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The Middle of Culture is what happens when two siblings with too many opinions and not enough chill dive headfirst into movies, music, video games, and whatever else is rotting our brains this week. It’s part pop culture podcast, part sibling rivalry, and fully unfiltered. Expect passionate arguments, niche references, unsolicited rankings, and the occasional moment of unexpected insight. If you’ve ever wanted to eavesdrop on the kind of argument you’d hear at the family dinner table—only with better audio—this is your show.
Eden
00:00
We've really cooked this planet, huh? It's game it's game over for the human race. Cool.
Peter
00:18
Welcome back to the Middle of Culture. I am one of your hosts, Peter.
Eden
00:22
And I am your other host, Eden.
Peter
00:24
Eden, tell us about the snow that you got in Mayla.
Eden
00:30
So here was the here's the funny part. This is why it's a funny story. We didn't get that much. Apparently, as I heard, uh uh Aubrey got a lot more than me. Oh wait, I gotta crack open my beverage, folks.
Peter
00:41
Do it.
Eden
00:42
Come on. There we go. Drinking a Mike's Hard Lemonade hard apple tackle.
Peter
00:50
Hard apple tackle.
Eden
00:51
Cassie can't Because Cassie can't drink anything with apple in it, so I have to drink the apple beers.
Peter
00:57
Ah, okay. There you go.
Eden
00:59
She has a weird allergy to raw apple. That also That also carries over to apple cider. But cooked apple, fine. But raw apple, apple cider, they'll make her uh they'll make her stomach upset. It's weird.
Peter
01:12
Well that's that's no fun.
Eden
01:14
I mean It's also true of pears, but those are really the only two freaks that do it. It's weird.
Peter
01:21
That is really odd.
Eden
01:23
It was one of those things that we figured out really fast when she decided she needed to do an elimination diet because she was like, I just don't feel good and I can't figure out why I don't feel good. And then she ate an apple every day with her lunch. And once she dropped the apple from her everyday lunch, she felt better. Probably. Anyway, so snow. Uh I so I wake up at four o'clock this morning because Liza wants to go outside. And I go and I can't even I it is a struggle to push the back door open.
Peter
01:55
Oh jeez.
Eden
01:56
Because it's all just like piled up against the back door. And of course then she takes one look out the door and she's like, fuck you very much. I'm not going out there. And I'm like, no, you need to go pee. And so I would usher her out. And then close the door, and then I can just see her through the storm door just looking up at me like, I'm gonna kill you when I come back inside. And then she finally peed, and then I brought her back inside, and then she hopped up in bed, and she was cold and wet, and that's what I deserve for kicking her out of the b house. Anyway, this morning. Still true. I can barely open the door. I start scraping the patio a little bit just so we can get the door open enough so that the dogs are able to pass. They they really hate to walk straight out into the snow, so you gotta clear at least out to the grass and then they'll go out into the grass and use the bathroom. Okay. If the patio is also covered in snow, they're like, no, I'm not going outside in this.
Peter
02:47
Sure, sure.
Eden
02:48
It's weird Anyway, so I I I clear, you know, maybe like a six foot wide path from the back door to the edge of the patio, and then I was like, okay, this is heavy, it's you know, a good six, eight inches deep It's very, very heavy. It's weirdly with every scoop, half of it is sticking to the shovel still.
Peter
03:09
Oh, one of those.
Eden
03:12
So I'm like, okay, I might not do any more scraping in the back here. I gotta at least go do the front uh walk so that the mail person can sure sure So I traipsed through the house to the front door because I can't walk through all the thick snow. And Cassie's like, what are you doing? Why are you bringing this shovel inside? And I was like, I'm going to shovel the front walk because that's what matters most. And then I open the front door and it's a dusting. Because the snow because the wind had blown so cluciferously from east to west that everything on the back half of our house went up straight into our back entry. Piled to the house. From our front yard. was across the street on the neighbor's front yard. So like legitimately it took me like five seconds, not five seconds, five minutes to clear the walkways on the front of the house. And then I was like, well I guess I'll go Clean up the back a little more. But it was it was a pleasant surprise. But uh that's that was the surprise that I hmm.
Peter
04:18
There you go.
Eden
04:19
Anyway, how how you been?
Peter
04:21
I've been okay. It's been busy. Um Travel swim meets, you know, four days of sitting on bleachers and your butt just gets tired and it's unpleasant.
Eden
04:34
You know you do that and you understand why them old people who go to the football games take their little bleacher chair bleach.
Peter
04:41
But at the same time, as I'm sitting there and some people in front of us are setting up their bleacher chair things and taking up two times as much space. as everyone else around them. I I thought to myself, I get it, but also fuck you. So yeah. You know that's fair. But uh other than that, you know, just kind of cruising along and uh trying to anticip I I It was it it snowed like a week ago here. The most snow we've got all winter, and now it's gonna be 75 by Wednesday. We're going down to St. George next week for spring break. I don't know what to expect. This week, St. George is going to be hitting 97.
Eden
05:26
Jesus, in March?
Peter
05:28
In March.
Eden
05:29
We've really cooked this planet, huh?
Peter
05:31
Yeah. Yeah, we really have.
Eden
05:32
It's game over for the human race. Cool. I was gonna make jokes about how, you know, thanks to the idiots in charge of our country we have entered the century of American the American century of humiliation. But uh it also might be entering the human century of annihilation. Yeehaw.
Peter
05:48
You know? Well, maybe it's what we deserve.
Eden
05:51
But here's the thing. At least a very, very small group of sociopathic weirdos made a a whole lot of money.
Peter
06:01
That's so good. So good for them.
Eden
06:03
Uh whatever they're gonna love. I love to make uh increase profits for the shareholders.
Peter
06:10
You know, it just feels like that's why we're here That's all we are. That's why I'm here. Grist for the mill. That's why I'm here. Well, what have you been checking out lately? Anything interesting?
Eden
06:20
Yeah, a couple things I want to mention. So first off, uh It was March Badness uh on Saturday. We've talked about it last year, uh when I went to the first March Badness with my friend. Well, it was the first one I went to.
Peter
06:33
Sure, sure. Yeah.
Eden
06:34
They've been doing it since I think they said 2022. So this was the fifth or sixth time. that they've done March Badness. Uh anyway, we w studiously watched uh thirty two trailers and then did a best of thirty-two bracket down to sixteen, from sixteen down to eight From eight down to four. So then we showed up on Saturday night. We're presented with four terrible movies to pick from. And uh we picked Two real stinkers. And it was a delight to watch them with my friends. The first one we watched was Oblivion, which is like I want to say 90s uh probably is when Oblivion was made
Peter
07:16
It is a space western where like the town of Oblivion is specifically like a western town, but it's in now I'm gonna just cut in here really fast. This is not the 2013 Oblivion with Tom Cruise.
Eden
07:32
With Tomothy Cruz? No. This is the 1990s Oblivion starring the very s the very tall man from uh Twin Peaks, whose name I can't think of. Uh he plays a mortician wearing a very tall top hat, which puts him at approximately eight and a half feet tall. It's funny every time he's in frame.
Peter
07:51
Okay.
Eden
07:52
Um anyway, this this alien comes to town, shoots the the marshal, and then the marshal's son has to, you know, do some dumb Western shenanigans. It wasn't very good. Um it was it was one of those ones that was a bad movie, but it was also a kind of boring bad movie, and it was occasionally funny. But most of the time it was just bad. And then we watched the second movie, which is a 1980s film called Little Squad. The names already sounded good. You might wonder, Eden, what's Hell Squad about? Well, let's just say the um ambassad the son of an ambassador of an unnamed Arab nation uh has been kidnapped uh to try to extort the secrets for the ultra-neutron bomb, aka the UN bomb. Uh and they give them yeah Uh some choices were being made. They give them thirty days to meet their demands. And so what does the assistant of the ambassador decide to do? Well, the only thing that would ever make sense We've got to hire uh the former my a former associate of mine who just happens to be a uh Vegas Dancer and all of her Vegas Dancer friends to become a murder mercenary squad of hotties with naughty bodies. This is an excuse to see a number of women in scantily slash very little slash sometimes no clothes Um, they all do end up getting trained as mercenaries. They are shipped off to the Middle East, which then just becomes the weirdest, most stultifying 30 to 40 minutes of film. where every they they're in this large suite together that has of course one very large bathtub in it So of course all the girls have to get in the bathtub together. Sure. Um the phone the phone would ring and Jen, the main girl, has to get out, flashes her titties a little bit. answer the phone and be told, Oh, you need to be ready to go at five AM tomorrow and then it cuts to them uh driving their two Jeeps through the desert. Uh cut to the exact same song every single time. They clearly paid for one song on the soundtrack and they got their money's worth out of it. Go to a random location, kill a bunch of Kill a bunch of brown men, uh, not find the ambassador's son, and then go back and get back in the tub. And then get a phone call. It was so weird how cyclical this was for a good forty minutes. Eventually they find the guy and it's whatever. And then they find out and and then of course the very last scene of the film, they go and they're talking to the ambassador, and he's like, Oh and they're like, Oh, they we were clearly being fed information, but no one should have been able to feed us that information unless there's a traitor in our ranks Oh, your secretary is actually a man in disguise. So we threw a little transphobia in there at the very end too. It was a delightful film. And by delightful I mean it was one of the worst movies. I've ever seen in my life. And I watch a lot of bad movies.
Peter
11:13
I was gonna say, you you have watched a lot of bad movies.
Eden
11:17
There's one movie I would maybe say is worse than this. Okay. And that is 2025's War of the Worlds starring Ice King.
Peter
11:26
There you go.
Eden
11:27
That is perhaps the only movie I can think of that was worse than Hell Squad. Because I would watch Hell Squad again. That's not true. If someone said, do you want to make fun of the 2025 War of the Worlds with me? I would say, yes, I do. More than anything. It is, however, the worst movie I've ever seen. But this is maybe second.
Peter
11:46
Wow. That's rough.
Eden
11:48
Then the only other thing I will mention is so my colleague at the comic shop, Jackson and I, have been diving back through um How should we say uh eighties and nineties comics just for fun? I uh w I have uh so there is a comic company from the nineties called Defiant Comics, which was the company that Jim Shooter started After he got fired from Valiant, which was the company that Jim Shooter started after he got fired from Marvel.
Peter
12:18
So there's a pattern here.
Eden
12:20
So there's a pattern here. The thing about Jim Shooter is he's a very merc he was a very mercurial man that was easy to piss people off and get fired So I have uh the biggest and most important, the lead book of Defiant Comics, which was named Warriors of Plasm. Which I've maybe mentioned here before. It's not a particularly good comic. It looks pretty cool because David Latham is drawing it, and the colors are some of the greatest colors you've ever seen. It's one of those things where I I look at it and I think, we have fallen as a society because we now try to do realistic comic colors instead of these incredible, incredible uh tone pieces when it comes to our comic. So Uh this was a couple years ago. I g I read the Olive Warriors of Plasm, except I never read issue zero. Do you want to know why I never read issue zero, Peter? Why is that? Because it was released as a series of cards. Oh. Interesting. A regular comic. It is a series of trading cards that you then put into the three by three trading card holders to actually make comic book pages.
Peter
13:27
Hmm.
Eden
13:28
And like I knew this existed, but I never wanted to, I never really got around to hunting it down or anything. But then someone brought it into the comic shop a couple of weeks ago. And wanted to sell their collection and this was in there. And so my boss was like, do you just want this thing? They they go for $10 on eBay. I'm just like, what? Whisk my arm, why don't you? So anyway, I've I I you know put it all together and I read it and it was cool. Uh uh it's a really novel experience of of putting a comic together that way. But that has led me down a hole talking with my colleague Jackson about all these weird like comics companies that largely were part of the 80s, 90s, indie boom, which also led me down a rabbit hole of reading a whole lot of Ms. Mystic. Have you ever heard of the comic character Ms Mystic, Peter?
Peter
14:22
No, never.
Eden
14:23
That's that's because she got fifteen comics ever. But here's the important thing. Okay She's got the coolest com the coolest outfit you will ever see in a comic. I'm gonna put into the chat. An ex that's not it. That's the link to this exact call. Thank you for falling asleep. Uh stupid uh keyboard fell asleep on me. Anyway, take a look at this cool picture. Every single time her outfit is made, it is done with zippotone. So it is this cool gradient. Every single time that she appears on panel. And it is one of the coolest looking things I've ever seen. And very interesting. It's not a particularly good comic, but it's pretty good. And so I think I just decided uh Arbitrarily, I think Ms. Mystic's now my favorite superhero.
Peter
15:22
Okay.
Eden
15:23
Why not? Pick they're not good comics. She-Hulk's a had much better comics. She-Hulk's still number two, probably. But uh look how cool this is. And who doesn't want to be like when someone says, who's your favorite superhero? Be like, well have you ever heard of the comic company Continuity Comics that was started by Neil Adams in 1984 after he left DC Uh well, now I can be that person.
Peter
15:47
Now you can be that person.
Eden
15:50
I read the first nine issues, um, and then there's a big crossover called Death Watch 2000. uh which I was able to buy all 19 issues of for an extremely good price on eBay. And so they're on the way. So I'm gonna keep reading it. I may fall down the rabbit hole of saying, do I need to own every single comic that continuity ever put out? It wouldn't surprise me.
Peter
16:15
That sounds like that could be a the collection
Eden
16:18
The the collector's mind is just so str the the pull is so strong. You understand.
Peter
16:23
I do. I fully understand that. Yes, yes we do.
Eden
16:27
That's what I've been checking out. What you been checking out?
Peter
16:29
Well, you know, I don't have anything quite that interesting, and and I'll be fairly quick because it's just been busy. It's been so busy. A couple things I will mention is the new Lamb of God album came out on Friday, Into Oblivion. I really like Lamb of God. There's I don't know, just uh uh there is an anger, there is an underlying sense of violence to their music that I think is appropriate for the world in which we find ourselves.
Eden
17:01
That's definitely true.
Peter
17:03
But I will say that their last album, Omens, which came out in 2022 was really the first one that didn't click for me. It had decent songs, but it it just it wasn't clicking. And so I was a little nervous that, you know, law of diminishing returns, they've been around for, you know, 20 plus years now. I thought maybe, maybe they've just lost it a little bit And then I heard one of the first singles for this album, and that was that single was called Sepsis. And Lamb of God is generally, you know, pretty fast, uh, aggressive, kind of somewhere between thrashy, groovy, sort of. This song starts out and it is just like. a fuzzy bass groove and it's slow and it's plotting. And I just remember saying out loud when I first heard, I was like, holy shit, is Lamb of God going sludge? Now, the first half of the song is sludgy and then it gets to a traditional kind of faster get up, you know, picks up the pace and gets really aggressive. But it was so cool. that it was just this sludgy and like Randy Blythe isn't singing, but he's not growling, but it's like this spoken word, but this like aggressive spoken word where there's just like this just this feeling of menace and it was just cool. And I was like, okay, okay, maybe we're onto something here. And then the whole album dropped on Friday. And I've been listening to it kind of nonstop over the weekend. I really like it. It is short. It is a tight 10 songs, 39 minutes, just comes in, punches you in the nuts, and then says adios and and leaves. And so I I've been really enjoying it. It's really, I mean it's definitely So far, I would say it is my favorite Lamb of God album since at least probably Resolution, which I think was like 2012 or something like that. Um so it it's good. I'm liking it a lot. I've really enjoyed it. Uh the other thing I'll mention is I have now made it through f book four of Dungeon Crawler Carl. I finished that last night on the audiobook as we were driving back from Boise, and I'm liking it. Uh I think that they're they continue to be fun. But they continue to expand the world and the lore and with the epilogue especially of book four, you know, there's some things happening. It gives us more of a insight what's happening up on the surface of the planet. And and I'm enjoying it. I've started book five, but just barely, haven't much had time today. But I've been enjoying that. The other thing I will mention is I've mentioned before here on the podcast uh a little bit about the the rest is history podcast that I've I've started listening to that, really enjoy it signed up as a member of the Rest is History Club so I could get, you know, each series that they do, if you're a member of the Rest is History Club, they drop all anywhere between four to six episodes of that series at once. And then there's some, you know, Rest is History Club member only episodes that tie into what the main episodes are. But this year they announced that they were doing the inaugural Rest is History Festival in London, England. And you know, it's a two-day festival on the 4th and 5th of July at Hampton Court Palace, which is Henry VIII's palace. And um It's kind of two days of you know presentations, uh question and answer things with historical things with a bunch of different guests, super nerdy kind of stuff. And because uh and now I didn't realize I knew that the rest is history was a popular podcast, but according to the Wikipedia article, it is estimated that they have about 45,000 paying subscribers.
Eden
21:06
Oh wow.
Peter
21:07
Yes. And and episodes on YouTube get about a million streams per episode. And on Spotify it was like estimated like ten million streams or something. So lots of people listen to this podcast And and so they had to gate the tickets, and what they did is if you were a member of the rest is history club, you could put in a lottery to get tickets. And so I put in a lottery to get two tickets. And I found out last week that I was selected and I was able to buy two V I went for the VIP tickets because I'm like, if I'm gonna go, we're just gonna do this. And so I'm very excited that my wife and I will be going to London the first of July. We're going to probably spend about 10 days there. We'll do the rest as history festival in the middle of that. And then we're gonna we're gonna check out London. My wife has been there before. I've never been there, and I'm very excited to go to to London and and maybe visit some other places there.
Eden
22:04
Well that's really cool.
Peter
22:06
Yeah. So I was excited to to kind of have something to look forward to this summer of, you know, we're gonna like I say, we're gonna go to London, we're gonna spend some time there. So Very cool. Well, let's move on to our topic as it is for the day. We were originally going to watch a movie. We're going to come back to that, but I literally did not have time to watch a movie this last week. So instead what we're going to do is I'm going to see if I can share a window with you. And we are going to all right. Can you see that, Eden? I can. So you and I have complained about bracket websites and how cumbersome and everything they can be and and crapped up. So hey, you know, after my experience building my tier list website, guess what? We built this today. So this is a a little bracket website where you can put in however many things you want and generate it and then you can randomize it. And we are going to do a card game slash tabletop board game bracket. We're gonna move fast through these. We've got 64 entries, so we're gonna just start And we're gonna cruise and we're gonna see what we think ends up winning as the best tabletop slash board slash card game. Uh again, this is you know meat space game we're talking here. So Shall we start? Let's do it. Okay, we're gonna start over here. We're gonna start on the left. We're gonna run down all of these. Then we'll move over to round one on the other side. And we're gonna start over here with codenames versus ticket to ride.
Eden
23:45
I mean codenames is a better game.
Peter
23:47
Ticket to ride.
Eden
23:48
The thing about ticket to ride is the first two times you play it, you're like, this game's really great. And then the third time you're like, I'm kind of bored.
Peter
23:55
I have to admit that I agree. I really liked Ticket to Ride the first few times we played it and then we got it. And now every time uh my wife or somebody's like, let's play Ticket to Ride, I go, okay. So we're giving it to Codenames.
Eden
24:08
So I'm gonna I I like you, so I'm gonna do it, but this isn't the game I want to play right now.
Peter
24:14
Okay, Codenames gets it. All right, we have Poker versus Munchkin. Uh, poker. All right. I'll give it to you. I don't play poker, so I don't have any experience, but I mean it is like
Eden
24:27
The thing about munchkin is I don't like it very much. I liked it. There was a time in my life where I was a big munchkin stan, where I had, you know, four or five different varieties of it. You know, Adventure Time Munchkin, Super Munchkin.
Peter
24:44
Yep.
Eden
24:45
Regular original flavor, extra tasty, crispy. And do you know how many versions of Munchkin I own in 2026? Zero. Zero.
Peter
24:54
Alright, well I'll give it to poker. Fine. Uh Agricola and catchphrase. I gotta say I love catchphrase. Catchphrase is so dang much fun to play with people.
Eden
25:04
The thing about Agricola is if you're in the mood for it, it's great, but I'll always play catchphrase.
Peter
25:09
Exactly. Catchphrase is just pick it up, have fun, and go. Wits and wager wagers and balderdash. Can I be honest? I don't know that I've played either of these. So I would give it to Baldurdash. Uh Wits and Wagers, I do recall, and I recall having played it, but I don't remember it a ton. I think Baldurdash is Kind of more of like Baldur Dash is one of those you're coming up with uh definitions uh or things like that and you're trying to fool other people and and things. Okay So I'm gonna say Baldurdash. That's a fun one. Uh Dominion versus Gofish.
Eden
25:47
I mean, I'm not a huge Dominion fan, but it's better than GoFish.
Peter
25:51
Yes, it is. I agree. Uh Monopoly versus Stratego.
Eden
25:57
This was like the battle of the of of the Septigenarians, or even older than that, in uh Monopoly's case. Uh I hate Monopoly.
Peter
26:09
I despise Monopoly.
Eden
26:12
Again. That's the truth of the matter. Stratego, boring, but it's better than Monopoly.
Peter
26:17
It absolutely is. I mean, Monopoly is probably, in my opinion, the worst popular game. And and how it got so popular, I don't know, because it is a dog shit game
Eden
26:30
Well I'll tell you exactly why it got so popular, because it was the nineteen thirties and they didn't have good games back then and now the cultural uh production the the the the industry that is, well let's make a monopoly of this or that or the other, or let's make Iowa Cityopoly, or let's make Pocatelopoly, or whatever stupid thing we put on it.
Peter
26:51
Oh yeah.
Eden
26:51
And so people buy it. as a as a gift, but nobody wants to play Monopoly.
Peter
26:58
No. And if you especially if you play Monopoly the way the rules are written.
Eden
27:04
It's even worse.
Peter
27:05
And and all of a sudden people are like, well, that's that's a t this is a terrible game. You're like, yeah, no kidding. I've been telling you, it's a bad game. And we all know why. You know the history of Monopoly, right?
Eden
27:15
Uh I did at one point. I haven't looked into it recently. It is it was originally a two-part game. It was made by this weird Quaker socialist woman who was like Capitalism is bad. So the first half of the game is showing you why capitalism is the worst system. And then the second half of the game was supposed to be like, Now we're changing the rules and we're creating a commune society. And suddenly the game plays a lot better once it's not cutthroat capitalism. And then Milton Bradley was like, we gotta get this ideology out of here. What are we doing the capitalismo? Because it was literally designed to be like, wow, capitalism's bad, huh guys?
Peter
28:01
Yep. Alright. Well, it's a bad game. We're gonna move on. We've got charades versus Forbidden Island, but I'm gonna make a game, I'm gonna make a on the go change. Because I couldn't remember the name of the game I actually wanted here instead of charades, and now I just did. So we're gonna swap charades for gestures.
Eden
28:21
Okay, now you've now you've made it a contest because charades versus forbidden island is forbidden island. Correct. Gestures versus Forbidden Island, I still feel like I would go to Forbidden Island, but I'd play both
Peter
28:34
I think I agree with you that I we should give it to Forbidden Island, but I have so many good memories of playing gestures at mom and dad's house with Cheryl and Mike and just at like those New Year's Eve parties. Forbidden Island better.
Eden
28:55
Guest Your's is a delight. Don't get it twisted. But Forbidden Island is the grandpappy of uh popular co-op games that I actually want to sit through.
Peter
29:06
Yeah, it's a great game.
Eden
29:08
All right, cards against a half hour.
Peter
29:10
Exactly. Cards against humanity versus Scrabble. I'm curious to see your thoughts on this because I have feelings.
Eden
29:17
Can I be so honest with you right now?
Peter
29:19
Um, yeah, and I'm curious if you're gonna say what I'm feeling.
Eden
29:23
Cards Against Humanity was fun. Three times. And now I've seen all the funny cards and every funny, gross, sexual innuendo has been made. And now I find it most boring.
Peter
29:36
My thing is Cards Against Humanity seems fun and funny. Again, like you said, the first time or two play, and then afterwards, it just feels like It's the Edgelord game.
Eden
29:46
It's too pretty. I like what the company does. I like that they're kind of little shitheads about, you know We're buying up land at the border, so Trump can't build the wall and shit like that. I agree. That's that's funny, but I don't want to play the game ever again in my life.
Peter
30:02
Yeah.
Eden
30:02
And like I would rather play apples to apples over cards against humanity every time because it doesn't have that like current of meanness to it that Cards Against Humanity has. You can only make so many sex jokes before you're like, I'm kinda over it.
Peter
30:20
Tis true, so I'm gonna give it to Scrabble. Okay, Love Letter versus Ascension.
Eden
30:25
Okay. Love Letter, fun. Ascension, one of the great card games.
Peter
30:31
I love Ascension.
Eden
30:33
I love Ascension.
Peter
30:34
I think Ascension is absolutely a brilliant. And I didn't put it on here, but like Ascension Tactics. A very, very good game as well.
Eden
30:41
So I've never played Ascension Tactics.
Peter
30:43
So Ascension Tactics basically you have a big old board with hexes on it and you've got miniatures and stuff. And you're gonna you're gonna have different scenarios where you lay them out and then you're kind of playing Ascension, but instead of against the stack of cards in the middle you're playing against these things on the board and you're trying to move around and and defeat them. So I think Ascension is again I like Love Letter. Love Letter is a fun, quick game for people who have never played interesting games in their life because it's fairly easy to get, but it's not as deep. And I think Ascension is Ascension's a great game. So we're giving it to Ascension.
Eden
31:21
I love that Love Letter is 11 cards, so you can take it anywhere. Yep. But Ascension is Ascension. Would I r would I rather play Star Realms? Yeah. It's the same game. The mechanics are identical. They literally, the guys who made Ascension uh licensed the uh mechanics for Star Realms and made Ascension with it. And the reason I'd rather play Star Realms is it's this big of a box as opposed to this many expansions.
Peter
31:48
It depends which version of Star Realms you get.
Eden
31:52
Listen, I reject anything that's not the box that's this big.
Peter
31:56
Okay, I have two boxes this big full of Star Realms cards.
Eden
32:01
How dare. It was one perfect game and it was this big.
Peter
32:05
Alright. Guess who versus scattergories?
Eden
32:08
The Battle of the Mids? I don't know.
Peter
32:10
I'd give it to Scattergories. It's gonna lose the next round anyway. Candyland versus Telestrations.
Eden
32:17
Telestrations. Candyland is fun when you're five.
Peter
32:21
It is. Uno versus Settlers of Catan.
Eden
32:24
Settlers sucks. Here's the thing. It got so many of us into the hobby. I hate settlers of Catan. We don't even own it anymore. Last time we were going through our board games, Cassie was like, Fuck settlers of Catan. And I was like, That's fair. Fuck Settlers of Catan.
Peter
32:40
You know, I just am like, Uno, Uno is a stone cold classic.
Eden
32:44
Uno's one of the great card games. I mean it would have beat three quarter I mean it's gonna go the distance. If it wouldn't surprise me if Uno's in the final four or maybe takes the whole thing because it's Uno.
Peter
32:54
It is.
Eden
32:54
But Settlers of Catan I hate
Peter
32:57
All right, Puerto Rico versus Risk. Puerto Rico. I agree. I agree.
Eden
33:03
Especially the new version that took the slave free on.
Peter
33:06
Thank goodness. All right. Millbourne versus Pictionary
Eden
33:10
I love Millborne.
Peter
33:12
It's actually, it's a very fun game.
Eden
33:14
And we do have telestrations that did make it through, and I prefer Telestrations over Pictionary.
Peter
33:19
I agree.
Eden
33:20
But I'm good with either.
Peter
33:21
Oh, I'm good giving it to Millbourne. All right. Apple ooh, this is a rough one. Apples to apples versus Star Realms. I think it is. I'll give it to Star Realms, but I think, and here's the thing, I say this as someone who's played these games with a bunch of younger people. Sure. Apples to apples. More fun with a mixed group. How's that for the way to put it?
Eden
33:48
Swap it back. I'm good with Apple, because Ascension made it through. And they're the same game. We just posited that. So take Star Realms back off. Let's see if your thing can do that. Oh yeah.
Peter
33:59
It can. It can. I made sure I made sure it can do that.
Eden
34:02
All right.
Peter
34:03
Block us versus phase 10.
Eden
34:06
I mean I like both these fine. I don't feel one way or another about it.
Peter
34:09
Then I'm giving it to Phase Ten because I have many memories early on in my marriage of playing Phase Ten and having somewhat contentious experiences playing phase ten.
Eden
34:20
There you go.
Peter
34:21
So you you said uh ascension and star realms are exactly the same. I'm gonna do even one more. We're gonna go Battleship and Hero Realms, which Hero Realms is literally Star Realms What If Fantasy Fantasy
Eden
34:33
I mean, so I want to give to Battleship.
Peter
34:36
You know, I think we've got Ascension going, so I'm okay giving it to Battleship.
Eden
34:40
Would I rather play Hero Realms? Probably. But also Battleship.
Peter
34:44
Battleship is a classic.
Eden
34:46
Counterpoint. Battleship had a very bad movie starring Rihanna.
Peter
34:51
I mean, I've watched worse movies.
Eden
34:55
I just talked about much worse movies I've watched. And I again, no, I'm saying Counterpoint, we should give it to Battleship because Rihanna is
Peter
35:02
Oh, okay. I was like, I I actually don't think Battleship is nearly as bad of a movie as some people want to make it out. So I'm I'm giving it to Battleship. We're giving it to Battleship. Hearts versus sorry.
Eden
35:16
I mean hearts.
Peter
35:17
Okay. I'll give you that one.
Eden
35:19
I don't really care either way. Sari's like, what if uh aggravation but worse? And Hearts is, you know, we all played it on our Windows 95 PCs for five years.
Peter
35:30
That's the only place I ever played it.
Eden
35:32
Yeah, I've I've played it live once and it was spades, not Hearts.
Peter
35:36
Okay. All right. Connect four versus taboo.
Eden
35:39
I don't know, man.
Peter
35:40
I'm gonna give it to Taboo.
Eden
35:42
Yeah, I'm fine with that.
Peter
35:44
Jenga versus Checkers.
Eden
35:45
I mean Jenga beats checkers.
Peter
35:47
Hands down.
Eden
35:48
Jenga has Checkers has more strategy. Jenga is more fun.
Peter
35:52
It is. Waterworks versus Clue. Do you remember Waterworks?
Eden
35:56
I do. Isn't that the cards where you'd have to make the pipes?
Peter
35:59
Yes. And you'd have to like you could play a leaky pipe on somebody's pipe as long as it was the same shape, and then you could put little metal wrenches on it. I just have fond memories of those little gold metal wrenches.
Eden
36:11
But I also have fond memories of the pewter little uh weapons in the Oh yeah.
Peter
36:17
I mean, I wanted Waterworks to be on here because I think it's one of those that People of a certain generation have no idea and it has faded into obscurity, but clue is clue is is good. All right, rum rummy versus war.
Eden
36:31
I mean, Rumi is just what if Mahjong was not as cool? And war is pretty boring. So I'd want to give I pr I'm inclined to give it to Rami. Okay.
Peter
36:42
You know, I think either of these are you've got some cards and you don't know what else to do. You can play something. I think there is more to the game of Rummy than war.
Eden
36:52
Yeah, for sure.
Peter
36:53
So I think we give it to that. All right. The Little Flower Shop. I think you gave us this game.
Eden
36:59
The Little Flower Shop, one of the greatest games ever made. It beats Mastermind.
Peter
37:04
I agree.
Eden
37:06
Have you played the other little flower shop games?
Peter
37:08
No.
Eden
37:10
Little Flower Shop Dice game also very good, Peter.
Peter
37:14
Very good. Nope. It's a great game. Pandemic versus outburst.
Eden
37:18
I know what Outburst looks like. I don't know that I've ever played it, and Pandemic just takes too long.
Peter
37:24
So Outburst is fun. It's sort of like catchphrase, but instead of One thing at a time, you'll have a card that has like five things on each side and has a it's like it was always printed in red and blue, and you'd slide it into the little window. So you could actually see and then you had little plastic things on the slide. You'd s you'd slide them as people got it. You were trying to get through the whole card and the time. It was another one of those really fun games to play with a big group of people. I do vaguely remember I'm gonna give it to Outburst. Okay. I'm with that. Life versus exploding kittens.
Eden
37:59
I mean, I'm not a fan of either of them, so you can pick.
Peter
38:02
Uh I'm gonna give it to Exploding Kittens just because life is uh I don't know. Neither of them blow my mind back.
Eden
38:08
But all right. One time I was playing life. Where we were playing with some kids. I don't remember why Cassie and I were playing Life with Some Kids, but I put My character and my spouse when you get married were both little pink uh pink pegs. Uh-huh. And the kid was like You can't have two girls get married. And I said, watch me. And then I had two women be married and he just had to deal with it.
Peter
38:36
You know, people have to learn life lessons somehow.
Eden
38:38
So you know
Peter
38:40
Alright, Seven Wonders versus Sushi Go.
Eden
38:43
I really like Seven Wonders.
Peter
38:45
Okay.
Eden
38:46
But I I played Sushi Go, it was fine, but I really like Seven Wonders.
Peter
38:50
If you've got a I don't have a I don't have a strong feeling. I've I've played more personally. My kids have played more Sushigo. I've played more Seven Wonders. I say let's give it to Seven Wonders.
Eden
39:00
I do think Seven Wonders Duel is a better game.
Peter
39:03
Okay.
Eden
39:04
And it's nice because it's two-player only.
Peter
39:06
Yeah.
Eden
39:07
But uh Seven Wonders Regular is also good.
Peter
39:09
All right. Chess versus Trivial Pursuit.
Eden
39:12
I mean, you gotta give it to the granddaddy.
Peter
39:15
Yeah, I think so, even though I'm not a chess player.
Eden
39:19
I think about it. I like, you know, ponder what if I was a chess person sometimes Um, but I never follow through on it.
Peter
39:27
Okay. What about Old Main versus oh I accidentally put Krakusone, I meant Carcassonne.
Eden
39:33
Crackersone. I mean Carcassone is one of our faves.
Peter
39:37
I think it's a fun game
Eden
39:38
That that is like that early 2000s Euro that does work for us. That's our family, Settlers of Catan. I like that.
Peter
39:45
I think Carcassonne is better than Ticket to Ride. I think it's better than Settlers of Catan. Uh I think we'll put Carcassonne.
Eden
39:53
Speaking of the person who is uh promptly approaching empty nesting, have you played Carcassonne the Castle?
Peter
40:01
No
Eden
40:02
It's the two-player exclusive version of Carcassonne. It's pretty dope. You should check it out. Me and Castle like that one way more than regular flavor.
Peter
40:09
I'll have to definitely check it out. All right, Crazy Eights versus Eminent Domain.
Eden
40:14
I don't know what eminent em a little eminent domain is.
Peter
40:18
Eminent domain is another one of those in the i in the realm of Star Realms, Dominion, all that kind of stuff. So it's kind of a a deck building spaceship game. Uh I think it's pretty good. Uh I think it's I think it I think it should win here.
Eden
40:35
Well, I'm fine with that. I've never played it, but I'll trust you. Crazy Eights is
Peter
40:39
Fine. Yeah. Alright, bananograms versus blackjack.
Eden
40:43
I mean, I I I like bananograms, but blackjack is also blackjack.
Peter
40:48
Yeah.
Eden
40:48
And also, blackjack is just sabak.
Peter
40:52
Yeah, but I kind of I kind of I love bananagrams.
Eden
40:56
I'm fine with giving it to bananagrams.
Peter
40:57
Banana grams. There you go. Skip Bow versus Rumicube.
Eden
41:07
So Rumicube is just rummy.
Peter
41:10
Rummy with tiles. Correct.
Eden
41:11
So that means it's even closer to Majum. So I want to give it to that. But I don't know. Skibo is also fine.
Peter
41:18
I want to give it to Rimicube if for no other reason than, again, nostalgia. So many fond memories of playing Rimicube.
Eden
41:25
Them little faces, the little black moon and the little red moon.
Peter
41:29
Oh yeah, the little wild, the black uh-huh. Yep. Alright, we're giving it to Rumacube. Othello versus Power Grid.
Eden
41:36
I liked Othello, but Power Grid is one of the great heroes.
Peter
41:41
Yeah, Power Grid's really good. I think we give it to Power Grid.
Eden
41:44
We played Power that's the last board game I played was Power Grid. We went over to a friend's house a few weeks ago and played Power Grid and it was great
Peter
41:50
Okay, there you go. All right. Man. Well, our first round is done, so let's move on to the next round. We got codenames versus poker. Codename. There we go.
Eden
42:02
I don't like codenames that much, but it's better than poker.
Peter
42:05
I agree. Catchphrase versus Baldur Dash.
Eden
42:07
Catchphrase. Yeah, catchphrase. Catchphrase.
Peter
42:11
Yeah. Dominion versus Stratego.
Eden
42:14
Dominion.
Peter
42:15
Agree. Forbidden Island versus Scrabble. Forbidden Island. Oh, extra.
Eden
42:21
Scrabble's fun, but Bananagrams is also there and more chaotic.
Peter
42:25
I think yes, I think the the simultaneous nature of banana grams makes it a better game.
Eden
42:30
Ascension versus Scrabble just in induces sweaty nerd dumb.
42:44
The Well, I think you'll find that in the 1980 Webster Dictionary it did in fact have that word that looks like not a real word. I think you'll find it does exist.
42:45
And it's like, no.
42:46
No, stop it.
Peter
42:48
Yep I agree. Ascension versus scatteries. Ascension.
Eden
42:52
I mean Ascension.
Peter
42:53
Yep. Telestrations versus Uno, we already know. It's Uno.
Eden
42:58
It's Uno. I like Delastrations.
Peter
43:00
It ain't Uno. Puerto Rico versus Milborn.
Eden
43:04
I like both these games, but I'd probably rather play Milborn just because it's faster, but I'm I like both. I'm fine with whatever.
Peter
43:10
I would say Milborn
Eden
43:11
Apples to apples versus long games anymore. We only play short games.
Peter
43:16
That's my thing too, is I want something where it's uh in, it's quick, it's out, have fun.
Eden
43:20
30 to 45 minutes is the perfect length for a board game. An hour maybe, but you hit me with that, this one's gonna be 90 to 120 minutes. I go, I think I'm not gonna play this game.
Peter
43:30
Which is why in our next our final matchup for this half of this round, apples to apples versus phase ten, it has to go to apples to apples. It can. Phase ten can just keep going.
Eden
43:44
And it's miserable every time.
Peter
43:46
Battleship versus hearts.
Eden
43:48
I mean probably battleship.
Peter
43:49
I think so too. Battleship. Taboo versus Jenga. I think Jenga.
Eden
43:54
Jenga's it.
Peter
43:55
Jenga's a f Jenga's fun. Clue versus Rummy. I'm going Clue. Yep. I agree.
Eden
44:02
We've got Rumacube on there, and Rumacube might win, but Rum Rummy is not as good as Rumacube.
Peter
44:07
The Little Flower Shop versus Outburst. I want to give it to the Flowers.
Eden
44:11
Flowers. Yeah. It's one of my favorite games.
Peter
44:13
Exploding Kittens versus Seven Wonders. I think Seven Wonders. What do you think?
Eden
44:17
Seven Wonders is that, yeah.
Peter
44:18
Okay. Chess versus cra Cracassone.
Eden
44:22
It's funny every time.
Peter
44:24
It is. That's why I keep saying it.
Eden
44:26
I like Carcassonne a lot, more than I like chess.
Peter
44:30
Me too. I'm not either. I recognize chess's place in the pantheon of board games, but I would rather play Carcassonne.
Eden
44:39
Yeah, well this is like a solved thing where there's like, oh, you did the rinky Dutchman opening and it's like, what the hell are you talking about?
Peter
44:48
It's true. It's true.
Eden
44:50
Clark's own, the whole board was just random.
Peter
44:52
It's cool Yep, we're gonna give it to Carcassonne. Eminent domain versus bananograms. I think bananograms is the more fun game. And it gets back to that idea of eminent domain could take you an hour or two, and bananograms you could in Three in thirty minutes you could go through like three or four rounds of bananograms, depending on how fast people go and how many people you're playing with.
Eden
45:13
Sure.
Peter
45:14
Uh Rumicube versus PowerGrid. I think it's Rumicube.
Eden
45:18
Okay. I'm fine with that. I like PowerGrid, but Rumicube I have a lot of fondness for.
Peter
45:23
Alright, we're in our suite 16. Codename versus cat codenames versus catchphrase.
Eden
45:28
I mean I think I prefer catchphrase.
Peter
45:30
I do too. I do too. Dominion versus Forbidden Island. I think it the island. I think the island takes it.
Eden
45:39
Okay, cool. Cool. I prefer it over Dominion, but some people are really big Dominion sickoes.
Peter
45:43
Now, Ascension versus Uno. I think Uno's gonna take it.
Eden
45:46
Goodbye, Ascension.
Peter
45:48
You had a good run.
Eden
45:49
You made it.
Peter
45:49
You had a good run. Millbourne versus apples to apples.
Eden
45:53
Probably apples.
Peter
45:54
I think so too. I think so.
Eden
45:56
I like Millbourne, but it's probably apples.
Peter
45:58
Battleship and Jenga.
Eden
46:00
Jenga moves on.
Peter
46:02
I agree. Clue versus the little flower shop.
Eden
46:05
My heart tells me flowershop, but you could make the case for Clue.
Peter
46:09
I think the Little Flower Shop is a better game. I have more experience with Clue just because it's one of those you know, Clue is like one of those games where when you're old enough To actually start to understand games. You f it's one of the first games that you get introduced to. I think Little Flower Shop is a better game. We're giving up.
Eden
46:28
And the thing about it is it it it perfectly encapsulates what we just said we like about games, because that's a half hour game.
Peter
46:34
Yep. Exactly.
Eden
46:35
And so that way if you liked it and you want to play more, you start up another round. But if you were done with the half an hour, you're happy.
Peter
46:43
All right, Seven Wonders versus Cracassone.
Eden
46:46
I mean probably Carcassonne.
Peter
46:47
I agree. Bananagrams versus Rimicube
Eden
46:51
This is your decision. I can't choose here.
Peter
46:54
Um I kind of think that Rumicube needs to take it.
Eden
46:58
I'm f I I I support that. I'm not as big of a banana grams person. Cassie really likes it, but I'm I'm I could take her.
Peter
47:05
Yep. All right. Elite Eight. We got catchphrase versus Forbidden Island.
Eden
47:10
I mean, in my heart it's Forbidden Island, but you could make a case for catchphrase. What do you think?
Peter
47:14
I think Forbidden Island is the better game.
Eden
47:17
I'd much rather play it.
Peter
47:18
Uno versus apples to apples. I think it's Uno. I think it's Uno. Jenga versus the Little Flower Shop.
Eden
47:27
Yeah, it's Little Flower Shop. I see you hovering over it, and it's just Little Flower Shop. It's one of my favorite games. Stevenson has never made a bad game, and that is maybe his best game.
Peter
47:36
All right, Carcassonne versus Rimicube.
Eden
47:38
Follow your heart. I'm good with either.
Peter
47:41
Uh I think that I think it's Carcassonne. You're right. Okay, we got our final four. Forbidden Island versus Uno.
Eden
47:48
It's Uno.
Peter
47:49
I know. I know it is. And the Little Flower Shop versus Carcassonne.
Eden
47:54
That's like telling me which of my children. This is Sophie's choice here. Which of my children do I have to kill? Those are the two games I've played the most with my wife. So I don't know. Pick your poison.
Peter
48:06
Uh I think I'm leaning towards the little flower shop.
Eden
48:09
Let's go.
Peter
48:10
Okay, the final. Uno versus the little flower shop.
Eden
48:15
It's Uno.
Peter
48:16
Yeah, it is.
Eden
48:17
It's Uno.
Peter
48:18
It is.
Eden
48:19
The quintessential card game.
Peter
48:22
It is. And you know, the thing about Uno is You play it just the way the rules are, it's a ton of fun. You add in some crazy house rules, it's a ton of fun. You do, I mean, Uno Slap Ton of fun. Yeah. Like just Uno is just a it is it is an excellent game.
Eden
48:43
And they've even got They've got a bunch of weird versions now. There's this one where you can s flip the cards either direction and they have different numbers and stuff on either side. So it adds a totally different layer to it because you can also see what your opponents have. But it's on the other side and then someone lays down the flip card and you all flip.
Peter
49:01
Yep.
Eden
49:02
It's weird. It's weird. You know, they keep putting a little English on Uno, but the main design is so solid that it can it can take all of that uh modification.
Peter
49:13
It's true.
Eden
49:14
The real winner
Peter
49:15
All right. Well, I think we've I think we've done it. We've we've we've ruled. Uno is a real winner, like you said.
Eden
49:22
I think it's one of the best card games ever made.
Peter
49:24
It is. So well, thanks for indulging me. Again, this is just one of these things where I knew I wasn't gonna have time to really watch the movie I maybe could have put it on a little fast and squeezed it in in between work and starting to record, but I wanted to enjoy it.
Eden
49:38
We want to take our time.
Peter
49:39
It's we wanna enjoy it.
Eden
49:41
So this is not This is not Nights of the Zodiac.
Peter
49:44
This is not That's the exact one I was thinking about.
Eden
49:49
This is a movie I actually am excited to watch.
Peter
49:52
Yep. All right. Well, we'll be back in another couple of weeks. Uh this episode's gonna come out a couple days late just because I need to get it edited and posted, and that's probably gonna happen tomorrow and not tonight. But We'll be back in a couple weeks. We'll have a new topic for you. And uh go ahead, you know, do the all the usual. Subscribe, share it, leave a review, a rating, and and yeah, just just share the love.
Eden
50:19
Yeah, we'll be back soon. Sometimes I'm not sure.