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Episode 40 – Virgin River and Crow Country
855 Plays7 days ago
We’ve got a high-energy, Smirnoff Ice-fueled shorter episode here for you to kick off the month of December. There is some good news and bad news about the December schedule you won’t want to miss. Roses played a terrible mobile game out of spite. Matt played a rad PS1 throwback game.
Then, we get some really good rolls on the Ranking segment.
- Games Mentioned:
- Virgin River the Mobile Game
- Crow Country
- Spider-Man: Miles Morales
- Curse of Monkey Island
- Prim
- Escape from Monkey Island
- The Dark Crystal
- The Cat Lady
- Erica
Recommended
Transcript
Nostalgic Beginnings and Introductions
00:00:00
Speaker
You know what? I cracked open a spearn off ice for this. What? Wow. That is special. Thank you for that. Okay, I was at the ok so i was like at the grocery store doing Christmasy stuff, like or Thanksgiving-y stuff rather. Sure, holiday stuff, sure. Yeah, for some reason I got it in my head, like it just stuck in my head for the past couple of days, right? And it came up when I was at the grocery store that I was Like the first time I ever got drunk, right? Or ever got any, even like a little buzz, right? Was at band practice at a friend's house when I was whatever 15.
00:00:40
Speaker
on his mom's... tea yeah yeah On his I was fucking cool, dude. I was a cool kid. Now, kids, if you're listening, drinking isn't cool, ah unless you're in a punk band and then it's very cool. um and so we But here's the funny thing. All right, so here's how cool it was. We drank Zima's from his mom's fridge.
00:01:06
Speaker
so That's like the least cool thing I've ever heard. I know, right? And it got us the thing, like it gave us the thing that you don't get anymore. Like after you're 25, you no longer get that little buzz in your head when you drink. You know what I mean? You just get like, whatever. You just, you feel bad. You just feel bad. I get like a buzz like in my loins.
00:01:31
Speaker
That's normal, right? You just start giggling. But that's normal. I think it's normal. Yeah, sure. that's Sure, it's normal. If listeners write in, and say, oh, we're not in the show yet, ah wink. um So it's like, oh, man, wouldn't it be cool to get us have a Zima again? And then they know't it does it doesn't they don't make it anymore.
00:01:55
Speaker
Oh, that was a sad story. I know, they don't. and Well, they, okay, that's not true. They make it in Japan and only in Japan. Well, I think we know what we have to do. Live episode from Japan next week. So back in emphysema. No, so he got smeared off ice and instead. Well, okay. That was a roller coaster of a journey. And if you don't mind, I think this is a good place to start our intro.
00:02:44
Speaker
welcome back to Save Your Game. I'm your host, PushingUpBroses. With me is my co-host, Gettin' Drunks on Smirnoff. Madoff? I'm not getting drunk, I'm just getting, I'm getting iced. He's getting ready. My bro iced me, remember that? I'm gonna have to give that the flush. Give it the flush. The flush. That was so frustrating. Remember the Smirnoff Ice like ad campaign?
00:03:12
Speaker
I don't, remind me. It was this thing about like you ah icing your bros, right? um Where you would, if you left a Smirnoff ice somewhere, bros icing bros, I think they, i you would if you left a Smirnoff ice somewhere and your friend saw it, they would have to drink the whole thing right away. And it was like an unofficial,
00:03:39
Speaker
Viral
Holiday Plans and Cultural Commentary
00:03:40
Speaker
drinking game. So you'd like leave a Smirnoff ice in the shower, right? And they'd wake up to go shower and they'd be like a Smirnoff ice there and so clearly Maybe this is me being cynical but so clearly that was started by the Smirnoff ice ad campaigns and just like and they were just like like instead of doing a commercial about it they would just like talk about it, try to get viral word of mouth. And the fucking thing is it worked. And a bunch of college kids would do that to each other in the early 2010s. And it's like, that's so stupid. That sucks. And sounds unsanitary and dangerous and disgusting in its spirit off ice. What are we even doing here? And they're college bros, right? So they're gonna be doing dumb shit like putting it in each other's cars. And then slamming. That's what I was thinking. Yeah. Yeah.
00:04:31
Speaker
slamming a Smirnoff ice before they drive in. like It's funny, so I just looked it up on Wikipedia, huh and Smirnoff claims it's not.
00:04:43
Speaker
a marketing stunt and here's why. ad of Ad executive Dick Martin said, beyond the implicit slur on the beverage's taste. Oh, I doubt any alcoholic beverage company would want to be associated with a drinking game that stretches the boundaries of good taste and common sense like this one does. Sure. But sure no one was going to buy Smirnoff ice without that game. There's like a million things I would rather be drinking.
00:05:11
Speaker
um ah Eggnog, even though lactose intolerant, I would definitely drink that over Smirnoff. I would rather be drinking eggnog than most things. Malort, which is absolutely disgusting. Oh, maybe not. Maybe not Malort. Okay. Literally like one time and the bartender in Chicago that I asked about it was like, you don't want Malort.
00:05:37
Speaker
And I was like, this is my first time in Chicago. I kind of do want to try Malort. No, you have and they were like i to. He was like, all right. OK, well, i I warned you and it's supposed to be melon. It's not it is supposed to be a little citrusy, but it is wormwood. Like the base is wormwood liqueur. It is disgusting. It tastes like.
00:06:07
Speaker
just rubbing alcohol. So some people say, according to according to the internet, ah some people say it tastes like, quote, sucking dandelion juice through a straw made of car tires.
00:06:24
Speaker
okay not wrong Not wrong, my friend. Malort is disgusting, but it's kind of a rite of passage it in Chicago. if If you come to Chicago, me and my friends will get we'll we'll get you and we will buy you shots of Malort. I first heard about it from ah the comedian John Hodgman. And what he says about it is that it tastes like pencil shavings and heartbreak.
00:06:54
Speaker
savings. It's so gross. And it is. It's so gross. But like, but here's the thing. If you come to Chicago, I will buy you a malort. It's on me. All right, listeners, right in if you're going to Chicago, you get a malort on pushing approaches. I mean, yeah, there you go. And if you like it, which you won't, I'll get you a second, get you double malort. Speaking of our listeners, we got to tell them- Hi. Hey, so this is a shorter episode and we got to talk to you about the next month of this show. We're busy.
00:07:31
Speaker
We got a rough time. It's the holidays. It is the holidays. But that does not mean you're not gonna get your savior game fill. It just means things are gonna be a little weird for a couple weeks. Yeah. So you got this slightly shorter episode. Yes, yes. ah Then next week we are doing an episode with special guest Alex Perlman. I'm so excited and angry.
00:07:57
Speaker
Yeah, wait till you hear what game we played. i Guys, I'm so mad. Both of them are making me play a very bad game. It doesn't even feel like a real game. i'm You know what? Let me know because this episode will go first. Drop yeah a guess as to what a horrible game i'll tell i'll tell you that they made me play.
00:08:17
Speaker
So this is, if you guys don't know, it's Pearlmania 500, if you might know him from Instagram or TikTok or whatever, ah shouting about politics. he this is He's around our age, and this is the only adventure game. Oh, he's 28. That's great. That's just great. This is the only game he remembers from, ah the only adventure game he remembers from his childhood.
00:08:45
Speaker
That's not a good and hint at all. No, no, but it's the hint they're getting. Okay. so So we'll have that up for you next week, a full episode. ah Then ah I'm actually not sure about the following couple of weeks. We are going to take a little break for Christmas and New Year. Yeah, yeah. um But somewhere mid-month, we will have a Christmas special.
00:09:15
Speaker
Yes, we will have a Christmas special somewhere. With cool guests, and we're talking about Christmas games, and we're talking about eggnog. Oh my god, eggnog. It's gonna be a great time. It makes me sick, but I like it. it'll It'll likely be an extra long episode. Oh yeah, it'll be. Or but if it's if it's that long, I don't mind splitting it. It's like the Christmas gift that keeps on giving. For four hours.
00:09:43
Speaker
yeah um And you know, again, you might get another half episode here or there, but um ah we that means for the rest of the year, you're only gonna get one more full episode and then you'll get like our extra long Christmas special.
Entertainment Industry Discussions
00:09:59
Speaker
So there'll be a couple of weeks where you get either nothing or a half episode and hey,
00:10:05
Speaker
yeah you get you get what you pay for. They're not paying anything, it's free. Exactly. I thought you were going to say, like, you get what you give, and I'd be like, that's nice. yeah Yeah, you guys give us start giving us podcasts, you'll get more. And you'll get more podcasts, yeah. It's a one-for-one exchange. You email us a personal podcast that you did, and we'll put up another... no
00:10:37
Speaker
ah It's, a yeah, so. um I have good news. What's that? My very Brady Christmas DVD was delivered today. That is great news. It's really good news, guys. I'm so stoked. Tell me about very Brady Christmas.
00:10:59
Speaker
Um, it is this unhinged weird Brady Bunch Christmas special that takes place way after the Brady Bunch ah show. So I'm stoked for it. And it's much better. So did you know that the Brady Bunch tried to get dramatic? There. Listen, okay, Brady Bunch thing, where I think it's Bobby, he gets into a car accident and becomes a paraplegic.
00:11:27
Speaker
What the fuck? He does. And it's meant to be dramatic. During the run of the show? No, this was after. But you have to understand that Brady Punch never like stopped doing stuff. They were doing so much stuff even after the show. They had a variety show. They had made for TV movies. They had spin-offs. I didn't realize it went that far. But the Brady Punch goes hard, apparently. And then didn't one of them become like a... ah ah ultra reactionary conservative, the Cindy Brady. Oh, is it Susan Olsen? I'm not sure. I thought you were gonna say didn't one of them become a reality TV star? And then I would say yes, because Christopher Knight played Peter Brady. He was on what was it not maybe the surreal life, where he met like his model girlfriend. It's so weird. Okay.
00:12:18
Speaker
you appeared Um, oh my God. Yeah. So here's how bad, um, Cindy Brady, Cindy Brady got. Um, but she had a TV show in LA, uh, LA talk radio radio, two chicks talking politics and used the F slur multiple times. Why the, why though? And then claimed that she had been the subject of fake news.
00:12:45
Speaker
Okay. I mean that's provable stuff. If you said a thing on air. she was in ah This happened because she was in a feud with a gay actor named ah Leon Accordweeding. Okay. Look him up. Leon.
00:13:00
Speaker
i wild. Okay. All right. Sorry. I didn't mean to. That is insane though. Oh my God. Susan Olsen, what are you doing? What are you doing? I see here in the news, Susan Olsen apologizes to LGBT community. For anti-gay rant. Yeah. That's what it says for homophobic rant.
00:13:23
Speaker
ah like i don't mean i don't mean to be exactly how this is going to come off and in fact exactly what it's doing i don't mean to say well exactly what i'm going to say but i'm going to say it anyway if you look at her she looks like like if you saw this woman walking towards you on the street you would you would run like you would run away you'd be like oh no this woman is about to rant at me about yeah yeah She's about to rant at me about how ah yeah ah how Hillary Clinton is killing infants, right? Look. Pizza gate. like Look at this woman. You would be like, oh, where where were you January 6th? Yeah, no, she looks like, can I talk to the manager?
00:14:10
Speaker
yeah what for set like She looks like, her manager she if you got her, if she was ah your customer yeah a yeah at a, ah like if you were a server and she was your customer, you know, the check would say, your tip is to seek Jesus.
00:14:34
Speaker
Oh my God, you're so right.
00:14:38
Speaker
like Guys, you know we are very pro LGBTQ here because I am the B and Matt's just mad. He's an ally. I'm your non-problematic straight white friend. hopefully Hopefully. That's who I am for everybody. I'm the world's non-problematic straight white friend. Thanks, Matt.
00:15:05
Speaker
One would hope, one would hope. the ah Claims notwithstanding, just kidding. Let's cut that. Let's cut that. And I am extremely bisexual. Hi.
00:15:18
Speaker
Extremely. Extremely. You always have in one, in one ah the periphery of one eye, you have a picture of a naked man and the periphery of the other eye, you have a picture of a naked woman. Yeah, pretty much. That's how extremely bisexual.
00:15:36
Speaker
I wonder if my family listens to this. yeah ah whatever ah ah i i i i one hundred percent i'm I'm generally straight. I 100% don't mind admitting on a podcast that sexuality is fluid, even for straight people. Sure. Yeah, it is. I absolutely agree. it It can be fluid, for sure. yeah But not for Susan Olsen, who plays some degree.
00:16:02
Speaker
well's ah Okay, all right, so continue telling me about the end of, you you didn't actually get to the ah Brady Christmas whatever.
00:16:14
Speaker
Oh, okay. I actually don't quite know what it's about other than like, it's like, a it's meant to be was a reunion. It's totally meant to be made for TV reunion that ok people still really liked the Brady's at this time, even though the Brady show had ended. I don't know what it is like.
00:16:36
Speaker
ah Brady Bunch in pop culture had such amazing staying power that they just kept doing like made for TV stuff. So they have Christmas specials, they have that one weird, like I said, Bobby was the car accident at a variety show. Unbelievable.
00:16:52
Speaker
And I do I do vaguely remember the very Brady Christmas because it's like everyone comes back together and everybody's in in like different ah parts of their life. ah Like the two girls are married, I think, and Greg, so older brother, I think he's a doctor. At this point, I want to say it might have been one of the last times that um that the dad was in it because he passed.
00:17:17
Speaker
Yeah, he died early, huh? Yeah, he passed earlier. I think that was one of the final, like Brady things that he did. um So yeah, I'm looking forward to it. It's super cheesy. Hopefully it'll be easy to riff on and and have some insight about so I'm excited. That's interesting. you know that you're more about it yeah The two older sisters had their own sitcom. Did you know that?
00:17:43
Speaker
No, what it really it like flopped really hard. It is. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So Marsha and Jan Brady, they have a double wedding because you know what I want to share my like most important day with my sister. with that sounds So fucking great. but So they get married. And so the spin off is just them and they're like weird goofy husbands.
00:18:10
Speaker
I'm gonna say another problematic thing about um the looks of the current Brady's. The looks? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. Maureen McCormick is...
00:18:23
Speaker
She looks pretty good for her 60s. She does, Maureen McCormick. She looks great. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I love Maureen McCormick. She's great. I don't mean to be judging two of the older Brady women by their by their looks alone, but anyway. No, she looks great. She also appeared on The Amanda Show.
00:18:51
Speaker
weird. yeah She was also on because this is the pipeline. This is the the child weird 60 star pipeline. She was also on like a reality. It was like fit club or something like MTV's fit club. It was like it was a weight loss show. She was on I'm a celebrity get me out of here.
00:19:11
Speaker
I guess this is what you do if you were a child star. I don't know. it's Oh, man. She had a rough time to. Oh, my God. yeah Apparently like drug addiction, bulimia, yeah all sorts of.
00:19:23
Speaker
who
Gaming Critiques and Reviews
00:19:24
Speaker
Well, that's definitely very normal for kind of the the girls who were child stars at that time. Yeah. Yeah. I hope she's doing well now. Yeah. And if you're listening to our gaming podcast, call me because he is ready for you.
00:19:48
Speaker
He will be your Davy Jones to Marcia Brady thing. um So, Roses, yeah have you been playing anything lately? You are not gonna believe what I played out of spite the other day. Out of spite? Yes.
00:20:06
Speaker
So I live my life ah like this, where I'm just fighting everything. but So for the I'm sure everybody knows this, but I'm having a little bit of an issue with my YouTube channel. Not the channel, but um I did a review on Hot Frosty, which I think I mentioned on the podcast. And it got taken down, and my channel got struck. I've never had this happen before. It's Netflix. That's the company that's doing it.
00:20:34
Speaker
And I got really pissed and I went to go cancel my Netflix account. But guess what I did before I canceled it? i You're not gonna guess. You're not gonna guess. They have like little mini mobile adventure games based on their like Netflix shows.
00:20:55
Speaker
Oh my god. And I'm like, what is this? I have to I have to know what this is. I can't leave without knowing maybe I'll even because a lot of gaming videos don't get clocked for copyrights as much as movies do game devs are really great about that. They want their stuff to be shared. So like, i'm yeah, I'm gonna, you know, record the footage of whatever I do. So what did what did I play? I play Okay, so this there's a show called like, what is it called Virgin River or something? What? Hang on. I'm looking at all there are so many of these Netflix shows that like, it's like, you've never heard of this thing. And then you find out it's like nine seasons. I know. It's already like seasons for five, like five seasons.
00:21:40
Speaker
um Unbelievable. I think of Peaky Blinders as an example of that, but 900,000 more people know what Peaky Blinders is than Virgin River, and they have the same amount of seasons.
00:21:58
Speaker
So yeah, they have mobile games based on their original shows. So I did one, because it was Christmas themed. They had a Christmas themed Virgin River mobile game.
00:22:10
Speaker
And it's supposedly a dating game. I'm like, okay, i am losing my mind. I cannot believe this has been running for so many years. Yeah, okay. All right, go ahead. We should watch it anyway. Yeah, so they had a Christmas game. I'm like,
00:22:34
Speaker
I got to know the quality of these games. I just got to know because there's a ton of them and they're free if you have if you have Netflix. So I downloaded their this one. It's like a four chapter long. How do I explain this ah date quote dating sim?
00:22:52
Speaker
but you don't get a lot of options. So as I'm like putting in my stuff, you know, I'm building my character, which is terrible. There's like no options. My character looks insane. And I will send you a screen gap as soon as I can. We'll try and include it in the show notes.
00:23:08
Speaker
There was nothing that my character that I would wear. So I ended up wearing like some shitty red tartan dress thing. I'm like, this is not me, but whatever. And they're like, who do you want to date? Do you want to date men, women or both? I must follow myself down a well. What? No, go ahead. Continue.
00:23:28
Speaker
So I'm like, who am I gonna date? I'm like, both, because, because, why? And so I say both. Extremely by. Not extremely by. So not realizing that once I like pick someone, that's it. There's no real dating options here. So like early on in the game, you can decide if you're gonna bump into the the guy character or the girl character. And that choice means you will be interested in the guy character.
00:23:55
Speaker
And there's no real consequences to your like, you can be kind of snotty with your dialogue, or you can be like super kind. um There's some like, like I was I was in a in a Christmas tree contest for one of the parts.
00:24:11
Speaker
And they're like, what do you want to put on the tree? I'm like, I don't know, this silver star. And they did like, so it's just really easy stuff like that. This reminds me of ah plumbers don't wear ties or something. But it's it's not even of that amount of substance. okay okay It is more like...
00:24:35
Speaker
I'm being told a story that I'm sort of contributing a little bit to with dialogue. And like, I can choose my outfit. Thank God. Thank God I can choose my outfit. Right chapter. I don't know what would I even be doing. um It is so ungame like though, you know how there was this this argument of like, what is and is not a game, but it's still kind of going on. But it was mostly in 2014 2015. Sure.
00:24:59
Speaker
this is not a game i am confident in saying that it's it's interactive they call it a mo i guess it is a mobile game which is it may be a different territory than other game like console games and computer games but i can't believe I played through it. I played all four chapters. Holy shit, dude. yeah It wasn't that long. It was maybe an hour and a half. This is how you spend your human life. The time that you have on Earth that you'll never get back. I can't get that back. It's gone forever. But but it's a nice but because it's my buttt ah but. But
00:25:41
Speaker
I might have content out of it, maybe. I did capture it, it might be riffable. I was hoping it would be a little more insane, but it's honestly like... Is it just like, it's nothing. The dialogue is just so bad. It's just those dialogue trees that we would critique in an adventure game. We'd be like, this is really a load of nothing. Wild. No, it's, why it's i it's so that's what I've been playing. I've been playing,
00:26:11
Speaker
I don't know if it's so highly recommend. Yeah. So 10 stars out of 10. Uh, no, it's, I think that the better way to go to make a comedic video out of this is to play a bunch of the Netflix mobile games. Yeah. And just like reflect on how low quality they are. Right.
00:26:33
Speaker
But yeah, I was kind of I was like a little bit excited because I do like dating Sims. I like um adults, like adult love storybooks. That's what I thought I was gonna get. No, and the graphics are no, like didn no, everybody looks like an alien is horrible. Yeah, i looking at the graphics in it looks a lot like um any of those those games that are that claim to be but like dating sim and city builder and hidden object game all at once. But you download for like, ah you download for free on your phone and then you can pay $19.99 for 30, you know, like blue gems.
00:27:23
Speaker
I wish that it had more. I wish it was a hidden object game. I wish there was more to it than this, you know? because Wow. It has even less than that kind of game. Yes, correct. It's it's a lot of nothing. um An attempt was made But really, it's one of those, but yeah, but why, and also it's clearly a cash grab. It's clearly for a certain type of person that maybe watches the Virgin River show on Netflix and that's all it is. Which I cannot imagine that person. Yeah, I can't. I just cannot, I don't know who that person could possibly be.
00:28:02
Speaker
Well, normally that would be me. Normally, if this was a better game, it would be me. Oh my god. There's shows that are only watched by YouTubers who are riffing on the shows. Yeah, that's true. That's true. It's true. Well, do you want to hear about a good game? What are you trying to say? I did this out of spite, but yes, please tell me about a good game.
00:28:29
Speaker
So I played ah this week, like I said last episode, I've been ah trying to play some of the best games, like what people have defined as some of the best kind of adventure games of ah 20, 24. That's what I should have been doing. And I grabbed like some Metroidvanias like Kryptonian and Boo, Path of the Tealotus, and um ah okay you know, cool games like that. yeah um But one of the games I grabbed was Crow Country. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:29:03
Speaker
And this is by SFB Games, who made the Detective Grimoire series. Which is very interesting, because they are completely different aesthetics. Just wildly different. So this game, yeah Crow Country, is ah it's a period piece, play takes place in 1990, and the graphics are... Okay.
00:29:25
Speaker
this I'll say this, this is this is how I describe it to you via text, right? It is the it is like Resident Evil with ah the graphics of Final Fantasy VII. Yep, yep, yep, yep. It really does look like Final Fantasy VII, it's true.
00:29:42
Speaker
right and it plays like Resident Evil uh except for ah the puzzles are a little better and you don't have to fit you don't have to do that thing where you like rotate all your inventory items to make them fit in your backpack or whatever um ah but it is like ammo is limited and yeah aiming is hard and you have kind of tank controls. Instead of aiming just where you, like what's in front of you, you do, like if you press the right bumper, you and ah your ah joystick becomes like an aiming mechanism and you can ah you can move your laser sight around. So you can you can aim a little better than in the original Resident Evil games. Okay.
00:30:25
Speaker
but it's It's really interesting. So the the premise of this game is you are a girl named Mara Forrest, and it becomes clear pretty early on that somebody called the police to, ah because there's like a series of monsters invading this theme park called Crow Country. um And instead of- I like a theme park moment. Is it a creepy theme park?
00:30:55
Speaker
ah Yeah, so there are a a couple different areas and one is like the fairyland area. There's the mermaid area and there is the haunted area. um ah Like the haunted house area and all three of them are kind of creepy because the theme park is abandoned and kind of dilapidated and sort of like just swarming with monsters. Wait, I have a question ah yes about the storyline. It's abandoned?
00:31:24
Speaker
yeah So who cares if there's monsters, if it's a, bad just let them live. ah Just let the monsters have the part. Because it's abandoned, you know? There's answers to those questions. there's There's more going on than meets the eye. But yeah, no, good point. You could just let the monsters live in peace. If they're not hurting anyone outside of their area is all I'm saying. Just let them go. Just let them have it. Let them go. Monsters deserve amusement.
00:31:53
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. Give them ah some cotton candy and a Ferris wheel, I say. it So it is like it is like Resident Evil in that there's something that has been mutating humans into monsters. Sure. um And yeah, so the police were called, but you showed up instead. And you are clearly looking for um the owner of the theme park, Crow Country. His name is Edward Crow.
00:32:20
Speaker
and Anytime anybody asks you about it, because there's a bunch of survivors in the park too that you run into, whoa um you just say, I need to talk to him. yeah And people are like, are you going to kill him? And you're like, no, no, no. But you arrived with a gun. so um But you just say you need to talk to him. So you don't know much about Mara. You know very little about her. And ah you'll learn more about her as the game goes on. And you'll learn everything about her by the end.
00:32:46
Speaker
yeah um But what you do yeah as you're walking through this park, you you know you're learning the history of it through notes that you find um that talk about you know the news stories about how Crow count crow country became ah this hotbed for illnesses in the area um and how you know they how it had to shut down and like where these sort of monsters came from and also this like um gold smuggling um operation that has been operating out of Crow Country and maybe the two are linked and it's really so it's just really interesting the way the game works is again you're kind of wandering around like Resident Evil who's trying to make progress and things are attacking you all the time and you have a gun and you find better guns as you go or long and ammo is really limited so it feels a little like a survival game and um health
00:33:43
Speaker
packs are also pretty limited though if you play on standard difficulty it seems that all the health and ammo drops are random and they would drop more frequently if you have less of them okay so i never actually really ran out of ammo or health but sometimes i did close the game and reload because i felt like i got myself into a shitty place sure um are there save slots then uh there are three save slots okay um But a lot of save points in the game that you can revisit as much as you want. It's kind of an open world. And ah there's different ways to play the game. There's an exploration exploration mode where you don't get attacked by monsters at all. And there's a hardcore mode where ammo and stuff is way more limited. But I played on normal mode and I didn't have too tough a time of it. Sure.
00:34:38
Speaker
once I got used to the weird aiming controls and stuff. um But the puzzles are a lot better than Resident Evil in in that.
00:34:51
Speaker
you kind of like you'll go find a but a series you'll find a bunch of locked doors and they'll all say that they have a bronze lock on them and then eventually you'll find the bronze key and then the bronze key you go back to all the doors that you couldn't open and then in each of those rooms then you'll eventually find like maybe there's some rooms that are also locked with a golden lock so you know eventually you need to find a golden key and each um you know, each item that you need sort of gates one or two other items. And you're just basically going around collecting these items that open these doors to get to new places. And there's a bunch of secrets and secret items in the game. ah It's just a really fun sort of, and it's not that long, like it only takes about five hours to play.
00:35:37
Speaker
It's just like a fun little survival horror ah action adventure. um Yeah, I was gonna say how much of it is adventure, but it sounds like it's along the same lines as as a survival horror, which I do think it are adventure games. Like i I consider Alone in the Dark an adventure game. Yes. Clock Tower, I can i do consider an adventure game.
00:36:00
Speaker
And it's very, there's a lot of narrative. You're getting a really interesting story and you're learning a lot about all the characters. So you know if if you're an adventure fan, you're going to find a lot to like in Crow Country. I i really adored it. I thought it was great. you know There's some things... Sometimes I feel a little critical of the idea of like a story unraveling through notes. Sure. And here's why is because like, usually it's a game that you get, you're getting wrapped into the gameplay, you're getting wrapped into the puzzles or the action or whatever. And then it's like, I don't feel like stopping to read a whole note right now. I know, I know.
00:36:40
Speaker
you start thinking like, okay, I'll figure it out when, I'll like revisit them all later and then you never do. So you miss big chunks of the story. So like, I feel a little,
00:36:54
Speaker
You know, I don't love that as that's not my favorite way to tell a narrative. But that's ah so interesting to hear because last week we just talked about a game that does use as notes that uses notes and like kind of old documents to tell a story. The idle games uses a lot of reading. So I think, yeah, I think that's um an interesting point because the gameplay there is is in reading the notes. And that I love, right? If I have a reason to... that's That's what I guess I'm saying. I feel like whatever you choose to make your gameplay,
00:37:34
Speaker
the narrative should unfold in that way. So if your gameplay is largely um ah dialogue focused, your narrative should unravel through dialogue. If like, or at not should, should's a shitty way to talk about any piece of art, but ah that's how, we know yeah, that's how I'm going to best absorb it is I guess what I mean. And I know what you mean because a lot of adventure games that experiment with the The game that comes to mind is Harvester. It like gives you a certain type of gameplay and then it hits you with like all this action and you're like, why? Why? Right. I was enjoying solving your stupid puzzles. Let me do that instead of stopping to like shoot guys? What? actually Yeah. and yeah so it's the same it's that That's how I feel about narrative. right like
00:38:26
Speaker
if If you're you have a puzzle game, your narrative should evolve, unravel through puzzles. I think um Francisco Gonzalez's games are really good at that. You learn what's going on by solving the puzzles. So the puzzles aren't... um impediments and the story the gameplay isn't an an impediment to the narrative and the narrative is not an impediment to the gameplay they work take together and uh like another example of that might be the and a completely different example in a game i've been playing lately um is the marvel spider-man games oh yeah the ones for uh the playstation
00:39:11
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, you can play him on PC now, but ok ok which is how I'm playing him. But I played the first one a long time ago, but I'm playing Miles Morales now. And, you know, again, the story is evolving through the action. yes You're learning while you're chasing the guy through the city, right? yeah you are you know um You learn that somebody is working with somebody else because they ambush you while you're fighting the other guy. like that ah To me, that is the perfect way to make a game is when the way that you are engaging with the game is also how the story unravels. Like in a Metroidvania, how most of the story in the Metroidvania, a good Metroidvania unravels through the backgrounds. Because what you love about a Metroidvania is exploring and seeing all the different parts of the map. yeah So learning what's going on by just looking in the background as you're jumping around and stabbing stuff.
00:40:08
Speaker
like is so cool. h yeah um
00:40:14
Speaker
So yeah, ah so that's the one thing I'd say about Kuro Country that bums me out is having to stop solving puzzles and shooting guys.
Adventure Game Rankings
00:40:24
Speaker
Not that I i didn't really love the shooting guys, to be honest, but solving puzzles. yeah um To read a letter. Read a letter, exactly.
00:40:34
Speaker
You know, this is reminding me, you know, what would make maybe a good podcast episode is discussing all of the mini games we've ever had to play. yeah like You're playing your game, you're doing your puzzles, it's going great. And then suddenly, there's this weird mini thing that's just happening. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. This might be a bad this might be a bad or good example. I'm not really sure what you'll feel about it. But ah curse a monkey Island, right? There are these tiny little mini games. So you have to like play the banjo. It's like a repeat banjo play. Yeah.
00:41:10
Speaker
And it's just like, why? It's not that long. So that's not the most egregious thing that I can come up with. But there are so many times when we're playing adventure games, and it's like, you know what? In Prim, for example, we had the casket game, casket ball. Well, Monkey Island's infamous for this, right? Because Monkey Island has examples of this that are really good and really bad. Yes, the sword fighting, right?
00:41:39
Speaker
Insult sword fighting. Exactly. And the worst minigame in any adventure game of all time. You don't you can do it. Do I do I know this?
00:41:51
Speaker
yeah Oh, oh um ah well God, what's it called? the bat Battle monkeys. Monkey combat, the worst thing that's ever been in any video game in existence. yeah yeah um but So yeah, like Monkey Island is infamous for doing this well and doing this poorly. And doing it bad and it's it's just so interesting because there are some games where like I crave them, so perfect example. Ocarina of Time.
00:42:20
Speaker
doing the shooting the rupees with the arrows in Kakariko Village. I will do that all day long. I love shooting those rupees. Zelda is great at those. Zelda is yeah really good at putting mini games in that you can't wait to play. It feels like you've entered a carnival.
00:42:36
Speaker
And then you're like, oh yeah, yeah, I get to go play some cool games. I don't know what it is. I don't know why or how it makes me like it and want to keep doing it. Even in Breath of the Wild, there's this snowball bowling game where you make a huge snowball and you toss it down in some pins. I couldn't stop playing it. I was like, this is the best. I love this.
00:43:04
Speaker
um Okay, so this is, like we said, this is gonna be a shorter episode. We have about 10 minutes before I got a dip. So do you want to throw on some Shorty Tynerino?
00:43:20
Speaker
And then before, you know, before we go, rank some adventure games? Yeah, why don't we rank like three adventure games? We can do that in 10, right? Hell yeah. Let's do it. Yeah, go.
00:43:45
Speaker
Hey everyone, welcome back to save your game. I'm pushing up roses. This is my co-host Matt Aucamp. Hey Matt. Hey, what's up? Um, do you want to rank? The sky. I gotta hang up. Bye. If you really did quit the call. Okay. So we're only going to rank three. So I'm not going to pull from any of my pre selected ones. yeah I'm just, I'm going to randomly select three. yeah Um, so.
00:44:17
Speaker
I'm going to, you know what, let's do this. I have a weird so i have a weird idea. Since there's about 3,400, let's break it up into, what if we select from like, I guess there's 3,200. So what if we break it up into, what's 32, 37 divided by three? 1079. Let's break it up into thirds. Okay, let's do it. Random number generator, we have number.
00:44:47
Speaker
13. Holy shit. ah Holy cow. This is great. Oh my God. Okay. By Sierra entertainment from 1982. Oh my God. We have the dark crystal. Amazing. Amazing. Amazing. Okay. Have you played this game? I have. Oh my God. I actually, this is one of the few early Sierra games I've never played. Um, tell me about it.
00:45:17
Speaker
ah Well, it's bad.
00:45:20
Speaker
It looks bad. Yeah, it is kind of bad. But but also, it was 1983. We didn't have a lot going on. Is it impressive for the time?
00:45:32
Speaker
I think so. The problem with this game is unlike a lot of the other Sierra games, people don't remember this. If I say, Hey guys, did you know there was a dark crystal game by Sierra? People are like, what? So it doesn't have the staying power of this quest.
00:45:49
Speaker
And when you look at the graphics, like, OK, Dark Crystal has interesting looking characters to begin with. They like they're a little ugly and goofy looking. Yeah. um And I think that's on purpose. But this game makes them look ugly and goofy looking not on purpose. It looks like somebody's just bad at drawing. um Now, what like, what about the raise my heart, though, to put it low because Muppets? Yeah, I know it's got. Yeah. What ah what about the actual gameplay like are are the puzzles good? Is the text parser good? It is a text parser game by the way. It is like it's like Mystery House in that way um or not this one has more color than Mystery House. Mystery House is just um black and white. It's difficult. I wouldn't want to play it again. ah It is designed by Roberta Williams and we all know that Roberta Williams likes to design her games
00:46:46
Speaker
Bad. Possibly. Which, you know what, I understand she was very inspired by Colossal Cave Adventure back in the day and I think she got a lot of inspo from that type of very difficult gameplay. I don't think this is a very good game. Yeah. And, you know, as much as we would want to.
00:47:10
Speaker
rate it higher just because it's our first Sierra game to pop on the list. yeah I just I don't think we can. It's it's not that good. Yeah, I mean, there's a lot of stuff from that era that's just not very good. and Yeah. So and so what he said unlike Mystery House, it's not remembered. People in the gaming community remember Mystery House. So So what what like, so where would you say it goes in terms of like, ah all right, let's let's pick a random game. um Let's say in relation to ah Murder, she wrote. Below. Okay, so let's say in relation to Dark Grimm, Mariupolis. Below. Oh, God. Okay, let's say in relation to um Minecraft Story Mode.
00:48:01
Speaker
above, because I think this is a good start to adventure games. So I think it is going to go above Minecraft. Okay, so here's where I'm thinking. I'm thinking somewhere near Randalls Monday. That's I'm fine with that, honestly. ah What do you think? So we've got like Crabat and Secret of the Sorbing King, Cosmonauts Escape Reality, Randalls Monday, and then on Cart of Osiris. Like that's a run of four. I would put it right below Randalls Monday in that little block.
00:48:29
Speaker
i am I'm into it. yeah ah You're going to be really excited about this next game. why While you're explaining, I hit the number generator. okay we got In our next chunk, we got twelve number 1231 by Harvester Games. yeah It is the cat lady.
00:48:49
Speaker
Nice. The Cat Lady. The Cat Lady is so good, you guys. I really enjoyed that game. I really enjoyed it. Me too. Me too. I think it's like a little triumph of a game. I don't think it's the best game. Right. I don't. I think there is. There's some flaws with it. And I also think that it's the sort of game that people are going to have a hard time getting into because the art is so interestingly, like the art is so unique. um It's very unique, yeah. ah But it's very well done. The narrative is really interesting. um
00:49:28
Speaker
and it Was it the first one or was it the second one? It was the start of this incredible run of games that Harvester Games had, like these horror games with really deep psychological impact.
00:49:41
Speaker
I thought it was very gripping story-wise to the point where the graphics then became great to be fitting. You know, that's what art is, right? It's all about how it's making you feel. um I would put this pretty high. Me too. i I'm also looking, I'm almost looking like, I think it goes below chance of Sinar in my book, but we can argue that if you want. um But I think it goes above Fran Bow.
00:50:10
Speaker
him
00:50:13
Speaker
Okay, I'll say this, Fran Bow is a little bit more of a point, like an adventure game, adventure game, so I could see an argument for putting Fran Bow higher. It's just tough, but to me, they're like in line with each other, so it's really, it's actually really tough for me to choose one above the other. Right, because okay, here's our top five, Portal, Portal 2, The Last Door, Chance of Sinar, and Fran Bow. I think the cat- We can put it above Fran Bow.
00:50:39
Speaker
I think the cat lady deserves top five, right? Yeah. Yeah, I do too. Right now. Okay. Yeah. All right. Cat lady goes in number five. Now we got to rush through this last one. I'm running out of time. Um, 21, 2163 is, let me quick to delete cat lady off the thing. Okay. 2163. Uh, I didn't look at this one ahead of time. So this is completely. Okay. By flavor works in 20.
00:51:07
Speaker
In 2019, it is called Erika. Oh! This is that game that's always free on PlayStation. but When you have PlayStation Plus, Erika is like always the free game. I see that. yeah It says it's like interactive film, indie game, interactive fiction, casual. it's So it's one of those.
00:51:29
Speaker
It looks pretty liked-ish. It is SMV. It is live acted FMV. So it is. So it's an interactive film. It's also on, yeah, it's on Steam. It's got mostly positive reviews out of like 1400 reviews. I think my son played it and didn't play it very much. But I think he might've told me once that like he got it free with PlayStation and tried it.
00:52:00
Speaker
But i mean he's not a good judge of adventure games, so he doesn't really like them. So maybe he's a good judge of it. though Oh, hey, good point. You know, but like, I ah think these are exactly the kinds of games that I'm actually very intrigued by and always have been is the live acted stuff. I've always had such a soft spot for such a fondness.
00:52:20
Speaker
ah Yeah, i this is a game that I'm looking at and like, why didn't I play this when I had PlayStation Plus? like I'm into it. I think this looks good. I think I didn't know it was live acted. and I think based on the cover art, yeah I assumed it was like Life is Strange or something. You're right. It does look like that. I did i was surprised to see the trailer in live action.
00:52:44
Speaker
um Erica is as for, this is from Eurogamer. Erica is a subtle thriller or a psychological thriller, not a horror game. It's subtle, not brash. It doesn't just jump scare. It occasionally startles. I like that. I like that too. So this is a game that we haven't played. So this is, so that's gonna, you know, cost it a little bit, but also it kind of looks fucking good. I think it looks good. it It at least, at least goes in the mediocre block for me.
00:53:12
Speaker
I think it goes above the mediocre block. I think it goes in like the, yeah I think it goes above the like Agatha Christie, Nancy Drew, Amos Green. Definitely goes above Amos Green, let's be clear.
Podcast Wrap-up and Future Plans
00:53:25
Speaker
i I would go so far as to put it above Book of Unwritten Tales, Critic Chronicles. okay But wait, below Phantasmagorean scratches and stuff. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:53:36
Speaker
So here's the question then, where does it, so then we have Dreamfall chapters and Bend There, Dan that, where does it go amongst those?
00:53:46
Speaker
I'll tell you my instinct is to go below, but. Yeah, that's my instinct. Yeah. All right. Erica, note the new number 17. All right. I do want to play this. This did open up too like a thing that I know 100%. Yeah. We have now a hundred or a hundred. That would be wild. That's going to happen someday soon. Holy shit. We have 75 games even on here.
00:54:10
Speaker
Nice. Nice. And so we've run out of time. ah Guys, thank you for hanging out with us for this short episode. Short? It's still like an hour long. I know for us it's short. That's so we are insane people.
00:54:27
Speaker
um ah So that, again, um the next couple of weeks are going to be weird. Like I said, next week, full episode. um The following week, we don't know yet. It is and it is it might be nothing, yeah might be a full episode, might be a half. We don't know. But if you're following us on Instagram, we can keep you updated there because we post updates on our Instagram. Yeah. ah Check us out at put us Save Your Game Podcast.
00:54:54
Speaker
on Instagram, ah email us, matinroses, at gmail.com. um So yeah, keep keep an eye out there for updates. So after that week, we're getting towards what, this is um the week of the the week of December 18th, the week before Christmas, um is when we're aiming to have our Christmas special up, but it's gonna be a kind of a big um kind of a big thing, so yeah yeah give us some grace if it's not there.
00:55:23
Speaker
and then we're taking off until maybe what, the second week of January? Yeah, we need a break. Yeah, exactly. I don't want to play games anymore. yeah And I think we're coming back with our Game of 2024 special. I would love to do that. Yeah, I would love to do a wrap up where we talk about games we loved from the year. I think it's a great idea. I will even award Game of the Year.
00:55:47
Speaker
Oh yeah, we should, art okay, so I think we should have our, this is for off the air, but let's do it on air anyway. um I think we should do our own top games, like here's Matt's top 10, here's Rose's top 10, and then we should agree on like ah either a best game of the year or a best top like a top three. Yeah, and then we give them awards. yeah Exactly, we send them an award in the mail made of cardboard.
00:56:16
Speaker
Oh, excuse me, I'm an artist. Oh, sorry, yeah, you're an artist. Cardboard with deeds glued to it. Yes, thank you, thank you.
00:56:25
Speaker
um Okay, we're also part of the Adventure Game Hotspot Network. Go check them out, AdventureGameHotspot.com. And do we have anything else to say? Nah. Okay, fine. podcast guess is art. And artists suffer.