Portal & Portal 2

Alex and Luke talk Portal and Portal 2.

Portal is a 2007 puzzle-platform game developed and published by Valve. It was released in a bundle, The Orange Box, for Windows, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, and has been since ported to other systems, including Mac OS X, Linux, Android (via Nvidia Shield), and Nintendo Switch. The game consists of a series of puzzles that must be solved by teleporting the player's character and simple objects using "the Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device", often referred to as the "portal gun", a device that can create inter-spatial portals between two flat planes.

Portal 2  is a 2011 puzzle-platform video game developed by Valve for Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360. The digital PC version is distributed online by Valve's Steam service, while all retail editions were distributed by Electronic Arts. A port for the Nintendo Switch was included as part of Portal: Companion Collection. Like the original, players solve puzzles by placing portals and teleporting between them. Portal 2 adds features including tractor beams, lasers, light bridges, and paint-like gels that alter player movement or allow portals to be placed on any surface. In the single-player campaign, players control Chell, who navigates the dilapidated Aperture Science Enrichment Center during its reconstruction by the supercomputer GLaDOS

Alex played Portal and Portal 2 on the Steam Deck while Luke played Portal: Companion Collection on the Nintendo Switch.

This episode is unofficially brought to you in part by CRT TVs.

The song "Still Alive" was written by Jonathan Coulton and performed by Ellen McLain for the 2007 video game Portal.

Transcript

Luke: 0:21

Hello and welcome to Lo Five Gaming. This is the Tyler Velasco special, the Portal 2 podcast, the fan appreciation month. What a we did it for you. Yeah. And if you stick to the end of the podcast, there will be cake to celebrate. So make sure that you're sticking around. Cake is delicious. Cake and potatoes, dog. This is not a trap. Why would why would you say that? Uh yeah, but this was the scheduled podcast for you know September. But we had a little bit of a little bit of a change up, and here we are. We have beaten Portal. I have long dragged my feet to play this game, despite constant uh um encouragement from Tyler. Uh because I suck at puzzles and I thought I would hate this game. And even though I've always heard it's a legendary game, I never wanted to play it because I thought I'd be really bad about it. So why'd you pick it, Al?

Alex: 1:12

Man, I well, Tyler's been on us for a couple months now, a few months now, probably since we started calendar year to play portal, and I was just like, I don't know, man. It's I knew about the game, but I didn't really know anything about it. I just know it existed. I think it came out in a time that I really well came out on Xbox and PC, right? Well, I guess it would have come out on PC first, and it's just not a game. I didn't have an Xbox, and I didn't really have a PC that probably would have handled it at the time. So I just I just missed it, dude. And just wasn't on my radar at all. But you were up to other things, I suppose. PC was tight. I I miss that thing, man. I wish I had it still. Like, I don't really, because I don't know where I put it and it wouldn't, yeah, it wouldn't be able to keep up to date. But as a relic, as a relic, it'd be dope. It was a beautiful PC.

Luke: 2:03

Yeah. But uh he has always said that it is the only game that has ever itched his brain in the same delightful way is the shrines in the Breath of the Wild.

Alex: 2:13

Right on. Yeah, that makes sense. Uh 2007. 2007 is when this game dropped. So that would have been for me, I would have been like a junior in college, roughly.

Luke: 2:21

Okay, and I would have been in like the seventh or eighth grade, something like that.

Alex: 2:26

Yeah, I just wasn't gaming, man. I did a little bit of retro gaming at the time. Uh, I don't think I got a P Game Prince of Persia, no other games, mostly Nintendo and shit, dude. Like, I had a Nintendo in my room, like in uh my junior year or whatever. I played a lot of RBI baseball. I fucked people up in that shit.

Luke: 2:42

Old Nintendo, yeah. You left the GameCube behind.

Alex: 2:44

So I know I know I was playing that. Yeah, then I would have got a PS3 when I graduated in in 08. So I just miss it. This game just came at a time that I wasn't playing a lot of new games.

Luke: 2:55

Uh it's central to the PC zeitgeist, like totally, yeah, totally.

Alex: 3:00

And then when we decided to play way better than Half-Life, fuck you, Isaiah. Dude, so when we decided to play Half-Life, I think Tyler was like, just play portal, yeah. And he was correct. I'm glad that we played Half-Life, but I'll be honest, dude, I never went back to finish it. No, no, so it's like, but Portal, I it went on Steam sale, and I was like, you know what? Fuck it. I'm gonna pick this shit up. I got it on the cheap, got them both on the cheap, and it was and like, dude, I just picked up portal one and I just it just grabbed me, dude. I had like a day where I didn't have a lot going on. I was like, I'm just gonna play portal, and dude, I just I just fucking did.

Luke: 3:41

I didn't want to set it down, so I just tore through that one and uh portal one's like the it's like the tease of the promotional item that really hooks you for portal two. It's like it's like a sitting or two, and then you do get addicted to figuring out these puzzles and you just crush it under under an hour or two. I think your playtime was like eight hours, so you must be a little slow on them puzzles, bruh. But uh portal portal one, most of us it's like an hour or two.

Alex: 4:04

Portal one took me three hours, nah, dude, for sure. Plus dude, dude. You can't look at Steam time. Pull up this steam right now, Down. Dude, if you leave your computer paused or some shit, it's gonna count all that time. Paused because you're thinking with your small little brain. That would take me about three, four hours. Portal two, I think six a little longer than how long to beat this game or whatever that website's called. How long to beat? Sure. I think how long to beat says about five hours, and I I did take a little bit more time, yeah. And I did portal two over the course in the course of two months, dude. Like, picked it up, put it down. I'm glad I probably my longest stint was today. Just I thought I was close to beating it, and I was like, I still had like two hours left.

Luke: 4:46

You're like, I'm at this part, so I'm like pretty much done. I was like, So we're gonna do this a few hours after you think we're gonna do this, and you're like, No, I've got it.

Alex: 4:54

I was like, I've beaten it, so I know. But well, part of that dude has to do with the fact that I've been trying real hard not to look up any spoilers for this game, trying not to look out any, you know, to figure out any of these puzzles. Uh-huh. Then it just turns out that this game's way longer than I thought it was.

Luke: 5:09

Yeah, I'm not sure. I can't remember now if I ever actually looked anything up, but I definitely had some weak moments where I was like, I'm gonna fucking look this shit up. I'm tired. Like, I don't care, I'm not having fun. I just like just want to get done with this part and then have fun again, and then I'd walk away and then I'd come back and I'd figure out the puzzle.

Alex: 5:25

It's rewarding, dude. It was a fun game, it was a fun one to fun one to finish.

Luke: 5:29

For the record, I played it on the Switch, they released one and two recently, and it was a little bit pricier, but it's really nice to have portal on the go for all of us non-Steam Duck having uh uh individuals.

Alex: 5:42

Dude, I'm telling you, did you use okay? So, like I did play.

Luke: 5:45

I did not use a gyro until way until way later. I was trying to aim way far away. Okay, I don't usually do gyro controls, I'm not actually a huge gyro controls, man. You like toys, you like toys, and you you like nonsense, and you're not about efficiency, you're about a whimsy.

Alex: 6:00

So so not of course you like the gyro controls, not portal Tyler, but my other buddy Tyler, he calls it the the Splatoon effect, and I don't play Splatoon, man, yeah, but you know, obviously there's a huge Splatoon fan base out there, and it's a Nintendo game, right? So you've got PlayStation have gyro, yeah. Okay, well, I know Xbox doesn't, it drives me crazy because I can't when I want to like play games on my PC with my Xbox controller, it doesn't work. Splatoon was like one of the first shooters, well, for Nintendo, anyways, where it like made a big deal, just like how you can you can have these fancy controllers tweak the joysticks to make it easier to aim. Well, the gyro does that a little bit where it's like basically you can just give the system or your pro controller just a slight little move, and that will like move the camera angle just enough to get that those nice shots or whatever. Because portal's technically a first-person shooter, even though it's you know, you're not like killing enemies, you're using your portal gun. But um, but yeah, this should probably explain.

Luke: 6:54

We should probably explain portal now.

Alex: 6:55

If we're like we're getting into it's a first person, we should probably just explain what you do in the game. So Portal is a 2007 puzzle platform game developed and published by Valve. It was released in a bundle, actually, that called the Orange Box for Windows, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3, and has been since ported to other systems, including Mac OS, Linux, Android, and Nintendo Switch.

Luke: 7:18

It shares the universe with Half-Life, which is really cool. Uh there's really groovy. I don't know. Did you see that in Portal One where you walk by, like you like you take a turn to a dead end, but you can see inside of a meeting room, and they have like a whole what's the name of the corporation in Half-Life that you're like that has the science experiment gone wrong? Black Mesa? Yes. Uh, they're like, what is Black Mesa? Like, they're getting this percentage of military contracts. Like, we need to be competing with Black Mesa, we need these contracts. And I just thought it was really funny and like really cool actually.

Alex: 7:51

There's some Black Mesa drops in Portal 2, which is kind of dope too. Yeah, uh, and speaking of Portal 2, so it's a sequel, right? Came out in 2011. Also a puzzle platform video game by Valve for uh basically all the same platforms. Mikey, who has the BDE Big Drink Energy podcast, he was telling me a while back that Portal 2 was actually so Valve there, and I'm not gonna I'm not gonna fact check any of this shit. So if Mikey's wrong, whatever. I heard it from a guy that I know from the internet, all right? For sure. But anyways, Mikey was saying that uh you know the lore behind the whole making of so portal was this game that um that valve put out, and then portal two was a fan, it was a fan make of this. Like, so basically there's a school across the street, like a developer school or whatever, you know, like fucking nerds doing their I say nerds, you know what I'm talking about.

Luke: 8:44

All right, so so basically young scholars learning uh learning video game coding and design. Sure, continue.

Alex: 8:51

So there's a coding school across the street from Valve, right?

Luke: 8:54

And listen to our education podcasts.

Alex: 8:57

So basically, there's a coding school or some sort of like some sort of school across the street from Valve, right? And they get a hold of the source code for portal and they start to create create their own fan-made game, right? And then Valve catches wind of this and they try it out and they just love it. So they actually hire these dudes to come over to Valve and create Portal 2 because it was so fucking tight. And so that's like kind of how Portals 2 started, I guess. And and then they were able to like Valve just handed over all the source code and all like was like here, like if you guys are gonna do this, like fan make, do it right. And so they bought it from. I don't know. Hopefully they're all rich now. But that was the that was the deal. They took basically portal one, made it cooler, made it better, made it longer, and it became an official thing.

Luke: 9:39

There's a chance that you're talking about a Half-Life mod that they made into Portal One, and then Portal Two is more of a glow up from a more established or a graduate team.

Alex: 9:49

I don't know, man. Take it up on the Mikey. Yeah, no, I've heard four months ago that he was telling me this, I don't remember, but it's something like that, dude. So, like definitely if you're interested, like there's some fun lore to uh to like dig into on this thing, and I just thought it was pretty cool. So it could be portal one. You're I think you might be right, actually.

Luke: 10:06

Uh yeah, it's I think that's maybe how it goes, and then there's like a from across the street from Valve or something, there's like a design school or something like that, right? And then the kids like it was like a grad school, it was like a graduate project, and then I think another class came through and made portal two, or it was just like a fleshed out version from them as well. But portal one comes out, it is first person shooter in name in the sense of mechanic, I suppose, but really it's like a physics-based platformer, I think is and puzzle game is the most fair way to put it. And then Portal One is delicious and delightful, and then portal two is just like in a complete glow up of what goes down. And do you want to get into spoilers from the game from 2007 or what?

Alex: 10:49

Yeah, I think we go for it, man.

Luke: 10:50

Yeah, okay. If you haven't played portal yet, uh we were the last two people to play it, so I tell you what, those timing's pretty good.

Alex: 10:58

End of November, they're gonna drop Nvidia's drop the glow up of Portal One because they just announced their oh sick or G Force are like whatever their new they just announced the new graphic cards, right? They're gonna add uh ray tracing, yeah. So that's one of the like I already thought that, like, because it's a short one, right? Portal one's pretty short, and I was I already been thinking that it would be a fun one because even though we've you know now we beat these, and a lot of times when I beat a game, I just shelved it and like why would ever return? But the the puzzles in these games are like they're brain teasers that tickle just enough where I'd pick it up up in a couple months, and especially with some ray tracing dudes.

Luke: 11:38

See those yeah, I can see picking it up after like a year or two, just was just even like with Breath of the Wild, where a lot of those shrines you kind of remember what you need to do, but it's it's a little fuzzy, right? But it's a cool story, it's very it's a sci-fi, it's it's very much like Half-Life. The Valve is very much not about the military-industrial complex, they're very not trusting of science in the military because it's more military type government secret testing gone awry. And you are a test subject in a laboratory where this kind of master AI is running you through a series of tests that increase in difficulty, and you know, the storyline is a lot of fun and it kind of goes off the rails, and they definitely try to kill you, and then you gotta face this cool boss robot thing, and it's pretty sweet. You know, they keep telling you you're gonna have cake, and that you know, the cake is a lie. The cake is a lie. Did you see? Did you get into any of those like kind of lurry, like classic valve? What is it, passive or ambient storytelling, or what do you kind of call that? Where it's just like they're not really being overt the whole time, they're just kind of letting the atmospheric or you know, kind of talking about the rat man stuff. Yeah, oh, there's a name for it.

Alex: 12:43

Uh, I think the internet's giving it a name, not sure if he has a real name.

Luke: 12:46

Uh that's cool.

Alex: 12:47

But yeah, did you ever like get in any of those little areas? Yeah, I did in portal one. I didn't, and apparently there's a bunch in portal two, and I didn't find a single fucking single extra room or whatever secret room in portal two. But apparently they're all a bunch, yeah. I think so, anyways. That's what I've been, you know. I feel like I didn't make that up. I'm pretty sure that yeah, Doug Ratman, it's like the scientist has gone crazy, and then like on the walls and stuff, there's all this like things that are written, like don't don't trust them, and then all this kind of stuff, and then uh some drawings of companion cube shot on companion cube. But then the uh dude totally I found quite a few of his rooms in Portal One that was kind of fun just to poke around and see all the like crazy manic like drawings and scribblings, and I was a little disappointed that I didn't find any in two, but maybe they're not in there. But I I feel like they are though.

Luke: 13:34

It's just like especially video games these days, they want you to see all the story and they're very over the head, like smacking the head with it. Like, here's all this dialogue. So it's like refreshing to go back to kind of play these games that really kind of set a standard for just letting you kind of unpack it yourself, and you kind of feel smart, it feels cool, it's very atmospheric. The music can be creepy. I told you that when I started Portal One, I hated the AI's voice.

Alex: 13:58

You didn't mention that, yeah.

Luke: 14:00

But the voice acting for two slaps that was a ton of fun.

Alex: 14:03

I didn't mind the it's the same voice, isn't it? For GLaDOS, isn't that that's what they call it?

Luke: 14:08

I feel like one I got used to it, and two, it was a little cleaner, so I didn't have to strain to hear it in the same type of way. Sure, and then they got the actor, pretty big actor for Portal 2, the uh Wheatley, Wheatley Studios Stephen Merchant voice.

Alex: 14:24

Yeah, Stephen Merchant, people say I look like that fucker.

Luke: 14:27

You know, I have the Wikipedia picture up with the glasses, and now that you're growing out a beard a little bit, yeah.

Alex: 14:34

You don't you don't not look like Steven Merchant, so like dude, he's all he's like 6'6 as well, or no, he's six seven. Um, he's even he's just dude, he's got me by he's got me by an inch, bro. Yeah, yeah, but he's got the tall too. That's really fun for sure. Um I run into people, they're like, Oh, dude, you look like Steven Merchant.

Luke: 14:54

I'm like, what an uncool flex to be told in public.

Alex: 14:58

Like, yeah, I'd be like, What? The dude's cool though. So, like, I'm like, whatever. And he's fucking funny. Uh, and his, and you're right, dude. The his the character that he put like voice acts the little robot in Importal 2 is a ton of fun. And I guess we said we're gonna do spoilers. Uh, he ends up being the bad guy as well. So he's like, your homie, and then he ends up being the bad guy. Yeah, he's like it was cool.

Luke: 15:20

Yeah, he's like, and then and then the bad guy, original from the original game, and then for the first maybe third of the second game, she's a potato. Her her her spirits put into a potato, and then you got her on your portal gun, and it is fun. Like hearing their banter and him as like a bumbling foil to the whole thing was just a lot of fun, and uh, so the storyline, like both the atmospheric stuff we're talking about, is like a ton of like a huge highlight of the game, just that dialogue and the wit and the banter is top notch. Like, I can see when this game coming out this being the coolest, funniest because it holds up, it all holds up, like none of it's cheap, corny, even like it's all like really good.

Alex: 15:58

No, I feel that for sure, dude. I mean, Portal One definitely is not as pretty, but Portal Two, it's actually, you know, it's a pretty, it's uh it's a good looking game, I would say. And I agree, man. Like the banter and the jokes, they're all super funny, and it's just like it's it's fun, especially because the environment is this dark, kind of like barren, weird test facility, and then it it really like lightens the mood in a weird way. But then when you're not getting that banter, you're like, this is kind of creepy.

Luke: 16:23

Seems like you kind of like bring on a bit of an apocalypse at the end of season. At the end of game one, you kind of bring on a bit of an apocalypse at game two. You're like, it's kind of post-apocalyptic because you're in uh uh the the studios or the laboratories, but they're not necessarily they're like not entirely defunct, there's still a lot of so it's uh it's a weird cool mixture, and then the physics we should probably talk about the actual puzzle physics. Did you get nauseous when you had to jump into a portal to fall into another portal and then shoot while you're falling to project yourself outwards? Because that was the coolest, most gratifying, but devilish puzzle design.

Alex: 16:57

Do you know what I'm talking about? Yeah, no, for sure. Portal one had well, they both have those, but portal one like was really heavy on some of that stuff to figure out to get out of certain little puzzle rooms or whatever. There was a couple, especially the ones where you have to like shoot basically, you have to drop from high up into a portal hole that you make, and then you have your other, and then you have to like shoot another portal, and you just like to gain speed and distance or whatever, yeah. Uh, and it's it's fun and tricky and super satisfying. But in portal one, like some of that stuff, there's just a lot of it, and it definitely made me queasy.

Luke: 17:28

And if you've been playing for a while and you're just getting hella frustrated, and you're like, Ah, I'm sick of this. But then when you finally nail it, like I would try to make Trisha watch me do it, my wife, and she was like, Cool, Luke, because I wouldn't be able to do it when I tried to show her. And then I would, and she'd be like, So you flew across the room, I'd be like, You know how hard that was. That was like a five-step thing.

Alex: 17:46

For sure. Yeah, so that was yeah, no, it's cool, man. I love, I do love how comparing it to the Zelda uh shrines is is makes sense, and it's just you know, it's it's a very gratifying, it's like one of those things where you can be poking around one of these, you know, this puzzle stitch where they call them tests in the game or whatever. So one of these test rooms, and it can be the you know, you can just be spending all this time. I would be spending time trying to figure out what the fuck's going on, shooting my portal gun all over the wall, trying to figure out where it sticks, then it clicks and you do like or you like you try something weird and it works out, and then you're like, Well, shit, that was fucking gratifying and awesome. And then you're also like, Did I do that correctly? Is that how the game? Because like there's a couple where I'm like, I was like, that was some weird stuff that I did to get that to work. So I'm like, either they just expect you to poke around, which is fine, like to poke around and figure it out that way, or like I maybe changed the game in a couple instances just to get the right sequence. But I feel like a good example, I don't have the name of the the test, but it was in portal two. Uh-huh, there was a room that I had a lot of trouble with, and you basically had to make these jumps, and you had to use the portal gun to catch a cube while you were falling through the portals. It drove me nuts. But then I was like, it wasn't super intuitive to that's what you had to do, but I spent so much time poking around this room that I was like, Well, there's nothing else I can do except for like trump jump through and try and bring this fucking block with me, and it worked, so it's like, all right, well, I guess I guess that's what I had to do. But um good old companion cube.

Luke: 19:18

Yeah, the game does a really cool job of like layering both games, uh, because it kind of continues in two for sure. But they like like even the first one, you don't even start with the full portal gun, you get like one end of the portal and it's like fixed, and then you get the whole portal gun, and then they just introduce different concepts at a very uh accessible pace, I would say. Which is really cool because like I was once again very nervous as a non-puzzle-minded individual or puzzle gamer. Like, I very much have been intimidated by the game or games like that, so I didn't think I'd have any fun, but you know, they keep introducing you to the concept, and then they push you a little further, then they nudge you, and then towards the end, like you're figuring figuring out some pretty ridiculous things on your own, but you've really been set up to do that, and including in that is like the different blocks that you use, the turrets that you have to defeat in two that introduce the goop. So the white goop, the white goop is uh non-sanction sponsored white goop. No, uh yeah, the white goop is where you can put your portal anywhere that you that it is, it's kind of like adhesive almost. And then I want to say is the blue for jumping and then the red is for speed. Uh, if it's not like a reddish orange, yeah, yeah. If not, those are flipped, and it's cool because you do you do these super bounces and you set up these super speed things, and all of a sudden you're like, I have no idea what you're doing, and then you'll see that you can kind of make a runway with the super speed, and then you shoot a portal, then you shoot a different portal up in the air air, yep, and then you run up, and then all of a sudden you're just shooting out on an orange. It's it's really cool.

Alex: 20:42

It's it's really really gnarly. At first, I thought the goop stuff was stupid. I was like, Oh man, what are they? Why are they doing this? But then I once you like figure out the physics to it, it like leveled up the puzzles a little bit and made it a lot of fun because that stuff wasn't in portal one, right? So portal one was just your your portals essentially. Portal one all takes place in this facility, and it's all like you're being tested by the main computer adversary uh until you fight her at the end and then kind of blow up the facility or whatever. So portal two, you start with kind of the chaos that has ensued after that. She, like, this computer is supposed to be dead. Uh you wake up or whatever in this weird room, right? Was that the deal? I think that's how it started. You wake up in the weird room, and then Steven Merchant's little robot like comes to get you out of this deprepate, like falling apart facility.

Luke: 21:27

Yeah, you accidentally wake up her, the AI.

Alex: 21:30

Right. So you escape and then you run into your main adversary who is not dead, it turns out. Uh, which at first I was like, really? All right, this is really what they're gonna do. It is the same baddie, but it actually ended up being cool.

Luke: 21:41

I was like, yeah, it wasn't a fascinating arc for the whole thing, right?

Alex: 21:45

So the reason I'm I'm backtracking bring this up is because portal two, you escape the facility that's kind of uh well, it's all falling apart around you with chaos, right? And I think you go underground further, like way underground or something to the original lab, yeah. Right. So that that was kind of cool. That's it's great storytelling there, really fun. Right, and then I agree, dude. And it was just like it was it was cool because it gives you an idea of the background of this facility. It's like this the you st I'm still not really sure how we got to the whole android thing because I think your your character is an android, right? Not entirely sure. That's a human, I think it's a humanoid android, but I'm not sure either, I guess. But you move away from like GLaDOS is talking to you the whole time in Portal One, like via the intercoms and whatnot, and then her and Steven Merchant's character Wheatley. Is it Wheatley? Wheatley, yeah.

Luke: 22:38

Because then, like in the loading screen, it's always aperture. Ah, you're right. And then Wheatley takes over and he makes a Wheatley. Yeah, it's funny.

Alex: 22:45

Yeah, yeah, good point. I Wheatley Laboratory. I noticed that happened today, actually. And then I was like, that's weird. What's that all about? And then, but I didn't put that together. You forgot, yeah. Totally.

Luke: 22:53

So but it moves away from them narrating what's going on to JK Simons, uh Jay Jonah, Jay Jonason. Give me photos of Spider-Man. Uh, great, great actor, great voice actor. I guess he'd be most known these days outside of Spider-Man for the what is he? He's not all state or he's farmer's insurance. He's the dude there. So it's like post-World War II, kind of like it's like a post-World War II uh military science testing lab/slash facility, and he's like dying of cancer and like kind of trying to figure out this research forever. And he's like, So it's all his recordings as you go through the original laboratories of like their original research. And I don't know, it was just it was really cool. I thought it was fun.

Alex: 23:36

Yeah, I did too, man.

Luke: 23:37

I'm just added a ton to the atmosphere and like a plot. So that's the name you're looking for. Yeah, I should have should have came right out with that. Yeah, hitching the actual voice actor's name and shit.

Alex: 23:48

But that was cool, man. And like it was really fun because there's all these pre-recorded deals from Cave Johnson, and it kind of gives you an idea of like this weird testing that was happening in this facility before your time, and which is really fun. And then I'm glad you brought up the the the voice actor because when I was playing this, I had just come, I recently beat Spider-Man, right? Marvel Spider-Man, and he's like, as you say, Jay Jonah Jameson. And dude, I was like, it was one of those weird earworm things where I was I was introduced to him via the intercoms and the the old part of the lab, and I was like, Why is this dude sound so familiar? Like, what the heck? He's so like giving me strong Jameson vibes, and then uh like I hit that. I hit the Discord with that, and someone was like, Well, you know, that makes sense, it's the same voice actor. I was like, haha, of course.

Luke: 24:35

Yeah, I am a genius. No, I I picked it up. I like it bothered me for a little bit, but then I picked it up and I was like, Oh, it's really cool.

Alex: 24:43

Yeah, and it works. The they have very similar vibes in both, like it's it's just kind of funny because the it's basically like this annoying, like overlord person, and then you've got in Spider-Man, you've got whatever that broadcast thing that uh oh, he's a newspaper editor. Well, yeah, he was.

Luke: 25:01

I guess, yeah, in the new game, he's like uh he's like a podcast, he's almost like an info.

Alex: 25:06

Like he's just always broadcasting, but it's it's just kind of funny because between the two games, it's just this dude that's just keeping, but his voice is great, and it's like really he's like clowning and whatever. And as this game proceeds, he his health deteriorating because, like, whatever they're doing, like messing with arguments, killing so many test subjects, right? Whatever they're using to put into their weird goop and stuff that we mentioned earlier apparently is taking a toll on his health. And I don't know if you picked it up, dude, but GLaDOS her it turns out at the end, and you can kind of put it together, but she is Cave Johnson's assistant, and then when he like makes mention that like when he dies, he wants her to take over. And he also in his ramblings at one point is talking about how if we can if we can put data to if we can put data to CDs, why can't we put people's essentially like people's beings, people's existence to a CD as well?

Luke: 25:57

No, she is like the the Gladys is his assistant, and it's in order for him to continue the studies, she continues the testing, and that's like the robot kind of goes insane because there's an insatiable desire to test, and she talks about Wheatley, how Wheatley's going insane because he got all power hungry and the high you can get from testing, and it's kind of funny. They have a nice little storyline around all that. Uh, anything you didn't like about the game, we've pretty much gloated about it forever, but we usually talk about any type of shortcomings. Can you can you think of any complaints?

Alex: 26:25

Well, Portal One, just because it's older, had some weird stuff. There's a couple times we have to do a weird like similar to Half-Life where there's you if you didn't crouch to like get through certain things, that this bug me. But I think that's just the nature of an old game and them trying to do cool stuff. And at the time maybe that was cool, but now it's like this is stupid. Yeah, some crouch jump, some crouch jump stuff. Not like Half-Life, but uh still there's crouch jump stuff. Uh but Portal 2, man, I don't really know if there was anything I didn't like. I think it was, you know, it wasn't too long. Yeah, no, it was cool. I don't think the puzzles, the puzzles were like there was nothing that I got extremely, extremely stuck on. I definitely took my time on a couple of the test rooms, but uh no, I don't know. How about you?

Luke: 27:11

I'd say it's a masterclass and what it is. So like it's not gonna be this all-encompassing game that you play all the time. So when I say it doesn't really have any flaws, I'm not saying like it's the perfect game, but it's like it's so specific and like narrow and fine-tuned to that, but that it's also kind of like impressive as an experience, right? Right. So like it's almost like the pinnacle of what it set out to be. And it's probably why you know, other than the fact that Valve will not make the third game in any series, uh, that's probably why there isn't a portal three. I don't really know where you go from there. I mean, I feel like fans would be really upset, but it's just like it is kind of puzzle platforming. I can't imagine it being any better.

Alex: 27:53

Come to think of it now. I was I was like disappointed that they continued in Portal 2, like kind of the same thing, but now you saying this and me thinking about it, I'm like, yeah, maybe how would you continue the story without continuing the same story? You know what I mean?

Luke: 28:09

And I feel like they with goop and everything we talked about and the added abilities, like I think at some point it'd get a little nonsensical with all the different things that you layer on. So I just feel like they're really they're really nailed what they were going for. So I just I don't know. As far as like the only to transition to would you recommend this game to someone else? Like, the only takeaway was like, Are you looking for a very specific experience? Like, I love s'mores, but s'mores are for the campfire. Don't really want s'mores on a on a Wednesday night very often, but s'mores are one of the most delicious things ever within that context. So, this game, yes, if you like puzzles and you like physics, this game is absolute perfection, but it's not gonna be the only game that you play ever, you know what I mean?

Alex: 28:49

Right. I think it's so different than most other games I've ever played. Like that's the only that's just a thing. Like, if you're not like you mentioned that you're not usually much of a puzzle person, right? At all. So if you like if you hate puzzles, I mean you obviously it kind of won you over, I guess. But like if you really hate puzzles, you're not gonna like this game.

Luke: 29:07

Yeah, I'd say it's like in a weird way, it's it's the game for people who love puzzles and the game for people who hate puzzles. That's a goofy thing to say, but it's just it's so good at leading you on to do what you do and makes you feel so good when you figure it out that even if you're like me and you don't like puzzles, it's pretty bitching.

Alex: 29:23

It's also a first-person shooter. So if you're not a person, you know, it's not a shooter, but it's in that first person view. So I don't know if that's something that bugs you, but that's I don't know, that's weird stuff. Like, I'm just kind of stretching. I can't really think of a reason why I don't like this game or I wouldn't recommend it. I think it's cool on you know, I think the history behind it's cool, like you said, it's kind of a masterclass in in PC gaming almost. Like it's it's part of the you know, PC zeich ice, and now it's really exciting that you know folks are gonna be able to revisit this game or check it off with a new time on Switch, and it's also pretty cool. I think that the whole ray tracing deal that the NVIDIA is gonna drop on it will give it a some new life as well. A lot of people will check. It out for the first time, but I think a lot of people that maybe played it a long time ago are it's it's you know gives them a reason to jump back in and play again.

Luke: 30:07

Any finishing thoughts on Portal or just how much you love Companion Cube and how much you enjoy the songs at the end of the game? Because I we should give some time to how amazing the songs are at the end of the game for the credits. I don't like credit songs or credits, but like the songs are delightful.

Alex: 30:23

Yeah, the game is the both games are really atmospheric. You mentioned the end of the game songs because they're those are bangers for sure. I'm just trying to think if there's any other like what's the music like in the rest of the game? It's just the more atmospheric, isn't it?

Luke: 30:36

Yeah, all right, yeah.

Alex: 30:37

Yeah, the post the credit music are are bangers, dude. First one was super fun. We'll have to add to the show notes a link to that song or something because it's just straight clowning. Uh then you like, you know, they've been talking about this cake the whole game. You know, you're gonna get this cake, which is uh a whole lie, but then at the end, big big spoiler right here, you walk in and there's uh the credits, you know, the credit music's playing, whatever, and there's a cake. There's like a party and a cake and everything, which is kind of fun. I literally just beat this game before we jumped on for the pod Portal 2. So I didn't get to take in the post-credit scenes uh as heavily as I would have liked to, but I do know as it was playing the uh the music was fun and it was uh it was some cool animations and stuff, yeah. But um, yeah, those those songs definitely both bangers.

Luke: 31:22

So, some finishing thoughts is I'm glad that I was bullied into playing it delightfully. So thanks, thanks. You're welcome, Tyler. Thank you. Uh but then also you gotta talk about your portal dreams, bro. Oh, yeah, I definitely should mention the portal dreams. So I had like one marathon session where uh my wife was pregnant. Uh, we had those kids if you listened last month, but uh so she was pregnant and it was just like a lazy day around the house. I don't know, we weren't doing much, and I really relished that. And I had like a marathon session where it was at least four or five hours, maybe more split up throughout the day. We're talking like six, and in the middle of the night, I had one of those weird moments where you're having like half awake manic dreams where you're I was just solving and jumping, uh solving puzzles and jumping through portals. And I woke up in the middle of the night and I was like, That's not healthy, this isn't good. Uh so I only do that with the best games, though. Like in Civilization, I'll be like, Oh, I gotta do this, oh, I gotta protect against this. And I definitely had some weird manic portal dreams, but uh yeah. Other than that, I'm glad I played it. Uh, I have recently started like a Google Note. Um, it's just my video game bucket list. So all these different games where I'm like, I need to beat that or play that someday. And I'm I'm glad I can say that I beat Portal One and Two is like a definitely credit dude, do the both or like a prerequisite, right? It's like go back and beat Half-Life now, right? Right, right, right. It's like you should have these these games under your belt to be a true capital G gamer, but no, I was just for that experience. I'm glad I played it and uh yeah, right on. So cross it off the bucket list.

Alex: 32:55

There we are. Anybody if you're a gamer, cat even a casual gamer, I think casuals would like portal, man. I think it's it's for fun. Yeah, would you say portal one and portal two or just portal two?

Luke: 33:08

I like that they're sold in the companion packs, whereas like if you don't have a ton of time, portal one would feel great, but if you have a slightly more portal like amount of time, you should do both of them because it's the story is so robust and two and brings everything together in such an epic way that I would say you'd be remiss not to move on to two.

Alex: 33:28

How did Portal One look for you on the Switch? Okay, okay, so like it they didn't give it like a graphic overhaul or anything. No, it's fucking switch. Well, I don't know, maybe they gave it a slight remaster.

Luke: 33:39

Slap a port on there and charge up more than anyone else would we talk about.

Alex: 33:43

Word, word. Uh, because portal two's like it's not like you know, it's not amazing, but it's it's polished up, it looks a lot better.

Luke: 33:50

Yeah, very, it's a very attractive game.

Alex: 33:53

I'd date that's the only reason. Like, I the reason I asked though is because you know, if I was saying recommending to somebody like a lot of times, you know, with newer games, it's like just jump in the new one. I don't think I would ever tell anyone to go back and play Metal Gear Solid, like one or whatever, you know, like play play one of the newer ones. Whereas with Portal, like I think the controls and like the everything about it, it's it's a very accessible game, it just doesn't sound super pretty.

Luke: 34:18

Like I said, it's it's precise, man. So it none of the none of it is like none of it is decayed. I mean, some of the graphics don't look pretty, but like in one, but two holds up graphically, and then yeah, totally it's just so so finely crafted that it's it's timeless in a way. It's kind of like original Mario in the sense where original Mario is not as good as some of the newer ones, but it's just such such a classic perfection.

Alex: 34:44

I suppose my official recommendation would be play portal one because you can knock that out in three, four hours. And if you really enjoyed that, you're gonna love portal two.

Luke: 34:52

Yeah, that's fair. There we are.

Alex: 34:54

Right on portal. Should we take a little break here from our unsanctioned sponsor?

Luke: 34:58

Yes, sir.

Alex: 35:07

Yo, yeah. This month is unofficially brought to you in part by CRT televisions. The fuck?

Luke: 35:18

Ah yeah, you know what a CRT is, but this this this month is brought to you by disposable income and access to eBay and improper decisions, probably brought on by whiskey. What's wrong with you, child?

Alex: 35:30

Tube TV, baby. Oh my good lord. I didn't know these existed. Dog, they exist. What do you mean you grew up on that shit?

Luke: 35:37

Right, but I thought they're all in a landfill somewhere floating around in the ocean.

Alex: 35:41

I didn't know we I didn't know they were still in circulation, I could say. I'll tell you what, man. I've been lusting over a CRT like for a long time. I've you know, we obviously grew up with one for the unindoctrinated.

Luke: 35:52

It's a fat TV. Dog, like a 90s early 2000s fat TV.

Alex: 35:58

You can see it in the back of this little video, dude.

Luke: 35:59

That shit is she thick, it's beautiful, two two three C's, dude. She's sick.

Alex: 36:03

It's companion, it's my companion cube.

Luke: 36:06

Nice, I like how this game full circle.

Alex: 36:08

Dog, I'll tell you what though. So just by love your goddamn toys, dude. You love your goddamn. This episode unofficially brought to you by toys. Toys, toys, irrational decisions, right? But this is one for me to get a CRT was not irrational. I haven't thinking about it for a long time. It would have been irrational for me to get what I really want, and that's one of those monitors, like the like Olympus or a Sony PVM, dude, like one of the medical monitors, fucking beautiful. But I tell you what, they have way inflated, dude. It doesn't matter none. What what does matter is those things cost like two, three thousand dollars these days. I can't be throwing that at a TV. And I was like, you know, it's one of those things when you're like, you know, buying your toys, collecting, doing whatever. Uh, sometimes maybe I'm just speaking for myself, probably just speaking for myself, but it's like, well, I need to get the best one, right? Your niche is out there, yeah. Your niche is out there. So I've been holding off, and then one, and then basically, dude, I bought this TV for two reasons. One, I wanted to see our TD play N64 on, dude. Your older video game systems with component cables, RCA, shit like that. Basically, shit that doesn't use an HDMI cord that everything uses now, right?

Luke: 37:19

Shouts out to old ass millennials. This is brought to you by old ass millennials.

Alex: 37:23

You can get converters, dude, cheap ones, but they just they just like stretch out the image and it looks garbage, dude. The pixels look garbage. So I was like, dude, I really want to be able to play my N64 because I don't have a nice way to play it right now. So I needed my CR TV.

Luke: 37:41

When I get over there to your new place, I'm gonna have to I'm gonna have to see the difference. But I'm gonna grill it to you if I'm not if I'm not if I'm not wild, I'm gonna jump on on next month and just roast you for being a pixels of crisp.

Alex: 37:52

I found I found this TV that also is a VCR combo, bro. Oh, so it's got the VCR player in there. Please don't collect or VC VHS, please don't collect them. Dog, I don't plan on. I mean, if I come across like a super dope VHS, if the Goonies is at Goodwill, dog, I'm gonna send it. That's what I'm saying, bro. But I can't lie, dude. I found I was digging through because I have a I have a very modest small VHS collection from you know when I was growing up at VHSs were the thing, but I bought this purely to play N64 and to watch the original cuts of Star Wars, bro. And that's what's up. Brought to you by our OG cuts of Star Wars. Fuck Lucas and his new ass fucking like not even new anymore, but Lucas comes in and he just gives a full overhaul edit, like adding CGI, all this shitty shit. I mean, it's not even shitty. I thought it was dope when it came out, to be honest. Sure, her mind that but the OG cuts man, Han Solo shoots first. That's important. He changed that cut when he went in and he changed everything around, and he did this on purpose because he wanted Han Solo to be a good guy, right? Han solo is a good guy, but he's got gray in there, and he shot that motherfucker first. That happens in the OG cut.

Luke: 39:04

Before this goes on too long, I'd like to expose Alex that aside from his VHS of the original Star Wars trilogy, he also had special edition Grease because he was a sensitive young man. Dog, I I got no qualms with that.

Alex: 39:15

Grease fucking tell me more, tell me more. Uh, dude, and you also had the force ghosts at the end of Return of the Jedi. And although I do like Hayden Christianson, but I don't think he has any place being it as a force ghost at the end of that movie. Why would he go back to a younger self? He should be that old ass man that he dies as. And you know what? In the OG cuts, that's what you get. Very important.

Luke: 39:37

Check out Alex's side podcast for his uh unloading of nerd content.

Alex: 39:43

So I'm just gonna throw it out there. If you've been wanting to watch the OG, which you cannot get a hold of the OG cuts. Oh man, this keeps going. You cannot. I'm kidnapped on this audio. I'm sure that you can like download them off some like Pirate Bay or some bullshit. But if you go on to your Disney Plus and you want to watch the OG Star Wars, you can't see those original cuts, man. You can't buy those DVDs in the stores. You have to have the original tapes, which I have, and I had no way to play them.

Luke: 40:11

So now I have this beautiful little CRT TV with and just one more thing is that uh Japital Hut looks better in the original.

Alex: 40:19

He does all right. Get yourself a CR TV, and this whole long went away at me saying that you don't need to buy a super expensive one, just get one that works for you, and they're actually you know, I want the zenith dog.

Luke: 40:33

I want that zenith, dude. I did get a zenith. Oh shit, that's what we had from I know that's like one of the reasons why I got it. That's too funny. Dad held on to that TV for so long, dog. He's like, It was good, I got it from Aaron. Aaron got a good one, and I was like, dude, Aaron gave that to you when it was old 10 years ago. And I was like, the TV makes noise just existing, dad.

Alex: 40:55

Get yourself a CR TV, play some fucking cool ass retro video games the way they're meant to be played.

Luke: 41:01

But uh hey, welcome back. You got some side quest buttons? Side quested. I've been playing all the games. Uh paternity leave, you have all of the time in the world and no time in the world. So you'll hear you'll hear people talk about gaming as a dad, the handheldness being clutch, and it is clutch at three in the morning when you're up. Instead of focusing on all the games, uh, I'm gonna pick a game that I narrowly selected to force you to play for next month, but I'm just gonna play it on my own. It's called Banner Saga. Have I ever told you about it?

Alex: 41:39

Uh no, no.

Luke: 41:40

Okay, so it's like a grid base. There's like 10 hours on there before from my first playthrough of the so it's three games.

Alex: 41:48

It's dog, that game is not on the I I checked because you mentioned you might want to play that game. It's not on the the Nintendo store, dude. I think you have to get a copy, which I have.

Luke: 41:58

Uh yeah, so it's all three banner saga games, and to try to quickly like summarize what it is, it's like so the combat side is like kind of that uh grid-based tactics game, like um not XCOM, but more like uh Fire Emblem. It's not entirely the same, but for me, it kind of scratches an itch. Like chess. If you want to get into Alex and I's lore, I used to slap his ass in chess, even though I was the younger brother. So, like anyway, moving on. Uh, he's given me a look, but he know it to be true. So he's just gonna let me yeah, he's just gonna let me finish this up. So it's cool. So it's like it's like Nordic.

Alex: 42:34

You didn't always use to slap me up though. I don't know. Yeah, real good.

Luke: 42:37

Yeah, you know, middle school happened. Uh, but then you're like fighting these things called dredge, which is these giant iron troll things. It's got a lot of vibes like in the walking dead, not in the walking dead, but in Game of Thrones, what do they call the the winners coming folk? What do they call them? The White Walkers, yeah. It's got a lot of white walker-y vibe to it, but it's really cool, man. And then it's like the storyline where it's very Oregon trail-ish, where you're just kind of like leading your banner, you're leading this group of people, and you're trying to survive, and you have to make all these decisions. Um, and it's just really cool. Like, you're like, Oh, should you trust this person? Like, this is gonna go up. What are you gonna do? And then there's all these consequences, and you're like negotiating with people, so like it's a it's a mix of two different, like, specific itches to scratch, and uh, I think it's pretty rad. So it's a little indie game, it's not necessarily very large. Uh, what you said, I guess it's not on the digital store. I didn't know that.

Alex: 43:28

Well, it might be because I'm not for uh because you have the series, right? Like three of them.

Luke: 43:34

So I they should all be sold together, so it might be a physical only, which would be cool.

Alex: 43:38

That's just it. I think because I was looking even when so the way the switch works, if you're playing, I can go and like click on whatever you're doing, you know, bringing them to that game in the store so I can buy it. Yeah, when I try that, it just says it's missing, so it's definitely not in the store. Whatever, whatever copy you have is it's not available.

Luke: 43:55

Bet collectors, uh, finder on PC though. It's dope, it's really cool. Really? Uh I want to play, yeah, it's on PC for sure. Uh, and I don't like like I like that type of style of game with the whole grid and like it's kind of like chess once again. Uh, but in Fire Emblem, it's like a dating sim, and I don't want any of this anime dating sim teacher student weirdness. Uh as so I'm good on all that. So I've avoided that game. So it it gets that out of my system. So it's it's a cool game.

Alex: 44:22

Try it on banner saga.

unknown: 44:24

Cool.

Luke: 44:24

Anything else? I mean, I tried to keep it narrow, but hell yeah, dog. Still playing MLB the show, still playing Assassin's Creed, Assassin's Creed, like a larger conversation. I almost picked that one for our game next month as well. I didn't, but it's just such a playground, like it's not always like a great game, it's just too I heard the new games are gonna be more narrowly focused, and that's a good thing because there's just so much going on that it's just like kind of fun to jump in the sandbox for a little bit and do whatever you want to do, and then so I go through weird hot gold stretches with that game, right on. Yeah, so how about you? What are you playing through the move? It must take you a while to get set up and ever even playing much. So I see you playing your schmups and shit.

Alex: 45:06

So I'm always playing a little bit, dude. Uh the makes you honestly, man. So I think last month I had just beat Spider-Man, and uh, I sh and then I was like, I I thought it was that game was great, dude. Like, I don't think I think I mentioned this last time, and or yeah, I think I mentioned it last time. It's not gonna it's it maybe maybe it'll end up in my top like top games or whatever, but I I wouldn't necessarily put it there, anyways. So I beat Spider-Man totally. So I beat Spider-Man and I really enjoyed it, and then I shelved it. I was like, all right, cool, I'm done with this game, like I beat it, like I'm all right. Uh, so I was like, Well, I always like to have one like open world game that I'm kind of rocking with at a time. Uh, so I moved on to Horizon Zero Dawn. I was having a lot of fun. I played honestly, not that much of it, probably five hours, six hours, or something like that. But I was enjoying it a lot, and then I had an urge to go back to Spider-Man, bro. Yeah, I bet so I picked up, so I had like the game set there's a lot to do, so totally, and there's just swinging around is the tits. So honestly, it was uh, so I picked up the DLC. I've been playing the DLC on the Spider-Man. So I'm I think the three there's three chapters of DLC, and I'm through maybe two and a half of them. Uh, I never played those. Yeah, they're cool. I mean, it's just a continuation of the game, you just get to stay in that world a bit a little bit longer. Uh, they're a little bit harder, you know. And after you put all that time in and you get so good at combat, you gotta keep it, keep that shit going, bro.

Luke: 46:35

Does it unlock any of the new areas of the oh damn, that was my favorite part of the game. Any new parts in New York or no?

Alex: 46:42

No, same okay, same map. And I'm not sure, but they did announce that the Miles Morales, you know, will come out soon. That will probably keep me in the keep me in the Spider-Man realm because I'll definitely want to play the Miles version. But uh, but yeah, uh Horizon Zero Dong is another one that I started and have been enjoying that. And it's uh you know, Spider-Man just took me away from it, but I will return because I do like I am liking where Horizon is going. Have you played Horizon?

Luke: 47:10

Yeah, I played it on release. Um, did you?

Alex: 47:12

Okay, cool.

Luke: 47:13

I loved it at the time, but it's foggy as far as sure. It's one of those things. Like it's been a while. I thought it was dope, but it didn't stick with me like super hard. So when people talk about how awesome it is, I'm like, it was really cool, but like it says something when like you don't date like not daydream, but you don't think back upon the game a lot. Like Breath of the Wild, it released right before Breath of the Wild, I'm pretty sure at the same time. So like it's dope. The environment's really cool. Shooting the bow around is sick. Uh shooting those giant like, dude, when you get out of the first area, it it gets wild. So you should stick with it.

Alex: 47:45

It's a cool and I just got out of the first area, so out of the out of the winter area. Oh, maybe not. I don't know.

Luke: 47:52

Uh when you fight one of them T-Rex dogs, yeah.

Alex: 47:54

I mean, that shit's fucking buck wild. Yeah, it's the horizon is a game that I've been playing. Sable is another one that I picked up and have been enjoying. Yeah, not that one.

Luke: 48:04

I slowed down on that, it's dope, but I slowed down on it.

Alex: 48:06

That one we mentioned portal being atmospheric. Sable, the music in Sable is great, man.

Luke: 48:11

Top Natch.

Alex: 48:12

And I've really been so that one's in not no combat either, which is kind of interesting. Uh, it's more of like an explorer, yeah. Totally, totally vibes, total vibes, yeah. Uh so sable's been cool. Uh, dude, I also picked up Bayonetta last night, two nights ago. And I'm not like I the to the story and all that shit is just whack. But yeah, it's hella campy, it's hella campy, and the action is pretty cool. So that one you'll have to check in with me next month to see if I'm still playing that one. But that's when I just started. Another one that I haven't put down, dude, and I never will, even though it's really starting to bug me. Mario Golf, bro.

unknown: 48:53

Get the fuck out of here.

Alex: 48:55

I played a round or two in the hospital when I was in the NICU, and I was like, Yeah, dude, monthly, I monthly will pick that shit up uh to make sure, and well, multiple times a month, but I'll always go back in to try and get the new skins or whatever, and you know, just knock that out of the way.

Luke: 49:09

I got some Joy-Con both of my Joy-Con sets. So, like, so they're always like pitching my ball, yeah. So it's like when I use my pro controller, it's great. But like, if I'm just playing handheld, which is what I enjoyed Mario Golf with the most, because I'm just kind of passively playing what like so that's really killed it for me. But if there's some tight skin, which there never is anymore, I'll jump on, dude.

Alex: 49:31

That's just it. So I go in for the skins, and dude, they just don't they're not gonna give what's the deal. I don't want to booze visor, man. I want I want Bowser to get some new shit. I want like is he so dude, it's such an easy thing to do.

Luke: 49:44

I'm not not sure what that was about. I don't know why either. It's driving me nuts. Come on, Nintendo because they have to play, they have to make five more survival sim games, uh, five more farming sim games, and ten more JRPGs that you'll never play.

Alex: 49:58

Oh, it's wild.

Luke: 49:59

That's what that's what they're up to.

Alex: 50:01

Uh, but those are the games, dude. Those are the games.

Luke: 50:03

Before we wrap up here, if he's still listening, hopefully Ace is recovering well. He went into surprise back surgery today. Ace is not an old man, so this was quite the shock to me.

Alex: 50:12

So I know he hit me up. Yeah, Savannah was at the at the hospital because he's at her hospital.

Luke: 50:16

Oh word. I thought I was gonna surprise you with that. Uh, I just thought towards the end of this like, if he's listening, I'm gonna shout him up. Oh, he's doing well. Yeah, um, hurt his back a while ago and never got better. I don't know where it got super bad and worse, and a man hurting at a disc. So here we are. Hopefully, hopefully he's doing all right.

Alex: 50:32

Much love to the homie Ace.

Luke: 50:34

Yes, sir. Hopefully he's got a CR TV in the hospital.

Alex: 50:39

Dog, he really wants us to play. I don't know. So, dude, he really wants us to play New Vegas, dude.

Luke: 50:48

I can see that being a perfect, like when we played Skyrim uh last year, was that January? Insert New Vegas in that time slot, and then I could send that for him. So oh, I have selected the game for next month. It is Super Mario World classic bucketless game. So when I did my little bucket, we beat that game before. Nah, dude, we had it on the Game Boy, so we'll get into that next month. But we had it on the Game Boy, and I used to play the first World or Two or whatever they call it in that game, and then I'd die. Yeah, um, but it's sick. I mean, I cheese it a little bit on the NSO. I'm not gonna lie, I do the rewind.

Alex: 51:21

Like, oh, that's what I was gonna ask. So you're gonna you're gonna play like so. You have it on the Switch, dude. I've got so many ways to play that game, I have to decide which way I want to do it.

Luke: 51:30

Just try to beat it, would be my only thing. And even if you don't, just try to get as far as you can. And then uh I have challenged you to pop in two parts. Alex complained, you know, they win one game, whatever, it's gonna be dope. Super Mario Maker 2, because you can't talk about Mario Maker 2, you get to make Mario, that's the whole conversation. It's dope. So I've challenged Alex to make a map in Mario Maker 2 based on uh Super Mario World. So you can choose in that, you can choose which basically skin and physics you want. So, like, hey, do you want this to be like Mario 1, 3, Super Mario World, uh U Deluxe kind of style? Of all the 2D Mario games, you can gotta choose which one you want to create a world or a map in. And uh, I think it'd be really cool. We'll see if we can get that far. We're definitely gonna play Super Mario World. That's definitely the agenda, but it'd be really dope if we also have some maps to share with the folks.

Alex: 52:22

Yeah, dude. I'm down. Sounds cool. Yeah, Mario the Big Right now. Got a movie coming out.

Luke: 52:29

Dude, I'm pumped for that movie. People are so mad about Chris Pratt. Like, they should not have picked Chris Pratt, but like, what's the who cares?

Alex: 52:36

Dude, the Jack Black as Bowser sounded pretty dope.

Luke: 52:40

A plus plus, like it could care less about I'm gonna fuck with that movie. Yeah, dude, it looks amazing, and it looks like they took their time on it, and it just looks it looks gorgeous from the trailer. And I don't know if with the babies, I don't know if I'll see it in the theater, but uh, I'll definitely spend way too much money to watch it at home.

Alex: 52:57

You're gonna get it before it comes out to rent in one of those like $30. You have dude.

Luke: 53:03

I did it, I did it in the panty with Sonic. Sand.

Alex: 53:06

Oh, dude, you paid 20 bucks to watch Sonic.

Luke: 53:09

First of all, take that tone down. The Sonic movie was low-key, pretty entertaining. Second of all, you goddamn right, dog. You goddamn right. It was good. I might have waited until it was like 10, but it was I refuse to buy it.

Alex: 53:23

Like you when you can stream a new movie for like 20 bucks. I refuse. I'm like, I'm waiting two months for it to be five.

Luke: 53:29

Yeah, I don't know if I did the full 20, but I know it was more than it should have been. And I was like, whatever.

Alex: 53:34

Yeah, that movie was dope though. It was pleasantly surprisingly Jim Carrey, good Dr.

Luke: 53:39

Robotnik.

Alex: 53:40

Well, shit, dude. It was uh good to get it in. Thanks for uh thanks for joining us, everybody. Let's get some Super Mario going on. Super Mario World. Hit the Discord, head to our website, do all that fun shit.

Luke: 53:52

Bye, CRT.

unknown: 54:21

But I think we can put our differences behind it. I will say though, that since you went all the trouble of waking me up, you must really, really love it. I love it too. There's just one small thing we need to take care of first.