Low Five Gaming

Diablo IV

• Studio Low Five • Episode 44

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Luke and Alex Talk Diablo IV.

In this episode, Alex and Luke dive into Diablo IV, Blizzard Entertainment’s long-awaited sequel to the legendary action RPG series. Released in June 2023, Diablo IV brings players back to the dark, demon-infested world of Sanctuary with a new open-world structure, seasonal play, and a whole lot of skeleton-clicking chaos.

At the time of this recording, Diablo IV holds a Metacritic score of 86. According to HowLongToBeat, the main story clocks in around 26 hours—though depending on your build, your class, or how easily distracted you get by side dungeons, it can stretch much longer.

Alex played on both PC and Steam Deck and completed the main questline. Luke stuck to PC and is still meandering through Sanctuary like a cursed tourist. Together, they talk about their first real dip into the Diablo franchise, how the seasonal structure actually works, and why the always-online thing feels just forgivable enough.

This episode is unofficially brought to you in part by Disc Golf.

Audio Credits:  “Cathedral” by Leo Kaliski, from the Diablo IV Original Soundtrack — composed by Leo Kaliski, Ted Reedy, Ryan Amon, and Derek Duke — © Blizzard Entertainment. Includes a voice clip from Diablo I (“Fresh Meat”) — © Blizzard Entertainment.  Original theme music owned by Low Five Gaming.

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Luke:

Hello, everybody. Welcome to the first and most pleasant Ring of Hell podcasting. How you doing, buddy? This is Lo5 Gaming. My name is Luke. This is my brother and co-host, Alex. How you doing? What up, bro?

Alex:

It's good to see you, man. I'm doing well, and I'm impressed. You got your name in there. You introduced me. Like it's like we've been doing this for like three, four years.

Luke:

It was clumsy still, because I, you know, thought of it as I did it, but I was like, instead of me getting balls deep in some little joke that mostly I enjoy, and then you telling me that I need to do those things, let's just sneak those in right away.

Alex:

I can dig it. It's good to be back. It is fun to be talking about Diablo 4. Diablos and the Diablo.

Luke:

Yeah!

Alex:

You've never played a Diablo game. You never thought you played Diablo game, and then all of a sudden you're like, dude, hell, I'm fucking buying this game for you because we're playing it.

Luke:

Yeah, I don't know what it is. Um, it just looked cool. You've been like, you it's been on your radar for a while though, right? Yeah, I've had it wish listed since it came out really. Um I was just kind of curious about it. I read Jason Schreier's book about um well two of them. And uh there's a decent amount of talk of Blizzard stuff, and um I don't know if I had this conversation with you off mic or on our last pod, but I was just asked a friend if he ever played Diablo and he's just like I don't really fuck with the isometric style. And I was like, I actually really like that. But for a long time in my life, I would have agreed I would have thought games with that viewpoint, vantage point uh would have been stupid, but I kinda like that panoramic vibe to it all, you know what I mean? So I do it's kind of like diorama mean dioramic, there we go. Yeah, the diorama, the little box, the little little set pieces. I really like that. So the game kind of had me curious, and I you know, we did that DD once. I feel like it's not official, but it's like pretty DD adjacent in a way, picking classes and RPGing it. So for sure.

Alex:

Right on. I've dabbled in Diablo, uh, Diablo 1. I've never gotten very far in it, but it is part of my gaming, like I don't know, foundation in a way, right? So before we, I don't think we had a computer at the time, but we went to uh one of dad's co-workers invited us over for dinner. Like they're just like basically mom dad hanging out with with them, chatting away or whatever. And this dude had his like home PC set up in the in the basement, right? Like the full-on, like back in the day when you got the big box computer and you got the whole like desk situation that like everybody had, you know, with the shelves and everything on there to put your CD cases in, etc. etc.

Luke:

Different future back in the day. Dude, for sure. Less LED lights, right? I was there. I actually do remember being like, what's Al up to? Because I think I was bored out of my mind. He might add a kid younger than me, so it was like, all right, but like you were just posted up playing this spooky ass looking game. It's kind of unhinged. Let your like coworkers kid play this demonic game, though.

Alex:

That's kind of funny. It is wild. Like, I think back at that, and that's why I say it's like part of because I remember like vividly to this day. I don't know, man, like 25 years later, third, maybe even more. Nah, 20 close to 30 years later, dude. Close to 30 years later, I'm like still have vivid memories of playing this game down this dude's basement. It wasn't like a dingy base, it was a nice basement, but it was dark. And this game, like Diablo 1 is creepy, man. Like, it's got creepy vibes to it for sure. It's scary, and like, but I got I got a solid, like maybe hour and a half, two hours just fucking, you know, killing skeletons and stuff, being freaked out by by little demons and in Tristum. Did you end up buying it?

Luke:

Because I feel like I remember watching you playing it at home too.

Alex:

Yeah, for sure. So I ended up so it was a game that like it stuck with me. That was like a crazy little experience that uh I don't even know where, dude. Like, maybe I I could list awesome old computer stores that used to exist, cop USA, who knows? But like I ended up buying Diablo, but it's actually at mom and dad's still, I believe. But it's like I got it in the jewel case, the CD. I got the the manual, it's kind of fun, dude. But like that's kind of my bad. I never beat it though, because it is a game. I think it was like I was trying to play it at a time that I just didn't have, like, for what I don't know, man. I just never got very far in it. It gets pretty hard pretty quick if you don't know what you're doing, and I never knew what I was doing.

Luke:

These games can get pretty dense, or I shouldn't say these games, I don't know shit. Four can get pretty dense if you want it to be. It has like a higher level of approachability, I'm willing to guess. Um, I would say a big piece of the reason I never played any Diablo game too is like my age is when did Diablo 2 come out? Because Diablo 2 is like revered, right?

Alex:

I was in high school, so it would have been early 2000s. And it was a good deal then.

Luke:

So that was that was 2000s, so like that's not a game I would have been buying at that age. And then Diablo 3 was like a huge messy launch as detailed in Schreier's book, but eventually becomes particularly popular. And I my buddy James tried to get me to play it once, and I just kind of I wasn't ready. I just kind of bounced off, and that one came out in give me 10 seconds here 2012. So that's when I was in college and like pretty much fading away into not playing very many video games, spending all my money on beer and food and dumb shit like that. So like each of these, like at least the releases, they all had long tails. But each of the releases, like, I can kind of come up with a pretty quick reason as to why I would not have bought or invested in that game. So when four came out, it was a pretty big event, it was a pretty big deal for games and people are stoked on it. Microsoft and Xbox, and I was you know, there was the whole acquisition of the Activision thing with Blizzard. So I was always wondering when I did pay for Game Pass, I was always wondering if I could have sneak on there, and then it was just like it has not gone on a deep, deep discount. I haven't never seen a Hip 50. I've been waiting for a dirty one like that. So 45 to 50 ish was like the closest I was gonna get, and I was just summer break, uh burnt out on fucking what's that souls game I was playing, dude? Elden Ring, fucking burnt out on Elden Ring, dude. So I was just like, I didn't even mean some click clack clickety in bed, and I just wanna I just wanna grind on my Steam ED and play like the perfect little game for it. And I'd say this was this was pretty close to the perfect Steamy D experience, if I say so.

Alex:

Yeah, dude, I played on the Steam E D and the and the PC. It was great to be able to do it on the Steamy D, but like once you get a rocket on the PC, it's it's a I mean it's not like better or anything, but it's I don't know. I enjoyed it. But the screen, the big screen, yeah, the big screen for everything going on on the screen, like everything going on is was nice. Yeah, but this was announced the game, so Dapple 4 was announced uh at BlizzCon 2019 and released June 5th, 2023. So we took a took a little bit of time, slept on it a little bit to to you know before we before we checked it out.

Luke:

Yeah, I mean I guess I've been waiting on that discount for a long time. Yeah, dog.

Alex:

It's first uh expansion in October of 2024. So I think exp there's another expansion coming in 2026. So this game, we've been playing in a very interesting time, dude, because like we can probably get in a little bit more of the weeds on it later. But uh, it has these seasons, you know. It is it's an online game, but it actually does it pretty well because you don't necessarily if you don't if you decide not to do the online play stuff, you do have to be connected to the internet, but like you do not have to like install much. Yeah, dude, it it does like for a pause, brother. Kill me for a pause button, dude. No, I I I feel you on that one, but at the same time, like I think it's like it's forgivable. Like, whereas we were talking about an elder ring, like the no pause thing is unforgivable. Like, you can I don't know. I had less of qualms with it in this game.

Luke:

Uh I also think it's funny that we're doing a pod on this game because like someone who's just like desperate for more Diablo content, we're not the guys we want to hear because this is like babies first Diablo, literally for me, and then like understanding this whole culture and scene where we have a literal foot in there. Like, we played a good 30 hours, 30 to 35. I'll definitely play more. I dig it, but like there's so much I don't know yet, and that's okay. I had a good time. Here's the disclaimer is that if you just have a general curiosity, this is the pod for you.

Alex:

Indeed. I'm not gonna, yeah, we we won't get in the nitty-gritty on how things work, but it's interesting, man. And the the perspective of a couple folks just coming into it, I think is interesting as well. We also are playing at an interesting time because it is season nine just dropped like just uh about a week ago or something. And these seasons that I brought up, you know, it's it's part of the online culture, whatever. So they feed they like drift feed you new stories and new stuff. So it like makes things fresh. People who are really into it get excited for these because there's new loot drops, there's new like missions to do and everything. And it's also just like it code that like deep discount that you know you finally capitalized on coincides with it finally being added to Game Pass, and also uh recently being added to whatever Sony calls their thing, PS Plus, right? Okay, so you have an influx of old players being excited to play season nine and an influx of players fresh noobs, exactly.

Luke:

Lots of fresh noob casuals love that.

Alex:

Fresh meat, dude, a hundred percent. So, like we uh we just like kind of you know, by accident, but we definitely jumped in on this game like during a moment.

Luke:

Yeah, that's pretty funny. I had so little like knowledge heading into it of like the structure of how it worked, where it's like you have the first character you make, you have like the storyline, and you're in like this like this world. And I say world is in like it's the same map no matter what world you're in, kind of, but like the online-ness connected of it will put in the seasonal stuff. So I made a new character instead of beating the game like you. I just fucked around like a child and made a new character. And then I definitely did see some more people moving around and more like crazy shit happening around the world. So like I can see how that works a little bit. Um, if you've played games like Journey, how you're playing similar, like early seeing other players play at the same time as you, it's like kind of jarring. It's not like they're ghosts like an Elding Ring, it's like you're kind of literally in the map with like some people. So I think you gotta be on like a server, right? Like where I'm on a seasonal server when I'm going on that one, and then I probably log into like a base server or set of servers for like when you don't want to do the seasonal stuff. And it's like talking to me about all the stuff about how I can do this to carry this over into this thing, and I'm like, dude, I have no, I just want to like spam a few buttons and mow down a horde of creepy looking enemies and hear the sound effects and have all the numbers go burr and just like lizard brain through some lizard brainy ass quests, and uh this game is so lizard brain in the best way possible.

Alex:

It's funny, it actually like I had dabbled in so I was talking about playing a little bit of one and I skipped two completely and then I ended up buying three for the switch, and I put I only put a couple hours into it, right? Just enough to get a little taste. Um, so I wasn't like a hundred percent for sure what I was signing up for. And when I think about Diablo, I think about a mouse and clicking a bunch. Click, click, click, click, click, click, click, right? Fair. Uh, this is this there's elements of that, but this is like I don't know, man, pump it full of fucking creatine and whatever. Like, you've gone beyond just a click. Like, your whole controller is uh is a mouse click. Like each one of the inputs like does a different thing, and you get to go through your skill tree, you get to assign things to it. It's it's pretty rad, dude. Like, I remember when we were first talking uh uh to each other about like our build-outs, and we we actually linked up. We were talking about the um the whole connected internet piece of this, and both of us are traditionally, you know, we I don't want to say scathed, I think we've warmed up to online gaming a little bit over the years, but like we're not online gamers, comically adverse to it, right? Right, right. But this game is actually probably the most joy I've had. Well, this and Elden Ring, dude, like linking up with you and Elden Ring was fun. We recently actually played some 2K, I beat your ass in 2K, that was fun too. So I guess I'm an online gamer now. Jesus Christ. But this was actually really cool, dude. And I I I like I just love like the openness of how you can connect in this game. So, like, and how like it was allowed, it allowed me because I was at a point earlier that you were probably maybe five, six, maybe even seven hours further than I was at the beginning. So you joined me to go through some like side quest stuff, even plowed through some of the main quests. You actually joined joined me at a choke point. I had gotten to some like werewolf thing that I couldn't be. I was kind of like going through this game, uh playing as a barbarian. We should we should mention our builds. So you mentioned the build-out thing, but uh you get all these different character classes, and we I I gravitated towards the tank character. I always do. I was like, God damn it, Alex, you shouldn't do this, but you're gonna do this.

Luke:

Yeah, we brought two rocks to a gunfight, dude. We are I'm a druid, which is very tanky. And maybe it's just the way I built out the druid, but I was super tanky because he turned into a bear and a werewolf, and I shoot lightning bolts. It's pretty fucking sweet, dude.

Alex:

Yeah, so you have a little you have a little magic mix in there, I suppose. Yeah, yeah. No, that's cool. Um difficult to get join me, yeah. But you joined because I had this choke point, you joined me, and then I was able to that was like, dude, I was like, I couldn't die in this game. I got to this little mini boss in this like random dungeon. You join me, beat it, and then I didn't die again in this game until the final the final boss. And it was because I got greedy. And I'm not gonna like spoil anything, but like it was not because the boss was the boss was like difficult-ish, but it was I was way OP'd is what my bottom line I'm trying to say.

Luke:

Yeah, the baseline difficulty. What's interesting too is like I let's say I was 10 levels ahead of you when we first met up, like we both like it's not like I went into your world and I was way overpowered and like crushed the enemies. We did crush the enemies, but like the game scales your enemies in such a way where we're both fighting the same enemy and it's scaled to both of us somehow. Or maybe I'm just gonna go. Dude, I don't even really I know the enemies scale with you. Yes, I didn't know that too. So, like, whenever I entered your world, like essentially it just picked a baseline where both of us were at, which is interesting. And then that base level difficulty, like we made jokes because we we linked up a few times and fought a few different bosses and dungeons and stuff, and it was like dude, we would just like stand around the boss and just absolutely cheese the shit out of him. It was like cutting butter with a katana. It was just not not particularly hard. I did some experimenting, I've probably paid uh you know, a small chunk, you know, let's just say five five hours or so as my second character, which was a rogue. And it's been a lot of fun, but I play on the difficulty one step above, which gives you higher rewards and higher energy. Yeah, uh, it's nice to die again, I will say. Like sometimes it's frustrating because I do just want to roll around OP as a god and just once again watch the numbers go up and clear waves of mindless enemies, but like it feels nice to die. I like had a boss where like I beat the boss by the skin of my teeth and like had to like do some shifty stuff just to like hit him. The bosses have like this in this interesting marker on their health bar that lets you know when they're gonna drop potions, which is cool. I thought that's like a cool uh visual quality of life mechanic. Um, and I like just barely survived that fight, and I felt really cool about that. So just understanding this game has taken me over thirty hours. And I feel like if I played for another 30, I would probably still be scratching different understandings. Sure, dude. There's like the whole endgame thing that starts at level 60, and neither one of us got there, right?

Alex:

I'm pushing 60 on my base character. I've I've moved on to the seasonal character now, so like I don't think I'm quite at 60 now.

Luke:

So there's like a whole leveling maximization arc endgame thing that just starts when you get to 60 that people online talk about.

Alex:

So dude, I was and that's something that like I don't know, the community can jump at our Discord and yell at us and tell us how it works if you feel, but like yeah, but it's a wild thing, dude, because like when that season nine dropped, there was a new uh option for me to go and respec my entire character at level 50 or something, yeah, to like get them closer to end game. And this was at a time that my guy was like level 30 or whatever. Yeah, me too. So I was like weird. So I was like, but I didn't do it because I was like, no, I'm not just gonna respect my dude. I mean, like, it's kind of cool, but I was like, okay, I feel like I'm like you said, cut through butter with a katana, but like, dude, I'm not just gonna like go and just get a free 20 like grade upgrade. Like, that's ridiculous.

Luke:

Dude, hitting the upgrades is like probably the most fun part about the game. It's just like a little noise, makes you do good. All the stupid little stimuli that gives you is tight. How much paralysis did you get on the tree and like trying to figure out which ability you're gonna assign to your next slot, what you're gonna do? Because like I feel like even with my new rogue, the bear, or I shouldn't say the bear, because he's a bear, a werewolf, the druid. I feel like I picked like a lot of skills that were like super synergistic. It actually really helps. Like, it's like a button mash game. I hit him with the bear first, and that like fortifies my strength. If they plow through that, I hit him with the werewolf, and that gives me like uh vampiric abilities where like I regenerate health and I have a lightning storm that comes in, this debuff hits him, and then I get extra damage when that debuff's going, and like all these things are lining up, and it feels pretty fucking sweet. The rogue, I don't have anything that smooth yet. I have a bit of a system based on what I've chosen. It's pretty cool. Embarrassing how long did it take you before you realize that you could just hold the button? What are you talking about? So, like, let's say uh A is like your base attack where you're just like wow, wow, wow, wow. I would like hit it as fast as I can. You can just hold the button down and he just keeps attacking. Did you know that? I I just learned that right now. I learned that I don't like that as much. Uh there's been at least like three to four times where my wife has straight up walked away from me because it's just silent in the room. Really? I'm just smacking on those keys, dude. Really? Interesting. I did not know. I'm button hacking so hard on the CBD that I'm just hacking away. And she was not a fan, and I can't blame her, but it was pretty funny.

Alex:

Dude, that's clowning. That's you know what? I'm glad I didn't know that though, because like that's half the fun of this game. Is like you end up getting in this flow state of like you are button hacking, bashing buttons for sure, but on the controller, there's two buttons that are always gonna be the same. So it's B on an Xbox controller or whatever, is gonna be your dash, right? Sure. And then L1 is your to take your potion to heal. The rest of them you can you can assign, not the direct, not the D-pad, but all the other buttons you can assign to your movesets. So you end up like figuring out what works for you, flow. They're all in um a cool a cooldown timer too after you use them. Each of the moves, depending, will have a different amount of time that it you can until you can use it again, right? So some you can use immediately, other to other ones you can like it'll maybe be 20 seconds before they let you do it again. So yeah, and you can also upgrade those things to bring the cooldown.

Luke:

You start off with like base attacks, then you unlock like a selection of cooldown attacks, then you have like you can equip to like one ultimate ability, and that's like my big old thunderstorm that comes in with like fucking cyclones and shit and just wrecks everything in the area.

Alex:

That was cool. Yeah, but my the thing I'm driving at here though is that you end up like getting into a flow of the timing of the buttons that you press. So, like, even though it looks like you're going fucking bananas on this controller, there's like there's a method to the madness, which is like a really fun thing to do, and I think that's not as fun if I'm just holding the button.

Luke:

I mean, I think there's gotta be a compromise with how hard I was smacking the buttons and uh holding them.

Alex:

Fair enough, fair enough. Uh, but to your question, dude, like probably half the game until I like really dove into the skill tree. Like, it actually was like maybe I was probably like five hours deep until I realized I should stop just maxing out like the first part of the skill tree. It was silly, dude. Because I was just wanting to play and I didn't want to like read anything, and I just didn't want to figure it out.

Luke:

There's lots of stats to read in systems, and I think that's why like and a lot of it doesn't make sense until you like are actually dabbling in it, you know? Yeah, it's dense, and I I've been talking about I gotta come up with some new terminology, but like it's it's very approachable, so like we can, you know, some dum dums like us can go up there and like you know, melt a crowd of skeletons or goblins or werewolves or whatever that were fighting, demons. And then you know, someone who wants to play a way more hard a literal hardcore version or just way more hardcore versions of the same game, you can get into all sorts of specing of your character, all these like layers. Improving your weapons, even putting gems into the weapons, dude. I think it was like twenty hours.

Alex:

Yeah, I thought about that for sure.

Luke:

Yeah, it's too it was too much busy work for me. So I think I was like 20 hours in before I ever like even like and legendary weapons have different boons too.

Alex:

Like crazy.

Luke:

Yeah, once you get into the legendary weapons, I'd say like that's when you actually end up sticking with a weapon for a long time. Yeah, yeah. That's why it made me actually start paying attention to some of the stuff. So, example, like on the skill tree, I unlocked a companion's um, I don't know, do you get do you get a companion like that in your skill tree, or is that a druid thing? I think it's a druid thing. So I unlocked the wolves as my companions, but one of my legendary gears made it where uh my wolves turn into werewolves. So like I'm just rolling with a pack of werewolves. It was like fucking tough as fuck, dude. So once that stuff started to settle, I like started to actually read my item descriptions, and it's cool. Like, there's nothing better in a video game than unknocking like a bitchin' sword or staff or like helmet that looks particularly rad and is ultra powerful. Like, that's that lizard brain, like really does leveling up really well. It really does like the numbers really well.

Alex:

Yeah, dude, and I like it stimulating. Wow, those those are the things though that I appreciate about a game like this, where you're not only getting that loot and that gear, but it when you put it on, like your character reflects like that's what they're wearing, right? Yeah, like it's such like it seems like such a novel, like silly thing, but like there was a time when that wasn't always the case, and I think we're spoiled now that a lot of games do that, but I fucking love it, dude. I fucking love it.

Luke:

Yeah, too stuff like that, though. Like, my I gotta have my outfits matched, so I had to let go of it.

Alex:

I was gonna say where I was just like the inverse of that is that uh you might like find a helmet that you're like, I look fucking dope, and then you get some shitty helmet, and you're like, God, but it's like the specs are better, so you're gonna wear it, but you're like, but I don't look as cool. Um, but they've got a they've got something for you for that. You can you can freeze or you can like lock or like set up your you can basically set up your aesthetic of your dude, yeah. Um, but that's not fun. Like, I I I prefer to like just be in a red stuff.

Luke:

It's a lot of the appeal of the seasonal stuff too, is like seasonal stuff, you just unlock a lot of skins, right?

Alex:

And people love that shit, and they they'll pay for it and like they they think it's great. And I'm like, I don't know, I'll just wear whatever sweet fucking cool thing I just found. And you find cool things every three minutes in this, I swear to God. Yeah. I'm forever shocked by people who are like 20 bucks for this. Let's go. Dude, it's wild. I was grinding a little bit, like, because I want to dabble in the um in you know, in the whatever they that's loot store deal, whatever they got going on where you unlock stuff. Uh the grind to get your whatever gemstones to unlock those things, it's like too slow in the sense that that because of course they want you to pay some real money to be able to get some extra, like um, whatever the in-game currency is. Uh too, it's a little too slow if you're just grinding it out, but it's not unbearable, if that makes sense. So I unlocked a couple things, but like nothing I really care about. Like my horse got some like cool shit that it can wear, and like, but that's you know, like whatever. Who cares? Like, that's but you know, that's that's just me. Let's let's you having completed the story. I have. I'm curious, like, just where you land on the story. We don't have to get into super details on it, but like, are you are you digging it or is that just a throwaway for you?

Luke:

Yeah, somewhere in between. I mean, the cutscenes are pretty particularly cool and well animated, so like the spectacle of that is pretty fun. Um they're using a lot of proper nouns. I love that they like almost released like a little mini-series around it. So, like, if you're into this, there's like so much to gobble up. There's books. Um I don't know if you noticed that, but there's like books or graphic novels that if like you're into it. So they've like Blizzard as much as on the surface, it looks like a simple game. They like they do all the little things right, it seems like in world building, and like the game and like the way uh it hits your stimuli senses, and it's just it's pretty sick. So I'd say it's okay. I mean, chasing down Lilith is is cool. I mean, all the corruption, people acting silly, the little mini stories of each person and their descent to madness kind of in their corrupt, I think is cool. It's a little bit repetitive and a little bit obvious, but it's also like a very specific, well done note that they're hitting.

Alex:

Yeah, so Lilith is the main antagonist, uh, the main bad guy you mean in the beginning. And that dude, that intro cutscene, I looked it up, I looked up online to see if they're real actors. Like, that was fucking dope, dude. I was like, I was like, holy shit, this is good, but it's all CGI, it's crazy. Uh then it's a really interesting mix in this game because they have those like really top the that intro, like, scene or whatever is like that is spectacular. There are other scenes not quite as long throughout the game that almost match that level of of production, which is cool. And then towards the end game, you get some more of that, so it's really cool as well. But then they sprinkle in like these also cut scenes that are basically just a zoom up on your diorama. Like, it's like, I don't know, whatever. It's like this game's huge, dude. I don't I don't want to be like, ha, fuck you, like Blizzard, like you didn't like do your due diligence to make all this shit cool because that'd be absurd, but like it is a little silly how they uh the mixture, in my opinion.

Luke:

I'm cool with it simply for the fact that like I don't know when it happened in my life, but like most games, if I hit a cutscene, I'm like, uh which is why like Death Stranding might have literally killed me. I never beat it, but like I remember I tried to get into it in like the first five hours of gameplay. There's probably three hours of just like that basically is a movie, right? Movie, yeah, happening. So the storyline was pretty cool. I like just doing the stupid like fetch quests, dude. It's always just like go over here, clear this area, go kill this type of this animal. I'm so into that because I just like open your loot. That's why I don't like that it's always connected online because like I want to grip it and rip it and like set it down and pick it up. So like having to log in and stay logged in kind of hurts that. But when I do have a chunk of time to play, I love just picking it up and like finding a stupid side quest and ripping it. And when we played, we should mention we briefly talked about it being cool, but like the online like to sync up as players took like five seconds. You and I usually pause around for like a minimum. Like uh Elden Ring's a bad example because that game is just like obtuse for the sake of it. 2K was weird. 2K was a little funky. This took us like us to the two dumbest guys. Like two clicks, two we were like, oh, oh, that's it. Like, I was shocked it was that easy. It's fun to you know, pal around and talk and do the stuff, and then one time like uh you were like you try to link up, I was like, Yeah, but I don't want to talk, so like I'll just follow your character around, and that was fun too. Tons of time that I was playing where I was like, I don't necessarily want to go through the work of like linking up and talking, but if Al was just follow my character around or vice versa, I'd be into that. So I feel like for sure. It's not like uh a high-end like communication game where you gotta be like all intense and like the communication buttons too, like the get it like I don't know, come here, like or like and then they have like a taunt of this kind of ridiculous, yeah.

Alex:

Yeah, I guess like you're foolish and weak or whatever.

Luke:

Yeah, that's for no good reason.

Alex:

Not just you, man, like random players on the internet be dropping that too. I think it's hilarious. Oh, they do that too? Yeah, so you can like and back to the whole like internet and online connected thing. I agree, like, I don't love the fact that you have to be connected all the time. It's I think it's like I think it's for piracy's sake to like avoid that. I think that's part of why they do that. But so like linking up, super smooth, loved it. But you also run in when you're running around, you end up seeing, and it I have no idea how this works, dude. But like there are X amount of characters that are other humans playing this game that you can see. Like if you're in a big town or whatever, you're gonna see other people that like portal in there and they run around to do their thing, right? What I think's really fun about that though, is that kind of like what you're saying, it's fun to just like link up and then you run around, we'll run around and like take care of business. Like, you can just randomly like there'll be some sort of event on the map, and there'll be uh some other random person is just gonna run to that too, and then all of a sudden you take care of business together, and you're like, Go, like base, like I don't know, that was fun.

Luke:

I got my ass saved a few times on the harder different team because someone else like cleaned up my mess, and I was like, Hell yeah, brother, appreciate it. Which I didn't actually do anything, but like I had in any type of way, but like I appreciated it the hell out of it. So, like, Eldering's a very beautiful game, but like at first I was like weirded out by Like let's just call 'em people's shadows and like messages and like the little thing where you can see someone else running, but like it made the game less lonely. So I can also see that like it makes the game feel less empty and it makes it feel more like you are playing as a part of something. So even without like the events, it's just cool to see people running to like the blacksmith and then to this person and then that person, and then there's like running out to do adventures and then helping them out randomly or them helping you out. Like it's just kind of cool the simultaneousness of it. It's it's a neat concept. I just wish I could fucking pause for sure.

Alex:

You're a map guy, dude. I'm curious. You you've been side quested and whatnot, so I wonder um how much tiny fraction of this map. So that's how tiny fraction. It's a huge map, bro. And we don't even have the DLC. The DLC adds like a whole nother, like it doubles it.

Luke:

I I guess we could play to to see that whole map in a meaningful way.

Alex:

Dude, I would say that I've I would say like a fifth of the map I know pretty well just because I spent a lot of time doing shit around it. And then like the rest of I've been just about everywhere on the main map because I've I have played through the main the main quest. Oh um, there's so there's like so I've been to the other areas, but like do the by that time though, like so. The first part of when I first started playing, and I was like dicking around doing all the little dungeons, like just taking care of side quests, and then I don't know, I was like, I'm just gonna try and beat this game. So I'm gonna wrote credits, and uh, and so I plowed through, I just like plowed through the main storyline, didn't do any side question. Uh so like I've I sprinkled myself around in different areas that I needed to be in the map, but it's it's amazing how how vast it is. And I asked you earlier what you thought of the story because I was like the story is I mean, it was like like you said, the intro was cool, it's like cool to see that scene, but I was like, I don't give, I don't, I don't care. Yeah, uh, I would say about halfway through, like I was like, story pretty dope. I'm like, I'm I'm into it. I'm like, I'm I'm into what's going on here. This is cool. Like, I want to see the next thing, I want to push through, I want to see like the ending, and it's it pays off, man. It's uh it's fun. It's like there's some there's some cool stuff. There's some stuff that like I didn't I shared with you in the Discord and everybody in our Discord. There's uh Blizzard dropped this like four series YouTube thing, which is like oh I always gripe about how like uh you know, manuals and box sets and all that's I mean they they exist for the premium, like you know, boutique type bullshit, whatever. But like it that was just the that was just a thing back in the day. You got a manual, it would have stuff in there. It was like kind of fun, maybe some backstory, whatever. Anyways, Blizzard put out a four four-episode little miniseries that like basically lays down the lore uh of this game. It's animated. Um, and it's basically Lorath, who's like your main companion in this game, is like he's the he's the narrator of the game as well, which um I think there's reasons about that, but we won't get into it because it's some spoilery stuff. It's just like super cool. It's super cool that Blizzard put this out there, and like, you know, I bring up like a I always like gripe about not having like my box set, but like at the time they didn't have YouTube, so it's cool like to have this like this type of thing available to you on YouTube to kind of give you some of that lore and history or whatever, and like kudos to Blizzard for for uh for for spending the money and time to do something like that just to like add to this game.

Luke:

They would do stuff on the fringes simply because they're such an old ass company. Like, I was thinking the other day about Bethesda and how Bethesda like is probably one of the most influential studios ever, but like when they release a new game, it's like geez, what do you guys think? This is 2008. So, like how a company evolves or refines, it's like Blizzard's been around since before 2000. So 25-30 years minimum, I'm not sure about the total, but like they do for some degree kind of stay in their lane. So, like I wouldn't call a lot of uh Diablo's uh gameplay revolutionary. You just kind of run around, kill things, clear hordes. There's like some puzzles if you're really into that, but I've seen like maybe three to four, I'm sure there's more. It's like base stuff, but like they do what they do very, very well, and they continue to refine. And I guess they revolutionize in other ways as far as the online world and the syncricity and all that, but yeah, all that stuff around the fringes, it makes sense for how old of a company they are, they're not just gonna leave all that out, so to speak.

Alex:

Yeah, dude. They they definitely and they sprinkle in like a bunch of Easter egg type stuff, dude. Like I like I said, I only played a little bit of Diablo 1, a little bit of Diablo 3, and like even I was able to pick up on like some of the Diablo 1 nods that they gave throughout. That's really cool. Like it's like it's it's fun. So, like it definitely is a game that it makes I have a hard time sometimes. Like, you're like, let's play four. I was like, No, we gotta play one, two, three, four. You know, yeah, but uh, but it's cool because like I mean they're all disconnected, they're like they're connected, but they're like they they're standalone, so you don't need to go through that way. You don't ever need to go that way through that way. I'm actually coming to a point in my gaming life where I'm like, Alex, it's okay. Just play the newest game. Yeah. Turns out you're never gonna get through these. You're never gonna get to yeah. Right. But uh, but but saying that though, like it did give me like playing this game was like dog, I should really go back and see what's up with at least for a couple hours, see what's up with two, see what's up with three. You know what I mean? Just give him some tastes.

Luke:

Well, two has like uh the remastered like comeback. So that would be the most intriguing, especially because it's like I'm sure people's favorite Diablo game. If you asked 10 people, I'm sure like seven of them would tell you two.

Alex:

Dude, shout out to shout out to Keith on the main quest podcast. He did a Diablo episode not too long ago, and I asked him, you know, I don't want to spoil, I'm gonna spoil this episode a little bit. He he recommends it. I'm like, dude, a Diablo one. And this is this is a dude. We were on his we're on uh we did the X-Men episode with him with Keith, you'll remember. So Keith like plays a lot of shit games, to be fair. When he he will call them out for being shit, like he will call them out because he's like going back and replaying a catalog that like he played in his youth, and he's seeing if they hold up today. That's kind of the basis of his podcast. I will just go out there and say that like I listened to his episodes and like by God, I feel bad for this kid because he like plays a lot of shitty games, you know what I mean? To the to credits. It's one thing to play a game and it's another thing to play to credits and then fucking podcast about it. But he did it with Diablo, and he was like, This game fucking slaps, slaps today. Now I was like, I'd love to hear that, dude. Like it's it's one of those games that I think it'd be crunchy. You would want to play with the mouse. They they I've heard though that the um because they ported to PlayStation, so I've heard that the like the controller version like is is pretty good too. So it could be worth checking out, dude, for sure. Yeah, I think you gotta go on a Gog. Uh it's on Gog, it's probably on whatever Blizzard's thing is. Um Battle Net.

Luke:

I think the only place I saw when I was doing some brief research was Gog, but you could be correct.

Alex:

Yeah, I think it might be on Battle Knit. Uh I I have it on Gog for sure. I'm gonna bring this way back to when you were asking me about that scale tree, dude, because I want to bring this up real quick. Did I ever fully figure it out? No, I'm way more my mind's wrapped way better than it used to be. But it's interesting, I got really used to the moveset that I was kind of rocking and rolling with, and it was actually after like we haven't even linked up since I switched over to like some better moves for for my barbarian, like the new moves I gave him, and then once you max him out, he's unstoppable. It's ridiculous.

Luke:

Like it's just pretty much how it was with the druid, where I was just like, Yeah, I am death. Yeah, dude, totally. Me and my fucking wolf companions were just a storm of death.

Alex:

But there's so and then I wanted to bring up though because there's so many different paths you can take, and there's like, I'm sure you can min-max it, and I'm sure that there's like stuff on the internet that's like this is the ultimate, whatever. And like, but the thing is, is you can go all these different directions, and I think that's super cool, and it and it lends the replayability of this game, which brings up the super interesting, super weird, like I like season thing that I've been talking about, where you get to you just get to make a new character. I think you can get up to 30 characters or something you can make, and you just make a new one. Out of like 10. Okay, 30, 10, whatever, dude. What are you doing? What are you doing with these numbers here? But but you know, that that's like you know, you get so attached and you have this fucking beast. Um, when that season when the new season dropped, it's like we do recommend you start with a new character, and um, and then you can play with the one you can import in the one that you've been using, but they're they like recommend like using a new one. So you did a rogue, I did a uh sorcerer right off the bat, wasn't doing great, but then I found a few moves and like played around with a few different things, maxed out the another great thing about the skill tree that we gotta make sure that we put in there is it doesn't penalize you for refunds. So if you want to like change something around, respecting you like yeah, it lets you respect. I fucking love that, dude. Because you're like yeah, if you're like, oh, this doesn't really work out for me, like you can, or if you've like maxed out like the power on something or like did extra things for it, just take all those things back and then respec it in a different way. I love that you can do that, and it's like, dude, now though, my sorcerer, like she's got like fucking these moves, man. That I just go in and I just like tear people down with fire. It's crazy. I opt to one more, just one more. But it's interesting. The uh what uh every once in a while, and even even on the base, I was like getting real close to dying. And yeah, I die now on the the harder one, but even on the base, like because the new season did it does these night bear nudges, dude, and they scale on difficulty and they're they're tough, man. Like it was like, oh, I gotta be strategic again.

Luke:

I was thinking we should link up for one of those. Uh my rogue, I now have like more issues with crowd control because I had such like areas of attack moves with uh the druid, and I was just this big beefy tank that would just go in and just start mauling motherfuckers. Whereas like my rogue, I got this bow, which I loved. I wanted to play with a bow. But like I gotta drop these caltrops, I run away, I set these poison traps and then try to drop the caltrops so they like slow down and then like get stuck in the poison traps, and then I'm shooting them with my little machine gun little shot thing with my bow, and like it's a cool little thing. I don't know if it's truly effective. I'm sure someone who cares would tell me no, but that's part of the fun. Uh but like I have to think about it, and I gotta I'm and you know how the map setup where like if you're fighting a horde of enemies and you like move, there's like a new horde of enemies. I'm I'm always accidentally dragging my current horde and like into the next horde, and I'm like, oh I'm just dying dying or just like getting into way bigger fights, and I just ran out of the town, so it's like it's not even my objective. I'm just getting into fights I can barely handle like a hundred meters from from the fucking map.

Alex:

It's silly. Yeah, I've got this uh I can't remember what the move's called with the with the sorcerer, but it's basically this pillar of fire that she shoots out. It's like a flamethrower, right? But you can you can get it going and then it and it like you can use it until the mana is depleted. So like you you can shoot this fire for a decent amount of time. Uh but you can also you not only is she shooting it, but you can like rotate the the joystick so that she spins in a circle. So it's basically just this fucking fire circle tornado that like just when you when those swarms come, I'm like, all right, let's go, and let's burn everything down, dude. It's fucking bananas.

Luke:

I'll take uh yes, boss fights are you should probably mention that they're like they look real big and they do more intricate move sets that uh it gets pretty intense.

Alex:

These set pieces are insane. This game is so big, almost 200 gigs, dude. It's absurd. Like it is it's a ginormous game. And I was like, how is this game so freaking big? But then I like sit there and I look at these set pieces, and I'm like, okay, this makes sense because there's so much detail in the background, all these things moving around, and like when you're the more you like go through the story, too, like you'll end up finding different like areas that you're in, and there'll be there's a couple big bosses that you fight. There's this one area where there's this big snake, it's not a boss or anything, it's not spoilery, but like you see like little pieces of the snake in the background, and I just love that like like set piece storytelling that they got going on. There's another big boss that you fight where like it's such a huge boss, but like you see pieces of it like on the way to to the fight or whatever, you know, in the background. And I just like love that like uh that scenic sort storytelling is super cool. Blizzard does uh seem to really care about their art, which I admire. And uh and beyond the beyond the graphics and those set pieces, dude, the voice acting is actually top-notch as well. Gotta give the voice acting a nod.

Luke:

It's uh it's campy in a good way. I feel like on purpose almost. Yeah, yeah. It's like an yeah, it's like it's like an epic campiness. It's like it knows it's yeah, it's not trying to be too cool, but it like kind of nails it at the same time. So I fuck with it.

Alex:

This game on my computer is 127 gigabytes, dude.

Luke:

Yeah, I was gonna tell you that because I looked, but then I didn't want you be like 2030, what's the difference? So couldn't be that guy twice.

Alex:

Um I'm glad you looked it up. Yeah, it's so big though that I had to like clean off my my Steam ED to like make what for the update. Like it was already on there, and then it had some ginormous update, and I was like, what I have to like delete three games just to get this update on it.

Luke:

I get greedy with downloading games that I haven't gotten close to playing on Steam ED, but like, yes, I don't think I can play it on my gaming laptop. I don't think I have enough gigs available to even play the game tragically. So like see, that's wild, dude. And it's not like it's not even like the screen I could do it. It's like it's gotta be on the Steam ED.

Alex:

Right, right. Yeah, man, that's Diablo. I don't know. Anything else we should say about Diablo? Yeah, dude. Um Diablo 4.

Luke:

Because apparently I'm housekeeper today. Yes. Um on your ratings of five, dude. You're low five meter, dude. What are you giving it? I'm gonna give Diablo five out of five Pentagon tips, dude. Whoa, I was gonna say a Diablo four. So I'm glad we both got cheesy uh dynamic ratings on there. I think it's really, really awesome. I just I love that you can pick it up, play it, and like I always, you know, I become an ongoing ongoing joke similar to your top 10 of all time list. Uh, where like I'm always like, I'm gonna continue to play this game, but like I like the online component of it so much. I like that I can just text you and like we could either chat and hang out, or just like literally just like go take down like a weird dungeon and get a reward. I like that I can pick it up and it's been a while, and I'm gonna know exactly what to do and how to do it, and there's not gonna be a reintegration and it's just grip it and rip it, and I think it's really good for that.

Alex:

100% dude. I think the uh I think the story ends up being pretty cool. There's just a there's just a wealth of things you can do in this game. Yeah, like I tore through the main big old playground. Yeah, I too like and that's just it. So like I did the main quest. Oh, I do uh maybe I'm gonna stick with my five pentagon tips. Okay, but four and a half. Here's here's one gripe, dude. And this I did a little bit of Reddit digging, and I think the problem is is uh so I I rolled credit, I didn't roll credits on this game. I beat it, but I didn't roll credits because they don't fucking do that anymore after they added the DLC, to my understanding. So I did the whole main quest, and then all of a sudden, like after all the like cutscenes and all the main quest stuff, and then I went to a black screen, and it this was black where the credits should have been, and it held that black screen for I don't know, too long, and then it dropped me back into just the regular open world, you know, like to the continue like the new like just to continue the game. Uh I was like, what? Like, no credits? Are you kidding me? Like, is this a glitch? And I looked it up, and like other people are having this gripe as well.

Luke:

Surprised they didn't just like send you to the DLC storefront.

Alex:

This might as well, right? Uh but that's so I think that is it. I think you have to beat the DLC to get credits now. Which I'm like Steve's give me my name. Give me my credits. You know what I mean? Like, I'm gonna roll credits, bro.

Luke:

Yeah, I don't want to look at them as much as I just want that.

Alex:

The feeling of being like, yeah, yeah. But uh apparently I have to beat the DLC to get that, which means I have to buy the DLC, which I'm not sure. Like I'd seven or something. Yeah, so I mean this game's dope, but like I'm not there's so much to do in this game still that like I have no problem. I think that's one like the biggest games I've played.

Luke:

Is like if it's in I think you get some classes in the DLC. That's the that's the only thing that's like a necromancer and stuff. No, because we can play as a necromancer. Oh, can we now?

Alex:

Okay, we're I think we always there was like a thing. No, at the get-go, it's like not unlocked, but it I think you have to like get to a certain point or something, but but yeah, that makes sense if there's new classes. That would be like the type of thing that would that would get me.

Luke:

But yes, um, strong recommend to Diablo as non-online playing gamers. We appreciated and enjoyed and excelled. Uh excelled is a strong word, but we actually like put a few good sessions, and for us, that is an accomplishment. Strong recommend, loved it.

Alex:

I can dig it. Well shit, man. You want to take a little break? Come back with a unsexation sponsor and then do some side question. Sure thing. This month we are unofficially brought to you in part by the great sport of disc golf.

Luke:

Frost, if you will. It's real golf. There's ball golf and there's disc golf. Continue.

Alex:

Yeah, and I'm just you know, I'm feeling it. My rotator cuff, a little sore, my arm, a little limp. Dude, I got out uh I got I played 30 holes the other day. First time out this season. Reinvigorated my love for the game. Yeah, dude. What a great sport though. Disc golf. What a what a I don't glow up is like an intense word for it because like I'm not sure. Like, I mean, it's had a glow up, but uh, we're not talking like this thing, it's still crunchy. The game is still crunchy, but how far has disc golf come in the past 15 years?

Luke:

Well man, it's already exploding, and then COVID definitely sent it, you know, people needing hobbies outside, sent it into a new stratosphere. But yes, uh, the only thing holding me back is cheering. Because I I used to get out all the time. I'm not a cart guy. Shout out to my cart boys. That's how you know you're really about it. But I mean when you say cart, you don't mean like a vehicle like in golf. You're talking about the roller bags. Yeah, the rollerbags, yeah. Ooh, I should call them roller bags. Although you put the bag in the cart these days, to be honest. Like you buy the cart and then the bag inserts into the cart. So pretty intense. Uh, we've been playing for ever, man. I think the first time you brought me out there, I was like 12. Yeah, it makes sense. Suck balls, but it was tight. Damn, nothing's changed. Yeah, right. Uh, but you notice how Al is real cocky about how he beat me in 2K, and that's because for like two straight decades, I've just had a stranglehold on any sports game we've played.

Alex:

And uh like what okay, with how much dead time in two decades? Doesn't matter. We weren't playing. Doesn't matter, dude.

Luke:

I would have whooped your ass any day of the week, and now you actually play some 2K and I don't. So you beat me in like two games, then I beat you in the third, and you're like, Oh, I'm better than Luca. So one of the most how many summers ago was that where you were like, let's bet some money on it, and I was like, Okay, buddy. I would just I would beat you, and you're like, your pride hurt a little brother because I'm the little brother, so we went out again. You're like, double or nothing, let's do it. And I was like, Oh, okay, man. And then I took your money again. You're like, Oh, I still want to play, but I don't think we should gamble this time.

Alex:

I got no shame there. I understand. I knew I was losing my money.

Luke:

I would say it's not nearly as crunchy as it used to be. I don't see any dudes wearing Metallica shirts, crushing beers, listening to their music too loud anymore, dude. I see like none.

Alex:

That's kind of sad, actually.

Luke:

I mean, they kind of sucked, but yeah, it is kind of part of like it was part of its its core essence or aesthetic of disc golf, was like old metal dudes, like Gen X metal dudes.

Alex:

And how old were those dudes when the when when we saw them when we were kids though? They had to be like 40, right?

Luke:

I'd say yeah, they're like 50s now. So maybe like late 30s to 40s, but yeah, um, love me some disc golf. And you played BRP, which is hilarious to me because you haven't played all and you're like, I'm gonna go to the fanciest, most elaborate course, and then it's right after a tournament. Were there pin locations normal? Do you know that? Because if it was a tournament extended pin locations, and that would make me dude.

Alex:

They had uh so BRP is always switching it up, dude. They always have a different, like they're always moving their baskets around, so I was gonna be fresh. So every time you go out, they're gonna be a little different. Blue ribbon buttons for the uninitiated, yeah. Indeed. Uh, I think they were regular, we're playing the A baskets, so regular baskets. Um but Doug, there was three extra holes. There's 30 fucking holes. Dude, that's so many, dude. I thought I was signing up for like I forgot that BRP is like usually 26, 27, something like that. Yeah, I actually always it's like too many. It's like it's some weird disc golf thing that happened like beyond like when I stopped paying attention to the I mean I play this sport, but uh anyway. The point is, is like apparently that's like the tournament number. It's like a tournament number, 27. Yeah, uh, so it's a it this it is one of the best courses in the nation. It gets you know rated right up there. Uh they had three extra holes, so 30, dude. By hole 21. My arm was like, you can just fuck off and die. Like, why are you even doing this?

Luke:

Yeah, but you can hang out. I love BRP, you can hang out at the shack, dude. Get some whiskey gingers, get some hot dogs, some snoops.

Alex:

We we definitely done a sausage, dude, for sure.

Luke:

Lady working there that's always there being rowdy.

Alex:

You know she was.

Luke:

The locals and the regulars, she's a clown. And once she uh abrasive, but if you're there long enough, you're interacting with the locals, you're like, this lady's hilarious. It's like your favorite tow bar in the middle of a disc golf course. It's fucking so that's 100% what it is. It's fucking so for sure.

Alex:

Uh, because you the way that the course is set up, you like pass the the shack or whatever, and then you you come back to it in around like hole 26 or whatever. I don't know. Bit of an axis, yeah. Yeah, uh, but when we were coming back, we didn't we didn't like get another, you know, we didn't stop it the second time because that's usually the end of it or whatever. But we had three extra holes we had to play. But she was in life. You're like, I don't need moments. I'm home. Dude, for real. And uh, but it was super funny though, because they've been coming off this stretch of like all these all these tournaments, and she's loud, so she's like talking to some of her friends that are there, but you know, it's kind of talking to all of us. And uh she sits on the chair and she's like, Oh, fuck it, hey, finally sit down, relax. She's like, and she like butts out a cigarette and like has this like smokes a sing. She's just talking about how they've been grinding. Uh a whole bunch of people playing disc golf, dude. That tourney, tourney time.

Luke:

I think Minnesota has the most disc golf courses per capita in the world. I could be wrong. Uh YouTube for sure. I don't know if it does anymore, but yeah, so it's not it's no longer niche to us. Um, big shout. Let's get a following in Norway, dude. In Sweden, so we can uh go play disc golf there. That would be cool. They got they got it going on in Sweden, dude. Uh a lot of the plastic disc companies are based out of Sweden, I believe. And then Norway's got a big scene too. Um interesting. So I know those two those two Nordic countries play a lot of disc golf, and um I love it, man. Uh, I've been out one and a half-ish times this year, and I was like actually good last time I was out there for the most part. My arm was falling apart by like whole 12 to 16, so I don't even know. I don't know how you got to 30, dude. I was so fucking it was a really hot day, too.

Alex:

I was doing it. We woke up early, dude. We uh we we teed off at nine, which means we like yeah. I mean it was great with the heat and everything, but as funny as uh my my boy AC and my boy KP. But the thing is, is like both of those dudes, like I was like, if one of them at like 18 holes was like we should just go, I would have been like, okay, but like I wasn't gonna be that guy, I wasn't gonna be that guy that was like we should go, but like if they were like it, I was like, Yeah, dude, I'm done. Like, fuck this shit. It's getting hot, my arm hurts. Yeah, but but we played all 30, which is basically like two rounds. Like, that's nuts. Um man, what do you think the record is at at BRP for rounds in a day? Three. I think someone got out there and played three, basically 90 holes of disc golf. Yeah, something's open 24 hours. We could go right now, bro. We could go right now. Really?

Luke:

I know they've done like yeah, I'm surprised back in your little rave days. You never went to the little electronic, they'll like put lights in the baskets, and they'll have they have like a big stage, they do like concerts and stuff there.

Alex:

So yeah, they got a scene going, it's fun. We should have. But I never made it up, no. No, dude. Well, talked about it. But I got the I got the itch, man. I've only been out my first time out this summer. I yeah, you know, the I love my boy. You love your boys, but here's the deal they do hold us back from getting in more disc golf. We just gotta figure it out. Because you picked men are out there, play like a ladies, fellas, whatever. It's crazy. Yeah, dude. People out there golfing, people out there hunting. We we should be able to disc golf whenever we want, right?

Luke:

Uh I mean, give me another year and they might be less feral and they can at least walk around while I play.

Alex:

Ah, dude, I'm I'm down for that, dude. I think that's uh that'll be it. Like once it like eventually, yeah. Um disc golf though, dude. Uh I got the hitch again. I was looking at new because I still play with that ridiculous small bag that I've had forever. So I was like poking around like you didn't play with that. Dude, I gotta get a new bag. It's ridiculous. I mean, it's kind of funny worse essentially. Pretty much, pretty much, yeah.

Luke:

If you think Alex should meet up with me and give me $10 to beat him again and give him lessons, you just let us know in the Discord.

Alex:

What this is inflation, dude? We play for five bones around here.

Luke:

Uh yeah. Well, we used to play for beers, and then you always had to buy the beers, so we'll have to find a new version. That's right. Fair. But Disc golf, Froth, if you will. Uh, don't do that. Tyler was rock hard, and now he just lost his boner. Can't call it Froth, dude. Yeah, that's why I said it, because it bugs people, but that was originally what people called it. Oh, you're old enough. You've been playing long enough where it was introduced to you as Frolf. I'm an old head now. Yeah. You're fucking right.

Alex:

I was about to say, man, I got my I gotta I was about to say I buy I have to go to a concert. That's the only way. Yeah, go to a Metallica, and then you gotta see Metallica live. It's all good.

Luke:

You have to work the concert though. That's right. Hilarious. But yes, disc golf, get out there, people. Follow course. Get out there and throw it out there. Gotta go through. Gotta go through.

Alex:

You've been side questing, bro?

Luke:

Yeah. It's officially a problem. Uh so the issues I had with Diablo is that because of the online connectivity, I can't just pick it up and play it and then stop and then look at something else and then do so. So I ended up just playing so much Brotato. Because dude, it's the perfect flow state game. I'm like 40 hours into Protato. It's gross. I bought the expansion during the last sale because, like, hell yeah, it's dirt cheap. It's worth it. Got some new characters. Fucking love Rotato, dude. So Brotato's one. I bought this new one that's more interesting for you to hear about, other than me as a weaponized potato taking down hordes of whatever the fuck they're supposed to be. He doesn't even look like a potato. He looks like an egg. What's up with that? What's up with that, yeah? I know you're talking about some brota. I know what you're talking about. Yeah, what is that all about? Why did they make the protato white? Make him brownish. Like we all know what a potato looks like. What's going on there? But anyway. I don't know. Bro, bro, broaglo doesn't sound as cool. But Brotato looks cool, dude. Looking at the cover art right now, he's got the double, the double SMGs, dude, with the bandana and the scar or his eyes looking fucking lit, dude. But anyway, um you're like, can I play right now? Joke's on, you need to have been playing Brotato this whole time. You got more hours on Brotato than you do Diablo, son. Correct. But also, like kind of makes sense, dude. It's just so easy to just do something else, watch something else, and play Brotato. Um although right now, for some reason, it says that I have 108 hours. That is not correct. So I don't know what's up with that. I gotta hit the sync one more time, I guess. But um I think it's close to 40 hours.

Alex:

40 hours if I look at your profile, yeah.

Luke:

Okay. Um cardboard town. Now, another game you have heard me speak about upon this podcast is these all have these crunchy names. I always forget what they're called. Terascape? Dude, thank you. Terascape. You've heard me talk a lot about Terescape, which is like this hex grid kind of tile card based builder, essentially, and you get all these synergies and these things. Um cardboard tone is kind of close to that. Once again, it is card based, and you're now on like just a traditional grid. Grid, and you have different things to manage. It's a rogue-like more so you run into these scenarios. Um, about five hours in, I get my ass beat every time, but it's got like this cute little cartoony style. I've been playing that, that's super cool. I just wanted to give that one a quick shout-out, and then spent more time fumbling for the names of other games. Um, and then NCAA came back, and uh, I don't have a full report for you yet, but the sickness is back, and you know what? That'll happen. And the last thing I'll mention is that Dukes 2026. Dukes, dude. Uh, I want you to know that Dukes is my name of my Diablo character, and uh, we didn't get to meet up online to as our new characters, but we both made our new characters female, and my character's name is Lady Dukes, and that makes me laugh every time. It's just nice.

Alex:

Why wouldn't I? Uh minus minus Sabrina because she's a sorceress, uh Sabrina, the teenage witch. Okay. It's like the fuck. I was like, what witch names do I know? Sure, sure, sure, sure.

Luke:

Um I have HBO, courtesy of my brother, um, which is type. And I've stumbled upon something I've probably talked about on this pod, but I fucking love it, and it needs a shout-out. I don't give a fuck about the MCU. I don't give a fuck about the new Superman movie coming out. You know Superhero Compton I'm here for? It's fucking DC as an absolute heater of an animated movie catalog, dude. So Batman Ninja 2 dropped. Ooh, Batman versus the Yakuza League, dude. The Yakuza League is tight. I watched like another one. They just drop Batman into different periods, they just do different period pieces of Batman, and I will watch everyone, dude. It's so tight. Like I love that they do that with Batman as a character. Because like a lot of these characters a lot of times just get reinvented constantly, which as a kid I didn't quite understand, but I do now. Um because it's a character, right? Or something that can be reinvented, and it's just the story gets told and it's just a new context. So DC just does an awesome job in their adult animation section uh on HBO Max. Uh they don't have all of them that they used to. They seem to uh cycle a few, which is pretty annoying. But I've been getting into those, so uh you should look into your own HBO and just see what you've been watching right recently, Alex, and some good suggestions in there for you, dude.

Alex:

I can dig it. I can dig it all softcore, but I don't know what to do. I heard that uh but the the Harley Quinn series is supposed to be fantastic as well.

Luke:

Is that Birds of Prey?

Alex:

Yeah, I think so. Yeah. Or wait, is that the movie? Or is that the uh I don't know. Harley Quinn got she she got an animated series that's supposed to be amazing as well. I heard it's awesome. DC uh DC animated stuff is is like great.

Luke:

Yeah, what's what's up with Marvel dropping the ball completely and with DC doing so bad with their live actions for so long, but then just absolute heaters just churning out heaters in the animated space. I also watched the War of Rohim, um, the Lord of the Rings one. That was cool. I liked that. Nice, nice. So that's what kicked all this off. I was like, hell yeah. So I don't watch any TV or movies, but that's what I apparently got time for.

Alex:

I don't know, a strange guy. Where are you getting these in on? Are you watching like this on your main TV? You watch on your computer, you watching on Steamy D.

Luke:

I'll play like either the Steamy D downstairs or NCAA football. And then I'll burn out around nine o'clock and I'll watch like a half an hour to 45 minutes and then do the same thing the next day and finish it. Right on because none of them drag too long. I tried watching a Justice League one, but there's like a bunch of time hopping with the flash, and I was like, this is annoying as hell. So maybe I'll pick that one back up. Um a bunch of them I've seen already because I go on these spurts occasionally. I'm currently watching one that's like this creepy ass thing where like the French made it in like the 70s to early 80s, and it's like humans are like basically bugs slash small animals to these aliens, and I'll let you know how that goes, but it's fucking weird as hell. Cool. Right on. Yeah. Yeah. So what so what are you playing, man? That was a weird tangent for me.

Alex:

What's up, dude? As far as video games go, like I haven't really played much outside of Diablo. Didn't just a little bit of sampling here and there. Uh Freedom Finger, which is a schmup that I like. Been playing a little bit of that because uh one of the homies was talking about some schmups, and I was like, Freedom Finger, you can play that. Have you picked that one on yet?

Luke:

Never heard it for never heard of a Freedom Finger.

Alex:

Oh, you should check it out, dude. It's your flying middle finger in space. Yeah, the soundtrack's amazing, dude. It's nuts. It's it's cool. I'll show it to you sometime. Maybe I'll buy it for you one of these days. Uh it was just on a pretty deep discount. But if anybody's a schmup fan, like go check out Freedom Finger, that's just dope. But as far as like other other gaming outside of Diablo, dude, well, I guess it's kind of a major side quest. I've been doing more short form content on the low five gaming page. Whether you're on YouTube, TikTok, or Instagram, you can check that shit out. Uh, but I've I've started I've launched a series of series. So I've got Pocket Picks. Pocket Picks is basically me showcasing my uh handheld collection, Game Boy Games, Game Boy Advanced, Game Boy Color, Game Gear. Uh, I will likely expand that into the 3DS at some point, maybe even the Vita, basically any handheld device. In theory, I could maybe even do the Switch. We'll see. We'll see how froggy I am. Uh, but it's been fun, dude. Mostly mostly been focusing on like the Game Boy and the Game Gear games right now. And it's like a really great excuse for me to uh basically play those games a little bit. That's why the collection a little bit, dude. You know, I got hundreds of Game Boy games, so it's like it's tight to kind of dig through the boxes. Like I've got them all in uh little Star Wars lunch boxes, but I'll just dig in there, I'll pull out one at random, and then I'll just I'll talk about it a little bit or whatever. That's that's this that's the pocket picks series. If you enjoy the cool man, uh those have been super cool. I've also been doing a uh something I'm I'm calling Bite Line, which is a weekly five-story roundup of different gaming news. It's a different flavor, different thing going on. And then the third is something I'm calling start screen, and that is basically exactly what it sounds like. And it's just the start screen of various uh right now retro games. So I've done 1080 snowboarding and so 64 games right now, 1080 and Pokemon Snap. Yeah, that's it. That's what I saw.

Luke:

Um, well, I've seen both of them, but I do have a suggestion which is gonna bother just me. I want you to rotate your amiibos on those. It's it's it's it's it's planned, dude. All right. I was like staring at the amiibos for half the video, and I was like, he should he has more amiibos than he needs. He should be rotating these meebs. That's part of the plan. If the game lines up with it, that's perfect. Um, that's part of the plan for sure. That's hilarious.

Alex:

Um, but it's been fun, man. It's it's like I don't want to say it's been like I mean, it's it's crazy. It's it's fascinating to me because I'm in marketing and I do a lot of social media marketing. So like to see how all the different platforms react to the different audiences in each, it's it's been really fascinating and cool. And people have been really receptive to them, which is like fun too. Uh, for anybody out there listening that is like dabbling in content creation or like just wants to for fun, like it can be it can be totally like uh it's like it's really easy to have a lot of apprehension about putting yourself out there creating stuff. But it turns out that a lot of people are gonna like your shit. You know, I enjoy watching your videos while I take a shit. Hey man, I appreciate that. I appreciate those poopy views. Hey, not poopy likes for me every time, dude. I can dig it, dude. But that's a that's been a major side quest. So I mean like every single day. I've been trying to get like stuff out every day. Not going to today, but that's just how it goes. But uh but yeah, so basically I've done you know nearly nearly 20 videos in the last two weeks or three, two to two and a half weeks or whatever. Um, and that's been like dabbling with mostly just dabbling a little bit in each of those different games. So all these little mini side quests along the way. It's been fun.

Luke:

Hell yeah. Brighten up your poop, dudes. Morning coffees, whenever you get your short form content in. Yes, sir. I like yes, sir. Don't uh Sue Alex Nintendo. I don't know if you can legally, but you'll find a way, so don't do it.

Alex:

I think I'm I think I'm in the means of uh Creative Commons. I think we're okay. Uh and I'm showcasing actual carts, which is like kind of a fun bit of it. I think that makes it like kind of fun because uh, you know, you can I mean I'm nothing against emulation ROMs, that kind of thing, but I think it's cool to be able to be like, hey, what you're seeing right here is like it's off of this fucking physical piece of media. Oh yeah. It's kind of dope. No, they're cool. Well, shit, everybody. Thanks for listening. Uh join us in the Discord. It's a cool little spot. Uh we will drop little notes, or at least I'll drop little notes on whatever game that we're playing for the month. Uh, next game is gonna be Plucky Squire. I started that the other night. It's fun. I don't know if you'd had a chance yet, dude, but it's uh it's a cool one. But more more on that one next month. Thanks for listening. Check us out, low5gaming.com. If you are on YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, follow low5 gaming. Uh give me give me some love on those on my hard work on my on my series, my series I. Like like them. They're good. All right, all right, bro. Much love. Peace. Peace.

Head Shot

Alex

Host
Head Shot

Luke

Host