Get Played - We Play, You Play: Helldivers 2 with Craig Lee Thomas

Episode Date: March 25, 2024

Matt, Heather and Nick are joined by actor Craig Lee Thomas to talk about his performance as the Spokesperson of Super Earth in Helldivers 2, their experiences playing the game with each other, and more! Follow us on Twitter and Instagram @getplayedpod. Music by Ben Prunty benpruntymusic.comArt by Duck Brigade duckbrigade.comCheck out our Anime watch-along podcast Get Anime'd and our complete Get Played, How Did This Get Played? and Premium DLC back catalogue only on patreon.com/getplayedJoin us on our Discord server here: https://discord.gg/getplayed Wanna leave us a voicemail? Call 616-2-PLAYED (616-275-2933) or write us an email at [e-mail] Advertise on Get Played via Gumball.fmSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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["Democracy Plus Theme"] Hello, citizens and citizens subscribed to Democracy Plus. You have been selected to fulfill your democratic duty on behalf of super earth Yeah, the terminated threat is rising and only patriots like you can stop the tide Are you ready to suck each other's dicks? Yeah, wait what don't let the bugs win do a standing 69 on 69 on your God given lawn for all to see. Um, yeah, yeah, yeah, what? No, no!

Knock on your neighbor's door, check their communism cards and point to the center of the street. March yourself into the cul-de-sac and make eye contact with them as you full throat another patriot. I was fine with some of that, but not all of it. Do it before the automatons relieve you

of your ability to drink a cock. Wait, are those the stakes? We need you, Super Earthians. Defend liberty or die trying. Suck each other off or the galaxy will be destroyed. I mean, like, if I'm being honest, I was like okay with like the fascism stuff. Yeah. But it kind of feels like they can't ask us to do this. Yeah, I was

fine with a killing a lot of things but Intimacy do you want to be a hell diver? Yeah. Yeah Well, what if hell is your throat and diving means going down on another dude? I Look if you're if you're not into it, I'll just say you want a job done, right? You got to do it yourself We call it an orbital precision strike and salute the flag of Super Earth as we play Uplay Co-op Sci-Fi Satire Helldivers 2 this week on Get Played, your one-stop show for good games, bad games, and every game in between.

It's time to get played. I'm your host, Heather Ann Campbell, along with my fellow host, Nick Weiger. That's me, Nick Weiger, and I am here with our third host, Matt Abadaka. Hello, everyone. Hello, everyone, and welcome back to the Premium Video Game Podcast, where we used to talk about bad games,

then we started talking about every games, and that's what you're listening to, every games. Now, Heather, I noticed that you said premium, you usually say premiered. Did something change? Have we gone? Is that gone up or is that a downgrade? Well, I just feel like in in lieu of of our topic this week, it's time to start talking about premium democracy. Oh, and democracy. Plus, it was on. So this is a- It was on theme. I was just trying to catch you. Yeah, this is the premium podcast on the premier democratic network of Headgum Plus.

Yeah, Headgum is a managed democracy and we're thrilled to be a part of it. Yeah. And hey, we are also thrilled to have a guest today. We don't always have guests. We don't always have them. This is true. Yeah, people stopped asking to join the podcast because of the behavior of a couple of the hosts.

I don't know who you could be referring to. It's a- Silly is a crime. No, no, no, it's the Resident Evil Merchant and Ash was threatening to both of us. Okay, oh, phew. We have a crime. No, no, no, it's the Resident Evil merchant and ash was threatening to both of us We have a terrific guest today an actor from Final Fantasy 7 remake and rebirth and Starfield and who you've also seen and heard as the Super-earth spokesperson in the helldivers 2 intro Craig Lee Thomas Craig. Thanks for being here. What's up guys? Thank you so much for having me. I think we need to add bubsy

I think to that list as well. Oh, sure, yeah. Just in terms of people I was afraid to meet. Okay, yeah. Thankfully, Bubsy hasn't been much of a presence in the studio recently. I don't know what he's up to exactly. People made it really clear right away

that they did not like Bubsy. It's interesting you still have that spot saved out front because I had to drive around and that spot is still saved for him. Bubsy got a reserve spot in his contract and it's up for like, it's not for another three years. So, you know, hey, God bless him, whatever you can negotiate.

I did see on the news that they found what they, so they can't identify it, but you know, we had a lot of really intense rain here in Los Angeles and it filled up the LA river, which I went down and looked at and it was crazy it would look like like a like a river from another place not from Los Angeles. When the LA River is going off it is really something. Typically a skinny trickle for people who are not from LA you it's maybe most famously seen in Terminator 2 judgment day there was a

chase down the LA River, and it's basically, it's like this little, mostly concrete with a little narrow stream, just kind of bisecting it. But during the intense thunderstorms we had recently, that river filled up all the way to the brink and was ripping out trees. It looked like the kind of water flow

that you would see in an action movie, really terrifying. But I did see on the news that they found a small lump of hair which may or may not be identified as Bubsy in the outwash of the LA River. An ignoble end if that's really his fate. I wonder what Karen Bass is gonna have to say about I know Living dying LA am I right the grief was he really living I Think he was

a joie de vivre I'll pour one out for bubs II. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, did it was bubsy sentient? I think no one's no one's ever really cracked that Craig we're so so excited to have you here. I mean I can can we start with hell divers too because why not? I'm curious, you know likely for for for people who've played the game. The intro is you Yes, it's basically like it starts off very insane Yeah me the first yeah the seeing that for the first time is like uncanny valley Like it's basically like it starts off. Very insane how much it's just me. The first, yeah, seeing that for the first time is like uncanny valley plus body dysmorphia

times cyberpunk, it's very insane. And it hasn't worn off that much, especially as now I think every day it's just been all of my friends sending me gifts of me screaming into the heavens, making that insane face. That's gotta be so weird because it literally is you and it's like, it's not just like a

character like it's literally modeled after you, right? For sure. It's weird to must, it must be weird to see yourself in this like digital mirror versus like you playing like a different character that's not your face at all. There's no obfuscation. There's no like, oh well well, yeah, this is me, but with this, especially for this, I mean, this is one of those parts where like,

this was a wheelhouse part. Like, oh, a big square-headed, overly American ass. Yeah, that's, some pitches are kind of right down the plate. This was kind of my job to lose, I think. So seeing it work so well is like, oh, I'm glad people like this. And also you look inward a little bit like, oh god. It was a stone's throw away from being a Craig Lee Thomas type.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. When you're the reference for that guy, you're like, oh, Jesus. Here we go. But yeah, it's wild to watch, for sure. Can we, Rachelle, can we play the clip real quick? Not defeating to your.

Oh, darn. Let's watch me. What a bummer. Oh my god. If you guys could talk about me over this,'d be just don't look in my direction this version actually is cooler Super Earth our home Prosperity liberty liberty hi there but freedom doesn't come the the the

the the the the the to yourself that you have the strength and the courage to be free. Join the Helldivers. Become part of an elite peacekeeping force. See exotic new life forms.

And like you had to go do this for real too, right? Yeah, for sure. Yeah, the biotech was over But they were nice, you know, that's cool So this is how the game star like like like you're playing the game for the first time You see all of this and we should describe for people who haven't, you know, played the game, haven't seen the intro, what's happening there. You're kind of at this idealistic, you know, future,

but clearly dystopian reality where you're like in this beautiful suburban neighborhood. Everybody lives in a Crate and Barrel toaster. Exactly, yeah. With solar panels on top, but there's also storm troopers keeping order, walking down the center of the street, and then you're watching.

Wait, wait, wait, what do you mean by dystopian? What do you mean? Like, what do you? Yeah, can you imagine how weird that would be? But then your wife and child get just absolutely murked by giant bugs. Brutalized by a hunter, yeah. Exactly. And then you both, I mean like this is the thing

that just like as a piece of writing and as a piece of acting, what's so funny about it is that you're in dismay, like you're like why, but then you as yourself also just step in front of that frame. Walk in front of myself and go hey look at this asshole. It's so crazy and so funny and it's the best. Can you talk us through how you, It's so crazy and so funny and it's just, it's the best.

Can you talk us through how you book this role? For sure. Yeah, this was crazy because it was literally like audition on a Tuesday, I got the word on Thursday, do you have a passport? Wow. I was in, I was at LAX on Saturday, flying to Sweden. You went to Sweden for this? We went to Sweden, yeah, we shot this in Stockholm, I was at LAX on Saturday flying to Sweden. You went to Sweden for this? We went to Sweden.

Yeah, we shot this in Stockholm, which was wild. So yeah, I mean, it came through my agency and it was a last minute thing. I think maybe they'd been exploring, maybe going in a different direction. And they realized like, this is super earth, but this is America. Like we need to fly in a real double cheeseburger

looking motherfucker like me. Basically, like we need the real jingoist ideal to do this. So super last minute, yeah, I taped it in my office on my phone and was in Stockholm like five days later. Cause Arrowhead who makes the games in Stockholm and they ported up the cinematic to Goodbye Kansas who is across the street from them in Soder Mom, whatever ported up the cinematic to goodbye Kansas. Okay. Who is across the street from them in Soder Mom, whatever neighborhood of Stockholm it

is. And they've done like, they did that first Alan Wake 2 trailer where you're like, holy shit, this is like a human being. Yeah. They did that. They did a ton of cyberpunk cinematics. They work on TV shows. So they're like a, they're a big volume for motion capture.

So Arrowhead and GBK were there and we shot it in Stockholm. It was so fun. But you know going in that it was going to be like your, your voice obviously, but also your face. Yeah, they let you know. There's all sorts of different iterations when you're auditioning for voiceover work. You know, sometimes like, hey, this is,

this is voiceover in little, little P cap. That might mean they just track your face and then put a different face on it, but they track the motion. Sometimes it's motion capture, they're gonna put somebody else's head on you. And this was the whole thing. This like, you're the voice, it's the performance,

and it's the motion. So I knew I'd be in the pajamas with the dots and everything. Wow. Had you had a lot of experience with that before? No. No, okay. This was my first mocap PCAP job. It's cool.

So it was like baptism by fire, it was very cool. I feel like I see like a lot of like behind the scenes stuff where people are talking about like how weird it is. Like, was it very strange to be wearing like the ping pong balls and stuff or was it like freeing? It was really cool. It didn't feel as weird as I thought it would. They say that like, you know, mocap is like,

it's very like theater in the round or like black box and stuff. The weirdest thing about it was just like, you know mo cap is like it's it's very like theater in the round or like Blackboxes stuff the weirdest thing about it was just like because the way how the cameras work It's just seeing the infrared. So anything that doesn't have a dot on it is invisible So like that bug was like a PA who was practically smoking a cigarette Just going And he's completely invisible, but the tennis ball has a dot on it, and the stunt performers

are kicking ass, obviously. That was the weird thing, was the director would walk in front of you because there is no camera. It's just 200 cameras everywhere. So there is no framing, there is like camera moves or anything on the day. It's just, well, yeah, let's block this to make sure that the angles are right. But like, they're gonna pick a lot of that afterward

to the best of my understanding. So that was the weirdest thing about it. That's very cool. Yeah, that is especially, you know, and we're talking before the episode and like, I know you came from a theater background, like, you know, you're acting on the stage, you're acting for the camera

You have a fixed point where that you know people are gonna be looking at you from it's like 80% of what you do Right any day on a TV show. There's that's all of the worries the lighting and you know hitting your mark Hey, you leaned into her frame a little bit when she was talking to you Can you make sure you stay right here? Yeah to have all of that, yeah, do whatever the fuck you want, was pretty awesome. Yeah, that's great. It was crazy. Wow. Probably no room for takes, like one for me, kind of,

like you can't just like go off. Well, it's funny you say that. We finished quickly, and I think because like Airhead and GBK were working together, it was like, we got the volume for the rest of the afternoon, is there anything else you want? And we kind of just like, dicked around at the latter part of the day, is there anything else you want? And we kind of just like dicked around

at the latter part of the day. And like the stunt performers, Neela and Nicholas were so great and very welcoming and helping me kind of figure out how to do the mocap side of it. So we were just like, we were doing dance breaks and inventing handshakes and like, they made me do a freestyle rap at one point,

which I'm glad does not exist. Cause you're looking, you know what it sounded like. Yeah, you don't want to be a bigger star. I can't do everything. I guess our third act segment is out, but. So much for the intro. We'll figure something else out for the rest of the show. Do you think that it felt more,

because there's no fixed point where you're playing to, did it feel more like existing in the reality? I know you were like, you know, dots, but there's always this level of disconnect when you're acting for a specific, you know, observer versus like existing in a space and like doing something. Did it feel more or less real? I think that's a great question.

It felt more like being in college when you're doing all my sons at 11 o'clock in the morning in a fluorescent lit room with a box instead of the car you're working on. Like, it's completely not real, but because there's nothing else there, you can kind of give yourself over a little bit. That's definitely what I found, because it was so Spartan.

There was, it's not like you're on, you know, Dune 2 where the set is there and everybody's in costume and stuff, but because there was nothing, you could kind of give yourself over to it a little bit, I think. When did you film this? This was in 2022. Oh, okay. Wow. A little over two years ago.

Wow, okay. Yeah. Obviously, the Helldivers franchise existed in a different form, was not nearly as zeitgeisty. Did you have any sense in the run up to this game's release what it was going to become? No. Yeah. Don't lie.

My sense is also that Arrowhead did not. Of course. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They were all so fucking, like everybody in Stockholm was amazing and so welcoming to me. And like, I'm very, I'm, that's why they hired me. I'm extremely American. I'm big and loud and way too gregarious.

And Swedes are very put together and sort of back. And like, everybody I met, hey, what's up? And everybody took two steps back every time they met me. And they were still so nice to me, even though I was so insane. But it's like one floor of an office and they have a section of their office that was like, what's this?

It's like, oh, we mostly work on our, we paint our Warhammer miniatures at lunch. So we just have a station set up so that people don't have to go back home. Like, oh, these are like, these are us. These are our people. And I think this just like came out of nowhere, which I'm so happy for them about

because the game fucking rips too. Yeah. It's super fun. Which we'll talk about, but I mean like, so the game comes out, it's a pretty quick, like, you know, pretty immediate sensation, a lot of viral clips and so forth.

Like at what point do people start noticing you? Whether those like, you know, those are friends or what have you, like, when do people start? It was sort of two waves because like most of this dropped at PlayStation showcase last summer. It was like one of the first trailers. So that, that led to a month of like a pretty general voice actor nightmare, which is you are under NDA and everybody is asking you

if that's you in something. And you are legally obligated to avoid or negate that in no uncertain terms. It's hard enough when people hear your voice, like, yo, that's you, right? Like, I don't know, whoever that is, it sounds like me, Teehee. But like when it's you and your phone has like 60 text messages,

dude, what? And you have to just ignore them or say no. People think you're being an asshole, which is hilarious. Because Sony would like black bag me if I'd broken my NDA. So that was weird. So when the game came out, I could finally say that was very gratifying, obviously, and a relief as well. But yeah, I mean, people of the woodwork, but my friend messaged me the other night Your face is on my husband's gaming computer. What's going on? I haven't talked to this person in like 11 years like yep, that's me if that was

I would just probably be like actually no this that's not me at all. It is actually really concerning I think I might have to sue these people. Do you know like a lawyer? What the hell is happening here? Yeah, this is bad. They scanned me. It is, but this is a game that's like, and I can always sense how, Matt and Heather, I'm sure you read into this of like,

you are someone that people in your group of friends and family know as like a gaming person. And so when a game gets to a certain threshold of success, you will have people just asking you like, hey, what have you heard about this thing? You know what I mean? And the Helldivers 2 is at that level for me. Like I was playing it the other day

and my wife who does not play games comes in and she's just like, is that Helldivers 2? I was like, yeah. And then she had Helldivers 2 like on her phone. Like someone had been talking about it and she's just like, is that Helldivers 2? I was like, yeah. And then she had Helldivers 2 on her phone. Like someone had been talking about it and she looked it up and it's just like. And you were in trouble. Yeah, of course I was in trouble.

That Helldivers 2, go to your room. What did I tell you about democracy? Was it followed with, do you still live here? Have you not been opening those large manila envelopes that my lawyer has been sending you? They say final notice. I'm still paying rent, so. Yeah, anyway, what I was saying is it's just like,

it's gotta be wild to be part of something that's that big. It's crazy, it's fucking nuts. Like, you know, my friend texted me, hey, you're on Giphy. And I was like, what? He was like, oh yeah, like falling to the no is like now just like if somebody, you know, cancels Dungeons and Dragons,

that's just something I could text to the group. No, oh hey, I'm sorry, you know, Zankou didn't give me garlic sauce. No! Like, whatever the fuck. Like, penetrating to that level has been nuts, for sure. Does that feel good, that you could just send a reaction of yourself when you get devastating news?

Trust me, yeah, I've been spamming just everything. Hey, yeah, are you good to get coffee? Me putting the helmet on, like, hey, look familiar? You need to stop doing this. How many gifts can I extract from this one minute cinematic? That's so good. Well, congrats on Helldivers, too. It's awesome, and your part is so great

and instantly iconic. Just to step back a little bit, how did you break into video game acting in general? Like we were talking about before, I've been in L.A. for about 15 years. I started kind of just doing the TV film thing as much as I could. into video game acting in general? I, like we were talking about before, I've been in L.A. for about 15 years. I started kinda just doing the TV film thing as much as I could.

And you worked in TV, a fair amount. Yeah, I was lucky enough to do a couple sitcoms, do some commercials and stuff. I ran around the universe a lot in a Budweiser spot with the Clydesdales and shit, like 12 years ago. That was fun. So the weird things you pick up along the way But about eight years ago, um I wanted to get back into voiceover because I'd done it when I was a kid

And it was always just sort of the sings like oh man I this is like a part of the industry I want to get back into you're the same voice at age seven Yeah, exactly. It's like hello I don't want to do my times tables Just a lot of that. Where are my dunkaroos? Other 90s specifics. But I wanted to get back into it and my friend Ariana Ratner, who's a very accomplished voice actor in a ton of video games and stuff, we went to college together.

She was like, yeah, you got to take classes. So I studied up and got a demo done. It was pretty much just commercials for me for a long time. On the voice side? On the voice side of things, yeah. And I sent in a lot of shitty video game auditions, I'm sure, just because I didn't know what the fuck I was doing.

Right, yeah. And then the pendulum started to swing for me after I took some more classes and stuff and just kind of got my feet under me a little bit more. And like 2019, 2020, right before the pandemic really was when like it went from more commercials to more video games. And it's just been like that since, which has been amazing. Yeah. Yeah.

I have a question I guess about, because obviously you have, your speaking voice is your speaking voice and it's like, it's very good. Like do you, so I'm just, I'm very aware of what I sound like when I'm doing this. So like I've listened to him talk and I'm like, this sucks. I'm like, I sound like a little, like. So I've listened to him talk and I'm like, this sucks. I'm like, what the fuck are we doing?

I sound like a little kid. But I, so. You're just being voice cocked. We're gonna dub Matt though, right? We're talking about Rochelle. Do we talk about Matt? Honestly, please dub me. And just if I, if you wanna say something funny for me

instead, that would be good too. I did an ABC of hello everyone for Rochelle before I got here. So we just got some alts on that. But I guess my question is, so before you get started in this, are people coming up to you being like, you know, you have a really great voice. It's always been, it's definitely been sort of a thing.

Okay. But you know, it's been this since puberty, for sure. Wow, because yeah, nobody's ever said that to me, so I was just wondering what the problem is and why nobody has said it before. So they said it to you, it makes sense. I'm like, okay, so I'm just getting, I'm just clicking data points, I guess.

It's just for data, just for data. But yeah, it's definitely something that will come up every now and again. And it's now not a surprise if I meet somebody at a party. Oh, what are you, I'm a voice actor. Oh, yeah, of course. You sort of read the chore. Finish your drink and don't talk to that person again.

I guess now you can be like, oh, if people come up to you, oh, you should do commercials like, ah, guess what, I do, idiot. That's my whole thing. Yeah, motherfucker. You remember Postmates, sort of, from a couple years ago?

Yeah, that's what I thought. We should, going back to video games, because you are wearing a Cloud Strife at McDonald's t-shirt, and you got to act in Final Fantasy 7 remake and rebirth I mean, what was that experience like and and like are you I assume you're a fan of the franchise going in for sure Yeah, yeah, I mean I think I'm on the Final Fantasy 8 is superior train. I have to admit Wow, that's my number one big thumbs up from Heather. That was my PS

Hey, I get you got another ally over here I'm a big-time Final Fantasy Big thumbs up from Heather. That was my PS. Wow, and it did in her Zoom too. Even Zoom thumbs up. Hey, you got another ally over here. I'm a big time Final Fantasy 8 November. For sure. That was a game, I mean, as a kid, I remember my sister and I just trading off the PlayStation controller, just blown away by this thing.

Just, oh my God, it's so many discs. Just everything about that game really hit. Final Fantasy 7 is amazing, obviously. Weirdly enough, Final Fantasy VII was one of my first sessions. Oh wow. And I'm just additional voices, me and a million other amazing voice actors

kind of fleshing out the world, but like I record, my session I think was in 2020. Okay. Like late 2019, early 2020, I think, was in 2020. Okay. Like late 2019, early 2020, I think. And I didn't even know that I was in Rebirth until Rebirth came out. Wow. Oh, wow, so you recorded lines there

and they're being used in the sequel. And they're being used in the sequel just because I guess whatever they needed me to do spanned the narrative arc for whatever reason. I was congratulating a friend of mine, Chris Jirly-Fair. I was like, hey man, congr, Chris Jirly-Fair. I was like, hey man, congrats on rebirth. That's awesome.

Oh yeah, congrats to you. Our names are right next to each other. TNT. I went, oh, he's just being nice. He's like a suit. Oh, that's nice of him to assume that I'm not in this one. And I looked it up. I was like, holy shit, Square,

you motherfucking got me in there. So it was one of the first sessions I ever did. The first game I ever recorded is still not out. Wow. It's maybe coming out this year. It's bananas. So I can't wait to hear that and be like, oh, I was shitty.

And this is the first thing I ever did. Do you think it's not out yet because they're trying to fix what you did? They can't fix it. No matter how many times they recast the part, my stink is still just on it. It's in the metadata of this game for sure. It closed the studio. No matter how many times they recast the part, my stink is still just on it. It's in the metadata of this game for sure.

It closed the studio. Did you hear Nick's cameo in Final Fantasy Rebirth? Did they patch you out or are you still in it, Nick? No, my cameo's in there. Okay, great. Well, just be on the lookout for the guy who if you want to suck the chocobos dick I thought we were gonna say he's Chadley again. He really put the choke in chocobo I thought we were gonna say he's Chadley again. He really put the choke in Choke-About-Light.

I'm like, no. Can you fill in for us, Hugh, who are not acting in video games, when you have an additional voices credit, what does that mean exactly? And when you book that, are you going in for additional voices? What are you reading for exactly? Yeah, it's interesting because, you know, some of the time that's from the casting, a lot of the time it's like you swung at a bunch of characters

and, you know, for whatever reason, you weren't selected for one of those characters, but, you know, your reads landed or you demonstrated some range. So they're like, oh, we'll bring them in for additional voices. And a game like these two, I mean, you look at the additional voice credits,

like dozens and dozens. There's so much text in these two, I mean, you look at the additional voice credits, like dozens and dozens, there's so much text in these games, which is awesome. So yeah, you go in kind of like, oh yeah, I swung on all these parts and it didn't work out, but like, hey, you wanna have me and, you know, do a session, which is great. And you go in completely blind, just being thrown the character seconds before you record,

which is kind of how most sessions go, which I did not know until I started doing this, but even when you book a part, other than like Blizzard, maybe, they're not sending you the scripts beforehand, because they're obviously really concerned about leaks and how proprietary it is and stuff, so it's a lot of sight reading.

So like the Final Fantasy sessions, it was literally like, okay, cool, now you're a helicopter pilot, yelling at Cloud, okay, cool, now you're on a motorcycle, okay, cool, now you're a helicopter pilot yelling at Cloud. Okay, cool, now you're on a motorcycle. Okay, cool, now you're in a town that got destroyed. And they're being kind of vague with the story points and you're just kind of trying to sound

as different as you can, part to part. But they're at least telling you what it is. Like, you know, going in like, oh, you're talking to Cloud. Like it's that it's Final Fantasy 7. Almost always by the time. Sometimes it's when you walk in though. Like I'm one of the player voices for Star Wars Squadrons. Yeah.

I wish that Squadrons was still alive. The multiplayer of that was very fun. Really great game. I did not know that that was a Star Wars property until seconds before we started recording. Wow. Because it was code named out the ass and they didn't let us know.

And I signed on and they went, hey, you know, so and so from EA in San Francisco is on the line, and my brain goes, oh, is this Star Wars? And they come in, hey, welcome to the Star Wars, and you have to reckon with that before you record four hours of lines, which is crazy, obviously. Your first line is like, there's Chewbacca.

What is this? What is this? What is this? What is this? Like, the games are canonical. So you are in Star Wars. Yeah, that's what I keep saying at Disneyland. And they just will not give me the milk.

Give me my damn blue milk. It's really, really cool to be like, I'm in there. I'm forever. Like Library of Congress in the canon of Star Wars is really neat. Ah, I think it's cool. It's bananas. Like hearing yourself from an X-wing is like an emotion.

It was a very emotional thing for sure. Like getting cast in Final Fantasy VII Remake when I got in and I found out what it was, I remember being in the parking lot after, in reaction just I can't believe that just fucking happened yeah that's why it's wild you mentioned the blue milk I just have to say this I'm trying to get people on the green milk I think the green one is the better one wait do they have a galaxy's edge they have the green milk they have the green one at galaxies edge and you but you can get it

they have like little mango chunk like jellies Edge. And you can get it, they have like little mango chunk, like jellies at the bottom, and you can get it with like tahini in it, and it kinda fucks. It's good. Matt, the basement of the parking structure is not technically Galaxy's Edge. I don't know. Okay, I'm just like kinda slopping up this like green stuff.

You're just slopping up green down there in Anaheim, and we're worried. It's really, really good. If you say so, that's fine. That's fine, That's OK. I'm not a fan of the green milk. I like the blue milk. I'm a fan.

Hey, I like them both. I'm just saying that maybe next time you're over there, try the green one. I'll try the green. Also, they're extremely sweet, and it's a shame. No human being should have it. Let's say in a baseline, it's wrong. Not food.

It's a decoration that you're putting in your face for some reason. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you're spending $8 to get sick later. Great. The most magical place on earth. I do wanna get into some video games, but I did wanna ask you about just, all of your game credits. I did.

I imagine Hell Divers 2 is an adder near the top of the list, but do you have a favorite thing that you've worked on or a thing you've worked on where you're like, I'm particularly proud of that or I was particularly excited to be a part of this game? Yeah, for sure. Tons of things. I mean, I think Hell Divers 2 is definitely in terms of like as a gamer, being able to be in a game that I enjoy so much is huge. I think Octopath 2 was another big one for me because the game came out of nowhere for me as a player.

I really was excited to play it because I was in it and I knew that the voice cast of that is ridiculous. And I was surprised at how fast it hooked me. So it was very cool to be like, oh my God, I just sunk 95 hours into this thing and I loved it. And I'm in it every once in a while. That was like very gratifying for sure. When you're in it like once in a while like that,

are you caught off guard when you hear, oh, that's me, oh, that's me, there I am. For sure, especially because even in games like that, like I play like one of the antagonists of one of the travelers, so like, in his story I feature pretty prominently. You're the English voice of Harvey, correct? Exactly, so yeah, like, I'm the dude

who incited the incident for Oswald in that path. So obviously, like in that storyline, I come up relatively frequently, but even in a game like that, like they're gonna get what they can get out of you. So I play seven other cops, priests, townspeople, but even in a game like that, they're gonna get what they can get out of you. So I play seven other cops, priests, townspeople, drunks in a bar, and those are the times where you're kind of

just playing to play, and all of a sudden you're like, motherfucker, what, is that me? Oh shit, yeah, I remember recording that 18 months ago. Vaguely. So it's very weird, for sure, hearing yourself and kind of catching it barely. Do you have any voices that you're like, confused by that you're like, is that one,

like is that one me? Or like, I don't know, that sounds, I guess I did that, I don't know. There are definitely some where I'm like, I remember being self-conscious on the day, like we're talking like anytime they're like, hey yeah, like this character's like 20. I'm like, oh motherfucker, like that's just,

that just ain't me. So hearing when I don't totally blow that, I'm like, exactly, yeah, perpetually 25. Hearing when I don't totally blow that back, I'm like, oh yeah, I did kind of like age myself down a little bit is gratifying. And then other times I'm like, oh boy, that was maybe not my absolute best swing I've ever taken.

But that is a voice, you know, I know a thing with voice acting of, it's just, if you're hearing your voice in isolation detached from your physical frame, your voice has a certain age that it sounds like, right? So it's like, you probably age up a little bit from what your actual age is. Absolutely. And always have been.

Yeah, it's kind of always been, you know, like 35 is the basement, for sure. And as I get, what's really weird is when you listen to your voice as specifically and as much as you have to when you're a voice actor, like I'll listen back to games or gigs or even commercials I did four years ago. And even that I'm like,

oh shit, it is not the years, honey, it's the mileage. Like I can hear the difference a little bit, which is bananas and really makes you just feel like you're withering away. No, I mean, I've listened to a lot of all of our voices, a lot, like editing the show and stuff. Yeah, I don't know how you do it.

It's a prison. It's a mess. I don't know how Ranch does it, most of all. Yeah. I like it. I like your guys' voices Rochelle. Thank you. Thank you. I think ranch has a nice voice to me It doesn't have a nice voice. It's hard hearing mine for sure. Yeah, that's that's the thing I'm self-conscious about is a listening to myself But also like I think the context of a podcast. I'm hearing me try to like form a thought and failing so I'm like I just hear myself being dumb and

and that's it's own thing as opposed to just like the you know how my voice sound. I'm very aware of the all the Vocal pauses that I take a lot of the a lot of the bad things that I do when I talk I'm very very aware of it, so stop telling me about it online. This is directed at a particular subreddit. I know. R slash bad voices. I feel like it's harder for you guys though, because like you said, we always have the veil of a character,

and we're given the fucking lines. Listening to podcasts, I'm always amazed. It's hard. Talking is hard. You know what? I'm glad we got to this. It is pretty hard. It is hard. You know what, I'm glad we got to this, you know what, it is hard. It's pretty hard, yeah. And it's not for me to say, but thank you for realizing that what we do is a service.

Yeah, thank you, Craig. And yeah, you guys are heroes. Thank you, yeah, where are our pots and pans? That's what this piece of paper you slipped me. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, thank you for reading that. Yeah, America's chosen, I don't wanna read the rest of this. Why is this paper red? I don't want to read the rest of this. Why is this paper red? I don't understand.

I don't understand. I don't understand. I don't understand. I don't understand. I don't understand. I don't understand. I don't understand. Fast forward to the end of 2024.

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at drinkag1.com slash get played. That's drinkag1.com slash get played. Check it out, why don't you? Check it out, why don't you? So you are a gamer, obviously. Can you give us some of your, just generally talk through your taste and any all-time favorites of yours? Absolutely, yeah.

I mean, I'm an elder millennial, so spanned the generations. Sure. Like, I remember, oh God, Commander Keen, Cosmos, Great Adventure on my dad's like work computer through like Rise of the Triad, like a lot of the old 90s PC game kind of thing. Rise of the Triad is fantastic. It fucking slaps.

It's a horrifically violent game. It fucking rocks. What? No, no, it's real. In a moral way, it shouldn't exist. We've talked about this before, Heather, but this is a game and Commander King, you know, a 2D platformer, it was id's first game. I think so, yeah.

So, you know, there's an old PC platformer and that was like one of those games where like the PC controls were not standardized. Not like you could just hook up an Xbox game pad. It didn't exist. So like you might be playing it with like a keyboard or like a really shitty joystick, you know? It was never-

Gray plastic barely worked. It never quite worked right. But Rise of the Triad was a first person shooter and it was in the era of Doom clones. And it had the notable thing of if you would wounded enemy They would beg for their life and then you could choose to execute them Putting the hand of God she just being like judgment has been passed On that voice literally on their knees waving their hands begging the international symbol for this is wrong

Literally on their knees waving their hands, begging. The international symbol for this is wrong. And you're just like, this rules, video games are great. Makes you think like Joe Lieberman was right. He knew what he was doing. And so you grew up playing those games. What are some of your all time favorites? I mean, a lot of stuff that the pod is that I'm a big Metal Gear Solid guy for sure.

Oh, hell yeah. Yeah, I play through that on my gray lid PlayStation every year. Oh, that rocks. I take a pass with my original copy of Metal Gear Solid because it just fucking, it still fucking works. Yeah. It's still good and it just rules. God, like so many other standouts. I was big into Tomb Raider.

I was always kind of a PlayStation kid. Sure. Halo 3, I mean, as a person who was in college in the early 2000s, like that was very important for every male relationship I forged. No, people were playing a lot of Halo. Lot of Halo for sure. And then moving through, like honestly,

like I said, I'm a big fan of the pod. You guys are great for kind of teeing me up for games that I wouldn't necessarily play. Like Disco Elysium knocked my fucking dick off. Oh, I love that. So hard. Yeah. Hell yeah. I couldn't believe that it existed.

Yeah. Like to have those experiences. And I think Last of Us Part II as well. Yeah, sure. To play that in the pandemic, like, I don't know. The feelings that it evoked in me of the responsibility I had as a participant in the narrative, I'd never felt before.

And it was like, you guys talk about this on the pod, how like, that's the thing that games do that movies can't. Yes, right. The complicity. Last of Us Part II, like, I was just devastated at the end of that game, and I haven't stopped thinking about it since. Yeah, it's like Rise of the Triad

is at a complete opposite end of the spectrum there, where they're kind of trivializing the actual moral, you know, gravity of what you're doing. Well, I had the DLC where you had to mash left and right arrow to wave your hands above your head, which was really interesting to switch your perspective. Yeah. I will say that there is a game similarity

when you kill somebody in The Last of Us 2 and their friend goes, Gary, no! And then you shoot them. They had a name. Yeah. Yeah, I mentioned on the podcast before, but the moment I had, when I tried to throw a Molotov cocktail at a guy and his dog,

and I just hit the dog, and so this man just watched his dog catch on fire. It was like, Jesus Christ. You're like, I did that. I pressed a button to make that happen. Yeah. I gotta play it again. Let's go.

Let's go. Hey Craig, it's time for this question. What are you playing? What are you playing? What? What? No, it's fine. I'm glad it's not Bubsy and it's you. So hi, Resident Evil Merchant. I'm not worried if not Bubsy if I'm being honest. I'm the fourth host of Get Played, the Resident Evil Merchant, and I'm here to ask everybody their favorite question. What are you playing?

It is a different experience in person than just listening on my phone. Yeah, the sound. That's the whole thing. The sound that their head made when they bashed it on the door frame on the way in is gonna ring in my ear forever. Well, yeah, the Resident Evil Merchant is like Shaq's height.

So that's a thing you forget. He hit his forehead and then his hunched back kind of in a one-two, which just was uncomfortable. I'm so sorry, you're right here. I'm glad you caught that because I wasn't sure what happened. The pain was sudden and sharp. And I was like, what?

But I knew I had to get it in. Am I bleeding? I might be bleeding. You are bleeding. It's hard to say if it was from that or if it was from before. Yeah, I wasn't gonna comment on it, but yeah, you might've just been bleeding.

Also can I say, I like Shaq as a unit of measurement. That's pretty good. Oh, that is pretty good. Yeah, I'm like Sha a unit of measurement. That's pretty good. Oh, that is pretty good. Yeah, I'm like I'm like Shaq and a tenth Slightly slightly I can I can touch mid-net without jumping Hmm horrifying. Okay, okay. OK. Kind of OK, great. I the middle of you.

Or you touch the middle of the net. You're talking about standing reach, like reaching over your. Yeah, I can stand reach, touch the middle of the. I do have to have a little hop to dunk, which thankfully I cannot hop. So I've never been able to dunk,

but it's so close. You have no joints in your knees, right? So your legs are just kind of straight. Yeah, it's a contact situation. All of a sudden they bend backwards. I'm sorry, the idea of picturing you on a basketball court is so asynchronous. Like just thinking of a Resident Evil merchant in a gym.

That's what's wrong with this. Come to the YMCA Tuesday nights at 3.30 in the morning, the one in Hollywood. And I'll be there. That's when I have the court reserved. And I play a little ball. Do you have it reserved or are you just there? Yeah.

Hold on, I reserve it. I reserve my space. Right, you fill out a form, you applied for that time slot. Good for you getting the reps in, you know. Yeah, okay, I know that I've done questionable things on this podcast. Yes.

But if you're asking me if one of the few spaces that welcomes me in, that I would take advantage of that generosity, I reserve my space. They will not let me in that I would take advantage of that generosity, I reserve my space. They will not let me in the pool because of the oil that comes out of my body. But I- I like how this is the bridge too far. Reserving space, that's the limit, which I enjoy.

Yeah. So yeah, I'm, what would, my head hurts. Yeah, why don't you go sit down for a second and we'll talk about some video games. Thank you, Resident Evil Merchant. You can have the rest of my spin drip, that's fine. All right. Yeah, drink something.

What are you playing? Craig, what are you playing these days? Yeah, right now I'm kind of like mid sea of stars. Oh wow, I love it. Which I'm enjoying. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's very fun. Nice. I had a lot of fun with that game.

I kind of picked it up as like, kind of like hoping for a little bit of crunchy JRPG, which it definitely is not No, yeah, but I'm still really enjoying it. It's very sweet It's so pretty and like there's just enough sort of interactivity with the battle that it's like Oh, this isn't giving me like the customization I would want from like an Octopath like this is fun I'm very much enjoying it. It's a nice throw on play for 20 or 30 minutes Yeah, maybe combat more it has like kind of like, you know, like a Super Mario RPG feel, you know It's with some of the more active elements. But yeah, the time the timing is Yeah, so I'm enjoying that

Going through the back catalog. I got a PS5 In anticipation of Helldivers and I hadn't played Fortnite in years Wow, and the first time I booted that up, and it was like a hub screen of an entire universe with like 11 games in it, I had like a mini stroke, I think. I had just one side of my face through it, because the last time I played it, it was like build, no build.

And that was sort of the extent of the choice. And now I spent like eight and a half hours unlocking old Snake and just getting toasted by every single person I ran into, so. Yeah, that's my Fortnite experience. For sure, yeah. I gotta get on that battle bus. I gotta get on the battle bus.

You do, you do. Come join the battle bus. Absolutely. At discord.gg slash get played. Wow. Wow. Heather, what are you playing? Oh, come on. We just Fortnite. Sorry. You don't be exasperated.

I I know, but I look I want to play. So I played Helldivers and I played Final Fantasy Rebirth. I'm playing other games, but the games we're gonna talk about on the pod and any game time that I have that isn't dedicated to the games that we're all, so I'm playing games, but God, this season of Fortnite is so fucking good. It is the best season I've experienced since seasons began.

I've been squatting up. This is the Greek gods concept, right? It's the Greek gods. I unlocked my Medusa skin and I mean, squad enough. This is the Greek gods concept, right? It's the Greek gods. I unlocked my Medusa skin and I fucking love Medusa. So I'm out there getting crowns and sniping, ARing, lightning bolting, flying. It's fantastic. It's so good.

And the mobility is so aggressive in this season. There's so many different options for mobility. And you might be at home being like, Heather doesn't know what she's talking about. There's only like two versions of mobility and that's wings or shockwave grenades. But I'll say you add in flow berries to that mix and you've got three different kinds of mobility you add in the Cerberus

Skull teleport dash that's four different kinds of mobility And if you're like me you've got one gun and four kinds of mobility as your loadout And it's fan you just feel like you're zipping around Flying landing on something shooting somebody's great Wow if we took that out and you weren't talking about Fortnite, we would have to have you locked up, I think. The court would like to recognize Exhibit G and recommend an immediate transferal to an institution. I rest my case.

Okay, okay, I see it. But I also want to talk about my, I rest my case. Okay, okay. I see it. But I also want to talk about my, and we touched on this prior to the podcast or before our record, I have a water bottle that is gamifying my water intake. Right? That's right. Yeah, yeah.

And it keeps track of how much water you drink and then uploads that to your iPhone. and so if you have the Apple watch then it also synchronizes your Apple watch You can glance at your watch and see what percentage of the water you've consumed Over the course of the day that you're supposed to consume and then it will blink Like a little LED light will blink if you're supposed to be drinking more water at that given moment. It's great um, I bring this up because if you're supposed to be drinking more water at that given moment. It's great. I bring this up because it's trending recently on like TikTok and on general social media platforms that millennials look younger than Gen Z people who are significantly younger than them, but that all Millennials and Gen Z look significantly younger than baby boomers did at that age,

and people are wondering what changed. And I think for Gen Z people, it's vaping, which is why they look older. Interesting. But I think across the board, in comparison to baby boomers, it's water intake. I think that Baby Boomers smoked cigarettes and never drank water, and that's why they looked

the way the Cheers cast looks at age 27. Like, it's wild. You watch a free journey run, you're like, what is happening? Yeah, Jordan's 33. What? Yeah, Jordan. So anyway, I was just thinking about that.

I was like, the answer's water, it's water. I'm screaming at like Twitter or Blue Sky or TikTok, it's water. I think nobody used to drink water and now everybody drinks water. And I drink it from a water bottle that like berates me if I don't drink water. Incredible.

Nick, what are you playing? Heather, thank you for asking. I do want to shout out the Stardew Valley 1.6 update real quick. This game came out in 2016, and Eric Barone, concerned ape, the solo dev who makes this game, continues to give out these massive updates for free, and it's just one of those things where you wish every developer did that. You understand the

economic realities of, of game development, especially if you've got a more expensive project, and you're going to have, you know, maybe some more micro transactions built into it, some more paid DLC, but it is just really, really awesome that this one guy just keeps this game going, and doesn't charge anything for it beyond the base price of the game. There's so much new content in this game. There's new festivals, there's new environmental event, there's a bunch more dialogue, there's

a new farm type. And so, I don't know, there's also a polygon piece I was reading about Concerned Ape and just talking about his workflow. And there's an element of like he uses like $20 software packages or freeware to like Make a lot of the content for the game a lot of the art and the music and it's just it's just kind of amazing Just someone who's such a one-man band and also just like does stuff With just readily available tools. I don't know. It's it's it's humbling and it's and it's awesome that something like this exists

But I want to shout that out real quick because it is amazing, although I've not been able to spend much time with it, but I do want to start up a metal lands farm. The game I've been playing more with my free time this week has been Deep Rock Galactic Survivor, which I talked about a couple of weeks ago. This is in early access.

It is the vampire survivors like in the Deep Rock Galactic universe. Spending more time with it, I'm really feeling how the new mechanics versus vampire survivors shake things up. Specifically, you're a miner, so you can mine through rock to kite enemies, which is just a really interesting layer to the sort of bullet heaven gameplay. And then also there's all these minerals that you can collect to upgrade your character between stages and then to also upgrade your character overall in the meta game from the roguelite side of things and so

you have a risk reward of extending your run to try to gather more resources although the enemies will become more powerful and then also ultimately once you kill the big bad you only have 30 seconds to escape to get back to the ship or else you just fail your run. So it's all these pressures of like how much do I want to risk for the potential reward and that I find super duper fun. And again, just a nice new thing on top of the vampire survivors formula, which already just clicked so well for me.

But also just in a broader sense, I was realizing what I like about these kinds of games, as opposed even to something like Helldivers 2, which I also really, really enjoy and appreciate. But like a game like this does not really demand much concentration from me. Like it is, you're just running around shooting, but in a sense where I can just kind of almost play it like an idle game, you know?

And in that sense, it kind of feels meditative and kind of feels like it's putting my brain in its default state when I can just kind of think about things. You know what I mean? I just can kind of let my mind wander while I'm just playing this thing. You get to flow a little bit. Exactly. And there's something very fun about that experience. Yeah, flow state very much is what it puts me into.

So anyway, so that's what I've been playing. Matt, what are you playing? I've that's what I've been playing. Matt, what are you playing? I've been playing, I've been playing a game. I'm currently obsessed with this game. I had to put down Rebirth so we could, so I could spend some time in Helldivers. But in between that I've been playing a game called Mars After Midnight. And it is a Lucas Pope game. It's a new Lucas Pope game who did Papers, Please and Return of the Obra Dinn, but it is a Playdate exclusive. And I have a clip of it here

that Rochelle's gonna pull up right now. I love that you're on the Playdate beat, by the way. I mean, it's very rare that there's a game for the Playdate that I'm like that interested in, honestly. So it is very, very niche, but when the Playdate goes off, it goes off. This is your post-Bloom era. I'm in my post-Bloom era for sure with this one.

Because this game is described as, it's like, papers please light, according to Lucas Pope. There's no border checkpoints, no desk, no paperwork, and it's on Mars. And I just wanted to show a little bit of what it looks like here. Obviously, that's the Playdate. Okay, can you give everyone a reminder of what the Playdate is exactly? The Playdate is a little yellow handheld gaming device with a crank.

So it has a crank for some games that you can use to manipulate things in the game. It only has two buttons and a D-pad. But you can look all it basically your main thing is that you're putting on It's a It's a it's a management video game where you control An alien running a late-night community support group for her colony Martians and so there's always they all have these problems and you have to sort of Invite them to the support group and help them with their problems you provide snacks and stuff and you have to sort of invite them to the support group and help them with their problems. You provide snacks and stuff. And you have to, you just have to help all of them.

And so you have a little window that you look through and use the crank to open the window. And you can see if the the Martian outside the window meets the criteria that you're looking for. And if they don't, you close the window until you get a new one that comes in. And it's it is so so fun, and it's like It's really funny one of the one of the levels. They have there is You have to let in Martians that are farting only

Wait only only yeah, they have to be farting at the door to let them in it's called fart frenzy or something. I think It's not all like that. It's just one of them. One of the ones you have to let in, like these little fly, they look like flies with knives we saw in the little trailer there. You can only let them in. But everybody gets their turn.

It's just on their day they have to come to the, you pick an event per day. The logic is that this is their group and so you need to let those people exactly yes and it's very very fun very charming it is very funny that it is only on this thing that almost nobody has right a lot of people have it I don't want to discount the the playdate It's a very neat device But it is more niche than say the Nintendo switch or something like that or a little bit more niche than the Nintendo switch But it's it's it's really really great and I I would love for more people to check it out especially. I mean obviously if you have a playdate It's only six dollars. Go nuts. Hey there you go. I've had a lot of people ask me

Is it worth buying a playdate so that I could play this? Now that's where your mileage may vary You know bloom sort of justified the the purchase for me because I really really loved that game as an experience this the purchase for me because I really really loved that game as an experience this now I'm Now I'm just playing with bonus time now with this thing. This is this game is fucking rad right maybe the the the question is more Are there enough exclusives on the playdate to justify a purchase and it seems like you maybe say yes? Yeah, I mean cuz like there are an enthusiast I mean almost every game for the playdate is exclusive to it right because like there's not there's no other systems with with cranks But like you get the base games that come with it that are

Fun, there's like some good stuff in there I didn't love all of them But every one of them that I tried and they messed around with a little bit particularly that surfboard one whitewater wipeout I really really liked but bloom and and Mars after midnight are for sure standouts that you have to pay for and then add into the system already. But I think those two are home runs and I'm really looking forward to finishing this one. It's only like a couple hours long.

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by the intro with the great Craig Lee Thomas. A huge hit. Sold one million copies its first month and was the biggest selling game, I believe, on any platform in February I Will I will say this I love the satire of this game. I think it is it is very funny And it extends to also the gameplay itself Which we'll get into but this game is like this world is as starship troopers as pal world is Pokemon. Yeah, it is so clearly an homage

And and but I like that about it I like that it is just sort of like, you know wearing its influences on its sleeve and just sort of like Here's the other thing I will say and I want to get everyone's thoughts here But a big part of why the satire works for me so well is that there is nothing goofy about it except for basically the dialogue, right? It's like all the, aesthetically, it's played pretty straight. Like the soldiers, their character designs,

the enemy designs, the grandiose music that you hear, it all is stuff that feels like it would just be out of a straight ahead, you know, played for serious sci-fi shooter, except that it has this layer of satire on top of it. But it's effective too, because I don't feel like it's like, it's not like winking really.

No, it's not. It's like, we're just doing this. Yeah. So it's just extra fun because of that, I think. It's done very, very well. But I had a blast with my time with this game. I mean, I'm just like... I am...

I do not play these types of games regularly. Like, this is not the kind of game I gravitate towards a co-op shooter. But as far as a game playing this with friends and voice chat, I think this is a 10 out of 10 gaming experience. It is so fun, it is so satisfying. And I think this is a 10 out of 10 gaming experience. It is it is so fun. It is so satisfying and I think the both the gunplay and then all of the Mission elements like like connect and work together really really effectively. I will I have to I must say yeah Because the three of us squad it up we did

We tried to get ranch in here. We had we had some trouble getting ranch and it wasn't ranch's fault We were just having a hard time with the cross-play function of it. Here's what it was. So Ranch and I were on PC, and we couldn't connect with the two of you, but we also couldn't even connect with each other. I switched over to PS5,

and on PS5, the three of us were able to squad up, but even there it was a little clunky. My understanding is that they have some open bugs that they are figuring out with both the cross play and the friends lists. So that I think just comes from the developer being so overwhelmed by the unexpected popularity of this game. But yeah, there are some kinks to be worked out as far as the matchmaking and squatting up with your pals. And the only reason I brought it up was because of what I was about to say and I didn't want to hurt ranch's feeling yeah, I had so much fun playing with you guys Great I would add the time of my life. Yeah, right. I mean if Rochelle was in there

I would have said that was probably the best day of my life The only thing that can make this better is if Rochelle was playing with us But hearing each other because I don't play a lot of games like this either. I don't get on mic I don't I turn voice chat off because I don't want to hear anybody else like Breathing like into the mic and not anything. That's like eating hard candy directly into a third But like with this I was like I got it I got it, you know put voice chat on here Nick and Heather and it was kind of fun to be like, oh God, oh God, oh God.

It was funny. So I played with you guys, and then I also squatted up with random people. Yeah, I did some of that as well. And it was the matchmaking difficulty that we encountered that prevented me from squatting up with, say, my standard Fortnite squad, who all went out and bought the game

so we could team up together. And then we ran into the same matchmaking issues that the three of us experienced until we realized that you can add each other from the PlayStation UI instead of the in-game UI. But I also squatted up with random people. from the PlayStation UI instead of the in-game UI. But I also squatted up with random people. And I wanna say there was something so bleak about the aggressive squad on squad murdering

that I witnessed. Oh sure, yeah. From strangers. And often it was mics on and you would just hear some guy somewhere, cause it was, I never heard a woman's voice. And I just hear like, no bro, don't do it. No bro, bro, bro.

And then like you'd see like a fucking tactical nuke wipe out one of our squad mates. And then you just hear, come on bro, bro, I can't believe you, fuck, I can't believe you did that. And we'd all load onto the, like it would almost always happen when one or two of us were on the dropship for an evac for an extraction and One of the people in your squad just decides to murk the final person and

They would be so upset and so mad and I was like this is Bleak and that is an experience that you don't have in Fortnite because there is no friendly fire. And I understand that it adds to the sort of atmosphere and tension of Helldivers. But combining the toxicity of your average random squad with the ability to kill one another during this game, it was depressing sometimes. That is so you were seeing like just full on like griefing like team kills, not just like inadvertent friendly fire. Yes.

Yeah, I would see team kills like we actually killed each other a couple times. No, I will. That's the thing like I like that that friendly fire is on. I think that's great for the game. But yeah, I know this has been an issue that I didn't personally witness much of that. But yeah, I know that it is a real thing.

I did, and I didn't, I wasn't grieved by any of my squad mates by luck, because after I saw it the first time, I was like, once that fucking EVAC evac ship is down I am diving into it because there's no I do not want to be fucking bombed or shot by like another person and then not revived and left um you mentioned diving and I gotta say it is one of the funniest things you can do it feels great it feels like a million bucks to like dive out of the way or like dive into It is great yeah

Craig can you talk about your experience playing the game? Yeah for sure? I'm sorry. It sounds like Heather Heather's playing like platoon It's just creediness and like bad pot and like memories on your side of the screen. I'm so sorry. Like, it's just credence and like bad pot and like harsh memories on your side of the screen. I'm so sorry. I'll never forget my level in Creek. We lost a good sergeant date. I've been super lucky. Like I said, I kind of got the PS five to play it because I was stoked about experiencing it. And a lot of my friends got it as well. So 80% of my time has been with friends. I've had really good luck with my randos. I think my favorite thing about it is definitely, like you guys said, being on Mike, how collaborative the missions are.

So many of them are, you've got to be on the terminal, you've got to turn the satellite, we've got to get the codes. All the little puzzles and stuff I find fun. And I think the sort of like oeuvre on the terminal, you gotta turn the satellite, you gotta get the codes, all the little puzzles and stuff I find fun. And I think, you know, the sort of like, oeuvre of the game, this managed democracy thing, I find like, people that you know wouldn't do like a bit, or like a voice, like normal people,

participate in it a little bit on mic. You'll hear them like, come out of their comfort zone, like, yeah, for democracy. And you're like, yeah, you fucking said it. And everybody else gets very excited. So that's been very fun to see people role play a little bit. That's been very funny. Yeah, it naturally lends itself to that.

And I mean, can we talk for a second about how gloriously stupid Super Earth is? Oh, god. It's so good. It's so incredible. It's so dumb, but it's so dumb in such a funny way that informs everything else that's in the game. I mean, and I love how you get to name your ship.

Oh, what's your ship name? The Sentinel of Individual Merit. Hell yeah, Matt. The Hammer of Serenity. Also great, Heather. Elected Representative of wrath. Yes. I've been rocking superintendent of liberty

pretty much since launch. I felt I had to have liberty in there. What's your ship name? Senator of Twilight. Really good. They're all good. They're all good, yeah. There's no bad combo.

No, it's great. I mean, talking about what you were saying, about everyone having their role in the squad. Now, me, I'm kind of, I would say if I'm playing a co-op shooter with Heather as I've done a number of times, I would characterize myself relative to Heather as useless. Yeah, but that's like saying like, oh man, compared to when Viana, I don't get a lot of board. You're talking about Heather and Campbell here.

You're drafting behind the most dangerous creature to ever enter the internet. But the way the game is structured, so you'll have a mission that will be like, hey, we've got to repair a fuel pump or something like that. Or we've got to raise the flag of Super Earth. And that will involve some sort of rote task or some mini games. And that's where I can shine. I can now feel useful all of a sudden,

because I can go up to the terminal. I can be the one dialing in the combo. You could solve that fuel pump puzzle. I can solve a fuel pump puzzle. Yeah, yeah. I'm sitting there like, I can't do this. Yeah. I'm so dumb. And the rest of the squad is guarding the perimeter

and gunning down the insects that are gathered around. And it's like, I like that element of the design a lot, that it feels like there are different roles for different people based on whatever their strengths are or whatever they want to role play. I'm sort of that guy, like you know when you're moving a couch and there's one guy kind of like holding the one corner, kind of just like not really doing anything.

Yeah, I got squatted up the other day, the guy just kept telling me to pivot, was that you? I will say, there was a moment last night I was playing, I jumped in like a randos game, and this guy, bless him, I don't know who was Was having a hard time with the fuel pump Puzzle this was probably me I was like this close to unmuting and just being like let me do it

And got off it and let me do it This is this is I can do this yeah. But when it comes to shooting and stuff, I'm scared often, not running away fast enough, honestly. It is impossible for me, given how funny the error sound is, not to constantly do the wrong first entry of the puzzles on a Terminer. Terminals. Yes. Like if you get it.

And it's also, cause your character animation is poking with you, I think your left hand in like an aggressive way. And the idea of these guys coming off of this enormous ship, flying all the way down to this alien planet, blasting their way across it to get to some computer terminal, and then my idiot just pressing the,

like when it's, the arrow is up and he just keeps pressing down. It's infinite funny and infinite comedy. And I would, that was my version of griefing when playing. Which is like. Just taking too long at the ATM. Hearing somebody be like, yeah, just put in the, just what are you doing?

Just put in the, put in the code, man. More. More. My favorite headcanon I've read on Reddit is that all of the Helldivers are illiterate. I've heard this, yeah. Because it's just shapes and arrows and sounds and there's no text that they ever interact with and that's true for me. Because like how dumb the characters you're playing are and I think people know this, but for people who maybe only know about this game through this podcast

Part of it is is show part of the satire is how disposable All of the player characters are so if you die and you respawn it's not your character respawning a new character comes in with a new voice and You're all of a sudden them, but they're all ginned up with the same nationalistic fervor. They've all been brainwashed, you know, they've all been brainwashed by the super earth spokespersons. And what a good job we did. And those four, like Jesus Christ, Julie Nathanson, Yuri Lowenthal, Robbie Damon and Erica Lindbeck are the two and two, the two male, the two female.

I mean, these are like some of the most legendary, like the people that, they're my heroes. And they kicked so much ass as the player. It's crazy how good they all are. And it makes it so, every time you empty a machine gun clip and you're like, ah! Ah! Ah! Ah!

It's so fucking good, they're amazing. Yeah. Previous guest Ray Chase is the one who picks you up. That's right, Ray Chase is in the game, yeah. Yes, indeed, in the Pelican. Blah! I was gonna say.

I guess I didn't, I hadn't looked into the studio before, so finding out that they're a Swedish studio just makes a whole lot of sense to me because I don't think Americans can't satirize America the way people from other countries can it's so so good so it's like Paul Verhoeven made Starship Troopers it's like requires an outside eye yeah cuz we couldn't we we just couldn't we don't have this humor about it but it feels like an like an affectionate characterization of uniquely American stupidity. Like it's going like.

Yeah, like it's cute little idiots. Yeah. That's kind of how they made me feel when I was over there too. I'd say I was like, oh wow, you're so large and loud. That's interesting. It's in the same way that like Homer Simpson is cute. You're like, look at this guy.

He's a fucking idiot. How can I be mad at him? Let him go in the Capitol. He's fine. It's no biggie. He could do a little fascism. Blank blank blank. So there's also the the and we touched on this but the the stratagems would where where the element that makes it just keep it from just a pure like you pure gun play game is that you have all these things that you can punch in

which will cause something to come, basically something to come from the sky. Whether that is a massive tactical strike that eliminates a large swath of enemies, whether that is additional resources, whether that's a new gun, or whether that's how, and this is another way I can make myself feel useful When someone else when a squad mates die squad mates die the way you res them is by you know dialing in

One of the a replacement soldier So like all that stuff is in there and it does all really super fun and it also Like has this tension of you have to stop down the action a little bit and input this little You know d-pad sequence in order to execute this command usually while you're fleeing for your life Horde of monsters right I got in the habit of doing a resupply in in down time Yes, cuz that was just it just made a lot of sense to me But I didn't realize so because I got I started playing this game first Yeah, like you, like probably, not at launch, but like close to when it came out, and I was only familiar with basically one side

of the galaxy, which is the bug side, and all the memes I saw were of the bugs, and that we got, and you know, everyone's talking about, we gotta, you know, get- And the bugs are in the trailer. Only good bugs, a dead bug, that type of thing, and I was like, okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, and that's the most analogous to start ship troopers of course, of course

Not until two days ago and we squatted up. I didn't even know there were robots in the damn thing Yes, there's a Toma tons. They're basically like terminator. Yeah, goddamn. I thought it's a rough. Where are the memes for this? They're too traumatic. I like them before you can make a meme out of it. I like them more I like them more than the bugs. I do too because it's like it's I don't know it has the there's a little more like it feels more dangerous It feels more like and I want to know what's going on like the wise. Why are they all here? What like what I hear him talk? It's really really good but I also like it obviously like the bugs can attack you back but like

The the automatons can shoot back at you or use like their arm blades and get you and I decided Oh, I like the I like the robots more. I think bugs are gross I Know I know we we we've already said it, but I would love if we could play some of that drop theme Which is so fucking good that I want it to play in other games. Like I would like that theme to play as I launch any title because it feels like, are you ready to start playing a video game? Cause you're about to start playing a video game.

And I really, I think just that one piece of music is so good Um, I would love to hear it here on on our on our show if we can play like, you know 10 seconds or whatever is legal I just sent it because it that this piece of music also takes what should be a Miserable experience like any squad games could, but you're like on a filthy planet with very low visibility, anytime you walk through a bush,

your character slows down to like a stumbling fool's crawl. Like it is a game that sort of pulls a grind out of you. But when this fucking theme kicks in while you're heading to the planet, you're like, fuck, this is so fucking good. Here it comes, here's the drop. It really makes you feel like you're doing something. Hell yeah. It's good.

That's what's effective is that it puts you in the mindset of the character you're playing. Yeah. Of just like, here we fucking go, you know? You feel every wrinkle in your brain smooth to a democratic sheen. And you're just ready to kill. But I think this should be the opening theme to starting up your PlayStation.

I think this should be like what plays before you launch LEGO Fortnite. I think it should be like, this is the fucking music that makes you get ready to play. And in fact, I think if I walked into the dentist in this play, I'd be like, let's drill my teeth, motherfuckers. Let's go.

I was gonna say that it should play when you vote, but I think it might make some different choices. Yeah, I know. Yeah, that's a dangerous word, I think. The composer is, and I apologize if I mispronounce their name, Wilbert Roget II. And yeah, absolutely fantastic bit of scoring.

The environmental scoring too, in the middle of a mission, the triggers I think are really seamless when you hit, when you kill a light automaton poster, when you hit eight minutes instead of 10 on the timer. Like there's so many little seamless score moments that this game always feels like a movie. It does, yes. You're just constantly in like act two and a half

of a 90s VHS movie. Yeah, and but what's great about it is that like, you're so not the main character. No. And that's another thing that the satire just repeatedly underlines. Like if you look at the scope of the galactic war that's going on, it's like you're fighting over like 0.000002%

of one individual sector on one individual planet. It's like a very tiny. And you might go through four lives over the course of that play session. There's nothing like doing a three mission campaign where each one is 40. So you've spent two and a half hours of your life. You've bled on the battlefield with your friends

and you get your star rating and you see, .0004% liberated. And you're like, oh, this is it. That's how much of a difference you made. But it's also fun to play. That's how much of a difference you made. But it's also like fun to play. That's the other element. That being said, the game is currently, so like everybody playing is clearing the map together.

It's crazy. The game has been such a robust success that there was no plan in place for how rapidly everybody has held of and cleared these sectors. And we are all the way out to like the final edge of the rim of accessible content. And I know that you can expand it infinitely,

but it's neat to see an assumed patriotism It's neat to see an assumed patriotism slash harmless fascism in video game form. Like broadened to make it so that everybody who signs up to play the game is like working so quickly together. It's also terrifying because you're like, man, if anybody cracks the code of humanity again, we're just going to wipe ourselves out with like people be

like, oh, they speed ran World War Three. Yeah, we've demonstrated it in things like hell divers. I haven't done any research on Joel. Are we gonna talk about Joel? We could talk about Joel. People think I'm Joel. I saw that on the Big Helldivers meme account posted, me making that stupid fucking face. It's like, is this Joel? And I'm not Joel.

So again, I did no research because I'm no longer a games journalist and I don't wanna read up on things to be able to talk about them as an authority here on a comedy video game podcast. But there is a dungeon master for Helldivers and it is somebody is somebody who is sort of adjusting play on the fly for everybody playing the game. Sorry, I hit my own mic for everybody playing the game. And it's a real person and his name is Joel. That's all I know. I don't know of any other game that does that.

I mean, I think it's an element that exists, but I think that what it is, is because this overarching, you know, game, the gameplay exists within this broader game, I think because that has been so successful that people have been made aware of the idea of someone doing this. And then so Joel of Arrowhead has become something of a little bit of a mini celebrity slash enigma that everyone wants to drill down. But Joel's also given some interviews, I believe. I haven't read any of them. I think he hops on Reddit.

He hops on Reddit, okay. And he answers questions and stuff. But Joel's also given some interviews, I believe. I haven't read any of them. I think he hops on Reddit. He hops on Reddit, OK. And answers questions and stuff. The game director is a fascinating follow on Twitter, as well. He is very engaging with it. He's retweeting fan art and having fun and trolling people a little bit, which is fun to see.

It's got to be awesome to just have something that just succeeds well beyond your expectations. I mean, it's got gotta be such a cool thing to experience for you and for all the developers there. And I also wanna say that a big part of what's impressive about this game to me from a design perspective is like, I could see like an indie game

making a satirical comment like this, and it's like sort of like, you know, it's this trenchant, it's this, you know, it's this clever and you know, a lot of game critics write about it and enthusiasts note it. But like for this to have such wild mainstream success but also have this comment be done so effectively, like that's just so difficult to pull off. And that's a big part of what's impressive about it to me. Because it's just like you can just accept this game as a game

and not even be thinking about those things and just enjoy running around and blowing stuff up. But like then it also has this layer of insight that just like just takes it to another level. I think if this were like a real thing, layer of insight that just takes it to another level. I think if this were a real thing, I unfortunately would be a hell diver because I don't read any of the things that are on the map

for me to discover or anything. I just kinda go around and just like, there's a bug, there's an automaton. You're the perfect soldier there. Exactly, I ask no questions. You look great in that cape too. I was saying this when we were on stream, or when we were streaming,

when we were playing the game the other day, I think capes should come back. Capes are cool. Absolutely. Completely impractical, and you can just sense like someone at the, you know, at Super Earth Command sort of being like, I give these idiots capes, they love the capes.

You know? Yeah, you can cut their rations in half, let them customize the cape. Yeah. Oh, a new cape. Everything's gonna be fine. Oh my God, I got a cape. Thank you, Super Earth.

It's like going like this with it in front of their face and stuff, it's cool. It's rules. Is it canonical that the military guys are doing their own aesthetic modifications to their outfits or are those issued to you? Do we know, like is my character being like, oh, I have an idea, I wanna make a gold helmet

with like a gold cape or that Matt's character is like, Oh, I want I want to wear this like white armor like is do we know if inside the story, if those guys are choosing their armor like it doesn't have any like status significance because there's no like you're not like a corporal. You're always just right. Oh, yeah. What I what I inferred and you know, some of this is because the game has like flavor text in the store that is like from other soldiers Oh, yeah Yeah

and and so that makes me think that this is just like a Just a total hellscape where you are being paid out and part of your compensation as you can customize your own company store Exactly 16 times you're spending the money that you're given right back to them to buy a cool new helmet. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Or weapons that you need.

You pointed out the customer reviews were all really, really funny. My husband loves this gun. Some of the PSAs that we did, I do some of the PSAs on the TV in your ship from the government. And a lot of the ones that we did, like I do some of the PSAs like on the TV in your ship from the government and a lot of the ones that we recorded all about like, you know, do you love your family? Well, you should send them some more super credits

so they can be well equipped. Like you're telling them like you have to ask your wife to send you money or you'll die basically, which is amazing. It's great. I mean, like it's ranch. I mean, I'm curious how much Helldivers did you get to play and what was your experience like? I played a couple of games.

The second time I played, the first time I was just like playing by myself and it was like not as fun. I was just very confused the entire time. It's a little inert as a solo experience. I did try to play some of the missions just solo, just by myself, and I was like, this is not what this game's really about. It doesn't tell you shit either. It really doesn't.

I played for 20 hours before I knew that you could change your rate of fire. Right. Or like really had it. Oh, I haven't even gotten there yet. The game is very, very meager with any, you kind of have to figure it out as you go, it's just kind of fun.

Yeah. The second time I played, which was the night where we tried to play, I played with some of my friends. The only way we found each other was on the map, miraculously somehow, but we had to join someone, a stranger's mission. So three of us jumped onto that guy's mission.

We were talking on Discord, and I was screaming, and I was like, so I was just being such an idiot. We get back from our mission, and they was like, so like, I was just being such an idiot. We like get back from our mission and they're like, hey Rochelle, you know that your mic is on. And we've been hearing you through the game and this person definitely can hear you. And I was like, why the fuck did you guys not tell me that? And the guy who was mission is to put us

on like the hardest level and then I Was like, can you hear me? And then he unmutes his mic and he's like Sorry, it's like want to see how you do in a He put it us Wow, we lost immediately Overall, did you have a positive experience or what do you think? I think I get to play it more because I feel so slowed. No, there's like a lot to take.

I mean, they throw a lot at you very quickly and you get it all in the tutorial. Again, I don't know if I did a good job of just saying that the tutorials laugh out loud funny. It's so funny. It really just hammers home that tone in the same way the intro does. You've got this disembodied

You know general voice who's walking you through everything? And but then you just learn all the mechanics in one go and one basically like three minute session. That's like here You're in here's your kid. Yeah, they literally give you your kids. Oh, this is as much training as my character got in universe Yeah, they gave him some grenades. Oh my God. Then into a distant planet. Any other thoughts on this game? I know that there's like at once so much to say, but a lot of what it is to say is like, it's fun. It's fun. It's good. It's funny. Like, you know, we do talk about like the humor in games sometimes and it doesn't always work.

But like this game is so funny intentionally and unintentionally like it just works on both levels the ragdoll like oh my god this game is so good and so funny to like watch your guy get fucking just blowing up and just fly across like Lego pieces you have six parts you've got a torso four limbs and a gun it's just it's so so great And I I'll definitely be spending some more time with it. It's it's just I don't know It's good. That's the thing that we run into and You sometimes you're talking about a game

That's like real that just really works and all comes together and what you can it's harder to talk about than something that just like Doesn't work. You know I mean it's it's easier to rip about than something that just like doesn't work, you know, I mean, it's it's easier to rip something to shreds and just keep saying something is great. But but I mean You're making me think of another just mechanic that's in this game that I think is really well done Which is like you can get wounded in specific ways Yes, all of a sudden your mobility is hurt because one of both of your legs are shot out You can't use your sidearm because your arm hurts Yeah, or you're just bleeding and you've got to be tracking that and that's that's that's a fun because one of both of your legs are shot out. You can't use your sidearm because your arm hurts. Exactly, yeah.

Or you're just bleeding and you've got to be tracking that and that's a fun layer on top of everything. Or like when there's like an ion storm or something, which is like an electrical storm that you can't use stratagems and that adds to the tension of being in the middle of a battle where you need to revive a player or something. And you can't.

And you just can't do it. My favorite thing that you can do in the game, and I was showing Nick this when we were playing the other day, is when you get prone, and then you're like zoomed in with your scope, and you can sort of like move, you can start on your belly, and then roll all the way around,

and be on your back, and be facing the other way. It's like so, so cool. Yeah. I love it. That is like, you can't, cause I don't know, you don't, I feel like you don't have that much control over your characters body In that many games like maybe in like the last of us to is probably the last time you could really really get in there Like move, but like he's like your guys just like getting all over played

And I realized that me doing it in an audio format is doing nothing for nobody Yeah, Matt got down on the floor doing it in an audio format is doing nothing for nobody. It's working great for us. We're loving it. I'm having a blast. Yeah, Matt got down on the floor. Yeah, yeah. It was incredible. Also, your guy gets all fucking dirty and stuff. You get gooified so much.

You're covered in green goop. Or the blood of your fellow Hellbibers. In the robot missions, you're just like, oh, you're nasty. And when you get out of the chamber, when you get back to your ship, you're all like frozen. You're cold and he shivers a little bit, like 10 out of 10, 10 out of 10. We got to squad up, let me know.

Please, let's do it. 100%, yeah, let's go. Please, please. Heather, any final thoughts? No, I'm a fortnight to my soul and bones, but I did enjoy hell diving with you guys and I, you know, in the future we should maybe play more video games together.

I do really like it. We're on a video game podcast together. Yeah, for me it's so, I think of playing video games like reading a book It's like always like a solo experience where I'm just gonna have a little bit of me time not that I've played a lot of Multiplayer games of the course of my life, but I've always like single-player games more But then we have when you have like a good group. We have a good squad it is I'm always reminded like oh, yeah, wait. This is fun This is a fun thing and I'm like an accidentally dropping a 500k eagle on somebody

It's never not funny. Well yeah, I think Weiger was calling in a resupply or a machine gun and I was kind of standing nearby and he was like, you better get out of the way buddy. And I was like, oh yeah, you're right. For sure. I was at the tournament the other day performing a mission specific thing that nobody else was doing and as I finish, I hear somebody unmute and go, oh, watch out, watch out.

And I pop out of the terminal just in time to be obliterated by a support weapon. Watch out! No, that's no, no! It was like his turn on the fucking computer, I guess. You have a unique opportunity. You have a unique opportunity to mess with people in the game in a way that nobody else can because your voice is actually in the game so you could be like, don't listen to him, listen to me.

Attention, gamertag. Listen, potboy420, not democratic of you. Go outside and touch grass. Drop that machine gun and give it to O-One. People ask me, oh, do you tell people? I'm like, no, of course, no one would ever fucking believe you. I play with Serial Mahler, who plays the service technician on the ship, and she's a fucking monster. So we play with her brother and her cousin. Her family and me just running like, tiki, I'm playing.

And it's very funny, because her brother is so stoked that she's in the game. Dries, what's up Dries? He's a monster. So he's always gassing her up, which is so cute. But all we have to, yeah, bullshit, no she isn't, shut up. You're like, okay, there's no reason to try this. Like, no, I just keep it quiet. All right, it's time for the you play of our we play you play it's your review crew the Ryu crew

Hello, all right. These are all from our discord discord dot GG slash get played and let's get to them This one is from zero. So we should we should just note that Craig got cheered. I just lost my fucking mind Seeing the hadouken live. I was so excited Sorry, it's okay. No, it's actually kind of sad for you No, that's really really it's nice when people come on and they like like the show it's not that's why we don't have guests It's confusing when people come on and they like like the show it's not that's why we don't have guests It's confusing, but we like it This one is from zero some on our discord and they write This is not my type of game normally

But I was so surprised by it that I then went and purchased the super citizen upgrade just so I could give the devs of The game more support ten out of ten will fight bugs to the end Yeah, I mean that's kind of kind of my feeling of this like you know this is this is not again That I just said what my normal gaming experience is this is not the sort of thing that I would have played if not for the Podcast and not for its ubiquity and feeling like I but I'm just like oh, I get why people love this This is this is great. It's really really yeah, no. like, yeah, I guess I don't play a lot of shooters, like I like shooting games. Sure.

So, or, you know, games with shooting in them. But this I wouldn't necessarily gravitate toward, but like you said, the ubiquity sort of caught, piqued my interest, as it were. This next one is from Kay Kirk, and Kay Kirk writes, Helldivers 2 is a triumph of game design and player connectedness Nothing feels better than stepping on a stranger ship and being greeted with what may be the greatest hug animation in gaming

It feels it looks like the best hug you've ever got yeah, they really bring it in it's like Santa or something Man imagine getting a hug from Santa. He's like, you're such a good boy, I'm gonna give you a hug. I'll never forget that. Santa's like the, or Shaq. It's like Santa and Shaq are like the two best guys. Yes. For sure.

Do our best. They're like. And we salute them. Yeah. I would be careful saying like, getting a hug from Shaq is good because the Resident Evil merchant might get confused Oh, cuz he's Shaq sized. Yeah. Yeah by from Shaq only

Yeah, yeah, not anyone Shaq size. You have to be Shaq. No one Shaq ask. Yeah. No. Yeah, you have to you have to be the real guy Balls you up like a basketball and freaking dunks you. You shakwin never do that. No, he's too nice. He's such a sweetie. Hang out with him in the general. Can you imagine? Oh my God. Oh man, the three of us what we would get into. Oh man. Imagine that hangover sequel. This next one is from Kimby. Hi Kimby. And Kimby writes, Hello Kimby. My friends and I had a blast, quote, spreading democracy. We've had a couple of issues with servers crashing close to the end of a match, but that's the only issue we've had.

I've learned that the developers didn't anticipate the game to take off like it did, so I'm not super bothered by it. I usually don't play games with friendly fire, but the shenanigans that you can get up to in Helldivers 2 adds another layer of enjoyment. The amount of times my brother has blown me up trying to blow up the bots or my friend walks straight into my line of fire to shoot a bug. Overall, I've enjoyed every minute I've put into this game and can't wait to play more. But I think also just the part of the Friendly Fire is like I

think it's fun. It obviously sucks that people are griefing and being shitty, but like I think it helps the game thematically because it hammers home how disorganized this campaign is. They're just throwing bodies at this thing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's almost as if they weren't told not to do that. Yeah. It's not explicitly stated in the tutorials.

No. They kind of weren't. This next one is from cronch.jpeg. Great name. cronch.jpeg. And according to their Discord name right here, there's a little icon next to it. I think they're a new person in Discord. Wow, welcome to the score, cronch.

Welcome to the score. I hope everybody's nice. Everybody is nice. Once the server issues and difficulty progression bugs were sorted out, this quickly became a blast of a game. The amount of wild moments that happen without any planning is too high to count, and watching your friend run into your airstrike they don't know is coming will always be funny." That's like, I mean, I guess the most common thing you could say about it is that it is

just like, it is just funny. Anything that can happen in it is funny. They made failure funny, which I think is why it works. Right. Yeah. Because it's not that you won't feel any frustration. Oh, no. But it mutes it a little bit. Yeah.

This next one is from Highway Johnny. Highway Johnny, right? This is not Surface Roads Johnny, if you're thinking. Okay, great. Highway Johnny. Yeah, different guy. Yeah. Endless fun, much better with friends.

Love the satirical nature of it. The shooting and movement mechanics are great. Fuck those damn automatons. People hate the robots. They really, really do. They fucking hate the robots. I think, I don't know. Maybe it's because I work with you guys, but I love them.

I love the automatons. It's what you're used to. It's just my norm, but it's also like, I mean, the fact that they shoot back at you, I think it's something, because it has more of a PvP aspect to it, which I really, really like. And finally, this last one from Striker Obi. Striker Obi writes,

Helldivers 2 is the most capital V, capital G video game I've played in a long time. It's like the team at Arrowhead sat down and said, let's just make a game we all want to play the hell out of and then somehow actually managed to do it without a bunch of outside interference messing up their plan. It's a total blast to play, especially with friends. The satirical narrative is hilarious. A plus for democracy.

Hell yeah. A plus for democracy. Well said. Yeah, I really think the only detractions to this game are technical and I think those will be ironed out over time. But I think there might be some people who have bounced off of it or will bounce off of it because they have issues, you know, squatting up or with the friends list. But I hope all that stuff is ironed out soon because this is a really just a really awesome unique experience

Hey, that's this week's get played our producers Rachel Chen ranch Yard underscore underscore sard on social media our music is by Ben Prunty Ben Prunty music calm our art is by Duck Brigade design Duck Brigade calm also check out our paywall show get animate Matt where we're watching solo leveling. That's right We're watching solo leveling. We're on episodes 5 & 6 this week and oh Boy, it gets fucking good guys. It's great It's already been good, but it's really really getting good check that out That's available along with our entire pre headgum back catalog of get played episodes plus ad free new main feed episodes That's available only at patreon.com

Get played Craig Lee Thomas. What an absolute treat to have you in the studio. Thanks so much for making Please I mean, I think that this is you know, this is the culmination of the parasocial relationship I've had with all three of you. So this will be what peels my psyche from my super ego and it's been nice knowing you Don't know how I'm gonna reconcile this in my own brain. So thanks, I appreciate it. I appreciate it. Congratulations on the game. Congratulations on all your success. It's such a funny performance that I should have assumed

that you'd be a funny guy, but it's so great to talk with you. Thank you so much. And it was a joy to work on and I'm just so glad everybody's digging it because the people that made it are great Which is nice. So that's great to hear. Yeah, all that said you unfortunately very much got played Did you read my email no, I explicitly told you that I can't get played I can't get played by anybody else but Sony. I'm still under an end to your pledge.

Ranch told us, Ranch made us get played. Ranch, you fucking played me. Shh. Honestly, feel free to shush us whenever you want. And if you don't want to shush, I think you could always add just a really well-timed wah.