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Oh it's Bioshock (Tex Murphy: Under a Killing Moon - Part 3)
252 Plays6 days ago
With the eugenics and the Ayn Rand of it all. Honestly they don't reference Rand, that would probably make it more clever.
https://nogamesforgenocide.com
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Transcript
00:00:00
Speaker
yeah ah it's It's fascinating. It's a really very interesting ah interpretation. I think i it's definitely worth a read. And you know what else is a land of woe away from the sight of God?
00:00:12
Speaker
What's that? Hey there, everybody. Welcome back to Pixel It. My name is Kevin. With me as always is Phil. On today's show, ah we are finishing a ah dumb dumb book. Oh my God. Yeah.
00:00:26
Speaker
We got 13 chapters of this dumb book left. 13 chapters of this dumb book. I'm, and i I finished reading the book today and I remember 65% what i read.
00:00:42
Speaker
yeahp um ah But if if you remember all the time to give money to people who you like, you should head on over to patreon.com slash pixelitpod where we have many tiers, many tiers, including free. $1, $5, and $10. $10 gets your name shouted out in every episode. So to that end, I want to thank and your hiding song 85. Jesus loves you. Coliseum and ruthless mutter. Middle thing. Sigma. Sal. Sanguine. Flatulence. Shy. Lude. shut beaks, dumb, a thick and friendly friend. Thank you so much for being a friend.
00:01:20
Speaker
Patreon.com slash pixelitpod. Do it today. Yeah.
00:01:27
Speaker
um yeah So know. i't know i I guess we could just put this body in the marsh Man, let's just marsh this body. No no more no more foreplay. Just marsh the body marshmently and ni
00:01:49
Speaker
I would like to point out, and here's the thing, and before we even get into this, ah without putting my cards on the table too much. um Kevin knows better than anybody how, for me, I'm a series guy when it comes to this show. So no matter how bad a series we start is, um if there are multiple books, I'm going to want to continue down that road. we have yeah have ah i'm I'm planning on adding Diablo, ah the third Diablo book to our lineup, yeah despite the fact that we didn't really enjoy the first two.
00:02:23
Speaker
i think what was I think we liked the first one. The first one was okay. It was like, it was but they were just kind of like, it's fine. yeah ah you know Five Nights at Freddy's. The first one was, and and that was a lovely surprise. The first one was garbage and it got better as we went. But yeah I didn't know that.
00:02:40
Speaker
um There are, I believe, five more Tex Murphy books. Oh, no. i think I think five more, as in six total.
00:02:52
Speaker
yeah I have absolutely zero interest in continuing this series. and Neither do i You listeners, if you if you guys got to have it, if us suffering is entertainment enough for you to say, you know what, guys, please continue reading the series, we'll do it. We will.
00:03:11
Speaker
It's just this this book has hit the perfect time midway point between incompetence and sheer boredom. Yep. If it's not,
00:03:24
Speaker
actively bumming us out for one reason or another. It is just dull as dishwater. ah And and and that we have we have certainly read worse books. Yeah. We have certainly read ah more boring books.
00:03:38
Speaker
But yeah this, I think i think this this like straddles a line that we have not run into before. And that line is, I don't even want to continue this series. yeah So let us know, hit us up in the discord or on blue sky or wherever. And let us know, like, guys, I really do want you to keep reading these things because two of them are based, are not based on games at all. It's just continuation.
00:04:04
Speaker
Yeah. yeah It's just more texts, which, which we know you want. ah ah We know you want it. The, the thrilling character that everyone was asking for. um Let us know. But I just I wanted to put my cards on the table with that much at least before we get started. So, yeah, ah we are ah down to chapter 27. So in the last episode, Tex made it back to his office and was ah walloped in the head.
00:04:35
Speaker
and And that was when we ended it. So we find that he has been assaulted by the goons of a Chinese woman who turns out to be Eddie Chang. Oh, Eddie.
00:04:47
Speaker
ah So she gets mad at him for stealing her statue, ah saying that this is like the that basically reinforcing what the professor told us last time about this being like, this is a cult that wants to end the world. And The statue is involved somehow. um They don't really get into why. ah Yeah. Yeah.
00:05:10
Speaker
I'm just going to say that now. We really don't get into the whys of that. It's just this. I hesitate to even call it a MacGuffin. it's Yeah. I mean, it's ah it MacGuff's. Yeah.
00:05:25
Speaker
In the way that people need it, but it's like, it's not as fleshed out as, say, the Ark of the Covenant or... Maltese Falcon. Or the Maltese Falcon.
00:05:37
Speaker
Or the Holy Grail. Right. Or... You know, the the one ring or absolutely all your classic MacGuffins, all of them, all of them. And and it it's just it's like, I guess everyone wants this.
00:05:51
Speaker
The the why is never fully explained. um But anyway, she's mad at him. And we. She's kind of bitching him out. And and and true this is true to Texas character. He decides in this moment that it's like, I think I can trust her. And he bases that. This is not stated overtly in the text, but he bases it on the fact that she is chewing him out.
00:06:15
Speaker
ah He just kind of like goes, I think she's trustworthy. So he just kind of like lets her in on the whole thing. ah And like shows of the hard drive he's got with all the Colonel shit. And they, and you know, they, they find evidence that the cult is on the moon. It's headed to the moon. So they, they're gonna, they're gonna head to the moon too.
00:06:39
Speaker
You guys, they're going to the moon. going live to the moon. the why yeah it's Why is it all alt-right Nazis love the moon? They really do. They love the moon.
00:06:52
Speaker
Elon Musk is up there storing his sperm on the moon right now. Right. Oceans of it. Underground. Oceans. ah I mean, he doesn't even have to do it underground. There's plenty of space above ground.
00:07:04
Speaker
True. True. ah But, you know, well, that's what he's telling everyone. He's like, yeah, talk about the sea of of tranquility. Huh? I like it. I like it. Yeah. It's tranquil because there's no way that man has ever given his all to a woman his entire life.
00:07:23
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. that is a That man is lay back and tells the girl to sit on it kind of a fellow. He That is what is. That's who he is. That is a man who gets fake abs put in and then does no requisite workouts and ends up looking like a barrel afterwards. random fleshy knobs. With random fleshy knobs. So true.
00:07:51
Speaker
Yeah. All right. Chapter 28. We're back at Louie's. More food and coffee nonsense. We get a lot more. This is what I'm eating. This is what other people are eating. ah Two random ass characters that we have never seen. This is to happen a lot in this.
00:08:07
Speaker
There's going to be a lot of rando characters. Randos everywhere, as far as they I can see. um They're playing chess. We've never seen them before, ah but who cares?
00:08:19
Speaker
Because he realizes that this is the key ah to the blue card puzzle. ah The the the you know bishop takes king, et cetera. I'm not going to get into the whole thing because it's a stretch.
00:08:35
Speaker
ah yeah But basically, ah m in the end, he realizes that this is basically a signal for a pawn.
00:08:45
Speaker
the The pawn shop that they're in, it's a pawn place there. ah that By the way, the key to all of this has been sitting in one of those ah safe deposit boxes. Right there. Right there. Right.
00:09:01
Speaker
So it just so happens to be there. So they get it. It's a box ah with a watch and a note from the Colonel inside who basically says it's it's like the, it's the classic, if you're reading this, that I am dead ah kind of thing.
00:09:16
Speaker
um And he's, and, and the Colonel, this, this, this makes, this also makes no sense whatsoever on any level because Chess, if he, are because he he is addressing Tex in this note. He is anticipating Tex specifically finding this.
00:09:37
Speaker
They have never spoken of Chess. They have never they have never. It was not a thing between the two of them. We don't get a flashback of him trying to teach him chess.
00:09:47
Speaker
Nothing like that. It would have been like it would have been like if I was leaving something for Kevin and I and I left a code that like had ballet terms in it.
00:10:00
Speaker
Yeah. Like there's nothing wrong with ballet, but we don't know shit about that. Like, I don't I assume you don't. ah I know fucking shit about that. That's the point. That's the point. We don't I don't even know if he knows anything. So if I left him a clue that was based on esoteric ballet terminology, I'm just an idiot. I'm just kind of stupid.
00:10:21
Speaker
ah Because I don't it's like I don't even want him to find it. And that's how this feels. um So there's a watch. It doesn't it's just kind of a watch. And the notes basically says, ah you know, I'm counting on you to fight this good fight.
00:10:40
Speaker
copyright, you know, like fight yeah the good fight for me ah and do something beyond your usual shtick ah and take this watch and you're supposed to take it to ah Du Bois, who, ah for those of you playing the home game, is the kid who spilled ah like one of the last living Capricorn people who he who left the bar and then was disappeared immediately. So this kid's dead. So the person he's supposed to take it to is dead.
00:11:07
Speaker
um So, but, but, so, but there's, there's gotta be. Yeah. It's, it's the thing is, uh, yeah, he didn't, uh, expect our, our pal Tex to be so dumb that like the rest of the plot proceeded, but it's like, it's like you the it's like he, he went and he did side quests before doing the main quest. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. And, and softlocked himself, like, like soft locks himself that's himself. And honestly,
00:11:38
Speaker
ah for the classic adventure point and click games, that would actually be hilarious. It was like some, some self referential shit where he's like, Oh fuck. I softlocked myself. You know, like that could actually work. That is not what we're getting at here.
00:11:54
Speaker
Um, Eddie Ching ah reaches reaches out to text and says, we're headed to the moon. We already knew that. um Chapter 29, their pilot. I've already forgotten his name. I have it written down here.
00:12:09
Speaker
ah Anyway, their pilot. is ah what Tex describes as a quiet man of action, which he likes. And he says that he wishes more women were like that. And this is from a man who never, ever, ever shuts the fuck up.
00:12:24
Speaker
ah So we this is this is when we're really actually starting to stink a little of Manosphere shit. ah it Before it was just kind of a common you know, bog standard nineties misogyny dames, right? Like, okay, fine. You know, we're actually starting to get some Andrew Tate shit here. Yeah. um I like a man who's quiet and, and, and, and just does the things he needs to do without explaining him like a woman. Let me explain to you for half an hour what I'm talking about now ah ah
00:13:00
Speaker
It's that guy's shit. So we get a few pages learning about space travel as they, as they go to the moon. ah They give us some details on this world. No one cares. It doesn't matter.
00:13:11
Speaker
um Tex and Eddie spends the first night getting drunk. on a very good bourbon, I guess, and Tex tries to get to know her. um And we get a lot of information that does not matter and will not matter.
00:13:27
Speaker
ah We learn a lot about her, actually, and and none of it matters. ah None of this is coming back. Yeah. um So the next day ah we get a long unnecessarily long a description of how everyone is passing their time on the flight of the moon, including cribbage.
00:13:48
Speaker
Don't need it. No, no, no. I appreciated the Robert e Howard reference. I also love Conan, ah but we didn't need like to know that one of the the goons is is flipping through ah you know ah Robert e Howard shit. I don't care.
00:14:06
Speaker
ah Once again, once again, stop referencing better lit. in your book. Stop. What are you doing? ah I don't know. All that made me do is go, I haven't read Conan in a while. I should pick one of those. I've got one of those I haven't read yet. um All right. Chapter 30. We find out that ah the the pilot is basically, ah he's he's got's they're on a freighter and he's basically, you know I'm delivering shit. So you've got eight hours while deliver
00:14:37
Speaker
deliver all this stuff to go and find, ah you know, sneak into this genetic research systems complex and search for clues. They got nothing. They got nothing. ah They're just meant to to to fuck around and find out.
00:14:51
Speaker
And that's what they do. So they find a prison camp and they find evidence that it was recently hastily emptied. hmm. Later, he finds Tex finds the body of about eight ah of the ah GRS workers. And then he finds hundreds of dead bodies, men, women, and children. He compares it to the Holocaust, which is exactly what I want in my ah my silly video game gumshoe book.
00:15:22
Speaker
like Yeah, it it's great. it's It gets... i I was going to joke and say it gets real. It's not even it's too much. It's it's like a new novel shows up.
00:15:33
Speaker
It's like now i'm I'm actually supposed to think to give a shit about Texas thoughts on these hundreds of dead people. And it's that's and it's also going to be extra hilarious later on. We'll we'll get to that. um But.
00:15:47
Speaker
So these all these dead people and these are the prisoners that were were ex ah ex excavated, evacuated from the air. They're all dead. He finds out that he finds a message that it's a Resident Evil message. It implies that they were killed to test the super virus. And this is the same virus that they're going to be delivering to Earth.
00:16:06
Speaker
ah So they're literally trying to to destroy Earth. They're trying to kill Earth. um Chapter 31 around this time, i am starting to notice a lot of spelling and punctuation errors, yeah um which is always a bad sign. yeah Because we do know that this book was originally published in one form and then our author added more and self-published it again. And I think that this signals that this was like part of the shit that he's adding on to it. And he's in a hurry to get it out there.
00:16:39
Speaker
Why? No one knows. ah But yeah, we we're going to, we run into, on a side note, we run into, A lot of little, little, little things, nothing major, but enough that, that you notice. And it makes you go, you know, the sun is coming up and the book is due.
00:16:56
Speaker
hmm. yeah for For the nine o'clock class. Exactly. Exactly. You you you owe 30,000 words at 5 a.m. m It's 430 and you've got 48.
00:17:08
Speaker
ah it's It's that kind of thing. ah So Tex hears ah Ching on a communicator on a communicator. She's in a standoff. um ah He makes it to the ship, ah sees that the pilot is with these unfamiliar goons and realizes they've been set up.
00:17:27
Speaker
ah he He hides somewhere ah in the the ship, hides from hears them talk a little bit, gets know him a little bit. And then hes he is found, ah tied up.
00:17:40
Speaker
Hit in the head the easy way. The easy way. And this is like the fourth time this has happened in the book. Oh, my God. He has got brain damage. It is not normal to to black out from head head wounds this frequently. This is not good.
00:17:58
Speaker
ah ah They did a whole thing on Archer about that, which always cracked me the fuck up, whereas like I was unconscious for like a minute and a half. oh that is so dangerous. Are you kidding me? pointing out how movies are bullshit when it comes to yeah the the yeah one of ah One of my favorite bits in later season Archer is just like him talking about how like how bad it is that he's been shot so many times. like i yeah There's probably some sort of like lead poisoning issue that I got to worry about.
00:18:30
Speaker
I love that show. for And his his hearing, they always, they make it a, they make it, they make sure to show you like, yeah, his hearing isn't getting better. It's not.
00:18:40
Speaker
i I had a friend. I had a, I had a friend. oh I hesitate. He was, he was a guy I met ah yeah me and a couple of friends in Savannah got a great big house. It was a steel ah rent wise ah for the three of us with three of us there. It was, it and it was huge and we were all excited and literally a month in,
00:19:02
Speaker
um one of the guys, the guy I didn't know as well says, guys, I really hate to do this. I'm sorry, but I have to move to Atlanta. yeah he because He was an animator and he was like, I got i got an opportunity for some adult swim shit and i I have to take it. And I understood, but I was also kind of pissed him because with it just being the two of us, it was that much harder and it took us forever to get another roommate and it ended up being my ex. It was not a good time. but And then i found out that it was Archer and, and that show came out and I said, well, let's support him. Let's, let's watch the show. And I was like, oh, I forgive everything. Everything. Yeah. All, all is forgiven. I'm this, this needed to happen. You needed to be a part of this.
00:19:43
Speaker
Archer is the rare show that where it was written entirely I believe through through the entire series. It's written by one guy.
00:19:58
Speaker
it really? there is I don't think there's a writer's room. There is just the guy who wrote it. That's crazy. I didn't know that. That's not a thing.
00:20:09
Speaker
i got That is not a thing in TV. No. I might be speaking out of turn, but I'm pretty sure ah Adam Reed just wrote all of it.
00:20:23
Speaker
Wrote all of it. that That is That is baby town frolics. Yeah. Archer, 143 episodes. He's credited with created by, creator, and written by 143 episodes.
00:20:38
Speaker
Good Lord. Yeah. I got it. just scroll down and check. Cause that was the show that like, even, even when they kind of like started to slip a little, like they would have these random seasons that were just like these self-contained with, they were still really good and they were still really funny and, and ah man.
00:21:00
Speaker
Okay. that's So he wrote, uh,
00:21:06
Speaker
Jesus Christ. um I think he wrote every episode from 2009 to That is And then there's like people who did like one off episodes or two, ah like one episode here or two episodes there.
00:21:26
Speaker
he was probably when he's going out of town for a wedding or some fucking thing. Like that's insane. Yeah, so he he, so no, he did write every episode, but he wrote a wow way much more than you would expect. ah That is the nuts.
00:21:44
Speaker
So, yeah. yeah All right. Speaking of speaking of don't bring up better media ah in your shitty media. Um, chapter 32, they are headed to, ah the moon child station. Uh, so,
00:22:04
Speaker
Tex manages to escape into the station. He beats up the, ah the traitor, ah the traitorous fella who, who was their pilot and ties him up.
00:22:15
Speaker
And when he gets in there, it basically, you becomes clear they're planning on colonizing the moon. um He needs to find ah the mole. There is a Capricorn mole somewhere in there. And once again,
00:22:30
Speaker
He's got nothing. There's nothing ah in terms of like, what am I going to do next? He has he has no leads. um This is not. a stirring, exciting factor, by the way. It's just confusing. It's like, wait, you have... Okay, all right.
00:22:48
Speaker
um He hears some women in an elevator talking about food, and it makes him hungry. ah So he heads to the station. This random-ass food court... He's like, I want some food now, and I'm going to get some food. They've been talking about Italian food. I got to try the Italian food. And and and this guy...
00:23:09
Speaker
Eating is a bigger part ah of his character line than, you know, goddamn. I thought I would have somebody by the time I finished that sentence.
00:23:22
Speaker
Garfield. Yeah. He's basically just on. Yeah, he sees Garfield. He wants the lasagna. Perfect. Perfect. there They do mention the lasagna. Perfect. There it is. um He's hungry. So we get two more pages of food stuff ah describing the food and and the ambiance. And the other restaurants, by the way. ah And um we get all that. and I just imagine the episode of The Office where they're in New York City and ah Michael Scott's like, I am going to get a ah real New York slice. And it shows him walking. He's going to Sbarro's.
00:24:03
Speaker
True story. True story. i was i was doing ah a summer internship at a theater in in New York City. And Sbarro is everywhere, to be fair. um and i would I'll be honest. Sbarro's of the chain pizza places...
00:24:21
Speaker
not Not that bad. You know, you can you can do work if you're if you're if you have to eat at a chain pizza place. Sbarro's is not bad, but the only thing is you're not going to really find Sbarro's outside of like, I want to say the Northeast and randomly in airports.
00:24:38
Speaker
I was just going to say airports are are, it's actually one of my favorite things to eat at the in the airport, which is going to make no sense. And when I tell you about this, I would take this, the same route every day to this theater near union square.
00:24:55
Speaker
And I would take the same route. And along the way, there was a little Sparrow and, ah and I went in there and I would go in on my way out on my way back to my apartment. I would stop there and get a piece of pizza and eat it.
00:25:11
Speaker
And then you know ride the subway and walk about half an hour back to my apartment in the Upper East Side. And ah i would about...
00:25:23
Speaker
15 because it would be like a 10, 15 minute walk from my station, the last station, which I think was Hunter. ah to This is all. It's so funny. This is all coming back to me now. Yeah. yeah ah To to the six story walk up that i I was living in with my girlfriend and a couple of friends. ah And ah ah right as I got off that subway, I would always get.
00:25:44
Speaker
the most gut crampingly higher shits. I would like, I would get the runs like nobody's. And so I'm this 22 year old, you know, a kid like squirming and like moving, like, like the little, little tight leg run. ah And I, and this happened for weeks, Kevin.
00:26:09
Speaker
Kevin.
00:26:12
Speaker
Before I put two and two together and realized that Sbarra was giving me the shits. yeah I really thought that it was because I was walking so much these days. I i never walked so much in my life. And so I just assumed I was like, my insides are changing. I don't know.
00:26:31
Speaker
And then at one point I just skipped out on the pizza and I went, oh, I'm feeling perfectly fine. No, no drastic, you know, internal changes here. And I went, hey, are these things related?
00:26:48
Speaker
It has not. it has a Maybe it was just that spark because it has not happened at any of the other ones. Thank God. Because as I pointed out, I really do love eating it at at the airport. That is a bad place to get the runs.
00:26:58
Speaker
Bad place to get the runs. So wait, you did your building have an elevator or was? No, it was a walk up. It was six stories. We were at the top.
00:27:11
Speaker
And I had to to to to to to to to yeah to had to make the climb. Hold in your butt. Yeah. It was, we were at the very top of this old, old apartment. Be honest. How many, this is a safe space. Just yeah you and all the listeners. How many pairs of pants?
00:27:29
Speaker
Oh, I know that it got real close one time, but I don't think it ever hit the pants. I think i think there were probably, i'm I'm going to be honest, there were probably more than one pair of boxer shorts that ah had to go immediately. Mm-hmm. Yeah.
00:27:45
Speaker
To the bottom of the bag. Yeah. ah But i thankfully, I don't think it never got to the pants. I think I remember that. I'm an adult man in his 40s. I've shit my pants several times in my life ah when I shouldn't ah have like non baby toddler shits. ah But that was thankfully that never got through to the pants themselves. ah That would have been that would have been ridiculous if had gotten that far.
00:28:15
Speaker
Uh, boy. Anyway, everyone, yeah everyone at home eating. Good, good, good. Uh, if you want go ahead and YouTube George Brett talking about shitting his pants.
00:28:25
Speaker
but Yeah. Yeah. yourself Do yourself a favor. ah He's just, yeah it's just ah from about 15 years ago. He's a coach for the Kansas city Royals and it's during spring training. And he's just talking about talking to one of the players about how he shit his pants in the Bellagio.
00:28:45
Speaker
That's right. I haven't thought of that in forever. ah So we get, yeah. So we get those, those pages and pages of weird food content ah before the waiter starts giving him a weird look.
00:29:00
Speaker
ah And it's because, and this is the first time this is mentioned. Tex realizes that everyone in the restaurant is wearing the same metal bracelet that that he is not wearing.
00:29:13
Speaker
And so clearly it's identified him as, you know,
00:29:19
Speaker
not of you know and then the waiter does the scream from yeah yeah just fucking yeah it's just Sutherland's all over him Sutherland's right in his face right in his face we watched that for the first time last Halloween god damn it was good I was not I was really not expecting it to be to hold up as much as it did it was really good yeah that's awesome Yeah. Yeah. Young Jeff Goldblum. Fantastic.
00:29:51
Speaker
ah So it panic, right? Panic. ah Chapter 33. Don't worry about it because nothing happens. He just leaves. Nothing happens. Nothing happens. He's fine. And it's going to come up a little bit later, ah but it's certainly not. It's not schmuck bait, but we're treating it that way.
00:30:09
Speaker
Um, so he just leaves. Um, he tries to come up with a plan for finding the mole. Uh, but instead he falls asleep for six hours. Uh, sure. He's, he's, he's the worst PI i of all time. Like he is terrible at this.
00:30:28
Speaker
Um, He finds a gigantic Nazi rally style tent revival ah led by ah Reverend Claude Shepard, who is he was like a televangelist who we were briefly introduced to ah earlier in the book. And he's disappointed that it's the obvious bad guy. And for once, tech speaks for all of us.
00:30:50
Speaker
ah It's just it's. Another example of this being obvious or completely not obvious in a way that is not good or satisfying at all. ah So he's disappointed. Great.
00:31:03
Speaker
ah We got a big speech about purifying ah the earth. Yeah.
00:31:09
Speaker
Vorman, Pilot Vorman. That's the guy who he who was the turncoat, quote unquote. And he's accused of being a traitor. And it's at that point that Tex realizes that Vorman's on his side ah and that he's basically given him up to the bad guys.
00:31:26
Speaker
um And so he does the stupidest thing possible and he rushes the stage and starts shouting into the to the mic about how they're gonna You're going to kill everybody on Earth. You're going to kill everybody. and' It's a virus. It's a virus. it's like And for for those of you wondering, it's basically like a virus bomb from Warhammer 40K that they're doing. yeah ah And you would think they it's like, oh, it's it's going to target the mutants or whatever no it's just going to kill everybody just going to kill everybody and that's the whole point they're going to they're going to kill everybody and then they're going to wait 40 years and then they're going to head back down there and like repopulate the earth um it's it's a the whole thing we we're going find it's it's very eugenics ayn rand pandora shit uh yeah i've got plans it's all that shit um so he does all this he basically does the the the fucking you know
00:32:20
Speaker
Soylent Green is made of people ah speech into the mic and is immediately hauled away. Nothing comes of it. He doesn't. Nothing comes of Yep. So he's taken a little Percival ah who should have exploded in his building ah did now earlier in the book, but he is alive and well.
00:32:39
Speaker
um Chapter 34. Lowell does the whole Bond villain explanation thing. Yeah. Like, here's my whole plan. Right. and and And honestly, the only way I could have disliked this more it was if our author had actually like made him reference that and goes, yeah, I know. It's kind of like a Bond villain because that's what he's done for everything in this book. He always has to point out what his references come from. But in this situation, we just leave it alone. And thanks. That was that was a ah tender mercy.
00:33:10
Speaker
yeah So he he basically offers Tex a spot. ah Stay here. Tex tells him to get bent. um He's left with ah this big goon henchman and this gorgeous woman henchman. ah The big goon one turns out to be ah Jack Foe, which we we learned this name before. ah This is the person who killed ah the colonel. He is the chameleon. He is the chameleon who yeah he is like just referencing carrot. Like he can change his appearance at will.
00:33:43
Speaker
Yeah. He's literally a shapeshifter. Literally, ah literally a shapeshifter. Yeah. ah Do we understand how he's doing this? We do not. Nope. ah But sure. just got guy with superpowers.
00:33:55
Speaker
We just got a guy with superpowers. yeah and he And he, by the way, he was, I don't know. They don't, it's not clear. It's never, yeah it's like, and and he, by the way, he was the one who was Countess ah Renier. Like, so he was, yeah he set That's why they can't find Countess Renier because she doesn't exist because she's figment of chameleon's imagination. yeah And this is where it's like, hey, chameleon, he's a guy named chameleon and he can look, remember like in Spider-Man?
00:34:23
Speaker
yeah yeah Yeah. Except except the chameleon spider the Spider-Man villain chameleon can't shapeshift. he can just He's just a master of disguise. he Yeah, just blends in. Disappears. It's so dumb. He has the grail already.
00:34:40
Speaker
Right. ah He admits to killing the colonel, slitting his throat. Fine. ah All of that. Was he dead? Is he dead?
00:34:51
Speaker
Is it just kind of like, oh, okay. that's We found out what happened. um He's about to kill Tex, but the other henchman, this woman named Ava, shoots him first. And when I say him, I mean ah the shapeshifter, the chameleon, not Tex.
00:35:05
Speaker
ah That would have been a great ending. That have been perfect ending. Roll credits. Oh, my God. Yeah. Boom. we I would have given this a whole one and a half more stars. um Chapter 35. Turns out Ava's the mole. Lucky.
00:35:19
Speaker
ah they kill another security guard. ah to To get his his disguise? get his uniform? Here's the thing. here's here's what Here's how I would have tied the whole like Ava thing back together.
00:35:35
Speaker
right So instead of like the other woman being like some rando named Ava, ah what if ah the whole time...
00:35:47
Speaker
It was Alana who was working for Percival, ah trying to get in close with him as like the Capricorn mole.
00:35:58
Speaker
And is what? What if? And that would have and that would have brought in, ah you know, ah it would have tied some things together. the whole fucking thing together. Just a brand new. Instead, we got a brand new character. New character. about We know nothing about. Don't worry. He's going to objectify her soon. Oh, so fast. Like she's a hot blonde. We find that out real fast. yep ah the The watch has the winter chip inside of it. Hooray.
00:36:26
Speaker
ah They make their way through a bunch of fake environments. This is a big point of contention with techs. Like they've got they've got Matrix style like. you want to go to the grand Canyon? Here's the grand Canyon. They got Fenway park.
00:36:41
Speaker
Yeah. Fenway park. You know, they, they mentioned that one by name and and he's like, but it's not real. It's not the real thing. And it's like, it's like that scene in the matrix. Like I know that the, I know that the signals are telling me that this steak is real, that it isn't real, but what the fuck difference it make? Why, why, why does he suddenly give a shit? It doesn't make any sense.
00:37:01
Speaker
Um, So Ava says that what they have to do is go to the network center, ah but she has no idea what they're going to do when they when they happen to get there. This is not true.
00:37:12
Speaker
ah it's this She goes, she goes, I'm really not sure what we're going to do when we get there. Yeah. Nope. ah Not, not, not true. ah They search around in chapter 36, by the way, ah the winter chip, the whole point of it is that theoretically it will shut down ah the moon child, which is the name of this, this,
00:37:34
Speaker
this space base. I this hate that it's called Moonchild. It's a space station. yeah Yeah. It is 25,000 miles above the Earth's surface.
00:37:45
Speaker
Yeah. I just Moonchild distracts me so much. It makes me think of 2001. And once again, stop bringing up better media in your media. ah So we meet.
00:37:58
Speaker
i also thought of like Frank Zappa's kid. ah Oh yeah. That's moon unit. Moon unit. Moon unit. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, moon unit. Was she the, um she was the one that did the Valley girl voice, right?
00:38:12
Speaker
ah Yes. Yeah. those were Yep. So, We meet two security guards and then one of the least suspenseful scenes in literary history, we have, they have to like play it cool.
00:38:29
Speaker
And like, like Ava has, you know, rapport with one of the security guards cause she's a girl so they can gab. um And the other one is this great big, you know,
00:38:41
Speaker
rough neck of a man who's staring him down, not trusting him. And, and then of course, uh, uh, you know, and he's like nervous. He's like, I'm trying to keep it cool. A single drop of sweat fell down my head, like total recall. And I wish that was, it would have ended the same way. Yeah.
00:38:58
Speaker
um But we they the alarm sounds and we get with you. Well, no, i'm sorry. The alarm doesn't sound yet, but we do get the ah the radios go wild saying, hey, there's this these this these two and and and they they kill them.
00:39:11
Speaker
ah It's really not that big of a deal. It's it's it's crazy, not suspenseful. ah Yeah. Did you know that Frank Zappa was a conservative? I think I had heard something like that.
00:39:25
Speaker
Yeah. he he he was he was a He said he was a registered Democrat, but he favored limited government and low taxes. And ah he approved of national defense and Social Security, but only if citizens are willing to pay for them.
00:39:41
Speaker
ah He favored capitalism, independent business, debt, to debt, debt, debt. He opposed communism, all that stuff. um yeah is it's it's ah Yeah. It is one of those things like that.
00:39:54
Speaker
If, if, if conservatives actually believed in half of the shit they talked about, not like the capitalist stuff and and all that, but like, small government, uh, there's a lot of stuff I'd be like, yeah, I'm super in it. I love the idea of small government.
00:40:12
Speaker
You guys don't, you guys love big government. So yeah, that, It's always a weirdo like Zappa that you find that out and you go, yeah, yeah, I can kind of see that.
00:40:26
Speaker
Yeah. ah Okay. ah Chapter 37. They find ah the networking room. They hold the ah the the the workers there hostage while Ava installs the winter chip.
00:40:40
Speaker
It's as simple as that. ah Yeah. it and It sets off an alarm and they flee. ah They climb down an elevator shaft and a chasing guard is randomly cut in half by the drop in the just the most graphic, vicious death scene.
00:40:59
Speaker
Once again, i can't i can't help but think of the ah the Holocaust reference a few chapters ago. It's like, this is not your book. What are you doing? This is not.
00:41:11
Speaker
It's like in an episode... Like, going back to... the So, like... Okay. By the way, that the the plan is to wipe the Earth because they're the mutants, right? Because yeah the mutants messed everything up, so we got to wipe it over. And everybody else on the moon child is going to repopulate Earth. And they are of pristine genetics and all that stuff.
00:41:34
Speaker
And they're they make it it clear but like... Um, like, oh yeah, these, uh, uh, Texas is like, oh, I see everybody from every, uh, race, religion, creed, uh, they're all on here.
00:41:47
Speaker
ah right and here's the thing is eugenicists wouldn't just stop at mutants. They would be, uh, The problem with eugenicists the eugenicist is that they would be like, okay, it's, ah ah you know, the the black and the Asian people are fine. ah It's the mutants we got to worry about. No, motherfucker. And the other fun then one one generation later, it's the it's the, well, actually, I'm not a big fan of the blacks. and Yeah, they would. And yeah and it just keeps going down until there's like two of them Right. left
00:42:20
Speaker
ah Like, don't don't don't feed me bullshit about post-racial harmony eugenicists in your goddamn book yeah that are just upset about the they're they're upset about the mutant population. i mean i would i wouldn't go so far as to say that that it's ah sympathetic to them, but it is kind of –
00:42:43
Speaker
a little, not sympathetic, but like they do kind of go out of their way to make them a little more believable. These aren't your daddy's eugenicists. it's Yeah.
00:42:54
Speaker
I hadn't thought of it like that, but that's absolutely true. It's a little weird. Not saying that the, that their stance on mutants is good or valid or whatever. I'm just saying that.
00:43:06
Speaker
In this universe, there is no fucking way that a ah proud eugenicist movement, which takes their in the book, it's described. They don't say he he doesn't say it outright, but it's clear that they it's Nazi Nazi.
00:43:25
Speaker
uniforms yeah yeah would be like yeah it's just the mutants it's pretty clear uh yeah it's it's bad uh so yeah we're we've we got like these weird moments of like light and fluffy isn't it hilarious that i'm so funny and, and, and telling dad jokes and shit. And then someone gets torn limb from limb and then we get the warm and cuddly eugenicists. It's just a very, a very confusing, a confusingly themed book, ah which is nice. I don't know if to call it themed at all is, is terribly misleading.
00:44:07
Speaker
ah So the fuck. ah All right. So they escape into a woman's bathroom. Speaking of dad jokes, we get the standards. It's so much nicer in the women's bathrooms, which anyone anyone who's ever actually had to like clean a women's restroom like a but like knows that that's bullshit. i i'm not This is not me putting women down in the slightest, but I worked at a diner where it was my job to clean both the men and women's restrooms. and
00:44:38
Speaker
They were both really bad. They were both terrible ah just because it's a, you know, it's just a women had one more ah horrifying liquid to, to randomly place around the stalls.
00:44:53
Speaker
ah that That's it. That's all it is. It's, it's still really gross. So that whole like idea of like, they're getting facials and, and massage therapy and lounging and and all that kind of, it's insane. Yeah.
00:45:07
Speaker
Yeah. ah So they find Vorman ship, his freighter and Ava explains to him that she's going to have to open the bay doors ah for text to escape.
00:45:18
Speaker
ah So, cause they have she has to be out of the ship to do this. Cause they're on hydraulics. They're not on in the network or on the system. So she has to be out there. And it's this moment of like, wait, you're going to do, I can't leave you. And she's like, no, don't worry about it. I'll, I'll,
00:45:33
Speaker
you know I'll find a way back. ah It'll be fine. But you need to leave so that you ah can tell the authorities about the ah the upper brass guys who will probably have an escape plan and or escape pods. And you you got to get there and tell the story, which is insane for a lot of reasons. First off, ah we're never go to see her again. She's dead. she di doesn't we don't even get We don't even get an epilogue. She's like, I told you I could escape, bitches. Like, no, it's like she's dead. This is it. This is it. ah So she sacrifices her life for Tex Murphy.
00:46:09
Speaker
For Tex Murphy. And for some reason, she thinks that he... is an authority figure that police and government watchdogs will listen to and take serious. Anyone will believe anybody. so She's like, no, but if you were I have to believe that in a real world, she'd be like, aha, I need you to get out there and hit that button and then come back around and I'll totally give you a lift ah to earth. And then he does it. And she's like, thank you for your sacrifice.
00:46:42
Speaker
Yeah. and ah so but yeah she's she says i don't want to die but i'll i'll figure it out it'll be fine ah we never see her again we never see vorman again they are both dead um ah chapter 38 we get a long uninteresting scene of tex getting the freighter through these two sets of hydraulic doors yep
00:47:10
Speaker
They're slow. He's getting shot at. It's not suspenseful. It's so dull. It goes on forever. Yep. Chapter 39. He's escaped. ah The moon child dies. He sees the lights going out ah because the the chip has done its work and has shut down the whole thing. He even refers to it at some point as like the space equivalent of the Titanic because thousands of people inside are dying yeah with this. We will find out later that it isn't enough that they like just the the life support systems and stuff run out. It goddamn explodes.
00:47:48
Speaker
ah which we don't get to see, ah by the way, we just hear about it. ah yeah So everyone. So Tex is responsible for thousands of people's deaths. Yeah. and he And he makes a point to say, but most of them deserved it.
00:48:04
Speaker
Most of them he's stills to them. He's still super good with it being like, well, yeah, you got to break some eggs to to get an omelet. Like it's that it's it's that shit.
00:48:16
Speaker
So Anyway, anyway, and by the way, there was like children on this place on this thing to families. They had whole families in there.
00:48:28
Speaker
ah Upwards of 10,000, I believe was the number. Yes. and and And for anyone who's listening, ah saying like, well, I don't think we're meant to take it that seriously. I'm sorry.
00:48:39
Speaker
Did you miss the Holocaust references and the the the torn in half? i think I think our author wants to take it deadly fucking serious ah one way the other.
00:48:50
Speaker
ah So he anyway, Tex makes it back to Earth. All right. Anyway, he's back. He's back. ah And he several of the top cultists have been taken to ah custody. And he predicts that it's going to be a great big heavily televised like trial of the century. And they just are disappeared.
00:49:10
Speaker
He's just like, yeah, we just we never hear from them again. It's like, holy shit. Okay. um ah Tex has to keys. He's ordered basically like we're not paying you for shit and you're going to have to keep this story under your hat. But don't worry. Don't feel too bad for Tex because the mutant league gets a word of all the things he's done and they send him 10 grand as a reward and 10 grand. It's 2040 after the fallout.
00:49:37
Speaker
I got a that's probably 50 bucks. So that's yeah not so bad. yeah Yeah. Cigarettes. Yeah. Yeah. Chapter 40. Louie's diner has a celebration. Basically, Tex flirts with Chelsea. It's gross.
00:49:50
Speaker
um It's really gross. It's really terrible. Terrible flirting. Just so bad. It's i I don't have. i am not opposed to romance or flirting or fucking in my books.
00:50:04
Speaker
I have no problem with that. It's just this is it's. It's bad. It's not good flirting. it it It turns your stomach and it appears to be working on her. That's the worst part. Yeah. so These are the stories that little manosphere babies read and go, I could do that and get bitches.
00:50:20
Speaker
ah Anyway. felt gross same ah So we get a news report reminding us that Texas is responsible for the death of thousands. sentence they They like basically they arere like, yeah, so thousands of people died up there. And they say, yeah in the thousands, in the thousands. He is a mass murderer.
00:50:42
Speaker
ah That is all there. He is. He is up there with Pol Pot. Like that is what he is doing. um Where's avra dead floating around in space somewhere. Yeah. um Where's where's ah the the pilot turncoat dead. There's another guy. He's he is directly responsible for the death of because he just tied his ass up and let left him to the dogs.
00:51:07
Speaker
Yep. um Where's Eddie Ching? She's dead. Dead, probably. Probably. she know they he says that she's dead. Okay. I just don't remember the scene of her dying. Well, she dies off camera then because the last thing he hears of her is like over like the their their their communiques. Got it. So so you didn't he didn't see it happen. He just kind of assumed that.
00:51:33
Speaker
ah Yeah, the the death of the colonel is like, and we've gone back and forth on this. Is he dead or is he just? And I was actually honest to God was like well, they're going to bring him back and he's going to go. I thought I was dead. the whole Nope. He's just dead.
00:51:46
Speaker
He didn't need to do that at all. So Tex heads back to his office and there's a dame there who's going to offer him a new job. And as if this book isn't insulting enough, it steals a line. One of my favorite lines from Raymond Chandler, ah which is ah he, he alters it a little bit. The original quote is it was a blonde, a blonde to make a Bishop kick, kick through a stained glass window.
00:52:12
Speaker
That is good writing. like That is,
00:52:18
Speaker
is good noir writing. That shit yeah rules. and he And he steals it and says, ah he goes that's as the old saying goes, fuck you, old saying. It's Raymond Chandler, a guy that you keep talking about text worshiping.
00:52:34
Speaker
Don't act like this is just some idiom. Give some goddamn respect. Put some respect on Raymond Chandler's name, people. Yeah. God damn it. And that's the end, by the way. That's the end of by the book, by the way.
00:52:46
Speaker
Kevin, what'd you think? I'd rather not.
00:52:53
Speaker
I don't want to think. I don't. because ah Is it Bartleby the Scrivener? yeah i would i care not to. Or is that what it is? and for not to Something like that.
00:53:04
Speaker
ah This book sucked. This is so bad. ah bad prefer to. I prefer not to. That was Melville, right? Yes. Okay.
00:53:18
Speaker
that was melville right yes okay Once again, once again, if there's anything, this book, I'm reading a bunch of classics this year. I promised myself I was going to read 10 classics this year. And if there's anything that this book has done in the positive for me, it's made me go, Ooh, I bet Ray and Chandler counts. That's a classic. I can read some Ray and Chandler and read some Dashiell Hammett. Oh yeah. good. I'm already planning on reading a Moby Dick. Like ah so Melville. Yeah. It's all it's, it has done everything to push me away from this book. Yeah. Yes, it is. book i would
00:53:52
Speaker
Yes, yes. that is It's the definition of the word repulse. i have i if If we didn't have this show, I've said this a lot of about a lot of books, but I would have put this book down within 20 pages. The first time he referenced ah you know the Maltese Falcon or something, that were like, that sounds much better. Let me pick that up. that's not it yeah that sounds That sounds like an interesting book.
00:54:14
Speaker
Yeah, i don't I probably don't have to spend a dime on it to find it for free. on the Yeah, let's do it. Is it is it probably going to have some racist stuff in it? Sure. Absolutely it will. ah Yeah. yeah yeah but it's But it's just so goddamn good that i'll that I'll have no choice but to shrug my shoulders and go, eh.
00:54:32
Speaker
Yeah. yeah Sort of like ah you know sort of like ah Shadow over Innsmouth. ah yeah yeah well Yeah. With a lot of shit Lovecraft World where you're just like, oh. The worst thing a person can be. Italian. Italian.
00:54:51
Speaker
Oh, God. um I don't know what, how did they, did was this book actually published or is this a self-publish?
00:55:02
Speaker
I believe it was originally published. It was published a couple of years after the game came out. So I think that was 96. Right. um I believe it probably had a very limited run, very short run. ah But this version that we are reading now, yes, was self-published by the author. Okay.
00:55:20
Speaker
Okay. He retains the rights to the character, I guess, because he did write, excuse me, the games. Right. So he just, he he he said, you know what people have been craving? You know what people have been more tech slumbering for? It's it's text, text Murphy. They they need more text in their lives. So.
00:55:41
Speaker
ah Yeah. So anyway, that happens. That book happens. ah We are promising you, though, that the next book we read, i actually read the first couple of pages. i was like, oh, this actually already reads better. Yeah.
00:55:59
Speaker
We're reading the the adaptation of the adaptation of Silent on Hill 2. Yes. also i'm Okay. I'm thinking i should I should, we should watch, so rent the, if you can, rent them watch the movie ah ah first and then read the book.
00:56:16
Speaker
um And that way we're we're all caught up. But yeah, next next week you'll start getting the ah the Return to Silent Hill novelization of the movie Return to Silent Hill movification of the game Silent Hill 2. Yeah.
00:56:34
Speaker
we are We are through the looking glass, people. And by the way, this will be our second novelization of Silent Hill 2 that we have read. We've never done that before.
00:56:50
Speaker
You're right. That's never happened before. Under completely different circumstances. Yeah. that's so funny. Okay. Well, that's going to have something. That'll be something there. And you know what? For as as bad as the movie apparently was... It's got ah it's amazing that Silent Hill 2 as a game has enough staying power culturally that there are two wildly different adaptations of it ah in book form that we are covering on this show. Yeah. Yeah.
00:57:31
Speaker
Yeah. That counts for something, damn it. Yeah. I guess. Oh, God. Yeah. Okay. Well, now that we've ah gotten through all that, Kevin, let's get to the matters of the heart. a Simple question for you, sir. Sure.
00:57:46
Speaker
What are you playing? okay. What am I playing? Oh, fired up steam and see what I've been playing recently. um Okay.
00:57:59
Speaker
yawned right on through that. so I've been playing a game called Tearscape, which is a top-down hack-and-slash, like, Legend of Zelda-type game, but with...
00:58:15
Speaker
ah Bloodborne aesthetic. It's basically Bloodborne meets Legend of Zelda, but with, I would say the graphics ah look a little bit closer to Game Boy level. Yeah, this is Game Boy shit.
00:58:32
Speaker
Yeah. um So yeah, it's ah it's a neat game. um i The only thing, the main criticism I have for it is there's like there's like a main theme that plays through a bunch of the areas.
00:58:48
Speaker
Okay. um And I'm listening to it and I'm like, why does this why why does this song have a walking baseline this did This does not ah scream Bloodborne High Adventure.
00:59:07
Speaker
and I see. but but um boom boom boom boom boom boom boom it's it's It's way more 8-bit than maybe they want it to be. The walking bass line is like, what this is not a Huey Lewis in the News song, right guys. Right.
00:59:25
Speaker
What are we doing here? um Anyway, that's my main my main critique ah of it. But yeah, it's it's a Steam Deck game. You know, you throw it up on the Steam Deck and you just sit there and developed by Nerds Takeover.
00:59:42
Speaker
um I don't know how long it is total. I i remember I was watching ah Iron Pineapple play. He does this series called Steam Dumpster Diving, where he just puts the Souls-like tag into Steam and plays games based on that ah with varying success.
01:00:02
Speaker
um and And this game did appear on the most recent version but most recent edition of that video. Um, and I think it took him about five hours and I'm, so I'm like two, almost three hours into it. So maybe a few more hours before I, before i wrap it up.
01:00:19
Speaker
Um, I'm also playing the first Berserker Kazan, um, which is it's it's a souls like but it's more in the vein of neo so neo is is uh you know has has the combat is is very similar um in that action with beautiful holy shit yeah It's very similar in that action RPG style where it has you know parrying, stamina, ah you know
01:00:53
Speaker
you know blocking takes up stamina and all that stuff and and attacking and you have to balance your ah balanceun everything out. um But it's more action oriented than your typical Souls-like. And to that end, it's very much more like Neo, which is ah faster paced and mission based where instead of being in one continuous map that you're kind of that it's like interwoven through and you can find shortcuts back to it's more like okay you you get dropped off and you go and there might be some shortcuts for save points or whatever but it's it's just a mission um so there's that um
01:01:41
Speaker
first berserker's on i put some time into that that's it's pretty good i mean but it's like it's one of those things where it's like i i don't um it's like it's like a it's like a fat free eating something fat free where it's like you end up just eating more of it to get the same sensation rather than just eating one thing um And ah my daughter has been watching streamers and YouTubers play Left 4 Dead 2. So she's like, can we play Left 4 Dead 2?
01:02:15
Speaker
i was like, okay. And I bought it. And friend of the show, Jesse Gratia, commented on Steam on my purchase of Left 4 Dead 2. He said, how the hell didn't you have this already? Yeah.
01:02:29
Speaker
And I'm going to be honest, I thought for a while, I thought Left 4 Dead 2 was one of those games that just came with ah with your Steam account. I own Left 4 Dead 2. ah i have I've never played it, but I own it. Yeah.
01:02:46
Speaker
Oh, that's foolish shit. yeah So we put in ah like 90 minutes into it so far doing like the first ah campaign. We're on the last level of the first campaign. It's so fun that you guys get to share that. i love that. Yeah.
01:03:00
Speaker
Yeah. And so we moved on from like... Back, you know, back in the day, it was Minecraft and and and such. And Minecraft is still in there, but ah but now we do things ah like, you know, there's also Stardew Valley, but also ah we did start playing Peak this past year.
01:03:21
Speaker
um And which is hilarious. um And and ah no, I didn't want you to run Peak. I was just clicking on your thing. It's just, it's not all about you, Peek. It's not about, and Left 4 Dead 2, I mean, this is her first, you know, like, first-person shooter, basically, yeah um that I played with her.
01:03:44
Speaker
i mean, she's played Fortnite, but that doesn't really count. That's a third-person kind of thing. Yeah. um But anyway, yeah. And ah one other thing, I literally just started playing it today ah because you were talking about it last week.
01:03:59
Speaker
ah And it's Resident Evil Zero. Yeah, I saw you playing this. I had decided i was like, you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to play through all of the Resident Evil games from again, from zero to nine. And i was like, maybe by the time i get back around to nine, they'll have like announced the DLC or something like that.
01:04:21
Speaker
um so i started resident evil zero i just uh i put in like an hour and a half into it i've just gotten out of the train section um so which is like the first hour of the game is is the train and then you're into you basically into uh something that is like the mansion for the game um ah So I'm in there. It's the umbrella research facility.
01:04:50
Speaker
um But it's it's there. It's there like above ground building that umbrella employees, I think, would go to, you know, like the the actual facility. um And it's ah it seems like lore wise, it's like it's not that far from the Spencer mansion.
01:05:09
Speaker
Um, so, and the, uh, the concept of the game, for those of you who don't know, you play as Rebecca, uh, chambers and it's, it's basically the, it's takes place earlier in the day before a resident evil one for the most part. Right. That's, that's pretty much the, the, the long and short of it. And the end of it would be Rebecca getting to the mansion.
01:05:34
Speaker
Um,
01:05:37
Speaker
um So yeah, ah that's that's what I have been playing. Phil. Nice. What are you playing? Oh, um mostly Mugenics.
01:05:50
Speaker
I've been playing a lot of Mugenics. I felt like once you really got into that game, you were going to not be able to stop playing it. It's weird because on one hand,
01:06:04
Speaker
I have put in a decent amount of time into it. I like the sense of humor. ah i i'm i tried so hard to get into ah the Binding of Isaac, and i'm but I'm just terrible at it.
01:06:17
Speaker
ah and And so a turn turn-based strategy kind of thing is definitely more my speed. ah I'm not sure if I like this game, though. I put like 15 hours into it and I'm still not sure if I like it. You put 15 hours into it and you're like, don't know. I don't know. know i i find myself turning it on ah to to, you know, do another run. Yeah.
01:06:46
Speaker
I like the themes to it. I like i like how fucked it is. and It's a little more like, actually, it's a little bit like the Tex Murphy book we just read in the sense that you're you're floating along on it being kind of weird, but cute, like like sure alternative kids cartoons kind of shit. And then you realize, oh, those are fetuses that I'm fighting. What the fuck like you know and you're like oh right this is the binding isaac guys okay yeah yeah yeah um it's just really slow uh and it might just be the way i'm playing it or something but it's like you know because the roguelike aspect of it is is very slow and it's taking me longer to progress in a way that i don't know if it's just me or if it's the way that the game is um
01:07:37
Speaker
designed, but it's one of these things that I like. I have a 15 hour play time and I log in and it's like 5% done. I'm like, are you fuckers fucking with me? What? And I'm sure that a big, big, big part of that is like, you know, the 100 percenters and and how how there's a whole shit ton of little things like that. But even even if the core of the game is like 70% or something like that, that's still insane to me. yeah ah So I don't know if it's the way I'm doing it or not. I might watch some people play. I've never watched anyone play this game. See if maybe I'm i'm missing something. But I have come back to get... You remember the... the the the
01:08:17
Speaker
the controversy ah that I started with Crow Country ah yeah where I did not like it at all. did not like it at all. At all. and then And then like right near the end of the year, I played it and went, oh, I get it. I get it. I get it. Never mind. Never mind. Never mind. Game of the year.
01:08:33
Speaker
Got it. ah So this might end up being like that. This is a very good game to have a laptop ah you know, to be just sitting around ah while your kid watches his, you know, ah legally, ah you know, legally required ration of Bluey.
01:08:51
Speaker
Yeah. ah You know, to just sit down play a little Mugenics or something like that. ah I'm wrapping up ah The fourth expansion for the Dawn of War Definitive Edition ah Soulstorm.
01:09:04
Speaker
I'm almost done with that. And that will mean that I have seen the end credits on all four of the ah the games in that. ah That was money well spent. ah I love it.
01:09:16
Speaker
ah Still playing a little bit of model builder. That's another one that's like ah I'm really enjoying that as just a little piece here and there. I cannot get into the painting aspect of it.
01:09:28
Speaker
I do. I do the bare minimum when it comes to the painting stuff, because it's just too even with a mouse, because I'm mostly playing this on my laptop, even with a mouse, it would be.
01:09:39
Speaker
so not worth the squeeze. I see that there's a Wacom thing with it, so I'm sure there are people there might be people who play this with a tablet or something like that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's who this is for.
01:09:51
Speaker
i do find the process of clipping apart ah you know taking apart imaginary sprues and putting the models together. and And there's no creativity involved whatsoever. And I find that at this point in my life, I'm kind of okay with that with certain games. I'm following the instructions very closely and I'm being rewarded for it. And I like that.
01:10:14
Speaker
ah that's That's nice. I've started playing vampire survivors again. I'm like slowly. of course. Yeah. Yeah. Especially after I got to play the vampire crawlers demo. Oh yeah. Yeah. You're basically just waiting for vampire crawlers to come out. That's literally all I'm doing. I'm going to play the fuck out of that based on the demo. ah And there and you know and and there there are still some achievements I haven't hit with it. And you know there's all the fucking DLC and it's it's still so goddamn charming and and fun. and So I'm enjoying yeah that. ah you know More to the point with the you're talking about Left 4 Dead with ah with your kid. I am waiting for ah the Bluey game to come out. There's a Bluey game, not the first one that came out. It's like the quest for the golden pen.
01:11:03
Speaker
Okay. ah and it's And it's based in, i don't know, the episode where they're like drawing and they're basically playing a D&D campaign. Oh, I don't think I've seen that one.
01:11:13
Speaker
that Oh, it's a very good episode. it's it's like Well, they're all good. i mean They're all great. ah But I have a certain love for that one because it's it's all through, all four of them are drawing themselves as kind of fantasy characters. And the story is them going through this adventure looking for a dragon uh uh to fight the dragon and uh and all the stuff that goes with that it's very cute and like the their chili the mom is like a a really good artist so hers is she's basically made herself into this ranger riding on horseback and she's wonderful and then the kids drawing like kids and you know uh
01:11:53
Speaker
bandit is it made himself into this Conan the Barbarian style character, but it's like it's all it's it's only a step above the kids. um And this this this game, ah it it it's it looks like a kind of an adventure game in that style, ah which I think is really clever. Yeah, it's cute.
01:12:13
Speaker
Yeah, it's really cute, and I think i i know Graham would enjoy hanging out with me while I play that. We can play it together. Because he used to enjoy sitting in my lap and watching me play certain games. Yeah.
01:12:27
Speaker
ah But yeah, so that's that's mostly what we're looking at. Yeah, that that's it. That's me. Oh yeah, this looks really cute. Yeah, yeah, it looks cute. It's, you know, it it looks family friendly. I think the only, you know, the only thing that gives me pause has nothing to do with the game itself, but it's actually an episode that kind of, Graham gets kind of scared.
01:12:49
Speaker
Oh. The episode, there's that there are a couple of dragons that, the whole point is Bluey isn't confident enough to draw a dragon. They're trying to encourage her to finally draw the dragon. and i'll teach you how to draw a dragon a dragon it's it's it's i mean honestly it's it is very tro to now that would be an amazing crossover crossover of the century that is all there' is to it ah but yeah's so but they part blow hear oh we're not drawing a dragon but You got a consummate V's. Consummate. I've got to write that. That's your fan fiction. It's Bluey and Strong Bad crossover. That would be amazing. Anytime one of the dragons is on there, my son will kind of like...
01:13:36
Speaker
cover his eyes it's so sweet and and and you know and and you just want to hold him his mother will be like okay well we can skip it if we i'm not no no no we're not skipping it he he's doing fine he's doing because i remember being that age and being scared of everything sure and you know he's gonna be fine he just has to he just has to see Now all you write are horror stories. Exactly. Nothing, nothing, uh, uh, you know, strange happened, with that. There no, there was no nurture, uh, involved in that whatsoever. So it's all fine. all good.
01:14:15
Speaker
Yeah. That's me. Awesome. All right. Thank you all for listening. Go ahead and follow us on the social medias um and ah and all that fun stuff at Pixelipod on just about everything. And ah now that that ICE has decided to become our ah TSA ah now, free Palestine, fuck ICE, go birds.
01:14:38
Speaker
Yeah. And have a good night.
01:14:46
Speaker
Yeah.