Dredge

Luke and Alex Talk Dredge.

Dredge is a chilling indie fishing video game developed by New Zealand-based studio Black Salt Games and published by Team17. The game introduces players to an unnamed fisherman who, as he delves deeper into the expansive open-world archipelago, confronts increasingly Lovecraftian marine creatures, making each fishing venture a dive into the abyss.

The highly anticipated title was released on March 30, 2023, for multiple platforms, from Microsoft Windows to the Nintendo Switch and next-gen consoles. Critics and players have been captivated by its unique blend of serene fishing mechanics juxtaposed with the looming dread of the ocean's monstrous secrets. As of publication, the game holds a score of 85 on metacritic.com.

According to howlongtobeat.com, when zeroing in on the core missions, Dredge unfolds over approximately nine hours. However, for the completionists aiming to uncover every sunken treasure and monstrous fish, the game extends to roughly 17 hours.

Alex dove into the eerie waters of Dredge on his Nintendo Switch, appreciating the game's atmospheric tension and intricate mechanics. On the other hand, Luke set sail on his Xbox Series X, making full use of the game's unique panic and day-night features to face the marine horrors head-on. Both hosts braved the game's Lovecraftian depths, contending with the harrowing hallucinations and gigantic sea monsters. However, only time will tell whose fishing expedition was more successful.

This episode is unofficially brought to you in part by frozen pizza.

Transcript

Luke: 0:22

Hello, welcome to another edition of Late Night with Lo-Fi. My name is Luke and here is my co-host, alex. What up, alex?

Alex: 0:30

Yo what up? Luke Say it sexy.

Luke: 0:32

Nope, say it sexy, it's late night, hmm.

Alex: 0:35

Up everybody. Welcome to Lo-Fi Gaming. Couple of sexy beasts here to lull you into Sex them.

Luke: 0:47

I don't know Killing it, that was great. I'm sexy, nailed it.

Alex: 0:52

Yeah, I was going to make some joke.

Luke: 0:56

Because in this game, if you don't get some sleep and you're up at night, that's when the spooky stuff happens. So I just went sexy instead of spooky. I mean, it's just not in nature.

Alex: 1:04

You realize this is a podcast and although we're recording at night, folks are going to listen to us whenever they listen right, but I'm recording in the dark sipping on wines.

Luke: 1:15

What else do you expect from me?

Alex: 1:18

He is for the folks. Listen to the doc at the sea, luke. Right now he is swirling his, his wet wine.

Luke: 1:24

It's extremely expensive A $12 bottle of white wine Litty.

Alex: 1:29

All right, yes, good man, good to see you. I'm glad to be back for another episode. Yes, holler at the listeners. Thanks for making this happen. Y'all.

Luke: 1:37

Thanks for tuning in yeah, you guys are great. Shouts out to the discord and a shout outs anybody who might have either played dredger already or played along with us, because it is a great game.

Alex: 1:49

Yes, you, so that's the game in a month Dredge, yes, dredge.

Luke: 2:16

So what does a dredge? You say Dredge is a 2023. So it's new. It's one of the only new games I've played this year, other than some tears Indie fishing video game developed by New Zealand studio black salt games and published by team 17. The game follows a fisherman who encounters increasingly love crafty and creatures. I'll explain what love crafty and is, but if you're sitting at home right now and you're pretending to know what it is you or me until you did research for this outline Love crafty and creatures as he ventures out further into an open world archipelago, there you go, bud. Yeah, I'm a geography teacher and I still see that word. Are you sure it's not arch epelago? Yeah, I'm positive on that.

Alex: 3:03

Archipelago next to the chasms.

Luke: 3:05

Right, I went diving in some archipelagos. I added a few extra G's in there and I like it. And then I jumped right into the chasm and my uncle, chad, was there. But anyway, black salt games I had to look them up too, because they are a collaboration between three game developers and a studio manager, which is a very fancy way of saying they are a four person team based out of New Zealand and this is their debut game. So I thought you know what a home run on your first attempt. I don't know what sport they play, and they play rugby in New Zealand. Is there a? They score touchdowns. You sort of played rugby once upon a time. You mostly just drank. But what's the? What's the score in rugby?

Alex: 3:45

I did both Played and drink. You score tries.

Luke: 3:50

So yeah, on their first try they scored a try, nailed it. God, I'm just peak form right now. So yeah, dude, I've been hearing great things about the game, so why dredge? I'm a big sucker for a good fishing mechanic in a game. So just you know to rattle off, some of the best ever is Stardew, red Dead, redemption 2, animal Crossing. Do you have any? Not that we're going to talk about it other than this moment, but can you shout out any honorable mentions of just sick fishing mechanics in a game? Fuck, yeah, I can dude.

Luke: 4:18

Ocarina time baby. That wasn't my first one, but it sucks. But continue, get out of here. I was like it's kind of tough but that's like oh, geez, yeah, all the zelva sucks yeah.

Alex: 4:31

Yeah, what other ones think?

Luke: 4:33

of any other games where it's like, really so, if you played bass hunter, baby hell, yeah, no, if you've played that game.

Luke: 4:40

Yeah, no, me neither. But if you've ever played like Stardew or Animal Crossing specifically, I feel like there's the most through lines there, because that whole idea of like you do the fishing mechanic to catch the fish, obviously, but trying to collect and like analog all your different collections and like, oh, I got to catch this one. It's like it scratches, that it's for sure. So shout out to the panning, the panning Animal Crossing hive where we were just trying to catch, you know, the fish within season before it turned that type of feeling. So I really love me a fishing mechanic. It was pretty weird when you heard people pitching a horror fishing game, a horror fishing game vibe. That was just like that's. That's a strange amount of adjectives that you just threw next to each other. I'm here for it. I listened to a walk culture gaming's podcasts and Scott Tilford was just a really big, really big dredge guy and he was saying how fucking cool it was.

Luke: 5:33

Interesting, yeah, so I was like you know all these things combined and I was looking for a game and I kind of wanted a shorty because I was crushing tears of the kingdom at the time and I was like this sounds perfect, so I chose it. Did you have any knowledge of the game prior?

Alex: 5:45

No, I didn't and but I want to. I want to pull it back to a fishing mechanic. I'm going to throw out Hades, Just going to throw Hades out there.

Luke: 5:54

It's not really much of a mechanic, it's just you show up.

Alex: 5:56

What the fuck are you talking about? It wiggles and you catch that fucking fish.

Luke: 5:59

That's fair, that's fair, it's present, it's present.

Alex: 6:04

You're hating on the Zella fishing but like dude I get it. I could read that time Not the best, but I want to say it's linked to the links awakening.

Luke: 6:11

Links awakening has one that's pretty cool dude, it's pretty cool. So they're like like yeah, you can have a fish, I don't know about good.

Alex: 6:20

I think of the fuck out of you. I fish for days on the links awakening. They did yeah, no, that's the best.

Luke: 6:27

So you haven't heard about the game at all, though I had it all.

Alex: 6:30

Man, when you, when you mentioned it to me, I was like, hmm, that's on site. I didn't even know that it came out this year. To be honest, I haven't done any research about this game. What is one of those weird things? You know how, when you like buy a car and all of a sudden like let's say that you just like drive a green Subaru and a little targeted, but then, like once you drive a green Subaru, you look around and you're like God damn it, everybody's got a green Subaru.

Luke: 6:52

I'm always linking up with my bros on the road Dude.

Alex: 6:54

I feel that yeah, but that's I mean, that's one of those things. So, like, you mentioned this game to me and I was like, yeah, it's pretty interesting, it looks dope. And then all of a sudden I started seeing on the Twitter and other socials that, you know, other folks were playing this game and really enjoying it. And we also had a couple of folks in the discord that when they saw that we're going to be playing this, they're like oh sweet, this is like a nice little opportunity to jump in and pick this one back up or whatever their little personal journey was. But yeah, the people have been playing it. I didn't really know anything about it, but I'm glad that we got it in. Man, it's a weird one. I think you liked it a little bit more than I did, but I did enjoy it.

Luke: 7:32

It's a tasty little treat. Ask me, it's dope. I just like really love. I mean we'll get into it in a minute here, but I just really love the creativity and the uniqueness behind it and it was just like a really cool. And to clean up one thing, dredgen is not fishing. For those of you who don't, know what Dredgen is. Dredgen is like basically pulling up scrap from the bottom of the bottom of the water, Right? So if you're dredging, that's like you're basically trying to pull up the parts and the bounty and loot from the sea floor and we'll get into that in a second here.

Luke: 8:02

About the game you go fishing man, you're, you start off and you're a fisherman and you take a job. You there's, your driving in this little boat and a cutscene and there's a help wanted a fisherman, and you get to this. You know little island town with a lighthouse and the mayor, everyone's a little creepy. The vibes from are eerie. From the moment you cast that foot in the game you can tell some shit went down, yeah, and there's actually some like interesting cues from that opening cutscene that like no-transcript Tie all the way back to the ending. So we'll have a little spoiler wall because I think that this game actually does like I'm not gonna pretend like I fully understood the story until I listen to like a five, ten minute breakdown, but after I did listen to said breakdown I was like that's pretty fire.

Luke: 8:42

But regardless of that, you go. You go fishing dude, your boat crashes, your wash ashore and you have to pay off your debt. Kind of classic. That's almost like animal crossing or something like your classic little video game set up but the debt takes like a day, it's not long fishing. Yeah, it's a buy your boat, essentially.

Alex: 8:58

It's pretty much a tutorial period.

Luke: 9:00

Yeah, and then you're just kind of immediately in this loop where the fisherman or the fish monger that you're selling stuff to, he gives you like these special little tasks. Then eventually he wants like these cursed fish that you run into, and that's kind of a funny little thing. And then there's like a ship right and you could upgrade your boat and I think that's all. Man, that's scratches so many of my like dumb little gamer, like itches or I'm like, oh yeah, let me upgrade this boat, let me do some tedious work to like slowly make money and upgrade this boat. I loved it, dude. And then there, if with the fishing there's a night and day mechanic, so you're gonna you're gonna catch things during the day and you're gonna catch things during night, and there's different stuff appear at different time in different places right, yeah, but that pretty much covers it.

Alex: 9:42

There's a lot of little details, but we can See as we see fit.

Alex: 9:46

I suppose so you're mentioning the way that the your boats upgraded so Visually everything stays the same, except for in your, you know, your start screen or whatever you want to call it. When you're like looking at your your hall not your hall but you're looking at your cargo, etc. There's a whole bunch of different cool. I think they actually did a really good job with the item management and like the different areas where you can go look at when your stuff is and you're upgrading, but you start with like a small amount of space like you can't yeah, you can't catch that many fish. Your engines fucking suck your boats a piece of shit and it takes like a little bit of time and it took probably like three, four, five hours, maybe even before. I felt like I was cooking with gas, you know, and I think for me For you're sailing on waters.

Alex: 10:30

Yeah, dude, even that like, so you're on these, but but nonetheless, man, you're in this game. That island you go to there's like a pretty Like though you're the first island, with the mayor and like the, the lighthouse and everything that the folks you were mentioning the fish, manga, etc. That's a pretty well populated island. And then, across the bay, there's another island where you little marrow yeah, yeah, exactly, and then so you can go over there. But, like, dude, the first like two, three hours is game.

Alex: 10:57

I was bought back and forth between those two islands and Caught fish and crabs and shit, because you can also like start getting it's Right, but like, but, dude, I was like, but I was, I felt under the thumb because there's a day counter to you mentioned the night and days, but it also keeps track of the amount of days that pass and they don't really tell you if that's important or not, and I don't think it's a huge spoiler. In fact, I think I'm just gonna fucking tell people that I, to be honest, I don't even know if it matters or not, but like, I played through to the end. So, like, maybe there's some, there could be some Easter eggs or something if you do in a certain amount of time or something Took me about 80 game days, 80 85 game days to roll the credits. And you know I was. I was doing a little bit of plugging around the internet and, like a lot of people do it in between that time, 120 roughly and that doesn't really matter.

Luke: 11:45

I never, even I, for I didn't even know it was keeping track day by day. I couldn't, I couldn't even tell you now. So it's what's your heart like?

Alex: 11:52

stress you out, yeah dude, but that's just, that's just it. I found out that existed. I was like fuck man, I gotta, I gotta do better, I gotta min max my fucking fishing, like, I gotta in like.

Luke: 12:00

But no, I probably took longer because I like, really wanted to, like I was really into finding the fish and like Grinding out my specs. Did you feel that your Tetris needs were tickled by Sorting the different fish? Because the fish come in and different, you like pull them up. Right, I don't even I'm not gonna bother with like to explain the different they. Actually it's kind of cool how when you're fishing, they give you different little tiny mechanic minigames to get the fish on board. That was cool and dredging is different too.

Alex: 12:27

So it has to do with the type of fish that you're pulling right or, as they have to do with your rod. So I guess it's probably combined because your rods catch different type of fish.

Luke: 12:34

Yeah, and I think the rod, like with the upgrades, I think it's more about like speed, yeah, totally, but yeah, I mean, so it kept things fresh right, which I appreciated. And Then you get the different fish of varying sizes and essentially just think of like a box with a grid and you have like a certain amount of squares and like the fish would be like L shaped, but then this other fish might be like four long block, like Tetris and then like one, might be like six, it's like threes stacked, so like you're rearranging all this fish and your cargo and so when you upgrade your cargo it actually like feels nice because you're doing less of that so you can bring in more fish and you

Luke: 13:10

bring in more money and you're finding things out in the ocean that you can use for crafting essentially, and that builds. So I just like, really liked how those mechanics layered on the top of each other for the whore elements that we teased earlier. The freaks really do be coming out at night because, as that time ticker like the day counter, I didn't mind, but, like at night, I was very cautious to avoid night because weird spooky shit just happens to your boat. If you don't sleep and you Safely make it through the night, you'll actually get attacked by these crows, which you're not sure. I think the game calls it like your paranoid, you have like a paranoid meter or whatever.

Alex: 13:46

Yeah.

Luke: 13:48

Yeah, and then, like they steal fish off of your boat and I'm personally I'm not sure if they're real or if the guy is just throwing them off because he's all fucked up. Yeah, so then Lovecraft you know, I looked up is a genre of horror when things are more I think they're panic.

Alex: 14:07

by the way, it's the panic meter, that's fair.

Luke: 14:10

I love crafty and it's more less about gore and more about like mystery and like unsureness and like Just that kind of like what's hidden below type vibe, so that HP Lovecraft bro, yes, yes, but it's similar.

Luke: 14:26

It's kind of like a metroidvania, right Like it comes from this, but here are the elements that you're looking for. That makes it a Lovecraftian, so yeah. And then there's actually a bunch of killer fish out there. I knew of one of them, but I was watching videos once I was done with the game. Did you ever run into the other ones that can kill you out in open sea, or no?

Alex: 14:46

Different monsters that kill you in the sea. Yeah, yeah, I feel like there's a.

Luke: 14:49

There's at least one unique, different monster in each of the different, like major areas, definitely there's one that kind of roams the open sea though, where it's, like you know, the fish that has the light in front of it from like finding Nemo or whatever. Yeah, it's like a giant version of that, but that little lights actually like I definitely fuck me up. Yeah, it's like another boat that you think is like another boat and then you're drawn to it because you're like what's going on with that? And then it Gobbles you up.

Alex: 15:13

So like super cool stuff like that, I loved it like gave just a nice as your pack meters going to like, and also when you got the because you end up we'll get into it. Probably the it was part of the upgrades, but when at nighttime there's almost like a fog, like a mysterious fog type thing, that starts to go over too, it's like yeah, definitely definitely, as I get some more intense like those. Those monsters will come and get you.

Luke: 15:37

Yeah, and it's like you know it's a fishing game but there's also like a story and and the horror element just gave it like a really cool flavoring. Like I wasn't like real scared whenever I was playing the game. I mean there's like some mild, like jump scary stuff I guess, or like some tension it gave that's maybe a cool way to put it. It gave the story a nice driving force and it gave really cool tension and flavor. The game that I really thought was cool. It's super eerie, super spooky.

Alex: 16:02

Just kind of the vibe man.

Luke: 16:03

Definitely those vibes yeah it gave everything more life, like even when you're interacting with Different villagers, like they do a bunch of like haunted and like fucked up shit and right to transition into the story. You're finding, like these little notes in a bottle. Did you collect those or no?

Alex: 16:19

I did. Yeah, no, I don't know if I got them all or anything. But I, whenever I baby, like similar to the fish, so like this they call disturbed water, so like when you know that there's gonna be a mess of fish in a certain area because the water looks a little different. There's like bubbles and stuff coming out. Yeah, and those, those messages of bottles are similar. It's like a little twinkle that you'll see in the water. You go over there and you can pick it up.

Luke: 16:39

Yeah, so it's really cool, though it's like that great kind of is the word for like passive storing, telling where you're kind of reading logs, or so it really sets that like clearly there are some sort of like someone pulled something up from the depths that Disturbed and is causing whatever all this crazy shit is, and like people are kind of weird with their memory. Like you deliver these packages and then if you visit the towns afterwards, like people are like fucking weird and different afterwards, like dude.

Alex: 17:03

There's a one, I don't remember, because it's a kind of early game, but you bring something to the fishmonger. You like running to somebody I don't remember where it was with little islands but you deliver this package that there's definitely something alive in there, and then you bring to the fishmonger and he'll close the shop for like an entire day and like doesn't weird shit in the back, Like dude, it's like silly stuff.

Luke: 17:22

Yeah. So I loved it, man, I thought that was really cool. So like the last. So you know, there's the, there's mechanics of the game, which is definitely like this fishing and exploring there's the the paint on it, all the flavor, the horror elements, and then the real driving force being the story. I thought was really well-executed and really cool. So generally we've kind of explained what's going on with you come to the mayor, you get introduced some characters like the lighthouse keepers, like really bugged out by you and like seems to know more than she's letting on. And the mayor is pretty straightforward. He's like sell us fish so this town can survive, like all our fishermen have disappeared and like things are going on blah, blah. And then there's this like fucking weirdo on an abandoned island with like a haunted mansion that he lives in.

Luke: 18:04

Right the collector.

Luke: 18:06

Yeah, and the collector is sending you out to these different areas looking for this special treasure that he's super fucking bag about. And he gives you these weird kind of haunted powers when you get each one. But that's like your level system, right? So meeting him and finding that first artifact or relic on one of the two video game shit, you get the point. And Then there's that's your main area, the two islands we've talked about thus far. Those are your main areas. There's four, one in each corner of the map. Essentially there's other little things to visit in between, but there's almost like four little levels in between, or each area kind of has its own unique vibe different fish, different characters, and Then you have a little story to unravel and then that leads you to set artifact right. Am I missing anything? That's pretty much it.

Alex: 18:53

Yeah, no, I mean the thing that that basically covers it. One thing I will mention is that the I do agree with you that the story is well laid out and I think it's it's sprinkled in there just right you do it to read. I'm curious to know if, like down the road, if this game continues to become more popular, if it gets voice acting added to it, because I Don't think that would necessarily make it any better, better per se, but it would lend itself to Really cool voice acting, I think, because, like the, all the characters already are so Unique and weird and stuff, it could be fun to have some fun voice acting.

Luke: 19:26

I think they had a really cool sound and like music. So if I got good voice acting, it would definitely lend itself to that eerie vibe, which I think could be really cool.

Alex: 19:36

And it's not also serene it for me? Yeah, totally.

Luke: 19:38

Maybe, maybe I like it this way and it's never like they never drag on too long. I you know I'm I get happy with the trigger figure. If, like Dex, text dialogues be dragging on right, skip right through it. But in this game I kind of enjoyed taking my time and actually reading because I liked all the spooky stuff going on.

Alex: 19:56

Yeah, I'm trying to think of that game. You're like the detective and it's like very yeah, so that that game didn't have voice acting at first, and like that game is a Testament to like, where some really good voice acting was added later on. I think that this game just for some, I think because of the house I was at similar vibe and you do have some dialogue, dialogue options I was like I wonder if they'll do this later on or not.

Luke: 20:18

Maybe cool. I like, as I mentioned earlier, this is the debut game of that pretty small team, so I'm like I Kind of want to know what else they got cooking. Like I think someone's talked about like, oh, if they do DLC, and I'm like I don't know if I would want actually they just dropped DLC oh.

Alex: 20:36

It's like it's like extensive story a little right.

Luke: 20:40

I've heard that essentially it just it's like basically about supporting the.

Alex: 20:46

Some of it's already we actually have. I think we don't. So they've already released free DLC in quarter two and Three. So quarter three of this year, in 2023, as we record, they're gonna add boat paint. So we don't have that yet they do and have already released map markers, which apparently they didn't have at first. Which did you fuck with the map markers at all? I started to yeah, yeah, I did a little bit, but not a bunch. I didn't love the and I hope they tweak that a little bit more, because it was like they weren't. You couldn't put them as like. You couldn't be as detailed as you as I wanted to be about them. Sometimes they're a little you a little loose with them, but but then there's the photo mode and wildlife mode, I guess, which I think that was an option, but I never played with it.

Luke: 21:30

There's like five dollars you can spend, which essentially just supports the developers because they're a small team, and I think you get like that, like building, you can't unlock on the collector's Island.

Alex: 21:40

Oh word.

Luke: 21:41

It gives you the key to unlock that and it's like a special motor for your boat. So okay. What it comes down to is essentially its purpose is to support the devs, which is cool. But, yeah, I mean, if they continue sounds like they're continuing to support the game with quality of life stuff, right, I just think it would be really cool if they Just whatever, if they added a story or if they just like came out with a new game, I'd automatically be pretty intrigued because I really liked how this one played out.

Alex: 22:09

Yeah, it's cool man there's. I mean it's it's. I don't want to like the stuff that I don't like about us. It's like not that big of a deal, it's. It's just it's by the nature of some of these types of games that some of my qualms like come with it's. Uh, for example, like by the end of the game.

Alex: 22:24

I mean, there's a period where, like for me anyways, I it took a while to feel like I was cooking with gas, like I was just trucking along. You know that grind that you're saying that you really like like I have a very love hey relationship with that type of grind because, like, obviously it's very rewarding once you get there. And then, once you get there, you're a fucking beast and you're like you barely remember how shitty it was at first. That's part of the journey. I can deal with that.

Alex: 22:45

But at the end, like dude, I was like dredging around for different shit because you had to like, because obviously I want to max out my boat and do all that cool shit too, but you end up like I ended up with, like I just like a deluge of like cloth, you know, and like you can only sell like I did find out that if you go to the pontoon lady who we haven't, she's there's this lady that like has a little pond floating dock, like set up at all the main islands or the main areas of the map when you can basically it's the same as the, the person at that, that main island you're talking about, but you can sell shit there so you can sell those. You can't sell those at the main island, but you can sell it to her.

Alex: 23:20

So I was like at least, I can unload these things so it's like but it's like that little things where it's like I can forgive that kind of shit, it's whatever. But it was like a little. Oh, it was like a little weird, though, like you know, at first, when I'm my cargo, because you have we mentioned the cargo and then you have like, oh wait, what is the? What is the area underneath your cargo? This is your storage or whatever.

Luke: 23:40

Yeah, but you can't access like at sea, but when you're docked right right right.

Alex: 23:45

You know, that thing was just getting full, like all. That was like getting full of shit. So I was like, all right, well, I need to, and you also always trying to make money, and once you, once you max out your boat, dude, and really no reason for money, you know.

Luke: 23:57

Yeah, and that's why like this game is it's a nice little short king, because it's like a 10 to 15 minute ride and like the grinding for the money, like having incentive to go fishing and make all the money, was really cool. And then there's some like a handful of exotic fish that you can find through, like kind of knowing the game and like having the right resources. Did you find all the fish for her? No, no, I did not. Oh, wait, wait, for who? The pontoon lady that we're blanking on her name? Nope, I did not.

Luke: 24:26

So those are like kind of there's like one rare fish per area. That's right, and I thought that was really cool too. So I was telling you before the pod like this game is really cool and I really loved it, but it doesn't lend itself to replay. So it's just like this 10 to 15 minute little ride that I took with the story and the gameplay and then it's over. So you know, in a world full of bloated RPGs that are 50 plus hours minimum, it was just kind of nice to have a short little John.

Alex: 24:53

No, I mean, I agree with this is like the perfect length game for me. Like I love it when I can put a little bow at the end of a game after 10, 15 or 20 hours. I'm not I'm not against big games, but like being able to have a game that you can finish like this is actually quite nice. And I think like, even though I was kind of hating on, like you know the whole, like having to Max your boat out, like I definitely did fall into it after a little bit Some of those upgrades you get when you start churning in some of those Relics or whatever that you're given to collector, the one that I like the best is the one that's basically a turbo for your boat but it can overheat the engines and the damages your ship, right, yeah, so that one's real nice. There's another one and forgive me, I can't remember what they call all these things, but the other one is basically a teleport back to the, the collector's.

Alex: 25:37

Mansion or whatever and that one actually I started using. But whenever you get these things, the game is also like be careful how you use this and I'm like, oh shit, if I use this, it'll fuck me up.

Alex: 25:47

I do have a spooky quality to him, totally, because he reads from that cursed-ass book dude, yep, that's how you like the sound like it Totally there's, and there's other things like there's the whole section where You're helping the, the Air Force pilot, that's kind of marooned out on one of the islands. I didn't end up collecting all of the the dog tags for him. So I think there's like there's like little things I know you're saying the repeal ability, many, not totally there, but like I definitely will continue to poke at this game, like I'm not gonna 100% it, that's not my style, but like there's definitely things for me to, even though I've rolled the credits, for me to go back to and like and play with. You know what I mean, yeah.

Luke: 26:24

I was on Xbox and you did it on Switch, so it's pretty funny is like I'm not an achievement hunter dude, but when you get them sometimes we're doing stuff in a game I'm like oh yeah, that's my balls.

Alex: 26:37

Oh, I wanted to bring up did you mention? The encyclopedia? So, like that is, I did like I didn't like fucking go through this, instead like make sure I was checking out the fish. But I did enjoy that, like the fact that you would pull up a fish and it give you a different little noise and it would fill out your encyclopedia right. So like there's a whole, like you have this entire encyclopedia full of fish and that's like Kind of a nice little element of the collecting part of the game, I guess yeah, and then each fish like has a few like kind of cursed variants.

Alex: 27:04

And.

Luke: 27:04

I mentioned that a little bit earlier and there's not too much other that other than they sell for a little bit more and it's just like fucking cool I.

Alex: 27:12

Think it's. I think it's worth mentioning dude, you mentioned so like we've been talking about this fishing mechanic and there's different ways that it can happen, but I think we should mention both the fishing and the dredging and how that works, because that's such like a big part of this actual gameplay of this game, right?

Alex: 27:24

Yeah so, like the first For the crab, like the crab pots, you just like throw those out there. But the actual fishing, when you go to these, like disturbed parts of the water, the main one it's basically like a compass or a circle, like a circular type of deal, and they'll have Little chunks that are a different color. They're like yellow or yellow. If you're getting yellow, if you're getting a trophy fish, but otherwise it's gonna be so bad, but it's like a dial right.

Luke: 27:53

Some of them might have it in segments.

Alex: 27:55

It's like they mix it up a little bit, but you're trying to like drop the needle in the sweet zone right, and we don't describe them all, but I think it's worth noting that there's there's multiple different ways of fishing and I think that's what's cool about this game right, because a lot of the games you know, these mini game, fish type, like fishing mini games that we talked, there's like one thing you do and you know, whereas like this, there's a little bit of flavor.

Luke: 28:16

Yeah, and then the dredging is just funny because you just like you're going on a circle and you just got to drop it between these two levels before you hit like a snag, essentially, and our dumb asses would hit a snag Like ten times in a row dude, the dredging fucking pissed me off when I first I got a hit.

Alex: 28:32

The hang of it.

Luke: 28:33

No, I'm pretty good at it, but if you're not patient.

Alex: 28:37

Some of them are tough too, because those little, those little walls or whatever that you run into when you're doing the dredge sequence, if they're too close or if they're like a weird pattern because the pattern is always different, like sometimes I just leave and come back so it give me a new pattern. That was a little bit easier on my brain.

Luke: 28:53

Yeah, so it's just, if you're a little tired and you're playing it, you're like God damn it, but like sometimes you just rip right through it. I'm gonna ask real quick, like who you'd recommend this game to, or like would you necessarily like out, like pimp this game to anybody else accruedly. And then after that I we got a little bit of a spoiler the wall, because I want to get into some of that need to gritty.

Alex: 29:12

Yeah, this is a tricky one for me, man, because I did enjoy it. It's not like I Don't know, like for me it's not a game that like it didn't. It didn't like crack my upper echelon of like this is best game ever. You need to play this shit. But the thing is is like I did, it's like it was almost like a passive enjoyment Thing for me, like I don't really know how to explain it very well Like I, it crept on me, dude, like the more I played this game, the more I did like it.

Alex: 29:37

I think that it's a very approachable game. I don't think it's too hard. So, like you know, I don't think you have to be like a gamer, gamer to like get into this fucking game. Like I think it's a cool one. I think that I, I it's I would say like, if any like, I think like the Lovecraftian bits of it, if that's interested, you like totally get into it. I think like the most fun when I realized that I really like this game when I was describing it to people that had no idea what it was, and then I would like, yeah, and I was like I play this game called dredge, and then they'd be like, oh, what's that? And then I start to talk about it and they're like that sounds fucking dope. And I'm like, yeah, it is pretty fucking dope.

Luke: 30:13

I wish it was. I wish it was on game pass, because it would just be the perfect game pass.

Alex: 30:17

It would be a good game pass team.

Luke: 30:19

I loved it the whole time. I was super like infatuated with just how different and unique it was and like I would say that Usually I say like, oh, if a game goes on sale for this much, given how small that team is, I would love for them to get as much money. It's worth 20 bucks, it's so easily worth 20 bucks and I think that you know what, if you got some time and you just want a nice little journey, it's like reading a nice little book 100% yeah, let's hit some.

Alex: 30:43

Let's have some spoilers, dude. All right, I'm gonna play some music here. If you don't want the game to be spoiled, if you don't want us to spoil the ending, go ahead and fast forward to the 42 minute mark. That's 42 minutes.

Luke: 31:06

Yeah, yeah, we got spoilers, spoiler Tom. So I'm almost a little embarrassed because I think it is supposed to be fairly obvious to someone who's being more observant. But I like, did a little reading, slash little, because the endings, like you got that the quote-unquote bad ending to where you collect all these things for the collector and then you go out to the scene he's got this creepy book that he's been basing everything off of. We've kind of mentioned a prior and you throw all these artifacts into the sea and he essentially raised this dead woman from the sea but with her comes this giant Cthulhu, looking ass, ginormous monster.

Luke: 31:54

That's pretty cool looking actually, but and yeah, and it just rains hell and like, pretty clearly, like your actions have caused the end of at least your environment, let alone maybe the whole world, but certainly your area. So the little bottles we talked about earlier, kind of talk about this woman and her husband or fiance, I guess, and how, like he was working or whatever, and they went on to see together and he was kind of the paranoid type and then they ended up unearthing this book from the sea. And when they unearthed they don't even know if they ever mentioned it was a book in the logs, but they unearthed something and it talked about how all this fog and all this nastiness has all come since that happened. So like, clearly you know from the storyline that somebody unearthed something while dredging supernatural and has caused all the fuckery. So you don't quite know if you're trying to end that the whole time. And as it turns out, dude, you are the collector. Do you know that? No, and nobody's in the abandoned mansion. Oh, really, that's your reflection looking into a mirror. No, shit, dude, it's pretty fucking cool, right?

Luke: 33:06

So the alternate ending is you run into the old mayor, who's this crazy castaway like on this island, and he remembers you and like no one else really remembers you except for him and the lighthouse lady.

Luke: 33:18

And that's why the lighthouse lady like, is like Koi and always like, really like, kind of like standoffish with you because she doesn't she's not 100% sure, but she's pretty sure like she knows you. So you're the fisherman with the wife and you basically a figment of your imagination. Perhaps the evilness through the book is convincing you to do these things. So if you meet the mayor and then talk to the lady and then you do something else, the good ending is you essentially go to where the book was found, which is the same spot, and you cast it into the sea and a giant Leviathan just comes up and eats you. So you're at peace or whatever, and none of the hunting goes away, right, right. And then the supermatchel stuff allegedly probably goes away and you essentially just come to peace with it and you die just like your fiance. So that cutscene in the very beginning where.

Luke: 34:15

I was telling you about how there's a job application saying like fisherman wanted, and that's like how you. This fisherman ended up crashed ashore on this island. The haunted book is sitting right next to that in the frame. The whole time, oh interesting yeah. So there's, so we start to see.

Alex: 34:30

that Are we going to do?

Luke: 34:32

that, yeah, that's basically what you do, is you? And then like so you have this confrontation with the collector and he actually smashes the mirror and you see the mirror shatter, like you say to go punch the collector and then like a mirror smashes and then you stumble off and do your things. So that's like one of their ways of telling you. What you might not have noticed is that sometimes you carry passengers on your ship. They take up cargo. When you brought the book to the spot, the collector was not taking up any cargo because he is you. Oh yeah, good points.

Alex: 35:11

So like yeah.

Luke: 35:13

So like that's why I said like this game was so much fun for me. It's almost a little bit of a bummer that I don't see like the replay, because like it was fun while I was playing it. It was fun while I was unraveling the mystery and even though I wasn't like Mr Big Brain here putting all the pieces together when it was all, like when I was watching these videos and while I was doing it, like some of the best TV shows, right, are the ones where you're like what did I just watch? Mean, and you like go on and then you like read about it and then you think about it some more and like that's like some of the best stuff. I really felt that way with this game. When I learned about the different ending, I was like, oh man, there's a different ending. Like this is anticlimactic. Like I just die and everybody around me just seems to die as well. Like I didn't want to do this. So that's why I looked it up and they're like dude.

Alex: 36:00

I had to put 15 hours in that shit.

Luke: 36:02

I was kind of like the fuck, I just died and I killed everybody with me, like, but like when I looked it up, like everything made way more sense and like it was interesting, it was really cool.

Alex: 36:13

I did like I didn't, so I didn't. You know, we obviously play this game over the course of a month, which means that, like I had a, I got pretty into it. But you know, I'm I'm just curious if I would have picked up on that story more, if I would have just like grind it hard you know what I mean. Like, cause there's definitely a couple of days where I'd like not play for three, four days or whatever. And I pick it up and you pick up these little piecemeal like story pieces, and I was starting to figure it out, like I was like, okay, clearly, this I said I didn't put together the pieces, that that you were the collector. I think that's pretty cool and that does make sense. Now that's, that's kind of, that's a fun little mind.

Luke: 36:47

But yeah, I was actually hoping that you wouldn't.

Alex: 36:50

Yeah, I didn't look at it. I was like I'm not gonna look at it so I could kind of see your brain process.

Luke: 36:54

while I explained it I was like I really hope he doesn't do the dive on this one.

Alex: 36:57

Cause.

Luke: 36:58

I thought I thought that really like a game I was already really like really enjoyed. I like didn't love the ending, so I was like sure, and then just that tiny last piece, really like it's like fuck yeah.

Alex: 37:10

That's cool, cause I definitely had figured out that you were. I had assumed, from like the little pieces story I was picking up and like the different notes that I was reading or whatever is that you were basically essentially going to try and bring the collector's wife or partner or whatever back to life. That seemed like kind of what the end game was.

Luke: 37:27

Yeah, and then even when you did that with the collector, like he's like you know we're about to do right and he's like you've known the whole time and you're just like what the fuck's going on here. So like even the dialogue makes way more sense once you know right.

Alex: 37:41

It's one of those things for me. I'm not the type of player that will go back and replay it just to do this, but there was a couple of dialogue options. Because you are given dialogue options, like even talking to, like, the, the light, the, the lighthouse worker, or whatever. There was a like. I can't remember what I chose, but I and she was. I think she got kind of like. She was like why are you lying to me? And then, like you know, got mad or something Like I kind of wish that. You know. Looking back, I wish I would have answered certain things differently, just to have the story unfold just a little bit differently.

Luke: 38:13

I think you really need to find the mayor to get like the true, where is this fucking mayor? It's like the East center, Northeast of the map, so not quite fully Northeast in the lava area or the volcanic area, but like kind of in an island talk to each other. I liked it.

Alex: 38:33

No, it looks cool. It looked cool and everything but that damn fish, that like those little fish that slow your boat down.

Luke: 38:38

I learned how to avoid those way too late.

Alex: 38:41

We just go over the, the volcanic, the volcanic areas, yeah, dude, yeah, but they still, even, even knowing that you can, still the whole mess of them will run into you sometimes yeah, no, they fucked me up a few times.

Luke: 38:52

That was tough.

Alex: 38:53

And we didn't even like run over all the different like boons that you end up getting from the collector, like we did go over the two. But there's, like some of them I didn't even use, so like I used the teleport, I started using that more, but there's another one that like helps ward off like enemies. I haven't used that once.

Luke: 39:10

That's overpowered, because the ones that chase you around it's kind of fun to avoid. I mean, you just hit that and they leave you alone.

Alex: 39:15

They just leave you alone Interesting. So does it have a countdown?

Luke: 39:18

Yeah, so it takes so in the lava area. It doesn't do you too much good, unless you're really about to get fucked.

Luke: 39:24

But like in, the area of the first area you go to with like the two arches or whatever the fuck, the scaling cliffs, that the first fish that like really chases you around and fucks you up. Like it helps with that one. Lastly, one of the fish you go into the classic video game stuff, but you go into the waterfall and there's a cave under the waterfall and that's where you find like the colchalith or one of like those crazy legendary fish.

Alex: 39:49

Nice.

Luke: 39:50

So yeah, that was fun.

Alex: 39:51

So that's the square wall. Man, I will say this game has like the Zelda thing where you can even though we both rolled the credits in the ending it doesn't save at that point, so it saves just before you go off to do that. So like it leaves it open to go get that second ending, which I do appreciate you should do it.

Luke: 40:07

It's fun to see it through.

Alex: 40:09

So you have, you've gotten both endings now.

Luke: 40:11

Mm-hmm. Oh, so you did go find that mirror, yeah, and I can't say that like I didn't do it without. I was able to find them because once I knew he was out there I was like, okay, where haven't I been? Yeah, what's up with that builder?

Alex: 40:26

dude, were you like help her build. She's just like you just build that shit and that's it Pretty much. Yeah, I was like I'll go check on her every once in a while and be like what the fuck the bill are going to do for me.

Luke: 40:35

Nothing. There's some other small stuff like that. Where, like you can, these weird hooded dudes are like bring me this fish, and then they rip the heart out of the fish and eat them.

Alex: 40:45

I'm like some creepy stuff is going to happen and then they're just like.

Luke: 40:47

they're just like thanks, dog and I'm like. I got you three different types of fish and you ate their hearts. This is what else is going to. What Did you do?

Alex: 40:53

any of the like they had, those like altars, almost where you like, put special fish in there and like I didn't think, I didn't get any of those.

Luke: 41:02

Pretty sweet gear for that. Oh yeah, interesting Like, I got a really nice headlamp for the boat. Nice, I got a nice rod that's like small but does a bunch of cool stuff. So like yeah that's worth it Fucking child.

Alex: 41:15

All right, that's cool. Yeah, fucking a select. I'll definitely so. I don't know if I like replay this game, but I'll definitely go in poke around and I'll definitely. I do want to catch that, that second ending and that prefer to do it myself versus looking up the YouTube.

Alex: 41:32

So I think it's a testament to this game. Like I think you know you're asking me earlier. Like you know, I'm hard pressed on what my recommendation would be because, like I wouldn't I wouldn't pitch this game to someone that just doesn't play video games. But if you enjoy video games and you enjoy little stories and stuff, like I think this is a great game.

Luke: 41:48

You're a narrative based individual and for sure, totally, totally, um. Well, all right, that's a wrap.

Alex: 41:55

Cool man.

Luke: 41:56

Let's take a little break and hear from our unsanctioned sponsor today's unsanctioned sponsor isn't necessarily like a rousing support of more, just like a matter of fact. You know it's going to be there and it's just really tap into the Midwest boy vibes. Frozen pizza, my guy oh frozen pizza Fuck yeah. I mean like frozen.

Alex: 42:25

frozen pizza is not tight, it's super tight.

Luke: 42:29

Dip in your frozen, well cooked but previously frozen pizza in ranch to get ultra Midwest up in this bitch.

Alex: 42:36

Yeah, I mean like I don't go out of my way to do that hot sauce for me, boy.

Luke: 42:40

Yeah, I mean, I obviously love hot sauce or hot honey. That's a nice little deal to be thrown on your pizzas. You know that's a nice little deal to be thrown on your pizzas, yeah.

Alex: 42:50

No man, I mean, the ranch is fine. I don't. I don't understand people's obsession with ranch. Put it that way.

Luke: 42:55

I don't understand people's obsession with ketchup dog Like. Why have we decided?

Alex: 42:58

to ketchup.

Luke: 43:00

Ketchup is not the only thing you can dip your chips and fries it into.

Alex: 43:04

Let's settle down on that, dude, I'll dip fries into ketchup. Dude, sriracha is where that for me, like spice. That's basically a spicy ketchup, not like that. But if I'm going to, if I had to choose, like you get ketchup or sriracha, I'll go with sriracha every time.

Luke: 43:16

But yeah, frozen pizzas, I've been told. I mean, if you are a listener from not the Midwest, please let us know if you do frozen pizzas too, if I'm a psycho for thinking that's like our thing, or if it's very common everywhere or not. I know that all like to like. 80% of frozen pizzas come out of like Schwann's company or their affiliates, which is Minnesota.

Luke: 43:33

So like that lines up but like if you're East Coast, you're definitely reviled by our conversation right now, but yeah, frozen pizza. Frozen pizza was invented in the Midwest. Yeah, and I'm like for you know, because it's just Tino's boy.

Alex: 43:45

You know about Tatino's roast, dude, unless we're talking rolls. Yeah, fair enough, rolls, dude. First of all, you can't hate, because my spot to Tino's for us and it was fire. I love that snack too. It is wack. It is wack frozen pizza. But it was the first man, that's. That's what's up. Yeah, I think she sold to like general who's Hormel who does? Who owns them? Now I can't remember her name. But Tatino's is this restaurant in Minnesota and, lady Tatino, I don't fucking have facts and shit. I'm just telling you some stuff that.

Luke: 44:16

I read the other day Sounds made up, dude.

Alex: 44:19

You look it up to Tino's, minnesota. Some lady in her husband I think, did some like weird Italian restaurant here in Minnesota. They started fucking making these frozen pizzas. She patented that crust, that flaky like crust or whatever, and then, like dude, don't tell you bullshit, Tino's Dude. But we needed that cardboard bullshit to get to where we are now with some delicious like lots of matzas. What else we got out there?

Luke: 44:43

I'm a judgey little bitch and I went to grocery store and I see you checking out and you got all the cheapy frozen pizzas. And you're an adult, I'm a judge somewhere.

Alex: 44:50

man, I used to be jacks all day just because I was fucking poor.

Luke: 44:55

I'd be judging folk in the grocery store. I'm like we got to get them high brand. I had a Connie's today. I'd say Connie's is pretty good. All right, all right, that sounded judgy, but we all move on from that. I got a breakfast frozen pizza in the fridge right or freezer right now. I'm pretty excited Bus.

Alex: 45:10

That boy open right Breakfast pizzas fucking lit way better than as business being. Dude, I'm trying to think you were hating on Bella Toria, but I love me some Bella Toria, dude. Bella Toria is fucking hate.

Luke: 45:22

Not it as much as like it's one of those deals where we got a lot of it first ban of time.

Alex: 45:27

I think I said Jackson, I was part of Roma. Dude, roma is when I was real poor Roma tombstone.

Luke: 45:37

I'm judging all your asses for those Just Jack's.

Alex: 45:40

Jack's is like here's a deal as far as I fucked up a jacks.

Luke: 45:44

Yeah, have I juxtaped up all of them, but I'm better than that now you throw a jacks on a grill, bro.

Alex: 45:49

You know about that.

Luke: 45:51

I've never heard of it, but I've done it once or twice. I'm not going to do it. All right, that's all.

Alex: 45:58

No man, tell me about you dipping it like fucking new hot sauce and shit. Rosalina Winifred Krushiani, rose Tatino. That has seven names. Rosalina Winifred Krushiani, rose Tatino.

Luke: 46:13

Dude, we were driving.

Alex: 46:14

American entrepreneur and pizza Ria owner, whose frozen pizza business, co-founded with her husband, became the foundation for the Tatino's brand.

Luke: 46:23

Now it feels like a triple-clips podcast when they have the advertising for their network and they're always like there's always this voice, I do. You want a podcast about breeds of cats?

Alex: 46:34

Do you want a?

Luke: 46:34

podcast that just talks about different types of frozen pizza.

Alex: 46:38

She sold the Pillsbury, bro. That's a general meals brand, general meals, awesome Minnesota company. So fuck yeah, we got that frozen pizza on lock bro.

Luke: 46:46

Pills riled up, let's go.

Alex: 46:49

I'm hungry, I'm skinned. I'm not agree. I do love a frozen pizza, though I'll fuck one up. Yeah, brought to you unofficially, in part by frozen pizza have you not eaten frozen? Pizza. I don't know, it's probably because you live in New York and can get pizza by the slices, fucking delicious.

Luke: 47:07

Not better than us, you're not better than us. So, hey, welcome back. Hopefully you had some time to preheat that oven during the unsanctioned sponsor. Al, you didn't hit the outline with any games. What have you been playing for? Our side question?

Alex: 47:34

Dredge man. My life's been busy. I've been dredging in real life, been going out to the waters throwing in my nets.

Luke: 47:41

Resurrecting my dead wife.

Alex: 47:44

No, I'm playing man, I've been playing mostly dredge. When it comes to the video games I did play, I picked Zelda back up. I'm ashamed to say I'm not even ashamed, but you dropped it the other day and in passing that, you beat Zelda. So I was like don't mean to like steal your, don't mean to steal your thunder on.

Luke: 48:00

I had other games to talk about, but yeah, I have thoughts on Zelda and it's a great game.

Alex: 48:05

Yeah, dude, so I've continued it. I know that last time, like, I pretty much put it down to take a break, I picked that one back up and been fucking around with it a little bit but having like I'm still not anywhere near the end on there, so I'll continue to be playing that one and then dredge and then. You know, that's pretty much. That's pretty much it for my, for my gaming, but I'm going to do in some some other side quest. You don't want to go see the Barbie movie? That was pretty lit, not going to lie. A lot of fun, a lot of fun with that one. Like I don't understand the whole like backlash against, like if you can't handle like any of the messaging in the Barbie, like I just feel bad for all the women in your life. That's what I have to say about that. Luke hasn't seen yet, but you'll understand someday.

Luke: 48:46

I just the internet's always upset about some Zoll. Yeah, fair enough, fair enough, it's my preemptive. Some of the people got offended by the Mario movie. That's the most few dick with this movie I think I've ever seen.

Alex: 48:57

So I don't know what the hell. We also went to a little block, the pizza speaking of pizzas pizza lute block party the other night. That was a lot of fun. Get some, some live music. So we got the cactus blossoms as well as bad bad hats, which are a couple of Minnesota bands that have some some national draw, but they're they're, they're a lot of fun. Man, I've seen a lot of music in my life and those are a couple that my wife Anna is especially into and has been in the rotation a lot as of late, like the last year, I would say. So it's fun to see them, cause we've been trying to see not like aggressively trying to see either of those bands, but it's always like, oh shit, we missed them somewhere, or like it'd be fun to see them but we got something else going on. So it's cool to knock both those off the list. A ton, of ton of fun to see them and just to get out and see some live music.

Luke: 49:45

Bro, speaking of live music, I also saw the queen Bay dude. I went to go see Beyonce Dude. That was pretty lit too.

Alex: 49:55

I'm not going to lie. Tcf bank state no, they call it something else. Man, huntington Bay stadium, but it's a, it's the university of Minnesota is a football stadium. She played there pretty much filled that thing Super dude, some of the like I said, I've seen a lot of music.

Alex: 50:08

I've seen a lot of cool shows, like probably you know like I've seen a lot of like. I've seen a lot of shows like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like football shows like probably the dopest production I've ever seen. Like, to be honest, like fucking, there's a lot of shit going on. She's got like a lot of cool dancers, got a lot of cool shit like the screens doing awesome stuff and she's just, she's amazing man.

Alex: 50:31

And I have seen Beyonce before. That was not my first time, but I saw her and and Jay Z on the on the run tour, so it was interesting to see her solo because she does outfit changes and all that shit. So like there's definitely you're definitely occupied during when she goes to do our off it changes. But like I kind of miss when, like on the run tour, dude, when, like you know, beyonce would be doing her off it change where the fuck she goes off to do it, and then Jay Z would go and play. I get to listen to some Jay. That was dope. So you know, I kind of like that about the other run tour. I missed that a little bit, but the shit was still dope.

Luke: 51:07

Bird. So back to video games.

Alex: 51:11

I'm trying to think. I know I've been playing a little also. Pranose man, I heard talking about that last time yeah, it's not a video game. I heard there is a PS2 Sprunos game.

Luke: 51:19

Yeah, video game. Dunky did some on it recently, but nice. You could, you could do that I'm not finished, man.

Alex: 51:25

I am on season six, which is the final season, but they split that season into a six A and six B, and I'm probably about half to a little over halfway through six A. So I still got a bit to go, but that's. That's been a lot of fun, oh I want to do a say hey, oh, when I see people now.

Luke: 51:42

I thought you're about to kick into the Arthur theme. I was like what is happening? Where is your mind at? Yeah, no, I'm sure you got a real 90s, early 2000s, italian mobster vibe going on in your inner time.

Alex: 51:58

I do. It's fucking ridiculous. And my last major side quest is just like you know, I've been doing yard work. Bro. I got to do yard work now and that's like a weird thing, because I never used to like doing yard work. But I live in my wife and I bought this house, so I got into the yard and I'm out there like fucking mowing the lawn edge with my wee whip and shit and I look at that shit and I'm like fuck, yeah, there's some real life.

Luke: 52:25

You trade that shit into Tom and Timmy and Tommy and get your fucking bells done.

Alex: 52:31

I'm fucking wish.

Luke: 52:33

Yeah.

Luke: 52:34

All right Well next month you're going to talk to us about how you also played Venba, because I've been. I've been really annoying Alex off off air to play this game with his wife, specifically because he likes to occasionally try to rope her into some games, and I did the same with my wife. I haven't always been particularly successful, but two games we played last year were unpacking and now Venba, and I think both of them are great to play alongside with someone. Venba is a bit more a direct. It is about a Indian family that moves to Canada and they raise a son and you do some cooking with your mom and the cooking little mini game. Things are pretty interesting. The art's cool, the story is pretty beautiful. It's a nice little passage on parenting, which is why I think Alex should should play along, you know, with his wife.

Luke: 53:23

So that's on Game Pass for any of you out there. I don't think it's a particularly expensive game. Outside of it. I kind of like that. It's only like a few hour games, though, like I called Dredge, a short king, this, this game's even shorter. It's a bite size game. So just a game you can play in a sitting or two with someone else or by yourself, and I just strongly recommend you're not going to play too many things like it. It makes you hungry, especially if you're a fan of Indian food like myself. So very strong recommend. And then another one that I've had my eye on forever but I didn't end up buying it on the PC and I haven't been playing PC games much at all, but it actually dropped on Game Pass.

Luke: 54:06

Two is the Wandering Village and you it's a city builder where you're basically on top of this big old fucking turtle in this post-apocalyptic world. So you'd be roaming around as this turtle You're not the turtle, you're the people on top of the turtles back and you got to like basically maintain your relationship with the turtle, the turtles health, your own resources and toxicity. So there's like a greater overworld. You're on top of the turtles back and the turtles roaming around the world. So it runs into these different poison patches and other little obstacles that you kind of got to see ahead of time and mitigate and like, if you have a good relationship with the turtle, you can tell it to walk in different paths and sometimes you can avoid stuff.

Luke: 54:46

But the game definitely does like ramp up in difficulty as you wander around and you build up and you got your classics, supply chain stuff going on. You know you're doing you're gathering vegetables and making farms and then making kitchens and then these different jobs and like I love that type of game. I don't think it's pretty big mystery here, but I think that the flavoring is particularly cool. So like, even if you're not like a big crunchy city builder type person, this might be your entry point into a game of the like, because I think the challenge and the coolness, I think a lot of people really love that whole relationship between you and the turtle and how cool and symbolic that is. So I actually that was like a nice 10 to 15.

Luke: 55:30

So I played dredge pretty hardcore and then I had this gap where I didn't know what to do with myself because we only do one game a month and then I played with a wandering village like pretty hardcore for like 10, 15 hours and it's an early access still, which I didn't. I think it's kind of interesting that early access games are going to the box and stuff. I didn't they call it a game.

Alex: 55:51

I'm sure they get a bunch of probably get a bunch of data from that, so it makes sense.

Luke: 55:56

Yes, it's cool, so I've done most of what you can do right now. I didn't look at the roadmap at the time, but I'm curious. You know, maybe I'll come back when it's fully fleshed out, but it's a super sick game. So if you have game pass you should definitely give it a try. I got you on another one that I would explain in a similar way, where it's kind of like a city builder that's not for just city builder folks. As airborne kingdom, do you remember trying that one out for a little bit?

Alex: 56:22

Yeah, I have it. I never got into it for whatever reason. It's really pretty though.

Luke: 56:28

Yeah, so that also just dropped on game pass too. So yeah, no, those are. Those are the two big ones. And then you know there's just sleigh of spires back in session. I don't know how that happened. Been playing way too much of that, so just living it up, dude, and going to Beyonce concerts. No, I'm not fucking around.

Alex: 56:44

So, ben, nice side quests, thank you. So should we. So we, I think I got figured out. I think I know what we're doing. I'm just going to go with it. Dude, donkey Kong Country, let's make it happen. Sending it? Okay, sending it, I want to do it. There's a couple other games that I was playing with, but Starfield's coming, and my other game that I really was going back and forth between is Prime, and I would like to do Prime, but I feel like I don't want to move from Prime into Starfield Now that they're going to be the same at all. But there are similarities in the sense that you know space and shooting.

Luke: 57:26

Yeah, I've been hesitant to play games like Fallout or even other Bethesda games because I'm like, will I burn out on the formula? So I've been trying to find like different games like that that aren't quite there. But yeah, you don't want to burn out on two spacey of vibes. So I think Donkey Kong Country is a classic man. It'll be cool.

Alex: 57:44

Yeah, let's see. Let's see if you can do it without a rewind boy. Certainly not doing that. No, you're welcome, use the rewind man. I think that's a cool thing. I'm not sure what platform I'll play it on. I might do it on the switch, I might do it. I have so many possibilities, man, so many, all right. Well, thanks everybody. Thanks for listening to this episode. Thanks for tuning in once again, holler Addison, the Discord, send us an email at hello at low five gaming dot com. Hit us on the socials or just fucking listen to more episodes and don't ever talk to us. I don't care. No, I do. I mean I care if you, if you want to shoot us a message?

Alex: 58:21

you're welcome to hey man, if you, if you don't like, that's cool too. We appreciate you either way. We love you and with that we'll talk to you next time All right, Peace everybody.