Loud Friends

Season's Greasons, everyone! The Loud Friends are back one final time this year to close out 2022 with a lot of video game talk, and some personal reflection!

First, we dig through our favorite games of the year and throw out our hottest takes about what did and did not set our hearts ablaze. Then, we turn our chairs around and straddle their backs so that we can talk frankly about ourselves, and some things we'd like to change in the new year. There's also some chatter about The Game Awards, car damage, and also Zac is very very tired, so you know it's gonna be a fun time.

Heat up a mug of cocoa and feed it to your favorite reindeer, because Loud Friends is DONE for the holidays.

See you in the new year!

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Mike can be found on his blog and also @eganworks

Zac can be found at home, in his jammies, in bed, dead asleep, in dreamland, going zzzzzzzz

How cool would it be if you sent us a ton of email at [email protected] over the holiday break for us to come back to???

Podcast Art: Photo taken by Olly McDonagh and edited by Becca Hallstedt

Music from Uppbeat

Well hi-ho and a hearty Happy Thanksgiving to all who celebrate! In typical devil-may-care, Loud Friends fashion, we forgot this would be coming out the day before the big Turkey Day, so we don’t talk about that at all.

Instead, we opened up the garage, shot back a can of oil, and let rip some of our favorite car stories. Zac just bought one, Mike just rented one, and we both used to live in the suburbs, so there’s plenty to pull from.

We also touch on the unfortunate state of affairs at Cartoon Network in the wake of the Warner/Discovery merger. Shit sucks!

Hope you all enjoy the show, leave work early, and eat yourselves stupid! Til next time!

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Mike can be found on his blog and also @eganworks.

Zac can be found doing donuts and popping wheelies in his hot new whip.

Send us email at [email protected]

Podcast Art: Photo taken by Olly McDonagh and edited by Becca Hallstedt

Music from Uppbeat

Ya’ll ever reuse your Halloween costume between years when you were a Trick or Treating little kiddo? I went as Sub-Zero for like 3 years in a row because he wore blue and ninjas were VERY cool.

The boys are back with a spooky ooky little episode for ya, mostly due to the adjacency to the holiday, and less so because of the show’s content. They won’t jump scare you probably!

Zac is navigating the horrors of of the used automobile market, while Mike’s been buckling down during cozy “RPG” season and finishing out some video games. There’s a smidge of football talk, and a sprinkling of Disco Elysium & Eastward in there exactly to your liking.

Hope ya’ll enjoyed Halloween, it’s the one time of year where you can just throw bones and skeletons all over your house and everyone’s pretty cool with it. Pretty wicked if you ask me.

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Mike can be found on his blog and also @eganworks

Zac can be found careening around Chicago in some kind of used car, probably. It’s outta control!! LOOK OUT!!!!

Podcast Art: Photo taken by Olly McDonagh and edited by Becca Hallstedt

Music from Uppbeat

In this hot and fresh episode of Loud Friends, we've returned from yet another schedule hiccup after seeing each other in the real, actual flesh world for the first time in three years! Zac visited Mike in the Big, Wet Apple, and there was much merriment. There was also an element of danger, as Zac drank a can of Pepsi Fire that has been in Mike's fridge since...uh...2017? 2018? Who could say, really. The results were not what we expected.

It's a bit of a looser episode, because after having a lot of people in his house, prepping for a road trip, and the long-awaited onset of Cozy Season, Mike was knee deep in some brain fog. Despite this, we still managed to have a rousing discussion about the recently released Splatoon 3, and some early thoughts on our time with Immortality, a game we started playing together in the same room!

I don't remember how to end these things! Listen or perish!

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Mike can be found on his blog and also @eganworks

Zac can be found by following the trail of glowing sludge he now leaves in his wake. See you in court, PepsiCo!

Do not send us email at [email protected]

Podcast Art: Photo taken by Olly McDonagh and edited by Becca Hallstedt

Music from Uppbeat

THEY’RE BACK! The boys have returned from their summer break hiatus fresh, clean, and full of Bidet Answers to your Bidet Questions.

Zac and Mike spend most of the pod catching up on how their respective Augusts went, which include a Patreon departure, a trip to St Louis, and SURGERY. There was also this fun bit that we had to cut out of the show that uh… well, hey, guess you’ll just have to listen to find out what I mean by that.

We’re BAAAACK!!

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Send us email at [email protected]

Podcast Art: Photo taken by Olly McDonagh and edited by Becca Hallstedt

Music from Uppbeat

Well what do you know folks, we're dropping episode 27 on the 27th, must be kismet (shh, I know).

On the pod this week, we two friends have both finished Neon White, so we're back to put a cap on our feelings about it. We also talk about chairs, meeting a horse, Chrono Trigger, and going "bachelor mode."

We feel like we've been on a good run of pods lately, and in the podcast biz, nothing is more important than consistency and momentum. Nothing can stop us now!

PROGRAMMING NOTE: We're going to be taking a short summer break after this episode until the beginning of September because we feel like it. Basically taking off the whole month of August. Smell ya later!

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Since recording this episode, Zac has met the horse. It went well.

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Mike’s got a Patreon and a YouTube Channel

Zac met a big horse, so he's pretty much good now.

Send us email at [email protected]

Podcast Art: Photo taken by Olly McDonagh and edited by Becca Hallstedt

Music from Uppbeat

Today’s episode very sloppily transitions between Being Politically Furious to Talking About A Video Game for 40 Minutes, in classic Loud Friends fashion. Golly, what new innovations will those boys think of next?

Both Mike and Zac have caught Neon White Fever and can’t stop hitting a lot of buttons on their computers in the quest for better leaderboard times. We have nothing but heaping praise for the Game For Freaks By Freaks, so start cranking that D&B and get ready to swiss cheese some demons. Shit’s gonna get downright disrespectfully fast.

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Mike’s got a lot going on and also not very much. You can just follow him on Twitter.

Zac is mad as hell and he's gonna [this space left intentionally blank].

Send us email at [email protected]

Podcast Art: Photo taken by Olly McDonagh and edited by Becca Hallstedt

Music from Uppbeat

Hey I know this doesn’t have anything to do with the podcast at all, but it was HOT today! I put a thermometer in our courtyard and it read 116 degrees in the sun! I stood outside for 45 seconds and could smell my own skin crisping up. Absolutely fucked up.

Anyways, the boys got some video games to talk about I suppose. Like Zac always says, if you don’t Elden Ring, then you Smell(den Ring). Then Mike provides a nice little update on the nice little cheese brick console colloquially known as the PlayDate.

Ya’ll ever try Pocari Sweat? It’s like flavorless gatorade, you should give it a spin. Could be helpful in this wicked summer heat we’ve mustered.

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Mike’s got a Patreon and too many side projects.

Zac's drinking sweat now? This isn't the dystopia I signed up for.

Send us email at [email protected] or don't, we don't care anymore.

Podcast Art: Photo taken by Olly McDonagh and edited by Becca Hallstedt

Music from Uppbeat

Howdy doody, folks! As you'll hear, we're trying something else this week. Something a little looser, and a little more for us. It's not perfect, but we're far from finished making this pod exactly what we want it to be. Even we don't know what that is yet! In any case, thanks for listening.

This week, we have a meandering conversation that veers from staying cool in the summer, to movies, work, football, memories, feelings, and of course, what video games we're playing.

Also, apologies for Mike's audio being very quiet, he's a dingus and so is Windows 10.

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Mike’s got a Patreon and a YouTube Channel

Zac's drowning in Italian ice, and does not want to be saved.

Send us email at [email protected]

Podcast Art: Photo taken by Olly McDonagh and edited by Becca Hallstedt

Music from Uppbeat

License code: FHBEMH2JOZYUVZH6

The world is slowly heating. In a good way! It's not winter anymore, and we're all out doing things (in as safe a manner as possible). Zac is going to shows and skating his heart out, Mike is shooting everything in sight (with a camera), and we're both still...playing video games inside. It's in our nature. You can take the boy out of the video game, but you can't make him drink.

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Mike’s got a Patreon and a YouTube Channel

Zac's been stun-locked by four dogs, unfortunately 😬

Send us email at [email protected]

Podcast Art: Photo taken by Olly McDonagh and edited by Becca Hallstedt

Music from Uppbeat

License code: FHBEMH2JOZYUVZH6