Hey everybody, it's Tuesday, December 16th, 2025.
Welcome to the Giant Podcast.
It's my half birthday.
Episode 921.
We're coming to you from Main Gear HQ.
That's right.
We're getting ready to record Game of the Year podcast, but we couldn't leave you on a Tuesday all by yourself, so we're all here.
Joining me, as always, co-captain of the ship, Jeff Grubb.
I'm happy to be here.
Thanks, Jan.
Also, let's just go down the couch.
Tallest lad in the room.
He's ready to fuel up because he's got the canister right in front of him.
Turbo Sean, Sean McDowell.
I am here in full mind and body and not beleaguered from my trip at all.
Fantastic.
He took the train all the way up here.
He was about to just run, but we told him just get on the wheels on the steals.
That doesn't the Chuck.
Yeah, I'm not much of a runner.
I got them flat feet and I'm a big lad.
It's my first podcast.
Yeah.
Fantastic.
Fantastic.
Working injured today, folks.
He's such a trooper and a constant worker.
He'll go out with a smile on his face.
It wasn't injured about an hour ago.
But then that was before.
Do you want to describe what happened, Jan?
This table was not properly weighted.
And then the microphone that Jeff Bacalar is speaking into right now whacked Dan in the nuts.
Just fell over.
Slow motion.
Mike saw it, but from a distance.
He's like, Dan, watch out.
And there was nothing he could do.
Microphone just right in the nards.
So glad I got that workman's comp stuff figured out.
So if you have to file a claim.
No, no, no.
The nards are feeling okay.
The best part was Dan is like in pain.
And he was like, no, you can laugh.
It was really funny, but everyone was afraid to laugh.
I mean, if I saw that happen to one of you, I would want the permission to laugh.
Because it is just objectively the funniest thing.
We've got the bringer of all things bagel.
The Yeasty Boy himself.
Jeff Bacalar.
That's pretty good.
Thanks for that, Jan.
I try.
I try.
We're just keeping track of who gets injured the most.
I mean, Dan, you're running away with it.
Am I really?
I think so.
I mean, I've broken two bones in my life.
Well, I think while we've been here.
Since being here this trip.
You didn't get shot in the face once.
Shot in the face.
Oh.
Broken your finger.
I got shot in the face, broke fingers.
Mania, you said you needed to go to the hospital.
I almost had to go to the ER.
Holes in your face, holes in your head.
Yeah, microphone to the nerds.
You're falling apart, brother.
Look, the microphone had nothing to do with me.
He's taking a boat.
All right.
My nuts were just sitting there not bothering anyone.
Your nuts bounced back pretty fast.
You were feeling good not too long after that.
It fades after 10 minutes.
It's cold out.
Mike Minotti here has been inside for two hours and is still talking about how cold he is.
I'm not cold now.
I just keep talking about how I was cold.
He remembered it being cold and he was so deeply affected that he keeps talking about it.
Shouts out to Will running the ones and twos behind the scenes over there.
Thanks, Will.
And last but not least, last in town, the bird boy of games media.
The cold never bothered him anyway, except today.
Mike Minotti.
I think i have some information for everyone, because i'm i'm kind of getting.
I was the only one who saw the nut shot on dan and i'm realizing that uh, people don't know exactly everything that happened.
Um, jan hit the microphone and knocked it over.
Oh, that's why it fell on dan as i was repositioning the other microphones.
Wake up, dead man.
We caught you.
I'm just saying.
I never heard on.
I'm sorry, Dan.
Hey, Ghost Dog.
It was an accident.
I understand.
Thank you, Dan.
Thank you, Dan.
There we go.
I don't think I introduced myself.
I am Jan, Ghost Dog Ochoa.
And boys, this is going to be a very small, short ep because we got some pods to record today.
The first thing I want to talk about, though, how smooth was everyone's travel?
Oh, no problems.
God all time or bad travel day.
Sean and i definitely had it the worst.
We wound up at the same airport.
Uh, for several hours before we took off, everyone's flight got delayed.
Yes everybody, and it wasn't just the way like the weather was the thing keeping everyone back, but like i was on three different planes boarded when it got canceled for different reasons.
There was a weather one, there was one where, right before takeoff, the pilot was like I just hit my regulated minutes allotment a day.
We got to go back.
I'm not allowed to fly.
And then we had one where they're like, oops, we put you on the wrong plane.
There's crosswinds and this plane is too small for that.
So we got to swap you to a new plane, but we're going to take you off right away.
And then that one had to go back too.
So literally like an entire day spent at the airport.
Yeah.
I also had mechanical issues with mine where they were just like yeah, one of our radars just doesn't work and we need to get that sorted.
And we were just on the tarmac for like two hours.
It's negative three degrees in Wisconsin.
And they're like yeah, we need to turn the plane off for a little bit while we reboot the computers.
And then it all ended with.
Yeah, we need a road team to drive two hours here to fix the radar.
So then I had to get on a different flight.
That's how I end up in Minneapolis.
So everyone had a flight that wasn't just delayed.
Everyone had a flight that was canceled, right?
Yeah.
I had it the best, though, even though mine, like I got here last.
Mine was canceled well before I even would leave for the airport.
It's like, oh, you got to leave the next day.
So I was like, all right, I guess I'm going to stay home and sleep in my bed.
Yeah, mine got canceled on the way there.
I got on an earlier flight that was then delayed past when I would get there, and it worked out.
Sean and I got here, got to the Airbnb at 2.30 in the morning last night, and here we are.
I was sleeping like a baby already.
It was so warm down there at a space heater.
I made your bed, Sean.
I appreciate that, Sean.
It was all ready.
I could just flop down when I got in.
I stole the blankets for you.
I slept with the window open last night.
That's insane.
That's crazy.
So the Nest thermostat is on the top floor and then the bottom floors are frigid, no matter what happens up there.
So the heater was basically running all night at somewhere between 75 to 80, and for a long time it was 80.
I know they're cold down there.
I'm not going to turn it off, so I'll just open a window.
I made the pro move because I was thinking like, I'm really hungry.
So I hit the door dash on the way to the Uber.
And then I panicked a little bit that it was no longer in the front porch.
And then someone kindly brought it in.
I, like, Jan's here, and I open the door, and I'm like, ah, because it wasn't Jan.
It was a guy handing me McDonald's.
Importantly, it was Nuggies.
Of course, of course.
I still have not lost the taste.
Oh, yeah.
When we got in, I remember seeing, like, a six-pack of nuggets right there.
Yeah, it was ominous, Dan.
We just like there's one light on in the kitchen shining on this box of McNuggets and some mustard.
You know, like Looney Tunes or whatever, when there'd be a box with a stick and there's, like you know, a place.
I saw that, and I was like, someone's trying to trap me.
Yeah.
I should have left a note, because they gave me, like it was like a buy one, get one free and I didn't want that many nugs.
So I should have put a note.
I'm sorry.
It felt implied.
They were just coming in from a long day.
They were in a vulnerable state, so they didn't trust it.
You ordered more nugs?
Well, there was a 10, and then there was like hey, if you want an extra 10, we'll just give this to you for free.
Hey, can we door dash a bunch of those new rolled steak poblano quesadillas tonight?
I don't know why you're asking me this.
Because we're all at the Airbnb and I really want to try that thing and I'm on vacation mode, so I'm allowing myself.
It's good.
I'm not allowing myself at home anymore.
I know more fast food all the time.
I can't be having it, but when you're on a trip, you're on a vacation.
Health nut, Dan Reichert.
Calories don't count on vacation.
It's worse.
On vacation?
This is...
This is a very serious work trip.
Well, I mean a trip.
When you're away from home, you can just eat whatever you want.
I don't think that's the saying, actually.
I think calories definitely count on work trips.
No, scientifically they don't.
Hey, did you all know alcohol has a lot of calories?
Yeah, it fucking does.
It's liquid.
How is that possible?
Beats me, dog.
Uh anyway, i went over to the tgas shouts out to everyone that said hi, hung out for a bit.
Uh, i don't know if you'll know this barrett courtney from kind of funny.
Yeah, i fucks with him.
I still don't trust him.
It's because he brought his dad to dinner.
Huh yes yeah, i met his dad in cleveland yeah uh, but yeah, everyone had very nice things to say.
Thank you for congratulating, congratulating all of us on the independence also.
May i just say it was really weird for me, because i'm used to hanging out with you all all the time.
That was very weird uh, not hanging out with my uh, 40 year old dudes and that everyone is so young and constantly just wants to stay out.
I'm like, Okay.
Wow.
Yeah.
And then I was a little buzz ball fairy.
But the thing I want to talk about is at the game awards.
We're all at the hotel lobby.
Common thing.
And a...
A gentleman approaches me, very excited to see me.
And I assumed he was a community member of the website or he works in the industry.
And he was like, Jan, Jan, do you remember me?
I'm so-and-so.
And I remember him last year because him and his posse last year, very excited to see me.
And we're talking, we're catching up.
And I'm trying to remember now, and I was remembering that last year, He never said my name as Jan and he never said giant bomb.
And then he said something that made it click even further that I don't think he thinks he's talking to the right person, because he was like oh dude, like love everything you're working on.
Loved you on Mythbusters, Grant.
Close.
Love that you're staying booked and busy.
And then I was like, wait a minute.
Booked and busy is something you say to like an actor.
Yeah.
And I am not.
Yeah.
And then he was he asked me like, hey, like, I want to follow you on Instagram.
Like, I don't use Instagram that much.
Like, if I follow you there, we follow me back and we'll chat.
I'm like, OK, OK, sure, sure, sure, sure.
He pulls his phone out and goes to the search and then he starts typing.
Oh, yeah.
Young.
Yeah.
And for those of you who don't know, Yongye is the English voice actor for Kiryu in Yakuza.
Oh, I thought you were that guy.
Wow.
The YouTuber.
Oh, my God.
No.
He's the chipmunk man in God of War Ragnarok.
Yeah.
And then I tell him.
No, go ahead.
Hit follow.
Hit follow.
I'll follow you back.
That's the way.
But how was watching the Game Awards at home for y'all?
It was good.
Yeah, it was good.
Yeah.
Larian scarred us.
They made up.
Don't say us.
Don't say us.
Yeah, it was fun.
They did a Mega Man.
That was exciting.
I was very happy about Mega Man.
I saw the clip afterwards.
Yeah.
And there is a new Nice Old Republic kind of game.
So we got a fast track Joe tour.
Oh, yeah, that's true.
Yeah, we got to do that.
There's going to be a pod racing game.
Well, racing game and all the stars are here.
It's not just pot race.
We got land speeders and the bikes and Sebulba.
Hopefully all the vehicles from Star Wars Demolition on the PlayStation.
Oh, sure.
Yeah.
Well, they made that bad Boba Fett show where he rides a rancor just like in that game.
So maybe you just ride a rancor on this thing.
There are horses in that one movie.
Maybe you can ride a horse.
Oh, yeah.
Oh, The Last Jedi, the gambling planet?
Yeah, the space horse.
That was a bad part of that movie.
They ride those space horses on a Star Destroyer in Rise of Skywalker.
Which horses are you talking about?
Oh, that's right.
Man, that's weird.
There's two horses.
I blacked that movie out.
How about instead of that...
The thing that the other Gungan who was in charge of the Lieutenant Gungan was on Boss Nass?
No, no, no.
Or the mustache.
I know what you're talking about.
He's like on a chariot or whatever, right?
It sounds like an animal.
He's like, yeah, yeah.
I think it was an animal.
Oh, yeah, you're right.
One of those things.
It was weird because the animal also looked like a Gungan, kind of.
There's like some implications.
That's problematic.
There's nothing problematic about the Gungans.
Those are the Gungans we ride.
No.
Don't talk to them.
Contrary to popular belief, it was not me wooing whenever Cody Rhodes came up on stage during the Game Awards.
I'm never going to believe you, Channing.
Also, I understand people got to work during the show.
Homegirl next to me, brightest laptop screen, typing the whole show.
That's weird.
No.
And then I'm like they're trying to build some atmosphere and everything, especially with the Divinity trailer and presentation.
Meanwhile, just like giant bright white light.
Why don't you just turn down the brightness?
I don't get that.
Or if you're doing an article or posting or something, don't go to the show.
You're not going to get good Wi-Fi.
You can do this by watching the stream.
I've had to live that life before.
Yeah, it sucks.
It does suck.
I did it too, yeah.
Because like...
There was a time where I was like I want to go to the show and I know I have to work, but I want to be there.
There's something to it.
But after I did it a few times I very quickly was like I'm not going to the show if I have to write anymore.
But also based off of where I was sitting.
My assumption is if you wanted to work on the show, and also the seats cost money, right?
So why not get a cheaper seat and be less, I don't know, visible or in the way?
Also, that shit was loud, y'all.
Yeah.
I felt bad.
I should have told you to bring your plugs.
Did you pee at any point?
Yes.
And it took me a very long time to get back to you.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So it's weird though, because they have a whole separate long ass line for people to fill in as seat fillers.
Yet no one filled any seats around me.
Hmm no weird, like there was a whole section that was empty next to me that never got filled up or whatever one of that.
So I they didn't cut to the audience that frequently.
It never looked like there was empty seats.
I wonder if that just wasn't a camera Zone.
Yeah, I'm surprised they care that much about doing stuff like filling seats.
If they did, he takes it seriously.
Yeah, because that's what the Oscars do.
Did you meet Miss Piggy?
I was gonna say Mike oh, Despite all these wrestlers showing up and all these actors, the person I was most starstruck to see was Miss Piggy.
Even though she's banging Keely.
You know, I don't yuck anyone's yumps.
They're porking.
I'm impressed.
All right.
We're not going to talk about games today because we're going to be locked in this room talking about games for quite a while.
But Jeff, do you have any news?
I do.
Just real quick.
Mike, dispatch.
Yeah, it was good.
I like dispatch.
Yeah yeah, i was.
Uh, i really enjoyed it.
It was like, like i played like the first four episodes like okay, once a day i'll do an episode, then the last four episodes like i'm just gonna do all this right now.
Yeah nice, uh.
Yeah, i really again, that's not usually my style of game.
I think the dispatching was a bit more gameplay for me, like if it was just the dialogue options and the quick time events, that would not have been enough for me.
I would have enjoyed the story, but i really liked dispatching.
So yeah, did you like the hacking?
I do.
I'm a sicko for hacking.
Me too.
I liked it too.
You know the Pipe Dream thing in Bioshock everyone hates?
Oh, I loved it.
I just like the pipes.
I like to shoot Pipe Dream.
Yeah.
I'll watch Bioshock retrospectives today and people are like, now obviously the hacking is stupid.
Well, the hacking is cool because at a certain point, you can fight back against the traps that are laid for you.
I think that's a fun little spin on it.
It escalated very nicely.
Yeah, exactly. so complicated that you're gonna lose a hacking thing i think that's the great thing about the gameplay of dispatch is that they do escalate it and there's fun twists that you don't necessarily expect from it and the way that interweaves into the story and everything it makes it feel like more of a video game than some of those games have in the past and i i swear i'm not gonna do like every single did you do this or that but did anyone here kick sonar out uh yeah for sure yeah sonar sucks dude no no he's like he's a goofy little He's a crypto dude in a way.
That's like I like I like them a lot.
Yeah, I felt bad.
I kept lady Batman I Kept sonar.
Okay.
See, I like, I like to coop also.
I kind of, I kind of want to be like I don't think we should get anybody.
Actually, I think this is a stupid idea.
That was not enough.
Yeah The boss said cut someone.
Yeah, it's a corporation.
You got to do what it says.
You got to do what the hot blonde lady tells you to do.
I'm a yes man to the hot blonde lady.
That's right.
There you are.
All right, dog.
It's time to start the show.
Are you ready to go?
Yeah, dude.
I'm ready.
No, Grubb.
You look like you are in a den of inequity right now.
Uh, i i don't know what that means and i don't know what you want.
It's not like i have a home studio, jan.
Yes, you do.
The computers that maingear built for us have nvidia geforce rtx chippoos in them and with the nvidia studio drivers and nvidia broadcast, you can turn even your man cave into a professional studio.
Using broadcast, you can upgrade your webcams, microphones and speakers, using the power of machine learning, to take our shows, voice chats and video conferences to the next level.
You can use audio effects like noise removal.
Oh yeah, i guess i have the fan on.
Uh well, it's hot, i'm not gonna turn that off.
Let me just hit this right here.
Is that any better, Jan?
Much better.
We can clean up your shot with auto frame and video noise removal.
And Grub, you can even make it look like you are paying attention using the eye contact tool.
So I can still watch my stories?
Yes, yes you can.
NVIDIA Broadcast is a universal plugin that works with most live streaming voice chat and video conferencing apps.
It's supported on any NVIDIA GeForce RTX GPU.
And since I'm using the NVIDIA Studio drivers, I'll get stable, optimized performance in Adobe Photoshop DaVinci, Resolve and all the other apps that I need to use to fix our mistakes in post.
You know what?
Thank you to Bang Gear and NVIDIA for supplying our NVIDIA Studio PCs.
NVIDIA Broadcast, your AI-powered home studio and NVIDIA Studio, the software advantage for all creators.
Jan, I'm not even looking at the camera at all right now.
Grub, stop looking at me.
I haven't looked at you forever.
So the Game Awards happened.
Mike talked about a lot of the big ones already.
And if you want a full breakdown of what happened at the Game Awards, we're not doing it here.
We did that on Game S Mornings on Friday.
Go listen to that.
But there were a couple things since then.
I don't know if we mentioned it during the show.
We might have talked about it in the post-show, Mike.
The Mega Man trailer did have Proto Man's whistle in it, and that's got the people talking.
Literally?
Literally.
That's Proto Man's music.
Yes, literally.
I guess real quick, how are you feeling about that game right now, Mike?
I'm excited.
Again with that buildup, there's a part of me that thought that maybe this was going to be a little bit of a bigger swing than just another 2D Mega Man game.
Of course, that's when Mega Man has been his best for me.
I do like Legends, but I love classic Mega Man.
So just getting another one of those is still exciting.
I do hope there is a little bit something here.
Maybe that little something is two-player co-op.
Yeah uh, Mega Man and proto man.
Uh, and I like proto man's a character, a ton.
You can even do other characters.
You can do um uh, base or whatever else you want to do there.
You can bring, roll in, make her playable.
That would make the name make more sense, because Dual Override if they're just bringing back the Double Gear system, that doesn't seem like something they would emphasize too much.
I think Double Gear was good for XI, that one game.
I don't think you bring it back.
You do something else.
I also was watching some better comparisons of the XI and XII art style and graphics and I'm like okay yeah, this is a noticeable improvement, especially the Mega Man model, which was kind of lanky and weird-looking in XI.
XI is clearly the base, and then they just sort of really dialed it in for this new one.
Did you like the Maverick Hunter art style on PSP?
The PSP one?
I thought it was okay.
I think that game was good.
I mean, it's Mega Man X. I would never play Maverick Hunter again over just playing X at this point.
Mike, did you ever like the Mega Man Zero games?
Yeah.
Yeah, they're great.
Mega Man Zero 3 is a top tier Mega Man game.
Zero games are fantastic.
I like the ZX ones as well.
Should I play Legends?
I've never played Legends.
This is the content now.
Mega Man Legends.
Oh my god, Jan.
Alright, alright.
There's Mega Jan right there.
You've got like five shows queued up with your name in them.
Jan, do you know us about Legends?
No, my favorite game.
Oh yeah, so i'll all right, i'll do that with you.
Yeah, this will be fun.
There you go.
Beckler, were you gonna ask mike something?
Um yeah why, why is that?
Like the only game that said 2027?
That is funny, isn't it?
Yeah, it's hilarious.
Why why?
2027 is gonna be an anniversary for megaman.
Oh, that will be the 40th.
Yeah, and they want they have to have time to do their uh contest.
What people can write in?
Yes, oh yeah, you guys might have missed this.
Oh yeah wait, clear the space mike, your big announcement.
I did announce my eligibility and my entering the uh megaman design a robot master contest.
Uh, so that you're declaring yourself for the contest for this?
Exactly, that's right uh, because they used to do this back, they for like, nintendo power on the nes games, and they're doing it.
So I'm constantly thinking about it right now.
I mean, I am in the idea phase right now.
You're announcing your candidacy.
They did announce that they're doing this for real?
Okay.
I think by the end of the year, I have to design a robot master, submit it, and hope for the best.
I have an idea right now.
What if there was a stone man?
What if he was some kind of rock-based enemy and he was a rock man?
Oh, that's good.
Yeah.
They'll love that.
Mike, honestly, you should be like a music man.
They haven't done too many music ones, actually.
There might be something there.
Yeah, Piano Man.
Do Piano Man.
I still have to find that rejection letter I have.
Oh, no.
From Mega Man?
Yeah, because I was such a dumb idiot.
I guess I was like eight or something and I saw in Nintendo Power all the submissions and then I wrote back, which was probably like six months after they even did the thing, and I was like I forgot.
Here's mine!
Can you imagine?
They're like, stop printing the game!
Recall, recall, yeah.
And I got such a pity letter of like, oh, you sweet idiot.
Yeah, that's nice.
Handwritten?
No, it was typed, but it was definitely a person.
Who knows if I can even salvage that to find it, but it felt good to get Nintendo Stationery.
Do you still have it, you said?
I think it might be somewhere.
Before we move on from Capcom though, a little thing that I don't think was shown during the show at least I don't remember it because they announced Switch 2 version of Pragmata, and recently they announced Switch 2 version of RE9.
Both games are getting Amiibo?
And so Pragmata is getting Diana, which I guess that makes sense.
Is that the kid?
Yeah, yeah, the kid.
And then RE9 is getting, what's her face?
Ashcroft.
Oh, okay.
Grace Ashcroft.
Thank you.
Grace Ashcroft, Amiibo.
I'm like, Capcom is really the only ones outside of Nintendo supporting that at this point.
Can you believe people were trying to say that Pragmata was secretly a Mega Man game?
Yeah, you were out there on the front line trying to stop these people.
It's so stupid.
And now we have an actual Mega Man game, so of course they weren't doing that.
But people are just really trying to force things.
That's because it's a Battle Network game.
You're going to get the chips.
Because there's tiles in Pragmata.
Exactly, Jay.
Did anyone play that demo for Pragmata?
It looks like it was the same demo checked out earlier this year.
People seem to like it.
I like it a bunch.
I liked it.
The combat system, we don't need to get into it, but it seems really neat.
It's got just a little extra going on.
Keeps you on your toes.
A little bit of extra spice.
I haven't had the time to check it out, but I'm super excited when we get back.
I want to hear what you think.
Not to pivot too hard, but still Game Awards.
It does sound like Fade the Old Republic is not going to be coming out this decade.
That's literally the story that I was going to bring up.
So that was the rumor, and Casey Hudson came out and said, no, it's going to be out by 23rd.
Okay.
2030?
He started the studio in June, right?
Oh, geez.
Okay.
I know, but they're like.
He just came out and said it.
But you know, how much can you trust anyone who's making a game these days?
He has a great recent track record of Anthem.
He did.
His last game was Anthem, and he's not done anything since then.
And so that's like.
You know, when you talk to people in the industry, they're like Yeah, I mean, everyone just thinks of him as the Mass Effect and KOTOR guy, and fair enough, but he's not done much since Anthem.
We'll see.
It's possible this game does not come out.
Yeah.
It probably still comes out before the Quantic Dream one, Eclipse.
Oh, my God.
Oh, is that still a thing?
What was the one?
I thought we were going to see it.
That got canceled, right?
That got canceled a long time ago.
There were several.
There was the Amy Hennig one and the Jade Raymond one.
Did they both get canceled?
They both got canceled.
Jesus.
Making that Black Panther game that is still coming out just got delayed.
Right.
Didn't one of them get canceled?
One of them got canceled.
Yeah.
The Black Panther game got canceled.
She's making Captain America.
Yeah.
Okay.
So, all right.
The real game everyone's talking about coming out of the Game Awards. obviously is high guard uh that is it's getting shit on oh really remind me why was that last she's like oh wait they paid the most that's the thing i asked around a little bit and it's like maybe they paid but it is a team that's self-publishing and it's there's not like there's some 10 cent behind them that's like here's here's two million dollars who is making this like so it's former uh respawn respawn That's right.
So former Titanfall Apex people.
Yes.
And this looks like a Titanfall Apex with kind of a slight sci-fi fantasy.
I mean, you said it.
Immortals of Avium.
It looks a lot like that.
It's like Immortals of Avium mixed with Concord.
Oh, boy.
It's like to dislike ratio is 1 to 10.
It has one like for every 10 dislikes, which is very similar to the trailer that Concord had when everyone was like we don't want this.
Fuck you.
Wow.
That's rough.
This game's out January 26th.
Now, the difference is it is free to play as opposed to what Concord had.
That'll help.
So maybe it can get by on its own merits if it's really fun to play.
Oh, January 26th, like next month.
We're five weeks away.
It's a good pedigree, right?
Yes.
I've definitely come around to like, I feel bad now.
Oh, 100%.
I don't think anyone should celebrate the... The game's not for me.
I'm looking at the game.
I'm like, I'm not in the mood for these games that are just machines to extract value from us.
But, I should still play it first.
I'll play it first.
I think it's fair to have the reaction we had, because it's completely reasonable given the state of the state right.
Especially for one last thing.
It might be a costly telling.
This game has not come out yet.
Maybe it's going to be a big hit.
Yeah, 100%.
Yeah, but like, putting a game like this in that last slot is kind of setting it up for failure.
Exactly, everyone that's the one thing everyone's taken away is like it might have been a lot better had they not been the one last thing.
At least all the heat would not have been on.
Yeah, i also wonder, like what the editorial sort of like uh, you know, consideration of all that is too right where, like where keely, you know, is like oh, is this what we want?
And i wonder, i just wonder how all that went down like i mean, he might have been like kind of went over, like well, like you know, people made apex legends.
That was a big hit.
So yeah, maybe the game's out in five, six weeks at that.
Right, it's right, it's not like an early access thing, it's like out out, out okay.
I felt like no no, i think this would have not been a thing at all if that guy had a different haircut.
I don't know.
I think it's the character on the main character.
It is very like the coif and it's like really close on the sides and i'm like that that's very gin.
It's not a gen z sort of a youtuber, look yeah.
And if you're going for a fantasy sword and board type thing and then you slap that on there, I don't know.
It just felt wrong.
I feel like Keeley was trying to lean into the whole smaller teams, more independent stuff.
So do you think that was a decision to say hey, let's have this smaller teams game be our one last thing to try to say that we are also behind this.
I think it's kind of hard to see the forest for the trees when you are in that position of like.
We are doing a favor for this game that we all are, we believe in, we like.
I'm Jeff Keighley.
I saw this thing.
I live in L.A.
The studio's in L.A.
Let's do one for the homies and not think about like, what the expectations will mean for that game when the game is the one last thing.
Right.
Yeah.
It's so easy not to think about it.
It's just like boy, like Fate of the Old Republic.
Divinity would have done so much better in that slot.
I think the Leon reveal would have killed as, like, the last thing.
Yeah, that would have been fine, too.
There's Tomb Raider, right?
Yeah.
I think Tomb Raider could have closed out that show.
Yeah, Tomb Raider was great.
We knew it was coming, so maybe that wouldn't be exciting enough.
It's something nobody wants to see coming.
I think Fate would have been a great final one.
That lineage of games isn't necessarily my type of game so I didn't really pop off.
But everyone I've seen who saw that at the end is like Oh.
You know people clamor for that.
Exactly.
I'm clamoring for that.
There's no way with doing a game like a Knights of the Old Republic sequel and not ever deliver on the promise either.
It's about that moment, right?
It's about the moment, exactly.
It's why you announced the Shenmue 3 Kickstarter at the Sony thing.
It doesn't matter what the game was.
It doesn't matter.
Even if it's weird, that pop is like what it's all about.
Shout out to Super Eyepatch for marathoning that game, by the way.
Oh, my God.
Last thing that I think I'll probably bring up, Arcade 1-Up.
Sounds like they're closing.
They sent out letters to people being like hey, we're going away.
That means a couple things for some of these machines that have online connectivity.
Oh yeah uh, they're saying that they have uh, the i think they call it the poor man's matchmaking that a lot of indie games use, where it's like the game is able to keep track of the last 100 people that connected to the game, their ip addresses and they, like it just looks to see if one of those people is online, And so it's like it should continue to function even once it's offline.
The Infinity Table which I have and my kids really like, which is just a big tablet you sit down at.
It's a table and they made a bunch of games for it.
A lot of board games that are real board games you can play on here.
That one might be a little bit more of a question mark of, like what's going to happen to the services that provide those games?
Would I be able to like just get them all right now?
And we don't really know.
Are you specifically talking about the Code Mystics ones or, like just across the board, arcade one up.
Across the board.
Okay, because I did see Code Mystics chime in a little bit on this whole what's going on here and they said that their net code does allow direct peer-to-peer matchmaking.
It's just like the server makes it better.
Yes, the server improves it.
They will still have basically what every indie game has that still has matchmaking.
This does bum me out, though.
I like rk1 up, you know it it's.
It's a difficult business, it's expensive.
Few of us are gonna have one, if any of these, like i have my one miss pac-man one, and i liked having that and you know kids would come over, they would play on that.
It'd be a fun thing to turn on at parties.
You mess sometimes just put it on in demo mode.
Um, It's rough because I bet they had a hard time finding ones they hadn't done yet.
That couldn't survive that much.
They had all the main ones, I think.
But it was so cool.
Like man.
There was a company that just made a replica of Simpsons arcade machine you can have in your home.
You know, Marvel versus Capcom, too.
Before we had the collection, the fact that they did that.
Yeah, it was an avenue for these games that aren't getting published otherwise, because I know Grubb, you talked about this on some game this morning like because it's classified as a toy or something like that.
It's like it makes the licensing easier, or something.
So I think that's why we saw stuff like The Simpsons and stuff.
So it's a little sad to see that whole thing go down.
I hope this niche gets filled by something else.
I do like somebody making home arcade machines.
Hey, Analog.
Yeah, there you go, the analog arcade.
Yeah, the three thousand dollars god, it's gonna be so heavy.
I mean i wouldn't, i wouldn't hate like one that was like kind of uh, funded by the community, where it's like just slot in your analog pocket and it works.
Oh yeah yeah yeah, i don't know.
Yeah yeah, condolences to aj styles, who has like an entire arcade one-up room in his house.
Yeah yeah Yeah, I think that's going to do it for the news though, Jan.
Well, let's get to emails.
Bombcastgiantbomb.com is the email address.
Send your emails, too.
You can write in about any and everything.
I did put the call out that this was going to be an all emails special, and it's your fault at home.
It's your fault.
Wow.
I got a bunch.
I'm just kidding.
We're strapped for time.
First and last email of the show comes from Simon from Saskatchewan.
Dear Bombcast.
I was wondering what type of facial hair would look the best on each Giant Bomb member.
For example, Bacalar with a pencil mustache, or Sean with a soul patch.
No.
No.
Actually, hold up.
Ponytail and soul patch Sean would be awesome.
I think that would be powerful.
Too bad Mike is refusing to give us Merry Blightsmas.
Maybe Dan or Jerv can play some Rudolph for the Wii.
It's a Mario Party-like, if that helps.
Oh, God.
What?
Anyway, hope you guys have a good break.
Merry Christmas, you filthy animals.
Simon from Saskatchewan.
Thanks, Simon.
Thank you, Simon.
Pencil mustache.
I could see it so well.
You would have to dye it, though.
Yeah, exactly.
Which is beneath me.
Who would be best to have the kind of like Lemmy, AAA, you know, the like mutton chop thing?
It's Mike, right?
I guess.
I have too much double chin right now, though.
You fantasize about the Lemmy?
Yeah, I think the Lemmy looks cool.
It does on Lemmy.
I don't know if I can do it.
He's dead.
That's true.
That'll happen to you if you do it, so be careful.
I liked when I had the mustache.
Apparently, a lot of other people didn't.
I thought it was good.
I know.
You guys are all supportive, and I love that about you.
Thank you.
Not all of us were supportive.
I liked it.
You had just the mustache?
Yeah.
Oh, yeah.
It was not this extra life, but the one before that.
I got shaved to a mustache at 3 am and I liked it.
I got to see it.
I can't remember.
Then I got home and there were friends that were like Mike, you're going to ruin your life if you keep that.
They were so serious that if I kept it they would have taken it as a personal insult that I don't trust them.
But facial hair just comes right back.
It came back real fast.
If other people were more welcoming of it in my life, I would have accepted it.
I floated it out there.
I don't think my girlfriend would be into it.
Dan, I think if you had like a braid in your beard it'd be cool.
One braid down the beer.
Oh Yeah Man, I don't know.
You know, the more that I'm looking at Sean, I think he would look good with a soul patch.
Why?
And then he has to wear a beret.
Oh, yeah.
You're just trying to make me friends.
Viva la revolucion!
No, really, the soul patch would kill.
He grew out the chin a lot.
Yeah, I need to... Kind of a Rasputin.
Yeah.
Yeah, okay.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Not like a Dan where all the beard's coming out.
Just like the point of the chin.
Okay.
I do want to occasionally curl my mustache.
I let it get a little bit longer, and it's the weird awkward in-between face that's hard to survive.
I tried doing that once and then my barber shout out to Barbara Jan just came up to me and was like you're doing too much.
Because he was like, you can't do the pomp and a mustache.
Stop.
Mike and Jan have the best mustache ability, I think.
I can get enough to just kind of fill it in, but I can do the beard, but the mustache.
Yours comes in stronger than mine does, Greg.
You've got a pretty good mustache.
That looks about mine.
Okay, fair enough.
I wish I could grow a beard so bad.
Does it just not happen?
It's just patchy.
Oh, okay.
Yeah.
And then, like, it just looks embarrassing.
Yeah.
Anyway, that does it for emails.
Bombcastatjohnbomb.com is the email address.
Send your emails to... Boys, what do we got going on the rest of this week?
Nothing.
Nothing, actually.
Maybe something later in the week, but that might be more pre-recorded.
Jimmy Jam is because we are pre-recording, and we are here at Main Gear.
Shouts out to our homies here for letting us use the stew to get Game of the Year going.
Once again, that will be dropping Tuesday, Thursday, Tuesday, Thursday for the next two weeks.
That's right.
We've got three days of fun categories, and the fourth day we'll be crowning the top ten.
And ultimately...
Our game of the year.
Boys, happy to see you all in person.
Oh, yeah.
It's always good.
It's lovely.
Happy holidays, everybody.
Happy holidays, indeed.
Mike, what day of Hanukkah is it?
This is day two.
That's wrong.
Oh, wait.
When is this going out?
Tomorrow.
So last night was night one.
Today's day one.
And again, I think today is day one.
I wasn't trying to get you.
Oh, my Epcot guy did not go into that much detail.
I'm the worst person to answer this, but I do think today.
I know today's the second night, but it's the first day.
So we're lighting the third candle tonight.
Wrong.
No.
It's the second candle tonight.
Last night was the... No, no, no, no.
I'm counting the mother candle.
Well, that gets lit every night.
But, no, it stays lit.
Just like we do here at... Oh, yeah!
Yo, Stuck, you always know what to say.
We'll see you next week.
Website's up.
Website's up.
Real quick.
The forums are available on giantbomb.com.
You can go claim your account.
If you have your account transferred, you can go to loginformscom, put your email hit forgot password, reset your account and then you can join in the conversation there.
It's amazing.
Hundreds of people chatting on the forums.
In 2025, people talking on the forums.
We love to see it.
Oh, and you can write articles and get those published on the site.
Folks, we will technically not be seeing you next week.
We're going to be going on holiday break, but we've prepared all the game of the year podcast for you.
The thing I'd like everyone to do now is do the most impressive motion with your hands that Mike Minotti demonstrated for us.
Sorry, I got this microphone.
We'll see you next week.
I'm going to hit myself.
Time to leave.
All right.
Someone's hitting his nuts again.
I caught it.
I caught it.
