Silver vinyl pants, ghosting on a One Wheel GT, and early NES memories. Join Joseph and Willie as they interview Taylor about his experience with video games.
Silver vinyl pants, ghosting on a One Wheel GT, and early NES memories. Join Joseph and Willie as they interview Taylor about his experience with video games.
In this episode, we focus on Taylor's gaming experience and interests. Willie reminisces about Taylor's fashion choices in high school, and Taylor remembers getting an NES for Christmas in 1985. We also chat about classic games like Karnov and Kid Niki and laugh about techniques for Track & Field on the NES. Taylor breaks down riding a Onewheel GT, life on the ranch, and losses in the crypto space. We wrap by chatting about recently played games and the cost of games versus subscription-based services like GamePass.
The games briefly mentioned in this episode: Super Mario Bros, Duck Hunt, Karnov, Kid Niki: Radical Ninja, Super Scope 6, Track & Field, Surviving Mars, Myst, Warcraft, Final Fantasy 7, Vigor, Elden Ring, Cyberpunk 2077, Horizon Zero Dawn, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge, Destiny 2, Atomicrops, Assassins Creed Valhalla, Smash TV, and Stardew Valley.
Here's the full transcript for this episode.
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00:00:00
[Alienated by ELFL plays in background]
Taylor: Dude, Jace and Clayton used to come over and we had some heated ass tournaments where-and nobody played correctly, right? It would be one dude on the power pad, like pounding away. Just stupidly, like with somehow their-their heels and their fists on the same things–
Joseph: Yeah [laughs]
Taylor: – and then another person with a pen on a controller, raking it –
Joseph: Oh wow! [laughs]
Taylor: – as fast as they could. And like, you could never beat the pen, dude. The pen was just like fucking the flash on there. It was just…I mean that dude named Leopard just quit. He literally quit the fucking game.
[Intro theme plays - Tiger Tracks by Lexica]
00:00:53
Joseph: Welcome to Berries and Blades, a show where we analyze and breakdown some of our favorite video games. This is our very first episode and we're excited to finally launch this podcast.
My name is Joseph Bullard, and I'm here with my friends Willie Garza and Taylor Garratt. Together, the three of us are going to be your hosts, and I can promise you we're not professional gamers. We're just three regular guys sitting in our bedroom studios arguing about which color Doritos Tortilla chip deserves the title of the one true OG Dorito but I digress. So how's it going, Willie? Do you have any thoughts you want to share?
Willie: Yeah, I'm just glad to be here, excited to finally record this thing we've been talking about for a little while and just, you know, hang out, talk about video games for a little while. Uh, and maybe even debate the uh…debate the whole tortilla chip, the Doritos thing but uh, I'm just excited to see where this goes.
Joseph: Taylor, what about you? What are you looking forward to?
Taylor: Uh, I am also always down to talk about video games, and um…I will try to sway your opinions on Doritos and try to get you out of that realm completely and into the world of delicious tortilla chips, you know from your local bakery, get away from that processed Dorito dust. That's how the government gets you, bro.
00:02:09
Joseph: Word. I can't wait to find out what kind of shenanigans we're going to get into. Until then, we want to help everybody out there, get to know us a little as gamers. So we're starting the show with a three-part series where we're going to ask each other about their history with gaming and part one is going to be focused on you, Taylor. So why don't we start with you talking about how long you've been friends with Willie?
00:02:30
Taylor: Ooh…um, I’ve known Willie for a long ass time. Uh, probably since, I think like midway through junior high or, or maybe the end of junior high beginning of high school kind of in that, in that era.
Um, started seeing Willie, you know, around school and shit and found we were interested in all kind of the same stuff and he was always like playing some cool music and um, hanging out with some mutual buds of ours and then we kind of uh...stuck together when we both moved to Austin and he went to school and I kind of just loitered around the city, I guess [laughs] for a little bit, while he and our other friends were going to school?
But we really got into gaming. Really threw down on like some original Halo doing the XB Connect, like the old school tunneling across the Internet with people and tea bagging people in China or whatever was important back then. [laughs]
Joseph: You nasty.
00:03:33
Taylor: Yeah, yeah but um, yeah so we've known each other for a long ass time. And we've been playing games pretty much most of that.
Joseph: So, you said high school, right? End of junior high, beginning of high school?
Taylor: Yeah, I think so, Willie? If I'm not uh, if I'm not mistaken.
Willie: Yeah, I mean, I think that's when we started to like, know about each other. We went to a small school so like, everybody knew each other, but um we definitely had a lot of mutual friends going to the end of junior high, into high school.
I don't think there's, like many times, that we like hung out during high school or anything. But again, you knew everybody. But we crossed paths.
Joseph: Uh-huh.
Taylor: Yeah, so we crossed paths
Joseph: Oh, so y’all weren't that close?
Willie: No –
Taylor: No
Willie: – I mean, not really, no. It was just a lot of mutual friends though, cause like we each had, like similar groups of friends.
Taylor: And Willie was always doing cool shit. Like I was saying he’s playing music, but he, they was also in like this group of my friends that were like into wrestling that I never knew about.
00:04:30
Joseph: I was hoping this would go there. [laughs]
Taylor: Yeah. Until one day, like I go over to their house and they're like, “hey, man, we got a wrestling ring set up,” and uh, I don't remember if Willie was there that time over Brandon's. Over at the Sweetens. Um, they were, they were all into that stuff, but uh, that was kind of the point where I was like, OK, these, this dudes into some cool shit and then yeah, later on.
00:04:51
Willie: I don't know why that…this is what I always think of, but um, one of our mutual friends was a, a guy named Ed, and uh for some reason what I do have a vivid memory of in high school is Taylor wearing Ed’s, like vinyl pants to school one day. It's very shite, uh, very shiny, like bright [laughs] –
Joseph: Shite!
Taylor: [laughs]
Willie: – very like shiny –
Taylor: It was…shite.
Willie: – Uh, [laughs] It really was, uh, shiny like –
Joseph: This sounds ridiculous.
Willie: – black vinyl pants to school and maybe –
Joseph: Badass.
Willie: – he wore it with –
Taylor: Silver –
Willie: Were they…okay –
Taylor: – Mine were silver shiny and Ed’s were black, shiny, like straight up.
Willie: – and he wore, he wore his I can't really exactly remember, but he wore his with, with a bodysuit, like a surfing bodysuit, right, did you have one too?
Taylor: No, no, I went straight up –
Joseph: For Halloween?
[laughter]
Taylor: – shiny silver…No, it wasn’t. This was for no reason –
Joseph: This was just a regular ass day?
Willie: This was just a regular ass day.
Taylor: – yeah regular ass day. Like uh, I-I had a silver, like silky, kind of shiny shirt and a silky shiny pants. And that was, that was what we were doing that day. I think that was Senior year. So we were getting goofy with it.
Joseph: Jesus, this isn't even the 80s, this is like what year?
Taylor: Oh man. Oh yeah if you’d have caught me in the 90s you just see me wearing fucking hammer pants–
Joseph: [laughs]
Taylor: –and like all kinds of dumb shit dude, trust me.
Willie: This was like ‘99, 2000, for sure.
Taylor: OK. Yeah, yeah. Later, yes, yes, that…this is on the ass end of that.
Willie: Yeah. um –
Taylor: Yeah.
Joseph: …you just straight up ready for Y2K.
Willie: – I thought about it because –
Taylor: I got rolled over.
Willie: I-I thought about it because it was…Ed was one of those people who was one of the wrestlers –Yep – like, that's uh…his trampoline was also a place that uh, a lot of wrestling happened.
Taylor: Yeah, probably some fucking broken arms and some good times. Yeah, Ed was a character.
Joseph: At that time, there was both…is that when there was a WCW and WWF happening?
Taylor: Uh, that was WWF–
Willie: yeah
Taylor: –and WWE, maybe? Or what was that…that was previous, that was prior to WWE?
Joseph: That's gotta be way…that's gotta be before WWE.
Taylor: Oh, okay, dang.
Willie: Yeah, it was still when it was WWF, and WCW was on. Yeah for sure. But–
Taylor: OK, well, admittedly I don't watch a lot of wrestling so.
Willie: –Yeah, so it was like. Yeah, there was that whole thing. We'll get into that later during my episode because that's…that's…that's a whole thing.
[Joseph laughs]
Taylor: [laughs] Oh yeah. Yeah.
00:07:09
Willie: Yeah, but we had a lot of mutual friends like that, that would cross over and that was kind of the extent of it, I would say. It was like as, as Taylor said, when we got to Austin. Taylor came, as far as I know later, like I…then-then I did. And one day he came over to our apartment, and then it was like, well, shit, now we're best friends, –
[Taylor laughs]
Willie: –and now we're hanging out all the time. Like–
Taylor: yeah
Willie: –it just became, Taylor was over all the time and played a lot of Halo at that time.
Joseph: Uh-huh.
Taylor: And other shit. Like, I think some Metal Gear Solid, we might have gotten into or like, whatever games were tough at the time. We were always down to like kind of tackle them together and, and trade off or whatever if, if it just sucked as a single player but…Yeah, we united through gaming and then ever since we've just been…just kind of like no matter where one of us ends up, um…that's, that's how we keep in touch. It's just like playing whatever, whatever new hotness is out. Just jamming on it.
00:08:15
Joseph: So how long have you been playing video games period?
Taylor: Um, so, since 1985, I think is whenever we got, um…got the Nintendo.
Joseph: That's really specific. [laughs]
Taylor: Yeah, yeah. Well I…I had to look it up because I was, I remembered getting the uh, the Nintendo the year they came out and when I got it on Christmas. And uh, so I had to go back and look and…cause to me it felt like it was more like 88,89. But um, it said they hit the US in 85, so that's…Far as I can tell, I think that's, that's where I would have begun the journey, if that's, if that came out with Mario and Duck Hunt on it then, that's the one.
Willie: So you said you got it at Christmas. Is that sort of your first video game memory or did you play anything before that?
Taylor: No, that was…that was my first video game ever. Like I had never even seen a video game. Before that, I think the Christmas before I got a big ass He-Man castle with like, a couple of He-Man figurines.
Willie: Hell yeah.
Taylor: You know, I was still into that stuff and then uh…and then yeah it…I don't think I even knew what the Nintendo was. Like my parents just straight up got it. I opened the box, was like, “What the fuck is this? [laughs]
[Joseph laughs]
Taylor: Like what cartoon character am I looking at here? Is this from…” you know? I don't know. But yeah, open it up. Plugged it in and got my ass some Mario and like never turned back, the shit just…was an immediate addiction. But yeah, that was a…that was an amazing…that's probably one of my fondest Christmas memories is just like sitting there playing with my…with my sister and, you know, seeing like graphics for the first time. And-and like playing that kind of like 2D adventure and…
Willie: I sort of can't imagine what that would be like actually for the first I-I have to think about that myself later, like not even knowing what a video game is and just being like, “who is this cartoon character?” Like…just thinking it's some knockoff thing. Like you don't–
Taylor: Yeah.
Willie: –You don't know how important that character's going to be in the future. You don't even know anything about it. You’re just like, “this is…do you uh...where did you get this thing? Like…
Taylor: Yeah, exactly, man, exactly. It was. It was mind-blowing. And I think, I think that was really my portal into everything. Like I'm into gaming, and music, and you know 3D design, and animation and stuff. And I feel like all of that is…probably links back to a love for gaming and like trying to reproduce um…something that's that cool in, in some form or fashion.
00:10:59
Willie: Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Thinking back to that first console, what sort of games were you playing? Like, what are the, the classics, or what you remember playing most? Did you get…did you get a bunch at once or was it just like something you just wore out?
Taylor: It started with Mario and Duck Hunt. I remember that, and that lasted a while because Duck Hunt, I probably for like a year straight…I could switch those back and forth, you know, cause the dog was so fucking entertaining to me, I remember as a kid. Just the whole [singing] “diddly, diddly, dit,” or whatever noise it made, whenever you like, missed and he popped out and was like, “Woof, Woof, Woof.”
But eventually…so my mom worked at a flower shop that was right next door to a game rental store in Brazoria. So basically I'd go stay with her at work and as a reward I would go over and get to like, choose one game. And so I was kind of at the mercy of what they had. Um, so they had, like, I remember they had some normal stuff, but they also got all kinds of weird shit. Like they were one of those rare stores that got anime, like you could get Macross there and stuff, and back in the 80s. Like that was crazy, to even consider, to a lot of people anyways.
Joseph: What was the name of this store? You're talking about a game…a store you went to, to rent games from, right?
Taylor: Yeah, I think it was called Videos To Go.
Joseph: Perfect.
Taylor: If I'm not it, but I…but that could also be conflated…because it, it's…Who knows but um…I just remember I would get weird ass games and I like those. Like I've played games that…like nobody else would even know about. Karnov was a big one that I was into. Did y’all ever play that one?
Joseph: No –
Taylor: Karnov
Joseph: –what did you say?
00:12:42
Taylor: It’s Karnov. I think it's with a–
Joseph: Karnov.
Taylor: –K ,K-a-r-n-o-v. So it was about a circus man. Like a circus, strong man who…it was a 2D uh platformer, where he would like blow fire out and it…it was hard man, it…to me it was just as hard as like Ghosts and Ghouls, or anything else.
Joseph: Oh my gosh.
Taylor: Yeah, yeah, exactly. Maybe, maybe not quite that hard, but it was pretty fucking close. Like, I never made it to the later levels, it was just one of those games that, that was a fucking pipe dream. But that was a cool one. um, I was…I was always playing just some weird abstract-Kid Niki, did y'all ever heard of…hear that game? Like that was one of my jams.
Willie: I have.
Taylor: Oh, dude, I love that game and I…I think it was because like early on I would get anime from that, from the rental store and so that probably like led me in some weird ass directions as far as…I don't know. You know, just like, hey, here's a…here's a cool like Japanese…like anime looking game where a dude floats on a cloud or whatever. Just interesting, different shit. And I'm…I'm glad that it happened that way–
Joseph: Uh-huh.
Taylor: –because now I feel like I'm less confined to genre, or art, or anything specific. Like if it…if it plays good and it speaks to me, I love it.
Joseph: I like the box art for Kid Niki. It reminds me of–
Taylor: Oh, yeah.
Joseph: –a game that I'll talk about uh…in a later episode called, Legend of the Mystical Ninja.
Taylor: Ooh, I don’t…
Joseph: It reminds me of that. –
Taylor: Sounds familiar.
Joseph: –At least the box art does.
Taylor: Hmm, that sounds very familiar. Maybe after I see the…see the game itself, I might recall it. I played a shit ton of Nintendo games. Um…and all through SNES and Sega everything so I may have played it.
00:14:33
Joseph: Did you have Super Scope 6 or…?
Taylor: That was like a…was that like the first kinda, or an early on kind of first person…shooter style game or I don't…I don't remember that one.
Willie: No, that…I think that was um…that was an evolution of the, you know, the light gun from the–
Joseph: Uh-huh
Willie: –Nintendo–
Taylor: Oh
Willie: –That was the like…Super Nintendo version with the–
Taylor: Was that the one that had like a fucking bazooka. [laughs]
Willie: Yeah, yeah
Joseph: Yeah, yeah.
[laughter]
Taylor: I love that, like at what point you know, would they have kept going with that evolution and just made a fu…[laughs] a light sword and li…[laughs]
00:15:10
Joseph: What I shoulda asked is, did you have a Power Glove?
Taylor: I did. I did have a fucking power glove, yes. And how often did I use it in a game, in Nintendo? Maybe 20 minutes. How often did I use it in everyday life? Probably hundreds of hours. [laughs] I fucking loved that thing and I would just wear it. I would...it was always like a key component in my playing pretend. You know if I was like playing I'm a time traveler, like clearly you could just press the buttons on that shit and go anywhere you wanted like…oh yeah. Hell yeah, dude. Power glove. That was…that was good. I even had the power pad at one point.
Joseph: Oh, sure, yeah.
Willie: That's what I was going to ask about. Did you have, like, the Track and Field game and the Power Pad?
Taylor: Oh man dude, Jace–
Joseph: Oh, that's great.
00:15:55
Taylor: –and Clayton used to come over and we had some heated ass tournaments where-and nobody played correctly, right? It would be one dude on the Power Pad, like pounding away. Just stupidly like with somehow their-their heels and their fists on the same things–
Joseph: Yeah [laughs]
Taylor: –and then another person with a pen on a controller, raking it–
Joseph: Oh wow! [laughs]
Taylor: –as fast as they could. And like, you could never beat the pen, dude. The pen was just like fucking the flash on there. It was just…I mean that dude named Leopard just quit. He literally quit the fucking game.
Joseph: Wait, did you say somebody's name…somebody's name was Leopard.
Taylor: Yeah, oh yeah, that was one of the…one of the characters on Track and Field. Sorry, I didn’t mention–
Joseph: Oh wow.
Taylor: –the name of the field. But yeah, it's like Cheetah–
Joseph: I did not remember that.
Taylor: Or maybe…I thought they had cat names or something. One was Cheetah, and one was…
Joseph: Oh, they're like Mac OS's from back in the day,
Taylor: Yeah.
[Taylor and Joseph laugh]
Willie: I can't remember.
Taylor: Coming up, El Capitan [laughs] slow as fuck because he’s a mountain.
[laughter]
Taylor: Uh, it's true.
00:16:56
Joseph: I forgot about the pen raking man, that's great that you brought that up–
Taylor: Dude [makes the sound of a pen raking across plastic buttons]
Joseph: –I forgot about those kinds of…like strategies.
Taylor: Oh my God, dude.
Willie: Yeah, cause I'm trying to think when I would have first...first, even thought about that. I didn't own Track and Field. I did play it at a friend's house.
Taylor: It was super fucking niche like you [laughs] you had to–
Joseph: Yeah [laughs]
Taylor: –have a friend that was like, “play me at some track and field,” otherwise, why? Why would you ever have it?
Joseph: Yeah, is there any other game that, that would be a good strategy for?
Taylor: Yeah, there's been a couple.
Joseph: I can't think of anything.
Taylor: There's been a couple and it worked on Xbox controllers and stuff but it...the thing is, as you get older and you start paying for your own controllers, you're like, “I'm not going to do this–
Joseph: Yeah
Taylor: –because I'm gonna wear like...I'm literally hitting the A's and B buttons, 2000 times in barely, you know, you start thinking about shit uh…more from like a engineering and like a, a risk management perspective, I guess [laughs]
Joseph: Uh-huh
Taylor: …than you did when you were a kid.
Joseph: So many NES controllers, just getting beat up.
Taylor: Uh-huh. Nintendo don't mind, they will sell you another one.
Willie: I am glad you brought that up because…yeah, I'm gonna have to do some thinking off offline. About what other…I definitely have used it in other games for sure on newer consoles, but I don't know when I would have been introduced to that technique, and I don't necessarily remember doing it for Track and Field.
Taylor: Oh man, if you ever get a chance to like…if you've never seen anybody do it in Track of…Track and Field that'd be a great video to pull up sometime cause it's comical. Like the dude just takes off out of the gates, never stops. Just [makes sound effect of buttons being tapped quickly] just fucking $1,000,000 man on these fools. It was legit.
Joseph: Nice, that was a nice uh wrestling, unintentional wrestling reference you just made there.
Taylor: Oh yeah, my bad. Yeah, Ted DiBiase.
Joseph: Mr. I don't know anything about wrestling.
Taylor: He’s so fast, yeah. He’s so fast as he walks around in the ring and woo’s. Oh, that's Ric Flair. So yeah. So I'm back to not knowing.
00:18:57
Joseph: W-When we were talking about the Power Glove, you were talking about wearing it for most of life–
Taylor: Yeah [laugh]
Joseph: –what about cosplay? Did you ever dress up as a video game character for any Halloween?
Taylor: Surprisingly no. Like, I probably wanted to for decades, but the closest I got was um…in Austin, we…we had a kind of a span of three to five years where we went to a bunch of cool…uh costume parties and um, we're like, oh shit, this is, this can be really fun and cool and um, I for a couple of years I think I was going as like a ninja.
And then one year I went as Death and I guess technically, you know, Death has been in some, some video games here and there so…but naw not, not intentionally like I always wanted to…I always thought it was cool as shit to like, go into a place dressed up as like a Spartan, you know a Halo Spartan, so I, I fucked around with trying to put a helmet together at some point. Um, using pepakura, paper and hot gluing it, and I got about halfway through it to the point that I had like the outline of a nice Halo helmet, and it was all paper and glue, and that was as far as I went with it. So that lasted about a year. You know, I'd wear it periodically around the house.
Joseph: Nice.
Taylor: Yeah, but I never went the full… I-I still want to one day. But at this point I-I feel like it would be cooler almost to come up with a really cool character to go cosplay as, like if you were going to Con or something like that. For me anyways.
Willie: You talking about that help-helmet reminded me. I think that we…we moved with that helmet a couple of times.
Taylor: Yeah, it stayed with us a bit. Yeah, it was not something that I was…you know, it was something…
Joseph: Oh, so, like it really hung around.
Willie: Yeah, yeah.
Taylor: Yeah, yeah, well, you know, some people like…you got to wear it during intimate times or whatever. It’s uh–
[Joseph chuckles]
Taylor: Uh…go on though. [laughs] What were we talking about? Let’s uh…
[Joseph laughs]
Taylor: Just kidding…
Willie: It's funny ‘cause I have a…I have a timeline in my head of all that, ‘cause that was when you were living over off of like 183.
Taylor: Yeah, oh yeah, yeah. Yeah, up North.
Willie: Balcones Woods or whatever. Somewhere…I think–
Taylor: Yep.
Willie: –that might have been that place. And then we moved up, a little further up 183 and we moved it there and then we moved it whenever we moved to Leander. So it stayed with us for like, four years, four or five years it was hanging around the house.
Taylor: That sounds about right. And it-it made it here too. It made it through Eric's uh...well, actually, maybe it never made it past Eric’s. So yeah, yeah, it's…it made it a good stint though, and that's saying a lot for paper that was shaped into something and then hot glued together,
Joseph: Uh-huh.
Willie: Yeah.
Joseph: You must have done a decent job of crafting it, if it was like surviving all these moves.
Taylor: It was dope, man. Like I-I wanted it to be a badass helmet, it's just I'm also lazy. Like there's this cross section where [laughs] the line moves sometimes…
Joseph: I'm not making this again.
Taylor: Yeah [laughs] I'm not making this again, but I'm also not continuing making this so…
00:21:54
Joseph: I'm-I'm curious because I don't know, or at least I don't remember, did you move to Austin at the same time?
Taylor: …as Willie?
Joseph: Yeah, the two of you.
Taylor: Naw, he moved up to go to school and I think they were…they were going to school for maybe a couple of years–
Willie: Yeah.
Taylor: –and I was kicking it around back here waiting tables, and doing drugs, and all that shit. And uh finally, I was like, I'm not going to go anywhere, hanging out here, so ended up getting closer to them. I don't, I think it was…slightly inadvertently, but Willie's roommates, I was already friends with uh…one or two of them…um, so it, it just naturally occurred that we, we kind of merged lives.
00:22:39
Joseph: I couldn't quite figure out...I was thinking to myself like, “when did I meet Taylor?” I don't remember the first time we met. Willie, if you had to guess, what year would you say that I could have met Taylor in?
Taylor: Huh?
Joseph: I'm guessing, I'm guessing it'd have to be like after 2013.
Willie: Yeah, for sure. It uh, would have been like 2015, 2016. I think that Taylor came up to Skee-Ball, like one night or something.
Taylor: Right.
Joseph: Mm…
Taylor: Skee-Ball…
Willie: And that would be the first possible instance and then.
Joseph: Yeah, I think you're right.
Willie: And then honestly, it wasn't until like…that would have been the first, like just meeting–
Joseph: Uh-huh
Willie: –and then, well, no, it would have been… Taylor played D&D with us for my birthday and that was 2015, I think, when we started that game.
Taylor: That might have been the first time unless I met you in passing or something.
Willie: It-it would have been in passing, I think before that just briefly. But then the first time we actually all hang out, hung out–
Joseph: Uh-huh.
Willie: –would have been for D&D on my birthday, and like, and I think that started in like 2015.
Joseph: Uh-huh. That's the earliest memory I could actually pin down was being in that–
Taylor: Yeah.
Joseph: –in that apartment and playing D&D. I think you're right though that–
Taylor: Eating some ‘za.
Joseph: –Yeah. It was maybe at one of the Skee-Ball nights. I think woulda been the first time. I think you're right.
Taylor: Yeah, but it's always, you know how it is when you meet somebody at like a loud event, that’s…stuff's happening. But I…you may be right, because I-I feel like I met you and Meg that night at–
Joseph: Uh-huh,
Taylor: –at that event. Ok.
Joseph: And that probably would have happened.
Taylor: Yeah, yeah, yeah…so it's been a while, man. It's been a while. It's crazy to think that it's 2022 now and that…um, you know, our Supreme Overlord is Zarg from the Zentork planet–
[Joseph laughs]
Taylor: –and uh, so…[in radio announcer voice] We're going to take a break, uh for our sponsor, Zarg and family. [in a normal voice] Uh…naw I'm just kidding. We'll…we'll pick up sponsors as we go, you know.
00:24:38
What do you want to…you want to know about the Onewheel you want–
[Willie chuckles]
Taylor: –to ask about a Onewheel and see what that shit–
Joseph: I am curious about that. Did you ever answer that text?
Taylor: Um, so I figured I'd talk about it here like I figured it would be–
Joseph: Oh…
Taylor: –more interesting. So we don't…[laughing]yeah. um. So I bought this thing about a week ago. I got the Onewheel GT, which is like their…the most badass model that you can get, which I have to, because I'm big, you know, I'm 220ish pounds and you don't want to be on the pint. You know, the one that like…you're right on the top of the threshold, and I'm riding it around on a grass farm. So it's um…it's not something that I can skimp with really but…uh, so I've been loving it.
Uh, I ride the shit out of that thing. I've been making laps around the front yard and the backyard of the house…um because we live on a big grass farm like I mentioned and…so when you bail, it's not the most pain ever and you don't get road rash and stuff. You can pretty much pull a good bail and not hurt yourself at all. Um…repeatedly.
Joseph: Yo, know what the fuck are we even talking about right now [laughs]
Taylor: Right, right.
Joseph: First of all, what is a grass farm?
Taylor: A grass farm dude, is basically where if you live out in the country and you have some space, you can um—
Joseph: Call it a grass farm.
Taylor: Well, you can–
[Joseph chuckles]
Taylor: Yeah, but um, technically you plant a grass, like a Saint Augustine, that's like a real healthy, hardy grass–
Joseph: Mm.
Taylor: –and the only way you can grow Saint Augustine–
Joseph: Oh…
Taylor: –it doesn't grow by seed, is by having a piece of Saint Augustine–
Joseph: Right, right.
Taylor: –and having it in your yard so…um, so anyways, it's like thick and lush. Basically there's a good two to three inch layer of thick nice grass, that if you land on it may scrape you a teeny bit, but otherwise it's fucking, a pillow.
00:26:20
So great for riding something like this 20 mph, which I haven't gone over 13, and at 13 I hit a hole in the fucking yard and totally ate shit–
Joseph: Game over.
Taylor: –Yeah, [laughs] like and it's funny because when you do, in the front yard and you live on a highway, people are driving by. And if you eat shit, boy, the cars slow down and they sure do wait to see if you're alive or not, which is cool. [laughs] I enjoy that.
But, I found out yesterday when I went down a Reddit rabbit hole about Onewheels just trying to look at cool shit, I saw that there's a thing called ghosting, where evidently some of the front…so when you get on one, the thing that like is the safety unlocking mechanism is when you lay your front foot across the front of the board. It sets off two sensors, one for the back, one for the front, like your heel and your toes. And for it to go, both have to be done. But evidently when this ghosting happens, both stay, even though you took your foot off.
And so you get this, like 35 mile an hour ballistic missile that weighs almost 40 pounds. That's go…just hauling ass perfectly stabilized. And um…so yeah, now I've got this horrifying fear. I'm glad I found it though, because I was acting silly with that shit. I was just like doing circles around Rebecca the other day and like riding, right by the dog and all kinds of shit, but um… Yeah…so evidently, like if anything happens to me, just know that Onewheel is responsible.
[laughs]
Joseph: Uh-huh.
Taylor: I don't know about legally, but morally, for sure.
Joseph: I didn't realize they could go that fast.
Taylor: Yeah, dude. Neither did I until I started looking at the page when I was going to buy one and I was like, yeah, well, I'm for sure gonna buy it now–
[Joseph laughs]
Taylor: –but evidently people have said they've gotten up to like, 23 to 25 miles an hour but…If you overdo it, it has safety mechanisms in place where it'll like try to slow you down or it might just stop altogether–
Joseph: Uh-huh
Taylor: –and fucking send you hurling so.
Joseph: How do you accelerate and…and brake?
Taylor: Leaning. You uh–
Joseph: So leaning, like leaning forward and backward?
Taylor: –So like, yeah, if you imagine you're standing tur-totally straight on top of it, just perfectly straight up, you barely shift your shoulder one way or the other and you go. And the harder you shift your shoulder, the harder you go and it's–
Joseph: Uh-huh.
Taylor: –honestly, it's the most fucking magical feeling I've ever felt in my life. Like it is the…I've never imagined that I would feel like I was on a-a magic carpet. It's like a magic carpet or like Biff’s fucking skateboard from uh–
[Joseph laughs]
Taylor: –I'm not. I'm not even bullshitting.
Joseph: Back to the Future II
Taylor: Because it's so like big and, like rugged looking, too, that when you're riding it, you're like, this is fucking how Biff would feel if he was riding his skateboard, in what was it, 2010? Was that when that was? Or 2000? The year that was supposed to–
Willie: It was 2018.
Taylor: Oh, 2018. OK, OK. Not, not bad.
Willie: Right?
Joseph: That sounds right.
Taylor: It doesn't float, but…
Joseph: It feels good.
Taylor: It feels like it, dude. It feels like it. And it…every car that goes by and sees you, they slow down. They're like, “is this person surfing in his front yard? I think he is. I'm just gonna watch this until he crashes."
Joseph: They're driving by like," yo, that grass is lush."
Taylor: [mimicking yelling] Lush! [In normal voice] Yeah. I'm probably like, I'm probably the best promotional tool ever, for both grass and Onewheels as I'm just flying through there.
00:29:49
Willie: I, uh, I've been quiet and distracted cause I'm over here looking at ghosted, ghosting Onewheel videos... [laughs] –
[Taylor laughs]
Willie: –on YouTube.
Taylor: Oh, do-don't do it, man. If you're seeing, there's one man where it goes across a parking lot and slams into a SUV.
Joseph: Ooh.
Taylor: Oh man. That's –
Joseph: They gotta be pretty weighty, right? Did you say it was about 40 pounds?
Taylor: That's why I said almost 40 pounds. I think it's –
Joseph: Damn.
Taylor: –like somewhere between 35 and 38 pounds. It's, so...if you imagine like the physics of that, if it's going, because without, with a rider it does 20 to 23 or whatever. Without, I'm guessing it can go, 25? 30? Something...
It would be enough to for sure, disable someone from ever walking again probably. Or like taking their foot off, or like...for sure, killing a kid, or a pet, or whatever. And so that was why, I mean, with a six month old, you know, somebody who's about –
Joseph: Uh-huh.
Taylor: –to be crawling and a dog. Like, it...um, yeah, we're just gonna use it differently now, I think. Like I'm, I'm not gonna be so blasé and like, um, going wherever willy-nilly about it. Like, I'm not gonna be aiming it at my family and shit. Just like, out in the field or out in the road or whatever because–
Joseph: MM-hmm.
Taylor: –that would be a nightmare. Just going through people's Reddit posts, uh, where they were like rein... you know, reliving that. Just like, oh yeah, I had to watch mine go down a street that was crowded until it ran into a pole and stopped and somebody kicked it over. Like, ugh, it's my nightmare. I don't want to hurt people or things, you know? Especially, that's like the worst thing in the world. I found this thing that I love and it's fun and you love to do it. It's great exercise and it's, but it can also perhaps hurt a bunch of people if it were to do the thing, so…
Willie: One of the things I'm watching is like, I guess it's a compilation, uh, and –
Taylor: Oh damn...
Willie: –I'm not, I'm not, watching with sound on, but I'm pretty sure in this video, like after it got away from them and it hit, uh, a bike rack, it like moved the bars on the bike rack, like split them open. So they're like, just like bent away from each other. So...because it's where the, like Onewheel jammed itself in the,...the bike rack.
Taylor: And bike racks are hardcore –
[Willie chuckles]
Taylor: –like those things are not designed to be flimsy. So yeah...that's-It hitting the SUV, it like shook the SUV. You could see it moving like a big dude just pushed it. That was the moment where I, I got real, real shaky, a little bit . [nervous laugh]
But they did say that, uh, if, if you do experience it, you can order, you can just call 'em and they'll send you a new replacement footplate, and you can, it's plug and play. You can just like unscrew it, pop in the new. But, uh, like, I don't mean to poo poo on them 'cause it is a freaking amazing device.
It-it, it's one of those things where you're, when you're riding it, and I, I don't think I've experienced this ever except for the short time that I owned the Tesla. Um, where you're just like, I feel like I am, I am operating magic right now. And that is such a weird…like, I think that that, um, that gets into the world of gaming really.
Like that's, that's where it kind of edges into that world for me is like, I feel like a game character right now. Kind of flying through the air with like the ease of going any way I want, any time I want, you know, just leaning forward or back to, to have the world at your, at your disposal. It's- it's super fucking interesting, man.
I'll recommend it to anybody who can, who can, you know, afford one or, or wants one or whatever. I don't know about how it is commuting day to day, but riding it out in a field is fun as hell.
Willie: There's also just, I, I'd have to do more research 'cause I'm just, again, Google search. But, uh, I see from like early April there was like a, an apology video for the ghosting issue. Like a –
Taylor: Oh...
Willie: –and a –
Taylor: Of course you never see that on Reddit. It's buried by a post
Willie: And, and it's like them talking about, explaining the reasoning for the Onewheel GT ghosting.
Taylor: Oh shit... [laughs] Maybe if I'd have searched...
Willie: [laughing] I'll send you that-I'll send you that later. But I also–
Taylor: [laughing] Please do.
Willie: –I also need to look at it cause I, I don't know. I didn't actually, I'm not reading this right now.
Taylor: Well, I didn't, in all fairness, I didn't even see that. So definitely yeah. When you get a chance to send that over, 'cause I, anything that can maybe, uh, put my mind at ease a little bit 'cause it, in my head, I start seeing those videos. I'm like, I, I just have a nuke here that I'm just–
Joseph: Mm-hmm.
Taylor: –like got the button in my pocket like that, uh, tile in my wallet, you know, just ready to –
Joseph: Foot rocket.
Taylor: –accidently sit on it. Yeah. Foot rocket. But, uh, just to cleanse your pallet sometime. Feel free to look up the videos if you haven't seen 'em, of where people have mounted like rocking horses and stuff on Onewheels and they ride them.
Joseph: Oh.
Taylor: Around town .
[Joseph laughs]
Taylor: That, that looks amazing.
Willie: Nice.
00:34:48
Joseph: Yeah. You were talking about safety. As a kid, did your parents have any gaming restrictions in place or any ground rules for, you know, what you could play and what you couldn't play?
Taylor: No. I grew up in an interesting house where, while my parents were together, I think that they both worked their asses off. And so I was pretty much on my own, um, from a very young age. Uh, as far as, you know, my mom taught me how to cook some fucking mac and cheese or microwave, uh, some dinosaurs and meatballs or whatever, um, just to survive.
Um, so yeah, I mean, that was a big part of my days was just playing video games, just sitting there in the living room and playing through all kinds of fucking games. Um, they, they weren't interested in them. They couldn't care less about video games. Like that was also the interesting thing is they got me the Nintendo, but they, they also had no idea what they were getting or what it was or anything. I think they were just –
Joseph: Uh-huh.
Taylor: –trying to be, that was one of those things.
Joseph: Get the, the kinda latest cool thing.
Taylor: Yeah. It, it's one of those things where I think a lot of people could hear that and think that it was super fucking entitled. Which...Um, in a lot of ways I was super fucking lucky. You know, a lot of kids didn't get anything until they, like, worked for it or got it until it, you know, was way cheaper on sale.
But also there's things that come with that, that people don't think about a lot of times is like, sometimes your parents are buying you that shit as a babysitter and, and stuff, you know, like maybe you're not getting as good of parenting as you might get if, if your parents didn't get you that and were like super attentive yet, you know, um, I, I don't know. It's just throwing it, that's a thought, but just don't want people to think that like we were fucking rich, 'cause we did struggle a lot too, but, um –
Joseph: Got that grass farm money homie.
Taylor: Yeah. Seriously. Well, it helps, dude. I mean, right now for our, for our acreage, it's something like, you know, you get a little under 10K a year, which pays off all your taxes and a decent, a decent bit –
Joseph: Mm-hmm.
Taylor: –for very little work, you know, just water the stuff. So...
Joseph: I had no idea that...you even lived on a farm.
Taylor: Oh, yeah, dude. Yeah, I've lived on, actually I've lived on this farm most of my life. And I also lived on a quarter horse ranch for a good bit of my life for probably like, you know, five years. Um, so I, yeah, I've lived a lot of kind of like rough and tumble lives that seems like I could have given games up at any point, you know, even on the ranch –
Joseph: Mm-hmm.
Taylor: On the quarter horse ranch, like I, we were always cleaning stalls, or breaking horses, or moving cows, or you know, doing anything. But still, like, that was my, my evening and my nighttime was just chilling in my room under the covers, just playing some video game.
00:37:34
Joseph: So you –
Taylor: I don't know where I was going with that.
Joseph: –you mentioned your, your parents probably didn't know what the NES was or –
Taylor: No.
Joseph: –kind of understand gaming, so I'm guessing they also didn't game right?
Taylor: Nope. Nope. Didn't game. And they weren't huge fans of me gaming, but they also, they knew that it was something I loved and they didn't want to fight, fight me over it, you know? I guess it was probably one of those things where they were just, happier that it kept me content and, and was a thing that I could do that was not destructive and not potentially gonna hurt myself or others with the, the countless things that I would get into.
Willie: Has that, uh, changed over the years? Do your parents do any sort of gaming now, whether that's on their own, like mobile phone stuff or –
Taylor: Nope.
Willie: –watching you play anything now, get them into any, like Forza Motorsport stuff or anything like that?
Taylor: No, man, let me, let me tell you how, how not into gaming my parents are and how not into it they will ever be because of me, probably, [laughs] –
[Joseph laughs]
Taylor: –because the closest I've gotten them to gaming-so, couple times I got my dad to play a little Forza. Um, I've never gotten the wheel. I would love to just to like, get him in front of a big screen with the wheel and stuff. It's just a, it's so pricey. Like someday if I'm doing, you know, real good financially, I may pick one up. Um, just to give him that experience. Um, but –
Joseph: Does he like racing?
Taylor: –So. He does.
Joseph: Or just...okay.
Taylor: Oh, my dad, yeah. My dad is a NASCAR nut. He's, um, he's built his first Mustang Fastback when he was, or rebuilt it when he was, I think 16 or 17. I wanna say he brought, he bought a, a used but almost new, uh, '64 Fastback, and I think he said within a couple days he had it completely dismantled in the front yard, or in the front driveway and his dad was pissed –
Joseph: Dang...
Taylor: –'cause they lived in Sugarland, which was, you know, kinda like the suburbs.
Joseph: Mm-hmm.
Taylor: And so back then, you know, in the fifties. Or sixties, I guess, you don't, you don't really want to have like some unsightly beast of a car, but he always loved that shit, you know, so he likes the drag races and, and he, when he restores, he does resto mods.
He does original mod or original restores. Um, he's done stuff that's normal horsepower. He's done thousand horsepower plus, he is done all kinds of shit. He's into cars. That is his life. So, Forza definitely at least speaks to him in the sense that he can be like, that's a beautiful ass game. Those cars look amazing.
And, um, but I'd say I got into, I got into crypto following, um, cryptocurrencies and stuff maybe a year, year and a half ago. And in all that, I kind of got into the realm of play to earn gaming because of the Venn diagram that is those two things. And, um, that has taken me through a whole journey. I've lost a lot of money.
I haven't earned a lot of money, so I'm sure along the way, um, I'll have like, y'all can ask questions about play to earn because I'll always kind of have, at least a finger to it, um, to like, if there's new stuff coming out. Um, because I, I do some of the bullshit click to earn stuff, but I also do, um, I follow a lot of the developers that are really working hard and are like AAA developers or really good indie developers that have decided to give it a go.
I'm following those, so we can talk about those anytime. Like I obviously don't, I feel like there's a pox or, or like a stigma around that with gamers right now. So it's not something that we want to focus on, uh, per se unless it's like a good story or a positive story. But, um, so anyways, I got into a game called Town Star and I convinced my dad to, uh, buy an NFT for that game so that we could earn Town Star.
And, um, I wanna say that we went in together and spent about 1500 bucks on it and then the ass dropped out of the market recently and that thing is worth maybe 300 bucks now. And, um, the coin we're earning...at first it seemed okay, 'cause we were earning about 50 cents of it a day, and now we're earning about 7 cents of it a day.
So it's a very long game. But yeah, so needless to say, he's probably not going to get into gaming anytime soon now.
Joseph: Mm-hmm.
Taylor: Especially after, after that little return. So someday, hopefully when the market goes back up, I'll be able to give him, you know, his, his money back and some, but...
Joseph: I'm surprised, I'm a little bit surprised that you were able to convince him to buy an NFT–
Taylor: [sighs] You'd be surprised.
Joseph: –period.
Taylor: Man, you would be surprised. I could sell, um, you know, ketchup to a white gloved lady for sure. Like I... [laughs] if I –
Joseph: [sarcastically] Oh, that explains it –
Taylor: –Yeah. If I want something –
Joseph: [sarcastically] –now I understand.
Taylor: –I could, I could. Yeah. But the math all made sense at the time. Um, it's just you don't expect a, whatever, 60, 70% drop in market anytime, um–
Joseph: Mm-hmm.
Taylor: –even though you know it's coming. People say it's coming. Uh, all the figures say it's coming. You just, it's one of those things where as humans, I think you can ignore the obvious, um, until it happens and then be like, why'd I ignore the obvious? But yeah.
Willie: Yeah. I can see, uh, how that might, uh, sour him on, on –
Taylor: [quietly] Yeah
Willie: –some games. But I bet... I-I-I bet you're right though. If you get a, uh, a nice setup and a, a wheel in front –
Taylor: Yeah.
Willie: –of, uh, whatever the next Forza is, he would sit down –
Taylor: Yeah, which –
Willie: –and try it.
Taylor: –the next one looks amazing. So yeah, that would, that might be the one to do it. You never know.
Joseph: Mm-hmm.
Taylor: That's, uh, probably be a good payback just to get him in front of that. Let him do some squirrely driving. It's funny 'cause you always have that, you always have that dream and then you finally get the thing, and you put your parent in front of it or whoever, and they just go off the road three times and then they're like, okay, well that's great. [Laughs]
[Joseph laughs]
Taylor: That's usually how it goes. So, we'll see. I'll, I'll report back on that.
00:43:45
Joseph: What about you? What genres, what style game do you like to play most?
Taylor: I think, I still have a very, like, action RPG is my jam. I, if I'm classifying it correctly, um, which is like the Skyrim...um –
Joseph: Mm-hmm.
Taylor: –Prey, you know, anything that falls under that, um, kind of category that's, I, I like systems. I like systems on systems. And for me, sometimes if you dilute down to one or fewer systems, I kind of fall off of things where if...if you have like, say, a good action RPG, like a Skyrim, um, or, or, I like to use a Prey better. I think that's one of my favorites of all time.
So I, I do kind of, uh, recall back to that game, but in that game you have like a sick first-person shooter, just right off the bat. Like beautiful motion, uh, the movement, the clambering, everything about it is awesome. But then on top of that, you got this giant skill tree that has all your powers. It's got all your, like different movements, double jumps, faster movement, fast... like everything you can imagine across the board.
That is where I really am like, okay, now you see the enemies are super scary and they're badass and they can jump out from anywhere. Uh, an enemy can be an alarm clock, you know, that has just placed himself in the room before you and jumps out and grabs your face, like, because you're walking through. There's so many good systems in a game like that. I guess Bethesda is kind of notorious, uh, for doing that stuff, but those are the ones that really get me, like, I'll play a lot of different shit.
I liked, um... Surviving Mars was a, a nice departure for me because it'd been a long time since I did a, a real-time strategy. Um, I don't know, have y'all ever seen Surviving Mars? Have you ever looked at that game?
Joseph: I've wondered about that game.
Taylor: It's so good.
Willie: I've watched some people play it for sure. Like just streaming.
Taylor: Ah, w... well, it'll be one of the games I bring up in the future that we talk about, 'cause it's one of my all-time favorites. Um, but it's, you just like, leave Earth because, you know, Earth is unsustainable. And you are the first people landing on Mars or some of the first people, and you're starting a colony, and you have to like go through all of that stuff and like, there's so many good things about it.
Again, it's the systems, it's the building that's good. It's the details of all of it. Like even the loading screens that happened would be, they'd be short, but there would be an amazing quote from anybody. It wasn't just like old quotes from, you know, old astronomers or whatever it was, like Elon Musk quotes and like –
[Joseph laughs]
Taylor: –relevant stuff or, or like businessmen, quotes or whatever in there that, because you're doing it all, you know, you're running an economy and, and everything. And I think, I don't, I don't get confined to much. Like my favorite is definitely gonna be the action RPG, but at the same time I'll play anything. Um...as long as it, like all the systems work fluidly together and I don't feel like I'm wasting my time.
Joseph: Mm-hmm. Nice.
00:47:00
Willie: Sort of related to that, um, about the sort of types of games, I'm not gonna ask you to name a favorite console, but sort of what has been the, the evolution? You don't have to go through everything, but like what did you do after the NES and what's like the most sort of recent console purchase or like what systems you playing on right now?
Taylor: Man, that's a good question. So, um, so I started with the NES, then I went to the SNES, then I got a Sega whenever those came out. Um, and at that point I was renting from Stewart's, from our local food store around here. Um, they got a video department and they were –
Joseph: A food store?
Taylor: –renting out all the –
Willie: Yeah, yeah.
[Joseph laughs]
Taylor: [laughing] –Yeah, yeah, bro. They had a big old section in there, in both of 'em, in two different ones. And they were renting out, uh, laser discs and the suitcase that played them or whatever.
Joseph: [laughing] Yeah.
Willie: [laughing] Yeah, yeah.
Taylor: They gotta get like a, you know, one of those, uh, uh, Obbamaphones or whatever, where you gotta wind it up to play the shit.
Joseph: You said Sega, you're talking about Genesis, right?
Taylor: Yeah, yeah, Genesis. Sorry. Yeah. So I, I missed out on, I don't know what happened, like, I think this was while I was living on the ranch, so there wasn't a lot of time to really like lust over a system. So I missed out on the Sega CD. I, I didn't even know about it. No concern about it. Um, the Saturn kind of crossed my radar, but I, again, I think I was seeing the games on those at the time and just, it wasn't getting at me like they were showing these clips of like football and stuff like that, specifically on the Saturn and...
It just didn't speak to me. Something about the polygonal shapes and everything. It, it, uh, it didn't blow me away, I guess. Like it was blowing other people away at the time. So I'm, I skipped out at that point. I got into a little PC with like, Myst and, uh, Warcraft. I got into Warcraft, uh, two and three and maybe, no one also.
So it was one and two, oh man, those games, uh, were my jams at the time. And then, I think my next big console was at PlayStation. Got the PlayStation one, fell back in love with it. Started playing just the classics, the Final Fantasy VII, you know? I think that one I had the flu for like, you know, three days to a week and was just in a bind.
And I sat there and played all of Final Fantasy VII. I was just in love with that shit. Like it was, it was one of those where I'm talking about, like Square Enix does two pretty well with systems working well together and their system is story, you know? And the, the grandiose scale of like the weapons, the big weapons that you had to hunt through the world and...
And then, so I got the PS2. Again, got the, then I got into the Xboxes, got into all those. I usually try to keep up with, uh, with both consoles, um, or all three. But, um, during the, just the kind of the pandemic and the shortages and everything, I sold the Switch at some point because we weren't using it at all.
That is just my, least...um, interested realm of gaming, I think is, is over there. Like, I, I like Nintendo. I've definitely loved games on there, but for me, I've gotta be able to justify having that console sitting on the shelf. But I haven't been able to snag a PS5 yet. Um, I'm still, still looking out and whenever I get a contact, and I actually have the money to get one, at that time, I'll probably pick one up but...
Right now, I'm just typically playing mostly games that are, like cross platform because I got p...I got buddies on PC. Willie, you play on PC? Um, I got buddies on PS4, PS5. So... lately, I've just been kind of playing anything on the Game Pass on the Xbox Game Pass. Like I, I feel like the value there has just been ridiculous for me because I, I used to buy game after game and bounce off of it. And you know, it may be 10, $10, could be 60, might be 70, 80, whatever. If I got DLC and then I'm not playing it a week or two later. And so the Game Pass has really freaking opened up a door for me to try out anything. And then if it sucks, just let it go –
Joseph: Mm-hmm.
Taylor: –and not feel bad about it at all. Not feel like I just got raked over the coals, you know, for getting got, on a trailer.
Joseph: Mm-hmm.
Taylor: So that's a, that's a big one.
00:51:38
Joseph: I noticed you definitely, definitely play more Game Pass games than I do. Like, it seems like you, you bounce around them a lot.
Taylor: Oh, I'll try 'em all out, man. If I, uh, basically I will go to the page, I'll look at their trailer, I'll look at what the description says, and then based on that, I'll play it or not. And it, it never comes into factor, that price. I never have to like also put into the equation. But it's $24.99, and I don't know, or it's $8.99 and I don't know, you know? Like with a kid, and house payments, and constant bills, and you know, there, there's like inflation.
It's no end to things that can make your brain say, "maybe I shouldn't spend this 10 bucks on this." But yeah, that's, um, that's typically where you'll find me. But if it's a good, if it's a banger of a game, um, I'll, I'll pay as much as I need to for something. I'll also get a free game just as quickly.
Vigor, we checked that one out, which was a surprising game for free. Like, it still has, its, its hitches and stuff, but, um, I don't know, man. I, I like graphics. Anything with good graphics, too. I'll check it out.
Joseph: I like graphics.
Taylor: I like graphics.
Joseph: Well shit, that's literally every game.
Taylor: Yeah, kind of. There are some –
Joseph: Are you talking about a certain, a certain standard?
Taylor: Yeah, standard, I guess. Um –
Joseph: That good stuff.
Taylor: –Everybody's, yeah. It's just like color. Everybody sees a different, you know, shade of, of a color or something, I guess. Like, um, I, there's a certain smoothness and crispness and solidity that I look to for, for things like graphics –
Joseph: Mm-hmm.
Taylor: –that, um, –
Joseph: Graphics.
Taylor: Graphics. I don't know, it just draws me in. Like if, if I see some amazing, huge scale stuff, like, you know, Elden Ring is probably a, a bad example, [laughs] –
[Joseph laughs]
Taylor: –but if I see a From Software game, I'm buying that shit because –
Joseph: Yeah, yeah.
Taylor: They are speaking directly to me. They're like, oh, all these aesthetics, all these styles, all these monsters, the gigantic-ness of this, of the beast and stuff, yeah.
Joseph: Yo, next, next game in the Elden Ring series, how much would you be willing to pay for the next Elden Ring game?
Taylor: Uh, well, okay, so already I'd pay 60. Um, I'd say that –
Joseph: Would you pay a hundred bucks?
Taylor: –the next Elden Ring
Joseph: If they ca...if it was coming out and they're like, "hey, it's gonna be a hundred bucks."
Taylor: Y-You're talking about with all the, like the whole shebang, DLC? I probably would do it this time. Like after –
Joseph: No, no.
Taylor: –playing the first one.
Joseph: What about just ba... the base game? The base game came out, day one release, it's a hundred bucks.
Taylor: No, no. Like, I'm having so much trouble right now with the, the prospect of getting a PS5 and the fact that they have gone so hard line on the $70.
Joseph: Mm.
Taylor: Like, not everybody's doing it from my understanding. I also am not currently in that ecosystem, so I, I'm not positive, but, um, it's just so annoying to me that one side can be like, we're so premium that we're just gonna jack up the price like this, and we're going to do it with a smile on our faces. Like, not like begrudgingly change the whole system or anything. Its...
I don't know, man. I don't know. Like if everybody moved up to 70, I guess I'd have to, you know, or make a stand and just, just pay with my wallet, and just do things like the pass or buy things when they're on sale.
Joseph: Mm-hmm.
Taylor: Which is kind of what I do now. Um, if there's any inkling of a doubt in my mind, I'm waiting for a sale. I'll just wait, I'll wait you out. In three months, there'll be a summer sale, or a winter sale, or a Phil Spencer got his shoe caught in the escalator for a second sale, [laughs] whatever it might be. Um, I'll get that shit, you know, cheaper.
Joseph: It helps me, having a list, having a bunch of games that I own, that I haven't played yet.
Taylor: Hmm.
Joseph: So it's never like I have to –
Taylor: A to do list?
Joseph: –Yeah. It's like I never have to, I have to buy something immediately.
Taylor: Yeah.
Joseph: But I also, I might not.
Willie: I think that hits on a good point actually. That's a, I also, I, I totally agree with that, Joey. Like, I have a whole list of things that I haven't played yet –
Joseph: Mm-hmm.
Willie: –but what I, what you immediately made me think of is, there are certain things that I won't talk about yet, um, that if I know it's coming out, I'm gonna wanna get it, like day one.
Joseph: Right.
00:55:59
Willie: Are there, are there series that you, series or types of games that you hold, like dear that like, if you know it's coming out, you know that you're either gonna save up some money or that you're gonna like be there day one? That you want it.
Taylor: Oh yeah. Yeah. I mean, Elden Ring for sure. Like any From Software game, I will definitely pick up from day one. Um, any Bethesda game, anything they're publishing from any of their people, Obsidian or, or anybody from that realm. I'm definitely picking up day one. I don't think there's any, uh... Anything else? You kn-I don't know. I think I'm susceptible to any new technology. Um, Cyberpunk came out. I wanted that one, day one.
I knew, I knew a lot of the shortcomings and stuff that people were encountering and a lot of the complaints that people had been talking about, I think. Uh, I know there was embargoes but...I think, I think that I just get attracted to the tech of it and, and so if the tech looks good enough, then I will, I will make that happen. I am, I'm the opposite of you guys. You said that you have a list, which to me is mind boggling.
[Joseph chuckles]
Taylor: My list is my inventory, my list is my library. You know, I, uh, I pick up the games that I want to play, and I think that's just because I'm impulsive. I, in my, the back of my brain, I always contributed to getting scratched by a cat a long time ago. We've always had cats and uh, there's that neurotoxin or whatever that gets in your brain and they say that most people beheaded on motorcycles or...have it in them.
Joseph: Gosh
Taylor: [chuckling] I don't know if y'all have ever heard of that, but oh, definitely look it up. It's a fun rabbit hole to go down. It's basically, um...uh, it's a, it's a whole, it, it'd be too much to explain here, but it's a interesting, uh, evolution of nature in general.
00:57:57
Joseph: Mm-hmm. My list that I was talking about earlier is not even a list of games I want to play. There are games that I own that I haven't played.
Taylor: Oh, okay. Okay.
Joseph: Yeah. So it's like I'll, I'll –
Taylor: Backlog
Joseph: –start playing one of those. Yeah, exactly.
Taylor: I think that's the common term for it, is the backlog, is what everybody...
Joseph: Yeah.
Taylor: Unless people aren't calling it that anymore, but...
Willie: I guess. Is this true for you, Joey, that like, most of those are things that you probably did get, like on a game pass or like, uh, a sale or a –
Joseph: Some of them.
Willie: –it was free to, to download because it was like –
Joseph: Mm-hmm.
Willie: –the game of the day or the game of the week or something, somewhere?
Joseph: Yeah. Like, like, uh, Horizon Zero Dawn is one of those that was on like the PlayStation Plus, like free game of the month, maybe like a year ago. So –
Taylor: Ooh, that's a good one to pick up.
Joseph: –I downloaded that. I downloaded –
Taylor: Good call.
Joseph: –that because I, I know it's a great game and I wanna play it. It's just behind other games that I already own that I haven't played. But I'm really bad about playing a single game at a time. And not bouncing back and forth between games. So like when I was playing Elden Ring, for 300 fucking hours, that was all I played, and now I'm playing the Witcher 3 and I haven't played anything since I started the Witcher 3, but I'm pretty bad about just wanting to play through a game completely before I start and move on to another game.
Taylor: It's crazy that you do that. I am the exact opposite. I will play eight games at once.
Joseph: [laughing] Yeah?
Taylor: Literally. Um, whenever, so, uh, man, this is, I don't know why I'm saying all this, but um, so it's so bad that I think a week ago I was, I was in a game on my phone because they had a competition to win an NFT. And the only reason I was trying to get that is because you can stake the NFT and earn their coin.
Um, which to me, that's, that's the winner right there. If you can get yourself a thing that you can stake to earn a thing, then, then you're good. But I was doing that game on my phone, and playing a game with the other hand on the Xbox, with my other hand. And I realized that I have a fucking problem. Like, [laughs] I've gotta serious –
Joseph: This guy...
Taylor: –fucking problem –
Joseph: Superman over here.
Taylor: –Yeah. But probably doing both of them badly or at least –
Joseph: Mm-hmm.
Taylor: –mediocre. It's just funny to me that you, you really do focus. Um, if you're in a game, you're playing that game. And, uh, that's, that's wild to me.
Joseph: I guess it- it, I could play something else if it were like playing a, a shooter casually or something.
Taylor: Yeah, everybody pops up and it's like, "Hey, let's do this."
Joseph: Mm-hmm.
Taylor: Let's pop on this. Yeah.
01:00:32
Joseph: Oh! I lied. I actually, I played that, the TMNT. I played that, that might be the only thing I've played since I started the Witcher. But I played that for like one night.
Taylor: Hey, that one's worth, uh, taking a break off for. So good.
Joseph: I'm still kind of upset that, I went...I got to chapter 15, out of those 16 and died.
Taylor: Oof.
Joseph: And I was like, really?
Taylor: [lauging] Oh my God.
Joseph: I spent the last couple of hours playing through this, at least on the arcade mode. I haven't played the story mode.
Taylor: So did you run outta continues? Like at some point you just don't have any more continues and you –
Joseph: Yeah.
Taylor: –have to... oh my god.
Joseph: Yeah. So I was like, what? I didn't realize that. Well at first –
Taylor: No, I didn't either.
Joseph: –Yeah. At first I thought you couldn't continue at all.
Taylor: Hmm.
Joseph: And then I think after you jumped in and you were playing with me, we were kind of like... I don't know if it was kind of then sharing the continues or not, but –
Taylor: Oh shit. I probably wasted one of your continues or more [laughs] –
Joseph: –but I died
Taylor: – with April O'Neill trying to report the –
Joseph: Yeah [laughs]
Taylor: –news instead of fight people. Just over there like…”what do you think about that punch in Leonardo's face?”
Joseph: But then I had to use a continue so I was like, "oh, I guess there are continues in this game." And then after you ducked out, I think I, I think you might have left in chapter 13, and then I played through 14 and then I got to 15. And then when I died in 15, I couldn't continue and it was just like, game over. I was like, "no!," because I went from not thinking –
Taylor: What's it do for the game over screen? Does it just bring up the words game over or –
Joseph: Yeah, I think so.
Taylor: –Shredder flipping you off? Oh, okay.
Joseph: There mi...I don't know if there was any character animations in there, but yeah, I think it was just a simple kind of game over flashed up.
Taylor: Damn, that's brutal.
Joseph: But yeah, I went from thinking there was no continues, to realizing there were continues, and then being disappointed that you run out of continues.
Taylor: It's a range of emotions happening right there –
Joseph: Right.
Taylor: –Oh. Huh. Ugh.
Joseph: It's a fun game though.
Taylor: Oh, it's so good. They...such a, like a, a love note. I don't know if that's what you say, but–
Joseph: Mm-hmm.
Taylor: –like it's just perfect.
Joseph: Yeah.
Taylor: It's a chef kiss of like all the Ninja Turtle games. I didn't play through everything, but I heard there were bonus levels and stuff. Do they ever –
Joseph: Hmm.
Taylor: –break into like, um, the original TNMT game? Like the one where you drove, you know, you drove the van around and you went in the sewers –
Joseph: Mm-hmm.
Taylor: –and had the awful swimming levels like. I was thinking as I was playing through it, I was like–
Joseph: Oh-my-gosh.
Taylor: Why...what if they added that as a bonus and to get an achievement, you just had to play through all of the swim levels strung together?
Joseph: Mm-hmm. No deaths.
Taylor: Yeah. [laughs] Everybody wants a refund immediately.
Joseph: Yeah. I've watched Arcus stream a lot of hours of speed running that game.
Taylor: Oh my God.
Joseph: But, uh, I have a feeling we're gonna talk about this new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game in, in a future episode.
Taylor: Oh yeah,
Willie: Yeah, for sure. I still have to play it. I haven't played it yet 'cause I tried to start it up on my PC and my PC was being dumb. I don't know what's going on. Uh, and I just haven't tried again.
Taylor: Go figure.
Willie: I either need to switch over to console or I just need to figure out what's going on. Why it wouldn't start up. I think it's just the Xbox app on my pc, 'cause sometimes it's garbage.
Joseph: Well shit man. If you jump on the Xbox, we can all play on the Xbox. Or is it cross platform?
Willie: It's cross platform, so...
Joseph: Oh, okay.
Willie: Also, I probably wouldn't play on my PC right now just because there's no AC and uh, it's hot in here. Computer's overheating just because of that.
01:03:59
Taylor: Did you end up getting a, a newer Gen Xbox or are you still on the one?
Willie: I'm still on the One.
Taylor: Hmm. Okay.
Willie: I guess the Xbox One X, but not the Series X, you know?
[Joseph laughs]
Taylor: Yes. Okay. Yeah. That shit's –
Joseph: Yeah, yeah.
Taylor: –so confusing after the...I thought it was easy during the launch, but now that some time has gone by, it has all muddied together.
Joseph: It's just bad.
Taylor: Yeah.
Willie: Yeah, just when you're trying to talk to somebody else and you're like, no, wait, which one do you mean actually?
Taylor: X, the Series X, the Professor X, the–
Joseph: Yeah.
Taylor: Yeah, that's, um, just throwing it out there, we have a, we have a S that we don't ever use. Um, so in the future, you know, like if you end up finding yourself needing one to do an upgrade or something, we might sell it to you for cheap, if Rebecca doesn't want to hang onto it, so...
Willie: Yeah.
Taylor: Just throwing it out there.
Willie: I might consider that. I do like the...I like my PC. Normally it's fine. I don't know what, that's stupid, the Xbox app though is sometimes just jank.
Taylor: Yeah, and you never know what sales may come up for the Series X too now because Xbox is...they seem like they're...they came out of the gates this time, doing everything they can, to try to like, keep up with everybody, so…
Joseph: And they... I mean they're also a step ahead in, in terms of like supply chain issues and availability. Uh, they're a step ahead of PlayStation 'cause I think they're just, nobody can get a PlayStation.
Taylor: Yeah. That's gotta be a huge part of it. And the whole, um, just the fact that PlayStation was late to the, to the kind of streaming wars.
Joseph: Mm-hmm.
Taylor: Um, now they're kind of getting all their shit together and they're like, okay, well now we're doing it. We've gotta pass and... but now they're trying to figure out –
Joseph: Yeah, also late to the pass.
Taylor: Yeah, they're late to the pass. So that's, that's where Xbox is really laying that foundation work. And you know, there were, there were people that were doubting it, but I, this is now, it's starting to pay off. Where they're having these, like day one games come out and they're forcing PlayStation to do that.
But Sony is having to like, or I guess PlayStation. Um, they are...they're having to make these compromises that they've never had to make before to stay competitive. So that's great. We need that. We need that. We don't need somebody that can just sit there and say, "hey, we're the best there is. So either pay the premium money or blow us."
[chuckling] That seems like a bad, a bad business model, but I don't know. Maybe only time will tell.
01:06:24
Joseph: Yeah, totally. Uh, Willie, do you have any final questions or any final thoughts?
Willie: I think we covered a lot of stuff about, uh, you know, sort of the history here of Taylor and gaming and, um, I have some stuff that I can talk about during, you know, my sort of intro, but our huge connection is Halo and I'm sure we're gonna talk about that in the future, 'cause as –
Joseph: Mm-hmm.
Willie: –as Taylor said, that's, that's what we did a lot when we first met. Pretty much Halo and only Halo.
Taylor: Yeah. And have done a lot of that since.
Willie: Yeah. Yeah.
Taylor: Probably, I'm guessing thousands of hours.
Joseph: Mm-hmm.
Willie: Easily, thousands of hours.
Taylor: Insane. Like, I would never even go back and look at it because it's not worth it. You can't handle that kind of stress in your brain, day to day.
Willie: Yeah. It's easily thousands of hours. Cause I was –
Taylor: Yeah.
Willie: –even looking at... for a while, I mean, I think it was just Bungie, right? Anything Bungie we were checking out at that point, like when they –
Taylor: Right on waypoint app and stuff.
Willie: Well, yeah, and like whenever they moved over to, to Destiny, like we played a lot of Destiny too. I was looking at my Destiny gameplay recently, like for Destiny One.
Joseph: Mm-hmm.
Willie: That itself was like, I don't know, five or 600 hours or something like that. Maybe, maybe even like a thousand itself. And I was just like, "oh, I didn't realize I played that much."
Taylor: Those raids, sometimes we would play those raids three times a week and, and sometimes we would be doing them like four or five hours. Like, stuff adds up real quick and then you gotta go out, collect materials, and do this and that. And yeah, it was basically our, WOW. I'd say it'd be a good, good comparison.
Willie: They really did sort of what they set out to do there.
Taylor: Yeah.
Willie: I actually, I haven't played Destiny 2 nearly as much and I actually want to get back into it.
Taylor: I wouldn't mind to, like ne -next time they do a, here's the big, next thing coming out and here's a big pass. I wouldn't be against it 'cause I would like to see what kind of it, it seems like they've had to stay innovative to, to keep people coming back. So I wanna see what they've done.
Willie: They did do some stuff recently, uh, couple, last couple months, And, and they had a big update, like the new season started like two weeks ago, I think, or something like that. I know people have been a little upset. I think. I-I haven't really been like, I, I haven't been paying attention, like I said, to what is going on over there, but I've definitely seen a lot of complaints in the last couple weeks about some of the new stuff, like just the like season update, and some tweaks to gameplay, and nerfing weapons, and sort of stuff.
And I don't know if they've ironed that out yet or they're gonna iron it out, but it does seem like in general, they've been very responsive to Destiny 2 stuff, and everyone has been sort of happy with... in general over the course of Destiny 2's life, like where it's been going in, in the recent releases.
Taylor: That's impressive. I, I bet to, to exist that long in that space. You probably have to be responsive. I mean, it is, especially once there are other developers out there that are. Then you are, you know, up a creek at that point. If you're one of these that, "we're not gonna respond to people. We're not gonna, we're just gonna do what we want to do." And if that...what you do is not pristine or perfect, then it's gonna be bad times.
Willie: Yeah.
Taylor: That'd be fun to play some time to do a, um, if we get into doing some gameplay videos or anything like that, that would be a fun one to do sessions on periodically, 'cause we could all play together.
Willie: I'd love to get back into that actually. And I also say all that from a skewed perspective of someone who... watches other people play and who follows people who, like do really love the game. So like–
Joseph: Mm-hmm.
Willie: –I have whatever skewed perspective they have and I –
Taylor: Well the fact that you still want to check it out –
Willie: [laughing] Yeah.
Taylor: –after that makes a big difference for me. I'm like, I haven't seen it in a year, a year and a half, or however long. Yeah, that's, that tells me that I probably do want to check it out too.
Willie: Yeah.
01:10:25
Joseph: My last question for you, Taylor, is what are you, you know, after, after we're done here, what are you gonna play later today?
Taylor: Uh, just in full, being fully candid with you guys in the audience, and everybody. Um, I left my job a couple weeks ago, um, or maybe it's been a week ago, at a major technology company. Um, just because I, I wanna take care of my kiddo and I wanna pursue some dreams. I've been, I had been working there for over a decade and... it's time to time to try some other stuff out.
Um, so with the free time, I have wanted to tie some loose ends up, but it has to be something I can pause, right? Because with a kiddo, you gotta be able to run away at any moment and be like, what's he banging his head on? Um, so –
Joseph: So not Elden Ring.
Taylor: –Yeah.
[Joseph laughs]
Taylor: No, no. Um, or if it is Elden Ring, you just gotta accept that you're gonna get sliced sometimes when you're not there. Um, I've been playing –
Joseph: You better go rest, homie. You better hit that site of grace.
Taylor: Yeah. I've been playing Valhalla, um, getting back in that, Assassin's Creed Valhalla, and wow, man, that is an impressive game. It, I played about 20 hours of it when it first came out, and I was blown away by it because it had a lot of the stuff I li- liked. The, um, the ship stuff, the battling, and the exploration, and the jumping outta the ship, and swimming and finding things.
Joseph: Mm-hmm.
Taylor: Uh, but it just seemed so big and overwhelming. With an Assassin's Creed, have you ever played Assassin's Creed? Do you play those or have you played one lately?
Joseph: I'm, I'm so lost in what the –
Taylor: So...
Joseph: –hell is happening in all those games, but I played the original and I think –
Taylor: They're good, man.
Joseph: –that might be the only one I played. Well, no, I think I...was there one that was like, uh, French or it was like happening in France or something?
Taylor: Yes. French Revolution. Um, I don't remember which one that was but yeah, yeah –
Joseph: I think I played a little bit of that one.
Taylor: To me, that was, that was a rough era to get into 'em because the engine was dying at that point, like it was getting real old and sluggish. Of the newer ones, if you were to go...you could just go straight to Valhalla, and never miss a beat dude. But the controls, they've honed them in, gotten it all nice and buttery so that it feels like you're playing a normal game where the old ones were... not that.
Joseph: Mm-hmm.
Taylor: Um, it's, it's worth checking out one of the new ones, man. But the, the thing I run into that's frustrating, is that they give you this giant map, but you'll have, so say you unlock positions and there's like a camp here, a camp here, a city here.
Well, each time you click on one of those or look at one, you will have a different level. It will say, you're not recommended to be here unless you're level two hundred and fifty, and I'm level 20, right? And I'm like in that area. So anybody can, they can spit in your direction and like the air particulates are killing you immediately. You're dead.
That's the reason I kind of bounced off of it at the time, was I, I, I don't, I want to explore this whole game, but I don't have time.
Joseph: Mm-hmm.
01:13:22
Taylor: So I'm gonna, I'm doing that now. Um, but also I'm switching back and forth between that and Atomicrops, which is a totally different, indie –
Joseph: Mm-hmm
Taylor: –game that's on Game Pass. That is freaking amazing. It is like, um, it's like the love child of Smash TV and uh, Stardew Valley. [chuckling] It's like those two games, got together, and the art is fucking ugly. It's like, uh, the art of it is like –
Joseph: [Laughing] That's not what I was expecting you to say.
Taylor: Dude, the art is like Garbage Pail Kids. Like it looks good –
Joseph: Oh my gosh.
Taylor: –as a 8 or 16-bit, whatever it is. But the, like, when you die...the reason I asked you earlier about the game over screen is because I'm suddenly interested of, uh, in those. Because when you die in Atomicrops, it...the whole screen, your whole TV screen becomes a closeup of a carrot's face. And he is just like the ugliest, fucking mean-looking, carrot.
And he's like, like just this look of awful disgust and fear. Now I wanna see every game over a screen and see just what kind of stupid shit people have put in there. But –
Joseph: Mm-hmm.
Taylor: –those are the two that I've been playing a lot. Highly recommend both. Um, Atomicrops is free if you have the Game Pass, so you can just pick that up and check it out. That one is highly addictive to me. Um, if you like Stardew Valley and/or Smash TV, that one is a sure fire winner. You will not have a bad time with it
01:14:49
Willie: Yeah, I, I think that's a good spot to stop. I think that covers everything for today. And, uh, we did it. First, first one's in the books and, uh, I'm glad to, to be doing this. And next time we'll get into, let's just say, we'll get into Joey next time. Uh, ask Joey some questions about his history and, uh –
Joseph: Yeah, [bleep] [bleep]
Willie: You ruined it. That's it. It was good. And then you ruined it.
Taylor: It was perfect. And then fucking Joey, had to Joey.
[laughter]
[Outro theme plays - Caribbean Arcade by Christian Nanzell]
01:15:20
Joseph: Berries and Blades is an independent podcast created by Joseph Bullard, Willie Garza, and Taylor Garratt. Thanks for tuning in and consider subscribing if you enjoyed listening to this episode. You can also support us by telling your friends about the show, and we hope to see you in the next episode of Berries and Blades. Until then, thanks again.
[Outro theme fades]
Joseph: What time did you say Rebecca was heading out?
Taylor: Oh, she's gotta roll out about 10:30.
[sirens wailing in background]
Taylor: That's her, uh, in her ambulance.
Joseph: Yeah. [Laughing]
Taylor: [Laughing] She likes to flip on the ambulance siren –
Joseph: Yeah. [Laughing]
Taylor: –and roll out.