Get Played - Roguelite RPGs with Sam Richardson

Episode Date: February 23, 2026

Sam Richardson (Detroiters, The After Party) joins Heather, Nick and Matt to talk about building gaming PCs and Roguelite RPGs! Check out our brand new merch at kinshipgoods.com/getplayed Follow us on social media @getplayedpodMusic 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 (616-275-2933) 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. Matt Heather's running just a little late, which is fun, our guest isn't even here. So I think we're doing rogue lights today. Yes. Yeah. I'm excited because I feel like one of our favorite genres,

we don't get to talk that much about it. So with a guest, too, it's going to be great. Yeah. And Heather, you know, has her own opinions about rogulights. So, yeah, I think this is going to be a lot of fun. Oh, sorry. I'm late. Sorry, I'm late.

I couldn't find parking. And I hate being late. Oh, my God. Oh, my, my God. God. She just tripped over the table. Oh my God. Heather. Heather. Heather. Heather. Oh, my God.

She's dead. But we're doing roglytes today. It's a roguelight show. She's going to respawn. It's going to kind of do this whole thing over again. It's a rogulight podcast. She'll do another run. She'll be a little stronger. Right. Well, she'll know where the table is.

She'll come in and we'll be able to do the show. So we'll just wait for that. the run to restart. Should be any minute now. Yeah, probably just. She was in traffic. She was late anyway. So this is part of it.

Part of it is that, yeah, part of it is her like not being late next time. And that also probably makes the restart take a little longer. Yeah. That logic follows. Yeah, I don't know. Just wait. I mean, how does she even do that? Go through the table?

Yeah. I don't know. It looked from where I'm sitting. Horrible. It looked so bad. It looked really, like, I'm honestly, like, traumatized. I'm glad that this run will reset. Momentarily.

Momentarily. Any minute now. Will we stop having this conversation? Oh, do you think that's the issue? Do you think we need to, like, shut up for a second? I'm just like... Just chill. Total silence.

Do you think it'll... Do you think if I look at my phone, that's bad? I mean, we're doing a podcast, so yeah, probably shouldn't be looking. Probably shouldn't look at my phone. God. That's bad. I'm just trying, let me hear. Here's what I'm going to do.

I'm going to exit the studio. Okay. I'm going to reinter the way she did, and I'm going to see how, what she did was even possible. Okay. I'll be our back. And if the run restarts while I'm doing that, no problem. And also, we've learned that we can restart the run by me exiting the studio. Yes.

That's helpful for the future. But I'm not allowed to look at my phone. Take out your phone while I'm doing this. I'm just fine. Take out your phone while I'm doing this. You're getting up. Heather's not here. and dead.

I can look at my phone for a second. We'll talk about this one. Yes, you can look at your phone for one second. I'll be right. Let's see. Hey, guys, sorry. Oh, my, Nick! Nick! Oh my God.

You tripped over Heather's dead body and through the table and then also the couch a little bit. Your neck bent all the way? This is fine. This is okay. I'm just going to keep looking at my phone for a little bit. This is all going to reset.

But I'm also just kind of like if I'm doing something, God, is it if I, do I have to go out there and see how this even happened? Because honestly, Heather doing it first, I was kind of like, look, that happens. Sure. Nick does it. I'm sort of like, what the heck's going on with this thing? Let me just get up and, I'm just going to, I'm just going to go.

Ranch, just keep it rolling. I'm just going to go. And then come back in. Thank God. We endure an endless cycle of death and rebirth and distinguish between like and light as we discuss roguelight RPGs this week on Get Played. Welcome to Get Played, your one-stop show for good games,

bad games, and to every game in between. It's time to get played. I'm your host, Heather Ann Campbell, along with my fellow host, Tiger Weiger. That's me, Nick Tiger Weiger, along with our third host, Mr. Games himself, Matt Apodaca. Hello everyone. Hello everyone and welcome back to the premiere video game podcast where this week we're digging down on an Epstein.

We read the files and we're going to tell you the truth. We figured it all out. We figured it all out. We're gaming it out. We're figuring out the deal. We're going to uncover the schemes and we're treating it just like an RPG. That's right. We're actually talking of Rogue Lake RPGs.

Oh, no. Oh, no. We'll figure it out either way, but we do have an esteemed guest joining the podcast for the first time from the after-party Werewolves Within and Detroiters Sam Richardson. Hi, Sam. Hi, let's get into those files. I have thoughts. I have theories.

I have drawings. Yeah, you walked in with a big sketchbook. book. Oh, yeah. It'd be the easiest murder board to make also because all the documents are there. You could just like, you could just be like, okay, here are the relationship between these people. It's all right there.

Work done. Cluso's like, I mean, it's done. Yeah. But then you have the wrinkle of people being like, I actually never even met this guy. You're like, oh, I guess I'd like to believe you. It's worked so far. Strange email that you sent where you're like, I loved meeting you. But I didn't.

Yeah. Oh, well, then new home. God. It says here you said that orgy was awesome. That wasn't me. Loved the torture video? I didn't love it. I liked it.

I mean, no. Here's a pick of the two of us. I didn't need to attach that. From my special best friends only party. Sam, you are a gamer, a capital G gamer. What do you like to play? I play a lot of stuff. I play, it's been a lot of Call of Duty Verdans.

Okay. And the Arkham games are some of my favorites. I play the Ghost of Yote. Oh, yes. Nice. We love a Yote. Yeah, I love it. You named an FPS first.

Oh, yes. Is FPS your go-to genre? FPS is my go-to genre because it's easy to play online with friends. Oh, nice. Okay. Because everybody can just jump in, you know, you get your load out. Right. off you go. And like Warzone, I'm kind of off of regular multiplayer call a duty or that because like it gets kind of get little frustrating. So like Warzone was like a little bit of, you know, four man tactical sort of play like play style. That's that's really fun for me. May I ask something about your squad style? Yes. Okay. So I find that squads run from a spectrum of all serious, no jokes, ultra tactician to playing to win but also tons of jokes to fuck arounds.

Where in the spectrum is your go-to-s-word? Play-to-win, tons of jokes. Nice. Play-to-win, like, we're joking, we're joking, but I'm like, quiet, I hear footsteps. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Everybody's, quiet. Everybody. Joke, joke, joke, joke, joke, joke on the roof.

Yeah, yeah. Joke, joke, joke, joke, joke. I'm in the window, but I fell shot, give a quiet on it. Great, great. How would you describe yourself, Heather, playing Fortnite? Same, same, right, right, dead center. I find the tactician style squatting, oppressive.

And I also have a feel of failure in those games. But I really don't like fuck around squads. Like, I want to win the game. But I also want to laugh the entire time unless it's like the moment it's like, sniper, sniper. Like, then there's no space for jokes. Exactly. Like you have to take care of the sniper.

Why buy the good headphones? It's fucking hard scoping. Exactly. I agree entirely. Yeah. You know, it's fun. We're just hanging out. We're hanging out. We're hanging out. We're hanging out. But then at a moment's notice, we need to be elite. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So are you mostly multiplayer gaming or it just depends. It's situational. It's situational. But, you know, I do love multiplayer gaming. And it's about trying to find games that we can all play.

That's another issue that we kind of run into is like, you know, a lot of fun multiplayer games are four player, you know. And so then if the fifth guy pops on, then it's about like, all right, who has to bow out? Or kind of like, do we even like, or you're in four. And then the fifth guy jumps on the comms. Your PlayStation goes, has joined the group. And you're like, okay, hey. Yeah, no, we just started this one.

So, and like same with like Grand Theft Auto, you know, your four man heists or right now a game I've been playing. like insanely a lot is Ninja Turtles Splintered Fate Oh yes Which is like I've been playing that game Nonstop, nonstop, nonstop

Yeah that's a like a Hades like Ninja Turtle game Really awesome Yeah it's a game I'm obsessed with right now But then you know you get your four man squad And then it's a fifth Which I'm like this one you could add Casey Jones and Metalhead

Which are playable characters now But you know it's it's four It's four Is your squad you're like first off do you have a go-to squad? Secondly, are those people, people that you knew previous to gaming and then you were like, let's squad up in Call of Duty slash Ninja Turtles? Or is your go-to squad people that you have over time accumulated online exclusively?

So it's like a mix of a lot of them. So one of my, so my go-to squad, we call ourselves the Daisy Boys, because that's our, it's our group. I love it. When a squad is a name. the name, we're the Daisy boys, the Daisies. So they're made up of friends of mine who are improvisers, but then there are some members who were friends with them who played online, which I met through gaming.

And there's some, in fact, so all of us know each other in real life in some way. But so there's no, I don't have any gamer friends who are just exists on the internet, and I've never seen them in person. With the Daisy, so me and my friend Mike Anastasia, we did a commercial some years ago and like I remember I was telling him

you know it was like Thanksgiving and he was like I'm going to Boston and I was like well take your place take your Xbox like your PlayStation he's like what you can do that I'm like yeah I travel with my games always and he's like oh and so then we started playing together

and my buddy Adam Peacock who I've known like for 23 years you know 24 years we play online so then the all three of us started playing together and then Mike's friend from the Boston Improft scene Brian O'Hara, they played together.

So all of us now, we play together. And, like, really started to play together as a squad during the pandemic. We would play a lot of Grand Theft Auto. So we were doing heists, you know what I mean? We made our world in Los Santos where we couldn't go outside. We'd go outside there. And I was building businesses. I was, you know, I was talking about just inching out every thing.

Because, you know, I had my drug business. I had my weapons business all these things and they introduced casinos and I was a boss but now we play and we play a lot of call of duty regular call of duty

at that time we only got into war zone and Vredansk kind of in the past like year and a half or so maybe two years at this point but yeah that's

kind of where that came from I want to circle back to the Ninja Turl's thing for just a second because it's a squad of you can have more You can have more than four. Right?

No, you can have four. You can only have four. But there's other characters you can play. Yes, the DLC introduced two more. Why would you pick anybody but the four turtles? What are we doing? I know, I know. Imagine omitting one turtle for Casey Jones or anybody.

They did the same thing in Fortnite. They had the four turtles, but then they also had April O'Neill and Casey Jones. And I think Shredder were all, and Krang. They eventually brought out Krang. And it was like, I guess you could make the turtle. and then the four others. Yeah, right. Not even an identifiable faction.

They were all like foot clan or something. That would be one aspect. Baxter Stockman could have made that like a nice. Right, right. Oh, well. Yeah, it could have been like a Mouser suit or something like that. Who do you, who do you gravitate towards? Leonardo, Leonardo, Leonardo, Leonardo, Leonardo, Leonardo leads.

Holy shit. Leonardo every ten since child's up in Leonardo. Wow. That's great. I love it. I feel like that's a rarity. I feel like Leonardo Maine is a rarity. It's a rarity.

because people are on Raphael. Typically Raphael, people go on Michelangelo. Maybe more rare than those two Donatello, but people last are Leonardo. Man, Donatello is making coffee in the opening. He's my guy. Exactly. The nicest machine.

That's a fact, Jack. I'm also a Donatello guy. I like that he does machines, and I also like that he has a big stick. I like the bow, and especially in the arcade games, they added reach of the bow was OB. That's right. Because you get reach.

And that's his benefit in like any sort of like Ninja Jones game he can reach stuff like in the first Ninja Troos game right? Yeah. He you could do like the spinning attack and like the bow would go further than anybody else's thing. In this game, he has reached.

So he's great for area of attack. But Michelangelo is great for multi-attack. So he can attack him. A lot of people think he can multi-hit them. Raphael is like Glass Cannon sort of, you know, rogue character. He in high damage out.

But you know, High damage, if it takes high damage. But Leonardo is balanced and he can cover distance very well. Not really. So, you know, I love it. I love it. They should just make, is it. So it's like Hades like in terms of like it's isometric.

They should just make a fucking straight up third person multiplayer turtles game. I mean, yeah. Make money. Like an Arkham style turtles game would be so sick. It would be. Well, I hear that they are, they've been talking about doing. The Last Ronan. And like I think they like did they make like a big announcement

at the state of play. I don't know. I didn't see. They didn't show anything from that. But I know that like it's been in the works for a long time. But also they, I know that they've been trying to adapt it as a movie for some time too. And that recently was like that's not happening.

Seems like a no brainer adaptation also. It's like the story's done. It works. It's great. Just make it. Yep. Right? Just make it.

And I could say, hey, all right. Well then I want to play with my. friends, three friends in that sort of world, then do the first movie version. Yeah. You know? Yeah. Well, that'd be a fun aesthetic to have. They actually look like the suits in the first movie.

Yeah, exactly. Jim Henson's creature shop. What is, give a summary of the last ronin for people who don't know what it is? You don't have to say, like, just in it's like, because I know it's a turtle in feudal Japan, yes? No. No. No. No. It's, I, the

The setup is the turtles are dead except one. One. Okay. And you don't know who it is. Because even in like the images, he has all the weapons. He always has like has some sort of weapons. Yeah. Like he took on the weapons of his brothers.

So part of it is which one of the turtles is this? And he's just trying to get revenge. And that's the whole, that's it. Do you ever find, like don't spoil it, of course, but do you ever find out who that turtle is? Yeah. As you go through, you see them go down. And it's upsetting. Yeah, I can imagine.

Raphael being murdered. Jesus Christ. It does suck because they started in comics and they were like more violent like in the comics. But their image generally is family friendly. So to know that any of them are dead is horrific. Yeah. Yeah. The inventor of the pizza cannon got headshot.

You'd be like finding out that like Ronald McDonald was gunned down. Exactly. A hamburger did it. We knew it. Starts with petty crime and then you just work your way up. We should have incarcerated him.

Maybe cheese is light on crime. It is funny that it's like a bunch of like friendly guys and a criminal. It's like the group. Exactly. Every friend group has that exact

dynamic. Yeah. Every friend group has their hamburger. He's like he wears prison clothes, but he like sort of suited them up. He made into a suit. Right. So he just like he never denies his identity. It's like he is actively just fleeing.

Yeah. An escape from prison and he grabs some stuff at a fucking gas station to throw over his clothes. Exactly. A couple years ago, dressed as hamburger for Halloween, my wife was grimace. But I was sort of a reverse hamburger because I brought a bunch of burgers for the party and everybody was like he brought burgers. That's fun. I'm sort of a robin-handerer.

Yeah. I was supposed to burger rich. I'm going to put these burgers. Yeah. I did eat most of them, but they were. And the rich get rich. Hey, hey Matt. Hey Matt.

Hey Matt. Hey Matt. Do you like to sleep? I love it. Well, then you're going to sleep right now. You're going to sleep. And I'm going to lay you down gently. Okay.

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Sam, part of the reason you wanted to come on the podcast is you are a PC gamer and you like to build PCs. I do. I really love it. Just the modularity of making your own system. I built my first PC not super, super long ago, maybe like 15. years ago. But I just love it so much. And since then, I've built maybe

10. Wow. Computers. I've built them for friends. Right. So the current one I'm trying to build right now, I'm trying to build a small form factor computer. So I've got the smallest possible footprint I can using a 5090

DVD DVD graphics card, Pounders Edition. But like the math of it to try and like maximize space and keep good airflow is what's driving me nuts right now. I've been getting the parts for ages and now I'm in the build phase, but now that I'm home, I'm usually out of town so much. Now that I'm home, I can like really do it, but like really like honing and focusing on

that has been like a bit of a challenge. What is your ideal, I mean, given that you have the limitations of the actual graphics card, what is your ideal form factor beyond that? Are you aiming for, like, if you could, could you get it in a shoebox? Are you aiming for Xbox One style? Smaller. Smaller. Smaller.

Smaller than a shoebox. Altoids mint. Altoid mintz. Maybe two Altoid mince box because of air flow. I have this, you know, I got this. Oh, I'm trying to think of the name of the case. It's the form D. Is it T1?

I can't remember the exact name. name of the thing, but it's like the smallest one I could find that's also very aesthetically pleasing. Because what I wanted to do was I wanted to sit on my desk and just be unassuming and not take up desk space with my pieces. Last thing I built was like a huge tower PC, you know, with our, uh, uh, RGB lighting, uh, you know, all this with like the idea of like, I couldn't go on the desk. I had to go under my desk.

So I had to put like a, I had to put it on like a cart. And then that became an issue because then I couldn't, you know, move my legs to the right because the computer is there. You know, the idea of what's great about a tower case like that is I can open it up and go into it really easily. But I'm like, I very rarely do that. You know, so I want it just to be, and the challenge is just to make it as small as I could possibly get it.

And that's like the largest case, or that's the smallest case that could fit the 5090 in it. I get the appeal of that, though, because I also have a big honker of a PC that I built. And, you know, I was mindful of aesthetics. I got a fractal design North case, which has like a walnut, like wood front. It's really visually pleasing for me, but I have it. It has to go under the desk, and I have a mount, so it's mounted to the desk. But if I want to get in there, I got to take that some bitch out.

And that's a whole, you know, to do. I'm really attracted to beige computers. And I've seen a lot of builds lately that are like dad PCs is what they're called. And it'll be like a 90s beige case, but they've gutted it and they filled it with like modern PC stuff. And it's, those are gorgeous to me. I've seen some of those on Reddit and I love them. Yeah. They're really cool. When you're building them like, because obviously the end product is the reward.

And you get to use the PC and you're gaming on it and stuff. But like as you're putting it together, are you like this rocks, I'm having a blast? Or is it like? Yes, truly. I feel like Donatello to bring it back to Ninja Turtles. I'm doing machines. Yeah. It really is fun

And like you know It's a puzzle Yeah You know and you can make it as simple as you want to You know just like my motherboard and then just Slatcher ram in like this or you can I have my hardest the hardest PC I bet well this is the hardest one right now But before that the hardest was I did a full

Water loop So I bent the piping The plastic tubing to like make the And put everything on water blocks And that was hard because because I jumped right in the deep end with it. So I didn't do like the pre-sized straight lines. I did loops and curls and all that.

And it was great. And I was very proud of it. And like then it became also a piece of furniture because I also built it on a open case that could hang on the wall. Wow. Which was great. And I did like a blue liquid in it that was like a little fluorescent. So it looked like, you know, a mad scientist's laboratory thing.

So I really loved that. That's the water cooling I've never messed around with. That scares me because I'm always, I'm already clumsy enough or I'm worried about breaking something. And then you throw the possibility of spilling into the mix. Like I don't want to ruin a $700 GPU. And if it was blue, you'd probably try to drink it. I probably would try to drink it.

Baja blast. Hmm, curious. Have you seen, did you see the Diablo PC that is filled with liquid blood? Yes. No. I did, yes. Of course Heather did. Well, part of the question about the PC is how much blood is it actually filled with?

Because it's cooled with human blood. Horrifying question. But it's possible that it's just like, you know, several molecules worth of blood inside of a much larger cooling system. So that they are legally able to say it's cooled with human blood. Right. Right. But that loophole shit drives me crazy. Like the restaurant equivalent is when they have like, like, it's a $500 martini,

but then it has like a fucking diamond in it. It's like, well, okay, you're charging me for the diamond saying it's part of the drink. Yeah. Garnish a drink with a jewel. I can't drink that actually. Yes, you actually can. You can drink a diamond? You can drink a diamond.

You're not going to cut you up on the inside? What a question. I mean, it is, right? If it's a sharp diamond, yeah, but otherwise, no, it just like go through you. Yeah, and you poop it out. I poop out a diamond. Yeah, you'd poop out a diamond. Nick, send me the restaurant.

I got $500 right now. I'm curious about that, that blood-cooled PC. So, like, because, like, also I'm like, like, iron in blood and stuff with that, like, I don't, I, it would it be, like, corrosive to, like, I don't. Isn't blood hot? Yeah, that's what I think of, right? I don't know that blood is naturally hot, right? But blood is heated in.

in the body, but it's not like, like if a pool of blood's on the ground, you touch it, you're not going to hurt yourself. No, you're right. I'm not thinking it, I'm going to get burned by it or anything, but it's like, not for cooling. It's not getting your body cool. But I see what Heather's saying,

because if you donate blood, then it's stored and cold store. Yeah, it's like, so it can be cold and it can stay cool. But then you don't want, like, I mean, you don't want air in the loop anyway, but you don't want the blood to coagulate. No.

Either in that loop. Oh, your computer has a scab now? You know. Jesus Christ. Scabtron 3,000 sucks Yeah, what's it turned solid It becomes a human

What am I Why did you make me It's scabtron's crossing a picket line Oh no We accidentally built The perfect worker for We'll work for peanuts I don't like the idea that if you

answered the question why did you build me You'd tell it and it would be like But why? But you would not be satisfied with marketing? Oh. Here's a question I want to ask you as someone who's built more PCs than me over the past 15 years. Do you have any tools in particular that are useful? I mean, I have a headlamp.

But I mean, like, are anything like, oh, I have this bendy screwdriver or this magnetized thing or whatever? I mean, yeah, I use like these hotel tools, sort of like precision electric screwdriver. and like, you know, also the screwdrivers that, like, go one way and they don't. I use a headlamp, my building antistatic mat. I use one of those, I can never remember what's called, but it's like the head magnifying glass. So it's like it kind of comes down as like a, it looks like a, you know, Star Wars visor. But then I can like change the different magnification with like these little things. I got at Hobby Lobby, I think, years ago.

But it's so useful for like doing like a little microscopic and like finding like little screws and like all that stuff. But yeah, those are like the tools I really use. Do you have a dream tool that you haven't purchased? For example, Evangelion came out with a line of tools. And I've considered buying Evangelian tools. That's very awesome. I'm saying no, but now I'm like, I need some like specific tools. But I wonder like what I would want.

Or like, or like, that's the thing, like, I kind of like wouldn't make them, you know? Yeah. I got recently into like 3D printing, like crazy. Ooh. So now I'm like just 3D printing set of like just stuff and toys. Like not really. Right now I'm still in the organizational printing phase. But the goal is to then customize everything.

And also like the 3D printer also to like make like little PC parts that don't exist, but to like sort of bridge the gap in what is there and what isn't there. like, you know, like even just specifically colored, like a strut for, to, to hold up the graphics card if it's like, you know, parallel or if it's horizontal, you know. So to answer your question, I would maybe, you know, like a Thundercat set of tools or something like that. Nice. On just, like, building stuff real quick, because, like, you mentioned Evangelion. So this makes me think of this. Do you build anything else?

Like, do you like, do you like gondoms or anything like that? I never, you know, Gundam is like the one thing that I didn't get into. I kind of think you might love it. I know, the thing is I know I'd love it. My question for myself is where to start. Yes. You know, because I want to like, you know, like, do I jump in? Deep end.

Just jump. If you're building PCs and you have a head magnifying glass, jump in at the full deep end. Yep. Wonderful. And you won't be confused by the instructions. you will immediately be like, oh, these are my people.

Yeah. But are you talking just building like Gumpla or you mean also like the Gundam anime? I'm talking about the anime as well. Oh, because I want to like know what I'm building. I see. This is what we did. We did this on our show.

We watched 8th MS team. Yeah. Yeah. And then I, as soon as we finished that, built a figure from that and it was like the most satisfied I've ever been. It was, it was great. So if you watch, if you just pick one and then you buy a model from the show. There are like two or three standalone shows that are only like six to ten episodes.

Yeah. And those standalone independent shows also have kids. And so you could watch one and be like, okay, now I know my guys. And then you could build one of your guys. I mean, 8th NMS team is like, what, six episodes and it's awesome. Yeah. And it's like Gondom and like MASH kind of. Yeah, it's like Gundam Vietnam.

Like a small squad. And then the recent Netflix one that was. Requiem for Vengeance. Yeah, Requiem for Vengeance is also a good. like miniseries. It's even saved on my thing, but I like have to jump in. I'm like, I need to do the backstory in this. You don't.

You just need to know that like the guys who look like bad guys are the bad guys. Guys who look like good guys are the good guys. The only place where that's questionable is Requiem for a vengeance because it's on purpose told from the other side. Uh-huh. But everything else, it's always the good guys are piloting the white robot. Yeah. And the bad guys are piloting green robots. And that's it.

At some point in the series, something. traumatizing will happen. Usually a child will be killed. Usually. There's a clip in one of, that always makes the rounds on like social media if you have like Gundam in your algorithm, which is just like, is this the most horrific death in anime? And it's a bunch of people running across a town square while the Gundam are fighting like above the square against like the the interlopers.

And as they're fighting, the machine guns they're using are like throwing out bullet casings and there's a woman and her baby running across the town square. And they just get killed by a falling bullet casing. Oh my God.

Like the mom gets crushed. The baby tumbles out of her arms. And they're just like, get the baby, get the baby. And like, she didn't die from like regular war. She died from debris. Oh, no. You got to watch it.

I got to watch this. Like that's not even, that's like collateral collateral. Yeah. Oh. Yeah. We don't need to see more horrible things happening right? Yeah. I don't want to see pretend horrible stuff.

Here's a question for you on building. Have you ever had anything catastrophic happened? Because I fried a motherboard. once. This was like the second PC I ever built when I was like 19 maybe. You tried to eat it. Yeah. Yeah. He put it in a deep fryer. That's how he fried it. You're not supposed to do that.

Lesson learned. But that was brutal because there was also a time when like I didn't have any money. So like, you know, like whatever, up other board then was probably like $100 but I was like, Jesus Christ, I'm out $100, $1,500 in today's money. Yeah. Yeah. That really that really sucks. I've

miss sat a CPU before the processing unit and the bent the pins to the point where like I couldn't use it and that really

frustrating because I was a time I didn't have money so I was like oh and I was like so I'm trying to remember what the computer was

which which was like maybe this was at this point 10 years ago but just because I also I know like I set it down I think I said it down pins thing and then I pushed it in the thing wrong and then I like collapsed the oh man yeah that was that was like a really terrible one another catastrophic thing talking about that water cooling build it wasn't this wasn't a catastrophic failure but the problem with a water cooled build that's on like that has like a lot of loops and then how I built it was it if a component goes hey wire or you don't know if it does. You can't check everything because it's all in that loop. So I can't isolate the graphics card and take it out because I have to then take it

out of the loop and then I have to like find a way to put it in a loop separate from that. If I'm going to like do it in like a test rig, I can't just like simply set it up. So that I stopped doing water cool builds. And like that whole computer went kapits. And I still have some of the components, but they're on, they're on water blocks. And so then I can't find the. original casing for some of those things. So it's just there waiting for another

water cool to build, but I'm not going to ever do another one, you know? So yes. That's stressed me out. I've never built a PC before, but it's something I'd like to do. But like, I'll stay away from water, I think. The idea, I'm still stuck on the pulling down the CP.

Oh, just like, like, I'm so sorry it happened. I got nervous putting, and this is like so easy to do. But like the... Putting a cartridge in a Nintendo. Yeah, I was just... Well, I was so scared. It should be.

First of all, I was worried about getting it all slobbery by blowing into it. But when I like expanded the storage on my PS5 and put an SSD in there, it's easy enough to do. But I was just like, could I break this? Is it possible to break it? You can break it. You can break things. I mean, this is what you describe, which is, you know, setting the CPU is like, one of the most stressful parts of any build.

And I feel like they've made mechanical and design upgrades over the years where now it's like a little bit more straightforward. But there was a time when it's just like, Jesus Christ, I hope I'm doing this right. And you get like one shot at it basically. Yeah. I also watched like it's so simple

because it's like literally a slot you have to unscrew and it's like it fits perfectly in this slot. But I watched a YouTube video to make sure I was doing it right. Just like just you know, some like Slovenian teenager explained to me to do it. And like, they were like, it's going to, it requires more force than you think. And that scared me.

Yeah. Like, you have to like jam it in, actually. Jam it. No, really. Yeah. There are things, there's certain, like, like, seeding certain cards and seating ram sometimes. Like, oh, I really got to get, got to jam this bad boy. And like, sometimes you're hearing that little bit of like a crunch, you know, while you're setting it in, you're like, oh, I hope that's like what it's supposed to be.

Yeah. It's horrible. Especially now with like all of the like everything is becoming more expensive because of AI bullshit. Like like you can't even set like the hard drive that you set in your PlayStation is now significantly more expensive. Yeah. To purchase today. Yep. So like it's like the value of the things that we.

It's so insane. Yeah. I didn't know those happening with solid state hard drives. Sure is. Yes. The four terabyte PlayStation compatible like the one that they sell for PlayStation is like. 600 bucks right now. It's more than the PlayStation itself.

Yeah, it's the same with the little like the micro SD cards that are specific for Switch 2 also. They're just like you can't get him. Yep. That's such a bummer, but I also saw a video of what Bender would look like in the real world and it was pretty cool. That's great. He's a good tradeoff. Yeah, I mean, you could almost even picture somebody biting his shiny metal ass. He's back, baby.

The only I wish Bender was real now you said it. I don't want to see the video. If he was real, I think all of our lives would be just a little bit better. Somebody's making him for sure. What if he was our friend? We'd love him. He would not be our friend.

I would love to be a friend. He would be an burglar of that group. He honestly. He'd be like a senator from Louisiana. Jesus Christ. For me, for me, though, the single most stressful part of a build is, is post, is, is a power on self-test, I believe is the acronym when you power on for the first time, like, I hope this works. Like, Ron Solo, hoping he goes into light speed, you know? Yes, definitely.

And then, like, when it doesn't, then, like, trying to work backwards from there, like, what did I do wrong? Right. And it's not, like, when it has, when it never turned on in the first place, like, the process of elimination to figure out what the either bum component or what you did wrong is is like, is a, is a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's, it's a, it's, it's, it's a, it. like a whole other thing. So, but if it works, it's just like, I'm a genius. I made the computer. Yeah, exactly. All of it.

I did it. This is my child. Does it ever happen with like, not to be like a hack standup from the 90s, but like sometimes when I'm building a piece of IKEA furniture and there's like extra parts, I'm like, huh, that shouldn't be. This shouldn't be right. Does that ever happen with like in the middle of building like a PC or like, oh, that was supposed to go back in.

a little further back. Sometimes I feel like when you construct a case, you know, when the cases comes in like a little box and then you have like the extra screws and things. I'm like, was this supposed to be like an important, like structural bracket that I just didn't put in here?

Or like PSU, the power brick like extra cables where I'm like, did I use the right one? Yeah. I'm just like in my home expecting my mom dresser to just fall apart one day. Yeah.

Like holding the drawer and all of it collapsed. It's like today is going to be the day. No, you know what tomorrow? I'm building a Lego thing right now and it's nothing like building a PC because all the instructions are there. All the pieces are pre-organized for you. It's just sort of a meditative experience. It's a way to turn off your brain as opposed to like having to make choices.

Yeah. But stunningly in this Lego kit. there are not not missing instructions like I'm missing the instruction booklet in the instructions there are missing pieces oh and I was like because I bought the kit when it when it dropped and I'm sure it's been patched so to speak since then but there are like legitimately pieces in the bags not listed in the instructions that are incorporated in the design that they're showing you to build but normally it's it's as if you had a bag of screw in an IKEA dresser. And one of the steps is take out the screws. And the next step is put the knobs on the drawers. And you're like, wait, but the, what was it doing with the screws? And like, you have to, like, look at the dresser and be like, where did they put the screws?

Like, that's the missing instructions in this Lego kit. And I'm like, I've never, like, Lego is so, it's so easy. It's like there's never any creativity in the actual building of these things. So to have missing instructions feels like an enormous oversight. Right. Like if Sony was like, hey, we accidentally shipped PlayStation's without controllers. Right. Turn it on.

You'd be like, what the fuck? You only have one thing to do with Lego. Get the parts. Follow the instructions. There's nothing else. And it's specific because I need the instruction because it's like this piece is meant only for this. Yeah. Yeah. It's not like a creative. It's not like a block of a box of like random Legos where it's like,

I'll do whatever the fuck you want. It's like I'm making the boat. I was just sitting here thinking. So insane. I was sitting here thinking that Lego should have a collaboration with like a PC company so you could like they have like you know little cases for the extra parts and then, you know, the components and you place it in Lego. But then I'm thinking you'll would cost $20,000. Oh, yeah. You're the most expensive.

Because Lego is so expensive anything. Yeah, right. There are people who are making, because they have a Game Boy Lego right now. And there are people who are fitting in actual Game Boy components into it and making it into a functional. The LCD screen on there. Yeah. It's sick. It's pretty cool.

Can I ask what you're building right now? I'm building Titanic. Oh, cool. And I got it when it released. And have, whenever that was, have just been sitting with the fucking tape. able-sized box in my office for years. And only recently was able to finally, like, crack it open because I have enough of a work breath to, like, to dig into it.

And I deeply misjudged the size. Because it's in three sections, right? Three boxes inside of the big box. And you take out the first box and it's like, you know, the size of like several encyclopedias. And you dump it out and you're like, I'm building the first third. of the ship. Great. Understood. So you build the first, what you believe to be third of the ship, and you also have an instruction booklet that's the largest instruction booklet I've built a Lego with. And so midway through the first instructions and midway through the thing, I'm like,

God, there are an awful lot of bags. And I've already built what I believe to be the first third of the ship. And I'm flipping and I'm like, oh my God, this instruction booklet is just the first third. and the first section is not the first third. Oh, my God. The first section is half of the first third. Yeah. So you build the bow of the ship, and then you start building the second section of the ship

with the steam, whatever the fuck, the steam thing is called. And then you snap that together, and that's the first third. And I was like, oh, no, I don't. have anywhere for this to go. Because when it was just this, I was like, that makes sense. Like, first third, second third. Like, I put that on a shelf.

Yeah. But it's going to be this. Like, it's going to be this fucking big. Heather's arms are almost fully outstretched. It's like the size of, she's hugging a sequoia. It's fucking huge. This is the first.

I have a picture. I have a picture. It doesn't, it's so much larger than I thought it would be. And I thought it was going to be big. But it's really, it's much. So that's my hand. Oh, my God. It's so big.

And this is the set. See this? So I built that. Yeah. And I was like, oh, it's the first third of the ship. Yeah. And then the parts kept coming. And I was like, oh, no.

Oh, my. That's the first third. It is Titanic. It's so big. If the whole build was just that, it would still be a very big Lego. Yeah. Yeah. It's insane.

It's like I, I didn't laugh, but I did in my desk. went, oh, no. You became like Walter White in the cross base. Because also realizing that the instruction booklet is not the whole ship. Yeah. Because like, I was like halfway, I'm like halfway through the first. I'm like, oh, this is, I'm this a breeze. No, man.

Clifanger. It's so fucking heavy. How many hours have you put into it this far? I don't know. I don't keep track of the hours because I also, I'm not, I'm not a sit down to build. It's like an hors d'oeuvre sort of experience for me. I'll do one bag and I'll do that section and then I'll let it go for a while.

It's just like a reset. So I have no idea how long it's taken. I will say that on the ship you also build all of the rooms inside of the ship, which is a joy because like when you're building Gundam, you're building all the gears and all the shit inside and then you put the armor on it and you're like, I know what's in there.

It's real. It's real. So like to build all of the. of the rooms here, I took a photo of the rooms, is a little bit insane. So like you're building like, so you build all the boilers inside of the boiler room. You build all of the, like all the way through the ship,

you build every room. So this is a bed with the little door. Like the higher end ones have wooden floors. Like over here is like the pool room. Like that's like like tile with a little pool, but you're, You're building all of the rooms and the stairwell inside of the ship, and then that just disappears when you snap it together. Right. Where's a buffet?

You mentioned traveling with a console earlier. When you were going on the road, you're just like, I'm taking my PS5 with me? Yeah, I bring my PS5 with me. So now I travel with, depending on where, so I have like two sort of kits that I travel. Well, I have a bunch of kits that I travel with, but like if I'm going to shoot something, to film something, uh, I will have a,

I have a kit that's for my trailer. So I'll send that through production. So it has a PlayStation in it. Uh, has two controllers. It has like a sound bar and it has an Apple TV. And so like I just know that it's going to be there in my trailer. So like get there.

It's like a Pelican case. Open it up, set it up, you know, close it down when I, when I go. That makes me so fucking happy. I love it.

I love it so much. I have another Pelican case for like my hotel or my apartment. It's the same thing in it. And then plus a couple of it. other things, you know. And then if it's like a shorter trip, I will make space in my luggage for my PlayStation or my, I'll kind of always travel with the PlayStation because even if I'm like bringing my Steam deck to play online with friends, I have to, you know.

Right. Was the Pelican case an item that you purchased that was pre-made or did you cut the foam? So I still have, so I have the pull foam versions, but I'm part of my 3D printing scheme. scheme is to then make molds and then mold foam to it perfectly for this thing. God damn it. That's my

plan. You're the best guest we've ever heard. That's a fucking coolest shit I've ever heard in my life. Last week's guest listening like hey. No, I hope you are. I hope you are. Fuck you. Fuck you. I had fun on the show. I don't live in the next episode.

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Spelled B-A-B-B-E-L.com forward slash played. Rules and restrictions may apply. Sam, I have one more question for you and the room. That question is the question we ask every week on the show. What are you playing? What are you playing? What am I playing? It's me the resident even merchant.

What? Wait, what? What's happening? What? We're just, we're so happy to see you and I think it's just a little over face. Nope, okay. I'm not.

What is going? Wait, what is happening? I think we're just happy to see you. I'm ever to see you guys. Oh, I didn't expect, I didn't expect to see you. I have no view here. I'm not the co-host of comedy, bang, bang. Because I also know that our friend Duke Nukem was on,

and that courtesy was not extended to him. I know that our friend Duke Nukem was on, and that courtesy was not extended to him. Your courtesy, you know, you got to go in guns blazing with your own self-worths in your hands. You got to say, I want to do it. Yeah, I'll tell Duke, I guess. Yeah, you should pass it under Duke Nukem.

I could see you having a good dynamic with Scott Ockerman's signature stubborn straight manning. It's nothing but generous. It was a really good. That's great. Equally tall as well. Yeah.

You are, yeah, you're able tall. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I die. Yeah. It's nice.

Now I'm here to ask a question I ask every week here on my second job. And that's, hey, Matt, what are you playing? Thanks, Resident Evil for Merchant. You, I'm just, okay.

Here's the deal. I've been talking about how I've been playing Resident Evil 2, the remake. The only, the only Resident Evil game I've played ever is Resident Evil 4, original, and the remake. I know which you don't like that I've played the remake. I don't like that. I don't get it up. Merchant in the 4th. Oh, that's right.

It gives me opportunities to podcast. Free time. I've been seen it. of stuff on TikTok about Resident Evil in general because the new one is coming out pretty soon and there are there is a take that you're either a Resident Evil fan or a Resident Evil 4 fan because some people like kind of just like that one and that's the only one I've played for a long time and I'm really looking forward to Requiem I'm a little worried I might be a Resident Evil 4 fan only not that I disliked two I had a great time with two except for the parts where I was

miserable because I was so scared, which was a lot of it. I talked about this difference a little bit. In four, Leon is more established, and he's like a badass action. It's more of an action game, whereas two is more survival horror. He's like a cop on his first day, a cowardly little cop. And it's scary. So I started off with Leon, did that, was easy enough. Then I had to play Claire's story.

And Claire's story in the second run is like a little bit like a Rosencrantz and Gildenstern are dead. So like you're sort of like, here's what she was doing during Leon's story. And it's different to a point. But then you start retreading some of the same beats and solving puzzles you've already solved as Leon. And I was like, well, that doesn't make sense really. And that to me became a little less fun in the game because I was like, I've already mixed this solution that is going to kill these plant things or whatever. I did this already.

I don't want to do it again, but I end up doing it again. And then you get to, like, where it becomes divergences when you get to, instead of the Ada Wong section, you have the little girl section, which is the scariest part of the entire game where you're, you're kidnapped in a scary orphanage. And this scary man is like, you know, he's got other things going on too, and he's got like a zombie in the tape on the room and stuff. It's awful. All of it is, that part is really scary. And then you get to be clear again. And the ending, I thought was worth, the ending like set piece was worth the retreads of the rest of it. Because I thought it was excellent. But still, I think four is supreme. It's an incredible game. Is that how much of that is the quality of level of four, which is very high. It's an all-time game, but versus like what you were saying earlier, the action versus horror element.

I think it is the action, like the action is carrying. That's the main thing. Because it's like two feels a little bit slower too. We're like, you can run around and stuff, but sometimes you don't want to because they have those lickers walking around and they'll lick you up. They lick you. But I like, you know, you can't roundhouse kids. a grandma with Laplaga.

But I did learn all about the T virus. I had not heard about the T virus before. The T virus was new and interesting to me, actually. Yeah. Because, you know, it's Laplaga, this, Laplaga that. Now I got T virus on the brain. No, a lot of novel viruses, courtesy the umbrella corporation. Yeah, why are they doing that, by the way?

I don't know. That's ultimately it. It's about capitalism. The evil scientists, it's that thing you're talking about with that Godzilla movie the other day. Oh yeah. Godzilla versus Bioleta? Yeah, where that scientist is like this was a huge mistake I should have never done this.

His whole thing is the T-virus is mine. I created this and then he fucking injects himself with it and he gets all fucked up and nasty. He gives a big eyeball on his torso, head split in half. He sucks. I didn't. See? This is what I wanted.

But it's really great and I am looking. forward to Requiem because it is a two character game. You fight that guy with a mirror. Oh, oh, wait. I look like, what? But in Requiem, the new one that's coming out, you can play as Leon and another character.

I can't remember what her name is, but I'm excited for that back and forth. I hope it's more mixed in. We're like maybe for a little bit you're Leon and then for a little bit you're the other character instead of playing it entire games worth of one thing and then doing it again, kind of. I hope it sort of is more like The Last of Us 2, for example, where there's like a little bit of more, you know, back and forth and things like that.

But that's what I've been playing. Are you a horror game guy at all? I'm not really. It's because they're scary. Because they're scary. In fact, starting at Resident Evil, when those dogs jump through the window, that turned me off of horror games. at all time.

You'll be happy to know they've only gotten scarier. That's what I've heard and seen. I don't like games where I don't have like power, you know? Yeah. Where like, I don't like, where it's like a dream. Well, you know when you have like a nightmare?

Like the difference between a nightmare and like a fucking empowering dream is like how powerful you are. Yeah. Like so if somebody's chasing me in a nightmare, I'm like, oh, but if somebody's chasing me but I'm in like a dream, I'm like, oh, guess what?

I'm also got superpowers. Then I'm like, yeah, it's a cool fight dream. I used to have this recurring dream that I was in, they were in like a city, I mean, we're much of my friends and then Power Rangers, putties start attacking and like a monster attacks. And they were like, oh my God. And all my friends were like, it's morphine time.

And they all transform and I reach for my morphine. And it's not there. And I spend the rest of my time looking for my morpher in my dream. So I'm in, like, I'm in Home Depot going through, like, shelves and drawers. Specifically, I'm, like, looking through, like, drawers, shelves or drawers of screws, like, looking for my morpher. I remember, and it occurred a lot.

Wow. It, like, was, is a bummer. That is a scary dream, but also, like, a perfect sketch concept. Yeah. Oh, fuck, I lost it. I'm not going to switch today, guys. I feel sick I feel sick

Oh my stomach You guys got this The Map of the Globe With Rita Repulse are just taking over Eurasia I can get it Like ooh Sam what are you playing

I said play a few things right now I'm playing Ninja Turtles Splintered Fate I'm playing Call a Duty I'm playing no man sky Oh I love that game

I've I've a little bit plateaued on it for right now because I just been spending so much time in there. I always get this confused. No Man Sky is the procedurally generated planet game or is it the other one? Yes. Okay, great. Because the other one being like Star Citizen. Yeah, yeah. And so I play, I haven't played Star Citizen in a minute, but I do play Star Citizen. Okay. And elite dangerous. But right now, I had only recently gotten into No Man Sky because it just keeps on like advancing so much. And they're releasing this new game soon, quote unquote, hopefully soon called, oh my goodness, what's

it? We can look it out. Yeah. Oh, I've been so excited for this game, but it's like on a planet. It's the same sort of mechanics in like the engine, but it's all places on one on one planet. One man's sky. One man's land. All land sky. Is it light no fires?

It's called light no fire So it's like a fantasy world Or you fly dragon So it uses like a lot of the same Oh cool boy I'm so excited for it So and like you know There's been like little hints of announcements

So I've been really excited for that But those are the things I'm so I'm yeah I'm playing Splinter Fate though is what I've been playing Adnauseum Where you know just kind of you go through And every time Rogue Light

Right So like not rogue like the difference between Rogue like and Rogue Light being that like Rogue Like is where you only have one chance through and if you die you die Yeah right but Road Light every time you go through you gain a power or you know you can upgrade yourself each run So this one is that with Ninja Turtles And I just I'm now I'm gaming the system and I'm just becoming so ultra powerful And it's really satisfying I got to try it I would know I know I'd love it

It's great it's really I played it on And I played it on phone first because it was on phone first. You have on phone. Then it made it with Steam. And I got it, I got it on my switch. And I hop in there sometimes. And it's, uh, it's great. It's a lot of fun.

Yeah. Heather, what are you playing? Uh, well, I've got a few updates. One is, uh, again, because I've had, uh, this nice work breath. It's, oh, God, I have, can't, I feel so human. I've never felt human. It's so great. Uh, so what have I picked up?

I picked up God of War, Ragnarock, and I've been advancing through that again. Yes. Uh, got a little Viking madness. I've been replaying Disco, Elysium again, not as a fascist, very, very sapsych. I also have been playing Dragon Quest Reimagined. Still a beautiful, lovely experience. But as I do sometimes in this segment, I don't talk about a game, but rather a gaming

adjacent experience. And one of the things I want to say here is a while ago we had a guest on the show when I was in Amsterdam, Yoste Vort, and we interviewed him about a game he was developing at the time, but they had not gotten their funding. They were going through the process. That game has just been released, and it's really neat to have seen that go from the Genesis to execution.

It's called All Will Rise. It is a little bit Phoenix Wright, a little bit environmental like resource management, all that cool shit he talked about. So I did want to give a shout out because it's it's very rare on this show that we meet somebody who's like I want to make a game and then that game comes out so that's really cool um the other thing is uh that this weekend I went to the um retro computing festival of SoCal uh and I had an absolute

it's the I'm sorry the vintage computer festival of SoCal um I had a fucking blast it's a yearly experience where it is part museum, part exhibits, part show floor that you can buy things at. I brought some photos from my experience. It was all kinds of super old computers, both for sale and also for demo, tons of old software in boxes. Look at how beautiful. I mean, all of the equipment was also in an extraordinary condition. This was a PC from the 90s that had a a Genesis built into the mainframe. They had, this is Mary, my wife playing Minecraft for the first time. Yeah.

And being like, wait, this game is fucking incredible. And I was like, do you want to stay here? And she was like, yeah. And so I went to the rest of the show. And when I got back, she was on her phone and she's like, I'm seeing if you can download Minecraft. Not Minecraft. Mindsweeper.

Mind sweeper, not Minecraft. That's a completely big thing. I'm so sorry. Not Minecraft. Mind sweeper. Mind sweeper. And she's like deeply, every time I look at her now, she's on her phone playing minesweeper.

Wow. Look at this suitcase laptop. I'll publish all these photos as the episode comes out, but I've saved them so that we can tie it in with the episode. There were lots of stories of people who had gone to. Goodwill, found machines that were just thrown away, restored them, and were playing era-specific gaming on them, which is really fantastic. This is an excellent Sony Trinitron monitor.

So fucking beautiful. There was a bunch of also retro gaming material, but this particular monitor is a Commodore monitor. I've never seen one before and the colors were so fucking bright. You have no idea how specific of a memory this is for me because when my dad retired his Commodore 64, he hooked up the monitor to R&ES. So our Nintendo ran on a Commodore 64 monitor. Wow. And it looked great. It was a really sharp display. Yeah, it's beautiful. I'd never seen one like functioning at like full brightness and it was gorgeous. Just seeing that setup is so,

it's so specific though. Yeah, yeah. Right, because it didn't use the RF switch. You could use the AV inputs, which are much higher or much, much better quality. This was an exhibit of a guy who had designed his own 8-bit video game system, complete with cartridges and 3D printed all of the consoles.

Was it Soldier Boy? It's not Soldier Boy. There was an exhibit that was like the history, of Macintosh's, this fucking computer, which I don't even know what this is, but it looks like severance. Yeah. I was going to say, that's what they used to do with whatever that thing they're doing. This is a mint condition macintosh portable, which when I've seen these on eBay, they go for about $30,000 that was on the show floor.

And then this was a circa year 2000 public phone that AT&T made right as cell phones are becoming ubiquitous and it had a full video screen built in so you could video talk to somebody on a public phone but it didn't take off because everybody was getting cell phones at the same time. Oh wow. Yeah, which was extraordinary. This is the smallest computer I've ever seen. I don't even know what it is. It's size of my hand. That AT&T video phone represents like a better future we could have had. Yeah. Yeah. But anyway, it was a it was an extraordinary an extraordinary conference, and then I saw a good dog. The dog was not a computer.

We don't know that. While I was there, I picked up a Macintosh S.E. for myself, which had been retrofitted with a Wi-Fi card because they make Wi-Fi cards now for the original Macs. And I'm having a little trouble right now getting it online because it is. with any of these things, it's tricky. There's always finicky settings. There's something buried, some driver that wasn't properly copied over. So that's been my like two-week mission to get this Macintosh online, in part because

there are vintage computer browsers if you can get your old computers online that are text-based browsers like frogfine.com. But what I did do is install Final Draft 4. on the Macintosh. And now I can write, and you can write scripts on the Macintosh SE with the big clunky keyboard,

save them to disc. I have a disc to USB drive, slide the floppy into my normal fucking Mac, open them in regular final draft, save them to a modern format and then send them off to work. I'm about to faint.

This is amazing. That's wild. And once I get it online, I'll just be able to send it. To just send it. Wow. Like I'll be on the same network and I'll just be able to literally drag and drop it over to the modern Mac. It's been a very, very pleasurable week for my hobbies and indulgences.

That's what I've been playing, Nick. I really hope you're about to talk about the thing that you showed us on our text. I am going to talk about that, but I did want to give Ranch, a producer of Shell, Shannon, an opportunity to talk because I think, I believe, You're playing something new or we're playing something new. I just finished inscription. That's what it is. You finished inscription.

I was so blown away by it. Wow. And I don't want to do any spoilers, but I was just shocked about how it played out and the journey. And it was not the game that I thought it was. Can you, without going to spoiler country, can you generally describe what inscription is for people who haven't played it? It's a spooky deck builder game,

and then it becomes extremely, meta. Yes, right. In a way that, yeah, I had no idea. I thought it was just a spooky deck building game and that was it. Would you recommend it to anyone, like, to the get-played crew? Like, do you think we should all play it? Because I've know, like, our buddy Jordan Morris played it and really liked it.

I just, I know it's maybe a game for me. It might even be in my Steam library, but I never got around to it. I think it's a game for Nick. Okay. I think it's a game for you. It is fun just to go through just to see, like, what they're. They do. I don't think I would recommend it for a handheld or console.

I think it has to be PC though. Right, right. Awesome. I played it a little bit and it scared me. That's a no for me. You know, actually, I was thinking, have you ever played the Alan Wake games? No, I never played it. So, so Alan, there is like an horror element to it, but it's not the main thing.

Alan Wake 2 in particular, which I played at Matt's urging, is, I think, you'd like it because it's like if you can handle some some horror stuff because it is so funny and so bizarre. It's like very much like playing a Twin Peaks episode. That's fun. Yeah. That's fun. Nick, what are you playing? Heather, what I'm playing is Half Sword, which is an early access. This is a medieval physics-based combat game with extreme violence. Ranch said I should play inscription. Heather should play Half-sword. This is most Heather game imaginable. It's third person, So you move with the keyboard and then your mouse looking. And then the way the keys are mapped,

E picks up things with your right hand and cue with your left hand. So you have separate control of each hand. And then if you hold either mouse button, your mouse controls whatever you're holding in that hand. So it's like kind of like a, and it's kind of intentionally clunky. And kind of like playing a meme game like Surgeon Simulator or like getting over it with a rage game,

like getting over it with Bennett Fottie. It's just like kind of a cumbersome experience to even control, but that's part of the joy of it. And also I've seen videos of people who have like mastered, you know, using mouse movement to like really, really wield a broadsword or whatever. It is fun. It is frustrating. And that's part of the fun.

And it's very funny. Just a few things that happened in the time I spent with the game. A guy came up to me with a bar stool and I picked up a floor standing candlestick and beat him to death. I wanted a guy with a guy with a bar stool. an axe and chopped the shit out of him and he was still alive in the ground in a horrible pain and I decapitated him. I went in a training dummy with a butcher knife and I swung the butcher knife, it ricocheted back and hit me in the throat and killed me.

And then another guy I was trying to kill with some kind of blacksmith tool and he just would not die. He was on the ground and he was bloodied and he was begging. He was like, mercy, mercy. And I just like couldn't put, like, I was not able to kill him. And I kept like, like it was like, I was going for like a full minute. Like like, it was like Woolfarrell and Austin Powers. I was just, Jesus Christ.

And eventually it's like, I just, I got go. I just love this guy moaning to bleed out on the ground. It's, it's got so many moments of joy like that. And it's, it's, again, you just have to adapt to how it, how it, how it, the unique way that it plays. There's a free mode or you can play progression mode. Regression mode, you start to fight in arenas, starting out in sellers and you wager on yourself and then you try to win to upgrade your armor and weapons and so forth. You also get and like I started nude with a with a dagger and I went and fought a

guy in the basement who had like a pitchforking to kill me immediately. Yeah there's like Boshito blade where it's like you can just, you know, if you get hit in the right way, you're just dead in one hit. It reminds me of that medieval game I played in VR that was like you'd get dropped into an arena and you have to run over and grab a weapon off the wall and then like kill people with it, the one where I punched my concrete floor as hard as I could. I didn't have a weapon yet and the guy was running at me. And so I just started punching him and then he got down on the ground.

And so I just punched as hard as I could at his head and punched my own concrete floor. So if you lose in like one of the combat arena, you survived to fight another day because it is just like you just got defeated in combat. But if you die out in the world, there's permadeath. And how I died is I got an errand from the tavern keeper to escort a drunk patron home. And they couldn't figure out how to get him to follow me. So I grabbed him with one of my hands and then he took out a knife and killed me. That's why he didn't want to do it.

Then when you die, you can get sent to the abyss, which is like an underworld afterlife with supernatural. enemies and loot. I don't know if you can do that more than once, or you can just do that once, and then after that it's permanent death, but that's also fun in its own way. It's not like a kingdom come deliverance where it's going for like ultra-realism. It's like a little bit more, a little bit goofier than that. But again, I'm flailing. I can barely control it. But it, and it is like a rough and tumble early access game. The performance is pretty bad. Features are limited, but I'm really happy about it in its current state. And I'm excited to track its development. because I think when it releases it's going to be a lot of fun.

I mean, it's fun now. Nick, can I come over to your house? Yeah, that sounds amazing. Just stab some things with your computer. Don't open certain folders. Oh, my goodness. All right, let's talk about rogue-like RPGs. Sam, this was one of your pitches to talk about on the show.

So, like, I'll start off with this. Rancho was like, like RPGs, aren't those two different things? And I was like, here we go. I get to explain something? Is it my birthday? But it was, like, I get,

but I do get what you're saying, because it is like, kind of, a lot of rogue likes have RPG elements, but as far as, like, ones that are, like, strict RPGs when I was trying to make the list of how many of what those were, like, you know, it's, it's, I don't know, I mean, like, I'm thinking. more of like a game like Hades as opposed to a game that is like oh this is like a turn based a turn based game that's a roguelike but those games also do exist but like what

did you have in mind in particular I actually was trying to say rogue light so so this is rogue like is a RPG but our rogue light is like Ninja Turtles right or like 80s yeah or like uh uh Dave the diver yes Oh, good example. So yeah, you know, so those are, so those are the games that I'm like familiar with. I don't play a lot of rogue-like RPGs. Yeah. I don't either.

The way I interpreted it was like, because rogue-like to me these days encompasses rogue-light. It's like a kind of an umbrella term. But yeah, I totally get what you're saying. Like, I don't, I've played rogue-likes in the past and I don't really get the appeal of just like I went through this whole run. I died. It's like hardcore mode and Diablo. It's just like, oh, I put 20 hours in this and then die and they have nothing to show for it.

And that's just it. It's like, oh, that really sucks. Are modes like hoard mode in Halo when you have randomized number of enemies coming at you? Are those rogue lights? What makes like the rogue light, and correct me if I'm wrong, but like really it's just like the, you play three. and then like by the time you get to your death, you start the run again, you know? And it's like a dungeon sort of like run.

You do it again. And then like the next time you're facing the same obstacles or like similar ones, but then you just add whatever powers and upgrades to then continue. So it's just like a gauntlet type of game. So for like hoard mode, is it like that? The truth is I don't remember if you kept. to upgrades from run to run. Yeah.

So I can't say yes or no. But I was like, does that count as one? Because it's not always the same number of enemies in each wave. It's not always the same kind of enemies in each wave. This is a Fortnite mode also. It'll be like, hey, survive as long as you can. And each wave of enemies is going to appear in five, four, three, and you just go. But you don't keep your upgrades in between.

Like when you die, it wipes. Yeah. So I don't know. That, yeah, I would not know how to classify that. I have played it. But, like, I did see, like, a list that was arguing that, like, Tetris is, like, a rogulight or rogulight. And it's just like, I can kind of see what you're saying.

I think you're being kind of cute. But I get what you're saying in the sense that, like, it resets and then you, you know, you take it from there. But. And, like, and it's, and it's not like in with Eldon Ring, you know, or that where, you know, that you know that these things are in these specific locations, are, roving. The dungeons

sometimes are like generating. So like in in Hades, you're going to the room, you'll know kind of what creatures are going to be in there. And then you know, you'll beat the dungeon room

and then you can pick an upgrade per room. So after each step, you pick an upgrade to then like sort of make a build of a character as you go. And then you're hoping

to get to a save point after like completing a point where then you save all your stuff when you die, you don't lose all of your, You don't lose all the progress. Right. But on your way there, you're sort of like trying to upgrade yourself smartly and like, you know, either pick your, you know, extend your health bar or get, you know, a multi-attack or, you know, a multi-hit or a critical hit sort of combo.

Like whatever like your play style is, you can adapt that from room to room in the dungeon. Right. I think the procedurally generated element that you mentioned, that's a good point. Like I kind of feel like that is that is inherent to me thinking of like a rogue like a rogue like. And it goes right all the way back to rogue the errogelike, the 1980 computer game that had procedurally generated dungeons with ASCII art. So like I yeah, you're right. Like if you're just because otherwise that's what difference is differentiates a rogue like from like a platformer. Right.

Which is like, well, I'm going through every like yes, if I die enough times, then I have to start my run over. if you want to think of it that way, but it's the same levels every time. Right. I really look, I have clumbed to love roglytes. It is one of my favorite genres. I will try out almost any of them.

And one I will mention right now that I've been playing is Muggenics, which does have turn-based tactical combat. And it has, that game, I think, is very much like a roguide RPG. Like I'm playing through it, and I'm like, there's a role-playing element where you've got like this life sim, you know, house management sort of aspect of it.

And then there's also the, so that you are roleplaying that. And then also like you're going through and you've got like basically an RPG party of cats with different attributes and different classes. And you are taking them in turn-based combat until you fail your run. And like I mean, it's a really just like impressive design and just just so comprehensive and has so much, so much depth to it. and so much to discover. But yeah, I mean, like, I think of that game, but then another game that you mentioned, Matt,

which is a game that I played the shit out of, is Darkest Dungeon. Yeah, I started messing around with, they were both one and two are both on sale. I jumped straight into two, and I was not having, like, the most fun with it, and I don't know if it's because the aesthetic is yucky. Like, like, something about, like,

I've been saying this a lot specifically about Dragon Quest, which is not anything like what we're talking about, but what's really working for me in Dragon Quest 7 Reimagined is that it's all bright colors and smiling faces and everything in Darkest Dungeon fucking sucks. Like there's the guy with like the, that like beak mask type.

Oh yeah, the plague doctor, yeah. This is, I would hate to live in it. It's like it just makes me feel bad to play and like everybody's all just kind of like something about steampunk's kind of gross to be too kind of like there's these guys like these big buff guys and top hats and it's like what is this but like I it does seem like

from a design standpoint though like a fun game I was having fun doing runs like that stuff was good but like aesthetically I just wish it was something completely different instead this is one where the sequel kind of polarized the fan base and a lot of people who were fans of one didn't really respond to you with myself included but I really like one.

I would just start with one. Go back and see if that. One was like $4. And I was like, actually, I don't know why I went two. But it also, but it has that dingy, grungy aesthetic. So like it and it's also kind of steampunky. So, you know. Great.

You have, you have a, I can't even think of a specific, a big clock or some shit. There you go. There you go. A bunch of gears. Mr. Gears. Mr. Gears? Marcus?

Marcus. Marcus. Phoenix? Wow. I like that. It's something. It's something. It's not good, but it's something. It's something.

What I liked about Darkest Engine is it's like a disposable heroes thing where again, like Mugetics, you have a party of adventurers, but they will reach a point where they are driven so mad by the abyss that the more efficient move is to just kick them off of your team as opposed to like trying to heal them or try to take them to the sanitarium or whatever. And it's just thematically, it's just like really interesting. It's like, oh yeah, that's like what war does to a person. Yeah. It just wrecks them completely.

I'll have to spend more time with it because, like, yeah, that does sound like it, it's an Oregon trail like almost, kind of too. Yeah, right. You're like, well, you're, you have dysentery. You're done. Heather, you know, this is a genre you don't really respond to. I mean, like, you've finished Hades in the sense that you finished a full run of Hades and then you're like, all right, now what?

Whereas like I think the people who are enthusiasts of this is like great let me try to do it faster Let me try a different build Let me let me finish it 10 times in a row so I can roll credits, you know But but for like what is it to like it just feels pointless? What is it? I guess I I just don't like whatever it is that's supposed to hook you doesn't hook me and that's all it is like all these games are designed to be like dopamine stimulators, right? And for whatever reason, playing Kingdom Hearts, it gives me a dopamine response. Playing Fortnite gives me a dopamine response, disco, dopamine. But for whatever reason, it never

clicks for me that like, it feels like homework more than it feels like gaming. It feels like, oh, I have, yeah, there is a chance that I could get through the dungeon. on this run, but the truth is it would be better for me to get as far as I can, die, get the upgrades, start over again, do that a few more times. It feels like reps instead of like, like, if. But you do love the gym. You do love the gym. I do love the gym, but like when I'm boxing, there's a chance that I'm going to win if that makes sense. Like something's going to happen.

Whereas it's kind of baked into a rogue like that, yeah, you could win earlier than you expect to. But the game design is specifically like, hey, you got to do this a few times before. It feels like spinning my wheels a little. Like it is unlikely that my first run at a boss in Eldon Ring that I'm going to nail it. But it has happened. You know, it's not like, oh, you're supposed to run at this boss. and then you're going to get a new sword and then you'll be able to take him on.

Like it's just like, could you manage to do it? Feels different than often the structure of like, by the time you're in room five and the guys are like one-shotting you and there's like 50 of them, it's like, well, yeah, I mean, there's a bullet hell version of this where I could get through this room, but it's clearly designed to prevent me from doing so.

And that feels less like a dopamine hit. I get it. I can see that. But Sam, you do love these games. Like, what are some of your favorites? I mean, I think those are the ones. Yeah. Like in Hades, you know, and I just started Hades too.

But like the, I mean, again, the main one I'm talking about so much is Ninja Turtles because it really is my obsession. I got to play it. But it's, it is the sort of, you can't, you can, if you are a savant, you could maybe get through on your first. if you have mastered the Dodge and if you have mastered, you know, this, unlikely. But then I think it's a, it is like a sort of like resource management game. And like you're the resource being like your health bar, you know, like, and like how much DPS can you put out while, you know,

maximizing or you're minimizing the damage you take and then like also like, it feels fun to or it feels more rewarding to go back through with like a little bit stronger like knowing that like now I've up my percentage of like how much health gets dropped from defeating these enemies because now I know like by the time I get through there I'll I'll have three quarters health as opposed to last time where I was like at a quarter health and so then getting through that and then getting a step further knowing that I'm getting to the like knowing the end of the run is exciting to me in that or so I know that like from point A to point C I know where I'm going And the game isn't about like just getting there once

or getting to point C being the end. C is probably a terrible letter for that. Point Z. Getting to point Z, which isn't even necessarily point Z. But getting there and I'm going to lose to Shredder or whatever, but then to get to the point where I beat Shredder every time, but now I'm trying to beat Shredder without losing a life. You know what I'm trying to get there

and I'm trying to take the challenge. that come up. And so then like I'm playing that with a challenge. So now I go through this one portal and you know, every, going through this thing increases my rewards, but the damage that they, that all bad guys do is now increased by 15% and they have 50% more health. And like now, now knowing that I can get through there with this. And after that last three runs, I've increased my, my health pool by 25%. So I'm like, yeah, that's, that's the fun of it for me. Yeah. Yeah. I told get that because I again for me part of and as you're articulating

I'm realizing oh yeah I think part of it is like is like competing against myself it's like it's like almost like this is like a speed run simulation or a challenge run simulation and the opponent is me and my previous bass and when I have I get like get that build and like you know Hades and I'm just like oh man

I got these boons I am just a killing machine I feel unstoppable it's so satisfying and you go and like like Hades is a cinch like you're just like this is so great. I can't believe how this one worked out for me. It is a very satisfying feeling. And again, as you get those heat runs and it's just like, oh, I'm

up in the difficulty, I'm giving myself disadvantages and I'm still able to win. It just feels it's really satisfying. It happens in Bellatro too, though, right? Oh, yeah, sure. When you get like, when you have like a bunch, when your jokers are all working in unison and you have like this like sort of like broken

build and you're just like, well, nothing can stop. To me, it's sort of an exercise to like figure out like how I can be stopped. Like, because like you know that you can get so far doing this or that or whatever. But like, I don't know. I like to sort of like play these games and sort of like figure out like what the limitations are. Right. And like it's like in Hades or something, in Hades too in particular, which I've been really, really loving.

There's the tarot card system that are sort of more like permanent boons that you can sort of unlock and add, you know, things to your, you know, it sort of, it changes your stats a little bit. So you're like, oh, you'll drop this many, you know, you get this much resource here, this, that, or whatever. But then you have the little crest, the little items that you can get. So you can have like a death defiance

and then a second chance at it as well. And like those, like unlocking those things to me is so exciting because then you can kind of go in and be like, my watch was just, I'm going to fucking get rid of this thing. I swear to go. I honestly have been thinking. about going to an analog watch after this. I might be done with the Apple watch.

Matt, same, same. Love an analog watch. You got an analog watch. Just that right now, I was like, now that Sam's going to, I'm like, I think I'm going to get an analog watch. I want to strap it to my neck. But I like sort of figuring out how I can set myself up for success and then just kind of like see how far I can go.

Because I think these games are also too, like, easy to pick up and put down. Because, you know, you can always tell yourself just one more run. and then keep that going for however as long as you want. Or you can be like just one run and just do a run and be like, all right, I'm done. I got that out. I'm going to go do whatever else I'm doing. Yep.

Like I can time out a run. I know I have 25 minutes and if I do my best, I can finish in 21 minutes. Yes. You know, if I'm doing poorly, if I'm trying on something new, then it'll take me an hour. Yeah. I tend to stick with certain weapons in some of these games. Because like in the Hades in particular, they'll have like four or five different weapons or whatever and some of them are better than others for certain like builds and things like

that but like I don't like how some of them move a lot yeah so like in in Hades two I'm just like rocking the dual scythes because I think they're fast and fun that's kind of how I like to play in the first one I liked the fists a lot that was to me like my favorite thing uh especially the um power that you could have that would like uh pull uh enemies in to you I like that a lot but do you have like so you just started Hades too? I just downloaded it. Like I literally just downloaded it. I love it so much.

But I have not finished a run yet. I have not done it. Yeah. And it's, but I've done so much other stuff around because it's like it's, I won't spoil anything, but it feels like a much bigger game. But I haven't,

I have not completed a run yet, but I'm still, I love it. I think it's fantastic. Mugetics is the same way. It's like you have to put a lot hours in it to finish a run. And Mugetics also is like what you were saying earlier, Matt, it's like designed to kind of have that feeling of breaking the game.

It's designed to like, oh, I have this combination of skills and that's going to make my party unstoppable. But yeah, did you have a favorite, like in Hades? Did you have like a favorite weapon? Did you have a god yet a crush on? I mean, I really like the Bowen Arrow. Oh, yeah, yeah. Like range fighting and like sort of like multi-aero, sort of like raining dead.

and, I mean, Aphrodite. Yeah, sure. You know? Classic pick. Classic pick. In real life, Athena is my favorite deity. How about a sincere answer about your favorite deity? Yeah, let me tell you why.

Athena, born from the head of Zeus, fully clad in armor. Do you mess with vampire survivors or anything like that, too? Does that qualify? I think so. I mean, like, I don't know if we call it an RPG, but it certainly has RPG. elements that we're talking about their skill tree. Same thing with deep rock galactic Survivor. Does this count

Dynasty Warriors? Good question. I kind of I like it. I like the question and I like its inclusion. I think I'm just now out of the hat of my head Not wearing a hat. Oh, see?

Only those who are in person know that. He's a liar. We got him. We got him. Oh, crap. He's in the files I'm in the files Skim through him

For lying about wearing a hat My fear about the file Not the name of the file is like my name Sam Richardson is a kind of common name Yes so that somebody like some weird Sam Richardson Yeah Who's like a lawyer in Duluth

But like a very powerful lawyer Like he Google that name And then like I'm in the files Yeah Or horrific But that didn't happen. No.

Thank God. My name is quite unique, so I'm really glad it's not in the files. Yeah, I think it's scarier if you have a unique name. Yeah. Your name's in the files, but it's like, we got to get away from this. There's got to emailing us. Yeah, I mean, there's there's that like genre Muso, which is, I think what people would say is where a diet.

Dynasty Warriors, like, is classified. But yeah, I don't know. I haven't played enough of those games to know the gameplay loop, really. I haven't played those in a long time either. But, like, the upgrade as you go and, like, picking your things on a run. You know, but however, like those, in those games, rather, it is that you're trying to sort of complete a grander run. So you're going to fight this war instead of fighting that war, then, like, you introduce

to this character. So, no, I'll answer my own question. And no, I don't think. Oh, dang. Do we think those games from TikTok ads are rogue likes where there's like a sort of sliding soldier and you got more guns or deal more damage? Those can be those can be a rogue light, I think. Or like an ad where it's like a mom has spilled milk in the kitchen and the husband is like, I'm going to kill myself. It's like, what do you do?

Improve the roof. What's that? Yeah, that seems like more important. Has anyone actually made the game from the ads? I feel like there's a game collection on Steam that I've seen that's like, those games are real now or something like that. It's like a collection. And like somebody made those games and put it in there.

Good. Sickening it. I do look fun. You're looking at it. It looks pretty fun. Because the trick is the video is being played poorly. and you're like, I can do better than this. Yeah, right.

Yeah, yeah, I'll download this app and give all my data to some foreign government. Why not? They got it. They got it now. I'm logging with Google. I don't give a shit. Yeah, exactly. No, don't choose plus one.

Choose times 10. Oh, that's so bad. It's so easy. Do you eat the shit or fuck the girl? I think fuck. I think I'm going to, on this one, I'm going to choose. No, no, you eat this shit. You're going to eat this shit.

The year it came out, I really liked Cold of the Lamb was another one. And that one, you had like a town building aspect to it. And then you were going on runs that were, you know, like kind of action RPG combat. But that one, I mean, like, again, just had kind of like a real personality to it. And yeah, I mean, just like you're making consequential decisions as you go forward in terms of what your, what your, what your, you're, what your upgrades are going to be, like, permanently, not just on an individual run. But, yeah, I also, I think some people who are, like,

really into the RPG, like, hardcore element of this would, like, think of, like, dwarf fortress. A game I've tried to mess around with, but it's so inscrutable. Yeah, I haven't even played that one. I've just, I'm curious about it. It's just crazy. It's got so much detail,

and it's, like, a passion project of, like, these two brothers who have been making it for, like, 20 years. And it has so many features and so many things that you can do. And it's like one of those games you can play for 100 hours and not scratch the surface. And but like if I started playing dwarf fortress, it would just be my identity. It would just be like, I'm just a dwarf fortress guy. Like, you know what I mean?

I just, I can't do it to myself. I think it is your identity even though you haven't played it. I want to circle back to Dave the Diver for just a second. That's a game we've talked about in this show a little bit. And it's really, really fun. but didn't we play it for the show? We did play it for the show? Yeah.

Talked about it with, did we talk about it with Gabris? We did talk about it with Gabris. I wish it was just managing the sushi restaurant. I could almost give a shit about anything else in the game. That was my favorite part. It is really fun. I loved doing that. I wish that was separate.

Yeah, exactly. Sushi proprietor. Yeah. It's a game. You still get to beat Dave. I like Dave. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, you're sometimes you play that like one aspect of a game.

You're like, I like, I like this. better than the other than like the main thing. You know what I mean? Like honestly like cold of the lamb I kind of felt like it's like I like building the town. I'm like the action RPG stuff is fine

but it's like not like the most exciting aspect. Or like the Yakuza bar management part. Oh my God. Oh it's fucking great. Best mini game of all time. Yeah really. Like we're some like games like where you know you play poker in a room like in Red Dead

we can go play poker and like it's fun poker. You know? I'm like oh oh that's right. I got to go rob the bank. but I really just want to play more hands of this. What's the Star Wars game where you're playing? Sabak. Sabak's awesome.

Outlaws? Outlaws. Yeah. Which I only scratched the surface on outlaws, but I did like playing the card game. The card game. I do wish, because like, I mean, I think Gwent is like a good example of a game like this from the Witcher. And I think that is now like a standalone game. There's a game in Final Fantasy 7 rebirth called Quarx.

Queen's Blood that is fucking awesome. And it is so good. And I wish it was its own game because it, as much as I, I'm like the number one rebirth fan on the show. I would do anything for a standalone Queen's Blood game. I think it's perfect. It's so good. I really, like, I put a number of hours into rebirth before I bounced off of it just because

it's like so, so huge. But I really was, like, Queens Blood is, is so fun. It's such a. cool card design. Imagine you had it on your phone. Yeah, that would be great to have on the phone. This would be a good episode is games inside of games that we like. Oh, yeah. Well, in Ghost of Yote, there's that

coin-ficking one. Yeah? Oh, yeah. I can't remember what it's called. But it's harder than you think. It's that thing. You can lose a lot of money to that. Coin flipping game is good. In Shenmoo, you can play hang on. You can go into an arcade and play hang on. Oh, you can

pay hang on within the game. Yeah, within the game. That's been retained within Yakuza as well. Yeah. I feel like there's so much stuff in Shenmoo that you could do your real taxes in that. That's going to be one of the features in GTA 6. You're going to be like, actually you can hire an accountant in GTA 6, upload your finances and just have him do your taxes. Yeah, there's like a bunch of turbo tax representatives on standby at all times.

You should have an option in Shenmue to play a path where you just get high. as a forklift operator. And they just play out that flesh. I, for a, so I did this, I did a movie where I had to like operate a,

what do you call it, an excavator. Okay. And they were like, all right, you guys, we're going to give you excavator training. And so I was like,

okay, I'm playing like a construction worker, you know, who that's my thing and then we take it off into an adventure. So it was like, the start movie, I'm supposed to operate this excavation.

So they're like, you're going to have training. So then they said me the training. It's like, another stunt guy, Shane, who's like, all right, this is their training. I was like, oh, you operate. I was like, okay. So they taught me a little bit ago. So you do like this. So we got an excavator and like kind of show me one time.

We're in Budapest. So I got in the thing. It was like, this hand does this. This right hand does that. So I did it. And then I dug into the ground and maybe like two feet deep hit cement. I'm like, and then like a lift up and it like down. I was like, oh.

And they're like, all right. Well, that's your training. And I'm like, oh, no, no, that can't be my training. So I'm like panicking. And I'm like, all right, well, I got to look like I know how to do this thing. So I use my VR headset. I got it out there with me and my Quest 3. And so I'm like looking for all these like excavator like apps or whatever.

And I'm like, all these are kind of it, but it's not real. So I'm like, okay, you know what I'm going to do. I asked production to get me to gaming like, like, like joysticks. Yeah. And I got on farming simulator 25. And in that, there's an excavator. So I programmed it to be one to one.

And then I learned how to operate an excavator in farming simulator. Wow. And then on the day, we went to film the scenes, I got there. And what they were really expecting for me was like the up close thing. So it must be like this. And then they got an expert to like do the real thing. I was so good with this excavator that I, they sent up the guy home. I was like doing it.

I was like lifting the dirt, putting it here. Yeah. Like dropping it in front of the camera. Hell yeah. Just like right. Because I've gotten so good with it. You did a day's work for them. I really, I really did.

That's so satisfying. Because you hear about actors like, oh yeah, I learned how to fence or like I went to, you know, I went to Navy SEAL boot camp. It's like learning how to have a job. You know what I mean? Blue collar. And now I know how to operate an entire farm because I guess got so into that game. I was just like playing. I got like a.

a steering wheel and like, you know, like just operate, like farm operating like peripherals. Wow. Wild. What were you doing with your farm? What were you harvesting?

Soygum. Okay. That and just wheat as well. Because I was going to, you know, you can scale how long the months take. You can do like a thing in a day. So I was like trying to do it not directly accurate, but, you know, I wasn't trying to like go through the thing in a week. So I wanted to do spinach, but I couldn't afford like the machinery for spinach just yet.

So I was going to do that. I haven't played that game in a minute, but I need to get back into it. But now I'm just reminding myself, I got to get back on my farm. That's amazing. I have the worst version of that story. Yeah. Which is that I was on a prank pilot for NBC called Ir. Improv Everywhere. And for Improv Everywhere, the bit that I was a part of, we were going to be in a real

food court and break in a song in the food court with all regular people. And it would just seem like, oh, suddenly there's a musical. It was like a victimless prank was kind of the concept of the show. But in order to work at the food court, I had to be trained as a hot dog on a stick employee. And so I showed up at on set at like five in the morning, the regional manager of hot dog on a stick was there. And they taught me how to do the job. And then they're like, okay, so you're just going to have to work at hot dog on a stick until we give you the signal to sing because we need to make sure enough people are in the food court that you have become invisible to them. You have an earwig in. You'll hear the starting tone of the song. There won't be any music playing. but we'll give you two beeps. That's the starting tone. Hit that note and start singing.

And I worked for like three hours. Just in the fucking hot dog on a stick uniform, which was chosen in part because it's humiliating to wear. Like you look like a clown. And at no point was... I thanked him for their service. At some point during those three hours, I was like, is the prank me?

Oh, wait. Am I? is the bit that they are going to train me to think that I'm going to sing and really all I'm doing is working a day to work at lockdown stick. Heather, I used to watch this video all the time. Oh, my God. I can't believe that was you. The pilot didn't get picked up, but they put it on YouTube.

Yeah. That's fucking me, dude. And that comes on the end of like three hours of work. Oh, my God. And then, oh, and then, like, everybody sees it, but they wanted to get two takes. And they were like, okay, so now we just have to wait for all of the people in the food court to leave and go about their lives. And then new people come in for dinner. So I worked all day for the rest of the day waiting for enough turnover that we could do the whole fucking thing again.

It was crazy. That's ridiculous. That's amazing. I did not leave with forklift or excavator skills. I have like a dreamlike, like memory of living a different life where I worked at hot dog and a stick. You could pour me a green lemonade. Yeah. Yeah.

Were you using that big lemonade pump? Yeah. Oh, see. Wow. There you go. You were frying up like a pepper jack cheese. Yeah, I was doing the job. Yeah.

Did you have a favorite dog that you, like, did you make yourself a corn dog or like? A question I was hoping would come up. I was not a house to want to know. What was your favorite hot dog to make? I was so anxious all day that nothing was good. Like, no, there was no joy. Because also I was like, I don't want to fuck up this job because these are real people getting their lunch. I think if you got the dog on the stick, you were probably doing all right.

Why didn't they just have a real employee, like a few real employees there and then have you there just like working the lemonade thing or something? Who the fuck knows? And I was there and I saw one person. kind of not doing something, I'd be like, something's wrong. Something there. You got to go deep. Like they trained me out. Use the fucking point of sales system in the cash rent.

I was like fucking ringing people up. Just a regular job. Good news. The prank went well. Bad news. You're arrested for fraud. Good news. Prank went well.

Bad news. It never aired. I'm starstruck. Shall we do a segment? Let's do a segment. Segment. Oh yeah, I forgot about that. That's good.

That's good. It's our video game themed Would You Rather? It's Wood You Blathers, Roguelight Edition. So I'll read some either or scenarios, and we will each say which way we would lean and what our reasoning is. Okay.

First up, would you blathers be trapped in a Pokemon dungeon, like in Pokemon Mystery Dungeon, or be trapped in a Chocobo dungeon like in Final Fantasy Fables, Chocobo's dungeon. If I'm trapped in a Pokemon dungeon, that could go one of two ways. Yeah. One, I could befriend a Pokemon,

and then my life is just immediately better. Two, they're like rats, and they just, like, bite the shit out of me and kill me. I don't know how it works. It could be either or. It seems more likely that I'd become their friend. I think so. I think you'd befriend a friend.

dig lit or something. Or Zubat. I think, oh man, that'd be great. I think I, the first thing I thought when you were like, Pokemon dungeon or Chocobo Dungeon is if I'm in the Pokemon Dungeon, ghosts are real and I don't want to be there.

Wow. Like, they're, they're fucking ghosts. And the ghosts hate children and shit like that. Like, I'm not, like, when I, when we think Pokemon, we're thinking of the cute guys. But there's like, there's a sarcophagus Pokemon.

I'm not, yeah. I'm want to be with the Fluffy bird that you can ride. I'm in Chocobo. There are too many omnipotent beings, actually, in Pokemon. That's very true. You two has, like, the consciousness of all mankind. What are fucking dittoes in there?

Yeah. Yeah. And you just, like, come around a corner and it's you with bead eyes. That's very true. I wasn't even thinking that. I'm still going to go to Pokemon. Yeah, chocobos are, like, I like,

I like Chocobos, but they're not really doing anything for me. Yeah. I'm hoping I get with, like, a Charzard. Or like a, like, yeah, give me like, well, I guess also like, what is the dungeon? Like, is this a, what kind of dungeon is this? This is a great question. I have not played the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon. It's a mystery to me.

I haven't either. All right. I'm going to go with Pokemon because I'm hoping I get like a cute one. Yeah. And not a ghost. Yeah. And not like a soul-stealing sort of ditto who then just become me with eyes or like a Mutu who's like overly.

Yeah. Okay. I think this is sound reasoning. I'm going Chocobo Dungeon like Heather because I'm more a Final Fantasy person than the Pokemon person. I'd be more interested in living in a Final Fantasy world and also

might meet Tifa. You might meet Tifa. It depends on sort of what Final Fantasy you're in but it is possible. You could roll the dice. It's at least a possibility. Yeah, it's not impossible. There's like a one out of 15 chance

that it's on the table. It's not possible if you pick The Pokemon dungeon. That's true. There's no way. There's no way. Unless. I'm playing a homebrewery.

Sure. You're just showing ditto a picture of FIFA? There is. There it is. Ranch, Pokemon, dungeon, Chocobo dungeon. You got a leaning? I want to ride a chocobo so bad. Nice.

Yeah. Yeah. They're also described as having a good smell in, like, multiple games. They smell good. I'm like, oh man, that's nice. Yeah, they look like they fucking stink. Yeah. It had to be specifically stated,

these ones don't stink. Would you blathers, pilot mecks to battle bug kaiju like an Into the Breach or captain a starship through a hostile galaxy like an FTL? So mech pilot or starship captain. And either way, the world is against you. They're against you? I guess so, yeah.

You the player. Yeah, yeah. I'd like just citizens are like, I don't like that you're doing that. I'll go first. My answer's obvious. I'd get the mech. I'd paint it red. I'd be ready to go.

Yeah. I think, yeah, being in a mech seems awesome. Just like full stop. It sounds, it looks cool. Obviously, it seems like the most dangerous thing you could do based on how I've seen it go. But I think if I got to. Pick how the mech looked even. That's pretty sick, actually.

Yeah. I'm going with the mech, absolutely. Wow. I'm going with a starship. I'm a crack pilot. I'm using dual controllers on this thing, you know, six points of direction. I think I can fight my way out of there. And I'm also not as familiar with mecs, you know?

Yeah. So I'd have a hard time. Yeah, I think I'd take Starship as well. I mean, I've played both these games by the same developer subset games, both great games that I love that I put a lot of hours into. But the thing about being a captain is like, I just let everyone else kind of take, going to do stuff for you. Yeah. Just sitting that chair on the bridge and then. Probably got a cool hat.

Probably. You might have a cool hat, cool uniform at least. At least a cool jacket. Yeah. Yeah. I mean pretty sick, actually. Speaking of starships, you guys seen the footage of that Star Wars racing game? That looks fucking sick.

It looks so fucking good, man. Ranch, do you take Starship Captain or a meck against bug kaiju? I hate bug, so I will go Starship. All right. You get to kill bugs with your big me. But what did they get me? They could get you. They could get you.

That's the ultimate worst. And think about this. This has a nice ring to it. Captain Ranch. Oh, yeah. That is nice. Captain Ranch. It's me, Captain Ranch.

All right, that's your new nickname. Yeah, Captain Ranch. I like it. Would you blathers fight through a dungeon armed with a deck of cards like in Slay the Spire or as a giant anthropomorphic dice like in dicey dungeons? I get too dizzy to be a dice, I think. I think I could do it. The dice has legs. Tumbling.

A dice has legs. Oh, okay. So you're, ugh. But then, mm. Ugh. It is kind of horrify. What side of the legs on, though? What number?

How do you roll if you've got legs? Yeah. Well, I think you can tuck the legs and roll, just like a human being roll. I don't want to tuck my legs. Just like we can roll. Are you doing all the rolling? I can do a roll. You can do a summer, like a somersault.

I'm just now picturing Nick and his free time just tumbling. I'm going deck building. I don't want to think about legs on dice. I agree with this. And also, so it seems like unfair of the dice. Like if legs are growing out of one side, then that means they're uneven dice. Wow.

Yeah, because I also get arms and eyes and facial features. I mean, let's see if I could get an image of this dice. It kind of feels like they got like blood and lungs and stuff. Yeah, I don't want. The dice shouldn't exist. I agree. It's an abomination. Let's kill it.

What's it called? Dicey dungeons. Just so I know to avoid. I mean, with a name like that, it sounds like, you know, for fun. He's got little legs. I take back everything I've said. He's cute. He's really cute.

But like, so six is always going to be on top. That's the way he's like, his like anatomy is. He's loaded. I'm going to be the dice guy. That is not the picture that I found. This is the picture I found. That's a witch. It's got like a big dick going into it.

Going into. Oh, that's a fan art. Yeah, I think that one is. What the fuck is this? That's the one hole. Oh my God. God, no. It's a fucking,

this is a dice fuck in this game. Why do you do Rule 34 this? What are you doing? To be fair, Heather Google, Dicey dungeon,

fuck. And that the internet delivered. I think I got to go with the cards. Yeah, I think I can do some damage.

Actually, yeah, hold on. What's up, dice? Nice me up. I think there's something interesting

about being an abomination. You know, I'm, I'm, just because I feel like there's like, oh, wow, you're a big walking dice. What's going on with that guy? You know what I mean? And also, I feel like I'd be more powerful as a dice guy as opposed to like a guy who wields cards. But, Ranch, what do you think? Well, I was going to say dice guy until I saw that fan art. It's no good.

It's no good. Yeah, the dice is impure. Yeah. Captain Ranch is out. All right, a couple more. Would you blathers be afflicted with the darkest dungeon quirk fear of beasts or the quirk fear of mankind? I already got that one. Yeah, I was like, nothing changes. I'd like to think that beasts and I would get along, that I could, I could sort of have a,

a friendship with all beasts of any kind. So you're like a beast master. I can be like a beast master. So I think I'll take fear of mankind. Yeah, I'll take fear of mankind, very similar to being in a parking lot as a woman. Wow. Agreed. A black man with police.

I would blather fear of mankind also because I'm hoping these beasts scale up as we go. You know what I mean? Maybe you start with a squirrel. You end up with a powerful bearer lion. Yeah, I'm going to be afraid of some little bird. Who cares? Yeah, I don't worry about it. Yeah.

Yeah, I mean, the case for taking fear of mankind is strong. I am going to take fear of beasts because even though that would maybe make me an enemy of all dogs and cats, which would be very limiting for my life, I just kind of feel like it would be so socially crippling to be even more afraid of people than I already am. So, like, I kind of want to. Yeah. My social anxiety is at a manageable level now. I can't make it, it can't make it debilitating. So I'm,

I'm gonna, I'm gonna, I'm gonna stick there and take the fair of beast's negative quirk. Ranch, what do you think? My whole retirement plan is to live on an island and... Careful. There's a woman who lives on an island in, I think, Canada.

And then she has like a hundred St. Bernard. Wow. Wow. That's what I want. Because you had remind us how many dogs you grew up with in Thailand? 13. 13 dogs. And dogs love you.

If you've been around Rochelle when there's a dog in the office, they go, like, they bond immediately. There's actually class in Darkest Dungeon in the Houndmaster. You're kind of a houndmaster. Wow. The Houndmaster, Captain Rand. All right. Finally, would you blathers ride a train to hell like in Monster Train or sit on a nuclear

throne like a nuclear throne. What? That's tough. Wait, what? No, no, no. Train to hell or nuclear throne? What is a nuclear throne? I don't know. I don't answer to this one. I blithe of a nuclear throne.

It goes two ways. Either I melt immediately or I become the most powerful being who's absorbed these rays. Yeah, I mean, like, train to hell. It's like, that can't, you already know it's going to be bad when you arrive. Yeah, yeah, I've heard not so good things about hell. Yeah, and you know the ride's not comfortable. No. Well, you're on the monster train.

Yeah, that's true. Is the train a monster or all the passengers monster? My understanding is that they're the train. I'm actually not sure. Okay, because. I thought that there were monstrous elements of the train, but I'm not sure. Like the train got teeth? Yeah.

Yeah. Or it's just like a monster truck It was just like a very big train Oh actually that's not too bad There was a monster truck rally Not that long ago And I got ticket Like I got an alert

That there were tickets available day of And it was just too tough a sell for my wife I was like When we went to the monster truck rally tonight She's like we can't do that We can see Grave Digger I was look I'm working on it for next time

I think with more heads up She could be down yeah Hey, I really wanted to go to that that one time. You kind of let me down. Yeah. Why don't you just stage that you're in your room and have an eye dropper with a tear? Yeah. Have her walk in just be like.

Yeah, nothing. Just thinking about the biggest tires I've ever seen. Just thinking about a robot dinosaur. That is the kind of thing that would make a woman start a TikTok. I caught my husband crying about tires. Then he started to describe a big mound of dirt. Three million views. What's you doing?

I'm trying to find it. All right. He's always very nice to her, of course. I'm trying to find an image of the titular monster train, and it appears that the monster train is more of just like a badass train to hell. Look, hey, if I'm going there anyway, might as well roll in style, baby. Hell, yeah. Two, two.

I'll be with you as well because I just love I love trains. That feels like the ultimate train. Yeah. I'm going to go out. Let me go out on the train. Yeah. Straight into the abyss. One way too good.

Ranch, how about you? Train or Throne? If I'm not on the train, I'll have FOMO. Oh. Okay. It just means Sam on the throne and you guys are all trains. Wow. Two, two.

Well, there you go. Hey, that's this week. get play. Wait, did you answer? I chose throne. I thought you chose throne. I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna fucking go to hell. Fuck you guys. What are you insane? I don't know. You'll never convince me to go to hell. We're all there. There's no convincing. It won't work. I don't want to go to the Pokemon dungeon because ghosts would be real. I'm not going to hell. You don't want to shake hands with a red devil? No. They should have done it. You remember that that liar kid who did that book,

Heaven is for real? They should have got another kid to do hell is for real. It's like I died and I went to hell and then it came back because I was a bad kid. It's the worst place ever. It sucks. But I was too bad for hell. Yeah. There was that Bob and David sketched at the Mr. Show reboot that they did for Netflix where it's basically that premise. But the kids like, and I went to heaven.

Hitler was there. That says it. That's this week's Get Played. Our producer, Rochelle Chen, Ranch Yard underscore underscore, underscore, Sard. You stream in anything, Rochelle? I'm streaming Silent Hill F. Wow, how's it going? It's going really slowly.

I feel like I've asked about this before. Is it going slow because you're finding it difficult, or are you not having fun with it? I think it's because I'm streaming so infrequently. I play it on stream. I also find it difficult. which is also kind of making me not enjoy it as much. But I feel like if I were to play it more often, it would get easier. At this point, you feel like you owe it to your audience to see it through?

Or have you thought about bouncing off of it and playing something else? Yeah, I feel like, I feel like I'm a completionist, so like I just kind of have to do it. I believe in you. You can do it. I think you can do it. I believe in the houndmaster, Captain Rang. Music by Ben Prenti, Ben Pronti, Music.com, art by Duck Brigade, Design, Duck Brigade.com, merchant kinshipgoods.com and our Patreon

Get Played DLC as a bonus episode every Wednesday. Matt, do you know what we're doing this week? It's back to the super question block turbo deluxe edition where we answer all your questions about our little plumber friend Mario. Wow, there you go. Mario questions over at patreon.com slash get played. Our guest today, Sam Richardson.

Thank you so much for being here. Thanks for having me. What a delight. This is so much. I loved it. Very much. Please come back if you ever have the time. Is there anything you'd like to plug? Instagram is the Sam Richardson Yeah that's it

Such a funny Funny actor funny guy You're in a bunch of great things Go check out Sam stuff It's all the best Yeah definitely for gamers out there Werewolves within You should definitely check it out

That's right There you go And Sam also I regret to inform me that you got played Damn it That was a hitgum podcast Hey, I'm Gareth Reynolds, and I have a new podcast on HeadGum called Next We Have. Now, this show is for people with short attention spans, which is everyone.

I mean, you're probably trying to skip this ad right now, but don't, because you now legally have to listen to the show. That's how law works. Next we have is very simple. Each episode has three short segments. For instance, Lisa Gilroy and I write insane revenge, Yelp reviews for callers who had bad experiences with a business. The Do Boys play a game called Meal or No Meal. and Steph Tolliv and I go head to head on a thought-provoking game called Guess That Sound. The show is as dumb as it sounds, and we probably have more fun than we should.

But it's a great time, and you should listen or watch new episodes of Next We Have every Thursday on YouTube or your favorite podcast app.