Video Gamers Podcast - [Side Quest] Top 3 Games, Steam Next Fest and Spiritual Successors - Gaming Podcast

Episode Date: October 17, 2024

Gaming Hosts Ryan and Josh are veering from the path and embarking on another Side Quest! On this awesome gaming episode we break down our personal top 3 video games of the year, have a mac n’ cheese showdown, geek on Throne and Liberty, figure out which video game character we could take down in a fight, and more. Gaming chat with your friends, from the best gaming podcast around! Thanks to our MYTHIC Supporters: Ol’ Jake and Disratory Thanks to Legendary Supporter: UnhingedFury 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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Sometimes the best part of gaming is just chatting with friends over the latest news, releases, or even stupid gaming questions. When you have a group of friends and you're all talking about that latest hit release, or secret level, boss fight, or just stupid topics like, which character could you beat in a fight? Those are the topics that matter, and that's what we do in our SideQuest episodes. It's a mix of gaming questions, thoughts, and topics to bring out the laughs and the truly important topics we as gamers love to talk about. Before we get into the show, though, some introductions are in order. I am your host, Josh, and joining me, he cooks his Pop-Tarts in a microwave

and eats mac and cheese with a butter knife. It's Ryan. First of all, I personally probably shouldn't even have a microwave because I don't use one, man. You don't use a microwave? Nah, what do you need a microwave for, man? What do you reheat your pizza with? Air fryer or the oven? You can really go the extra do you reheat your pizza with air fryer or the oven what do you really go i'm a civilized yeah oh excuse me i want to eat food that's good not a rubbery mess after you know you ever have leftovers yes okay and how do you reheat your

leftovers air fryer oven oh my gosh yeah you boot you all right and he's very bougie with his reheating habits oh i'm sorry i don't want rubbery nasty food you know when i eat i got the time i got nothing but time baby i mean i use the microwave for its intended purposes which is just not cooking but reheating food you know and it works pretty well for me except for chicken you can't do no reheated chicken in a microwave this is true i do i will say i i do carry a microwave on my trailer for work when i'm on the job site and stuff i'm out in the field so it's hard to like kind of get food anywhere other way unless i go somewhere so that's usually my meal prep so i do use it for that but man i hate it i, I'm not a fan of the microwave.

Yeah, I don't know. I like it. I want my food quick. All those people, all the new listeners are like, what show am I listening to right now? What did I tune into? Isn't this video games? Yeah, thank you for joining the Microwavers podcast today,

where we talk about the benefits of reheating bread. Oh, man, we have gotten sidetracked already. Well, listen, this is a gaming podcast. I love these side quest episodes. We are going to have a fantastic show for you today. We've got some really stupid questions that are going to be a lot of fun. And we have some pretty awesome gaming questions in there as well. We're actually going to find out what our top three games of the year are so far here in a little bit. Ryan, I always like to start these off with, what have you been playing

lately, man? I know we're both playing Star Wars Outlaws, but have you had a chance to dip your toes in anything else lately? Not too much, as always. Being a dad, all those gamer dads out there, I know how hard it is to get time away to uh just kind of veg out and play some video games luckily a lot of times my son plays with me so we've definitely been uh playing a lot of star wars outlaws and i've been getting a little bit into diablo still messing around here and there it's just been a little hard time wise but i've been just grinding away at star wars for sure most of the time yeah i have been playing star wars i've been playing overwatch with my daughter she is so

cracked on overwatch right now that's awesome it's so funny it's it's fun to play with her because she is really good at it now like she is a top-notch support doesn't that make it so much better and dude all i gotta do is like look i either play support tank or dps and i'm like no matter what just heal me and then she's but she's like to the point now where she's like dad i have to take care of the rest of the team you know and she's always getting complimented by people and stuff so it's pretty it's a cool like it's like a proud dad moment but it's it's a lot of fun too man one of those things like when when it's something you're you're so um addicted to and that you love and then your child is doing it and doing well it's so exciting and not to cut you off on a little story here but

with my daughter in jujitsu she's been uh training for a while and when i'll roll with her and we'll do stuff and she slips a little kind of a sneaky move in and i'm like whoa okay you know and it's you're so proud you just get that proud dad moment you really do and it's hard to explain to people but it is one of those things where it's like i really does just hit in a different way man when you start to realize like they're actually good like they have skills this isn't me like just complimenting them now you just gotta teach her like trash talk you know yeah uninstall. Uninstall, baby. Uninstall. Okay. I got to fess up, man. I have not told anybody this, and I am not proud of this. Listen, I have always said, you know, we do not promote toxicity around here.

You know, don't trash people for their gaming choices and takes and console wars and all that. But I have always said Overwatch brings out the absolute worst in me. And I don't know what it is. I think it's the fact that I have to rely on strangers to play a team game. Yeah. So I may have gotten really, really frustrated like two weeks ago to where a guy was intentionally throwing the match as the tank.

And I, I am what we call like a counter troll. I will never just be upfront mean to people, but if somebody is being a jerk, I will absolutely like troll them for being a jerk. Well, I did that. And then my account got silenced. Oh, no. I am not allowed to chat in Overwatch.

And my kids were like, Dad, you got silenced? And I was just like, I'm going to turn over a new leaf, you guys. And then the silence ends literally tomorrow. And so my daughter's like, I hope you learned your lesson. And I'm going to wind up getting silenced again. Dad's in timeout. It was hilarious, man. But they were telling their friends, like we were playing the other day.

And it was like, somebody said something. And I was like, can you tell him I said said thanks and then she had to type and chat and it was like he says thanks and i was like i can't chat oh that's great what have i done that's so good i'm sorry i i admit it it's the only game that i've ever been like that in so just brings out the troll man oh dude it's so bad anyway man, we're getting sidetracked all over the place, but I love it. That's honestly what these episodes are kind of about. I have been playing a good bit of Throne and Liberty. So we talked about the game releasing.

We played the beta of many, many months ago. I had some friends that dove into it. So I was like, you know what? I'm down, man. Let's play. I have gotten to max level. I've gotten through the campaign. We're in like the dungeons and the kind of like small group rating aspect.

Now I will say I'm having a ton of fun. Yeah. I love boss mechanics and group coordination. And this game really, really makes you do that. If you're trying to take down like these dungeon bosses and stuff um i will say the writing is kind of on the wall for me i don't know that i'm gonna play this game for a whole lot longer whoa maybe another week or two no no hold on no you're known for just sticking with it just staying to one game i don't know what you're talking about thousands of hours

in something um but it is funny because it's like i can see the future and it's like once i'm done and we've mastered all these dungeons i don't want to grind gear i don't want to do these open world events and just farming monsters and the gear system in throne and liberty is not my favorite at all but i am having a really good time right now so it's like i can at least appreciate that part of it so well that's cool is it um other than like you know the graphics were so amazing and it looks so well incredible like so so later on does all that still hold true to where the graphics hold up the gameplay holds up you know all of that is kind of you're as excited as you were in like the beginning yeah so as far as like that goes like yes the gameplay is

honestly pretty top notch oh nice i mean there's it's weird to me because this is a korean mmo where it's like there's 18 different systems on how to upgrade your gear and points and trait conversions and trait upgrades and skill upgrades and skill mastery and i mean there's just so many different systems in it um to kind of try to keep people going. But I don't really care about like the min maxing type thing. Okay. But I mean, it's got a great skill bar. I love the combo of skills with the mechanics in the game. I do have, I play full tank. So it's like, I do have to pop this skill that protects my team when, you know, we're in this particular phase, or it's like, I know people are going to whiff their timing on something you know or i've got to you know stun a stun a guy or he'll wipe our party if i don't stun him

during like a certain time and stuff like that which is all stuff that i love which is why i'm kind of in the heart of like i'm loving these dungeons and these raid mechanics right now but i think there's like six level 50 dungeons. And it's like, dude, once I kind of farm those five, six times each, I'm not sure that there's really a lot more for me to do. I'm not going to get big into like the world PVP aspect or like the, I don't want to put together like a 50 man guild or something like that. So I think I'll probably just move on after that.

But for now it's a lot of fun. It's free to play, man. So definitely one of these games that i recommend to people if it sounds like you know i haven't played an mmo in a while this is one of the better ones i've played in recent years that's cool i mean who knows maybe down the road i'll check it out for whatever reason i just have no desire for an mmo right now like just the thought of it i'm like i don't even want to even try because i know myself and i'll get super sucked

in but i just i don't have that desire to even get into the mix and try to mess around and learn mechanics and learn this and that. So I'm just happy doing some simple, carefree kind of fun games with a little sprinkle of a hardcore Diablo two as always. Yeah, I get it. I would not be playing this game still if it was not for the fact that I have friends playing it. Yeah. Hop on and play together. If it wasn't for that, I think I'd just be like, that was really cool. I'm it. I would not be playing this game still if it was not for the fact that I have friends playing it and we hop on and play together. If it wasn't for that, I think I'd just be like, that was really cool. I'm done. But for now, it's still pretty fun.

Sweet. Ryan, we've got two very quick news stories or just announcements for people. One is the Steam Next Fest, which is an honestly, dude, I love that Steam does this. So the Steam Next Fest is when they just put out a whole bunch of game demos for upcoming games. They usually focus on indie games. Yeah. We have found some seriously good titles through the Steam Next Fest. And that is going on right now. It starts October 21st or no, it goes until October 21st. So it started October 14th, which is when we're recording this and it goes through October 21st. So it started October 14th, which is when we're recording this and it goes through October 21st. So this is your reminder for everybody out there that plays on PC to go check out the Steam Next Fest, try out some demos. It's like a buffet,

dude. You know, it's like you get a little sample of this, you get a little sample of that. Okay. Maybe this wasn't so good, but man, this one, Ooh, I'm really enjoying that. And that's, that's really what it's about um and it helps support indie devs a lot i mean we have talked to some indie devs that are like dude my demo is on the steam next fest like it would mean the world to me if you would try it out yeah and i mean i've i've done it to where i mean i've tried a lot of games it is awesome sometimes you'll try some stuff and it was cool. Some are bad. Others you're indifferent about. But I've had them where I'm like, okay, that was a pretty cool game.

I probably won't get it, but I'll wishlist it. Let's help out the devs. I'm going to wishlist this just to get them some more of a boost. And so throw it out there for those indie guys. But yeah, there's so many cool things that you would have never tried without this kind of setup, which I just love. Yeah, and I love that Steam does this for people too, man. It's the reason that PC gamers love Steam, dude. I mean, at least I know I do.

Most PC gamers love Steam. We've got nothing against it. And so we try to support that because they support gamers and devs at the same time. So go check that out. And then, Ryan, this is kind of a funny story. We don't have to spend a lot of time on this one. This one kind of tickled me because it's like, no, you think? Yeah. So former. Okay. So the devs for Disco Elysium, it was, I don't remember the acronym ZAUM, Z-A-U-M, right? It was the devs for Disco Elysium.

One of the best games I have played in years. I know you kind of started getting into it, but that studio wound up going through a lot of problems and they split up and a lot of the devs went their separate ways from the studio. But what happened is a lot of the devs went and formed their own studios. Now, here's the funny part, right? Is that you have a whole bunch of devs that went and formed, I want to say three to four different studios with the pedigree that, hey, we worked on Disco Elysium. We are the devs that helped make this game. And that's cool.

You know, like we wish people the best. And if you have that pedigree, like bring us more good games. The funny part is, is that every single one of these studios that were in offshoot are all racing to deliver the spiritual successor to disco elysium and they are all working on games that look very similar to disco elysium both from a graphical standpoint and a gameplay standpoint and it's almost getting comical at this point because it's like everybody wants to be the spiritual successor to disco elysium and claim that yeah three or four studios that are all making the same claim saying no no we're the spiritual successor to disco elysium

and they're starting to get like a little snippy with each other oh over this to where yeah to where they're like well you know i can't believe like we were the first to you know break off and then these other people are doing it now they're trying to race us and it's just it's like a popcorn moment where it's like i want to just sit back and start eating popcorn and being like man who's gonna make the best game out of this exactly it's it's like almost like uh speaking of memes it's like almost a spider-man meme where they're all just pointing at each other. And they're all looking.

So I'm all for it. I hope they get real cheeky and just battle for who can make it the best and who can release it first. And we can sit back and watch and then kind of enjoy the madness. But it is funny that that happens that way, that they all branch off and they all do the same thing. I tend to see that a lot, too, in the martial arts world. Everyone that gets their black belt, just for being in the – not the industry, but martial arts for so long, they always go off and they're going to start their own gym. Everyone's going to go start their own gym.

So I trained under this guy. So it's all, we did Disco Elysium. We're going to release this game. It's going to be the next great big big thing so uh yeah that that's hilarious i it's good for gamers because we're gonna get a lot of games out of this and i'm sure you know some of them will be better than others by by nature of having three or four studios working on almost the same thing but i'm down for it man yeah if the competition breeds one good game out of them all trying to make a great game themselves, then everybody wins. Or at least not the people that didn't make a good one.

Well, the gamers win in that case. The gamers win, yeah. Every gamer wins, I'll say. Yeah. All right, Ryan, we're going to get into some of our gaming questions, including coming up our top three games of 2024 so far. Which one surprised us the most and which one was the biggest letdown? We're going to get back to that right after this break. Are you crushing your bills? Defeating your monthly payments?

Sounds like you're at the top of your financial game. Rise to it with the BMO Eclipse Rise Visa card, the credit card that rewards your good financial habits earn points for paying your credit card bill in full and on time every month, level up from bill payer to reward slayer terms and conditions apply. All right, Ryan, we are back. Boy, that was a little bit of a teaser right there. Cause this is a big question, man. Um, you know, we are getting a lot closer to the end of the year. And so I want to make this the unofficial. Okay, yes.

Unofficial, like you're allowed to change your mind when it comes to the game of the year, our game of the year show and our awards and stuff like that. Which, as a reminder, Paul has committed to joining us for. So we'll have a little bit of a reunion there as well. That is going to be a good time but unofficially ryan off the record because this is just you know this is a side quest episode so yeah you know this doesn't count but what are your top three games of 2024 so far how do you want to do this are we going one for one or we just you don't have to put them in order okay yeah just give me your top three as far as like they're you know you don't have to order them so as far

as like recency bias goes and and what i've recently played that is just way up there this year for me um right off the bat uh warhammer 2 space marine 2 space marine that was just an absolute blast uh i had so much fun with that game graphically just next level kind of set the stage for what developers can do and what the future should look like i thought that one was an amazing equally so um astrobot yeah astrobots on my list for sure waiting that's up there for me yeah i was waiting forever for that so excited still i still jump in here and there and play uh with my son but probably the biggest one for me is going to be hell divers that is my other one yeah yeah so you and i are i figured we'd be have a couple on the same you know the same list so but yeah hell divers were just one of those that there was just

so much fun to be had um my grandma always says fun was had by all when with certain events or parties or whatever yeah and that's what it was fun was had by all that's all we did we just hopped on killed a bunch of bugs and then you know our robots and then you know went about it the next day and it was just one of those recycle repeat and you never got tired of it so yeah those those are mine yeah i have helldivers 2 astrobot and then uh mine is gonna be this isn't gonna you've not played this but i i legitimately think for me shadow the earth tree which is the expansion i figured i figured as much i will say you know i did have some black myth wukong in consideration there space marine 2 was another one

um we're not going to talk about our thoughts on star wars outlaws yet so i would say if you think that is a game of the year that's disqualified because we're still playing and we haven't done our deep dive on that but for me those three stand out over and above everything else in my opinion that doesn't mean that like i really enjoy black Wukong, but it's not a game of the year in my personal top three compared to these other ones either. So with that, Ryan, what game that you played this year surprised you the most with how much you liked it or how good you thought it was? So it's kind of like this one caught me off guard, but man, was this really

good. So not to harp on it too much, but I'm going to actually go again with Helldivers. Yeah. I didn't play the first one. I love multiplayer games, even though I was looking the other day, a lot of my, I think I only have one game that's considered multiplayer in my top 10. So I'm a big time single player action rpg type guy but just the amount of enjoyment and fun and hours like hundreds of hours of jumping in and doing the same thing over and over and just killing bugs extracting killing robots extracting i was just blown away by how much i every day wanted to get on and play like are you guys on

are you guys gonna play and then if not I was gonna hop on either way so that one definitely as much as I was anticipating I didn't know what to expect and it blew me away how much more I liked it than I thought I would our hype level for Helldivers 2 was astronomical like going leading up to the release of that game we we saw all the trailers, all the footage, everything. And everything we saw just got us more and more hyped. So when it came time for that game to actually be playable, it's very hard to meet that level of hype. Exactly, yeah. And it freaking was better than I think any of us actually imagined.

And that is capturing magic in a bottle for gamers because that is a very hard thing to do so i'm with you in that regard as well it was also and i was like is it cheating if i just use hell divers for both these questions i will say just for variety's sake and this one's this one's still a little under the radar although i have seen a lot of people playing this game lately, which really makes me happy. But I want to give Satisfactory its dues because it did officially release in 2024, right? Now, I know we talked about it's been in early access forever, but this is the official release of Satisfactory.

And I remember going into that game, not really expecting very much out of it. And that game is freaking fantastic dude everybody that i've seen that started playing it has been like oh my goodness i am hooked people are showing us their factories on our discord server and these huge layouts they're talking about it and it's just like yes dude this game is way better than i had any expectation for it to be and that was when we played it two or three years ago. Yeah. You know what I mean?

So I wanted to give it its due as that surprise hit because if you have overlooked Satisfactory this year, don't, don't. That game is really, really good. Especially if you have any sort of organizational kind of bone in your body of setting up and staging things and doing that, you will hit every satisfying part of yourself doing this, building these things and creating. Watching everybody, like we said, that is posted on our Discord, all their factories and their setups, it's so satisfying just to look at the way it all set up. And that's what this game is.

It just, it's so satisfying to play. Everybody's different too. And how they design stuff, which I think is really neat. Cause like when I start seeing people's factories and I'm like, Oh, Oh,

that's, that's a neat way to think about that. And then we've done it completely different, but it all just works. So I Ryan and which game has been the biggest letdown for you in 2024 oh this one i'll probably get some grief for this but i was i was actually pretty hyped up for dragon's dogma too um and that one i just i know this is the part this is the part where we're both this we're both pretty close it's it's it just... I just was so let down, man. I had so much of high expectations for what it could be, what it was going to be with your companions and all that stuff.

And I just... It felt like a chore. I felt so let down when I was playing it. I didn't feel very open-worldish, expansive. There just wasn't as much to it as i was hoping so i was beyond let down from that game from something i really expected a lot out of i have two answers for this one the easy answer and i know you agree with this one is pacific drive was that this year was it this year i don't know maybe okay that's that was honestly that was what i first went to and then i'm like wait i don't think that that was this year year i don't know maybe okay that's that was honestly that was what i first went to

and then i'm like wait i don't think that that was this year so i just went with dragon's dogma but that was my that was my first thing it is this year it came out on february 22nd i'd like to change my answer i'm going with pacific drive you got me wondering because i was like i'm pretty sure it came out this year but i know that you and i were both super disappointed in Pacific Drive. Yeah. I will say, and I literally have it written out right next to Pacific Drive and it says, and Dragon's Dogma 2 question mark. That's funny. Because listen, I don't think, I am not saying that Dragon's Dogma 2 is a bad game. No. By any means. I think it's a, in fact, I actually think it's a pretty darn good video game in a lot of aspects. I think this was a case of just having too high of hopes for a game because we never played Dragon's Dogma 1.

So we didn't know what to expect. And this was a case of like, I think I was hoping for like Witcher 3 type levels. And I didn't quite get that. And so I was disappointed and a little thrown off by the game. And again, not saying it's a bad game, but I was let down by Dragon's Dogma 2 because I'm with you. I found a lot of it to kind of feel like a chore and just kind of like, oh, this should be better, man. It should be better. Why isn't it better? It's like you're trying to, like you go to a Gordon Ramsay restaurant and you get a burger and you're like, this is going to be the best burger ever. And it's a good burger, but it's

not much better than Chili's or somewhere else. It's just like, it's a decent burger. It's better than kind of the garbage, but it's not what you would expect from something that you had such high hopes for. So, yeah. But no, that's good. Yeah, Pacific Drive was literally the first thing that instantly popped into my head.

I hated that game, dude. I liked it way more than you, but I still was very let down by let down it made me so sad on how much i disliked that with how excited i was and how excited the environment i love dark misty rainy kind of foresty world and it just driving yeah who doesn't want to just go driving around man all right ryan uh dude man we're running out of time already so let's get to a couple of these fun ones. I teased you a little bit. Are people that toast their Pop-Tarts weird? So I'm curious. Do you not toast your Pop-Tarts?

No, I don't toast my Pop-Tarts, man. Okay. Like what kind of weirdo takes that? Okay. When you open, and I know that you don't do sweets a lot, but I know you've eaten some Pop-Tarts in your day. Yes. And you just grab them out of the box.

You open up the little silver pack. You reach in. You grab one. You eat that one. You kind of go like, yeah, I really want that other one. And then you break down and you eat the second one. I don't toast them. Are they better toasted?

Yes, they're better toasted. But who does that? Okay, so this goes back to the why i don't use a microwave is because i do that like i i don't know honestly you toast your pop tart a thousand percent i i don't honestly remember the last time i've had a pop tart but i could tell you that i don't know if i've had a pop tart in probably 20 years that wasn't toasted like what what's the point of having it if you're not going to do it the right way like you toast it up to where it gets crisp and it curls a little on the outside gets a little

golden brown nobody got time for that man okay around waiting on the toaster all right so so you don't toast them but here's here's the secondary question toaster strudels or pop oh toaster strudels okay percent dude all right yeah now don't get me wrong when we go to the grocery store we're coming home with pop tarts don't ask me why that is but toaster strudels are the better the better option there we just never buy them for some reason i honestly i think i had a toaster strudel the last time when i was like maybe 12 i haven't had one since but i remember loving those so much as a kid oh yeah, yeah. Because they're fantastic. It's just pure sugar. Yeah.

All right, Ryan. We got to solve some of life's biggest questions. Oh, that's what we're here for. This is one of the bigger debates in life. We're going to answer a couple of them right here. When putting on your pants, which leg goes in first? So this is, I guess you would say age showing but it's uh whatever ryan's like i sit on the floor and then put them on i but i when i was doing this show prep and looking over my notes

and everything i was just like man as i thought about i was like whatever leg is the least sore like yeah it's like put on i work outside i'm on my hands and knees. I'm up and down. I go to the gym regularly. I train. So I'm always, I'm just perpetually sore. I'm always like in recovery, if you will. So yeah, whatever part of my body is easiest to like slip into, that's the side I usually go with.

That's a fair answer. I don't know why this is for me, but I'm always left leg first. You got a regular. But I'm right handed. I'm right handed and I'm like right footed. But for, but I'm always left leg first. You got a regular. But I'm right-handed. I'm right-handed and I'm like right-footed. But for some reason, left leg goes in first. And I don't know why that is. No, that's fair.

It's the same every single time. I don't know if it's like I prefer to stand on my right foot, like to balance while I'm putting my leg in. Probably so, because then your leg's already in and it's easier to switch and just slide the next one in, you know, after. Yeah. All right, Ryanyan this one's important your toilet's broken okay you gotta pee the backyard is off limits oh where are you going what's the next best acceptable place to go backyard is off limits oh man because we're guys it's super easy to just go out in your backyard exactly i had to take that off the table because that's the easy answer so that is the easy answer i'm uh i'm just kicking

it in the shower baby that's exactly it you're just aiming for that shower it's a half a step to the left or the right whatever way your bathroom's configuration is and then you can it's drain it all goes to the same place don't tell my wife that is the next best answer yeah for sure absolutely all right uh and then here let's get to this uh gaming question because this is this is an important question and then we'll finish off with one more food question here of course absolutely ryan you have trained mma you're you're pretty you're pretty good at it so So I'm actually more interested in your answer than my answer

on this one, but I'll still give my answer. But real talk here, Ryan. What video game character do you think you could beat in a fight, but have it be the closest fight possible? So this one I actually put a good little bit of thought into. And obviously so

many characters are just kind of larger than themselves they're they're kind of have yeah you're not taking on doom yeah doom guy kratos exactly yeah anything like that you're not you're not doing so i'm trying to think of more of a real world realistic real life character that's gonna just be tough as nails that would really be a uh you know when you're fighting a lot of times you're fighting, you fight for your life. It's just to drag them out. Like, no holds barred. Anything goes.

I'm going to go with Joel from Last of Us. So that one, he's obviously he's a little older, but he's got that old man strength and he does nothing but just fight zombies and, and survive. So if I'm going to fight someone that does nothing but just survive, I think a matchup, you know, youth and athleticism and, and experience with his kind of, uh, you know, experience in the real world and, and just, just doing whatever it takes. I think it would be a really actually, honestly, a pretty good match. I could, it takes, I think it would be a really, actually, honestly, a pretty good match. Legitimately, I could see that.

And this is the difference between you and me because Joel would kick my butt. Break a beer bottle over your head. That's a good answer, man. And I actually agree. I think that would be a really awesome title fight. I'm not kidding. I went through probably 20, 30 characters.

I'm trying to think what would be the best one. And that's the one I landed on was just Joel because I think it would be just- No, I think that's the perfect answer, dude. Sweet. Legitimately. So for me, I had to think about this one. I had to try to be real on this.

And I came up with the guy that I want to fight who I really would like to just kick his butt. And that's Ethan Mars from Heavy Rain because the dude lost both of his kids and I'm like good dad you need to get your butt kicked and I think I could do it man oh yeah well that yeah then I started thinking I'm like dude this guy cut his finger off man like he's got a little bit of a crazy streak in him and I'm not sure I want to go up against that so then I started thinking about it and I was like man you know what we talked about Disco Elysium at the top of the show I bet I could beat up Harry Dubois oh okay okay he's old he's you know I mean he's probably gonna

have a heart attack and then I was like I you know I'd probably get winded pretty quick you know I'm not in the best shape in my life anymore but you, so I thought that'd be a pretty good fight too. Plus his name's Dubois. You can't be tough with the name Dubois. Yeah, that's exactly right. Sorry to any Dubois listening. I'm pretty sure I could take down. Yeah.

All right, Ryan, let's end on this one as we wrap things up. We always love food debate questions. This is the mac and cheese face off, Ryan. Which is better? Velveeta or Kraft? So now one comes, one,

the cheese comes already made. It's, it's that super thick gooey cheese in the pouch. That's your Velveeta. Kraft, famously the powder. You got to mix it with some milk and a little bit of butter or whatever. Which one is the better mac and cheese well when i'm looking for my uh great dose of what is it

yellow five or or whatever it is um i to me honestly personally obviously you know a lot of kids grew up eating craft mac and cheese but shells and cheese from valvita there's like no comparison in my world. Like just rip that together and then throw a bunch of like a ground turkey in there. And it's like the ultimate post-workout meal. You just shovel that down and you're just so full. So yeah,

shells and cheese, Velveeta. Ryan, you've never been so wrong in your life. Oh my God. You want that nasty powder? Easily Kraft mac and cheese. Do you want that powder?

There's something iconic, something just wholesome, something nostalgic about, number one, the elbow noodles, because, Chels, get out of here, man. You know what I mean? And then it's like, but that powder, you mix it together. Every now and then, you don't mix it super good, so you get that one little elbow noodle that's got, like, the little concentrated powder on it, and it's just so good man oh my gosh that we might agree on games sometimes but all right so this

is when we're gonna we're gonna ask the uh our gaming community on our discord server to uh to decide this one which one's better velvete or craft because i'm going with craft no that's and you went velvete mcdonald's is nostalgic doesn't mean i want to eat mcdonald's like shells and like shells and cheese i don't want to eat either way i'm not i'm actually not a huge fan of mac and cheese believe it or not and i will say uh over those two costco mac and cheese is the best i've never had costco no dude okay you get it it comes like in a big platter 50 minutes in the oven or whatever take it off the top the um the top of it 50 minutes yeah dude you're making mac and this dude i'm the guy that doesn't toast his pop tarts

man you want me to wait 50 minutes for mac and cheese you cannot put it in the microwave all right all right well all right well we'll let the listeners decide this one for us so listen uh if you are not already in our discord server, take a second, look at this episode. In the description of this episode and every episode is a link to our Discord server. Click that link. Come join our community. It is awesome. You can lend your voice to this debate on which mac and cheese is better.

Chat video games with us. It's an awesome community. It's family friendly. Come join us and hang out. It really is the best gaming community I have ever seen in my life. That's going to wrap up this episode. This one was fun, right? We got a lot of questions we didn't get to, so we'll get to those in a future episode as well. But if you did enjoy this episode, remember to leave us a five-star review and click follow or subscribe on your podcast so that you can make sure you get all

of our episodes the day that they come out. We release episodes every Monday and Thursday as well. If you want to go further and support the show, you can head over to MultiplayerSquad.com where you can sign up to support the podcast and help us out. We give you a ton of perks like early access, ad-free episodes, a shout out on the show and more. So check that out over at MultiplayerSquad.com. We will be back on Monday.

Ryan, I'm excited for this episode with our Star Wars Outlaws deep dive. I know a lot of people have been curious as to what we think about this game. You and I have both been playing it an awful lot. I know I have a lot to say about it i know you do as well and we are going to kind of address this controversy over is this game underrated were the critic reviews accurate on

this one but join us monday for that one as well and until next time, happy gaming. See ya.