Low Five Gaming

Gris

December 15, 2023 Studio Low Five Episode 29
Gris
Low Five Gaming
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Low Five Gaming
Gris
Dec 15, 2023 Episode 29
Studio Low Five

Alex and Luke talk Gris.

Gris is a visually stunning and emotionally evocative platformer game developed by Nomada Studio and published by Devolver Digital. In this game, players explore a serene yet melancholic world, unfolding a narrative about personal growth and overcoming hardship. Released in December 2018, Gris has been celebrated for its breathtaking artwork, poignant storytelling, and innovative gameplay mechanics. As of recording, Gris had an 83 Metacritic score.

According to howlongtobeat.com, completing Gris takes about 4 hours, but for those seeking to fully immerse in its world and uncover all its secrets, it could extend further.

Alex and Luke journeyed through the beautiful landscapes of Gris, experiencing its unique blend of art and narrative. They played on the Nintendo Switch and Xbox Series X, each captivated by the game's visual and auditory artistry.

Check out 'How Gris Made You Cry With Its Colors' by Daryl Talks Games for a great breakdown of Gris' colors, music, etc. 

This episode is unofficially brought to you in part real trees and  chicken parm.

Support the Show.

Visit us at LowFiveGaming.com.

Join the Low Five Discord!

Email us at hello@lowfivegaming.com.

Theme music is by AJ Norman. Design assets were created by Studio Day Job.

Low Five Gaming is a Studio Low Five Production.

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Show Notes Transcript Chapter Markers

Alex and Luke talk Gris.

Gris is a visually stunning and emotionally evocative platformer game developed by Nomada Studio and published by Devolver Digital. In this game, players explore a serene yet melancholic world, unfolding a narrative about personal growth and overcoming hardship. Released in December 2018, Gris has been celebrated for its breathtaking artwork, poignant storytelling, and innovative gameplay mechanics. As of recording, Gris had an 83 Metacritic score.

According to howlongtobeat.com, completing Gris takes about 4 hours, but for those seeking to fully immerse in its world and uncover all its secrets, it could extend further.

Alex and Luke journeyed through the beautiful landscapes of Gris, experiencing its unique blend of art and narrative. They played on the Nintendo Switch and Xbox Series X, each captivated by the game's visual and auditory artistry.

Check out 'How Gris Made You Cry With Its Colors' by Daryl Talks Games for a great breakdown of Gris' colors, music, etc. 

This episode is unofficially brought to you in part real trees and  chicken parm.

Support the Show.

Visit us at LowFiveGaming.com.

Join the Low Five Discord!

Email us at hello@lowfivegaming.com.

Theme music is by AJ Norman. Design assets were created by Studio Day Job.

Low Five Gaming is a Studio Low Five Production.

Speaker 1:

Welcome to another episode of low five gaming. This is Alex, and I'm joined by my brother and co host Luke.

Speaker 2:

Hello, hello, I'm Doad. Welcome to the avant garde of gaming podcasts. Alex, out here picking games being like. In case you didn't know, I had an art minor in college, so here we're playing grease. It is true for gray, and it's a game about emotions and all of these things. Would you like to know about all these things? We don't shoot things and play sports. Good, we play artsy games. My name is Alex.

Speaker 1:

That was good man, we can send it. I've been loading that up all week.

Speaker 2:

I just want you to know that it's like I'm on a roast and for picking an artsy games and being a little fucking to tootsie fruity what's the word I'm looking for? Just like an artsy, fartsy guy.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, dope as fuck, man. Come on Sure, this game is sick. It is artsy, though it is artsy.

Speaker 2:

I was like who's this guy? I think he is, so this is where I am going so I'm going to give it a shot of high five.

Speaker 1:

Oh, I'll look out my way. No, you're not gonna miss it. Yeah, I know. Yeah, that's wonderful, and you hit a lot of the beats man. It's also a Spanish game, the developers are out of Barcelona and it's, it's, it's dope man, it's a full vibe.

Speaker 2:

Art major minor that ran away to live in Spain for a while. Here's the game that capitalizes on my journey across the world. Follow me, guys, for my journey.

Speaker 1:

Get a lot of, a lot of, a lot of deep cuts about, about Alex's life in this episode.

Speaker 2:

I don't know, it could all be made up. Maybe I'm just being a dick.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, but Gris man are. I've been calling this game Gris or Gris for like probably a couple years, and then I realized that it's Greece, the Spanish word for gray, and I felt kind of silly.

Speaker 2:

The first time I heard it called Grisa is like that feels gross. I don't like it. It's a weird calling or grease. I was like man if you mix the English and the Spanish, I guess in this instance it doesn't feel good. Yeah, not great but, I think it's a great game, man.

Speaker 1:

I think it's a really great game, but you're right, there is no combat. I guess you'd call it a platformer, not really a walking sim kind of is it an action platformer, though a little bit.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I'd call it like an environmental puzzle, walking sim platformer, I guess yeah, I thought it was brand new dude. I just when you picked it it was on Game Pass, so I just assumed it was like a new release. And then I saw it was on sale somewhere and I was like a new game. And now you've known about it for years.

Speaker 2:

So I mean I guess it's been floating around in the indie art scene for a while. And you know, I just you know, layman, like me you know capital G gamers we don't know about this cool fancy stuff. So you've just been, you know, playing this game at coffee shops and stuff for the last few years, or what, how'd you? How'd you even know about it?

Speaker 1:

And for the avid listener of low five gaming. I had got a big old boner for Devolver Digital. So sure, when I started going down the devolver rabbit hole, I discovered Greece, because it is published by Devolver the development studios Nomada Studios, barcelona. Yeah man, it's another devolver joints. We got to get a hold of Devolver. Give us some of that Devolver money, because we just keep hawking these Devolver games.

Speaker 2:

But I tell you what man. Thank you for reaching out dudes. Right, glad to know you're a fan.

Speaker 1:

I wonder about some new games you can buy from us Right.

Speaker 2:

How about Angerfoot? Yeah, we will continue to release good games you will buy and talk about but man, they do have a couple of ones.

Speaker 1:

But I digress, dude, this is about Greece and you know. So I have started this game maybe two, maybe three times, and I wouldn't say I bounced off of it because it wasn't like I wasn't enjoying it, it's just like the game's a vibe right and it doesn't take very long to beat. It takes roughly five hours to complete, I would say, if you're just going at it. But the thing is is I would play about two, three hours and I would just start playing something else. There's something about having a podcast feels like homework. Sometimes I didn't really feel like this was homework.

Speaker 2:

In a good way. It felt like homework, yeah.

Speaker 1:

So this game, this game, it was like good homework. You know, when you're like enjoying the subject and you're feeling real good about whatever you're working on. That's how this one was for me, man. I gave me an excuse to like actually play through to the credits and see the whole thing, because I probably, as you play through you, start to unlock all these colors.

Speaker 1:

There's a lot of really cool things that the developers did in this game where they play around with the colors and music and they tie in with this idea of the stages of grief, right, and we have a couple episodes on education that I encourage folks to go back in the backlog and check out, but in which episode? I can't remember which episode we mentioned, but I think I mentioned this game being a good one to use in the classroom and I think that could still be true. You know, if you're, if you're covering, like this, ages of grief or something like that, but I do think that you would need to bring a ton of context because, even though, as a teacher, you'd have to bring a pretty heavy hand along with each chapter, so to speak, or else, I like the game a lot.

Speaker 1:

It's beautiful right off the bat and I didn't get that man like if I didn't know that this is what they're playing. I knew it was about some deep shit.

Speaker 2:

You can catch the vibe that it was about some deep shit or something, but I felt pretty dumb as I played it. I'm like am I supposed to?

Speaker 1:

know about some Because they're not feeding it to you they're really letting you, the player kind of figure it out. Figure out your journey, right?

Speaker 2:

You posted a nice little companion video that kind of explains the game in the greater detail. And then I laughed to myself, as I was like it's like 22 minutes long and I laughed to myself as I was listening to it and I was like what if this dude's just wrong?

Speaker 2:

and the developers like I don't know dude. I was like red, I'm sure it's right and I'm sure it's been confirmed in other places. Aside from what the game actually means, playing it I would describe it as meditative in a way like it's very beautiful, you kind of get swept away. It's very relaxing. There is not a lot of tension and I mean that in the sense. Right, but like you don't die you don't lose you don't? There's no life count, or anything like that.

Speaker 1:

There's no life count.

Speaker 2:

I don't think any of the things that are like your antagonists, so to speak. Your. What is it? Is it the dread, or is it the sorrow, or whatever the metaphorically speaking, like the bird or the giant eel thing? I'm not sure if they can actually ever catch you, because I never actually did get caught by them, but the point I'm generally making is you, play this on Game Pass.

Speaker 1:

Right, I did too. I have it on the switch. I bought it on the switch, but I ended up playing on Game Pass for a couple different reasons, but I got a chivo for not getting caught by the eel, so I'm curious if you can slip up there, just such a good fucking gamer dude.

Speaker 2:

What can I say? Just battle that grief so fucking hard, yeah, no. So it's really cool. It's a nice change of pace in games. But I bring this all up because I can understand how you could bounce off of it if you didn't have like an end goal in mind of like finishing the game to talk about it and like being able to say you beat it because, like you just kind of vibe with it, so I can see like enjoying it and then just getting caught up in more addicting games or games with more clear outcomes and less interpretation. Because as I played it, man, I really like to mix it up with other games I was playing and I just vibe out and I play it for like the last half hour hour before I went to bed and that was a really that was a nice vibe.

Speaker 1:

Nice man. We've mentioned a couple of times now, like the vibe, the art style, the music. How would you describe this art style that got going on here?

Speaker 2:

Well, I'm gonna like kind of merge the art style with the gameplay, because I'm not an art minor, I don't really know enough about art styles to really be vibing, but I've only played like a half an hour of journey, but it reminds me a lot of the game journey oh, that's another one that might have to hit the pot eventually, because that's another one I started and haven't finished and it reminds me of a lot of the game Inside, if you heard.

Speaker 2:

Inside and I think Limbo is the other one. Yep, these games were. It's like side to side journey is not, but it's just like you're moving along with the music, and then the art is so vibrant and I have no idea how to describe it. Did you have something in mind? Because I thought I would come to my brain as I talked and it did not Loatest in your bro Did not load.

Speaker 1:

Oh yeah. So it's definitely got a watercolor vibe to it and almost feels like a live-action watercolor to me it's. It's got this hand-drawn style and I would say that the characters and some of the environmental stuff has a very like studio Ghibli vibe to it. They especially grease herself, I would.

Speaker 2:

I would say I was found it more like Arabic to Middle Eastern.

Speaker 1:

Sure sure, they also has a like a bit of a Dolly vibe to it. You know, I think in some, some interviews, the developers Salvador Dolly, correct yes for a simple folk.

Speaker 2:

Still feel pretty, pretty bougie for being able to say that even yes, sir, I do.

Speaker 1:

I do believe that's been.

Speaker 2:

Slaying basis. But you know, I've heard of the Dolly with the clocks and the melting things Right, right.

Speaker 1:

So a lot of that environmental stuff has a Dolly vibe, and I think the developers have gotten as far as as much to say so that they were inspired by both of those things the Studio Ghibli in the Dolly, yeah, yeah. So I mean, you see that flavor, so like, and that's something that I definitely agree with and I see that after I read that. But for me, it truly is this like live-action watercolor, like that's what I get about of it, the spec, because you have this movement of the colors and it really does look like like watercolor and there's lots of splashes, totally, and then, as you're playing, as I was playing this game dude, it's super heady, but I definitely had this vibe, like the way that the game plays.

Speaker 1:

I felt like you're almost walking through, like an emus, like a digital museum exhibit, like not in the sense that like here's a painting here, here's a painting here, but like it felt to me like I don't know, like like a Encompassing live exhibit. Dude, it was nuts. It was like it was like an artistic video game. It's super heady, I get it, but like, dude, it's a vibe.

Speaker 2:

It was cool. It does feel kind of silly to say like it's an interactive art exhibit, but that's kind of how it was, because that leads into the whole thing that we talked about, with, like the low tension, some light puzzling where you were never like, oh my god, what do I do here? Like you could find it out pretty easily, and it was never about challenges, more about just kind of like experiencing it as you went, feeling the different emotions or feeling the different art, just kind of take you where it was taking, even if you didn't fully understand it, which, if you're a simpleton like myself and you've been to an art museum, it's kind of how art goes. Man. You just I don't know what I'm feeling.

Speaker 1:

I was an Amsterdam once and I was I was behaving Never mind.

Speaker 2:

I spoke to the weed dude.

Speaker 1:

I spoke to the weed. None of my friends wanted to smoke weed, they just wanted to go to pub. I was like, hey, man, we're in Amsterdam, I'm gonna get fucking faded, and so I did right but then.

Speaker 1:

Dude, I gosh, just a young boy in Amsterdam, so. But we go. So we go to the van, go museum dude, and I have a. I have a little bowl and, like some nugs, a weed in my pocket and I get out and I'm high so I get all nervous that I'm gonna get caught with this weed. And then I and then like when I got to security I was like, oh yeah, it's legal here. And then it's just like no, it's totally chill right now.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, come on, he's like kind of but whatever, fuck out of my face, right, right.

Speaker 1:

Right, but, dude, I bring up the story because I'm in there and I'm looking at all these paintings by van go is one of my favorite artists. I love impressionism, which is probably like why I like this game so much. But I'm looking at this painting and I'm just vibing with it. Yeah, yeah, vibing with this painting, and I'm starting to think, I'm like thinking about what this painting means and like all this stuff. And then I look over at the little synopsis and I fucking nailed it, dude.

Speaker 2:

Hoping. It was just like dog was tripping. He has no idea what this is about and I was like I know all the deep meanings.

Speaker 1:

No, I don't even know how deep I can. Like, this is years ago, dude. This is like probably 15 years ago or some shit. So like I don't really know. But like, but, dude, I don't remember what the thing was about. I don't think it was that deep, I think it was pretty easy to figure out, but it's like no is sad.

Speaker 2:

I was like he uses lots of blues, he's probably sad. Right that's fun.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, totally. But like you know, so like the, the art in this game is really cool and it integrates with the music really well too. And I also want to note about that whole watercolor, like live-action, museum-esque art style is that they use this cool art animation style similar to the original Disney animation, right, like the drawings that they did for the character grease herself and like the running animation. It's the very same style that they use in some of the early Disney stuff. So you get kind of that cool like old cartoony vibe thing going on too with the running and everything, which is kind of a fun fact. And another cool thing that couples with art is the music, right.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, it's beautiful.

Speaker 1:

It is do. The music is again such a vibe it's very haunting, like it's got that. It hits all these feelings through, all these emotions, like five stages of grief Really well, and it's also interactive with how you play, so like if you're running on I don't know like I know. When we first started playing this, I recommended to folks in the discord to Definitely play this game with With the sound on, and I hope and I hope that you did.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, this was not a podcast game for me, although, as I got frustrated towards the end I was like rap this shit up. I was like tempted to because it's one of those things. I thought it was done and they're like no, explore this area now. And I was like, but that looked like it was the ending.

Speaker 1:

I know you hit me up and you're like you hit up the discord. You're like, honest, met a friend because you meet this cool little like dude in the in the green area and I was like, yeah, you got some time to go.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, that was. That's not what I was talking about, but that was a cute oh we're. You said studio jibbly. At first I was like not really, but then I kind of remembered that little creature thing. Yeah, I kind of get it. The characters.

Speaker 1:

For sure, man, but the so stuff, yeah. So like there's cool things to happen and like there's different things, there's like metrovania vibes to this game, right.

Speaker 2:

So, like there's these, there's metrovania elements to the game.

Speaker 1:

Look at the fuck out of here, dude there's. You literally cannot go to certain areas until you do certain things like collect little star keys, that kind of deal Like you also get turned to an area.

Speaker 2:

You're like it's linear.

Speaker 1:

I. There's not huge backtracking, but there are a couple spots like you can't like. Get past certain deals until you unlock addresses. Dude, you're wrong.

Speaker 2:

Dude you like wrong.

Speaker 1:

You don't get games. You're stupid, wrong Dude. You have to like. So your dress end up unlocking different features. Like you get this big square, like you turn into a big rock and you can like break through like. I do realize that, yes, you don't have to do major backtracking. It doesn't like close things off as heavily as it would in something like Metroid, but there are slight metrovania elements to this game.

Speaker 2:

Typical progression, dog. Like you never go to a thing you can't get past, like Until you get your ability, like it's right there and then you can get past the thing like it's not. Like oh, I see, I'll come back to this later it's like it's very super linear, straightforward, so wrong. I disagree, dude. I get the point you're trying to make and it does lead into like each chapter you seem to eventually get like a new ability. So your dress turns into this big block square brute force thing which is pretty cool To talk about.

Speaker 2:

The music. Like the wind sweeps you away and the music gets all intense in this one scene early on and the only Way you can get past that is to turn into the stone and kind of push your way through it essentially that. And like you drop on things to break things. It's kind of part of that action platforming puzzle piece. There's the swim in the water one you eventually get to sing, which brings elements of the environment around you to life and changes the map, so to speak. That's pretty cool. What am I missing? That? There's a double jump. Because it's a video game have to have a double jump. Yeah, you mentioned the singing, right? Is that what?

Speaker 2:

you said yeah, kind of unlocks and changes the environment around the environment. For sure, I think that's it.

Speaker 1:

I'm right, and those are all things, along with the colors that we mentioned. You know, like this, this idea of like emotional growth that Greece is is experiencing throughout this game and again, that's not something you'd necessarily pick up on. It was like kind of cool to learn about this, right, because it's once you hear that you're like, oh yeah, all right, all right, but it's it's not spoon fed to you, man, like it's, it's pretty heady.

Speaker 2:

I'd say it's obscure 99% of the time.

Speaker 1:

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 2:

I never knew it was going on. I was just like this feels heavy.

Speaker 1:

So if you, understand, if you, if you understand some stuff about color theory and stuff, like it makes a little bit more sense, so like it starts out in this like everything's gray right. So it's like this idea of like me a little bit.

Speaker 1:

Well, the easy one, easy one be I've gray, like a sadness, you know, lost whatever. Yeah, so you know this idea and then like and then the next big color that you is is red. And red is often like coupled with Frustration, anger, like I saw red, right, that type of deal, yeah, and so it's cool. And then they, like, you know you got those colors playing into those ideas. And then you mentioned, like the big block, like thing that the dress does, like that you had to fight through when, like the whole screen, like it's blown sand around turning red and stuff, and you have to like, actually just force yourself to push through this, this thing, and then you go into green, which can represent new life, things like that.

Speaker 2:

You've got blue, yellow, the video. Man said bargaining. You know, I was like fucking sure dude.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that makes sense, that's what.

Speaker 2:

I was feeling when I was playing that area I'm smart.

Speaker 1:

Depression is a blue thing too, you know. So, like intense sadness, withdrawal, and then yellow can can represent Coming to term, like acceptance, right, and so as you progress through the game, you hit all these different stages of grief. This is kind of a cool. It's a cool progression.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I think your character's mad that McRib is gone.

Speaker 1:

She might be. How. What do you think dude like this is? Do you think that? What do you think her deal was? Why is she going through?

Speaker 2:

all this. Perhaps I'm a simpleton, but I would imagine it's like a lost child or something, although I didn't see any imageries of children, so I guess that would have been more heavy-handed. You know, there's always like the big statue lady, and you're always in the hand of the exatulating.

Speaker 1:

I think that's you when you're such like shatters and everything too. It's pretty interesting and such back together Like there's a lot of stuff, like a lot, there's a heady game dude. It's like on surface level it's a little never, but then as you start to look at all the pieces, it's cool.

Speaker 2:

I wouldn't be surprised that the developers just wanted to touch on the topic and then the color theory thing you're talking about, and then they didn't necessarily have it's a very deep story, but I don't think it's a specific story. If that makes sense, like I think, the grief is the story, yeah, so it's ambiguous. They don't they don't.

Speaker 1:

They don't necessarily say it starts off like she has this, like grease has this beautiful voice, and you lose the voice, you kind of lose everything and then as you progress, you like work through these stages of grease or grief, grease works through these stages of grief and then by the end she gets her voice back and you end up, you end up like you know, getting through everything, but it's a, it's a journey and it's not clear-cut.

Speaker 1:

I, I'm interested, dude, I think it's. I can't tell and I'm not sure if it's supposed to represent Her dying and her acceptance with with dying, or if it's loss of something, like you said, like a loss of a daughter or son or like child, whatever like, or something like that, or or simply like who knows like but who? Who knows what her stages agree, like why she's grieving, but but I think there's, you know, I think it could be. I think when I look at it, when I play, almost like, I feel like she's pushing through the grief of her own death, like I feel like she's like coming to terms with that. But that's just my interpretation. I.

Speaker 2:

Didn't even think of that, simply because I didn't think of anything, because I'm not very smart, but I Guess, abstractly, I didn't think that you could grieve your own death. You're dead. But we're artsy here. So we got to be a little less straightforward and practical. You know, it's the inner German to me, but you're dead. There's no grieving death, you are dead. No, I can see that the singing, though like what took away the singing? So like maybe it's something like you know your ability and your singing brings life into the world. So you know, once again, maybe you brought some life into the world and then that was taken from you and you don't want to bring any more life into the world.

Speaker 1:

So who knows man. And speaking of the singing we mentioned, the music being really good. It's done by a composer Berlinist is the name and it's a lot of piano to orchestral arrangements and then you have like kind of this abstract singing that Greece does. It's all really cool, man, it's a vibe. Earlier, I was saying that you know it works with your environment. So there's certain areas where, like where you're running along and you might hear some piano keys to the footsteps, like it's a I always love when a game incorporates music so well. That way, when you can actually interact with the game and get you know the music plays along is always kind of a cool thing and it definitely lends into that whole meditative state that you're playing in like that low.

Speaker 2:

I actually really enjoyed that low resistance and that low tension and the music really played into that, even when the stakes were higher and the music was more intense. It was kind of exciting. But also I wasn't like oh my God, oh my God. It was just all kind of part of the experience, that little art box exhibit diorama you're speaking of earlier.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and when this game dropped it was, you know, received a lot of critical praise. Players really enjoyed it. It didn't like set the world on fire or whatever, but it definitely has a cult following praise for its art, music treatment and all the you know, the themes of grief that we've been discussing. It also receives some awards for its artistic direction and sound design. So it's you know, it is a it is an artsy game, my friend.

Speaker 2:

You imagine playing this as like a teenager and I'd be like what the fuck?

Speaker 1:

Maybe, man, it's like it's low action. I think you've got to be ready, man. I think you got to be and I put a. I put a call out to the Instagram to see what people's experiences are playing with this game, and one of the homies did hit me up and was saying something on the lines of kind of a game that I think they played on the download, just because it was. It's not like. I mean, it's not your call of duty, man. Like the younger people are, they might give you some shit. If they watch, you know they see you playing some artsy game over your shoulder or whatever, depending on your circles.

Speaker 2:

I mean, yeah, if you're, if you're living with the dudes or in a college dorm, you're knocking back. Dude, I was just. I was going to stay in a place, some grease. And if you're just some stupid teenage boy, I doubt you're playing it. Maybe you know, I don't know. So it's definitely a game made for adults.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

The gameplay is out of the reach of like a young adult or a child, but, like I, just it's funny. When I play games like this, I'm just like there's so many stages in my life. I'd have no time for this. Even when Journey came out, like I, I know other people that played it and told me to play it because it's really cool and like the whole core concept that you discover when you beat that game is.

Speaker 2:

unfortunately, I've had it spoiled for me already, but similar that I haven't finished it, man, okay, similar to Death Stranding, how like the whole Death Stranding thing is like the connectivity in the playing of other people and how that's just such a heavy concept. But like how many? When I played that game Journey, I was like this is cool but I don't see what the point is and I just wasn't a stage of my life where like games didn't need to have like a specific blatant goal or point. You know what I mean.

Speaker 2:

It's interesting to play a game. That's a different experience and it's definitely it's not the reason I love Game Pass, man. It's just like here's an experience for you, man, here's three to five hours. Starfield flopped story for another day, but you know, what we are delivering is nice little heater experiences. So I was high powered machine and I play artsy, fartsy, non-high powered games on it.

Speaker 1:

Nothing I love about this game is just the fact that it did spark a bunch of conversations. We've been our own conversation here about, you know, men are men are out, and we didn't get super into it. But this game does by default, you know, encourage folks to think about those things and to talk about them, and you don't always get that in video games, man?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, it would be a cool game to like play with a friend or a partner. It'd be a cool game to like talk to somebody about, although, because it's so obscure, it might be difficult to like share your opinions on what's going on, because if I wouldn't have done the necessary research, I would have been like huh yeah for sure.

Speaker 2:

The way I consume the game. You can talk about levels and you can talk about specific moments, but it kind of blends together because it is so vibey and meditative and just like this brief experience that's heavy but like I don't remember a ton of specific stages and moments like the colors, those are big moments for me. Obviously it was very artistic very cool music.

Speaker 2:

There's big moments. That was very cool. When I look back on the game, it was just this five hour romp. That was just like a cool vibey fucking fun time. But it wasn't.

Speaker 1:

You ready to get you ready to stay heady though, dude? What you just described is the true way people experience grief. Bro, Fuck off. That's for real.

Speaker 2:

Like if the stages of grief aren't meant to be clear cut.

Speaker 1:

They're not meant to be one, two, three, four, five. They blend together, and that's exactly how this game works.

Speaker 2:

My friend and artsy video guy who was probably right, but I still like to pretend he was totally wrong and that's funnier for me Pointed that out many times that these stages are not so clear cut and that they come roaring back and interplay from time to time.

Speaker 1:

Right, we'll link that video and the show notes too, because that's a dope video. It's going to do a way better job of explaining what the developers meant to do when they made this game, and I do think I mean that's a pretty good lead in man, like what's your recommendation on Greece?

Speaker 2:

It's hard to say. It's usually pretty easy for me to recommend games I don't have to think of like a specific person, but this isn't necessarily the most recommendable game, although, like I would always speak highly of it if that makes sense, like it was a really cool experience for me. I have a topic for another day. I would consider it like a lo-fi game. I've been getting into these different various lo-fi games and it's like the most intensive of that, so I guess the person I would recommend this for. Recently it was a pretty deep cut sale on steam, so if you get that on the five or under or on game pass, it's an easy recommend but other than that it goes pretty deep on Nintendo from time to time too.

Speaker 1:

You can get this game pretty cheap.

Speaker 2:

Other than that I would say some couch co-op couples or just like if it's a rainy day and you just want a quick little romp, rainy day already vibes. So I don't know if that's a good answer, but that's what I got.

Speaker 1:

That's fair man I am. I think this is a tricky one. Like a lot of times I'll you know when we're talking about how we would recommend a game. I don't know if I would recommend this game to like your gamer gamer, you know what I'm saying Like someone that, like, loves video games I'm not necessarily this would be like I'd be able to give them a strong pitch on it, and that's not to say that it's a bad video game. I just think that it plays. It's more. For me, it was more of the experience, right, and I really liked learning about it. And you know, brent, to hark back to the whole idea of like how could you interject this game into education? Like you would definitely, as a teacher, have to lessen plan this shit out of this game. Like you would have to like have a bunch of fucking prompts. You would have to like really explain this ages of grief to kids.

Speaker 1:

And anyway, companion, it would be about interpretation seeing it play out, but that is so interesting though.

Speaker 2:

It is. It uses a lot of gamer logic. So I would say I would like recommend it to like a non gamer, but that's where.

Speaker 1:

I was going, man, so that's where I was going is it would totally be. It's like if you're, if you have someone that's gaming curious, or like my good buddy John, you recommend it to his wifey and I don't know if she played it or not, but it's because it is a very approachable game, the, the, the actual video game aspect of it, not too difficult, the puzzles, they there's something like a little tricky. You got to poke around a little bit, but I don't think they don't. They don't really break you. They spend a bunch of time lost in this game.

Speaker 2:

So for someone that doesn't play, I said it was like more of like a co-op with the partner, because you would need to lead them through the.

Speaker 2:

and it's not hard, the puzzles don't get you stuck, but like as an intensive player I think I was in like Phil Spencer, I think I was in the top 5% of Xbox users and that kind of hurt my soul. I was like I didn't think I was like that, but apparently it's like that. I play a lot of games, in short and like a gross amount, and so it seems so easy and effortless. But I think there's some areas in that game where my wife, for example, we're playing. I think she would get frustrated and it would feel super obscure and the solution to us would be so obvious to oh, you got to turn into a block and break through that. But like they haven't been playing games since they were like 6.

Speaker 1:

Not playing that together, though, and you can talk some good visual cues, though I know exactly what you're talking about, but like there's a like, for instance, there's a spot like that I do think they do a good job of of. I'm posting those types of things, though, even for someone that's not a huge gamer. Like that part. There's a section where you have the, where the like the ground is like a reverse, it's like black and white, and then you have these birds that like flutter out when you walk over it and then when you jump up and land on it, more birds come out and they like it's queuing. That okay, you need to hit the ground harder. And then then you break through, like it has those little visual cues.

Speaker 2:

There's some times you got to climb up really high so you sink further into the water so you get around some stuff and it's like stuff I was able to figure out and there was even some moments that took me slightly longer than I'm proud of. It's interesting because it's a game that I would give a full-throated recommendation of being cool, dope, artsy, a great experience. And yet, for the first time, I cannot think of someone that I would actually encourage to buy it. I usually can see a face. I'm like I'm going to annoy this person about it. Or if this person's looking for a game, I'm definitely going to say it. But like, are you going to go to work and be like? Yo pop your head in the kitchen? You can be like my dude's, please.

Speaker 1:

You know what's funny about that, though, is actually at the workplace I've had hobbies, like one of my homies, yara was talking about how dope this game is, dude, it's one of her favorite games, but you know, that's just the thing. Like not everybody, like Yara and my buddy, john, who I just mentioned I mean kid went to art school.

Speaker 2:

I do think that my buddy, who's not a video game player, but he does like a master's in art stuff, I'm like look at Andy's bougie ass with like he doesn't even game.

Speaker 1:

So it's just kind of funny to think.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, no, it's, it's cool. I mean, at the very least he's just watching YouTube video of it.

Speaker 1:

It's dope Put it this way, man I bought this game for a pretty cheap on the on an incendo sale years ago, dabbled in it Didn't quite stick and I'm very happy that I that I like you know plowed through it for the pod. So I think that it's. I put it like this put it on your wish list, grab that shit on the cheap and just give it a try.

Speaker 2:

Or if you're on Game Pass and it's a rainy right, shitty winter weekend or some shit and you just want some intriguing low five vibes. Or if you're a little mad and fiend, like me, and you're not enjoying the games, you're playing a little too much, and then you just do a half an hour to get out of your addicting game and spend a half an hour vibing out before you go to bed and it's feels way better. There you go, man.

Speaker 1:

I think that does it. I think that does it. Let's take a little break. Come back with our Unsanctioned sponsor, no doubt.

Speaker 2:

All right man. So I'll be honest. This is an honest and vulnerable moment. Here. I like my jokes, but I have not been bringing it for the Unsanctioned sponsors. I'm fully aware of that. I really have just been leaning into being a shithead about yours and really it's just me masking my insecurity of not coming to the pod with my Unsanctioned sponsors. So first of all, I want to not apologize. Apologize to you about that, because never, back down shithead for life. But then, second, of all I have at first, I love your hustling dude.

Speaker 1:

You know how many Unsanctioned sponsors how many people I've been out there trying to fucking hack the fucking pod out there grinding. I had to get, I had to get fucking meat to get or grill and grill and season to hack the pod you just, you just grab it and eat. Anyway, I had some good ones Get out of here. So it's still here, it's still here because I've been out here pulling them sponsors Right, correct. And nobody gives us money, and you know why? Because of my hard ass work.

Speaker 2:

We're still living off of our endowment of McRib money, but eat a dick anyway. At first I was like dude, I'm a bougie boy, I don't even care, I like to find things in life. Ironically, I was at Aldi when I was thinking this so there's some delusions of grandeur right there. But I had just purchased some kombucha and I was like dude, let's talk about the boot. And then I was like dude, I have done that. What is wrong with me? I have already Unsanctioned sponsored the boot because your boy likes boot, and that's not what I'm here for today. I have two completely unrelated sanctioned sponsors. Are you ready?

Speaker 1:

Damn you're bringing two. That's a lot of, not a money today.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, one's relatable and the other one is not considering our lineage, but that's okay. First off, real tree gang, not the camouflage company, not in the Holly.

Speaker 1:

I was going to say, bro, you're trying to knock him money from real tree.

Speaker 2:

Witch up dude I was at the fleet farm no we buy a real Christmas tree every year and I know it's expensive and I know I could get a nice fake tree and have it forever. But that's just fucking dumb. I like I like watering my fucking real tree that I have in my living room. I like the fucking smell. I like dressing her up. I like picking her out and having the old Catholic dude strap it onto my car. It's a good wholesome time. All right, I fucking enjoy that shit. All right, real trees fake trees are stupid.

Speaker 2:

Go bigger, go home, unless you're allergic or you have cats. And then if you have cats, that's your lifestyle choice. You already know that they're strange and you have to have a fake tree and I'm not even going to pick a fight because those cats bring you comfort and that's fine. But you can't have real tree and real trees. Don't set step one. I know you're. You are a real tree guy, so you got my back on this Sure.

Speaker 2:

Um step two chicken parm, dude chicken parm, chicken parmesan. So I got to do with trees, it doesn't? I told you these were unrelated Puff on some trees. Eat some chicken parm Well.

Speaker 2:

I don't not recommend that. Uh, chicken parmesan though. Uh, it's a really easy but also a labor love meal, like, if you can like, master a chicken. I'm not even master a science area yet, though we didn't grow up any bit Italian. It's just me on the internet learning how to do these things and practicing over time. But if you nail a chicken parm dude like you got chicken breasts. You're just trying to get through the week. You probably got some breadcrumbs in the breading.

Speaker 1:

Did you get in the? What kind of you using like panko?

Speaker 2:

and shit. I have, I think, just some regular Italian breadcrumbs. We have them cause, you know, when your boy gets a little older you gotta start feeding them the solids. And then you learn that babies are picky as hell and feeding them is actually this really crappy puzzle that you do every day of your life. When they're done with the titty milk you know shots of titty milk as well but when you start feeding them solids, meatballs are caught clutch. So I had them around. Uh, I get large amounts of chicken breasts and I fill them in half. Cause a plump chicken breast is overrated. That's dry and not good. In the middle, all the flavor is on the outside. How are you cooking your chicken, bro? You did in so many different ways. I'm so good at cooking chicken, but, like just the matter of the fact is, is the best part of your chicken is the outside of the? Are you, are we going to argue that the tastiest part is the part you season and cook and order and all that.

Speaker 1:

I mean, like for sure, yeah, yeah, come on up, unless you fuck with, like a goat cheese stuffed chicken breasts.

Speaker 2:

Certainly certainly, but now we're talking about the bacon bro. We're talking about the goat cheese and the bacon. Right now it's about chicken farms. All my Italian East coast moms know that love is shown through a nice chicken. All right, and there's this one time that our sister so what's you doing for gravy on the chicken farm? Gravy this is chicken, it's just sauce. I am a roused sauce guy.

Speaker 1:

Come on, you watch the. You watch the bear. Did you know that they call the sauce gravy?

Speaker 2:

The fucking bear? Yeah, I suppose, but anyway I.

Speaker 1:

You watch the spranos, you know anything about Italians. I have not actually watched this, I don't know. It's a blind spot.

Speaker 2:

But anyway, there's this. One time I was out of town. Our Italian mother who's not Italian was out of town and are useless in the kitchen. Father, I was like I'm going to hook it up, I'm going to make him some nice chicken parm, and if you've cooked chicken parm for multiple people you'll know it's a ginormous bitch. Dude You're. You're frying all sorts of things, you're monitoring all these different things and Ellie, our sister, was there and I played all this stuff up as gorgeous. I did a great job and I'm not necessarily fishing for compliments as much as I'm like hey, how is it Some feedback? So acknowledgement of all my hard work. She goes what the cheesy chicken? Yeah, it's pretty good. I was like you, uncultured swine, you did not just call this shit cheesy chicken. Moral story of chicken parm slaps.

Speaker 1:

Do you ever make it? I was about ages. I made that shit. Dude, it's good. I, I, I, I ain't I ain't hating on chicken parm Dude.

Speaker 2:

When I nail it it feels so good, and sometimes I get it at a restaurant and it's like so bomb, but like.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that's why I'd be fucking with it in the rest of the rounds.

Speaker 2:

So it's just like it's this labor love and like I just like to pretend to be booby to booby the bopity Italian what's up. That's racist. It's okay. The Italians have been super nice to the Irish and the Germans, I'm sure so. Well, there's weird jokes to be made. I don't leave that there, Right, Right, I can't team up the Germans and the Italians. It was a weird time, All right.

Speaker 1:

We were American at that time, so we let's bring it back to real trees. Bro, I have nothing bad to say about your chicken parm. Fuck a McRib chicken parm.

Speaker 2:

Fuck with chicken. You come with just plain bacon as your fucking unsanctioned sponsor. Chicken Parm is way more cultured you swine.

Speaker 1:

Get out of here, man. Like what man? You put some bacon on that chicken parm. You know it could be better.

Speaker 2:

Fucking pancetta If you want to not piss off the Italians.

Speaker 1:

What's that?

Speaker 2:

fancy word, what's that fancy thing? That's not for shoot, probably dude, not even that. It's the stuff they use to make, like the technical. What's that Good? Some pork belly and it's something like that. And it's for like that one sauce that people go real with the egg yolk and the. You get the fucking point. You can cut all this, just keep the good parts.

Speaker 1:

Chicken farm and real trees. You ever eat chicken farms. Stare at your real tree that you dress real nice and Christmas About two days goes though.

Speaker 2:

Nice Last night actually Nice and then have any wine. That would have been too acidic for my little weak boy stomach, but I had some whiskey, it was, though.

Speaker 1:

Here's the real trees Chicken farm in Tums. Well, should do Welcome back. You been side question.

Speaker 2:

Always, man. First of all, I'm never going to spend too much time spent talking specifically about Madden on this podcast. I'll always allude to the fact that I'm playing it because I am, but the quick note I want to make on it, that it kind of makes me Google, is I am on the reddits and I follow a lot of game threads and I would lurk around the reddits lurking.

Speaker 1:

That's yeah.

Speaker 2:

For sure, and like all of the red is obviously not the most positive place, but all the things that I sub to are like quite charming communities Is what I would put it as like Bob Burgers overly wholesome. All the geography stuff overly wholesome. Hades for gaming, mario, zelda all this stuff like the community is just like fun and cool and pretty innocent and derpy. Madden is the most toxic place I think I've been a part of.

Speaker 1:

It doesn't surprise me.

Speaker 2:

Dude every week, every day. It's just like. This game is fucking stupid. There's a fucking broken.

Speaker 2:

And I'm like there's times where I feel that way, don't get me wrong, but like, overwhelmingly, I'm like this game is fine, dude. It'll never be the amazing game Any of us apparently want it to be, but I think, even if it was, it's just like an angry. When you think of like angry male gamer, you think of like Call of Duty and Madden, and there's some people who post some interesting things in there. So I don't mind lurking on that sub too much, but like, that's just. All I wanted to say was the Madden sub is the one dark place on my reddit feed from like what's wrong with these little virgins, dude? What's going on with these dudes?

Speaker 1:

Sunshine rain.

Speaker 2:

those are mad and yeah, dude, like fuck them. But some other significant side quests recently picked up, just thought.

Speaker 2:

Oh yes, nice, might actually be the game for next month, so I won't get too into it, other than it's just once again another Xbox Game Pass slapper. What's it? Starfield? To just catch a stray from me. But like, wow, looking back to how much I hate that game for like probably a year or two and what I wanted it to be, and like the stages of grief, like Gris, and like trying to like talk myself into enjoying it and like kind of liking it, but just like letting go of the dream of what I wanted that game to be.

Speaker 1:

Starfield yeah.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

I have yet to. I have yet to fire a backup since I set it down back in October. Man.

Speaker 2:

Same, but Xbox Game Pass keeps delivering on these little like indie hits man, and it's just like as the whole medium. There's obviously some huge hits this year, like everyone's very excited about this year in gaming, but what I think is mostly known but maybe not fully understood by a lot of people, is that, like, the best things happening in games are not AAA anymore.

Speaker 2:

Like, my biggest memories of this year are games like Dredge or even like Dredge is tight dude, and these games stick with me and these big AAA experiences are super cool, like a weak spot being Baldur's Gate, because it didn't release on the Xbox and my PC probably can handle it, but it wouldn't be like the optimal experience for me. So just saw the original game I was talking about Super cool. Another game similar to Greece where the tension is extremely low and that really is fucking cool. Like I'm not going to die in this game. I'm not stressing, I don't get that same jolt of energy.

Speaker 1:

There's some puzzles that piss me off.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I've gotten mildly frustrated, for sure.

Speaker 1:

So it's a climbing sim.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, climbing a mountain.

Speaker 1:

The best guys of the. What's that? I never played him, but the Nathan Drake shit, what's that stuff?

Speaker 2:

Oh, I'm charted, I have a better comp. Actually it feels more like Death Stranding. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah Just a big piece of it is traversal and like the coolest parts of those games, I actually liked the weird walking delivery sim aspects of Death Stranding. I liked putting ladders down and like getting across weird environmental things. Yeah. I didn't put enough time into it Five hours of Kojima cutscenes.

Speaker 1:

And all the people love that, and God bless you.

Speaker 2:

But.

Speaker 1:

I was enjoying just about everything about Death Stranding, except for whatever. Like I mean, I didn't put enough time into it. But like what? What made me bounce off is I got in this, like I got into an area where those ghost things or whatever were just real pain in the ass to pass and I couldn't figure it out. So I was like, eh, fuck it. I just never liked the game.

Speaker 2:

I don't disagree with you. There's just some hang ups, but this game there's no enemies that I've run into. There's no, there's probably about halfway through other than a few of your hand holds like wither in the sun, but they come right back up if you do some stuff, so the timing stuff is quick. There's some puzzling, but like I don't, know man this is cool and the climbing graphic, or climbing gameplay, is animated. It was the wrong word, just gratifying and it's got good flow or rewarding yeah flow is a good word.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I've been playing this one too and like the when you like, grab you.

Speaker 2:

use the trigger buttons to do like to move your hands and it's like kind of fun.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah, which is nice, and then it's a yeah, it is cool.

Speaker 2:

You string some things together where, like, you play, see a little hold, and then you swing sometimes and like. So you like combine some of the things that you're learning. I'm about halfway through, yeah.

Speaker 1:

I think we're on the same place. Man, I got, I got to ask game too. Are you reading? Are you reading the little letters that are left behind?

Speaker 2:

I wanted to be a good, intelligent individual and then I was like, no, I was not making.

Speaker 1:

well, I skimmed the shit out of them. I skimmed the shit out of them and I barely even. I don't know I'm like.

Speaker 2:

I heard some people applaud the world building of it and I'm like that's really cool. I get the gist dude. There used to be water there and there's no more water and it seems like there's been a generation of no rain, if not multiple. So like it's cool, but I don't know. I just I like my reading to be my reading and my video games to be my video games. So that's all right. Man, Do you read them?

Speaker 1:

You just skimmed. Skim this. I do so if, if they're lucky, I'll skim one Most of the time. I've kind of got to a point where I just want to climb.

Speaker 2:

The video game, you shit takes over where, like you run into those like little rock towers where you add a rock to it and like you're just like hell yeah, I found this and then I'm like those save points or those like what are?

Speaker 1:

I don't even know what's happening with those. I think it's to tickle your brain, dude.

Speaker 2:

I think it's just like it's like good job, bud, and I'm like hell yeah. And then, last but certainly not least, I got a steam deck. I like to smell its vapors discussed off air before we got here and, you know, had a brief tech issue with it.

Speaker 1:

that makes sense, I can't believe that happened to you.

Speaker 2:

Which makes no sense, but I think you figured it out no doubt for now. Very, I'm a little scared to download things again, but I'll obviously have to get there and I'm really hoping it's not a thing where every time I download a game I have to go through that process. But anyway, I won't get into that tech. What I will say is, although it's a super bitch and machine, I like playing games on there. I have a new fond respect for just how sturdy and playable the switch is. Man, pc gamers love to tell you how their PCs are like the coolest thing and that consoles are stupid. But you don't have to figure out crazy things and feel totally out of depth in a switch.

Speaker 1:

You just grip it and rip it dude, that's fair man, that is I mean. That is see, I like tinkering. I wouldn't have liked tinkering with the problem that you had, because that's whack Well you had a battery issue.

Speaker 1:

You had a battery issue which was like stupid and it's like the nice thing about the internet is like you can get on there into forums and see that other people have had this issue and they figured out ways to fix it. But that, in my mind, is unacceptable, like the fact that it has this weird glitch that drained your battery and what it really was is like there was a bug that was making it so that your battery wasn't charging, but it was reading is full. That's my understanding of that problem.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I think so. Well, it was in. This is boring. I'll just talk about the games I'm playing on.

Speaker 1:

I'm glad you have one, though, dude, I'm excited to get my hands back on it so I can hook you up with some emulation. Hook you up with some. I want to get you going on some streaming of Game Pass dude I want that too my bag Dude it's nice. I like I would say 80% of the gaming I do on my deck is honestly streaming Game Pass these days, yeah it'd be nice.

Speaker 2:

The steam sale in the fall, the fall one. I bought it like just before I got the steam deck in my hands so I didn't quite know what games to buy. I bought games I thought I'd want on the deck and I know that I've been dealing with the tech. I have a new idea of what I'd like to play on there. But Cursed to Golf is a fun little romp. I do recommend that's a fun little one. And then Marvel Midnight Sons has been very cool, although I will say the beginning is dense With cutscenes and dialogue and people go over here and talk to this person. I'm like can I just get back to the combat please?

Speaker 1:

Right, I played just a little bit of that game and I think combat is nice. Dude, I might like as a card game like it's like an action card game or something.

Speaker 2:

It's like a cool action turn based combat, so I'm a little clunky with it still, but I like games like that a lot and I think having it on a handheld is going to be pretty neat. Excited for that one and I think that and my other lo-fi games.

Speaker 2:

Just a quick shout out to Townscraper about that on your recommendation, yeah those are super cool, like tile games and then Townscraper I don't know what the fuck it is. You just click and a tile appears and then you build little structures. And I was watching the Monday night football game passively because I was just building this weird little structure and I was just listening to Joe and Troy, you know, just talking sweet football to my brain. But enough about me, dude, what's your chicken? Parm this month. Parm this month.

Speaker 1:

Was my side quest. Yep Dude, I've been playing a lot of 2K. I bought 2K 24. I'm back.

Speaker 2:

I'm a basketball stick Podcast. Ever we play bad 2K games. We love to enjoy.

Speaker 1:

I love buying 2K this time of year because you can get it for half off around the Black.

Speaker 2:

Friday sales or whatever Sports game, full price no.

Speaker 1:

So I got it. It's the second physical game that I have for my Xbox Series X, the first being 2K 23.

Speaker 2:

It's the same with Madden. It's so dumb.

Speaker 1:

Oh, dude, I'm like. I saw meme the other day that was like tell me or show me, tell me you're stupid without saying you're stupid, or whatever. And it was a stack of FIFA's from like 95 all the way to tooth, that like to today, which. I don't know dude like.

Speaker 2:

I get what the joke was. They hate themselves.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, Did I get the joke? But I was like that's kind of dope. You got that stack of people's stuff. There's something to it, I'll give it to you. Being a collector, I'm like. I mean, now it's like it's funny to me, dude, Like I want a small stack of 2K's.

Speaker 2:

I don't think these games will be playable like. I worried about that too, to be honest it is from like the 64 stuff, so I are the. Sega. So I think that's frustrating. But what are you going to do? Right, you're enjoying 2K. I'm a student, I'm enjoying 2K.

Speaker 1:

I do play as a Timberwolves dude, and those that have been listening to this oh wait, have I talked about it? It doesn't matter, dude, I had a lot of fun playing with the Timberwolves last season on 2K.

Speaker 2:

You talked about it.

Speaker 1:

OK, I know I did in the compendium episode.

Speaker 2:

I'm not sure, if I did on the main line, I've probably played better in real life than when you came in a video game, right?

Speaker 1:

So, like in the video game, like the squad was pretty good last year, right Like, especially on paper Didn't really perform all that well this year. T-pups are number one today as of recording Number one in the fucking league. Man, always number one in our hearts, well, of course, but they're also number one on the stats sheets, but or?

Speaker 2:

other, the rankings or whatever you make a run in the playoffs, I'm going to be the most like ignorant bitch in the whole world and not let anyone on the bandwagon because you have to be a. You have to be a special type of masochist to like be my level of Timberwolves fan. For how long? Like? The arguments and the conversations I had dating back like through high school and college are pretty, pretty dire and low Dude, I was pretty bad.

Speaker 1:

I'm not anti cat. I like cat a lot. I always kind of like cat, but he had been like kind of losing my my favor over the last couple of years, you know. And he's sick dude Hog. He's so good in 2K24. He's so good in 2K24 that I'm giving him a break in real life and you know what the way that he's playing in real life also like pretty darn good.

Speaker 2:

So it's a different podcast, but yeah, he's always been fun in video games. I've always yeah dude, he hits threes like oh dude, his three shot is butter dude, it's so great I quit 2K in the last few years I used to really relish telling my students that they suck asset 2K and then I would clap them, and now I just do that with Madden.

Speaker 1:

But it probably be me, and 2K.

Speaker 2:

now, 2k has like done some weird things, like trying to be like Fortnite with basketball, as far as like they do have some weird stuff.

Speaker 1:

but I don't pay any attention to that shit dude. I just build out my little season and I have a good ass time and I enjoy the like. They had the my Jordan stuff and now they have the Kobe stuff, the Mamba stuff and I like those dudes.

Speaker 2:

I get it. I don't hear what that shit? Yeah, you're right, they don't have a LeBron one yet. They will when it retires.

Speaker 1:

You see the memes that are like NBA cup has won every single NBA cup LeBron Jordan zero.

Speaker 2:

NBA cups. I didn't see that, yeah.

Speaker 1:

Dude clotin.

Speaker 2:

So no, I haven't seen it.

Speaker 1:

Dude, it probably started out reddit. That's how this show works, but to the that, that has been a major side quest in the video game realm for me. I've been poking around Jusant has been my other like main game outside of 2K and and and Greece. Just poking around with some other games is the steam sale. You know the the autumn steam sale just happened so I picked up a few hours. I started Midnight Sons. I'm excited to play more of that game. I also got cursed to call. I'm excited to play more of that one. Some other fun you know steam sale games that I've poked around with a little bit myth or some a little. I'm a little worried. We got some homies in the discord saying you know myth forces whack. But I'm looking forward to playing some, some multiplayer with you here and anybody else who wants to join here in the near future.

Speaker 2:

I think it should get better over time. That's why I'm going to blindly tell myself to make sure, feel better about it, but it was probably wills.

Speaker 1:

I'll live with it, it'll be fine. We'll give $15 worth out of it and outside of that dude I would say my other major side quests in back on my comic book tip dude, I had let my subscription to Marvel and limited past because I had signed up for like a sweet, sweet deal for three months or whatever, but then around Black Friday time they had a nice sale for it. So I've got it for the year I'm excited to have. You know that's how I was able to finish. I was in the middle of this the spider Gwen, like the Gwenverse comics when I when I stopped reading so I finished those off.

Speaker 1:

That was kind of fun, like fun little series, but I've been. I had to die. I want to get back into X men but the Star Wars comics always fucking like whatever, I don't know man, I always get pulled back in. So I read through all like the all the Vader comics I've been reading. Now I'm going way back. I'm trying to read through like all of like the canon comics that have started for Star Wars in the past.

Speaker 2:

Like, like the school Dark Horse ones like they know they're talking about.

Speaker 1:

Those will be legends, that happened, like in 2015. Yeah, so that's that's considered legends. Okay, so canon, the stuff that like the, the new, the, yeah, the 2016 or whatever it is I think I picked up a few of those just because they were starting to pop up.

Speaker 2:

But that's like when I quit my most recent quitting of. I have a long treasured history of comic books and graphic novels but the last time I was like popping off and like buying physical ones. I bought a few of those. Maybe it was just Vader one. Dude Vader comics are so good. Vader's such a beast. Well, like dude Star Wars, the actual stories of the movies are kind of whack If you really think about it. But like the world building has always been like top notch and like even like Harry Potter, which is just a complete tangent.

Speaker 2:

now, like, like the world building, like that Hogwarts game I keep seeing that on sale and I don't think it's for me Is that 40% dude.

Speaker 2:

When a job's a 50, I'm going to send it. I bet you that they will make an X-Bend game because they made just a filthy amount of money on the first one. So there's no way they're not. You know, people like it, dude, the people that play it. I think they like it. I have some non heavy gamer friends that have put heavy gamer hours into it. But everything I saw from the gameplay I have some pretty heavy open world fatigue. If you didn't hear my rant 10 minutes ago about the little indies I like on Game Pass, I have some pretty heavy fatigue on games like that and it very much looked like just another one. But like I did, kind of I was a little jealous. People walked around the halls of Hogwarts and it did remind me there's something about Harry Potter just being Christmasy as fuck. You know, yep Christmas movie.

Speaker 1:

for sure, we just rewatched all the movies recently.

Speaker 2:

That's some young baby shit right there. You just want to sit around and veg these in between.

Speaker 1:

Dog. We're moving out of being able to watch movies like that without and when he just like like naptraps you and you like watch a movie Like he doesn't really not about that anymore, he's like moving out of that stage. Did you get your?

Speaker 2:

Xbox your interview wrapped. Did you look at yours? I haven't looked yet. No, You'll have to boot yours up. When you get onto your Xbox home screen. You'd like you click on it and you think it's going to show you there, but then you got to hit that. You have to, like, scan your QR code on your phone or whatever.

Speaker 1:

What the thing I was telling him about yeah.

Speaker 2:

So you like, I mean sure, and then you're like huh, and then it's like all in front of you or whatever. That's when I was making the joke because Phil Spencer shared his my top three games. You want to guess what they were? It's pretty simple if you actually think about it. But the number one is the only one I don't think you'll get if you think real hard. All three of them above a hundred hours. So don't feel good about that.

Speaker 1:

Oh, wow, okay, yeah, I don't even. I guess you probably got mad on there for sure.

Speaker 2:

Yep, that's number three.

Speaker 1:

Actually what you got some, some over. Oh, what would it be on the Xbox Summertime? High on life. No, that was like wintertime. No, dude, and that was like 30 hours.

Speaker 2:

I was like at the most.

Speaker 1:

It looks like it looks just a big eye on my family playing with DLC Like times.

Speaker 2:

No dude, that will be the show, which is just more.

Speaker 1:

Oh sure, sure, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2:

Number one was the Witcher. Oh, nice Cause when the babies. Yeah, dude, I was trapped there for like hour or two and I would just and they do that two, three times a day to me. So I was just grinding the butcher while I was stuck there.

Speaker 1:

So so again to be up top dude be proud of that one, which is fucking dope, and the new gen update.

Speaker 2:

They was pretty sick dude when they Refreshed.

Speaker 1:

My other main side quest was an old main quest. I've been continuing to plug through CS stars as well. I haven't, I haven't hung up the gloves on that one.

Speaker 2:

yet I play, playfully, dapped you up or actually playing that when you were ignoring one of my texts because your discord said you were playing CS stars and I was like this dick, either so into it or he's mad at me for some.

Speaker 1:

I don't care. We're just playing games and not paying attention to your fucking messages. It's fucking turn based, fucking time.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. But you see, I'm streaming it on my deck, bro, so I don't see it popping up on, you know that would probably help me get through it, cause I have picked it up on the choice what part are you at? Where?

Speaker 1:

did the trade yet. Yeah, yeah, cheese man I have, I have. I mean come on dude.

Speaker 2:

you saw that she come from a mile away. They teased it with like a first hour For sure. No, I've met the trade. To be a, you have to be eight. To have that one pulled over.

Speaker 1:

I'm in the underwater stuff I'm doing. I'm doing stuff in the underwater realms. I think I'm only slightly in front of you, so I still got that, but yeah, cool game Like I'm in that tower, the underwater tower area where you like, moving through the tower doing little puzzle things yeah.

Speaker 2:

I think I've done that.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it's, it's dope Dude. I continue to like that game, like the award for like the best indie or independent game. I don't know gaming words silly as shit, but it did. You, jason Shrier.

Speaker 2:

What he's just got his big boner for some other ones and he was all mad about the translation or the commas or something. Oh, I remember that.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I was like all right, dude. I guess, this is dope. That's one of my favorite games of the year, even though I haven't even finished it.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, it was it was a memorable one for me. I don't know if I'll finish it, just cause.

Speaker 1:

You know we will finish this episode. Thanks for joining us everybody. It's been another fun one. Thanks for tuning in. Check us out low five gamingcom. Hit up our discord If you'd like. We will drop our next game in there. You're welcome to play along. Join the conversation. Follow us on the social medias. Low five gaming. And yeah, just thanks for being a real one. Thanks for staying all the way through the game, staying all the way through the end of this episode.

Speaker 2:

You legend God damn legend.

Speaker 1:

Give us five stars. If you're on Spotify, how about that?

Speaker 2:

Definitely definitely do that.

Speaker 1:

All right, Much love. Take it easy, bro. Ain't nobody going to see you blow and kiss?

Speaker 2:

I mean there you go, they heard them Peace, peace, all right Peace. Yes, the senior, can I just get some macaroni and gravy?

Speaker 1:

But what is this gravy, paolo? He doesn't know what you say. You mean the grapese, uva Gravy, gravy, tomato sauce? Ah, he's a little pasta guy with a maroni. He doesn't like this. And then you say to me I'm going to have a glass of soup in my head.

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