Introduction and Opening Banter
00:00:32
Speaker
How's it going, everyone? Welcome to another episode of Soapstone. My name is Jake and I'm joined by my co-host is always Dave. How's it going tonight, Dave?
Weekend Plans and Humor
00:00:40
Speaker
It's actually going pretty good. Yeah. This is effectively my Friday. I don't have to work tomorrow. What? I cooked up some dinner. This is my last Friday off in January. This is how I burned my pizza time. Wait a sec. We also got a Nate here. How's it going tonight, Nate? I got some for this. Peachy.
00:01:01
Speaker
Soapstone to know that PG is the only correct response. Banana. No, that's not right. Nope. Oh, that doesn't sound right. Wrong fruit, wrong fruit. Cantaloupe. You just got to get them all out. Abort. Tomato. It's a tomato. If it was can't cope, yeah, I'm definitely there. Can't cope. It's what copium is made out of. It sounds like maria now. Cantacoupe. I'm trying to farm that copium. Maybe export it. That could be my GDP. Yeah, copium muffins would be great.
Poppy Seed Myth and Seinfeld Reference
00:01:31
Speaker
Ooh, I just eat the tops. This is a multi-layered reference. Cause like, what is it? Uh, poppy seeds can get you to show up on like a drug test. I think I read something about that. It's like, that's an old Seinfeld thing, right? I think you need like one pound per seven pounds body weight. It's a lot. Okay. That's a lot. Very, very trace amounts. Oh man.
00:01:56
Speaker
Yeah. I've never had that experience. I guess it's probably like an old wives tale. I just like, don't eat that muffin before going to the interview. Cause I want you to star.
Telemarketing Scams and Car Insurance
00:02:08
Speaker
You gotta, you gotta go in hungry, right? Uh-huh. Yeah. A friend tried in high school and his mom, while he was holding the canister to his mouth, had to Google, is this actually dangerous? And no, not really. What's the answer?
00:02:22
Speaker
I mean, I guess it's good that Google exists. Yeah. I mean, I've definitely not Googled before doing anything stupid. It's usually I find out later. I'm like, oh, that probably wasn't the best call. But we're still alive, so. I have that reaction after somebody calls about my car's insurance. And the warranty is expiring. I'm like, oh, shit. What you got to do is just hang up immediately.
00:02:52
Speaker
It's fine. If we're stepping outside of the joke space for a second here, I don't really answer. If somebody calls me and I don't know who they are, I assume they'll leave a message if it matters. If it's a real person, I do like asking which car and having them try to figure out make and model when they just obviously don't know. It's kind of fun. If it's a real person to have them be like, your primary car. And I'm like, yeah, which one? It's a fun little thing to do.
00:03:19
Speaker
Is this the one that I drive for work or I drive on the weekend? It's gotta be more specific here. The jalopy? No, no, no. That's paid off. Jalapeno. Yeah. But we haven't had Nate here on this thing that we call a podcast before.
Gaming Influences and Habits
00:03:38
Speaker
So what are your credentials? What do you, what do you, what do you have? What do you have to present? What's your offering that you brought for us? I guess offering number one would be Fred of jacket.
00:03:48
Speaker
Okay. That's good. And I would say that I didn't really game until meeting Jake and some of our other mutual friends. And so a lot of the games I play and have tried out come from suggestions from this group. Uh, I do remember Dave sending me like a, I don't know, 20 game list through discord the one day. And I think I bought 10 of them on the spot. Um, and I'm at varying degrees of finishing them as we speak, but it's been a lot of fun. I'm kind of new on my PC gaming journey.
00:04:18
Speaker
I can second this because I remember at a distinct time where like, you're like, Oh yeah, the Witcher, that seems good. Like I'll pick that up. And then here's this other game that's also 40 hours and you pick that up too. I was like, you're building quite the backlog immediately. And I have the worst at finishing games. Yeah. There's still that same backlog, just 40% through a lot of games.
00:04:40
Speaker
I mean, to be fair, like when I see you online, it's like, Oh, that's that game that I recommended like a year ago. Like I do see like the progression through, um, but how have you been enjoying gaming as a whole for the most part?
00:04:53
Speaker
Oh, it's great. So, I mean, I played Xbox console noob back in the day in college and high school and all. And it was just a lot of COD, some Fortnite when that was big, basic games. And then got a PC after graduating, got into some fun stuff. And yeah, I've been loving it. I'm kind of trying to branch out of just FPS as a steady everyday play. All I ever do is valorant COD. So yeah, it's been fun learning some more story-driven games and role-playing and stuff.
Competitive and Cooperative Gaming
00:05:25
Speaker
Oh, yeah, there's a lot of good stuff in there. I mean, I haven't played. So it's been a long time since I played Cod. It's been a long time since I played anything really. Overwatch is the closest thing to my competitive shooter space. I wouldn't say that we're close to going pro or amateur. And sometimes the most common FPS, though, for sure. Yeah. Like Left 4 Dead 2 is the once a year we talk about doing it, but don't do it.
00:05:50
Speaker
Oh, that's another one that I hadn't played and Landon and a few others were like, we're playing Sunday. Let's do it. Nice. I saw that valve loading screen for the first time and everyone thought it was a big deal. Yeah, they've changed it a couple of times. But are you talking about the the the scary one? We're like sprinkler head. Oh, yeah.
00:06:15
Speaker
There's a couple different ones. They've gone through some iterations over the years where it like tread bowls and like starts to turn around and flicks back. And then there's the standard static image one, which is less exciting.
00:06:30
Speaker
But yeah, I mean, of that list, I was just actually talking to Jake briefly the other day, I finished the Stanley Parable. Well, finished in quotes. That was... You played through the game. All right. I doubt I've seen everything there is to see, but... There's a lot. Yeah. I mean, how was that as far as like, obviously there's no combat and it's very much exploration and you kind of explore to make that story and then you find different branching paths.
00:06:59
Speaker
Right. Yeah. So it was, I mean, recently I've gotten a little tired of sitting at my desk after work. It's the same desk for work and for games and stuff. And, you know, after eight to 10 hours in the desk, I kind of just want to do something else. So I got some big old adapters and now I can sit on the couch and play more immersive games. And yeah, I really liked that. So things like Stanley Parable and playing Doom Eternal that way, I can sit back there with my controller and just enjoy. And yeah, it was a blast. Definitely different.
00:07:26
Speaker
I had never been really narrated to in that way. I liked that a lot. The narration of that game was up there, my favorite things. That's the most memorable thing about that game, actually. I mean, it literally is narrator of the game, but it's still really solid. Did you come across any of the pointlessly repetitive tasks where the game's just like, we're going to let you do this as long as you want? Yep.
00:07:56
Speaker
Oh, yeah. Yeah. And I have roommates that kind of game, but also like watching stuff like that. And we were all making decisions together. And the narrator would be like, go left. And they'd be like, no, go right. And it was a fun little, you know, everyone had some input kind of experience. That's good. Stuff like that's fun, because like, if you have three people doing it, one person will have something in mind, and then two other people will be like, we got to go back and try that branching thing where you ignored my thing to go left.
00:08:21
Speaker
Yeah, for sure. Yeah, I think like Dave and I both had a like a couch co-op phase where we were picking up games and I got like I bought like four Xbox controllers. I've used one of them, I think maybe two once. But like that type of that vibe, that couch co-op
00:08:46
Speaker
hang out play game vibe is just, I miss it, you know, from classic, um, classic gaming, going over to a friend's house, that sort of deals.
Roommates and Enhanced Gaming Experiences
00:08:57
Speaker
So there's pros and cons to having roommates, but, uh, that's, that's definitely one of the pros.
00:09:03
Speaker
We all bring up another one of my favorite gaming experiences, which you've also covered on the podcast was it takes two on the couch with a roommate. That was a blast. Just kind of working through all that controller movement. I don't know. I love all the parkour style stuff in any game. And, uh, not that that's parkoury, like some of the, what do I see? Uh, what was it? Ghost runner is actual parkour and all, but yeah, it takes two platformy stuff. It's a lot of fun on the couch.
00:09:29
Speaker
Yeah, that was a super fucking solid game. Also, it was I think of all the games I've played probably like the most cinematic where like every single turn around the corner, like something new, funny and exciting was happening. And on top of that, like it controlled really well. The mechanics were fun and not too.
00:09:48
Speaker
Outlived right. It's okay. You're doing this for a little bit of time. You know fun doing it. Okay next one thing okay? I think that's right a kid from something terrible to happen to their parents like that's what the experience was and it was great. It's meta
00:10:03
Speaker
Yeah, it reminds me of kind of Sackboy for like Sony, Sony's involvement in Sackboy for PlayStation, where it's just like, it's very high production value for a platformer. Like it takes to is insanely high production value, but it plays very smoothly and it's really clean. And my gosh, I can't imagine the amount of effort that went into all of that art.
00:10:31
Speaker
Yeah, it doesn't get old. It's what I love so many games. The mechanics just gets stale after 10 hours of playing or whatever. But no matter how long it takes, it takes you. It's different every hour or so, which I love. Did you ever play anything like LittleBigPlanet? I watched friends and YouTube videos when I was a kid of all that kind of stuff, but I never first hadn't played LittleBigPlanet or I don't know too many similar games, but yeah, don't think so.
00:10:59
Speaker
I'm glad too many others as well. I just remember like playing a little big planet three with I think like five different people. Cause like we'd start a campaign and then like we wouldn't finish and somebody else come out and be like, Hey, can we play this game? Can we finally beat this game? What are you talking about? We never played this.
00:11:16
Speaker
You really need drop in drop out type of gameplay for something like that. Cause otherwise you end up in that situation where it's like, Hey, we're playing a three player co-op game. Everybody get together tonight. Let's do the co-op thing. Somebody's gone. So you wait, or you go ahead without them, you know, the Cardinal sin, um, Borderlands, the experience basically, but yeah, that's really good as a kid. And I kind of want to go back to now that.
00:11:45
Speaker
I have a PC in that I actually understand video game mechanics. I think, yeah, I actually was talking to a friend about this as well. I am a toddler when it comes to video game mechanics and learning and adapting to what the game throws at me. It kind of hit me in the face when Dave was talking about Witcher 3 and he was like, yeah, quick attack, Igni. That was all I did. That is all I do in any game. Yeah. So do you look for like the simple pattern to follow them?
00:12:10
Speaker
Pretty much, yep. And the issue arises when that pattern doesn't work and I just keep doing it through like eight deaths and my friend's like, what are you doing? Learn, adapt. The game's hard. Well, that's the thing. I feel my experience in video games is very much that where I find something that works and I do it until it doesn't. And then I'm literally forced to find a new way to approach the situation.
00:12:34
Speaker
whether it's Witcher 3 and I'm like, oh, they're magic resistant. I need to actually learn how to dodge and do things. Or if I'm playing Smash and the matchup is like, I don't know how to deal with this. And I need to either change my play style or change the matchup or something else. But it feels cool to, I guess, hit those roadblocks and then overcome them. You're like, aha. Yeah.
00:12:56
Speaker
I'm just imagining like Legend of Zelda and you're like, you like find a small key and you're like perfect and then go straight to the boss. You just ran this thing in there. It fits in the big hole. What do you mean? I will glitch past the door. It's clearly the path forward at this point.
00:13:13
Speaker
brute force. Oh I do have another quick question for you Nate because I've over the years like had some people who are like hanging out and like they're not big gamers but I've thrown like hey you got to check out this one thing like maybe Celeste and like they were playing Celeste and the first thing they did was jump on the spikes and I'm like in my head do you not see the spikes they're spikes they're right there
00:13:37
Speaker
But to them, they literally don't have that game experience. They didn't immediately see that and be like, oh, that's death. They just thought it was background or something else. Have you run into stuff like that?
00:13:49
Speaker
I don't think so too much. I mean, I played my fair share of Mario and whatever else as a kid where you can tell what's not supposed to be touched
Adapting to Game Mechanics
00:13:56
Speaker
and, you know, what is a goal. And so I don't think that's as much of an issue. I mean, a lot of games too. There's like lava and a rock, which would you rather jump on? And I'm like, well, I hope most people can understand not to jump on the lava.
00:14:10
Speaker
That's good. It's good if you've learned, you lose all your rings if you, you know, jump on the spike in Mario or something like that. Spikes were very recurring in games. Tony Hawk, all of those. I will say too, you brought up Smash and I'm talking about learning in video games. I played Smash as a kid. I played Kirby and I hit down B every second of every game.
00:14:38
Speaker
And then I got hired into a company where people played Smash and they don't let you just hit down B. And oh my God, the first month was the most painful experience of my life. I was just getting dunked everywhere and grabbed left and right.
00:14:51
Speaker
What was funny about this I have one anecdote because I also remember you playing captain Falcon a lot and You loved upbeat on captain Falcon like special and here's the thing like There was a balance patch not that long ago that made like his upbeat considerably faster and better and grab easier And I'm just like he was ahead of the game Now I need to go back to Falcon
00:15:17
Speaker
Literally when he does the up B now, it looks like he teleports a little bit and you're like, huh? All right. I need to get back into Smash. It's a lot of fun.
00:15:28
Speaker
It's okay. I play at least I'd say maybe three to four hours a week, you know One day too, that's the missing context One day. Yeah, it's not spaced out. It's it's a binge Yeah, I would play it more but I don't want to destroy my friendship with Jake and nobody else will play I heard Jake started picking some I
00:15:53
Speaker
anti-dave characters. I heard some Bowser and some, uh, Sinneror have been thrown in there. Yeah. I mean, anything that has a command grab, I will complain about because I very much have the instinct to shield almost all situations. And then Jake's like, I got you. I'm like, side beat, side beat.
00:16:12
Speaker
Uh-huh. It's kind of like, even the spirit board has like, oh, shield type, grab type, attack type. And it's like, it doesn't have side B type. That's the strongest type out of all of them.
00:16:26
Speaker
But yeah, no, it's fun. Diversify your bonds. There's a lot of fun characters. And one of the things I like about the Smash roster, it actually has this in common with MOBAs too, is like, if you ever start to get tired of a particular character, you can just not. You can just play somebody else in like the same sort of matchup and get completely stomped because you're terrible with them and then go back to, you know, one of the stand fires.
00:16:53
Speaker
So that's a genre, actually, that I've always wanted to explore, but it seems impossible to get into MOBAs. Any advice, maybe, for people who don't? It's just not worth it. Well, play hots, basically. It's very much because it's a team game, you really need to have your whole team with you, or you have to have the mindset of like, hey, I'm just here to dick around and have fun.
00:17:16
Speaker
And you might suck and your team might yell at you, but you got to like push past that or like not be bothered by it because it's easy to like play a game for like 30, 40, 50 minutes and then it goes to shit and then you're not having a good time afterwards. But even so, like all you...
00:17:35
Speaker
Even though I said I would never play Dota again, I have played a couple of games with people just because I miss socializing with them. But overall, it's I still think a little bit too stressful and try hardy for my liking. Yeah. But again, having that huge roster is really fun. Like it's fun to play support that has like a lot of kill potential more so than healing or something else or a character is not Moira, you know?
MOBA Recommendations for Beginners
00:18:02
Speaker
Theoretically, it's theoretically possible to make a character somewhere. No one's done it yet, but someday maybe. I would actually, so if you do want to get into MOBAs, I again agree with Dave, don't. But if you were to, I wouldn't play DOTA, I wouldn't play League of Legends.
00:18:18
Speaker
I don't play either of them actually. Dota is like really complicated and it has years of changes there and like you could force yourself to learn it but it would take time and it would hurt and emotionally it's not even worth the payoff in it. League, self-explanatory. So what you do is you play hot instead because Blizzard's giving up on the game.
00:18:44
Speaker
They actually do very infrequent balance patches, which means they're not going to screw with it a whole bunch. And it doesn't have any of the advanced mechanics that the others do. Experience is split between everybody on your team, so nobody balls out of control. If you win as a team, you win. If you lose as a team, you lose.
00:19:03
Speaker
There's no items you don't have to buy anything. It's just level up choices Yeah, so there's no gold either because there's no items to spend them on So last hitting doesn't really matter. It's just very much like Use your abilities level up passively and have phone people
00:19:20
Speaker
And it actually has the, um, the only thing it really has over other mobas is like mid game objectives. So it's like you loaded into this map. Cool. You're going to be pushing a payload or collecting spider gems or doing something else. And if you do that thing, here's a massive advantage. That's really going to help you win the game. Um, I kind of love the setup of hots, even though I haven't really played it in forever.
00:19:45
Speaker
I mean, it's looking back at it more that I'm not just like, fuck this game that isn't DOTA. It's not DOTA, yeah. It has a lot of things that are nice and easy to get into for somebody who's not really touched their genre before, for sure. So yeah, if you're looking for a MOBA, definitely that one, honestly. That also, especially to someone who admitted they don't learn anything in video games,
00:20:12
Speaker
Well, no, like you literally, okay, when I started doing MOBAs back in college, we won't say what year that is. I'm all, um, and 1972. Hey, uh, with league of legends, um, you had like seven ish free champions a week and it would cycle.
00:20:32
Speaker
So you could play one of those seven. So it very much limited who I could play. So I tried one person. I played them for several games until I felt comfortable with like, oh, I enjoy the play style or they're not so much for me. But you can still do that with a game. Even if it's not forcing the limitations, you can just say like, hey, I'm going to keep trying this one thing. See if I like playing DPS or something more, somebody more tanky or somebody more supporty.
00:20:58
Speaker
like binge that thing and be like yes I like or no this is shit.
00:21:06
Speaker
the way they do it in hots is like it's like League and that like you do pay in-game currency to unlock the characters or IRL money if you just don't care about money doesn't matter but they also have characters on rotation so like if you're gonna play the game you're like great this week all of these people are free and it's gonna be like I can't remember how many five to thirteen something like that
00:21:31
Speaker
And so you're like, awesome, I'll just play around with all of these random guys. Complete some quests, buy one if you're really interested in it with the in-game currency. Dota's not like that. They have everyone available immediately and they actually had a limited heroes mode, which was just literally like, let's pair this down to like 30 sort of beginner friendly people characters.
00:21:59
Speaker
How many is the full cast for reference? Yup. It's like a hundred something. It's probably like 120 ish to 130. It keeps going up there. A hundred twenty two. That's a good Google search. It says 80 Lee has like a million.
00:22:17
Speaker
Does anyone know any like everything about all of them? Is that something people undertake? So that's the thing. It's overtime. Very much when I was playing early games, I'm like, what is that person doing? What are their abilities? And you don't really know what they are and like how to play against them until you have just some practice. Yeah. League has 158 champions. Too many. So hold on. Can you get me an Overwatch hero count?
00:22:50
Speaker
Yeah, I think it's got to be like low 30s because I'm pretty sure 28 didn't come out that long ago Because I probably don't have much more than like a day played in overwatch and man Do I struggle remember whatever hero does it shouldn't be that hard that the amount of times I've heard nerf this and not gotten behind a wall? It's painful It's me. I'm this I
00:23:14
Speaker
Yeah, that's all of that said that's really from practice like all of these games that we're talking about I've spent too much time playing so like instinctively More so than like actually realizing and reacting when I hear nerf this and I'm playing Moira I just like count down and then press shift or I go behind a corner if I have like that cooldown But that's out of just practice and nothing else. I
00:23:39
Speaker
It's also worth noting for the people who are considering going into MOBAs, there are potentially 100 plus characters, but there's not 100 plus concepts, if that makes any sense. There's going to be ranged people that do damage to you from a distance, and they're going to try to do damage to you from a distance. And there's going to be people, and they cast spells at you. And if those spells hit, you take damage.
00:24:06
Speaker
And then there's going to be people, and they cast spells at you. And if you get hit with it, you get stunned, or something bad happens. And it mostly boils down to those concepts. There are some novel characters who can do interesting things, but significantly fewer than most of the cast. Most people are like, do damage, support, utility, something like that.
00:24:31
Speaker
Hot's has some interesting characters that like function completely differently and they are one off. Like explain this type situations, like the guy who becomes a tower and he can just inhabit a tower and swing a mace. Um, but Dota does too. So it's like, it's just not most of what you have to learn. So that's not the daunting part, I don't think.
00:24:58
Speaker
Out of curiosity, what is your interest in MOBA's? Is it just like the genre, like you've heard a lot about it? Because it's a big thing or? Call me a bandwagon or whatever, but I feel like I see a lot of tournaments and stuff and a lot of just esports clips and it's like best esports moments and boom, Dota and League and all this stuff is always number one for like hype tournament moments. And I'm like, well, I want to know what that's like. I want to have a fun play in a MOBA, but it's just such a barrier to entry, I feel like.
00:25:25
Speaker
Yeah, it's hard to find fun. That's the real problem. Go ahead. It's it's still possible. But like for me, my because I've done so much MOBA, like I've definitely had some cool moments over the years. But like my like look at from a distance is very much fighting games. Like even today, I watched 20 Minutes of like a guy who was using the theorized worst character in Street Fighter five. And then he like took a fucking tournament. I liked watching that progression. Is it Dan or is it somebody else?
00:25:55
Speaker
No, it was, uh, fun. Okay. He's like a really tall, lanky guy. Good. Like he's very slow and his kit sucks apparently, but like he fucking took a tournament. So yeah, stuff like that's really cool. But yeah, it is. I think one of the things of like games with bigger rosters smash included is when you find out those interactions that you didn't know about, or if you find it out before somebody else does, and you can kind of capitalize it capitalize on it. It can be really fun.
00:26:25
Speaker
Yeah. I put like many, many hours into Dota, like over a thousand. And I can't remember that many notable individual stories. I just, I do have a couple. I do have like a couple that stood out and I can think about them. And I've literally already told them to you.
00:26:43
Speaker
So I'm not going to recount them here on the podcast. Sorry, everybody else. Ask me on the side. But it's more for the experience of playing with friends. I think that's the absolute ideal situation for a MOBA and not like terrible friends or people who get really upset if they lose, because they'll find a way to filter themselves out of your friend scoop if you continue to play MOBA with them.
00:27:11
Speaker
So maybe here's a question. Say I have four or five friends that also have never played. Do you think matchmaking would be solid enough to put us against four or five people that also haven't played and it would be tolerable or would we just get dumped on for a few weeks straight?
00:27:26
Speaker
I mean, initially, because whichever thing you go in, you'll probably just be unranked. So it'll probably put you with other people who are unranked. So it hasn't really calibrated how well, or your ELO, or whatever the fuck it's called per game. You'll be with other people who are unranked. So it won't be people who have really proven their skill yet, but they could be better, they could be worse, for sure. It makes a point.
00:27:53
Speaker
I wouldn't expect to win the first game of any MOBA that you play though. The first game should just be like, how does this work? Game one, stand behind your creeps. Stand behind your summoners, minions. It is. As much as I'm going to shit talk the community and the overall experience,
00:28:18
Speaker
I have a fondness looking back of the times I had with the people, but not the time itself. I can't say, oh, in this game, this is the one thing happened. I'm just like, I go play that game with people. To me, it's like Fall Guys. There's no one thing in Fall Guys that I've done be like, oh my god, we got to clip this. I look back, I'm like, oh, I've had fun playing this with people. Oh, I've had those moments. We just got back into Fall Guys this week.
00:28:45
Speaker
Yeah, it's a fun time again. I don't know why we ever stopped playing it, but It's weirdly fun. It feels like the dopamine rush. I felt as a child the first time I touched joysticks But for no reason it's so simple they've added a lot and they keep it cartoony and light and they've definitely made some improvements for like reporting people who are flying and Finding a match not kicking people all the time
00:29:11
Speaker
I'm just imagining there's a report menu and it's just like reason bird. They are a bird. I mean, what would you say was a fun recent experience that you recall from fall guys? I mean, I think it all comes down to.
00:29:28
Speaker
There's two spots left in qualification and you're nowhere near and all of a sudden like a hammer just bops you at 200 yards in the air. Like it's happened where like you just get luck of the draw and boom, you qualify when you shouldn't have. And it's just, it's that moment where you and your friends are sitting there watching and yeah, we did it. It's kind of, I don't know. I love those moments when it shouldn't have happened and it does. It's just celebratory.
00:29:49
Speaker
Parentheses, Big Yetus. For anybody who doesn't know, Big Yetus is a hammer they introduce around like season two. We're just like a spinning hammer that they'll put on like some maps. And if you get hit by it, depending on how you're hit by it, you can be launched very far forward.
00:30:08
Speaker
But a lot of times, uh, it might not hit as intended and you're just kind of burning time trying to like keep rerolling. Like, please land on black, please land on black. And it's like red 42. Fuck. And then he spent two minutes not really moving forward. But yeah, like when you get those like cool high risk, high reward, it's very fun. That's just about all. Go for gold.
00:30:34
Speaker
I like the space of that type of game where it's just, it does one thing and that's all it really needs to do. It knows exactly what it is. We played Knockout City not too long ago and I haven't put a whole bunch of time into it. Both Landon and Dave actually have way higher rank than I have. But it's a really fun pickup and don't spend the entire evening playing it type game.
00:31:03
Speaker
It's literally Dodgeball Plus. That's all it is. It's Dodgeball Plus and it's fun. It knows exactly what it is and it's fun. Have you played that, Nate? Yeah. Yep. I've played that. I played it when it came out initially and we had a few people, you know, playing in the group and I remember Zach and Landon and a few others playing and I'm not great at it once again, but it's a lot of fun.
00:31:26
Speaker
I think those kind of just fall into the category of you can learn the controls having never touched a controller before kind of game, which is just, that's why I like doing it when more than just hardcore gamers are in the house and all that and everyone can watch, enjoy it. It's simple. Anyone can move the joystick left and right and hit A to jump. Like that's all Fall Guys really is at the end of the day.
00:31:48
Speaker
the any game where you can like sit somebody in front of it. And when they ask, Hey, how do you play this? You just like point it like the controller and that's it versus going off. It's like the deep inhale. You're like, well, first you gotta know this. Yeah. Let's talk about the pairing system.
00:32:07
Speaker
Yeah I lower barriers or entry I appreciate more for people who are less versed with it because as we keep saying on here like I've been playing games since I was like a youth so a lot of things like spikes or movement or like exploring a map and like oh these are game things so certain things become a little bit too intuitive to the point where
00:32:31
Speaker
I assume everybody knows that, and a lot of people don't. So having those things there and having them be accessible helps get more people into doing fun game shit, I feel. The one that I think about, the tell for me, is if you're like, hey, here's a cool game. Do you want to try it out or something like that? And then they look at the controller to push the buttons. That's the biggest gap in difference. It's just, do you look at the buttons that you're pressing
00:33:01
Speaker
Um, and I forget about it. I forget about it consistently, but it's like your parents text for the first time. They're like doing the, the pigeon typing. They're like, sure. I'll text you contacts, click your name, call.
00:33:22
Speaker
What would you say Nate has been like your biggest hurdle as far as like getting into more diverse games outside of like FPS? I think the biggest one would be.
00:33:37
Speaker
that in FPS games, everyone has, you know, aside from things like Overwatch where there's roles, I'm thinking like God, Fortnite, any of the standard easy CSGO kind of games that everyone can just hop on. CSGO is super easy. Yeah, you say easy for the competitive ones. Either way, everyone has the same amount of health, everyone has the same access to guns, whatever. And so I think coming back to things like The Witcher, even Cyberpunk,
00:34:01
Speaker
you can buff yourself. And I was like, Oh my God, there's so much more to this game than just keep swinging the sword. You got to, you know, plan out how you're going to upgrade your skill tree. You're buying things that are going to upgrade different parts of your weapon set and all that. So yeah, I mean, just thinking outside of straight combat is definitely something that's still a bit foreign. Have you ever played like Borderlands? I know I mentioned earlier. I played pieces of Borderlands 2 as a kid and then
00:34:27
Speaker
Got back into Borderlands 2 with the roommates recently, kind of. But yeah, I do want to play the franchise the whole way through with people who care to actually play it correctly and not just mess around.
00:34:36
Speaker
I was going to say, just cause like that is a good, I think it's a perfect game to start building some of those skills just cause it has skill trees, but there's very few things in the skill trees that are like, this is build defining completely crazy nonsense. It's usually just slightly better at this. Here's a new thing you can do. Something like that. There are exceptions, but I think that's a good hybrid type game between RPG and shooter.
00:35:03
Speaker
One game I really did enjoy that I did pick up because of the podcast was Control. Oh my God, that game was incredible. And that was probably the first time I really put time into thinking about how I wanted to advance through the skill tree. But yeah, that was tons of fun. And I still say that Ashtray Maze is probably my most euphoric gaming moment ever when I didn't realize what was about to happen. And every old music kicked in and I was like, oh boy.
00:35:30
Speaker
that is once you get the key piece to go through it great I was yeah I hit every single wall every single piece of everything but that was huge I really
00:35:47
Speaker
I looked at the box art for control. I'm like, OK. I don't know what you want me to do with it. Doesn't talk much. And then Gennaro's like, hey, this is a really good game. We're like, OK. And then everybody we've talked to after who's played control is like, yeah, it's good. And we're like, yeah, holy shit. It's really good.
00:36:03
Speaker
I spent a lot of time just in the, um, there's like a wave defense, uh, little side mission thing, like an arcade cabinet. Um, I was just like, all right, let's do this. Let's get in there, prep the build, get a position defensible position. Let's do this. It's just fun to play and fight in. It's ridiculous. Yeah. It's.
00:36:26
Speaker
I recall mostly third person, but you could do like a zoom for sites, but you also had like abilities beyond that. And then you could levitate at points. And it was just, it was all fun abilities and it made the combat really engaging. And the story is good. It said, I mean, but yeah, that was a good one.
00:36:48
Speaker
you mentioned something there that I would say is also still a struggle is using all of the abilities and mechanics at my disposal. I'll just sit there dashing back and forth and shooting instead of levitating and doing all the different dodging and blah, blah, blah, throwing different kinds of punches and stuff. I just hit the same two buttons over and over again kind of thing, which is
00:37:06
Speaker
I'm playing through Doom Eternal for the first time right now. There is a lot of different, at least in my opinion, fighting mechanics and things you have to get armor and ammo out of different mechanics you do. It's not just random drops. So yeah, that's definitely, I die a lot in Doom. Doom has a massive skill gap between
00:37:28
Speaker
not good enough to pass the level, good enough to pass the level, and then you beat the level in 10 seconds because you just min maxed everything and you went a million miles an hour, burned a guy with a flamethrower, chainsawed a guy, and it was done. It's crazy.
00:37:45
Speaker
I think it was difficult. I think I played on hard versus normal. And I found myself a lot of times being like, oh, my health flow. I need to quickly dash into somebody, use the flamethrower to get armor to buffer that, or use my chainsaw to get health and ammo back. I would use my dash to just get to a small person, please be the sacrifice I need. Thank you.
00:38:09
Speaker
Yeah, or dashing like man, we've talked about we've talked about doom twice. I think I want to add I played doom again for like an hour the other day and It sucks compared to doom eternal. Oh, yeah, like you're talking about 2016 or old him
00:38:27
Speaker
Like I was just playing through like the first or second level and it would seem so basic from what I remember like you And compared like what they add in internal. It's much more limited still a solid as fuck game But it felt a lot more linear less crazy And just less polished overall
00:38:52
Speaker
It's really the biggest accomplishment of that game for me. It's like music's amazing, graphics are amazing, gameplay's amazing. But they literally took a series that was the most rudimentary shooter, and I don't mean that as a bad thing. That's literally just what Doom was, right? It's just shoot things, pick up health.
00:39:13
Speaker
That's you don't even have ammo, right? It's like, except I guess for some of the guns, but like, um, or no, you don't have reloading, I should say. There's not even any reloading. Um, but they took all of that and they're like, great, keep the soul of that. But like layer of these RPG decisions kind of on top of it. And it's like, we'll give them the flamethrower and it's like, create armor spell, but we won't call it the create armor spell. It's a flamethrower and they'll use it on enemies.
00:39:42
Speaker
And they fit it all into this package that people loved. They're like, yeah, we'll accept these RPG elements in our Doom series for some reason. And it took off massive accomplishment. And that's all kind of what I think I went into Doom, having seen some
00:40:02
Speaker
You know, YouTube gameplay, whatever, thinking it was just cod zombies, but cooler for some reason, it's just going to be shoot, pick up ammo, level up kind of stuff. But no, I thought every one of the different kind of mechanics you can do to.
00:40:15
Speaker
find loot was just a glory kill and it happened to randomize chainsaw sometimes like kind of thing. Nope, you control all of it. And yeah, it was it was a lot to learn at first trying to in the heat of it when there's 20 different monsters shooting at you. I'm like, what do I need? I need shield. Why slapping buttons hoping for the best? Yeah, lots of learn.
00:40:35
Speaker
It's, it feels good though to like get in the fray. Cause like I said, I didn't feel competent at the difficulty I was playing at, but it felt good every time. And then to get like glory kills, like I always loved reaching into a Mancubus to like pull out its eye and like the sound effects added for it choice.
00:40:54
Speaker
And I went so overboard. I know we're just circle jerking about being there for a second, but the, um, like the fact that glory kills are dependent upon where the Doom Slayer is facing relevant to the target. You're like, Oh yeah, I'll do the leg sweep one or like the one where you just like snap their head or whatever. It's insane. Crazy game. Yeah. Way cooler than expected. That's really good.
00:41:21
Speaker
Was there anything on that list that really surprised as far as like expectations or that you had like no knowledge of beforehand or were they all kind of things that you had heard about? Like, oh, that sounds kind of cool. I would say the one that was the most uncharted and I had no idea what to expect was Talos.
00:41:41
Speaker
I had never really played a puzzle game and I haven't finished it. I got really frustrated one night and said I was going to go back to it and I haven't yet, but I will at some point. But yeah, that was something totally new and I could tell it was a bit older and, or maybe just low budget, but either way, it's still very fun. And I wasn't expecting to enjoy it as much as I did. Yeah.
00:42:01
Speaker
I don't hold it against anyone for not beating Talos, because I didn't beat Talos when I played it the first time. That's why I had the big grin on my face when Nate was sharing that. I was like, this sounds very familiar. The thing that broke me, and I know I've recounted this experience, was when I was invested in the game, found a hard puzzle, literally went to work with Dave. It's like over lunch, we were workshopping the puzzle on the whiteboard. Dave knew the solution, but he's just not giving it away.
00:42:29
Speaker
I figured out a workable solution for this logic puzzle on the whiteboard, the spatial puzzle. I'm like, my gosh, yes, felt so good. Went home, completed the puzzle, it worked. And then the next puzzle was just as hard and I just dropped the game. I was like, I don't even care.
00:42:50
Speaker
See, my issue with that is old Nate would have probably just YouTube the solution and I'm past the point in life where I feel like that's acceptable. And so it just takes so long to make it through games like that because, you know, I would put an hour into one puzzle and give up and just YouTube it. And I don't want to do that anymore. So it takes an hour, four days in a row to get through one puzzle and well, depending on the puzzle, obviously.
00:43:12
Speaker
Maybe training right as long as you're enjoying it. I think it's good Like I enjoy a good puzzle really enjoyed Talus as a game What was the the more obscure puzzle game that we played the witness?
00:43:25
Speaker
Mm-hmm. You're talking about the draw line through this weird shape reach the exit. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Let's say shadows to define. Yeah. Nonsense. Yeah. So certain of those things I felt became too obscure and I wasn't enjoying the figuring out process. So like I, I stopped playing that one entirely. Yeah. Chamber is a weird mix of both, but I did eventually beat that one. That's a chaos game.
00:43:53
Speaker
Yeah, you really have to enjoy the exploration and trial and error of those types of things. I feel you can't get too attached to reality on that one because it's just like, it doesn't work here. Reality, reality for a board. But I think those are like really good for like first times. Like they, how familiar are you with us? Super liminal.
00:44:23
Speaker
0%. Okay, so let me sell it to you quick. It is a puzzle game, but a lot of the puzzles are based around perspective. So let's say theoretically, you pick up an object and you hold it in front of you. If you move it towards the corner of the room, it basically becomes smaller because it's perceived as further away from you. Or if you put up really close to your face, it's gigantic.
00:44:48
Speaker
Sometimes you're changing the sizes of things based on perspective or arranging other things based on that. It can be a really fun mindfuck in that regard. That sounds really cool. It's really weird. Very foreign concept, but that might have to be picked up.
00:45:10
Speaker
I don't think it's actually on sale currently on the steam. So no pressure, but it is. It is. And I'll buy it for you for like 13 bucks. Now it is, it is a cool one. I don't, I don't like puzzle games all that much. Dave and I have a split here. We work through it. Um, but there are some good standouts there. They're definitely worth playing. And we've covered all of them on the, um, the podcast, the soapstone.
00:45:40
Speaker
So here's another one that I've heard is a must to play and I want to know if you actually recommend it, the Dark Souls franchise. Is it worth getting into now at this point in my life? It's the most upbeat question. How much time do we have left the podcast? He says peachy. He says Dark Souls. Like, what do you want me to do with this guy? Jake, we'll let you go first. Yeah. So I was going to ask if you'd played it.
00:46:06
Speaker
Yeah. Nope. None of them. Nope. OK. None of them. Zero of them. I think it's probably good. The thing about Dark Souls is I don't think everyone likes Dark Souls, and I think that's fine. But if you do end up liking Dark Souls, then it's like it's really good. Gotcha. Is there...
00:46:35
Speaker
A need to start with the first and progress through. That's kind of my other thing with gaming at this point is that I'm spoiled with new games like Doom Eternal looks great. I don't and things like Diablo three look great. I don't really want to go back and play Diablo two. Now I'm spoiled and have a good PC. I have three entries into Dark Souls. I would recommend see if Dave's Dave's mad at that statement there. Yeah, so Dark Souls three.
00:47:00
Speaker
which is the culmination of the series, essentially, because it's the most playable Dark Souls. Dave can't disagree with me on this one. He's nodding. What does playable mean? So it's the most fine tuned mechanically. Like some older games can feel a little bit clunky or just it's not quite as smooth or modern as you might expect. But three is very, very nice. Yeah.
00:47:27
Speaker
And if you really like it, it's no problem whatsoever to go back and play the older ones. Um, so that's entry point one entry point two is actually blood boring, which is not in the Dark Souls series because it's an action game where you dodge like instantly with shadow like I frames and it's gothic horror and it's really freaking cool.
00:47:53
Speaker
Um, it's also standalone. So like, that's a really good way to see if you would like that type of game. There are people who played bloodborne and then tried to play Dark Souls and we're like, eh, it's not as fast or it's like, it's not quite what I'm looking for. And it's understandable because bloodborne is really good. And then the last one, Sekiro, which is also not in the Dark Souls series, but it's play from soft. Um, if you want to, if you want to weep out as a, as a, as an India.
00:48:24
Speaker
I mean, I agree with that. I think, Nate, if you're somebody who likes to kind of find one thing that works and be a lot more straightforward, I would actually say, even though it's faster, might bias you a little bit, start with Sekiro because you have one weapon and that will not change throughout the game.
00:48:45
Speaker
There's no build choices you have to make there's no like you do passively get stronger as you beat bosses and whatnot But your play style is not gonna be different from mine or Jake's because everybody has to go the same way Right up my alley perfect
00:49:02
Speaker
It is one of the harder ones. It's one of the harder ones though, because it doesn't have an online component. So you can't like be like, Hey, you beat the boss for me. Get over here. Right there. Point him at the boss. Go for it.
00:49:18
Speaker
Yeah. With earlier Dark Souls, a lot of times I'd find myself hitting a brick wall and I'm like, oh, I'm going to level up till my stats will allow me to do the exact same play style, but live. And you can just grind past that or summon in a phantom like Jake was saying. But Sekiro is like, here you go. You have one way forward. It's just getting good.
00:49:43
Speaker
But it feels really fucking good to beat some of those bosses because you did it entirely on your own because you had to. It's the least like the rest of the series, though. So like you still kind of even if you love Sekiro, you might be like. Not sure whether you would enjoy Dark Souls or not, but.
00:50:06
Speaker
They're all good. I mean, we like them more than the average person. We have terrible opinions. How do you feel about game difficulty? In what regard? Do you like a challenge?
00:50:30
Speaker
I would say I like a challenge. I don't like dying 20 times and not knowing why, which I haven't had with too many games. Okay. You'll definitely know why you died in these games. Yeah. But like there are situations in like the, the soul series where you're like, Oh, I've finally made it to the safe place. And then some of them will stab you in the ass. Cause like you let your guard down, but then you know why and you will avoid it next time. It's just stuff like that. Um,
00:50:59
Speaker
Or like, if a boss kills you, you're going to see which move killed you. It's not going to be a surprise by any means. It's very much learning the mechanics.
00:51:09
Speaker
I feel thinking about all this. I don't think about this too often. So it's kind of cool diving into all of it. But I think I'm dumber against computer enemies than other people. Like I feel great getting into gunfights with PVP games and stuff. And I can just help maneuver people and aim and stuff like that all feels great. When I have to think about what the AI is probably going to do or patterns that emerge from, you know, predefined fighting algorithms. I suck. I don't know why. Maybe I need to see like a gaming psychologist.
00:51:38
Speaker
Go to gaming therapy. Does that exist? Hey, why don't you call better help? The third boss. Those are the hint hotlines from like the modern Nintendo power. That's good.
00:51:57
Speaker
Yeah, I don't know. That one, that one's interesting. Uh, usually I find people much more frustrating than, than bots. Uh, source. I play Starcraft co-op, not Starcraft, completely different game, but, uh, yeah, I don't know. That's interesting.
00:52:20
Speaker
Maybe I'll grow out of it. I'm still, I'm still growing, right? Yeah. Yeah. Like everything in life is a learning experience to quote Bob Ross. Like my, uh, abilities and experiences change who I am for sure. Over time, occasionally like my tastes change. Like I recently picked up a puzzle game just to do some puzzle-y shit. Mm-hmm.
00:52:47
Speaker
It's not usually my bag, it's not my go-to, but I just wanted like a nice single player experience, something ambient. Completely unrelated question. How do you feel about emotional games? Cause that's the other like half of the games that we've covered on the podcast.
00:53:06
Speaker
Do you like having feelings? Do you feel? Give me an example of an emotional game. I want to make sure we're on the same page. So Undertale. Undertale is definitely one of them. Recently Amore is another emotional game. I'd say Soma. It's got like psychological emotion in it.
00:53:29
Speaker
I've played zero of these. So maybe I need to have input here. Halo franchise. When the music kicks in, I just started crying. Yeah, a lot of them are indie. It seems like there's something about running a soulless triple A publisher where they just don't make emotional type games.
00:53:53
Speaker
I mean, from what you've said, Nate, Last of Us definitely has an emotional component to it. Oh, yeah. Wait, Last of Us? I never played Last of Us. Jesus Christ. No, I do this all the time, apparently. You're right, though.
00:54:07
Speaker
Yeah, I was going to say Last of Us, I've seen a bit of, and it sounds emotional. Oh my god, I'm liking. Left 4 Dead. Are you talking about the two of us? It takes two. It takes two. Jesus Christ, it's just the two of us. That's actually the only game when you said, how do you feel about emotional games? The only game I could think of that had any emotion was It Takes Two. And I was like, is that too easy? Is that actually considered an emotional game? No, I would say it definitely has components. There's one specific part of the game that I think hits everybody kind of hard.
00:54:37
Speaker
Yeah, see, Nate knows what Nate just said. Yeah, I saw the look in his eyes. He knows what we're talking about. Well, actually, I was going to say I didn't care nearly as much about the main emotional conflict nearly as much as I did about that moment. Yeah, yeah, right. Yeah, heartbreaking. That's like it's meant to make you feel uncomfortable.
00:54:57
Speaker
I would say non-gameplay wise, the Book of Love is definitely my favorite part of that game. He is top tier character in my eyes. Oh my gosh, yeah. He grew on me so much. Dave absolutely hated him when he came out. He's annoying, but he's written so well to be annoying, but also funny. I don't know. He grows on you. Oh yeah.
00:55:21
Speaker
So yeah, I guess, I guess they're mostly indie games that are kind of in that emotional space, but something where it's like, Hey, uh, you're, you're headed on a field strip. Um, a lot of times they're not necessarily puzzlers, but like point and click type games or more basic and their mechanics to the moon would be an example like that gone home. A lot of things like that.
00:55:47
Speaker
Um, so there's I guess more like story driven games than mechanic-y, you know, yeah, combat and platform-y instead. Gotcha. But like, I'd say Celeste definitely has some emotional ties to it. And that's very much a mechanics game, but throughout with the story interwoven, um, there's definitely stuff going on.
00:56:13
Speaker
But it's it's fun to like go into something with the stoic. And I'm using that term wrong of like, well, it's just a game. I'm not going to feel anything that project. Why? Why do I feel? Yeah, I would say even control, not that it had like deep emotions, but it had some profound kind of realization moments that definitely added to it for me, at least. It has it has atmosphere. Yeah. Like it has such a strong atmosphere.
00:56:42
Speaker
I would also say I'm a fan of games. I don't think I'm spoiling anything. I like games where the character doesn't know a lot and you learn a lot throughout the game about backstories. I like a lot of those like discovering what happened kind of things.
00:56:58
Speaker
It's an art in storytelling. So it's like there's so many games out there where they're just like, all right, let's set the field. And then you have like dialogue telling you everything about the backstory of the world before you even jump in. And it's like, it's dumb. It's dumb compared to any game that like throws you in and then lets you figure out stuff about the world and the world is true to itself. And it feels natural to just be in that place. Like, um, we talked about, um,
00:57:29
Speaker
Crap, I'm thinking of Senua and it's not Senua, it's Horizon, the Horizon series. Like they're perfect for that. You play with the same knowledge as the character you're playing as. And I love games that either put you at that pedestal or you actually have less knowledge than the person you're playing as and the person you're playing as has a twist, something like that. I love those types of games.
00:57:54
Speaker
I like any good twist as well. That's always a lot of fun when you have preconceived endings and nope. Yeah. For good or worse, better or worse. That's the one. Yeah. Good or evil. Better or evil. For Beyond Good and Evil. I haven't played it, unfortunately. Oh, sidebar guys, Beyond Good and Evil, though it is an old as fuck title and I think might still have issues on the Steam version. It is a really good game.
00:58:25
Speaker
Like just how it's written, music, combat, story. All just it was a great time. But that's like an old PlayStation 2 title. So yeah, bear that in mind. Maybe if it has like a rerelease or if they ever, you know, do Beyond Good and Evil 2. It's like Final Fantasy pre remake, basically Final Fantasy 7 pre remake.
00:58:49
Speaker
I feel like I need to request an updated and maybe more heavily indie list coming out of this. I feel like I'm learning a lot that I would never have been exposed to. Tell you what, Nate, if you want to send us in that group chat, if you want to send us some keywords of some stuff you're looking for or considering, we can probably flush that out for you for things that we've experienced and enjoyed for games in that space. Or if you want some random stuff,
00:59:17
Speaker
Do you want psychological horror or inappropriate stuff? We can just throw that in there in the same game. Let's just pick something from Dave's library. It's 50-50. Either indie psychological horror or literally a porn game. It's either boobs or psychological horrifying boobs. But the distribution, really.
00:59:41
Speaker
Now you got me thinking of some collaborative document we could start that has like two scales of metrics. One for like a mechanical side. Yeah, there you go. Shake it. Horniness, horror.
00:59:58
Speaker
But yeah, then anyone plays a game and drops it onto this chart of a couple metrics that you can say, hey, this game is highly mechanical and slightly emotional. Boom. If you want to play it, that's my rating kind of thing. And anyone can just add things. I like it.
01:00:12
Speaker
Have you guys seen the Steam? They're not the contributors. The curators. Yeah, the Steam curators. And some of them are very basic, where one of them was Commander Shepard, and all he did was, for his review for a game, would say, I'm Commander Shepard, and this is my favorite game on the Citadel. Literally that. He wouldn't change anything in the format. That was the only thing his review ever was for any game that they reviewed positively.
01:00:39
Speaker
Hear me out steam curator horror or horny and The only reviews that you can put on things are thumbs up horror thumbs up for me That's it. What'd you give this Kirby game double thumbs up? My desire to suck has increased greatly Oh
01:01:04
Speaker
That's another thing that is shocking being a bit more grown up and exposed to more games. I mean, the Xbox game store doesn't have nearly what Steam does. And just the other night, my friend and I were looking at all the free games on Steam trying to see if there was anything worth picking up. There is a lot of NSFW stuff in Steam. I was so shocked by everything that you can find there.
01:01:26
Speaker
Steam used to have a history lesson. We'll just take out the chalkboard and all this. So Steam used to have massive restrictions on anything in SFW that was there. There was nothing even close to adults only.
01:01:42
Speaker
And they had Steam Greenlight was a big thing around this time, so a bunch of games were spinning up and they were just cracking down on it hardcore. Also, they were cracking down on the hardcore. And basically none of it was getting through. Steam was very, very restrictive. And then basically out of nowhere, they're like, eh.
01:02:03
Speaker
We don't really care. Put porn on Steam. And like all of these games got submitted and it is absurd how much of it is on Steam since then. They're unique in that they're the only major platform that does all of that. But I can't believe how much dev effort goes into creating that stuff. I don't know. I just can't wrap my head around it.
01:02:31
Speaker
But yeah, I always go back to one of the friend group favorites, the Colonel Sanders dating sim. I can't believe that was genuinely pushed.
01:02:40
Speaker
Yeah, we have, again, we had an episode on it. It was an experience that I don't necessarily want to live through again, but it's now a funny story I can share. Do you recommend it to those who haven't played it? If you want to know about the seven herbs and spices, you gotta date the Colonel, all right? It's the only way to do it.
01:03:04
Speaker
Yeah. It's like, I couldn't remember how many spices it was. And I was just like, it's like nine spice flavor. Wonderful. That's what it stands for. It's actually not in SFW. It's just hilarious. I think it's 11, 11 herbs and spices.
01:03:20
Speaker
I think at one point in that game, you can actually like pressure the kernel to try to like get the 11 herbs and spices and he'll like it's one of the bad ends. Yeah. Yeah. But that's life.
01:03:36
Speaker
Well, looking at the old hourglass here, I flipped it over a couple times. It looks like we're about done. But thank you, Nate, for joining us. It's our guest on the podcast, recurring guest on the podcast.
01:03:52
Speaker
Um, you don't really get a say in it. Sorry. Um, thanks for showing up. I don't have any contract like that. You don't have to. You weren't awake at the time. Don't worry about it. Yeah. Happy to be on fun time. Yeah. Glad to have you.
01:04:11
Speaker
I can be the new gamer mind that the podcast needs every now and again. That's true. We have old blood. You're supposed to fear the old blood. I guess if you're on yearly, there's only really one good year to be a new gamer, so you got to find a new one for next year.
01:04:30
Speaker
My brain just went to like, yeah, we need a fresh virgin sacrifice every year for the podcast. And I'm like, nah, maybe not. Maybe you shouldn't phrase it that way. But if you guys want to be a fresh virgin sacrifices, you can send in your applications to soapstonepodcast.gmail.com or join the Virgin Message board at facebook.com slash soapstonepodcast. My joke is so funny, I can't even talk straight anymore. As always, we'll see you in the next one. Have a good night.
01:05:01
Speaker
that you say something to. Later.