Kinda Funny Gamescast: Video Game Podcast - When Will We Stop Playing Video Games? - Kinda Funny Gamescast

Episode Date: April 3, 2024

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What's up and welcome back to the kind of funny games cast. Of course, I am Tim Gettys and I am joined by the new. What's your problem? Other smoke machine. Go! You worked a podcast to go. Junior. When do we give up?

Never. This is like a 25% chance. That's not true. That one of them doesn't work. And who cares if it doesn't work? Are you fucking kidding me? It's a bad omen. I thought you meant in life overall.

Every time that I am as another person goes, do I really need to be a kind of funny member? Yeah. Do I really need to support these hacks? They can't even get their smoke machine to work. I'm supposed to trust them when they say this fucking monkey movie's good. God, Greg, and the goddamn monkey movie. How are you doing, Greg?

I'm good. I really want somebody right here, Greg, just to sit off camera with a bubble. Oh, okay. Barry, you can go ahead, put it back to the shot of me and Andy, because this is the Andy and Greg podcast. What's over him? Andy, I'm knocked that off. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry about it.

I'm so sorry. How long? Would you say you've been a Greg Miller fan? Man, getting close to a decade now. Yeah? Yeah. Maybe a decade-ish. Yeah, yeah.

Over a decade, yeah. And then we've been friends, obviously, since you started working here. Some would say best friends. And you and I are always experimenting, right? What could it take our relationship to the next level? Fuck, yeah. Oh, fuck. Let's fucking roll right now.

What is this? A young boy by the name of Max Scoville gave me something I think we both might enjoy. This is the oxy shred and slime. This is a Ghostbusters energy drink that has slimer on it. I thought, I hate energy drinks, but you love them. I love slimer. You're a connoisseur, but if they take my love of slimer and Ghostbusters

and your love of caffeine without actually caffeine, I said, what's up? Well, let me tell you. I mean, we discovered several weeks ago that Taurine, makes you look younger. That's what we just... That's the discovery? Yeah, that was a discovery.

Oh, man, it's green. It's doing other stuff to your body, but... Bear, look at that, it's green. Well, the cup is also real green. Where did you find green cups? There's so much green stuff in front of Greg right now. We had them. We had them, I don't know.

They're so bright and pretty, though. What flavor is it? It's lime. Oh. Oh, Lord. Ooh. Energy drink. It's natural flavors.

There's no aspartain or... ACE C. Okay, but I need like a, this is Apple. It's clearly proven metabolite in the energy. Zero jitter, zero crash. It's vegan friendly and gluten-free. I mean, they might not have with the calorie-calorie burner, zero-crash brain power.

It's a calorie burner. Get the fuck out of here. I'm sorry, the flavor actually is slimer flavor. You guys want to taste what? Bottoms up, you know what I'm saying? Slimer in your mouth. Frozen Empire right here. Oh, man.

That's doing a lot of things. back. Greg, he doesn't like the slime either. It gets you on the back. Like, I'm still going to drink it, right? Because here's the thing, I would be a fool to stand up here and be like, I don't know what flavor that monster

is, but I still drink it, you know what I mean? You know what? Monster does have a very unique taste, too. It grew on me. What are your thoughts on Monster, Bless? I'm not a big monster guy. I'm not a big energy drink guy. This smells fucking terrible. It tastes better than it smells.

It smells really bad. Yeah, it's got a bad bouquet. This is going to sound like sacrilege, but, like, Is there a good tasting energy drink? Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Monster energy rise, pomegranate and blueberry.

Do you believe that too? Oh, Mountain Dew, sorry. Did I say Monster Energy? I mean Mountain Dew. Oh, do we help? That he's not specific. Yes, I believe him. I don't think that we would like it necessarily.

I mean, I do love Mountain Dew. Well, Moundu rises there. Mondo rises a specific energy drink. That's their like, hey, rising grand. Okay. I will say that is something I would try just because it has Mandu and the table. Here's what I got real sad about recently.

Tim. After we went to go watch, oh, I went to go watch Ghostbusters at the Regal. All the Mountain Dew Rises are gone. No longer being sold there anymore. And it would always get me happy because I'd be like,

this is the only place that sells like energy drinks. Like I don't have to just get a fountain drink. I can get the Mountain Dew Rise BlueBerry. I forget what the actual flavors, but that's the one blessing that I'd say like,

everybody needs to try this once in their life. Everyone needs to try this. This is the kind of funny gamescast. We each every week. We get together. to talk about video games, energy drinks, and all the things that we love about them. Of course, if you love what we do,

you should get the kind of funny membership. You get to watch the show ad-free. You get to watch live it's recorded, and you get a daily exclusive multimedia experience. Gregway. Sometimes it's Greg, sometimes it's Roger Tom about Woodwork and how it changes life.

But it's always going to be a great time. The thing that cool Greg worked on today, was that part of Gregway? No, today's Gregway, yeah. Yeah. Okay, you guys are definitely going to watch. I got today's Gregway, everyone. I got them.

There's a lot of stuff going on there. But of course, if you can't support us that way, that's totally cool. You can get the games cast for free with ads on YouTube and podcast services around the globe. Thank you to our Patreon producers, though. Carl Jacobs, Kieran, Hovesapien, and Delaney Twining. I do want to point out the very best. Thank you, Max Covell. Our Patreon supporters are incredible.

So sorry for interrupting you there, Tim. But also, blessing housed about 20 cans of gingerbread Mountain Dew. So good, though. That is And they're expired apparently I didn't know that Oh no I probably bought them expired

Blessing I think they may have been like A year extra expired by the time you got to No there were two years extra expired Oh perfect It was like 20 What year are we in 2024? I think it said 2020 on there Gingerbread Mountain Dew

With an expired date It's like such just a Darwin test They made those just to like That's a gimmick Yeah They're like there's We're gonna trick people Like whoever buys this gets a golden ticket somewhere

Because no one's gonna actually purchase this thing Benny B. Good says Andy, I'm still the fuck here I made it. Benny B. Good says Andy stop drinking it. No, like it tastes okay. It just smells really bad. I'm shocked by how bad it smells No, this this beverage please just take a say because the gingerbread smelled great take a whiff from that I mean let me tell you it definitely smells like a sliver and he should drink I don't know what I hated Andy I don't like it I don't like it more it's more here

It's like a mom dude Tim let me tell me I've been saying I don't have enough energy for a while. So this is going to be interesting because I don't do energy drinks usual. I'm excited to see what happens to me. I don't do. Well, remember the one time we had the prime energy drink and the camera was not on Nick's Carpino. So for about two minutes straight, he was staring at his hands.

I can feel it, honestly. Like the camera's on Greg as he's talking to, I forget what guests we have with us on a kind of funny podcast. And I'm sitting next to Nick and he's just staring at his hands. He was really, really feeling it. Tim, I almost didn't come into work today because I got for the first time. My first ever

OLED product. You have ascended, my friend. Let's go. You've never had an OLED thing in your life? Well, like a TV or a monitor. We gotta stop the smoking. A TV or a monitor, nothing like that. I've, you know, I

helped buy my dad an Oled TV back home and I love that thing. And I'm like, one day I'll get an OLED TV. I just, like, never really ever committed to it. but I've been wanting an OLED monitor for quite some time and I'm from a 27 inch so a 32 inch it's a Dell the new Dell Alienware it uh it is fantastic looking

holy shit I mean give me some of them specs Andy because this thing usher in a new era of all this 4K 240 Hertz as soon as you pop it on it's like HDR Dolby Vision all that shit's right on it is a I'm with blessing I'm walking out while they talk about this PC stuff God I hate everybody so much

Where's he actually going? Oh. Let's go go. Greg, Greg, go. Who knows? It's fantastic. Yeah. It is like I immediately boot up Dragon's Dogma 2.

And it was like a whole new game. The HDR is just like, we're going to make this shit seeing right now. And I was telling you that after I just booted those up, I went back to designing stuff and looked. I kept thinking my other monitor was like fucked up. And like, because I'm like, all right, well, I'm using OBS to see what's on my gaming screen. And this looks so much darker for some reason. And that's the problem, Andy. You might be broken now.

Like, I've been broken for years. Like, it physically pains me to look at LCD screens. And I know that's a me problem. And that is just capitalism run amok. Right. But they got me. They got me so, so bad. But it's okay.

Because it brings me a lot of joy. Like, I got my first OLED TV in 2016. And great, to this day, there's no time. I don't turn it on. And think about, God damn, it looks good. every single time. Yeah. Here we are.

The future. It's now, Andy. I'm so excited. Welcome. I'm very proud of you. There's been a long time coming because you've been waiting for that sweet spot of the 240 refresh rate with the 4K with a big enough screen, the 32 inches. And not ultra wide. Yeah.

No, just, I didn't want 21 by 9. I specifically wanted because it's always funky whenever you're trying to stream and it might throw things off and things won't snap and no BS and all that shit. I wanted just a 16-9. So now I'm just like, when I get back home, I'm going to boot up Horizon Forbidden West on PC. I can't wait to get this Ghost of Tsushima on PC and see how that looks.

I am so jazzed, man. Very excited for you. That is a sign of growing up. Thank you. Of maturation. Thank you. But will there hit a point, Andy, that we grew up so much that we don't want to play games anymore? That's the topic of the show.

It's a question that we actually get a lot is, will you ever stop playing video games has there ever been a point in your life that you've had a gaming lull? And Greg and I had a great conversation today on Games Daily. kind of touching on this in different ways. Mainly he was talking about the kids in his life. These children. And like the type of games they play and like what the path from, you know, playing Fortnite to playing uncharted looks like in modern times.

I'm like, is that kind of an expected thing of these kids that are playing these more platform games? Do we expect them to care about God of War? Or is that still going to be kind of more of a niche thing? All of that. And then I was like, you know what? It's been a couple of years since we've, we've had the conference. of where we came from with games, but more importantly, where we're going with games. I feel like the last time we did this, Greg, was at the original spare bathroom.

I was going to say, yeah, it seems like, I remember when we used to the Patreon exclusive games casts that were like your gaming history and all that shows. Exactly. So there's a, there's a lot there. But I feel like it's just a fun, interesting conversation is, you know, this group of gentlemen right here. We've talked to each other about video games for many years at this point. And I feel like we've grown a lot. And our opinions on games have changed the way our relationships individually with games. has changed for a multitude of reasons. But, Blesa, I want to start with you. Do you think there will come a point that you will ever stop playing games?

And if so, when? No. I don't know if I'll ever stop playing games permanently, but I could see myself slowing down a lot. Like, I'm not, I think for me, you know, the amount of video games that I play is, in a large part, due to me working out kind of funny, right? And, like, wanting to keep up with everything

and wanting to, like, review things, right? And I feel like there is not the biggest obligation, but some sort of obligation there that, like, I want to play all the big things at the rear release so I can be part of the conversation and, like, you know, touch everything. Yeah, touch everything. Like, you know, have my ear to the ground of,

what are the games coming out, you know, what's the, what are my thoughts on them, right? Like, that helps for a game of the year. That helps for updating the super calendar. Updating the super calendar, right? Or, like, even when it comes to talking about things on KHD, like, it's easier for me to understand what I'm talking about when it comes to, like,

Dragon's Dogma 2, if I at least have touched Dragon's Dogman 2, right? Or like understand what a game is. And so that's a big part of what continues to like drive me to play video games every single, well, not every single day, but play video games consistently. I don't know if I'm going to be doing that like 20 years from now, right? Like depending on what my life is, let's say, if I'm, if 10 to 15 years from now, I'm not doing a job that I, that is either games media or is like I am reviewing things.

if I am just like, if I'm just doing a producer role, if I'm doing something else, I don't know if I'm even playing as many games. I could see that even like ushering into me maybe not playing games. I don't know. Like I have fun playing games currently, but I also have like the same thing of

sometimes I prefer watching a TV show, sometimes I prefer watching a movie. I could see myself being like, you know what, I'm going to start reading. And like that's taking over that time, you know, it's really hard for you to predict that. What's that big red dog up to? I'm going to catch up with his adventures.

Like, legitimately like yesterday, I was like, man, I, who's this R. L. Steinfella? Who's frog and toe? Yesterday I went on Amazon and I typed it. I typed up, uh, Invincible Compendium because I've watched Invincible. And I've gotten, I've started to get to a, uh, a frustrated point with the show where I'm like, these breaks are just too damn long. I'm just going to read the shit.

Um, and so I like, I stared at the Invincible Compenium for like a minute on Amazon. I think it's like, I'll come back around to this. Like today's not the day, but one day I think I'm going to pick that up and start reading it. And I can see that maybe leading. down like the path. I have all the ultimate editions. I could just give them to you. They're hardcover. They're huge. Oh, fuck yeah. Yeah. So good.

Bring that out. By the way. God damn. I caught up last night finally. Woo-wee. It's like, it's taking forever. That was the plan. That was the plan. And I like, I boot up Prime TV. And for some reason, it was like halfway through episode four right before the break. I guess that's just where it left off at. And I was like, I've already seen this. Let me just rewatch like the second

I have episode four. I was like, fuck, man. This show was so good. And and I'm so glad that I was not taken out of it that like I thought I was like I'm done with this show I'm so mad if they release it this way I'm like okay that's a pretty decent pretty decent show I also bought the berserk uh on on DVD it's like the 7 1997 reissue wow anime uh and I started watching that again like you okay bud like you doing good just romanticizing my solitude you know that's the coolest way to say that that's it's always like some meme and it's You know that meme where the girl's like talking to the guy on the phone?

Yeah. And it was like, babe, what are you doing? It's like, I'm just here romanticizing my, I forget the agonizing solitude or something like that. I will say there's somebody in chat. Reed boy? Bread boy. Bread boy. Bread boy.

They say, what about Tekken? And that is a thing is like, I think I could see myself if I wasn't working on kind of funny. Tekken being the only game that I played this year. Right? Like when I played Final Fane's Seven Rebirth, part of that was just that I was reviewing it, right? So I pick it up and I fall in love with it, right? Like I get super into it. But I don't know if I would have picked it up in the first place if I didn't feel like I had any sort of obligation to.

And I would extend that into something like even persona or balatro or games that I'm checking out because I want to be in the know. I want to be talking about these things. I think while working, if I wasn't working out kind of funny, Tekken this year might have been the only game I've played so far. Wow, that surprised me. Yeah. Andy, what about you? Do you see a end in sight? No, no.

I just, I'm the opposite of Bless, where I'm, I'm more aligned with Greg when it comes to, I'd rather just play a game than like, I need to watch that show and I really want to. Well, monkey punched a lizard. But a lot of it comes down to like the single, single player experiences that I enjoy. And even when I'm not doing that, it's like,

I haven't played, you know, I like playing at least one match of Aller in today now. and I'm just super into that game still. I do want to say, Greg, I hope you raise Ben right and don't allow him to get like YouTube brain rot. Because I really worry about the future generation, kids who have just been brought up on YouTube. My nephew, all he wants to do is play Call Duty, Fortnite, Minecraft, Roblox.

Any other thing that's not that? How old is he? 13. Oh, that kid's fucked. Yeah. Sorry. Yeah. He's younger.

Jack at 10, I'll give it to him. You know what I mean? This stems from the Gives daily conversation. You know, Poe's son Jack was in town with Poe for spring break last week. And so he streamed with us a bunch. We had a great time. And we're able to start him on hell divers. Right.

And the conversation on Games Daily was talking about, I take it for granted that Jack plays so much Fortnite and so much WWE. I'm like, oh, he's a gamer like us. And so when I was trying to teach him hell divers in certain specifics and buttons and stuff like that, that was so foreign. There are no analogs to other. experience. Yeah, exactly. I was like, oh wow, we're like paving new paths in his brain kind of thing that I hadn't thought about. And that was like, well, how do you get those kids over?

And, you know, on his stream on Friday, where he played with this for like five hours, six hours. It was the, all right. So when you go back to Chicago, you're going to get your friends to play this? He's like, oh, no. Like, why not? He's like, they won't, they don't play these kind of games. I'm like, but it's so just next to Fortnite.

It's still just running around shooting things as a team, right? But it was just like too much of a game in a way that like what I was saying today and the argument I was making is that like now, you know, thinking of Fortnite as a gateway. and thinking of it in Minecraft and Roblox and yada yada, it doesn't actually necessarily lead to it. Where gaming's more accepted than ever, but it's these specific games that are more accepted than ever,

rather than some 10-year-old, 13-year-old, wanting to go play Valourn and wanting to learn what Final Fantasy is, etc. Like my nephew grew up, like, you know, every time I'd visit, he'd have, like, when he and my nieces would spend an night in my parents' house, he'd wear, like, Spider-Man pajamas or whatever. And, like, when the Spider-Man game was coming out, I was like, this kid's gonna fucking lose his shit.

I can't imagine, like, at the time, nine or 10-year-old Andy having this Spider-Man, right? And he's like, oh, I was so stoked to show it to him. He was like, oh, my cousin has it. I've played it. And I was like, and it's not like the coolest fucking thing in the world. What do you, like, what? What?

Like, well, he's like, anyway, go back to Fortnite or robot. I was like, oh, dude, that sucks, man. Like this, these large single-player experiences would have been so transformative to me. And I think back to being a kid and experiencing Mega Man X and Metal Gear Solid and these things that were just like, holy shit, this is what games can be. And I still played multiplayer games as well, but it wasn't, it reminds me of, you know, whenever you see these stupid topics from, you know, streamers and stuff that only ever play multiplayer games are like, oh, gaming's dead. Yeah. Gaming sucks this year.

And it's like, here are these 14 other games that you haven't played yet because you're stuck only. being a call duty war zone content creator you know i think it was a newsweek article i used to truck out a lot and beat the headline to death with when i was talk about it was the idea this fortnight is really you know their place to hang out and talk to each other right it's in it's an a all chat room it's a phone call it's or whatever and it's that thought back to when we were growing up and it was that yeah we had multiplayer games like mortal combat but like that was an event to get like a sleepover together and have eight kids there that all wanted to play this game where it would be like if you were all by yourself playing on your genesis, right?

You played for a little bit and then you switched to the other thing and the other thing and the other thing. So you were looking for new experiences. Now multiplayer in that party atmosphere and grouping up with your friends is so simple to do. Like, you know, I remember watching the commercials because I never actually went and saw it, but the commercials for Dick Tracy the movie back in the day. Oh. And that watch he had, I thought was the coolest thing. And I was like, oh, if only I could instantaneously talk to Mike and Eric and send them messages without like a phone call, right?

You know, we all have that one. We'll see. Who's Dick Tracy? didn't he have a sitcom? That's him. Yeah? Yeah. Dick Tracy was a, it's a comic strip about a detective who wears a yellow jacket and yellow hat. He got adapted.

Warren Beatty. He played Dick Tracy in the movie. What's the second movie? Dick Van Dyke? There's what I'm thinking of. I was like, there's a Dick sitcom. I've seen it. So yeah, anyway, I was kind of blown away by that.

And I don't think that he will change. that feeling anytime. So very similar to what you're mentioning with Jack. You know, like I, he and I got really, he got really into playing RoboQuest when I went back home and I was like playing co-op with them and then like hasn't played it since and hasn't touched any other game with a campaign since. And he has access to like the PlayStation library that I have there at my parents' house where I'm like, you could, you could play Spider-Man too right now if you want. And it's just like, No, he, what's wild is I watch him play, and he's the most impatient person when it comes to, I don't know what the game's asking me. I don't want to play this.

You know, like, he actually did beat one of the Pokemon games, but for the most part, when I watch him play Breath of the Wild, like, he never left like the main kind of plateau. And he still put a decent amount of hours, but if there was like a puzzle, if there was any slight sense of like, whatever the barrier entry was. This is the barrier. He'd get really impatient. And then I watch him play Apex. and he gets destroyed, you know, 20 times in a row in less than a minute and just keeps on going. I'm like, dude, how do you have patient for this and not that? So I, anyway, I hope, you know, keep right, you know, do not let him watch any of these streamers play, you know, Minecraft and.

Do not let him watch Carl Jacobs. Now, since, oh, God, never. You're kidding me? I don't want to meet in this many gummies. But when you look around, like, our life and what he's being raised in, like, we talk, me and Jen Jugg about this all the time, right? Like, it's just going to be like, he won't, he inevitably is going to just want to be. a sports kid. He's going to never really want to just go be a horse kid or something. It'll be like, Jesus Christ, it'll be the most boring shit in the world that his parents, like, she helps make

video games. I have video games early, you know, all the free shit in the world is going to be to be else. He doesn't care. I don't sure it's that I'll be. Andy, though, like, do you, do you see yourself slowing down at all? No, because I, I, I feel like I will be on this fucking, like, content grind for the rest of my life. And it's what I love doing. And when I'm not doing it, I feel like I'm falling behind. So there's like this sense of urgency to like just do something with it. But no, like I always want to be playing the latest thing. I always want to experience the newest tech.

And I think that's like kind of where I find my joy. And if I'm if I'm not experiencing whatever the big single player thing is, then it's what multiplayer thing is out there right now that kind of, you know, has been in its grips. And right now it is Valerant. But other times it's been Overwatch and other times been called duty. And I feel like that is always kind of on a, rotation. But no, I don't think so. I love seeing the newest visuals. I know I love seeing what studios

are doing next. And holy shit, I remember when this studio came out with this game. And now I'm 50 years old. And that's how this, you know, experience looks like now. I don't see it ever slowing down, honestly. Do you think that you're playing more games now than ever? Because I feel like you in the last like couple years, like maybe last two years have went from like, like, oh, you play games to like, oh my God, that is your life. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. And, A lot of it is like doing streaming on the side and trying to find the new next exciting thing that could maybe pop off content-wise. But even then, I just, I want to experience a lot of different smaller games that maybe I could,

you know, talk about more and be like, holy shit, you guys have not heard of this. You need to get your hands on this experience. Yeah, for sure. I think back to like before kind of funny. And, you know, I couldn't afford a whole lot of games. and that's why I have such a large gap in my gaming history when I was first in college because I might red box a game every once in a while

but I couldn't afford shit, you know? I bought Mass Effect 2 and Red Dead 1 and that was about it. I didn't have a whole lot of other single player experiences outside of that and now it's like now it's like what shit, I don't have time for any of these games that I want to be playing right now, you know?

Yeah. Yeah, I'm pretty much in the same place I was a couple years ago where I think I'm going to be playing games for the rest of my life, the way that I play games now. Like I feel like I, more so than most people here are kind of funny. I think. I'm like, I know what I like and I'm going to play those things. I'm a big franchise boy.

It's very similar to me with like movies as well. It's like I love the franchises, love keeping up with all of it. But then I also love A-24. You know what I mean? I love like the every once in a while, you get that smaller thing that just like really hits or is very specific to my taste. And because of how long I've been playing games, the type of games I've been playing with Nintendo.

and all of that. I feel like there are a lot more of these smaller games that are very up my alley, whether it's a Tony Hawk like or a like some type of retro pretty much anything at this point. Like a lot of my gaming taste

at their peak was genres that kind of don't necessarily exist that much anymore. Like things like rhythm games or whatever where the genre in terms of mainstream popularity doesn't exist, but in terms of the indie scene

is popping off. Let me make a suggestion to you. And blessing, you could back me up on this. There's a rhythm game out there called Sekiro. That was like twice. I try, man. I've tried like three times now, the first hour of it.

And I just don't have the patience like that. And it's like, I'm sure I can push through. And it is some good shit. He's like that kid is what Craig said. My nephew, brother. I'm fucking 3,000 miles away. Me and Slimer are going through hoops right now, right? But like, I think about it.

You guys talk about like the games that kids play nowadays. and I wonder if, you know, every generation, because there hasn't been that many that have played video games, period. Like, we're still very early in all of this where I think we're finally hitting a point that, like, when, you know, as trite as this is to say, like, Mario Galaxy's a retro game,

like, that whole thing, it's like kind of wild to think that the space between now and Mario Galaxy and Mario Galaxy before it, it's pretty much equidistant. You know what I mean? So it's like, there's not that many... It's a crazy word.

It's a great word. Good job, no. Whoa. I was impressed, too, but I was gonna let it go, yeah. But my point is, it's like, you know, what is retro is going to always adapt and change and as people grow, but it's not like movies and TV

that have had a lot more generations where you're either there, you're warrants, you know? Now it's like, we're finally at a point that there will be gamers growing up that never touch Mario Brothers one. You know what I mean? Or Mario Brothers 3 even? And like, that's just the way of things. Like, I don't even know that that's necessarily

as much of a travesty as I feel it is in my heart. But it's just travesty because it's different to you. Totally. Like I feel like that's already happened. You know, I joke around about being old. But like, on PS, I love you talking to Bless and Janet back in the day, right? Years ago when she worked here. When it would be these conversations and I'd mention a game that I reviewed at IGN

and neither of them would play it because they were in like junior high or something, right? And it's like already you're seeing that time really stretch out, I think. And so yeah, the fact that it isn't ubiquitous anymore because for so long we could mention anything to anyone in the circle of work IGN or whatever. It's like, oh yeah, they played that on NES. They played that on Genesis. Or they didn't play it. they know about it. You know what I mean? It's like they know, oh, I know my Final Fantasy was this, but I know my friends was this, but like we can fill in the gaps. So you knew somebody that was

rocking hard for every iteration in every major franchise because there just weren't that many of them. You know, nowadays, it's like, that's impossible to happen. And that's just, that's a good thing at the end of the day. More games are being made and whatever. But I think about my generation of my friends, which I am easily like the most into games at this point. But a lot of my friends do play a lot of games and they find that to be like their they're fun in their life. You know, they have their work. They don't work in video games.

They work outside of it. But video games are their little treat, their reward. And they still somehow, without my help, some of them play Call of Duty, which I'm very surprised by. But that I feel like is the Halo lineage. But I'm so surprised that the PlayStation first party titles are the games for them. Like Uncharted, Last of Us, Spider-Man, Horizon, days gone even. They play all of those without.

me talking about them. And it's like, there's something about that my generation of people that, like, followed the lineage of the original god of war. And just like what a PlayStation 2 game actually meant to where we're at now. And it's just like, it's like a big movie coming.

It's like, I don't, totally. I don't care about, you know, who created the atomic bomb necessarily, but I'll watch it if Christopher Mnola makes a movie about it. You know,

like, they know they've experienced those games when they were younger and they know that Uncharted was such like this big experience for them. that why not go watch that newest movie? Why not check out the new game from Noddy Dog? Because you know that that quality is going to be there, you know? Totally. And it's very interesting to see like some of my friends,

like some of my friends that did not, I know for a fact, ever play Final Fantasy 7, are playing through rebirth right now. And I'm just like, that's wild to me. There's just some level of like cachet that these titles have that it feels more tent pull and it's like, well, I'm not in the games, but oh, this, I know that's the big one. I know that's one to play.

And it's like, I feel like that is going to go away to some extent. like that generation's already, I think, and phased out. And these kids are playing like Fortnite. And Fortnite has a million different games in it. Like it's interesting to think of like what, not only what's next, but like as they grow up, is Fortnite just going to be around? Maybe not forever. But like, is it current?

I think they're younger games. Like, I mean, I remember visiting my nephews a couple years ago. And one of them couldn't stop talking about this game called Friday Night Funkin. And I was like, what the fuck is Friday Night Funkin? I look it up. It's the biggest thing on YouTube. And I've never. once heard about this game. Friday night Funkin.

Friday night. Do you know what it is? It's like a rhythm game that has like a bunch of mods and like you can like I guess install different. I still don't know fully what it is. All I know is that this kid was like obsessed with it on YouTube and I looked it up and yeah like sure enough it has like millions of views of content creators that are making videos with it and like even you know now that we're doing game showdown like one of the games there is that I'll play a video game soundtrack for you guys and guys guess what the song is. There's a website I usually go to. I go to that website right now, it's a bunch of Friday Night Funkin songs on there.

And I'm like, I'm like, this is a thing. Can I see some gameplay for Friday Night Funkin? Yeah, you can bring that up. Like, that's a thing already and none of us know about it. And like, that is, like, at the time, I think he was eight years old, seven years old. And like, that's taken over him and his friends' worlds. Like, that's already happening in terms of the game. That's what YouTube does.

I mean, we think about five nights at Freddy's. I'll never forget back when I first started working here, we did a let's play for Bending in the Ink Machine. And then I went back home and my nieces were like all of my friends are playing at Benny and the machine. I was like, why? It's like YouTube. Like every, you saw a video and all your friend group kind of catches on to that. What the fuck is this game? This is a rhythm. Why have you been holding this? DDR? I mean, maybe you should check out. Maybe you need you make some Friday. Yeah, dude. I need a phone on a Friday night. What? I think Mike might be aware of this.

This could really kind of like give us a larger age group, you know. We could just do the thing like on TikTok where we put the podcast at the top of the time. of the screen and Friday night fucking at the bottom of the screen and we never talk about it it's just always on it's just happening yeah I feel like between this something like only up which did like you know hit our sphere right because it's more of a streamer game but like you know that you talk about fortnight you talk about um five nights at freddies right like I feel like there's becoming more more categories of games that are gonna push us just older and older like I think for me right like I'm the young yeah I'm the youngest here and I'm like I'm probably now become like I'm part of the older generation of video games right because I am just you're going to Because you played Mario 64. Yeah, like I played Mario 64 growing up, and now it is, you're talking about kids not having played Mario, right? Like, for them, that's probably like Citizen Kane.

The way I think about it, right? Yeah, that's a black and white movie probably that, like, you know, people in the 60s watch. There's no special effects. Yeah, like, that's how these kids are thinking about Mario, like Super Mario Brothers, where they're like, oh, yeah, that's ancient history. Yeah. I want to keep talking about this, but after a word from our sponsor. Kind of funny turns nine years old today.

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I like your definition of Citizen Kane is like actually Night of the Living Dead. I'm like, well, we come out of the 40s. Greg, hey, what about you? What about me? Do you think you'll ever stop playing video games? No, I don't think I'll ever stop playing games.

I think that'd be impossible at this point, 40 years in, right? I do think it's interesting to listen to Bless and Andy talk about it, right? and like blessed to debate slowing down or stuff. And then Andy would be like, no, I don't think I will. That's what I'm in for. That's the grind and stuff like that.

I think inevitably you slow down. You know what I mean? That's something that like hasn't been hard for me to accept, but it's been something I've, I can look at and go objectively, obviously, right? And I think there's a lot to that of like, you know, it's kind of funny. It got bigger and bigger for you and me.

We got more and more work to do, right? Which meant inevitably less time to play games at work, which meant playing more games at home, which of course is just tough to do when you're tired and doing a million things, let alone then when you got a part. partner, let alone when you have a child, right? And so, like, I feel like I used to be way more of a blessing, right? When you look at me at IGN and how I consumed games, right? It was, well,

I know I'm on Beyond on Thursday. I know I need to talk about something on Game Scoop. On top of that, I know that I work for IGN and I want to use that as a platform to spotlight the 16 games. I just saw at Pax East. So I'm going to go right about all of them and talk about all of them, blah, blah, blah, la, let alone reviews and previews and all that stuff, right? And that, obviously, at IGN changed, I think, as you saw me go through the ranks of just being a PlayStation editor to leading the team, which obviously had a whole bunch of stuff to then being a video host.

And so, like, I think there's a whole bunch of ebbs and flows to everything and how it all works out, but it also comes down to where I'm at now, right, of being a dad of a two and a half year old, being a partner, being a peer at all you guys, being co-workers trying to help run the company.

Like, that's what is still a struggle for me sometimes. It's when I go home and, like, I know I sure, play X, but I want to play Y. And it's just that point in my career and in the conversations and the shows we do that I know that if I force myself tonight to play Y, I won't enjoy it. So I can't do that to that game. I need to go with what's pulling me right now, right? Like we're talking about it a little bit on PSI Love You and a few other shows, I guess, so far, and just talking to each other.

But coming off of Open Roads being the most recent review I wanted to do, then it's to this point of like, cool. I have a moment to catch my breath. I can play anything I want to play. I need to play Final Fantasy 7 I know at least touch it and blah blah. And it's that thing of just like all week and long all I did was binge Hell Divers in WWE. If I had time, I was playing one of them depending on what was happening. If it's a, I'm hanging out of Jen, it's going to be W.E. Doesn't need my full attention. If I'm going to go downstairs, it's going to be Hell Divers, right? And so like that still sucks that I'm behind. I feel like I'm behind on Final Fantasy, right? I feel like that's one I got to check off my list. I got to get more. But it's like,

I know to sit down and force that that would be wrong for that and I would inevitably not like it the way I need to so to build towards doing something on it maybe it'll be better maybe I'll book out time at work etc so on and stuff

but then you look at stuff like Rise of the Ronen that I was really enjoying that I want a platinum and it's like I know there are so many more hours in front of me that that is like well I know I'm not gonna get the I have right now a week is too much right

because I'm going to Philadelphia so it's like no I have two days to play games WB stuff to worry about me I know You know, you know, they got to have a host number one show. This is awesome.

I got these two days to play. So it's like, well, I don't even want to start a Final Fantasy right. There's a game I had requested a PlayStation code for last week and I install and have it started. And it was like, you know what? Come back to them. I'm like, can I actually get a switch code? Because that'll be the more actual. You know what I mean?

And so that's what it really comes down to of trying to balance what we do and what I am and who I am now, right? of cool, how do I serve my interests? How do I further the goals of the content we're making? And how do I balance those in terms of, I can binge right now and do a weekend of it because I can still make content out of that. And I also knew what the headlines were for this week. And it wasn't like I needed a preview or review.

But then looking ahead, where do I fit that stuff in? How do I do that? So it's a constant game of Shell. But I think, like, to your point, blessing, who you are now will inevitably change, right? whether it's taking on more responsibility kind of funny throughout the years, whether it's moving on to greener pastures

and doing something completely different, right? And when that happens, I think the objectives for the job will change. And it's the same thing for you, Andy, right? Of like, there are those days where I see you streaming and tearing something.

I'm like, oh man, I kind of wish I could go do that right now. You know what I mean? But I'm like, I got to do these dishes. I got to watch the bottle. I got to walk this,

you know what I mean? And so inevitably, that all adds up and changes and stuff. But I think it's one of our strengths as a company of so many different people coming in with different perspectives. on what they do and why they do it. To Greg's point about the way you play games,

especially talking about WW2K and Hell Divers, right? Like, I think for me, I associate playing new games with content creation. And, like, that's been, it's been that way for me, like, even before working at Conaf, I'm funny, right? Like, I started making content about video games with OKB stuff in, like, 2016. So for the last eight years or so, like, I am playing new games with the idea that I'm going to make content around those new games. But, you know, I go back to even this last weekend to be playing games.

and, you know, I don't think it's necessarily the idea that as I get older, I'll slow down playing games overall. I think it's more so just the new games. Like, this last weekend I was playing Hades for fun because I enjoyed Hades. And then also I was playing Dragon Ball Z, Budakai, Tankai, Aichi on my Steam deck, allegedly. And, like, that was just me, you know, hanging back, chilling, doing that while watching Shogun. And I think for me, that is kind of where, like, if I stop this content creation grind in the way that it is, I'm reviewing things, I'm having impressions on things, I'm reporting on things, I'm reporting on things. or whatever, not reporting, but, you know, talking about gaming news, keeping up with things, right? Like, I think I'll just end up just going back and playing older games.

Like, I don't think I'm playing every single new thing. I think I am doing the comfort thing of, you know, the way that you're doing, Helldiver's and W.E, like, I'll probably go back and finally play Souls games. Or, like, go back to, like, the genres that I know that I love the most, right? Like, for me, it is, I think I talked to you about this recently. One of our conversations that, like, you know, I, I love a fighting game. I love a roglight. I like a third-person shooter, right?

which is why I haven't gotten around to Held Average too yet, right? Like, I'll probably just end up sticking with those things that I love as opposed to trying out everything because I want to be informed for the job. I talked about it a lot at IGN at the time, and I think you could apply to a bunch of different stuff now, but definitely this conversation, right, of like, I used to say when I was doing Beyond and scoop and all that jazz, and it was, you know, in the throes of DC Universe online,

I was like, no, you need to understand that if my job wasn't to play games, if I was so working at the Tribune, right, I would come home and just play this game. Like, I wouldn't, I wouldn't be, chasing the next thing or trying this thing or doing. I know I like this and I know I'm not giving it enough time, right? That's how I feel right now with hell divers still, you know, as much as the time as I put it in hell divers where it's like,

I still look when Gary puts up a screenshot, I'm like, oh, 46, fuck, I wish I was like 46, right? It's not that I got to get this piece of shit. Is that no, it's not that. It's not that's not that. It's just like, ah, but he didn't review the three games I've done or the four thing or that, you know what I mean? Like, there's all the stuff that happens in between it where,

Gary's a great example right now, right? of like he's on sabbatical from kind of funny, right? Because he's working so hard. He's doing so much free work. And so that, yeah, when he gets the free time, he wants to go play helldivers or whatever else he's playing. But, like, again, he's able to go and focus on something. And I feel like that's the way it would shift if you had another job.

And I think our jobs will continue to change and evolve and, you know, do whatever. But I think it'll still always be somewhere around celebrating games, doing new stuff, trying stuff out. Go for it. Well, I was to say, every now and then I'll go to my PlayStation. Like, if you go to your profile on your PlayStation account, You can look at the games that you played and you can organize them by time played. And, you know, I'll look at it.

Then I'll see something like GTA online and I've played like over 500, probably somewhere between 500 to 700 hours of it, right? I'll look and I'll see like Overwatch and I've played like over 300 hours of Overwatch. I've not put nearly that amount of time into one game since like, since before I worked it kind of funny, right? Like it's probably been like since 2016 or 2017 or so since I'm putting that amount of time.

And I think part of that is just, you know, again, what Greg's talking about in terms of. Yeah, you can't really do that, right? you have to go on to the next thing or at least want to try different things. The old adage at IGN, and I think it works for us to, yeah, to us to a degree, right, was the fact that we used to say, we are the experts at a video game until it comes out. Until a moment it drops publicly, we are the experts, right? You've had more time than anybody. I remember how, you know, how much Killzone 2 multiplayer I played and all this stuff when they turned the servers.

And it was like one of those things of like, in a day, I was outdated on info and strats and all this other stuff, right? because there's people who just can commit to it and just play that thing and want to be all about it. It's like, that's awesome. I love that, but it was like a real, at times, tough pill to swallow, right? Because you are the expert on it or getting to it, but then you get out there, you're like, oh, well, no, I was never,

I could never do that because I can't keep playing that the way I want. It's getting emotional enough. I just wish I could play more Peacewater. Yeah, I mean, it's so wild. Like, I definitely wish, I wish that we could clone ourselves and play all the things and do all the stuff, right? It's like, I feel like I... If I could clothe myself and make TikToks, God damn it.

That'd be amazing, right? But, like, at this table, I feel like I'm the one that plays games at work the least just because of what my job is the most. And, like, playing games is, like, the smaller part of it. And I wish that I could more, but it's like, that's just not how this works. But, like, tomorrow I'm going to sit down with Andy and play pepper grinder because that's a game that I'm like, I know. Nicholas.

Oh, say with Nick, say with Nick, me and Nick. Which, you know, that'll change your experience a bit, Andy. real let me down there. No, jokes aside, like, I see that game, and I'm like, I know I'm going to love this. You know, Barrett plays it. He tells me, he's like, Tim, you're going to love this. We had such a good time with it.

And I'm just like, I just don't know when I'm going to actually be able to give this thing the time it deserves. Yeah. And it's not that much time. Like, they're saying it's like three, four hours to play. That's the perfect example, Tim, of a game that, like, I started and I, every night, I get to bed a little bit too late,

and I look at my steam deck next to my bed. I'm like, man, if I was here 30 minutes earlier, I'd put 30 to 40 minutes into Pepper Grander right now, like I had been, because I'm about maybe an hour in at this point. But yeah, Pepper Grander is like the perfect example of a game right now, Tim, that is something I really, really want to play, but there's Dragon Zogman 2. Well, there's really just Jaggonsu Kemp with 2.

And then plotting out the rest of the year, Tim, just thinking like, when do I start this Elder Ring replay? Because you can't hop into the DLC. If you hop into the DLC with your old character, you're playing on New Game Plus. And that makes the game harder. What do you mean? What are you talking about?

You're lying. The game is harder on New Game Plus. Which is why, remember when you did Bloodborn? And Imran was like, before you beat the game, get to the DLC first. Because if you beat the game, then try to do the DLC, you're doing it on New Game Plus. Wait, so because I beat the game,

I have to do New Game Plus. Yeah, you have to do New Game Plus. Yeah. God damn it. And I started a new game plus. It was an oversite. I played 100 hours. I started that like a year and a half ago and then never went back.

And so I'm not at the point where I have access to the DLC. So I have to like, I think kind of play through a good chunk of the game to get there. And I think Andy, I looked at the schedules. I looked at our calendars, right? I'm thinking 30 days before the DLC is when we jump back in there. I'm thinking we're back. Give yourself a month and then you get reacquainted and it's not too early that you like do it all and then you're already ready and you're ready too early and then you forget the controls already, you know? It's not even that you're getting reacquainted.

Like I made a new character over the weekend. Just I haven't played this in a while. I was like, fuck, this is the best game of all the time. You're going to do it from just like a normal. Brand new character. Fuck. Brand new character. You think I should.

Do you think I should do that? Do you think it's really really hard? Votty video put out a new video. Votty video put out a new video recently. I think like three or four days ago that was like you want to play the DLC here's what you need to prepare for

here's all the things you need to know remember all the Tim you need larval tears of course you do to redo your build here are all of the golden seeds to then have more flasks here like it's kind of just like this prep thing you know so watch those videos

watch the five follow-ups write an essay for me do I give up the new game plus run then yeah you give it up So that's what the chat seems to be saying, just to be clear, that if you haven't started New Game Plus, you're okay. Oh, okay. Yeah, that's true. If you haven't started a new game, you beat the game, you're fine.

Okay. But as long as you didn't start a new game plus. Yeah. I'm good. I started that New Game Plus run. And let me tell you, that first area going back to it. Oh, man. You're clean enough.

Clown, not that tree setting a little piece of shit on the horse. It's awesome. It's so satisfying. But that's not what the rest of the experience is going to be. Oh, that's rough. Yeah. Sorry, Tim. Evergrander, my bad.

No, nobody cares about that. In the chat, though, there's something interesting for this conversation, right? Is Ultra BMW says, Helldivers 2 is a great game, but Dragons Dogma 2 and Final Fantasy 7 rebirth just took over in a way. And I think, obviously, I think he's talking about his own personal experience here, but it's also interesting of like, it's because of what those experiences are that they're not taking over for me, right? Where it is, the Hell Divers is the, all right, I have 30 minutes.

I might have two and a half hours. I'm not sure what I'm getting into. I know I can do that. Whereas that's a terrible, way, I think, to engage with Dragon's Dogma or Final Fantasy 7, right? Of, like, jump in and then, well, I'd rather, I need a day at work where it's like, I get a good five hours under my belts to get the wheels going on that. So then I could start doing the pop-in, pop out.

I know what's up. I know what's going on. I think schedule-wise, things have lined up so perfect for me. Even, I think about last year's lull where I got really, really into Destiny 2 because there was just not a whole lot really draw. There wasn't like, I'm sure, well, I'm sure there was, right? But there wasn't like a game that I was super into that was like, here's the 80-hour campaign you're going to need to play.

I just put a lot of time into Destiny 2. And I think that, you know, if, if Dragon's Dogma 2 came out the same day as Call of Duty Warzone in 2020, I wouldn't be playing Dragon's Dogma 2. I was addicted to Call of Duty Wars. That's all I wanted to do. Like in my off hours was just, we're streaming this every fucking night.

And a lot of it just comes down to priority. whatever you're into the most. And I totally, like, I think about Greg last year with tears of the kingdom and how you get off a couple of weeks and that throws off the whole cycle. And you're just like, you lose the, is there a part of you, Greg, that kind of feels like, oh, I'm losing the sort of public drive as well where I'm like, I don't feel like I'm with everyone now on this journey, you know? Yeah, the conversation, right?

This is what we talk about all the time is being a part of the conversation. And again. Speculation station? No, the conversation left the station. Yeah, okay. And so I feel like, you know, again, with our roles and our jobs being, you know, tiers, I didn't review. I was reviewing the things around tiers. So it was so hard to get back to when there was more to review and there's more to talk about.

And it was, all right, so everybody's saying this game is the 10 out of 10. Do you really need me to say it's a 10 out of 10? Is Greg Miller's opinion that valuable on this? Or is it more valuable to chase this other thing, talk about the other thing, do this thing, right? Like try to disseminate all the information and stuff, let alone how much I would love to be able to go back and do, yeah, old reviews, go back, you know, re-review web of shadows. You know what I mean? Like stupid shit like that But it's like

Trying to find the time To do that Yeah That sounds great I would like to get back to Dragonstock Yeah But I'm also in the place

Where it's similar To what you guys are saying Like there's a certain vibe that I'm like waiting for Right I'm waiting for it to hit For me right Like I'm I think I'm just not in the In the mood for it at the moment

And I'm like Such a huge part of it Yeah And like I'm like I don't want to hate this game Right now It's the reason why I think I've fallen back to

Playing Hades is like Pretty decent game Yeah pretty decent game And also it is like In my head I know that I'm just playing one run. And one run, it lasts way longer than it does in my head. Because in my head, I'm like, oh, yeah, it'll be like 15 minutes.

It ends up being an hour. But like, you know. Same thing with me and WWU faction wars. Yeah. Cool. I'm going to do one run. Cool. And it's something like, I know I can put it down.

I know that like I can get a satisfying like, oh, I'm going to level up this character all the way through this run. Hit that apex and then it's finished. And it's like, cool. I just had a satisfying session with this game. Dragon's Dogmo 2 like kind of demands, it seems like it demands way more of me. Right? And I'm like, I demand that of it.

Like I love an open world action RPG. So it's like, yeah, I don't want to do it where I screwed. I mean, even the hour or two I played of it was very much like, all right, I'm already kind of tired and this is taking a while to get going. That's a bad way to start it, right? I want to be able to, I'm ready to go, engage another five hours. Okay, I see where I'm going. Let's go.

Yeah. But that even comes back to like I'm not picked up or I'm not played through Pepper Grinder yet. Like I've only played a couple of levels and like, you know, I have a flight later this week. Hopefully I'm able to pick it up then. But it's again the thing where I'm like, all right, Pepper Grindr, I'm not necessarily in the mood for it, but I know it's the kind of game that I like.

And that's where it kind of gets tough for the job we do, where it is, I, you know, I can wait until I'm in the mood for this thing. But the game is out now. Like, the conversation is happening now. What's also fascinating about that and the job that we do in Pepper Grinder specifically, right, is the fact that we are a team. And so, like, I downloaded Pepper Grinder at review period, and I jumped in and I did one world of it. And I was like, cool, not my, not a Greg game. I don't need to do this. And I knew you were playing.

I knew what people were playing. right. Like I know there's a conversation we had. I know you're going to get to it on the stream. So it's like thinking holistically about the content, it is very much like me leveling up and we have covered some more experiences. Yeah, it's more valuable for the Greg part of the pie than it is me struggling through pop or going to be like, okay. Yeah, it's funny for me. I think my biggest problem, because now we're just kind of turn this into a gaming therapy session. My biggest problem with games isn't even so much of the time as much as it's how I get the most out of a game where I am just not a multitasker when it comes to media

period. Like, I don't understand how Kevin can be playing a game, listening to a podcast, listening to music, and watching a TV show at the same time. I want to interrupt you right here. Buzzy, how the fuck are you playing a game and watching Shogun? Oh, dude, it's great. Do you understand Japanese? I'm watching it dubbed. Yeah, okay, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Which, even when you watch it dubbed, it's only dubbed like half the time. And it's the same actors. It's so funny. It's the actors. Wait, is it really then? It's most of the actors, like, who, that speak English as well, doing the dub, yeah. That's awesome. But yeah, they're like, talking while was Anjin while he's in the room.

They speak in Japanese. I'm like, well, why do I choose dub then? Like, what are we doing here? But for me, I just feel like I'm very particular. I think a lot of this is my tech obsession where it's like I want everything to be the best it could be. And like I get very, very like obsessive over dead pixels or over like, oh, I know this isn't sounding the way it's supposed to. Like let me make sure it's all set, whatever. Like I'm just, I get such a high from that stuff.

And I've walked out that my. entire life has been building towards making sure that my setup was like peak for that shit, which of course, just like PC gaming, Greg, comes with a lot of issues, comes with a lot of troubleshooting, comes with a lot of like things getting in the way.

But because I have such a fantastic setup to play my games, I'm like, I don't want to play them any other way. Like I want to play them when I'm dialed in, sitting there, nothing's bothering me and I'm just getting immersed in this. And like, that's Final Fantasy 7,

rebirth for sure. Like that was my entire experience there for the most part. but it's at the point now I'm like even something like pepper grinder I'm like I care too much about video game music I care too much about the sound effects I can't imagine playing a game on silent like and I know that's how Greg plays most games

like not most a lot then like whatever we were talking about this recently but don't want to put words in your mouth no yeah it's a good one for the remote play stuff right like there's levels to it of what I'm doing whereas like I don't remember 30 hours or whatever it isn't a Ronin now like I can play that one on silent while I go clear

map or kill a dude or whatever, you know what I mean. But most of the time I'll have the Pulse Explorer earbud in one. Yeah, that way I can still hear what's going on. I had a plan over last year, Tim, that, you know, unfortunately we couldn't end up doing because of logistics, but it was to send Greg's wife Jen and his son Ben off on a vacation for a week so he could play Tears of the Kingdom. And I want to do that with you when Gosa Sushima comes out. We send G and the dogs out on a week vacation to Barcelona.

Oh. All expenses paid by you. Great. Let me tell you about the kind of funny membership. We need you to buy a few. And then we just like Tim's got that big ultra-wide OLED. Oh my God. Ghost of Sushma on piece.

He's going to look insane. I can't wait to see it, man. It's going to look unbelievable. But the problem I'm facing is like, Greg, even what you're talking about with the portal, even with rebirth when I got to the point that I am just kind of grinding and I am just playing Queen's blood. Yeah.

Like I've done this a bunch of times. I have this problem where I'm like, I'm like, I'm not enjoying this as much as I can because I'm not hearing the Queen's Flood music right now. And I really, really, like, I really want to. Like, that to me is, that's what a playing video game is. It's like a full immersive experience, even if it is quick, easy, simple, little things.

And, like, I know that to me just breaking myself more and more as time goes on. But something like Pepper Grindr, like, I'm, like, I've created a situation tomorrow where I'm playing on stream. That'll be the only way I really get to play this game. And already I'm just like, thinking, I'm like, man, I know this is not the way I'm going to want to play this. Because, like, I do not do good under pressure playing games in front of people. I don't want Nick being there.

And Nick's going to be there. Yeah. So fuck. Yeah. You know, but also I want to listen to it. But then there's that making the content and all of it, which I'm excited for. And I do want to put myself out there more. I had such a good time playing Princess Peach with you last week.

But yeah, a big problem I've been having is I have so many solutions. I now have my Steam Deck, which I absolutely love. And I've been using it a ton. But I'm constantly thinking about how it's not the optimal experience. How do you fix me plus? I mean, I think that's why I've just given up and I just listen to podcasts while playing video games. I think that also, it's also because, you know, as you're describing playing FF7 in that optimal experience, I'm like, I'm thinking about the review process for that game and I'm like, I don't think I could like pull myself. I don't think I can walk into a different room, like go into, if I had a theater, right?

Go into the theater, put on everything and then sit down for that session and then keep doing that for how many times or the course of three to four weeks, however long we had to review it, and do that. and do that, right? Like for me, the only way that I'm able to, you know, there's a, a call in we got during the kind of funny happy hour.

I forget who was there and who wasn't there. I don't think you guys were there. We were watching Ghostbusters. All three years. Oh, no, me and Greg were watching Ghostbusters. Yeah. And somebody called in there like,

how do you guys manage? Like, those are calling, I was like, I make a list of like the media that I want to watch. How do you guys manage to like get through these lists of things? And my answer is just that like,

yeah, sometimes I'll just fucking knock shit out at the same time, right? Like if I'm not making these concessions to play Final Fantasy or play Belotra or play whatever game, like if I'm not being, if I'm not playing the shit on a plane, then it's like, cool, I just, I don't have time to play it, right? Because it's either that or I'll end up getting burnt out because it then becomes I'm going to play this up during my free time and then say no to hang out my friends after work and then do this. And like, you know, that for me is where things get difficult is trying to organize that stuff. And that's how I play as many games as I do is that I'm like, cool. Like I'm going to play Bellatro while doing laundry while stacking up all the all the, uh, all the, all the. But yeah, that also means that I had to say no to some of the optimal experiences to playing some of these games. See, what I've sacrificed is the optimal experience of viewing stuff. Like, you know what I mean? Over the weekend, when I was binging all these games, I was watching the Bray Wyatt documentary on my phone. Like, they're using the Pulse headset, just like I could listen to both, right?

And that was a great experience for me, because when it was something great, I would stop and watch or whatever. But even that's more of a podcast-y kind of narrative. Yeah. I think we just need games to be eight hours long. Yeah. I think it's influenced my genre preferences though because I think that's why I really like

Rogue Lights. You know, I love Returnal because I listen to podcasts all throughout playing Returnal and that game was perfect for it. And same with Hades, I'm like, I'm listening to stuff and watching stuff while playing Hades and I'm like, this is absolutely perfect. So when you say you never beat Hades, you mean like the 10 completions? I never beat I never got to the end of a run. Oh, I never beat

the Hades boss. Yeah. I got to the boss where it was you're fighting two people at once. It was like, I think Asterius. Oh yeah. and the other guy and the bull guy and the bull guy and the guitar

yeah yeah um and I just hate boss fights where you're fighting two people at once it's all I was like fuck this and I never went back

um okay that's fair but now I've gotten I've gotten to like that Hades boss fight multiple times so I haven't beat them

I'm getting there but I just gotta get the perfect build it's tough it took me like 36 I think it was like 36 was for my first I'm around there

run and then I it was with the spear and the spear was like oh shit this changed the game I had such a good build of the spear because I had

the spear plus whenever I'll do like, I guess my regular attack, I would summon lightning. And then it would like the lightning would then infect other people around it. Yeah, the chain lightning. You talk about a chain lining. Get the fuck out of here. Oh, dude, I was fucking killing it.

Diablo. Yeah. He just kicked my ass. But. Bear, you were popping in to say something. I was just talking about how the Steam deck just like really helped with like playing smaller games. And yeah, I'm brain broken as well where it's like it's hard for me to not put something on in the

background while I'm playing on the Steam deck. and so like I'm just thinking about the next few weeks like children of the sun is coming out we've got yellow taxi goes room that Roger has been telling us to play which is so freaking good by the way like I played that this weekend but I also understand it's really fucking long and so that's the other really

apparent that's what Roger is saying is really long Tim and for that I am out yeah so that's like kind of what's holding me off on like starting that up and then like another crap's treasures coming out at the end of the month and stuff and I know those are going to be, like those are three games that are coming out

in the next month that I'm going to want to knock out quickly and so those are going to have to be a steam deck playing them while something else is on in the background. Probably while we're watching a Digimon. In two weeks, no rest for the wicked. See, I'm not worried about that because that is early access. That's early access. And like, I just, I don't have the patience to be like,

yeah, let me play a portion of the game and then give you feedback. And like, I just, I'll, play the game. I'm not going to be able to resist. I'm just like Barrett on that front, but I'm still going to, I'm going to have to jump. I'll just jump in and try for a little bit. And now that I've also probably had to accept that now I have to probably fully restart Eldon Ring. I'll probably have to get back to that sooner. And then Stellar Blade is also at the end of the month. Here's what you can do. Here's what you can do. Here's what you can do. People can upload save. Andy, I got a question for you. But then like, oh, if you want to be a little cheating freak. Be a little cheating freak. You get it on PC and you can download a save. Andy, I got a question for you. What a surprise. PC people cheat and do an underhanded legal things. That's the thing that I get worried about. I liked the character that I built.

And so that's where I'm kind of like hesitated. You can make them look like that. You can go to that little mirror where the lady hugs you. Remember her? Fia? She gives you hugs. She's wearing all black. You go in there and she's like, let me sleep with you.

Let me embrace you. I'll hug you. Oh, elderly. Yeah, yeah. Sorry, I thought we were still talking about. No, no, no, yeah. In elderly, you go, you go get hugged by her. But there's a mirror there, and you can make yourself look the way you want.

And you get the larval tears. You change your build. Yeah, larval tears. Did she, like, give you poison when she hugs you? Baldikins' blessing. Yeah. Oh, she gives you the debuff. Yeah, she does give you the debuff.

Yeah. I love how much you know about this, Andy. It's so fucking cool. Maybe that will be a steam deck thing. I'm telling you, you can download a build out there. What were you going to ask us? Early Access Game of the Year, what's it going to be? Is it going to be no rest for the wicked, hyper lightbreaker, or Hades 2?

Good question. Fuck. I know. Holy shit. That's insane. That's an insane line. Right down as a category for the awardees. The kind of funny is what?

Smiley. Smiley. You chose it. Jesus Christ was it. Oh, my goodness. I'm going to go with, oh my God. I'm probably going to go with no rest for the wicked. Wow.

I'm going hyperlight breaker. I'm going Hades too. Here's what I want with Hyperlight Breaker though and I, hey, heart machine devs, you guys are making an amazing game can't wait for it. What I love is whenever I locked on in that game, the camera would like,

do some weird kind of thing. It wouldn't just like be a smooth lock on and I was really, really frustrating to me. You fix that, you have a game of the year. Goody. But it's still early access. Early access. But God damn, that's so,

that's a great question. I can't believe Hades too early access this year. I can't believe it. either. Like, I actually can't believe it. Like, I don't think it's going to happen. Oh, okay. We'll see. Who picked it in fantasy? I don't think. I think any of us did it? Roger? I think Roger picked Harper Lightbreaker.

Yeah. But it's like, it's a weird one because it has to get enough review scores to be on open critic. And is it going to do that in early access? Who knows? Great question. People are trying to sing Silk Song. That's not going to be early access. Yeah, there's no way that can launch. Early access. Are people talking about it getting a store page on Xbox today? That's probably what it is, yeah. On April Fool's Day, bless. Okay.

I click the link. It's there. I click the link. And it's on Nintendo too. And their PR person like tweeted it out. You guys have been a TV. Aides 2 is owned by Team Snowbike Mike. Oh shit. Very interesting.

That ain't coming out. God, man, video games. Yeah. Holy shit. I can't wait to get back home to play on this goddamn monitor. Holy shit, man. That is awesome. Andy, can you do a stream with me in Dragon's Dogma 2 during during work hours? Oh my God, yes. Because I really want get into that game.

Yes, but it's hard for me. Dude, I'm like, I'm struggling. Dude, it's just like every, me and Iota,

Edibery aren't, every experience is so much fun. Like, not having fast travel was like so not even a worry for me because any time I'm like, I got to go all the way down there. And it's, and I feel like Bill Bo Bagan's in the Hobbit.

He's like, we're going on an adventure. And me and my crew go out. And the funniest thing is like, a lot of these characters look ugly as shit. and it's Capcom is essentially using their character creator to fill out the world with

the same characters that you could likely make on your own. And there's times where I'm just adventuring with my crew and I'll see a random group of other four players that again, this isn't a multiplayer game and I'm like, who the fuck is that like somebody else? I feel like that's somebody else in another universe playing this game as well, adventuring with their

little four squad. And I might like bust out my weapons at the wrong time and they're like, yo you want shit? I'm like, no, no, no, put the weapons away. But then you go out blessing and it's like, I, the best comparison that I could think of was the gameplay being so rewarding and addicting in the same way that I never wanted to stop playing GTA 5 back in the day when you could just boot up the campaign and just fuck around for what it felt like hours. Not to the same level, granted, because having vehicles and planes and just, it's this

physics system that makes the game so hilarious and non-repeatable because I'm not getting like the same animations when I like random shit is happening all of the goddamn time because of the way this physics system like system operates where I there's a big torrent guy who's like fucking I say

touring guy but I mean like a he's a bull with like human legs Minotaur Minotaur guy guy's fucking like 20 feet tall bless we're taking it down oh yeah I fought a guy like that I jump on the on his back and he starts bucking me off like oh my god my dude just flies off like oh yeah but I did the same thing It's so random and so much wild shit like that happens that like it always feels fresh.

It's so unpredictable in how it gives you like these emergent gameplay moments. And it's totally true. I had a, I had a moment where there was a random pawn that I hired. And he was kind of annoying. This guy, he's stupid fucking hat. I was like, I can't wait to get rid of this pond. But whenever you hire somebody's pawn from the internet, they give their pawn, which by the way, you can hire Rebecca Ferguson, my pawn out there. and she has a you can make 5,000 gold with the quest that I give her

you give these your pawn like a quest right so I hired a random pawn and I was like oh I can get 10,000 gold by killing a cyclops let's go do this shit and then I'll get rid of the stupid hat guy the fucking cat man with the stupid hat cat in the hat um and I go out there fucking Garfield

and I go out there for this adventure and um there's this word about this dragon's play right? Everybody's worried about the dragon's plague. That if you fight a dragon, some of your NPCs might get sick, and they'll start showing signs of like not paying attention and not really falling in line with the group. And at one point, Rebecca Ferguson tells the fucking catman,

hey, because he just goes up into battle. And Rebecca Ferguson tells the cat man, you shouldn't be heading out in the battle like that. You should, like, fall in line with our directions or whatever. And he's like, oh, whatever, I'm just doing whatever the you know, and I was like, oh my God, catman's got the disease. Catman's got the dragon's plague. He's showing early signs.

I got to go kill this cyclops. We got to go find a cyclops so then I can then kill the man, get my money, then throw the catman into the water because you can throw people in the water to a bunch of red tentacles kill you. You can't jump in the water. That's like, there's evil shit down there. And I'm like, I'll go look for cyclops. And on the way for looking for a cyclops, we get kind of bombarded by a little random, you know, group of enemies. And Catman's

fighting this dude and like starts sliding off the cliff and just falls into the water by himself. And you see the red tentacles just swallow his ass up. I was like, well, that's catman's dead. I guess he's just fucking dead now. So I had to go resummon him

and then he's like, oh, good to be back, sir. Where the fuck? I heard you missed me or whatever. And then I found out he never had Jaggins plague. He's just they chose the attitude of like straightforward where he could be dick sometimes. I was like, oh, he was just a dick. He didn't have a dragons play. But it's

like those moments like that just feel so random and it's like just so rewarding to not just feel like you are checking out boxes. You are going out to kind of have these very unique experiences and I'm just having so much fun with it. I don't want to stop playing the damn game

and then I got a fucking cool hood on now like a good hood. With a spear. A good Jesuit shit. Kind of like that. Shout to the Ben of Jeserate. I love that movie. Dude, and then I gave Rebecca Ferguson this levitate power And she was just floating up there, just throwing lightning balls

Like, she's insane. Like, oh, I hired Kevin over the weekend. So I made Kevin Cuello. I made Kevin Cuello and Nick Scarpino. So Mike is playing as Nick Scarpino. And Kevin Cuello is the main pawn. And what happens is like, I needed Mike to be a high enough level so that I could hire Kevin Cuello

because I'm not going to hire a pawn that's under level. finally Mike kept on playing so he got above me and I was like I can finally hire Kevin and this little fucking bowling ball was just like the most insane warrior fighter there's and I made him very very short

and there'd be big monsters and Kevin would shield bash him and they would just fucking fly it was the best shit at one point Kevin's hanging off the cyclops and like stabbing him in the asshole it was just like it was great and then I had to say goodbye to Kevin

because I out leveled him but I hope Mike keeps playing so that I can then bring him back. It's so good, bro. It's so good. Wow. Shout out to Easter. Shout out to Easter, everybody.

In March now, I guess. He is risen. Let us know in the comments below if you're ever planning on stopping playing video games and how your adventures in Dragon's Dogma 2 are going for you. Have you got the plague?

Have your ponds got the plague? I don't know. Sounds scary out there. Anyway, I love you all. This has been a fun one. Nice little discussion topic. Indeed. Always nice.

Until next time. Keep gaming gamers. Goodbye, games. Bye.