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00:00:01
Kevin Tries to say Russian Names, Badly ( Metro 2033 - Part 1)
383 Plays2 months ago
Listen, I thought I had them down before the show and then whew they just kept getting caught in the ol mouth hole.
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Transcript
00:00:00
Speaker
If it is the heart of the house, finish your thought. Well, I'm saying it is the heart of the house, then that it you still don't want an open concept. You want like... Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, you know what else is an open concept?
00:00:12
Speaker
What's that? Hey, everybody. Welcome back to Pixel It. My name is Kevin. With me, as always, is Phil. And on today's show, we're diving into 2033. Look that. wo Very nice. I'm still waiting on my copy.
00:00:27
Speaker
By Dmitry Glukowski. Glukowski. There you are. I really assumed that it was my my fucking computer again, my a internet again. Uh, yeah, it was weird because it was still uploading from from my side too. still like recording and everything.
00:00:45
Speaker
And you were just like, ah, goddammit. yeah Piece of You gotta you gotta to look behind the curtain. God. it Yeah. So, so frustrated. Okay. I thought you were saying, Oh no, to the fact that I said I was going to have, so what I just finished saying was, uh, Dmitry Glukowski. And then you said the name correctly. And I said, I'm going to have a mess of the time pronouncing the Russian names. And, and you, the immediate thing I hear is, Oh no.
00:01:15
Speaker
Like, I didn't know that oh that that we were that upset about that. didn yeah i didn't. i i'll I'll do better. I promise. Wow. I'll do better.
00:01:29
Speaker
wow um Yeah. But you know where you can go to learn how to pronounce Russian names is... patreon.com slash pixelip pod where you can follow us for free or give us a dollar to get access to Phil's blog and the episode the ad free version of the episode five dollars gets you access to the bonus episode and ten dollars gets your name shouted out in the episode. And to that end, I want to thank and your hiding song 85 Jesus loves you Kyle Seaman Ruthless mutter middle of things Sigma Sal Sanguine flatulence Shy Hulud Chet Beaks dummy thick and friendly friend. Thank you so much for being a friend.
00:02:11
Speaker
That's right. The sandworm from Dune is now... No, it's Tim. It's it's tim it's yeah i's Tim. I could have guessed. I could have and i did. Love you, Tim.
00:02:26
Speaker
Oh, God. So ah a who who is um yeah who's Dimitri? What's what's his deal? Dimitri Glukovsky. He is a ah he's a Muscovite. He's a Russian ah from Moscow.
00:02:44
Speaker
Um, he, uh, started, he's just a few years older than us. Um, uh, so he was born into the Soviet union and, uh, he actually wrote Metro 23, uh, Metro 2033, uh, when he was like 18 years old.
00:02:59
Speaker
Like this is, this is, this is similar to our, uh, disco Elysium kind of situation where it's just like a passion project of a young sure speculative writer. yeah.
00:03:11
Speaker
Since then, he's been doing very well for himself. He he he writes a lot of ah ah speculative stuff. A lot of it still based around this Metro world that he's created. um He's written for some comic books based around it, and he's written some other stuff. um and And this is obviously an inspirational novel, but he also wrote ah the novelization of of one of the games, Metro Exodus.
00:03:43
Speaker
right So he's he's done it from both sides, ah if you will. ah And yeah he he actually, one of the more interesting things about him is ah he he is on the run from Russia. Yes, I saw that when I i was i was like, oh, okay.
00:04:02
Speaker
yeah he was he was he was Yeah, he's been talking shit about Russia and its invasion of Ukraine. um And and he has been he has been out of ah the country since then. i I haven't been able to find out where he is, but i'm not goingnna I wouldn't have said anyway. because because yeah you know Let's keep this dude safe. ah Because he's doing some badass shit. Yeah, last I saw, he was he goes between a few different places. Good for him.
00:04:30
Speaker
So, yeah. That's cool as fuck. him like that's like yeah yeah yeah Yeah, I can't go home because the corrupt government wants me in jail. Like, what the fuck?
00:04:42
Speaker
Yeah, and so there's, it seems like there are three main Metro books, 20, 33, 34, and 35, and then there's like spinoff projects. Right. um as And as you said, the the adaptation of Metro Exodus is,
00:05:00
Speaker
um And he was ah he's credited for a couple so screenplay things, ah including there's a Metro 2033 movie that was in production that ended up canceled. Yeah, he he was it was canceled, um but he wrote the screenplay for it before it got canceled. so Nice. Well...
00:05:25
Speaker
he does mostly dystopian stuff so even stuff that isn't uh based in the metro world still has a lot of uh of that feel to it um right it's a shame that the movie got canceled i feel like a low budget you don't want to spend too much money on it but like don't want to spend too much money on on metro and here's the thing i don't think you need to um no exactly It seems pretty, it seems like you could make a, I would say, you know who would have been perfect for this is John Carpenter in the assaults on Precinct 13 era. John Carpenter.
00:06:05
Speaker
Yes. Would have been would have done a bang up job on Metro 2033. Absolutely. that's that's And that's and that's the them the the mindset you have to have with this one. yeah Just cheap, gritty, grungy, ah don't spend too much money. Yeah. So the game itself ah came out in 2010, which is what?
00:06:32
Speaker
Eight years after the book came out. 2002 that the book came out? um yeah he was he was a baby when the book came out it's crazy it's it's it's and and the fact that he's kept up with it and is still writing and that sort of thing is extra uh impressive yeah i mean it makes me think of what is it um who is that guy aragon uh the aragon guy ah not sure uh uh aragon the christopher paolini uh published the same year yeah yeah yeah yeah
00:07:13
Speaker
Aragon. Is really young when that came ra He was really young, yeah. Oh, I didn't know that. Yeah, I think he's... What year was he born? He was born in 1983, so he was 19. Wow. You know, that's the thing.
00:07:24
Speaker
wow so you know that's the thing i as As a writer, I'm glad that i've only ah that I never got the attention I craved so badly in my Right. Because I was writing a lot of garbage and a lot of self-indulgent crap. And if if somehow that spoke to somebody ah to the point where it got attention, I would have to be doing... Now in my 40s, I'd have to be doing some serious backtracking and recovery work. because
00:07:55
Speaker
Right. so So, you know, bless them for... for getting it that early on and and doing well with it because that I guarantee you, that's not everyone's ah destiny in that sort of situation. 100%. Yeah.
00:08:11
Speaker
yeah So the game ah is it's a, it's a first person shooter, which ah when I first thought to do this book,
00:08:23
Speaker
All I had ever done, I'd seen a little bit of the game and I was like, okay, well, let's see how far the apple falls from the tree. um So like the witcher Witcher games, which, you know, it's a game that comes from a book, are...
00:08:40
Speaker
are pretty good in that because they're RPGs, you know, so they have this very, um, they're, they can be very story heavy and, and, uh, hue a little bit closer to the, the written text.
00:08:56
Speaker
Whereas ah the game Metro 2033, from what I understand, it ends up following the plot relatively closely. It's just funny because when you start it, it's like, here's a gun, kill the monsters. Right. It's like, yeah.
00:09:14
Speaker
So and we're, you know, fucking 100 pages into Yeah.
00:09:20
Speaker
Artyom hasn't shot his gun once in in the first hundred pages. And there's some of the scenes that we will cover today happen in the game. They just don't... ah they They're just... It's like they'll happen in the game and then the game is like, and also here's a gunfight. Right, right.
00:09:41
Speaker
Which, I mean, that's that's that's pretty... But yeah, as we're going to see, this this book gets into... a lot of philosophical thoughts. It's very, it's a very interesting. Yeah. i was going to say, it's a very introspective book as opposed to like, uh, uh, go, go Artyom. It's your birthday.
00:10:04
Speaker
right right. Monsters. Uh, so I guess, uh, with that being said, we'll go ahead and put the body in the marsh. Let's marsh this body.
00:10:15
Speaker
When I tell you, to dump a body in the marsh. You dump them in the marsh. All right. Chapter one, the end of the earth. We're introduced to Artyom, our protagonist, while he is on patrol with another man, Pyotr Andreevich, as Pyotr is chastising him for not opening fire on some footsteps that were heard off in the distance.
00:10:40
Speaker
ah Pyotr mentions how another station, Polozevskaya, was slaughtered recently, and now they might get the same treatment because Archim led a possible scout getaway.
00:10:51
Speaker
For punishment, Pyotr considers making him run into the tunnel, ah which is a terrifying thought to Artyom. So they're at the 450 meter mark of the Northern tunnel. And Artyom is, ah thinks about how it's like, nobody goes past 700 meters ah in the Northern tunnel. Nobody knows what darkness lies up there.
00:11:15
Speaker
Piotr tells the story of Polozevsky. Good boy. all right. Polozevsky. I got it once.
00:11:28
Speaker
Polizia Polizia and how their scouts started disappearing one day and then they started reinforcing their defenses. They asked another metro station, Begovia, for help, but by the time the first runner...
00:11:44
Speaker
ah got there. A second one arrived to tell the Bogovians that the defenses at Polish of Skaia were destroyed as if everyone had been killed in their sleep.
00:11:55
Speaker
ah Bogovia... the
00:12:00
Speaker
Bigoy via fucking hell. These are just going to happen. People. These are just going to happen. This is just going to happen. Bigoy via ended up demolishing the tunnel in between the two settlements. After the story, Artem agrees he should have shot whatever it was he heard in the distance.
00:12:18
Speaker
Another group of patrolmen stop where Artyom and Pyotr hunkered down and Pyotr accounts what just happened. ah The new patrolmen bust Artyom's balls a little bit.
00:12:28
Speaker
And then we get some backstory on Artyom. He was born on the surface, but lived with his mother in a place called Timizowskia until he was five. And then a wave babies, a wave of rats ate everyone. Oh,
00:12:45
Speaker
And a wave of rats ate everyone. Yeah. they They called it like the brown wave at one point, too. And I was like, OK, first gross wave rats. Yeah. Wave rats. Just wriggling mass of rats just came in and consumed. Our team's mother gave them off to some men who were escaping before she died. And they got and those men got to another station. And that station had a flamethrower. And what are rats weak to?
00:13:11
Speaker
Fucking flamethrowers. And rollers that just that just cooked the rats. And that was that. ah That was that. ah He cooked the rat and that was that.
00:13:23
Speaker
What's the Warhammer game that is, ah it's fantasy Warhammer, uh, where you're fighting and go rat, uh, the, the rat dude, the Skaven.
00:13:35
Speaker
Yeah. Uh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's the, or, or rat tide or whatever. Skaven Tide, because ah because ah the the rat race is called Skaven. The Skaven, yeah. Skaven.
00:13:48
Speaker
Warhammer. The ultimate Horde army. A Horde army to to defeat all Horde armies. You need a thousand goddamn miniatures to play that army, from what I understand.
00:14:00
Speaker
Yeah. um But yeah, so the reason why the skaven aren't a race in Warhammer 40 K is, well, they have flamers, right?
00:14:12
Speaker
ah And overwhelmingly easy to take care of that. yeah Overwhelmingly easy to take care of. You know, it's just a pestilence problem at that point. um So, ah yeah, ah in this moment, we're also introduced the idea the of the people who used to work in the metro are treated with more dignity and respect than others because their knowledge of the tunnels.
00:14:34
Speaker
ah The Metro was a system of tunnels and stations that people took to after the end of the world and basically became divided up into warring factions underground. ah Some states fought with each other. Others joined federations and others struck deals.
00:14:48
Speaker
Mushrooms, chickens and pigs are the main crops of the people down below. And from the from the world above, the ruinous rays of sunlight turned fauna into the spawn of hell. That's a quote based directly from the book. like
00:15:06
Speaker
it's pretty excellent. Like just the feeling of taking, you know, cause every other horror or anything, you know, a story, the daylight, the sunlight is, is your hope. It's what you're aiming for. The literal light at the end of the tunnel. And this was like, Oh no, it's, it's, it's the fastest way to die. Uh, the sunlight. So don't even bother with that ship.
00:15:29
Speaker
It's like, Oh my God, that's pretty great. Actually. It's amazing. ah The group of patrolmen drink tea together. I should note that they were drinking mushroom tea. ah They specify that real tea is way too expensive to to drink for for like any reason. ah Andre asked Artyom about his stepfather, Sukhoi, who recently had returned from an expedition to the south. Sukhoi was the man who had saved Artyom years ago during the rat surge.
00:15:57
Speaker
Things get a little heated as Andre talks shit about the traders, ah not traitors, but traders, the guys who trade things ah before they turn their attention back to whatever Sukhoi might have seen on his expedition to the south.
00:16:11
Speaker
Our team is coy for a moment before spilling the tea that is a drink about how to settle settlements. Rizkaya and Alex Alexei Kaya are interested in joining a union with their own settlement.
00:16:26
Speaker
uh which there this settlement is the i i listened to it in the audiobook it's like the the dunk or the dank or something like that it's it's like three it's like four capital letters but the way the guy was saying it was was a word um so i'm just i'm i'm just kind of skipping right over that one um i don't blame you yeah that's fine And we get this big lore dump about the nature of the surrounding stations for a bit, which ones were Soviet style, which ones were anti-communist. The main ones that it it talks about ah is called the communist red line and the anti-communist Hanseh.
00:17:09
Speaker
ah which had a huge war in the years prior. Piotr tells a story about the time how any travel required constant document checks and how he almost ended up being put against the wall for being a red spy, only to be saved by happenstance when the guard who wanted to shoot him takes him to his boss, and it turns about to be Piotr's old friend from grade school.
00:17:29
Speaker
Andre cracks a joke about how, oh, wow, I thought you were going to die. Like, he and it's kind of a funny moment because he's like, oh, you didn't die?
00:17:43
Speaker
like clearly. Yeah. he's um Then they hear a sound and everybody starts talking. Andre takes a light and goes after it into the darkness but doesn't shoot. They begin worrying over him for a moment and when he comes back, he comes back laughing ah and he's and he brings a puppy back with him. The thing that RTM saw earlier was just a little puppy dog.
00:18:06
Speaker
little puppy. Andre brings the puppy to the fire and they start fawning over it while trying to figure out where it came from. They wonder if the dark ones keep pets and what it could have possibly been eating.
00:18:17
Speaker
They surmise that it was junk and carrion. ah They have another cup of tea while sitting in silence, listening to the croaking sounds of the metro tunnels. That's the end of chapter one.
00:18:28
Speaker
Chapter two is titled The Hunter. ah The chapter begins with Artyom imagining an attack from the Dark Ones and how futile it is as they are shot, but they don't back down from bullets and they keep steadily marching on.
00:18:43
Speaker
Artyom shudders and then his shift is over. ah He heads back to the station while Andre's crew goes back to the 300th meter checkpoint with the new puppy. On the way back, a strange man walks up to Artyom and asks him if if he knows Sukhoi.
00:18:57
Speaker
Artyom mentions that, yes, Sukhoi is my stepfather. And the man tells Artyom to tell Sukhoi that Hunter was asking for him before he walks off again. Artyom mentions to Piotr that he thought the man looked familiar before moving on.
00:19:11
Speaker
Artyom goes back to the station where he lives and we get a description of the tent city that people of the Metro live in. As Artyom thinks about his stepfather's trips off to the other stations for work, his thoughts then drift to a trip that Artyom took ah and that he felt like he couldn't tell anybody about. when he was young and his friends decided to play at being stalkers were basically like superheroes of this world and venture up to the surface through the botanical garden station. And this is clearly a um
00:19:44
Speaker
the yeah Our author is clearly ah referencing ah Roadside Picnic, um or ah which is also the the movie and the game based on Roadside Picnic, are called Stalker.
00:19:58
Speaker
ah So which is that it. I think that's a pretty seminal, you know, Soviet era sci fi work. um So.
00:20:11
Speaker
Yeah, let's see. ah When he was young and his friends say play stalkers. Yeah, they go to the Botanical Garden station. ah They open the gates and made their way up the escalator to the surface and it was nighttime and they stood out there for a few moments before hearing a howl and running back down. Yeah.
00:20:28
Speaker
As they run down, they lose the rifle that they had brought with them and they left the barrier open um that separated ah where they are and the Botanical Garden.
00:20:40
Speaker
And then they lied at the checkpoint about how they lost their rifle when they got back to the cordon of the settlement. Artyom gets back to his tent and finds Hunter there. But Hunter is actually a monstrous ghoul who blames him for leaving the botanical garden barrier open years prior.
00:20:55
Speaker
Artyom tries to run and then he wakes up. He's been asleep. Sukhoi wakes him up to introduce him to his old friend Hunter and tells Artyom to boil some tea. Hunter asks Sukhoi about what he's been hearing about death invading from the north, and Sukhoi tells him about the interactions with the old with the Dark Ones and how they are able to induce fear into people without using any weapons. He then goes on a long spiel about how maybe humanity just needs to give up and leave the world for this new evolution of human to take over.
00:21:25
Speaker
ah It's like it's it's a wild speech ah just because he's like, you know what? They passed us. Good game, everybody. But it's over. What's it going to be? Ten years? A hundred years?
00:21:39
Speaker
it's It's true. and it's And I think it's it's terrific ah writing in terms of like when you have lived underground for basically your entire life hiding from these things that you don't know anything about.
00:21:55
Speaker
It's kind of like you're sitting there ah All you're eating is pork and mushrooms. That's all these people eat ah because it's the only thing they can get underground. ah No carbs to speak of. Their brains are not functioning on on the same wavelength. They do not have the same caloric intake. they're They're tired on every single level. So, of course, after spending like decades underground like that, you it's It's like it's the Joe Rogan ah moment where you're like, yeah, man, I think they just beat us, man. That's crazy. Like they just the way we they they out evolved. Yeah, man, that's crazy. Right. You know, it's it's that's that makes perfect sense to me. i think It's it's a in and you're right. It is a weird ass speech. um and then a hunter uh and it this kind of endears me to hunter right away where uh sukoi gives this big old speech about how we should just give up and you're like oh it's going to be that kind of but book and hunter basically so his response is shut the fuck up but right what the fuck are you talking go fuck yourself jesus christ
00:23:03
Speaker
ah trying to survive out here, you ass. Like, it's terrific. What happened to you? um yeah He's like, yeah, he's like, ah it's just amazing. He's like, you know, you've given up since I last saw you. used to always be about preserving culture as much as possible. um ah Hunter then gives counterpoints, which I can sum up to is fuck you and fuck your evolution. So it yeahco then goes out to refill the kettle and Hunter asked RTM his thoughts.
00:23:32
Speaker
Artyom asks him what his actual job is, and Hunter likens himself to a macrophage, eliminating invaders from a body. Sukhoi comes back, and they talk about ways to deal with the issue before ah before Hunter asks Artyom to step outside with him. He asks Artyom about his thoughts on what he does, and Artyom's like, yeah, it's pretty cool.
00:23:51
Speaker
ah Hunter mentions that Sukhoi used to be a very brave man, but his encounters with the Dark Ones have psychically damaged him. Then Hunter says he wants to share a secret with him, but he needs one from Artyom first.
00:24:04
Speaker
So Artyom tells him about the botanical garden incident, which Hunter says, ah well, you're pardoned, but you really should have been executed for that. Yeah.
00:24:15
Speaker
ah Hunter then tells Artyom his plan. He's going off to the Botanical Garden to try to put an end to the Dark One's threat once and for all, and he needs Artyom to go to a place called Polis to find a named man named Melnick and tell him everything that Hunter told him.
00:24:30
Speaker
Hunter then gives him a metal capsule with a screwed up twist, and then, i i don't know, that's how it's described in the book. I don't know what it's supposed to be um And then he leaves to get some sleep.
00:24:42
Speaker
And that's the end of chapter two. Chapter three, if I don't come back. ah Chapter three starts with a breakdown of work shifts at the Vedanc settlement, ah how the laws work there for the safety of everyone and more background on why RTM calls Suikoi Uncle Sasha and not dad or anything like that.
00:25:03
Speaker
Also, Sokoi apparently doesn't really think much of Artyom's prospects or skills or mental abilities. ah He's like, yeah, Artyom, he's just going to work in the tea factory.
00:25:14
Speaker
yeah he It's a very it's a very he's a he's a nice kid, but he's dumb as a brick. He's a nice kid. But, you know, Artyom meets up with his friend Genya, who was with him the day of the Botanical Garden incident.
00:25:28
Speaker
Artem to Artem tells Genya about his shift earlier and the dog and Genya tells Artem about how weed has been banned at Prospect Mare Station and any traders that are caught caught carrying it can face stiff penalties. um And they're like, what the fuck, man? Yeah.
00:25:46
Speaker
Yeah, this is honestly, this is kind of a recurring thing. ah There's no, and and it's, i I believe accurate there, but there is no disaster or end of the world. So, so shitty that humans won't find ways to make it shittier. Yeah. with just Random fucking rules. Like, why, what purpose does that serve? Like, We live in hell. Like, let people get stoned. Exactly. And that's to say nothing of the fact that this is still a capitalist society.
00:26:24
Speaker
Yeah. They talk a lot about the the communists and and they're they're you know they they they're not great either. And sure, fine. Good. But, like, I don't know, man. I think...
00:26:36
Speaker
ah we are underground just scrapping together to survive if there's if there's a better time for us to just like put us aside our differences exactly each to their needs and you know and like like if there's a better time i can't i can't name it because but there's still like oh yeah we're we gotta buy shit off each other you gotta make a little money right yeah okay and money by the way in this in this world is literally bullets yes specific caliber. Yeah, they're bullets for Kalashnikov.
00:27:11
Speaker
um So Genya then also tells a story about a magic magician ah Sukharovskaya, which Artyom doesn't believe. The magician walks through metro stations without any weapons aside from a pen knife to cut up food and talks about how to eat certain mushrooms for hallucinogenic properties as well as how to cook them to be able to regulate the real world. The magician at one point warned a trader named Lekka not to go into a tunnel, and he didn't go, and half the traders that went into that tunnel after the warning were killed.
00:27:45
Speaker
Then Genya goes into a ghost story to which Artyom points out that they are living in an unending nightmare with the dark ones and other things. And yet Genya concerns himself with things like ghosts.
00:27:56
Speaker
but
00:27:59
Speaker
Which is great because he's like it's like, we're in hell, but you want to talk about ghosts. Okay. Yeah. Okay. And that keeps coming up. You pointed at pointed this out earlier. That keeps coming up too. Like, it's always like, there's always some sort of campfire story yeah ah going on. Always a campfire story. There's always one.
00:28:21
Speaker
Xenia tells the story of a ghost train near a line in Hansa that has no stations ah on it and no living things go there. And Artem is like, you believe this crap? and Then he walks back to his tent to get a snack to take to work.
00:28:35
Speaker
ah At the tea factory, Artem gets lost in thought of thought about the mission Hunter is undertaking and the request Hunter made to him. Kirill, a new guy who was also with Artyom on the patrol earlier earlier, mentions there is a caravan going to another location to help set up a telegraph line between the stations. And they are taking people who want to go and help.
00:28:55
Speaker
Artyom agrees to go because he sees it as fate that the caravan is leaving coincided coinciding with Hunter asking him to take on this mission. Um, our team really just believes in power, the greater powers that himself when it fits him.
00:29:11
Speaker
Um, yeah, like he's like, he's like, uh, giving Genya all this shit about believing in the like a ghost train. And he's like, well, you know, this total coincidence must be fate. Um, right. right Your, your bullshit is bullshit. My bullshit is, is insightful and accurate.
00:29:32
Speaker
Maybe Artyom, maybe, maybe Sequoia is right. You know, maybe Artyom just really doesn't have much going on. He might be. how old is he? He's like, he's like 20 something. Yeah. So of course he's an idiot. Like, yeah.
00:29:48
Speaker
Yeah, it's pretty standard idiot to me. RTM has another nightmare with some weird wild psychedelic imagery, and he also sees the ghost train before he has a vision of the of Hunter telling him that he has to do what he promised him.
00:30:01
Speaker
He wakes up and his stepfather comes in and asks if he's seen Hunter. Artyom covers for Hunter and then tells his stepfather that about the caravan that he's going on. Sookoe doesn't think it's a worthy endeavor, but then he kind of shrugs it off and says at least he'll be able to see him off.
00:30:15
Speaker
Artyom gets emotional saying goodbye to his stepfather because he realizes with this undertaking he might never see him again. He lies and says he'll be back tomorrow night, and then he heads off with the group. And that's the end of chapter three. Going into chapter four, titled The Voice of the Tunnels.
00:30:32
Speaker
ah The group goes down the tunnel, swapping stories and lore dumping about fascists in Russia and those that might live in the tunnels now. Artyom, though, is wondering what his plan is getting ah is is going to be on getting through to the the external cordon of Riskaya so he can continue his mission.
00:30:49
Speaker
South of Ruskai is a wider metro area. The wider metro area opens up. They're very cautious about the need for security. RTM also thinks ah that although there is a relatively straight path to police, it would require cutting through the red line, which is a non-starter.
00:31:05
Speaker
We also also learn about Polis itself, how it's located below the Lenin library and that many of the smartest people in the in the metro system live there and how they also like send their stalkers up into the library to gather books and things like that.
00:31:20
Speaker
It's kind of treated like the big city, basically, you know. It's where all the wise men are. by It's where all the shit's going on. Yeah.
00:31:31
Speaker
Xenia interrupts Artyom's deep thoughts while he's looking at the map. Artyom asks Xenia where the fascists are and Xenia points that at them on the map and they're not in the way ah in the way of where he has to go.
00:31:44
Speaker
They set off again on the rail. ah At some point as they travel, Artyom begins hearing a sound and stops the cart. No one else hears it, though, and they think he's just tired or hallucinating. They carry on, but then all the other members of the group begin to act weird.
00:31:59
Speaker
Artyom's mind isn't being affected by the sound, even though he's the only one who can hear it. Everyone is hallucinating. Artyom gets everyone back on the cart and continues with them forward when they all finally snap out of it.
00:32:11
Speaker
They don't remember what happened aside from feeling groggy. They make it to Rizcaya where a feast is prepared ah during commotion. A man named Bourbon asked Artyom about the trap Bourbon needs someone to come with him to the next metro station.
00:32:24
Speaker
ah Shukra of Scylla because a group left to go there the other day, but only one came back crying, acting ah much like the trap they had just uncovered. He's like, you know, a mess.
00:32:37
Speaker
ah Bourbon wants Artyom because it doesn't seem like the noise affects him like it does other people. um So it's like RTM is a little bit of a chosen one type dude.
00:32:49
Speaker
Yeah, a little bit. um He just happens to not be necessarily affected by whatever the mind warp that the the dark ones do.
00:33:00
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, it's yeah, it's he's got the he's got the magic powers and and I was waiting for it. We all were. yeah We all were. We like our Tim's got to have a reason for being in the story. I'm like, there it is.
00:33:14
Speaker
There it is. Got it. Has he ever has he fired his gun? No, actually, they make fun of him for not firing his gun when he should have. yeah Is he particularly bright? Not really. Nope.
00:33:27
Speaker
yeah Doesn't know where the fascists are. Nope. Not even a little. Not even a little. Not even a little. Our hero. Our hero. Artyom. Let's go, buddy. um Artyom strikes a deal with Bourbon take him there for a few rifle magazines since he would set him on the right path to Polis.
00:33:47
Speaker
Chapter five. In exchange for cartridges. Artyom leaves and tells Genya he has ah he has some business with bourbon to take care of. Bourbon is annoyed that Artyom is bringing his gun because of how old and bulky it is. But they continue on anyway.
00:34:02
Speaker
They get through the 100 meter checkpoint easily. And then at the 250 meter checkpoint, the guards harass Artyom, trying to get answers out of him. But he gives enough non answers that they stop paying attention.
00:34:13
Speaker
Artyom then goes into his mind palace. He's doing that a lot. Thinks back to the advice his stepfather had given about how no two tunnels were alike and that being able to listen to the tunnels helps you survive.
00:34:27
Speaker
Artyom tries feeling the tunnel. He lets his eyes drift into the darkness and becoming one with it. And soon he's able to hear the melody of it for short spells. He's using it was using intuition and not reason to feel his way through. And he feels like he's on the verge or threshold of understanding something amazing and grand about the world.
00:34:49
Speaker
And then he's like, nope, too scary. And he stops. Yeah, which honestly, fair enough. Yeah. know is that He's like, i'm I feel like I'm about to understand the meaning of life.
00:35:04
Speaker
No, thank you. oh No, no, no. um reaching through the veil. ah No, no, I think we're good. All team wants to be a stalker, but he's more like a slacker, you know? ah Yes. Yeah. he's He's got a lot of dreams. He's got a lot of dreams, but they're mostly memes, though.
00:35:25
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. That's exactly it. Yeah. Poor kid. Poor kid kid. He's doing his best. And, yeah you know, he's the main character, so we'll see what happens.
00:35:37
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. Hopefully it works out. Hopefully works out for him. Bourbon finishes talking to the officers and they can carry on. ah But one of them mourns RTM that he's allowed to leave with his gun, but he's not going to be able to come back in with it.
00:35:51
Speaker
ah Bourbon tells RTM off because Bourbon is a huge piece of shit. Yeah. It's just like Berman is like, fuck you and fuck your fucking gun. You piece of Yeah. piece shit And the way it's translated is he literally just goes, didn't know. does it have a Fuck you. Like it it's it's the fuck you as at the end of a single sentence. He's still, it's just this string. It's like this punctuation. The fuck you is the punctuation at the end of a sentence. Yeah, exactly. It's, it's fantastic. It's so good.
00:36:22
Speaker
um And RTM is like, i you know, I imagine rgm head was like, I'm not, I'm not coming back in. this way necessarily right now. So shut whatever. um So they bourbon tells him a story as they're walking about a trip. He was on where everyone was like tied together with rope and one of the guys vanished into the darkness. And when they pulled the rope back that he was attached to, there was only saliva left at the end of the rope.
00:36:53
Speaker
um And they carry on and they hear rats moving in the distance. And Artyom is like, ah yeah, some trauma around rats. And ah Bourbon just laughs at him. And he says, rats are good because it means there's always food available. Artyom considers punching him in the face.
00:37:10
Speaker
Yeah.
00:37:13
Speaker
Again, fair, fair. They arrive at Prospect Mir and Artem agrees to put his gun in a storage locker before he wanders off into the station check in this into the station to check out the bazaar.
00:37:27
Speaker
ah He looks at different items and thinks about the ah Klishnikov, the inventor of the the rifle, and how each bullet was equal to a life. And it gets like really deep. Like, did the inventor of the guillotine have the same like feeling?
00:37:42
Speaker
Klishnikov, by all accounts, is proud of his weapon. But did he realize that every bullet that fired from his gun was life? And like, I was like, damn, R.T.M., maybe that's your superpower. Yeah. Philosophical introspection. Like, wow. Okay.
00:37:59
Speaker
And then he looks at the the stuff that he could buy. It is like a pack of tea is five lives. but yeah ah Bourbon finishes up whatever he was doing and they head off to the southern exit of Project Mir.
00:38:13
Speaker
Bourbon tells him he doesn't know what will happen to him necessarily when the hallucinations hit. So he gives Artyom his gun to hold while they travel. As they walk through the tunnel, Artyom tries to converse with Bourbon to make sure any hallucinations are broken.
00:38:25
Speaker
But something begins to happen to his words as he's saying them. It's like there's a muting effect in the tunnel. And he has to shout in order to be heard. and Bourbon keeps like starts zoning out and is answering his questions, but is answering him in these nonsensical phrases.
00:38:40
Speaker
um And then probably the scariest moment of the book happens. They're walking and suddenly ah Bourbon's head just kind of twists to the side and his neck snaps.
00:38:57
Speaker
And Bourbon says, i have died. And then he falls over dead. And it's like i was I was like, oh, yeah.
00:39:10
Speaker
Yeah. Like something about the way the scene is written just gave me the chills. And the fact that they are in near total darkness at this point yeah as well. Yeah. ah He does a really good job. Dimitri does a really good job of like the atmosphere, yeah which if you're going to write this book, you'd better goddamn be good at writing some atmosphere because that's basically its own character. And he is. And and this is this is one of those moments. It's just wow.
00:39:40
Speaker
Um, Artyom checks for vitals, ah can't find any. He picks up the body and starts carrying him as fast ah as he can, while the loud noise that he heard earlier returns, filling his ears.
00:39:53
Speaker
Artyom calls out for help, but then he collapses. A man wakes him up asking Artem to come with him and leave his friend behind because he doesn't want to turn Shuraskaya into a tomb.
00:40:06
Speaker
Artem protests because they had a deal, but the stranger keeps reminding him that the contract is broken because, well, Bourbon is dead. Artem stops protesting and carries on with a stranger to the terminal.
00:40:19
Speaker
ah There are no lights there, unlike prospect mirror. And the stranger takes him to a tent and puts him down so he can sleep. But not before our saying that he predicts that this station will burn down in 420 days.
00:40:30
Speaker
um And our team's thinking that's mighty specific. ah That's the end of chapter five. Yeah. Everybody is a little fucking weird in this book.
00:40:44
Speaker
Oh, absolutely. Everyone's everyone's got just just the a handful of screws loose. ah it's It's pretty great. Scruples. um it It makes for some interesting characters, to say the very least.
00:40:59
Speaker
Yeah. Uh, so that's, that's the end of the section for tonight. Phil, what do you think so far? Really interesting book. Um, it is, I think it speaks a lot to, uh, his writing ability.
00:41:15
Speaker
Um, because if you look at the structure of it, it's kind of like I'm learning stuff through people telling me, I, but You know what i mean? It's like it's like he's he you get a lot of rumors and campfire tales and like outside information coming in.
00:41:38
Speaker
And that can be really, really dull. And for a little while, there really isn't all that much of a plot. He's just doing a shit ton of world building. And all of that, I think, in the hands of of a lesser writer ah can be really dull, ah really uninteresting. a Do not read like i pass you know and move on. Right.
00:42:01
Speaker
um Because he isn't. he can be, he can be very clever about how he interjects the exposition and the world building into the story. But a lot of the times he's just goddamn telling you. Yeah. And, and he does it.
00:42:18
Speaker
I think he does it really well. ah It's, ah it's bleak. It's incredibly, you know, Eastern European. ah It's, it's got, um,
00:42:32
Speaker
that wonderful kind of like what a horrifying world, but God damn it. We're going to laugh and drink a little mushroom tea here and there while we can. These people still have lives. They still have interests. um And I think that's really cool. I think it's, yeah, that's the thing that I like is that like, okay, this is a world And it's lived in and people have experiences and they sit around a campfire and they tell stories, they spin yarns.
00:43:04
Speaker
ah And that's something that is all too often is like missing from a lot of.
00:43:16
Speaker
sci-fi and fantasy settings ah where the world of Metro 2033, they make a point of mentioning, Dimitri writes at one point that the the entire map would be crossed in an hour by a train.
00:43:35
Speaker
yeah um But it takes like days and weeks by foot ah for somebody to cross this metro. um But it feels like a very huge world.
00:43:47
Speaker
um And that's the thing. i don't know why I was just thinking of Star Wars, right? right And hey, love Star Wars, but the there's... that it You got like...
00:44:00
Speaker
Planets where it seems like there is a city and one fucking like a biome across the entire planet, you know? Right. And that's a very common sci-fi trap. It's like it's like each each planet's an island and each island has one city on it.
00:44:21
Speaker
im Right. And I find that to be a little bit weird and distracting. ah When you think like, look, OK, how are all these planets? How is the planet itself a unified entity enough to join a a galactic federation or a republic?
00:44:41
Speaker
You know, like. it We can barely get like I'm just thinking about Earth. I'm like, we can barely get fucking, you know, smaller alliances going and stable for ah like a dozen years.
00:44:58
Speaker
ah And that is very. e And it's that's a detail that I like. He talks about in this book. And it's like, yeah, the different stations are at odds with each other.
00:45:10
Speaker
And this is a much smaller universe than sci fi settings. And yet it still feels like it is existing and going and moving beyond whatever the main character is doing.
00:45:26
Speaker
um So that that was something that, you know, I was on my mind. I totally agree. Uh, my wife and I watched dread recently. Uh, actually I hadn't seen that in fucking years. And, uh, I noticed it was on, I don't remember what channel we were on. And I said, can we watch this? This, this is, I remember this being really, really good. And, and it was, it's, it's campy and and fun and and just a, a real good time. Um,
00:45:58
Speaker
But one of the things that jumped out at me is the whole thing takes place on this gigantic block, high rise of 200 floors of ah of a slum, basically. And they talk about the different gangs there and the the gangs for a while.
00:46:17
Speaker
it was floor to floor. They one gang runs floors six through 12 or what have you until this other gang came in and just basically took the whole thing over. And that's so cool.
00:46:29
Speaker
Yeah, it is like you say it's its own kind of little biome, despite the fact that in the grand scheme of things, it's very small. It still has those politics and that those borders, basically. Right. And I yeah, and I totally agree. I think he does a really good job ah with that here.
00:46:47
Speaker
Yeah. You know, what's weird is i was just thinking I haven't seen Olivia Thrillby in anything recently. i I looked it up. I i was like, i do do I know her? Am I supposed to know her? Like she has a very specific look.
00:47:03
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, she was in what's it ah fucking ah Juno, wasn't she? Yes. Yes. That was the other big thing she did. ah Well, I mean, some people would argue the big thing she did. Right. um It was driving me crazy because I couldn't figure out why i was so insistent on having seen her. And then I realized about halfway through the movie, she looks ah she makes me think of Frenchie from Greece. ah like that's ah And I was thinking about that actress the entire time. Like, oh, yeah, I don't really.
00:47:37
Speaker
Other than Juno, I don't really know her from anything. ah But yeah, it was it was because she made me think of a movie from like 30 years ago. So she was in Oppenheimer i and she was also in the ah the ill fated adaptation of Why the Last Man.
00:47:57
Speaker
um Do you ever read Why the Last Man? I read the first trade of it. I forgot that they tried to turn that into something. Yeah. She played she played Hero, ah the main character's sister.
00:48:12
Speaker
Right. Interesting. Yeah. It's... ah All right. Yeah. And obviously, Carl Urban does it. ah ah Did an amazing job ah with never taking his helmet off.
00:48:28
Speaker
Never to and and having the sad boy face the entire time. Yeah. A frown so deeply lined into his face that I was almost convinced that he was smiling the whole time and they computer generated flipped. it They just they flipped it upside down.
00:48:44
Speaker
They turned that that smile upside down. it's that deep of a press in terms of his frown. ah Fascinating. Very, very fascinating. Yeah. me get the Good movie.
00:48:55
Speaker
Yeah. Good movie. Should watch it again. um Definitely. know there's, I know Carl Urban has been pushing for another one. Uh, Well, I think they should. ah They should just rip off a different Hong Kong movie ah for it and just keep keep that. Just call it a day. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Because it worked for the first time. You know, that guy has been in like I was we were talking about it. He has been in like five different comic book adaptations.
00:49:25
Speaker
Yeah, ah he's done it all. He's done. He's done basically every big ah comic book company. It's it's hilarious. I mean, he's kind of king of the geeks in his own way. King of the geek like, yeah, I just looking at his IMDb. It's wild because obviously he's the main character in Doom. Yeah.
00:49:46
Speaker
And ah which at the time is was kind of a twist because you look at him and ah in 2005 in Doom, he's kind of got resting villain face.
00:49:59
Speaker
Sure. Oh, so it's a little bit of a surprise that he's the good guy and not the rock. Yeah. Yeah. So, okay. Red. ah he was in ahre dread. ah He's in the Star Trek stuff. ah He's in the Riddick movies. Yeah.
00:50:20
Speaker
Really, there was a fun show, ah cop show, but ah set in the future ah that he was in called Almost Human, where he's a cop with a ah with an android partner.
00:50:35
Speaker
um oh interesting. Yeah, I remember really liking that. Obviously, he's in the Thor movies recently. He's voiced Sergeant Rock. He's been in ah The Boys.
00:50:49
Speaker
yeah ah So many things. He just the guy, you know, there's a lot of talk of Nathan Fillion being like, you know, one of the the leaders of the geeks. And he is. But God, look at this man. Like you said, look look at his goddamn resume. It's crazy.
00:51:06
Speaker
I feel like Nathan Fillion loses points for how long the rookie has been has been going on. um Yeah. Yeah. Because, you know, and I got to tell. Here's the thing.
00:51:18
Speaker
I'll admit, I i enjoyed, ah genuinely enjoyed the rookie in the first few seasons. um It was like an unironic enjoyment.
00:51:30
Speaker
And then it became an ironic enjoyment. ah And now it's a so it's a it's like, oh, this is a really terrible TV show now um because it slid from like, all right, it's a cop show, but they're doing OK. They're going through the motions to make it seem less propaganda.
00:51:48
Speaker
You know, right. Um, like there's an episode where he shoots somebody and like basically it's it's a full episode of him being absolutely destroyed by ah the internal affairs people. Like every aspect of his life is turned upside down and all that stuff.
00:52:07
Speaker
um And then like in later seasons, he like shoots like five people in a scene in like an action sequence. And you're like, no, you're never going to hear the IA guy again. No, never again.
00:52:20
Speaker
So, yeah, propaganda deducts points from your cred. Yeah, personally. Yeah, that's true. i Still, I love Nathan, but, you know, you know, how he's a lovely guy from by all accounts. But yeah, yeah, same.
00:52:35
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. All right, Phil. It's it's that time of the show where I am legally and contractually obligated to ask you. hmm.
00:52:47
Speaker
What are you playing? Oh, ah, let's see here. I, it's been a good, it's been a good week for, for playing games. Uh, I, uh, I wrapped up road to Empress.
00:53:01
Speaker
ah wrap that one up. That was fun. That was like basically what you want in an FMV game in a lot of ways. I i really enjoyed my time with it. I like i i i only got like, ah I didn't know that there were multiple endings outside of like dying until like the very last chapter, I want to say. And and i I ended up ah ah becoming a lesbian nun, ah which was...
00:53:30
Speaker
I was like, that should be the, that I know that historically speaking, that that's not canon, but I, I think this should be the regular ending. Sounds great. Sounds great. ah Sounds great. A lot of fun. ah Very.
00:53:45
Speaker
On one hand, it's like so hammy and over the top. so But then they've got these moments that are like so real in terms of the emotion stuff. Like, like um no spoilers, but like one of the character's boyfriends die ah he's condemned to death. And it's, yeah, don't get me wrong. It's over the top and kind of soap opera. But it was like, Jesus, this is.
00:54:10
Speaker
horrible like it's just you really it really hits you uh yeah without uh with it completely ah takes you off guard or took me off guard anyway sure um Really enjoyed it. That was a lot of fun. Looking forward to the second one. Yeah, I really like the fact that one of the patches one of the things that they did like month after the game came out and it became kind of a big thing because streamers were playing it and all that stuff. They stuck in the one. yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. went from the banner it's still just road to empress but yeah yeah yeah it became road to empress one love that it's great good for you guys yeah oh yeah it's terrific uh uh i i i think it's a it's a great game and it deserves the attention it got just based on the scale of it yeah
00:55:09
Speaker
And the i I have to say, I feel like the lead, the player character, i think i feel like she's really good. She's excellent. She is fantastic. She does the, there is a full evolution of her character. Yeah. And she pulls it off from the very beginning where she's this kind of sweet, wilting flower kind of a character character. uh to being a hardcore you know you know a backstabbing bitch by the end of it and you believe it 100 the entire time she is she was fucking outstanding i really liked her love the guy who did the emperor uh uh he was he was a lot of fun too
00:55:49
Speaker
Yeah, what's funny is like if you there's that one point where you can like sleep with the emperor. Yeah, it's way too early to to like do that. And he basically like sleep with him and he like loses interest in you.
00:56:03
Speaker
Yeah, and it's like it you you actually get a game over out of it.
00:56:08
Speaker
ah Why buy the cow and you can get milk for free? Am I right, ladies? Yeah. as Yeah. Yeah. yeah Yeah. It's, it's really good. ah It's, it's, it's totally worth the hype. um Yeah. That would have been, that would also have also been on my ah runner up list or honorable mention list for last year. That was a lot of fun. Yeah. um I think I'm about, I'm about like 75, 80% of the way through still wakes the deep.
00:56:38
Speaker
I would have finished that one up too, but I reached a point where, where um i need an i just need to upgrade my fucking computer at some point sure ah i had i have it at the lowest settings uh just for performance and there's a there's ah a part where i'm going out to i think to like reset a flare uh and you're going out on this like kind of long galley bridge kind of thing and you're being chased um by one of the baddies and um
00:57:10
Speaker
It's a very close chase. And even with the performance as high as I can possibly make it on this claptrap of a machine, ah there's there are enough little delays that i no but I realized today I played it and I did it as well as I possibly could have. There were no hiccups from me and I died. And I went, oh, that's...
00:57:37
Speaker
That's a problem. Yeah. Which is shit. It is it is a brilliant game. i'm getting I'm getting my alien isolation fix out of it. Yeah. living Getting my Scottish brogue fix out it. Yeah, it's very, it's ah alien, it's ah on the rails alien isolation.
00:57:57
Speaker
Yes, yes, very much. Alien isolation if it was a walking simulator. Right, right. And I'll tell you, ah if there's anything, The highest compliment I can give ah the Chinese room for this is that it made me go, you know,
00:58:13
Speaker
I'm going to have to, you know, I'm not going to pay full price, but i really should give Vampire Masquerade Bloodlines 2 a try. These guys are very good at what, and I know obviously they weren't the starting ah team that had it.
00:58:26
Speaker
But it it just it just made me go, damn, these guys really are great storytellers. ah They really know their format. it's It's just, it's really impressive they know what's up.
00:58:41
Speaker
Yeah. And I, I, I'm, I'm really impressed by it. Uh, in the name of, uh, uh, trying to get my back catalog, uh, uh, down to a dull roar, I've decided I'm going to start like trying to find, ah games that I bought that like at the time were kind of considered classics for their time, that I just never got around to playing. So, uh, I'm playing braid.
00:59:06
Speaker
Okay. Um, which, uh, I, I, vaguely know the ending. Uh, um, but it's, uh, it's, it's, it's pretty good. It's, I, I really like the puzzles. I like the, uh, the, the dark twist on super Mario brothers and all that yeah shit.
00:59:24
Speaker
Um, I don't know what the, there seems to be some controversy around I don't know. Yeah. Yeah. It's Jonathan blow. Who's he's shit. Yeah. Yeah. Blow is a piece of shit. That's true.
00:59:37
Speaker
I forgot that, but that, that is true. But it is, it is very clever. And, and, and, ah and just ah a nice, honestly, just,
00:59:47
Speaker
a fun platformer in and of itself. I like the watercolor aspect of it. And I'm glad that, you know, what, 50 years after it was released, finally yeah getting around to playing it. So that's nice.
01:00:00
Speaker
Yeah. um But yeah, that's, that's, that's me. Basically I'm i'm playing still bowling, still bowling on my switch. What's your again? Oh, that's Jackie Disguise. Jackie Disguise. Jackie Disguise. I picked up a ah sponsorship deal with i Hammer.
01:00:18
Speaker
ah Hammer Bowling. Very cool. ah i as And the Hammer sponsorship team plays against the sponsorship teams for other bowling ball brands ah in tournaments. Amazing. fun Yeah, yeah. i'm ah i'm I'm into tier nine of what I'm assuming is 10 tiers. Sure. ah Last time we talked about it, I said I might need to turn the difficulty up on it a little bit. ah I do not. I'm good. i just needed to get I just needed to get to a tier where I wasn't playing against, you know.
01:00:52
Speaker
drunk chain smokers, you know, uh, uh, a little bit in the pros and then it's like, Oh, not, I'm not, it's not plumbers anymore. It's right.
01:01:04
Speaker
Right. So, uh, really enjoying that still, uh, uh, uh, Kevin, Oh, what are you playing? oh OK, so um i played a little bit Metro 23 2033 Redux just for the sake of firing it up and you know getting, hey, how's how's this compared to the book? And I was like, OK, well, very differently in the opening hour or so. um But from what I've looked up about the plot of the game, like, OK, it seems to follow the same beats. It's just obviously got more action sheen on top of it.
01:01:40
Speaker
Um, I played, um, egg squeeze, jobs which is a weird game where you basically, it's, it's, it's kind of got a buckshot roulette aesthetic. Uh, all you see is just like this hand and your job is to squeeze the egg for as long as possible, but release before it breaks.
01:02:08
Speaker
Um, This is funny. but So you're supposed and you're trying to get a certain number of points ah to to pat to go to the next level.
01:02:19
Speaker
ah So there's three levels or days um and you basically are...
01:02:28
Speaker
on the third day you start like unlocking tools to help you but they really don't help you they just cover up more of your screen um it's a it's a it's a funny weird game and i don't know i sat there and i played it for an hour and i was like okay ah this is This is funny. I like this. This is neat. yeah um yeah It's so dumb, but i'll I'll probably, maybe I'll play it again just to get the second ending because there's there's two endings. Nice.
01:03:00
Speaker
Yeah. ah But basically, you're hired by a company to test the psychic limits of understanding when the egg is going to break. I love it. I love it. That's crazy.
01:03:12
Speaker
It's good. um i also started playing a game called In Other Waters, um which was gifted to me.
01:03:24
Speaker
Did you gift it to me or did somebody else gift it to me? I don't know. if like I don't think I gave. I think i might have this might have been gifted to me by a cat. um But it's ah ah In Other Waters, it's...
01:03:38
Speaker
It's a very simple game where
01:03:44
Speaker
ah you you have this like overhead view, like map view of a um underwater cave system.
01:03:56
Speaker
And you are... ah You are the AI in a diver's jump ah diving suit. And you're helping this diver like scan local fauna and flora and um on this extraterrestrial planet ah as part of a larger mystery to figure out where her compatriot, her co-worker, has disappeared to.
01:04:23
Speaker
um And it's the people who made it. It's the same folks who made ah a citizen sleeper.
01:04:34
Speaker
So this is their i guess this was their first game.
01:04:39
Speaker
So it's the the first game of the Citizen Sleeper people. it's It's neat. I'm going to keep playing it. it's it seems to be a It's a pretty chill game also, yeah I'll say. aesthetics are really cool. Yeah, they do a really great job with color palettes um in in their games.
01:04:59
Speaker
Otherwise, I've been playing Peak with Camilla ah off and on for the past four weeks. It's a, you know, hysterical game. ah Fired up Save Room the Merchant.
01:05:14
Speaker
ah Because I was a big fan of the original save room game. And now I'm playing. Great game. And now I'm playing. ah I too am going through my backlog. was like, oh yeah, the merchant. So i'm I've been going through that. And it really does build up the. um The elements of like Resident Evil 4, like combining jewels to and and all that stuff and selling items.
01:05:42
Speaker
and or buying treasures to combine jewels into and selling things back at higher value. And and it's, it's, uh, you know, it's, it's definitely a podcast game.
01:05:53
Speaker
Like I, I, I put, I was listening to, i was listening to the book while I was playing it the other day. um, i I fired up divity Divinity Original Sin 2 because i was, you know, I loved Baldur's Gate 3, but really hadn't played much of Larian's other stuff. So I figured, bye.
01:06:17
Speaker
not fire up the thing they made right before Baldur's Gate 3. Why not do? And it's like, oh, it's very much like Baldur's Gate 3. Different battle system than uses action points instead of um which is more of like an XCOM thing rather than a Baldur's Gate 3, which is uses the D&D like action system um the combat system and and dungeons dragons uh so i like it so far and uh it's it's also not very forgiving it's it's it's like oh yeah uh quick save a lot uh i i
01:07:01
Speaker
One of the characters one of the characters ah in your party, his name is Red Prince. ah He's this red lizard dude. ah You're just walking around the first town that you come to, and there's a guy that's just like, finally, the Red Prince, and he attacks you. And the guy outlevels you by a couple levels by the time like when you run into him. so he And he has like...
01:07:27
Speaker
He has like 40 armor and 60 hit points. Meanwhile, your guys have like 30 hit points and no armor. So it took me a few tries to knock this guy down, but ah I got it.
01:07:39
Speaker
um So, but it's fun. i'm I'm enjoying it so far. And it's one of those games where every single NPC has a unique name. I love that.
01:07:50
Speaker
Talk to all them and and all that stuff. And finally, ah the Seance of Blake Manor, another game, a game from last year that was sitting in my backlog.
01:08:01
Speaker
ah And as I'm playing it and I'm telling you I'm only 40 minutes in, I'm like, oh, this would have made it on my game of the year list. um It's very much, you know, hits that Outer Wilds ah type of investigation mechanic.
01:08:19
Speaker
ah you You go around rooms. It's also time-based. So each action you take makes like one minute go go forward on the clock.
01:08:30
Speaker
Which doesn't seem like a lot, but there's every little thing you investigate in a room will advance the clock one minute. So any time you have a conversation with somebody and you're asking them a question, it advances the clock one minute. So you're trying to solve the entire mystery in the span of like two and a half days or something like that. yeah.
01:08:54
Speaker
So that's kind of the... They introduce you. The tutorial area is you arrive at 11 p.m. on Friday night, I believe, and you have to figure something out before midnight.
01:09:12
Speaker
So that kind of introduces you to the fact that your time is limited. And so I did everything. i got as much as I could figure out. And then once you get enough ah clues, it's like form a hypothesis as to what happened.
01:09:30
Speaker
um And you do that and, you know, it's it's fun. I like it. Nice. Stance of Blake Manor. A lot of people, other folks have said it's awesome. And I am agreeing that it is probably going to be a fun experience.
01:09:45
Speaker
um So, yeah, that's what I have been playing. Nice. Yeah. So that'll do it for tonight's episode. Folks, you can, follow us on the social medias. ah Give us five stars and or all your thumbs up. ah All your thumbs up are belong to us. Hey, now.
01:10:07
Speaker
oh That's still a a relevant re reference, right? Absolutely it is. Of course it is. Why wouldn't it be? Yeah. I asked you.
01:10:18
Speaker
I ask myself that all the time. um And as we have been doing recently to end the podcast in the immortal words of Hannah Einbender, ah go birds, fuck ice, free Palestine.
01:10:35
Speaker
Love it.