Now is the Perfect Time to Play Fallout Again

ANNOUNCER: Games in this podcast range from E to M.

[XBOX SOUND]

- Hello, everybody, and welcome to the official Xbox podcast, the only podcast that comes to you from inside Xbox. Mom and Dad, Jeff and Tina, are down at GDC this week, so you're kind of stuck with the B team, the benchwarmers, if you will, aside from Rebecca, of course, a friend of the show, been on quite a few times. But we're going to get to hear about GDC all next week.

For now, let me introduce to my host today. It's Rebecca Gordius and Josh Stein. Rebecca, this is the first time we've ever met live on the air.

- I know, it's great. I feel like the retired basketball player who's coming back to the game to be like, hello, everyone. I'm still here. But--

- You're the athlete that-- you've washed out, and now you're a correspondent on ESPN. You're--

- Exactly.

- --commenting. Yeah.

- But you've got one more championship in you.

- [LAUGHS] Yeah, I love it.

- Maybe.

- I love it.

- Maybe.

- Oh, man. Steinie, how are you, man?

- I'm doing great, man. It's always a pleasure to be on the podcast. I love when they forget whatever I do on this and then invite me back again, only to be quickly reminded why I was not on it last week.

- Yeah, totally. Totally.

- It's always great to be here. And hopefully, Jeff and Tina don't mind if we take over the show for a little bit.

- It feels good. It feels good that they would entrust us. Obviously, they're having a great time. I've never been to GDC. Frankly, never heard of it.

- [LAUGHS]

- So-- so it'll be good. I'll be tuning in. Obviously, obviously, I know what it is, but have either of you gotten to go before? Have you have you been down there?

- I--

- You know, I've--

- --not.

- OK. So I have traveled to San Francisco for GDC-adjacent events, like, five or six years in a row. But I have never actually stepped foot in the "Mos-co-ney"-- the "Mos-cone" Center. And then kind of similarly, I actually live in San Francisco now. I relocated in the last couple of years. So I'm going to see like Jeff and Tina and some other colleagues from there in town and have meetings, but I'm not actually going to GDC even though I live here. So I don't know. Does it-- is it a real thing? Do people just come to San Francisco and say that there's a conference happening?

- Yeah, yeah, yeah. No one knows. It remains to be seen. Well, obviously, we're going to talk about a lot of games today, a lot of news to get through. It's a big week in gaming.

But let's start with what we're all playing individually. Rebecca, I'd love to kick things off with you. What you've been gaming?

- Sure. I actually have a game. I'm really excited to talk about. Well, first, let me tell you about this other thing I've been playing. So I was out sick for, like, a week and a half last month. And during that time, it's kind of embarrassing to admit. I watched a lot of SpongeBob Squarepants.

JOSH STEIN: Let's go.

REBECCA GORDIUS: It was--

JOSH STEIN: The ultimate comfort show.

REBECCA GORDIUS: Yeah, it was very nostalgic. You know, I watched SpongeBob when I was in, like, middle school or something like that, maybe school. I'm dating myself there. But-- so I wanted to try the game since-- SpongeBob Squarepants Bikini Bottom Rehydrated, I think. It's out on Game-- I saw it on Game Pass, and so I was like, oh, I should give it a shot. And I have to say, it brought me a lot of joy. It's like, aw, this-- it feels very easy to play. I was just kind of bashing my way through.

But it's really fun. Like, SpongeBob is actually a very well designed cartoon and very creative. I assume you guys are fans also, so--

ETHAN ROTHAMEL: Yeah. I mean, you don't have a show on TV for, like, decades at this point without-- obviously, it's a great show. I think I still have season one on DVD somewhere in storage. I mean, come on. It never-- I mean, there's some good episodes, but season one is chef's kiss.

JOSH STEIN: Purchase a DVD set of season one--

ETHAN ROTHAMEL: Well, OK--

JOSH STEIN: --of SpongeBob?

REBECCA GORDIUS: I'm sure it was a while ago. [LAUGHS]

- Yeah, thank you, Rebecca.

- Yeah.

- Thank you. Because that's 100% true.

- You picked it up December 2023.

- Yeah. Listen, guys, COVID was a long, long time inside, OK? I was running out of shows. I was running out of shows.

- I just picture you being, like, not feeling good, watching the show, and then when you're-- you know how when you're sick you have that five minutes of energy somewhere in the middle of the day? You're like, all right, now I'm just playing the hell out of this game.

- [INDISTINCT SPEECH]

- And then go back to watching-- yeah.

- Yeah.

- Totally.

- But the other game I was actually very excited to really talk about is called Venba. Have you guys ever played it?

ETHAN ROTHAMEL: Never heard of it. Never heard of it.

REBECCA GORDIUS: OK. So this is a hidden gem, for sure. So a lot of my-- I'm on the Asians at Xbox-- kind of like an internal employee group. And a lot of my colleagues actually got together in Redmond and played it recently. And they were all talking about it. Obviously, I'm not there in person anymore so I couldn't, but it's on Game Pass. It's pretty short. I think I got through it in two and a half hours, maybe less.

But it's a narrative game. So you're following this family of Indian immigrants who moved to Canada in I think the late '80s or early '90s. And it's kind of showing the perspective of the immigrant family and the differences, but then there's also a lot of cooking challenges kind of interspersed in there. And so I learned a lot about Indian food in the process, too.

- Nice.

- So I would say, yeah, like, it's-- like I said, it's a pretty short game. It tells a really, really good story. I think it's just very well made. It was nominated for a bunch of awards. It came out last year. It was nominated for some stuff from the Game Awards. I don't-- I'm not sure if it won, but it should have won something, so--

- You really enjoyed it?

- Great.

- Yeah.

- I love those snackable games.

- The culture experience of it.

- Go ahead, Stein.

- Yeah.

- What did you say, Stein? I missed you. What? It's--

- You kind of get to marinade in a culture experience of it, which is kind of cool.

- Totally, totally. And I do love those games that are, like, two hours or four hours that are just kind of like these narrative-driven experiences, like you're describing, like Firewatch and games like this. I know we're going to talk about maybe one or two kind of games like that later on as well.

But those are just so good. Those are always the games that it's like, if I was going to show somebody that wasn't a gamer-- like, I get-- I got my mom an Xbox a couple of years back. And she was like, what do I play? And I was like Firewatch, you know? What you just described is like the perfect game for someone that's never-- I guess that might be confused as to what games are, you know?

- Yeah.

- Like, it's such a great, different kind of experience. Really awesome.

- Totally.

- I love it.

- Yeah.

- Well, Stein, I know what you've been playing.

- [LAUGHS]

- We gamed all weekend together.

- I don't know what you're talking about.

- Oh.

- I feel like since the moment that Fallout trailer dropped for the TV show, we have been in 76 every night, Fallout 76.

- Sporting vault 33 today, in fact, for the show in anticipation. Fallout comes out-- what is it April-- mid-April? I'm really excited. I'm a Walton Goggins fan, too. Any Country Western--

ETHAN ROTHAMEL: Who isn't?

JOSH STEIN: [INDISTINCT SPEECH]

REBECCA GORDIUS: Oh, yeah.

ETHAN ROTHAMEL: Oh.

JOSH STEIN: Oh.

ETHAN ROTHAMEL: Oh my gosh, yeah. Who isn't?

JOSH STEIN: He's a handsome man, and I love any kind of delivery he gets. He played a good bad guy, played a good gray guy. You never really-- morally gray.

ETHAN ROTHAMEL: But he's a great vice principal in Vice Principals.

REBECCA GORDIUS: Hilarious.

ETHAN ROTHAMEL: Just shout out to that show.

JOSH STEIN: Hilarious comedian. But I'm excited of the show. But yes, we just spent all weekend together. Our wives are not happy.

- No.

- But basically, Fallout 76, man. I watched a lot of streams of it when it came out and it had its heyday and it's doing its thing. And then, of course, I've worked on the marketing social side, so I've kind of watched its journey as it's gone along. And I don't know what it was, but the trailer of the show got me excited, my fandom--

REBECCA GORDIUS: Really good.

JOSH STEIN: --and love, got Walton mixed in, and I'm like, I got to play Fallout 76. And then thankfully, you've joined in. And you've played before I played, so I've been playing a lot of catch-up. I just hit level 50, which seems like that's, like, the top tier, so it looks like now--

ETHAN ROTHAMEL: It's like the end-game stuff. You get to do the events.

JOSH STEIN: I get the good shit now, so basically, now I can get the good stuff. I can get the good gear, the good guns. I actually feel like I'm hitting worth a damn and things, versus, like, just putting a shot on it so I can get the loot.

ETHAN ROTHAMEL: Yeah.

JOSH STEIN: But it's been fun. We went to the Pit last night and had a great time. It's like this little strike area.

ETHAN ROTHAMEL: Pittsburgh. It's Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, for the folks that don't know, the Pit. Did not fare well after the atomic bombs fell. It's been on fire for 26 years. So we decided, hey, let's go check out this town.

REBECCA GORDIUS: [LAUGHS]

ETHAN ROTHAMEL: It was super fun.

- Fires were burning, so we had to see it.

- Yeah. Yeah, exactly. We had a great time, really difficult, but super fun experience. And that's like-- Fallout 76, Sea of Thieves, No Man's Sky, these service games that have just done nothing but improve upon their foundation-- it's such a fun kind of experience to go back when the mood strikes you maybe every few months. And so like, for this one, with Fallout, the TV trailer, was like, oh, they added this. Whoa, there's new cities to go to. There's new things to do. It's just-- I'm really proud of that team, or really happy for that team, rather, at just what they've kind of turned that game into. And as a Fallout fan, it's just such a fun experience, even from a story perspective.

- Yeah.

- I will say this. When we were recording, when we were prepping this show, I loved your shirt, but I-- like, ahead of jumping on this call, I was like, man, I hope Stein and I don't look the same. And sure enough, like, bearded, glasses, we got like one little icon. I got my party icon.

[OVERLAPPING SPEECH]

- Right here.

- Yeah, Yeah, so--

- At least you didn't wear your hat.

- I thought about it, too, because, look, it it's haircut day tomorrow, so my hair's a little crazy. And thought, like, I can't wear a hat today, you know?

- I'm just--

- Stein's--

- --glad Rebecca--

- --going to happen.

- --got the memo not to wear her beard today.

- Yeah.

- And just generally dressed up, you know? [LAUGHS]

- Right, right, a functional human. Yeah.

- Yeah.

- I do have to say, though, I have to shout out to the community. I know community managers work really hard on a lot of gaming communities. And it's a good testament to some of the effort that's done, is I-- it's been a while since I've jumped into a game with an open world and an open online experience. Fallout 76-- I was, like, maybe level 5, and I won't remember the poor gentleman's name, but he walked right up to me, and he, like, emoted. He did a little hi. He did a little salute. And then he dropped me the best gun I could have for the next 20 levels.

- Wow.

- And he was--

- Wow.

- --like, have a great time. And so--

- Nice.

- --I'm playing along. I pass it on. I run into like this little level 5, and I give him the gun to, like, kind of, carry it on, my son. And so, like, give him as he goes on his-- his or her journey.

- That's cool.

- And then somebody gave me level 35 power armor at 25, so then I got to put on this 35 power. I've just-- it's been a while since I've been in a community where-- in a game where it's been-- and I'm not asking. I'm not going into an LFG and being like, please, can I have-- can I have some scraps? I'm just in there--

- So sweet.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

- Is is. It is.

- It's really nice to see them load me up. And it wasn't like so much, like, the game wasn't enjoyable and was I was OP. It was just enough for me to not have to drag through and die a bunch of times.

- Yeah.

- And that was really cool to see just the openness and the invite. And that's unprompted. That was just me exploring the world. And people are like, hey, man, here's a gun. Hey, man--

- It's--

- But I'm doing it myself as a level 50 now to anyone I run into lower than me.

- It's like at Starbucks when you pay for the person--

[LAUGHTER]

--straight behind you, but it's happening in video games. I have never heard of this happening in a video game before, either. But for the record, like, that's so-- like, that's so sweet. I love that.

- I think it's--

- I love it.

- --a testament to the community that's there. And I-- it makes me want to play the game more.

- Totally.

- It has nothing to do with the marketing, the game, the features. Literally, I want to be part of that. I want to help some other guy or gal from wherever, from whenever, who jumps in, and maybe they need a little help-me-up. But I've been trying to do the same, although I tried to do that once-- [LAUGHS] fun story. And they were like, the order behind you is $55. Are you sure? And I felt like at that point-- I was like--

- Oh, boy.

- I mean--

- I'll give him a tenner. Yeah, yeah.

- I'm not stingy, but like, I ended up doing it because I felt so guilty, but--

- Oh, no.

- Yeah, you're in the moment. What are you going to say, no, no, I changed my mind?

- What, I'm going to look at that barista and be like, no, that's too much for my kindness? So--

- Yeah, exactly. Oh, man.

- But for the most part, it's a great reference, yeah, the Starbucks line. Like, pay it forward, pay it back.

- Yeah.

- Oh, man. I will say I love-- one of my favorite things-- and we can get off the Fallout hype train, but one of my favorite things about that game is kind of what you described it. In addition to that is your camps you build-- like, this game has crafting, and you can build bases. But furthermore, you can build vendor stops. And so you can essentially turn-- you could build-- like, I built a bar. I built a tavern, and I have a bartender. You can actually interact and sell your gear. You can buy food and drink.

And it doesn't seem a big deal, but that element of, like, I set my bar up right at the outskirts of a town where there's a main story, so I knew it'd be a thoroughfare for players, and so I get so many visitors. And people give you things, or they just come emote or play with your cosmetic things. There's, like, bowling and shooting galleries and all these things you can do that actually buff your character if you do them, so there's incentive to visit bases and just check out what people are working on.

And it's kind of the first crafting game for me. And No Man's Sky had this as well, but where it's just like, I want to go see everyone's base in the server. And I want to see the bars. I want to see the restaurant. I want to see the golf club that someone built, you know? Country club, excuse me. Like, it's just a fun-- it's just a really fun dynamic to put in the shops and the reasons to visit each other. Yeah. Yeah. What a game.

- I think--

- What a game.

- --in lore, though, you used to be a bartender and a bar owner, so I love that you--

- True.

- --took-- you took that IRL past experience and life you live, and you're like, let's just shack up another little bar here on the outskirts of Old Whiteside.

- Yeah, yeah. There is a part of me that's like, whenever I retire, maybe I'll go back to being a bartender or barista. And I think I'm living that dream in every game where I can build something because I'm--

- It's cheaper.

- --always building taverns.

- Less finanical risk.

- It's cheaper. It's way cheaper. Yes. So much less risk. [LAUGHS] All right. I know you've also been playing Diablo, Stein. You kind of been back on the Diablo train. Is that true?

- Always. Lilith's got her claws in me for life, man. Ever since Diablo III got ported over to console, I fell in love with the Diablo series. I went back. I played the other ones. And Diablo IV-- I've been enjoying it a lot, continuing to still play it. Season 3 is out now. I've burned through almost all the seasonal content.

And now they're doing these weekly trials. And you can do it in a single, a double, a triple, or a full stack of four players. But you basically just max out your gear, go in. You get an x amount of minutes. Every Tuesday, I think, it resets, and it changes so you get a new dungeon layout.

And it's fun to see people online and then Reddit map out the paths to try to get the max amount of XP. Like, kill this boss. Then hit the regenerator. Then kill the boss again. Then do these six boss loops.

And so I was with my group. Like, we're like, oh, let's min-max this and turn left and south. And then you go east and west. And we're, like, doing just the nerdiest of routes. I feel like I'm out with a trackpad. And I'm like, all right, I've got to take a southwest, three steps left.

But it's fun. You get gear at the end of it. It's super nerdy. But it's like my weekly, every Tuesday, Wednesday, I got to go in, got to set my weekly leaderboard. Because you get rewards at the end of it.

And I will say, the false sense of dopamine comes in. It's a leaderboard, like one out of a thousand, right? So depending on which rank you perform and whether you're alone or with your team-- I love going in the moment the servers reset, do a quick, filthy run, just-- it's just silly. It's just absurd. It's lazy. But it's like, you're number 119 in the top leaderboard in the world.

And I'm in there just like, screenshot, screenshot, screenshot, screenshot, screenshot. Post on Twitter. Post on Instagram. Post on Facebook. And top of the leaderboard. See you, guys. And then all the real players come in, and I'm like, millionth in that rank by-- in 24 hours.

- Yeah, you had your flash in the pan. [LAUGHS]

- Yeah, totally.

- I wonder if I increase my social media skills--

- Milk.

- --would I get more drops from fans in Fallout, you know? Is that what it takes? Is that what it actually takes?

- I don't know. I don't know.

- Yeah. [LAUGHS] I love it, man. I love it. All right. A lot of great games you called out. Also, just-- I do love the variety of games we're playing right now. Like, that's a pretty solid list between the three of us I'm a fan. I'm a fan of that.

But there are a ton of new games dropping this week. And in fact, Stein, I think I saw something you tweeted yesterday where you were just listing all the games coming out. And one of the games on that list, Dragon's Dogma 2, right?

JOSH STEIN: It comes out tomorrow when this airs, or today?

ETHAN ROTHAMEL: At midnight tonight--

JOSH STEIN: Midnight tonight.

ETHAN ROTHAMEL: --at the time of airing, yes. Midnight tonight.

JOSH STEIN: I gotta get used to the podcast time travel. Like, it's a Tuesday, dressed in-- it's three Tuesdays in a trench coat dressed as a Thursday. But Dragon's Dogma 2. I've never played the first Dragon's Dogma, but I saw all the lore. I've seen all the hype. I've seen the character creator monsters.

ETHAN ROTHAMEL: We talked about that ad nauseam last--

JOSH STEIN: Oof.

ETHAN ROTHAMEL: --maybe last episode of the podcast. Horrific.

JOSH STEIN: Yeah.

ETHAN ROTHAMEL: I mean, in a good way. Like, it's amazing what you can make. But there is some cursed images and some-- like, that Pikachu. Did anyone see that? Ugh. Yeah.

- A little bit-- it's a little bit haunting. His hair was just short enough to give you the heebie jeebie.

- Yeah. Not a fan. Not a fan of the Pikachu. Definitely hyped for Dragon's Dogma 2. This game-- again, we've talked about it a few weeks now, or maybe last week, we got a little bit into this, but very narrative-driven experience. It's going to be really-- it's going to challenge the player to choose their own experience.

And if I recall, we kind of talked about this a bit, there's really limited fast travel and quest markers. So it might be tricky for folks, but they do a good job of-- Jeff said it. The world just feels lived in, which-- very true to the first game as well. So really excited to dive into this world that is really robust.

Because as you know, big, open-world games, sometimes when the map gets too big, sometimes it feels like you're just walking from point A to point B. And supposedly, this game is really supposed to just be like, yeah, there's limited fast travel, but you're not going to want to. So kind of excited to check all of that out. And I don't even remember at this point how many years it's been between games, so I can't imagine being a fan, waiting for 2 to finally drop. I mean, it has been quite some time, maybe since season one of SpongeBob.

- [LAUGHS]

- Not entirely sure.

- D&D dropped.

- Yeah, yeah. I'll have to check the back of the box. In addition to that, Call of Duty Warzone mobile dropping today, I believe--

JOSH STEIN: Yeah.

ETHAN ROTHAMEL: --or very soon? Yeah, today?

JOSH STEIN: That's right.

ETHAN ROTHAMEL: Yeah.

JOSH STEIN: And you get things like cross-progression, so that way you can take your weapons, your operators, your battle XP. I'm a skins guy, as Ethan knows. My 401(k) sits in my skins inventory of my various games that I own. I'm sorry, my children.

[LAUGHTER]

Here's your college fund, little child.

ETHAN ROTHAMEL: [LAUGHS] College.

JOSH STEIN: It's not that bad. I enjoy my skins. And I just have to-- I have to respect that you can bring all that over to mobile, so that way, whatever weapon or whatever cool operator that you enjoy, or even your Battle Pass XP-- it kind of comes right on mobile. So I have to give them a shout out for that.

ETHAN ROTHAMEL: For sure. That's a good plug. That's a good plug. And I will add an additional plug to that, as the only person on this podcast from the hardware team, there's a lot of really good mobile controllers if you're looking for something to get an edge on the competition with this.

- Tell us more, Ethan.

- Yeah, well, I will- I do want to-- I do got to plug--

- I knew you had a plug. I knew he had a plug.

- Yeah.

- Come on, come on. You know me. You know me. Listen, listen. The X2 Pro from GameSir is, like, our newest one in the program. Now, there's a lot of options. And I implore you to explore different ergonomics. Do your research because it's not a one size fits all for mobile controllers, especially if you're using cloud gaming. For more arcade-y experiences, like Slay the Spire or Vampire Survivors versus maybe you're playing Call of Duty mobile in addition to cloud gaming.

So I got to shout out this controller. GameSir-- just an awesome partner with design for Xbox. They're making some really, really cool stuff, and the X Pro-- my X2 Pro, excuse me, might be one of my favorite newer ones. And I know the team that worked on that-- they did a lot a lot of cool stuff with it. So check that out for sure.

And I believe, Rebecca, you're interviewing them next week?

- Yeah. The folks-- I feel like I've done a couple Call of Duty interviews in the last couple years, but truthfully, they are a team that never sleeps. [LAUGHS] It's like they always have something that they're cooking up. So yeah, I'm excited. Stay tuned for the interview next week.

- Oh, little tease. Alone in the Dark. Has anyone-- Stein, I know you're not the biggest horror fan.

JOSH STEIN: [INDISTINCT SPEECH]

ETHAN ROTHAMEL: Have you looked at this game at all?

JOSH STEIN: I am not any horror fan. No. But I do love the description of this, if I can-- I love this--

ETHAN ROTHAMEL: Please, please read it.

JOSH STEIN: "Alone in the Dark weaves a chilling tapestry of psychological horror in a Southern Gothic charm. Reimagine the iconic game that set the benchmark for the genre." I just feel like it's got its own little Southern charm within it. So I love--

REBECCA GORDIUS: Chilling tapestry. Yeah.

ETHAN ROTHAMEL: Chilling tapestry. That's good. Rebecca, you-- before you were so rudely interrupted by Stein, I wanted to ask-- I'm just kidding. But I wanted to ask, are you a horror fan, just in general? Do you play horror games?

REBECCA GORDIUS: I'm a big horror movie and TV fan, but for video games, I get too-- I'm the--

ETHAN ROTHAMEL: It's too much.

REBECCA GORDIUS: --throwing my controller and-- yeah.

ETHAN ROTHAMEL: I can kind of understand that. As Stein knows too well, I love horror, but I can't do it alone. Like, I'll literally make someone come over to watch me play Resident Evil. Like, I can't. I can't. I'll just be like, I can't go in the room. I just can't do it. Yeah. But this one looks good.

JOSH STEIN: Turn the lights on.

ETHAN ROTHAMEL: [LAUGHS] It's true. It's true. I will say, this one has, I believe, a couple actors that folks may know. Jodie Comer, is that how you pronounce it? But-- which, she's been in a few things you may recognize. Free Guy, one of the more recently-- recent ones. But the gentleman playing the lead actor is David Harbor from Stranger Things.

JOSH STEIN: Handsome, handsome David Harbor.

ETHAN ROTHAMEL: And now he's taken a chance at video games.

JOSH STEIN: I love that.

ETHAN ROTHAMEL: No, this is cool. I love it, too, because I think I've seen a few interviews with David Harbor on different red carpets, and I feel like he talks about games plenty, or he gets asked about them enough, so it's always kind of fun to see where the interests collide between different kinds of art. Definitely going to tune in-- or check out that game. And definitely going to call one of you to watch me play it. I mean, I just-- I apologize. That's just what you get.

- I'll be there. I'll bring your security blankie, lights at 90%. I got you.

- Thank you. Thank you. Last but certainly not least, Final Fantasy XIV comes to console-- comes to Xbox. 'Bout time. This is great. This is great news.

JOSH STEIN: Square Enix and Xbox doing some crazy cool partnership stuff. There's a lot of people who are really excited for this. I know-- probably biased. I see the social side of things. Anytime we burp the word "Final Fantasy," people get so excited. And they get really thrilled. So this is a massive, massive community. This game has been around--

ETHAN ROTHAMEL: 30--

JOSH STEIN: --for while. 30 million?

ETHAN ROTHAMEL: 30 million players right now. And I mean, I played this game-- at this point, it was years ago, the first time I dove in. And MMOs for me are much like service games, right? Dive in for a year or a few months, three months, six months, and then take a huge break, and then come back. This will to be a good experience-- excuse for me to jump back in.

But I said, yeah, 30 million adventurers worldwide are taking part in this epic and ever-changing Final Fantasy adventure. And it's going to have all the hallmarks of a best-selling franchise that you can expect and a myriad of diverse and captivating environments to explore. And obviously, there's some solo content and a bunch of reasons to party up with your friends on this game.

I'm excited. This is, like, MMOs for me are just great couch games. I love MMOs, but I never want to sit at my computer that long, so I'm really excited to see this one come--

- You want to feel the blood--

- --to Xbox.

- --go to your feet and back to your heart.

- Yeah, yeah, yeah. Exactly.

[LAUGHTER]

- It's a good way to put it, yeah. Play it on the couch. And if you have Game Pass Ultimate, too, you can get the Starter Edition as a perk between now and April 19.

ETHAN ROTHAMEL: Oh. This is why I love being on the air with Stein, Rebecca, because he's always going to catch that stuff that I'm-- I guarantee you I'm going to forget.

- [LAUGHS]

- I've got you. I got your perks. Somewhere there's a Game Pass marketing manager being like, ah. I feel--

- Yes!

- [INDISTINCT SPEECH]

- Nailed it. Yeah. Yeah.

- Oh, you guys complete each other's sentences. That's good. Yeah.

- Oh, no.

- Or finish each other's sandwiches. I don't know.

- Nice. That was a good reference.

- That's what I was going to say.

- Let's move on. Let's talk about Game Pass titles out now.

JOSH STEIN: (WHISPERING) Out now.

ETHAN ROTHAMEL: Kicking things off, MLB The Show 24-- we've talked about it a lot on this podcast the last few weeks. Maybe the best sporting game out there, depending on what your favorite sport is, but certainly, in my opinion, the best baseball sports game.

And this is a great one. You get to experience game-deciding moments, become a legend, and live out your baseball dreams in this game. And I believe for the first time you're going to be able to play as a woman through the entire league, which is kind of awesome to see. I love that this game is coming to Game Pass. I love that the MLB The Show has been coming-- like, this is such a cool partnership. And I think people are really excited for this one. And I believe Malik interviewed the devs last week. That was last week's podcast? So if you'd like to hear all about that, definitely check out that interview. And you don't have to watch the rest of the podcast. I think I was on that one. You can skip through that. Or not, because we need the minutes. You know how it is. Next up--

JOSH STEIN: We need the minutes.

ETHAN ROTHAMEL: We need the minutes. Yeah. Come on. Lightyear Frontier also out this week. I'm actually very high for this game. Anyone else? Anyone else like farming sims?

JOSH STEIN: I'm going to check it out.

ETHAN ROTHAMEL: Maybe Stein?

JOSH STEIN: I love the idea. I'm not a farming sim too much, but farming is in my Stein blood. So I come from a lineage of-- I come from a lineage of farmers. My allergy season would disagree with that and the hay fever that attacks me, but I love the idea of mixing my love-- I just say, like, it's like mixing, to me, Titanfall and farming simulators, and I feel like, what could be more fun than picturing out on the old Stein tractor, but instead-- it's a tractor, it's a mech, and you're just in there just sowing the fields and baling hay, but just over the top in a mech.

REBECCA GORDIUS: Is there an episode of, I think, Love, Death, and Robots that is--

JOSH STEIN: Yes.

ETHAN ROTHAMEL: Yes.

REBECCA GORDIUS: --like that? Yes.

JOSH STEIN: Yes. It's a little darker than Lightyear Frontier, but you are on the right track if you want to watch that for a little--

REBECCA GORDIUS: That's cool.

JOSH STEIN: --twist.

REBECCA GORDIUS: Yeah.

JOSH STEIN: And then jump in.

ETHAN ROTHAMEL: Yeah, that's a really good call out. It is a much darker story, I imagine, than Lightyear Frontier, which looks extremely cozy. But you got to-- I mean, my favorite thing about that is that it's going to be co-op. I don't mind farming games. I like cozy games, just in general, and I far prefer them with friends, so I'm kind of excited to dive into this, maybe drag you in, Stein.

And I got to say, I can relate to the allergies. It's tree pollen season here in Seattle, and the only reason I'm wearing these glasses is because my eyes are so puffy. I took two Benadryl before this episode, so I look sleepy. That's why.

- I can tell you sound a little sniffly, honey. It's OK.

- Hey, come on. Come on. Come on. Ooh, OK. I'm looking at the notes here on the other games coming to Game Pass. The Quarry.

JOSH STEIN: Oh.

REBECCA GORDIUS: Oh my gosh.

JOSH STEIN: Another scary game.

REBECCA GORDIUS: [LAUGHS]

ETHAN ROTHAMEL: And I love these games. I love every, like, Dark Horse or Dark Pictures Anthology, Until Dawn-- like, these kind of games, ooh, speak to me. They really are fun. And one of the main reasons I like these-- these are my dad's favorite games. Like, he loves narrative-driven games because he can't play. He doesn't like to control. He just doesn't. But he loves to sit down and watch my sister, watch me play games, so he always brings-- he'll, like, pick out a title and be like, I want to watch you play this.

So The Quarry was actually one of them we played together through on Christmas maybe last year. And--

JOSH STEIN: Good happy holiday vibes.

ETHAN ROTHAMEL: Yeah, well, we were-- we had rented a cabin in the woods so it kind of was--

- Oh, that's even worse.

- It was creepy enough. It was creepy enough.

- That's worse.

- That does not sound like a good time.

- Yeah, but it's scary. Like, you don't like being scared in the setting? Like, you don't-- I don't know. OK. Fair enough.

- Too close to home.

- Imagine--

- Right.

- Imagine this. You're in a cabin in the middle of the woods with your family, and then you boot up a game that is titled, "The only thing worse than the blood-drenched locals and creatures hunting them are the unimaginable choices you must make to survive." Like, that sounds terrifying. I am one stick scrape away from Forest Gumping home and running down the road and not stopping for you or anyone.

- Totally, totally. The little piece of info I forgot to add to that is that my grandma was staying with us, too, and she noped out of that living room within 15 minutes. She was just like, no, this isn't for me. Like, that intro, which I don't want to spoil anything. There's a couple famous actors that-- just play the game. Just play the game. You're going to enjoy it.

REBECCA GORDIUS: Not with my grandma.

ETHAN ROTHAMEL: It's a great--

REBECCA GORDIUS: Yeah.

ETHAN ROTHAMEL: Yeah, yeah. Maybe not with your grandma. That's a good call out. That's a good call out. Unless she's just dark and twisted. Last, but certainly not least, Stein, a game you've played, Evil West.

JOSH STEIN: That's right.

ETHAN ROTHAMEL: Tell us about it.

JOSH STEIN: I love me my Western games. This is kind of a really cool hybrid. It brings to me kind of almost a Darksiders vibe to Western games. Big fan of the Darksiders series. But this is kind of like this dark, menacing world. And you can play it co-op, or you can just play it by yourself.

But you have these really visceral, almost, like, Gears of War-like action and gore and reactions to it. But you-- yeah, you basically-- you have to eradicate these vampire hordes. And you have a gauntlet that's fueled by lightning. But then you have these crazy cool sick shooters, so you can just-- you kind of feel like the Man With No Name, but in a vampire-drenched Constantine world, kind of, like, hell and everything. And so I used a lot of different genres.

ETHAN ROTHAMEL: Yeah, yeah. A vampire-drenched Constantine world.

JOSH STEIN: Yeah, I know. They're going to put that on the box.

[LAUGHTER]

Of course. It's great, though. It's a lot of fun. It's dark. It's broody. It's not too scary, though, and you can play with the lights on. I-- that's a game where I will not play with a headset. I'll just put on the speakers and turn it up because it does have a few moments of-- [GROWLS] I'm not a [GROWLS] kind of guy. I'm more a meow kind of guy. So--

ETHAN ROTHAMEL: [INDISTINCT SPEECH]

JOSH STEIN: I prefer something a little less scary. [LAUGHS]

ETHAN ROTHAMEL: I love it. I love it. That's dope, man. That one's on my list. I haven't tried it yet, but I really do want to check it out because like you, I like cowboys, and I like vampires.

Let's talk about what's coming soon. And we got kind of a decent list. So Terra Invicta coming out, coming out next week. That one looks pretty exciting. Diablo IV, Stein? Diablo IV?

JOSH STEIN: You see March 28.

REBECCA GORDIUS: Nice.

ETHAN ROTHAMEL: Woo!

JOSH STEIN: They're going to bless us all on Game Pass. They've been doing a great job on social, getting the people excited for this, getting people kind of in the stands, getting ready.

I'm really excited just to see everyone experience the story of Diablo, and then if they want to, optional, they can jump into the seasonification of it. But I love the story.

ETHAN ROTHAMEL: Good work.

JOSH STEIN: That was great. And so I'm excited to see everyone experience one of Blizzard's bangers.

- Nice. I've never heard the word "seasonification" before, but I'm going to trust you that that's a real word.

- [LAUGHS]

ETHAN ROTHAMEL: Also, we got Hot Wheels Unleashed 2 dropping. That's Hot Wheels Unleashed 2 Turbocharged. That's going to be dropping a lot of fun. Those games are great party games. Perfect Game Pass game because you know all your friends are going to have it. You can jump into a few races and have a great time.

And very akin to, Rebecca, the game you were talking about at the top of the show, we have Open Roads coming next week, which is going to be day one with Game Pass. And for folks that don't know, this game is done by Fulbright, which is a studio that did Gone Home and Tacoma. So very similarly, narrative-driven experiences. In fact, like, Gone Home you can beat in, like, 30 or 45 minutes if you know the ending. So they're really snackable, but gripping stories. Just a lot of fun. So definitely check out Open Roads. That's another kind of good one.

And the little blurb for folks that want to know what the setting is it's about long-lost family secrets, maybe a hint of hidden fortune, and miles to go before they sleep. Tess Devine's relationship with her mother has never been easy, but they're about to set out together on a journey into the past that they'll never forget. So kind of a good setting. Might be pretty emotional. I will say, Fulbright Studios-- their games are-- have some emotional moments. I definitely get a little misty-eyed when I play, if I'm honest, but I'm a crier. What can I say?

JOSH STEIN: Bring tissues.

- Yeah.

- We're learning so much about you today. [LAUGHS]

- Yeah, yeah. This is-- listen, I'm an open book, Rebecca, OK? ARK--

- [INDISTINCT SPEECH] after this.

- Yeah. [LAUGHS] Yes. This is true. This is my therapy session for the week. Yes, that's true. ARK Survival Ascended also coming April 1, so that's going to be coming-- I mean, obviously ARK's got-- what a community. Massive community.

JOSH STEIN: Speaking of massive communities, like, it's-- that game is still going strong. People are loving it. People are enjoying it. And well-deserved. Of course, I know the developers worked really hard on it. I'm always impressed to see the crazy things that people build in ARK and just the worlds that they expand on. So yeah, coming to cloud, console, Series X and S, and PC April 1.

ETHAN ROTHAMEL: Nice, nice. Our mutual friend, Stein, Andy Salisbury-- I think he's over on Team Bungie. He's been playing a lot of F1 23. And that's coming to Game Pass, so we'll have to let him know that we can jump in with him. That's-- that looks pretty good as well.

JOSH STEIN: It's shows, games, everything F1 to watch and become a fan of. He's just waiting for that moment for me to be like, hey, tell me about this F1.

ETHAN ROTHAMEL: Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Kind of a dream come true for him. But yeah, should be pretty fun. I mean, that's-- you got your F1 23, more for the racing sims or the people that want to dive into that. And then for the folks that are more into the arcade-y side of racing, you got Hot Wheels. So kind of something for everybody in the wheel space.

And I'm going to use that as a plug for some other wonderful hardware. If you're in the need for new-- [LAUGHS] sorry, I was trying to sound so-- [INDISTINCT SPEECH]

- It's OK. I love [INDISTINCT SPEECH].

- I got two people from marketing here. I'm tried to impress you guys. If you guys--

- Use your marketing voice.

- Oh. Heh. [CLEARS THROAT] (DEEP VOICE) If you guys are in the need for a new wheel, look no further than the Turtle Beach Velocity 1-- what if I got the name wrong? What if I got the name wrong? The Velocity-- that was right, the Velocity 1 Pro.

JOSH STEIN: You just Ron Burgundy-ed that.

[LAUGHTER]

ETHAN ROTHAMEL: Velocity 1 Race. Now, this thing-- this is actually Turtle Beach's first wheel. And it's sick. I've gotten to play with this in the lab a few times on campus. And it's just a really, really nice wheel. And I think Turtle Beach-- like I said, this is their first wheel, so it's kind of awesome to see a hardware partner come out swinging with something like this. So definitely, definitely, check out the Velocity 1 Race if you guys are looking for wheels.

And then if that's not-- if you're also going to be doing some simming with that, so maybe you're playing some farming sim alongside F1 or Hot Wheels, Thrustmaster actually just released-- one of our awesome partners as well, they just released a wheel that's more of a focus on sims. It's called the T128 SimTask.

And so this thing is awesome. It's a little bit more for the folks that are going to need it for more than just racing. So if you're going to be getting behind the wheel of a big rig, perhaps, in Truck Simulator or farming, definitely check that one out.

JOSH STEIN: The full 18 wheels, baby? You [INDISTINCT SPEECH]

- Yeah, exactly.

- I love that.

- Exactly. There's a wheel for everybody.

- Bom, bom.

- It is a different experience to get behind the wheel. I was never-- like, I never had wheels at home, and only when I joined the hardware team did I start getting to play with them more consistently. And oh, I just love it so much. It is a lot of fun. I think we have one more game coming soon, which is one of few of us played, very popular title, super hot.

Now, this is Mind Control Delete specifically, but if you have not played the Superhot games, you must. You must check this out. They are a riot. You feel like an action hero. It's like John Wick the game. It's so fun. Oh.

JOSH STEIN: Yeah. Yeah, it's kind of got, like, this low polygon artistic style, but you do some crazy cool fun things in there. And you feel a legend, literally, or like Mr. Wick himself when you're dodging a bullet spray while throwing a glass bottle and then shooting rounds as you're just whipping around-- Matrix, for my geriatric millennials out there. And so it's-- [LAUGHS] it's a great time to-- I got to choose my references, culturally dependent.

- We're getting old, guys.

- That's fair. But you-- no, even the art style is really cool. I remember when the first one came out, a bunch of us played it in the office. And it was like, oh, this is really unique. Like, no one-- I feel like no one was doing that kind of geometric simple but very still intimidating--

- Yeah, style--

- The art style. Yeah.

- Very deliberate style. That really was great for the genre. And I love-- like, for folks that don't know, it's one of those games where nothing moves unless you move, so it's like, you have to be so deliberate with what you're going to do next because you have to dodge bullets. You have to dodge someone's knife attack. But you also need to take these people down. So is just-- there's nothing like Superhot. Like, it is its own kind of thing. And it excels. It really is a fun experience. Oh, so many games on Game Pass, you guys. That's a lot. That was a lot.

- That's a lot. There's a lot of cool stuff. You know, the Minecraft Marketplace team also released the Minecraft Marketplace Pass recently, too, so I mean, there's no shortage of stuff in Xbox Game Pass. But there's also no shortage of stuff in the Minecraft Marketplace. It's a kind of curated library where there are people who are actually creating content who don't work for the Minecraft team, so it's different external people that become a partner, and then they release content.

There's also some really cool branded stuff in there. There's a ton of different stuff. There's at least one DLC for like every Star Wars movie or show that's ever been created.

ETHAN ROTHAMEL: Sure.

JOSH STEIN: There should be.

ETHAN ROTHAMEL: As there should be, yes.

REBECCA GORDIUS: And so the Marketplace Pass is cool because it's a way to try out all of those different things without necessarily needing to spend the coin, like, the literal coin. They use coins.

ETHAN ROTHAMEL: Yeah.

[OVERLAPPING SPEECH]

REBECCA GORDIUS: The Minecraft people will understand that reference, but yeah, it's cool. So people-- it's an easy way to find even more things to do in Minecraft.

ETHAN ROTHAMEL: Oh, Stein, just another cosmetic store for you to shop at.

JOSH STEIN: Yeah. Well, I love that it's community driven, if you haven't been noticed by the literal plethora of rainbow around me of memorabilia and kids' college funds, it's--

[LAUGHTER]

But I always love when there's opportunities in games to build a marketplace for the content creators. Actually, I actually used to work with a young lady, her name was Heather, who used to create Minecraft skins. And she would talk about it. And I always thought it was so fascinating to learn about--

- Oh, Heather.

- --her world. Yeah, yeah. We--

- I remember Heather.

- And it was fascinating to hear her, just learn about that, because she'd just get inspiration somewhere, and she'd be like, oh, yeah, uh, and then come back on Monday, and be like, yeah, I just created this whole family pack of skins.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

- I have a lot of appreciation for people who can do that, as someone who has no talent whatsoever when it comes to those kind of things.

ETHAN ROTHAMEL: Few more announcements. Few more announcements. Shadow dropping today, ARK the Animated TV series.

JOSH STEIN: A lot of excitement for ARK. It's cool to see us come to the show. I was looking at it earlier, watching the trailer. Executive producers-- you go from Gerard Butler to Russell Crowe to Vin Diesel. This is going to have one hell of a baritone voice acting.

REBECCA GORDIUS: [LAUGHS]

JOSH STEIN: Like--

ETHAN ROTHAMEL: That's--

JOSH STEIN: --imagine--

ETHAN ROTHAMEL: --so funny.

JOSH STEIN: --going through those three accents all together in those unique, different characters. But the trailer looked great. It's for a few weeks, every Tuesday and Thursday, following the show's release. New Dear Jane notes will be actually added to ARK, each unlocking a new character skin from the show.

And I love this-- I feel like we're approaching this new era where all these animated shows are coming to life and building upon this video game culture. And then they're also slipstreaming back to the video game culture and bringing skins and things. Yeah, vault-- Vault 33 and the Fallout show. I love the idea that ARK is bringing things from the show to the game. Because--

ETHAN ROTHAMEL: It's cool.

JOSH STEIN: --I think it builds excitement around the whole fandom and the lore of it all.

ETHAN ROTHAMEL: Yeah, if you're a fan, it's just fun. Like, it's-- yeah. That's definitely what I'm hyped up about Fallout, for example, and even, like, season two of Halo. I've just been enjoying watching for-- catching the references. It's just always a lot of fun as a fan.

Well, across the pond, our friends at Xbox On put together a great interview with Tales of Kenzera Zau creator Abubakar "Sa-lihm"-- "Sa-leem," excuse me. And if you haven't watched this interview, it's great. It's really worth a watch in its entirety. But they spoke in depth about the role of grief in the game's story as well as how Kenzera shakes up what you'd typically expect from a metroidvania game.

So let me-- let's play a quick sample of you so you can see what this interview is, because it really is something special. Take a look.

- Out of all the abilities in the game, do you have one particular favorite that you're like, this is the one.

- Pulse.

HENRY: Pulse?

- There's a-- yeah, there's a pulse ability, which you-- you kind of get it kind of midway through. I think the journey of getting it is really awesome, and also just the story behind it, but also the effects it has. And every ability has a secret thing about them that works in tandem with-- to a degree with one another.

Basically, put it this way, there's a really cool thing about pulse where if you do it the right time at the right moment in certain areas and elements, be it be it boss fights or be it in combat-- it's really cool.

[LAUGHTER]

- Going to have to remember that. I'm going to have to look out for it as well.

ABUBAKAR SALIM: Yeah.

- All right. Again, you can go check out that full interview over with our friends on Xbox On on for Tales of Kenzera Zau. Excited for that one to come up. The visuals of that look absolutely gorgeous. It looks like it's going to not only tear my eyeballs out in beauty, but maybe my heart out in feels. So I'm looking forward to experiencing that.

Now, on to the fun part of the show, let's give away some free cool stuff.

- Yes.

JOSH STEIN: Free Code Friday. For Free Code Friday this week, we, of course, have the very timely release of Dragon's Dogma 2, so thanks to our friends over in marketing and our partners at Dragon's Dogma 2 for giving us codes. We're going to give it away to a couple handful-- handful of lucky people.

So how do you enter? First, you need to keep an eye on the twitter.com/@XBoxWire Twitter profile between noon and 2:00 PM, that's Pacific time, this Friday, March 22. What you'll see is you'll see a post come out in that two-hour time span, and then you'll want to reply to the Free Code Friday tweet with your answer for this week's questions. What is this week's questions, you ask? Great question, Ethan. It is, if you had a dragon, what element would they be and why? [LAUGHS]

ETHAN ROTHAMEL: Oh man.

JOSH STEIN: And it can be anything.

ETHAN ROTHAMEL: Rebecca.

JOSH STEIN: It can be silly. It could be fun. Yeah, Rebecca, what's your dragon--

- You go first.

JOSH STEIN: --powers you would give them?

- Hmm. Well, I had this, like, element conversation after watching the Avatar live action that came out recently. And I'd probably be Fire Nation, if I'm being honest. But I feel a dragon that spits fire is so unoriginal, so I would have my dragon spit maybe, like, I was like, what do I use a lot? And it would be, like, hot sauce, because then it could still be a weapon.

- It's delicious. Ah!

- Or it could be amazing and delicious and--

[OVERLAPPING SPEECH]

- Edible?

- Yeah.

- Or is it so hot it melts and kills people?

- It's edible hot sauce, but it's really spicy hot sauce. So if it hits you, you're still, like, in trouble. [LAUGHS]

- In mass quantity, you melt.

- Yeah. What about you guys?

- Steinie? Steinie?

- Uh.

- Maybe something also edible. [LAUGHS]

- I was-- yeah. For my--

- Three guesses what.

- [LAUGHS]

- My runner up was going to be Baja Blast.

- [LAUGHS]

- Ooh.

- I feel a Baja Blast dragon would be pretty legit. But I got to go with cheese. I want a dragon that just spews hot cheese, or in cold temperatures, shredded cheese.

- I feel like--

- Nice.

- --just being pummeled by shredded cheese, just--

- I need to--

- --might be like--

- --point out-- I need to point out that both of you picked food. Like, are we hungry? There's a thousand other things it could be.

- This is generally a time of peace, so I don't have any immediate enemies, so I'm like, I want my dragon to be more functional than intimidating.

- Sure, sure. Yeah, yeah. Just, like, I got street tacos. Help me out. That's interesting.

- What's your extreme mean version?

- I feel like I have to pick a food. I feel like my--

- No, no, go with your gut. Go with your soul.

- If I had to pick--

- What's your dragon?

- --any element, it'd be the element of surprise.

- Ooh.

- No, but I-- no, that's terrible.

- Ouch.

- Heart attack dragon?

- Yeah, yeah. I'll take my-- I'll take-- yeah, I'm already been kicked off the show for that comment. I don't--

- Rawr. Grandma, no.

- [LAUGHS] I had you both go first because I didn't know. I didn't have an answer. Normally, I have such an answer for this, or I'm ready, locked and loaded with an answer. What element would my dragon be? I don't know. I like the idea of lava for some reason, mainly because it's not a food, and it actually is, like, effective. Also, like, I was scarred for life watching Dante's Peak. Is that the movie? Anyone remember the scene with the grandma? Anyone remember--

REBECCA GORDIUS: Yeah.

ETHAN ROTHAMEL: --that scene?

JOSH STEIN: Through the boat?

- The acid? Yeah.

- Grandma, no.

- Yeah, yeah.

- She's like, I'll make it to the other end.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

- Ugh.

- So, OK--

- Horrifying.

- So spoiler alert--

- Well there is a dragon like that in-- was it the Vox Machina?

- Machina, yeah.

- Did you guys watch that show? Yeah, they had the acid-spewing--

- Definitely.

- --dragon, and that was pretty formidable, honestly. So that's a respectable choice.

- Thank you.

- Your dragon would kill our dragons--

- Thank you so much.

- --our tasty dragons. Yeah.

- Hot sauce, hot cheese, and just poison and just--

- And lava. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, honestly, your guys way, way more function over form, I think, honestly, but not bad answers. I think social-- I think Twitter and all the social media folks are going to have way better answers. I can't wait to check them out.

- I'm excited to see, yeah.

- All right.

- Yeah.

- Unfortunately, Jeff and Tina have been gone. But fortunate for us, we've all got to spend some time together. Rebecca, it was great to do the podcast with you and jump on. I know we've worked professionally, but now I feel like--

- This is just--

- --nonprofessional?

- --hanging out, right?

- Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

- This counts. This counts.

- Check. We're friends.

- Yeah.

- [LAUGHS]

- Ethan, always a pleasure. I'll see you--

- Always.

- --this weekend, I'm sure.

- Yes.

- But make sure, all of you, give us a follow. Hit us up over on the Xbox channels from Twitter, to YouTube, to Facebook, to TikTok, to Instagram, and even WhatsApp. Check us out there on the social-verse to stay up with the latest and greatest of all things Xbox and official news. Thanks to Ethan and Rebecca, of course, and I'll-- guess I'll say myself, for joining this podcast. But shout out to our producers and Jeff and Tina for letting us take over the show for this week.

Mom and dad will be back next week, but tell them you loved this show. Tell them you absolutely thought this was one of the best podcasts you've ever listened to.

- Ever, ever.

- But most importantly, thank you to the community in the audience for joining us. We'll see you next week. Have a good day.

[XBOX SOUND]