Castle Super Beast - CSB 250: Put Panera Lemonade In The Humidifier & Shut The Garage Door

Episode Date: January 3, 2024

Download for Mobile | Podcast Preview | Full Timestamps Castle Super Beast Shirts: http://tinyurl.com/CSBshirts Go to http://hellofresh.com/superbeastfree and use code superbeastfree t...o get one free breakfast item per box while subscription is active -- Go to http://shopify.com/superbeast to sign up for a $1-per-month trial period.  Traditions Are Stupid This Boardgame Needs More Rules, Actually Godzilla Minus One Gets REAL Beat The Refund Streams Your Accessibility Options Are Actively Hostile To The Visually Impaired The Big Anti A.I. Lawsuits Have Begun Watch live: twitch.tv/castlesuperbeast Trailer for Mickey Mouse Slasher Film Drops on Same Day ‘Steamboat Willie’ Character Enters Public Domain The Sinking City Developer Frogwares Now Sole Publisher After Long Legal Battle Metaphor: ReFantazio further details concept, world, tribes, story, and characters Takehiko Inoue has revealed that he wants to draw the continuation of "Vagabond" quickly. The story is not yet complete according to a new interview. Tekken 8 Colorblind Accessibility Casey Edwards new theme written for Devil May Cry Pinnacle of Combat *FIRE INSIDE*  Reboot Rewind documentary makers Jacob Weldon and Raquel Lin found the Digital master tapes of the 3D series 'Reboot', but a playback device is lacking Xbox Slammed For AI-Generated Art Promoting Indie Games AI image generator Midjourney has been singled out in a class action lawsuit for maintaining a list of artists whose styles it was specifically trained to copy. The lawsuit was originally brought in January 2023 against Stability AI, DeviantArt, and Midjourney.  

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ Happy New Year! Also happy 250 episode! Too Fitty! Too Fitty! Oh yeah! That's a quarter thousand. That's a quarter thousand. That's a quarter thousand. Here's hoping that we can,
Starting point is 00:00:49 you can all enjoy another 250 of wildly, wildly varying levels of quality. Yeah, that's, but you know, that's why you start with, that's why you have to have the audacity to start with the balls to put three digits, right? Because you want to believe that you're going to go the distance. Of course, when it gets to the fourth digit, then you're going to have a problem with the list archiving purposes because the computer is not going to like it.
Starting point is 00:01:20 The computer just starts to jam it in there and he goes, oh, you mean episode 1000, and now you mean episode one, then episode two, then episode 2000, or whatever the hell the fuck it goes. Did you have a thing when you were growing up about like new years where you say rabbit, rabbit? Did you ever, did you guys do that? Does that um, okay. When I was young, I'm, I mean, let me move your audio up a little bit so it seems like you're a little more quiet. There you go. You have
Starting point is 00:01:55 to turn, pat up. That's weird. Crank in you. Okay. Yeah. So I remember my mom had a thing where she was like, yeah, like before the New Year starts, you say rabbit rabbit and Like that's supposed to be The first if you say that that's the first thing during the New Year, then that's good luck and Someone brought that up recently and it unlocked a fucking thousand year of memories moment Or is like, oh my god. I remember being like seven Hearing about how you have to say rabbit, rabbit, first thing of the new year. So there's a lot of lack of overlap
Starting point is 00:02:34 between our various upbringings. Is this a cultural thing or religious? So I didn't know whether it was or not, because my mom brought it up, and I'm like, okay, I'm learning about this in Grenada, and then someone, then I recently heard some whether it was or not because my mom brought it up and I'm like, okay, I'm learning about this in Grenada And then someone then I recently heard some bring it up like on a podcast who was like just a American white person And you know, probably not from great. So I don't think it's necessarily cultural But I have no idea where it comes from but it's see but like it definitely is like, there's a few people out there who
Starting point is 00:03:05 might have heard of this. It's weird. I don't know, I don't know why it's a thing. I can't tell where it comes from. Okay, originated in the UK coming, coming from Alice in Wonderland. The farmer, the farmer's Almanac says that if you say rabbit rabbit on the first day of each new month, it'll be good luck for the next 30 days. The fucking farmer's Almanac. Okay, I just, just quit Google. That's apparently where it comes from. The farmer's almanac. I
Starting point is 00:03:45 don't My family didn't have anything new years was just like a holiday So we had a family dinner and had some turkey was like Christmas, but not quite as good and of My my new home family with my wife. She blew some cinnamon through the doorway yesterday for good luck.
Starting point is 00:04:12 Wait, like physically, yes, the powder in the air, you put it in, I'm gonna read a direct quote, we blew cinnamon through the door for prosperity, then it last night was very important. Humans are stupid. We're so dumb. What the fuck are we doing? I don't know, man.
Starting point is 00:04:37 We just take things and just do things with them and go, THING! Important thing! I'm gonna assume that this at some point had some kind of and- God! Biter properties. Oh, I mean- Oh yeah, somebody in the chat mentions Pork and Cabbage on New Year's Day.
Starting point is 00:04:59 Yeah, Paige's family also did ham and beans. Apparently it was very important that you had had ham and beans on New Year's. Oh man. And all that, okay, and then there's that stuff that goes into the category of weird grandma shit. We fortunately didn't have any of that because our grandma was the most out of SDAs. You can't be superstitious in front of the Lord.
Starting point is 00:05:23 But I know that there's a lot of people that have the weird grandma shit Where it's like like I don't know grandma will like spit in her hands and slap you with it And that means you've got a blessing coming your way or it just seems like grandma wants to Fuckin hit you with some spit or just you know what I mean. Yeah, just that witch shit just that like weird grandma powers that you can just conjure up good luck. So as long as she fucking pulls a hair out from your head and shoves it up your nose. So I didn't have anything like that in my household. I didn't have any traditions or any,
Starting point is 00:05:59 any like the things that we do in certain dates. The I would only get like little whips of superstition off of my mom at completely random times, like it was the most obvious thing in the world and you're like, mother, that is not the most obvious thing in the world, what are you talking about? Like I remember I was like six or seven, and no I was like, it was like five,
Starting point is 00:06:20 and my mom was like bawling her eyes out. She was having a meltdown because a bird got into the house. Right. And I'm like, Mom, why are you crying? She's like a bird got in the house. That means someone's going to die. And I'm like, Mom, that doesn't mean someone's going to die. I'm like a child.
Starting point is 00:06:41 I'm like, Mom, that doesn't mean someone's going to die because a bird got in the house. Also, dad got the bird out. The bird flew, he opened a window, the bird flew away. And she's like, you don't understand. I'm like, okay. And then like three weeks later, my great uncle died. The one that I looked like.
Starting point is 00:06:59 Oh, I really liked her. And she was like, it was the bird, the bird killed your uncle.elt your uncle of course and like like she's told me this story like like as a like a warning sis and I'm like mom he was like 90 years old and he drank all the time What do you it was not the bird? He was just all this fuck I I remember just I remember distinctly the time that my aunt or my cousin, rather, just we were all, there's like a barbecue going on and my aunt just ran up to my cousin and grabbed him and pulled him back and it was like, hey, step back over my kid.
Starting point is 00:07:44 And they're like, what? And it's like step back over. You stepped, you walked over the baby and that means you're gonna stunt his growth. So you have to, the only way to undo it. Let's be what happened to me. The only way to undo it is to step back over and it's bad luck to step over the baby
Starting point is 00:08:02 because that's it. And she was dead serious about it too. She grabbed and she was like, no, you undo what you just did. And you're like, fuck this, man. And you're like, fuck this, man. On step over someone, doesn't that just stepping back over them again?
Starting point is 00:08:15 It's like crossing the black cat. If the black cat crosses your path, you gotta fucking cross the black cat path to cancel out the juju. And it's just the other thing the other thing that happened yesterday is that our new year's Eve on the 31st me and Paige did all the laundry and we cleaned every single dish because you know you sometimes you you might like be behind on dishes like no every dish cleaned, every single sheet washed,
Starting point is 00:08:45 like fresh pair of underwear on New Year's Day. Yeah, for January 1st, but it's not because, it's not because it's to get a great new start on the year, it's because you can't wash anything on the new year, because it'll wash away all of your good luck. Oh my God. Oh. Oh.
Starting point is 00:09:04 Oh. Um. God fucking damn it man. So tradition is very stupid. Conversation in which I was like, can I wash my asshole in the shower? Yeah, of course. What about the good luck though? On me? More than on my plates? What about the good luck right in the crease? I have a really sneaking suspicion.
Starting point is 00:09:36 So Paige is in the chat, hi, I honey, saying it's tradition. And I wonder if any of these are just like your mom didn't wanna do dishes on New Year's Day. So this is my problem and this is kind of what I was getting towards actually is like when you hear about a tradition that we have and you're like, okay, why do we do this thing? And it's like, okay, we say cheers and we click our glasses together apparently because when two tribe leaders that didn't trust that
Starting point is 00:10:05 they weren't gonna poison each other, we're about to share drinks because we made peace. We got a little bit of the drink and we spill our drinks together so that we drink of the same cup and thus the poison's gonna get us both, right? It's a trust or lack of trust thing. In other words, you know. Like putting your hand up and putting your hand on your heart, you can't have a gun or a knife in your hand. No shit! Visible.
Starting point is 00:10:26 I didn't know that. That's wow. That's- Ah, so you- I crossed my swear. I swear. I'm not gonna stab you. Wow.
Starting point is 00:10:34 Look at the right. That makes sense. And I'm like, or you know, I was told- I was told that by a Greek friend that, you know, up, I mean, you break the glass and you break the plates and shit. I was told that that a Greek friend that, you know, oh, man, you break the glass, and you break the plates and shit. I was told that that's kind of like, the idea is we're celebrating with this,
Starting point is 00:10:52 with this, a dinnerware, and the time we're having is so good that this should never be used again, you know? Okay. It's like, yeah, this glass that we just, it was such a great time, fuck it, this glass has hit its peak. So this is what ancient Greek live-left love,
Starting point is 00:11:07 or, I guess, like nobody's watching. But I guess the idea is like, yeah, like this plate should never be used again. This was super worth it for this time. Bam, fuck it, oh, let's go, right? And, oh, it just seems fun to say. Yeah, yeah, oh, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But anyway, the idea of that is like, okay, right, I follow how there was a thing,
Starting point is 00:11:30 and there was a moment in time where like someone, they know the- the king did some shit to everyone, oh, the king did it. Maybe that'll be lucky if we do it too or whatever. And it's-it's like, these things that like come from a place where you're like, I see how this- we tripped into this accidentally, and now it's just for fun. Fine. But the shit where you're like, I'm grabbing a random spice and I'm just shoving it somewhere or doing something with it or sprinkling it so that vampires can't come like, what the fuck are we doing, man?
Starting point is 00:12:00 Hey, listen, listen. Shit, shit from the pantry. The anytime shit from the pantry is magical It's some literally dumb wives tales. We're bored and we're coming up with which shit cuz we don't know what else the fucking do I think my personal favorite that I've ever heard is that my mother told me Not to walk under a ladder because it's bad Mm-hmm, and that my dad told me, no, don't walk under a ladder, shit falls off the ladder,
Starting point is 00:12:26 like what are you? Like, just don't, just don't. Literally just, it's just, that's just OSHA, that's not superstition. That's just good work, fucking policy. Yeah, a million percent, man. That, you know, like if you can just trace that tradition back to the thing that was practical about it then absolutely, you know
Starting point is 00:12:47 God damn it all that and So you don't have any of that in your household. No not really And I also you know was hearing about the like then of the drink the the Salem witch Hunts and all that that the idea of A lot of the witchcraft could have been the fact that like the wheat went bad and people were getting essentially I think man that has scraped your brain a little bit. It was the witch trials man. They weren't The witch hunt. Yeah I just I
Starting point is 00:13:23 Bad both in my mind and I went for witch huts because it sounded cooler. Anyway, the Salem witch trials up, like all of that. Yeah, bad corn. Bad corn, some fucking shrooms getting in the mix. Makes like specifically like teenage girls, like go crazy. Do some kind of hormonal thing. God.
Starting point is 00:13:46 Yeah. Anyway, so rabbit rabbit, oh wait, it's too late. Rabbit rabbit. Like when you were saying that, I'm like the only guy, the only thing I could think of that I'm like, wow, what's rabbit rabbit for my childhood? I'm like, well my dad had a friend named Rabbit.? I'm like, well, my dad had a friend name rabbit. And I was like, dad, is that his real name?
Starting point is 00:14:09 Like, no, of course not. Like, well, why do you call him rabbit? It's like, because he cheats on his white phone. Oh my God, Jesus fuck. And it's like, that's his nickname and you're in your, in my dad's group of friends, they call him rabbit, okay. The funny part too with the whole grandma magic shit
Starting point is 00:14:25 is that like a bunch of the times, like the people that are doing that are also like, they super believe in like Christianity and are like yeah, the Bible and God and all that good shit. But grandma magic is just a little something different than that works too. Like it's not incompatible. Who told me that birds kill your family
Starting point is 00:14:44 was also the same mom that was disappointed that I didn't go to church Exactly Despite not going to church herself. That's my favorite part That's my favorite part the only time my mom ever went to church was to bring me to church and have me be bored And as soon as I was like I don't like this she would not go herself because she would get bored. Man, just admit that you think superstition is kind of cool and the world is more interesting if that bird had a meaning when it flew in the house. My mom just wants to get into heaven, that's it.
Starting point is 00:15:19 Okay, so like head your bets, cover all around. Take, is it Pascal's wager. Yeah. Yeah. Um, anyways, farmers almanac. There we go. All right. Farmer's almanac was like a very legitimate incredible use for like like sewing crops and dealing with weather pattern and had had this shit. And then what happened? Yeah. Where was that gradient? When when did it fall off? The tainting of search algorithms by AI screw up the father's Almanac. Is it like when Playboy had to switch over to not being a titty magazine?
Starting point is 00:15:59 And it just and it and it they're like, no, we're reinventing ourselves. Did Farmas Almanac become all about the, the, the superstition and the spells? Yeah, you don't know. Um, anyways. Almanac become all about the superstition and the spells. Yeah, you don't know. Anyways, yeah, so hey, there's a new year and I did a bunch of things. We're in the future now. We're now hitting one of those years that was like widely used. Jetset Radio.
Starting point is 00:16:24 What was the other one? Jetset Radio Future is Jetset Radio. What was the other one? Jetset Radio Future is Jetset Radio present? There's a couple of people referencing 2024 as like the jumping off point for a lot of things. Batman Beyond. Damn. Really? Oh my god. I mean 13 centenels jumps all over the place. We're like slappers, man.
Starting point is 00:16:41 Oh fuck. Where's my slappers? The distant future. Oh Irish reunoppers, man. Oh, fuck. Where's my slappers? Mm-hmm. The distant future. Oh, Irish reunification is this year. Oh, shit. According to Star Trek. Okay.
Starting point is 00:16:51 Well, Star Trek also says that 2024 will be the year that has the bell riots, which are when the disenfranchised has the bell riots, which are when the disenfranchised poor Americans being shut into poor people cities rise up and enact dramatic social change. Uh-huh. Man, it really was interesting when the idea of 30 years in the future, like the world is optimistic that we're just going to figure it all out. So I want to be really clear about Star Trek. Okay, so you're not a, you haven't watched most of it.
Starting point is 00:17:36 So if you watch enough, they talk about we're in the future, and everything's great now in the Federation. But then they also discuss that in between right now and getting to that future, it got way, way worse. Oh, okay, okay. Okay. It was like apocalyptic nuclear annihilation of Earth bad. Oh, really?
Starting point is 00:18:03 Okay. And coming out of that is where people are like, probably making Utopia. Interesting, okay. I was kind of, yeah, I didn't know if the timeline was like, we went from 1960s and everything just went up from there until we hit class one civilization. No, there was a nuclear war. There was the eugenics wars
Starting point is 00:18:27 Yeah It was there was like all soldiers were like gene therapy freakus always being used for psycho drugs There's always there's always the ability though to throw a word in front of the word wars in your sci-fi setting Right clone wars though to throw a word in front of the word wars in your sci-fi setting, right? Clone Wars, Gene Wars, just whatever the fucking your brain just has to take that and carry it wherever it goes. I still think the Clone Wars is the absolute most wasted opportunity ever because when you hear the Clone Wars, I'm like, oh, what was it?
Starting point is 00:19:01 Like the clones of like some big monster man. I was like, oh no, the Clone Wars were about our soldiers. Clone troopers. Yeah. Yeah. It should be called the Robot Wars, because they were fighting the robot. Your brain wants to say something like secret invasion.
Starting point is 00:19:17 We're like, what? A fucking whatever 20 or 30% of the planet Earth is all scrolls. Which ones are human? Which ones are not, right? The human clones are among us. And now, oh my God, a war broke out. Yeah, you go to the, and it's like, no, actually, it's just, it's one guy.
Starting point is 00:19:33 It's one Kiwi, and he got, one Kiwi with a gun, copied and pasted over and over again. Sometimes they didn't copy, past him good, and that's why you get bad batches. The bad batch, though. Yeah. Um, anyways, but uh, yeah, 2024 the A couple a couple of things over here on on my side as far as how the week was spent so closing out 2023 with out 2023 with I went out to I went to my neighbors place and we played some board games. Oh cool. Yeah, we had a good time. And I want to well, one point out just in case anyone
Starting point is 00:20:17 is is curious about it. But I've been largely I've talked about this game called Drop Mix, which is a really cool harmonics card game where you mix music cards together and then you're using your phone or your iPad or whatever the case, it'll like sync up with the machine and then like you play a card game and then you use instruments to make music and it's all like licensed specific instrument tracks from like known songs and stuff.
Starting point is 00:20:46 So it's fun. You can kind of just create your own mixes. Really, really cool game. Harmonix, I know it's not their fault, but once again, just getting fucked over because the publishing of it or whatever got bought by... I don't know, look, who know? Like Epic or EA or one of them fucks and they just
Starting point is 00:21:07 delisted the game so like it's basically in a limbo fucked state where you can't get the app to play it at all anymore even if you have the hardware. So if you've got a phone or an iPad with it good luck, you have it, don't ever delete it, you can't re-download it, good luck, you have it, don't ever delete it, you can't redownload it, fuck you. It sucks because it's such a cool game and it's now it's just like completely inaccessible because of shitty publisher behavior. Are you gonna put it back out? Are you gonna release a new one? Nope, we're just taking this one away from you and if you happen to already own it, it was a time-sensitive game. It's the equivalent of a card game that's now like an MMO that started and died.
Starting point is 00:21:45 You know? So you know what the weirdest thing about that is that people still use like, you know, MMO is gone, you know, whatever. It's like the big MMO is like fucking FF11 still going and it's going nowhere. Right. It used to be under the assumption that an MMO would last four to eight years at best. And now it's like, well, I guess some of them is actually going to last until you die. Well, I think there's, there's, but it can have two phases where it's like that MMO is dead, but we're still keeping the
Starting point is 00:22:17 servers online for people that want to still use it. So that would be FF 11. FF 11 is in maintenance. Yeah. Like they did, it's still there. And that's fine. But that's totally fine, you know. It ultimately is best when you don't have to rely on, you know, the servers for that to happen if there's a way to make things happen locally or line based or whatever in any game. But regardless, it's an MMO, so I understand. Oh, I'm being informed that FF11 has had, in fact, had new content in the past couple of years. Wow.
Starting point is 00:22:52 Is it all, like, please go play 14? Here's a great new sword, and when you use it, you get really cool things in 14. Well, I think the funniest thing about that, by far far is that the answer is no But ff 14's next raid series instead of near it's gonna be hey have you played ff 11? You should go play ff 11 because it's gonna be Return to vena deal. Okay. All right, so it's actually the opposite the throwback He's like hey, did you know there was an FF11 you could play too? That's funny.
Starting point is 00:23:25 It's free if you pay for it. Yeah, I mean, again, I assume that just for social reasons, right? I assume that if you go back to FF11, half of it is RPing now, right? No. No. No. It's just people chilling. Well, they're like three of my friends that are playing FF11 right now.
Starting point is 00:23:50 And by right now, I may in fact actually mean right now. Immediately. Okay. Hey, you know how MMO players are like diseased in their mind? I didn't say it. Yeah, hey, you know how MMO players are like diseased in their mind 14 and then they run out of things to doing 14 Okay, it's like six months from now until till dawn trail so they go well FF 11's right there. Okay. All right. See important. You're allowed to say that as an MMO player if I said that
Starting point is 00:24:25 fires See important you're allowed to say that as an MMO player if I said that fires You know, I'll leave that to your assessment. Oh, I have the sickness Yeah, so I also So yeah, I got that that that shitty reminder about that game I want a bump as well man and you found out in that context, that sucks. We so out like originally Punch Mom like went to try it out with some friends a little before that.
Starting point is 00:24:54 She's like, oh, I can't really find it. I'm like, huh, okay, whatever. And they moved on and then looking into it, it turns out, yeah, you just, that's it. I brought it over to play for there. But it's fine, we had some other stuff. I brought over channel A, which again, I wanna to bump for anybody. That's looking for a fun game. It's the game where you have someone plays the producer and they are listening to
Starting point is 00:25:16 you put together a bunch of cards with words on them, adjectives and nouns to create an anime title. And you have to then pitch your anime to the producer. It's really, really fun. It's a combined the cards to make the funniest outcome thing, but in this case, it's also kind of about the pitch and how creative you are at like selling the idea. And the pitch has to, of course, go with what the producer's particular topical requests are. So they'll be like, this season we're looking for, well, real example, this season we're looking for high school girls and Cthulhu.
Starting point is 00:25:53 Yeah, right. So then I was able to put together, I think it was like cutie sailor noodle tan or noodle tan that's good. Yeah, and it's like, what's noodle tan up to? And it's like, I don't know, why do we call our noodle tan? Because our that's good. I like you know and it's like what's noodle Chan up to and it's like I don't know why do we call our noodle Chan because our faces half noodles. And so on and yeah you just kind of play along with that. So it was it was it was pretty good. Channel A is that game and then I got to learn about what was it called? Let me put it it it it was called flame craft, which is a board game where you you shop in a little there's a little town
Starting point is 00:26:35 and there's shops and you do you in those dragons that go shopping and you help the dragons. Okay, and you just help the dragons go shopping and you you put you place them inside the different shops and then you collect meets and Currencies, yeah um, and that's pretty much it and the goal is to get a bunch to collect some fancy dragons and make the most hearts at the end Basically, it's just it's a very cute game It is admittedly somewhat complex on the learning curve. So when you're first stepping into it,
Starting point is 00:27:09 there's many currencies to learn about, many different conditions that lead to many types of states that can happen. There's a checklist of things you can do on your turn. A, if you choose option A, you have to go down this list, or if you choose option B you have to go down this list or if you choose option b you go down that list and like it when we were watching on Slopstream there's a skit that was about like this the most complicated game ever and all the friends are like what the fuck is this why I don't understand what just happened and it kind of like it was particularly pressy it because I had that vibe I forget what the what the skit was but it was definitely like no on one
Starting point is 00:27:47 friend is like no no no no you do this and then you grab the the the the the tubbler that has the fucking bingo numbers in it you know and because it's Tuesday and you said sure anti-donna yeah it was great really very funny I love we love those guys me page of huge fans anti-donna, anti-donna. Yeah, it was great, really very funny. I love, we love those guys, me and Paige are huge fans of anti-donna. So that was a really funny skit that kind of like was emblematic of that, especially because right at the end where it's like, God, what the fuck was this? Anyways, he's like, yeah, but it's screaming at each other about how awful it was. Oh! But then, but then, uh, uh, the dude's like, yeah, but it's pretty fun once you get the rules right?
Starting point is 00:28:22 It's like, yeah, actually, it's pretty fun. Yeah, it was, it wasn't, yeah. So I was like, by the end, by the halfway point, I was like, oh yeah, no, yeah, it's pretty fun once you get the rules right? It's like yeah, actually, it's pretty fun Yeah, it was it wasn't them. Yeah, so I was like by the end by the halfway point I was like, oh, yeah, no, I get it. This is a lot of fun But that initial learning curve is like rule, you know, you got to be I guess and I and I definitely to I'm like Reminded of every time I want to like any time someone's interested obviously in fighting games, right? And it's like this is too complicated. I'm like, right, I'm hypersensitive towards not scaring away the chipmunk. That's parrism. You know, that's-
Starting point is 00:28:49 You watch Parks and Rec? Yeah, yeah. Fucking cups and towns. Oh, whatever the fight, yeah, yeah, yeah, sure, sure, sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. The insane game that Ben was playing, yeah. Like, that's what fighting game look like to normal humans. So I'm insanely like sensitive towards not overwhelming the new person in the room with stuff like that and like
Starting point is 00:29:11 You know, you have to just you have to be aware right which then leads me to so yeah, that was a fun time and got to Have some fun games there but another game that I played so New years I went to go chill with a surmy out and and boo shout outs to them. Cool folks. Please stop talking. Did you hang out in his apartment? Yeah. Okay. I was like, he put up pictures of like moving in, got the cat stuff. And I was like, hit with this wave of weird anti nostalgia because it looked like he moved into my old apartment.
Starting point is 00:29:47 Okay. It's like the wood, the Montreal attached wood. Yeah, I know, I think I know which one you mean because there is that vibe to it, but it's a different zone. But ultimately the, yeah, good hangs, you know, got to it, but it's a different, different zone. But ultimately the, yeah, good hangs, you know, got to, got to chill for New Year's. And then we played, we played werewolf, Lugaru. Any familiarity with that? Do you mean like you tape a bunch of dog hair
Starting point is 00:30:23 to your back and kiss or like, there's a, there's a game you play with a bunch of dog hair to your back and kiss or like. There's a game you play with a group of people called Werewolf where you have to figure out who the Werewolf is and who the Townspeople are. And essentially, the short version of it is that like, I've only ever played it in this, it's simplest form and that's what I know which is, there's a group. And depending on how many people you are You pick some to be where wolves and some are just townspeople and then every night everyone closes their eyes You go to sleep and then like a DM will basically be like now the wolves open their eyes pick a victim and then the next morning
Starting point is 00:30:56 We all wake up. This sounds like you played the board game omogus. Yes, actually. Yes. It is 100% omogus in sitting around in a room form, right? And and that's that's my experience with it, you know, and a punch mom had never had never played before but it's basically that deal and we were in so apparently like the crew that we were with, like, and meow and boo and everyone, they all were very used to this game, had played it a bunch as kids, and so they were playing with the, I also only played it like just verbally, like you just, the person would know and say the story,
Starting point is 00:31:36 they had like the box and all the little pieces and stuff, and so outcomes all these extra roles and shit, and it's like, okay, wait, hold on, you, okay, there's villagers and there's were rolls But someone can be the hunter and right when the hunter gets killed the hunter can shoot back before he dies And then take someone else out with him right and it's like okay cool. You can introduce that okay I'm like okay, and then there's the little girl and the little girl gets the peak during the night But if the little girl gets caught in uh-oh, she's in trouble. So that might be one of the roles. Okay, and and Pudge Mom's like, okay, I guess we'll just have
Starting point is 00:32:10 to go along with it and see in these orders, the DM will take them in turn and say, all right, okay, cool. And then there's the mystic. And the mystic during the night can choose someone's to reveal their thing when everyone else is sleeping so that the mystic can see it psychically, know something about someone. Okay, right, and that happens before, the, and it's like, no, no, no, what happens before that, there's the cupid, and the cupid in the beginning is gonna pick two people, and these two people are lovers,
Starting point is 00:32:37 and if one of them dies, the other one dies, even if there's other people that may, even if one's aware, we'll put one's a villager, they might still have this connection that the cupid forced upon them. So that turn has to happen in the, okay, all right, cool. Huh. But then there's the witch.
Starting point is 00:32:52 And the witch can choose to stop somebody from dying and also resurrect somebody, but only once. And then they, and they're like, man, what the fuck are we doing? You know, it's, it got crazy. Yeah. And I used to think it was like anxiety or my own OCD or whatever, but as I've gotten older and talked to more people, everyone hits a certain threshold of new information.
Starting point is 00:33:21 Man. Just freezes. It's just bad. I don't, there's too much that told me too many things at once I'm gonna die and this is all this is all preemptively going in with me just playing the base level of the game and again a punch mom who's just is not know or you know and so we're sitting there and like like it like we're kind of just laughing because it's like all right yeah
Starting point is 00:33:41 but we roll with it that DM's gonna gonna guide us. It's fine. We'll just have to flow with it. And ultimately it is. But like, it almost comedically, there was a point when it was like, okay, we can bring in more werewolves, but for that, we should introduce more roles. And then someone was like, um, okay, well, there's the, there's the fool, the town a fool. Let us wait. What? And there's like a whole bunch of other cards that were not out. And then there's the town fool There's the snake charmer and they're like no, no, no, not the snake charmer That's too complicated because the snake charmer introduces a third entity from the werewolves of the townspeople that can win the game And it completely separate and I'm like are you fucking kidding me like what?
Starting point is 00:34:19 How is there more and I think there's so much more there's a minute, and it just, it reads of like, okay, people who have played this game for the entirety of their lives are so bored and aware of the normal version that they have 18 different spices to stick into it. You know, but onboarding, you're just like, I, what? What is happening?
Starting point is 00:34:42 It's one of those things. Oh God, you games actually excel at specifically. What is happening? It's one of those things. Oh god. You games actually excel at specifically. So I think of a game that is very similar to this and among us called Project Winter that I played a little while ago with some of my friends. And it's basically, you know, there's a... There's a traitor, essentially, who's trying to kill everybody
Starting point is 00:35:02 and stop objectives. But there's like 10 different roles, right? And they all have different skills, and they all have different things. But the core of it is that when you load in, and you either pick or are given your role, it just tells you what your role can and should be doing, and you will be working through that.
Starting point is 00:35:22 And yeah, does that mean you don't understand what everybody else can do? That's exactly what it means. Okay. You mean you don't understand what everybody else can do? That's exactly what it means. You don't need to know what everybody else can do. Your buddy can just tell you what the doctor role does or whatever, and you can just drill down on your focus. But when you're playing board game and there, well, you've picked the mystic,
Starting point is 00:35:39 you can do this. Well, you can't do that because the werewolf has four turns left, blah, blah, blah. But in a game, it'll just go, or whatever, and stop you, and you go, I guess I can't do that. Yeah. So, you know, if you boot up a game and then you're loading in eight expansion packs and DLCs that have come out, and like they're all just stacking on top of each other, so that the moment you press new game, it's like, okay, what the fuck is happening like I I I can't
Starting point is 00:36:06 You're not getting the normal onboarding process, you know, but again, it was just it was funny because it was fine We played a very fun game and you know it all works out because the DM has to just guide you through it and go all right If you happen to be the witch would you like to do this or how about that and then you just move it step by step So that we avoid it, but there's definitely just a oh my god which would you like to do this or how about that? And then you just move it step by step so that we avoid it. But there's definitely just a, oh my God, I can't believe how many, what are we doing here, why?
Starting point is 00:36:32 And there's even more. Information overload is the worst. I actually had like a weird, like somebody described it as a mind goblin dying of old age. Okay. Yesterday, where I was talking about how I really love Siv, but I've never finished one game of Siv in my life.
Starting point is 00:36:53 Oh shit, really? I have played, I have played Siv 3, 4, 5, 6. I have all of their expat, and I've never finished one game. Wow. Because I get to the mid game of Siv, and I've never finished one game. Wow. Because I get to the mid game of Civ and I start looking at the text, tech tree and I start looking at the, the settlements that I have and I start looking at the, what the enemy is doing and I look back at the tech tree
Starting point is 00:37:19 and I'm trying to plan out the, the rest of the game and I, I'm like, oh, this is this, this, this, this. And I just, ah, and I can't do it. And I start to panic. And then I turn it off. This, this, and. Sorry, I'm doing it. No, I'm just gonna ask, like, you like, nothing,
Starting point is 00:37:37 you're never, like, time is always passing on your, say so, right? Yeah, yeah, okay, okay. So there's infinite time, but it's just like you're looking at like 10 spreadsheets very basically. And then I was just talking with chat and I'm like, wait a second.
Starting point is 00:37:54 I don't have to plan anything. I just have to go to each thing and just kinda do what I think would be the best for right now. And if I, oh, if I didn't research the wheel earlier and I need it, oh, I'll just do it later. And it'll go fast. And then somebody really put the nail in the coffin, which was like, yeah, dude, the modern age of civ is about converting whatever situation you arrived in into a win. It's just like, oh, do I have a lot of military? Okay, well, maybe you should go for a military victory.
Starting point is 00:38:33 Do you have a lot of culture? Oh, maybe you should try and go for the culture victory. And I just like, oh, oh, I have to take pieces of the information out of my head and leave them on the table. Different wind conditions mean you can ignore the ones you didn't already go towards. Yeah, okay. Just try and do whatever is the best for the situation that you're like, oh, oh, because I, so you know how I think I'm completely insane about how I think artists happen.
Starting point is 00:38:57 Sure. Right. Yep. So to those of you who don't know, for the vast majority of my adult life, I thought that everyone who drew a picture had the whole picture in their head before they started, and that every musical composer had the whole music in their head before they started, and so on and so forth, and that your skill as an artist of any kind was just how good you are from getting it from the inside of your head onto a piece of paper.
Starting point is 00:39:24 Right, right. The printer line. I am. I thought that's how people played grand strategy games too, where they had their their whole fucking master plan. Yeah. And then they were enacting on it instead of just going, I want the archers, boop. And it's all it's all improvising. It's like, I know what a human form looks like. Let's make that and go, okay, maybe try this. Oh, that didn't work, try that. And you just, you do it enough times that you've improvised the same thing
Starting point is 00:39:52 in a, in a, for it to look kind of competent. You bullshit your way. I'm gonna make a chat, asks a follow up question. Did you think novelists also work that way? Yeah. That's why I've been so confused. Why Grim can't just write the book. He already had the whole story before he started.
Starting point is 00:40:07 So just take it out of your brain and put it on the paper. Now, okay, to be fair to you, writing is closer to that insanity than other mediums are because of the nature of text is chronological, right? Well, yeah, I had the general gist of the story. Yes, exactly. This part didn't work. So I changed it. And then you detail and then you go back in and flush things
Starting point is 00:40:29 out and stuff. Exactly. You have sketches and then you detail your sketches. That's why Alan Wake is a really bad writer because he kept improvising his pages page by page. The, the, um, on you, Alan. Yeah, the, when you have the, um, when you have the, people have different writing skills, but when people are writing a skeleton format, and then you just flush out the bones as you zoom in on each one, you're creating a larger picture. That is, again, similar to the other pieces there. But you are, anyway, you have your highlights in mind that you try to build and connect towards and so on. Oh, someone asked a good question. What did I think writer's block was?
Starting point is 00:41:12 Well, because of the way writer's block is, I thought what writer's block was is that you had the idea, but every time you put it down on paper, you're like, it's not right and it sucks Like trying to make a meal and it doesn't come out the way you want and So you trash it and try and do it again I thought it was like being physically blocked from writing the good thing Apparently, it's not having ideas
Starting point is 00:41:41 Yeah, um, I Mean it Yeah, um, I mean, it can in some cases, for example, like, be, if someone is writing really good characters, they will often say things like the characters just, they say them, they say these things on their own. I barely had to make this conversation happen. I just put them in the same room after these events occurred and the dialogue that happens is like, well, this is, of course, what he would say and vice versa, right? I'm reminded of, you know, when Weiss and Hickman were talking about their, their, you
Starting point is 00:42:13 know, their D&D campaign conversations. It just plays out because, of course, this is the way these two characters would talk to each other. That's a really good sign for your characters and being fleshed out enough to, to be these like entities that can write themselves almost But sometimes that'll also lead to something where you're like, I this is the conversation This is what plays out, but this is not what I'm actually Like this doesn't work with where I want things to go. So I like you're like, oh, I have a problem here
Starting point is 00:42:39 And you have a lot or a larger structural issue with like, you know, different aspects of your story, not being compatible with each other. So this whole conversation came out. I feel so bad for my wife because she had to have the real version of this conversation with me where so Paige is a musician and a singer. She knows music stuff. So I was watching a clip of Bradley Cooper doing his composer thing from his new movie, The Composer. And I was like, hey, honey, she's like, yeah, why do they need a composer? And she's like, well, you get lost in the music and you need somebody to bring you back. It's like a human metronome.
Starting point is 00:43:22 And oh, my store, that's the name of the movie. And I'm like, why doesn't every musician just play the piece correctly every time? And then she gave me that look, which is the look in which she realizes she's being sucked into one of my nightmare conversations. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Starting point is 00:43:38 Mm-hmm. It is, and what we come to realize over time, that the problem is actually not the specific question you ask. The problem is with your concept of how the brain gets anything out of its idea into reality, right? Your concept of converting thought into reality and using hand or word to do it is completely fucked up. So that any, any media discussion,
Starting point is 00:44:06 the end of that discussion was the fact that apparently, I have wildly overestimated the level of skill of every person who knows anything that I don't know because I assumed that if they were good at it, they could do it as good as they always wanted to every single time without fail because that would mean to were good at it, they could do it as good as they always wanted to every single time without fail because that would mean to be good at it is they just do it right every time.
Starting point is 00:44:30 Yes, you plug the USB cable out from your head into reality and then make it happen. And there it is, what's the problem? You just think of it, though. Yeah. God damn it. Oh my God. Like, I'm now realizing, oh, aren't it? Oh, oh.
Starting point is 00:44:47 So, so I thought all this styles existed entirely in their head. Okay, so I have to ask then, like, have you ever had to confront edge cases to this insanity? For example, the concept of a jam band who don't know what they're gonna play, but they know their instruments and the general chords and music well enough to improvise while feeling what the other person's setting up. I'm not parsley and counter to Janban. I'm familiar of its existence.
Starting point is 00:45:13 I'm just figured they were winging it. Because a whole bunch of people back in the day could sit there and one guy goes, da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da and then other people can go, well, I knew that day. da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da A, and you realize A doesn't go with B, but it doesn't go with C or D, you go with something like C or D. Right, and so none of that could have been predetermined completely in advance in order to... Yeah, it could have, they would have just written it down.
Starting point is 00:45:54 Right, but the whole thing of the improvised thing is that they didn't write it down, right? Well, yeah, no, but I feel this is tomatoes, tomatoes, it's like, well, they could have written it down, but they didn't, they preferred to not write it down, right? Well, yeah, no, but I feel this is Tomatoes, Tomatoes. It's like, well, they could have written it down, but they didn't. They preferred to not write it down. They preferred to do it on the spot. It's more that like improvising
Starting point is 00:46:12 and to create the thing is a pretty good example of like how a lot of other artworks where you're kind of like, there's some winging it and it can't be perfect and ready to copy, you know There's there's a whole lot of in the moment feeling it out that that goes into it and that with music in particular That's what that looks like, you know Anyway, oh somebody asked a more tangent example then why does any FGC player ever mess up any combo ever because they suck If they were good they would never drop the combo ever. That's why we don't hear about the bad musicians.
Starting point is 00:46:50 If they're a bad player, the combo should go every time. The bad ass. Just like there's no excuse for basketball players to miss three throws. If they're job, put the basket in the ball and the basket. You hear that shack, you're garbage. Oh, man. Yeah, that're garbage. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha and was beating everybody by like 25 fucking strokes because he just played every single fucking course perfectly. God.
Starting point is 00:47:30 And people like me went, yes, he looked, yeah, you just do it good every single time for courses in a row, done. See, the funny thing about a lot of this though is that like, I mean, you know, it does actually lead into the whole like wooly filtering life through fighting game stuff, because it's like, when you actually learn
Starting point is 00:47:51 to do something like, adeptly where you learn about the nitty gritty details, you can see that in so many other things, right? If there's ever anything in life at any point in time that you ever decide, I'm gonna really focus on getting really good at this thing. Anything ever. You will start to see the smallest little details that make a huge difference, but they'll be impossible to notice from the ground level. You'll only notice it once you're like way up here looking at like, ooh, an inch to the left or an inch to the right.
Starting point is 00:48:21 And like the amount of shit running through a Tiger Woods head when he's like swinging, right? The correcting for wind, the type of, you know, the iron, every little thing, the amount of times he's playing it, yadda yadda, you can't fathom the list. The checklist of things going off in his brain is madness, right? Or I'll even take it a step further. Alex Huddled, who did the free solo climbing, the student that climbs crazy shit. And it a step further. Alitanol, who did the free solo climbing, the dude that climbs crazy shit.
Starting point is 00:48:46 Oh yeah, that's crazy fucking. Right? And has no fear receptor in his brain. So he's just like, I don't know, I just climb it and do it right, you know? But like the amount of checklist you go down are it's so granular to the point where you couldn't possibly from the outside
Starting point is 00:49:02 understand or be aware of that. But once you know that something can get this granular, you can look at other people that are masters of other things and go, oh my god, I get it. You're that insane because you were able to go down to an atomic level and make corrections at an atomic level to make sure that every time you swing, you're gonna fucking hit it perfectly, you know?
Starting point is 00:49:23 So this, this actually, this whole conversation, the one that I had with Paige, the precursor to this one, actually ended in like a really happy place for me, because like, I have this tendency that whenever anybody tells me I'm good at something, I go, ah, I'm okay, right? And the reason for that is because like, well, I'm not good at it,
Starting point is 00:49:41 because I don't do it perfectly every single time. If I was good at it, I would do it perfectly every single time. So, I saw somebody go, hey, Pat, how come you miss TBN sometimes when you're playing Dark Knight? Like, oh, cuz I'm not good at playing the game. Cuz if I was good at it, I would hit every single time. But if everybody else is actually not able to perfectly do everything like I thought good at it, I would hit every single time. But if everybody else is actually not able to perfectly do everything like I thought they all were, then I guess that's fine.
Starting point is 00:50:14 It is. But what might be something fun to learn about yourself is if you were to take a printout of your mental faculties when you in particular, well, too bad, when you in particular are playing a character action game for the first time, or even better yet for the 10th time, the amount of things you're doing and the amount of skill you have at linking one ability perfectly timed into the next flawlessly to launch, defend whatever is about to come from off screen because you heard the audio queue,
Starting point is 00:50:50 switch back to the style to finish off this enemy and then get ready for the next one. All of that is such a high level of function going off and it feels instinctual because you've just done it enough times to know that oh yeah, whenever I hear that noise got to watch out for that. But it would totally fit into this category of like, oh, like the moment you hit this enemy, you got to do a quick check for how much meter do I have. Should I start holding for this? And all those things are this exact discussion, you know?
Starting point is 00:51:19 You have a checklist that you're running down that you may or may not be aware of, but you do really well. Yeah, it's telling a mental stack. Yeah, and that's a particular down that you may or may not be aware of, but you do really well. Yeah, it's telling a mental stack. Yeah, and that's a particular thing that you do really well at. So you have that viewpoint at a particular place that might be comparable to the...
Starting point is 00:51:36 Oh, the other part of this problem. So here's this example is so perfect because I've beaten DMD on all of them. So like I've on the harder difficulties. But I haven't like S ranked DMD on all of Devil May Cry. So I would view myself as an okay Devil May Cry player. And I would view Schmup-God Pat. Right.
Starting point is 00:52:06 As a good devil-made cry player. And everyone below us is below average. Yeah. In my idea, well, if I can reach this and I'm just some dude, then that means everyone less skilled than me is bad. And I'm average. And this is the problem of reaching the mountaintop. This is like what,
Starting point is 00:52:28 I mean, like it's literally what fucking vagabond is about, et cetera. But it's just like, like, yeah, anytime. So you say that. And I took it a step further. When I learned about, um, uh, fucking fly canceling and guard canceling in shit in shit and the inertia in DMC4 discussion broke my head open to another layer of it where it's like, oh, you're not even actually playing the game until you start doing this, it's another way to look at it. Like if you're just using the ROM mechanics
Starting point is 00:52:58 and you're not doing it at this point to this level, are you even really playing? Are you even being stylish? Because it could get so much harder, but so much more stylish. Right, you know. So I'm looking back, I might have been able to be like an artist
Starting point is 00:53:11 or a musician or something, but like I would like try, like you know when they gave us recorders in elementary school, did they do that for you? Absolutely, we had to play, Oh, Claire did I loon. Okay, so I sucked at it.
Starting point is 00:53:21 And then like the two guys next to me were like pretty good. So I was like, I am a terrible musician. And then I put it down and I never at it and then like the two guys next to me were like pretty good So I was like I am a terrible musician and then I put it down and I never touched it again Yeah Marising myself. Yeah, this is terrible. I am now telling the story realizing that they probably practice that before getting to the great six and and or someone went damn I suck and then they picked it back up and went tt tt tt tt tt tt and then like and then they went damn I suck and then they just you just keep doing it.
Starting point is 00:53:52 But if you can't be the best in the world at something why even get out of damn it's why I love it's it's it's it's God right failing means you shouldn't have tried yes 100% but also it's why I always talk about kicking the tree right the Rockley analogy That is like hey man someone who actually is talented where in real life now We kind of know that that in many cases is your parent decided to sacrifice your cut your own happiness to make sure that you were the best. Shout out to Tiger Woods, shout out to Michael Jackson, shout out to the Venus and Serena Williams.
Starting point is 00:54:32 Just the amount of, you don't see what happens behind the scenes to create that entity. But the idea of being like, I'm actually not very good at this at all, but I'm gonna just do the one thing until I know how to do that one thing right. And then I'll be really good at it because damn it, I'm, I, I, I, it's, but even in your own example, Rockley isn't the best at anything. Right. Well, that's the, he, he, he gets really good at being the Tajitsu guy, you know, and,
Starting point is 00:55:01 and, and like, that's a pathway you can take. And then, you know, his teacher can also fucking follow that path, et cetera, you know, and like that's a pathway you can take and then, you know, his teacher can also fucking follow that path, etc. You know, but he is like the idea is that you can get really, really strong and one thing if you decide to make that your discipline, even if you have no talent for it. Um, where the fuck were we even going? I don't know, but anyway, we played some games, but yeah, anyways, that was a good time. So, you know, shoutouts to Cermiao and Boo and happy, happy, happy fun times there. Sorry for that insanely sideways tangent. It was, no, it was an interesting discussion.
Starting point is 00:55:43 That's all there. sideways tangent. It was, no, it was an interesting discussion. That's all there. A couple other things. Yeah, I was really feeling really tense. Had a new day, a new day, a new year massage, just to fucking work out some of the things. You need one of those and thank God
Starting point is 00:56:02 you can make those actually like tax deductible because guess what sitting in an office chair and or sitting down a lot is something that should be covered so that makes sense and Yeah, okay, there's there's an interesting video I watched that I want to I want to bring up An interesting video I watched that I want to bring up that I think is worth checking out but I have caveats with it too. There's a channel called Not Just Bikes and it's about urban planning and I might have mentioned it in the past before because it's basically someone that lived in London, Ontario moved to Amsterdam and kind of went holy shit. There's a lot better way to do this than to just kind of be surrounded by like car, highway,
Starting point is 00:56:49 and like to be, like having a school bus that take your kids across a highway to school and like having them be in a suburb that was just like an endless maze where the kids can't figure out how to navigate through it and they don't have a sense of how to move around and stuff was really interesting, right? I just clicked on not just Bikes' first recommended video and clicked on a random spot in the video and I'm looking at that shit hole metro underpass. So that's why I'm getting old off it. So that's why I'm getting to this, that's why I'm bringing it up, right? So the channel in general is, yeah, it basically talks about how you can do better urban planning.
Starting point is 00:57:30 And one of the things that first caught my attention with it was the discussion about how when you're in a suburb that is like very like in a, it's like where it's like everything is just like a grid and there's no real sidewalks and stuff. If you're a kid growing up in that environment, it actually kind of kills your ability to navigate and move around and map things in real life because you never really have to use that skill and like you just end up being someone who's used to traveling by getting in a car driving to school or getting in a bus drive traveling to school. And you're just warping.
Starting point is 00:58:01 Left right right left. You're warping to a location to location to the mall nearby, but everything on foot is just not really something you can navigate. Yeah, your star fielding. If you were in a place where you could walk past a couple of mom in pop shops and maybe a gas station here and you could recognize things, you could eventually navigate your way to the little corner store and then back home and then you get a better sense of your environment. So that has a detrimental effect on kids and stuff.
Starting point is 00:58:25 And so it was interesting to kind of learn about that stuff. In that, then now Montreal has always been talked about as like one of the most unique cities in North America. And that it is, because it's the most European. Definitely, yeah. In design. And so like there was recently a big video going into like, all right, I went to Montreal and here's my assessment of it.
Starting point is 00:58:45 And it's quite an interesting video because like the, I feel that like he gives it a very fair shake in that he's like, here's all the things that it does that are amazing compared to the rest of the continent, right? There's a lot of shit about Montreal that's really, really cool and unique that's not done anywhere else here. Because of the initial, we're gonna try to specifically make ourselves a European vibe from the outset. So that led to some better pedestrian spaces and walkways and stuff compared to the strobes of... Hell yeah, one of these is just fuck Namor station! But then it's like and he's like and if this were any
Starting point is 00:59:28 other urban planning video it would be like all right and this is where I'd roll the credits. But let's get it but like if they're gone let's get into the real shit and it's like the thing about Montreal and the problems are that you have some of the best planned like pedestrian walkways and walking spaces in urbanization. Immediately to the left of that,
Starting point is 00:59:49 some really, really bad ones. And then it shows off like... Like some of the worst things you could ever have for walking around. And yeah, and the idea of the highway right next to the fucking Metro, that is the infamous one, or the idea of, so I was gonna go meet up with one of my friends when I was here
Starting point is 01:00:05 And he said hey, let's go meet at orange julep and it's like what does that mean that means you're going to not murder What does that mean? Oh God you get out at number and you have to cross a super fuck it was described as a a Death Star trench to get across the to the fucking orange juice You know And it's yeah, so it's a, yeah, so it's a fun video that I think gives it a fair shake. And I think if you're interested in kind of learning about what the situation is like here,
Starting point is 01:00:34 it does a decent job of it. It also, here's the thing, drastic change block to block. But something that I need to preface this with is keep in mind though that like the he's also as someone that is in the space of like I guess like other the other urbanist YouTubers and like he's talking about things from the point of view of like here's Amsterdam and how amazing they are with their bikes and their implementation of safety and all these things right right? That is like a million miles ahead of the way a lot of North America does it.
Starting point is 01:01:07 And so like from that perspective, you're looking at it and you're going, all right, Montreal, it feels like you're getting a grading that is like Montreal is Amsterdam minus 25, right? It feels like a city that was like if it were a puzzle, it was made out of 10 different puzzles thrown onto the ground of various different ages because like you'll have this perfect pristine corner piece next to like a chewed up fucked up one that's like the wrong color. And it's all in the same place, right?
Starting point is 01:01:47 And there's an interesting thing that Gahee goes into on that. But what's, if you're like us living in North America, it's also something where it's like, yeah, Montreal is also like Ottawa plus 200, right? Or I don't know, Spokane, or fucking Ron Concoma plus 80 or whatever that you know what I mean But like it's a it's a comp like for the setting that is North America This is exceptional in in the good things. It has for urban planning and and and pedestrian space and stuff But by comparison to fucking Europe and Scandinavia
Starting point is 01:02:23 It's definitely doing wildbatch it in sane things, you know, too. I have to say, I have to ask whether I'm scrolling through these, I don't see it, is the driver, is the Montreal insane driver a part of this urban planning discussion? Not so much because the way that this channel describes things is basically cars bad under all circumstances, right? Okay, but there's some cars are more equal than others. And so that's the thing is where I'm like, I
Starting point is 01:02:56 think that having more emphasized safety and having more walkways and having a design that's based on that more than highways and stroads as they're called. Just is absolutely better and makes more sense. But I do think that like the idea of being like there should never be access for a car is too extreme. I think you can live in a world where there is some, but it should obviously be more incentivized for you to get there via the other means.
Starting point is 01:03:22 Right. In a fantasy realm in which when you wanna go across two or three countries, you can hop on your bicycle. Like that. Right. Oh, I'm gonna go to France for lunch. Okay. So that's where I say, I think this video is pretty
Starting point is 01:03:36 interesting to check out if you're curious about Montreal. But I think it's also something that is like a little bit just too draconian at times about this point of view where it's like The concept of like the concept of having parking at one point It's kind of like dismissed as like why is there even any parking there shouldn't be any and it's like do you real like it living here It's so insane if you just try to street park regardless and things could be definitely planned in a better way around that where You you're not in the situation what you have to be in town parking But the fact that we are means that having parking structures inside is the only way for it to be even slightly viable that the vehicle is in town
Starting point is 01:04:18 You know, I don't understand, you know We'll go into town In Vancouver and we'll find like, hey, we need parking and there's like massive, massive super structures for parking that go like 24's underground. And we've never had like a, like we've never had a, like a problem finding parking. Like you do it for like 10 minutes or 15 minutes, right?
Starting point is 01:04:47 And we've been to Victoria as well. And just like, oh, where are others? And you find a parking place and you go and you park your fucking car. In Montreal, every single time I was ever in a car in the downtown area, it was like a fucking stressful anxiety experience. Right, fuck, right?
Starting point is 01:05:07 Where are we going to park? Driving is awful. Is life a place? Are those tiny little fucking shit lots that block your car in? And so as a result, there is the like decisions that are made to try and alleviate that, but that goes counter to the types of points
Starting point is 01:05:22 that you're trying to make here, right? And there's other things too that are just born of like, okay, now that I've been, you're talking about a place that I know inside out back in my hand, I've lived here my whole life. And the perspective of like, yeah, and for example, check out these like usage of roadways where restaurants have outdoor seating
Starting point is 01:05:42 and it's pretty much just like a positive like, oh yeah, and so they're using this parking space and you can have outdoor seating for the restaurants and shit not knowing the history of That fuck who implemented that to fuck over downtown and not only cut into car drive space But cut into walk space on the sidewalks and how that entire practice was horrible Horrible for the city but from the outside perspective. You're like, oh It's more the western space. It's pretty therefore there should be more of that la la la la la And it's like no you don't you don't know you don't know it's oh no right So that is the part where I'm like I give a humongous caveat as as I recommend this That bar on the corner next to fucking super little like the
Starting point is 01:06:24 That bar on the corner next to fucking super noodles like the Station through the waiter's path And they know and they give no fucks. They're just be lining it back and forth You're fighting people as you're going Yeah, it's a bar that has a bar that goes to the sidewalk and then there's the sidewalk and then on the street, not on the sidewalk at all is like tables and chairs and shit. So as you're walking from like the most like when you're walking from a college to the downtown, so it's one of the most commonly walked stretches of sidewalk in the old city, you're walking right through a bunch of waiters going back and forth and people going into the restaurant to go to the
Starting point is 01:07:07 bathroom. The TLDR is that an infamous real estate fuck from the city basically realized that if he put seating for his restaurants out on the parking space in front of the restaurant and just paid for the parking 24 session. It paid the parking fine every single day. It would be cheaper than actually trying to officially extend the restaurant in any way and the city will just take the money for the parking and the people that sit there and pay to eat while they're there cover the cost of that parking so it's all profit. Easy. Like one morning breakfast person probably covers most of the parking ticket.
Starting point is 01:07:44 And that property of the parking space extends halfway onto the sidewalk where the pedestrians are walking It's insanity but again to Person from the outside walking in and just going like wow pedestrian good car bad That's it. There's no other you know, so it's that, I just wanna make sure that if you're watching this and you live in North America, just be aware that this is the perspective you're kind of getting. But I still think it's worth checking out
Starting point is 01:08:13 because it gives you a pretty good perspective on what it's like to live here. And it shows you a lot of the good and a lot of the bad. And it also shows you something that I didn't really, I never really thought about that much, but part of the reason why things are so bipolar and crazy when you go around town in some places are incredible and some places are awful is because,
Starting point is 01:08:35 you know how they Toronto's called the six because it's the six GTA areas or whatever, right? Like much more. Hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on. Yeah, exactly, yeah. You have to. Those of you listening to the audio version of this podcast, I made a jerk off and a jack-a-lation motion with my hand. Yes. So the channel is not just bikes.
Starting point is 01:08:54 And in this video about Montreal, they point out that it's like Montreal is made up of 19 different cities, actually. Little boroughs that are all their individual locations that control their own thing. And no, it's one city though, but it's one city, but it's not one But it's not one city Yeah, I was like them all tell that we're so fucking mad tell that to the fucking plow that refuses to go over here Tell that to Westmount who will who will put up fucking soldiers and keep you out on Halloween night. You know, like get the fuck out of here. So it's at Montreal, it's split up into 19 different cities essentially,
Starting point is 01:09:33 and each one has different ways of governing itself. So some are way more like pedestrian thinking and way more about setting up a promenade so that people can walk and have a cool, you know, experience while living in walkable spaces, yadda, and some are just like fuck all this. We are doing shit. We want our highway roundabouts. And so it extends to all sorts of things. Like you're in Notre Dame de Grasse and you're like, oh, we want to have a promenade for the all the restaurants and we're going
Starting point is 01:10:02 to pay local artists to put up gigantic 30 foot murals on any space of Moral fest that you can and then you you walk a little further in a west mountain Then they tell you to get the fuck out, and then you go south to point say yeah If you're not here for a condo get the fuck out of here will kill you like like some of the nicest Murals set up in amazing restaurants and fun just walking there's a theater there's great eats joe beef that famous restaurant you know was is right down there and you just walk across the water and you're in point saying fucking Charles and and and and you know a lady approaches us and asks us if we're looking for a good time and then shrinks back into the fucking darkness from when she came back into the shadows.
Starting point is 01:10:48 It took a while. It was a long, it was a long, de-loaded process. You know, I once had to go like the sleep apnea place that I went to close down so I had to go to one in Westmount. And so I'm standing in front of that like high school that like you know that idyllic high school that goes down Sure book mm-hmm with all the greenery and beauty and I'm like waiting for my appointment out near the bus stop And I'm looking around and like I feel like I'm in the fucking steppered wives right not supposed to be here like I'm trash Yeah, yeah, and so but that's what it is right Montreal was made up of all these different areas and they're all running themselves So if you're in an area that's what it is, right? Montreal is made up of all these different areas and they're all running themselves.
Starting point is 01:11:25 So if you're in an area that's run nicely, you're gonna have a more pleasant time. And if you're in an area that's not, it's gonna be batshit. So yeah, just check that out and get a vibe for it. And the places that I obviously try to stick to and the shit that I care about is the areas where you do have it being really nice to walk around and you can enjoy the small shops, pedestrian life
Starting point is 01:11:54 and the ability to just vibe with the city and have fun festivals and all that shit. That's the shit I care about, so I always want to be around that. But when you get out to fucking just like, again, it's like, it's not even off Island. It's just describing as you leave the center and you start heading more east or toward it. It just like, it just becomes, it just becomes like, like, yeah, death star trench.
Starting point is 01:12:23 It becomes a giant death star trench. And then you split it across a couple of suburbs and call it a day. Anyway, so that's a fun video, the relevant to where we come from. I watched a movie called Godzilla minus one. Oh, hey! Did you?
Starting point is 01:12:44 No. Okay. I watched movies way out. I have a baby. Yep. Fair. So I watch movies in tiny chunks if at all right now. Yeah Okay Godzilla minus one is fucking excellent. It's a new Japan Godzilla movie, not the Western style. I don't know where I'll end up. So we're doing it, we're doing it the old way,
Starting point is 01:13:15 we're doing fatty boombadi legs and thin head up the top. We're doing Christmas tree, Godzilla proportions. Very, very good. If I can, I, as someone who has only consumed some Godzilla media here and there, but like, you know, like no massive connoisseur, I can say that this is one of the most compelling and like fucking just emotional rides with the human side of the story. That's not what I thought you were going to say. It's a very human story and Godzilla happens to be there. Oh cool.
Starting point is 01:13:58 Okay, so I'm going to spoil the first like three minutes of the movie. I so I before we continue, does this have anything to do with Shin Godzilla? No. Okay, that makes a lot of more sense to me. I know is nowhere near this. It's not connected to that in any way. When I saw Godzilla minus one,
Starting point is 01:14:23 I thought that meant that this was a prequel to Shin Godzilla. That's what you would think because of the naming, but it turns out that's not the reason for the name. I'll tell you the reason for the name in a second. Okay. The intro to the movie is a plane. Okay, first of all, the setting is Japan, 1945.
Starting point is 01:14:43 Oh, 45. Yeah. okay. The movie starts with a plane landing at a base going in for repairs as the Japanese war pilot gets out and they're like all right yeah something's wrong we'll go check it out and they're like huh we checked out your plane seems like nothing's wrong with it'll go check it out and they're like, huh, we checked out your plane Seems like nothing's wrong with it. What's up with that? Then the dude's like Yeah, and they're like So you're not gonna go do your mission, huh? You're not gonna go do the kamikaze thing you're supposed to do and he's like
Starting point is 01:15:30 to do and he's like, uh, yeah, and everyone's like, okay. And then what a dude comes around and goes like, yeah, it's the end of the war. Go die honorably for nothing. I get it fair enough, but also what the fuck, you know? And your main character right off the bat is just that, right, embodied. And then, yeah, and you kind of, you know, continue down this road of like a Kamikaze pilot who ran away from doing that. And I was like, oh, this is where we're going. And I'm like, immediately I'm like sitting up because I'm like, I didn't know anything. I didn't watch any trailers going. And I just like immediately, I'm like sitting up because I'm like, I didn't know anything. I didn't watch any trailers going and I just went in completely cold hearing that it was very good.
Starting point is 01:16:08 And when you see that, I go, okay, okay, okay, I have a lot rolling through. Japan is very touchy about acknowledging and talking about its world warship. And how much of that are we going to see here? How much are we gonna actually acknowledge and peel open? What's going to be kept back safe? Like, it's a movie. But what do you actually get, you know what I mean? Like, there's a whole lot here.
Starting point is 01:16:35 That I'm curious to see what they're going to expose. And so, you know, going into it, and then, you know, that character kind of following through his life and then that character kind of following through his life and then Godzilla's happening in the background, it fucking really goes into just, I was very concerned, especially for the first half I'd say about depicting Japan post war in a way where it's like, there, like things are more fucked
Starting point is 01:17:06 they can have than they can ever be. It's a beyond insane state. And like, are we going to, like, do any kind of attempt to, like, vary that over, not acknowledge how insane the Emperor and like the Imperial Army was at the time and any of that shit. And there's a thing here where it's like there is a hesitation to directly get into some of that because it's just
Starting point is 01:17:34 not gonna happen. But there's also a very willing amount of like man, fuck the government though. That is not based that, and fuck the idea that like, um, we're gonna show you how the system in place here kind of created a person who was being, was hated and treated like shit for kind of just not wanting to die. And he was given orders to die and everyone's societally expected him to die and his duty was to go and die. And it's kind of like looking at it in that lens, right? to die and everyone societally expected him to die and his duty was to go and die and it's kind of like looking at it in that lens, right?
Starting point is 01:18:09 I want to ask a question, but I'm worried I'll get an answer. Because there's a thing I was going to, yeah, okay, go ahead. Is America in this movie? No. Okay, because I just thought of the worst ending to this movie conceivable. So I'm glad that we're not going with that. Okay, so America is not in this movie.
Starting point is 01:18:35 America is brought up in terms of like, the in the post war situation, they are like, they're basically like charting, and then there's literally a like a Douglas MacArthur like has words to say about the creature moment, you know? But for the most part, they're like, they're already in their tense beginnings of Russian tension and things are kind of focused in that.
Starting point is 01:19:03 So Japan is kind of on its own to some degree. And they've been demilitarized and they've been, you know, and so on, so they don't have the capabilities to do a bunch of shit. But anyway, there's a lot of it where it's like, essentially, it's like, how does the average, or how does a citizen of this period feel in a fucked blitz burnt down Tokyo in like like pulling up
Starting point is 01:19:29 in the rubble and all that. And like, you know, and they and like the fact that they there's points where they legitimately call to the idea of like, yeah, maybe we treated life a little too cheaply, you know, maybe logistics and such, such killing off almost half of the forces. Then of course the idea of the suicide bombers and the kamikazis and all that shit was insane. And there's a point that it kind of is like how are we going to deal with this Godzilla
Starting point is 01:19:58 that's attacking us when we're here with like stomping on the rubble essentially. And it's like the citizens kind of like get together to do it their own because fuck the government. We can't really rely on them to help us in this regard. And it's, again, it's pretty brutal, right? How these events all play out. What I wanted to see, and I'm like, I don't know if they're if I'd be so blown away
Starting point is 01:20:28 if a movie would ever do this, that is paid for by giant studios and such. But you're showing us the ramifications of the war and the devastating effect it had on the Japanese people from the government and from, of course, the bombs and from everything that ravaged Tokyo and then the fact that there was no ground invasion but there was still the leveling of the city. Are they going to show the effect that the Japanese Imperial Army had on other countries, on everywhere, on what that looked like and spend. And we're not.
Starting point is 01:21:10 And we're not. And so I'm like, if we're going to take a saccharin tone here with like the the victims internally, it would have been really nice to also not pretend that everything they did outside of those borders wasn't also horrendous and to acknowledge it in some way, shape or form. The responsibility of making a feature film pointing to a country's bad deeds dwelled nearly exclusively in countries that aren't the country mentioned. I think the United States, to their credit, is one of the only countries that regularly
Starting point is 01:21:53 puts out fucking movies that goes, wow, we really fucked that up. Right, right. You've got, and you still got the Hurrah movies, but you've got the, oh my my god the trauma movies as well. And those are, I'm talking about this, yeah with the, with Punchwell actually, it's like there's a clear like the system Fuck this over as individuals and I think like yeah in Japan is there's gonna be just an infinite more a much stronger hesitance to get into that when you're criticizing,
Starting point is 01:22:25 you know, the harmony as it were. But the fact that it's a Godzilla movie that's gonna touch on any of this is like, definitely it's like, oh, this is not at all the venue I thought. I'd be hearing about this in, right? I did, like, despite the fact that it's like it's Godzilla is you know originally like the reminder of World War II and the bombs and everything about the the the the origin of the character you know always hark is back to that so this is kind of going full circle in a way but I'm like in terms of how honest of a look we're gonna take it this time um I guess it's like I had to I
Starting point is 01:23:04 looked at it and I was like are we gonna get real and it's like, I had to, I looked at it and I was like, are we gonna get real? And it's like, we're gonna get real. But we're also only gonna get real about the stuff that we can comfortably get real about. No. Well, speaking of getting real does like, like who's, who's the antagonist in this movie? Like, is it Gidora, or is it like Mothra, or like Desitoia, or... Like, who's Godzilla fighting? Yeah, the antagonist is Godzilla. And Godzilla himself is the problem. Are you telling me we are two Godzilla movies back to back
Starting point is 01:23:42 in which Godzilla is the villain? And he doesn't punch a big dragon. That's correct. And like... Zilla movies back to back in which Godzilla is the villain. It doesn't punch a big dragon. That's correct. And like. Why don't get it. And the post war survivors are essentially that the civilians are the heroes trying to figure it out. And like the, I mean more like more than,
Starting point is 01:24:02 imagine stopping on like, you know, stopping on Mothra or like stopping on Gadora and all that Imagine if instead of that Godzilla is stopping on what little to zero pride is left? Of the nation in his god's own this time on the indomitable human spirit The embers of the flame that are in the rubble. Godzilla is stopping on an already destroyed Tokyo where there's nothing left, right? And so the whole point and the reason why the movie is called is called minus one is because at the end of the war, Japan was at its lowest point. It was at zero. And Godzilla then showed up and brought them to minus one. They, like, just when you couldn't get any lower than zero, it's, like, it's insanely devastating
Starting point is 01:24:51 for them to have to deal with this now at this point. Is the deal, and that's, that's kind of the perspective. They wanted to be dramatic, they should call it the Godzilla minus two. No, it'll be the sequel when there's two Godzilla's. So there are these moments where characters that are part of the protagonist team are also the same people that say an echo these fucked up war sentiments at the time. The idea of like doing your duty
Starting point is 01:25:15 and going off to die is the right thing, is wild for someone on the extensible protagonist side to say, you know. Yeah, well, protagonistism is a matter of perspective. It is, but also there is the energy and the vibes at the time, right? The ra ra, the fucking, you know, um, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, all of that is like, hey Grandpa, Shinchy, what were the vibes like during the Second World War? Yeah, that, you know, the level of like, like, you know, I mean, fucking brainwashing, it got to a point where people were,
Starting point is 01:25:58 it was really insane and so they kind of have these moments of like, okay, that's there and then we're going to try to find something human inside of you that is also admirable. And then by the way, like, we can, again, we don't have to, it doesn't have to always be a fight to the death. We don't, it's not about dying, dying for your honor. It's not about dying to say face necessarily. So I'm just thinking about this. And I'm like part of the early story or the characters like internal struggle is about not being a kamikaze pilot, right? Was part of that narrative being like,
Starting point is 01:26:40 we understand that you don't want to be a kamikaze pilot. So take all of these methanphetamines. So do you get super high and fly your plane? Because that's one of those little, I don't want to school details that has been kind of left by the wayside. Is the kamikaze pilots were in general high is fuck. Yeah, what they were doing. I'm not going to spoil much more of the movie, but no.
Starting point is 01:27:06 That was not a part of it. But it's just, it is definitely like a series of gut punches through the lens of someone who is like, yeah, just trying to be trying to not die and then like around him is a society, culture, government, system and everything that it's like actually you fucking should though. Dying is sick and you're a loser if you don't want to. And that's like, okay, all right. And also there's Godzilla. Damn it.
Starting point is 01:27:43 Also Godzilla is here. Yeah. And also there's Godzilla. Damn it. Also Godzilla is here. Yeah, so it's a very interesting watch and go into it, I think, like, you know, knowing that and then I think as well. But like, and like while you're also like, oh, wow, Godzilla is going here, huh? But there's a there's a cap on how real we can get. And, um, and, and that cap is exactly at the border of Nanking. You know, like that cap is that collection of ears. Is there a, is that right over there?
Starting point is 01:28:17 Is that right over there? Is that right over there? Is that right over there? Is that right over there? Is that right over there? Is that right over there? Is that right over there? Is that right over there?
Starting point is 01:28:24 Is that right over there? Is that right over there? Is that right over there? Is that right over there? Is that right over there? Is that right over there? is made by people in the government if they can figure out a way to divert God's Ellis path to China or Korea. I mean if we could just get him to walk through Korea actually. Oh my goodness. Ah. Two birds one stone. Am I right? Yeah. No, they that's it. They kind of do that, it is a, it is a, what the fuck was wrong with us look at the time, but through the lens of like, almost persona like, okay, don't criticize too hard, but the internal trauma here is real and it's fucked. And the idea is that I feel like a Western movie would like show you more of the institution destroying the soldier. Whereas here, it's all happening inside, you know.
Starting point is 01:29:18 But it's very good. It's very good. So I'll definitely recommend it. I feel like there's others. The American movie would have King Kong show up and beat up the Godzilla and then have the Adam Boms be cover for the destruction that Godzilla caused.
Starting point is 01:29:35 And then they would drape the American flag on King Kong and then he would stand on an aircraft carrier and beat his chest. I mean, the most important thing is how quickly people get over the concept of Godzilla standing there and how quickly it's about the other threat that he needs to save them from now. You know, it's kind of hilarious though that we're getting this and then like an immediate like other western Godzilla movie to compare it to.
Starting point is 01:30:01 You know, there's this is a. No, we can beat this one Kong. Oh, no, we got this Godzilla and then they do a little fist bump compare it to, you know, there's, this is a, no, we can beat this one, Kong. Oh, no, we got this, Godzilla. And then they do a little fist bump and pick up sticks. With their backs towards the camera, doing the pose, like getting ready to do, doing the, yeah, funny, doing the, doing the Goku and Vegeta. Yeah, well, anyways, I definitely want to recommend it. And yeah,
Starting point is 01:30:29 and it has, and it has a more to say that is closer and vein to the times I've talked about the Dan Carlin podcast, supernova in the east and post word Japan and like, like the idea of what, what led up to what led up to what would have happened in the event of a grounded vision and the madness of that. So check it out. And also Godzilla's there. Would this be like, it would be like the movie would actually be called like the shame of the heart featuring
Starting point is 01:31:05 God's- Oh! Uh, that- I guess starring! That- I'm- I'm- That's over my head. I'm just like the idea of Godzilla being in like a sitcom tag line as featuring.
Starting point is 01:31:23 I don't know how many other God Godzilla movies have like the human side of things be like legitimately interesting. I assume it's like a Transformers bit where you're like where are the Transformers? Enough of the humans where are the Transformers please. But Transformers are. But this is one of the cases where I can say this is probably the best I've seen of the human story, you know. At least one? Okay. Anyways, I'd say at least one probably.
Starting point is 01:31:51 I think you saw it. I think it was God's shinghanzilla. Yeah, that was a bunch of office people, you know, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and music, play him. Um, anyway. So, uh, uh, that's a recommend. Yeah, and so I finished up a dredge and I did the pale reach DLC. Oh, I have done the pale reach DLC. How is it? Uh, you know what? Like, it's, it's, it's okay.
Starting point is 01:32:17 Uh, I was hoping for more. It's a new area. Okay, so first of all, Dredge, the finale of that is fucking phenomenal. I really love the ending. Both endings. Both endings. Yeah. Super good. A way to wrap that up. And I realized I think a little too late that the stone, the obelisks were about lore. I didn't know that going through the game, so I missed a bunch of that background detail until I found out way after it, and I'm like trying to go back and get what I could
Starting point is 01:32:54 because finding out about some of the background context behind the Elge Rachorra is pretty cool. But at the same time, like, man, that ocean. Like that's kind of the story. Yeah, it is it is And and the sequence of events that leads to the you know the the final One or two choices is is fucking incredible. It's such a good a good finale for what it is So the the DLC the the pale The pale The DLC, the pale reach is basically an ice continent pops up in the south and there's
Starting point is 01:33:30 all kinds of ice fish and ice things down there. Let's go see what's happening. And yeah, it's cool in that, like you go down, you get some new mechanics, you get some new equipment, some new types of fish to collect, some new quests, all the things you would expect for that. And then there's like a little bit of a plot to the area that you kind of put together. And it's very similar to the area of the where you're in the, like I think the mangrove, the swamp, where you're like meeting the pilots and like kind of trying to, you know, take
Starting point is 01:34:00 out the little, where you're, you're trying to take revenge on the, the, the aberrations that are growing in that water. It's almost like that, there's a little plot to the area that you go into and play through. And that's pretty cool. And then there's an aspect of it that's like, again, very much coming from the, the, the, the, the eldritch, the, the, the big,
Starting point is 01:34:20 the stuff that gets referenced at the end of that game, it ties into that a little bit. But ultimately, it's really quick and it's like, I was hoping for a bit more, you know? I thought it was real, I liked what was there. I just thought there wasn't enough of it, I guess, is what I mean to say. And when you kind of get expected DLC to, you know, not just bring you a new area, but like, you know, bring another like part of what? I just like, I loaded up the steam review and the first negative review is I beat this DLC and under an hour. If you book, if you be line it, I could see that. I can see that.
Starting point is 01:35:08 I could see that. Yeah, it took me maybe three, took me about three hours or so to go through it. That's, and it's, so that's the kind of thing is like, it's very quick, what's there is not, like, it's an interesting story they introduce to you, but it's just, there's just not enough of it going on. And you wish that there were a couple other beaches you could land on, a couple other NPCs to talk to, a couple other things you could discover in the journal to like, fill out
Starting point is 01:35:40 what the story was, you know, because it's a cool, eldritch, ice horror thing happening, but you want more details on it, you want it to be fleshed out because when they do get into that stuff, they do it really well. And then yeah, you end up getting some new abilities and a new power that is just a better version of an existing power.
Starting point is 01:36:01 So that's kind of a bummer. And the payoff is essentially just like that plus a new category of fish is introduced that you can catch now. Yeah, it was less than I wanted, but it was still very good. I just felt for being a chunk of paid DLC, I wish there was more to it. Game is still incredible though. And... Yeah, Dredge is great. It's a bummer about the SteelSeed though.
Starting point is 01:36:28 Yeah. And it is cool to do the lore tablets while you're there on the new area. The lore tablets from the new area are pretty fucking sick too as well. But you're just reading some text about the exposition of what's going on. So go play some Dredge.
Starting point is 01:36:44 Anyway, so yeah, that's, that's, that's, you know, a bunch of stuff I did. But we continued over on Wollivarsis with sacred and terrible air. We are probably going to be wrapping that up in one more stream. It continues to be horrifying. So tune in to that. It's these disco-ellysium story we're reading. Oh, goody. We did some slop streaming.
Starting point is 01:37:10 I described it as hard sloping before the new year and a number of... Yeah, I saw that and had an internal bodily reaction to that phrase. A lot of people on Twitter were very confused. The Steve over at the video games was like, hey, yo. Ho, ho, ho like hey yo you hit me with one of those but yeah good stuff there and yeah also I got a new podcast versus
Starting point is 01:37:37 wolves that's me and I patch wolf challenge in each other to some shit every month tune in should be. I hope you enjoy. And yeah, we're going to be coming back this week with FF9. I thought we were going to finish it up, but unfortunately. Oh, I thought you did. I thought we did too, but it turns out there's a, there's some cool shit and super bosses waiting at the right at the end.
Starting point is 01:38:04 Sorry, like, oh wait, did you beat like the game and you just didn't get to the extras or- No, no, no, the extras are right before the finale, so it's like to get to the extras, you gotta, you should probably go go leave and go do this or go do that. So I'm like, ah, right, fine. I don't know if you wanna do that.
Starting point is 01:38:20 I decided to do it. I decided to do it. Yeah, it was really hard. People really like this video game, so I, you know, with, as a beloved classic, I want to make sure I see the things that they, they, they loved and, you know, uh, uh, then I can find, I find out why. Um, although, yeah, I get me, like, we do have some thoughts, definitely on like, huh? I can see why people love this game,
Starting point is 01:38:45 and there's some stuff where it's like, how long has it been since you guys played this? Cause there's some stuff that's like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, it's been a minute. But yeah, we're coming back to that to wrap it up proper. And Thursday, trying to set up, I'll let you guys know, so check the schedule. But I think I'm going to grab, I'm going to try to check out this lethal company, I believe it's called. Oh, my little company. Yeah, my friend, so Esteban,
Starting point is 01:39:19 I've hold back to block has been pushing it my way. And we're gonna jump on, do one of those with him, as well as a 2D day, who's another one of the FGC chill folks that is from around here. And I've told that before getting into it, check it out as little as possible. Yeah, yeah, that's it. So going in with two people that know the deal
Starting point is 01:39:42 and me and Reggie are gonna join them and see what's happening and that's going to be our Thursday. So FF9, lethal company and then yeah, we'll be back on Saturday with probably some fighting games as well for you guys. Check that all out. We'll leave versus on Twitch, on YouTube and yeah, versus Wolf's podcast as well. What's going on? What's going on is we need to take a break
Starting point is 01:40:08 because I need some coffee. Fairs. I'm starting to yawn and look like an asshole. That's fair. There was a lot. I had a lot going on. Yeah, the RP. Right.
Starting point is 01:40:21 Something that I came to mind actually, I just want to say one more bit on Godzilla minus one. Yeah, just I think to elaborate. Well I was thinking about how, you know how there's, we've talked about how there's a, almost a history with mental health in Japan being such that before you look outward, turn within, and that's where, and by doing so that's where the answer is shit will lie, and that's how you can solve what's going on. It almost feels as if that philosophy taken to a large scale when you zoom out is kind of what's happening here, by being like we're going to focus on what's happening within in this moment of crisis for the for the nation of sorts. And with that, I am also
Starting point is 01:41:15 when I was talking about the idea of like how what are we going to touch on or acknowledge or mention anything of like how they affect it outside countries and such. I'm not necessarily saying that because I expect that the movie is going to travel to other borders and show you what was happening in these places and getting into the atrocities in those details per se, especially if the narrative of the story is meant to focus internally on this one person in this one setting and the struggles they're in. It's more along the lines of like the, like how much of a depiction of self-criticism are we going to acknowledge here?
Starting point is 01:41:51 And while they do talk about like and criticize the imperial government a good bit, something I remember thinking while I was watching is a number of the people that the, you know, the citizens that we see. Like, are we actually going to see anyone that is representative or emblematic of the imperial-assed world conquering insane people that were around at that time, you know, that were like not to the death. We got to go kill it all because we are the superior ones that should rule the world.
Starting point is 01:42:26 Like, are we going to touch on, are you gonna see any of that inside of like the the population of people you need in the movie? And you don't necessarily, you know? So like those people are kind of, or that that part of the government is kind of referred to, but there are people who are ex-military and who are just regular citizens and such all kind of coming together. And they represent more like the good people from within this diseased sort of system of sorts. But that's part of what I was kind of wondering about as well.
Starting point is 01:42:59 So just to not put out there that my expectations are Godzilla is gonna get into shit that it has nothing to Initially, it's not that it's gonna go into things that it never sets out to cover But more like within what it's decided to cover which is this topic of Japan and post war Are we gonna look at the people that are here of these citizens and the people that are fucked up amongst Disgroupe of people while there are the victims and the people that were just like pushed along with it to die for no reason, you know, I hope that clarifies. Yeah, I feel like I just I hope that clarifies because I you know, I can see anyway anyway like that being a misunderstanding. So, um, no, it's not going to cover that shit at all. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And that's simply because it's immensely uncomfortable for a designation for them to do so
Starting point is 01:43:56 and they're brand new. That's not the venue for it. I do imagine there are, there must be like, there are, there must be like, you know, probably indie, pendent productions and things that are more about the actual historical documentation, unless about Godzilla, that will go into that, that are not going to be also main line films that are produced by Toho and, you know, like, featuring massive budgets and such. But yeah, anyway, just felt I needed to say that. Okay. Alright. Um, quick word for my sponsors. I love you, sponsor.
Starting point is 01:44:38 All of you. Yeah. Man, man. Yeah You can keep making mouth noises while it loads Aren't they all mouth noises? The preferred ones though. Mm-hmm. No No sponsor That's the noise you make when hello fresh is ready
Starting point is 01:45:05 Well actually, it's it's less like, num, num, num, sponsor, and just like, mmm, oh, delicious. Yeah. Fair-not, Brave listener. Be grossed out not by the mouth noises of Pat. But be excited by the deals you can get when a hello fresh arrives at your doorstep. That's a farm fresh pre-proportioned ingredient meal, seasonal recipes that you're gonna get, skipping trips to the grocery store. You don't have to worry about the difficulty of shopping and getting it all together and how to put it all together because Hello fresh can make cooking easy fun and affordable. That's why it's America's number one meal kit.
Starting point is 01:45:48 Yeah, when we've gotten the box, we've talked about how they're in the cold box tech with the, you know, the, the, every ingredient you're getting is not frozen, it's not coming in and has to go through a defrost period. You don't have to stick it in the sink to dry out or thought or anything like that.
Starting point is 01:46:06 It's just a refrigerated box and everything you're pulling out is good to go. And yeah, you're also getting your favorites because you can specify which types of meals you want on the regular. 15 minute recipes pretty useful. I like the ability to not have to think too hard about it. And because they figured out the proportions and stuff, it takes good too. So that's the quick and easy selection. But if you're someone that's a bit more calorie smart protein or vegetarian vegan, et cetera, you can switch that up as well. Yeah. And you know, when you're picking the box types, they can be like, this is for two people or for a family
Starting point is 01:46:45 of four. And it's like, it's like a family of four. I mean, technically two people eating twice is going to be four, right? You're not going to, it's going to go down in one. It's not going to take it. You're not going to last every time. But nonetheless, I take the idea. Look, man. The food's good, all right. We got it. We got a...
Starting point is 01:47:12 We got to not wait. Put it in your mouth. Or on a pan first, but then put it in your mouth. Yes. Exactly. So, food for two or food for me. Get in there. Get you. I recommend the chicken pesto.
Starting point is 01:47:34 It's delicious. Go to hellofresh.com slash super beast free and use code super beast free. For free breakfast for life, that's crazy. That's insane. I can't believe that's the deal, but once again, I'm gonna read it. One breakfast item per box while the subscription is active. That's free breakfast for life at hellofresh.com.
Starting point is 01:47:53 Slash super beast free with code, super beast free. So yeah, the idea being as long as you're subscribed, you're getting free breakfast. That's, I don't understand. It just, it, it, again, like I feel like that's where someone kicks an office door open and they're like, we've been crunching the numbers, you can't do it. And then they're like, watch me.
Starting point is 01:48:17 Free breakfast for life if you go to hellofresh.com slash super beast free and use code super beast free. Uh, that's America's number one milk it. Thank you for Hello fresh. Thanks, Hello fresh. I love you. And Chiching is the sound of Shopify when you are making money on a sale. If you, for example, sold a t-shirt, that's cool.
Starting point is 01:48:45 Did you get a t-shirt? Because you can. And if you got one, and it was like for this podcast, then it would be like, oh shit. That's because of Shopify, because I didn't know how to do that. Yeah, Shopify is a global commerce platform that helps you sell at every stage of your business.
Starting point is 01:49:04 So when you're launching your online shop or it's your first real-life store, or whatever phase you're at, did you just hit a million orders? Oh, shit. What do we do? Shopify is there to help you grow. They've got the capability to help you behind the scenes with an all-in-one e-commerce platform, an in-person POS system, wherever, whatever you're selling, they've got you covered. In particular, as well, they have, what are those stats?
Starting point is 01:49:39 Turning browsers into buyers with the best conversion checkout 36 better than the average compared to other leading commerce platforms. So, yeah, the deal is real simple. If you're like, again, doing something like podcasting and you're talking about making dick jokes over video games and you're combining dick joke with video game to create some sort of higher new form of... It's transformative. It's transformative media and that on its own is worth it.
Starting point is 01:50:07 And everyone's like, damn, that's great. If everyone got together and said, yo, you know what? Let's make a tier list of all these dick jokes and rank them from S to B or F or whatever. There's hundreds of crazy. That'd be insane. Laying it all out in front of you. Your life's work. Wow. That'd be insane. Laying it all out in front of you, your life's work. Wow.
Starting point is 01:50:27 That'd be wild. But here we are. Now, what if we decided to stick some of those words on a t-shirt? That would be probably a bad idea. Let's not do that. How about we just put the title of the show? OK, that'll do. So we do that.
Starting point is 01:50:42 And then, I don't know how to get that to people. But that's where Shopify does. They help us set up the shop. They help us set up the front to page you order from the entire process of getting you your t-shirt. And then telling us that, hey, someone bought it. And that was a size medium. And now, you know, now we know where that went. So it's pretty cool to have that and to not have to worry about it and not have to go and break down all the little individual steps of setting up a shop to do that. They are award winning with their support
Starting point is 01:51:17 and they're here to help you every step of the way with your business. It'll help you grow while you grow. I'll say it again every step of the way. So you can sign up for a $1 per month trial period at shopify.com slash super beast, all lower case. Go to shopify.com slash super beast now to grow your business no matter what stage you're in.
Starting point is 01:51:39 shopify.com slash super beast. Chiching. Thanks, Shopify. Thank you. Okay. Let's go. I have two coffees in this, in this yellow mug. I got two coffees.
Starting point is 01:51:57 Thank you, wife for two coffee. I love it. Okay, remember last week when I was like, I'm gonna buy a bunch of steam gazing on sale and have a little goofy thing where I run steam games in front of a timer. Beat the refunds. See if I refund them. And I'm gonna call it defeat the refund.
Starting point is 01:52:16 Yeah, I just did that again, and I'm gonna do that again this week, and I'm gonna do it again next week. Why is that? Because it's fucking fun. You're spinning a wheel. Okay. It says video games on it.
Starting point is 01:52:32 And people don't know where the wheel is gonna go. It's that mystery box vibe. It's just mystery box again. Okay, okay. Feels like it. But also like 90 minutes is like a usual like good get your ankle into it. A amount of time. Damn near anything. Now I'm assuming that there's somewhat of a tone here which is like if it's a very good game and you do manage to hit that two-hour point and you're like this is this is well done. You let that grace period kind of float, right?
Starting point is 01:53:08 Well, yeah, so it's 90 minutes specifically because I usually take 10 minutes to set up video settings in any particular game before I actually stream it. So if I had a two hour timer, it would literally always go over. But I have kept most of the games that I have put through on this list. All right. Though there is, there's a definite trend.
Starting point is 01:53:38 I'm learning about my own tastes as we do this. And I have learned that the worst possible first impression you could ever make for any game is not good controls. There are like six or seven games that didn't make it to 10 minutes. I see. Because I started walking around and doing whatever the thing and just going like, oh, this feels like shit. Okay. So the challenge needs to account for fall starts that don't make it to the 10 minute mark. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:54:22 Much less challenging to the to the. I don't know if it's a challenge. I think it's just like, I'm willing to give these games a shot. And if they hit, like, I'm limiting myself to a certain thing. So for example, last night is a perfect example where not only did both games easily, easily when the the I keep it award But I flew way over time on one of them Before you get there is it
Starting point is 01:54:59 Yeah, Tim it fuck me I had the question and then it just looked all this great good question while it while interrupting to especially Yeah, that's that's fucking fantastic. Yeah, that's me. I had the question and then it just looked all this great. It's a good question. While interrupting too, especially, yeah, that's that's fucking fantastic. Yeah, that's great. Thank you. Oh, yes, sorry. I'm going to assume that by you saying that you did it last week, you're going to do it this week, next week, and the week following that there were a decent number of people who showed up interested to see. You could say that. You could.
Starting point is 01:55:29 Hey, you, hey. Little interesting. Hey, interesting number of people showed up to. So I forget, I forget who was it. If somebody can remember the specific chatter who phrase the term, but they, they, they, they, they, they terms what I was doing, chemical-based gaming because I'm just spinning a big wheel and constantly, constantly, constantly just new thing. For the drinks, for the consumers. Yes, I've, yes, I've gamified buying games. Yeah, yeah, yes, I've yes, I've gamified buying games
Starting point is 01:56:12 All Python why thank you well now you need now you need to gamify the effects on the stream so that it gives you all the good feels every time The game gets selected oh, we already did that oh, okay, there you go. Yeah, all right No last night. I was like I was like you know guys I'm running out of games to play for that because I I had that huge batch that I ran out of yesterday. And then somebody in my chat had the great idea to donate the exact cost of the game they were recommending. Mm-hmm. And I was like, oh, well, now I have to play that one. So, yeah, that's the system now.
Starting point is 01:56:47 Want something to go up against the refund timer. Just buy it for me, and I'll play it for 90 minutes. Oh, okay. Yeah, all right, endorphins freeze. And then if I hate it, I'll just refund it and pocket it and just be like, why do you send in bad suggestions? Does that person then have the endorphins come crashing down and then they feel horrible?
Starting point is 01:57:12 We'll find out. We'll find out soon. Okay. Like, I don't take it lightly when you basically say, so I'm clearing the table. Oh. Oh. Okay.
Starting point is 01:57:24 All right. pretty popular stream. Well, here's the thing though, I didn't have anything for January. Because I legitimately did not know what to do for the entire month of January because fucking infinite wealth that's coming out at the end of the month. Have you considered gambling? infinite wealth that's coming out at the end of the month. Have you considered gambling? So the first game I played last night was called Dicey Dungeons. Oh, it's a road bike about rolling dice.
Starting point is 01:57:53 Oh shit. Okay. Okay. Was Ashley Larry there? No. And Dicey Dungeons is also available on your phone for a cheap price there. It is probably one of the best rogue likes
Starting point is 01:58:13 I have ever played in my life. It is absolute top to bottom stellar. The music is incredible. It's made by the people who made super hexagon. Oh There's a pole so I don't know if you so I talked so I've been talking a lot on my stream particularly Running through all these games back to back about good chemicals the people who made yeah hexagon Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, activate
Starting point is 01:58:47 AXagon. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, activate your good chemicals. That was good juice. That was really good juice for a mobile game. That was incredible. So dicey dungeon knows how to activate your good chemicals. Um, it is really, really simple. You are going through a rogue like with like turn-based RPG battles, and you are starting out with two dice, and as you level up you get three or four or five dice. And my dice, I mean a six-sided regular... A D6. Yeah. And it goes, well, you're going to start your turn, and these dice are going to roll, and then you are going to use these dice values and plug them into your attacks or moves or heels or items. And certain weapons will require even numbered rolls or certain spells will require odd
Starting point is 01:59:33 numbered rolls. And there are classes. So the starting class is the warrior who is dumb and normal and straightforward and strong. So the warrior's special ability is that you can reroll three dice. You can just reroll any dice three times in a row or three separate dice. You get a bad roll, so you go, no, I wanna try it again. Do enemies roll?
Starting point is 01:59:57 What's that? Do enemies roll? Yeah, enemies also roll. Okay. You're both using the same system. Okay. So you're just like, well, I don't like these rolls. I'm going to reroll them to be stronger. Bam. Done. That's it. Right? I then unlocked
Starting point is 02:00:11 the thief at some point. And the thief is fucking bizarre because the thief wants all low rolls. All of the thief abilities and moves use low rolls multiple times. So where warrior would have like a sword and you want to put a six-sided dice in there because of course you do because that will make the most damage. You'll do six damage. The thief has a dagger that you can only put one, two, and three into, like four, five, and six will not fit. But you can reuse that knife over and over and over. And they also come with the ability to split dice into smaller dice. Okay. So if a thief rolled a six, you would actually split it in half and use the three twice on the dagger.
Starting point is 02:00:59 I have to ask in a game that is primarily about the dice, what actual control do you have? Is it like the RNG will be the pass-fail state and that's all there is to it? Um, you have a lot of control. Or can you... The long and short of it is that you're playing a turn-based role-playing game with turn-based RPG battles. Uh, and you are moving your, your, your, when you get a weapon, it, you can only have like six slots in your inventory and different weapons and different items take up different slots, like kind of like a attach a case thing. The only difference between this and your regular turn-based RpG is that the dice rolls
Starting point is 02:01:40 happen before you act. Mm-hmm. So if I was playing FF9 and I had Zadane steal, the game would then roll a fake dice behind the scenes to tell me whether or not the steal worked. Here, I roll the dice first and I go, oh, well, I have a six, that means steal will be effective. I'll put it on steal and then I have to make do with my other actions with these.
Starting point is 02:02:06 Right, okay. But in general, like you're fighting normally and picking the right options to do enough damage and or cast and such, so that you're not fucked by just like the RNG, and that's all there is to it. I got fucked once or twice by the RNG. Okay.
Starting point is 02:02:24 But every character has a way to manipulate the RNG and that's all there is to it. I got fucked once or twice by the RNG. Okay. But every character has a way to manipulate the RNG to your advantage. It's incredible. It's Dicey Dungeons. The music had me actually like bobbing my head and like stamping my foot the whole time because it's the same person who did the music for VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV was one of the original humble bundle ass in the Indies though, you know, so anyway, yeah, okay, they know what's like.
Starting point is 02:03:07 Yeah, good, good presentation, excellent gameplay, fantastic music, um, tons of content. You can play it on your phone. I'm going to download it on my phone. Incredible game. On sale for five bucks. Uh, it's, uh, yeah, it's on sale for like three and a half dollars right now. The fourth or seventh? It's the perfect example of the concept.
Starting point is 02:03:30 And everyone is happy. People didn't know about Dicey Dungeons. And I gave them the gift of now knowing about Dicey Dungeons. See, it's influencing. Plus one sale right here. Uh, the second game that I played last night. I'm going in reverse order because I guess this is how it's going to work. The one that went horribly time over and I'm going to finish on stream probably tomorrow
Starting point is 02:03:54 is pony island. The original, which pony island, I started that part of the stream by like pony island is eighty seven cents on steam right now it would have to be a wild piece of fucking shit for me to even bother going to click the refund button okay you played inscription obviously and you and new of pony islands before this. Yeah.
Starting point is 02:04:28 Okay. So, I like pony island way more than inscription. Way, way more. The main reason, it's the same kind of general, hey, it's a game, but it's not the game. It's not really about pony island. You know, that kind of general, hey, it's a game, but it's not the game, you think, it's not really about pony, you know, that kind of thing. The difference is, is that within about five minutes of pony island, you're playing what pony island actually is. Does that make sense?
Starting point is 02:05:00 It gets in action, you are playing a game and you really liked it, and then it turned into a different game and you may or may not have liked it nearly as much. Yes, because the narrative swerves are meant to be the appeal. I am apparently on the final level of the Pony Island, at which point I say there's no part of Pony Island in which I said, wow, it sucks that they made this part
Starting point is 02:05:24 of the game bad on purpose, like they did for inscription. Right, okay. Ah, yeah, I think, I think inscription is like, I imagine the creator is like, I'm a fan of all of these types of card games, and I want to give them all a shout out. And it just ends up being that they're not all as fun as each other. So I saw people talking about that the robot
Starting point is 02:05:53 section is like an intentionally bad card game. I I the types of players that would make that kind of game. Yes, of course. No, the no more heroes' jobs are intentionally bad to really feel the mundanity of Travis having to do day-to-day life. We joke about the no more heroes thing. That is a direct quote. Like, Suda was like overt that the mini-games and no more heroes
Starting point is 02:06:22 want our bad on purpose. Oh, that makes it make sense, then. That's cool That glad glad to know good. Thank you for clarifying that I disagree with that All of it all I disagree very strongly work is supposed to suck dude. What's the problem? You need to be- I'm playing a video game, so...
Starting point is 02:06:46 I'm playing a video game, so... I'm playing a video game, so... No, man, you gotta feel that grind. That soul crushing grind that I feel. That's what I'm trying to communicate to you as you play my game. What are you talking about, Soda? You're making works of interactive video art.
Starting point is 02:07:00 What's soul crushing grind are you talking about? God. You got to make a game where a guy, What's Soulcrushing Grind you talking about? God You got to make a game where a guy Otaku jerks off his lightsaber and becomes a cool assassin. What are you complaining about Soulcrushing Grind? Say what you will about Shenmue. There's many things that should be said infinitely bad dumb stupid terrible things about it But when Rio went to work, he worked playing Lucky Hit and you got to play the game Lucky Hit to make money. That's a fun way to make money.
Starting point is 02:07:33 It is. So, Pony Island and Dice Dungeons are absolutely a fantastically stellar and I cannot possibly recommend them enough, especially considering the current steam sale. It's stellar, absolutely fantastic. I'll be playing, and you know what's got else great about Dicey Dungeons? It doesn't have any flashing lights or fast-moving graphics.
Starting point is 02:07:55 It's a low stimulus game. Oh, I see. So I'm going to be reviewing a damn near everything I play for the next like two years or three years Based off of do I feel like this will fry your child's brain? Tipety tip fucking top is vampire survivors might as well just throw your baby in a dumpster if they see it Okay, I think this is this is if baby is in lap, is this a good idea? Yeah, it is.
Starting point is 02:08:30 Right. It's questionable. Right, right, right. Gotcha, gotcha, gotcha. Like, are you sitting there with a beer in your hand, the baby on your lap and playing vampire survivors? You should be arrested. Give it a couple of years.
Starting point is 02:08:46 Um. Alright, I'm having it. Oh man, I have to go down this list. Alright, what else? Have you ever played the Taylor's principal? I want to say I bought it in a bundle and then never installed it. You probably should have gotten to it before the refund time ran out.
Starting point is 02:09:07 No, it's really good. I just hate it. I'm running into a lot of games during this series in which I'm like, wow, this is really good. Excuse me. And then I go to main menu quit. And then I go to uninstall. And then I go to get this off my fucking computer.
Starting point is 02:09:24 Talos Principle is a very interesting and well-developed puzzle game that's kind of like portal, but instead of using portals, you're using like gates and jammers and avoiding danger. And it made me feel very stupid when I was playing it, and it has a bunch of hidden secrets that are really hard to find and made me feel stupid stupid when I was playing it, and it has a bunch of hidden secrets that are really hard to find and made me feel stupid trying to find them.
Starting point is 02:09:48 And it has like a theological, like humanist, like narrative instead of a goofy fun narrative. It gets discussed a lot whenever we talk about the witness or missed or driven. Okay, so they're not fully climbed into their own whole asshole like J Blow was for the witness. But only partially then. Only a little bit.
Starting point is 02:10:19 Yeah, just the foot, okay. Right, which is okay. It's okay, right? But the witness, the foot, okay. Right, which is okay. It's okay, right? But the witness, the witness is one of the only games I've ever played in my life in which I felt like the developer was talking down to me. I still, I had a great, I had a great time playing it and I didn't go back and then I just like having not gone back to it and like actually gotten, I think to the core of its mysteries. It's been interesting watching the narrative outside
Starting point is 02:10:52 the game evolve over the years. But for what it presented and what I played of it, I was like, oh, that's a clever thing to do. Okay, I see what you're setting up here. And in the end, I ultimately, I'm like, if you make the proposition to teach someone a language from the jump, it's a little less annoying than halfway through the game, ala Fez, you know? Yeah. Yeah. Let's see. So yeah, Talos Principle fits right into great game, probably beloved by many.
Starting point is 02:11:28 Get it away from me, please. I see. Which, that's a, I mean, I don't know about you, but like, I feel like that's been a part of personal growth for me as a human of like trying to acknowledge that things may not be bad just because I don't like them. Yeah. Like, I still think pickles are the devil. I think anyone that eats a pickle is insane.
Starting point is 02:11:49 But that's probably me. Mm-hmm. I've said at many times that I don't have the capability to run to handle RTS. I just can't do it. I respect what's happening. I did! I did back in the days when they were really simple. I have tons of respect for people that are able to do it.
Starting point is 02:12:08 And it's a really cool way to manage the battlefield from afar and do everything quickly. And I just don't enjoy it. It's too bad when everybody was trash. RTS is like when Warcraft 2 came out and like the first 10 minutes of Starcraft. Yeah, I could play RTS. And then everyone got really good and brooded it.
Starting point is 02:12:26 And now I can be put on scrub quotes. I'm sick. Yeah, you know when playing RTS games was fun, in the fucking six months after Starcraft 1 came out, but before Brood War came out. Right, right, right, right, right. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. When you didn't know the error the basement King time
Starting point is 02:12:47 Man, like it's just you know the moment you become self-aware But I also I also had that moment and you people like you people see me with this with like ATB man Like I I have a specific way of enjoying things that are turn based that is like time should not be a factor I like the the fact that there is time being a factor creates a type of stress that makes me- Sack of energy says fucking get good loser. I enjoy the game less as a result of that being there. If I want to more relaxing experience,
Starting point is 02:13:17 I would like it to be where time is not a factor. My decisions are it. That's I'm always gonna have that. Okay. All right. Then I played Caltic. Have you heard about Caltic? No, sir.
Starting point is 02:13:34 It is a boomer shooter. It is a came put out by 3D realms. Actually, I did not know 3D realms existed with the same logo and everything. Yes, same logo and everything. It is an extreme boomer shooter, which is pulling its influences from blood. I don't know if you remember blood, but blood was the game that had the subtitle I think was on the expansion called one whole unit of blood. Okay. But its second inspiration is RE4. It feels like a boomer shooter made in the vein of RE4.
Starting point is 02:14:19 Everything feels chunky and heavy. There's, it just feels fucking good. Yeah, okay. It's great, it's just great. Dusk and that other one, what's the one that's not ultra kill? Ultra kill, the one that's not ultra kill? That's also like a boomer shooter
Starting point is 02:14:43 that is sending it up in a really Overtway Ah, it doesn't matter whatever. It's a new blood game. It's fine. Bloomwood Is it hexin? Yeah, and is ancient man. No, no, no, it's not Turn over kill amid evil amid evil if you're thinking of hex and you're thinking of a medieval But yeah, this is... It's good. It's cool. That's it. No, no further discussion needed. It's really good. If you like booming and shooting and being old
Starting point is 02:15:17 Weirdly enough the game uses voxels for it's it's 3D. I don't know why it's it's old-fashioned sprites and voxels. That's so weird with the gun reloading. Sliding past like, yeah, okay. You're reloading at a framerate lower than the action in front of you. Oh yeah, no, no, you're reloading like the like four frames a second. reloading like the like four frames a second Cuz it got to be chunky and grimy man It's from a fake
Starting point is 02:15:52 1997 That could have when you had a computer that would run voxels. What the fuck? What is 3D realms up to I had no idea cultic and Ghost runner I guess. Oh, are they all, what? No. I clicked ghost runner. I clicked on their name and I see under the list of things they have is Kingpin Reloaded Ghost Runner.
Starting point is 02:16:17 Shadow Warrior. OK. Let's see. I played a, I played a cobalt core, which is a, it's FTL with cards and furries. Sure. Moving like taking actions on your FTLhip is with cards. Steam has recommended me a shit ton of card games because I'm playing Midnight Sons. And it's like, you love card games?
Starting point is 02:16:52 I'm like, not really, actually. Well, the whole off-court. I think it's important to specify, these are not just furries, these are space animals. Oh yeah, there's, well yeah, because I said FTL, right? Because they're space. So these are star foxes.
Starting point is 02:17:07 Well, I don't mean to be rude, but you know, star foxes are furry, right? Yes, yes. It's also, but it's like first and foremost, it's a Jim Hanson space animal in my brain. And then it goes to that. What's Robin Hood from the Disney movie Robinhood in your brain? Are they a Disney creature or are they the start of something sinister?
Starting point is 02:17:30 The same folder as Minerva Mink. Yeah, Cobaltcore is good music, good presentation,, good everything except I can't stand the gameplay at all. So, back it goes. So, you know what? This gut feeling of like, oh wow, overwhelmingly positive reviews, beloved by all. Wow, this must be really good. And then you play it and you're like, ah, beloved by all, who like the core concept. I was so, yeah, I was gonna say that like in playing some of these and I assume you're just taking suggestions as well, right? Like,
Starting point is 02:18:18 I am, yes, I'm taking suggestions. Yeah, so you're definitely gonna be getting like the, you know, the final level of the genre evolution when people go down the road of being super into X or Y. It's gonna evolve past three or four different titular games and become like this thing, and now you're jumping in here. And I hope you like or understood the pathway that we took to get here. I don't know why I need to do all this violence in my fighting game. I just, I just, I joined this to walk around Metro City. I mean, Christ almighty, if you can certainly go that way. Or if you get into like the,
Starting point is 02:18:58 the final stages of the post wipeout, wipeout like games, where it's like you can invest in a garage setup and Play a game that is at the speed of human recognition to turn corners You know, and that's just rad as hell, but I'm like I'm incapable of driving this But that looks super cool But if you played wipe out and fucking every one of those card games and just went nuts the entire time and loved it You're like give me more speed. I want my nose bleeding when I play these games.
Starting point is 02:19:28 I want more speed. All right, next up that was Altman. That night, the night that I'm rating you off was like a bloodbath. It was terrible. Like, Caltic, great. I also played two other games called Road 96 and Control Out Ego. Control Out Ego is a immersive sim where you are swapping between different robots and is apparently fantastic, except that every single thing about the controls feels like complete
Starting point is 02:19:59 dog shit. Every single thing just moving, moving and shooting and picking up items. Which one? Just awful. Which one? A control out ego. Okay. And like part of it is intentional because when you start the game, one of the difficulty options is like a motion sickness toggle for the Slidiness of your poorly controlling robot um And I'm like oh, I get where you're going for go away Go away now And I also played road 96 which was uh
Starting point is 02:20:45 Now and I also played Road 96 which was a I Don't know how to describe it. I feel like it's somebody trying to make a fucking Rogue like life is strange game In which they just rapidly throw you in a bunch of different scenarios like cinematic scenarios evolving hipster scenes that are different every time you revisit them. Yes. And like it's it. It just felt so pretentious. I feel so awful.
Starting point is 02:21:18 I like the sound of that. Like I I was playing it and like I don't know how to just so you know like there's certain games where you play them for five minutes You're like, oh, like actually like just like oh this But then there's the other ones where you're doing it and you're playing it and you're just completely stone faced and you don't have any thoughts And you don't have any emotions And you're just like you hit a point, what am I fucking, ugh, what am I doing? Do you,
Starting point is 02:21:50 so when you grab a suggestion from the pile, are you getting it with a note attached to it at all, or are you just clicking the link and just going in? Like, I'm trying to do as little research as possible. Okay, you're getting, yeah, just blindsided. Okay. I want to get in there and just be hit with it full force. Good or ill.
Starting point is 02:22:10 Cause there's a, there's like, I'd kind of enjoy having a little bit of context to know what type of brain to be in. You know what I mean? Like where to the only things that I'm seeing are the what's on the page as I go to add to cart and what's in the options menu on the main menu as I set up the video settings. Got it. Okay. So yeah, that shit was a fucking horrible blood bath, very depressing. Which one is that?
Starting point is 02:22:44 That was road 96. That's a name that kind of blends in. It sure does. I've had that on my wish list for like two or three years. And I was like, oh, I'm getting, oh, I'm, oh yeah, it's on sale, I'll pick it up. And then I was, oh no, no. No, sometimes, it's on sale. I'll pick it up and then I'll know. No.
Starting point is 02:23:12 No, sometimes, no, like to give you an example, chat thought the game had AI voice acting despite the fact that it came out before AI became a thing. Like that, that was like the level we were, we're dealing with and like oh this yeah overwhelmingly positive um you know the overwatch and picks our proportions to you know yeah yeah all right only one more to go and by one more i mean three
Starting point is 02:23:42 uh... have you ever heard of american arcadia and one bunch of awards but i where I heard of it was on the show. Okay, so I saw that American Arcadia won a bunch of awards, and I was like, what the fuck is that wife I never heard of it? So I picked it up for the segment, and American Arcadia fucking rules, man, it is great. It is two games. I think that's what I was thinking. I was like, what the fuck is that wife I never heard of it?
Starting point is 02:24:04 So I picked it up for the segment, And a Mariner Arcadia fucking rules man, it is great. It is two games and I'm not going to talk too much about it because it's very experientially spoilery. Part one is limbo slash inside, side scrolling, navigating the environment, doing puzzles. The second part of the game is in first person, navigating an environment and solving puzzles for the character who is side-scrolling. Okay. And it takes place inside like a city version of like the Truman show.
Starting point is 02:24:46 Yeah, that's the impression I'm getting. So person one who is trying to escape is going left to right. And person two who is facilitating their escape is moving around in first person and sneaking behind things to get the materials or hacking doors or breaking into people's offices. I think the orange yellow brown stripe aesthetic is pretty cool. Oh, the aesthetics fantastic. Oh, yeah, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, and funny are considering all the areas that are in first person have a predominantly blue aesthetic. Like the room that you are in right now. Hmm.
Starting point is 02:25:30 I made this trailer might be giving away some meta elements of the story. I don't know about that. Like they kind of pulled a curtain back within like half hour. Okay. Like it's not like, oh, what could be going like it's the first thing that happens. Mm-hmm. Um, it's, yeah, it's fantastic. Uh, it's stellar. Out of the blue games.
Starting point is 02:25:49 Oh, that's a good name for a game that I didn't hear about until one and a half. Oh, sorry, developer. Yeah? Uh, let's see, what else we got? I have to do this in a big list because there's no other way to do it. Oh, did you ever play Gun Brella from Devolver?
Starting point is 02:26:08 No, but I've heard the name. Ah, it's side scrolling and you shoot a gun through your umbrella and it's a, not quite Metro-Idvania, not quite adventure game, but it's just, it's excellent. You shoot the guys with your little umbrella gun. It's great. It feels good, it jumps good. It's got a weird story,
Starting point is 02:26:28 it's got an incredibly strange color palette for a 2D game. Yeah, somebody in the chat mentions it, it feels like Celeste with a gun. Celeste with a gun, absolutely. Because I was looking at the cut scene, I was like, oh, that's pretty. And then gameplay starts and it's 100% Celeste with a gun
Starting point is 02:26:46 Yeah, that's great And last but not least was oh Man this game is so cool. Have you seen little goody two shoes? Will they little goody two shoes this thing? This is the absolute peak of RPG. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, absolutely. I won a couple of weeks ago, I think, I think we talked about it. I want to say we brought it up. I talked about it upcoming, but we didn't ahead and played either of it. Not after it dropped to no. What a cool attempt to like recapture a specific moment, you know, like it's not that
Starting point is 02:27:29 I've played it for about an hour and a half. It successfully captures that incredibly, incredibly specific moment. Hell yeah. the filters and use of color and overall curvy nose design of the pointy anime girl is 100% on point. It is a time management dating simulator. Sure. Mystery horror game.
Starting point is 02:28:07 Released for the Sega Saturn in limited capacity. Now in between Lunar and Lunar 2. Yes, and it came with a giant special edition that has a poster and a fucking doll and a mousepad and a little clock. Yeah, and now you can buy them for like 900 bucks. It is extraordinarily charming. It's visually beautiful. I did not expect the game to be about like managing your time. Like the game is like primarily like the town portions
Starting point is 02:28:40 of a persona game. Okay. And like, oh, which, like it's super gay. It's gay as hell. Yeah, like these sad little anime German girls, like you little goody-tooth shoes. 90s lesbian anime core. That was, even that is a hyper-specific aesthetic, like Sailor Moon. Like, are these these pictures? No, they're frat They're good their roommates
Starting point is 02:29:11 Well the beyond the original five sailor scouts now we're getting into it Once we once we start hitting the outer planets Shit gets a little frisky It's, shit gets a little frisky. Gotta call Mr. Loanfall up in this bitch. Like, it is, it is just, it's just a joy. It's like everything about it is just like, like well thought out and crafted. And I was very shocked that it's actually an RPG Maker game.
Starting point is 02:29:40 Like it is, it is doing, that's incredible. Yeah. So much more than your average RPG maker game Like anything that like visually is because you can you know, you know You've got cutscenes anywhere and that's fine But more like the running around and and you know platforming and such just to be expected But there's shit here. I'm seeing where there's many games and Completely outside the realm of just picking text and moving your sprites around,
Starting point is 02:30:05 which is usually what RPG maker ends up being. That's very impressive. And like, it's also very of the era, and then I walked up to a closet, clicked on it, and it just said, you have unlocked zero of 10 endings and gave me a list of question marks in like the starter starting room.
Starting point is 02:30:23 And I'm like, oh, nice. Oh, it's so like that, huh? Okay. No, I'm glad to hear we're nailing it. Like, it seems as if the, I feel like some time ago, we were talking about like, you know, okay, everyone appreciates the era of, of, of, of, of Mega Man 2 and Sonic the Hedgehog
Starting point is 02:30:43 and everyone appreciates Castlevania and that style of, of Sprite 2 and Sonic the Hedgehog, and everyone appreciates Castlevania and that style of Sprite Art and Shit. But like, who's gonna be holding it down for ugly ass triangles for the launch N64 titles? Who's gonna be making a bunch of fake working designs games? Right, who's doing it for the fear effect type cel-shaded era of the PlayStation 1? What are the where are we gonna get specific ass reference, fear effect type cell shaded era of the PlayStation one.
Starting point is 02:31:05 What are the where are we gonna get specific ass reference, you know, to fake ass PlayStation one games that I'm gonna be playing this week of that nature. One in particular, I don't wanna give it away too much, but I will, is what if there was a third and 64 castlevania game that wasn't a complete piece of shit? Incredible, incredible, love it. Yep. And I mean, obviously, the other one recently was the what if there was another Zelda CDI game? Yeah. So just these very precise feelings that like, it's one person takes it on themselves to like match that and
Starting point is 02:31:47 Hopefully if you get what they're going for you can see the like Insane lovingly attention to detail. Oh, yeah, dude. Hold on. There's so yeah, there were two shitty and 64 Castlevania games One of them had a werewolf. They're terrible. Oh the. The werewolf one was better than the other one, apparently. It was, but that's relative. That's like it was, those kings are terrible, oh my god. Oh, and that was it for the games I played this week. Oh, one last, I talked about, uh, one piece last week and how long it is, right? Or was that something I talked about One piece last week and how long it is right or was that something I talked about on stream you talked about it last week at two Yeah, yeah, I it's really long
Starting point is 02:32:35 Just on the on the specific game genres. I would love to see someone take a crack at early DS not like 3DS, early DS, like brain age and health style products that I don't think were far enough away yet. Are we too close to it still? Because there's a vibe. There's a vibe to those games and their clean layouts
Starting point is 02:33:00 and the type of 3D they used for like, you know, the doctor coming down to tell you, here's what you gotta do in shit. And like, it's such a vibe from that or pulling out your specifically, your clean 3DS, or your DS light, you know, and doing your daily activity for the day and then closing it and putting it up for street pass. 20 years since the fucking Nintendo,
Starting point is 02:33:21 the, the touch generation shit, yeah, man. That I feel like there's gonna be a place where people, some people might appreciate something that hard leads into that direction and does something fun with it. Oh, and last but not least, was that I played a ton more midnight suns, which I feel like I can now speak on that I played about 10 to 15 hours of midnight suns. Boy, that game got fucked over, man.
Starting point is 02:33:52 That game is great. That should have been in people's runnings for Game of the Year last year. It was one of the other one came out. I was wondering if it was Elmer and Kima. She's just like, it is incredible. Like, I spent hours just wandering around trying to fucking solve secrets and find hidden bullshit in the open area around the abbey. I played video games with Blade and talked to him about his emotions. And I talked to somebody else about how much I didn't like Carol Danvers. Who's, who you got the highest relationship with?
Starting point is 02:34:28 Tony and Pete. Yeah. Tough quote. Yeah. I want to play Iron Man inspired. Spider-Man. You got any cool cards? I got some cool cards. Spider-Man has a bunch any cool cards. I got some cool cards Spiderman has a bunch of cool cards
Starting point is 02:34:47 That if you if you knock a guy out you can go again with a spider-man. Oh damn. What's it shiny? No, not yet. Oh, no, I got a shiny. I got a shiny card with blade actually come to think of it What was it was it to? It's oh right? Yeah, I got a shiny card with Blade, a legendary golden card with Blade that consumes all the bleed prox that Blade put on somebody to do heaps of damage. So you can build a blade deck where he causes lots of stacks of bleed and then he caches those stacks out. Okay. Dude, that game is incredible.
Starting point is 02:35:28 What a strange twist of events. Like, your character is like, completely customizable, and they're completely customizable over and over for the whole game. You just go into the menu and go, I want to change what my character's, you can change everything,
Starting point is 02:35:44 but your facial structure. And gender, You can change skin tone hair, eyes, tattoos, shitty accessories. So I'm flying between like gigantic mallet and handlebar mustache with aviators and glowing green satin eyes with a bunch of face tattoos so that when I'm talking to fucking Steven Strange about how we can fucking keep the demon inside the abbey settle down with the emo kids club that we go to at night with Menoru and fucking magic. I look like such a stupid, stupid asshole in every cutscene. This might be one of those games where,
Starting point is 02:36:24 because it was like this, even though the confusion of the marketing was like made us not know what it was, it seems like it's being reviewed positively. Like, I could be one of these games where the second one comes out, and it's more clear about what it's about and everyone that knows the good one initially
Starting point is 02:36:40 was the first one would just be able to... I think Square Enix has just killed this game. I think that's what happened. But like, okay, but Square Enix Avengers, that would affect like, I mean, they had Guardians going with, with, uh, Idaas as well. Um, this with fire axis like, different company, different deal, different possibilities, you know, and Somnac is doing their whole bid. Yeah, but Guardians also died despite being a really good game. You remember that? Different deal different possibilities, you know, and so I'm the act is doing their whole bit Yeah, but Guardians also died despite being a really good game. You remember that?
Starting point is 02:37:09 The Guardians of the Galaxy game. That's what I remember being told the Marvel fatigue hit video games first Weirdly enough also there will never be a second one of these It was a huge flop and the director a guy guy named Jake Solomon, like left the company after its failure. So like I feel really bad for him because him and his team did a great job, a great job. I mean, you would assume they would just go back to X-com and Siv. He was also the guy behind X-com. He directed X-com and X-com too. guy behind XCOM. He directed XCOM and XCOM 2. So damn, so that sucks. It's really weird playing a game like this where you, hey, it's Spider-Man and of course it's Peter Lohanthal. That's not as nice. Yeah, it's, yeah, we love him. There you go. And you're
Starting point is 02:38:03 like, wow, that's Spider-Man. That's what Spider-Man always sounds like. And then you go over and talk to Blade, voice by Michael Gai White. And you're like, that's who Blade sounds like. And then you walk over to a fucking whoever the hell they got to play Carol and Tony. And they're doing their best Brelarsson
Starting point is 02:38:21 or Robert Downey Jr., but they're not doing that good of a job. And it's just like, I wonder if Marvel's strategy is to spread out, try a couple different genres, and get the genre masters to convert their formula into one that has Marvel characters in it. Yeah. And then pretty much expect it to be a one and done
Starting point is 02:38:44 unless it becomes like a blowout and it's like insane popular thing like Unsomniac and then you're like, all right, well now this is flagship, right? And that's more Sony pushing it for years, but... Mm-hmm. I think the saddest thing about it is because you're... So a couple things are really strange about this game. Number one, they clearly made a set of animations for the hunter that were the
Starting point is 02:39:10 girl animations and at some point I this is all out of my ass if prop Marvel probably told them to make it a boy or a girl and now the male character also shares all the female animations so he's swinging his hips when he's walking and he's posing. This is a player character or an original player character. Yeah, a player character. Okay. Yeah, it's really funny. It's really funny.
Starting point is 02:39:35 He's very sassy as a result. Hell yeah. Get Kojima in that fucking quiet cutscene. You also get a player control in from a studio that has literally never allowed you to walk around in a game ever because they make XCOM and they make fucking sieve. And the what moving around is so weird. It is a first attempt all the way around, and I don't know how to describe it.
Starting point is 02:40:07 Like you accelerate too fast, and your top speed is really fast. And the camera's a little too close to your back. And then you talk to the characters, and you zoom in on their faces, because it's personal, but it's the XCOM model makers. So zooming in on their faces is a bad idea.
Starting point is 02:40:29 They all look great on the field in their costumes, but when you're like sitting and talking and you're like, hey, and you zoom in on Carol's face, you're like, fuck that looks like a goddamn PS2 character. character. Someone has pointed out before it and it's true. Do you mistake PS2 generation with PS3? Sometimes we're like, I think we're really old. Well here's the thing, here's the thing and here's the problem because the PS2 was so long ago, but it had such a wild variance in quality. If I said these look like PS2 characters, you would then go Pat,
Starting point is 02:41:12 that doesn't look anything like a PS2 character, and you would pull up an average PS2 game. And then I would say, actually, it looks significantly worse than a PS2 character, and then I would pull up Silent Hill 3. And then you would be like, oh right, yeah, every single character face in the entire 360 generation and some of the PS4 generation still looks worse
Starting point is 02:41:32 than the face models in Silent Hill 3. Here's Tech and Tag 2, yeah. And it's also a 10 year generation, so that shit does wildly very. But the funniest thing about it is I sat down with my social link with Tony, and he starts telling me about Tony's grandma's pasta with lots of garlic, and we're just shooting a shit about his grandma's pasta. And something happened that made me re-upset about every Marvel movie in which you're having this conversation with Iron Man at the bar
Starting point is 02:42:13 and He describes that he had to change his grandma's recipe because his grandson's mom's recipe has vodka Uh-huh That's why when he joined the midnight sun Sons, he mandated that they have a dry bar when he arrived. And you get to talk to Tony about his rampant alcoholism. Wow. And have a conversation. It's not too long. It's like four or five sentences. But you get to talk to him. And I was just like flooded with like, oh my god, he died before the one thing anyone ever knew about Iron Man that gave a shit was demon in a bottle.
Starting point is 02:42:53 Yeah. And they just refused to do it. Didn't do it. They just refused to do it. Never touched it. And then you get to all the things where you walk up to, you walk up to who was it. I forgot what character it was. I walked up to them.
Starting point is 02:43:12 It was magic. It's Colossus's sister. And she goes, hey, I don't know. I saw Tony and Carol arguing in the other room and they were talking about if you could see the future and see who would do a crime before it happened, whether or not you would arrest them. And Carol was like, yeah, I'd arrest them. And Tony said that was stupid.
Starting point is 02:43:32 What do you think? And I'm like, isn't that the fucking, isn't that the fucking civil war storyline that everybody hates Marvel over? I'm sorry. I'm just, I've been,'ve been I'm very very distracted. I somewhat said and I don't are you familiar? Are you familiar with the term serving C word?
Starting point is 02:44:04 In the context of I could probably do the little dance. Yeah. In the context of... I could probably do the full dance. Yeah, right. I have it. Just... Exactly. Just, you know, in that drag energy cut. So, your character with those animations walking around serving C and X Tuesday to the
Starting point is 02:44:21 deans. Yeah. Um. Oh, fuck. Yeah, I think. Yes. Um. Oh, fuck. Yeah, okay. All right. And you can tell people who really gave a shit about these characters made it because I was customizing
Starting point is 02:44:37 my shit head dirt bag to be look like the biggest asshole I can think of. And somebody asked me if I had unlocked a shirt to wear around the hub, and I'm like, you're full of shit, that's not in the game. And sure enough, I was sent a screenshot of the main character hat wearing the Magneto was right. Teachers.
Starting point is 02:44:57 Oh, actually in the game. Oh my God. Oh wow. And someone replied to that with the follow up t-shirt you can also unlock, which is the Cyclops was right t-shirt? Okay, I was gonna say the other one is the Cyclops did nothing wrong, yeah. Yeah, and it's like, oh yeah, no, they really,
Starting point is 02:45:17 they really need things, they really care, they really give shit. Oh, those are the two, those are the two. Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh. Damn. They really give fuck. Oh, those are the two those are the two Damn one of your party members magic is a fucking X-man and you can go hang out when you go fishing with magic and talk about Like the emo kids club wearing a magneto was right t-shirt That's so fucked up in world. Yeah, okay. It also does something really interesting
Starting point is 02:45:50 from a story perspective. So, oh, the mother demons, Hydra, they're evil. They're gonna do a big magic evil. Whatever, that's the plot, right? The subplot is really interesting because it's about boomers. Okay. Because the team is split halfway between people who are usually Avengers and people who are usually midnight sun. Plot is really interesting because it's about boomers. Okay. Because the team is split halfway between people who are usually Avengers and people
Starting point is 02:46:09 who are usually Midnight Sons. And so you have Tony and Carol and Steve and Avengers, right? And then you have Nico from the Runaways and Magic and Peter Parker and young people who are constantly clashing about how to do literally everything. And the old people being so stuck in their ways they can't actually get anything done. Or is the kids have novel solutions to the problem at hand
Starting point is 02:46:41 but aren't taken seriously? Right. So there's a very early on, you're trying to track down Venom because Venom's all huffed up on demon juice and tearing up New York. So Tony and Carol are like hijacking satellites and fucking doing also their science shit, can't find them. And a strange and the caretaker,
Starting point is 02:47:04 who's a character made for this are casting divination spells like where could Venom be and it doesn't work and then it turns to like the new ghost writer and Nico and magic and they just pull out their phones and load up social media and go Venom is on Yeah. Nice. Yeah. Yeah. He's fucking broadcasting his location. Did he hit right? Nice. Here are here are.
Starting point is 02:47:31 Yeah. Here's the live Twitter feed that is following Venom around New York City. Cod. Yes. Yes, Xavier. But can cerebral figure out why kids love Cinnamon Toast Crunch. That's pretty good. I like that. So can crunch. That's pretty good. I like that.
Starting point is 02:47:45 So you can use, it's fantastic. I think midnight suns is absolutely incredible. If they're leading into the memes, can I hang out with Soron and find out why he wants to only turn people into dinosaurs instead of curing cancer? So maybe there would have been a sequel that you could have done that.
Starting point is 02:48:03 Cause that feels like a move. But instead, will you can only hang out with Peter Parker by the pool and confront him that he is hoarding food in his room. And you're like, Peter, why are you stealing all the food from the kitchen to hide it in your room? And he's like, because I'm poor. It's crazy. You guys have all this food. That's great.
Starting point is 02:48:29 Damn, broke Peter's rules. I got used to the bathroom. Yeah. The air bait. All right. Before I move completely off that, I do have to go over two more details. One is, if you do buy midnight suns, get the legendary thing or whatever, it just comes with every suit and comes with the four DLC characters, especially now that it's on sale and it's on the humble sale right now too. Because if you don't do that, then you'll be sitting there going, boy I wish I had Venom.
Starting point is 02:49:09 And on that note, there is one of the strangest fucking decisions I have ever seen in my life about a DLC character. And it's about Venom. Venom is the game's first boss. And for the first act of the game, he will show up in missions at random to like really make the mission a million times harder because he's a fucking supervillain and he's all juiced up on demon shit. But you can also get Venom on your team because he's the second DLC character. So the DLC came out and the assumption was that you would get these DLC characters in the end game or the post game or a new game plus
Starting point is 02:49:48 But he just unlocks like five six hours into the game you should go get him So then you've got venom on a mission and oh here comes fall in venom. Okay They get they made no attempt to make it make sense. No attempt. I see Here he comes. I mean, it's like, I would have fucked. I guess you could say like he's blocked, you could block your character DLC character
Starting point is 02:50:14 from being used until that part of the story is resolved. But except that would be like way, way, way, way. Way too deep, right? Yeah. Okay. Also Deadpool is the first DLC character and he's a not annoying version of Deadpool I like him he's he's not overplaying it what do you mean like he you mean he's not hilarious no I mean he is pretty funny but like I don't know I feel like Deadpool's like really easy to
Starting point is 02:50:46 overdo the fourth wall shit. Right? Do you know? I guess I'd have to see the, yeah, like what examples I suppose, because I mean, I feel like the ones I know are the one in his own game from the Deadpool game. Okay, I know the movies, I know Marvel, and I know the one from the Deadpool game. Okay, I know the movies, I know Marvel and I know the one from the animated movie, the Avengers movie that he happened to be in. Well, it's all in the room.
Starting point is 02:51:14 So, like, it's the guy who voices the Deadpool in all the video games. Okay. Also, what I don't know, I don't know how much of this is gonna be in there, but like the DLC cast was decided long before any of the movies. Oh yeah, I believe that. So the second DLC character that you get, and I'm going to get soon, is one Michael Morbius, the living vampire, because apparently Morbius
Starting point is 02:51:44 is the actual character in the midnight sun's comics But I don't know I don't know what the overlap but of time is so like There is a not zero percentage chance That you can ask him about morphing up all those guys. Because I don't know when he came out versus when he was written. The thing, the version of him from the comics a billion years ago,
Starting point is 02:52:16 that's just the pale vampire man that goes, that's it. That's him. Yeah. That's him, but there's no chance that they're not. There's a morp joke. They're not, there's no way they're gonna ignore it dude. There's no way yeah It's currency at this point with this many people knowing primarily morbid more than that card from the fucking Fleur ultra collection in the 90s That's they're gonna have to morbid up
Starting point is 02:52:44 That's great. You gotta fuse them, you gotta take the original character and then give them that one little gag of the current reference thing. That's great. That game's great. Ask Blade about paying his taxes. See how he feels about it.
Starting point is 02:53:02 Let's see, that's it for me. If you wanna see more defeat the refund, go down to twitch.tv slash pat stares at this week. Also, starting this Friday and continuing for as many Fridays as we can possibly manage it is the return of a video segment that I like to call beating your wife at video games. At video games. Page came up with that idea long ago. at video games. At video games. Page came up with that idea long ago. Uh, but yeah, no, page is back on the show on Fridays.
Starting point is 02:53:30 Uh, we have a, uh, a, a, a, arrangement with a consistent babysitter. The wife beat hour. Yeah, the wife beat hour. Right now on my schedule, it's called beat wife open bracket video game. Yep. Yep, correct. Uh, we don't beat wife open bracket video game. Yep. Yep. Correct. Uh, we don't know what we're going to do so far. Uh, we are going to be going back to DMC three at some point, but it won't be this week
Starting point is 02:53:54 because, uh, Paige has not played that game in like six months. So like, I, will he, would you be able to, okay, you would, but can you imagine a normal person jumping back into like DMC three? Yeah, that's swell. That's not, that's, yeah, that's not feasible. No, that yeah. It's really not It's a bit much That's it for me for now Cool
Starting point is 02:54:16 All right, so Over in the news a couple stuff happened. There was no news this week. Not a single thing. You know what? I actually like, here's how, here's how I enjoy this story. I saw the YouTube channel Collider, who usually they make, you know, just VFX videos and like little tests and wild things like that, high budget.
Starting point is 02:54:42 They uploaded a video called SteamboatWilly and I was like, oh, I wonder what they're gonna do to that. And you click on it, and you watch it. And it's just Steamboat Willie. And it takes a second, and you go, huh? It is the first of January, 2024. And the original Mickey Mouse cartoon
Starting point is 02:55:03 has just been uploaded in its entirety and there's no joke, it's just the cartoon that he comes from, mother fuckers, that shit is public domain. They couldn't fight it off any longer. I think people are misunderstanding what public domain means because I'm seeing a lot of like Mickey Mouse,
Starting point is 02:55:24 Steamboat, Willie Fanart, and like, I've posted the mouse. And it's like, you could always do that. You just couldn't sell a shirt with him on it. Make him a shirt with him on it. It's the making money part for sure. It's the making part. Or just like Winnie the Pooh, you make a horror movie. And you get it ready in advance so that the moment it's the clock strikes fucking January 1st.
Starting point is 02:55:52 I'm coming out, Steve Mulay. So Mickey Mouse Trap has a trailer ready to go and it's probably going to be just as shitty and dumb as the fucking Winnie the Pooh one, but they had it ready and waiting and they released that too. So, man, you know Disney, Disney has been single-handedly fighting copyright law and they've been the ones holding back this day from happening.
Starting point is 02:56:17 And it seems really interesting to see it just like, they've been fighting it our whole lives and pushing it back and pushing it back and pushing it back. And they've hit like the actual limit of being able to, like whatever structures are in place that they bribed or pushed or nudged. 95 years past the death of the author, whatever the fuck it is,
Starting point is 02:56:44 as far as they're gonna be able to make it go. It, they paid off and greased all the palms they could have, but it seems as if eventually this happened. I really assumed they were gonna just permanently change the rules. I thought Disney had enough money to make it. Just kick it back every time. Yeah, they're one of those powerful companies on the planet.
Starting point is 02:57:05 I just figured they would be unstoppable in this regard. So the fact that it actually happened is wild. So it starts with Steamboat Willie and any of the characters and that, and then in theory, it goes on to every other thing that came out in release order there. Steamboat Willie was 1928, so it's not a hundred years since that release, but it's actually... Well, anyway, whatever the...
Starting point is 02:57:33 Ten or four years until Superman! Yeah, it's gonna be, I think that we're gonna see some sort of corporate defense put in place to stop the oldest of these characters from being just monetized by any other company that wants it. Because it's hilarious to see like random small group of people selling a dumb horror movie or making a dumb thing and selling a t-shirt like you said. But when rival company of equal size says our movie now has your character in it, this MCU movie now has Superman in it. Now what? Like that's when it starts to really get fucking dicey and it's like, oh no, what is the point of these mergers if versions of these characters? These mergers are anti-compete. Sure.
Starting point is 02:58:25 That's the point of every single merger that has ever existed. But the world, but like the sweat behind all these attempts to delay copyright law and to delay these countdowns from happening is mainly so that rival companies with massive budgets can't just grab the character
Starting point is 02:58:44 and do whatever they want, more than just the individual Twitter post. Well, I mean, the original intent of copyright law has been inverted. The original intent of copyright law is to make sure you could get 20 or 30 years of value out of your work, but that it would end so that you would have to do a new thing. Like that was its original intention was to force you to have to constantly go and make new things because your shit couldn't last forever. Is that so? What about patents? So then when they kicked it up to like fucking 95 years plus the death of the fucking whatever,
Starting point is 02:59:26 it is now inverted to be make a thing so you can live off of it forever. The estate permanently has the, yeah, has the thing. Anyway, so that was interesting. Another legal battle came to an end, not quite as storied, but the sinking city, Frogwares has now become the sole publisher after the long legal battle. So that was just pretty much as of this morning. They're going to be updating it on Steam and on Epic Games, G.O.G. etc.
Starting point is 03:00:08 They got their game back that the publisher stole. Yeah, and their own version, that is to say, too. Yeah, is it effective immediately? Someone asks, yes, it is effective immediately in terms of legal and purchasing. However, they will have to update the versions on Steam and Epic, which is going to take a few weeks. And they have said, like, the versions are now so different that it will break all your saves.
Starting point is 03:00:33 So the sinking city story from a couple years ago was that in 2020, we first were talking about it. There was a dispute between the developers, Frogwares and Nikon, the publisher. There was essentially a breach of contract where the publisher was basically holding money in royalties, falsely implying that they owned the IP and a bunch of other bullshit.
Starting point is 03:00:54 And then they parted and had a legal battle with the devs. In 2021, they then... Part of that legal battle was them taking the game and putting it on storefronts without the devs permission in 2021 they stole the game and took a pirate version of it shoved it on steam and basically said that this is the this is the real game without Frogwares obviously and That was a big no-no you can't fucking do that So they've been fighting that and then it seems like it's been wrapped up and yeah, the dev- Good for frogwars.
Starting point is 03:01:28 The dev one, so. Um. That's so crazy, man. That's so nuts. Just like, we just took it and we were selling it and the money's ours, each shit. Yeah. Shoutouts cave story Shout outs every other fucking predatory publisher moment where it's like you made this I made this it's mine
Starting point is 03:01:58 Thanks, and then in comes the money Although when you wait that long to it it's like, well, it's a cthulhu game, so, you know, hopefully it's it's anyway, it's one of those bits from like the game from fighting the legal battle over the course of multiple years means it can't like whatever updating there they've been putting put into it I'm sure are minimal at best because money spent fighting the battles. No I can tell you right now I played that game the day came out. Jank is fuck. So like that that's where kind of some of the drama is because you go to the steam reviews and the steam reviews are like vitriolic they're like why
Starting point is 03:02:41 won't they update this fucking game. In the answer is they can't. They literally can't. But also, they're the Sherlock Holmes people, aren't they? Yes they are. So that, you know, I mean, those games are also jammed. Before we got into this world where Frogware deserves to get their work not stolen from them. We were in a world where, oh my god, Watson is teleporting. What is happening? But yeah, there's a wild difference between a day one jank and like a year three jank,
Starting point is 03:03:18 where it's fucking weird instead of being actively broken Mm-hmm So yeah, there you go congrats to them We got to find out some more details about metaphor Refantasio showing off the setting and the world and the characters and all those big old details and guess what? Calendar system hanging out with friends. Yeah, yeah, you can Of course, of course, man, right? Of course, but it's a fantasy setting, you know, and it's not quite school But it's ultimately like yeah, you're gonna be you're gonna be just that's just persona sense. You're just as linking it up but
Starting point is 03:04:04 but the thing with this world is a quote unquote that it is a mysterious and exciting story unfolding where people must fight their own anxiety. Hehehehe. The inner shadow that I, you would have to fight in the persona world if I had to fight Wully that was just a little more mean and horny Fine fuck it. Let's go. I got this fighting Anxieties I'm done. It's over
Starting point is 03:04:41 Ten zero matchup you lose who the fuck is beating their anxiety? That's brutal. That is a way worse concept. Premise for the crew. They've already done that. That was persona 4. You're gonna run up like the art out, aren't thou me? I don't like taught. It's like you're gonna talk to fucking shadow, Jinbo or whatever, and he's gonna be like, I don't like talking in front of crowds.
Starting point is 03:05:12 And they're gonna go, no, I love talking in front of crowds. And then they're gonna turn into a big boss fight. But I, like the thing is, I don't know if it's just like the version of you that you're denying. Like that's more palatable. That's like more of a thing you can challenge and wrap yourself around. The idea that it's like the actual incarnations of that which you fear
Starting point is 03:05:32 manifest to get front of you is way more terrifying. It's also a fantasy kingdom with all these tribes in touch and like they're being infested with these unknown, weird, dangerous, mysterious beasts and monsters called humans. That's... that's pretty good. I don't know, I don't know. Yeah! Okay. Right? Okay, but...
Starting point is 03:06:03 Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, these dangerous horrifying creatures But then you see some of the designs they have for them And let me see if I can grab one here Here is Give me a human yeah, yeah, I'm gonna know what a human look like. I'm gonna show you what a human looks like. Uh, gross humans. Ugh. And on the way you get to see like the UI and it's all of its glory and just, you know,
Starting point is 03:06:36 being the fucking best. Um, is it an eat, oh my god, so many of the chats asked if it's a EDF human? Oh my god the no no giant frog monsters that this is a humid yeah right over there I'm looking at right now yeah I Yeah, I'm gonna throw the link in the chat and in the show notes. How the fuck? So you can check this picture out on the show notes if you go to the podcast page and that's Scotland. This is a human. That just looks like the collective unconscious demon form of Scotland. It is fucking wild and weird and creepy and it's great. Super cool concept there.
Starting point is 03:07:34 Yeah, there's body parts floating, there's ideas, there's concepts. There's a flagpipe, like a fleshy bagpipe being played by little tiny people. There's a part of the monster. An egg being hatched and and just yeah. So those are the most dangerous and horrible things and we have to defeat the humans. Um, but this whole game is like the collective unconscious, isn't it? Your anxieties are coming to get you. What are you gonna do about that? Me, I'm a fucking run.
Starting point is 03:08:09 That's so insane. That's such a fucking terrifying concept. Yeah, and then it goes on about the setting in the world, the different tribes and your characters and stuff. But those two elements in particular I found to be fucking strong. I didn't think the name of the game was so literal. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. It's not metaphor re-fantasio. It's metaphor RE-fantasio as in... Replying to... A fantastical metaphor for...
Starting point is 03:08:43 Yeah, regarding. applying to. A fantastical metaphor for. Yeah, regarding. Man. It's so crazy how email. That's really blunt. Yeah. Yeah.
Starting point is 03:08:52 Yeah. It's also amazing how email threads have led to Japan internalizing an aspect of English that nobody in English actually thinks about. Yeah. Are E. Colin, as in just replying regarding this, you know, a telegram language thing, it just, it's become such a fucking titular flourish. I really expect a villain in this game to be an old man named Carl,
Starting point is 03:09:24 at this point. villain in this game to be an old man named Carl at this point. Mr. S. I mean, I don't know like looking at the rest of the screenshots and everything like that, like it is very, very much a like it's leaning as far away it can from like downtown recognizable Tokyo, but that's probably because the final thing that happens will be downtown Tokyo blooming out of a flower. You know, you know what would be great, you know, it'd be great. Is you're just doing all this nonsense shit, and then you meet a guy and he's a guy and a fucking wheelchair in a red suit and you're like, who are you? He's like my name Stephen. Mm-hmm. What are you doing here, Stephen? Oh, don't worry about it. Uh, you doesn't interact with the plot at all at all in any way shape or form. In any way, you were talking about Carl J. I thought you meant Carl S. My mistake. The hell is Carl S?
Starting point is 03:10:22 Sagan? Oh, what? What? I-I-I-I- my mistake the hell's car less um saygon oh what what i i i i know carol young of the a collective unconscious in the creator of the term persona correct if this was a space thing you could see the carl saygon which it the billions and billions and the pale blue dot and all that. Yes. Which it is not. And then it goes into these concepts of, there's igniters and igniters are the ability to use your magical powers to defy archetypical convention. Wait, an igniter?
Starting point is 03:11:06 Would you say that that is evoking something? It almost might be evoking something. An archetype is a primordial secret power that awakens by facing your anxieties. Oh my god, it's... Who on the nose? The nature of the hero that lies dormant in someone's heart S-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A- it but also it's my own homework and I'm copying me oh that's yeah yeah you know yeah I'm dumbed to my own shit
Starting point is 03:11:54 I mean this is the most subtle game of all can't wait the fucking yeah that bird is on the stoop with it's with the same fucking card can't find a new joke and I'm like, nah, I want to hear it. Let's hear it again. Um. And all of this through the delivered through the subtle lens of Lotus Juice. I don't know but he might be. You never know when a lotus juice might pop up Is he there wherever show G's around a lotus juice might flow? He might pour some out
Starting point is 03:12:36 You know you're having a you're having a nice moment you're having a nice fucking meal and they just added no Rock body, body, body. Stop making fun of Lotus Juice, he is trying his best. Never! I will always make fun of Lotus Juice. No, he's trying really hard. He's trying really hard and sometimes he makes the song better, and sometimes he makes the song worse.
Starting point is 03:12:58 I was enjoying the dorm theme. I didn't need him to come in and tell me to rock my body body. You remember being jump scared by Lotus Juice in Jojo Part 2? Oh, when? Joseph gets into the plane. All of a sudden, Lotus Juice is there. I doubt, I fucking doubt. Oh, it was weird.
Starting point is 03:13:22 It was so weird. Man, I just remember like what one point Schmupcott Pat was describing a concert where like I forgot her name, but the vocalist is fucking killing it and you know Megaro's organizing it and conducting doing the whole thing and everyone's there and like when the when Lotus just comes out He's so out of place and he just kind of like like like, fulks his way on stage and starts spitting and getting into it and you're like, he's weird in the office. Concerts.
Starting point is 03:13:51 Anyway, people are pointing out that the dorm wrapping was actually off a sample CD. It's like a stock sound. Slaped into that, really? That was a sample. Wow. Weird. That's why it sounds so fucking weird and out of place Oh
Starting point is 03:14:09 Coming out again soon dude. It sure is and I haven't listened to a lot of it But about hair most of the music it remix is great But I did catch Brennan describing the mass destruction remix as ballless And I need to go find out if that's true or not That's wild. Like mass destruction is like, So, let me see if I can find it. Did you do a sponsored stream for Persona 5 Tactica?
Starting point is 03:14:40 Yeah. Okay. So, in that sponsorship, they had the disclosure stuff about like streaming guidelines And I can't remember what they were, but I remember looking at them and going This is much better than usual. Yeah, it was it was actually I remember looking at I mean like this seems legitimately reasonable But I thought I saw that and took it to be like, that's how much they care for this particular title.
Starting point is 03:15:10 And in another title that's much more main or important, they might get more draconian again. Well, we'll see. We'll see. It was like, please don't stream the end game in 2023. And afterwards, please put a spoiler warning in your title, which like considering that came out like end of November or December, like that was actually like, okay.
Starting point is 03:15:41 And I think there was pretty long. I think there was also a please avoid this entire section of the game period There's a there's a until a certain date, but it was like it was like it was like the post game basically But I'm not gonna have faith that the Stegosaurus has learned from its ways, you know, yeah Here's hoping They've they've relaxed it for P3R. Maybe they'll face their anxieties and fucking, you know, it's really strange. Awake in their archetype.
Starting point is 03:16:13 A way can their art is like legitimately a brand new persona game, right? Like there's a new persona game coming out in a week or two, right? And it looks gorgeous, it'll have new music, et cetera. Sure, it's the plot that we know, but that's a good plot. But I'm just sitting here going like, man, I would stab like a third of those social links if I met them in.
Starting point is 03:16:39 Like they are, like people don't remember that like part of the original context of, like, building your links with people is that, like, a bunch of the people you make friends with in Persona 3 are garbage. Oh, terrible. You actually make friends with fucking Satan businessman, like, Bobby C-
Starting point is 03:17:00 You make friends with the biggest, rhubas loser in the world with moon, trying to get you in was fucking MLM cult And you have to keep at it I I forget a bunch of them, but I'm like to me. I'm like yo, there's like dying man. There's there's fucking There's well, I mean there's there's who, you know, is there and, and the kid, um, and isn't there old lady? Isn't there like a nice old lady? No, that's P five, that's P four.
Starting point is 03:17:32 Okay. Before the death or connoisseur has been right, right, right, right, right. Yeah. Yeah. Um, you can, um, you, yours, oh, hey, hey, Kenji, what's up? I want to fuck my teacher. Okay. Cool, you yours. Oh, hey, hey, Kenji. What's up? I want a fuck mark T- Mark teacher. Okay, cool, Kenji. Um, that's good. That's cool. Maybe calm it down. Oh, I love her. All right. Okay. Um, and then if you play as Femm C, you're like, Kenji, what's up?
Starting point is 03:18:01 I'm banging the teacher and you're like, cool, Kenji. That's, mm-hmm. All right. Ken, and then also, and then Shinji becomes a viable dating option. Enjoy it. Well, it lasts. Well, it lasts. What you call it, is Tartarus, Tartarus is still Tartarus, right? They didn't, they didn't smooth that out in any way.
Starting point is 03:18:31 I brought this up though, I don't know what it was. It was like an Xbox show or whatever where they showed a P3 trailer. And I was like, are they gonna fucking change Tartarus, man? It's the one thing. It's the one thing. And then a trailer came on in which you they, the Tardarus had wildly different visuals and had an actual design to a ton of the floors. Hey, okay. Stuff's happening. Um, they know. Yeah. It, because it's just like making it look prettier and do more interesting things is good, but like there should
Starting point is 03:19:06 legitimately be like conversations you're having as well like If you just took it made the fights more interesting made the sets more interesting and let the characters talk to each other like we did in Mementos, then I think that's fine Is it 150? Cause I wanna say 200. I can't remember. At damn, at damn. Oh my God, hair.
Starting point is 03:19:33 It's 200. It's 200, yeah, there you go. It's so many more, you would think I remember feeling like you would think it would just be 100, but it's actually not. Wait, it's, people are saying like 250 to 260. So like it would, be a hundred, but it's actually not. Wait, it's, it people are saying like 250 to 260. So like it would, I remember hitting a point in which I'm like, this dungeon has too many floors. I think, I think most people would accept 100
Starting point is 03:19:57 as the sign of like, there's a lot here, but that's also a number that is supposed to signify the commitment to a lot. When you go past that and you're at like 115, 120, 120, and you're just, you know, like why? Yeah. Well, the issue was not the amount of floors. There's a lot of people that fucking play dungeon crawlers
Starting point is 03:20:19 and dungeon crawling is fun. The issue was that all the floors were functionally identical. They were identical. They were the same. Yes, fair. It's a little darker this time. You know, I am looking at a video now. Okay, this is already significantly different. I'm looking at a staircase inside Tardarus in one of the floors.
Starting point is 03:20:40 Because it's the part that it, you know, it's the least discussed because it's the most forgettable. The walls are moving around. So breakables in the environment. And I just, I realized in recommending this, you know, to punch bomb that it's like, yeah, you prepare yourself for a grindfest that is going to be not at all anything with the characters talking or having fun or doing anything. you just gotta- I mean, it's still gonna be a grindfest. That's part of the game is, hey man, you wanna grind this shit out, but this looks like the step up,
Starting point is 03:21:14 like from, you know how the procedural dungeons have all gotten more complex every time, from three to four to five. This looks like the sixth incarnation of whatever that is. And I don't think, you don't have to hold on to the legacy of that and be like, no, this is what it has to be. And like, come on. You can make this interesting.
Starting point is 03:21:35 You can make these fights have relevance. You can make these settings and moments matter while still having their gameplay that you're used to. You know, I wonder if they're going to keep... if they're going to kick up the boss a notch. Because the final boss in that game was not just insane and ridiculous. It was also a boss that most people fought without control of their party. I would not be surprised if they straight up gave it another phase entirely. Are you fucking kidding me?
Starting point is 03:22:13 Are you? Are you... I would not be surprised. A little something for anybody who knows what to expect to be a little bit a little, a little, a little weight. What the fuck is happening? You think they'll just go for all 22 then? MORE! Yeah, yeah, yeah. Hey, so the answer will never be back ever again.
Starting point is 03:22:49 The answer was a mistake, though some of the supplemental material in like P4 Arena has like referenced the answer just a little bit. Do you think... Metis has gone forever? Do you think they're gonna have the balls to change it? Look, the options are. It never happened, we don't talk about it ever again. Or it happened off camera and it's a paragraph you can read about no I mean like
Starting point is 03:23:28 the ending oh no No, no, no, no, well no, no, no You could but that would suck It's the best part of the game This is the best part of the game is ascending. Why would you change that if you did that would suck? I'd find that rule. So that they could have Persona 3...
Starting point is 03:23:56 Tactica. So that the kids can continue to have their adventures like all the other current kids are. Yeah. Fucking, I don't know grab another fucking kid I don't know do something if you need to Nah, man I I would like to think that they know the strength of each of those games They know that the strength of three is that ending the strength of four is your culprit The strength of five is the crew heist, you know. You need to make sure that is the biggest part of what you emphasize when you go back into this.
Starting point is 03:24:32 You God, you could fuck that up if you were to try to just redo it or change it. I don't imagine so. What about persona three strikers? Or scramble? So on the three strikers, or scramble. Ha. Hey, I have a silly question because we were talking about a metaphor earlier. What's metaphors color? It doesn't have one, does it?
Starting point is 03:25:00 No, it's all over the place. It's bright red, it's bright, it's aqu's aquamarine, uh, there's a bright orange, a bright blue, the colors are all over. A lot of the mud is red and blue mixed. So character has the red and the blue on the, on the stuff. So there's, there's screenshots on the pause screen of your character with blue hair and a blue background with a giant red selection option on your menu. And then there's a red-haired character with a rabbit with big red eyes and a big blue background. So, you know, you and what you have big blue hair and a character has big red hair and someone else has white hair. So it's it's because I made a bunch of games back to back to back to back that had like, this is the game's color.
Starting point is 03:25:51 60% of all things in this game will have this color to some degree. And it's interesting to see what that team can make outside of that like self-imposed constraint. Yeah. Just scrolling through what they released. outside of that like self-imposed constraint. Yeah, just scrolling through what they released, honestly, it's red, white, and blue. That's what it is. Oh, yeah.
Starting point is 03:26:12 Yeah, the characters represent red, white, and blue, and the menus are all red, white, and blue, together. These colors don't run. Over the, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And I saw I realized that one of the clips inside that trailer is the bag, the flesh bag pipe off that monster you showed, being like the boss fight, just the flesh bag pipe. Yeah.
Starting point is 03:26:42 Yes, red, white, and blue, totally America, not like 15 other European nations. I don't know if we ever talked about this, but the tri-color flag is dog shit and everyone should have a cool flag with stuff on it. I think a stuff is cooler than not has not a stuff. I think Ireland and Italy should have a boxing match or something to figure out who gets to keep their existing flag. Because they're too similar. I like that we're like, yo, we got leaf.
Starting point is 03:27:13 Leaf is our icon. That's dope. We had maple syrup, it's delicious. Shit rules, man. Sick. I like that, you know, it's like, yo, check out this planet. It's a planet like Brazil. It looks like it looks like a planet.
Starting point is 03:27:31 I thought it was stars. Is it? Maybe. I love there you go. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. Just destroy the entire conversation immediately. Just destroy the entire conversation immediately. Oh, it's there in a circle. I thought it was a blue planet being depicted and then the text around it.
Starting point is 03:28:02 Well, damn. The curve of the... It's got a good it. Well, damn. The curve of... It's got a good one. Yeah, it's pretty cool. The curve of the text going around the circumference also makes it seem like the spherical aspect of that is being called attention to. Good flag. Yeah, good flag.
Starting point is 03:28:20 Good job, Brazil. All right. So some of that going on, okay, here's a particularly fun one. Tekken 8, Harada has talked about the color blind accessibility modes. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, man, this is great,
Starting point is 03:28:43 because I spoke at length. Yep With somebody about this who has color blindness. Okay. I Mean shade. I mean, I know men usually can weigh in and let us know how he feels about these these features when they pop up So I saw this and I was like, oh look at that. That's there. There's a there version of it. That's cool. And retweeted it. And then I saw the Twitter discourse pop up following, which was like, why does this have to be like so horrible to look at in dog shit, right? Oh, you're talking about Erie.
Starting point is 03:29:16 You're talking about a person that I spoke to. Right. Okay. So that then became a part of the conversation. And then I saw like that evolve into like the different versions. There seems to be like a version that's just Matt color I saw that evolve into the different versions. There seems to be a version that's just color overlay. There's a couple different options they've had. Now, ultimately, I will straight up say,
Starting point is 03:29:33 seeing that option where it was the take on me filter, I was like, that's not at all, I street fighter six day, this is very different. And I do not look at that, expecting to know or understand why it is the way it is. I just assume that I'm like, I guess there is a condition that when you consult people who do media for treatment for this,
Starting point is 03:30:01 this is what they suggest you do, and therefore that's why they did this, right? So, like, I just, that's, no, that, right, but just as to like why I just retweeted it and went like, oh cool, okay, and moved on, because I was like, yeah, because I was like, I assume that scientifically this is the right thing to solve a thing that I'm not too sure how the ins and outs of it go, but I always knew that the different color blind settings where you just change between the four or so different modes.
Starting point is 03:30:28 A couple of games have done that, and that works, and Min has been happy with that setting. The best is, the best seems to be when you let people choose their own, and choose their own patterns for what they want, so that you can have the game look normal and then only specific things are emphasized in that way. But when I see something like this and I go, this looks weird to me, huh,
Starting point is 03:30:48 I've never seen anything like this. I just assume that there's someone in a lab coat that has figured out that this is actually what would be helpful for people that need it. A kind interpretation. And that's why I was like, oh, cool, okay. All right, so I'm gonna try and paraphrase as best as I can. However, of course, I don't have color blindness.
Starting point is 03:31:09 I have incredible vision. Wolley, you did not have color blindness, right? I do not. I'm checking his head, no. I love how I started to say, I don't know what I said. Like what fucking code phrase I said that Wolley said, okay, I can start eating now because I'm not gonna talk for a bit. But okay.
Starting point is 03:31:28 I think it was the words paraphrase. No, it's because you did the thing where you went. Okay. And then that indicates that you're gonna go for a bit. Okay, yeah, all right. It's fun finding these things out. Sure. So, I don't have color blindness, but I luckily know people
Starting point is 03:31:44 with color blindness, well, in particular, but I luckily know people colorblindness, well, in particular, one of my mods is colorblind and was the person who made the thread complaining about it, which is Erie, who's in the chat, Hey Erie. Also a way better loop player than I am on anything player in Street Fighter 6. So they love fighting games, so this works out perfectly. So they love fighting games, so this works out perfectly. So, before we go, the tweet that Willi's talking about was kind of fucking tainted from the very beginning because the person said, why is no one talking
Starting point is 03:32:15 about the colorblind features in Tekken 8? And then posted a video of the low visibility filter and not the colorblind options. Right, okay. All black and white, with one character having vertical lines all over them and one character having horizontal lines over them, right?
Starting point is 03:32:35 Completely. And then the background was take on me filter. Yeah, that's not a colorblindness feature. That is for people who are visually impaired, completely blind, but still technically have some vision. That's kind of what I was thinking, because I'm like, this is not turning greens and reds
Starting point is 03:32:55 into more distinct shapes, or making them more distinct from each other. This is probably someone who has a hard time making most of what's happening on the screen, apart from each other. So I don't know if the terms are used nowadays, but when I learned them in school, you would describe somebody as having sand blindness and stone blindness to determine extremely impaired vision and basically no vision at all, but not completely blind.
Starting point is 03:33:26 It would be for these people. People who are, got glasses thick like bubbles from Trinaly Park Boys. You know, it's completely blind versus completely blind. I can see light, but that's kind of it, right? Moving on to the color blindness features. Now, this was something that I had always wondered about and it was interesting to talk to people who actually do the color blindness features. Now this was something that I had always wondered about
Starting point is 03:33:45 and it was interesting to talk to people who actually do have color blindness, which is I always wondered why when I turned a color blindness filter on, it actually removed colors out of the scene because it seems what those filters tend to do is go, oh well, you can't see those colors, so we're gonna remove them from the scene
Starting point is 03:34:04 and replace them with something else, which according to people with color blindness often works really badly because it does like a palette crush, right? So one of the examples that Eerie used in the thread was Halo always did great because you could just pick what colors the enemy team was. And so you could pick wildly contrasting colors that you could see in the options and go,
Starting point is 03:34:31 I want them to be purple and me to be orange or whatever the fucking happens to be for your particular color blindness. And so the tech and options basically represent like, do you have this? So you can't see this see this we're gonna now crush the palette and kind of turn the game into like A soup you can see all the parts of the soup now But all the contrast is gone and the idea is that a really good color blind option would actually be to have a game Either as an option or as default, have wildly contrasting colors so that they would stand out more readily instead of removing colors.
Starting point is 03:35:14 And I would also imagine giving some freedom so that people who specifically have different versions of color blindness or are impaired in different ways can pick the version that helps them over the default, right? Yeah. The weirdest part is there's a, there's people with monochrome color blindness, which is crazy. They see in black and white, like genuinely. And so the monochromatic color blindness option filter for Tekken 8 turns the game monochrome. But it doesn't seem to actually increase its contrast and it doesn't seem to actually put edges on anything. It just makes it black and white. So it's almost like if I wanted to simulate having monochrome color blindness, I could turn this option on. But I don't know what it's actually supposed to do for somebody that actually has monochrome color blindness, I could turn this option on, but I don't know what it's actually supposed to do
Starting point is 03:36:06 for somebody that actually has monochrome color blindness. And so, but yeah, from seeing that footage, from seeing the one with like the characters replaced with a single color silhouette, red, or rather yellow and then blue, and the background pulled back out and such. It seems as if it's like, if you have one of these very rare conditions and this is making the game information more clear to you, then it otherwise would
Starting point is 03:36:31 be like you might be in a situation where it's either this or you cannot see it at all, right? Versus, I can see the game, but some of the features are just not as distinct from each other as they should be leading to confusion, And I guess then I think that's what, again, I'm in as my frame of reference because he's the one we often talk to about this one. He's like, I can play Mario Kart. It's just red shells and green shells look the same. You know, that's significantly different.
Starting point is 03:36:58 So yeah, the option would be like, can I turn green shells to yellow shells? Yeah, and then the rest of the experience will be more or less the same. I know that artistically there will be times where it's like, oh, but that means now this scene of the leaves becoming going to summer, you know, changing is kind of lost artistically. And it's like, yeah, that I suppose does happen. But in a lot of cases, having the crucial option for gameplay be something that is, yeah,
Starting point is 03:37:24 selectable would probably solve the thing. But I would like to know, though, when they have options like this that pop up in Tekken, if they are just like, this looks like a bad, this is something that's like, this doesn't help the person who has the issue or so, I would like to see what the logic is, and or where the source studies were to break that down, right? Because I'm reminded of, remember how we talked about Nintendo being afraid of the seizure causing flashes ever since their Pokemon episode? I do remember that. So I, when I used to read the Nintendo lot-check guidelines for their games and they would bring that part up, it would tell
Starting point is 03:38:04 you about what you can't do. It would tell you about what you can't do. It would tell you about the exact frequencies and speed with which colors from this range to this range should not be intermittent with each other across this frequency of speed. And so on, there's a whole specific thing. But in breaking down those regulations, they showed you some of the information that they basically were
Starting point is 03:38:26 referring to a research study to go like, here's why, and here's what it results in. So here's what we're trying to avoid so that you understand where that's coming from. I'd love to see something like that with this, because again, as I said at the beginning, my assumption when I see something new like this for the first time is that, oh shit, someone who figured this out that deals with this knows that this is probably a better way to go that I've never thought of. I think about when I went to Japan and I saw the bumps on the ground in the train stations. And I was like, what are these bumps? What is this? And it's like this is to help someone who's blind, feel their way through everywhere from the subway to the sidewalk to the building they're going to. And it's for like using your, you can feel your way through the city and stop at every intersection.
Starting point is 03:39:08 And it's like, oh shit, I've never conceived of this. That's pretty smart. Okay, cool. Got it, you know. So I just take that for granted, I think here. So there's some more fun things, particularly now that you mentioned epilepsy. So before I forget, we have Eerie Colorblind person in the chat pointing out that there are global standards
Starting point is 03:39:29 for colorblind accessibility, but those are primarily for TV and other informative media. They're not for games, right? Because games have different design sensibilities, I suppose, and standards. There's also this wonderful R's technical article in which EA games is head of accessibility. We'll have to tell people stop sending me that tech and shit
Starting point is 03:39:54 because it was causing them debilitating migraines, a nausea. Pfft. Pfft. And there was some discussion that the accessibility thing for low visibility people, which is the stripes and the white background, is violent to a lot of people's perceptions and can make you sick. Huh. So that begs the question, who on the team is the accessibility consultant
Starting point is 03:40:32 that basically said this was a good idea? Cause sure, like, they don't just wing and pull that out and go, here you go. This is what we're gonna, like, there's gotta be someone there referencing that was like, this is what you should do, there's gotta be someone there referencing that was like, this is what you should do, and this will help, right? It would be wild to think that without an actual consultant
Starting point is 03:40:52 that was referencing any of these documents, they just winged it. Technical people pointed out that this particular low visibility feature is so extreme that it's probably going to cause people to discover their epilepsy. This striped version. And the Ars Tactical Idol specifically mentions Porgon, the Porgon episode in 97, as the last example. And again, I've seen it from other people,
Starting point is 03:41:19 but also from Iri and the chat that they had a friend who had a seizure looking at this Twitter clip. That's insane. Jesus Christ. This high visibility colorblind filter, okay, I'll turn that on and you may in fact have a fucking seizure as a result. It's not just like incompetent. It's irresponsible. Yeah. it's irresponsible. Yeah, and Barra's mentioning that this appears to be one mode of like the many different
Starting point is 03:41:50 things and features they've put in, and I don't know like if any of those are equally as dangerous or if this is the worst of it, but yeah, there's a lot of people that are saying that effectively this doesn't help, or if it does help for some people, it's potentially dangerous to others. So this is a weird... Like, you've seen this clip with the stripes. It's unpleasant to look at. Yeah. I suffer from migraines quite often.
Starting point is 03:42:21 And I can tell you right now that if I had to look at that for more than 45 seconds I would probably start to get violently ill So that's it. I just I'm like I'm like that's that seems like a this is the first time I've ever seen an attempt at accessibility like kind of land in this place where it's like oh this is this is actually making it worse for a lot of people and This is actually making it worse for a lot of people. And you would just assume that, yeah, there would be enough documentation to point back to that they can explain why they tried to do this or so. Or...
Starting point is 03:42:56 This whole conversation's just so fucking... It was framed in the worst possible way because like, wow, look at this color blind people and color blind people Oh, it's hurting me and it's like oh wait, it's not for color blind people. It's actually for like semi blind people And it's a completely different thing And then and people without color blind as go wow, this is really great. Oh, it's hurting me too. Oh hurting me too. Oh, oh. Like, will we live in the world with the lemonade that kills you
Starting point is 03:43:28 and the car that tries to run people over and the body lotion that attracts spiders? I don't know if you know about that one. And now the video game that makes you throw up. I guess so. I just like, this is the first time I'm seeing accessibility bad actually. and it's like oh fuck you have to be careful how you implement this shit to not make it worse yeah
Starting point is 03:43:51 who's the right person to talk to to get the correct thing because I you have to imagine like with we when it came to multiple games and and studios that it's like there's someone here that's like going to make suggestions for what you guys program and implement into this. What Street Fighter 6 there absolutely was someone who did that to make sure the game could be played blindly in it. So, there's a big problem with the context of who do you talk to because typically when you're making some kind of capital product you go all right
Starting point is 03:44:29 We want to do something for the blinds. Let's go get us a blind person Okay, what do we need to do singular blind person? Okay, we're gonna implement all that shit. We did it right right right right right and Okay, we're gonna implement all that shit. We did it. Right, right, right, right, right. And over time, there were eventually, there eventually there were things like able gamers and various like organizations that were like, hey, we've figured out some accessibility guidelines
Starting point is 03:45:00 you can follow if you wanna implement them. We've wrote them down here, and if you wanna consult with them. We've wrote them down here and if you want to consult with us We can do that like those things do Exist now and are much better, but Were they consulted here? How did this come to be who the fuck knows, you know, but yeah Good try sorry you ended up hurting people on it. Maybe take it back in. Try it again.
Starting point is 03:45:27 And try it again. Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat, when they were making accessibility options for people with extremely low visibility, switched it to sound. Instead of trying to somehow reach people that can basically barely see the screen, because those options are horrible. And I guess, yeah, for me, I'm just like, okay, well, maybe the next time one of these features drops, like I look at it and I go, damn, that's crazy. I don't know who that's for, but I guess it helps.
Starting point is 03:45:55 I hope that's good. It's like, okay, let's check to see if anyone who has it in the target audience is like, actually, this doesn't help, it hurts. Also, I will say, because people, the tendency of non-disabled person is to look at the resources that goes into disability accommodations and go,
Starting point is 03:46:15 well, I don't have that shit, I'm gonna fuck about that shit. Let the guy crawl up the stairs and drag his wheelchair behind him, I don't give a fuck. But disability accommodations, even in video games, tend to be good for everybody. And if you want an example that has made damn near everyone, I've ever spoken to about it happy is fucking having an option in the menus under accessibility to change rapid tapping of the button to just hold the button. Yep, always. No need to, no need to mash. Mashing's done. I changed that every single time I can find it.
Starting point is 03:46:49 Um, and subtitles. Subtitles, the all time fucking go. People are going to need you to aggressively describe the spiders. Oh, yes, the four put out a fucking body lotion that causes wolf spiders to attack you Sick didn't catch that one somehow It's cuz it's got spider-fair mones in it. Uh-huh We're and I suppose we we found this out due to a couple of consumer reviews consumer reports. Yeah, okay. All right. Yeah
Starting point is 03:47:48 Yeah, just lots of consumer reviews and people talking on social media going is anybody noticing a lot of spiders once you got this in the mail Shout-outs to Charlie on here at Say in a fill in a humidifier with Pinarra lemonade and closing the garage door Oh, yo buttons had some of the pen error lemonade Recently was like it's actually like kind of bland and you would expect that the lemonade that kills you Would be like super flavorful and it was like a big discipline God All right God! Alright, um... Anyway, uh, good shit aside. Uh...
Starting point is 03:48:32 There was a... Just a little, just a little, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, actually, this one's for me just to just to just to just to get the the the the the water off my back for a bit, but yes, there is a documentary About reboot called reboot rewind that's currently in the works and the people behind that documentary Jake of Weldon and Raquel Lynn found the digital master tapes of the 3D series reboot. We got them, we found the tapes, we got all of them. And they're trying to figure out how to copy them over and D1 machines are not easy to find.
Starting point is 03:49:14 And if they can. They're tapes, man. Yes. And I've been talking to Raquel about this documentary for some time, hearing about how things are going and it sounds pretty cool and there's going to be some good developments and stuff. So yes, I've heard of it and yes, it's exciting and yes, I know the people have halved it. Did people still have the audacity to come up to you and be like, will you, have you heard about this reboot thing? Every single day.
Starting point is 03:49:37 Will you're writing 50, 60 reboots a week for the internet at large? Every single day. 60 reboot. That's a week for the internet. A large, every single day. You know, but that's cool. Well, that's cool. So shout outs, Rick L. and everyone check out reboot rewind when it's ready to drop. And then another, another for me, little thing has happened. But the slightest bit of news, someone crossed paths
Starting point is 03:50:07 with Takahiko Innoway and asked him, hey, that big basketball movie that happened was pretty cool, would you be interested in seeing other stuff that you did, turn into movies, and he basically went, yeah, actually, I need to resume real the basketball manga and a vagabond, those are both kind of, they stopped, but I'd like to go back the basketball manga and a bag of bond. Those are both kind of they stopped, but I'd like to go back to them and I do want to I know I still feel like doing it. So sorry about that, but he's indicated that he feels like he wants to do something with it.
Starting point is 03:50:40 That's interesting to hear. And if that means nothing, if it's all a lie, if he's actually like, you know what, never mind, so be it, that's fine too, because I've said it before, but the place it leaves off on is one that I can understand that feeling. And like, having just went, having gone through it again not too long ago, just like remembering remembering how and why he feels so bad about
Starting point is 03:51:06 where it goes. I get it. I get why he feels like it drains him so much and stuff. But there's a spark of a hope of a thought that maybe he might return to drawing some vagabond and reel, which is out of serialization, mind you. So it's actually or back in serialization. So that's officially supposed to happen. Um, anyway. Hey, that new KC Edwards Devil May Cry theme song is for pinnacle of combat. Womp, womp, no shit. But doesn't matter because it's still KC Edwards and it's still with the vocalist, uh, the previous tracks as well. And it's still a Dante and Virgil theme song. It's
Starting point is 03:51:45 supposed to represent them both lyrically and stylistically and it's called fire inside and the song is probably still gonna fucking slap. It's just you know it's it's for the mobile. Looking forward to the music though there's no reason there's no reason that the track itself can't be fucking sick Yeah, it's if it's any excuse to get more KC Edwards music man, let's do it Do music for dragons dog, man, I don't care how much it doesn't make any sense KC Edwards should do the new fucking pop song for dragons dog with two sequel to into Free. Come on. Well, I mean, it could have been worse. Instead of getting Casey Edwards on the job, they
Starting point is 03:52:31 could have just gotten some AI to get it together and take a crack at it and see if they could emulate one of those, one of those tracks and oh no don't I people were like I can't prove that it's not stolen because we don't know where it's coming from wow this time Dante has a mustache and we didn't put it there intentionally So, oh god, okay, so first, Xbox put out a Christmas themed postcard for ID and Xbox promoting indie games. And it was seemingly just a little like, hey, what are your favorite Indies and kids playing around a little Christmas sled and an Xbox snow themed thing is going down. And then when you zoom in closer, you can see the children are maneuvering the sleds and
Starting point is 03:53:29 the cranks are attached to nothing. And you can see that people are fishing in the snow, but there's weird black tendrils that are hooked onto nothing. And then there's a dude playing with a handheld, but he has his top lip that's just made up of teeth. And then some of the kids jumping in the snow have moustaches. And it's just,
Starting point is 03:53:48 I don't even know about this. It's fucking wild. And like the thing that people are pointing out is like, it's really, it's dumb and shitty enough when like it's an Xbox, you know, AI-generated picture here and it's fucking ghoulish. But this is from ID and Xbox, which is particularly marketed as like the human facing team
Starting point is 03:54:10 that handles the Indies, and they always come out with the T-shirts, and they're like, yeah, we're working on getting the right, funding to the right small groups, and there's much more of a human element inside of the giant megacorp, you know, that is Microsoft. So like, of all the places for it to come from, coming from ID at Xbox in particular is just a little bit of extra fucking sting on it. It's funny. I thought you were going to talk about something totally
Starting point is 03:54:38 different about AI. Well, there's a second part of this. And that's the part where mid-journey is now a part of a class action lawsuit being brought. Why is that? Because it turns out that stability, AI, deviant art, and mid-journey, the, the, you know, everyone involved in the process, has been keeping a list of artists. I mean, this is pretty obvious, but it's like they found the smoking gun. Everyone knows what this is. A little little document myself. Everyone knows when you see the props that say, uh, uh,
Starting point is 03:55:13 fucking art germ Stanley Lau, what that means. But regardless, um, yeah, they found the actual list of artists who they're referencing. They found the discord conversations between the devs in particular who are talking about training. It on the 16 or so thousand artists coming from the list, a devian art of course being involved as nuts because they're the site that has the archive. And then someone in the same dev discord makes reference to conveniently forgetting the
Starting point is 03:55:42 sources once it's learned and been trained on them. So, you know, not only... Not only bad Discord DMs to get out. Right. Not only here's the people we should train it on, the styles that they call them and all the artists by name, including the ones in the lawsuit who brought it forward, but straight up the adheres how we delete the evidence after the fact. And then when people were looking at that for a couple days, they were all and then deleted the Google Doc, which is like you dumb idiots. It's so too late. You fucking morons. You just adding more crimes to your existing crimes. So, uh, yeah, class action lawsuit starting this month,
Starting point is 03:56:26 or rather started in January of last year, excuse me. There's a huge smoking gun, big one, it a big one. Also, fucking New York Times is suing Microsoft because open AI, which is Microsoft's, just steals entire newspaper articles and post them as if they were answers. Uh, and New York Times put out like a 200 something page, like fucking legal brief that's like, here's how the robot steals
Starting point is 03:56:57 every newspaper article you've ever seen in your damn life. And they're just word for word copies as if they were like generated results. So yeah, this particular mid-journey one in the next 10 days or so is going to be having its first motions and hearings and stuff. So it's fun that we have moved on to the point of digital technology that every couple of years,
Starting point is 03:57:29 we are inundated with the new scam. Crypto to NFTs, to AI. And watching a bunch of companies run by boomers that don't understand the fucking phone that their grandkids told them to get, making decisions that affect everyone's digital life, and just buying into these fucking scams over and over. Like fucking Square Enix is still on that NFT shit, they're one scam behind. Yeah, I think the push towards what do they call it and Capistan? The push towards ad Capistan is in full effect.
Starting point is 03:58:18 There's never been a clearer concerted effort on all fronts every single year. Let's see where these lawsuits go. The idea that DeviantArt2, that's kind of wild because I didn't know that DeviantArt was actually behind it. I wasn't paying attention that I didn't catch that like the place where all artists upload their things, the catalog itself, the, of course, are the ones who are using it this way, you know. Um, so it goes like to me, I hear that and I just like, like your AI generating pictures and you've decided to scrape deviant art. Like, do you know what you're putting into your robot? I mean, I just like, like, I want to see the challenge, the real, here's the real challenge, okay? Using mid-jury, create a photo realistic hedgehog. You can't, you can't, it will, you can't create a photo realistic hedgehog. Oh no.
Starting point is 03:59:25 You can't. You can't. You can't create a photo. The word hedgehog will never create a realistic one. Yeah, there's no such thing as a real hedgehog. There's no such thing. It's been sorted. It's done.
Starting point is 03:59:39 It will be inflated and it will have spikes. All right. will be inflated and it will have spikes. All right. I feel like the shock value on like pumping up Sonic as a balloon has like allowed what must be an extremely niche thing to just enter into all of our lives and be unescapable. I mean the thing that I like about it is that a lot of this like the threatening nature of some of the the worst of what we've come across on the internet requires you to be need deep in need deep in it, so to speak,
Starting point is 04:00:26 right? Look around and go, oh god, oh no, where am I? But this particular flavor, all you need is a Sonic character like Rooosh and then a little gas-cadester- Stet- or a bicycle-pump. Just next to her. And that's it. All you need is just the character and then an inanimate object in the frame and the threat is already there and it's never been more dangerous. It's cursed already, just the basic object.
Starting point is 04:01:00 You know the deal. In my Alan Wake streams, I would occasionally pretend that I was Alan writing Sonic fanfiction and the vitriolic response that I would see in chat was so it was like maybe the most extreme I've ever seen the audience turn against me and I'm pretty sure people started to leave. Which only made me do it harder because it's so funny to me. Oh damn dude. Yeah, there you go, there's your challenge.
Starting point is 04:01:36 Let's take some letters. If you want to send in a letter, send it to castlesuperbestmail.gmail.com. If it's a short letter with a good question, we're much more likely to answer it than if it's a long letter with a shitty question. Alright, we got one coming in from Luke. He says, Hey guys, what is the most underrated but impressive strength of feet you see in media? For me, it's always the dead hang or a wall climb while holding someone else. Before I was an athlete, I never understood how hard it would be until I progressed to my first pull-up.
Starting point is 04:02:07 Now the idea of someone holding up a cliff side with one arm while holding onto another 200 pound person is insanely impressive. Yeah, no, you know when somebody's hanging off a cliff and they pull themselves all the way up, like holy f- Madness, complete madness. Honestly, just jumping onto a surface that's at least like shoulder height is wildly impressive. I think sometimes I see in a movie,
Starting point is 04:02:30 somebody is running and they run for like a minute and then they don't get tired. And then they're not breathing heavy. That's crazy. That's crazy. Oh, fuck. Oh, man. Whoa.
Starting point is 04:02:43 Yeah, yeah, no, that's wild. Um, I guess it's not well, it's not really a contrivance, but it's also like the impact it takes to hit someone either from the front or from behind and knock them out for sure is not an easy guarantee. There's a lot of places you can hit that are just gonna cause a lot of damage and have the person go, ah! Oh, you know what? You know what I have one, genuinely. You know when you see somebody, like you're watching like a fight scene or whatever and somebody grabs somebody, it does like a judo throw over and then they
Starting point is 04:03:17 just run on their back. Yeah. They just immediately jump up. Yeah, it's about its back. I'm like, dude, I mean, that happened to me. I can't even imagine like anything other than trying not to piss myself. It hurts so bad.
Starting point is 04:03:32 It hurts so bad. And all your wins shoots out and you get paralyzed. Yeah, I think, I think if you've been trained for it, you have the instinct to fall properly and do the hand spread so you diffuse the impact so that might help somewhat. But yeah, I'm going to also go with the thing I only see in anime is knocking people out by punching them in the stomach, right? The soft way to be like, I'm not gonna let that girl go into danger. So I'm gonna go, ugh, and she's gonna go,
Starting point is 04:04:09 ugh, and then pass out. And it's the gentle way. And it's like, I mean, I don't know if that's true or not. I haven't hit many women in the stomach. That's insane. How would that not just have the, what I just said to any women in the stomach? Like, can I roll that back?
Starting point is 04:04:25 He didn't done. Rolled back. Okay. Okay. Alright. Yeah. Um, how is that not just going to be fucking barfing up lunch and just immediate like horrible, horrible damage? It's wild that they did. They picked fucking punch to the stomach as this is a soft way to make someone fall asleep. Wow. Anyway. All right. Here's one coming in from Wallace says, Hey, Pooley and watch, shortened simple. We see alpha gameplay and trailers all the time bullshit.
Starting point is 04:05:04 You don't. short and simple. We see Alpha gameplay and trailers all the time. Bullshit. We see companies talking about access to Betas, pre-order, Yadiyatta, but will you have an actut of experience with this? Can you actually explain the difference between marketing alphas and Betas and actual alphas and Betas? Thanks in advance. Before you go into this I my only piece is that every time you see pre alpha gameplay on a trailer It is it's like it's hilarious now that's pretty off me Yeah Pre alpha on the trailer is just you can't blame us for everything you see this is so so so far in advance It's not even close to being done even though it looks super duper polished shut up.
Starting point is 04:05:46 It's real simple. There's big, you can go into the, every different studio has different specific versions of it, but broad strokes are such that a game will at first have a prototype, which is just the concepts of the of the game being tested, the main things working in some sort of test environment, nothing to it. There'll be a vertical slice, which is testing out the actual production pipeline to see if you can make a full level, full music, full assets, full design elements, and put it all together into one piece of the game, usually a set piece
Starting point is 04:06:19 or something like that to make sure you can get from top to bottom for this. And when that type of thing works and gets greenlit and people like what they see, you can begin pre-production. That's just putting all the ideas for the entire thing together. And then yeah, when it comes to alpha and beta and all that shit, it's real simple. Alpha means your build is code complete. So it has everything that makes it functional in it, even if the graphics are missing,
Starting point is 04:06:50 even if sound is missing, the code is all there to make the character do what it needs to do to make the gameplay work in the way it needs to work and make the systems work in the way they need to work. So alpha is just code complete. Beta is content complete. So now all those missing assets are expected to be there. You know, the stages are supposed to be lit. You're supposed
Starting point is 04:07:11 to have, you know, all the art and music and and and everything cut scenes, et cetera, that we're missing now come in to dress up the code so that it's now content complete. And then after that, they polish until you get a release candidate. The release candidate is exactly what it sounds like. It's what you submit to Microsoft Sony Nintendo to make sure that the game is ready to launch. And it's supposed to be final. And then when it is, you get the gold master,
Starting point is 04:07:37 which is the release build. So that's as simple as it is. What about when they say, hey, do you want to play the open beta? And it's two weeks before the games were Stayed Yeah, those are called lies actually it's such a fucking pile of shit. It's so embarrassing the games being shipped to stores and trucks man So funny yeah, so you get your release build and then sometimes you go back and you say, nah, this is late
Starting point is 04:08:10 beta. You're like, motherfucker. This past submission, what are you talking about late beta? It's game coming out in two weeks and it hasn't been delayed. It can't be beta anymore. It must be released candidate. Pre-alpha. For fuck's sake, pre-alpha is like a fucking gray box pile of shit that doesn't work.
Starting point is 04:08:41 The characters you see running around in Twitter environments inside of like just unity, that's all prototyping. And then, you know, when you see like the number of stages segmented in the number of moments pop up, but characters kind of just like teapots their way through the cutscenes, that could be co-complete alpha, you know, but yeah, the everything that looks and sounds kind of pretty, that isn't just a vertical slice, it's just you're being lied to. At the same time, if a studio is particularly, you know, has the time and budget and such, what you will see is a game that hits content complete, and then enters round one of 80 polishing phases, right? And so there are times where a game will just be like, yeah, we're polishing for the next year. You know, a rock star game is going to polish for the next year or two. When you when you're at a certain scale in size, like you just you your production pipeline becomes much different.
Starting point is 04:09:42 You finish the game off early and then you spend the whole time polishing, and while you're polishing, like literally updating references and script and changing things and making jokes and all those bits and pieces to keep it somewhat relevant. The only thing I can think of that, like most people would be able to grab a hold of and be like, oh, that's what it's like.
Starting point is 04:10:01 It's like, Hades was in a beta state for like a while. Like, not all the content was in the early access state, the ending and the postgame was, but like that first part, like up until the Hades boss fight was done for like a really long time. And then they were pushing this and fixing that and cleaning this and just giving it that polish All right last one coming in from Jay says hey dudes when you first started dating How long was it until you broke the fart barrier? My girl doesn't believe the fart barrier is a thing You try and keep that going until you're married if you can.
Starting point is 04:10:48 So I established, personally, I established, the far barrier, before how much you're going to let it rock in front of your partner. I have a courteous and stern but fair system in place, which is I try every time to move away. I will get up and move away, I'll take it elsewhere, I'll go, if there's a bathroom, whatever, I'll keep it away from you because it's an attack. It's an attack. And because of the courtesy of that,
Starting point is 04:11:23 I'm gonna try to be like, yeah, I'll just generally go over there and keep a distance. However, if warfare starts, not only will I escalate, but I will end it. So unless it is in a time of war or unless a fucking, or unless a particularly funny punchline calls for it. I'm gonna be courteous enough to try to move away so that you don't feel attacked by the gases,
Starting point is 04:11:51 but if you wanna fucking throw down, you're not making out of this battle alive. I will throw down and you're not gonna like the results. Yeah. Yeah. I forget how long it was, but I went like a year or more, and I would leave. And Paige was like, dude, where are you going? I was like, nowhere.
Starting point is 04:12:18 Okay, okay. And eventually she's like, it's too much, you're gonna get sick or something. Just chill out with the farting. And that was the biggest mistake she's ever made in our entire relationship. Um, because now that I let go of that anxiety, you can't put the, you can't put the genie back in the bottle. That's where.
Starting point is 04:12:45 Uh, and that being said, um, uh, there's, there's dating, then there's marriage. Uh, and there's like discovering the brooms that you are and are not allowed to. So, um, and you could just throw. So, it's a day. And you can just throw that whole topic right out the window after the baby shits all over you. Yeah, okay. Because your standards and your context has changed dramatically. Okay.
Starting point is 04:13:19 Ha ha. Fair. I mean, just for what it's worth, you know, I maintain a civil diplomacy. Things are generally peaceful, but every once in a while, when someone gets uppity and a little bit rude, and might try to start some shit, there is a very, very thorough countermeasure. We do not negotiate with terrorists.
Starting point is 04:13:48 We come in guns blazing and we turn it into a parking lot. This is what happens. We have almost, we have gotten into an argument about this so intense that we almost flew off the side of the road at one point because arguing it was happening and retaliation was occurring. Not in the car, not in the not while driving. Car being my wife, the side of the retaliation wasn't enough And so she used the driver's side window buttons and locks to trap me.
Starting point is 04:14:29 Okay, while operating a massive megaton vehicle, like we're on the highway and like the windows are rolling up and I'm like, I'm just gonna open the door and then the doors lock and I'm like you psycho. This literally that is that is a death wish that is apps just to have anyone in the driver's seat get assaulted and have their senses just a just a real like oh yeah, yeah situation. Oh God. Yeah, okay. There it is and and and and and you know like I Get I've described the analogy for at a at a certain point when baby learns that baby's not the only one that can create a stink when baby learns that baby's not the only one that can create a stink.
Starting point is 04:15:24 Yeah. I tell you what though, having a tiny little baby man around is completely contextualized as everything, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, whatever, parent stuff. But it changes one thing. You remember when you were a kid and like younger and like just farts were the absolute like peak hilarity
Starting point is 04:15:44 because the funny noise out your butt. When you get a baby, it's back in the style because farting and going, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, yes. Hell yeah. It's so funny. And what's better than... Give them a kiss like, hey man, what's up? And then he laughs in your face? Laps in your face?
Starting point is 04:16:06 And when it's babies turn to be on the receiving end, you get to watch a baby fighting a ghost. Just, yeah. Ah's right, a hundred. Oh, there you go. All right? All right, there you go. Have a good day, everybody. Good bye. Thank you.

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.