Get Played - Two Point Museum with Mike Drucker

Episode Date: March 31, 2025

Mike Drucker (The Tonight Show, Nintendo) returns to the show to discuss his new book Good Game, No Rematch: A Life Made of Video Games (available 4/1/25) and the museum management sim game Two Point Museum! They also discuss more of Assassin's Creed Shadows, Avowed, Disney Villans Cursed Cafe and more. Check out our brand new merch at kinshipgoods.com/getplayed. Follow us on social media @getplayedpod. Music by Ben Prunty benpruntymusic.com. Art by Duck Brigade duckbrigade.com. For ad-free main feed episodes, our complete back catalogue including How Did This Get Played? and our Premium DLC episodes and our exclusive show Get Anime'd where we're currently watching Look Back 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. Hey team, we're trying to get in on the next hot trend in gaming. And these days, everyone loves a sim game where you just do something mundane. You know, these two point games, Yes point hospital point campus now to point museum You know all these all these farming simulators all these business simulators. We want our version of that Okay. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. So it's a floor open we can do whatever the floor is open. I'm taking any pitches we can blue sky it right now Well, you know like I'm gonna start off small. Yeah small. I always want a candy company You know I thought it would be cool to just simulate a candy company. That's really good

It's a real basic intro right there. That's a great idea. I love that. Thank you. Candy company candy company Candies candy's really good. What about an arcade sim? Oh yeah. Where you're like managing arcade and you can pick what kinds of games you have in the arcade and you can also play the game. Oh I like that. That's nice. That's nice.

Can I just stop down for a second here? I was expecting these ideas to be a lot worse. These ideas are both pretty good. Oh okay. These both sound like good games. Okay. Cool. But I'm encouraged by how good this team Oh, okay. These both sound like good games. Okay, cool, cool. But I'm encouraged by how good this team is at pitching actual games that sound like something people would want to play. Okay, okay. I feel encouraged by this.

Anyway, my idea is a sim where you run a diaper shop, where you buy diapers, only diapers. Okay. Diaper store simulator. If you were sitting on the best idea today. Why don't you just say that yeah? Yeah, I mean like if you if first off I feel like you just like you gave me a blue pad on the head And then you kicked me down a flight of stairs with that idea You're like hey good job with the candy store

And then you came out in the left field with diaper store, and I feel like a fucking asshole It's like you walked up to me at the urinal looked at my hog said nice dick And then whipped out a fucking monster right next to me. Yeah, like, what the fuck is this? Why would you do that? It's like you're sitting in my restaurant, and you're like, I love this spaghetti, and then you puke all over my shoes,

and you said it's your fault. The fuck is wrong with you, man? Pigeon a-pukes him? Because I can get behind that. OK, now he's batting 1,000 this time. I'm fucking believable. He's unbelievable with these ideas. You know what?

Fuck you, John. You know what? Fuck you, John. Hey, what the fuck? Fuck you. Fuck me? Fuck you. Fuck you, John. Like, I came in here and I've been sitting on this idea of a candy sim for like a week

because I saw the memo. I like the candy sim. We might make it. You just come in here and you take a bat to my fucking teeth, you piece of shit. Fuck you. You know what? You know what? I think we all need to calm down here. We made the decision to stop being longshoremen and work at a video game company.

We made, there was a big midlife career shift. We're all down at the docks, working, doing hard blue collar work. I swear to God, if you're about to pitch what I think you're about to pitch. Dock simulator. You motherfucker. Here's the thing, here's what's so crazy about you and why I hate you so much. You know what? it was one thing that you fucked my wife. I could let that go Yeah, but this is crazy. Yeah, I was there and you made me watch you fuck his wife And you made me watch you were into it

I wasn't fucking you were giving you the easiest Well, then now I feel bad cuz I do does certainly did not want to make you witness something you want to see I feel like I'm in the same situation again cuz you're here fucking this idea in front of both of us And we just gotta fucking watch it There's spitball in here Or you have you know people in your workplace And you try to commit acts of infidelity with their spouses Maybe make other employees witness that kind of like a like a cuckoldry simulator. I think people would be into that

You mother motherfucker, it's the best idea could face reality We collect dinosaur bones and experience what it's like to have an actual job as we discuss beloved business sim Two Point Museum this week on Get Played, your one-stop show for good games, bad games, and every game in between. It's time to get played. I'm your host, Heather Ann Campbell, along with my fellow host, Nick Weiger. That's me, Nick Tiger Weiger, along with our third host, Matt Apodaca. Hello everyone. Hello everyone, and welcome back to the premiere video game podcast where we are bringing it to you straight.

No lies, no angles, no takes, just the real real 100% top to bottom. Yeah, I might have some takes. I just I'm just gonna say. I'm gonna have some takes. It's possible I'll go hear a take or two from old wikes. But all my takes are based in the truth. Yeah, it'll all be truth I wouldn't I'm not gonna say anything untruthful you really bellowed out that that hello everyone I think you were peeking there. You think I was speaking you went for it. No, I loved it. It's

Could it be that? It's opening day I want to be calling the game for my Los Angeles Dodgers I Saw a I took the bus here and I was at the bus stop and there was a family Clearly tourists from Japan. Yeah, and they were like trying to like get to Dodger Stadium and there happened to be a woman wearing a like a Dodger jersey And they said they they're like, you know said kind of in broken English Excuse me. Can you help us get to Dodger Stadium? And she goes follow me Oh, Tani

This is like not the show for this whatever but like everybody likes to sort of you know Oh, LA is like this like bad place where everything sucks or whatever. That's community, baby I I love that they're all that's it. That's amazing. Yeah Hey, we have a we have a great guest returning to the show today But first if you have listened to show before you know our producer Rochelle Chen ranch. How you doing ranch? Great. So we we got some new ranch lore that I want to talk about. Oh, yes So Rochelle you're currently fostering a stray dog or we're fostering a stray dog. Is that correct? Great. So we got some new ranch lore that I wanted to talk about. Oh, yes. So, Rachelle, you're currently fostering a stray dog or we're fostering a stray dog,

is that correct? I currently am, yes. You currently are. And everyone at HeadGum was talking about how good you are with dogs, how all dogs love you. If anyone listens to Doughboys, we have our Emma's dog, our producer Emma's dog, Jemi, loves Rachelle so much. And is skittish around other people, skittish even around me, but like loves Rochelle.

Just like- Even around you, everyone's skittish around you. All right. Marks at me like I'm a T-800. But I was like, I asked you about this because it's just a thing people know about you is like you're so good with dogs. Yeah, and you were like, well, as we know,

you grew up in Thailand. And you and your mom lived with your aunt, who had how many dogs? She had 13 dogs. 13 dogs! You grew up in a house with 13 dogs! Yeah, they were all street dogs. They called them soy dogs in Thailand. But they all just kind of wandered into her yard. Yeah, and they just kind of hung out. Yeah, and whoever came just kind of wandered into her yard. Yeah, and they just kind of hung out. Yeah, and whoever came just kind of stayed.

Your aunt didn't have a long white fur coat and black and white hair, did she? We did not skin the dogs. My dog is notoriously anti-person. So I would love to have you over and watch the magic of my dog sniffing a person instead of immediately hating them. Well doesn't your dog love Mary? Yeah, exclusively loves Mary, hates me. Hates me in my own house. Even though we met the dog on the same day.

Yeah. Bites me. You think the dog is like, I know we met the same day, but I really don't like this I mean the joke I think I've said it on the show is that the dog knows Mary's name as Mary and knows me as other Wretch you're back up Mary Wretch we need so we'll figure it out. We need some sort of dog related nickname for you, because this is like your superpower. But 13 dogs, that's totally wild. And so you just developed a camaraderie with them,

a natural way of communicating with our canine friends. I guess so. I mean, they were my only friends for a while. So I don't know. Maybe I learned how to speak somehow. Wow, there you go. You said we needed a nickname. I feel like we just found the origin of the nickname, because it seems like she's a little bit more of a So I don't know maybe I learned how to speak somehow Wow there you go You said we needed a nickname

Yeah, I feel like we just found the origin of the nickname because it seems like she grew up on a dog ranch Everyone's thinking about the dressing not the Hey our guest on the show today a comedian and Emmy nominated writer from the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon and Nintendo. His new book is Good Game, No Rematch, a life made of video games available April 1st, wherever you buy books, Mike Drucker is back. Hi Mike. Hello Mike. Thank you guys so much for having me

and I apologize for jumping into the conversation when 13 dogs came up. No, I loved it. You've gotta get in there when that's what's being discussed. That's exactly the quantity of dogs where you must chime in. Yeah, exactly. Got it, got it. 12 I can understand.

13. It also sounds like a video game. It does. 13 dogs sounds like a puzzle game. Yeah. Yeah, an indie puzzle game that came out in 2014 that makes you cry. All right, so I want to talk about the book, Good Game No Rematch, which I have pre-ordered at my local bookstore.

I'm very excited to read it. Tell us all about it. Sure. During the 2023 writer strike, I, you know, was trying to think of something that I could still write. Right. And so I decided to pitch a book, and I'd been thinking about sort of doing a one-man show about games in my childhood, and I couldn't really get it right.

And so I was like, okay, I'll turn these ideas into a book pitch. And so I pitched it and Harper Collins bought it, which is cool. And so it's a book that's basically a ton of funny essays about how I've humiliated myself throughout my life with video games. So it's like at different moments, just embarrassing myself. Like there's a story about me working at Nintendo in the book where they had a big paintball game And I got shot in the nuts like in the first two seconds So like even at the peak even at my peak it's still bad. Yeah, that's where you holding the gun I crawled across the floor under a desk into a box. What are some of the other, you know, obviously you've been playing games for a long time,

we're roughly the same age, we probably grew up with a lot of the same games, but what are some of the games you talk about in the book? Well, I mean, I definitely talk about Super Mario just because that was the big thing that introduced me to it. And I talk a lot about Final Fantasy. Oh yeah. Because that gave me very bad ideas

of what romance would be when I was 14. Yeah. Yeah. Like, Final Fantasy convinced me to be a cool guy, you just had to say nothing and be stoic. Yes yes, I did not have the body of a stoic boy Like I clearly looked like I wanted to say something very much Talk about that dance dance revolution Street fighter and then later on I get into games like near and

Final Fantasy 7 rebirth when I bring it back and later thing and a ton of arcade games It's kind of like a like you said sort of like a scattershot Look at our lives in terms of right different games. I'm so I'm late to the party on Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth I'm currently playing it and I really loved remake and I was like so it's kind of like I feel like I've had this experience And so that's why I held off I feel like I've had this experience. So that's why I held off on rebirth. Ended up playing it partly because Appadake here convinced me.

And I think it's so incredibly well done. But I'm curious, I mean, you put it in your book, I imagine you're a fan. Yeah, no, no, I liked it a lot. I think at first I didn't like it, and then I realized I don't have to do everything. I can just do the things I want and do the story. Because I'm not a completionist.

I don't platinum things, but I do feel bad if I see a side quest and I just walk past it. Right. Yeah. It's almost like, I'm supposed to do my homework first. And once I realized I didn't have to go into every fucking Moogle hut, I could actually just go through the story. I didn't have to go into every fucking moogle hut, I could actually just go through the story. I didn't have to fucking play that fucking board game again.

Like, I could just keep going. How dare you, you piece of blood? I enjoyed it a lot more. No, Queen's Gambit's fine. I mean, when you had to jump into, like, the strategy game. Oh, okay, okay. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Like, they remade the strategy game from 7 as, like, a weird thing, yeah.

I'm, I'd like. I was thinking about this, or what you're talking about, side quests, and I was just thinking about how many unfinished side quests I'll have when I die. Like just like so many open quests. You mean in the real world or in games? Yeah, I guess, I mean, I guess both. That's morbid, but also awesome.

Do you think you'll have more in games or real life? Wow, great question. It's gotta be in games, just on sheer quantity of tasks I've accumulated over the years. Yeah, true, true, true. Well, what do you count as a side quest in real life? Do you count it as like, hey, I've never used a lathe. I should learn how to use a lathe.

Is that a side quest? I guess so, yeah. If I really wanted to use a lathe. Is that a side quest? Yeah, I guess so, yeah. If I really wanted to use a lathe, I would add that to my queue. Like, here's the thing, like I'm an adult learning to play piano right now. So like I consider that like a side quest, like working on my piano skills. That's just like an ongoing thing.

That's not my main thing. So I think of things, I guess things like that. And I guess you classify errands as side quests. Yeah. Maybe larger things. If I had a project if I what I did have my own book I was working on maybe that might be a side quest or maybe that's part of me my main quest I don't know I'm quite not a categorize you think do you think that some point that playing piano will become your main thing man That'd be awesome. That'd be so great

My second act I'm Liberace. Yeah. Yeah, I's good that you said second act, cause I was about to say third. Laughter But imagine you, imagine you at a piano, everyone's there to see you. Yeah. Everyone's there to see you. Everyone's like, I gotta go see Nick Weigert put on his piano performance. And he's wearing a very beautiful suit and a cape and stuff. This is the most amazing thing we've ever seen. Because you know how other comedy people

that some of us have known in the past have sort of rebranded themselves as very serious artists now. Yeah, it's kind of like Seth MacFarlane being a crooner. It's like, this is the thing I really want to do and this is my true now. It's kind of like Seth MacFarlane being a crooner. You know, it's like, it's like, this is the thing I really want to do. And this is my true passion, you know? It'd be great.

Yeah, honestly, that would be awesome. But I'm miles away from that. For a second, I misregistered the name you said as Todd MacFarlane. And I was like, the guy who drew Spider-Man sings? He might. And then why does Nick know it? He created Spawn, redefined the toy business,

and yeah, now he's an incredible concert pianist. Yes. Yes. Okay, so your previous book, which we talked about Okay, so your previous book, which we talked about on the show, was about Silent Hill 2, and you wrote a recent piece for The Gamer that I really enjoyed called I Wrote a Whole Book About Silent Hill 2, Here's What I Think About the Remake, talking about the Bloober Team remake, which I didn't play, but Matt did play. Yes.

You overall seem very positive on it. Have your thoughts changed at all since you wrote that? Did you end up spending more time with the game? I did spend more time with the game, and I did enjoy one of the neat things they do in New Game Plus is, a couple of the same things you get in the old game, New Game Plus, but they have different video filters, which actually do give a good atmospheric feel

to it at times. To me, it felt very good. It felt like, I mean, almost like what a movie equivalent of it would be, where it's like, you know, The Grudge is a good movie. It's a good horror film. Sure. It's not as good as the original one was in Japan,

but it's still pretty good. And that was sort of my feeling about this Silent Hill 2 remake, was I was like, I enjoyed myself. I do not regret the purchase. I still think the old one's better, and I'll probably play the old one more, but I really enjoyed this one, so I don't want to, like, throw it out entirely just because

I enjoyed the original more. Yeah, I think the comparison I think you land on in the article is, like, talking about the Resident Evil 2 remake, and there you're kind of on the opposite side of, like, you like the remake more, but, like, both games are good and you're glad they exist. I guess, honestly, Rebirth and remake and fight or like original og final fantasy 7 I kind of feel the same way about you know it's like I'm like that all these versions are are available

Yeah, I was I was just going to ask What is the if you could identify one standout element of the remake that is better than the original? What would that standout element be? That's actually a really good question. I would say that it's a little larger in size, so it's a little more detailed. I don't like that they move away from static camera angles, because before in the original Silent Hill 2, it sort of like, you know Like a horror movie where you're looking over someone's shoulder as a hallway is shot from like a weird direction This one's more over the shoulder third person, right? Um, I would say that it is better in terms of it It has a lot of cool details. They clearly really cared about the game in the world

So like the details that they add are actually really good and they do a fun little twist with how like almost kind of like Final Fantasy 7 remake where it's like is this a remake or is this kind of a sequel and they do and they do a good job with that and I'll also say like I'm not a person who needs combat in a horror game but the combat in this if you are a combat fan is much more fun than Silent Hill 2 the original Silent Hill 2 now I might argue that it wasn't supposed to be fun, but in terms of playing a game and feeling good and like enjoying yourself,

it's probably a more just enjoyable experience. Yeah, Silent Hill 2 is not supposed to be a power fantasy. Right. It's a terrifying psychological nightmare. Yeah, the thing that I like about the combat in both versions of the game is that James is bad at fighting. He's like not very strong and he's like, just kind of hits stuff.

Like, that stuff's great. And the thing that you said about it being that sort of meta part of the narrative that they added on, which is like, is this a remake or is this a sequel? That to me sort of justifies the existence of the remake entirely to me. Because I'm like, oh, that's like an interesting, I don't know, that's an interesting idea. I like that. Yeah, and you know what? They really handled Angela's story well. Like, they completely redesigned the look of Angela.

And I remember being like, are they going to change her story? Because her story is, if you haven't played Silent Hill 2, she has like the saddest story in a very sad game. I don't know if I should spoil it or not, but essentially very bad things happened to her and she did something very violent in response to that. And, you know, they handled it surprisingly well in Silent Hill 2, the original. And in this one, they actually expanded on it

just a tiny bit and they really actually did a good job with her story. It's a very tricky story to pull off. And I'm impressed that they did her story right. That's awesome. I mean, I've thought about playing it. I am wondering, and maybe you know the answer to this, maybe Heather knows the answer to this,

like what is the current best way for someone to play the original version of Silent Hill 2? Because the last time when we played it for the show when we had Yon, I was doing the PS3 remake, which is not an ideal way to play it, but it's okay. But if you want to actually play the original Titan Hill 2, I mean, is it even feasible on modern hardware?

Yes and no. I mean, you can easily emulate it on a PlayStation 2 emulator and it'll run well. Got it. In terms of legal ways, if you can get your hands on the PC version of Silent Hill 2, which still like bounces around on eBay, you can, there's a ton of fan mods that are still like up to date, that like give you widescreen support and give you resolutions and make it run better on new machines. So if you can get your hands on the PC version,

you can actually mod it to be like this beautiful looking version of the game that works great. I have a project now. Yeah, you have a side quest. You have a side quest. Okay, I guess we'll never see that beautiful concert. Nick reaching out of his grave. I gave up piano for this. Did you like the, speaking of survival horror remakes,

did you like the RE4 remake? I did, I did. I don't think I went as apeshit over it as most people did, because a lot of people were like, this is so much better than the original. And I was like, it's very good, but the original is just like an all around great show. And I was like, I'm not going to do that. this is like a, this is so much better than the original.

And I was like, it's very good, but the original is just like an all-around great game. 100%, yeah. And it, I really liked it, but I think I kind of got it overhyped to me, which maybe raised my expectations past where they should have been. I think, Matt, we did an episode with our buddy Zig, and we were pretty hype about it,

but I also feel like a lot of the energy we had was us remembering Resident Evil 4, and that game did a great job of remembering that feeling, you know, like just recreating that in a modern context. Yeah, and I've replayed the original Resident Evil 4 after, you know, in the original Resident Evil 4 after, you know, in the subsequent years on different platforms and having one that plays like a modern game though

is worth like its existence alone just because it's like, it's just, and it looks great and it feels good and like it does sort of remind you of your old friend Resident Evil 4. Yeah, sure, yeah. It's great and I do like the I never messed around with the they had this this other mode where you can play like sort of do runs not like a

Not like a like a horde mode. Yeah, like a horde mode or something like that I never really messed with that part of it But I liked the separate ways DLC which I had not experienced the first time around ready to play as Ada Wong Yeah, and that was really really fun. I liked that quite a bit I was gonna say it's strange that you said that it plays like a modern game because I think I think something that's happening is there is becoming a default control scheme that is slowly creeping in there's like one set of controls for like third-person action games, and then there's one set of controls

that evokes Demon's Souls or Souls games. And I feel like that's becoming the two standards of like how you control a video game. Do you agree? I do agree. I've said before, this is the kind of thing that I want like some governing body to just issue like a decree on like I want there to just be

Like we just need to standardize this I can't be going into a new game and like learn it like oh this one has Attack on the face buttons this one has attack on the shoulder buttons You know I mean like yeah, like let's just standardize this I don't need crouched to sometimes be on X and sometimes be on circle I don't need like a and X and Y and And what's the other one? B? I don't need A, B and X and Y to be in different positions on the Xbox controller and the switch controller. Like let's just standardize things, make things simple.

To be fair, you are often trying to get the government to interfere in a lot of different types of things. I kind of feel like you got to calm down with this. There is like, sometimes that is the thing that is to the benefit of consumers. Like the USBC ruling from the EU when they said lightning cables are bullshit and now we have USBC is just more standardized. That just makes everyone's lives a little bit easier. So like, I'm not saying and the EU also did a thing about getting rid of fairly recently and I don't know exactly what the restrictions are but like in-game currencies

yet disguise the real world cost of something. That's good. This is obviously not on the same level of like predation but it is the kind of thing that I feel like I don't know it I'd love for that to be more standardized. Yeah I also think the buttons shouldn't have different the Nintendo Buttons are the same letters as the Xbox buttons, but they're in different places And then it drives me crazy, and then you know the PlayStation one's are shapes They should all just be the same who cares they could be whatever shape they want Yeah, cuz we settled on four face buttons and four shoulder buttons

Yeah, they should just all be the same We don't have like the weirdness of the gamecube with the c-stick anymore No one's no one's riffin everyone we've at least standard on standardized layout Yeah, and the trigger buttons are and the the analog sticks are all r1 l1 r2 l2 And then r3 and l2 that's all across the board the same thing, but the face buttons are all different and it's You know what I think the government needs to get involved. I don't know how it is anymore, but when I worked in development, you know, the first parties would give you the specific art for the iconography of buttons in games, including like their D-pads and

their shoulder buttons, their face buttons, so like you'd be using the official like Sony like square button if you were gonna put that in like a tutorial text tip. I imagine it's a similar sort of thing but that they tend to be, because they use it, especially Sony uses it as part of their branding. They control that pretty tightly. I don't know who's gonna move first then, but yeah, it's such a big part of their thing.

But hopefully we settle this soon. Mike, I know we've obviously talked to you about Silent Hill 2, and we're talking about survival horror here. Is that one of your go-to genres, or are these just games that you happen to like, but your tastes kind of lie elsewhere, generally? I'd never thought of it,

but it really is kind of my go-to genre as just like, oh, maybe I'll play this for a little while. Yeah, sure. And I'm a huge fan of this wave of like $5 indie games that look like PS1 games. Right. And I'd say 20% of them are scams or not good to buy, but then you can refund them on Steam

because they're usually over in 30 minutes. But there's a ton of them that are like really good. Like I played this one game called Kiosk where you're just running this weird food kiosk in the middle of the night. Cool. And it gets super weird and creepy. There's this game Dead Letters,

where you play a weirdo who's like, you're working for like the post office and you have to type in addresses, but everything keeps getting more fucked up as it goes. I'm not describing it well, but like there's all these indie horror games that I've been putting so much time into, usually because they're like, again, they're like five

to 10 bucks and you finish them in two to four hours. Yeah, this is not exactly that, but Buckshot Roulette was more of a meme game, but it was just like a really just like grisly violent game where you were playing, and like a potentially lo-fi like like grisly aesthetic where you were playing Russian roulette with a shotgun and it was first-person mode So you'd be aiming a shotgun at your own face and pulling the trigger and sometimes you would die And I was like this is a really intense experience

That but but I was like yeah, this is worth three dollars. I enjoyed my time with this I just got mouth washing because uh, it's great recommended it. Yeah, it's good. It's great I haven't tried it yet. I'm scared, but I did I bought it in the the the steam sale It was it was it was on sales like oh, I'll toss I'll get this in my library here, but I have not yet worked up the nerve to play it on my Steam Deck. ["The Room is My House"] Mike, we have one more question that we like to ask. You and the room, what are you playing? What are you playing?

Hey, it's me, the residentin-Eve-Mer-gent, and I'm here asking all my friends, and Mike! What are you playing? It's okay, I don't want Mike to feel bad about that. Yeah, we should exclude Mike from there. I think Mike also can be considered a friend. Mike's my friend? Yeah, I think so, Resin-Eve-Mer-gent.

I love it, I love it, make a new friend. Okay. Okay. Can you, can you in that voice just say what you're buying, what you're selling? What do you mean in that voice? In my voice? In your normal voice? What are you buying? What are you selling?

Like that, like that. I heard you guys talking about the remake and I fucking hated it. Yeah, you of course got recast in the remake. It's kind of a, you know, it's kind of a bummer. We liked the other voice actor, but we missed you. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And the difference between lived experience and a voice actor is bullshit.

One of us lived there for years. I guess I went, what are you playing? Do we ask the guest first? Yeah, I think we can ask Mike. Mike, what are you playing? Oh, I actually, weirdly, I did a full replay of WarioWare Twisted. Wow. I love it. I found it in,

because I was going through like a bunch of boxes and stuff and I found it in like the bottom of my Game Boy bag and I was like, oh, I thought I lost this. Like I, for years, I thought like, it was one of those games that had just sort of slipped through my fingers somehow. And so I loaded it up, the cartridge was, the battery on it was dead.

I replaced the battery and it's great. It's so, it's so fun. It's such, it's great. It's so fun. It's almost like a toy in a way that like only Nintendo games kind of beat are. It's so good. So I spent like two or three days just playing WarioWare Twisted.

And I'm also still playing Evoud. I love, I wanna ask you about Evoud, but I love Twisted. That was, it had a, I think it was a gyroscope in the cartridge. Gyroscope in it. So you're saying like after 20 I think it was a gyroscope in the cartridge. So you're saying like after 20 years in storage, the gyroscope was still functional? The gyroscope's functional, but it wasn't saving.

Oh, okay, got it. The thing that, what I remember about that game is it played better on the regular Game Boy Advance as opposed to the SP, because you have to like physically spin the thing, and it's a little clumsy to do with the folding screen. Yeah, but I've been using it on the analog pocket.

Oh, nice. Yeah, it worked pretty beautiful. Yeah, that's awesome. What do you think of Avowed? Matt, spend some time with it. Yeah, I bounced off, but I wanna get back into it. You know what, I like it for what it is. I think a lot of people want it to be Skyrim.

And I knew going in, reading all the interviews about it, that they were like, don't go in expecting Skyrim. And I understand the criticism that it feels a little bit like a theme park ride, that you're kind of being like, ushered along, where there's like diverging paths and whatnot, but like everything seems kind of like pre-planned and staged. I like that though. Like, I'm a big fan of theme parks. I kind of like going on a little adventure where,

even if there's a little artifice in certain scenes where you're like... The way the characters are lined up or move is just a little too Disney animatronic. Sure. I don't know. I'm enjoying that. I'm enjoying sort of that theme park feel of it. I even... You know, I don't really care about the combat like I most I'm playing as like a trying to do a high intelligence type character To talk my way out of shit, but like yeah, it's fun. It's it's a fun game It's not my game of the year definitely, but it's a perfectly fine video game. It is a video game I won't regret playing right, you know almost the way I felt it feel it felt about Resident Evil 4 remake

I was like, I'm having a good time, I don't regret it. But, you know, that's about it. Yeah, sure. Yeah. I feel like I'm going to like, you bounced off it ultimately. I bounced off of it only because I started to then getting in, you know, the weeds with that Pokemon ROM hack that I was playing and then just a couple of other things that are, that came across my desk recently,

but I would like to get back into it because I was really, really enjoying it. I was playing like a wizard build with also, I also then had a sword too, so I was just kinda, being what a teenager would think is like the coolest thing you could fucking do. I was like, I'm a knight, but I'm also a wizard, And being what a teenager would think is the coolest thing you could ever do. I'm a knight, but I'm also a wizard and I can throw fire at you.

But also I was messing around a little bit. You could have a gun. I just think that's so funny. You could be a wizard with a gun. It's good. Why not? One of my favorite parts of Kingdom Come deliverance too is that they do have a gun. That's so funny.

But it takes solid, I would say, 35 seconds to load. And the whole time you have to be running away from somebody. Yeah. Same with the crossbow. Like you load the crossbow, you put in one arrow, and then you have to crank for a while to get the cable to come down

So it's a really ineffective weapon. It's pretty neat Where would you say Mike you are in relation to like maybe like finishing the game? Are you like? middle of it, I mean I'm I'm at the like if the acts are broken up by like where Because they're sort of like five open area type places. Yeah, I'm at the, like, if the acts are broken up by, like, where, because they're sort of like five open area type places, I'm at the very end of the third. Or at least I can sense that this act is closing out and they're shuffling me towards the next area.

Got it, got it, interesting. Yeah, I have a friend, my buddy Connor, is like super into Avald right now. Every time I see him, he's just like, I can't stop playing Avald. He's just so into it I see him, he's just like, I can't stop playing Avowed. He's just so into it, which is great. I gotta get back into it. Heather, what are you playing?

I've had a pretty thin week of gaming. The thing that I've primarily played this week is the Pokemon Pocket card game, which as of this record, just had a new expansion come out. I feel like what's happening in the game though is a little bit of stagnation. Like there are, I would say, four top tier decks,

and if you have those decks, it is essentially, not a literal in-game coin flip, but is a coin flip on whether or not you're going to win. Because there's not a lot of like, elasticity in your strategies that you have to pull. There's a very minor amount of adaptation. And I think what I'm experiencing is the difference between a 40 card deck and a 20 card deck.

Because the actual in-person game is a much, much larger deck. So there's a lot more variability in what you can build with those cards because you don't have to, your focus doesn't have to be how fast can I do damage because you can in the larger tangible card game set up decks with much slower energy builds and have like defensive cards in front of those builds

while you like, for example, you build up Charizard. Because the game, because the pocket game has so few cards, all of the decks are based on alacrity and like how fast you can get energy on any specific card. So I'm starting to get a little, I don't know, wary. I'm a little bored by it. And I'm really hoping that this new expansion like increases the different builds of cards

or decks that you can do. But there's not even like, it's become so optimized and so min maxi that I can't, but there's not even like, it's become so optimized and so min-max-y that like I can't even play the fun decks that I used to play, like the one where I was playing this Weepin' Bell and like pulling people out of their discard pile, or I was doing a Porygon Z deck because it's fun to like strike

and then change somebody's energy. The problem is that there are so many cards now that generate energy that you don't even have to rely on the energy like the actual energy being created by your deck So yeah, I don't I don't know There's also a ranked mode coming out and maybe that's going to change things

But that's been what I've been playing I and maybe that's going to change things. But that's been what I've been playing. I would say I've put in a few hours in that game, but mostly because I had jury duty. So I didn't wanna bring a full fucking video game into jury duty, because I don't wanna be a dick. But yeah, I just didn't have a ton of gaming time this week.

I was on a jury for like two weeks towards the end of last year, and this one woman was just knitting the whole time. Like she didn't stop knitting, and she went from having nothing to a full set of gloves by the end of it. I was like, that was fucking amazing. That's so cool. That's crazy, yeah.

I for sure would have just been playing my Switch the whole time. No, yeah, I wasn't doing shit. I like, what you're describing, what you're talking about with card games, cause I do really like card games when I feel like I have the same experience with all of them, which is that I love them,

I'm obsessed with them, I get really into the meta, and then I, you know, the meta game aspect of it, and then I'm optimizing my desks, and then I get bored, and then I burn out on it. And I've just sort of accepted that that's my cycle with these sorts of games in the same way with like a rogue-like. I do the same thing, I love this so much,

I'm going on so many runs, then at a certain point, I'm just like, okay, I feel like I kind of like have solved how to play this, that I just, I lose the interest in this. But I think that's kind of the experience. But also, what you talked about with deck size, like that was such a thing because Magic the Gathering was like 60 cards, right? So it's a huge deck.

And then, you know, the first thing Hearthstone does, so when Hearthstone drops the scene is they just cut that cap in half. So it's a 30 card deck. Marvel Snap, which like is so built for mobile specifically, so built for phones, is a 12 card deck. So they just keep getting the decks smaller and smaller so that you're basically always doing just trying to rush down your opponent.

So yeah, it does start to feel very, very samey. Yeah, I hope, I mean, what would be great is if they released a premium, like I know that there's very few pay models that actually work, but it would be awesome if they released like a full blown Pokemon card game, like for mobile, because I would pay money to play that game.

I would love it. You mean like the old Game Boy version? I mean, I didn't play the Game Boy version, but I mean like if they just digitized the current Card game experience. Oh, I see what you're saying. Yeah, and you could just play the actual full deck experience Like I would I would be great. I would pay an enormous amount of money for that Nick, probably like a normal amount of enormous too crazy with that. I pay an enormous amount of money Nick, what do you play? Heather, thank you so much for asking.

So much money. $30. Okay, that's a lot. So I've been playing Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, as I mentioned, but I'm surprised by how much I like Assassin's Creed Shadows. And I'm like, it's kind of hard for it to play two big honkin' games at once. I need to commit to one of them, but I've just been kind of like dipping in and out of both.

I did restart my Assassin's Creed Shadows playthrough in Canon mode after hearing TripleClick rave about it. We talked about how much we loved immersive mode last time, which is that like, instead of it being an English dub, mean, dub, it's a fucking video game, but whatever, like, like, it's like all the the actors speak either Japanese or Portuguese. And it's like, it's great. And it's I think it should just be the default. And it's kind of unclear what you're choosing when you're, you know, doing those opening menus. But it like it totally like, like, it just ups the production value of the game. But so the canon mode is a thing where it removes

all the bullshit sort of decisions you have to make, like save him or spare him or whatever. And it's like, well, knowing that there's a canonical way that this goes, it feels like these decisions are just arbitrary and meaningless. So I don't wanna even have to think about these. So I just went back to Canon mode and then that's just automated

and it feels like just like a linear story, which is great. But it's one of those things where it's like, why even make this an option? It's like, I don't wanna go, I hate like a pizza restaurant where I have to build my own personal pizza. It's like, just you make those decisions.

You know what I mean? I just want pepperoni. Yeah. Yeah. Sir, sir, I just want pepperoni. Yeah. Sir? Sir, I need you to say it though. Don't make me say it. But anyway, I'm kind of torn between these two big games in terms of what I'm going to play. I might just go, fuck. I do really like shadows is the thing. But I don't want to not play through Rebirth after I finally got around to it, and I'm really enjoying it.

Anyway, that brings me to what I've been playing, Disney Villains Cursed Cafe. So this was surprise launch during, as you're listening, this past week's Nintendo Direct. It was developed by Ontario-based Bloom Digital, which is a self-described idealistic studio that makes games for a hopeful and loving future. And I gotta say, this game... So they're delusional. Well, here's the thing

This game rips. Oh, wow, it's so good. I'm so into it. I'm playing on my OLED switch I had the thought like this might be the last game I play on my my switch one Wow Which is like that's kind of a weird thought but yeah, it's it's it's really it's really really fun It is very much for me. Is it free to play or do you have to, is it, do you buy it? No, it's like $15. Okay, great, okay, I actually prefer that. It feels fairly priced. What Disney Dreamlight Valley is to Stardew Valley,

this game is to coffee talk. It's this cozy cafe management game where you're, instead of a barista, you're a potionista because you're making potions for Disney villains like Captain Hook and Ursula. I mentioned the developers, and they've done, in the past, like Dating Sims and visual novels,

it seems like I haven't played any of their other games, but there's talented writers, talented narrative designers there. The writing is really fun and clever. It's almost a visual novel's worth of dialogue. Like, there's a lot of it, but it's all very engaging. The art direction is straightforward, but it's effective. And also the decision they made is the villains all dress in modern attire, like they're actually going to a coffee shop. So you see Jafar wearing earbuds. It's really...

It's very sad. So the way gameplay kind of progresses is there are standard potions that you brew, like Gaston will just want, he'll just have some specific request and you make it for him. But then there will also be like, oh, Captain Hook is searching for inspiration. And so he will either, he will maybe request a potion of a specific kind,

but you have the decision to be, these are the things that are called story potions. You'll have the decision to brew a different potion, which maybe puts him on a different path, maybe perhaps a more virtuous path. So you can kind of lean into like his, you know, innate evilness, or you can sort of be like, well, what if you, instead of pursuing this pleasure,

what if you looked inside of yourself or whatever? So it's kind of fun, and it's slight but in a good way, in a easy, breezy, fun way. I'm gonna keep playing it. And I'm surprised by how much I like it. But I'm also not surprised by how much I like it. No, yeah, this sounds like the exact type of bullshit you like. LAUGHS Speaking of Nintendo Direct, they had that announcement

about the virtual game cards, and I was like, that's fucking awesome. It's such a Nintendo thing. They come up with something that no one asked for or thought about, and it's either like complete nonsense or the coolest thing in the world. I like it because I share, I'm a multi-switch household. Yes, me too. I think it's great share, like I'm a multi-switch household. Yes, me too. I think it's great.

It's awesome. Yeah. For those of you listening who aren't familiar with it, they're making your digital purchases into virtual game cartridges that you can then lend to members of your household so that they can play the game for I think two weeks before it automatically retransfers back to you.

That way you can share your digital purchases without, say, sharing your actual Switch. Yeah. And that's fucking rad. Matt, what are you playing? So I'm also playing Assassin's Creed Shadows. I haven't dropped it. And I'm kind of jealous that you started over.

And I wish I had heard TripleClick say that before. I have now put 20 hours into it. Oh, shit! You're too committed to that play. Yeah, I had a rare day over the weekend where I just had nothing to do. Wow. And I was swapping controllers on the charger. I was, it was disgusting.

That sounds like paradise. It was great. From the moment I woke up to like basically like when I went to bed. Oh my God. I was playing Assassin's Creed Shadow. Oh my God. Jesus Christ.

Oh my God. No, it was a bad day. It was great, but it was like I should have gone outside for a little bit or something. You're living like you got bigged. My life is kind of like I got bigged. I'm always jumping on this big piano. And fucking an adult woman.

If only. But so I'm still playing that and I just got to the part where you get the, you get the second character back. Oh yeah. Let me tell you something. Heather? I know. As soon as you get to that you're never gonna stop because Even my wife remarked on this there's a move that he has Where you can kick a guy? Yeah, and you can't just like you don't just kick him you can be you kick him off screen

And it looks so funny that my wife will request that I kick some it's crazy It's like a this is Sparta kick. Yeah, it's taking someone to oblivion Yeah, you're knee up to your chest just kicking them just yeah so far away damn it it rocks But then he's also but it's also funny because he's so big the idea of him sneaking around is kind of That's like a part of the game the game's appeal. It's like a very base level You know what one character who's big and one character who's small? Yeah around is kind of funny. That's like a part of the game's appeal. It's like a very base level. You have one character who's big and one character who's small.

Yeah. It's like, hey, that's fun. It's good, because you're sort of like, okay, makes sense the small one's good at sneaking. But if you saw this big guy in a fucking mound of grass, you'd see him from like two miles away. He's the biggest guy, he's huge. But I'm really enjoying it,

and I like how they come together within the story. And I don't know if, because I haven't played a lot of these two completions, so I don't know if the story is the thing in an Assassin's Creed video game, right? I know that there's narrative elements that are satisfying to people. I mean, there's village building and stuff.

All that shit is really good. Well, you can build a What do you call it your your base camp you can add things to it And I've that's like not a thing that I like to do and I found myself being like I have to have a place to study Gotta have a forge of some kind I got it like so. I've been gathering materials to do that And I'm sort of taking the open world approach where like I'll get bogged down in Wanting to do all the things I got to a point in rebirth where I was like this is good I'll never see the end of this game if I'm playing it the way that I'm playing it

Right exactly and so I'll do that for a while But what my approach right now is if there's something on the way and it seems like I'll do that for a while, but my approach right now is, if there's something on the way and it seems like I could do it quickly, I'll do it. But if it seems like it's gonna be a bigger to do, I'll just leave it on the map and then maybe circle back to it if I'm feeling a little listless and not wanting to progress the story that much further.

All I do in Assassin's Creed games on my first, I'd say 10 to 15 hours, is go to the high points. Yes That's what I love that thing like if I especially if there's like a couple on the way to attack I'm like well I'm hitting these towers because and in the what's good about the high points in in this and I assume a lot of the other Assassin's Creed games down below is like a base for you to attack and like yeah kill a bunch of samurais and stuff Yeah, it's so that feels very very fun. I just I think the gameplay is really really great I've gotten I got these

I don't know what they're called, but it's basically like well It's like it's a two-handed weapon where one is like a ball like a spiky ball the other one is like a blade So they kind of play functionally like the blades of Olympus in God of War Yeah, it's so that I've just I've just been doing that and just like ripping people's fucking throats out with this thing It rocks. It is so so great It's a very satisfying game if you could set an Assassin's Creed game in any time of history Where would you want to set an Assassin's Creed game? My not funny answers 2016 I think But now want to set an Assassin's Creed game? Not funny answer is 2016, I think.

But now, gosh, I mean, you know, it would be kind of, honestly, it might be interesting, because you know, the Animus stuff is the modern day stuff. It might be interesting to do like 1930 or something. It might be kind of cool. Yeah. Mike, I, you know, I'm, this is the first Assassin's Creed game I've played

in a while as, and I, where are you on the franchise? Are you a fan? When I say I'm not a fan, that's not me saying I am against the series. Right, sure. It's more like it's, it's one of those series where I think I own most of the games just through Steam sales and I will play five

or 10 hours of them and then sort of just bounce off. It's just something about them, like, just doesn't grab me. Like, I don't know. For some reason, they just don't seem to grab me that much. And I always want to. Like, I always give them a good try and I just bounce right off. Is it a setting situation? Like, for example, if it was an Assassin's Creed set in,

and I'm gonna take a shot in the dark here, 1989 Tokyo, would you want to play the Assassin's Creed 1989 Tokyo? I don't know. The thing is, I kinda like what you guys were saying about, I like jumping up on a building and I like looking out at the landscapes and I like sort of like, you know, watching

and you know, doing the combat, but I don't really get into the story of any of them. Sure. And I find like the idea of the whole like sci-fi rapper that it's in to be kind of like, not always not corny. I also don't find that aspect particularly compelling. I agree with you there.

And so, I don't know. I don't know. Like I I've always just like and because there's always so much else to play I just have gone to other things, but I have nothing against the series I do I don't I am NOT on I am NOT against Assassin's Creed shadows Yeah, I am NOT that's not I do think the series sort of suffers for there being too many games in the series Yes, 100% sure yeah too many of them And they're all kind of there a lot of them are all kind of the same like you know what we talked about last week We forgot about mirage. Yes came out like last year two years ago. It's like they just keep turning them out

They I didn't do a final count how many there are but I would have to guess there's somewhere between 15 and 30 Assassin's Creed for sure there I think you're right and if you include like mobiles and and like the DS game. Yeah. Yeah, it's like it's it's it might be too too many It's like, it might be too many. If they were all different in the way that Valhalla is different than Shadows, which I think functionally also just very different, like you played two very different types of characters.

But I guess three, because there's two in Shadows. And there's like the bird thing in of alhalla Yeah, there's not that you don't have that in in this one right? Like at least if they were all just a little bit different in the way those are different that'd be one thing But for a lot of them, you're the same fucking guy Essentially yeah, I I do wish that there was a little bit more variability to the set, because it feels like, oh, I'm still in old times.

Yes. And most of those old times, like the fact that Valhalla is, I think, the third oldest, so most of them fall in between Valhalla and now, and that to me is like, that's a thousand years of history. Like how fucking awesome would it be to be like the Paleolithic Assassin's Creed game?

Yeah, that's because Odyssey I know, which I didn't play, but Odyssey was like, set in a more classical era. Like it feels like that, those are the, those are what you'd like to sort of explore a little bit more. Yeah, Yeah, I think there's such a fantastic pipeline for light history in the same way that like a history channel show is light history

Yeah, like they're enjoyable and you do actually learn stuff But they're not like I don't know academic feeling yes, and that's kind of pleasurable sometimes But I do wish there was a little bit more variety in oh, we're not in you know like, I don't know, academic feeling. Yes. And that's kind of pleasurable sometimes. But I do wish there was a little bit more variety in, oh, we're not in, you know, this same 700-year region again. Like, it would be cool if it was like, it's the Tigris and the Euphrates, and you guys are determining how warfare is going to work.

Like, that stuff is cool. That is cool. All right, hey, speaking of franchises, and one that you do play, Mike, Two Point Museum was released on March 4th of this year. This is the third in the series after Two Point Hospital and Two Point Campus. It is developed by UK-based Two Point Studios, published by Sega. And I think this is the highest metacritic of the franchise so far, the museum of the trilogy. Now my experience with Two Point, and I want to get at everyone's, but I know you were

the one who pitched this, Mike, so I want to give you the floor. But I played Two Point Campus and I enjoyed it. And I do really like that it's got this cheeky sort of British sensibility. And it exists in this kind of this real time, you know, business sim genre, which owes its origins to, you know, the Sims, but also like roller coaster tycoon. And obviously there's a bunch more of this. This is a whole flourishing, a flourishing genre these days. But where are you all on the two point?

I mean, Heather, I assume that this is just a franchise that's completely not for you. Yeah, it was, it was not on my radar, but I,, Heather, I assume that this is just a franchise that's completely not for you. Yeah, it was not on my radar, but I played as much of this particular title as I could since it was announced for the pod. And the thing that was most exciting to me about it is that my favorite part of Animal Crossing was building the museum.

So as soon as I was like, oh, wow, it's that part, but kind of granular, I gotta be honest, I was a little on board. Wow. Wow, okay. Matt, how about yourself? I had heard of the other ones. I had not ever checked in on any of these before.

This game in particular became on my radar because my 85-year-old father-in-law sent me a review from The Guardian and asked me if I had heard of this. And he sent me like a there glowing five star review and he was like, this sounds neat. He's English also. So he said it like an English man.

But I, so then I started checking it out and I was surprised to find that I was enjoying myself as well. Yeah, it's, I mean, the gameplay is very, very hooky, but Mike, what got you into the Two Point games? Well, because I believe the Two Point games are made by our spiritual successors to theme hospital. Sure, yes.

And so I liked those when I was a kid. And I kind of, I love sim games. I love SimCity, I love games where you just get to build up something, I love The Sims. And I like love some city. I love games where you just get to like build up something I love the sims and I like that It's super cartoony and fun and goofy and has a good personality and that was also part of like the theme hospital You know games as well in the park so I don't know and

kind of like what Heather was saying I My favorite part of Animal Crossing was building the hospital. Like, all I wanted to do was to get fish, building a hospital, building the museum. Yeah, you were saying. Like, what happened to your island? We fucked up Tom Nook Cracken's skulls on there. Yolk me some bells.

I like the hospital and the terrorist interrogation camp. Fuck. And I hate Assassin's Creed shadows. Terrorist interrogation The museum was my favorite part like I love getting fish for the museum I loved getting fossils for the museum or the love getting fossils for the museum and paintings. Like that to me was the most compelling part. So sort of like what Heather was saying, this was a chance to play in one of my favorite genres and doing one of my favorite things to do in a game.

Right. And I kind of, what I like about it compared to the other games in the series, I would say hospital is my second favorite. Campus is really good. It's just the idea of running a college isn't exciting to me, so it's a little less hooky to me,

but I love museums. And so this is like exactly the right type of game for me on a number of levels. I also love museums. What's your, do you have a favorite museum and do you have a recent, like what's your most recent museum visit that you can remember?

Well, my favorite museum is the Natural History Museum, the New York Natural History Museum on Central Park West. Oh, I love it. I love it, I love it. I love that fucking museum so much. It even says Game Boys on the wall in there. Wow. When you come in.

And the last time I went was probably a couple of months ago with a friend of mine. And she was in town and she was like, she just wanted to like do one of those hangs where you can like just talk during the hang. And so I was like, and she was like, do you want to do like a, you know, do you want to do a hospital or something?

No, she was in a museum or something. And so we went to the Natural History Museum. That's awesome. Heather, most recent, or favorite museum, most recent museum visit. Well, you know, as a Chicago kid, we've got two really great museums, the Field Museum and the Museum of Science and Industry.

The Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago had, when I was growing up, a coal mine that you could go into so you could learn about what a coal mine was. And to a kid, it's terrifying. Because you have to go into like deep underground in this elevator that's not actually going deep underground but as a child you're like,

oh my God, I'm gonna die down here. So I'm really partial to those two museums, but I would say my third favorite museum is the Natural History Museum in New York, which also has two very, very good skeletons of my favorite dinosaur, the Dynonychus. So love it, I love it. I have on my 3DS a ton of photos

from the Natural History Museum in New York. That's cool, I love that. That's cool. Do you remember the last time you visited? like a museum in general Three months ago, what was it? It was the the one downtown here with the Rose Garden out front Oh, okay, which I don't know what the actual name of that museum was But it also is like a big blue whale in it. I think it's the Natural History Museum.

Yeah, it's the one by USC, right? Yeah, it's the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles. My wife, knowing who I am, was like, do you wanna go to a museum? And I was like, uh-huh. I like that museum a lot too, just because they got a lot of dinosaur bones. I like to fuck with them.

I love to see the bones. I love to see the bones. Always cool. Show me the bones a lot of dinosaur bones, and I like Cool show me the bones show me the bones baby good bomb of the bones I love anytime. I'm in a new city. I gotta go to whatever like the museum That's closest where I am is cuz I just gotta see yeah, I gotta see what's going on I was in st. Louis a couple years ago went to three museums Like a day cuz it was just like not a lot to do three museums in like a day, because it was just like not a lot to do while I was there.

They had some interesting art, and one of my favorite ones is actually the, there's a museum in Palm Springs, I think it's called the Palm Springs Modern Art Museum, and they had a really great glass blowing exhibit there that I was like, this is the coolest shit I've ever seen. I love it. I don't know if this this qualifies as a museum

But one place I do want to shout out because I discovered this last year when I was up in Toronto for the first time Is little Canada, which is a this this Dutch billionaire who actually I I met in and had a conversation with basically used his fortune to build Like all of Canada in miniature. And everything is at model railroad scale. And so all the major regions of Canada are represented. And it is one of the sort of things you hear about,

it's like, all right, sure, whatever. And you go in there, and it is so enchanting. It is just absolutely like, I would just, anyone who visits Toronto, anyone who lives in Toronto and hasn't been, absolutely advise a visit to Little Canada. It is such a labor of love and everyone who's working on it is like so like like every you know, you can talk to the people because they're they're actively building more of it. I've just like they are all so engaged in it, so committed to you know, like both like the this this kind of very spirited

active of Canadian patriotism and then then also like, just like, they all just like love the art of miniature. So it's really cool and it's really well done. That's really cool. Yeah, but- Speaking of Dutch, as long as we're on the topic, I also wanna shout out the Video Game History Museum in Holland, which I visited in 2023,

and it is, it's a mecca, it's incredible. It's- Nice. Every cabinet, every console, almost all of them available to play, including PC games and PC game terminals that are set up to look like the living rooms of the era in which they are from. It's a really fantastic experience.

And the most recent museum visit for me was the Nixon Library. Um, uh. Uh. Right. Ranch, you got a favorite museum? Um, I really love the Museum of Jurassic Technology. Oh, yeah.

Oh, that's a fun museum. Really cool. I don't even know how to explain what's in there, but. It's like kind of like an you know art installation It's like a kind of like a riff on what a museum is yeah, it's cool. What's the last museum visit you had? Um I guess Griffith Observatory. Oh sure no yeah, yeah, but the kind of a mini museum underneath it yeah I like to they have like the scales there that you can get on that are like this is how much you weigh on I'm like I like to get on and be like oh, that's how rude So you love museums

obviously, it's like it's like a fun thing to be concerned like what is the game capture about That aspect of it like that that like like in what way does the game represent the to you that the cool part of it? Like that, that like, like in what way does the game represent the, to you, the cool part of museums? Well, you know, you're a big part of the game is you're actually like hiring, you have to hire a staff. So obviously you have like security guards, you have janitors and whatnot and so forth. And one of the class of people you have to hire are called experts. And they have like little Indiana Jones hats. And, you know, the experts have different trainings and you can train them in different things and you have to send them on exhibitions where they have to like go find things. And what's interesting to

me about it is some of them can die on these trips, some of them can get sick or like permanently injured or like permanently injured or like you have to send them off to a different place. And so even though it's this very cartoonish game, it's also like sort of saying that like the act of discovery is kind of dangerous. Right. And it's sort of like, you know,

even though it's very cheerful, there is like a sense of like direness to, you know, some of it, you know, part of it is you're in kind of imprisoning ghosts in a spiritual museum. And there's different, there's also different museum themes. There's like an aquarium, there's like a ghost museum, there's fossils and shit.

They don't call it fossils and shit. You know, fossils and shit. And then the ghost one, one of the things you have to do is like capture ghosts and then put them on display for people, but you have to like put them in rooms that match their time period or they go like ape shit and break out. But I don't know, like there's just something about the, you know, the fact that the game makes you discover things and then you get to place it gives you that same act of discovery

you kind of have going to a museum. Right. What, what is, so what is new in this game versus campus and hospital? One thing I read is that they changed up the star system, which I remember it was like out of three stars in campus at least. You know, I don't actually know the changes. I didn't play a ton of campus because I kind of bounced off it, but it did it feels When I say simplified it doesn't feel like a simpler game But it feels streamlined a little more like I feel like I'm getting thrown fewer things at once

I Do find the tutorial better here like the tutorial also? I'm usually very irritated by tutorials and the tutorial and this one's actually like very good at onboarding you and it kind of like It does something smart, which it's sort of like okay if you just want to like sandbox it for a while go ahead and then you can come back to these goals. Like it doesn't like try to shove you along. So I think that was really good but you know what honestly I don't know what they actually changed. One of the things that I found interesting about it was that there's a tension between your personal desire for aesthetics and the most functional version of the museum.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So if there's a donation pot in between multiple exhibits, you can put it in a place where people are most likely to hit the donation pot after Going to any of these specific exhibits and you can and it draws all these little dotted lines in between the exhibits in this donation pot right But I don't want it to be there right like I don't want it to be in the middle of the fucking room I don't want it to be next to a banner, next to a toilet, next to a trash can. I want those things to be pretty.

Oh yeah, no, if I walked into the museum that I made, I'd be like, this is the shittiest museum I've ever seen because everything is crammed in the entryway and then it is a long long empty walk to the gift shop Definitely did the thing I did in the sims the first time I played it where I was like, okay How big should the employee restroom be? I don't know half the building I do like it too. Like there's something like I've never played a game where I've had to hire a staff before and I was sort of like this is

Somebody's actual job yes, but I'm having fun Do I'm having fun picking the silly named person that gets to work in my museum? I mean you do you play Dave the diver so there is that element Yeah, yeah, but I do like that I do like whatever personality quirks or just individual attributes that one has when you get to hire people and fire them. It's weird to think of human beings as Pokemon, though.

Right. Yeah, it's like, oh yeah, I wish I'd written down some of the names, because they're all just sort of cheeky little puns for the most part. But it is funny, because I didn't notice that there's a timer on them that they're basically like they'll just leave And you so you have to have sort of like a rotation Like a steady rotation going which is good, and I just like I I played for a couple of hours and

I was playing primarily on my steam deck which I don't think is the way to play the game I think the I got to get on game. I think I gotta get on a I gotta get a mouse involved here. I gotta get yeah, the controller controls are effective, but there's they're confusing Yes Cuz like I'm also having to then cycle through menus and having to remember which one is which like thing Yeah, so I just like I'm like I have to install this on my PC actually if I'm gonna spend any more significant time with it because I was actually enjoying it and like to like Build out the rest of the museum

And then show my wife what a good job. I did with the museum Something but It's just a little one something but Cuz yeah like the yeah the steam deck controls. It's it's it's technically playable on the steam deck It's not listed as verified But I I didn't have that much of a problem with it But I could there was times where I was getting frustrated Navigating the different menus and like trying to pick somebody up for example and like move them in the family selecting the

You know the item store or whatever and just be like no That's not what I wanted to do or accidentally Erasing the thing that I was about to build and stuff like that stuff was a little frustrating, but I like I liked building the The little training area for your employees or get this area where you can sort of put desks in like little like library Stands and stuff they can acquire new skills and go on different more complicated Excursions and I was just like guys read more books than me this year this guy

There's um, maybe maybe this isn't the podcast for it, but there is a weird tension between like colonialism and museums. And it was like the, I didn't like that they would go on an expedition because I was like, so you're stealing from wherever that is. Yeah. You're going in with my money, and you are removing the artifacts and bringing them

to wherever this museum is, which is always the sort of feeling I have. Like, there's a little bit where I'm uncomfortable in a museum. Yeah. Did you learn nothing from Killmonger? Yeah. What? Well, no, I mean, like, because it's like, OK,

there are lots of exhibits. Like, when the King tut mask comes through town You know that it is on loan like it comes through town. Yeah, and you see it and you're like, oh cool It's it's the tut mask and I I've seen photos of this and you know, yeah, if you try to put it on yeah We all know. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, they get really mad if you start singing that song I mean, yeah, absolutely. I feel like that's that's always in the news There's always like some artifact being returned to like you know the the people who should have it But it's like I mean invariably by the British Museum The thing when I was in Italy like I went to a few museums over there and like it was kind of amazing because I'm

Like oh like the museums here especially the museums that I've been to primarily in Southern California all the stuff is like at most like 300 years old yeah and then I'm like looking at something from 10 yeah like this is crazy and then the other thought that I'm having is wow they stole this so. Well, what's nice about like the Italian museums is like David is in the city where it was built. Yes, that's sick as hell. Yeah. So like, there's like, you go to those museums

and you're like, oh, all these were painted within like 20 miles of this place. So, but when you go into like, that aforementioned Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, there's a bunch of mummies. And I'm like, I don't know if these A, should be in a museum and B, are here by like, by like the option of the Egyptian government.

Yeah, and that's also a crazy thing to think about too, because like there's no way before you were being mummified that you knew that that was something that was gonna happen to you, that you were gonna be thinking, somebody's gonna have a picture of me on their iPhone 14. Right. It's such an insane thought.

There was a movie that came out last year starring Josh O'Connor of Challengers, directed by Alice Herrera Walker, called La Chimera, it's an Italian film, and it's one of those things where it's just like... Like, in Europe there is like so much like civilization history that like is just buried and Like like so there's like like actual

All these artifacts that are just underneath cities. Yes, and so He's like with a group of of like basically tomb raiders who just like go into the sewers and like dig up Artifacts illegally and like sell them on the black market. That's kind of amazing because it would not exist in like LA, you can just like dig up like an old catacomb and find like a silver goblet. Yeah, and meanwhile in Europe, a recent archeological find was somebody magnet fishing

in a river and pulling up a full-blown Viking sword. And it's like, it's not even buried in the river. It's just in there. And still where it was dropped. That's so crazy. I remembered something from that. We're turning to an older topic. I remember something from the Richard Nixon Presidential Library. Well, a couple of things.

One is that there's a that there's the original score, like the handwritten score used by the conductor for the first performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. And it was a gift from the Emperor of Austria. But it's the sort of thing you're looking at and it's just under glass in the Nixon Museum. It's like, why the fuck is this here? It shouldn't be here? This is more important. This motherfuckers from Whittier.

The other thing is like there's a like there is a Nixon in pop culture section which they acknowledge and it's got like Nixon and Watchmen like a huge art of that and also Nixon and Futurama just his head I was like this is this is kind of awesome Suck it to me? Yeah, they have that too from a laugh in Like okay, so do you are you playing through the campaign here like like how do you what is your normal way of progressing? my normal way of progressing is Starting in sandbox mode getting very frustrated very fast, because it turns out

I don't know what I'm doing. Going back to the, in this case the campaign mode, the tutorial and the campaign mode are basically the same thing, but it works very well. And then, so I've played a fair amount of the campaign mode and sort of went back and forth to sandbox mode. But yeah, so I don't know how far I'm in. I have three museums at this point. I have the Aquarium Supernatural Museum

and the fossils and shit. This feels like, and it feels like you're not necessarily a one game at a time person, neither am I. But this feels like maybe like this is the thing that's kind of, the game you're playing when you're not playing like your main game. Is that kind of how you're treating it? Yeah, and it's definitely like the type of game

where I'm like, I have 30 minutes before I have to leave. I'll just put this on. Because there's no turns, there's no like big grants, you know, strategy, or strategy, or it's not like there might be a cut scene that I have to pause or skip. You can play a few minutes and still do something in the game. And so it's just been like both a game

that I've been playing a lot in blocks, but also filling the cracks here and there too. Mike, what was your first experience with a sim game? Do you remember the first time that you sat down either at a computer or a Super Nintendo or whatever and played a sim? I think my elementary school had a copy of SimCity. Wow.

When the Macintoshes were first just getting CD-ROM drives, it was that type of Macintosh. I don't know if it was on a CD-ROM drives. Um, it was like that type of Macintosh. I don't know if it was on a CD-ROM drive or not, but it was, like, the first SimCity, the old one. Um, I remember that, and... I think I played that one before the Super Nintendo one, but around that same time, I played the Super Nintendo one. And I just remember being, like, so kind of...

dazzled by the idea of, like, not being the mayor in a fancy way, but being like, oh, I'm like building a town and there's people there. And I can imagine that they have jobs and I can imagine that they're going to stores and they're doing things. And so, I don't know, it was almost like kind of magical to me as a kid.

Yeah, I had a similar experience where I think my first experience with one of them was SimCity 2000 on a PC. And then I later got the Super Nintendo version, which is like a step backwards from SimCity 2000. But the first thing that I learned in SimCity was there is a difference between a commercial and a residential district.

And I was like, wait, you can't build a, no matter what you, there's somebody telling you, you can't build a kind of building in an area? And that was, that blew my mind. And then I walked out as a kid into the city and I was like, right, all of the stores are in one place and all the houses are in a different place. And there was, I love the, I love that little bit of magic.

Like it was like the glasses from, was it They Live? We just get to see the truth a little bit better? Is the, do y'all like, because I've never played, I did really like the SimCity series. I'm a huge fan of the Civilization series, but I never got into Cities Skylines. But I noticed people really like that Did anyone end up playing those?

It's like it's like a spiritual successor to Sim City as far as I know yeah No, no, I didn't get into I I know it is but I didn't get into it. I did not the Like Matt, where were we? Where did you end up going with the with two point museum as you kept playing it? I don't have that much. I have a lot of fossils in my. Yeah, sure. I have some complete dinosaur bones in my museum, which I was talking about.

I love the bones. So I haven't expanded into another museum yet. But I want to tear the whole thing down and like start not start over but sort of like like Rebuild the museum that I'm currently working in and then like just make it a little bit nicer because it is ugly the thing that I the thing that I Sort of I thought these games were cozy and like sort of chill no No, I would say they're not for sure at all. It's not a chill game.'s not I was like not fully stressed out when I was playing it, but I there was In I guess in like you know it's it's different than like playing like say like this is gonna sound so fucking stupid

This is it's it's different than an Elden ring or something where the stakes are you die and have to start over again, right? Or the stakes in this game are you can have a bad museum? People will leave and then not pay or whatever. Or they'll steal shit and walk out. Or yeah, or straight up, or you're running essentially an ineffective business. Yeah, but you feel like, it's the same thing motivating you, which is fear of failure.

Yes, exactly. So when I see that there's a puddle on the ground, But you feel like, but that's, it's the same thing motivating you, which is fear of failure, you know? Yes, exactly. So like when I see that like there's a puddle on the ground, but you know, my janitorial staff has left for the day, I got to hire an additional janitor to do that. So you kind of, it's just, it's a game of all spinning plates. All the plates are spinning at the same time. You got to just, and as you expand and as you get more things going on The plates just keep coming and as soon as I feel that feeling in the game I am immediately start and and I I don't think this means that I'm not saying this for attention

The moment I felt that pressure. I was like well then fuck it. I'm gonna make the worst place on earth Like I was like I'm gonna make this horrible for the people inside Yeah, because there is so much happening and I don't want to be stressed out. So I would rather lean into Making a nightmare space. Yeah, I will say it is it is a great shame of mine that my museum is ugly because Like even I had the same thing with animal crossing like I don't think my island is particularly nice I don't think my home is like designed in a particular way that I'm proud of But I you know it's I just kind of that game to me was more about the relationships of course I thought my mom the sheep my best friend in the entire world. Yeah for sure

I got into a game that I was playing I'm not playing anymore But I was playing it this back when we were on twitch And I was streaming this called the tenants and it is a sim game a business sim where you are a landlord and Wild how the levers of that so quickly just turned me into a complete piece of shit It's just about extracting as much value as you can out of your tenants. And so it's things like, is it, do I wanna actually fix this problem or do I just like paint the walls? And so you understand why you've lived

in so many shitty apartments that like don't have a fridge or they just paint it over the outlet. You know what I mean? Like you're incentivized to do all the laziest things possible. My doorbell, the building. I live in is old My doorbell is painted over and then the bell mechanism is like an actual bell with like a fucking little hammer Oh, wow, and that's what it would you know, that's what the doorbell was that's also painted over and I was like

Why is this even in my fucking house? That's insane. I look at this painted over bell. That's worthless and doesn't do anything. It's just in there Well see when I found the same mechanism in my apartment I took it off the wall and repaired it and put it back up But then I found out there was no wiring connecting it to the fucking oh wow I gotta get to work I got to work and put it back up on the thing go outside push the button and then nothing happened it was fuck this in one of my cabinets to there's like a up on the thing, go outside, push the button, and then nothing happened. Fuck this! In one of my cabinets too, there's like a piece of like

sticker or paper that is painted over, so I see the border of what the sticker is, and it for sure probably was like an asbestos warning before or something that was just like painted over completely. My least favorite thing, like there was an apartment that I was in where the doorknobs were all painted over. And this is like, I mean, maybe not everybody gets fed this

in their algorithms, but I definitely did because I'm exactly this kind of person where I unscrewed the door mechanism, soaked it in paint thinner, rubbed it back down to the brass polishing and put it back on the door. And when the landlord went for the walkthrough, he was like, what's this? And I was like, that's the door knob.

And he's like, did you replace this? And I was like, no, no, I cleaned it. And he's like, huh. And I felt like, anger? They're mad if you fix something. Yeah. That's, like, I mentioned not having fridge. I lived in a couple of shitty, shitty apartments

that don't come with fridges, because it's not required by law in LA County. So, like, you have to buy a fridge. And there was a certain point where we were moving out, we were moving to a new place, this fridge would not fit in that new place. And so I just was, like, telling them, like, hey, we're just gonna leave the fridge,

and the next tenant can have a fridge They're like you got to get that fridge out of there We don't want to be responsible for that fit that fridge Oh my god Because if they lease it with a fridge Then they have to tell that they have to take care fix it if the new tenant has an issue with it That's yeah, yeah, it's fucking horrible. Yeah, I recently I mean we don't gotta get this is like a good same tangent I recently had like a carbon monoxide issued my apartment

My landlords were they were so fucking mad at me They were either mad I have to do it I do a second of work I started owning rental properties, so I didn't have to work I have to do so many things so fast all because this fucker didn't die from carbon monoxide poisoning This fucker didn't die from carbon monoxide poisoning Have you guys seen it's it's a it's a very old YouTube clip now, but there was somebody who I'd be my finger Who bit a finger? No

At the NFT now is it yeah, they turned into an FD my coin Mike you don't have to do that Welcome to the resistance, Mike There was a YouTube video, I would say now 15 years ago, maybe 10 years ago, that was somebody who had maximized the population density of SimCity. Yes, I think it's SimCity 4. I know exactly what you're talking about. And he made like a megalopolis that was like

10 billion citizens living in like 8,000 square feet or something like that. Yeah, and he had, like there's all of these maps of the thing where he was like figuring it out and figuring it out like how to maximize your pixel by pixel density. And it is a fully loaded top, like it's as big as a city can get, and it also is miserable. Like, the people in the city are miserable by that metric. This video is 14 years old. Oh, my God. And it is a 6 million capacity city. I overstated it by a bit, but yeah,

and it was on SimCity 3000. And it had, like, a kind of Kwatze name or something. Like it's like a straight. Magnussonty is what they call the city. Yeah, Magnussonty. Do you think this is where Coppola got the idea? Yeah, I think it's all built on Megalon. That's what's going on.

And yeah, it does seem like absolute hell to live there. Yeah. Do you have a favorite of the museums that you've built so far or like, like they, do you just kind of like living in the different sort of aesthetics? You know, I think, I think because I'm so into the natural history thing,

and that because that's the part in the campaign that you dig the most into. Sure. No pun intended. That you, that I don't know. That's the one I've been, that's the one I've enjoyed the most so far. Yeah, it's, I mean, I like that these games exist. I will say that one thing, just talking about myself, you talked about like you don't like turns.

I do like turns. I love turns. Like I'm all about like, give me all the time in the world to spend making this decision and then I'll Decide when I hit the next turn button but like because the real time of it does kind of Let me make it feel frantic like you were saying yeah, and that does sort of sometimes like kind of like you know I'll fuck I'll fuck I gotta do this I gotta do this but I do really appreciate the the design of these and I do really like the Again, just sort of like the tone and the sensibility

that we were talking about. I like that they're kind of lighthearted and breezy. Like it's honestly cool when there's a class of kids in the museum and they're having a good time. Like it's actually, you're like, this is actually cool and nice. Yeah. Wrench, do you ever get into sim games at all?

I've never played a sim game. Wow. Wow. I feel like this is a genre you might like, but I'm not sure. I think I would be into it, but I'm scared about how much I would be into it. Oh yeah, no, you can definitely be. I definitely knew people like when I was younger that like their entire personality

was just like playing the sims or playing the tycoon games. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, and it's very also, when you're young and you have like the available brain space, certainly when I was young and I didn't have to worry about what was social media doing that day, like you would think about your city during the day

and you'd be like, oh, you know what I could do? And then you go home and you try out that thing. And that was, like, such a nice sort of background processing thing to have happening with you. I love that shit. God, remember we had time to think? That was wild. That was a different time then.

Yeah. It's just you alone with your brain. I went, I think I've mentioned this on the pod that I went off social media and news. And I've read two books. And it's fucking crazy. Wow. It's like, oh my God, I suddenly have time to read books.

I'm in line at the coffee shop and I'm not just on my phone. I had to bring a book so I wasn't bored in line and now I'm reading a book and I'm also aware that I'm the asshole in line with a book. And there's like the performance of reading, but I don't have anything else I can do because I don't have a phone to look at. Because they took all that shit off my phone.

Mike, I imagine, but like, I'm not sure how much, how you feel about social media these days, but I imagine you're on it by necessity to promote a book, obviously. But we originally knew each other from Twitter. I believe that's how we first met. And I was on Twitter for a long time. I got off of it a few years ago,

unrelated to all the ex shit. And recently just opened a new account, right? Opened a new account. At the top of the algorithm. But I was amazed by how little I missed it, even though I did meet a lot of people there, a lot of great people there, but how little I missed it, even though I did meet a lot of people there, a lot of great people there, but how little I missed it and then just how much better I kind of felt overall.

Like just my quality of life just generally improved and I never returned. Oh yeah. Like I will go on there and post a promotion for like this book, but I don't read the shit there. Like once in a while I'll make the mistake and then I'd lose five minutes and be like, no, we're not doing this. Like it's almost like weaning myself off. I mean, the drug metaphor in a while, I'll make the mistake and then I'd lose five minutes and be like, no, we're not doing this. It's almost like weaning myself off.

I mean, the drug metaphor is a cliche, but it's like weaning myself off a low-key drug where I'm like, nope, nope, we're not going to go into the anger place anymore. We're just going to read on Blue Sky where when people get mad at you, it's for rudimentary basic shit that doesn't matter. When people get mad at you, it's for rudimentary basic shit

that doesn't matter. BOTH LAUGHING I was surprised when I last logged into Twitter to see, like, what was happening to it. Because, like, it had been a while since I had been on Twitter. How much the algorithm has changed. Like, my feed used to be news almost exclusively.

And for whatever, I mean, like I know why it was different, but it was all Gundam stuff from stranger, from accounts that I had no previous interaction with. And I was like, wow, I haven't been on Twitter engaging with Twitter, but they have gone back through all of my posting and liking history through this new algorithm And they've decided the only thing that I want to look at is gundam stuff and I was they are right. They are right They're completely right, but I was surprised. I was shocked. Yeah, it was very it was like

You know when you haven't gone on facebook for like 10 years and you go on and you're like this looks this looks weird. Yeah, no, no, yeah. Yeah, what is going on? And also why is my uncle still playing Farmville? Any other thoughts on Two Point Museum? No, I mean, you know what, honestly, if you're looking for a game that is lighthearted but not cozy, like it's a game that feels good

and it's very positive and happy, but it also doesn't feel like you're a bear in the afterlife running a cafe. Right, sure. Yeah. Um. Like, you know, that's a good, it's a nice experience. It's not mean, it's not angry.

There is some darkness to it. Like it does have like a little bit of that, but it's super nice and funny. So it's kind of, if you're looking for a good antidote to the moment, it's kind of a nice game. And you do get grants and funding, so it's like from a different time. Right.

Do you think, like, is this the best jumping on point for someone who hasn't had to play the two point series? Like, do you think, like, just go straight to museum? Yeah. I think so. For me, like, as somebody who had not played one of those games, I was surprised how quickly I was doing things from the time I had started, like, as somebody who had not played one of those games, I was surprised how quickly I was doing things from the time I had started, like, the tutorial. Yeah. You're just tossed in it and, like, just can do, like,

make it however you want right away. It's really cool. I definitely recommend it. Hey, shall we do a segment? Let's do it. Let's do a segment. It's our video game, Would You Rather segment. Would You Blathers? Would You Blathers Simulation Game Edition. Oh.

Oh. I'll read an either or involving games in the sim genre. You tell me what you would choose. And I'm casting a pretty wide net here. Obviously, you know, some people are maybe be pedantic about what is, what compr would choose. And I'm casting a pretty wide net here, obviously, some people are maybe be pedantic about what comprises simulation. I'm including business sims, life sims, vehicle sims, crafting sims,

basically anything that might appear in the sims tab of the Steam Soar. So it's a wide umbrella and Ranch you can play too. All right, first up, we'll start with Two Point. Would you blathers, administrate a hospital start with Two Point. Would you blathers, administrate a hospital like in Two Point Hospital, or oversee a college campus like in Two Point Campus,

or curate a museum like in Two Point Museum? If I had to do them for real. I think I could run a pretty tight school actually. You'd go with campus. I might go with a campus. I don't like school. I think I can make make it it's a tough time I think to be running a college campus all these pesky protests certainly don't make it easier for me I think I my my school would be like it'd be like the the cool school

yeah it'd be like a cool sort of like. You'd be subverting. You weren't supposed to laugh that hard at a mic. I'm gonna do a really good job running a cool school. You'd be subverting the stodgy old dean archetype. Yeah, I'd be wearing, I mean basically wearing my exact same clothes. I'd be like me. And I'd be teaching, the classes would be about

like video games and stuff. That does sound cool. The school team, it classes would be about like, video games and stuff and like. That does sound cool. The school team, it wouldn't be football or basketball, it'd be freaking skateboarding. Yeah, man. Would you turn a chair around before you talk to the class? Stools only, brother. Heather, hospital, campus, museum.

It would have to be a museum of those three running a hospital sounds like a fucking nightmare like the insurance companies the Contagious diseases like all all of it is is is terrifying to me and then running a school like There I don't want to get near any sort of position right now in the United States. Right, yeah. Like I don't want to teach anything, I don't want to tell anybody they're right or they're wrong,

I just want to like back away very slowly. So a museum would be mine, and I would be very, very conscious of teaching the right history. Ha ha ha ha ha ha. As opposed to any of these like more recent takes on history. How about you Mike? You know what I think I would I'd do museum I if it was something like like I think I could I think I could be like a high school principal. I think I get a different life, I have the energy of a man who's trying really

hard and not doing great at it. But like a college, I'm kind of in the same boat where I'm like, I would not want to run a college right now. I also don't know if I'd want to run a college in general, because it feels like that's where you get a lot of like hazing and like, I know you get that in like, younger schools as well, but college feels like a bad time of a bad things that happen. Yes. And that in a hospital, I just don't want to deal with human tragedy every day.

I know in a museum, I'll deal with the after effects of human tragedy that I've put on a wall. But I don't want to deal with ongoing people dying in front of me tragedy. Yeah. Ranch, what do you think? Hospital, college campus, museum. Hospital.

Holy shit! Holy shit! Wow! Right away, wait, why? Ranch's gonna put him there. Just because you can do it? Just for the challenge of it? Wow. I also like ER.

That's fair, that's fair. I think I'd go museum. All right, next one. Be a pilot like in Microsoft Flight Simulator or be a train engineer like in Train Sim World. No one's there's no suspense about my answer. Choo-choo motherfucker. I'm driving that train. I mean the way planes are going these days too. Kind of want to stay away from those yes for sure Trains not not immune from incidents certainly right, but at least they're on the ground. Yes. You know what I mean? I think I got it. I got to go with trains because yeah gosh when we were talking we were talking about miniatures earlier yeah, I was thinking about this like Model train like we thought we talked about about three sometimes on the show and how cool they are

Yeah, and I was Rod Stewart like model and what an alpha is for being in a model train It's the coolest thing about Rod Stewart is awesome But like whatever whatever I see a model train kit, and it's just going just doing its thing I'm like listen. Yeah, this is this is peak. This is unbelievable. I would do train 100% Um when I was a kid it was my dream to be a pilot Like I wanted to like get a pilot's license and train on the side Train to be a pilot not train on the side. Yes as an adult I You can't you barely get me in an airplane so trains all the way. Oh, yeah, Mike. What do you think?

I think against my better judgment, pilot. Wow. Just because I think it'll be like the thing that'll sound like fanciest to my mom. You know, so I think I'd go with pilot because it also seems like, I don't know, it seems like when I think Microsoft Flight Simulator, I'm also just thinking like, you know,

standard commercial airline pilot. Right. Like I'm not thinking like a fighter pilot No, maybe I had a short career in the Air Force and it didn't I wasn't really made out for the military So I wanted to get a civilian job. I don't need a backstory Flying a big plane like that seems crazier to me for some reason like yeah It's just a good, but obviously like, it happens thousands of times a day, every day. I think it's actually one of those things where it's weirdly safer.

Like, you're in a, you know, a Harrier jump jet, or if you're in like a small plane, like a Cessna, you're more likely to be involved in an accident. But Ranch, what do you think? A pilot or a trained engineer? Pilot. Why's that? I'm feeling crazy today. Yeah, yeah.

Let out your inner Joker. So why do you want to enroll in flight school? I'm feeling crazy today. All right. Right this way, Mr. Otto. He trained in my hometown. Oh my god. While I was in high school he was going to school. Jesus Christ.

Alright next up. Would you blathers be a roller coaster tycoon or a zoo tycoon? I mean look. Roller coasters all day. tycoon I Mean look Rollercoasters all day. I love I love theme parks also. I love getting on rides I'm very interested in how they work actually I Think zoos should be illegal Yeah, yeah same same. I would I would be a roller coaster tycoon. I can't zoos are sad

Yeah, I I agree for all the all those reasons and also like Zoos are just not comfortable or fun to go. No, they fucking There's they smell bad you feel bad because of what's happening Yeah, so it would definitely be a theme park, but it would be a theme park that does not have an animal segment. Yes Reg, what do you think? Yeah, not crazy enough to buy a zoo That's the line of the night I'll go against the consensus and say zoo tycoon just because I would want to be called a zoo tycoon Yeah, get the title. Okay, it's kind of hard to pass that up.

It is pretty good. It's a good, it's a more interesting title. All right, next up, would you blathers manage a low fantasy coffee shop like in coffee talk? So like a coffee shop where elves and other fantasy races, mermaids and the like are visiting or manage a dystopian cyberpunk bar like in VA 11 Hall A, AKA Valhalla. Gosh. Wait, Low Fantasy Coffee Shop or cyberpunk bar?

I always feel like in a cyberpunk world, something bad has happened before that story takes place for it to be this way. Whereas fantasy, that means we still got time. We could have always been living like this. But having a metal arm or a hood would be kind of cool. I feel like I could get something like that in a cyberpunk world.

I'd be doing stuff like that. Maybe cyberpunk for me. I would go low fantasy that in a cyberpunk world I'd be doing stuff like that maybe cyberpunk for me I would go low fantasy In part because I don't drink so I'd be so bummed out right at the cyberpunk bar because boy I bet those drinks are fucking awesome. Yeah, can you imagine like like oh yeah? There's a liquid ketamine do a shot of this and you'll suddenly jump three days It's mirrored liquid Mike what do you think I?

Was gonna go low fantasy until Heather described the cyberpunk one and I'm cyberpunk. I Want to take the shot that like jumps me three days Rochelle same as Heather. I don't yeah Yeah Here's it so you go with coffee shot. Yeah, that makes sense. I don't drink. So. Yeah. Here's, so you go with coffee shop. Yeah. Yeah, that makes sense.

Here's the thing. It's like, I know the message of mob movies is supposed to be like, don't be like these guys. And I know the message of all of cyberpunk dystopian is like, this is a harrowing future where everyone is miserable. I want to live in every cyberpunk world I've ever seen in any media. So I would absolutely do the cyberpunk bar, even though having played both these games,

the vibes are completely polar opposites. Next up, would you blathers attempt to survive as a citizen in a blizzard ravaged apocalyptic earth like in Frostpunk or attempt to survive as a first wave colonist on Mars like in surviving Mars. Oh my god You know, I don't like I don't like being cold Yeah, we're talking like a snowpiercer level of like global like ice store Yeah, that seems way worse to me than being like cuz if I'm like one of the first people on Mars, that's like, I feel like I got a lot of saying what's going on.

Here's the other thing I'm saying though, Mars not exactly warm. Yeah, it's very cold. You're a lot farther from the sun. Very cold there. Yeah, it's also very cold. Am I thinking that because it's red, it's hot? Yeah.

Yeah. And this guy's the Dean? Look, we don't got books at cool school Do whatever the fuck we want people a band Average surface temperature around negative 85 degrees Wow man that sounds like it's probably not too hot yeah, I Just don't I don't like the. I didn't grow up around the snow. Me neither, also for like you from SoCal. Yeah, so like every time I've experienced snow, it's like been kind of bad.

Yeah. Like actually falling snow. Like you know, I've been up to Big Bear or whatever and like got to play around in the, you know, man-made snow up there or whatever. But like actual falling snow hurts hurts the eyes don't like it So I think I'm still gonna go with Mars get me get me the hell out of here get me on Mars, baby. I Don't want to go to Mars

So by default I have to take the other option those both sound miserable Mike what do you think? I'm gonna go with I'm gonna go with the Frostpunk one, not because it's good, it's like I've played both Frostpunk games and they're very sad. But you know what, when you have snow, you have water. And that is kind of a big start. And Mars does not have a lot of water on it, or at least a lot of accessible water right off the bat.

And I feel like living in a post-apocalyptic earth is still easier than living on a fresh Mars. So I gotta stick with Frostpunk. Agreed. Ranch, ice, or Mars? Can I kill myself? Just answer the question. Wow.

I think I have to go with frostpunk because Hey, I just just feel like oxygen is so important and there's no guarantee that they'll find a way to reproduce oxygen On Mars, but also the Mars guys are gonna be so fucking annoying Like you may just never to hang out with those guys Yeah, I did this exactly that want to go to Mars like now. Yeah, I was the first guy to jacked off on Mars. Well, okay, maybe I'm back in. All right, finally, would you blathers be friends with cool musician dog, KK Slider from Animal Crossing or be friends with bubbly, beautiful dog is a bell from Animal Crossing

I gotta go is a bell here Yeah, no, that's tough. My wife's name is is a bell. Oh, there you go. I gotta take her as well Well unless it's the KK slider from that one meme you really like the buff KK slider Yeah, the buff KK in denim shorts. Yeah, and the village are yelling out lose the shorts single best meme that's ever been created I want KK Slider not from the meme But I think I think he seems like a pretty chill dog yeah Mike what do you think? You know, I'd say Isabel just, she seems like more reliable.

K.K. Slider seems like one of those. We all have like a couple celebrity friends where you're like, okay, you know you're a celebrity and it has to be that you know that you're famous. And I feel like he'd be that kind of friend where he's like, still being a friend, like still help you out, but just be like, okay, I get how hard it is for you to be famous.

Yeah, the sunglasses are kind of a tell there. Yeah, yeah. Rachelle, what do you think? K.K. Slider or Isabelle? I used to listen to K.K. Slider covers on YouTube during COVID. Wow. On repeat, so K.K. Slider.

Wow. Wow. That's tough for Isabelle, considering you are a dog's best friend. She's getting rejected here. One dog before another, it's kind of tough. Gotta make a choice. Hey, that's this week's Get Played.

Our producer is Rochelle Chen. Ranchyard underscore underscore sard. You streaming anything, Ranch? I will be streaming Resident Evil 7 eventually. Hey, there you go. Check that out. Love to hear it. Our music is by Ben Prunty. Benpruntymusic.com.

Our art is by Duck Brigade Design, DuckBrigade.com. And you can find our merch including apparel, hats, stickers, and more at kinshipgoods.com. Link in the show description. Also check out our Patreon, patreon.com slash get played where you can find our entire pre-HeadGum back catalog plus ad free main feed episodes and our Patreon exclusive show, Get Animated.

Matt, what are we watching this week? We're watching Look Back this week actually. We're watching the movie Look Back. Yes. And it's a great little stop down in between series, and next week we'll be getting into, returning to Gurren Lagann, but this week we're talking Look Back.

Look Back, the adaptation of the Tatsuki Fujimoto, author of Chainsaw Man manga, and it is an absolutely incredible film if you hadn't seen it, even if you're not on the Patreon. I encourage everyone to watch it. It's on Prime, and it's my favorite movie overall of last year, patreon.com slash get played.

Mike Drucker, such a delight to have you on. The book is Good Game, No Rematch. Please plug away. Yeah, Good Game, No Rematch, and it comes out, I think tomorrow, April 1st. And so April 1st is my pub day. And it's available anywhere books are sold. So you can get it on Amazon.

You can get it at Barnes and Noble. You can order it from your local indie store or indie. I think bookshop.org does a lot of indie stuff. It's available hardcover, digital and audio. And I read the audio. So if you like my voice, you can get seven hours of it. Hell yeah. Wow. I didn't know you narrated the audio book.

I'm gonna double dip on this because I definitely want to hear your reading. Congratulations, I'm so excited. I love hearing you, I love all your reading, like writing about video games. I love hearing you talk about video games. I just, I think you have, you know, obviously such an incredible passion for it.

I'm really excited for the book. I hope people check it out. I can't wait to read it too. Thank you very much. Congratulations. Thank you. And also you got played. You know, obviously such an incredible passion for it. I'm really excited for the book. I hope people check it out I can't wait to read it, too Thank you, and also you got played Sorry That was a hate gum podcast Hey, I'm Wayne Brady and I'm Jonathan Mangum and we're two big improv nerds who get a chance to play and make stuff up on shows like Whose Line Is It Anyway or Let's Make a Deal.

And we're now hosting a new improvised show called What If on the HeadGum Podcast Network. And on What If, we believe that improvisation is a conversation. So we get to have conversations with guests from the worlds of TV, film, tech, and literature. Guests like Bobby Moynihan, Aisha Tyler worlds of TV, film, tech, and literature. Guests like Bobby Moynihan, Aisha Tyler, LeVar Burton, and Adam Conover. We ask them the big, ridiculous questions like, what if you heard a monkey's feelings? What if your grandma was a secret agent? What if Jonathan was invited to the cookout?

I'm not. And then we turn the conversation into spontaneous scenes, songs, well, because that's what we do. Subscribe to What If on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Pocket Casts, wherever you get your podcasts, and watch episodes on YouTube. No script, no net, just What If.