Castle Super Beast - CSB356: Mental Abacus Calculator Kid Required For Analogue Balatro

Episode Date: January 20, 2026

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Hey, hey. Hey, good afternoon. How are you doing, man? It's Monday. It is, it is. That's crazy. We're back to where we started. And even though this is just for this week, temporarily, you can be one of those people that can be like, oh, my God, it's now it's forever Mondays.

I mean, it could be. Like, I don't have anything going on on Tuesdays anymore. We can just switch it back if you want. It works out. It's fine. but ultimately I mean well

I just remember like you know two two in a row and it was it was permanent from then on you know what that reminds me of

that reminds me of if I if I if I like oh sorry guys something's come up on like a stream and like I cancel a day on like X game

and it hits two cancellations yes somebody's like why's it cancels it a third time why do you drop it never coming back

to it. And I used to get like really annoyed by that until I actually like looked at them there. Oh shit. They're super right. I got like that has actually been a hundred percent accurate every time. Okay. So that got weird because I remember hearing about that because people started showing up in my streams and thinking that that was the case on my end going, oh well, this is what happens over on Pat's side. So I just assumed and we're like, it's not the same. It's not the same. It's not the same. But yeah, like, I, there was, like, I think something didn't come back a week after I started it or something to that effect. And someone was like, oh, I just, I just thought it was dead because that's, you know.

It's dead. Bang. Like, can we, can we just, yeah. Anyway. All righty. All righty. How are we doing? What's going on?

Man, that Starry Valley is popular for a fucking reason. Holy shit. What's the number at? Um, the number of hours. I think it's 14. Okay. But those have been on camera. Mm-hmm. I'm just L-Ping started Fally now.

That's probably good. Yeah. That you've at least turned it into monetized time. Yes, I am enjoying the fact that I monetized it. Smart. Smart. This is good for your addictions. We're all, we're starting our new segment for Pat's cozy game streaming, Pat's Pastures this week. Oh, my God. With an introduction coming from quite.

Viking this Wednesday. Oh my God. Oh my God. Yeah. Right. Yeah. No, that's the way to do it. If you feel it in your blood and you can't resist. These cozy motherfuckers love that shit. If you know that you can't resist, find a way to monetize it. That makes sense. Sure. I also, I ran into this thing and it's, I don't know if this has ever happened to you. But like, I started playing Starter Valley. And I'm like, wow, I could just literally play this every second of the day, kind of like, eat it up forever, right? But I'm like, no, I'm doing, I'm doing streams and people want to see that. So I'm going to not touch Stardue Valley.

I'm going to leave it over there, right? So I'm like, is there a equivalent that I can waste my time with? And so you go down the thing of like, hey, I really got into this. I got into that. Is there anything that's similar to that? And the answer is there's an enormous, enormous amount of things. that are wildly, incredibly, almost litigiously similar to it, but none of them are as good. The one that got really big and the one that's the most popular is actually the best one.

And it would make sense because it's also had the most amount of money time patches and everything injected into it to ensure that quality over time. Yeah. So wherever it's... Everyone that comes close is not finished. It's in early access. Yeah. It might not have launched in a state that would beat all these current competitors, but it certainly would be there now.

And I bet you this applies to every genre king. You know? I got really into Street Fighter 6. Is there anything is... No, there isn't. Unless you like something completely different, you know? Unless you like something completely different. But yeah.

Yeah. know, and genre king evolution. It sucks to get in at the top. So it does it? Because the thing is, is I feel as if, like, it's the most streamlined your experience is going to be, providing that you then have everybody coming in going, here's the mods you get, here's this, is that, et cetera, here's the wiki.

But then I also imagine, too, that, like, at the top is where you get your, your different modes or your different levels of like, oh, don't worry about this, just go play this version instead. Or, you know, spend all your time on this other thing. You know, like, like, FF14 is a platform. Fortnite is a platform. I wouldn't be surprised if Stardue is also like that. What do you mean by Star Do is a platform? Like to jump off of? As in, no, no, as in like, I'm sure the amount of content in that game must be insane. It's a lot. It's a lot. At this point. a lot. Even, it's one of those things where you ever look up something in a game, you're like, I need to know of this detail about the minds, right? And every single noun on the page is like a blue link that you don't understand. Like, you don't even understand what it is. And you're like, I don't understand. How could there be all of these blue links for this fucking simple, I don't know. somebody in the chat pointed out that monster hunter is like that wow i got really in a monster hunter what else can you can play other fucking monster hunter games

there there are like 70 other hunting games they are all mediocre to some degree i think walking up to yugio i started to feel the blue link i like when she when shane was explaining it i felt the blue links in his his words. Yeah. You know. That was the most recent example.

You've got to protect your cones, Wully. Bog. I think, like, I think that, like, I'm, if I'm one really big card game addiction in my childhood from,

like, being all the way in on all of this. I just, it just never happened, though, you know? I, like,

even when I, I got into Pokemon cards, it was almost like, oh, this could be as fun as Pokemon, the, the game that we play on, you know, connecting to each other actually. And I was like, no, not as, but at least maybe I can collect all the cards. That'd be a thing. And then I just kind of got bored with it, you know? I feel like God doesn't want someone like me or you to get into, like, collectible card games. Because like, every pro is matched by some, like, societal disaster. It's like, oh, man, I, I, I, I think Pokemon's really cool. I have, like, a lot of fond affectation for Pokemon characters. Why don't I start, I know it's popular. Why don't I try and play Pokemon cards at my local, oh, I, oh, like a million dollars? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, like, fighting the worst, most disgusting people you've ever met in your life to, to get the packs at the Walmart at 2 a.m.

I want to say the cards came out when I was in, like, grade eight or something. and like me not knowing anything about card games at the time. I didn't have any friends that were into card games really. Like I knew people that were into magic, but like I wasn't as tight with those people. I naively was kind of just thinking, oh, well, this will be like, to me I'm like, you know what would be nice if I just collected,

if I bought 150 cards and each one was a Pokemon. And then like, and then we could play some games. And that was it. That was literally what I thought it was going to be, you know? And little did I know, like, the fucking monetized structure of everything that we see now, like, was already in place back then. The packs, the hooks, the, the boosters, et cetera. I had no idea, you know. And each thing I found out certainly pushed me further and further from that. But, like, you know, eventually learning that like, oh, well, there are these other, like, closed deck card games. where you can get everything altogether, but nobody really plays those or cares about them. Oh, man, never forget. I'm looking at the Steam page for Artifact,

maybe the biggest bomb I've ever heard of from Valve ever. Do you remember Artifact? No. Artifact was, hey, all this collectible card game shit sucks. Why don't we just sell you a card game for a regular fucking price? And then you play cards, and then we'll put out new cards.

and so everyone has all the cards. And, like, it was just a dismal failure on, like, every single fucking possible effect. Oh, that sucks. Yeah, you see, like, I'm seeing someone's like, oh, but, yeah, those are just boring, Wully. And I'm like, right, well, we're after different things, you know. Well, that's not how it worked. You know. Someone in the chat explained to me how it works so I can laugh at it more effectively.

Okay. The, the, it, when the card game is like only part of the appeal, then there's the, I mean, the collecting is also a cool part too, certainly. But the, the, the trade value, the monetization, the fact that it's like, I can buy this card, it's worth money. And now it's actually kind of an investment in addition to me playing this game, you know, in the way that knife skins become currency while you're enjoying playing the game and using those knives. But the knife currency thing is just a little extra bit of economy flavor on top of. the bit. You know what the best part is? It's like cards have like the

like playing cards for like any card game have the like lowest like objective value of like literally any entertainment product possible. Like they are like sub

penny in value in terms of material. And so like all the costs would be like shipping for these things right? So if you have these situations where everyone's going crazy and people can't get into the game because of freak scalpers, you could just print more cards. Right. It would actually be trivial, but they're happy with the insanity and the disgusting behavior and the aftermarket nonsense. So, like, if you, I would like to play Pokemon or magic or whatever, and you're like, oh, this thing's disgusting.

It's disgusting by active design. Yeah. Yeah. But, and profitable in that way, right? Because there is a part of this, too, where you have to consider, if it was just purely gameplay, I'm going to, oh, God, I'm going to sound like such an ignorant ass right now. Oh, let's say, yeah. Come on old man. I'm going to be, I'm going to sound like, no, no, no, to anyone who's fully in on the card game world.

Like, I'm going to be such. But, like, there is a thought where I'm like, if it was just purely about the gameplay, then you would just be printing and playing, right? You could just print and play whatever you want and have fun with the game mechanics. And that... If I wanted to, like, actually play, like, magic, just play it. Yeah. Could I just print out pirated cards and play it with people?

I can't. people care? I can't see why not, or if I'm showing up to have fun with the game, I can't see why that would be an issue, right? And the thought is, we literally do that with D&D, right? Yeah, we do that with D&D. The whole point is you grab a piece of paper and you do it yourself. You can.

You don't have to go buy a special character sheet or whatever. You fucking, you know, like dice, you got to get dice, you know. But, like, so. Dice are common. Yeah. Okay, so the term for that is proxies. Yeah, okay. Proxies, huh?

Yeah, okay. I have a friend who's been making his own Jojo themed magic cards, for example. I had a lot of proxy textbooks in college. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Shoutouts to the copy doctor. Shout out to the guy who would stand next to the photocopy machine for eight hours a day and just make buckets. Copy doctor was a business. But anyway, so yeah, proxie.

sexes, right? And that makes a lot of sense to me in the sense that you're like, yeah, I actually just want to play the game and have fun here. The economy is separate. And, you know, the collecting side of things I definitely do get. In fact, my first memories of cards was my brother, my cousins, and all of us getting these, inheriting this binder of Marvel cards, you know, and I often talked about having the lay the um the the the old like the the fleer ultra sets and you know there were there was no game involved in the in these marvel cards it was just characters and we would just draw we'd we'd start out by drawing wolverine from the pose on the card and check the numbers on the back and that's all it was you just look at them and have them and be like hey cool that's a card like a

baseball card you know um so like when i kind of remember learning about how it's like oh some cards have like a game system behind them while they're also collectibles it was like oh that's a cool little kind of extra thing to it, you know. But I was so surprised to find like the interaction between the market and the micro and the buying boosters and the whole setup. It was so predatory. It's why our digital collectible card game is so nefarious because now the value of the card is actually zero because the card doesn't even exist. But they have the ability to disallow proxies. Well, unless you can do a digital marketplace and, you know, do like...

Yeah, but I mean, like, your rude terror cards, you can't... You can't actually fuck it with that. And then you get to have a system that has, like, mechanics that have to have a computer do them instead of a human being. Like, one of the things when I remember listening to Josh Sawyer talk about, like, Pillars of Attorney when they built the combat system, they're like, the computer's going to do all the math for to hit. So we don't need to make a to hit system. that you can understand with dice. Right? We can use a...

The computer's gonna fucking do it. You don't need to actually roll a dice so we can do all sorts of weird shit like grazes and stuff like that. And so I think about like... Like in Roon Terra, there's even like a really annoying system that would be miserable to play on a deck

which is called Deep, which is when you have 10 cards left to go. You get a bunch of buffs to your characters. And it's like, yeah, if you're playing that on a table, that'd be fucking miserable Oh you'd have to track way too much Every card you threw out

Or you have to keep picking up your deck And not look at it But like thumb through it while not looking at it Is there 10 let? That would get miserable for sure That would get really annoying to track So now you have a system where I was like Well you have to play the game online

Where they have 100% control It simplifies the process for you And make you super depressed all the time And you know what And I will say that like That's part of what So I liked playing you know Yomi the card game

and when it's simplified into having a you know the virtual version of it it's like oh yeah that's a nice way to just quickly go through the rules and stuff but a big part of the appeal there too was just the idea of that like hey there's no extras to really buy here it's all locked into this one set and

it is kind of it's a little bit like saddening to kind of see some folks kind of be like yeah but if it's a closed fixed game and it's all there then it's not as fun because it doesn't have the market aspects, which include the predatory aspects of it,

to make it interesting enough to become a big phenomenon, you know? Like, I would like to believe that a game can just be fun enough to play on its own and not have to get into that stuff. It's so wild because you're totally right. And I played, to my knowledge, I played two of the only versions of these card games that were just fun games to play until they were like broken slash ruined, which is Rune Terra was just great, aside from the fact that it didn't make any money. Right. Right.

Like it didn't make any money. All the cosmetics were terrible and cards were too easy to obtain. So nobody ever spent any fucking money. And I also played Marvel Snap during its very early existence where it was great. Yeah. And they had a really, really simple problem, which was clearly intentional, which was you had your battle pass cards, which were quite good, and then would go into rotation. And then you would have tier cards, one, two, three, four, or five, and four and fives were your rairs and ultra rairs. And you would have to build up a lot of currency to get like one tier four or five card.

a month or every two months. And every month they would add a new tier four and tier five. So every month, if you didn't spend tons of money, you got weaker and weaker and weaker and weaker. Yeah, right, right. So I played it for like

three or four months and by the end of that period, I was like, I literally cannot compete without putting out a bunch of cash, which I assume is the intention. But like, that kept stacking on itself forever? Yes. And the idea that old cards are no longer eligible to be played, you know,

because it's got to rotate to be the newest and so on. Like the part where you're looking at any of these systems and it's like, okay, so it has to have a little bit of fomo or a lot of fomo to push you if you're enjoying or not enjoying the thing. There has to be a fomo element to it in order for it to succeed like massively. But there also is an idea too here where if it's a closed system, the balance would probably get like solved and fucked pretty quickly.

so there is a need, even in a closed system, to constantly go in and balance and tinker and so on over time, you know, to keep things interesting as well, right? Like, it is... Because, yeah, Rune Terra is an example where, like, that was popular, people were enjoying it, but, like you said, it made no money. It was, I guess, it was too generous with how much it gave you.

It was crazy, generous. It was ridiculous. But, like, I am curious to know, like, you know, is the, is, do you then have to take a system like that and like, you know, crank up the toxicity a bit, but not too much to find the healthy balance? And, and you're playing against the human psyche? We discovered the actual solution to this problem, uh, in the past. And that is a 52 deck of cards, um, can play one billion games and you buy it for $1.00 and, uh, that's it. And then you're sad about Pokemon cards or whatever. And your dad

says, hey, I'll play cards with you. And you go, I don't want to play cards with you, dad. And he goes, why not? And I go, you have won every hand I have ever played with you in my whole life. And he goes, nah. And then you play with him. And he beats you on every hand. And you're old enough to be like, this is statistically improbable. This is actually kind of ridiculous. And so then you go play Slay of the Spire. What was that What was that That fucking situation With the dudes that were walking in

To play magic With like a two people carrying a coffin Full of cards Oh I forget what it was It was either magic or Yu-Gi-O The one that doesn't allow The one that has no stagnation of

Yeah had no upper deck limit Right So the sort The sort time On the deck would like stall out The other person's turn that's been a thing in a bunch of games.

There was a heartstone deck, and I think there was a there was a Rune Terra deck, and I think there was also a snap deck, that they were designed on like, I'm going to cause so many interactions to occur that the timer will run out, and you won't get to actually play. Like, it doesn't matter if they're good.

I just need this series of events to take your full 60-second turn. Awful. God damn it. Um, I'm kind of depressed that, uh, we didn't reach a happy medium with digital, uh, complexity and analog collect card collecting. Um, because I feel one of the solutions was, um, drop mix, right? That, uh, Harmonix card game where they made these cards. I, and I bought as many as I could find, you know, I still have you talked to me about this? I have those years ago. And I think I might have to show it to you. I'm, I'm, I'm having to look this up. I don't know what the fuck you're. Okay. So, okay. So I'm, so I, I'm, I'm, bought this a while ago and uh that's a cool looking it's awesome so drop mix was a was a it's a lot you put it on your table and it has five card slots on it's a machine and you turn it on and then you buy these cards and each card is a part of a song it's an instrument it has a color and like a point score on it and then you place the card on the slot in the machine and then it starts playing the music that seems cool from the card right and uh it's got like a little r fID thing going and it you

yeah, it triggers the music, and then you can combine and mix music together so you can take, you know, almost like, it's the same thing that DJ Hero was kind of doing, you know, but it lets you take... DJ Hero fucking kicked ass. But it was DJ Hero, but you would split every track into percussion,

vocals, rhythm, lead, you know, and then like all encompassing. And then you can kind of like just, yeah, make these crazy musical mixes, but also play a game for points.

And it would be, be like you're almost like playing your own DJ set. You know, it was very, very fun to play. But the coolest thing about it was the moment you put a card down on the surface, it knew exactly what you placed. And then the app on your phone and whatever started playing the music and reacting to it. So the thought process there. And I'm sure that, you know, you see this, of course, with the card games in Japan, too,

when you go and you buy, like, fate cards or, you know, there's a whole floor on the arcade dedicated to, like, buying those cards and using them back in the game. So the idea that you could take. a popular card game like Magic or Yu-Gio and then have like a surface that you can place the cards on and then it would make things happen. Felt like the natural evolution of where Drop Mix was

going, but it seems like that never really happened or I've never heard of anyone pushing any further past what we saw there. And Drop Mix died. This whole discussion is like making me understand why people are so fucking crazy about Slay of the Spire and fucking Monster Train and all that shit

like just like I Because you get your little card opening pack at the end of any given thing that gives you a card. And you can be sure that Slay the Spire isn't going to fuck on you. Yeah. Or die. Well, so, yeah, because after the fucking this game died, I like, I'm like, okay, the phone that hasn't installed still has the game that I can run. But other people, unless you like fucking jail break, you know, you can't get the drop mix app anymore. And it's a whole problem.

It sucks. I remember when I was looking at Ballotro had those limited printed physical things and it was like what if you had to play Ballotro in real life what if you had to sit there with the fucking get your calculator out or get one of those kids who could do the hand

abacus shit I don't think the kids who do this you can with one of those kids or with a calculator you know you put down a fucking insane joker and you just get not a number all right There's your score.

But if you had a cool Balitro physical thing and the cards had, you know, reading, the cards were... Just this image of like, Wully, why is there like a 12-year-old Chinese kid sitting next to a test? All the internet's out and I want to play Ballotro. Analog Ballotro. Every time you play, exactly, you know, oh, we got a boss coming up, let's go. And like, you know, like you can't play any spades. And so the kid just fucking grabs your spades off the table. and throws them away.

No. I'm super down for Ina log Ballotro Kid. I don't think anyone would be on that other end. That's hard. I've seen super impressive calculations

being done. I just this week I saw a video of like what looked like a toddler staring at a TV that the game was like we're going to put a bunch of numbers in sequence and then you have to calculate how, what are the operations between each number to get to this final, like, large number?

And the kid was like, couldn't have been more than five years old and, like, straight up figured it out, you know? And it's insane. And, like, you just kind of watch as, like, the people, the adults on the British TV show get there, like, minutes after this kid did it. You know? Yeah, well. So I'm telling you, analog baletro kid can see. sit there and make it work, man. I bet I could beat up that kid in a fight.

So there. So there, kid. What are you going to do? You do your maths at me? If, man, if spells were real, you'd be so fucking cooked, bro. Yeah, maybe. If the language of math and reality

could be edited, you know, almost as if there were some sort of backyard. That kid would win. Wow, you're just really just crowbar and that shit in here, huh? It was appropriate for the analogy. Anyways. Okay, so I don't know.

Do you want to start or do? I had some stuff this week. I literally already did my whole book. Oh, shit. Okay. Well, this is going to be a short episode. Oh, man, vampire. You know what?

What's the vampire crawlers? Is that, is that what it is? Is that what's fucking called? Vampire Survivors? We don't need card games anymore. Because vampire crawlers will be here soon. What the fuck is that? Oh, you did not fucking...

Are you serious? Crawlers? Vampire crawlers, dog. The Turbo Wild Card from Vampire Survivors. It's your fucking RPG with cards in vampire survivors land. Oh. And it's the same nonsense of build up shit forever until your brain explode. Oh. Oh, this is a thing. When was this announced? A while ago, like it last month.

It's disgusting. First person car. I saw Vampire Survivors like VR madness, but... Yeah, it was the day after that. Okay, there is a Vampire Survivor's First Person Slay of the Spire style card game. Yeah. Oh my God. Well, shit. Yeah, that looks super addictive. Yeah, no. We, we, don't need to have this conversation anymore because vampire crawlers is here to fuck up your dopamine. What a fucking... Vampire crawlers, what a fucking name. Jesus Christ. I bet there's

no vampires in there. Okay. Never. There can never be one. Oh, you know what? I do have a small thing to add. Me and Paige went through dispatch over the weekend with Page plan. Finished? Yeah, 100%. And it is

fascinating. to have seen her make the 100% opposite decision of me every single time. Okay, I was going to see... I got to see everything in that fucking game. So between the three of us now, like, was her playthrough... All bases are covered. Okay, her playthrough was not yours and not mine. Oh, yeah.

Okay. It's extremely not. Interesting. Interesting. Fascinating. You can go check it up on the Pat Stairs'at Channel. There you go. It's very good.

also so man i'm so out of it chat had to remind me that i did beat the backlog this week that's embarrassing especially since like there's like a bunch of good stuff in there uh let's see what do we got all right this week i played a tiny little metro so are you familiar with record of lodos war yeah that's a classic okay that is a super classic record of lodos war deedlet in luther labyrinth. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. It's pretty great.

Super, super high-quality animation, great controls. I remember when it would... Yeah, in fact, I remember, I think when this got announced and I was like, why all this noise about Lodos War now? Because there's a Metroid game. But like, this is a... Yeah, it's just, it's an insanely old anime franchise that just came back for no fucking reason a couple years ago.

That's crazy. It's good That's my review It's good Okay It's a good game This was the This was the first original

Like fantasy anime Setting that I knew of When I got into anime Like Like everything Like deed look memes And you know Those knights and elves

And spiky hair I had this really strange Experience playing it Where I am completely ignorant of record Of Lodos War Like 100% ignorant. And because of the art style, I was like, is this a porno game?

Is this a secret porno game? But I actually had it backwards. Nah, it, what year? 1986. Okay. Yeah. Sure. That sounds about right. It's not. It's not. It's just, it's one of the oldest fucking fantasy setting anime things ever. Yeah. Um, it was a Japanese Dungeons and Dragons replay oh it literally started as a D&D thing wow I did not know that well that would explain anything about record of Lois War I don't know nothing um this game was pretty good you were if you were downloading real player like Dragon Ball AMVs I assure you there were Lodos War AMVs right next to it somewhere yeah right next to it yeah right next that makes sense yeah Let's see. What else we got? We got something called Neon Inferno. This is definitely up your alley, woolly. Okay.

It is a side-scrolling metal slug-ish, side-scrolling shooter with a parry, with an incredible art style, with great music, in which you also shoot into the background. Sick. There's nothing to say about this other than it looks great. It looks great. troll's great. Oh, the wild guns thing.

Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. I did hear about this. It's fucking super cool. Yeah. Anytime anyone makes a wild guns type shit, call me. I'm super on board. People are asking it. The name of the game is Neon Inferno.

Yeah. Wild guns and and Super Contra. At the same time. It's awesome. And last I played something called Labyrinth. of the Demon King. Have you ever heard of this?

Have I? That name is... It does sound familiar. Yeah. So, Labyrinth of the Demon King is a Kingsfield-like that takes place in feudal Japan in a PS1 VHS aesthetic.

Unlike the other Kingsfield-like that you played the other day. Yeah, the other Kingsfield-like I played was Lunisid. And the other Kingsfield like that I played, which was Fly Knight, this Kingsfield like takes place in feudal Japan with a VHS aesthetic. Okay. And it's fucking, it's fucking demon soul slash Kingsfield in feudal Japan with a Perry and first person melee system.

And a lot of grime. Man. A lot of grime on it. A motherfucker pulled up to one of the locals with a Kingsfield shirt the other day and I was just like oh this is a thing like there's king field there's dozens of kingfield heads out there and their

time is now they're rising up after all this time. The idea of Kingsfield is a million times more appealing than actual Kingsfield. But I like I love the idea of like these Kingsfield fans being salty at Souls games

for existing because it's distracting from the true franchise. I have really bad news for Don hard Kingsfield fans, which is, hey, did you think that it was a coincidence that this series blew up to be one of the largest things in the world? Once they made it third person.

Once they made it third person. I don't know. I don't know. It's maybe, maybe seeing your character is like a massive big deal in games. Just between that and fucking rivals and everything else. And then you say, you say, Pat, but what about first person shooters? What about Doom

and Call of Duty and whatever? You do see your character in those games because your character is shotgun or M16. That is who you are playing as in Doom or fucking Call of Duty.

Yeah. And I'm thinking back to like the era of like early ass Rainbow 6 when it was like the appeal of this is to feel tactical. It is to feel like I am doing a real military-ass SWAT team. Go, go, go.

Bra. And if I've never felt that before and you want to feel like that, then yeah. But that is cool. But, but. Totally. It's fine. I stalled and didn't say much. Yes, ma'am.

I said nothing in those last 15 seconds. Don't worry about it. The point of those games was to feel tactical. cool. But feeling tactical to me is not worth the sacrifice of not seeing your toys

doing the cool things that your toys can do. Rainbow Six game fucking kicked ass. Did you play Rainbow Six Vegas? It was a 360 game? Yeah, we cu-Aid it for like a second. Yeah, you know what the big deal on that was?

Is that you could post up on a corner and zoom out. character. And the whole team. I like to see your character controversial. Yeah, no. I mean, the fact that when Metroid Prime gave me those moments I fucking inhaled them and was like, oh, the elevator, I can see it.

Look at the suit. Oh, I'm in my morph ball. I can enjoy that for a second. But yeah. Anyways, all this to say. Kingsfield has its dedicated hardcore. And they're rising up now. I don't want them to rise up. I want them to make games that are way better than Kingsfield. Well, fortunately, if you push them, they crumble like skeletons too.

Oh, no. And into a little dry bones noise. So it's fine. That's pretty much it for me. This week, it's going to be backlog and start to be, Valley. So go down to Twitch.com slash Pat Stairsat or YouTube.com slash Pat Stairs at for that shit.

What about you, Wills? Okay, so this week, what happened? Okay, so for one, something that I've been taking notes on is, did you know that, like, you can feel multiple emotions at the same time? No.

Okay. So we, we feel emotions and we eventually learn what they are in the world and then we we slide from one to the other and then interface with them in whatever way. But it sounds like a sci-op by big emotion. But it turns out that in the middle of feeling sad, you can still be happy. And in the middle of feeling frustrated, you can still be surprised. and you can combine these things and mix and match them. It's all this to say that the funniest shit in the world is watching the Futurama Snoo-Snew meme where they're like, oh no, happen in real life to baby because baby can be like and then see something cool and be like

and it's so raw. There's like, you have not yet learned how to put walls up between each of these things. It's just one big liquid pool of feelings. So you know what? I missed that. I'm going through, you know, I'm going through a version of this, which is the funniest thing in the fucking world where it's like, hey, man, we can't play rainbow ball right now. Okay? It's not time to play rainbow ball.

I'm sad. Oh, I'm sorry, buddy. You don't have to be sad. but I want to be sad. And I'm like, I don't know how to handle that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's the deepest realist.

That's going to, that might be here that you might hold on to that one for a while. A lot of us do. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. But it, yeah, no, I just, you know, before we learn the social construct, that is separate emotions, they are all one big,

Blom. Believe in that. It's one at time. Nope. Not, man. Telling you. Multitasking emotions is not real. And the noises can combine as well. You know, so

you're getting, you're getting I'm frustrated and tired. You're getting I'm kind of sad and you're also getting like, that's a surprised me and I'm laughing about it. So you're getting these sounds that are just like, eh,

eh, ha ha! Yeah, just a tiny, tiny little goblin creature. You know, the throat, the,

the, the, the mouth and the noises we make with it, or not meant to convey like six different things at the same time, you know, but, um,

still trying to figure them out. Anyway, um, this week, kids are cool, man. Very. So weird.

So, do you want to hear another one? So fucking weird. Always. Okay. So Paige encountered this. And I later encountered it much later. But she was like, hey, Gowron, don't do that. Right?

Because he was, you know, running around or whatever. And he goes, no, don't say my name like that. And the Gauron and did like a thing with his hands and like mocked her. You don't get to say my name like that. And it's just like, oh. What? How are you? Where? Where is this coming from? And it's, it's coming from the discovery of sass in their heart. Oh, deep sass. Yeah. Natural born sass.

And like, I think this is appropriate, but it almost feels a little childish because when I've been presented with this, I go, I can say whatever I want. You can't tell me not to say things. I mean, there was... I'm a big man. There was a whole fucking home improvement special over that one time, one of the kids went, you can't tell me what to do. And then the parents were like,

oh, my God, you go to your room. That's crazy. Get out of here, Jonathan Taylor, Thomas. I don't care if you're Lion King. simple whatever anyway I don't understand so like here's the thing I don't get

well I've been told you don't get to tell me that now like literally a thousand times over the past couple of months and like the only thing I felt is like minor annoyance or like laughter because like yeah I can't I can just pick you up and move you

in a different room what are you gonna fucking do about it you're small So, like, yes, taking, taking the energy of you will never win into every encounter does trivialize these moments. You have like 13, 14 years before we had to take your opinion really seriously. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, I do appreciate that. So the versions of that I get are like, I'm holding and I'm like, I'm rocking you to sleep now. And she's like, yeah, well, what if I started kicking and kicking, kicking your arm away, kicking you on? off and I'm like, well, I'm going to put my hand under your butt like this and now you're kicking the air, idiot.

Now what? Where are you going? It's like, ah, foiled. Yeah, no, it's, it's, oh, man. And then layer two is like, okay, so the way I, we have it set up is like, when I'm, when I'm, when I'm rocking or the door where the lights and life and sound. and everything interesting is right above her head over there. Right?

This is all darkness and sleepy, but over there, the most interesting party in the world is happening just beyond the door frame. And to be fair, like, if you remember the way, like,

by places, like you have, like, the studio up here, and then you have downstairs with the kitchen. So you got, like, purple green lights and then like,

like, it looks. Like, it's, It looks like the forbidden move. Like, the forbidden room mystery. An arcade of lights is shooting into the door.

It really, right? It is enticing. So I'm holding her and like, she's tilting her head back to look at what's going on over there, though. Everything is over there. I want to look at that. And I'm like, no, no, no, you got to go to sleep.

And it's like, but, but up there. But I don't want to. And like that neck, like, like she'll bend and arch her back. And now because. Tommy time strength is kicking in. You know, you got that full on like, no, I'm staring at the door. So now I'm like, oh, yeah, okay.

So one, I shift a hand so that you're kicking the air. And then when you start looking back to see, like, what's going on out there, I do the thing where if you're, if she's like this, when she her head starts turning this way, I just move her, like, butt and body so that her head... So her head never actually goes anywhere. It's just the rest of her body this movie. Oh, no. So she's like trying to look back, but instead her body isn't changing at all.

Yeah, you're like you're doing the thing that's supposed to make the camera move, but it's not moving. What's happening? I'm like, because you're running on air. Like you're just, I'm manipulating you and moving your body around and your head is not changing because you're going to be, nah, nothing interesting out there. Don't worry about it. You know? And you do that a couple times. And it's like, oh, I guess I can't look up any.

anymore. Okay. Well, I guess my perspective is locked. Time to give up. Yeah, you can't skip this cutscene. You know, the camera is locked. You can't move, you can't look around. Okay. And that's that. So, yeah, we're getting the tech. We're getting the rotate, rotate on angles. Yeah, like a chicken. You know, exactly like a chicken. It's, it's surprisingly effective, you know. So aside from chicken hustling your baby, what's So, okay, so we got, yeah, a little bit further into Expedition 33, you know, pushing on there, got the good backstories for the characters.

And it is, no much to say except for just like slam dunks on your party being fleshed out in Act 3 as just like, just incredible characters. and I kind of didn't realize how little you get going up to, like, act one and two with the characters. You just kind of get their personalities and a little bit about them here and they're sprinkled in with the hangouts. But like the... All the heavy lifting is in that third act. All the heavy lifting comes back and then comes towards the back end. Yeah, and like really, really makes them fleshed out and feel real. And I just kind of like somehow, after that was that when I, in retrospect, I kind of felt like, oh, they were fleshed out the whole time, but it really was this one spike.

And, you know, in a good RPG, you'll get one moment like that with each character to feel a ways about them. But here, you know, it's not just that, but it's like the little, the little moments and banter that they have with each other, of course, like builds on that. and it does it does a lot with very little like I feel like there are longer RPGs that take

much more scenes like that to achieve that feeling Oh absolutely yeah you know but it's it feels like a lot of the fat was trimmed you know

so good job on that and and yes there was the, I went to go see a film. I saw a film. The latest Chanwuk Park joint. No other choice. Oh, that's a guy trying to get job interviews? Yeah. And this was, this was the one where there was a message from Chanwuk Park to all CEOs saying,

due to the selfless nature of your sacrifice and your courageous, ongoing, struggle for your employees on their behalf. We cordially invite you to a screening of no other choice, and it's on us. It's free if you're a CEO to go see this movie. You know, fucking incredible. Chad Mook Park, you know, the Vengeance trilogy. So, you know, sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, old boy, sympathy for lady vengeance. I saw the devil, et cetera.

Just one of my favorite directors of all time. just unbelievable. And in this case, yeah, hey, guess what? The streak on broken continues, right? Job market is very competitive in Korea. Boy is it, but also this is, so no other choice is basically it. It is your black comedy sort of take on how he feels about, you know, late stage capitalism.

and how he feels about corporate culture and a lot of the, you know, there's, like, you could spend a lot of time telling the story of like a struggling family, you know, kind of like Parasite, for example, where, you know, yeah, yeah, yeah, whatever, boring with the fucking proletariat. at. Enough of that shit, yawn. Let's focus on a super rich family. Let's focus on the family of the CEO and like tell the story from their perspective. And you know, you're full on bourgeoisie cam, right? And the, the way it all unfolds where essentially you're looking at this, this, you know, dude who's on top and finds himself unemployed, uh, working. Worked. at a paper factory, you know, because paper is, is all the rage and papers go in places. You want to, you want to get in big, get in on the ground floor and big paper in this modern day and age. People need paper. Yeah. Yep. And you know, you can, you can, when you want, you will know you're hiring the right person when they come in and talk about how they, they still use paper every single day of their lives for everything.

You know, some people are just born paper men, you know? It is a, it is a, uh, properly dark and you got some, some ooze and Oz and, uh, it wouldn't be a Chanwick Park film without some wipeouts. Yeah. Um, some wipeouts in this movie. There's some wipeouts in this movie. There's some, there's some big wipeouts. But what I feel like that's like legitimately like the long term effect of those Star Wars prequels on. me is literally just Sam Jackson saying there are wipeouts in this movie.

That's pretty much all we needed. Like that's all that attached to me. Correct. That's fine. But yeah, but what changes or what feels what's the most interesting here is just the tone with which everything is carried out in, which is just like, hey man, it's this economy. You know what it is. You just, you got to do what you got to do. and, you know, you got to put food on the table.

It is what it is. There are some moments of, like, the most complex, multi-layered feelings between characters getting, like, I don't even know how to describe this, but, like, every second that a character is on screen talking to or looking at another character, And there are moments where, like, the complexity of how they feel changes, like, almost frame to frame.

And then their motivations, in turn, change as it goes on. It's super duper well shot and interesting. Some of the best cinematography you have seen in years. Incredible work with, like, overlaying of shots and doing some of the stuff that Ridley Scott does where, you know, brilliant use of, overlay and transition, things fading into other things and creating that moment where when you're halfway between the last scene and the next scene, where things are placed feels very deliberate, you know, just absolutely phenomenal. And again, the absolute wonder of a paper company entering this world of automation and, you know, necessary downsizing is just,

phenomenal to watch in Chanwu Park style. So when it comes out in select theaters, I highly recommend everyone check it out because it's a fucking banger. And everything he does is great. There was an interview I saw he did on The Daily Show a week or two ago where they had him on to kind of talk about this in general. And they're like, boy, you have some scathing things to say about corporations,

huh? And it's just kind of like, yes, but I would also like to keep making movies. So, yeah. I hate everyone that has money. And I want to be one of those people also. Thank you. This has been my dead talk. Fucking, fucking great, man.

Yeah. It's just funny because a friend that I was there with, Command Grab James, who helped me with the MMA portion of when I was doing that stuff, was like asking some questions about AI. And we watched the movie and then I was kind of like,

any questions, right? And I kind of walked out with the credits rolling in this movie, having a moment where I realized, oh, right now around the world, there are many super talented filmmakers that are writing scripts and their pen is on fire and the page is burning up.

Oh, yeah. And it's going to take a couple years for us to see what they're writing right now about this shit. But it's going to be good. There will be some incredible, super, super hard-hitting, scathing critiques of the state of affairs we are finding ourselves in. short about open AI right now. Basically. And I can't fucking wait, you know, because we can talk and, you know, relate what we hear about and then get burnt out, a crash out and exhaust ourselves until we fart ourselves to sleep, sad about...

How do you know? About everything happening to the things we like. But somebody who can actually tell incredible stories and direct incredible films of, you know, taking a stab at this, I can't fucking wait to see what's coming down the pipe. And this was a bit of a preview of that, you know? I kind of went, oh, we got a genre on its way. Because at the one thing, right, when everything's dog shit, there's going to be some interesting art.

That's, you know, it's true. Music, culture, stories get really interesting when... Hey, wait a second. what if we just made everything shit on purpose to get really good art later? Or is that a not good plan? Well, that's a plan. And maybe if word of mouth... I call that the Jackson plan.

If word of mouth continues to spread and lift things through the noise, then that would be interesting. But then if the bots kick in and then start, you know, pushing. their own agenda, then I don't know what the deal is. But listen, listen, a robot can't get horny and a robot can't feel depressed about how weird they feel when they get horny. Therefore, they cannot make real art. Why does this feel like an extension of the conversation between Yoko Taro and David Cage? They had a conversation?

No, but they had a fake conversation in that one meme, and I refuse to believe it's just a meme. I believe it's real. Like, I don't care what anyone says That one tweet or whatever post Is real to me, damn it The thing that didn't happen The thing that didn't happen totally happened David Cage

Can a robot learn to be human Yoko Tarro? Can a human Cage? What? Yoko Taro. Can a human learn to be human? Cage, I don't get it. That happened. It happened. Shut up, it happened.

And if it didn't, shut up, it did. Who cares? Oh, that's really good. No other choice is phenomenal. And, yeah, this is going to be a pretty busy week. Got shit going down. So tomorrow, I will be doing a special stream. The Twitch Rivals of Ather 2 event is happening.

And I will be competing in rivals of Ather 2. That's the smash-like. That's the platform fighter. That's the good one. And yeah, I'm going to be streaming my perspective as I do what I can. I don't expect it will be much. However, as a, you know, early, I've touched the game before, but I don't expect to do much damage, I guess, seed.

No, you got this. It's like win or... You got this, bud. Win or stay in America, right? That's what we always said. Whenever people travel or whatever, just like, don't even come back home, bro. You went 0 and 2, just stay there. Yeah, look, I think...

They don't say that anymore, huh? They don't say that anymore. I think my... job is to just basically deal with whoever, you know, seed one and two are on the opposing teams. And, you know, I'm going to be, my team is with SK, myself, Armada, and Dan Fornes, the creator of rivals of Ather. That seems to which not TV slash rivals of Ather, the dev himself is on my team.

And that's pretty cool. However, as wild as that sounds, I've been informed that, you know, it's kind of like, it's like you're playing Tekken and Haradas on your team, right? It's like, yeah. Seems weird. You're going to get, you're, you know, are there players, like, is the creator of the game fucking phenomenal at it? Yes, absolutely. Like, well, hold on, maybe. Pretty, pretty good at the game.

Are there competitive players that win consistently that can whoop them? Yeah, yeah, that's how this works. You know, there have been many conversations about like why dev players can only go so far, you know, compared to somebody. There's an awesome discussion happening about 2XCO with that shit after Punk made some comments about pro players and the, the, the, fairness there. I don't know if that's in the news, but it's, oh, it's a mess. The idea, but the idea of like the, um, the professional player that is just spending their time, like, grinding on the game, compared to the person who's making it and the people who are, whose job it is to make the game good by like playing multiple characters or whatever.

You're automatically not optimist. You're not min-maxing. Your time on the game, therefore you will not be at that level. Unless there's secret shit nobody found about that you put. in there unless you fucking put in this or you do right or you find bugs 10 minutes before the show let's go let's go and then you just give your character a bunch of shit nobody knows about

and it's like I don't know man maybe you guys should get better unless you find bugs that you don't report and then you save that shit for yourself like a scumbag are we talking about beaters again man tan the besters yeah oh man oh I loved I love it

I can talk about that shit all day. But all this to say, so tomorrow, tune in. The event will be starting at 5 p.m. Eastern. And yeah, you know, go team. We'll figure it out. I feel confidence when I look and I see, yeah, like right behind me stands Twitch. com. slash rivals of Ather.

So let's go. I had it, when I was going back to the game too, I kind of went, all right, let's brush up. So this weekend called in. So Reggie has a friend, Ned, aka Squirty McFish, who has been playing rivals for a while and is pretty good at it. He came through last time we played and showed me the ropes and kind of showed some of the cool stuff and, you know, got me, got me a little bit of training time to brush up on my skills. So shoutouts to him for that, and we had a good episode. One of the decisions jumping back into that game was,

do I go get my GameCube controller and plug it in? Oh, my God. Because I have the extension for it, and it's fully supported. And deep down in my brain, I still have melee memories. I still have Smash Brothers memories of playing and using that controller and reaching over to the small B button to do your skills, you know? Um, and I started playing with it for a bit and I was like, nah, it's too far. It's too far in the past.

Like, it's instinctually there, but this game is different enough. Um, and I would say that like one of the big things too was back on the GameCube controller. Um, like I feel like X and Y were both jump. Um, and then you'd hit the C-Sick for Smash. So I would kind of hit. That's, yes. I would kind of hit either one, you know? And now that these games are coming along where it's actually much more specific and you've got like your smash button, your C-stick is like a heavy button over on like circle, that I'm like, eh, it's different enough that I'm just going to want to use, you know, a dual sense.

Not to mention back then on the GameCube controller, you had LR and Z, you know, and so you'd have your shield and then your air dodge and grab and stuff. But with that extra L1 button, you can get other stuff going. and then a game like this that has a parry, I need that extra button, you know? So, going to be going to be going to be going with that. But I did plug in the GameCube controller with the extensions and sit for a minute. And, you know, it is, there is something, there is something nostalgic about it. But if I'm not actually playing Smash, I don't think I want to use it.

Anyway, that's going down. I appreciate shoutouts to Pat right now for. holding himself together. If it was anyone but you, I have like four ready to go. I have like four ready to go. You got an up tilt, you got an up tilt,

downtilt, neutral and sides. The whole time, you've been to, I've just been like, I'm just holding it back. You know what? Anyways, I am,

I am going to do my best. Uh, hmm. Yeah, all right. Yep. Okay. Well, I, there, I got it. Yeah. That's, that's for one. Yep. Um, I'll just say that rivals of Ather 2 is its own... I love that you can read my fucking mind. Rivals of Ather 2 is its, is its own franchise IP and, uh, you know, it, it's a, it's a solid ass good platform fighter. And being a furry is not against the law. There's some cool furries in those games, to be fair. There's some fucking cool designs. Absolutely. One of them is just hyperlight drifter.

I mean, get the fuck out of here. That's not sick. That's not a furry. That's, I don't know what he, I don't know what the fuck the hyperlight drifter is. Well, whatever the case is, um, yeah, yeah, this is, this is, this is, this is, this is, this is, this is, this is, this is, this is, this is, this is, this is, this is, this is, is nothing to do with any other platform fighters or anything else going on, you know?

That's really... It's just a fucking sick game on its own. Does I even say that? It's got its own thing going on. And I had talked last week about the workshop that they just announced for it so you can even add your own characters and do your own thing. To which, by the way, um, you want to talk about fucking nailing Woolly Corps.

Uh, let me show you the last two characters that came out in this game. So they've been adding, they've been adding like DLC characters, right, a bunch. So one is, here you go, La Rena, which is a aunt Luchador lady. That's awesome. Okay. Lorraine is a great name for an aunt.

For an aunt luchador queen? So good. She does a bunch of incineror and Beowulf style wrestling moves, chair tossing, etc. That reminds me of something. I gotta hold on to it when we're done with Ather Talk. Okay. And

what was the one right before her's name? The mouse? Oh, shit. What was her name? There is a karate mouse Olympia. And, if I may, just taking a look at Olympia from Rivals of Ather,

here you go. That's a picture of her. Yeah. Yep. Understood. That's kind of cheating. That's just Makoto. It's just Makoto the mouse. That's just Makoto with little Vihans.

Makoto the mouse and a luchador. Yeah. Like, it's so on point for the types of characters I'm in love with. Like, it's amazing, like, killing it. And right before that, there was, like, this drill. Like, there's a polar bear with, like, a cool jaw. This drill-based, like, I'm not sure what it is, but a giant mammoth with an axe that, like, heats. Like, there's a bunch of cool characters.

And apparently, part of the reason why they're all such slam dunks is because a number of them are working. workshop characters that get brought in officially afterwards. So the characters that everyone in the workshop, like, loved that were very popular from that, you know, get, like, graduated into the game proper. So you're getting just all winners. Super duper cool. Yeah, Olympia and Lareda, you know. And then they each get their big animated trailer too. So, you know, you're getting a Laredena with the, like, I'm almost thinking of, did you ever watch?

the show Santo Bougito? I did not. Okay, it was a show about like Mexican bugs and there was a cartoon, you know, back in the day on YTV and such and it was just, you're getting these kind of vibes from it and guacamale and stuff like that. I, I fucking love

it. Like, I'm not a grappler player most of the time. Not in your heart. Not in my heart. Grapplers are super sick, but I, you know, I'm not a grappler in my heart. However, Luchas, I have strong affinity for Luchas.

Like that particular style of wrestler is always a fucking faith. So, yeah. Anyway, check that out tomorrow over on Woolley versus where you can see my perspective of the Twitch Rivals, Rivals of Ather 2 event. And then we will be Wednesday, I'm not too sure. It depends on the schedule. We'll see how it goes. might have too much going on, but if I'm able to, I'm going to get some more Expedition 33 going.

And then Saturday, another special event. Get into locals, part two. This month's FGC meetup is going down. The air dashers have a monthly tournament, excuse me, called Kizuna, and me and Reggie are going to head on down there. We're going to walk around. We're going to have the camera and a microphone.

going to talk to people, we're going to sit at stations, we're going to play games, do some casuals. I got some old games I want to pop in and play as well. So yeah, just come come check out the stream. And then we're going to, you know, enter one or two things and film us going through pools and just see how the, see how the flow goes. So if you want to come see what it's like at a local FGC event, tune in this Saturday as well for get into locals as we are at the AirDashers Kizuna event.

So here's a quick question. You're not going to be streaming it this week, but next Tuesday, am I to expect that you will have some hours in on season one of 2XCO that I can discuss with you? Hopefully, yeah. Because Caitlin's coming out tomorrow, and I'm going to be playing that shit. Yeah. A bunch over the week. It's going to be a really busy week, but I'm going to try to get to touch it, if possible.

You know, there's a, yeah, some of those, that announcement stuff is in the news as well. Um, but, uh, the, the whole reset plus balance and et cetera is happening. At the very least, I'll touch it in the form of the tournament on Saturday, you know? Um, right. Because I'm going to enter that and see how that goes. Um, plus the new changes, et cetera. I want to make sure I'm not getting, you know, exposed on a new. It's a lot.

There's a lot. Yeah. And it, yeah. And nobody likes entering them the weekly or the monthly and then getting exposed doing old shit that doesn't work anymore, you know, so. Sometimes old shit still works, though. If you keep it simple, if you keep it simple, yes. But if you're not optimized, you're going to watch your damage go down. Optimization is for freaks.

I hate Grandmaster. I didn't optimize for shit. Yeah, you know, you can keep it simple. You can keep it simple. I was talking to Havi and Cloud this morning, and I'm like, I feel like getting to Grandmaster is literally just get decent fundamentals and then figure out one disgusting tag mix up that, like, is, your own. Yeah. And ultimately, it's win more than 50%.

You know, like I said, like they're generous about that. What ends up, anyway, whatever. We don't have to get to the crazy nitty-gritty of it. But when I look at a bunch of advanced Vye combos that are really hard to do, and then I go light, medium-heavy, wall bounce, ORA, Oda, light, medium, dunk, super, and it does within 50 damage of the extension, super complex one?

Yeah, but the Yomi isn't as good, really? What about the Oki? Well, the Oki is good, because it's ending with the second super instead of the first, but that's neither there. No, the point, but the point is ultimately... It's like Walter White arguing about the last 1% of his meth. Every time you do the advanced combo and drop it and lose the game, fucking hold that.

You know? Or do the simple thing consistently. And then you're fine. Anyway. So yeah, that's going to be this week for me. So tomorrow, Twitch Rivals of Ather and Saturday, get into locals. That's about it. What do we got this week for news and or sponsors?

Quick word from our sponsors. Yes, this week the podcast is sponsored by AG1. That is your athletic greens. That is your scoop. That makes it real simple. Yeah. You know, trying to eat better, trying to do better for my body as I get up there in the years. And as I prepare to have to start chasing a moving kid and keeping up with their energy.

I want to make sure that you know, like if laughing at Disco Elysium can take me out a kid doing a baseball slide between my legs to run away from tag or something. That's not the danger. The danger is you going to pick them up and then jumping straight up

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Uh, right. Sorry about that. My mom called me on the phone to tell me that I sent her cute video of the baby this morning. And I was like, I'm really busy right now. Well, that was important. So, you know, that's fine. We touched on a couple things, but in going over stuff last week, forgot to get into it.

Alex, the man with no allies, heel turn Alex trailer, dropped. Man, I really don't like that they split these trailers into. Yeah, no gameplay. Yeah. It's like, I just want to see what the stomp looks like. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. I think it makes sense because there's still a lot of, like, people that are world tour mode enthusiasts that just dive into that side of the game. Yeah, but those people don't, like, watch the news about Street Fighter. They're too busy, like, buying the costumes each time they put out cosmetic packs.

Yeah, I guess. They are, they're doing, there are servers dedicated to, freak custom character like tournaments that people do by the way they know which servers

to go to in the battle hub to have these freak battles so they're out there and because there's a whole world tour mode story mode thing

that people like us are not necessarily paying attention to I get it I get it you know but they tease the character

they show off a little bit of what's going on lore-wise and then next comes the proper trailer with the gameplay. So so far, hey, Alex, his went full heel turn. And I feel like Kenny Omega is somehow just behind the scenes going, here's exactly how you make this work, you know, because that's his favorite street fighter.

He's been all about that for years now. And ever since he picked Alex and was on the main stage at multiple tournaments and stuff, and then he's doing the whole promo for the entire season. I would not be surprised if he was talking to them to Nakayama San and such behind the scenes being like, I'm telling you this is what you do to make Alex Heeltern work, you know. I feel like he barely has to do anything. I got to be honest. Like all of his win quotes, he's kind of an asshole.

So he's always been an ornery fucking New Yorker. That much is clear. But yeah, in five, I guess he was he kind of, you know, there wasn't much to it because Alex was a wrestler, but his wrestling was not like the most defining part of his personality because exactly he's more of a street fighter dude. You don't really think about him as a persona face in the ring kind of guy. Geif plays it up talking about his loyal fans.

Armeika is full k-fabe. Hugo is you don't see as much, but you go can technically speak. But, you know, Hugo is playing the role of the big beast that has poison as the manager. So, you know, all of that works in wrestling context. But Alex was always just kind of like, yeah, take it or leave it. I'd be fighting outside the ring too. You know, but now with the heel energy, it's like, okay, he's telling everyone to shut up. They've already rung the bell.

You know, I think back to playing Alex and Street Fighter 5 and being super excited. I think it was the first D.L.C. character. Gile. Guy? Yeah, I think Alex was second. Oh, okay. And I just remember being like, he doesn't feel right. And then just kind of drop that game as a result. I mean, it just didn't feel correct.

I don't even mean that it wasn't good because it wasn't that great in three either. But I don't get that feeling from the six characters that have come back, right? I feel correct. They made him different to fit in that game as they did with everybody. And, you know, Five is an outlier in a lot of weird ways. Probably going to be playing a lot of Street Fighter 6 when Alex drops because I love me. Alex is fucking cool. Now, the question, you know, that's been asked is how do you take his move set and translate that into this game?

Not literally, because you have him do a bunch of cool wrestling moves, obviously. but his goal mechanically has always been about building up your stun meter, right? That's why he hits you with a stun gun headbutt, for example. He would flash chop you, make you turn backwards, and every time he did one of the wrestling moves while your back was turned, it becomes a different move that does way more stun. Yeah, you can still do that. You just have him, his moves do a lot of drive gauge.

That's the theory, right? That's the idea, is what if he became a monster that does, does less damage, but more drive attacking. And he's about like making sure that you don't get your game plan running because you can't do your fancy shit, which is a very heel way to play. That would be a really interesting way to shake up the roster right now because no one attacks your drive gauge directly, you know? Keith does a little bit. But it's, but like to make, he's got big fat normals. He needs to do a lot of drive damage.

What I would love to see to fully embrace this idea would be like, him doing moves that do less damage and more drive, you know, and then essentially, oh, God, like, I kind of was talking about, yeah, I was theorizing this earlier, but it's like, what if when you're burnt out, if he grabs you, he does a better wrestling move to you? That would be great. Right? I would, I, I basically, my, my core desire for Alex is I want to be able to mix people up with stun gun headbutt. Yeah.

Yeah. That's going to be there. That was my favorite thing to do. It was the most satisfying thing to do as Alex is to do like, you know, a block string into a stun gunhead head. But so that you catch them on their response. Yeah, definitely going to be there. You know, we, we're probably going to get, you know, you're going to see your stun gunhead, but you're going to see your hyperbomb and then your level three, you know,

is going to be a way cooler combo than just, huh, huh, ho, ho, ho. Like, you know, that the flash chop nonsense. We're going to get a- Hyperbomb to maintain its old, um, it's old, uh, 7-20, sorry, 360 input. Like just super easy super. Hyper, boom. Yeah.

Um, yeah, I think, uh, I think we're going to get a really sick level three version of boomerang raid, hopefully. Um, but no, what I want mechanically to, if they're having fun with this character is, like I said, he attacks. your drive makes you burn out and now when you're gray and tired he's doing crazy versions of all these grabs to you and then you can just

pick every single move from wrestling games and just throw them all in you know you could just replace any grab that he has and any of his moves for more showboaty version that's exactly what I mean you're more tired that's what I mean

yeah yeah you know um you know it's not enough to do just a power bomb. You gotta do a power bomb. Pick them back up into a Frankensteiner or, you know, like just, yeah, you just go higher the crazier spots with it, you know? And, uh, all of this with the heel energy of being like, and he's doing it a little more aggressively too, you know, I would love if they got creative like that with him. Um, I don't know. I, I, I, I'm hoping that we're going to get a Uh, so yeah, yeah, this is the, the other idea I came up with was like, you know how Armica has the long microphone kind of taunt or whatever for back in the day? So there's long taunts in six. What if Alex pulls out the mic and is like, and let me tell you another thing about JP. He, uh, they cut the mic off and he does, he goes for a pipe bomb and it throws the mic away because he, you know, you'd like it if his, um, his taunt gameplay came back.

Oh, rolling the arm? Yeah. Yeah, he had one of the few taunts that actually did something for real. Yeah, for sure. And they made that a part of his V-trigger, you know, in five. But I would love him to pull the mic out and go for the CM Punk pipe bomb and get his mic cut off before he says the real shit, you know? Let me tell you about the producers that work at Capcom.

One in particular, his name is... Ah! They cut my mic. Oh, man. let's have some fun. Let's have some fun. You know? He's a heel now. He's a lot to be salty. So that was a cool little preview and we haven't seen the gameplay yet. What is he coming? Didn't we didn't get the date yet, right? They just said quarter one. Like February or something?

Yeah, quarter one. So we got two months to go maybe. Well, when the gameplay trailer drops is when you get the actual date. The first one is... It would be quite soon after that. Definitely. I think it'll be at Frosty Fausting? No, no. I think we might get the trailer at Frosty.

But we'll see. And that energy is the polar and complete thorough opposite. From our contemporary, because over on the other side, we've got City of the Wolves. and oh yeah oh that was a fighting game week isn't it fighting games happened this week oh yeah i love how everyone put up the same video it every single person i know that i follow and subscribe to on youtube put up the exact same fucking video which is the city of the wharves uh fucking trailer reaction

and all of you you max jam everybody has the same fucking look on their face and that thumbnail I'll just, uh, who the fuck is this old man? What happened? Two seconds of watching going, oh, they're spending money on, oh, my God. No, they're not. They're spending nothing. So, uh, yeah. So shoutouts to the, the meme, the Simpsons meme with Homer, um, uh, talking to, I guess, like,

the Chinese, like, a librarian dude. S and K are back. That's good. They were bought by the Saudis. That's bad. Yeah. Oh, my God. They're making a new Fatal Fury.

That's good. It's poorly marketed. That's bad. It's got an open beta. That's good. The beta has lots of issues. That's bad. Season 1 DLC is free.

That's good. Oh, my God. The text is blurry. Anyway, it literally goes on... They put a rapist into the game. That's bad. That's bad. Um, oh, God damn it. Where'd it go?

Uh, it's it, it, it, the game itself is mid as hell. That's also bad. Uh, I think I, I, I, I, I enjoyed it a bit more than that, but they left the balance in a shambled state for a long time, uh, not being addressed. Um, all right, well, where that game is mid as hell to that game is somewhat mid. Here we go, here we go. Sorry, I found, I found the, the, the rest of it. And like they covered all of it. They're bought by the Saudis. That's bad. They're making a new fatal free. That's good. It's poorly marketed. That's bad.

It's an open beta. That's good. The beta has lots of issues. That's bad. Season 1 DLC is free. That's good. The base roster has two problematic guests. That's bad.

How new characters come at a steady pace. That's good. Season 1 also has two guests. That's bad. The guests are from Street Fighter. That's good. They don't help address balance concerns. That's bad.

The World Championship has a huge prize pot. That's good. It was poorly split between competitors. That's bad. It won, fighting game of the year. That's good. Largely because there was little competition. That's bad. They used AI to announce

generative A.I. to announce season two. That's bad. That's bad. Have throw loops been patched out of Street Fighter 6 yet? No, they're never going to get patched out. That's an intentional part of the game. That games been around for like two years now. They clearly

like throw loops. Get better at dealing with throw loops. Look, all I can say is when you look at, a lot of people were thinking that this AI trailer, which when you cut it out and they just put the gameplay of the characters are like, hey, look, here's 30 seconds of these new characters. It's Wolfgang Krauser. Look, he's cool. You know, and then run the logo. Shut up. And now the rest of the trailer looks like a cheap TikTok somebody generated to steal your eyes about which room you would stay in for 24 hours.

I mean, like, again, like, there's a moment where geese punches through a grave and it goes the wrong way, but it's not about the quality. It doesn't matter. The point... Yeah, Geese Howard, the guy with a famously known for having an American flag on his Ghee. He had, in the old ones, he had an American flag on the back of his Ghee. But like, he does it in this game. Not in this, no. The idea that this was something they came up with at the last second and, uh, they just

did it quickly is not true because they previewed it with the, the whole building a couple days in advance, saying, you know, with the, the wolves are back or whatever. and it's more of this is what they said they were going to do when Saudis bought EA, right? The whole thing with that $30 billion of debt that needs to come down was we're going to save money by using AI.

Well, why wouldn't that also apply to every other property they own, including one like this? Apparently, other people, the American marketing team had no, the marketing team had no idea this was coming and were like mad about it, Arica was mad about it

as someone that was working on the game as well. You had fucking Obari doing animated work on this thing and then you pull this off and no one knew that it was going to be a part of the thing and they just drop it overnight on people and it's absolute fucking just

dreck. This was always part of the plan. This is how they're going to go forward with everything that they buy out. And it's just like you could have simply cut the seconds of gameplay that the 30 seconds and just did that. And somehow the vibes get even worse. They get even worse. Can I say something really brave? This game is not good enough to put up with all of this stupid nonsense.

It's infinity cursed, dude. It's fucking infinity cursed. The be all end all. lighting game of all time and it had a bunch of bullshit on it, then everyone could we could all sit here and hem and haw about like, but it's the best game that's ever been released ever.

And we could all grapple with our own bullshit or whatever. Not this one. It ain't. It's nowhere near good enough to constantly put up with this shit. It ain't SF6. It ain't. It ain't.

Hey, Willie. you know that guy or that girl you knew that would always make excuses for their significant other and then you met them and you're like yo this guy stinks when I when I talk or hear people talk about City of the Wolves this is the guy

this guy I feel I gave up the nursing program for this dude I feel like what they the gameplay-wise, what they made is like a good sequel to Garrow, but it has got so many other issues outside of the gameplay around it, including even just like, because when you see things where you're like, oh, the visual style is going for like this pop thing or whatever,

they're doing this, they're trying these things visually to look to more stylish than usual or whatever. Like everything else that it's plagued with and the fact that every other announcement about it is something where you're just like, oh Jesus Christ what the fuck is wrong with you it's just like you're fighting against your nostalgia and you're fighting against your childhood

and you're fighting against like this thing that you've wanted a sequel to forever to just be like unmolested you know what I mean by just every molested every nefarious business interest possible but it seems like like

when they announced the sequel to this game you know it was also going to be like just the test bed platform for all their experimental bullshit and forcing their their marketing into it. Like every single thing that we would complain about outside of video games, there are about video games. All of them are in this one game. Yeah, no, the most monkey paw ass like wish coming true you've ever seen. Apparently, like, so like, um, um, Rufelmonger was saying that like, uh, there are, the marketing team also didn't, there's so much like communication fallout that like the marketing

team also didn't know about stuff like the, uh, the WrestleMania promotion or the boxing stuff that was happening. Like that was all just happening and they woke up and saw it one day. So again, Saudi Arabia is just off doing its own thing right now that the marketing team, uh, behind them doesn't know what they're doing because they sent me an offer and then said, can you sign this? And we'll tell you what the game is afterwards. yeah i'm not going to do that yeah and then and then they came around like a couple weeks later it was like it was about sitting in the walls i'm like i fucking knew it was the energy the the energy the the the the the the the trepidation in your energy betrays your your your product my friend

um it's just a big secret okay send me an nda no we want to really lock down who's going to be part of the promotion first i'm like oh so you You think people would not sign this if they knew what the promotion was? No. Yeah, I've told you, I've told you, but there's a couple versions of that. Fucking idiots. I feel like what, uh, the one thing I can say is that like the pretty much universal, like, backlash at this thing from everyone.

Like, people who are like, like, nah, fuck this from day one. People who were like, fuck this with the Rinaldo shit. People who are like, fuck this with the MBS shit. You know, people who were like, I, that were still like going like, yeah, you know, I mess around from time to time. Everyone, everyone is absolutely just like completely over it. And like, I, one would hope that that would make a difference.

But I have my doubts because I also remember that like some of this. like SNK was being purchased, for example, was almost like a spite purchase, you know, because it was like, hey, I'm a fan of these games, I love them, et cetera. But there was always this, this, like, there was always this part of things where it was like, yeah, we've got money and we can buy all the things you love.

What can you do about it? Cry more, too bad, you know? So I kind of feel like what... Cry more is an insane perspective when we're talking about, like, purchases. Well, that's what I... It's like, but didn't... I'm just going to not do it. But you're devaluing the thing you bought,

and didn't you like it too to begin with? Like, if you're driving it into the ground, like, it's one thing if it says, this is the Bobby Codic guitar hero situation of like, we are actively trying to kill this

and squeeze blood from the stone. But if you're buying the, with the idea that, no, we want to, you know, increase the fucking shareholder value, et cetera,

you're like, why would you take this approach? I think, I think that, So us, us peasants have this weird idea about people who run businesses is that they want the businesses to do well and make money. And I am of the belief that people who run every business are so fundamentally disconnected from the realities of even basic economics that they're all basically just flying off to see their pants and vibes. And I want to do it. And if I want to do it, I'm rich.

And that means it's a good idea because I'm already rich. So that means I'm smart. See the recent interviews with the Kraft and CEO or the Roblox CEO. or the Microsoft CEO or any other week of this podcast literally every single episode right? Anyway, I think what we get here is

that this is a game that they're willing to throw under the bus to try out things like the AI trailer that costs nothing to make and see if they can... There's always more games to buy. Certainly, and there's more companies to buy too. But I think that like this is this is something that is like going to be replicated and every other purchase they've made.

And you're going to see trailers like this, you know, pushed in other genres and other purchases and other things. And they're going to see how much backlash there is and how, you know, like do people that are, are people going to get mad about this in the EA FIFA world? You know, if we make an AI only trailer for FIFA, is that going to be a problem? No, yes. What's the level of rage to just casual? Who cares? Whatever.

Football, go. You know? And every other property that they get, right? You're going to start to see it more and more. But you're getting it in this small scale game that desperately fucking, this thing that, the sequel that needed to exist that has a whole lot of like beloved history behind it, as opposed to a massive behemoth quadrupley franchise that tanks this type of shit and just keeps going anyway because they walk through it.

Yeah. So apparently things don't tank that kind of stuff. shit. I don't know if you saw, but Codick was talking about how Call of Duty's numbers are like down like 60% over from last year, right? That was part of the lawsuit. Yeah. Yeah. That's the only really juicy

tidbit out of it is that, yeah, you know, they're actually running that shit dry. Well, that horse is good and dead and beaten. Well, granted, 40% of Call of Duty sales is still more than anybody else will ever make.

But still, well, you know, like I said before, like this is not a bubble. It is a dome shield. And while the dome shield is active, we got to run our fucking, we got to run these trailers. We got to get this footage up there and use it while we have it. So expect to see more of these. I don't think the, I don't expect the amount of backlash they got from this is going to change their course on any of that shit. They don't give a fuck. The people who are, the people who are at the cost.

company, S&K, are very much affected by this and are completely not able to control how the marketing team handles shit. And it's been that case from day one. And I, you know, fucking sucks for those folks because this is going to continue to just dominate the conversation. So that was happening. I'm like five steps ahead of you. I don't have conversations about city of the walls. I only have them on this spot. because I couldn't give less of a shit about that fucking game. Fair enough. I just,

I get to watch the slowest fall into the abyss ever. It's just, it's, I don't think that's true. I think that putting Ronaldo in that game was like a kick into the abyss and everything else is just throwing some more goo into it. Well, so what we're seeing now in this conversation I'm describing is the accelerationist movement.

of people that are like, I am an S&K fan that thinks they need to face bankruptcy a second time so that they can get sold and thus potentially saved. Like, the only way out of this is down. And it's not the craziest thing I've heard. It is not the craziest thing I've heard.

Like, the S&K accelerationist is actually a take that I'm willing to end. entertain here at the end of all things. Boy, just please throw your fucking toy story toys away and say, you know, I'm fucking done with you. Just, uh, anyways. Um, so yes, as it is a fighting game week. So there was all that.

And then we mentioned to as well, uh, the season one 20, uh, uh, 2XCO patch drops today. or tomorrow It does? Well, tonight I thought it dropped like Oh, okay Technically But yeah

So I gotta tell you, Willie I have never I've never had a game Forced me to walk back My own comments More often than 2XCO Mm-hmm

I legitimately like I was like This game sucks This roster is awful And then they put Blitz And Timo in there And Warwick I'm like

Shit, it's good game I was like Man Caitlin sucks and I think this is like the worst possible choice for the roster possible. And then they put out that trailer where she has a new hat. And I'm like, that's a good pick. She got a new hat. Oh, the Splatoon outfit.

Yeah, she got a new hat. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Good character. The Splatoon outfits all look pretty solid. There's a whole, I think frame perfect is what they're called or whatever. Yeah, I like that stuff.

Well, that's actually the Battle Pass. thing for her. The frame perfect stuff is just for Ari and Echo. Okay. Ari already has like five skins, so we've got our Chunle. We've got our, we've got our fucking skin beast. And everyone is like, hey, yeah,

if you're a League of Legends fan, this is old news. It's like first time Ari's very popular. She's going to get the most of everybody. Expect that shit to come disproportionately. I ultimately, like I said, like Caitlin with her trailer, so we talked about it

before already's, but I'm like, her kid doesn't speak to me as much. I like the Aegis Reflector idea, but I'm, you know, whatever. It's, it's, I'm happy in to get to the next one. Beyond that, though, um, the only other things I wanted to say about it, because, you know, we've covered for it for the most part. Big juggernaut changes coming and I'm very interested to see whether they make a difference or not, because they sound scary on paper. I would just like to be able to play that mode to learn a character. That's, that's the, I, like, that's what I want that mode for. I want that, I want Juggernaut mode to be real so that people who don't like 2V2 games can feel more comfortable playing this option, right? Um, because in like CVS2, you could play one character and dominate if you were nice with it.

Right? You could do that. It was viable. And Skull Girls, it was kind of nuts, but it was still an option that was there. The balance is a bit more all over the place. Um, I want it to be a real option for. people that are like, I don't like tag fighters. I just want to play my one character. You know, unfortunately, you're still going to have to fight against two people, but if you're good enough with one, I would love that to be viable, you know? So they're buffing it, and I want to see that thrive because it's a cool, it's a cool thing to make a tag game that is optional, you know, tag optional.

I like the idea. With the console launch. They showed off a million costumes, and they all look really well made. hate almost all of them. I don't, I don't hate them. I like, I like, I like, the casual wear stuff. Um,

no, I mean like the bees. Oh, yeah. I'm like, oh, maybe they'll have a, maybe they'll have a,

I forgot about the list that I'll like, oh, what if they're the fucking bee? It's for someone, man. That shit's for somebody, dude. You just,

you know, you stick to your, your hoodie boxer, uh, uh, blitz. I don't have that one either. You know,

I, because I, you feel, Like, it feels unfortunate that they're picking only a few characters for some of them, because, like, what was it, Crime City or whatever? Like, a Crime City Blitz suit would be fucking awesome. Yeah, it would be. But not everybody gets that, you know?

So, meh. Anyway, though, that side of it, aside, the console launch is there, and it's all crossplay now. So, cool. Let's see how that works. Can't wait to really see what. the fucking rollback to Cannon Brothers test stress test looks like.

It's going to be so sick to beat up a new audience of players that have never played the game before. Xbox gamers on Wi-Fi jumping into the fray. Show us what you've got. Let's put these servers to the test because this is what we've been waiting on, right? They talked a big game about rollback

two. Now let's actually see it. And I will, the only other thing I wanted to say is just I think the biggest flob, the biggest flub, the biggest downside, an absolute fuck-up missed opportunity with a launch of this to consoles and season one is the lack of couch co-op online. Yeah, it's a big disappointment. That's an insanely, insanely huge ball drop.

What a dumb thing to not prioritize right off the bat. I know they said they're like, it's not a priority. We'll get to that eventually. Like, just let two people on the same couch play together. online. It's it's an obvious thing. People who are like, you know, I've fought against couples that are playing together, you know, you can tell by their names that they're a pair, you know what I mean? I fought against people that are like using it as a hangout on Friday nights and stuff like that. Like let people on the same couch just jump online together, man. It's a no-brainer

for a game where you're- Just duplicate the account. That's it. You're pushing 2V2 as a thing. Just make that a possibility, you know? And like, if you want to, if you want to, if you're you don't want it to be a ranked thing, make it casual only then. Fine. Make it so that ranked you need two ranked accounts, but casual you can't, you can duplicate. Like, it doesn't matter, you know, but that that really, really is a flub. Um, yeah, and there were other stuff too where, um, I saw like, you know, people were stressing about completing the battle pass as it was getting towards the end of the, the season because there's a ramp up in, in XP requirement on it. Uh, I'm not too sure because like just regular play like completed it fairly normally.

Yeah, well regular play means different things, different people. I guess, right? I think it's- I completed every single daily and weekly for like nine weeks. Yeah, it sounds like people who, um, jumped on, played a few weeks, jumped off and then came back in the week before it ended, didn't have enough time to complete the battle pass. So there was a, there was a very strange thing that happened.

One is that you can buy battle pass levels. but you can't buy the last couple, which is not surfaced anywhere, actually. So people were like, oh, cool, I'm like level 69 or 70, and then I'll just buy the last like four for like five bucks. And it's like no fucking ready, bitch. And the last six levels take four times as much experience.

Right, the ramp up. That's what I heard about. Yeah. So that's your little like, hey, bitch, I guess you got to do it. The other thing is that the season zero lasted significantly longer than their seasons are going to in the first place. it lasts like four months instead of three.

So what happened was that week 10 or 11, weeklies just stopped being added to the game. But the assumption by most people would be that weeklies would be added every single week until the season one came out. So they would just, they could burn out like all the weeklies with two weeks to go and they'd be fine. So your XP game got throttled as well. Yeah.

No, and it's a bit odd because they did announce to that like the, seasons are going to be longer than usual and they're going to have some seasons that will have like two characters in them instead of one actually. I thought that Marvel rivals solved this, right? Isn't that the deal where Marvel rivals has the battle pass that never expires? It does. And essentially, like, if you buy it during its availability, then you can go back and get that whatever.

You just have to switch to it and then decide to put your experience into that. So it depends. on how you describe the phrase solved. Okay. Because do you mean solved for the player or do you mean solved

for the bank account of the company selling you the time limited skins? Yes. If it is a free progression thing, then... Because League and Valerance have definitely,

definitely solved this because they use the exact same progression and timing and all the, and feasibility. And one of the weird things is in the season one trailer. It says,

season zero, skins are coming back, which to me says that that's like a not given that every skin will always be in rotation forever? The rotation is going to be strict. I could see that being a thing because like Street Fighter 5, for example, a bunch of those costumes, you had

two chances ever to get them. There was like the Monster Hunter costumes and Devil May Cry tie-in stuff that popped up like two, maybe three times and sometimes it was like almost a year between opportunities and shit. So if you're playing 2X Cote and you see a

costume that you're like absolutely desperate for. I guess you have to buy it because it may never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever come back. Oh, look, there's the Darry. There's Crime City Darius in the rotation now regularly after that. Yeah, but maybe he'll never come back after this season. You don't know.

Maybe he's console players. Because I saw that. And I was like, oh, they just broke it up and put it in anyway. Okay. I am of the opinion that the idea of taking costumes for fighting game characters that have had this much work into them put away forever is ridiculous. That's great. That's nuts. But they can totally hold on to them for months, if not years. Okay. So previously, so rivals lets you, if you let's you keep the battle pass active forever as long as you bought it.

Are there any games that let you switch back to an older battle pass and? Halo Infinite does. And that doesn't expire without buying? Yeah. Well, without buying? Without buying? I don't know. Because, you know, basically the conversation is you should win things by playing. Hell divers. Hell divers gives it to you for free. Hell divers just has everything infinite forever.

Okay. And Deep Rock Galactic at the end of the battle pass for the next season, they just put everything that was in it into like random loot drops. Okay. Man, I would love to get into Deep Rock Galactic, but it's only me, almost every single moment of the day that plays at the hours that I do. Sucks. like that game is the best like follow up to left for dead

and like I am just not available at the times of day that anybody is available to play held Everest 2 is not a free to play game though no it's not you're paying an upfront cost and purchasing the main game and then that that stuff is coming after the fact yeah right so rivals being free to play up front is more of a analog

to the two XCO situation since you're not paying for the game upfront. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So that makes a bit more sense to me then. Um, they got to, they got to drag the money out of your ass. They do. They do. And that's the, the thought process is if essentially, if we're getting, I can see the, I can see how if you bought it, then fucking whatever, you take your, take your content and choose whatever you want, you paid, you know, um, the, the, the free to play thing going, we got it, we, you, we got to get you somehow. So that's going to be doing one of these events or getting the battle pass if you want it later

or saving up these coins three weeks and then getting your character or whatever. We're trying to get you to spend something. We know you'd like to get it all and never spend the assent on the game, but fuck you, buy now, FOMO go. Hey, Wully, can I take a second? There's something that I'm a little bit frustrated by and I guess it's my own doing. So I don't know if you've ever said this where you're like,

ah damn, I wish I could play this, but you know, the it's just not I'm not available at the times or I don't have the time to do so. Oh yeah. Like I just did with Deep Rock Galactic and people always do one of two things. They go, oh, well, such and such discord is always bumping or oh, I'm free. I'll play. I want to play with what I say? I mean, with my friends.

My friends are busy during the hours that I'm available to play Deep Rock Galactic. I don't mean fucking random people I've never met. that I'm not going to be on voice chat. Yeah, yeah, that's a real feeling. I had that feeling enough times with Titanfall 2 that I just sadly gave up and just started booting in solo and just going online. And there was a solid, like, stretch of maybe eight months or so

where any given random night, if you logged into Titan Fall 2, you might see me online, just fucking doing it. Yeah. You know, because I was just like, I want to play, and I'm not going to bother people I know, you know, to be like, hey, let's get on. Dude, that sucks. Now that we're almost 40, being like, hey, guys, I'm up. It's 2 a.m. Is anybody, does anyone want to play a game of Apex?

Yeah, yeah. And people are all doing their own things, because it's late as fucking night. You know, I grabbed a couple folks for some rivals games, you know, a while back. But, like, it does feel like you're bothering everybody. It really does. And the other thing is like, man, like any, like, left for dead, you could totally play that with random people, right? There's not enough, like, complexity going on that, like, you know, most random people, they need to shoot and they need to not wake up the witch. Something like Deep Rock or, like, lethal company or repo or phasmophobia, I would rather just fucking punch my own dick than have to deal with complicated, like, fucking mechanics.

or navigating somewhere with random people over voice chat. Like, that sounds like the absolute most miserable fucking experience. Man, I tried to get people to fucking log on for Anthem and just nobody wanted to do it. You know, I tried to have a big old... You're ruining this discussion. You're ruining this talk with your anthem. I tried to have a big old sendoff and nobody wanted to jump in. No, you're tainting the legit.

of this discussion with your fucking anthem bullshit. Turned the punch bowl. Well, hey, look, shoutouts to what Austin eruption, who just put out the, I played 100% of anthems so you don't have to. What a fucking waste of time unless you make a video about it. Which he did. And now that the game is dead, no one else will ever be able to. Yeah. Reminds me of those people that were like freaklining fucking Concord to get like to see like I have lots of matches of Concord on my channel.

You can't get matches of your channel. Apparently there's a bunch of just people working on the offline servers by the way. There are people working on it. There's modding people. Oh, my God. And and it. Go garden or knit something of value. What a waste of the fucking time.

The conclusion drawn at the end of the day was there's actually some. stuff here that could have been cool if this were put out by a company that's named wasn't bioware. Are you familiar? Are you familiar with the phrase throwing good money after bad? Good money after bad? Yeah. Of course you are. This is not that. This is throwing good time after bad. Well, listen, because of this, I also just... The ultimate insunk cost. I just discovered that there is a four-hour-long podcast with the Anthem executive producer describing the truth about what happened from 2011 to 2026.

See, that's way more interesting. And I will, and that deep dive is there. I didn't know this was a thing until right now. So yeah, that's way more interesting. Mike Dara himself is like, okay, let's get into it from, and it's a full-on four-hour video. And it starts out with like just, camera shooting Kim at a desk going, all right, let's talk about it.

So I am super curious to find out. Bro, marathons coming up. Isn't that going to be fun? Marathon is happening. Voice actors confirmed, you know? That's like seven weeks, man. Yo, anti-real is just, I want to believe that anti-reel has just got the money counter going Oh no, that was a lump sum for sure

Oh, that was a lump sum for sure Oh, you're taking points on the fucking back end of Marathon What are you insane? You're fucking mine Did you want a percentage? No Fucking Holy shit put a lump sum in my pockets, please.

Yo, what the worst financial advisor ever What a, what a phantom? Well, fuck it, who gives a shit? Who yeah, sure, fuck it. High guard. High guard's out next week, dog. They didn't pay for that space at the end of the game awards.

You can tell. I would, dude, I'd be shitting. I'd be shitting my ass. They haven't even tweeted. They haven't done nothing. There's nothing on that game. There's nothing. Next week.

Next week. On Monday. We joined the guard in seven days. Let's go. let's go garden nutters stand up rise let's in seven days in seven days

we get high fucking cock for too oh I love it one is down and right into the next baby one down and we keep it moving there's always

got to be another oh fuck I keep your eye keep your eye fucking peeled on that one let's see what's going on there this this is just going to be like

this is just going to be a follow up to the final thing I have to say about 2XCO today because of I mentioned Rune Terra and we talked about collectible card games and all that and we talk about

City of the Wolves all these battle passes hey you know what 2XCO is not going to have a fucking problem with selling fucking items in that free to play game every single fucking time I have ever loaded up into 2XCO

I have fought people that I can see have spent over $40 to $50. Selling items is a thing in what? When I say items, I mean purchasable. Oh, micro-trajections in general. Sorry, sorry. Okay, I thought you meant

like items in game. Like I was like, well, what items? Like every single fucking time I load into a match, you can look at people and see a bare minimum of money spent. And like I, it's literally every single person playing that game has spent like at least a little bit of money. Like that it is not the fucking Roon Terra problem. Um, booting into rivals of Ather 2 and looking at the store like, I'm surprised like, so these games have found new things that you can like get cosmetic micros on and and get transactions on like they have like the explosions when you kill somebody off the side. of the stage and stuff like that. Yeah. And then they had like stage skins,

which is really interesting because I'm like, you're going to, if you have variants of a stage, like, I'm kind of wondering, like, does that affect your online, like, lag in any way? Because people will sometimes pick a stage that has low latency, specifically because there's less effects going on, you know, depending on your computer or whatever. You can always find another layer of,

of, uh, whatever, aesthetic things. to go down and sell, right? I mean, shit, man. Like, I didn't, I didn't go check it, but I saw, like, the fucking life bars in Street Fighter 6 looks so fucking cool. But, like, weren't they really expensive or something? I didn't see what the actual deal was, but I don't know.

Apparently, they're, like, they're pricey. But there's life bars for, like, Street Fighter 2, Street Fighter 3, and 4 and 5 that you can drop into 6 now. So, anyway, um, All right, all that aside. And speaking of stages and performance issues, yo, the Monster Hunter community is fucking nuts. They are.

These stories keep happening. And the one this week is a doozy. It sure is, Willie. It sure is. One player. It's a great segue in talking about micro-transactions. One player De Tile Moran

on Reddit Very big optimization nerd By the way A huge nerd about game performance Went in and had a giant post Where they basically solved The reason why Monster Hunter Wilds Has tons of performance issues

So I went into a lot of detail on this So I can give you a much more comprehensive breakdown The reasons are the most bad shit fucking insane, goofy things that are... Like, talk about your damnation of modern gaming, right? Like, just the cause and effect of modern practices resulting in this type of quality of life reduction. Yeah. So, let's go down the list of shit, right? Because there's a million, right?

So first of all, Monster Hunter Wilds released a terrible fucking performance, like abysmal performance. And it used like frame gen to like make up that performance, but it barely worked. Second of all, they said, hey, we're going to improve the performance on PC in like a year. And we're coming up on the end of that year now. The final performance patch on PC is supposed to be in February, right? following that, they released a patch that massively broke the game's shader cache, which actually decreased performance significantly for everyone. So you had to manually do a bunch of window shit to delete your shader cache.

And on the Monster Hunter Wild's Steam page, it literally shows you the steps you have to do. And all I could think of is, hey, shouldn't the fucking game do that if the game broke itself? It doesn't just boot up and warm the shaders? No, no. You have to go and manually delete it because there was a patch that caused the shader cache to file it wrong.

Okay. So, and every couple of months, there's something that basically goes, okay, I found out the problem with Monster Hunter Wilds' performance. And they're all real, right?

And when somebody brought this up to me, I was like, that's probably true. But the real reason, Monster Wilds is performing badly is because the game has not been optimized on the PC at all. Like they literally just didn't. That's why we keep finding these new fucking things. So here's the new thing. Gentlemen, who's a massive big performance nerd who sent in bugs for Dragon's Dogma's performance,

so he's familiar with the Reach for the Moon engine. And Digital Foundry confirmed all these findings, by the way. So he's trying to figure out what. the fuck is going on in the hub. So it's really strange. Monster Hunter Wilde does not have a visually impressive hub. Like the online multiplayer

one is pretty cool. But like the little small settlements that you hang out in, they're not actually like pushing a bunch of juice. But for some reason, they fuck up your frame rate pretty bad. It's really strange. And he was talking to a friend of his who described, well,

I don't have any problems there. So he goes, okay. So it lost. into his friend's account, and sure enough, on the same computer on his friend's account, the performance is much better, much better, significantly better. And he switches back to his account and goes, what? It's actually worse. It is actually the Steam account that is causing the change in performance.

What could this be? Well, his friend is a rich guy, and his friend just bought every single deal. that ever existed because money is no object because he's just a rich guy. And it turns out what's happening is that the DLC counter character in the hub is checking thousands of times a second to see if you have every DLC installed and keeps checking unless it determines that the DLC is installed, which ties up a huge proportion of your CPU cycles and drops performance horrid. horribly. Every time I've ever heard about like memory leaks and just shitty jobs programming, these are the types of decisions and code. This is the type of code that seems to be behind it. Things that keep checking for something. So for example, booting up strive, it took fucking five minutes to get to the main menu because it checked whether the servers, and it was pinging Japanese

servers up some 300, 400 times from the moment you pressed start, right? Yeah. Um, The fact that your lack of DLC purchases makes the game run worse is some biblical fucking nightmare shit. Like, you want to talk about, we used the term years ago, reversal edge, fear of missing out. You know, the fomo of not having something. Now it's like, no, not having it, it makes your game get worse by not having it. It's not even about you want the thing. It's you need the thing for your shit to run. It's fucking crazy, man.

So, yeah, it is hundreds. I'm watching a 47 second video in which it checks for DLC fucking 7,000 times. Yeah, this is so, this is the type of thing that is like, it can't possibly be intended. But oh my God, just the fact that it's real. It just speaks volumes. Because again, this is not the first time. There's been a story about shitty Monster Hunter, Wilde's optimization and PC issues and whatnot and telling people to go dig into files to solve their problems.

But coming from something that does not need to be there, that never needed to be there, that some people actively hate and that I actively, and that like the things that make games worse over time, the transactions and the muddying up and the mini buys and all that shit, now coming back in to make a thing that runs actually false. worse is just it's fucking poetic so will they have a question for you because you are an expert in testing like you you have a lot of knowledge and i have a suspicion that this bug is a test failure because the question becomes how did capcom not notice this and my assumption is that the internal testing they did for pc was on clients that had all the dLC unlocked therefore

the game would never surface this problem. Does this issue occur on consoles? No. Only PC. Only PC. Yeah. So on console testing, going in with multiple different DLC configurations is a mandatory compliance thing.

There's tons of test cases dedicated to having DLC 2, but not one. DLC 3 and 1, but not 2 and 4, and every permutation in between. There is a major component of this that happens every time you add anything to the game. And anytime there's something that can be affected by it or somebody that did have the DLC saves the game or whatever, deletes it and then goes back in, how does it treat that? There's all these different permutations, but that's all not PC standards. That is Microsoft standards. That's Sony standards.

That's Nintendo standards, right? PC shit tends to be wild, wild fucking west. There's a couple of steam checklist things. you do overall, but it's nowhere near as diligent and aggressive about it. So that's why these things like to happen. So that explains the second question that people asked was, how come this didn't happen for Monster Hunter Rise? And the answer is because Monster Hunter Rise is a Nintendo Switch game.

Ported after the fact. Ported to PC. Yeah. Yeah. Every time you see some loose handling of this shit, you can assume it's because, yeah, PC testing, PC compliance is not really a thing. It's up to the dev to do whatever they want. but you can get away with all kinds of shit, you know.

So Capcom should have done their due diligence and replicated the same testing on PC, but it looks like they just didn't. So that's the other problem is depending on what your lead platform is, depending on how you've set up your test cases and your structure. Sometimes PC is an afterthought. Sometimes you get people that are coming in going, okay, regress some of these bugs on other platforms, see if they still happen. And then for PC, just do a couple of PC-specific things,

because for the most part, it should be fine, right? Every tester play on a different level of hardware and, you know, do a couple of runs and see how it goes. But shit like this is absolutely substandard PC testing. Because PC testing is a place where, believe it or not, you can save money because there's no submission costs and because you don't have to be as stringent about your guidelines, You can, the developer can be like, throw 10 people on Sony, throw 10 people on Microsoft, and throw two people on PC, you know?

There was a very interesting thing during the Resident Evil showcase, which sucked, by the way, where they had an Nvidia partner talk about how Nvidia was supporting RE9 really good. And like, they basically stood there and was like, we promise that performance for RE9 will be good on your computer. Which was a really fucking weird thing to say, except, oh, your other big game that sold a lot last year performs like shit on everyone's computer. Yeah, man. This is the type of thing that, like, as, you know, they're talking about, like, steam machines are coming and you're kind of kind of have this standardized, like, you know, system that should be able to treat PC games as, like, solid things you don't have to worry about. like if you if this kind of shit continues it's just going to be like yeah you can get one of those but why fucking bother if this if everything they put out is going to struggle you know um i i want to say that um what was um i like there were some pieces i'm trying to remember what they were but there were PC issues with street fighter six as well like re engine stuff um on launch or back when the demo came came out. I feel like there's a couple things we talked about that are but are escaping me now. But in any case, if it's not the lead platform or it continues to be an afterthought, this is the type

of shit you're going to see. I saw the end of that person's thread as well. The tester basically said essentially like a threat, which was. Yeah, I'm not going to release this mod because it skips DLC checks and people could use it nefariously. But if they do not patch the game within two patches to fix this, I will release them on. Open source. Which is way, way, way kinder and more like forgiving than, like, he could just put that fucking shit out. Well, this is on the same level of that like, hey, I fixed your net code.

Everyone, you can install this like fucking 12 kilobyte file, you know, and then you can, and then you get your official thing that like breaks that and goes, no, don't fucking, we don't support user. solutions or whatever. It's like, yeah, you have to answer this, right? It's definitive. And again, you have like digital foundry coming and after the fact going, yep, everything found here checks out. I am now looking at a gentleman's thread in which he is describing that because he had so many friends on his Xbox friends list that in 2017 when they put out the new X-Bexamines list.

that in 2017 when they put out the new Xbox experience or whatever that his inputs were getting eaten by packets because the fucking friends list data checks were taking priority and that he was

losing inputs in Halo the NXE the NXE baby let's go bring back fuck the blades were all at XC I remember for the longest time we were like

I like the yeah I like the I like the blade. We talked about the blades, you know? I like the blades. It was like, bring back the fucking blades. Nah, you got to see the bottom of a, of a, of, I was going to say a me. Yes, of a me's foot.

What was, was it an avatar? Avatar. See the bottom of an avatar's foot. That was so sick because you want to see the bottom and then the fucking thing broke all of its arms and legs to do it. And they were like, it's incredible. And I'm like, this looks like a pile of fucking shit. Okay.

So for, for all. the kids out there that might not remember the blades, the original Xbox 360 launch layout where each screen was like a different folder, like a manila folder slice, but it was like a blade. And as you slid through them, they made like a cool noise. They went like, and when you went through all of them, one after the other, it sounded like a transformer going, I liked it. It worked. The blades. It was really simple and it worked. Never forget the blades, man. Yeah, yeah, yeah. All right. What else happened?

Well, there was the, this is a fucking weird one, but a bunch of V-Tuber channels on YouTube noticed that YouTube started apparently cracking down and deleting custom subtitles on videos. Holo Live videos were getting mostly impacted because there were a couple of hidden formats that allowed a wide range of styling options on subtitles, and basically they started wiping those out, deleting them. Now, I use the auto-generated thing that sucks. And so the theory, not confirmed,

but people are basically suspecting, the reason why they started deleting all of this is because they want to push the AI-generate, auto-generated subtitles, exactly. And this shit's, like, I have some incredible folks that, like, reached out. I remember when I put out the Guilty Gear lore videos, that were like, hey, do you mind if I translate this into Spanish? Hey, do you mind if I translate this into multiple languages?

And they sent and submitted, you know, these like the full lore video translations. And it's like, that's incredible. That's just the crowd from different communities coming together and translating them. And then in each case, when you have that available, people from those countries and those regions are like, hey, I can watch and check out this thing now. Like, it's a really cool, useful feature that, you know, it's not, I wouldn't, I wouldn't, you don't expect a random fucking let's play video to have something like that. But a lore video, absolutely, with a script, you know?

So I fucking just absolutely and shittification of everything, you know, uh, continues. And in this case, it's a simple feature and made some people do some fancy ass subtitles that looked, I guess, like anime OPs where you'd have the little like, ooh, sing along effect and colors and shit like that. And nah, you got to use our auto generated shit. as if it weren't bad enough we ever clicked on a video and then right off the bat you hear a weird dubbed auto-dubbed

thing with my voice it's crazy don't like it it's fucking nuts there's a weird feature that sometimes just turns itself on where it auto-dubs you

I haven't turned off for my account sometimes I find a video and it's still on it just bugs itself out and you hear yourself auto-dubbed in Japanese or in Spanish or whatever the fuck You know?

Intelligible and I don't mean like Because I don't speak that language I mean literally there are people in the comments going I speak this language I can't understand this shit at all Yeah I want to say there was like a Like was it like the Mai trailer

There was like a trailer that popped up That was like immediately everyone watching it Just got pushed into a weird fucking dub And it's just like no it's Chunli And Chunli versus Mai yeah It's crazy like I don't know what the fuck Is going on behind the scenes there, but

pissing off the V-tuber community does not seem like a wise opening move for your, whatever the fuck the subtitle situation is going to be from here on out. They are, they are, they are very upset that the colors of the subtitles can no longer be pretty

and cool and that you're also deleting people's hard work. That's fucking trash, man. Let channels opt in at the very least to your bullshit instead of forcing these things on. And the same way that what people can't see is like behind the scenes, all these new tabs have popped up like auto generate a thumbnail, right, based on what people are talking about.

Need video ideas, right? There's one that is just maybe the most disgusting one I've encountered, which is it goes in your comments and goes, hey, would you like to select this auto generated reply to your comments? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's been there for a minute. There's auto. Like, no, why would I? Yeah, here's my

most of my comment responses are, hey, fuck off. And I want that to come from the heart. But here you have the full on, like, this is what people are talking about. So this is what your next video idea should be. And here's a thumbnail for you. We've gotten you started. Now you just need to go actually make it. It's, yeah, a lot of that shit is happening behind the scenes, nightmarish.

And so it's not, because it's not as front facing, You know, it takes all while for some of this to bleed out. And people are using it and they're going, I don't understand why my video isn't blowing up. I'm doing everything I'm supposed to. I did all the things that the YouTube robot told me to do to be interesting. They promised I'd be doing big numbers. Yeah.

Like, I always think of that one. It actually kind of says that. It kind of says that in that stuff. But like, that one tweet of like the comic of like the dude who like makes a tweet a post. Oh yeah. This is doing numbers.

Oh, man. This is doing numbers. It's got like six retweets. It's like, oh, man. But if you laugh about it, you look like an asshole. I know, I know. You look like a massive person. But it's doing big numbers.

Sweatin. Ah, shit. All right. So are we just hastening the nightmare by locking people inside real fallout vaults now? what's going on? What? A reality TV show is going to put people inside of fall. They're going to do Survivor, but in like a room.

Fallout themed. Yeah. I saw the part of the story where they said this is going to be called, um, uh, fallout shelter. Fallout shelter. And wasn't that literally the name of the mobile game that? Yeah, it is. Okay.

Well, did we just forget or who gives a, No, that's on purpose. Okay. Yeah. So we're Mr. Beasting it. Absolutely. Cool, cool, cool. Do we release mutants and...

I fucking hope so. Yeah, I mean, you have to spend enough time for the experiments to bear fruit, right? I think it's like three weeks. For cash prizes. Yeah, man. Um, yeah, I just, it's, it's, it's, it feels like squid game game show type shit. I, this is gonna, this is gonna sound very, this is gonna sound very old man of me.

But like, I think once we hit the moment of like, Joe Rogan says, you should let these scorpions sting you for money. that it's all off it's all on the table i think all reality shows after that i'm like you we've already established you're drinking you're all poor worms and poop all over you for cash you're drinking you're drinking the donkey cum so yeah like it doesn't matter where we're already here we'll do anything we're already here i see i see um i didn't come here to make friends i came here to eat horse come and make money and i'm all out of money yeah wow there's prizes

I just huh what I just show it up with the fucking beer straw coosies and just ready to go

yeah I just there's you know there's that just the bit about like how Squid Game was trying to say

something and then it loses itself inside the actual subsumed fucking disco delisium capital moment

or Kaiji you know another death game anime then it's like let's let's adapt to that that and make it real anyway I think

I think that's you know that's pretty much it yeah that's pretty much it all right let's take some letters hey if you want to send it a letter send it to Castle Super Beast mail at gmail.com that's Castle

Super Beast mail at gmail.com. Anthony says, Dear Red and Dread, when you play games with alt colors and costumes, are there times when you prefer the default look over them? Is the costume color change always because you prefer the newer, or is it just for the sake of changing? That depends. I play 2XCO, and I actually like the defaults a lot more than lots of the costumes

they offer. Okay, so I have a particular, like, ism where I, I'm kind of like, I'm like, I want, the first time I'm using a character in anything, I want to use the default because it's my first exposure to the character. It feels wrong to just go in and immediately pick an alt version without seeing what the design is supposed to be in context. You know? I totally agree. Like at the beginning anyway.

The first time I see it. And yeah, I guess more direct answer to this would be in Devil May Cry games, I prefer the defaults over all the alt costumes. Yeah. Whether we're talking, you know, legendary Dark Knight Sparta outfits or color swaps or even some of those fucking diesel cowboy Dante or whatever. Black Jacket, Black Jacket, Dante. That I'm like guaranteed to use an alternate is when I play Devil May Cry 3. I use the Devil May Cry one costume because I like the DMC one costume. Sure, sure, sure.

Like, I want to go more default than default. Yeah, exactly. I, uh, I liked putting Blue Jacket Virgil on Blackjacket Virgil in 5 because I like the even more default default, you know? Yeah. But unfortunately, Nero in 5 can't get his old jacket from 4. Yeah, that's a bummer. So that's missing, because I love Nero and 4's look. I really, really fucking dig that.

But yeah, that's how I feel about it. Like in the game like 2XCO, like if it's just palettes, like I'll play the red palette or the purple palette. Right, but, you know, yeah, I tend to actually like the defaults by and large. The default, yeah. You have to really fucking kill it With an alternate costume for me to be like Yeah, this is the one

This is this this this this is shit I need to basically look at it and be like I wish this was the default Oh, me to be playing an alternate cost So I always I always settle on my favorite alternate costume in games though Like like my Marissa is in the wedding dress You know forever like Yeah, that's it you know I'm

I'm a I'm gothed lesbian breakup vye forever Yeah But Anyway Let's take one over here Frankie says

Dear Turner and Hooch Listening to an earlier episode Pat was talking about Stat do And being told to look at the wiki For answers Got me thinking about how I played an old game

Called Old School RuneScape In the game There's literally a link to a wiki in the game. Yeah, I hate that. At some point, developers decided they didn't need to explain more than the bare minimum, and the community would document things on their behalf. This made it genuinely one of the best wikis I've ever seen,

but it's also practically needed if you have to find a specific item or NPC you're looking for. And that's before even getting into quests that can take several additional hours to complete without outside help. Anyway, the question is, what's the worst offender you can think of where using the wiki is practically mandatory for playing the game? game. Much love for the dad cast, Frankie. I have one. It's the balance discord for FF14.

It is the be all end all resource on how to play your class or do almost any encounter. It's a fucking discord. And it drives me fucking crazy. We've had the discussion many times now, but the binding of Isaac, like, what the fuck did I just pick up? whether you mod it or pull the sheet up or go to the wiki feels necessary. Oh, I also want to say that any, any, any game that has like a discord,

um, as like, it's primary like skill building or wiki purposes, um, the people that hang out there are either super chill and probably high or legitimately evil. Like there's no in between. Mm-hmm. I just remember pulling up stuff in Silk Song

when I was like, okay, let's just run it. And I'd pick up a new tool, and I'm at the end game. And I'm like, okay, this is a tool. I see what it does. Is this any good? And you just, you go to the wiki and then you scroll down to the comments. And someone in the comments goes, yeah, this shit, bro is broken as fuck. It's super, if you combine it with this, one of the best builds in the game.

You're like, okay, cool, got it. Thank you. Done. You know, just cut to the chase. Do you want to hear the most like mercantile disgusting thing I've ever done in any discord? I will go into like a game discord and ask a question and be like, oh, this place is disgusting. And someone goes, oh, hey Pat. And I add them as a friend and then leave that discord and just direct all subsequent questions to that guy.

Oh, God. You've turned them into a living wiki then. Yeah. Yeah, cool. Hey, you found your fucking AI chat bot. That's a person. It's like that. And I would rather talk to a guy who's kind of normal.

That's kind of grimy. But like knows a lot over scrolling through any fucking Discord wikiki. That's kind of grimy, but you can only pull it off because the person knows who you are. Yeah. Oh, God damn it. Yeah. All right. All right.

Nah, I get it. I've, like, the, the IRL equivalent of that, I've had a couple times where, I don't know, I'm chilling at like the con arcade room and I'm trying to play one of these new rhythm games that I've never played before. And someone goes, oh, yo, Wully, what's up? And I'm like, hey, how's it going? And I guess we're just going to hang out for the next hour while you walk me through. Yeah, you need into it that this person knows what the fuck they're talking about. Yes. And I'm like, hey, we're going to be.

hanging out. What's up? Hey, let's chill. And you can show me how to fucking do this, you know? And yeah, make some friends that way, you know? Use your powers. Um, there was a weird feeling I remember having with, uh, in terms of the in-game wiki shit where, uh, was it Metal Gear Solid 4 where you installed the wiki separate separate app? And I remember like feeling like, this is how insane it's gotten. This is too much. And I went through it because I had to know. Yeah, and that was a massive waste of time.

Because you needed to know about what Riden was doing in the years in between. Nanomachines. That's what he was doing. What happened between Sons of Liberty and Four? Because clearly it was very important and the wiki was the only place to find out. Not important enough to make a game about it. Fuck me, man. wiki. We made our own

wiki included in the fucking game and like install it separately. They're never porting that shit. They're never No, they're probably going to remake it instead. Yeah. That's probably easier. I could see that being next. Sure. I could see that. All right. And one last one over here. Hey, Suburban Cyberclown.

and Monk of the City Woolley catching up on the podcast and the VR was being talked about and the cords being a problem this actually has been semi-fixed with Quest 2 where it's something called I believe AirLink where it allows you to

wirelessly do steam VR games by connecting the headset through Wi-Fi and I found this to be quite reliable with very few hiccups. I was blown away that I never saw this feature marketed with the Quest 2 and it's a huge thing even as a huge thing, and it might be more of an issue

with slower internet or further away from the router, but it gave you a cordless VR experience that I was looking for. I discovered this option by accident when looking through the quest settings and randomly came across it. And it got me wondering,

have you experienced this problem that people still talk about was fixed, but nobody knew? I have absolutely encountered that. Of course, I can't think of anything off the top of my head right now. but you'll go into like the options menu and you'll be like

why the fuck is this not the default fucking toggle. Oh, I can think of one. Which or three controls like dirt. Witcher three controls like dirt until you hit start and go to options and then go to controls and switch character movement to alternate and then the game controls

good. Ah, what's the default? The default is you have like, Garald has to like pick up speed when he moves. He's got momentum and inertia. Okay. And then the default, and then the alternate is he just controls like a fucking video game. Okay.

Like momentum in an alu card kind of way? Because that's good momentum. No, no. Like, like, I want to move. Okay. Like in a GTA five way. Or they have to pick up speed or turn like a race car. Like a horse.

Gotcha. Oh, he moves like a horse. Okay. Okay. Somebody in the chat says Ace Combat 7 defaulting to Dumb, baby controls is another one. That's a big mistake.

I talked about Strive getting ranked about a week ago or so, but like, yeah, if you didn't know that they completely fixed or the, you know, online for that, that was there. I mean, No Man Sky was pretty advertised, so I'd say that's a case of like, I feel like the word got out. It was highly advertised, yeah.

But yeah, there you go. Astral Chain, not on default control type C. I don't remember what Control Type C. I don't remember Astral Chain controls. Yeah. What was that? I'm looking it up right now. That feels like it's it's itching something.

It rings a bell. It rings a bell. I feel like there was. Yes, there was something there. Did it have to do with the pro controller? attacks on the face buttons. Oh my God. I'd look at it.

The default. Wait, what was the astral chain default? Okay, preset C has legion, action, attack, interact, and dismiss legion on the faces, or evade, call legion, and switch legion are on. Shoulder buttons.

Shoulder buttons. Oh. But what is A? What's control type A in Astral Chain? Dark Soul style What the fuck I think it is It was dark soul style With shoulder R1 L1 attacks

That's god awful Oh my God I don't Let me look Uh Every photo I find Is of control type C That's so fucking funny

I just find a bunch of pictures From pro tips Astral Chain That That's wild That they did that Hey, you know what? I have one for you.

This typically shows up in first-person shooters that have been moved to PC, but they have controller support. And you have to go into the options and put on a toggle sprint on clicking the left stick. There are games that start you up with like, hey, click in the left stick and hold it while you run. Are you fucking crazy? Like, unless it's a game where running is like a high alert noise. And or, you know what I mean? Like, unless it's a game where, like, that matters.

If it doesn't, get the fuck out of here with the toggle sprint shit. Should always toggle sprint and everything. That's crazy. That's completely nuts. And then when you let go, Sprint should turn off. That's... Come on. Boo.

All right. That'll do. That'll do. Have a good week, everybody. Peace out.