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Returning to an Old Friend (Resident Evil: Code Veronica - Part 1)
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Back to the SD Perry-verse! And with it we come, hat in hand with a request. Please humbly sign our petition to get SD Perry to write a Resident Evil game.
https://nogamesforgenocide.com
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Transcript
00:00:00
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. um All right. Code Veronica. ah Yeah. ah Code Veronica. You know what else is Code Veronica?
00:00:13
Speaker
What's that? Hey, everybody. Welcome back to Pixel. My name is Kevin. With me as always is Phil. On today's show, we are talking Resident Evil Code Veronica by 1SD Perry. Oh, yeah.
00:00:27
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Old friend of the pod. Friend of the pod, Esty Perry, hasn't actually appeared on the pod. She's just kind of, she's appeared by proxy. Yeah. and Because she is not a fan of actually ah being on podcasts. So, um you know, we had, had, we had, a kat from pixel a day read the answers yes that we got from sd perry was that that's how we handled it right yeah yeah she did a great job and now you and now it's proxy yeah and it's impossible for me not to imagine sd perry as australian now as a result so that's extra funny uh uh but yeah yeah it was it was it was such a good it was like a twofer we get do we get
00:01:17
Speaker
ah Two of our favorite lady friends on the show once. That's right. so Exactly. Gotta love that. So ah Code Veronica ah is, for those of you who don't know, is the next book ah in the series that sd Perry wrote that was adapting the Resident Evil franchise.
00:01:38
Speaker
ah We've talked at length about who S.D. Perry is, so Phil gets a pass on having to this on having and having a dive deep into the to the author. if you want to learn more about S.D. Perry, listen to our other Resident Evil books or that episode where we had a Q&A with her by proxy with a Pixel A Day.
00:01:58
Speaker
um Now, before I get into the game of what ah what this book is based on, I want to tell you about a website, a wonderful website.
00:02:10
Speaker
It's a wonderful website called patreon.com slash pixelitpod, where you... And possibly your friends and family could go and give us money. And there's three tiers. ah Well, four if you count free.
00:02:25
Speaker
ah You can follow us for free. And you should. ah Because now Patreon has this thing called Quips, which are the Patreon equivalent of Twitter.
00:02:36
Speaker
uh because everything is social media site patreon's trying to be the everything app before x becomes the everything app yeah so and and honestly i prefer i prefer uh how they're doing it so yeah yeah yeah so uh uh quip today over at patreon.com slash pixel at pod and if you're on our 10 tier you get your name shouted out Do it today.
00:03:10
Speaker
bes dumb thick and friendly friend thank you so much for being a friend patreon dot com slash pixellet pid do it today Okay, so Resident Evil Code Veronica, it was, it came out in 2000, and i would say Code Veronica to me was more of a Resident Evil 3 than Resident Evil 3 Nemesis was. ah i even felt, like, I felt that back when it happened, because Resident Evil 3 Nemesis is pretty short game overall ah compared to the other Resident Evil games. And so um we ah when i when I played through it it, it definitely felt more of a continuation of the story because had Claire Redfield, who was just in Resident Evil 2. has Chris, who was in Resident Evil 1. And it's it's getting it out of Raccoon City, ah which 3 was just kind of like, oh, we're back in Raccoon City again, even though it has ah my best girl Jill in it.
00:04:13
Speaker
um so Resident Evil Code Verona came out 2000 it was originally a Dreamcast exclusive ah for the first year of existence um and i played it on Dreamcast and I was wowed and in in complete awe of the graphics uh that they they had packed into this one um Yeah, it came out in 2000, was an exclusive for a little bit, then the following year it was it was came out for PlayStation 2, and then a couple years later it came out for GameCube, and then it's you know it was available on the PS3 and Xbox 360 ten years after its release. ah
00:04:55
Speaker
Currently, it is not available, I don't think. Whereas like on Steam, you can go and buy the entire like you can buy the entire original run of Resident Evil games. Code Veronica is not available, unfortunately, ah through the online
00:05:19
Speaker
stores. It's just almost certainly one of the reasons that it's one of the only ones I haven't played. Yes, exactly. um So stars ah Claire from Resident Evil 2 and Chris from Resident Evil 1.
00:05:33
Speaker
ah And, you know, we'll get into the plot in the book because it's pretty it's it's close to ah exactly what happens in the game. um The book just, you know, it's There's a reason why i i tweeted out on Blue Sky earlier or Skeeted or whatever it is that Capcom should allow sd Perry to write a Resident Evil game.
00:05:58
Speaker
And I feel that in my heart. And I would like to announce with this episode that I'm going to be launching an official petition on a petition site. that it'll be The link will be down in the description below. Petitioning Capcom.
00:06:12
Speaker
uh, to allow ST Perry to write a resident evil game. And we're going to, we're, we're going to get all the signatures and we're going to present it to John Capcom.
00:06:24
Speaker
And, uh, we're, we're looking out for you. s You know, we're, we're gonna, uh, make sure that you get what you are due, uh, from, from Capcom because, um,
00:06:41
Speaker
Hasn't she earned it? you know like She has earned it. She's earned it. She's earned our respect, goddammit, and therefore deserves a video game. Code Veronica also features the ah what is the first of many many annoying sidekick characters Resident Evil games, ah that being... Steve Burnside, who was modeled ah very clearly after Leonardo DiCaprio circa the Titanic.
00:07:13
Speaker
Wasn't Leon modeled under that too? Maybe. No, it was Romeo and Juliet, Leo, that they... and Because cause Claire is very yeah much Claire Danes.
00:07:25
Speaker
Yes. Yeah. So, um yeah. Yeah. ah So anyway, we get Steve Burnside, who ah is an interesting character. he is made...
00:07:36
Speaker
more likable in the novelization. He still, like, does all the annoying little shit that he does in the novelization, and we'll get to that, that he does in the game, except in the game, because we have no inner monologues from um Steve or ah Claire ah regarding his actions, ah it's just, like, presented at face value, whereas in the book, it's like, we actually have Claire thinking about, like, what like why would he say that? He's a...
00:08:06
Speaker
And it was like, ah, he's just a macho teenager, you know. um So, yeah. Crazy Evil Code Veronica. Let's do it. Let's do it. Let's put the body in the marsh. Martian that body.
00:08:19
Speaker
When I tell you to dump a body in the marsh, you dump them in the marsh.
00:08:29
Speaker
All right, ah so the book starts with a prologue, which is, a pretty beefy prologue. It could have been chapter one, but it's it's not. It's the prologue, and it's from the point of view of of Rodrigo Juan Raval, who is, in an umbrella security guy.
00:08:47
Speaker
um and he is dealing with a helicopter crash at the beginning of the prologue. Uh, he cracks his ribs and while he's sitting there, he, he has a flashback to you 10 days earlier. He's like, you might, he'll basically looks in the camera and says, you might be wondering how I got in this. That's exactly, i I thought the same thing. I was like, is that what this is? Is the, uh,
00:09:13
Speaker
And it's ah we get a flashback to ah when Claire infiltrated the Umbrella headquarters in Paris. And in the game, it is basically this John Woo ass sequence of like she's running down a hallway and there's a helicopter like firing at her. And it's like.
00:09:32
Speaker
It's like there's a helicopter outside the building shooting miniguns at her as she runs down the hallway, like chasing her. And I think it's from one of the Resident Evil. It's like either this happened in before the Resident Evil movie and they remade it in the movie or this happened in the movie and they remade it in the game. ah But it's it's a super John Woo sequence. um And she gets, ah Rodrigo gets the drop on Claire.
00:09:59
Speaker
And Claire's gun just happens to be empty and he he knocks her out. So his team gets to bring Claire in ah to the Rockford Islands facility, which is in the Southern Atlantic, and drop Claire off as... ah as Basically ah test subject possibly or bait for Chris. um So later now they're on Rockford. The island is hit by an airstrike and there's a bunch of unknown attackers with corporate grade equipment.
00:10:36
Speaker
ah And at at some point during the attack, the hot zone lab was leaked and multiple T-virus monsters are now on the island as well as some of the experimental BOWs. And can't remember if this is the first time that they. Yes. OK, yeah I have a note here. Um, there was, this is where the bander snatches, ah kind of get out of the lab. Um, and Rodrigo's team is entirely wiped out by bander snatches because even if you have the filter mask, uh, saving you from the release of like T virus gas or whatever, you're not going to be saved by, ah from the bander snatches, which are, have you looked them them up? What they look like? No, I'm going to do that right now. though Do that right now. They're unsettling. um stand she says Oh, oh, that is, ooh, oh, I like that.
00:11:36
Speaker
yeah It's like Swamp Thing went through like chemical you know waste or something like that. this is Oh, that's yeah cool. Yes, Swamp Thing became the Toxic Avenger. Right, yes. Yeah.
00:11:50
Speaker
I just got the one big arm. It's going to have to do. ok One big arm is goingnna have to is is is good for everybody. um So basically half the island gets infected and then the people who are infected basically kill the other half.
00:12:06
Speaker
Um, and Rodrigo has a little come to Jesus moment in his own mind. He was like, yeah, I i should have like not ignored all the shit that I'm bad shit umbrella does for money. Uh, so he, he decides to do one last good thing and he goes down, ah towards, uh, Claire's cell underground with the intention of, of, uh, freeing her.
00:12:34
Speaker
And that brings us to chapter one where Claire wakes up in said cell and ah she just has, you know, brief, brief flashbacks to ah she's like, where am I? What? How did I get here? She remembers the events of Resident Evil 2, a few of the events and intervening. And she's like, oh, yeah, I broke into Umbrella HQ. Yeah.
00:12:54
Speaker
in ours Like you do Like you do um She after that that break in she actually was held for about a week ah and she did not give anything up including the knowledge of Sherry or our our favorite meta character from the books meta ah storyline character Trent Trent. Trent. Oh, Trent.
00:13:23
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. They get, they get straight into it with this one. I think one of the few, like, cause these are all, these, these are what they are, these books and, and they can be, and they're a lot of fun as long as you're just, you know, not taking it too seriously. And one of the complaints I've always had is they have these weird introductions where like, we're going to meet everybody. And it just kind of, You just want them to get on with it and and that kind of But this this has got the opposite issue. This they they throw you right into the wood chipper, like right off the bat.
00:13:55
Speaker
Yeah, and it's basically a page one. and This guy, Rob Rego, screaming for his life as a helicopter falls from the sky and he he's running from zombies and thinking about, oh, my God, I've wasted my life.
00:14:12
Speaker
Oh, my God, I've wasted my life. ah So, ah but yes, in the background, by the way, ah the the during her European missions, there is like ah Leon, ah Rebecca, Chambers, and then there's David and John, who are two of the original characters two of the oc's uh in these book these books and barry burton um are are all involved in the european uh missions so anyway she's uh she's in the cell and uh there's uh the lights go out and she realizes that she has ah a few things on her she has a lighter ah a ponytail elastic and some breath mints yeah And then Rodrigo stumbles in. She's unsure if this is an infected or a real person. ah He comes in, unlocks her cell, and then he's been looking for something called hemostatic medicine. Basically, it's like a medicine that's supposed to stop internal bleeding. um And he finds a vial of it.
00:15:22
Speaker
It's and it turns out to be empty. um he mentions that yeah there's a special forces attack and then he basically just sits in a chair falls unconscious um rebecca not rebecca uh claire ah leaves the cell finds uh some of her documents ah grabs a combat knife and her fingerless riding gloves. Of course. and she Of course.
00:15:47
Speaker
And she heads out into the island. And then the point of view shifts to Alfred Ashford, who is just... ah I feel like at this point, the villains of the Resident Evil series just keep like cranking up in terms of creepiness. right yeah so Oh, yeah. Oh, this is the worst. These are just awful, awful people. He is grotesque. oh Just like friggin like Alec Alfred Ashford is ah his. He's the guy in charge. He's in charge of the island. He's the base commander and he is from a family that is a pretty big to do in the umbrella ah ah stuff. And he has a twin sister named Alexia.
00:16:38
Speaker
and Absolutely wants to fuck her. ah So hard. So hard. So much. Like, um it's really uncomfortable. It's very uncomfortable.
00:16:49
Speaker
Are you uncomfortable with ah ah with a subtle incest plot? Then this book is going to make you uncomfortable. Ooh, boy. And so it's good writing. It's deeply uncomfortable. It's deeply unsettling. um So Alfred had watched the attack happen and ah he got so annoyed that he shot his cook. Yeah.
00:17:14
Speaker
Sure. Real, real. He just does not care about human life at all. yeah And ah he's like, this is either a rival pharmaceutical company or it's they're from White Umbrella.
00:17:25
Speaker
And then we get some backstory about how Umbrella was co-founded by Oswald Spencer and his grandfather, Edward Ash, ah Ashford. ah And Alfred had taken ah control of ah this group 15 years earlier when their father ah alexander ashford had disappeared um uh so uh and we get a little ah a little bit more about Alexia. ah she appears and, uh, she smells like gardenias. Yeah. And he goes to hug her, but she dislikes physical contact. Um, so and if that was my brother, I probably would too.
00:18:10
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah, I would not be into that. um But we get a chapter break, and it's chapter two now. ah Meanwhile, little Claire ascends a covered stairwell into the cemetery, and he finds that as she finds the helicopter that was crashed. and burning under the rain and at this point you would think she would say i remember when this happened to the raccoon city police station i was going to say they get a serious uh flashback with this one he's like this just keeps seems to keep happening to me uh it's always very picturesque too interesting
00:18:48
Speaker
Yeah, ah she ah she kind of dodges ducks and weaves through the cemetery as there's zombies staggering around. And she decides basically to not use the knife at all because getting too close to use it would be a bad idea.
00:19:03
Speaker
um ah She ah plans to exit through the southeast gate when she gets where she's ah there's only a one eyed broken arm zombie blocking the way. ah She leaps through the air, lands a mud roll and stays on the half blind zombies blind side and shoves it away.
00:19:21
Speaker
And then she sprints through the gate, slams the metal door behind her and into a courtyard with wreckage, fire bodies and a low guard tower. And the spotlight snaps on and there's automatic gunfire ah ah being fired at her.
00:19:33
Speaker
And we get the point of view. it shifts to the person who is firing at her 17 year old prisoner, Steve Burnside in the guard tower. ah and he's, he's just hungry.
00:19:44
Speaker
He's tired and he wants to get out of there by boat. Um, and he's already looted, uh, stuff from the warden, the dead warden, Paul Steiner.
00:19:55
Speaker
um yes. Uh, that reminds me of the wrestlers, the Steiner brothers, um,
00:20:05
Speaker
he yeah He's firing the mounted machine gun towards Claire, and then the three ah there's three rounds that she fires back, and shatters the searchlight, and he just surrenders. He he panics, and she basically says calls up to him and says, say uncle. Yeah, literally. Yeah.
00:20:26
Speaker
Um, she comes down, ah or he comes down the, the guard tower and he is like, Oh my God, she's so hot. Um, and what's funny is like before that, right before she sees, he sees her, he goes, I don't care if she's hot. I'm, I gotta be a loner or whatever. And then he sees her and he, he, he's like, Oh no, she's hot. Oh no. My one weakness.
00:20:50
Speaker
Uh, my only weakness. Um, so, i She basically just keeps the gun ah pointed at his face while he talks about himself. And he's flirting with her. And she just really wants to possibly kill him. And he says he's going to go find a plane. And then also refuses to team up to like act like he's more macho or whatever. And he he just heads out.
00:21:18
Speaker
And um why after he leaves, you know Claire thinks about how it's like... like he's a real piece of shit but you know he's 17 and i guess there's like a whole she she gets really close to like just being like yeah uh patriarchy isn't good for boys either yeah yeah yeah she she honest to god it's it's it's always so nice because you're like oh man yeah this is this is written by a a woman this is good like it is a moment of like because He's just he is a piece of shit. He's he's very unlikable character from the word jump. ah But she's she really does have this inner conversation with herself that I am certain every woman on the planet has had at one point or another in her life. She's like, yes, he sucks, but he's fucking 17. He's 17. What am I to do about it? Yeah, exactly. Yeah. yeah the the boys are not all right no and she hears a dog howling off in the distance uh and while that's going on she's looting the dead guards for for ammo and pushes on um chapter three So ah we're back. We're back with Alfred. ah He's just in shooting. He's just shooting infected former subordinates ah on his way ah through to the training facility control room. um And he remembers the hidden cameras his father installed.
00:22:52
Speaker
ah He kills John Barton, former small arms trainer, with ah with a slug through the eye. And then he yeah he thinks about how Rockford was supposed to keep under 60 prisoners at a time, rotated to Dr. Stoker. So the doctor on the island is Dr. Stoker. That's amazing. Very good stuff. Yeah. Very good. um And they're used ah for in the affirm infirmary, where I guess the experiments went on, or as training targets.
00:23:20
Speaker
um in the control room he feels alexia is suddenly gone and uh he has a nightmare image of a screaming monstrosity and a queen ant suspended in a cold sea uh he snaps out of it when dr mario tika uh radios in and mario is like ah it's a me mario i'm locked in the second floor lab what's up please a come a help me ah please come help me i know you can hear to me why are you ignoring me yeah um and then ah basically uh alfred's like yeah i'm just gonna ignore that um because mario had been sending in reports to umbrella about like what uh alfred was doing So he's like, yeah, whatever.
00:24:10
Speaker
ah and he starts thinking that Claire was, is only captured because she allowed herself to be captured. Um, yeah Uh, he's like, I'm going to use, I'm going to hunt you down using the computer, uh, the computer to control the compound stores and with, with the bio weapons. And then meanwhile, the point of view returns to Claire. Uh, she enters a yard littered with corpses and calls for Steve.
00:24:36
Speaker
Uh, she opens the cabin door to find a couple of zombies inside, closes it and takes the path instead. A corpse near the cabin's crawlspace is suddenly dragged inside by something dog-like, and she sprints past as another howl sounds. She bursts through a door into the kennel area, and dogs crash into the door behind her.
00:24:55
Speaker
She sidekicks one zombie, then kennel door bursts open, and leaving her facing seven. And she dives behind a dumpster, shoots a flammable barrel, and the blast knocks her over, and she finishes off the survivors.
00:25:05
Speaker
ah The point of view shifts to Steve in a small office, hacking a computer using a passcode on a sticky note. He has been hidden from zombies during the attack by debpris debris from an exploding oil barrel.
00:25:17
Speaker
He finds the files on the prison's budgets, ah a aic non-magnetic alloy and the main gate emblem key and a red field comma C folder just as Claire arrives.
00:25:29
Speaker
ah Steve shows her the umbrella, ah ah what umbrella has on Chris and that they have him under surveillance in Paris. And then she ah takes the opportunity to message Leon about a spill at these coordinates.
00:25:42
Speaker
ah When Steve jokes about ah calling Chris for rescue, she takes him seriously and he ruffs about not depending on people and runs out blushing. Because he does that. yeah um Outside, two and infected Rottweilers ambush him. Slimy coats, distorted muscles. He shoots both and and this and we have this like moment of humanity from Steve where he's like... he like Which is just added in by SD Perry. This is not from the game.
00:26:15
Speaker
Perry is really trying to cut this kid some fucking slack. Like, just doing her best. Yeah. Yeah. And it's like, like, uh, they just, you know, ah so she adds in that that he's like a big dog lover and he is just absolutely saddened by having to put down these dogs that are like horribly mutated by the T virus. And he's like, god I'm going to burn, i'm going to burn umbrella down for, for doing this to these dogs. And it's like, okay, yeah, I get it. All right. All right.
00:26:47
Speaker
i i got All right. I get it. Yeah. Um, Yeah. Meanwhile, chapter four, um we are back in Paris and Chris and Barry are ah reloading ammunition in the Paris safe house. And Claire has been missing for 10 days.
00:27:06
Speaker
ah Chris had learned via Leon of her survival of Raccoon City and the Utah facility. ah The resistance team includes Jill, who is on route, Leon, Rebecca, David and John.
00:27:18
Speaker
leon cut Leon calls them over. She's alive. Claire's message lists infection trouble at 37 degrees south, 12 degrees we west. Attackers unknown. um Chris plans to fly via an Air Force contact to Buenos Aires or Cape Town and then rent a boat. And Barry and Leon are like, we're going to come with you. And Chris is like, no that's not what happened in the game. Yeah.
00:27:44
Speaker
That's that's not part of canon. So it's not part of canon. So yeah, canon in the book. But trust me, it would have probably happened that way in any other circumstance. Any other. Yeah, exactly.
00:27:58
Speaker
um He notices that Leon gets ah red in the face when he promises to bring Claire back um because Leon and Claire are smooching, which is not like really necessarily supported by the There's not much that suggests in the games that Leon and Claire ended up together. No, no. But I think that's a relationship that, well, that a lot of people shipped. I like that's something a lot of people. lot people ship it. Yeah. And I think people still ship it. But it's like Leon has much more flirty moments with, you know, you have your Ada Wong. Oh, Ada. Absolutely. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, that's it for I'm an Ada guy. I want him to end with Ada. Yeah.
00:28:44
Speaker
Ashley Graham, um, as well, uh, flirts with Hunnigan, I think, who is just like straight up his handler. Uh, he's, he's just thirsty. He's a thirsty guy. Let's, that's all there's to him. Thirsty boy. Yeah.
00:28:59
Speaker
Poor Leon. Yeah. So, meanwhile, Alfred ah is in the monitor room, and ah and he's just sitting there. Alexia's dolls are are with him.
00:29:13
Speaker
ah And ah he finds out that only 31 of the 75 cameras are still working, and he spots Steve and Claire crossing a chasm bridge. And he has a flashback at as children ah when he and Alexia...
00:29:28
Speaker
double teamed to poison a guard uh named francois salue uh for mocking alexia uh so they alexia creates a paralytic that alfred put in his ah the guy's espresso And then he stabbed Francois repeatedly with us with a sewing needle while Alexia listened via ah through the microphone. And then and then Alfred pushed the guy over a over the the railing um because that is that's what you do. that's That's the life they lead. Clearly. Yeah.
00:30:07
Speaker
Clearly um Claire ah enters the mansion lobby because of course there's a mansion ah and she sees muddy footprints blood spatter and a portrait with its face scratched out and she follows the tracks through the door ah past a few corpses and here Steve shouting for help.
00:30:26
Speaker
She finds a display room with a silent film of of Alfred and Alexia as children torturing dragonfly and then putting the... They're pulling the wings off of the dragonfly and then they put the dragonfly into an anthill so that the dragonfly is slowly torn apart by ants.
00:30:45
Speaker
um This is... basically everything that they've that is signposted about these two characters alexia and alfred is like hey they're they're like they're evil they are pure evil they are fucked up people for so many we're in we're definitely in hat on a hat territory with their their villainy you know they really yeah they really stack it on they did not we in case You were concerned or even a little, you know, if you were feeling a little ambiguous about they're they're evil. They're evil. So just just, I think if you read between the lines, you'll see. Yeah.
00:31:27
Speaker
I mean, this is a country that elected Donald Trump twice. So I feel like there's never there's never too much. satars testingting Like satire is dead. Have the guy twirl a mustache, you know. Absolutely. um Do it. Just just just do it. um So, let's see. ah There's the silent film is playing. Behind the screen is console with six picture boxes. ah Flipping the two gun switches ah releases Steve from a hidden ah compartment.
00:31:57
Speaker
um And he is now armed with his twin gilded Lugers. ah Steve apologizes and Claire manipulates his ego by saying she doesn't want to be alone. And he agrees to be with her because she she's like, well, you know, maybe if I play the the the woman in distress, he'll actually do the smart thing and join with me because he's a dumb kid.
00:32:25
Speaker
Right. So she does it. She plays on his ego and does it like, oh, Steve, I'm too scared to go alone. He's like, I'll save you, Claire. And he won't someone protect me. Yeah. ah So, ah yeah, his map shows dock west and an airstrip beyond. um Claire wants to go and ah check on Rodrigo and says like he's basically like you go do that. I'll wait at the dock.
00:32:54
Speaker
And ah he reacts angrily when she mentions that his parents will be glad to see him. Back in the front hall, a laser dot appears, and there's a couple of rifle shots that blast ah the tiles as she hides behind a pillar, and the shooter is Alfred Ashford, and he demands to know who she works for, and he calls her a rat in a cage, and he's like, you can surrender. um her attempt...
00:33:21
Speaker
I mean, that is what he says. Yeah. She goes around the corner, shoots at ah ah at him a couple times, and he's like, oh, dude, heavens. And he basically runs away.
00:33:34
Speaker
um And then she decides to look for medical supplies for Rodrigo ah before she goes and finds him.
00:33:44
Speaker
And that's where we'll leave it for today. So, Phil, what do you think of the first... chunk of chapters for Code Veronica. man i it's good it's it's it honestly it it's it's it's the fastest paced one she's written it it is yeah breakneck frankly um yeah and interesting like kind of interestingly enough that made me need to slow down and read it a little slower than i normally would uh because i missed things i was like wait wait wait wait hold on hold on because i i've never played this game before um
00:34:21
Speaker
So it but it's it's another she's just a solid ah pulp writer. You know, it's it's enjoyable. It's not you know, she's not, ah you know, reinventing the wheel here, ah but she's doing a good job with source material while also adding her own.
00:34:40
Speaker
sense of style to it and her own kind of internal monologue to it ah which is important I think especially when you're dealing with some of the characters like this who are really fucking obnoxious um she knows how to as a reader make you go okay this is why we're he's still here that's fine okay got it yes exactly yeah yeah yeah i like i i feel the same way i think it's it's it's got a fun breakneck pace uh while also doing one of the things that is really rough in the game is she kind of saves the characterization of steve as like okay yeah he's an annoying little shit but you you you have a little bit more understanding as to why he's an annoying little shit, uh, both personally, as we find out more about him personally, but also systemic, like Claire makes it clear, like, yes, he's a victim of, of, of the system, you know, right as as we all are, we're victims of patriarchy. Um, yes, totally. And she wrote this in 2001. she was pretty ahead of the curb on that one. Exactly. Exactly. And what this what this is missing is the trademark S.D. Perry horniness. That's true. It's it's we've got some hints. I feel I feel we got some hints. I feel confident we're going to have more like we we can have we have some Steve talking about how hot Claire is, but we don't we're definitely not going to have the recipient because like he's underage. You know, he's like, oh, he's 17. Claire is Claire is 19. We got some hints at Leon and Claire being together. um And I guess the most horniness we get right now is is ah Alfred talking about his sister, which is. Yeah, actually. yeah
00:36:34
Speaker
Maybe maybe that's it. Maybe that's the main thing. Perry was like, OK, listen, we're going to talk about incest in this a lot. I feel like we can put a moratorium on the horniness for one book. Yes. Which is totally fair and and good thinking.
00:36:50
Speaker
totally fair um and maybe we'll find out maybe in the Chris half of the book um because I imagine at like probably around the midway point of this book willll ah we'll flip over to ah pretty exclusively Chris's point of view probably um since that's how the game played out is the first half of the game you are Claire and then the second half of the game you're playing as Chris there you go okay yeah yeah yeah so alright
00:37:20
Speaker
Uh, what do we... What, what, what? I have i i have a question on the tip of my tongue. Okay, okay. Sure, sure. ah ah Strong Bad, can you ah ah can you can you... Do you know what the question was? Mr. Bad?
00:37:37
Speaker
hello What are you playing? Oh, so glad you asked, Mr. Bad. ah I actually... we we we took a We took a week off, so... I've got i've got a few under my belt here. um Last episode, I mentioned Librarian, Tidy Up the Arcane Library, ah which I finished.
00:37:58
Speaker
ah Super fun. ah it's It's a lot of fun. um they I finished it in eight hours because I was really taking my time, but one of the achievements is to to try and... finish it in under three ah because they have a new game plus. I believe that after you've completed it and you you maxed out your magic by that time that you can just start over from the beginning with all your magic and really rush around and get it done faster. um Yeah.
00:38:26
Speaker
which may be one of these days, but I got what I wanted out of it. I got a nice little experience. It's it's relaxing. It's a cozy game. ah it's It's very chill, and I really enjoyed it.
00:38:38
Speaker
um I followed that up with another kind of cozy game, Meltopia. ah this is um Have you heard of this one, Kevin? No, I have not. This one is ah a Russian game, I believe. I believe it's a Russian studio, Garden of Dreams.
00:38:57
Speaker
You love our our Russian and Eastern European things. I do. I do. like There's something about it. They get me on a certain level. ah But this is basically a game about digging a hole, ah but it's ice.
00:39:11
Speaker
uh you are yeah putting this on my wish list it looks like it's it's basically uh yeah get somewhere between a game about digging a hole and and power washing simulator yes yes um yeah and how how long uh would you so how long was uh your playthrough of a game about digging a hole think was about six hours three and a half hours Yeah, i was about to say, yourre I literally was about to say you probably did it in half the time. ah But this is this is ah this is like a much bigger. Instead of and you know and instead of going down, it spreads out.
00:39:48
Speaker
um And you've got different kinds of ice that you you need different kinds of heat guns for. um You are putting together ah the skeleton of a woolly mammoth.
00:40:00
Speaker
ah You are finding pieces of it as you go and also finding other artifacts that you can come back to your your little display room and put a Mayan knife on display and all this stuff. No one knows how all this shit ended up ah in the same goddamn ice cavern, but who cares? um I'm kind of stuck at the moment. I need to find a map because I i honest to God don't. That's one of the disadvantages as opposed to ah a game about digging a hole. It's kind of impossible to get lost like you are. You're going down, man. It's all there is all there's to it. And this winds a lot. um
00:40:37
Speaker
So I'm at a point where I'm like, I literally don't know where I'm supposed to go next, but there's plenty of shit left to get. And though I've maxed out ah most of my weapons. Yeah.
00:40:49
Speaker
It's cool. it's If you'll excuse the expression, it's chill. It looks like your main thing is basically a super soaker that's been turned into a flamethrower. That's basically it. It's a super soaker full of kerosene. That's really what it comes down to. Super soaker full of piss. Yeah. They call it the melt gun, but the font that they put on the side of it, like, this is Warhammer. This is a melta gun. Like, that's clearly what they're going for. And there's, like, a Tesla gun that you get, too, that takes care of, like, permafrost.
00:41:20
Speaker
um Sure. Yeah. it's fun it's chill it's it's very laid back i i really enjoy it uh i'm gonna come back to it and finish it um but i have uh been playing i got i got off track again you remember when i finished vampire crawlers i said that it made me want to play old dungeon crawlers again Yes, yeah, the gold box games. Yeah, so I'm about halfway through one of them. A game I started, Eye of the Beholder, ah which, like, originally came out in 1992, I want to say.
00:41:53
Speaker
um yeah And it is great. I love it. i ah It comes with um a mod. Like, they they automatically put it in where it's, like, a map ah that keeps track of your progress. Because kids, because kids, back in the day,
00:42:10
Speaker
When your uncle Phil and your uncle Kevin Plain, you had to get a goddamn piece of graph paper if you could find one. God help you if you had to do it on regular-ass lined paper. You know, it's like, had to... I feel like we always had graph paper in the house. Yeah, that sounds that sounds like your home. i don't i can't i can't expand on on why that feels accurate.
00:42:31
Speaker
I can't expand, and I won't. But it does sound like that. I've i've met your dad. like That sounds like they are a hard household. Yeah, that sounds about right. ah We did not. ah think And I think it's honestly, oh my God, I'm having a breakthrough. I think yeah that this is the reason I prefer college ruled lined paper to wide ruled so much because it was way easier to keep the squares even. Oh, Kevin.
00:43:00
Speaker
Oh, no. Oh gosh. I had a breakthrough tonight. so it's i want i You know what I love? i love a non like a non-serious breakthrough. i know I love a breakthrough that's like not not a big deal. Low stakes breakthrough. a Low stakes breakthrough. That'll be a new podcast from us. Low stakes through. We invite people on to tell us about their their low stake breakthroughs. Yep. Yeah, it's so... It's just... it's It's such a straightforward kind of dungeon... It's a dungeon crawler dungeon crawler, where you've got your party and you're just winding through these mazes, and there's like 12... I think i'm about halfway through... um
00:43:48
Speaker
But there are, but it's like, there are puzzles and there are traps and stuff fucks with you. It is not a straightforward game. And every now and then you'll turn the corner and suddenly someone's talking to you. And so like they bring in the, the, you know, they just to remind you, oh, this is still an RPG, by the way. Yeah. It's not just hack and slash.
00:44:08
Speaker
Right, right, exactly. And and it's it's old school and very challenging, and ah and it's given me just such a nice wash of nostalgia. So I'm finding myself playing that one here and there. So you what's fascinating is that apparently Eye of the Beholder does not count as a gold box game.
00:44:30
Speaker
Doesn't it? Indeed. Interesting. no because so I was just like, I remember, i think I remember, i remember reading this once before is because like, so the gold box series is um it's literally only the games that came out within the golden box.
00:44:49
Speaker
And Eye the Beholder was a regular box. Oh my god, that's hilarious. But it's it's still SSI. That's so funny. Correct. Yeah, it's still the same, published by the same company, but it's does not it is not the gold box.
00:45:06
Speaker
It's not a gold box game, which is, it's that's what it's wild. By the way, I love on the cover. and love the cover of the game. Yeah. ah Yeah, the i was like I was like, huh.
00:45:20
Speaker
Okay. um So the cover says, ah it says, official Advanced Dungeons and Dragons computer computer product. I love it. ah i love i love I love a good computer product.
00:45:33
Speaker
Oh, man. i I want to, when I have um like a proper office space again and I can just fill it up with all my nerd shit, I know for a fact that i'm going to start collecting old PC boxes again. And these are these are what do it for me because you play the game and it's so rudimentary, the graphics and everything like that. It's not bad because it is 1990, actually. It's not bad.
00:45:55
Speaker
uh all things considered but but man that was the time when the cover art fucking mattered like that made a huge difference in whether or not you were gonna buy the game uh yeah yeah i'm really enjoying it it's it's just it's it's really challenging and i have to go back and forth a lot and i died a lot um and i'm having a blast so that's that's is there a beholder at the end yes yeah you are i forget the name of it it's just what it says on the tin yeah yeah it's a famous beholder uh uh who who has been used in a lot of campaigns and stuff like that okay like a named a named beholder Yeah, yeah. Hold on. i'm going to look at it because this is going to drive me crazy. They've used its name in several games. Xanathar. Yeah, yeah, yeah. ah there' There's a book that came out in 5th edition where he's on the cover. I love Beholders.
00:46:54
Speaker
There's a, um yeah, in Baldur's Gate 3, you don't fight a Beholder, but you can get ambushed by, what I forget the other thing that's like Like eye tyrant?
00:47:07
Speaker
Yeah, something like that. And he can fuck your day up if you're not ready for it. They are fucking, they're they're like infamously one of the hardest bosses.
00:47:19
Speaker
It's like ah paralysis gaze. or It's like it just goes through all these spells. and like Everything. It's like you had five attacks this turn. What do you do? like Right. It's like, yeah, and I got like 20 eyeballs. So what does that tell you? I've got my... i've got I can beat you with five eyes tied my behind my back. No, i i love I love my beholders. I got my... yeah Oh, look at that guy He's adorable. It reminds me of, ah yeah, i love I love the fact that they were basically, John Carpenter basically used the Beholder as one of the the monsters in Big Trouble in Little China.
00:47:59
Speaker
I never put that together. Yeah, I'm pretty sure it's a bit it's it's supposed to be like a Beholder.
00:48:09
Speaker
Oh, yeah, that's holy shit. That's totally a beholder. I mean, come on. Like, that's that's very clearly a beholder. It's not big. This like the beholder. It's basically the size of a floating head. But right. you know But it's that. But that's the idea. Like, that's yeah clearly what he based it on. Oh, that's hilarious. Yeah.
00:48:27
Speaker
Oh, Lord. OK, well, ah ah Kevin, what do you play on? Oh, well, um because I was at work ah on a work trip last week, I haven't done a whole lot of playing other than i snuck in some more time for ah Saros, ah which I'm pretty much at the end of. I beat the final boss and I got credits. And now it's basically like... After the credits, there's like, oh, like you can keep playing and actually figure out the story if you want. Like you beat the final boss. Congratulations. You can stop here if you want. But there's more story to figure out. So I'm like, I basically it went through this like optional quest line now of like really and and unraveling what's going on. And now I have to beat the final boss again.
00:49:20
Speaker
um Which I was very close to doing and I don't know, I just hit a wrong button and I dashed into ah one of the glowing balls. um But yes, Saros, really good. if you're return If you're a fan of Returnal, I recommend picking it up.
00:49:36
Speaker
If you thought Returnal was too hard, I definitely but liked what it was doing. I also recommend put picking it up because it has... um it has some like difficulty modifiers built into it that let you i'd say the base game feels easier than returnal okay um then returnal did um and then it has some modifiers that lets you uh that you can add to it um and it's like in both directions you can make the game easier if you want or you can make the game harder um if you want uh based on how you you balance these uh modifiers I think it's funny, like you can make the game as hard as you want without like, ah you don't have to balance it ah in the hard direction. But if you make it too easy, it's like, well, no, you got to balance things out and make it a little bit harder. But there's a menu, there's an option the menu to turn that off. So i was like, no, I'm just making it as easy as possible. I'm turning all these options on. um
00:50:37
Speaker
But yeah, Saris is really good. I'd say Raul Coley does an amazing job in it. And I'm looking forward to ah the next game that he'll be in, ah which should be out this year, which is Bolt Gun 2.
00:50:52
Speaker
Hell yes. I cannot wait. We get more Raoul Coley and his his lovely girlfriend, Alana Pierce, as a sister of battle, I believe, in that game.
00:51:03
Speaker
um But they're not together because she's married to the Emperor. of course. Of course. course. Married to the God Emperor. um yeah What else have i been playing? I think a little bit of Vampire Crawlers here or there. I'm pretty close to the end of that.
00:51:23
Speaker
um
00:51:29
Speaker
That's pretty much it. I mean, while I was like in rehearsals and stuff like that, i was and just like in downtime this past week, I played a lot more threes, i've but nice that's nothing new. I'm always playing threes. Yeah, that's pretty standard.
00:51:44
Speaker
I've been playing threes for 15 years, and ah now I'm not any closer to beating it. i still have I still have two tiles to go. I've been on stuck on two tiles left for a couple years now.
00:51:58
Speaker
um Oh, man, the day that you finally get through just that second-to-last one. Oh. I think if I beat it, I actually rapture. you might um You might. I think i might just rapture in place or kick off the rapture. I'm not sure.
00:52:13
Speaker
i have a feeling. Oh, that's interesting. One or the other. but yeah Basically, that's actually a funny idea for a story. really is. Speaking of low stakes, like low stakes leading to incredibly high stakes. It's like we've been waiting. We've just been waiting for fucking Earhart to fucking beat this game.
00:52:34
Speaker
It's been 15 We thought he'd be done by now. We thought he'd be done by now. He's a fucking Dark Souls fan. like how does How does this happen?
00:52:45
Speaker
And he was like, well, yeah. yeah Oh, man, that's an amazing. I might have to write that down. That could be fun as shit. I'd love that. It's like, okay, so we set up the trigger for the rapture is based on this one person ah to do this one thing. And it's like basically just the hordes of heaven and hell waiting for the one person, that person to do the one thing.
00:53:09
Speaker
And it's, yeah, God damn it. That could be great. That could be little fun. That could be great. So, yeah. ah That'll do for tonight's episode, though.
00:53:21
Speaker
Thank you all for listening. ah Go ahead and subscribe to us on all the social media platforms. Subscribe to us on your favorite podcast app. Go to our Patreon. ah Go to our Discord.
00:53:34
Speaker
i Joesie lives! Jocely lips!