Gris

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.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:21):
Welcome to another episode of low five gaming.
This is Alex, and I'm joined bymy brother and co host Luke.

Speaker 2 (00:28):
Hello, hello, I'm Doad.
Welcome to the avant garde ofgaming podcasts.
Alex, out here picking gamesbeing like.
In case you didn't know, I hadan art minor in college, so here
we're playing grease.
It is true for gray, and it's agame about emotions and all of
these things.

(00:48):
Would you like to know aboutall these things?
We don't shoot things and playsports.
Good, we play artsy games.
My name is Alex.

Speaker 1 (00:55):
That was good man, we can send it.
I've been loading that up allweek.

Speaker 2 (00:58):
I just want you to know that it's like I'm on a
roast and for picking an artsygames and being a little fucking
to tootsie fruity what's theword I'm looking for?
Just like an artsy, fartsy guy.

Speaker 1 (01:08):
Yeah, dope as fuck, man.
Come on Sure, this game is sick.
It is artsy, though it is artsy.

Speaker 2 (01:16):
I was like who's this guy?
I think he is, so this is whereI am going so I'm going to give
it a shot of high five.

Speaker 1 (01:32):
Oh, I'll look out my way.
No, you're not gonna miss it.
Yeah, I know.
Yeah, that's wonderful, and youhit a lot of the beats man.

(01:56):
It's also a Spanish game, thedevelopers are out of Barcelona
and it's, it's, it's dope man,it's a full vibe.

Speaker 2 (02:03):
Art major minor that ran away to live in Spain for a
while.
Here's the game thatcapitalizes on my journey across
the world.
Follow me, guys, for my journey.

Speaker 1 (02:14):
Get a lot of, a lot of, a lot of deep cuts about,
about Alex's life in thisepisode.

Speaker 2 (02:20):
I don't know, it could all be made up.
Maybe I'm just being a dick.

Speaker 1 (02:24):
Yeah, but Gris man are.
I've been calling this gameGris or Gris for like probably a
couple years, and then Irealized that it's Greece, the
Spanish word for gray, and Ifelt kind of silly.

Speaker 2 (02:36):
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 theEnglish and the Spanish, I guess
in this instance it doesn'tfeel good.
Yeah, not great but, I thinkit's a great game, man.

Speaker 1 (02:51):
I think it's a really great game, but you're right,
there is no combat.
I guess you'd call it aplatformer, not really a walking
sim kind of is it an actionplatformer, though a little bit.

Speaker 2 (03:00):
Yeah, I'd call it like an environmental puzzle,
walking sim platformer, I guessyeah, I thought it was brand new
dude.
I just when you picked it itwas on Game Pass, so I just
assumed it was like a newrelease.
And then I saw it was on salesomewhere and I was like a new
game.
And now you've known about itfor years.
So I mean I guess it's beenfloating around in the indie art
scene for a while.

(03:21):
And you know, I just you know,layman, like me you know capital
G gamers we don't know aboutthis cool fancy stuff.
So you've just been, you know,playing this game at coffee
shops and stuff for the last fewyears, or what, how'd you?
How'd you even know about it?

Speaker 1 (03:33):
And for the avid listener of low five gaming.
I had got a big old boner forDevolver Digital.
So sure, when I started goingdown the devolver rabbit hole, I
discovered Greece, because itis published by Devolver the
development studios NomadaStudios, barcelona.
Yeah man, it's another devolverjoints.
We got to get a hold ofDevolver.
Give us some of that Devolvermoney, because we just keep

(03:55):
hawking these Devolver games.

Speaker 2 (03:57):
But I tell you what man.
Thank you for reaching outdudes.
Right, glad to know you're afan.

Speaker 1 (04:03):
I wonder about some new games you can buy from us
Right.

Speaker 2 (04:06):
How about Angerfoot?
Yeah, we will continue torelease good games you will buy
and talk about but man, they dohave a couple of ones.

Speaker 1 (04:12):
But I digress, dude, this is about Greece and you
know.
So I have started this gamemaybe two, maybe three times,
and I wouldn't say I bounced offof it because it wasn't like I
wasn't enjoying it, it's justlike the game's a vibe right and
it doesn't take very long tobeat.
It takes roughly five hours tocomplete, I would say, if you're

(04:35):
just going at it.
But the thing is is I wouldplay about two, three hours and
I would just start playingsomething else.
There's something about havinga podcast feels like homework.
Sometimes I didn't really feellike this was homework.

Speaker 2 (04:46):
In a good way.
It felt like homework, yeah.

Speaker 1 (04:48):
So this game, this game, it was like good homework.
You know, when you're likeenjoying the subject and you're
feeling real good about whateveryou're working on.
That's how this one was for me,man.
I gave me an excuse to likeactually play through to the
credits and see the whole thing,because I probably, as you play
through you, start to unlockall these colors.
There's a lot of really coolthings that the developers did

(05:08):
in this game where they playaround with the colors and music
and they tie in with this ideaof the stages of grief, right,
and we have a couple episodes oneducation that I encourage
folks to go back in the backlogand check out, but in which
episode?
I can't remember which episodewe mentioned, but I think I
mentioned this game being a goodone to use in the classroom and

(05:31):
I think that could still betrue.
You know, if you're, if you'recovering, like this, ages of
grief or something like that,but I do think that you would
need to bring a ton of contextbecause, even though, as a
teacher, you'd have to bring apretty heavy hand along with
each chapter, so to speak, orelse, I like the game a lot.
It's beautiful right off the batand I didn't get that man like

(05:52):
if I didn't know that this iswhat they're playing.
I knew it was about some deepshit.

Speaker 2 (05:56):
You can catch the vibe that it was about some deep
shit or something, but I feltpretty dumb as I played it.
I'm like am I supposed to?

Speaker 1 (06:01):
know about some Because they're not feeding it
to you they're really lettingyou, the player kind of figure
it out.
Figure out your journey, right?

Speaker 2 (06:08):
You posted a nice little companion video that kind
of explains the game in thegreater detail.
And then I laughed to myself,as I was like it's like 22
minutes long and I laughed tomyself as I was listening to it
and I was like what if thisdude's just wrong?
and the developers like I don'tknow dude.
I was like red, I'm sure it'sright and I'm sure it's been
confirmed in other places.

(06:29):
Aside from what the gameactually means, playing it I
would describe it as meditativein a way like it's very
beautiful, you kind of get sweptaway.
It's very relaxing.
There is not a lot of tensionand I mean that in the sense.
Right, but like you don't dieyou don't lose you don't?
There's no life count, oranything like that.

Speaker 1 (06:50):
There's no life count .

Speaker 2 (06:51):
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 thesorrow, or whatever the
metaphorically speaking, likethe bird or the giant eel thing?
I'm not sure if they canactually ever catch you, because
I never actually did get caughtby them, but the point I'm
generally making is you, playthis on Game Pass.

Speaker 1 (07:11):
Right, I did too.
I have it on the switch.
I bought it on the switch, butI ended up playing on Game Pass
for a couple different reasons,but I got a chivo for not
getting caught by the eel, soI'm curious if you can slip up
there, just such a good fuckinggamer dude.

Speaker 2 (07:29):
What can I say?
Just battle that grief sofucking hard, yeah, no.
So it's really cool.
It's a nice change of pace ingames.
But I bring this all up becauseI can understand how you could
bounce off of it if you didn'thave like an end goal in mind of
like finishing the game to talkabout it and like being able to
say you beat it because, likeyou just kind of vibe with it,
so I can see like enjoying itand then just getting caught up

(07:52):
in more addicting games or gameswith more clear outcomes and
less interpretation.
Because as I played it, man, Ireally like to mix it up with
other games I was playing and Ijust vibe out and I play it for
like the last half hour hourbefore I went to bed and that
was a really that was a nicevibe.

Speaker 1 (08:08):
Nice man.
We've mentioned a couple oftimes now, like the vibe, the
art style, the music.
How would you describe this artstyle that got going on here?

Speaker 2 (08:19):
Well, I'm gonna like kind of merge the art style with
the gameplay, because I'm notan art minor, I don't really
know enough about art styles toreally be vibing, but I've only
played like a half an hour ofjourney, but it reminds me a lot
of the game journey oh, that'sanother one that might have to
hit the pot eventually, becausethat's another one I started and
haven't finished and it remindsme of a lot of the game Inside,

(08:40):
if you heard.
Inside and I think Limbo is theother one.
Yep, these games were.
It's like side to side journeyis not, but it's just like
you're moving along with themusic, and then the art is so
vibrant and I have no idea howto describe it.
Did you have something in mind?
Because I thought I would cometo my brain as I talked and it

(09:01):
did not Loatest in your bro Didnot load.

Speaker 1 (09:05):
Oh yeah.
So it's definitely got awatercolor vibe to it and almost
feels like a live-actionwatercolor to me it's.
It's got this hand-drawn styleand I would say that the
characters and some of theenvironmental stuff has a very
like studio Ghibli vibe to it.
They especially grease herself,I would.

Speaker 2 (09:22):
I would say I was found it more like Arabic to
Middle Eastern.

Speaker 1 (09:26):
Sure sure, they also has a like a bit of a Dolly vibe
to it.
You know, I think in some, someinterviews, the developers
Salvador Dolly, correct yes fora simple folk.

Speaker 2 (09:37):
Still feel pretty, pretty bougie for being able to
say that even yes, sir, I do.

Speaker 1 (09:41):
I do believe that's been.

Speaker 2 (09:43):
Slaying basis.
But you know, I've heard of theDolly with the clocks and the
melting things Right, right.

Speaker 1 (09:49):
So a lot of that environmental stuff has a Dolly
vibe, and I think the developershave gotten as far as as much
to say so that they wereinspired 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 andI see that after I read that.
But for me, it truly is thislike live-action watercolor,

(10:13):
like that's what I get about ofit, the spec, because you have
this movement of the colors andit really does look like like
watercolor and there's lots ofsplashes, totally, and then, as
you're playing, as I was playingthis game dude, it's super
heady, but I definitely had thisvibe, like the way that the
game plays.
I felt like you're almostwalking through, like an emus,
like a digital museum exhibit,like not in the sense that like

(10:35):
here's a painting here, here's apainting here, but like it felt
to me like I don't know, likelike a Encompassing live exhibit
.
Dude, it was nuts.
It was like it was like anartistic video game.
It's super heady, I get it, butlike, dude, it's a vibe.

Speaker 2 (10:49):
It was cool.
It does feel kind of silly tosay like it's an interactive art
exhibit, but that's kind of howit was, because that leads into
the whole thing that we talkedabout, with, like the low
tension, some light puzzlingwhere you were never like, oh my
god, what do I do here?
Like you could find it outpretty easily, and it was never
about challenges, more aboutjust kind of like experiencing
it as you went, feeling thedifferent emotions or feeling

(11:12):
the different art, just kind oftake you where it was taking,
even if you didn't fullyunderstand it, which, if you're
a simpleton like myself andyou've been to an art museum,
it's kind of how art goes.
Man.
You just I don't know what I'mfeeling.

Speaker 1 (11:25):
I was an Amsterdam once and I was I was behaving
Never mind.

Speaker 2 (11:32):
I spoke to the weed dude.

Speaker 1 (11:33):
I spoke to the weed.
None of my friends wanted tosmoke weed, they just wanted to
go to pub.
I was like, hey, man, we're inAmsterdam, I'm gonna get fucking
faded, and so I did right butthen.
Dude, I gosh, just a young boyin Amsterdam, so.
But we go.
So we go to the van, go museumdude, and I have a.
I have a little bowl and, likesome nugs, a weed in my pocket
and I get out and I'm high so Iget all nervous that I'm gonna

(11:56):
get caught with this weed.
And then I and then like when Igot 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 (12:04):
Yeah, come on, he's like kind of but whatever, fuck
out of my face, right, right.

Speaker 1 (12:08):
Right, but, dude, I bring up the story because I'm
in there and I'm looking at allthese paintings by van go is one
of my favorite artists.
I love impressionism, which isprobably like why I like this
game so much.
But I'm looking at thispainting and I'm just vibing
with it.
Yeah, yeah, vibing with thispainting, and I'm starting to
think, I'm like thinking aboutwhat this painting means and
like all this stuff.

(12:28):
And then I look over at thelittle synopsis and I fucking
nailed it, dude.

Speaker 2 (12:35):
Hoping.
It was just like dog wastripping.
He has no idea what this isabout and I was like I know all
the deep meanings.

Speaker 1 (12:42):
No, I don't even know how deep I can.
Like, this is years ago, dude.
This is like probably 15 yearsago or some shit.
So like I don't really know.
But like, but, dude, I don'tremember 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 issad.

Speaker 2 (12:57):
I was like he uses lots of blues, he's probably sad
.
Right that's fun.

Speaker 1 (13:04):
Yeah, totally.
But like you know, so like the,the art in this game is really
cool and it integrates with themusic really well too.
And I also want to note aboutthat whole watercolor, like
live-action, museum-esque artstyle is that they use this cool
art animation style similar tothe original Disney animation,
right, like the drawings thatthey did for the character

(13:25):
grease herself and like therunning animation.
It's the very same style thatthey use in some of the early
Disney stuff.
So you get kind of that coollike old cartoony vibe thing
going on too with the runningand everything, which is kind of
a fun fact.
And another cool thing thatcouples with art is the music,
right.

Speaker 2 (13:40):
Yeah, it's beautiful.

Speaker 1 (13:41):
It is do.
The music is again such a vibeit's very haunting, like it's
got that.
It hits all these feelingsthrough, all these emotions,
like five stages of grief Reallywell, and it's also interactive
with how you play, so like ifyou're running on I don't know
like I know.
When we first started playingthis, I recommended to folks in
the discord to Definitely playthis game with With the sound on

(14:04):
, and I hope and I hope that youdid.

Speaker 2 (14:07):
Yeah, this was not a podcast game for me, although,
as I got frustrated towards theend I was like rap this shit up.
I was like tempted to becauseit's one of those things.
I thought it was done andthey're like no, explore this
area now.
And I was like, but that lookedlike it was the ending.

Speaker 1 (14:20):
I know you hit me up and you're like you hit up the
discord.
You're like, honest, met afriend because you meet this
cool little like dude in the inthe green area and I was like,
yeah, you got some time to go.

Speaker 2 (14:30):
Yeah, that was.
That's not what I was talkingabout, 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 (14:40):
For sure, man, but the so stuff, yeah.
So like there's cool things tohappen and like there's
different things, there's likemetrovania vibes to this game,
right.

Speaker 2 (14:48):
So, like there's these, there's metrovania
elements to the game.

Speaker 1 (14:51):
Look at the fuck out of here, dude there's.
You literally cannot go tocertain areas until you do
certain things like collectlittle star keys, that kind of
deal Like you also get turned toan area.

Speaker 2 (15:00):
You're like it's linear.

Speaker 1 (15:02):
I.
There's not huge backtracking,but there are a couple spots
like you can't like.
Get past certain deals untilyou unlock addresses.
Dude, you're wrong.

Speaker 2 (15:11):
Dude you like wrong.

Speaker 1 (15:13):
You don't get games.
You're stupid, wrong Dude.
You have to like.
So your dress end up unlockingdifferent features.
Like you get this big square,like you turn into a big rock
and you can like break throughlike.
I do realize that, yes, youdon't have to do major
backtracking.
It doesn't like close thingsoff as heavily as it would in
something like Metroid, butthere are slight metrovania

(15:33):
elements to this game.

Speaker 2 (15:40):
Typical progression, dog.
Like you never go to a thingyou can't get past, like Until
you get your ability, like it'sright there and then you can get
past the thing like it's not.
Like oh, I see, I'll come backto this later it's like it's
very super linear,straightforward, so wrong.
I disagree, dude.
I get the point you're tryingto make and it does lead into

(16:00):
like each chapter you seem toeventually get like a new
ability.
So your dress turns into thisbig block square brute force
thing which is pretty cool Totalk about.
The music.
Like the wind sweeps you awayand the music gets all intense
in this one scene early on andthe only Way you can get past
that is to turn into the stoneand kind of push your way
through it essentially that.
And like you drop on things tobreak things.

(16:21):
It's kind of part of thataction platforming puzzle piece.
There's the swim in the waterone you eventually get to sing,
which brings elements of theenvironment 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 haveto have a double jump.
Yeah, you mentioned the singing, right?
Is that what?
you said yeah, kind of unlocksand changes the environment

(16:44):
around the environment.
For sure, I think that's it.

Speaker 1 (16:50):
I'm right, and those are all things, along with the
colors that we mentioned.
You know, like this, this ideaof like emotional growth that
Greece is is experiencingthroughout this game and again,
that's not something you'dnecessarily pick up on.
It was like kind of cool tolearn about this, right, because
it's once you hear that you'relike, oh yeah, all right, all
right, but it's it's not spoonfed to you, man, like it's, it's

(17:11):
pretty heady.

Speaker 2 (17:12):
I'd say it's obscure 99% of the time.

Speaker 1 (17:15):
Mm-hmm.

Speaker 2 (17:16):
I never knew it was going on.
I was just like this feelsheavy.

Speaker 1 (17:20):
So if you, understand , if you, if you understand some
stuff about color theory andstuff, like it makes a little
bit more sense, so like itstarts out in this like
everything's gray right.
So it's like this idea of likeme a little bit.
Well, the easy one, easy one beI've gray, like a sadness, you

(17:40):
know, lost whatever.
Yeah, so you know this idea andthen like and then the next big
color that you is is red.
And red is often like coupledwith Frustration, anger, like I
saw red, right, that type ofdeal, yeah, and so it's cool.
And then they, like, you knowyou got those colors playing
into those ideas.
And then you mentioned, likethe big block, like thing that
the dress does, like that youhad to fight through when, like

(18:02):
the whole screen, like it'sblown 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 (18:16):
You've got blue, yellow, the video.
Man said bargaining.
You know, I was like fuckingsure dude.

Speaker 1 (18:21):
Yeah, that makes sense, that's what.

Speaker 2 (18:22):
I was feeling when I was playing that area I'm smart.

Speaker 1 (18:26):
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 (18:44):
Yeah, I think your character's mad that McRib is
gone.

Speaker 1 (18:48):
She might be.
How.
What do you think dude likethis is?
Do you think that?
What do you think her deal was?
Why is she going through?

Speaker 2 (18:55):
all this.
Perhaps I'm a simpleton, but Iwould imagine it's like a lost
child or something, although Ididn't see any imageries of
children, so I guess that wouldhave been more heavy-handed.
You know, there's always likethe big statue lady, and you're
always in the hand of theexatulating.

Speaker 1 (19:09):
I think that's you when you're such like shatters
and everything too.
It's pretty interesting andsuch 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'sa little never, but then as you
start to look at all the pieces, it's cool.

Speaker 2 (19:23):
I wouldn't be surprised that the developers
just wanted to touch on thetopic and then the color theory
thing you're talking about, andthen they didn't necessarily
have it's a very deep story, butI don't think it's a specific
story.
If that makes sense, like Ithink, the grief is the story,
yeah, so it's ambiguous.
They don't they don't.

Speaker 1 (19:41):
They don't necessarily say it starts off
like she has this, like greasehas this beautiful voice, and
you lose the voice, you kind oflose everything and then as you
progress, you like work throughthese stages of grease or grief,
grease works through thesestages of grief and then by the
end she gets her voice back andyou 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.
I, I'm interested, dude, I thinkit's.

(20:03):
I can't tell and I'm not sureif it's supposed to represent
Her dying and her acceptancewith 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 butwho?
Who knows what her stages agree, like why she's grieving, but

(20:24):
but I think there's, you know, Ithink it could be.
I think when I look at it, whenI play, almost like, I feel
like she's pushing through thegrief of her own death, like I
feel like she's like coming toterms with that.
But that's just myinterpretation.
I.

Speaker 2 (20:36):
Didn't even think of that, simply because I didn't
think of anything, because I'mnot very smart, but I Guess,
abstractly, I didn't think thatyou could grieve your own death.
You're dead.
But we're artsy here.
So we got to be a little lessstraightforward and practical.
You know, it's the inner Germanto me, but you're dead.
There's no grieving death, youare dead.

(20:58):
No, I can see that the singing,though like what took away the
singing?
So like maybe it's somethinglike you know your ability and
your singing brings life intothe world.
So you know, once again, maybeyou brought some life into the
world and then that was takenfrom you and you don't want to
bring any more life into theworld.

Speaker 1 (21:15):
So who knows man.
And speaking of the singing wementioned, the music being
really good.
It's done by a composerBerlinist is the name and it's a
lot of piano to orchestralarrangements and then you have
like kind of this abstractsinging that Greece does.
It's all really cool, man, it'sa vibe.
Earlier, I was saying that youknow it works with your

(21:37):
environment.
So there's certain areas where,like where you're running along
and you might hear some pianokeys to the footsteps, like it's
a I always love when a gameincorporates music so well.
That way, when you can actuallyinteract with the game and get
you know the music plays alongis always kind of a cool thing
and it definitely lends intothat whole meditative state that
you're playing in like that low.

Speaker 2 (21:59):
I actually really enjoyed that low resistance and
that low tension and the musicreally played into that, even
when the stakes were higher andthe music was more intense.
It was kind of exciting.
But also I wasn't like oh myGod, oh my God.
It was just all kind of part ofthe experience, that little art
box exhibit diorama you'respeaking of earlier.

Speaker 1 (22:18):
Yeah, and when this game dropped it was, you know,
received a lot of criticalpraise.
Players really enjoyed it.
It didn't like set the world onfire or whatever, but it
definitely has a cult followingpraise for its art, music
treatment and all the you know,the themes of grief that we've
been discussing.
It also receives some awardsfor its artistic direction and
sound design.
So it's you know, it is a it isan artsy game, my friend.

Speaker 2 (22:42):
You imagine playing this as like a teenager and I'd
be like what the fuck?

Speaker 1 (22:45):
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 puta.
I put a call out to theInstagram to see what people's
experiences are playing withthis game, and one of the homies
did hit me up and was sayingsomething on the lines of kind
of a game that I think theyplayed on the download, just
because it was.
It's not like.

(23:06):
I mean, it's not your call ofduty, man.
Like the younger people are,they might give you some shit.
If they watch, you know theysee you playing some artsy game
over your shoulder or whatever,depending on your circles.

Speaker 2 (23:16):
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 stupidteenage boy, I doubt you're
playing it.
Maybe you know, I don't know.
So it's definitely a game madefor adults.

Speaker 1 (23:33):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (23:33):
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 playit because it's really cool and
like the whole core concept thatyou discover when you beat that
game is.

(23:54):
unfortunately, I've had itspoiled for me already, but
similar that I haven't finishedit, man, okay, similar to Death
Stranding, how like the wholeDeath Stranding thing is like
the connectivity in the playingof 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 andI just wasn't a stage of my life

(24:16):
where like games didn't need tohave like a specific blatant
goal or point.
You know what I mean.
It's interesting to play a game.
That's a different experienceand it's definitely it's not the
reason I love Game Pass, man.
It's just like here's anexperience for you, man, here's
three to five hours.
Starfield flopped story foranother day, but you know, what

(24:36):
we are delivering is nice littleheater experiences.
So I was high powered machineand I play artsy, fartsy,
non-high powered games on it.

Speaker 1 (24:45):
Nothing I love about this game is just the fact that
it did spark a bunch ofconversations.
We've been our own conversationhere about, you know, men are
men are out, and we didn't getsuper into it.
But this game does by default,you know, encourage folks to
think about those things and totalk about them, and you don't
always get that in video games,man?

Speaker 2 (25:03):
Yeah, it would be a cool game to like play with a
friend or a partner.
It'd be a cool game to liketalk to somebody about, although
, because it's so obscure, itmight be difficult to like share
your opinions on what's goingon, because if I wouldn't have
done the necessary research, Iwould have been like huh yeah
for sure.

(25:56):
The way I consume the game.
You can talk about levels andyou can talk about specific
moments, but it kind of blendstogether because it is so vibey
and meditative and just likethis brief experience that's
heavy but like I don't remembera ton of specific stages and
moments like the colors, thoseare big moments for me.
Obviously it was very artisticvery cool music.

(26:18):
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 vibeyfucking fun time.
But it wasn't.

Speaker 1 (26:29):
You ready to get you ready to stay heady though, dude
?
What you just described is thetrue way people experience grief
.
Bro, Fuck off.
That's for real.

Speaker 2 (26:40):
Like if the stages of grief aren't meant to be clear
cut.

Speaker 1 (26:43):
They're not meant to be one, two, three, four, five.
They blend together, and that'sexactly how this game works.

Speaker 2 (26:49):
My friend and artsy video guy who was probably right
, but I still like to pretend hewas totally wrong and that's
funnier for me Pointed that outmany times that these stages are
not so clear cut and that theycome roaring back and interplay
from time to time.

Speaker 1 (27:03):
Right, we'll link that video and the show notes
too, because that's a dope video.
It's going to do a way betterjob of explaining what the
developers meant to do when theymade this game, and I do think
I mean that's a pretty good leadin man, like what's your
recommendation on Greece?

Speaker 2 (27:18):
It's hard to say.
It's usually pretty easy for meto recommend games I don't have
to think of like a specificperson, but this isn't
necessarily the mostrecommendable game, although,
like I would always speak highlyof it if that makes sense, like
it was a really cool experiencefor me.
I have a topic for another day.
I would consider it like alo-fi game.
I've been getting into thesedifferent various lo-fi games

(27:40):
and it's like the most intensiveof that, so I guess the person
I would recommend this for.
Recently it was a pretty deepcut sale on steam, so if you get
that on the five or under or ongame pass, it's an easy
recommend but other than that itgoes pretty deep on Nintendo
from time to time too.

Speaker 1 (27:55):
You can get this game pretty cheap.

Speaker 2 (27:57):
Other than that I would say some couch co-op
couples or just like if it's arainy day and you just want a
quick little romp, rainy dayalready vibes.
So I don't know if that's agood answer, but that's what I
got.

Speaker 1 (28:12):
That's fair man I am.
I think this is a tricky one.
Like a lot of times I'll youknow when we're talking about
how we would recommend a game.
I don't know if I wouldrecommend this game to like your
gamer gamer, you know what I'msaying Like someone that, like,
loves video games I'm notnecessarily this would be like
I'd be able to give them astrong pitch on it, and that's

(28:34):
not to say that it's a bad videogame.
I just think that it plays.
It's more.
For me, it was more of theexperience, right, and I really
liked learning about it.
And you know, brent, to harkback to the whole idea of like
how could you interject thisgame into education?
Like you would definitely, as ateacher, have to lessen plan
this shit out of this game.
Like you would have to likehave a bunch of fucking prompts.
You would have to like reallyexplain this ages of grief to

(28:55):
kids.
And anyway, companion, it wouldbe about interpretation seeing
it play out, but that is sointeresting though.

Speaker 2 (29:05):
It is.
It uses a lot of gamer logic.
So I would say I would likerecommend it to like a non gamer
, but that's where.

Speaker 1 (29:11):
I was going, man, so that's where I was going is it
would totally be.
It's like if you're, if youhave someone that's gaming
curious, or like my good buddyJohn, you recommend it to his
wifey and I don't know if sheplayed it or not, but it's
because it is a veryapproachable game, the, the, the
actual video game aspect of it,not too difficult, the puzzles,
they there's something like alittle tricky.
You got to poke around a littlebit, but I don't think they

(29:33):
don't.
They don't really break you.
They spend a bunch of time lostin this game.

Speaker 2 (29:38):
So for someone that doesn't play, I said it was like
more of like a co-op with thepartner, because you would need
to lead them through the.
and it's not hard, the puzzlesdon't get you stuck, but like as
an intensive player I think Iwas in like Phil Spencer, I
think I was in the top 5% ofXbox users and that kind of hurt
my soul.
I was like I didn't think I waslike that, but apparently it's

(29:59):
like that.
I play a lot of games, in shortand like a gross amount, and so
it seems so easy and effortless.
But I think there's some areasin that game where my wife, for
example, we're playing.
I think she would getfrustrated and it would feel
super obscure and the solutionto us would be so obvious to oh,
you got to turn into a blockand break through that.

(30:20):
But like they haven't beenplaying games since they were
like 6.

Speaker 1 (30:24):
Not playing that together, though, and you can
talk some good visual cues,though I know exactly what
you're talking about, but likethere's a like, for instance,
there's a spot like that I dothink they do a good job of of.
I'm posting those types ofthings, though, even for someone
that's not a huge gamer.
Like that part.
There's a section where youhave the, where the like the
ground is like a reverse, it'slike black and white, and then

(30:44):
you have these birds that likeflutter out when you walk over
it and then when you jump up andland on it, more birds come out
and they like it's queuing.
That okay, you need to hit theground harder.
And then then you break through, like it has those little
visual cues.

Speaker 2 (30:57):
There's some times you got to climb up really high
so you sink further into thewater so you get around some
stuff and it's like stuff I wasable to figure out and there was
even some moments that took meslightly longer than I'm proud
of.
It's interesting because it's agame that I would give a
full-throated recommendation ofbeing cool, dope, artsy, a great
experience.
And yet, for the first time, Icannot think of someone that I

(31:19):
would actually encourage to buyit.
I usually can see a face.
I'm like I'm going to annoythis person about it.
Or if this person's looking fora game, I'm definitely going to
say it.
But like, are you going to goto work and be like?
Yo pop your head in the kitchen?
You can be like my dude's,please.

Speaker 1 (31:36):
You know what's funny about that, though, is actually
at the workplace I've hadhobbies, like one of my homies,
yara was talking about how dopethis game is, dude, it's one of
her favorite games, but you know, that's just the thing.
Like not everybody, like Yaraand my buddy, john, who I just
mentioned I mean kid went to artschool.

Speaker 2 (31:56):
I do think that my buddy, who's not a video game
player, but he does like amaster's in art stuff, I'm like
look at Andy's bougie ass withlike he doesn't even game.

Speaker 1 (32:06):
So it's just kind of funny to think.

Speaker 2 (32:08):
Yeah, no, it's, it's cool.
I mean, at the very least he'sjust watching YouTube video of
it.

Speaker 1 (32:12):
It's dope Put it this way, man I bought this game for
a pretty cheap on the on anincendo sale years ago, dabbled
in it Didn't quite stick and I'mvery happy that I that I like
you know plowed through it forthe pod.
So I think that it's.
I put it like this put it onyour wish list, grab that shit
on the cheap and just give it atry.

Speaker 2 (32:35):
Or if you're on Game Pass and it's a rainy right,
shitty winter weekend or someshit and you just want some
intriguing low five vibes.
Or if you're a little mad andfiend, like me, and you're not
enjoying the games, you'replaying a little too much, and
then you just do a half an hourto get out of your addicting
game and spend a half an hourvibing out before you go to bed

(32:55):
and it's feels way better.
There you go, man.

Speaker 1 (33:00):
I think that does it.
I think that does it.
Let's take a little break.
Come back with our Unsanctionedsponsor, no doubt.

Speaker 2 (33:07):
All right man.
So I'll be honest.
This is an honest andvulnerable moment.
Here.
I like my jokes, but I have notbeen bringing it for the
Unsanctioned sponsors.
I'm fully aware of that.
I really have just been leaninginto being a shithead about
yours and really it's just memasking my insecurity of not
coming to the pod with myUnsanctioned sponsors.

(33:28):
So first of all, I want to notapologize.
Apologize to you about that,because never, back down
shithead for life.
But then, second, of all I haveat first, I love your hustling
dude.

Speaker 1 (33:39):
You know how many Unsanctioned sponsors how many
people I've been out theretrying to fucking hack the
fucking pod out there grinding.
I had to get, I had to getfucking meat to get or grill and
grill and season to hack thepod you just, you just grab it
and eat.
Anyway, I had some good onesGet out of here.
So it's still here, it's stillhere because I've been out here

(34:00):
pulling them sponsors Right,correct.
And nobody gives us money, andyou know why?
Because of my hard ass work.

Speaker 2 (34:07):
We're still living off of our endowment of McRib
money, but eat a dick anyway.
At first I was like dude, I'm abougie boy, I don't even care,
I like to find things in life.
Ironically, I was at Aldi whenI was thinking this so there's
some delusions of grandeur rightthere.
But I had just purchased somekombucha and I was like dude,
let's talk about the boot.

(34:28):
And then I was like dude, Ihave done that.
What is wrong with me?
I have already Unsanctionedsponsored the boot because your
boy likes boot, and that's notwhat I'm here for today.
I have two completely unrelatedsanctioned sponsors.
Are you ready?

Speaker 1 (34:41):
Damn you're bringing two.
That's a lot of, not a moneytoday.

Speaker 2 (34:45):
Yeah, one's relatable and the other one is not
considering our lineage, butthat's okay.
First off, real tree gang, notthe camouflage company, not in
the Holly.

Speaker 1 (34:55):
I was going to say, bro, you're trying to knock him
money from real tree.

Speaker 2 (34:59):
Witch up dude I was at the fleet farm no we buy a
real Christmas tree every yearand I know it's expensive and I
know I could get a nice faketree and have it forever.
But that's just fucking dumb.
I like I like watering myfucking real tree that I have in
my living room.
I like the fucking smell.
I like dressing her up.
I like picking her out andhaving the old Catholic dude

(35:21):
strap it onto my car.
It's a good wholesome time.
All right, I fucking enjoy thatshit.
All right, real trees faketrees are stupid.
Go bigger, go home, unlessyou're allergic or you have cats
.
And then if you have cats,that's your lifestyle choice.
You already know that they'restrange and you have to have a
fake tree and I'm not even goingto pick a fight because those
cats bring you comfort andthat's fine.
But you can't have real treeand real trees.

(35:43):
Don't set step one.
I know you're.
You are a real tree guy, so yougot my back on this Sure.
Um step two chicken parm, dudechicken parm, chicken parmesan.
So I got to do with trees, itdoesn't?
I told you these were unrelatedPuff on some trees.
Eat some chicken parm Well.

(36:04):
I don't not recommend that.
Uh, chicken parmesan though.
Uh, it's a really easy but alsoa labor love meal, like, if you
can like, master a chicken.
I'm not even master a sciencearea yet, though we didn't grow
up any bit Italian.
It's just me on the internetlearning how to do these things
and practicing over time.
But if you nail a chicken parmdude like you got chicken
breasts.

(36:24):
You're just trying to getthrough the week.
You probably got somebreadcrumbs in the breading.

Speaker 1 (36:28):
Did you get in the?
What kind of you using likepanko?

Speaker 2 (36:31):
and shit.
I have, I think, just someregular Italian breadcrumbs.
We have them cause, you know,when your boy gets a little
older you gotta start feedingthem the solids.
And then you learn that babiesare picky as hell and feeding
them is actually this reallycrappy puzzle that you do every
day of your life.
When they're done with thetitty milk you know shots of
titty milk as well but when youstart feeding them solids,

(36:53):
meatballs are caught clutch.
So I had them around.
Uh, I get large amounts ofchicken breasts and I fill them
in half.
Cause a plump chicken breast isoverrated.
That's dry and not good.
In the middle, all the flavoris on the outside.
How are you cooking yourchicken, bro?
You did in so many differentways.
I'm so good at cooking chicken,but, like just the matter of
the fact is, is the best part ofyour chicken is the outside of
the?
Are you, are we going to arguethat the tastiest part is the

(37:15):
part you season and cook andorder and all that.

Speaker 1 (37:18):
I mean, like for sure , yeah, yeah, come on up, unless
you fuck with, like a goatcheese stuffed chicken breasts.

Speaker 2 (37:24):
Certainly certainly, but now we're talking about the
bacon bro.
We're talking about the goatcheese and the bacon.
Right now it's about chickenfarms.
All my Italian East coast momsknow that love is shown through
a nice chicken.
All right, and there's this onetime that our sister so what's
you doing for gravy on thechicken farm?
Gravy this is chicken, it'sjust sauce.

(37:47):
I am a roused sauce guy.

Speaker 1 (37:49):
Come on, you watch the.
You watch the bear.
Did you know that they call thesauce gravy?

Speaker 2 (37:54):
The fucking bear?
Yeah, I suppose, but anyway I.

Speaker 1 (37:58):
You watch the spranos , you know anything about
Italians.
I have not actually watchedthis, I don't know.
It's a blind spot.

Speaker 2 (38:04):
But anyway, there's this.
One time I was out of town.
Our Italian mother who's notItalian was out of town and are
useless in the kitchen.
Father, I was like I'm going tohook it up, I'm going to make
him some nice chicken parm, andif you've cooked chicken parm
for multiple people you'll knowit's a ginormous bitch.
Dude You're.
You're frying all sorts ofthings, you're monitoring all
these different things and Ellie, our sister, was there and I

(38:25):
played all this stuff up asgorgeous.
I did a great job and I'm notnecessarily fishing for
compliments as much as I'm likehey, how is it Some feedback?
So acknowledgement of all myhard work.
She goes what the cheesychicken?
Yeah, it's pretty good.
I was like you, unculturedswine, you did not just call
this shit cheesy chicken.
Moral story of chicken parmslaps.

Speaker 1 (38:45):
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 hatingon chicken parm Dude.

Speaker 2 (38:53):
When I nail it it feels so good, and sometimes I
get it at a restaurant and it'slike so bomb, but like.

Speaker 1 (38:57):
Yeah, that's why I'd be fucking with it in the rest
of the rounds.

Speaker 2 (39:01):
So it's just like it's this labor love and like I
just like to pretend to be boobyto booby the bopity Italian
what's up.
That's racist.
It's okay.
The Italians have been supernice to the Irish and the
Germans, I'm sure so.
Well, there's weird jokes to bemade.
I don't leave that there, Right, Right, I can't team up the

(39:21):
Germans and the Italians.
It was a weird time, All right.

Speaker 1 (39:25):
We were American at that time, so we let's bring it
back to real trees.
Bro, I have nothing bad to sayabout your chicken parm.
Fuck a McRib chicken parm.

Speaker 2 (39:34):
Fuck with chicken.
You come with just plain baconas your fucking unsanctioned
sponsor.
Chicken Parm is way morecultured you swine.

Speaker 1 (39:40):
Get out of here, man.
Like what man?
You put some bacon on thatchicken parm.
You know it could be better.

Speaker 2 (39:46):
Fucking pancetta If you want to not piss off the
Italians.

Speaker 1 (39:49):
What's that?

Speaker 2 (39:50):
fancy word, what's that fancy thing?
That's not for shoot, probablydude, not even that.
It's the stuff they use to make, like the technical.
What's that Good?
Some pork belly and it'ssomething like that.
And it's for like that onesauce that people go real with
the egg yolk and the.

(40:11):
You get the fucking point.
You can cut all this, just keepthe good parts.

Speaker 1 (40:18):
Chicken farm and real trees.
You ever eat chicken farms.
Stare at your real tree thatyou dress real nice and
Christmas About two days goesthough.

Speaker 2 (40:27):
Nice Last night actually Nice and then have any
wine.
That would have been too acidicfor my little weak boy stomach,
but I had some whiskey, it was,though.

Speaker 1 (40:37):
Here's the real trees Chicken farm in Tums.
Well, should do Welcome back.
You been side question.

Speaker 2 (40:54):
Always, man.
First of all, I'm never goingto spend too much time spent
talking specifically aboutMadden on this podcast.
I'll always allude to the factthat I'm playing it because I am
, but the quick note I want tomake on it, that it kind of
makes me Google, is I am on thereddits and I follow a lot of
game threads and I would lurkaround the reddits lurking.

Speaker 1 (41:13):
That's yeah.

Speaker 2 (41:15):
For sure, and like all of the red is obviously not
the most positive place, but allthe things that I sub to are
like quite charming communitiesIs what I would put it as like
Bob Burgers overly wholesome.
All the geography stuff overlywholesome.
Hades for gaming, mario, zeldaall this stuff like the
community is just like fun andcool and pretty innocent and

(41:36):
derpy.
Madden is the most toxic placeI think I've been a part of.

Speaker 1 (41:40):
It doesn't surprise me.

Speaker 2 (41:41):
Dude every week, every day.
It's just like.
This game is fucking stupid.
There's a fucking broken.
And I'm like there's times whereI 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 gameAny 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 angrymale gamer, you think of like
Call of Duty and Madden, andthere's some people who post

(42:05):
some interesting things in there.
So I don't mind lurking on thatsub too much, but like, that's
just.
All I wanted to say was theMadden sub is the one dark place
on my reddit feed from likewhat's wrong with these little
virgins, dude?
What's going on with thesedudes?

Speaker 1 (42:20):
Sunshine rain.

Speaker 2 (42:20):
those are mad and yeah, dude, like fuck them.
But some other significant sidequests recently picked up, just
thought.
Oh yes, nice, might actually bethe game for next month, so I
won't get too into it, otherthan it's just once again
another Xbox Game Pass slapper.
What's it?
Starfield?
To just catch a stray from me.

(42:41):
But like, wow, looking back tohow much I hate that game for
like probably a year or two andwhat I wanted it to be, and like
the stages of grief, like Gris,and like trying to like talk
myself into enjoying it and likekind of liking it, but just
like letting go of the dream ofwhat I wanted that game to be.

Speaker 1 (43:00):
Starfield yeah.

Speaker 2 (43:01):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (43:02):
I have yet to.
I have yet to fire a backupsince I set it down back in
October.
Man.

Speaker 2 (43:07):
Same, but Xbox Game Pass keeps delivering on these
little like indie hits man, andit's just like as the whole
medium.
There's obviously some hugehits this year, like everyone's
very excited about this year ingaming, but what I think is
mostly known but maybe not fullyunderstood by a lot of people,
is that, like, the best thingshappening in games are not AAA

(43:30):
anymore.
Like, my biggest memories ofthis year are games like Dredge
or even like Dredge is tightdude, and these games stick with
me and these big AAAexperiences are super cool, like
a weak spot being Baldur's Gate, because it didn't release on
the Xbox and my PC probably canhandle it, but it wouldn't be
like the optimal experience forme.

(43:50):
So just saw the original game Iwas talking about Super cool.
Another game similar to Greecewhere the tension is extremely
low and that really is fuckingcool.
Like I'm not going to die inthis game.
I'm not stressing, I don't getthat same jolt of energy.

Speaker 1 (44:11):
There's some puzzles that piss me off.

Speaker 2 (44:14):
Yeah, I've gotten mildly frustrated, for sure.

Speaker 1 (44:16):
So it's a climbing sim.

Speaker 2 (44:19):
Yeah, climbing a mountain.

Speaker 1 (44:21):
The best guys of the.
What's that?
I never played him, but theNathan Drake shit, what's that
stuff?

Speaker 2 (44:25):
Oh, I'm charted, I have a better comp.
Actually it feels more likeDeath Stranding.
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah Just a bigpiece of it is traversal and
like the coolest parts of thosegames, I actually liked the
weird walking delivery simaspects of Death Stranding.
I liked putting ladders downand like getting across weird

(44:46):
environmental things.
Yeah.
I didn't put enough time intoit Five hours of Kojima
cutscenes.

Speaker 1 (44:51):
And all the people love that, and God bless you.

Speaker 2 (44:53):
But.

Speaker 1 (44:54):
I was enjoying just about everything about Death
Stranding, except for whatever.
Like I mean, I didn't putenough time into it.
But like what?
What made me bounce off is Igot in this, like I got into an
area where those ghost things orwhatever were just real pain in
the ass to pass and I couldn'tfigure it out.
So I was like, eh, fuck it.
I just never liked the game.

Speaker 2 (45:14):
I don't disagree with you.
There's just some hang ups, butthis game there's no enemies
that I've run into.
There's no, there's probablyabout halfway through other than
a few of your hand holds likewither in the sun, but they come
right back up if you do somestuff, so the timing stuff is
quick.
There's some puzzling, but likeI don't, know man this is cool
and the climbing graphic, orclimbing gameplay, is animated.

(45:39):
It was the wrong word, justgratifying and it's got good
flow or rewarding yeah flow is agood word.

Speaker 1 (45:45):
Yeah, I've been playing this one too and like
the when you like, grab you.

Speaker 2 (45:48):
use the trigger buttons to do like to move your
hands and it's like kind of fun.

Speaker 1 (45:53):
Yeah, yeah, which is nice, and then it's a yeah, it
is cool.

Speaker 2 (45:57):
You string some things together where, like, you
play, see a little hold, andthen you swing sometimes and
like.
So you like combine some of thethings that you're learning.
I'm about halfway through, yeah.

Speaker 1 (46:07):
I think we're on the same place.
Man, I got, I got to ask gametoo.
Are you reading?
Are you reading the littleletters that are left behind?

Speaker 2 (46:14):
I wanted to be a good , intelligent individual and
then I was like, no, I was notmaking.

Speaker 1 (46:20):
well, I skimmed the shit out of them.
I skimmed the shit out of themand I barely even.
I don't know I'm like.

Speaker 2 (46:26):
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 thereand there's no more water and it
seems like there's been ageneration of no rain, if not
multiple.
So like it's cool, but I don'tknow.
I just I like my reading to bemy reading and my video games to
be my video games.

(46:46):
So that's all right.
Man, Do you read them?

Speaker 1 (46:49):
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 pointwhere I just want to climb.

Speaker 2 (46:57):
The video game, you shit takes over where, like you
run into those like little rocktowers where you add a rock to
it and like you're just likehell yeah, I found this and then
I'm like those save points orthose like what are?

Speaker 1 (47:08):
I don't even know what's happening with those.
I think it's to tickle yourbrain, dude.

Speaker 2 (47:12):
I think it's just like it's like good job, bud,
and I'm like hell yeah.
And then, last but certainlynot least, I got a steam deck.
I like to smell its vaporsdiscussed off air before we got
here and, you know, had a brieftech issue with it.

Speaker 1 (47:28):
that makes sense, I can't believe that happened to
you.

Speaker 2 (47:31):
Which makes no sense, but I think you figured it out
no doubt for now.
Very, I'm a little scared todownload things again, but I'll
obviously have to get there andI'm really hoping it's not a
thing where every time Idownload a game I have to go
through that process.
But anyway, I won't get intothat tech.
What I will say is, althoughit's a super bitch and machine,
I like playing games on there.
I have a new fond respect forjust how sturdy and playable the

(47:56):
switch is.
Man, pc gamers love to tell youhow their PCs are like the
coolest thing and that consolesare stupid.
But you don't have to figureout crazy things and feel
totally out of depth in a switch.

Speaker 1 (48:07):
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 tinkeringwith the problem that you had,
because that's whack Well youhad a battery issue.
You had a battery issue whichwas like stupid and it's like
the nice thing about theinternet is like you can get on
there into forums and see thatother people have had this issue

(48:28):
and they figured out ways tofix it.
But that, in my mind, isunacceptable, like the fact that
it has this weird glitch thatdrained your battery and what it
really was is like there was abug that was making it so that
your battery wasn't charging,but it was reading is full.
That's my understanding of thatproblem.

Speaker 2 (48:44):
Yeah, I think so.
Well, it was in.
This is boring.
I'll just talk about the gamesI'm playing on.

Speaker 1 (48:50):
I'm glad you have one , though, dude, I'm excited to
get my hands back on it so I canhook you up with some emulation
.
Hook you up with some.
I want to get you going on somestreaming of Game Pass dude I
want that too my bag Dude it'snice.
I like I would say 80% of thegaming I do on my deck is

(49:10):
honestly streaming Game Passthese days, yeah it'd be nice.

Speaker 2 (49:15):
The steam sale in the fall, the fall one.
I bought it like just before Igot the steam deck in my hands
so I didn't quite know whatgames to buy.
I bought games I thought I'dwant on the deck and I know that
I've been dealing with the tech.
I have a new idea of what I'dlike to play on there.
But Cursed to Golf is a funlittle romp.

(49:35):
I do recommend that's a funlittle one.
And then Marvel Midnight Sonshas been very cool, although I
will say the beginning is denseWith cutscenes and dialogue and
people go over here and talk tothis person.
I'm like can I just get back tothe combat please?

Speaker 1 (49:51):
Right, I played just a little bit of that game and I
think combat is nice.
Dude, I might like as a cardgame like it's like an action
card game or something.

Speaker 2 (49:58):
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 ahandheld is going to be pretty
neat.
Excited for that one and Ithink that and my other lo-fi
games.
Just a quick shout out toTownscraper about that on your
recommendation, yeah those aresuper cool, like tile games and

(50:20):
then Townscraper I don't knowwhat the fuck it is.
You just click and a tileappears and then you build
little structures.
And I was watching the Mondaynight football game passively
because I was just building thisweird little structure and I
was just listening to Joe andTroy, you know, just talking
sweet football to my brain.
But enough about me, dude,what's your chicken?

(50:40):
Parm this month.
Parm this month.

Speaker 1 (50:43):
Was my side quest.
Yep Dude, I've been playing alot of 2K.
I bought 2K 24.
I'm back.

Speaker 2 (50:51):
I'm a basketball stick Podcast.
Ever we play bad 2K games.
We love to enjoy.

Speaker 1 (50:58):
I love buying 2K this time of year because you can
get it for half off around theBlack.

Speaker 2 (51:01):
Friday sales or whatever Sports game, full price
no.

Speaker 1 (51:05):
So I got it.
It's the second physical gamethat I have for my Xbox Series X
, the first being 2K 23.

Speaker 2 (51:12):
It's the same with Madden.
It's so dumb.

Speaker 1 (51:15):
Oh, dude, I'm like.
I saw meme the other day thatwas like tell me or show me,
tell me you're stupid withoutsaying you're stupid, or
whatever.
And it was a stack of FIFA'sfrom like 95 all the way to
tooth, that like to today, which.
I don't know dude like.

Speaker 2 (51:30):
I get what the joke was.
They hate themselves.

Speaker 1 (51:32):
Yeah, Did I get the joke?
But I was like that's kind ofdope.
You got that stack of people'sstuff.
There's something to it, I'llgive it to you.
Being a collector, I'm like.
I mean, now it's like it'sfunny to me, dude, Like I want a
small stack of 2K's.

Speaker 2 (51:45):
I don't think these games will be playable like.
I worried about that too, to behonest 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 (51:59):
I do play as a Timberwolves dude, and those
that have been listening to thisoh wait, have I talked about it
?
It doesn't matter, dude, I hada lot of fun playing with the
Timberwolves last season on 2K.

Speaker 2 (52:11):
You talked about it.

Speaker 1 (52:12):
OK, I know I did in the compendium episode.

Speaker 2 (52:15):
I'm not sure, if I did on the main line, I've
probably played better in reallife than when you came in a
video game, right?

Speaker 1 (52:20):
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 wellthis year.
T-pups are number one today asof recording Number one in the
fucking league.
Man, always number one in ourhearts, well, of course, but
they're also number one on thestats sheets, but or?

Speaker 2 (52:42):
other, the rankings or whatever you make a run in
the playoffs, I'm going to bethe most like ignorant bitch in
the whole world and not letanyone on the bandwagon because
you have to be a.
You have to be a special typeof masochist to like be my level
of Timberwolves fan.
For how long?
Like?
The arguments and theconversations I had dating back
like through high school andcollege are pretty, pretty dire
and low Dude, I was pretty bad.

Speaker 1 (53:04):
I'm not anti cat.
I like cat a lot.
I always kind of like cat, buthe had been like kind of losing
my my favor over the last coupleof years, you know.
And he's sick dude Hog.
He's so good in 2K24.
He's so good in 2K24 that I'mgiving him a break in real life
and you know what the way thathe's playing in real life also

(53:25):
like pretty darn good.

Speaker 2 (53:27):
So it's a different podcast, but yeah, he's always
been fun in video games.
I've always yeah dude, he hitsthrees like oh dude, his three
shot is butter dude, it's sogreat I quit 2K in the last few
years I used to really relishtelling my students that they
suck asset 2K and then I wouldclap them, and now I just do

(53:48):
that with Madden.

Speaker 1 (53:49):
But it probably be me , and 2K.

Speaker 2 (53:50):
now, 2k has like done some weird things, like trying
to be like Fortnite withbasketball, as far as like they
do have some weird stuff.

Speaker 1 (53:57):
but I don't pay any attention to that shit dude.
I just build out my littleseason and I have a good ass
time and I enjoy the like.
They had the my Jordan stuffand now they have the Kobe stuff
, the Mamba stuff and I likethose dudes.

Speaker 2 (54:09):
I get it.
I don't hear what that shit?
Yeah, you're right, they don'thave a LeBron one yet.
They will when it retires.

Speaker 1 (54:15):
You see the memes that are like NBA cup has won
every single NBA cup LeBronJordan zero.

Speaker 2 (54:26):
NBA cups.
I didn't see that, yeah.

Speaker 1 (54:29):
Dude clotin.

Speaker 2 (54:31):
So no, I haven't seen it.

Speaker 1 (54:32):
Dude, it probably started out reddit.
That's how this show works, butto the that, that has been a
major side quest in the videogame realm for me.
I've been poking around Jusanthas been my other like main game
outside of 2K and and andGreece.
Just poking around with someother games is the steam sale.
You know the the autumn steamsale just happened so I picked

(54:54):
up a few hours.
I started Midnight Sons.
I'm excited to play more ofthat game.
I also got cursed to call.
I'm excited to play more ofthat one.
Some other fun you know steamsale games that I've poked
around with a little bit myth orsome a little.
I'm a little worried.
We got some homies in thediscord saying you know myth
forces whack.
But I'm looking forward toplaying some, some multiplayer

(55:15):
with you here and anybody elsewho wants to join here in the
near future.

Speaker 2 (55:20):
I think it should get better over time.
That's why I'm going to blindlytell myself to make sure, feel
better about it, but it wasprobably wills.

Speaker 1 (55:26):
I'll live with it, it'll be fine.
We'll give $15 worth out of itand outside of that dude I would
say my other major side questsin back on my comic book tip
dude, I had let my subscriptionto Marvel and limited past
because I had signed up for likea sweet, sweet deal for three
months or whatever, but thenaround Black Friday time they
had a nice sale for it.
So I've got it for the year I'mexcited to have.

(55:48):
You know that's how I was ableto finish.
I was in the middle of this thespider Gwen, like the Gwenverse
comics when I when I stoppedreading so I finished those off.
That was kind of fun, like funlittle series, but I've been.
I had to die.
I want to get back into X menbut the Star Wars comics always
fucking like whatever, I don'tknow man, I always get pulled

(56:10):
back in.
So I read through all like theall the Vader comics I've been
reading.
Now I'm going way back.
I'm trying to read through likeall of like the canon comics
that have started for Star Warsin the past.

Speaker 2 (56:22):
Like, like the school Dark Horse ones like they know
they're talking about.

Speaker 1 (56:26):
Those will be legends , that happened, like in 2015.
Yeah, so that's that'sconsidered legends.
Okay, so canon, the stuff thatlike the, the new, the, yeah,
the 2016 or whatever it is Ithink I picked up a few of those
just because they were startingto pop up.

Speaker 2 (56:40):
But that's like when I quit my most recent quitting
of.
I have a long treasured historyof comic books and graphic
novels but the last time I waslike 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, theactual stories of the movies are
kind of whack If you reallythink about it.

(57:03):
But like the world building hasalways been like top notch and
like even like Harry Potter,which is just a complete tangent
.
now, like, like the worldbuilding, like that Hogwarts
game I keep seeing that on saleand I don't think it's for me Is
that 40% dude.
When a job's a 50, I'm going tosend it.
I bet you that they will makean X-Bend game because they made

(57:23):
just a filthy amount of moneyon 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 gamerfriends that have put heavy
gamer hours into it.
But everything I saw from thegameplay I have some pretty
heavy open world fatigue.
If you didn't hear my rant 10minutes ago about the little

(57:45):
indies I like on Game Pass, Ihave some pretty heavy fatigue
on games like that and it verymuch looked like just another
one.
But like I did, kind of I was alittle jealous.
People walked around the hallsof Hogwarts and it did remind me
there's something about HarryPotter just being Christmasy as
fuck.
You know, yep Christmas movie.

Speaker 1 (58:02):
for sure, we just rewatched all the movies
recently.

Speaker 2 (58:06):
That's some young baby shit right there.
You just want to sit around andveg these in between.

Speaker 1 (58:12):
Dog.
We're moving out of being ableto watch movies like that
without and when he just likelike naptraps you and you like
watch a movie Like he doesn'treally not about that anymore,
he's like moving out of thatstage.
Did you get your?

Speaker 2 (58:28):
Xbox your interview wrapped.
Did you look at yours?
I haven't looked yet.
No, You'll have to boot yoursup.
When you get onto your Xboxhome screen.
You'd like you click on it andyou think it's going to show you
there, but then you got to hitthat.
You have to, like, scan your QRcode on your phone or whatever.

Speaker 1 (58:42):
What the thing I was telling him about yeah.

Speaker 2 (58:45):
So you like, I mean sure, and then you're like huh,
and then it's like all in frontof you or whatever.
That's when I was making thejoke because Phil Spencer shared
his my top three games.
You want to guess what theywere?
It's pretty simple if youactually think about it.
But the number one is the onlyone I don't think you'll get if
you think real hard.
All three of them above ahundred hours.

(59:06):
So don't feel good about that.

Speaker 1 (59:08):
Oh, wow, okay, yeah, I don't even.
I guess you probably got mad onthere for sure.

Speaker 2 (59:13):
Yep, that's number three.

Speaker 1 (59:16):
Actually what you got some, some over.
Oh, what would it be on theXbox Summertime?
High on life.
No, that was like wintertime.
No, dude, and that was like 30hours.

Speaker 2 (59:30):
I was like at the most.

Speaker 1 (59:32):
It looks like it looks just a big eye on my
family playing with DLC Liketimes.

Speaker 2 (59:38):
No dude, that will be the show, which is just more.

Speaker 1 (59:41):
Oh sure, sure, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (59:43):
Number one was the Witcher.
Oh, nice Cause when the babies.
Yeah, dude, I was trapped therefor like hour or two and I
would just and they do that two,three times a day to me.
So I was just grinding thebutcher while I was stuck there.

Speaker 1 (59:57):
So so again to be up top dude be proud of that one,
which is fucking dope, and thenew gen update.

Speaker 2 (01:00:02):
They was pretty sick dude when they Refreshed.

Speaker 1 (01:00:05):
My other main side quest was an old main quest.
I've been continuing to plugthrough CS stars as well.
I haven't, I haven't hung upthe gloves on that one.

Speaker 2 (01:00:13):
yet I play, playfully , dapped you up or actually
playing that when you wereignoring one of my texts because
your discord said you wereplaying CS stars and I was like
this dick, either so into it orhe's mad at me for some.

Speaker 1 (01:00:23):
I don't care.
We're just playing games andnot paying attention to your
fucking messages.
It's fucking turn based,fucking time.

Speaker 2 (01:00:28):
Yeah.
But you see, I'm streaming iton my deck, bro, so I don't see
it popping up on, you know thatwould probably help me get
through it, cause I have pickedit up on the choice what part
are you at?
Where?

Speaker 1 (01:00:40):
did the trade yet.
Yeah, yeah, cheese man I have,I have.
I mean come on dude.

Speaker 2 (01:00:47):
you saw that she come from a mile away.
They teased it with like afirst 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 (01:00:56):
I'm in the underwater stuff I'm doing.
I'm doing stuff in theunderwater realms.
I think I'm only slightly infront of you, so I still got
that, but yeah, cool game LikeI'm in that tower, the
underwater tower area where youlike, moving through the tower
doing little puzzle things yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:01:15):
I think I've done that.

Speaker 1 (01:01:16):
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 sillyas shit, but it did.
You, jason Shrier.

Speaker 2 (01:01:29):
What he's just got his big boner for some other
ones and he was all mad aboutthe translation or the commas or
something.
Oh, I remember that.

Speaker 1 (01:01:38):
Yeah, I was like all right, dude.
I guess, this is dope.
That's one of my favorite gamesof the year, even though I
haven't even finished it.

Speaker 2 (01:01:45):
Yeah, it was it was a memorable one for me.
I don't know if I'll finish it,just cause.

Speaker 1 (01:01:52):
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'dlike.
We will drop our next game inthere.
You're welcome to play along.
Join the conversation.
Follow us on the social medias.
Low five gaming.

(01:02:13):
And yeah, just thanks for beinga real one.
Thanks for staying all the waythrough the game, staying all
the way through the end of thisepisode.

Speaker 2 (01:02:21):
You legend God damn legend.

Speaker 1 (01:02:24):
Give us five stars.
If you're on Spotify, how aboutthat?

Speaker 2 (01:02:28):
Definitely definitely do that.

Speaker 1 (01:02:30):
All right, Much love.
Take it easy, bro.
Ain't nobody going to see youblow and kiss?

Speaker 2 (01:02:36):
I mean there you go, they heard them Peace, peace,
all right Peace.
Yes, the senior, can I just getsome macaroni and gravy?

Speaker 1 (01:03:09):
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 guywith a maroni.
He doesn't like this.
And then you say to me I'mgoing to have a glass of soup in

(01:03:33):
my head.