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Breakout Beyond, Novocaine, & LEGO Grogu

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About This Episode

We watch a British TV series that challenges some of the funniest comics to keep a straight face, bust out the bricks for for an adorable Star Wars icon you can construct with LEGO, and we “break out” Atari’s latest reimagining of its ball-and-paddle arcade classic!

(May contain some explicit language.)

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Show Notes

TRANSCRIPT

Speaker Transcript
Jon Welcome back, Gen X Grown-Up Podcast listeners, to this episode 188 of the Gen Grown-Up Podcast.
Jon I am John. Joining me as always, of course, is George. Hey, man.
George Hey, how’s it going, guys?
Jon Wouldn’t be a show without Mo. How you doing, Mo?
Mo ah good man
Jon In this episode, we watch a British TV series that challenges some of the funniest comics to keep a straight face, bust out the bricks for an adorable Star Wars icon you can construct with Lego, and we break out Atari’s latest reimagining of its ball and paddle arcade classic.
Jon to have those topics and many more in this episode. but But first, it is time for some fourth listener email.
Mo Okay.
Jon Look, the three of us on the show, we’re liable to listen if anybody else takes time to listen and drops us an email about it. You are our fourth listener. And the fourth listener this time around is longtime fourth listener, Brandon G. He hit us up with an email that says, he hit us up with an email, the subject line, 321 contact and the previous episode.
Jon Okay.
Mo okay
Jon Starts it off by going, hey, guys, I’m pulling a George here and mentioning two things in my email. Okay? First, the 3-2-1 Contact episode was awesome. I watched that show while playing with my toys on the living room floor and revisiting it through your episode brought a smile to my face.
Jon Awesome show with an earworm of a theme song. yeah Yeah, as we said. ah Now, about the episode a week earlier. When it came to the What I’m Looking Forward To segment, George rose above and beyond.
Jon Shows and movies and games are one thing, but this update But his update about his wife and her amazing progress after her health issues wasn’t an awesome thing to hear. We remember that one, George. Yeah.
Mo Mm-hmm.
George Mm-hmm.
Mo Oh.
Jon Yeah.
George Mm-hmm.
Jon yeah You’ve been gradually giving us little updates on your wife’s health challenges. And it’s it’s it’s awesome to hear the progress. you’re He’s right.
Jon ah guess says ah ti to He goes on to say he put forward so much love and positivity. Damn good thing I listened to the podcast privately because it brought tears to my eyes. I’m sure I can speak for all GXG listeners when I say continued well wishes for her health and progress. And also, as always, the best of wishes to you three guys, Brandon.
Jon How nice, Brandon. yeah It’s nice that not only was he pulling a George, but he had talked a little bit about you, George.
Mo That was really nice.
Jon So since Brandon brings it up, how’s the wife doing?
George Right.
Jon Quick update? Yeah, I know we haven’t talked about it in a few weeks. Just to give Brandon a little more to cry about. Some positivity.
George Yeah. I mean, she’s, she’s doing well.
Mo ah
George Um, we’re, um, moving down, you know, all the different, um, therapy session routes.
Jon Love it.
George So hopefully everything will just continue where, um, she’s getting much better and better at free walking, which is without any assisted devices. And, uh, she’s, um,
Mo That’s awesome.
George Getting to the point where she can maybe start doing some of her old routine stuff around the house. And, you know, every every time she gets to do something like that, of course, it makes her happier that she’s getting back to her normal life.
Jon e
George So, yeah.
Jon Another little victory. Another little victory. That’s good to hear. Yep. Cool. All right. Brandon, thank you so much for dropping us a line, for listening to the show. We know you’ve been a longtime listener, and we’re glad we’re glad that both of those things and many more have given you things to think about and things to hit you right in the feels.
Jon We’d like to be able to do that for you. If you would like your email featured here on the show, it is drop dead easy.
Mo you
Jon Just hit us up at podcast at genxgrownup.com, where we read every single one, and most of them will eventually Just like Brandon’s, make the show. All right. With that good business in the rearview mirror, we’re going to jump into the body of episode 188 after this quick break.
Jon All right, get the ball rolling. Here’s the top of the show, of course, talking about media we have been enjoying since we last spoke. Now, this could be television or movies or film or comics or music or whatever you’ve been enjoying. And, George, why don’t we kick it off with you. What have you been watching?
George ah Well, actually a show, I think it was on one of your looking forwards to a little while back. It’s the new Suits spinoff called Suits LA.
Jon Okay.
George And I almost fell se susceptible, or I find myself susceptible, I guess, and I almost fell to this feeling of… Oh, that’s not the original. I’m not going to watch it because it’s not going to be as good or it’s just a money grab or whatever feelings I have.
Jon Mm-hmm. Go on.
George And every time I start to feel that, I remind myself of the Battlestar Galactica reimagining fiasco where I didn’t watch it for like a season and a half or two seasons or something like that before I finally started watching and found one of the best sci-fi series ever put on television.
Mo is
Mo Oh yeah, by far.
George Um… So I didn’t want to let myself fall into that trap this time, so I decided to go ahead and watch it. There were four episodes, I think, at the point when I started watching it, and I ended up watching all four in the same day.
George It’s very well put together.
Mo no
George It’s got a really fun and interesting cast. A couple of… um people of note, it has um the guy who played Green Arrow in the CW Arrow universe, ah Stephen Amell is in it.
Jon Was it Amel?
Mo Right?
Jon Oh, yeah. hu
George He’s the lead.
Jon Uh-huh.
George And then um it also has, and I can’t remember the actor’s name, but it’s got the guy who played Eugene in the Walking Dead series. Now, oddly enough,
Mo Oh, yeah, yeah.
George he plays like the exact opposite role from what he did in walking dead walking dead. He was, you know, idiot savant country boy kind of character ah in this.
Mo Yeah.
George He is this guy, cutthroat, nasty, super intelligent lawyer guy, um, who is kind of Stephen Amell’s equal and they kind of butt heads a lot. And there’s a lot stuff that happens in the first episode.
George They do tie in the original suit series because both of those characters knew each other and started together in New York before they quote moved to l LA, which is where the new series takes place. Um, um,
George It’s got a lot of high drama, as you might imagine. It starts right off with a um with a season through storyline of a major ah court case going on with everybody that’s involved. Plus, every episode has other different subplots that happen and get wound up in that one particular episode.
Jon Okay, yeah.
George Very well written, very well acted. it’s It’s not the same as the original Suits. You don’t have the character who is like the heir apparent, super like memory guy that doesn’t belong as a lawyer, but is a good lawyer because he has a good heart.
Mo Thank you.
George It doesn’t quite have that character, but it does have protege characters on both sides of the fence. um It’s got a ah forlorn forlorned love interest character.
George Um, and it’s got a guy who is, um, like he’s repulsive and yet likable in the same way as the person who the court case is centered around.
George So,
Jon Oh, oh, yeah.
George Yeah, yeah, it’s very, it’s a very good show. I really like it. I don’t know if either of you two have watched it yet, but when you do have a chance ah to binge whatever episodes they’re up to, because this is weekly episodic TV, it’s not, you know, dumped all at once.
Mo Mm-mm.
Jon Mm-hmm.
Jon Yeah.
George um So you do, once you watch the, however many episodes are out when you watch this, you’re going to have to wait for at least a period of time before the next episode comes out.
Jon Mm-hmm. ah I know a lot of people are bananas about the original suits, which I never watched, but it’s I and know it’s ah widely enjoyed.
George Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Jon It’s about a a bunch of attorneys in New York City and all takes place over there. And I know this is a spinoff. I’m curious, not knowing much about the first one, how is it connected? Like, is it happening at the same time? Is it later in time?
Jon Are there any character crossovers? Are they aware of each other? Or is it just like, think like CSI, like those kind of happen in their own little bubble. And rarely is there any kind of acknowledgement of CSI Miami versus CSI, you know, wherever the heck the other ones are.
Mo Yeah.
Jon How does this one connect back to the first one?
George So in one of the episodes, there is um a couple of historical flashback scenes that bring in the main character from the original suits, Gabriel Mock’s character.
Jon Oh, huh.
George So he, um he and Stephen Amell know each other ah through the lawyer New York circles. Like i said, all of the um actors that are the two main ah lawyers in this show now, they started off in New York.
George um So,
Jon Oh, OK.
George They were in that New York law scene, so they all kind of knew each other because it’s not like they were the the bus bench, you know, ambulance chaser, lawyer crowd.
Jon Yeah, yeah.
George They were the the top echelon. Stephen Amell’s character was actually a prosecutor in New York. Um, and now when he moves to LA, he is a, um, I guess what is an entertainment lawyer.
Jon Oh, now he’s out there.
George So it’s a completely different mindset, but there’s a reason why he’s no longer a prosecutor.
Jon Mm-hmm. Yep.
George um the other character, he was, I forgot what type of lawyer he was mostly contract law and stuff, but he becomes like the best public or the best defense lawyer in the country.
Mo Okay.
Jon Okay.
George So yeah, it, it’s got some ties back to the original New York scene. They do have those couple of scenes in that one episode with Gabriel mocked. I imagine we’ll probably see some more here and there.
Jon I see.
George Um, and that might mean that when we get to see flashbacks that help inform the current story, we see other characters from the original suits series. Uh, I know everyone is really wanting to see Louis lit back because that was a beloved character from the original series.
Jon and
George Um, but, but we’ll we’ll just have to wait and see. It’s very early on. I think on just the strength of the first five episodes or so that I’ve watched, they deserve at least a second season at this point.
George It’s that well done.
Jon Okay.
George ah Beyond that, I couldn’t say.
Jon Yep.
Jon Cool. All right. Something more to check out?
Mo Yeah, very cool.
George Yep. Mo, what about you? You watching anything interesting?
Mo Yeah, it’s a new show. Well, actually, it’s a new version of a show that’s already out there. It’s called Last One Laughing. don’t know if you guys heard of this or not. um They did one version in Canada. They did a version in, I forget what other country, but they have a UK version now.
Mo And the premise of the show is basically they take 10 comedians, like in this case, you know British comedians, put them in a room or a little stage area, set area, and
Jon Okay.
George Oh.
Mo And the last one to laugh wins. So, so.
Jon Oh, okay.
George Oh.
Jon Last one. so Basically the last one not laughing, really, should be called.
Mo Right. Oh, yeah. Last one to not laugh at all. And so, I mean, and so, I mean, like ah Richard Ayawade is in it.
Jon Yeah.
Mo Like, I’m sure you know him from my T crowd.
Jon Oh, yeah.
George Yeah.
Jon IT crowd guy.
Mo ah Jimmy Carr.
Jon Yep.
Mo I say if you’re if you’re at all, it’s a contemporary British comedy. at All you would know, like every single person who’s on this. They’ve been on TV shows.
Jon Mm-hmm.
Mo They’ve been all over a place. And it’s funny because sometimes like it’s not even the jokes that are funny that makes us entertaining. It’s watching these comedians try not to laugh at each other while trying to make the other comedians laugh.
Mo You know, so it’s like, i guess because they’re trying to make each other laugh, it’s that they don’t necessarily do like their normal kind of comedy. They’re like, they’re trying to like surprise people and, and, do things they wouldn’t expect.
Mo um Right off the bat, they’re like, you know, Richard Ayoade, they’re like, he has, ah he’s the man to beat because his whole shtick is not being emotional. you know, that’s his whole thing.
Jon Yeah.
Mo And of course, he plays that character like really well in this, you know, and he just throws these one liners out every now then.
Jon Yeah.
Mo He’ll just say like, you know how his comedy is. He just told there’s like this bizarre statement out and you just see these comedians like they have like turn around and have to walk away from him.
Jon Yeah.
Mo They’ll have to like, you you see him starting to eat something like try not to smile or laugh.
Jon Mm-hmm.
Mo And they have a couple of premises in this. Like each one has a set that Jimmy Carr, who’s the host, he’ll sit he has cameras like everywhere. He’s watching everything. And he’ll say, okay, so-and-so, go do your set.
Mo And they have little Curtain opens. The comedian will do the set, and everybody has to watch it. You have no choice. You have to sit in these couches, and you have to watch this set.
Jon Mm-hmm.
Mo And they have these preset comedy things where trying to make each other just – they’re doing their best just to do their funniest stuff just to try to make people crack up. And it gets sometimes it gets a little mean because they’ll see somebody is like starting to lose it and they’ all just like gang up on that person.
Mo Like, you know, they’ll all just start like poking that person. And eventually and you have to have two outs. Like the first time you laugh, it’s a yellow card, you know, like in so ah soccer. Second time you get the red card, you’re out.
Mo And then you go get to sit with the host in the room and watch everybody else. And they make comments about people. it’s six episodes. Um, and the whole show, the whole day is six hours long.
Jon Mm-hmm.
Mo whole thing takes six hours. So they, that’s the maximum time it takes. So it’s all one continuous thing. And at the end, one person’s left remaining and everybody else is just, like said, some people just, they lost in the first hour.
Mo Like they just, there’s no way in hell they could keep a straight face at all. But, you know, but again, that was like the fun part of it. You know, was like, and they’re not doing it for money. there’s It’s more just for like, who could do it kind of thing.
Jon Yeah, you you almost just answered the question i was going to ask, so let me reframe it. Hold on.
Jon So they’re in the room just for entertainment value? They’re not like competing to win a prize or whatever? You said that like they would team up on each other.
Mo They have trophy. There’s a trophy.
Jon ah was like Okay. Bragging rights for a comic, I guess, maybe.
Mo They have bragging rights. you know
Jon Okay.
Mo I’m sure that gets them some exposure right as well.
Jon Mm-hmm.
Mo you know And they do a mix. like Some of the comedians are kind of like they’re like the veterans of the comedy scene there. And they get a couple new people.
Jon Yeah.
Mo then they have someone in the middle like Richard Ayotte and some others who are kind of in the middle area. you know but And they all have different styles of comedy. They have different… you know But again, it’s just the entertaining part is not necessarily the jokes. It’s just…
Mo just watching what they, the lengths they’ll go to to try to make each other laugh. And then they’ll throw like surprise guests will pop on, like just out nowhere.
Jon Mm-hmm.
Mo Like ah some, some famous actor will come on. Like there was show called like the East Enders, which i don’t know if you watch British TV.
Jon Yep. I’ve heard of it. Heard of it yeah
Mo It’s like a gangster kind of movie, and they had the main guy come in there, and they had somebody go up there, and they play this whole tough guy scene together. And again, they’re all just trying not to laugh because he’s like, yo, I’ll tongue you.
Jon Mm-hmm.
Mo you like Tongue you? What the hell? Where did that come from?
Jon but
George Mm-hmm.
Mo It’s just these random lines they’ll do and stuff. It’s very funny, very entertaining. It’s ah easy and digestible. it’s like half-hour episodes.
Jon Yeah.
Mo you know Only six of them. You can bridge the whole thing like really fast because you want to see who’s the next one out. Again, really, really funny show.
Jon Yeah. Right.
Mo So, um and that’s what I So, John, you saw a movie i have not seen yet. And I want to know if I want to or not.
Jon Oh, okay.
Mo So hit me with it.
Jon Yeah. Okay. Sure. Well, for starters, yeah, you’ll want to see it. So we’ll start right there and make that easy for you.
Mo OK.
Jon So ah the film that I saw was ah one of… I think 20 new films that Jack Quaid has been in over the last year.
Mo Oh, my God, he’s all over a place.
Jon He’s just everywhere. He’s in so many things. Uh, but the Jack Quaid film, called what was the other one? The, there was the AI one a couple weeks ago that I saw that was really good.
Mo Yeah.
Jon Uh, perfect partner, mate, whatever it was. Anyway, what I’m talking about here is Novocaine.
Mo Yeah, yeah.
Jon And this is very much, he is the star of this show. um The premise is pretty simple. He is a guy that has a very real clinical condition. I forget what it’s called, but the point is he cannot process or feel pain.
Jon Like he can feel, you know, pressure and he can sense things. Just pain is not something that his body processes. And in the first episode, 60 seconds. As they’re going through the opening credits and kind of the introduction music and they’re starting up, I could tell already the way this film is set up that I was going to enjoy it Because just the way the set pieces are set up in a way that you’re hinting at what kind of problems he has in his life.
Jon Like on his desk, he has a pencil cup and these pencils are in it, but every pencil has like a little piece of Play-Doh on it. So he doesn’t poke himself because if he did, he wouldn’t know.
Mo Right, he wouldn’t know it.
Jon Right. ah He’s ah ah what happens is he he’s an assistant manager at a bank and ah the bank gets robbed.
Jon Uh, Criminal activity comes in, these guys in you know masks come in, a guy actually gets killed, terrible things happen, and a girl who he’s only just met and is falling head over heels with is taken as a hostage.
Mo o
Jon And now he’s decided that because the police are so far away, he’s he’s a super timid guy, he’s always very cautious his life because of his condition, he’s gonna set out and try to rescue this girl from these bank robbers.
Mo jeez.
Jon And what he does, it isn’t the kind of like Jason Statham sort of he’s a badass and therefore he can do all this crazy stuff. It’s just that he can endure so much punishment because he’s not getting worn down by pain that takes place.
Mo geez
Jon ah In a very early scene, he starts to realize the things that he can’t sense. He goes to a diner with this girl and says, you ought to try the pie. And he’s like, no, I’ll just have a shake.
Jon And he’s like, this is the best pie in town. He’s like, no, I can’t have the pie because if I bite the pie, I might bite my tongue off and not know it. Because everything he does is a smoothie or something.
Mo Yeah.
Jon And so he’s going outside of his comfort zone. He tries this pie. And that’s like the beginning of this journey of coming out of his shell. it It goes through this process of, you know, there’s the several bank robbers and he has to go through them and encounter this bank robber. If you saw the the trailer for it, you know, he’s in this and a kitchen scene. He grabs a gun out of a deep fryer. And there’s so much disbelief that you must spend to watch this because, yeah, he’s not feeling pain, but his body is getting beaten up.
Jon He’s getting worn down. At one point, he does like ah an adrenaline shot or something, at least to give him energy. But he doesn’t, he he’s absolutely getting stabbed, cut, punched, kicked, ah in car wrecks, all this sort of stuff. He keeps going through it.
Jon And it’s Jack Quaid is so likable in this that, You feel the pain for him. You’re like, ah it hurts me to see you get hurt that way or get hit that way or endure it, even though you’s not feeling the pain, but you feel the danger that he’s in.
Mo Yeah, I mean, I saw the trailer where like he does things like sticks his hand in boiling oil. you know And when I’m watching that, I’m like, okay, granted, you may not feel the pain, but that’s going to do some muscle damage that you’re not going to be able to do stuff with.
George He he he.
Jon Yeah, sure. Yep.
Mo But you know again, that’s not the premise movie.
Jon Mm-hmm.
Mo I could totally like go with it, I guess. But I’ll tell you one thing. He has definitely cornered the nice guy role out there. I mean, he’s everything in.
Jon he’s and He’s a nice guy.
Mo He’s like she’s just like the nice guy, and then they try to twist on it, but you know he’s definitely cornered that.
George I’d say it’s he and Bill Pullman. And it’s interesting that it’s two sons of two famous actors that have kind of cornered that likable, kind of reserved, quiet guy role in a lot of things.
Jon easy
George Bill Pullman, you know, we saw him recently in the Top Gun Maverick movie a few years ago as just Bob, right?
Jon Yeah. Yeah.
Mo Yeah, Bob.
George And now you got Jack Quaid, You know, he got really popular with the boys series, of course, and now he’s doing these types of roles. I like to see these multi-generational acting families when they…
George When they have a good run, because so often they don’t, right? So often they get put in roles and they’re not very good or they obviously don’t have the same work they work ethic that their parents did.
Mo Sure.
Jon Yeah. Right.
Jon Right.
George And you’re just like, oh, really?
Jon yeah
George I got to watch this person because what their last name is. is
Jon right
George But not with these two guys. They’re both really talented.
Mo No.
Jon but You’re a Baldwin, you’re a Sheen, whatever. you You’re automatically, yeah.
Mo Yeah, yeah, whatever, Yeah, absolutely.
George Yeah. Yeah, when you’re but near’ the fifth Hemsworth down the line, I’m done with you.
Jon yeah but
Mo Yeah.
George But these guys have put in the work.
Mo yeah absolutely
Jon Yeah. As a film, it is… I don’t even, okay. I will say, yeah this won’t ruin anything. You know, they say, don’t tell me about the twist.
Jon In fact, don’t tell me there is a twist because that was a twist in and of itself.
Mo yeah
Jon There’s a cool, it’s not a twist like a Shyamalanian twist. There is a story beat. There’s a bend, a corner that it takes that I totally didn’t see coming, which is wonderful in a film these days.
Mo Yeah. Yeah.
Jon It wasn’t like super foreshadowed or set up crazy, ah which it changes the the movie about a third of the way through, which is great. and I don’t remember the running time, but I feel like the movie had two endings.
Jon It could easily have ended about 20 minutes from the end, but they decided to kick it into high gear one more time. And you know the deal. You know you know what it looks like. you know there’s The music kind of swells up, and it seems like they’ve resolved everything, and everything is cool.
Jon But wait! Something happens.
Mo yeah
Jon It’s one of those things.
George Bye.
Jon Just to kind of an extra…
Mo Jason still alive.
Jon One more, right. One more action sequence has to be done, but it does pay off and it’s a, it has a satisfying ending and it’s the kind, of it’s almost one of those cool unicorn movies of like, you can’t really do this again.
Jon Like this has been done. Everything else is going to be, Oh, it’s a Novocaine copy, but it’s an interesting premise to go through.
Mo Right.
Jon ah So to circle back to your original ah question, Mo, do you still want to see it? You definitely do. You definitely do.
Mo Okay.
Jon It’s, It’s great film. Jack Quaid is awesome in it. The supporting cast is pretty good throughout. ah And it was for the kind of movie that it had to be with literally a one sentence premise.
Jon Guy that can’t feel pain has to rescue his girlfriend from the bad guys. That’s all the setup. It didn’t have to be this involved or interesting, but it was way more than it needed to be. And that’s refreshing in films you see these days.
Mo Cool. All right.
Jon So Novocaine with Jack Quaid. oh That’s mine. All right. We’ll be back.
Mo I’m going to kick off Tekken Toys this time because basically I got for my birthday was, you know last month.
George Thank
Mo And so I had a present that I was just able to do last weekend. You know, one of those kind of delayed things. And basically,
Jon Experience presence something.
Mo yep um Yeah. And that’s the thing is like as we get older, like i said, it’s like, you know, me and Amy are definitely focused more on giving each other like experiences. And even our family, we tell them like we’d rather have like a nice experience and a thing.
Mo At this point in our lives, you know, ah we got enough stuff, essentially.
Jon Right. Sure.
Mo So what they got me is ah basically it’s one of these supercar driving experience. Things where you get to go to a track and went to one in central Florida and I got to drive two supercars around a track like, you know, um and it was very cool.
George oh yeah.
Mo The track itself was like a mile a quarter around and I got to like five laps in each car. And these are cars I will never, ever own.
Jon Hmm?
Mo I guarantee that at this point in my life, I will probably never sit in ever again, either way.
Jon He had a good
Mo And, you know one was a Ferrari and one was a Lamborghini. And let me tell you, it was it was fun.
George o
Jon run.
Mo um it was definitely like I wasn’t sure what to expect. And I decided to like, you yeah What the hell? I’m 58 at this point. yeah If I wreck, so what?
Mo yeah I lived a good life.
George Hehehehehehe.
Mo yeah
Jon he had a good run
Mo I had a good run. I’ll go with this. Because some people I saw were taking the cars, and we actually saw one person who was just taking it so leisurely. And I’m like, what the hell? Why you even bothering? I’m like, I could do that in the minivan. I could go that fast.
Mo So as soon as I got to the car, I just floored the crap. And they have it someone who sits with you and they kind of help you like, okay, yeah.
Jon Yeah.
Mo Oh, you want to break here? turn you know, you wouldn’t hit that spot, that kind of thing. And um so as soon as I started, i just hit the gas and just see how fast I go in this short period of time.
Mo I think one of the cars had zero 60, like 2.2 seconds.
Jon Mm-hmm.
Mo Um, I hit that. hey It does do that. I can confirm that. Um, and it was just fun just seeing how fast you could take these things. Apparently the guy told me, and though it felt really, really fast to me.
Mo He’s like, oh, you know, we prefer, you know, we have people who take that curve, you know, 30 miles faster than you did. You know, and I’m like, geez, I can’t imagine how that would even feel.
Mo But it was, said, it was just, it was a great experience and it was a lot of fun just to, just to do it.
Jon What kind of speeds are we talking about? I mean, what’s the 30 miles faster? How fast? You talk about the acceleration, which I know is exhilarating.
Mo Yeah.
Jon as like a roller coaster, you know, but you’re in charge of it kind of thing.
Mo Yep.
Jon Like, were you going consistently like 120 or something? You know, what kind of speeds were they letting you take on these laps?
Mo No, it was…
Jon Yeah.
Mo um So the track had only had a few short straights. So honestly, the fastest I could get to was like 80-something miles an hour, like in a very short period of time.
Jon Okay.
Mo but else And it had curves, had hairpins, it had you know all that kind of stuff. so But I was taking curves that I would never imagine taking at like 60. You know, and I…
Jon Yeah.
George So it wasn’t a NASCAR circle track. It was a Grand Prix track.
Mo No, no, it was not a circle track. It was actually more of a, yeah, a Grand Prix with left and right turns, you know.
Jon Okay.
Mo So, and taking some of these curves, you know you feel like kind of like a Formula One kind of thing, you know, you’re taking these left and rights, he has little hills you have to go over and stuff. But just the idea that, you know, like I was sitting taking this curve and I’m like okay I’m just gonna go until this guy next to me tells me you’re going too fast you know I should just see if I could do that never did you know he’s just sitting there he’s like sitting there just calmly in the set seat next to me you know one guy was actually on his phone texting I’m like okay I guess I’m not scaring him either very much yeah I know exactly
Jon He’s texting, this guy’s a chicken and only going 80 around the corners, so I’m falling asleep. right
Mo um but again like these are cars i’ll never ever own or drive i and tell you truth i don’t want to own one of these ever in my life i have no purpose to ever own one of these things but again just for a one-time experience it was a lot of fun yep so that’s what i got so george you actually have a toy now that we can actually purchase and buy so that’s pretty awesome what do you got
Jon Right?
Jon No.
Jon Mm-hmm. Yeah, I could see that.
George Sure. Well, I mean, I i didn’t purchase and buy it. bought I did not buy this toy nor purchase it. It was a birthday gift, just like your ah experience was.
Mo Oh, cool. Even better.
Jon Oh, nice.
George But it is a toy, so to speak. It’s a Lego set and it’s the Grogu with Hoverprim.
Mo Awesome.
George So the Hoverprim is his little bassinet thing from the first couple of seasons.
Mo Oh, yeah. Yeah.
Jon Oh, was that the like floaty egg deal that he was?
Mo Yeah, the little floaty, yeah, the floaty crib thingy, yeah.
George Yeah, the little floaty egg bassinet.
Jon oh yeah. Okay. Yeah.
George um it’s a The Lego number is 75403. I only say that because Lego numbers are very important for the people who collect and ah build the sets.
Jon Mm hmm.
Mo Yeah.
George But this set, I went and did a little bit of um looking it up because it’s actually… two pieces. It’s Grogu himself, which can stand alone by himself.
George And then the hover pram also, which that same Grogu can then fit inside and you build them separately.
Mo Okay.
Mo Oh, that’s cool.
George Like there’s two separate build booklets for each a piece.
Mo Mm-hmm.
Jon Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
George And you start like um bags one through four or five, I think, or Grogu. And then like six through 11 are the hover pram. And then there’s, a again, there’s one of those little placards for these nicer sets that you build that has a little description.
Jon isn’
Mo Oh, yeah.
George um Unlike my Iron Man placard set that I got a number of years ago, though, this one, the little Lego placard part, it was pre-printed. It wasn’t a sticker that I put on a Lego piece, which was nice, I thought, because I tore the one for the Iron Man one and had to put it back together properly.
Jon Oh, uh-huh.
Mo OK.
Jon Mm-hmm.
Jon Oh.
Mo Oh, no.
George um And even the placard, and its little base plate that it has a stand for. They even give you a little mini, uh, hover pram and Grogu that you build that sets on that.
George So you kind of get three little pieces, um, all total.
Mo Oh, that’s cute.
Jon Oh, really?
Mo OK.
Jon Mm-hmm.
George It takes, uh, I would say probably two hours worth of total build time. Although I did it over a couple of days, just when I could, um, the, the Grogu part is
Mo okay yeah
Jon Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
George is very fun. i know what I read on some of the brick building websites that the hover pram people complain about it being samey. I didn’t, I felt like there were a lot of unique connection points and a lot of pivoting stuff to make the curves around ah the hover pram, which was nice.
George It definitely feels though, like Lego had to build some special pieces. Cause I don’t think I’ve ever seen some of these pieces in the wild of anything else before.
Mo Oh
Jon Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
George But that’s to be expected when you’re trying to get specific shapes to recreate something that’s as iconic as Grogu and his little bassinet.
Mo ah yeah, for sure.
George So a totally fun build.
Jon Mm-hmm.
George I don’t know what it costs. I haven’t looked at it or anything. I know there’s a link that Mo can put in the show notes and people can find out. But as a gift, it was a perfect fun couple of hours for me to spend building.
Jon when it’s done, sometimes you look on the cover of these nice boxes, you know, and and in the store, and they look like they’re bigger or smaller than they might be. And you sometimes you get all these pieces together, you’re like oh that’s only… So how big is it when it’s done?
Jon oh
George um
Jon with I guess you can Grogu in it or not or whatever with the placard.
George it Yeah, Grogu himself is probably six or so inches tall and probably three inches wide.
Mo OK.
Jon Okay.
George ah You know, he’s a little stocky fellow.
Jon Okay.
George um
Jon Mm-hmm.
Mo OK.
George The hover pram is probably nine or
Jon Mm-hmm.
George maybe nine and a half inches long and probably four or five inches wide.
Jon Okay.
George um It’s not huge.
Jon Right. Okay.
George Definitely not. um If you get any of the Grogu in his little bassinet plushies, it’s smaller than those.
Mo so okay
George um
Jon Ah, got it. Okay.
George So some people might feel like that it turns out smaller than they expect from the box, but it’s still a pretty piece. It’s still fun. It’s certainly not like the Atari 2600, you know, 2700 pieces or whatever.
Jon Hmm.
George It’s nothing like that.
Jon Yeah, right.
George Like I said, this is only a couple hours worth of build.
Jon Sure.
Mo yeah Just from taking a quick look at it, one thing, i I definitely like the idea that the Grogu fits inside of it as is. I think that’s a cool, nice thing to do.
Jon Yep, me too.
George Mm-hmm.
Mo And it looks like there’s a little bit of mechanical things like moving the arms and stuff.
George Yeah, on ah his back, there’s two little dials that get built into him, and ah those little flywheel dials, when you move them up or down, his arms can move up or down.
George ah His head also swivels.
Jon Is that like him using the force kind of thing, maybe? is ah
George Yeah, yeah. ah His head also swivels, and his ears can pivot, so you can put him in different poses that way.
Mo Oh, see, that’s nice.
Jon Okay.
Mo like those touches.
Jon More than a statue, then. Of course.
Mo Yeah.
George Yeah, yeah. he um He comes with a frog and a couple of cookies, so…
Mo Oh, cool.
George That’s cute.
Jon of course
George um
Mo Nice touch. Nice touch.
George And I think what what I like about him interacting with the bassinet, the hover pram, is that he doesn’t have to lock into it. Like, there’s not like a place where you have to get his feet positioned perfectly to snap him inside of it.
Mo Right.
George You can literally just put him inside, and he just kind of slides into the flat space.
Mo Oh, that’s cool.
Jon Okay.
Jon You can just be in it.
Mo Nice.
George So if you want to take him out, it’s not hard to take him out.
Jon Cool. Yeah.
Mo Very cool.
Jon That’s cool. All right. We’ll be right back. Stick around.
George All right. Time to talk about games. Mo, let’s get started with you. What have you been playing recently?
Mo Sure, I got a game. was I think I got it from a spring sale, either Epic or Steam, I forget which. um It’s the Ghost of Tsushima.
Jon OK.
Mo And the easiest way for me to describe it, it’s Red Dead Redemption in Feudal Japan.
Jon OK.
Jon Oh, that’s very clear.
George Oh, okay.
Jon Yeah.
Mo Yeah, that that’s basically what it is. You’re a samurai, your land is being invaded, and there’s bandits around, and there’s Mongols who you’re attacking. And instead of a gun, of course, you have a sword.
Mo And ah and you just go around trying, and it has a basic storyline, but you have all these side things you can do as well, just like Red Dead Redemption did.
Jon Hmm.
Mo you know And it was a really… It was a very, very cool story on top of it, which I liked. you know Because he said, Japan, the island off of Japan that’s getting invaded by Chinese, the Mongols.
Mo And in order to win, he has to do things which are not considered honorable for a samurai. you know Like a samurai, you always face your opponent head on. You don’t sneak up on him.
Mo And he’s like…
Jon Yeah.
Mo our people are dying, you know, and the only way I could beat these people is to sneak up on them. Cause I can’t beat 30 people by myself, you know, like, and so, and there’s a whole thing with his, his uncle is like very disappointed at him.
Jon yeah
Mo And, you know you’re disarmoring the house, but he’s like, what’s more important, my honor or saving our people. you know, as a whole dynamic and a whole bunch of stories race around that with it. So, They did a really, i think a really good job of keeping it interesting. Like it’s kept me engaged for the whole time. they ah If you buy it now, it becomes like another DLC that came with it that you can play as well, which just adds more of the same, which is fine in this case.
Mo ah And again, like the big thing for me is like, it created a story that you actually care about the characters and the side characters even. Like you start becoming attached to the side characters because they’re all very different.
Mo they all They’re not, all of them are gray. Like no one’s like, Black or white, like they’re all kind of great personalities like normal people do. So you kind of appreciate that, you know, so a really, really fun game.
Jon Yeah, interesting.
George It kind of feels a little bit like with that um that honor and dishonor metric that’s in the game. It feels a little bit like Mass Effect as well. If you remember the choices you made in that depended on or helped form how the other characters would interact with your character that you were playing throughout the game.
Mo Yeah.
George Does that happen in this as well? Like if you do a whole bunch of dishonorable things, will people just like, no, I’m not going to work with you? Or does that not matter? Hmm.
Mo I don’t think it really matters in this one. I think you pretty much, i I can’t see if you, how you could win by going head on to every single one of these things. I personally just don’t see how it could be possible, you know?
George Okay.
Jon Mm-hmm. Like, you’re going to have to do the dishonorable thing, probably, and just deal with it in the story.
Mo Yeah, you you pretty much are.
Jon I see.
Mo Yeah, exactly. Like, yo know, cause, cause some of them are even like, you know, you have to save a hostage, but the second you start, they realize you’re there. Their first thing is kill the hostage.
George ah
Mo Right. So, yeah, you could go head on.
Jon Mm-hmm.
Mo But the odds of you saving the hostage at that point are probably very small.
Jon Yeah. Is it also kind of, like, open-worldy, like a like a Grand Theft or Red Dead? So… Yeah. You were nodding and I had a follow-up.
Mo Oh, yeah, yeah.
Jon So say… Uh-huh.
Mo Oh, no. Oh, yeah, absolutely. It is. It’s the same. Like, there’s a big map and you have, like, the points that are story points. But then there’s all these question marks on the map that you go visit. and There’s all these little side things, the side quests and that kind of stuff.
George Right.
Jon Okay. So how big is it? Like the the world compared to like a Grand Theft or a Just Cause or something. Is it comparable? Is that like a big, big open world, do you think?
Mo yeah it’s it’s not No, it’s not nearly that big.
Jon Or is it kind on the little island?
Mo Those are huge.
Jon Okay. Yeah.
Mo yeah yeah like you know Yeah, it’s definitely a lot more focused.
Jon Yeah. little more focused.
Mo It’s a smaller island, but it’s dense.
Jon Got it.
Mo like There’s a lot of stuff, and you don’t have to spend a ton of time traveling. And the other thing, too, I like is that they spent, like, once you visit a place, you can just jump to it so you don’t have to keep, you so it’s easier to get around that way, which I think is just a really nice, simple dynamic that I’m not spending hours just traveling from A to B, you know, which I hate.
George Hmm.
Jon so Okay, yeah.
George Yep.
Jon Just get get after it.
Jon Right. Okay. Okay.
Mo ah The challenges are just challenging enough for me.
Jon right
Mo that they’re fun you know like they have one like you have this break like bamboo sticks but you have to hit like the keys on your thing right so maybe left left xx level you know but you know and it it keeps adding to the sequence you have to it with a certain amount of time and they’re just hard enough where when you do it you don’t feel like you were frustrated but when you do it you still feel like you accomplished something you know so they they did a good balance on that so i definitely recommend that game
Jon Nice balance.
Jon Cool. Ghost of… do you say it? Tsushima?
Mo Tsushima.
Jon Tsushima. Got it.
Mo Yep.
Jon Nice.
Mo So that’s what I got.
Jon All right.
Mo So, George, what game do you have here? Because I see something against a game that we already know, but I’m a little confused.
George Yeah, yeah, a little bit. So um long time ago, ah we found a game that John loves called Utopia Must Fall, and he’s done multiple live streams on it, both on Twitch and on YouTube.
Mo Mm-hmm.
Jon Yes. love it.
George And we all enjoy that game. It’s one of those games where you’re absolutely going to die and have to restart. The game is designed… That way.
Mo Yeah.
George um it’s also a vector graphic game in the truest best sense of that word and phrase because
Jon Beautiful.
Mo Absolutely.
George all the vectors and the graphics are they have that glowy phosphorescent kind of feel that the old
Jon Mm-hmm.
George ah battle zone and asteroids games had on those monitors
Mo Yeah, I love that.
George ah This game is actually from the same company that created Utopia Must Fall.
Mo Okay.
Jon Okay.
Mo Okay.
George And the reason that I know that is because back when we first found this game, John tasked me with going and reaching out to the publisher, see if we could get some Steam keys to give away in our live stream, which we like to do.
Jon Mm-hmm.
George I reached out to him a couple of times, never heard anything back.
Jon Mm-hmm.
George Well, ah Turns out they actually finally did read my email just about ah two or three weeks ago and said, oh, I’m so sorry. We just assumed your email was the same as one of these bot emails requesting a bunch of free keys that we get all the time.
Jon Oh, no.
George And so we just ignored it. And then I was going back through my junk box to delete a bunch of stuff. And I decided to take a moment to read a few of them. And I read yours and realized you’re not a bot.
George ah So he said, here’s here’s some free giveaway keys, which I’ve put in the spreadsheet now.
Mo Okay. Yeah.
George um
Mo Hmm.
George And on top of that, he said, but why I really would like to reach out to you today is we’ve got a new game that’s coming off of Alpha right now called Grid Ranger.
Jon Hmm.
George So it’s built on the same engine platform that Utopia Must Fall is.
Jon and Okay.
George It’s another vector graphic game. So it’s in that same kind of style and feel.
Jon Mm-hmm.
George And in this one, I’ve played it a couple of times. Instead of it being um ah bottom top up type of battle, it’s more like Battlezone where you’re moving forward all the time.
Mo Oh, like 3D-ish?
George a little bit 3d-ish. Um, and the object is to keep going as far as you can without colliding with objects on the screen.
Mo Oh, okay.
George So you’re running a grid
Mo So you’re not shooting things.
Jon Okay.
George Right.
Jon Yeah.
George ah
Jon Like a runner. Yeah.
Mo okay.
George Yeah. And it’s you control it with your mouse and um your mouse only like your mouse does the firing for you when you’re able to shoot and your mouse is all the movement up, down, left, right.
George ah So it’s got a little bit of a centipede kind of feel in the way that you can move things. But it’s on that horizontal plane moving forward in a three d world. ah And it’s got a little bit of a bullet hell kind of feel to it because you can just hold down your left mouse button and just spray bullets and there’s no like ah running out of them that I’ve been able to find.
Mo you
George course, I haven’t been able to stay alive very long, so maybe I would run out of bullets if I stayed alive longer.
Mo in
George ah You do rack up points for how far you travel and for any enemies that you kill. Uh, and I can see that it’s, you know, just coming on out of alpha stage when I’ve played it, but it looks to be a very fun game.
George um I’m, I know I’ve put the game keys that they gave to us to use in our spreadsheet. So John, whenever you get a chance to take a look at the game and see if it’s maybe something you would want to do for a live stream.
Jon Okay.
George But I think, uh, if you enjoy Utopia Must Fall, I can see enjoying this as well.
Jon Oh, I do. Yeah, I definitely do. Interesting. So that’s, it’s like the, they call it the V99 engine or something that they did in Utopia Must Fall that they, yeah i wondered since it actually advertises this engine when it boots up, i’m like, if they’re to do more things in it.
George Yeah.
Jon Why did they call out that? So they are, they’re doing more things with it.
Mo yeah
Jon So
George yeah
Jon Yeah. Utopia is very singular ah in that I haven’t found anything quite like it that does it quite as well. So I’m curious to see what they do with a very different type of game, but with that game design mentality.
Jon I’m intrigued.
George Yeah. So it’s, it’s definitely, it’s something worth picking up and spending 10 minutes with.
Jon I’ll check it out.
George And if you last that long, me, that’s three games, 10 minutes, but yeah.
Jon ah
Mo Is it still like the vector graphics…
George Yeah.
Mo This game is still all vector graphics.
George Yeah.
Mo It’s still all the same.
Jon Yeah.
George Yeah. That’s, that’s what I was saying at the beginning.
Mo Okay.
Jon Yeah.
George That’s the, it’s built on that same engine. It’s still all vector graphics.
Mo Oh, the engine is only for vector graphics. didn’t realize that. Okay, gotcha.
Jon Yeah. Okay.
George Yeah.
Jon Yeah.
George Yeah. Yeah.
Jon Neat. Yeah. I’ll be checking it out.
George Well, there’s another one that you’ve been checking out recently and doing a live stream on that you wanted to talk about this week, John.
Jon Yes.
George So why don’t you start with telling us then about an offering from Atari that’s real popular right now?
Jon Yeah.
Jon Yeah. I was, well I was looking forward to this last time we spoke. In fact, this is a breakout beyond, ah We had mentioned that they had had this series of recharged games where they take old IP and they’re like, you know, asteroids recharge.
Mo Right. Mm
Jon They even did a breakout recharge where those are largely… just ah the same game with a new skin and power-ups. That’s an oversimplification, but that’s kind of what the Recharge series has been.
Jon And then we’ve seen these more evolutions of their classic games in like your Yars Rising and ah Lunar Lander Beyond. And so now we have this Breakout Beyond. And interestingly, I learned that it’s it initially its it started life as going to be a title licensed by Atari for the Intellivision Amico, that now doomed platform that was kickstarted and everybody got their money taken and it never came out.
Jon But the game was largely finished. So the development company went back to Atari and went, okay, we have this game on a platform that doesn’t exist anymore. Why don’t we flush it out and make it, put it back in Atari’s wheelhouse? And that’s what it is.
Jon So, you know, breakout, it’s, You have a paddle at the bottom of the screen, blocks across the top, and you hit listen this ball. Don’t let it get past you. Kill all the bricks. That’s what you’re doing.
Jon ah Well, in Breakout Beyond, they probably the most interesting and divisive change they’ve made in Breakout Beyond is to take advantage of horizontal monitors that we have now.
Jon This game is not played vertically. Your paddle is on the left-hand side of the screen, and you’re working way across the field of bricks, moving to the right.
Mo Oh.
Mo Okay.
Jon Now, with a breakout game, the a paddle is the best way thing to do, and we don’t have paddles on our computers. You can drive it with a joystick and adjust the sensitivity. Ideally, what I’m doing, you can use your mouse, which is a true analog controller.
Mo ah
Mo Yeah.
Jon It’s the next best thing. um And it has, I don’t know, I’ve… I looked through maybe 40, 60, 80 levels in it to go through. It’s level driven. So they have an an arrangement of bricks that you have to figure out how to get from the left-hand side to the goal on the right-hand side.
Jon Each level is a oddly spelled Atari reference version. ah Like one of them is Syzygy, which is the you know the first name for Atari when they first started. And like one of them, they want to do a nod to Nolan Bushnell. And the and the level is like called No-Lan or something in a weird L-A-H-N spelling. You have to like figure out what the reference is to an Atari game or Atari ah personality or whatever, just little Easter eggs like that.
Jon And like in true recharged and even like, you could say Arkanoid fashion, you start to get power-ups throughout the course of the game.
Mo Okay, figured. figured
Jon you work your way across and there ah you bust down, you might get multi-ball, you might get a shield behind you that blocks the ball. ah Probably the most interesting thing they did with the power-ups is that… In every mini, not every, every mini maps, there are, and you see an overview of what the field’s going to look like before you start, there are purple bricks that have a question mark on them.
Jon And so when you start a level, it’s almost like making your loadout. You could pick from a menu, what power up do you want the purple bricks in this world to be?
Mo Oh, that’s cool.
Jon Do you want them to be multi-ball?
Mo Sure.
Jon Do you want them to be a shield? Do you want them to be of the firing the lasers or whatever? um And so you can kind of go back to levels after you’ve unlocked those those types of power-ups and plug plug plug those into maps to try to give yourself more opportunities to maybe get multiball, whatever you find you work best with.
Jon So I think in the live stream that I’ll give you a link to for the show notes, of the live stream that I did, I mentioned it’s almost like 2% of a Metroidvania where like I’ve been through this area, but once I unlock a new power, I can come back and play that level again with this new un unlock.
Mo sure
Mo Yeah.
Jon And do it a little differently. So it has a little bit of replayability in there as well. ah It’s brand new. It just came out right now. And a week ago, two weeks, that’ like a week or two ago, right, George?
Mo yeah
Jon It came out. We did the live stream when it would of first came out.
George Yeah, yeah.
Jon And I had a lot of fun with it. There’s a lot of people saying I can’t handle breakout going horizontal. But I just say it’s a different game. It’s not Breakout. It’s Breakout Beyond. Breakout Beyond is played this way.
Jon It’s a different experience, most certainly. ah But I found it an enjoyable one. I must have played it for you know two hours live and had a great deal of fun going through the first, like I think, 24 levels.
Mo So us actually I was actually was going to ask about the horizontal versus vertical, because when you use a mouse going horizontally with your mouse is a little bit easier going up and down.
Jon Yeah, okay.
Jon Yeah, it is. Yeah, yeah.
Mo You know, and i was so I was going to ask, like, how does that like, is that a complication? is that something that’s a little bit more hard?
Jon Yeah.
Mo Yeah.
Jon I think very honestly, it does take a little bit of getting accustomed to. Yeah. Um, the nice thing is they have huge sensitivity, uh, settings that you can do even mid game.
Jon You can hit escape and the, without even going into options, it says sensitivity right at the very front. So you can adjust that mid game. If you’re finding that you’re overshooting or undershooting.
Mo Yeah.
Jon Uh, but yeah, up and down is a little bit different than kind of your, your left and right mouse movements. Uh, There’s no question a paddle would be best. But since they’re not selling hardware for this, the next best thing, maybe a trackball.
Mo yeah
Jon You could use a trackball too, I guess. That would also be up and down. You could also use, because that’s a mouse.
George So I kind of have a, maybe a hardware suggestion for those out there and I have not tried it. I’ve played the game a little bit, but I haven’t tried this hardware thought that I’m about to suggest.
Jon Mm-hmm.
George There are a lot of mouses out there for people who have ah problems with things like carpal tunnel.
Jon Mm-hmm.
George And ah my wife has a couple of them because of her stroke. She has difficult, but they’re essentially a mouse that’s like your hand is on its side. So it’s like a vertical orientation for your hand.
Jon Yes, like this karate chop sit, yeah, mouse sitting, yeah.
Mo Oh, okay.
George so yeah, yeah. I think if you’re if you’ve got one of those in your dominant hand moving up and down on that um on that surface, on that game, might be a little bit easier because instead of your hand being palm face down, your home your palm is to the side, and that’s a little bit more of a natural motion, wonder.
Jon Well, maybe.
George wonder
Mo ah
Jon I ah quite possibly i’m I’m similar. What you can’t see listening is I’m here on camera, like moving my arms back and forth, palm up, but trying to not to feel what it might feel like. i could. Yeah. I would imagine it’s almost like if you had your palm, it’s almost like you’re hitting it with the back of your hand.
Jon If you’re right-handed or the your palm of your hand left-handed, because it would be vertical.
George Right.
Jon um Yeah. It wouldn’t hurt. it’s It would be an improvement too.
Mo Like, yeah.
Jon Yeah. I can see that. Yeah. Anyway, ah it’s, they’re doing some interesting stuff. We still have a lot of new of these kind of re- imagined Atari games coming. We’ve got an iRobot coming and a Missile Command coming. And oh yeah, ah a lot of stuff still coming out. There’s still ah fatal, there’s a fatal run coming out.
Jon lot of these, I love that they’re more than just, they’re doing more than just this game with a new coat of paint, but like something in the world of this game and doing something different. And that keeps it f fresh for me.
Jon So yeah, Breakout Beyond.
Mo Yeah, that’s very cool.
Jon That’s what I was playing. All right, guys. ah Almost one more segment. We get back, we’ll wrap it up. Stick around.
Jon As we come into this last segment of the show, you know, we always like to take a few seconds here to talk about the things that are ahead of us. We’re looking at or looking forward to between now and the next time we get together. Let’s start with you, Mo.
Jon want to know what you have on the horizon.
Mo Yeah. ah There’s a movie coming out on the 11th of April, ah The Amateur, with Rami Malek. um
Jon Oh yeah.
Mo And we’re basically, he’s like a CIA like cryptographer, but his wife gets killed by terrorists, and he basically blackmails, I guess, the CIA into letting him go after these people and training him. um I’m always up for a good underdog revenge story.
Jon Looks good.
Mo yeah ah But this one looks, it just looks like it’s going be a good movie. I can’t really explain why. It just looks like it’s just so it looks well done. it’s got really great actors in it.
Jon Lawrence Fishburne is in it.
Mo ah So,
Jon Yeah.
Mo Yeah, Lord Fishburne’s in it. I mean, yeah, I’m definitely looking forward to this one. ah Also looking forward to playing Assassin’s Creed Shadows. ah You know, I had one of these weird kind of things where multiple games came out at the same time.
Mo So I already got Assassin’s Creed Shadows because I knew I was going to. It’s the latest in the, ah think it’s like the eighth version of the game now or the eighth. incarnation of this game uh it also takes place in japan oddly enough uh so i’m kind of curious to see how those go like it’s one of those things i definitely want to play both at the same time because the controls would just confuse me so i figured i was gonna wait until i finish this one game and jump on that one so looking forward to that ah The last thing i’m looking forward to is ah my wife, Amy, her birthday is coming up.
Jon Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Cool.
Mo And I mentioned earlier that we’re kind of trying to get each other experiences rather than things. So we’re actually going to be taking a trip to California to go see the giant Redwoods. And we’re going to be doing some hiking back there to see that as something’s on both our bucket lists.
Jon two
Mo So, you just looking forward to just doing that and spending some time with her and just seeing something that I heard that once you see it, it’s pretty f freaking amazing. So looking forward to that. So that’s what i got. How about you, John?
Jon Yeah, I have some stuff that’s ah coming up. oh First is a film that I’m anxious to see. By the time you hear this, I will have seen it. i’m going to go It’s a horror movie. i love seeing horror movies with my daughter, who’s a wonderful horror movie aficionado slash snob.
Jon And she actually suggested this to me, a new film called The Woman in the Yard. It’s one of those horror movies in the daylight. which are a little rare.
Jon The premise is that ah this family, it looks like the father has passed away maybe in some accident and a mother and her two children here they’re kind of isolated home. And they look out the front window and there’s this, a woman sitting in a chair in this black shawl, this cloak, you can’t see her face, just sitting there and she won’t leave.
Jon And what is she? Who is she? What does she represent? Supernatural something creepy. I don’t know. i don’t know much about it. I love that about horror movies, but it’s something that ah she brought me to, and I’m going to go check it out. We’ll probably, and we’ll talk about it next time.
Jon ah Next is, ah this will get probably a lot of people’s attention, including my co-host. There’s new game called Elroy and the Aliens that releases April 2nd.
Mo Elroy. Oh.
Jon Now there’s a trailer out right now. Imagine the secret of Monkey Island if all the dialogue was fully voiced.
Mo oh
George Oh.
Jon It’s, it’s yeah. Oh, see, I knew it. I knew it’s, it’s like a living cartoon. It’s all hand-drawn animation. with ah like 60 voiced characters and you play this guy named Elroy, who’s this kind of, he’s basically, he’s a Jack Quaid, a likable goofy inventor guy, right? We’ve talked about Jack. He would play this in a movie and he’s trying to invent this rocket and something happens and aliens encountered. And you, I played the demo. You go around town and you, oh, I need to, the pieces for my rocket. I need to find the fuel and I lost the gear. I need the remote control and talk to this guy to get it.
Jon It’s a point and click adventure. in the classic sense, but fully animated and voiced. And I’m looking forward to playing all of it because I played the demo and it’s great fun.
Mo Nice.
Jon And finally, ah wait a minute. Oh, I just threw me for a loop. Threw me for loop. Sorry. I thought I was, I was reading the wrong one. I’m like, I didn’t say Black Mirror. I was looking around at George George.
Jon And finally, ah i just realized, ah and didn’t know it was coming this soon, the second season of The Last of Us on Max, April 13th.
Mo Yeah. yeah
Jon ah Now, when I watched the first season, I felt i felt complete. Like, i I saw a complete story. Of course, there’s more to do in that world, and of course, we know there were more games to play and the stuff.
Mo Mm-hmm.
Jon There was more to happen, but it felt like a nice story. It was it was finished, but now there’s more. So the second season is coming back. I really enjoyed Pedro Pascal in that.
Mo yeah
Jon I liked the… I had never played the games because it a PlayStation exclusive, but I liked the world and how, how dire it is and the imagery they use to illustrate terrible things that happen. It’s, I like the the way it’s produce produced and the production design. I find really good in it too. So ah yes, that’s coming April 13th on max.
Jon ah Yeah. It’s good stuff to look forward to ah George. finally How about you? What do you got on the horizon, man?
George uh well ah first off i’m still looking up looking forward to some more alice in wonderland or alice goes to wonderland pinball updates um we we had the ah kickstarter and it’s still i think happening right now still think i think they’ve got a few days left but
Jon Yep. yep
George um Other than their one announcement of, hey, we hit our goal in the first two minutes, blah, blah, blah, whatever. ah We haven’t heard anything from them. There have been a lot of detractors in comments on videos I’ve done for bit by bit on the subject saying that this is going to be a plastic piece of crap.
George No real pinball enthusiast is going to like it. Stay away from it. All those kinds of things.
Mo Yeah, yeah, yeah.
George I mean, maybe they, they might turn out to be accurate criticisms when I get the device. If I get the device, cause this is Kickstarter. You never know they might not deliver it at all.
Mo Yeah, this is true.
Jon It’s pretty high profile.
George Um,
Jon I bet you get it.
George But, um, for me, the, the argument that I’ve always had is, you know, you can be a pinball enthusiast and maybe not have the room that you need for a real pinball machine.
Mo oh yeah.
George And this one being an arcade one-up style of pinball, like in other words, it’s a reduced size footprint. It’s 80% of a regular pinball, uh, makes it a little bit more possible for some of us in smaller spaces, or maybe we’ve got too much stuff in our bigger spaces and we need the extra room.
George So I’m looking forward to hopefully getting some more updates on production and, you know, how they’re iterating the the line and whatnot. It’ll, it’ll be fun. I think, uh, second up last of us season two, of course, I’m looking forward to just like John.
Jon Yep.
Jon Yep. Yep.
Mo Yeah.
George And then finally, um On April the 10th, Black Mirror season seven, i think it is.
Mo It’s something a big number.
Jon Wow.
George i think.
Jon Yeah.
George Yeah.
Jon Mm-hmm.
George ah It’s coming out on Netflix. so You know, they shifted from BBC over to Netflix, I think around season three or something like that.
Mo Yeah.
George ah I’ve been looking forward to it. I’ve always been checking my ah my sonar ah calendar and everything. And it always just kept telling me Black Mirror is ended.
Mo Yeah. Yeah.
Jon When it hit?
George They’ll never be anymore. And then of nowhere, where I was looking at it.
Jon Poof.
George the other day and I’m like, oh crap, there’s a new Black Mirror coming out. So looking forward to see what they would do with these stories because that has always been a great anthology series.
Mo Yeah, bef definitely.
Jon Oh, yeah. Yeah, it’s killer. Yeah. I didn’t realize it was coming up that soon. I’d heard it was coming. I’d heard leaks about what the episodes might be, but it’s it’s always. And it’s like it’s like four or five awesome little movies in there that are really cool and creepy.
Mo I just think it’s amazing how there’s so much content out there now that even something as big as this, we kind of like, oh, I didn’t even see this coming.
Jon All right.
Mo Yeah.
Jon Yeah, yeah.
Mo I know.
Jon Well, there’s so much to keep track of, Mo.
Mo Yeah.
Jon How could you possibly know all this stuff, right? Even with all the apps that we’ve got and releases.com and stuff, it’s just an inundation of you got to find those cool things and nuggets that are in there.
Mo Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Jon All right. That’s going to wrap it up for this edition of the show. Before we leave, though, I want to take a second to thank two more. Oh, not two. to Before we wrap it up, though, i want to take just a second to thank another amazing individual who decided they want to support what we do over on Patreon. I want to thank you, Todd That’s Todd with one D, in case you’re keeping notes.
Jon Todd went over to Patreon at patreon.com slash GenXgrownup, opened up his heart and his wallet, and decided to put a monthly financial pledge to support GenXgrownup and support what we do here on the podcast, on YouTube, over on the website, and everywhere that we… putting out content.
Jon Todd, thank you for making that commitment. You’re joining a roster of dozens, if not a hundred or so amazing folks who also like you know that we do what we do and give it away for free, but also want to support the arts and ensure that we’re able to continue to deliver what we do on a timely basis to you.
Mo Thank
Jon So Todd, for that, we hats off to you. Thank you so much. We so, so appreciative for you. That then will wrap it up for this edition of the show. Don’t worry, though. We’ll be back in two weeks with another one. And next week is our backtrack. That’s where we take a single nostalgic topic and dig in deep on it.
Jon George, would you do the honors and let the fourth listener know what is coming their way next week?
George Yeah, it’s time to head back to the future, go back to 1985 and relive a moment in time where everybody was feeling good about everybody else in this Gordon Gekko greed-infested world and trying to give back to the starving people of Africa.
George We’re going to highlight, talk about one incredible night in the music industry and go over the We Are The World song and USA Aid for Africa movement.
Jon and some
Mo Wow, 40 years.
Jon Yeah, yeah. Tremendous. Yeah. yeah’ve I’ve learned a lot about it since we started planning this backtrack and it is, it’s inspiring. It’s uplifting. It’s an amazing story. So I’m sure you will enjoy that. Please join us until then.
Jon I am John George. Thank you so much for being here.
George Yes, sir.
Jon Mo, you know, I appreciate you.
Mo Always fun, man.
Jon Fourth listener to you. We all appreciate most of all, though. We can’t wait to talk to you again next time. Bye-bye.
George See you guys.
Mo Take care, everybody.
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About The Author

Mo As someone who barely manages to squeeze in as a GenXer my memories include more of the 70's than those younger GenXers. Reading and movies are my passions with some video gaming thrown in there for good measure!

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