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To Adventure! (Crimson Skies: Paladin Blake and the Case of the Phantom Prototype)
107 Plays54 minutes ago
I'm a sucker for these kinds of pure adventure stories so we are having a good time with this one. In this episode we read the novella by Eric Nylund set in the Crimson Skies universe (which seems like it is fresh for revisting to be honest).
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Synopsis
Welcome to the world of Crimson Skies. The United States is a land torn apart by epidemic and war. With chaos on the ground, America’s highways have been forced into the skies, a lawless new frontier where the flying ace—hero, pirate, villain—is king. Here are the exciting, danger-packed adventures of three such daredevils.
The Case of the Phantom Prototype . A hefty payday convinced dogfight genius Paladin Blake to fly a top-secret aircraft into the Mojave Desert. But on this job, Blake must not only save himself, but thousands of others slated for death by an unseen foe.
“Genghis” Kahn & the Manchurian Gambit. Why is the notorious leader of the Red Skull Legion pirate gang rescuing a lady in distress, returning gold, and duking it out in blazing air battles from Manhattan to Manchuria with no plunder in sight? Wonders never cease.
Bayou Blues. Ever since flying ace Nathan Zachary made a pirate ship out of a stolen zeppelin, the gentleman air-pirate and his “Fortune Hunters” gang have roamed the globe in search of money, fame, and adventure. But a double-dealing Cajun sky-thief, a crooked businessman, and a pair of star-crossed lovers may just trump this ace in a high-stakes, high-altitude con game.
Swashbuckling adventures of your favorite flying aces, in all their guts and glory, against a backdrop of blazing
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to Pixel Podcast and Crimson Skies
00:00:00
Speaker
They got to get that one deal and then their life will turn around, you know? ah my God. That's how it'll be. Yeah. yeah That is too funny.
00:00:12
Speaker
You know who else has that one deal that'll turn their life around? Who's that? Hey there, everybody. Welcome back to Pixel. My name is Kevin. With me as always is Phil on today's show. ah We are starting Crimson Skies, which is not a book. It's a collection of three short stories.
00:00:29
Speaker
yeah ah And it's based on the Crimson Skies. ah Well, I'm going to be specific. It's based on the Crimson Skies board game.
00:00:40
Speaker
which was designed by ah John Howard and Jordan Weissman. ah Jordan Weissman, if that name sounds familiar, ah also did Shadowrun.
History and Video Game Adaptations of Crimson Skies
00:00:56
Speaker
it Yeah, yeah, big, big Shadowrun designer. Yeah. ah Yeah, so star trek the Star Trek III Starship combat game, Battletech, Shadowrun, Earthdawn, Crimson Skies, MechWarrior Dark Age, Aerotech II, and Gollum Arcana.
00:01:13
Speaker
ah That's his... ah That's his tabletop credentials. And then he also was involved in the design of the, ah what the book is really based on is the arcade ah flight sim game ah that came out in 2000s. And it was a it was both PC and Xbox, right?
00:01:37
Speaker
No, the first one was Xbox. I'm sorry. The first one was Crimson Skies, which was PC only. Okay. And then in 2003, Xbox released high wrote Crimson Skies High Road to Revenge. Okay. Which this is basically written in tandem with. In tandem with High Road to Revenge.
00:01:56
Speaker
There's a bunch, but there's also like collections of stories and and and that kind of thing from the original shit, which I had no idea. Yeah. Spicy air tales, which started before it's based. it it It started before the game came out.
00:02:12
Speaker
It came out. It's it's like there's the tabletop and then the first short story started coming out called the spicy air tales in 1999. Yeah. um Including ah one written by Michael Stackpole.
00:02:25
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. It's it's why it's yeah. I love it.
Exploring the Alternate Universe of Crimson Skies
00:02:31
Speaker
i i I just I think this is fascinating because I only ah the only the only experience with this game I have is the Xbox game, um which was literally the second Xbox game I ever owned. um I must have played through it like three times. This game fucking rules. So um I knew they did like a hero clicks game. i did not know it was board game.
00:02:53
Speaker
I didn't know there was an original PC game. Yeah, I don't know. And that's the thing is, is as I'm reading the the stuff about the board game, It doesn't, there's not a lot of stuff about the board game. Like the Wikipedia on it is very thin.
00:03:08
Speaker
And i don't know if it's taken you this long long to realize, dear listeners, that I really don't go beyond the Wikipedia when I'm this. when I'm talking before the the what in the first episode of a series, because who has the time? Yeah.
00:03:25
Speaker
But maybe if a whole bunch of you who aren't already at Patreon dot com slash Pixel Pod go over there and you know, just pitch a little bit of money, you know, it's like $1 to get the ad free episode, $5 to get the bonus episode or $10 to get your name shouted out in every episode.
00:03:45
Speaker
ah To that end, I want to thank Jesus loves you. Kyle Seaman, Ruthless Mudder, Middle Think Sigma, Sal, Sanguine Flatulence, Chut Beaks, Dumbeth, Thick, and Friendly Friend.
00:03:56
Speaker
ah Thank you for being a friend. Patreon.com slash PixelipPod. Do it today. So the Crimson Size Board Game I don't know what it is like. It looks like Battletech to me.
00:04:11
Speaker
okay it It looks similar to that. Got it. And then there was the WizKids Heroclix style. Okay, it is a Heroclix game.
00:04:23
Speaker
Yes. It uses the click my system. Got it. Okay. And I think that was interesting because that one, as opposed to just being flight, ah you also had ah actual you at you had the pilots and the figures. So I think there was ah i think there was a flight aspect to the game, and I think there was also a boots on the ground aspect to the game. Interesting. which which you don't really hear about ah with games.
Diesel Punk Genre and Key Characters
00:04:50
Speaker
usually one or the other.
00:04:51
Speaker
um yeah So, yeah, interesting stuff. I'm going to have to look more into it because i because this world fucking rules. It's a really cool world. I think it's really neat. um Yeah, and I've really enjoyed reading...
00:05:09
Speaker
reading this first story yeah and we like getting into this world because let me tell you, i was as a kid, I was a huge fan of the Rocketeer. and Oh, yeah, yeah. this The Rocketeer is is very much...
00:05:26
Speaker
Kind of this world. And ah it's ah the the phrase the terminology I saw thrown around is diesel punk. yeah um it's It's set in a alternate ah universe.
00:05:40
Speaker
to our own where after the Roaring Twenties, Texas seceded from the Union and kicked off a Balkanization, basically, of the United States.
00:05:53
Speaker
So I think it's... And then everybody's kind of like, you know, all the tinier countries have their own... They have their... cut There's companies and there's... what what's What's kind of interesting is that they actually do reference real world companies when they're talking about these planes. was like, that is, huh, I'm surprised they were allowed to get away with that.
00:06:18
Speaker
Yeah, they reference real ah manufacturers and they represent at least one real ah firearms manufacturer. Yeah, um at least at least one. It is interesting.
00:06:31
Speaker
They talk about Lockheed. uh, known Lockie. Lockie plays a major part in this. Major part. Uh, Grumman, um, which is now known as Northrop Grumman. And, uh, they also talk about, fuck, what was, was, Smith and Wesson was one of the, Smith and Wesson.
00:06:50
Speaker
Yeah. They, they, they mentioned, um, I think there was a third one. sure there was. fourth thing that I was, i was thinking, oh, Rolls Royce. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. They totally do.
00:07:02
Speaker
oh They talk about is like it's based on a Rolls-Royce design that was never like brought to fruition or something like that. Right. It's like, okay. I mean, I guess you figure...
00:07:13
Speaker
excuse me, guess you figure those ah companies would see this as like, this is, this is, you know free advertising as long as they, as long as they're not like the bad guys or something like that. Yeah. I mean, and also these companies are the bad guys in real life.
00:07:30
Speaker
I mean, to be honest, so I'm not sure they, they actively care that much. I don't think they noticed that. Yeah. So Phil, who, ah this first story that we're reading, who
Introducing Paladin Blake and His Mission
00:07:43
Speaker
is it? Who's the dude?
00:07:44
Speaker
Well, this is fun because yeah, as you mentioned before, we've got three novellas in this book and the first one, they're all written by different people. The first one is written by our old pal, Eric Nyland, who for our purposes, you might remember from writing ah writing several Halo books, including The Fall of Reach and First Strike, ah both of which we read. He also wrote Ghosts of Onyx and Evolutions.
00:08:05
Speaker
um He's done a lot of his own stuff, but I really, I think the Halo books are really his claim to fame. Yeah. um One way the other. um ah Just kind of a kind of a classic right for hire guy. One of our first, you know, he was definitely in, i want to say he was one of the first five or so that we ah we dealt with.
00:08:26
Speaker
Yep. um So we're back with him, ah which is exciting because he's i As I recall with those first two novels, um outside of a little bit of this feels like we're playing the video game and not necessarily in a good way, a good writer.
00:08:42
Speaker
Yeah. So, yeah. Good stuff. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, good stuff. um Yeah, ah Fall of Reach. And Fall of Reach is an interesting book because the...
00:08:55
Speaker
like it was the
00:08:58
Speaker
Because the Fall of Reach is kind of like that pivotal thing in the Halo universe. And he was the one who wrote but the Fall of Reach. And then years later, the game Halo Reach came out.
00:09:08
Speaker
And like, it was like semi-contradictory. Like the book in the game have these weird contradictory elements to them. Absolutely, they do. That I know Halo lore heads have rectified in some way. um But yeah, that's, yeah.
00:09:25
Speaker
yeah So that's that's cool. um Eric Nyland's glad to be back in the capable hands of of Mr. Nyland. So, ah Phil, why don't we go ahead and put this body in the marsh? Let's put the body in the marsh. Y'all marshes ready? Let's do this.
00:09:45
Speaker
When I tell you to dump a body in the marsh, you dump them in marsh. ah Okay, Crimson Skies. We open up with an introduction from the editor of Spicy Air Tales, which is, as Kevin mentioned before, it kind of predates most of the game.
00:10:06
Speaker
um Classic pulp adventure in this world, journalism, uh, uh, with, with with a nice heaping helping of pulp fiction, uh, added in, um, basically this serves as our introduction to the world.
00:10:23
Speaker
Uh, we get to see through the editor's eyes when, uh, Texas first seceded, uh, from the union leading to the domino effect of all these other countries, uh, coming up out of the United States.
00:10:36
Speaker
It's kind of a classic, Uh, you know, if you've been on the internet for more than five minutes, you've seen one of those American, ah maps that someone has like divided up into like, this is where this is and the Confederate, you know, States of America and the Midwestern, let it, let it, it's, it's all that stuff. Um, uh, so we get an introduction to that world. Uh, I think it's like the empire of Hollywood.
00:11:00
Speaker
um there's like a fully communist, uh, country in the Midwest, which Yes, the Christian communist nation. Yes, yes. Sidled up right next to an ultra capitalist country. And they're like, ah you've got tension on the border all the time.
00:11:16
Speaker
Fun stuff. And he also introduces us to Nathan Zachary, ah who's our kind of Robin Hood, Indiana Jones hero, who is the main character in this video game.
00:11:27
Speaker
ah But we will not see him today. Yeah. ah it it's It was really interesting. He talks. He's like, he's a debonair, suave, buccaneer of a man, you know, piracy and et cetera and so on and so forth. But but yeah, we're not worried about him.
00:11:43
Speaker
the we got to cut We got a completely different character that we're going to talk about who is yeah absolutely fascinating. and i could see Great character. I was like, oh, wow, I kind of want to play a game based on what this guy does. Yeah, great character. But like,
00:12:00
Speaker
Polar opposite alignment, basically, from the guy that we're talking like. And his name is Paladin Drake. And that's right there. ah Sorry, Paladin Blake.
00:12:11
Speaker
Paladin Blake. Love the name. um is He is. ah I would say, is he neutral? Good. Oh, he's lawful good. He's very good. He's by the book. Well, very maybe, maybe more like neutral good, actually. Maybe neutral good because he does some some things that aren't straight, straight lawful. Yeah, he breaks the rules every now and then. And yeah, Nathan Zachary, from the way he's described, is is ah chaotic neutral.
00:12:38
Speaker
yeah Yes. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. yeah I would argue that. Yes. ah So these, this is, we, we get our first novella, ah Paladin Blake and the case of the Phantom prototype by Eric Nyland.
00:12:53
Speaker
And we open up with Paladin Blake. ah He is a pirate hunter and he is the head of kind of a ah mercenary group, if you will, some kind of a, what are they called? What is the, ah the Western, the,
00:13:11
Speaker
ah I mean, he's... Yeah, he's like ah I mean, he's a he's a security... he he runs a security company. yeah Yes, yes. And they're not doing great.
00:13:23
Speaker
ah they're They're, you know, they theyre they're they're okay, but they're like... if they, they've done, they just came off a successful deal, but if they don't find like the big score somewhere soon, he's, he's, it's probably not going to work out for him in the long run.
00:13:38
Speaker
Um, enter the biggest Russian you've ever seen. ah he is described as seven feet tall and 300 pounds, straight up Grigori Rasputin shit.
00:13:50
Speaker
yeah Um, and he, uh, introduces himself. His name is Justin. Mr. Justin. Mr. Justin. That's hilarious. um And he is a representative of Lockheed.
00:14:04
Speaker
Lockheed security. Lockheed security. and And they have a prototype jet. ah That they are trying to transport, basically, and keep safe. And they are going to offer him a solo contract, just him, no one on his team, ah to basically transport the jet.
00:14:21
Speaker
They're going to keep him safe. ah We just need to make sure that it it it gets in there safe, you know. And he accepts, but it's a weird, he's got a bad feeling. He's, it's a weird vibe, uh, that he's putting off. Cause there's, he can't help but think like, well, if you guys are gonna keep an eye on everything and keep me safe and everyone, why do you need me?
00:14:40
Speaker
Why don't you have someone else? But, you know, he's, but they, they write him a check, you know, they, they, they drive a dump truck of money up to his, up his driveway, you know, and, and how can he say no? Um,
00:14:52
Speaker
So before ah before this happens, though, he he checks in with a writer who works for him and this con man ah kind of guy. He he he keeps an interesting collection of a rogues gallery of of of ah assistants and informants and stuff like that.
00:15:07
Speaker
and And they confirm that something big is going on, that this is bigger than it seems. um We find out that Justin the Russian is a former white Russian ah from the ah the Russian Revolution, ah anti-communist.
00:15:22
Speaker
is is a czarist Russian. he loved He loved his czar. you know He is mourning Princess Anastasia.
00:15:34
Speaker
oh we all are. Every moment of every day. Absolutely. He is that guy. and And don't worry, because in a lot of books that we've read, ah this kind of detail would be brought up and never mentioned again.
00:15:47
Speaker
yeah But that is not the case with this one. So ah so put that in your pocket confidently. It is. You know what? We run into a lot of stories that are just...
00:15:59
Speaker
They're they're like, that's they put out the detail and it's like, this is not foreshadowing about anything. Just forget it. And you're like, you're just trying to throw me off the the trail. And I was like, I swear to you, i am not. I it is. The curtains are blue.
00:16:14
Speaker
And you are like, no, this shouldn't just be blue. And the author's like, all right, you're lost. And then later, nothing happens. The curtains are blue. This this is not an instance of that. ah We get a lot of callbacks in this, and that's just one of them.
00:16:31
Speaker
ah Part two, Paladin enters ah this hangar ah that he's meant to meet them at. It's basically a ghost town. It's half empty. um He finds Justin and this prototype plane, which is described as like really unwieldy and awkward and like prototype, like super prototype. Yeah, it's like described as like a single wing yeah um yeah jet where it edits it's, I don't know, in my head I thought of the B-Wing from Star Wars when they were talking about it.
00:17:08
Speaker
Yeah, I don't think that's unfair. Yeah. Like just it's it's just it's one big hunk, you know, and it it feels it feels like it drives like a fridge, you know. ah Right. So ah that's that's what he's going to be flying.
00:17:22
Speaker
And ah Paladin wants to know why Justin, who is an ace pilot, as it turns out, doesn't just do this himself. Right. um And Justin kind of mumbles something about like, well, you know, ah you get, oh yeah i'm got I've gotten older, my skills are going away and don't know. I just, I'm not the pilot I used to be, which actually impresses Paladin.
00:17:43
Speaker
ah Whereas most of us would be like, that's kind of a weak, answer. ah Palin is like, you know what? It takes a big man to admit when he's he's on his way out of his skill level. It's like being 25 and an esports ah star. You're aging out fast.
00:18:01
Speaker
And that's that's that's what he's doing. He doesn't have the reaction time anymore. Exactly. He doesn't have it anymore. ah So they get it set up.
Betrayal and Desert Survival
00:18:10
Speaker
ah He flies out and basically immediately is attacked by ah pirates.
00:18:15
Speaker
ah He gets kind of overwhelmed by them and he tries to shoot out, ah but it doesn't work. He finds that he is sealed within the prototype plane. So he's got to do something.
00:18:27
Speaker
ah Part three, ah he is shot down over the desert. Um, the pursuers just blow the fucking plane up. They, they, he runs out.
00:18:38
Speaker
He's worried that they're swooping down to shoot him. They ignore him entirely and just wreck the the prototype. Destroy it. Yeah, exactly. Uh, destroy the shit out of it.
00:18:49
Speaker
Um, So he begins the long process of walking through the desert because he's like, well, fuck, I don't know. And he starts to remember that there was like a road of ways back that'll get him back to civilization. But then he goes, you know what?
00:19:04
Speaker
Fuck this. I want answers. So he sees where the pirate planes have all flown away towards and just starts going in that direction. Yeah. um So after about a day of walking, he finds himself at this kind of makeshift pirate base where they are loading an identical prototype to the one he just crash landed in into a Zeppelin.
00:19:28
Speaker
And in this world, the Zeppelins are goddamn battleships. Yeah, they're ah they're like filled with rocket launchers and machine guns, and they're just floating fortresses of yeah of destruction. and And they can carry dozens of jet fighters and all that stuff. They are they are literal like battleships of the sky.
00:19:50
Speaker
um Part four, ah Paladin ambushes a mechanic who's in the shitter. Okay. and ambushes this guy goes all agent 47 on him takes his costume puts it on ah hog ties him stuffs his own dirty socks in his mouth shut him up and uh and sneaks into uh this this pirate base um he recognizes some of the mercenaries because like i said he's he's basically a uh a pi he's like he's a he's a uh
00:20:23
Speaker
for hire cop for all right intents and purposes. So he knows a lot of these pirates, a lot of these mercenaries, he knows who they are. Yeah. He's seen them on, on lists of, of who watch out for. So he knows, he knows that, that he's dealing with some pros here.
00:20:36
Speaker
ah A pale man in a linen suit catches his eye and demands ah that he take his steamer truck and trunk to his room, which gives him the perfect opportunity to say, oh, great, yeah, and makes his way into the Zeppelin where the guy's room is and loads the steamer trunk and then proceeds basically to just ransack the shit out guy's room. he's I'm in here, might as well eat some their food and drink some of their seltzer water.
00:21:09
Speaker
and he goes full murder hobo. like He just... It's like, oh, a ring. Don't mind if I do a key. That seems useful. Oh, there's a gun and a grenade in this steamer truck. He's just Skyrim. Like, yeah, like take, take, take, take all. all 14 wheels of cheese. That's exactly what he's doing.
00:21:31
Speaker
Um, a he, he does find the most dangerous thing of all, ah in there on the bookshelf. It's a, uh, uh, Nietzsche. Uh, and he, uh, he, he avoids that, uh, which I think was totally fair.
00:21:44
Speaker
Um, and now as he's doing that and he starts to realize I need to figure out, like what the hell I'm, what I'm doing next. ah The Zeppelin starts to take off. So he is stuck.
00:21:56
Speaker
um And at this point, I'm thinking of that episode of Archer ah where they're on the Zeppelin, ah like trying to find someone who, to try to keep them from being sabotaged.
00:22:07
Speaker
And everyone assumes, or sorry, Archer constantly assumes that anybody who likes a cigarette or something is going to blow them to to kingdom come, but they've got, they' got it's helium. um So it's not flammable. And that's actually ah exactly the case with this thing, which is hilarious.
00:22:24
Speaker
um I love that shit. up So part five, he starts looking for somewhere to hide. Basically um the pale man's lady friend. He's, she's got this beautiful woman on his arm.
00:22:36
Speaker
ah She sees him and kind of seems to recognize him. Yeah. um It's never. And this is not fully explained as far as I can tell. not fully explained. i wonder if it'll come into play in another ah one of the novellas if it comes back. Because, yeah, they he and that's the funny thing is the character, ah the main character Paladin is is like, where do I know her from?
00:23:03
Speaker
She clearly recognizes me. Right. And I kind of recognize her. Um, so he, he just, he spins on his heel, gets the fuck out of there. He's like, don't, don't just keep going, keep going, keep walking.
00:23:20
Speaker
ah no need to you know draw more attention yourself. Uh, he finds an advanced launch bay, uh, in the Zep. Um, and it, and inside of it is like this crumb. crazy advanced version of the prototype. He just flew.
00:23:34
Speaker
Whereas the one he flew before was like really bulky and blocky and awkward. Uh, this one is like all the smooth edges are done. And like, it's, it's just, it's, it's just smoothed out. Very sleek.
00:23:48
Speaker
Uh, very sexy. Um, and And in fact, it even makes a point of when he like, he goes inside of it. Cause he's like, I'm going to fly the sucker out. Uh, even the seating is like plush leather seats and shit like that. He's like, wow, this fucking thing rules.
00:24:02
Speaker
Um, yeah. Unfortunately at this point, uh, uh, the guards have basically sounded the alarm. They found his room that he ransacked possibly slash the mechanic that he beat the shit out Um,
00:24:16
Speaker
and And one of the guards, as he's trying to fly out, one of the guards basically puts in place ah an emergency break that stops him in his tracks on the plane. So he hops out, ah gets his Indiana Jones on. We get some high flying, you know, gun toting adventure fighting.
00:24:35
Speaker
And he uses the grenade that he found to blow the clamp that's holding the jet in place. um Gunfight ensues. We get more of the the the high action.
00:24:46
Speaker
It's very pulp adventure. It's a of fun. It's Indiana Jones. you know it's It's all that stuff. it's And I got to say, Nyland is very good at writing books legible action sequences. Yes. Like one so many people write action sequences and it's hard to follow exactly what's going on.
00:25:12
Speaker
Nyland is great at, oh yeah, no, I understand beat by beat what the character is doing and what their intentions are. And I can hear the, the, the music, the orchestral yeah soaring action, you know, nineteen thirty s music playing while It's, it's, you can hear the chorus swell. It's, it's that it's all of that.
00:25:35
Speaker
And it's a lot of fun. It's, it's, it's really very good. Um, he eventually gets back to the plane and manages, uh, to drop basically out of the, uh, the bay.
00:25:46
Speaker
Um, ah Part six starts and he is pulling himself out of an impossible dive. ah It's, it's ah very exciting because ah he talks about how, when you're in that kind of a, he's, he's way closer to the earth than he thought he was.
00:26:01
Speaker
And, Rather than try to pull up the way your instincts would tell you, he actually needs to build up speed because a plane needs speed to be able to pull out of that thing. So he has to like stare down the earth that's coming directly for him for as long as he can.
00:26:17
Speaker
He pulls out of this impossible ah dive just in time for a dog fight to ensue. ah The mercenaries chasing him down. ah He's playing dodge with them, everything that the the plane's giving him plenty of good action. You know, he's, he's feeling, he's feeling himself. He's feeling good uh and then finally the mercenaries just kind of fucking give up and and head back to the zeppelin um so he starts heading towards the lockheed base which he knows is just around the corner basically uh he lands and he is promptly arrested arrested by the hollywood police yes which is he is the hollywood being the country uh that he is currently in yeah
00:26:59
Speaker
I love it. It's very l LA noir. You get a little, little taste of that. Yeah. I think that's, I think that's the fun thing about this kind of universe. You can get a lot of pulp fiction stuff, a lot of different genres into the same world. You can get the, you know, a fly boy, you know, kind of adventure guy, but you can also get the detectives, you know, in l LA and all that shit. You can get all that stuff. It's, it's pretty cool.
00:27:26
Speaker
Um, yeah, So he's questioned. ah They don't seem to know who the fuck he is. And and he's he's like trying to explain and what's going on and they're not really buying it.
00:27:39
Speaker
ah They offer him one of the cigarettes. Among the many things he stole ah was a pack of cigarettes. and And they offer him one of the cigarettes that he stole and they are wrapped black.
00:27:50
Speaker
ah which means they're European, which means they're very rare. And they're the same kind of cigarettes that our pal Justin was smoking earlier. and So he starts to, his brain starts to put two and two together.
00:28:05
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. At this point, we start to get really into, an it becomes an Agatha Christie novel. ah we we get that We get a heavy whodunit. Like I said, you get a lot of pulp. and for your This sequence ends with a locked room.
00:28:19
Speaker
Right. Moment. Right. Blackburn mystery moment. I'm like, was like, he's and Eric. And I was like, I can fit so many pulp genres in this bad boy.
Uncovering the Plot and Justin's Demise
00:28:29
Speaker
Exactly.
00:28:31
Speaker
but For your hundred pages, by my count, you get like at least three. It's crazy. but It's really crazy. Maybe four. um So ah he he he's he says, I just need to make two phone calls and I can prove to you who who the who done it.
00:28:49
Speaker
and And the but Hollywood cops are like, well, that's a very unusual thing for a prisoner to ask for, but... Okay, I'll allow it. Yeah, like it's amazing.
00:29:02
Speaker
They're so lenient with him. It's really funny. So he calls up Dashiell and another one of his associates, an Englishman named Tennyson. And and we don't get we get some high context conversations that we don't fully ah know what he's talking. He's asking for mysterious things.
00:29:21
Speaker
This a reader currently. We don't quite know where he's going with this just yet. Um, and then tells them they got to get down there. And by the way, also tells the Hollywood cops, Hey, and you got to fly my friends over here. And they're like, okay. All right.
00:29:37
Speaker
Sure. I guess we'll let you fly. Yeah. We don't believe you. We think you're a criminal, but you know what? We'll fly some of your homeboys over here. Sure. Fine. Fuck it. We're just the Hollywood police. Who gives a shit?
00:29:48
Speaker
um So ah basically, that yeah, this is where it's becoming like this mystery thing. And um so someone basically the Kevin, have you ever, have you ever ah heard the Johnny cash song one piece at a time?
00:30:03
Speaker
No. Okay, so this is a song about Johnny Cash. It's a story song, and he's singing about working at a Cadillac factory and how he's always wanted a Cadillac, but of course he's not making enough at the Cadillac factory.
00:30:17
Speaker
ah So he steals money. One piece at a time every day. And he sneaks out one piece out of his lunchbox or something like that. And at the end of like 20 years, he's got all the pieces and it's this Cadillac made out of ah caddy from 41 42 to 43 to 44, 45.
00:30:38
Speaker
And so on. and yeah And this is, and that we find out this is basically what somebody has done with the prototype jet. They have, they have like one piece at a time, snuck things out, except for a couple of things that, that wouldn't have been there that they would have had to accumulate themselves.
00:30:55
Speaker
um And the problem with all, and Justin, by the way, has shown up and he says, well, the thing is, my friends got fingerprint evidence of Justin's fingerprints all over the parts.
00:31:09
Speaker
And Justin said, well, I personally oversaw all that shit. So they would be. yeah they Ah, but they're also on the parts that weren't here that should never have been here. So what do you think about Off the shelf parts that you would not have installed in this. yeah Justin's like, I think, and he draws his gun.
00:31:29
Speaker
yeah yeah yes well that's very interesting all right you know and he like takes one of the lockheed representatives hostage um so we uh part eight uh we find out basically that justin he he made a deal with the pale man ah he's gonna get this prototype to him and in exchange for this uh they're gonna he's gonna supply his buddies in the white russian army and the war that's still going on over there uh with planes and guns and stuff like that to help fight bolsheviks who are kicking their ass um
00:32:00
Speaker
So ah he he's he tries to get away in the prototype, ah which which many people have said at this point, don't fly that. There are like all these like, there's like- Yeah, there's stress fractures on the on the fuselage. The engine block is broken, all that stuff. Yeah, it's a miracle that you made it as far as this. So don't nobody get in that thing.
00:32:21
Speaker
ah Justin doesn't listen. He flies away in the plane and almost immediately just-
00:32:28
Speaker
It just disintegrates. Takes our 300 pound, seven foot Russian with him. Yep. um is that and the The description is something like, in the distance, it explodes into confetti.
00:32:41
Speaker
Yeah. yeah
00:32:45
Speaker
So later on, ah Paladin is kind of debriefing with another Lockheed representative. um And this is this is something, though the way up that this story is written is very much like a D&D campaign that you're playing with your friends because you get like a little victory here and then a little victory here and then a little victory here and eventually you get the full wrap up.
00:33:11
Speaker
Right. But there's always something new. And this is where ah his story should be over, basically. ah But the Lockheed representative says, hey, look, we'd like to hire you ah to continue this case and to catch the pale man.
00:33:25
Speaker
Find out what the fuck he's up to. And once again, what's going on here? Yeah. Yeah. And once again, they offer him so many zeros, just money, money, money, money. money And so he says, okay, fine. And he's also honest. If he's honest with himself, he's also like, well, kind of want to find out too. So this this works out in my favor here.
The Pale Man and Unionist Scheme
00:33:44
Speaker
um So we cut to part nine. ah Palin starts, he goes to Justin's apartment and Justin lived in like this really shitty ah area of town. um and so And he's not sure why, because he made good money with Lockheed. Right. So why is he living in this shithole apartment?
00:34:01
Speaker
um He finds an imprint of a serial code and a key that matches one that he stole from the Zeppelin. Remember when he ransacked? So do I. That's when he got it.
00:34:13
Speaker
um He is accosted by Lady Kali, who is a sexy, ah bad girl, mercenary, fly girl. Yeah. And she's hot.
00:34:25
Speaker
She's hot, but she's dangerous. Yeah. you know and She's she's she's black cat. Like that's that's you know, that's yeah, that's her black cat. Yeah. Yeah. And and but she he knows who she is, but she doesn't know who he is.
00:34:39
Speaker
um He you know, it's the one time that he's grateful that his security company isn't so famous that these pirates ah know him by sight. So he kind of like he spins this yarn and basically pretends to also be a mercenary who is working for Justin because basically they didn't get paid.
00:35:00
Speaker
Uh, all this shit went down and they didn't get paid. So she's, she's there trying to figure out what the hell happened and and how she can get some money for her troubles. And he basically pretends that he's doing the same thing, uh, and lulls her into a false sense of security. It seems like they're going in for a kiss.
00:35:17
Speaker
And then cuff, sir, cuff, sir. Cause he's a, he's got too much. He's got too much. Uh, he's in love with justice. No, he's having a passionate love affair with the scales of justice.
00:35:32
Speaker
Um, And at none of this pirate scum, he literally will say pirate scum. ah It's, it's hilarious. So ah he, he locked cuffs her in place and and that kind of thing.
00:35:43
Speaker
And he, he goes and finds the terminal lockers ah that Justin would have been to. And he uses the key with a matching serial number and opens it up and we cut to part 10 um he basically found like blueprints and a note, uh, inside. And I'll just read what the note says.
00:36:06
Speaker
it says need a dozen pilots must have their own aircraft, must not be afraid to fight money as usual, not an issue. Dalewick airfield dusk, July So, seventh so um he doesn't know what they, mean all he knows is the place he's going through these blueprints. He finds a blueprint of the Capitol building. Um, one of the things that he stole, the ring that he stole is a signet ring and he shows it to Dashiell, uh, his writer friend and says, should I know what the fuck this is? And he goes, uh, yeah, that's, the that's the union buddy.
00:36:39
Speaker
That is a, that's the symbol of the unionists. Um, which we get some really interesting stuff with how ah unionists are perceived. And it's really not that different from how they've ever been perceived.
00:36:53
Speaker
Right. He basically says they're all like bombers and cranks. just like Fair enough. um And so,
00:37:05
Speaker
He's like, well, I guess what I got to do is I got to go to this place. So he gets in ah his, ah what is it The lightning girl or something like that. Yeah. Lightning girl. I think lightning girl.
00:37:17
Speaker
It gets into his favorite jet. the The coolest thing about the video game ah was unlocking all the different jets and they've got all of these different like alternate reality by plane fighters that are just decked out with like, you cannons and and lasers and all kinds of shit it's so much fun and and we get a little uh vehicle porn basically uh he's loaded up with like this quadruple freaking cannon that could just tear a hole in the side of a battleship uh just badass stuff and uh he ends up going to the rendezvous and uh
00:37:55
Speaker
he he basically gives, they're like, yeah, this is a, this is invite only kind of thing. And he goes, yeah, I know Justin invited me. I'm here. And they're like, oh great. So it's your turn to prove yourself. Huh?
00:38:06
Speaker
Well, uh, he finds himself in a dog fight. And basically the gist is that this group of mercenaries, they're only going to be a dozen of them. So they need to find out who the best is. So they're all squaring off and only the top 12 will, uh, uh, go in and, and, and fight.
00:38:23
Speaker
Yeah. ah for this guy so he finds himself in another dog fight another good action scene good stuff kills kills another the person he was paired against who was a you know was a filthy pirate so filthy pirate so who cares he doesn't have feelings he wins and he's invited on to the zeppelin the george washington And by the way, at this point with the unionists, I get very much, I get, what is it?
00:38:51
Speaker
um Comstock, Bioshock Infinite yeah vibes. like I was thinking of Bioshock Infinite a lot while i was reading this. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it's it's it's this there's this whole and there's this whole anarchist group, which it gets very confused right because like they're trying to bring the Americans all together under one banner again. And i'm like, I don't think that that anarchist means what you think it means, but whatever.
00:39:21
Speaker
Um, yeah so he wins his part, uh, in the fight part 11, the pale man shows up and he's giving them instructions. Their goal long and short of it is they are going to blow up the white house, the Capitol and the Washington monument. And he basically says the main thing is the, uh, the Capitol, then the white house, then the Washington. And if you can get all three, you get triple your pay, uh, that whole thing. So everyone's really pumped.
00:39:49
Speaker
Um, So he's this he's he's one of these ah extremists, basically. Basically what this is is a false flag attack. What they're trying to do is is pretend this is somebody else so that it will unite Americans under a common banner. and They're going to attack Columbia, which is its own little country.
00:40:09
Speaker
D.C. is its own little country at this point. And I looked on the map of of ah the countries. And ah i mean, D.C. is what the Columbia is what you would expect. It's Maryland.
00:40:23
Speaker
uh, Delaware and like South Jersey, you know, yeah it's, it's like that it's not very big at all. No, it's a tiny nation, especially compared to some of these other ones. Yeah. Um, but it's like this symbol still to a lot of people.
00:40:37
Speaker
Uh, and then we get this really cool quote I wrote down. I guess what I'm trying to say is that a real American has to operate outside the law when he lives in a country that itself is illegal.
00:40:49
Speaker
Uh, I don't know why ah i thought that quote. I just thought I'd read that. um Yeah. It's a good quote. Yeah. so I just thought it was interesting. ah Yeah. He's getting into a conversation with the um with the the woman on ah who's been with the pale man, the one that kind of seemed to recognize him before.
00:41:09
Speaker
And he's like spinning or yarn, trying to figure out what the deal is. And this is how he finds out about, ah you know, the false flag operation. can't say. Hi, Jonesy.
00:41:20
Speaker
Hey, buddy. Jesus Christ, man.
00:41:27
Speaker
And then he goes, he's hey, he actually, the the fact that he he's like, he's getting so zenned out on killing birds that he wanted to put his face on camera.
00:41:40
Speaker
i know he's ever wanted to do that. He's happiest I've ever seen him. I mean it. Ripley is an inside cat. She'll go outside. If it's warm, she'll go outside and like kind of sun herself and then walk back in. ah Jonesy goes out and we I feed him in the morning.
00:41:54
Speaker
He runs out and ah He'll come back in. He came back in about an hour ago. So it's about nine o'clock now. So like he, he, he is, he is gone native and he's the happiest ever. So so fine.
00:42:09
Speaker
Great. Good. Get out there. ah you know Yeah. Get out there. um So ah part 12, they're on their first part of the mission. By the way, there's a there's an amazing quote, um ah ma makes an amazing line, where ah the woman is is talking to Paladin, and she says, only a strong nation willing to risk everything to do anything will have the willpower to reunite our country and make it great again. Uh-huh.
00:42:38
Speaker
and then yeah and And then Paladin responds, under a banner of war. And she squeezes his arm and says, yes. Paladin had a couple of other names for this deal.
00:42:49
Speaker
Nationalism, fascism, rotten through and through. I just love the fact that this written in 2002. 2002. Has a character saying, make it make it great, make America great again. Yeah. And he says, yeah, that's a fascism.
00:43:05
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. yeah You're pulling a nationalism there, baby. ah Yeah. That's exactly it. It's so weird. It's so weird. I love it. It's almost as if this shit has happened before and continues to happen over and over again.
00:43:23
Speaker
Um, so part 12, uh, they're out on the first part of the mission, which is like a Napoleonic faint. Basically they, uh, the dozen or so fighters are going to fly out, get some attention and then draw. They're going kite, uh, the forces back to where they have three Zeppelins that are just bristling with weapons.
00:43:43
Speaker
Uh, and they're just going unload on them. Uh, instead of that happening, uh, paladin, flies above the squadron and, and bombs them.
High-Stakes Dogfight and Twists
00:43:55
Speaker
He bombs. It's amazing.
00:43:59
Speaker
He bombs planes in flight while he himself is in flight. He's like, he's like, ah, my, my plane, my plane's fucked up. I gotta, I gotta move around a little bit. And they're like, yeah, get out of formation and come, come back. And he's like, all right. And he like goes, he just drops like, yeah,
00:44:19
Speaker
The physics, the knowledge of physics to be able to blow up a dozen other planes all at once. It's not a fight. He just blows them all up. ah It's amazing.
00:44:31
Speaker
It's like he drops ah a bomb on one of them, which causes like a chain reaction to like take them all out. And that's just the introduction to what ends up being the most video game ass fight in the whole novella.
00:44:49
Speaker
It's him versus three Zeppelins and like countless jet fighters. And he wrecks two. By the end of it, he's wrecked two of the Zeppelins, killed a bunch of the pirates, and he crashes into the third and bails out.
00:45:06
Speaker
And he knows that the Pale Man is on board and he's going to find him. yeah um So part 13, he's on the busted up Zeppelin. He's looking for the pale man instead finds the lady friend.
00:45:18
Speaker
ah He does his quote unquote, his good deed for the day, gives her the shoot, ah gives her a parachute and kicks her off basically and says, get out of here. Don't let me see your face around here again, sweetheart, that kind of thing. Get out of here, sweetheart. Get out here, sweetie, and just slaps her on the ass and she goes flying.
00:45:36
Speaker
um I assume that didn't, it was that it was not overtly said. Well, the, the yeah, the the the misogyny that he displays here in assuming that she is just kind of like a hanger on. Right. cut it It's going to come back to bite him.
00:45:53
Speaker
It's going bite him in the ass. Yeah, no question. Yeah. But don't worry about it. He's found the pale man and he's about to like climb on board the last, like a surviving jet on the whole Zeppelin.
00:46:06
Speaker
And he just fucking bum rushes him and they both go flying out the chute and into just space. you know, yeah spinning end over end, punching each other and kicking each other while they are flying downward. And shooting at each other. Yes, yes, shooting at each other. and like It's like a full action scene while they're dropping like a stone towards the earth.
00:46:30
Speaker
Um... In midair, he manages to open a shoot, and and they but they it's still a... Yeah, it's not it's not enough of a distance for the shoot to actually open all the way. yeah it probably slows them down.
00:46:47
Speaker
Just enough. I think it's funny. there there They have a lot of shoot scenes in this story. None of them go smoothly. I get a real kick out of that. ah They're always like a little ah late or something. He just busts his ass, like but he's alive.
00:47:03
Speaker
like yeah Well, yeah, because he he he lands on the pale man. Yeah.
00:47:09
Speaker
The bail man's passed out alive. Yeah. ah but but are but are But still there. And they and they and they ah just in time, they get to watch the Zeppelin ram into the Washington Monument.
00:47:20
Speaker
ah but not But not in victory. It's just that it's completely unmanned and the the whole thing is sparkling failure. Right. So we ah we go forward a little bit. We get a debrief ah with ah the Lockheed representative.
00:47:36
Speaker
ah We find out the pale man, is ah his name is Von Gilder, and he's been a pain in their ass, and and they they got a signed confession from him and all that good stuff. And Paladin is paid. ah he They give him a check that has more zeros than he's ever seen in before in his life.
00:47:51
Speaker
ah So it's like he's like, okay, great. like this is This is the... This is going to like carry my security, you know, empire afloat, keep us afloat, all that stuff.
00:48:02
Speaker
So he's really happy, but, but he still feels kind of uneasy. And they've given him paperwork. It's really hilarious. They're just like, yeah, here's all the details just for your own ah records. You know, we're, we're the cops.
00:48:14
Speaker
we We like, ah we like transparency, ah you know? And so he's going through all the records and he notices that the handwriting on the confession is different from the handwriting on the plans. And he realizes that the woman that he kicked out with a shoot was probably the big boss ah She was the one behind everything.
00:48:35
Speaker
She was the one behind everything, not the pale man. And, and the story ends with him kind of like having that, you know, heroic, you know, moment of like, well, it's going to be sure fun, find her again later, you know, or something like that, you know, dan and that whole thing.
00:48:52
Speaker
Um, and that's, and that's, uh, our first, uh, novella that's paladin Blake and the case of the phantom prototype. Uh, Kevin, what'd you think? i was Oh, was in it to win it from the very beginning. You know, Paladin Blake, he's just, you know, he's is he's got a little bit of a macho ah streak and he's like the perfect nineteen thirty s ah protagonist who's like, I'm yeah i'm doing right by by by the law and by justice, and I'm going to see this thing through.
00:49:27
Speaker
And he just never he never gives up, never surrenders, ah basically. ah The fight sequences are fun. the ah the mystery of it. It's like, there's like, there's a little mystery.
00:49:41
Speaker
There's a little this, there's a little that, you know, his friends are, you know, cast of characters. He's got ah Jimmy, Jimmy, the rap who's Jimmy, the rap. Yeah. Yeah. He's always in.
00:49:53
Speaker
he's He's called the rap because he has a long rap sheet. He's always. He's constantly paranoid there. He's yeah like, they they bring up something that has nothing to do with him. He's like, didn't say anything.
00:50:04
Speaker
I wasn't. It wasn't me. They didn't. you know And they're like, shut up, Jimmy. We know you were actually kind of involved. I was like, okay, so I was. No big deal. Come on. It ain't a crime to hear things on the street.
00:50:15
Speaker
Yeah. ah He's hilarious. There's Tennyson, who is his English guy and yeah his English friend who who investigated the the the fingerprints and all that stuff.
00:50:29
Speaker
By the way, did did you mention that the whole whole thing fingerprint thing was fake? Yes. Oh, yeah. By the way, yeah, they were bluffing. They were bluffing the entire time. They were bluffing the whole time. Mr. Justin was just like, believe them anyway. Yeah, he fell for the bait.
00:50:44
Speaker
But anyway, yeah it's a it's a fun it's a fun story. I'm really enjoying this so far. I'm hoping the next one is is also ah you know ah an enjoyable hu swashbuckling. Swashbuckling is a good way to put it.
00:51:02
Speaker
Sure. I mean, not really for this first one because he's not he isn't a pirate, but You know, it's a <unk>s good. It's good. But what do what do you think?
00:51:13
Speaker
I totally agree. It's that two-fisted, you know, macho, pulp fiction hero kind of shit. It's a lot of fun. It was a lot of fun to read. um Nyland kicks ass at his action sequences.
00:51:28
Speaker
And he threw in some... excuse me, some mixture of genres just for the shit fun of it. ah yeah We've got mystery. We've got adventure. We've got wartime shit. Like it's all very, and it all and seamlessly goes together. it's It's all very good. So yeah, that is it. We're off to a great start ah with this. yeah far as i'm Yeah. So, all right. Well, now that we've got that all figured out, ah Kevin, I only have one final question for you.
Game Recommendations and Discussion
00:52:01
Speaker
What are you playing? Oh, all right. Well, I haven't done anything much new since the last time we recorded. It's only been a few days just because we're trying to get back. Yeah, it been that It hasn't been that long. We're just trying to get back on schedule. But yeah, what I have been playing, though, I've been playing Tormented Souls 2, and and i am really close to the end I think um I got like one or two more areas to kind of go through ah Tormented Souls 2 is it's great and if you love Resident Evil style like old Resident Evil style survival horror
00:52:48
Speaker
Fixed camera angles, ah all that all that good stuff, much like Tormented Souls 1. ah The storyline is just, you know, it's schlocky, ah but yeah it's also like, all right, you know, I'm enjoying it yeah There is one point ah in and Tormented Souls 2 that had me cackling out loud because ah there's like the main villain or whatever is going off and and giving a speech or and your main character instead of listening.
00:53:24
Speaker
just picks up her her nail gun, her like she because she's always using ah her like main weapon as a nail gun with hike like a compression thing on it. Yeah.
00:53:35
Speaker
So instead of listening to it, the main character picks up and shoots the villain in the forehead. but Like cuts her off mid-sentence. That's awesome. I was dying.
00:53:50
Speaker
I was like, oh, God, this is like, this is what it's like something you wish like the Resident Evil folks would do on occasion. is just like, shut up, Wesker. Just like or or whatever, you know, just shut just shut up.
00:54:04
Speaker
Yeah. yeah So ah Tormented Souls 2 having a lot of fun ah close to the end. It's got ah oh the thing I like about it is that it has it's It's very well designed from the puzzle box standpoint where, and I say puzzle box as in like the Spencer Mansion in Resident Evil 2 is a puzzle box, right?
00:54:32
Speaker
ah the the The police station in Resident Evil 2, the Spencer Mansion in Resident Evil 1. And there's like multiple locations which are this which are like, okay, now you're in the lab and you got the lab puzzles to solve.
00:54:47
Speaker
ah Tormented Souls 2 has like five locations that are like that. And they're all they're differing lengths. You know, the first one you start out in is pretty long. then there's like a short one and then there's a long one again.
00:55:00
Speaker
and But it's really cool. I love love the approach that they did to it. And, ah you know, I hope that the the series is able to continue, ah or at least this developer, a you know, even if they don't continue this particular story, ah makes more games of this ilk because, you know, we could always use more.
00:55:24
Speaker
Yeah. Otherwise, ah what I have i' been playing is Power Wasp Simulator 2. Naturally. Naturally.
00:55:35
Speaker
I got, you know, 15 hours in it.
00:55:41
Speaker
Don't worry You'll get to a respectable number soon. I'll get to it. Like those are rookie numbers. Got to pump those numbers up. Yeah. But yeah, it's, it's, it's fun. I, I, you know, what can I say? It's, it's it's a, it's ah it's a good game.
00:55:56
Speaker
And that's, ah I think one of the things that I forgot to mention that i that I played a demo that I played was a a demo for a game called Crystal Theater of Idols, which is a first person resonant Evil style game ah that is, i think it's good. It just it right now, it's just coming soon.
00:56:24
Speaker
But it's very much in the vein of, if ah what's it, Lies of P? It's got that kind of ah aesthetic to it, but it's shut set in Spain.
00:56:38
Speaker
ah It's got a lot of religious overtones. So clearly, you know, Spain and religion, religious overtones, makes you think of blasphemous, but it's not that. It's more modern day.
00:56:51
Speaker
um But I do appreciate, ah I just love Spanish Catholicism horror, Spanish Catholic horror having its moment.
00:57:04
Speaker
um And it's published by Blumhouse. Oh, interesting. Interesting. Yeah, so ah I'm interested as to when that comes out, but I recommend, you know, check out the demo. It's it's got some some interesting jank to it, ah but it's it's still ah it's a pretty pretty neat game, pretty neat mechanic in terms of how you...
00:57:30
Speaker
shoot, your bullets are are blood, and the way you reload is there's like these ah siphons in the handle that you just squeeze, and it pulls it out of your hand, and that reloads the gun.
00:57:51
Speaker
Interesting. Okay. And then you heal yourself by finding dead bodies and and turning those into blood that you absorb back into your body. Oh my God.
00:58:03
Speaker
It looks good. this this is This is a pretty game. Yeah. So, you know, Crystal Theater of Idols demo, you know, check it out. It's out there. ah Definitely playing that.
00:58:16
Speaker
But Phil, what are you playing? ah It's been similar for me. ah i've mostly been playing. ah actually been playing a lot of slots and daggers. I went ahead and got the thing of that. I just love the style of it.
00:58:32
Speaker
Mm It's fascinating. I want to learn more about it just in the sense that clearly you're, it's like you're playing a game within a game and not much has been said about that yet. And I want to, I want to continue along in the game to figure out more about what that's all about.
00:58:47
Speaker
Um, but I have most, but I have played some really interesting demos. Um, I played, uh, the demo for Kronos, the new dawn, um, okay the new bloober game.
00:58:58
Speaker
Um, and honestly it's, it's, um, I say this not as an insult or to denigrate it. It's it's just more ah Dead Space style puzzle box, like you said, you know sci-fi kind of shit. ah The atmosphere is excellent. The world building is very cool. um Nothing new, ah but but but that doesn't matter. ah Still very fun if that's the kind of thing that you've enjoyed.
00:59:28
Speaker
ah and Here's more of it. yeah like heres yeah It's Bloober. I mean, they're they're coming off. They're riding high after the Silent Hill 2 remake. They've been they've been on a redemption arc is what they've been on. So yeah.
00:59:43
Speaker
Hopefully this is more of that. um Yeah. In the grand scheme of things. So that's, that's definitely worth a look. I played the demo for servant of the lake, which is the next ah rusty lake game.
00:59:55
Speaker
Oh, I was about to ask if it's, it, that sounded the rusty lake games are, are something that I need to just go back and play through all of them because. love them Oh my God. They're just so, so fucking weird. They are. There's nothing like this out there. ah They're puzzle. For those of you don't know they are puzzle games.
01:00:18
Speaker
They're very almost flash in their own way. Very simple. Yeah. ah in in And now they're done. But they're so unnerving and never necessarily in the way you'd expect to. These are not I i hesitate to call them horror games.
01:00:35
Speaker
um They're eerie. They're that's the word for it. It's eerie. And you know what? You know what? When I think about them, and the art style isn't.
01:00:47
Speaker
it's not It's not analogous to him, but I think of Edward Gorey. Sure, sure. who Yeah, I can see that. would create these comic strips ah that are they' horror adjacent. They're yeah eerie and unsettling, but not specifically scary. They just kind of leave you with a feeling of...
01:01:10
Speaker
I don't know if I like so actually witnessing that. I don't know. I don't know how I feel about that. Yeah. I feel worse now. I'm not scared. I just feel bad. yeah that's That's absolutely it.
01:01:24
Speaker
And i've I've been playing these since ah Rusty Lake Hotel. Which came out in 2016, by the way. Jesus Christ. ah Awesome.
01:01:36
Speaker
yeah i mean just these they They are simple. They are... The puzzles are very good, generally speaking, um but the world is so strange and unnerving and and i I've loved everything of theirs that I've played.
01:01:55
Speaker
And this is no different. It's just kind of like the Kronos thing is more of ah what you want with your sci-fi horror adventure puzzle game. This is this is more of the Rusty Lake shit.
01:02:07
Speaker
Sure. If you like Rusty Lake, you'll like this. And this one, though the full version of it is coming out next year. It feels like this one might be a little more, I hesitate to say open world. um Yeah. But in the games in the past, you were very stuck in like ah one or two rooms.
01:02:28
Speaker
um And lately, ah the one of the most recent ones that came out, hold on, what is it called? ah ah They started to open up the world to you a little bit so that you can, it it makes the puzzles harder sometimes underground blossom, which came a couple of years, a couple of years ago. um They've opened up and this feels like they're doing the same thing. It's opening it up a little more.
01:02:51
Speaker
um You have to explore a little more. It's not quite so self-contained. um Really interesting, really interesting. I cannot wait for the new one to come out. I, I,
01:03:02
Speaker
I've loved it. And this demo was fantastic. And it was a very nice ah piece of that. awesome And ah the last thing I played was a demo for a game called lurks within walls.
01:03:14
Speaker
um This is pretty cool. ah This is done by developer called ah here be monsters. ah This is a dungeon crawler, like first person classic dungeon crawler, move forward, turn left, you know, turn right.
01:03:32
Speaker
um But it's a survival horror game. So you have turn-based RPG fights with these strange and unsettling things.
01:03:46
Speaker
um And you're making your way through this. In the demo, you're making your way through this, like you it looks like an insane asylum or a doctor hospital or something like that. And as you go, the world is falling apart and you are actually mutating.
01:04:03
Speaker
um and And it's affecting the weapons you use and all that stuff. um it's really interesting. I've, it, because it's definitely survival horror, resident evil kind of shit, but it's, it's a dungeon crawl. There's no getting around it. And, and that actually makes the claustrophobia of it and the, and the fear of what you're going to see around the next corner, that much more visceral.
01:04:31
Speaker
Um, it never, it never had like a straight up, um, um, what call it? And never had a straight up like jump scare anything like that.
01:04:41
Speaker
But there were lots of moments where I'd like turn a corner and go, oh fuck, I don't like that. God damn it. God damn it. And it's, I highly recommend it. It's done by the same publisher that did Sigils of Nightfall, which I played panel last time. Yeah, was just checking that out. Yeah, last episode were talking about Sigils of Nightfall. It's like, why does this look familiar? It's because I saw it when we were on the Sigils of Nightfall. Talking about Sigils of Nightfall. Yeah. I'd say they don't know. I haven't said, it doesn't say when it's coming out. It's just on a coming soon thing.
01:05:13
Speaker
Um, I put it on my wishlist. I think this is, this is very intriguing. Um, and it's definitely worth a play. It's just, it's got a lot of pieces from a lot of things that you're familiar with, but it's all put together in a way that it's, it's, it feels different. It it feels genuinely different.
01:05:31
Speaker
So I'm excited about that one and I highly recommend playing it. Um, And that's me. Awesome. Well, um thank you all for listening. If you haven't yet, ah please follow us on Blue Sky. Follow us on Instagram. Follow us on Patreon. Join our Discord.
Podcast Wrap-Up and Community Engagement
01:05:52
Speaker
Join the conversation. Have fun. ah We have a lot of fun people in there. And ah that will do it for tonight's episode. So have a good evening and a good morning and a a good lunch.
01:06:05
Speaker
A good lunch. Have a good lunch. I love lunch. That sounds good.
01:06:17
Speaker
a