I've pressed record.
Oh. Morning.
Good morning.
We've moved rooms again
because it's just too fucking cold outside.
So that's aggressively loud.
Is it too loud?
Only because I've turned my headphones up.
We'll change the whole thing.
Headsets, the fucking lot.
Are you all good now?
Are you all right?
Yeah, for some reason, you're just really loud in my head, in my ears.
And I seem quiet.
Do I seem normal to you?
Yeah, you seem normal to me.
I think I seem quite loud, but I talk louder into the mic.
OK.
So there's nothing I can do for that.
It's your big booming voice.
Hello, everybody.
Welcome to episode 26.
You recognize Steph's voice again.
It's because Ash is still on nights.
So again, Steph has graciously stepped in to
Help me again.
to did such an amazing job last week.
We're surrounded by animals.
We've moved the podcast into into our, is it?
I suppose it's our bedroom, isn't it?
Your bedroom, our bedroom.
Yeah, you slept in here for about a year.
And you literally live here.
Yes.
So we're surrounded by animals and all sorts of comforts.
It's quite nice, to be fair.
Not that we could keep it like this, because Ash isn't going to be so fucking weird.
If he's sitting there, you're just doing whatever you're doing.
We also might get interrupted by the postie,
because Steph has to has to give some letters over some, well, are they letters, parcels?
They are. They're orders, but they fit in the orders.
So Royal Mail Strikes have fucked.
You can swear on this podcast.
It's fine. You can say fucked.
It was there was a lot of emotion in that.
We made a mistake with the Patreon.
Thanks to everyone who gave us their hard earned dough.
Thanks to everyone who also signed up to the new tier as well.
I know it's a bit of a ball ache for people that are already paying the £5 and up.
You have to go in and manually change it.
But it's very appreciated for everyone involved in the podcast.
But I didn't realize that when you search for what's the buttons on Patreon,
it wasn't showing up.
And that's because we had what is essentially a mature filter on an 18 plus filter,
because Patreon thought that we were putting nudes up on our group.
Are you telling me you're not going to be putting nudes up?
I'm going to unsubscribe.
We promised a lot of people feet pictures.
I suppose that counts as nudity, maybe.
Never give those for free.
But for some reason, Patreon thought that that's what we were doing.
So when you actually search for us on Patreon, we don't come up.
You have to manually go through Google rather than through Patreon.
So think of all the dough that I could have been missing out on.
You know what I mean?
So I've requested it be changed because we aren't 18 plus content.
We're explicit, but we're not we ain't putting up dick pics and all that type of stuff.
So hopefully that will great.
You know what I mean?
Hopefully that will make a little change.
We're also with the new tier.
It's called the Jedi Club.
I did that in honor of Ash.
And it will be me and Steph that will be putting up an additional episode.
30 odd minutes, maybe a bit more.
Fuck knows what we're going to talk about, but we're going to do it anyway.
Master Wafflers.
Yeah.
I mean, fuck me, we managed to get an hour and a half out of Game of the Year last week.
And we spent about five minutes actually talking about Game of the Year.
Probably. It went well.
Yeah, I enjoyed it.
We managed four and a half years of constant conversation.
Just bullshit.
Yeah, we we we haven't got a list.
That's OK.
There's no list on anything to talk about.
So I suppose I can go off with Han life.
Been playing a bit of that.
Haven't actually.
So it's a it's a 12 hour campaign.
It's on Xbox Game Pass.
So it's cost me.
Fuck all.
And I've only sunk in about an hour's worth of gameplay because World of Warcraft has taken up all my time.
And I've been on a course for the last week, so I've been getting home quite late.
So gaming wise, it's been a bit difficult to sink the hours in.
But in the hour that I have played, so fucking funny.
It's so funny.
It's exactly how you think of games and like it calls itself out.
So it's it's.
I clocked that.
Yeah.
It's voiced by the geezer who does Rick and Morty.
I can't remember his fucking name.
I'll do a quick search.
But it's like I say, a short campaign has really, really good reviews.
There's a knife that has a fetish on stabbing people.
It's just great, man.
It's it's just it's just funny.
It's it's real.
It takes the piss out of itself.
It's a great laugh.
I'm really excited to finish it and to put more time into it,
which I'll probably do when we're done with this podcast.
Don't lie to the people.
I probably will.
I won't finish it, but I'll sink some more hours into it.
I'll tell you what's going to happen.
We're going to finish this pod.
We're going to do the extra bit.
Yeah.
We'll feed the dog.
Yeah.
I'll make the burgers.
Yeah.
And you're going to go, wow.
Actually, to be fair, we're going to put that Airbnb and then you're going to go.
All right.
To be fair, shout out to Mark Manastar on a previous podcast when I was when
when our beloved Ash was on this podcast.
Before I was here.
God rest his soul.
We would.
I said that out of the three of us, i.e. me, him and Mark,
it will be Mark, the Platinum's God of War.
Yeah.
Ash is going to get the platy anyway.
Yeah.
But obviously, Ash doesn't have nearly as much time as any of us do when it comes to gaming.
And yet some impressive stats.
Yeah.
Some really impressive stats with his Sony wrapped up.
Mark's was 77 hours for the entire year.
It's pathetic.
But he's been out of the gaming world.
And he said God of War grabbed him and fucking dragged him back in.
I think 55 of his hours were God of War out of the 77.
So it's like, fuck you know.
But he has platinum God of War.
And not only has he.
Mark.
Yeah.
Not only has he platinumed it, he has 100 percented it.
There is nothing left for him to do.
Oh my God.
Absolutely nothing.
He's done them all.
He's killed the king.
He's killed the queen.
He's.
Gennar, Gina, whatever her fucking name is.
Gennar Gina.
He's also completed stray and he completed stray because he got so pissed off trying
to kill the king on God of War that he thought I need to come off and I need to I need to
do something else.
He was like, otherwise I wouldn't have played played straight yet.
But yeah, he's he's got the platinum.
There's some hidden secrets in there that he was like, I don't want to spoil it for you.
And I won't spoil it for anyone on this podcast, but I'll tell you after.
But he was like, I don't want to spoil it for you.
I was like, fuck it.
Go for it.
Spoil it for me, because it will be a while before I get the platinum on it, if I even
get the platinum on it.
But yeah, it's it's made me flick the PlayStation back on to do all the updates and everything.
And I am is that the posty?
Who's that?
Uh, no, that's a Peugeot.
I don't know who that is.
One moment.
It's going to be every or someone.
Every.
Have you ordered something?
You watch it be for you.
I haven't ordered anything.
Oh, I ordered some paper.
All right.
Well, you go and do that.
I'll carry on talking about.
I'm scared.
Would you want me to go?
Hold on.
Be brave.
Let me pause it.
That was a waste of time on it.
I'm out of breath now.
Absolute, absolute cheek.
That was an absolute waste of time.
No, I thought I need to explain so that people don't think I'm nuts.
Go on then.
You've been running to the door.
When we bought before we bought this house, it was empty for a long time.
And I think that we live behind a Chinese, which sounds like.
And a petrol station.
A bit strange, but.
The Chinese is banging.
It is really good.
Chinese takeaway, not just like Chinese people.
Oh, God.
Yeah.
No, no, no.
It's a Chinese takeaway.
No, no, a Chinese takeaway.
We live behind the Chinese.
That makes me sound awful.
Chinese takeaway and a petrol station is handy.
The only thing I can think of is it used to happen a hell of a lot more when we first moved in.
You really ran, didn't you?
I really did, and I shouted.
I did shout because I was waiting for Royal Mail.
It's been a very stressful couple of weeks.
And someone just pulled in really slowly, pulled right in.
Looked like they were going to do something.
And then by the time I get down to the door, Reese looks.
Oh, they're pulling back out because they've just wanted a big, nice flat turning circle.
Yeah.
Park up to get their Chinese.
Yeah.
So I did open the door and I did shout, we're not a car park.
There's no way they heard me.
But I've half a mind to go out there, walk out and just look me in the eyes.
They say I'm dressed like.
There's a section of tarmac that is just outside the driveway.
And it is so fucked because we have a garage that little like a car garage
that's next to us as well.
So you've got a car garage, petrol garage, a fucking Chinese takeaway and us.
And it's like everyone that owns these places owns this little plot of like tarmac.
We all have right of access.
And so because of that, no one wants to pay to re tarmac, like resurface it.
So it's fucked.
It's like the surface of Mars.
Yeah.
And when, when we had the concrete laid outside, they put the spare concrete in the holes
and that lasted all of about what was fucking useless.
Cause they told me, you know, they, they done that extra bit the other week.
They put some tarmac in the hole.
I don't know why they bother doing it.
But obviously because the rest of it is essentially rock hard, like compacted mud.
I am useless.
And people, but it's just, oh, it just really bothers me.
I've just smelt tea all over me.
Brilliant.
You're wearing black is fine.
It's grand.
And I'm wearing the old T-shirt.
I exploded a tomato on myself the other day.
I know.
You went everywhere.
I know I was gently trying to cut them with a spoon and it actually went bang all over.
That pause will sound so weird.
Fuck it.
It gives a shit.
So yeah, it happens quite often where people just pull in because they don't want to turn around.
When I leave in the van and I forget about them potholes, I feel like I'm going to take off.
I go fucking flying.
Yeah.
But it's just, it's just annoying because we always think it's a part of someone.
It just activates.
It activates a part of me.
The anger is like, get out my fucking house as well.
It sounds so snobby, but it's why we want to put a gate up.
Absolutely.
Because it happens so often.
So, so, and it really does sound snobby.
I really don't mean it in a snobby way, but it happens all the fucking time.
And it was, we were waiting for Ash to come and he was on his way and he was literally
going to be there any minute.
And where was I going?
I think I was walking the dog and a fella had parked completely blocked our drive.
Yeah.
And I goes to it.
So he sat there just chilling and I walked up.
I was like, okay, I'm going to be brave.
I said, oh, hello.
I said, sorry, you're blocking our driveway.
And he went, he didn't go, he didn't straight away go.
Oh, oh God, sorry.
I can't move.
He went, what is someone coming?
Someone coming out then.
Yeah.
And stupid.
I don't fucking care if someone's coming out.
I went, no, but someone's about to come in.
He went, oh, all right, love.
Shunting forward like.
All right, love, let me get out of the way of your ass.
Get out the fucking way.
Stop parking in front of my fucking driveway.
And I like, if I was brave, I would have gone, well, it's also our driveway, but I didn't.
I just went.
I get it all the time.
When I put it in, it's busy.
I put it in the van and people look at me like I'm a piece of shit because they're in my way.
Yep.
Who the fuck are you looking at, you prick?
No.
Get out of the way of my fucking house.
Yeah.
No one has beat and swore as much as I did when I used to come home from work on a Saturday.
Oh, fucking man.
They're so annoying.
Because it's like prime time.
I'd be pulling in at about half six, wouldn't it?
Like six, half six.
And they're just waiting there and they just stare you out.
And then I beep and then I go, it's my house.
You remember years ago when we come in and we were completely blocked in by people in the Chinese.
Yeah.
Or they'd all parked up and I had to go in there and go get your fucking car out of the way.
Yeah.
And they got all snooty about it because they had parked right in the way.
Yeah.
So why are you dickheads?
Oh, mate, honestly.
Sick of it.
There's lots of lovely things about living here, but oh my God, literally, just again.
It's also filled with fucking, no.
Can't be asked to get into it.
We can't be bothered, we'll be here forever.
This has become a therapy podcast.
Yeah, it'll have to be a different fucking title on this one.
Where was I?
I was talking about Mark.
Mark getting the platinum.
Yep.
And he also 100% did it.
Yeah.
And so it spurred.
It was rudely interrupted.
It spurred me on to, because Mark was adamant that Gina, the queen of the Valkyries, I'm
going to struggle to defeat her.
You're looking for the dog?
I'm looking for Hobson.
Hobson didn't run out.
I know, but it makes me panic.
Yeah, go on.
What do you want to go and look for Hobson?
You keep talking, I'll be back.
Okay.
I suppose I'm not talking to you Emma, I'm talking to the listeners.
Talking to the masses.
Yeah.
I can still hear you.
So Mark said to me that I'm going to really struggle to kill Gina and that I might not
even be able to do it.
So, just get your mic out of the way of the fan.
He's there.
Is he?
There's a fucking shambles this show.
He's his mentor.
I can't believe people pay for this.
So he said I was going to fucking struggle, right?
Now I will let everyone into a little secret here.
Even though he's platinumed it and got 100%,
he turned the difficulty to the lowest setting to do it.
Right.
Because he was getting so angry.
Right.
Now he says it doesn't make that much of a difference because it just means that when
they hit you, it hurts a little bit less.
And I did agree with him, but fuck him.
Yeah.
Because fuck him.
Fuck you, Mark.
Yeah.
It don't make you tough.
You fucked it for yourself.
Now I said to him, I ain't going to do that.
I'm playing it on normal.
I couldn't be asked for hard mode.
I'm going to stay with normal.
Now he's made the mistake of saying that I won't be able to do it because Ash did exactly
the same thing with Elden Ring and Melania.
Yep.
And he said, you won't be able to do that.
Even though Ash hadn't actually touched it yet.
He said you won't be able to do it.
So I said, I bet him that I'd get it done in under an hour.
And there's video evidence of me getting it done in under an hour.
Now he'd sit there and say I cheated because I used the mimic to you.
Well, if it's available to you as well.
The video clip is there.
Me screaming is there.
So now I turned the PlayStation on.
I did the updates.
So at some point I'm going to go and I'm going to smack her up and I will do it in less than an hour.
I might even do it in one one go.
It's been said here.
And there'll be a video clip of it because I'll clip it and then I'll bang it up on the Instagram so everyone can see it in all its glory.
Me doing it in under an hour.
But yeah, I'm happy that he's platinumed it.
I think that's very cool.
I'm also happy that it's thrown him back into gaming.
I didn't realize completely forgot he hasn't played Dying Light 2 yet.
Flabbergasted because me and him fucking ripped Dying Light for ages.
We loved it so much.
Just smashing zombies around the face with fucking baseball bats.
We were.
Is that the one where you saved the guy and then he.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
Thank you for saving me.
And then it gets taken out mid cutscene by a zombie.
That was hilarious.
I've clipped that as well.
Was that supposed to happen?
No, no.
No, no, no.
It was literally a random encounter.
He's like, help me save me.
I give him some medicine and he gets up and he's like, thank you so much for saving me.
And then yeah, zombie just come and took him out straight away.
I was in hysteria.
So funny.
Absolute pieces.
So yeah, he hasn't he hasn't actually played that yet.
So I think that's next on the list.
And then we've got the devil in me as well, which is that co-op.
The last of the dark anthology series.
Oh, yeah.
That co-op horrors that we always play together.
Yeah.
Fantastic.
Again, there's glitches there with the guy.
Oh, with his face.
His face, where he looks like he's taking a shit mid cutscene.
You got Mark on the mic.
He's like, what the fuck's this geezer's face doing?
I've forgotten about that.
Please post that.
You should honestly post some of these things.
I got the...
You really should.
There was so many clips on my PS4 and when I swapped over to the PS5,
obviously the clips don't come with you.
So I've got a memory stick somewhere.
We see it the other day when we was moving around.
There's a memory stick somewhere with all of my PS4 clips on it.
And it's like a hundred clips.
It's loads.
And then I've obviously got a load built up on my PlayStation on my PS5 as well.
So I should really put quite a few more on the Instagram
because some of them are fucking funny.
Like the days, like the H1Z1 where Mark was like,
Yeah, fucking suck it.
Out of frame, just get gunned down with a shot at you with the ragdoll effect.
He's like, no.
Oh, fucking hell.
It's so funny.
Oh, God.
How many hours I spent on that game.
Fucking hell.
But I don't even think, I mean, I know last time,
I think, didn't we try for the crap because you were finding PUBG too long.
Oh, yeah.
For half hour and you think, no, I can't be asked.
No, it's like 45 minutes a game to just not win.
Exactly.
So much time to invest.
And do you remember we went on it and it was just dead.
Couldn't even get in because it was just so low.
H1Z1.
Yeah.
I don't know if that's still the case.
It had a little bit of a resurgence, but it's a very, it's a very niche battle royale.
I think it's a great battle royale,
but a lot of people don't like it when you're used to something like Warzone or even Fortnite.
Apex Legends, H1Z1 is completely different ballgame, completely different.
Not complex by any means, but.
Well, there's almost like no real, it's more of like a real life vibe.
There's not really elements of.
Yeah. Well, you're looking at something that's based off of DayZ.
Well, it is DayZ.
It was originally a mod.
So all the other way around.
Either way, they're the same game.
So it is somewhat real.
And I think some.
I mean, no like extra element.
You know what I mean?
There's no, you can't build a fort.
You can't.
Oh yeah, no, yeah.
It's literally just running around trying to find some guns.
Yeah.
And then obviously you've got the graphics side of it.
The graphics look fucking awful.
You know what I mean?
They don't look great.
And I think that turns a lot of people.
I think it very nearly turned me and Mark off, but.
We persevered and it was crazy fun because it's also.
It's just such a basic battle royale.
Yeah.
There's nothing crazy going on, but it was very fucking addictive.
And we got very good at it, man.
But we were decent.
Yeah.
Dare I say.
Just top 0.01% of players in the world for season one.
It's really, you never mention it.
Yeah, but you would though, wouldn't you?
But you just never said.
Not 0.1, 0.01% out of millions of players.
That's a big, big, obviously season two I dropped off.
But I'm just saying I'll take that to the grave with me.
It's funny because I don't remember it that way.
I think you have to dig out that email.
What do you mean?
You have to get your old phone out.
I don't know.
Just.
What do you mean?
Just have to take your word for it.
Why don't I?
What do you mean?
I don't need my old phone.
It's on my email and I believe my email is right here.
You delete a lot of emails, don't you?
Yeah, but I, you think I didn't archive this one?
I archive this motherfucker.
Look, I'm here for the people.
Langdon versus the people.
I'm on life.
So only got a 67% on Metacritic.
See, this is the sort of thing I.
I don't know how much attention I'm going to start keep paying to Metacritic.
I mean, I don't think I've ever looked in my life personally.
But what I was going to say is like, I'm not a Rick and Morty fan.
No.
Um, like that kind of humor.
And obviously I've only watched you play it for a little bit,
but I don't think it would necessarily be my cup of tea.
But I'm glad that it's yours.
It's I mean, I can sit in terms of that rating.
Just a first person shooter.
And it's nothing crazy.
We were literally slagging those the other day.
We're a lot of fucking first person.
But it's the it's the dialogue of it.
It's the dialogue and the funniness of it that makes it great.
If you take away the the the voice acting and that dialogue.
Well, where did I see someone was playing it on mute?
Did you tell me that or did I find that out?
Who's playing it on mute?
Yeah, someone was like, um, yeah.
Someone was really.
What the fuck?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I think it must have been on.
Don't say that I was upset with the language.
No, no, they just didn't find it like funny.
They found it quite annoying.
So they just muted it and now they're enjoying it.
I must have seen it on Facebook.
No, you're playing the wrong game then.
That's literally that was literally a selling point.
The whole point.
But there is a there is a setting where you can
because obviously all the guns and weapons you get, they are alive.
They talk to you.
And there is a setting where you can turn that down to say you can have it
where it would be like frequent.
Oh, they won't speak as much.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So you can turn it down.
But to play a game like that and to find it annoying, that's the whole.
That's the whole point of the game.
That's what makes this game so fucking good is the is the the bullshit dialogue
that comes with it very much like Borderlands.
Where it was known for that really like weird people screaming.
It's almost like playing Assassin's Creed and being like, I don't approve of assassins.
I don't like it.
Zero out of ten.
I want to turn off the assassins.
What were you expecting?
This hidden blade.
I don't like it.
I want to use something else.
I don't believe in killing people.
I'm going to complete this by not hitting anyone.
Fuck's sake.
I'm just trying to find out what the Metacritic is for The Witcher 3 because as you can see,
Ash, Ash got it.
It has very good reviews for the the next gen update.
It looks very good.
They basically remade it.
Ash will be.
Ash was annoyed with me because he sent me through the Metacritic score.
God, it's really difficult to find.
He sent me through the Metacritic score when it first come out.
Right.
Obviously the PS5 version.
When he sent it to me, it had three reviews and it was like 98% or 99 score.
Something like that.
It was a high score.
Dev's mom, dad and their brother.
Amazing.
I don't want to speak ill of what happened because I know that he'll listen to this.
There we go.
What happened?
It was a 97 Metacritic score.
Okay.
97 Meta score from 10 reviews.
Right.
Oh, okay.
Now he sent me that and he was like a gobsmacked face because obviously 97,
that's high for Metacritic.
That's really fucking good.
And I just said to him, wait for more than 10 reviews.
Yeah.
Because that's not a big sample.
10 reviews.
Yeah, they do it with makeup and stuff.
They're like 98% of women agree of the seven people we asked.
We asked seven people.
We gave them a million pounds to say yes.
Seven out of these 10 dentists recommend this toothpaste.
When threatened to lose their practice.
Yeah, when overly paid.
I said, wait for more than 10 reviews and he said,
could be the perfect game and you'd still shit on it, uncultured swine.
And I just said to him, it's 10 reviews.
Yeah.
That's not a big enough sampling.
It is good.
I haven't seen that much, but I know that it's good.
At least 10 people like it.
And I'm not saying that it isn't good.
Well, because he then sent me the Dragonfly Metacritic score.
And obviously at the time it had only had three reviews
and it had a 4.6 user score, which is very low.
But I just said different game, different politics.
And it is World of Warcraft.
One of those things where you never look at the fucking reviews
because even the people that are slating it will play it forever.
Yeah.
It's an addiction.
So fuck that.
But the Metacritic.
Spoken like a true addict.
Yeah.
So the Witcher 3 at the moment has 23 reviews.
What is this?
Only a 7.1 user score though.
That's not great.
What is this?
Hardly fair.
How many fucking copies must be sold?
And then you get like 20 people review it.
It's not very much.
I don't know.
Metacritic reviews, there's not really that many that go on Metacritic.
I don't really know if it's a case of anyone can do a review.
But even then you'd still expect there to be more than that.
Maybe it's a dying thing.
Maybe no one does it anymore.
No, because a lot of people rely on.
Yeah, but you say that.
But you know how I was saying the other day how,
and it maybe it's showing my age, but there was a gig and-
You are old.
About eight months.
But there you go.
Whatever.
We were literally both in the womb at the same time.
Yeah, you just come out of yours eight months sooner than me.
Old.
Anyway.
You'll be 30 long before I am.
You know what I mean?
No, it'll be eight months before you.
Yeah, that's a long time.
Well, in two months we'll be the same age, won't we?
On a bit of paper.
My birthday.
Yeah, won't be getting much.
Anyway, you get a block of coal.
It's good I can heat that up.
Yeah, and so I would always for-
So I saw a thing and it was like a band played a rare song at a gig.
Like one of their really old ones.
And immediately I went to YouTube and there was nothing.
And you think, nah, not a band that big and a song that old.
And it just wasn't there.
Because that was always where they'd be, wouldn't it?
You know, someone kicks someone off the stage, someone farts,
someone does whatever, it'd be on YouTube.
And no, typed into TikTok, oh, there's hundreds.
Well, yeah, because that's where it's at.
Exactly.
But that's the first time that that's been the case for anything I have looked at.
So you see what I mean about how-
How cool does that loop in?
About MetaQuick?
No, the whole review thing.
So-
No one's really using it anymore.
That's the point I was making.
So do you think that-
How cool does that look?
Do you think that Elden Ring, incredible game,
I thought was really fucking good, deserved game of the year.
Do you think it would have held as much traction if TikTok wasn't flooded with clips of people
doing cool shit with Middle of the Night by Ella Do-
Is it Ella?
Can't remember her name.
Ella Dulli or something?
Something like that?
Yes, absolutely hand in hand.
Because that-
Made the song famous, made the game famous.
Set off her career.
For sure.
She don't need to-
And then because my TikTok for at least a month and still now-
Yeah, I can remember overhearing it for ages.
Was flooded with-
Because visually the game looks fantastic.
So it was the perfect-
I can still remember it with the Star Scourge Greatswords,
which is obviously what I use, which you got from Radar.
And the ultimate for that is you would pull them both out and like
scrape them together and then into the air and then you get like this big
fucking area of effect around you.
And then you'd slam those motherfuckers into the ground.
But it went really, really well with that-
It's the watch, isn't it?
You like this watch, don't you?
Giving me looks across the table.
But it went really well with that song.
And pretty much any fucking edit that you threw into it went well with that song.
So everyone was like, if you hadn't heard of Elden Ring, you'd definitely fucking seen it.
And it made it look cool.
It was a better advertisement for that game than anything they probably paid their PR team to do.
Yeah.
And then just you being someone who, I don't know-
Ellie Du-
D-U-H-E, I don't know how to say her last name.
Du-hey, maybe?
I don't know.
Something like that.
I think you're one of two types of people.
You're either someone who watches a TikTok, in fact maybe three watches TikTok,
doesn't bother with the comments, watches TikTok, bothers with the comments,
but pauses the TikTok to read the comments.
I don't know where this is going.
Or you're a third person and you're someone who watches TikToks, reads the comments,
but does not pause the TikTok when they read the comments.
No.
So-
That'd be annoying wouldn't it?
And their algorithm kind of just lends itself to the most annoying and loud and-
No, this is unfair.
Kind of TikToks that just really like bore into your brain and then they just go around 13 times-
No, this is bullshit.
While I'm reading the comments and it goes-
No, no, no, no, this is bullshit.
No, no, come and live here and you'll find it.
No, because your TikTok's boring as fuck anyway.
And-
It just tells me I've got like-
That you're dying.
Crippling issues, yeah.
Crippling anxiety.
And then it's just my dog died, my boyfriend died.
Yeah, didn't you go through a period where your whole TikTok was just
like your significant other dying?
Yeah.
And every day I was going and fucking around with trains.
Yep.
When you started beach and lean, I bumped into you in Sainsbury's and I literally
looked like death because I'd just been crying.
Yeah.
Anyway.
No, but-
So you said I'm going to carry on doing this job for two years.
You're also hyperactive to hyperreactive to sound.
Okay, but is something going-
You really are.
No, no, because I'm now conscious of it.
Yeah, exactly.
Yeah, if there's a sound like that, I know that I've got about four seconds
before I can feel you listening before you snap and go, what is that?
What the fuck is that?
Every time.
Yeah.
My TikTok's great.
Don't worry about yours.
My TikTok's great.
It's filled with little game and clips.
It's fantastic.
But yeah, I think Elden Ring still was obviously at the height that it was.
TikTok didn't put it any higher up than it already was, but I definitely believe that.
Oh, I don't know about that.
It's certainly on its bone now.
I think TikTok helped it to gain.
I think TikTok allowed more people who hadn't ever touched a Souls-borne game
to get involved with it because there was loads of people that you just would not expect.
I really want Mark to play it because one, I know how angry he gets and he will either-
A big challenge.
He will either break his PlayStation or he'll put his fist through the telly.
Both of those things sound hilarious.
And I also think that we were talking about today, God of War,
Ragnarok was missing that satisfaction from killing a boss.
It was very easy to kill bosses.
Now, I know that you can tell me, you can go, I will turn the hardness,
like the difficulty up and all of that.
But at the same time, it really was, none of it was a challenge.
The bosses weren't a challenge.
I don't think they were.
Not when, I think, hear me out.
Okay.
I think because the game itself was so story-driven, it was so imperative,
so were the bosses.
The bosses were key, key elements to the story, 100%.
And I think maybe it's because I did every side mission I got before,
I did the main mission in a zone, so maybe I was more overleveled than I should have been.
I know Ash was saying that he was struggling,
but I know for a fact that he was underleveled for what he was doing,
because he did none of the side stuff.
But me and Mark both agreed that when we came to a boss, a proper boss,
yes, it could be somewhat difficult, but you weren't sweating playing it.
Compared to like Melania in Elden Ring, where you genuinely were fucking sweating,
because it was like, I'm struggling here.
This look at me and Ash with the Elden Lord, the Elden Beast, sorry.
Yeah.
Fucking we struggled with that motherfucker.
We struggled with that.
That was difficult as fuck.
And I think you didn't have that God of War.
Do you think though, is that a case of kind of sacrificing a little bit of that difficulty
in the name of storytelling, in the sense that I remember you,
and it was the first God of War, and probably the first time
I think I watched you play it when you were trying to get back into it.
And you were annoyed because you'd just come off the back of
something super like free roam open world kind of vibe.
And you were like, it's too linear.
It's stressing me out.
I want to walk over there, but I can't because he's going, no, we must go this way.
Yeah.
And you being quite annoyed and having to sort of like get used to that where...
Whereas I really like that now.
Exactly.
But at that time, you weren't used to it.
And I think that there's a potential where, so say in a fight with Thorin, isn't it?
When you think you've lost, but actually it was meant to happen.
And he brings your fucking ass back to life.
Exactly.
And it's something that you...
So even in that, that whole first segment of the fight,
you think you've got free will, but no, because you're going to...
No matter how you act, you're going to get done in by him.
You're going to get fucked up.
And then actually, I suppose, so knowing that,
where you aren't actually necessarily in control because no matter what you do,
it's going to happen in this way anyway,
would it being so difficult that you keep dying and having to go back and go back and go back
and go back kind of ruin that vibe?
I suppose, yeah.
I suppose it would spoil it.
Potentially. I don't know. It's just a thought.
It would spoil it.
I think it's...
Like if it was more of a grind, it would take you out of that immersion.
Yeah.
Because I knew where Mark was coming from because I was coming from the same position
in that that satisfaction from killing a boss that you have been trying to deal with for a long time,
there's nothing like it.
And yeah, I also agree that it is because it is so story-driven that it would turn you off
if you're constantly dying.
But I suppose that's why there's a difficulty scale.
Absolutely.
You can change that whenever you want, whereas obviously Elden Ring, there isn't.
Yeah.
There is no, let's make this harder.
It is just hard. Full stop.
For everyone. Yeah.
And perhaps maybe there then, it's a case of maybe you...
Like I remember when you were picking which one to go for.
What, an Elden Ring?
No, God of War, your difficulty level.
Oh, yeah.
And you were kind of like, oh, it could be that you kind of just...
Obviously it's so hard...
It's flicking between easy and normal.
Well, yeah, and it's so hard to decide when you haven't played it yet, you haven't seen what it's
like, you haven't got a feel for it, to then decide, which I suppose is why they allow you
to change it. Because perhaps if you'd have been going on and you go, no, you know what,
this is a piece of easy on board, or not board, but you know what I mean, like, you know,
I'm not feeling that challenge. Maybe you'd find that if you did crank it up a notch,
you might have found that sweet spot, like your personal sweet spot of challenge versus story.
Yeah, I suppose. I do suppose.
Maybe have a go. Like if you're saying you're going to turn it back on, crank it up to a
fucking God of War level and then just get your ass handed to you.
Oh, God, give me God of War and then go and try and kill Gina. Fuck, you know.
I'm not taking anything away from God of War at all.
I'm trying to compare it to Elden Ring. They're two completely different beasts,
completely different. But yeah, I really want Mark to jump on Elden Ring because I think
I think he would love it once he goes through the motions, just like I did,
just like everyone else fucking did. And he and it finally clicks. I think he'll
he will love it because I was trying to explain to him. I was like, anything can fuck you up.
Anything. Yeah. A wolf, a fucking sweaty old man with a walking stick. Anything can fuck you up
in that game. I said to him, I was like, you make one wrong move. I said, you're dead.
Even when you're overpowered to fuck, something can catch you off guard.
What are you laughing at? Sorry.
A sweaty old man with a walking stick. You paint a picture.
Anything can fuck you up. Literally anything. Some geezer with a bunch of roses. He fucked me up.
And you can hit anyone. This is the feeling. Yes. Yeah.
And so it's that learning curve. Like I was saying to him, you're so used to a hack and slash game
where there's somewhat might be a bit of a challenge, but ultimately you can overpower
whatever you're attacking by just mashing R2 or whatever. Absolutely. Yeah. Very kind of.
And I said, you have to get yourself straight out of that mindset. I said, once you get decent
at a Soulsborne game, like Elden Ring, Demon's Souls, fucking Bloodborne, you throw yourself
into a game that is still a combat game, like say God of War or where there's battles where
you can block and you can parry and things like that. You've been playing a Soulsborne game that
you've gotten decent at. You jump into a game like a different style of game. You're a fucking god.
Yeah. Because obviously the reaction times that you need for Elden Ring are completely different
to anything else. And the hit boxes on Elden Ring were fucking mental as well. Absolutely crazy.
I'm talking like you could lift your arm up and expose a fucking inch of your armpit. You could
shoot an arrow through that gap. You know what I mean? I really, really want him to play it.
And I hope he does. I'll keep badgering him to play it. You need to get it, Mark,
because I think you would really enjoy it. I think I've actually got it on disc.
Yeah, you do. I put it in the cupboard the other day.
So I might actually just give it to him and he can fuck around on it because it's just,
oh God. I must thank Ash for keeping me on that because if it weren't for him,
I would have fucking taken it straight back to game. You know what I mean? I would have been
fuming with it. I was ready. He pulled me up from the mud and showed me the way. Fantastic. Anyway,
that's that out of the way. I miss him. It'll be three weeks, you know?
When he's here next week, when he's back on the pod, it'll be three weeks
since I've seen my business partner. What a mess. He's been at home creaming it,
getting all this dough for nothing. You know what I mean? Don't roll your eyes. He's not having to
put a finger in here. Yeah, because he's not been busy, is he? Jesus, the poor man.
You want to get up in the middle of the night? Yeah. In the middle of the night.
No.
When does that Hogwarts game come out? Are you excited by that? Hogwarts legacy? Mark said
he cannot wait. It is the game that he is waiting for the most. That shocked me because he is such a
prick. It's just simple. He ain't like that. You know what I mean? I didn't realise he loved Harry
Potter. I don't know anyone who doesn't. Well, I didn't think Mark did. Why? Because it's Mark.
He'll hate this. He'll hate this. No, I'm sort of excited. I think, I don't know. I was quite
let down. So far, everything Harry Potter that has ever been released, what was it? I want to say I
had... 10th of February, by the way, is the release date. That's exciting. Yeah, no, I am excited.
Yeah, you saying that has been like, oh. It's only round the corner. I want to say I had,
what's the fourth one? Goblet of Fire on PSP. I know it's legendary. It's class.
But the one they did and they really hyped it up was, I can't remember what it's called, but it's
an iPad, mobile game. And it was just naff. But really, you can tell so much money and so much
work has gone into it. And it's just another thing where it's like, yes, young wizard, give me your
money. Yeah, I think you had a lot of cash grabs like that. People were always trying to turn the
movies into games. So much has gone in. I don't know if you remember Pottermore. No, I don't have
a fucking clue. I wasn't big with the Harry Potter. It's probably about 11 years ago now, maybe more.
And it was sold as it was going to be. It was online. And it was just an immersive universe
of wizards and witches and all of the things that you love and all this. And there was going to be
games and there was going to be house points. And there was a whole algorithm where you're sorted
into your house and you're given your wand and it was all based on the movies yourself. No, like
proper personality, like you say, like movies. And oh my God, getting onto the beta for it was so
hard. And back in the day when it's like, oh, you gave a shit about. So I was grinding, just trying
like, please. And I did. And I remember, I don't think Luce did, but anyway, and I was moonriver179
and she was cloak queen 91. Moonriver. And literally, we used to like sign birthday cards
and stuff. Moonriver. I don't think, I think it was like user generated. I don't know that I picked it.
That's quite a cool name though. Yeah. Moonriver. It's a song isn't it? Or is it? I don't know.
Moonriver. Yeah. Anyway. And it was a very interesting one because they kind of pulled
you in with like so much coming soon. Only, you know, coming, coming real soon. Yeah. And then
it kind of didn't know what it was. Yeah. And then they added features and then took some away and
then it just kind of like just went and now it's some other shit. And I just feel like obviously
they probably can't necessarily get away with that with this, but you know, you thought how many more
Harry Potter things can I fall for and waste my time on? This is what I was talking to because
Mark obviously was talking about it today or this morning on the way into work. And I was saying that
I really hope that it's going to be great. And there's so much potential because he, he doesn't
watch anything on these games. Any game that he's interested in, he won't watch anything on it.
He's not interested because he's so interested. God of War Ragnarok. He watched nothing on it
because he didn't, he didn't want to see anything. And it's the same with Hogwarts Legacy. He hasn't,
he hasn't seen any of it. Look at the bloody Wednesday trailer, the random trailer at the end
of the first episode of Wednesday. Oh yeah. That just fucking gave away everything. I'm already
watching it love. I don't need to tease a trailer. So I was saying to him, I was like, it's one of
them games where it's got so much potential and there is quite a decent amount of hype behind it,
that it has the potential to be an incredible game. From what I've seen graphics as well,
it looks really, really cool. And then every now and then you get a little gameplay bit that pops
up and people shit on it because they go this look like, for example, I don't like the fact that it
doesn't have Quidditch in it. It's not in there. Right. Okay. Whether that's just because they
couldn't actually, they couldn't figure out or whatever. Um, I'm sure there's a reason behind it.
Uh, but it, some people like it's so difficult because obviously it's not out yet. So trying to
form an opinion of it is, is, is quite hard, but it's, it's one of those where it looks like it
can be great or it can just be shit. Yeah. No, I mean like another, another failed attempt at turning
a very popular movie into a game. I think the last, um, obviously the last really good adaptation
of a movie to a game that I played was guardians of the galaxy.
Fucking fantastic. Really, really follow the film or is it just a story? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
That's the way to do it. Yeah. But it was really good. The one before that that I thought did
really, really well was this King Kong. You played that, didn't you? No. Oh, you don't like,
you don't like gorillas. So King Kong. Do you know me at all? I'm sorry. So King Kong, fun fact,
I've got, uh, I've got an elk tattooed on my chest that was originally going to be a full
long gorilla covering my chest. But Stafford reminded me of the fact that she absolutely hates
gorillas. And it's your, but yeah, but I hadn't said anything had I? I hadn't said anything to you.
No, it was my decision to change it because I thought that's just gonna, that's just gonna be
strange. Every time I take my top off, you're gonna fucking run from the gorilla on my chest.
But no, I wouldn't have, I wouldn't have ever said to you, don't get it.
No, but this is what loving couples do. We make sacrifices. So if you break up, you're gonna come
with an elk gorilla. But so King Kong, uh, Peter Jackson's King Kong, the official game of the movie.
Um, platform was that on? Uh, PS2, PS2, right. Come out in 2005. And I shit you not genuinely
really, really good game. And that followed the story that was the movie, but in game format.
And pretty much like followed it scene for scene. Okay. And obviously PS2, the graphics weren't
fantastic, but standard to be fair for PS2, they're not bad. It's not bad. That's Jane.
That's never gameplay though. Is it? Yeah. It's not bad. You know what I mean?
That's no, that's, I'll have that. Nah, that, let me, let me, I'm watching this.
But it was really, it was really good. Like really, really good. I remember playing it as a kid and
what is it?
Yeah. Is it? Yeah. With a spear, spear, with a spear. And you've got to stab the bats,
the weird bat things. Yeah. I remember this. And then the little centipedes come out of nowhere
and start fucking banging you and you've got to get the fire out and start burning them.
It looks good though, doesn't it? They don't look bad actually. It really don't look bad.
And you got to play as King Kong as well. And you got to kill T-Rex,
like to do the T-Rex scene where he fucking snaps their jaws off.
Ew. Honestly, it was decent. He just killed some thingies. What is it, what's someone said?
It was really good. I'm glad. I'm happy for you. A very successful adaptation. Obviously very old.
Now. Yeah. And yeah, I don't really know where I was going with this whole point, but I'm just
glad that I got that in there because I thought it was a really cool game. Yeah. Well, did you ever
have, you know, as I think I said it last week about the Mulan. Yeah. And literally me and my
sister still quote that now. Like honestly shaped our lives, I think. Bless you. Sorry. And it was
just, it was a PC game, but you could, you could do so much. Like you had to, and it's one of those
ones where if I say the things you had to do now, it's probably going to sound so childish, but
ultimately we were children, I suppose. Well, not ultimately, we literally were children,
but you, like you could play mahjong and you got a, my mom, so you got a mahjong certificate when
you won. Nice. And you could print them out and my mom laminated them and we had them as dinner mats.
So you could have like your mahjong achievement and eat your tea. Mahjong, you, you, then there
was one, you had to like climb a mountain. You had a limited amount of stakes and rope. So if you
cross too many, you'd run out and you'd be in trouble. And it was like so good, so, so good.
And we had, we had a few, we had a few of them, but Mulan really sticks in my head. It's just been
absolute class. They just don't, they just don't do it anymore. They don't take, they don't really
take, uh, popular movies or anything and try and turn them into games. Well, you know, you're
probably find it's mobile games. Or if they do, they just flop. Look at Marvel Avengers. Oh,
that game. When it come out, it was fucking God awful. Absolutely awful. But yeah, it seems that
they seem to only go on mobile. Maybe it's just so much easier. Yeah. That's where you can fling the
dough. Yeah. Um, I'm trying to think of any like movies that would be really cool if they adapted
it into a game, but I can't really think of any. Bring fucking Lord of the Rings back, please,
please, please. Again, talking to Mark about it. I'd pay fucking top dollar for Simpsons hit and
run to be remade, remastered, fucking whatever. I would pay big bucks for it. I'll be all over it.
Well, I. But the nostalgia, I don't think would hit the same and it just wouldn't,
but I'd still pay big bucks for it. And Lord of the Rings. I always thought that of Spyro
and then they did. Yeah. And it didn't, it didn't look right. Yeah. It didn't look right. Like I
needed the real shitty like barely can actually tell it's a dragon. I think that's why I stuck.
I think it just didn't feel good. I think that's why I love and still love Ratchet and Clank so
much because they adapted with that. They didn't remake and remaster their games. They just kept
bopping up, but they kept true to what they were doing. They just made it better.
Well, when they put Ocarina of Time on the three DS, that it wasn't some polished like graphics.
They didn't really change. They didn't, it was still that like kind of old ass thing. And it,
but it was nice because it was that, that novelty of having something. Obviously you're talking
years and years before the switch, like good. Sometimes you want that though. Well,
and it was the beauty of something that you've only ever been able to play on a console. I could
take it to college and play it in the corner. Look at Pokemon. Fuck that new shit. I don't want that
shit of always fucking. I mean you absolutely rinsed Sword and Shield though when you weren't,
was that because you weren't well? No, what do you mean? I played Sword. I know, but you're saying
fuck the new shit, but you like. No, no. I mean the new style of how they do it where it's like,
almost like free roam. Sword wasn't like that. Yeah, it was. No, Sword and Shield weren't.
It looked good. Yeah, that style. And then the latest one is back similar to Sword and Shield.
I think no, cause I've watched it. You're running around on some Pokemon with fucking wheels,
but he still uses his legs. It looks weird. Dead space. It don't look good. Everyone loves it,
but I don't like it. But I'm saying, I'm saying now, right now you could pick up Pokemon blue
and you'd fucking love it. Pokemon yellow, Pokemon Sapphire, Pokemon Ruby.
I'm gonna keep going. Trying to think of other colours. Emerald. Gold, silver, Emerald, Sapphire.
Ooh, some good ones. Rayquaza. That was Emerald, wasn't it? That was green. Yeah.
It's cute that you remember all these things, but you don't remember, you know. What? Just like
people's birthdays. I remember your birthday. That's the most important birthday there is. I
remember Mark's birthday. Desperately trying to remember Ash's birthday in my head, but I just
can't. Oh, do you admit that on here? I just can't. I can't. I'm sorry. But Mark's I remember
because I forgot it and then he got very annoyed at me for forgetting it. It's almost like you've
been friends for like. I know. So I now remember his and Gab's. Mark's is on the 9th of January.
Gab's the 25th of June. Yeah. Congrats. When's your mum's? I got a fucking clue. Yes you do.
No, I don't know. When? July? Yeah. The? The 8th. And you're the 8th of June. And Fiona's?
Fucking, I don't know. Oh, come on. Fiona? Fiona? I don't know. I don't know. I'm shit with
birthdays. This is what I was saying. This is why Ash is the better side on this pod because he
remembers all the names and the fucking the companies and the stats and shit like that. He's
very good at making me look somewhat dumb when it comes to games because I just play the fucking
things and I retain zero information about who made it, when it was made, how much it fucking
cost. You know what I mean? I don't just play the game like a child. So I'm never, I'm never good
with that, with that type of stuff. Don't put yourself down. Even though I pretty much started
this conversation. But just no. Come on. So yeah. Yeah. So what are you excited for next year?
What am I excited for? You know what? Dead Island. Yeah. Dead Island's going to be a cool one
whenever that comes out. Google when that comes out. That would be fucking sick. Anything, anything
around slapping zombies around the face. That was 360. So that's PS3. Years ago. So Dead Island 2
is 28th of April, 2023. So it's quite a while before that comes out, but that will be, that
will be good. In terms of other shit, Mark played the demo for For Spoken. Oh, right. He doesn't
like it. So it didn't, it didn't grab him. So there's a few things that I'm excited about.
But it's one of them where you don't pay attention to the release date anymore because everything
gets pushed back, which is perfectly okay. I'd rather shit got pushed back and done properly
than people like we, like we had last year and the year before where people were pandering. So
begging people, look at Cyberpunk wasn't fucking ready, but the pressure that was on CD Projekt
Red to get that out there was so much better. And then the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the,
the hell. And then everyone slated them for it. And now they've, they've recovered from it. So I
would much rather a game where World of Warcraft did it, didn't they? With Dragonfly. They pushed
that back. They pushed that back and did a little bit more fine tuning. So I'm all for it. So when
it comes to games that are coming out, I just don't see them as, as that's going to be their
actual release date until it goes gold, like God of War, then you know the game is done and that's
coming out at this time. Yeah. See, it's weird. I'll be interested regarding Tears of the Kingdom
because obviously Breath of the Wild was really, really pushed back. I want to say Tears of the
Kingdom is 12th of May. Yeah. At the moment. At the moment. Yeah. God, I waited that for so long.
And like, when you look at the original, like promo trailer for it, it's completely different
game. The graphics are completely different. Like they just really went oops. And then kind
of redid it. But then saying that you can't, I'm kind of of the mind where, you know, so March 17,
it was highly anticipated. It immediately did very, very well. You're telling me they didn't
start cracking out ideas for the second one pretty early on. See, I think they've got,
they've got ideas before they even crack out the first one. That's what I'm saying. And you know,
so, but you know, you're talking, obviously they had the bit of a dodgy time with the Wii U,
you know, and that I imagine made them a little bit more cautious. And I do really think that
the Switch was kind of a make or break for them. Yeah. And obviously it was a make. Very much so.
And yet the Switch is basically just a more refined version of the Wii U. Like the whole concept of
the Wii U was like that one of the adverts is the kid is playing on the telly and then his dad
comes in and wants to watch something on the telly. So they switched the thing over and he
carries on playing on the tablet. Like it was so close, but just missed it. But no, I just kind of
think like they've had a real long time to work on Tears of the Kingdom. You know, it's a long,
long time. Yeah. But you want that though. Well, that's what I'm saying. But you know,
I mean, like I'm hoping that that kind of does mean that it's not going to be pushed back.
You know, let's say we'll give them the grace of a year. Let's say they didn't start work,
truly working on it until March 18. No, let's give them a whole year since Breath of the Wild's out
before they started like going ham, which actually I think is even too much. So I do seem to remember
still gives you a lot of time confirming a sequel quite early on. I might be wrong. That's a lot of
time. Yeah, we're really start cracking it out. But then you look at things like GTA six. Where
the fuck is that? Not even an announcement trailer for that. Yeah. And it's when did well GTA five
has been through what two different consoles for no started on PS3.
GTA five school. Yeah, school. Yeah. I was in like year 10 because I didn't come in. I completed it.
I had like two days off and completed it. And so when I come back to school, I was like, yeah,
I've already done the story, guys. And I was a king for a week. So you never know. Maybe it will
just get his full on release date. I feel like Nintendo are quite good when it comes to. No,
are they not? No, no, no. But in a way that because they care about the health of their employees,
basically, like with shout out to Blizzard. Yeah. With the with the kickback of animal crossing,
you know, I'll probably get shoehorned because I'm a girl talking about animal crossing. But anyway,
no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, this is this, this is our
podcast. Yeah. Anyone that's got an issue with it, they go fuck themselves. I play games with guns
in you. You fucking talk about whatever you want. They ain't they ain't paid for this equipment.
They ain't sitting here fucking talking. Yeah. So we're talking about whatever the fuck we want.
But that was that was pushed back. And they kind of just came out and just said, like, yeah,
we're not ready. And it's too stressful. And ultimately, tough shit, really. And it in a way,
it was kind of you. You couldn't be mad because the way they wrote it was just so eloquent and
just so honest. Yeah. That you were like, yeah, fair game. At the end of the day, I don't want to
play like a, you know, an unfinished game at the cost of the people who we literally love for
working so hard to create this game. It would just feel grim. Exactly. And obviously, yeah,
you know, people had their reactions. But no, I was I was genuinely, I was just, I was just
like, no, I was I was genuinely right with it. And that's something that, oh, my God, I was losing
my head because it came out. I want to say March 23, 2020. And we were sort of like two and a half
weeks into lockdown. You and I weren't seeing each other. We were both going out, you know,
and working out and about in it. And it was at that time where it's like, if you lose your sense
of smell, you lose it forever. And even young people, it's getting so, so terrifying. You know,
coming up, coughing all over you and throwing people's heads. You know, it's a nightmare.
And no fucking toilet roll, toilet roll wars. And yeah, it just came out about the perfect time
because it's just such a distraction. I bought a load of toilet rolls, not to hoard them from
people, but I genuinely bought some toilet rolls and I bought some. I had two packs of 16 in my
car when I still worked at Sainsbury's and someone that I was working with, Jane, she was in tears
because she couldn't she couldn't get hold of any toilet paper. And she was like down to her last
roll. So I went to my car and I give her a pack of 16. Just give it to her. She was like, do you
want any money? I said, no, no, no, that's fine. She was an absolute bitch to me for the rest of
the time while I was at Sainsbury's. She did not care that I'd just given up gold for her. So I'll
never I'll never do good for an old person again because of that fucking. Well, I remember having
I worked in an unnamed I don't want to be killed for naming the company that I worked for. Why?
You don't work for them anymore. I know. But nevertheless, I'm frightened. Why? What of who?
What of that company? I'm not comfortable disclosing. No, hold on. What? You're frightened
of that company. Yeah. Listening. Okay. I ain't going to listen to this. Hello. Have you heard of AI?
I've just said Sainsbury's. Yeah. And I'm good for you. Hope they don't kill you. Anyway,
I work for Underscores company. Similar to Sainsbury's. But undisclosed. Thank you. And
they're one of the big four. Stop it. They're going to be able to sniff me out.
And anyway, they decided because we were also one of the only clothing
that places that were open other clothing places are available. And they were like,
you know what, in the height of lockdown, like shit's really bad. Like people are dying.
Let's make all our clothes 50% off. Yeah, it was great. Yeah. And then if you were a colleague of
Underscores location, you actually then it made it about 70%. Yeah. Well, no, it wasn't about 70%.
What a fantastic month that was for you. Well, and they literally, they, we were in a place where
we were open on two whole sides and they blocked it in so that we could man an entry and exit
because they knew it was going to be mad. I remember you sending me the pictures of that.
But the route weren't right, was it? It didn't just lure you around in circles.
They tried to get us to count, count in and count out people browsing clothing. These people who
have been in lockdown for two months, they've got no joy in their lives. They don't go outside.
And these are the only clothes. These are the only clothes that you can shop like in the world.
No, they had joy, right? These motherfuckers had furlough. This is true. Yeah. Anyway. And I
remember being shouted at so bad by a lady because basically previously before lockdown, you could
walk through the clothing department to get to the checkouts. And what a lot of people would do,
because some bright spark put entry and exit on the top, people thought that was exit to the store
and they would essentially get like trapped in the clothing department. And then because it was set
up like a maze, it'd also be lost. And obviously who else to blame? But the person stood there in
uniform. And I just wrote, Oh God, she was really, really effing and blind. And I was like,
you're still not going to fit through there. You still have to turn around and go. And it was just
such a, people were horrendous during that. I had that, I had that one woman that kept ringing us
up complaining because we didn't give her her broccoli and I just told her to fuck off on the
phone. I was so stressed out. Everyone around me was stressed out to fuck as well. And yeah,
I didn't get my broccoli. I need a refunded now. And it was like 39 P and I was on the phone after
like the 10th phone call. I just went, listen, fuck off. And just put the phone down. I didn't
get penalized for it. No, it was not. Didn't fucking, people were too busy. Yeah. It was nuts.
It was absolutely nuts. Crazy days. That's our little touch back on to. But then what, so what
was your, I can't remember. What was your like lockdown game? Was it wow? Kind of? I don't know.
World of Warcraft's my game. Fucking anywhere I go. I know, I know. I'm thinking about bringing
the laptop when we go to the Airbnb. Don't worry. I wouldn't look for anywhere that didn't have wi-fi.
God forbid. Yeah. Don't worry. I know. I can't take you anywhere, dear. It's going to be freezing
outside. My lockdown game, because obviously I weren't playing Warzone. So I didn't get to
experience any of that. I suppose Call of Duty, it was, I was playing whatever the current COD was
at the time. Because obviously. But World of Warcraft was a massive one for me. Yeah. It
wasn't too long before you could sort of, because that was the summer, wasn't it? I think I want to
say summer 2020 was eat out to help out. I.e. don't worry about your health. We need to make
a bit more money. We went to Wagamama's and spent like 80 quid. But that, because obviously.
When it was at half price as well. So we got a lot of food. Oh God. More than what we should
have really got. That was when we waited in that long ass queue for it. Yeah. And then we went.
Served like instant. And then we went back after the pandemic and it was the wankest experience
we've ever had. Yeah. Nothing like a bit of raw shrimp. No. Great. Really great. That was the
stomach. Really great. But no, yeah. That was definitely. I think Animal Crossing was definitely
my lockdown game. And that's weird. Like you were saying of Elden Ring and. Everyone's lockdown game.
Yeah. Okay. But I've loved it since I was 10. Yeah. But the amount of switches that must be in a
drawer now with dust on. 100%. And this is the, I will touch on this. The Charlotte's. Yeah. Your
sister. It's still in that drawer. Yeah. Both my sisters actually did it. Lou just had the panache
to sell her. Just give it back. And what you were kind of saying about the Elden Ring TikTok
virality, let's say. I think that is something that really did propel the Switch and Animal Crossing
because, and again, just class advertisement is being released at the right time as kind of
odd as that would seem to say at the right time. Oh, global pandemic. No one could leave. And
it's funny because like, so Nintendo has the tracker, like all the Switch does has, in fact,
actually the Wii and the 3DS do as well, but on a more refined basis, the Switch has a, you can see
how much, how many hours you've sunk in all the time. Yeah. Yeah. And it felt like this is where
I think it really separated the wheat from the chaff, if you will, because people, people that
genuinely had a love for it. Stayed with it. Yes. And then all these people come flooding in and
they think they love it. They think they love it. But like my sister now on her, she only sunk like
20 hours over a couple of weeks and then it went in a drawer and that was it. Look at all your friends.
Exactly. Literally every single one. Even the people, there were some people that did kind of
persevere. Yeah, but not that. There still ain't no. And the only one that sunk anywhere near me
is Meg. And lo and behold, Meg is a gamer. Absolutely loved it. The Wild World, which came out,
I want to say 2006, had that love for it already. See what I mean? It was, it was good for gaming
because you had suddenly had an influx of all these people that have nothing to do turning to
something like gaming, but at the same time, fuck those people that had nothing to do and turn to
gaming because most of them were the same people that their source of, their only source of fun and
enjoyment is going out and getting pissed every single fucking weekend that they can. And they're
the exact same people that rip people like you and me for gaming. And then lo and behold, they
couldn't go out and spend all their hard earned cash on just getting pissed. So they had to turn
to something else and all gaming was there. Warm fuzzy little gaming was waiting in the corner
with a big old hug and people loved it because gaming is fucking sick. It's the best thing ever,
especially when you need time to kill. It's fantastic. I'd be useless without gaming.
And I think a lot of people would, but it did somewhat bug me because yeah, a lot of people
that bullied me when I was younger, like in school times for playing like World of Warcraft and
shit like that, suddenly found themselves with nothing to do and returning to all of these games
that I've been saying for years are fucking awesome. You need to play it. And then obviously
the pubs reopened and they scurried back to their fucking little holes. Rats. And I think, you know,
I got really like briefly excited because I've never really had gamer friends. So I've missed
out on a hell of a lot of multiplayer games because it, and I've bought them, don't get me wrong,
I've sunk my dosher into them, but there comes a point at which it gets really like sad and kind of
getting yourself lonely when you're constantly just matched up with strangers and it's different.
You can't predict how anything's going to go because you're either going to get someone who
screams at you, someone who doesn't talk at all. That's exactly why Ash doesn't talk on his.
Well, I got to my first experience of Fortnite and it was me and he was so young for sure.
He was this little German boy and my God, he was so script, but I could like kind of work out what
he was saying. We made it to second place. Not only did I know what I was doing, I had a really
rough kind of idea, but I was also playing it on the Switch so everyone looks like a fucking ant
because I was playing it handheld and yeah, bless him. He's just screaming and I'm like,
oh honey, I can't understand you. But we did really well. I can't remember why we didn't win,
but it was really, really close. Getting yourself gaming is especially games like,
like wow, massively multiplayer, massive multiplayer online, fucking huge games
and things like COD and well, any game that's online and has replayability on it. Getting
yourself into a community where you can make friends and talk to people and play with people
consistently is so fucking difficult. So difficult. Now I don't know whether that's because
we're crippled by anxiety or if it's just genuinely difficult because every single person
I've spoken to, look at me and Mark. It was just solidly me and Mark throughout our lifetime in
secondary school, me and him playing games, no one else. And then even now, like me and Colin
on World of Warcraft or I'd have like Neil or Ian and there would be little pockets of communities,
but it would never last forever. Look at me with my actual guild from WoW. That was, that was
hundreds of people, but it never lasted. Even now on WoW, I'm in a guild with people that I know
and talk to because they were in my guild and I would consider myself friends with them,
but I don't talk to them when I'm logged in. I don't play with them. I don't group up with them.
I don't get involved with anything and I can't figure out why and I really struggled to put
myself, the idea of the thought of being on say a gaming Facebook group and just putting my like,
my tag in it, like my PSN name or my fucking battle net name and just start like,
cause I see it all the time, people going, this is my battle net looking for people to play with
and everyone jumps in and go, I'd love to play with you. That'd be great. I can't do that.
Yeah.
Because I think if I play with someone, one thing I don't like about them, fuck off. Not interested
in you cause I'm not invested. I don't know who you are. So see you later.
See, I think mine's kind of from a different point of view. It's like, it's weird that I do
a similar thing, but maybe for a different reason. And that's the sort of thing like,
I like towards the end of secondary school, I was friends with a lot of guys who would play
like very, very similar to me. And they would play online and stuff. And I tried to join in.
And in a weird way, I think I decided that it would be embarrassing because obviously I've never,
they're well established into playing these games together and online and I'm not, and I'm a girl.
And I think more, more of it I put on myself because I don't, there's a couple of them that
would have liked to make those kinds of jokes, but a lot of them weren't like that. But I decided
myself that no, that's going to be embarrassing. So I'll be like, Oh, Oh no, sorry. I can't not,
not on tonight or stuff like that. Because the times that I did go on, I literally did die
immediately. And one of them was it was read dead online and I, and it was a friend of mine and he
was away. He was doing something else. So he was just standing there and he, I think he told one
of the others, cause he secretly came back. Oh, sorry. I was just looking at the dog.
Make sure she's dead. Yeah. He'd secretly come back and everyone had been going up to him and
like crouching and poking him, whatever. And then they were like, Oh, Steph, you go and do it. And
as I walked up, he was secretly back and he killed, he hit me with a throwing knife. And then for like
the rest of school, it was all throwing knife. Like, Oh, so funny. But there it's like almost
in myself, or I just assume because you do see like girls online and you know, there was one
on my Tik TOK the other day and, and she just, he wouldn't leave her alone. He wouldn't stop. And he
was going, send me a picture, send me a picture and all that. And then there was this other one
where it was, I don't remember what he said, but he said something about like show, show us something
and she was really good and just wiped them out. And then she was like, there it is. And whatever
she said, it was just class, but it's something that, yeah. When like, when the, like you say
lockdown and everyone's buying switches and all that stuff. And despite having those comments
made where it's like, Oh, so what was I 21 when it came, when the switch came out and I was,
I was living for it coming out. My God, it was my life. Like I'm so excited. So, so excited.
There hadn't been a genuine like fresh console release for so long.
They'd already pretty much announced that the three DS line was dead. That's, that's gone.
And I was just like, Oh shit. Like I've got, you know, really want to look at something to look
forward to. And yeah, a few people made comments about the price you pay in that for that and all
stuff like that. And I did make the comment of like, you spend like exactly what you said,
you crack on use and I don't judge you for going out spending all your stuff, but like this is,
this is what I want to spend my money on. Um, yeah. It was like hilarious when those people
then bought them and then kind of didn't, some did and some didn't kind of sustain.
That's what you're going to pay 70 quid for that game. Yeah. You're about to spend over a
one on one night out and then shit it away or even throw it up. Fuck off, man. At least mine's
actually worth something. Oh yeah. But for the memes, fuck off, fuck off. You little cunt.
It's just fucking annoying. I hate it. It winds me up so much. I hate them. Go fuck yourselves.
And it's like, it's not necessarily game related, but just while we're talking about
bug bears of going, I spent like my youth, it was the typical black hair, black eyeliner. Yeah.
I got called one time, um, of the many times, but the one time that speaks out to me was at a bus
stop at college and I was heckled from a vehicle and it was, um, fuck off. You grunger. See word.
And I was like, is this a new low or new high? Am I so grungy? Yeah.
I'm so offensive to you that you don't even know me. I'm just, I'm waiting for this.
You're just a child waiting for a bus. And, and it was like, God, I'm so
offensive to you that you've needed to do that. And what, what, the reason I say it is because
there were, and I'm sure you can attest and I'm sure lots of people can attest to
certainly, but way back when you talk in 2010, 2011, about five EMOs, if not per year per school.
I used to be one. There was hardly any of us and we all got the stick for it. Yeah. We all hid.
And what really bothered me one is the day that MCR, my chemical romance, if you don't know the
abbreviation split up, they announced they were splitting. I want to say it was either the 23rd
or the 25th of March, 2013. And I thought I remember reading it and I read it and was like, oh,
Oh, and then I walked into my mom's room, which burst into tears. I didn't think I was going to
cry, but I did. And it really, really upset me anyway. They had a concept album in 2011.
Right. And it was about a post-apocalyptic world and it was so, so themed. And I had the ray gun
and all this collectible stuff for it. They got the ray guns. It was called, uh, that was set
in California, 2019. Okay. Well that's grooming it. Yeah. Set in the future. Yeah. And it was,
it was like, Oh, so far away. And America was a wasteland and they're like all the videos.
Not completely wrong. No, yeah. And they're all, they're eating like dog food. They're
shooting each other. Half of my listenership. Um, what? Just slated off America. And, and yeah,
so it was California, 2019. So anyways, 2013, they were supposed to be working on the album.
They've canned that. They're gone. Okay. And that was that. So when fast forward now, we're now in
2019. They announced that they're coming back. Bear in mind in 2016, everyone thought they were
coming back, but it wasn't. It was just a celebration of 10 years of the black parade.
That got everyone going, but no, no, no. 2019. And they said these words. They were like,
we told you, we said California 2019. Now I am raging, absolutely fuming because I thought,
how dare you do that to me? Not just me personally, me. How dare you do that to the fans act like
you're never coming back. Oh yeah. But we're bored of this by, and then pretend that it was all
planned. No, you just need new kitchen. Let's be honest. You've run the money's running a bit low
pots running a bit dry. You thought shit. We'd best get back to it. You know what? It's greasy.
These cocks again, amount, the amount of people, exactly as you say, they come flooding in who
they, they actually spoke to me like shit in school. Oh, I love him. So yeah, it was amazing.
And fair play to him. If they were to embarrass, if they genuinely did like them and they were too
embarrassed to say that they did because of everything it held around that time, a tough
place, but don't slay everyone else off for it. Yeah. Don't rip me to pieces for it. And, and I,
I felt like very much the only one because they announced Milton Keynes shows. Well,
they're not shows all over the world, but these particular shows, they weren't coming to London.
They were coming to Milton Keynes. I don't know what the fuck you picked Milton Keynes anyway.
Yes. Lincoln park did the same thing. Milton Keynes. And it was going to be,
can't remember the date, but basically COVID. Thanks back COVID happened. You know what? I was
like, ha, yeah, fuck you. Yeah. Yeah. You deserve it. Yeah. Right. And then it rescheduled, I want
to say it was either June this year or June the year before, or whatever time it actually got
rescheduled, wasn't fucking interested. And people like that, mate, mates of mine went and I'm sure
they had a lovely time. And I'm just, oh, no, no, no, no. I wasn't interested in, at the end of the
day, the last time I saw them was 2011 was February. And I'd seen them the first time was about a
couple of months before that last time I see them. And my mum got me tickets and they were right up
the back in the nosebleeds and couldn't even see them. You know what I mean? But that room was full
of people like me and it was great. And I was not about to go and be surrounded by the people that,
you know, and I'm not saying that these people are pretending by any means. Like I say, I think
it's more than likely that they just didn't feel comfortable expressing that part because school,
I think in those, and I'm sure it still is now, but yeah, I don't think it's changed. It was rough
as fuck. And yeah. And I just thought, no, no. And it's, as I say, I know you feel the same with
games and I do to an extent. What used to bug me is that I would always get, I would always get stick
for playing the games that I played by the people that played FIFA. And it was always, I was always
like, but you're, you're gaming. Same game every year. Yeah. But even if it isn't, you're gaming.
You're gaming as well. You're having to, you're having to dig at me for playing a different type
of game when I could be digging at you for playing possibly one of the shittest, but somehow the most
popular games of all time. Forgive my ignorance, but is FIFA literally pretty much the same every
year? They just add new people and update the stats or is there a difference? They change it with the
football seasons, isn't it? Right. But what I mean is- So the kids change. Like I remember one guy,
his name was Johnny Turner. Mark, I remember him. Fucking little prick. Right. Popular kid.
What if he's your secret height? Like best fan? Every year you can go fuck yourself. Right. I
don't care. And I remember him raving, going, they've changed the colour of the boots. Fuck off.
How, what are you on about? You've just paid 60 bones for this because they've changed the colour.
Fuck it. Yeah. I don't understand. I used to like FIFA and I've said to Ash before,
you throw FIFA in front of me and you force me to play it. I'm going to like it.
I just will. Yeah, because it's a fun game, but it's the people that played it that put me off.
They can go fuck themselves. Yeah. And it's not all of them, but I will lob you all into the same
fucking barrel because I just spent my whole childhood being bullied by people that played
FIFA. And I thought, oh, you are thick. You're such a prick. And most of those people are dickheads
now. Now they're adults. I think the things, I think maybe that's why, you know, I think a lot
of people... Getting a lot off our chest. Yeah. This is basically like, this is what's the button.
Therapy. We will have to cut it eventually because this is going to go on forever.
But I think, yeah, the thing that we all like, like you were just saying about hit and run,
it leaves such a mark on you when you're younger. And I just think that
the things people say and how people act, that kind of leans into it as well. Yeah, man. You
know, where, you know, like even then, technically you don't even not like FIFA, but you can't
bring yourself to not. I won't touch it. Yeah. I will not fucking touch it. Even if it's in the
bargain bucket, I ain't fucking going near it. But gaming is one of those incredible things.
If you bully people for the games they play, go fuck yourself. Because I don't bully people
for the games they play. I just throw my opinion about those games. I'm not bullying them. I just
think that they play shit. Play whatever the fuck you want. I just throw my opinion. This has been
a very raw podcast. My God. It's been decent. Lay in the soul bare. I want to leave it with one last
bit. Sam Parks. He is the first friend of the podcast, according to our Patreon. And he spends
the big bucks. And according to you, Anash. What? He's the first friend. Oh, he is. Of course he is.
Sam Parks is the first person to interact with this podcast. And he's the first person that we
had no fucking idea who he was to interact with the podcast. So for us, we were like, fucking hell.
We've touched a soul that we didn't even know existed. And I found that awesome. So it'll be
listening to this. So thanks, Sam. You're fucking awesome. Anyway, he tweeted the pod and basically
said that I'm missing out because I haven't completed Horizon Zero Dawn or Horizon Forbidden
West. Now I have Horizon Zero Dawn on my PlayStation. And he said that if I completed both of them,
he'd throw in an extra 10 or a month towards the Patreon. Big bucks. Big, big bucks. Now,
he said that I'm missing out. I believe I'm missing out. I'm going to go back to him.
I'm going to go back to it because I'm going to have a different turn on it because I feel that I
did enjoy it. I didn't not like Horizon. Just for some whatever reason, I got like two thirds of
the way through and just stopped. So I've decided that you can keep your money, Sam. You know what
I mean? If and when I complete both of them. I imagine it's going to take you a fair time.
Don't feel obliged to fucking bump the dough up. But it is a big time investment. But I'm going to
re-download Zero Dawn. I'm going to buy Forbidden West. Not straight away. I'm going to see. I'm
going to either finish Zero Dawn or I'll buy it about halfway through when the prices drop a little
bit because it's still like 60 quid. Are you going to start from the start? Yeah, I'll start from the
start. Big time investments going on. But for the sake of the podcast, for the sake of Sam, I will
do this. I don't know whether he'll like me saying his full name, but you can fuck yourself if you
don't. I suppose no. It's on Twitter, isn't it? Otherwise, how would you know it? Yeah, he tweets
it in his full name. So for you, Sam, I will do that. I can't tell you that I'm going to have
it done next week, but I'll do it. I just don't know when. I'll chip away at the mold. My time is
very invested into World of Warcraft at the moment for fear of missing out. There's a load of shit
that I'm doing, but I will do that. I'll in fact, after this part, I will probably switch on the
PlayStation to start the download while no one else is in the house, while the old Wi-Fi isn't
being hogged. But yeah, we'll leave it there. Exciting. Me and Steph are going to finish
recording this and then we're actually going to press play again. Press the record button again,
because we will be recording our first exclusive episode for the Jedi club tier on our Patreon.
Oh my God, that's so exciting. Just hearing you say that is so exciting. Which is five pounds and
up. So yeah, he'll be listening to it. Well, that's the thing though. He's hearing spirit.
Obviously, well, I suppose he can log into the Patreon himself because he's got the login. So
he'll be able to have access to it, listen to it because that'll be the only place. So we'll
record a little mini episode for exclusive to that tier for our Patreon. So yeah, he'll be able to
listen to that. So it's goodbye peasants. Yeah. See you later people that won't pay.
Yeah, five quid and up and every episode that we do, we'll do an extra bit after an exclusive
section. Haven't actually figured out what we're going to talk about, but I feel I'm trying to get
more involved with the Patreon side of it and more than welcome to ideas that people can fling at us
for us to talk about and things like that. But yeah, we're going to finish this episode. We're
going to start recording the other episode and we will catch everyone next week. Thanks again,
Steph, for helping us out with this one. I'm sure it won't be the last time. And when we get that
extra equipment to get more people on, you'll be the first person to bang on it straight away.
Be fantastic. But for now, yeah, we're fucking off. And it's an URU from me.
I'm fucking off. See you later. URU.