Drew 00:00 Listen

True. What's up, buddy? Turns out pup turns out puppies are a lot of work. They they are. They are. Yes, yes. Yeah. Once again I let you down. Um, but I have I have a decent explanation for that. Oh okay. Yeah, so we took we took Vito in for his next round of shots uh last Sunday. Mm-hmm. So you and I, I think we recorded on a Saturday last week, did we not? Yeah. I don't yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So we took we took uh we took him in for shots and You know, I just hate watching dogs get shots. I hate anything getting I hate needles.

Paul 00:39 Listen

So yeah, yeah, I get it.

Drew 00:40 Listen

So like, you know, we we you know, Mandy and I both took him because it was on a Sunday and um you know, we went up to the vet And uh, you know, we were talking through a couple things and you know, he's he's he's doing he's fine. First of all, he's he's absolutely fine.

Paul 00:54 Listen

Good, good.

Drew 00:54 Listen

But then they gave him but then they gave him another shot. And I'm like, guys, I'm sorry, I gotta step out of the room. And you know, I I go out to the lobby and then like a minute later I just hear blood curdling shrieking. And I I I go back to the room and they're they're all laughing and I'm like You are horrible people. Why would you laugh at a dog? But apparently it was funny because like they gave him the shot and then they, you know, like a minute later it was like a delayed reaction. He just wanted to freak out. He's a very sensitive little boy, but I felt so bad because that next because then he was like sore, you know? Yeah. And uh I went to pick him up and he just like shrieks so loud. And I was I knew he was gonna be a little sore, but I didn't anticipate him being that sore. And then he like sat in the corner shivering, looking at me, like, how could you do this to me? And it just like ripped my heart out. But he's a lot of work. He's up there crying right now because Mandy's in bed. I'm downstairs. I will go get him after we're done. But he's just He's just like no. All right. What's um so that's part of the reason I wasn't able to get the the show notes. And plus he's been he's been waking us up at four. Oh, it's too early. Well, so here's the problem. Mandy gets up at four to work out. And he's still such a puppy. He's still such a puppy that like if somebody gets up, he wants to be up. And I and I know that as he gets older, he'll rise that he could just stay in bed. Where it's warm and nice. Uh but he he like if somebody's up moving around, like he has to be like, what are you doing? What's going on? What what's this? You know? So We're still in kind of that phase of things. So that be so what happens is like we both get up and then I'll play with him from like four to six. And then Mandy by that time has finished working out and she like gets a shower. And then uh she comes out and like makes breakfast and then I I I piece out. Uh I'll either go downstairs and start work, uh, but usually what I do is I go downstairs and lay on the couch in the basement. And set a set a set an alarm for ninety minutes and then at seven thirty start working.

Paul 02:52 Listen

Yeah, smart, smart. Oh

Drew 02:57 Listen

Yep. Alright, what do we got?

Paul 02:59 Listen

What do we got on the dock? Oh well, uh Drew, I got my wish. Uh my dishwasher died.

Drew 03:06 Listen

Uh, tell me more.

Paul 03:09 Listen

Uh so uh Friday morning Uh we get up to to do the normal, you know, the the the normal stuff. Yep. I guess it technically wasn't a normal Friday, but uh anywho. Uh And the dishwasher is uh it it's it's it's it was sick, Drew. It was sick. Oh it was poor guy. It was just like the the lights on because there's there's like a green and a blue light that I don't know what they mean. Uh But they were basically like just flashing, like alternating flashing, which is Oh well, oh Paul, let me help you.

Drew 03:50 Listen

Paul Pywerp with technology, let me help you. Uh I think it means it was waiting a Bluetooth connection.

Paul 03:55 Listen

Okay, that must have been it. Yes, yeah. Uh, and the motor was just kind of going grink grink, krink krink, krink krink, krink grink. Oh no. And it was giving a very, very scary error code. Uh I l uh to to get it to stop making that noise, I had to go downstairs and kill the breaker. And I did one of those things where like I wonder if I just let it, you know, I let it sit for quite a few hours just to see like, well maybe just it got in a weird state. I turned it on and nope, nope. Uh still making that same noise. Uh So it's dead. Uh I'm hopefully gonna order a dishwasher tomorrow. So I think I'm gonna get the same the Bosch 800. I think that's where I landed. I did some research today.

Drew 04:45 Listen

They might get one of those, but ours is due to be installed this week.

Paul 04:49 Listen

Nice. Nice.

Drew 04:50 Listen

Yeah. So like I said, just um The only thing to be aware of, and I don't know if I we we talked about this last week, but the only thing to be aware of is that apparently Bosch has like proprietary drain hoses.

Paul 05:02 Listen

So yeah, my dishwasher's right by my sink. So I'll be fine. Yep. Yep. Not worried about that. So until then I am washing my dishes by hand, like an animal. Sometimes the sometimes the old ways are best. It's fine. I finally got I finally got caught up because of course it the dishwasher didn't die after it finished washing the dishes. No, it failed right in the middle. So everything was just kind of soapy. So yeah, I finally caught up and got all the dishes washed. So it turns out you can fit a lot of dishes in a dishwasher and it takes a long time to wash all those bikes.

Drew 05:37 Listen

I mean there's a lot of cubic inches involved. But hey, silver linings and all, pretty soon you'll be washing dishes for one less person in the house. Yeah, he's uh he uh not pretty soon.

Paul 05:50 Listen

Uh he's he's at college. Oh, that happened? I thought that was this. That no, it was it was uh Friday. It was Friday. It was yesterday. It was yesterday.

Drew 05:59 Listen

All right. Alright, we gotta talk about it. How'd it go?

Paul 06:02 Listen

I did not get to go. You didn't get to go? I did not get to go. So it it's it's it's complicated, but basically at the end of the day Arabelle had some very important tennis stuff that she did not want to miss, including pictures and like being an being announced at Uh like they there was a fur it was also the day of the first football game. So they were lancing all the fall sports and stuff. And the way things worked out, uh we just couldn't get anybody to be her chauffeur for the day. So I just volunteered to stay home and help her out and my wife took him to Athens. Uh and he's been there since yesterday. So yeah. Yeah Hmm. Yeah, parenting. Parenting's fun, Drew.

Drew 06:50 Listen

How are we uh how are we doing?

Paul 06:53 Listen

I'm okay. I think it's I'm a little sad Uh but you know it I you know it's just it's a change. It's a change, you know, because I used to see him every day and now like you know, you walk by his room and it's it's he's not in there, and that's just weird. Uh But he's excited and I'm you know I I'm excited for him. You know, college is a big big change and it's fun. So yeah, but uh Jennifer took him down there and got him all unloaded and You know, apparently Ohio University does a pretty good job of getting you know, they have uh other they have volunteers to help move your stuff up to your room and everything's pretty streamlined. So, you know, they it didn't take long to get the car unloaded and get stuff up there. Uh, you know, got getting getting everything unpacked and getting his bed set up and all that wonderful stuff. So yeah, he's uh he's classes start on Monday. So Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Drew 07:55 Listen

But he's a little bit more than a little bit. Now is there is there gonna be like a parents weekend or something we all get to go down or Yeah, there's uh there's there they have like a mom's weekend and a dad's weekend and a sib weekend and and

Paul 08:07 Listen

Next he'll be home next weekend because next weekend is my daughter's 16th birthday, and she has requested that her brother be home for that. So he'll be home next weekend. Okay. We'll go get him and bring him home for a bit. So yeah.

Drew 08:20 Listen

Awesome. Now, while we're here, what what does Arabelle want? for her 16th birthday. And like when I say want, I don't mean just like presents. Like it sounds like she has a s a specific party planned. Or is or is it just like be home. Zach, be home.

Paul 08:36 Listen

I I think it's just Zack be home. I don't I I Apparently she's been working on a slide deck of things she wants for her birthday, but no one has seen it yet. Uh there's with already been some presents purchased. Uh She she is a uh uh My daughter likes a lot of different kinds of music. She's she definitely follows after her dad in this this aspect. She enjoys music.

Drew 09:03 Listen

Okay.

Paul 09:04 Listen

But in fact she did oh she did a slide for one of her classes of like her favorite artists and like one of them was like Billy Idol. It's like it's like just she's just all over the place. But she also also she also really likes Sabrina Carpenter Uh I don't know if you know Sabrina Carpenter is.

Drew 09:20 Listen

She's basically She's not directly in my orbit, but I'm aware.

Paul 09:23 Listen

Okay, you're aware. Okay, yeah. Uh so I'm I'm gonna make sure because I don't want to make sure she doesn't hear me. Uh She's getting surpr uh my wife has planned a trip for her to go to Nashville to see her uh in concert So wow. She doesn't know that. So part of the birthday is gonna be those tickets and and all that stuff. So yeah. Wow. Well well but she did do one thing for her birthday today. uh my wife took her and her best friend to this like uh the Ohio Thrift Expo There's basically a giant bunch of like thrift stores all in one place or people selling old clothes. Might she also likes vintage clothing. She's yeah, she's So that was part of her birthday. I just feel like that's a giant bed bug convention. Everything she bought looks clean and stuff. Uh so but you know, yeah, you have to be careful what you buy. But yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Though as my wife described it, uh it was definitely thrift store uh items, but not thrift store prices.

Drew 10:28 Listen

So uh Well, I mean, listen, pri cost of living's going up, bud. From everything. Capitalism. Yep. Well, it's something. I don't know if it's capitalism, but it's something. Um okay. Well, I'm sorry about your dishwasher. Um I would say order early, order often, because if you're if you're going to do professional installation, I'd I mean you can buy these things. You can buy these things from Home Depot, you can buy them from Lowe's. I'm sure you can buy them from other appliance stores. Uh honestly You are in more dire need than me, so I think it'd just be about like how quickly can somebody get it to you.

Paul 11:03 Listen

Honestly, you know, there's just three of us. So I mean, if it was gonna happen, I'm glad it happened. on that day because my son eats like five meals a day, so he's always cooking. So there's always just too many dishwash dishes. There there are times where I was doing two loads of dishes a day

Drew 11:24 Listen

It's funny you say that. It's just me and Mandy here in the house. And I feel like we run the dishwasher almost every day. Yeah. And I don't I don't ever remember doing that as a kid. Like I remember the dishwasher running maybe like two or three times a week when I was a kid

Paul 11:38 Listen

We didn't have a dishwasher growing up, so it was always wash things by hand. So yeah. In fact, I don't think my parents still have a dishwasher.

Drew 11:46 Listen

Yeah, I'm just trying to think. Like, you know, we would have family meals. Um In the summer, maybe we ran it more when we were all home. Both my parents were teachers. So really there was only dinner and sometimes breakfast. And I remember eating off paper plates a lot. Nice, nice. Yeah, I remember eating off paper plates in the mornings. Like my mom would we we would have like toast or we would have eggs or we'd have something we'd eat off of that. Or maybe I'm misremembering. I don't know. Okay. Um, so uh changing topics here. Uh I had my mind blown this weekend. Okay. Okay. So I I did something where I paid for a professional service for something that, first of all, I take a lot of pride in doing myself. And that is I hired somebody to professionally clean my windows.

Paul 12:37 Listen

Smart, because cleaning windows is awful.

Drew 12:39 Listen

Well, so we I I know we've talked about this topic before. I have invested in squeegee's and uh other window cleaning paraphernalia. The problem I have is my house is two stories. Yeah. So like when we lived in our odd house, it was a little ranch house and I would clean the outside windows, I would clean the screens, because I never had to get up on a ladder to do it There were a couple windows that were a little out of my uh short king reach, but like I had a stepladder I could get on to get the top of those windows. But now at this house we have two stories. We have a lot more windows in the back than we do in the front. And we have skylights.

Paul 13:21 Listen

Oh, yeah, screw that. No, no, yeah.

Drew 13:24 Listen

Yeah. So uh, you know I was I was doing my normal chores on a Saturday and it's been kind of hot and I was like man I really should clean the windows and I've been putting it off and putting it off and putting it off I like to clean the windows twice a year. I like to do it right after winter and then about this time of year, uh you know, right before the fall, before it gets a little too cold. Like we're in prime window cleaning season. But Mm-hmm. I looked into it and I landed on a company, a local company here called Bob. Bob Cleans Windows Bob's Bob Bob Cleans Windows. I like Bob Cleans Windows. Bob. Yeah, I want you to go to that website real quick and I want you to look at that truck. Oh wow. Is that you? I'm not saying that's why I chose it.

Paul 14:15 Listen

Oh for those for the listeners who can't can't pull over right now. There is I somewhere between a caricature and a memoji.

Drew 14:25 Listen

Yeah, it's very memoji-like, right?

Paul 14:27 Listen

Yeah. Style dude Oh, in a red shirt who is waving, who has, I don't know how you can be that bald. He's like, he's like Super bald. Yeah, he's got wrinkles. He's got wrinkles around his hit forehead, right? And it's on like a state like a little SUV station wagon thing.

Drew 14:46 Listen

Is it a super is it a truck? Is it a truck? It's a truck. So it's a coma, yeah. Okay, okay Uh so anyway, I hired these guys. Now um the price was very reasonable. It was like a few hundred bucks to do the interiors of my windows, the exterior of my windows, and my skylights. The only service I didn't have them do was what they call their deep sill cleaning. Uh, because I mean I have these casement windows. It's not a big deal. I don't I never open my windows, I only open my patio doors. And they also do screen cleaning, but I didn't have them do that because I I can do that. There's only two screens in my entire house right now. The rest of my screens are not in my windows, so you know, not a big deal. Anyway, and so they come out and it's two very young men uh who show up. And they come in the house and they're like, hey, we're gonna we're gonna start on the interior and then we'll do the exterior. And they get in there and they do what I do, essentially. They have like a bucket and then they have like essentially their own version of a battle belt that has like a holster for their squeegee and their towels. And like the holster for the squeegee has like or and they also and they have like like a sponge. So they essentially were doing what I doing, which was cool because it makes me think, well, wow, okay, maybe I am doing this right and I don't have to pay people to do this. So I'm like secretly taking notes and like watching what they do. And I'm pretty good at it, Paul. But these guys are like and like going all over the place. They're not leaving, they're not leaving any liquid. They put down towels to catch the any liquid that drips. Like just really, really good, methodical. They just sort of moved through the house. They started upstairs and they came downstairs and they did it. And You know, I'm watching them do this and they're just completely knocking it out of the park. The only the only prep work I had to do is I had to make sure all the blinds were up. That was the only thing I had to do. Okay. And and I don't keep like beds or dressers or anything in front of the window. So I don't have to move any furniture or anything. So they do the they do the the inside. Now now here's where my mind starts to get blown. So I'm thinking, okay, they did the inside. It took 'em like 35 minutes to do both of my floors. Super great. So I'm thinking, okay, how are they gonna do the outsides? Hmm. I thought, okay, they're probably gonna do the same thing. They're probably gonna start on the ground floor, maybe on the upper floor, get out some ladders. There's two windows in the front, there's like six windows in the back. And my two skylights. And I was like super curious about how they were going to do the skylights. So they did the skylights first. And they did have to go up on my roof. And I got a pretty steep roof pitch. But these young men were they showed no fear. Like they got up on their ladders and then they like I was watching them do the skylights. I have two skylights. And they were using this brush that they had hooked up to my hose. So it was essentially just like scrubbing it on the outside. And then they stopped and I was like, what's going on here? And then I saw the brush on the windows on the second floor. And then I saw the brush on the windows on the ground floor. And then they came in and said, okay, we're done. And I was like, but the windows are still wet. And they're like, and they're like, no, check this out. So like they walked me through this entire process. So essentially what they did. Is they hooked up like a pump to my hose outside? Uh-huh. That pumped water to their truck Inside their truck, they had this like big industrial water filtration system. And essentially what that does is it removes every trace sediment from the water. So it's essentially pure water going onto your windows. They dried completely spot-free. That's fascinating. Yeah, so like they had this like brush hooked up to the pump, which was hooked up to the truck. Which was hooked up to my hose. And they were basically just like scrubbing my windows and my skylights with these brushes. And it dried completely spot-free. I was like, holy fuck. And then I started looking at these filtration systems, like, I need this. Like I just need I just need this for my house. I wanted to know like what the secret sauce was for this. Um but they were there like maybe ninety minutes to do my entire house. So if you're in central Ohio and you need your windows cleaned, like I actually left them a Google review. That's how pleased I was. And like I tipped the guys and everything. Like it was, it was actually a really cool experience. And you know, I'm I'm definitely gonna use them again. Um They they were good. They were real, real good. So I don't know if you if you hire out your services. Like what do you do for yours?

Paul 19:14 Listen

Oh we've done it ourselves, but I don't want to, so I think this is gonna go right in the old bookmarks. See if it comes all the way down to Pickaway County.

Drew 19:24 Listen

Uh I'm I'm sure that they do. Yeah. I mean they go down to Gross City, it looks like.

Paul 19:29 Listen

It's pretty close. Yep. Yeah. That sounds great. I love I love that. Yeah, they just use basically they distill their own water. That's pretty cool. Yeah.

Drew 19:37 Listen

Yeah, no, it I was like I was like floored because I was like, well surely they're gonna go out there and like use some soap. Nope, didn't need to. That's neat. My windows are my windows are very clean until you know Vito puts his nose on them. Right. Right, right.

Paul 19:51 Listen

Oh

Drew 19:53 Listen

Yeah. And like you can you can read my Google review if you don't believe me. I actually left them a nice little Google review.

Paul 19:58 Listen

We'll have to link to that in the show notes.

Drew 20:01 Listen

All right. Talk about something that you want to talk about.

Paul 20:04 Listen

Okay, so I don't know if you've heard of this place yet. So, you know, we the wife was looking for fun things to do before Zachary went off to college. And uh so have you seen those TikTok videos of Like the the the L C D floor where the floor is broken down into a bunch of L C D panels and like basically it's like the floor is lava, right? You have to avoid don't touch the red things. You have to go and get in the the green the green tiles are safe, that kind of thing. Have you seen that before? You know what I'm talking about? No. Okay, well, uh. There's a place in Columbus, if you want to do that kind of stuff, you can. It's up in Polaris, and it's called Activate. And It was a hell of a good time, Drew. Hell of a good time. So basically what you do is you pay you spay like $30. And you get, I think for that you get 75 minutes or like an hour and 15 minutes. So once you once you pay and you fill out the waiver and you get your little your little uh RFID bracelet so it can it can track you There is a bunch of rooms. So like if you click on that link in the show notes there and you scroll down, one of the buttons is says like explore rooms.

Drew 21:23 Listen

Okay.

Paul 21:24 Listen

Right. So there that there was just I think they just had mega grid and not grid. But anywho, basically they have all these rooms. And It it is like it is like just like an interactive fun game thing. So like one of the rooms is uh Uh so basically outside of each room is like this big touch screen LCD screen and you can go through and register all the players and they have different games in each room, different things you can do. Some of them are cooperative, some of them are competitive. So like uh for example okay just something very simple one of the rooms is hoops and it has basketball hoops So uh if you're doing like cooperative, you're just trying to get as many hoops as you can. Uh but they have other ones where like each each person gets a color. And if you notice, if you kind of look at the hoops, on the backboard is an LCD screen. So let's say that you're, you know, you're green and someone else is blue. Well, you have basically you have Uh basically like the the the backboards will light up for you to shoot the hoop in, but they keep moving. Okay. So you have to constantly be getting balls and moving around people and bumping into people and and throwing hoops. The the grid and mega grid is basically they have a bunch of touch-sensitive LCD like colored colored tiles on the floor. LCD color tiles. And uh one of the games is basically like, okay, uh, you start on for there'll be like this little green square, one for every player that is playing. So you get on the green square. And then you have to basically step on all of the blue tiles without stepping on a red tile. And that just gets progressively harder. as it goes and you'll have things where like it'll just start and it'll just be like, okay, like the r there's red tiles around there, you have to to to step over them And then it will start where like there's basically this red laser that just keeps moving back and forth, and you have to jump over it as you go, and you have to keep looking behind you to make sure it's not coming up after you. Uh Games like control is basically like you have uh this little like panel in front of you with different buttons and different symbols. And also like there's like touch. It's like and then there's like a dance dance revolution thing on the back. So sometimes you have to like run as fast as you can to fill the bar and match patterns. Uh They have a laser room, which basically shoots lasers, so you have to like duck and jump over lasers that are coming over you. Uh the strike is uh they have a thing of strike and basically has like I don't know, maybe like 30 or 40 kind of 16 by 9, maybe like 12-inch screens. And there's different games that basically involve throwing balls and trying to hit the screens. Like there's like a memory game where you're throwing balls and trying to do memory. There's one where you're basically trying to it's like asteroids, but with throwing balls. Um And there's ones where like there's different symbols and like there'll be a l there's a screen on the wall and like, okay, uh fine you know, throw balls and hit everything with this particular pattern. So you have to throw the balls and then it gets more complicated as they start moving and they start changing. Uh but it's just it's you know it's uh and one thing is really nice. Okay, so If there is nobody waiting for you to play if waiting for that room, you can just keep playing If you like. Basically, if you fail, it's like, hey, uh, if you want to try again, hit this green uh blinking button on the wall, or otherwise just leave. Uh if there's someone waiting for it, it just makes you leave anyway, so people can get in and everybody can play. But it was a lot of fun. Like it's it's like 30, I think it's 30 bucks a person. Is what it says for like peak, yeah, 30 bucks per player peak pricing, which is anytime you'd want to go. Sure. Yeah. But you know, 30 bucks for an hour and 15 minutes, it's there's cooperative games, there's competitive games. It's it was just a lot of fun. It was a lot of fun. So if you're looking for something to do that's a little active, because some of the rooms, uh you'll be you'll you'll you'll get a little you'll get a little sweaty, Drew. Uh we move quite a bit and jumping and and ducking and and moving around. Now do they have like food and drinks and stuff too? Okay. Uh I don't don't know if they do. Yeah, I don't think booze is conducive to No, no, I think people would people would die if you could drink and go there.

Drew 26:09 Listen

Yeah, I'm looking at some of these games. I don't think you could do that even intoxicated.

Paul 26:13 Listen

Yeah, some of them are really like Uh okay, so portals. So okay, so if you look so if you look at the picture for portals, right, there is this there is this there is the lady put putting a ball into a LED light Yeah, it looks simple. Okay, so what it is is you go into this room and there are basically like five or six walls in the room, right? So like the room is basically filled with these little like half walls and there's corridors in between each one. And on both sides of the wall are these holes with a light around it. And the game we played was one of these holes would there's one ball in the room. One one ball. One of these lights would turn green And you had to go and get the ball into that hole. And then the ball would come out on the other side of the wall. So you have to find the one that the ball came out of, grab the ball, and then find the next one that is lit up. And you are just going absolutely crazy. You're throwing balls around to people because it's it's a it's a cooperative game. And dude, I I was I was like, oh my god, I gotta I gotta sit down after this. I had so much running and it's just absolutely just it's just pure, pure hectic craziness for you know five minutes. Uh yeah, it's fun. I if yeah, again, if you're up in Polaris and looking for something to do or a date night or I don't know, just just want to hang out with the boys. It's fun. It's a good time. Yeah, maybe maybe we'll do this for my birthday. Oh, there you go. There you go. Get a group together. Yeah. It's fun. It's a good time. Cool.

Drew 28:03 Listen

Yeah. Cool. So you'd go back then. I'd definitely go back. 100%. 100%. It was fun. Yeah. Alright. No, I'm I'm intrigued. This looks this looks really fun. Yeah, the the LED floor thing looks interesting. Yeah, it's a lot of fun. It's a lot of fun. Yeah. Okay, cool. I want to talk about video games for a little bit. Ooh, what are you playing? Well, I'm not playing well, so I'm not playing anything. Well, that's not true So first and foremost, um I finally got around to picking up the System Shock 2 25th anniversary remastered. I also got that. Yes. Uh I love I love System Shock 2. I love I love it more than the original System Shock. Um I I have very fond memories of playing the shit out of System Shock 2 when it came out originally. Um No, it's it's just a cool game. Uh the remake is very, very true to the original. Uh right down the controls and the I mean the graphics are definitely upscaled and everything. A little bit, yeah. Yeah. But it's very good. It's it's it's very good. Um I'm very intrigued about the multiplayer aspect. I have not tried that yet.

Paul 29:12 Listen

I have heard that it's like complete completely broken because the game is not designed for it at all.

Drew 29:18 Listen

Yeah, I don't yeah. Like I don't I don't know why I don't know why you would play it multiplayer very much a single player experience. Kind of like a sci-fi psychological horror game. Yeah. No, it's it's a very good game. Um I I'm really pleased with how it turned out. Uh it also apparently plays very well on the Steam Deck. So I've not tried it on there yet. As a matter of fact, I I busted out my Steam Deck today. Ooh. Uh for the first time in a while to try a couple things.

Paul 29:47 Listen

So Okay, okay.

Drew 29:49 Listen

Um but I I have been playing that, but there is a game coming out this week that warrants some discussion. Okay. Paul, have you ever played a Metal Gear game?

Paul 29:59 Listen

I have never played a middle gear game. Okay. I I I like say that's not true. I I played a little bit of one of the early PlayStation ones. I know something about What hideyo Kojima, whatever his name is? His his games and me do not th they they they I my brain just goes, no, this is this is dumb. And but but uh I understand it's very, very, very popular. And also a lot of people like that weird uh Norman Reedus baby game.

Drew 30:25 Listen

So Death Stranding. Yeah, that game's not for me. Uh okay, so you definitely hit on a thing here. So for those of you that don't know, Metal Gear is a God, it's been out since like the mid-80s now. I think 86, 87 is when the first game came out. Yeah. Um it's a very, very long running series. I remember playing Metal Gear on the NES because when it came to America, it originally launched on like the computer version of Nintendo, what was that called? Like MSX or something? I forget uh I forget what it was called in Japan, but basically like the original Nintendo was actually a computer or something. I don't I don't know. Like uh my video game history doesn't go that far. But Uh it was a really, really interesting game. In fact, next to actual Metroid, it was the first kind of Metroidvania-ish game. Because you constantly like there was like an overworld map and you had to go into these different bunkers and you had to backtrack a little bit. And you know, there were certain areas of the game that if you didn't have a key item, you couldn't go that way yet. It was very much in that vein and for an like for an early Nintendo game it was really, really fun. It was really, really hard And the thing about it that kind of broke my younger brain when I played it, it was like the first game other than Zork where I drew maps. And uh there was this system in the original game where you had a transceiver where you had to contact different NPCs on different radio frequencies. depending on where you were in the game. And they would either give you a hint or they would open a door for you or they would do these different things. And if you forgot to write down one of those frequencies Or you would get stuck. You would get stuck and you'd be like, okay, let me contact Big Boss. Let me contact Rachel. Let me contact uh these other people. And uh I remember the first time I played it, I got stuck because I forgot to write down a very critical frequency that was given to me at one point. And I and there is a boss that you cannot beat. If you do not uh contact this person because a critical item will not spawn and you will not be able to defeat one of the bosses But uh uh anyway, uh very, very, very, very fun game, very, very hard game by Nintendo standards. Um, I didn't end up beating it a few times. Uh it took me a long time. Um but it it was it was a very good game. Uh the sequel to it was called Snake's Revenge. It is not a good game at all. Um I I played it, I I rented that game a lot, I wanted to like it, I did not like it. And then When the PlayStation era came around, that's when Metal Gear had this resurgence. And that's when you saw uh Metal Gear Solid, and you saw Metal Gear Solid 2, and then you saw these other games that have come out since then. But those are like early 3D games too, yeah. Yes. Metal Gear Solid on the PlayStation is a good game. You have to suspend belief a little bit for the plot. And and look, that is a very, very common thing with Hideo Kojima games. They have really bonkers-ass sci-fi plots. You definitely have to suspend a little bit, if not a lot, of belief.

Paul 33:41 Listen

As the Metal Gear also loves a good cutscene.

Drew 33:46 Listen

Well, so here's the thing about Metal Gear though. It's not the cutscenes that that kill the gameplay. It's walk a little bit and then like your little radio goes off and you don't get a cutscene, but you have to listen to some dialogue. Go to the next screen, your radio goes off. Like usually like for the first 60 minutes of the game, you're gonna be listening to a lot of dialogue, and then the game finally sets you free. And you know, as the as the the series progresses, they build on common themes. It gets more and more and more over the top, culminating with this absolutely Bach and all, you know, Metal Gear for Guns of the Patriots. Like that game is that was like it was on PlayStation 3. It was It was built to highlight the capabilities of the cell processor. It's it's a great-looking game. It is not a good game. It is a bonkers-ass plot. I still don't know what the fuck happened in that game. Um, I had it for PlayStation 3. Uh anyway, but that's that's not what I want to talk about.

Paul 34:51 Listen

Okay.

Drew 34:52 Listen

This week is an important week because, in my opinion, the best Metal Gear game is getting a re-release, a remaster this week.

Paul 35:02 Listen

That's Snake Eater, right?

Drew 35:04 Listen

Yes. Metal Gear Solid 3 Snake Eater. It is being re-released as Metal Gear Solid Delta. That's right. I knew this was coming out. I didn't realize it was this week. Okay. Yes, the 28th. Um, I'm here to tell you that if you ever, ever, ever play one Metal Gear game, it should be this one. Okay. It stands alone. It stands alone as a game that you can play without ever having played another Metal Gear game. I would say in terms of plot, it's got a sci-fi bent, but it's not completely over the top. The bosses and the characters are very good. In fact, this game actually like where the other games progress over time, this one is actually like In the timeline, it happens before every other game. And you learn the origins of certain characters. And it's interesting because if you have ever play because like for me, playing the older games and even playing the Metal Gear Solid games You know, David Hayter is the guy that voices Solid Snake, which is like the main character. And there's these recurring characters like the boss or big boss or things like that. And you sort of there there's a there's an interesting plot twist. I'm not gonna spoil it. There's an interesting plot twist about like who you are when the game starts and who you are when the game ends. It is a very, very well-told game. There are many origin stories that spawn out of this game. Um I I think I think it is the best Metal Gear solid game. I mean I played it on I played it on the PlayStation originally. Um it's got a lot of survival elements. You know, there there are there are some valid criticisms of the game. There's this whole camouflage system. Where you will constantly be changing your camo uh you know some several times per screen if you want to try to uh stay undetected. Because the thing about Metal Gear games is It's they're a stealth game, but it's not about staying stealthy. It's about what happens when you get caught and how you react. So it's it's a very good game. It has been updated with the newest Unreal Engine, apparently. I'm super excited to play it and relive it again. Even though I know what happens, apparently there's a bunch of extra content that they've added in the terms of like bonus mini games. Sort of like what they did for like the Resident Evil remakes. Like they added a bunch of shit for you to like stay engaged with it after you even beat it. But that comes out this Thursday. We're recording this on the 23rd. So by the time you're listening to this, uh it'll come out later this week. It's gonna be available on pretty much like every major platform. I wonder if it's coming to Game Pass. I doubt it. Let me check.

Paul 38:03 Listen

I don't know.

Drew 38:05 Listen

I would love it if it did, because it's $70. That's the only part that sucks. Yeah, welcome to video games costing $70 or or more.

Paul 38:13 Listen

Or more. Oh

Drew 38:15 Listen

Uh let's see here. Uh recently added the Game Pass. Uh no, day one releases with Game Pass.

Paul 38:26 Listen

No, Snake, according to the AI overview on Google, no, will not be available on Xbox Game Pass Games at launch. That's gonna open up the wallet.

Drew 38:36 Listen

Yeah. Yeah. I I'm gonna buy it. I mean, there's also a digital deluxe edition, which apparently comes with like some DLC, but I don't care about that. Uh oh you could play you could play it two days early if you pay an extra ten dollars. That's kind of gross.

Paul 38:54 Listen

Yeah I don't like I don't like that that when I don't that that's not a thing I like companies doing that feels gross to me. So yeah.

Drew 39:01 Listen

Yeah, so if you or if you're the kind of person who enjoys a good stealth game and really wants a very, very plot-rich thing. That again, it it it is a little bit of a sci-fi story, but it takes it takes place in the 60s. So it's very, very tied into like the whole USA versus Russia Cold War aspect, where the other games are not Uh and I I like that. They do a really good job of weaving it into historical events uh of the time And uh like I said, I think it is the best Metal Gear game. And when people say, oh, I love Metal Gear Solid, I love those games, and you know, they are products of their time. And There are definitely good Metal Gear games and there are bad Metal Gear games, but I would say that Metal Gear Solid 3 is the best one. Metal Gear Solid um Ground zeros or uh what's the what's the one that I have that's like the big open world game? Um uh Metal Gear Solid 5, uh Phantom Pain. That game is also very good. It is like a more open world type game. It takes place in the 80s. Again, you can play that game without having played any other Metal Gears. But like Metal Gear Solid, Metal Gear Solid 2 Metal Gear Solid 4, uh all the Vita games, like the whole Vita era for Metal Gear is very weird. Like there was like a card battling game at one point, I think. That whole era was very, very strange for the Metal Gear franchise. But yeah, that comes out this week. Highly, highly recommend. It's getting good reviews already. Yes. Well, again, it it is a game That I think everybody realizes is a very good game. And they've they've just done a really good job with the remakes. Now, apparently there was a release where um There was the Metal Gear uh what was it? Anniversary maybe. Um what is it? Metal Gear You could get the origin version of the original Metal Gear Solid 3 for 20 bucks, but apparently it's not very good. Apparently it has some control issues or something. There's like a there's like a collection. I felt like there was like a like a like a collection of games. Maybe it's not on Steam. Oh, Metal Gear Solid Master Collection. Is what it is what it is. And you can get Metal Gear Solid, Metal Gear Solid 2, and Metal Gear Solid 3. Um I I I think I bought that just to replay 3 because I I didn't have a PlayStation at the time. And it was only available on PlayStation. So yeah, no, if you're looking if you're looking for a good game to play this week, I I cannot recommend that enough. I'm gonna try to finish System Shock 2. before then, but I doubt I doubt I will. Just because I haven't had a lot of time to play games because of, you know, gestures at dog.

Paul 42:00 Listen

I've been playing a little bit of uh Donkey Kong Bonanza. Are you still I how how is your Switch 2 going? I still like it a lot. Uh I I I'm honestly playing it more handheld than I think, Doct. uh which is like the opposite of how I what I did with my original Switch. I'm still playing a lot uh well I haven't played a lot of games recently anyway because life has just been uh you know kind of kind of busy uh I really enjoy playing. I'm still playing uh Fantasy Life I, the girl who steals time. The most just bonkers game, but that's really fun on the Switch 2 in handheld mode. It's great. Uh, I've been trying to work my way through Donkey Kong Bonanza. I don't like it as much of as a lot of critics. Uh But it's still fun and and it gets just saying like, ooh, banana. So, you know.

Drew 42:55 Listen

So the other game, the other game I've been trying to play, and I'm having a very hard time getting into it. But I I but let me be clear, I like it, but I'm I'm really struggling to figure out how to play it correctly. Is Kingdom Come Deliverance 2. Yeah, I've I've I've haven't dived into that, but I've been tempted. Yeah. Yeah. I did not play the first one, but the second one got a lot of good press. I picked it up on sale. Um, there are a lot of cutscenes at the beginning. I finally got to the point where it sort of turned me loose. And I either get immediately stabbed by bandits or highwaymen when trying to go to my next objective or attacked by wild dogs. And my character is very the because of the choices I've made during the prologue, my character is very squishy

Paul 43:45 Listen

Okay.

Drew 43:46 Listen

And the sword play is hardcore. It's it's good. It's it's good. It's good, but I haven't figured out how to play it correctly yet. Got it. So I it's it's kind of sitting there on the shelf, and I will get back to it. Um It's a very, very pretty game. It's a very, very pretty game. Uh any other games coming out that you care about?

Paul 44:09 Listen

Uh I don't know. I'm excited for the Ghost of Shusima sequel, Ghost of Yo, whatever, whatever it is. Yeah, Yo tie. Yeah. That looks that looks right up my alley. I think I'm going to enjoy that when that comes out. That doesn't come out until October 2nd. Oh That's really about it right now, I think. Though I I will have to say that uh looking at stuff coming coming out of Gamescon, I am really excited about that uh Lego Batman game.

Drew 44:43 Listen

Well, the big news out of Gamescom for me is the Hollow Knight sequel, Silkson.

Paul 44:49 Listen

Yeah, I never got into Hollow Knight. I'm not a big fan of Metro Metro Metroinias. Metrobania's Yeah. Search action games, whatever. Yeah, I'm I'm not just never been a big fan of those.

Drew 44:58 Listen

So Hollow Knight is basically 2D Dark Souls. Yeah. It's very challenging. Yeah. I did I did end up beating it. It has it has such a cute and tragic and sad like world. Like the whole bug theme and the characters you meet are very cool, um, but it has a very, very sad story. Um, it really tugs at your heartstrings a little bit. And Hornet, who is going to be the main protagonist of Silk Song, Features very heavily in Hollow Knight. So I was very late to the Hollow Knight game. I'm glad that I played it. I played it on my Steam Deck a lot. And I played it on my computer. Uh the Steam Deck almost got thrown a few times. Oh wow. Yeah. Yeah. It's it is a very, very challenging game. Very challenging game. But a very good game. I would recommend it to I would recommend everybody at least try it Um but Hollow Knight is is going to be uh Hollow Knight's Silk Song will be good when that finally comes out. Apparently it has a release date now, which is good.

Paul 46:06 Listen

Yeah. Yeah.

Drew 46:07 Listen

So yeah, uh I will be playing the hell out of uh the Metal Gear Solid Delta, aka Metal Gear Solid 3, uh when it comes out this week. Cool. And then I played the Battlefield 6 beta. It's good. It's good. Uh they they may actually get me not to buy Call of Duty this year. Oh wow. Wow. Wow. That's been the the pretty much the main consensus. So yeah, man. I mean that's that's all I have to talk about this week. It's gonna I think it might be a short one this week.

Paul 46:39 Listen

Yeah, let's keep it short. Let's just keep it short. Yeah, I gotta go take care of my dog who is throwing a fit.