Transcript
Speaker: Mullet representative.
Speaker: Goddamn mullet representative.
Speaker: Thank God.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: You know what else is a mullet representative?
Speaker: That's right.
Speaker: I'm going into the show from this.
Speaker: I love it.
Speaker: I love it.
Speaker: I think it's fine.
Speaker: Don't, don't, don't ask questions.
Speaker: Just do it, baby.
Speaker: Just do it.
Speaker: Hey everybody.
Speaker: Welcome back to Pixlet.
Speaker: My name is Kevin.
Speaker: With me as always is Phil on today's show.
Speaker: We are, you're finishing up this honored.
Speaker: Dishonored the Corroated Man Part 3.
Speaker: And I have the DNC on in the corner of my eye, just hoping for a miracle that the uncommitted movement gets a slot.
Speaker: You're in the future as you listen to this episode.
Speaker: Tell us how it went.
Speaker: Tell us how it went.
Speaker: You know they didn't.
Speaker: Yeah, no, they didn't.
Speaker: They didn't.
Speaker: They didn't.
Speaker: And listen, I will not be the person to tell you that you have to vote if you feel for a party or a person you feel is ignoring...
Speaker: The something that is exceedingly important to you.
Speaker: And if you are a Palestinian person who is whose family or knows the family or if you're just a person who just cannot abide by the the concept of of abetting a genocide by paying lip service to it.
Speaker: If you just have a basic sense of humanity within you.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I will not shame you for that.
Speaker: Not even a little.
Speaker: I'll mention that there are obviously there are a bunch of things on the line this year, but that is a huge one for a lot of people.
Speaker: And there's no shame in that.
Speaker: But.
Speaker: We have had good motion in labor stuff and all that.
Speaker: Democrats always ripping defeat out of the jaws of victory.
Speaker: It's like five fucking steps forward and six steps back.
Speaker: We're like, oh, yeah, we're going to fully embrace labor now.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: I feel like we're doing this.
Speaker: I'm not going to say we.
Speaker: I'm not a Democrat.
Speaker: But to extend on that metaphor, this year the Democrats are doing five steps back and six steps forward.
Speaker: Like just just enough to be moving forward with everything.
Speaker: Meanwhile, while we're talking about democracy, let's slip back into a world of monarchy where the monarchist is actually the good guys.
Speaker: But the good guy actually?
Speaker: The good guy, actually.
Speaker: But before we do that, let's talk about something that's near and dear to my heart.
Speaker: And that's patreon.com slash pixelitpod.
Speaker: Oh, yes.
Speaker: From there, you can support us.
Speaker: You can support us for free.
Speaker: Just being there kind of helps out because, you know, we like it when people join.
Speaker: We like it when number goes up.
Speaker: I'm not going to lie.
Speaker: Absolutely.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Number goes up.
Speaker: I'm happy.
Speaker: Even if it's just the free members.
Speaker: I love it.
Speaker: But you could give us a dollar a month and that gives you access to Phil's blog where he reviews a book every week or every every week.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: You've been posting.
Speaker: Give or take every week.
Speaker: I think I might.
Speaker: I might have, yeah, give or take, I'm currently reading East of Eden by John Steinbeck, which is requiring a lot of me.
Speaker: And I haven't been able to get to my flippant little novellas that I can tear through like a monkey on acid.
Speaker: So there will be an East of Eden review in the...
Speaker: It's real good.
Speaker: It's real good.
Speaker: It's a good book.
Speaker: So yes, a dollar a month gets you that.
Speaker: $5 a month gets you the ad-free episode and the bonus that we record before the show.
Speaker: And $10 a month gets your name shouted out every week on the episode.
Speaker: So to that end, Ruthless Mudder, Kyle Seaman, Jesus loves you.
Speaker: And friendly friend, thank you so much for being a friend.
Speaker: And now, let's put the body in marsh.
Speaker: Let's put the body in the fucking marsh.
Speaker: When I tell you to dump a body in the marsh, you dump them in the marsh.
Speaker: The body in the marsh.
Speaker: The body in the marsh.
Speaker: We're in part three.
Speaker: Marsh!
Speaker: We're in part three.
Speaker: Chapter 19.
Speaker: It's the 15th day, month of darkness.
Speaker: We're still, it's still the 15th day.
Speaker: I think it's been the 15th day for a couple days now.
Speaker: For several chapters.
Speaker: For several days, yeah, yeah.
Speaker: For several days, it's been the 15th day.
Speaker: For several days, it's been the 15th day, yeah.
Speaker: We start chapter 19.
Speaker: Corvo is hanging out with Lady Esme Boyle, thanking her for letting his men infiltrate the party discreetly.
Speaker: There is a string quartet nearby that he has hidden a music box under to nullify the effect of outsider magic.
Speaker: Should it come to that?
Speaker: As Corvo watches the people enter under the title of honored guests.
Speaker: I thought this was cute where they just say, ladies and gentlemen, the honored guests.
Speaker: So they just wouldn't say a name because it's a masquerade.
Speaker: I love that.
Speaker: It was a really neat detail.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Honestly, my only problem with this section is I kind of wanted to dig into the masquerade more.
Speaker: Like I like finding out more about the niceties and all the bullshit that they were doing.
Speaker: We could have had more masquerade.
Speaker: I enjoyed that.
Speaker: I thought that was fun.
Speaker: in this.
Speaker: So Corvo's standing next to Lady Esme, Lady Boyle, as people are coming in and she's like shaking their hands.
Speaker: And then this one woman comes in and she's totally alone.
Speaker: And Corvo's like, hmm, suspicious.
Speaker: And he like looks at her hands and he's like, hmm, her nails are short.
Speaker: You know, like somebody would do for sparring purposes.
Speaker: And then he's like, oh, and also that's Emily's ring.
Speaker: I do love how long it takes for him to actually, he's, he's usually really quick on the uptake.
Speaker: I'm kind of amazed at how long it takes.
Speaker: I'll be like, it was hilarious.
Speaker: He's like, he's like figuring all these and like, why do I feel like I, Oh, it's my daughter.
Speaker: Oh, it's my daughter.
Speaker: Oh, understood.
Speaker: Got it.
Speaker: Got it.
Speaker: Understood.
Speaker: The, the, the ring that she's wearing, that's obviously on her finger.
Speaker: Um, and I was looking at her fingers and I noticed her nails before the ring.
Speaker: That's weird.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: It's a little weird, Corvo.
Speaker: Batman.
Speaker: Sorry, Corvo.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: World's greatest detective?
Speaker: Corvo.
Speaker: Corvo excuses himself to get Lady Boyle a drink so that he can tell his agents that there is an unexpected guest.
Speaker: And then he walks around and finds Emily mingling in the garden and he has a few of his agents keep an eye on her.
Speaker: He's annoyed that she's there, but reasons that it might be better so that he can keep an eye on her.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So, Zukov arrives and preys on her, quote unquote, moonstruck nature, as well as her disdain for Esma, and she agrees to help Zukov get into the vault beneath the manor.
Speaker: So, moonstruck, I guess, I didn't really put together what, like...
Speaker: I heard the term before, but I didn't realize that it was it meant this, you know, I mean, I guess the it's the same idea of lunatic, you know, the lunatic.
Speaker: Yeah, exactly.
Speaker: It's the same idea.
Speaker: I don't know if that has a basis in real life.
Speaker: I don't know.
Speaker: But I mean, one would think, I guess one would think.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Chapter 21, Cuervo is lurking around the masquerade and he notices a man up on a balcony as he walks around.
Speaker: And when he turns his head for a moment and looks back, the man is gone.
Speaker: Cuervo can't see the man's face under the brim of his hat and he continues to track him around the room and towards the gardens.
Speaker: Cuervo is interrupted by another man in similar attire, but this time he sees the mask and it is that of a whaler.
Speaker: And suddenly the attack is underway as a crush of party goers begin running back inside from the garden.
Speaker: Corvo talks to one of his agents in a white lion mask who we will in a moment see is slack jaw.
Speaker: And he tells Corvo that the house is surrounded by.
Speaker: Uh, Corvo approaches Galia, who is now in the center of the dance floor as, um, uh, as, as her and her whalers have taken, oh, as she and her whalers have taken hostages.
Speaker: Uh, he gives the signal and his agents reveal themselves and have, uh, all the whalers at gun points.
Speaker: And then the music box begins to play and Corvo's like, ha, checkmate.
Speaker: And then Corvo tries to apprehend Galia.
Speaker: Oh, her blink power is not affected by the music box.
Speaker: And as she blinks behind Corvo and then Chapter 22, it's a continuation.
Speaker: We see it from Emily's point of view now.
Speaker: She dives out of the crowd and kicks the knife out of Galia's hand before she can stab Corvo.
Speaker: Emily and Galia continue to duel as Galia has the upper hand.
Speaker: Corvo tries to make his way back to the music box to shut it off as his men are slaughtered by the fully powered whaler agents.
Speaker: He ends up grabbing, being grabbed by two whalers and dragged to where Galia has Emily defeated with her knife at Emily's throat.
Speaker: Then Zoukov arrives and welcomes everyone to the party being held by Lady Boyle and reveals Lydia Boyle holding her sister Esma at knife point.
Speaker: It's very, I hate to bring this up again, but it's very, uh, uh, dark night, uh, Joker showing up to the party.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You know, you know where Harvey is.
Speaker: Do you know where Harvey is?
Speaker: It's, he's got, it's got a lot of those vibes.
Speaker: It's got a lot of those vibes.
Speaker: And honestly, it's like, this is like the fourth or fifth Batman story I've read.
Speaker: So not bad.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Well, thanks.
Speaker: Consider it.
Speaker: I'll take it.
Speaker: Yeah, Corvo hypothesizes that the bone charms that the whalers are using for power are unstable and not affected by the music boxes, but they would decay over time.
Speaker: Zhukov realizes that Gallia has Emily, like that it's the Empress, and unmasks her to reveal that the Empress is there, and the crowd is like, ooh, that's the Scandell.
Speaker: Intriguing.
Speaker: Aside from people getting killed by the whalers, the Empress is here.
Speaker: I do love that they have the time to be like, oh, I'm bleeding out.
Speaker: Is that the Empress?
Speaker: My monocle just popped.
Speaker: It's real.
Speaker: That's a real Bridgerton moment right there.
Speaker: Very much so.
Speaker: Which makes sense for this world.
Speaker: The costume drama aspect of it is there.
Speaker: My wife watches Bridgerton, so I, too, watch Bridgerton.
Speaker: Never watched Bridgerton, although I'm intrigued by the girl from Dairy Girls and her and her epic prow.
Speaker: I think we're all interested in that.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Good for her.
Speaker: Beautiful young woman.
Speaker: Beautiful young woman.
Speaker: Galia wants to kill Emily, but Zukov knows she is better as a hostage.
Speaker: Zukov then tells Lydia to show him the way to the vault.
Speaker: And then she screams, and then her, Zukov, Galia, and Emily vanish.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Chapter 23.
Speaker: They arrive in the vault and Gallia is feeling worse for wear from the teleporting.
Speaker: Zhukov points up at the giant whale skeleton when Gallia is like, why are we here?
Speaker: The whale was called the Deep Watcher and was a magical beast.
Speaker: Lydia tells the story about the capture of the whale, which is real...
Speaker: like an epic tale of like.
Speaker: I love this scene so.
Speaker: Much.
Speaker: The nautical nerd in me, the Moby Dick of it, the HP Lovecraft of it.
Speaker: And of course he's carving bone charms.
Speaker: You find the bones of a gigantic man.
Speaker: It's, I love it.
Speaker: I love this.
Speaker: I need the bones of a giant Leviathan called the Deep Watcher.
Speaker: I love it.
Speaker: It's just, it's so spooky and good.
Speaker: I'm here for it.
Speaker: I love it.
Speaker: The only way better if, is if Quint was telling, actually just imagine Quint is, is voicing Zoukov.
Speaker: Yeah, you could do that.
Speaker: That's not a, that's not a stretch.
Speaker: It's really not.
Speaker: It's just an amazing, like.
Speaker: I love it.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: The whale bone is best for the scrimshaw of the bone charms.
Speaker: And then we.
Speaker: You ever carve into scrimshaw into the whale bone from the fucking briny Cthulhu-esque deep?
Speaker: Do you ever scrimshaw bone from the jaw of a leviathan?
Speaker: Oh, you never lived until that leviathan bone is pinned to your chest.
Speaker: You can't do it.
Speaker: And it's staring at you, and you're staring at it.
Speaker: And you and the abyss stare.
Speaker: The abyss stare is back.
Speaker: I'm ruining my throat with quaint voice, but it's worth it.
Speaker: It is.
Speaker: It's worth it.
Speaker: It's worth it.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Galia doesn't believe the story.
Speaker: And Lydia is like, of course I don't.
Speaker: She loses her mind.
Speaker: Galia is like, so what the fuck are we stealing?
Speaker: And Zukav goes, the jawbone.
Speaker: And Galia is like, what the fuck, bro?
Speaker: Which is her right.
Speaker: I don't know if you've noticed the jawbone is the size of a small city.
Speaker: I'm not sure how we're planning on getting this out of here.
Speaker: He's like, bitch, we've got magic.
Speaker: It's like, oh, right, magic.
Speaker: Forgot about the- Yeah, he's like, I got a plan for that.
Speaker: He has a spell that he can cast that teleports them all back to the slaughterhouse.
Speaker: He's like, we're good.
Speaker: We're good.
Speaker: Just get it down.
Speaker: So meanwhile, back upstairs, everyone is hanging out at knife point while Corvo thinks about the fact that Zhukov and Galia were 10 steps ahead of him the entire time.
Speaker: He makes eye contact with Lady Esme and starts who starts trying to get the attention of the guards of the whaler guards by being young.
Speaker: man get out of my house and she starts like basically throwing this fit and then the guard that's near her like shoves her back into the couch that she was sitting on and she like falls into the couch and then takes a she takes like a prat fall off the couch and onto the hard floor and she's like you have injured me and like
Speaker: The one whaler is like, I don't know what to do.
Speaker: And so the whaler that's guarding Corvo is like, what the fuck?
Speaker: And goes over to see what's going on.
Speaker: So Corvo takes this opportunity to go over, to get up, takes his gun out and shoots the speaker that's playing the music.
Speaker: And then he gets all powered up again and he's able to start
Speaker: blinking around and his guys are able to break free of the whalers and press the advantage.
Speaker: And yeah, they just slice everybody up.
Speaker: And then this is good advice for any budding D&D players in our audience who like to play rogues or interested in playing rogues.
Speaker: Never underestimate the opportunity you have to make things real weird.
Speaker: Even even trained murderers are not immune to things being just really weird and not knowing how to handle that.
Speaker: They are not immune to weird.
Speaker: No, no one is.
Speaker: Keep that in mind.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So Corvo gets tripped and ends up on the ground.
Speaker: He's about to get stabbed by one of the whalers.
Speaker: And then Slackjaw shoots the guy's face off.
Speaker: Then helps Corvo up and gives Corvo some Adermeyer solution.
Speaker: Corvo's like, what's in the vault?
Speaker: And Lady Boyle's like, it's just a big old Leviathan bones.
Speaker: And Corvo's like...
Speaker: She's like, nothing but a giant whale skeleton.
Speaker: And Corvo takes off his glasses like, my God.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: She's like, I don't know what you would do with a giant whale skeleton.
Speaker: Am I missing something?
Speaker: Is that significant in some way?
Speaker: So Corvo has her lead, lead him down.
Speaker: She has to, he has to carry her.
Speaker: And he's like, it's just a great note in there about, he picks her up and he's like, oh, she is just skin and bones.
Speaker: Okie dokie.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Old lady.
Speaker: Real ginger with the old lady.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Okie doke.
Speaker: Chapter 25, they get down to the vault, but it is too late.
Speaker: The jawbone is already gone and so is everybody else.
Speaker: They also find Lydia's mutilated body, which they used for fuel for the spell they needed to cast to get back to the slaughterhouse.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Corvo tells Jameson to call the people back from the slaughterhouse to take care of the wounded at the masquerade while he's going to get Emily back and finish this once and for all.
Speaker: Dun-dun-dun-dun.
Speaker: We're reaching the climax, people.
Speaker: We're reaching the climax.
Speaker: If you know what I mean.
Speaker: Oh, yes.
Speaker: The rising action has reached its peak.
Speaker: And now we're ready for falling action.
Speaker: Absolutely.
Speaker: Or denouement.
Speaker: The cool down, as I like to call it.
Speaker: The aftercare of the book.
Speaker: We get an interlude.
Speaker: To sum up the interlude, it's basically the story of how Zukav was jailed.
Speaker: He was the hero of Tivia, and the judges who rule Tivia basically discovered his plot to get the judges overthrown, and they sentenced him to freedom because they're clever like that.
Speaker: Yeah, they're those guys.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: The Empress was killed and that Jessamyn Caldwin.
Speaker: So Emily's mother was killed and that threw out his plan for getting the judges overthrown.
Speaker: And we learn, we go into it a bit deeper later.
Speaker: But before we do that, how about some products and services?
Speaker: Ooh, I love both of those things.
Speaker: And we're back.
Speaker: And on with the countdown.
Speaker: This one goes out to Sammy, to his lovely, lovely sister, Wynonna.
Speaker: This one burned up the charts in 1978.
Speaker: Here comes Hart with Crazy on You.
Speaker: I don't know if that's the actual.
Speaker: Crazy on you.
Speaker: I don't know if that's the right year or not, but I'm going to look that up because you know what?
Speaker: We have time.
Speaker: Crazy on you, Hart.
Speaker: Seriously underrated band.
Speaker: What year did you say?
Speaker: 78.
Speaker: 77.
Speaker: Oh, I'm pleased that I got that close.
Speaker: I'm very, very pretty happy about that.
Speaker: That's hilarious.
Speaker: Oh,
Speaker: Oh, no.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: It was it.
Speaker: That was just the year that that performance was from.
Speaker: It was.
Speaker: Oh, okay.
Speaker: It was released once in 19.
Speaker: It has like three release dates.
Speaker: It was recorded in 75.
Speaker: It's a very popular song.
Speaker: It was released in 76 on a single and then it was re-released as a single again in 77.
Speaker: I had no idea it went that far back.
Speaker: That's crazy.
Speaker: Well, I mean, Hart.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: I'm just going to do this real quick.
Speaker: Hart is a seriously underrated band.
Speaker: They did a 70s era.
Speaker: They did an 80s era.
Speaker: They did a 90s era.
Speaker: And they evolved with the times beautifully.
Speaker: They have some of the greatest voices and instrumentalists ever.
Speaker: They are so, so, so underrated.
Speaker: Go and listen to Hart, ladies and gentlemen.
Speaker: Do it now.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Anyway, what were we doing?
Speaker: Go on.
Speaker: The heart is, uh, uh, um, January of this year, they announced their 2024 Royal flush world tour where they would be playing several dates with cheap trick, deaf leopard journey and squeeze.
Speaker: Honestly, honestly,
Speaker: Most of those I could leave.
Speaker: I want to see them with cheap trick.
Speaker: That's the, that's the deal that I'm good with.
Speaker: I'm good with that, that, that pair.
Speaker: I was never, not a huge journey.
Speaker: I think because I worked as a karaoke.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Journey is big on karaoke and not allowed to enjoy that too much.
Speaker: So, yeah.
Speaker: And I'm not, I don't think I've ever been a Def Leppard guy.
Speaker: No, no, no, no.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Probably for the same reason.
Speaker: Karaoke is just, it's just heavily, heavily overplayed stuff.
Speaker: So, yeah.
Speaker: Anyway, um, anyway, uh, what was I saying?
Speaker: Oh, we're doing a podcast.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Yeah, that's what we're doing.
Speaker: Honestly, that's how you know it's a good podcast.
Speaker: This is basically just you and me getting together to talk and bullshit.
Speaker: And it's themed around the books that we're reading.
Speaker: And everyone else is just here for the ride.
Speaker: And it's never going to change.
Speaker: It's never going to change.
Speaker: By the way, so McDonald's has these collector's meal logos.
Speaker: And this is just an aesthetic I like.
Speaker: I like this.
Speaker: They're selling because they're selling the glasses.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It's just that bubbly aesthetic, the red and it makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside.
Speaker: It's very nostalgic.
Speaker: Makes me think of being a child and I didn't have to worry about things.
Speaker: And that's like that is the triglycerides.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I'm happy to report that I have been on cholesterol medication for a month now, and I have had no actual side effects from the cholesterol medication.
Speaker: Except gas has gotten way worse.
Speaker: It is not good.
Speaker: And I believe that is one of the side effects is some weird tummy rumblings.
Speaker: I...
Speaker: I've always had a true kill your dog on a summer day, bad levels of gas.
Speaker: So I don't know if it's any different for me.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So chapter 26, um,
Speaker: Emily wakes up in the slaughterhouse and Galia is begging for permission to kill her.
Speaker: Emily also realized that Zukav has been making her sick and flooding her mind with the evil visions.
Speaker: Galia is begging Zukav for more power.
Speaker: And then Zukav's like, you're going to share.
Speaker: You're going to share in my power.
Speaker: And then he just stabs her in the chest and pushes her off.
Speaker: That's not what you promised at all.
Speaker: And pushes her into the viscous, bubbling, molten, hot liquid.
Speaker: And she lands on top.
Speaker: And she's like, ah!
Speaker: The fact that she is conscious for a moment while she's laying on the molten liquid.
Speaker: And she's like, ah!
Speaker: And then the description is, and then suddenly her body breaks the surface tension and she sinks underneath.
Speaker: And I was like...
Speaker: That's a good death right there.
Speaker: It's pretty brutal.
Speaker: Yeah, it's fantastic.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: He just had no use for Galia as annoying of a character as she is.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: He was just like, you're done.
Speaker: I think we're good.
Speaker: I think we're good.
Speaker: You talk way too much.
Speaker: Yeah, exactly.
Speaker: Emily gets Zukov to monologue a bit about his plan, what the whale bonus for magic, how he spent time on Pandisia and a whole lot of other stuff.
Speaker: And he also talks about his plan is to set the world that is to become the world that was.
Speaker: So kind of foreshadows a little bit of a weird timey-wimey time travel thing that is part of his plan.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Chapter 27, Zukav uses the mirror to show Emily different possibilities of what could be now, including fires, plagues, and her mother sitting on the throne and watching the city burn.
Speaker: It's too much, and she faints briefly and slams her cheek against the floor, and the pain of that returns some of the sense back to her, and she's like, Emily, we'll remember that.
Speaker: Right, yeah.
Speaker: For all intents and purposes.
Speaker: Yeah, that's that's what that is.
Speaker: He uses the mirror to show her who he was as the hero of Tivia, his exploits and everyone praising him, and then tells more details to Emily about how her mother and the royal spymaster had planned with Zukov to overthrow the judges and instigate a revolution, bringing Tivia back into the fold.
Speaker: So basically.
Speaker: Tibia is like part of the empire, but it's more like a independent.
Speaker: It's like a self-governing state sort of.
Speaker: It's like part of it, but out on its own at the same time.
Speaker: Think of it like the what Barcelona, not Barcelona, what?
Speaker: Well, the state that Barcelona is in.
Speaker: the Basque region.
Speaker: Basque.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Is that, is that parcel?
Speaker: No, Basque is its own kind of little, it's a little thing.
Speaker: It's not, it's not a region.
Speaker: Like Spain does not want to be together.
Speaker: What am I?
Speaker: No, no.
Speaker: Well, you would look at the history of Germany, Italy, Spain, all these other countries that like used to be little kingdoms that all got joined together.
Speaker: Spain is the one that,
Speaker: very clearly has no interest in doing this.
Speaker: Catalonia, Catalonia, the autonomous, the autonomous community of Catalonia.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Spain is one of those countries that's several countries in a trench coat.
Speaker: And that trench coat is, that trench coat is barely containing those countries.
Speaker: It's boiling over with rage and anarchists.
Speaker: It's just so angry.
Speaker: The angriest little trench coat you ever saw.
Speaker: Because it's funny.
Speaker: It's like you got you got Spanish and then there's so there's like all these other languages like Catalan and Basque and all that.
Speaker: And, you know, write in if you have any thoughts on this, because it's just such a fascinating.
Speaker: I mean, I love Spain.
Speaker: I've been there twice, both times to Barcelona and Barcelona is is amazing.
Speaker: 100% one of my favorite cities in the world.
Speaker: I love Barcelona.
Speaker: It's one of those cities that I would like, oh, yeah, I would move to Barcelona if I had the opportunity.
Speaker: But yeah, no, it's like, I feel like Spain and Germany and Italy specifically are the ones that are the most...
Speaker: They're fractious in terms of, is that a word fractious?
Speaker: Fractured?
Speaker: Fractal?
Speaker: Fractal.
Speaker: They just don't want to be together.
Speaker: Well, Germany does.
Speaker: Germany's fine.
Speaker: Germany's not so bad.
Speaker: Germany's gotten over it.
Speaker: Germany's not so bad.
Speaker: Italy is, from what I, this is just based on my own understanding.
Speaker: Italy is like more about the north and the south.
Speaker: North, south, and Sicily are like the three.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker: They got their own bullshit going on.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And then you got Spain.
Speaker: But otherwise, whatever.
Speaker: Spain, which just nobody's happy.
Speaker: Nobody's happy about anything.
Speaker: Nobody's happy in Spain.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Good food, though.
Speaker: Good food, though.
Speaker: And, you know, I always I remember playing Uncharted Waters a lot as a kid.
Speaker: Oh, fuck yes.
Speaker: Did I just unlock a memory?
Speaker: Oh, yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I even remember one of the characters name.
Speaker: It's how I learned.
Speaker: They named a character Domingo Manana because the next day was going to be Sunday.
Speaker: I remember that.
Speaker: That game fucking ruled.
Speaker: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker: I remember that.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: There was like an NES version, and then there was an upgraded version for the Super NES.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I had it on the Genesis.
Speaker: Oh, the Genesis.
Speaker: Okay, yeah.
Speaker: I had the Nintendo version.
Speaker: But yeah, Koei, I think this is before they merged with Tecmo.
Speaker: Yeah, used to make this game Uncharted Waters.
Speaker: They were good games.
Speaker: Those were good games.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And it's like got this like the cover of it is, oh man, it is...
Speaker: It's just high.
Speaker: It's a JRPG in the Caribbean or in the ocean, really.
Speaker: It's not the Caribbean.
Speaker: It's not the Caribbean.
Speaker: It's Spanish Armada kind of thing.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You can go to you're like you can go around Europe.
Speaker: You can you could really go everywhere if you wanted to.
Speaker: But it was just hard to do so.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So anyway, what was I saying?
Speaker: Oh yeah.
Speaker: Dishonored.
Speaker: We have gone off track.
Speaker: Like even for us, this has been a tough one.
Speaker: Even for us, this is a tough one.
Speaker: It's sounding like Donald Trump now.
Speaker: Hey, yo.
Speaker: Remember the Elon Musk interview?
Speaker: Oh my God.
Speaker: Two losers hanging out together.
Speaker: Love it.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: So
Speaker: Zukov demands that Emily tell him whether he would have succeeded had her mother not been murdered.
Speaker: And Emily realizes that he probably shouldn't know this answer.
Speaker: So she just keeps trying, tries to keep him talking and talking, talking.
Speaker: And Emily keeps him talking until she suddenly hears, I'm here.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Chapter 28, we have Corvo making his way into the warehouse where he's taking out whalers left and right as stealthily as he can.
Speaker: He does kill some, but he's like, I'm not a fan of doing this.
Speaker: It's just for the sake of expediency and keeping a tight timeline as he makes his way to save Emily and he sneaks in.
Speaker: He sees Emily and Zhukov with no gallia in sight.
Speaker: Corvo blinks around and is choking out whalers that are on patrol inside, save for a few that would have given his position away.
Speaker: He also blinks behind a pair and does the coconut smash.
Speaker: Oh, yeah.
Speaker: Classic.
Speaker: Classic.
Speaker: Like 1987 called.
Speaker: It wants its, you know, martial arts back.
Speaker: And it knocks them out.
Speaker: I just can't imagine...
Speaker: two dudes being equally knocked out by having their heads.
Speaker: But yeah, no, I thought the same thing.
Speaker: You figure one of them would be way worse off than the other, right?
Speaker: Like, but I'm willing to let it slide because I've seen Arnold do it like a dozen times in 15 different movies.
Speaker: So it's probably fine.
Speaker: It's probably fine.
Speaker: Yeah, it's probably fine.
Speaker: Who am I?
Speaker: Who am I to tell?
Speaker: No, you can't.
Speaker: You don't tell Arnold shit.
Speaker: Arnold tells us shit.
Speaker: That's how this works.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It is known.
Speaker: Exactly.
Speaker: It is known.
Speaker: He blinks to Emily and gives her a weapon.
Speaker: It's own.
Speaker: Ends with like father and daughter ready to fight.
Speaker: They strike a pose in chapter 29.
Speaker: They begin to fight, but Zukov immediately uses magic to disorient them.
Speaker: Oh, I see.
Speaker: And smoke begins billowing from his cloak.
Speaker: Emily's trying to fight.
Speaker: It's basically a D&D stop time spell.
Speaker: Totally.
Speaker: And she manages to reach her hand over and grab Corvo's blade.
Speaker: And she runs her hand up the blade to slice her palm open.
Speaker: So that's just this immense pain.
Speaker: And that immense pain causes her to...
Speaker: to focus on the pain and shows she's not disoriented from the spell anymore.
Speaker: So she grabs, she then grabs the sword from her father and attacks.
Speaker: She, you know, takes some slices at Zhukov.
Speaker: The blade slices the cloak open.
Speaker: And now you can see that he has these dozens of bone charms like hanging from inside the cloak.
Speaker: She continues to fight and they get into like a tussle near the vat before she falls back and away from him.
Speaker: Now his like his mask is off now and she like it's like his jaw is unhinged, like bigger than it should possibly be.
Speaker: Yeah, she she says he looks like a walking.
Speaker: He looks like a walking cadaver.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It's a great reveal.
Speaker: It's a great reveal.
Speaker: Emily dives at the bone charm that is casting the disorientation spell and rips it away from Zukov's coat.
Speaker: Now, Corvo snaps out of being disoriented, and he's ready to go.
Speaker: And then he says the story of the hero of Tivia ends here.
Speaker: And then Zukov sees a mirror, and he runs towards it.
Speaker: Yeah, which if you looked like a giant charred corpse, might not be your first move.
Speaker: That might not be it.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Might stay away from the mirrors, but it's just me.
Speaker: Chapter 30, Emily grabs a hook that is hanging from a chain on the ceiling and throws it, swings it towards the mirror and hits it.
Speaker: And the mirror falls off of its support and then crashes to the ground and onto Zhukov.
Speaker: Emily and Corvo think he's dead because no one could have survived that calamity.
Speaker: No, no, of course not.
Speaker: It's a final boss fight.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: You know that's not it.
Speaker: If you're reading this and you thought that it was over after that, shame on you.
Speaker: Shame on you.
Speaker: Shame on you.
Speaker: Consume more media for Pete's sake.
Speaker: For Pete's sake.
Speaker: Zukov is now controlling the mirror shards as they spin around him and each shard is showing a different image.
Speaker: She sees more and more images of Dunwall fallen, her father killing Wyman, and so on.
Speaker: And in one of the shards, she sees a knife that looks like Zhukov's, and she plunges her hand into the reflection, and it hurts like hell, and then she pulls it out, and she has the knife in her hand.
Speaker: And then Corvo grabs the knife from her and plunges it into Zhukov.
Speaker: And Emily passes out.
Speaker: I thought, yeah, I'm not going to lie.
Speaker: I thought that was, I was like, can we, can we just give Emily the kill?
Speaker: Give Emily the kill.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I mean, we, we're, we're all, we all love playing Corvo.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But can we just give Emily the kill for Christ's sake?
Speaker: That one that bothered me a little bit.
Speaker: Honestly, I believe so in Dishonored 2, you can choose between Emily and Corvo, like who you want to be at the beginning of the game.
Speaker: And to me, the Emily story has always been like the canon one for me.
Speaker: It makes more sense that it would be centered around Emily.
Speaker: rather than Corvo saving her again.
Speaker: At some point, at some point, you have to pass the mantle on, which is actually the theme of this book.
Speaker: Right, exactly.
Speaker: Chapter 31, Emily wakes up in her room and Corvo mentions that she has been out
Speaker: unconscious for three days.
Speaker: And that parts, she's like, I feel like a building fell on me.
Speaker: And he's like, you joke, but it's funny.
Speaker: You should say that, but after I killed, killed the guy, he's like, we, we scuffled for like a few more seconds.
Speaker: And then I pushed him into the vat of acid.
Speaker: And, and so that happened.
Speaker: So that happened.
Speaker: And once you know it, the building just started exploding and we got out of there and now the building is in the river.
Speaker: Don't worry.
Speaker: We're going to take care of it eventually.
Speaker: But for now, we're just going to we're all tired.
Speaker: We're all tired.
Speaker: And the Wyman enters the room and is apologetic about letting her out of his sight that night.
Speaker: And she says, it must have been something you drank.
Speaker: Poor Wyman.
Speaker: I felt so bad for him because he really thinks he blew it.
Speaker: He was like, God damn it.
Speaker: I was just supposed to protect her and I couldn't even do that.
Speaker: I wonder how much of this is going to- I couldn't even do that.
Speaker: Stick with him for years and years.
Speaker: She'd better tell him soon.
Speaker: Yeah, she's got to tell him.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: She's got to.
Speaker: She's got to.
Speaker: Chapter 32, Emily is out again at night.
Speaker: She's wearing a modified version of her masquerade outfit as part of her disguise for going out into the city.
Speaker: She's feeling good and goes off to run and jump.
Speaker: Oh, oh, I forgot.
Speaker: I forgot this one note.
Speaker: The reason she survived is the physician's like, sir, your daughter is absolutely jacked.
Speaker: She is.
Speaker: Oh, that's right.
Speaker: That's right.
Speaker: She is carved out of wood.
Speaker: This doesn't make sense.
Speaker: She is ripped to shreds.
Speaker: She is more muscle mass than most of the city guard.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I don't know what this is.
Speaker: I love that detail.
Speaker: He's like, dude.
Speaker: Are you giving her human growth hormone?
Speaker: What is going on?
Speaker: Corvo, she is yoked.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It's fantastic.
Speaker: It's really, really good.
Speaker: I was like, yeah, I mean, it makes sense what she does every night.
Speaker: She parkors across the city every night.
Speaker: She's got to be, you know, in wicked good shape.
Speaker: Her core is just undeniable.
Speaker: Undeniable core.
Speaker: Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker: Absolutely.
Speaker: So chapter 32, she's out again at night and she's wearing a modified version of her masquerade outfit as part of her disguise for going out into the city.
Speaker: She's feeling good and goes off and runs and jumps and Korova watches her run off.
Speaker: And he's happy about it.
Speaker: He's happy like that she does this.
Speaker: And he's like, considers going out after her just to keep an eye on her.
Speaker: And then he's like, you know what?
Speaker: It's time for her to have a night to herself.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And then we get an epilogue, which is set immediately after the events of Dishonored 1, where Corvo is still kind of learning how to be like a dad to Emily.
Speaker: And where, you know, they're like they're playing hide and seek.
Speaker: But she's like, I want you to train me.
Speaker: I want you to like, I need to be able to fight.
Speaker: Like you're not always, and she, she's like, well, you're not going to be here forever.
Speaker: And Corvo's like, Oh, I don't want to think of it like that.
Speaker: And no dad does.
Speaker: So it's good.
Speaker: So it's a nice little epilogue.
Speaker: Like it's like the beginning of their training story together.
Speaker: And it's nice.
Speaker: I like it.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So that's the end of the book.
Speaker: I really liked it.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I really liked it.
Speaker: It's a nice book.
Speaker: I like it.
Speaker: This is, this is, this is, I, I, I remember when we first started, it felt very dense and, and there is, and there definitely is that, but I'm super glad I played the game because that puts some context on it and it, it,
Speaker: I don't know.
Speaker: With that in mind, I feel like they do a really Adam Scott.
Speaker: Adam Christopher did a very good job in terms of combining kind of fan servicey winks and nods and just flat out a new interesting story.
Speaker: That's such an easy trap to fall into.
Speaker: Yeah, it is.
Speaker: It's so easy to fuck that up.
Speaker: And I think you did a great job with this.
Speaker: So I really enjoy.
Speaker: I'm looking forward to reading the next one like that.
Speaker: Yeah, me too.
Speaker: I had a great time with this one.
Speaker: It's it's a series.
Speaker: We will be continuing not out of spite like the five nights at Freddy's books, but out of actual pleasure, out of actual pleasure.
Speaker: God forbid.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Oh, gosh.
Speaker: Yeah, no, I really liked it.
Speaker: It's a good time.
Speaker: It really leans into everything that makes Dishonored fun, which is the nautical theming, the magic, and it's like a weird different flavor of magic that is not really seen that often in other...
Speaker: It's like the power of, you know, it's like involves bones and the sacrifice of life and things like that.
Speaker: It's a good time.
Speaker: I really like it.
Speaker: And it also does a really nice lead in to Dishonored 2 in terms of giving you something to do.
Speaker: think about as you go into Dishonored 2 where, you know, OK, Emily has had this training and all that stuff, and now you're in Dishonored 2 and you can play as Emily.
Speaker: And that game really shows is really about her growth as a character and as an empress and all that stuff.
Speaker: So.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Good.
Speaker: Good stuff.
Speaker: Yeah, I really enjoyed it.
Speaker: We're hoping to talk to the author soon.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So that should be fun.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Phil, with all that said, what are you playing?
Speaker: Oh, I actually, I got, I got some real gaming in this past weekend week or so.
Speaker: I played a bunch of demos.
Speaker: I, we talked about followers, not followers, worshipers of Cthulhu last week.
Speaker: And I mentioned that they have another game in similar vein called the Republic of pirates.
Speaker: And I downloaded the demo for that.
Speaker: Um, it's kind of janky in a lot of the same ways, uh, that worshipers of Cthulhu is, that's not a bad thing.
Speaker: It's a very indie game and that can be really charming.
Speaker: Um, they are combining 4X, um, with naval combat stuff, uh, with like naval naval turn-based combat, which I should absolutely love.
Speaker: But I'm still not entirely sure about how well it's all doing.
Speaker: Interestingly enough, if you go to the store page on Steam and look at it, it'll say that...let me see if it still says this, if that was my imagination.
Speaker: Yeah, it says this game wasn't designed to support controllers.
Speaker: And I don't know if it's because my controller was just plugged in, but I couldn't use my keyboard.
Speaker: All I could use was my controller.
Speaker: And I hate 4X with controller.
Speaker: On a controller is so bad because you're just, it's so mouse driven, you know?
Speaker: 4X is basically a spreadsheet with a graphical interface.
Speaker: Yes, yes, absolutely.
Speaker: And it's kind of like if anybody who works at a computer and you get used to using two screens or something like that, and then suddenly you have to do some work from home and you take your laptop home and you're working at like five times slower than you ever did because you've just got the one screen and it's just your rhythm is completely thrown off.
Speaker: So I'm going to come back to it and see if just
Speaker: Cause I, I just keep a controller plugged in at all times.
Speaker: Uh, yeah.
Speaker: Uh, so I'm going to try it again, see if that makes a difference.
Speaker: I feel like I'd enjoy it more if, uh, if I could do it with my mouse.
Speaker: Um, but yeah, so that was an interesting one.
Speaker: I played, um,
Speaker: The prologue for Sunset Motel.
Speaker: This is a one of your standard bog standard kind of like ugly, janky sim games.
Speaker: You you get a motel.
Speaker: You've got to go into the motel rooms, clean them up, repaint them, add stuff and all that.
Speaker: And and it's, you know, roadside desert motel kind of thing.
Speaker: It's kind of ugly.
Speaker: It's kind of basic and I can't stop thinking about it.
Speaker: And I'm pretty sure I'm going to go back and play it again.
Speaker: So it's, it's like they're doing something right.
Speaker: They're clicking into something.
Speaker: But it's, it is one of those sim games where the pleasure comes in kind of the, um,
Speaker: the drudgery of it all.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: You know, so that's that's interesting.
Speaker: And but the demo that really kicked me in the teeth the most that I enjoyed the most this past week was I played the demo for Visions of Mana, which is the newest game in like the Secret of Mana.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: series kind of thing.
Speaker: I have only ever played secret of mana.
Speaker: I love that game.
Speaker: It was part of my childhood.
Speaker: I did not play Chrono Trigger as a kid.
Speaker: I played secret of mana and that was my, I just fucking love that game.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And,
Speaker: I wasn't altogether all that interested because, you know, these older franchises, they get newer and they don't really resemble what they were.
Speaker: And then I saw in the description, it's not out yet.
Speaker: It's coming out at the end of the month and it won't even be out by the time this episode comes out.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: But they made a point of saying that they're trying to recreate a lot of that old school secret of Mana feel.
Speaker: And I went,
Speaker: Well, if you've got a demo, then yeah, sure, I'll do it.
Speaker: And it's one of those interesting demos where it kind of starts in the middle of the game.
Speaker: Sure.
Speaker: So I kind of loved it.
Speaker: I was like, this is how much I loved it.
Speaker: was playing it, going through it, getting the feel for it.
Speaker: It feels really good.
Speaker: It plays really well.
Speaker: The theme, the whole world is very loyal to the old school SNES games.
Speaker: It's that action RPG element to it feels really good.
Speaker: It feels classic.
Speaker: And I actually stopped playing before the demo was over.
Speaker: Because I was like, I'm going to get the full game.
Speaker: I'm going to get this game.
Speaker: I don't want to.
Speaker: Yeah, I'm done.
Speaker: I'm done tasting.
Speaker: I'm ready for the full course.
Speaker: I don't want to invest a bunch of time in this and then come back to this and have to do it all over again.
Speaker: I know I'm going to get this game.
Speaker: And I fucking loved it.
Speaker: It was really, really enjoyable.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It's a little twee JRPG.
Speaker: That was never the anime, that twee kind of anime vibe was never really my thing, but I can get over that.
Speaker: You know, I can get over that and play like a washboard abs, you know, kind of like way fish boy with a two handed sword for a little while.
Speaker: With a two handed sword and a swooping haircut.
Speaker: Yeah, exactly.
Speaker: I can do that.
Speaker: I guess I didn't realize that Secret of Mana was the sequel to the second game in the series.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: And the first game in the series was Final Fantasy Adventures.
Speaker: Adventures, exactly.
Speaker: Which is, I didn't realize the Mana series was a Final Fantasy spin-off.
Speaker: They're really closely related.
Speaker: It feels like every time they try, it's kind of like every time they were trying to make a new Final Fantasy, but it was just a little weird.
Speaker: They were like, it's a mana game.
Speaker: Secret of Mana was supposed to be...
Speaker: Final Fantasy 4 or something like that.
Speaker: It was one of those.
Speaker: And they were like, this is not it.
Speaker: This is not a Final Fantasy game.
Speaker: And so they made it its own thing.
Speaker: So they're very closely related.
Speaker: It's a very interesting history that they have.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So...
Speaker: Pretty cool.
Speaker: Pretty cool stuff.
Speaker: It's just so like that whole history of, you know, the Square and the Enix games and now Square Enix.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It's fascinating.
Speaker: And, you know, Square as a company is both up and down in terms of their...
Speaker: Because they got big enough to become a publisher.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: So they moved from that develop, you know, they're a developer to they publish, you know, and they got the Tomb Raider series and they got a whole bunch of stuff.
Speaker: I mean, even like Power Washer Simulator is a Square Enix game.
Speaker: Oh, I didn't know that.
Speaker: That's hilarious.
Speaker: So that's why it has DLC packs for Tomb Raider.
Speaker: Oh, of course.
Speaker: DLC packs for Tomb Raider and Final Fantasy VII Remake.
Speaker: That, of course, that's hilarious.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: That's funny.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It suddenly all makes sense.
Speaker: It all fits together really nicely.
Speaker: This is probably going to be like a lot of the very anime themed kind of games where I'm going to enjoy the shit out of the gameplay and skip through a lot of the cut scenes.
Speaker: Not all, a lot of them.
Speaker: But I'm really, really looking forward to this one.
Speaker: I didn't know about it until about a week ago.
Speaker: So it's just a lovely surprise.
Speaker: The last thing I'm going to throw in is, as I believe we mentioned on the show last week, I went to a bachelor party for a mutual friend of ours, Tim.
Speaker: And we played a lot of poker, but we did sit down and play
Speaker: the board game based on John Carpenter's The Thing.
Speaker: There are a couple of them, but this one, it's like, hold on, I'm going to look it up.
Speaker: Oh,
Speaker: It was yeah, Outpost 31 infection and Outpost 31.
Speaker: That's the one we played.
Speaker: There's another one, but that's awesome.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And I got to say, it's a very well designed game in terms of it just being a fun game and also being.
Speaker: very true to the theme of the series.
Speaker: So you've got all the characters you can play and everyone has different specialties.
Speaker: You take turns being the captain, which is represented by a gun that you pass around the table.
Speaker: And you've basically got to clear out the entire facility.
Speaker: You've got to clear the rooms.
Speaker: You're looking for specific items that you need before you can leave.
Speaker: And you've got to clear out the facility and you've got to work together.
Speaker: But at the very beginning of the game, unbeknownst to you, one of you is infected and that person can sabotage things and
Speaker: even eventually there will be more people who could get infected.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And it's very hard.
Speaker: We there are like three phases and we just got absolutely annihilated in the third phase.
Speaker: I was one of the only people who was a human all the way to the end.
Speaker: And I was the dog keeper.
Speaker: I thought that I told my wife about that.
Speaker: So I thought she hated that movie so much because of what they did to the dogs.
Speaker: And I was like, I see I was there to keep the dog safe.
Speaker: And you were there to keep them safe.
Speaker: I succeeded as long as I possibly could for I was swarmed by a bunch of fucking things.
Speaker: Things.
Speaker: But we got to and they pointed out, they're like, we've never beaten this game.
Speaker: It's you know, I can't imagine that it's it's I imagine that it's like almost impossible to beat.
Speaker: It is a it is a tough as nails.
Speaker: And it's one of those games that lulls you into a false sense of security in the first phase.
Speaker: You're like, oh, oh, we got this.
Speaker: We got this.
Speaker: We'll be fine.
Speaker: And and then and it's it's like playing banished, you know, where it's like you start out strong.
Speaker: You're like, I know what I'm doing this time and I've got my woodcutter over here and I've got this over there.
Speaker: We're all good.
Speaker: And then all of a sudden, all it takes is one trip and you're falling down the goddamn mountain.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: So very enjoyable, especially if you've got a big group of people.
Speaker: It's kind of one of those games.
Speaker: It's great for a bachelor party because there are like seven or eight of us there.
Speaker: And because of the level of secrecy in terms of someone being infected and that kind of thing, it doesn't really work.
Speaker: with three or even four people on a certain level.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: You need you need a big group there.
Speaker: So really interesting game, really very cool.
Speaker: But that's that's that's what I've been playing.
Speaker: Kevin, what do you what do you be playing?
Speaker: What have I been playing?
Speaker: All right, so I played and beat, this is like the evolution of dad games of like simulation chore games.
Speaker: I played and beat Crime Scene Cleaner.
Speaker: Oh, how'd you like that?
Speaker: You know, it's fun.
Speaker: It's not like here's the thing is it's like a power washer simulator is the A tier in terms of doing like in terms of like feeling satisfying in terms of like
Speaker: Crime Scene Cleaner is, it's like a C, you know?
Speaker: It's, if I was putting it on a tier list, like it's got some fun stuff.
Speaker: It's got some little humorous bits.
Speaker: I was like, is the main character's voice AI or does he just have a really weird accent?
Speaker: I can't tell the difference.
Speaker: You know, one of those things.
Speaker: I hate that.
Speaker: But it's just, yeah, it's fun.
Speaker: There's like 11 levels and they, you know, the last one is like basically a warehouse massacre.
Speaker: So you have to like, you know,
Speaker: It's like, okay, I got to get my bucket out.
Speaker: I got to fill up some buckets with water, put some soap in it.
Speaker: I got to start mopping up the blood and you can mop up that blood and, you know, you can use some stuff to help clean up the blood a little bit better and you got to collect all the bodies.
Speaker: So it's, you got to collect the bodies.
Speaker: You got to get rid of the bodies.
Speaker: You got to collect all the trash, collect all the evidence.
Speaker: wipe up all the blood, put all the furniture back where it's supposed to go, and then you're good.
Speaker: And then if you have time, steal some stuff from the dead bodies.
Speaker: Of course.
Speaker: Because you're a dad whose daughter is in treatment for cancer.
Speaker: Of course.
Speaker: Jesus Christ.
Speaker: And also you're a single dad because your wife died of cancer a few years prior.
Speaker: Oh my God.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Yeah, there you go.
Speaker: They got to lay it on real thick.
Speaker: And every time you come home, you're greeted by your dog named Dexter, which I think has to be a reference to Dexter Morgan.
Speaker: Sure.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So you and I got an achievement for petting the dog 15 times.
Speaker: Nice.
Speaker: That's that's a worthwhile achievement.
Speaker: Yeah, that's a worthwhile achievement.
Speaker: So crime scene cleaner is fine.
Speaker: I wouldn't like I I wouldn't put it.
Speaker: I wouldn't not recommend it, but I also wouldn't recommend it.
Speaker: Gotcha.
Speaker: It's it's it's a niche.
Speaker: It's it's right in that niche of like.
Speaker: Yeah, I am a sicko who likes these kind of games.
Speaker: But if you're not sicko level with these games, then don't get it.
Speaker: It sounds like there are there are so many other games that there's so many others that do do it better.
Speaker: But this is the company that makes Crime Scene Cleaner makes a ton of the games.
Speaker: in the genre.
Speaker: So what's funny is the Power Washer Simulator guys have only made Power Washer Simulator and then the DLCs for Power Washer Simulator.
Speaker: I didn't know that.
Speaker: That's hilarious.
Speaker: But still, they're still producing DLCs.
Speaker: They just released a Alice in Wonderland DLC.
Speaker: Oh, wow.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: They had a Warhammer 40K DLC.
Speaker: I knew that one.
Speaker: I knew that one.
Speaker: Jesus Christ.
Speaker: So that's that.
Speaker: The other thing I've been playing is
Speaker: And I won't talk about it.
Speaker: I started playing a new character on Elden Ring.
Speaker: Moving on.
Speaker: Jesus Christ, Kevin.
Speaker: I'm sorry.
Speaker: You started playing a new character on it?
Speaker: I'm sorry.
Speaker: And also... No, you're not.
Speaker: No, I'm not sorry.
Speaker: No, you're not.
Speaker: Conscript.
Speaker: Oh, okay, great.
Speaker: Yeah, it is... God, it is damn good.
Speaker: Uh-huh.
Speaker: And the... Here's the thing is, like, I'm playing it and I'm like...
Speaker: Is there going to be any supernatural stuff in it?
Speaker: And it's like one of those things.
Speaker: You're always waiting for it.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You're waiting for something weird to happen.
Speaker: But it's, no, it's just the horrors of war.
Speaker: It's just war.
Speaker: It's just hell is other people.
Speaker: It's really full on that.
Speaker: And it's very effective.
Speaker: It's hard as balls.
Speaker: I mean, I might have to turn the difficulty down because I was like, yeah, sure, I'll play the recommended normal difficulty, which is like the third highest.
Speaker: It's like...
Speaker: Easy, medium, hard, hard plus.
Speaker: And it's like hard is the recommended difficulty.
Speaker: I'm like, oh, yeah, I'll get that.
Speaker: So I did that.
Speaker: And I was like, oh, yeah, no, I'm going to kind of have checkpoints.
Speaker: I'm going to do the I'm going to do the ink ribbons.
Speaker: I played Resident Evil.
Speaker: I like I I'm old school.
Speaker: God damn it.
Speaker: I'm old school.
Speaker: And then I died and lost a lot of progress.
Speaker: And I'm like, you know what?
Speaker: Checkpoints are nice.
Speaker: The level of, I will say, I will say it is, it is, it is accurate on the old school shit to the point of insanity, especially when it comes to like backtracking and stuff.
Speaker: And you're like, oh God.
Speaker: Like, oh, I got to backtrack.
Speaker: Oh, okay.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Other than that, one of the next games I'm looking to play is called Flintlock, which is a Souls-like that came out last month, I want to say.
Speaker: And it's supposed to be like a streamed game.
Speaker: streamlined, streamlined souls like that is, you know, kind of removes the rough edges.
Speaker: And I play I'm going to play it because a lot of people are being weirdly racist about it in light of, you know, the Wukong game.
Speaker: And yeah, there's oh God.
Speaker: The Wukong subreddit needs to get its shit together because one out of every three posts I see in that is the most absurd right wing anti woke garbage like they're like the game gets praised for being anti woke.
Speaker: And in the same breath, they use
Speaker: the main character who is a monkey in in Wukong.
Speaker: They use that word also as a racial slur in their comments.
Speaker: And they're like, this is people don't just it doesn't matter to them.
Speaker: It doesn't.
Speaker: It doesn't matter to them.
Speaker: But, you know,
Speaker: I'm sick of the Wukong.
Speaker: Like I was like, yeah, it's neat looking game, you know, Journey to the West.
Speaker: It's it's the character that Goku from Dragon Ball Z is based on.
Speaker: Fantastic.
Speaker: That's neat.
Speaker: But there's so much bullshit.
Speaker: surrounding the game that it just, you lose your appetite for it.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So anyway, that's what I've been playing.
Speaker: And that'll do it for tonight's episode.
Speaker: Thank you so much for listening, everybody.
Speaker: Follow us on X, Twitter, Twitter X, Instagram, Twixster.
Speaker: Twixster, Twixster.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You know, I bet that would actually piss off Elon, Elon Moore calling it Twixter.
Speaker: Twixter.
Speaker: I'm going to call it Twixter.
Speaker: I like that.
Speaker: Instagram.
Speaker: You can find us.
Speaker: You can join our discord.
Speaker: You can find us on Patreon, as I mentioned earlier in the episode.
Speaker: You can find us on Blue Sky.
Speaker: Join, follow along on Blue Sky.
Speaker: It's much nicer over there.
Speaker: It's super nice.
Speaker: It's a lot more pleasant than Twitter is.
Speaker: So yeah, do all that and that'll be great.
Speaker: And that's the end of the episode.
Speaker: I guess.
