Almost Gamers

Episode Four: Opening Cutscene Pt 1

• Matt Firek and Andrew Wilds • Season 1 • Episode 4

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Load up this episode as Matt and Andy both share their experience with Blue Prince. Hilarity ensues. Things heat up when the duo talk about their Video Game Crushes.  Matt talks the history of 3D gaming and how much he really likes to look at shiny cans in VR.

(This episode was too much fun to fit on one disc. Stayed tuned next week for the exciting finale.)

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SPEAKER_01:

The pretzels are baked, but the cheese still needs a little bit of time in the bowl, if you know what I mean. Yeah, it always needs time in the bowl. Right. We'll snack attack that and let's get this show rolling. All right, let's do it. Hello and welcome to episode four of the Almost Gamers podcast. Thanks again for joining us. I am Matty Flames. And I am, as always, joined by the freshly shaven Ant-Man, Andrew Wilds.

SPEAKER_00:

Hello, hello. I'm here.

SPEAKER_01:

So I got to give a shout out to Andrew, who's also the composer of our intro slash theme song. Oh, okay. I didn't expect this. Yes, it's already been through at least two iterations. Yeah. And the latest iteration has my voice digitized, which that was pretty cool. Did you like that? Yeah. Was that a plug-in there?

SPEAKER_00:

It was. It was a plug-in through Ableton Live, which is what we use. Yeah, they're Vocoder. Oh, okay, Vocoder. Vocoder, sorry, Vocoder. Very, very apt for a, yeah. And basically I set your voice and then somehow you link it with a synthesizer.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah,

SPEAKER_00:

pretty cool. And then it became wah, wah, wah,

SPEAKER_01:

wah. That fun sound. All right. The soon-to-be-famous, available, hopefully shortly, on the Almost Gamers soundtrack. Right, yeah. Well, you know. We have two, right? Two tracks? Two tracks. We're ready. Yeah. So, I don't know about you, but I have been very not-busy-playing-games since

SPEAKER_00:

we

SPEAKER_01:

last...

SPEAKER_00:

I am... I'm actually shocked that you haven't played since you were so glowingly talking about Assassin's Creed. But I... Life got in the way. But I... You! I have been busy. Playing Assassin's Creed? Not at all. Not even close. Okay. But I have not been playing Minecraft. Oh, no! I broke free. You broke free. Not at all? You haven't played at all? Well, I will say, like, because it's been three weeks, we try to do three weeks for now. Unless you guys demand more, you know. We will, I played probably last week, or the first week after the last podcast, a little bit more. But then I said the itch got to me, and I finally, and I talked about it last podcast, so if you listened, you know this. I talked about Blue Prince. Now Prince, the musician slash the son of a king, right? So I need

SPEAKER_01:

to interject here because– I told you earlier that I had to re-listen to our last recorded episode because I forgot what we talked about.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes,

SPEAKER_01:

we did. And I'm glad I did because I myself was going to talk to you about this new game that I found. Had you ever heard of it? Because I read this article from Paul Tossie about a game called Blue. That's where I learned of it, yes. And we talked about this exact thing last time, and I completely forgot about it. Well,

SPEAKER_00:

there you go. And I was

SPEAKER_01:

even going to make the same reference about Blue Prince, which actually is a play on the game itself. So I actually played that too. Oh, you played it. I purposely played it. Cause I'm like, I need to, I need to talk about something. So I spent like all day Monday. Like

SPEAKER_00:

my mind, like you can't see my face and maybe we'll get a camera one day, but my face just, and my mind blew up.

SPEAKER_01:

I played it for nine hours straight. I barely stood up.

SPEAKER_00:

Wow. You know what? I've, I don't want to say how many hours I've put into it, but it's way more than nine. Okay. I've technically beat the game. Oh, okay. And since you've played it now, we can actually kind of maybe get into some of that. But I don't want to spoil it because it's still fresh. Yeah, it is very, very fresh. But yeah. So I don't know where we start. I didn't expect to even have a conversation

SPEAKER_01:

with you. Again, it was just literally a couple hours ago when I realized that we'd already talked about this game. Oh, my goodness.

SPEAKER_00:

This

SPEAKER_01:

is crazy. So here is, again, I don't want to spoil anything, but here's my description of that game.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I was right, and I wrote all kinds of stuff, but great. Go.

SPEAKER_01:

Mine is a combination between Myst, Hades, and Castles of the Mad King Ludwig. Never played that one. You have. It's a tabletop game we play with the Kellys. Oh, Jesus. Remember you lay down those little tiles and you slowly

SPEAKER_00:

build out the castle? Yes, yes. That is exactly what it is. Yes. Yeah. I didn't even think about it. Yeah. Because I didn't think of board games. But yeah, that's... Yeah, that is exactly what it is. It's a path building board game game. type scenario. Even that still doesn't really describe the game. So is that all you played was nine hours? Or did you keep going?

SPEAKER_01:

No, that was like Monday. So I haven't had time since.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. Yeah, and that's an accurate description. And it's so well done. I love the graphics. I love the cell shading. Right, it looks like a border. It has a borderland. But a little more hand-drawn. Yeah, it's like hand-drawn more. Yeah. And I love that. And the one thing, you know, man, I got to like skip a ton of stuff because you already played this. I was prepared to explain a lot to you.

SPEAKER_01:

Explain to the audience again, but not giving away too much. I think this is one of the ones that definitely flow under everyone's radar. Absolutely, because of Paul Tassi. It's the studio's first game, I think. Yeah, it might have been. I didn't even look into the studio. They're not very well known. They're obviously a small independent studio.

SPEAKER_00:

Right. Yeah. Well, Matt described it perfectly. It's a puzzle game. A strict puzzle game. There's no action, no combat. But there is elements of a rogue. It's a rogue, for people who are unfamiliar with rogues. You basically take a turn, you play the game, and then at the end of it, you either die, or in this case, the day resets, and you start all over again. But sort of, it's a rogue lite. Because you can make upgrades that carry over. Yes,

SPEAKER_01:

which is the only reason... I would ever play any Rogue. Like, purely Rogue, I need something to carry over. Yeah, right. At least

SPEAKER_00:

a little bit. You need to feel like you accomplished something, especially if you have a bad run. Maybe there's something. Oh, man, have I did that? Yeah. Well, that's the thing. Literally built

SPEAKER_01:

myself into a corner.

SPEAKER_00:

And I'll admit, like, after probably 80-plus hours into it. Oh. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh,

SPEAKER_00:

wait. So there's a lot more. Well, that's just where my criticism comes from because I was like you. At first– I was blown away. I was in love with the game. I couldn't get it enough. But there are certain puzzles where you need to access a certain room. And this is important. The rogue part is interesting because when you're room building, you're essentially building a path through a mansion. And you're trying to get to this specific spot. And sometimes it doesn't always work out. But every time you... access a door you get a choice of three more rooms to choose from sometimes they're amazing sometimes they're not going to work out and then you might have to start over again but that in lies creates the problem and it's the mechanic of the game and i want to change it but it makes it difficult because you might need a certain room but you only draw three cards and you might not get that room. And you might go through a whole entire scenario where you don't ever see that room again. And you might have to play three or four more times to get that room to maybe solve a puzzle that you barely remember maybe a couple hours ago that you were like, oh, I know I have to... Obviously, you have to write stuff down, but sometimes your notes aren't amazing. That, a lot of chance. There's a lot of chance in a game. And I... And a lot of those hours were me repeatedly playing, trying to get a perfect scenario so I can get a certain item in a certain room and solve a puzzle. And then the puzzle eventually, I found, leads to those upgrades. And you're like, oh, I thought this was going to solve another puzzle. I don't even know how to solve that puzzle now. How do I solve that puzzle? And you're back to the drawing board. And it's just a repeat cycle. And it's...

SPEAKER_01:

I didn't think that many hours.

SPEAKER_00:

There's so many puzzles. It's like Witness where there's puzzles hidden that you didn't even know were puzzles. I think I have to quit. I'm at the point where I got so... I feel like I was telling my wife Haley, I was telling her, I feel like an old... detective from a movie where you're like, they're drawing the strings from corkboard to corkboard. I have notes, crazy stuff.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I mean, this is my notes right here.

SPEAKER_00:

Really? That's it? That's it. You need way more notes.

SPEAKER_01:

I've taken like, Probably 50 screenshots. It's funny because you never know what's important.

SPEAKER_00:

That's what I mean. I'm writing down. Oh,

SPEAKER_01:

I took a lot of screenshots with my phone. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. I just was like. It's neat. Oh, yeah. I love it. I still. I rate it really high.

SPEAKER_01:

But I know other people. I think Jake Baldino on Game Ranks was the other person. And I agree with him. It's just like Myst, where some of the puzzles are awesome, and you feel like a fucking genius for figuring out. I do, sometimes. And some are so obtuse, you're like, no, fuck that puzzle.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. Well, see, I got to the point where I did have to use a hint or two from a game like IGN. Because,

SPEAKER_01:

again, you're frustrated for an hour. You've

SPEAKER_00:

got to do something. And honestly, to beat the game, I had to look up a hint. Like, to beat the game. mildly beat the game because if you know there's like more after the game is done I figured and I looked it up and I thought I did the thing and that's why I didn't do it again and so I had to like I was like oh man I didn't I thought I did that already So I've cheapened it a little because I was trying to go purest and not look anything up.

SPEAKER_01:

But again, you have to because we have a limited amount of time in our lives.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, well, I put way too much time into it and I'm still missing way too much.

SPEAKER_01:

We're going to have to talk off camera about some things because, again, I don't want to spoil it too much

SPEAKER_00:

for the audience. Yeah, that's about as much as I want to get into it because I know this will be released way past it, but it's still going to be pretty fresh. And I didn't expect you to play. But yeah, we could probably get into more details off microphone. Yeah, go play. Blue Prince. Prince, but a play on the Prince. Yeah,

SPEAKER_01:

it's a ton of fun. And I feel like even if you don't beat it, you just spend a couple hours with it, you're going to feel good about it.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, like even if you just kind of beat the main scenario, you'll love it. It's a great puzzle game. And I just wanted to, I don't I don't know if I mentioned this, but the music

SPEAKER_01:

is

SPEAKER_00:

very missed.

SPEAKER_01:

It has that eerie, atmospheric kind of... And it changes dynamically perfectly. Like you know, oh, I just did something because the music changes. And that's

SPEAKER_00:

awesome. And I don't know, you're probably not... There's certain songs that– actually, I got a kind of emotional– but I'm a more emotional person. But anyway, I like emotional music. I listen to a lot of– I'm not emo, but I like the emotion in music. Random tangent

SPEAKER_01:

on that. There's that Max Richter song that always pops up on– Oh, that's a good one. I know which one you're talking about already. And I didn't realize they used that. I just rewatched The Arrival.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, The Rival. I

SPEAKER_01:

didn't expect that.

UNKNOWN:

Amy.

SPEAKER_01:

I don't remember. No, it's that sci-fi movie. Yeah, I remember sci-fi. With the aliens that speak in time. Yeah, oh, that was like an old movie, right? Yeah, I'd rarely watched it the other day, and they used that song on it, and that's very emotional. Oh, they did use it. Yeah, it's the main intro and outro. It bookends the movie.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, wow. It's so good. I forgot this. It's one of the most emotional songs. Yeah, like Max Richter is probably one of my favorite modern composers. The soundtrack kind of feels that way. But what's interesting, and I just want to give a... Amy Adams. Yes. Amy Adams. Yeah, that's right. It was her. Trig and Gusset is their actual name of them. Oh, okay. Yeah, T-R-I-G-G and Gusset, G-U-S-S-E-T. Recommend it. They have other stuff. There's some good tracks from the song, but it was neat. It's one of them, like it's electronic music, but it blends. I don't know if you got to the Reed instruments, but there's a lot of saxophone. I think he plays everything, a little bit of everything. It feels like a baritone saxophone a lot. I don't know if you got to those soundtrack parts, but there's some emotional music, some pinnacle moments. I loved it, and in fact, I saved it. So if you're looking for a good electronic with a little bit of saxophone, it's jazzy but not overly jazzy. I wouldn't call it jazz, but that's how they describe themselves. But they're kind of like dark jazz is what they call themselves.

SPEAKER_01:

I heard it there. Here, folks, add that to your Spotify playlist.

SPEAKER_00:

You know, we're about music here. That's right. And

SPEAKER_01:

while you're at it, you can also add the Almost Gamers.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes, please do.

SPEAKER_01:

Spotify playlist. Please follow us. Make us feel good a little bit. Follow us on there or go to our Buzzsprout page and become a patron, if you will.

SPEAKER_00:

And give us feedback.

SPEAKER_01:

Give us feedback.

SPEAKER_00:

My wife's first, she listened to episode three and in the first three seconds, she said, you guys are idiots. And I said, you're very perceptive. We are idiots, ultimately.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, let us know what parts you like, what parts you don't, what we should keep doing, what we shouldn't, and we may or may not listen to you. Probably we won't.

SPEAKER_00:

Because we're big timers. Yeah, big time, big time. Okay, well, that was crazy. We played the same game. Yeah, that's great. I was prepared to explain the game to you. Well, podcast over. Yeah, game

SPEAKER_01:

over. We won. Was that all you played then?

SPEAKER_00:

That's it. Like I said, I did Minecraft, but obviously I've talked about that enough, and maybe I'll share more eventually, but I think we talked enough about that.

SPEAKER_01:

Anything else you played? I did a little bit. So again, I just didn't have a lot of time. I had to play a little more Assassin's Creed. I unlocked the second character finally for the rest of the game, Yasuke. And it's neat. They do play very different. For a lot of the gameplay, Naoe is like your go-to, like the typical assassin. But every once in a while, you're like, all right, there's just a bunch of... Enemies up ahead, I'm going to switch to Yasuke. You can switch freely, kind of like GTA V. Oh, yeah, yeah. And he's just a brawler. He'll just go in and kick a bunch of ass and just chop enemies up. It's a lot of fun. But again, he can't climb. He can't jump. He can't sneak. He can't assassinate, essentially. So it's just a very different play style. It's fun. It's fun to be able to switch between the very different characters. Though I did, I think the last time I talked about... difficulty in gameplay so i dropped it down to make a little easier until i got the hang of it and i had just bumped it up to the hardest mode before i got yasuke and it goes through a whole sequence of like into the past and whatnot it's really cool but you fight like a boss character uh momochi and you This old man kicked my ass again and again and again. And I was in a spot where you can't change difficulty. I would have had to go back a couple hours to like an old save. So I was getting so frustrated. But I did give a big shout out to Kurt. Just randomly happened to stop by to grab something. And we were bitching. Well, sorry, bullshitting. And I was bitching about getting my ass kicked by an old man ninja. But that was the break that I needed. And I think we need to remind folks out there, if you don't know this, sometimes you're banging your head against a wall trying to beat a boss. Sometimes you just take a break.

SPEAKER_00:

Take a break.

SPEAKER_01:

Step away. And as soon as I went back to it, first try, kicked his motherfucking

SPEAKER_00:

ass. That's sage wisdom from a person who's game for a while. Good. I try to tell my daughter that. And I just... I wanted to say, like, I've explained realms terribly over the last, like, two episodes. It's P versus P. Last time I said P versus E. Yeah. It's P versus P. Oh. So it's kind of like they're Fortnite. So they do things like capture the flag, but they call it capture the bed or something like that because there's beds in the game. Okay. And so they're just random games or, like, there's, like, a hide-and-go-seek game. So anyway, clarify. It is... Player versus player. And she loses. You know, she wins, but she loses quite a bit because she's only six. And these kids are probably 10 and 12. I was going to say, they're real old, like 10 and 12. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Double her age, though. Some of them are 40. And some of them are 40, but I don't do the servers because I barely do any of that. Fortnite was the only thing I did recently, and that was a while ago. But yeah, so she gets frustrated, and we always try to tell her, step away, take a break maybe. But she can't. She's... Obviously only six. And she doesn't have that

SPEAKER_01:

experience. Yeah, see, that's what we can impart upon the young folk. Yeah, we're old. We know a thing or two. Yeah, we almost know a thing or two.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, that almost is very crucial.

SPEAKER_01:

I also dipped back into Avowed a little bit. Okay. And that game keeps surprising me. Yeah. again, try not to spoil anything, but something I thought was a minor choice had a major consequence in game. In fact, I didn't even quite realize it. I'm like, well, this kind of, I had to look it up and realized, oh, yeah, this, okay. So, yeah, I don't know how to describe that.

SPEAKER_00:

Ruining.

SPEAKER_01:

Ruining a thing, but I'm like, oh, shit. So, it's kind of neat to see that. You don't usually see large parts of the game change permanently because of a quest line that you did differently.

SPEAKER_00:

So, hey, again, still the games. Still one of the better games. Still

SPEAKER_01:

enjoying it. Still enjoying the shit out of it.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

I'm surprised you're sticking with it.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. And speaking of sticking with it. Oh, sticking. Went back to Baldur's Gate 3 for you because I knew you'd want me to. Well, you have been busy-ish. Ish. Again, I played a couple hours of Avowed, a couple hours of Assassin's Creed. It's better than me. And Baldur's Gate...

SPEAKER_00:

What did you do in Baldur's Gate? So, I

SPEAKER_01:

don't know if you're aware of this. You can talk freely because this is like five years old. There was a final update. Yeah. Which, you know, changed and modified

SPEAKER_00:

a lot of things. Oh, yeah, they added new classes and stuff too. Yeah,

SPEAKER_01:

yeah, and cleaned up some things and also broke most of the... Mods. Really? Well, it's funny. If that was Bethesda, that would

SPEAKER_00:

be the main news of every...

SPEAKER_01:

Well, what had happened was, I guess I only did UI mods, the things that cleaned up the menu screens, and especially the hotbar. I forgot you did the mods. Yeah, the hotbar. It was only UI stuff, because especially the hotbar on the bottom, I had a really large hotbar. Like on my little, you know, quick keys. Yeah. But I'm playing on... No, I'm not playing on console. Geez, I'm playing on computer. I really need them. Anyways, doesn't matter. I liked it. But I guess to make any of those work, they're all like better UI, better boxes, better hotbar. I guess to make those all work, like they required a central mod to make all the mods work.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay. If that

SPEAKER_01:

makes any sense.

SPEAKER_00:

Kind of. It's like a brain. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. So with this update, from my understanding, they made it so you didn't have to do that. Basically made it easier to mod. But in the process, a lot of the old mods didn't. didn't work anymore. So I had to slowly go through all the mods, turning them off one by one to see which one. And it was, it took me like three hours. And so by the time I finally got the game up and running, I'm like, all right, that's enough.

SPEAKER_00:

There lies my biggest issue with mods. I, I tried the mod out Skyrim and I could make it work somewhat, but then there's always an element shit broke. And you're just like, what do I do? That's why I don't like mods that much.

SPEAKER_01:

I usually don't, but I like... Because they were not external mods. They're all in-game. Okay, yeah. Sanction mods. Yeah, on the menu you can add

SPEAKER_00:

mods. Okay, I didn't know that. I never looked into it.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, it's right on the start screen. There's mods. So yeah, I wasn't doing crazy external mods.

SPEAKER_00:

I tend to be pure. I like to play the game as it was intended. The one just adds new dice. Yeah, I was surprised there wasn't much customizing of the dice. Again, because you had to

SPEAKER_01:

use

SPEAKER_00:

the mods to get it. Now that you mention that, that was a little

SPEAKER_01:

sad. And that one wasn't the issue. I can still use that, but yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, at least Matt can use his dice. Yes, I can roll my dice. But he still quit. He did.

SPEAKER_01:

So yeah, long story short, I played a little bit, but not

SPEAKER_00:

much. He played enough to get his mods off and on. Yes, I modded myself off. Yes. Off this mod. All right. Anyways. Yes.

SPEAKER_01:

Moving on. Wow. We're moving on already. You know what time it is, Ant-Man? Do you know what time it is? Seven?

SPEAKER_00:

No. What? Boss battle time. Boss battle. All right. We need

SPEAKER_01:

some Jessica. I like it. I like it. So for boss battle of this week, we decided we are going to talk about video game content. Crushes.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, yeah, right. I forgot already. We just talked about this probably 10 minutes ago.

SPEAKER_01:

All right, let's do it. So this is just video game characters that we were crushing on across all of history. So no rules other than that. Would you like to start us off?

SPEAKER_00:

Well, I mean, I guess I could. But I just want to say I am happily married to a wonderful woman who all these crushes should be like. And so don't get mad, Alan. All right. My first one, I started with the most, one of the more recent ones. Okay. Well, she's not the most recent, but Sarah Morgan. Do you know Sarah Morgan? Do you remember Sarah Morgan? I don't know that. From Mass Effect? Yeah. Yes. Not on Mass Effect. Sorry. That's another space game. Yeah. Wait. Starfield. Starfield. Oh, yes, Sarah. Yeah, Sarah. Really? Her last name is Morgan. Yeah. I looked it up because I didn't want to. We've proven we're idiots over the last couple of episodes with names or anything with, you know, where you have to require some knowledge. The boss battles

SPEAKER_01:

are pre-researched.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. We try. We

SPEAKER_01:

try.

SPEAKER_00:

Also, we're idiots. Sarah Morgan. Okay. She's the blonde. Blonde, bitchy, nobody likes.

SPEAKER_01:

Right. Exactly. All right. All right. So I am thinking of the right person. Nobody really crushes on her. So these are people that remind you of your wife? Yeah. Oh. You said it. That's how you started off this segment.

SPEAKER_00:

I didn't say literally reminded me of my wife. I just said some of these. Oh, geez.

SPEAKER_01:

I'm sorry. I did not mean to start this argument.

SPEAKER_00:

You know, she already has our divorce lawyer. I see your text. Somehow she's already listening to this.

SPEAKER_01:

Big brother. Anyways, Sarah Morgan.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, Sarah Morgan. Well, Sarah Morgan is, probably the reason I started with her is because she's not, she shouldn't be on anybody's list. And she's kind of not on my list. And as far as like reminding me of my wife, she doesn't. But what I did like about her was she always rejected you. And there was something like, ooh. The plain hard to get. Yeah, hard to get.

UNKNOWN:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

And obviously, like, I'm older. Like, I don't have crushes now that I'm an old man. What are you, a teen girl? Like, a lot of these, some of these are a little bit when I was younger, when you're a little more like, you want to fall in love more. I'm later in life. This was a later in life kind of a thing. But she did catch my interest. And so, like, we say crushes, but I think she caught my interest, and I wanted to woo her because she was so difficult.

UNKNOWN:

Okay.

SPEAKER_00:

It is

SPEAKER_01:

a game, so there is

SPEAKER_00:

supposed to be a challenge. Yes, there's a challenge. So I put her on the list because I was interested, but I actually never finished Starfield, and I never wooed her because she always hated me. Every decision I made, she thought I was a shithead. And I said, you know, well, fuck you, eventually. Oh,

SPEAKER_01:

so you never did? You never did a romancer? No. So she's the one that got away,

SPEAKER_00:

huh? Exactly. So that's why I put her on the list as kind of a fun... But she wasn't like a true crush. I mean, she was kind of like that British hot, you know, with that accent. Okay, yeah. And that's the other reason, because you have that accent. Yeah. Everybody likes an accent. That's right. Except a Pittsburgh accent, unfortunately. That's true. Ian's know that.

SPEAKER_01:

Ian's know all about that. Oh, yeah. He's so sexy. All right, I am going to start the opposite. I'm going to start with my... I don't know. games blur together when you're talking about 20, 30 years

SPEAKER_00:

ago. Oh,

SPEAKER_01:

yeah. Plus, most of the 8-bit and 16-bit games, you know. They're not. Yeah. You know, I'm not falling in love with any Final Fantasy VI characters.

SPEAKER_00:

None. Yeah. None until the remakes. I mean,

SPEAKER_01:

even the cut scenes, even then, still, eh. Yeah. So I'm going to go with probably an odd choice, and I brought up this pick because I know you have no idea who this is. Yeah. Keeping with Final Fantasy, though, I didn't go obvious. Mm-hmm. I didn't go obvious. Final Fantasy IX. It's like...

SPEAKER_00:

I went

SPEAKER_01:

with Garnet.

SPEAKER_00:

Garnet. Jeez. Matt has a picture ready. Yeah, right there.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay. So she was cute. She was the first time they made like a character. Yeah, yeah. It was someone that was- Matt could corrupt. Yeah, she looked very corruptible. She was very nice, very sweet. But that was the first time there was- Matt would give her her first beer. It was the first time there was a video game character that wasn't like overly sexualized like Lara Croft. You know what I mean? She was just like- Polygon boobs. She was just like a cute character. And I thought, like, oh, this is the first time I could, like, really get into someone. And, yeah, and she was just really cool. I'm sorry. I am completely wrong. She is from Final Fantasy VIII, not IX.

SPEAKER_00:

Woo! VIII. Our rep is going up. We're going to become somewhat gamers. Jesus. Matt's doing a hard look. He's got his Wikipedia's up. I'm narrating. He's disappointed in himself. His boner went from midnight to six. No, it was nine. I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_01:

That's what I really thought. But look, look at this Wikipedia page. It clearly says, like, 18. Yeah. I'm like, wait a minute. I knew it was 9 because 9 was the weird. 9 was the game. Let's get into 9. That I had a generic video card, a generic memory card. Okay. And I lost my save file halfway through the game.

SPEAKER_00:

4-1 out for Matt's memory card. It was devastating. I know that feeling. Devastating to me. We got dark on this precious episode.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes, but it made me replay the game and love it in a new light. And you know why? Shout out to Steve Hutchison. Hey, Steve. We talk about him a lot. There was a character in that game. It was the bodyguard of Garnet, which was Steiner, and I hated him. So this was before voice acting. So sometimes reading... just like text messages in real life sometimes reading things you don't get the nuance because you're just reading it so i hated him i thought he was an asshole and steve told me he said picture the voice of tim allen doing buzz lightyear kind of over the top on purpose okay and as soon as i got that like he wasn't a serious character he's meant to be

SPEAKER_00:

yeah

SPEAKER_01:

and then it I love the game. I love the game.

SPEAKER_00:

Wow, that was a quick.

SPEAKER_01:

It was a quick 180, and I owe it to both Steve and actually having to start over from the beginning. Well, thank you, Steve. Yes. Matt can get his boner back. Or Garnet. I was crushing on her. I don't think I was like hot and heavy for her. No. I just, I was crushing. I also should point out the fact that unlike you, I am single. So I'm absolutely free to bang any one of these characters. Matt can get into those pixels.

SPEAKER_00:

Deep. All right. Throwing it back to you. What do you got? All right. I'm just going to order my list. And this is, I think everybody has this one on their list somewhere if they're going to make a list like this. It's Tally. Tally Zora. Vos Normandy. Oh, wow. Matt knows even more about her. I actually have a stuffed plushie animal of her upstairs. Oh, she's been stuffed. We know that's happening. He said he

SPEAKER_01:

was single.

SPEAKER_00:

I remember that was your crush. It's not a couch. That was your crush

SPEAKER_01:

in that game. I didn't go Tally. I went...

SPEAKER_00:

But they didn't show her face, which was, again, some of this stuff, there's a little theme here because Sarah couldn't get and Tally was like, I couldn't see her face. No, that's right. You fell in love with her. Yeah, just her personality. And we fought a lot because she was my main teammate and then Garris. I think it was me, Garris, and Tally. That was what we did in Mass Effect. What you were saying about her, you did Mass Effect probably.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, but Tally wasn't my love interest. It was always, well, Jack in the second one just because of course I went Jack.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, Jack. I was interested in Jack and she's kind of like Sarah because she was very off. She didn't like me, obviously. And I was tempted, but... Talia, I don't know. There was something alluring behind that mask.

SPEAKER_01:

Liara was my...

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, yeah. I was going to put her also on my list, but I didn't include her. But I think I did in that game, because you can hook up with a lot of people. You can

SPEAKER_01:

hook up with a lot. In the second game, you can have flings that don't matter. Okay. And

SPEAKER_00:

it's Jack. Yeah, I did end up hooking up with that. What was her name again? Sorry. Liara. Liara, that's it. But Talia was my true interest. So, yeah. That was mine.

SPEAKER_01:

Did she die in your playthrough?

UNKNOWN:

No.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay. I know you killed her. I kept her. I think the only person, like the dying person was the male version. I can't remember his name. Oh, man. We got it. Caden? I think it was Caden. Yeah, it was

SPEAKER_01:

Caden. Either Caden or Ashley die.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, it was Caden.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. But, oh, no. Who was the assassin, the green-skinned?

SPEAKER_00:

No, that's it.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, he died for you. I'm like, what?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, what was his name? Do we remember? Nope, we do not.

SPEAKER_01:

As

SPEAKER_00:

much

SPEAKER_01:

as we love Mass Effect, that was way too long ago. That was so long ago. Yeah,

SPEAKER_00:

that was my number

SPEAKER_01:

two. Okay, okay. Are these in any particular order, or are these just kind of

SPEAKER_00:

random? Yeah, these are more random, because I was supposed to have this prepared for episode three, and the next day I just did a lot of research, so I just kind of went with it. I didn't put them in order, though. All right, my

SPEAKER_01:

next is going to be, again, it might be a weird one, from the game Odyssey. Enslaved, Odyssey to the West. Trip. Okay, so I have no clue. Yeah, I figured you didn't. This is kind of a... Oh, yeah, okay. Yeah, she... it was, so this game was Andy circus, uh, did the voice work for the, for her? No, for the protagonist. Um, but this was one where it was just your connection to her in the game. Basically your life is in her hands. Like she has that little thing she's wearing on her, um, head is connected to the collar around your neck. And if she dies, you die. So you're kind of forced to help her, but there becomes a turning point in the game where you do it without being forced. They prefer not to be forced. Yeah, your character falls in love, and so did I with her. And she's just very, very cute and just a redhead, obviously. Okay, yeah, it's all making sense here. But yeah, so that's my next one, Trip from Enslaved. Love you, Tripp. Probably lesser known.

SPEAKER_00:

Matt's still sending you valentines. Unanswered. All right. Who you got next? Now this one, this is probably the first one where before my wife and I even dating her was like, whew. I feel like other versions of her weren't as amazing as, I think Dragon Age 2 is the first time she appeared, was Morrigan. She was in one, wasn't she? Was it one? Yeah, because I definitely remember Morgan. I think she was in every one, but I think the second one, the graphics lined with... Yes, she was very... But I think in the third one, she became... No, the third one, she was amazing too. I think they kind of took her... I forget, maybe... But either way, I think in the latest ones, they turned her in a little more gothy, less voluptuous. Yes. And I was like, I didn't prefer that, but man, the version I played. Nothing like a witch, huh? Yeah, oh my goodness. Dark witch. And like I said, this was before my wife, and I was like, my goodness, if this girl exists in the real world, wow. I wish. But yeah, Morgan. Okay. And she was also like a Sarah type, and she was a little more like, I hate you. But I think I did romance her because I think you obviously could romance her. I'm pretty sure I did too in the first game. Within the game and not– Like in some sort of porn site. I'm sure there is a Morgan. I've never seen it. There's no chance there isn't. But she was like the first, woo, like one of the few. But she was also just crazy. Witch. Yeah,

SPEAKER_01:

sorry. No, it's

SPEAKER_00:

good. It's good.

SPEAKER_01:

All right. So it is time. Uh-oh. We're taking a break. Get the anthropomorphic hut ready. out of the way. I had to. I originally wasn't going to do Crystal from Star Fox, but again, that was just too long and too old. So I'm going to go with Rivet, who is the Ratchet and Clank latest game. Rift Apart. She is the female version of Ratchet, if you will.

SPEAKER_00:

I'm glad Matt has video. Yeah, I knew,

SPEAKER_01:

again, I knew I was going to have to do visual aids because I know he has no idea who I'm talking about. But, yeah, that's. Oh, I saw the last of us. I was like, oh, that's an ad. Oh, that girl. It's a Lorax. Oh, I see that. Yeah, you're right. She's cute. Big eyes. You know, I think she has a tail. Yeah. I mean, not tails do it for me, but. Yeah, she can. You know, it's. Matt needs

SPEAKER_00:

a good.

SPEAKER_01:

You know, every once in a while you got to go for the. You

SPEAKER_00:

got to

SPEAKER_01:

go

SPEAKER_00:

for. The non-human. Well, sometimes like Matt said, personality too. So. If they're not human-like, sometimes personality. But she's cute. I mean, I imagine there's

SPEAKER_01:

many, many furries dress up as her. Oh, my goodness. Yes, definitely. That's probably the best one. Nothing wrong with that. Yeah. She's sweet. Rivet was my... Rivet? Rivet. Rivet, get it? Like a rivet. Yeah, like a rivet.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I get it. Okay.

SPEAKER_01:

That's

SPEAKER_00:

what I wanted to screw. Yeah, she wanted hot steel in her ass.

UNKNOWN:

Yes.

SPEAKER_01:

And there was the line. All right. And next.

SPEAKER_00:

I'm going to go with a modern one. And again, like I said, as you as you age, it's not so much about like, oh, but, you know, you're a horny little asshole. But car lack. From Baldur's Gate 3. Ooh, yes. And you know what? We've discussed her. Yeah, we already discussed this. I don't need to go into great detail. Me and Matt may discuss more of the things that went through that, but we were a squad, and she was always on my team after I met her. She was a camaraderie. Yeah, and it was a camaraderie. We fought through some shit. It was like an element. Yeah, we were bonded. And then if you get to the end, you'll even know more. So that one cut deep. And that game cut deep, man. It was like an emotional game by the end. And she's literally hot. Oh, yeah. She is literally hot. But, yeah, Karlag was awesome. Awesome character. And then it was cool seeing the voice actor, too. It's like, wow, that's what that person looks like. Yeah, I don't know. I'll have to look that up. Yeah, I watched the– and I recommend it. They do– They do a D&D session with all the voice actors. Oh, that's fun. And it was awesome. It was well worth the YouTube. I think it's over a couple videos, but it's really worth it. If you like D&D and you like Baldur's Gate, it's a slam dunk. So, Carly.

SPEAKER_01:

Carly.

SPEAKER_00:

I love Carly.

SPEAKER_01:

All right, I'm going to go the emotional. And this is the first time where I fell in love with a character basically because of the emotion. And this is the– This was one of the first games to create an emotional character, period. Half-Life 2. I never played it. Alex Vance. You're a silent protagonist in that Gordon Freeman does not talk at all. But Alex Vance is like your constant companion. And she's cute. But again, it was just... This was early days. This was mid-2000s. So... There wasn't a lot of fleshed out, well acted characters. And this is one of the first times it happened. And you just grow to care about and love her. I mean, it's just like, again, it's an emotional bond. And it happens a lot now, you know, with modern games. But this was the first time I remember that ever happening. You know, it wasn't just a... Voiceless companion. No pictures? Oh, no, because I really thought you'd at least know what the fuck Alex Vance looked like.

SPEAKER_00:

I pictured the dude with the glasses on the cover. Yeah, that's Gordon Freeman. I'm not into it. Well, Alex can be a male's name. I don't know. Sometimes you play as

SPEAKER_01:

female characters. All right, hold on. I'll pull it up. So, yeah, Alex Vance was my pick number. I don't know what the hell this was. Six? Who cares? Well, we're not making a number list. All right. There. Alex Vance. Oh, okay. You've never played Half-Life 2? Never. Never played any Half-Life. I guess you didn't have a computer at that time, right? We could go into my computer woes. That's right. Oh, sore spot.

SPEAKER_00:

You never got the love on Alex Vance. Nah. All right. Well, that's how I came across Marvel. We can talk about Marvel. All right. What's next? All right. Is it the big one? I'm still waiting for your answer. Well, no, we already passed all the good ones. Oh,

SPEAKER_01:

really?

SPEAKER_00:

And now I'm into like the deep cuts. Oh, so neither... Well, one of them you will definitely agree with. Okay, so neither one of us picked Tifa. Who's Tifa? Oh, well, I thought you would pick her.

SPEAKER_01:

That was too obvious.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, that's why I didn't pick her.

SPEAKER_01:

We both assumed the other one would pick her. Yeah, I said, well, I'm not going to pick the obvious one. Yeah, there's no straight man or... gay woman in the history of video games that has not, or even, or even gay man. Well, with the remakes. Yeah, I mean, she's just. Everything. Yeah, she is.

SPEAKER_00:

That goes with, you know. And

SPEAKER_01:

personality.

SPEAKER_00:

She's

SPEAKER_01:

another one to like, she's

SPEAKER_00:

just. Oh, yeah, she, yeah, she's got it all. She does have it all. And I put this as crush, but, you know, maybe this could be another story for a longer story, but we're already pretty far into this. So, their names are, there's two names. And it's Hannah Suveshell. And I'm probably completely destroying these names. I think I know where you're going. And Rain Quinn.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, yep, yep. Because you know what? We'll give a billion dollars to someone that can answer. If you can figure out that.

SPEAKER_00:

Without looking it up. Don't even go to your phone. If

SPEAKER_01:

you know who he's talking about.

SPEAKER_00:

And it was an epic moment. And maybe another Steve story we can discuss. We can maybe make a new segment called Steve's Corner. or something like that. But these are from Fear Effect 2. And there's an elevator scene, and that's where I'll leave it. And Stevie Boy, you missed it. And that was a day where you couldn't- But he'd fallen asleep? Yeah, he fell asleep. It was an all-nighter, as we've talked many times. We've had, one of our classic things we did was, because we're idiots and nerds, is we would just try to beat a game in one night. We'd go to the local rental shop, which you could do. You don't go online. You would go to an actual store, rent a game, and try to beat it one night. And that was one of them, Fear Effect 2. And I was playing, trying to move along in the story, and Steve fell asleep, and there's a hot elevator scene, and it changed my life. And poor Steve never understood it. He missed it. He missed it, and to this day, he regrets it. And that's why he never falls asleep during all-night gaming. That's right. And you'd have to pee on him. And he still

SPEAKER_01:

feels regret.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. I was like, maybe I should pee on him. But I said, this is enough. The punishment is already brutal enough. All right. Go ahead, man. Steve, you missed out, buddy. Sorry, Steve. We love you. I don't think you've listened to this yet. Nothing from... Where does he live? New York. Yeah, New York. All right. I'm going to go... This is tough. I got a couple

SPEAKER_01:

more. I don't know if I want to do them all.

SPEAKER_00:

Just knock them out. A couple in a row. Okay. Because I'm

SPEAKER_01:

almost done. All right. I'm going to knock these two out in a row here. Cortana from Halo. I don't know her. She's your hologram AI companion.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, yeah. She is kind of sweet. Yeah. And over the years. From

SPEAKER_01:

the

SPEAKER_00:

little

SPEAKER_01:

bits I saw her. Yeah. And this is another one that over the years you go to love her. And Jen Taylor does the voice. And I still think she should have won. If Grammys had been, not Grammys, I'm sorry, Emmys had extended to video games, she should have won for her performance in Halo 4. She was just amazing. And just, yeah, again, and this is one that, this isn't even anthropomorphic. She's literally a hologram. She's in no way, shape, or form an actual human being, but I still fell a little bit in love with her, you know? Because that's what I do. Yeah. Matt falls in love. Yep. And then real quick, another one that's kind of a weird one is... I couldn't decide between the two. Eurydice and Zia.

SPEAKER_00:

I have no clue.

SPEAKER_01:

Zia, I don't even remember what Zia looks like, is from Bastion. Eurydice is from Hades, who I think looks like a tree or something like

SPEAKER_00:

that. Is that the one that sings? Yes. Oh, that's beautiful. That's Ashley Barrett.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. Voices them both. The songs are beautiful. I've heard the songs.

SPEAKER_00:

Have you played Hades too?

SPEAKER_01:

No, I haven't. I'm waiting for the full release. Oh, yeah. It's still in early access. But yeah, you know, her voice can get me. A song, like I fell in love. I

SPEAKER_00:

feel you,

SPEAKER_01:

bro. It just has nothing to do with personality or looks. It's just her voice, man.

SPEAKER_00:

My wife has a good voice, and that helped. Yeah, yeah, man. She does. Yes.

SPEAKER_01:

So there you go. It's not always about the looks. That's true. So I

SPEAKER_00:

got one more. I'm going to throw it back to you. All right. Well, this one I think you'll know very well, and she's come under a lot of scrutiny from the show, Witcher 3. Tris Marigold.

SPEAKER_01:

Tris. You're on team Tris, right?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, fuck Yennefer. Fuck Yennefer. Yennefer, I just couldn't. It's funny because Yennefer is kind of like a Sarah, but Tris, I don't know. She had everything. She had that, well, the redhead. Redhead, yeah. You can't. I mean, sorry, black-haired girls, but redheads. Yeah. Yeah, and that's it. Nothing needs to be said. So, yeah, Tris. All right, bye. Oh, shit, I actually have two more. Do you have any more? I have one more, and this is a very random-ish, not great.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay, I'm going to go with a very obvious one, and I feel kind of bad, but not really, because this is just a thirsty pick. It is from Nier Automata, my all-time perfect anime girl, if you were, 2B. I remember her. Yeah, 2B. I mean, I almost did Eve from Stellar Blade.

UNKNOWN:

Portal?

SPEAKER_01:

um which is also very she has a lot

SPEAKER_00:

of yeah i haven't played any of those games yeah

SPEAKER_01:

jiggle physics we'll call it but uh just to be um i'm not gonna lie i spent many hours trying to look up her skirt in the game um and she's just i mean and she's an android i mean you just that's perfect

SPEAKER_00:

for you now you can turn her

SPEAKER_01:

off get rid of her for

SPEAKER_00:

a couple hours

SPEAKER_01:

i'm used to turning turning people off oh

SPEAKER_00:

poor man All right. Back to you. My last one is not great, but everybody kind of crushed on her. It was Chun-Li. Oh, yeah. Yeah, okay. I can see that. She's always been, like, the classic. Like, she kicks ass. Yeah, she is. Not much to her, obviously, because it's a fighting game. Yeah,

SPEAKER_01:

you don't want to see her from one side. Yeah, and then those leg kicks. Yeah, she had them thighs, man. She had thunder thighs. She did.

SPEAKER_00:

But, yeah, that was it for me, and I— You know, like I said, she's just something as a young man. You're like,

SPEAKER_01:

whoop. Yeah, see, that's another thing. Like, the whole Laura Craft, like, there just weren't a whole lot of things. And then now

SPEAKER_00:

everybody has everything.

SPEAKER_01:

Right. So I'm going to end it with one that I forgot about. This one hurt. Yeah. My soul hurts. She makes my soul hurt.

SPEAKER_00:

Getting emo now.

SPEAKER_01:

So Quantum Dream. Oh,

SPEAKER_00:

Jesus. Yeah, they make a

SPEAKER_01:

lot of weird games. They've done Heavy Rain.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay.

SPEAKER_01:

And Indigo Prophecy. And all their games start off first with a tech demo because they're always at a time where he's pushing it. And sometimes at an adventure, that tech demo turns into the game. So the tech demo was called Kara. And it had an AI character that got self-aware. And I completely crushed on her for the moment. That tech demo eventually turned into the game Detroit Become Human. And Kara was one of the three protagonists. He switched between the games. He was one of them. And then I found out that Kara was actually a real-life human being, Valerie Curry. You fell in love with her. Yes, very much so. And she's been in other shows. She was in The Tick. Oh, Valerie, come on this show. She most recently was on apparently the last season of The Boys, but I haven't seen the last season. Oh, really? Yeah. Well, that's her video game character. But yes. So this is one where I'm just happy because I'm actually crushing on an actual human being. I mean, I assume. I don't really know. I've never met her. She could be a digital construct. Or an AI robot. We don't even know if this world's real, right? We could be in the Matrix still. I'm just assuming that she's alive and real and well. There we go. That was our meandering crushes segment. Please don't judge us too harshly. We were teenage boys at one point

SPEAKER_00:

in our lives. We're just two regular old dudes, so this isn't groundbreaking, but it's fun. I think. Yeah. I still can't

SPEAKER_01:

believe neither

SPEAKER_00:

one of

SPEAKER_01:

us

SPEAKER_00:

put Tifa on the list. I thought you would, and I wasn't going to pick that because of you. Okay. Also, I wanted to find some things. Yeah, some deep cuts. I'm glad. I'm glad

SPEAKER_01:

you went with some.

SPEAKER_00:

Different ones. I wanted to go different.

SPEAKER_01:

All right. So that was a successful boss battle. I think we won. Yeah, I think we both win. Yeah. We both crushed it.

SPEAKER_00:

Welcome to Matthew's Equipment Emporium.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay, okay, Andy, I want you to, like, put in some dramatic music, maybe. Okay. And then it'll come in with, Welcome to Matthew's

SPEAKER_00:

Equipment Emporium. Ooh, I hear

SPEAKER_01:

it. I hear it. And then maybe, like, a thunder.

SPEAKER_00:

Got it?

SPEAKER_01:

Got it. All right, all right, all right, all right. I'm listening. I hear it. So... Today we are going to talk about the Samsung Odyssey 3D. So this is a monitor, a computer monitor from Samsung. It's a 27-inch. I don't know if they have other sizes. It doesn't matter. It is a glasses-less 3D monitor. Wow. So it's like the Nintendo... 3ds did you ever i never actually even touched a 3ds i have no i don't ever so yeah that was a while ago but it uh uses this obviously more modern up to update it uses eye tracking software to somehow magically we'll just say it was it's all magic it's all magic based on that um to create a 3d image yeah without having to wear glasses. Obviously, the software needs to be compatible with it. I've heard there's a couple games that are compatible. The list may or may not grow depending on how this progresses. For those of you who don't know, this is not virtual reality. This is 3D technology, which I feel... People of our age, we know exactly what we're talking about. For people that are like in their early 20s, I have no idea what we're talking about. Because this was like a short-lived fad. This was like, it started with Avatar. I mean, Avatar. There was a big 3D movie trend. I guess that still kind of happens. Yeah,

SPEAKER_00:

there's still 3D movies.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, but those 3D movies are usually with what they call... They're paralyzed. Sorry. Polarized. And it creates an effect where the left eye and the right eye see different images. Right. But back in the day, there was the active shutter lenses, which, oh, you remember those? I do. And they literally, they would flash. They would black out one eye showing an image, then switch, black out the other eye, show a different image, and your mind would be tricked into seeing a parallax, a 3D image. And they were really expensive. You had to have the glasses. which were expensive, plus a compatible TV, plus a game or something that worked on them. Again, I don't know how this new technology works to somehow show one image to the one eye and the other to the other eye. I'm assuming it has to do with kind of like, again, with polarization, like it is a slight angle viewpoint to the one eye or the other. Or again, maybe it's just magic, literally just magic, but... I want to talk back to these old shutter glasses, the at-home 3D. It was big for movies, but there were just a few games that had it. And me and you loved it. And remember, it was Gears of War 3, oddly enough, Assassin's Creed 3, and I believe... There was not a whole lot of games that had it. Oh, Uncharted 3. I think a lot of games just did it to capitalize on the 3D. Uncharted 3D. I think Resistance 3. That's crazy. It was an all three game. But it was neat. It just created a 3D-ness that we had never seen before. Obviously with... We'll talk a little more about VR games later, but it was neat to look down the sights. Whether it was an FPS or a third-person shooter like Gears of War, you never had that true depth of field before. The only problem was because you were only seeing... Because it flicked back and forth between the two eyes, so... To compensate for that, it would only show half resolution into each eye. So even though the game was taking 1080, you were only seeing 720. And so it looked a little more blurry. But to me, it was worth the trade-off. It was so cool. I remember in Assassin's Creed just jumping around. Like, oh, it's so cool to see these images. And it wasn't that full in-depth thing. It was just little enough to pop out, just make it really, really cool. I agree. And we were both excited for the next gen when 4K was a thing. Yeah. Because then you'd look at 1080, which is good enough today. We play games at 1080, and it's fine. It is fine. So if you had 1080 in each eye, I mean, it would look amazing. But it just didn't. To hide. Yeah, it really did. Is it because no one cared? Was it the cost? Because those glasses were like$200 a piece.

UNKNOWN:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I don't know. That's a good point. I think expensive maybe, but I don't know. Some people just get a little sick from 3D. Yeah,

SPEAKER_01:

that is true.

SPEAKER_00:

There's an emotion sickness. You get a little

SPEAKER_01:

sick. And I remember you couldn't calibrate it to each person. It was one setting. And I kind of remember like you, Mr. Don't Wear Glasses, Um, it was a little off for you or something. I kind of

SPEAKER_00:

remember. I was just, I don't know if it was me, but I just, there was an element like, I don't know, like I forget exactly what it was, but some ghosting or something. Okay. I could see images left or right of my eyes, like my peripherals and it was off putting. And I was like, is this normal? Am I supposed to see those? Um, And I just dubbed it up as the technology wasn't quite perfect.

SPEAKER_01:

I mean, that's the thing that happens to people with low scan rates, like lower refresh rate TVs in general. Ghosting is an issue with some people. Some people see it, some people don't. I don't know if you remember, but PlayStation actually had their own brain monitor where you could play split screen without being a split screen. Really?

UNKNOWN:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes, it was. So we both wear the glasses and you would see your character and I would see my character on the same monitor. But they were different. It wasn't 3D. Right. It was just we were seeing two completely different images on one monitor. Yeah. Yeah. And I'm like, oh, that's. That's really cool. Again, it would have been half resolution. But his resolution improved, but it just never progressed.

SPEAKER_00:

It's weird how that element is

SPEAKER_01:

always... Do you know that the PlayStation 5 isn't 3D capable at all? No. Yeah, for me to watch... Because every year I like to watch Nightmare Before Christmas. Yeah, you do love that show. And I have the 3D Blu-ray. I have to... I'll stop my PS4 to be able to watch it. So it's like stripped from the record. Like it just doesn't exist anymore. But here, Samsung is trying to bring it back.

SPEAKER_00:

And

SPEAKER_01:

there's new technology. You don't need the glasses.

SPEAKER_00:

That's pretty cool.

SPEAKER_01:

But it is only single person. And from what I understand, you have to– it only works as a– As a computer model, it has to be, like, in front of you. You can't be in a living room 10 feet away. Okay. Because of the eye tracking. Yeah. But I'm curious. I hope it works. It's coming back. Comes back. I don't think it will. And that's interesting because of the whole virtual reality, which is just a whole different thing. Yeah. Yeti, I think me and you are just like, we love the new and crazy shit.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, absolutely. I'm always

SPEAKER_01:

on board. Virtual reality, I know, we're both a fan of. Yeah. I think, did you ever... Go to the mall virtual reality things. Did you ever do those back in the day? I saw them, but I don't think I've ever done them. Yeah, definitely. So, folks, I don't even know how to fucking describe this. So back in the late 80s, early 90s maybe, there were these virtual reality machines which looked like I don't know, a gymnasium. Like you were surrounded by this large metal sphere and you put on these huge goggles and you put on like these little glove things and you would look at triangle graphics, like Virtua Fighter kind of graphics. Yeah. Um, And I only did it once because it was like 30 bucks for like a five

SPEAKER_00:

minute thing. Yeah, it was expensive.

SPEAKER_01:

And it wasn't, it was just, you were just on a timer. And I just remember like, oh my God, it's so, so cool. So I put all this shit on. And if you've never done virtual reality, you can't describe it to someone else. You can't show it on a TV. No. So I put on this shit and it's low resolution. I'm like, you know, 10. And I'm just trying to look around. What the fuck is going on? And this guy, the guy running the thing, is just yelling at me. All right, look, top left. There's a guy coming up there. All right, look up to your right. There's a guy coming over here. All right, shoot here. Shoot here. Talk, talk, talk, talk. I'm like, what? And I just died. That's it. Done. Game over. And I'm like, what was that? That was my$30? Hard knocks, right? So I'm... It was not great. So when VR first came out, I was against it. I heard bad things. I've always had trouble with motion sickness.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

So I've always kind of avoided that kind of thing. Especially when I'm hungover. It's like super amplified. Like to this day, when I'm hungover, I cannot watch someone else play a video game. That's true. I can control it. But when someone else is controlling it, it's just vomit city. But when VR first came out, and it was very expensive, so I wasn't very into it. But my boy Frizz, he had the PlayStation VR. And I remember, and it was just, again, it's a stupid demo. It wasn't a game. You just throw it on yourself, and you were like, it was like a shark tank. You went down, and you went into the ocean, and you just look all around. And I'm like... holy fuck, this is pretty fucking cool. Again, it was the same demo I paid 30 bucks for, but technology had literally been 30 years. So like a couple, I saved up and I bought a PSVR and invited you guys over and we did a job simulator and a beat saber and it was cool as shit. It definitely had its limitations because you had to hold those gears God damn move controllers. And we were always hitting like my... Mantle. My mantle. I did it in my name. And the camera, because you had to use a camera. You had to use the move controllers. The lighting had to be just right. And you had a wired controller on your head. Yeah. And it was kind of comfortable. We still had a lot of fun.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Even with all that.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. Worth

SPEAKER_01:

it. So it kind of languished. Although we did play... X-Wing squadrons. Yes, which was amazing. I ended up talking about Matt's peripheral. I got the HOTAS, which is a flight stick. Yeah, you did. You played a little bit with me. Doing the VR headset and the flight stick and throttle in an X-Wing was like 12-year-old Matt's fucking wet dream. It was... Like if I, you just kind of look up to your right and like, and you just, it was so cool. And then epic fast forward quite a few years later, I got the quest three. Yeah. Which no camera required the move. You can just use your hands. It's wireless. Um, pistol whip. Yeah. That's fine. I mean that, that is the, the quantum leap. Like I'm like, Oh, shit. It's amazing. Speaking of Half-Life, Half-Life Alyx is the game on there. And, oh. it's amazing. Like I was telling you, I think when I first played it, like I grabbed a can and I just twisted the can in my hand and the lights from the sun, the light, whatever, would change on the can to the point where I could shoot in my eyes and they kind of blind me. Like it had that between the ray tracing and the, it's stupid. It meant nothing. Yeah. But like that realism, I'm like, We've done it. We're done. We're here. We've solved it all. Yeah. Mall Matt is fine. I feel like my$30 over the years created this. Lucky Palmer got my$30 somehow when he was a kid. Got it. He created the MetaQuest, and in the end, I can look at a shiny can.

SPEAKER_00:

He looked at a shiny can,

SPEAKER_01:

everybody. I'm like the happiest guy. That has to be the future of gaming, right? Shiny cans. But it is really neat in that game to literally duck behind cover and peek out around a thing and shoot a headcrab. It sounds crazy. And I scream in that game. Yeah, it's really cool. Again, it's not fully there yet. It was pretty damn cool.

SPEAKER_00:

Well,

SPEAKER_01:

I think it only goes

SPEAKER_00:

up, right? Hopefully.

SPEAKER_01:

And then there's the augmented reality games. Yeah. Which your daughter loves. The racetrack. The racetrack one. So it has a pass-through, so you don't have a headset on. You can still see your room. Yeah. But it projects like... Fake stuff in the room?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. I don't know how to describe it. It's like a Hot Wheels track. Yes. And that's like in your room, but it's not literally there, obviously. So she felt like it was real, and she got the hang of it in like 10 seconds. Better than you did.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. It's funny. Watching adults play that, they're like trying to drive, and they're standing still trying to do it because you're not used to, oh, I can actually— run around the room and follow my car. But she got that right away. And she would actually reach down and pick up the car. Because you follow the track, you can actually pick it back up and put it back on the track. But for a gamer, you're like, well, I have

SPEAKER_00:

to start over. You got to start. Restart. So it's neat to see someone. A person who doesn't have that limitation. But it's cool. It's come a long, long way for people like you said who put on... Headsets and pay$30 fucking dollars. Just get yelled at. Just get fucking yelled at. Yelled

SPEAKER_01:

at by some random guy in the mall. Century 3

SPEAKER_00:

mall, which is destroyed. Definitely Century 3 mall. It's not even there anymore. Yeah, it's come a long way. So, Matt's Tech. Look out for Samsung.

SPEAKER_01:

That's right. What is it? Odyssey 3D. Oh, yeah. So, you know, the 27-inch monitor starts out at 2K.

SPEAKER_00:

All right. Well, technology is pretty cool.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, that's why I... Bring you to my emporium. Join us next week for the exciting conclusion to this episode. Save your game now.

UNKNOWN:

......... Thank you.