.
Yeah.
Pogs.
Yeah.
I was about to say Pogs too.
Do not be Spurge Pogs.
I'll never be Smurge Pogs, baby.
If your memories of Pogs were deleted and Pogs showed up right now as only a thing Dib and kids like that were into, you would hate Pogs.
That seems like a fun thing to do at recess.
I will just say this.
For the vast majority of the brain rot shit is bad.
I do think 6-7 is not the worst.
I kind of, in a way, think it's all right.
It's so stupid that it's fun.
Yeah.
Right.
But here's the thing.
Rich in the chat was like, six, seven is no worse than WhatsApp.
And Rich is right.
Yeah.
Right.
No, that's the Budweiser commercial.
No, but I'm like, similarly, like, that's what we're all doing.
Right.
Yeah.
Yes.
Yes.
100%.
I mean, it is.
That's the truth.
So I get it.
Also, all the homophobic things we used to just say constantly in the schoolyard.
Right.
Yeah.
Yeah.
They're better about that now.
Yeah.
Well, I've heard some youth still saying certain words.
I'm like, sure.
Yeah.
The artwork, we got rid of that one.
And like, everyone's like, we miss it.
What the hell?
I mean, yeah.
Okay.
Well, it feels like the youth are in a completely different world, if not a completely different galaxy.
Just like Mike Minotti, you have been on a different galaxy by playing Super Mario Galaxy 2.
Yeah, I mean, it's one of the all-time great games, and it still is that.
And the graphical improvements are more than I was expecting.
The game looks very sharp most of the time.
Like, every once in a while, you'll see...
Captain Toad, and he kind of looks like a GameCube character suddenly.
Like his mouth is just a texture, you know, kind of a thing.
Like, oh, that part looks old.
But everything else actually still looks super spiffy.
The resolution is really sharp.
The colors are popping.
So the porting job, whatever they did, looks fantastic.
Just using the gyro controls is more than adequate instead of the pointer.
I haven't had an issue with it.
It was amazing when I was using the Pro Controller, and it works just about as well when I'm just doing the game in handheld mode.
Even when I'm doing the Yoshi stuff, you have to kind of aim somewhat precisely with that pointer while you're platforming.
I have not had a problem with that at all.
It is interesting playing this game because, like outside of the levels, I think a lot of the stuff just isn't as good as it is in galaxy one.
Uh, you know not that I come into a Mario game for story, but it's more like the presentation.
Like galaxy, one opens with this surprisingly epic and just sort of well-framed opening cut scene.
And here it's like, it's a story book with, you know, text and it's just feels cheaper.
Spaceship Mario isn't nearly as good of a hub world as the observatory from one.
Um, But the thing is, that stuff matters.
It doesn't matter that much.
Certainly not as much as level design and mechanics.
And Galaxy 2 is just so freaking amazing at that stuff.
The levels are all so freaking, interesting and fun, and constantly introducing new ideas and new themes.
It's just an absolute blast to jump through all of them.
The physics feel perfect.
When you have those weird gravity moments with little planet toys, you're jumping between them.
It's awesome.
Some of the best power up, probably like my favorite suite of power ups in any Mario game between the bee suit and the cloud suit, and like the rock rolling Mario and all that stuff.
And then Yoshi in this game, one of the best implementations of Yoshi that we've had.
Super fun.
So yeah, Galaxy 2 is still that game, and this seems like a fantastic kind of upgraded port of it.
I've had to stop myself because I have not played Galaxy 2 since I think it came out.
And I remember at the time thinking like, yeah, this is the best 3D platform of all time.
I think this is a little bit better than Galaxy, which was my previous best ever.
So I got like one star in this just to kind of like see how it looks and everything, to kind of whet the appetite.
And it's like, all right.
Maybe that's a holiday thing.
Maybe that's once I'm done with some other stuff.
I'm very, very excited to go back to that.
Same.
I'm happy to hear it controls so well.
Yeah, fantastic.
Chat says, interesting question, hey, is every mainline Mario game now on Switch?
And I think it might be.
Wait, is Sunshine on?
Okay.
It's in 3D All-Stars.
So, okay.
I know maybe you don't consider them.
I'll just do it real quick.
I know it.
It's 1, 2, 3, World, World 2, 64, Sunshine, Galaxy, Galaxy 2, Odyssey.
Yes.
All right.
Shut up.
Yeah, so 3D Land and Super Mario Land 2 aren't on there yet.
And yes, we also have 3D World, which is still the weirdest one Dan, that you don't consider that one.
Okay.
Did you see like the museum put up a wall with all the mainline Mario games and there's no Yoshi's Island?
How interesting.
Wait, did it say, what was the phrasing on it?
Send me a link.
I don't remember.
Weren't you the one that posted this, Dan?
I believe it said mainline only mainline Mario games.
No, I pointed out that Yoshi's Island was on the Yoshi wall.
Yeah, right.
Is that what you're referring to?
No, there's a new one.
I'll find it for you later.
But yeah, so whatever you want to call him.
Yeah, of the main of the 3D of the Mario platformer games, which somehow is in enough of a description to be mainline for Dan.
It's just Mario Land 2, which will be.
Is that somehow stoned?
I can't be right.
Is that not on NSO?
No, that has to be.
What am I saying?
I feel like it's gone.
Which one?
Land 2.
It is.
It is.
It's just 3D Land.
It's just 3D Land, actually, which I don't even know if they bother with that one, honestly.
I'm not sure if we get that one.
Oh, you're saying the Game Boy ones.
Those aren't mainline, but yeah.
Mike, you can just talk to me.
3D Land, I think they'll redo that at some point.
Because you can't just put that out in HD.
It would look fucking bad.
So they're going to have to give it some extra love.
You know, I'm sure it could get away without being 3D, but you got to kind of replace that with something.
I don't know.
Because the 3D stuff was important.
Yeah, but it's like they can figure something out there, but it looks pretty barren when you play on an emulator now.
So hopefully they do something there, but they'll do it at some point.
I forget.
In Galaxy 2, how many different suits and stuff does Mario get?
There's a lot.
I sometimes forget which ones were brand new for 2.
B was in the first one.
What about Cloud?
Was Cloud in the first one?
I think Cloud was just 2.
Cloud is the best.
Cloud is the best Mario costume we've ever had.
The way it looks and the mechanics of it are so freaking good.
I think Boulder Mario might have been new for 2.
I like Boulder Mario.
That sounds right.
You have fire.
You have ice as well.
You have the spring also.
You have that cherry that creates the copy of you.
That's great.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's all sorts of good stuff, guys.
Well, Mario continues to wear a bunch of different hats, but I'm more interested in the hat that you're wearing, Mike Minotti, because you have been celebrating Golf Week like no one else.
You're still wearing the Golf Week clothes that you can get at storegiantbombcom, but you have also been playing a couple other golf games that you'd like to talk about.
Yeah Josh, tomorrow to kick off week off.
I dug into a bunch of them, starting with Pebble Beach Golf.
Leaks on the Sega Saturn, which was originally a 3DO game.
And yeah, that's really the vibe here.
Don't think early 3D polygons.
Think, yeah, we're using digitized sprites and FMV cut-ins on some 3D levels.
But boy, the vibe is actually really neat.
It's Craig Stadler is this character who just keeps popping up and talking to you.
And he doesn't have a lot of charisma, which is why it's amazing whenever he's saying lines.
It's actually hilarious.
He has become my favorite golfer ever now.
I'm obsessed with the walrus.
And yes, that is his nickname.
But there is like this is actually a good game.
And I love that it is just Pebble Beach, this one renowned golf course.
And before every hole, they actually like show you a video of it with Craig Styler talking about it and literally like offering you actual advice on how you should play this hole, which you know applies to the game but would also apply if you're actually playing golf there.
This is the virtual highlight engine.
This is the virtual highlight engine.
So it's made for yeah, digitized sprites on 3d worlds.
The best is uh, i was, i caught a glimpse of it and it's like the shakiest fucking helicopter.
Yeah yeah, it goes over.
That's what i was saying yesterday.
Oh yeah, i didn't, i didn't hear that.
Uh no, that is so funny to me, like just these lengths of which they had to go to to just get an aerial shot of a single golf hole, where now it's just some pucks with a fucking drone that um yeah, the one thing i real struggling with was the power meter was just difficult to read.
It was in like five segments so it was hard to tell where 50 percent was really and i don't know.
It's just like i was constantly undershooting or overshooting.
You know, if i played it more, i'd get a feel for it.
Uh, This is a kind of golf game that could only have existed in this one two or three-year window there in the history of video game graphics.
So I'm glad we got it.
It was a fun treat.
But we actually got a couple indie developers reached out and wanted to help us celebrate Golf Week with some of their games.
So I checked those out on Mega Man last night.
You can catch that stream.
First one was called Golfin' It.
And this one is like... It's a little bit of that Game Boy Color Mario style...
Uh, one thing it reminded me of and I mean this, parentheses positive is like the flash golf games used to play in high school, right.
Oh yeah, sure.
Yeah.
I'm nostalgic for those.
Yeah.
It's easy to play on mouse and keyboards.
It's very fast paced.
You know classic golf stuff with.
You know click once for power, click again for accuracy.
There's some a few other extra things happening.
Uh, There's turtles on the golf course, and if you land near their radius they'll just sort of hit your ball.
So that could really mess you up.
There are portals and if you go in a portal, maybe it'll get you closer, but maybe it'll get you further away.
You can also buy upgrades with sort of the experience points you're going through playing.
Things like oh, you can use this ball one time that just won't bounce at all, or another ball that will always bounce in the direction of the pin.
So stuff like that.
Oh, cool.
Yeah.
So it's golf in it.
G-O-L-F-I-N-I-T-E.
Then also check out Super Video Golf.
Now, this is like what a Sega Saturn golf game would have looked like if it was like Virtua Golf, right?
Early 3D polygons kind of a thing.
It's like the golf game we didn't get then.
So I always loved that low-poly look.
So this has that in spades.
And then, again, just very classic golf mechanics on top of all of that.
It has everything you kind of want with, you know, again, classic swing controls, stuff like that.
It just, yeah, had a very good vibe, very good music.
It had a little bit of that Craig Statler energy, honestly.
It looked cool, yeah.
Yeah, you have the bad voice lines, right, with the low-quality audio.
So, yeah, it's Lo-Fi Video Golf.
Very cool vibe.
Super good.
Again, that's called Super Video Golf.
So another very good indie golf game to check out.
There's a lot of online stuff like online tournaments or play with people locally, things like that.
I did try that Beavis and Butthead mini golf game from 1998 to see if it would be worthy of golf week.
That game sucks.
It's so good.
Butthole's Ahoy, or what's it called?
It's like a bunghole in one.
That's right.
Are you sure it's bad?
The best thing about that game by far is the name.
It's a good name.
It's just like, what if mini golf was happening in the Beavis and Butthead world?
But Beavis and Butthead, you don't see them on the course.
It's one of those ones where you click on the ball, pull away from it and then it kind of flings forward.
I like that mechanic.
Okay.
But it's just such a bare-bones, basic nothing game that really isn't worth the time.
That's the new golf game I played.
I played some Neo Turf Masters and stuff like that before.
Everyone knows that rules.
Yeah, I checked out some of that stream.
Neo Turf Masters does rule.
I mean it's funny because it has some of that similar energy to Pebble Beach, which is a set of digitized actors.
It's mo-capped, really high-quality sprite work, I think.
It just still looks so freaking good.
The music is amazing.
That's probably my favorite golf game ever.
I love it.
It really holds up.
It's fantastic.
We are continuing the golf week celebrations.
And for those folks out there that may have heard the Game Informer ad that played during the break, we're going to go play against Game Informer tomorrow.
That's right.
I believe Dan and Grubb are going against the Vans.
That's right.
Van Allen and Van Aken.
We're going against them in everybody's golf, right is that's, that's the.
I think everybody's got hot shots.
I think van aiken might be traveling, but i've been talking to van allen about it and if he's not available, as long as there's one van, otherwise i'm out we will have a van and another game and former editor that we would go against.
All right, okay.
Okay, it's kind of funny.
I think it's about time to be undefeated against another outlet.
Yeah, let's do it.
All the other outlets out there, you're on watch.
Get on watch.
We're all coming for you.
That's right.
We're getting out of the cum gutters and we're going to go dominate in video games across the board.
Store.giantbomb.com We sell cum gutters?
No.
I was going to say I'm ready to party with Game Informer, but before that I want to hear about a party that we had last Friday.
Lego party.
Holy smokes, gang.
Imagine if a party game was good.
I do too.
I want to play it again real bad.
It's so fun.
Really badly.
This game was really fun, actually.
We played it and loved it.
And I told you that okay, the real test is going to be, Because Mario Party has always been a game that can appeal to people if they don't really play a lot of games or whatever.
You know, the types that like you play Mario Party twice a year at holidays or whatever.
And like, that's your thing.
It's Mario Party.
And for my sister, Katie, that is her game.
Like she would like, you know, play Mario Party with me and Kayla growing up and stuff.
But they've got to switch.
They don't play a whole lot.
Her husband plays some Call of Duty every once in a while.
Not really gamers by any stretch.
And I brought it up to them that night.
I was like hey, would you guys be up for changing it up a little bit tonight and playing this new Lego party game?
I don't really do Lego stuff.
Mario Party's our thing.
Let's just play that. uh they finished the first game absolutely loved it and we're like nice that is better than mario party can we do another game right now so yeah wow it's it is and i will say it it is it is better than mario party it's frustrating how much better it is like yeah they make 50 mario parties they couldn't have thought of a single one of the 100 improvements to the formula that lego party has introduced here it's just so much snappier i feel like on the outside where I'm at, like, yeah, we've been saying this for a long time.
So like go party.
No, just about how like piss poor of an experience Mario party is.
And yeah, I'm not going to go that all of these, all of these quality of life things that are like so simple and obvious.
Let me run down a few here of clear improvements and tweaks to Mario Party that I noticed.
And I've only played three games of it now, and there's maps I haven't played.
I want to play a lot more.
All right, so minigame placement determines turn order.
Yes.
Which is so smart because, let's say, it's a thing where me and Grub are both two or three spaces away from the golden brick, which is the star.
That adds so many stakes to the minigame itself.
Is that like, I need to win, so I roll first.
Holy shit.
Like, holy shit, that alone changes a lot.
That's incredible.
They've got these, you know, like the 2v2 stuff.
You know, it would happen in Mario Party if, you know, two were on blue and two were on red.
Here it's specific brick battle squares that you land on and it puts you in a 2v2 match and the winning team gets a golden brick each.
So immediate stakes on that.
So you get to a brick battle.
It randomly puts you.
It's like, all right, Jan, me and you, we got to get this.
There's a star on the line.
It's not just 10 bullshit coins or whatever.
It's like a real thing.
At the end of many games, this is a very minor one, but I appreciate it.
Like it'll show the score.
Let's say, you know, it's just something where you got to shoot X number or whatever.
The score shows up, but then, like in the waning seconds, like last five or 10 seconds, it fades away.
So there's that element of like one until it does the like, you know, the final thing.
That's awesome.
So the boards themselves shift, like the way they use Legos in this game is so fucking good because, like you'll do the theme park course.
And there's like the starting area and then like the central fountain thing that you go around.
But then when you go to the corners, you get to build one.
So you can build like the new land.
So it's like, do I want to do horror land, like a haunted house themed section of this board?
Or do I want to build extreme land?
And that's a whole different thing.
So each time you play even like the theme park world, that's going to be different.
It does like these risky free bricks.
You can get there where it's like.
Okay, I can go to the water park land and if I can climb up this whole thing and avoid all six of these you know water slide things that will send me down chutes and ladder style to the beginning I will get a free golden brick that I don't have to pay for.
I went to the extreme land and it was a totally different thing with the free brick where it's like It is a series, as you progress through it, of like you have to do, like okay, like a bike stunt or whatever.
And you have to like, it's a timing thing.
And then at the last one, you get a monster truck and the golden brick is inside a flaming like hoop.
And you have to like ramp the monster truck in.
And if you fuck up the timing, you don't get the golden brick.
It was all for not.
So that stuff is super good.
It is way snappier pacing.
Everything just moves along faster.
There are a couple shops, but it is not the constant fucking Mario Party thing.
I could roll eight and run into three shops and have to like, fucking shut up, Koopa.
I don't want to buy anything, you know?
Yeah, or just like the way like it does like a solo mini game where in Mario Party, it just stops.
You talk to NPC, it loads into a thing.
Here, it just all happens on the board.
As you're going along, your character just quickly looks at the mini game.
It's usually like one or two button presses, so it doesn't take forever.
And then you just move on with your turn.
It happens so fast.
That's a great point in Mario party.
It's happens a lot where you land on a solo one and okay, we're going to fade to the roulette to decide what single player game we do.
Okay.
Lands on this fade to the practice thing.
Okay.
And like, everyone's just watching.
Okay.
Fade to the actual thing.
And then you got to like pick your fucking glove item or whatever.
Fade back.
Like, it's just like so much bullshit.
And here yeah Mike, like you said, you can go to like an archery thing in the fantasy land or whatever.
And it's just like, okay, yeah.
Hit a twice to try to get the higher number and then move along.
Like, it's just so much snappier.
It's so much better, so demonstrably better, that Lego is inadvertently jeopardizing its licenses with Nintendo.
That is what's happening.
That is what's happening.
They said they're going to do a Switch 2 upgrade when they get dev kits.
Maybe they won't get dev kits.
Well, here's what they do, right?
They've done Lego Batman, Lego Star Wars, do Lego Mario Party Party.
That would be fucking awesome.
Give them the series.
Like seriously, they, Hey, the Lego Nintendo sets are fucking great.
I love those.
Um, it's cross play.
So, like my system, Katie and her husband can play on switch, while Kayla plays on PS five and I play on PC.
It's $40.
It's cheaper. like it focuses on that like all anyone wants to do in these fucking games is play the core board game mode and the recent mario parties outside of superstars was like a greatest hits it just packs it with all these fucking side modes no one gives a shit about where it's like oh me and jan are uh you know on a koopa delivery service thing and we got to fly around with motion flappy things to deliver toads or something like things you'll play once and be like what the fuck is this and like put the resources into making the fucking board game experience better.
And that's what this game is, is it's just the fucking board game experience.
And then you're getting player XP levels up.
You're getting a park, you know, like a board levels up and getting like fun.
Lego, minifig customizable stuff.
I made like before they all got in town, I made all of us like Lego minifig versions.
So it's fun to be able to just be a little versions, your Lego versions of yourselves.
If aliens came down tomorrow and said like we come to party, like I'm going to fucking Lego party way before Mario party.
It's just objectively fucking better.
You're not going to party rock?
Oh, you might need a party rock.
You're not going to party rock?
You're just going to go straight for it.
Yeah.
That's always a good joke.
It feels like NFL 2K.
So Nintendo's going to go out and get the exclusive license to party and not let them actually do this anymore.
The minigames themselves are so good, too.
They're all very intuitive.
They aren't too complicated.
None of them are super chance-based, which I came across.
It always feels like you're playing a game.
This is way more legit.
I jokingly said for so many years, Mario Party is a game of skill.
There's so much bullshit luck in there.
This is just like, there's no bullshit stars at the end.
I know you can turn this stuff off in Mario Party and everything, but there's always bullshit in Mario Party.
It's like, you just land on a block and you got a star for no reason.
This one, like you kind of earn your shit in this.
And some of these mini games, like Mike said, like very tall race.
I don't know if you'd like, it was the funniest fucking thing.
I don't know if you guys have played that one where you're on this like tall unicycle and you have to have like a race against each other.
And it's just like this incredible, like balancing game you have to do.
Museum Mayhem is this fun one where you like it's like a four square thing where you each have it's like a two by two grid and like everyone's guarding their own lego vase and there's like a big ball bouncing around and it's just very much that like kind of like uh, air hockey.
Have you ever done one of those like four player air hockey tables?
Yeah, it's like that, but it's like i'm trying to like knock this ball to break your vase behind you and everything.
Uh, there's a trivia game where you're like identifying lego versions of famous art.
So it's like a lego version of starry night and you're doing like a multiple choice thing on like what this thing is.
It's, it's cool, It's so fucking good.
I feel like when we played it at SGF, we're all just looking around like, this is really good.
What the hell?
Then we played it on Friday, had a blast.
Immediate winner.
This is our new thing?
They're buying it on Switch.
We need to play it again next week.
I know this is golf week, so I can make time, but I need to play this game again.
Yeah, we'll find a reason to do it.
I like definitely talking my brothers into getting it so I can play it with them more.
I just want to play more Lego Party.
Yeah, maybe.
I don't know if it changes based on what map you're on, but I did see there is a 24 turn option.
That was estimated at three hours.
Yeah, that's a party.
I honestly think that would be a lot of fun because there's so many things we didn't get to do because we didn't get to do any of those two versus two things because we didn't have enough time to land on that and those are so high stakes they're pretty rare like I want to see everything I haven't seen their version of chance time like on the left so chance time used to be a thing in Mario Party and that was the ultimate bullshit thing here it's just the last turn the shops are turned into like chance time squares in like that can change things right and even like the boo equivalent like the thieves they don't show up right away right it's the banana thief guys yeah they're just kind of like these banana dudes show up in speed boats like halfway through the game it was so cool we're like calling a bunch of fucking monkeys from an airplane to beat the shit out of you it's great maybe we should also invite uh another party aficionado to the lego party party yeah another sequel party i did did bianca like it Yes.
Really?
She actively despises Mario Party like a family thing.
And it's like we don't have the full group or whatever.
And it's like, listen, the kid is like 16 months old.
You're going to we need a fourth.
She's like, I will do it.
I will not enjoy this.
I will not like I will do the family thing.
But like she had fun with this one.
Wow.
I think this one can win over people that like actively hate Mario Party.
All right, it's really wild.
I did the ninjago uh level, which that is totally different than the uh theme park one where it's like you're going to these uh, you have these fights against these giant ninjago dragons and stuff with like timing based things where you get the shit out of them because they could get a brick.
I hope they can get, like you know, some of those classic lego lights and stuff involved, like when they did the mentions.
I would love it if there was like a back to the future level or a batman level, things like that.
Yeah, that'd be really cool.
Lego party devs, if you're out there, I know you have a lot of work because you're trying to get the Switch 2 up and running.
For me, for me, your friend Jan, can you add Bionicles?
Please.
You're going to have to pay for that one.
I'll do it.
I posted about this being better than Mario Party, and one of the devs did repost me saying this is the most professional validation I've ever had in my entire life.
I love it.
I love it.
Let's fucking go.
It's tremendous.
It's tremendous.
It's going to be my go-to and I hope they make 20 more of these.
Yep.
That may be the best news that I've heard all day.
Jeff Grubb, I challenge you to deliver some more.
No good news.
You kidding me?
Boop.
All right, let's do this.
Let's start here.
Did you guys see this thing that Nintendo dropped?
A weird video, a short film?
Nintendo post mysterious close-to-you animated short film this morning.
A Nintendo clip titled Close to You shows a baby chasing a floating pacifier around a bedroom.
It's like a 3D CGI animated thing.
Nintendo has offered no further details, simply posting the video with the title.
The video depicts a mother leaving her baby with a pacifier, after which the baby's toys begin moving on their own.
The pacifier then floats out of the baby's mouth, leading to the baby chasing it around the room.
The mother re-enters, seemingly surprised by the baby's first steps, because the baby got up to get the pacifier and hugs the baby.
A Nintendo logo appears, and the video ends without explanation.
Online speculation suggests the music is very similar to Pikmin.
You know what?
The first couple of notes of that song sound exactly like the Pikmin music, but then it goes in a different direction.
So it's like, are my ears playing a trick on me?
There is another moment in the trailer where the camera's focused on the baby and the baby's chasing some of its toys.
That's moving around maybe the pacifier.
And underneath its crib, a small blurry red object is moving that maybe could be a Pikmin.
Even if it is, what do you guys think this trailer is trying to accomplish here?
It's so weird because the- Not trailer, video, short film.
Yeah, I mean, that's why it looks like a CG short, like something from an Illumination or maybe a Pixel.
Yeah, it seems like something that would play before the Mario movie next year, yeah.
Right, like that is the like.
This doesn't look like anything Nintendo has done before.
But if I would initially think this is just related to you know, they have that Mario line of basically baby toys and baby stuff coming out.
Yeah.
But like, yeah, like the-
Quality of this seems surprisingly high, and nothing in here says Mario.
It's just this pacifier kind of moving around on its own.
Maybe there is a new Pikmin type that's an invisible Pikmin, and that's moving the pacifier around.
This doesn't look like Pikmin to me.
This is my first time.
I'm just watching right now.
The art style has nothing Pikmin-y about it.
Go to one minute and 39 seconds to see that thing moving out of the crib.
There's something there.
Oh, that is a tiny little.
That's intentional we doing.
It could be like the teaser for the Pikmin movie from illumination right, and it could be yeah, like that would be cool.
I think that would be my best guess, right?
I mean, even if it's like Pikmin shorts before the Mario movie that eventually leads to a Pikmin movie down the road.
Um, There are people.
There's some other speculation.
People think that that baby could be Rosalina because of her eye color.
And what else was written here?
Because of its mama storyline in the game.
I think that's a stretch, but I don't know.
I really don't know.
Okay, go ahead, Mike.
I mean, the baby's wearing blue, right?
Like that spacey blue like Rosalina.
And yeah, the blonde hair.
You know what?
I like this theory actually immediately, now that maybe there's a Luma over there or something like that.
I think this is a Rose.
Oh gosh.
Yeah.
The, the, the mobile has stars on it.
I actually immediately think that this is just related to the Mario galaxy movie and that this is a Rosalina origin.
Okay.
Okay.
Chat says, and again, it's just a chat thing, not verified here.
It says Miyamoto has said that Pikmin are always quote close to you in the world.
And the Pikmin bloom app says that humans can't see Pikmin.
Yeah, I was wondering if there was something like that.
Okay, so a lot of possibilities here, but this is weird.
It's weird.
They don't do this.
I like this.
I like this.
This feels like a weird Kojima tease of just like, yeah, Moby Dick Studios.
What's this fucking thing?
Yeah, it's very bizarre.
I like it.
All right.
I'm intrigued.
Yeah, Nintendo's name pops up.
I feel like if Illumination was very involved, they would have their credit on there.
I don't see... That would make it pretty obvious, though.
Yeah.
Nintendo did acquire a 3D video production team last.
They called it Nintendo Video in the last couple of years.
I don't know.
Either way, I'm fascinated by this.
Listen, if it's something new with Pikmin, even if it's a Pikmin movie, Pikmin show, anything I will be very excited.
I love Pikmin, and I'll take it.
I would love a new Pikmin game, though.
They should just make the Pikmin into minions.
Yeah, I mean honestly, if they're going to work on Illumination, just have the Minion team do a Pikmin movie.
I bet that would be a lot of fun.
Don't ruin Pikmin.
Pikmin were doing that shtick long before the Minions existed.
Pikmin didn't have a shtick.
They were pure.
They're very honest.
All right.
Months after delay, Bungie's Marathon is returning to testing.
Bungie's Shooter Marathon is set to return to closed beta testing between October 22nd and October 27th, nearly four months after its initial delay.
This NDA protected playtest aims to evaluate improvements made since the alpha does feel like and they say it's like a big, important checkpoint.
Feels like this is going to be the moment where it's like okay, can we actually release this game by March?
And it'll all be decided by how people respond to it now.
Let me ask you guys, any interest into seeing how Marathon looks at this point?
Or is this one of those ones where like, I'll just wait till it's out?
I mean, it's an academic interest because...
You know, we've heard pretty quickly that people didn't like Marathon when it was last testing.
And that seemed to kind of, you know, put the game in this weird place.
I'm just curious if I don't think I'm going to like the game almost no matter what I tried it.
I think I just don't like extraction shooters, actually.
Who knows?
But there are a lot of people who do.
And I'm curious if this wins over more of them, if this does find some positivity, or if this marathon is going to continue to sort of drown in this negative space that's been occupying for so long now.
Yep.
Yeah, we've talked a bunch about Marathon, so there's not much else to say here.
But you know that is a game that apparently they still want to get out by March, by the end of the fiscal year.
If it doesn't make that window?
If this goes poorly again, do you think it could be as bad as pulling the plug on it?
Like they can't, right?
They can't.
I feel like they can't.
I think you're right.
I feel like they can't.
I don't know, though.
I don't know.
Metal Hellsinger Studio closed as part of Funcom Cuts.
Funcom has closed The Outsiders, the developer of Metal Hellsinger, as part of company-wide layoffs.
Founder David Goldfarb shouts out to David Goldfarb, he's a cool dude announced the closure, noting that the studio, acquired by Funcom three years prior, had survived a previous near-death experience that led to the creation of Metal Hellsinger.
He says there was a lot of camaraderie there at the studio.
They're going to try to, like, do something to maybe save the essence of the studio.
I didn't fully follow what he meant, but it sounds like they're going to try to continue in some way, whether that's like building a new team off to the side with a lot of the same people, or not.
We'll see.
I never played Metal Hellsinger.
It seemed like the right idea.
Yeah, it seemed like a... It was good.
Try an idea, do something different from everyone else, and stand out.
And they did that, and it seemed like a lot of people did actually pick up on it and enjoy it.
The game was well-reviewed so yeah, that's a shame.
I i bet though, it's like okay, we reached a certain level of success and we want to see this level of success just get out of here, and that's the story of gaming right now.
Uh, red dead redemption 2's ps5, xbox series and switch 2 versions are still happening.
That's according to nate the hate.
Um, That sounds about right to me, because Red Dead Redemption 2 on PS4 and Xbox One, that version is the version that you could still get on modern consoles, and then it's still locked to 30 frames per second.
So it's like, yeah, they will probably unleash that game in some new way here pretty soon.
Probably just with an update.
But yeah, then they release it on Switch 2, which is a 2018 game.
That will make sense.
I don't know if i'm gonna replay it here.
If i replay that game, i'll try it on pc with some mods um, but yeah, i they're gonna have grand theft auto 6 next year, so do you think this comes out like much sooner than that?
It's like it's not distract from it.
Maybe a january, february thing that would.
Yeah, that would make sense, because the game still continues to sell pretty well actually yes, even still.
So yeah, these updates will give it some juice.
Uh, you know, they definitely can use some performance boost.
Yeah, I'm really curious to see how this game looks on Switch too.
Because sometimes it's just a matter of how much work you put into it.
And we've seen with, like the GTA trilogy, sometimes even a company's biggest take-two just won't put that much work into it.
So I hope they do a good job here.
Yep.
Mina the Hollower delayed.
Yacht Club Games has announced a delay for Mina the Hollower.
This is the Shovel Knight team.
They were going to release this game on Halloween, October 31st.
They are now releasing it on unspecified date.
They've not given a date, but they did say that they will tell everybody the date once they submit the game to platform.
So they're trying to suggest here, like it is in a quote unquote, indefinite delay, in that it's not being defined, but it's not like oh, we're taking this thing down and we don't know when we're going to put it back out.
They just want to make sure that it's really finished, really polished, and actually submit it to platforms ready to go.
And then they'll talk about it again.
So we're probably talking about A month or two.
Probably still before the end of this year.
I hope so.
I have it in fancy.
I'm sure they want to hit Halloween.
It's a fitting release date for a game that has some spooky vibes like this.
But it can also probably add pressure to feel like you have to hit this date.
And maybe you're rushing through certain things that you'd rather take your time on and make sure are really good.
We've seen a lot of games now.
Soak Song, Hades 2 the biggest indie games you can imagine.
They don't tell you their release date until it's like a week or two out, until they're super certain on that stuff anymore.
It's what just happened with power wash simulator they're just like a couple weeks from now.
I think that's the path now, like i think they're all like why bother setting up a release date uh that we that we might miss, probably will miss these days?
Let's uh, just wait until we really know because yeah, they announced this date a bit ago, so it's a bit of a bummer, but it's probably the right thing for this game, almost certainly.
Yeah, now that you guys talked that out, it's like, oh yeah, that's probably exactly what these other companies did.
They submitted it to platforms, got the approval, and it's like, oh, okay, now we know.
Two weeks from now, this game's coming out.
So yeah, we'll probably get exactly the same thing with Mina.
Uh, last week after the show, xbox raised the price of game pass.
A game pass ultimate will now cost 30 a month instead of 20 a month.
There's a whole bunch of caveats.
It's going to be double the price in some territories.
It's going to be uh, it's not going to have all the features that it once had.
On like the middle tier, you no longer get call of duty eventually added to the library, but whatever, the big highlight here is everything's getting more expensive.
Uh, they are no longer trying to find new users, they're trying to make more money from the same users.
Uh, There seemed like a rush to cancel this thing.
I said I would.
I still have not.
I need to do that because I'm just not using this at all, really.
This is overall part of, hey, what's going on with Xbox?
How serious are they about anything that's not Call of Duty or Minecraft or a handful of other things?
And it feels like they got to justify what all the money they've spent.
And that comes back to we need to increase prices.
And of course, there's tariffs and all these other things.
But I don't know.
Other companies are finding creative ways or working hard to keep prices down.
Microsoft does not seem interested in doing that.
How are we feeling about Game Pass?
It's rough at that price.
Game Pass had a pretty good year when it comes to releases, even though Microsoft themselves don't have much.
I mean, Game Pass had Expedition 33.
They had Silksong.
They had a lot of the biggest games this year.
Feels like it should be able to ride this momentum.
It just feels like, well, maybe it's never going to work out then.
They didn't just go from 20 to 5 or 20 to 25.
They went from 20 to 30, a huge 50% increase.
It's almost insulting that they would just immediately jump at that high.
They get so clear and naked that they are just going after that 10 of their fan base.
That will show up, no matter what they do.
They are hurting that brand so bad right now.
Even some of the normies in my life are like, boy, Xbox is done, huh?
That's becoming the narrative.
It just feels like they are spiraling out of control.
And even in an industry that has a pretty short memory with these things, right?
We've seen other brands be at low points and then climb to new heights again.
It's so hard to imagine how Xbox gets out of this quagmire.
But the thing is...
Go ahead, Jen.
Well, just real quick.
But the thing is it doesn't feel like they're making any active or positive steps to get out of the quagmire.
It's not like they switched to their sandwich?
Well, come on, Blake.
Store.giantbomb.com, everybody.
Is that the name of the thing?
That is one of the clubs.
Sandwich is a club, yes.
The Open Face Club, the Sand Wedge.
Oh, yeah.
Open Face Club Sand Wedge.
Just real quick with every new thing.
I see anyone from Xbox saying it's beyond sweeping the problem under the rug, because the rug is just full of coffee stains and poop.
It's like taking a shit on the rug.
Exactly.
Yeah, they're actively doing it.
And, like, what are y'all even thinking about doing?
Scout, I know you're worked up as well.
It's a shit rug.
A shrug.
That's right.
That's what a shit rug is called.
I think what happened is they had a bunch of ideas to try.
They tried them all.
And the whole time there's someone kind of behind them being like hey, when's this thing going to really start popping off and making real money?
And they're like, well, once we really get Game Pass going.
Starfields are going to be our big hit.
Once we have Starfield yes, once this happens and then all these things happened.
Nothing really changed.
I'm not saying these things weren't successful or people didn't like them.
A lot of that stuff did happen.
But as far as the people standing behind Phil Spencer were concerned, this thing is not really changing its stripes at all.
It is still kind of the business it has always been.
And even though it's growing, it's not growing the way that we're seeing some spaces grow, like AI.
Right.
And so they tried everything and they are basically out of excuses and now they have to sort of give in and turn into the thing that the people standing behind them wanted it to be, which is pump out only the most popular things going forward cut a lot of costs, cut a lot of studios that aren't making Call of Duty, and we'll just kind of go from there.
So it's like yeah, it is kind of shitting the bed because they don't have any choices left in front of them really.
And a lot of that is just the way that the industry is growing and not growing and not selling a lot of consoles, whatever.
Uh, they should have more answers to this and they just don't.
I remember when, like don't you remember right when, when this really started to take shape in a way where everyone was like whoa, this seems like the greatest value in games right, the question was always how can they continue to do this forever?
That was the conversation when, when game pass really presented the most compelling case was holy shit, there's no way this makes sense financially.
What's the end game?
I'll gladly pay you now for this, because it seems like i'm getting a tremendous deal and you're the ones getting fucked over.
Um, i guess this, but like so to me with with that uh, you know, information not left leaving my mind.
I'm not surprised right, like well because yeah, the other, the other shoe dropped right, it's like yeah, the whole idea is corner the market at the lower price, get everyone on on the board of this idea and then eventually you raise the price because everyone's like well, this is how i play games right oh, and that's like i worked for netflix and amazon prime and all these other things, sure it just it didn't get big enough, like like those other ones did.
Well oh, and the miscalculation being, there was never a you know, the opportunity to like parlay this into.
You know dot, dot dot profit question mark was never realized in a meaningful way, Right?
And that's the shoe dropping.
Yeah.
I feel like back then it was either like this is going to change the industry forever and how we buy games and play games, or this is too good to be true.
And this is, it's going to be on borrowed time.
So even if it like is making a profit, which they claim often that it does, I you know, I think that is a fancy math.
A lot of times like they aren't like really taking into consideration all the things that go into the cost of running something like this.
But even if it is, it is, it is clearly not grown the way that they wanted it to.
There was that year that Phil Spencer and Satya Nadella both had their bonuses tied to game pass growth.
Neither of them got those bonuses.
They were expecting me.
I know poor guys.
Uh, they were expecting huge numbers and, and it stalled out at around 30 million subscribers.
And you compare that to Disney plus Netflix, uh, maybe even Paramount Plus.
It's probably not all that great.
And so it's like they want that growth.
That's what they're looking for.
The growth stopped, even if it's profitable, which again, we don't know, but they say it is.
But even if it is, it's not growing.
That just told the whole story right there.
They're like, okay, so now we're getting bored with this.
Let's change our direction.
And Here we are.
And so what happens to this old business model now?
That's no longer the shiny new thing it is.
We got to sort of raise prices because we just need to make more money from it.
And they're putting in Ubisoft Plus Classics, which everyone's been clamoring for.
Please give us our Ubisoft Plus Classics is what the kids on the street are saying.
And they put in Fortnite...
Crew?
Is that what it's called?
Fortnite Crew?
Yeah, the Battle Pass thing, or get V-Bucks and stuff like that.
And yeah, for people who play Fortnite, you're going to be able to do some math.
You'll be like, oh, I'll get these games, and I get Fortnite Crew.
Maybe I'll play a Ubisoft game.
Some people are going to be able to justify it, but most people, I think, are just going to see 30 and say I'm out of here.
And we're not done, right?
The price doesn't stop here.
It's going to be $40 a month in a couple of years.
I thought they'd do like $2.50 per increase, right?
Small 5% increases here or there.
A 50% increase in one go is bananas.
And it says, oh, we can just keep going up from here.
Like $50 a month is probably not off the table within the next 10 years for this thing.
And maybe that's longer than really it will take for them to get there.
Uh, and then meanwhile, because of all this, there's a lot of like bad vibes around the xbox brand.
Some rumors began to spread that they are they are kind of changing their plans for doing a full-on xbox next gen thing.
Uh, there's been some back and forth about this.
Xbox did come out and point out hey, we have a deal with amd to make a system on a chip for our next hardware we are going to we're still in this now what exactly does that look like?
Is it going to look a lot like a traditional xbox?
Well, the rumors for a long time have been no, it's going to be a pc.
Basically, it has some windows os version on it that makes it feel like a console.
I to me that i think that's still their focus is make windows based xboxes and change up the strategy in that way.
Um, but they claim that they're still making xboxes going forward.
I, i mean, we've talked about that a bunch of times, but i don't know what do you guys even want or expect from the next xbox?
I don't want anything.
Yeah, I can't imagine what they could possibly do to make it exciting anymore.
Yeah, I mean, I don't know.
I think they are a bit at a crossroads where it's like the time to... Yeah, I don't know.
I always Maybe this is just an antiquated way to think anymore of the combining of their PC lane with the idea of owning a console, where it's like maybe Xbox is just an idea, let alone a thing you can turn on and off.
I don't know, but it's certainly especially as we end this generation.
Having this kind of negative momentum is not setting them up for anything.
All right.
Xbox is dedicated handheld.
Meanwhile, that thing that was rumored a long time ago, separate from the Asus, Roger ally, Xbox X, whatever the fuck it's called.
This is separate from that.
There was rumors about why that was canceled.
And it's because apparently AMD was like, hey, we'll make you this chip.
You have to guarantee you'll buy 10 million of them.
Yeah.
And Xbox was like, oh, well, you know, the Steam Deck's only sold 5 million.
We're afraid to commit to that.
Now, Jess Gordon's come out and said that the story's not true.
He didn't say exactly what part of the story's not true, although I imagine it's this thing right here where it's like AMD demanded 10 million chips.
That sounds not right to me, because AMD has definitely made fewer chips for that for people before.
But maybe something about this requires so much effort that i don't know.
I mean frankly, why wouldn't they just use something off the shelf like everything else?
Does steam deck a, the roger ally?
Just use one of those and build your os on top of that.
None of that really sounds right to me.
But whatever, for some reason xbox did put their handheld, their dedicated handheld, on hold, which again says to me they're going to focus on the os.
We'll see.
Um, that roger, is that thing out out yet or is it about to be?
Uh.
And then, last thing here, still xbox, virtuos is currently working on a remake of halo combat evolved.
According to a rumor, this is the team that that did metal gear solid delta.
Um, they did something else recently.
Oh, they did, uh oblivion with xbox, and it sounds like they're going to do something similar here, where they're going to take the underlying tech of halo combat evolved and then take the unreal engine 5 and apply that visual polish on top of that, and virtuos has some experience with that.
So uh, it's not not necessarily what i'm craving for, but but um, i think you know this does give them a chance to maybe buy halo some time, reintroduce it to people who might not be on board with that and put it down on playstation and switch and sort of say hey, maybe do you care about Halo?
Should we do another one of these, a new one of these, and put it out everywhere?
But I don't know.
It just really feels like Halo's time has passed, but maybe I'm wrong.
I mean, it could always bounce back.
Boy, they can't mess this one up, though.
This thing has to come out and be...
Pretty pristine if they want to repair Halo's image.
And that Oblivion remake was pretty good but it was very heavy and it was not running great on a lot of platforms.
And I don't think people are going to tolerate that again.
Now, this should be an easier ask.
This isn't some giant open world game like Oblivion is.
It has open areas for sure.
But yeah, they gotta nail this one.
It can't look weird.
It can't run weird.
It's gotta basically be Halo 1, but much prettier.
It's gotta have all the multiplayer stuff people want.
The gunplay needs to feel just right.
It sounds like a safe thing to do, yet also a difficult ask.
And that does it for the news.
Jan, the show is back over to you.
Grub, can I posit a question to you?
Please.
What if they made Halo a roguelite?
I mean, that's a good idea.
That'd be fun, man.
Yeah, let's do it.
You know what else is a good idea?
Everything should be a roguelite.
Yeah, I fully agree with you.
What sounds like a great idea is taking a quick coffee break and then we'll be back with emails and super chats and who knows what else we'll be back with.
We'll see you on the other side.
Rub, it's okay.
Just look at it, okay?
It's fine.
Wait, Dan, what are you doing here?
Oh, like existentially, or what do you mean?
No, Dan, like here at Giant Bomb, covering games.
Oh, what I do for a living.
Okay, well...
I'm here because of Game Informer.
That's right.
Way back in 1993, I saw Game Informer magazine and subscribed for the first time.
And it has been a huge part of my life ever since, from you know, working the register at Funkoland and selling subscriptions to starting working there full time in 2009.
Game Informer has been there for me the whole time.
They mean a ton to me.
So it hurt me, just like I know it hurt a lot of you, when the unexpected news came down not too long ago that Game Informer was shutting down.
But nay, fear not, I say.
That's right.
Game Informer is back and with 100% of the staff that was there when it shut down.
Now, Danny boy, I see that you're holding a magazine right there.
Tell me about how that page feels.
I'm telling you, I have held hundreds upon hundreds of Game Informer magazines from 1993 to today, and this is without a doubt the best.
I'm feeling this right now.
This is a smooth cover.
This is a thick, nice paper here.
The print is just good.
This is a wonderful quality print magazine.
It makes my heart feel good.
And I know that Game Informer is a team that I can rely on to say something substantial about games and the people who make them, because GI has a stellar crew of editors.
These are people I love to have on the couch at Giant Bomb at night over at Summer Game Fest.
It's people I can always rely to have something interesting to say.
That's why I know when they have those excellent cover stories just like they always did and always will continue to do so It's going to be some of the best coverage in video games.
And another fun bonus, Game Informer donates 5% of every subscription purchased directly to St.
Jude Children's Research Hospital.
You know, earlier this year, the future seemed very uncertain for both Game Informer and Giant Bomb.
That's putting it mildly.
And as someone whose life and gaming hobby has been greatly impacted by both of those outlets, I am thrilled that we are both back and doing our thing online and your podcast apps, and in print in your hand.
That is right.
Gaming news reviews, everything in between, sent straight to your mailbox every month to subscribe.
Go to game informercom slash subscribe now.
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Buy Miracle Whip at your local grocery store and get your tang on, Iowa.
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Nothing like Emails and a little coffee break to re-energize you.
Sometimes a coffee break is just shaking it out, you know?
Bombcastthegiantbomb.com is the email address to send your emails to.
You can write in about any and everything.
I keep saying this every week, but it becomes more and more true.
We're getting lots of emails.
I love it.
Thank you for sending your emails in.
Bombcastthegiantbomb.com.
Write in about any and everything.
We'll try and read as many.
There's not enough about Mike.
It's about time he got some attention.
Yeah.
We talked about this on the dump truck.
We're getting too many calls about Mike.
You know what?
I'll take it.
It's fine.
He's selling hats.
He's selling shirts.
I'll take it.
Three to the four to the five to the putt.
Today is make or break.
Can you make the cut and go to Giant Bomb store?
Store.giantbomb.com and get yourself a new Giant Bomb golf hat or Giant Bomb...
Golf shirt to celebrate the greatest week of all time.
Did he write that for you?
Merchmaster Mitch?
Disney thing?
What is this?
I don't know.
Are you mad at you?
That's Pandemonium's song cut from quotes from Craig Statler in Pebble Beach Golf Links.
Let's just do this whole segment again.
Thank you, Jan. emails first email comes from David from St.
Charles, Illinois.
Hey dudes, every now and then I ask myself dumb questions that asking out loud would likely get dumb looks.
I routinely ask myself what do other people do when with their other arm, when brushing their teeth?
The reason I ask is because sometimes I notice myself clenching a fist for the entire duration, sometimes just passively scratching or sometimes just dangling.
Most everyone else likely has never thought about this, but I'm curious what others say.
Charles, i think i dangle.
Yeah, just like you know.
Hang it, i know what i do.
What do you do?
Yeah phone yeah no no, that's only when i'm pissing at a urinal in public jan um no i uh, i just i have like my four, it's like straightened out up against the counter, just sort of like i make it straight, kind of like working it out a little bit.
Okay, hands on the sink, you know, like straight down, like support yourself, or yeah, i'm just kind of like lean into it, give it a little stretchy poo.
I'm gonna brush my teeth and figure this out.
Is there something efficient he does be doing?
Just, he could have just pretended to do it.
He didn't have to.
Let's just in the stream before he gets back, we clean like, or clean the uh sink bowl as we're brushing.
Yeah i, sometimes i do.
I walk around and do other stuff too.
Yeah yeah, i'll clean the mirror a little bit while it's happening.
Yeah yeah yeah, maybe trim an eyebrow, pluck a couple.
I can't do that with the lefty, no way, that'd be bad.
Jan, when he comes back, just tell him we moved on, and whatever he has to say is irrelevant.
Yeah, we don't care.
I mean, we're gonna have to.
We're not gonna wait for him to come back, of course.
Do you think he's out there right now brushing his teeth instead of bringing it over here?
No, I think he's doing it there because he wants to know.
Oh okay well, Next email comes from Kyle, from Sorry, we moved on.
We moved on.
No, no.
It was interesting.
It was so interesting.
No.
No.
We told Sean to cut that email from the...
I'm not going to now.
No, you don't deserve it now.
I had a revelation that you're not going to know now.
Oh, this sucks.
You're so weak.
I brushed my teeth.
What'd you do with it?
You're so bad.
What a sucker.
A sucker.
I'm not saying it.
Four, two, three, three to the four, to the four, to the five.
No amount of bullshit rapping is going to save you.
No, no, you're done.
Son, move on.
Move on.
Move on.
Move on.
Have yourselves a very little golf week.
God, thank you.
Get a hole in one.
Uncastedgiantball.com is the email address to send your emails to.
Kyle from Scotland writes in Hey gang in honor of golf week, which video game location would make the best golf course?
And which character would you want to be your caddy for a round of golf?
Thanks, Kyle.
Up.
Apparently, what, Walkabout Golf has a missed golf course.
I don't know how we missed that.
Monday mornings with missed block.
We weren't going to put you in VR.
You get dizzy.
Oh, that's VR?
Yeah, you should play VR, Jeff.
I'm going to.
I'm going to get that set up.
Find the missed course.
That actually would be a great golf course.
That's like the right answer, I think.
I think Mallard Duck has the right answer and Green Hill Zone is like the perfect.
Oh, I like that.
Shadow Moses.
Shadow Moses.
Yeah, that'd be cool, right?
Sega did a tennis game.
Did they do a golf game with Sonic?
I don't think they did a golf game.
That would have been awesome.
Chad just says Breath of the Wild.
Jesus.
There's a golf mini game in there.
120 holes.
Yeah.
E1M1 from Doom.
There's funny answers for this.
Yeah, I like these.
Yeah.
The Spencer Mansion.
That makes no sense.
Putt-Putt, though.
Resident Evil would be more Putt-Putt fitting.
Yeah, that'd be good.
Silent Hill for golf.
Resident Evil for Putt-Putt.
The big crocodile fish thing comes out and bites your ball.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Oh, they should actually make a Resident Evil mini-golf spin-off, actually.
That'd be great.
That'd be cool.
I'd love that.
Silent Hill would be challenging because it would just be nothing but fog all the time.
Yeah.
No visibility.
Isn't it weird that Silent Hill is so fog-based and we didn't have a Silent Hill game on the N64, the most foggy console of all time?
It's surprising.
I think about that a lot.
I think about it all the time.
Keeps me up at night.
My tooth-brushing thing is going to be like what Bill Murray said to Scarlett Johansson in Lost in Translation up on that level there's gonna be like.
There's gonna be like essays about whatever you could tell anyone.
I don't care, you can never tell mike.
I'm not gonna tell anyone, that's okay, that's fine.
I'm just saying definitely not mike.
No, I'll ask Bonk.
Are you over it, Mike, or no?
No, he's not.
Did your brothers fuck with you?
Oh, yeah.
Man, if you were my younger brother, I would just be going to town every day.
Not as much as others.
Chris, my younger brother, did it the most.
Really?
The youngest?
Oh, yeah.
He teased me relentlessly.
You're not the youngest?
He's the middle.
That's not how it's supposed to work.
I'm aware.
How it's like needs the most attention and stuff like that.
What a huge, what a huge win for your youngest brother.
Chris.
All right.
Tom from London writes in.
Hi guys.
I decided, rather than keeping up with all the excellent game releases in 2025 Silksong, Hades 2, et cetera.
I'm going to save a ghost of Yotei for the holiday break at the end of the year.
Feels like a good holiday game.
Do any of you have any memorable holiday games, or are you saving any games for the holiday break?
Cheers, Tom from London.
First Metroid Prime was, I remember it was that Christmas.
I got the Platinum GameCube and Metroid Prime bundle, and it was like, oh, that was perfect.
That's a good one.
I can't think of anything specific.
I could see myself really digging into Yotai.
That is the one.
During the holiday break perhaps um, but gosh yeah, i i can't like distinguish in my mind like when was that when i sat down to play this game a lot?
When was it?
I remember the one year on thanksgiving i spent a lot of it just watching d space nine, but video game wise i don't know.
Yeah, I've told the one about Donkey Kong Country Thanksgiving a bunch.
So this year I will... Someone mentioned Super Mario Galaxy 2, saving that for the holiday.
I think I might do that as well.
That sounds real good this year.
Like, okay, get some time off.
Maybe the Thanksgiving break even, although I'll probably still be catching up on games at that point.
So probably Christmas.
Indiana Jones was a good holiday game from last year for me.
Yeah, that was great.
I really like that.
And like Metroid Prime 4 is kind of coming out in that slot this year, so that could be that for sure.
That could be real good, yeah.
Okay, a couple more emails here.
Caleb, from London as well, writes in Dear Bombcast.
Ex-Manchester United legend Wayne Rooney recently attributed the team's success, including winning the Premier League, to the SOCOM PSP game.
Yeah, this is because during travel, the team would play the game together, which he felt enhanced their communication and teamwork in a way which improved results on the pitch.
My question is have you ever heard any other celebrity who have attributed any of their success to video games, and do you personally feel there are games which developed a skill which was useful or relevant to you outside of video games?
Keep up the fantastic work, caleb.
There was that NASCAR driver recently who, like did some trick where he like grinded the wall and then he was like yeah, I learned that in the GameCube NASCAR game.
Surprise, it worked.
Yeah, and he was not going to make the playoff or something.
And then because he did that, he went up like seven spots and made the playoffs.
It really worked.
It's crazy.
And then they banned the move because it worked too well.
It was kind of super dangerous.
Isn't that what the Gran Turismo movie is trying to say?
Pretty much.
The Gran Turismo movie is like a true story about a guy who was good in Gran Turismo and won a competition to become a real race car driver and then became a really good race car driver.
I guess.
I don't know how true that is.
But...
I want to still do this business of.
There's an important thing in all sports footwork of being able to move your feet around and be able to like kind of like move like without like thinking about it too much, and kind of being fast on your toes.
And there is nothing better for practicing that.
And I don't think they've ever like there's no one in sports that has actually realized this.
DDR.
Getting good at ddr would make a quarterback better.
Like running backs like kind of like really any sport, i bet being able to fastly or quickly shift your weight from one side to the other uh, without without really thinking.
Uh, i think that would be like one of those things where you could like run like a uh oh, i'm gonna help little lingers get better at baseball or whatever, and charge parents way too much money just to play ddr and be like yeah yeah, just play that.
I know what i'm talking about.
Um, so yeah, i think that could really work.
I think it doesn't always translate, but I do think sports games obviously not the skill of the sport, but understanding the broad strokes of the game and strategy I think is helpful.
You know, like...
You know there's a lot like right now, with the age that Dee plays hockey at.
You've got a lot of kids who like, clearly watch a lot of hockey and kids who clearly don't.
So there is a lot of positioning there that I think, you know, makes a lot of sense.
But yeah, I don't know, like actual...
You've heard it before.
Oh, yeah, for sure.
Or, like, this is the thing that kept me sane.
Cooperation, yeah.
Separate from, like, oh, I learned how to grind rails by playing Tony Hawk, right?
Of course.
I had a friend that, like, picked up the drums because of Rock Band.
Sure.
And he was, like, a pretty decent drummer.
Like, before, homie could not keep rhythm for shit.
Yeah.
I think for rock bands specifically, that's probably the only instrument you can really aside from keeping time.
Rocksmith, which is like actual guitars.
Right.
It's almost more like a guitar learning software than it is a game.
Right.
All right.
Last email of the show comes from Matt from Mesa.
Hey, big blamo boys.
You know that.
Oh, Dear Diner thermos that keeps selling out for Alan Wake 2.
What if?
Yeah, luchadier diner thermos, importantly not a mug, but it also holds coffee and it's a dumb video game.
Slash gb joke.
Cheers matt from mesa.
Yeah, thermoses are cool i got.
No, i have no issue with thermoses.
Everybody let it be known because they don't shatter on impact.
Is that why they don't shatter on impact?
Or through shipping?
Uh yes exactly, got one of those alan wake ones.
I want one also.
I got one from sgf when i saw the theater uh, demo of.
Actually they mailed it later.
So yeah, i do have one and it's very nice.
Oh, what the fuck?
Yeah, i would have sent it to you if i didn't like it.
Oh well, thank you for the thought.
At least mikey um folks, that does it for emails.
Mr manani, do we have any youtube super chats?
We absolutely do.
And since I need to kill time because I haven't pulled them up yet, let me remind you about Golf Week.
It's not just for us.
It's for you.
Store.giantbomb.com.
Golfing is the national pastime for whatever nation you reside in or whatever nation you decide to admire the most.
It will make you more virile.
It will make you more attractive.
It will increase your intelligence beams.
Which is what we call how brains work.
Go to store.giantbone.com.
Just buy a shirt and hat.
Please.
Please.
I'm begging you.
Buy it.
Please.
Please.
But please do not wear jeans on the golf course.
Please.
Please.
Whatever you do.
Is that really?
Dude.
Is that really taboo?
You can't wear jeans on the golf course?
You can do... Some courses have, like, rule.
It's whatever.
I'm just making fun of Mike.
Oh, okay.
But, like... Look, it's a sport.
Like, you know, you gotta fucking play sports in jeans.
That's another thing, you know?
It's definitely a sport, for sure.
But, like...
You know, golf is also a sport, right?
If you're without running, let's be clear.
Yeah, I mean, look, if you're walking the course, you'll feel it.
You don't want to be wearing jeans walking the course.
Even taking a cart, you don't want to wear jeans, man.
Jeans are too hot.
You got to wear something that breathes better.
Come on, of course.
No argument.
No serious person plays golf in jeans.
I'm just saying.
All right.
When I get into golf in about 15 years, I'll remember that.
Thank you.
I can't wait to play a round of golf with you, Mike.
It's going to be awesome.
It'll be great.
It'll be great.
And I know that you'll be doing it in your very own golf shirt from Giant Bombs.
Exactly.
At store.giantbomb.com.
Hexprof says, are you all going to play the golf games in UFO 50?
We may not have time.
We're not going to have the time.
It is wild how many golf games there are that are worth playing.
People brought up SimGolf, which I love.
I don't know how easy that is to play these days.
You know, what I want to do is like, maybe for one of these slots still uh, take biz Hawk and put a bunch of golf games in there and do.
Is that the one that does the randomizer?
Yes.
And I could like see like how many of them I could complete around in or whatever.
Cause I would love it for just, just like stop and shift right in the middle of a swing.
That'd be really funny.
Definitely.
I mean, you could set it to be like you know, whatever you know one second to one minute intervals, randomly.
Oh man.
All right.
Oh man.
I'll, I'll, I might look into that.
Oh, Greg says, what if Mike never takes that shirt off all week?
Yeah, look, after this one, it's probably going to get a wash.
You know, I got to make sure everybody knows.
But yeah, do you know?
All kidding aside, do you know if it's like a air dry only?
I feel like it might be one of those.
I don't think it's air dry.
No.
OK, I think I think it just goes in with a normal wash.
Yeah.
Hey, buy two shirts then.
Figure it out yourselves.
They're disposable, folks.
Buy five right now so that if you destroy it, it'll be clear.
Yeah, well, maybe check.
I put all the info there, but I think it's fine.
On the store, store.giantbomb.com.
How shaky talking about our bomb stunts.
Just know Mario Party hashtag never forget.
We'll probably have to do some Mario.
Well, that's the thing.
You brought this up as a question.
Now, like, do we play Mario Party because it's the tradition?
It's kind of funny how it's bullshit.
Or do we play Lego Party because it's better and more fun?
We could have an incentive and people can decide.
It's like a Metroid animals thing.
Yeah.
Is it a Lego party party or a Mario party party?
I like that.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's like the trolley problem.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Like we just have the incentive be the party party and then we have to run the thing once it passes.
Oh, both at the same time.
Yeah, someone ban him.
It won't be worth it.
I don't care what the number is.
Think about it, dan.
No no, don't let him think about it.
Super chats keep reading super chats.
Uh, ep idiot box says idea for extra life.
The main character, glove on a leash only, wears green key out her wardrobe and play noobs over her clothes oh my god.
And her entire apartment is green.
Oh my god.
That's insane.
There's a lot of green in that.
Yeah, both audio tracks be playing at the same time.
I was gonna say let's do the binaural audio.
You have love on a leash, like playing at a top channel and then writing okay, i might die, i'm writing some things down goals and incentives tab.
Okay, so we've got lego party, mario party simultaneous.
And what was the?
Okay, i don't know if we can green screen, maybe we just have two tvs going.
No, we would just have to edit it.
Yeah, i could do it.
Okay, i'll do it.
I'll do it on a noob noobs on a leash, noobs on a leash, uh.
And then we do what if we did spatial okay?
Okay, hear me out.
Spatial audio, the leash lounge, or love on a noobs leash, has to be in VR and then, wherever you look, is what you're listening to.
Oh okay, if you can make that happen.
And then in the leash lounge, if somebody has to do VR, they are not getting any controls, they can't do anything and it's max volume, not max volume.
Jesus, I've written these down.
Next up from Tyrant.
Everyone should have their own punishment room.
They should have to watch either Peppa Pig or Ben and Holly.
Speaking of bad lists, Pitchfork's 100 Rap LP.
Apparently, people weren't happy with that one.
This is fucking garbage.
Don't get me started on this one.
Oh, really?
Yeah.
Let me see what number one was real quick.
Maybe I'll see if I recognize it.
Number one.
Scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll.
Is... Is it ready to die?
Because it's wrong if it's not.
Mob Deep the Infamous from 1995.
Oh, wow.
Interesting.
That 6,000 says Topgolf has a Green Hills Zone course.
Oh, that makes sense.
Oh, they do have Sonic levels.
The Sonic thing, yeah.
Right, that's right.
They did do that, right.
And then Antonio Morales says do Golf Month instead of Golf Week penis.
Uh...
Boy, a whole month of golf.
Could it be done?
Everyone's tried it before.
In our hearts.
It can be if you order your own golf shirt and golf hat from store.giantbomb.com.
You can celebrate golf week the entire year long.
That's right.
Yeah, I mean, who knows?
We could fill out a whole month with golf and golf-related things.
People spell during golf, right?
We could do another spelling bee.
Why not?
Golf terms, right?
How do you spell Mulligan?
No one knows.
When I went to M-U-L-L-I-G-A-N.
It was not a challenge, Dan.
It was not a challenge.
Spell Craig Stadler.
C-R-A-I-G-S-T-A...
D or T?
D?
I think it's D. I think it's D. L-E-R?
I think Craig Stadler's a D. All right, Mikey.
Any more Super Chats or is that it?
That looks like it's... And I'll do a quick refresh here to make sure, but I think we're pretty good.
No, we're good.
We're good.
Thank you, everybody.
Thank you everyone for your emails.
Thank you everyone for your super chats.
Thank you everyone for celebrating golf week with us so far.
It's only day two.
Don't worry.
We got so much more golf headed to your eyeballs.
And speaking about eyeballs, all of the podcasts are now available in video form on Spotify.
Uh, if there is a another podcast platform that you choose and prefer uh, And that supports the video.
I'll go investigate.
We'll see it then.
Also, reminders from the tippy-toppity of the show.
You may be receiving an email.
Not from us.
But, you know, not today.
Not tomorrow.
Maybe the next couple weeks.
Just some important information about how to migrate everything over to the new site.
Once that gets going.
And speaking about a couple weeks, gang.
You didn't ask that at the tippy-top.
But in case you missed it.
In case you came late.
The giant bomb-a-thon returns to the East Coast.
We're headed back.
It's not just all five of us.
We got Chuck.
We got Turbo Sean as well coming out East Monday, October 27th.
We're going full 24 hours, baby.
We go from Monday to Tuesday.
We'll do a podcast in there.
I guess now there's going to be a noobs love on a leash lounge whole thing.
Um, but lots of fun shenanigans are planned.
Uh, we hope to see, uh, uh, and just, just, Hey, hang out with us for the whole time.
If you can, uh, we love you.
Anything else going on gang?
Blake club tomorrow.
Grub.
Did you send me a hat?
No, I didn't.
I forgot to do that.
Let me see if I can go and ship to you and have it delivered in one day.
Overnight Civil War hat?
Overnight Civil War hat.
I bet they have that, yeah.
Definitely.
Just go to Spirit.
That's true.
I was in one this weekend.
I could door dash it to you.
That'd be absurd.
That's so stupid.
That's irresponsible.
Right, right, right.
Like we mentioned, we're going to be going against Game Informer tomorrow in everybody's golf to continue the golf week shenanigans.
I'm going to go flip some coins after Blake Club, but no one has to worry their pretty little heads about that.
On Thursday, we're also going to be playing Nintendo Switch Sports Golf.
But then on the dump truck, we got our dear old friend, old friend, Jordan Olds joining us.
That's right.
Guarsinio Hall is on the pod this Thursday.
Friday, we're ending the week with some Mario Golf.
And then it's going to go golf with our friends.
Golf with friends, in fact.
Gang, I believe that is it.
Of course, Game Mess Morning is popping off Wednesday, Thursday, Friday.
That about does it for this week's episode of the Giant Bombcast.
I love you and I hope that you never forget that you can head to storegiantbombcom to not only buy any of this Golf Week merch, but anything else on there.
Mike, quick, quick, what else should they buy?
Yell!
That's right.
Goal!
He's been Mike.
That's when Craig stabs or he screams when he orgasms.
He's been Jack.
He's been Jack.
Go back.
Go shoot.
Start thatgiantbob.com.
I love goals.
Oh, my God.
I've been Chad.
We'll see you for another episode of the Giant Bobcast.
Goodbye.
Let's be real, Iowa.
Around here, deviled eggs aren't deviled eggs unless they're made with Miracle Whip.
Everyone from Council Bluffs to Davenport knows that tangy zip.
So here's to you for keeping it bold, keeping it zippy and keeping Miracle Whip in all your favorite recipes.
Buy now and get your tang on, Iowa.
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