Transcript
Speaker: I just can't believe they passed up the opportunity to do a mockumentary kind of thing, like a fake documentary, like in the same style as the oral history that they did with World War Z. Yeah.
Speaker: And I think nowadays we're obsessed with documentaries.
Speaker: They're a big business.
Speaker: I can't believe it isn't in the works because I feel like that could win awards.
Speaker: That could make money.
Speaker: It could do everything you want to do.
Speaker: a movie like that to do.
Speaker: I'm, I'm genuinely perplexed.
Speaker: So, um, what you're saying is that our next book, which is Minecraft, the Island has a chance of being the best book that we read on the show.
Speaker: It needs to be is what I'm saying.
Speaker: Uh, well, you know, we're, we both enjoy some Max Brooks and yeah.
Speaker: Um, you know what else is Max Brooks?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: What's that?
Speaker: Hey, everybody.
Speaker: Welcome back to Pixel.
Speaker: My name is Kevin.
Speaker: With me as always is Phil.
Speaker: And on today's show, we are starting our fourth year where we finished our third year of doing this show.
Speaker: So guess what?
Speaker: We're back with more S.D.
Speaker: Perry.
Speaker: We're back with more S.D.
Speaker: Perry.
Speaker: Yeah, you just got blurred out there.
Speaker: It was like I had pornography.
Speaker: I was like, ah.
Speaker: Resident Evil Underworld, which is the second book of the franchise of the series that she has written that is not based on any particular game.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: After Caliban Cove, this is the second time S.D.
Speaker: Perry's gotten an opportunity just to go ham with an original story, which is always exciting because I loved Caliban Cove.
Speaker: Yeah, Caliban Co is great.
Speaker: And Underworld does also feature her created characters that she's made.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Oh, anyway, we're back.
Speaker: And we don't have to talk about Esty Perry much more than we already have.
Speaker: In fact, go listen to the episode in which we pseudo-interviewed her by way of...
Speaker: by way of cat from pixel a day reading off her answers that we sent to her.
Speaker: In her glorious Australian accent, which SD Perry in no way has.
Speaker: In no way has.
Speaker: I love it.
Speaker: SD Perry does not say, oh, no.
Speaker: Not to our knowledge.
Speaker: Not to our knowledge.
Speaker: So yeah.
Speaker: Is there anything else we want to say about, you know, Resident Evil?
Speaker: I mean, yeah.
Speaker: What do you guys need to know about Resident Evil?
Speaker: I mean, you covered it.
Speaker: This one takes place after the third book, which was City of the Dead, which is based on Resident Evil 2.
Speaker: Resident Evil 2.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: So that tells you where we are in canonically in this in this particular stretch.
Speaker: You mean cap comically camp.
Speaker: It is kind of hilarious when you think about it, that there are
Speaker: no less than three major Resident Evil storylines that have nothing to do with each other.
Speaker: You got the video games, you got the movies and you've got the books.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And never the three shall meet.
Speaker: No, they they have they'll have some they'll have the same characters
Speaker: Sometimes.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: The same characters with different characterizations for each of the characters.
Speaker: Sometimes they'll look similar and sometimes they do similar things.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Obviously, the movies drift the farthest way far.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: These are closer to the games from from anything just because what's his name?
Speaker: Paul W.S.
Speaker: Anderson really just needed
Speaker: needed a vehicle for his for his wife who.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Let me be clear.
Speaker: I like Mila Jovovich in The Fifth Element.
Speaker: I think she's a perfectly serviceable actress.
Speaker: She's a perfectly serviceable actress.
Speaker: It's just, you know, he had to put his wife in a Resident Evil movie that had nothing to do with Resident Evil.
Speaker: Just crazy.
Speaker: I want very, very badly.
Speaker: Speaking of oral histories based on zombie franchises, I want to read about the making of those films.
Speaker: I want to know how this happened, where it fell off the line.
Speaker: Like...
Speaker: It's the same thing as a lot of like really shitty movie franchises like Puppet Master, Puppet Master.
Speaker: I would love I have really no interest in those movies, but I would love to know how they got made and like what the process.
Speaker: I don't care if it's a five page pamphlet of somebody being like, we have these puppets and we had to make a story.
Speaker: And like that's I just want to know.
Speaker: I need to know in my heart.
Speaker: Why?
Speaker: Why?
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Why?
Speaker: Have you ever read Romero's script for Resident Evil?
Speaker: No, it's meant to be closer to the game.
Speaker: It's a lot closer to the game.
Speaker: Like the same characters.
Speaker: There's some like additional characters added in when some little changes here and there, but it is very much, it's like, you know, a two degree difference between the game and the movie versus a six degrees of difference.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, where the only the only similarity is umbrella.
Speaker: Well, I mean, two degrees difference between, you know, a game or a book and the adaptation is pretty normal.
Speaker: Yeah, honestly, probably pretty decent if you think about it.
Speaker: Sure.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But you're right.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: They they ended up being about a half dozen at very least.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Degrees of separation there.
Speaker: Actually, that might be a good bonus episode is reading Romero's script.
Speaker: Oh, that would be fun.
Speaker: That would be fun.
Speaker: I like that idea.
Speaker: Maybe we could do that live or something like that.
Speaker: Just sit down and like read it out loud.
Speaker: and get some friends and cast the parts and things like that.
Speaker: Oh, that would be fun.
Speaker: Yeah, that would be a lot of fun.
Speaker: What is a way that you can support us to possibly get some of these bonus episodes is going to patreon.com slash pixel at pod.
Speaker: And you can throw us $1, $5 or $10.
Speaker: $1 gets you in the door.
Speaker: $5 gets you ad-free episodes and bonus episodes when we are able to produce them.
Speaker: And $10 gets your name shouted out in the episode.
Speaker: So to that end, I want to shout out Ruthless Mudder, Kyle Seaman, Friendly Friend, and Jesus Loves You for supporting us at the $10 tier.
Speaker: Thank you so much.
Speaker: We love you.
Speaker: We love you.
Speaker: And we love all of our Patreons.
Speaker: It's true.
Speaker: Our patron.
Speaker: Patronages.
Speaker: Patrons.
Speaker: Patrons.
Speaker: Patron.
Speaker: Patroni.
Speaker: Patronis.
Speaker: Patronis.
Speaker: Jabronis.
Speaker: Patroni Jabronis.
Speaker: Patroni Jabronis.
Speaker: Let's put the body in the bush.
Speaker: Oh, what you got there?
Speaker: Is that lemonade?
Speaker: It's Waterloo Sparkling Water.
Speaker: tropical fruits and it looks like it has a a mango okay okay i think there's a mango on there that's a grapefruit it's a slice of pineapple slice of pineapple how many of those do i taste answer me this riddle me that bad man i'm doing my
Speaker: Fruit punch happy dad as per usual.
Speaker: So we're both on a punch kick.
Speaker: We're both on a punch kick.
Speaker: Happy dad.
Speaker: Come on and sponsor us.
Speaker: I keep telling myself I'm going to send them.
Speaker: I need to do it.
Speaker: I really do.
Speaker: I need to sit down and do it.
Speaker: Oh, God.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Well, I'm taking the lead on this one.
Speaker: So let's get into it, shall we?
Speaker: Let's put that dirty, filthy, zombie riddled body in the marsh.
Speaker: This ain't reality TV.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: We open with a prologue in the same way that we have always opened with these books, which is a collection of news bits and excerpts from think pieces and the news about basically bringing you up to speed.
Speaker: It's going to bring you up to speed on what's happened.
Speaker: It brings you up to speed.
Speaker: It sets.
Speaker: I mean, if we hadn't really been sure before, Raccoon City is in Pennsylvania.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: In the S.T.
Speaker: Perryverse.
Speaker: It's also significantly smaller in her books than it is compared to, let's say, even the games.
Speaker: How big is it in the games?
Speaker: In the games, I want to say Raccoon City is more of like a Denver.
Speaker: Oh, I never got that impression.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: Okay, not Denver.
Speaker: Let's say Buffalo.
Speaker: How big is Buffalo?
Speaker: Buffalo is population 276,000.
Speaker: So like a Buffalo.
Speaker: I think it's supposed to be significantly larger in the games.
Speaker: Medium-sized city kind of thing.
Speaker: Yeah, as opposed to the book where it seems like it's a population of, what, 10,000, 20,000-ish?
Speaker: Yeah, if that.
Speaker: If that, because the total casualties, I think, end up coming out to four or five thousand.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Which, I mean, that's obscene.
Speaker: This is an insane amount of people dead.
Speaker: But yeah, when you have the ratio there, it makes a small difference.
Speaker: A small difference.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So we get happy.
Speaker: Dad is yawning.
Speaker: It's, it's killing me.
Speaker: The happy dad is always yawning.
Speaker: My son is teething.
Speaker: Uh, and, uh, I've learned the hard way that, uh, he no longer can chew on my fingers, uh, uh, for fun.
Speaker: Uh, he was really fond of grabbing my hand and putting my hand into his mouth to chew on me, which is adorable.
Speaker: And you don't, and now he's got this jagged little lower incisor coming through and it
Speaker: fucking hurts.
Speaker: It's like a snapping turtle.
Speaker: No, now you're like, oh, he's just got a little gums and he's gumming my finger.
Speaker: And then all of a sudden that first one comes in and he's drawn blood.
Speaker: Yeah, he is...
Speaker: Absolutely doing that.
Speaker: So we're watching it.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: But yeah.
Speaker: But so, yeah, everything is everything is every light has a tracer right now.
Speaker: Something I haven't experienced in a while.
Speaker: So we basically get caught up to speed on where we are.
Speaker: It also gives you the.
Speaker: The lowdown on the fact that the that stars that our heroes, basically the remainder of stars and now Raccoon City's fighting force basically are on the run from actual stars.
Speaker: Yes, they have been blamed for everything.
Speaker: Yeah, they are the cause of all the damages to Raccoon City.
Speaker: Which that's the thing is I am really, really interested in the next book because I feel like this is still working under the assumption of Resident Evil 2, right?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: the it's like, oh, there's fires and there's unrest and there's like 5000 people died.
Speaker: But there's chaos.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: But eventually things got under control.
Speaker: But yeah, in in Resident Evil three, the city is destroyed with a nuclear bomb.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Uh, so that's the dip.
Speaker: That's like how I'm just really curious when we get to that one, how does SD Perry rewrites the, all of this to make it.
Speaker: Yeah, I'm absolutely with you.
Speaker: I have no idea.
Speaker: I, I think the strength behind all of our favorite right for hire people is the ability to pivot.
Speaker: I think I think and the fact that there are seven of these books points towards the fact that she she must have succeeded on some level.
Speaker: She just kept it.
Speaker: Just keep on writing.
Speaker: You know what?
Speaker: Keep on writing.
Speaker: That's it.
Speaker: That's it.
Speaker: Hey, you got to retcon a bunch of stuff.
Speaker: You're like, OK.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: Okie dokie.
Speaker: Okie dokie.
Speaker: I'll figure it out.
Speaker: Let's go.
Speaker: Oh, Jill is not in Europe with everybody else.
Speaker: Even though I already said she was.
Speaker: That's fine.
Speaker: Sounds good.
Speaker: Sounds good.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And that brings us to chapter one, actually, where we are thrown headlong into a car chase scene with our heroes.
Speaker: We've got David, who I believe is the British one.
Speaker: They bring up the fact that he's attractive based on his accent alone.
Speaker: And I know we have a lot of English, Scottish, Welsh, Irish friends.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: So take from that what you will.
Speaker: Life.
Speaker: What you will.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Life over here really is just like what was that fucking holiday movie?
Speaker: Oh, the one that when you really think about it kind of sucks.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Sure.
Speaker: Sure.
Speaker: I'm going to be really pissed about this.
Speaker: Hold on.
Speaker: He's going to look it up, everybody, because you're probably already screaming about it.
Speaker: Yeah, you are.
Speaker: I guarantee you.
Speaker: Love actually.
Speaker: Love actually.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So just so you know, it really is love actually 24 seven over.
Speaker: If you have an accent that is vaguely European, you will get laid.
Speaker: That's just how that works.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So yeah.
Speaker: So just take of that what you will.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So we're
Speaker: We've got John, who we've mentioned before, our lovable, gigantic man.
Speaker: We have got Leon and we have.
Speaker: OK.
Speaker: My son is squealing at the top of his lungs.
Speaker: It's all good, though.
Speaker: It's all good.
Speaker: We've got Leon.
Speaker: We have got, gosh, all of them here.
Speaker: I should have written Claire, Claire, Rebecca, the gang's all here.
Speaker: It's the gang's all here.
Speaker: We're literally just missing Barry, Chris and Jill.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: And that is addressed.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It's just it's you know what?
Speaker: I couldn't get the image of this is this is not specifically because I watched a video by Scott Nieswander, but I couldn't get the mystery machine out of my head.
Speaker: Oh, I was talking about the video where he's talking about the purple is a fall color.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Speaker: And now they're being chased down by stars agents.
Speaker: They're being shot at.
Speaker: And I are in the mystery machine.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: They mentioned that they're in a van and that was good enough for me.
Speaker: I was like, it's they're in the mystery machine.
Speaker: Now the Scoob is Leon.
Speaker: Everyone knows that.
Speaker: So basically this whole chapter is them just like,
Speaker: Avoiding it's actually it's actually kind of great because what the whole chapter amounts to is an explanation and an exposition dump and bringing you up to speed on anything that maybe you couldn't have gotten from the news articles we got in the prologue.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: It tells you where we are, who's there.
Speaker: And there are lots of moments for a freeze frame.
Speaker: And you're probably wondering.
Speaker: You're probably wondering how.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: There are like four or five of those moments, which is very effective storytelling for what we're doing here because it comes down to an exposition dump.
Speaker: But Perry does a very good job of making it a very good action scene.
Speaker: It's it is it is a really good action scene.
Speaker: And I texted Phil that the opening pages of this book has a better action sequence than the entirety of the Metal Gear Solid book that we just read.
Speaker: Yes, absolutely.
Speaker: The entirety.
Speaker: And we're talking about a book about spy craft written by the one of the James Bond guys.
Speaker: One of the James Bond guys.
Speaker: Like one of the big ones.
Speaker: Like and yet.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And I did some digging on him when I was working on the you might also enjoy section last week, which is back.
Speaker: And it's back.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And I found a lot of people talking about him specifically and which of his James Bond books are their favorite.
Speaker: And apparently they're very good.
Speaker: Like his James Bond books are apparently there.
Speaker: He's got fans.
Speaker: So this is not a, this is as we have seen with a lot of these writers, when they're working on a franchise that they actually respect,
Speaker: They do good.
Speaker: But it's clear he didn't have a hell of a lot of respect for what was going on with that.
Speaker: He saw liquid snake.
Speaker: Oh, fuck this.
Speaker: How many words do you need?
Speaker: Liquid snake.
Speaker: Solidus snake.
Speaker: The guy's name is Revolver Ocelot.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I mean, that is basically where I threw my hat on the floor and said, I can't take it anymore.
Speaker: Revolver Ocelot.
Speaker: I mean, you never even started with Metal Gear Solid.
Speaker: No, no.
Speaker: I believe the book, the book never did not entice you to go any further.
Speaker: It's over.
Speaker: It's done.
Speaker: I played, I played the first 15, 20 minutes of, of metal gear solid.
Speaker: I read the novelization.
Speaker: That's just going to be a blind spot for me forever.
Speaker: And I accept that with grace and dignity, uh, mostly.
Speaker: And, uh, but it's, yeah, no, those are, that's that, that's never happening.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: We also get, as Kevin pointed out, we've got a trio of our friends who are off in Europe that and that's basically what the deal is.
Speaker: These the the the remaining kids here in the mystery machine are on their way to fly out to meet up in Europe with with the rest of the team with Jill and Chris and all of them.
Speaker: And that's that's that's what chapter one amounts to.
Speaker: I'm trying very hard.
Speaker: I didn't take as many notes on this one because I, I, I realized that when I take notes, I'm like basically reading the book out and we get a three hour episode.
Speaker: I'd be like, no, we, it's fine.
Speaker: It's fine.
Speaker: We can just, we can just, we can, we don't have to, we don't have to be so precious about this.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: So we cut to chapter two, where they make their way to the airfield.
Speaker: They're getting up in the plane.
Speaker: They are airborne and they believe that.
Speaker: not unfairly that they are on their way to Europe.
Speaker: They're on their way to Europe.
Speaker: They're on a prop plane on their way to Europe.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It is.
Speaker: Is that a thing?
Speaker: Is, or is there a modern prop plane that has a large enough fuel tank?
Speaker: They do reference that.
Speaker: They do reference.
Speaker: And I didn't think about it.
Speaker: I didn't.
Speaker: At first I was like, well, yeah, there are plenty of prop planes are still in service.
Speaker: And I thought about it was like, but to cross the Atlanta.
Speaker: I don't know about that, actually.
Speaker: I don't know.
Speaker: I mean, it depends like with or because we're I just don't know.
Speaker: I mean, every prop plane that I've ever been in is either like a small hobby plane.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Or like, you know, one that is like flies you from Tampa to Orlando or something like that.
Speaker: Like, yeah, yeah, exactly.
Speaker: You start out in Lincoln and you're going to make your way.
Speaker: Yeah, exactly.
Speaker: It's just the one.
Speaker: And before you get onto the giant ass plane.
Speaker: I mean, I know prop planes previously, you know, what's Charles Lindbergh across the Atlantic and all that stuff.
Speaker: Yeah, that's a good point.
Speaker: What I'm saying is
Speaker: Are modern prop planes still that it's almost described like a bomber at times?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You know, you get this impression that it's this long, huge prop plane, like a freaking B one or something like that.
Speaker: It's, it's weird.
Speaker: So they're making their way in there.
Speaker: They're getting comfortable.
Speaker: There's a lot to do about Rebecca, our biologist from Resident Evil Zero.
Speaker: I believe that was the one she was in, right?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: She was in, I mean, she's in the first Resident Evil game too.
Speaker: Right, right.
Speaker: But like her big- Oh, her, the game in which she is the main character is Resident Evil Zero.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Which also takes place at the same, I got it.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: But there's a lot to do about her being afraid of flying.
Speaker: There is a lot of flirty dialogue between her and John, and they're quick to have John's inner monologue talk about like, this is a daughter thing.
Speaker: This is not a girlfriend thing.
Speaker: Like, although, but he doesn't stop.
Speaker: It doesn't stop him from saying the time honored tradition of if I were a little younger, if I were a little younger, I
Speaker: No.
Speaker: Hey, buddy.
Speaker: Still not great.
Speaker: Still not great.
Speaker: How old is he?
Speaker: Are we doing half your age plus seven?
Speaker: Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker: She's 19.
Speaker: She is a teenager.
Speaker: She is a teenager.
Speaker: She cannot legally drink.
Speaker: And although in Europe, even if he was 30, she would still be under the cutoff.
Speaker: Oh gosh.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: If we're using after, I don't know.
Speaker: Do kids do the dude, did it?
Speaker: Is that, is that problematic now?
Speaker: Is that, is that, I don't know.
Speaker: That's a good question.
Speaker: Is that, if there's anyone you're talking about.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Do people know what I'm referencing is like, basically it was like when you're trying to figure out the range of, of people you can date in terms of going younger than yourself, you, you went half your age plus seven.
Speaker: So if you're 40, then that's 27 and up.
Speaker: It is kind of like, you know, makes it.
Speaker: You know, like, okay, you're in a, you're, you have enough shared experience in life to kind of work.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And it's not creepy.
Speaker: It's a, it's a, it's, it's just, it's, it's a mathematical formula that while it has no scientific value.
Speaker: Zero scientific value.
Speaker: Feels right.
Speaker: It feels right.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: I don't know.
Speaker: I feel free to, I feel free to email us.
Speaker: at you're wrong about half your age plus seven at Gmail dot com.
Speaker: Please.
Speaker: That's a thing.
Speaker: That's got to be.
Speaker: Hey, it's our three year, four year, three year anniversary, whatever it is.
Speaker: Three year anniversary.
Speaker: I got to I got to throw in an old email bit.
Speaker: That's a classic.
Speaker: It's a goody.
Speaker: It's a goody.
Speaker: I feel like the I feel like
Speaker: uh, Xennials or whatever they're being called now, uh, are, are probably a little more intuitive about it and might say something along the lines.
Speaker: If of, uh, if you have to think up some kind of, uh, mathematical formula to determine if it, if it's okay, she's too young for you, bro.
Speaker: Um, yeah, no, I feel like generation Z would, would be, would,
Speaker: really have some words or generation Z for those of you listening, listening in other English speaking countries.
Speaker: If you like that you're here, thank you.
Speaker: So we do get some uncomfortable flirting.
Speaker: We get we get some backup from Leon and Claire.
Speaker: That's that's another thing that happens.
Speaker: They we get a lot of internal monologue from Leon about Ada.
Speaker: And what an amazing woman she was.
Speaker: And he's he's crushing hard.
Speaker: And that's canon.
Speaker: I mean, that's that's that's totally a thing with the games.
Speaker: That is one thing that is totally in line between this and the games and the remakes of the games is that the only girl for Leon is Ada Wong.
Speaker: Absolutely.
Speaker: And then but then we get another person observing him and Claire interacting, talking about.
Speaker: something going on there.
Speaker: Maybe that would make sense.
Speaker: That works.
Speaker: And then Claire's internal monologue also kind of confirms the idea of like, maybe, maybe something could happen there, which is just setting us all up for heartbreak.
Speaker: Why do you do this?
Speaker: It's all up for heartbreak.
Speaker: Why do you do this?
Speaker: All of our, all of our hopes and fanfic are just going into just depression mode.
Speaker: Tatters.
Speaker: Why are you doing this to us?
Speaker: Why you do this?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Demi, why you do this?
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: So, yeah, we get a lot of the we get brought up to speed there a lot.
Speaker: And then we are informed that there is a new visitor who somehow on the plane on the plane.
Speaker: They missed on the plane.
Speaker: And and and the gentleman walks out.
Speaker: And speaking of characters that are not video game canon, but S.D.
Speaker: Perry wrote it is it is our dear, dear friend Trevor.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Trevor Trevor Trevor by the way can you move your mic just a little bit you seem to be bumping it oh am I bump yeah there you go okay Trent so Trent I don't know it was actually three Trevor's in a trench coat equals a Trent
Speaker: And a Trent coat.
Speaker: Oh, we get this is this is hilarious to me because this is the first book where his appearance actually makes a lot of sense to me.
Speaker: And it actually really works for me.
Speaker: And I've been questioning the need for this guy since he was introduced in the very first Resident Evil book.
Speaker: And but this is where she finally gets to use him on a level that I think is kind of effective.
Speaker: So basically, we've got some people who know him, mostly people who don't.
Speaker: And he informs them good news slash bad news.
Speaker: you're not going to Europe.
Speaker: Your friends.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And they are pissed.
Speaker: They are pissed off.
Speaker: And because no one tells us what to do because we survived the T virus and the G virus and the P virus and right.
Speaker: All that shit, which I think E virus and the N virus and the I virus.
Speaker: And yes, that was awful.
Speaker: The I virus was particularly bad.
Speaker: The
Speaker: Penis virus.
Speaker: Penis virus where your penis falls off and tries to eat you.
Speaker: Yeah, it's like that.
Speaker: It's like that part from the thing where like.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: The head.
Speaker: Oh, it's just a little penis with legs going.
Speaker: That has to rule 34.
Speaker: That has to be.
Speaker: That has to be.
Speaker: John Carpenter.
Speaker: Did you see that they are remastering the thing video game?
Speaker: No.
Speaker: Night Dive Studio is doing it.
Speaker: everything's different now kevin everything's different night dive who most recently did uh
Speaker: System Shock.
Speaker: Yeah, they're great.
Speaker: I mean, they've done System Shock.
Speaker: They've done Shadow Man.
Speaker: Their entire shtick is recreating old games.
Speaker: So, yeah, their next one.
Speaker: They also did the Dark Forces remaster.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: This is this is this is good news.
Speaker: This game fucking ruled.
Speaker: I did a whole video on movie video game adaptations years ago.
Speaker: My top five favorite of them and the thing I believe was number three.
Speaker: So I'm really, really excited about this.
Speaker: They're bringing it up to 4K resolution, high frame rates.
Speaker: Oh, because it was one ugly, but ugly game these days.
Speaker: Yeah, I know.
Speaker: Looking back on it, it's they're, you know, fixing all the textures and all that stuff.
Speaker: That's great.
Speaker: I mean, but it looks like they're keeping it from the...
Speaker: the footage that they have posted like on steam already, it looks like it's, it's pretty much the same game, just like, they're just giving it a coat of paint.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Which is all they need to do.
Speaker: It's it's right.
Speaker: I'm sure that when we play it, there will be a level of, um, and wishlist, uh, there will be a level of, of some of this gameplay hasn't translated all that well.
Speaker: It hasn't aged well, et cetera.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: But I but having the opportunity to even try is a very big deal to me.
Speaker: So that's because this was because this was a fantastic sequel.
Speaker: And it's it's what John Carpenter considers the sequel to the movie.
Speaker: Yeah, it's it's and it's it's a good story.
Speaker: It's well done.
Speaker: So yeah.
Speaker: Oh, oh, God, I lost my train of thought.
Speaker: Where were we?
Speaker: Where were we?
Speaker: OK, so Trent is going.
Speaker: He's basically informs them.
Speaker: Your friends in Europe do not need your help.
Speaker: Uh, they are under control, but there is a, uh, umbrella facility in the West out here in, uh, in Utah that you guys could get in there and, uh, and, and find some very good information and, uh, start some shit and help bring down umbrella.
Speaker: And that would be way more effective, uh, way more effective use of your time than helping out your trio of friends in Austria who do not need your help.
Speaker: They don't need it.
Speaker: They don't need it.
Speaker: And we get a big kerfuffle, especially with John, who just absolutely hates Trent's guts.
Speaker: And we have it pointed out later that he hates him because he maybe is the only person who isn't intimidated by John.
Speaker: Sure.
Speaker: He just does.
Speaker: He just kind of pulls a Mr. Smith and just, you know, he's wearing his black suit and just kind of blinking, you know, right.
Speaker: His eyes crossing, just not caring about anything John's doing.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Imagine you put most of your points in intimidation and, and it didn't work.
Speaker: And you're failing your rolls.
Speaker: You put all those points in intimidation and it's like, no, the, the role doesn't, it's like, no.
Speaker: And it's not even botches.
Speaker: You're not even rolling ones.
Speaker: You just can't beat the challenge.
Speaker: It's like, it's like, yeah, the, the, it's like, all right, well, you know, you, you, you would have to roll a 20 in order to actually, uh,
Speaker: Get this right.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: You'd have a 120 chance of this.
Speaker: You have a one.
Speaker: It would only work for a little while.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So he basically tells them that's that's what the plan is.
Speaker: I'm going to let you decide if you want to do this.
Speaker: And he basically goes back up.
Speaker: He informs him that the pilot is a very good friend of his.
Speaker: And he has been manipulating the situation from the beginning.
Speaker: When he found out.
Speaker: At first they were acting like this pilot, it's this drunk guy who's the only guy we could get to fly us in.
Speaker: And Trent is like, oh, no, no, no.
Speaker: He's actually a very good pilot, very fine pilot.
Speaker: And he's one of my friends.
Speaker: And we manipulated it so that he would be the guy that flies you to Utah.
Speaker: Exactly.
Speaker: Very, very matter of fact, very, you know, the man in black kind of thing going on with him.
Speaker: So he very confidently says, well, talk amongst yourselves.
Speaker: I'm going to go hang out with my best friend, the pilot, while you talk it over and decide whether you want to do this or not, which is more consideration than I think you would expect from a guy like this.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: But it's very considerate.
Speaker: He's a considerate guy.
Speaker: And he leaves them to it.
Speaker: And that brings us into chapter four, where we learn about where we get basically Rebecca kind of like pixie dusting John, like, oh, big, strong warrior.
Speaker: Don't worry about it, pal.
Speaker: Everyone's scared of you.
Speaker: That's why you're so pissed.
Speaker: And he has to admit that that is true.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Which is which, you know what?
Speaker: Fair enough.
Speaker: Fair enough.
Speaker: You know, good for him.
Speaker: Good for him.
Speaker: Uh, so we basically, it comes down to a vote in a way.
Speaker: And John ends up being the only person who's holding back, uh, on wanting to do this, but everyone seems to be okay.
Speaker: What choice do we have at this point?
Speaker: And I at first I was kind of like weirded out by this because it's like, OK, this mysterious man shows up on your plane randomly and tells you you can do this instead.
Speaker: This is what your option option is.
Speaker: And they just kind of go, yeah, OK, fine.
Speaker: But you've got to figure at this point their lives are so fucked with like.
Speaker: you know, clandestine meetings and forces fighting against them, all that shit that they were just like, yeah, it fine.
Speaker: It couldn't possibly be.
Speaker: We'll go to Utah instead of Austria.
Speaker: I wasn't looking forward to beer anyway.
Speaker: I didn't want to go to one of the greatest places in Europe for beer and wine.
Speaker: And I didn't want to go there anyway.
Speaker: I wanted to go to a place where it's going to be hard to find a beer that's 2% alcohol.
Speaker: That seems fine.
Speaker: That sounds great.
Speaker: Hooray.
Speaker: Hooray.
Speaker: I didn't want to go and hang out in this beautiful Alpine country.
Speaker: I wanted to, I want to go to the desert, the goddamn where, where the biggest, most beautiful lake there is filled with salt.
Speaker: Sign me up.
Speaker: It's filled with salt.
Speaker: It's just salt.
Speaker: I'm, I'm super into it.
Speaker: That sounds great.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: So they basically over this chapter, we get John calmed down nice and good.
Speaker: Calms down.
Speaker: The big galoot and basically confirm we're going to Utah.
Speaker: With all the enthusiasm of someone going to Utah.
Speaker: Yeah, exactly.
Speaker: Including the early Mormons who had to do it or otherwise they'd get killed.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So, yeah.
Speaker: Trent gives them some secret passcodes also.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Several.
Speaker: One of these will work.
Speaker: And it's just like, it just reminds me of like a copy protection on an old video game.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Where you've got the instruction manual and you kids don't know the insane shit you had to do because you'd be playing the game.
Speaker: It would let you play for about, you know, the first level or two.
Speaker: Depends on the game.
Speaker: And then it would.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Something would pop up.
Speaker: And it was always different in every game.
Speaker: The one I remember the most is Maniac Mansion, but not the NES version.
Speaker: I'm talking about the one for, well, whatever version you had on the PC.
Speaker: You had your Commodore 64 version.
Speaker: You had your, you know, whatever.
Speaker: Anyway, so you had your version of Maniac Mansion and you would go upstairs and on the second floor, there was a door.
Speaker: It was this big old blast door with a keypad on it.
Speaker: And in order to get the code for the keypad, you had to refer to the instruction manual for the code.
Speaker: And the code would change randomly based on your playthrough.
Speaker: And so it would generate, like, you got to pick, it's got to be one of these.
Speaker: And then you would go and be like, okay.
Speaker: And then, okay, here's the code.
Speaker: Now, some games got even cuter with it where it would be like, um...
Speaker: Be like, oh, you see this symbol on the wall and that was the copy protection.
Speaker: And then you had like a little a little paper dial thing and you would dial in the symbol and it would line up to a number and then you would put that number in somewhere and be like, you're good to play.
Speaker: Now in Maniac Mansion, if you got the thing wrong three times.
Speaker: It triggered a nuclear meltdown in the nuclear reactor below the mansion and ended your game.
Speaker: So you could do whatever you wanted on the first floor and basement.
Speaker: It was when you wanted to get into the second floor, you had to put in the copy protection.
Speaker: Otherwise, you were done-zo.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Having an instruction manual mattered back then.
Speaker: Having the instruction manual mattered.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And yeah.
Speaker: So, you know, copy protection.
Speaker: It was a thing.
Speaker: It was better in the day.
Speaker: Fighting cheaters and hackers was just better in the day because you could work it into the game.
Speaker: It was working in the game.
Speaker: And now it got very frustrating.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But now in the what is it?
Speaker: The version of like Maniac Mansion that you get on good old games or whatever, the copy protection has been disabled.
Speaker: Like that door is just open.
Speaker: Like, yeah, you don't have to enter in anything.
Speaker: And then you've got ones like King's Quest six.
Speaker: I want to say it is that has a similar thing where you're climbing a wall and there are these rooms that appear.
Speaker: And the only way to know which room you need to hit is to get the instruction manual.
Speaker: And they just left it in.
Speaker: And so you've just it's just assume that it's like you've got the Internet and you'll be able to look this up.
Speaker: But it's the only way to get past that.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Sometimes they don't even do have the consideration of leaving the door open is my point.
Speaker: Anyway, Trent.
Speaker: Trent.
Speaker: Trent is.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Trent gives him some codes.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Just he says, I tried to narrow it down.
Speaker: I did my best.
Speaker: You're lucky you got this.
Speaker: Good guy.
Speaker: Which is good guy.
Speaker: Trent.
Speaker: We come to chapter five, chapter five.
Speaker: And we've got Jay Reston.
Speaker: A corporate lover of umbrella.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: We basically get a walkthrough of Jay's day.
Speaker: He is actually kind of a hilarious character because he is this typical white collar proto tech bro.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And he's been given a control of this particular white umbrella is what they call it.
Speaker: White umbrella facility out in the middle of nowhere.
Speaker: Not the most glamorous job, but it's like, by God, I'm going to do it really, really well.
Speaker: I'm going to ship them Tiffany cufflinks and then they'll they'll make me one of the head honchos around here.
Speaker: He's that guy.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And we get a little walkthrough of his his day.
Speaker: Just imagine him played.
Speaker: by, just imagine him played by Tom Pelfrey.
Speaker: And did you see a man in full?
Speaker: No.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: So just, oh yeah, that's good casting.
Speaker: Yes, that's good casting.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker: Tom Pelfrey, especially in his character in A Man in Full, just this like little, you know, shit heel dude who was just kind of like, I'm I'm I'm the hot shit.
Speaker: But also paranoid about the others.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: That's yes.
Speaker: That's exactly it.
Speaker: Very succession vibes, you know?
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: But with less power.
Speaker: But with less power.
Speaker: So he's running this place.
Speaker: We get kind of a it's a quick chapter.
Speaker: We get a look at we get basically a lowdown on we get a lot of esoterica of like they've been moving.
Speaker: the subjects.
Speaker: Basically, you're given enough information to know that it is a fully operational umbrella facility that is probably filled with Zambos.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Sick.
Speaker: Awesome.
Speaker: This fully operational zombie facility.
Speaker: I think you'll find it quite functional.
Speaker: I think you'll find it quite functional.
Speaker: No, we don't talk enough about what's his name.
Speaker: The guy who plays the emperor.
Speaker: Fucking for eight.
Speaker: He was in all of the movies except two of them.
Speaker: Goddamn, just brought it every time.
Speaker: You know?
Speaker: I think because they use his character so badly, most recently people are quick to, and, and, and, and also the clone wars and stuff.
Speaker: It's like, look, yeah, those, you know, those, the prequels, sorry, are not good movies, but he knows exactly what movie he's in.
Speaker: He might be one of the only people who does.
Speaker: He knows exactly what he's doing.
Speaker: At all times.
Speaker: Ian McDermott.
Speaker: Oh, man.
Speaker: He always knows what movie he's in.
Speaker: I was watching a thing on Hellraiser recently, and one of the directions that Clive Barker gave to the guy who played Pinhead was the guy who played Pinhead.
Speaker: I'm already getting yelled at by...
Speaker: I'm a huge fan of Hellraiser.
Speaker: I don't have his name.
Speaker: I feel like Pim is screaming at me somewhere.
Speaker: Oh, Pim is pissed.
Speaker: Sorry.
Speaker: The guy who played Pinhead.
Speaker: Fuck.
Speaker: Doug Bradley.
Speaker: Doug Bradley.
Speaker: Jesus Christ.
Speaker: Anyway, Clive Barker was always telling Doug Bradley less, less, like do like do less.
Speaker: Bring it down.
Speaker: Bring it down.
Speaker: Bring it down.
Speaker: Yeah, because he just wanted this character.
Speaker: And I feel like Ian McDiarmid is the exact person
Speaker: opposite of that.
Speaker: Absolutely.
Speaker: Like, no more.
Speaker: Nope.
Speaker: You know, this take even more.
Speaker: This take do even more.
Speaker: And it's so good.
Speaker: He is taking bites out of the scenery that you could not feel with spackle.
Speaker: It is just crazy.
Speaker: You got to replace that drywall.
Speaker: You got to get a whole new sheet of drywall.
Speaker: A whole new sheet of drywall.
Speaker: Because what happened?
Speaker: Ian McDermott was playing the emperor in here.
Speaker: Oh, fuck.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Oh, fuck.
Speaker: And that's what we're missing from Dune 2 is that you cast Christopher.
Speaker: Listen, Denny.
Speaker: Listen to me, Denny.
Speaker: You cast Christopher Walken as the emperor, and then you have Christopher Walken turn in a really understated performance.
Speaker: What are you doing, buddy?
Speaker: Who are you?
Speaker: What are you thinking?
Speaker: You're like, I'm going to pick the loudest tool off the shelf, but then I'm going to muffle it.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, exactly.
Speaker: Anyway, it doesn't make sense.
Speaker: So.
Speaker: Reston.
Speaker: So Reston, the most interesting we get, we get like, we get, we get to know him.
Speaker: He is our, he's our big bad kind of he's our, he's our, he's our weakling big bad, you know, the, the, the corporate guy behind all the bullshit.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, the corpo.
Speaker: And the most interesting thing that comes out of this chapter is he's talking about the circle, like the inner circle that runs Umbrella, basically.
Speaker: And he mentions Trent and he and he kind of fanboys over him a little.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: He like really likes him.
Speaker: He's like, oh, I really want to make sure that Trent's happy with this.
Speaker: Like, so it gives you a glimpse into what kind of 4D chess here our dear friend Trent is playing.
Speaker: And the fact that not only is he a part of this, he's like at least well-respected and well-regarded because this guy is a shrimp and he wants to climb his way up the ladder.
Speaker: So he's not going to bother with anyone he doesn't think can help him.
Speaker: And Trent's basically who he talks about specifically.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Uh, so that, that I think is very interesting.
Speaker: We get, we get another layer of the onion peel back there.
Speaker: Uh, we cut to chapter six where we've got the team.
Speaker: Uh, they, they literally, after they agreed to doing this, uh, I believe they said something like, well, we've got, we've got six hours.
Speaker: Uh, so let's get a nap in and all that shit.
Speaker: So it is six hours later.
Speaker: They are in the middle of the desert in Utah in the freezing cold.
Speaker: Uh,
Speaker: it sucks.
Speaker: It just like, I was actually really impressed when I read that.
Speaker: I was like, this sounds like the worst.
Speaker: Like it's actually very good writing for the situation.
Speaker: So it doesn't look like much where they're going to, it kind of, if you've ever, I don't know if she did this on purpose, but if you've ever actually seen pictures of area 51, uh,
Speaker: out in the desert.
Speaker: It's at least like old ones that they used to show.
Speaker: I don't know if it's changed since then or what, but they're, they're kind of underwhelming.
Speaker: It's just in the middle of the desert.
Speaker: Some buildings, you know, it's, it's, it's, yeah.
Speaker: And that's basically how this is described.
Speaker: So they are, they actually very easily make their way up there.
Speaker: They, they jump, they jump a fence.
Speaker: There really isn't much.
Speaker: I kept waiting for- They don't even have to Naruto run?
Speaker: No, no.
Speaker: They don't even try.
Speaker: It's wild.
Speaker: There's no need.
Speaker: It's wild.
Speaker: It's crazy.
Speaker: So they make their way into the facility and they have to find quickly where is this code going to be?
Speaker: And this is a random detail that I picked up on, but I really liked it.
Speaker: They talked about how-
Speaker: in deciding where they want to go, if it was anybody else, they would have looked for some very cleverly hidden...
Speaker: thing like like for for the for the keypad, basically.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: You know, some something that, you know, you type it into a trash can and an elevator pops out of the dirt and everything like that.
Speaker: But they point out that Umbrella is an arrogant enough company that it's probably going to be way more obvious than you think.
Speaker: It's going to be by the door.
Speaker: It's and it is and it is.
Speaker: It's it's.
Speaker: It's by the door.
Speaker: And so they get started.
Speaker: They start trying out the different codes on there.
Speaker: And David...
Speaker: He's got his list.
Speaker: He has, well, he doesn't have the list.
Speaker: He has memorized all of the codes.
Speaker: All 11 of them.
Speaker: Sheesh.
Speaker: Better him than me.
Speaker: That's just, that's, that's a lot.
Speaker: So we cut to Reston who it's, he's up late having a glass of brandy.
Speaker: This guy is the, the, the quintessential if I'm conscious, I'm working kind of a dude.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: He's at least having a drink.
Speaker: But he is hanging out and he gets like a sensor alarm goes off and he says, oh, fuck the sensor alarms.
Speaker: They keep going off because of like high winds that happen over there.
Speaker: And we need to get that taken care of.
Speaker: So you start to think we're going to have like, oh, that's just another.
Speaker: Another get away with it.
Speaker: You know, basically they sneak past based on the incompetence.
Speaker: But he takes a look in the camera and very clearly sees this team like their cameras must be amazing.
Speaker: Well, and what's funny is the cameras had just come online.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Had they been any earlier?
Speaker: He would not have seen them because the technician was having issues with the camera wiring up until right before they show up.
Speaker: Right, right.
Speaker: It's ridiculous.
Speaker: So there, yeah.
Speaker: But we get into chapter seven and...
Speaker: He's watching them and, you know, alerting, alert, alert the guards and, and the dogs and the bees and the dogs with bees in their mouth so that when they bite, they bark at you.
Speaker: Bees sting.
Speaker: Bees at you.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: All that good stuff.
Speaker: Colonel.
Speaker: Colonel.
Speaker: See, I'm not doing it.
Speaker: I'm not.
Speaker: I couldn't do it during.
Speaker: I couldn't do it during Metal Gear Solid.
Speaker: But now that we're out of Metal Gear Solid, you're back.
Speaker: Back, baby.
Speaker: Colonel.
Speaker: The clap of my ass cheeks is alerting the dogs bees in their mouth.
Speaker: I love it.
Speaker: I love it.
Speaker: The dogs are biting.
Speaker: Bees are stinging my ass cheeks.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Oh, I wish.
Speaker: Now that's a crossover whose day has come.
Speaker: I can tell you.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I mean, Capcom, Konami, get it together.
Speaker: Come on, people.
Speaker: It's got priorities, right?
Speaker: You two are the OG third party Japanese development companies.
Speaker: You got to.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Come on.
Speaker: Konami put down the pachinko machines for one goddamn second.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: For one, one fucking second, please.
Speaker: You did it long enough to give us some, some contra shit in, in, in vampire survivors.
Speaker: And thank you.
Speaker: But, but come on, come on.
Speaker: So chapter seven basically amounts to, again, a very well-written back and forth kind of chase scene, basically where our Scooby gang, that's who they are from now on out.
Speaker: Let's just, let's just face that.
Speaker: Scoob and the gang.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Scoob and the gang, they are aware that they have been found.
Speaker: They are racing to get the right code in to avoid further detection and to infiltrate the facilities while Reston, through sheer incompetence, is unable to find the fucking keys that he needs.
Speaker: He can't find the keys.
Speaker: They just it's literally him going, wait, where did I put those keys?
Speaker: I really enjoy Reston so far as a villain.
Speaker: Oh, I do too.
Speaker: He is straight corpo.
Speaker: He is not.
Speaker: He's not Patrick Bateman.
Speaker: He's one of Patrick Bateman's friends.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: And not even one of the more interesting ones.
Speaker: He's not Paul Allen.
Speaker: He's not even, he's not interesting enough to be killed like Paul Allen.
Speaker: He's, um, he's the guy who says, uh, uh, when did you become such a tasteful son of a bitch?
Speaker: Uh, there you go.
Speaker: There you go.
Speaker: Justin Theroux.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Justin Theroux.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: That's perfect.
Speaker: Who is so well cast for that.
Speaker: Just, just a great hoity toity bullshit artist kind of guy.
Speaker: Uh, I like that guy.
Speaker: Uh, so, uh,
Speaker: You're going back and forth as they make their way into the facilities up to the elevator.
Speaker: And he tries to and rest and tries to remember where they leave my keys, which is just it shouldn't work, but it really does.
Speaker: It really works.
Speaker: And finally, they get to the elevator that's going to take them down into the main facility.
Speaker: Leon and John hop onto the elevator.
Speaker: Everyone else is going for it.
Speaker: And that is when Reston has the keys and gets the manual override and the elevator doors slam shut.
Speaker: cutting our team in half, not literally, figuratively.
Speaker: I realize now that with Resident Evil, that absolutely could be a literal thing that happened.
Speaker: So I have to be clear.
Speaker: And it ends with a lovely note.
Speaker: As Leon and John realize where they are and what's happened, manual override, he said.
Speaker: And stood up looking at the young cop, not sure what to say.
Speaker: Their simple plan had just been totally screwed.
Speaker: Shit, Leon said.
Speaker: And John nodded, thinking he'd summed it up perfectly.
Speaker: And that's as far as we're going to get.
Speaker: That was just a... How can you not end it on that note?
Speaker: I love it.
Speaker: So, Kevin, what do you think so far of Resident Evil Underworld?
Speaker: It's fun.
Speaker: It's like, I think what S.D.
Speaker: Perry does very well in the non-game books is...
Speaker: she really slims them down to, in terms of like the action, the beats that need to happen.
Speaker: Whereas the games can afford to be a little bit more convoluted.
Speaker: And she usually does a pretty good job of,
Speaker: of trimming the games down into something that is more coherent in terms of a beat by beat story.
Speaker: When she's on her own with these characters, they're even tighter, which is something I've noticed with both Caliban Cove and Underworld so far.
Speaker: And Underworld has like, whereas, you know, you have Wesker and you have these villains in the games that are extremely, uh,
Speaker: like over-the-top cartoonish.
Speaker: In Underworld so far, you have this guy, this corpo...
Speaker: kind of duncy guy, William Reston, who's the reason he's dangerous is because he just his only goal is to climb the ladder.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And it's like he'll probably do whatever it takes to make that happen.
Speaker: He doesn't have really much else going on for him.
Speaker: No, clearly not.
Speaker: It's the middle of the night and he's having a glass of brandy and watching the security cams.
Speaker: Dude doesn't have a girlfriend.
Speaker: Let's just point.
Speaker: Everybody else is asleep.
Speaker: Um, so yeah, that's, it's, it's, uh, I'm enjoying it so far.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I, I couldn't agree more.
Speaker: I think, uh, SD Perry's, uh, one of her biggest strengths in writing these is, is, has always been the ability to know, as you pointed out what to include and what not to include.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: How to slim it down, how to streamline it.
Speaker: And I couldn't agree more when she when she gets the opportunity to just go.
Speaker: It's so much fun.
Speaker: So I'm.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Which is the thing that and that's the thing that I think held up the Metal Gear Solid book so much is it's like almost everything was included.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Even something from the original game,
Speaker: that it was added in, I think, the remaster, Twin Snakes, was included, which is Meryl having a bomb strapped to her.
Speaker: It wasn't in the original game.
Speaker: It was in the remaster.
Speaker: So it was even more stuff that, you know... So I think that's something that... Didn't mean to be there.
Speaker: Yeah, right.
Speaker: So I think that's something that S.D.
Speaker: Perry has...
Speaker: um kind of does well in her uh in her stories and that's the thing is like she's she's not like overwhelming us with like like literate like with the literary prose she is just doing a damn fine job yeah um which i appreciate you know i do too it's it's fast-paced you know kevin did point out uh
Speaker: as he was reading it, how, how just that opening shot is so much better than any of the action sequences we got.
Speaker: And, and I made some off the hand comment about like, yeah, she doesn't give us art, but you know, but it's, it's great.
Speaker: And Kevin was like, I don't fuck art.
Speaker: I, this is, this is fun.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And I was like, yeah, that's absolutely right.
Speaker: This is, she writes fun, fun stuff.
Speaker: And that's, I, I, I always like coming back to her with these.
Speaker: There's a reason we started with her.
Speaker: There's a reason that this, this show, um,
Speaker: will continue to uh i i mean theoretically we could read all seven over the course of seven years so right um
Speaker: Anyway, now that that's- We'll get there.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Oh, gosh, yeah.
Speaker: What else are we going to do?
Speaker: What do you got plans for?
Speaker: I keep having dreams about us doing this as a job.
Speaker: Like, literally, I woke up- Literal dreams.
Speaker: Literal dreams.
Speaker: It was like, oh, it was weird.
Speaker: We had this cool studio that we're doing this in.
Speaker: So, it's- I'm prophesying.
Speaker: Is that the word?
Speaker: Prophesying this into the future.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But now that that's all done-
Speaker: Let's talk a little bit about the things that are important, the things that matter, the things that people actually came here to listen to.
Speaker: Kevin, what are you playing?
Speaker: Oh, okay.
Speaker: What am I playing?
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: Well, you know, I'll start with Nine Souls.
Speaker: So Nine Souls is the game that was made by the...
Speaker: What was, what's their, what's their, their red candle games.
Speaker: Their detention and devotion.
Speaker: Oh, okay.
Speaker: That's their, their stuff.
Speaker: Nine souls is a Metroidvania, which is interesting in that it's not their,
Speaker: It's not their bread and butter.
Speaker: And it's got a really interesting, I would say unique story
Speaker: You're playing as this fox character, this fox dude who in the opening cut scene is killed by someone who looks similar.
Speaker: And then he falls into a pit and gets sucked into this wall with these like tentacles and then is spit back out like a year later, fully healed.
Speaker: And he then spends the next few years living with
Speaker: a human village and these humans, they do this ritual sacrifice every couple of years where they bring somebody to this platform and a thing comes down and grabs their head and twists it off and the body like falls down a chute.
Speaker: So
Speaker: you're this dude and you're just kind of sitting there and you watch one human do it and watch the second human do it.
Speaker: And then you, the boy that found you after you were spit out of the wall, he goes up to do it, to, to sac, to join his family or whatever.
Speaker: And right before it happens, you like do a jump dash and you break the machine, which causes the door to open and you jump down revealing an entire,
Speaker: like hidden secrets, high technology base.
Speaker: Like the humans are low technology, like low tech humans, you know, they believe in these ritual sacrifices and stuff like that.
Speaker: And then you go down and it's like, oh, shit.
Speaker: So underneath the human village is a super high tech stuff.
Speaker: It it's really fascinating.
Speaker: It's got kind of a neat story so far.
Speaker: That being said, I don't think I'm going to keep playing it.
Speaker: Because for a Metroidvania to really hook me,
Speaker: It's got to have a fluidness and a good feeling to the combat that I'm just not finding here.
Speaker: The combat is just one degree too difficult for me.
Speaker: I think there might be a difficulty- I keep seeing comparisons to Sekiro.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: There's a lot of, you gotta hit the, it's a lot about hitting the parry window because if you can parry something, then you're, you leave the enemy open for,
Speaker: this attack where you like slide through them and stick a explosive on them and like that's interesting cause them to explode um and it's you know it's surprisingly gory for the art style uh but then knowing that they are the who they are the red candle games with their horror background it's not that surprising
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: That context actually makes a lot of sense.
Speaker: Makes a lot more sense.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So nine souls is beautiful, beautiful looking game.
Speaker: I'm just not sure it's my thing.
Speaker: Maybe I'll come back to it.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: I started playing Children of the Sun, which you purchased for me for my birthday.
Speaker: Happy birthday.
Speaker: Very fascinating game.
Speaker: You talked a lot about it last week, but yeah, it's kind of cool.
Speaker: You know, it's a puzzle game with headshots.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: It's genuinely unique.
Speaker: Like, it's like, what is this?
Speaker: It's fascinating.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I'm back on my bullshit with Power Wash Simulator.
Speaker: Naturally.
Speaker: Naturally, because I have the Final Fantasy VII expansion pack.
Speaker: So, you know, I'm cleaning up the... Right now, I'm cleaning up the bar for Tifa.
Speaker: She asked me to clean the bar, so... Wow.
Speaker: I mean, Tifa said that.
Speaker: If Tifa asks, you know... Yeah.
Speaker: What else have I played recently?
Speaker: 1000x Resist.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: I've only played it for a half hour.
Speaker: I have no clue what's going on, but I'm going to keep playing...
Speaker: Donut.
Speaker: I don't.
Speaker: I have no, I don't understand it.
Speaker: I don't know what's happening, but I'm going to keep playing because it's, it's weird.
Speaker: And it's really weird.
Speaker: And I don't know what I'm doing in it, but sure.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: And then the final thing I'll mention I just started playing today was the first episode of the Alan Wake DLC called Welcome to Night Springs, the Alan Wake 2 DLC.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So there's three characters in which you are playing.
Speaker: with which you are playing through the course of the DLC.
Speaker: The first one up is the waitress.
Speaker: I forget her name, but the one who's obsessed with Alan Wake as the writer.
Speaker: The second character, the other two characters are Officer Tim Breaker, who is played by Sean Ashmore.
Speaker: There's actually a
Speaker: a fourth wall breaking moment in the trailer for the Welcome to Night Springs where the character model for Sean Ashmore is like standing in front of a green screen doing something and then it cuts to what's his name Sam Lake standing off camera and he says that'll do Sean
Speaker: It's fun.
Speaker: I like that.
Speaker: Because Sean Ashmore plays Tim Breaker.
Speaker: And then the other person that is in it is Jesse Faden, who is the main character from Control.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: So they're really tying that up.
Speaker: Yeah, they're tying those two things together.
Speaker: Nice.
Speaker: So, yeah, I'm jumping back into it, and I might do the new game plus of Alan Wake 2, which apparently...
Speaker: There's a bunch of things in the story that change a little bit on New Game Plus, from what I understand.
Speaker: So that's what I've been playing.
Speaker: Phil, what are you playing?
Speaker: First and foremost, on my phone, I've been playing a lot of 40K tacticus.
Speaker: OK, which is your standard issue, free to play kind of strategy fight, unlock characters thing is just in the 40K universe.
Speaker: If it was any other universe, I wouldn't give two shits.
Speaker: But I've got a space.
Speaker: I've got you start out with an ultramarines army and slowly build up an Echaron and all that stuff.
Speaker: And they've got
Speaker: different abilities and you can upgrade them in all the same ways you've done before.
Speaker: And I will say when I when it first came out, I was intrigued, but I didn't go with it.
Speaker: It was it was brand new and there were only like three squads you could unlock.
Speaker: And in the time since they have added a whole lot of stuff.
Speaker: And unfortunately, that also makes it kind of tough to get into.
Speaker: It's kind of a damn if you do, damn if you don't sort of situation.
Speaker: But it's clean, it's pretty, it's easy to play.
Speaker: And if you're into 40K, it's not a bad way to while away a little time.
Speaker: Sure.
Speaker: I got back on my bullshit in playing weird ass goddamn games with Arctic eggs.
Speaker: Oh, I've heard about this.
Speaker: This fucking weird ass game puts you in it.
Speaker: First off, it's got this kind of just PS1 style graphics.
Speaker: But at the same time, the models are all kind of like bloating and shrinking.
Speaker: I don't know if it's meant to be breathing, but it's happening in their heads and their faces and everything is very
Speaker: unnerving and strange.
Speaker: And it's this dystopian future where you are in an Arctic refugee camp is the only thing I can tell.
Speaker: And you have a frying pan and people are hungry and they have ingredients and
Speaker: You go from person to person and basically take their ingredients.
Speaker: And it's a simple interface of using a frying pan, using it in a certain way to actually fry and then flipping and getting their food order correct.
Speaker: And this goes from anything from it starts with an egg, as the name Arctic egg suggests.
Speaker: And that's one of the easier things.
Speaker: And you can get people ask for bacon and then people start throwing in things like cigarettes.
Speaker: And the cigarette will essentially act as a timer.
Speaker: You have to have it finished before it burns down to the butt.
Speaker: But they talk about how they love the way that the cigarette flavors the food.
Speaker: And then you get to things like blowfish, which bounce way too hard.
Speaker: And if you're
Speaker: too if you're not gentle enough, they will fly off the pan.
Speaker: You have to start all over.
Speaker: It's very frustrating and beer.
Speaker: And like you have to the only thing is the beer can fall over.
Speaker: You just have to keep all the liquid in the pan while you cook the other shit.
Speaker: And it's just all of these random things.
Speaker: But it's a very, very simple.
Speaker: The mechanics are super simple and it's pretty effective.
Speaker: It's it's it's it's fun.
Speaker: I think the world building might be full of shit.
Speaker: Uh, it's the things that people say, you talk to all these people, not everybody wants food from you.
Speaker: They just want to talk to you.
Speaker: And the things that people say, you keep coming back to certain things.
Speaker: Like, uh, they'll say, I wonder if you could fry an egg at the top of Mount Everest that keeps coming back up.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Um, and, uh, and people miss the point.
Speaker: And they'll say, well, you like one person says, I wonder if you can fry an egg on top of Mount Everest.
Speaker: And the other person says, well, are you just food prep?
Speaker: That way you've got the egg waiting for you when you're at the top of Mount Everest.
Speaker: And they're like, that's not my point.
Speaker: That's not what I'm getting at.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And you run into that a lot.
Speaker: And that's interesting.
Speaker: But a lot of the other stuff they say could almost be word salad to a point that I'm not sure that the author of this game isn't fucking with us.
Speaker: I'm not willing to go out on a limb and suggest that this means diddly squat.
Speaker: Sure.
Speaker: If somebody of larger mind than me who who still makes video essays because that's not something I really do these days.
Speaker: wants to get in there and prove me wrong and give me their theory on what I'm thrilled.
Speaker: I really should look into it more.
Speaker: I'd love to hear what people have to say, but I have a feeling it's meaningless.
Speaker: And the whole point is you got to feed everybody so you can get to the person with six stomachs is what they keep calling them.
Speaker: And at the top of this tower and feed that person.
Speaker: That's like the final level.
Speaker: I'm about I'm about two thirds of the way through it.
Speaker: It's very simple.
Speaker: It's
Speaker: unnerving and weird, but also very satisfying.
Speaker: So I'm enjoying it.
Speaker: I just I just don't happen to believe that it means anything in the same like general category of unnerving lo fi game as a buckshot roulette.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: I actually thought of that a lot while I was while I was playing it.
Speaker: Buckshot Roulette is a little more immediate.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I mean, the playing game play is a little bit straight, more straight.
Speaker: Sure, sure.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It's a little more quiet and and and unnerving, whereas in that sense.
Speaker: But yes, I think that's actually a very good comparison.
Speaker: And both of them are strong contenders for game of the year.
Speaker: It is a weird year in terms of what is the game of the year going to be?
Speaker: Because we're halfway through the year and I am completely unsure.
Speaker: I've got my list and it is a weird ass goddamn list so far.
Speaker: And there's no rhyme or reason to it except that, let me think, all of them are indie games.
Speaker: Bellatro.
Speaker: Bellatro.
Speaker: Children of the Sun's in there.
Speaker: Turnip Boy Robs of Banks in there.
Speaker: I just freaking loved that.
Speaker: Yeah, I think it's Turnip Boy Robs of Bank will be on my list.
Speaker: I love it.
Speaker: And actually on my list currently is the next game that I am working on right now.
Speaker: Indica or Indica.
Speaker: I don't know.
Speaker: Oh, yeah, yeah.
Speaker: I've heard.
Speaker: I heard the no clip.
Speaker: guys talking about that.
Speaker: I promised Pym specifically I would play this because it looks fascinating.
Speaker: And and I got to say, complete opposite end of the spectrum in terms of looks.
Speaker: It's gorgeous.
Speaker: It's a very, very beautiful game.
Speaker: Same end of the spectrum for Arctic eggs in terms of one of the coldest games I've ever played.
Speaker: It is the Russian countryside kind of thing.
Speaker: I don't know if they ever come out and say this is Russia.
Speaker: Sure.
Speaker: But basically the game has you playing as a nun in a kind of Eastern Orthodox Russian Orthodoxy kind of church who is not liked by any of the other nuns because you hear things and you see things and.
Speaker: your faith is not strong enough to weather a lot of that and they're not happy about that.
Speaker: So you are given this mission, this letter to take across the countryside to somebody.
Speaker: They're basically just trying to get rid of you.
Speaker: And as you're doing that,
Speaker: you are having these conversations within your head and with various people that you meet that talk about religion, Christianity specifically in a very frank way.
Speaker: It might be some of the best video game writing I've ever seen, because when I first heard that, I thought it was a horror game.
Speaker: And don't get me wrong, there are some really, there are parts in this that very specifically made me think of Resident Evil Village, actually.
Speaker: The atmosphere, and there's a wolf at some point, and you're like, Jesus.
Speaker: But it's not what I would, not so far anyway, what I would call a horror game.
Speaker: And when I found out that it was about
Speaker: questioning God and everything.
Speaker: I was like, oh, Jesus Christ.
Speaker: OK, great.
Speaker: Let's all go back to being 17 years old and arguing with, you know, our friend in homeroom.
Speaker: Great.
Speaker: But it's actually incredibly well written, very thoughtful and funny in a
Speaker: unnerving kind of way there is this I'm not going to give it away because it's early on and I want people to see this.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: But there is a moment in the first I want to say half an hour, maybe 40 minutes involving a little man that my wife was there feeding our son when this happened.
Speaker: And I just like spluttered and like, what the?
Speaker: fuck is this?
Speaker: And I was just laughing hysterically because I didn't know what else to do.
Speaker: It's so strange and funny.
Speaker: And there's also a level of gamification within the game that I wasn't ready for.
Speaker: It's a very realistic game.
Speaker: It's gorgeous, but...
Speaker: It's very aware that it's a game and will give you these kind of digitized rewards.
Speaker: And there's an advancement system, which doesn't seem to mean anything.
Speaker: And it's drawing parallels between, in many ways, between the monotony of religion and leading a moral life, quote unquote, and some of the monotony of playing a game.
Speaker: Very early on, you're tasked with filling a bucket with water, and it's going to take eight trips back and forth and back and forth to the well.
Speaker: And it's really interesting and clearly has a lot to say.
Speaker: And I'm hoping it can keep this up, keep up this pace, because I'm very, very interested in this game.
Speaker: And this is if they can keep up this pace, this is a very strong contender for game of the year as far as I'm concerned.
Speaker: It is some of the best.
Speaker: I mean, no exaggeration.
Speaker: It's some of the best writing in a game I've ever seen.
Speaker: Yeah, I'm going to fire it up.
Speaker: It's cool.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Smaller.
Speaker: I'm still playing Paper Mario, Thousand Year Door.
Speaker: I'm still in love with it.
Speaker: It is going to take me months to finish because it is literally just the game that I throw on when the family is chilling out and I'll play 15, 20 minutes of it.
Speaker: And I know I think it's like a 30, 40 hour game, so it's going to take me a while.
Speaker: It's going to take a bit.
Speaker: But I don't mind.
Speaker: That's the best part about it.
Speaker: It's a simple enough game and a charming enough game that I'm always delighted to be able to turn it back on.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: I love this game.
Speaker: And I played and finished the demo for Crypt Master.
Speaker: And getting that.
Speaker: Holy shit.
Speaker: I did not expect to enjoy that as much as I did.
Speaker: I want to get back to it because it's got a lot of it's like so...
Speaker: It's funny.
Speaker: It's funny.
Speaker: It's really funny.
Speaker: And it's also scary.
Speaker: And the imagery, the art direction is insane.
Speaker: It's black and white.
Speaker: And it's so detailed and gorgeous.
Speaker: I'm...
Speaker: Really impressed with it.
Speaker: And I thought when you were describing it to me, I thought it's a typing game.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: And when you were describing it to me, I thought, oh, this is going to get away from me.
Speaker: I can't imagine getting too far into this game.
Speaker: And it was one of those rare moments where the demo ended and I was so bummed out.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I was like, oh, shit.
Speaker: I want to.
Speaker: Oh, so A, B.
Speaker: going to play that.
Speaker: There's no question about it.
Speaker: B, please never stop making demos, game developers.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: There's a very good chance.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I don't know if I would have continued on with this thing.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Just based on, you know, because I can, it's one of those things like this looks weird.
Speaker: I like that more weird games are out there.
Speaker: I might not play it.
Speaker: And then I got to play the first 20, 30 minutes of it.
Speaker: And I, I think it's lovely.
Speaker: I gotta say time.
Speaker: This is the year for weird games.
Speaker: I know it's such a great year.
Speaker: I love it.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Just the straight.
Speaker: I'm looking at this list of like,
Speaker: None of these are Sonic the Hedgehog.
Speaker: Let me let me say that.
Speaker: No.
Speaker: So it's it's so weird because we got, you know, I got on my game of the year list so far.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: The most norm core game that I have on there is probably the Alone in the Dark remake, which did not sell that well at all.
Speaker: Got
Speaker: middling reviews for the most part and uh you know the the studio that made it laid off like everybody because it didn't sell well so i mean then you got animal well uh you got balatro which you know oh come on come on come on crow country which is a
Speaker: A wacky PS1 throwback of a game, of a Resident Evil game.
Speaker: Lorelei and the Laser Eyes.
Speaker: Which the more I look into, the more I'm like, God, I'm going to have to play that too.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Great.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It's a game where you actually have to take notes.
Speaker: I love it.
Speaker: You would be all over.
Speaker: You break out your little notepad.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I know you love writing notes.
Speaker: Oh, I do.
Speaker: I do.
Speaker: The Thaumaturge and Turnip Boy Robs a Bank.
Speaker: Yeah, that's a hell of a lineup.
Speaker: Yeah, it's a weird lineup.
Speaker: And that makes me happy because that is that is why I love video games and I love the industry and I love talking about them as much as I do.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: I think what's fun.
Speaker: I was thinking about this today, actually, because it's funny you bring this up.
Speaker: The fact that.
Speaker: On the show, because we're dealing in game novelizations, we are mostly talking about AAA games.
Speaker: Sure.
Speaker: You know, when it's appropriate and at least big games on some level.
Speaker: But what makes me the happiest in the gaming world are indie games and how strange and specific you can make them.
Speaker: And this is a great year for that.
Speaker: Uh, so I, I couldn't agree more.
Speaker: It's gonna be, it's gonna be a very interesting top 10 from us, ladies and gentlemen, let me put it that way.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And I will, it, this year is gonna feel probably gonna feel like a top 10 with, uh,
Speaker: where it's like, I'm not entirely sure about the order.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Which is totally fair.
Speaker: Aside from number one, I think my number one is going to be Bellatro.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I mean, come on.
Speaker: Come on.
Speaker: I'm still thinking about it.
Speaker: Like, maybe I should go back and get some more.
Speaker: Raise the stakes on a few more of my decks.
Speaker: I'm still going back and playing vampire survivors for Christ's sake.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Just unlocked adventure mode.
Speaker: And that's going to be a whole other.
Speaker: That's going to be a whole thing.
Speaker: Voloax.
Speaker: Great.
Speaker: Terrific.
Speaker: So, yeah, but that'll do it for tonight's episode, everybody.
Speaker: If you can rate us five stars on Spotify and Apple or whatever platform you're listening to follow us on social media X slash Twitter, Instagram, wherever, wherever you find us, it's going to be at it's going to be pixel at pod is going to be the name that you find us under.
Speaker: So go ahead and do that.
Speaker: Thank you so much for listening and have a good night.
Speaker: Good night.
