Pablo Torre Finds Out - We Plugged in Our PlayStation, and This Happened

Episode Date: March 26, 2024

Pablo convinced Katie Nolan and Amin Elhassan to do something he’s wanted to do ever since PTFO launched: play Spider-Man 2 using the giant LCD screen that normally sits right behind him. And have an entire conversation — about punching through Ikea furniture; Rocket League; AOL screen names; multitasking; the Spider-Man canon; and our personal journeys through video games — while doing it. Which is all to say that this episode is a bit of an experiment. And you can watch it all on our YouTube channel, please:https://www.youtube.com/@pablotorrefindsout Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to Pablo Torre finds out. I am Pablo Torre, and today we're going to find out what this sound is. How would you describe your relationship to video games, Katie? Sexual. Yeah. Really sexual. Right after this ad. You're listening to Draft Kings Network.

Apparently, we're rolling. Oh, good. Oh, clap. We're clapping. No. Clap. I mean, it means... Amin's Bain.

How often is Amin going to do the Bain voice? The whole time. I'm doing it the whole time. My prediction is he's not going to stay for the full thing and he's going to do Bain for as long as he stays. I'm going to try unless I lose it. Then I must give it back to you. Getting German.

It's not getting better. Bain's verging on. No, certainly not getting better. Katie, Amin and me are here. We've never done this. We have a PS5 on the big screen that I normally sit in front of in our studio. Paul Bortory finds out a studio, a show based around journalism,

that today is a show based around the PlayStation 5 that we have. And so Katie Nolan, you play video games with anybody else in my life that I know. I don't have a job, but just say it. Do you want to call me a slur, Lori? That's a callback. You video game slut. Okay, fair. Put that on the blower third.

But I'm pretty monogamous. I usually just stick with one and I fuck it all the time. And then I move on to the next one. Shout out to the last of us, remember? Yeah. That was a moment in the pandemic. The video game? Yeah.

We were playing the last of us at the same time. You guys were? I mean and Katie were. Yeah. We were. I feel like I got boxed out of a friendship. But we've logged into Katie's account. That sound you may be heard is Katie logging in.

I call this, and I mean this, my favorite game of the last, certainly two years. Okay. You guys have never played Fall in Order or Jedi. Survivor? I think I might have played Fall Order. Fall Order is like five, six years old. But Jedi Survivor is the one that came out last year. It's a reason I bought a PS5. Pablo. I know. You're a Jedi on the run from the Empire. AOL screen name was Yoda, followed by six numbers, and I have not played this game. Oh my God. What six numbers? I can't tell you. Okay. What was your screen name? Gendis for...

I had a couple, but the one that really hurts was hugs and kisses 411. Oh my God. I would like information on these hugs and kisses. Quick, behind inside the actor's studio on why you were hugs and kisses what number? 411. 411. What's the haps? What's the hot goss? I was trying to present as a girly girl because I was constantly called a boy.

So I leaned in really hard into like, this is what girls do. What are these bids like? Yeah, exactly. It was clearly not. Hugs and kisses. I was joking before that, yeah, we'll talk while playing video games, you know, talk about ourselves, our video games, childhood dramas, and we've actually got into it. We've gotten to my childhood drama pretty quickly.

All right, so this episode is something of an experiment. And if you go to our YouTube channel, that becomes very obvious. We're going to do things that are deeply visual because we're also a TV show, airing on the Draftings Network and on YouTube, of course. But also we care about our podcast listeners, you, podcast listener. I care about you. And I just need to disclose to you that there's some stuff happening on screen while we're talking that will make all of this make even that much more sense,

even as we are unrepentantly fucking around today. And I could have newspegged this to like March Madness and college and nostalgia and friendship. But no, I'm here to just tell you, please subscribe to our YouTube channel because we're fucking around playing Spider-Man 2, a game in which you are both Peter Parker sometimes, but also Miles Morales, Morales, the other Spider-Man other times. And in fact, if you listen very closely. As we've been talking, the theme song of Spider-Man 2 has been playing underneath us like a beat. It's a bang-o. And I'm like kind of bopping to it.

And so we're at the select save slot. I want to narrate this. Katie Nolan, her account. It's already, what a power move, 100%. I've never seen that before. Really? I do that to every game. 100%. I'm a completionist.

The point being that Katie Nolan has beat in Spider-Man 2. I never beat any games but this one, because I'm an open world guy. Katie's flipping through these things. So we're going to... I'm just clicking around. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. I'm in a mission.

You're in the lizard mission? Okay. So Spider-Man 2. I mean, you've played this game, yes? I played the first one. Okay. So the physics of this game are, better than truly any other video game I've ever played.

The graphics are more fluid. You can shoot weblines to walk across if you have patience to then, yeah, you can web up people. I love webbing up people. Me too. It's the best. So she's sneaking around and assassinating people quietly, and I'm already at this point, typically, just in a giant melee. Really? So you don't do the stealth to begin? Oh, I like to take out.

I like to go through. I start and then I give up. The entire first way. of people knocking them all out before. But those guys get in my way. These fucking birds. Mechanical birds? They're all day. I enjoy just mashing some buttons

in the middle of a brawl with like 50 hunters in this case. How did you choose your costume, by the way? I don't. I never do. I don't. I just don't care. This is the same girl who had to be hugs and kisses 4-1-1. Yeah, because I was trying to prove something to somebody and it was not real. I don't care. It doesn't give a shit about dressing up Spider-Bed.

It would be weird if I dress the way I do in real life and then cared in a video game what I dressed as, don't you think? Katie's costume is like jingoistic Spider-Man, though. It's a big American flag on the back. Jingoistic. You play video games like a dork. That got safe right here. Reading a think piece watching Katie play Spider-Man too. Aha, two at once.

There we go. Oh, wow. Well done. Here's that net time you ordered. Yeah, there's that necktap time. So I should say, I guess, for people who have not played this, this is like a fully immersive recreation of a New York City. Yeah. And so you're in a giant warehouse.

Can you leave Manhattan in this one? Yes. You go to Queens? Yeah, you go to Queens in Brooklyn, I think. Because that was a really upsetting part of the first one. I will never get tired of watching you kick serious ass. Thanks, Ganky. Shout to Ganky, by the way.

But also, fuck you to Ganky. Because in the movies, Genki is played by a Filipino guy. Yeah. And his name is not Genki, who's clearly like, you know, not Filipino in this game. There are a lot of Filipino characters in, like, various projects that get changed. Like what? What's fucked up? Glad you asked me.

Remember Starship Troopers? Uh-huh. Johnny Rico in the novel is Filipino. Really? Rico, that is. Johnny Rico, played by fucking Casper Van Dean. Yeah. The whitest man in the history of movies.

So the thing about Spider-Man 2 New Game Plus, I loved Spider-Man 2. Played it straight through so much I hurt my finger famously. Yep. Which potentially cost you. It didn't, but we can pretend. Yep.

I wanted New Game Plus right away. So I didn't know that this was a thing in general, by the way. You beat a game and they get to replay the game. With all the things you earned. With all the stuff you've unlocked. So it's not like you have to wait until the seventh chapter to use this one power. You start with it.

But I realize what I love the most about Spider-Man 2 is the story. There are a lot of parts of this game where you're like, This is kind of boring. I'm just walking through a warehouse. You're sneaking. You're sneaking around. But also I remember this being terrifying. Yeah, it was.

This is very scary. And it will be very scary. Like it's a darkened warehouse. And you and your mechanical bird friend that you've commandeered, you've hacked into being an ally of yours. It's just his skin. The shedded skin of... This poor skin.

D lizard is circumcised. Oh, shit. I forgot about this part. Who's this? Whoa. Hey, man. New threads? The building swarming with hunters.

In comic book, video game... They don't line up. They don't line up. Right. There's a lot of retconning and just changing a plot to make it more fluid narratively. And so Harry Osborne,

who is the son of the Green Goblin. I believe he becomes the Hobgoblin in the comics? So anyway, so Harry is wearing the symbiote suit. He's sick. And his dad gets him this suit to like make him feel better. Rich billionaire. Right.

And the suit does. But then Peter gets the suit because he almost dies. Yes. And the symbiote goes on to him to heal him. Yep. And he takes it from Harry. So then Harry's getting sick again and dying.

And so right now you're cooperating with symbiote suit, Harry. So you're in the East River. That's right. I'm fighting the hunters in all their various ways of modes of transportation. They've got boats. planes, they've got ski-dos. Everybody's doing it. Ski-do.

And you're... We've got the Roosevelt Island tram. They have those jet skis that people in the East River actually do ride and it's disgusting. How do you feel about the web wings? I didn't like them the first time I played it. I do like them now. I use them all the time now, but they're also like the number one thing that Spider-Man in the comics does not do. Yeah.

But the web swinging and the web winging. is like so fun in this game. Yeah, it's like the closest you get to, I guess, and this is the most sincere, uncool thing I've ever said, it's the closest thing to getting to feel like you're actually Spider-Man. Yeah, this is like Westworld for Spider-Man. Yes. Oh, boy.

Oh, boy. You got a big lizard angry at us in the East River, but we're invisible, and now we're visible again. That's right. Miles can be invisible. I don't use that feature that much. Katie, what was the first game that you fell in love with that wasn't like Super Mario Brothers, those simple type of video games? Uncharted.

I think it was like this, maybe the second one. Wait, what was uncharted? I don't, I never played uncharted. It was basically like, Nathan Drake or what was his name? Yeah, Nathan Drake, yeah. It was like a treasure hunty, Indiana Jonesy type. Oh, wait, this is a thing that Tom Holland ended up being in the movie for. Speaking of Spider-Man.

And Mark Wahlberg. Unchatted. Unchatted. chatted. What about you, Pablo? What was your, like, modern video game? Modern video game. GTA, Grand Theft Auto,

where I just am a serial killer terrorist. GTA3 was the first one that was, like, third person, whatever, walking around and doing stuff. A big criticism of Spider-Man, too, is that in terms of the open-worldness of it, it is as open and as explorable and as swingable as anything ever. But, like, for instance, let's walk up to somebody. Yeah.

Like, I can't. Can't punch that guy. You can do, you can like, you can like yank that thing up and make them go, whoa. But like, come on, I'm swinging a giant mailbox and no one is getting hit by it. Yeah. I'm just like waving at people. Why are you picking a woman? You know why?

You're your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. That's right. I am an equal opportunity. You just attempted. I don't know. You just assaulted several women. I am. Why are there only women on this street?

Oh, geez. A woman of color? Look, I don't see color as the symbiote. Your love of video games, which seems similar and yet very different to mine and a means, the idea that you're completing missions, you're going through it. How do you describe why you like video games at all? To me, it's like a movie I can play. It's a movie that I'm like, you know, I've got ADD.

Pretty obvious, if you didn't know that. That's kind of wild. But I... And you took out all of those guys in a... with a speed that suggests that this person, her mind is operating at a level that is beyond. And I like the sense of getting better. I like when you first start and you're like, oh, I suck at this.

And then you're like, no, just learn what it's trying to teach you. I don't think as adults we get opportunities to do that as much anymore. Like a literal learning, like you need to learn how to use this. And then the way it feels really rewarding when you get good at it, and you're just like, fia, chavua. How do you deal with failure? Like when you've got that one mission that you keep, You know, I get frustrated and then I usually take a break and then I come back to it with fresh fingers and I attack it again.

How does my fiancee? Well, sometimes we had to buy a new, we had to buy a new IKEA table because he may have put a fist through it. Wait, what game, what game made him react the way of that? Rocket League. It's Rocket League? It's cars playing soccer. It's the best. That makes the story even better. It's the best.

He gets very, very frustrated with himself because he just does this thing where he'll, like, doubt himself before he's about to hit a ball. And then because of his doubt, he, like, I see him swerve literally around the ball. I'm like, you didn't even need to swerve. Why would you have swerved? I do like that Dan, and he's not alone in this, right?

You see the genre of people, like, punching their televisions after their favorite team loses and also destroying various parts of their home. To be fair, an IKEA table breaks very easily. You know, it's not like it was a real table. Right. That schnorgon. That schnorgon doesn't exactly... The flugan. Not so load-bearing.

Directly into the garbage. H-hm. Is that your swede? H-hm. That's good. So that's that way exploded. The A-Train. Connors doesn't want to be followed.

That's the other thing I did not like about Spider-Man, the whole narrating what I'm doing. Yeah. Oh, here's what's happening. You mean the thing I'm trying to do to keep this a podcast that people listen to on all podcasts platforms? What is the point of this podcast? Like, what is the name? What are you naming this? We're finding out how good Katie Nolan is at Spider-Man too close. She's not very good.

She just does it for fun. Love of the game. Like that Nelly song. I disagree. I think you're good. You've completed a game on amazing. Katie's been honestly just zipping through this. Seriously.

How would you describe your relationship to video games, Katie? Sexual. Yeah. Um, yeah. Really sexual. Yeah. When you're playing a video game, are you playing with like other music that you're, like your own soundtrack?

Depends on the game. If I'm playing a Call of Duty multiplayer just like loading in to just shoot a bunch of guys, I'll play a playlist. What's your Call of Duty playlist like? I think it's called I'm Angry and it's just got all the songs on it that make me feel angry. Making my way downtown, walking past, faces past and home home. But then like a game where you need to. If I'm playing Call of Duty and I'm in, like, a war zone or something like that,

then I'll know music because I need to hear footsteps. I need to know if somebody's coming. And like a game like this, a story game, I don't even want to be on chat. No, yeah. You need the ambient sound. You need the actual. I'm listening to podcasts. Really?

I used to do that. I do that with Fortnite. I'm listening to a 1.5X podcast. Nice. And absorbing that information. While you're watching, while you're doing a story game? I don't think, yes. I'm.

My brain is not exactly like super present while I'm playing a story game. I used to play a story game and not pay attention to the story. Really? Yeah. And then now I'm like, how did I do that? I've been from the very beginning of the opposite. I'm the guy that like when people walk in the room and shut up, I have to listen. I got to hear what they're saying?

The lizards here. Katie's fighting the lizard now. Oh, boy. It's a big boy. This was hard. I remember he's being really hard. I know. Oh, yeah, you got to get up on the wall.

I hate that I have to do this with an audience. It's hard. The lizard is, for the audience, like, what's that, 12 feet tall? 20? It looks like a dinosaur. Is this how you want your family to remember you? By the way, Spider-Man is doing a terrible job of, like, calming this dude down. Is this how you want your family to remember you?

I would get so much angry if someone said that to me. Think of your wife! Think of your wife, Spider-Man yells at Dr. Conner's trap. in the body of a giant lizard dinosaur who's trying to kill him. No. Don't let your son grow up without his dad. Would you like to write for these video games,

like the banter? Because I feel like there's... I always have notes. Yeah, that's what I've discovered. I'm not good at writing it, but I'm good at letting you know what you wrote wasn't good enough. I could definitely punch up. We could have finished this already.

I'm going to die. One. I think you got to go on to the wall yourself. I know, I think so, too. Stun him to leave him vulnerable. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. How do you stun him, though, with the web? Electric Web, right?

No, I didn't see the electric web. Is that what he said? I'm going to die. No, he said stun him to leave him vulnerable. I died! Damn. Lizard got murdered. It's the first time I died in two.

I mean, sorry. Spider-Man got murdered by the lizard. This is the first time? Yeah. I haven't died yet, but I'm trying to talk at the same time, you know? So it's kind of your guys' fault. It's our fault, Pablo. Yeah, I said,

I predicted all of this for the record. Did you care about the 8-bit games? Because you like video games where you're in a movie. This is clearly a movie. They're talking to me? Yeah, yeah. What 8-bit games? I'm talking to Dr. Connors.

I'm paying attention. I'm trying to beat this. Remember Mario, Dr. Connors? Yeah, I liked 8-bit games. I had an older brother, and when you're a little sister with an older brother and you play video games, it's like they're just waiting for their turn, and you end up mostly watching. I think I invented Twitch because I grew up watching my brother play video games

and pretending that it was me playing them. So, like, I liked them. I didn't get as good at them because I died a lot. And then my brother would be like, my turn. And then he would not die because he was better at it. He's three years older than me. You know, so. So you were into video games before the cinematic, immersive aspect of them.

You know, when you said, what game did I get into in the modern era? And I said, Uncharted, that was, like, the game I liked the most. The game that got me in was Lego Marvel superheroes. I've never played. But I played Lego Marvel Superheroes. heroes that like help me relearn because buttons when you get back into video games when you haven't been in them since you were a kid uh the buttons are

really complicated how long was the layoff what a long time um between like I guess Sega Genesis and PlayStation the number of buttons have multiplied whoa so you missed out on Dreamcast

yeah Dreamcast is a time Dreamcaste what systems did you have to mean I the first system I had a mean I the first system I had was Calico Vision. Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God. So old. I always forget. And then I didn't have NES. I didn't have Super N.A.S.

I didn't have Sega Genesis. I had to go to friends houses to play those. That was me with N-S64. And then PlayStation 1, like my roommate had it in college. And then PS2, I think, was the first one I purchased for myself. So, but I was, I was never away from video games. I was just not owning it. Right. I went NES, Sega Genesis. Dreamcast?

Dreamcast was my roommate, bro. N64. N64, it's my cousin. Golden Eye. I don't think I had a GameCube, but my college roommates had GameCube. GameCube? GameCube. Never saw GameCube with my eyes.

God damn. Yeah, me neither. I didn't know anybody had that. You said it as if you suspect that GameCube wasn't real. I mean, I don't know anyone who's ever owned one. I remember it was a big deal because, like, Nintendo? Abandoning cartridges? Yeah, Mario on a. disc.

And then I went to PS4. No, did I go to No, then I lived with people and they had a PS2 and a PS3 Then I bought a PS4 and then a PS5 And I also have, because I bought cable from Verizon I have an Xbox Oh, S system

I had a hand-me-down Xbox and I remember I don't like Xbox Because the controllers are just They feel too clunky. Like the PlayStation 2 slash 3 slash 4 controller to me is the most perfect controller ever With the analog sticks

Yeah That's the perfect controller Perfect size, perfect accessibility You like a rumble pack? How do you feel about a rumble pack? I like the rumble pack I like because sometimes in some of these games It rumbles before you've usually turned it off

No, I like it Okay, this lizard's taking a long time to die Oh, this is I think the part I don't like This is where there's stuff on the wall He's getting bigger He's now grown to the size of a building. He's a grower. Not a shower.

He's showing something now. Okay. Well, because he's growing. No, I'm just saying. I don't want to do this thing, and I already fought you, bro. You fight the lizard so many times in this game. Oh, now you get spicy. Get the thing.

Oh, God, I hit the L1R one. It didn't do it. Yeah, this is when Spider-Man's PEDs, his symbiote PEDs start kicking in. And he's just, like, furious and also, I have none of my I don't have any of my powers Why not? I don't have the L3

You can't L1 triangle? I can but I couldn't I was trying to L1 R or L3 R3 I cannot talk to you And do this at the same fucking time So basically Spider-Man has a series of special hits He can do but only when his meter is full

She had depleted her meter So that's why she couldn't do anything Other than just kind of like Throw a little pathetic web shots at him Which is basically like In the middle of a It literally makes pew, pu-poo-poo sounds. She just spit on it, like, pooh.

There are so many more buttons on the controller, so you are actually like a fighter pilot. Yeah, shout out to David Blatt. What did David Blatt, former coach of the Cavs, say? He likened coaching an NBA game to the decision-making of a fighter pilot. Second only to the decision-making of a fighter pilot. Disagree. What's crazy is that Spider-Man, I mean, truly, Like, how many times can you tell this story and make video games and toys and products?

Like, no way home and across and into the Spider-Verse. Right. Two of my favorite Spider-Man movies, both ostensibly on paper, not a thing I would ever want to see. All about multiverse shit. A genre I'm otherwise exhausted by. In the way that Katie's exhausted by trying to listen to Me Talk while she is trying to do. Well, I mean, I think she's tuned us out at this point. We're having a conversation, and she's...

Is he finally fucking dead, dude? What were you guys talking about? Okay. My fingers hurt. This, I thought, would be sweatier. No. Just ice water in these veins. The same way with baseball players

when they're always like, his heart rate, his heart rate stays. It's me, I'm just stay unsweedy. I'm trying to. I mean, I have to wipe my leg. But I think it's about to be a bunch of boss fights. Oh my God. I don't think right away. I think you'll get a break from it.

No, this is, this stretch we're about to embark on is the most intense stretch of a video game I've ever played. Venom's in there. Venom energy guy. Lee, exactly. Mr. What's it? Mr. Negative?

Yeah. Mr. Negative. You know what's funny is how many of those villains that they created in the 60s and 70s were just so ridiculous. But they had to keep churning out content. They just made up stuff. Mr. Bad Guy. Yeah.

So Spider-Man has just learned that he's wearing alien, that the symbiote is an alien. And it chose you. It makes me a better Spider-Man. So the thing about the symbiote, at least in this video game, is that it seems to also infect the mind of the person wearing it if they've been wearing it long enough, and it starts to make them think that they and the symbiote are one, and that all of their actions must work to preserve the symbiote and let it continue to infect. That's how it is in the comic book as well.

Okay, cool. Where the symbiote basically makes people, or believe, oh, I need this. Yes. Do something so that we can, you got to get into a mission. So again, like what I would do, yep, see, I'm like already setting up all of the alarms. Oh, there is, there, you've already, would. Pablo, shoot up to something to hit both R2 and L2. Aim at something and hit L2 R2.

There you go. There you don't have to tell me. He wasn't lying, not liking the stuff. This is my save file. So if you think about it. It is. All right, Pablo, while you do this intensely, uh, thing you need to focus on, we're just going to pepper you with some questions you have to answer. What was the first?

first video game you ever played. I think it was like Duck Hunt. And did I cheat? Of course. You did? Yeah, you hold up the gun on the screen. Do kids even get that reference anymore? Oh, yeah, I guess.

But it didn't really make it that much better. It didn't. It actually defeated the entire purpose. Oh, that's my... Sliding under. I favorite one is when he gets someone against the wall. The violence of this game is kind of mind-blowing when you really watch the way it.

that I'm breaking the backs of all of these. All these guys. And then eventually it's going to run out. Okay, it ran out. So now you're back to regular you. But you can do your finishing moves. I mean, I think we're all super into this. Is why.

What age do you expect to introduce your child to video games? So we have a PS5 and they have like one of those like built in games that I am. So my niece has come over who is nine now, nine years old, Mia. And so Violet is obsessed with doing everything that Mia does. Mia's already started playing these little built-in games. And I can tell that she's going to be addicted. Really? Yeah.

And so I'm concerned because the way that you pick up all this stuff intuitively is remarkable. Like how easily kids pick up stuff when it comes to tablets, video games, and all this. I hate this. I know, but you started it, so you have to finish it. I have to find, like, the X-ray thing. Yeah, look how hard that was. Wasn't that so hard? I don't like it when the game.

is like, here's busy work. That's a lot of Spider-Man. A lot of this game is that, yeah. You must have hated the MJ missions. I did. This is going to sound increasingly misogynistic based on the targets that I'm picking in my rants. But when you are Mary Jane Watson wandering

through the subterranean tunnels and shit, I'm like, this is not what I signed up for. It does suck that a lot of video games when they do the girl part, quote unquote. It's like a boring mission where you're like, use your notebook. You're like, okay, you know, good. Girls could also...

Right. Like, she even has a... Like, her weapon is a stun gun. I know. Like, give her a real gun. And she throws rocks to distract. Dude, at least she had a weapon. In the first Spider-Man game,

you just literally have to hide. Oh, yeah. Get that car, Pablo. Oh, no. I did the thing where I slowed down. What the fuck are you doing? Pablo, what was your relationship like with your parents vis-a-vis video games?

They once lock... I hate you. I used to play video games so much that they put a physical lock Oh my god Through the like hole in the like electrical Oh, in the cabinet? So I couldn't plug it in Nobody gets away

I deserved it to be honest like how bad what was what was the extent of like oh Pablo you've really out of it I just remember playing a lot of battle toads on NES remember battle toads anybody? Yeah, yeah A fucking great game How do you guys feel about people who, you know, they're very territorial about just the domain of video games? I hate it. I hate it because. You're not a gamer for real.

Because here's the thing. When somebody asks me if I'm a gamer, I now say no. Because I'm like, well, I don't want to be held to some sort of like, you didn't play Final Fantasy 4? I'm like, no, I didn't because I like playing video games, but I like the video games that I like. And I play them a lot. And I probably don't play them in the meta. way, which is like the cool way of like, everybody knows you got to do it like this. And for Call of Duty, it's like, everybody knows you got to use this one specific gun.

And I'm like, well, I like to level up every gun. That's how I play the game. How much are you paying attention to like, it used to be like, you know, the equivalent, I guess would have been like video game guys, like Nintendo Power or something. Now it's up Reddit, I think. Are you reading the Reddits when you're playing games? So if I have a question or if there's a glitch. If there's a glitch, it's the easiest way to find out if it's like my game or

I'm screwing up or if it's like a common thing. I don't like thieves. You want to steal? This is what you get. So I love online play more than obviously doing any missions. So it's less alone for me. Like video games are meant to be social. You find it to be a social.

I do. Who are you playing with then? Well, I don't play as much online as anybody used to. I know. I'm trying to just avoid. Yeah. How you and Dan invited me to play Rocket League one night, I think. Yeah, I think it was an accident.

No, no, we were like, let's see if he'll do it. We were like, send him the invite and we'll just see if he does it. Got it like the Zoom? And he didn't do it, yeah. I left you on Red. Exactly. Pretty f***ed up. I didn't know who was inviting me.

Oh, Queen Tiency, that's me. Yep, I forgot that that was your current gamer tag. Oh, this is the scene where she becomes. This scene's actually, oh, no, maybe it is. Is this the female carnage one? I thought it was. That scene fucked me up because, first of all, It looks like he's doing something sexual to her because he like reaches behind the couch and he's like,

and you're like, oh my God, ew, is he like symbiote raping her? And then she pops up and she's in the symbiote suit. And you're like, what? You're still in the suit. I thought Conner's was going to help you get it off. That wasn't canon either, incidentally. I thought Connor's going to help you get it off, as what MJ said. Oh, wow.

Oh, wow. Sorry, can we do this tomorrow? just so beat from Lizard Wreckley He's such a bad boyfriend in the scene You're like, dude Well, it's not him, it's a symbiote That's what they all say

It's not me, it's the drink He's got enough sense to pull his own blanket up No, the symbiote does He can't be nice to his girlfriend Well, the symbiote, you can't be nicer Well, it's a symbiote's girlfriend as well So math, it's a math trophy Oh no, you have to be married Jane

That's awesome. Let's go, Pablo. Show us that you do love women. I hate this part. Show us that you aren't a misogynist. They don't have that many guns. What was that? Wait, how does she have like Spidey Sansa?

I don't know. From fucking him. It's actually transmitted. He's behind you. He sees you. Oh, fuck. I mean, I'm not going to blame the character I'm controlling. What is?

Oh, I mean, you can do that. Easy. Square is how you use your stun gun. Right. R3 is how you identify. where the enemies are. If you want to run, it's R2. It's like the trigger buttons.

I mean, it's already better at that than you. Can't go out the windows. Downstairs is my only shop. So we're sneaking around a house in Queens, incidentally. A Mean is from Queens. I mean, where in Queens do you think this is? This is probably Forest Hills. Get them.

Yeah. I mean, Amin's doing great. You ain't got shit, bro. What's your favorite video game of all time? My favorite sports video game. I'm very excited about this. It's Top Spin, which is the tennis game. You start off as a piece of tennis player and you work your way up to tour until you get to the Grand Slams and stuff.

And it's like everything. It's you're trying to get sponsors. I do like how it took us this long to mention. Oh, yeah, sports, right. So sports are also video games. Can I say? I hate sports video games. I like sports.

Categorically. I like video games. I do not like sports video games. Why? Oh, crap. Because if I'm going to play, if I'm going to watch sports. I'm just going to watch sports. I don't like playing them on a, um,

console. It's like play them, like play T-ball or play like Wiffleball. I don't want to play a baseball video game. I want to play a video game where I can't do anything I could ever do in real life. But that's the whole point of sports video games. You get to do things he Yeah, I can't dunk.

I think it's interesting though that like, okay, all of us work in sports. A mean's favorite sports video game is not any of the sports that he loves, or at least covers professionally. He loves top spin, which is a tennis game I've never heard about. Yeah. Katie doesn't like any sports video game. Rocket League's the closest I get.

Right. Soccer, but Carras. And I've played FIFA. I've played Madden. FIFA's my favorite. FIFA's my favorite. Madden is my least favorite because I just don't under it. It's just, it doesn't speak to me.

Once hockey video games started to like, you had to use the buttons to call and shift change it, line changes? I was like, nah, I don't think this is for me. So do you like the, like the video gamey sports games? Yeah. NBA Street and NFL Blitz and stuff like that? NFL Blitz. Oh my God. I played no game more in my life probably than NFL Blitz.

Run at her with R2. In high school. And then buzzers. Square, square, square, square. Yep. You're going to want to... Now that guy's going to be on your ass, okay. But they're dumb. Yeah, they're not. All these people are dumb. Smart.

I mean, do you ever play NFL Blitz? I mean, do you ever play NFL Blitz? I mean, do you ever play NFL Blitz? Square, square, square, square. You ever play NFL Blitz. Yes, I love NFL Blitz. This is so dumb. Okay, on three, we're both going to say the player we think of NFL Blitz. Okay. One, two, three, Shannon Charm.

Who did you say? Warwick Dunn. Warwick Dunn. Yeah, like I used to play with, what's it called, with Tampa Bay a lot. Brad Johnson was a quarterback and Mike Alls thought was a fullback. Oh, my God. Okay, your favorite sports video game moment from personally playing sports video games? So I wasn't playing in this game, but what happened was it was my buddies were playing in the dorm and I had a buddy of my name Desmond. And Desmond would always lose, but it wasn't like he was losing.

lose because you get blown out. It was always like the most humiliating, unbelievable losses. So he's winning this game and he's got the Sonics and my buddy Will has the Lakers. Shut up. You guys need to stop the way you speak to women in this video game. A neighbor just

poked her head out. So. Interrupting a mean story to yell at a hundred. And he wanted to say shut up you. Mary Jane. Hey, what the hell are you doing? Don't shush me or whatever. Queens. Yeah. So we are they're playing Sonics versus Lakers and Desmond goes up to

You're cheating, play the video game while you're talking. Yeah, he's not advancing in the game while he's telling his story. Okay. And now he's not telling the story. I mean, you're down, you're up to? No, like my buddy Desmond is up to.

Will has Lakers calls time out. There's 0.6 seconds to go. Literally just time to catch a shoot on the inbound. He calls time out, passes to what we believe is Glenn Rice in the corner, catches shoot, three-pointer, Game over. Desmond wins. I mean, Desmond loses, Will wins.

We watched the replay, and it turns out that wasn't Glenn Rice. It was Shaq. Shack hit a corner three. Oh, man. I had moments like that. You're about to die now, incidentally. No, I'm not. You are. You better run. They're all looking at you. Of course you're going to die.

I love that we made him do the MJ. We killed me. You know what? You're demanding details. I really like the shit talk they say. at the end after they've knocked someone out. Yeah, she's dead. Out cold.

Out cold, that little girl with no weapon. Katie, it's Katie's turn. No, Katie hates playing these missions. Katie, B is a girl. Girl is girl. Hugs and kids. Girl be girl. Girl is girl.

Like, you know, I'm trying to think of my memorable sports moment. I once beat my friend who was Argentina and FIFA as Iraq. Oh, okay. So, okay, I got some of these. I used to pick the Cleveland Cavaliers on 2K. three. This was the year before they got LeBron. And so I had Andre Miller and

Jeff Trappanii from USC who no one remembers but he was a great dunker. Did you have Iranubal on this team? No, Irranoble wasn't there. This was Darius Miles. This was Jeff Trappanii. This was Andre Miller. Oh, fuck.

I'm trying to think who else. The other bad team I used to play with was the Nets that had E. John Leon on it. Oh, yeah, yeah. And I used to, I was like, an originator of small ball. Start over. No. You weren't that far up.

Wow, okay. You were playing five out with Yee, and La. Yeah, and I had him killing. He was killing. And people were, I had Anthony Morrow on the starting lineup, shooting threes, I had everything spread. Everybody was, like, I used to love,

when I played 2K, that was my thing. Like, I take a team that in real life is bad, but I make them into the greatest, the greatest machine. Not so different when it comes to our approach to video games. No, see, I lost it. You did. You said it kept doing the vein.

Now it's gone. I can't believe. I never even noticed that you stopped. Yeah. Hey, did you feel the pressure of the male gaze on you right now? No. Is that just...

Oh, well, I'm heterosexual. I do have two male gays here, but I... The future's female. With a Z? Yeah, that's... How long did that take you to say? What is that thing? There's that cat meowing.

Went this way. I think Pete went this way. No? No, I can't go this way. How about this way? Come on. I know, but now I'm going to get fucking out of luck now. All right through the garage.

Can you, uh... Somebody saw a body. Oh. Oh, come on. Can it be fucking over yet? I'm going to have to use my little rocks. I can't fight that one with the swords. Yeah, I don't know, man.

I mean, is Pete going to do something at some point? Symbio, you're going to do something? He's just going to spazz over in the corner for a while. I don't remember this part. It's a lot of throwing stuff. Well, they're looking up because apparently they're looking up. Oh, you went up on the roof. The spider.

The spider. I like it. I never did this. Cool. I'm all about making things fall down on people in this game. Pablo, what about you? Sports moments. I once played NFL Blitz to like 3 a.m. at my friend's house in high school.

who live in Howard Beach Queens. Get up, get up and go! Don't make me start over! Much like the most famous resident of Howard Beach Queens, John Gotti has done to many of his victims. You got shot and just died. They see you more.

I was in Howard Beach kind of place, by the way, where we went for Halloween, and if you exit us, like that kind of place, shout out to Howard Beach. Played NFL Blitz on my friends, pull out sofa until like 3 a.m. and it was tied, went to overtime,

and then again, tied went to overtime, double overtime, tied at the end of that. This is like the big crescendo of the entire, honestly, my childhood. And finally we were getting ready, we were like amped. And it said, tie game! And it fucking ended. Oh, no way.

It was just like, yo, it wasn't meant to me. No, we didn't build in the possibility of a third overtime. Do you want to do this? Because I feel like you didn't get to do any of the fun stuff. Yeah, I don't think it got to actually be Spider-Man at all. I didn't, but I also don't remember 90% of the controls. Do you want to try it? That's not one of them.

Square is how to hit. And also, you can do the thing if you're in a pinch where you press down on the two sticks, L3 and R3. Yeah. He's so whiny. Also, I realize I don't hear anything you guys are saying. Yeah, we're trying to help and you're not pushing any of the buttons. In terms of just how. the multitasking of this entire episode has gone.

Amin is definitely the most tunnel vision when it comes to what he can pay attention to. L3R3, just push it down. Kaboom. Kaboom. Amin is reduced to 50s Batman sound effects. Spider-Man's helping you. Oh, this part. Which one is this part?

You're going to be MJ again. Am I? I think you become Peter, don't you? But I think you're MJ finding Peter. In the subway tunnel. And then, yeah, this is the annoying part where... I don't think this part's that annoying. I think it's quick.

Is it not? Are you okay? It's hard because it's bright and this is dark, so... Yeah. Good luck. You're right. This might not be that long, though. I think this is pretty quick, but I could be wrong.

Peter's not being very nice. Yeah. Do I shoot him? Not yet, but I will. I don't want to hurt you. How are you going to hurt him? All right. What's it?

It's possible. She got a weapon. You're not my first. Like, oh. Miles is looking kind of hot to me lately. That'll hurt him. I think it means being affected by the symbiote, guys. I am the symbiote.

What's he even doing? Feeding? I think he's just having a tantrum. As boys are wont to do. Yeah. Watch out IKEA table. This is Dan when he loses that, what's it called? I don't want to hurt you.

That's me. How did you say to him? I'm just trying to show you some TikToks. Oh, that's right, the vibration. Oh, yeah, sound doesn't do well. I mean, that's true. That's canon, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Which, by the way, to be like an invincible symbiote, like, that's a, that kind of sucks as a weakness, right? Like, oh, it's loud in here. It's loud, no, I can't take the sound. I have misophonia or whatever. Exactly. I can kill everything but a high school band. Oh, high school band. I'm about a high school cafeteria. Just that chatter like, ah! Remember when somebody in the cafeteria would go, oh?

And start a whole thing. We got, they threatened to take our school dance away from us because we would just do that for no reason. We thought it was funny. And they were like, if you guys do this every day, no more dancing. That's how you know is like, that's not like the kids are being insolent and need to be punished. That's like the teacher's like, you fucking annoying kids. You're annoying me. You make me think something's going down. You're crying wolf. Yep. And there is no wolf.

That is an evolution. That sound, though, does even awaken me now. Nice move. It was a good move. Something's happening. Someone's about to get wrecked. Square, square, square, square, square, square, square, square, square, square, square. Hold triangle when you're off in the air next to somebody.

That's fun. Yeah. Hold triangle. You can web swing them. You swing them and you slam them down on the ground. Then they bounce back up. He's not listening to us because he's playing. No.

What group were you in in high school? What was like your stereotype in high school? Were you a Peter Parker? Who me? Yeah, were you like a jock? Were you like a... Stop buying time. Dr. Connors?

They were back on Dr. Connors. No, I was, I was like, I hung out with everybody. I didn't have a group. Yeah. That's what they all say. Yeah. That's probably what I would have said, too. There you go.

That's the one I knew you'd like. He bounces right back up and then you get at him again. Come. Bye, bird. Bye-bye birdie. Katie, is you giving advice to Amin about how to play this video game better? What is the biggest lesson you've learned in your life playing video games? Video games taught me that sometimes when something's going down, I forget everything I know and I just panic.

Let me ask you guys a question. You guys think that there are people who are genetically predisposed to be better at video games? The way that people are genetically predisposed to anything. It's like if you're predisposed to having like a mind that can retain. Yeah, like what if you have to build the perfect gamer, you know, physical. You'd have muscle, good muscle memory. I don't have that. You would have the ability to retain information, like square means this and triangle means this,

and recall that information in a moment of high intensity. You would have good motor skills, obviously. Yeah, I think we'd be able to multitask as well. Hand-eye coordination. Yeah, I mean, you cannot multitask. These are all things I'm not so good at. Yeah. Triangle.

Go triangles, you can go up to that guy that has the, well, now you have no powers. So that sucks. So the biggest lesson you learned is to stop doing what a mean currently seems to be doing, which is having a panic attack. It's don't mash buttons. It's like take stock of what's happening. Who are the real threats? Who needs to be dealt with first?

I need like one of those, oh shit, I'm about to die. How do I charge up? Down, down arrow, but you don't have the... Yeah, it'll tell you. You don't have enough to do it because you're not playing well. Because the game is judging you. The game's like he sucks. You can't heal.

We can't keep this going. Povell, how often would you say you play video games? I stopped truly in the... So after we played Red Dead Redemption. Keep doing the same move on that guy I love that. I'm here to mash some buttons. So Spider-Man 2, that was the most I've spent.

And then I bought Ghost of Tsushima and I haven't really played that yet. You have to. I know. Did I just fucking die? I mean, this is... I lasted a lot longer. I want to point out than Pablo.

Both died. Yeah, not a lot longer. A lot longer. All right, Katie. I killed less people, though. I killed less people, but I was alive and that's what matters. So I'd like Katie to end our show by narrating what she's doing because we both died.

I'm gonna knock this guy up in the air. Dodge out of the way, whatever that is. Go up and kill the guys that are trying to shoot me. Yes! Yes! Yes! Oh, more hunters. Oh, no, the innocent. Oh, no.

Forgot about this. Spasibo. Oh, no, they're coming in to tell us to stop doing this. Combo suit. Cortez, get the fuck out of here. We're choosing costumes. Oh, this is a whole PTF. I mean, I don't know.

We found out that Amin does not have the ability to multitask, and it's really kind of endearing. Yep. Not one playing video games. I get very, very, very focused. What I found out today is that both of you guys care about video games to the point where you are unwilling to compromise your success at video games while also trying to make a show.

What is this, Zoot Suit, Spider-Man? That's when you save the music center or whatever. So order of being good at this video game, Katie number one. Me number two I don't know about that Me number three An obvious, an obvious hierarchy I'm not so sure about that one.

Katie's one, but I... All right, I can hear Cortez complaining that you guys need to stop doing this now We just want to show everybody all the cool features of this very cool video game that we like something. We found out that we're probably going to keep playing this even though the episode might be over already by the time I say this sentence.

It's a two-porter. Thanks for having us, Pablo. This has been really fun. You're welcome. Everybody behind the class is... Free to go. Absolutely. Unessential to what happens from here on

This has been Pablo Torre finds out a Metal Arc Media production. And I'll talk to you next time.