Transcript
Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: You know what else is understandable?
Speaker: What's that?
Speaker: Hey there, everybody.
Speaker: Welcome back to Pixel It.
Speaker: My name is Kevin.
Speaker: With me, as always, is Phil.
Speaker: And on today's show, we are finishing Halo, the empty throne.
Speaker: Hell yeah.
Speaker: We're going to figure out which throne is empty by the end of this.
Speaker: I hope so.
Speaker: I can't.
Speaker: They don't make it easy.
Speaker: Because, Kevin, none of these characters is named a king or a queen.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Jeremy's really...
Speaker: He's taken us for the proverbial ride.
Speaker: Deep.
Speaker: He's taken us for a ride.
Speaker: We are in deep satire land, which is just right next to Mississippi.
Speaker: I think so.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: That explains why it's so close to being dead.
Speaker: Yeah, I mean, it's where, you know, because, you know, Mark Twain would ride up and down the Mississippi between his beloved Mississippi and satire lands.
Speaker: And he'd say Mark Twain as he was going up and down on those river boats.
Speaker: It wasn't actually a pen name.
Speaker: It's just the thing he shouted to people as he'd go, Mark Twain.
Speaker: They'd be like, who the fuck is that?
Speaker: I think you just told us.
Speaker: Oh gosh, is that his name?
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: Weird.
Speaker: Well, he chose it as his pen name because of the phrase Mark Twain, which was a very common phrase in those days.
Speaker: It's a very, it's like super common thing on river boats literally for like 10 years.
Speaker: It's a really specific reference.
Speaker: Mark Twain!
Speaker: You go, oh yeah, Mark Twain.
Speaker: Mark Twain, everybody.
Speaker: mark twain everybody mark twain mark twain and then uh you know uh on the on the other rivers they would say samuel clements right right yes which is where he got his birth name kevin aren't we are this is just probably one of the smartest shows on the internet do you think about that sometimes this is such smart we're such clever boys
Speaker: This is such a more cleverness.
Speaker: You need to go to Pixletpod.com or Patreon.com slash Pixletpod because guess what?
Speaker: Guess what?
Speaker: There's more clever for you.
Speaker: In this week's bonus episode, I try to explain what bonds are.
Speaker: Oh my God.
Speaker: Yeah, that's true.
Speaker: We really, this is really the intellectual Titanic episode.
Speaker: I try to explain what bonds are.
Speaker: If there's an economist listening, feel free to correct me in whatever I said that was wrong.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: If you're an economist and you haven't given us 10 bucks or something like that, this is the time to do it.
Speaker: Here's the thing is if I know enough to know that I don't know enough, but I have the confidence of a 40 year old white man.
Speaker: So I'm able to talk about it regardless.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It's it's one of those things that you forget that you have until it comes up and you go, why hasn't anyone put their name in the hat for this?
Speaker: Oh, I'm just an idiot who's confident enough to talk about a thing.
Speaker: Despite I'm just going to talk about it.
Speaker: I'm talking about it and I talked about it.
Speaker: You too can talk about it on our Discord, which you can access through Patreon dot com slash pixel pod.
Speaker: You can also give us money.
Speaker: $1, $5, $10, $5 gets you access to the bonus episode and $10 gets your name shouted out in every episode.
Speaker: And to that end, I want to thank Jesus Loves You, Kyle Seaman, Ruthless Mudder, Middle of Things, Sigma Sal, Cha!
Speaker: Beaks, dammit, thick and friendly friend.
Speaker: Thank you for being a friend.
Speaker: If you notice, we've lost a couple dear friends on the list over the past couple of weeks.
Speaker: So there's plenty of the water is fine.
Speaker: There's plenty of space for you to come in and be a dear friend on our list.
Speaker: Join the bodies in the marsh.
Speaker: Join.
Speaker: Join.
Speaker: Don't you want to be a body?
Speaker: Don't you want to be a body?
Speaker: We really should call the we really should call the discord the body bag, the body.
Speaker: I think that's I think that's where we're at, right?
Speaker: I think that's where we're at.
Speaker: Maybe I can rename it while we're the pig slip podcast.
Speaker: I'll just rename it to the body bag while we're on on the call today.
Speaker: Beautiful.
Speaker: Chef's kiss.
Speaker: Beautiful.
Speaker: Speaking of bodies, how about we put this body
Speaker: Into the marsh.
Speaker: When I tell you to dump a body in the marsh, you dump them in the marsh.
Speaker: Once and for all.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: We start at chapter 28.
Speaker: We are back with Severin.
Speaker: He is leading his team on the planet into a barn, basically, because they've been tipped off that it might have the girl, Chloe, the key.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: He thinks that it might have the team that killed his guards at the North gate.
Speaker: It's just James.
Speaker: This is the area there, you know, the North gate where all the people died.
Speaker: He's assuming that this big team took them all out.
Speaker: It was just James Solomon playing, you know, hit man.
Speaker: And so he's he's he goes in there.
Speaker: They end up taking out a bunch of farmers who are in power loaders for all intents and purposes.
Speaker: It's a pretty great fight scene, actually.
Speaker: And
Speaker: Yeah, it's like a power loader.
Speaker: They call a Cyclops or something like that.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: Cyclops.
Speaker: Great, great stuff.
Speaker: It's it's because it's like these are not soldiers and but they've got some level of machinery there and that's pretty cool.
Speaker: I liked it.
Speaker: After they take these guys out, they hear from another leader that there is a new covenant force that has joined them, no doubt with Dovo's permission.
Speaker: And this is a betrayal to Severin.
Speaker: Yes, he is.
Speaker: He was already...
Speaker: Yeah, he was already feeling very strained in his relationship with his mentor.
Speaker: And he's just about ready to snap.
Speaker: The other leader is going to pull a tattletale, basically, and tell Atriox.
Speaker: By the way, he's been working with a covenant leader.
Speaker: I think that's literally word for word what he said.
Speaker: Actually, every time I saw the covenant leader's name, I was like Nyan Cat.
Speaker: I totally see that.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So all right.
Speaker: Chapter 29.
Speaker: We cut speaking of James.
Speaker: We cut to James.
Speaker: He finds out the truth about Chloe in that she is she is, you know, a clone of her mother.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: He sees that he basically sees that there's a lot different about her from Halsey.
Speaker: And remember, this is a guy who was an old school Spartan.
Speaker: He knew Halsey.
Speaker: He knew all this.
Speaker: He knew this life.
Speaker: He knows what she's about and does not see a lot of her in Chloe, which he sees as a good thing.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: The intelligence is there, but not the willingness to, you know, kidnap babies and create clones of the babies that melt in front of their parents.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: He's yeah.
Speaker: Which I think he's yeah.
Speaker: He's like, you know what?
Speaker: Let's let's stick with that plan.
Speaker: Let's not let's let's try and make sure she doesn't become that person because it's worked out so well for James.
Speaker: It's a good life for him, obviously.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So they are they are being chased by a bunch of grave maker ships, kind of small drop ships, basically.
Speaker: And he starts taking them out by himself, which pisses them off a great deal.
Speaker: And he faces off against, I've written it again, big ass Arxis, the three meter tall Jill, Jill, Renee or whatever they're called, and who knocks him out long enough to kidnap Chloe and abscond with her.
Speaker: So the banished have the key.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Cut to Chapter 30, where it told Juran and the Gray team.
Speaker: They are at the Lithos evacuation excavation.
Speaker: They're making their way closer to it.
Speaker: And at this point, the Covenant has dropped in and and they're trying to figure out why the hell the Covenant has shown up.
Speaker: The Banished seem just as confused as they are.
Speaker: At least a lot of them do.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Juran is informed.
Speaker: She has she does not have permission to shoot at Dovo.
Speaker: because it's too personal.
Speaker: She's going to get in the way.
Speaker: I can't operate on this.
Speaker: She's not allowed to take a shot.
Speaker: Exactly.
Speaker: Exactly.
Speaker: I can't operate on this boy.
Speaker: He's my son.
Speaker: You know, that kind of thing.
Speaker: It's that for all intents and purposes.
Speaker: You're too deep.
Speaker: You're too deep.
Speaker: And so, but she is told to kill Sally Nyon, who is the Covenant Warchief.
Speaker: Nyan Cat.
Speaker: Nyan Cat.
Speaker: Nyan Cat.
Speaker: And Severin's basic rival.
Speaker: They both draw a bead and just as they're about, it should be the easiest thing in the world because they're literally standing side by side talking to each other with two squeezes of the trigger.
Speaker: They could take out the leaders of both of these enormous armies and save a lot of trouble.
Speaker: And just as that is happening, Soren, the blade master and Merrick, a Spartan,
Speaker: attack everybody.
Speaker: They go total Benedict Arnold and hurt the Spartans very badly before they are killed.
Speaker: Well, except for Sorin.
Speaker: Merrick is killed.
Speaker: Sorin is drop kicked in the chest and launched away, but manages to get away after that.
Speaker: Exactly.
Speaker: So we have betrayal and it's and it's pretty brutal.
Speaker: Already you can tell this is this is because this is I I'm not an expert on this universe, but the idea of a Spartan.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Betraying you for the couple.
Speaker: Oh, that's fucked.
Speaker: Like that is fucked.
Speaker: That is a very that is a space marine joining.
Speaker: Not not chaos.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Because they do that a lot, actually.
Speaker: That is.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, the space Marines join chaos a lot.
Speaker: Yes, the towel.
Speaker: Yes, that's like a space Marine.
Speaker: That's like, no, I'm not a heretic.
Speaker: I believe in space communism.
Speaker: Right, right.
Speaker: It's almost as good as a space Marine joining the Tyranids.
Speaker: He's just got claws strapped to his arm and starts screaming.
Speaker: That would be a fun story.
Speaker: I'm going to write that story.
Speaker: I'm going to write that one down.
Speaker: Raised by the nids.
Speaker: Oh, that actually, you know what?
Speaker: I could probably get that into a canon story if it's an orc instead.
Speaker: Yeah, because I've been reading some work stuff.
Speaker: I haven't I've never really read a lot of their work stories and novel stuff.
Speaker: They're fucking great because there's there's they've got all that high energy action and shit, but they're fucking hilarious.
Speaker: They allow them to have a lot of fun with it.
Speaker: And it's just a whole other side of that.
Speaker: You know, it's a lot of fun.
Speaker: It's amazing.
Speaker: Yeah, it's great.
Speaker: So we cut to chapter 31.
Speaker: Abigail Cole is informed by Oni that everything is foobar on the planet.
Speaker: Everything has gone to shit and it is time to cut their losses and blow up the lithos.
Speaker: She has 10 minutes.
Speaker: She convinced them to give her 10 minutes to try and get to convince the drop team down there.
Speaker: To get the hell out of Dodge.
Speaker: She is going to open fire on this thing with the mag cannons no matter what.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So the hope is that she can get them to leave in time so that they don't get fucked up over that.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And she's not able to get in contact with them.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: No.
Speaker: So she's like reaching out to what's it?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Is that this chapter?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Well, yes, there is this chapter.
Speaker: I forget his name, but the, he was, he's a former covenant guy.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: The other, the other ship, the other ship, the ship master, she's like, Hey, can you get in position to make contact with them?
Speaker: We're out of position and we got to do something that, that is like terrible.
Speaker: And the ship master's like,
Speaker: Oh, oh yeah.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: And this is also when they tell him, by the way, I think this is when they tell him that they got betrayed down there.
Speaker: They got fucked up and he's no, no, no, it's later.
Speaker: It's later, but he will be pissed.
Speaker: He will be royally pissed.
Speaker: Cause if you remember this character is all in on the Alliance with the humans.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And so this is, that is a big fly in the ointment for him.
Speaker: Chapter 32, we cut to Dovo Nesto.
Speaker: I just imagined him kind of like just kind of presenting himself before the banished and everything.
Speaker: I like to think of him as Jeff Goldblum and as the was the the the is it the game master or whatever?
Speaker: Oh, yeah.
Speaker: From Thor Ragnarok.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker: I like to think of him as that guy where he's just like, hello, just like totally.
Speaker: Oh, hello.
Speaker: Hey.
Speaker: Souped up.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: Hi, hi.
Speaker: Oh, hi.
Speaker: It's good to see you all there.
Speaker: Here comes the Covenant.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: Hey, hey.
Speaker: It's just hitting on everyone.
Speaker: Covenant is coming back.
Speaker: Exactly.
Speaker: He's just Robert Gouleting it down there.
Speaker: Yeah, that's exactly it.
Speaker: How we doing?
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: Aren't you happy to see me?
Speaker: You know, the little people need a leader and that guy is me.
Speaker: Dovo Nesto.
Speaker: That's right.
Speaker: That's me.
Speaker: Oh, Dovo Nesto.
Speaker: We do not take you seriously.
Speaker: We do not take you seriously, Dovo Nesto.
Speaker: You're just not a serious villain.
Speaker: No, he really shouldn't be.
Speaker: Severin is there.
Speaker: He's pissed.
Speaker: And Dovo has shown up with Sally Nyon, the covenant leader, and he's feeling...
Speaker: Frankly, pretty insecure.
Speaker: It's very much a moment of him feeling like he's been replaced and wondering, did this guy get promised all the same shit I did?
Speaker: I was used, etc., etc., etc.
Speaker: And he lets that fester in his brain until finally, when he gets a chance, he accuses his discolo of using him.
Speaker: And declares that the lithos is his and the banished ours.
Speaker: It belongs to me.
Speaker: And just as Endovo tries to hit him with a sword.
Speaker: And as he does that, Severin cuts his arm off with his own sword.
Speaker: It's pretty, pretty cool.
Speaker: And in that moment, and I've got it written down right here, and everything goes to hell.
Speaker: Because at that point, they were trying for an alliance.
Speaker: They had not yet set it up.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Dopo really overestimated his ability to talk Severn into doing shit.
Speaker: Yeah, he really did not think this through.
Speaker: And the moment...
Speaker: And they're just looking, they're just both sides are itchy and looking for any chance to just start opening fire and, and, and getting rid of this other side.
Speaker: And the moment this all the sword fight goes down, boom, everything's goes going to hell.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: Chapter 33, Solomon is chasing Arxis.
Speaker: He's trying to get Chloe back.
Speaker: And this is all this is actually really well written at this point onward.
Speaker: The chapters start getting shorter.
Speaker: It's more action scenes and it's happening with a little bit of overlap.
Speaker: But but mostly it's happening.
Speaker: Some simultaneous, some overlap.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And and as he's chasing Arxis, he sees this in the distance, sees this enormous firefight happening as a moment.
Speaker: Oh, shit.
Speaker: What the hell is happening over there?
Speaker: Jesus Christ.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Covenant and Banished are killing each other.
Speaker: Sick.
Speaker: So he he he
Speaker: sneaks up on Argus and just fucking football tackles him, just drives his shoulder into the guy.
Speaker: We get a fight scene that ends with him forcing Argus to swallow a grenade.
Speaker: Metal as fucking shit.
Speaker: And it's just like, it was just like James like walks away and the head explodes until just like gore and viscera just splatters onto his armor.
Speaker: It's just, and like, there's a moment where Arx is just like, Oh shit.
Speaker: It's that it's, it's that moment.
Speaker: You've seen it in action movies.
Speaker: I've seen it in action movies.
Speaker: It's that moment.
Speaker: Uh,
Speaker: He finds Chloe and then Ariana, the Spartan, finds him.
Speaker: Doesn't realize who he is, but then realizes that it's James.
Speaker: So she's assumed James.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: She's like assumed that he's been dead this entire time.
Speaker: And it's kind of gobsmacked.
Speaker: And he tells her, like, look, if we let Chloe go, this is just a kid.
Speaker: And if we put her in the lithos, she's going to die or worse.
Speaker: And I can't let that happen.
Speaker: I need you to tell.
Speaker: home base basically that uh uh we both got killed we got annihilated and and that's that uh and and ariana just immediately kind of goes sick awesome yeah i mean i love i love how little convincing he has to do does not have to twist her arm no like all right sick bt dubs shit's falling apart you got to get out of here
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: That's, that's exactly it.
Speaker: That's exactly it.
Speaker: And, and it's, it's pretty great because he had me, makes a comment of like, I'm not the Spartan you used to know and all that stuff.
Speaker: And cause he doesn't, he doesn't feel like that superhero anymore.
Speaker: And she correctly points out, she said, I mean, you're out here risking life and limb to protect an innocent.
Speaker: That's about as Spartan as it fucking gets, my friend.
Speaker: It's a really lovely.
Speaker: It's a great moment.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It's, it's, it's very nice.
Speaker: And then she does the and I remember this from the early books.
Speaker: She does the.
Speaker: Yeah, the smile.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: They run their fingers across their face plate and that indicates it's basically their version of a smiley face.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Because they couldn't.
Speaker: It's like it was a tone indicator for the Spartan helmet because they couldn't like you don't see faces with the helmet on.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: It's really neat.
Speaker: It's a very sweet moment.
Speaker: Chapter 34, we've got Juran and the gray team.
Speaker: They are licking their wounds.
Speaker: Miraculously, most of the people seem in okay order.
Speaker: We get a look into these radioactive rounds, which are fucking cool as shit.
Speaker: They're basically meant to kill heavily armored people like Spartans because...
Speaker: they're radioactive and they essentially dissolve in your body, poisoning you.
Speaker: So whereas a normal round might get in a little, it doesn't really do a lot of damage.
Speaker: All this needs is a little bit of penetration and it, and it just poisons you.
Speaker: It's a lot like sleeping with me and, um, and, uh,
Speaker: But they so we get another pretty kick ass first aid scene of digging out the rounds.
Speaker: It's like Michael is digging out.
Speaker: He's doing the digging or who is he's doing the digging.
Speaker: I can't remember who Spartan is digging.
Speaker: I think it's Michael and he's digging.
Speaker: I was the one who was shot, right?
Speaker: Jai was the one who got like took six rounds to the torso.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And so Michael's digging them out before they dissolve entirely.
Speaker: It's like putting in like catching them into the thing.
Speaker: And it's like, yeah, it's great.
Speaker: It's like what the fuck is going on?
Speaker: Just like the entire time.
Speaker: It's just it's just more Duran going, fuck, are these people on?
Speaker: It's like a person who's only ever known coffee seeing people on cocaine.
Speaker: It's just a next level.
Speaker: And so basically they neospore on that shit covered up with memory foam and they're getting themselves figured out.
Speaker: They're on the top of a roof.
Speaker: They're on a roof of this great big building and they're watching the firefight.
Speaker: They are very lucky.
Speaker: And this is something that I think is an interesting theme that continues throughout the book for the rest of the book is that
Speaker: They didn't particularly do anything right.
Speaker: Well, they didn't do anything wrong either.
Speaker: They got fucked over.
Speaker: And in that moment, they should have been swarmed by the banished and the covenant and everything like that and killed if it weren't for the fact that right when that happened, they
Speaker: everything went down and the banished and the covenants started killing each other.
Speaker: So they were, they actually managed to find, and this, this happens a lot in a lot of different ways throughout this book.
Speaker: Um, and they, they managed to find their way to some higher ground.
Speaker: They are way safer than they used to be.
Speaker: And, uh, they get, um, hold on.
Speaker: I have his name written down here.
Speaker: Uh,
Speaker: Admiral Jalan.
Speaker: I'll.
Speaker: Nope, that's not him.
Speaker: Vatum.
Speaker: Vatum.
Speaker: Shipmaster Vatum.
Speaker: Oh, yeah.
Speaker: Shipmaster Vatum.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Shipmaster Vatum contacts them and tells them what we already know of.
Speaker: By the way, you guys need to get the fuck out of there.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Because in about five minutes, this whole place is going up and you got to get the hell out of Dodge.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: We cut to chapter 35, Abigail Cole.
Speaker: Her ship is they are trying to get into position to fire on the lithos.
Speaker: And an enemy ship seems to know what they're trying to do and rams them.
Speaker: It takes out a lot of their systems.
Speaker: Their maneuverability is gone as one of the other just spinning.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: As one of the crew says, we are dead in the water.
Speaker: We cannot move.
Speaker: We do find out this is a beautiful bit of deus ex machina that the natural gravity they are now in the orbit of this planet because they're not doing anything about it.
Speaker: The natural gravity and the way they're turning the trajectory will give them one shot.
Speaker: In a few minutes, they will be at the perfect point to fire onto the lithos.
Speaker: Weapons is like, listen, we're going to just spin around into the firing solution and I'm going to have to program it to just go when we hit that mark.
Speaker: Do I have your permission?
Speaker: Yeah, I guess so.
Speaker: You got to do it.
Speaker: And they get confirmation from the last half of the team with the funny names, the Paris contingent.
Speaker: They are going to be covering them and giving them the time they need to do and dying in the process and dying, dying horribly.
Speaker: They they're pretty frank about like you're giving your life to.
Speaker: to allow us to do this.
Speaker: Like you're going to die.
Speaker: There's no getting out of this alive.
Speaker: So all of them are going to – all the ships by the end of this book will be gone.
Speaker: Those guys anyway.
Speaker: Chapter 36.
Speaker: Oh, sorry.
Speaker: Sorry.
Speaker: Hold on real quick.
Speaker: As they finally get to that trajectory, that firing point.
Speaker: And just as they fire, they are rammed again.
Speaker: And it goes black, basically.
Speaker: So we get a very dramatic moment.
Speaker: Chapter 36, Severin and his captain are in the rubble of Lithos and the surrounding area.
Speaker: The fucking...
Speaker: The shot was dead on.
Speaker: Dead on walls accurate.
Speaker: Absolutely.
Speaker: Lithos is gone.
Speaker: And so are a huge amount of both sides of this little conflict.
Speaker: Miraculously, as he points out, Lithos and his captain are both alive.
Speaker: And the captain's like, how the fuck did we survive this?
Speaker: And Severin's like, the gods.
Speaker: God's protected us.
Speaker: Obviously, very confident.
Speaker: If I say that, Kevin, if we are in a war with a group of religious fanatics,
Speaker: Let's just say that that happens.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And I say we're alive now because of the gods.
Speaker: I want you to know I'm being sarcastic.
Speaker: Sure.
Speaker: So I figured I didn't have to say that.
Speaker: But at the same time, important to note.
Speaker: Gods must be crazy.
Speaker: You know?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Oh, man.
Speaker: I haven't seen that movie fucking forever.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So they are making their way out.
Speaker: Severin's legs are busted up and they see the victory ship, the victory of whatever it's called, Abigail Cole's ship in on the horizon, just running down.
Speaker: It is on its way down.
Speaker: And he gets this real satisfied feeling from watching it fall out of the sky.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: He's they basically what they were doing is they were on drop ships and they were heading back up into orbit and the mag blast came down and knocked them out of the sky.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: They see that Dovo ship.
Speaker: The same thing happened to them.
Speaker: They were also escaping and they also got knocked out of the sky.
Speaker: So Severin sees his opportunity for vengeance.
Speaker: He hops into a ghost speeder and just hauls ass.
Speaker: across the distance to try and get to Dovo before another ship can try and come and pick him up and save him.
Speaker: He tells his captain, I think it's Cavus, tells him Cavus, Cavus tells Cavus, evacuate everybody.
Speaker: Uh, I'm gonna, I'm gonna do what I, I'm gonna finish what I started.
Speaker: Uh, so you guys get the fuck out of here.
Speaker: Uh, chapter 37, we've got Solomon and Chloe.
Speaker: Uh, he is hurting.
Speaker: He has been blown to shit at this point.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Uh,
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Lola gone.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: He there.
Speaker: They're making their their effort.
Speaker: They're they're they're getting closer to the ship.
Speaker: And this is when they see more more of the grave tenders.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Grave makers.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Grave makers.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: His it's his armor so fucked up.
Speaker: And Lola is literally in his helmet going.
Speaker: I can't help you.
Speaker: You're you're you're fucked.
Speaker: Like your armor is fucked up.
Speaker: We could maybe help if we could get to like.
Speaker: Smithy shouldn't say that, but that's what I assume.
Speaker: But for now, there's nothing we can do.
Speaker: So he realizes he's at he remembers the character he is in this book, basically.
Speaker: Yeah, he was never going to get out of his life.
Speaker: He was never.
Speaker: He was one day from retirement.
Speaker: And he knew that he knew that.
Speaker: And so he takes his helmet off and he gives it to Chloe so that she can wear it and hear Lola to give her instructions because Lola has basically got the cataphract, his ship, and it's touched down and they are heading towards there and Lola can help her get there.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So he lets them, they have a really sweet, tender moment and it's very sweet.
Speaker: And he says, go get out of here.
Speaker: And she runs.
Speaker: We have in what is the weirdest moment in this book?
Speaker: This is a very long book.
Speaker: What I think might be the way he watches Chloe and the grave makers see her and they kind of veer off.
Speaker: One of them, at least veers off to go get her.
Speaker: And he's like, oh, shit, because he was kind of counting on them sticking to him because he's a Spartan.
Speaker: He watches in the distance as they touch down.
Speaker: They get out of their ship and they start going towards her.
Speaker: She is making her way to the cataphract.
Speaker: And then what are they called?
Speaker: Pathodrons.
Speaker: Yeah, but basically a fucking giant jungle cat comes in.
Speaker: Bunch of jungle cats come out of the fucking woods.
Speaker: Like basically like they must have heard all the commotion, he guesses and like attacks.
Speaker: Everybody slowing, slowing the the the covenant raiders down, but also running after her, but giving Chloe enough time to, you know, she has a moment.
Speaker: She gets into the to the ship just as one of the last clauses slow motion just barely clips the back of her foot.
Speaker: That whole thing.
Speaker: So she's saved by Deus ex cat.
Speaker: Deus ex Pantera.
Speaker: Yeah, there you go.
Speaker: There you go.
Speaker: It's.
Speaker: Really weird, a really weird moment.
Speaker: And now that they're out of now that they're not available, everyone starts descending on Solomon.
Speaker: And as he pointed out before, he's wearing armor that if he has a fail safe on it, that will make it it's like a mini nuke essentially.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And when they get close enough, he sets the fail safe.
Speaker: And this is established in the first James chapter.
Speaker: Yes, yes.
Speaker: This has been figured for a while.
Speaker: And they basically told you right up front how he was going to die.
Speaker: And he nukes himself and all of them and all their ships.
Speaker: Everyone's boom, gone.
Speaker: So that's a wrap on James.
Speaker: Rest in peace, King.
Speaker: Yeah, what a guy.
Speaker: Great character.
Speaker: Great character.
Speaker: I'm a sucker for the...
Speaker: I used to be a good cop and then I fucked up and now I'm drunk and I got one chance to redeem myself.
Speaker: I like that character.
Speaker: I like that.
Speaker: Sergeant Al Powell and diehard where.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker: He's like, what do you like?
Speaker: What happened to you?
Speaker: And he's like, shut a kid.
Speaker: And you're like, oh, yeah, you sure did, Al.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Okay, Al.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: They're just by the way, that scene in the beginning of Die Hard where Al Pal is at the convenience store and he's buying a whole bunch of Twinkies.
Speaker: The guy is just like standing there judging him and he goes, they're for my wife.
Speaker: The guy's like, yeah.
Speaker: And he goes, bag it.
Speaker: The counter goes big time.
Speaker: He's buying porn or something.
Speaker: It's like my favorite interaction.
Speaker: I need to watch that.
Speaker: I honestly haven't watched that movie in like 15 years.
Speaker: I need to watch that again.
Speaker: Oh, man.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Chapter 38.
Speaker: Juran is also alive.
Speaker: It's a it's a miracle.
Speaker: All of the named characters after this small nuclear explosion blew up this.
Speaker: All of our named characters have survived.
Speaker: It's it's it's fascinating.
Speaker: So Juran is alive after this blast.
Speaker: She is separated from the gray team and everybody else.
Speaker: She sees Dovo and Severin in the distance.
Speaker: She finds a beam cannon, like a sniper rifle, basically, and draws a bead.
Speaker: She sees this as her opportunity to take out Dovo.
Speaker: But before she can shoot, she's attacked by Blademaster Sorin, who shows up.
Speaker: And they have this big... It's a very...
Speaker: you know, you seem a good fellow.
Speaker: I hate to kill you.
Speaker: You seem a good fellow.
Speaker: I hate to die kind of thing.
Speaker: Like there's a Sauron is the isn't, you know, an old mentor figure for Jaron.
Speaker: And so it's it's he's he's sad to do this and showing this.
Speaker: She they're on top of like an old crashed ship, I think something like that.
Speaker: And and she loses her footing and she's about to fall off.
Speaker: And instead of like letting like shooting her, stabbing her or something like that, he just kind of breaks her hand and lets her fall off.
Speaker: He doesn't kill her outright.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And so she drops to the side of the perch and he disappears.
Speaker: He's gone.
Speaker: She gets radio from Stolt.
Speaker: What is the name of the little guy or something like that?
Speaker: Was he an Ugnoy or a Kiggar?
Speaker: I can't.
Speaker: He's an Ugnoy.
Speaker: He's an Ugnoy.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And so he hears from Stolt and he says, you know, like, we could use your help if you're available.
Speaker: She has no weapons.
Speaker: Her hand is broken and she's fucked up beyond everything, physically and mentally fucked right now.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: But she still says, yeah, I'm on my way.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Chapter 39.
Speaker: We come back to Abigail Cole.
Speaker: She is on the victory.
Speaker: They are in free fall.
Speaker: Miraculously.
Speaker: And I'm going to say that again.
Speaker: Miraculously.
Speaker: We get Deus Ex stabilizers.
Speaker: The stabilizers kick back on.
Speaker: Just just just enough.
Speaker: Just enough to stop them from free falling and just like shattering against the atmosphere of the planet, basically.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And they have just enough juice that they can go for an emergency landing.
Speaker: And they find this kind of frozen area on the planet.
Speaker: They make their way down.
Speaker: They hit the ice sheet.
Speaker: And it's a huge crash.
Speaker: And Abigail, once again, blacks out.
Speaker: And she's out again.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: She's out again.
Speaker: Exactly.
Speaker: The easy way.
Speaker: Thank you, Billy Zane.
Speaker: Except instead of Billy Zane, it's her dad.
Speaker: Played by Billy Zane.
Speaker: Billy Zane.
Speaker: I would hope so.
Speaker: I would hope Billy Zane would play my dad.
Speaker: That'd be cool as shit.
Speaker: Fuck yeah.
Speaker: So she has a dream of her father and they kind of like have a brief hash out.
Speaker: Well, you left us.
Speaker: I know.
Speaker: And I shouldn't have left you and I let you down, but I love you and I miss you and I love you and I miss you.
Speaker: It's a really sweet dream.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Everyone's having this is this is basically, you know, the the last the second to last episode of Game of Thrones where everyone has a chance to like hug and like, you know, tie up loose ends and shit like that and say, I always loved you right before everything goes to shit or right after in this situation.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: So we cut to chapter 40.
Speaker: Severin ambushes Dovo's party, basically runs a bunch of his guards over with the ghost, gets into a sword fight with Sally Neon and cuts his head off.
Speaker: Pretty metal shit.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Before he can, and he sees Dovo Dovo scared to death.
Speaker: He is genuinely horrified and frightened.
Speaker: And before he before he can do anything, he is run through from behind by Soren, the Blademaster.
Speaker: So Soren's just.
Speaker: Soren is just enemies, picking up enemies.
Speaker: He is all over the place.
Speaker: He is very good.
Speaker: He shot Jai a bunch of times, got away, fought his protege, and then...
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: One and then killed.
Speaker: Well, then kill, but fucked up Severin quite a bit.
Speaker: And yeah, just just run Severin through like where's Soren story.
Speaker: I want to read story.
Speaker: This guy's he's just the old badass.
Speaker: Like, holy shit.
Speaker: I know he's a bad guy, but holy fucking shit.
Speaker: And Sorin helps.
Speaker: He goes to Dovo and helps him escape as they escape.
Speaker: Severin is left just basically thinking, OK, I'm going to die.
Speaker: This is how I die.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: Got it.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And just as he's going to breathe his last Cavus, his captain Cavus shows up in a ship and rescues him.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Says, you know, you're not you're not dying on me.
Speaker: Yeah, exactly.
Speaker: It's one of those moments.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: We're going to get a lot of little chapters here.
Speaker: Quick chapters.
Speaker: Yeah, quick chapters.
Speaker: It's like 50 quick chapters right now.
Speaker: Yeah, right.
Speaker: That's actually exactly it.
Speaker: Chapter 41, Lola and Chloe are on the cataphract.
Speaker: They are heading to Sontero, which was the, if you remember, I think from our first episode, it's like a moon that he found that he said, when I retire, I'm going here.
Speaker: I'm going to live here.
Speaker: It's the moon.
Speaker: It's basically like the moon in Avengers Endgame where Thanos retires to.
Speaker: That's exactly it.
Speaker: Leave me alone.
Speaker: I'm on a moon by myself.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And I love this, by the way.
Speaker: It tells you how much Lola cares about him as an AI.
Speaker: When he says, this is where we're going when it's time to retire, she erases what
Speaker: all military and administrative knowledge of this planet from, as they point out, everything she has access to and quote unquote things that she doesn't formally have access to.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: She, she breaks the rules to make sure that no one can come in.
Speaker: How cool is that?
Speaker: Like, it's so cool.
Speaker: It's also a very, um,
Speaker: It's also not to be the guy and you've made me this guy is the guy who brings up 40 K when it's it.
Speaker: It's a very 40 K thing to be like, we don't know how to get back to like, we don't have the route anymore to get back to that planet.
Speaker: It's gone.
Speaker: You know?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: The warp doesn't let us go there anymore.
Speaker: But instead of the warp, it's just shit.
Speaker: Somebody deleted it from all the databases.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: If James had made it, this would have been an Easter egg in like Halo 12 somewhere down the way where you would have shown up on this place, found an empty cabin and a skeleton and would have garnered from journal entries that it was this guy.
Speaker: Just a skeleton.
Speaker: And it's just in a rocking chair with like...
Speaker: Like the remains of a cigar and whiskey or something like that.
Speaker: Exactly.
Speaker: That's just what it was.
Speaker: He was he and Lola were just going to grow old together.
Speaker: That's all it was.
Speaker: That was the plan.
Speaker: And now Lola's like, well, we're heading there, Chloe.
Speaker: And thank God Chloe's down, because that's a heavy thing to put on a kid's like this planet is all ours.
Speaker: And we're never going to see anyone ever again if things go well.
Speaker: And Chloe's like.
Speaker: Would you like that, Chloe?
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Do you want that?
Speaker: You'd better.
Speaker: Cause we're going, we're going, we're doing it.
Speaker: So, yeah.
Speaker: So, but Chloe says, yeah, sounds good.
Speaker: Thankfully.
Speaker: So they're heading on that planet.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Chapter 42, Spartan McKendon and Stolt are in a huge rubble area.
Speaker: Stolt has been pinned by a bunch of fallen debris.
Speaker: McKendon, who is not doing well, uses his dying breath, basically his last ounce of strength to lift the debris and save him.
Speaker: Spartan juice to clear the debris and then he falls over dead.
Speaker: falls over dead has it has a pretty good introspective moment of like oh man if like me from like just 20 years ago saw me dying to save this alien he would have been like what the fuck is going on uh so he saves stulton dies uh was mckendon a spartan too yeah he was spartan
Speaker: No, no.
Speaker: I mean Spartan dash two.
Speaker: Oh, a Spartan two.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: No, I don't think he was.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: But let me look it up.
Speaker: I want to look it up.
Speaker: Sometimes I'm like, I'm always curious as to who is the Spartan twos versus the Spartan fours.
Speaker: Because the Spartan fours could be any schmuck from off the street who volunteers.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Which they point out with Merrick after he betrays them.
Speaker: It's like Merrick was a guy that went through the process and he has all of these biases built in.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Whereas the Spartan twos were basically tabula rasa, you know, built from scratch.
Speaker: Which is which is hideous and immoral, but also guarantees almost that they're not going to portray you.
Speaker: So at least there's that.
Speaker: I don't think so.
Speaker: I'm not seeing anything which makes me think he's a Spartan for.
Speaker: But yeah.
Speaker: So cut to Chapter 43, Juran finds Stoltz location.
Speaker: He is surrounded by a bunch of leftover covenant people.
Speaker: She's like, why do they want you?
Speaker: And it goes, I don't know, man.
Speaker: Like, I don't understand anything about the covenant, let alone why they're still trying to kill me at this point.
Speaker: What if what's the fucking point?
Speaker: I have no idea.
Speaker: And then we get the surprise of her life when the gray team.
Speaker: Everybody, all your favorite characters, Jai and Michael and Ariana, they're all there.
Speaker: And they just take out the rabble who have surrounded the area.
Speaker: The ODSTs, if you remember way long ago when this whole start, this whole mission started, the ODSTs went off on their own mission.
Speaker: They have returned.
Speaker: Makes me wonder if that's not in Halo Infinite or if it's a
Speaker: I have no idea.
Speaker: Or it's DLC they're playing or something.
Speaker: Cause that could be excellent.
Speaker: That could be, cause we, they, they, we, we, they point out like a bunch of them are dead.
Speaker: Uh, but they come back, they've clearly succeeded in their mission.
Speaker: Their whole mission was like to take over artillery and shit.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: They did a thing off off camera.
Speaker: The ODS cheese did something.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And I think, I think that right now.
Speaker: Oh yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Brighton sweet baby.
Speaker: I think that would make a pretty kick ass, you know, novel of its own or something like that.
Speaker: And the way they wrote makes me wonder if that's not exactly their plan.
Speaker: Yeah, that's what I was saying.
Speaker: They leave some threads open, you know, with this book.
Speaker: Oh, there are lots of threads.
Speaker: Yeah, there's plenty of threads for as many people who die as many people who die.
Speaker: There's still plenty to work with here.
Speaker: The ODST show up in a condor and they all they load everybody on.
Speaker: But before they're leaving, they are going to head to the victory, which has crashed, and they're going to collect survivors and take them to safety.
Speaker: Chapter 44, two weeks later, Abigail Cole,
Speaker: wakes up in a hospital room on the moon.
Speaker: The moon.
Speaker: The moon.
Speaker: She is debriefed by her superior officers.
Speaker: She finds out the victory lost 27% of its crew, which is almost 500 people, but it's still a goddamn miracle.
Speaker: It's better than 100%.
Speaker: I'll tell you what.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Which is what it was looking like.
Speaker: So hell, like roughly a quarter, man.
Speaker: And they say that her commanding officers like that is an amazing victory.
Speaker: And of course, Cole's like, no, I'm sad.
Speaker: Those people died.
Speaker: It's like, OK, fair enough.
Speaker: um the yeah we we get the run down the ships with the funny names all dead uh but provided her with enough cover uh to blow up the lithos the lithos is eradicated it is that part of the mission is complete right um we get a lot of talk of like well let's make sure that the families of the people we lost know that this was a success you know even though it was only kind of a success yeah yeah
Speaker: It was a win.
Speaker: It's a win.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: If we didn't get this cool weapon, but nobody else did either.
Speaker: So that's great.
Speaker: So, you know, half of one, you know, six of one, half a dozen of the other.
Speaker: She's debriefed and she is told that like, basically we need you back in the saddle as soon as possible because we need you to hunt down Severin because he is still out there and he's going to be making trouble for us.
Speaker: So that's the next novel.
Speaker: Like that's the next novel right there.
Speaker: We've got to get some
Speaker: Abigail Cole going after Severn stuff.
Speaker: That'll be good shit.
Speaker: That'll be a fun naval battle one.
Speaker: I'd really like that.
Speaker: Oh, God, yeah.
Speaker: I'd read the fuck out of that.
Speaker: Are you listening, Jeremy?
Speaker: Uh...
Speaker: Chapter 45, Shipmaster Vadim.
Speaker: He finds Juran on the ship.
Speaker: She is she is not doing great.
Speaker: She's hurting physically, but more than physically hurt, she is psychologically damaged.
Speaker: The betrayal really fucked her up.
Speaker: The emotions are are hot.
Speaker: hot, hot emotions, big time.
Speaker: Um, uh, Vedum does what any good mentor does in a moment like this and pulls a goodwill hunting.
Speaker: It's not your fault.
Speaker: It's not your fault.
Speaker: It's not your fault.
Speaker: Uh, and, uh, you know, don't do this to me, man.
Speaker: Like, you know, that whole thing happens, uh, and seems to work.
Speaker: Uh, well, it kind of works.
Speaker: Like, you know, Juran is like, yeah, I know, but it's still fucking sucks.
Speaker: And it's not helping.
Speaker: Um, so Juran, uh,
Speaker: And that's where we leave Joran alive, but mentally unwell.
Speaker: So that could be very interesting where we're going with her later on.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Chapter 46, we have Severin flying through the ruins of his former planet, finally revisiting this place.
Speaker: And I liked this because way earlier when it happened,
Speaker: They actually make a point of him saying, I will have time to mourn my people later.
Speaker: For now, I got a fucking mission.
Speaker: This is him giving himself time to mourn.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: It's actually really cool.
Speaker: And to make it even cooler, he's like Darth Vader the fuck out.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: He's been Darth Vader, Corpse Emperor.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: He is, he is, he is basically dead for all intents and purposes.
Speaker: He's more machine than man.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: He should not be alive.
Speaker: He's got a machine that like forces him to breathe.
Speaker: Cause he can't, his lungs can't, you know, breathe.
Speaker: His lungs can't do that anymore.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: They're literally like, yeah, lungs don't do that.
Speaker: So you need this, but he's, but he, but the cool thing is he's in power armor and shit.
Speaker: So he's like, he's in power armor.
Speaker: He can never take off.
Speaker: Yeah, he's a pissed off dreadnought is what he is.
Speaker: And we're going to bring up 40K for the 40,000th time.
Speaker: And in this moment, he vows to rebuild the banished and to kill Dovo.
Speaker: So that's and that's where we leave him.
Speaker: So we get that that little moment.
Speaker: Chapter 47, we cut to speak of the devil, Dovo Nesto.
Speaker: He's got his team together.
Speaker: Everyone's happy he's alive, but disappointed that the mission failed.
Speaker: And Dovo Nesto tells them that they need they have a new plan.
Speaker: They need a new plan and says, what do you know about Cloyster?
Speaker: And Cloyster is the planet where his people were the prophets, the leaders all evacuated to when everything went to shit.
Speaker: So.
Speaker: We don't get the details specifically, but the implication is that the Covenant is going to find all the other leadership that is gone now and rebuild with the OG leadership team in the saddle.
Speaker: So that's where they're headed now, back to Cloyster.
Speaker: Chapter 48, we get to Admiral Gyllenhaal Signe, who works for Oni Intelligence.
Speaker: Oni is intelligence, works for Oni.
Speaker: On board the Akkadian, investigating the ruins of the Lithos for anything they can glean.
Speaker: Everything is demolished and destroyed.
Speaker: It's vaporized, but anything they find would be helpful.
Speaker: They're obviously very disappointed because they're
Speaker: they wanted all the information they could have gotten from the lithos and domain and everything like that.
Speaker: But, you know, it's at least they're trying to comfort themselves with, well,
Speaker: At least Covenant doesn't have it, I guess.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker: And then we got a very vague super secret transmission.
Speaker: Super secret.
Speaker: Super secret.
Speaker: We don't find out what the transmission says.
Speaker: It says drink your Ovaltine.
Speaker: Ovaltine?
Speaker: Son of a bitch.
Speaker: Bitch.
Speaker: Yeah, so we don't know what it says really, but we know that it implies that they are going after Dovo.
Speaker: They are not done with him and that more mysterious things are just around the corner.
Speaker: And that they have somebody on the inside with Dovo.
Speaker: Yes, that they have.
Speaker: Yeah, they do have.
Speaker: They have a spy of some kind, which makes me.
Speaker: Yeah, that's that's going to be interesting.
Speaker: It makes me wonder, like, is it the sword master?
Speaker: Like, did they convince the sword master to like?
Speaker: Like, he's got it.
Speaker: And that's why he did all the stuff that he did, because he has to look like.
Speaker: But he also let Joran survive.
Speaker: Maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe.
Speaker: There's something there.
Speaker: And because during the sword fight between Juran and Sorin, Sorin's like, why are you on the Covenant side?
Speaker: And Juran doesn't tell her why.
Speaker: He just says, you don't get to ask me these questions.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: You don't have the right to ask me these questions and I don't need to tell you why.
Speaker: So it is very vague.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So that's probably what we're dealing with.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: If I had to guess.
Speaker: And that's the end.
Speaker: That's the end of the book.
Speaker: We end on a mystery wrapped inside of a mystery.
Speaker: Kevin, what did you think?
Speaker: What did you think of Empty Throne?
Speaker: I loved it.
Speaker: I think it's a really good companion piece.
Speaker: I think there's like two.
Speaker: So I haven't played Halo Infinite.
Speaker: I keep every time we read a book set around Halo Infinite.
Speaker: I think we have to at this point.
Speaker: It's like I'll play it eventually, but I never do.
Speaker: So because apparently it references like there's a specific part of Halo Infinite where Cortana basically goes offline or deletes herself or whatever.
Speaker: And that's when the Guardians cease to function.
Speaker: uh, in the one moment, uh, in, in the last chunk of the book that we were talking about, um, which is why kind of like at the, it's like three quarters of the way through the book.
Speaker: It, it's like, oh, we need to do this because it will stop.
Speaker: That's where we are.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But I'm like, okay, well, it seems like Cortana is not doing anything now, but so we need to do this so that the banished or the, the new covenant don't get it.
Speaker: You know?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, it's yes.
Speaker: And I'm glad because because you actually texted me that I was literally going to look it up and go, wait, because we never find out.
Speaker: They never say outright.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Severn's correct.
Speaker: uh, Cortana has been defeated, quote unquote.
Speaker: Uh, uh, that's why all the guardians just stopped.
Speaker: Uh, never says that never actually says it.
Speaker: Um, so I was like, so is that what happened?
Speaker: And then Kevin texted me and basically confirms like, yeah, that's what happens in the game.
Speaker: Like that's when she did it.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: So that's really interesting.
Speaker: Cause you're right.
Speaker: It is a covenant as a covenant, as a companion piece.
Speaker: Um, it is a covenant piece, uh, but as a companion piece to, uh,
Speaker: You can see where the parallels happen.
Speaker: Yeah, exactly.
Speaker: And that's pretty interesting.
Speaker: And because I know there's a whole bunch of stuff with Atriox getting wounded in Halo Infinite, nearly killed, and Severin is basically the same thing happens to him, and Severin was the second in command in this.
Speaker: But also...
Speaker: just overall, I just really like this book.
Speaker: A lot of, so many good action sequences.
Speaker: Oh my God.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: When Soren ends the Spartan of like turn out to be like traitors, I'm like, Oh,
Speaker: It was a literal gasp moment.
Speaker: I did not see it coming.
Speaker: Yeah, I feel the same way.
Speaker: It totally took me off guard.
Speaker: Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker: Tal Jaron becomes a character who is really annoying at the beginning to somebody who you really like.
Speaker: By the end, James is is just good guy.
Speaker: James, you know, he he's he's coming to grips with everything he's ever done.
Speaker: He's trying to get out of this job and he just see at the right moment.
Speaker: He sees an old friend and she's like,
Speaker: Well, like you're still a Spartan, like all being said, you still exemplify what the Spartans were for.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And he he dies pretty peacefully knowing that he took a bunch of Gerald Hanein assholes with him with his nuclear armor.
Speaker: Yeah, saved an innocent person one last time and fucking killed the shit out of some bad guys.
Speaker: Killed the shit out of some bad guys.
Speaker: Can't go much better.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So, and it's also, it's another thing where it's like,
Speaker: jeremy uh if you have been listening along i think you need to write more books um yeah this is ridiculous because i because listen uh obviously he was he was amazing at being the the bible keeper you know the story editor those are two different things like yeah two different things uh
Speaker: But this is just, you know, coming out and flexing like this is for your first novel is a big deal.
Speaker: I guess.
Speaker: Yeah, it's it's it's kind of absurd to have.
Speaker: Yeah, your first novel be 500 pages long and it to be.
Speaker: this stuff full of goodies.
Speaker: Yeah, I totally agree.
Speaker: I think if I had one complaint, I think the endings became a little too deus ex machina for me.
Speaker: There were a lot of moments where they just got lucky.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And I can deal with that when it's once, maybe twice.
Speaker: But it kept happening.
Speaker: And I was just like, oh, guys, I think we can do better than that.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I think I think especially with Abigail Cole's ship there had.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Like a just like even if that was like, I don't know, something right.
Speaker: Something in there to just be like.
Speaker: It's like Abigail remembers something from her early days as a lieutenant.
Speaker: And she like goes the deck into the guts of the ship herself and rewire some shit and gets the, you know, something like that.
Speaker: Throw that in there instead of like anything like that would have been great.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: We're lucky this happened.
Speaker: We're lucky this happened.
Speaker: We're lucky this happened.
Speaker: You know, right.
Speaker: And it says something that the quality of the book was such that when that happened, it made me roll my eyes a little bit.
Speaker: But I still was like, this is still a damn good book.
Speaker: This is still an exciting book.
Speaker: The action scenes are great.
Speaker: The characters are so well fleshed out and developed.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Lots of really good stuff in this.
Speaker: I love I do love how amazingly foobard the mission goes at the end, like zero out of any no one's goals on anyone's side were accomplished.
Speaker: None, none whatsoever.
Speaker: And yeah, I think you're totally right.
Speaker: That is fucking mental.
Speaker: Like, like how bad it all goes.
Speaker: You know, they, one of the oldest rules in the book for writing is kill your darlings, put your characters through hell.
Speaker: And Jeremy did that.
Speaker: Like he said, yes, I will.
Speaker: I will do that.
Speaker: And holy shit.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I totally agree.
Speaker: Yeah, no, I loved it.
Speaker: I loved it.
Speaker: Do you have any other thoughts on the book yourself?
Speaker: No, no, I think I just it's just another example of any time we get a Halo book.
Speaker: My instant reaction is, well, this is a freebie.
Speaker: This will be nice and easy.
Speaker: That's that's an easy, easy one to roll through.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And it was.
Speaker: It's just terrific.
Speaker: It's another really good one.
Speaker: So I'm stoked.
Speaker: I'm stoked.
Speaker: I'm stoked.
Speaker: I'm a bicycle.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Great stuff.
Speaker: I didn't even realize that there's an extra chapter at the end.
Speaker: What?
Speaker: After the about the author.
Speaker: Oh, I totally missed that.
Speaker: Can you help us out?
Speaker: I fucking missed that.
Speaker: I missed it, too.
Speaker: I'm reading through it right now.
Speaker: Night sky.
Speaker: Fighters dodged and weaved through the debris on strafing runs to shake off pursuers while other ships continued to fire at one another with everything they had.
Speaker: A great battle was taking place here, but it was nearing its conclusion.
Speaker: All he needed to do was observe that it did.
Speaker: How odd it was to reconnect with the galaxy in this way after so long and still find it so rife with conflict.
Speaker: Neural transmission simply didn't allow his essence to travel into this plane of reality, but he connected his own consciousness to the lives around him.
Speaker: He could feel the tangle of their perspectives, their hatreds and hopes, their lives and loves and loyalties, and their passing into the cosmos.
Speaker: He took a moment to find himself amidst the chaos, for it was far too easy to get it lost among them.
Speaker: At the center of it all, one human ship was moving through the scattered shell of all the others, light erupting around it,
Speaker: as another vessel pursued it on an intercept course.
Speaker: Neural travel had shown numerous possibilities and outcomes for this moment, but all that mattered was the singular eventuality that would take shape.
Speaker: Two strikes flashed from the bow of the human ship just before its pursuer collided with it.
Speaker: Too late, as the horizon was engulfed in fire, he sensed thousands of lives passing in that moment.
Speaker: The structure they had fired upon then burst into a pillar of light that tore into the sky, clouds swirling around it as several dozen ships were instantly vaporized.
Speaker: Others were severely damaged, either cast adrift or sent on a collision course with the planet's surface, their atmospheric entry vectors blazing with streaks of fire like shooting stars.
Speaker: Dawa Madthu, he whispered, though there was nobody to hear him.
Speaker: He could already feel the domain tugging at him as if it were a safety cord warning him to pull back.
Speaker: Indeed, his presence in this place had begun to fade with the destruction of the gateway and the loss of so much life to connect to.
Speaker: No matter, he had witnessed what he needed.
Speaker: His mission was complete.
Speaker: Fortencho closed his eyes and allowed his consciousness to be buoyed along the steady tide of living time, finding himself back in the domain's anterior as he opened his eyes.
Speaker: More and more of this place was starting to feel like home.
Speaker: A smile tugged at the corner of his mouth as he saw a great hulking figure sitting on a rock a short distance away.
Speaker: Fortencho approached and settled down next to him without saying a word, content to quietly observe by his side as the sun was rising over the horizon.
Speaker: Oh, shit.
Speaker: We had a call back there.
Speaker: Yeah, so Fortentia was the human guy from way back when, right?
Speaker: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker: With the didact met in the... Yes.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, that was part of the book that was set in the domain.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, that's that's pretty cool that the motherfuckers did a credit sequence.
Speaker: Holy shit.
Speaker: They found a way to do it with the book.
Speaker: Yeah, I was like when I see about the author, I usually stop.
Speaker: And then I was like, I was just flipping through the book.
Speaker: I was like, wait a minute.
Speaker: There it is.
Speaker: There it is.
Speaker: Oh, that's hilarious.
Speaker: I love it.
Speaker: I love it.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: OK, well, that's even even more exciting.
Speaker: OK, I love that because I was I was wondering if we were going to see.
Speaker: uh, the didact at some point here, uh, in some way, shape or form.
Speaker: Uh, uh, so that's pretty cool.
Speaker: I, I like the sound of that.
Speaker: That sounds really good.
Speaker: Fortencho Oberoon.
Speaker: Love it.
Speaker: I love it.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Now that's, that's fantastic news.
Speaker: I'm super into that.
Speaker: That's great.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Um, yeah.
Speaker: Another, another really damn good book.
Speaker: Um, wow.
Speaker: motherfuckers with your good books with your good books god damn it anyway now that i uh my rage uh over this uh being jeremy's first book uh uh uh is is somewhat subsided kevin uh yeah i have a single question to ask you yes
Speaker: What are you playing?
Speaker: Oh, okay.
Speaker: So this past week I have been playing Blueprints and that's about it.
Speaker: Oh, okay.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Tell me about Blueprints.
Speaker: I've heard a little bit about that one.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So Blueprints, you play as a kid.
Speaker: He's a 14 year old kid who was the nephew of some eccentric reclusive billionaire who leaves you his estate.
Speaker: Um, but it is in his will.
Speaker: It said that you only get to keep it and the riches if you are able to find the 46th room inside of the estate.
Speaker: Um, and so the first day that you go in, uh, you, uh, open the, uh, you're in a, in the main hallway, right?
Speaker: the foyer and you're you go in and there's three doors and as you open the door you're then presented with three plans of what the next room is going to be and then you and it's at random and you choose it and then that room builds out and you go into it and uh you can go through that room and then you can go into it uh through the door on the other side of the room and it'll basically rinse and repeat
Speaker: As you build out the home, you will find a variety of different types of rooms.
Speaker: So early on, you'll find things like a den or a living room or a book nook or a kitchen or a pantry or what have you.
Speaker: And they all have different like...
Speaker: layouts.
Speaker: Some are like there's a door on the south side and it goes up and it exits on the west side or exits on the east side or there will be rooms with doors that exit on all four sides.
Speaker: And but you only get the option of three rooms each time you open a door and it's drawn at random from a stack of basically plans or cards that you can choose from.
Speaker: And you can only use one room at a time until you
Speaker: upgrade your rooms later.
Speaker: And then you'll be going and then on the first day you'll run into a dead end or you'll plan rooms wrong and be like, well, I can't go any further and you'll call it a night.
Speaker: And then day two, you go back into the mansion and you open the door and all the rooms that you did before are no longer there.
Speaker: You plan new rooms again.
Speaker: So it is
Speaker: It's like roguelike mist.
Speaker: Interesting.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Because each of the rooms also has a, will also have like puzzles.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And these, and sometimes they'll have like little, like you'll find paper in there and you'll read notes and things like that.
Speaker: And you take down like, oh, okay, this guy said this.
Speaker: And sometimes there'll be a clue in that note that you find in one room that helps you solve a puzzle that you find in a different room.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: It is intense, man.
Speaker: I was going to say, that sounds exhausting.
Speaker: It's a lot.
Speaker: I really like it, but also at times it's one of those games where I'll do a run.
Speaker: It's a roguelike.
Speaker: So you're basically doing a run.
Speaker: It's architecture roguelike.
Speaker: You'll do a run and you'll be like, oh man, that really took it out of me.
Speaker: I'm done for now.
Speaker: Right, right.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: I think that's a thing with roguelikes where it's like sometimes in most roguelikes you get the kind of just one more turn feeling.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: But every now and then you get one where you're like, that was great.
Speaker: I need a break.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: That sounds like a lot.
Speaker: I've had that several times, and I understand why people love this game.
Speaker: It is the indie darling of the year.
Speaker: But I also understand why people bounce off of it, because...
Speaker: The first few rounds that you go through it, you have, especially if you're going in blind, you have no fucking clue what you're doing.
Speaker: Like, you're just like, oh, I'm trying to figure out which of these rooms is room number 46, right?
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Right?
Speaker: Yeah, please.
Speaker: Of course, it's a lot more involved than that.
Speaker: Like, you are trying to...
Speaker: There's like all these little mysteries that pop up that you're trying to solve as well.
Speaker: I mean, I've put, I don't know, 12 hours into it, but let's say it's probably more like nine because I believe I left it open on the pause menu.
Speaker: Oh, sure.
Speaker: For a few hours at one point.
Speaker: I put in about nine hours.
Speaker: And I know for most folks, it takes like 15 to get through the story.
Speaker: Like you get to the end of the main mystery.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So and I'm I feel like I might be getting there.
Speaker: I'm not.
Speaker: But that's the thing with roguelikes.
Speaker: You're like you're you're also not sure.
Speaker: Like I have made progress.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: But have I?
Speaker: But have I?
Speaker: Yeah, you have no idea.
Speaker: And I can see why that would be frustrating after a while.
Speaker: So, yeah, I'm getting close, I think, to the end of the main storyline in it.
Speaker: And then it's basically you can just keep playing after that because there's a lot of other little mysteries to unravel.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: I know Jason Skryer has said he has like 100 some hours into the game.
Speaker: He finished the story, the main quest at like 17 hours, but he's still going, which is wild.
Speaker: Lord, that is crazy.
Speaker: It's bananas, is what it is.
Speaker: But yeah, no, so blueprints is what I've been playing over the past week.
Speaker: I have unlocked zero achievements
Speaker: Oh, wow.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Not even achievement to your name.
Speaker: Not even achievement to my name.
Speaker: It is stingy on the achievements.
Speaker: There's 16 achievements.
Speaker: I've gotten zero after 10 hours.
Speaker: Wow.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: That is rough.
Speaker: As a guy who cannot help himself when it comes to achievements, I try very hard to go.
Speaker: You like a little chivo, you know?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: That's rough.
Speaker: Holy shit.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: I'm interested.
Speaker: I'm definitely interested.
Speaker: I'm keeping an eye on it.
Speaker: Maybe when it's on sale or something like that.
Speaker: I'll give it a little.
Speaker: If not, then watch Northern Line play it.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: He's playing it.
Speaker: It's a very enjoyable playthrough.
Speaker: He apparently finished the, was able to beat it in 10 hours.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Which is pretty amazing.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: Just from what I've heard about that, that sounds amazing.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Cool.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So, Phil, what are you playing?
Speaker: Oh, well, I'm still playing no skin.
Speaker: I've gotten through a lot of it.
Speaker: It's confusing.
Speaker: It's getting a little weird at the end.
Speaker: Big shocker.
Speaker: I'm not going to be able to do that.
Speaker: I'm not going to be able to do that.
Speaker: I'm not going to be able to do that.
Speaker: I'm not going to be able to do that.
Speaker: I'm not going to be able to do that.
Speaker: I'm not going to be able to do that.
Speaker: I'm not going to be able to do that.
Speaker: After a while, it's one of these things where it gets real samey.
Speaker: I've reached.
Speaker: And I think that happens with a lot of these kind of roguelikes where like you hit a wall for a minute where you're doing the same thing over and over again.
Speaker: And finally, you just need that one crack to happen so you can slip through and get a bunch of new shit.
Speaker: I feel like I'm at that point.
Speaker: Whatever.
Speaker: Whatever.
Speaker: I played a demo.
Speaker: It's a prologue.
Speaker: This is what a lot of people are doing with their demos.
Speaker: It's for a game called Infection Free Zone.
Speaker: OK.
Speaker: This is by a studio that did a game I really liked called 911 Simulator or 911 Operator.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Where you it's just like it says on the tin, you get phone calls and you have to dispatch cops or firemen or something else or an ambulance or something like that.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: To different places based on what people tell you.
Speaker: And it's
Speaker: It starts out, it's one of those games kind of like, what is it called?
Speaker: Cook Serve something where these- Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker: It's Cook Serve Delicious.
Speaker: Or like Overcooked or whatever.
Speaker: Yeah, that too.
Speaker: Where it's like,
Speaker: There is a level of relaxation here, but the longer it goes on, the more stressful it becomes.
Speaker: And I really like that game.
Speaker: I put in a lot of time with that game.
Speaker: This is the same studio that did that, and it is a city builder zombie game.
Speaker: Um, nothing too special on the face of it, but I was intrigued because especially because this one, like the 911 operator, one of the things that they're developing is it's a little thing, but it's fun.
Speaker: You can literally play in any city like they're using satellite technology and shit to like.
Speaker: So yeah, cool.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So you could pick a city and you have a and, you know, when basically you start out as a team of survivors and you're slowly clearing out different buildings and turning them into, you know, housing or whatnot.
Speaker: And then eventually you're building farms and and the night comes down and you've got to you still have to you might have to deal with zombies during the day, but at night they're ravenous and yeah, that whole thing.
Speaker: And and honestly,
Speaker: I should like this a hell of a lot.
Speaker: And I did.
Speaker: That's the thing.
Speaker: I really dug it.
Speaker: I was having a lot of fun with it.
Speaker: It has a very good loop to it.
Speaker: It's very satisfying.
Speaker: The the UI is dog shit.
Speaker: It is.
Speaker: Oh, it is.
Speaker: And I and I I left.
Speaker: I haven't left a review on a game in a while.
Speaker: And I left a review on the prologue here so that the studio will read it like that was the whole reason I left.
Speaker: I want them to read it because I would have this game would have been in my library.
Speaker: I would have paid money, money down.
Speaker: It's an it's a it's an early access game.
Speaker: And I don't.
Speaker: tend to spend money on early access games until they're done.
Speaker: I would have put my money down.
Speaker: I would have had... I would be coming to you with 20 hours of that game under my belt right now.
Speaker: If the UI wasn't so shitty, it doesn't...
Speaker: It barely ever makes sense, where it's like you kind of have to trial and error to figure out how this button works and how do I get these people here?
Speaker: You've got this one main base and you've got a bunch of people in it and too many people.
Speaker: And so your first thing that you really need to do is you need to take some of the abandoned buildings around you and slowly convert them into residences.
Speaker: so that people can spread out a little bit.
Speaker: And I do that.
Speaker: I've built a bunch of houses and stuff and no one will move.
Speaker: No, everyone.
Speaker: So we've got the houses.
Speaker: So I'm like, how do I move them?
Speaker: How did there's got to be a thing?
Speaker: I check the discussions.
Speaker: People are asking the same questions.
Speaker: It's and it's all
Speaker: The UI, there's an interesting quest system there.
Speaker: There's a good again, there's a good city builder loop in there with some some some brutal combat.
Speaker: The combat is hard.
Speaker: You do not want to fight the zombies if you could avoid it.
Speaker: This is not a good idea.
Speaker: at least at the point in the game that I was in.
Speaker: You want to avoid it at all possible costs.
Speaker: But, you know, you've got this, you can find an abandoned car and see if you can get it to work.
Speaker: And if you can get it to work, that gets you to missions faster and gets you around the area faster.
Speaker: You can find abandoned weapons that'll make things better for you.
Speaker: It's...
Speaker: It should be a slam dunk and the UI fucking hamstrings it.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: On a level that I like, you know, you know me, I am a, I am a UI like.
Speaker: I knew you'd get it.
Speaker: That's the thing.
Speaker: I am a UI guy.
Speaker: Like you, like, don't, don't put out your demo.
Speaker: Like, listen, listen.
Speaker: Gameplay elements, fucking graphics might not be final.
Speaker: I will.
Speaker: Whatever.
Speaker: That is whatever.
Speaker: The UI being bad to me is a worse indicator of the kind of care and effort that is being put.
Speaker: The UI to me is the red M&Ms.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Speaker: Absolutely.
Speaker: It's the canary in the fucking coal mine.
Speaker: A bad UI is the canary in the coal mine for me.
Speaker: Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker: Is that fair?
Speaker: I don't know, but it is a bad, like, that is how people actually access your game.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: So if it's like...
Speaker: you know, uh, Oh man, the novel is great, but Oh God.
Speaker: Like the, the cover is made out of like safety pins.
Speaker: It's right.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: When you, when you, when you get used to the pain of all the thumbtacks they've put on the pages, there's a really good story in there.
Speaker: It's like, you know what?
Speaker: I think I'll, I'll skip that.
Speaker: I think I'll skip, you know, but what, what do you want from the sequel to house of leaves?
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: You know what?
Speaker: I read House of Leaves.
Speaker: I don't want anything.
Speaker: I feel like I'm one of the only people who was not terribly impressed by that book.
Speaker: All right, it's fine.
Speaker: Fine.
Speaker: Everybody's like, oh, great.
Speaker: Another layer.
Speaker: Cool.
Speaker: Awesome.
Speaker: Oh, and now I have to turn it in circles to read it.
Speaker: Ooh.
Speaker: Anyway.
Speaker: I feel like I saw someone say once that House of Leaves is the, oh, what is that?
Speaker: Impossible book.
Speaker: Oh,
Speaker: That everyone infinite jest.
Speaker: I heard someone say that the House of Leaves is the infinite jest for the horror world where half the time people have read it and they claim that they loved it because it was because of the sunken cost fallacy.
Speaker: And I couldn't agree more.
Speaker: There was some I'm not going to shit on it too hard.
Speaker: There was some there was some great stuff in there, but I just I didn't have the patience for it.
Speaker: Next week, we will be having an interview with House of Leaves author Mark Danielewski.
Speaker: I'm looking forward to it.
Speaker: I have a lot of things I want to say.
Speaker: No, but this game, and that's the thing, it's still in early access.
Speaker: So that's why I left the review.
Speaker: I want very bad.
Speaker: And the thing is, the recent reviews, if you go to the full game, they're very positive.
Speaker: They've done very well.
Speaker: I'm hoping that maybe that was just the prologue and they haven't updated it, which is a bad idea, folks.
Speaker: If you fixed a problem in your full game and you didn't fix it in the demo,
Speaker: You gotta, you can't, that's, that's insanity you have.
Speaker: Cause that's, that's a lot of our first option, you know, option for like playing this thing.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: But yeah, it, I want, I want this game to, I'm keeping this game in my wishlist.
Speaker: I'm going to check on it now and then.
Speaker: Cause I want to play this game.
Speaker: Do you want it to be good?
Speaker: I want, I guess I want it to be user friendly.
Speaker: And it, it just isn't right now.
Speaker: The other game I am playing, oh, this is a fun one.
Speaker: This is speaking of interesting UI.
Speaker: I'm playing a game called Universe Horizon.
Speaker: This is another clicker.
Speaker: It's I think four bucks or three bucks.
Speaker: The the it's like basic eight bit graphics.
Speaker: You are in a spaceship and you are flying through the solar system.
Speaker: And as you reach different points in the solar system, the moon, Mars, et cetera.
Speaker: There are different things that you can mine there and you mine them and they unlock different abilities.
Speaker: It's clicker.
Speaker: It's clicker shit.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And if that's not something you like, that's fine.
Speaker: And that's the thing.
Speaker: I played two clicker games this year and both of them were really interesting for different reasons.
Speaker: And this one.
Speaker: There's something kind of lovely about it.
Speaker: There's it's it's it's very relaxing.
Speaker: There's a very Star Trek, you know, it's you know, you're not there to blow up aliens and shit kind of vibe to it.
Speaker: The the the music makes me think of Malatro in the sense that it's kind of the same 30 second loop, but you still enjoy it.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And I'm at this point on a Neptune, which means I'm I'm
Speaker: drilling for water and shit like that.
Speaker: And but and I've I've seen based on the achievements, it does not end when you get out of the solar system.
Speaker: So I'm really very curious to see how far this goes.
Speaker: It keeps playing when you're not on.
Speaker: So which can be which can be overwhelming.
Speaker: You'll hop on there and go, oh shit, there's all this other stuff.
Speaker: Oh my God.
Speaker: I got things happened.
Speaker: Yeah, exactly.
Speaker: But it's a nice little game to have playing when you're listening to a podcast or just or just dicking around or something like that.
Speaker: If I wasn't if I wasn't in charge of the book today, I would have probably had it on the background while we were talking because it's just like a lot of these clickers.
Speaker: You start clicking and then you find a way to automate it and
Speaker: You're investing silicone to get more aluminum.
Speaker: And when you get enough aluminum, you're investing in iron.
Speaker: And it's all all in the name of making your ship faster.
Speaker: And as your ship goes faster, you unlock more things.
Speaker: You unlock things simply by traveling a certain amount of kilometers.
Speaker: Your next upgrade will say, yeah, you can you can click on this and have it when you hit 25 million kilometers or whatever.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And
Speaker: I don't know.
Speaker: There's something about it that sometimes these games stress me out a lot.
Speaker: Clickers stress me out a lot sometimes.
Speaker: This is not one of them.
Speaker: I'm finding something very relaxing about it.
Speaker: Do you lose if you attempt to make a landing on Europa?
Speaker: Not yet.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: I wrote them and wrote them and wrote them and asked them to please implement that.
Speaker: But I passed it when I wasn't playing, so I could be wrong.
Speaker: Maybe it's there.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I mean, we've been told make no landing there, but.
Speaker: Right, right.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: This is going to be a tough week for this one, by the way, because my wife and I agreed that this week we're going to have an analog week.
Speaker: uh okay you know we're gonna i'm gonna we're gonna come home i'm gonna come home we have dinner and we're gonna have family dinners with the kid it's been really nice and uh and then after we put him to bed we play board games or we can uh play cards or we can just talk or we can work on our projects you know and that sort of thing um but no games no movies
Speaker: screens off just to give us give us and this game.
Speaker: So that means basically unless I cheat, the next time I open this game up is going to be Friday night or something like that.
Speaker: And I'm going to be like, oh, shit, I'm out of Alpha Centauri.
Speaker: What happened?
Speaker: Oh, boy.
Speaker: This is going to be a tough one.
Speaker: But but, you know, it's I think it's three bucks.
Speaker: It's so cheap.
Speaker: Yeah, it's two ninety nine.
Speaker: It's it's it's just kind of nice.
Speaker: The gold is just to reach as far as you can get as far into the university as you can.
Speaker: I've seen some things on the discussion boards where people are like, yeah, I made it to the end.
Speaker: There is an ending.
Speaker: It's really interesting.
Speaker: It's it's I like it.
Speaker: It's very relaxing.
Speaker: I'm enjoying it so far.
Speaker: So that is that's what I'm playing.
Speaker: That's me.
Speaker: I totally forgot to mention the one thing I'm playing was, or I played and beat was a game about digging a hole.
Speaker: Oh, how did you like, I've got my eye on that one.
Speaker: How did you like that one?
Speaker: It's so silly.
Speaker: It's not long at all.
Speaker: And I was like, so I'm looking at it on the end.
Speaker: I was like, well, that's interesting.
Speaker: It's got a it's tagged horror for some reason.
Speaker: Oh, no.
Speaker: That's always a bad sign.
Speaker: Really?
Speaker: Oh, why?
Speaker: Anyway, I'm going to get I'm going to start digging.
Speaker: Yeah, so I got I dug and I got to the bottom of the hole and I beat the game and there was nothing wrong at the bottom of the hole.
Speaker: Oh, good.
Speaker: Good.
Speaker: I'm glad to hear that.
Speaker: Yeah, I was nervous.
Speaker: There must have been a mistake then.
Speaker: It was a mistake on the heart tag.
Speaker: There's absolutely nothing down there.
Speaker: That's wrong.
Speaker: There's nothing wrong down there.
Speaker: Nothing wrong.
Speaker: So fine.
Speaker: That's fine.
Speaker: Everything's fine.
Speaker: How are you?
Speaker: Everything's fine.
Speaker: It's all fine down here.
Speaker: How are you?
Speaker: But yeah, it's just this, I don't know.
Speaker: I like I'm playing it and it's one of those.
Speaker: I am like, why did I do that?
Speaker: But I got to maybe I'll write something someday examining why.
Speaker: Well, much like Jack Black says in the Minecraft movie, as a child, he yearned for the mines.
Speaker: Why, as a dad, I yearn for the games that are menial tasks.
Speaker: I noticed that too.
Speaker: Like last was it last year or the year before?
Speaker: Like that was when you started with power washing simulator.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: And I was playing a lot of lawn mowing simulator.
Speaker: Why?
Speaker: While my actual lawn just fucking sat there.
Speaker: Yeah, it was Vietnam by the time I was done with that game.
Speaker: Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker: I don't know what that's about, but I've noticed it too.
Speaker: Why do I yearn for the mundane?
Speaker: Is that an essay that I write one day?
Speaker: Who knows?
Speaker: Maybe.
Speaker: I swear I was out of that game.
Speaker: But it's something that's been on my mind recently because I just had to examine myself.
Speaker: I was like,
Speaker: What?
Speaker: Why?
Speaker: Why?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: No, I totally feel that.
Speaker: It's a game about digging a hole.
Speaker: Literally, it is what it says on the tin, except for the bottom of the hole, which is fine.
Speaker: There's nothing down there.
Speaker: It's all good.
Speaker: Everything's fine.
Speaker: So what's the problem?
Speaker: Everything's fine.
Speaker: I was so excited to see that the company that makes Power Washer Simulator announced Power Washer Simulator 2.
Speaker: Oh, there we go.
Speaker: There we go.
Speaker: This is my, you know, th is is my white whale here.
Speaker: This is how Kevin parties.
Speaker: This is how I party.
Speaker: I'm going to fire it up and just really, I really wish the Steam Deck was waterproof.
Speaker: I'll tell you what.
Speaker: Sure.
Speaker: Sure.
Speaker: Just so you could fully experience.
Speaker: Well, no.
Speaker: So I could take that bad boy into the bath, light a few candles, sit in the bath with some power washer simulator.
Speaker: Didn't that set your mind right?
Speaker: Honestly, that sounds excellent.
Speaker: I don't think they realize what a gold mine they're sitting on if they were able to develop a waterproof fucking Steam Deck.
Speaker: The dads and the moms would fucking buy every last one of them.
Speaker: Every last one of them.
Speaker: So before we finish tonight, Phil, have you ever noticed that when you...
Speaker: Like when you put the garbage out, sometimes you get naked mole rats.
Speaker: Oh, yeah, sure.
Speaker: It's funny because they're a little bit more aggressive than raccoons, I've noticed.
Speaker: They are, I think.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: I think it has something to do with their nudity.
Speaker: That sounds like a joke, but I'm actually being serious.
Speaker: And there was a great quote from Robert Louis Stevenson about it.
Speaker: He said...
