Get Played - Food in Video Games

Episode Date: April 1, 2024

Matt, Heather and Nick talk discuss the cooking in Final Fantasy XV, foods they want to try from across gaming, video game cereals and more! Follow us on Twitter and Instagram @getplayedpod. Music by Ben Prunty benpruntymusic.com. Art by Duck Brigade duckbrigade.com. Check out our Anime watch-along podcast Get Anime'd and our complete Get Played, How Did This Get Played? and Premium DLC back catalogue only on patreon.com/getplayed. Join us on our Discord server here: https://discord.gg/getplayed Wanna leave us a voicemail? Call 616-2-PLAYED (616-275-2933) or write us an email at [e-mail] Advertise on Get Played via Gumball.fmSee 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. All right, boys, we have two Michelin reviewers in the restaurant tonight. And so I need this food to be top of the line, precise from start to finish. No mistakes. Are you ready? Yes, chef. Are you ready? Yes, chef. Let's get moving I need some red choo-choo jelly. Yes chef. I need an ancient core. Yes chef. Yes chef

I need a quiche eyeball behind behind. Yes chef. I need a stamina shroom We just we just we just those spoil a shroom. We have a we have Hylian shrooms The Hylian shrooms gonna work. Hylian shroom will do Hylian Shroom's gonna work? Hylian Shroom will do, Hylian Shroom, give me a palm fruit. Yes, Chef. Yes, Chef. I need Blue Nightshade. Yes, Chef. Octarock Eyeball. Yes, Chef. I need Nadra's Claw. Yes, Chef. Uh, yeah, do you know what that is? Nadra's Claw. I need raw,

I need raw, whole, bird. Yes, Chef. Hyrule Bass. Yes, Chef. Sorry, just to clarify, I threw a raw, whole, bird, and a bass into this pot. You just want me to do that, throw them in as is? I need a raw whole bird and a bass into this pot You just want me to do that throw them in as is. I need a key swing put it in the pot. Yes chef I don't want to hear you guys talking back that Michelin star Reviewer is out there and if our restaurant gets anything less than two stars, I'm gonna blow my brains out here in the kitchen

Yeah, yeah, yeah chef. Let me hear you. Yes chef! Any room for a swift carrot in there chef? Yes! Behind, behind! I need Hinnock's guts! Corner, corner! Hinnock's guts! Okay, yes chef! Yes chef, 86 Hinnock's guts, we are out! I'm sorry, you're out of guts?

No, I gave you the last guts, but 86 of those all day. Chef, we have 86 of the guts, alright? I'm sorry, we don't have the fucking guts! How do we walk for me? Alright, I'm gonna go on the walk in and I'm gonna jack off, cause I can't take this anymore! I'm gonna go jack off on the walk inin and then maybe I can focus in the fucking kitchen But I'm gonna be yelling at me trying to make this dish cuz I don't know what we're making. Okay, I'll be right back I'm gonna go jack off

You know what I see when I see that man, I see the next top chef That man right there that stress level that intensity a man telling me he's gonna go jerk off in our refrigerator, I'm hanging up my apron. All right, I'm done. What's up? Where are we at? Is that ready? Can I take it?

Can I take it to the table, Chef? We need to cook it. Oh, we gotta cook it? We cook a stew during a five second jingle and heal with a meal as we discuss food and video games this week on Get Played, your one-stop show for good games, bad games, and every game in between. It's time to get played. I'm your host, Heather Ann Campbell, along with my fellow host, Nick Weiger. That's me, Nick Weiger, and I'm here with our third host, Madapodaka. Hello, everyone.

Hello, everyone, and welcome back to the premiere of Video Game Podcast, where this week we're talking about the deliciousness that you can only find in virtual worlds. It's food in video games. Wow. It is such a bummer that food is fake. That there's not food in the real world, that it's only in video games. Yeah, but that's part of the fantasy of playing games. You get to experience what it's like to ride a horse,

or you'll find the back of a dragon, which is real. Yeah, that's real, but the horse stuff is like crazy. But yeah, and eating, it's the same sort of thing. It's just just one of these impossible scenarios that you get to live out in a virtual world. But we'll talk all about. We'll talk all about that. Nick, I got to say, yeah, usually you have three beverages, right? We talk about this. That's right.

One of your beverages, if spilled. Huge disaster, more so than usual, you got to still have a smoothie right there with what I can only describe as a paper straw that is deteriorating by the minute one and the hole for the top of the smoothie is basically an open cup. It's too big. It's like a McFlurry sized hole. And then this this is like a it's like a paper boba straw. Which just does not work. But it's not a boba drink, it's a smoothie. That's like kind of the texture and color of marinara.

Yeah, it looks like it's good. It probably looks like blueberry forward. Probably a lot of. It's a blood, it's a human blood smoothie. It's a human blood smoothie It's a human blood smoothie He described it accurately. It's fucking marinara's like it's the color of blood It's human blood oxidizes. It turns like brown a little bit. It kind of does look like that, but so all I'm saying is You better watch yourself with that damn thing. I'll be careful. Don't spill it if I do spill something

It's that first off. I already spilled it. I'll be careful. If I do spill something, first off, I already spilled my water, so. I think it's already checked out for today. But if I do spill something, I don't think it'll be the smoothie, because that's the obvious choice. It'll be something else. That's how the world works.

Yeah. We're talking food and video games today. One thing I think we should give everyone an update on is that I think we've kind of collectively decided to not do a WePlay You Play on Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. Not that we're not gonna talk about the game, but I think timing-wise, we realized that Heather and I were going to have to both sprint through it,

and neither of us wants to experience the game that way, and that also, you know, by the time the episode would come out, it'll feel kind of dated anyway. So we're not planning as of now to do a full Final Fantasy VII Rebirth episode, but we'll all give updates during our What Are Your Plans? Yeah, and also, I mean, you guys have to sprint through it. I'm like 28% done with it.

I would, and I've put in a lot of time. You have. I've put almost 40 hours into this But you're also doing a lot of side quests. I'm doing a lot of side But my understanding is that's the way to experience it Yeah, but I would be I would be sprinting as well that would be deciding to not do any of that stuff It's a it's a big media game, but we will have updates about it in the coming in the coming weeks and you know Indeterminate amount of time until it time until we're done talking about it. Can I shout something else out real quick before we get into the meat of the show?

Hell yeah. Meat of the show, very fitting given our topic. Okay, somebody's hungry. Again, wish I was in a video game so we could eat. I know, so we could experience eating food. You know, we're pro-worker here, and in particular, people who work on video games, and so, hey, that's what we talk about, and that's the medium we love. I'll just read this headline.

This is from Polygon. Sega of America workers ratify union contract, protecting 150 employees and their union. Allied Employee Guild Improving Sega, AGIS is the acronym. I'm just reading from the article here right now, which is by Michael McWhirter and Nicole Carpenter. One important concessions with Sega of America as part of the contract,

including base building raises for all employees, layoff protections, and a commitment to crediting people on games they've worked on, including early QA testers, which is huge because in any creative industry, your credits are how you get your next job. So that's all great. So congrats to everyone over their solidarity

with all these Sega of America workers and their union. That is really great. And it must be said, Aegis sounds like some organization from the world of Sonic somehow. It does, yeah. A humorless cut scene where the president of the world of Sonic somehow. It does, yeah. A humorless cutscene where like the president of the world is talking about we must destroy Aegis and Shadow is our only hope. Yeah.

Sonic lore, I don't love Sonic games a lot of the time, but the lore is good. It's all funny and good. Well, because it's, a lot of that is also bad in the way the games are bad, but because it's so insane, it ends up being fun. It loops back around. But some of the games are just flat out not fun to play, which is a bummer. You can't escape.

You fool, Aegis will soon rule all of this domain. There's been rumors that, for the new Sonic movie where they're because they haven't officially announced who Shadow is. He was voicing Shadow and the rumors I've heard floated are Robert Pattinson or Hayden Christensen and I say give me either or that's good. That's good stuff. I just want somebody who can really sell being I'm a little mad angry little guy I'll do it. I saw I saw boy in the hair And I said both the sub and the dub and the dub Robert Pattinson is the hair and and it's a it's an unhinged performance

Glorious way, it's so great. I he's great. I love him such a good actor But all that to say I mean guys we can talk about this all day We sure have to talk about food and video games later on but there's usually something that we got to get to a Question we always ask so we could find out what's going on in the games were playing and Nick I don't know you ask it usually but you might if I ask I Do mind, but it sounds like you're going to so oh if you mind, and I won't do it. No. No you should do it Well now I kind of don't want to know you I do should do it go ahead ask the question

Cuz I like Kind of like your thing no it's I find so I mean it's not my thing anyway I mean well you know we know whose thing it is well. That's true isn't it no go ahead man I want you I want you to ask it. Go please tears up if I may What are you playing? What are you, fully and high as me, the Resident Evil Merchant? And as you can see, I'm covered in ground beef, here for our special food episode of Gear Blade.

Of the foods you could have been covered in, I'd say ground beef, one of the more upsetting ones. Yeah, really, yeah. Well, look, I knew it was special, I knew that it was something that you guys really needed like some support on, because you're out of your element. This guy, he doesn't even know that you can eat food in the real world. And this other guy, well, like I, yeah, I'm just, I've got your backs, gentlemen. I've got your backs and I am the Resident Evil Merchant asking, what are you filleting? I liked the rolled R on that.

Yeah, a lot of fun. Kinda fancy. What are you filleting? Very clever. Thank you. Resident Evil Merchant's good. Yeah, that was. Hey!

That makes me feel great. A positive force for the show overall. Yeah. Yeah, we like the RE Merchant. We, yeah, that's new, but I agree. We do like the Resident Evil 4 Merchant. Just maybe in the future, we could, and Rochelle, we could just be on top of this,

kind of just maybe put down some plastic in case He does wander in Covered with ground beef or some other food stuff. Yeah, some others just honestly substance. It could be anything let's treat let's treat all entrances for the resident evil merchant going forward like a You know a late-night bitch show at a comedy theater. Let's just get the tarp out Yeah, just just like kind of think of it as in terms of like we're gonna have some live birds in the studio And so any precautions you would take for that let's just take them for the rest Yeah, a net would be good. That would be great. It would be awesome to have a net wait Do you guys want me to bring live birds? No, but it's no again

We don't want it. We don't want this but in the cards, but again. This is the kind of contingency We should plan for I've got some birds. I trapped in a in a tire In a tire tire Yeah, you know tire there's like flying around the loop not sure how to get out birds aren't that bright well I've got I wrapped it. I've got it covered in wet towels In there, it's like a big rubbery nest. Well, make sure to feed them every once in a while. I'm not a monster. OK.

But don't feed them like how birds get fed. I don't want to hear about that. Chewing up the food and spitting in their mouth. Yeah, you don't know you go to those lengths. You guys would be surprised if there's any special requests that you have, I can really pull off a lot. I would say my request for you would be to- Do you need half a carpet?

I'm good. Don't really need any portion of carpet, honestly. I'm pretty much, we're pretty much set in studio. What about a 1981 radiation detector? I mean, I would not. Hot to the touch. Yeah, I mean, this is setting off a number of alarms from my end, so I would just say, yeah, I'd wanna stay far away from that.

What about a MetaQuest One? Even less use for that. Honestly, I'll take the radiation detector that at least has some nostalgia value. MetaQuest One is just outclassed by the competition at this point. OK, well, how about this? Because of a slight miscommunication between myself and a certain client, I also have a full set of national phone books from 1996.

What could the miscommunication have been? A client? You have clients? I'm a merchant. Yeah, I guess people who shop, who buy items from within your trench coat are, I guess, clients. I guess you could classify them as that.

And I guess you probably sell all sorts of wares, not just ammunition. Yeah, there's green herb, there's red herb, yellow herb, egg. And apparently phone books. Yeah. Out of date phone books at that. 1990s, like if you want to know where, hold on, Ross Stevenson, I got another one here, this is Charles Shambay, if you want to know where those guys were in 1997, I've got their

names right here and some numbers. I'm gonna stop you right there. A5 vinyl. What? I said I don't care, I don't know those guys, Those are two names that shouldn't even be on the same page. I think probably also like disconnected residential numbers. Yeah, they're no longer fine. I mean, if someone is still at that address at that same number

from 30 plus years ago, I would honestly be shocked. My grandparents have lived in the same home my entire life. Oh, OK. Wait, what year is it? What year is it? Hold on. It's 2024 currently. Why does Nick think that 1997 is more than 30 years ago? I thought you said 87.

I'm sorry. I originally heard something else too. I just want to check because as we've established canonically, I have a different calendar You got to get up a little earlier if you think you're gonna get us on something All right, we have we asked the questions here all right 27 years at the same ballpark is right. Yeah, it's in the same ballpark as more than 30 Hey guys, is this the episode where I'm on the entire time?

I'm gonna tell you right now. I hope not. I don't think so. No, I don't think so. Hey, you know, since we are talking food and video games, do you have a favorite Resident Evil food stuff? Do you like an herb? Do you like a black bass?

A golden egg? I do love the black bass. Yeah. Love it. It's so... It's spicy, wet oh so you like sorry favorite types of food so you like so you like maybe pan fry it and throw some seasoning on there sounds like that's your preparation fry huh that's a good idea. You did identify three good food types.

Spicy, crispy, wet. Yeah, these are all fun qualities. That's good. I love it, I love it. That's why the- I'm thinking of a chili sauce. The BK Big Fish is my favorite of the BK items. Yeah, boy, you know, BK's kind of stepped it up a lot lately. I don't know if I'm going to them for fish. I'm saying BK items. Yeah, boy, you know, BK has kind of stepped it up

a lot lately. I don't know if I'm going to them for fish. I'm saying BK is back. Well, there's some good fish sandwiches and fast food. A lot of them are seasonal. Arby's has a great fish sandwich. But yeah, BK- The fish delight, of course. Yes, of course, McDonald's fish delight,

Trump's favorite item. Yeah, Nick's going to his internet browser of choice and going to his favorites for his his bookmarked fast food fish. Well, no, I just want to look at the Burger King menu. I want to see if they had the big fish currently. I can't remember if that was a- I just want to say that if we did a food podcast,

the three of us, like I think it could be a hit. You mean me, Matt, and then not Heather who stepped away, but the Resident Evil merchant. You're saying that's the trio. Yes. I think that's- I'm thinking a third tier on Patreon. I just, I feel like people would be confused. I feel like they would just not understand what the show was yeah

I don't think you know it's like two guys and the Resident Evil merchant And they're just talking about food even if it was just two guys like who even gives a shit that that's honestly a broader broader thought I'm not. All right, listen up. You listen good, okay? I'm going to talk to you about AG1. Now, I started trying AG1 because a lot of people I trust, they're like healthy. They have good gut health.

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The app is crap, I think. The app might be crap. No, the Burger King app is good. I just don't have the app on my iPad. Okay, hold on, let me see. I'm glad we're doing this still. Because the thing is they will rotate. This is the most comfortable I've ever been during the show.

We have to find out if the big fish is on the menu currently. Because they'll rotate out some of these. You guys usually ask me to leave pretty quickly, but I feel like at this point anybody who's still listening to the podcast is disoriented. Like we're going to hear about car wrecks. The thing is with fish items, it feels like a lot of times they rotate them out Periodically because just based on the price of product. They're like, okay Well that these that the fishes we're not taking a profit on a name on a name or so Let's just take it off for now

But the big fish is currently on the menu and there's also a fiery big fish, which I have not had that sounds great I am in the secret be wet. Wow Are you merchant you nailed it? Are youE. Merchant is good. R.E. Merchant is good. I just thought of a fast food item that I think I'd like to, if McDonald's is listening, I got it for you. Crispy McShrimp Wrap. What the? Interesting.

It's shrimp fried in like the nugget fry stuff. That's interesting. Do they have shrimp at McDonald's? They don't. No, they'd have to get shrimp. Yeah, that's fast food shrimp is not, like right now it's like Popeyes or like Long John Silver's. There aren't a lot of places that do a shrimp.

Maybe a Del Taco. Maybe a Del Taco like periodically, but that's an interesting new frontier for fast food. I think this year's thing is shrimp. I'd love to see it. RIP Bubba. Yeah. All right, Resident Evil Merchant, well, anything you'd like to see it RIP Bubba. Yeah Alright Resident Evil Merchant. Well, uh anything you'd like to plug?

Yeah, I've been doing a one-man show down at It's going up at the dynasty typewriter soon right great venue, you know, it was hard to book but I got it dynasty typewriter in Los Angeles, Resident Evil Merchant presents One Man, One Question. Wow. Wow. That question naturally being, what are you playing?

Heather, do you want to start us off? What have you been playing? Um, yeah, I was wondering if I can I sit back down? Can I can I take my seat back? Yeah, I think so. Yeah. Yeah, you go. Um, I, uh, let's see.

I've been playing. I hate it when he just- He was just so agreeable. He's like, oh, sorry. I hate it when he stands in the middle of the room. Like it's uncomfortable to look at. Yeah. Sleep paralysis demon, good grief.

Especially with such a hulking presence. Yeah. Well, I've been playing Fortnite, of course. That's it. Like I'm, you, ah. You're gonna apologize for playing a game, you love. It's okay.

That's what we're doing here. I know, I know, but like, see, the thing is, like, if you're on the outside looking in, it's exhausting to hear me talk about it every week. Even if it's a game that changes, even if there are new weapons every week, even if there are new weapons every week, even if there are new balances and a new

modes of play and outfits and collaborations and music drops. Like if you're on the outside looking in, I would want me to be playing a new game. And so I'm going to make a promise. Wow. I promise to play a different video game for next week's What Are You Playing? Wow. Just for a little bit. And you know what? I'll go a step further and I'll say,

I won't play Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. I'll play something else by next week. Have you fallen off of Rebirth? Have you just not had time for it lately? I have not had time. I've not had time. I am, of course, busy also going through the final couple of weeks of active cancer treatment, which is great.

Fucking like sledding down that hill so fast, almost at the bottom, almost cross the finish line. You know how I'm gonna celebrate? Eggs and pancakes. There you go. I'm gonna go straight from my appointment and I'm gonna eat some eggs and pancakes. I'm so looking forward to it.

I might have a suggestion as to where. Maybe later on in the episode. Like Burger King? What are you talking about? Maybe you gotta go fast to IHOP. Yeah, maybe. Oh, to IHOP yeah maybe uh oh that tails two by two by two it's not gonna happen I'm not going there for my celebrate like let me give myself cancer after just getting rid of it that's not true I love IHOP I really do I love I love a fucking chain diner so much. Yes.

But yeah, that's what I've been playing, Fortnite with members of our Discord, discord.gg slash get played, the Battle Bus, people are always online, they're always throwing together a good squad, I've been getting those Victory Royales, getting those medallions, it's been excellent. It's been a real fun time.

And I think as I told you boys, maybe in the last week, my main squad, who are some IRL friends, shout out to Barrett, Darius, and Stephanie, we looked up our stats, and we're in the top 0.3% of all squads for win rate in the world. And that's, that's upsetting. Like it's a good brag, but it's also like,

what is life? Like what is, because we're because none of us are particularly good. Like we're good, but we're not, you know, like what I would call streamer good, or like competitive good, but we're extremely good communicators. And I wonder if there is like, in the same way that like a superhero team

might get a ranking, and it's like, well, this team's super powerful, that team's super fast, this team communicates well. I don't think any of us are like, you know, ninja fucking style stream murderers, but we all know when to push and when to exit and when to... Like, it's just really good communication. And I wonder if that gives us an advantage.

Anyway, love playing with those guys, love playing with the Discord. Matt, what are you playing? Well, I'm playing a game that's come up a little bit on this show that I think maybe Nick's still playing as well. Oh yes. Deep Rock Galactic Survivor. Let's go. I'm very excited to be able to have someone to talk about this game with. You know, I had to dust off my Steam Deck.

Right? Wow. Dusty. I dusted off my Steam Deck and I downloaded this thing because I was at Chef Kevin's wedding. Congrats, Chef Kevin. Friend of the show. Friend of the pod, listener of the pod. Friend of the pod, listener of the pod.

Helped us out with an episode earlier in our headgum days. That's right. John Gabris was at the wedding. I didn't speak to Gabris the whole time I was there until he left because he shook me. And all he said while he stared straight into my eyes was deep rock Galactic Survivor

And I was like I got it I guess I gotta check this out yeah, I gotta see what's going on here and I got in there and it's fucking it's fucking great It is really so much fun. But I'm curious, because I wonder, you spent a little more time with it, Nick. I don't have much, I'm unlocking stuff as I'm going through runs. I haven't completed a dive. Yeah, it took me a little bit before I could finish runs

at all, let alone consistently. I think a big part of it is, and I mentioned this when I was talking about the differences versus vampire survivors that it very much is inspired by in plays like as an auto shooter, is taking advantage of the new mechanics that aren't as present in that game,

specifically like kiting enemies. I think a big part of survivability is using because you can mine through rock and mining through rock to create paths that you want enemies to follow you through. So you can create, you know, bottlenecks where you can annihilate them or what have you. I think also part of it is like as you go, you're unlocking additional classes. And because I'm forgetting, I think that I can't remember what the name of the first, the initial classes. If it's the Scout, it may not be that. But you ultimately unlock the Engineer. Some of these other classes just have some different mechanics that may just sync with your play style a little bit

more. The Engineer has all these like autonomous weapons. So like you'll stand in place and he will like drop turrets and those turrets will remain in place. So you can really kind of you can play it pretty strategically in terms of how you're deploying your armaments. But also, I think the other thing is, because between each level, there's a screen, there's kind of a store where you can accompany company store if you will where you can use minerals that you've collected to upgrade

your arsenal and So a big part of like the mining part is just like making sure you're budgeting time to collect Minerals so you can take advantage of that as well because that's one of the best ways to improve your character I the thing that I love about it is that... Not unlike... I mean, it plays exactly... It plays very similarly to Vampire Survivors. Yeah, for sure.

But this is a good game that I've been playing while my fiance and I watch 90 Day Fiance. There you go. Because I'm just like, I don't gotta really be paying attention to either of these things. Ha could be, I could check in, see what's going on with Jasmine and Gino. Yeah. What an abundance of stimulation options we just have.

Yeah. You get one screen going, two screens going at once, neither of them you're really focused on. I could be watching like the worst thing I've ever seen and then also playing Deep Rock Galactic Survivor. Just watching these people just like ruin their lives. But that's what I've been doing. I've just been putting that on because it's a passive experience but then also having that on the background. We like to watch that show together and just be like

this is crazy. But I feel like I can still very much engage with the show while doing this. But this game's not fully mindless. You have to, like you're saying, you have to find a good route between the rock and stuff to get them going. I have been really paying attention to my upgrades here and there. There are heavy enemies that come out that have their own attacks that you have to pay attention to and particularly like like run bosses will be like, oh they've he's got a he's got a An AOE attack. That's the that's a you know time jump to a location

So I gotta like you can't really dodge but I just gotta make sure to be out of the way when that happens Yeah, so there are some things that you need to track a little bit more closely I've been like I don't have like a strategy yet That I'm like really working on, but so far like my main things that I've been trying to upgrade first are, like my main three are damage, movement speed, and reload.

Because I'm like, it fires, everything fires at a pretty good rate, but like once you get rate of fire going, that like sort of like does pick up the pace a little bit. But I also try to get a gun that shoots in four directions as quickly as I can, too. Oh, sure. Because that creates a nice little buffer.

I don't love the... There's an incendiary grenade. I don't love that one, but I like the ice one. Yeah, because that slows down enemies. Yeah, the ice one is good. Yeah. But I think a big part of the fun of any of these sort of run-based games you know, I feel this was like a sleigh of the spire and you've certainly experienced with like Hades is just like You sometimes have that one where like well, okay

These this is not my number one draft pick as far as the weapon I'd pick But this is what I got to just make this work and try to try to survive and I think there's a lot of fun in that and it also makes it when you do get what you're looking for and you do get to upgrade like the Your weapon of choice all the way and then you just feel invincible like that that makes that feel even more satisfying Yes, and then it It says mission failed when you when you die Yeah, and I've died enough times where it doesn't even hurt my feelings anymore It says mission failed when you die. And I've died enough times where it doesn't even

hurt my feelings anymore. It was such a bummer the first couple times. But I understand that replaying it is the thing. Well yeah, because there's also the roguelite element of you get to upgrade every, just all your characters overall as you collect more minerals. Health regen. Exactly.

Movement speed. Yeah, luck, you get to increase all these statistics that just makes sure it increases your survivability. Yeah, I think the other thing is just like, and I've talked about this in previous episodes, but so when you defeat whatever the, you finish whatever the objective is for that individual level, there will be an escape pod that you need to get to and you have 30 seconds on the timer to do it.

Another thing I found is just being greedy with that time and just trying to hoover up all the remaining experience orbs that are out there and again just trying to collect more minerals. And I'm ideally trying to walk up that ramp with like two or three seconds left, just really cutting it close. Just because it's a time when you can, the heavy enemies are out of the way,

you can just get as many resources as are still available. I try to get it close too, but one time I missed the shuttle. Yeah, I've had that happen too to and then you just failed the run You're just dead and you know, it's sort of like yeah, you you have to then confront your own hubris Exactly, but it's it's it's it's really easy to get back in there and do it and it did sort of make me I know There's there's been DLC for vampire survivors. I just haven't really checked in on. Yeah, I played some of it. I This is a good type of game,

and I'm glad that there are more types of it now. Yeah, I love this. I love this newish genre. Can I say what you've just described in this game is the number one reason why I'm punished in Fortnite, and across video games, I think, on the entire gaming spectrum, which is there comes a point when your greed

oversteps your sensibility. Always. And any like notion of reason is somehow extinguished and you're like, I only have, say in Fortnite, I only have 20 health, but that guy has to be low. I can push. I only have, say in Fortnite, I only have 20 health, but that guy has to be low. I can push. And I feel like if I could train myself

to listen to reason when I'm full of adrenaline, I could become excellent at anything, really. But it's always hubris that kills me. It's almost, I mean, like currently in Fortnite, it's also sniper headshots from somebody I never saw. But like, if I'm gonna die to a squad, it's because I'm like, I've got them, I've got them, and I never do, I never have them.

Yes, that is, so two things that's making me think of is bosses in FromSoft games. I particularly felt this with Sekiro when I was making my way through that. Remember when you beat Sekiro? Yeah, I do. Think about it every day of my life. That's so sick.

It's like very, very tight that you did that. Yeah, thanks buddy. Yeah, but that was a game where like when I'd lose, when I was getting a boss down and then it's like that last 10% of health, I mean, you feel playing Elderly, you feel playing Dark Souls, any of these games, you're just like, oh fuck, when I was getting a boss down, and then it's like that last 10% of health. I mean, you feel playing Elder, and you're playing Dark Souls, any of these games, you're just like, oh fuck, I'm almost there,

I'm almost there, and you have to remember like, no, keep playing the fucking game. Don't just try to like stack damage onto the boss to like push it past the finish line, because that's when you get murked. That's when you're punished. Those games are great about that. But the other one is that,

it's just like when they have another run-based game. But I got so consistent with FTL that I could basically always finish a run unless I got greedy. And once you get more confident in the game, it's really hard to not get greedy. Because you're just like, oh yeah, well whatever, I'll go to a few more systems,

I'll get some more resources, I'm sitting pretty. I just got to get some more resources. I'm sitting pretty. I just gotta get some more scrap. I'll be set. And it's the same thing you're just describing, Heather. I felt like ultimately most of my failed runs, most of my deaths in that game were purely hubris. It was purely grief. Yeah.

I just saw a TikTok like this last week. It was Howie Mandel talking about a deal at no deal. And he was talking about it makes I just love the idea. It makes it's going to make sense where you're going. But just the way you set that up. Yeah, it's dropping Howie Mandel out. I just knew that me saying it was going to be insane. Yeah. I've I held out as long as I could. But he was talking about how on that show they very rarely gave away the million dollars

I think they did it like three times like in the entire run of the show of course It's back now hosted by Joe Maganello Love that Nick you care to fill us in what just happened there a second ago Maybe nobody there was maybe a near spill Yeah, there was a spill. I was trying to I took the lid off to get this last little bit of smoothie of what drink The smoothie smoothie the one you said you wouldn't even you wouldn't spill. Yeah, well, you didn't spill but you almost again What in my favor? But anyway, he was talking about it off and it toppled over but then I caught it over, but then I caught it before anything spilled out. This was almost exactly what we're talking about,

which is your hubris getting in three. Yeah, I didn't need to have the last eighth of this cup of smoothie, but- But how he was saying that, like, the thing that would stop most players from even getting a good amount of money on that show was their greed, because they have these cases in front of them, they think they have the million dollars

in their crosshairs. They think the next five cases I'm gonna pull, one of them's the million dollars, but then the banker, if you don't remember how that show works, there's a banker that calls you up, makes a deal to Howie, Howie relays the deal, and it's usually, it starts off pretty good based on what's left on the board right because they don't want to give

Away the they don't want to give away a million dollars. Yeah, how I picks a phone is like, uh-huh Uh-huh. Yeah. Oh really? Okay. I'll let him know Baker is offering you thirty eight thousand dollars. Yeah, that's not a small amount of money That's more money than you came in with that's right That's a winning amount of money as far as I'm concerned thirty eight38,000 given to me right now, that's changing my life. That's making my year pretty nice. Right. You know, for a little bit until I go to Vegas

and blow it all on a horse or something. But... What do you think Vegas is? There's horses there too. There are horses everywhere in America. That's where I do the big horse bit. Also in that scenario, you're just buying a horse in Las Vegas. Yeah

Sick dry horse That bot tellers horse weird it's in half yeah But the I guess I'll I bring it up only because it was analogous to the the hubris of the player Yeah, getting in the way of them actually succeeding at all They could get they could have walked away with $50,000 $80,000 $100,000, but they think What's more than that a million dollars and they almost know three people in the whole show Got the million. Yeah, it's a it's a bird in hand is worth two in the bush Yeah, it's just like but it's the complete. It's the but your brain works differently. You're like, oh they give the opportunity

I want to go on a game show. Mm-hmm get the first offer. It doesn't have to be deal or no deal Well, whatever the situation is just cash out immediately just be like that's good Walk away after the $1,000 question on who wants to be a millionaire Yeah, I I named all of snack snap crackle and pop Give me a thousand dollars piece. Is it snap crackle pop or shit? I'll use all my lifelines 5050 it's down to crackle or shit. Yeah. Yeah, and I like this version of who wants to be the millionaire It's like airing on spike or something

All right, 90% of the audience 99% voted for crackle. Yeah, what do you want to do? Has there ever been a game show? Hold on hold on a game show like a real game show not like a pornography game show or like no How much and what is these women got two different boobs, which one weighs more? Men? Not like that, but like a real, like, it's, it's Jeopardy, but the answer is like, uh, uh. Which of the following was stuck in Richard Gere's ass? Yeah, like. And that Gerbil be a rabbi, like yeah.

By Urban Legend, yeah. It's also, it's funny, I got stuck there in my brain pitching a million things I couldn't say even on a podcast. And I was like going through. Things that would change our opinion about you. Going through like the file cabinet of my brain being like, nope, nope, nope, nope, can't say it, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope. But yeah, like a Wheel of Fortune

where the answer is piss and shit. It's a good idea. I think it's funny. I mean, that's kind of what the Steve Harvey family feud is turned into. It's kind of like a raunchy but all ages game show. It goes right up to the perceived line, kind of. But I think the issue is once you get into M rated territory,

then the expectation is going to be it's going to be just a dirty show. Yeah. But it's a good idea. It's a good idea. Game shows don't have to be for everybody. They just be for sickos and perverts do but that's if that's all oh boy All right, just go peel back the curtain a second can I yeah, I Don't usually drive the show I'm just trying to keep us on the rails and stuff I feel like I was not used to it yet. I haven't really done it.

You're doing great. You also there had an opportunity to- That sounds like a call to action, Peyron buddy. Oh boy, okay. It's absolutely not. No, I'm just, I got it. I have an outline in front of me, but sometimes when I have, when I'm not just going off the dome, it's easier for me to just speak. This is also just not true. from the top of my head rather than reading what I have to sure yeah right yeah yeah it's easy to get bogged

down by bullet points you're doing great and also you're doing great Matt I believe in you thanks but also if you need me to enter a flow state and just like talk my way through the next hour I could do it without interruption. Um, I'll let you know. Are you now covered in ground turkey? I can tell it's a different ground meat. Well, it's, it's, it's getting colder, I think is what you're looking at. That's what's happening. It came in hot, but now it's kind of gray.

Yes. It's cooling off. Right. All right, guys, I'm going to head out. Yeah. Please. Yeah. Feel free's cooling off. Right. Alright guys, I'm gonna head out. Yeah, play, yeah, feel free to get out of here. That was... What you've been playing. Wow.

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Rules and restrictions may apply. Video games and food. Food and video games. There's a lot of good food in games and we'll talk about that stuff, but there were two news items this week about this and that's sort of what brought us to it. One of the ones was the food, the realistic looking food in Dragon's Dogma 2. That is one of the things that they're talking about in addition to all the microtransactions in Dragon's Dogma 2. But somebody on Twitter shared

a very realistic looking lamb shake and everyone's like, why does it microtransactions in Dragon's Dogma 2, but somebody on Twitter shared a very realistic looking lamb shake, and everyone's like, why does it shank? Why does this look so good, people were saying? They were like, it looks delicious. Yeah, you know, I was planning on honestly playing Dragon's Dogma 2, and then all the stuff about the the microtransactions kind of put me off of it.

Yeah. But I will say that that is a toothsome looking lamb shank. I mean, it's really impressive. But it's a piece of art. I think it's just video, isn't it? Isn't it just video of a lamb shank? I don't know. Is that what it is? Yeah, I think it's film.

It's like, hey, you know it'd be easier than spending a million billion hours coding realistic looking lamb. Why don't we just film one in a pan? That's smart. It looks really, really good. The fact that I've been hearing more about that than people enjoying the game

has maybe got me to not get it. Yeah, but I don't know. I've heard some positive things, but it's like it's got kind of owners DRM on steam and the PC version doesn't run great and then also just like it's a you get a single-player game with Microtransactions I understand that you can acquire this these things other ways But it's a thing Capcom's done before them just kind of like why are we fucking doing this? Just yeah, just make it so that the game is fun and good again. It's greed greed is the killer Wow I Heard fears the mind killer, but I think it actually might be greed yeah

Well ultimately look I don't want to get in the spoiler country for Dune part 2, but you know I guess it is certainly Greed is certainly a factor and how the the whole Dune Saga plays out I People listen to Gordon Geekko too much. I know that there's a lot of grumbling about Dragon's Dogma too, but there have been very few games since Elden Ring that look to me like something I want to play, mostly because I've seen so many shenanigans.

I've seen somebody get on the back of a monster and then they, they, that monster flies them into a different district and it's like, well, I guess I'm going to this other district or like a guy who was, he like aggro'd a, a very large cyclops and then ran back to town thinking, Oh, once, once the monster hits the invisible barrier of town, it will turn around. But instead the thing came into town,

and every NPC left their stands and their houses and stuff, and started fighting the monster. And I was like, man, that looks like fun. That looks like fun. Maybe I'll play it some way. It does have some really cool looking elements. It does, it does. that looks like fun. That looks like fun. Maybe I'll play it at some point. It does have some really cool looking elements. It does, it does.

So I think if you play it and you just don't do the microtransaction stuff, it's just a video game, right? Yeah. I guess my whole thing is like, if I'm gonna commit $70 and 30 plus hours of my life to something, like any sort of barrier for me to make that commitment is Will just be like I'm just gonna do something else

I'd rather I'd rather play stardew Valley 1.6 then buy this new game That's got some things that are going to annoy me, and you only get one character for your save Yeah, and I guess they're gonna patch that but that is a thing. That's just like yeah. It's just it's it's it seems like some They could just kind of whiffed on a few key things there That is a thing that's just like, it seems like some, they just kind of whiffed on a few key things there. Yeah, the other news item that brought us to this topic is there's a, as of now, unconfirmed, but seems like it's happening. A leak indicating that a Sonic themed menu

is coming to IHOP very soon. So soon, in fact, that the stuff, if you Google IHOP and Sonic, like I was doing yesterday, the links appear. No, it's all there, but it doesn't direct to anything right away. There are paid links. There are ad links for the menu on IHOP's website,

but they're just ad links for the menu on a high ops website, but they're just like dead links. They just, but yes, this is the Sonic the Hedgehog menu. There are a few items on here. Yeah. There is the Tales two by two by two. There's the Dr. Eggman's Benedict. There is Sonic's Blue Blur special, Amy's Sweet Strawberry Delight, Knuckles Chicken Sandwich, and Shadow's Chaos Chocolate Pancakes.

Now, here's my issue with this. I fear, I mean, obviously with tails, it's just the case. And I get the two tails, whatever, that's clever, I guess. But it's just two pancakes, two eggs, any style, and two strips of bacon. Like, that is just a thing they already have there. You've just rebranded it. And like, at least give me a new sauce. At least give me a little

like, you know, yeah, tails of mango barbecue sauce or something. Not that that would be good with the with pancakes, but you know what I mean? Just give me give me some sort of like, tails, tails of foxy syrup or something, you know, he's got he's got like, the tales of foxy syrup or something. You know, he's got a cinnamon maple syrup or something. Just give me something that is distinct to this character. Sonic's Blue Blooder Special, the same sort of thing. I think this is just the existing menu item, which is the double blueberry pancakes.

Like, that's a thing they have on their menu, blueberry pancakes with blueberry topping. And it's just like, are you just gonna rebrand that as a Sonic item, item or you can actually give Me some new fucking sonic pancakes. I have a I have a take about this. Yeah, the pancakes should be blue That would be something the pancakes should be give me the blue pancakes. I know food coloring not great and And I hop look I hop went all out with the Wonka menu the Wonka menu was yeah They they've what they were they came up with a bunch of new bespoke items for Wonka.

They got a chocolate sandwich in there or something? I'll have to look up what the menu was. It was pretty wild and honestly it was pretty bad. But they did go for it. And so here now we're just like, we've just got a chicken sandwich and it's just called Knuckles chicken sandwich. I'm like, oh, this is just a little less exciting. With a side of gold onion rings,

those are just onion rings, they're not gold. Yeah. Dr. Eggman's Benedict, the names, I will say that they got the names down. The names are great, like Shadow's Chaos Chocolate Pancakes is a great, like 10 out of 10, that's great. Amy's Sweet Strawberry Delight is nothing, like that's like just, they kind of put Amy's name on it

Yeah, but no roots the bat the chocolate chips and shadows pancake Should be bullets Shadows bullet-ridden pancakes they should like handcuff you while you eat it They should like handcuff you while you eat it I know it says go ahead and be a little chaotic a four stack filled with chocolate chips is the Ultimate bold and underlined ultimate pancake experience these sound like chocolate chip pancakes I think they are they don't sound like anything that crazy or unique. Yeah, it's kind of a bummer but Okay, wait, hold on. Hold on before we get before we move on I hops wonka inspired menu had wonkas perfectly purple pancakes

purple buttermilk pancakes cheese cake mousse and topped with purple cream cheese icing and Gold glitter sugar so they just went all out with Wonka and Sonic. They're like, eh, fucking whatever. They're like, what do we have left over? Yeah. Hover Choc Pancake Tacos. Three silver dollar chocolate pancakes folded and filled with chocolate chips,

cheesecake mousse, sliced strawberries, and a chocolate drizzle, served with extra strawberries on the side. So they were making straight up pancake tacos. That was a new thing. And then the Wonka Burger, I think, was pretty conventional. I would do it.

I have a different approach for the pancake taco. Mm-hmm. Because it sounds like there's chocolate chips in there and that's what makes it taco. We're getting that. That's done. Yeah. Pancake tortilla substitute.

I'm putting eggs in that damn thing. I'm putting some bacon or sausage on that thing. And you know what I'm doing too? Instead of salsa, I'm putting eggs in that damn thing. I'm putting some bacon or sausage on that thing. And you know what I'm doing too? Instead of salsa, I'm putting syrup. That's honestly, it looks like a thing, an issue with the Wonka menu is they kind of went all towards sweet and you need some savory in there. Well, I'm excited to go here for Heather's big

celebration breakfast pretty soon. But this had this had is thinking about food and video games. There's a lot of video games that have some interesting food in them. I guess where should we start? Should we talk about food? I want to start. I want to start because it's all downhill from from the apex, from the summit of Final Fantasy 15 well honestly you should go last I think that No, we want to start strong and have nowhere to go

Let's start strong So Final Fantasy 15 as we know had an extremely lengthy Development cycle and the rumor is had an extremely lengthy development cycle. And the rumor is, or the conjecture is, that somebody set about to make food for Final Fantasy 13 Versus, which was the original incarnation of this game, and then continued to make food all the way through the decade development

cycle before the game became Final Fantasy 15. And that food is all in the game. There are, there are so many how you know what I'm going to Google how many recipes in Final Fantasy? XV it is a total of 104 different recipes Each with individual Rendered food display moments on actual Coleman camping dishes. And I've got a montage that I shared with you guys, which we can put up on screen right here.

And I've started it out like, and this by the way does not include all of the items of food that you can only get at restaurants in the game. all of the items of food that you can only get at restaurants in the game. But this montage is 20 minutes long and it is just the food. So it's just item after item after item.

And it's so many items, it literally takes as long as an episode of television to put down all of these items. And the montage goes in order of complexity. So if we go towards the end of this montage, then you'll see extremely complicated, like oven roasted trout, fried tide grouper. Wow.

Lasagna all forno, crown city roast, smoked behemoth. Like you see like items that are given to you with like flowers and decorative icing. You see cup noodles, which was a sponsor in the game. And all of them are put down on your table in the game with this lovely piece of music that I've also shared. So why don't we play just the background camping music for the boys.

["The Bachelorette"] Heh heh heh. Ooh. This cooking sequence in the game was so complicated, so needlessly complicated that a fan cookbook has been released with all of the recipes. It's called That's It, the unofficial Final Fantasy XV community cookbook, which was available for a very short time as an actual hardbound book,

and now is available as like a PDF. It's 111 actual world recipes, complete with photography of those dishes as if they are in the game, but in the real world. And if you compare the real world dishes with the video game counterpart, they look identical. It is... It's stupid.

Yeah. That's such an interesting, like, amount of detail for a game like that. Like, the fact that then the ingredients all line up and it's like real food is amazing. Yeah. What, you know, that immediately makes me think of is Yakuza Zero and, you know, I've been meaning to play

more of the Like a Dragon slash Yakuza series, but I loved Yakuza Zero, finished that game, and that similarly does not have a cooking system, but it has so many restaurants, so many eateries, and so many different dishes that you can get. And that there's also like, you know, kind of in-game achievements, goals for eating every dish in a particular establishment.

And, you know, they've got the high-end cuisine, and then they've got fast food joints and everything in between. And yeah, it's one of those more is more things where there's just this massive diversity of options that don't have a ton of influence on gameplay, but just sort of add color to the world. I, I love it. I love that shit.

I love it so much. I love the food in Yakuza games and I love the food in persona games. Oh, yeah. I mean, coffee and curry. Forget about it. Delicious. Yeah, that's I mean mean that's like, look, we talked about that I think fairly recently, but yeah, the coffee curry combination

in Persona 5 Royal, that hits IRL as well. I made curry from scratch for the first time last night. You did, last night! From scratch, not using like Japanese curry paste, but like item by item caramelized onion. Then you add your vegetable stock, then you add your tomato, then you add your seasonings, then you add like like it took three and a half hours to make curry from scratch

I Fucking love curry so much So good Wow let her cook. I guess I love to cook I do I I was gonna ask that I think we all were all of us in this room I actually don't know this about Rochelle. Maybe you can weigh in I I love cooking I know Nick likes to cook as well. Heather likes to cook. Rochelle, where are you at with cooking?

Yeah, I love to cook. Let her cook. Ranch, what do you like to cook? I mostly cook Thai food. Hell yeah. And then I dabble into Korean food. Do you have a go-to dish? Lob.

Oh wow, okay. Wow. It's very easy. Is it really? Okay. Very simple. One of my go-to things that I make is just like a whole chicken I'll just get a chicken the Thomas Keller method on pepper on the outside pat it dry first Bake it for like 45 minutes at 450

And it comes out a nice Juicy bird the whole ass chicken. I love it, I love it. I love it, that's my number one. Do a lot of, I just do a lot of cast iron. I love that. I feel like it's just so like, you know, you get a nice sear on the stove top

and then you finish it in the oven. It's usually pretty low degree of difficulty, but you know, pretty high ceiling for results. Yeah, so I find myself doing that a lot with various proteins. I would like to take a class, like a cooking class, and learn some new stuff. Because I have maybe like eight,

or like, probably between 10 and 15 things that I make that I just cycle through, and it's like, okay, well. What haven't we had in a while? I'll make that right but it'd be nice to have like a Instinctual Way to cook rather than just me following the same like few things that I already know that I like I do have a list here of Not necessarily like games with food, but food from games that I'd like to try that I wish were real. Okay We've talked about this before but I really would like to drink a potion oh

Yeah, I Want to taste a potion so bad like like and you mean like not like a branded energy drink That's called a potion but like an actual potion that restores your health. I want the real thing. I want, cause if it's making you feel better, it's restoring your health, I have a feeling that it kind of tastes like Sprite.

Like it's like refreshing and- You think it's carbonated? I think it might have some bubbles in there. I think cause there's some science involved, right? Like I don't think they're like naturally sourcing these potions. I think there's alchemy at hand. So I would imagine that there's bubbles, some carbonation.

And I do feel like even though soda is not good for you, every time I drink a Sprite, I do feel a little bit better. But I think what we're, I think what we'd be dealing with is like, because if it's made with high fructose corn syrup, you get kind of that syrupy sort of lingering heaviness. So I'm thinking we're dealing with something that's made with cane sugar, where you're not getting that. It goes down smooth and you're not dealing with

the kind of thick spit in the after yeah it could be a glass bottle sure right you know from from a non US region it could be it could be from anywhere yeah that's one I want to try a rare candy from Pokemon these both these These give Pokemon the ability to level up without any experience. And I mean, they're rare, but they're not that rare. You can kind of find them all over the place. But I would like to see what they taste like. I kind of picture like a hard candy, like a... Almost like a warhead that you bite into.

Not a warhead. What's that called? Jawbreaker. Oh sure The cake from portal Cake is a lie Matt. You weren't paying attention. I kind of but I know it's a lie and I knew we'd get into this There's got to be some cake around somewhere yeah, I mean I did you I would ultimately wanna eat that cake, so I'm on board with you there. Maybe it's more like, maybe it's like an, like a potion is like a Gatorade. I feel like you sometimes get like a blue Gatorade

when you're like really thirsty or you're like a little hungover and it's just like, oh, that's exactly what I need right now. There's something to this because, well, one time in New York City. Okay. I was having a night, right? Yeah. in New York City. Okay. I was having a night, right? Yeah.

I was out till like six. Folding pizza slices in half. I was actually at a bodega and I got a chopped cheese and a Gatorade. Oh, there you go, yeah. Ate half the chopped cheese, drank half a Gatorade before I went to sleep, woke up two hours later, chugged the rest of it.

Yeah. Ate the rest of the chopped cheese went back to sleep woke up Somehow not hungover Wow That chopped cheese saved my life It was like a decent like a Del Close marathon in 2017 or something that I went to at the UCB theater But Gatorade a real one for sure. That is very potion-like.

I'd be interested to see what a one-up mushroom tastes like. A one-up, you think, wait a minute, hold on. So I assumed he was eating the super mushrooms to get bigger, but I never assumed that he was consuming the one-up mushroom. You think he was applying them to his skin or something? Yeah, I thought it was maybe just like something

you hold under your arm. And then when you die, you are grown out of the mushroom. Alive. You thought that instead of him eating it? Well, what does it mean if he eats it? Yeah, it's a little confusing. And he drops off in an infinity? Like, where does he come from?

You're eating something and you feel like you have like another life now. Like that is just kind of like hard to think about. I don't like thinking about the one-up mushroom. The more we're talking about it, the more upsetting I find it. Like I feel like another soul has grown within me that will persist after this soul dies,

but will retain like my memories and abilities. Is that what I'm feeling when I'm eating one of these things? I guess he doesn't eat like the cat bell. Yeah, some of those stuff is definitely not eaten. They're not because consumable double cherries. Are we eaten those or not? I mean, they are cherries. That's me is like drugs. Yeah, right. That's it's more of a psychedelic and now

like I've multiplied my form. I Yeah, you know, I was just I was just looking through this kind of like from a historical lens. And I was trying to think of when food and video games really got established Okay, obviously like it's like you go back to pac-man That was a big early one where you had pac-mans chomping on cherries and and oranges and and what and various fruits for bonus points Yeah, and also like just eating is the core mechanic. Another single screen arcade game of that era, the Burger Time, which is a game I don't love, but I love the idea of Burger

Time. Like it's not to me, it's not like the funnest thing to play. Although it's like it's weird to like have that criticism about any early arcade game. They were just trying stuff out. That is one of the only video games that my fiance likes. Yeah, I mean- She loves Burger Time for some reason.

I think it is well designed and I think it maybe just doesn't click for me mechanically, but I love the idea of building burgers as a building giant burgers and you're a chef. That's a lot of fun. Well, also, you're the burger boy, so every time is Burger Time. That's my life That's my time zone. I would like to I would like to bite into a wumpa fruit from crash bandit

Yeah, that's a big one that does look good cuz it's like it looks like a peach, but it's not there's so much fruit in video games Yeah, and it's funny cuz you don't think of gamers as like a group of people that consumes a lot of like fruits and vegetables But it's like you think it gamers as like a group of people that consumes a lot of fruits and vegetables. But it's like- You'd think it'd be like chips. Yeah. Like a lot of like chips and fucking like beef jerky. Yeah, monster energy drink.

Yeah, well. That's a real one. That is a real one, but it's also in Death Stranding. That's what I was gonna say. Yeah, that's a real one in the sense that it's in a video game. And also I wanna try the, I guess I could just have this, is the thing,

cause like this seems like it's real. Yeah. But the sea salt ice cream bars from Kingdom Hearts 2. You've talked about this on the show before. Ranch is not in the long. Yeah, they seem good. Yeah, Rochelle said, like gave a hell yeah nod. Cause that's just, I mean, I like salty ice cream ice cream though to sure like a sweet and salty kind of combo yeah

Yeah, I do love that is that wait is that is that is that your go-to like a like a salted caramel? honestly, no Like but I do I like it, but like there was like for a time there was like There was a Ben and Jerry's was like for a time there was like there was a Ben and Jerry's Jimmy Fallon flavor that was the tonight dough late well he has the tonight dough but when he was the late night with Jimmy Fallon it was called late night snack oh right was that a salty caramel swirl with chocolate covered potato chip clusters oh I remember that was so fucking good was it a different flavor from tonight dough?

It was, right? Yes, because tonight dough is just like, it's just like cookie dough, like extreme. Yeah, right. And then this is like salt, it's like sort of, this has given me the munchies, late night snacks. That one was, I think, the superior ice cream. It was really, really good.

Did they rebrand that? And can you still get it, or is it just discontinued? I think that one ice cream. It was really, really good. Did they rebrand that and can you still get it or is it just discontinued? I think that one's done. Wow. Cause it was, I like cookie dough ice cream fine, but I've had it. Yes. I've never had ice cream

with chocolate covered potato chips in it before. Yeah. That was so, so good to me. God damn it. I know. It's, fuck. And I don't know who to blame. I don't blame Ben damn it. I know. Fuck. And I don't know who to blame. I don't blame Ben or Jerry.

I blame Fallon. Discontinued in 2015, wow. I wonder if you can still get like a something that's been sitting in a deep freeze on eBay. Yikes. It's all melted. Don't say that. Nobody wants that.

Do you have any, nine year old ice cream? How long, well, cause I, you cream? How long can you freeze dairy for before it goes bad? I don't know, but also it's so funny that I, for some reason, in my mind, they stopped making this ice cream like 3 years ago. The fact that I just had to reckon with that I've been mad about this for almost a decade sucks. Reckon with that. I've been mad about this for almost a decade sucks I used to love that ice cream so much, but you were saying yeah like holistically like ice a food coming into Video games an early one. I think of obviously a game that I haven't spent a lot of time with wall chicken in

Castlevania oh sure yeah, yeah, and that that's obviously referenced in Vampire survivors this floor chick yeah, yeah. And that's obviously referenced in Vampire Survivors is floor chicken. But yeah, that's the wall meat was a big, that was a big beat-em-up thing or action game thing is that you have food to restore health. And I think the first time that actually came about was Gauntlet. At least that's the earliest thing I could recall

and the earliest thing I could find reference to. Gauntlet, the kind the top-down arcade. Heather, would you call it a shooter? It's kind of a shooter, even though it's set in a medieval sort of world, but you're going around like flinging blades at enemies. Like a projectile-based medieval skinned shooter? Yes, yeah, it's kind of like that, But then you, you know, elf needs food badly or warrior needs food badly is the thing.

Warrior needs food badly. You had to like acquire these to survive. And similarly the PC RPG series Ultima, a weirdly defunct series. I would think Ultima would have some cache and and they would make Reboot Ultima at a certain point. But it was a big series in the 80s and the 90s and into the early 2000s with Ultima Online. But that was an early one that had food as present as part of a mechanic.

And more as like on the RPG side, which I think is where we see most food these days, going back to Final Fantasy XV or Persona or Yakuza, and certainly like the Skyrims of the world, I feel like that's like a central thing now, is that RPGs have a crafting system and a cooking system. Let me say that the food in Fortnite also looks great. Like in that it's like, oh, I wanna eat the food in Fortnite also looks great. Like in that it's like, oh, I wanna eat the food in Fortnite.

Like recent season had a pizza that you threw, like you would take out a box of pizza from your inventory and there'd be a tiny Italian instrumental queue that would go like, ba ba da ba da ba da. And then you open up the pizza and you throw it on the ground in box, and you and your friends could eat pizza and restore your health.

You can also find corn on the cob, coconuts, and currently an item called banana of the gods, which is a banana that restores your health and also gives you super sprint and super jump. And then you can go fishing, and this is a little bit more upsetting as the idea of a consumable. You can go fishing in Fortnite and pull up

fish that restore your health or fish that restore your shields. But the way your character eats those fish is just housing the entire fish. Yeah. That's like compared to like the way that you would eat like an apple in the game. You're like it makes a good crunching sound

and your character goes, and it's nice. When you eat the fucking like a fish, it's like, oh, man, you just you just pulled that out of the water. And like this water is so polluted that sometimes you pull up ammunition from the water. Right. And you're going to just jam that whole fish in your body. That's a that's gross. That blue stuff.

The slurps that? That shit looks good. Yeah, that looks good. I wanna try that. And also they don't just drink it normal. They like, they won the Super Bowl, dump it on their faces. I bet there is Fortnite food here in the real world that you can like order and eat.

I gotta try slurps. That that's making me think of what the time I spent with Lego fortnight Which and survival games another one where where food is like a central part of it I mean you just have to eat to even stay alive in these games, but Yeah, there was there there's cooking in that and you get you kind of get you make they give like a grill or like your Oven and you make like Lego food, which is fun. Yeah. That's its own, you know, it's matching that aesthetic. But what you were just saying about like

being upset by eating fish, that's another thing of just like in these games of the ones where you have to associate eating with killing. And it's like, Stardew Valley notably does not have that. Like you have animals that you can have in your ranch, but you have their eggs or you have their milk. You're not actually slaughtering them for meat. But like in like Breath of the Wild,

or when you shoot a bird and it just like turns into drumsticks, like I fucking nailed a gull with an arrow and now I like pick up two hunks of meat. Like I always just like find that like a little upsetting. It's like I know that's what happens. I know when I'm eating chicken wings, I know that an animal was killed so that I could enjoy this. But like it's just when you remove that, the abstraction involved in this

and directly connect it to this thing is alive and now it's dead and now it's giving me hearts, you know? Or like when you, like in Red Dead Redemption 2, you can go hunting and then you can skin the animal. And they do show you quite a bit of that process. Then you can take that meat and you could sell the meat or you could cook the meat at your camp. And I know Heather was pretty interested in the cowboy food of it all. I love it so much and I wish they would release, I can't dedicate myself to playing that game

without the knowledge of whether or not they're going to release an upgrade. Oh yes, yeah, because it's so long and to some wrong people, boring and bad, but it's... I see that take more and more like I didn't like it it's too boring and no I wish you could turn off the voices in that game as a side note like all the voices yeah I don't want the sort of

parody voices of that world where you like walk by somebody and they're like He's got a gun like I don't want that shit. Like I just want to be like I want it to be a subtitled silence Like I want it to be realistically quiet and then I want a new track of you doing it There is I mean there was a PC release And you know that maybe there's a bit of a mod that you can it has that functionality But I bet it was far as like an upgraded version I think probably the PC version is the closest you're gonna get

The food in we talked about this food probably a lot too But the food in a lot of the food stuff in in games like this though It's it's a it's a mini game. It's a means to an end. It's a you. It's a crafting mechanic Yeah, how do we feel about a mini game? Yeah, do we do we like like a little bit of like I got to do these yeah I like I don't want to do like a match three or something I and I I kind of like the level of like I've got some ingredients and if I have the ingredients I can just Auto-assemble something on a cool down. Yeah, like that's kind of how

a game with a Last year's fucking oh god, why can't I remember it? I hate having an old brain a RPG that came out last year classic sort of JRPG aesthetic, but there's a character Garl the Warrior Cook. I love this game. I can't remember the title. But there's like-

Sea of Stars? Yeah, Sea of Stars. Thank you, Matt. Where that's basically like it's, if you've got the ingredients and you're at a campfire, you can just prepare these things. Like, that's kind of what I want. And I don't even necessarily love the Zelda thing of like it's not auto-remembering recipes for me, where I have to remember what ingredients I have

and what they do. It's just like, that's too much to keep in my brain. In the Pokemon games, they've added making curry or sandwiches, and a lot of times, there's a mini game involved where, for the curry one, it was on the 3DS, you got to like use your stylus and stir it but Every time I was doing it. I was like I don't want to do this. Yeah, this isn't this isn't fun Yeah, I don't I and it's for like I don't think that much of an added benefit

but like in tears of the kingdom or something or breath of the wild where Let's say you don't have the snow armor yet or something, but you have all these chili peppers that you can make hot food that increases your resistance to cold climates, I like that. No, I love when food is basically like a buff. Like the health restoring is one aspect, or if it's like a survival game where I have to eat just to, it's different from my health pool like I have to eat just to, for my, like that's just,

it's different from my health pool, I just have to eat to stay alive, like that's interesting to me, but when it's like a buff, that's like, oh okay, it's like we're in potion territory, and then it becomes just like part of the crafting system where instead of something like armor or weapon where you get something that's permanent,

you get something that's temporary, and it's another thing that you can just sort of like, I don't know, use to optimize the way you wanna play your character. No, I love that shit. And not every game has it. So I also, I like it when it's there sometimes, but also, like if there was food in Elden Ring,

it would be the grossest, nastiest food you've ever seen probably. That world is horrible. I'm glad you don't have to eat in a game like that. Hello, traveler. Would you like to eat this soup from a witch's hat? It's cursed. The chef who was making it is right behind...

No, they're dead now. Never mind. I want to try the potions from that game though, too Because they make a nice kind of satisfying noise when you take a sip from them I don't want to try anything from that world. Yeah, I don't want to touch anything from that world Any other thoughts on on on food in in games Game like overcooked which I don't know on food and in games? Well, what about like a game like Overcooked? Which I don't know if you guys have gabbled in. But there are games, there's an entire world of games

that are just about the food, as opposed to like side quests or like consumables. Yeah, like Cooking Mama. Yeah, Cooking Mama. Fruit Ninja. Cooking Mama 2. Barbies Cook It All. Barbies Barbecue. Cooking Overcooked. to barbies cook it all, barbies barbecue, cooking overcooked,

overcooked to wrath of the egg. Like it's... So I, the times I've played overcooked, I've been like, oh, this is fun. And you're sort of dissociated from the food, but as you play it, you get hungry. And there's no way to avoid it. Cause like you're sort of dissociated from the food, but as you play it, you get hungry. And there's no way to avoid it. Cause like you're chopping endless carrots

and making soup and you just are thinking about food. Nothing has made me hungrier than recording this podcast. I don't know how one could make a podcast about food every week and not, and not like say, get seriously sick. He doesn't care. He's not even, there's not even eye clogged. The IV bag that he's hooked up to right now is clogged.

I also want to showcase two other video game food items, which I think I've talked about on Heather's Hole on the show, but in case you've missed that episode, I'm gonna pull out these items while you guys fill for time. Okay. I was just gonna say the thing that was that Cooking Mama was making me think of was just like how much the we was,

I feel like in some sense responsible, and I guess the DS, but just having those control mechanisms that were more conducive to some sort of cooking action, and then developers kind of thinking like, oh, let's try to get cooking in games, we're responsible for these genres that have persisted in the aftermath of these consoles. But I do think a big part of it was just like came from like,

oh yeah, we can do a cooking game with this controller. I think that the next switch should be the third Wii. So they had the Wii, the Wii U, and this will be like the Wii three? Yeah, the Wii three. I mean, it would confuse a lot of people. But yeah, I also, it would confuse a lot of people. But yeah, I also I think another thing that I would I wanted to shout out is games where there is where there is a food level and a recent one that came to mind is Super Mario Odyssey luncheon kingdom.

Like I love being able to run around like a food world. Oh, yeah. That's a lot of fun. Like, hey, there's like a giant like ice cream stack, or there's like, oh, here's a bunch of a pancake summit. You know? Yeah. Oh, here's a talking fork NPC. All that stuff is a lot of fun for me. That is really good.

I do like that. That does immediately, of course, remind me of Wreck-It Ralph, the candy movie. Yeah, we don't need to get into the candy movie. It looks like Heather's got her thing. Yeah. Yes. So Wreck-It Ralph 4, candy movie, the video game movie. OK, get over it. This is also sad because I've given up sugar and this is sort of like a legacy

of the sugar consumption in my life. But I have video game themed cereal boxes that I've collected over my life, but I have video game themed cereal boxes that I've collected over my life. Okay. Including from the, from 1998 or the year 2000, one of the two, so this is 24 years old now, the original Pokemon Kellogg's cereal. Wow, look at that.

I remember having that cereal. The art is not quite official. Yes, yeah. Like they're a little bit off model and you compare that with the more recent release of Pokemon cereal and you see like, oh, Pikachu looks like Pikachu now as opposed to this sort of runty little sponge.

Yeah, he looks like he has a neck. Okay, so you've got- Also major licensing coup for General Mills, stealing the IP from Kellogg's. Yeah, you go from Kellogg to General Mills as you go through time. We have the limited edition Super Mario cereal, where the box itself is an amiibo.

He's wearing Cappy there. Yeah, he's wearing Cappy, this is recent. But you can touch the box to your Switch to get items. And that works also in like any, like Zelda. You can be playing Tears of the Kingdom, take out your box of Super Mario cereal and tap it to this to the screen and you get, I think consumable items. Now we're going to go farther back in time. We have the original Nintendo cereal system.

Wow. Which it had a box that was split in two between Mario and Zelda cereals and then the box art is a hologram, a 3D hologram representing old 1980s Mario art and old 19 or maybe this is 90s. I don't know when the fuck this came out. But one side was fruity, one side was berry, and you could turn in the cereal box for a t-shirt, and instead. I remember that, yeah.

I kept the box, and then even farther back in time, Donkey Kong cereal. Look at that. Look at him. This art is so old that Mario is not even a protagonist yet. Yeah, right. He's like Just a regular Italian man Yes with a hammer with a hammer hitting a barrel of Cereal thrown by Donkey Kong and in making an impressive crunch. This is from Ralston Purina

and and making an impressive crunch. This is from Ralston Purina. And do they even make cereal anymore? No, I think they're now just a dog food company. Yeah. So. So those are my- Wow, what a collection. And like, I don't, I used to, it used to be the first aisle I would go down in a grocery store was the cereal aisle.

And I would buy and try any cereal, which was just recombined elements from other cereals. Very rarely would you get a truly new cereal experience. And when you did, it was either an enormous failure or a complete success. One of my favorites was Powerpuff Girls cereal, which came in a very thin, long box and was Rice Krispies with Pop Rocks coating. So they were extremely loud Rice Krispies.

Didn't stick around. Those are, look at those boxes, quite a haul you have there. You want to see the whole stack? Oh sure. And those are just cereals that you like? Are they all video games? Look at those.

At some point I started collecting cereal boxes. Because I had this idea that in my future kitchen, I would frame them in 3D drop boxes. Because I had this idea that in my future kitchen, I would frame them in 3D drop boxes. Uh-huh. Like those 3D cases for three-dimensional art. Yeah. And I would put them all along the ceiling. Like I'd build a shelf near the ceiling,

and they'd go all the way around the kitchen. I have given up on that idea because I don't think it would be nice. But like here's Star Wars Episode II cereal. Wow. More like Attack on the Marshmallows. Here's the aforementioned Powerpuff Girls cereal. That looks good. This is in your mouth. Wow, I would want to try that one. It was great.

Yeah, because I already like a Rice Krispie. That's just good. Yeah. And then I have a lot of variations on Captain Crunch, like sprinkled donut crunch. Yes. That could go one of two ways, I think. The Captain was experimenting in all sorts of ways.

You know. The original oops all berries. Yep. Wow. What's everybody's favorite? I take it you're a Captain Crunch head, Heather. Look at this one. This is just Hershey Kisses cereal.

Something about it is- That sounds revolts sensual Yeah, that is that's too horny yeah, I Was like I did like Captain Crunch a lot Cap'n Crunch I apologize the issue is a was space jam cereal Oh, that's the space jam a new legacy Cereal was the new one last two years Yeah, because I was still ice like this has been a lifetime of eating cereals until there- until two things happened. One, I had a recurrence of cancer.

Two, they linked processed foods to cancer. Yeah. My guess is that's probably why you skipped the Avatar Way of Water cereal, which I actually I like it was a frosted flakes It's a frosted flakes with a blue Pandora moon Or or that whatever they were there were blue Pandora orbs Wow They were kind of blueberries and and that sounds delicious The only thing is and look I complain about this another podcast, but the which one Don't worry about it Also, I want to say the the

Just just finish with that. They did not make Tony the tiger into an avi. That was my only complaint stupid dumb I'm oversight. He's kind of got the colors like if you just made him blue. He'd kind of have like the body art Exactly, but they did they overthought it. I was sorry going Heather. I just want to say that I I part of, can I talk about a sponsor in an episode where they're not sponsoring us? What's the weird, anyway, the point is, I was really grateful for Magic Spoon because it came out and there's not sugar in it and I can eat cereal again.

My guess is they would be thrilled that you're imagining them. I don't think they would hate anything that you just said. Yeah. The two things I want to touch on that we haven't gotten to yet are both two substances that you can drink that are both disgusting, but are ones, one is very recent

and one is in the distant past. But one of the first food stuffs that I remember being, disgusting but are ones one one is very recent and one is in the the distant past but one of the first food stuffs that I remember being a big focus for me in a game is Grog in the secret of Monkey Island Grog is like the pirate beverage. It's some sort of like alcoholic, you know potent sort of oh, yes But it just but they talk about it so much like a how disgusting it is and how it's like completely like like pirates love it But it's like the most undrinkable thing

imaginable and it has qualities like it'll just like bake you go unconscious or You know will this will thicken up your spit that you need to solve various puzzles throughout the franchise But yeah, it's it's really central in that game and That's one I think about. But the one that's more recent in Stardew Valley 1.6, they added the ability to drink more substances that you can craft, one of which is straight mayonnaise. So you could in the past like craft mayonnaise, you can like have chickens or ducks and then you can make chicken, you can make mayonnaise or duck mayonnaise

and you can sell it. But now you can drink it and it's actually like very efficient to just craft mayonnaise and drink mayonnaise. And then, and so there's like a meta element of just thinking about what you're actually doing. Yeah, of course. And like, okay, I'm working outside in the fields in the Sun and my energy is low and to restore my health I'm just gonna just down a jar of mayonnaise and that's gonna I'm gonna keep going all day

Yeah, it's it's truly revolting when you think about it, but I love that it's been added So now you're gonna point to this when you're caught doing it What what it's a great start started valley LARPing. Heather, it's funny that you brought up cereal because I have a segment. Oh, is it Did He or Didn't He? Did he or didn't he? Oh, like the podcast? Yeah. I felt like I could try swinging one of your jokes, but... I liked it.

It's actually worse. It's time for a segment. It's return of our true or false quiz segment. You don't know jack off. See real or see fake edition. And now, Heather, you didn't know that I was, see real or see fake edition. And now Heather, you didn't know that I was gonna do this. No. But, so some of the serials that you had actually are on my list, so we know that those are real. Donkey Kong cereal, Nintendo cereal system, real.

Pokemon cereal, real. But I have some other, I have some other serials on here, real and fake ones, and you have to tell me which ones are which. All right, Ranch, you wanna play? Oh man, okay, here we go. Oh yeah, let's get Ranch in here too. You can tell me if these here real and fake ones and you have to tell me which ones are which. Alright Ranch you want to play? Here we go. Oh yeah let's get Ranch in here too you can tell me if these are real or fake. I'm so hungry from recording this episode I cannot I cannot tell you. Everyone's making fun of me for drinking a smoothie earlier. I wasn't making fun

of you for drinking it I was making fun of it you for for sure almost spilling it. A prediction that almost came true. I'm the Nostradamus of you spilling it a Prediction that almost came true I'm the Nostradamus of you spilling Okay, so here's the first cereal that we got Pac-Man cereal Ding ding ding heather it is real, and it's one of my holy grail boxes. Oh It is real and the cereal had marshmallow versions of Pac-Man and all the ghosts love that It's a little bit of information about all the cereals. It's so it's it's I believe it was like Kicks

with marshmallows Is it where were the Pac-Man ghosts Inky Blinky Pinky and dots does that sound right? That's right. Clyde and Sue. Oh, there's Clyde. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah How many are there, six? No, I think there's just four. I think I just got some wrong. There's as many ghosts in Pac-Man as there have been dead people in the real world.

Oh my God. So five? Okay, so Heather's on the board with Juan. Here we go. Obviously we heard about the Donkey Kong cereal. Yeah. Donkey Kong Jr. cereal. Weiger, fake.

I'm sorry, Wikes. Heather, real. It's real. It is real and Donkey Kong Jr. cereal was made up of fruit flavored and fruit shaped pieces. Wow. I feel like I have to recuse myself from this segment. No, no. I know like I have to recuse myself from this segment. No, no. Because I know the boxes for these. You might know the boxes,

but I think some of these, you might be surprised. Here's, how about this one? Okay. Cuphead cereal. Hmm, I mean, it's, man, I wonder if these, now I'm just wondering, are you doing, are all these going to be real? But I feel like that one is recent enough and the game came out like it would, like, I think there was like some uncertainty in terms of how it would be received and how

it would be performed that maybe they didn't license a serial right away. I'm gonna go fake with this one, maybe I'm wrong. This one is fake, it is part of the branding for Funko cereal. There's this Funko branded cereal that has different Funko characters on the box. Rick and Morty Funko cereal, see, so they're Funkos but they have different characters and the characters come in box. Rick and Morty Funko cereal. See, so they're Funkos, but they have different characters and the characters come in box. Interesting. So Nick's on the board with one Insomniac

Spider-Man 2 cereal. Insomniacs? Heather. Heather. No, fake. It is fake, but they did have a branding with Wheaties miles morale is in spite Peter Parker We're on Wheaties at the time of release for that game Hmm kind of fun Neopets Island Berry Crunch ranch Ranch your luck it is real. Wow. Wow. It's like trick cereal, but it only has two colors.

Wow. Based on berries that exist in the world of Neopets. Do you ever play Neopets? Was that for your generation? Yeah, that was my jam. Wow. Where did you get a Neopet? Like what platform were you playing it on?

And I mean, was it PC only? I don't know. It was just a website. It was just a website, okay. Well, like how many hours did you put into that? Oh, every day after school. Wow. In elementary school.

Yeah. So five years every single day. Here's the next serial. Yeah. Sonic's Golden Rings. Weiger, I'm gonna say, I'm gonna say that one is real. It sounds fake, but which makes me think it's real. It is fake.

There is a Sonic Funko serial. And there was also a Sonic campaign where he was part of the marketing for Cheerios when they were marketing the Sega Genesis at the time. Okay. Cheerios when they were marketing the Sega Genesis at the time. Okay, so in 1994 he was on Cheerios boxes, which Those we could agree are as close to golden rings as you can get a Honey Nut Cheerio Yeah, natural fit but it is sadly fake and then finally Minecraft creeper crunch Minecraft

Creeper crunch. Heather Creeper Crunch cereal. Heather. Heather. Real, it's real. It is real. It is a cinnamon cereal with marshmallows shaped like familiar Minecraft items. Wow. And cinnamon cereals, for the most part,

across the board, a home run. They're all good. Yeah, I do love like a cinnamon toast crunch. I mean, that was a, you that's that's on my mount cereal more Yeah, a minecraft another game where food is is a big part. That's true And so that was see real or see fake heather is the winner wow got most of those ones correct What a it was too late to pivot Heather brought out. No this worked out great. But I'm glad we were thinking the same thing. Cereal's good.

Cereal is good. I do like cereal. I also don't eat it really anymore. Yeah. This was a time in my life when it was a big deal. I just wish I could have a consequence-free bowl of like cinnamon toast crunch right now. Well, Matt, let me tell you

about our friends at Magic Spoon. If Magic Spoon had a cinnamon one. Yeah, I do. They do. They do. Maybe maybe one of those falls off a truck magic spoon and lands in my doorstep. What do you say? promo code played. Hey, that's this week's get played our producers Rochelle Chen aka ranch yard underscore underscore sard on social media. Our music is by Ben Prunty. Ben Prunty music.com our art is by Duck Brigade design Duck Brigade.com and also check out our paywall show get

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Fileted? I think we did get fileted, actually. We should probably lock the doors before he comes back in. That was a HeadGum Podcast.