The Besties - What makes Nintendo different from the rest

Episode Date: June 21, 2024

Nintendo can't be stopped! With the Nintendo Switch 2 coming in 2025, we expected 2024 to be a slow year for the iconic game publisher. We were wrong. We open the show with a long convo about the big announcements, including a Zelda game starring Zelda. In the back half, The Besties hop into Destiny 2 one last time to try the last major update, The Final Shape. The MMO FPS launched in 2017 -- the same year Nintendo announced Metroid Prime 4. Get the full list of games (and other stuff) discussed at www.besties.fan. Want more episodes? Join us at patreon.com/thebesties for three bonus episodes each month!

Send a new Bioshock. I hear you, man. I was watching this Nintendo Direct, me in the live chat, everyone was just saying, Bioshock. Cause it's like the rumors, have been flying. The grist of the rumor mill has been generous. Well, it didn't happen at EA,

it didn't happen at Ubisoft, which I get. I get Bioshock for sure. But maybe Nintendo swooped, you know? I just thought maybe Bioshock. I heard a rumor from my dad who works at Bioshock that this one was gonna be set in the roaring 60s, the summer of love. Hey, can I hit you?

Shit, man, here's the thing about Bioshock. Yeah, every time you pitch a fake one, it's like, pick ass! Every time you jokingly come up with a fake Bioshock, it kinda hits. Yeah, it's kinda like, ooh, that sounds good, actually. It sounds like, pick ass! Every time you jokingly come up with a fake Bioshock, it kinda hits. Yeah, it's kinda like, ooh, that sounds good, actually. It sounds good, actually. You've got the setting figured out,

but I feel like you haven't picked the medium, and by medium, I mean we've done water, we've done air. What's left? Foam. The moon. The moon is our medium. Vacuum of space, I guess. Okay, that's good. I'm gonna stick with foam.

This is a Switch exclusive, okay? Fo with foam. This is a switch exclusive. Okay Foam shock. This is it. It's a colorful. Why is all of there's always a lighthouse It doesn't always have to be grim. You know what I mean? That's what instead of Elizabeth and Pennywise and Jack and everybody it's like It's like all 30 of your favorite shock series characters are together and they're blasting each other with fucking foam. Yeah. Cool. It sounds good. I mean, it is a foam game already though.

Right, it's Foam Shock. This is a sequel. But this one's Foam Shock. This is Foam Shock. Okay, yeah, I was thinking of Foam Stars. It's an expansion to Foam Stars. Okay, so you get it. Oh, I see. You get it. It's a cross collab,

they're doing like a mini battle pass for- It is an unauthorized illegal bond You install it you have wanted your warranty on your quality control of the Nintendo eShop being what it is We could for sure get this thing up there for two to three months and rake in My name is Justin McElroy and I know the best game of the week. My name is Griffin McElroy and I know the best game of the week. My name is Christopher Thomas Plant, and it turns out there was a Bioshock game being made in Austin, Texas that was actually about a cross

between Elon Musk and Walt Disney making a future theme park in space. And I don't think anybody's ever talked about it, but I'm dropping it in the middle of my name break. Plant. Wow, that's a Hankkerchief place to do that. That's gotta be a podcasting world record. My name is Russ Froschek,

and I'm the best game of the week. Welcome to the besties. We're talking about the latest and greatest in home interactive entertainment this week. We have a double header for you, an expansion to a beloved game and an expansion of a beloved catalog with the Nintendo Direct and Destiny 2.

The finals. I was gonna ask you for more clarity, but that's, I mean it's. You kicked ass, man. I did it, so let's just take a break and we'll talk about it. So I think we're gonna start, because it was a big week,

I think we're gonna start with the Nintendo Direct. And week, I think we're gonna start with the Nintendo Direct, and I wanna say, going into this, the latest Nintendo Direct, I don't think anyone had any expectations for anything. We all knew that the Switch 2 was not gonna be revealed during this press conference. Right. So we were like, okay, they basically got a kill time for the next six to 12 months as we wait for the Switch 2.

What HD Drek are they gonna trot out? What remakes of Wii U games are they gonna bring? We had expectations. They were gonna bring back another Wii U game and the Zelda Wind Waker HD remake that they'd had. Yeah. And then they did neither. Yeah, that's true.

Bold. That's true. I love that. I love that about Nintendo. You never know what they're gonna hit you with. Should we start with the big announcement or? I'm curious what that is in your book. I mean, in my mind, there's no question. The fact that a new Legend of Zelda game is coming out in three fucking months

and it stars Zelda. It's the first Legend of Zelda game is coming out in three fucking months and it stars Zelda. It's the first Legend of Zelda game, to be clear. Finally, her legend. I don't like this. Okay! Wow! As you sip your energy drink. I have a point. I don't like this. Okay. The whole thing is she is in charge of the kingdom, right?

Sure. I understand she has a day to day and it's probably a lot harder than Link's, right? Right. Who is like Link gets captured and she goes after Link. We love that, right? But like, this is a nation. You know what I mean? Hyrule has that, right? But like, this is a nation. You know what I mean?

Hyrule has a, right, there's a workflow. You know what I mean? Like- You're saying that this is perpetuating a stereotype of like women who need to quote have it all. Yes, right. And she's going to like be excited to run the kingdom. She has a career.

She can't go do his dumb goblin games all the time. It's busy. My read of it based based on the trailer, is there's rifts opening up all over the nation, and it's basically wartime, and she is adopted like a Zelinsky-esque, you know, going around the country. In that very specific context, then,

I can say that this looks wild. It looks fucking bonkers. It looks wild. Really tap dancing around controversy with this episode, aren't we? Sure, why would I invent some where none is? That's my niche. That's my super power.

Yeah, I fully expected it just to be like the Legend of Zelda, but you have a staff instead of a sword, but actually you have a fucking generator of objects that you use to solve puzzles and explore and create your own minions to fight for you. It looks very neat. It was one of those rare new game trailers

where I watched it and I couldn't just extrapolate in my head what the whole game is. You know what I mean? Like looking at it, I was like, huh, I wonder how you would, well, how do they limit you from just counter-tabling around the world? Yeah, what? Counterpoint. So the way the game seems to work is you can pick up like all these items across the world and then you can recreate them wherever you want, as many times as you

want maybe, with your wand. Use it to solve puzzles. Sure, there's a limit. The Switch hardware is about 12 years old. That's true. What I, and I say this, I like this about the trailer is they played it exactly how I will play it in real life, which is I have unlimited power and I figure out, I can just stack a whole bunch of beds together and solve every problem in the world.

Yeah, it's the Scribblenauts issue of like an invincible jetpack that solves most of the problems. Yeah, in the trailer they're just like, you can make anything, and it's like, but we're gonna keep making tables and beds. I was like, hell yeah, I am right there with you. I know what I'm making first, guys. A sword. It's the first thing I made with my 3D printer, and it's the first thing I make with my wand. I have to defeat the bad guy, it's okay. I'm making a sword.

I thought for sure, Russ, the highlight for you that you were going to bring up is that for the first time in nearly a decade, there's gonna be a new Mario and Luigi RPG. Oh, that is my number two. Mario and Luigi Brothership, opened up the press conference with it and I was stoked. Wait, Griffin, you almost said brother shit,

and that would be such a better subtype. Mario and Luigi, brother shit. Mario and Luigi doing some brother shit. Oh. I was gonna ask about the practicality of how a brother shit takes place. No, no, no, we're not, wait, I did, it's- No, no, no. Please.

Real quick, before we move on from Zelda, I do wanna say, I, at this point, have developed enough trust in Nintendo, especially when it comes to mainline games, that they know how to make a game that seemingly allows for infinite freedom, but in actuality, like, there are stipulations that will require you to actually use your brain

and not just build stairs out of beds the whole game. Just wanna put that out there. So I'm not worried about it. I think that game is going to fucking roll. Sorry, I just wanted to. Well, this is probably more of a closing thought, but it's opening thought too. I think this direct was also really a testament. And the Zelda thing is really good example of this.

Like how valuable it is that Nintendo has actually worked to plan a business that is looking multiple years ahead, and is actually thinking about the value of the things that it has, right? Instead of instantly running stuff into the ground and like, wasting these properties, like letting these IPs just die on the vine, when other people are fighting about, like struggling about hardware and stuff, Nintendo has this bench where they're like, we've really, like they've proven that track record to you. Like they can get you excited about a game by just announcing a game and it will probably be good.

We've talked about this with the AAA games for larger consoles too, which is like even a small game, quote, small or medium game, cost a gajillion dollars to make because of just the fidelity of these things and the difficulty of making for new hardware. And this is the thing that Nintendo has been doing since the original Game Boy, right? Like, we know how to make for it.

It doesn't cost nearly as much as making a game as our competition does. And that upwrites us. The ability to make games for cheaper and faster than our peers, which then gives us a profound advantage, which they bank some of their games. And they have games that they are ready to go. And they can-

Yes, we didn't split our customer base into two discrete consoles that, wow, people really aren't moving off the old ones as fast as they normally do. Like, it's, and the internet doesn't have that problem. It also means that they, because they're not spending a ton of resources on asset generation, they can spend all that time

on like perfecting the gameplay loop, which is why a game like Here's the Kingdom can come out, and essentially more or less look like Breath of the Wild, but have these fucking buck wild ideas in them. Right. Yeah. Oh, so, okay, so tell me why you're pumped for this, Mario and Luigi, it's been so long. The Mario and Luigi RPG series,

we talked about it recently, right, when we were talking about Thousand Year Door. It's like the much more charming, much more sort of, I think frankly, interesting sibling to the more recent Paper Mario games. I think that from Thousand Year Door, it diverged and then the Paper Mario games were kind of just boring gimmicky shit from there on out,

whereas the Mario & Luigi games that came out were weird. You had Brothers in Time where you teamed up with baby versions of yourself. Bowser's Inside Story where half the game took place inside of Bowser who you controlled like a mecha. Like weird, fun, funny games. And like, it's wild that it's been nine years since the last one came out.

And I don't know, this one looks like fun. It's 3D, it looks like there's lots of puzzle exploration stuff and the same like- Is this like a next year thing? Was there a date on it or is it this year? I think it's November. November 7th. Yeah, so it's this year.

Wow, this year. Crazy. No, I mean, most of the stuff that was announced is coming out shockingly soon, which is- I feel like they have to get it out this year, but also, I mean, that's the Nintendo way, right? They announce things in July and it comes out before Christmas.

I gotta say, man, Nintendo must be a terrifying company. Yeah. You know what I mean? Like, the fact that you kept a Zelda, a Zelda Zelda game quiet for this long, and it's like coming out in three months, like if you are Japanese, it must be like, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, you don't do that.

You don't leave Nintendo. They will fucking destroy you. They will bury you. They will take your articles. And your whole family. That's why Charles Martinet had to go off the grid. He's the hit guy that they send to take people down. It's a me.

I am curious. It's a me. I am curious. The angel of death. I'm curious how the Metroid Prime 4 announced, not announced, right? Yeah, we knew it existed. First gameplay reveal.

First gameplay reveal of Metroid Prime 4 that came at the end of the thing. It was two minutes long and it really looked a lot like Metroid Prime. And as long as this thing has been churning, it really did not seem like enough to kind of justify the, I don't know, flagship position at the end of the Nintendo Direct.

It just didn't feel like there was a ton to show off, but I'm also not a huge Metroid Prime fan. So I mean, I love Metroid Prime, and I was like, yeah, it's Metroid Prime. And I agree with you. Like it needed something a little juicier than that beyond just like it's more Metroid Prime. I'm excited it's happening.

I'm definitely gonna play it. I think it will be a launch title for the Switch 2 as well as coming out on the Switch 1. And yeah, I mean, whatever. Like, it felt like vertical slice. I'm not saying it was, but just like the way that they showed it looks like the thing that used to be much more common in video games where you would see like, and here's how a shooting works and here's how going down the hallway works and here's how this works. And it's like the thing that a developer would make to prove that they should make the game.

Yeah. It didn't feel, I don't know, something about it just didn't feel like we were seeing a representation of the actual game itself. It had a very weird vibe. What encouraged me was they gave us a second kind of sequence where the camera pulls back and it's daytime and I like kind of a large open, bright space. And that made me think like,

okay, there is something new here. I mean, they've done open, bright space as we've done before, but it's... I don't they've done open, bright spaces. Yeah. Yeah. Before, but it's. I don't know. But yeah, it's strange. I agree with you.

That moment in particular I thought was, oh, yeah, no, that's like a nice ensuring that it's not going to just be like dark space. I think if that had come in the middle of the Nintendo Direct, it would have been fine. I think that, I don't know, man, Nintendo has this reputation. And you expect this from a lot of big press conferences in this space of the Christmas story.

Oh, what's that behind the couch? What do we got there? It's Hollow Knight Silksong! Gotcha, gamers! And this just felt like it's the thing you knew about, and it sure looks like how you probably expected it to look. They probably would have been better off just showing Samus' ship landing and her coming out

and just ending the trailer there. But they did that, but that would, no, because they announced this fucking game a long time ago. Yeah, I don't think they could do it. Samus, though, in her new outfit. Yeah, I guess. I just, I, watching the, okay, I'm gonna do like full, this is my theory, I'm just gonna theorize here. This has been in development for a really long time. Yeah. This is my theory watching this, okay, I'm gonna do like full, this is my theory, I'm just gonna theorize here.

This has been in development for a really long time. This is my theory watching this and how it's all played out. I think Nintendo did something they almost never do, which is do like a long-term called shot. Like this is gonna happen, we're doing it, it'll happen at some point, but a long-term called shot with an American studio, right? That's not necessarily an in-house dev.

I think that it's some, I wonder if, this isn't even a theory, I just wonder, if at some point it was like pushed in a new direction, doing something more interesting, and then it just got to a point where it's like, we have to just get something out that is called Metroid Prime 4 so we can move on from this. Okay, I'm gonna jump in because there's more information. where it's like we have to just get something out that is called Metroid Prime 4 so we can move on from this.

Okay, I'm gonna jump in because there's more information. My understanding, and I think there was even a quote from Nintendo about it, is that the game basically fully rebooted at one point. Like they started from scratch because when they revealed the first trailer, which I wanna say was like five or six years ago,

that happened. And then like a year went by and another year went by and it was quiet, quiet, quiet. And eventually I think Nintendo put out a statement saying, hey, we've gone a new direction. We apologize, whatever it is, to explain the enormous delay. But it was like, my understanding was a full start from scratch, need to do this again, reboot. It was announced at E3 2017, so seven years ago. That's crazy.

I suspect, I suspect that, I think the Japanese arm of Nintendo is a lot more in control of their marketing message in America than a lot of companies that have split that division. That has been the vibe I've gotten from anyone I've ever talked to who worked at Nintendo of America. I was gonna say, we can know that for certain because that was the issue with even being a president

of Nintendo of America is that sometimes the president of Nintendo of America in the past would be finding out about things shortly before they happened. Right. So when the head of Nintendo of America has had that issue, yes. I don't know if that's still the case, but yes.

There's also stuff just within the marketing materials that you see, like Nintendo's marketing materials, where there was one of the like retro remake trailers that said that like it's now in HDTV. And it's like nobody, no Americans would say it that way. Right? And that feels to me like- Do Japanese people say it that way?

Well, I'm wondering if it's a translation issue or something, but they did not have someone, they did not have an American in the chain who was like, don't, this isn't, like, we shouldn't say it this way, right? And I think by extension, I don't think the Japanese armor Nintendo knows why Metroid is cool.

Like, they wouldn't know what to show of Metroid because there's not the love or the enthusiasm for it, right? They're not presenting it in a way, they haven't known how to manage it because like, I don't think they get it. I really don't, and I don't mean Japanese people, it just doesn't have the foothold. It's not like-

That is true. It is one of the least popular Nintendo franchises in Japan, which is interesting. Yeah. Let's, I wanna talk about this next thing because for me, it was one of the highlights, which was the Nintendo World Championships in NES edition.

Explain what this is. Okay, so if you played NES Remix, which was the Nintendo World Championships and NES Edition. Oh, wow. Explain what this is. Okay, so if you played NES Remix, which I think they made a couple of those for the Wii, maybe Wii U, it was like a, like almost a micro games challenge, taking excerpts from old NES games

and like making them fucked up and weird. Nintendo World Championships NES Edition is, from what I can tell, an attempt to recreate the Nintendo World Championships, a very real thing that happened in, I don't know, the early 90s. Yeah, like 91, captured in the movie The Wizard. Yes, exactly, where high level NES play took place. This game is that, you play against other players, they're ghosts of their data online, as you speed run old NES games,

or speed run excerpts from old NES games. Get to the top of this mountain in Super Mario Brothers 2, or finish this level in Kid Icarus as fast as you can. But in addition to that, like, very neat competitive mode that I think I would get very into, there's, like, all kinds of practice and training, and there's, like, cutouts from the manuals from those games and, like, what looks like old, like,

Nintendo power, uh, Nintendo tip line, like guides for you to improve your ability to speed run Super Mario Brothers, for instance. I think that looks fucking delightful. And I am very, very much into that. Yeah, that seems cool. Yeah. Donkey Kong Country Returns in HD.

Yeah, I'm excited about the original Donkey Kong Country Returns. You could play the Frozen one already on Switch. This is the original release. I don't think I played either of those. They're both real. I mean, if you like Donkey Kong Country games, they're the best Donkey Kong Country games. Quite difficult.

I mean, I think a good way, a way that you would probably enjoy Griffin. I mean, this was what I expected most of the show to be. Right. And like, not a knock against this, I will play this, but this feels like, oh, the Switch is going on a little bit longer. We better get some HD remakes to kind of fill out that calendar. Yeah. But you know what we forgot was the idea that they were definitely going to have that first

year where there was going to be games coming out for both the Switch 2 and the original Switch. Yeah. And this is still that. Like, all of these games will be on both, effectively is my understanding. Okay. Or guess, I guess.

That's not really even a source thing. Like that's my guess. What is the hundred line? Cause someone added that. And I watched this and I don't know what that is. Y'all, are you kidding me with this? Look at this trailer and tell me that you're not excited. For the developers of Danganronpa comes

First of all one of the best names for a game on earth The hundred line last defense academy it looks like kind of like a visual novel a little bit except you go to a school And you have to train for to defend the school at the school and there is a bunch of there's like over a hundred different endings and at the school and there's a bunch of, there's like over 100 different endings and it's from the people who made Danganronpa and it's called The 100 Line. Hoops, I don't tell you enough that I just love you and I'm grateful for you because I saw this and I was like, that's my shit.

Better file it away in my private place because I'm not gonna be safe if I bring that to the show. I'm sure, I'm heard that Griffin was it. I thought this would be pipe straight. I missed this trailer completely. I'll be honest, I saw it. Are you watching it now? Yeah, I'm not gonna be safe if I bring that to the show. I'm sure, I'm heard that Griffin was it. I thought this would be pipe-straded. I missed this trailer completely. I'll be honest, I saw it. Are you watching it now? Yeah, I'm watching it now, it looks fucking sick.

I think I watched the first three seconds of it and I was like, nope. Cause there was, I will say this, quite a bit of cruft in this Nintendo Direct. I would love it if Nintendo Directs from now on were split into two parts and they do all the good stuff. And then, and then like after they leave, we're split into two parts and they do all the good stuff. And then like after they leave,

there's like 10 seconds of just like the white screen and no one's there. And then the CEO comes back out and he's like, and now a little something for the weebs. And it's like 30 minutes, just like JRPG nonsense. That way everyone is served. Like everybody gets what they want. But I get excused from the room.

I will say we talked about what JRPG nonsense to include in our discussion today. And there was a glossing over of Dragon Quest III 2D HD remake, which I have been very much looking forward to for a long time. Saying that out loud. It's a rough say. They announced this a while ago.

I was deep in the middle of playing through this whole series for the first time when they announced it, and was like, I'll just wait to play Dragon Quest III, because it's a huge formative RPG that really, really introduced a lot of stuff to the whole genre that still is around today. I was like, I'll just wait until that comes out to play it, but it never came out. So they announced it's coming out November 14th. They also announced that they're doing similar 2DHD remakes of Dragon Quest 1 and 2. Which is very cool. I think these games are sick, and there's lots of people who haven't played them and it looks like Octopath Traveler basically and I'm super into that.

Also, as long as we're talking about RPGs, I have to give a very special shout out to the unlikely return of the Denpamen. The Denpamen was a 3DS game. The Denpamen, they came by wave and it was an RPG where you got these little randomized guys called Denpamen and it came by wave. And it was an RPG where you got these little randomized guys called Denpamen, and it was just a turn-based RPG, and you got them from Wi-Fi signals.

Like when you would go near a Wi-Fi signal, you would get a new Denpamen. I don't know if they were like generated based on the, I don't know, IP address of the Wi-Fi signal or something, like Monster Rancher style. But this was a delightful game I adored on the 3DS. Uh, and I, I cannot get down. It looks like, uh, the Switch, like the Street Pass RPG.

It really does. It really, really does. Find me. I think that was cool. Yeah. Uh, I have a lot of nostalgia for, for Dempamen. So I'm pretty incredible that we gave Justin exactly what he asked for, which is we made the weave section.

That is it. It wasn't the weave section, except coming in hard at the end, I gotta shout it out. CNN added the Year of Our Lord 2024 for Turok Dinosaur Hunter, no matter how brief, fucking sent me over the moon. I was delighted. Talk about a franchise that has been allowed

to wilt on the vine for too long. And for good reason, it doesn't hold up at all. It's a bad game. It's a terrible, terrible game. But in that section where they announced these new Nintendo Switch Online, like classic releases, they did also announce one, Perfect Dark, is going to be coming with online multiplayer.

That's fucking great, I'm very excited about that. More exciting to me is they're also bringing The Legend of Zelda, Link to the Past, Four Swords Adventure, I think is the full title of it, which includes the multiplayer component of that game, which no one ever did because you needed that weird octopus link cable to actually play it, but that's also going to have online multiplayer.

So I'm actually pretty excited to dip into that game and play the multiplayer Zelda game that was kind of fun when I played it two players in the way that it was intended to be played. Y'all stepped right over my favorite part, which is before they got into all those M-rated Nintendo 64 games, Nintendo did the very Nintendo thing of showing Nintendo Switch Online 17 plus section. Yeah.

Making sure that you know this is not for the kiddos. This is for those filthy, filthy grownups. The kiddos couldn't handle a cerebral bore. I mean, to be fair, true. I don't know that I could. There's also a new Super Mario Party game. Who is excited for that one? Griffin, for the younger members of our audience, can you explain how the cerebral bore works

in Turok the Dinosaur Hunter? Sure, it's a gun that shoots out a little heat-seeking drone, and by heat I mean head. Brain juice. And it shoots towards the enemy, and it's got a little drill on it, and it makes this horrible noise. It's like, fzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz and it goes into their brain and explodes, and it kills them instantly. Kind of fires out all the brain juice first.

It's really gnarly. It really does. Does anyone want to guess when the character of Turok originated? I mean, it was a comic, right? But I don't know the year. And like an early one, it's like the 60s, like late 60s? 1954.

Wow. That's wild. That is wild. There hasn't been a new Turok. They tried to reboot it in 08 with like an unconnected one. There were three like main games. You say unconnected.

I'm gonna guess the original one was very culturally sensitive and definitely. Oh for sure. Crab-solutely. Yeah. It was. No doubt. It's about a Native American warrior

that kills dinosaurs. I mean, kicks ass. Strong idea. It's a really good idea for a game. They should make another one, because that's a good idea. They've also done remakes or like HD versions for PC, I'm pretty sure. That's true.

I wonder if they're- Some people are still picking at this. If you can physically play them, then they've got to leg up on the N64 version. Hey, I also want to give a special shout out to Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection Arcade Classics. Seven fucking games. Oh, yeah. to Marvel vs. Capcom fighting collection arcade classics seven fucking games. Oh, yeah Including Marvel vs. Capcom 2 that I'm gonna be able to play on my switch. Hello

Yeah, don't mind if I do that game is all-time. Maybe my favorite fighting game So I cannot wait to get down on that good stuff. I still don't know who most of those characters are There's a fucking pineapple guy. I don't know who that is. No, well, you're not a real gamer. Spider-Man? You've never heard of him. Spider-Man? He's not a pineapple, he's a spider, Russ. I think we have another game to talk about

in the second half of the show. Should we take a break? Hell yes. Let's do it. Let's finish the fight. Well, you guys did it. You dragged me back after six years into playing another fucking Destiny game. I guess in expanded, it's the same game.

And it was weird going back, man. It was so weird. I'm really interested for this conversation because I feel like we were all coming at it from a different place where I've played all of them. Russ played a lot and then fell off around Forsaken. Juice, I don't know what your history. I usually like dip back in and I've played like-

Did you play Lightfall at all? Yeah, that was the one that had the cool ending, right? Where there was like the light and you were like, the light was really bright and you were like trying to climb up the thing. Oh, I don't know, no, the light fall was horrible. Light fall was really bad. There was one that ended well.

I don't know, I've played some of the expansions. I like Destiny. I mean, I've sunk. I feel like the amount of time I have spent on the Destiny franchise qualifies me to talk about Destiny. Yeah, absolutely. I think that's fair to say.

I'm a continuing expert. And Chris, I don't think you have much affection for Destiny. Oh, I've played like so many expansions and every time I played it, the same thing would happen. I would, Froschick would be like, oh, don't worry, I'll show you around. I'm going to help you. I'm going to make it, because you're going to love this game. It's so cool. You've got to play with me, OK?

And I'd be like, wow, this is great. I love my best friend. He's so cool. I'm going to play the game with him. And you know what would happen every damn time? I would start playing, and he would on with like Kirk from TripleClick and he'd be like, hey, yeah, hey, yeah, yeah, Chris, you can like hang out.

By the way, Kirk and I, we're like actually 20 hours past you, so you can like hang out on Discord with us when you play solo and you can hear us having a lot of fun. Here's what I get, Plank, here's what I get. I can help you, but I'm on Vita, so I'm not really paying attention. I'm like you, but I'm on Vita, so I'm not really paying attention. I'm like streaming it. I'm not really watching.

And I'm like, what are you doing? Like you have a son. Like seriously, man, what's up? No, those were the wrong things. That's slightly better than the Animal Well of, I'm gonna stop answering your phone because you're asking a single question. I've blocked your number.

Right. Figure it out. Call Billy, go to Billy's house and ask him if you wanna know so bad. I love the idea that I've kept Evita around all this time just to stream Destiny. It is, I can't understand it. Okay, so I have not played Destiny for a while.

I tried to get back in. I think the last time we talked about the last expansion. Shadowkeep, I think was the last time we talked about it, which was not even the last expansion. No, Lightfall about the last expansion. Shadowkeep, I think, was the last time we talked about it, which was not even the last expansion. No, Lightfall was the last one. Then there was also the Witch Queen, which was dope, which was really, really good. I don't know which one it was.

I just remember being really overwhelmed by the amount of information that was there and how out of step I felt with the current of the game. And this time, I will say, there's still a lot, right? There's still a lot of, I don't wanna say cruft cause if you've been playing the whole time, it's not cruft, but like if you've been out of the loop for a while, it's like, what is it?

You know what it's like? It's like launching a mobile game that you haven't, it's been around for like six years and you haven't played it because the first time you launch the game, you get like 60 notifications. Like go to the tower, talk to Acora, talk to Zavala. You need to talk to this exotic vendor. Oh, you got an exotic catalyst,

spend this exotic catalyst, blah, blah, blah. So much. And I wish there was just a setting somewhere that was like, I just want to like, just ease me back in. Like, put my toesies in first. I will make a counter argument to that. Because when I finished the first mission of the final shape, instinctively I was like,

okay, well, I finished the mission. I gotta head back to the tower, do my tower stuff. You know, like do all my little errands, go and trade this in and do this. And when I got to the tower, it said, just so you know, like do all my little errands, go and trade this in and do this. And when I got to the tower, it said, just so you know, this is intended for you to play the whole way through without doing these other side things. Like you should play through the main campaign first.

And then, only then should you diverge. That was a pop-up you got? Yeah. Oh, I didn't see that. So I took that pretty seriously. I was like, okay, I'm not gonna worry about any of this other shit. I'm not gonna get hung up on,

this is what I did to myself last time, right? Well, I gotta go get some missions. Take up some bounties. Get some bounties, cause if I'm gonna do these things, and it really does say like, don't worry about any of that. Just like play through the thing.

And I think that that really does help too. They do that, which is smart. They give you, in the process of playing the expansion, you get two really kick-ass guns. You get an exotic pulse rifle that heals you and a sidearm that shoots rockets. And like, they make it really easy to just keep upgrading the things that you like. And yeah, you know, like just keep using that stuff if you if you want to.

They've also they this may have been in there previously, but when you go I had I was like full on my inventory was full and they have marked like in the UI. This isn't this isn't anything, just get rid of it, just destroy this, destroy this, this isn't anything. Oh really, they say that to you? Yeah, it says this has no use, this doesn't have any more use. Oh, I see, for random inventory shit. Yeah, exactly.

It's like, don't keep it, you don't need this. That was really, as somebody who likes to keep a, like, a clean house, is like, oh thank God, delete, delete, delete. That's funner than shooting the bad guys. I get to clean up my pockets. It's great. I wanna structure this, I think, in two ways.

And one is sort of like the huge mechanical swings that they have taken with Final Shape, which are significant in a way that I don't think this franchise has maybe ever done, which is just throwing the limiters off and say like, do whatever the fuck you want, to a certain extent. To a certain extent. It's like an 80% swing.

Right. They added, I talked about this briefly last week when we discussed it, there's this new prismatic subclass, which basically lets you mix and match elements from all the other different subclasses to make whatever you want, to an extent. Russ, I know had a hard time with it because you- There was limitations basically.

So I'm used to playing as a void hunter and whenever I dodged, I would get invisibility. So I built my whole character around that. When you switch the prismatic hunter, you do have ways to go invisible, but dodging to go invisible is not a thing. They don't let you have that power. I guess to encourage people to still use

the older subclasses. And to me, it felt, this to me feels like they are in between two worlds, and if they are in between two worlds. And if they are gonna make a Destiny 3, there's no doubt in my mind, it will not have subclasses. You will just unlock a bunch of features for your hunter class.

Absolutely. But in this case, because they are in between these two things, they held certain very important aspects back from some of the subclasses. It feels a little bit like they're playtesting a Destiny 3-like concept. But I'm also wicked into this direction that it's going. Totally into it.

I mean, pretty much exclusively, for the 10 years that this game's been out, I played a solar warlock with the Well of Radiance, which is just this big area of effect healing and damage boosting thing. It's like a big buff pool. It was a huge buff pool that you had to use. Every raid, someone had to be running well, two people maybe needed to be running well,

so you could stack them up and make sure that you always had this huge invincibility pool whenever it was time to deal damage. They nerfed the hell out of it, like considerably in this expansion, at the same time that they released this way funner way to play the game. And so for me, it was really, really transformative because I've spent hundreds of hours playing Destiny

this one way, and now all of a sudden it's like, okay, but try playing this other way where you have a lot more freedom to play whatever kind of way you want. And I have been having a hell of a time messing around with all of the different build options. Yeah, I have slowly but surely like made Prismatic, which is the new subclass, like my default.

Like I don't use the other ones for the most part. Yeah. And I think that's great. And I understand why they are holding some stuff back. I think over the course of the year, probably more and more of those features will come over to this prismatic subclass. There's probably a lot of math, like wide scale math.

Absolutely, the balancing that you needed to balance it. Yeah, I get the sense that they are no longer as concerned about balance that they were two years ago and bringing back all the old guns and things like that. So I think that was all great. I will say this about the campaign and the things you're doing in the campaign specifically. The actual gameplay, what I was kind of struck by

is that the actual gameplay of Destiny has not substantially changed in six years since I played it, which is to say the things that I was doing, I was like collecting a bunch of motes and then dunking the motes and that would unlock a door. And then I'd go through the door and fight a wave of guys. And then there'd be another like series of motes to collect and dunk.

Like it felt like they were going a lot back to very similar wells matching patterns. I'm gonna match these patterns to unlock this shield on this guy. And it's just, it has gotten to the point where I don't know if it's an engine limitation or just like design limitations where they've kind of run out of ways to formulate this. It doesn't feel like they have had substantially new like mission structure ideas since I stopped playing. This is actually a complaint of mine. I think that they've tried to mask that by making increasingly complex ways of getting the motes and dunking the motes.

There's like eight different ways and that's kind of confusing because sometimes like, okay, so which motes do you want me to do with? Okay, so all you want me to do really is shoot the guys and dunk the motes, but it's like, let me know where to dunk them. Oh, you gotta do them in a specific order now. Yeah, it's starting to feel like the witness

of mote dunking. It's like, how many different ways can we meditate on dunking motes? I will say that the stuff that they do after the core campaign, there's some stuff that you have to do towards, honestly, I think the back half of the campaign is better about this than the first half, and then after the campaign, there's some stuff that you have to do towards, honestly, I think the back half of the campaign is better about this than the first half.

And then after the campaign, there's some missions that are genuinely really cool in what you have to do. There's one where you do a stakeout with Cade and Crow that you get this incredible exotic for doing, but you really feel like I am on a hunt. You're in this cave with these slits in the walls and you're sniping shanks through it as you keep an eye out for your quarry. in this cave with these slits in the walls and you're sniping shanks through it

as you keep an eye out for your quarry. And then there's one where you get these bombs with different damage types that you have to yeet at Savathud and her awful seals. That shit I found really cool and interesting. But yeah, some of the earlier stuff just felt like they took raid mechanics and simplified them to the point where it was kind of okay

the first time you did it and then less interesting. I will say though, it is smart that they're trying to introduce some of those raid ideas in the campaign rather than having 13 year olds scream them at you. What did you all think about navigating the Pale Heart, which is kind of like the big environment? I think it's fine. I think navigating is, it's a bit-

I don't like it. I didn't like jumping. I thought it was more confusing than it needed to be trying to find the way forward. When there is just one path, I got annoyed by how many times that, the geometry is all nonsensical basically. It's like a chaotic sort of like smattering of textures

and whatever. And like for me, I found the like finding the critical path forward like more annoying than it needed to be to a point where a couple of times I thought the game had bugged out and I like did it and I was like, okay, there's a weird hole up there you need to go jump up to. I didn't love that.

I think Pale Heart is- Looks so cool. So fucking- That's funny. I didn't- I think it is the coolest. It is mostly comprised of set pieces that have existed in the game before, right? There's a part in the Cosmodrome,

in the derelict highway, which is where you first get revived at the very beginning of the game before, right? Like there's a part in the Cosmodrome in the derelict highway, which is where you first get revived at the very beginning of the game, only now it's all like, it's like seen through a creepy like body horror dolly kind of lens that is, I think, pretty righteous. Yeah, conceptually, I thought it was cool. I did get the sense, again, this is like coming at it six years later. I got the sense that the engine is so on its last legs

in terms of what they're capable of, that like a lot of that feels like, in a lot of ways, areas that I've seen before, which again, I realize is kind of an acknowledgement, but it's also, it just didn't feel, like when I first saw, what was that place called? The Dreaming.

The Dreaming City. The Dreaming City. That felt like, whoa, this is incredible. And it feels like it hasn't really expanded from an art design standpoint since then. There's a lot of parallels between this and Forsaken. Forsaken is, I think in most players' books, like the peak, the pinnacle, right?

That's the one where- I mean, the narratively, obviously they both directly connect with the pit. Absolutely, there's a great, and the narrative of this one, I will say, like, again, I think the first half of the campaign is, like, really focused on Zavala's crisis of faith, which is, like, okay, and Ikora is just kind of there. There's, like, a lot of shouting at each other. A lot of shouting at each other.

I think that, Kate, I think they give Nathan Fillion a lot to chew on, he is fantastic as always. And him kind of squashing the beef with his murderer. Like all that stuff, like I think worked really, really well. It also does a lot with the ghosts. Like it explores what it's like to like have a little guy who is your companion, who is responsible for your life

and what kind of relationship that builds with them. How did you all feel about the, I was a little bit put off by how much this relies on cinematics and maybe this could be a nod towards how the engine is sort of at its limits of things it can do, But I feel like in Destiny specifically, if you switch to a non-interactive cinematic, it's almost like an admission of,

Yeah, we can't pull this off. We can't do this in the game. So we can't do this in the game. Cause like for me, as somebody who hasn't really kept up with it and this is not a judgment on the writing of the game or the storytelling of the game. This is me as like an out, someone who has not really followed super close.

A lot of those are nonsensical, man. It's just a lot of like the light and the traveler and the gardener. And like, it's like nonsense. Like it's not, but when you're doing it in a mission, I think it's a lot easier to be like, that's the guy I hate. Yeah, he's big. He's big, he's mean, I hate him.

I guess the question I have now is, how can we get into spoilers? Do people care? Well, you already did that really hard. I think we could probably do that. You actually did it first, Russ. I was being cautious of it. Well, okay, here's the deal.

Kane actually comes back to life in the season before the final game came out. And it's all over the marketing materials at this point, whatever. Here's what I'm gonna say. Resurprising. There's a moment directly relating your question, Hoops, is a moment that is an in-game moment

that is unquestionably the most cinematic, coolest fucking moment in recent Destiny memory. And the way that manifests is basically, so you finished the campaign. I'll guess I'll be a little bit vague. You finished the campaign. It's very clear who the main enemy is. It's this guy, the witness who's angry and the campaign, the final mission of the campaign, you basically like punch the witness on the chin and he's like, Oh,

no, you hurt me. And then the idea would be to punch the witness on the chin. And he's like, Oh no, you hurt me. And then the idea would be to finish the fight within the raid. Which if you played the game at launch, the raid wasn't out yet. So Russell, I had this conversation after we finished the campaign, like you've got to be fucking kidding. Like that is a brutal way. Anti-climax ever. And Bungie knows like what percentage of 20%, 30% of people play the raid if that and let alone the number of people that

Actually finish it and this rate and one team finished it in the first day of the big big release This is being one of the most complicated things ever. So Bungie I should have given them more credit They've been making this game for a long time. What they basically did was so that the raid releases One team goes in in those first 24 hours, finishes the raid, it takes them 18 hours of straight playing, it was insane. They finish the raid. These are like professional Destiny 2 guys. These are guys that do this for a living.

So when they finish the raid, it unlocks for everyone that is playing the game, unlocks a 12 person mission where you and 12 other random people that you get matched with literally finish the fight with the witness. It's cool. And so you get to experience personally this moment of triumph even if you didn't do the raid.

So smart. To get like- Which is so smart. I think that it sort of pierces this like narrative disson veil, where for me, Destiny, the story is, it is what it is. The ending of this mission, Excision, hits real fucking good. It is real, real good, and I think it is truly a credit to Bungie to land a ship they've been flying for a decade, as well as they did with this mission.

But for me, my memories of destiny are tied to finishing a really hard raid with a team of other players or doing this other thing with a team of other players to have the whole thing. Finish with you and 11 other players, just like going ham against hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of enemies on this straight up Normandy beach segment, I think is brilliant. And that really flipped me around on the whole thing. I thought this thing finishes so strong.

I have to say the biggest problem here, and I don't think they can underring this bill, maybe in D3, I don't know. They shouldn't have had your guy or gal or person, whoever you got, they shouldn't have had them talk. Oh, I completely agree. Because- It's happened before.

They clearly- I know, I know, I know, but like, introducing the idea that they can talk makes it so much more insane how often they are solemnly nodding. Like, that is my other problem with the cinematics is that they are not about me. Like the cinematics are about the actual characters

in the world, not me. That's fine. I'm fine with being a lurking weirdo, but don't make it so fucking like every month I'm like, indeed. Again, I think this ending does alleviate that because it becomes more about you and your journey that you've been on this whole time.

I mean, because you realize that you're Teller of Pin and Teller face. Right, right. I will also say this conceit works because it paid off in the best moment in Death City history which is in Forsaken, Cade gets killed, you get betrayed, everybody's at their lowest, the fire team's holding thisaken, Cade gets killed, you get betrayed, everybody's at their lowest, the fire team's holding this funeral for Cade,

and then all the normal guys are talking, and then you hear a voice in the distance say, let's go fucking get him, and it cuts over, and it's you who just talk for the first time ever. Does everybody else like, huh? Huh, they all like, you can do that? There's also been some stuff that's come out after an exotic sword with random perks

taken from other exotic weapons. It's a class item. No, no, no, there's a weapon too, Ergo Sum. It's a sword that has randoms that you can get the Gjallarhorn exotic perk on this sword. And then there's also the class item that takes two perks from other items from other classes. I do wanna say my closing experience with Destiny 2 The Final Shape was that takes two perks from other items from other classes. That has been bonkers.

I do want to say, my closing experience with Destiny 2 The Final Shape was because this class item, this exotic class item mission came out, and there's like a relatively complex way to unlock it, I spent an hour, a buddy of mine who's been playing a lot, I spent an hour with him, and he was like, oh yeah, I did this already, we'll do it together. And so we did like a half hour of steps and he was like, oh wait, no, the boss should have spawned here

and he didn't, I guess we'll start that over again. And then like another half hour goes by and I'm like, I'm gonna go to bed. And that was probably- I had a couple like that. I had a couple like that. My experience with this mission, Dual Destiny, which you have to play with two players.

It's very, very cool. It's one of my favorite missions that's been at Destiny was I played it on LFG with a random British dude who was chill as fuck and my new best friend. That's the story of Destiny for me. I think Final Shape's great. I also have no bearing on what it would be like to get into Destiny now.

Yeah, yeah. I don't think this is for new players, certainly. But I also think it's like a shape of things to come. Because it is so much shit. I don't think this is for new players, certainly. But I also think as a shape of things to come, maybe it is the final problem. I don't know what the cost would be right now. I don't know what the dollar amount is to get into all of Destiny 2. But I will say that there is a lot of fun stuff there.

I just feel like in a world and in a landscape where there are so many horror stories, and there have definitely been, like, a lot of ups and downs, feasts and famine, but, like, I think it's cool that they managed to keep this game going for seven years and, like, can still get people of varying interest levels or at least three quarters of them interested in talking about it. I think that that's, I think that's worth celebrating. Good on them. I still wanna play more.

I think, oh, okay. The last thing that I will say that I, this is, has nothing to do with anything other than a reminder to me of I'm not sure I have a lifestyle that is a great fit for Destiny. Correct. Sure. That is- I will never raid again. I'm recurring. It's never gonna happen.

I have not even raids, man. I can barely get through missions now. I like stuff that I could just pop, like, my gaming is much more suited to popping on the Steam Deck 10 minutes and off. Sometimes it doesn't, like I would get like starting into a mission and have to call it. Like I would really, it would really be nice to have that

in some sort of like faster portable. They do for what it's worth. I realize this because I am the same thing where I would have to like leave halfway through a mission. There are checkpoints throughout most of the missions where if you do have to quit, you will start midway through the mission, which props to you because otherwise.

Every time though, it is a ball shrinking experience. It's like, oh, I hope I, yeah, I got it. My kid threw up. I'm gonna close my laptop. I played it on a Legend difficulty, which I also did for Lightfall and Witch Queen. And it's fucking, I never did that shit with like Halo. I never did like the legendary skull modifiers

and all that stuff. It is some of my favorite stuff in Destiny just playing a really, really, really hard thing that really relies on like everything you've learned playing Destiny, all the weapons that you've grinded for, like all that shit counts because it's the only way that you're gonna get through this. I think that is, I think that's great great and it's also a thing you do once.

And then I don't really wanna ever do that again. So is the next thing, Destiny 3? The next thing is Destiny 2 Horizon? The next thing is basically like, so they've planned Destiny around these whatever. Destiny 2 Echoes Act 1, I saw an ad for it. Well, that's the season that they're in now, right? They've already announced what all the seasons are going to be.

This season isn't called The Final Shape? No. The expansion is called The Final Shape. The seasons change every four months. I'm switching to Chris Plants' team. I'm actually on Plants' team now, only half of us like Destiny. I flipped again.

Isn't the next big thing Marathon? Yeah, that's, yeah. So Bungie is working on, definitely they're working on Marathon. Destiny 3 is unconfirmed, but I would be surprised if they weren't working on that. I think what they are setting Destiny 2 up to be is basically what they did, what Activision did with Diablo 3, where they basically put it in sort of persistent, we can do the bare minimum to add some cosmetics or whatever it is, but otherwise it's basically not gonna change in a substantial way.

And then eventually Destiny 3 will come out and be a new run of it. The theories that I have read from folks who have been playing Destiny for a long time based on just the name of the thing is that it will be going beyond the solar system, right? For the first time you'll go to the Hive planet and you'll go to the Cabal planet,

you'll actually go to those alien worlds to do stuff. Yeah, but they're not making fucking new planets and expansion packs for this game anymore, like they're done, right? I don't know, man, I don't know. I don't know that they would be so eager to, that is a huge decision, that is a huge decision. That is a huge decision that is going to inevitably piss off.

I've got 1300 hours locked in Destiny 2, right? Like the idea that that's just going to poof, is like, I'm fine with you because I'm excited to- We'll give you a title and a shader. That's not enough for you? Hey, big news, it's already poof. Just want to say real quick. That's fine.

I'm sorry, it's already poof. But, and you had fun during it, so itof. But, and you had fun during it. So it didn't poof. I had fun during it. But my special shaders that go away, like that, I don't wanna have to get Gjallarhorn again. It is really gonna be a balance though, Griff, because like, I could see the appeal of like,

dropping the two and there's just Destiny. I would be stoked for Destiny 3. I'm saying that I am maybe an outlier in this, but I do think there's lots of people who are. It's the same reason they've never done a World of Warcraft 2, is because I think they are terrified of what that means for... The problem is World of Warcraft is a subscription-based service, and they're getting money from the dedicated players consistently,

whereas with Destiny, they're hoping, maybe you'll really want this dance, and maybe you'll spend money on this dance. So yeah, I think, look, fucking, I wouldn't count out the idea that Destiny 3 is like, I don't know, I guess those days are done, the 10 bucks a month kind of thing. But yeah, I think we're probably two or three years

away from it, but it seems like Destiny 3 is on the horizon. As is Ligar Horizon. All right, y'all, anything else been been filling your days? I'm catching up on Survivor. I know you guys have been talking. Yeah I always I always am like three to four weeks behind of where the actual season is just from timing Standpoint and so I have to like put mutes on all the terms and things like that So I don't get spoiled on who wins But it's been that Applebee's episode. Holy shit is like maybe the best episode of Survivor I've ever seen it's unhinged The horse can I include a can I include the photo in the newsletter that you sent us?

Sure. Okay, perfect. Yeah, is it Liz? Bourbon talking about Applebee's. Yeah It's great. Um, I's talking about Applebee's. Yeah, yeah, she's got Applebee's. It's great. I want to manifest something into the world. I said it earlier about that. Let me put the big emphasis on rumor here, because I didn't see it myself.

The Bioshock that never came to be. The rumor was that Bioshock was being made by Creative Assembly in Austin, Texas, and that it was like a cross between Elon Musk and Walt Dizzy making a theme park. Why would you do this to me, man? This is like pumped straight in. I know, I-

This is like from my dreamscape. I, and that's why I wanna talk about it. Justin loves Elon Musk so much. I love Elon Musk and fucking love everything that dude has ever done. I'm like, yes, queen. That's me. Can you? That's why I want to talk about it. Justin loves Elon Musk. I love Elon Musk and fucking everything that David has ever done. I'm like, yes, queen. That's me. That's me.

That's my walk. But can you imagine, like, I feel like if we just, if we just keep talking about it, if all of us collective, everyone listening right now thinks, I want Bioshock 3 to be about Walt Disney. I mean, honestly, what you're describing just sounds like a Borderlands game. So it feels like-

It sounds a lot like my arc of the Avengers own Steeplechase. Tune in, listen to it. Why don't, don't wait for Ken's son, Ken Jr. to make Bioshock 3. Jim Levine. I had a, I got a great, great poll for you guys. It's really good.

It's on Max. It's called Renfair. Oh yeah. Oh, it really good. It's on Max, it's called Ren Faire. Oh yeah. It looks great. It's a documentary series about the biggest Ren Faire in the country, it's in Texas. And it's about an absolute wild old dude that has a very fixed plan for his life that includes him dying precisely at 95 by his own hand

and choosing a successor to head up his ren fair. He is a multi-multi-millionaire and he is trying to decide between a cast of absolute maniacs as to who there's like there's a guy named the Lord of corn who's just a businessman who built his business on Kettle corn and has made so much on kettle corn. He's trying to buy the fair. There's a You got a lot. It's absolutely it's like and the way it is shot it. I Cannot believe it is real. It's I think it's a do-pas thing, right? It's it's it may be it's so incredible Justin have you watched anything else by this director? Uh, maybe? I didn't, I didn't see who directed it. I am going to make your day with this. The director Lance Oppenheim made another movie in 2020 called Some Kind of Heaven that is a documentary about the villages, the retirement community in Florida.

And it is fucking wild. This director is a killer. Um, just so much talent and definitely not like a one hit wonder of these kind of like directors that appear on streaming services, like the real deal. Um, I've been playing Kirby return to dreamland deluxe with my son, Henry, who is a huge Kirby stan, uh, and it is. That was the switch remake. Yes.

The switch remake of the Wii game, I think. Stop me if you've heard this one before. Uh, it's just a multiplayer Kirby game. Uh, we are now playing the extra mode that you unlock after you finish the campaign, which is finish the campaign, which is just the campaign again, but 50 times harder, it's tough as nails. And we are having to really,

I feel like he is learning a lot about being a capital G gamer with this like, you gotta block, block, get down, get down, oh my God. Like really, really hardcore, hardcore Kirby, which I was not expecting. Also, Rachel and I have been rewatching The Good Place. And man, if you haven't dipped back into that one after watching it, it's the best show ever made, maybe.

It is one of those where after every episode, I feel like reflexively I say like, God dang, that's a good show. And it's fun to watch after you've seen it once and kind of know where it's going to go and what the sort of like truth of the matter is because I feel like there's a lot more you get out of it knowing kind of the magic trick of that show.

I love it. Let's wrap it up guys. Let's wrap it up, okay? Chris, do you have anything? I mean, I use my time to manifest something new. Oh, right, right, right. I hear you, I hear you. You know? Wrap it up, okay? Chris, do you have anything? I mean, I use my time to manifest something new into a role. Oh, right, right, right. I hear you, I hear you. You know?

Wrap it up! You got it, hoops! Hey, listen, folks, I don't even want to talk about the games you mentioned. That's how bad I gotta use the bathroom. What are we talking about? Wait! Don't wrap it up! Hold it in!

You can't do a brother shit yet because we forgot to talk about one thing, which is go to our Patreon. There is so much good stuff right now. There is so much damn good stuff. And just in a few days, you will be able to hear about all of these awesome games that will be coming out later this year. Fresh and I'll be talking about those. And we have a killer bracket episode coming up that stop talking so slow.

You ready? You ready? Yeah, Chris. I'm ready! Let it go! Thanks for listening to the Besties. Be sure to join us again next week for the Besties. What were we talking about? Elden Ring, The Shadows of the Urge Tree DLC. Hell yes!

That's what I needed as an excuse to play Elden Ring! I'm so mad at you all! I'm traveling next week. You made me come in for the Destiny episode and I'm not going to be here for the Elden Ring episode! Be sure to join us again next week. I'm gonna- you made me come in for the destiny episode, and I'm not gonna be here for the Elden Ring episode Be sure to stay next week for the besties, cause shouldn't the world's best friends pick the world's best games? Besties!