Transcript
Speaker: Pick the fruit, you know, get back to tending the chickens or whatever they're doing at that time.
Speaker: Feed the goat.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You know, you know who else is feeding goats?
Speaker: Who's that?
Speaker: Hey there, everybody.
Speaker: Welcome back to Pixlet.
Speaker: My name is Kevin.
Speaker: With me, as always, is Phil.
Speaker: And today, we're continuing our journey down the Black Road.
Speaker: The Diablo Black Road.
Speaker: By Mel Odom.
Speaker: No, not the cool one.
Speaker: Not the excellent painter who we both just completely scrambled in.
Speaker: I'm going to get a print.
Speaker: I swear to God, I love this guy.
Speaker: Yeah, I'm going to get some sort of mellowed portrait and hang it up.
Speaker: He's still alive, I think, the painter.
Speaker: I think so, yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: He's probably one of those dudes that lived a pretty...
Speaker: pretty worthwhile life, you know?
Speaker: Yeah, I have to believe that he's led a pretty cool and interesting life.
Speaker: Sure.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Not just because he's a painter, although that doesn't hurt.
Speaker: But it doesn't hurt.
Speaker: No, it doesn't hurt.
Speaker: So, yeah, where we last left off was at...
Speaker: a little website called patreon.com slash the pixel at pod.
Speaker: That's where we ended the last episode.
Speaker: So Phil, can you tell me what happened at patreon?
Speaker: Oh, that's my favorite transition I've ever done.
Speaker: I think, I think you've nailed it.
Speaker: I think that's, I think we might need to hang up our spurs because it's not going to get any better than that.
Speaker: That's, that's it.
Speaker: We've the high water mark has been reached.
Speaker: Well, here's what's going on, ladies and gentlemen.
Speaker: Me and Kevin are currently planning our bonus episodes.
Speaker: And we got some ideas, some irons in the fire, but one of the ones we definitely want to do is do a video where we choose our favorite games of a specific year, year gone by.
Speaker: And this could go,
Speaker: way back into the 80s, into the early days of video games, or it could be a more recent kind of phenomenon.
Speaker: And so we came up with about half a dozen options, and we are letting anyone in our Heroes of the Pod tier or higher vote in what they want it to be.
Speaker: I'd probably just leave it up for a couple of weeks while we figure this out.
Speaker: There's no deadline.
Speaker: Yeah, there's no rush.
Speaker: Nah, so, but there's plenty of time then based on when this comes out, we probably still won't have chosen it, but I don't think.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: Anyway.
Speaker: Yeah, this will be a couple weeks from now.
Speaker: Yeah, so check it out.
Speaker: And either we have chosen it or we are still waiting.
Speaker: But the fact of the matter is, is either way, that's how we're going to do a lot of these.
Speaker: We want to hear what you guys want.
Speaker: to watch us do.
Speaker: We are your dancing monkeys because money is changing hands.
Speaker: Our free market economy is sound and good.
Speaker: So...
Speaker: If you want to take part in that, please check out patreon.com slash the pixel lit podcast where all of our bonus material is going to be.
Speaker: I've got some more essays I'm working on right now and you still get early episodes and all kinds of fun stuff.
Speaker: It's really neat.
Speaker: And we adore every last one of you who has come out to support us.
Speaker: It's been really, really lovely.
Speaker: Every single one of you.
Speaker: All of you.
Speaker: So with that all being said, let's go ahead and put the body in the marsh.
Speaker: It's not reality TV.
Speaker: So we're picking up at chapter nine.
Speaker: In chapter nine, Wraithan is pretty upset about his ships being set on fire.
Speaker: Now, in the book, they kept saying cogs.
Speaker: I never bothered to look up what the fuck a cog was.
Speaker: I just assumed it was a kind of ship.
Speaker: But I was just like, yeah, sure.
Speaker: It's like a little kind of a single sail ship.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Like the little boat that you get when you're playing, what's it?
Speaker: Sea of Thieves.
Speaker: Yeah, a little bit.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: That's basically a dog.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Sure.
Speaker: So he's upset about his ships and cogs and boats and tugboats and they're all on fire.
Speaker: Everything's on fire.
Speaker: Everything's on fire.
Speaker: Everything's on fire.
Speaker: He's trying to save the Barracuda and he's furious about his pirates doing
Speaker: He's trying to save the Pyrrhic and is furious about his pirates being too happy about saving it.
Speaker: Oh, I think it's because there was something about the pirates.
Speaker: They're like, I'll do it.
Speaker: I'll do it.
Speaker: And he's like, you fuckers.
Speaker: He's furious about a lot.
Speaker: He's also the West March Navy has killed a lot of his pirates.
Speaker: And he notes that Muldron is basically death incarnate with his war hammer.
Speaker: So the, the, uh, the Navy, the West March Navy sailors are like on the cliff stairs and Muldron is basically just braining pirates left.
Speaker: It's pretty great.
Speaker: Pretty great fight.
Speaker: Uh, he leaves the crew to tend to his ships and he's going to go look for Boo-Yard Chalik.
Speaker: Um, that name, that name,
Speaker: Meanwhile, Derek and Matt are trying to get Lex to come with them.
Speaker: Lex is concerned.
Speaker: They're up in the city.
Speaker: They're like, come on, we got to get going.
Speaker: Let's just get on the ship.
Speaker: And Lex is concerned about the demon that the priests may be trying to summon, but Derek is impatient.
Speaker: So Lex gives them the lowdown on what Cabraxas is and the priests and all that.
Speaker: And Lex is like, even the prime evals dislike Cabraxas.
Speaker: Like, this is not a guy that Diablo even wants to fuck with.
Speaker: Nobody wants Cabraxas around.
Speaker: So that's why he's a pain.
Speaker: And Lex also references the Troubles in Tristram.
Speaker: So we got, like, another tie-in to the issues that happened in Tristram.
Speaker: That's, like, the events of Diablo 1.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Oh, that was a nice little tie-in.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It's a nice little tie in.
Speaker: Cause they, at times in this book, they reference, you know, the events of Diablo one and like the beginning of Diablo two where, cause Diablo two is kicked off by it's like one person in the party from Diablo one got Diablo just like went into one of their bodies.
Speaker: He didn't like die or something like that.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And that's how Diablo two kicks off.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: So Matt and Derek are going to stay behind and check on the demon stuff while the rest, uh, go with Lex to the ships.
Speaker: Um, and Derek and his group follow Wraithan's pirates stealthily below.
Speaker: Uh, we got more cat like tread and it's, it's very dusty.
Speaker: Um, down there.
Speaker: Wraithan's pirates don't want to be there.
Speaker: They seem like they want to run away.
Speaker: And Matt points out that the skeletons, there's all these fresh skeletons from that were consumed by the locusts.
Speaker: And then Chalik comes out of the door.
Speaker: He looks better.
Speaker: He looks like he looks like he had some some years shaved off of his little work done.
Speaker: He had a little work done.
Speaker: A little infernal work.
Speaker: A little infernal work.
Speaker: You know, that Dr. Cabraxas, if you can get him, he's great.
Speaker: He doesn't take your insurance, but goddamn.
Speaker: He doesn't take your insurance.
Speaker: He's only paid in souls, but... Yeah.
Speaker: You know, if...
Speaker: You're going to do it.
Speaker: You might as well go all the way.
Speaker: And the exchange rate isn't half bad, to be completely honest.
Speaker: No, it's not.
Speaker: Between souls and dollars.
Speaker: Between souls and dollars.
Speaker: I mean, it's actually only like $72 out on the free market right now.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It's actually only $8 a month on the free market right now.
Speaker: Boom.
Speaker: Twitter blue joke.
Speaker: Someone had to make it.
Speaker: Someone had to make it.
Speaker: So anyway, Charlotte comes out with his Twitter blue subscription and he looks great.
Speaker: He did not regret it in the slightest.
Speaker: Did not regret it in the slightest.
Speaker: And my next note is, oh, it's demon time.
Speaker: This is a very demon heavy section.
Speaker: We finally get into that.
Speaker: Yeah, chapter 10, Matt and Derek watch the men begin to retreat.
Speaker: Matt's like, yeah, we gotta get the fuck out of here.
Speaker: And Cabraxas wants to make peace between Chalik and Wraithan.
Speaker: He's like, listen, you two could be better together than Apart.
Speaker: You know, Chalik has got the magic, Wraithan, you got the pirates.
Speaker: That's a great deal.
Speaker: And Wraithan's like, fuck you.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: No, I'm not going to bow down to any demon.
Speaker: And Wraithan stabs him.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: He stabs Cabraxas right in the chest.
Speaker: And Wraithan has a magic sword, which also lights Cabraxas up.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Which I don't know.
Speaker: I think demons are like are not weak to fire.
Speaker: It just like if it was like a water sword, I think he would have had better luck.
Speaker: But yeah, he had a fire sword, which is really only good against living things.
Speaker: I think the fact that it was magical was really where a lot of the pain came from.
Speaker: The fact that yeah, some scrap of iron.
Speaker: Some hunk of iron.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Good steel.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: He says this.
Speaker: Put my faith in good steel.
Speaker: So Cabraxas is like, well, you know, you can fucking die.
Speaker: There's a bunch of fireflies that come out and they rip all the other pirates to shreds.
Speaker: And then those pirates that get ripped to shreds come to life and start attacking other pirates.
Speaker: It's a big old mess, a big old necromancy mess.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Cabraxas then grabs Wraithan's head with his hand and
Speaker: And lights it on fire.
Speaker: Just lights him up.
Speaker: Yeah, just poof.
Speaker: Like a match.
Speaker: Just like one hand, one gigantic hand over his head and as if his head is made of red phosphorus, lights him up.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And...
Speaker: That's a picture wrap on Wraithan?
Speaker: I think, you know, I, yeah, I kind of made the same reaction when it happened because I kind of thought Wraithan was in this book for the long haul.
Speaker: That's how he was being set up.
Speaker: But, but man, he gets executed with basically no ceremony.
Speaker: The demon just goes, oh, fuck you.
Speaker: And I will give it to Wraithan.
Speaker: He, he, he was a big, he made big talk on like, ah, demons aren't real.
Speaker: You're full of shit.
Speaker: And he saw a demon.
Speaker: Well, the demon is real.
Speaker: I'm like, well, I got to fucking kill it.
Speaker: Well, yeah, and he still talked shit.
Speaker: Like, he went down, like...
Speaker: He went down talking his shit.
Speaker: Yeah, he didn't change his tune.
Speaker: He was like, oh, so I'm just supposed to be scared of you because it turns out demons are real?
Speaker: Fuck you.
Speaker: Like, it's actually, if you gotta go out, like, it's pretty metal.
Speaker: He went out as metal as possible.
Speaker: It's true.
Speaker: He was a pirate who was killed by a demon's magic fire.
Speaker: That's about as metal as it gets.
Speaker: That's old school Dio metal.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Was he killed?
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Was he killed?
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Was he killed?
Speaker: We'll circle back around.
Speaker: We'll come back around to that.
Speaker: Put a pin in that one.
Speaker: Then the skeletons turn and attack Matt and Derek, and we get a whole skeleton chase sequence.
Speaker: Who was the skeleton?
Speaker: Who's the guy who did the models of the skeletons?
Speaker: Harryhausen.
Speaker: Harryhausen.
Speaker: We get full-on Harryhausen.
Speaker: Absolutely, we do.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: We're full Harryhausen at this moment.
Speaker: Um, Matt trips on some loose ground.
Speaker: Derek stops to help him.
Speaker: It looks like they're going to get eaten by the insects, but the insects are having trouble existing.
Speaker: So like the insects, they're just out of range for these demon insects.
Speaker: So as the demon insects are coming for them, they just start popping in the air, uh, because the, the range of the magic coming out of the door only affects so far.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: But now there's more skeletons chasing them.
Speaker: Matt saves Derek by throwing him off the cliff and into the river.
Speaker: And when Matt tries to jump, he's knocked off course by a skeleton who tackles in the air and his head bounces off the cliff wall.
Speaker: And there's a really sickening crack there.
Speaker: Derek finds Matt in the river and tries to keep him from drowning.
Speaker: And then he swims with them to the long boat.
Speaker: Muldron pulls the both of them out, Muldron and Thomas.
Speaker: And now the skeletons who don't swim, but they can walk underwater are like, you know, you get skeleton hands reaching up, grabbing the boat and rocking it about.
Speaker: They're able to get the boat moving again.
Speaker: But Matt is 100% totally dead.
Speaker: Oh, yeah.
Speaker: And Muldron's like, yeah, I knew he was dead the moment we pulled him in.
Speaker: He was dead.
Speaker: He died.
Speaker: He was he's died as soon as his head hit the the wall on the on the trip off the cliff.
Speaker: Oh, yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So you don't limp away from that.
Speaker: That's that's you don't limp away from that.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So.
Speaker: Poor Derek.
Speaker: He lost his BFF.
Speaker: Oh, we get into some heavy duty.
Speaker: We get into some heavy duty grief here.
Speaker: Chasing cars.
Speaker: If I lay here, would you lie with me and just forget the world shit with poor Derek here?
Speaker: This is, yeah.
Speaker: He's going to let it linger.
Speaker: Uh-huh.
Speaker: Yes, he will.
Speaker: He's going to go full Irish on this grief.
Speaker: Oh, big time.
Speaker: Big time.
Speaker: It's like several chapters of him just getting, just get his grief on.
Speaker: That's all there is to it.
Speaker: That's all there is to it.
Speaker: Chapter 11, we're kicking off the grief chapters.
Speaker: Oh, shit.
Speaker: Derek has been having dreams.
Speaker: They're still on the boat.
Speaker: He's been having dreams about Matt still being alive in the days that follow.
Speaker: We get some backstory about how nice Matt was to Derek as they were kids.
Speaker: Like Derek would get beaten by his father and Matt would sneak up to his room and sneak him food and all that stuff.
Speaker: Captain Tollifer orders Derek to get his shit together and attend Matt's funeral above deck.
Speaker: Tollifer notes that Matt was one of the best people he's served with.
Speaker: Derek is not doing well emotionally, though.
Speaker: A lot of rage.
Speaker: There's a lot of buzz.
Speaker: Some serious Horatio hornblower master and commander naval etiquette shit.
Speaker: He basically tells him stiff upper lip and he would expect you to be there and be a man.
Speaker: It was very English.
Speaker: Rub some dirt in it.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I know it's your best friend, but Christ, get out there.
Speaker: So, yeah.
Speaker: Cheerio.
Speaker: Pip-pip.
Speaker: Toodle-pip.
Speaker: That's a thing, right?
Speaker: Toodle-pip?
Speaker: Toodle-pip.
Speaker: Toodle-pip.
Speaker: He's like, shape up, you walnut eater.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: We need like a sound bite for callbacks.
Speaker: Callback.
Speaker: Callback.
Speaker: If you don't get it, then just watch all the rest of our episodes and eventually you'll get.
Speaker: Yeah, just download 100 episodes of Pixel It and then come back and you'll get the jokes.
Speaker: You'll get it.
Speaker: You'll get there.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It's worth it.
Speaker: It's worth it.
Speaker: Pixel it.
Speaker: It's a marathon, not a sprint.
Speaker: That's our new.
Speaker: It's a marathon, not a sprint.
Speaker: We're getting into super marathon levels here.
Speaker: So there's a lot of buzz amongst the crew about the death of Captain Wraithan and Cabraxas and all that.
Speaker: Sailors talk.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And then at the funeral, they have the funeral.
Speaker: Matt's body is released to the sea.
Speaker: And while Derek is eating that night, he's eating above the deck, having his...
Speaker: his biscuit and some stew.
Speaker: And it was funny.
Speaker: It was hilarious.
Speaker: I was on YouTube.
Speaker: I don't know why this got recommended to me now, but there was a video on ship's biscuits.
Speaker: Oh, okay.
Speaker: And how they were made and, you know, ship's biscuits or hardtack or whatever.
Speaker: how they were made, how you ate them, stuff like that.
Speaker: And I was like, this is fascinating.
Speaker: I watched a whole 45 minutes about a guy talking about the history of ship's biscuits and hardtack and then showed you how to, he's like, and now I'll show you how to bake them.
Speaker: And I was like, this is amazing.
Speaker: So if you don't know, ship's biscuits were,
Speaker: These, there were like these circular biscuits that you just like loaded up into, they just put them into barrels and that's what they kept.
Speaker: And they have no moisture in them at all because if they have moisture in them, then they can attract, they can rot, they can grow moldy, they can attract insects, stuff like that.
Speaker: So the ship's biscuits were really hard.
Speaker: They were rock hard.
Speaker: They're made by basically taking, they're,
Speaker: You just make dough, but you don't add any yeast to it.
Speaker: It's just unleavened dough that you fold over several times and you turn into this hockey puck size.
Speaker: And a sailor will be allotted a certain number of biscuits per day.
Speaker: um or uh what have you and it was like a simple way to carry food that wouldn't spoil um over long distances um so you know you you'd have these ships biscuits and then what they would do is they would make like um
Speaker: they would have water or well, not water, but gin or some sort of alcoholic beverage or or a stew or something.
Speaker: And you would dip it into that.
Speaker: Oh, or apparently there is like the
Speaker: One thing is they would melt like cocoa.
Speaker: Oh, that's cool.
Speaker: And it turned into like a, it was like a cocoa puffs type of cereal that they would eat.
Speaker: And I was like, that is fascinating.
Speaker: But apparently people who were the guy said in the video, people who would be sailors for a very long time,
Speaker: for a very long time, wouldn't be able to eat regular bread when they got back.
Speaker: They just didn't, they just didn't trust the consistency of it.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Um, they just got used to using this, like eating this basically a cracker, like it's super thick.
Speaker: And it was like, you know, you just hit it against the table and it would splinter into like a thousand little like crackers, you know, like, like oyster crackers or whatever.
Speaker: Um, so I soaked it in something so you didn't bust your teeth on it.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Exactly.
Speaker: Exactly.
Speaker: So that's what he's eating.
Speaker: He's eating his biscuit and stew and stuff like that.
Speaker: See, we do the research on this show.
Speaker: We do the research.
Speaker: That's what you came here for.
Speaker: That's what you came here for.
Speaker: The nonfiction of the fiction.
Speaker: Yeah, exactly.
Speaker: Kevin brought you the...
Speaker: He brought you the... Brought you the thing.
Speaker: The thing.
Speaker: The thing that you guys wanted.
Speaker: The ship's biscuit.
Speaker: You wanted to learn about hardtack.
Speaker: Goddamn right you did.
Speaker: You wanted to hear me summarize a 45-minute episode of some guy's show.
Speaker: Hell, the guy talks about history a lot, and the coin toss on those guys can go either way.
Speaker: This guy could have been like a problematic dude or totally based, but I don't know.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I forget somebody on TikTok or something not long ago said something along the lines of like, it's a really hard time to be a PhD who specializes in the Crusades and stuff like that.
Speaker: I'm not a big fan of a lot of the people who, it used to be that if I saw someone with a Knights Templar or something, I'd go, oh, neat.
Speaker: I wonder, oh, like it's just kind of really bad.
Speaker: No, God.
Speaker: It's like, oh, they have a Roman statue as their profile picture.
Speaker: I wonder how this is going to go.
Speaker: I'm sure this is going to be fine.
Speaker: I'm sure this is going to be great.
Speaker: So while he's eating that night, Lex approaches him and apologizes about Matt.
Speaker: Lex tells Derek, though, that he wants to hunt demons.
Speaker: Derek is like, this is all your fault, kid.
Speaker: And Lex is like, come on, come help me hunt this demon down.
Speaker: And Derek's like, fuck off, kid.
Speaker: Go suck an egg.
Speaker: He is not impressed with this kid in the slightest.
Speaker: And it's blowing this kid's mind because he's used to being, you know, I'm a member of royalty.
Speaker: So people are going to kind of.
Speaker: I'm a royal.
Speaker: Yeah, you're going to bend over backwards.
Speaker: Yeah, exactly.
Speaker: And he does not handle being basically ignored with a hell of a lot of grace.
Speaker: I will say that.
Speaker: So that was just depression chapter number one.
Speaker: We're on to depression chapter number two.
Speaker: This is the big depression chapter.
Speaker: Yeah, this is the mega one.
Speaker: Chapter 12.
Speaker: Derek is at a bar called the Cross-Eyed Sal's.
Speaker: And it's your basic bar.
Speaker: It has your bucks and wenches.
Speaker: It has money flowing.
Speaker: It's an old building.
Speaker: It's set in an old building district.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: The town's old building district.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Oh, the days we would spend at the old building district.
Speaker: Just watching everything fall apart.
Speaker: Just watching, you know, doors collapse in on themselves.
Speaker: Oh, yeah.
Speaker: That was the best.
Speaker: Derek is drinking totally alone because people only hung out with him because they liked Matt.
Speaker: Which is so sad.
Speaker: What?
Speaker: I mean, that's a real come to Jesus at that point where you're like, oh, no.
Speaker: You guys really only wanted to hang out with him?
Speaker: I thought I just had low self-esteem.
Speaker: We get more backstory on how Matt was the life of the party and Derek is just an absolute bummer.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It's so sad.
Speaker: It's so sad.
Speaker: Really?
Speaker: We're getting like, thank you, Mel.
Speaker: I'm sure we could have done this in fewer chapters.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But we're going to really hammer home the fact that Derek is a fucking loser.
Speaker: Oh, my God.
Speaker: It's hilarious.
Speaker: Oh, he's passing by wenches and they have their thumb and their forefinger in the shape of an L on their forehead.
Speaker: Uh-huh.
Speaker: And the hits start coming.
Speaker: And they don't stop coming in this chapter.
Speaker: Oh.
Speaker: You're really on the ball today, sir.
Speaker: I'm impressed.
Speaker: Well, yeah.
Speaker: We need to do more.
Speaker: I don't know if you guys can tell, but it's daytime when we're recording this.
Speaker: I feel like... It's an afternoon episode, and I'm on it.
Speaker: Those are always special.
Speaker: Those are always really special.
Speaker: Derek is not going to get hit the ground running though.
Speaker: He's going to keep drinking.
Speaker: A mercenary named Cernan sits down across from Derek after Derek interrupts his flirting with one of the wenches.
Speaker: And Cernan is about to leave when Derek decides to insult him again.
Speaker: And they get into a fight and Derek, John wicks with a sword.
Speaker: He knocks out Cernan's companions in like the blink of an eye and
Speaker: And we get some backstory on Derek's training.
Speaker: Like, oh, by the way, Derek is spent years under the most feared fencing master of it's sort of like Arya Stark.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Ish in that he was trained by basically the the most feared sword master of all for like six years.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And you just don't see it coming.
Speaker: You just, yeah.
Speaker: The peacekeepers arrive and Derek ends up tased.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: He actually dies.
Speaker: I just love this detail where it's like they have a fucking taser.
Speaker: I love it.
Speaker: We all know what you did there.
Speaker: We saw what you did, Mel.
Speaker: Oh, my God.
Speaker: So the peacekeepers have like a little lightning rod thing that they use as a taser.
Speaker: The next morning, Derek is in jail and somebody nearby recounts that Derek was like taking swings at everybody when they brought him in.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Um, Kevin's Oliver absolute mess.
Speaker: He was a mess.
Speaker: Captain Tyler arrives.
Speaker: He's not very pleased.
Speaker: Uh, and he warns Derek that he's on thin ice now.
Speaker: Um, and he's like, all right, you can release him in my custody.
Speaker: And then Derek like vomits again.
Speaker: They're like, well, let him sit for a little bit longer.
Speaker: Get that out of his system.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Vomits and shits himself again.
Speaker: And then like, we'll, we'll, we'll wait.
Speaker: We'll, we'll, we'll let him go in a little bit.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: Uh, later we had big old time jump.
Speaker: Um, it's two months later.
Speaker: Derek is getting healed from yet another fight.
Speaker: And Muldron says, everyone is tired of it.
Speaker: Derek has gotten into 17 fights, 17.
Speaker: He says, how many, like I've been in a few and he was like, you've been in 17 fights, dude.
Speaker: In the past two months, he's been in 17 fights.
Speaker: So we jump from the first one to 16 fights later.
Speaker: And then everyone's tired of it.
Speaker: Tollifer's tired of it.
Speaker: Then we go even later.
Speaker: This is a half a month later.
Speaker: Derek wakes up in an alley realizing he's late for the ship.
Speaker: He runs back to the dock, but finds out the ship has left him.
Speaker: And he's like, my naval career is over.
Speaker: Yeah, man.
Speaker: Well, not just that, but he's dead.
Speaker: He's dead meat, basically, because it's like if you if you're found, if you're a sailor and you are found and you're not on your ship, basically, your life is forfeit or something.
Speaker: It's insane.
Speaker: It's like if you're not working, then you might as well be dead, which, look, I'm familiar with the concept.
Speaker: Sure.
Speaker: But this is far more directly point A to point B than I'm used to.
Speaker: Yeah, no, it's wild because, and Derek is like, Tollifer wasn't, like, realized, like, I don't have to worry too much because Tollifer wasn't,
Speaker: ever want to actually sick the, you know, the Commodores people on missing sale.
Speaker: Like he didn't, Tollifer doesn't care about that too much.
Speaker: But that being said, if he got caught by, you know, some random, you know, naval officers like the NCIS, I think.
Speaker: Yeah, pretty much.
Speaker: I mean, yeah.
Speaker: If they caught him, then he would be in big trouble.
Speaker: So we're leaving Derek there to stew a little bit.
Speaker: And we're back with Trolloc.
Speaker: Oh, good.
Speaker: Chapter 13, Booyard.
Speaker: Booyard, Booyard, Booyard.
Speaker: Trolloc is reading a bunch of arcane text.
Speaker: In my notes, I wrote arcade.
Speaker: Arcade.
Speaker: I mean, yeah, yeah.
Speaker: He's reading a bunch of arcane texts while sitting in a carriage to Bramwell, town of Bramwell.
Speaker: Um, and the city is slated to be the first conquest of Cabraxas's new empire.
Speaker: Uh, Cabraxas in the meantime has taken over a body and it's not going to last very long.
Speaker: Seems like he burns through him pretty fast.
Speaker: Once a demon has, has taken it, uh, it's taken it over.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: So they're talking about their plans.
Speaker: Chalik has been using a bunch of entertainers to build up an audience of people in like the town square of Bramwell to listen to him speak.
Speaker: And then Chalik makes his appearance, his grand appearance.
Speaker: And he starts talking about like, yay, you're here.
Speaker: Listen to me preach now.
Speaker: And the town initially is like, get bent.
Speaker: Oh, yeah.
Speaker: They are not impressed.
Speaker: It was hilarious.
Speaker: They're like,
Speaker: No, no, I'm sorry, Mr. Demon Man.
Speaker: We're just not.
Speaker: No, no, thank you.
Speaker: We're not going to wear somewhere else.
Speaker: Sell your wares.
Speaker: We are we are faithful to the light, my friend.
Speaker: And then Chalik does the thing that gets all people believing right away.
Speaker: He does a faith healing bit.
Speaker: Oh, yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: He goes.
Speaker: He goes.
Speaker: Who's who's a good example?
Speaker: Full full.
Speaker: God damn it.
Speaker: full righteous gemstones.
Speaker: Yeah, there you go.
Speaker: That's what I'm going to do.
Speaker: Big, big tent revivalist faith healing bit.
Speaker: Just missing the snakes.
Speaker: Actually, no, the snakes.
Speaker: No, it's not.
Speaker: It's not missing the snakes.
Speaker: I'm sorry.
Speaker: I misspoke.
Speaker: It is.
Speaker: The snakes show up.
Speaker: Good news, everyone.
Speaker: Good news.
Speaker: He goes full Pentecostal.
Speaker: Oh, yeah.
Speaker: So basically there's a kid who it's, it's basically like the little Timmy from, from Christmas Carol or whoever the kid was.
Speaker: Oh, tiny Tim, tiny Tim.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Little Timmy, little, little tiny Timmy.
Speaker: Little Timbo.
Speaker: Tim Tim.
Speaker: Tim Tim.
Speaker: Tim Tim.
Speaker: He finds a Timmy and he's like, hey, you, you're you're you're sick.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And the kids like, I'm dying.
Speaker: not just sick motherfucker.
Speaker: Uh, and he's been sick from a fever.
Speaker: He's barely able to walk.
Speaker: Uh, Charlie puts him on this spell.
Speaker: Basically a spell generates a literal black road of ash in the circle that he's in.
Speaker: He's like, all you got to do is walk, walk the road.
Speaker: And, uh, the kid's like, okay.
Speaker: And, uh,
Speaker: The kid starts walking and he's like walking better.
Speaker: It's like Kaiser so say at the end of of usual suspects.
Speaker: The limp just kind of like disappears and he starts gaining like muscle mass and all that stuff.
Speaker: And he's like, everybody's like, oh my God.
Speaker: And then Chalik fucks up the spell.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Did not see that coming.
Speaker: Cabraxas is like, pay attention, you idiot.
Speaker: And the road starts sparking and is on fire from the other end.
Speaker: So he's like, okay, Timmy, you got to run now.
Speaker: Time to run, Timmy.
Speaker: Time to run.
Speaker: And nobody is, I don't think anybody realizes but Chalik that if the road catches up to the kid, it's just going to kill him.
Speaker: So he's like, all right, come on.
Speaker: And the kid, you know, runs.
Speaker: He's like, yeah.
Speaker: And then Chalik goes like, oh, good.
Speaker: You didn't die in a horrible blaze.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: I'm good at this.
Speaker: And I'm good at this.
Speaker: Cabraxas, by the way, is like,
Speaker: amazing at being a convincing devil character.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: He is so good.
Speaker: Like his dialogue, his back and forth with Chalik is amazing after the sequence where he's like, he's like, no, you know, I, I just because I'm, I'm from the dark doesn't mean I'm the bad guy necessarily.
Speaker: And then he's like, uh, uh, Chalik is like, how did you, how are you able to do that kind of healing?
Speaker: And Cabrax is like, oh, you're so silly.
Speaker: Knowing how to cause pain, you first have to know how to heal somebody.
Speaker: It's like jazz, buddy.
Speaker: It's like jazz, buddy.
Speaker: You gotta know how the notes are played.
Speaker: Skibbity-doo-bop.
Speaker: Cabrax is just so scanning.
Speaker: Oh, God, my eyes!
Speaker: Like, oh, sorry, sorry.
Speaker: I shouldn't have...
Speaker: So Cabraxas starts scatting and his eyes pop out.
Speaker: Yeah, it's pretty, pretty.
Speaker: It was gruesome, but man, he's got a, he's got a rhythm to him.
Speaker: He's got a rhythm that is really, really uncanny.
Speaker: Oh yeah.
Speaker: All right, so the daddios go to chapter 14.
Speaker: Oh, yeah, Chalk is like, we must build a church.
Speaker: That's right.
Speaker: It truly goes tent revival.
Speaker: It's crazy.
Speaker: And we're going to talk about this more likely, but this is also another turn in the, I don't know what the fuck we're doing in this book.
Speaker: I don't know where this book is going.
Speaker: I don't know what the fuck we're doing.
Speaker: It started out as this like high seas pirate adventure thing.
Speaker: And all the pirates are dead.
Speaker: Now we got demons and Pentecostal snake handling and okay.
Speaker: Like, okay.
Speaker: Sure.
Speaker: Jump big, big jump.
Speaker: Okay, cool.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Why not?
Speaker: Faith healing.
Speaker: That's always good.
Speaker: It's always good.
Speaker: Um, chapter 14, Derek is in the midst of another months long bender.
Speaker: Um, he's at a tavern eating for the first time in days, and he's been hired to work as protection for a gambler.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: So, and he notices the serving girl has a bracelet for the prophet, Dian Epsten, which is just the, the Cabraxas in disguise.
Speaker: Uh, Dian Epsten is, is what, um, Chalik calls Cabraxas as like, oh, this is how he is.
Speaker: He's the prophet Dian Epsten or whatever.
Speaker: Um, and like, so yeah, the, the,
Speaker: She's like, what's the deal with that?
Speaker: And she's like, she gives him the lowdown of what's going on Bramwell, how they're building a church and all that stuff.
Speaker: So...
Speaker: While walking back from the pub, Derek and the gambler are jumps by some dudes and they beat the shit out of Derek and fatally wound the gambler.
Speaker: And this is, I think this is Derek's bottoming out moment.
Speaker: Yeah, this is kind of like, yeah, rock bottom.
Speaker: Rock bottom.
Speaker: Oh, man.
Speaker: In other stories, this would be our inciting incident, but we're halfway through at this point.
Speaker: We're halfway through at this point.
Speaker: So Derek's like, oh, man.
Speaker: And because the gambler is like,
Speaker: What worth are you?
Speaker: Like, I hired you to protect me and I'm dying here.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: You're useless.
Speaker: Which, you know what?
Speaker: Decent point.
Speaker: Decent point.
Speaker: Decent point.
Speaker: And Derek's like, oh, fuck.
Speaker: Back in Bramwell.
Speaker: Now that Derek has hit rock bottom, he can actually go on an adventure now.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: It's like they started the book too early.
Speaker: I feel like, yeah, I feel like we're in prologue territory still.
Speaker: It's been one long prologue.
Speaker: Yeah, we started halfway through the second of the prequel trilogy or something like that.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, it's weird.
Speaker: The church that has been built is absolutely stunning.
Speaker: The healing has continued, but so has the secrets that need to be kept.
Speaker: They don't really explicitly say what the secrets are, but like anytime they give a wish of like money or something like that, something bad has to happen.
Speaker: I have a feeling it's like that story about, oh, if you press the button, you get a million dollars, but somebody else in the world has to die.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Yeah, sure.
Speaker: Chalik now goes by the name as Master Sayes.
Speaker: And it's been over a year now since the events back in Torexport.
Speaker: And Chalik wants to build a new church in Westmarch.
Speaker: Cabraxas loves how greedy Chalik is.
Speaker: And he's like, buddy, love how greedy you are.
Speaker: Love how big you're thinking.
Speaker: let's wait though.
Speaker: Let's actually plan this one out a little bit.
Speaker: He's like, I can work with this.
Speaker: We can, we can work with this.
Speaker: We can make, we can work with this.
Speaker: Cabraxas.
Speaker: And that's the thing about Cabraxas as a demon where like other demons are written as being super impatient.
Speaker: Cabraxas is super patient.
Speaker: Oh, he's like, no, I'm immortal.
Speaker: All I have is time.
Speaker: So why not use that to our advantage?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: He's easily the most measure twice cut once demon I've ever read about.
Speaker: You're right.
Speaker: It's usually like, no, my infernal plan must happen now.
Speaker: And he's like, well, the moons are aligned.
Speaker: And Combraxis is like, yeah, we could wait a few years.
Speaker: Let's just win friends and influence the right people.
Speaker: Yeah, exactly.
Speaker: I'm going to write that, actually.
Speaker: That's going to make a little side money.
Speaker: So he's like, first, we got to slowly win the influence of the people around the king and the king.
Speaker: And once we do that, we can expose how corrupt the Zacharum church is.
Speaker: And then there's only one church to turn to.
Speaker: And that's the one of Dien Apsten or whatever.
Speaker: And Chalak's like, all right, man, I guess that makes sense.
Speaker: So we go to chapter 15.
Speaker: Uh, Chalik is in the middle of doing another healing grift thing and the church is absolutely packed.
Speaker: Like they, they, they had just, it's written that they had just expanded to add balconies and stuff like that.
Speaker: And it's already packed again.
Speaker: You know, they, they can't keep up with the demand of people joining the church.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: So normally he would ask the crowd who is worthy of the healing.
Speaker: And Cabraxas picks a set of conjoined twins.
Speaker: And Charlak is like...
Speaker: Oh, what?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I don't know how this is going to work.
Speaker: This gets very, you know, it's weird.
Speaker: This whole scene, uh, this whole chapter, it in a weird way starts to get into this strange Southern Gothic place for me, like between the faith healing and the, the deformation and, and what we're going to see here in a second.
Speaker: Uh, yes, it's very, I would, if this wasn't a Diablo franchise thing, I would expect this to be some sort of horror novel set in the low country or something.
Speaker: It's strange.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It feels more like preacher.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Very much so.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Um, it feels like we're, we're getting, uh, uh, especially with, with some of the characters that are about to show up.
Speaker: It feels very preacher.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: So there's some conjoined twins and we get some backstory about how in the Diablo verse you never see conjoined twins because either they die during childbirth or they're killed as after they're born.
Speaker: Like nobody ever raises them.
Speaker: And, um,
Speaker: So the Cabraxas snake swallows them.
Speaker: It's some weird thing where like you go inside of a snake's mouth or something like that.
Speaker: And then this giant stone statue and the mouth closes.
Speaker: And Chalik just is like, okay, we'll see what happens.
Speaker: Right on.
Speaker: I'm sure this will be fine.
Speaker: I'm sure this will be fine.
Speaker: Yeah, he's truly like, oh, this might not.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: This might not work because they're very conjoined in that they share arms and legs.
Speaker: And it's like it's it's it's almost like it's basically one body and two heads kind of right.
Speaker: Conjoined.
Speaker: And so Chuck is like.
Speaker: is doing the crusty the clown yeah just meanwhile we get a new point of view character and her name she's a little girl named maridor she's one of she's the sister of the two boys and she has her doubts about the way of dreams which is what the black road is called in their in the preaching and
Speaker: And when the snake consumes them during the prayer, she's like, oh, this is not good.
Speaker: This seems bad.
Speaker: And she backs up away from what's going on.
Speaker: And she bumps into a curious man with a burned face.
Speaker: Hmm.
Speaker: I wonder who that could be.
Speaker: The man tells her they probably choose children to walk the way because it's easier to win their hearts.
Speaker: She also notes that the man sweats blood.
Speaker: I mean, we've all had that kind of a hangover before.
Speaker: His face is constantly like cracking and flaking and healing and like the fresh...
Speaker: the new flesh like reburns.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And I was like, oof.
Speaker: It's pretty brutal.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It's pretty brutal.
Speaker: The snake opens its mouth and the boys come out whole and healthy and separated.
Speaker: Um, and after that, the burned man flings open his, his coat.
Speaker: And this is where it feels like Southern Gothic.
Speaker: Like this should have happened in the 1870s because the man would normally like, he would have filled his hands with iron and, and, and pulled out a gun.
Speaker: He does the Diablo equivalent and pulls out a crossbow, pulls out a crossbow and fires a bolt into Chalik's chest.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: Um, everyone freaks out, but the man has vanished and they ask Maridor who he was.
Speaker: She doesn't have any information, but the guards grab her to go talk to master say is.
Speaker: So, uh, that man is clearly Wraithan, right?
Speaker: I think, yeah.
Speaker: Like, I think so.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: The man he's got to, he, I mean, he was burnt.
Speaker: He's severely burned.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: That's gotta be Wraithan.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Having searched, searched for Chalik and it's, it, he's got, he is a gruesome to look to like what the way he's described.
Speaker: The description is so fucking cool.
Speaker: It's really good horror.
Speaker: burned flesh it like cracks the flesh around his mouth cracks as he smiles and flakes off and it's like oh um but yeah that's healing and then re-burning and it just over and over and over again it's crazy yeah that's it but it is i totally get it this chapter does feel like a a different southern gothic
Speaker: horror story, um, rather than, than anything Diablo.
Speaker: Um, so what are your thoughts on the book so far?
Speaker: Well, that's kind of it.
Speaker: It's like, I really like the individual pieces of a lot of what Mel Odom's doing here.
Speaker: I, I, the culty, uh, demon stuff is pretty cool.
Speaker: And the pirate stuff was pretty cool.
Speaker: Like, I,
Speaker: so much of it individually is really interesting.
Speaker: Um, it just hangs together really strangely.
Speaker: I don't know if it, like if it's just the rhythm that we take up and it just kind of, you get kind of a whiplash there where it's like, uh, okay, we're on, we're a high seas pirate adventure and now it's, you know, faith healing and, and you know, that it's, it's just an odd jump.
Speaker: And I'm sure,
Speaker: I think a lot of times when we get to a point like this in a book and we're still unclear as to how we feel, usually that's a good sign that we're not going to enjoy the ending either.
Speaker: But I actually, it's not even me being optimistic.
Speaker: I just, I feel like this still has a real chance to tie it all together in the end.
Speaker: But right now I'm just so, I'm just kind of befuddled at,
Speaker: how all the different pieces work together.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Like pick a lane book.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: It's, and it's all individual stuff that I should love.
Speaker: You know, it's, I love swashbuckling shit, demonic shit, the Southern Gothic thing.
Speaker: All of this stuff is cool as hell on its own.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Um, it's just, I'm just not sure where we're going.
Speaker: with it yet.
Speaker: And I don't know how we're going to wrap all of this up just yet.
Speaker: Yeah, I will say what I am feeling and I mentioned it a little bit ago.
Speaker: I feel like chapters one through nine.
Speaker: I feel like all of that could have been condensed.
Speaker: I feel like a lot of this is up until basically I feel like you could have started at
Speaker: like a Chalik arriving at Bramwell or something like that.
Speaker: Like a lot of this could have been backstory or revealed as part of like a mystery or something like that instead.
Speaker: And that would have been really cool.
Speaker: Like, all right, who is this mysterious faith preacher who is healing people and stuff like that.
Speaker: And then there's this guy on the scene, this man with a burned face who's been,
Speaker: like killing his way through, uh, his way to, to the, the faith, uh, healer.
Speaker: Like that, that, I feel like that could have all been a neat little mystery and it's all, you know, it's all up to this guy, this former sailor who is a drunk, uh, and cause I think Bramwell is his hometown.
Speaker: I want to say.
Speaker: Yeah, I think so.
Speaker: Yeah, so it's like this former sailor who's a drunk but is the only person with the wherewithal to figure it out or something like that.
Speaker: As a pitch, that's awesome.
Speaker: And what's funny is that...
Speaker: If you look at the back cover summary of Diablo, the Black Road, it talks about how Derek is returning to his hometown and things are different.
Speaker: Things are weird or something like that.
Speaker: And I'm like, yeah, that would have made for a good starting point to the story.
Speaker: Derek Lang is coming home about halfway through the book.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: more than halfway through the book yeah we're about 60 through the book and it's like derek lang is coming home and we're like yeah we've burned most of the book before we even got into that point though right right so i think there's just some like economy of structure that is uh missing here yeah um yeah i agree
Speaker: So that's, that's kind of my opinion on it at the moment.
Speaker: Um, but it's otherwise, yeah, individual moments are fine.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I really liked the, the burned man shooting Chalik in the, in the chest.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It was like, I could see that.
Speaker: I could see it having like a John Woo ish, like doves being like doves releasing at the same time.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: No, uh,
Speaker: Odom's a good writer.
Speaker: He's got wonderful scenes and moments and stuff like that.
Speaker: It just feels like, I don't know, it feels like maybe it wasn't long enough or something and we got this extended prequel kind of thing, which probably should have just been like a longish prologue.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: If that.
Speaker: If that.
Speaker: That all being said, I have one more question to ask you, though, Phil.
Speaker: Oh, sure.
Speaker: What are you playing?
Speaker: Ah, well, surprising no one but maybe myself.
Speaker: I'm still playing Far Cry 6.
Speaker: Hey!
Speaker: I'm still playing the... I beat Boltgun, first and foremost.
Speaker: loved that, had a wonderful time, and I think the testament to Far Cry 6 is that I actually did return to it after I was done with Boltgun, which is not generally how it works for me.
Speaker: If I'm interrupted, especially with a game of that size, I'm not generally going to come back to it.
Speaker: And Boltgun took like 10 or 12 hours to beat, so it wasn't like a short game.
Speaker: And I'm back to it and just kind of taking my time and slowly taking different settlements and slowly doing exactly what I do in Far Cry.
Speaker: Just picking the bad guy apart, basically.
Speaker: Exactly.
Speaker: Just piece by piece, checkpoint by checkpoint.
Speaker: And it's not as good as the other Far Cries.
Speaker: I stand by that, but it's still pretty fucking good.
Speaker: I cannot deny it.
Speaker: It's still a really solid...
Speaker: It feels good to play.
Speaker: It's, you know, it's pretty cool.
Speaker: So that's still happening.
Speaker: And then I actually, just for the fun of it, I was starting to get an itch, starting to get the old itch.
Speaker: And I went ahead and played and beat two of the DLC of Alien Isolation, which I'd never played before.
Speaker: I was at Last Survivor and Crew Expendable, which is, you know, from the original Alien film.
Speaker: And I got to tell you, it scratched the itch, but maybe it was not the best place for me to jump back into Alien Isolation when I haven't played it in a couple of years because it was like...
Speaker: The first 30 minutes were just me remembering, oh right, I can't move this way and I can't do that.
Speaker: And that sound means, okay, I was just getting torn to shreds over and over and over again until I found my sea legs, so to speak.
Speaker: Well, that was fun.
Speaker: It was just kind of, they weren't adding much.
Speaker: It was just the novelty of being able to actually play Ripley and that kind of thing.
Speaker: But I enjoyed it.
Speaker: So what have you been playing, Kevin?
Speaker: uh i so yeah i too beat bolt gun um it had uh and and i liked it i mean it's it's not um it'll probably make it if if we have a top 10 it'll make my top 10 probably but it's it's one of those games you're like this is a good game it could easily get kind of like knocked down a few pegs just because i had some issues with like
Speaker: Enemy variety, boss variety.
Speaker: Boss variety especially.
Speaker: Boss variety especially because you basically just rotate between the same three bosses over and over again.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Even for the very final boss.
Speaker: Even for the final boss is just doing that again except it's a boss rush.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So yeah, I had some of that was, was I didn't love, but I, you know, I like the environments are amazing.
Speaker: Some of these, some of these, I wish it had like more of a photo mode to like easily take down the HUD and all that stuff.
Speaker: So I think just like clear the gun out of the way.
Speaker: But it's, yeah, it's good.
Speaker: Needs a mini-map, or not a mini-map, just at least a map.
Speaker: A map of any stripe would be very, very appreciated.
Speaker: That, to me, little things like that are the difference between me finishing the game and going, that was lovely, I enjoyed that, I'm putting it away now, and finishing the game and then going, maybe I could beat it on the next difficulty level up and just give it another go.
Speaker: That's the difference for me.
Speaker: Yeah, because because normally I probably would have like Resident Evil for, you know, I beat it over and over again.
Speaker: This I was just like, all right, well, that was good.
Speaker: And then I uninstalled it and continued on.
Speaker: It's a very solid game, but you're right.
Speaker: I think it's, it's, if it makes it to the, the, the top 10 list, it's going to be near the bottom.
Speaker: Towards the bottom.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Um, and now what I'm playing is the system shock remake.
Speaker: How are you enjoying that?
Speaker: Because I never played system shock and I never, I never played the first system shock either.
Speaker: Um, I'm loving it.
Speaker: Um, it's, it's a lot of fun.
Speaker: Uh, and I can see, uh,
Speaker: as i play it i'm like oh i can see why so many people were inspired by system shock and then i'm also like i could see why there's certain games that needed more system shock in them to to be better and i was like i was like cyberpunk 2077 would have been a better game with more system shock in it um things like things like that if they had pulled a little bit harder from the system shock influence
Speaker: As I play it, I'm like, oh, okay.
Speaker: Yeah, it's an amazing game.
Speaker: I don't know how and I need to all need to play System Shock 2 because there's a remastered version of that coming out.
Speaker: Not a remake, just like an upresing remastered also by Night Dive.
Speaker: I'll have to see how they got to bio, how some people got to Bioshock from the system because Bioshock is called Bioshock because it's supposed to be directly influenced by the system shock games.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: But I'm still not quite seeing the connection between Bioshock and system shock.
Speaker: And maybe I'll get there if I play system shock too.
Speaker: I mean, I know I understand the connection.
Speaker: It's just like,
Speaker: There is a lot more to System Shock's environment and
Speaker: Also in the remake, and I don't know if this was the case in the original, I would have to check, but in the remake, it's like you have reasons to go back and forth between levels.
Speaker: It's not necessarily the case in Bioshock.
Speaker: Like the backtracking wasn't really a thing in Bioshock.
Speaker: Bioshock's a lot more linear than when I replayed it.
Speaker: I was like, oh yeah, it is pretty much a linear game for the most part.
Speaker: So yeah, that's...
Speaker: I'm really liking the System Shock remake though.
Speaker: It's got a really cool... You know what itch it scratches for me is Prey and Alien Isolation.
Speaker: I had a feeling you would say pray.
Speaker: I'm surprised by the alien isolation part though.
Speaker: That's interesting.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It very much feels like you're sneaking around on the, uh, cause you go into the vents and stuff like that.
Speaker: Uh, it does, it does give me vibes of, uh, sneaking around on the station from, um,
Speaker: from Alien Isolation.
Speaker: Nice.
Speaker: So, yeah, that's what I'm playing right now.
Speaker: And, yeah, that's it.
Speaker: I don't think I'm... Let me check my Steam account, see if I'm playing anything else.
Speaker: I got Octopath Traveler 2 from you for my birthday.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Happy birthday, Kevin.
Speaker: Thank you.
Speaker: I'll be playing that soon.
Speaker: Yeah, it turned my last year as a 30-something.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, you got you got one more year and then you join one more year and then I'm joining you in the in the in the 40s.
Speaker: Yeah, it's pretty good so far.
Speaker: Okay, good.
Speaker: Not so bad.
Speaker: But that'll do it for tonight's episode.
Speaker: Thank you so much for listening.
Speaker: Go check out our Patreon and also go to our website, PixletPod.com, where you can find links to our Discord.
Speaker: and check out our Twitter and Instagram.
Speaker: Twitter less so.
Speaker: I recommend all of you get off of Twitter just for your own health and safety.
Speaker: But you can find us on those sites at PixelitPod.
Speaker: Thank you so much for listening.
Speaker: It's been a blast.
Speaker: And I love all of you.
Speaker: And I love you, Phil.
Speaker: I love you too.
Speaker: This is just fun.
Speaker: I can't believe we do this for fun.
Speaker: for years now.
Speaker: We do this for fun.
Speaker: This is awesome.
Speaker: This is awesome.
Speaker: I still like this show.
Speaker: Yeah, me too.
Speaker: Good night, everybody.
Speaker: Bye.
