Transcript
Speaker: That's what we're doing.
Speaker: 70s, 80s slasher.
Speaker: Like everywhere.
Speaker: We're in Friday the 13th trying to get away from a bad guy with a Garfield mask.
Speaker: I don't know.
Speaker: Like it's it's it's gonna be good though.
Speaker: So I'm really excited.
Speaker: You know what else is good?
Speaker: What?
Speaker: Hey there, everybody!
Speaker: Welcome to Pixel It, where we read, recap, and review video game novelizations.
Speaker: My name is Kevin, and with me as always is Phil.
Speaker: Hello!
Speaker: And on today's episode of the show, we're talking about Resident Evil Caliban Cove Part 2.
Speaker: And, uh...
Speaker: We're we're having fun with this book so far.
Speaker: We sure are.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: First episode, you know, there was a lot of there's a lot of like chapters that were just like talking and planning and discussing, laying the laying the groundwork.
Speaker: And then there is a big action sequence towards the end.
Speaker: But now we're we're going on and it's it's it's part two.
Speaker: And and, you know, here we go.
Speaker: I'm excited.
Speaker: I'm excited.
Speaker: So we're starting tonight.
Speaker: We're starting with chapter five and chapter five is told from the point of view of our would be antagonists.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Antagonist Nicholas Griffith.
Speaker: And this was the guy that Rebecca was basically warning everybody about.
Speaker: He's he's.
Speaker: An absolute banana.
Speaker: He's a bag of nuts.
Speaker: He's two squirrels fighting inside of a bag of nuts.
Speaker: That's all that's going on in his head.
Speaker: We have some really beautiful description of basically him relaxing on a main lighthouse watching the sunrise.
Speaker: Yes, we've caught him in a moment of relaxation here.
Speaker: He's a mad scientist, but right now he's not like...
Speaker: squirreled away, like scribbling notes and mixing various chemicals.
Speaker: Like, he's chilling out.
Speaker: He's a mad scientist, but he's enjoying the gifts that nature gives.
Speaker: Yeah, he knows to set aside some me time in the mornings.
Speaker: He knows to have a little moment of Zen.
Speaker: Absolutely.
Speaker: What could be probably the theme of zombie literature and media in general, one of his descriptions of the sun,
Speaker: So he's talking about how the sun is, it's great and it looks beautiful, but it's all a lie because within hours, the molten giant would beat mercilessly against the shore, against half this planet.
Speaker: Its early mildness was a deception, a pretended ignorance of the seeping radiation and withering heat that would follow.
Speaker: but no less spectacular for the lying.
Speaker: It can't be blamed for a lack of self-awareness after all.
Speaker: It is what it is.
Speaker: Which I was like, damn, S.D.
Speaker: Perry.
Speaker: That is probably the best summation of how we view zombies in zombie media.
Speaker: Oh, yeah, absolutely.
Speaker: Is her description or is Nicholas's description of what the sun is?
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: It's such a strangely because because up until this point, we have basically stuck with our remaining stars heroes.
Speaker: We've got the exposition exposition.
Speaker: And as we mentioned last episode, we haven't seen zombies.
Speaker: at all.
Speaker: Like we've seen a SWAT team come in and fuck their shit up, but we haven't seen zombies.
Speaker: And so when we finally get to our villain, it would be real easy for an author at this point to just say, OK, so we're going to have seen with a villain we just talked about.
Speaker: And it's like the it's in this giant tube filled with fluid and he taps on the tube and we get the boom moment where its eyes open and it's thrashing at the, you know,
Speaker: like you've seen in every sci-fi horror film, but instead we get like just chilling out with a sunset.
Speaker: He's drinking his coffee watching the sun.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: He's having a Corona moment.
Speaker: Like he's just, yeah.
Speaker: One of the good ones.
Speaker: I mean, not, not one of the more recent terribly bad ones.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It's,
Speaker: It's a it's a terribly twisted, you know, one of those old Corona commercials where like someone sitting on the beach, their feet up and drinking a beer.
Speaker: And then all of a sudden you hear brains in the background and blood just hits the camera.
Speaker: You hear wet noises, right?
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Tasty.
Speaker: There's actually we were watching Stranger Things season four and we will pretty much watch everything with the subtitles on.
Speaker: Sure.
Speaker: Sure.
Speaker: And one of the things that I was noticing is in a lot of the subtitles, there was a lot of use of the word wet and wetly.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Some of these, sometimes I'll use closed captions and I'll wonder what the fuck is, I have to assume I'm like, okay, this must, you know, people with hearing issues and stuff, they know better than me what they need in the, it just confuses me.
Speaker: But every now and then you see something like that and you're like, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker: They do what they were doing.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: Makes perfect sense.
Speaker: Squelch is wetly.
Speaker: Oh, squelch.
Speaker: There's a word that bumps me out.
Speaker: Squelch.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Like jello in a boot.
Speaker: Just absolute mess.
Speaker: The moist boot squelched wetly.
Speaker: Exactly.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: Shoes stuck in mud.
Speaker: That's what squelching is.
Speaker: That's what squelching is.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But we get a little bit more about Dr. Nick.
Speaker: I just realized he's Dr. Nick.
Speaker: Oh my God, he's Dr. Nick.
Speaker: Oh Jesus Christ.
Speaker: You're right.
Speaker: That's Dr. Nick.
Speaker: Hi, everybody.
Speaker: We got we got a little bit more insight into his plan because so basically, Chapter five reveals that he has modified the T virus to
Speaker: He's cleaned it up and he's made it more efficient and he has infected everybody in Caliban Cove with this modified T-virus.
Speaker: And what it does is it still creates a zombie, like a decaying zombie person.
Speaker: But they are trainable.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: You can actually, they don't become like the other zombies, which Rebecca actually breaks down later in a meeting what the zombies are and how they're angry and all that stuff.
Speaker: That's not these zombies.
Speaker: These zombies are mostly docile and can be trained to do whatever.
Speaker: And it's introduced in an amazing scene where he's talking to three of his former scientists about what he's giving.
Speaker: They're all zombified and he's giving them instructions of what to do today.
Speaker: And one of them has shit his pants.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: And they're all yeah.
Speaker: And they're all and they're all scientists.
Speaker: They're all genius level scientists.
Speaker: He in fact, it happens in the writing so casually that you I missed it.
Speaker: I had to go back over because he's talking about this guy.
Speaker: He's an asshole, but he's a genius asshole.
Speaker: So it's he's good to keep around.
Speaker: Oops, he shit his pants.
Speaker: And you're like, wait, what the fuck is going on?
Speaker: He shit his pants and and he's like he's able to give complex instructions to these, you know, slack jawed zombies and they're called slack jawed.
Speaker: They at one point they referenced like despite looking like they are completely different people.
Speaker: Uh, because of the way they all have slack jaws and like the dumb looks on their face, they could all be related is, is the way, uh, SD Perry writes it.
Speaker: And I thought it was kind of amazing.
Speaker: A really good introduction, um, to, to these, to this new type of zombie basically.
Speaker: It's fantastic.
Speaker: And they're all very open to suggestion.
Speaker: Basically, he says to the other ones, he says, it seems the doctor here has shit his pants again.
Speaker: That's funny.
Speaker: And so all the zombies, including the one who shit his pants, start going.
Speaker: Ha ha ha ha ha.
Speaker: And at one point he's like annoyed by this.
Speaker: And so he looks at him, he says, say that your wife is a whore.
Speaker: And the zombie goes, my wife is a whore.
Speaker: Like immediately.
Speaker: It's that level of just, you know, yeah, slack jawed idiots basically.
Speaker: Pliability, basically.
Speaker: It's like, yeah, they're dead and decaying, but I can tell them what to do.
Speaker: Trump voters.
Speaker: Oh, shit.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Do you get that shit?
Speaker: Oh!
Speaker: Just so you all know, Phil broke the recording doing his victory lap around the moon.
Speaker: That must have been what it was.
Speaker: I have to.
Speaker: I'm going to blame myself for that one.
Speaker: It somehow broke my input.
Speaker: It was such a powerful burn that my input just muted itself.
Speaker: It would not unmute.
Speaker: I don't understand.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But whatever.
Speaker: It's fine.
Speaker: It makes sense.
Speaker: It was so damn good.
Speaker: It was worth it.
Speaker: It was so good.
Speaker: It was so good, so topical, so current and recent.
Speaker: Oh, hot damn.
Speaker: You know, going into a midterm election year.
Speaker: Yeah, it was the joke the people deserved.
Speaker: It was a joke that people deserved.
Speaker: Oh, yeah.
Speaker: Let's be honest.
Speaker: This is not going to be a good midterms for us on the left.
Speaker: We need it.
Speaker: We're going to need these moments every chance we get.
Speaker: We're going to need these moments.
Speaker: What choice do we have?
Speaker: What choice do we have?
Speaker: Other than crying.
Speaker: We don't have time for that.
Speaker: God damn it.
Speaker: Anyway, we don't have time for that anyway.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So, yeah, the scientists are pooping their pants because they're they're they're dumb.
Speaker: They're they're dumb dumbs now.
Speaker: And the other thing is they talk a little bit about something called, I could not read this the first five times that it came up, the Tri-Squads.
Speaker: The Tri-Squads, yeah.
Speaker: I was like, the Trisquids?
Speaker: The Trisquids.
Speaker: What's the Trisquids?
Speaker: They're like, oh, Tri-Squads.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: And we'll find out a little bit more about what they are later, but it's...
Speaker: From what I from the context clues you gather in chapter five is they are zombies.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And they are armed and there are three of them.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: You assume.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: At that point, you're led to believe it's it's just a few.
Speaker: It's yeah.
Speaker: So they also he also references that there's MA sevens on the base and MA sevens, I believe, are the hunters.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: He brings them up several times.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But they are not they're just not they're not wandering around.
Speaker: They are they're in cages.
Speaker: No.
Speaker: But, you know, Chekhov's MA seven.
Speaker: You wouldn't bring up the MA7 unless you were going to use the MA7.
Speaker: I mean, come on.
Speaker: Come on.
Speaker: What choice do you have at that point?
Speaker: That's what that Russian writer was talking about.
Speaker: That's what he was talking about.
Speaker: Yeah, it was a Chekhov zombie, I believe is the expression.
Speaker: Yeah, you put the hunter on the shelf in Act 1.
Speaker: If you're going to put it in there in Act 1, you got to use it in Act 3.
Speaker: Otherwise, why is the hunter there?
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Other than you can't.
Speaker: No, no set decoration.
Speaker: No, it's just that point.
Speaker: No, no.
Speaker: Everything has to have everything has to point towards the same dotted line at the end of the story.
Speaker: Otherwise, it's unsatisfying.
Speaker: Thus.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: I'm not sure I necessarily agree with Chekhov's gun principle now that I think about it because it's like if there's a gun on the thing why is it there unless you're going to use it and be like I don't know maybe the fucker likes guns maybe it's pointing to like something subconscious like I don't know it could be any number of things it doesn't have to be a story like it doesn't have to be a literal plot element right
Speaker: I think the idea in my head with those kinds of rules isn't necessarily that it can't be broken.
Speaker: It's more or less something to get 14 year olds who are writing their first one act play and convinced that they're going to change the world with it to shut the fuck up.
Speaker: Sure.
Speaker: As a former creative writing teacher, I have to assume that as a former creative writing teacher and a former 14 year old.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: As a former.
Speaker: As both.
Speaker: Most insufferable human being on the planet.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I can say that that's going to it's going to help.
Speaker: Well, check out these rules.
Speaker: So eighth graders, not even once.
Speaker: No, not even once.
Speaker: But we do get we do get kind of some standard mad scientist stuff in this chapter, though.
Speaker: We get we get the like the literal he literally does the whole my creation Frankenstein kind of bit with these guys, even though he did just like criticize one of them for shitting his pants.
Speaker: He's still like, hey, my my creation shit his pants.
Speaker: Did your creation shit its pants?
Speaker: Oh no, you don't have a creation?
Speaker: You don't even have a creation.
Speaker: You don't even have a creation that can shit its own pants.
Speaker: Oh, what a shame.
Speaker: I do.
Speaker: What a shame.
Speaker: So yeah, I think that's a little bit about that.
Speaker: That's a little bit about that.
Speaker: And did we, is this, in this chapter, does he, does he really get down to what his grand plan is yet?
Speaker: Or has he-
Speaker: Has he?
Speaker: Oh, yes, yes, yes.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: So basically his idea is he is he has made the T virus.
Speaker: He's made it airborne.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: And he is going to release it and basically turn the whole world into Zambos.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: He's going to make it airborne.
Speaker: Because he wants the world to be at peace.
Speaker: And the only way to be at peace is to turn everybody into a zombie.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: He's got, he's a Thanos villain.
Speaker: He's really Thanos-ing this whole thing up.
Speaker: But he's not even, Thanos at least had a line.
Speaker: Right, true.
Speaker: Say what you will about Thanos.
Speaker: Thanos is just 50%.
Speaker: He just wants a clean 50 off the top.
Speaker: That's all Thanos wanted.
Speaker: This guy is 100%.
Speaker: This guy wants to clear it all out.
Speaker: Thanos would have issues with this guy.
Speaker: I think Thanos would probably, yeah, he'd be like, I admire your scope.
Speaker: I admire the scope and your effort.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: But I think there's better ways to go about this.
Speaker: Precisely, yes.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So that's our villain.
Speaker: That's our villain.
Speaker: Dr. Nick Nick Nick Griffith.
Speaker: I can't believe I didn't pick up on that.
Speaker: I literally just picked up on it as I was saying it.
Speaker: I was about to say Dr. Nicholas and then that's that just popped right in there.
Speaker: So starting with a bitch.
Speaker: Chapter six, we got Karen Driver.
Speaker: She's a new point of view character and she is a stars agent.
Speaker: And she is very, she's very serious.
Speaker: She's a very serious stars agent.
Speaker: She sure is.
Speaker: She's a forensics expert and she keeps her house, as Rebecca puts it, antiseptically clean.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: She's very much a just the facts, ma'am, kind of thing.
Speaker: I assume that she is part of the main stars team, it seems like.
Speaker: It should be.
Speaker: I mean, these are the, yeah, the main.
Speaker: I thought you meant main as in primary.
Speaker: The Exeter.
Speaker: No.
Speaker: Main as in main-ee, as in main-ess.
Speaker: Main-ess, yeah, yeah.
Speaker: Out there catching that lobster.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: We're going to fight some zombies and we're going to make sure they never dock in the towers of New England again.
Speaker: That is that is bad.
Speaker: That is bad.
Speaker: But it's never stopped me in the past.
Speaker: It's not that bad.
Speaker: It's not that bad.
Speaker: It's not bad.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: Thank you.
Speaker: I appreciate that.
Speaker: I think you're OK.
Speaker: Thank you.
Speaker: So basically, they're having a meeting.
Speaker: They're meeting at Karen's house to go over all the all the details and plans and S.D.
Speaker: Perry right in the thirst traps right in there.
Speaker: This is probably the most.
Speaker: We were just talking about this.
Speaker: Just just write in there Steve Lopez computer expert marksman hot hot
Speaker: And you know what?
Speaker: Let's give it to SD Perry.
Speaker: She, she like we've, we've, I was thinking about this today and it's like, we've, we've, we've criticized books we've read in the past where we get a lot of male gaze-y shit and everything like that.
Speaker: And I, and I, while I'm reading this, I'm just laughing.
Speaker: I'm like, you know, it's, it's this 18 year old girl's perspective of this handsome, what is he?
Speaker: He's 21.
Speaker: He's their marksman.
Speaker: He's like 20 or 22 or something like that.
Speaker: The goddamn Sonya Blade shit for Mortal Kombat all over again.
Speaker: The great marksman at 22.
Speaker: OK, cool.
Speaker: I'm sure they're there.
Speaker: But it's it's it's.
Speaker: Don't write in.
Speaker: We don't care.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Don't care.
Speaker: Don't care.
Speaker: But it's very well, it's not it's not as threatening, is it?
Speaker: It's it's it just doesn't come off as gross as some of that stuff does.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You do think you're like an 18, 18 year old girl probably would be like, oh yeah, this guy's hot.
Speaker: Like, yeah, it's, it's not, it's not done in kind of a gross gaze sort of way.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So here's the, here's the paragraph.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: His gaze was friendly and direct.
Speaker: And in spite of the circumstances, Rebecca found herself wishing that she had at least run a brush through her hair before coming out of the bathroom.
Speaker: Simply put, he was hot.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: And you know, you know what?
Speaker: Now that you read it back, I think I know what it is.
Speaker: I think I know what it is.
Speaker: At no point does she talk about like his crystal blue eyes or his ebony colored hair that fell over.
Speaker: No, it's just he's direct.
Speaker: He's he's got us like they give him like the aw shuck smile earlier at some point in the in the chapter.
Speaker: And it's just he's just he's a nice guy.
Speaker: It isn't like any and he's got a dick hanging down to his knees because that's not.
Speaker: Generally how women write this shit.
Speaker: Not generally.
Speaker: It's like, you know, Milton Berle.
Speaker: Balls the size of Milton Berle.
Speaker: Oh my God.
Speaker: They were pulsating against his Titan Stars uniform.
Speaker: My God.
Speaker: Anyway, zombies.
Speaker: She goes, it was like, the man who played Mr. Like a short story.
Speaker: The man who played Mr. Belvedere once sat on his balls.
Speaker: And they had to stop filming for two days.
Speaker: Those must have been some pretty big balls.
Speaker: That's how big this guy's balls were.
Speaker: Right, yeah.
Speaker: A lot of footnotes in this Resident Evil book, and they all have something to do with balls.
Speaker: You don't like it?
Speaker: No, it's kind of better.
Speaker: I don't know.
Speaker: I don't know why this is better.
Speaker: I don't mind it.
Speaker: I'm just saying.
Speaker: I'm not upset about it.
Speaker: I don't know what that means.
Speaker: It's not a criticism.
Speaker: No.
Speaker: Just an observation.
Speaker: Just observing.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So, yeah, we get we get a look at this new team.
Speaker: We've got a whole new team of people to obliterate with zombies.
Speaker: And oh, and then there's there's and then there's the other guy, John, who is who is who is just a big old slab of beef.
Speaker: Oh, sure.
Speaker: He's our Barry for this.
Speaker: He's our Barry.
Speaker: He is Black Barry.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Basically.
Speaker: Six foot frame bulging with tightly packed muscle.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: He grinned brightly at her.
Speaker: I can't believe they didn't bring up like he has a desert eagle or something like some sort of like trademark gun.
Speaker: He's like, that's Barry's gun.
Speaker: You can't use that gun.
Speaker: Come on.
Speaker: Come on.
Speaker: And then of course, David, we've got David there.
Speaker: David, our British man.
Speaker: Exactly.
Speaker: David.
Speaker: I almost forgot David was British.
Speaker: Standard issue Brit.
Speaker: Standard issue Brit.
Speaker: He's a little sickly looking.
Speaker: Yeah, store bought Brit.
Speaker: Low in protein, but somehow very stiff and firm to the touch.
Speaker: You really don't want to start getting into a conversation about the monarchy with him.
Speaker: No, please don't.
Speaker: Please don't.
Speaker: It could get to a really weird place and nobody really wants to hear.
Speaker: Kevin, it's the Queen's Jubilee.
Speaker: Let's have some respect.
Speaker: Let's have some respect and decorum for the Queen's Jubilee.
Speaker: For the ancient bloodline that rules that little island.
Speaker: For the ancient bloodline that rules that tiny little island.
Speaker: Tiny little island.
Speaker: Just...
Speaker: Just ancient as in the bloodline is old and also the blood inside the veins are old.
Speaker: Yeah, the blood inside the monarch itself.
Speaker: I'm sorry, UK fans.
Speaker: We love you.
Speaker: We are talking about, we love you.
Speaker: We're just not big fans of monarchs.
Speaker: Listen, if you'd like your queen, you can keep your queen.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: That.
Speaker: Yes, that was an Obama reference.
Speaker: I was about to say, is that a health care reference?
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: So keep your queen.
Speaker: So keep your queen.
Speaker: If you don't like your queen, then I don't know, like start start figuring out what Guy Fawkes did.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You know, figure it out.
Speaker: It's it's there.
Speaker: There are surprisingly few steps, as it turns out.
Speaker: We're going to get on a list.
Speaker: Oh gosh.
Speaker: Um, so David, we get David kind of like, he's giving everybody, um, uh, you know, the mission briefing essentially telling them, here's the rundown.
Speaker: Here's what we want to do.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: here's where it is, here's how we want to approach, all that stuff.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: This is all very important stuff.
Speaker: Like, this is, like, if you read the first book where they had, like, a full chapter on how they were going to do their shit, you kind of know what's coming.
Speaker: You kind of know.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It's not going to be a big surprise, let's just say.
Speaker: It's not going to be a big surprise, but, yeah, this chapter's dedicated to
Speaker: A, how are we going to do it?
Speaker: And B, what are we up against?
Speaker: And Rebecca basically gives them the breakdown of like, all right, what are these Zambos?
Speaker: What do they look like?
Speaker: How do they act?
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: One of the things that she doesn't quite get into, which is funny because later she starts having to shout it at them,
Speaker: is how to kill them.
Speaker: Oh yeah, oh yeah, it's ridiculous.
Speaker: That's a pretty big oversight.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And she starts having to kind of loudly communicate with that to them later.
Speaker: So,
Speaker: We'll get to that though.
Speaker: She literally has to shout above everything to tell them what's going on.
Speaker: And it's like, I feel like we covered this.
Speaker: I don't know, but.
Speaker: Yeah, I feel like that should have been like one of the first things that you covered is that if you run into one of these things, you gotta shoot them in the head.
Speaker: Shoot them in the head.
Speaker: to uh it was that tom savini in uh in the day of the dead remake i just remember there's a there's that moment where they're watching tom savini on a tv in the mall and he he's just shouting man at the camera and he's like he's like a cop he's playing like a sheriff or something like that he's like listen you gotta shoot him in the
Speaker: I haven't seen that movie in so fucking long.
Speaker: Oh, God.
Speaker: I try not to expose myself to what's his face too much.
Speaker: Oh.
Speaker: The director.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: The one that we both forced out of our head, apparently.
Speaker: We just hit the eject button.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Hold on.
Speaker: Are you talking about... La la la la la.
Speaker: Come here.
Speaker: No.
Speaker: Zack Snyder.
Speaker: Zack Snyder.
Speaker: Zack Snyder.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I'm not as down on his Watchmen movie as a lot of people are, but mostly I move on.
Speaker: Yeah, I move on from him.
Speaker: From him.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So so Rebecca breaks down like also that the why the zombies act the way they do, that once you're introduced to this virus, your body starts decaying.
Speaker: Your brain is shooting the wrong signals at the wrong times.
Speaker: inciting violence and people who are exposed to it and all that all that fun stuff she actually does a really good scientific breakdown of it of like she she does she does a really good job of saying it's not the undead there are people who have been exposed to a very shitty virus um and there there's no coming back from it like that's that's actually it's it's a it was i was a geek i was like i'm gonna give you a lot of credit here because she does it and she wrote it in such a way that's like
Speaker: Yeah, it's like they're victims of a virus.
Speaker: It's not like they're not like these undead monsters rising from the grave.
Speaker: They're literally just it's just the effects of the virus turns off pain receptors and your body starts falling apart.
Speaker: We did this in the last episode, but it's I can't stop thinking about like Jurassic Park, like the book of yes, where.
Speaker: Very critiny, very frightening, like fit in some really solid, not not gobbledygook, like actual scientific basis for what we're talking about here.
Speaker: You know, it's it's really impressive.
Speaker: We've we've dealt with a lot of
Speaker: books in this show where the science could be just brushed off as fantasy and just make up some crazy supernatural thing that explains all this shit and it's kind of science fiction but we're actually getting kind of a medical virologist point of view on how this all works it's pretty cool science than it's very much science and not supernatural
Speaker: It's more science than the actual Resident Evil games.
Speaker: Oh, yeah.
Speaker: It's a lot more science than the Resident Evil games ever, really.
Speaker: I mean, sure, you can read some documents in the Resident Evil games that, you know, they throw in there about stuff.
Speaker: But it is...
Speaker: It's more believable science than the Resident Evil games actually ever.
Speaker: And this is something that we were talking about before the show, but I feel like S.D.
Speaker: Perry understands Resident Evil.
Speaker: better than some of the people who have made Resident Evil games understand it.
Speaker: Without question.
Speaker: Yes, absolutely.
Speaker: Because she understands the... She's a very good science fiction writer.
Speaker: She has the bona fides as a science fiction writer.
Speaker: And she is...
Speaker: she's very good at understanding why it's effective.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And I think as you play the Resident Evil games, you start to see some dancing around the concepts of why it's effective.
Speaker: And you said last week you were talking about Resident Evil 5 and how it's just super dumb.
Speaker: Resident Evil 6 is going to be more of that dumb.
Speaker: Resident Evil 4, for as praised as it is, is a lot of the introduction of that dumb.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And Resident Evil 1, 2, and 3...
Speaker: They have that underlying camp to them.
Speaker: Oh, big time.
Speaker: But there's like a myth.
Speaker: They are methodical and they kind of take it at a pace that's just not run, run, run, run.
Speaker: Let's stay and observe the horror a little bit rather than run through the horror.
Speaker: Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker: Which is...
Speaker: So I feel like S.D.
Speaker: Perry, I feel like Caliban Cove would have made an amazing Resident Evil game so far.
Speaker: So far, absolutely.
Speaker: I kept thinking about that in terms of how this could be a game.
Speaker: You just need to insert a few more puzzles so far.
Speaker: But yeah, so far, so good.
Speaker: And we haven't even gotten into the best parts of this section yet.
Speaker: So no, no.
Speaker: Yeah, it gets better for me.
Speaker: The other thing that that that popped up into my head is that this would actually make for the way this is kind of set up.
Speaker: Wouldn't be awesome if there was an XCOM style zombie.
Speaker: Oh, strike force type of game that where you were you were controlling like a stars type, like a Resident Evil XCOM style game.
Speaker: a a resident evil themed x-com game i would play the shit out of that that would be cool as hell right wouldn't that be awesome or it's like you wouldn't even have to do two i mean there is a whole thing with the most recent x-com where you know you've got kind of alien zombies coming at you and those are some of the most satisfying levels to play you know headshot headshot headshot it's so much fun right do something similar to that that would be a lot of fun
Speaker: You have the zombies, you have the hunters.
Speaker: It's like the first one is like the Spencer Mansion or something like that.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: That would be so cool.
Speaker: Dude, that would be awesome.
Speaker: So somebody out there with connections to both Capcom and Firaxis, just kind of like make that happen.
Speaker: If you could just get on that, please and thank you.
Speaker: If you could get, what's his name, Jake Solomon on the phone with whoever's owning the IP over at Capcom these days, you know, just get them on the phone.
Speaker: Get them talking to each other.
Speaker: Quick chat.
Speaker: Quick chat.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: No pressure.
Speaker: No big.
Speaker: So they continue like basically getting ready.
Speaker: There is not as much of a gear porn scene in this one as there was in the first book.
Speaker: They actually make a decision to not bring a lot of weapons with them because this is supposed to be just an infiltration mission, not a actual combat mission.
Speaker: Yeah, they're not seeing this as being, yeah, they're not coming in to knock the door down and riddle everyone full of bullets.
Speaker: It's kind of a recon sort of situation.
Speaker: They're supposed to just be getting in, grabbing evidence of Umbrella's malfeasance and getting out.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: So that's the idea.
Speaker: That's the concept.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And I'm sure that'll go just fine.
Speaker: I'm sure that'll go great.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I'm sure that's exactly what's going to happen.
Speaker: We also get a little bit of character for Karen.
Speaker: who is the other woman on the team.
Speaker: Rebecca and her have a moment where Rebecca finds Karen looking at a fragmentation grenade, a pineapple from World War II.
Speaker: And it's basically like her good luck charm.
Speaker: Which is the most Resident Evil thing ever.
Speaker: in this book so far.
Speaker: Like that's a soup.
Speaker: Like I keep this old World War Two grenade with me just as a good luck charm, you know?
Speaker: It's like, oh, OK.
Speaker: OK, sure.
Speaker: It's super Resident Evil.
Speaker: Oh, yeah.
Speaker: But she's very certain, like even though the grenade is live, she's like she's like, I don't even think you can get the pin out.
Speaker: I like I think the pin is is basically stuck in there.
Speaker: Right, right.
Speaker: Well, we'll see.
Speaker: I don't know.
Speaker: I feel like that's going to come up later.
Speaker: I feel like that might come up later.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Wouldn't you say?
Speaker: Wouldn't you think it's Chekhov's pineapple grenades?
Speaker: I think it's even referenced to be like, it might come in handy.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I forget if Rebecca or Karen says that.
Speaker: You introduce a pineapple grenade in the beginning of the book and it has to go off by the end.
Speaker: And it has to go off and check off's grenade.
Speaker: Check off is getting a lot of work tonight.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: And to pay for all that work that we are throwing check offs way, we're going to throw to our very first sponsor today.
Speaker: So enjoy this, this, this message from our sponsors.
Speaker: Tonight's broadcast is brought to you by Gennaro's new delicious recycled crust pizza.
Speaker: Pizza is garbage.
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Speaker: Eat garbage.
Speaker: All right, and we're back from that very real message from our sponsor.
Speaker: Please, please.
Speaker: I'm not even sure which sponsor it is this episode yet.
Speaker: Well, we got so many sponsors all at once, Kevin.
Speaker: I'm not sure if we're meant to remember all of them.
Speaker: I'm not.
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Speaker: we move on to chapter seven and this is the approach they are they're in the raft it's got the raft has an underwater motor which they're they operate a bit more silent than your typical motor so you can just put put around the cove and get to the point that you need to be need to be at so they they're out in the water
Speaker: And they're looking, David's looking through night vision goggles.
Speaker: He's like, I see some people, see a fence.
Speaker: He's just basically just listing off what he sees.
Speaker: And then the draft gets fucking blown, knocked right out of the, into the air, out of the water, into the air, and everybody is scattered.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Who saw that coming?
Speaker: Who would have thunk it?
Speaker: The vehicle that's bringing us here is going to get exploded?
Speaker: Who would have thought that would happen?
Speaker: Who would have thought that would happen?
Speaker: Not me.
Speaker: So in an earlier chapter, Dr. Nick was talking about something called a Leviathan.
Speaker: And how he had been working on the blood work for the Leviathans.
Speaker: And I feel like that this is the Leviathan that he was referring to.
Speaker: It might be.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It might be.
Speaker: It's a giant monster.
Speaker: What is it?
Speaker: What is it?
Speaker: What is it?
Speaker: It's a catfish.
Speaker: It's a catfish.
Speaker: It's a bottom feeder.
Speaker: Like they never say that.
Speaker: They refer to the fish as being this bottom feeding fish.
Speaker: And when it exposes its belly, it's got this like this, this just this curled face, a smile or frown or whatever, full of like peg like teeth.
Speaker: It's that sounds like a catfish.
Speaker: It is a big ass catfish.
Speaker: It is the largest catfish that you've ever done seen.
Speaker: Yeah, it was this big.
Speaker: It was this big.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So I love this though, by the way, I, I, I'm such an aquatic horror nerd.
Speaker: And the thing that I will say for resident evil through all its highs and lows, uh, they love putting in aquatic bad guys and they're always my favorite part.
Speaker: Uh, resident evil five, uh, when I was bitching about that game last episode, uh, I will say,
Speaker: It was so on rails and kind of stupid, but one of the fights was on, you're on this big ass ship and there's this horrible Leviathan whale monster following your ship.
Speaker: And I was like, okay, this is pretty goddamn fun.
Speaker: Okay, fine.
Speaker: This is fun.
Speaker: Was that when the hot lady injects herself with the stuff?
Speaker: Oh, yeah, that's the one.
Speaker: And it's like she's like, oh, and and it basically she doesn't she loses control.
Speaker: Like, yeah, like it was like and the guy's like, whoops, I guess it doesn't like you.
Speaker: And she like basically gets ripped apart and turned into a giant monster.
Speaker: Which is just a recurring theme in the Resident Evil franchise.
Speaker: They're like, I'm cornered.
Speaker: I'm going to inject myself with this virus I really don't know very much about.
Speaker: Oh, no.
Speaker: Who could have guessed that this would have happened?
Speaker: Most people.
Speaker: Most people.
Speaker: Most people.
Speaker: Most people.
Speaker: Most people.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So I like this monster.
Speaker: I love this scene.
Speaker: And we don't get much of it.
Speaker: We really don't.
Speaker: We don't.
Speaker: No, it basically it just makes a big splash and it does its job.
Speaker: It really fucks up their plans.
Speaker: They get tossed from the boat and they they all end up scattered and they make it to shore.
Speaker: There's a moment there where they think John might have gotten.
Speaker: consumed by the giant catfish, but he makes it out.
Speaker: But they get to shore and they regroup and it turns out that most of them have lost their flashlights at this point.
Speaker: That's the only thing too, you notice.
Speaker: Yeah, it's weird that they lost that is like I lost my flash.
Speaker: Like, how did everybody lose their only their flashlight?
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: It's like, OK, report.
Speaker: How's your health?
Speaker: How's your gun?
Speaker: How are your bullets?
Speaker: And how's your flashlight?
Speaker: And basically we go through everyone going, I'm fine.
Speaker: My gun's fine.
Speaker: My bullets are fine.
Speaker: No flashlight, though.
Speaker: And I think one person in the whole team retains their flashlight.
Speaker: So.
Speaker: Yeah, it's like one or two people have a flashlight in that.
Speaker: I think David and Rebecca have their flashlights.
Speaker: So they basically get up.
Speaker: They get they had gotten knocked to shore and then they drag themselves up to the the boathouse and they
Speaker: They find a dead body nailed to a door and it's like arm is like up nailed in an upward position as if like waving.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And nearby, they find a note that had been sent out.
Speaker: It was from, and they realized that this is Dr. Ammon.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: And this is the first clue, basically, Trent had referenced.
Speaker: Dr. Ammon's message received.
Speaker: And they find basically a printout of the message that Ammon had sent Trent.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But yeah, this this body, there's a lot of good body horror that gets out of this this little prop of a body.
Speaker: Oh, yeah.
Speaker: Oh, yeah.
Speaker: It's it's it's pretty repulsive.
Speaker: It's well written.
Speaker: And and it kind of introduces, I think, where S.D.
Speaker: Perry is improving on the first book we talked about in the first book where.
Speaker: you know, she was working with the first game.
Speaker: And so we've got puzzles set up for us, but it's not always all that interesting to describe those in a book form.
Speaker: And so she did she did the best she could with that.
Speaker: And with this one, instead of setting up a bunch of puzzles, we have this one.
Speaker: If you remember from last episode, we have this one note
Speaker: that has a string of clues or esoteric remarks like, you know, Ammon's message and these things that are clearly clues to help them, guide them along the way.
Speaker: And so this one it's it all comes from one clue.
Speaker: And clearly it's going to guide us through the rest of the adventure.
Speaker: I think it's a pretty smart way to do it with a novel.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So the note the note says July 20th food was drugged.
Speaker: I'm sick.
Speaker: I hid the material for you.
Speaker: Sent data.
Speaker: Boats are sunk and he let the he let the try squads out dark now they'll come.
Speaker: I think he killed the rest.
Speaker: Stop him.
Speaker: God knows what he needs to do.
Speaker: Destroy the lab.
Speaker: Find Chris to tell her.
Speaker: Tell her I'm sorry.
Speaker: Lyle's sorry.
Speaker: I wish.
Speaker: And there was nothing more.
Speaker: And then Ammon's message.
Speaker: Karen said softly Lyle Ammon.
Speaker: So they put it together that this is Lyle Ammon.
Speaker: This is basically what what's left of Lyle Ammon.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And they're like, all right, well, let's move out.
Speaker: And they we end chapter seven with gunfire.
Speaker: They're being fired upon, fired up their positions being fired upon.
Speaker: And.
Speaker: We jump right into chapter eight.
Speaker: Basically, there's just automatic gunfire coming from every direction.
Speaker: And one of the best things about this is that these bullets are tearing through the door of the boathouse where the body of Lyle Ammon is hanging.
Speaker: And there's some good descriptive moments about what's happening to the body as the bullets are tearing through.
Speaker: Absolutely.
Speaker: Oh, yeah.
Speaker: It's like he's dancing and shit.
Speaker: It's fantastic.
Speaker: He's like dancing.
Speaker: The head caves in like a watermelon or something like that.
Speaker: It made me think of one of the earlier scenes in Total Recall where Arnold Schwarzenegger has just found out he's being chased by the baddies and everybody for the first time.
Speaker: And one of the they're on the escalator and the one guy gets shot.
Speaker: And so he uses the guy's body as a bullet shield and he's just like just holding this innocent civilian up.
Speaker: It's I couldn't stop thinking about that moment.
Speaker: Oh, God.
Speaker: So so basically they're the they're like Steve is yelling out, why won't they die?
Speaker: Rebecca kind of puts two and two together that these the the gunfire is coming from zombies.
Speaker: And she she gives them the you got it.
Speaker: You got to shoot them in the head.
Speaker: bit of information.
Speaker: But I realize now that she's just surprised.
Speaker: She might have told them that you have to shoot zombies in the head.
Speaker: I think she just didn't realize that the zombies would have guns this time.
Speaker: That's fair.
Speaker: That's totally fair.
Speaker: The rest of us had to wait, you know, several games before the zombies had guns.
Speaker: So this time it's it's it's the zombies have guns.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And we were talking about this before the show.
Speaker: But you were saying that a lot of times when zombies have guns, it feels kind of dumb.
Speaker: It does.
Speaker: Unearned.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But this is fine.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I am fine with this.
Speaker: And you are too, right?
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: I think because there hasn't been a ton of precedent set.
Speaker: Like, for example, in Resident Evil, it started to annoy me.
Speaker: when in the fourth game, the Zambos, the infected, if you will, were throwing axes and the occasional torch or something like that.
Speaker: They have a chainsaw.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: I was like, okay, fine.
Speaker: And then when five came around and they had actual guns and dynamite and stuff like that, that's when I was just like, okay, this is getting really stupid.
Speaker: What's the point?
Speaker: What is separating this from just a military shooter?
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: It's kind of the same, except every now and then you headshot one of them and a horrible centipede thing flies out, which sure ain't fine.
Speaker: But with this, we haven't had so we're dealing with something different.
Speaker: And that's, you know, and I know we're dealing with something different in the games, too.
Speaker: I don't know.
Speaker: There's something about this that's just handled in a better fashion to my tastes.
Speaker: I can't fully explain it.
Speaker: I think because there's also some good explanation as to why they're very clearly still zombies.
Speaker: But it's already been set up that this guy has modified the T-virus to basically fix the aggression aspect and just make them super pliable.
Speaker: And he also says like they don't in one of the other chapters, Dr. Nick says they don't last long.
Speaker: No.
Speaker: The Tri-Squad zombies only last a couple of weeks of service before they basically fall apart.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But they will just carry out their orders without question.
Speaker: That's kind of their and they're really hard to kill.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: It's it's it's just a different I don't know.
Speaker: It has a different feel.
Speaker: It has a different angle in this one.
Speaker: So yeah, it's interesting.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So they basically fight their way and scramble their way through and get into the facility and lock the door behind them.
Speaker: And one of them is shot.
Speaker: Steve is shot, but his vest catches it.
Speaker: But he's got a big old bruise now on his chest and Rebecca gets to make him take his shirt off.
Speaker: Oh, what a adorable moment.
Speaker: She's like, you're fine.
Speaker: I was just checking, but you're fine.
Speaker: You don't have to put on the shirt again if you don't want it, but you can.
Speaker: It's adorable.
Speaker: It's adorable.
Speaker: And they kind of just do a recap of like, all right, well, what does this actually mean?
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: The zombies have guns now.
Speaker: That was not expected.
Speaker: And there was clearly some sort of spill or whatever here.
Speaker: Like people were the people on this island are zombified and they end up taking kind of like a straw poll in this moment where it's like, all right, well, what do we do?
Speaker: Do we just like...
Speaker: David's initial idea when they first get fired upon or before they start getting fired upon is like, all right, let's bounce.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Oh, yeah.
Speaker: It is like the smartest idea ever in a Resident Evil game.
Speaker: Immediately.
Speaker: He's just like, yeah, we're going.
Speaker: We're done.
Speaker: We're done.
Speaker: Like mission.
Speaker: Calling the mission.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Canceling.
Speaker: This isn't how it was supposed to go.
Speaker: We're gone.
Speaker: It's kind of great, actually.
Speaker: It's very refreshing that immediately he's like calling it.
Speaker: Let's go home.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And it's not even like him arguing with people and going, am I losing my mind?
Speaker: We should leave, like framed in a way that he's the coward or something.
Speaker: It's just kind of like this is not the mission.
Speaker: No, yeah, this isn't the mission we signed up for.
Speaker: He's the captain.
Speaker: It's like we set up the mission in these parameters.
Speaker: Those parameters don't exist.
Speaker: So we're going.
Speaker: Stop.
Speaker: We'll come back with bazookas.
Speaker: I don't know what to tell you.
Speaker: This is it.
Speaker: We'll come back with some flamethrowers and we'll deal with it then.
Speaker: But yeah, it's- These fucking idiots-
Speaker: So anyway, they get they get chased into another building and now they're trapped on Caliban Cove because they gave zombies guns.
Speaker: They were expecting that.
Speaker: It is what tends to happen.
Speaker: So they do a quick straw poem like, all right, well, what do you guys want to do?
Speaker: Like, we're here now.
Speaker: What what's the goal?
Speaker: Do we try to escape or and they basically all decide like, no, I mean, now we let's just see this through because we're here.
Speaker: We're trapped by zombies with guns and, you know, let's let's fuck around and find out.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Why not?
Speaker: What choice do we have at this point?
Speaker: At that point, because at that point they really are kind of like, you know, cornered.
Speaker: So it's like, well, what do you want us to do?
Speaker: We don't have a boat.
Speaker: You know, we're kind of we are actually kind of screwed here.
Speaker: So.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: So we jump back to Dr. Nick, and Dr. Nick had basically shut himself off from the concept that anybody was coming to deal with him.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Right now, he thinks it's an invasion of Umbrella, but he...
Speaker: Oh, I lost you for a second.
Speaker: Yeah, you stopped there for a second with me too.
Speaker: Basically, he thought that
Speaker: You know, if they haven't come, they're not going to come.
Speaker: He thought Lyle Ammon never got the message out.
Speaker: And he was content to just the next day launch out his his thing.
Speaker: And he he the only reason he finds out that there is somebody in the base is because he went down to check on who's going to euthanize the hunters.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And while he's in the process of getting ready to do that, that's when he hears the commotion, basically, of somebody else in the base.
Speaker: And had he not gone to check on the hunters, he would not have known somebody else was there.
Speaker: Because he's actually concerned about the quality of life of the hunters.
Speaker: He's like, they don't really get out.
Speaker: They're not.
Speaker: They just we really should.
Speaker: It's just it's kinder to euthanize them.
Speaker: It's kinder to euthanize them and who is going to let them out of their cages after I release the thing.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: So unfair.
Speaker: It's it's unfair.
Speaker: It's really weird guy.
Speaker: He's he's got interesting priorities, let's say.
Speaker: Interesting priorities.
Speaker: So now he's basically, he's just like, all right, well, you know, you guys want the smoke?
Speaker: Here we go.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: He's going to engage with these dudes.
Speaker: He's not able to fight them toe to toe because he's just a weak little baby scientist man.
Speaker: No, yeah, he didn't spec in a lot of combat skills, so.
Speaker: He really is.
Speaker: He's got he rolls with disadvantage on strength rolls.
Speaker: Right, right.
Speaker: But but on but on surgery and viruses against God and man.
Speaker: Oh, all the advantage.
Speaker: Rolling with an advantage.
Speaker: He's like a plus ten.
Speaker: So he's going to he's going to pass your check on.
Speaker: He's just going to go ahead and it's actually not even a roll.
Speaker: It's a lesson.
Speaker: It's a legendary action.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: He just does it.
Speaker: He just does it.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: He's a good villain.
Speaker: He's a good villain.
Speaker: He's really fucking weird.
Speaker: He's a good villain.
Speaker: He's he get he has wild mood swings going from from very nervous and scared to super angry.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Because he thinks they're umbrella at first.
Speaker: He thinks they're umbrella at first.
Speaker: Yeah, he thinks they're umbrella and he starts losing his shit and he basically tears up a computer because he yeah, like you said, he didn't need to be basically given up on the idea that anyone was going to interrupt him.
Speaker: And then we realize it is an umbrella.
Speaker: He goes, oh,
Speaker: This is going to be a great deal of fun.
Speaker: I shouldn't have let myself fly off the handle like that.
Speaker: Let's kill us some policemen, basically.
Speaker: And during this and during all this, he's squeezing his fists so hard that his fingernails are slicing into his palms.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And his hands are bleeding like some sort of perverted stigmata that he's giving himself.
Speaker: Science stigma.
Speaker: Because he does view himself a little bit like a Christ-like figure.
Speaker: I mean, this might be... I mean, I give Esty Perry a lot of credit.
Speaker: This might be giving her a little too much credit on the whole religious aspect of it.
Speaker: But he, like, views himself as...
Speaker: creating a new world.
Speaker: He's like squeezing until his hands are bleeding.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: So I, it's got some religious allegory.
Speaker: I think there's some religious allegory overtones there to Dr. Nick's character.
Speaker: Oh, very much so.
Speaker: Very much.
Speaker: So he, he sees himself as changing the world in a very big way.
Speaker: So yeah, I don't think that's too much to suggest to be completely honest.
Speaker: So that's the end of our section for tonight.
Speaker: You're liking it so far, though.
Speaker: I'm really enjoying it.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: This is way better than the first one.
Speaker: It's way better than the first one, and we liked the first one.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: But it's one of those instances where you're like, you look at what some of the writers have to go through when they're writing on a contract for these video game adaptations.
Speaker: And S.D.
Speaker: Perry got the...
Speaker: She got the chance to basically shape a Resident Evil world in her own image because I feel like I think every other book in the series is her own creation.
Speaker: No, no, they do have they do have other ones that are based on the next one is based on two and then fourth is another one of her own.
Speaker: And I think the I think there's one.
Speaker: OK, five and six, five and six are games.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I don't think they go any further than Resident Evil 3, though.
Speaker: Yeah, there's three, Code Veronica and Zero.
Speaker: All have adaptations.
Speaker: But, okay, so she did two of her own.
Speaker: And that was Underworld, which looks like...
Speaker: Actually, I'm not sure which one is is Resident Evil 2.
Speaker: It's the next one.
Speaker: It's Resident.
Speaker: It's volume three.
Speaker: Yeah, volume three is based on Resident Evil 2.
Speaker: That's if we could make it more confusing.
Speaker: If we could make it more confusing.
Speaker: But yeah, yeah, it's I mean, once again, it proves the rule that we are finding steadily that with these writers, the best parts of the book, if not the entire book, tends to be when you let the writers play in the world and actually not do a one to one adaptation.
Speaker: Let him off the leash a little bit.
Speaker: Absolutely.
Speaker: Which shouldn't be too big of a surprise, but it just it has it has never not been true.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: With the exception of the Dead Space books.
Speaker: And we don't know the circumstances of the Dead Space books, but there's that one is still shrouded in mystery as far as that's shrouded in mystery.
Speaker: But that seems to be a pretty whole cloth.
Speaker: you know, that wasn't one of the games.
Speaker: So that's a very good point, actually.
Speaker: Yes, that that is a big exception to that rule.
Speaker: That's a very good point.
Speaker: But yeah, other than that, yeah, letting letting the author have a little fun with it seems to be the name of the game.
Speaker: And this is a great example of it.
Speaker: We're halfway through and I'm I'm I'm tearing through it.
Speaker: I'm really enjoying this.
Speaker: Yeah, me too.
Speaker: So now on to our new segment that we've been doing for a few weeks now.
Speaker: What are you playing?
Speaker: I like this part.
Speaker: This makes me think of old days when we tried to do a podcast podcast.
Speaker: That was just frankly just talking about video games.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You know, like every other white man in America.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: And we needed to find our niche.
Speaker: But I like I like adding this in.
Speaker: This is fun.
Speaker: This is fun.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I'm playing.
Speaker: I just this week I played a couple of games.
Speaker: I played Iron Lung.
Speaker: Yeah, I've seen you.
Speaker: You watched you watched a Let's Play of that, didn't you?
Speaker: I watched I watched John Wolf's Let's Play of it.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I loved it.
Speaker: I had it's that one was it.
Speaker: Yeah, I played that one and I played a game called V Rising and they're both horror adjacent.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: V Rising.
Speaker: Is that like is that what is V Rising?
Speaker: Is it like a MOBA or?
Speaker: It's a Diablo slash Diablo clone slash survival game.
Speaker: Oh, okay.
Speaker: It's a vampire game.
Speaker: You're playing a vampire like from this ancient court that years ago man rose up and forced them underground.
Speaker: And now you are out of your tomb and
Speaker: and you're you make your vampire which is super fun and then you uh literally go out and chop trees and break up stones and it's the same fucking thing and it's a shame because i'm done with those games i'm so sick of them yeah i need a really new angle for me to give a shit yeah
Speaker: I will admit that the vampire angle is at least interesting.
Speaker: Like it got you in the door, but it's not keeping you there.
Speaker: It's not the it's like it's way more combat centric in the it's a Diablo clone.
Speaker: It's got that style of combat, which can be fun and engaging.
Speaker: I'm going to give it a little more time, but at this point, I've just, me personally, those kinds of games, I'm just, I'm sick of it.
Speaker: But, but Iron Lung was, I played that one.
Speaker: That's an, an indie horror title.
Speaker: I think it's like five bucks on steam.
Speaker: Takes about an hour to play, maybe an hour and a half.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It's by, it's by, it's by David Zemanski, who is also the creator of Dusk.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: And when he's one of the main, I didn't know anything about that one.
Speaker: Yeah, I played Dusk.
Speaker: Dusk is really good.
Speaker: Dusk is a so it's it's I hate this term, but it's a boomer shooter.
Speaker: Oh, OK.
Speaker: So boomer shooters are basically, for those who don't know, it's the genre of first person shooters that are a throwback to the early to mid nineties style of shooters, which were very fast paced.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So dusk is, is basically, it's a quake.
Speaker: Like I like to, I like to say, you said quake, like, and that I, I follow you on.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It's, it's, it's very, yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, it's Boomer Shooter doesn't tell you anything.
Speaker: It's very much like Quake.
Speaker: Quake or Doom or somewhere in between.
Speaker: And it's kind of New Blood's bread and butter is these types of games.
Speaker: They have another one called Ultra Kill, which is very, it's super fast paced and it's mixed.
Speaker: Ultra Kill is like if you took...
Speaker: Quake, Doom Eternal, like some of the traversal of Doom Eternal and added a scoring system onto it like Devil May Cry.
Speaker: So you know how those Devil May Cry games or the Platinum games where it's like it has like it'll have like a letter ranking for how stylishly you kill the monsters.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Ultra Kill has something like that.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Whereas it will be like BAS and like as you do more cool things as you're shooting your way through.
Speaker: That's fascinating to me because based on what you're describing, Iron Lung couldn't be any less like those games outside of kind of an older style like aesthetic.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Basically in the game, for anyone who's interested, that you are it's in the future.
Speaker: You are on a planet where it is just an ocean of blood, literal human blood.
Speaker: You are welded into a little submarine.
Speaker: You have no visual.
Speaker: You know, you don't have a you don't have a porthole or anything, and you have to follow this map.
Speaker: and follow the right coordinates and take pictures of these various points on the map.
Speaker: And your only look at what's happening outside is through the pictures you take.
Speaker: And it's crazy atmospheric and really spooky.
Speaker: And even if it's only about an hour and a half long, five bucks, I think, is worth it for the experience.
Speaker: It was super claustrophobic.
Speaker: Great horror game.
Speaker: I really enjoyed it.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It's it's it was really fascinating to watch somebody play it.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And so, yeah, I can I can give the recommendation for for those looking to experience it themselves.
Speaker: You know, pick up five pick up Iron Lung for whatever it is on Steam.
Speaker: Five bucks.
Speaker: Totally.
Speaker: But if you want to watch it, watch somebody experience it secondhand.
Speaker: If you're more of a secondhand horror experiencer, check it out.
Speaker: Which is understandable.
Speaker: John Wolfe, who plays a lot of these indie horror games, he played it a few weeks ago and he had a pretty good playthrough.
Speaker: Nice.
Speaker: So, yeah.
Speaker: What do you even blame, Kevin?
Speaker: In terms of what I've been playing, honestly, this past week, it's just been back to Vampire Survivor.
Speaker: Hell yes.
Speaker: For some reason this week, I was like, it was weird, but I didn't feel like plugging my controller in.
Speaker: Oh, OK.
Speaker: It was just one of those.
Speaker: I don't feel like I don't feel like getting the controller and the other games that I've been playing recently are controller games.
Speaker: You know, your death stranding and the like.
Speaker: So I was like, all right, well, what can I play with my mouse and keyboard?
Speaker: And I was like, oh, yeah, Vampire Survivors.
Speaker: That just requires my keyboard.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: One hand like it's yeah, it's like it's like I'm playing that with one hand and with my mouse, I'm like reading something scrolling through.
Speaker: So, yeah, I've been playing vampire survivors.
Speaker: I got I got a bunch more unlocks.
Speaker: I finally got I killed death.
Speaker: Nice!
Speaker: That's a turning point.
Speaker: I used your method for killing death, which apparently is like... There's like three or four methods.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: But I did the one that you did, which was like you upgrade the laurel and the... Timelands it.
Speaker: The Timelands.
Speaker: Also, I got the...
Speaker: Something else that happened that helped is the randomatso cards.
Speaker: I got one that does damage anytime time is frozen.
Speaker: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker: I got that.
Speaker: So I had that one going.
Speaker: And so when you have the time cannon going, it's going in like clockwise, right?
Speaker: It's shooting these beams clockwise.
Speaker: And if you have it going like full speed or whatever, it's going to do.
Speaker: And like it does so much damage with that card in play.
Speaker: Oh, that's awesome.
Speaker: That I was just like, I was sitting there with like seven minutes left just waiting for death to show up because nothing could touch me.
Speaker: Right, right.
Speaker: You have nothing to do but sit there.
Speaker: And it's like my kill counter is just going.
Speaker: I love that.
Speaker: I love it.
Speaker: I just like when we were taught, we both played, um,
Speaker: Loop Hero.
Speaker: We both really liked Loop Hero.
Speaker: And when I did a review of that earlier this year, I got somebody who replied to it and it was just like, this is not a game.
Speaker: This is bullshit.
Speaker: You're just like, you're just sitting there and watching it and da-da-da and everything like that.
Speaker: And I had to admit on a certain level with Loop Hero, he had a point.
Speaker: Like there is certain aspects.
Speaker: There's a little bit of strategy you can do with Loop Hero, but mostly it's just- Yeah, it's the placement of the tiles is the strategy basically.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Yeah, exactly.
Speaker: And now with this one, though, there is some level of strategy up to a point.
Speaker: At first, to get to the point where you are just a god that no one can touch, you have to be kind of quick on the draw with what you choose, the weapons you choose, and just generally how you move and everything like that.
Speaker: You have to know what you're going for.
Speaker: But you do get to a certain point where it never ends, where you're just like, I'm just going to put this down for a little bit and we're good.
Speaker: I'm going to go to the bathroom and get myself something to drink.
Speaker: I trust that this will still be killing things when I get back.
Speaker: And it is.
Speaker: It is.
Speaker: Look at that.
Speaker: Once I did that, I did end up getting killed because there was like a boss that just like...
Speaker: was able to walk right through and land on me.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You gotta wait.
Speaker: You gotta look out for the bosses sometimes.
Speaker: But yeah.
Speaker: I'm still loving that.
Speaker: Especially in Gallo Tower, which was where I killed death.
Speaker: There's this crab.
Speaker: The crab, oh yes, the crab.
Speaker: The crab where the claws keep getting bigger?
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: Like, what is that?
Speaker: I don't know what is going on.
Speaker: I just know eventually they both pop and it's just the body of the crab.
Speaker: Well, then they start growing again.
Speaker: yeah exactly i don't i don't know what the specifics are but yeah i i love that crab but i hate him at the same time because he's a pain in the ass he is a pain in the ass because i really do love the i love uh my um what do you call it like the shield weapons i love my bible i love the garlic uh those have become my favorites the really kind of passive weapons
Speaker: those have become my favorites and that guy requires so much more if that's your style right because the bible and the garlic don't do enough damage to kill him fast enough so you gotta have something else going for you exactly and it's the same as with the guardians of like the rings and the weird red doohickeys yeah
Speaker: When we talked last, I told you I had I had 10 achievements left on Vampire Survivors.
Speaker: I am down to eight.
Speaker: I may have a problem.
Speaker: I'm just that's me.
Speaker: You give me a list and I want to check off.
Speaker: I will check off that list.
Speaker: Absolutely.
Speaker: Hey, check off again.
Speaker: Have you, have you, um, uh, have you gotten a solo Mayo, uh, up to level 100 yet?
Speaker: Not yet.
Speaker: I'm not looking forward to that one.
Speaker: I've played with him once.
Speaker: He's a very good boy.
Speaker: Uh, but the only, the only person I've played so far whose weapon is worse than his is the stupid guitarist with the, uh, pinion, uh, weapons.
Speaker: I hate that.
Speaker: It's they're, they're terrible.
Speaker: And the little flower farts from the dog are not much better.
Speaker: They are farts, right?
Speaker: I have to assume, yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, the pinions and the farts are really hard to deal with.
Speaker: And they're like, they're two things where they're like, all right, if I'm going to play this character, I need to get up a few levels immediately and get a couple more weapons.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You cannot rely on your base weapon.
Speaker: Do not level up the Pinion's or Solomio's weapon until you've got some garlic and some Bibles and some axes or something.
Speaker: Something a little bit defensive because otherwise you're going to be in a lot of trouble.
Speaker: Especially when, depending on the level, like minute five in the Mad Forest, for example, when you're suddenly surrounded by the plants.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Because because the game is has these different spawn points like at certain at a certain minute something will spawn.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And like on every level there will be a moment where, oh, it just spawned literally like 10,000 creatures on the screen.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And you got to be able to cut through them.
Speaker: You got it.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You got to have you got to got to have a nice foundation of weapons.
Speaker: So, yeah, I think I think with the with the pinions and with the flower farts, yeah, upgrade it.
Speaker: Definitely upgrade it.
Speaker: But make I would wait till like level 10 till you bother upgrading that one.
Speaker: Unless the other things you have to choose really suck.
Speaker: Uh, but like, yeah, don't bother with those.
Speaker: Get, get some of the old traditional sand buys.
Speaker: And what's funny is some of the weapons that are really sucky at the start end up leveling up into the best.
Speaker: Um, the cats.
Speaker: I like the cats now.
Speaker: Like when they level up, when they level up, they're, they're really funny.
Speaker: Uh, they are so much fun.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Uh, they, uh, they will.
Speaker: So, so two things about the cats.
Speaker: One, they will occasionally attack you.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: And two, they will occasionally just randomly destroy an item on the screen.
Speaker: Oh, I haven't noticed that.
Speaker: Oh, shit.
Speaker: So I noticed it once because I was going to go pick up one of the attractorbs to pull all the orbs.
Speaker: And it killed the attractor?
Speaker: And the cat just like walked by and went.
Speaker: and and killed it and what kept going oh no no no that's unacceptable those attract orbs are worth more uh than just about anything like those things are so great oh that sucks i didn't know that oh shit cats will destroy items on the screen randomly i'm gonna that's the thing i'm trying i think tomorrow me and emily are going away for a few days and before we leave i'm gonna try and
Speaker: level one.
Speaker: I was thinking of trying to level 100 in the witch with the cats.
Speaker: And now you say that like, oh, this is going to suck.
Speaker: It's a little bit harder than you think, because if you can't let because I'll let things sit until I need them.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And with the cats, I realized like, oh, shit, you can't just let something do that with the cats.
Speaker: And it's like a real it's like, oh, they're actually like real cats.
Speaker: You just can't.
Speaker: They're great.
Speaker: And then they destroy something.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Or they scratch you or bite you.
Speaker: Well, that too.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: We've been, Emily and I are moving at the end of next month.
Speaker: And so we're slowly like putting shit together.
Speaker: And our cat Ripley, I almost called her our kitten.
Speaker: I mean, she's a year and a half old.
Speaker: So she's not a kitten anymore, but she's the little one.
Speaker: And she's the one who needs attention all the time.
Speaker: And we were in my office here going through the closets and getting some stuff and deciding what to keep and what to go.
Speaker: And she's just watching us and chatting with us, being really sweet and purring.
Speaker: And it was wonderful.
Speaker: We're like, oh, this is nice.
Speaker: It's nice having our little Ripley to keep us company.
Speaker: She's a little sweetheart, aren't you, baby?
Speaker: And as if on cue, she dive bombed this stack of role playing game books I have.
Speaker: And that knocked into another stack of books.
Speaker: And that just like this.
Speaker: Catastrophic goddamn domino effect.
Speaker: And like so once this is being a cat owner, one second, we were like, what a sweet baby.
Speaker: Who's our sweet baby?
Speaker: And the next time we're like, oh, you're out, you're going outside, like just like threw her out onto the screen porch.
Speaker: It's just I mean, that's honestly so.
Speaker: So I think vampire survivors has cats.
Speaker: They may be nailed.
Speaker: Yeah, they got it figured out.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: The Gotti Amari, I believe they're called.
Speaker: Gotti Amari.
Speaker: That's exactly what it is.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Love him.
Speaker: Love him.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: Well, that'll do it for today's episode.
Speaker: If you can follow us on our socials at PixelitPod on Twitter and Instagram.
Speaker: You can subscribe to our YouTube channel if you're of the video persuasion and you like.
Speaker: you like watching us talk and, you know, subtitles and stuff like that, you can check out our website, PixletPod.com, where we have a link to our Discord, where you can come in and chat with other fans of the show.
Speaker: But if you really want to help out, please rate us five stars on iTunes and Spotify and share.
Speaker: Share this show with your friends, family, co-workers, whomever you think would enjoy it or not enjoy it.
Speaker: You know, I'm not their mothers.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: punish people with us.
Speaker: Use us to punish them.
Speaker: I don't care.
Speaker: Use us to punish people.
Speaker: That's fine.
Speaker: The algorithm doesn't know the difference.
Speaker: Fuck it.
Speaker: It doesn't know the difference at all.
Speaker: So, yeah, we're okay being a tool of punishment.
Speaker: Absolutely.
Speaker: In so many ways.
Speaker: Anyway, that'll do it for tonight.
Speaker: Have a good night, everybody.
Speaker: Bye.
