Dead Space Catalyst (Now With 50% Less Dead Space)

Transcript

Speaker: It's a thing that happens and babies and you got a poor, you don't need the blue Gatorade in a period commercial.

Speaker: You need the Kool-Aid.

Speaker: You need Kool-Aid man.

Speaker: Red.

Speaker: Tipping over and a pad absorbing all of all of Kool-Aid man's innards.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: You remember that scene from the shining where it all comes pouring out of the elevator?

Speaker: This is what I approve.

Speaker: That's what we need to normalize talking about menstruation and not shying away from it as, and as two, two men, um,

Speaker: Notably, like, you know, I wouldn't say we're not on the effeminate spectrum.

Speaker: Oh, no, no.

Speaker: But I would say, as two men, we support this and more power to you.

Speaker: Absolutely.

Speaker: You know what else is more power to you?

Speaker: What's that?

Speaker: Hey there, everybody.

Speaker: Welcome back to Pixelate.

Speaker: My name is Kevin.

Speaker: With me as always is Phil.

Speaker: And on today's show...

Speaker: Yeah, that's right.

Speaker: I let off the show talking about periods.

Speaker: It's going to be more interesting than the book.

Speaker: It's going to be more interesting than the book because we're talking, we're back in the Dead Space world, Dead Space Catalyst.

Speaker: Oh, man.

Speaker: By B.K.

Speaker: Evanson.

Speaker: Yep.

Speaker: The B.K.

Speaker: stands for Burger King.

Speaker: I would like to think so, yeah.

Speaker: I would like to think so.

Speaker: So, Phil,

Speaker: tell me a little bit about BK?

Speaker: And you said you read a few of his things.

Speaker: Yes.

Speaker: So we read Dead Space Martyr years ago now.

Speaker: Years ago.

Speaker: It was in our first year of doing this.

Speaker: We did like six goddamn episodes on it.

Speaker: We're not doing that anymore.

Speaker: We have locked in on three.

Speaker: It's either one episode for shorter things or three episodes for longer things.

Speaker: We're not going to waste your time.

Speaker: So, yeah, we read Dead Space Martyr, same author.

Speaker: And then in between then and now you've read some of his other works.

Speaker: So what's the deal with this guy?

Speaker: I may have mentioned his real name is Brian Evans and BK is just kind of a pen name.

Speaker: And I mentioned this when we read the first one.

Speaker: Because I myself am a horror writer and I knew Brian Evanson's work and he was a he is a Bram Stoker award winning horror writer who a lot of people really respect and admire.

Speaker: So I was I was kind of I was.

Speaker: That's why if you watch or listen to the first episode, I remember.

Speaker: Or when we when we I don't know if it was the first episode we were talking about at some point, I was like, I'm looking forward to this.

Speaker: This should be really interesting.

Speaker: And and we all know how that turned out.

Speaker: Sure.

Speaker: And since then, now, I have not read any of his longer work, but I have read several short stories of his, which I think he's kind of best known for short stories.

Speaker: I think it was a collection of short stories.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: that won him the award.

Speaker: I mean, the guy's won Shirley Jackson, Shirley Jackson Award.

Speaker: He's got a Guggenheim Fellowship.

Speaker: Oh, Henry Award.

Speaker: The guy has some serious clout.

Speaker: And the short stories I've read are actually very, very good.

Speaker: He has a real good handle on body horror and the metaphors that go with that, which you would think

Speaker: would be tailor made for an adaptation of dead space.

Speaker: I don't know.

Speaker: I don't know how it happens like this.

Speaker: He is.

Speaker: I know now that he is actually a good writer beyond these books.

Speaker: So, Brian, if you're listening, I want you to know we respect you as a writer.

Speaker: We really do.

Speaker: But these are not very good.

Speaker: No, it's it's and we're going to get into that.

Speaker: We're going to get to it.

Speaker: So Dead Space Catalyst is currently out of print.

Speaker: You can't get it anywhere.

Speaker: We found it and we are reading it for you.

Speaker: So that's just the way it is.

Speaker: You can't buy it.

Speaker: You can barely buy used copies.

Speaker: Would it be advisable to tell them what you told me you saw someone said on Reddit when someone was looking for a PDF of it?

Speaker: Yeah, somebody said, hey, I'm looking for a copy of it.

Speaker: And then somebody posted the link and said, here you go.

Speaker: Here you go, but you won't enjoy reading it.

Speaker: Right.

Speaker: I love it.

Speaker: It's like, you're not going to be happy about it, but here you go anyway.

Speaker: Here it is.

Speaker: And then the original poster responded with a, why is that?

Speaker: And then there was no further action on the thread.

Speaker: That was it.

Speaker: This thread has been closed.

Speaker: This thread has been archived.

Speaker: That's oh, man.

Speaker: Oh, man.

Speaker: And I've got to say, and I told you this earlier, after reading the third FNAF book most recently, I have been engaged in my mind as we led up to this in a moment of like, hey, the FNAF books totally

Speaker: came through and pulled a full redemptive cycle and pulled themselves out of just bullshit and terror and ended on a very, very strong note.

Speaker: And there are only two of these books.

Speaker: Maybe, maybe Evanston can do the same.

Speaker: So anyway.

Speaker: Maybe he can.

Speaker: Will he?

Speaker: I don't know.

Speaker: Let's put the body in the marsh.

Speaker: Let's do it.

Speaker: To dump a body in the marsh.

Speaker: Dead Space Catalyst, chapter one.

Speaker: We meet the main characters, Jensi and Istvan Sato, because, sure, we, I guess, those are names probably from somewhere.

Speaker: Why not?

Speaker: It's from Jensi's point of view, and Jensi, first, he's a little kid, and it's about how when he was a kid, he didn't realize that anything was wrong with his brother, and that Istvan was always a little bit

Speaker: You know, he had unusual behaviors.

Speaker: Now, I'm going to list some of these unusual behaviors.

Speaker: They are normally in the real world associated with autism or ASD in certain regards or other types of neurodivergence.

Speaker: In this book, you are not going to see any reference to neurodivergence despite this taking place in the far future.

Speaker: And OK, so Istvan has always been a little always had unusual behaviors, obsession with patterns, light and sudden emotional outbursts.

Speaker: Well, well, then.

Speaker: Well, well.

Speaker: Good thing we have no words to describe anything that this child might be going through.

Speaker: We're just going to... Not a goddamn thing.

Speaker: Not a goddamn thing.

Speaker: The...

Speaker: Eventually, they grow up a little bit.

Speaker: Gen Z starts to see that, okay, Estevan is different than everybody.

Speaker: And they end up kind of alone.

Speaker: You know, they're kind of loners for the most part.

Speaker: One day, there's a game that these kids are playing where they're kind of like running towards, there's like a

Speaker: like a window that looks out into the vacuum of space, I believe.

Speaker: Yeah, they live in like a dome situation.

Speaker: They live in like a dome on a planet.

Speaker: And there's air inside.

Speaker: There is no air outside.

Speaker: And these kids are like, there's like a hairline fracture on the dome.

Speaker: And these kids like run over to the hairline fracture.

Speaker: We're like, ah!

Speaker: and run back.

Speaker: And then Istvan is like, no, that's not right.

Speaker: And he charges full bore head first into the hairline fracture with his head and cracks it more.

Speaker: And he said he had to do it to make the shape right.

Speaker: And then, yeah, so...

Speaker: Anyway, the carrying on, Istvan and Jensi, their mother is the mother from Carrie, who is basically always telling them that they're all going to laugh at you and that Istvan is like evil and all that stuff.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Jensi wants to help help Istvan.

Speaker: Doesn't matter though.

Speaker: Mother's like, Oh, I'm going to laugh at you.

Speaker: Um, at one point, uh, the mother collapses and she's like, from what it's described as she's like chewing her own lips off or something like that.

Speaker: And her, her tongue.

Speaker: Um, and Jensi is trying to help her, their mother and Istvan is just staring at a, at a stack of packages, um,

Speaker: like just like looking at the shape of the stack of packages.

Speaker: So the mother gets taken away, put in a mental ward, and they are taken into, they're going to be taken into some foster care.

Speaker: But Istvan is like, well, no, this is our time to leave.

Speaker: This is our time to get out.

Speaker: And Jensie's like, I don't,

Speaker: think that's a good idea.

Speaker: We are still children.

Speaker: And then Istvan basically escapes and Gen Z goes along with the Child Protective Services and is put into a foster care facility.

Speaker: Chapter, that's the end of chapter one.

Speaker: Chapter two.

Speaker: Uh, Jancy is with a new family.

Speaker: Um, he starts doing pretty well in school.

Speaker: Uh, and he makes a friend named Henry and they are awkward together.

Speaker: You always need someone to be awkward.

Speaker: You always need someone to be awkward with.

Speaker: Like the book talks about how like Henry just kind of like stands next to Gen C for a while and day after day after day.

Speaker: And then like Henry's like, hey, do you like do you like prog rock?

Speaker: Do you ever listen to Yes?

Speaker: No, that's exactly it.

Speaker: It's like you're just sitting next to a guy long enough that he becomes your best friend.

Speaker: I kind of miss the simplicity of those days.

Speaker: Oh, God.

Speaker: So, yeah, they...

Speaker: Jensi, though, overall feels guilty about his new life, knowing that Istvan is out there, and he starts talking to Henry about Istvan.

Speaker: And then...

Speaker: They, uh, Gen C, uh, and Henry go and to look at the old apartment where they used to live, which is like now a crime scene.

Speaker: Um, yeah, the wrong, almost literally the wrong side of the tracks.

Speaker: It's basically the wrong side of the tracks.

Speaker: They get to the apartment and they see notice they go inside and they see that one of the doors is open and they're like, we got to check it out.

Speaker: And it is a filthy man attacks and basically is like choking Henry out.

Speaker: And Jensi is like looking at him and it's Istvan.

Speaker: And he basically has not bathed since.

Speaker: It's been years since he last saw him since he last saw him.

Speaker: It's been a couple of years and it's fun.

Speaker: It's just covered in, in dirt.

Speaker: And eventually he gets through to Istvan and he

Speaker: Yeah, Istvan is just kind of disconnected.

Speaker: He seems to switch between knowing that he is in the world and thinking he is somewhere else.

Speaker: And then, yeah, so that happens.

Speaker: Chapter three, we cut away to, oh, fuck, Istvan.

Speaker: I don't want to even talk about it because I hate these characters are so fucking boring.

Speaker: It is truly, this is truly the chapter where the book goes, hey.

Speaker: We got the grant.

Speaker: Remember?

Speaker: Yes.

Speaker: You remember the thrilling scene of getting a goddamn grant to study, uh, uh, uh, you know, the marker and all that shit.

Speaker: Uh, hope, hope you brought your barf bags because we are knocking it out of the park to bring you right back to where we get.

Speaker: Oh my God.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: I'm, I'm, I'm,

Speaker: So a bunch of these dudes are gathered around a table and they're talking and there's a guy named Blackwell and he's like, we got a project.

Speaker: And then there's another guy, Kurzweil.

Speaker: No, not the guy who invented the synthesizer.

Speaker: talks about the black marker.

Speaker: I mean, it could be.

Speaker: You never know.

Speaker: And they talk about convergence and like we need to the new facility needs to be built somewhere else in space, not on Earth because it's dangerous and the convergence and the thing and

Speaker: The Blackwell, Commander Grotter is going to take control of the plan according to Blackwell.

Speaker: But then there's dudes that we need to meet Commander Grotter because it's going to, we need to trust the guy, but we don't trust the Blackwell guy.

Speaker: There is a, I will, yeah.

Speaker: And scene.

Speaker: I will say, I will say there is some good writing here where, uh, what's the name of the, the, the religious cult that kind of takes unitology unitology.

Speaker: Um, the way that he handles the mention of unitology in the scene, I think is well done where it's just kind of like, it's kind of casually mentioned, like, this is just the world we live in now.

Speaker: Um, it is, you aren't knocked over the head with it too hard.

Speaker: And, uh,

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: It's like a bunch of them are just wearing the amulets.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: It's just part of their, it's just, it's, it's, you know, in name only, I believe they even say.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: And I think just because now I know that Brian Everson actually really is a solid writer.

Speaker: Sure.

Speaker: I'm going to, I'm going to defend him where I can.

Speaker: Where you can, you defend him.

Speaker: I don't feel that responsibility personally, but you go, you do that because one of us needs to.

Speaker: One of us needs to.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: So chapter four, we cut back.

Speaker: Gen Z has calmed Istvan down.

Speaker: Henry is like, what the fuck?

Speaker: And Gen Z starts like caring for Istvan and like, you know, cleans him and feeds him and stuff like that.

Speaker: And Istvan's like, hey, can I come live with you?

Speaker: And Gen Z's like, well, no, they can't.

Speaker: They wouldn't.

Speaker: They wouldn't allow us to be together because that them's the rules.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: apparently.

Speaker: So Istvan is sad and won't talk to Gen Z anymore.

Speaker: And then Gen Z and Henry just leave as they're walking home.

Speaker: They get the vibe that somebody is following them and they get there and back to Gen Z's house and Istvan is there.

Speaker: And he's like, this is my house now.

Speaker: And Istvan scares the shit out of Genzy's foster mother.

Speaker: It's just taking food out of the place.

Speaker: The foster mother calls the calls the cops.

Speaker: Istvan is is pissed off and then flees.

Speaker: And then basically the police know that who Istvan is at this point, because Henry kind of let the cat out of the bag when he was being interrogated.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: And then Gen Z, after all this settles down, Gen Z goes back to their old apartment again to try to find Istvan.

Speaker: And Istvan, it's gone.

Speaker: He's gone.

Speaker: The apartment's totally empty.

Speaker: Chapter five, we proceed through Gen Z's life a little bit faster.

Speaker: He gets it.

Speaker: He goes through university.

Speaker: He goes through a technical college.

Speaker: He begins working as a picker, which what was a picker?

Speaker: What did you did you understand?

Speaker: It was some kind of industrial job.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Manufacturing job.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: So Henry was gone for a bit, but returns after flunking out of off world university and they occasionally cross paths, but they were, it was, you know, high school friends.

Speaker: It was just like, Hey, Hey, you know, um,

Speaker: So four years later, Istvan suddenly returns.

Speaker: And he mentions that he has found his purpose and that he'll be famous in

Speaker: It tells Jensie to watch him on the news and then he leaves and Jensie reaches out to Henry and is like, hey, I think my brother is going to like do a terrorism.

Speaker: I'm not sure.

Speaker: This doesn't look too good.

Speaker: I'm not an expert, not an expert, but I think he might do a terrorism.

Speaker: So they figure out the four sites that he might do a terrorism.

Speaker: And they each take two to try to like cover and figure out what's up.

Speaker: And Gen C goes to the first one and it's not there.

Speaker: And he goes to a political rally and he sees Istvan and he tries to stop Istvan, but it's too late.

Speaker: Isfahn draws a gun and he shoots and kills the dude, an ambassador, just blowing his head up.

Speaker: Like that it's, it is the end of Bionic Commando.

Speaker: And this guy's head is Adolf Hitler's head.

Speaker: It just goes, um, and then Isfahn like wakes up, um, from his, um,

Speaker: Oh, did I?

Speaker: Oh, I skipped ahead.

Speaker: I skipped ahead.

Speaker: Sorry.

Speaker: We'll get back to that because first we've got to talk chapter six and Commander Grotter.

Speaker: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker: What a name.

Speaker: What a good name.

Speaker: They got he's picking his crew.

Speaker: There's a woman named Jane Haley who does good intelligence and unitologist named Eric.

Speaker: uh, that Blackwell made grotter take.

Speaker: And then, uh, they, they got to find a planet for the marker facility, uh, far from any, uh, like inhabited planet.

Speaker: Um,

Speaker: Basically, some of Blackwell's associates talk to Grotter, and he talks to them about like, hey, I found this planet, but it has like a small colony on it.

Speaker: And they're like, yeah, we don't...

Speaker: We don't care.

Speaker: It doesn't matter.

Speaker: That's, that's, that's a good, good place for it.

Speaker: These are, they're prisoners.

Speaker: So, you know, fuck it.

Speaker: Right.

Speaker: Warhammer 40 K rules, baby.

Speaker: That's really it.

Speaker: You got a prison planet.

Speaker: You got a planet for experiments.

Speaker: Let's go.

Speaker: That's what we're doing.

Speaker: All hail the emperor.

Speaker: God.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Okay, so chapter seven, picking up, yeah, he shoots Councilman Fisher.

Speaker: I had already said most of chapter seven because I was just too caught up in the... Just so excited for the tension.

Speaker: So excited for the tension.

Speaker: The thrill ride that we're on.

Speaker: He kills the guy and Istvan is suddenly kind of lucid again.

Speaker: And he's like, oh, what the fuck?

Speaker: This wasn't my purpose.

Speaker: And they're like, who told you to kill the guy?

Speaker: And he keeps saying they did.

Speaker: Who is they?

Speaker: They did.

Speaker: Anyway.

Speaker: Any fart.

Speaker: Bet.

Speaker: Up.

Speaker: Uh-oh.

Speaker: Hello.

Speaker: How you doing, kiddo?

Speaker: Good.

Speaker: What did your shirt say?

Speaker: What was that?

Speaker: It says, I got this.

Speaker: I got this.

Speaker: Excellent.

Speaker: I just threw on a random suit.

Speaker: I get it.

Speaker: And I appreciate that.

Speaker: And she fades into the background as mysteriously as she arrived.

Speaker: Kills me.

Speaker: That is my offspring.

Speaker: Yeah, I know.

Speaker: Right.

Speaker: That's gotta be a good feeling.

Speaker: Um, uh, chapter eight, uh, the news is talking about the assassination.

Speaker: Jensi is like, is my brother, you know, fit to stand trial?

Speaker: They're trying to figure out.

Speaker: Very fair question.

Speaker: They're trying to figure out where Estevan is.

Speaker: Doesn't seem like they're going to really find that.

Speaker: And they they they're like, is Estevan a political prisoner?

Speaker: Jensi meets some dude named Granon.

Speaker: Grannon's like, we have Istvan and he's a political prisoner and he doesn't have standard legal rights.

Speaker: And they they got a lawyer.

Speaker: His name is Lee Tompkins and he files some writs and some he and some documents with the judge.

Speaker: And they have a meeting with the magistrate.

Speaker: And there is like a legal proceeding for a good 40 pages.

Speaker: Um, at the end, um, the, the, the, the Tompkins is like, uh, objection and the judge says overruled and, uh, anyway, chapter nine.

Speaker: Um, it really is that they, they signed things in triplicate the end.

Speaker: It's yeah.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: It is really like that, guys.

Speaker: Chapter nine is basically just...

Speaker: from Istvan's point of view, what's going on.

Speaker: And it's like, oh, he sees things and he doesn't understand what's going on.

Speaker: And sometimes he sees patterns and other times he sees whatever.

Speaker: And he sees, anyways, he's a guy named Gray Man.

Speaker: Ah, yes, the Gray Man.

Speaker: The Gray Man, who, and the way that it's described is like, he squishes.

Speaker: Gray Man!

Speaker: He squishes the gray man down into a cube.

Speaker: I don't think that actually happens.

Speaker: I think the gray man was a hologram that was talking to him.

Speaker: I think that's what we're supposed to assume.

Speaker: He's being manipulated.

Speaker: And now Istvan is kind of being tortured for what's going on.

Speaker: And Istvan beats the shit out of the guy that's questioning him.

Speaker: And then this continues with the he's being abused.

Speaker: He's all this stuff.

Speaker: And then he after pages and pages of this, he sees the gray man again.

Speaker: And then the gray man is trying to dig into what Istvan might have saw or who he saw.

Speaker: And that Istvan needs to be taken off planet to a secure location for further interrogation.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: And he's like, we'll meet again.

Speaker: I'll get you next time.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Chapter 11, more torture for Istvan.

Speaker: Sure.

Speaker: Why not?

Speaker: He's being no food.

Speaker: He's in space now.

Speaker: They're transferring him on a spacecraft.

Speaker: Uh, and then he docks at a space station and he meets the gray man, um, who is like, it's my turn to interrogate you.

Speaker: Uh, Oh, good.

Speaker: And then fucking he goes on a larger ship and then, uh, they're like, he, the gray man's like, ignore the, what's happening.

Speaker: And the crew is like, okay.

Speaker: And, uh,

Speaker: Isvan is strapped to a chair and the gray man is like, okay, I'm going to hurt you now.

Speaker: And then, okay.

Speaker: So he injects him with something and it's, it's very painful.

Speaker: That was three chapters of

Speaker: Torture and smoke and daggers and shit.

Speaker: Smoke and mirrors, cloak and daggers.

Speaker: It's all the same.

Speaker: Just fucking Jesus Christ.

Speaker: What the fuck am I reading?

Speaker: I don't care.

Speaker: Like, stop showing me Istvan's point of view.

Speaker: I don't care.

Speaker: Like, we have done nothing to care about what Istvan's point of view.

Speaker: We have done nothing to care about anybody's point of view.

Speaker: Gen Z is, like, mealy-mouthed about whether he even likes his brother.

Speaker: He's like, I guess, fucking... Anyway...

Speaker: Gen Z has a dream that's kind of like mirroring what's happening to Istvan, suggesting that they have some connection or whatever.

Speaker: And like he imagines the same pain that Istvan is going through.

Speaker: And then he wakes up and then he gets a message.

Speaker: He goes to work and he

Speaker: He's he submits requests to the military for contact with his brother and he's doing his job and he gets a message from his mother who remember was asylumated earlier.

Speaker: She was sanitarium.

Speaker: She was sanitarium earlier in the book.

Speaker: And so, yeah, yeah.

Speaker: Then Jensie also gets a message from Henry about a job opportunity, but lacks details about the location.

Speaker: And then Jensie learns of his mother's sudden death.

Speaker: Like the next day, his mother died of a cerebral hemorrhage.

Speaker: And he's like, I must find Istvan.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Chapter 13, Grotter is back, wakes up in his bed and answers a vid call from a man who was introduced by Blackwell.

Speaker: And the man is the gray man.

Speaker: And Grotter's like, well, what's up with Blackwell?

Speaker: And the gray man is like, what do you know about this guy, Fisher?

Speaker: And Grotter's like, I don't know.

Speaker: And the gray man's like, he was shot.

Speaker: in the head and we got the guy Istvan and Grotter's like okay and then Grotter informs Istvan will be going to the prison camp that we've already established is on the world where they've decided to do the experiment for the marker

Speaker: stuff.

Speaker: And then gray man who is like, we bought, we all the also, we don't trust Blackwell.

Speaker: And I'm like, isn't Blackwell in the fucking room?

Speaker: Didn't Blackwell.

Speaker: Right.

Speaker: He's like right there.

Speaker: Right.

Speaker: It's kind of, kind of awkward guys.

Speaker: You're kind of awkward.

Speaker: Gray man tells Grotter like, all right, pretend this conversation never happened.

Speaker: Easily done.

Speaker: And he goes back to bed.

Speaker: Chapter 14, Jensee considers joining the, hey, Colonial Marines, to get security clearance.

Speaker: And then he gets a call from Henry, who is like, listen, I don't have a lot of time, but I like there.

Speaker: And it's risky that I'm telling you this, but I know I found out your brother is alive and well.

Speaker: And Henry can't disclose where it is, but he's at the penal colony where Henry works.

Speaker: And then Gen Z is like, well, where the fuck is he?

Speaker: And then Henry's like, I can't tell you.

Speaker: And then she's like, well, what the fuck?

Speaker: Why are you calling me then?

Speaker: And then Henry's like, oh, OK, Aspera.

Speaker: And then he hangs up.

Speaker: And that's that's the end of the chunk that we're covering tonight.

Speaker: So that's it.

Speaker: That's it.

Speaker: How did I do?

Speaker: You did good.

Speaker: I think you covered everything pretty well.

Speaker: Thank you.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: What do you think?

Speaker: I actually did give this a lot of thought because there were certain...

Speaker: I was having certain feelings that I couldn't completely understand.

Speaker: There was like a level of sympathy I had for the book that I didn't have last time.

Speaker: And I think I do believe that it has more to less to do with the fact that I do respect him as a writer more now than I did before.

Speaker: It comes from the fact that.

Speaker: If in any good thriller, scientific thriller, Jurassic Park, stuff like that, it's fun to have some interesting kind of like sciency, boring background stuff, like to really invest yourself in your characters and to so that when you wipe them out, it's it's that much more painful.

Speaker: Stephen King knows this very well.

Speaker: He does it very well.

Speaker: Um, the problem with this and with, cause I can tell you, I know what's going to happen.

Speaker: Um, if it's anything like the last book we read, it will be bureaucracy, political, cause it's been turned into like a political drama.

Speaker: uh, uh, like the last one, it's like, it's, it's the background guys.

Speaker: It's like, like take all the shit that they talk about in like the audio logs and a game of dead space and give it life and make the characters, uh, uh, real.

Speaker: And, and, and it's so fucking boring.

Speaker: Right.

Speaker: Uh, and then in the last 10th of the book, we get, uh,

Speaker: Monster, monster, monster, monster.

Speaker: And as I recall, that was where it actually was pretty cool.

Speaker: I was like, oh, that's fun, at least.

Speaker: And but the juice isn't worth the squeeze.

Speaker: Not even close.

Speaker: It's not worth the squeeze.

Speaker: And the problem is, is that.

Speaker: It's a very interesting idea to get into the brass tacks of the religion and the marker.

Speaker: And it's a very interesting idea.

Speaker: But if you don't balance it with what made the Dead Space franchise great,

Speaker: which is body horror and science fiction horror and just scares and action and stuff like that.

Speaker: If you don't balance it out, it becomes what we have with these books.

Speaker: And that is a very dull, dry piece of work.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: That barely resembles...

Speaker: It's source material.

Speaker: It's not as overt.

Speaker: It's not as egregious as like the Dark Souls novelization, for example.

Speaker: Right.

Speaker: Which was clearly just a by the numbers fantasy novel that he just slapped Dark Souls on.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: It's not as bad as that.

Speaker: But it's close.

Speaker: It's close.

Speaker: Yeah, it's it's pretty close.

Speaker: And I was hoping we would hit a redemptive arc with this book.

Speaker: But it's clear that this was just this was a paycheck.

Speaker: Evan said needed a need a new car or something like that.

Speaker: Right.

Speaker: And he took on the task of, you know, doing a sequel for however much money.

Speaker: And get your paper, boo boo.

Speaker: I don't I'm not.

Speaker: Not mad about that.

Speaker: It's just that this is such a, it's no wonder this is out of print.

Speaker: No one wants to read this.

Speaker: Right.

Speaker: If you were a dead, because here's the thing, you and I, Kevin, are overly educated.

Speaker: Let's be real.

Speaker: We are.

Speaker: Too many degrees.

Speaker: Too many dang degrees.

Speaker: At our best, we're ruining parties.

Speaker: At our worst, we're pretentious as hell.

Speaker: And we cannot appreciate what he's doing here.

Speaker: So what do you think your average bonehead who's like dead space, scary monsters and aliens and shit, and they give a book a try and they pick this up.

Speaker: It's like, how well do you think that went over with them?

Speaker: Like, yeah, like if it's if it's going this badly with a lead, lead balloon, right?

Speaker: Noisish lead balloons.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Am I right?

Speaker: Exactly.

Speaker: And so it's so it's very I don't I don't know who this book is for.

Speaker: Uh, which we've run into a lot with, with, uh, with adaptations.

Speaker: So yeah.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Not, not, not thrilled.

Speaker: I see where they're going with it.

Speaker: They're, we're going, we're going to that planet and it's going to go haywire.

Speaker: And that could work if we haven't, if we haven't gotten through a third of the fucking book to get there.

Speaker: A third of the book is done.

Speaker: That was a third of the book.

Speaker: These details are 10, 15% of the book at best.

Speaker: We need to start fucking this.

Speaker: If anything, if there was any book that needed an in media res start.

Speaker: Yes.

Speaker: There was this, it was this we needed to already be on Espera.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: With like fucking Jensie trying to get his brother out and then shit hits the fan.

Speaker: And we find out.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: There's nothing overtly wrong with the storyline of Jensie and Istvan.

Speaker: It's kind of a there's a gray, weird area where it's like autism equals something.

Speaker: But he's being manipulated.

Speaker: It's clear that that's not what it is.

Speaker: Sure.

Speaker: So it's a little gray there, but okay, I can look past that.

Speaker: There's nothing wrong with a storyline like that and that leading into a dead space antics horror kind of thing.

Speaker: But we've got to get our fuck on.

Speaker: Like we've got to, like we're lubed up.

Speaker: We're ready to roll.

Speaker: Fucking put the P in the V for Christ's sake.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: It's just so dumb.

Speaker: Like the entire stuff with the military guys.

Speaker: Like I don't need to know any of this information.

Speaker: This is not relevant to, and maybe it's relevant to the story that he is telling.

Speaker: What I'm saying is this isn't the story you should be telling if this information is relevant.

Speaker: That's exactly it.

Speaker: That's it.

Speaker: No, you nailed it.

Speaker: That's exactly what it is.

Speaker: This it's not, it's not that this isn't relevant to the story he's telling.

Speaker: It's that this is the wrong fucking story.

Speaker: It is.

Speaker: It's you need to, we should have started over from the beginning.

Speaker: Um, it's, it's.

Speaker: I was so wound up.

Speaker: I knocked my mic off.

Speaker: I know.

Speaker: I saw that.

Speaker: It was, it was, it was violent and cool.

Speaker: Uh,

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: It's like, I need to, I need to do something with this.

Speaker: Cause it's like, I tighten it as much as possible and it's still a little bit loose and sometimes it just goes dunk.

Speaker: Oh, and when your microphone's like, I'm out.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: And when you're making firm, serious points, you need a microphone that'll stand up scrutiny and physics.

Speaker: Let's face it.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: So that's, that's how I'm feeling.

Speaker: You know, that's,

Speaker: How are you?

Speaker: I'm fine.

Speaker: Fine.

Speaker: We're all fine here.

Speaker: How are you?

Speaker: No, I don't like it at all.

Speaker: I think it's boring.

Speaker: And I think it's the characters don't really appeal to me in any particular fashion.

Speaker: There's nothing.

Speaker: Here's the thing.

Speaker: There's nothing interesting about Jensi as a character.

Speaker: Oh, he's just your bland narrator.

Speaker: Basically.

Speaker: He's just there and just saying, but what about my brother?

Speaker: If he's there for things to happen to.

Speaker: Yes.

Speaker: And, you know, there's a lot of like weird stuff with the mothers in it always being like, yeah,

Speaker: Like the foster mother being, you know, scared and attacked.

Speaker: And then the mother, the original mother being a carry mom.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Honestly, I started like tracking and like,

Speaker: a whole lot of women in this book.

Speaker: There weren't a lot of them in the last one.

Speaker: And the last one was all about trying to find wasn't the last one trying to like find the girl or something like that or she was kidnapped or something like that.

Speaker: I don't.

Speaker: If I was if I was a professional, I would have like reviewed all that, but I just can't bring myself.

Speaker: Can't do it.

Speaker: I can't.

Speaker: Can't.

Speaker: And I'm not a professional yet.

Speaker: Not professional yet.

Speaker: Change my world, Internet.

Speaker: If this is our day job and I didn't look at it well, then I wouldn't have any goddamn excuse, would I?

Speaker: I wouldn't have any excuse.

Speaker: But guess what?

Speaker: You know how you can make that our day job?

Speaker: How's that?

Speaker: You could go to PixletPod.com or Patreon.com slash PixletPod.

Speaker: Either one will get you there.

Speaker: And you'll be on our Patreon page.

Speaker: And you, too, could become a patron of us.

Speaker: Much like the random dudes paying Michelangelo.

Speaker: It was the, the, the Medici's did they, were they?

Speaker: Oh yeah.

Speaker: Was that, was it the Medici's?

Speaker: Was it the Medici's?

Speaker: Italian history is a big blank or the other like famous Italian family, the Borgias.

Speaker: Don't know.

Speaker: Don't remember.

Speaker: But somewhere my, my Italian history professor silently weeps.

Speaker: He weeps.

Speaker: Who cares?

Speaker: He's a Trump supporter.

Speaker: Anyway, I,

Speaker: Uh, yeah.

Speaker: So go over on patreon.com slash pixel.

Speaker: Uh, there you could join for free.

Speaker: You could, uh, $1 tier, $5 tier, $10 tier.

Speaker: Each one, uh, gets you something, a little something special.

Speaker: $1 gets access to, uh, some of our private posts, uh, Phil's review blog, uh, $5 gets you access to the bonus, uh, content that we record before every episode.

Speaker: Uh, uh,

Speaker: And $10 gets you your name shouted out at the beginning of the episode.

Speaker: And bear with me.

Speaker: Okay, I got it.

Speaker: Thank you.

Speaker: See, I used to have the names memorized and then we added a bunch of names and now I don't have them memorized.

Speaker: And then more of you came in and started giving us money.

Speaker: God damn it.

Speaker: Jesus loves you.

Speaker: Kyle Seaman, Ruthless Mudder, Middle of Things, Sigma Sal, Chut Beaks, Dummy Thick, and Friendly Friend.

Speaker: Thank you for being a friend.

Speaker: We love you.

Speaker: And you know what else I love?

Speaker: What's that?

Speaker: What are you, Brian?

Speaker: Oh, OK.

Speaker: All right.

Speaker: So there's a very obvious one here.

Speaker: But so I'm going to start with my demo of the week.

Speaker: Demo of the week.

Speaker: Imagine a cool theme song going in there.

Speaker: I got to tell you, I have I kind of made a decision at some point in the past month that next year I was not going to.

Speaker: I was not going to be so beholden to trying every new game that like came out, like in the interest of like trying to chip away at my backlog.

Speaker: Sure.

Speaker: And then I played the demo for a game called Keep Driving.

Speaker: Oh, you know what?

Speaker: I think Jesse Grasher talked about this.

Speaker: This game fucking rules so far.

Speaker: Like, as far as the demo is concerned, it is, I don't know where it's going.

Speaker: But the whole point of the game is it's a kind of a strategy game where you are some guy or girl in a car.

Speaker: Usually you can have like a beat up sedan.

Speaker: You can get some sort of muscle car, a truck, and they all have different advantages and disadvantages.

Speaker: And you got a big ass map and you got a goal.

Speaker: And so you're going to follow the map.

Speaker: and take a route to get to like, and in the demo, your goal is you got, you've got a video game.

Speaker: You're going to go meet your friend way down on the South side days away and play video games with your friend.

Speaker: That's the whole point.

Speaker: Um, and so you get in the car and it's got lovely pixel style graphics.

Speaker: Uh, and you,

Speaker: turn on the music and it's this kick-ass college radio indie rock that's awesome they've got like yeah they've got all these they've got a whole playlist of like bands you've never heard of uh playing kind of kind of in my opinion kind of perfect road music you know uh like i said just like that kind of college indie sound right um

Speaker: You start out with a job, you can pick your job and that will give you advantages.

Speaker: You can start unemployed and there are advantages and disadvantages to that.

Speaker: And you've just got all these little options like you do in a game like this.

Speaker: But the whole point of the game is you're just driving.

Speaker: Now, as you drive, you run into hazards.

Speaker: This hazard might be it's and it's usually something pretty simple, like trying to get around a truck that's going too slow or finding something on the side of the road or something along those lines.

Speaker: And there are puzzles.

Speaker: It's kind of like a it's like a it's like a matching game.

Speaker: Basically, you've got certain abilities and the puzzles have different colors and the colors correspond to different things.

Speaker: And you're just trying to match them up.

Speaker: And it's pretty simple stuff.

Speaker: You can also pick up hitchhikers.

Speaker: You get passengers and the passengers provide bonuses and they level up with you and all that shit.

Speaker: And then you even got these moments that are like moments of introspection.

Speaker: Where it's like a storyline thing and you get like you're just sitting there driving and suddenly the guy next to you is like, hey, do you ever think about dying or something like that?

Speaker: And you and you get to choose how you respond to it and it will change your it's like disco Elysium.

Speaker: It kind of changes your stats and your character based on the answers you give.

Speaker: I don't know what this game's getting at.

Speaker: I don't know if there's a higher story to it or if it's literally just a game about driving wherever and living your life and all that shit.

Speaker: But there is something about it that is really keyed into...

Speaker: a lot of shit that really appeals to me that the music, um, as I mentioned earlier in the episode and in a sadder context, uh, I grew up driving everywhere, grew up moving constantly.

Speaker: So the road dog aspect of it really appeals to me.

Speaker: It's got a, an engaging puzzle system and I think it's coming out next year and I can't wait.

Speaker: I think this might be of all the demos I've played.

Speaker: This is the one that I can't wait to play the most.

Speaker: And I played some good demos.

Speaker: That's awesome.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: So keep driving.

Speaker: It's free on Steam.

Speaker: The demo anyway.

Speaker: Check it out.

Speaker: See what I mean.

Speaker: I really think this is going to be it looks like it's going to be something special.

Speaker: On to the more obvious thing.

Speaker: I got UFO 50.

Speaker: Welcome, brother.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: My life is over.

Speaker: I think I think this is it.

Speaker: It's like that card says at the front play forever.

Speaker: Mm hmm.

Speaker: That's exactly what's so appropriate.

Speaker: And I, I got in there and you had mentioned some games, the pilot quest game.

Speaker: I knew that was like a clicker that you would want to come back to momentarily.

Speaker: So I started with that.

Speaker: I started getting like that rolling so that in between games, I could pop in there and, you know, up my guy and all that shit.

Speaker: Cause that's, that's a real long tail thing.

Speaker: Something's in my shirt biting me.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: So I, I, I, I threw myself around briefly, uh, got started on that, uh, started bug hunter and I'm not good at it at all, but you're stuck on it, right?

Speaker: I'm stuck on it.

Speaker: I, I, I keep coming back to it.

Speaker: Uh,

Speaker: Because I really enjoyed the gameplay.

Speaker: There's something that Bug Hunter is.

Speaker: And the thing is, for anyone who's playing the home game who for some reason hasn't heard us talk about this game, this is 58 bit style games.

Speaker: There seems to be a theme.

Speaker: There seems to be something time together.

Speaker: There's probably something meta to this whole thing that maybe I'll find it eventually.

Speaker: Maybe I won't.

Speaker: I don't care because honestly, the surface level of it, it's like that one game you were talking about that was on your game of the year last year.

Speaker: Right.

Speaker: You know, it's like there's a meta to it.

Speaker: And if there is and if I find it fine, but I don't give a shit because.

Speaker: Sure.

Speaker: The surface level of it is good enough.

Speaker: Yeah, you're you're in regardless.

Speaker: Right.

Speaker: And I popped in and tried some of the other ones and rolled around and there are some other games that I'll get to.

Speaker: Then I found Grimstone.

Speaker: It's just it's Final Fantasy in the Wild West.

Speaker: That's really what it is.

Speaker: It's great.

Speaker: It's very grindy.

Speaker: It's pretty authentic in that sense.

Speaker: But it's really clever in these funny kind of ways.

Speaker: When you start the game, you're in this tavern that's burning to the ground and there's an angel.

Speaker: And there are like eight people in the tavern and the angel can only save four of them.

Speaker: And that's your party.

Speaker: So, and they don't tell you shit about these guys.

Speaker: So you just have to make, you have to make the picks based on like a real vague description of them.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: And I got kind of lucky and I got a pretty okay balanced group.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: And a very cool multicultural group, by the way, I got like this big, like gruff white guy who blows things up with guns, which, which I mean, that's, that's just a Southerner.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: That's just that.

Speaker: I got Lee, who's this Japanese like hand to hand expert.

Speaker: I've got her name and who is this like I think she's Mexican like dancer girl who she can learn, you know, different dances that like boost that buff everybody.

Speaker: And I'm playing and I've also got this Native American

Speaker: a spell caster, but you don't buy his spells.

Speaker: You, if you see an animal on the, on the map, you'll see, you'll find these random animals out in the middle of nowhere.

Speaker: And you go up to the animal and talk to the animal and the animal will talk to him and give him a spell and like teach him something.

Speaker: So he's like, it's like a druid shaman kind of character.

Speaker: And it's grindy and I'll probably be done with it before too long.

Speaker: And I have to move on with my life.

Speaker: Uh,

Speaker: But if this is what these games are capable of, this might be it.

Speaker: I might just be playing this for the rest of the year.

Speaker: It's just because why not?

Speaker: Like, there's just so much to play with here.

Speaker: And I'm enjoying myself so much.

Speaker: I think the most interesting thing about it is, like I said, they're Nintendo games.

Speaker: They're 8-bit games.

Speaker: But there are mechanics involved in

Speaker: that did not exist back then.

Speaker: And if they did, then they would be groundbreaking games.

Speaker: Like the cow clicker style game did not exist back then.

Speaker: You know, certain aspects of the Grimstone game that I'm playing didn't exist.

Speaker: Like you don't just...

Speaker: choose to attack and they hit you, you've got you've got a hit at a certain right mark and everything like that.

Speaker: You got to get the timing right.

Speaker: So it's fascinating to see that mixture of the old and the new.

Speaker: And that's what keeps it fresh and interesting.

Speaker: I don't know if we'd really enjoy this as much as we did if it was truly indicative of like 1988 video games.

Speaker: I don't know how much we'd really enjoy that.

Speaker: We say we'd enjoy it.

Speaker: But have you booted up Ultima four recently?

Speaker: No.

Speaker: And there's a reason for that.

Speaker: And not gonna.

Speaker: Not gonna.

Speaker: So those are the that's that's that's it.

Speaker: It's just been UFO 50 next week.

Speaker: I'll sure I'm sure I'll I'll have to report what games I've moved on to since then.

Speaker: But that's good enough for me at this point.

Speaker: What about you, Kevin?

Speaker: What are you playing?

Speaker: So what have I been playing?

Speaker: What have you been playing?

Speaker: Uh, let's see here.

Speaker: Uh, I'll, I'll work backwards.

Speaker: So today, before we got on, I was playing a little point and click horror game called devil's hideout.

Speaker: Um, which is, I just saw it on my, on the steam, uh, the queue.

Speaker: And I was like, point and click horror came out just like a couple months ago.

Speaker: All right.

Speaker: Like I'll do it.

Speaker: Um,

Speaker: Yeah, and it's like fully voice acted and all that stuff.

Speaker: So, you know, I'm interested.

Speaker: I'm interested and I started playing it.

Speaker: There's like some spooky stuff in there.

Speaker: So I'm digging it so far.

Speaker: Nice.

Speaker: So Devil's Hideout.

Speaker: I'll put a half hour to it.

Speaker: UFO 50.

Speaker: This little game called UFO 50.

Speaker: This teeny little game.

Speaker: Teeny little game.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Let's see.

Speaker: I'm trying to think of what I've been playing recently.

Speaker: Oh, I've been trying to get the gold on Ninpec.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: Yeah, which is you just have to beat it in order to actually get the gold on that one.

Speaker: So that's been my kind of, you know,

Speaker: the thing I've been going for.

Speaker: And I've also been quibble racing recently, which is just a hilarious little game.

Speaker: It's basically horse racing.

Speaker: You're just betting on these little things called quibbles and they run.

Speaker: You don't control them, but you can do things like give them steroids or have a guy break the knees of the other quibbles in the race.

Speaker: Oh,

Speaker: Oh, shit.

Speaker: I'm looking forward to that.

Speaker: That sounds great.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: So I started playing a game called Life Eater.

Speaker: Oh, yeah.

Speaker: Life Eater.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Not sure if I'm sticking with it, though.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: I didn't stick with that one as much as I thought I was going to.

Speaker: I was like, oh, this is really interesting.

Speaker: And then I was like,

Speaker: it feels like just kind of random.

Speaker: You just feel like you're clicking around a lot and it'll be like, no, this thing doesn't unlock.

Speaker: And we're like, well, I have no idea how much I got to do to unlock a thing on the timeline.

Speaker: Like there's no information.

Speaker: So you just try it until you get to a certain point and then you like get your points back or whatever.

Speaker: I don't know.

Speaker: I don't think it's got really neat.

Speaker: It's a really neat concept that is just not really executed particularly well.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: So what else have I been playing?

Speaker: I have a few demos downloaded.

Speaker: that I want to get to.

Speaker: Sorry, we're closed.

Speaker: I downloaded the demo.

Speaker: And, you know, I'm really, I really think that's going to be a neat one when I get into it.

Speaker: I've been playing, you know, because I had a stressful week, you know what I play when I have a stressful week.

Speaker: Fire up the old power wash simulator.

Speaker: Oh, yeah.

Speaker: I just got a clean.

Speaker: I just got a clean, to be honest.

Speaker: And also, I bought Call of Cthulhu on sale.

Speaker: Which one?

Speaker: It's the one.

Speaker: It's the detective game one that came out a couple of years ago.

Speaker: Oh, yeah, yeah.

Speaker: I enjoyed that.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: I was like, yeah, I'll get it.

Speaker: It was like randomly on sale for two bucks.

Speaker: So I was like, yeah, sure.

Speaker: Oh, yeah.

Speaker: That's worth that.

Speaker: That's the price to buy it at.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: So why not?

Speaker: We're there.

Speaker: And I also picked up a game that I got it.

Speaker: I'm looking forward to playing called While We Wait Here.

Speaker: And it's a little horror game where you are in a diner, trapped in a diner with a bunch of other people at the end of the world.

Speaker: It's like the world is ending outside.

Speaker: Sick.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: And you're just talking to folks and it's like, you know, one of those choose your own adventure, choices matter type things, depending on what you say to folks in the diner.

Speaker: Interesting.

Speaker: You know, I like those kind of stories, those little end of the world existential stuff.

Speaker: I mean, I got it.

Speaker: Like, the first horror-ish story that ever really, like, reading-wise that ever really hooked me was that Ray Bradbury short about the end of the world and how, like,

Speaker: passe it was where everybody wakes up the next day from having a dream that the world will end like today is the last day and it's just like these parents are like should we tell the kids and they're like

Speaker: Well, I don't know if they had the dream, but if they didn't, there's no use in telling them, you know, no use in worrying them.

Speaker: And it's just like time zone by time zone, you know, people, it like everything goes out of contact until the world is over.

Speaker: And it's, it's a really, it chilled me when I was a kid, just how like,

Speaker: like everyone ends up having just accepting like this is this is the end I guess there's nothing else you know yeah this is happening no matter what this is happening so yeah that's that's it that's what I've been playing a very eclectic collection of games there that's very eclectic yeah eclectical I've downloaded a couple more demos

Speaker: Yeah, get those demos.

Speaker: Hell yeah.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: But that'll do it for tonight's episode.

Speaker: Thank you so much for listening.

Speaker: If you want to find us on social media, you can always find us on Blue Sky, on Instagram.

Speaker: Honestly, those are the two main places that we kind of post.

Speaker: Yeah, go find us there.

Speaker: If you want to get involved and talk with us though and talk with fellow fans, join our Discord.

Speaker: You know, it's free to join.

Speaker: You can find the link on the Patreon page.

Speaker: There's a link directly to the Discord.