The Two Vague Podcast
The Two Vague Podcast
Ben Cheknis
Episode 105 - Equivocate
1 hour 8 minutes Posted Mar 27, 2024 at 8:10 am.
Video GAMES, a cliffhanger, dream feeding, and the lamest form of time traveling00:04:55 - Ben’s Trombone Champ review start, complicated math, and Dan’s trombone idea00:09:38 - The narrative of Trombone Champ, “Funiculì, Funiculà,” and amazing audiovisuals00:13:02 - Time to toot, gilding and “turd-ing,” secrets, inner 9 year olds, and a review closing00:19:19 - Not equivocating, the definition, in Swedish, and affordable furniture solutions00:21:38 - Spirit of exploration, Oedipus’ road rage, and Andrew’s Magic 8 Ball equivocation00:24:49 - Prophecy details, the swollen foot baby, full of irony, and a bit of a cougar00:29:09 - The Porter, “nose-painting, sleep, and urine,” 3 witches, and Macbeth vs Macduff00:33:06 - Obi-Wan equivocates about Vader, retroactive continuity, and Luke and Leia kiss00:36:17 - Ben talks about “Jedi: Fallen Order,” Cal Kestis, and a plethora of ponchos 00:41:48 - Ewan McGregor noises, acting with tennis balls, and a different century’s president00:45:17 - Paying for a wall with hurt feelings, on a spectrum, and Ben’s playful equivocation 00:48:41 - The legal profession, for justice or money, and Ben’s looking at you Congress!00:50:30 - Stuart, brief entomology, the Establishment Clause of the 1st, and Pueblo Colorado00:55:46 - Line crossing, the story of “The Day Before,” and the Steam page is actually gone01:02:01 - Andrew recounts the “New Coke” marketing scheme and resulting equivocations01:05:42 - Not the “Classic, Classic Coke,” lawyers and politicians, and equivocating felines
0:00
1:08:22
Download MP3
Show notes
This week Andrew brings a very interesting word to the show!  Ben is up for the challenge, but first he has a review of Trombone Champ!  Then the hosts dive right into the discussion starting with literature… Oedipus Rex by Sophocles, Macbeth by William Shakespeare, and Star Wars by George Lucas.  Coincidentally, Ben gets to talk about his biggest “Jedi: Fallen Order,” pet peeves, but then they chat briefly about constitutional law. In the “official” video games segment, Ben shares the strange development story of “The Day Before” and the numerous equivocations therein.  In closing, Andrew talks about a cola marketing scam, and Ben unintentionally alienates the 2VP audience and possibly Andrew. 
Ben’s Trombone Champ Review Highlights  Story / Narrative - SN - (8) - You are on a quest to become the Trombone Champ by tooting your trombone, learning about and pledging allegiance to baboons, collecting and trading Trombone Champ cards, meeting strange characters, and laughing a bunch.Audiovisuals - AV - (10) - From the character models, to the song selection, the UI which looks like something you would see on a “Dance, Dance Revolution” arcade machine, to the amazing song recording quality, to the background animations while you are “tooting”, to the satirical poke a EA Sports Games micro-transaction card collection graphics… Trombone Champ is perfectly executed in this area.Game Mechanics - GM - (9) - Nothing new here, BUT the game mechanics are finely tuned and nostalgically fun.  Choose your trombone style, sound scheme, and “tomboner,” your song, and then it’s time to TOOT! You play notes by pressing a key on the keyboard, and you use the pad to control the target reticle vertically on a line on the left side of the screen. You follow the note prompts as they scroll in from the right with key presses and mousepad movements and are rated on accuracy with “Perfectos,” “OKs,” “Nices,” “Mehs,” and “Nasties.” As you string your successes together your “CHAMP” meter fills and your multiplier builds. Once you have the meter filled completely, a celebratory airhorn sounds off; the longer you keep the “CHAMP” active, the more points you score for notes and combos. Based on your score at the end of each song, you earn “toot coins” which you can use to buy sacks of 4 cards to gather for your collection. If you have an excess of cards you can exchange them for turds, which you can use to buy the cards you are