#02 - Your English Level Is Lower Than You Think – Find Out Before It’s Too Late!

Max Max, unmosed. Blah! Blah! Blah! Blah! We are back! Whoa! Yes, thank you for announcing that. I thought you were just gonna run with the noise thing that we started spontaneously, like, father and son. Your toe to happen, you nervous? No, I'm just excited. Oh! Let's do it then! I have laughed, I have cried, I have lost every game. Taking all I can take, but I'll stay just the same. Because you're all I have, my boy. You are my life, my pride, my joy. And if I stay, I stay because of you, my boy. Welcome to another episode of what's the show called? Talking to my boy about video games. Uh, with my boy, right? And I'm Jonathan, I'm his dad, and I'm old, and he's older than he was. Walking home from school, he was like, you know, kids have real problems. Just like grownups, they're exactly the same in our minds. And he was so insightful in that kids feel like their problems are the same as growing up problems. And their minds is the same, even though technically it's different when you get a B on a test as opposed to, you know, getting fired from your job. Different stakes, but the scale, if you scale them down to a kid's experience, the feeling is the same. And we're going to get in on Ryan's feelings, I guess, about video games or what do you want to talk about, Ryan? Video games. Well, you had some real strong feelings, but Pokemon Snap. You were crying, you were crying, right? With rage. Very serious. You had tears of rage. Very serious game. You were so serious about that game. You were trying to take a picture of the Stelix. It is so hard. People may not know, but new Pokemon Snap, just like the prior one, is a game where you take pictures of Pokemon. And it's a pretty innovative idea to have a game be purely about taking photographs. It is on rails, like a classic on rail shooter, like house of the dead or time crisis. What's time crisis? Time crisis is a game where they're like, you've got to stop the enemy. Blast them now. It seems dumb. It's dumb and fun. You have to put your foot on a pedal in the arcade anyway to duck, and then you let go of the pedal to stand up. But when you duck, you're just not getting shot at, and when you stand up, you're getting shot at. So it's basically two modes. Do something or do nothing. It doesn't totally make sense. So all you need to do is duck, and then you'll be super good at the game. But you can't shoot anyone while you're ducking. So it's just like, what if you weren't playing a video game? Just duck. And then, oh, I'm playing a video game again. I'm getting shot at, and I'm doing shooting. But in Pokemon Snap, you're shooting pictures. You're snapping out pictures on your cam of the different Pokemans. And you are getting that Stelix hard. At least you are trying to. You're crying. It was so hard. And you didn't want to eat until you took a picture of Stelix. You were like, I'll take one bite of tofu. Just one. One bite of noodles. That's it. And I'm like, Ryan, you're hungry. You need to eat more. I'm not eating more. Don't get that Stelix. You are so serious and passionate. And that's great. You know, I'm joking about it a little bit. But I do think it's good that you take things really seriously and want to achieve your goals. I think that's great. And also, you have to be able to listen to old wise people who say you-- Well, only on one position. Only on one condition. What's that? Only listen to old and wise people if they play a ton of video games. Well, I was telling you, Ryan, I played a ton of video games. So I'm not saying video games aren't important. Now I've learned. And I doubt there's anything harder in this game to do. I think the stuff you're doing now, where you have to get a goler, who is a big golem Pokemon to move over in order to open a door. Like, I can't-- I bet it's going to be easier. But here's the thing. I can't really use the orbs to light up the other flowers. Yeah. There's like one near a houndoom, like an evil hellhound Pokemon that you have to light up near a hound. Oh, okay. Hell, let me explain. Oh, sure. The pre-eval version of how doom hell-down, I think? Houndor. Houndor. Yeah. It's kind of like a black and orange dog. Mostly black. It has part of a skull on its head. Mm-hmm. Then there's the evolved version, which is like a canon, except a lot more bone on it. And it's way more violent. Yeah, it looks like that. And then there's also a mega virgin of it. That I didn't know. That has like white fur and a ton of bones on it. I learned it from my book. Oh, cool. Yeah, I don't know as much about mega-evolutions. I fell off Pokemon by then. But Houndor and Houndoom, if I remember correctly, are generation two, which is when it really first got into Pokemon 20 years ago or so. And they look kind of like KK. KK or Dog looks like a little Houndor. I think she's a good dog. She's a good dog. Besides the fact that Houndor has a skull on it. Yeah, if we put a little skull on KK's head, she'd be our little Houndor. We should do that. Yeah. So, anyway, you really fought with me about this. Just let me do it my way. You're crying, Mad. And I-- Although, Dad, honestly, I know that it actually would have been quicker either way because, honestly, it would have been the same amount of time because, like, actually, if I just then grabbed it and started playing. I know, but then you wouldn't have had any motivation to eat. Yeah. And also, you would have just lost, like you did anyway. But you had a chance of winning if you ate first and try to get your blood sugar regulated. And also, you know, that's right. And when you cry and scream for something that's not helpful, I can't teach you that that's how you get what you want by rewarding you and saying, OK, he screamed at me for an hour. So, I guess I got to do it. You know, like, that's not good pairing. So, I had to be like, no, Ryan. You eat your food first. You've already played your video game. Then you can play a little bit more. And you were so mad because you couldn't do it. And then I grabbed the switch light and said, I want to be the very best. And you were like, this Dad is so lame. Why is he singing the Pokemon song? He thinks he's funny. He thinks it's cool. But it lightened the mood. And it made me the loser in my mind. You know, there's only one Pokemon show that I know that actually has that as the theme song. The original one? Pokemon Indigo. Oh. The most original that you can find on anything. It's on Netflix. Good to know. I'll have to look into that. There's so many Pokemon shows. So then I tried to take a picture of this. There's only like 50 episodes. And I know this is off. That's so many. Yeah, but speaking of episodes, I started watching One Piece, which I used to watch. And well, let's just say if you start watching it, you're going to be watching it for a while. Like, there's more than a thousand seasons. Oh, not that. That's not true. There's a thousand seasons probably. Honestly, well, like 100. Trust me, there's a ton of like 70 seasons maybe. That's very possible. So honestly, I look through it. There's tons. Let's finish our Pokemon Snap story. I believe you. You know, you never have to say honestly, because you're a very honest person. That's one of the great things about you. So I got the Stelix glowing and took a picture of it and then gave it to you and said, "You can see what you can do." And you're like, "Doesn't matter anymore. You've already done it for me, Dad. It's no longer my mission." Because we've already beaten this game, you and me. But you want to do it only by yourself now, which is a great sign that you're seeking independence and differentiation from your elders. Yeah. Yeah. But then you took it and you are the one who took the picture that the professor would actually accept and over and over again move over. Yeah. So you did awesome. It was kind of worse, like Dad got the head, but because of what the professor wants us to do. Which is only sparkling ass. Why does he only want that big butt? That's that Stelix butt tail. Well, mostly it doesn't have anything to do with that, but I guess they really want it to be sparkling, like not just glowing normally. Like, it has to be literary particles. It's such weird arbitrary rules. And the one I got was that. You did it. It is just Stelix butt. It's a super good butt picture. And then you also speaking of like arbitrary rules and not knowing what to do, I got a demo for a game called Reanable. And I'm like, "I love scary games. This is by the little nightmares people. He's going to love it." And you're like, "I have no idea what to do. This is boring." And you're like, "People with masks on children? You like children?" So I'm like, "Okay." He's team children. No, it doesn't mean I'm team children. You're kind of team children in general, though. Like, I bought you a Hellboy comic for 30 bucks. And you're like, "He's not a child enough in this. Rejected." What? What? He's looked at. All that it is is that when Hellboy's low, he looks cooler and also he has a way better attitude. Like, it's kind of obvious. Like, I look at Hellboy. He's just like really, really serious. And I think can't he be a little bit better? Or just like, maybe a little bit less serious? And then what I get is Hellboy imagining that people are zombies in skeletons. Yeah, I bought you this. I don't even know the name of it. Hellboy comic. Is it called the Death Castle or something? Well, that's Castle Death is the main thing. Castle Death, yeah, that's right. Castle Death. You showed it to your friends? What they think? Well, I showed the cover. She knows that was good. Although every time I showed to them, I made this out and pointed at the bald guy. At the pink skinned bald guy. Yeah, you have this way of. I'm trying to remember when you started doing this. I think, let's see. How do we get to that? Well, you also, not just for attention, but you, instead of saying, "Oh, look up for this," you just sound in alarm with your mouth closed. You just go, "Uh, uh, uh, uh, you know." It's like. Yeah, that's how it is now. But for a little while, it was like creature alert, creature alert. I'm like, "What's going on?" Really? It's creature alert? Yeah, because you were watching Octonauts. This was like five years ago. And they had creature report. And remember, on Octonauts, you changed it to creature alert. 'Cause you loved it. I also did, also now I do, like, there's another, like, awarding effect that's from Spirvers. Mmm. Oh, that's right. Yeah. That one is honestly just way better. That is a good one. Yeah, the spiderverse soundtrack. And I actually know where the one that's, like, mmm, is from. It's from Among Us. Oh, I didn't know that. Mmm, mmm, mmm, mmm. Interesting. Speaking of Among Us. When it starts off, it's like, mmm. Buh, buh, buh, buh, buh. So. I feel like this is really awkward. I know, it's going great. You had a friend over Freddie. And we offered to have him on the podcast. Yeah. Part of the reason the podcast is a little late this week is because, Ryan's been hanging out with his friends instead of recording the podcast. Yeah. And Eko came over. Freddie came over. A couple days before that. And I was like, Freddie, want to be on the podcast? He said, "No. I don't want anyone to know about me. I don't want anyone to think about me. I don't want to be famous." I'm like, Freddie, you're not going to be that famous. And also? And also? He could also, we could just ask Daniel to edit his voice. We could just ask Daniel to edit his voice. Yeah, but that would be tough for Daniel. And also, like, then the show would be a lot shorter because Freddie is sort of a big talker. So, we'd record for 20 minutes and we'd have to kind of ten of it. And so, any who, Freddie and you were talking to Freddie's dad about this Italian brain rot thing? Yeah. Oh yeah. I'm so excited to get to it. Yeah. Talk about it now, right? So, is Freddie's dad? They are. They are. There are tons of brain rats. But the main are tomb, tomb, tomb, so core, which is a bat that holds a bat. So. So. Wait a minute. I'm sorry. Should I just explain? No, no, no. I love you. But so, you just start, you're the sweet child and you go in on the details first. You're like, there's a blue nose and like, what? On what? Okay, no. On the hog. Like, what hog? I'm sorry. Okay, okay. So, let's give him the big picture first. Okay. But I should start off. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Is a mod in Roblox. Stinks. And it seems like a lot of these, I guess, are AI-generated monsters? Well, not, they're not AI-generated. Which one? Freddie's dad said, though. Look, well, you see the game. The game is an AI-generated, it's QB. But when you look up, like, pictures, when you think of it, it shows AI. Well, what, here's what Freddie's dad, who's an expert, I guess, on this? He said the original characters were created by kids using AI tools, just typing in, like, ugly dog with huge paws and no nose. Daddy, you should have said shrimp with a cat head. You're exactly right. Is that one of the Italian brain rods? A shrimp with a cat head? Yeah. Yeah. Just creating meaninglessness because they are rebelling against their parents that want them to do meaningful things. No, I think that first they were creative, but then they got less creative. So, at first it starts off with, like, tone, tone, tone, the whore, which is, again, a bat that holds a bat. Actually, it just looks like a stick, but he was. It looks like it was a bat. Yeah, it was like a baseball bat. He's supposed to be, he holds a bat, he's supposed to be a baseball bat, but he just looks like a long rectangle. I think he meant like a flying bat with wings. So, he actually banned for a little bit, but then he came back. There's also. Why was he banned? I don't know. So. I think it. My friends say it was too good. So, Ryan, why. Anyway, they put them into roblox and there's like, you can steal other people's. It's called stealer brain rod, is that right? Yes. And you steal each other's brain rod creatures. Yeah, I never thought about the name, but there's like a line and there's different brain rods coming from it. You grab it, I never thought about the stealer part, but you're actually just about stealing things from other people and then they steal stuff from you. So, Freddie's dad, who will remain nameless because he's sort of a well-known video game developer and don't want to speak out of turn about him and comes to stealer brain rods. But he was saying that he feels that this is sort of the equivalent to what we had growing up. And I, is garbage pale kids. So, there are these cards with these disgusting, awful babies on it that look like cabbage badges. Yeah, but they were like a baby whose head is exploding or a baby who's covered in boogers or a baby who's throwing up. And it was really gross and I didn't love them, but I was sort of interested anyway. The reason they were so popular is because kids could rebel against their parents with this and be like, you want me to be polite and have good manners, but instead I'm just going to be gross and weird. And these days, kids are constantly hearing from their parents, don't watch brain rod, don't watch stupid, meaningless YouTube videos. So, now the kids are like, I'm going to create my own meaningless characters with AI with names that make no sense and all of it just seems random. I really know that everybody hates AI. Well, yeah, they should know that. But they got away with it at this time because they did end up creating something sort of interesting with it from what I can tell. Can I, can, can I talk about the brain rod? Yes, right. I'm sorry, I was talking too much. So, there is trial and error, trial and law, and a lot of these, I really don't understand the names. Yeah. That has shoes, honestly, I don't even know how the shoes connect. I guess there's just like weird fins that are just on top of the shoes, but somehow the shoes can still walk. Why, why are these brain rods more interesting to you than like normal monsters, like Pokemon or like the monsters in a video game, you know, like well played beta or something, and they'll be all these monsters. Because they are more famous to kids. So is it because other kids like it that you feel like you should like it or is there something about it that just feels like this was made by kids? No, one thing is it is very addicted. What's a dicting about it? What? You see the game. The playing the game? You see, I played it once and it goes and I was pre-adducted. You see when you start to get brain rods and the brain rods to make you money, and then you never know when you could find a really good brain rods or like wait, wait, wait, I want to see more. And then there's nothing, and then they're like time to go and it's like wait, you never know, let's do it one more. And also, when they're finally done, you see a brain rod and you look at your money and now you have enough money, so then you buy the brain rod. Where do you get money from? The brain rod. You start off with enough money to buy the worst brain rod and I'd say the least creative, New beanie pizza. It's just a roadblock sky with the pizza on his head. Very creative, very, very, very. So it seems like it sucks you in with how stupid and weird it is. Oh, I'm going to laugh at this at how dumb this is and then before you know it. Yeah, so at first you want to see how dumb it is, then you end up just getting sucked into it. Oh, jeez, interesting. And it's only in Roblox for now because no one owns these characters. Hold and place it. I bet he does. Hold and loves video games more than people sometimes. Yeah, and I think that the brain rods, I mean, I don't even know how much more I need to explain. You've done a very good job. We can move on, I think, to another game about one more thing. Please. There's also myths that people make up like the six, six, six, one. Oh, yeah, and I forgot to mention they say that there's a creator of steal a brain rod that's named Sammy. He is like a guy in a red suit that has a spider on his eye. The closest brain rod to that is a Samarini spider reen or something. Oh, jeez, a lot of Samarinis and reenos and ninies and stuff, huh? Mm-hmm. Yeah. So another game you played, I got the demo for Yakuza Kawami, I believe it is. Yakuza. I can't remember. Three. Yakuza. And I can't remember. I used to know about Yakuza. I got the Yakuza games when they first started coming out here on the PS2. So they've gotten to, I haven't kept up. There's like a spinoff called judgment or lost judgment and I know there are RPGs now. So anyway, I think that there's guns. So the thing about the Yakuza Ryan is it's Japanese Mafia, but in Japan they don't think guns are good. It's too much. So they tend to use other weapons more so than guns from what I know, at least in the video games. So you played this video game, it's about. Yeah. Guns are boring. There's a muscle man in a child, right? It's a big guy in a child and there's these guys that keep, I guess, doing something bad to them and then the muscle man follows them. And then he picks a fight with one of them and I guess they have tattoos on their back which brings out powers. Oh. And the muscle guy has a dragon because of course. Honestly, I don't even know why, but that's kind of annoying. With these Japanese things and the good guys, it's always a dragon. Yeah, it's a little played out. Ryu in Street Fighter is just named, that just means dragon and then there's the double dragon. Oh yeah, and so Ryu and I know this keeps getting off topic. That's right. Like, Kiryu is the name of the game. I'm a Ninjago, which honestly doesn't really have to know, there's like dragons. They named one Ryu, but I think it was supposed to be Ryu, but they just pronounced him. Yeah, we all did. It's still America. Ryu? Yeah, we didn't know how to say Ryu growing up. I still attempted to. And before I knew that it was said wrong, I thought, "Whoa, that's a real dragon name." I know, Ryu, it feels right, but it's wrong. So you didn't end up liking that that much. The thing you liked the most out of all the new games we played was Cat 2048. Cat version. What do you like about Cat 2048? A $3 game. What? It's like Puzzmix? You can buy things to get bigger. That's true. So. And bigger. And bigger. Bigger numbers. The actual things this time stay the same, which is just little cat tiles. It looks like a little square cat. You move it around. And if a cat has a 2 on it, you can combine it with another cat that has a 2 on it. And it turns into a 4. Then the 4 cats, you combine those together. Not 4 cats, but 2 cats that have 4s on them can turn into 1 cat that has 8 on them. And then eventually you get to the number 2048 if you don't run out of room. You like that more than re-animal? You like that more than Yakuza? I think you liked it almost as much as Pokemon Snap in a way. What do you think you like about this game? I don't know. Well, one. You're right. Yes? It's not a demo. That's true. It's a full game. That's right. And we're sort of burnt out on dead cells now because it got too hard. And playing a game where every time you play it, it's the same, but different. I think that's your favorite thing. It's not the exact same area every time. But you have to try to do the same things with the same tools. Yeah, and also even if you do the same area, you can try different strategies. And also you can only pick one picture from each Pokemon. So if you learn how to get multiple, then you can do it once. Then the next time you know that now that you've already gone one of one kind of picture and there are stars to write it from one to four. Like if you get a one star, but you also get a two. We're talking about Pokemon Snap. Yeah. I was talking about dead cells in 2048, but it's also true for Pokemon Snap. It's a universal thing you like in video games, which is do the same thing. Have the same relatively simple objective, but have the space you do it in be slightly different every time. So you're interested in the space. You just did a yawn. So you're probably not interested in the podcast anymore. I think we've done a snapier, more freewheeling, but direct and focused episode maybe. Yeah. Is there more than any video games you're looking forward to right? Your plan. Minecraft with Nico for a while there, but it seems like you've dropped off that little bit. You can update. Well, mostly it's just in a way I got kind of bored, so now I'm playing my own world. Well, that's good. And the first day I quickly made a house and now I just hide in there every morning. And then right when I see this guy starting to get dark, I run into my house and then save him quit. And then when I go back on, I just wait again. Wait until daytime. Yeah. I'm curious. It's terrifying. There's the new Resident Evil game is coming out this month and also the new game by the creator of Travis Touchdown. It's called Romeo is a dead man. That's coming out this month, but it's only on computers, Xbox series, X and S and also. Is it from the Prince thing that has a prince and a princess Romeo, Romeo? Where are you? Well, I didn't know there were princesses and princes in Romeo and Juliet. I don't know much about it, but it is there might be it is going to be a tragic love story of some kind. But the thing about it is the creator of Travis Touchdown suit a 51. He made a game you played a little bit of with me where a girl with a chainsaw attacks zombies. Remember? Yeah, that one. And her name is Juliet. So I feel like he was playing off that because that was one of his most famous games. And be like, now I'm introducing Romeo. And it'll be just as good as that Julia game. And he's already said that the game is like that kid in school who's not getting very good grades. But he's always saying something funny. But he also makes you angry all the time. It's shameless. Yeah, so he's saying this game is like the shameless of video games. He's like, it's not the best game. It's not going to get the best grades. It's not even out yet. And he's already telling people like, get ready for it to be sort of badly made at times. But it's going to surprise you and make you laugh. That doesn't really convince people to buy it. I'm buying it. Right? It worked on me 100%. He's being honest and direct about his game and not trying to lie to me and tell me it's something it's not. He's telling me, hey, we ran out of money or we didn't have enough money to make this as good as we wanted. But it's pretty wild. It's not like anything else you're playing this year. So I'm buying it day one. I just need to find someone to, I'm not buying a PS5, no matter what the world tells me to do. Well, PS5. I'm not doing it. So I'm going to go to my friend Sean's house probably and play it in his house. What? I don't like PS5 mostly. Actually, I don't have, well, I don't like PS5 or Xbox. Yeah, well, it's just because you don't, it's my fault. I got pretty, well, how's it your fault? Because I've been like, we've got Nintendo systems. I've got Nintendo games. I've just kind of brought you up with Nintendo. We have a PS4 and a PS3 hooked up to different TVs. So I like PlayStation just fine. PS3, I won't say it's that good, but PS4, I mean, I'd say it's, um. It's got some good games. Final Fantasy VII Remake on there. You like that? Yeah, it's pretty good. I mean, you can play discs on it. There's the Green Frog game. Green. Carol Blaster. That's true. Green Frog game. All those games are also on Switch 2. I do feel like the PS4 other than the exclusive games made by Sony. And I haven't really gotten into a game made by Sony in a little while. But most of the best PS4 games are now on Switch 2. You know, I told Nico about this podcast and guess what he thought that we were going to do. He said, are you going to do Sonic Racing? What? He was like, well, what about Sonic Racing? When you can talk about Sonic Racing, I don't have that. I don't think it's that important at all. You know, it's like, Huck? Um. Well, none of it's important. It's all just Sonic Racing. It's not too popular. I don't know. I'm not really into Sonic games. You used to be, I bought you a Sonic game for Christmas, and you're like, pass. It looks fun though, but you should play this. Sonic generations shadow edition or whatever it's called. All right, Ryan. I guess we did all right. We got a little off track at the end. This often happens. I try to end the podcast and then just talk a little bit more about one last idea. Because I love it. Yeah, I love it. Well, did you have fun recording this one, Ryan? You did very good as usual. I'm trying to be a nicer, less condescending, less annoying dad. That's my goal. Well, less annoying. Yeah. Honestly, sometimes I like it when you're annoying. What? Thank you. Why? What? Sometimes when people are annoying, it's kind of fun. I don't have to say that, but thank you. And I love you, Ryan. I think you're great. You're getting better and better on the show all the time. And at the very least, it might be fun for people to go back and listen to how far Ryan's come over the past. You're going to have for so that he's been doing the show. It's been longer than that. How long do you think you've been doing this, Ryan? I can remember. I remember on Spotify that I learned that there was, oh yeah, and I forgot to mention. My told Nico, like on Iron Mike Sharp, the part of the podcasts, I mentioned Nico. Yeah, you told Nico. Nico and I showed it. Well, this was the, well, that was the most clearly. Yeah. And then I showed it to him. I liked it. We know he was his last name. People don't know where we live. And then I just told his parents, your son Nico was on a podcast that thousands of people listened to. Was he on it? No, but in a way, he was pretty clearly mentioned. Yeah, we do mention him, but nobody, thankfully, nobody's tracking people down based on whether they got mentioned on the podcast. And also, Shameless asked me to mention him. Oh, yeah. Written for you, Shameless. Yeah. You are the Romeo, it's a dead man of children. You're the children version of Studio 51's new game. So good luck. And I guess that's it. Thanks so much for listening, everyone. We love you to bits. New comics going out to Patreon backers written by Zoe Handley. So that's fun. Got the new Nintendo Forest. I drew and colored in and wrote a really weird comic that's going to be the next Nintendo Forest too. So check that out if you want. I don't know what to think about it myself, but it's done. And just live in my life. It's a struggle. But I love it. And. Goodbye! Goodbye! Bye! Talking to my boy about video games is hosted by Jonathan and Ryan, with editing and production by Daniel. Music by Richard Harris and Daniel. You can support the show and get exclusive bonuses on Patreon at patreon.com/TTWAV And you can follow us on Blue Sky at TTWAV.BeeSky.Social. Thanks for listening.