Get Played - Demo-Lition Derby

Episode Date: October 5, 2026

Heather, Nick and Matt discuss video game demos and report on some demos they played for the show. And this week on DLC we begin OCTZILLA, a month long look into Godzilla movies only on patreon.com/getplayed. Check out our merch at kinshipgoods.com/getplayed Follow us on social media @getplayedpod Music by Ben Prunty benpruntymusic.com Art by Duck Brigade duckbrigade.com For our exclusive show Get Played DLC, ad-free main feed episodes, our complete back catalogue including How Did This Get Played? episodes go to patreon.com/getplayed Join us on our Discord server here: https://discord.gg/getplayed Wanna leave us a voicemail? Call 616-2-PLAYED or write us an email at [e-mail] Advertise on Get Played via Gumball.fm All of our links can be found at linktree.com/getplayedpodSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This is a HeadGum podcast. Start your Alienware journey with the streamlined Alienware 15. They designed the machine to refine the essentials, creating a more focused gaming laptop for players who demand quality without the clutter. They engineered a brilliant 15.3-inch 16-15-inch display seamlessly into a portable 15-inch buddy. You get a larger, immersive window into your game that still travels easily, wherever your mission takes you. Step into the future of gaming with up to

NVIDIA-G-Force R-TX-50-60 laptop GPUs, designed to push boundaries. The R-TX-50 series with Nvidia Max Q delivers jaw-dropping graphics while optimizing battery life. This is the Alienware experience distilled into one iconic machine. Visit alienware.com slash 15 today. Some of you know, I'm injured, and I need both hands to cook.

What am I going to do? I got to eat. Well, that's where Factor comes in. Factor makes chef created, dietician designed, ready to eat meals. You don't have to choose between real food and convenience. With over 175 banned ingredients, every Factor meal is designed around what supports a healthier lifestyle and nothing that doesn't. Factor meals are ready in two minutes and require no prep and no cleanup. So even on the days, your schedule is completely out of control,

eating well is still achievable. Every week, you'll find 100 nutrient-dense menu items to choose from, and new options like salmon burgers, shredded pork, collared greens, and more. Yum, yum, give me some. Plus, add-ons you'll crave like pumpkin-flavored cheesecakes and protein shakes. I'm adding that on for sure. 97% of users agree that factor meals help them live a healthier life so you can feel confident that you're doing something good for yourself with every meal.

Factor has been a lifesaver recently because, like I said, I'm injured and I can't use one of my hands to the best of my ability. I'm shattering eggs in my hand, like someone I won't mention. I'm flinging food all over the place. I'm spilling. I'm knocking in the stuff. Factor makes it so that I can have a healthy meal prepared and ready to go, and I'm not making a big old mess or hurting myself anymore. Let's eat real. Head to factormeals.com slash get played 50 off and use code get played 50 off to get 50% off and one free breakfast item per box for one year while supplies last until October 31st, 2026. Ooh, happy Halloween.

That's code get played 50 off at factor meals.com. Get played 50 off at factor meals.com. See website for more details. Guys, okay, I don't know. know if you guys have figured this out about yourselves, but you know how like there's like demo modes on like TVs and stuff at Best Buy? Yeah. I found my demo mode. I found my demo mode. It's like a switch in my mouth and I and I like I figured like I pressed it and I went straight into demo mode. Wait what what what happens? I mean can you? Oh yeah I'll just I'll do.

Okay. All right. So, uh, all right, I'm demoing my functions and oh oh my. Oh my Oh, no, I'm pissing. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Oh, my God. I'm so humiliated.

Okay, I'm demoing piss. It's one of the things my body can do. I'm sorry, guys. That's not a unique feature to you. I'm shitting. Oh, Jesus Christ. Turn it off. Turn it off.

God. Heather. Turn it off. Turn it off. It's okay, Heather. Why is it cycling? through these things first. You don't need to feel bad. You don't need to feel embarrassed or you're friends.

I'm so sorry. Put normal mode back on. You're sneezing. You're sort of doing all your bodily functions. I'm demoing sneezing. You got it. You have to turn this off. All right, hold on. I got to get my hand in my mouth. I can't. I can't keep my mouth open long. Okay, I'm just going to turn it off because, oh, I'm pissing again.

Oh, it's going to loop. It's just like a loop of my demos. You know what? I'm sorry this went so wrong for you, Heather. I'm sorry. I would like, well, get you,

100, hundreds of these napkins. I got it. I turned it up. I turned it off the piss and shit. I turn it off. I turned it off. Oh my God.

I'm so sorry, guys. I was so excited to share that with you. I mean, that's, Heather, I'm sorry that was such a harrowing experience. Well,

you know, you can get cleaned up. We'll do the episode whenever you're ready. Okay. But I got to admit. Now I want to see what, My demo mode is like, Wait,

all right, let's do this. Oh, oh, ho, oh, oh, oh, oh,

oh, oh, he's just, he's just sucking a dick. He's just demoing us. He can suck a dick. And he started with a catch race. He started with a,

let's do this. So I have a 50-50 shot. It's either or. We dip our toes in the water and judge a book by its cover as we talk game demos and Demolition Derby this week on Get Played. Welcome to Get Played, your one-stop show for good games, bad games, and every game in between. It's time to get played. I'm your host, Heather Ann Campbell, along with my fellow host, Nick Tiger Weiger. Roar.

That's me, Nick Tiger Weiger, along with her third host, Mr. Games, Badapodaka. I regret doing that. Yuck. I don't even want to talk in a lot. Roar. Hello, everyone. Hello, everyone. What the fuck is up?

Welcome back to the premiere video game podcast where if you're still listening, this week, we're doing something new. A little format that Matt Apodaka came up with that I got really excited about called Demolition Derby. And we'll get into what that is in a little bit. But I did come up. with it and I think it's good. It is another good one from Apodaca. The man I call Format. That's right.

These guys just dropping bars. He's not just Mr. Games. He's not just the franchise. He's not just the finisher. He's not just the artist formerly known as the Xbox kid. He is. Now the Xbox is kind of back. I kind of have to be the Xbox Kid again.

You're the Xbox kid again. Prince went back to Prince. Prince went back to Prince. You can do that. I'm following the, Yeah, you can just do whatever the fuck you want, I guess. Kojima's with Xbox. You're the Xbox getting on. That's right. Yeah, hey, where Kojima

goes, I go, and that's a fucking fact. We're recording a week in advance because of everyone's schedules. This was the one time we could kind of get all three of us in the same space, and so we figured we'd rather be together than be timely. So if some news drops, some bombshell

happens, the week leading up to this episode's release, it won't be mentioned here. Then that's just because we're ahead of our normal recording schedule. Yeah, and we should say that because this is the only time we had available, it's four in the morning. It's four in the morning. It's 4 a.m.

I haven't slept for three days. That's actually not true. I'd say it's actually, I think, weirder than 4 a.m. We're recording on Friday evening. That's right. Friday early evening. We might not make it in time to see Urkel. We all want to go home, but this is the one time we could do it.

Yeah, that's right. Nick, Nick, I should let you know. Yeah. My voice is a little hoarse because we recorded ads first, and I screamed so much that I blew out my own voice. Oh, my God. I'm sorry. So just like if I, if it cracks or you're like, are you okay? I'm not sick.

I was screaming about quints. And you're not crying. Yeah. I was crying, laughing during the ad records. Oh, yes. because Matt was recording an ad and I held up my phone and it was just a picture of Donald Trump

attempting to stand like a normal human man and all of us collapse we just couldn't do anything you won't hear that in the app yeah you won't hear any of that but it happened it was majorly disruptive yeah it was very

I felt like I was in school and I was fucking around because you were holding just just so you can understand how it was yeah she didn't just show it to me immediately. She held her phone out in front of her like this where she could see the screen with the intention of I'm going to show you what's on my phone or I wasn't aware I wasn't sure if you were going to chime in or not. Right. Then I'm getting to what they call in the biz is the call

to action in the ad and Heather turns her phone to me to reveal the screen direct eye contact to me. I look down and it's a picture of the president of the Cheeto and Chi trying to stand. He's like, he looks mad as if he's like, I don't have shit running down my legs, you do. It looked crazy. And it just took us all out.

It was really funny. Hey, speaking of ads, we know from your feedback that some people don't like the ad breaks. Some people are like, I'm here for the podcast. I'm not here for the ad. Well, let me tell you something.

Which is, by the way, why I gave it a thousand percent today. Because if you're forced to listen to them, I was going to give you every reason to enjoy. Yeah, I know some of you guys listen to the show shackled, not able to use your hands or arms in a sort of clockwork orange situation. Right. So we salute you. So for those of you, this, you know, those of you in that circumstance,

there's nothing we can do. But for those of you who have some optionality in your life, you can skip the ads entirely by signing up for our DLC at patreon.com. slash get played. We have an ad-free tier for the main feed episodes in our DLC. Sign up for that. You get every episode ad-free in the same feed as our DLC bonus episodes. So there you go. You never have to listen to a call to action again. But you'll be missing out. And I'll be calling you to action no matter what. I hope you just know whatever you're listening. I'm calling you to action. Every ad that I record is a dare to the company.

Yes. And in a way, we should, we should be, we should be doing it more compliant. We should be doing it so they want to keep doing it. But they keep coming back. This is the, the weird paradox of ad reads. I feel like if you're trying to like, like the less, the more you like kind of deviate from what your expectation is of what they want, the more you're just sort of like, like, I don't know, I'm going to do something weird.

Yeah. The more they're like, we love this. Yeah. Do that again. Yeah, yeah. And now Heather is shackled in her own way to having to scream at the top of her lungs for every ad receipt. It's a choice. It's a golden cage.

I fucking love it. I love it. But yeah, check that out. But also, the ad supported feed supports the show as well. So we thank you for your service. Yeah, whether you're listening to hearing the main feed for free, the ad supported feed, or whether you're over there getting the ad free a feed, we're just happy to have. you.

So. And look, maybe I shouldn't say this. Yeah. You don't got to buy any of the stuff. You can't if you want. You don't say that. You don't say that. You don't have to do anything.

You just put it out. Just take the information as it is. Do whatever you want. I've never seen a commercial being like on TV and been like, I'm going to buy this medicine. I'm shocked by how well commercials work. Yeah. They work on me so well. So often.

If I see a McDonald's commercial, I fucking want McDonald's. Yeah. That only happens to me when I listen to doughboys. It's not even an enjoyable commercial anymore or like an accurate one. They don't even show McDonald's as they are. Yeah. Which are these gray cubes. Yeah.

I think if there was like, because we know how effective like Instagram ads are at getting people to buy shit they don't need. Yes. When they're just like, oh, wow, look at this watch. I guess I'll just click this thing and order it. If there was a direct way to order McDonald's through your TV, you know, McDonald's ad came on. But there is, and Sony has patented it. Remember?

That's right, yes. Sony has a patent for you watch an ad and you stand up and shout the product at the television. McDonald! Which is the word being shouted in the ad in the patent. Oh, my God. So, like, we know that the tech exists, and Sony is just being like, I don't know if this is for the common good. Yeah, that's the speed run to the Wally future we're going toward anyway. You know, as long as we're talking about ads, the best ads in existence for McDonald's are the Japanese anime TikTok ads for McDonald's, which is a love story that is playing out in absolutely stunning animation.

Wow. Where there's a really attractive guy who's like going out with a girl and sometimes they'll get McDonald's. And it's so gorgeous. You're like, what the? In fact, we don't do this on the show you. I'm going to just fucking show you. I've been thinking about when we went to McDonald's in Japan and how good it was. So fucking good.

I got McDonald's this week, and it was like, it was still good. Yeah. But it's not as good. Parts of that trip have been popping into my head a lot. Just like the individual, I was upset because I saw an egg sandwich, like an egg salad sandwich at a store. And I just knew that it wasn't going to be as good as the ones we had there. And I was fucking mad. No, I'll never have as good of an egg salad sandwich as a 7-Eleven egg salad sandwich.

I ate on the Shinkansen in Kyoto to Tokyo. I just then longingly looked at the photo of the one I took at the restaurant that Heather and I went to and just like sighed looking at a photo of a sandwich. We had you and I, you and I were eating eggs sandwiches. You and I also had some adult beverages. Those highballs were really good. Bottled highballs, delicious. Look at this fucking ad. Look at this ad.

Look. Yeah, that looks good. Fucking what McDonald's so fucking bad. Look at these guys. Yeah, so we have a very... Really studly. Yeah, these are the real, you know, cartoonishly attractive, anime,

I guess probably teenagers. Yeah. Eating these burgers at a riverbank. And it's somber and quiet, and they're having a quiet conversation. And this is just a commercial. It's not anything. This is a fucking commercial.

I would watch a show, do you want to date me and eat McDonald's? Like, Look at this shit. Like, they're in love and they're eating McDonald's. And I'm like, I got to have a fucking McDonald's right now. Yeah. Just proof that everything.

And look at it. The burger looks good. And then it just goes to a splash screen of a burger. Yeah. Great. Really great. But, hey, that's content. See, just all you, all we have to say is you have options.

You have options. And we have options. That's right. Our options include how we're going to spend our free time. And it's doing this. Because this was my first. free time. My wife is like, what are you doing the night? And I'm like, I'm going to go record again. This is how we do it. It's Friday night. And I feel all right. Party's here at Headgum Studios.

Wow. It's Friday night. We're at Headgum Studios. We have options in terms of how we're going to spend our free time. This is how we do it. I'm going to record this and then I'm going to go across the street. I'm going to eat uni until I get diarrhea. Whoa, that sounds fun. Heather, I got to say, you don't have to do that. I can do whatever I want. I have freedom and free will. And this is how I defy reality and fate. Yeah. Nobody in their right mind would do that.

Nobody would choose. That's how I can register that I exist. Yes. I march across the street and I do something knowing I'm going to hurt myself. Cars veering out of the way until they don't hit you. Do you have a reservation, ma'am? Get out of my way. Where's the Oonie?

Man, I got to. I, you know, I rarely order, I was working from home this morning, and I rarely order, like, my early meals. Like, I just, like, those are things like, I just don't get delivered. But I was just like, ah, fuck a damn, I'm kind of in a time crunch. And I don't really have any, I didn't really go grocery shopping this week. So I just ordered a breakfast burrito from Kofax. You know, Kofax. Yeah, Kofx is good.

Quality breakfast burrito. They have an impossible breakfast burrito. I got it. I'm eating it. And I'm like, this one, this is so fucking good. Yeah. And also, like, this has, like, this crispy texture to it. what is this?

They put bacon in it. So it was impossible meat and then also bacon. That is so fucking funny because you eat meat, you try to avoid pork. I'm not going to waste it if it's in there, but... It's not the biggest offense,

but that would have absolutely destroyed somebody who is doing it. Vegetarian? Vegetarian? Can you imagine? You can't make a worst mistake. No, no, no, no. And I feel like of the meats that we eat,

that one's the worst one. To make him mistake. You would almost wish it was steak. Yeah, right. Were you working on a deadline for our shared job? Yeah, I mean, yeah, I mean, yeah, I guess. Why did you get weird? I just wanted you to say yes or no.

He likes to keep the, keeps all his things separate. He doesn't. He talks about dough boys here all the time. Not by choice. I bring it up. Why is that weird? Look, I was working from home, okay? What the fuck?

He was eating a bird. breakfast burrito. While jerking off. Were you fucking the burrito? No, no. And that's how you found out a crunchy texture? Oh, fuck.

Ow! Salty on my dick. Bacon is unfortunately really good. Yeah. Not to be, you know, a stand-up comic. Bacon is really good.

Or an internet guy from 15 years ago. But it's just like, yeah, the epic bacon culture overplayed it. And then we were like, all right, everyone got kind of tired of it.

But then you're just like, camera around. It is fucking good. It's really good. I wish it wasn't. I wish it didn't taste good. I wish I hated it. Yeah, but it is delicious, of course. Unfortunately. In the same way we have options to avoid bacon completely. We have options on how we're going to spend our time.

Yes, Matt, thank you. This is what I was driving towards earlier, and I don't mean whether or not we record this podcast. So that is an option we have. We can all opt out of it. We, what? When you make jokes like this? I don't know if you're joking. When did that become an option? When somebody is busy as you said something like that, like, you believe this?

How do I get out? We don't have to do this. Well, we do have a contractual obligation to detect him to some degree, but, but, you know, we don't have to do this. No, we have to fulfill that contract. I also, for the lifestyle that I live. Then we can have the conversation we have every year of, are we going to keep doing this? For the lifestyle, I've continued to live, I have to do this. I love doing the podcast.

and part of the reason I love doing the podcast is beyond present company, which is the main reason. It's a joy. Our audience is a secondary reason. But a tertiary reason and the reason that we began this podcast in the first place is our shared love of video games. And when it comes to video games, we have options in terms of how we want to spend our free time. And you, the listener, have an option of whether or not you listen to this or not. But apparently some of you don't have the option to not listen to the answer. It just starts.

It just starts and you're just like, oh, what the fuck's going on? My hands! Stop! It hurts. We love you guys. We love you all. We love you guys.

I don't understand how this continues. I'm just taking the piss, isn't it? Yeah, taking the piss, bro. Hey, while we're on that fucking topic, it is now day two of me waiting for my Oasis Code to get tickets to the fucking concerts. And those boys have not sent me a code. Matt Apodaca's got a fucking code.

And I tried to get to get. gift it to my friend Heather Ann Campbell. You can't transfer the codes. Codes on transferrable. You probably thought you could transfer the code. I would assume that. It's the way that they... It's the way they prevent scalping. The person whose email address has to be the one registered to the Ticketmaster account that buys the tickets. So while in theory, Matt can purchase tickets and then I can refund him the money and then bring his phone to Vegas. I don't even know. It's just like... Too much things to do. exchange hands you just probably log into my

I'd log into your account and then show you have to dress exactly like me you have to wear a Blink 182 t-shirt there all of this is to say all this is to say I've spent I've spent a long time liking the boys yeah you're gonna get to go you're gonna get to go and they're not fucking sending me a code

you're gonna get to go I just can't be how you can't because in the way that the Evangelion rebuilds made you walk away from Evangelion you're not gonna look back in anger at this you're gonna always be happy with your boy I fucking might. No, you won't.

You can't do it. You know what? They would. Well, yeah, they would. They fucking walked away from me for 16 fucking years. Maybe I should. But you know what? But you know what you showed them?

What? That they needed you as much as you needed them. I don't know. I don't think they learned that I exist. They know my wife exists. Because I've seen the play. God damn it. CM Punk was away from pro wrestling for seven years.

And it's wild to think that Oasis was like, like, like dissembled for more than twice that because that two wrestling fans felt like an eternity and his, the reception when he ultimately returned to AEW, whatever people think of CM Punk and his current run. But when he first came back, it was absolutely rapturous. Yeah.

Like there was a meme of a guy who was just like fucking sobbing just seeing CM Punk walk to the ring again. It was just so cathartic for people. I don't know much about CM Punk, but everything I see about him, I'm always like, he seems like a cool guy, right? He's a complicated figure. Complicated figure.

Yeah. He's straight edge. He's straight edge. Actually, he's fucking whack. Whoa. We don't have time to get into the history of CM Punk. It's a whole different podcast. But what I was saying is like, when we talked, we watched that Oasis Doc, of course, over on our DLC where the DLC can be anything. The DLC can be anything, bro.

But just like, I didn't make the comparison there, but I was thinking of it later of like, oh, yeah, it was a similar sort of thing. It was just like people were just in disbelief that it was actually happening. Yeah. It's crazy. I have a feeling you're going to be able to get in there, Heather, you're going to be in the sphere or wherever they're playing, watching Liam balance a tambourine on top of his bucket hat. Maybe.

It's going to happen. Maybe. It's going to happen. Maybe I won't be. Wow. Maybe you're going to be the one that saves me. What about that? And after all.

Oh, okay. The rest. We have options in terms of how we want to spend her free time. It can include going to Vegas to see a lot. oasis, but it can also include our favorite shared hobby playing video games. Hey buddy, look, we've all been there. You got the angle, but you still lose the trade. In competitive gaming, milliseconds aren't just a stat. They're the difference between a trophy and a GG next. That's why Logitech G just changed the game with the new ProX2 Super Strike. This features

revolutionary hits technology, HITS, the haptic inductive trigger system. By swapping traditional switches for magnetic sensors, it gives you a massive 30 millisecond advantage. Under the hood, you're getting a hero two sensor pushing, 44,000 DPI and an 8K polling rate, all in an ultra-lightweight 61 gram chassis. Here's the thing. I've been running this in Honey Pop and Honey Pop 2 double date all week. I'm MinMax in this game. I'm romancing Tiffany. I'm romancing Iko. I'm romancing Jesse. I'm romancing Sarah. Nothing's holding me back. And it's all thanks. to hits technology. If you're serious about climbing the ranks, this is the weapon of choice.

Stop playing fair and start playing faster. Go to Logitech G and use code get play to checkout to save 25% off LogitechG products. Exclusions apply non-stackable. Grab the Super Strike today. The winning click is finally here. I've done this ad before, guys, and you know that what I'm saying is true. I use NordVPN in my actual life because there are shopping places online that lock you out internationally if you aren't actually in Japan. And if I want to buy goods from those websites,

I have to use NordVPN to log in to the websites that otherwise would send me directly. It would redirect me to the international or American site. So I'm using NordVPN every week when I'm seeing what goods have dropped on a website I probably shouldn't list. With NordVPN, if there are TV shows, film, anime that aren't available in your region, you can, and switch your virtual location to a country that's showing it. And if you're traveling abroad, you can access all of your streaming services back home. Switching your virtual location with NordVPN can also allow you to save money by purchasing flights and hotels from other countries at a cheaper price. NordVPN also acts as an invisibility cloak for your IP address, protecting your privacy

online and leaving no digital footprint, especially when you're traveling and using public Wi-Fi. VPN protects you wherever you are in the world. It's super fast. No buffering whilst streaming. It stops your ISP bandwidth throttling and you can use one account on up to 10 devices. It's premium cybersecurity for the price of a cup of coffee per month. To get the best discount off your NordVPN plan, go to NordvPN.com slash get played. Our link will also give you four extra months on the two-year plan. There's no risk with Nord's 30-day money-back guarantee. The link is in the podcast. Podcast episode description box.

Hey, buddy, losing weight is one thing, but looking and feeling your best, that's the real goal. That's why weight loss by Hymns now offers access to the FDA-approved Wagovi pill and Wagovi Pen. Wagovi is designed to help you lose weight and keep it off so you can show up feeling like yourself. With Wagovi at Hems, lose up to 20% of your body weight when combined with diet and exercise. It helps you regulate your appetite, eat less, and keep weight off. Plus, Wagovi is the first ever GLP one hill for weight loss, so there are no needles needed. Through Hymns, everything happens online. You'll connect with a licensed provider who will determine if treatment is right for you.

If prescribed, your medication is delivered right to your door, your residence, where you live, no insurance necessary. And it doesn't stop there. Hymns makes hitting your goals seamless by offering access to 24-7 messaging with your care team and in-app lifestyle and nutrition support, like recipes, meal plans, fitness videos, sleep content, and more. Even better, with a range of affordable GLP-1 options, HIMS makes it simple to find a weight loss approach that fits into your world and your wallet, if eligible. You'll get a treatment plan personalized to you

and unlimited dosage changes as needed. Ready to reach your goals, visit HIMS.com slash get played to get a personalized affordable plan that gets you. That's H-I-M-S dot com slash get played. HIMS.com slash get played. Weight loss by HIMS is not available in all 50s. States. Wagovi is the registered trademark of Novodor Disc AS. To get started and learn more, including important safety information, Wagovi clinical study information and restrictions,

visit Hymns.com. So if you know, I'm injured and I need both hands to cook. What am I going to do? I got to eat. Well, that's where Factor comes in. Factor makes chef created, dietitian designed, ready to eat meals. So you don't have to choose between real food and convenience. With over 175 banned ingredients, every Factor meal is designed or what supports a healthier lifestyle and nothing that doesn't. Factor meals are ready in two minutes and required no prep and no cleanup. So even on the days, your schedule is completely out of control, eating well is still achievable.

Every week, you'll find 100 nutrient-dense menu items to choose from, and new options like salmon burgers, shredded pork, collared greens, and more. Yum, yum, give me some. Plus, add-ons you'll crave like pumpkin-flavored cheesecake and protein shakes. I'm adding that on for sure. 97% of users agree that Factor meals help them live a healthier life so you can feel confident that you're doing something good for yourself with every meal. Factor has been a lifesaver recently because, like I said,

I'm injured and I can't use one of my hands to the best of my ability. I'm shattering eggs in my hand like someone I won't mention. I'm flinging food all over the place. I'm spilling. I'm knocking in the stuff. Factor makes it so that I can have. a healthy meal prepared and ready to go, and I'm not making a big old mess or hurting myself anymore. Let's eat real. Head to factormeals.com slash get played 50 off and use code get played 50 off

to get 50% off and one free breakfast item per box for one year while supplies last until October 31st, 2026. Ooh, happy Halloween. That's code get played 50 off at factormeals.com. Get played 50 off at factormeals.com. See website for more details. And the question for the room is, what video games you've been playing lately? What are you playing? What are you playing? Hi, it's me the rigid and evil merchant. And the truth is you cannot enter a movie by entering a Disneyland ride and walking sideways

from after the part. Or you walk into the movie in the game, I mean a ride. Yeah. You can't do it. I tried it. We should give some context. So, Matt, this was a thing that you brought up last week's episode. theory that because in the Disneyland ride,

this is lore. This is lore. And this is important that we bring it up. This is lore. In the Disneyland ride, Mickey's Runaway Railway at Tune Town. In Disneyland. In Disneyland. It might be in Disney World as well.

I'm not sure. But it's at Disneyland. That's where I've seen it. There's a part where you're watching a screen. And then you're able to enter the screen for some reason. I won't get into the specific as to why. I thought, hey, if you're already in there, maybe you can go to another movie or something,

go to another show, change the channel. Yeah, like a gate. Like a gate, a portal. A, an overworld, a hub world where you can travel to different... Like Kingdom Hearts. Like Kingdom Hearts. Maybe you travel via a gummy ship. True is, that is not what happens.

You end up with your legs fucked up in a bunch of shit behind a wall. Have we done, have we done a hub? Hub episode, that could be a format. Hubbub. Hubbub. Well, Hubbub. What's the hubbub, bub? Yeah.

Sorry, you were saying something. You're Wolverine. I don't remember what I was going to say. I was going to say, I know exactly how you could have got there in my mind, in my theory. Disneyland. Yeah. The MCU. Yeah.

Spider-Man. Yeah. Spider-Man's a Sony property. Yeah. You go into the Sony Hub. Yes. Now we're at Resident Evil. Wow, I thought you were just going to go to Marvel versus Capcom.

Hmm. But I don't know. You can get to a... I don't know if you're going to get... Oh, yeah. I guess we could have saved time by saying that. But you can't... No, no, no, because you can't get into a game from a movie.

No, that's a good point. That's a great logic problem. You'd have to go to a TV where the game was being played. That would just end up putting a Resident Evil Bertrand back in Resident Evil 4. That's true. Of course, we know you're a president already, except for the remake. Anyway, the truth is, I got on a ride. Hard to get into the park.

You need a ticket. Yeah, you need a ticket. Or an annual pass, or Magic Key, as they call it. I know what a ticket is. It's just very expensive. What's wrong? You don't have $2,000? Yeah, it's very bracy, and as you know, I'm always a little bit short on change. If you get one of those Magic Key bumper stickers on your car, are you legally obligated to accompany it by a Blue Lives Matter flag?

Because that seems to be a common pairing. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you need that and the stickers of a family where the wife has been peeled off. You can see the corners of the magic key they tried to peel it off to. Yeah, yeah, yeah, no, no. God damn. Those are, they're magnets, but they're kind of cheap. Oh, are they? Oh, are they?

Yeah, yeah, they're magnets. it. Because I had a magic key for one calendar year. Yeah. And I went, man. I know canonically. They fucked up giving me one of those. Yeah.

They didn't know how many times I was going to go. You got your money's worth. Ah, that and then some. And then, yeah, I did spend $300 every time I was there. Just on big horn dogs. Big corn dogs and four beers. $300. Yeah.

So yeah, you couldn't do it. I'm really sorry. No, no. You enter Disneyland. You get on the ride. You get another. movie, you walk off the ride. The ride's good.

Rides, I don't know. It's a fine beginning. Yeah. I got caught in a bunch of mechanical shit. My legs, my outfit gets stuck. Yeah. You know, like what looks like a bicycle chain that's rotating. Yeah, it's tough stuff.

They come, they get you, they escort you out. They're like, you're not supposed to do that. Yeah. The guys in the parking line. are like, do you have outstanding warrants? Yeah, the guys in the parking lot, the police? Yeah, yeah. You go through all that, you're like, I've already servicing

my standing warrant, I've already made my appearance in court, you already, you can go through the list. I've already done on the things I need to do, you know, good. They put you in the car while they run the paperwork. Yeah. Hurt your neck. Yeah, you're too, well, you're just too big for the car. Yeah, it sucks.

Yeah. Plastic backseat. Really? Yes. That's tough. It's plastic backseat in the cop cars so that you can piss and shit in there. Sure, right. They let you go.

So you can do it. They let you go. You walk from Anaheim back to a bus stop. Yeah. Take the bus to all over here. Get in time for this show. You can take the bus from L.A. to Disneyland. Have you done it before?

I haven't, no. There is a route. Long ride. It's a bit of a hall. I used to take the streets when I was afraid to drive on the freeway, but I wanted to go to Disneyland. That is an adventure. Yeah, it's tough. What's your main thoroughfare?

You can get pretty far down Catella. If you can just get to Catella, you can get most of the way there. Got it. Like from Lakewood to, you know, to Anaheim. It's a little bit closer, but. Lakewood, Long Beach, about equidistant from between L.A. and Anaheim. Exactly. Why are you afraid of the highway?

Car's going too fast. Oh, okay. I was afraid. I didn't get my license until I was 19. I was really afraid. I'm riding a car. Yeah. Interesting, Matt, Lor.

Yeah. Ranch, when did you get your license? 18. 18, okay. And you had you just moved to the states at that point? Yeah, I was driving in Thailand. But, yeah, I didn't get my license until 18. Did you have a Thai license?

No. Fuck, yeah. That's great. No one cares over there. Yeah, I was going to say, I think you can just drive there if you want. I got my license at 16 and I very shortly thereafter learned how to drive a stick because I drove a stick most of my adult my entire life. And the way my dad taught me how to drive stick is we're in a parking lot down by the lakefront in Chicago. We drive stick around in the parking lot and he's like, okay, great.

And you get the idea. And I was like, yeah, it's pretty hard. But you start, you adjust pretty quickly. And he's like, okay, great. Now turn here, turn here. And I was like, wait, wait, wait, this is a, this is on-ramp to the freeway. And he's like, yeah, you're not going to learn to swim unless you jump in the deep end. And so the second, the second hour of my life as a stick shift driver was on the Chicago Expressway.

Jesus. Wow. And sure enough, he was right. I never was, I never thought about driving stick ever again. It was all instinctual. Yeah. The way I learned to drive on the freeway, basically that same thing. I had maybe done it, you know, like with somebody else in the car, like my mom or something, like, talking me through.

But I was always just, like, too afraid to go back to do it. The way I convinced myself that I was going to go on the freeway, I had to drive to my first UCB class. Wow. Yeah? I didn't drive on the freeway. Because I think it was like 20, about to turn 21 even. I wasn't really driving on the freeway at all. Really crazy stuff.

Yeah. Because I would just go to school and then nowhere else. I've failed all my driver's tests. Yeah. Well, you're too big for the cars. Hurts. Hurts. You can rent a car from them.

That's not an ad. That's not an ad. There's no call to action. No. It's weird that they go hurts. Like, you think about that. Like, you got your choices. Of all the companies is like a budget.

Oh, that sounds nice. Enterprise. I write. Hertz. Dollar rental, you're kind of like, I think I'm going to go with a different one. That kind of feels like it's not good. This is 100% true.

The practice where my. orthopedic surgeon, the lead doctor there, last name, hurts. Wow. It's a tough name for an orthopedic surgeon. Yeah. I'm like, I think I should go somewhere else. My dentist when I was a kid was Dr. Horrible. That's wild.

H-O-R-B-L-E, Dr. Horrible. Yeah. You've got to change that name. Yeah, I think you've got to change it. How about doctor the best there is? I'm going to that guy. Mr. Good. Anyway, it'd be more probably like what's happening to the show.

these guys don't. Well, they have options on how they're going to spend their time. Yeah. And I've got an option, and that option is asking you a question. Mano, but not a daca. What are you pregnant? Thank you so much. That is not an option. It is mandatory that you have to ask us that. I'm still playing Emmyo the Smiling Man, colon, Famicom Detective Club. One of the things I love about it? The incredible title. The long title, it's great. It's also, it's just really, really fun. What is the Famicom doing in there?

Because this is the first entry of these games in 30 years. Okay. They were originally released on the Famicom, and I don't think they really made it over to the States. They did then some remakes that then made it to other platforms over the years, but it's because they started on the Famicom. And it's interesting that there's so many of them that just never made it over here. But it's curious to me that this game came out in 2024. And they're just like, well, we'll release it with an English, you know, subtitle or English, English language, but Japanese dub. Kind of feels like they were like, they didn't even get this one.

Like, it's just interesting that they're like, there's not even an English dub for it. It's a really great game. I do want, I kind of want to see what the end is. I'm trying to get to the end quickly as I've you know, I'm starting to get a little bit better I want to, you know, move on to some other games but the game is really good. Another game

that I've been spending sort of about equal time with a game that I've talked about in the past before that I love, that I know Nick loves as well. Yes. I've been playing a lot of Bellatro. Wow! Because here's the thing about Bellotro. I have it on my phone. I have it on iPad. I have it on Switch. I have it on Steam. I can play this in any room in the house that I want.

And unfortunately, I don't believe there's a way. The progress doesn't track. Isn't consistent across platforms. So the furthest I am in Bellatro is on my Steam deck, actually. So I've been playing a lot of it on there. But kind of, no matter what devices is in my hand, I could be playing Balatro if I wanted to. Yes.

And- That's the danger of Belatro. That is really the danger of it because I'll just be like, hey, you know what? I haven't even won a run on this particular platform. Let's get in there and see what's going on. I was on a tear the other day. I was having a lot of fun trying to figure out.

I can't remember which deck it was, but it was just like, it was a deck that I had just newly unlocked, so it was still a white steak deck, but it was, I had like a flush build going. It was the build, it was the deck that was spades and hearts.

Oh, yeah, okay, yeah. That's all you have. So I was like, okay, I'm going to fast track a flush build ASAP because I'm like, oh, I really have two suits anyway. So I'm going to hit that hand more frequently. And so I was, I just happened just through RNG, get jokers that, you know, helped facilitate boosting the flush run that I was on. And I was just like, I got to the, the eighth ante like so quickly because I was just like,

it just, it was just a completely synergized run. and it was so fun and so great. And I kind of just, I just think about Bellatro a lot. I had the, I had it on the other day, and my mom was over, and she was just like, what is, like, what is this? And because she was just kind of fascinated that there seemed to be a lot going on. And she said, it's making me want to go to the casino. And I was like, Mom, what the heck? And then I was trying to convince everybody, I was trying to get everybody to appreciate how good the music is, because it's just the one song.

But it's just like, you never get sick of it. It's just a really, really good song. And so I've been playing Famicom, or MEO The Smiling Man, and Bellatro. That's been it for me. The thing about Bellatro is like, and I'll be interested to see how the 1.1 patch, the long promenist it seems now on the brink of release,

1.1 update affects this. It rebalances this. But as you ascend in the stakes, even if you're doing a deck that is, I can't remember the name of the deck in question. I think it's checkered or something. Checkered deck where you only have two suits

and it naturally skews you towards a flush build because of the way of flush scoring scales, it's still most efficient to go towards a pair build or something else like as you go. Yeah. Which kind of narrows how the gameplay possibilities if you're trying to go through those high stakes, which I was going through over a time.

I was trying to get gold stakes on every deck and eventually it was just such a grind. I was like, I think I'm just going to tap out on this for a while. But I'm sure it'll get its hooks back and me once 1.1 drops. It's just such an easy game to pick back up. Yeah. And it's, you know, it's just great.

It's just an incredible design. I love it. Wow. Heather, what are you playing? Well, I've told you guys this off pod. But I did, I don't think I've said it on the pod that I won a drawing so that I could purchase an elite trainer box of Pokemon the card game. Yes.

So I just want to have that rumbling in the background that I am going to start playing Pokemon the card game in the flex. again. I don't know if it was the sort of general Pokemon zeitgeisty feeling that that excited me about it. I don't know if it was the card game pocket that got me like really thinking about it again. But I am excited to go out there, build a deck, walk into one of these places that plays Pokemon on the weekends, see that it's all children, walk out. And then try and convince one of you to pick up the game so I can play it against adults. or maybe there's adults only Pokemon tournaments

so that you aren't a fucking creeper. I don't know. I'd imagine there's some creeps there. Well, yeah, no, for sure. But yeah, I'm going to start doing that. Other than that, I continue to play near Atomita. I hit Hour 7,

which I haven't looked up how long the game is, but I did start to feel a momentum building. Oh. I have a ton of open quests. I am starting to get a familiar.

The world's seemingly very big and kind of disorienting. There's not a ton of landmarks to show you where you are and relative to other things. Like one of the areas is a huge open desert. Another area is a destroyed city. And so there's not like, it's like, oh, I can, I know where I'm headed. I know where I'm going. And the map itself is kind of also ugly and shitty. And there's an NPC that you can talk to who's like a Medicare.

and one of the things you can select is I find the map hard to read so that you can get advice. And it's like, yeah, the map's hard to read. Oh, my God. That's great. Yeah. Good luck. The way they justify it, the character justifies it by saying something like, it's satellite imagery. It can't be that detailed.

It's taken from space. Sorry. But yeah, I'm starting to get this feeling of like momentum, you know, as I level up, as I'm, I'm, starting to get understand sort of like what I want to do in the game there's always this point where it's like you go from being disoriented in a game to like understanding what you how you want to play it or what you want to pursue uh and I feel like I'm at that turning point in near one of the complaints I have about the game is that when you're in an area with NPCs often you have to talk to NPCs to like load a quest or something and there's no way to choose as far as I know

because another thing they don't tell you in this game is how to do anything. Yeah. There's no tutorial. You just fucking dropped in. So in a clip I sent you guys a couple weeks ago, I was pausing, going into the menu, selecting a health item, applying it, and then going back into the fight. And what I learned is there's a hotkey on your D pad to allow yourself to choose healing items mid-combat. That has never explained to me. Yeah.

So a lot of the game is just sort of like, I don't know. I don't know. Fucking get in there. So there might be a way to toggle between NPCs that you want to talk to. As far as I can tell, I don't know what that button is. So you run into a crowd and the like highlighted circle will like pass over three of them and then get stuck on one. And then you kind of have to like walk backwards to try and get that highlight to move to

another NPC. But there's also a person who's always with you who is an NPC. And if you walk too far out of the crowd, then they're highlighted. And that's my one large complaint is navigating a group of people to just try and talk to one of them so I can start a quest is unduly difficult. Beyond that, still enjoying the game, happy to be to be becoming our near representative. Wow. Nick, what are you playing? You know, speaking of appointed representatives, I mentioned last week that I started Fire Emblem Fortune's Weave.

I have put more time into Fire Emblem, Fortunes Weave. And let me say, Meena the Hollower, the best game so far this year. Fire Emblem, Fortunes Weave may be my favorite game I've played this year. My favorite 2026 release. It's really just so up my alley in every way. I mean, first off, this game is horny. And let me give you, let me give you, I mean, I'll just give you a set. These are the four player characters.

You can sort of see here here, the four protagonists are out. He's showing us a picture of four sluts. So there is a player character that you create that's like your avatar who's kind of like this otherworldly sci-fi, you know, synthetic body that's resurrected and, you know, maneuvered through time by a goddess. But then there are also these characters who are, you're learning their stories. You first meet them as ghosts and then as statues. and then we're going back in time to see what their stories are, which are what you control, which are steering these four protagonists toward something called the heroic games, kind of akin to an Olympiad or like a Colosseum sort of, you know, a scenario.

But for my player character, in addition to these horny protagonists and NPCs, I pick the sluttiest armor for my player character, which is so impractical. it leaves pecks and abs exposed. Why would you do that? Yeah, might as well paint a target on your chip. But I love all that. I love all that stuff. I mean, the character design is very, very appealing.

Even the, you know, like the weird wall-eyed priest, not the guy, you know, like the characters who aren't sexually attractive are still like really well designed and well-realized. And I think it's got just like a ton of aesthetic, you know, like, appeal. I'll just repeat myself. I also love it's world building. Like, if you want to have a sequence where I'm looking at a world map and a narrator is describing the three vassal states of the Dagdan Empire, like, I'm all in. Like, that's like exactly my shit. I just want to hear all this made up stuff that's really dense and inscrutable.

Give me all that that you got. So I mentioned the four protagonists. You pick which path, which of their paths you're going to do first, then eventually you toggle between them. And, you know, there's the four protagonists who I showed you a picture of. There's Kai, who is a, like a boy, who's a, you know, kind of like a, like a shonen sort of like character, like that kind of archetype.

There's a Theodora who's like this Amazon, who I'll probably ultimately get a tattoo of. And then there's Lita, who's a bard. And, you know, all these characters have some sort of like tragedy or some sort of, you know, driving motivation for them to carry forward. But the first character I picked to roll with is Dietrich. And Dietrich is great. Like, he's really fun.

He's just, like, powerful, which I like, like, in terms of, like, I know that that's a dumb thing to say. And so let me say it in a slightly less dumb way. It feels like he has real like potency as an offensive force. You know what I mean? And that's like like kind of what I don't know. I always just find that archetype very fun to play. Like you're like like a melee warrior who's just like, oh shit, he like hits hard.

You know what I mean? And he's kind of Dracula coded too. He has a bloodlust. And he also looks like Alucard. You know, these long sort of like gray locks. a very, very badass, very chip on his shoulder. His sword is called answerer, which feels like we're... Answerer?

Yeah, it feels like we're running out of sword names there. It's a little clunky, a little bit of a mouthful. I like it. Answerer. Like the answer, but the answerer? The answerer, yeah. So the opponent is the question and this is the answerer? Yeah, the question is whether or not...

I fucking love it. The question is whether or not you'll fall to my blade. Let me show you the answerer. My dying breath. Shouldn't it just be answer? Lose the er. Somebody comes in and kills you. I wonder what the Japanese name for the sword is or if it is.

Yeah, I mean, because it could just be like answer, you know, answer or pronounced to Japanese, you know, with Japanese phonemes. I have no idea. Answerer. It's a little clunky, but whatever. It's distinct. And again, it's adding to the world building. It's adding to the texture of this of this.

game. I also love just from a pure gameplay standpoint because this is tactical and grid based and you know, you can toggle the grid on, which I absolutely did because I just love looking at grids. I mean, just, just hexagon, squares. Okay, Tron. I was freaking Tron over here. You both went the same place in different ways. Yeah, that's right. Matt and I are friends. You did it in a more fun way. I did it in an annoying way. Look, grid me up. Give me all the grids you got.

I love tile work. I love tile feel. I love having that setup. But also, Fire Emblem's design, the combat design, puts a lot on terrain, which to me is really fun.

I know a lot of tactics games have this. This is not unique to Fire Emblem. This is more like a just a convention of this particular genre. but I just like that it's represented and I like that there's a real strategic element to positioning. Like I just regular JRP combat

as much as I love JRP's can get stagnant which is why the Atlas RPGs with the addition of all there the mechanics and the flare that they grafted onto JRP systems makes those just feel a little bit more dynamic, playable and engaging but tactics games just inherently have like a lot of heft in the combat

themselves. And so I find those scenarios just really satisfying and just having to deal with like, okay, I'm going to put like whatever. I want to make sure my support character is here. I want to attack from this particular tile because that will give me a defense on the counter attack and they're more likely to miss. And, you know, just having all those strategic considerations as part of it just again makes those scenarios, which are the bulk of the gameplay. So much more fun. The music is also rad and dynamic. It's a really great. score. I don't know. I just feel like this is, this one's firing on all cylinders for me. I'm really glad I kind of compelled myself to pick it up so I'd have something to talk about in the

show because now I have a game I'm enjoying in my free time. And we all know, we have options. That's how we can spend her free time. Fuck yes. Ranch, have you been playing anything? What are you playing? Nothing since yesterday. Thanks, Ranch. No, I put you on the spot. That's that totally fair. But you gotta be playing more games. We recorded yesterday You're recording today You got to play 10 video games I won't lie

I felt so much pressure To have stuff to talk about That I woke up early So that I could play video games For the show So I would have updates I put an appreciable more hours In between our last record

And this one So I could get into this a little bit more Including when I was Working from home this morning Okay Are you happy? Burrito on his penis Switch to in his hands.

It's Friday, baby. It is Friday, baby. Come on. It's Monday when you're listening. Or it's any day. You can listen to this. Hey, you could be listening to this freaking 10 years from now.

This could be the audio records that you've discovered in a post-apocalyptic landscape. Yeah, that's right. It's telling you. Somebody downloaded this. Downloading is still possible. Yeah.

No, I mean, downloaded it to a device. Oh, I saw a hard drive. found it and they're like, these are the last remaining human voices I've heard in 30 years. An audio log that the protagonist in the video game based on our future will find. It's a, and then in that video game scenario, you're hoping it's like a scientist being like, you know, like the J bacterium. It's out of control. I'm not sure what we can do to stop this. No, no, no, no company closer.

But just us being dipshit. but also whoever's listening is like in an abandoned house nothing works has been no power for years the battery is dying on this device they're using to listen and they are sobbing from hearing human voices Tron

It's like trouble I do want to see that McDonald's anime I really I'm really glad I'm playing I'm really glad I'm playing I'm really glad I'm playing fortune sweep.

I'm like you are too. I'm genuinely fun. The more you talk about it, the more I'm even more interested in it. But I think I'm going to abstain for now. It is a commitment. It is a beefy boy.

Beefy boy. You know those pieces in your closet that you find yourself wearing on repeat? The sweater that goes with everything. The perfect pair of pants. The tea you somehow always reach for first.

Those are the pieces that make getting dressed easy. Listen to me. That is what Quince does best! Quince focuses on high-quality wardrobe staples made with premium materials like 100% Mongolian cashmere, organic cotton, and merino wool. The styles are timeless, versatile, and designed to become the dependable pieces you reach for day after day, after day, after day, after day on this treadmill that we're

we call life. Their 100% Mongolian cashmere sweaters start at just $60, giving you the softness and quality you'd expect from a luxury brand without all the luxury fucking prices. Believe it! And when the temperatures start to drop, Quince makes it easy to build on those everyday staples with premium down jackets and classic wool outerwear, versatile layers designed to keep you warm and comfortable all season long. Everything at Quince is priced for. 50 to 80% less than similar brands. They work directly with ethical factories and cut out the middlemen so you're paying for high quality, not brand markup.

They gave us codes. I wear the quince. I am in these linen pants that quince sent me, and I'm wearing them four out of seven days a week. Do you know what that does to my mind? It's not just clothing. Quince brings the same approach to everything they make from hotel quality. bedding and bath to kitchen essentials and thoughtfully designed furniture.

They make well-designed pieces for everyday living. What are you doing? Get Quince now! Find your next fall favorites at Quince. Download the Quince app for app exclusive offers or go to quince.com. Get free shipping on your order and 365 day returns, now available in Canada and the UK too. And when Quince asks you where you heard about them, Let them know it was get played.

Please. It's the best way to support the show. Hey, buddy, you know when you think you've finally gotten back to inbox zero and then life catches up to you? Then, boom, you're back to 300 unread emails. We're already entering fall and it seems like the year is going way faster than anticipated. At the end of the day, a smoother way to come down matters. That's why a lot of people are looking for small ways to make life a little bit easier to

move through, and that's where Inda Cloud is making a difference. Indy Cloud is a fully legal online cannabis dispensary for gummies, exotic flour, premium pre-rolls, zero-sugar-t, energy gummies, and extra strength sleep gummies. Everything is federally legal hemp THC, lab tested, and shipped directly and discreetly to your door, because the start of the fall should feel like something you get to enjoy, even when the calendar starts filling back up. You know, here's the thing. We should be allowed to stop thinking about the million things we have to do tomorrow, but it's hard to do so. I got stuff on my mind. I just want to enjoy my evening. Watch my stories. Hang out with the old ball and chain.

Watch our stories. Got different ones. And then go to sleep like a little baby. But look, now you can with Indic Cloud. The Indicloud T-C soda helps me draw a clean line between work mode and done for the day. getting that rest and relaxation I need to face the day tomorrow. And hey, I get to be present with my wife. I didn't say it like Borat. And I could have. Energy gummies for when the day needs momentum. THC sodas for when the evening needs less noise.

Extra strength sleep gummies for when your brain should clock out and a flower for remembering that not every open hour needs to become a productive one. If you're 21 or older, go to indeclodd.co. That's dotCO, not dot com. Use code get played for 30% off your first subscription order. Again, that's indecloud.co code get played. Your subscription ships regularly and discreetly with free gifts and free shipping on qualifying orders.

Don't forget when you order, fill out the quick survey to support this show. Enjoy responsibly and huge thanks to Indicloud for helping everybody enjoy the return of routine without giving every new responsibility a starring role. Okay, hey, I'm having fun. I've got a balloon in a sprinkler. I've got a balloon and it's sprinkler and I'm playing in the grass. When we were kids, summer meant freedom. No homework, no teachers, no school, balloons, hose, grass.

And as adults, summer still means freedom, thanks to MintMobil's summer sale. Is summer over? Not fucking yet. Believe it. Thanks to MintMobile summer sale, right now all of Mint's plans are $15 per month, even unlimited. So free yourself from big wireless and their gimmicks and gotchas and switch to for high speed data and coverage on the T-Mobile 5G network. You know what?

Guys, I used to have a T-Mobile phone. And here's how you know this is honest. T-Mobile was a Dutch brand. And I came back to America and I signed up for T-Mobile here because that's what I knew from Holland. Do you know who uses T-Mobile networks? It's MintMobile. So I would be a fool. To keep paying those high prices, I switched to MintMobile.

MintMobile took what's wrong with wireless and made it right with premium wireless for $15 a month. All plans come with high speed data and unlimited talk and text delivered on the nation's largest 5G network. You can even bring your current phone and your number. You can choose from three, six or 12 month plans and say goodbye to a monthly bill. Ditch overpriced wireless with MintMobile. It's so easy. sign up online and get three months of premium wireless service for $15 a month. To get your new wireless plan for just $15 a month, go to mintmobile.com slash get played.

That's mintmobile.com slash get played. Cut your wireless bill to $15 a month at mintmobile.com slash get played. That's it. There's no catch. Leave the worm behind. You're not a fish. Up front payment of $45 for three months, $90 for six months, or $180 for 12 months, plan required. $15 per month equivalent. Taxes and fees extra, initial plan term only. Greater than 50 gigabytes may slow when network is busy

and includes up to a 20 gigabyte hotspot. Capable device required, availability speed and coverage varies. Seamintmobile.com. Does it feel like the later it gets in the year, the more we should be winding down? But everything seems to just get busier. So many tiny decisions a day start stacking up and even picking out what to eat for dinner.

Dinner feels like one choice too many? Like you just can't take it anymore? And this season is stacking the fun stuff on top of everything else. Halloween plans. Holiday reminders. A small ritual helps you enjoy the season instead of managing every part of it. Indecloud is a fully legal online cannabis dispensary for gummies, exotic flour, premium pre-rolls, sugar THC sodas, energy gummies, and extra strength sleep gummies.

Everything is federally legal Hemp THC, lab tested and shipped discreetly to your door. Because planning for the season is helpful. Letting it take over your well-deserved chill-out evening is not. For me, look, I'm making travel plans. I'm squeezing in some extra work in order to get ahead of the holidays, and suddenly my evenings, they're not mine anymore. They belong to the grind. No more time for games or spending quality time with my wife.

No, no, no, just doing all my little tasks. I'm mentally planning the next 12 weekends. What the heck? I just need a little something to take the edge off. I love cracking open. An IndyCloud THC soda. It helps me transition into the evening when I don't want to carry the whole calendar into the couch.

I want to sit on the couch. I want to relax. Let my crazy day stay at the door and enjoy my free time and get cozy. It's spooky season after all. Boo! IndyCloud has low-dose gummies for stepping back without checking out completely. THC sodas for making space from all that seasonal noise.

Extra strength sleep gummies for protecting your personal wind down. And premium pre-rolls for a quiet end-of-day ritual. You deserve it this fall. If you're 21 or older, go to indecloud.co. That's dot-c.c.0. Not dot com. CO, lose the M. It's cleaner.

Use code get played for 30% off your first subscription order. Again, that is indecloud.co. Code get played. Your subscription ships regularly and discreetly with free gifts and free shipping on qualifying orders. Do not forget when you order, fill out the quick survey to support this show.

Enjoy responsibly and thanks to Indicloud for making room for the plans you want to keep and the evenings you want to keep for yourself. If you don't want to commit fully to a game, maybe you want to play a demo. That's right. Format has gifted us. this new format

Demolition Derby. Matt, talk us through you're thinking on this one. Look, I mean, look, who knows where these things come from, you know? Weirdly, he's now wearing sunglasses and smoking a cigarette.

Yeah, and I have a beret. Yeah. It just occurred to me that, you know, I think very much, like what you mentioned last week, Nick, like there's like a, not necessarily a pressure

because we're not journalists or reviewers or anything, but so many games are coming out, and so many games come out that offer demos, and I just thought it would be a good excuse to try out a new game to have something to talk about. I was like, hey, wait, we could all, we could all do that. We could all try a demo of something and report our findings and talk about it on the show. I also think this is an occasion, because this is the first time we've done this particular format, and sometimes these repeat, sometimes these end up being one-offs.

but to talk about demos in general. Yes. And to talk about our experience with game demos because I feel like they used to be a much bigger part of my life. Certainly if we're going to the PC shareware era, I'm thinking of just like, you know, going to computer shows with my dad and like getting like a floppy disk of like the Wolfenstein 3D demo. You know what I mean?

Like it's just like like that's very, that sort of thing is very anchored in my childhood. Yes. When I think about my first exposure, like, hey, I'm just going to play a little bit of a game and then maybe get the full one later, or maybe this is enough to sustain me. Also, just I'm thinking of the, or before downloads, before the, you know,

that was the convention. I think a big thing that was happening is like you'd get like the official PlayStation magazine that would have like a fucking disc in it. And, you know, that would be like just loaded with a, with game demos. Often,

often the systems themselves would come with a disc right. That had like, here's a few, here's Tomb Raider on a fucking CD, but only the first like, tenth of a level. One of the games that I had when I got a PlayStation,

I think the first game I got was probably Tony Hawk's Pro Skater and then maybe the second crash. But the other game that I had was the demo disc that came with my PlayStation 1 and I think it was PlayStation, it was like the fifth volume of it

and it had, I've talked about this fable demo disc in the past. It had Tomba on it. It had the first armored core on it. It had cool borders. It had Star Wars Masters of Terrace Kasi on it. And I would just kind of cycle through maybe a Turrach. Maybe a Turak was on there. And I would just go through these and just be like what not really understanding that the whole game wasn't really on there. There was some of them. I'd be like, I just got to try to get a little bit further.

I got to see if I can keep playing that so I can figure out how to play the game. Right. But it's, oh, the very first parapa the Rapa level was on this, this, too, which that was how I learned of Parapa the Rapa. And so it was just they taught me so much. I really value that disc. There was a Final Fantasy 7 demo disc that came with, is it Tobol? Do you remember this? That sounds right.

It was a completely un... That was a square fighting game, right? Yeah, a completely unrelated square and soft. fighting game that had a pack-in of the, of the Mako Reactor sequence of Final Fantasy 7. Was I right on that? You are correct. Wow. Damn. It had, this is a, it packaged with the game was a playable demo of Final Fantasy 7 along with video previews of Final Fantasy Tactics, Bushito Blade, and Saga Frontier. What a lineup. I don't remember last week, but I can remember that the pack-in for Final Fantasy 7 came with Tobel. which also I think that ran at 60 FPS. Like there was something about Tobel that was like,

people were like, why the fuck does this work like this? This is the first I'm hearing of Tobol. Tobol is a square fighting game. I've never heard of Tobel before. But anyway, so much like the cinemas that were showing the Star Wars episode one trailer and you would buy a ticket,

watch the trailer, and then leave the theater. Yeah. People bought Tobel in order to get their hands on the Final Fantasy 7 first level. Got it. I remember from that era that a theater near where I lived started playing the trailer, episode one trailer before and after the movie to make you stick around for the movie to see the trailer a second time.

Wow. So, I mean, that's why I sat through the entire entirety of what the fuck is that Bruce Willis movie, The Siege. I sat through all of the Siege and all of a Wing Commander, which I was going to watch all of the Wing Commander anyway, but still like those are some not good movies. No, no. And that also makes me think of the one I was going to specifically cite is Metal Gear Solid 2,

Sons of Liberty trial edition, which came with Zone of the Enders. And so, again, propping up their sales by having like you pre-order Zone of the Enders, you get Metal Gear Solid 2 Sons of Liberty or a playable chunk of it. And the playable chunk is just basically the prologue. all the way up to the tanker up until you fight Olga. So you're not getting any write-in in the demo part, first of all. Like, there's no hint of write-in. Everything I learn about that time sort of actually makes me understand

why everybody was so fucking upset. But, like, I think they're ultimately wrong, but the bait-in-switch is actually really crazy. I bought Sona of the Enders for this, for specifically the trial edition. And I played probably less than five hours of Zone of the Enders, and I played dozens of hours of that demo because I just kept running at that level over and over again. It's a great level. It was like nothing else.

It was just like it felt so much. It felt like you're playing the future. And also it's just it was so compelling and tight and loaded with Easter eggs. And also just like you could, like it had multiple difficulty levels, which you would not, you often don't see in demos. there, if anything, rationing the difficulty down, but you can play this all the way up on very hard. So I got at the point where I was just like basically speed running this on very hard over and over again.

And it was just an incredibly compelling and playable demo, one of the most fully realized demos I think I've ever, maybe the best overall demo I've ever played. It's just, and totally got sold. I mean, I was going to buy the fucking game anyway, but totally sold me the game.

And made me buy Zone of the Enders, which I otherwise would not, would have ignored. So, yeah. And the economy is obviously, or that side of things, the ecosystem rather, is obviously completely shifted away from that. It's completely shifted away from your incentivized to buy this, first off, physical release to play a future game. But I do, I kind of have nostalgia for that sort of, I don't know.

I just kind of, I was like, hey, I got a disc and this disc has a new game I get to play on it. Oh, wow, what's this thing, you know? It also felt like you got two games. Right. You know, like, because playing a video game of any, like being able to play a video game was at some point hard to get your hand. Like, it was like getting a new game at all was difficult to do because of the price point, the barrier of entry, you know, your parents having the money. So banking, I'm like, wow, if I get Tobel, I also get Final Fantasy enough that I can play it. Yeah.

That's two games. games. Wow. Math checks out. Yeah. I also think of my, my grandpa on my mom's side. He was a, who worked at JPL and was a, you know, an engineer and was very adept with computers. But his home computer, he would always have like new demos installed when I'd go over there. How nice. Yeah. And like it was one of those things like, oh, my grandpa put the Heretic demo on. I'm gonna play Heretic on his 486 while everyone else is talking after Thanksgiving dinner or whatever the fuck. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, and, uh, you know, it was one of those things where it was like, I'm just a fucking dumb kid.

But later in my life, I was like, oh, wow, that was like my grandpa's way of saying, I love you. Yeah. Which he would never do. I would never vocalize that, of course. No, no, no, no. Um, but still, it was like, like, oh, that was a, that was really, uh, I have really nice memories of that. And also just interesting, uh, to hear of a tech savvy grandpa. Kind of a new guy?

It was like, I mean, my, my grandpa, my grandpa, Georgia Golf Hansen, um, uh, Rested Power was a, uh, he installed JPL's first computer. Wow. And so there's like a photograph of him looking very much like a, a now younger me. Yeah. Um, and, uh, you know, in, in, in, in, in, a fucking button them up, buttoned up, buttoned up in slack. She just cannot, I cannot form words. Um, and like, installing one of those, those old school, like, fucking vacuum tube, the kind of things.

It's wild. This is his cover for why it's actually a photo of Nick. He's invented this grandpa. It's great. Well, shall we embark on the experiment? Yes. Go on, Heather. There's a bit of a car crash that happened, which is that as I arrived at the studio, having played, because we didn't talk about our demos.

We did not coordinate. We had some loose guidelines. And much like a demolition derby itself, there's been a bit of an accident. There's been a truck of sources rammed head first into Bigfoot. Truck of Soros has ran into Bigfoot. Which is that of all the demos that exist in the entire fucking world. Why didn't I pick Sweettooth in another car? Because you would have run in the same problem.

Yeah, I don't know sweet tooth. What's that guy? Oh, Axel? Sweet Tooth and Axel. Head on. Hashtag no stews, no stream. Hashtag no Stu's No Stream. I downloaded two demos.

I chose one of them, and it was the same one that Matt chose. What is the demo? Well, I hate to do this to you. Oh, it wasn't the demo you played. No, I did play this one. Wait, what? The same one as you. What is happening right now?

I just have to, I have to consult the texts. Text of what? Our group chat, because. Did you say you were playing this? I believe an accusation was levied at Weiger. This week, Weiger doesn't read the text chains. Weiger doesn't read the text as I said. So you said you were going to play this?

I did say, I picked, I'll say the title, Final Fantasy Resonance, a second person who doesn't read the chat has entered the chat. Oh yeah, you said it yesterday, though. I did say it yesterday. But I was already playing it I did pick it When I had constructed

Look here's the deal When I came up with this idea a few weeks ago I came up with the idea Because I was playing the demo This game But I didn't necessarily say that But it's also okay That we both play the same thing

Because now we can both talk about it together Wait maybe I hadn't been playing it At the time that you sent it? It doesn't matter Here's the thing, it doesn't matter Because we're going to talk about it no matter what Heather and I picked Final Fantasy Residence, which is a HD2D remake of a Final Fantasy mobile game.

Jesus, I also downloaded Pragmata. Okay. But I didn't play it. I should have, see, I would have done that too. We would just go to pick the same stuff anyway. Here's the deal. Well, I actually have some info about the game that I did prepare. I will say, I always want to get into one of these HD2D games,

and they never really grabbed me. Like I started, I think I played about five hours of the Octopath Traveler, which I think is a game that your mom has completed. She's completed both of them. Jesus. I read the second one is like a triumph. Yes. And I heard that the new one, Octopath Traveler Zero is also really good. We may need someone with the Octopath.

We might look. It's Gail. I played and beat the first one. You played and beat the first one. It's good. I like it. I just kind of bounced off of it because it's dense, it's chunky.

It is, and maybe this is a trailer for what we're going to talk about, it is as far as the demo is concerned, better than resonance. Okay. This is interesting. See, and I'm glad we picked this. Yeah.

Because I liked this. I liked Final Fantasy Resonance. Well, let me just go through details real quick. It is based on, or it is an adaptation of the 2015 mobile game Final Fantasy Brave XVius, the first story arc Lapis, which is nonsense. But this is the first HD-2D Final Fantasy game, which is exciting to me as somebody who's played a fair amount of the pixel-based Final Fantasy games. And, you know, it's a JRP with turn-based combat, but then there are also

parts where you can summon visions the ghosts of iconic characters from the Final Fantasy series to gain additional abilities such as Cloud or even Sephiroth is a boss you can't summon him but in the intro portion you get to summon a Vesper who is Bahamit which is what happens is you summon him and then a full like a full-on full 3D cutscene plays and it's the Bahamut from I believe Final Fantasy 16 and he looks awesome and then he's a pixel based sprite version of it which I think looks pretty good and the story of the game well also this game comes out later this month on October 22nd of this year and this the game centers around these characters,

Rain, Lazzwell, and Fina as they set out to protect the remaining crystals across the world after the Earth crystal is destroyed by Veritas of the Dark. Hit me with those names again. Rain? Okay. Lasswell? Lastwell. Wait, why are we

spelling Laswell? If you could take one guess, I bet you got it. Is it L-A-S-W-E-L-L-L? Get a second S in there. Two S is L-A-S-S-W-E-L-L-L-L. Yeah. Laswell and S-E-N-E-E-N-A. F-N-A. Fina. I'm on board

with all of these. The names are good. I think Lastwell was just tripping me. Last well, I mean, well, it's crazy. Raid and Fina, I'm like, yeah, totally. Last well, I'm like, what about? Let's go back to a drawing board on that one.

Before the game sucked me in to the demo, like before I actually was like, I'm actually playing. Yeah. I voice wrote while playing my initial thoughts on the demo. Should I read them here? I would love to hear. One, there are too many games. Have I even heard about this game?

Yeah. Wow, an awesome pixel art introduction that has the cinematic quality of a full-scale CG intro, but all of the graphics are designed as faux pixel art. Yeah, it's like, it's really crazy. It's like, because in other ones, you kind of just see them on like a 2D plane most of the time, but there's like, they're behind them and stuff. It looks really cool. Yeah, there's like fire made out of voxels, right?

I continue. Honestly, I don't know if this is rendered as pixel art or if it was CG with a filter pass. It looks like the latter. All right. I've been given control of the main character for four seconds before a second cinema began. There's a lot of cutscenes in the demo. Okay. You take on the role of a nameless arch witch who demonstrates the turn-based combat to you and then phases off, because it's voice text.

So it's a wrong word. And then faces off against a boss in a fight that you do. do not control, which is full of showcasing special effects sequences. While I'm watching this sequence play out, I am becoming increasingly depressed. Is this a demo of a game or is it a video showing me a game or is the game itself a video? What is the pixel art aesthetic? What is nostalgia? I'm filling up with existential questions without answers and feeling on we in the present. Then again, if art is allowed to engage in nostalgia and music doesn't pursue the frontier at all turns,

Why can't games? We don't dismiss music for using the instruments of the past. So why should we punish games for trying to evoke a feeling from the past? Oh, it's letting me play again. Something that you left out, and I don't know if this is, this is, this is in sort of my review. The witch you get to play as? Kind of hot. All of the art.

So you play, you play as these like, you know. I'm interested. She has pixel jiggle physics, I'll say. They're pixel versions like 16-bit style Final Fantasy 6 sprite graphics. Yeah. But then when the characters speak to one another, they are, the splash art of the characters is like half the height of your monitor. Yeah. And the art's gorgeous and looks very Final Fantasy.

And you're like, oh, I like looking at this art. I don't know. So the game feels like, and knowing that it was based off a mobile game, changes my feelings of this because it explains it. The Dragon Quest remake felt so thorough and felt so true, honest, earnest, and loving that I was like, oh, I'm sucked into this even though it is a nostalgia piece, right? Yeah. This feels like a bunch of highlight reels kind of crushed. together into a singular aesthetic or a single aesthetic that then is bombarding me with the attempt

to force me to remember the past. And that felt off-putting. I totally understand that. I was kind of like, ooh, shiny. Like, because I think it looks really nice. Yeah, it does. It looks really great. I don't, you know, I played it for a fair amount. I didn't finish the, the demo. I can, am sort of interested in it as a game. I don't know how interesting it will be ultimately to summon cloud or, you know, like, kind of just rather it be its own story instead of like, it is its own story.

But the idea that we're having to, you know, dangle a key of characters you're familiar with to have it be, you know, even a little bit interesting is maybe not a move that I'm cool with. I played about an hour and a half of the demo and did not yet get to, unless I'm literally at the end, because I had a boss fight with Rain and Laswell in a dungeon where you do a thing

and then the bad guy from the past shows up and then fucking crystal breaks and like Asper shows up and she's like, you can't die here, you're the saviors of the universe. Like maybe that is literally the end of the demo. I don't know. Yeah. But I was like, well, there's just a lot of game here for so far. Yeah. You know, I'm playing a lot of game.

And your progress transfers over to the main game, which I think is a great modern convention of demos actually. Love it. Almost all of the time that is possible now, which is great. I also feel like because you're given a dungeon with random encounters, there could be a person who gets to level 99. Oh yeah. Some sicko's going to do it.

In the demo before you even start the fucking game. Yeah. Can I say something that you may find a bit of a quirk? Yeah. Okay. When you can transfer your progress from the demo, I don't do that. Sure, dude. I play the demo through, and then when I get the game, I was like, I want to start the game from the game.

I'm going to run that shit back, players. I don't know. I feel like I want to play the whole game. You know what, Nick? Yeah. I don't mind it. Okay. All right.

I don't mind it. It's, I think you should be locked away. But I don't mind it. Here's why I understand it, which is that the feeling of a demo is there's an anxiety of when is it going to stop, which is a different energy than I am beginning my quest. Right. Yes. And so I understand that the feeling of a demo, even if you're playing the exact same

moments, is a different feeling than the game. Thank you. It's the difference between listening to a single of a musician and then hearing that single in the context of the full album. Yeah, what do I pick up Nirvana's Nevermind? I'm going to skip the first track because I already heard

smells like teen spirit on the radio. What are you talking about? What are you talking about? I'm going to listen to it again. I'm going to run that shit back, player. What's a radio? But also to that... What's an album?

These games, the demo is released. That doesn't mean the game is done, right? Like, they're not done making the game. They might optimize the beginning part of this experience.

It's like you could get in there. like control resonant um is out resonant resonance what's going on here resonant evil is it the word of the year at least res is there's a patch a patch that just came out for control resonant week of that has scaled back the difficulty so some of the reviewers that i've been following have been like well we we reviewed the hard one and we had a bad we had a harder time with it so that is reflected in their reviews So there's kind of like what do I how do I do like should games should we not review games until they're out like you know what they get patched Because they get patched so like the experience is actively different

That you do get to like yeah you do get to wave your dick around a little bit if you played the hard version though like like like the people who beat the pre-patched Radon You know the pre-nurfer Rodon like me for example. Yeah. Yeah It's kind of get to toss it on the table a little bit Yeah, that's right I I I liken it to in Pokemon the card game pocket. Yeah It used to be that in order to get to the masterball rank and ranked matches, that you would win a game, you'd get 10 points. If you lose a game, you'd lose seven points. Wow. And so to get through ranks, you'd have to have multiple, like, you'd have to play through enough to offset any losses you would have.

And if you get in a run, you get bonus points. So you get on a couple run, you beat a couple people in a row, you get a bonus three points. So now if you lose one, it's seven against the, like, 13 that you made in the last round. Go on. I'm sorry. They just stripped all that out. So the early Masterball emblems that people have in their, like, avatar, I feel like count for more. Yes.

Because it's like, I got to Masterball when it was fucking hard. Yeah. And as of the next update, they're removing, because as of now, you don't lose points getting to Masterball. but once you're in Masterball, you still lose points. You get up 10 minus 10 or up 10 minus 7. I don't know. As of the next update, they're removing it from Masterball also, which means that the people at the top of the charts are just going to be bots.

I'm trying to remember exactly how ascending the highest ranks of Heartstone worked back when I was playing that game. But working your way all the way up to legend was a similar sort of thing, the highest rank where like you couldn't do. just trade wins and losses. You had to get like a number of wins to offset a like a single loss. Yeah. And so it was like a daunting like time sync and you also needed to like it would also drive people towards, you know, min maxing and hyper optimized decks or decks that were hard counters to the current meta decks. And you know, I mean, it was it was really a it was really cutthroat.

But yeah, I imagine that's how all those things work. I don't know. I never feel like investing in the time to climb the ranks. I also beat some of the bosses, even though I did not finish the game, I beat some of the Silk Song bosses pre-patch as well. Wow. So, I didn't beat the game, though. Okay. I just feel like, well, I did do some of it.

You did some of it. I kind of just played 50 hours of it. It was like, I'm kind of done. Where do you stay? Like, so, okay, so mixed results on, or mixed reception for Final Fantasy Residence, it feels like. Yeah. But does this experience drive you any closer towards, like,

I think I'm gonna fuck around with a full game or like I have any sort of optimism or pessimism towards its full release. I think the best thing about it is that I like looking at it. Like I think it looks great. You know, I'll add it to the wish list. I'll see if there's like ever a sale.

I'd definitely pick it up in a sale just to see what it's going on. If anything, it's driven me closer to the Adventures of Elliott, the Millennium Tale. Hmm. Because that is similar, similar vibe. different, completely different, brand new guy. Elliot's new.

It's not the Elliot from E.T. as far as I understand. The only other Elliot I'm familiar. Yeah, I think that would be a different, like most likely a different Elliot. We don't know for sure. Heather, look it up to make sure it's not the other than. It's, oh, no, it's Elliot from Mr. Robot.

Oh, interesting. Oh, I don't want. Actually, this game is actually maybe a little too intense for me. But because in Tant, I played Mina the Hollower this year too and loved it. And that is sort of an action RPG also. And I feel like a lot of people are like, if you liked Meena the Hollower, you should maybe give the Adventures of Elliott a tribe because it has a similar vibe as far as the combat goes. And, you know, these games are turned based. I don't have a problem with turn base, but an action RPG in this art style could be a little more interesting to me at this time of my life.

Too many fucking games. I mean, Adventures of Elliott did. Like, I remember people being like, this game is fucking great. Yeah. And I was just like, oh, I'm intrigued in that. I'm just like, I'm going to find time for that. What are you talking about? The Adventures of Elliot?

This is the first I've heard of this guy. You know, I probably have 20 years of games at least in my collection to play and beat if I stopped buying games right this second. That would be such an interesting, humiliating exercise. It would suck. To calculate, to know what we have in our backlogs that we have either available in our library, our purchased library. or physical media, look up the how long to beat and add them all up and see how many hours of games we have left. Yeah.

Or how many hours of games we have and think about how long we could play those for. I, be interesting. So, I mean, I often have my Steam library open when I'm, you know, when we're recording the podcast just in case I need to recall anything. So I'm going through right now. And I think if I had all the rest of my life to finish everything, it's unfinished in my Steam library and I was I was not allowed to play any other games. I don't think I could do it.

I think there's just too many games in there. I'm looking through it. The aforementioned near automata, I bought in 2018. Never touched it. Yeah, there's just too many fucking games out there. There's too many. Nick, what did you play? Heather, thank you so much for asking.

Ranch on screen. What if I did that? What if I started doing that? You did do it. Yeah, what the fuck? What if I just did something I did? You know, the thing about demos is, usually they're a chunk of a game, but there is a really interesting quirk of a demo of an extraordinarily significant game. And I know I maybe didn't quite do the assignment, or maybe I did do the assignment.

Maybe I did understand the assignment. And maybe I also ate and left no crumbs. And maybe he's standing 10 toes down on business. because... What are we... What are you talking about? Because instead of playing... I perhaps did not grok that we were supposed to be playing an unreleased game and an upcoming game.

I don't think you need it. That wasn't part of the assignment. Okay, great. Then great. Then this works out great. Because I went back and downloaded and played the demo for Fallout. Wow. Fallout 1, which was released on April 26, 1997.

As I mentioned, this is a bespoke demo. Dan, can you imagine if it came out six days earlier? Oh, people would have been going crazy. Yeah, fucking that. Smoking that sticky achy. Playing Fallout? Oh, man. Craig and some Snoop Dog.

Yeah. This is a bespoke demo. It's not an actual chunk of the game, though there are some elements that are, you know, obviously of the assets and this environment are reused in the game. It's just in a different sort of context. It took me some wriggling to get it working on my Windows 11 rig. I was running DOS box and then I figured out my dumb ass.

learned it was actually a Windows 95 program. So I just had to look up how to run in the correct compatibility mode, 8-bit color settings. There's actually, thankfully, a pretty comprehensive info about getting it up and running online because the internet is good in certain ways. Yes. There would of course be people that are like, how can I play the Fallout demo? Well, it's interesting because if you're a Fallout completionist, it's like, this exists in no other context.

This is the only way you can play this chunk of Fallout. So you can't create a character. There's a prefab character named Max Stone, who's a... like a brute build. And I love that you did this. And I'm so happy that you struggled to make it work, that you did get it to work, that you had to do things with DOS box and then a Windows 95 emulator. I'm just so happy.

This speaks to my heart, Nick. I see you. Thank you. I'll just, it's the compatibility mo is more of a checkbox. And it's built in functionality of Windows. I didn't jump through too many hoops. I just had to like figure out what the steps were. but thank you.

Compliment accepted. So you're in the town of Scrapheap. In the full game, it's called Junk Town. And you have a quest. The quest is solve Scrapheap's gang problem, which you get from an NPC you meet very early on named Lex. And he's basically like, this town lives under the impression of an ongoing gang war.

And please get rid of the gangs and free our villagers. So there are two warring factions, the fools, and the crypts with a T. Not to be confused with the IRL. You know, let's make sure that you hit that T with some emphasis. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Not affiliated. They make that very clear in the game.

You can, so, you know, it's, it's very much that, that Proto Fallout Quest design, which is carried over to modern Bethesda and Obsidian and arguably Western RPG narrative design at large, which makes sense because a lot of interplay vets, Black Isle, specifically the team that's crafting Fallout 1 and 2, go on to populate form other studios and populate these other studios and carry on that institutional knowledge. But again, you have the task, get rid of the gangs. You can do that, the most difficult option. You can also side with one gang or the other and just take out the other gang. And they're just like, hey, now you only live under one gang. Instead of this gang war. Or you can do the total nihilist path, which I didn't know about until I read a walkthrough after I played through it.

and just destroy the town's generator and fuck everyone. Which is like, that's kind of fun that that's in the demo, right? Yeah, that's really funny. Because that's like the fallout sort of tone, you know. And it's cool. It's simple, but it does give you a sense of the game's aesthetic, it's aforementioned tone, the way it's structured. I played Fallout and Fallout 2 when they came out.

In fact, those are the fallouts I have the most time invested in. I played Fallout 3, and I've tried and failed to, to get into Fallout New Vegas, despite everyone saying it's the best one. I get it. It's just like my experience that hasn't quite hooked me. There's too many games.

At some point, I want to make time for New Vegas. What's really aged about the experience of playing these isometric fallouts, I should have mentioned that early on because it would be people who know the modern fallouts, just as people who know the modern Grand Theftados

are familiar with a different aesthetic. These games are isometric with sprites. It's pixel art, so it looks very different than the contemporary fallouts technically. But artistically, a lot of elements like, you know, like Vault Boy are present, you know, like the, you know, the fault suits that everyone's wearing, the Brotherhood of Steel, all that stuff is still present in the original fallouts.

That's actually really, really sick, that they're just like, that those conventions are still present even all into the show. Yeah. What were saying, Heather? I was going to say I'm surprised there was product placement in the game. What are you referring to? Sprite. She got us.

Matt, she got us. She pulled our pants down and everyone can see her pink asses. Mine's not pink. It's gray. I'm really sick. I assume we've been spanked a little bit. Yeah, we got spank. It's pink from being spanked.

Yeah, that's, that was, well, Whoa, we'll play it, Heather. Can we play this a little bit, ranch, so we can see this in motion. So we can see these characters in the way they animate. You know, it's pretty, there aren't a lot of frames of animation to these walk cycles, these NPC character models. There's basically just, you know, one male, one female that's kind of populating this town. There is a nice, a little bit of transparency on the player character as they walk past environments

that normally would block them from camera. Yes. We see here that kind of like how the way the dialogue. trees worked back in the in this era so like you know you you have kind of like I think this framing all looks really great yeah it looks great and you've kind of got like this this old school sort of terminal to select your dialogue options it's and and then yeah that there's there's this this context sensitive you know mouse things in terms of interacting with objects in the environment and searching and pilfering things the the UI for the for the player for the care if you're

the person playing the game is a filthy fucking menu. It is rusty and shitty. It's not like when the menu items come up in front of the game itself that there's just like a regular box. It looks like a rusty computer that you're looking at. Yeah. I mean, and it's like, no.

And again, this is stuff that kind of gets established in the very first fallout and then just carried on throughout the series. And I think it's like it's, it's one of the ways Bethesda was able to thread the needle in terms of like taking over. other studios property and honoring it for the fan base was to, um, was to just, you know, like like, like make sure all those elements were present, even as they, they transitioned it to a more of a, of a, of a first person sort of action perspective. When I was a games journalist, I was flown out to Bethesda for the premier, uh, unveiling

of fallout for the games journalism community. And they gave us a Nuka Cola. They gave us a fall, uh, A Pipboy Bobblehead. Wow. They gave us, like, all of these goodies so that we could, um, we, we, you know, we could, like, celebrate the game. They just showed us this demo of, like, running for the first time. And then flew us back. I immediately went on eBay and had to sell all of that shit because I was so fucking

broke. Um, but, uh, but I have fond memories of, of learning about Fallout from, uh, from Bethesda. Somebody buying the Nukukkahola. Instantly. I'm thirsty. I'm thirsty. I need something to drink going on. eBay.

But, okay, we all watch the Amazon series. Yeah. You watch the Fallout series. It like looks like this to some degree. I mean, to a large degree, honestly. Like, I think the art direction is so established in this very first entry, which is reflected in the first playable version of Fallout, this demo. And I don't know.

I think that's just kind of cool to see something that's like literally almost 30 years old. There are also like when you finish or quit the demo. Oh, and I should say that I didn't read, like, it didn't look. through the walkthrough until after I played it. I was just like I sort of played through it. And so I just end up siding with the fools and just doing that version of the of the quest. It's not a particularly meaty play through as you can see from the the length of this this this YouTube walkthrough that we're all watching here. It doesn't have a ton to it. But still, it's more than enough to give you

a taste of the game. Apparently this like really having to do this essentially, I guess like a widely available, commercially released like a vertical slice of this game was a huge pain in the ass for development and kind of set them back. But I don't know. I think it's cool that it exists.

A few other things I found that were just like kind of fallout related that are more general than this demo, but there were just things that I stumbled upon as I was researching this. And I imagine that the fallout people who are really into the series are aware of some of this trivia.

But there's a game developer oral history of the Fallout series with, you know, with some of the key figures involved in its creation, including Tim Kane and Leonard Boyarski are interviewed. This is a little bit from from Tim Kane. During the commercial interruption on The Simpsons, I wrote war, war never changes. So isn't that wild? That's crazy. Like the night, like they were basically going to rate, like the context is that his assistant producer was like, hey, Ron Perlman's going to come in to record the opening. of this is the this is what we have scripted um and tim kane looks at it is like i don't really like this and so he just redos it during like is watching the simpsons they they do the couch

gag and then he writes down the most iconic line in the series unbelievable during the commercial ad uh also there was a the other thing that i i saw that the original title for um for fallout was vault 13 oh that game's just not as successful Yeah. That's just not a franchise in the same way. Yeah. Fallout is such as Barry title. It ends when you finish the demo or when you exit the demo, you get these ads, which are fun. Followers a new breed of RPG. Yes. Make your own character or start with one of three pregenerated ones.

Improve your character's skills through play and receive perks. Tailored your character's abilities. Victims don't just perish. They get cut in half. Melt into a pile of goo or explode like a blood sausage. meticulous turn-based combat system unless you target specific body parts to wound, cripple, or kill as you see fit. So they were really like leaning into the edge lord stuff,

even though that's not entirely what the game is about. I was starting to say this earlier and just to land this plane. The thing that has aged the worst of this experience is just the U.S. Like even though like I agree that aesthetically it looks nice, actually playing it, it's just a little bit clunky.

And, you know, like, that was the thing where I just, I kind of missed kind of some of the modern niceties of this sort of isometric experience. But I'm glad I visited it. I'm glad that was my entry in this demolition derby. I'm glad you did it because I wouldn't have known any of that. That's like really cool. And it's cool that you were able to get it running. We got to figure out how exactly to tackle the Fallout franchise outside of the, you know, our, our, our, our. time covering the Amazon series because it is like a, you know, one of those big totemic

franchises that I feel like we haven't quite ever given its due. But there's definitely a lot to dig in on that. But yeah, the Fallout demo, that was my experience. Shall we, shall we, well, do you think you're going to play Fallout? Yeah, I might give it to go. Actually, I did not play the demo back of the day, even though I got, fell out the game. I bought it off of reviews and hype. Great. I did start, Fallout 4 not that long ago as like a let's see what's going on here and really liked it thought it was really interesting but it's just like there's it's a big game kind of a lot of commitment need more runway to do something like that but don't need a lot of runway for a segment oh

a segment I'm going to name some video game characters and Nick and Heather have to determine whether or not Ranch knows who they are it's time for do Durant I love it we all know how this works yeah ranch knows how this works yeah ranch does a good good job of not gilding the lily not it has a good poker face does mean the same thing no i guilty of the lily i think is more like the way i talk excessive verbi is unnecessary well ranch doesn't do that either no absolutely does not ranch is very to the point i was gonna just start naming some and you got name some dudes and we'll see if ranch knows who they are oticon no she doesn't know who he is does ranch know otacon

Otakon? However we say it. It's a portmanteau of otaku and convention. I'm going to say she does not. Ranch, do you know who Oticon is? Ottercon is the octopus from Octopath Traveler. Pretty good guess. Honestly?

So many layers. That's really good. Incredible line. That goes on a shirt. Wrong. Confidently wrong. Otakan or Otakon is the octopus from Octopath traveler.

Ranch, black shirt, white text. He's sort of the guy in the chair for Solid Snake in the Metal Gear, at least in Metal Gear Solid 1 and 2. Yes. He's a guy on the phone. Yes. Okay. Next one. So you both said no?

Yeah. You were both correct. So this is not themed. This is a grab bag. various dudes. I just kind of start thinking about different guys and I was like, I kind of wonder who. Got it.

Copy. Now help me with the pronunciation of this. Kamek? Kamek? Kamek? But this is, yeah, well,

I should say no more. You should say no more. Camack. Do we think? Ranch knows who Kamek is. I think she does. I don't think so. I kind of don't,

I mean, I can't say. I made the list. I say yes. Ranch, do you know who Kamek is? Hackman's brother. That is incorrect, but also a fun guess. He's from the Super Mario franchise. He's a, what, we would call him an associate of Bowser's?

Yeah, he's been, I mean, talk about a guy who really had his role increase because of the Illumination movies. Like, no one was ever thinking about Camac really. Like, it was just like, like, oh, yeah, that guy. No, yeah. He's like that. Yes, your highness, yes. He's like that guy.

He's like the second lead. Yeah, he's like the, um. With the big glasses. Yeah. He's good. He's, I like him. The Cupa Sorcerer. I think he's great.

I like him too. Who voices him? Oh, it's a, it's a, um, he's like a, uh, just like a prolific voice actor. Yes, right, right, right. It's not one of the, like, quote unquote, named celebrity voice actors. Um, what is it? I'm going to actually, it's going to bother me. I'm looking up.

I'm looking up. We can keep gone. Um, okay. Does Ranch know who lightning is? Is Ranch know who lightning is? No. I'm also going to say now. Camac is Kevin Michael Richardson.

That's it. So you both say no. Yeah. It's a tie game so far. It is? I think so. You both said no to the last one too. It's been no across the board.

No, I said the last one was split. I said yes. Then Heather has one point. Did you ever see the Super Mario movie or Super Mario Galaxy movie, the Elimination films? I saw galaxy You saw galaxy Camoxon galaxy

Yeah Ranch do you know Who Lightning is Lightning is from Final Fantasy Wow Wow Wow

So neither of us gets a point We're not trust in Ranch No Ranch gets a point It's been mentioned multiple times So of course Like of course she does

Because of her job Have to listen to the podcast Yes So she must retain some of it But also like If you could infer anything We've just done an episode where we named a character from a Final Fantasy game

and their name was Rain. Yes. For sure she knows who Cloud is. Yeah, it's true. So it's not much of an, like, if you were like, I guess it's Final Fantasy because who else is going to be named Lightning? That's true.

It's a great work, Ranch. Yeah, well, well done. I actually know Lightning from a Magic the Gathering card. Oh! There you go. You know what? This is a thing. Tuck this away.

Anytime there's a Magic the Gathering crossover, or, you know, Ranch will probably know that character. Garfield is a magic. He is. Okay. Does Ranch know who Guybrush Threepwood is?

No. I'm going to say yes. Ranch, who is Guybrush Threepwood? I don't fucking know. He's from the Monkey Island Games. I kind of think Ranch would like the Monkey Island games.

I think Ranch might like the Monkey Island games. Or could also, she also might think they're the dumbest shit in the world. Yeah. One of the two. I know. I'm thinking, Lose me at Monkey Island. Give me dog island.

Wasn't that one of someone's top guy? Yeah, Guy Bresree was one of my top guys. And also I had like, Secret Monkey Island were my favorite games. Yes. So Heather's still in the lead here. Now two. Two points. No, because you said Lightning, yes.

No, I said no to Lightning. Okay, never mind. Say no to Lightning. Didn't we get the, wait, didn't we both get the first one right? Yeah. It doesn't matter. We get the first one right. It doesn't.

You know, we're not keeping score. We're just playing. We're just having fun. Nico Bellick. Hmm. It's kind of an interesting list. Because I kind of agree with you. First one I'm going to say yes to.

No. Ranch. Do you know who Nico Bellic is? That's the guy from GTA. Yeah. From Grant of Dot O'4. How do you know that? I think passive.

Just absorber. retention. Yeah. Because, you know, whenever he comes up, we gotta say, Nico Bellet. Okay. Arthur Morgan.

No. Yes. Ranch? Arthur Morgan. No. No. Yes. No.

Okay. Arthur Morgan is from Red Dead Dead Redemption, too. Sorry, too. And he's an absolutely incredible care. I know about that. Dutch. I was hoping for Arthur Morgan is Crash Bandicoot's uncle.

It's fucking Toma's stepdad. Okay, and finally, does Ranch know who Vega is? Yes. Nick says yes. I say yes. Confident, yes. His confidence made me uncomfortable.

I like it. We call use a little bit of that. I'm going to say no. That was just no. Ranch? Do you know who Vega is? That's the Phantom of the Opera-looking character and Street Fighter. I was nervous you were saying something insane

and then you were correct. That is correct. That is correct. Is that a magic card? No. Oh, okay. He has a mask. He has like a phantom fighter.

Yeah, yeah. And he's got claw. Claw. And Street Fighter are very much in the zeitgeist with the movie coming out. Yeah? I don't. Man, I can't wait to see.

Is that it? Was that it for Dude Ranch? That's it for Dude Ranch. Heather wins. I'm pretty confident in that. That's Dude Ranch and that's this week's get played. Our producer is Rochelle Chen Ranch, Twitch.tv slash yard underscore underscore Sard when you start streaming again. Our music is by Ben Prunty.

Ben Prunty.muse.com. Our art is by Duck Brigade Design. Duck Brigade.com. We get merch over at kinshipgoods.com and ad-free episodes and bonus episodes every Wednesday on our Patreon. get played DLC, Matt, it's October. It's October. So you'd kind of think they're about to get spooky with it. We're actually doing something a little bit different.

We're getting a little Godzilla with it. Though one might say, what is spookier than the consequences of nuclear proliferation? Certainly they know about it in the game Fallout. They certainly do. Acutely aware of it as well. It's Octzilla over on our Patreon. We are talking Godzilla movies all month long. We're starting out with 1954s Godzilla, the original, the OG.

Does it hold up? Spoiler alert. It sure as fuck does. Join us over there. Watch along and listen in the aftermath. And guys, this... And subscribe at patreon.com slash get played. And guys, I think this week games got played, but only a little bit.

I love it. I love it. The octopus from octopatch travel. That was a hate gum podcast.