How Big Sales, Backlogs, And Time Limits Shape The Way We Game

We weigh what to buy in the Steam sale, why discounts only matter past a real threshold, and how limited time forces better choices. Along the way we celebrate story-rich games, debate difficulty, and savor a perfect wrestling farewell that felt like film-level mythmaking.

• Steam sale strategy, price thresholds, and cart triage
• Baldur’s Gate 3 value, builds, and hilarious quest chains
• Nier Automata fit for short sessions and crossover notes
• Jedi Survivor momentum, launch issues, and timing
• SWTOR narrative pull versus other MMOs and time cost
• Heavy Rain, Detroit, and why agency beats adaptation
• Elden Ring difficulty, boss walls, and weapon fit
• Family rituals, wrestling storytelling, and Cena’s exit
• Free-to-play finds, two-hour test, and backlog sanity
• Holiday scheduling, community night ideas, and gear wishlists

“Hey everyone, did you know that Jeff Keeley invited me to be a official co-streamer of the game awards last week?” 
“We were able to raise $307 for the Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation.”

Transcript

Steam Holiday Sale Haul Plans

SPEAKER_04 0:00

Steam sale started today. Holiday sale, Christmas sale, whatever sale, Hanukkah sale. I don't know. Whatever their holiday sale is.

SPEAKER_03 0:09

Hanukkah sale.

SPEAKER_04 0:10

Yeah, so I purchase, I haven't purchased anything yet, but I have seven items in my cart totaling of 145.48. So so far I've got dispatch. Good game, I've heard.

SPEAKER_02 0:27

Yeah, it's amazing.

SPEAKER_04 0:28

But it's 10% off. Like I feel like I could email the devs and be like, hey, a Marcus from the Gaming Persona podcast. Can I get your game? They're gonna say, sure, we'll give you 10% off, right? Like anybody can get 10% off. 10% Charlie is just that's that's not deep.

SPEAKER_02 0:45

It's a$20 game, Marcus.

SPEAKER_04 0:47

It's a$30 game.

SPEAKER_02 0:49

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 0:50

But I just to me now, 10% is meh. 20% is like the cusp for me to like, anyways, moving on.

SPEAKER_02 0:59

So I you are a hard gamer to date if you're a video game, Marcus.

SPEAKER_04 1:04

I think there's a reason why. And when I get to game three, you will understand why. So game two is arc raiders. I really want to Doritos. Why are you falling asleep?

SPEAKER_02 1:15

Because you just said Arc Raiders, Marcus. Boring us to death. Move along. Come on.

Discount Thresholds And Buyer Psychology

SPEAKER_04 1:21

All right, anyways, 20% off. It's a regularly$40 game,$31.99. If I feel like playing a multiplayer shooter, that's gonna be the one I get. Moving on, the game I actually want that I've been talking about for probably three weeks now, Baldur's Gate 3 is on sale, which a 25% discount, which means it's$45. Now that is that's the carrot.

SPEAKER_02 1:45

And like to me, it's a game of the year, too.

SPEAKER_04 1:48

Right. Well, the real game of the year of the game of the decade is Elden Ring and Claire Obscure, but then we're not gonna get into that.

SPEAKER_02 1:55

But I'm Baldur's Gate 3 is amazing and it belongs in the conversation of those two because it also features the voice acting talent of Jennifer English.

SPEAKER_04 2:06

Okay, great. So I am gonna buy Baldur's Gate 3. There's no question. The other one, Kingdom Come Deliverance. I really want to play, but am I gonna be able to play? It's 50% off, but by the time I get to it, because they say Baldur's Gate 3 is another hundred-hour game-ish.

SPEAKER_02 2:30

I have put hundreds of hours into that game and I've never finished it.

Shooter Picks And Baldur’s Gate 3

SPEAKER_04 2:37

Okay. Point point taken. So Kingdom Come Deliverance on sale, 50% off for 30 bucks. But then I have a couple others that are like Metroid Vanias that I played at PAX, Doomblade and Lords of Exile, and Blasphemous and Bloodstained, uh Ritual of the Night. Those games are like$2,$4, and$4. So I'm buying those. Those are like the Doritos specials. Because remember last year in the holiday sale, or maybe it was the summer sale, Dorito spent like$12 and he got 400 games or something like that. Yep, I gotta try to do that again, too. Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 3:18

That's insane.

SPEAKER_04 3:19

No, it wasn't literally 400 games, but I remember last year clearly going, Holy cow, you got all that for that?

SPEAKER_01 3:26

Was it humble bundle kind of situation? Yeah, it's a homemade humble humble bundle, basically. I mean, I'll look for games that are I you know, I'll I'll go in with a price cap of say eight bucks a game. Anything over eight bucks, I'm not gonna look at it.

SPEAKER_02 3:42

So it's like one of those things where you start with a paper clip and you trade it for a house.

SPEAKER_01 3:46

Exactly, type of thing. So and there's you know, some some of those games that the kids want to buy that okay, it's on sale for 80% off. Okay, so it's is this so I'll look at it, you know, I'll I'll look at the reviews and I'll look at the the little commercial bits for it and go, is this a you know, okay. Normally they're wanting 15 for it, but it's on sale for five bucks. Okay, I that looks like a five buck game in my mind, so sure, yeah, I'll spend five bucks to get it. So you do that a handful of times. You can spend you know six games for 30 bucks.

Backlogs, Hours, And RPG Priorities

SPEAKER_04 4:22

Yes, yeah, but in that is that's smart, that's smart purchasing, right? Because you play games, and like I feel like this is where PlayStation and Xbox haven't learned yet, because I've never gone to the PlayStation store where they've had an epic sale like this, where like everything is on sale, and that's why I haven't purchased a PS Pro because uh I want the disc because I can get the discs at a discount.

SPEAKER_02 4:59

Yeah, it does seem I when I was focusing on my Steam Deck as my primary way of playing games, I would get a lot more games and sales and and just ways of having them cheap. It's so much nicer since I have switched back to the PS5 for all of my streaming and stuff. It's I have bought far fewer games. That's true. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 5:26

So for me, I think, and I've gotten to the point now where I'm playing, I don't get I play so little amount of hours of video games now. You know, I'm at the 10 hours a week max. That's all my schedule allows, but I love it. So I don't like Elden Ring. I think I did you guys get your Steam review?

SPEAKER_02 5:48

How I don't know how I could find that. My Steam review wouldn't really give much insight this year because I didn't play very much PC gaming.

SPEAKER_04 6:00

Right, but did you well PlayStation doesn't do that?

SPEAKER_02 6:05

I don't think they do. I haven't seen it if they do.

SPEAKER_04 6:11

What was it called? Steam? That's Steam Awards. What the hell was it called? Uh is it like a wrap-up? Wrap-up. No, I forget what it was called. Do you don't remember what it was called, Ritos?

SPEAKER_01 6:30

No, I don't remember. Sorry.

SPEAKER_04 6:34

It's okay. It's just a bummer to me because I everything I get is Steam. Man, that stinks because I found it. And well, anyways, it was like last year or 2025, I think. I spent 44% of my time playing Elden Ring, 38% Claire Obscure, and then everything else, the other 8% or whatever, was just random games.

SPEAKER_02 7:07

I am signing into my PlayStation account so that I will be able to see my wrap-up so I can share that with the audience and both of you live.

SPEAKER_04 7:18

Live. Doritos, did you get your wrap up?

SPEAKER_02 7:22

I don't know, did I?

SPEAKER_04 7:23

Maybe. Do you play was I supposed to look for it? No. Okay, good. Do you play SmoTor on Steam or do you use the launcher still?

Wrap-Ups, PlayStation Stats, And Streaming

SPEAKER_01 7:35

I still I had to go back to use the launcher because of the Steam bug, so I can't really play it on Steam. There's a Steam bug? Yeah, there's uh with the launcher, there is a bug that you I I have I've uninstalled it, reinstalled it, I don't know how many times, even through Steam, and it doesn't want to sync back up. So uh when I play Switch War, I go through the launcher off of uh the website. Okay. So you know, I would like to track all my Steam achievements, so that's okay. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 8:10

It's alright. Alright, everybody, I will share my wrap-up. I played 120 hours of Claire Obscure Expedition 33. That's my number one game. Of 2025?

SPEAKER_03 8:27

Mm-hmm. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 8:28

I played 96 hours of Final Fantasy XIV, 64 hours of Baldur's Gate 3, 59 hours of Fortnite, and 53 hours of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. I played 39 different games. My gaming style is I'm a role player. 72% of the time I'm playing, I'm playing role-playing games. Total of 525 hours, 538 play sessions, which means my average play session was under an hour. That's interesting to me.

SPEAKER_04 9:03

How many hours total?

SPEAKER_02 9:05

525.

SPEAKER_04 9:15

So if you break that down per day, you played one hour and 43 minutes a day over the course of a year.

SPEAKER_02 9:21

Because on my streaming days, I would do some sometimes three or four hours, but then I have so many days where I play zero. So it it that's how that happens. Let me see if there's anything else interesting. My best trophies occurred in Metaphor Refantasio, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, Monster Hunter Wilds, and Claire Obscure Expedition 33. Yeah, my top game was Claire Obscure Expedition 33.

SPEAKER_03 9:58

Oh, here we go. Maybe it'll be on here.

SPEAKER_02 10:03

That's not a surprise. Actually, Claire Obscure Expedition 33 has won a lot since our last podcast episode. It did, didn't it? So it is number one for everyone this year. Hey everyone, did you know that Jeff Keeley invited me to be a official co-streamer of the game awards last week?

SPEAKER_01 10:28

I did. I kind of watched it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 10:33

It was really fun.

SPEAKER_04 10:34

You know, it's nice to do live content like that because whoever's deciding to join your stream and watch it with you, they're watching it live at the same time. They haven't seen it either.

Charity Stream And Co-Streaming Highlights

SPEAKER_02 10:50

Right. Yeah, it was actually a big week in my streaming life because a few days after that I did a sponsored charity stream for the Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation. And on my channel on Sunday last week, we were able to raise$307 for one of the world's leading cancer research centers in the world. And this is actually the center that discovered a lot of the techniques that we use to hold cancer at bay. And they discovered stem cells. So this is the institute that originally discovered all the science around using stem cells to fight cancer.

SPEAKER_04 11:36

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_02 11:38

Yeah. I was really excited that they reached out and asked me to do that. And it was a kind of stressful thing because they had a lot of requirements, and I had to figure out how to meet those requirements live while I'm doing the stream, but it worked out.

SPEAKER_04 11:54

Alright, I have a question. Because you both have played it. Near Automata?

SPEAKER_01 12:00

Yep.

SPEAKER_04 12:01

Do you think I would enjoy that game? What is it?

SPEAKER_01 12:05

Near Automata.

SPEAKER_04 12:06

Oh, automata. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 12:08

There you go.

SPEAKER_04 12:10

Do you think I would enjoy that?

SPEAKER_01 12:13

Yeah, I mean it's a combo system game. It's a little short.

SPEAKER_04 12:19

Like short, like 15 hours short?

SPEAKER_01 12:24

Maybe 20 hours, but yeah.

SPEAKER_04 12:26

Marcus, like I did not know that. Alright, so I guess my so let me ask this. Is it 20 hours Dorito short or is it 20 hours Marcus short?

SPEAKER_01 12:36

It's probably close to 20 hours Marcus short short. Okay. It's a good it's a good, you can hop on a progressive story a little bit, go do a little side quest, go do some things, and feel like, okay, I'm good, and and move on to the next game if you want.

SPEAKER_03 12:51

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 12:53

Also, in terms of the world and the game, it is one of the few games to have a direct crossover into Final Fantasy XIV. And that's a really cool thing when two different franchises are able to do stuff like that. Um, it's not canon for near automata that Final Fantasy XIV exists, but it's a fun little connection between the two fandoms because they're both square Enix.

SPEAKER_04 13:23

Yeah, there's yeah, just gonna talk about a lot of random games today to ask the questions. Did you guys play Jedi Survivor?

SPEAKER_01 13:34

Well, that's the second one on the Yes.

Jedi Survivor Momentum And PC Woes

SPEAKER_02 13:36

No, I've only played Fallen Order, not deep enough to say that I like enjoyed it. I started it during one of my big streams last year, the one where I was on the home page for Twitch. It was my fourth game of the day that I hopped into. I didn't get very far. In fact, I got stuck in the opening area and couldn't figure out where to go to progress the story. And that was like hour six and seven of the seven-hour stream. So I was mentally dead. So I do love Jedi Fallen Order a lot. I enjoyed playing it so much. And my momentum was just killed because I originally bought Jedi Survivor on PC and it did not work at launch on PC. So then when they did fix it enough to play it, and then had a chance to play it on PlayStation, I just didn't have the oomph to keep getting into it, you know.

SPEAKER_04 14:36

Okay. I just asked because you know the first one was so good. And I don't want to ruin like the first one was so good. Like I remember when what was his name? Cal? Cal. Cal Castis. When he when Darth Vader opened the door and you were like, like, this ain't gonna be good. Dude, that's like gaming, like top 20 gaming moments of all time.

SPEAKER_02 15:07

Anytime Darth Vader is behind a door, one of your top 10 moments for whatever that thing is you're doing is about to happen.

SPEAKER_04 15:17

Yeah. And then do you guys know if if you buy Elder Scrolls online on Steam, does it link to your launcher or is it a complete separate server?

SPEAKER_01 15:33

I mean, I got it through Steam, so I have it through their launcher.

SPEAKER_02 15:40

Well, I don't know then. I don't know either. I've been I only played two hours of ESO.

SPEAKER_04 15:48

I've been kind of like itching to play a little MMOs, but I'm just I know that I don't have enough time to do that. You know what I mean?

MMOs, Launchers, And Time Tradeoffs

SPEAKER_02 15:58

You know, you always could just finally give Final Fantasy XIV and our friendship a real shot, Marcus.

SPEAKER_04 16:06

It's you know, I I test our friendship with Final Fantasy XIV the way I test our friendship with Mass Effect. It's just one of those things we can't get hooked. I've tried, man. I've tried Final Fantasy XIV so much. I've bought a 60-day pass, and out of those 60-day passes, I've played like seven hours, and I'm just like, uh you know what it is? It's because the best MMO of all time is Star Wars The Old Republic, because the story gets you. You're there's conversations, there's conversation trees, and yes, you're on fetch quests, but it there's purpose behind it. Some little old lady's looking for something, and she gives you gives you her husband's belt buckle, and you're like, I'm gonna sell that for some stims, lady. I don't need that belt buckle. But my point is so random. I know, but it's a it's a it's a throwback to Penny Arcade when they when Swow Tor first came out, anyways. I've tried like Guild Wars, Guild Wars is really good too, but it just doesn't get me. Swow Tour is easy to be.

SPEAKER_02 17:22

You're gonna love Baldur's Gate 3 just based on what you said here.

SPEAKER_04 17:28

Well, I yes, and I think I'm gonna screen record everything because they say that the game is incredible.

unknown 17:38

Everything.

SPEAKER_02 17:39

Yeah. What? It's a lot of a lot of footage.

SPEAKER_04 17:45

Got plenty of hard drive space. I don't worry about that. Ever.

Why SWTOR’s Story Hooks Still Win

SPEAKER_02 17:48

You like triple the size of the game if you make sure you have someone who has speak with animals in your party. Wait, you can have somebody in your party that can speak to animals? It's a DD spell, but there are missions that you will pick up, side quests and stuff. And and especially if you have the ability to shrink your party and go into like the holes in the trees and stuff, then you'll just have so many quests because the squirrels will tell you about the spiders that are attacking them, and then you gotta go save their stash of nuts, and so then you play with the squirrels' nuts and get all this XP, and then they're happy that you found their nuts, and then you just run around the forest being the person who liberates everyone's nuts, and it's all because you can s yeah, it's because you can speak to the squirrels.

SPEAKER_03 18:44

Alright.

SPEAKER_02 18:45

So instead of being the people's champion, you're the squirrel's nuts champion. That's funny.

SPEAKER_00 18:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 18:56

I made Marcus speechless. Put it in the notes, Doritos.

SPEAKER_01 19:01

Got it. Timestamp the scroll.

SPEAKER_04 19:04

But did you guys see the new Star Wars game that they announced? Set in the greatest era ever.

SPEAKER_02 19:11

Of the old republic. Yeah, it's probably gonna come out before 2030.

SPEAKER_01 19:20

It's possible.

SPEAKER_04 19:21

I think it's coming out sooner than you think. If they're putting out a trailer like that to announce it, I I can't imagine that EA. Well, no, it's not EA. I can't imagine imagine Lucasfilm is gonna put that out and it's years away.

SPEAKER_02 19:38

They're hiring for all the key positions in the studio right now, though. Oh that that trailer was that trailer was designed to generate interest and not just interest from fans, but from people available to join the dev team. Like it's I think the game will come out. I think they're proud enough of the concept. They just have to build the game. And I do think it's going to take them three to four years for it to come out.

SPEAKER_04 20:11

It's not an EA game, so it's going to come out.

SPEAKER_02 20:15

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 20:16

It's run by Casey Hudson. He made Mass Effect and Kotor. He worked on Quotor, but he made basically was the guy for the original Mass Effect trilogy.

SPEAKER_03 20:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 20:28

Hands down, probably should be very exciting. Yeah. I don't know. I I think that the big game for me was that. That really caught my eye. Because they're gonna make the old republic canon.

SPEAKER_02 20:50

Yeah, because everything that comes out since the Disney acquisition is canon.

SPEAKER_04 20:55

You know what's funny is a little sidebar for what's going on. So my mom moved to Kansas City in September, and she flew in this week on Tuesday, so she's basically staying with me for 10 days, which is awesome. And she loves like every time she comes, she goes in like I'll end up with like four less books when she leaves every time. And she I bought her today. No, she just loves to read. And she sees my books that I have and she just borrows them. But anyway, I bought her Heir to the Empire. Oh, fun. It's the greatest book ever. That's the real sequel trilogy.

SPEAKER_02 21:47

I love to agree with you because Mara Jade is a very cool character. Thrawn is an amazing antagonist. I even like the crazy Jedi, which I'm sure I say his name wrong, but Jorus Jorus.

SPEAKER_04 22:07

Joris Sabayath.

SPEAKER_02 22:10

That's great, because I only know his name from what my 12-year-old brain was able to read on a page. You haven't read it since then. Why would I reread a book that I've already read? There's so many things I haven't read.

New Star Wars Game And Canon Hopes

SPEAKER_04 22:26

Oh man, I read that once a year. I love it so much. And every time I read it, I get a little more out of it. I love that book.

SPEAKER_02 22:39

That's good. I love it too.

SPEAKER_04 22:42

Wait, so you only read one each book one time, that's it? Like the Harry Potter books you've never read more than once?

SPEAKER_02 22:51

The Harry Potter books are different to me. In fact, there was one stretch of time in my life. Listen, you gotta hear this.

SPEAKER_04 22:59

I'm listening.

SPEAKER_02 23:00

One stretch of time in my life, I wanted to read them as fast as possible. And I read the first book in one day, second book in one day, third book in two days. Basically, I finished the seventh book on the 14th day. So I read them all in two weeks. But I was a master's student in between semesters, and my life will never be that open ever again.

SPEAKER_04 23:26

Yeah. But so Heir to the Empire is my is your Harry Potter.

SPEAKER_02 23:32

I did reread Lord of the Rings every year for like a six-year stretch in high school to college. You're eating your own words. These are things I did over 20 years ago, Marcus.

SPEAKER_04 23:48

Yeah, I I so I I'm doing it currently, and I've done it since I was a kid. I just love that.

SPEAKER_02 23:54

Yeah. I love that you read books, Marcus. I love reading. Reading is fundamental.

SPEAKER_04 24:03

But you know what? I love to read books, but I hate when it's text chat and video games.

SPEAKER_02 24:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 24:12

I feel like you're lazy if you don't have voiceover.

SPEAKER_02 24:16

But that's really weird because a lot of the best games I ever played were in the 90s, and for a period of time, that's all you could do. Actually, the whole 90s, I would say that's all you could do.

SPEAKER_04 24:28

That's correct. That was the 90s. This is 2025.

SPEAKER_02 24:33

You can you can go to five. Wait. So you roll your eyes when I say that was 20 years ago, but then I bring up this is 20 years ago, and you're like, yeah, that's exactly how it is.

SPEAKER_04 24:42

But what I'm saying is this you can go Claire Obscure did it. They went on Fiverr and hired some Koreans that did animation work to make a game. You can go to Fiverr and hire somebody to do all the voiceovers in your game for like$9.

SPEAKER_02 25:00

You can probably go to like Grammarly or 11 Labs or something and get Snoop Dogg to do it with an AI generated voice. Well, maybe.

SPEAKER_04 25:10

I mean, you guys could probably go to Fiverr.

SPEAKER_02 25:12

I'm sure that's illegal.

SPEAKER_04 25:13

Probably, but you guys probably could go to Fiverr and replace me on the podcast for like 45 cents per episode.

SPEAKER_02 25:21

Yeah, maybe. You want me to try it next week?

SPEAKER_04 25:26

That would be funny. Hey, Marcus, meet X. Who's X? Oh, your replacement.

SPEAKER_02 25:34

Marcus, I have been working with the education AI company on my gambling training. That's like one of my main projects for my job. They gave me a new AI client to talk to this week. Talk to him for 15 minutes, do the counseling completely AI. It reads your microphone, it talks to you like a real person. And the case study they gave me to do this week was the spouse of a gambler who's been lying to them for years about their gambling, and that spouse's name was Drumroll Marcus. And I did not even tell the company to do that. And when I was demoing the session talking to Marcus's wife, Jennifer, which I know is not so not my Marcus.

SPEAKER_04 26:24

But imagine if it was Carrie, oh my god, it would be the world. But you'd be like, we need a different character. I can't do this.

SPEAKER_02 26:31

It would be so funny. But actually, they keep using the story of this Marcus character in other trainings they're building for Kinebridge. So I feel like I'm just chasing you to try to stop you as a gambler from ruining people's lives in all these modules. It's so funny. That is hilarious.

SPEAKER_03 26:54

And there I am. Everywhere you turn, there's a Marcus. There's a Marcus.

SPEAKER_04 27:02

Doritos, have you played Claire yet?

SPEAKER_01 27:06

I started it. I haven't even I haven't gotten very far. Like, where are you? You still in Lumiere? I haven't even gotten past like the the prelude piece. Oh, perfect. Make sure you explore everywhere, because I didn't.

SPEAKER_02 27:24

Yeah, you gotta listen to the people having sex 33 times. You gotta make sure you do it. Huh.

SPEAKER_04 27:33

Detroit Become Human is$399.

SPEAKER_02 27:37

That's a deal. You gotta buy that. I already have it.

SPEAKER_04 27:41

But I never beat it. Like Heavy Rain is one of my all-time favorite games.

SPEAKER_02 27:47

Mine too.

SPEAKER_04 27:49

It's in the you know, it's not top three, but it's definitely in like top 10. 10 to 15 for sure. But I just didn't play, just didn't beat heavy rain. I mean, Detroit Become Human. I never got into it.

Voice Acting, Old Games, And Modern Expectations

SPEAKER_02 28:07

The technology for Detroit Become Human is much better, but it is not heavy rain. Right. Yeah. I have this weird love for every game I played when I was in my master's program. And that's something that I'm starting to recognize very clearly the last two years or so is that just that period of time when I was age 21 to 24, all the games that define what I have become hit me, or the games that their sequels would hit me that way. And the the only game I would say that's an exception to that that's completely after that period of time is The Last of Us. And obviously Claire Obscure Expedition 33. Okay, so there's a lot. There's also Persona Five. But you know that that 2006 to 2010 sweet spot is like it's where a lot of my philosophical growth around gaming occurred. And heavy rain's a big part of that.

SPEAKER_04 29:22

Yeah. If you go down on the D-pad and go to the right, you can grab her boob. But if you go down on the D-pad and go left, you grab her butt.

SPEAKER_02 29:32

When I was doing that scene, and my friend Gene was over, who everyone knows because he did so many episodes of the show. Yeah, we miss you, Gene. So I was doing this scene and I missed one reaction. I was unable to grab her butt during the sex scene. And I got ridiculed for years over that. Like it just became a joke in my friend's circle that I'm afraid of grabbing her butt.

SPEAKER_00 30:00

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_02 30:02

Yep, it's it's great. But also for that period of time in my life, the just the way that game captured the four characters that you can play and it weave together into the story, it all comes together at the end. Just such a smart game, and it makes you feel things. And it wouldn't work if it's a movie, you know, like you watch it, and actually last year, or this year I should say, the year that is ending, Until Dawn came out as a movie, and it was not good. And Until Dawn is an amazing game for all the same reasons Heavy Rain is, but those games do not work as movies. You have to be able to choose.

SPEAKER_04 30:55

Yeah. The Halo, the Halo games are amazing, but the the TV show is terrible.

SPEAKER_02 31:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 31:05

Did you guys play Where Winds Meet?

AI Training Anecdote And Namesake Chaos

SPEAKER_02 31:09

I downloaded it this week because someone told me I should check it out.

SPEAKER_04 31:13

Yeah. I guess it's incredible and it's a complete free-to-play game.

SPEAKER_02 31:17

Yep.

SPEAKER_04 31:18

The only thing they sell is outfits. Yep. Which means they must be printing money. Or it's like you gotta grind like crazy.

SPEAKER_02 31:30

Probably. I also was told by the same person that wanted me to play that to check out Warframe. Same kind of thing. It's free to play.

SPEAKER_04 31:39

Warframe's like Destiny, I think. I never played it.

SPEAKER_01 31:45

I started it, then just uh I don't know, lost interest a little bit. What was the gameplay like, Doritos? It's fast. It's it's a looter shooter, so it just kind of like just like what, Borderlands? Yeah, kind of like Borderlands. It's just it okay. There's there wasn't a good new player experience. You get you it's pretty it guides you up to a certain point, then it just uh you you step, you start a uh part of a story mission, and then I was lost on what I needed to do when, and then like I felt like I was required to do a group activity to keep progressing the story, and like I I don't know what the heck I'm doing. I don't know what half my buttons do. I don't know what a even a decent looking build could be, so I just nope. Moving on to the go back to the tour, keep on doing the thing there and go play some of the other games that I won't be playing.

SPEAKER_03 32:52

Sure. Hi, puppy.

Claire Obscure Starts And Must-Do Moments

SPEAKER_04 32:57

Yeah. I'm hoping that I can get into it. Which one? Warframe. I'd like to try it. I definitely like to try it, or where winds meet. They're free, right? I say I say the two-hour test is always a good indication. If you can play a game for two hours and you have fun doing it, it's fine. Like The Witcher, I think I've played eight hours and it's I I have no desire to go back.

SPEAKER_02 33:32

Yeah. That happened to me so many times with The Witcher 3. I just had to change my mindset about the game and just focus on story and decide that it's all about supporting Jennifer. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 33:52

Okay. My kid, well, Rhino's been asking to play a fighting game a lot lately. So we play a lot of Fortnite together. We play a ton of WWE 2K25, and he asked me about fighting games, and like obviously for me, the there's only one real fighting game, and that's Mortal Kombat. But obviously, my kid can't play Mortal Kombat. He's seven. I can't rip it. Why not? I can't rip it out. I started playing Mortal Kombat when I was seven. We're from the 90s. Like, I don't think my kid could handle Kano ripping out a heart and taking a bite out of it right now.

SPEAKER_02 34:31

Kano doesn't bite the heart, Marcus. He just rips it out.

SPEAKER_04 34:36

No, he rips out.

SPEAKER_02 34:38

Does he? Yeah. He does now. Oh.

SPEAKER_04 34:41

Yeah, Google it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 34:43

I could just play Mortal Kombat myself.

SPEAKER_04 34:48

Yeah, so I don't know if I do Tekken, Street Fighter.

Heavy Rain, Detroit, And Choice-Driven Stories

SPEAKER_02 34:52

Do Street Fighter, because there's a movie coming out, and it stars Cody Rhodes and Roman Reigns, and that's amazing. Yeah. That's true. Oh my gosh. Did either of you watch John Cena's final match?

SPEAKER_03 35:06

Yeah, of course.

SPEAKER_02 35:08

Okay. So I immediately said out loud this thing, and for about four days I did not see anything on the internet talking about it until Bubba Ray Dudley said exactly the same thing and validated me yesterday. Would you like to know what that thing is, both of you?

SPEAKER_01 35:31

Sure. Sure.

SPEAKER_02 35:33

So John Cena is in the most boring finisher of all time, Gunther's Headlock. And over and over he's in this headlock. And Gunther, by the way, he comes out, has this dominant symphonic music with this flowing black robe, very imperial, but also kind of boxer looking now. But you know, he's got that kind of dominant, muscly Darth Vader aura to him. And you know, John Cena's the baby face, he's the ultimate hero, regardless of what he did for some months this year, but ultimate hero. And at the end of this match, I am spoiling the match. So if you really don't want to be spoiled and you want to enjoy it.

SPEAKER_04 36:24

I know.

SPEAKER_02 36:25

I mean, you don't know. There's a small percent of people that prioritize the gaming persona over John Cena's completed WWE career.

SPEAKER_04 36:34

They're on ABC, NBC, Fox News. Like John Cena's been everywhere. They've been talking about that for the week.

Free-To-Play Picks: Where Winds Meet, Warframe

SPEAKER_02 36:41

It's it's fine. Okay. So John Cena in the final headlock, realizing that he is not gonna beat Gunther, he just smiles and casually taps on the wrist of Gunther three or four times. The ref looks, calls for the bell. The match is over, Gunther wins. John Cena is retired. And I turned to my son on the couch and I was like, he did the Obi-Wan Kenobi. Mm-hmm. Right? Realizing that, you know, his time is up and it's someone else's time now. Luke Skywalker is right there, and I know what he is to Darth Vader, and I'm gonna turn into a force ghost. I'm gonna pop some popcorn, and this is gonna be a great trilogy. Bye bye, Anakin. Smile and Vader strikes him down, and now he's more powerful than you can possibly imagine. That is what John Cena did in wrestling storytelling. You know, he's always gonna be a part of WWE, he's the greatest champion of all time in terms of number of championship reigns. And just that smile, it it instantly gave me nostalgia for a new hope. And that storytelling, obviously, it resonates in my spirit. I see it everywhere, I feel it everywhere. And for John Cena to obviously, you know, that's deliberate stuff. Like he he knows the history of movies, he knows what he's doing as a hero. It was beautiful. I loved it. And a lot of people online were upset that John Cena lost the match, but I never for even a second was.

SPEAKER_04 38:57

But after the evening, and I woke up the next day and I said, It makes sense. He gave up because his time is up.

SPEAKER_02 39:09

Yeah, his song.

SPEAKER_04 39:11

Right.

SPEAKER_02 39:12

Yeah, he reversed the lyrics of his song for that moment.

SPEAKER_04 39:16

Yes. And now there's no question that he's done. It's over. He's done. Game over, move on. And for me, with that, I think it's really great and poetic how it ends. Gunther is probably one of the best wrestlers in all of pro wrestling. Yes, his sleeper hold is meh, and people say he's boring, but every single match he has is a good match. He makes everybody look good. He's an unbelievable pro wrestler. I just hate the sleeper. Yeah. Right, like when he when he's wrestling, he's doing a good job.

SPEAKER_02 40:07

The SmackDown before or Raw, where he beat LA Knight to earn the John Cena match, he broke out this like evil interpretation of John Cena's submission, the STFU, but with his hands reversed, so like he can crank the person's neck up to an even higher angle. And I turned to my son, I was like, that needs to be his new submission. Like it it's mocking John Cena. It's it looks vicious on like pulling at your jaw or your cheeks up like that. It looks painful. The sleeper, I think the problem with the sleeper is it doesn't look like it's actually a submission. It just looks like you're hugging the person around their chin and holding them like you're they're your best friend and like whispering dinner plans into their ear.

SPEAKER_04 41:09

Yeah, I agree.

SPEAKER_03 41:13

I agree.

Two-Hour Test And The Witcher Mindset

SPEAKER_02 41:15

I really do love wrestling though, and I love the way that you can get these epic storylines with fiction, but with the physicality of amazing combat ballet. I just think it's so fun.

SPEAKER_04 41:30

I love it. It's gotten to the point now where my son and my daughter love it. Fridays are SmackDown night. If there's a PLE, we watch it. Now we watch Raw on Tuesdays because I play hockey on Monday nights. And and that works out well because they can stay up a little later on Tuesday because Mondays, Mondays are tired from the first day back to school. But my niece and nephew, they love it. They come over for PLEs. I have a good friend that comes over for every like event. It it's just wrestling is just awesome. And Topps just came out with hold on, see if I can find it. Shit. A card, and it's only available to order. It's only available to order until December 19th, I think.

SPEAKER_02 42:28

Oh, that's tomorrow. I don't know. Hold on.

unknown 42:33

What the hell?

SPEAKER_03 42:37

Oh, visit our store, sorry.

SPEAKER_04 42:39

It's so it's a it's a card, and it's punk, Cena, and Cody. And they're only making 500,000 cards, and a couple of them are gonna have autographs on it. Obviously, there's the one of one card.

SPEAKER_03 43:04

And how come I don't know?

SPEAKER_02 43:08

Is it the moment where Punk and Cody give Cena their their belts?

SPEAKER_03 43:13

Yeah.

Kid-Friendly Fighters And Wrestling Tie-Ins

SPEAKER_02 43:14

You know that John Cena and Batista did that exact same moment to Hulk Hogan when Hogan's last night in WWE was happening. Right. Yeah. That sucks. I think it might be over. Well, your deadline is tomorrow, so if they sold through it, then it would be over. Can you I see it? Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 43:42

Yeah. So it's the three of them. So I have a chance to get the the belt, but I wanted to get the card because it's only a limited time. It was 10 bucks. I'll have it graded, and it'll it, you know, that's that's a memory that'll go down. Like my kids cried when you've seen a lost. Oh, probably shouldn't talk about this on the podcast, but I'm going to anyway. So next Thursday is Christmas, and the following week is New Year's Day. What do you guys want to do for the podcast? Excellent question. I don't know. So I clearly am not going to be around on the 25th, but if you guys are around on the 26th night, which is the day after Christmas, because pretty much nobody's really working on the 26th. Or if you are, it's at night. Do you guys want to record then? Or do you guys want to start fresh January 8th?

SPEAKER_02 44:55

I think it's okay to take a two-week break for Christmas season.

SPEAKER_04 45:00

Okay, then can we plan the 21st? The 21st or the 28th? Or the 28th, like a community night where like we play some like jackbox games in the Discord? Maybe for some Fall Guys.

SPEAKER_02 45:14

I've never played Fall Guys.

SPEAKER_04 45:16

Oh my god, it's so much fun. It's like swallowing.

SPEAKER_02 45:21

Did you say Sunday?

SPEAKER_04 45:22

Yeah. Sunday night. I don't have an I don't have hockey the 28th. Well, I can. Oh, there's a yawn. Look at that thing. That's a good one.

SPEAKER_02 45:38

I can do my best. There is a chance I might be doing Christmas shopping.

SPEAKER_04 45:43

On the 28th?

SPEAKER_02 45:46

21st.

SPEAKER_04 45:46

Oh, I said the 28th. I meant the 21st, I'm not around.

SPEAKER_02 45:50

Yes, I will be doing Christmas shopping after Christmas. Screw everybody. You don't get your gifts on time.

John Cena’s Farewell As Obi-Wan Moment

SPEAKER_04 45:57

Hey kid, you're old enough. I shop afterwards because I want 50% off.

SPEAKER_02 46:03

Yeah, that's right. There's nobody in my life that has the illusion of Santa anymore. Yeah, let's let's do it. We'll figure it out. What game we're playing and what time.

SPEAKER_04 46:17

Alright. My last question, and I'm gonna shut up for the night. If you could get one Christmas present this Christmas, what would you get?

SPEAKER_03 46:28

Like from your like. Oh.

SPEAKER_04 46:32

Maybe it's because I have little kids and they ask me all the time and I have that answer.

SPEAKER_02 46:38

What would yours be, Marcus? Because I need a few extra minutes.

SPEAKER_04 46:42

Sure, I want a custom Gatorade water bottle. So if you go to Gatorade's website, you can customize a water bottle, and it's pretty sick. And I use a water bottle four nights a week when I play hockey. And so my kids did it for themselves. And I was like, where's mine? And they're like, sorry, dad. They got their names on their side, their number on the top. It's pretty cool. You pick out the color, it's awesome. And I was like, that's what I want. So I'm hoping that that's what I got because that's the only thing I asked for.

SPEAKER_02 47:18

That's really nice.

SPEAKER_04 47:19

Yeah. And hopefully it's this like daddy or dad on it. They better not have put Marcus on it. I'll be bad.

SPEAKER_02 47:31

That's not who you are in your brain.

SPEAKER_04 47:33

No, I'm straight up. You know, we've we've crossed the threshold where only when they're sick or really tired they call me daddy, but now it's just dad.

SPEAKER_00 47:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 47:45

Hey dad, what?

SPEAKER_00 47:49

You know.

SPEAKER_04 47:52

But you know, oh, I did do something else. Oh my god, I'm on fire. I ordered a custom controller. I custom made yep, I custom made the greatest controller ever, which is the Xbox. So I did all black, all gold buttons. It's like a mirror of this, and on the back it says Expedition 33.

SPEAKER_02 48:17

Oh, that's nice.

SPEAKER_04 48:18

Because I don't have an Expedition 33 controller. That game influenced my life, and now I have a reason to play it because the DLC is legit, ridiculously hard. My friends playing through it because he's level 99 of everything. He's like, Marcus, you have to do all of the endgame content. You cannot go the way you are right now. It will not be fun for you.

Submissions, Storytelling, And Character Work

SPEAKER_02 48:42

Yeah, I I agree. You should play it. I did one of the DLC bosses during my charity stream. Yeah. And it was so freaking frustrating. But I did win. First try? No. No. But for I mean, if you mean first try like my first sitting, yes. No, first. I did get. No, you're not gonna beat any of these bosses on your first poll. There's no way. Like, unless you unless you watch a bunch of other people do it on a YouTube video or something, and you practice the on your controller and like learn all of the telegraphs before you go into it, you could do it that way, but that's such a lame way to be a gamer. Sorry, sorry, if that's what you enjoy doing, you are valid, and I apologize for what I just said. I really do. But what's the difference between learning it by losing yourself and taking those steps forward? I I guess if you want to learn the rhythm and all of the telegraphs before you even go in and do it yourself, you can do that. I'm talking in circles. I feel really bad for insulting so many gamers just now.

SPEAKER_04 50:02

I don't because there's how do you think I won Elden Ring? Dumb luck. Watching VODs, panic rolling. No, but I seriously I'm being serious. I watched so what was oh my god, there was a room where you went in, and there was that. Remember those really like fat roly-poly guys, and then there was like the same kind of guy, but he was really skinny and long, and he like yes, fuck that fight, okay? I'm sorry, like that fight is just not fair. That is not fair.

SPEAKER_02 50:41

You don't like how they share a health bar, dude.

SPEAKER_04 50:46

They but they come back to life because they share a health bar.

SPEAKER_02 50:50

I know, kill them faster.

SPEAKER_01 50:53

Jeez.

SPEAKER_02 50:56

Have you tried playing the game well, Marcus?

SPEAKER_04 51:01

I really okay. I really try to not panic roll, okay, but it just happens. So how so how do you do it? It's your middle name.

SPEAKER_01 51:11

So so do you think? I do want to take a shot.

SPEAKER_02 51:17

Yeah, you can panic parry. Marcus does it all the time. I I watch. It's it's a it's a fact. I want to get to fight the new Simon because it takes everything about the first Simon, multiplies it, and makes it ridiculously unfair, and I feel like if I can kill him, then I can do anything. What was the hardest fight for you in Elden Ring? I was stuck on Malachith for so long. Once I beat him, it was all just a downhill slide. I I did not have the same problem with the Elden Beast as I had with Malachith.

SPEAKER_04 52:02

I beat Malacheth second try.

SPEAKER_02 52:04

I know. I was watching.

SPEAKER_04 52:08

Mine was the Putrid Tree Avatar. You don't even have to kill that thing. But I had to for my pride. That Melania sucked. I pulled Melania for like three days.

SPEAKER_02 52:23

I beat her in four and a half hours. I remember saying, like, I'm not coming out of my office until I get her.

SPEAKER_04 52:31

Now that's funny. What about you, Doritos? What was your hardest fight? I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 52:37

Look at his face, like none. Mechanic heavy thing, so I was like, I enjoyed the whole sticking game.

SPEAKER_04 52:45

Well, it's no, I guess uh oh, I love the game. That's not what I was asking. What was the hardest boss you fought?

SPEAKER_01 52:54

I'd probably have to say Millane as far as difficulty of boss goes.

SPEAKER_00 53:00

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 53:03

As far as what I did in 2025, the thing I did with Sephiroth on dynamic difficulty is the boss fight that took the most focus for me to get down. But most people don't play that game on a high enough difficulty to make it like an Elden Ring. So a lot of people probably don't realize that game is built like that.

SPEAKER_04 53:27

That brings up another question. Do you believe games should have difficulty modes? Difficulty what?

SPEAKER_02 53:37

Yeah, of course they should. Then why shouldn't Elden Ring? Elden Ring should. Because that's not how the developer wanted to do it.

SPEAKER_04 53:52

I, in my opinion, I was forced to play Elden Ring the way the devs made it. And I got through it. If I had an easy mode for Elden Ring, I would have done it, and the game wouldn't be as special if I just blew through it.

SPEAKER_02 54:12

I don't think you would blow through easy mode on Elden Ring. Bulloney. I think no, listen, there are video games where on easy mode you literally can't die. I do not think that would be what easy mode is on Elden Ring.

SPEAKER_04 54:32

What would you say halfway in Elden Ring is?

SPEAKER_02 54:36

What do you mean halfway? Like on the map or like halfway through the game. Oh, getting to the Altus Plateau.

SPEAKER_04 54:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 54:45

Yeah, I I think that's the the the transition step. Yeah, because you have Volcano Manor, you have like you have the Academy, you have Liernia Lakes, you have the ability. What's the rot place?

SPEAKER_04 55:03

Oh my god, the Rot Doritos, how dare you say those words?

SPEAKER_02 55:09

Yeah, like you can get to all those places before you go into the Altus Plateau. Once you use the medallions to go up that first elevator, you're halfway through.

SPEAKER_04 55:20

Okay. I felt as if maybe some of the bosses got harder, but the beginning of the game was harder for me than the back half of the game.

SPEAKER_02 55:31

That's true. Once you get the moon veil katana, everything is fair.

SPEAKER_01 55:37

I never got it. I didn't finally get it. That's the same thing. I did get it.

SPEAKER_02 55:42

Once you find the weapon that fits perfectly with the way you think, the game becomes a very different game.

SPEAKER_04 55:49

We're just gonna put this out there. The only reason why Doritos got the moon veil is because he had to have every single weapon in the game.

Holiday Scheduling And Community Night Ideas

SPEAKER_01 55:57

Oh, I just still don't have a every single weapon in the game, but I got clothes.

SPEAKER_04 56:01

Bologna. The only thing you don't have is like great barbarian axe, which you could have gotten in Limgrave if you just fought the guy four more times grinding.

SPEAKER_02 56:16

I think I should just start Elden Ring over on the PS5 and work on getting the platinum trophy instead of the Steam achievements. Yeah. I don't think you can do it. If I go back to the case, are you trying to reverse psychology me on my own show, Marcus? No, I don't think no, I'm not.

SPEAKER_04 56:37

And it's our show. I know. No, I'm sorry, I'm gonna stick it. No, the reason why I say that is because you've already beaten it a bunch of times. I don't foresee you starting at level one and having all these other games to play, just like you can't read Air to the Empire twice. Continue the journey.