Video Gamers Podcast - Half-Life 3 Teased, Gaming Pet Peeves and Path of Exile 2 Thoughts - Gaming Podcast

Episode Date: January 6, 2025

Gaming Hosts Ryan and Josh are bringing you another awesome gaming filled episode. This week we chat the very real Half Life 3 teaser, discuss our gaming pet peeves, give a quick break down on Path of Exile 2 and more. Video game chat with your friends, from the best gaming podcast around! Thanks to our MYTHIC Supporters: Redletter, Ol’ Jake, Disratory and Gaius Thanks to Legendary Supporter: FitNerdJohn Connect with the show: Support us on Patreon: patreon.com/videogamerspod Join our Gaming Discord: https://discord.gg/Dsx2rgEEbz Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/videogamerspod/  Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/VideoGamersPod  Subscribe to us on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCU12YOMnAQwqFZEdfXv9c3Q   Visit us on the web: https://videogamerspod.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Visit BetterHelp.com today to get 10% off your first month. That's BetterHelp, H-E-L-P.com. Hello, fellow gamers, and welcome to the Video Gamers Podcast. Sometimes the best part of gaming is just chatting with your buddies about the latest news, upcoming game releases, or diving into a fun topic like, what's the best console of all time? It's the fun, lighthearted chat that gamers know and love, and that's what we do in these side quest episodes before we get into the show though some introductions are in order i am your host josh and joining me he was nominated for the most improved co-host award for 2024 but sadly it's 2025 now so he missed out it's r. Only one way to go now is down. That was also not a jab at your sense of time, Ryan. That you have until January 1st to claim this award. And then it just sat there because you were like, oh.

It wouldn't be the first time I've missed a deadline on something. That's for sure. Ryan, I know I said this in our last episode, which if you have not listened, you absolutely must check out the most anticipated games of 2025 episode that just released. So make sure that's on your to-do list because it really got me hyped for everything that's coming out in 2025 now. And it's funny because we've been talking to a lot of people in our community. And it's weird because I think a lot of people kind of felt like we did where they said, dude, I don't really know what I'm excited

for in 2025. And then we kind of went, yeah, well, we've got the solution for that. That's that episode. So make sure you check that one out. But this episode, Ryan, is a side quest. I love these episodes, man. This is kind of how we got our start. Yeah. You know, just chatting about video games, man. Talking about the gaming world. What's coming up?

What have you been playing and all that stuff? So these are a lot of fun, man. I really enjoy these episodes. But before we get into it, we got some people to thank, right? Yeah, this is the best part. Man, listen, if you're the kind of person where you're like, dude, I don't like feeling left out of stuff, you better get on this hype train because people have been signing up to support the show. I feel like we are reading names out left and right and man it just it makes me feel

all warm and fuzzy inside it's so good man the vgp train is rolling you better hop on board all aboard but we have two new rare supporters to thank we want to send out a huge thank you to bearded butch and Timmy boy, who both signed up for rare status, both in our discord server. Awesome. People have been chatting away. Just, I,

you know, we say this all the time, but thank you. You know what I mean? Thank you for listening to the show. Thank you for supporting the show. It's incredible to see what two old. Yeah, Ryan, that includes your gamer dads have done in the gaming podcast world. and all these other big websites and their little spinoff podcasts and all that stuff. But we're right up there with the big boys.

We've done it with just a love of games, maybe some silliness and some goofiness. But thank you to everybody that supports this show. Thank you, Bearded Butch and Timmy Boy, for going the extra mile and helping support the show. Yes, thank you so much. And actually, it's a cool trend I've noticed lately too is I'll see people hop into the Discord, hey, blah and they they join up and then like two days later blah blah

signed up for legendary or not legendary but like rare or epic and it's like what you know awesome man this is so cool they hop in they see how good the community is they see what we're actually kind of we're not joking when we say how great it is in there and and then they sign up and uh get all the the perks of it and everything so it's it is really cool to see i love it yeah it really is awesome and so if you're not part of the discord server you really are missing out on an amazing gaming community we actually just had a a really really fun night oh yeah about here in just a second so i'm gonna leave that little teaser there because Ryan, I did promise on our last episode that we would read a couple reviews. You know, not only are people signing up to support the show, but they're also

doing their part by rating the show five stars on Spotify. If they have an Apple phone, they're going into the Apple podcast app and they are leaving us a written review as well. And we've been a little lax. So I've got two of those that we're going to read right now. This first one comes in from the faptastic four and it's titled the greatest gaming podcast. And it says, I downloaded Apple podcast just to leave this review. Since Spotify doesn't allow written reviews,

anyone reading this and wondering if they should give it a try should be warned. No other gaming podcast will ever feel as good as Video Gamers Podcast. Not only are the guys fun and make it feel like we're all just hanging out, but they're super active on their Discord and engage with the community constantly. You can check out their game leaderboards to know if your tastes align with either of them. And even though Ryan is wrong in thinking Red Dead Redemption 2 is better than God of War, hashtag Team Josh, he still has interesting takes once in a while. I'll still say it is a very good review, but those are like 1A, 1B.

It's a very, very minute difference for me. They really are. As much as we love to wage that war, dude, either one of those games, you're in gaming. I just, like you recently found out, I wanted to be a cowboy since I was a little kid, so Red Dead just had that little bit of extra resonance with me that just sat well, but they're still just perfect games.

Okay, not to get sidetracked, Ryan, but that's what we do on these. Like somebody was, what was the video where somebody had like a revolver and they were spinning it? Yeah. It was a clinic. And I was like, I told him,

I could totally do that. And I, and I called you out. I was like, no, you can't do it that well. 60 seconds later, we get a video that shared in our discord server of you just absolutely

spinning this gun like i mean way better than i thought like anybody had a right to do and then i was like okay man like you backed it up i i may or may not use any chance i can get to show off my revolver skills. I can spin a revolver pretty well. I'm not lying when I say it. I thought you were going to just kind of like spin it around your finger. And I'd been like, yeah, I could do that. But no, man.

This was actually legit talent going on. And that's when I was like, dang it. He really did back it up. Finally, I could back it up i got receipts all right let's get into this other review and then we'll get into the show here this one is titled not written by chat gpt and this one comes in from stk all day and it says this podcast is a must listen for any gaming enthusiast the hosts offer a perfect balance of insightful analysis and infectious enthusiasm,

whether discussing big name titles or hidden indie gems. They make complex topics accessible without being overly technical and their chemistry makes every episode feel like a fun in-depth conversation. I particularly appreciate their deep dives and their commitment to giving the community the latest news and video games.

Overall, it's an engaging, entertaining and informative podcast that's perfect for gamers of all kinds. P.S. This review was not crafted with any help from chat GPT whatsoever. P.P.S. My gaming tastes fall more in line with Brian's. Oh, hey, Brianrian how you doing okay another remember that whole john thing yeah no that's great and it honestly happens more than you can ever imagine maybe it's because i don't enunciate properly but anywhere i go anytime i ever order food oh what's your name sir that's ryan and they go all right brian thank you and and i'm just like all right thanks i don't even correct him anymore yeah i just go with this point yeah yeah no so i i also have

a sneaking suspicion that with words like infectious enthusiasm uh this might have been written by chat gpt no it said it wasn't it said it wasn't our ai overlords if they love the podcast hey man what are what are we supposed to do there you go all right ryan you know one thing that we always like to ask each other especially when we kind of get into these side quest episodes because again this is just gaming chat is what have you been playing lately um well i've been uh just obsessively playing marvel rivals which i will talk a little bit like you said about low community night we had i just can't get enough of that game right now man it's i was not as big into overwatch you've probably played 10 times more overwatch than i ever did i never really was big into hero shooters but this just has gripped me i absolutely love it

i'm obsessed and i can just hop in for 10, 15 minutes, play a match, and then get off if I have something to do. So it's been fantastic. And other than that, I've been doing a little bit of Indiana Jones, the whatever great super circle ring thing, whatever it is, whatever that great name is they have. I'm probably a third, maybe 40% of the way through it. But it's been pretty solid so far.

I've enjoyed it. I have seen a lot of really positive feedback about Indiana Jones. And it's caught me kind of by surprise. But then at the same time, it's like, it's Indiana Jones, baby. Like, how bad could it be? Yeah, right. So that one does get me excited. It also gives me a little bit of the FOMO because I love Indiana Jones and I didn't really have high hopes for that game so and then everybody

saying like yo this game's super enjoyable makes me a little jealous well especially when it's free on game pass so yeah that too so I have also been playing Marvel Rivals. I will say that it is starting to get its hooks in me. Nice. To the where I'm craving playing it, not just, oh, I'll hop on if people are playing or something like that. But last night I had, I don't know, 20 minutes and I was like, you know what? Let me hop in. I want to try this Black Panther character. All right. Let me try this guy. And then before you know it i was playing matches as black panther and getting wrecked and that kind of stuff but you know we teased it but this is another reason why we always encourage people to join our discord server is we kind of spontaneously had a community night

where we had like 10 people like in in voice chat all playing marvel rivals together and after we got past that like six person limit we kind of went oh man we're gonna have to like split these groups and and get like two full groups going but then we kind of went wait a minute does this have custom matches we very quickly figured out that it has a very robust custom match feature. Within minutes, baby. We're going up against each other. We have two teams. We are in a custom match, just going to town, fighting each other, having a blast.

That was so good. I got to give you credit. I hate it, but you're pretty good at Moon Knight, Ryan. I'm pretty annoying is what I am. You're pretty annoying as Moon Knight. That was one. It was pretty funny because I'm pretty sure that what I am. You're pretty annoying as Moon Knight. That was one. It was pretty funny because I'm pretty sure that you and I just ignored everything else and just tried to kill each other the second we saw each other. Absolutely. I may or may not have just been seeking you guys out the whole time. Any of the scushies. Yeah. So that was an absolute blast,

but we are really looking forward to doing that more just because it lends itself to so many good, fun times with people. But yeah, Marvel Rivals is the hotness right now. I have also been playing just a teeny bit of a game called Path of Exile 2. Yeah, just a little bit. Now, I will say in my defense, Ryan, I talked about this game for, I don't know, like a month straight. I brought it up every single episode. I haven't talked about it in a while. Now that might be because we were on a break and we didn't have any new episodes, but that's not the point. So I checked right before recording. I have 94 hours in Path of Exile 2. So I would say at this point i'm qualified to talk about the game it is everything i wanted it to be like legitimately it is everything i wanted it to be

i it is one of those games where even though i'm 94 hours in i feel like i could easily put in another 40 or 50 hours to reach like that peak peak end game. I'm already in the end game. Like I've experienced that, but you know, it's like I'm doing tier 10 maps is like the end game stuff. And it goes all the way up to like tier 18. So I have done a couple of those with some friends, but Path of Exile 2, I cannot recommend enough to people

that think that they like that genre. Diablo, if you've ever played Diablo, Torchlight, Path of Titans, Titan Quest, something like that. There's been a ton of these. If you haven't played an action RPG in the vein of Diablo, this game is fantastic. It's difficult. It is super customizable in the number of builds. i literally just switched my character's build from one thing to another i feel insanely powerful now you know all that stuff so ryan at some point i got to get you in on this train man because you love diablo you love it man and it's like this is better than diablo oh that's that's high praise, man. Those are big words.

It really is, in my opinion. Well, I was going to say, what would you say between the two is the most like Diablo? What features are the most like Diablo? And what's the biggest difference that you noticed? That's a really good question. They're similar in almost every aspect. Yeah. The loot drops the ping when a good piece of loot falls down on the ground uh you kill a you know they've got the semi-rare monsters that are just

mixed in with the horde and have the kind of colored glow around them and stuff like that i mean this is 100 if you were comfortable with diablo this is a clone of Diablo in that regard now where it differs is in kind of the pacing and the intensity of the builds and the customization in this case so whereas Diablo is very click festy and fast paced I would say that Path of Exile 2 is very intentional and slower paced okay so I've kind of brought this up before but like i just changed builds and it's a drastically different build than what i was playing before and there's probably eight other builds that i could try with i'm playing a warrior whereas in diablo it was like you get two builds and both of them are click your mouse as fast as you can it's like do you want to spit knives out

in a 360 degree circle or do you want to shoot a bow you know in a cone shape in front of you and wreck everything yeah and in path of exile too it's like i'm now playing like a totem warrior where i summon these totems and then i can infuse those totems with skills before i was playing this like leap into battle and smash and stun everything and then once everything was stunned i could trigger like an explosion. And so the skills kind of combo off each other and stuff like that. I don't want to make this a Path of Exile 2 review episode. Trust me, this game is absolutely, it is a phenomenal game. If it fully releases in 2025, which I'm not quite sure it will, it's an easy, easy candidate for like a game of the year like legitimately it's that good dude it is really a a fantastic video game that you can

lose yourself in i have no idea 94 hours in this game that's a lot of hours for early access game too dude it's and i'm still not done with the content either so people that are like well i'm worried about how much play time i'll get. You'll get plenty. So high praise from Josh. It is really good. I kind of been wanting to talk about path of exile too, for a little bit. So there you go,

everybody. That's my little, you know, eight minutes synopsis on that. So, um, Ryan, we've got some,

uh, some topics and stuff that we're going to get into here now that we've gotten all the, uh, kind of introductory stuff out of the way, but I'll tell you what, let's take a quick break and then we can dive into the meat of this episode. All right, Ryan, we're back.

You know, it's the beginning of January. Every gamer out there knows that February is when a lot of these big games are going to release. We've got Kingdom Come Deliverance 2. We've got Avowed. I think Civ 7 or something else comes out in february honestly i don't really care because those two games are enough for me for the month but we're only at the beginning of january so what are your gaming plans for the next like month and a half until these games come out because we had such a busy 2024 that we like it was rare that we got to actually play the

games we just wanted to play yeah versus like oh it's another game release we got to play this we got to cover it for the show and then i mean the second that one was recorded and released we were on to the next game so we're kind of in this rare situation where we know there's some really big games coming up but they're not here for a little while. Yeah. So what are your gaming plans for the next month and a half? Man, it's hard to say. I may have been known to have an addictive personality, and I am just so hard on rivals right now. I'm not sure if I'll be able to pull myself away for anything else. There's a few other games that have caught my eye a little bit that I might try to do.

I may try to finish, honestly, finish Indiana uh, Indiana Jones just to get it done and out of the way. But, uh, I don't know. It's just one of those things that, you know, it is nice. Cause like you said, like we, we get what a bad problem to have, you know, oh, I got to play this game, but it's, it does become almost like a chore, almost like work. I have to get this many hours. So I know what I'm talking about and we can kind

of tell everybody else with some sort of clarity on what we feel about the game. But man, to have this freedom, it's like, I mean, this morning, even this morning, I hopped on, my son was begging me he couldn't beat Venom on the Spider-Man 2 because we had the difficulty cranked up.

I'm like, I got you, bro. So we hopped on and we played a little bit of that because we have the freedom, man. We're free. Yeah. It's funny because I think there is almost like this weird guilt that we have when we complain about having to play video games. But dude, I mean, we are a very unprofessional professional podcast where it's like, we take these things seriously, man. And, you know, sometimes it is work. There are times where I go to my wife and I just make like the stinky face and she's like, what? And I'm like, I gotta go play this game, man.

And she's like, oh, you poor thing. You have to go play a video game. And I'm like, you don't understand. This game sucks. I don't want to play it anymore. What about you bud yeah it's weird because i know myself well enough as much as i am absolutely loving path of exile 2 i'm i think i'm approaching i'm probably you know a week or two away from my brain just kind of going i've done everything i want to do in this game i've experienced the end game i'm cool just shelving it until they fully release it.

And then I'll pick up a new character and play that and all that stuff. So it's like, I can see that coming for myself, but like I also mentioned, I'm kind of with you and that Marvel rivals is really starting to dig its claws into me. And it's like, I'm,

I'm in that, like, I want to, I want to try to get good with spider man. Oh no, no, no, no,

no, no, no, no, I want to learn black Panther. Cause that guy's a pain in the butt, you know, or like, I want to, I want to try to get good with spider man. Oh no, no, no, no, no. I want to learn black Panther. Cause that guy's a pain in the butt, you know, or like, or that kind of thing.

So I, I really am hyped for Marvel rivals and anybody that's been listening to the show for any length of time knows that I love hero shooters and overwatch two is, or just overwatch in general is one of my most played games. So I think I'm with you in that I'm more than content to just kind of crack out on rivals for the next month. Yeah.

We've been getting groups of people together and playing with friends is an absolute blast. So I'm totally okay with doing that for the next 30 days or whatever until we get Kingdom Come Deliverance 2. Heck yeah. And then can dive into that one. All right. It's nice having those comfort games man it is yeah and you always and there's just there's so many characters that

there's always something new to try and the content online like all the reels and videos is always somebody doing something you haven't seen so you're like oh i want to try that i saw the other day spider-man's flipping off ledges out in the open um and pulling guys off the map and then diving back and i'm like okay that's kind of cool i want to try that and so there's just so much to do and um now we're turning it into arrivals episode two but but i just yeah i think i think i'm gonna be stuck on that for a little while i mean hyper light breaker early access or whatever comes out in a couple weeks so maybe we'll hook hook into that for a minute but uh yeah man i think we got a little bit of time to just mess around i'm i'm torn on hyper light breaker you know how hyped i am for that game

but there are a few games where i will actually intentionally just wait for the full release and that's one of those games i i might i might just say, hey, I'm interested enough in this that I'm willing to wait and then just have us dive in together and have fun with that one. So I'm kind of undecided, though. I might just pick it up on a whim, too. So who knows? So, yeah. Ryan, brand new year. It's 2025.

A whole year of gaming is ahead of us. What's your hope this year? If you had to say, hey, man, my hope for 2025 from a gaming perspective, whether it's personal, from an industry, from a specific game, whatever, you can make it whatever you want. But what's your hope this year from a gaming perspective? Oh, man. So last year being my first kind of full year on the pod, I paid a lot more attention to things that I normally wouldn't in the gaming world and played a lot more games that I wouldn't. Even if they get kind of mega hyped and they're the hotness of the moment, you know, normally I stick to what I'm just cracked out on. So I hope we have another year like last year that was just full of so many surprises of just awesome even if they're flashing the pans like last year was just such a fun year for all these types of surprise gaming

experiences that we got to have so i hope we get that again man i i just enjoyed it so much and then also just with games and everything watching the pod grow um i just hope we keep chucking along and keep growing and keep just getting to experience all this awesome gaming talk that we have so i'm stoked man yeah i am too i will say i think if i had to boil it down to for like a game perspective like 2024 was pretty awesome yeah but i feel like other than hell divers 2 and Astro bot, there weren't any of those like, Oh my goodness, this game is the most amazing game I've seen in a long time. And so I kind of hope for that in 2025, if we get GTA six,

which let's be honest, isn't going to happen. No, but if we do, that could be the answer that I'm looking for. You know, I really want that kind of generational game. I don't know if we're going to get it. Hopes are high right now. It's the beginning of the year. But I think for me,

that's kind of what I'm looking for is this. I want that next Witcher 3 or GTA 5 or Cyberpunk 2077, God of War. I want one of those this year. So what would you say was the last one of those this year what would you say was the last one of those generational games to come out the most recent elden ring for me okay okay now elden ring came out in what was it 2022 somewhere around it's been a couple years but like for me elden rings that game where it's like dude this game was made for me yeah and i will continue to just sing the praises of elden ring to everybody because it is truly one of the best video games i've ever played for sure and so in recent memory i think that's for me like that game that that checks that box as much as like astrobot is amazing and

that's no slander to astrobot or helldivers but it's like you do get these generational type games yeah it's not on that level like yeah right yeah exactly so nice all right and then you know since we're talking about 2025 and we're kind of doing this look ahead kind of preview thing we just had our most anticipated games of 2025 episode we talked about that what game plant your flag ryan right now and i know there's going to be games that get announced and released in 2025 that we have no idea about so it's like you know as of this moment plant your flag what game do you think has the best shot at game of the year so i'm going to give you two because as you just mentioned you really don't think that gta 6 is going to come out if it does guaranteed insta-lock of the year. That's going to be that generational game we're looking for, for sure.

If not, I really think Ghost of Tsushima was such a good game. And it had so many layers and levels to it. And it was so beautiful and crisp. And having that under their belt, coming now with ghost of yote i am just beyond excited for that and i think it has a really really good chance to uh show well so uh you know that's that's where i'm gonna go that's a that's a good pick man i i don't see a world where they mess this up to be honest you know the first was just so good and then now they can just expand on it they know what's good what's bad what, what to do, what not to do.

They've had time. Yeah. This is not a rushed job. Like, oh, we have to get this sequel out really quick kind of thing either. I'm going to plant my flag on Avowed. Oh, okay. I think it looks like a Skyrim-esque type game. I think from the previews that we've seen from the hype that we've heard about these

kind of closed door previews that people have gotten, I think it is going to be the game that I'm hoping for. Um, it's weird because I'm a little disappointed that they said it's like a 25 to 30 hour game, but then we're always talking about stop fluffing games with artificial time sinks and stuff like that. Like just give us this crafted experience and I'll be happy. So if I had to plant my flag, which I'm doing right now, I'm going to plant it on a vow. I might look like an idiot, you know, in two months, but that's my hope so far for this year.

That'll be good. We'll see. And you can always, I mean, 25, 30 hours, you can easily turn into 40 or 50 just with a little bit of exploration, you know? Yeah, exactly. Or just looking around i generally don't i always take longer on games than like the time to beat stuff says i don't

know if it's like i just tend to poke around a little bit more or get get distracted or what so all right well ryan uh we do have one news story that we have to talk about real quick this isn't much and we generally don't talk about just rumors on the internet but this one yeah this one uh-huh this one has a little bit of of legs behind it so we got a a very cryptic tweet uh from Shapiro, who was the voice of the G-Man in the Half-Life series. So very recognizable voice. Oh, yeah. Where he posted a video. And it's just some motion graphics.

There's really nothing to see there. But it is in the G-Man voice. And it is hinting at something coming this year and the world lost its mind and i do have to i do have to give credit to one of our listeners dk matt a good friend of the show awesome guy because he was chatting in our discord server and said i just posted something about half-life 3 how is the world not losing its mind right now? And I went, what? Half-Life 3?

And then my very first response was, it's a rumor, it'll never happen. So I just kind of blew it off. And then he was like, I don't know, man. So you listened to this trailer, right? I did. How long was that again? The trailer?

Yeah, no, the little clip. Like 30 seconds or something? It's like 30 seconds. You could probably play it. I was going to say, I did listen to it, but I was going to say, if I can, I'll try to put it in for everyone else to hear listening. So I'll try to clip it in right here. Another year already.

Good to see and hear from so many of you. May the next quarter century deliver as many unexpected surprises as did the millenniums first. And again, time is fluid like music.

See you in the new year. Okay, well that worked or it didn't yeah but uh but here's the thing dude i've been waiting for half-life 3 dude it's been 20 years half-life 2 came out in 2004 that's been 2004 man it's just i i don't know i it's one of those things i am all big on on the fomo and getting hyped i love to just get excited for things and the anticipation. This is one where I will believe it when I see it. When it is coming out and it's going to release,

then I will join everyone. Maybe I'll miss a train, but I'll be playing the game on day one. Yeah, that was kind of my thing too. I did get excited and hearing that voice again was like, oh man, this is a kick right in the nostalgia. Why would he post this? Like, are you just trying to like upset people? If this is not Half-Life 3, what are you doing, man?

Standalone G-Man game. Yeah, exactly. G-Man origin story. Again, it's just rumor that it does exist. There is the audio for it if if ryan was successful in clipping it in great if not you'll just have to find the tweet but it does beg the question ryan let's just let's just dream for a second if half-life 3 was announced this year let's it's june right we get to the to the the you to the big conferences, right? The big announcements,

they don't do E3 anymore. I forget what all the different shows are, right? But it's like, oh my goodness, the world just lost its mind. Half-Life 3 is actually announced for release five is there or can you name a game that is a bigger named game or release than half-life three oh man i think that probably the only thing that could beat it would be gta6 just because it's recognizability and and just more people that aren't gamers are going to play Grand Theft Auto than gamers that are anticipating. I think the anticipation and the desire for Half-Life 3 is probably more. We've been waiting 20 years, like you said. Yeah, 20 years. Fans of the series are so excited if this actually happens. They are craving it. They've been begging for it for 20 years, of the series are so excited if this actually happens they are craving it they're

they've been begging for it for 20 years two decades so i think that they will be ravenous and and ready for it but i just think gta just has that kind of bigger base so so that and it's been a long time for gta 2 let's be honest yeah so they've stayed current with gta online and stuff that's true like younger gamers they've heard of half-life but they have no idea well like you said dk matt he never even played it he hasn't played one or two so he's gonna go back and play black mesa first which is i recommend it's all modded up so it's a little bit more current for you half-life 2 plays still just fine it holds up well um very very awesome so man yeah now you got me excited what am i doing okay i was

just about to ask right like we just did our you know most anticipated games we're talking about 2025 can't there is a world where we get oh don't even six and half-life three in the same year, dude. Like, I was just talking about this generational game. Yeah. Can you imagine? Generational year. If we got GTA 6 and Half-Life 3 in the same year? Freaking Hawkeye, don't give me hope. Don't.

Don't what? Don't give me hope. Yeah, I know, man. Oh, my goodness. All right. I don't want to. I'm getting all hyped up. Well, I know what I'm going to do in January now.

I'm going to play Half-Life 1 and 2. Thanks. All right, Ryan. Let's get into a host question. This one's fun. What are some of your gaming pet peeves? Ooh. And this could be anything that is just specific to you.

And we'll just start off with one, and we'll see how that goes. But what's a gaming pet peeve for you? So I am very strongly opinionated on this one. When I'm escaping the world, know earth is hard enough we got enough going on family kids jobs all that stuff i want to i want to get away from the world get away from reality and i'm playing this fantastical character why do i have a stamina bar i am an all-powerful wizard i can conjure flames i can tame tame beasts. I can control the elements. But don't make me run up a hill because after 15 steps, I'm breathing heavy and I have to slow down.

Or, oh no, I'm over encumbered. I'm holding too much. Come on, man. That's the first thing on any type of game that I can mod and they have mods for. I'll turn off stamina bar or I'll turn off the weight limiter and stuffiter and stuff like that because it just i hate it your disdain for the stamina bar is legendary dude it really is oh it's the first thing you say i've heard this come out of your mouth so many times two swipes with the sword and then i'm like it doesn't bother me i know well you like you like the tactical nature and the reality of the fights and doing that. That's why you like turn base. I just, I want to go and just kill stuff, man. It makes sense. I think for me, it's another challenge of like, how do I manage this resource properly so that I can do what I need to do while, you know, accounting for that. I don't know. I'm kind of torn on that one. Because like I said, I don't mind them, but I also see your point of view. I'm going to go a little bit more from a, like a broader kind of perspective because it's something

that I see more and more. And maybe this is just that I generally handle our social media account for the most part, but like, and this is something that we've always been very clear on. I get probably unreasonably annoyed when everybody or like when somebody is afraid to just call a game out for being bad okay you know what i mean like it's one of those things where if you're a gamer and you have been a gamer for any length of time you have played bad video games you have had your hopes dashed by battlefield 2042 you know or dragon age veil guard or pacific drive you know yeah pacific drive for you you know and and it's one of those things where it's okay to have an opinion you know it's okay to say hey i did not like this game this game sucks you know and and i see it

more and more online with people where it's like they can never say something bad about a game no matter how bad the game is yeah you know and it's like oh well you know the game might have missed on this topic in this topic but the developers tried really hard to make a good game yeah that's the thing they always oh think about the devs they tried so hard this is their job you know and and i just i maybe it's i'm old crotchety old man no you know what i mean and we weren't always like polite growing up you know to people and stuff like that but it's like stop it yeah it's a bad video game yeah you know it's okay it's okay to just they just didn't do a good job you know not somebody built your house you can't you know and you got your walls falling

off and the light switches don't work you don don't say, well, they tried hard. You know, this light switch works, you know, you go, no, this isn't good. This is not what's supposed to happen. Exactly. And I am not trying to say that my opinion is right and other people's opinions are wrong. Like that's not, that's not what I'm trying to say at all, because what works for one person from a game perspective may not work for me and that's a okay yeah but not every game is a heartfelt attempt to make a game good and you can't ever give it less than like a seven out of ten or a six out of ten because you don't want to hurt somebody's feelings and it's like no dude if you're a gamer you have played bad games don't be afraid to say a game sucks

you know because that's an honest opinion at that point no that's totally fair same with like movies you know guys will take some sometimes people take roles just to get a paycheck you know and their heart's not in it and it's not a good movie like you can you can say it it's just not a good movie you know yeah yeah and just because like i said just because you don't like it doesn't mean that i i love it you know and and again stop trying to tell people they're wrong for their opinions. That's like another thing that kind of goes hand in hand with that. But I hate the fake nicety, I guess, where it's like, oh, I don't want to hurt anybody's feelings. So I'm not going to say

anything mean. And it's like, dude, it's okay to have an opinion. Yeah. You're not being personal. You're talking about you're a consumer. You purchased this or you are trying it out and it's okay. this isn't good. And here's why. And then you can move on from there and get better. Yeah, exactly. So I don't know why that's – like I said, maybe it's because I've been spending more time on social media. But I just call it out, man.

It's okay. All right, Ryan. We're quickly running out of time on this episode. But we have to have a debate here. Oh, okay. And we have to have a debate here. Oh, okay. And we have to have a food question because it wouldn't be a SideQuest episode if we didn't. Is this true? This came up on our Discord server, but this is funny because this actually came up at my job like a month or two ago.

And here's the question. When it comes specifically to Chips Ahoy, you know know nothing more american than a chips ahoy cookie you know classic chips ahoy what's better the chips ahoy classic or the chewy chips ahoy so uh i i'm definitely not the biggest uh sugar connoisseur or cookie guy but there's one thing that i do like in i guess the pastry sugary world is chocolate chip cookies yeah i am uh uh glutton for punishment with those so i don't know how many chewy uh versions of the chips ahoy i remember having but i do know in the red container that's how you tell them apart they have like the the red. Whereas the standard chips are in the blue. The blue? Okay. So I know I've had 10 million in the blue.

And if there's a container of those in the pantry, more often than not, I'm grabbing a stack, you know, like a stack of poker chips. And I'm walking over to wherever I'm watching TV or doing whatever. And those suckers are gone in a few minutes i would say for me the uh the kind of the the you know when you bite into the crunchy one it's got that pop to it yeah that little pop when you bite it like i just it's just a good flavor to it and it's good kind of taste and texture so if i was gonna pick one i would say uh i would say the classic your opinion's wrong ryan hey look at me i'm not the sugar guy i don't know you picked regular chips oh i will take it all day long you know i'm not the one you're gonna ask for for uh sugar recommendations for sure all right so i i jokingly i am on the other side i think

chewy chips ahoy are better okay i i like the chewiness of them they the it's just it's like a texture thing now don't hear what i'm not saying i will eat the chewiness of them. It's like a texture thing. Now, don't hear what I'm not saying. I will eat the heck out of some regular Chips Ahoy too. So this is not slanderous against just your classic Chips Ahoy, but if you have them right next to each other, I'm going to reach for the chewy and go, ooh, chewy Chips Ahoy. So this became a huge debate at my work. And we actually had both in the pantry because we like our treats there as well. And so we brought them out and everybody ate one of each. And we were very split on which one was better.

Oh, wow. And like guys like to do when we're being dumb and just arguing with each other, we turn this into kind of an argument and a competition in a sense that like I needed to prove that chewy Chips Ahoy were better than your classic Chips Ahoy. So we brought science into it, Oh, here we go. I have to preface this a little bit. What tastes better steak or broccoli? Steak. Okay. Which has more calories? I do love broccoli though but i actually like broccoli too but which one has more calories right steak yeah okay steak right okay so uh what tastes better a uh a cookie or a carrot uh cookie okay so cookies have more calories in them, right? I would think so. Then a carrot.

Yeah. So all this to say that the higher the calorie content of something, the more delicious we generally tend to think it is. Oh, okay. Okay. So this is a proven fact. Okay. Humans, we want fat. We want butter. We want sugar. Our brains are wired to say, that's delicious. Survive calories. You're weird in that you don't like say that's delicious survive you're weird and that you don't like sugar that much but you would still prefer meat over a carrot or something like that oh yeah or butter for instance butter delicious yeah amazing yeah of course butter is very high calorie which is one reason we think it's delicious so to solve the issue of the debate between the classic chips ahoy and the chewy Chips Ahoy,

using our very scientific method of saying, hey, whatever has the higher calorie content is the more delicious thing. What's the difference? We look at the calorie content. Now, they are close, but chewy Chips Ahoy are higher calorie content than regular Chips Ahoy, thus proving that they are the more delicious cookie. Bill Nye the science guy right here. It's science.

You can't argue with science, man. That's true, man. You can't argue with science. That's our inherent nature. We just want the calories to survive and continue on. So yeah, I guess Chewy it is. Proof. Chewy Chips Ahoy. Okay, so Chewy wins. Now I have a cookie question Chips Ahoy. Okay. So, Chewy wins.

Now, I have a cookie question for you real quick. I know we're out of time, but what is the best Girl Scout cookie? Oh, the Samoas, dude. Oh, get out of here. Dude, the coconut and caramel in those things with the chocolate. Coconut is so gross. No, dude, I love coconut. Coconut.

The Samoas. Now, Thin Mints are a close second. Thin Mints are. Because you got to put them in the freezer, and then you got to pull out that sleeve, and you eat the entire sleeve. coconut the samoas now thin mints are a close second thin mints because you can eat it you got to put them in the freezer and then you got to pull out that sleeve and you eat the entire sleeve that okay that's exactly what i do i feel a little called out right now but i will uh so my wife actually bought a box of like 12 boxes of the mini boxes of thin mints the other year and i'm like why did you do this she's like i thought you'd like it you love these i'm like well yeah but why did you do this now they're gonna be gone in like I'm like, why did you do this? She's like, I thought you'd like it. You love these. I'm like, well, yeah, but why did you do this?

Now they're going to be gone in like a month. Like, why would you do this to me? So I ended up, I wouldn't put them in the freezer because I knew if I did, I would eat them. So I like left them away there in the pantry. And then every once in a while I'd go and I'd put them in because I have no self-control. Let's be honest. I'm a big kid. Like, I'm just an infant child that just wanders this world.

So, yeah, I don't like coconut, though. See, I love coconut. Samoas are just not fresh. And it's the texture. They've got that kind of dense chewiness and a little bit of cookie crunch. Gee, you like chewy again. It's like a Twix bar. I bet they have more calories, too.

I bet you they do. That's the proof right there, Ryan. They're right there. They're chewy and they have more calories. Josh loves it. Okay, because I know the listeners are going like, no, but regular chips at Hoyer are better. You find me a food.

Find me two foods. And one that's lower calorie and one that's higher calorie. And if you can convince me that the lower calorie food is more delicious, maybe I'll change my opinion. But it's impossible. You cannot do it. I bet chips are lower calorie than cookies, and I love chips more. But I mean, okay, one chip, though?

So you do kind of have to get in the same volume. Well, serving size. I'll go weigh them. I'll get a little gram of my little food scale, and we'll weigh each. I bet you if you have a gram of chips in a gram. But that's just comparing sweet and salty, though. That's not saying the food as a gram of chips in a gram, but that's just comparing sweet and salty though. That's not saying like the food as a whole, like there's a preference there,

but talking about food as a whole, if one food has less calories than the other food, the chances are the higher calorie food is going to be delicious. How did you guys come up with that? Dude, we're deep thinkers, man. Oh my goodness.

Yeah. Honey, why are you late from work today? Oh, well, uh, we got into some, some work stuff at, you know, just, just work stuff, honey. Yeah. Yeah. Honey, why are you late from work today? Oh, well, we got into some work stuff.

You know, just work stuff, honey. Yeah. Yeah. We're really breaking things down. Anyways. Going deep on that research. Anyways, on the grocery list, can you put a chewy Chips Ahoy, please? Yeah.

Oh, man. All right. Well, hey, I've called it. If you can prove me wrong, come to our Discord server. I'd love to argue with you about this, but it's settled. Chewy Chips Ahoy are the superior cookie based on science alone. Chewy wins. There you go.

Science rules. All right. Ryan, somehow it's 45 minutes into this episode, man. Oh my gosh. I know. So we're going to wrap this one up. Thank you, everybody, for tuning into this episode. Thank you for supporting the show.

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So head over to MultiplayerSquad.com. We'll shout you out on the show. We'll say thank you, and you get some cool Discord perks. You also get early access and ad-free episodes, so you don't have to skip ads anymore if you do that, too. That's it for this episode Ryan let's go play some Marvel Rivals yeah let's do it

and until next time happy gaming see ya oh wait I'm gonna do this instead hold on the moon haunts you Bye.