Fortnite’s Kid-Safe Kill Bill, Rising RAM Prices, and Weighing Pokemon Packs | Games For Breakfast

Good morning, Matt. A
good morning, Will.
Good morning to all of you.
Welcome to Games for Breakfast, the internet talk show. We talk about this week's gaming and tech news, but we're also I have played a hell of a lot of games to get to this point, and I only have one more. The last one, the one I'm driving to right now, the only one left. And when I arrive at my destination, I will unal alive Bill.
See, it just doesn't work.
It doesn't really work.
It doesn't. No, it doesn't.
Huh. Anyway, we're going to get to that story. Will, how are you, my friend?
I'm tired, but good. We We were discussing this a little bit in the pre-show, but we are both a little Thanksgiving com.
What are you talking about? Absolutely not. I am exhausted. Uh, a lot of travel, lot of traffic. Uh, who knew?
Yeah.
That would be the case.
Yeah, back back me up on this one. Uh,

chat and uh and and you know, YouTube comments.
Thanksgiving is one of the holidays that just generally always makes you more tired.
Sure. It I I don't get me wrong, I had a lovely Thanksgiving,
right? Yeah. No, no, no. It's not like a bad thing, but it generally just makes you more tired.
Yeah. Right.
I want to give I want to give a shout out to to Jaime's family who I go to their Thanksgiving. Now, I come from a very small family. Um, and Jamie comes from a rather large family and I uh get to now have in my in my redacted year of age get to have a really nice huge Thanksgiving with like eight dogs and like 13 kids and like a bunch of people and it's just like it's like Home Alone like that size family like you know it's it's it's huge. It did. It did make the cut, but uh McCauley Kulkin is on the record saying he would like to return for another Home Alone movie as Kevin, but Kevin all grown up. And I think we should do that for reasons that are

definitely not me just wanting to watch the world burn.
Also, Munition Man, heck yeah, Snow Day. Let's go.
It is indeed.
Oh god, that's the best feeling. That's the best way to kick off this this Holland month of the winter. the winter festivities with a nice crisp snow day.
Yeah. Uh the Midwest uh got a lot of snow over the weekend. They got their first really big snowstorm. I know people who are plow operators. I know people who are snowed in. Uh yeah, there's it's a lot. It's just a lot.
Well, I need this a lot.
That That's No, that's fair. I'm probably going to tell you to vamp for like 30 seconds at some point while I go get more caffeine because I'm
No, that's totally fine. Um well actually I I you know will over the last week where I was gone I actually overindulged quite a bit in caffeine where I was.
Uh yeah is that possibly because you were uh listening to Will's 321 rule of con preparation.

What is that?
Uh you need three hours of sleep, two meals, one shower every day.
Yeah, that's about right minimum.
Uh I was at PAX unplugged. I was about to say West. That's not true. for packs unplugged in Philly uh this last weekend uh and I didn't get back till late Monday, which is why there was no games for breakfast last week. Thank you so much for uh for waiting for for us to come back. Um it was a wonderful show. I'd never been to PAX before, but I was invited uh due to our friend uh Jasmine that Bronze Girl uh to be on this panel we designed called OneHour Ones OneShot and uh that was with Ify Waterway um and um and uh what's it called? I'm pulling up my nonsense here because my brain is toast. uh myself and then of course uh Maya Baron of um of Dispatch fame uh one of the voice actors over on Dispatch and we played Pen Dragon. The idea was basically how do you train your friends to play a game that you love in order to in a quick and contained setting so that you can

convince them to play a longer one. Cuz you know like when you sit down with a friend, it's essentially like um you have all these rules in your head of a thing you want to do, but you it's you're excited about it and maybe you don't pitch it the right way or something like that. Well, Jasmine did an excellent job in the Mo Man Theater. I think we we filled most of it. It was like I I I don't know if anyone who is here now off for these shows on YouTube or Twitch was there. Um but it was a excellent turnout. It was streamed though. I haven't been able to find the stream of it yet. I know because uh I have pictures of them filming us and uh and the different cuts of the actual like what was being put on the um on the projector. But um it went awesome. We actually finished the adventure in like 45 minutes. It was super clean. We got a real good gist of the pen dragon system, which was super fun. And uh then we got to do sort of a Q&A a bit about uh with the four of us talking about all of our GM kind of tips and tricks for doing something like this. Uh and it was a lovely lovely uh excuse to get up to

Philly unplugged. I know it's many people's super favorite convention of the year. It's all board games and whatnot. And it was awesome. It was great. Um I ran into a bunch of people. Will more than one person came up to me and said they loved games for breakfast. I'm just throwing it out there. I think we've I think
two two
four
four. There are four of you at PAX Unplugged and you all found Matt. That's Wow. That you know that's ridiculous.
Yeah.
Um uh yeah, I think I had one or two the last time I went to Magfest.
Yeah. Yeah. No, it's it's nice. Four. Let's go. Four. Um, and then, uh, what's it called? Yeah, exactly. RC, I couldn't figure out. There was no link. I was trying to get it out there, too. I couldn't find it. I thought it would be on the pack site. It wasn't. I'm wondering. They do have a ticketed version of a thing, which I

don't think is I mean, I I won't tell people what's worth something and what's not of like a a digital ticket, but then like normally they stream their entire main stage anyway on Twitch, so I was like, I I don't know what if anyone's ever done that, let me know how it goes. Yeah.
Um anyway, I uh it was great. I'm very much looking forward to going back next year. I had a blast playing with these folks. Uh Maya was also in particular, who I I did not know, uh was an absolute delight. Um I believe, God, I should look this up. I want to look this up and give a proper shout out. She uh and and uh her her folks are doing a and I kid you not, a Kingdom Hearts deep dive lore podcast. Uh, I'm looking up now. I will find it. I will find it. I will find it later and I will post it in the show notes. Um, oh, wait. No, I found it. I think I think I found it. Yeah, I

think it's called Simple and Clean, the Kingdom Hearts podcast. [laughter] So, please go check that out wherever fine podcasts are sold. Um, uh, yeah, I don't know. I I very much enjoyed meeting all these folks. And, uh, also Jasmine and if he slated on a Inc. as per usual. Mercer was there. Mercer was and they and they shifted a Inc. to Daggerheart, which was super interesting. I never fully understood like I I think that was the final like thing to understand the system of Daggerheart. Like watching it actually be played for like 3 hours live. I kind of like everything clicked for it which was very very fun and nice.
Correct me if I'm wrong. It is a much more storytelling focused system than a crunchy system.
Yes.
Yeah. So it's much more like um powered by the apocalypse or forged in the dark system which are both much more about telling a story and using dice to help guide that experience rather than D and D which is a war game. Right. And that's

not a bad or good thing on either side. It's just a difference between them. Uh there are reasons to play both.
Also, Nova, I'll figure it out. I'll make sure that that podcast link is in the show notes.
Um but anyway, yeah, PAX was great. Super fun. Would go again. 10 out of 10. Uh if you were there and you said hi, hello back again. And it was so lovely meeting uh so so many people. Uh I feel like I feel like extra history and extra extra history and games for breakfast in particular. And um the magic thing the the magic thing over on wizard site there.
Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean that also makes sense for unplugged, right? Cuz like you're you're in the target audience.
Um it's it's really really nice. So um and yeah, just a lot of cool games and stuff to check out. The um I played actually for the first time uh Pirate Borg which was very fun. uh which is just it was sort of like a naval combat thing which isn't usually my jam but I

wanted to take the spirit of this 1hour oneshot panel I was on was like let's see how other people are trying to get people to play these games so I tried a few others and they did a great job
so yeah
cool awesome I think unfortunately that means that all that remains is for us to dive into a thing that we're going to be totally normal about
totally normal
very normal Um,
records scratch. So, I believe on the 30th, just in time for your trip to Fan Coma to subside, um a collaboration between uh the houses of Fortnite and Tarantino commenced and there is now a Yeah. And now the two blorbs have kissed and uh there is a

cinematic endeavor you can watch on Fortnite called Yuki's Revenge in a Fortnite After Dark uh thing. Uh this is essentially a 9-ish minute film uh directed by Quentyn Tarantino starring Uma Thurman reprising her wrote her her role as Beatatrix aka the bride from the uh seminal 20 2003 and 2004 film uh which is going to be released again in its in its entirety called uh Kill Bill the whole bloody affair which I have already bought tickets for. It's 4 hours and like 45 minutes or something. Uh there will be an intermission. Um
Oh good. I was going to say that's
so lucky. First question, great question. Is it canon? Yep. This is apparently something that was in the original scripts that Tarantino cut out. Um, and you can kind of see the elements of that original piece of Kill Bill uh sort of in there still through the dialogue. You know, it's good or bad. It's very Tarantino, like it feels right

at home in the Kill Bill universe. But I think where where where the dialogue ends, that's also where that homecoming feeling kind of does as well, right, Will?
Yeah. Yeah. So, uh I Matt I hadn't watched this and Matt was like, "Will you have to watch this and I watched it and I made it less than a minute until it I like I'm not a huge Tarantino person. I'm not like I wouldn't say I'm a fan. I don't dislike his films. I've watched many of them. Um, and and so I have like a decent sense of like what feels like Tarantino. And it made like less than 60 full seconds into a 10-minute thing before a fish man sold the bride a car and I was like completely pulled out of it. Like it just
Huh.
Yeah. Yeah. So, so, okay, I'm going to make a large statement that I kind of came up with while Will and I were talking about this this morning

because I was really bothered by this crossover in a way that other crossovers haven't bothered me. And I want to make it very clear before I kind of go in on this. I have no problem with Fortnite. I think I've made that very clear on this channel many, many times. I think an un an unthemed world has a lot of potential and you can do a lot of neat stuff with it. Um, I'm also I feel like Kill Bill as a as a you know IP or two two-parter movie or one part of one movie broken up into two parts was incredibly seinal along with Tarantino's films for me in general um when I was younger. Uh I haven't really gone back and rewatched a lot of them but I've seen every one of his films multiple times. I'm saying like recently I haven't like done a deep dive back. So, I was really looking forward to this Kill Bill uh the whole bloody affair thing. And then when I heard that Fortnite was doing a thing and I believe in select theaters it will be playing. I don't know if like in the actual spot in the movie where it goes or or just on the side it will be

playing along with the whole bloody affair. So, I'll report back and see if my New York based screening has that going for it as well. Um, and with the other crossovers we've talked about before, like the the one battle after another, that film had a Fortnite crossover where you played some things and they watered down some themes and like um even that didn't really like rub me the wrong way that this the way that this one did. And and and I think the statement that I want to say to sort of make a very clear point and then sort of explain why I feel it and I'd love to hear what everyone else thinks about this as well. uh is I think this collaboration, despite the fact it being done with the best intentions, despite the fact Tarantino came in and directed Uma Thurman in a mo cap suit to do this thing, um I think this crossover damages the artistic integrity of both properties involved. I don't know if it's going to help or hinder monetarily. I'm talking specifically about like what each thing

does and what each thing does well and the why of of the doing of that good thing they all do
right.
Um
yeah like and that's if if you if you were sitting there chuckling at the thumbnail and you're like haha that's a funny YouTube terms of service joke. It's It's not actually because like in in my opinion, the artistic integrity thing is that Kill Bill is bloody and violent on purpose for a point. and and and while it does relish in that violence, the violence is never um even even when the violence is trivialized in the Kill Bill films, it it's still um the the the childish way of saying it is like it is still scary.
It is still like oh god. Like, yeah, you can enjoy The House of Falling Leaves and The Crazy 88 and like all like that whole thing, but like there's there's

more violence for dramatic effect than violence for spectacle.
Yeah. Um, and so so the violence and the and the visceralness and the seriousness uh of the violence specifically around the character of the bride um is important
to the to it and and that's not to say that it couldn't be done in an animated version or even in the Fortnite engine like this has done. Um, but like I think step one is talking about how they treat the violence in this because they do have to Fortnite it because it's Fortnite.
Yeah. So like
you want to take that part?
Yeah. So like when people get shot in Kill Bill, right? The Tarantino blood fountain is a thing, right? That's a thing. This is as much a part of Tarantino's work as excessive cursing or any of the other things that people in chat are mentioning about Tarantino's work, right? That are that's like part of it, right? So, like people getting

shot happens for a reason in the plot and the script and like it has impact and like it's it has a specific style.
Yeah.
And in Fortnite when you get shot the bullet just kind of vanishes and there's like a little pixelated mark
a blue blue pixies.
Yeah. It's like blue p. So like okay and then people just get up after being shot like four or five times. They even have a narrative conceit. There's like a Bill made a drink that like makes go- go like almost like
which is also weird, right? Like the whole
I mean there's there's fantastical elements in Kill Bill. I'll take it. Like that Fortniteification is totally fine. Um Oh, real quick. I want to side note cuz uh Anna the Owl Lady says, "It's been a decade, but I miss when Extra Credits talked about game development theories." We very much do. uh on on Thursdays, Will and our studio director Jeff talk about and design club talk all about that sort of stuff live and uh the last few episodes

specifically I think since we've uh not the board game one since we've come back but also the um escape rooms episode the even the the night reign multiplayer episode but more importantly the designing a game you can actually make episode where James deep dives into the design of the uh Cyberpunk Legends card game he's been developing. All of those are really good if you're looking for stuff for that. So, that stuff's still here, too.
Yeah.
Um, but going back to Kill Bill,
right? Yeah. Well, and and to Fortnite and to Fortnite, right? Fortnite if it wasn't Fortnite.
No. And that's the thing, right? Like I wouldn't I might have brought up on this show like, oh, I went and saw the whole bloody affair. It was neat.
Yeah.
Um, so like, and even when, and I'm going to I'm sorry. I'm going to spoil the ending of this thing. I won't even say to who, but when the bride is inevitably triumphant, considering this deleted scene takes place somewhere in the middle of the movie, so you imagine it's not going to uh there's no real sort of narrative danger there. Um, hey uh sorry, no problem. Um, the the

way that even uh the character's death, who the bride bests, is taken care of, is she's she falls down a stairway dead. You don't see the body and then you see the Fortnite like oh you've been killed in Fortnite like like sort of like zoom suckup animation like digitization sort of thing and you're like okay there is there is Fortnite let me back up. Fortnite as a game does trivialize violence.
That's it. That's one of the very few themes it does have in its unthemed world. I don't have a problem with a video game doing that. It's a a silly shooting game where it's it's not bloody and gory and it's almost like a laser tag experience, right?
Yeah.
Um I think that works for many many crossovers. I think it works for The Simpsons. The Simpsons is a farcical world. Fortnite is a farcical world. Do

I think that it makes sense to have Homer running around with a gun? No. But like that doesn't like it. there's enough mishmash like sort of connective tissue between it. It works. Even hell even when they did Star Wars when um the the the last mainstream uh Star Wars film in the in the Ray trilogy when it dropped, how they dropped a plot point of Palpatine returning in Fortnite and not in the movie. Do I think that hurt Star Wars? Yeah. Do I think that hurt Fortnite? Nope. I think that did a lot for Fortnite. I think also Space Wizards and Lasers also fit right at home in there. I think silly things like Mortal Kombat can fit right at home in there. There's a super violent thing, but where also the violence is treated in the same farcical way, even if it is gory as the farcical violence is in Fortnite.
Yeah.
And then the concerts and stuff are just sort of gatherings and having fun and like, you know, and actually in the in the comments or or you can uh blue sky us. We'll put that up later uh on here or even um you know, chat with us right

here if you're live watching on Twitch. Let us know if there's any other Fortnite collaborations you think breaks the mold so much like I think this one does because I'm having trouble finding one that I think
intrinsically not only hurts the the teamed up partnership but also kind of hurts and I will say this with a completely straight face the artistic integrity of Fortnite.
Yeah. Because like I I think that while many people dislike it, right? like that there are definitely people who are all in on Fortnite and there are definitely people who are all in on not liking Fortnite and both of those are perfectly valid opinions, right? Um I do think though that we can say that like Fortnite has a goal that it's aiming at most of the time, even if that goal is like to be the PC Smash Bros., right? Which is kind of it, right? Does do any of these characters being in the same place make sense? No. Are we going to do it anyway? Yes. Why violence? Great. That's like that is a thing that they are

aiming at. And here it just feels weird. Like it feels almost weirder than Superman holding a gun.
Although that that one I will also say I feel like that one is like bordering on the
a thousand% and I've used I've used that thing multiple multiple times. But the way that I can mentally gymnasticsized real word I checked um the Superman running around with a gun is essentially because of the world of Fortnite it is essentially laser tag.
Yeah.
Like it feels like Superman playing laser tag. Does that make a lot of sense? No. But like that's kind of how it is coded visually. Even though the the weapons themselves do look like military weapons, but they're big flashes and blue sparks and things and like that's that's sort of where I think that's where it lands. When you start doing things that where where violence is an int like

the visceralness of the violence is an intrinsic part of the metatextual narrative that it's trying to portray and you put it in uh Fortnite, that gets weird. And you know, I think it's it's a it's Oh, what do you got, Will? I gotta sort of
And I think it's really important here. If it was just if it was just Kill Bill character skins in Fortnite,
I was literally we're mind melding.
Yeah. Right. That would be one thing, but to portray part of the narrative of Kill Bill in this way to be like, "Hey, we did like a real art thing." And then like there's a scene and we'll get we'll get we have a screenshot of it later where they're [clears throat] fighting in his street and the banana guy, you know, the banana guy comes out of his house with a shotgun and the bride's like, "No, you have to go back inside. It's not safe." And he looks sad that he doesn't get to shotgun anyone. And it just completely like misses.

It feels like it's at odds with itself, right? the like the Fortnite like gleeful weird slapstick violence is at odds with this is a deadly serious confrontation between two assassins who want the other dead dead not unal alived
right like that's and so it feels like presenting that as part of the Kill Bill narrative just like doesn't do anything other than show that it's not Kill Bill and it's not Fortnite so why did we do this
like and I can't imagine And look, I he seems very happy about it. We have a bunch of interviews with Quenton Tarantino and the Hollywood Reporter and Vice. Those two articles are linked in the show notes as well. Um it seems like they came to Tarantino and asked to have a meeting and he thought like, oh, they're going to pitch me to do something like with some of my characters or like something in the Kill Bill universe. And then I think that from what I'm gleaning, and this could be wrong, they eventually knew that he had cut scenes from, you know, that he

had talked about in the past that they had cut shots or scenes from the movies for time, which is hilarious if you think about how long Kilp is, but it makes sense. Like this this sequence line, right?
This sequence that is in Fortnite, even if it was filmed live action, would not really fit in my opinion anywhere in either Kill Bill. Like pacewise, even just on that level, it wouldn't. Yeah.
Um, but of course when you're writing scripts and things, you leave stuff on the cutting room floor all the time, things you really like. And um, then when they wanted to do this in sort of the Fortnite engine, I could see probably the the artists in Tarantito and in Uber Thurman were like kind of really really excited about like, oh, this is a thing we' talked about in the past. This will actually be neat because we actually get to make this thing now. And then it's like the last bit of the movie that was never made. And I I would and I want to make I want to make it very clear. My problem with this as a whole is is is the the the sum of a lot of different parts. We've talked about a few already, but then to have it be like

this legitimate true element of the film that the original creators wanted to make and then team up with Fortnite, I would have no problem if they just rendered the exact way that Tarantino would like truly sign off or want it in the in the edit and make that the thing. I the violence watered down does sort of muddy it a bit but like sure the thing that gets me is literally the things we're going to kind of show uh right now. Oh by the way uh go to the next slide will real quick. It's called it's called Yuki's revenge. It's basically uh GoGo's twin sister goes for revenge after um spoiler alert for Kill Bill. Uh uh Goari is the bodyguard of one of the people that the bride has to kill. uh the takes them out along with the crazy 88 and in one of the most spectacular and gory violent fight scenes uh I think I've ever seen in my entire life. So gory that I believe even to get the R rating they had to make it black and white. It cuts to black and it works better in black and white in my opinion. Uh because it is so

that might be one of the very few times I can think of where a mainstreamish movie had to tone down the violence to get an R. By the way, that's weird in the States.
Or maybe it was a PG-13. I actually don't remember. Kill
there's no way in
I doubt it.
There's no way Kill Bill's PG-13.
Yeah.
No, there's too much blood. There's just There's It's realistic, too. No PG.
There's no There's no NC7s are usually for sex.
Yeah. No cure for violence. Yeah.
Yeah. or or they're um for excessive violence in a way that like an indie film would do like in a more for shock value thing. But anyway,
but I think I think the thing that gets me the most is the way that
it's sad either way. either if Quentyn Tarantino and Uma Thurman were excited about the next bits we're going to talk about that makes me feel very disconnected from their original work and again it's their work and they can

do whatever they want with it but then it it makes me not want to engage with it like this this short for for the multitude of reasons but mainly for the one I'm going to get into right now has sadly made me less excited for a movie that I'm going to go rewatch in in what's supposed to be its like cinematic entirety in the way it was intended to be seen uh that I've been waiting for for years I've been like on the wait list on on every sort of movie ticket app to get tickets for this thing for easily since since it was rumored. I've always checked like a year year and a half ago and I think they announced ticket sales like a few months ago and I've been like alert me right and this made me slightly less excited for that. You know, the art is the art and you can't take away sort of what is already there. But like the the two things that make me sad one way or the other are the insertion of all these different Fortnite elements into this short because if Tarantino liked it, that feels bad. And if he didn't like it, but they were required to get paid to make the thing, that also

feels bad. Uh let's just go through a few of them here real quick before we we go on. So, there's one part where the bride is running away in downtown uh Hollywood. Uh
it's called Battlewood because Hollywood is copyrighted.
Yeah.
Or trademarked. Trademark.
I don't even I don't know. Um but like then she jumps over a fence and then has a swims next to one of these characters in like a big Fortnite shark thing and they're like on a in a a pool on a floaty with Christmas tree lights on it cuz apparently that's a Fortnite thing. And we spend an exorbitant amount of time with this joke of her swimming past it with it trying to swim and falling off a thing even though there is an intense gun battle going on outside. Um let's keep it moving. Here we have uh Yuki uh going through Battlewood and taking pictures and going to Hollywood walks of fame and things but with like Fortnite characters everywhere
cuz it's Battlewood. Again, this is an assassin who again, it's supposed to be like a whimsical character as well, so

that almost makes sense, but like
it just this doesn't feel like
it doesn't feel like anything in the world of Kill Bill at all.
Right. Cuz like her whimsicality in a Kill Bill sense is shown in like the first shot where she gets on a plane and starts painting her nails hot pink on
her hands. Nails on her hands.
Hands hands. Okay. starts painting them hot pink on the way like that and is like blowing bubblegum like that's Tarantino whimsicality not oh my gosh let me snap a selfie with this insert ad for Fortnite skin here cuz like a reminder all of these are designed to get people to buy these skins. Yeah, Yuki also uh and GoGo in the in the in the film is is sort of played as a like they're whimsical and like a caricature of a of a of a school girl, right? And that's supposed to be off-putting in

this dark and violent world,
right? And here she
or her sister here, it it it's not off-putting. In fact, the bride is off-putting because everything else is weird and wacky,
right? Um, let's keep going real quick to the Yeah, this is where uh the bride rents a car, rents the um kitty wagon. They I don't have no Look, the [ __ ] wagon is the [ __ ] wagon from the movie. I think it's they did a like that's a good joke. They have like a Fortnite cat and then the wagon on the back of her pickup truck. I think that's very very funny. Uh, I have no problem with things like that, but it's like, why would this moth man be renting the bride a car or checking into a motel or wherever the hell they are,
right?
And then finally, the thing that Will was talking about, the moment where again, in an intense battle where one character is trying to kill another for murdering her sister, uh, the banana comes out with a shotgun and she, the bride, yells, "Get in your house and stay on the ground." And looks super disappointed and sort of walks back inside. There are

there are so many moments in this thing where they just go so hard on Fortnite to remind you that it's Fortnite that it completely neuters any effectiveness it could ever possibly have or I or imagine the effectiveness that was intended in the original cut works uh you know for lack of better word intent. I I am incredibly disappointed in this. I
and I just want to like do like a litmus test here.
Are we upset about this because it's like this is always a problem with crossovers, right? Are we upset because we feel like a crossover that like an original IP that we love was treated poorly or even if we didn't like Kill Bill, would we still feel like this missed the mark? Right? Is this is this deeply rooted? Like is this only as bad as it is because we like Kill Bill?

If we didn't like Kill Bill, I would not have the emotional response I think that I am having. However, I think all of my points would remain the same. Let let's try to think of something that like um uh I don't have an incred like I'm just trying to think of like a franchise or something that I don't have a a tie with that I guess it doesn't really matter. It's it's the fact you can see two pieces of art and if you're you know using using our media literacy brains, we can see what each one is trying to do and how they are trying to do it.
It's 2025. We're not allowed to have media literacy.
Oh no. Well, uh shooty shooty bang bang anyway. Um looking at these two pieces of medium and seeing how they are both not being serviced. Again, the art, who knows if this will also make money. There's also an argument that most people who play Fortnite probably weren't alive when either of the Kill Bills were even released, let alone know who the bride is or any of these characters. So probably So it might not matter like right like maybe that's the thing. Maybe that's the play

is because no one knows who these people are. They have to put in these Fortnite people that I bet you more people who play Fortnite definitely know who that peely banana is than who know who the bride is. But they got to sell them. I would turn into dust if I saw someone be like, "Hey, who's that person next to Peely?" I would just die, right? I would just die.
But Will, to your point, the whole point of this is not only to uh, you know, make money in Fortnite because I believe you can just watch this for free. It's to sell the skins or to do the battle pass to sell the skins. Um, and you have to like uh Yuki and the bride in order to sell these skins and tie them to the world to make it feel like so like do I think this will be monetarily valuable? I bet you they'll break even on it. Like I I'm you know, sure. Um, and that is enough of a of a win on that side. I just think truly because of what Kill Bill is and what Fortnite is, taking out all the stuff I love or hate about any of them, they intrinsically do not work well

together and actively hurt what the other one is trying to do overall with their property. Um, chat right now, seriously, is there any other It doesn't even have to be Fortnite. You can talk about Magic. You can talk about whatever. Is there any other pairup of two things that one of them into a video game specifically or a game I' I'd like to stick it with that you're just like that you feel the exact same way that it hurts both properties artistic merit equally.
Yeah.
And I'd love to just sort of like as we're as we're closing out this story kind of go over that. And please leave a comment if you're watching this on YouTube or message us on Blue Sky if you're watching this on Nebula and I'd like to like actually have conversations about this.
Yeah, you can you can Um, I'm having a hard time finding something else that I feel this exact same way about and I would love to to
figure out like if this truly does stand alone.
Uh, I just want to address something. Yeah, there's lore in Fortnite.
Oh, yeah.

Fortnite has an internally consistent lore doc. It is weird. So, okay. In the same and I I used the Smash Bros. comparison earlier for a reason, right? In the same way that Smash Bros or Heroes of the Storm, which is Blizzard's crossover moa or like League of Legends or any other like spectacle fighter or like MOA or weird crossover thing, they do have lore. It might not serve the purpose that many of the people coming there for one of the characters are used to having lore serve, right? But it does have lore and it is mostly consistent. It's just thin
and for a very specific purpose, but it does exist, right? It's just not everyone's cup of tea, I would say.
Yeah. Uh I I want to comment. There's a bunch of good stuff coming in, but before we get into the the two IPs that that kissed and never should, uh uh Doggyear says, uh I never watched Kill Bill, so I can't tell if it's being done a disservice. And I think that's an

interesting point. Uh because many people who play Fortnite have not seen Kill Bill. Fortnite might even make out on this deal a little bit better. In fact, I think it kind of does. But like I think if you're looking at sort of maybe maybe it doesn't do as much damage if you are just not familiar, right? And maybe that's what they're banking on too.
Uh let's see. Uh Arla oops. Uh says Negan as a guest character in Tekken 7. That's an interesting one because um
Negan is a guest character in Mortal Kombat. Yes. Like that's an easy yes, right? In Tekken, no.
I'm trying to think if it does if it actively does a discern because they're both is it's different violence, but they're both violent charact. I mean, actually, you could that's a close that's close. I I think I'm trying. Okay, let's look at that because Negan, I've watched The Walking Dead. If

you're not familiar, Negan is a character who kills a beloved other character in The Walking Dead. #spoilers for Walking Dead. Um, the the Tekken is a fighting game that is intrinsically not terribly gory. The violence, I would say, in Tekken and in The Walking Dead are completely different. Um, I think the only difference here is it's not, how do I put this? Um, Yoshi Mitsu isn't walking into the jail in The Walking Dead. This is not like this is a borrow. It's a crossover, but like for instance, this is Tarantino making a film in Fortnite and using all the Fortnite trappings in a Kill Bill story which was originally a film. It's a very much a snake eating its own tail where Negan, which I think has the same amount of problems in a in a Tekken environment, is just sort of a borrowed thing that is not fully crossing over across mediums.
Yeah.
But I liked that.
Somebody brought up a really good one. Um, which was, let me see if I can find

who
I know you guys were going so fast I'm like scrolling back through.
The Drews being in Space Jam 2.
The DS The Dukes is the gang from Clockwork Orange.
Yep. Talk about talk about uh completely neutering the point of an entire film.
Yeah. Also,
because you recognize them, that's why they're watching a basketball game in a Warner Brothers themed nightmare scenario.
Right. Also, tell me you don't understand media literacy without referencing Clockwork Orange.
Yeah.
Like anyway, I think that's a big one. I also do want to answer a question that I thought was really good. Um, did the second or third Matrix movie have half the story told via a video game? No. Enter the Matrix tells a side story about Naobbi and Ghost that takes place in between I believe two and three.
Yeah.
And it the the important thing much like the Animatrix is that it stands alone because it tells part of a story that you don't need to know. You don't need

to know about any of those things to still understand the point of uh Matrix 2 and three, right? which is it's a trans allegory of the cave essentially. Uh like that's that's the whole point of the Matrix, right? Spoilers for I guess the Matrix. And so you don't need to understand those, but you can if you want to understand more, which I think is like a good way to do this, right? You can if you want to understand more, but it's not like Star Wars where you walk in to the third star of the new trilogy of Star Wars and you're like, what? I missed all this. What do you mean there was a thing that you're referencing in the slow crawl that only happened in Fortnite? I'm confused.
Yeah. Uh JV Wanderer brings up a good point. This lost episode wouldn't happen if Fortnite if if I believe is if Fortnite hadn't stepped in is basically it. It would it would have just been still lost. Uh I think they made uh this just for fun.
Yeah. I I don't disagree with that. I

also though I Tarantino still has enough clout where if there was something he was dying to make, especially in an animated format, he could have released a short uh fairly wellunded on any of the multitude of streaming services that would have it uh to make this this the exact same way without all the Fortnite divided like the Fortnite about it. I I don't think I think this I had come back to my original argument. The the pairing of these two things doesn't make either of the two things better,
right?
I feel like there's always a winner in a lot of and and again I by that I don't even mean monetarily. The goal for Fortnite at Epic is to make money and and I guess sometimes if if Tarantino needed wanted that maybe they were paying a huge paycheck to do this, maybe that's another goal for him, too. That's totally fine. But the art that is made uh I feel like is weaker and and it

feels like that might be more the case.
Um there's a multitude of ways this could have come to light over the last 20 years and be made. This is not something that um listen more abstract nonsensical bad stuff than this. Uh they could have gotten it done. I think
Yeah. I I I got I got another favorite uh that I think Sean Sean brings up really well.
Roblox doing Ready Player One.
Is it doing that? Are they doing that
for real?
I I I I I think so. Are they Is that a real thing or a hypothetical thing, chat? Because if it's a real thing, I'm going to They did it in 2018. [laughter] Okay. So, in the before times. Got it. No, but like that. Yeah, that's 100% it. Cuz Ready Player 1 fundamentally is both a fun romp through uh a bunch of nostalgia in a very pulp fashion, right?

It's it is it is pure pulp entertainment, right? Allah free guy. Free guy. Yeah. Um or uh and simultaneously manages to tell you that while that nostalgia is cool, you should live in the real world.
Yeah. Like that is the point of Ready Player One that the movie totally misses and a bunch of people who read the book totally miss. But it does end on the note of you should live in the real world. So Roblox telling you you should come into Roblox to do Ready Player One stuff is like
no.
What? Okay.
Uh great contact uh comment from Danimal DM. Would it have been quote better if done in something like Call of Duty? Yes, that is interesting. I think overall yes, the world would feel more like they're correct if it had shoehorned things in it. I feel like it would not be it would

not be like the characters from Call of Duty popping their heads out and renting people motel rooms. Like I think there is a real world where you could have your cake and eat it too in that particular pairup. Again, I'm not saying and and a lot of this is the interesting part. I think a lot of the fortnightification of Call of Duty is BS because I don't think Call of Duty works as a unthemed world. But when you throw Skeletor into it or when you throw Nicki Minaj into it, it starts really getting out of the military shooter genre. And I know that there's like the zombies version and stuff like that, but there's still a general tone um in in the majority of the the things outside of skins.
Let's take another example, right, of a property that is like hugely about crossovers. Dead by Daylight. Okay,
Dead by Daylight manages to pull off crossovers that no one else could do,

right? A um a Freddy crossover from Five Nights at Freddy does not feel weird because it is a world that is intrinsically horrific and about incredible violence being done on helpless people, right? every killer has like a really gory execution cutscene that they get to do if they've won the game in a particular way. Like this is part of the world, right? And so it fits in that case. It doesn't feel totally inconsistent at all because the horror and the violence is part and parcel of Dead by Daylight. But if you put it in Fortnite, it doesn't work because now this horrific thing has been reduced to a cartoon, right?
Yeah. It's funny. Five Night at I'm not familiar enough with Five Night at Freddy's to to know like and I know that they're like it's it's totally baked in horror. I could see a world because the horror of a Five Nights at Freddy's or even like a Chucky or hell even a Freddy

in the later years is kind of farcical like they're kind of cartoony monsters and therefore it would work. Um but again that's we're getting deep into the the hypothetical soup here that I don't know. Anyway, we've spent um a lot of time uh sort of going over this and I'd love to I'll kind of crawl through the comments and stuff tomorrow or the next day and see what I can comment back and and and chat about it because this did irk me a lot and I think obviously obviously it comes from a place of loving Kill Bill and I want to even say like
overall respecting Fortnite.
I think we have respect for Fortnite even though neither of us particularly enjoy it or like it. I if I had infinite time, I would play Fortnite a bunch, but there's too many other games and too much stuff for me to do to actually do it. But that doesn't mean that it's bad. It It's definitely not.
Um I respect what they are trying to do. I just think this is a a true miss that has not bettered either properties

artistic merit uh for joining it up. But let let you know again let us know. Come come at me. Come at me friends. [laughter]
Come at me friends. Um, and we'll see if we can keep this discussion going. We do have more stories. I'm so sorry that took so long.
No, it's okay. I think it's worth I think it's also worth us taking a little time because we are bringing we can like open this up into the world of like sometimes crossovers aren't like you there's a difference between not enjoying a crossover and recognizing that a crossover is bad, right? Like those can be two different things. It could be not for you. And you can also say this is not well executed and here are the analytical reasons why it's not well executed without liking either part of it. And you can recognize a wellexecuted crossover even if you don't like either part,
right? You could be like, you know, I don't like Dead by Daylight. But I think

the Vecna crossover that they did for Dn D is really well done. It's a really well technically executed crossover. I don't like Dead by Daylight and I'm not playing a lot of D and D, but I do recognize that crossover as like a good one, right?
I think Dan Dan has another singer. Our conversation was going to take longer, but part of it was cut. Check Fortnite for the missing parts in the future. They'll all be there. Um, where we get into all the stuff that didn't didn't quite make it. I hope Fortnite doesn't become home of like here's the stuff that wasn't good enough to be in the other stuff.
Please, no. All right, that does however bring us exactly to our ad break. So stick around. We're going to do fake ads for things you can't buy while Twitch tech gets real ads for things that they can buy to keep our payrolls off over on Twitch. So Matt,
would you like to uh to to begin also? Uh yes,
I did. I did. Oh, Jay, he did. Yes, I

did. He did.
I did.
Jay's got Jay's had some ziggers in chat, too. Hey everyone, Matt from Extra Credits here. As Jay just wonderfully pointed out, would you like to put the creamer into your coffee in the most metal and dark way possible? Then may I suggest the Dairy Estus Flask? Now, I know it comes usually in red and blue, but have you tried sort of a darker gray? You'd think it would actually be something more of like a cream or um or a or a is taupe. No, that's not it. What's the color? Eggshell, perhaps. No, no, no. This is to make it so that when you're running around the lands between or when you're at the Firelink Shrine getting all toasty before you go out and die again, your lovely, lovely dairy beverage does not keep getting warm. It is fresh and cool and you can put it in whatever health potions you would like. My music is over. Back to you, Will. [snorts]
Okay, I'm ready.

Ah,
here we go. Hey friends, do you think there aren't enough crossovers in the world? Well, have I got a product for you. It's the Torment Nexus. That's right. Brought to you by all of the worst ideas that you think we've had this year. We're going to introduce a new thing called the Torment Nexus. That's just poorly executed crossovers. That's right. It's a Yu-Gi-Oh Magic set and also a Magic Yu-Gi-Oh set. It's Pokemon crossed over with Digimon. It's Kill Bill, only we've given everyone Super Soers filled with red paint. It's the Powerpuff Girls doing real violence in the style of WWE. That's right, the Torment Nexus. It's only bad crossovers.
Those are some fire. I I The Super Soers in Red Paint and the Powerpuff Girls committing real violence is like such they're two very visceral images. I'm pretty good at this, but some

sometimes I have a good one.
Also, I want to give full credit to the the Will came up with the uh the the tagline of the thumbnail of Fortnite unalived, Bill. Uh that is not SEO nonsense. I would easily write killed on a thumbnail, but it's just too good because I think those three words
convey really highlight the actual problem while also being very, very funny.
Yep. Uh uh I also prefer the Torment Nexus book over the movie. Um but you know it's it is what it is in uh in in 2025. Uh I watched them completely butcher Ready Player 1 for a movie and I was sad about it. Like Ready Player One, by the way, isn't great. It's schllock. It is pulp. It is not It's not It's It's a fun romp. It is empty fun calories,
but it is schllock pointed directly at your proclivities.
Correct. And it does end with a good

point, right? Which is aimed at the target demographic of the book, which is you do have to unplug and live in the real world. Like that is what it is to succeed is to meet the people who you've developed these friendships with online and walk into the real world for the things that matter. And the book like actually ends on that note and the movie just kind of goes, we missed that part. It's fine.
Yo, but did you see the Iron Giant was there?
Anyway,
yeah.
Hey, let's let's talk about We've talked about video games and then going into movie tie-ins and stuff like that. But Will, how would all of this run? Games, movies that are games now, games that are movies. If you're doing it on a computer, what would you need in order to make any of these things become a reality?
You need RAM, Matt.
Oh, well, I should just go get some, right? I mean, I have a decent amount. No
about that.
Oh,

so there's currently a problem going on in the world which is going to which has pretty broadreaching effects, which is that the price of RAM is skyrocketing. Uh this is a a thing which not even Black Friday and rampant commercial consumerism for the holiday season can fix. The price of RAM is going through the roof. In some cases, it has as much as tripled over the past month. That is tripled. Double is a big word. Triple is a stupid word, right? Um the there there is a real problem with that. So, uh we're doing this. Will, what could be causing this rampant inflation and costs of pieces of computers?
Hey, Matt, I'll give you uh three guesses. Which two-letter acronym is at fault? And the uh and and the first one doesn't count.
Wow. Uh would that be AI?
It would. It would, Matt. You see, just like the power consumption and the graphics cards and the stock market have

all been completely screwed by this AI bubble, RAM is also being screwed by this AI bubble because they are building so many data centers that the demand for RAM is now being uh far outstrips the supply which is causing the price to skyrocket and that's [snorts] really bad. It's like it RAM is one of those weird Okay, so as someone who's built a bunch of computers, I have literally lost track of how many computers I've built or how many computers I've maintained um in my
I've built six,
right? In my like IT career, like I maintained a fleet of like [snorts] hundreds of computers, right? RAM is one of those things that has up until this point been an affordable way to generally speaking improve performance, right? You need it for everything and giving your computer enough of it is a good way to remove an relatively easy bottleneck. And now with the price of

GPUs already high and the price of RAM rising, computers are getting harder and harder to build, right? And it it just it feels like another gate that's being enforced on people participating in gaming because AI won't die already. just just stop.
Yeah, it's um I mean some people are bringing up the Gabe Cube in this because that's going to be a big place where people are looking at prices very specifically. Um but yeah, I I think will do you imagine a world where the PC built like I have a tinfoil hat moment. Sorry, I keep starting my thought and restarting it.
Yeah. Do you think it will become harder and harder to build your own computer? Obviously because of the prices of things going up, but like almost like

it's not a mistake. It's kind of the point that works with everything else because it's better for I don't know if I even believe this. this I'm just sort of like positing it like is it better for manufacturers and of all different parts of the machine to actually just like try to sell you a computer as opposed to you building it yourself
maybe I I think that that that almost feels a little tinfoil hat right
I know I I fully admit that it's tinfoil I threw on the tin foil hat instantly
I don't think anyone actually profits from that like from from make like the the computer manufacturers in the long run. I don't actually know that any of the people that make pre-builts are big enough players in the general market to to do that because a lot of like the people who are getting into gaming are doing like custom builds. They're not doing Adele, right? Like

but wouldn't you but wouldn't you want I I know they are, but like for instance, I this is not the same. Please know that I'm not trying to equate these two things. It's where this idea started. And again, tinfoil hat, tinfoil hat, housing, not to get all extra politics on it, but like you used to buy houses, right? And you still can buy houses, but a lot of companies are buying houses to rent you those houses, right? There that's the sort of the goal of it. Is it more profitable in the long run, especially I mean, I think I know it is, but like because the PC market has grown so much, is it are companies looking at it? Especially we'll see how the GameCube does with with Steam and like do you think that they would rather control the ecos like sell it at a slightly like basically buy all the parts in bulk, make their computers, sell you those computers specifically for gaming? Like would that shrink enough of the the audience who wants to build their own stuff if like if convenience

sort of took hold, right? And they could make more money and control an ecosystem
maybe. But I don't think that that I I think that could be a long-term idea. I do not think that that is what is at stake here in this particular price hike because what I do think um what I do think is happening here is that okay so [sighs] imagine a data center right like imag like in your in your mind's eye imagine a data center right it's got all
it's full it's full of bread spinners by the way spider
okay
spider
sure in this data center right there are rows and rows and rows of rat racks. And each of those racks has
racks on racks on racks.
Correct. And each of those racks has a bunch of servers in it. And each of those servers has more RAM in it than you probably have in your house.
Yeah. Sure. And so the it feels like while that could be the case the demand

for RAM that is made that is uh happening by standing up all of these data centers feels like the real driving thing like yes there is some amount of like wanting to build
oh
like wanting that right but like I think that while I'm like temporarily considering that I I think the big thing is just this demand
I don't think let me rephrase I would have maybe I I might not have made myself terribly clear. I don't think the rising cost of RAM is because companies want to own the means of computer production. That is not what I am saying. What I am saying is exactly what you are saying is because of the need of these these AI racks upon racks upon racks of RAM to make all of these data centers run that is increasing the price of RAM. I think it will, but I think like because of that a knock-on effect would be RAM becomes rarer and more expensive, meaning only larger companies can really buy it at at a actual rate that makes it profitable for them,

meaning they're going to use it in their machines that they then sell back to own an ecosystem. Does that make like that make sense? I don't believe this is an evil ploy. I think this is a bad side effect that people will take advantage of.
And uh I think this is another really good point that uh the overhe brought up, right? that like the whole cloud computing rent thing is a real thing and I think that that is something. Are they going to get there? No, absolutely not. Because I watched a video of a kid of a of a parent who's reporting that they'd grounded their kid, taken all of their kids electronics away, and then they came into their room and found the kid on a computer that they' built out of scraps that they had lying around playing Doom. Like,
yes,
sure, but that's not the that's not the, you know,
I I think I think
the average I think much like

much like a lot of other um building a PC isn't as hard as a lot of people think it is or as difficult as it is made to seem in much of media. Right? I can run a class on building a PC, right? That like
that is that I I don't think it's actually that difficult. I I think I I agree
like that those things like while it may become rarer will never go away. And I think the degree to which they will become rarer is smaller than I think we're worried about.
But do you know how do you know how like you know it's been getting harder and harder to get graphics cards? It's been getting harder and harder to find this and that and the other thing. Like I'm not saying the market's going to go away. I'm saying that larger companies will capitalize on how difficult it actually is getting to build a current gen custom PC. And by difficult, I mean expensive because things are rare or you can't find stuff. Whereas I think I think I don't know 10 15 years ago, you

you it was still expensive, but it definitely wasn't rare. And I I think it was a much like you could you could save so much money building a PC yourself.
Correct. and that that the the discount for that has certainly gone down. I do also think however that one of the places that we're seeing um build your own PCs go is with uh using older components using re reusing components re because and here's the other secret
and and as someone who is looking at um
what that's 96 gigs of RAM in front of me between my two PCs and two 4090s that are running this dream, right? Like you don't need it, right? That's actually that's actually the big secret I think that a lot of these companies really want people to forget. You don't need it. Like a 20 series will get you pretty far. A 30 series is fine. You don't need

it. You don't need 128 gigs of RAM. I just have it because I run a bunch of this stream using browser sources which
which eats just chomps. just drinks ram like a milkshake. Um, you don't actually need it. And so I think that is the other thing is that they want you to think that it's hard and they want you to think that you need the best. And so they'll be occupying the corner of the market for the best, right?
But wasn't wasn't some of these articles um the ones that we sort of went into. I think it's from uh PC gamer. Hold on, I'm going to cough. Excuse me.
Yeah.
Woo. Um, like it's not just the the I think the the the the disturbing part about this story was it's not just the state-of-the-art stuff. It's the next tier down and the next tier down and the next tier down.
It's it's all levels of RAM. It's right. We're not saying DDR5 RAM. We're not saying DDR5 and DDR4. It's
the the DIMs, right? It's the actual
like chips themselves because those are

the bottleneck for manufacturing here, right? And so that
and I I agree. I think making a piece, you know, it's it's going to become a little bit like I don't know if I agree with this, but like I I like it's going to become more akin to like I think as more companies build their own specific like machines for gaming, right? It's going to become a bit more like Raspberry Pies. Making your own PC will become something like that, but like a larger version. You know what I mean? like I and I I have such a blast with Raspberry Pi. I think it is such a fun little hobby machine that could run uh many things that I own. Um but I don't know. I I I just I get sad when when the hardware prices go up for stupid reasons. This seems like a stupid reason and it feels like there's going to be a lot of knock-on effect that also makes more stupid reasons.
Yep. I agree. Uh and all of this to say, by the way, uh this is also a bit of a

PSA. Don't buy it now, right? Or if like you absolutely must have it, bargain scrape during Cyber Monday stuff this week and get it as cheaply as you can because it will probably continue to go up, right? But if you can wait, wait, right? Because I don't think this is going to last forever. Um, someone in chat asked if any AI company had actually turned a profit ever. No. No, none of them have. And I don't think that division,
right? I don't think any of them ever will. Seriously, I I do think we're we're approaching the cultural tipping point on this sucks and it's going to go away because no one can actually make money on it, right? You're being forcefed it because people need you to believe that you need it and it's not working. You You don't need it. You are smarter than your chat GPT co-pilot bard. You are smarter than that. you don't need it. Don't use it.

Well, it's less than that. I I I I agree with that. But it's also every tool that you had to use before worked. It's extensively like not every tool, but 95% of them in specific things worked better. Remember when you could just Google something and find it and it wasn't all written by AI slop that you had to spend three times the amount of time actually going through to get any meaningful information?
Yep. And like sometimes I'll say this, the AI uh overlay or the AI um overview of like when you search for something, sometimes it's correct, but if it's more than like what year did Kill Bill come out in, like if it's anything more important than that, which by the way, Google just used to be able to do anyway, um then I would never trust it and I'd have to do triple the research to make sure what it's telling me is true.
Yeah.
Anyway,
yeah,
this is stupid. I'm sad RAM is expensive. Let's move on. Let's go to a happier story.
Let's talk about Charlie Cox. So, Charlie Cox uh voices Gustav in EP uh

Expedition 33. I almost said episode 33. That's wrong. Expedition 33. And uh as you may know, it is awards season. Uh you know, we haven't talked about the Game Awards. That's because we're going to talk about the Game Awards either next week or the week after after the Game Awards, either right before the Game Awards happen or after the Game Awards happen. And we are gonna be co-streaming the Game Awards here and I think on YouTube. I think we're gonna do that. I think that's I don't see a reason we wouldn't. Um so, uh the it has been much in in the news and Charlie Cox is doing kind of an interesting thing for awards season.
Being a nice dude.
Being a nice dude. So what he uh what he's saying is that um he doesn't believe that he deserves the credit for bringing Gustav to life. He believes that a French actor by the name of Moxent uh Hazora who did all of the

motion capture for Gustav and also several other characters in Expedition 33 should be getting the flowers for bringing this character to life. that all he did was voice it in English, that there were other that there were so many people behind the team that did it that that he was working off an existing motion capture and he
he went in I think he said for 5 days and did his voice work which is not not work of course not
right but he he he is also trying to elevate the work of other actors who have laid the groundwork for his performance and I think this is kind of interesting most of the voice cast has done this Charlie's just been the most outspoken and the most on message consistently with it.
But weren't they like I uh like Jennifer English and a couple other folks, they did the mocap too, right? If I'm remembering correctly.
I don't believe
Oh, I actually don't know. I know they have in the past.
They have in the past. I believe that in this case, all of the voice acting in English was done after the mocap was done already
in France by French actors.

Okay. They were all working off it. Even Andy Circus, who voices um a character in uh that you will meet later on if you haven't played Expedition 33 yet.
I have not sadly. That's going to be my that's going to be my holiday break.
He did not do his own mocap, which is weird because Andy Circus is of course worldrenowned for his mocap talent and he didn't do his own mocap. Um so I I I think that that is that's a cool thing. And and some people are also using this to point out we should have mocap awards. There are awards for voice actors. There should also be mocap awards. Moap awards, please. These actors do. It is tough. If you've never watched someone shoot for mocap, that stuff is hard. Awards for mocap, please.
Going back into uh the Kill Bill thing real quick. Uma Thurman at the end of the interview is like they brought her into a mocap studio and she was doing it. She said she how difficult it was, but also how sort of freeing it was and how it was a different kind of the art form and like yeah, it absolutely is. Um I don't know. I think that is a very good move. And if they if they did that,

they I think the Game Awards could kind of open up um it'd be like a side hustle way to basically get more celebrity involved.
Yeah.
But we'll see how it goes.
Yeah. Uh okay. Next up, uh it is there will be no spoilers for Stranger Things in this story, but [laughter] the one of the uh showrunners, Ross Duffer, is telling people
The Duffel Bros.
Yeah. Is telling people that when you watch Stranger Things, you should turn off all of the smart settings on your TV. which brings up kind of an interesting point that sort of relates to our AI discussion earlier. Um, and kind of relates weirdly to our Kill Bill discussion, which is many of you may be unaware of this. Your television, your new fancy television that you got for whatever occasion or for Black Friday or to watch the Super Bowl this year or whatever.
It's so smart.

Is so smart it's stupid. It has a bunch of features that you may not know are running on it. And Rostto Stuffer thinks you should turn all of that crap off. So,
and you absolutely should.
Yeah. And and and you should, by the way, that's like
I don't fully understand. Well, actually, okay, let's talk about this. So, televisions now, especially smart TVs, are the price point that they are because they watch and record and basically send back to the home base everything that you're doing. Uh, they also can show you ads a bunch of places. Like, that's the reason why television prices have either steadied or gone down. I don't know. I actually haven't shoed for TVs this season. I don't I'm sure inflation has affected it, but the amount of data that they get off you from a smart TV is valuable and that is why the price point is the price point. Um, uh, that is why I still have a Commodore 64 monitor. But the, um, they also come, I think, to try to sell them to people. They try to come up with all these different gimmicks of like basically buzzwords of things that make it sound

like they're going to improve your image that you're getting, which
no, like I just need you to play in have a gamut of color spaces and play in the resolution that I want it to be playing at and that's what I want for my and the refresh rate that I want it to be playing at, especially for games. Yeah,
but they do these things like it's funny. The reason why we're talking about this is Ross Duffer literally went on uh I think it might have been Tik Tok or Twitter, I'm not quite sure, but basically he went through his smart TV and showed you where to turn off all the things.
And to have a director do that is just like
that shows how like crazy this problem actually is.
Yep. Um,
so we have the list here because people
it's basically anything that has any of these names on your TV and it will be deep deep into the settings. Uh, dynamic contrast basically what that does essentially and it's so stupid because

your TV chances are if it's using this does not have the contrast range to make anything look better anyway. um it basically adjusts based on the lightness of the image, the amount of contrast or the or or the lessening of contrast of the image. So what you get is your black levels constantly about 5 milliseconds behind changing when a scene changes. It is maddening. Uh super resolution, I don't even know what that does other than make things look more pixelated for some reason. edge enhancer. You all you've seen that in in various stuff it looks like. But color filters, that's just basically when they like truly crank um the contrast and things like that, especially if it's something called vi like they have a vivid section that just breaks the entire color space of what the actual uh piece of media's creators wanted you to do. Noise reduction. Dear god, there should there's no noise in an image at this day and age that needs to be reduced. If there's film

grain, it's because it was shot on film. Like, but most 90% of the stuff you watch on this TV is digital. And then finally, the biggest the biggest the bane of my existence is True Motion, which is essentially frame blending, which is essentially the dreaded soap opera effect. If you ever go to your family's house at Thanksgiving, like I sometimes do, and you watch a movie on their TV that they've never bothered to calibrate in any way, shape, or form, and all of a sudden everything looks like you're watching an episode of General Hospital from 1992, despite the fact it is Stranger Things season 5. Um, that is because the television is interpreting the footage that it is getting at the frame rate that the creators intended and adding frames between it on the fly to make the motion of everything seem smoother, which is a thing that nobody wants. And I don't understand why it exists other than a marketing ploy to basically try to make to trick people into thinking that their televisions are showing them a better image than the stuff that they're showing. Um, it's awful. It's awful. It's awful. I hate it. Um, and if you think that I put this in just to get

Matt to do that rant, you're correct. I did. I put this in thinking of Matt. It's a little gift. It's a little holiday gift for for for the movie Among [laughter] Us.
Thanks, Will. Also, every child in Stranger Things is 25 and up now, and it's really weird. That's the spoiler I'll give. I like the new season so far, but it's so strange to see these people so old now, but still being in high school. I think Steve's like 35, the actor in real life. It's crazy.
Yep. Okay. Uh, time for me to get upset. All right. Matt Matt's had his turn. I'm gonna have my turn. Okay. [snorts]
So,
it's the weight station.
Yeah, it's the way station chat. I am a TCG afficionado. Okay. So, I will explain this from a history and I've sold TCG stuff and I'm I'm pretty up and up on this. So, I'm gonna get good and upset about this here

for a second. So, bear with me. GameStop has recently announced via tweet. By the way, GameStop's not a great company still. I just want everyone to be clear that I I'm not endorsing or approving of GameStop. I'm just using them so we could talk about this. Okay, great. I still hate GameStop, but they're technically correct in this one thing. They they issued a tweet that said, "If you bring a scale into their store, they'll ban you for life." And in this one regard, yes, thank you, GameStop. Thank you for doing that. Because there's a problem right now in Targets and Walmarts and other places where cards, usually Pokemon cards, this does apply to Yu-Gi-Oh and Magic cards, but to a lesser extent than Pokemon cards, um, people are bringing digital scales into stores and weighing the packs. Now, you might be like, "Will, why in the world would you do that?" I'm so glad you asked. They're weighing the packs because foil cards, cards which

have a foiling effect that are worth more because they are rarer and have a foiling effect, weigh ever so slightly more than other cards because there is an additional layer on them. This is not a thing that most scales can detect, by the way. You need a very sensitive scale for this. Um it's a fraction of a gram. Um and uh it's it's absolutely wild. Um but there are there are now reports and and video that people are taking of scalpers in stores taking packs off the shelves and weighing them. I need all of these people who are doing this in front of the children trying to buy Pokemon cards to cease and desist and please go touch

grass.
Yeah.
Like I I can't believe I'm agreeing with GameStop here, but
let's be very clear. GameStop is not going to ban anyone from doing anything. They can't afford to lose the foot traffic, but they they do tend to they do tend to make these proclamations online and then do absolutely nothing.
Yeah. Yes. Um yes, they are bringing laboratory level scales into stores. That's correct. They're bringing big Yes. Uh-huh. That's uh correct. They are doing that. And that's unbelievably unhinged. Just for the record.
Uh it's it's completely unhinged. Yes, this has been a thing for years. Generally, people had the decency to do it in their own home. You would buy a B. No, this is this is a thing that's been a thing in and this is why
the other PSA,
sorry, the the the intonation on the people had the decency to do it in their own homes. [laughter]

Um, also GameStop, the one of the ways that GameStop gets uh around this, by the way, is they um put them behind the uh counter. That's the other way is that a lot of GameStop sealed product like this is behind the counter.
Yeah. Also, no, they are not being paid and have to deal with this.
No, no one is no one's being paid. Um, but this has been a thing for years. The the predecessor to this was reading packs. You could uh because the distribution of rares wasn't random. You could open a series of specific packs from a box and figure out where all of the cards in the box were. That was a thing. This is the reason that you should never ever buy loose packs on the internet ever
because they've weighed them and they're
any one.
Yep.
The smallest unit of cards if you actually want to look for valuable cards. And again, that is a huge if because you should be buying singles because it is always cheaper to buy the singles to go pack surfing, right?
Will question real good here. What kind

of profit are we talking here? trying to get a sense of why.
Uh, that's a great question. Um, thousands of dollars. There are Let me let me go uh let me go use a website real quick.
You wouldn't download a scale.
You absolutely [snorts] would. Okay. The current Pokemon set is Fantasmal Flame.
Checks out.
Um, I don't know what the top is. Uh, price high low. Yeah. Okay. So, there is a uh there are two cards. It's hundreds at this point. In some cases, it's thousands. There are two cards. The Mega Charizard XEX uh 125 of 94 and Megaard Mega Charizard XEX130 of 94, which are both over $400. One of them is about 500, one of them is about $450. Um, and these are found in regular packs. So the the goal is to eliminate the packs which have a rare which might only be a dollar and exclusively go

after the rare foiled cards,
right?
And that increases their um that increases their profit margin significantly. Um yeah. Uh yeah. And and like if you want to buy packs just because you enjoy cracking packs, I enjoy cracking packs, but I'm aware that what I'm paying for is the dopamine, not and the and the sense of discovery, not the actual value resale value of the cards. If I want to get cards for that are resale value, I buy the card.
Yeah,
I'm an adult with adult money. I can buy the card. Exactly. And not go pack chasing.
That guy Jamie brings up an interesting sort of devil's advocate point about like since it's a gambling system, they're just going to entice fans to do this. I sorry that went away quick. If I can pop it up again, I will. Um, but the idea is like I think I agree like the the issue is this is a game for children that adults have started to play and because there

is rarity involved, it has inevitably turned into gambling. like so it's really for two subsets of people and for one set of sub for one subset of people it's ruining it for the other subset of people right and I don't know how a company combats this in an active way um
yeah now
because the company's not saying the prices of what these things are
uh I I will also say that
sorry uncclav's right adults have started to play no they've aged into continually to play but I do actually I do know some adults who have started to play people like that played Magic and moved into Pokemon.
I will also say that Pokemon of all of the companies does this the most correct in that that that $500 card, there's a $4 version of that card. So, if you want to play the game, one of them is hideously expensive and is only for collectors because the regular version is $4 and does exactly the same thing from a gameplay perspective. It's not

like magic where there are hideously rare things that haven't been reprinted ever that are going for thousands of dollars that you need a play set of in order to play sub formats.
Yeah. So that is
sorry it's and deaf to be very clear it's not that adults are playing it's the problem anything far from it. It's it's the uh whenever rarity is introduced into an activity that t that into a population that has control over uh trying to manipulate the system for the most profit possible that tends to be adults. Um, then that's where the issues come in, right?
Well, one of the, by the way, one of the ways the Pokemon Company is combating this is there are now Pokemon card vending machines that have limited that have timelocked payouts. So, they they won't sell all of their stock at once. They will open at specific times to prevent people from buying out all of the stock. And there's no returns on them because it's a vending machine. So, you can't do that because you don't actually get access to the packet until you've paid for it, right? Which I think is a better solution because I actually do see kids buying stuff at those

vending machines instead of only adults like I do at Target, Walmart, and all the other places.
Anyway,
yeah,
if only there was a way for everyone to have fun and not be scalped.
Yeah, correct. All right. Uh, we got a couple more fast stories to get through. One, Hightail is back.
Hi.
We talked about this forever ago. Matt, do you remember Hightail? No.
Okay, great. Excellent. A long, long time ago, there was a Minecraft server called Hypixel. This Minecraft server called Hypixel uh became famous for a bunch of reasons, not the least of which was uh the um uh that a wildly successful YouTuber named Technoblade did a series on Hypixel about their Sky Block game. This there's sort of a mutually beneficial relationship there. It's one of the reasons Technoblade grew to prominence. It's one of the reasons that Hypixel grew to prominence. Um they uh sort of grew on each other until Hypixel, the crew that ran the server, got to a point where they were like, "Hey, we want to make our own game that isn't Minecraft."

So they decided that they were going to start using the profits from running the Minecraft server to make Hightail. Hightail got started a long time ago and then eventually got bought by Riot, I believe in 2018. The game was originally supposed to come out in 2022 and they didn't because a lot of games didn't because pandemic and also it's hard to make a video game and it's a lot harder to make a video game that a bunch of people running a Minecraft server thought. So they decided that they weren't going to make the game anymore and Riot said that they were going to discontinue the game and the people that ran Hypixel were like no we're going to finish Hightail. It's a thing. We're going to do it. We're going to buy the rights back from Riot. So, they did and they've just announced that they are getting ready to put Hightail into early access after 7 years of waiting. Um, they have acquired the rights back from Riot. It is once again in the hands of the Hypixel crew. We will see if this actually amounts to anything, but it is kind of interesting every time this comes up. This has gone through this very weird long and troubled history to be a game that's trying to be Minecraft

without being Minecraft when we already have Minecraft.
Yeah,
it's Yeah,
the element of this story that I really enjoyed was Simon Collins uh Leaf Flame, who is uh who founded Hypixel Studios in 2018. This is all coming from Kotaku, basically said they're going to also price it as aggressively low as possible. They've said that they know they've bitten off more than they can chew, but they are incredibly committed to actually making it go like go and work. Like he's like, "It's going to be janky. You're going to be buying a janky game. I promise I'll keep working on it, but there's no guarantee it will never not be totally janky." Like they're being sort of very transparent about it, and I actually really appreciate. He wrote, "The game is unfinished and runs on a build from over four years ago. Changing more didn't feel right. I don't think the game is good yet. My team and I will push hard to make the game good, then great. The vision is clear and the progress is fast. But that's some real bold move saying the game is not good yet.
Yeah. Well, like and I think that for

this kind of scrappy team making this thing,
Yeah.
that kind of honesty and transparency is what's needed, right?
There's another I want to keep This is so good. It goes, real talk, Hightail isn't some polished AAA release waiting in the wings. It's messy. It's janky and there's a lot of work to be done. My plan, get it out to you as soon as possible. No more waiting. You'll get to play it rough edges and all. It won't be perfect on day one. My hope is that together we can shape it into something truly special. Look, it if it does what it says in the tin, it does what it says in the tin. I agree. I I have I have no I have no uh no further comments than that. I just want to bring this up because Hightail is weird.
Matt, would you like to gloat over the destruction of uh something that we have all grown to loathe?
Yes. [snorts]
So, Embracer Group continues to self-destruct.

Fine, I'll do it myself.
That's right. Um, they are not having a great time. Uh, this is I mean I'm I'm pretty happy to like I mean the damage that Embracer has done to the industry is um immeasurable, right? Um
yeah,
and that really sucks. That being said, I would really like them to not continue to do this damage, right? like we're we're at a weird point where there's sort of like a surgical operation that needs to happen to the industry to get Embracer Group out and it will cause more damage to the industry and to people's livelihoods to do that. But god do we need to be done with Embracer Group. Um so they are selling uh Cryptic Studios and Arc Games
for 30 million to Project Golden Arc. This also comes to us from Kotaku.

Yeah. Um and and of course their their their statement is this transaction supports our key priorities by strengthening our focus on strategic assets and core IPs and embracer while improving profitability and free cash flow.
Sure.
No, no. Here's today's here's Will's lesson in corporate speak. Free cash flow means we're broke. Free cash flow means we don't have any liquid money. It's all tied up in assets. We can't move.
Free cash flow is not a thing you want to hear when you hear why a company is selling something.
That means they don't have money.
That means they have assets and no money and they need the money for something generally to settle a debt with someone who won't take an asset. Free cash flow is not a thing a company wants to stay.
Yeah. Side note, Will, uh, could you fill us in while I let Zoe in for the uninitiated, what is Embracer Group? Embracer Group is a big old holding company that bought a bunch of the gaming industry over the past five

years, pretty much as long as we've been doing the show. They bought up a bunch of stuff, consolidated it, shut down studios, bought IPs, shuffled stuff around. They're a big um venture capital and holding company uh that essentially was trying to profit off of shuffling IP and closing studios and buying stuff in the gaming industry in a real negative way. I I cannot think of a single thing that Embracer Group has done that has been a net positive for the gaming industry. They have only caused harm to the industry in an attempt to line their own pockets. Yeah,
I think that's fair. Chad, am I am I missing anything? Did I
Yeah. Okay.
Don't eat the microphone.
Eat the microphone. All right. Uh, speaking of unsatisfying collabs.
Oh, no.
Yeah. So, remember we were talking about how Kill Bill collab was like not great. Um, well, Wizards was going to do a

collab for Monster Hunter and they screwed it up pretty bad. I'm gonna be really honest. As someone who loves both Monster Hunter and Magic the Gathering, this crossover sucked. It was not good. Um they
How many cards? It was a secret layer, right?
Yeah. So, it was a series of secret layers. The value presented in the secret layers sucked. The um there wasn't a lot of harmony, right? It was like reskins of existing cards, but they were like, "Hey, this is a Monster Hunter weapon. It's the same as this other card. And that card's a dollar, but you should pay us $10 for this shiny card because it's a Monster Hunter card. That doesn't work well. Um, and uh, they had like spelling errors. They literally had spelling errors on the previewed cards. So, they're pulping the entire thing. What we can't determine, and I don't know, is if these cards had gone to print yet. It is entirely possible given that they were supposed to go on sale I believe either today or

last Monday. I think it was today. Um that uh they had already printed these.
So Wizard I my understanding is that it is very likely
that they pulped the entire run
which is this is the first time this has happened. Um and it's one of the biggest pieces of push back that Wizards has gotten to a crossover thing ever. Um, mostly because it came from Monster Hunter fans. It didn't come from we don't want a magic set. It's dude, this crossover isn't it. Like I would buy a crossover if you had any of the cool dragons or the cool weapons or the cool characters from Monster Hunter, but this sucks. Like do better.
Um
uh so yeah, it's uh it the whole thing is going away and they're trying again in 2026, which I think is the right move. Um I I I think it is the right move. Um there there are I see people talking about getting a hold of this before it gets pulled. None of them made it to the public. Um this this is a

secret layer which means it is a um direct sale from wizards that get mailed to you.
You know that some of it's going to fall off the truck.
Come back in 20 years,
right? Yeah. So it's going to fall off the truck and be a super rare collector's item and all that jazz. Absolutely.
Um yes. And the other the other assumption I think no it's correct here is that Wizards didn't just get push back from fans but Capcom also saw it and was like no the the thing that makes that a little less verifiable to me is that Capcom would have needed to approve this before it went to print.
There's no way that Capcom at every level didn't see the proofs before it went to print. So, if Capcom is the one who pushed back, what happened was Capcom saw the way that Capcom fans responded and said, "Our fans are unhappy. We don't think this is a good idea anymore." And that's when they exercise the pull the plug option. Um, which if they have that option, that's

also wild because if a publisher has the option to or if a if a IP holder has the option to pull a collaboration until it goes up for sale, that's an incredible amount of control. That is
I think it's because it's it's not just Monster Hunter, right? Like Capcom has a ton of IPs they probably want to do something with. So they need to make maintain like a good working relationship and make sure that they're happy.
Yep. Yep. [clears throat] Absolutely. Um so that's cool.
Any word if the there's if there's a kill fee? Who knows?
No, I no idea. We we don't we don't know anything other than they're scrapping the entire thing. It'll be out in 2026.
Uh okay. We wanted a quick followup on this. So, when we talked about the Steam console, Steam machine,
um lots of people were talking uh about the price and that that would be a major deciding factor in whether or not they

were going to purchase the Steam Machine. Uh because in theory, it looks really cool. Everyone likes all the things that it does. The real deal breaker is probably going to be the price. And according to an interview that Valve did with I'm going to make sure I get this right. Which channel did it skill up?
Mhm.
The general idea that you should be having in mind when it comes to the Steam machine is it will be priced like a PC, which we kind of knew because Valve is not really selling it like a console. They're selling it like a PC that's designed to attach to a TV.
Yep.
And there's a lot of cool features that are designed
TV PC. Yeah, it's a TV PC and it's a PC that's designed to work with your TV, right? So, most people are guesstimating based on the specs that have been listed that it will be in the neighborhood of $750. That is the current best guess. No one

has confirmed that. Nobody has any evidence other than the specs. then that is roughly what it would cost to sell such a PC at cost assuming that they don't get a massive bulk discount which they might. We don't know. So the current running estimate is that the Steam Machine will be about $750. Again, cannot stress this enough. That's a guess. I don't want to hear anyone be like, "Well, Will from Extra Breakfast said it's definitely going to be $750, so if it's not, he's wrong." No, I'm reporting on what the guesswork is and preparing you for the idea that it will be more expensive than most other consoles.
It will be. There's no way it's not. I mean, um I think this is going to be a real interesting um experiment in consumer expectation.
Yeah.
And it also is based on how it's marketed, right? Like let's pretend for a moment that is there someone who is into gaming not just on mobile that doesn't know what Steam is.

I mean maybe right like um I I specifically mean people that purchase their own games right feels like that's kind of a juggernaut even if you're not a PC gamer. You understand you have friends who play on PC so they understand what Steam is. you've at this point you've seen a Steam Deck in the wild, you know? Um,
and
Yeah.
Oh, I was going to say, so like is there is there a like with the price of everything going up, will a expensive new air quotes console I should have did air quotes new as well. Um, like really break containment of Oh my gosh. Like I'm I'm curious what the overlap of price understanding is from people who buy consoles to people who buy PCs to play games. You are you are intrinsically moving from one group into another and the video game market is

um for for better or worse uh incredibly toxic towards price changes because most of the time the price changes hit it's a lot of BS.
Yeah. Uh, how is this going to come across? Like it it'll it would have been so interesting if the Steam Machine was out for Christmas this year.
Yeah,
right. Like what what would the story be?
I agree.
Steam releases overly expensive console or Steam brings PC gaming to your living room. Like what would be the majority story that would win out? Because it's not like, again, we talked about this when we talked about it before. It's not like like the Steam machine has like the killer app. The killer app is all of the apps,
right?
Like you have the ability to now play a ton of games not locked in in a normal console ecosystem.
So like one of the So like, okay, so

there's they can't do a loss lead thing. And a bunch of people in chat are talking about part of why, right, which is that it's a PC. So a company could just outfit their entire company with these machines for less than market value and then never buy games. So they just lose out all all of that. So they're not loss leading with it. The other reason they're not losing with it is you already own the games if you're in the target demo.
Like I'm willing to bet that they're not trying to get new Steam users this way. They're trying to sell this to people who already own Steam games and who were already going to buy games on Steam, right? The Target demo already has all the games.
It's actually It's actually for both. It's actually both, right? I think they want that,
but they also want to The only the only reason to do this is to expand their um their customer base.
Yeah. Like if if this isn't going to sell more Steam games, there's no point for them

monetarily.
Yeah.
So, they must believe that there is an untapped area of the market, namely consoles, probably people that uh you know are the honestly at this point cuz Xbox seems just being like deuces uh PlayStation people, Sony ponies like myself, uh trying to sort of get in on that pie. Yeah. Also, uh I the chat is on fire today. I love this one. They don't need a Costco chicken for the people already in Costco. Correct.
Yeah,
exactly. And also, uh Chinese says, "I had to explain to my friend a week ago what Steam was. She had only bought stuff on Epic before."
Yeah. I mean, that's that's
I 100% believe that, but like as someone who been on Steam for like 20 years, that's like
Yeah. What if your gaming history is literally Fortnite? What if Fortnite is the thing that got you into video gaming in the first place? Obviously, the Epic Store and the Epic ecosystem are going to be the place that you go for all of your gaming and Kill Bill expansions.

So, so [laughter] why like it makes total sense that that would that would be the place that they would think of as the number one place for games if they're not buying a lot of games.
Yeah.
Anyway, we'll see how it goes. We'll keep we'll keep this uh Steam Machine price watch going. Zoe will keep an eye on it.
Yep. Um, yes.
All right. And last last thing, a little a little piece of dessert because Matt and I are both I like what Vampire Survivors has done for the industry and Matt really likes Vampire Survivors.
So,
I would stream it if it didn't look like Rainbow Nightmare.
It completely kills Encoding. Encoding hates Vampire Survivors so much. Okay, so there's a new Vampire Survivors family game coming out and I hope it is every bit the Vampire Survivors cardbased rogue life that we waited for in that no one has waited for that. I just like that this crew continues to take absolutely unhinged swings based on

the fact that they've made like I love when indie studios do this. Hey, we made smash hit game and made a quadrillion dollars. What do we do now? I don't know. Let's take another completely unhinged swing at the industry. Great. Good job. No notes. Keep it up. Even if this flops, I will be so happy.
I I um I love that they are doing this. I think it will be hopefully very fun and silly. I love the trailer. If you watch the trailer, they make a joke at the end about not using the words cards or battler so no one will know it's a card battler game. like it it's just it feels very like it feels the right amount of tongue and cheek.
Yeah. Um
I am here for it.
Yeah. Uh by the briefest side thoughts on Mega Bunk. I played it here on the Rogue Review. Uh we do a roguish um review stream most Tuesdays. I played it. I thought it was fine. Uh it's not really for me, but I think it does a

good job of being an iteration on this kind of bullet heaven thing specifically.
Right.
So, uh and that, dear friends, I believe will bring us to the end of our stories. Uh if if you've got thoughts, feelings, things we didn't address, feedback, whatever. If you want to continue a conversation, you get up us hit us up on Blue Sky or you can uh hop into the comments down below. uh later this week if you're interested. Coming up right now after this on Twitch
right now.
Right now I'm gonna be taking my first look at Soulframe. Um I have way too many hours in Warframe. I actually burned myself out on Warframe and haven't touched it in years. So I will be taking a look at Soulframe uh from Digital Extreme, seeing what it's like. I am very interested to see this incredibly rough version of it uh that's coming out now for founders. So we're going to take a look at that. Um later this week we've got more Minecraft on the community server. We got talk shows uh on Thursday. Uh Matt and I are going

to be checking out the Night Rain DLC also on Thursday. Elder Ring on Friday. We've got a full schedule here on Twitch and we'll be back on YouTube on Thursday for Design Club. So please join us for those. Um, also an important note, mark your calendars that next week on December, I believe it's the 11th, Thursday, December the 11th in the evening, Matt and I will be co-streaming the Game Awards. Get your Martinelli's and your favorite t-shirt with a tuxedo printed on it because that's
or a baguette perhaps with some berets.
Yeah. Right. Uh because that's the only way to tackle watching an award show that's not really an award show is to drink a thing that's not really champagne while wearing a thing that's not really a suit. Um [laughter] so join us for that. It promises to be an excellent time as always.
Yeah. Well, I guess that only leaves us with um the end of the show, which uh if you're a first-time viewer here, first of all, hi, hello. Thank you for making it to the end. Second of all, uh we

basically do the same ending every time. Um because we want to make sure that the community really uh comes together. We go off on the right foot, all on the same page after spending about about two hours with one another uh here and making sure that this good vibes Monday keeps going all the way to the end of the week with all the gaming goodness that you would like. So with that in mind, please join me in the same ending that we all do every time and just asking the age-old question. Your name is Buck, right? [music]