Lorelei and the Laser Eyes with Siobhan Thompson

This is a Head Gump podcast. Hacks is back for its fifth and final season and so is the Hacks podcast. Join the Hacks creators and showrunners Lucia and Yellow, Paul W Downs and Jen Statsky as they unpack the Emmy-winning comedy series. On each episode, hear stories from the set, what goes on in the writer's room and how these beloved characters close out their final season. Watch Hacks streaming exclusively on HBO Max and listen to the Hacks podcast on HBO Max or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey guys, notice anything different about me? You couldn't keep a straight face delivery of that so I'm just trying to like suss out what's going on here because it makes me think something's different. It makes me feel you're up to some mischief or something stupid. Before you even say it, it's not a haircut. I was just saying your hair looks good and you know ranch got a haircut. Yeah, ranch got a haircut. But like I was like ranch got a haircut. Turtle power. That wasn't it. That's all. That wasn't it. That's unrelated. That's just the thing you did. Okay. What's your news? What's happening here? I don't know. Take a look at this. Holy shit. You shot lasers out your eyes. Fucking hands! My fucking hands! Heather, are you okay? Are you okay? Oh my god. Heather, you were supposed to put your head in front of my eyes. I got new laser eyes. Well, it's understandable she wanted to see what was going to happen. Well, no, come on Heather. Wait, no, let me see. Stop looking at it! You're burning it more! Why did you look at the hand you already burnt? Sorry, I was trying to help my friend. Don't look at my hand anymore! I was just going to play video games without two of her fingers. Oh my god. The wound immediately cauterized over. It's not even bleeding. You got to be careful with your laser eyes. Oh, I'm some big asshole. Great. I'm a big piece of shit because I burned my friend's fingers off. Also, there's a hole in the drywall. The headgum's not going to be happy about that. That's a secondary thing, but I'm just saying. You got to be more careful. I'll wait patiently for somebody to show up and tell me about it. Are you okay? Don't look at me! Why did you look at me? I'm sorry, you keep drawing my attention. Look at my hand! It's terribly burnt, not literally! I'm sorry. How do the laser eyes work? Well, I just went to my ophthalmologist and was like, give me the laser eye. Oh, that's like a thing you can do now. Stop looking at me, man! But you can control it. You can just unleash it at any time. Apparently, I can't. They're just going all wheelie-nooie. Jesus Christ, I didn't realize it was happening randomly because you were like, check this out and the laser blast happened. I can't. Stop it! It's really happening to Heather. I don't know what to do. I can't. I don't know what to do. They gave me a bunch of papers. Just look at me. It's just a comfort, Heather. Why isn't it not... Why aren't you burning that? I don't know! Why when you look at Nick is not burning, but when you look at me it burns. It's kind of bright and I guess I feel a little warm, but no, I'm not bursting into flames. Hang on a second. Did you get the laser-resistant skin? I got the laser-proof skin. I was going to be my thing, but you came in with the noticing different about me, so I was like, I guess I'll say that for next week. Why is it stupid? Stop looking at me! Why is stupid shenanigans the source of so much pain for me? You guys, conference on this, laser-eyes and laser-resistant skin. No, this is a total coincidence. Yeah, and I kind of feel like I've said sorry and you're kind of being a big asshole about it. It's a bitch when it's a girl. Okay. Yeah, man, that's kind of sexist of you. I'm sorry, I was trying to be not that way. Well, you fucked up. And I'll be sending a no-tap apology and I'm sorry. Um, anyway, could you heat up this quesadilla? Yeah, here you go, buddy. Mmm, it's good. We explore a deserted hotel and are confused as we discuss indie puzzle game Lorelei and the Laser Eyes this week on Get Play. Welcome to Get Played, your one-stop show for good games, bad games, and every game in between. It's time to get played. Heather Ann Campbell along with my fellow host, Tiger Weigher. That's me, Nick Tiger Weigher along with our photo host, Mr. Games himself, Madhapadaka. Hello, everyone. Hello, everyone, and welcome back to the premiere video game podcast where this week, oh my god, somebody has made the mistake of joining us on the show. That's someone returning to the podcast from Dimension 20 in Rick and Morty. Siobhan Thompson is here. Hi, Siobhan. Hello, everybody. What a delight. What a pleasure. What a nice time. I'm already having fun. Nintendo fly around, Get Played podcast. Yeah, we're really different now. We're different. Better than the gods. We met a Koopa in real life. We're not really the same kind of guys anymore. Oh, shit. Well, I can do that. Yeah, you know, it's interesting for Matt to bring that up because I also have to say like we're not really the same podcast anymore. Oh, god, are we doing this? Hold on a second. Ranch, do you have anything? It's okay if you don't. Mine are Mew Mew. Okay, yeah. Yeah, this is sort of like I think more correct. The most optimal. Wow, this is beautiful. I got to hold this thing. It's actually really nice with the lights. Actually is nice because these lights are bright as fuck. The lights are bright. They're bright and they're hot. I think people maybe can't realize that how uncomfortable the lighting is just for the purposes of producing 90 second clips. A video podcast, yes. We have to film the entire thing just in case there is 90 seconds where we are presentable on camera. Yeah, it's tough as a woman to be like, oh, I guess I'll wear makeup now to the podcast recording. Literally, I come from work. I get here, I put makeup on in the fucking bathroom, which there's terrible lighting here. It's lighting is so fucking bad. I have the makeup on the only time I wear makeup in my life is in this room and then I go home and wash it off. But yeah, it's a bummer. For people who wear makeup, I feel so bad about the shift of video podcasting because I, as someone who doesn't generally wear makeup, I hate it in and of itself. What I liked about audio podcasting is you have to look like shit all the time. Yeah, I mean we both still look like shit. That's what I think. We just made our brand. I also look like shit, but it is so much better than the normal shit that I look like because of the makeup. Yes, I definitely thought about what I was wearing today. But that whole experience, it's the still, you haven't been here in a while? We're still kind of the same old show. Yeah, same old show. It hasn't changed you. You're still humble, still grounded. The truth is though, oh what, go ahead. Ranch is here, but ranch is also cool. Oh fuck, yeah, ranch is cool. Ranch is cool. Matt, speaking of travel to Japan. How long are we going to do this? We could do it. We'll play this game of chicken. We'll see you Blinks first. I'm not fucking taking these off. This is the most comfortable I've ever been. I feel great. The only thing that would make me more comfortable is if I had the whole helmet on over the glasses. Oh, there's all-stitch pillows. I'm totally asleep. We're now pot committed to if a genuinely good clip happens later in the podcast, people watching will have no context for why we're wearing sunglasses. They'll have to just return to the full pod. We cannot guarantee that there will be a good clip later. I'm telling you, there won't be. Hey, there has to be a good clip later. That's why the fuck am I here? You're going to be great. We're going to all be bad. I like Nick's assumption that at any time a clip plays that anybody has any idea what's going on in that clip. It's usually like, what the fuck is this on my timeline? Also that anybody making podcast clips is thinking this one is the one that the people need to see. Matt, it's interesting that you would bring up that we're different now after our trip to Japan because the truth is I want to start off this episode with a tiny gift. Oh, what? Well, here's the thing. A tiny gift? When we came back from Japan, I'd gotten something for Ranch, I'd got something for Nick, but I had not gotten anything from Matt. And it haunted me. It bothered me a ton, man. You gave me the gift of the trip. It bothered me too. I'll just say it. Really? What's Heather got to get into Matt? The fuck? I hung out with Matt so much in Japan that I didn't have time or opportunity to be able to get him a gift. And so once I got here, I was like, you know, Matt had an unfulfilled wish when we went to Japan that we couldn't do. And even though it didn't come inside of the gotcha, I did manage to find a little gift for Matt, which is that he was hunting for Weezer, gotcha pun when we were in Japan, and I couldn't get him. Look at those. And so I got them for him. This is so nice. Thank you. And my gift? Next time. Next time I'm on. Next time I'm on. That's great. That's perfect. This is the OK Human album, the Teal album, the White album, and Pinkerton. And are these key rings? They're kind of little squares with a photo of the album cover. Yeah, they're key rings. Is Weezer big in Japan? Well, so there, I mean, I don't know, but there was. I think Reavers would like to think he is. Sure, I think. Right. Yes, that seems ungame. Yeah, right before we went, they'd announced that there were gotcha for Weezer albums, and we hunted for them and we couldn't find them. And I was like, I don't like an unfinished chapter in a book. Thank you so much, Heather. I love this. You're welcome. I'm glad we're in glasses so nobody could see me get a little teared up. Aw. It's really nice. Really sweet. Fucking sobbing, everybody. Yeah. Whee! So sad. Whee! Shyamon, are you spending time in Japan? I have never been to Japan. I would love to go. I'd never been previously. Matt had never been previously. Ranch, you've been in the past. But when you were younger. I went off to go kid. Yeah, you were kid, so it's like a different context for it. But like, I was just, you know, I'm not well traveled at all. In fact, I'd never crossed an ocean prior to this trip. But my expectations were like, we're like, oh, I've heard it's cool. And then I got there, I was like, this is a fucking wonderland. I cannot believe how much better that, like, I heard this was good. I can't believe it's even better than that. I loved it. What a great experience. Yeah, great experience. I'm excited. I really want to go, and this is just me being vapid and disgusting. I just want to go for the vintage shopping. Yeah. There's like really strict laws around frauds and fakes there, which means that if you go vintage shopping, you're probably not going to get a fake, which is a problem. This was a vintage from a thrift store. It's beautiful. And such good condition. It's a beautiful bag. Excellent, excellent condition. I, if you go, have saved maps for excellent vintage shopping. You absolutely got this. In Japan, specifically in Tokyo, and I have it broken down by neighborhood. So if you want to do like a Koenji vintage shopping day, I have a Koenji vintage shopping map for you. That is incredible. I wish there was a law against frauds and fakes in Hollywood. How about in the White House? We'll be right back. My God. All right, we're back. Matt, you and I also love to shop. I got you. Sorry, everyone could see this. Oh, bro. I guess we're also wearing them wins then. No. We also love to shop. We also love to shop. We all love to shop here. And like I will say the vintage shopping is outstanding. I was like, this is incredible. I can't believe how I like I can spend all day here. But I got other stuff to do. Yep. Yeah. Great place. Yeah. And it's great. Isn't it so great to have Taipei friends? Like so many of my fucking friends because I work in Hollywood and everybody has ADHD. And I have ADHD. All of my friends are type B and very loosey goosey. And sometimes I just want a plan and I want to execute it on time. Is that what type B? I don't know what it means. Yeah. Just like organized. It really just means like on top of your shit. It's I think rude to type A people and too polite to type B people because type B people is just like flying by the seat of their pants, not making any plans. Oh yeah. You're looking at them. I think things happen when they happen rolling in 45 minutes late with an iced coffee. We had Heather, I will say, because we were all together for pretty much all the trip. Heather had a pretty tight calendar in terms of the way things were scheduled out. Like you had a lot of prescribed activities at prescribed hours that we generally hit. It was awesome. I loved it. That was great. It got to experience so much of the two cities in a very compressed amount of time when we had a bunch of work obligations as well. But we did have a moment, Matt, where you and I were like, Heather, you were tired and we were just kind of like, we could just hang out. You're kind of like, oh yeah, we could just hang out. It was revelatory. Yeah. Heather's nickname, the trip was clutch because it was just like it was good to have somebody that knew what was going on. Because if I look, if you weren't there, I would have been all like, I guess I just, I guess I'd just go home. I don't know what I'm supposed to do. I would have gone to Disney Sea like an idiot. Well. I would have got to Disney Sea like an idiot too. And I ran into some New Zealand tourists who were like, Disney Sea was a nightmare because it was so crowded. We were there during the spring break. Yeah. I was like, hey, maybe if there's like a day, if there's like time to do it, we could go to a theme park. I was thinking the same thing. I was like, Disney Sea, that's top of the list, right, gang? Disney Sea and McDonald's. So those are the things we got to hit up. In America, you travel across the ocean for the first time in your life and you want to go to Disney and McDonald's. That's right. I like money. I'm not mad. I'm not mad. I'm not fucking me. I'm mad. I want to buy European vintage goods in Japan and that's what makes me better than you. I do think about, I think you talked, we talked about Adobe Boys, which was the, the, when McDonald's opened in the UK and then people were just throwing gherkins into the street. There was just a pile of, because people, they, they hate what we call pickles here. Yeah. On their burgers and it's a standard McDonald's feature. Yes. What a, what a, what an image. What a striking image. I mean, it's for dinner. They've got the huntrix meal right now. I fucked up. I haven't had it. I still haven't had it yet. Yeah. We can get it for dinner, right? Yeah. All right. Let's get it for dinner tonight. What? Ruin my day. Yes. Siobhan, you are crowdfunding a movie, the greatest treasure in the world. Yes. I am making a movie with my good friends Izzy Rowland and Alex Fernie. Izzy is co-writing it with me. Alex Fernie is directing and then me and Izzy are acting in it alongside a great ensemble of people, like Mikaela, Spaliff, Tomkins. Wow. Just so many, look it up. It's just a real series of ringers, Julie Bristers in it. So many great people. And it's about a guy called Rufus Wainwright Bobbins Jr. the third, who is the richest guy in Salty in California, which is a central California town that nobody lives in. This is like two stop signs, three game stops, kind of a town. And instead of leaving a will like normal when he dies, he instead leaves a treasure hunt in his house for all of the people in the town who are closest to him. That's pretty great. Love that. So it's been really, really fun. We shot for a couple of days of like test footage just to make sure that we could do it. It's a movie that is devised, but mostly improvised in the way that like Christopher Guest or Mike Lee or Robert Altman do their movies. All of the actors, we did character creation for all of the actors, sort of like D&D without the stats, but just, you know, told all of the actors the premise of the movie and they came in with ideas and we, some people came in like, here are five ideas. Do you like one? And then some people came in and like, I sort of want to do this kind of thing. And then we helped them flesh it out and then built the story around these characters that everybody created for themselves. I love that you use Mike Lee as a reference because I do love Mike Lee, but you're also making me think of going and seeing a movie called The Greatest Treasure in the World, starring you and directed by Ferney. That's like a taught family drama. Yes. About class, divorce division. That's so cool. Yeah, I mean, that sounds awesome. And you know, speaking of things that you have that you're a part of, dimension 20, I mean, I think so many people know you from an actual play show. Now podcast fans are notoriously intense, but actual play fans seem rabid. Like that seems like a, like, and I don't necessarily mean a good or bad way. Yeah, but just like, some people are too intense, but I feel like that's true everywhere. You know, and I would rather have people be too intense in the way that actual play people are too intense than other sort of fandoms because generally they're like too intense because they're excited and not too intense because I'm a girl and I'm doing it wrong, you know, which is a lot of the time in other things that I've been a part of. Right. That's nice. That's great. You know, I haven't experienced that at all in gaming. It's totally fine. How dare you have an opinion. No, it's fine. Everything's normal here. Yeah. Does anything stand out as like this moment in this campaign or this thing, you know, my character did or something that happened to my character in one particular campaign? You've got a particularly strong reaction that stands with you? I don't know. Like, I think that the biggest surprise is probably in the first season that we ever did because we just didn't know what the response would be. So even people responding to it as much as they did was surprising because we simply had no idea whether it would hit or not. We were making a bunch of different content and this was fucking content. We're making a bunch of different television programs. Yeah. This is the one that hit. But I played, you know, it's called Fantasy High. It's a bunch of high school students who is like Breakfast Club with Magic. And I played a character with an anxiety disorder because I just thought that that would be interesting and built a we built a mechanic around, you know, having panic attacks. Just because like as a writer, you're looking at like, OK, it's the Breakfast Club. What is a trope that exists that I haven't seen in a breakfast clubby type thing that feels like it's missing? And that's that's sort of where not that I've never had a fucking panic attack because obviously I have. But like that, you know, it comes from a sort of righty-lea place of like where are the tropes that exist but haven't been written yet? And people responded to that in a way that I guess I shouldn't have been surprised by but I was because again, we just did a surface season. I had no idea. You're making it, you know, in a vacuum sort of so you don't really know what the response is until it's right. Exactly. And it was nice because it feels antithetical in something like D&D to be like, I want a character with a disadvantage. But I think that also in storytelling, it's really useful to have a character have a disadvantage. Yeah. And that's not something that's built really into D&D. Like there are flaws if you want them, but they tend to be like personal flaws, like ecological flaws. It's not, there's no mechanic behind flaws. And I sort of love to have that mechanic played out because it helped story. You know, D&D is, it is a game sort of, but it's not a game that you can win really, except by having a good time with your friends. Yeah. It's really much more of like a structure that you can use to improvise a story and the dice are just a randomization factor. And like, I don't know, I think giving yourself a disadvantage is an advantage as a storyteller. That's part of what's so compelling about design wise and from a narrative standpoint about like a disco Elysium is that the protagonist is so flawed. And or like, And there's three different ways you can play it. Exactly. So, you know, yeah, you can, you can replay, which I have not, but I will eventually. Yeah. I'm sure I will. Try it as a homophobic communist. Sure. Sure. It's an interesting type of guy. And you picked those stats, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. You were like, who hates gay people, but as long as they're not workers. 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Mom, I locked myself in my car again. Did you send the text? If it went through, that's it. Why would you pay $150 for that? You can only pay $15. We've gone insane and we have normalized it. And Mint Mobile is trying to show us the exit. If you like your money, Mint Mobile is for you. Shop plans at mintmobile.com. Get played. That's mintmobile.com. Get played. Upfront payment of $45 for a three-month five gigabyte plan required equivalent to $15 a month. New customer offer for three months only, then full-price plan options available. Reasons and fees extra, see Mint Mobile for details. Flip the switch. I can't remember if this was something... Because I lived with Izzy for a time and for like a year and we lived with four cats. And I can't remember if you were... Let's hear those cat names. Okay, so my two cats were Hurley and Sawyer, my old boys who are... All four of these cats are long past. But Hurley and Sawyer and then her cats were Beauty and Metallico. Oh, man. Beauty I never met, but Metallico was an angel. Okay, Metallico was really great, aka Mr. Boy. Shout out to Mr. Boy. Metallico that she named when she was like, I think eight or nine years old. Yeah, yeah. The actual funniest name I've ever heard her name. Beauty was really great. So maybe you... My question was going to be, did you ever go over and see all four of those cats? But if you never met Beauty, there's a good chance no because Beauty was basically like a dead cat when I met her. The oldest animal I've ever seen. Yeah. A tiny baby just born yesterday. Yes, but was I think Izzy's first pet. So there was like a... It's hard to say goodbye. It's hard to know when to say goodbye. Yes. I remember meeting Beauty and just being like, this cat is like a cobweb. Yes. It's like coughing up dust. Yes. Yeah, yeah. Learning English so it can ask to die. But loved me and loved to piss on my bed. A real sweetie. Those cats are great. And her new cats are also great. Oh yes, Digit and... Metallico too. Metallico too. Tom Thumb, I think is the second one. I think that's right, yeah. So you and Heather have played Fortnite together in the past. We have. Yes. Our play styles are different because I view it as a fun hang with my friends where we fuck around and Heather is like, this is my job. I'm trying to defend the island. Yes. Yeah. I think the last time we played together, I logged on and said, hey, just so you know, I just took an edible and Heather went, why would you play like... Like, like responding as if it were like drinking and driving. I'll see what I can do. I got your six. I'll do my best to take care of you, man. Look at through this. So I'm just trying to have fun and you're trying to want to play on. The way that I play is like, mostly I play with our friend Ann Lane and we do things like, okay, when there were chickens in the game, we were like, let's both pick up a chicken. And the first person who drops the chicken loses. And it's not really about winning the game. It's just a game for us. Or there was something that we were doing for a while, which was so horrible, which is squatting up with people, finding one person in another squad, knocking them down, carrying them to a tiny little secret room that we found and then playing music at them. And they were down. They couldn't get out because we'd close the door and you can't do that when you're down. So that's sort of how I play Fortnite. It's nice when you win, but it's not important to me. There's a new mechanic. First off, it was so much fun to play with you guys. So if I gave the impression that I was serious, it's because I am, but I always also have a time. Anytime, anytime you want to play, I will play. And I do feel like they've taken out a lot of the fun stuff. Yeah. It is becoming a more serious game in general. There aren't chickens. There aren't more dogs. Yeah, I miss the boats. Yeah, there's not. I miss like the witches brooms. It's less silly than it used to be. But also currently there is a mechanic in the game that allows you to resurrect yourself if you get downed. Yes. And the only way to prevent somebody from toggling that is that you have to carry them. Otherwise they can hit the button and begin to raise themself. And that's also, if you, if you want them to have to suffer through like a music performance, you have to have one of your squad members pick them up and then everybody else. Does the music? Is playing a mashup of Green Day and Charlie XCX. I've been playing as Rick Prime is the newest Rick and Morty skin. So I'm playing as Rick for the first time. And so we'll pick up the whoever we've downed and I'll just sing Rick and Morty songs at them. And I'm like, this is taking a fan away from the show. This person likes the show. Yeah, but these Rick and Morty fans are so toxic. And they hate Rick and Morty driving away even further. Yeah. Yeah. That's like, it's, I haven't played as much Fortnite, although I've enjoyed the amount that I've played. And I will also say your experience playing with others mirrors Maya and Matt experience with Heather, which is that she's immediately sick of our shit. But which also is kind of how we interact in real life. So it's fine. I'm conditioned. What it reminds me of is, and I never really played competitive smash like a tournament level or whatever, but like, I like watching it, but like, I don't like playing it as much because you remove all the chaos in front of it because there's no items. Like it's like items off. And like, I get that. I understand that we're moving that element of randomness, but that randomness is what distinguishes it from other fighters that it has this like, you can just end up with a beam sword or a poke ball and it completely shifts the balance of power. I never played smash really. I never played it as a kid. And then every social situation at which it is being played, it's always suggested by somebody who played it just religiously as a child and is so good. And I'm like, who am I? What am I doing? I'm dead. And what am I? Oh, I'm dead. And I just that I have not been given the capacity to learn it. And also, frankly, I don't think you can learn it as an adult because there's not really that much to hang your hat on. It's a it's a kind of thing that that that would frustrate me in that because it is it can play as a party game. But then you'd end up with guys who are like really I'm seeing guys pointedly who are who are really competitive about it. And then and then you're like, you're playing with some friends, some of whom have like maybe played a little bit, but haven't played since like melee or brawl or whatever. And then some of the people maybe haven't played at all. And you're still you're picking your main and you're like trying to win as hard as possible. Like, I don't know, just turn items on, play a random character you don't usually play and just sort of mess around a little bit. It's the semi pro at the dodgeball tournament. Yeah, yeah. Calm the fuck down. Yes, there's a guy. Well, I will be careful. But there's like a guy in I play in a baseball league and a guy on one of the other teams. Yes. Played college baseball. Yes, I know who this is. I'm like, you can't do that. It feels unfair. You're actually just good. I'm sure he's nice. I don't know. Yeah, sure. But I'm like, you can't. He's throwing heat and scaring people on my teeth. Yes. Yeah, the person could physically injure somebody. Yeah. So one of my teammates did take a ball to the ribs and we got the GoPro from the OMP and it's I saw it happen in real life. Seeing the video somehow scarier than it was so scary. He just takes it because you like, like, you know, like, yeah, it's not some wind out of him for a sec. Yeah. Yeah, really scary stuff. Do you as just as a gamer, just in terms of taste, do you gravitate more towards like a multiplayer single player? A little from Colombo, a little from Colombo. Yeah, I'm more of a single player person or or like maybe like a two person. The thing that I like about Fortnite is you're not interacting with strangers vocally. I think especially as a fucking girl gamer. I don't want to I don't want to have a 14 year old yelling slurs at me that I have no interest in that whatsoever. So you didn't dabble in I think it was called Dalu Lu, which was proximity chat. No, on the island. Absolutely not. Fucking nightmare. Yeah, I would imagine. Yeah, yeah, you could hear and speak to everybody. Yeah, absolutely. You're saying Dalu Lu proximity chat on the island just like activated my brain somehow. Those are insane words. It was one of those things where like, you know, again, it's like it's like how bad social media is now when we saw all of this happening on like Facebook and Twitter like 15 to 20 years ago. Yeah, it's like the signs existed back in the the early days of Xbox Live. Like once like you get you get attached like a camera to uno. It's like the first thing people were doing was showing pictures of that. We're like sharing pictures of their dicks. You know, it's like it's like it's like we knew this sort of thing existed and there's still it feels like the screening tools are still so archaic, so minimal, you know. Yeah, you know reverse. Here's my dick. Stack 15 dicks. They ought to be unique angles. Do you do you I'm curious as someone who, you know, as part of the 20 and and you're like you're doing this kind of role playing. So like did you did you at all engage with Baldur's Gate 3? Because that's like. Yeah, I love Baldur's Gate 3. And that I I want to do a group like multiplayer play through of that. It felt just different enough from D&D for me that I knew what all of the spells were already, so I didn't have to really look anything up. But it didn't feel like playing D&D. Larry and but did like it's it's a homebrewed set. It's like it's like it's like a little and they've done more with subsequent past patches in terms of just like adding new subclasses. One thing that I loved that I think that should be in D&D is that you can cast two spells in a round, which pisses me off about D&D because let me do my spell management. If I want to spend all my big spells in one round, fucking let me motherfuckers. Like don't tell me what to do. We have to be really careful. We don't know who's going to get mad. So like you can't you can't say stuff like that. Two fifth level spells and I want to use them both in one round and one is a bonus action and one is is a fucking regular action. Let me do it. And then I've spent my fifth level spells and then I don't have any fifth level spells on me. So leave me alone. It is kind of awesome when you have like you know, you just you just played your turns perfectly. You get your positioning right. And then you like I've got I've got Gale, my husband in a in a turn. I just like a barrage of fireballs. I can just at least a few of them and just like just like clear the board. It's like it's like, oh, I feel I like that I'm not restrained by the ruleset. Yeah, I also did not play it well the first time around in a way that like like I exited the shadow realm or whatever the fuck it's called the underground. The under dark under dark. Thank you. And I had a cutscene of like, oh, well, we didn't fix this place on at the next and I went, oh, I I could have fixed it. I know at least one person you played it better. I know everybody else's hat, but I haven't had let me hear it. She basically became the one known terrorist in the world. And like every place you went, everyone was mad at her. She was the person who gets the interaction when you go to Menthara and she tells you her devious plans and then you're like, I already did it. No, no, look, I've said it on the show before. Here's what happened. I played a thief in the first town or whatever the fucking town is with the two factions that are like fighting against each other. Wood elves and some I don't even know who those people are. The tieflings. Yeah, it's the truth. It's the sort of part of the problem. OK, hold on. Maybe I would have known more about the story if everybody hadn't been attacking me. There's a box or two in that town that are like secluded and I'm a thief. I'm role playing. I'm like, oh, I got to get in these boxes. I get in the boxes and some fucking person woke up and they were like, get out of those fucking boxes and I didn't mean to kill that person. They attacked me. I defended myself. What I didn't realize is that that set off a chain. Incredible reaction in the town where both tiefling and druids were attacking me. And I was executing each wave. That came at me and I killed so many people. That's like everybody in the town. And the children as well. That's children as well. Yes. And the kids and then everybody I came to in any part of the story was just like, it's you. And it ran at me. I killed them, which then just made it just was a not like there was a there's a tiefling character who I didn't even know was a tiefling character. Carlac. Wait, you didn't even get Carlac as a companion. He killed Carlac. You killed Carlac. Because Carlac saw me and went, you and ran at me and I went, oh, my God, killed Carlac. Heather, if you want to do a multiplayer play through of Baldur's Gate 3 any time. I'm going to go ahead and just tell you, you shouldn't do that. I will casually request you do it better. There's somebody there's somebody in some mine later who's got like who's like, hey, I'm going to give you a chest. Don't look in the chest. But I had already killed everybody at the chest and didn't know it was a thing. And so when I again, because every encounter was immediately coming to kill me. So you didn't have any social encounters whatsoever. I had nothing, no social encounters. And you didn't go, let me go back one save point. No, no, because it's a role playing. And also I was like, at some point this is going to stop. Oh, like at some point you will leave the like the area. Yeah, the area of the story of your war crimes won't follow you. But at that point I had killed so many people that anybody with a relationship in the game had triggered whoever their other person was to kill me. And what a game that it lets that happen. Yeah, well, really tough for you. You shouldn't let it happen. Or at least there's somebody should be like, here's the chance to redeem yourself. Yeah, but instead, like you could do that girl in the mine and she's like, hey, there's a chest. I need you to go like get this chest from me. Promise not to look in it. And then immediately after that line of dialogue, she says, wait a minute. Oh my God, you've already looked in it. And then she attacked me. I was like, how could I have possibly known that this chest I found hours ago was going to upset you so much? Incredible. I have not massacred the tieflings in any of my playthroughs. I cannot bring myself to do it. But I did hear from a friend who just wanted to see what would happen that part of that experience is that when you have the cut scene afterwards where you're at camp, Shadowheart, who's the key NPC in the game, is so traumatized that she gets drunk. But I think that that's the only way for you to trigger one of the companions. Right, yes. I think the only way you can get Mithara and Aptorn is by that. Well, I don't know. Gale wasn't a part of my party. Yeah, you killed him immediately. You didn't have Gale and you didn't have Kala? I didn't have Karlak. I didn't have Gale. I had Shadowheart. I had the vampire. And I had the big angry lady. Who owes her name? Lazelle. Lazelle. Yeah, that's all I had. Did you romance any of them? No, they were not. They did not want to talk to me. You are right. This is the worst anybody's ever done. It was great training. I will say, I think it's, I wouldn't even have said it was save scumming, but I admire you not like going back to save points and just seeing what happens. And I mostly I admire your full commitment to role playing as Heather Ann Camp. So we're going to be talking about Lorelei and the laser eyes in a little bit. But I'm like this game naturally, it invites comparisons. I think most most recently to blueprints. But it's also, you know, I want to be honest that I have not fucking finished Lorelei yet. I've been trying to finish it this week. I have six fucking puzzle boxes left. I say this with so much love and admiration for this game. It is so hard. I love every second of it. I have so many. I forgot to bring my stupid notes. My phone is filled with pictures. Oh, yeah. Because I was like, I can't write this maze picture down, but I need to see it and I can't be toggling between these screens. Let me have it on my phone as I'm wandering around. I also have not finished it. But I do really admire its design and it reminds me of like blueprints, which yes, absolutely. I didn't connect with to get two really good big chunky puzzle games in one year. We had a weird experience with blueprints where I don't think any of us really connected with it. Or like I really admired it's design. I was I'm just so impressed by the the solo dev put this together. And it's it's it's clearly genius and it's going to inspire, you know, like like a new a new sub genre. But I found it to be such a time sink that it that I went from loving it and being obsessed with it. Yeah, being exhausted. Yeah, I mean blueprints might the struggle with it was, well, I need to get to the garage. I haven't spawned to the garage. Right. So I guess I have to keep playing it until I get to the garage. I don't know what to do. But yeah, my thing with it was, and I think this is mostly all of our thing. Yeah. It was you get to the the the big thing that it's pointing you to the secret room. You actually then do do it. Yeah. And then it's like, OK, there's actually more. Step one. Yeah. Well, no, no, that's why I ended with blueprints is I think I got like two or three of the next levels of keys. And then when I have a life, yeah, I can't do this. I'm putting job hours into this game. Yeah. But we still gave it our game of the year because it was just like it was an incredible game. Yeah. But I think Laura Lai beat it for me in terms of player enjoyment. Wow. We'll talk about that in just one second. But before we we get to that game, let's talk about some other video games we're playing right now. It's time for the question we ask each and every week. What are you playing? What are you playing? It's me the resident of our jet. And I'm going to ask my friends and our guests what they're playing in the video games or any other aspect of their life. It's unlimited. You can say whatever you want. So that's that's new. Yeah. That's a new addendum. Oh, you don't do this normally. I was like, oh, I guess Heather's. Resident Evil Merchant is a fixture of the show. I would say great. The addendum that the Resident Evil Merchant gave. What? Uh, that you could say whatever you want. That's new information. Yeah, that's new information. Wow. That's a different Baldis Gate three cut scene. I just I want everybody to know that, you know, you don't know that pressured to have a to do video games. You could do anything. Your life is unlimited. Wow. Yeah, I will say I appreciate the freedom that you're offering. I do think for the sake of the podcast that at least we the host should be making an effort to talk about something video game related because so much of our audience is video game enthusiast. All right. Well, that's your rule. Not mine. I know, but I'm just saying like because it feels like what you are you are suggesting is that I could talk about a plate of spaghetti. Yeah. Nick Wiker, what do you eat? No, I'm not I'm not going to talk about a plate of spaghetti. Oh, I mean you're playing with it. I was not playing with my food. No, I just I don't have time for that anymore. You know, grown man. I don't have time for it anymore. I was a kid. Yeah, I'll play with my food. I guess you get all the time in the world. Yeah, maybe I should play with my food again like a pan moment. I think it is a but again, I appreciate the freedom that you're offering us the leeway. All right. You can talk about a video game, but anybody can talk about anything they want. Okay, great. Nick Wiker, what are you playing? Wow. Thank you so much for asking Resident Evil Merchant. I am going to talk about Soul Sesto. This is a game that was made by a three person dev team and version 1.0 was released on April 10th of this year. It rules. I'm playing I'm playing this shit out of it. It's so it's so fun. It's like a pure gameplay almost in slot machine territory sort of design, which I am just like because I'm very busy right now with work. It's like it's it's more what I kind of need with my gaming time as opposed to something like Lorelei, which as much as I admire Lorelei. No, it takes a lot of brain. It really does. It's exhausting. Whereas this one is like there are some decisions to make there. It's definitely like like playing a sleigh of the spire or something like that or playing a Bellatro. But you can kind of get more into a flow state and be a little bit less precious about each individual move. So pretty much what happened. But what is is a tactical roguelite in a in a grim dark fantasy world. You pick your class for each run, you know, peasants, night wizard, what have you. And that determines your abilities and survivability as you might expect. But each combat each combat screen screen by screen is a four by four grid as you descend down this this this dungeon. Some squares have enemies, some squares have traps, some squares have treasure. Some squares have like other bonuses. All you can select is which row your character goes in, not which square. So it's like four. So like if you've got four squares in one row, you can select that row and there's a 25 chance you'll end in any individual square. So part of it is figuring out the way everything is a portion of like if this row has three enemies and one treasure chest in this row below it has two treasure chests, one health item and one enemy. Well, it's just better odds for me to get something good if I line to this one as opposed to getting a health penalty by by taking the other row. So a part of that is just like picking your spots because you would make a certain number of moves to descend to the next level. But also as you progress, you pick up stat boosts and boons that can that can like alter the odds. And that's a big part of the fun of it. It was like, okay, so I'm getting this boon that's going to increase the odds of me getting a treasure chest, but also increase the odds of me hitting a monster that has a magic abilities opposed to physical abilities. So that means I have to up my magic stat to counter that. But it's just kind of a push pull that becomes really, really gratifying as you progress. And also because it's randomized, there's still times when you're like, I feel like I did everything wrong and I lost, but the runs are so, so fast that it never feels all that punishing. I also like the way the way the gold, the way the meta progression is, the the the the currency that you use to upgrade all runs in a roguelite sense, you have gold, but you have to like decide to send some of your gold up to the surface, which means you can't use it at shops in game. And that I kind of like too is like how much I'm going to invest in future runs, but also like kind of a sandbag, my current run a little bit based on how deep I am. And it depends on how much I'm going to invest. I like being able to make that decision. I love the aesthetic. It's like VGA graphics. Like it's like like like a 19 like a 90s PC game as opposed to kind of the 16 bit pixel art like Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis, Mega Drive look. I feel like we often get with these sort of retro games. It feels a little bit distinct from that. It also animates so smoothly, like like like like so more smoothly than a PC game of the 90s would. So we kind of end up in this uncanny valley sort of like this was like this is a reference to a thing that never really existed. But I just think it's such an impressive design and it's the kind of thing where it's like like a vampire survivors. It's not that type of game. It's a completely different type of game. But is the sort of thing like, oh, I didn't know this could be an approach you could take. And it's it's connecting with me so strongly. And it's it's just a it's got really good boss fights as well that like it retained the core gameplay, but also just change it up just enough where it feels fully distinct. I I think it's rad. The other thing I will say is that that it's it's a game that's filled with little like I didn't want to call them Easter eggs because there are things that you can use for your run. But they're things that you kind of have to like pay a little bit of close attention to like there's a flute that you can craft, which has some some songs, which are there there's there's kind of arcane ways that you can discover what those are. But also like when you're at the shop with the merchant, you can tug on the merchant's nose. Don't do that. I'm not saying the Resident Evil merchant. I'm saying I'm saying the merchant in this particular game, but I would never tug on your nose. Oh wait, but uh, but also I've got your nose. No, no. Matt, Matt, that's not cool. Maybe I'll give it back. Oh The shopkeeper will call him the shopkeeper you can tug on to his nose and then that can stun him So you can like steal one item and you can do that once per run So deciding tactically like maybe maybe I'm gonna do that like very early on when I don't have any money and just to give myself an Early boost or maybe I'm gonna wait on that to do it later I I did there's all sorts of shit like that that you discover that are kind of emerging as you play That's that's just makes it feel deeper for a game that is again such a slot machine design at a fundamental level I I think it's I think it's a rad game. It's it's maybe my favorite game so far this year. Whoa Anyway, that's what I've been playing Heather, what are you playing? Oh, right? Let me tell you um, I have engaged in no combat this week It was accidental but also based on the amount of time that I had to play video games and my primary video game remains pokopia Um, I believe I am at the final task of the game. Wow. Um before it opens up and just becomes build and and and renew Uh, the world I think I'm at the final story task Um, still loving the game still dreaming about it every night. Uh, when I go to sleep, I'm dreaming in blocks Fantastic fantastic game by far my game of the year so far is pokopia. Um, but additionally to that uh, I recently inspired by uh, uh, Matt um the franchise abadaka um Purchased an iron thour which is a dual screen Uh, android based retro gaming device which everybody just loads with emulators and you can play um, you know all the way up to I guess ps3 level Emulation on it. Yeah, and you can play it can handle some light steam stuff. Yeah, it can handle it. You can like play Ballotro on it or you can play. Um, you know any you can also play android games on it You can play fortnite on it if you if you want so they're an analog stick or a touch pad or something on that some There's two analog sticks uh, both with backlit led glowing if you want uh for uh face buttons two triggers on the back touch screen on both the top and bottom screens got it. Um, really really lovely device Yeah, but you got you got mine has not mine's not arrived Well, so matt ordered it his strict from the from the company and they've had some shipping Issues and his has just gotten a label. I I know this is not what you're trying to do. You look like you're sulking right now Okay, mine's just mine. Mine's crying again This is this You got key chains though But matt was like, uh, you know, he's talked this thing up for a while I've been watching videos of it on tick tock and and uh various social media And so I went looked on ebay and I was like, I'll just get one off fucking ebay Um, it had a slight markup, but it was also like, you know, uh, no scratches like new etc And I was like sure why not so I I get it off ebay it arrives the next day. It is sealed in box So it's not even unscratched. It is unplayed Um, I start setting it up. What a pleasure it is to set up an emulating device That's more that's I would say more than half the fun. So so great, but also I don't want to dox this website because I'm terrified of anybody ever taking it down But there is a website that has um, an enormous library of Games that were never released in america Uh Fan translated as like functioning isos and roms. Uh, it also has undubs So like if you want to play final fantasy x with the original voices, you can play it undubbed but subtitled Which is great because there's a huge number of like early 2000s to 2015 games where the level of voice acting Just wasn't what you expect out of the game today Um, and so the domestic release of finalized in I guess I guess I definitely played it in english The first time at least But it it did not have japanese voices on the disc. No, it is only yeah It does not and the only way you can can play it with those japanese voices is to uh download an undubbed rom um, so I like I got that I got um Final fantasy 12 undubbed. I got uh the world ends with you undubbed a lot of these are games that I already have That my only wish is the that I get to play it in a japanese language track However, I also downloaded and this is the game. I'd like to speak lightly about a game that has been a um sort of like a Grail off in the distance for a while. It's a game called boku no natsu yasumi 2 Uh, it it that's my summer vacation Um, it is a game on the playstation 2 that was never released here a sequel to a game on the playstation 1 Where the game is you are a young boy in 1975 rural japan it is your summer vacation you have 30 days and that is it That's the fucking game right so you you walk around your town You play you talk to people you create relationships No goals no fucking like combat no ghost hunting you it is just a vibes experience As far as I can tell so far in the game and the vibes are so fucking impeccable Like you start playing it and you feel melancholy but also like freedom, you know like just being you're in your room And the the I think it's your aunt picks you up from the from the train station brings you to your room She leaves and you're just goal list. There's no List of shit to do Like I go into the menu screen and one of the options is take off your shirt And so I like take off my shirt and on my swim trunks. I'm like, I guess there's a swimming place somewhere Like you can go like look at the books on the shelves. It's like it's a life simulator Um, and it is wonderful like a sleep no more. Yeah Except you just go through the except it's not mcbeth. It's just yeah a normal day. Yeah, it's just a normal day um, and uh, Yeah, so far. I'm really loving it. It's living up to my expectations and hopes of it just being a vibes experience um, and the you know the Sort of barricade to me playing this game previously is I always really really like to play an original hardware and so I was waiting to get a Optical drive emulator for the playstation to play it on a crt And finally I was like, you know what I'm never gonna fucking play this game if I if I wait for this long to do it So I did it runs perfectly on the eintor Um, it's gorgeous. It's it's it's wonderful. So that's the game that I am playing I think you said it but I missed it. What platform was it on originally? It was on playstation 2 got it originally Um, and it has sort of like resonant evil Style fixed camera angles. So when you're going through the house like that's times you're next to the kids Sometimes you're like up in the corner watching him like run through the kitchen Uh, it's great. It's great great great. That's right. Boku no Nazi asimi to Uh, shivan, what are you playing if there's anything beyond uh, laura lay these days? Yeah, um, I've been slowly working my way through ghost of yotai I'm playing it on story mode, which is the first time I've ever done that for a game, but I was like Tired and stressed out and also my friend is the main character and I didn't want to kill it Um, but it's such a beautiful game and the writing is so good and I think the acting is excellent from everybody That playing it on story mode has just been like really soothing nice And then there's a rusty lake to play a rusty lake game that I'm looking up the name of it now that I just played with My sister and then immediately deleted off my phone and now I don't remember the name so one second was Did everyone because um, I forget where everyone ended up being on ghost of yotai heather you you finished it. Yes. Yeah Yeah, I also finished it. Yeah, I just started act three. So I'm like most of the way through rachel Did you did you ever play yotai? I did start it. Yeah, but I didn't get very far. Got it. Um, I just thought it was so pretty Yeah, it's gorgeous. A lot of it is just like let me just get on a horse and gasp every time I crest a hill I mentioned this in the podcast before but I had it like a a moment of clarity during the pandemic that genuinely led me to Change my life in a pretty profound way, which is I was playing ghost of sushi ma and I was riding the horse And I was looking at I was scrolling on my phone and I was like Why am I looking at my phone right now? Yeah, but I'm riding a horse in a video game Yeah, and it and like I'm it's and it's beautiful and I'm having fun Yeah, you could be playing your flute while riding the horse in your video. Exactly. So like following a fox around After that, I genuinely changed my my phone usage like for good like I I I started instituting I read a book about getting off of a phone addiction and I I I do I still do phone free Sundays and that was a practice that again was like instituted because of this Because of horse riding in a samurai game. Yeah, I mean, it's just a beautifully And for me just the right level of open world in that the rail you know where the rails are Yes, you can see the rails and you can go back to them at any time like the subway train will come around again You know, yeah, for sure. It's something like a fallout or a skyrim. I've never finished either of those games because I'm just like Aimless and you can do too much and then I'm like I gotta adopt this child But there's another child Why am I only allowed to one child? So this rusty late game is called the past within And the reason that I particularly loved it is that you're playing it at the same time as somebody else It is a mandatory to play a game Um, but you're not like logged in together so, um It you're playing it basically two different time periods And then giving each other the information over the phone And I loved it. It was like really like a I love all of the rusty lake escape room games They don't make many things like laura lights like maybe you get one a year And so like I play a lot of puzzle games and the rusty lake guys really churn those fuckers out Um complimentary I love every single one of them. I play all of them. Um, but the past within was so fun just because You're doing the puzzles, but it's also about efficient communication And being like, okay, if you turn left, I'm looking at a map if you turn left on the upper left quadrangle is you know it's that that kind of stuff, which I think is really Fun for me. I don't know. There was a game uh, not a game a tv show On bb on the bbc when I was a little kid That was like a really primitive early version of like virtual reality rpg Which was awesome It was children playing they lost every week Because it was written by adults For each other and then these children were playing it and just dying. It was great. Um, but the game Was run by like there was a One kid with a helmet on where they could not see anything In essentially just like a green screen room and then their friends on the couch watching This kid who'd been like green screened or I guess blue screened at that time into a mystical fantasy castle and they had to be like Move two steps forward and then three steps to your right There's a table with bread on it pick up the bread and break it in half Um And that's what playing this game Felt like to me because it was about playing the game But it was also about like sharing the experience with somebody else and You know, you get a set of clues where you're like I have like There's like three triangles that go up and then two that go down. Is there anything in your room? That looks like that. Yeah Interesting. It was really really really fun and there's two Versions of the game within the game. So you can play it twice. Oh great. And we did and they're very different Do you have for someone who's who's new to uh, the rusty lake cannon? Do you have a particularly good jumping on point? I wish I could tell you the name of any of these games It really makes a lot of them. Right. Yeah, um, and They're all fun and they all are like thematically Similar, they're just like a little they're like a you know, a very To me as somebody who doesn't make video games like it seems like pretty simply made like flash Point and click video games They're a little spooky. There's like recurring characters and tropes and themes and like A spooky cube Oh, that's the cube and it's spooky um But they're all they're all really fun and they don't have There's no real starting point to them. There's not like a oh, you can't play 12 until you've played one through 11 Um, you can you can jump it at any point. I'm sure there's somebody online who's ranked The best rusty lake games. I'm sure someone will chime in in our discord. Sure. Absolutely. And then somebody else will go You idiot And then hopefully our mods will fan the flames as their job That is what mods should be doing. Um, but I I don't know. I I enjoy all of them and especially they you know, they take like 20 minutes to an hour each So some it's like a great like I have an afternoon I would love to do some puzzles. Let me see what rusty lake games are out. Have you have you played? I mean the main barrier of entry to this is that it requires a VR helmet, but have you played? um, the I expect you to die Games no there. I don't have a VR helmet and that actually the VR escape room stuff. Yeah, it feels like everybody sort of got over VR. Yeah, but the escape room stuff was the one thing that was like Like the fireproof games guys did it a VR I'm still heavily invested in VR It's you're playing you're playing that laser. No, I beat saver. Yeah, I'm playing. I mean like right now there is a new um There's a new uh update coming to the vision pro that allows you to stream steam and g4s games to it So it's me a whole new whole new vision pro coming soon I expect you to die. What? We'll do that today They're like spy like Not quite James Bond not quite austin powers like but like they're like you get like a mission and then you have to go like You're in like one space, but there's all these little like pieces of a puzzle that then you're solving to then stop, you know Uh like a room being filled with a certain gas or whatever You know it seems really fun. They're they're really really fun. They're very good for somebody like me who is uh Not very smart They're very easy A little puzzle to solve It's the one thing also like I I don't have a gaming pc And most of the new point and click games because I love a 32 bit 64 bit sort of uh, you know monkey island-esque situation and it just ends up that I only play them when I'm at home with my sister because she has that setup but It's it's the one thing that I'm like, do I get a gaming pc just so I can play 64 bit games On it. This is so stupid. Why aren't these on mac? Why aren't these on playstation? Yeah, I know it's complicated changing things over but for me Please I I do I'm a pc gamer I do have a gaming rig and I like those kinds of games as well and I would I think it is worth it And also if you're trying to play something like why are you telling me? If you like playing like indie point and click adventure games, you don't need a super powerful rig So like you don't you're not going to necessarily break the bank. So I mean like I think you get something mid-range and you'd be set Yeah Matt, what have you been playing? Well? Y'all been calling me the franchise. Oh my god. That's right. And uh, that's just this is because I previously had only ever played Resident Evil 4 that was my only resident evil game played resident evil 2 played resident evil 9 when it just came out Love that Went straight to resident evil 3 remake. Okay. Yep I took it down. I'm done with it. Wow, and I would say we also call you the finisher. Yeah, you know this is the franchise I'm not just a franchise on the finisher Mr. Games the Xbox kid and you're calling him this or he's calling himself I think I did give myself mr. Games But that's it I could if everyone's giving me one I can give myself one that's beautiful. Yeah, great beautiful. That's self care Yeah, I can I'm mr. Games I think for me resident evil 3 is Weaker than any of the other ones that I've played so far. All right, uh, you know I because it's also The stories are nonsense. Like they're all kind of crazy. Yeah, silly stuff. It's I mean, it's not silly, you know, uh There there are sort of like intricate plots and there's always like a double cross of some kind or whatever It's like very tropey, you know, very tropey, uh, sort of very heightened stuff this one To me is not that different from resident evil 2 It's like the same kind of shit where it's like it is Sort of a prequel midquel sequel to resident evil 2 where it's like things are happening before in the in the in the middle of it and afterward It's the same incident Where they're about to like bomb raccoon city because there is all these zombies and stuff But now there's an added addition of nemesis who I'm sorry sucks. I think nemesis is a bad Villain wow for these games. I don't like nemesis. He's a little too Uh to borrow a phrase from your other show. Um, gupatchka. Oh boy. He he does too much stuff He's got tentacle arms. He's ugly and nasty. He's big and fast. He's everywhere. I'm like, uh, no I don't I don't think so not for me But the main thing that's happening in it at a certain point is like well, you're you're going around you're one you go back to the fucking raccoon city police department Uh, and then at a certain point you're like, I gotta go down to this underground facility And get this vaccine and then this bad guy gets the vaccine because he wants it And that's the same shit that happens in the second one. It's the same story and I'm just like you can't You can't do that Maybe that's why four was such a big change. Yeah four is so different. Yeah It definitely I will say as as someone who's playing these games on playstation one Uh, I I get to one later, but I played, you know, two and three as they came out It had gotten a little stale by that point. I played the remake so I will say, you know, this might be Big talk from somebody who played all of death stranding and then played all of death stranding too and was like this is a masterpiece They're very similar in some ways, but I think uh death stranding two is a better Uh retread than resin evil three is to resin evil two. Um, but that said I did start resin evil seven biohazard And immediately think it's too scary I can't play a single one of those games. They are so scary even like being in the same room as somebody playing I'm like, I have to leave this is I'm upset Two two is pretty scary three. I didn't find to be very scary Four is like a mix of like, you know, you're leon, so it's a power fantasy. So you're like you're uh, Roundhouse kicking old la plaga ladies and and like and and it's you're not very scared I will say I'm I'm I'm something of a horror game coward though. I will play them. I don't find four scary at all Yeah, just an action movie. It's just like fun. But this one Uh, is this one is like a big shift In the same way that four was a big shift where this is the first first person one and I believe I remember reading that they were like we were drawing more from Western horror than like what just like what they were doing before and like so it's Like the first thing that I like the first big scare is like Basically like a Blair witch like style like scare where there's like a guy standing and like not facing you and you're like What the fuck's wrong with me standing completely still and you get close to him You like collapsed his face is all fucked up and nasty Uh, and I got scared and I turned it off That's the first thing I have there's gonna be more stuff, but I know there's like a mold Mold is scary to me. That's the one where you start with your you've just locked your car and you're walking up to a house Yeah, yeah, right. See this is the tough thing about playing a scary video game for me because like I I am somewhat of a pussy Just generally but you watch a horror movie and you're like, okay, it was scary But there was catharsis at the end. Yes, you're playing a video game and it's Eight twelve twenty sixty hours of stuff Do you play until there's a cathartic moment so you can sleep or are you like well, I gotta go to bed But also there are zombies I will sometimes like I think I had I gotta go take a bath. I stopped resident evil two at one point Uh turned it back on And played it and had 30 minutes left to finish it. I was like basically at the very end of it So I will I'm just like I will not even like Shut down the game. I'll just like put it in rest mode and like put it away for another day like I'm gonna pick it back up tonight and uh Be as scared as I was when I stopped it last night But I the thing that's good about these games though I think is that I feel like across the board the resident evil games Are pretty short. Yeah, they're not they're not too demanding so far I think I did resident evil three in like five hours or something like it's like pretty short Uh, that one is short anyway, but like I think two and eight or two and nine were like 12 13 hour like I'm playing on easy two because I'm scared Yeah because The hot stuff is not fighting the stuff the hot stuff is listening to the music that is scary for an extended period of time And putting your body wandering around with this fucking little outfit and then you're spending your going out into your life So that's that's that's what I'm playing. I'm excited to get into that one So then I can get to you know resident evil eight and then essentially be caught up but I'm excited about rachel shan our producer ranch. You have something you been playing Uh, yeah, I've been playing this game called fear the spotlight I believe Was an indie game and then Blumhouse picked it up to distribute but it's like a 2000s inspired retro horror adventure game and it's been really fun. Everybody playing horror adventure games. Look at that Wait, is that a multiplayer game? Uh, no, but you do switch playing the two characters in it What what is what it like? What is the oh, I think I played this. Oh, yeah, it's like two high school girls. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes Yes, that's the one. Yeah, so what what's the premise? You're two high school girls and um, you're trying to figure out the mystery of the school And um, it like burned down and it's very much like phantom of the opera It's kind of storyline where I won't give it away But you're trying you like do a seance in the library late at night and some weird things happen And get transport into a different reality. Gary. Are you streaming this at all? Is it are you just playing? I was playing by myself. Yeah, that's awesome Oh after a long day of work I'm driving home. I'm tired I'm exhausted and then Uh-oh hunger strikes Me hungry I drive all the way home. I open the dang fridge There's nothing in there but ketchup in a roll of film and I can't eat the ketchup and I won't eat the film again So I open up an app on my phone I'm about to spend 30 dollars on a dang burrito like a fool What the hell? But for me eating healthy wasn't a willpower problem. It was a setup problem user error. They call it That is until I found factor with factor I'm hitting all my nutrition goals this season without the planning grocery runs or the cooking For example, I mean all sorts of good stuff. Thanks to factor I'm eating all sorts of good stuff with factor and my meals. Uh, let me just tell you There's a variety every day. It's something different. I'm talking shredded chicken taco bowl I'm gonna be shredded after I eat that smoky gouda mac and shredded beef Uh, I'm gonna be shredded after that Jalapeno lime cheddar chicken You could probably shred the chicken too if you want and then eat that and then you can be shredded after that and Louisiana shrimp I'd leave that as is I wouldn't mess with that the structural integrity of the shrimp would not stand to shredding Factor has meals built around your goals. Whether that's weight loss overall nutrition more protein or GLP one support for strength and workout recovery Now, let me just tell you something about that real quick. 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I maybe have said it in one of these ads I make 100 of the meals in my house and you know, it would be easier if I had even just a couple days a week Some factor meals some delicious nutritious factor meals head to factor meals dot com slash get played 50 off And use code get played 50 off to get 50 off and free daily greens per box with new subscription only while supplies last until 9 27 20 26 that's september 27 20 26 That's a long runway you can do it. I promise you have time take advantage of this deal See website for more details. That's factor meals dot com slash get played 50 off get shredded while you're at it Boy, I wish I knew what he was saying But I don't speak Animal crossing why do most of us want to learn a new language? It's probably not about memorizing grammar tables or topping a leaderboard It's because we want to speak it out in the real world with real owls A real little sheep and the real little ducks that come to our town Babel gets you there fast Learning a language with babel is all about small steps big wins and progress you can actually track and feel Their bite-sized lessons fit easily into your daily routine Just 10 minutes a day is enough to start seeing real results Their courses are designed by over 200 language experts real human beings to teach you relevant words and phrases You'll actually use babel lets you practice real life conversations step by step without the stress You'll build the confidence to speak up when it matters from ordering a coffee to chatting with new friends abroad and babel is more than just lessons They even offer a large collection of podcasts where babel experts reveal language secrets and offer an inside look at local cultures If you're going to listen to one other podcast listen to do boys to listen to babel I felt shame there were times when nick was talking and I was like, uh, I didn't even I forgot those words And he's swimming confidently upstream into a language He had not practiced before outside of an app And what's wrong with heather? She can't drink and she's just in the corner of a bar crying However, you learn best by listening speaking reading or writing babel adapts to your style and keeps you motivated With personalized learning plans real-time feedback and progress tracking make fast lasting progress with babel the science back language learning app That actually works every course comes with a 14 day money back guarantee. Just ask nick weigher Here's a special limited time deal for our listeners right now get up to 60 off your babel subscription at babel.com forward slash played get up to 60 off at babel.com forward slash played spelled B a bb el.com forward slash played rules and restrictions may apply You're probably listening right now and you're probably thinking i'm good. I don't need a vpn I'm happy with only being able to watch content in my own territory Uh, let me just tell you something real quick. It does more than that It's doing more than that actually and you're making a big mistake by not having one because guess what? Did you know you could use it to get a better deal on a flight? Maybe if you change the location These things these things we're paying for they work algorithmically and you can get around that algorithm by using a vpn to your advantage So why not use nord vpn if there are tv shows films anime that aren't available in your region You could switch your virtual location to a country where it is available And that's your right when you use a vpn and it should be the law of the land You shouldn't need one but here we are Thanks. Thanks a lot. You know who and if you're traveling abroad you can access your streaming services back home And we all get a little homesick when we're out of the country switching your virtual location with nord vpn can also save you money That's what i was talking about earlier by purchasing flights and hotels from other countries at a cheaper price I'm all about saving that money you understand protecting the bag as it's known Nord vpn can also act as an invisibility cloak for your ip address protecting your privacy online and leaving no digital footprint Especially while you're traveling and use public wi-fi for me. Let me just tell you using public wi-fi the riskiest thing I do I'm logging on to whatever I can do so it's good that I have a vpn to help save my behind Nord vpn protects you wherever you are in the world anywhere could be Los angeles california could be tokyo japan Those are only two places as far as i'm concerned, but it could be anywhere else It's super fast no buffering while streaming and it stops your isp band with throttling I hate that throttling and you can use one account on up to 10 devices now That's a value premium cyber security for the price of a cup of coffee per month to get the best discount off your nord vpn plan Go to nord vpn.com slash get played our link will also give you four extra months on the two-year plan There's no risk with nord's 30 day money back guarantee the link is in the podcast episode description Go save yourself some money Let's talk about lorali and the laser eyes released on may 16th of 2024 the developer is I'm not quite sure how to pronounce this a simogo or semogo It is a swedish indie dev that also made cyanara wild hearts, which is a very different game. Yes very well regarded Um, I'll I'll just read the the steam description to set the table A woman surrounded by an eccentric man to participate in a project in an old hotel somewhere in central europe becomes embroiled in the game of illusions increasingly dangerous and surreal Now you're invited to fall into the same rabbit hole in a non-linear mystery with an immense amount of handcrafted puzzles Constantly presenting you with new riddles to solve each leading you closer to deciphering the enigma of lorali and the laser eyes So this game has been on my steam wish list Since it released because I it was like this is going to be extremely shit And I just never ended up getting it because I just never just never budgeted time for it So I am glad that this uh this episode came about but how did you get into the game? My friends brian murphy and emily axford were playing it and Just immediately were like everybody in the world must play this game. Um, and I love a game where I have to take notes It's a sickness I unfortunately was exposed to mist at a very early age and have never quite like I'm like have been searching for that high for the rest of my life Um, and yes, it is is absolutely deeply my shit. It's just just the right level of scary for me where it's like But it I'm not like running from zombies really. Um, and the puzzles are genuinely hard I will also say I love the fandom for this game Because every time I've gotten stuck on something and or I'm like I feel like I should have gotten the answer to this lock somewhere. Have I? If you search for it There's no like that. I mean there are some like this is just the walkthrough But mostly it's people going have you tried looking in this place or don't worry about that lock yet You'll get to it later. You're just like too early in the game to know that answer. Yeah, like everybody's really polite Nobody's spoiling anything um And you know it as with every puzzle sometimes your brain is just not going to be able to do it Or at least that's my experience and sometimes just like One little hint will go. Oh, it's this thing. Oh, I remember all this book that I opened Too early at the beginning to you know in a stack of six other books is actually where the answer to this is I I agree with you. I like I like something that just like kind of nudges me in the red direction at times This also is a game where My understanding is that that that the you know, like there's a lot of numerical codes that you're that are solutions to puzzles They're all randomized per play. So there you can't just get a strict walkthrough that has like here all the The key codes to unlock everything. Yeah Heather are you about to say something? I was about to say that About the fact that you can't do the the straight up walkthrough because it's it is randomized But I was also going to say, you know upfront. I wanted to praise the aesthetics of the game. It's gorgeous gorgeous It's beautiful. It's so pretty and very simple. Yeah, it reminds me of a game that I've uh talked about on the show for killer seven um, which is this sort of like reduced poly model like, um Like this this look this looks more polished than that game, but like the first as soon as you turn it on I was like Oh man, this looks like that and and that's nice. Yeah, it's just black white and red and that's it and that's all you need Yep. Yep, and I also really like the sound. Yes in it. It has extremely good clicks When you type into a keyboard it sounds chunky and real. I I like a good I like it when there's limited sound and the sound is given such um elevated status and there's good little haptics on the PlayStation remote the PlayStation remote changes color with the you know, you go into different rooms, which is like just small stuff But it's nice. Mm-hmm thoughtful So when we when we you know asked you about coming on the show and the you pitch this topic Like were you actively playing it at that time or her you was this thing? Was this also for you an excuse to no I so I had played about half of it Previously and then just had gotten distracted by life And it's one of those games that you have to be actively playing Otherwise because you have to keep so much shit in your head even though I am keeping notes And the game has a very good note keeping system. Yes with a good sound. Yes Yes, it's it's satisfying. Um It's a good like ASMR. Yep um As I I couldn't play it for a couple of weeks and then came back to it and went I don't remember any of this Shit, so it was like a really nice excuse to be like, okay I'm gonna dive in and hopefully finish the game which again, I did not but I'm at like 87.5 percent Whoa, I'm so close to the end Hmm Matt you're like I This is always a thing where like I think this is a matte game, but I'm never quite sure I know this for sure is not a heather game, but like I I think this is a game for you It's definitely a game for me. Yeah, I I I'm enjoying the game. I think it is really really good the thing that Look, I've said on the show before These are like In general these types of games like these like sort of adventure sort of puzzle things not it's gonna it's every other one is like My favorite thing like this one. I like way more It's a such a different thing, but like the comparison I think does stand Uh This is what I wanted blueprints to be like where like yeah, I played this and then I played blue blueprints And everybody was talking about blueprints and nobody was talking about laura lie and I was like I was like, I enjoyed blueprints. I just think laura lies better. I do. Yes, but like I have said on the show I said it earlier. I was like, I you know, not that smart a guy. I'm a decently smart guy Uh, my homework was not my like favorite thing. School is not my favorite thing Sort of like a school. Oh, I changed school so many times and none of them helped But like so like doing stuff like this in the game like You know I did have to like pull out pen and paper to do pretty like sometimes pretty simple math Like on this thing. So I'm like, oh, it's a math puzzle or like or it's like an angle puzzle Yeah, like and I think that stuff is like really interesting but then like You get us you get a real satisfaction out of um Out of solving the puzzle. Yeah And then you get a little thing pops up on the bottom where like because you'll you have like this like this list of things that you'll encounter And like you'll find a door that you can't open yet And so you're sort of like your character is like writing this down as you're going along And you see it pop up on like your list and then when you solve something Uh, it crosses it off. Yeah, and that to me. Yes, that's everything. It's very pleasing to have it to do lists That somebody else has written for you that you then get to go and tick off Yeah, very very different game, but untitled goose game has the same like like the check I also loved so fun. And also the two player version of untitled goose game is delightful as well Oh, wow, um, but to the the spooky aspect of it And um, I find it it's it's in this sort of interesting spot because it's like it's not Horror it's not like actual scares, but it is in this sort of like This lynchian Like unsettling area. They think it's that kind of fun Did you get to a point where one of the guys with the maze head starts chasing you around because that's scary No, that sounds that sounds actually scary and that those guys can't kill you the I don't like those maze head guys I don't like him either. They're fucking scary I think for me and especially like like once you get got by one and you're like, okay I get it now, but the first time you see one and you're they're just like slow chasing you through the house and you can't get away Awful it's not it's not silent hill 2 no silent hill 2 also in terms of scares But silent hill 2 also a game that's got a guy with a weird head. Yes, like like like I feel like I don't want the Weird head guys get him out of here. Have a normal. You're gonna be scared of a regular head regular head What's the matter with you? I don't know if if there was a villain in a game and his name was regular head I'd be terrified. It could be anyone which one of them is it? But there's like there's my nickname in college You know why he just wants regular head Well Nick suddenly spawned a second pair of sunglasses On his lap Um The There's like a puzzle. There's not a puzzle, but like there's like you'll encounter Um these little monitors that are all fuzzy that you have to turn the dials on And then something will just like be there and you'll be like, oh, yeah Then you go typically in my experience thus far Uh about uh, I'd say 34 percent um You go to where the thing where the guy would be Not even there. No, something left got left behind for you a little clue. Yeah an interesting little clue That I can't wait to find out what it is. But you know why he's not there Because he's gonna because the walk speed is so fucking slow in this game Well at a certain point you can unlock getting in a cup of espresso and then it speeds your walk speed up very slightly But then you do also have to start going to the bathroom. Yeah I should use the bathroom immediately As soon as I found a bathroom, I was like, I better use this I don't know what's gonna happen. Yeah, you better. Yeah, it might as well I don't know. Um, but I also yeah, I like the aesthetic and I like the it also has like um Not Alan wake vibes because Alan wake is more horror to me But like it sort of occupies that same sort of like what's going on here kind of world. I like that I was actually gonna I have this in my notes. I was gonna ask you this because you know, I I I play games I I sometimes watch other people playing I'll watch some reviews I'll read a bunch about about just to try to get some different perspectives and sort of see what the consensus is about this But one review I watched was interesting like compared it to control. Yes, which and and as our as the franchise as a resident remedy had Yeah, like did you also kind of feel like you just mentioned Alan wake too? Yeah. Yeah. I was gonna uh, yeah I mentioned control. It does have big time control vibes. Yeah, uh, but like In control you can like fly around and run around a header. Probably like that a lot more. Yeah, I really did I got all the way to the final boss of that game and was like, I've seen enough I love it. That's like, uh, I mean, I think Alan like too is my favorite of those but um Got Alan like too so I like to any of these Alan like games like I need only horror games So it so it might be a hell of a like two might be a tough lift, but it's just like as a writer Okay, I think you would you would love it because it's got such awesome narrative design Yeah, I think you would really like control. Okay. Good to know control is because control has some scares in it But it is more manageable and you can turn stuff on Like unlimited ammo and like unlimited health. Like it's like great. You can just you just blast through it Yes, have a good time and experience the story. It's like a fun like it's like speculative fiction sort of like cool weird Uh, with some really really cool concepts in like you'll be like, oh wow. Yeah, that's a neat idea Yeah, a lot of like a lot of story that you you get just from reading little papers you're finding stuff like that It's good stuff. Love that. It's good stuff. Yes, bio shock, but just the story. There's just the tapes Just the tapes The best uh post I saw when Trump posted himself as christ was allegedly being was somebody being like We were so hard on bio shock infinite and they got it right Yes Isn't it so annoying when it's like wow that really heavy-handed piece of fiction actually was not heavy-handed enough Like I feel like at the time You know us fucking sophisticates were like well the mob barbie movie was good, but it was pretty surface level feminism and then Well Yeah, it's it's like you like m bison wasn't broad enough in terms of like the level of villainy It occupies lovers of power. Yeah, the president just called the pope gay I pope would be so sick actually There's been so many gay popes catch up. That's true. That's true. That's true. We're catechism catch up I guess I'll be going back to church I wish it was a knife pope knife pope. Yeah, they should just be different types. Yeah, they should be Oh, yeah, they should be like devils and chainsaw man. They've all got different powers I had did a little deep dive into Renaissance Florence recently. Yeah, just for shits and giggles. Yeah, and I read a great book about the Medici's Which was a book but written by a very diligent and honest but lightly homophobic historian and every single fucking man Who is in any way famous during the Medici periods of Florence was gay every single one of them And it's just him going through this book going unfortunately caravaggio. Yes. He was gay. Unfortunately. Yes. He was writing hate Unfortunately, he's writing hate poetry that he was yelling in the street about all of his ex-lovers It's I I have to tell you because it's true, but I don't like it It's so funny every single person every single one of these men Da Vinci Michelangelo All of the Medici's every single one of them Very gay. Well the Medici had a pope Is that what you started? The Medici's had multiple popes. Yes, and and one of them was Very gay. Yeah. Yeah And bisexual so that like they're they're just like we're not putting labels. Yeah We're not putting labels on it. Chiller just like open and sexual I got I got really into caravaggio when I was in when I went to Italy because I was like this guy's paintings are all Fucked up and weird. Let's go. I was like, what's going on with this one? They were like the plaque was like This was an apology for murdering a man Yes Absolutely doing fucking gangster rap on the streets of florida. It's so funny And you don't hear about this they don't teach you this shit in school like that that's why I'm teaching us that shit Also, because that's what would make it good. You'd be like, oh shit. Let's go Like I think just action if they taught actual history. Yes, all kids would love history Yeah, we're we're basically at the point in Lin-Manuel Miranda's mind where he's like, yes, actually history is pretty fucking cool. Yeah, think about it I think that all of us as millennials grew up in a time when they were teaching history of like We don't want to teach the great man of history We're gonna teach about grain and how that impacted normal people and it's so Fucking boring and I know it's important And then and they're like so it's now we're living in a fucking great man of history Where I'm like if this guy wasn't the president none of this shit would be happening because for some reason They just let this guy do whatever the fuck he wants. Yeah, and they All through our childhood. They were insisting that the great man of history was a lie Right simplification. I remember I remember here like there was so much of like, oh, that's actually dead All these things are systemic all these things Yeah, there was so much stuff about the systemic economics of germany during fucking 1920s and 30s And but so clearly you get one sometimes it's just this one freak that everybody's like I guess we'll just do whatever this freak wants for a decade It's uh, I'm wait, I'm just curious real quick because you mentioned this this this book and it's it's a homophobia Like when was it published? I think it was like late 90s early 2000s. So like pre Obigaphe like at a time when they were acknowledging that gay people existed but really begrudgingly Yeah, yeah, at least it wasn't 2026 Oh, it just came out You uh, you like matt you were you're talking about the aesthetic. I mean we're all we're all talking about the aesthetic And I think not just from the art direction standpoint. I just kind of like tonally That it's out of time and it has that sort of feeling I mean, I think the big thing more and more I like of just like Like oh, this is a this is a weird thing that looks like it's uh shot on vhs But it also like people have modern technology. It's like it's like kind of like unmooring, you know what I mean? And I like that this is this is like I can't really tell are these years Is this the year we're in is this the year the hotel was built? Is this is this like what exactly is going on? And it plays with that as well. Like it's very conscious and and you're like you are sort of unstuck in time within the game And as you go you're like Am I time traveling? Is this a what's happening? Where am I when am I? um in a way that I Really enjoyed why am I moving so slow? It's time travel. You're you're moving through both space and time at the same time and like a current equals mc squared or something Richel did you get any any time with uh, Lorelei? I actually played this a while ago. Oh, that's right. You mentioned this Um, do you do you finish the game time was actually playing blueprint? Wow You were puzzle-making. I had notes for both and um, yeah, never finished either But it's really cool. Like yeah, the aesthetic is is so awesome And I always one thing that drove me crazy about is like there's only one button Yes, that did really annoy me as I came back to playing is like give me one of these buttons should just go to maps Exactly, like I shouldn't have to hit like five different buttons just to get to the map I want to say just as an aside. Please keep talking about games where you write stuff down. Mm-hmm and pokopia Oh Has enough of an element to it where you can write stuff down that nintendo released official journal pages Oh, that's cute that you can print and put in your journal to keep track of What you need to do and what's happening in pokopia and where you've put stuff wait to it's job. Yeah Yeah Is it pre-filled out or is it like oh, so it's just blanks They are blanks with uh categories that would help you. Oh, okay. So for example, it'll be like it'll be like Here's a page for this area. Here's a page for this area. Here's a page of storage Uh, here is where those storage items are located like it's a way for you to Manage the different things that you're doing in pokopia, but it's official pokopia stationary that you can print at home Are are you using this or are you taking any notes as you're playing pokopia? I Have hit a point where I'm like I can't remember like there's the what I find super pleasurable about it is that it is so Indulgent for adhd like I can literally just get hyper fixated on like a thing And then fucking forget about it and realize like four days later. Oh, right. I was clearing that building Are these guys okay like go up and talk and one of them will be like hey I made that lumber you asked me for I'm like, I have no idea why I needed this from you Or when I gave it to you like I'll be in like that doesn't stress you out No, like because it's it's it's just like because you can just kind of do Everything and anything all the time and and and really choose to get fixated Great, it's it's the inverse of a puzzle. There is no solution And that's part of what's making it so addictive building it's like nobody's like I haven't gotten a switch to yet I've sort of been waiting Waiting for zelda You know, it's which may be a waiting for goddow situation at this point like every time every few weeks, I'm like when you go when new zelda Google when new zelda And it's like oh, maybe 2028 which so maybe I'll never get a switch to or maybe I'll just cave I don't know. I know that we were like oh, we got to save the switch back in the day Yeah, we kind of did if poke if pokopio had been like a launch title. I would have been like that's the system seller Yeah, um, it is still staggering to me that there's no zelda announcement. No mario announcement No star fox announcement. Yeah, no announcements of any of the big guys. Yeah, especially on the heels of a major film Yeah, I think there's gonna be I mean I think there's gonna be a direct in like june And that'll dictate what the rest of the years You think this is gonna be a a An odyssey galaxy I mean, I don't I think they're gonna I think they did star fox on purpose. I think we're getting a star fox I think star fox was a pitch from illumination and we're not getting a star fox I think they're gonna announce like the nintendo rug and we'll be like What are they doing? You know, it's a rug that sometimes will tell you how much you weigh and you're like sometimes Then in three months we all got the rugs in our house. Like why did I buy this fucking thing? Got me again. God damn it. I did use ring fit A lot in the during the pandemic. Yeah, it was great. It was great. We talked about it was great. I like a real workout Yeah, it really is. Yeah, like it like fucking tire me out. Yeah once I get my new setup all established I fully intend to start doing we fit again. Yeah, because I loved it. Yeah, I really enjoyed it. Wow What you're legit gonna play we fit. Yeah, wow, I have the scale leaning against my wall ready for me to set up everything else because you can play we fit on the Uh, we you and then it'll be hdmi into a modern tv Wait, we didn't talk about this at all. I know I know we're tight. We're in we're in laurli now But you sent a text to group chat that we have not discussed which is this this a neo geo new piece neo geo or hardware with an hdmi Yeah, it's a new neo geo not an emulator an actual functioning neo geo launching with I believe 23 games And you can plug in old neo geo carts into the fucking thing They're just bringing back the neo geo I've always coveted a neo geo that was like you you meant you said the word grail earlier I certainly didn't there wasn't a vocabulary back in the day, but as a kid I was like well That's the super expensive one. I will never have so of course. It's what I want. It's the one that's that costs $700 in like 1994 money and you know games cost $100 a piece. It's like absurdly expensive But but I just like I was so fucking cool and Because it's a possibility now. I'm like maybe I'll buy this fucking thing. Yeah, it looks cool. You should get it I have no interest but you should you should get it. It looks like it is how to play it I won't be going Maybe bring it here So it it uh, it's 250 bucks for the neo geo plus the joystick Uh, it launches with 10 games. I was wrong, but all existing neo geo games will play on the on the device it uh Preorders are open now and shipping will start november 12th, 2026 Do we have any is there a list of games? Are there any on there? So the magician lord on there see what you know fighters I imagine some metal slugs Games are going to I do a metal slug. This one just fully passed me by as a kid Yeah, I mean it was like no one had it Yeah, like it was like it's possible that it didn't even release in the uk because like it just our this The shit that we got in the uk was different. Did you ever have that? Do you ever see the neo geo cabinets in your arcades? Uh, no, but I also I don't know if there was an arcade in my town. Oh, wow. Just like I don't know. There was also not a comic book shop other people had um Nintendos, but we just had a Just we had a pc. We were the family with the pc. My mom had a computer science master's degree and Got us on computers for so fucking cool. Um, and so we were playing like monkey island and and mist and The disc world game you either any of you played you I never played I never played the disc world game Fucks I heard it was awesome. Awesome. And there's two of them and they're both great Yeah, I never really they're really stupid was a terry pratchett guy But like I I always remember reading about those games and being like And eric idle is the main voice which is really fun. I love when I bought that Yeah, I I was for me also secret of monkey island was such a formative game for me And then I ended up I got really I played every single lucas arts adventure in the 90s Yeah, here are the top the 10 neo-geo game cartridges launching with the re-release of the system Metal slug the king of fighters 2002 Garo map mark of the wolves Big tournament golf shock troopers samurai showdown v special pulse star twinkle star sprites magician lord and over top. I'm gonna get this fucking thing. Oh my kid And nintendo ruggle have to wait. Yeah, I know I said I wasn't interested in it. I'm gonna get it We should have I I kind of feel like I we should have some sort of video game hardware console setup at the the studio Would that be insane? That'd be wasteful. Uh, probably I mean, we yeah, we could do it. We have something we dick around with it was here. Yeah. Yeah, we're here often enough We know nobody's gonna steal it here because there's no one ever here That is true. There's nobody ever here Every time I come into the studio. I'm like, I guess one person works here sometimes. Yeah, I think ranchers And then uh end of list It'll be an equally ghostly in here I would imagine somewhere else and sometimes when I'm working from home I'm like, should I go work from head? You should by the way, yeah, I'll come hang out. It's nice. It's a really nice office. It is a great office gossip. Yeah I like So here's the I Matt. I don't think you're a dumb guy I I will say I'm a dumb guy sometimes but I like I understand what's up. We got him He admitted wow But but also like I I know and I do understand that I'm like not like a dumb guy like I've no met actual dumb guys but this game does Make me feel stupid in the same way that blueprints make me feel stupid or return to the over den You know these these games that sometimes have these really obtuse sort of things where Because I I I hate the feeling my least favorite feeling in games is when There's a puzzle that's not really a puzzle. It's like I know exactly what I'm supposed to do And I see exactly how I how to solve it immediately. This is just a task Um, that that's just like so dull for me. That just like that's just like a waste of time the puzzles that you get in triple A Games I sort of wish with triple A games because you can change the hardness of the fighting I wish you could up the level of the puzzles. Oh my god or delete them all together Honestly, I would rather delete them than play the easy puzzles because sometimes they're really time consuming but very straightforward Yeah, it's like and I'm just like I don't I know you're gonna put the three blocks and I put this thing and it like But then like the actual logistics of it is like sort of poorly designed and it takes too long to like Align everything correctly. There should be a prompt that just says solve puzzle. Yeah press triangle There's some pretty fun puzzles in the resident evil games actually like that It might not be enough to get you in there. They are really scary But the puzzles are fun. I'd need to have the sound off somebody else play the rest of the game for me I just am brought in as a ringer just to do the puzzle Honestly, this sounds like a perfect situation for me. So if you ever want to do that shit Absolutely We don't talk to each other at all I just did another room with headphones on reading my book. Yeah So so I just hear me in the other room go Loud enough with your headphones. You just hear Fuck this You got like oh it's crystals a chart Great great So yeah, I hate it when I know exactly what to do and exactly how to do it and I just gotta fucking do it It's wasted time But I the sweet spot of course is knowing what you need to do but do but like not how to do it Yeah, this game does do the thing where and and it can be effective But it can sometimes be exhausting and again, I think it's kind of where my mental state is right now where I'm like, you know I'm I'm working in a writer's room. I'm going to record two podcast episodes. I'm getting home at like 19 No, I'm just saying I'm just like You're beautiful wife Jesus Christ He's wearing the shortest shorts anybody's ever I've short short short I Didn't break other big guns for this one From madmai's perspective though, it's just a t-shirt Not winning the pooing it over you I did see you get stuck in a tarp But like I think because I'm mentally fatigued like this the state when I'm like not knowing what to do Yeah, it's definitely a game. It's like Is this a clue? Maybe you'll find out where it could be you want to write it down? ooh Might be a clue There's a lot of that kind of stuff with this game, which I really enjoy but also if I was busy I we would piss me off Yeah, it does have big he he energy. There is a little bit Yeah my uh my because I was keeping a little uh Book of notes while playing this and it just says fuck off I mean it's like uh, and then like the gate sucks Like the ones just like you go to these you get these shortcut doors and then like those are all like you get a book of You get a book of all the puzzles. Yes, and like that's that is the type of game it is right? You go to a library. There's just a book. Yeah, and you go is this book relevant? There's 60 pages of book. Yeah And then you get to one of these things and you're like Oh, no, it is Let me go back and then you like but it's in your memory so you can like look at it Yeah, right like it was nice in this second playthrough Remembering that that was what it was so I could kind of get through it quickly I still had to solve the puzzles, but I knew what the puzzle was Yes, which a lot of this game especially in the early stages is like the puzzle is figuring out what is a puzzle Yeah, right. Right. What does this dog want? Yes, nothing. It's a little pet. Nothing. That's absolutely nothing Everything in this game wants something from you But I like I like that the I like the photographic memory as a Yes, as a as a as a device like I was like uh like because you every item you interact with gets stored Basically in this memory. So you you have a long list of things and they're all broken up into different categories Which is really extremely helpful It's kind of it's kind of allen wakey. What is it the is a memory palace? What is the memory palace? Yeah, where you can kind of go in my palace you go to your own your own brain but the there's there was one puzzle that That weirdly gave me a hard time and then when I figured out what it was I felt Dumber than I've ever felt in my life because it wasn't it wasn't like a regular numbers puzzle It was uh, I one of the game consoles. Yes. Um, there are these there are these like they're not It's it's it's a it's a directional input puzzle. Yeah, so I lock the gaming console exactly So you you find a sheet of paper with like a little like Design on it that is just angles and it's like it's going, you know one up one to the right And then there's like a long one and then you know write down Yeah, and so you have to type that in on the game pad what I didn't realize I because my first assumption was I was like, oh a long one. That's a long press It's like just like as like somebody playing games I'm like, oh like that just kind of like makes a little more sense to me like a most code situation. Yes. Uh, Then I was like, oh, it's not working. Okay. Okay. Okay. I must have typed it in wrong I'm doing it a million times like and I this is one that I took a picture of right I'm like looking at my phone's like I'm typing in exactly this and then I'm like I've been probably once we're gonna type press press up twice Yeah to make the line longer and then that is what you have to do and I that was It's like both satisfying and annoying when you figure it out. Yeah very annoying, but The when you get something wrong It's very at least not like ha ha you idiot. It's kind of like it doesn't give you anything No, it gives you nothing that is a he-he element. You're not being taunted. No, it almost is like no Maybe try again There was I will say I looked at the design documents for this game and apparently there was almost combat in it and I feel Specifically slighted by the fact that they're on that if you don't get the answer right, they'll shoot you in the head You can't but you can die so you can die, but it's no combat. You can't fucking kill them. No. Well Think about that next time maybe a little bit guys. It's you know Think about that some next time maybe a little bit sometime guys. It should be fighting Yeah, it's so funny because you're so cerebral in the rest of your life And then the idea of a puzzle is like viscerally I don't want to escape That I get to do that's not that well, but also like the meticulous way that you unravel a story and you have very specific like At page three line Eight this must happen Like you you live your life as a puzzle maker and then somebody else makes a puzzle for you and you're like Give me a gun to shoot the puzzle I heard heather the gaudy and not Verbally describe a hypothetical movie to a room full of people and everyone was riveted that this happened today And yet when it comes to gaming heather's like I need a club I mean it's something Well, it's just so funny to me though because too like even in the stuff that you watch It's like, you know all of it's like very interesting, but like have you seen a john wick movie? Yeah, do you like them? Yeah, okay never mind. They're great. They're great. Yeah, they're fucking on me. I saw I love john wick and also I I saw when hard boiled came back to theaters I saw hard boiled in the I love combating movies. Yeah, you do you love action movies? I know this is about you. I fucking love it. That's that's what I was trying to get at. I was like, oh, like Are you a big action movies? I love action movies. Yeah, I love it. I love it You'll like the odd Game like a game of this type will really connect with you. Maybe maybe not this one specifically But like like on occasion a story driven game will be like like wow this this is for me Yeah, for sure. Like there's no combat in disco elysium. It's my favorite of all time. That's yeah That's for real actually not like fortnight being at the top of my list because it has to be yeah Um, because otherwise I'm disingenuous Yeah, but like yeah, I mean I don't need combat in order for a game to be engaging. Yeah I had a lot of trouble with this and I and I was like, oh man. I get it. I want to I wish that I wasn't me it is No, it is it is a masochistic enjoyment. Yeah, I completely understand because it is Like walking on pins, but in a way that you know what it feels like to me for my brain It feels like getting a really hard full body massage in that like When you're lying on that table, you're like I have to accept that I'm gonna get all of the pain for the next two weeks In this one hour and it's gonna hurt so much but for them for the next two weeks I will not be in pain. Wow. That's sort of how for my brain This kind of puzzle Feels to me. It's like it really It tickles something that needs to be tickled that I'm not getting anywhere. I've described Getting like a deep tissue massage to my wife as some somebody's just beating me up in a very specific way I need a a four foot eight 65 year old tie woman. Yeah jump up and down on my back. Yeah, and that's what this game is doing for my brain It is it's interesting because you talked about like, you know, you're playing some Some games with combat some games with action on on story mode But then clearly you you really are gravitate towards like like challenging like obtuse puzzles I'm always fascinated by people who have like kind of their different Segments of gamer brain, you know, they're different things that they're like their different strengths and weaknesses It's just it's just like Because I can you know, I'm certainly not the the gamer that Heather is when it comes to like combat based games certainly not with with games where you have a gun, but Or driving games like that stuff, but but I can like I can't I can't do a platform I can very very capable of precision platformer and then like turn-based games. I feel like like this is extremely my shit Yeah, I can I can fuck up a strategy game. I think a big part of it is that I didn't grow up with um Any kind of I didn't you know, I didn't have a Nintendo or Sega anything and we had a PC at home and my mom is a big like Early adopter of like mud games and Oh, wow, and you know Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and seventh guest and mist and Riven and all of these games. So like that's those are the games that were just in my house um, and so I think playing those from a very early age just meant that By I'm by time that I'm now I need something that's really hard. Totally get that. Yeah. Yeah I I think for and and mud for our for our younger listeners. Oh, yes. I'm ancient by the way I know for sure you're not as old as me But I am old as shit Multi-user dungeon these were like text-based predecessors to MMO is basically exactly text-based adventure games I don't think they really had any combat in them exactly although sometimes you could be like Hit monster like it. They were very specific commands the famous one in hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy, which is one of those like Urban legend almost games of like this is the hardest game ever written Is that the prompts were so specific that nobody could fucking finish the game like in hitchhiker's guide it Starts off with like darkness a blank slate and you have to type in open your eyes So for minute one it's fucking with you minute one it's fucking with you And this is why I'm like this. Yeah, you yeah, you you grew up playing these types of games So to you this is what video games are. Yes, exactly So I can't play things like smash brothers because I did not grow up playing them I you know, I would go over to friends houses and play mario and zelda and yeah stuff, but like Not like this is not like a thing that I got to practice Yeah, so even you playing ghost of yote you're like this is like a different type of game to me Even though like for me, I would say that that's like the most of the types of games that I play Yeah, I will never be great at those games because I don't have the child muscle memory Um that a lot of my friends do I'm fine at them. I'm not like you're playing them. You're doing well I'm playing Fortnite with you. You're good. Thank you. Um, but I'm not like Good good, you know, I'm yeah, it sounds like we're fucking around playing I'm also fucking around when I'm playing which doesn't help Um, let's see if we can get this car under the second story this house And that's winning for me That's my win state winning can be anything setting your own win state is what you can do when you're playing games and and People don't talk about this enough. Um but um, you know, I like Our good friend zacko yama has like 100 percented mario odyssey when it came out and I there is no way I could still be playing it if I if I was trying to 100 percent it I I don't have those skills Um, zack so cool. He's so freaking cool. Zack's awesome. He did karate. He's cool. He's cool. He's cool Yeah But he was he was also angry the whole time getting it to 100 percent Yeah, he's not enjoying it in the same way that you have to do to get stars. He was like, I'm gonna die Yeah, doing these stupid skipping games for hours on end. I don't know why I've set this challenge for myself But here I am stuck in it. There also is like that this is this is mario specific though There are other platformers that do this where it's just like the final sort of like bonus like level threshold The last of the challenge levels is like this extraordinarily long gauntlet with no checkpoints that you have to get through in one go and it's the sort of thing of just like I Did the I was like this is a younger man's game when I'm at those like there was a time in my life when I would I would Go through go through all of this and I would I would make sure I get the you know the hundred percent I'd get the achievement and now I'm just like I know I can do this if I put in enough hours. I just choose not to I'd rather do something else What's frustrating about those to me is how similar they hit my brain to a puzzle Which is that it's that like I know exactly what it is that I have to do and I don't want to deal with the tedium of doing it Yeah, and that's how I was playing celeste for example Like so many of my friends were like I love celeste and I died two times in celeste. I was like i'm done And the whole point of celeste is you die over and over and over again until you figure it out Have no interest in that whatsoever. Well with how dare you? I also think that there's a difference between the elasticity of combat in ghost of yote and one of these like Ultra hard like the last few levels of Astro bot which are just the challenge the bonus levels It's like there is only one real sequence of button presses that is going to get me through this experience And there's extremely small amounts of adjustment along the way But most of it is if I were to program a robot To do these motions at this time then you're going to get through that level which makes it into a bit of a pattern puzzle Whereas like with ghost of yote Every time you come at these guys on horses, they're going to split in different ways And you get to have a little bit more fun with it Yes, I have much more fun at this point in my life at like fighting a soulsborn boss and like figuring that out versus like navigating one of these ultra long uh platforming levels as much as I love platformers and and But you know it said I I'm impressed by people love the dedication to yeah, of course. It's very impressive I'm not going to play cuphead And it's that's okay. That's okay. You don't have to do it. There's have to who's making you do this nobody nobody nobody I'm gonna do it. Thank you. Well, what a gentleman. You can't you can't do that. You can't make her do it I think you should do it. I I do think that would be A real personal hell for me is is playing cuphead while people watched. Oh, yeah, I would I that that's my like no exit level like oh you have to live in this for the rest of your life because you did something profoundly evil I finished cuphead in the dlc twice and I like I still would not want to play in front of an audience Because I'm like that like I'm gonna fuck up and I'm gonna embarrass myself and look like I don't know how to play video Yeah, you know what we don't want to see you what you're doing with miss chalice It's on my own time I do have a I I will just button up my thoughts on on laura libay saying that like I'm glad I'm glad we're playing and shabana. I thank you for for Finally getting this game into my my my catalog. I am not going to finish this game into my library I'm not going to finish this game right now, but I'm going to return to this game at some point in the future When you're done when you're in hiatus. Yeah, and I'm going to have like a long weekend just to Sit in your own shit And ignore my beautiful wife We like I am going I'm going to play this game and I bet I'm going to like I'm I'm already I'd like really appreciate it But I bet it's gonna really I'm gonna really connect with it when I can just buckle down because it's a very impressive design Again, we've already talked about what an aesthetic marvel it is Yeah, I think I for me like it's something I want to keep playing if I run into A roadblock that might be for me Yeah, I will again say the the community online is so great and like very easy to search if you're stuck I haven't had a great time like it is like it is Scratching a particular itch. They were hugely helpful when I was like, what is the dog? Should we do should we do a segment let's do a segment. Uh, this is our uh video game. Would you rather segment? Would you blather? Wow? We know how would you rather work so I'm gonna propose a series of would you rather scenarios and you can decide Which one do you'd rather do that's kind of just all that's all there is to it Here we go. Would you blathers? Walk around an empty hotel aimlessly with no knowledge of what's going on like in Lorelai and I have to take these off I can't read with them on you got the the um Screen thing on it that you can see through water, but also you can't see screens. No, I I my eyes are just Like every other part of my body just starting to go Welcome. Yeah And I'm and I'm increasing the size subtly like by pinching zooming in right now. Here we go I have glasses one way All this stays in the episode Any of them this is all just him vamping absolutely panicking that the ideas come into his head And you've got four of them you said yeah, I wrote four Here we go. Okay, would you brothers uh have sunglasses or regular glasses? Would you blathers walk around an empty hotel aimlessly with no knowledge of what's going on like in Lorelai and the laser eyes Or walk around a house aimlessly and every time you go into a room. It's different than the last time like in blueprints That's so easy. Are you kidding? I think it's a really hard first of all. I love a hotel and that is how I interact with the hotel. I don't know where I'm going I'm wandering in random rooms. Oh a salon Did somebody book this can I be in here? Oh, this is where the pool is Yeah, it's it's an escape room, but like you wanted you don't want to escape. I also tip will take hotel I really like when I'm clearly on a floor. I'm not supposed to be on like I'm like like like oh, I'm on I'm on the conference room floor And there's no conferences today, but you know what that restrooms open. Yeah, my friend John Timothy. I don't know you know John Timothy used to run a for for his Birthday every year he would have it at the Waldorf Hotel in New York. This is a dirtbag improviser who wrote writes for CBS's ghosts and It would we would have fake conferences that we were attending and it was a scavenger hunt to see who could get into the most shenanigans at the Waldorf Hotel And there was a winning you were in teams and there was a winning team And it was things like anything from like get a business card from somebody at the bar to Take a photograph in somebody's robe in their room Wow It was great And the Waldorf at the time Was not renovated so you could take the escalator and the elevator up to any floor Which now you have to I'm sure like key card into it as you can't have to in most hotels But it would end then you could break into the roof And wow have a party on the roof with like a full live band. It was Sick, I don't I maybe I shouldn't be saying this because these are crimes that we But I think the statute of limitations is probably over this is like 15 years ago. Yeah, it's anybody Anyway, those are great memories. That's what makes me Also, the president is a pedophile I think I'm gonna be okay. I think this is fine. We're gonna finally crack down with this very specific crime Heather, what's your answer? Uh, I think hotel um Because there's you can opt out of like doing any of the other bullshit if you're in the hotel Yeah, whereas like in a house where every time you go in a different room. It's different room. You're like fucking god Like you would be psychically upsetting to have it happen in real life. Like that's like do I am I suddenly schizophrenic? Yeah Let me make a case for a house for just Great in the scenario you are a homeowner. Okay, that's huge. Okay, that's nice You could you could be a homeowner in the other scenario. You could be a homeowner in the other scenario but you own this Really crazy house and there is this thing like, you know people say you shouldn't take the same way to work Every uh, every single day just to you know, keep those neural pathways going so maybe Go into a different room every day. Yeah, imagine you're watching television And you're like I should probably go to the bathroom and you have no idea where it is or even if there is one Yeah, there might not be a bathroom. I gotta go to work. Where's the garage? Man, I didn't spawn today I don't know, but I guess maybe I'll take note of this chess piece because that feels like it might come along later You get a horny text from a significant other and you're like, I'm in this room. You're like, no, no I can't get to that room unless I spoil the garden Game of the year Ranch wordies, what what say you? Oh, definitely hotel. I'd blow my brains out if I would I Would you blathers? Be forced to remember the specific drink preferences of every customer that comes into your coffee shop like a coffee talk Or Have to make random orders for your customers as fast as you can like an overcooked I will take the overcooked one because I'm just gonna forget all those orders. I'm just gonna like everyone's coffee I mean, I would playing coffee talk. I would like fuck up their orders So like and and also like if it's a sexy mermaid, I'm like, sorry, I'm I'm focused on something else right now Yeah, I'm too busy going like this I I talked about this before but this is this is when I was streaming um, I streamed coffee talk and one of the first characters you meet is I is a character I I believe is a uh like a dwarf in the fantasy sense, um, uh cop and He's he tells you he's lactose intolerant and orders a specific drink And I would just ask the chat like what drink to make each time and everyone say milk milk milk So I serve this guy triple milk order after order after order and he kept getting so sick He's trying to kill me There's fentanyl in my coffee I think between the two scenarios I would choose coffee shop because overcooked is stressful and I don't I don't want to I don't want to try and chop vegetables After somebody's been screaming at me salad now salad. Yeah, I think it would be hard to memorize everybody's order but like I think if you start small you you learn the first three you fuck up the fourth one And then once you've got that pattern down then you start with the next three you be okay I've become a pretty bad guy when I play over cooked Um, my friends and I we all like it. It's because we make we make each other laugh doing it But I scared one of my friends one time incredible Um, because I like paused it mid run and looked at them like what the fuck's the matter with me? I saw a tick shock of somebody playing Overcooked but they had one person on expo and I think that's really smart. It's one person who's not playing at all They're just like telling everybody else what to do and like organizing everything and that makes sense I think I think I also will say coffee talk because overcooked is very stressful. Yes, but it's also like It's over quickly like a round of overcooked is Three minutes max. Yeah, whereas coffee talk is somewhat unending. Yeah Well, there's nothing in this scenario that says that you have to talk to them It just says you have to remember there I left out a full part where you have to talk. You have to make conversation with the sex I made cinnamon latte. All right. See you later Look at my phone I'm talking to him. You know, I'm talking to him in the overcooked scenario too. I'm chopping it up with everyone This guy loves chatting. I do. Which one you want? Yeah, you can set yourself on fire and overcooked I feel like a thriving overcooked. Oh Okay, that is the kind of ranch character detail we'd get Yeah, that's beautiful. Yeah, I can can run a line like a fucking general Would you blathers? Okay, hold on. I'm embarrassed about this one You wrote four. I wrote four of them and two of them were bad This will everyone's gonna be mad at me when I read this one. Okay, great Would you blathers be a lonely ditto in a post-apocalyptic pokemon world with no knowledge of what happened to your trainer and the world or Be a ditto left in a pokemon daycare forced to breed with the With the other pokemon to make clones with ideal stats, which is what people do with dittos typically in a regular Uh pokemon game. They'll like they'll get a ditto and they're like, oh great. I can you know min max You know my entire team if I just like breed Uh, or I can breed a shiny version of it too. They're like, I'll get so would you rather be alone forever or a sex slave? I already said everybody's gonna be mad at me. I at least can answer this one It's easier for me put me out to stud Give me some uh, miss miss chalice rule 34 I could do that You sort of know what he's gonna want to do I saw a pokopia build where people had caged The pokemon that do tasks for you so you could just come and know exactly where they were And fucking like give them the stuff them. I hate it. Yeah upsetting. Yeah, it's no good. We'll just move on to the last one Wait, I didn't answer Pokopia. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I assume everybody's answer is pokopia. It seems a little bit better. It seems like it Yeah, um Finally, would you blathers have metaphorical laser eyes like in Lorelai in the laser eye or Have actual laser eyes like Cyclops From x-men give me the ray chase baby. I want them laser eyes. Yeah, give me those fucking laser eyes, baby I don't know. He seems pretty miserable. It is and he's like he's the saddest jock in the world Right cyclops. I'm sad already All the fucking x-men are sad. None of them are happy. You're telling me nightcrawlers the closest. Yeah, sure I could have laser eyes cum gutters I'm in baby You wrote the hypothetical and in that you didn't say cum gutters. I get I get the whole deal Get the girl on we I think part of what makes Cyclops like a hero is the way he looks While also having laser eyes. I think like if I had laser eyes and I went outside I'd get shot by the cops Like nobody would be like that's a hero. They'd be like that's the devil. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I'm taking the laser eyes I'll take yeah. You have to be really hot in order to have something. Yeah that tough. Yeah get the cool visor I don't I don't want laser eyes. Wait, but we've asked I've asked this before yeah Can you see out of the laser eyes? You can see yeah, you can see he has vision everything. I believe is red That's tough He's constantly seeing beam Right because yeah glasses are just holding in and we gotta just I mean I've mentioned this before somebody did correct us. They're not beams. They're portals to the punch dimension So they're concentrated kinetic energy Uh, his I mean, but his whole reality if he's doing everything they're red dimension the punch dimension pretty good Whoever wrote that It's probably Stanley himself Well, I'm glad he's dead Because you would have killed him on her own Punch dimension take less cocaine I can't it gives me my power. I'm gonna I'm gonna take actual lasers ranch actual lasers What did the merrick metaphorical lasers give you? I guess not having lasers. Yeah, I mean I did sort of read what they were I don't know if it's a spoiler or not. I'm gonna say metaphorical lasers because I wouldn't be able to take my glasses off that kid killed his parents He did he's gotta sat he's gotta sat life Wait Cyclops killed his parents On the way out on the birth canal No He performed his own c-section different in every iteration, but my memory of it is he got his powers during puberty. Yes, and Either zapped through his parents or set his own house on fire depending on the version and then Like he's standing in the rubble of his house and professor X comes along and says you want to go to boarding school For me, I just wouldn't do that. We yeah weird that you just wouldn't kill your parents Weird that you would have a moment where there's people but I better Laser punch coming out of your eyes and your instinct wouldn't be to close your eyes, but rather look at people Like wouldn't you just close your eyes and be like ah something's wrong something's wrong something's wrong I'm gonna look at the floor. I think it's hard for him to close his eyes. I think it hurts to yeah He has to because he's almost like being thrown back by the lasers. That's why every time he's doing it. He's like Fuck yeah, he's it hurts to close his eyes. Yeah, because he's closing it against the punch. Yeah, imagine How strong your eyelids have to be to close them against a fist in in the movies though when he loses his fucking glasses He just closes his eyes. He's in constant agony. Yeah Okay, so I guess I would choose that over looking at my parents with a blaster I'm picking a laser eyes That's right Ranch twitch.tv slash yard underscore underscore star our music was by ben printy ben printy music.com our artist by deck reggae design Deck brigade.com get played merchant kinship goods.com and there's a bonus episode every wednesday on our patreon get played Dlc matt what are we doing this week this week? heather and I a couple weeks ago did a arcade builder and uh This week it's a game room builder We design our own our our own Best game rooms and we have a lot of fun doing it. Yes, we do and I can tease we have something fun going for me on the patreon We don't we don't want to get into it fun in quotes We don't get into it, but uh, you know, uh, justin timberlake get your ass ready to say your favorite little thing you say What's gonna ruin the tour? Cry me a river What he says it's he says it's gonna be me, but you know he says it like it's gonna be main people People memed it and it's not funny, but I said it. I liked it patreon.com And we we understood that it was not fun Shravan Thompson, uh, you the best. Thank you so much for joining us spending so much time with us What what an absolute joy? Uh, anything you'd like to plug? Uh, once again, uh, we are crowdfunding to make this dang movie the greatest treasure in the world so um, you can just search seed and spark greatest treasure in the world or go to bit.ly forward slash treasure film To find it or anywhere on social media that I am on those links, baby. Yeah, we'll put it in the episode. We're slang in that shit Yeah, there you go. Yeah, it's gonna be everywhere and uh everywhere. I'm I guess I'll do it go for it. I'm sorry shavon, but um, oh no you got played fuck I didn't want to do it, but I did That was a headgum podcast Hi, I am Mandy Moore sterling k brown and I'm chris sullivan and we host the podcast that was us now on headgum Each episode we're gonna go into a deep dive. Yeah from our show. This is us. That's right. We're gonna go episode by episode We're also gonna pepper in episodes with different guest stars and Writers and casting directors. Yeah, are we gonna cry? Yes. A little bit. Are we gonna laugh a lot? That's what I'm hoping man. Listen to that was us on your favorite podcast app or watch full video episodes on youtube or Spotify New episodes every tuesday