Get Played - Dave The Diver with Jon Gabrus

Episode Date: December 4, 2023

Nick and Matt are joined by Jon Gabrus to discuss his dive into Baldur's Gate 3, White Water Wipeout on Playdate, the handheld cranking console, X-COM's Terror From The Deep, and the ultimate cozy water-sushi game, Dave The Diver.Follow us on Twitter and Instagram @getplayedpod.Check out our Anime watchalong podcast Get Anime'd only on patreon.com/getplayed.Join us on our Discord server here: https://discord.gg/getplayed Wanna leave us a voicemail? Call 616-2-PLAYED (616-275-2933) or write us an email at [e-mail] Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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I'm Nick Weiger, along with Matt Apodaca. Hello, everyone. Under the sea. Hello, everyone. Yes, Matt, we are recording this. Under the sea. We're under the sea. We're under the sea. Hello, everyone. Yes, Matt, we are recording this under the sea. We're under the sea. We're under the sea.

Down here, it's wetter. The podcast is better under the sea. Yeah. I'm struggling, man. Yeah, it's... This was... I don't know about this idea. We knew we were going to talk about water stuff and water games with Game Press. Dave the diver

specifically we're like hey that'll be a fun layer to it we'll record uh in the open ocean yeah and it's um it's just a lot harder to do the show soaked and like you don't really know that you're wet because you're in water yes that's sort of a paradox thing that now that's kind of fucking me up you know um but nothing nothing even really works down here yeah i mean i'm having trouble hearing you you know through our all our scuba gear like i'm just i'm struggling to even make out what you're saying i think you were saying that nothing really works down that note nick we can't make out i wasn't i wasn't saying that i was not that. If you thought that was what I was saying, I do not.

See, we're missing each other. We can't really hear each other down here. But you know what? I just want to make it clear that's not what I was saying, because that could put our working relationship in a really weird place if you thought I was actually proposing that. You know what? How about this?

How about we open up that text document that we have, and we can sort of just text out, oh, my computer doesn't work down here. Let me try mine. Ah, this thing's fucking soaked my computer doesn't work down here. Let me try mine. Ah, this thing's fucking soaked. It doesn't work at all. It's all wet. The computer's fucking wet. The computer doesn't work now. I also think I just ruined my MacBook. Yeah, my MacBook's fucking ruined.

It has ocean water on it. Let me try my phone. Ah, fuck, it doesn't work. Shit, my phone's all ruined. I think I just ruined my phone, too. Hold on, I got some paper some notes on paper i was gonna say i brought i brought these ads that we have to read they're printed out fucking paper is just turning into fucking mush i'm starting to not be able to breathe good yeah this is the other thing i think our oxygen supply is dwindling are we dumb i well hang on no it's

we're not dumb no we might be dumb i think matt i why do we think this was a good idea i think we're dumb i think i think we might be dumb but oh too dumb to figure it out though yeah i can't really put my finger on why uh i think we can just keep doing the show and i guess is anybody feeling i'm feeling like crushed yeah i'm kind of like, I might have the bends. Anyway, speaking of Dave the Diver, my big thoughts are glug, glug, glug, glug, glug. Glug, glug. Glug, glug, glug, glug. It's interesting that you say that because mine are... We jump into the blue hole and hire a Jason Voorhees lookalike to serve sushi

as we deep dive on 2023 surprise hit Dave the Diver this week on Get Played, your one-stop show for good games, bad games, and every game in between. It's time to get played. I'm Nick Weiger, along with Matt Apodaca. Hello, everyone. Hello, everyone, and welcome back to Get Played. And with us today, Heather is out. Our guest has buried his head in his hands. I don't know what we did wrong.

So far I think everything. I think all of this whole thing is a fucking mistake. Well when Heather's not here it's always a little bit chaotic as we were saying before we started. Just the sort of like double down on hello everybody like i know like yes indeed hello everybody it's like whoa killing it with the catchphrases you have no idea how much people like hello everyone that is like that's like matt's thing it's like and so when people say it in other things, I get screenshots. They said it. They said your thing.

Man, good way to corner the market on an actual expression. I wish I was. Anytime someone said, what's up, man? They were like, holy shit, it's Gabriel. That kind of brand recognition is a fucking dream come true some of the ones that you're known for have fallen out of favor is that correct yeah a lot of what I'm known for used to be

just carved into bathroom stall doors and shit like that our guest today one of the funniest people on earth from the podcast high and mighty in action boys John Gabrus is here hi Gabrus thanks for joining us again oh please hi Weiger. This is so fun.

Rather than just texting you guys about games or asking for recommendations, we could record it for strangers to listen to. Well, I will say, because, and part of the origin of this particular episode, we weren't going to do a full episode about this game, but you and I have been texting about your fandom of it and we'll get into it in a second but it's like i i do feel like that's a big part of our uh you know text relationship is you'll just like text me you

know like hey i'm playing this right now or hey should i get a steam deck you know and we'll kind of go back and forth about things yeah i have like a handful of people that are adult gamers whose taste i trust that isn't like i'm like a specific level of gamer like with iffy friend friend mutual friend iffy he's a little too far he's like oh i gotta get you on divinity origin like you know it's always like too much shit that he wants me to do he's like bro we're going to fucking london to do blah blah i'm like okay hold on and then i got text weiger and i'm like i like dave the diver he's like oh buddy it's such good vibes and i'm like okay this is like the level of conversation it's annoying because i'm like uh into it more than any other person i would that would want to have a conversation about it but i also am wary of

getting into like i'm like i'm not rebuilt i'm not building a PC here. So like, right. Deal with me on that level of gamer and finding people who are on that level of conversation with you is appealing. Yes. Two of them are happen to be professional video game podcast. Our dialogue, our conversations aren't like in the nitty gritty per se but a kind of like overall scratch the surface type of vibe so i'm always running by you and like i'm pretty up to date on games and stuff but sometimes i'm worried something will fall through the cracks so i'll be like what have you been playing lately and and shit like that just to keep just to stay in the loop i mean i guess i could just listen to your podcast but that would be like a breach of how friendships in 2023 work is there well well well here's the thing because and i think this

is a huge part of like being an adult who plays video games is how do i budget my time for this very time intensive and also very expensive hobby yeah and it's like if i'm going to commit to a game uh when when games retail for 70 and are going to demand you know dozens of hours of my time like i want to make sure that this is something that's going to you know fit for me and like i always feel like that to your point when you are trying to decide what to play next you know games are so expensive these days the new games retail for 70 and they demand you know dozens of hours of your time uh before you just like jump in or and commit to something you want to have a sense of what

you're in for and a lot of times like the i mean honestly it's it's so tough to figure out figure that out from like just like looking at looking at metacritic and stuff like it's just like someone whose taste you trust is such a better guidepost yeah and especially in this in the online stores where it's like best sell like every everything we know is like payola and shit like that so you never know like what is actually selling a bunch you know like i'm always like steam's like it's a best seller and i look and it's like 8 000 downloads and then another game's like people seem to like this it's got 450 000 down you know game's like, people seem to like this, and it's got 450,000 down. You know, it's like pornography rules. It's like, this has 7 million views. This is probably a little better than this 100K view.

I mean, honestly, too, if you adjust your Steam store settings, pornography rules there as well, I assure you. You'll start getting rekt for Tokyo Love Hotel. Let's take this offline. If you could just drop in the chat how you change your steam uh what other than you're uh weiger you're right and also the time commitment shit only really hits for me in the retroactive of like fuck i can't believe i played that game for 18 hours like i did not love it you know and i'm like damn it that was 18 hours. Like I did not love it, you know? And I'm like, damn it. That was 18 hours. I could have.

And this is the sad part is you start being like, that's 18 hours. I could have been playing a different game, not like spend time with loved ones or write poetry or see nature. But that is interesting too. Cause I think about this and I also think about like how this, this narrative only applies to video games and not other things because I won't think, oh, I just watched an entire show and feel bad about that.

I won't feel bad about having watched 18 hours of a TV show. But for a video game, I'm like, oh, I can't believe I did this. Maybe it's just the amount of time. Yeah, maybe. For me as a married man i'm always running into like the this is a lot of alone time oh for sure yeah and that's that's where my guilt kicks in like yes like career and productivity and like wow i can't believe i haven't gone to the gym in five days and it's like i just don't have the time it's like log into balder's Gate and it's like 26 hours into the, you're like, okay,

I'm lying to myself here a little. Right. A hundred percent. But it's also the relationship shit too of just like, not that I'm like, my wife is standing like tapping her foot being like, we're supposed to make love. And I'm just like jamming on a video game. I'm waiting for the lovemaking. But it's like if you just sit down to something that you know is going to take up 50 hours of your solo time,

that's like a weird choice. But if it was a book, I don't think I would think that about myself. No, no. And nobody's going to be like, you read a whole book? That's pretty sad. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Sick fuck. I do want to talk some more about this week's game.

But before we get into it, there's a question we always ask at the top of this show. And Gabrus, we can start with you because you just mentioned, I believe, the game you're playing. What are you playing? Hey, everyone. You know, you want to eat healthy, you want to eat well, but you don't want it to be a pain to prepare. Well, let me tell you, eating better is easy with Factor's delicious ready-to-eat meals. Every fresh, never-frozen meal is chef-crafted, dietician-approved, and ready to go in just two minutes. You'll have over 35 different options to choose from every week, including Calorie Smart, Protein Plus, and Keto.

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episode okay so i downloaded balder's gate about a month ago right when it came out and i haven't touched it until this past weekend we're recording on monday i just started on saturday because this was a game that i was i don't know what I can't even think of an analogy it's like you get to fuck Jennifer Connelly and I'm just like I don't think I'm ready for this yet you know and you're just like it's like I'm so glad Heather isn't here

it's like you know it's like this huge this huge exciting thing that you think I'm pretty sure I'm gonna love but like this huge exciting thing that you think, I'm pretty sure I'm going to love. But this could take up a lot of my time or at least my brain space. Right. And also you have insane expectations for it. I mean, I certainly did going into this game. Yeah, same.

Exactly. And you're like, this is going to be the best. And you're like, well, temper that, temper that. And then I was trying to get my my affairs in order i was like well let me just finish one round of diablo it's like right let me play through the game we're going to talk about later let me do this for and then i'll settle and then finally this weekend uh tiff was out of town uh i want to spend some time yeah finally and then uh my my dog doesn't like to really hang out in the office which which is where I normally game from.

So I moved the PlayStation into my living room, and I've just been playing on the big TV in the living room, and my dog has just been right by my side just as I save scum my way through one round of combat. What are you... Yeah, go on. I was going was gonna say i am not good at the game yet i am i am bad i'm having a lot of difficulties but i'm i'm impressed i'm playing it on playstation i'm extending the conversation with nick about my fear of not playing with a mouse and keyboard but it's it's coming pretty smoothly're right. The camera stuff is really

fun on Baldur's Gate with like the two joysticks makes it a little easier, but I'm, I'm enjoying myself. What was your question, Wags? I was, I was going to ask like, because I know you're a, you're an old school, like D and D guy. Like you've, you've played pencil and paper, D and D, pen and paper, D and D. And you also like love high fantasy in general, like fantasy novels. Is there a class class a race build you gravitated towards um i've been playing tabletop dnd on and off for now almost 30 years which is i recently did some uh head gum dnd live stream and uh head gum uh host of uh review review riley anspaugh was like gabrusrus, have you ever played D&D?

And I just got to say for the first time in my life, I'm like, do not take offense by this, but I know that you're young. So I just get to say this. I've been playing D&D since before you were alive. And she was like, oh. And I was like, yeah, I'm sorry. That sounds so condescending and so old man of me. But it's rare that that's true for an interaction. So I just had to tell you I've been playing since you were zero,

since you were negative nine months old, since the night of your conception I've been playing. I always mix it up. Because I read so much fantasy, I get inspired by certain characters, especially tertiary characters that the main characters run into like oh drizzito urdin the drow elf from menzo berenzin meets a sferf nebly guy named uh what the fuck am i talking about here but the sferf nebly is a gnome of the deep, and there's Belward Disengulp, a guy. Okay. But I get caught up in these characters, and I'm actually playing a half-elf ranger kind of archer sub build, which is a class I play every once in a while. I like to play a hippie elf that likes the forest and animals and stuff.

And I've always loved the bow and arrow as like an idea. I now build like with character in mind, even in a game. I'm not thinking about maximizing damage. I'm thinking about, oh, it'd be cool to be like of nature and a bow and arrow guy. That's badass. I love that. It's also like, you know, the Elarian games are so difficult. You mentioned it.

It's just like the combat is so complicated. And I found myself, and I fell off Baldur's Gate 3, but I am going to return to it in December. I found myself just playing on the easiest difficulty because that just gives me the leeway to, like, role play it a little bit more. And, yeah, like you were saying, not worry about min-maxing, which to me just, like, gives me the leeway to role play it a little bit more. And yeah, like you were saying, not worry about min-maxing, which to me just gives me anxiety of just like, well, shit, I got to make sure that everything is, everything about my build is perfect so I can have a chance at combat.

Right. I honestly had such trouble with one of the first big combat encounters that I was like, I have to play for a couple more days before I decide to go down to easy difficulty. But that's something I've learned that I need to get over. Like it's about enjoying the game. No one's going to be like, Oh, you beat it. Was it on easy? Like no one cares. And if anyone who gives a shit, how I beat Baldur's gate three and not just like you beat Baldur's like,

who gives a shit how I beat Baldur's Gate 3 and not just like you beat Baldur's Gate. Like why? Who is this for? I'm like lying to myself. The challenge is not it's already like a 50, 60 hour game. Like I don't need to add like I spent four hours on like one battle dying a few times, then save scumming my way through it and then like finally solving it and blowing all my healing potions and like one off items. And I was like, yeah, this seems like not the way to play this game because this is the first encounter I got.

I got a hundred more days of this. I got to get my shit together. But overall, I mean, is it living up to expectations? I got to say another gamer that I trust is one of my childhood best friends who we played D&D and video games growing up together and he was like this is the closest you can get to D&D and it really it really is wow like it feels really fucking good when you're playing it the storylines are super rich all the characterization is very interesting you know like the uh the differentiation amongst the characters is really interesting like the uh the dialogue is a lot of fun it it's i couldn't believe how specific you can get with building your character with like subclasses and shit like that spell

memorization like all the shit being part of it is so fucking radical though there is a part of me that really likes the simplicity and the streamlining that Baldur's Gate 3 doesn't have. I found Skyrim was a great perfect encapsulation of high fantasy, how much I like

and then how easy it was to play. Right, 100%. Yeah, this has so much granular detail because it's trying to simulate the real thing but it is daunting and the turn-based combat is is really interesting but it does slow the game down in a way that is and then like once you have a party which is like part of the excitement of dnd too now you have too much shit to deal with like now you're like right yeah fuck yeah that now i'm playing but it's a combination of like all the shit you like right you're like right yeah fuck yeah that now i'm playing but it's a combination of

like all the shit you like right you're running around interacting with the environment then you're in like an x-com 2 battle scenario and that's one too like it i i would love to come back on after like three months with you know with like sunken eyes and grayish skin and talk to you about how it all played out for me. I love that. Matt, so since we're banking this episode, we're a little ahead. I thought instead of just talking about the same game, we could talk about something close to the topic of the main thrust of the episode.

I thought we could talk about a water game that we love. Do you want to start or do you want me to start? I can start. So I have this thing, Gabrus. about a water game. Okay, yeah. Do you want to start or do you want me to start? I can start. Yeah, there's just like, so I have this thing, Gabrus, it's called a Playdate and it's a little squared like gaming device.

It's a sort of little like boutique like gaming device and it has a crank on it. Because for a second there it felt like you were just describing the concept of a handheld.

It's actually quite small. It has a crank to it. Yeah, it has a crank on it. So it has a directional, like a D-pad and two buttons and a crank. That's all it is. Whoa, so it has no battery or no power? I love that. Oh, well, it has that as well, yeah, and a screen.

So what's the crank for? The crank is a control element, not a power element? Oh, yeah, the crank is a control element, not a power element? The crank is a control. So it is like for this particular game that I'm talking about called Whitewater Wipeout, it's a surfing game. And you see this wave. You have to use the crank to manipulate your guy on the surfboard to go up or down the wave to stay afloat. And it fucking rules. And you can go up in the air too and twist the crank a lot to have him do spins and tricks and stuff.

And it's really, really, it's a great, that to me is a great water game. Who's cooler than surfers, first of all? It's true. Hard to beat. You're talking a SoCal surfer dude, you're like a foot away from one. Exactly.

Yeah, I guess there are maybe cooler people there, I think. Wait a minute. I'm also realizing how old I sound of like, oh, cool, and you crank it to power it. I was thinking like that's so green and interesting. No, I was doing a bad job of explaining what it was. So it was a good clarifying question to get me to what the crank is actually for. And it is to navigate on this wave and do tricks and beat your high score. That's kind of all there is to it.

It's not like you don't really get to go in the water. So it's like you're on the water. Right, sure. So you're water adjacent. Yeah. But if you fall off the- Are you going to get pedantic Right, sure. So you're water adjacent. Yeah. But if you fall off... Are you going to get pedantic with you here? Not actually a water game.

I just saw you sort of... I saw your knuckles. No, you're fine. And I was getting nervous that you were going to start... Better be immersed in water. This is going to qualify. My question for you, I know we're talking water games specifically, but Apodaca, what's your favorite play date game?

What's the best game on the console? Great question. Well, it might be this, because what's cool about the Playdate is that it comes with games. So you buy this thing, and then every month there were two new games on it. Or it was every week, I think, there were two new games. And so it has these games that came for free with the system. So Whitewater Wipeout was one of them. two new games and so it has these games that on it um that came for free with the system so wipe out a water white white water wipeout was one of them but there's a game that i purchased and

installed on it called bloom that i really really love that i talked a lot about on this show actually and what it is is it's like a slice of life uh oh that's right i remember this yeah game where you play this girl who's lying about, she's lying about going to college, and in fact she left college and opened a flower store, and so she's trying to keep this secret alive, keep her parents happy, and also this budding relationship going,

and it's great. It is such a neat, just like a sweet little like, easy playing. Like if easy listening is a music genre, it's easy playing. It's a nice little cozy game. Yeah. I like that, I like that.

Yeah, really fun. And then, but you do get, if you're me anyway, you do get very stressed out when you have to get to the parts where you have to try to maintain this benign lie. But it feels like I'm not trying to get in trouble by my parents. I would never lie to my parents. This game is pushing me in directions I never thought. Yeah, straight in the trash.

Tipper Gore was right. Matt, if we're ever on the same podcast in the future or you know there's a chance we'd run into each other, please pack this play date. I'd love to take a look. Absolutely. I will. I've never heard of it.

I don't know anyone else talking about it. It's really, really cool. It's definitely like a very niche thing, but it's very, very fun. And the thing about it that's cool is that you do have to play it in direct sunlight or else you cannot see what's going on on the screen. One thing I've learned from this podcast

is that if there's a completely impractical piece of hardware, Matt will buy it. Yeah, exactly. Well, Heather will gas me up in a minute. I was about to say. I follow Heather on social media. She seems to be purchasing some car equipment that seems nearly... I mean, She seems to be purchasing some car equipment that seems nearly –

I mean, she seems to be, like, building shit that would, like, get you reported to the FBI. But I think it's all for gaming. I thought I'd just touch on real quick a game that I had a lot of fondness for when I was a kid. quick a game that I had a lot of fondness for when I was a kid. So people I'm sure know the XCOM franchise from its modern incarnation, but it was a PC. I knew it as a PC game back in the 90s that I got on, I think it was, might have predated CD-ROM. It might have gotten on floppy disks. But anyway, the first XCOM game, basically, it's like, you know, it's you're defending the Earth from alien invasion. And so it's like you have these it's a mix of this kind of real time base building game. And then there are turn based tactical combat sequences that are really extended and really difficult. Honestly, kind of Baldur's Gate 3-esque in terms of just like, you know, positioning your characters. And, you know, there's permadeath.

So it's like it's just like this. It feels very, very high stakes in some of these encounters you have to do over and over again. Well, basically, they had to rush out a sequel. And the sequel is x-com terror from the deep it came out like the next year and it's basically just a reskinned underwater version of the original it's basically aliens are evading again but now they're in the oceans and and so it basically is just the same game but way harder and underwater but despite that it's still good because the first game was so good yeah that it's one of those things were just like like and even reading from the developers it's like yeah the publisher kind of just made them do this and they just turned it out as a cash grab but still it's good

and was worth playing um so i kind of i don't know i i had a lot of fondness for it uh and um i think also it's also like i feel like a game that maybe has kind of been memory hold a little bit. Like I think people maybe remember the original XCOM, but forget about the direct sequel. And then also they made a bunch of bad XCOM games in the aftermath. And after that, there really wasn't a good XCOM game until like the 2012 reboot. So XCOM Terror from the Deep is the thing I figured I'd shout out for this exercise. But Rochelle, also, I wanted to, our producer Rochelle, before we started recording, you were like, why are we talking underwater games? And I asked you if you had one, and you mentioned you played through Inside, a game that we covered on the podcast.

Yeah, I just finished it this weekend. Wow. And it was recommended to me by my friend as a cozy game. As a cozy game? A cozy, spooky game. And I was horrified. Yes. Because it was not cozy.

It was very stressful and very scary, especially at the end. I did not expect there to be so much body horror. Yes, it absolutely is. And there are some oceanic sequences. Oh, yes. There's a pivotal swimming sequence. But wait, hold on. Is it possible this friend had this confused

with a different game? Because it's so not cozy. No, I think that he thought it'd be funny to tell me it was a cozy game. Oh, okay, you got pranked. Okay, got it. I think I got pranked. What did you think, though? I loved it. Yeah, it is rad, right tell me it was a Disney game. Oh, okay. You got pranked. Okay, got it. I think I got pranked. What did you think, though?

I loved it. Yeah, it is rad, right? It was gorgeous and so beautiful. It's one of my favorite games. It's a game that I think I recommend the most. Now up there with Disco Elysium is me telling people, you have to play this game. It's so great. I love Inside.

Okay. I loved Inside as well. Okay. It was one of the first games I played that was like indie-ish. And it's one of those games that teaches you the game as you play it. Like there's no like. And I really enjoyed that about it. But wait, talk to me really quick.

I'm sure your listeners don't want to hear about Disco Elysium. But I've heard so many things about this game. But when I looked it up, it didn't look like something I would be that into for some reason, just based on the imagery. But is it fucking rad? You would love it. I mean, it's like it's great writing. It honestly is a lot like Baldur's Gate without the combat, which is weird to say. But it's basically all of the role playing.

Or maybe weird to conceive of if you're expecting that sort of experience. But basically all of the role-playing, or it may be weird to conceive of if you're expecting that sort of experience, but it is just the role-playing. It is just the character interaction, some light puzzles, but so much of it is just driven by dialogue and the choices you make as a player character, and you really get to role-play the shit out of this,

but also the writing and voice acting and art direction are all just top-notch. It is a lot of reading. A lot of reading. There's a lot of text on screen, a lot. And I recommended it to a friend of mine who I was in a D&D campaign with during the pandemic. And he told me it was the first video game he's finished in 20 years. He was like, I have not played a game like that.

And I recommended it to him specifically because I was like, you can play this game how we play D&D, I think. Like, it's like it's so fun and you can be so you can be so crazy. Yeah, that's the other thing is you get like it's got, you know, it's got a lot of leftist politics that are kind of built into it. And yes, you can play your guy as a complete like fucking drunken maniac. Yeah. Or you can just do a total sober playthrough um you know because because drugs and alcohol are like a huge element of this of the game uh but like i played through it in its entirety twice and i played two completely different character builds even though it's the

same um amnesiac player character but i just played them in completely different ways it got so saw so much shit i did not see the first time through. Of course. Would this be like the modern incarnation of text adventures, more or less? Like with visuals? Because I'm not understanding what gameplay. I guess it's just all the choices you make send you down certain paths. And finding certain steps based on clues and shit like that or something like that? Yeah. Well, here's the thing.

Like, you're ostensibly a detective. Well, you are a detective. And you have a partner. And there is a case that you are solving. But it's not like a point-and-click adventure game or even a text adventure game where there's a bunch of puzzles and I got to figure out all this shit of, like, I got to figure out how to – how do I get the – I have a slice of bread and a jar of mayonnaise. How do I get this key out of this keyhole? Oh, I know. Okay. You know what how do I get the, I have a slice of bread and a jar of mayonnaise. How do I get this key out of this keyhole? Oh, I know.

You know what I mean? It's like none of that shit. It's just like going around and having like lengthy conversations and making different choices. And a big part of the gameplay is in the same way that there are dice rolls and dialogue that happen in Baldur's Gate. It's the same sort of principle. In fact, I wouldn't be shocked if Baldur's Gate actually borrowed it from this game. But it's like, you know, based on a series of different attributes that your character has. Should you try to intimidate this guy? Exactly.

Yes. Yeah. I've done like an intimidation build more or less. So I've juiced up my intimidation points. So I could like, oh, I like this. Basing it on yourself? I've juiced up my intimidation points so I could like, oh, I like this. Basing it on yourself? It's funny that that's really only my dynamic amongst comedians.

Like, I'm not like that in real life. I'm a fucking sociopath. I just change who I am depending on my environment. But before we move on from inside, Rochelle, you have to play Limbo. It's their other game now, too, and it's so good. I am very scared of spiders. Then do not play it.

I saw the cover and I was like, I don't know if I can do this. Yeah, no, there are a lot of them and they're bad. They're bad in the game. Do not play it. Maybe this will be some exposure therapy for me. Well, I will say, if you're looking for a cozy game and a chill game, I do think Dave the Diver qualifies.

And I have put a lot of time into this. But, Gabrus, you've put, I think, way more hours into this than me. And you also told me you rolled credits on this game. Yeah. Quote, unquote. I think it's one of those games that you could just go back and continue to play forever, obviously. But yeah, I beat the narrative. I finished the narrative storyline in Day of the Diver.

This game, Rochelle, I don't know you. You're off camera. I mean, I think we know each other, but I don't know your taste that well. If you liked Inside because of the underwater part this game is cozy as fuck all the imagery all the music everything is fucking cute in a's like derogatory. Why was that so hurtful? Me doing a bit for a camera that no one can see. I can barely even see your reaction.

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I love this about this game. He's a big fat guy with a little shy smile, and he just seems like a—I don't know. It's not a body type you ever see as a player character in a video game right but it's very much a body type you see in scuba divers which i think is like which i think is cool that they did because we are all like you know once you're underwater it doesn't matter you know like it's the tank it's the wetsuit it's all that shit so i found that to be really cool and i didn't even know about like the sushi restaurant part of the game when I first started playing it

like I had only been recommended about the diving stuff and I'm like oh I don't like shit like that and then all of a sudden I was like okay well Bancho we need to find this new recipe and I immediately got on board I loved the diving parts and I really

like the sushi parts um yes it's a very it's a it's very fun in that the game doesn't let you get like bored with it because they're like no well now you have the sea people storyline you're like oh shit okay yeah a whole nother world a whole nother like diagonal like we're not even trying to catch fish right now we're like solving crimes and puzzles and shit like that yeah it's got so much variance to you know how it plays and and so many mini games built in and you're right that the that the core gameplay loop which it kind of you know it really parcels out it you know in a really measured way in the early game like just

introducing like one new thing with each run um but when it gets to that point, just like the loop of going down and catching fish and other undersea treasures and using that to stock your sushi restaurant and then taking the revenue from your sushi restaurant to like upgrade your gear, like that is just so satisfying and so compelling. And it's like the kind of thing where, you know, I'm impressed you went through and finished the story because part of my thing with playing this game

is like, it's just so chill and that in and of itself is so satisfying that a lot of times some of the quests I just let linger, you know? I just sort of like go through and live in it for a bit. The vibes are just so good, like just swimming underwater.

And I started playing mostly on my PC on Steam, but then this game itself, this game and my Nintendo Switch being stolen from my hotel room led me to jumping to a Steam Deck. And that's been really fun. I put in a lot of Dave the Diver time on the toilet. Also, the Steam Deck is really big to

be playing on the toilet and stuff. It's heavy and your wrists start to hurt and shit. You can practically use it as a squatty potty when you get to that part of it. It's like taking a full laptop into the shitter. It's just like it's too much hardware. Too much power

so dave the diver came out in june for pc and mac it was ported to switch in october if people uh you know don't have a a gaming pc you can check it out that way it was developed and published by mit rocket and which is a new division of a south korean publisher called nexon um which was previously named for free-to-play games like MapleStory. I think that's free-to-play. Dungeon and Fighter, a lot of mobile games. But this is just like a straight-up,

not a cash grab, not like we're going to try to load this thing up with microtransactions. This is like a straight-up just game. And a lot of people, I think, me as well, I just assumed this was an indie game because it has such an indie aesthetic, but it the developer themselves are like, this is not an indie game. This came from an established publisher and development studio. encouraging in terms of this game that had no real marketing campaign, no real buzz about it, just kind of comes out and just

kind of word of mouth. I found this through Steam Store. We were talking about curation earlier. I found this through a Steam Store recommendation, and I was just like, okay, I'll give this thing a go. You turned the porno tab off, and then it showed it. Exactly, and then that one popped right up. Dave the Muff Diver.

Yeah, that's what I've been playing. Oh, so you played the wrong thing. I played the wrong one, but I love it. Oh, you played the right one, brother. You came to us in the Get Played group chat. Has anyone heard of Dave the Diver? Heather and I were both like, no. And then you said, Matt, you've got to play Dave the Diver. And then you gifted of Dave the Diver? Heather and I were both like, no. And then you

said, Matt, you got to play Dave the Diver. And then you gifted me Dave the Diver. And then I started to play it. And it is as described, very chill, very fun. I like being in the ocean. Don't get me wrong. I love the ocean. Yeah. I don't know. I love the ocean. Don't get me wrong. I love it. I love the ocean. Don't get me wrong. I love it. These boats, their batteries are sinking ships. The windmills are making the whales go crazy.

But I love the sushi restaurant aspect of it. Yes. This game has so much stuff in it that any part of it could be for anybody at any given time. Right. It's like, oh, maybe you don't like the swimming in the ocean part. You might like the restaurant management sim. That's great. Because every single part of it works so well and plays so perfectly. It's a really great package.

I'm loving it. But I love managing that sushi restaurant. It's really fun. You mentioned Bancho earlier, who is the chef there. And I think that's just like the npcs are so good in this like the whole you know inciting thing that that that begins this game is your your pal cobra um and who's just this dude with a hawaiian shirt and aviators yeah uh he's sort of like a he's sort of like a cia adjacent like guy or something like they kind of they code these in a lot of fun uh like pro like stereotypes is

not the right word but cliches rather so like cobra is cobra is like your man on the inside he's got connections to a bunch of weird shit the uh boncho maybe is the one that goes against classic cliches is a badass black sushi chef with tiny little fucking, what's his name, Jean Reno glasses. Oh, yeah, that's right. Then every character you get introduced, so this is one of the few games I've ever played that I never skipped a cut scene, even repeat ones.

Cut scenes are great. Sorry, keep going. And they're quick. They know that we're just showing you a cool minute of something. But every NPC they introduce has a full-on comedy premise in addition to a full-on realized characterization. It's just rich in this way. It's just deep.

Your gun designer guy is a fucking dumpy, married-to-his-anime-pillow kind of guy. dumpy uh married to like his anime pillow kind of guy who's like also like and he he makes your guns but he's also really kind of like sleazy seeming the uh like there's like a guy who works at the newspaper who pays you for pictures of cool fish but he's like lightly makes fun of you for being fat all the time and like right but i at the characters call it out it's like hey what do you mean and then it's like moving on like there's just so much shit going on when you watch. There's like evil right wing, like a James Cameron type who's like mining the ground. It's environmental.

It's like pro animal. It's pro vibes. It's pro like everyone kind of looks down on Dave when they first meet him. Like everyone's like, but you're a fat diver. And then he ends up being great. And then when he meets the sea people, they're like, but you're a human. And he's like, ends up being great.

Like, all this stuff just keeps playing out. Like, it's so fucking, the word I would use is charming. The game is charming as fuck. Absolutely, yeah. Just loaded with charm. Yeah, all the Duff who's a weapons upgrade that you mentioned, the otaku weeb guy, all those cinematics always crack me up because it's kind of like he clearly is using the guy as a punchline,

but he's also so clearly unapologetically who he is, unapologetically this guy who's doing this all for his figurines of different anime female protagonists the charm of of that is it's it's a punch line but it's never it doesn't ever feel like an attack like it nobody is ever being like no one has ever made to feel bad in in i was about to say, you can laugh at him, but if you were a lot like him, I don't think you would be offended by the portrayal. No, no. Sure.

There's also the Pokemon guy who comes later on in the game, too. I was going to say, that's my guy, Sato. He's dressed exactly like Ash Ketchum, and it's really funny. And they even do bits, right where dave will be like isn't this a lot like polka and he's like quiet yeah that that's what i like like yeah it is a sort of thing of like it there's there's a version where all this comedy would come across as like sweaty but it's not it's all it's all it all works and um it ties into just kind of like the feeling of that the that the stakes aren't super high that you're not going to be punished

for failure because even if you fail a run yeah you basically it's like oh you lose all the fish you've caught except for uh you know you just get to retain one it's not like a huge thing and there's since there's not a ton of time pressure in this game, it doesn't feel like it's like this huge setback. And then you just get back in the ocean. Exactly. Then you just hop back in there. I'll get back in.

Just talking. Yeah, go on. You do two dives, then a shift at the restaurant. Two dives, then a shift at the restaurant. Then eventually you'll have like a farm and like a fish farm and shit. And then that's when it starts to get to be like, I'm getting out of my depth here. And then boom, it's end game. And you're like, oh, and shit. And then that's when it starts to get to be like, I'm getting out of my depth here.

And then boom, it's end game. And you're like, Oh, thank God. Yeah. So about the diving, it absolutely nails the feel of swimming.

Like, which I think so many games, like it's, it's like you dread the water sequences, especially if it's not fully water based, but that's his own thing. But just like the, it's so easy to maneuver.

Like on top of the water only, you mean, is that what you're saying? You're still mad about this? I'm just saying it wasn't really a water game. Like just moving around, just the ability of like just kind of move freely. Like as Dave, it just, it feels so good.

And it's one of those things where I think that's a big part of why it's so satisfying because there's also like a dash that you can do uh there's certain like you can grab you know certain items that improve your your maneuverability but overall it's like not like a it's not a difficult to get where you're trying to go underwater it like kind of really feels like i've never scuba dove but it really feels like what i assumed scuba diving would feel like and certainly what feels like my experience of swimming underwater. Yeah, and the way that you move when you're using a particular weapon, for example, too.

That has its own sort of like, the way you have to angle it, and it's like your spear gun or whatever it is. That has its own sort of feel versus the other gun that you might have too they all feel different i'm playing on the steam deck also and i've been using the those little touch pads right there and i i love those little touch pads for a game like this you kind of just move on those bad boys itself pretty nice yeah i didn't do that i've been using those joysticks like a normal freak. I, in the last few years, got kind of into scuba diving, and I've dove in a few places around the world.

And it's horrifying. I am very afraid of it, I should say. I have claustrophobia, so putting a bunch of shit on and having the tunnel vision and only hearing your breath and stuff and feeling like you're trapped at the bottom of the sea because you can't just push off or your brain will bleed or whatever. That shit gets to you. flow or whatever, or if I want to use more scuba diving technology, when you're at zero neutral buoyancy in that you do not need to do anything to remain afloat. You do not need to do anything to sink. You are just at an even pace, which is something you do with regulating your BPV, your flotation

device. And when you get it, BPV is bulletproof vest. It's definitely, that's not what it is but bvd once your bvd is underwear that's not it either uh but once you use big dick energy that is actually what i mean though uh so perfect once you have your dick energy sorted yeah no we're talking about dave the muff diver right i've rolled credits on Dave the Muff Diver. You have to give your stepmom an orgasm.

Would have been way easier if I knew how to use the touch pads. But when you're in that zero buoyancy moment, that is, I've had experiences at like 50 feet down where I felt like I was in outer space. Wow. Because you are just fully sailing over coral reef with fish swimming and out of it all of a sudden you are like this being flying over a world and you're not even doing any effort you're just lightly moving your feet like this and all you can hear is your breath and all you

can see is the bottom of the ocean and next thing you feel like you're a fucking ash an aquanaut or whatever and it's a super and i feel like the game gives you that feeling by changing the tone of what it sounds like underwater even like never really hearing dialogue and like just hearing the like like shit is the game is fucking smooth as fuck gameplay talk about the harpoon any issue it you have wielding it like you just learn eventually like the game is just is a well-made smooth game and it makes you feel good when you play and like nick said it sucks when you die be just only because like your health bar is also your oxygen in a way so it's slowly going to keep going which i love because it's slowly going down the

whole time yeah and then once you get into combat you get like in a situation where if you get hurt now you have like it's even harder to get out of the water or shit i wish i would have gotten into combat earlier now i'm already so depleted like i just like that about the game too it it fucks with your strategy and how it's being played too it gives you it like it to me the the one health pool oxygen is both like you know how long you can stay underwater and you if you take damage from like a you know a mako shark bites you you lose oxygen like having that one health pool it's just like it it's it's it's it's asymptomatic of just like how the whole game is so well designed where it's like,

it makes the things that you don't want to, it makes certain elements just so simple and so straightforward and then adds complexity to a lot of the other things, like all the resource management. Yeah. On the SIM side of things. So like, yeah,

it's, it's, it's simple in the right ways and it's complex in the right ways. We played dredge on this show a couple of ago dredge is a fishing yes uh sort of horror game gabrus and i i think that might be the next steam deck game i down i i got a list of like good for the deck games and yeah okay dredge has been recommended to me pre-deck as well wow what did you guys think of the game dredge is also great it is um uh it is uh kind of very you know the opposite of cozy it's much yeah it's like it's a horror it's like a lovecraftian eldritch horror kind of game too

exactly i think it's worth playing i think it's really cool it's also like a you know it much it's it's short it's certainly shorter than d the Diver. The thing is, like, the gameplay loop as far as a game where you're catching and trapping fish is not nearly as satisfying. So from that standpoint, it doesn't, like, compare as well. But I do think just like as a world, and I think the narrative design is all really cool. Yeah, but there is there's no sushi restaurant in dredge that's a big issue there's no sushi restaurant you're managing well then maybe i'll like a little bit more of that do you guys uh now that everyone's decked decked out if you will um do you have a like i've been

playing a lot of slay the Spire and Vampire Survivors, but I've been playing those for like months or years now. Yeah. But I've gotten really in the habit of like Steam Deck while I watch a bad TV show. And so I, or like a movie I've seen a hundred times. Right. Curious, have you guys stumbled upon any games that you find either has ported really well to the deck or oh this is a really fun game uh if you haven't played it it works well on the deck like

uh the main reason i took this i agreed to do this episode was to get to get recommendations from our steam deck games deck rex no i think deck rex hell yeah so i yeah so yeah. In this room, I'm the one with the Steam Deck. I am the one with the Steam Deck. You think that of me, Skylar? I'm still so mad at Skylar. Oh, man, Skylar makes me so mad. Don't even get me started, dude. Honestly, Baldur's Gate 3, like there's there's stuff in that game

where you don't have to you can be in like a flow state kind of like if you're in a goblin encampment and you're not really paying attention there's not a lot of story going on you just know you have to take down a bunch of guys get get baldur's gate 3 on the steam deck and then just have that with you at all times because Because let me tell you this, too. You don't have to be online to be playing Baldur's Gate 3, so you could take that fucker on an airplane and be playing Baldur's Gate 3 on an airplane, dude. Whoa.

I've done it, and it's, depending on what you're doing, you don't want to be doing one of the horny missions or something. You don't want to be fucking Eiffel Towering a Dragon Con. Yeah, you don't want to be doing one of the horny missions or something. You don't want to be fucking Eiffel Towering a Dragon Con. Yeah, you don't want to be getting... In Comfort Plus. You don't want your player character joining the Mile High Club. You don't want to get caught tugging off to your avatar going... Baldur's Gate 3, I like that.

Baldur's Gate 3 on the Steam Baldur's Gate 3 on the Steam It's a big boy on there, honestly So it's gonna require a lot from the Steam Deck I find my Steam Deck I got one of the big ones I find it gets hot Yes, yeah But there's also like

Because you own it on Steam, right? So you own Baldur's Gate I own it on PlayStation, that's my problem Oh, I see, okay Well, then you're probably on Steam, right? So you own Baldur's Gate. I own it on PlayStation. That's my problem. Oh, I see. Okay. Well, then you're probably going to want to double dip in there. Perfect. Let me get two different Baldur's Gate 3 campaigns going.

It does cross save. It does cross progression. So you could pick it up on Steam and carry it over to your know, to your PlayStation as well. Holy shit. Back and forth. Holy shit. But that's only if you have, you know, that's not for everybody, of course. That's for the people that are trying to actually take this shit seriously, you know.

I mentioned on the, first off, I'm looking to see if there is one on the Steam store now. But, like, you know, there's, like, a great curation one on the Steam store now, but like, you know, there's, there's like a great curation list on the Steam store. That's just PC recommended by PC game pass. And it just lists all the games that are on Steam that are also on PC game pass in case you have that. So I would not be shocked if there was a, there, there's a curator that's like,

you know, great on Steam deck that just kind of like lists ones that are really good versions. In the Steam store, they do have a deck recommended or whatever. Works well on the deck or something like that. Did you guys play...

Wait, it's similar to... Have you played Into the Breach? That's something I was... Oh my god, I love Into the Breach. Into the Breach is my favorite game that came out that year. I played the shit out of it i actually was this this is a thing i remember uh going back and forth with you back in the day is that i had played the shit out into the breach i had never played ftl which was uh subset games their first game and so oh shit it's the same people it's the same developer and

so i went to you and was like hey should i like, or I think it maybe just asked generally if about maybe even online when I was posting online about how if I'd like FTL and you actually got me on FTL, you got me to play it and then also give it a second chance. I have like over 100 hours in that game. But yeah, Into the Breach is fucking awesome. Oh, cool. I'll check that out. I enjoyed FTL big time. But if someone was was like you could recommend

this to any one of your friends uh that you think might like it more than you you would be the person that would come to mind it's like yeah such like i've seen you manage chaos like in comedy and on your podcast like so many times in your life that i'm like this guy's fucking built for this kind of game as far as deck recs go too, I gotta say Disco Elysium, great on the Steam Deck. And I think you've played Hades a little bit, right? Oh yeah. Oh, I've played

a lot of Hades. Okay. Vampire Survivors? That's a perfect deck game. You mentioned that, yeah. I've been playing that countlessly. I've unlocked like 15 characters on that. Okay, awesome. That's one of those fun games too that I never, I kind of didn't do this with Dave ever either. Like at some point I eventually go on like Reddit or Google or IGN and I'm

just like, am I doing this right? And then it's like, make sure you do blank, blank and blank. You're like, Oh fuck. Yeah.

Vampire survivors. I have no idea what I should be trying to complete. You know what I mean? In a way, that's kind of fun. In a way that it's always like, you unlocked Mordecai or whatever. I'm like, I don't even know how the fuck I did that. You know?

Pick some character, pick some level, and try to stay alive for as long as possible. And I have no idea what I'm trying to do with it. But there's something fun about that, too. Absolutely. Any other thoughts on Day of the Diver? I mean, I would heartily recommend this game to anyone who just wants a chill, fun experience and also a game you could play for a while because I think the campaign is like north

of 20 hours. Yeah, it's a 20-hour game. It's a decent size. And you can play it in 50 hours. You know what I mean? Yeah, exactly. You can take your time to it. It's really fun. It's really...

Again, so it does something that I think modern games are starting to get right more than games from when we were younger. It's like it adds to the game as you play it where it's like okay so you've got all this shit figured out great here's one little layer to the onion you're like yes oh shit weird then you're like all right you've been you've been living in this kind of realm for a few hours here's another layer here's another and then you're fully sizzling with everything where you're like all right need to take a photo need to upgrade my tranquilizer gun need to and like you

know and then you're like i need to get the seaweed for the sea people at my farm and all of a sudden you got like 20 things going that if when i turned the game on they started rattling that shit off i would have like fucking put a nail gun through my steam deck like the killer i'm like i don't know if i can handle this shit i'm out you know so i love the way they like uh the i keep i think i've talked about this every time i've been on just like that's like the newest trend in games to me where it's like the game will teach you the game like it's built in there there's like look no one's looking at instruction manuals games don't even come with them anymore. Just start playing the game, and it'll either tutorial you

or give you the most basic introduction and then slowly add shit as the game goes on. It's fucking cool. And I don't even like Sushi Restaurant Sims or anything. I don't like that kind of shit that like idle game shit like i can't believe how much time i spent pouring green tea and beers in this game of like i'm like i don't even like doing shit like this but i better fucking get it right because i need the tips the sounds yeah the sound for pouring the tea and then pouring the tea perfectly is up there with some of the best sounds I've ever heard.

It's really satisfying. It's so satisfying. A hundred percent, yeah. There's this little like, you know, liquid physics mini game that's just one element of one part of the game. It's just like there's just so many little delights packed in there. I got pretty good at pouring the tea. I'm pretty good at it too. I'm bad at pouring beers, but I'm good at the tea.

I can almost get perfect on the tea. Beers, I just never really figured out. But you're absolutely right, Gabrus, and I think that is the big thing about this game, the big win about this game, is that the slow roll of new mechanics, that there's always something new happening and for for a huge chunk of the game i would say for most of the game it's just like

you're going through it here's one more thing here's one more thing it never comes out in a way that that overwhelms you uh and uh yeah i i love it i love all the mini games i love the uh the kind of random feel to everything um i think this think this also has one of the best in-game smartphones for what it's worth. So often I see a phone in a game, I'm just like, oh, God, I don't want to deal with this shit. This is what I'm trying to escape right now. But it's just like another layer of gameplay, and it's just a great way to have the UX presented. Hell yeah. Right. It's just like an in-game menu, more or less, but it's presented in such a great way to have the UX presented. Hell yeah. Right, it's just like an in-game menu, more or less,

but it's presented in such a cool way. And like a lot of these modern games, too, that know how achievement-based we all are, eventually you get, like, now the environmental guy is saying, I need five red shells, five blue shells, five purple shells. Now this guy's saying you need to catch a perfect version of the mitochondrion or whatever.

This guy's saying, get me a photo of the electric eels. So your shit starts piling up that you have to do, but it's never overwhelming. Cause there, no, there's almost no time constraints on the game, except for when like a celebrity,

uh, customers coming to the restaurant yes that's the only game and i fucked up one celebrity customer so many times and here's the thing they just decide to come back three days later always yeah so like the most stressful part of the game is like we need to have seaweed here by day three because this japanese pop star character had and needs seaweed or whatever and you're like fuck i'm not gonna have it he's like seaweed here by day three because this Japanese pop star character needs seaweed or whatever. And you're like, fuck, I'm not going to have it. He's like, I'll be back.

And you're like, okay, never mind. I guess it wasn't that big of a deal, actually. I was really spiraling about this for a while. Matt, any other thoughts? There is an in-game cat, Momo. Look, this is a good guy. Momo is good. I'm hard-pressed to think of one of these

cats from a game that I don't really like. They're all pretty good. Can you pet Momo? I don't think you can. I don't know if you can pet Momo. The game is bad. Actually, not sure. I'm sure we can figure that out. I refuse to ever find out.

Fuck Momo. Great game. A lot of fun. So good. Hey, I got a segment here. This is a new one we haven't done before. Ever been around with a segment? I'll allow it.

Okay, here we go. This is Would you blathers? This is a video game version of would you rather. I'll give you a video game related scenario, a couple of video game related scenarios, and you tell me which one you'd prefer. Okay. All right, here we go. Would you blathers be a bear with a bird in his backpack like Banjo

or be a bird riding in the backpack of a bear like Kazooie? I'm going to have to go. I'm going to go full Banjo here. Is that how you answer this? I'm like, no. Absolutely. Okay. Yeah.

Banjo, Banjo. Yes. I think I'd have to say the same because, yeah, if you're banjo, you're the bear, you're doing a lot of the heavy lifting. But then if you're the bird in the backpack, you're kind of called upon to do stuff. Maybe that's not at a convenient time for you. So I think I'm going to go banjo as well. Are there correct answers? Sure.

Yeah. You're both right. We'll say that. Oh, thank God. No, it's just hypothetical, whatever you want to answer. Rochelle, you got a preference? Bird or bear? Bird, because I am a passenger princess.

Oh, there you go. Cool. Okay. All, there you go. Cool. Alright, next up. Would you blathers have Johnny Silverhand's personality electronically implanted into your brain like in Cyberpunk 2077, or have a mind flayer parasite burrow into your brain like in

Baldur's Gate 3? Okay, so this is really tough, and... This actually is really tough. Because here's the thing. Johnny Silverhand, Keanu Reeves, really cool. Yeah. But, in spoilers for Cyberpunk, doesn't seem like you can really do anything about that.

Whereas the Mind Flayer, I believe there is a cure. I think you can get cured. Spoilers for Baldur's Gate 3. I think my case, and I'll let Gabrus answer, my big thing with Silverhand is that as cool as Keanu is, I feel like I wouldn't have any privacy. Just at any time. Oh, no, you caught me jacking off again, buddy.

Yeah, I guess. Well, because you know what? There's a whole part of Baldur's Gate 3 that I haven't really explored, like eating the fucking slugs or whatever it is, and you can upgrade your like mind flayer powers i have i chose not to do that this run right so maybe i go full mind flayer and see what we can do so we can cook up together oh um i've not played cyberpunk and i'm just fresh into balder's gate but i'm gonna go with the mind Flayer parasite just because I wanted to shout out the fucking visual of the parasite

crawling into the eye that they show in the game. That is fucking gnarly. That's radical. It's truly crazy. I loved it. Yeah. Yeah. That's inside-esque body horror.

Oh, yeah. All right, next up. Would you blathers have an arm that's a gun like Mega Man's Buster Cannon or have an arm that's a grappling hook like the wolf in Sekiro? So one of your arms is being replaced with either a cannon or a grappling hook. Cannon easily. Cannon easily. I have no reason to go up. I have no reason for a grappling hook cannon easily cannon easily i have no reason to go up i have no reason for a grappling hook i know that's funny this is the for me this was the easiest decision to make

as well and i would go grappling hook really yeah well to me you said sekiro but for me bionic commando is the game of hey there I think about all the time. That's such fun gameplay. The idea to have that Batman and or famously Spider-Man mentality of being able to shoot and swing and that seems for me more useful

than firing buster cannons at people. Even though buster cannons make me feel good. I feel like everyone if I was just like I had a gun that was attached to my body, that would make people nervous. Yeah, you. They see me coming with that thing, they know everything's fine.

That's true. That's like you've heard of chekhov's gun but have you heard of a weiger's arm gun if that comes out in the first act it's being pressed to his own temple in the first want to see a magic trick buddy want to see my jaw disappear have you ever seen that have you ever seen fight club i'm my own tyler durden buddy uh let's do one more would you blathers crash land your plane into a lost underwater libertarian utopia like bioshock or be stranded on an island populated by cute animals like in Animal Crossing New Horizons.

Oh, come on. I don't got time for all that other bullshit. Give me those animals. I'm not going to read Atlas Shrugged to understand what's going on. Get me with my boy Dom and catch up the red duck. I've only played Bioshock, and even that I didn't play too much of. But the animal, cute cute animal I don't know when you said trapped on an island

full of cute in my head I was like oh yeah and then you said animals and I was like oh right that makes more sense cute power lifters yeah no I I'm game for the island, and mostly just because I'm an island guy. I don't like the...

Yeah. The Bioshock shit kind of sketches me out a little. And there's, like, people... Constantly listening to, like, announcements and shit would drive me crazy. Exactly. No, yeah. People you can hear in hallways talking to themselves,

being like, if only they trusted my formula, or whatever they're saying. Yeah. Yeah, I don't think I'd want to be in Rapture. Also, you got the threat of big daddies and you're not really dealing with any sort of, you know. But you could be a big daddy as well.

Ooh. I mean, I guess. But then, yeah, what fate is that? Yeah. To what end? Yeah. You're walking down the, and you just hear down the hallways,

it's like, and actually the crank is not for power. It's just for game time. Get me the fuck out of here. Scraping their human nails along the wall. We'll take a, hey, we might do this again. If anyone wants to pitch any Would You Blather scenarios, toss them in our Discord, and maybe we'll use them and credit you in a future episode. And hey, that's this week's get played. I want to shout out Rochelle,

our producer. Also check out our paywalled show, get animated, which is over at patrion.com slash get played. Gabrus. Thank you so much for joining us. Anything you would like to plug? Yeah.

Oh, this is probably coming out in a while. Check out the two podcasts. Weiger mentioned earlier, High and Mighty and Action Boys, and also 101 Places to Party Before You Die is on Max still, if you haven't caught it. It might be for you, you gaming nerds.

Great show. A great, great show. Also, yeah, Action Boys with a Z. Action Boys with a Z. Check it out on Patreon. Do you have any unlocked episodes in the High and Mighty feed? We have a bunch of if you go to free.actionboys.biz

there's about eight or nine free episodes you can listen to there as well. Oh, awesome. All the ones that have been in the High and Mighty feed are now just living on that feed for people to check out. Wow. There you go. That's a great show. One of my favorites. Thank you, Liger. Gabrus, thank you so much for

being here. I'll say it, you know what, in a kind of a gentle, sort of chill, sort of Dave the Diver fashion, you got played. You got played.

That was a HeadGum Podcast.