PlayStation Ends Physical Games & FROM Season 4 Review | Ep. 154

Level & Bury Network: Mm-hmm. Happen everybody. Thanks joining us at the Level Down Podcast. It is after the fourth of July. Mm-hmm. I get it. I hope everybody had a good time, you know. Hopefully well fed, not hungover. Right? Shout out shout out to one of the greediest presidents we ever had. ⁓ Thomas J. Whitmer. Y'all might know him from one of the greatest movies, Independence Day. You know. That was one of the He had one of the most inspirational speeches ever. He did. It was uplifting. Who was it? Hold on. ⁓ Hold on. Try to pull it out the archive. What'd he say? In less than an hour, aircraft from here will join others around the world and they will be launching the largest aerial battle in history of mankind. Mankind. That word should have a new meaning for all of us today. We can't be consumed by our petty differences anymore. We will be united in our common interest, perhaps it's fate, that today. is the fourth of July and we will once again be fighting for our independence. No, not from tyranny, oppression, persecution, but from annihilation. We are fighting for our right to live, to exist. And should we win the day, the Fourth of July will no longer be known as an American holiday, but as the day when the world declared in one voice We will not go quietly into the night. We will not vanish without a fight. We are going to live on. We are going to survive today we celebrate our independence. I had nothing else better do with my life but remember maybe quote. that right here is for America. America. America. Not not the two fifty celebration. That thing was crazy. Do you see their videos? Even yeah, it's low it stuff got a little wild. It was ⁓ the it wasn't as big like I really thought people was gonna turn out for that John that the president's writ. I thought people was gonna turn out. I'm like, all right, you know, there's gonna be more than what. Yeah, yeah, you know, people peop people love people love America. But Nobody showed up. Well, people showed up. Yeah, yeah, people showed up, but you know Then they was tripping because to like it was then a c turnout showed up. Like people turned up. Mm-hmm. And then they was like, No, y'all gotta leave 'cause of the weather. It was a little it got a little warm. Got a little warm. People was mad. Yeah, a lot warm. Here in here here in Philly they had the, you know, the parkway. They had the parkway. stuff that ⁓ Jazzy Jeff Fresh Prince and all that. It was so Philly Joan was crazy. Yeah, yeah. There was ⁓ it w it was it was like a f it was like a Philly it's like Philly themed. I think we had like ⁓ Beanie Siegel State Property, Jill Scott, Jazzy Jeff Fr Jazzy Jeff Fresh Prince, and and Christina Aguilar. She from Philly? No. But ⁓ she just you know You need to be there. Hey, you know. Whatever. Yeah, well it's it's cool. Listen, I it was it was was oppressive. So I I wouldn't first of I wasn't going nowhere near it no way. I'm not I'm not dealing with I'm not dealing with holiday crowds of any sort. I'm I'm past that. But ⁓ I ain't I I ain't been outside since Wednesday. Yeah, and you've been lo you've been locked in since Wednesday. That's why the face looked like this. I got crazy shade the face. Got the The young baby going, the chubby baby face going. I've ⁓ I've I've clearly been outside 'cause if you know, you've watched the the the podcasts ⁓ before, you've you've seen my skin tone while usually dark. Isn't ⁓ is isn't isn't this dark. I look like like a lit and blown out matchstick right now. So ain't doing it. I ain't doing Y'all got it. Y'all got all that outside. I go out I'll go outside tomorrow. Cause I gotta go to work. Yeah. But if it get too hot We're supposed to hopefully hopefully. We're supposed to get some rain. Supposed to get s you know temperatures supposed to cool off. You got it. Still. He got it. Still though. Nah. ⁓ I I I wanna say for all our people who we're just coming off of the Fourth of July, I hope everybody still has their fingers. I hope everybody is hope everybody is safe and all of your phalanges are accounted for. I'd be on social media peeping wilding with the fireworks. I was watching this one dude drive down. He was on a it was a like a dirt type road. He went on a public road or nothing crazy. But he had a pickup truck and he was shooting fireworks from like Mad Max style. ⁓ man. And I'm like, you know what? That's real American right there. Yeah, I get it. I get it. I get it. Yeah. I'm not doing it. Yeah. Ill advised, but I I get it. I ain't heard no fireworks. ⁓ I we heard there there was a lot. Cause I had the windows closed, the air conditioner on high, drowned out all that sound SVU on the background, and I was asleep. Drowned out all that noise. All that noise. I ain't want to be no part of it. None. Damn. What else I gotta do? You got you you are gonna watch Hamilton now, right? Yeah, I feel like I have to. Yeah, watch that. They're joining crazy. ⁓ yeah. ⁓ yeah, I I will you know what I I'll I'll I'll trust you 'cause ⁓ one of the topics of discussion is today is one of those things where you suggested something. Yeah. I re I resisted a lot and then once I took dead once I took dead dive in Here's thing. I watch a lot of stuff for quotes. A lot of movies just to for that spark of inspiration that they just pop into my head. And you sit there like was like like sudden we live in a world that has walls and those walls have guards by men with guns. Who's gonna do it? You, you Lieutenant Weinberg? I have the greatest responsibility that you could. possibly fathom. You weep for Santiago, you curse the Marines, you have that luxury. Like why do I need to know that? maybe one day you'll get stopped randomly in the street and like somebody will be like, hey, for five thousand dollars, recite this one specific movie line and then you got it. ⁓ no I got problems. I gotta start watching TV. And it's not like I don't read. That's the crazy thing. I read a lot. Yeah, you you you you consume too much of ⁓ everything. Everything. Yeah. I read I watch a movie and read at the same time. Yeah, I'm Yeah, if if if that book ain't got pictures in it, I'm not I read I reread like since Wednesday, I reread Odd Thomas. ⁓ my goodness. wow. Cause I opened up my little Kindle Jung. I'm like, ⁓ I own I I own the whole series. So let me just sit there. I was sitting in the kitchen, dining room, I'm sorry, doing nothing. And I'm just start reading. And then like Four hours went by. I'm still in the same spot. I got up, with the bid, came back, finished the book. I was like, what is the point of me doing this? I also was laying. Like last night, I was like, ⁓ let me turn the switch on. Play Skyrim for like four hours. I was like, what am I doing with my life? ⁓ well. I know retirement gonna be crazy. ⁓ it's just gonna be a more of this? A lot more of this. A lot more of this. More of this. More the same. Just more free time. Not a bad thing. Free free time is good. Yeah. Let's get to the show. Let's get to the show. This thing is we got two parts. Gaining, TV, mood news. Done. That's all we're doing to the day, people. We gotta recover. Tie. Yeah. First off, there'll be time stamps at the bottom. You know, you want to pick and choose what you want. So 10 25 and put a time stamp. Let me write that down. I know y'all people like your time stamps. So, PlayStation end physical games in 2028. Sony has officially announced the starting of January 2028. Physical game disc production for all new PlayStation games will end. New releases will be available digitally through the PlayStation Store and retailers selling digital game codes. Game release before. January twenty twenty eight will continue to exist in physical form. Were you expecting Sony to make this move? ⁓ Not this soon for the gaming industry. I mean, you we always kind of figured at some point in time, and especially in our lifetime, we've seen cartridges, we've seen discs, we've seen many discs. Yeah, we've seen many discs. Floppy. Yeah, ⁓ exactly. Let's take it back to floppy. Monster ⁓ number munches. Morgan Trail. Floppy discs. Yep. Let's yes, take it back to that. Like we've we've seen it all. Come and go we in our lifespan. And once once we got, you know, all digital consoles and you know, digital purchases and a lot of times, you know, our games, even on the discs that we do get, physical copies of discs, the game isn't even on the discs anymore, really. Anyway. Just a little piece of information. Just a little piece of information. Licensing. That that lets you exactly. That lets you play the game, but the game itself is digital. So, you know, ⁓ it sucks because we still want And a lot of people still hold on to the fact that, you know, like you want something to to purchase. You want something to to hold, maybe even display or, you know, something for a collection. There's, you know, our our ⁓ our wheelhouse and our our generation, you know, we like collections. We like we like having things. We like, you know, gotta catch a ball, so to speak. And to have maybe a game series that like your favorite game series or one of your favorite game series and you have every, you know, disc, game, cartridge, box art, anything like that, you know, you have it physically to be able to display. And then, you know, that next big game comes out or something like that and you won't you it's won't be available. You can buy, you can purchase the game, but it's gonna be all digital. Like there'll be nothing for you to nothing for you to hold. So we got it says with the big next thing I wrote was why is Sony doing this? Sony says the decision comes down to changing consumer habits. According to Sony, many players are purchasing games digitally rather than physically. The entertainment industry also continues to move away from physical media. Sony wants to align his business with how players are buying games today. This isn't let me back up. Here's the thing. As a PC gamer, I have not held a physical game since let me let me give you a good name. I haven't held a physical game since Hmm. World of Warcraft Burning Crusades. That game came out 2007. Oof. That's the last PC physical game I purchased. Because I remember midnight releases. So I'm not sure that it's really okay to say that more players are purchasing digital games than physical games. Like I don't know where they're getting their numbers from. PlayStation also said that weren't didn't they say something about people didn't they didn't like multiplayer games or single player stories or something like that? Something it was something to that effect that ⁓ that they weren't playing ⁓ a lot of single player stories or something like that anymore and before and then they they were looking into you know, leaning more into ⁓ multiplayer and online aspect of of stuff. So they did a lot of times like Sony will take it upon themselves to just tell the gaming community what it is that they are doing and that they want to do. It's it's crazy. 'Cause here's a bull. Hold on, let me put him up. Let's give him credit. Adam Hales over at Windows Central. Gamers push back. Seventy one percent say that they're not ready to let physical games die as PlayStation moves toward digital only future. So they're pulling out surveys of cats, is like Yeah, here ⁓ yeah, he asked a simple question. He put popped out a survey and a bunch of people answered him. Like nobody not everybody's on board with Digital copies. No, no. People want that option. Now there's information out there stating that eighty percent of games are purchased digitally. That's a big number. 80%. First off, who is giving you this information? I'm trying to find a credible sort. I'm trying to find somebody who doesn't work for Microsoft, who doesn't work for any of these companies, to give me this an inform a Bloomsburg report, if you would say. I'm not seeing nothing. And if somebody down got that information, please link it to me below just so I can read up on it myself. Physical media and the games represent 1.9 billion dollars in consumer sales. 1.9 billion dollars. That's that's nothing to sneeze at. At all. Not at all. That's that's a big chunk. What do you think so would Sony have made the decision their physical game cells were like still as strong as they used to be? I don't think so. Yeah. No. What exactly the benefit of physical game of not physical games, of going digital. Sony says this. Sony, these cats over at Sony. One dude. I don't know his name. I didn't write it down. I didn't care enough because you suck, Sony. Sony highlighted several advantages to all digital feat an all digital feature. Instant access to games. No dist to swap. Preload games before launch. Digital libraries that travel with you on your account. Low manufacturing and distribution costs. That's where that that's what it is for them. That's what it is for them. They don't want to make it. That's what it is, because the all everything else that you mentioned before that is stuff that we already l are living with. We already have all that. We already have all that and we've had ⁓ for years. What we also have is the option to for our physical media. Like if we want it, we can we can go purchase it, we can buy it, we can physically hold it. We can gift it. We can do anything with it. But Now that's better they're saying that retailers can still sell digital codes. Yeah, but not getting no box. Right. No, you go to you go pluck a they go get like a like a gift card or something like that and maybe it's the Or GameStop. They put the code on a receipt. They do. They put codes on a receipt. And me, that's stupid because I walk outside my pocket. Yeah, yeah. I walk outside. That did you on blow away or somebody else got it. Or the ink rub rub off or you put it in your pocket. You go take something out your pocket, you go and do something else. Let's just say you, you know, it's mixed up with something and you drop you drop something out your pocket. It's gone. Gone. There's been times where I've gone to GameStop and then going to the buffet. Now I got you know sour chicken sauce on my hands. You know reaching to it's gone. Yep, that that three letters of of that code is gone. I don't I don't think it's now here's the p compromise. Keep making boxes. Yeah. So now are we gonna keep are we gonna keep making boxes and just gonna put like the little card code in there? Like the A A O ⁓ L online type. Right? I forgot about that. I think some people would be okay with They want to display box art. So box art. Yeah. Cause like like the games I got. I got cartridges. Most of my I got sixty-four cartridges. Nintendo cartridges got that first Metal Gear solid. And my little brother bought me one of my one of them one a game that I loved as a young ⁓ Club World. Love that game. He found it, sent it to me. It is sealed away. It will never be open. Never be touched. Never. So I'm I I I kind of understand why people like the physical stuff. Because certain things I would prefer to have physical. Like, why do I own a physical copy of Skyrim? I don't know. But you have it. I have it. I don't know why. I got it on. My PC, my switch, my phone, like all digital. Yeah. Yeah, I have I have the ⁓ even more you know, I guess more recent than that stuff, I have the the Sony I have the PlayStation Spider Man games. I have them physical copies, even Miles Morales. So I have the physical discs to those. I have ⁓ digital. I play ⁓ digital. But, you know, I Something cool to have. No, it's stated that players will lose the ability to build a collection, display their favorite games, lend games of friends, sell their trade, and own something tangible. Once games become digital only, many of these options disappear. We n my steam library is my collection. ⁓ that Saints Row game, I couldn't do it. no. I c ⁓ I couldn't do it. It was bad. I went back to Saints Road the Third. I like I had to wash this taste out of my mouth. How how far did you get? I I made it a good forty minutes. Okay. That's I made it forty. It's respectable. And I now uninstalled it and installed Saints Row the Third. And put three hours in. Fair enough. Digital versus physical ownership. The biggest debate is this. With physical copies, you own the disc, you can resell it, you keep it forever. That's still not really true. Because a lot of games that you buy with a physical copy are not the full game. Correct. Yes, you can resell a game, cool. You can keep it forever. When you do digital, you're just purchasing a license. That's it. You access the account platforms and games can eventually be delisted. Yep. And then guess what? You don't have access to that anymore. And I found that out on my Switch. Cause I had a bunch of virtual games. And they're like, this game server shut down this game server shut down this game. Like seven games that I owned. That you're no longer That's it. You're done. No longer available to play. Can't play ⁓ Now I figure this. I'm going to eventually. Start downloading games off of Steam. GOG is a site where you don't need that, you're not you're buying the game, so it's yours to own forever. Long as the game is still supported, you can still play it. Okay. I'm gonna have to move away from these games that are strictly online. Like, I don't like the fact that Dark Souls, I why do I need to be online to play you? Yeah. Why? Of course I can trick it, you know, go to Steam, turn off the network and play the game that way. But as soon as I log back in online, they're hitting me with, you know, ⁓ you got a 30 day ban, you got a six year ban. Yeah, how dare you break the rules. Exactly. How you gonna tell me what to do with something I paid for? Right. I don't even play those games anymore. But the big here's the big thing. What about the price? Physical retailers, they compete with each other. They launch discounts, holiday sales, clearance pricing, news copies. That's gone. That's gone. You could go to you you know, let's just say you have a you have a Best Buy or something somewhere. Or then, you know First off, if you buying games at Best Buy, you're doing it wrong. That's why that's why I mentioned them first. And then ⁓ what was the ⁓ what was it? You would go to you would go to like Walmart or something, and the game would be like three dollars cheaper. Like three dollars and twelve cent cheaper or something like that. Something weird like that. But that's that that's over. That's done. Let me tell you something about my Walmart. They got all the cheap games lying around. Literally. Just on the shelf. ⁓ well, not n not behind that but sliding glass. No. No. No. Don't nobody care. They like stell ⁓ please get them out of our inventory. Yeah, but yeah, we we'd rather not have these here anymore. But don't nobody steal well, I don't know. I've never seen nobody steal at my Walmart. But I'm like, they just out there. DVDs, none of our DVDs is behind anything. None of ⁓ they're on end cap sometimes. Nothing's about. The expensive stuff, like the the sixty, seventy dollar games there, they're behind the glass. Okay. Yeah, right. But like eighty percent of the gaming products, they just dare. Mm mm. Like I needed a ⁓ a new cable for my phone. So I went to the accessory section. I slid open the glass. Got my cable out. ⁓ well. And then closed the gas glass back. The glass just wasn't locked at all. They're look, we not. They're like, listen, I'm not coming back and forth trying to open this glass. It wasn't locked at all. And I the cable was like forty dollars. Excuse me. Like forty dollars. They didn't care. Wow. They didn't care. I think so. We're not getting any dis well, do you know who's gonna get the discount money? Sony. ⁓ yeah. You gotta wait till it goes on sale with them. Yep. Whenever that may be. Yeah. You gotta wait till They'll give you, you know, something something quick or holiday sale or something like that. They still tripping. Or they'll give you they'll give you those discounts under whatever tier of of, you know, the PlayStation Plus that you have. think that I hope that this makes games a little well, we're not getting under the seventy dollar price tag. Nah, nah. That's it. But I'm hoping that we're not you're gonna have this send out Huge exclusive products. Excuse me. For games. Yeah, like like other merchandise. Like other merchandise. I need a t shirt. I need a figure. I need a soundtrack. Yeah. I need some pictures. Some posters, some stickers, a water bottle. Statues. All types of stuff. Mm-hmm. I'ma need a whole lot now. For me to go into a store and be like, ⁓ let me get the new God of War. Right. Like, I don't, there's no, there's no Kratos axes or whatever with this. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Can I get the Blades of Chaos? Yeah. Something. Something. Cause you I don't pre-order no more. No. For what? Like, for me, it's not worth pre-ordering. The stuff that you get in the pre-order. I literally can just wait and find it on eBay. But that's what happens. Yeah. It depending on the game, depending on the game. It's very rare though. But depending on the game, I'll only pre order if it if it offers like like a week early access. Mm-hmm. Something like that. Like that that's that's pretty much the only reason that I would purchase a ⁓ purchase a pre order would be for to be able to play it, you know, a couple of days early or something like that. I I only want the stuff. That's it. And I've learned if I wait, somebody's just gonna sell that. They're gonna be sell, they're gonna be low on cash. Mm-hmm. They're gonna be like, yo, I dropped $150 on this collecting set. Yeah. Rent due. Yeah. I'm tired of drinking tuna water. Let's see if I can't recurp s recoup some of this money. I made an impulse of buy. Yep. Yeah. I I purchased this impulsively. That was my mistake. I get some of this money back. So we got this other big issue. We got game preservation. Games disappear from story. We already talked about it. You know, servers shut down, games disappear. There's no game preservation anymore. No. ⁓ Like I'm still struggling with people to find groups on Exo Primer. Oof. I love that game. Are you finding are you finding groups? Very few. One time it took me 45 minutes to get a group. ⁓ wow. 45 minutes sitting there to get a group going. Just waiting. Just spinning. Just waiting. And the crazy thing is, when we got into the group, we didn't leave. No. You know why? Because all of those people were waiting forty five minutes too. Yeah. They like, you know what? I found people. We're we're not we're we're gonna see this through. Anytime you can run a campaign the whole game with ⁓ the same group. ⁓ yeah, they were locked in. They were dead. I wanted to get off. I would just try to play a little bit. Nope. Seven and a half hours later. We done. And I'm you can't. You like you can't you can't get there's no quitting now. Nah. In between missions, you yo, I got bio break. Let me grab food. Like we pausing for each other. Yeah. So we that is life. R exactly. Like look, look, it's it's a commitment. You got a commitment to you and those people that you're in that game with now. Yo, after I would free, I was locked. I'm locked It's how you build a community, man. Yeah. I'm the only healer. I'm the I'm the I'm I'm the cornerstone. I'm that guy. I'm I'm keeping y'all alive. If I go the whole thing shut down. Yeah, so yeah, you had a responsibility. They not coming to see you, Otis. I mean, it was me. I don't understand. Yeah, you had a responsibility to those people, man. And that was a big responsibility to carry. Like that weight, that pressure, that feeling of yo, if I leave, they gon' hate on me, they gon' find out everything. Let me just lock in. That's the ⁓ that's that's some of the that's some of the best And also worst parts of gaming. Yeah. Is that is that experience. So we know this is the death of GameStop, right? Again. You here's the thing. GameStop bought Think Geek. ⁓ You might as well buy Hot Topic. Just consume it all. Consume all those stores and just make one big retail spot. There's gonna be fewer trade-ins, less used inventory, ⁓ less reasons for collectors to even come into the store. Cause first off, I'm not buying a pop at GameStop. That's only like $25. Yeah, for what? I go to Raw's. Get the same pop. Same pop. Come on. Why would I do that? And I got Ross and I got yard sales and things like that. Like I eBay's even better. Yeah. You know, they've already f shifted a little bit towards collectibles and trading cards. But the issue is you not a comic book shop. Ain't nobody going to GameStop for a Yu-Gi-Oh! or Pokemon tournament. Right. Yep. Ain't no tables set up in the back. Now would that blow your scene up? You expand your GameStop. Now you got four tables in the back for card games. Yep, you're running DD, you running magic, you're doing all Warhammer. Yeah. Like every day is a specific jump. Put your little rhyming station in the back. Yeah. Come vending machine. You kill it. You get so much traffic in your store. That's true. You know, every day you mark down cards. Like, yo, it's Pokemon Day. You buy five packs, we give you a six pack free. They gonna jump on it. Just to build their deck up right there. Yeah. That's that's how you ⁓ that's how you stay afloat, GameStop. But they not going to. No. They gonna fall apart. They can't survive on digital only. And you not going there buying T shirts and novelty things and stuff like that. There's better places to purchase that stuff. That's true. Better places. Now here's the big thing. Will Xbox and Nintendo follow? I feel like it's only a matter of time. I know Xbox is going to. Yeah. ⁓ yeah. Without a doubt. They already they like, what we've been working on this. Yeah. Yeah. Our next console's gonna be all digital anyway. All digital. Now Nintendo. I don't think Nintendo gonna follow. Nint Nintendo, like, listen, you is this what you want? You wanna see, hold, feel? We got you. Why Nintendo won't. They have to play by any of these rules. They don't. But let me tell you why Nintendo won't do it. They don't have to do anything. Nintendo won't go all digital because they understand they fan base. That's also true. They know six, seven-year-old Timmy wants that cartridge. Mm-hmm. He wants that feeling of putting it in, taking it out, putting it in, taking it out, putting it in, taking it out. He wants to be able. Did you wait, did you ⁓ did you know on Nintendo you can lend games to people digitally? ⁓ no. Blew my mind. ⁓ well damn. You can lend a digital game. That's revolutionary. Well, damn, Nintendo. Who knew you can lend games? I didn't till I saw it. But but yeah, like my thing with yeah, my thing with Nintendo is Nintendo has still always and we talk about it, they always have done what they always have done. So whatever's going on with PlayStation and Xbox going all digital, it doesn't change anything. From Nintendo. Nintendo has been the same always. So guess what? We're gonna put these games out. They're gonna buy them. Why? Because they've been buying them. They're not gonna not buy ⁓ They come to Nintendo for certain things. They come to Nintendo for certain franchises that you will a hundred percent not be able to access anywhere else. And we can we can do whatever we we can make physical copies. We can do we can do whatever. It's there's there's nothing there's nothing that's gonna change for Nintendo. At all. Nintendo decided. That we wanna make sure you can't hack our system and play Switch One games on a Switch two. So we're gonna make the port different. We're just gonna change the cartridge. Now you can't put a Switch one game and a Switch two game. It ain't gonna work. Yep. So And if you got a downloaded version, you're gonna have to pay for that switch two upgrade. Yep. They got the business down locked. If everybody followed Nintendo, everybody would eat. Everybody would have been successful. Everybody. We wouldn't have these issues. Yep. We wouldn't have no complete and utter whatever's going on with meltdown over at Microsoft and Xbox with with all the game studios and all the stuff going on. All this old craziness that's going on over there. People shit losing their jobs and scrambles over there. You It's crazy to watch somebody's house burn down from the outside. Yeah, it's nuts. That's what it feels like. Like you feel like you're watching your neighbors lose their memories. Yeah, it's crazy. It it's it's wild what's going on. And we just cause here's the thing. Me personally, I'ma just jump I don't have to worry about console issues. Mm hmm. Cause I have multiple places to buy games. Yeah. Multiple. You shut one platform. If you shut down Steam tomorrow, I'ma be alright. Am I gonna go find out who was responsible for shutting it down and put hands on them? Of course. But I'm gonna be alright. I'm gonna get my game someplace else. I'm gonna keep gaming. I was gonna say something crazy, but then I'm like The health care worker dude. That was the reference I was gonna use. Yeah, turn. Yeah, I'm I'm glad you caught it. I'm glad you caught it. Yeah. It's still itching. It's still itching. All right, all right. Let's do crazy. Let's jump into the next section. Season four of From is done. It is, yes. If you have if you're not watching from or if you want to or w whatever. Spoilers. Do it. Yeah. Yeah. Spoil spoilers ahead for the series if you haven't already. And especially season season four. Because season four is done. My question is, did season four Live up to the hype. For me is For me watching the show, I don't think I ever really had a expectation. So like there was never really any hype to live up to for me. I was just I'm just along for the ride. I'm just I'm just waiting to get to whatever conclusion we're gonna get to from this series and whatever episode is next is on that journey. So I never really expected ⁓ anything crazy. ⁓ I know there were a lot of people that were looking for and expecting like I guess multiple main character deaths or ⁓ you know, stuff like that. And I one, I'm not really one of those people who like those sort of things. Mm. Like if it happens during the show while I'm alone ride and it happens like I'll all of a sudden and I we get that moment, it does enhance the experience of the show. Don't get me wrong. But I'm not looking, you know, watching a show and like, damn, I hope I hope we get like a major cast person die. Like somebody needs to die for the show to be intriguing. No. Like I'm you know, I'm I'm just gonna I'm gonna watch the show all the way through. Like it do that wouldn't make it I'm not looking for that to make the show better. Now, if it happens, that experience does, you know, turn ⁓ turn the tide in terms of momentum and, you know, evoking certain emotion out of the story. But for the most part, no. But yeah, I don't I didn't have any hype to for it to live up to. I just known from the first episode when I finally jumped in for it, I was like, okay. I I gotta f I gotta see this through. I gotta figure out exactly what the hell is going on on this show. Mm-hmm. And by the end of season four, I'm still trying to figure out what the hell we're gonna dive into it. For me, yeah. This this was one of the strongest seasons since one. Balance Horror, Mystery, character development was But much better than season three. This season four if I'm putting them in order, season four, season one, season two, season three. Okay. You know, We had the biggest there was some huge story developments. Yeah. We did we did we did advance a lot of things here. But every c answer created two more questions. Yes, it did. You know, we we we learned more about the bottle tree. We learn more about the children's bones. We more learn more about the man in yellow's influence over the town. We we learn the the facts that rituals appear to be Governed by how the town works. You know, we we at the same time we finally realized that how powerful the man in yellow really is. And as he like manipulated events, you know, he stole the talismans. He left the town more vulnerable than it's ever been. season four pushed These mysteries even further, you know? Here's the thing, like surrounding the mountain in yellow. I have an ideal of what he is because I've read material, old books fr that describe the man in yellow. I've read books that have something like the bottle tree in it. Okay. Like I've I've read old stuff that I'm like, I'm putting it into this show, like, ⁓ it's starting to make sense. It's starting to make more and more sense on on what's happening. This is this. This is Yeah. Right. Like in season four, who's your who's who's your who's your favorite character? Who's the strongest character? For me, I'd say my favorite character ⁓ is I guess throughout the series, my favorite character is is Kenny. But ⁓ okay. But for season f The equivalent of Glenn. But for ⁓ but for season four I And I've always liked Victor, but I I feel I don't know. I I I don't know. I just there's I'm I'm much more interested every time I see Victor on the screen because Victor a problem. Something exactly, because some problem because something there's there's something about and and I didn't I I guess I'm kinda sort of annoyed with his dad. I'm kinda sort of annoyed with Henry. Like he's I get it. I get it. I get it. Yeah, I get he struggled, but he's annoying. Yeah. Struggles are annoying. But Victor, I don't know. I I I'm I'm always more ⁓ entertained and intrigued by any like he's just looking for any like little subtleties or something with Victor. Mm-hmm. So I I gotta stay with Boyd. Harold P continues to carry the show. I mean he's exhausted. He's broken. He's losing people every season. He just won't quit. He to every difficult decision in this show falls on him. Every single one. He you like you can see the emotional weight getting heavier and heavier. Like they straight trying to rick. Crimesy. Yeah, my man, my man, my man tired. Like, he got a deal, he got a disease. What do you got? Parkinson's? Yeah. Early stage Parkinson? Like, he tryna struggle. He got an annoying son a crazy daughter in law. We ain't even gonna get we'll get to that. Mm-hmm. Like he his wife was tripping. He had to he had to put her the put her away. Yeah. Like you know, he almost lost his side piece, Donna. You tell come on. Come on. We talking about you talking about Harold and Donna not doing things. Boyd, I mean Boyd. Cause Donna's married in real life. Her husband got he got killed in the pool. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Dale. But like, you talking about two you you mean Boyd and Donna. Ain't been at some point in their life Come on. You tell me you wouldn't? Ain't nothing wrong with Donna? Thick old Jung. Yeah, nah. Running things? Yeah, nah. He probably thinking to himself, I've I I gotta deal with so much. I just need a strong woman to put me my place every once in a while to keep me straight. You know, make sure these pipes don't get clogged up so I can stay clear headed. And Donna just doing doing what she can for the town. She just helping the town out. She knows Boyd needs this this this little extra attention. Ain't nothing personal with her. She doing business. Yeah. I mean, they they they do a lot of business in Colony House. A lot of business. So, you know. That's that's all Donna doing. That's it. Why do you think all of us why you think he be at Pakani House so much? Yeah, yeah. When when when when the heart attack happened, he was he about to lose his thing. He was like nah, he was like, No, you n nah do you this ain't happening. No. You can't do that. Nah. You can't do that. Yeah. Well, let's Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Come on, we know what Donna's doing. Donna and boy. We know what's up. We know what's up. It's crazy. It's not it's cool. I gotta jump around because I don't wanna 'Cause the point I wanna bring up is gonna pretty much end it. But you you know who ⁓ so I will say this. and I guess because earlier on in the season we had I guess she ⁓ I'm talking about Julie here. We didn't get a whole lot of ⁓ what we got from the previous season with the, you know, storywalking and all that stuff like that. But by looking back at the season and all of the stuff like she She got to a point where she's like, This this is this ain't none of this is working. Like this is all this is all stupid. Which is why we didn't get any more which is why we didn't get any more story story walking. Like the stuff that she tried to do, go in, do the bookmark thing and all that. None of that stuff wound up paning out. So she's just kinda like disenchanted with it and detached. So now she's just, you know, going out with that whole teenage angst and smoking that herb and And here's being all disgruntled. You know she ain't never read no comic book. No. Cause here's the thing. If I'm jumping, I'm practicing. Yeah, no, she did it one. She did it a couple times. Didn't work out. She's ⁓ I'm done. I'm locked in. That's all I'm doing. I'm building my powers. You one of the only people who got warping space time capability, you you tell him I will be spending every waking moment perfecting my craft, getting stronger, and being able to story walk everywhere and from. Everywhere in the town. And that's my thing, it's like, yo, you you just you just like all right, well I'm just not gonna do that no more. Huh? She she hang it. The ball she hang it. Randall. He a loser. Yeah, Randall is a loser. He a loser. First off. They tried to make have him come around like to be likable, but he's not. No. First off, what Wolverine healing power do you got? Did that scargone? Did you notice that? There's a whole scene, all that scar on his face, pretty much gone. I'ma find a picture for you. I saw it and I'm like, wait, where where's your mouth scar? What's up with you, Randall? Are you even the right Randall? Yeah, is this yeah, right? Is this even you? He might not even random no more. We finally get Some answers. Very few. We still don't know exactly what the town is. Right. Who created it? Well, we know the man in yellow created it. can people really get out? We know people can get out. Tabitha got out. Yes. Who stupid and came back? ⁓ she I ⁓ she is she is not my favorite character in the show. No, what's the black boy who lost the eye? ⁓ Elgin. I hated him. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I hated Elgin. Yeah. When he showed to John the picture You deserve to be donated. Correct. Yeah. Come on, deserved it. Yeah. Yeah. You should have took that picture and ran straight to Boyd. Be like, hey, could yeah, I need you to look at something right now. Facts. Nah he no. You so goofy and and I don't want to say he had an intellectual disability, but he got a little touch of something. He wasn't. He he was not the swiftest. No. No. He's not the swiftest. No. So dumb. So dumb. That we gone. Cause he wanted to do something stupid. And the wild thing, the big joint was helping out the monster. ⁓ yeah. Yeah. With ⁓ Clara? Clara. She pullin'? First off, I mad at her. I'm not. Yeah, look, what you gonna do? Your cardio is low. Yeah, I mean your fight game is zero. Zero. All you trying to do now is survive and get out. So you you gotta pull a devil's advocate. Right. Listen, I I have no other I have no other options here. I'm not mad at her. Like, I know c I've read online people like how could she? How couldn't you? She was. She first of all, she got isolated. Okay. So Sophia, aka Man in Yellow, had her isolated. Ain't no first of all, ain't nobody looking for Clara. All right. Clara ain't that type of person where it's like, ⁓ yo, where Clara at? Where Clara at? Where Clara at? Ain't nobody looking for her. So she was able to get taken away and ain't nobody missing her. Ain't nobody gonna be like, yo, let me go check and see where Clara at. Nobody's doing that. So now you locked in with Sophia. And she got you taking down ⁓ talisman and doing all this other stuff, like the problem is these people the people who are partnered up usually survive a lot longer. Mm-hmm. And that's what Claire's issue was. Claire ain't find no dude or a chick or nobody to be a part of her life. She was just floating behind the scene. And that's your problem. Yep. That that makes you it makes you an easy target. Me I'ma be loud, voisterous, I'ma be in everybody business. You gon' know when I'm not around. You can be like, damn, it's quiet in here. Where Devin at? Seriously. That's it. There's two things you gotta work on and from. Your cardio. Mm-hmm. In your presence. Yeah. Everybody first off, Clara, why you not running? I'ma drop several LBs being there. First off, I gotta eat vegetables and sh all day. ⁓ yeah, for real. So I'm I know I'm not gonna be eating crazy. Soon as the sun come out, just out there. Hitting it. Up and down. Yep. Just keep running. Cause those monsters don't run. So that means you can outrun ⁓ Exactly. It's all about stamina. How far are you doing a day? I got ten miles a day. Yep. Easy. Just try to make it eleven tomorrow. 'Cause you can't drive out to town. Ain't nobody say you couldn't walk out to town. thinking that. You know what? That would I I I would actually that would be the greatest ending ever. You just leave if somebody step over the tree. If somebody if somebody just somebody just tried to you know what, let me just try this real quick. And then they just vanish. Then they back in the real world. Just I'm done. Pull a pull a ⁓ a beetle juice, draw the door on the draw a door with some chalk, knock three times. Done. You out. Done. Congratulations. Congratulations. W what was the biggest shock to the season for you? The biggest shock was I'll tell you what the biggest shock was. It was one of those things where it was, no, don't do this. No, you can't do this. That's not gonna happen. Damn, you gonna do this? No, okay. So this this was this was the Smiley and Kenny bus ⁓ busting like ⁓ yeah. So when they had the whole ⁓ they had the whole plan to ⁓ CFD Was it the yeah, if the stick would work and killing one of ⁓ 'cause it killed the the the doll. Yeah, the puppet doll monster thingy. So, you know, they advised that whole plan, but Sophia was there so she was able to counteract all that, put all the pieces in place and block all the the exitslash entrances that Kenny would be able to get back into safely. And then so I'm like, yo I'm like, Nah, you're not going. Not about to just do my man in like this. This this not gonna happen. Nah. Nah. I'm like, come on, you we You're not gonna pull a dead on him. Yeah, I'm like, don't do this. Don't do this. So I'm like, all right, he gonna get away, he gonna get away. Then they get on the bus and just smiley on it, but I'm like, nah, we not gonna do this. Then they show then they show five to mud and all this back and forth. And I'm like, ⁓ nah. I'm I'm like I'm like something I'm like, you we gotta something gotta happen. And then You know, once they they played on the whole connection thing and she was able to stop Smiley from from from offering from offering my man Kenny. I was just wondering whew. First off, I don't know why they thought that Skeletor Havoc staff was gonna work. Yeah, I they had nothing else to go on. That Fatima thing. Jumping straight to the end of the series, Fantum is a monster. That was never a shock to me. Yeah, no. I knew you was a monster from the gate. Why? Too many things first off, you suck as a human being. She does. She sucked at a human being. She offered nothing but annoyance and compassion for the young boy. And his Linny Kravis ass, he gotta go too. Like No. No. You don't do first button up your shirt. We don't need to see that bird out. I mean, we don't need to see none of that. Be a better son to your dad trying his best. That's what irked me. Yeah, yeah. You're not really you ain't really trying to calm him down to help him or ease some of this stress or tension. He was a good dad up until they were there. Yeah. Now all of a sudden he had to double tap your mom to put her down because she trippin'. Now all of a sudden you want to catch feelings. You don't think you don't think he bothered by that? Man, distraught. Now he got to deal with your angry ass, you grown ass man. Tighten it up. Tighten it up. Ellis, tighten that shit up. You trash. Now you messing with this demonic chick, this hippie john. She got you smoking peyote and painting pictures. You well you know what? It's personal for me. Let me tell you why. I'm about to get a little history. It's personal. Tell tell him why you mad. My uncle was into that hippie lifestyle. Okay. He started messing with this other chick. And she was into that hippie lifestyle. She convinced him that natural healing was gonna help him out. My man had three strokes after that. He still with us. But he had three strokes on that hippie life. Listening to this bird. So when I see Ellis, I'm like, yo, you was a You're a military kid. Now you with this tree hugger and she got you thinking, you know, banging on bongo drums and rubbing essential oils is gonna keep you alive. And then he still stayed with her. Yo, she gave birth to a monster baby and you still stayed there. He did. So your girl out there cheating. Metaphorically, whatever. And then got a got pregnant by another dude. Whoever that dude was. Metaphorically, whatever. You gave birth and you still by her side. And you watch her eating trash. ⁓ rotten vegetables. Building golems. Like when'd you get Jewish? I golems are Jewish. That's a Jewish thing. Now all of a sudden. Yeah, I I knew I knew it was over when she started eating started eating all that rotten stuff. I was like, yeah That's her. That's her. You ain't worth nothing. And then when you turn to the monster, I'm like, all right. What I've been through this. You sh you should have been turned to a monster. And you like, cool. Like you should have been turned to a monster. Now all of a sudden you want to talk to him and communicate with him so your friends can get away. What does that mean for the group? Right. We don't know. It's over now. It's over now. Now we gotta sit wait till season five to figure out is she sleeping in caves? Is she still gonna sleep with Alice? 'Cause I ain't letting it back in the house. ⁓ no, no, that's that's a rat. Yeah, like like what like what level of of monster are you? Or you she full blown. But but it's like you just got the two faced joint and everything. Right, yeah. So but it's like what you w what you know Shane on their side. No. But She's smiley's mom. But he's gonna think Ellis gonna be like, ⁓ no, we can save her. That's what's gonna happen. You right, because he's dumb. That's what's gonna happen. Dumb. We can save her. We gotta go back. She helped us. She helped us. No, she's still in there. She's still in there. That's what's gonna happen. Nah. I can't be a part of it. I can't. They don't this it's so much going on in the show. Like the you know, the fi the writers finally give it a little piece of the puzzle. But they introduce new mysteries. We still don't know first off, they pulled the tree out of the ground. They did. And that beam of light. Then the first off, they've real calm about stuff that's going on in this town. If the sky goes first off, it's middle of the day. You ain't never seen that before. But you ain't that bother. I mean, I get okay, look, you you where you at and stuff just happening, but that ain't never happened before. I'm out there, it's the middle of the day and it got dark. Then it's like some violent red lightning. And y'all chill. Nah. First off, can you gotta I'm not saying everybody's life is unimportant, but not everybody need to be alive and from. The chick who lost half her face and trippin' and shot the window. Whoa, come on. What's up with you? Straight in the box. Straight in the box. She'd have got kicked out the back of the the joint. I'd have just opened the door and be you know what? Why are we not leaving people? She don't want to be here now, no way. Right? Why are we le why are we not if if you and I out and from and you start tripping, I love you to death. But I gotta go. Yeah, just We'll recoup the next day if you survive. Yeah, like I yeah, I can't stay here. Here's a rule. If I'm not with you, consider me gone. If you can't see me, consider me gone. There's no hard feelings. There's no repercussions. I'm not gonna get if I survive, I'm not gonna get back to the town. I'm like, why you ain't look for me? I'm like, yo, thanks for not coming out there looking for me. Bam, high five. Put putting yourself in danger. Right? Let's go grab something to eat out of diner. Exactly. Recoup like damn. Like, damn, you made it? All right, cool. Let's go grab something to eat. That's it. I'ma be more mad that you went out there looking for me in that scenario. And you ain't you ain't no I could have been gone. Gone. You're not gonna be gone and you go you going out there. Yeah, you going out there risking your life. This this ain't no national park. I mean With all that stuff going on, this is not a national park. This is not ⁓ Schoolkill County or some something like that. This is another world. Don't look for me. Yeah, nah. Don't look for me. Cause the be crazy thing is when the sun goes down, I'm not looking for you. Nah, I'm I'm I'm locked in. Sun go down. I w I'm a b ⁓ listen, I'm I'm gonna be where I need to be before the bell. Way before the bell. I'm I'm already locked in. Boy ringing, my I'm already locked up. Yeah, I'm like, ⁓ all right. What we doing? Yeah, I know I'm already I'd already eight. First off, I'm not outside of exercise, I'm not leaving my crib. ⁓ you know. ⁓ there's nothing else for me out there. They got windows you can look out of? No. I'm boarding up every single window. You gonna have if n with if I don't have a talisman, you gonna have to work to get in here. Yeah, nah. Mm mm. I'm bor I'm having spikes outside. I'm treating y'all like zombies. Yeah, no man, no. First off, ain't nobody got an axe, a sword, an office? Yeah, where the l the where the long sharp things at? Go for the net. Something. Can't nobody blacksmith? Right? Y'all got all them people out ⁓ there. Right? Yeah. Can't nobody just make some blunt sharp objects? Nobody. Everybody depending on these these force multipliers. We know that don't work. You need to keep distance, pole arms. Right. You know, something to keep you at a distance so you can ⁓ poke, redirect, run. You know, you're not trying to fight ⁓ You just trying to touch you. Exactly. Cause once they get in the swiping distance, it's game over. It's over. Like the junkie nurse. Yeah, ⁓ why am I forgetting her name? You f ⁓ you know them all. I don't Yeah, yeah, I'm I'm forgetting her name right now. I n you I she I she always bothered me. I knew she wasn't gonna make it. Nah. I'm waiting for the cop lady to go too. ⁓ yeah, ⁓ Acosta. Yeah, she gotta go too. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, shit, no problem. You gotta get rid of nine I think season five is gonna be a Game of Thrones drawing where people just go. People start going. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You cut the town down in half. You burn down Colony House. You gotta burn down Colony House. Burn down Colony House. Get those people out of there. Wipe half those people gone. Move everybody into the town. Move everybody into a town. Get it real centered and collective so that we can have a a more concentrated group of people to focus on. You know. We'll see. Yeah, we'll see. We'll see. And here's a We're getting close to the end of this the end of the the the series. So season five is it. Season five ends the series. Final thought on this, on my point. I'm gonna get a little piece of information for anybody listening. The people in the town Mean absolutely nothing. This is a battle between good and evil. Why? The little boy in white? That's you good. Cryptic answers, dumb stuff. We've seen that trope before. Man in yellow, whole bunch of rules. That tree they pulled out, they just opened the door. They opened the door. That's what this is. They're just caught in the middle of some old school ass ancient battle. Mm-hmm. They're part of a system designed to contain something much older than humanity, which is the man in yellow. I can send out some put some reading material down in the box so y'all could check some stuff out, you know. But y'all ain't gonna read it. Y'all gonna be online and complaining about how we don't know nothing. Cause when they pulled that tree out, the villain, he got ballsy. He know what's going on. That's that's that's that's what I gotta say about it. Watch the show, people. Yeah, why what watch the show. Anything you want to add? ⁓ no, but I I feel like the ⁓ I don't know. I'm just I'm feeling like ⁓ season five, like you said, it's gonna be a lot of it's gonna be a lot of the ⁓ a lot of often lot of people going away. I feel like I feel like we're leading towards ⁓ because we haven't mentioned him at all during ⁓ us talking about this. I feel like we're leaning towards the ⁓ the great Gade sacrifice. Towards the end? I don't I don't know. I don't think they're gonna get rid of D. Cause he tried to sacrifice him once before. He like he not the guy. He we he's already made that art that you know he's a better person. He he's willing to put his life on the line. He's willing to do everything to help people get out. We already know that. Mm hmm. We're gonna lose. The Little Boy. ⁓ Ethan. Ethan, gone. Get Carl out of there. He's out. Ethan is gone. We're gonna lose Ethan. Here's the thing. We're gonna lose Ethan or Ethan's gonna be that magical power. AKA the boy in white. One or the other, yeah. Yeah. The mom, out. Tabitha, gone. She ain't making it. Yeah. To the end. I'm I'm cool. I'm cool with that. Boy is gonna make it. But it's gonna be like him being reunited with his wife. Remember in the in the gladiator when he was walking through the field and he saw his wife as he was going? ⁓ yeah. That's Boyd's ending. That's Boyd. Kenny, he's gonna be the main guy. It's gonna be Kenny, it's gonna be Donna, it's gonna be the son. and that's and there's gonna be maybe a couple other people. Victor. Victor's the man in yellow. It's it's very possible. Gotta be. Something like that. Why wha how you survive that long? Yeah, no talismans and a car. Mm-hmm. Yeah, you the man in yellow. Mm-hmm. Yeah, you the part of the man in yellow that's connected to his humanity. It's it's more than possible. So all I do is watch TV. Say it. That's all I do. And I'ma re watch up they s the director said I heard online that the director said that all the answers are in season one. I'ma look into that. I'll let you know. Yeah. I'll let you know. Alright. We're gonna end this. You know. It's been a great time. Let us know what you think about from season four. Let us know what you're doing about these PlayStation discs that you won't have in a couple years. Nope. You know, please feel free to like, share, comment, subscribe, share with your friends, tell everybody, and we see y'all again next week.