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00:00:01
Featuring RFK Jr (Death Stranding Vol. 1 - Part 2)
3 Plays3 minutes ago
Phil was ill while we recorded this episode! So enjoy while he hacks his way through with a scratchy voice like everyone's least favorite science denying hack of a former lawyer.
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Transcript
00:00:01
Speaker
Uh, you're supposed to say, um, I don't know. ah right. What? You know, who also has things to say? Who's that?
Introduction and Health Updates
00:00:13
Speaker
Hey everybody, welcome back to Pixel It. My name is Kevin with me as always is Phil. And on today's show, we are ah ah part two of Death Stranding, volume one. And if we're lucky, Phil will die and become a BT ah during the course the episode. So we'll get to see what- On camera. On camera. So the reason why there was a gap in episodes is because Phil phil got sick. And I'm going to sit. The whole family got sick. ah little Sweet baby Graham ah Graham Cracker, the sweet, the sweet baby Graham Cracker goes to daycare.
00:00:52
Speaker
um So therefore, phil is learning something that parents have long discovered is that if once your kid goes to daycare, you are really it's daycare is basically a bio weapon.
00:01:06
Speaker
Right. Yeah, it's germ warfare. We're just going to be sick for the rest of our lives, basically. Yeah, you you you come out stronger on the other side of it, um but not before striking deal with ah with with Nurgle.
00:01:22
Speaker
Oh, yes. Yeah. with and And I wish we could get something going here. I'd love to get something out of it. Yeah. But the good news is he is on the mend. He's doing way better ah than his mother and I am are are doing. So ah yeah so that's that's all I give a damn about. a unless that's a figure that's That's all he cares about. That's ah that's a dad right there.
00:01:45
Speaker
God, I hope so. God, he hopes so.
Patreon Promotion
00:01:48
Speaker
You know what else I hope for is ah for people to go on over to pixelitpod.com or patreon.com slash pixelitpod.
00:01:57
Speaker
And, ah you know, join us on our Patreon. It's a wonderful place to be. You can join us for free or it could be $1 and that gets you access to the bonus, to the ad-free episode. $5 gets you access to the bonus episode and $10 gets your name shouted out.
00:02:16
Speaker
in every episode. And to that end, want to thank Jesus Loves You, Kyle, Seaman, Ruth, Smutter, Middle, Thing, Sigma, Sal, Sanguine, Fat, Flatulence, Chuck Beaks, Dumbass, Thick, and Friendly Friend. Thank you so much for being friends.
00:02:28
Speaker
Patreon.com slash PixelitPod. Do it. today. ah So, Phil, before you you pass, you shuffle off this mortal coil, why don't you why don't why don't we put this body in the marsh? Let's marsh this body before we marsh my body.
00:02:44
Speaker
When I tell you to dump a body in the marsh, you dump them in um before we marched his body, you know, because he's one body at a time, baby. One body at a time.
00:02:59
Speaker
um So we are midway through episode three when we left off the well, not midway through like we're not even.
00:03:11
Speaker
Yeah, we're midway through, ah guess. yeah I don't know. Anyway, um early middish. Early mid-ish. ah We left off with ah with Dead Man fixing the BB for Sam um and and all that jazz.
00:03:27
Speaker
So Sam heads off in the direction of the first weigh station, thinks about changes to the planet ah changes his planet that have happened since the movies that Bridget used to show him as a boy.
Death Stranding's Unique Setting
00:03:39
Speaker
ah came out. And I thought this was interesting because it kind of explains why, especially in the like the game, Death Stranding, everything is just like hills, like the Emerald Hills of Ireland or what have you.
00:03:52
Speaker
ah The time fall, the time fall comes through everything. And it everything that was is gone pretty much. um Oh, that's interesting. Yeah, that's true. Yeah, because it's not what you think of when you look at, when you think of a ah post apocalypse you know, you know, dystopian.
00:04:11
Speaker
It's very yeah pastoral. It's very pastoral. The time falls pretty much wipe the slate clean um for the most part. um As he's coming along, he smells that time falls on the way and he goes into a small cave and falls
Sam's Journey and Character Insights
00:04:26
Speaker
asleep.
00:04:26
Speaker
And while he's sleeping in his dream, he sees Amelie on the beach wearing a red dress and she talks to him about the meaning of the word strand. Uh, it could be a rope.
00:04:38
Speaker
It could be some, be your left on a beach. Uh, it can mean so many things. And by the way, your real name is Sam strand. Uh, but he doesn't go by that anymore because he, uh, doesn't want to be associated with any of that stuff.
00:04:56
Speaker
Uh, he denies all this. He wants to be on his own and the dream ends with him clutching his dream catcher. And we cut to we are now at Capital Knot City West Way Station.
00:05:07
Speaker
And we have new point of view character. His name is George Baton, and he works at the way station, which was constructed by Bridges One. We get a recount of the day that they found out about the void out.
00:05:18
Speaker
And then the following day, ah the announcement that bridges to ah Bridges Two had gotten started. ah Sam arrives and looks at the weigh station, which despite only being constructed three years earlier, has aged considerably due to timefall.
00:05:33
Speaker
He considers this in relation to how the surface of the world has changed and reshaped due to timefall and void outs. ah George looks at Sam through the camera and is confused about the fact that there's only one of him.
00:05:45
Speaker
Sam confirms that he's the only member of Bridges 2 and delivers the packages and reconnects them to the chiral network. This is a big emotional moment for George. george George tears up. He starts crying.
00:05:56
Speaker
um George asks Sam to take some packages to the distro center, but to be careful of mules in the areas ahead. Very aggressive package thieves.
00:06:09
Speaker
ah And we'll hear more about the mules in a little bit. um Die Hardman briefs Sam about where to go next, Port Knot City, which is right by Ground Zero. And it's a massive lake that is filled in with water after a gigantic void out.
00:06:25
Speaker
ah They also talk about how mules are basically, they're like the equivalent of billionaires are today. Like they're obsessed with packages and having packages and not that they need the packages.
00:06:38
Speaker
They just, the important thing is having them. They need to acquire as much of it as possible. The idea is is acquisition, not use of packages. Cargo cult shit. Cargo cult. Yeah.
00:06:50
Speaker
Um, We also learned that radio signals don't work well anymore. ah this is a nice little detail. um I was like, why don't i use radios earlier when when i was reading this?
00:07:02
Speaker
ah Because the chiral density changes, ah messes with the frequencies. ah Bridges one, though, had patched together old landlines to get the connections that they do have.
00:07:13
Speaker
ah But they're always under threat from separatists. this is This is around the time for me where the themes of kind of the the the frontier and the new American West and all of that started to come through.
Cultural Interpretations and Humorous Parallels
00:07:27
Speaker
And and it and it was really kind of dawning on me um around this point. And it was just so impressive. Yeah.
00:07:38
Speaker
and and it'll it'll continue to be as, as we go on. And I'm just, I, I, I'm really genuinely impressed with, um, a Japanese mind, um,
00:07:51
Speaker
interpreting the American West, reinterpreting the American West and the frontier and everything like that in such a, ah weirdly accurate kind of a way. Um, and, and giving it this kind of context, this new level of, I was really impressed.
00:08:07
Speaker
Uh, I didn't fully know what to think of it up until now, but at this point I was like, Oh, holy shit, I'm completely sold. Uh, ask me how many years Daniel, Daniel Boone has.
00:08:20
Speaker
How many ears does Daniel Boone have? A left ear, a right ear, and a frontier.
00:08:28
Speaker
i can't believe I've never heard that one before. i I got it from New Girl, um which... that is That is a show that my wife and I have watched front to back twice, and I don't remember anything.
00:08:41
Speaker
I don't remember any specifics except that I thought it was funny. You should watch it again and just really focus on Schmidt. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Schmidt's excellent. Schmidt makes me think of my brother a little bit.
00:08:52
Speaker
He does.
00:08:56
Speaker
My brother's got serious Schmidt vibes. He does have Schmidt vibes. Oh, my God. Oh, no, Chris. Oh, buddy. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.
00:09:07
Speaker
You are one Winston Schmidt. He is Schmidt-coated. isn't the i I think one of my favorite things in the show is that is the reveal that you haven't heard his first name for six seasons.
00:09:19
Speaker
And then it's because he has the same name as one of the others, right? It's has same name as Winston. Yeah. And it's Winston. And his name is Winston Schmidt. And like, I'd be like, oh my God. Yeah. Not even his mom calls him by his first name.
00:09:31
Speaker
That's so funny. Yeah, we watched that ah at the height of COVID. Yeah. And then we watched it again right after right before and right after Graham was born.
00:09:43
Speaker
So we were all ready. It was constantly playing around the clock. Yeah. So it it it hit me, but it didn't get to settle. It didn't settle. Yeah. No, I totally get it. ah it's you It is on the list of of like – ah ah Betty by shows for my wife. It's currently currently Superstore is is the on on rotation.
00:10:08
Speaker
But previous entries in that list are are ah ah New Girl. ah Friends has been ah in the past ah and ah Bob's Burgers.
00:10:22
Speaker
You know shows it's here's the thing is like if the show. had enough episodes to possibly get in syndication, even though syndication, who cares about syndication nowadays? It's really a thing anymore, yeah.
00:10:34
Speaker
Yeah, but if it had enough episodes for syndication, it's a good opportunity. It's a good chance for for ah a Betty Bye show. You know, something that's just on as as we doze off.
00:10:47
Speaker
Where was I?
00:10:50
Speaker
Frontier. Okay. Yes. ah Sam sees some mules as he's hiking and tries to get away from them. Right then there's a time fall and some BTs show up as well. Sam has to duck and cover and hold his breath waiting for the BTs to leave. It's a tense moment where even the movement of Sam's eye is enough to attract the BTs.
00:11:09
Speaker
When the encounter is over, BB seems to be malfunctioning again. Deadman mentions that it can be fixed at the distro center. um I hate I hate anytime the BBs upset it is it really really upsetting yeah it's like the
Character Advice and Flashbacks
00:11:24
Speaker
it's like just the line or like BB starts wailing and I'm like yeah buddy that's no that's exactly it like it's all buddy Oh, it's it's terrible.
00:11:35
Speaker
um Capital not set. He West distribution center. ah Sam arrives at the distro center, drops off the delivery and connects to the chiral network. He goes down into his room and dead man walks him through the process of fixing the BB, which is ah has developed auto taxemia if it's because it's under too much stress.
00:11:54
Speaker
They use the chiral network to virtually connect the incubator in his room to his mother's womb. We get a whole bunch of stuff about still mothers and how they use the connection to spoof the baby still being in the womb. i was like, oh, this is yeah, this is a bummer.
00:12:10
Speaker
yeah We get another scene of dead man telling Sam not to get too attached to the BB because it'll have to be decommissioned sooner or later. And Sam gets pouty. um Later, Sam wakes up in his room and he notices his hair is still wet from the shower. So he goes so he couldn't have been asleep for too long and recounts one of the other Bridges dudes, Hartman, talking to him about all the data they collect from him for Sam's health.
00:12:37
Speaker
ah Sam finds himself talking to Amelie, who mentions that she's not chained up or anything, but still needs help. She mentions to Sam that humans aren't made to live alone, and we need to reconnect to avoid extinction.
00:12:49
Speaker
Sam says it won't change the situation with the BTs, but Amelie says it'll bring hope. ah Sam then falls asleep and has a nightmare about his mother's death. everything like Everything is weird and wrong and a lot more tense than what actually happened, and he wakes up ah after this. He's still clutching onto his dream catcher.
00:13:10
Speaker
um East of the United States of America. ah We have a flashback to the early days of the Death Stranding from the point of view of Victor, Igor's older brother.
00:13:21
Speaker
ah Igor being the guy who gets killed on the corpse but disposal run at the beginning. ah They're taking refuge in a gas station bathroom and each of them ah it has like an astronaut figurine that they hold on to.
00:13:36
Speaker
um When everything started falling apart, people were killing themselves and killing each other. At some point, Victor's father killed himself and then their mother burned his body and herself.
00:13:50
Speaker
The boys had been on their own. Like this story is like this so fucked up. It was like he like so Victor was six and Igor was four when all this when it all went down. Yeah.
00:14:04
Speaker
They're found by UPS delivery driver who takes them to a church where others are taking shelter, saving lives. And it's like continuing on this thing of like, yeah, the people who deliver our stuff are ah like who move things in this world are like fucking heroes, man.
00:14:24
Speaker
Right. Yeah. Yeah.
00:14:28
Speaker
ah We cut to Port Knot City. ah We get a scene of Victor in recent present day ah reacting to the destruction of central Knot City.
00:14:39
Speaker
ah But here is that the president has ordered bridges to to commence. ah And Victor is excited to see his younger brother. um And there's like a message at one point that he plays from Igor ah where Igor is like, Hey, don't, I got hit by some time fall. So don't make fun of me if I look older than you now, ah you know, brother shit.
00:15:00
Speaker
Yeah. And you're like, Oh, Victor, buddy. ah buddy but Like i would say like nine out of 10 things in this book are all buddy. Yeah. That's honest to God.
00:15:14
Speaker
That's the reaction at best. Yeah. but That's you trying to put ah a positive spin on it a little bit. Oh, you kids. Oh, pal.
00:15:24
Speaker
Boy, howdy. you
00:15:30
Speaker
ah um
00:15:34
Speaker
We're in Capital Not City West Distribution Center. ah Meanwhile, ah Sam wakes up from his dream and he hears Die Hardman, who gives him a rundown of the map and the chiral network and all that stuff.
00:15:47
Speaker
Sam takes a shower, ah rips off one of his toenails because it's broken. Just like to really demonstrate. Sam is walking. hundreds of miles you know in these on these trips like that's that's uh that's not lost and it's it's the pony express without the pony it's the pony express that the pony he's got no he's just walking yeah he's walking from the east coast to chicago like think of it like that
00:16:22
Speaker
Yeah, pretty much. um When he gets to the surface of the distro center, he reconnects to BB and has a vision of a man reaching out for him and ah who calling BB his papa.
00:16:36
Speaker
Sam reassures BB he won't let anyone take him away. And that breaks him out of the vision. Yeah. Sam carries on and part of his cargo intended for Portnott City includes anti-BT weaponry based on his own vital fluids.
00:16:50
Speaker
They were designed by Hartman and Mama, who is a theoretical physics genius. Mama, by the way, is ah ah who Margaret Qualley plays in the game. Got it.
00:17:02
Speaker
Okay. um Well, she plays two characters. She plays a set of identical twins, but Mama is one of them. um
00:17:13
Speaker
And it's because Sam is a repatriate that he might have some anti-BT properties. Sam considers whether that makes him equipment to Bridges, much like the BBs. like He starts pondering the philosophical nature of his relationship ah to Bridges. Am I just a piece of gear?
00:17:30
Speaker
if he breaks down, is he going to be treated the same way that they would... you decommission one of the BBs. The BB, yeah. Deadman calls ah Sam and asks him about the vision.
00:17:40
Speaker
Deadman mentions that has to do with any memories that the bp the BB has in its head. in its head that he's The BB is basically a black box. um The BB was already in service at Bridges when Deadman arrived several years ago, so he doesn't know much beyond that.
00:17:57
Speaker
Deadman promises he'll look into it more as Sam arrives at Portnott City.
00:18:03
Speaker
In Port Knot City, ah we are we get a scene with Victor Frank deep in thought about America and Reconstructionism in space when Sam arrives.
00:18:16
Speaker
He's stunned that Sam is the only member of Bridges 2 and looks at the cargo readout. Victor asks Sam where he got the astronaut figure. And Sam's like, well, it came with the BB. And and then that came from Igor with corpse disposal.
00:18:31
Speaker
And then Sam tells Victor about being with Igor at the end. ah Victor considers it a miracle that Sam was able to witness everything and still decided to do the expedition. ah And Victor tells Sam to take good care of of the action figure.
00:18:47
Speaker
Here's the thing is like Victor has is like having a moment of like realizing his brother is dead. Yeah. Notice nine times out of 10, Sam says fucking nothing.
00:19:00
Speaker
Yeah. he He basically just stands there while people have their emotional breakdowns. and so And inside Sam's mind, he's like, geez. and And Sam says nothing.
00:19:13
Speaker
And he's like, thanks. Thanks. and leave. It just walks away.
Sam's Fears and Battles
00:19:19
Speaker
like i mean, it's everything from the death of his, you know, discovering his mother to like, you know, that mother's death and like everything about this guy's life has been this really harsh tragedy.
00:19:32
Speaker
ah So I don't know. It's, it's, yeah, it's, it's taking the stiff upper lip thing to a gross extreme. Yeah. Yeah. ah His, his phobia of being touched.
00:19:44
Speaker
Yeah. Affin phasmophobia, believe it's what is, what they call it. um Almost extends to a fear of being, making any sort of human connection at all.
00:19:58
Speaker
Whoa. Deep. Deep.
00:20:05
Speaker
Hashtag deep. hashtag Hashtag Amelie. ah Sam sees a hologram of Amelie, but it seems more of like a prerecorded message of her talking about Portnott City being reconnected to the grid.
00:20:18
Speaker
It was like ready to go once Portnott City was reconnected. and ah Sam decides not to worry about about anything for now and just goes off to his room. when he gets up When he wakes up and gets ready, he recalls the conversation he had with Victor and Di Hardman about the anti-BT weapons, that he would use them first to test them on his journey.
00:20:39
Speaker
ah When him and the BB arrive back on the surface, he sees a massive storm brewing and he starts to feel sick. um And he it's a storm that he describes as having malice.
00:20:50
Speaker
ah And that's the thing is they also talk about here is that the reason like cities and shelters and stuff like that are built in certain areas that have are tend to not have a lot of time fall.
00:21:05
Speaker
Like they might still have time fall, but like these massive storms aren't ah because they're built an area with lower chiral density and chiral density is what determines time fall.
00:21:20
Speaker
Like these storms aren't supposed to be here. And he sees this storm and he's like, he looks at the storm. It's like, this storm is here for me. You know, there's no like, there's no reason. It's a storm with a vengeance.
00:21:34
Speaker
And the ground starts to become tar-like and Sam has, memories starts having memories of regrets, like not saving Igor. And he begins falling into a depression when he's greeted by a man named Higgs.
00:21:47
Speaker
Higgs is a separatist and seemingly unaffected by the storm around them. ah Higgs gives a big I'm the bad guy speech talking about how um ah Amelia is ah an extinction entity and blames Fragile for dragging i dragging ah Sam into this mess.
00:22:09
Speaker
And after the weird showdown, he leaves having summoned a massive BT monster to attack Sam. Sam takes cover and realizes that the BB wasn't the only thing yet he was entrusted with, but with Igor's dream.
00:22:23
Speaker
Here's a voice in his head that tells him to run as the BT moves in closer. Sam grabs the grenade from his backpack. It starts sucking blood from his palm and filling it until it looks like he's holding a heart.
00:22:35
Speaker
He throws it and the first grenade stuns the BT. He throws a second one and the BT swallows it, causing it to burst from light from the inside, severing its connection from the land of the living.
00:22:49
Speaker
I'm sure but it's he's throwing his like his heart at these things. To kill them is you know metaphor. The metaphors are, yeah. The metaphors are, you know i know ah writers use subtext and they're all cowards. They're all cowards, yeah.
00:23:06
Speaker
That's very, it's very that.
00:23:09
Speaker
Very that. um Victor thanks Sam and tells him that these weapons, he should be able to cross the lake safely. Hartman cuts in and tells Sam that their theory was proven, but he still doesn't know why the blood of repatriates work on BTs like that.
00:23:24
Speaker
Hartman cuts the call off and Sam is aching all over. oh That's the end of episode three.
Fragile's Past and Narrative Connections
00:23:32
Speaker
Uh, we're in episode four now called fragile.
00:23:36
Speaker
Um, I forgot to mention fragile was there when Higgs was like yelling at Sam, but she gets thrown. Oh, she like disappears. Um, and we'll find out more about that, uh, in this upcoming thing of why she can just vanish like that.
00:23:53
Speaker
Um, Sam is on Fragile's boat crossing the lake as he considers the philosophical implications of the sea versus the ocean and the beach and the stuff that bridge Bridget had told him when he was young.
00:24:05
Speaker
ah Fragile tells Sam a little bit about Higgs. He's an asshole and he's the leader of the Separatist group. And Fragile believes he has level seven or higher dooms. Um, she mentions that she used to have a contract with him and Sam gets all judgy for her working with terrorists, even though she assures him it wasn't like that back then.
00:24:25
Speaker
Fragile finds that he's dropped that photo. Sam has dropped the photo again, the photo of him with the two women and hands it back to him and then asked for a favor regarding Higgs, uh, which gets cut off. We don't actually see here what the favor is.
00:24:40
Speaker
ah The scene is interrupted, but it's ah with an Amelie dream. ah It's a memory from when he was younger with Amelie on the beach. He doesn't want to leave her, but she gives him the dream catcher.
00:24:53
Speaker
Sam and Amelie are also watching this memory. So this is this memory is happening. And then we zoom out to Sam and Amelie watching the memory happen.
00:25:06
Speaker
And yeah, like present day Sam and present day Amelie are together watching younger Sam and Amelie in the dream. And Sam goes, so why can't you just come back east through your beach? And her response is not until you make us whole again.
00:25:24
Speaker
She's enveloped by darkness and then says, come and find me. um Not Until You Make Us Whole Again is real dead space. Very.
00:25:35
Speaker
Very. Yes. Absolutely. ah um New scene, Lake Knot City. ah Sam wakes up back on the boat. It's already but at port.
00:25:47
Speaker
And Fragile says, i don't know how you sleep. She offers him a cryptobio and he turns it down. Sam gets up and realizes that he doesn't have the photo anymore and gets a little anxious about it.
00:25:59
Speaker
Fragile has some cargo for him to deliver as they get off the boat and then tells him, ah later, alligator, because she's she's cute like that. um At a terminal, Sam ah talks to Amelie about what needs to happen next. She talks about how the separatists had nuked two of the major cities on the lake, one of which was still mostly standing.
00:26:19
Speaker
She also gives the rundown about how Fragile Express maintained the delivery infrastructure um mostly, and that because a lot of places have been destroyed, ah ah Sam was going to need to convince the preppers to connect to the chiral network.
00:26:35
Speaker
Die Hardman then tells him that he'll be going under the guise of the Fragile Express to talk to the preppers and get them online. Fragile has already expressed her support for it in exchange for a chance at revenge against Higgs.
00:26:49
Speaker
and I forgot to mention that Higgs in his little I'm the bad guy speech talks about his name, his chosen name Higgs because of the ah Higgs boson, the God particle.
00:27:02
Speaker
um yeah It's at the at the base of everything.
00:27:07
Speaker
it's a very ah It's a very humble nickname. Very humble nickname. It was like, oh, Higgs. Oh, okay. for God. um Changed it from Jehovah.
00:27:18
Speaker
Changed it from Jehovah. Used to be shithouse. Good change. Good change. um I want to do a super cut of all the Richard Lewis, uh, just good, us good changing back and forth. that's got i mean, that's low key, like gotta to be one of our bigger references. That's funny.
00:27:39
Speaker
but You don't think about that one all the time, but absolutely. It's yeah Kevin and Phil say good change to each other for an hour. change It's a good change. good shape Um,
00:27:52
Speaker
ah So where did I? Okay. Sam has another dream slash memory of seeing Amelie on the beach as a kid, bringing her a necklace called a kipu.
00:28:05
Speaker
ah Then she looks directly in into his eyes and merges the past and the future, causing to have a brief moment. Fragile then wakes him up. ah She offers him a crypto bio. He again refuses.
00:28:16
Speaker
She's always trying to share these little things with him, but nasty food, nasty food. It's like, have you seen what it looks like in the game? No, it's a, it looks like basically a giant tardigrade.
00:28:35
Speaker
It's like tardigrade. It looks like it looks like a rhino beetle larva or something. Yeah, just look up crypto bio. To me, it looks like a tardigrade. um ah Basically, the size of cockroach.
00:28:53
Speaker
Oh, yeah, that's awful. Jesus Christ. Jesus, that's somehow worse. Yeah, that's terrible. It's terrible. um So ah ah she's there to drop off a bracelet that would identify him as part of Fragile Express.
00:29:09
Speaker
And he also taught and also she talks about how she was the only port ah porter game in town ah in the area until Higgs came along and ruined everything. Fragile also shows Sam how she can use her beach to jump through space.
00:29:25
Speaker
ah She does this trick basically where like she takes that out her her umbrella and she like jumps behind him and the umbrella is still like floating in the air and then like jumps back to catch the umbrella.
00:29:38
Speaker
It is like neat. Yeah. Everyone's real casual with these miraculous things they can do. You notice that? Yeah. Yeah. it's like It's like, really? like sam Sam shows, again, says pretty much nothing in this entire scene.
00:29:57
Speaker
Right. He's like, yeah, so what? You can do your fucking... Floaty magic thingy, whatever. It sounds like whatever, whatever the world was is already over and it's ending just very slowly and fragile is like, you want a crypto bio?
00:30:15
Speaker
ah
00:30:18
Speaker
come i i gotta I think an argument could be made that you could picture him as Napoleon Dynamite based on the way yeah he reacts to things.
00:30:29
Speaker
It's Norman Reedus playing whole Napoleon Dynamite. Right, right. God. um
00:30:39
Speaker
ah Yeah, so she it takes a lot of out of her, though, and she needs to eat ah more crypto by its. She offers Sam use of her beach. Hey, now um yeah to basically fast travel.
00:30:52
Speaker
And he said he'll think about it. ah Sam grabs the map of the preppers. Yeah, he needs to deliver to and begins walking through an area that doesn't really get hit by timefall. So remnants of the old world are still there, like old cars and roads and stuff.
00:31:09
Speaker
ah Sam then comes to a hill where you can see the remains of Middle Knot City. Hartman hops on the comms and tells them how most people were killed by the nuclear blast. ah But those that weren't immediately killed turned into BTs.
00:31:22
Speaker
But as long as no one approaches Middle Knot, there shouldn't be any issues. I done done. Like, are we going to exposition is a literary device made to. Yeah. but ah Sam thinks to back when he was a young in and all into American reconstructionism, but now he just wants to deliver
Elder's Critique on America
00:31:42
Speaker
packages. And maybe when the last package is delivered to the last human, he'll rest in peace.
00:31:50
Speaker
Oh, Sam, you're so sad. um really is. He really is. He should talk to somebody. He should really talk to somebody. ah Central United States were in a flashback from the point of view a proper called the elder witnessing pretty much the end of normal society as he smokes a cigarette.
00:32:10
Speaker
He's an immigrant who was left in America alone because his parents were deported and he'll likely never see them again. Oh boy, this this book just keeps being very, very prescient.
00:32:23
Speaker
um he Keeps piling it on. Keeps piling it on. Years later, elder Elder is now older than his parents ever were, and he buzzes in a delivery man, the leader of the Fragile Express.
00:32:34
Speaker
The man complains to elder about the fact that his place is high up on a cliff. And he also tells him two things that Bridget strand is still trying to rebuild America. And elders responses, elders responses. He calls her medic megalomaniacal and talks about how old America's penchant for building walls.
00:32:51
Speaker
And also the second amendment, uh, they throw in some second amendment stuff for good measure. Like, yeah, but they, you know, they had the second amendment and elders like, yeah, just let their citizens kill each other.
00:33:03
Speaker
um It's like, mean yeah okay, Kojima.
00:33:10
Speaker
I get it. We get it. Yeah. but We know we look like a bunch of fucking barbarians to you guys. And you're right. You're right. Right. um But hey, in Japan, when they want someone dead, they build a they build a gun at home and shoot a former prime minister.
00:33:26
Speaker
i Yes, they do. Yes, they do. nice They sure do. Yeah. um The other news is that he's going to have a baby ah and the girl's going be named Fragile.
00:33:41
Speaker
And you're like, oh, that's that's Fragile's daddy. um hey I know a character named Fragile. I know character named Fragile. ah Lake Knot City Outskirts, Elder's Shelter.
00:33:52
Speaker
ah Sam arrives at the Elder's place and Elder basically tells him to drop the cargo and head right back out out the way he came because of his association with bridges. Elder basically tells him he's not reconnected to any dig dang chiral network and Sam leaves, feeling he doesn't have the right to tell the man otherwise. Okay.
00:34:13
Speaker
um Lake Knot City Outskirts Engineer's Shelter. Sam arrives at the engineer's shelter, who is more than willing to connect to the chiral network in exchange for looking at some of the tech that Sam is delivering.
00:34:25
Speaker
He mentions how the chiral network runs through the beach, which allows access to data from the past. Sam connects them to the Chiral Network and the engineer is ecstatic. Then the engineer mentions that he heard a rumor that the Fragile Express had been helping terrorists and that Fragile was but responsible for the bomb attack in Middle Nut City.
00:34:44
Speaker
Sam doesn't believe that Fragile would intentionally get involved with terrorists, but doesn't think that she's, quote, whiter than white.
00:34:53
Speaker
I don't know. Lea Seydoux is pretty pale. Pretty pale. Pretty pale. ah ah Craftsman shelter. ah The craftsman expands on the rumors that the engineer mentioned that they used Fragile's beach to deliver the bomb and that Fragile was caught red handed on a security camera.
00:35:11
Speaker
Then the craftsman goes on a rant about why do weapons even exist in the first place? La da da da da. ah Sam eventually is allowed to connect him to the chiral network and the craftsman is working on non-lethal weapons.
00:35:23
Speaker
As Sam leaves, he gets a notification to head back to elders shelter. Cut back to the Elder's Shelter. Elder has a package for Sam to deliver with no immediate timeline um at just as soon as he's able to.
00:35:38
Speaker
He also asks Sam to to connect the shelter the to the Chiral Network. He talks to Sam about how he knows that he doesn't have much time left, and he just wants to reflect on the past a little bit with Sam on the topic of Bridges 1.
00:35:51
Speaker
We jump to a flashback. Elder is confronting someone from the Fragile Express about the bombing soon after they happened, asking if Fragile herself was involved, like people were saying. The deliverer man denies it and says that they were used and the bomb was slipped into the cargo without them knowing.
00:36:08
Speaker
A city called Bonneville was renamed Portnott City when Bridges One moved through. When Bridges One came through, the separatist attacks rose, but Bridges said that once they were able to connect to the chiral network, that they would be able to build a wall to stop them.
00:36:22
Speaker
This is what Elder was not happy about. Because he's like, ah, you know, the Americans always building know, they should be building bridges everywhere. you know they they should be building bridges But not those bridges, not the bridges that they're talking about. Different bridges.
00:36:42
Speaker
Different bridges. Anyway, fuck America. That's basically elders. I mean, yeah.
00:36:50
Speaker
That's Elder's point of view. um Higgs had offered to help Fragile at a time when her delivery service was getting overwhelmed after her dad died with an offer to connect America together.
00:37:02
Speaker
He would help with the redistribution of resources and that it was possible to avoid BTs, but it was Bridges' fault that not everyone had the technology. Eventually, Higgs turns ah turns and used Fragile's dooms for nuking for the ah nuking of the two cities, and that's why she went wants revenge on him.
00:37:21
Speaker
Elder also mentions that connecting people isn't just about making connections stronger, but treating the connections with care and consideration. Elder also says he hasn't been a prepper.
00:37:33
Speaker
He's been a parasite, just relying on others like Fragile to live his life. Sam connects the shelter and leaves. And now that elders on the shelter, his vitals will be monitored so that he wouldn't turn into a BT when he passed.
00:37:47
Speaker
Sam thinks to himself as he leaves, guess I'm just the Vanguard guard hired by a company of grim reapers. Yeah. Yeah.
00:37:58
Speaker
Yeah. So Phil, what, what are your thoughts on, on this second chunk of the book? It's, um, I stand by what I said before, where it's just the, I'm impressed with ah the thought that has gone into ah writing about the American West and and frontierism and all that stuff and the folly of it and everything like that.
Writing Depth and Game Lore
00:38:22
Speaker
Yeah. um He doesn't always get it right. And he is intensely melodramatic at times, which is fine. ah But, I mean, it's it's still a really impressive world that he's made. And i it it has done the thing that nothing else has been able to. it made me actually want to play this game.
00:38:39
Speaker
Right. ah Which says a lot because i had no interest in this game. None whatsoever. Yeah. ah Yeah. What about you? Yeah, ah it's it's interesting. um I think this middle section here is very much... ah There's a lot of exposition happening yeah during this this chunk. And i think ah what I'll say is that the world's...
00:39:06
Speaker
And kind of the central mystery of yeah of it carries a lot in ah in a scenario where the character is... like Sam, ah as a character, as as a protagonist, is not not that interesting. um He's just kind of moody and grumpy. Yeah. ah And we know there's some shit that will probably get revealed about...
00:39:36
Speaker
hit like Amelie and his mom and him and all that. But it's at the same time, it's like, yeah there's not a lot to care about for Sam no because he is just so disconnected. And maybe that's part of it is that you got a guy who he was like basically burned out.
00:39:57
Speaker
He was like a, he was a young Republican when he was, when he was a kid, and right? He got caught on a group chat and, yeah,
00:40:07
Speaker
um No, he was, he was, but that's basically what the, like the, the bridges kind of gives a little bit of a MAGA vibe. um Make an air, make America connected again. Sure.
00:40:21
Speaker
but Yeah. um And it's also got it got like this exceptionalism kind of thing. That nationalism vibe. Exceptionalism nationalism. So you kind of get the preppers. You kind of you definitely understand Elder comes in as a very pointed critique of the whole thing.
00:40:42
Speaker
Like. Yeah, connection is super important, but it's not just like going about and making the strongest connection in the world like Bridges wants to do with the Chiral Network. It's about actually fucking caring.
00:40:57
Speaker
It's about making the right connection. About making the right connection and then treating the connection well. And that's something that you see with the Bridges folks. They consistently don't do.
00:41:10
Speaker
um Deadman is constantly saying, oh, yeah, the BB is just a piece of equipment. And Hartman is like, yes, how are how are the weapons going? Yeah.
00:41:24
Speaker
And Die Hard Man is basically like, shut the fuck up, Sam, and deliver the packages. Yeah. There's a fe fetishistic quality ah to the way some people treat this stuff. it's It's very strange. Yeah. 100%. So yes, the game The game.
00:41:40
Speaker
book i'd say yes the um
00:41:46
Speaker
the game is the game the book is It's very, I like it, but not because, not for character reasons, which is usually a red flag for me. um Interesting, okay.
00:42:02
Speaker
But i think that's fine. You know, the plot and the the law and the world, it does a lot of heavy lifting for me. Yeah. Yeah.
00:42:13
Speaker
So i agree. Yeah. Yeah. So that's, that's, that's my thoughts on it so far. ah Phil, have one more thing to ask you. Oh, please. What are you playing?
Gaming Experiences and Recommendations
00:42:26
Speaker
Oh, well, um actually, mostly what I've been playing, because it's been a ah lot of days of me staying home with my kid. um So I kept my Switch handy ah and I went ahead and and really got into playing and finishing up ah the pixel remaster of Final Fantasy two.
00:42:47
Speaker
um which when we read ah that trilogy that first trilogy about the first three games we talked a little bit about this but ah yeah it's it is fascinating how different final fantasy 2 is from final fantasy 1 in the sense of the yeah just the the mechanics of it.
00:43:09
Speaker
you're It's very Elder Scrolls in the sense that like to get better at a certain weapon or a certain spell, you have to use it constantly and you're building up levels of it that way. um It changes the dynamic.
00:43:21
Speaker
ah It's a far more involved story than the first one, which was more of a generic, you're adventurers and you're off to do this thing. With this, each character has their own storyline. and and Sure. and it's so It's basically taken everything that Final Fantasy 1 started up with and ah cranked it up.
00:43:41
Speaker
it's It's just the kind of game you'd want to have when you're sitting sick with your kid and you're just wanting pretty... simple-ish JRPG kind of game to just sit there and waste some time on. um and And it has a surprising amount of complexity I've i've i've enjoyed. um I've played a few demos, most of them not really even worth mentioning. i will say one that I played that was totally worth mentioning is Clover Pit.
00:44:09
Speaker
Have you seen this? I have. i i I actually bought it, but I haven't really played it much. um But I bought it based on the fact that I watched Northern Line play it.
00:44:20
Speaker
Yeah. A bunch. Yeah. For anyone who who hasn't played this, it's basically a ah it's a slot machine simulator, but you are like a prisoner ah in in this like undisclosed location. You have to hit certain goals and the goals keep going up as you hit them.
00:44:38
Speaker
It's very um ah Luck be a landlord. It's got that same capitalist vibe kind of thing going. um There's some parody to it. It's very... It also makes me think of...
00:44:52
Speaker
What's the one? um Buckshot Roulette. Yes. All of that just grimy, grungy kind of thing. I couldn't get past certain ah thresholds for love nor money.
00:45:05
Speaker
ah but But I really dig what they're doing. Yeah. So I think it's absolutely worth ah worth the play. It's something you could really, really get ah yeah stuck on. So ah that's that's been me. What about you, Kevin? What have you playing?
00:45:21
Speaker
Um, let's see. Oh, I've been playing too much. So much since last we spoke. Um, okay. Uh, Absolum. Have you heard about this?
00:45:34
Speaker
um it sounds familiar. Absalom is a side scrolling beat-em-up meets Hades. um So you play you can play as one of four characters and it's it's very much like the old... like it's Kind of reminds me of like like the Dungeons and Dragons. Yeah. Beat them up. um So you can play one of four characters and ah there's branching paths that that you can go through different levels.
00:46:08
Speaker
And then you're you get you like get XP and stuff like that. And then when you die, you're resurrected back at base and you can invest.
00:46:19
Speaker
So ah certain things that you get um unlock abilities or upgrade spells uh and uh or like finisher moves and things like that um and then you just like you keep going right and you you you go down the little paths and over the time over time like you'll have people asking you to do certain quests so it'd be like You have to go down this certain path and and there will be like a special boss fight in, you know, down this path that you you might have gone down it before and there was nothing, but now there's like a boss fight.
00:46:56
Speaker
It's really cool. I love the art style. um It's a very pretty game. Absalom, I heartily recommend it.
00:47:07
Speaker
And I just see on its Steam page, it has sold 200,000 copies. Wow, good for them. Yeah, good for them. and The people who made it, ah let me let me double check this.
00:47:22
Speaker
Yeah, the people who made it, this is their first like original IP. um Previously, they made a game called ah was Metal Slug. They've made Metal Slug Tactics.
00:47:38
Speaker
Might and Magic Clash of Heroes, Streets of Rage 4, Windjammers 2, Turtle Shredder's Revenge. That's like their thing. They kind of like come in and make these like modern retro games is what it says.
00:47:58
Speaker
so And so Absalom is like their first game that is, that's it's theirs. Everything in it is that is something they created at whole cloth. So, um yeah, it's it's ah it's really cool.
00:48:12
Speaker
And I hope we can see more ah of the world of Absalom from them. And the characters are really cool. there's like So there's four characters.
00:48:24
Speaker
And even though the basic attacks, like the basic, the buttons do all the same things, right? So it's like it's like ah punch, special attack,
00:48:35
Speaker
Um, and then there's like, ah each person gets, uh, two spell slots. Um, but they play very differently. So, uh, one character, ah I can't remember name. She has like a, she has like a yellow cloak on and red hair and a mask.
00:48:53
Speaker
And she's like, kind of like a, um, what are those things in Dungeons and Dragons that are like, um, They're like machine people.
00:49:05
Speaker
ah Oh, and Everon. um Fuck, i can't I know what you're talking about. You know what i'm talking about, though. um She's kind of like that. And she does this thing with her special where she throws her arm and it goes like go-go gadget arms across the screen.
00:49:20
Speaker
And she grabs the enemy and it pulls her all the way into the enemy. uh on at like right on top so you can like have her fling into an enemy and punch somebody um and then you can do the you can do like juggles with her so if like basically the enemy gets launched you do the the arm ah the arm thing again and like get closer punch and you can like send them to the top of the screen it's it's so cool like figuring out how the different the very simple control schemes
00:49:51
Speaker
lead to some some fun combos with these different characters. um So yeah, Absalom. ah Check it out. ah Also, I've been playing Road to Empress.
00:50:06
Speaker
ah So for those of you who remember a couple weeks ago when we had Jesse Cox on the show, he mentioned Road to Empress.
00:50:19
Speaker
um in his what are you playing segment and was like it's stuck in the back of my mind and then i saw northern lion play it was like okay all right well let's give this a shot um road to empress it's an fmv you just you know it fmv with all the the fixings of an fmv where you oh yeah you uh scene plays and then you have an option of like three things to say right uh Road to Empress is probably is hilarious because it might be one of the most ah guards seize her ah games that I've ever played because almost every every situation you're in, it's like two options will get you killed. One option continues the story.
00:51:04
Speaker
And then it'll be like you an ah a choice you made earlier on has already made this entire sequence a dead end. You just don't know it yet.
00:51:16
Speaker
Like there was a dinner, right? And I i had, i had, i wore red dress and I sang a ah song and apparently, so like the main character's real talent is singing. She's an amazing singer.
00:51:31
Speaker
And ah so wearing the red dress and choosing to sing the song at the dinner for the emperor, gets too much attention on your character. You don't know that yet, but because you still have to play out the rest of the dinner and a moment in the dinner where you're like accused of like causing a girl to go to her death and you have to defend yourself and all that stuff. And then later that night you come home and somebody kills you because youve got you drew too much attention to yourself at the dinner.
00:52:03
Speaker
It's amazing. Because you wore a red dress. So basically you can wear the red dress. There's two options. There's a red dress and a green dress. You can wear either, but you can't wear the red dress and sing.
00:52:16
Speaker
you ah You can wear the red dress and dance and your dancing's fine. It's passable. Or you can wear the green dress and sing. um But you can't, doing the singing and the red dress,
00:52:32
Speaker
You just make yourself to too much. Too much. Too much for for the other courtesans and consorts that are in attendance. That's hilarious. They can't be having you getting the emperor's attention like that. Making them look bad.
00:52:48
Speaker
You're making everybody look bad here. um And the emperor, of course, would be like, if he heard you died, he'd be like, ah, well... So it goes. And then, you know.
00:53:03
Speaker
What was her name again? what's Yeah, what was her name again? She was cool. yeah um On to the next one. ah Yeah. So Road to Empress. It's it's ah think of it as a really high budget sea drama FMV.
00:53:20
Speaker
I thoroughly recommend you, Phil, play it specifically. um I don't know why. i just think you would get a kick in. I definitely got to get a look at this. You're an FMV guy. You like the FMV.
00:53:35
Speaker
it's it's it's It's just delightfully melodramatic. And somebody said when they were watching Northern Lion play it, um quiet, my program is on.
00:53:47
Speaker
um That's basically the and level of energy that you're going to have. That's the yeah. Yeah. It's so inexpensive for the production value of this For the production value in it and its price. It's like, damn. they're I guess they're just hoping to move a lot of units.
00:54:03
Speaker
3,000, 4,000 reviews. Only 377 English reviews. Interesting. Yeah.
00:54:09
Speaker
reviews only three hundred seventy seven english reviews so steve yeah So get in there, English speakers. Sure, the subtitles move fast ah because they they do not slow down. It is spoken in Chinese and it just b everything they're saying blitzes right by, including the subtitles. Really? Oh, wait, what?
00:54:33
Speaker
Oh, no, I missed it. Yeah, you got to pay attention. You got to pay attention. um I've been playing Hades 2. I think I might have mentioned that last time. It's Hades 2. You like Hades?
00:54:47
Speaker
Play Hades 2. It's more Hades with sport with more more stuff. um I've been playing a lot of Stardew Valley recently with my daughter. ah we're We're having a grand old time playing the co-op with Stardew Valley. So, so Phil, i'm I'm looking forward to when Graham is old enough.
00:55:05
Speaker
ah to for you and and him to play Stardew Valley or Warhammer. I don't know. Or both. Or both. um And as of ah yesterday, ball x Pit is out.
00:55:24
Speaker
I cannot wait to play this game. played the crap out of the demo. um And the demo save carries over into the game. So if you're like me and put way too much time into the demo, that time is not lost. Your money shows up.
00:55:42
Speaker
ah Everything that you've done is comes into the game and ah you're good to go. So I have ah have a bunch of money ah already in the game. you I've put five hours into it already.
00:55:54
Speaker
Nice. It's become a... I'm getting that one for Switch specifically because I feel like that's going to be like... is it and has Did it come out in Switch already or is it coming out? I believe it i believe it is, but I could be wrong. Let me see. Yeah, that's that's a perfect Switch game because it's my Steam Deck game right now.
00:56:10
Speaker
ah Right. Between that and Hades 2, I'm eating good on the Steam Deck. Yeah. So, yeah, that's a ball expert that I but i play in that. and And that's everything that I have been playing.
00:56:27
Speaker
thanks sir Yeah.
Conclusion and Social Media Promotion
00:56:29
Speaker
So we're going go ahead and wrap up and and and finish up. And if you want to follow us on social media, ah you can.
00:56:42
Speaker
Blue Sky. ah You can go to our Discord, the link to which is on our Patreon, or I believe I started linking to it at the bottom of the episodes.
00:56:54
Speaker
And the Instagram is another one. and blueberry pie. Gotta get that pumpkin pie.
00:57:09
Speaker
Yeah, so that'll be it. Thanks for listening, everybody. Bye.