Kinda Funny Gamescast: Video Game Podcast - Extraction Shooters YES or NO? - Kinda Funny Gamescast

Episode Date: April 29, 2025

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What's up and welcome back to the Kind of Funny Games cast for Tuesday, April 29, 2025. Of course, I'm your host, Tim Gettys. I'm joined by a very unusual cast today. It's the Gibrody Boys Snowbike, Mike. I mean, if you get the Gibroni boys together, Tim, that means we're talking about one thing. First person shooters, baby. And third person, gaming. This is a thing.

Anything shooting. Yeah. Andy Cortez. Second person shooters as well. Yeah. And the producer slash seducer Nick Scarpey. How come there aren't second person shooters? You know, I just watch you play a game.

Yeah, exactly. That's me and we done with it. Mike's experience. You play. Mike, all day, I've heard you say a bunch of shit because you're still like Mike. Of course. You're just constantly. Well, I had to fill you in on my life, Tim.

And I like telling you about my life. I appreciate it. Yeah. Can we stop? Can we stop for one second? Can you take one of those down? Just one. Just one.

Just one. I need you to go 90s with and go one. There it is. There it is. Overall Wednesday. Nothing. Nothing screams 90s more than one overall on, one off with a Beyonce shirt. Overall Tuesday.

Skin-type. It's a fun one because I bought this way back in the day. And I told the chat, I was like, I can't wear this. When you were in junior high? Way back in the day is right. And I was like, I can't wear this. And they're like just wearing jacket over it. And I was like, I don't have a good jacket.

So I'll wear overall. There it is. But of course, Andy, you're probably saying, like Mike, why are you wearing a Beyonce t-shirt as Tim was going to get to? And it's a great question. Of course, I have now joined the girly pop nation for Final Fantasy 10-2. And it was Ladies' Night last night. Because it's all about Final Fantasy 10-2.

What's the group name, Tim? Y-R-P, in position, baby. Y-R-P. What? That shit is so lit. Nick Scarpego. It starts off. I had to get him involved.

Nick, this thing starts off like a Spice Girls concert in the early 2000s. Bang. We are dancing and party. And now I'm thinking about trees. Yeah. I'm thinking about the sky. We got to get back to shooters, Tim. So that's why I'm having fun.

I've heard you say ladies night, no less than 15 times this morning. With no context or anything. And the fact of the context is Final Fantasy 102 makes me so fucking happy. I know you'd love it, Tim. I've gone through some heartbreak as well, but I won't get into that. We'll talk about it later on. I hit something so hard and heavy, Andy, in that video game that it rocked me to my fundamental core. Chris Anka told me.

And I haven't quite been the same. Yeah, Chris Anga told me Mike cried today, by the way, because some characters have a baby now. And it's just like he wishes that he could, you know, should have been a father or is that way you're upset about that it should have been you? Or are you just such a Chapu fan that you're sad that his little brother would do that. Yeah, it should have been me, of course. It should have been all of us except for Waka.

And then, yeah, I'm a ride or die Chappoo fan to the point where I'd rather have Lulu poor sad and lonely than with Waka. Wow. Yeah, it's a tough one out there. When you hear about the girl that you love, having a baby with somebody you don't even know, you know what I mean? Like, that's a tough one. I'll just have it to the best of us, Mike.

I'll shake it to your core, yeah. Happens to the best of us. So, yeah, I've been absolutely right. I had a dollar for every time I love someone and they just spit out someone else's baby. Mike sends me a two and a half minute video last night where like he just turns his phone on, starts talking to it as if he's doing a podcast, which I always appreciate this, no bike, Mike move. He does, well, what's up, Tim Gett?

I have this for you. And he tells me this whole story. And on the Uber home last night, there's me and G. And I'm just like listening to this call. She's like, what are you doing? And I'm like, I'm listening to Mike. And she's just like, what? I'm like, he made this for me. And he made it for you at like 10 p.m.

What are we talking about? I'm like, yo, he just had his heartbroken jeep. And Tim gets it because it is important. It is important. One of the best RPGs of all time. The characters you fall in love with are back for the sequel. They don't do sequels. And the pop stars now.

And the pop stars now. And people are having babies. Fall on Fantasy 10, too. Stay tuned for the journey, the story. It will continue. Mike's long-term review of Final Fantasy 10. What's his game of the year, 2025 list? Final Fantasy 10,

best RPG of the year. D.M.C. 3. Oh, you beat DMC3. We need to talk about that. Tim, I didn't even tell you about that. This isn't the show. This show is talking about extraction shooters. Y'all have played Arc Raiders.

The embargo's up for that, so we're going to talk about that. Marathon is the new hotness, question mark. I know we've talked a little. bit lightly about it here and there, but the question of the day is extraction shooters, yes or no, we will get into all of that because this is the kind of funny games cast each and every weekday. We get together to talk about the biggest reviews, previews, and topics in video games live on YouTube, Twitch, and podcast services around the globe. If you love what we do, support us with the Kind of Funny membership on Patreon, YouTube, Spotify, or Apple podcast

to get all of our shows ad free. Watch us do cool things for you. And get a daily exclusive Greg Way. For a chance to be part of the show, submit your thoughts and opinions as YouTube super chats as we go, just like Demon Hacker already has, saying I like extraction shooters, but it has to have prox chat. I'm sure we'll be talking a lot about prox chat today. A little housekeeping for you. We do have a schedule change for tomorrow, Wednesday.

At 10 a.m., we're doing games daily. Then at 11, the stream's going to happen. Nick and Mike playing a little Tarkov. At 1.45, we're going to start our reaction to. the state of play for borderlands and then do the games cast after that talking about everything we see for Borderlands 4, which recently got pushed up,

a rare release date move up situation. Interesting. Does it mean GTA 6 is coming this year, Andy? Yes or no. Do they have insider info? Probably. I mean, it's weird that like PlayStation's doing a state of play for a game that is not

like Marathons coming out of the same. I guess they move. moved it up, but I don't know. It's just, it's really weird. It's a weird situation. It is weird. Then at 3.30, we'll be doing the happy hour for patrons out there where you get to call

it and talk to us live. It's great. Remember, we're 11 person business all about live talk shows today. After this, you're going to get Mike and Nick playing Escape from Tarkoff starting your journey. Two complete nobs, first timers ever jumping into Escape from Tarkoff for the first time. The whole week is dedicated to just me and Nick jumping into this extraction shooter. Will we like it?

Will we love it? Will we hate it? Will we get good? We're going to find out this week. We're going to find out together. If you're a kind of funny member today's, Gregway will be a massive one lasting the entire drive-in. As Greg explains where the hell he's been the past two days.

That's a great question. I've been wondering where the fuck this motherfucker's been. He was on a show yesterday, no. Were you on the podcast? I don't think you were when... Yeah, secrets. Last week's podcast for Andy. He might have said the most poignant thing I've ever heard.

Just roasted us. Ever. How is Greg as a 42, now 42, yeah? Just turned 42 years old last weekend? Brush. Beautiful. How is he still going on spring break? It's my,

it's the best thing you've ever said. I haven't listened to the airing of grievances 2025 episode yet. I need to. I really, really, I don't think you catch anybody's stray as in it. Oh, no. I think he's mostly on Greg and Mike.

That's fine. Roger put me on blast because I always have a lot of open containers. Yeah, Roger's bad high five. Yeah. Mike yeah Mike just you're on a count of hours Eddie that's all I knew Mike didn't like Roger's high five I hate Roger's high fives I'm uptight about Roger Watson right now

He just doesn't want to touch you He doesn't want to touch you What are you wearing Mike? He's never going to wear it again It's lateh I heard you in the office I questioned the Greg Spring break thing and I it was a guttural laugh out loud You know Yes

It's very... Oh, the podcast. There it is. Oh, God. Yeah. Oh, here we go. You guys, real talk. The Pavlovian shit is so real.

Like, it's not a joke. When the set changes, when music plays, I get a chill through my body thinking Greg's fucking with me. Oh, I'm sorry about that. Like, it's insane that it's like such a response that like my stomach sinks where I'm like, what am I going to have to deal with? Like, how hard and loud is he going to be? What are I going to change schedule wise?

Exactly. What temperature and smell is his breath going to be? You know when he gets all up in you and you're like, oh, that is a core, that's like a cores light smell right now. That's a dad smell right now. That's an IPA, AYSO soccer smell. You're like, dad, that's not okay. Dad, you've had one too many, dad.

Isn't it an exciting thing about like you're wrapping up the season here soon and then a new season will happen? And then a new star is in the banks will happen. I take a phone call. So it's a disaster. Talk about expression. I'll handle it. Okay.

Let's talk about extraction. Let's jump into it because, guys, we played Arc Raiders, which is going to have a live play test very soon, April 30th through May 4th. So we have now jumped into Arc Raiders. Me and Andy have already previewed Arc Raiders before. Yeah. We've played Marathon. We've played the cycle. We're jumping into Tarkoff.

You played a little Delta Force. Yeah, played some Delta Force over the weekend. We've played a lot of extraction shooters. And that's kind of today's topic is we played Arc Raiders. Let's talk about is marathon or is extraction shooters hitting first? us right now. We in or we out on them. I mean, my answer is always yes. I like extraction shooters.

The bigger question for me is what will it take for them to endure in this office or just going forward, I guess, in the general populace. I think it's a really fun balance. I think it combines all the elements like, the genre in general combines all the elements that I like in while playing with my friends. There's

goals, they're simple. The cycle itself, no pun intended, is is quick. Rest and peace. RIP. And there's a human element to it that I think you absolutely have to have because that adds a level of competition to these things that like something like a destiny raid just never

really hit for me because I'm like, I don't love shooting bots. I do love the occasion. I like that chaos of clashing with another team and then getting third partied and then you like you barely survive and all these things. I like knowing there's really human on the other side whose day I just ruined or who just, who knows they ruined my day. So these are all like both of these were really, really fun. Our creators and marathon in their own in their own right.

but I'm just fascinated like what's going to be the one that catches for us if there is one. Real quick, ending out the little rigmarole here. Thank you to our Patreon producers, Anatoly Astellini Twining, Carl Jacobs and Omega Buster. Today we're brought to by Imperial and Our Frames, but I'll tell you about that later. Let's get to the topic of the show. I appreciate you jumping in so quickly, Nick. But I want a little refresher and I want you to answer a question that I've asked you all before, but I want to hear it again.

What is an extraction shooter? An extraction shooter is a video game that you interact with on a computer screen. You and your friends gather together, or you can hop in solo. And it's usually a large-ish map that you go explore because your main missions... You're always working for a faction. There's always working for somebody. There's always somebody in this like dilapidated world that you exist in that says, hey, I need five fucking cans of beans and three gears of whatever and two armor plating or whatever.

So go find those. We'll give you a lot of money. Go find those things. Bring a back. We'll reward you, right? And you select that. You say, I will select that contract. You select it and you embark on this world.

No pun intended. Embark is a studio that made, is making art graders who also makes the finals. And then you go embark on this world. And you and your homies go out there. and then you go, oh, those little parts are usually in this area of the map. Let me go there. But watch out. There's other players out there.

There's another, an extra threat that's not just the NPC enemies that vary across different difficulties depending on the game that you're playing. Some spots you're like, ooh, really good loot in there. But we know that it's going to be hot because there's good loot and other teams are really going to gravitate towards that little spot on the map. and it's also going to be extra difficult because the game also put in harder NPCs and harder computer enemies there that are going to really challenge us if there's not already another team challenging us as well.

You hope to get those things. If you die, you die, you die, you lose your shit. You're dead. So that risk reward of, oh man, I really want this to be a good run, but I got this really sick-ass shield and I'm not willing to lose it right now. And I feel like if I take it out, we're just going to get third partied or we're going to get snuck up by somebody. You lose your shit and your run is done. And then you're either super sad and you hit Alt F4 and you get real sad and you quit out the game.

But yeah, I think extraction shooters are in sort of a weird spot, right, Mike? Because I think Escape from Tarkov is kind of like the big main one. And then the more casual audience who isn't people. PC gaming because it Escaver Dogov requires you to like go to a website and sign up for Yeah, you can't get it through Steve. You can buy it.

Pretty sure Mike and I belong to the Russian mom. I've given up my credit card information to him. It's a lot. The Division Dark Zone is kind of the main thing that a lot of more casual audiences know because the Division Dark Zone was a mode within the Division video game, which is a PVE game, but the Dark Zone is like, you can

hop in there to go get loot, but you might also encounter other players that really want that loot as well, who's going to be able to extract the quickest. And then we've sort of seen a lot of different extraction games pop up. Remember Call of Duty had their own? They tried to make that

popular to the masses as well with DMZ. Yeah, they tried. I have some questions. Yeah, yeah. You're saying that you and your squad, you get the contract, you're going out to get all the things that they want, and there are other human characters or players to stop you. Are there other missions

to stop you, or there are other missions to get other extract other things. There might be a little side mission that says like, hey, if you take down an enemy player, you might get extra XP or whatever, but the missions are always go out, go loot here in this spot, go out, take down this enemy, go out,

bring back some cloth so I can make bandages and reward you. There's always different contracts and missions that people are on. Now, this is where prox chat comes in. Yeah. Because when we were playing the cycle, there would be multiple times when you'd come across one person.

You'd be like, look, it's hard to get, it's one of the downsides to shooters like this. It's hard to get to your friends sometimes to hop in with you, midday or whatever if you're just grinding. So you hop in by yourself, right? And we've had multiple times where we come across one Gibroni with his prox chat on. And he's like, guys, look, I'm just trying to get 10 plantains or whatever it is.

Please don't. Please don't kill me. And the two of us are like, absolutely. And Mike's like, come on, want to check him over. And then Mike just, we hear like three shots. shots. I'm like, gotcha, did you just kill that kid?

Yeah. And that's, yeah, I like it. So like the biggest question that a lot, you know, we had that super chat asking about prox chat and arc raters has prox chat. Our graders will allow you to sort of live out those really

improvisational, cool moments with another player that I got to experience when I play the cycle where most of the time you're going to run into a dickhead who's going to want to kill you and take your stuff because that's part of the thrill of running against enemy players. But 10 to 15% of the time, there will be, like, I will never forget this. I think his name is Luis or Juanito or something. Okay.

Dude with a heavy Spanish accent. Okay. And he just sounded like somebody I went to school with back in the day. And I was like, hey man, please don't. I'm just trying to do this. He's like, okay, cool. Yeah, I'm trying to do that too. And then we just kind of became homies.

And we're just on this run, like looting together. We're just chatting. I'm not even streaming. I'm just like, this is kind of, this is a cool sort of thing. And then we hear gunshots and we're like, oh, fuck, there's another there's another team here i was like and then we're communicating oh shit he's over here he's over here here he can't see the pings that i'm doing on the map but i'm trying to communicate and we end up taking this dude down and we both leave with our shit and i'm like i'll never

forget you bro like that's and it was just like a cool moment and those are the things that like i wish marathon turns on prox chat i hope they eventually do they have to because that those are the the an extra layer of excitement that adds into running uh against another player in the world. It definitely adds the attention to, especially if one of your other teammates hears them and you don't and they're a little bit off the map, that's when your heart starts beating a little bit. Like we had a great moment in our creators where we came across the team and they were in a lit elevator

and we were in the darkness and we were like, we just, I don't know if you guys noticed, but we inherently like, shush, wait, wait, go. I don't know if we had prox. I don't think we did. I literally got like, I felt myself getting like quiet. I was like, oh, you're here there, go, yeah, yeah. And then we iced them. went into the elevator and I looked down the hallway and it was dark.

And after about a couple seconds, I was like, wait, there's someone else? And then just shot started ringing out on us. I'm like, this, this is a very unique thing. And at that moment, as Nick and Mike go down, Mike is like, Andy, get the fuck out of here. So I attached to the zip line and I go up the elevator because there's no like actual functional elevators. You just go up like a little zip or whatever. And I'm at the top and it's like, do I wait it out? Do I wait to go res them?

There's a lot of excitement like that. And I think what kind of really pumps me about Arc Raiders and different jokes for different folks, right? But running across a team in the game Marathon, which I still enjoy, not a game that I love yet. I hope we can maybe get there. But with Marathon, running against another squad, because the mechanics and the look and the first-person shooter

and hit three to run with your knife out so you run quicker, it reminds me of running across another team to battle reaul, mainly apex. It reminds me so much of apex, yes. And it's that same sort of vibe where I'm not ever really super surprised and the heart rate doesn't quite get as high. But it's still like exciting to run another squad. You want to shoot them.

You want to kill them all communication. We had some great exciting moments. Yeah. There's something just really cool about arc raters that reminds me so much of playing Daisy. So let's get into it. Let's talk about arc raters, Andy. How much have you played? and what's your experience with it?

Arc graders is something that me and Mike played many, many months ago. Yeah, many months. As an early preview, we couldn't even record it. I really wish we could record our gameplay because we had some awesome laughs and great moments. And then this opportunity came up again to hop into Arc Raiders for the second preview before the big one that releases tomorrow,

which is kind of more of a public thing. You have to go to their Steam page and request access. And Arc Raiders is from Embark Studios to people that made the finals. There's a lot of, like, former, dice developers on there as well. It is a third-person shooter. I've played maybe around six or seven hours, maybe now, maybe eight-ish, over the different sort of gaming periods that we could play.

And a lot of it reminds me of Daisy and the sort of stress that comes with that as well. And maybe it was like the third time that we played it, the final time that we played it, because Michael's like, oh shit, we're playing on the nighttime map. And I felt the need to be way more stealthy and sneaky. And you hear shots ringing out in the distance, and you're like, oh, shit. Squads over here, keep a lookout because they're probably going to be in this area. And then as we start sort of sneaking in these darker rooms,

where, you know, you turn on your flashlight, but you don't want to have it on too long because you don't want to maybe make anybody else aware that you are out there. the robot NPCs are really tough to kind of take down because once the robots start shooting you're like shit they're alerting everybody else that shit's going down here and there's just like a tension there man we were creeping in the dark we were like

where's this squad at they're at the bottom of the elevator there was just it felt great it felt exciting and full attention and that's kind of the feeling that I've been looking for in a lot of these styles of games I still don't think extraction shooters are 100% my shit, but if you put me in a lobby with my friends, I'm going to have fun because I like pointing and shooting and clicking, you know.

Mike, you like pointing, you like shooting, you like pointing, you like shooting, you love all this, you love hanging out with your friends. What was your experience with Art creators? I really enjoyed Arc Raiders. I like Arc Raiders for the setting. I think the different maps that they had, the zones felt big to the point where you could hear gunshots ring out and you would be enticed to maybe go check it out or want to go hide and go the opposite way.

But like these maps were very cool, right? Reminiscent of like a, I don't know, Nick, like an 80s mad max type movie. Well, I mean, it's literally like it's like watching Last of Us right now, Tara. It's just any post-apocalyptic sort of like. Post-apocalyptic in the desert. Yeah. Bright colors all around you, right? And I think the third person perspective also adds to that, right?

Of like, you seem so small in this giant map as opposed to Marathon where Marathon right now feels like smaller maps that are definitely meant to like, you're going in for engagement and you're going to clash and that kind of gives that battle royale feel. Yeah. Lots of elevation here too. I like Darkdrators for the setting. I also liked Art Rader for the vibes, right?

I think there's just like a cool theme of like this robotic world meeting this post-apocalyptic world and you're kind of blending the two together. So we're out there shooting these super futuristic robots. But all I got is this like put together pistol that has 10 rounds and goes super slow or my assault rifle only has 15 bullets and it sucks. And of course, you'll build off of that to get better and better. I liked walking around with the crew. I enjoyed the missions that they gave us.

It felt like every other extraction shooter, nothing different on the mission structure-wise. I appreciated the presentation a lot more than Marathon, though. And Marathon is already kind of hinted that they may want to introduce a hub world. So when we play the Cycle Frontier, which got shut down recently, the Cycle Frontier, When you'd finish a run, you'd go back to your home world, or to your hub world, rather. And you would see your other homies kind of running around going to accept missions for different MPCs. Stuff, yeah. That's probably like the most, it felt like the destiny tower, right?

In Marathon, you're basically looking at a video that plays of a person, of a computer, of an AI, whatever it may be. And then dialogue is read to you with... Arc Raiders, I really appreciated that while still not a hub world, which I would ultimately prefer, it's a 3D model of a human being that is looking at you, talking to you, saying like, hey, man, here's a deal, we need this and blah.

And so not quite a hub world, but still more presentation than what Marathon offered. Keep going, Tim. Yeah, what if... Nick, what about you? Like, you play this too? Yeah, it's very interesting. So, playing this, kind of back to back, actually, on alternating days with Marathon was a very interesting experience

for me, because we played Marathon first. the alpha and I was like this is really fun this is scratching an itch that I like I like extraction shooters I think it's fun and you're more of a first person guy right first or third I just I like anything competitive shooting wise and I am I mean I gravitate more toward first portion shooters I think that's

just because that's the majority of the genre is first person if you name any game that's come out that's competitive shooter the last like you know six years most of them have been first portion right we played marathon I was like this is really really fun. And then you jump right into

Arc Raiders and Andy's right, it's a different pace and it's a different vibe and it definitely has a like the second you're in this world you feel isolated and that you're in danger and that there is no safety for you and that's a really cool fun feeling as a player. And then of course

when you do inevitably clash with another team, you can feel they're feeling the same thing and they're not quite sure if they should push you or not but they don't have it. And then you're you know you're you're they don't know if have a choice or whatever, but then all of a sudden, you're, you're entangled with them. I immediately thought, hey, I kind of, I think I'm gravitating more toward the arc raters experience than, then, then Marathon. And then we jumped into Marathon the next thing. And I was like,

okay, they're, they're just very different. One is more fast pace. One is more forgiving. Marathon's way more forgiving because you can actually res people a little bit easier and all that stuff. And one person could like run away and bring the other people back. But Arc Raiders is, like, if they had a single player mission in that, if there was like a 20-hour experience, I'm like, how would jump into this and play this game? really fun. And that's what's kind of ultimately more of a bummer because I think my feedback, which is echoed by a lot of other people, and it's ultimately like, well, you're just asking for a different game at this point is that I look at Marathon. I'm like, I just wish it was a PVE

game with a PVP side component like the Division Dark Zone. I wish it was just another version of Destiny. Arc Raiders, when revealed in 2021, was going to be a looomful. to shooter like PVE game, co-op with your friends or whatever. And then they eventually kind of turned it into this more extraction shooter experience, which is a huge bummer because it reminds me so much of the division because it's not only third person, but has a cool little dodge roll when you're trying to get back into cover and stuff. The switching of views from each shoulder, there's just like a really good tactical nature

to it and because the maps feel a lot larger, right, Mike? Like, they definitely feel more, there's more places to explore than just the, you know, like, buildings in, in marathon. I think the marathon buildings maybe go

three or four stories, but there's some gigantic structures, super tall structures. You're talking about the verticality earlier. Like, I'm very taken aback by how much variation there is in the terrain. It feels like you're just playing in a much larger map and and I think you get the added feeling of this sort of aloneness feeling because

you are in third person. Yeah, but I love it. I love that sort of that that sort of dread when you're kind of walking into these zones because it doesn't quite feel it feels more like the PVP engagements happen more by happenstance where with Marathon it feels like they really want you doing that. Yeah. And I don't know which one that. I prefer or not. Yeah, I think Marathon feeds the audience like me who wants that engagements, right? Like I think Andy will tell you, whenever I hear gunshots, I usually say, let's go find that, right?

as opposed to like, hey, let's try to avoid that and keep on to the mission or keep searching. Maybe we'll get a better engagement on them. I usually hear the gunshots and it's like, I'll drop everything and just start chasing that, right? And I think for me on Marathon's side, I like that clash, right? I really enjoy the, hey, we are a looter shooter extraction game, but at the same time, I'm like, it's a battle royale type vibe. Well, you're just going to be clashing all the time.

And you're going to get third party and I'm frustrated because it happens so quickly. That first day, Mike. Yeah, when we played Arc Raiders, it's like you could go a run without ever seeing a team. That's how big the map feels and how much room you kind of have to play cat and mouse with. But you could bang into a team. When you play a marathon, it's like, oh, you're going to bang into a team. And you might bang into two or three teams. And it gets wild.

So I like that side of things because it feeds that constant competitiveness that I want. But at the same time, I like our creators of like, let's slow it down. Let's get lost in this. And that's the setting that builds that. But I do wonder though, right? Because for me specifically, the competitive aspect of it is what keeps me coming back. I've never gravitated toward the division or anything like that where it is just, you're just constantly fighting AI bots. And it just feels like it's such a cycle of predictability that there is no wow factor to it.

Where when you do clash with a team, like we had that moment in our creators where we clash with the team. And I was like, we're great. And then another team came up. And I was like, oh, shit, right? You forget that's actually a possibility. So I think you do need that competitive aspect of it. And I think to myself, like, if we were, if you were like, Nick, let's play more marathon right now, I would absolutely want to do that. I think a lot of it comes down to the def-for me, it's like the really deflating feeling of us having a great first day with marathon.

Yeah. And then me and Mike turned on the stream that night. And it was five straight back-to-back, like, dying so fast. and almost you got to assume sometimes like maybe there was like interesting what was the what was the difference there oh god what was the difference in your team there

we were missing our rock we were yeah we sure were yeah our anchor as some would say most teams need an anchor yeah you're right anchoring you to reality is right yeah is that what you're saying and that's the problem with the extraction shooter is about like the fun tagline that they all use right scavenge survive

thrive right and at the end of the day you want to thrive we've gone into the world We've gotten all this cool, sick lute. And hopefully by the end of the night, we are thriving, meaning we have the best guns, the best gear, the best loadouts, and we feel confident to bring them in. But there's moments where me and Andy had, right, a marathon, where you get in the cycle of losing,

you've now lost all your guns, you're up against the wall of, I have the bare bones loadout that I can walk in with, and Nick and his squad are going to be thriving, and we're at a big disadvantage. Now, I will say in all of this, it always feels like you have the opportunity to be on an even, footing with them and maybe catch them. But like there is a, that team was very much better than us with all of their guns and

weapons. And we were up against it because we didn't have anything and we lost it. Right. Now we feel down. We're beat up on that. And I think our creators would allow us to kind of crawl back, right? Big enough room. We can loot. We can get out. We can do good. Marathon, if you jump in with the basic load out, you're going to get run over, probably 80% of the time. They're going to find you. I don't think you're getting in and out safely. It does feel, it does feel harder to, too. Oh, sorry, do you want to throw to an ad, I want to keep talking about this, Nick, but we'll do that right after a quick word from our sponsors. This episode is brought to you by Imperial.

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Nick. Riffing off that. It does feel like you can be a lot more tactical in our creators. It feels like you can, because the map is so big, especially those night maps, where you can literally be like, we could do a run where we don't fire a single bullet

if we wanted to. And I think that's always a double-edged sword for me. Because you do it once, That's great. You do it a second time? That's great. Third time I'm like, I'm itching. I got to kill a real heat to be right now.

And so I think that's in the grand scheme of things, while they're both really fun, I think I would gravitate more toward marathon because I do think I want that type of engagement more so than I want the, let's explore this environment. I think that's going to just run itself thin very quickly for me. Yeah, I think for me and Nick in particular, I think I can speak for him.

It's like, we get kind of bored over and over again, looting the same stuff, right? looting that just basic gear or the duct tape of like every run you're going in there and you're just looting it's like no i'm here to shoot right and so i want to shoot more than i'm just grabbing random stuff from my backpack yeah that's my thing is any game that reminds me that there's borders to the game or anytime i start seeing behind the curtain of like hey this is just the basic programming of this i start getting bored and i immediately lose focus that's why that's why i think i stayed with battle royals for so long because it might seem like it's repetitive but it's not there's always something crazy or chaotic to look forward to to that's new in the experience. And it's the same reason why, or it's the inverse reason why I never really gravitated toward Call of Duty's multiplayer, because that just felt so grinding and so samey after a while that I think you need to have both those elements to keep my attention specifically. I guess for me, I'm on the opposite side of it where if it's all of the time human engagements, I want it to feel more special. And that's why I think I'm leaning more towards enjoyment in

arc graders because it does feel tense hearing the audio the audio is fucking fantastic in both games honestly i think the the audio design of hearing other players walking around like the last night playing with kevin and maddock and we're looting inside of a room and then hearing like do do do do do do footsteps and you're like oh shit there's someone here someone here someone here Kevin sent out the fucking drone oh it's one dude i only see one guy is it only one person or they are his two squad mates somewhere else and then he's sort of like, you know, I'm like, he's right here. I'm pinging next to me because he's on the other side of the wall. And Maddoch sees him, our homie Maddoch and it's like, start shooting him,

start shooting him. Oh shit, he has a purple shield. We take his ass out. We don't know where the other two people are. Did he die? Did he come in here alone? We don't know. I kind of want to wait to go loot. Should I go loot yet? I'm scared that like maybe they're just watching my bag, you know? All those sort of thoughts start racing through your head. I go out and and go take all of his shit. And it's like, oh, that was cool. That was thrilling. And I think if I wanted more of that, I would just play a battle royale. Fair. And with Arc Raiders, I love the tension.

The night map especially was like the one that really made me feel the fear with especially how great their audio design is where even when you're walking around, you're like, is that a noise? Was that me? Like, I'm hearing shit right now. And it's, it really kind of fucks with your head. And I, I want to see what these games have to offer more with more dangerous areas. I want to progress more in those games.

And I think the progression in that game overall feels more enticing because of how they're being a skill tree in art creators as opposed to Marathon, which has kind of a more convoluted system. Yeah, we haven't really talked about there's a skill tree in art creators to make you feel like this is your character. It can be unique from everybody else. Marathon, it's, hey, this is a hero shooter. We're going to give you set classes.

You are going to pick one of these characters and you're going to jump in with their move set, right? And so it is interesting to see, right, you and I on this skill tree in art graders which is big it has what three different pathways maybe four and you can choose or I want more endurance I want to be able to climb up a ladder faster I want to be able to

look at people's backpacks well my stamina recover quicker and I'm still just whatever Mike character I want right you can go into the store by cosmetics right you can just be generic soldier 42 but then on marathon side it's like hey here's four pre-made classes you're going to choose from one of them and there's not much leeway between that

you're just going to be there and you were talking about the audio and how impressive it is, but the visuals of arc creators, I'm kind of surprised by it. And you're talking a lot about the night level having a very different gameplay style because of the dark. And I saw a lot of the flashlight stuff that you were describing. But in the daylight stuff, it seems like there's a lot of like sun glare and like getting in your eyes and stuff.

Like, am I wrong in saying that this is a very pretty game. The game is a gorgeous. And like does that, like, I feel like when you guys normally play your competitive. This is no disrespect to the marathon, by the way, but this game is stunning. our graders surprisingly i love i love them both for i know like marathon i think is a bit more uh i think it's a bit more polarizing art style wise like some people really don't like it some people really love it i happen to really love marathons art style and i love art style and i love art style but so with this though i feel like uh when i hear you guys talk about competitive

shooters and stuff you usually want to turn all the visual settings off so it's not distracting the light's not getting in your way but is that part of the gameplay here i think it's part of the experience. Yeah, for sure. I think it it adds to the immersion a lot more for sure. Like it adds to the sort of feeling of dread and just I think the game looks gorgeous and I want to see it look amazing. It's

not necessarily a game that I need to have 200 frames for second on. I don't mind rocking you know 80, 90 120 or whatever like I I would prefer the visual so much that I want the experience to look great because I'm having fun with this experience.

And yeah, I think just like the dynamic sort of lighting. Marathon has a very similar thing where Marathon, I think, is, it looks great, but Marathon also is super light and super, like, diet when it comes to how it runs in your machine. It can run on a lot of much lower powered machines. It feels like, I don't know how Arc graders would really fare. I don't know how Arc Graders scales performance-wise, you know, because it looks really damn good. Yeah, because they probably not as well as Marathon.

on. But I'll second that like art graders is also not, it's not a ultra fast call of duty multiplayer. Like you need those frames because you need to have your 13 year old reflexes be like as jacked as humanly possible. This is a tactical. This is way more tactical. You get caught out in the open. It doesn't matter if you have 200 frames for second with this. You're going to get destroyed. Yeah. And that's, that really adds to it. And I would actually second that. I really do think that like, this would be the one game that I'd be like, you know, when they always have it. I don't think they been having this, but like in most cases where it's like, we want to set your gamma and we all be like,

oh, we'll set it right, but we all jack it up, right? This is the one where you want to set it correctly because it really does add the attention to like, like I said with that first example of looking down the hallway and seeing the actual like real time shadows and like not being able to see anything in front you, but they can see you. And then like seeing something moving.

Oh my God, this is terrifying. And it really, really adds the experience. Yeah. We got a bunch of super chats I want to get to here. Demon Hacker says, I'm enjoying Mike's hello fellow children fit. I do. Here's the thing. The hello fellow youth type thing

This legitimately is children though Like it is the vibes of like a kid at recess You know what you mean? I appreciate that a lot Mike It's ladies night Ladies night Remember that Yelcing says is Nick continuing Pokemon

After the Elite 4 We are continuing Pokemon For Snowbike Mike's birthday next week Yeah we're gonna finish Pokemon I'm sorry He doesn't know about it Yeah So he doesn't know anything

The end is the Elite 4 Yes next week Stay tuned for that Flying Penguin says Nick on a games cast What is this bizarre world? Gotta get him off the bench

You know he's been playing on He did a preview He did our screeners Yeah We also don't know where Greg is We haven't seen Greg We don't know where Greg is Spring break is a never ending

Spring break Forever Forever They said it They told us a long time ago Look all my shit Mike how do you feel about the weapons

And like Upgrading things And going back Once you're done With a run What are your strong points and your weaknesses in either? Arc Raiders, the big drive for me right now in Arc Raiders is the setting that we've talked about with the visuals and the look and the style I've really enjoyed.

I've actually not liked or connected with the weapons whatsoever in Arc Raiders. It's a very slower game, right? Feels like the last of us with the single shot sniper rifle, the 10 shot automatic rifle. I haven't dug that, right? So I really have enjoyed the futuristic more machine. gun full blasting on marathon. I always dig finding a new scope, right? We talked about it when you and I were playing marathon on stream.

I was like, hey, what gun are you rocking? I have X, Y, and Z. Let me drop this for you. And so I liked the upgrades so far on both of these games, finding them. I haven't found much in Arc Raiders to upgrade my guns. I never felt like we had that. I found one yellow sniper rifle. We lost it the next round, so I never really got to see it in action.

But I never felt like I was finding, hey, here's a scope for this gun. Or here's this gun's larger ammo round, right? As a marathon, I felt like I was finding that stuff. I also don't know if we progressed even that far. We didn't. I don't think we're not even close. And we were, because the, unfortunately with just the way that we work here and us, you know, we're always on a lot of shows and stuff.

There was a lot of moments where it's like, I'm not even going to start up the next one because I got, I got to be on games cast, I got to be on whatever. So like, just fuck what we found. Get in there. Like, let's try to get another run in or whatever. but when it comes to the weapons, yeah, I think the initial kind of weapons you find in art graders may feel a bit overwhelming or underwhelming

because you're also, you're essentially just shooting at steel robots and drones. So, like, when I always kind of make the comparison of why I always felt Battlefront, Star Wars Battlefront was always overwhelming, because shooting a laser just doesn't feel as cool as, like, hit a bullet, like, pop, you know, that hard impact. And there's something about shooting metal in hearing like, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, that is not quite as satisfying as it would if it was like a big monster enemy or other human NPCs.

Yeah, in arc graders. That's interesting. I had the opposite feeling. I actually really liked the mechanics of shooting like just the little drones in the air and how they reacted to your bullets. And they would like shift. And that felt really organic to me. Yeah. The larger spider enemy when it would open up and you'd get inside the arm around.

I guess I'm thinking more of just the audio feedback. but I love how in ArcGritus you can shoot the individual propellers on these drones and it will if you break like that one propeller it'll kind of like fuck up or whatever but yeah there's some

I think I want to eventually put more time into Argraders just to see how the weapons get and also the skill tree is really nice because I really loved feeling weak as shit at your lowest level and consistently upgrading to oh my standard

and it's coming back now. I'm not running 12 feet and then getting tired. I enjoyed seeing that progression. In addition to, albeit how, you know, it is very, very limited, but having a character creator, and that's also another big disappointment I have with Marathon. With Marathon, you, the lower is that you are a consciousness that is being put into a weaved, like, body exosuit, right? So you're just kind of like a mind being put into any sort of body. Doesn't matter. Like citizen sleeper? Yeah, kind of. It doesn't matter if it looks male or female, whatever. Like, you're just

kind of being put into anybody you want. And so that's why they have these classes that you are able to sort of create. And it still bumps me out because one thing I really enjoyed about the game that we played, Exoborn, which is another extraction shooter that

we got to play that little Steam Next Fest demo or whatever it was. The way ExoBorn is, it's also a character creator, but the classes are dependent on what exosuit you are equipping. So if you want to be the more tanky sort of exosuit, you put on the tankier exosuit, where in Marathon, it's like you feel like you have less agency. And I think they want to have added agency by doing customization and getting cosmetics and getting a cool new helmet, cool new color scheme, whatever it may be. But I still look at Marathon, I go, but I want my destiny guardian. I want my

character to be like my character and then maybe I put on the glitch thing that makes me the glitch class or I put on the whatever class that gives you know I just kind of find it's such a bummer with how much I fuck with bungee's art style and then not giving me a character creator just like no I've already talked to the death but it just really you talk about the look though let's talk about the play did you like the hero movesets right because like for me I enjoyed having the, hey, let me scan the area. Nick fumbling the bag most of the time, but like him having the tank shield, his, you know,

rocket launcher. I never quite got the hang of the shield. I liked when you threw down smoke. I liked that added layer of gameplay of, hey, how do we work these hero attributes together and actually be able to do cool things? I do, but I think in the same vein, it could have been a character creator with you picking certain perks going into

over. I agree with Andy. You could pick the radar thing that sends out the thing that ping's enemies out there, or I could pick the perk class that lets me drop down that sort of smoke. I just meant, did you like the hero moves. I did enjoy them. I feel like they, I want to see more creativity with them because they do feel a bit standard at the moment, but I also don't know if like, is that even necessarily what I want out of an

extraction shooter? Because does it then become too apexy or overwatching where these abilities may start to, you get that feature creep, right? Like you, it happened in Apex where it's like the first class of heroes have, you know, their set moves and abilities. And then they, hey, brand new hero we're making, oh, they're finally adding a brand new hero. Let's check it out. And it's like this and this character's abilities combine.

You're like, oh, man, that's way better than them. Why would I ever? And then you start to see this like escalation of abilities. And I don't know if I want that in an extraction experience. And I also don't know if I want an extraction experience at all. Like, because I would rather play Marvel rivals or any other multiplayer game. Like I took, I took part in the bungee little survey and it's like, ultimately, I don't think this is a game that I would ever main. I don't think this genre is a game that I would ever main.

If I want to do a PVP, I would prefer the Battle Royale experience. I would prefer, um, Overwatch, Marvel rivals, that sort of thing. So like, ultimately, I'm enjoying these games and I'm enjoying this genre, but I don't think I would ever, it would ever be my main thing that I, I would like pour hours and hours into. And that it's interesting, you know, the topic of the show is extraction shooters. Yes or no. We have breaking news now from Jason Schreier. Electronic Arts is laying off between 3 and 400 staff, including 100 at respawn,

canceling a Titanfall extraction shooter. I think that was the Star Wars stuff, right? This is more information now. Yeah, this is, we're getting more specific details. We did talk about this story, but it was all breaking and coming out. We now know that the title that Respond was working on. was this extraction shooter. Set in the quote unquote

Titan fall universe, which means absolutely goddamn nothing because Apex Legends isn't the Titan fall universe. Yeah. We have a couple of super chats I want to get to as well. Cowhand,

super chatted about the Jason Schrier news there. If there's more that comes out, we'll talk about that on Games Daily tomorrow. Then Dean says everyone's bubbles different, but I don't know anyone who has played these extraction shooters. Maybe I'm the odd man out, but I don't see why companies

are chasing this as the next battle royale craze. And then bulk dasher says the genre is still very niche. Contrary to what some say, free to play versus paid doesn't make a difference. Nobody wants these games anymore, especially from devs like bungee and Sony. Any thoughts on that, Mike? I mean, they're taking a shot at the dartboard, right? Like it's very tough to

read the future telling ball, right, and go, this is what it's going to be like four years, five years from now, right? You're seeing companies now come up with games that they've been working on for two to three plus years and they're trying to find what's the new hotness? Fortnite has taken over and changed the world of video games in general, right? And so you have Call of Duty, which is a mainstay. You have battlefield trying to get back into relevancy here.

You have massive companies that have been shaken to their core on where we're at in 2025. And then there's smaller teams that are a little more agile, but they come and go. We've seen hundreds of games here on this panel and all of you that have played and then they've just kind of gone and they're never coming back, right? And so I think it's very tough, right? And they're trying to hitch their wagon onto something that may blow up. Maybe it doesn't. But right now, no one knows what is going to be the next big moneymaker.

You just try to make something great. And hopefully people vibe onto that. You also have to remember this doesn't need to be Fortnite, right? You can get wins and still stick around. We've seen that a ton where people have made great games. We've all rallied behind them, played them for six months, a year, two years. And then they've gone. And that team is now able to.

to fund their next game, right? And so, yeah, maybe when we look at it on the EA level, it's massive, right? This is groundshaking. Oh, we made the wrong decision. But they're also testing a thousand different game types and going, what works, what doesn't? What can I say, yeah, let's back up the Brinks trucks and let's develop this for five years, right? We're in a tough one right now. And so, yeah, I mean, we're trying. I think this is something that someone is trying to find the mainstream game. They're trying to take it from Escape from Tarkoff and be the one that you can put this on consoles and PCs and everybody's going to play it.

It might not be their main thing, but if I can get you for one day a week, two days a week, if I can start to build that momentum, that's a win for any company. I think the most pressing question is the one I get a lot and the one that I'm always thinking about while playing these interaction shooter games is, you know, with a game like Destiny

or even thinking of the division or any sort of loot of shooter, you are trying to get the best weapon. You're trying to get the best gear and the best loot so that you can eventually take on the endgame boss or the final raid or whatever big thing it is. And that is still a question that people who maybe haven't experienced extraction shooters,

that's still the question they're asking. What am I getting this loot for? Yeah, what, and a lot of it is like, well, to do another run and then to feel that thrill again, of experiencing another team that you come across and you go, oh, I beat your ass because I had this better gear or it's better loot. Or you die and you lose that lute because maybe you just got snipe from an angle you didn't see,

you know, it happened to me and Mike. And granted, we're not having this crazy loot that we could even worry about losing, but, you know, running in marathon. And we're just talking, shooting the shit. And I'd like to think I'm usually good at hearing like the footsteps and all that stuff. and so we're just kind of hanging on and it's like oh shit we're oh man I didn't even we just landed here I don't know how we didn't see that other team or whatever like there is that risk reward that will be worth it enough for some people but I don't know if this will ever capture the mainstream

audience because I think they will still prefer the battle royale experience prefer the 4B4 5 v5 counterstrike valorin experience do what's the price on our craters is it free to play is it a paid game I thought it was going to be 40. They were initially going to want to do free to play, and I think it's going to be 40. $40. Okay.

Yeah, because they said that during the preview period. And they're originally planned free to play. Yeah. And like during that first preview session, sometime last year with them, the reasoning was we'd rather create content for the game that is for the betterment of the game and not to help sustain the company.

Like, freedom. Like, we'd rather us be able to make shit that makes the game better, as opposed to, like, makes the company money to like, oh, we need to put on a new cosmetic to make more money. And I guess at the end of the day, it's like, oh, man, this could have been a looter shooter with a PVP component. And I would have, like, lost my shit about that, because you could still have the people like Nick that want the thrill of that. Or you got other people like me that can momentarily hop in to the PVP section. but still be like, ooh, now we get to go to this map to take on that big ass crazy boss. And who knows what that experience is going to be like,

but I'm stoked to see what they cook up. Because a lot of these big robot enemies and arc raters are super sick. They look awesome. They're scary. They're these big, like, they get gigantic at some points where they're just massive spider walkers around the world. I mean, we're also in its day and aides

where hell divers last year just took over the entire planet. And that is strictly PVE shooter like you wanted, right? And now companies are going, well, maybe we back off the PVPVE situation. And the extraction shooters, we make something like this, right? And so they're constantly in flux. Is it we need to charge $40 to make some money back? Because if we go free to play and Andy and the crew does want to spend their time in it, we make nothing at all, right?

Like the business decision of now you weigh out the free to play. Yeah, we get more people in here. We hope to make some money on cosmetics. Or, hey, we need this $40 price tag because whatever we do get in here is at least giving us the money that we can make back and put forward into it because if we go full of free to play and nobody wants to play this, we've lost it all.

Well, there's no doubt they'll still be making content for cosmetic purposes. Like there will still be dev time to make cosmetics that will... Well, Arc Raiders has a battle pass, right? Like, they're... Yeah, all these games have battle passes. They all have stories.

Cosmetic things. I see in the chat who hates them. Someone in the chat was saying that the battle pass is free in Arc Raiders. It is, but I think there's a current that you have to buy as well for a lot of You might be able to speed it up or something, I don't know. Got it.

I mean, yeah, I think it's like everything else where you just buy our coin or whatever it is. I think it all depends on, I think your question, Mike, it all depends on how good and viable the finals is. Yeah. You know, the finals, the game? Yeah.

Oh, yeah, I mean, this is just one of those of like, Tim will tell you as Mr. businessman, right? He's like, there's a bunch of people in the room going, can we go free to play? Do we need a charge, right? That's why what we see with Marathon is like, that team is not like, well, we're a premium title, not 70, but like we're going to have to put something on this because it clearly isn't going to be the way on free to play with these right now. Final couple super chats here.

First off, I want to give a congrats to rave lord Nito who says, uh, just, you know, get it right. Neal, God. Grave Lord Nito from Dark Souls Wanton. Oh, my bad, Andy, and Mr. Nito. Uh, just accepted an internship at a game company for this summer as a programmer. Congratulations. Have fun. That's a hell.

Yes. And then Demon and Hacker has the last super chat of the day here saying, Survival, Arc and V Rising versus extraction. Which do the three of you prefer? Survival. Yeah, Andy, like survival games. I'm a survival. Yeah, like if I had to choose,

I'd have a more sort of Zen-like experience. And when an extraction shooter is I'm always on the edge of like, I'm just going to Alt-F-4 after losing all my shit. Like, I just, the frustration there is too high for me, and I don't think this genre will. ever 100% be my shit. I'm on the chase constantly for competition, so I like that. I love the good survival game, especially with these guys.

We found a couple of great ones recently, but yeah, I'll always want to go in and try to be the very best or try to get close and see what happens. Yeah, I mean, competition for me all the way. Going in, looting all that stuff, that's interesting for five seconds to me. But if I'm not clashing with teams, if I'm not feeling like I'm getting better at the core mechanics of a game, like an athlete would in their particular. particular sport, their chosen sport, then I know I'm just not coming back to this. If that's the case, I have such an interesting thin line where I'm like, it's either

ultra competitive or it needs to be a standalone single player story that I can just immerse myself in and not have to worry about anyone else. Give them cyberpunk. I'm still playing cyberpunk. Hell yeah. It's great. It's still great. I still just jump in every once in a while because I like to exist in that world on my own

timeline. Take the story or the side quests as I want to take them and not have to worry about that. And it's so weird and antithetical to what I just said about. like dropping into war zone. But like there's so much energy that has to go into even getting your friends together to play an extraction shooter that sometimes you gotta just sit

and it's midnight and you guys fire this up and hear Keanu Reeves sweet voice in my ear and just relax for a little bit. What is doing? Just get lost in this world, you know? I really quick, I do wish on the prox chat when we talk about that, I wish more people took part in that.

I feel like we live in such a day. I wish you had to. I wish you had to. Yeah, you're more. on the side of, oh, I'm just in Discord and I'm not really doing the Prox Chat because I do wish there was more engagement of like, hey, we're talking about our day, but it's like, you know, shut

the fuck up. Everybody, be quiet. They can hear us, right? You don't get a lot of that. What do we live in? We live in a silent society, Baron, and that's where it is. People say they want Prox Chat, but like 90% of the time, we're just on a Discord call. I wish it was like, because like we found so many great games, right? That recent

game repo is all about proximity chat, right? Like, you shouldn't be in the same room. We've done it with lethal company. It's like, everybody go in your own room, turn on the prox chat, and the moment that you can't hear

someone, you get that fear, right? And then the moment they come back, you laughing, giggle when they're running away from something. And the same goes for extraction shooters of why that is so cool and what Call of Duty did with the deaf cams and all that.

It's like, you love hearing other people talking and you can be strategic of like, everybody be quiet. We can hear them like, let's creep up on them. Or, you know, they can hear you and come after them. I wish we had more of that. Well, we just had an excellent conversation about extraction shooters, but the day's not over when it comes to them.

We're about to hop into escape from Tarkoff. Mike and Nick are going to see if they have what it takes to escape. I don't know if that's all works. We're going to figure it out. So if you're on Twitch, stay where you are. You'll be able to see that. If you're on YouTube, you need to make the jump over to the other video. Let us know in the comments below what you think about extraction shooters.

Yes or no. Or if you want to say anything else, we'll appreciate that as well. Until next time, it's ladies night. Celebrate. Ladies night.