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He's a CAWP (Driver: Nemesis - Part 1)
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Hey we are back with a brand new book. This time it's Driver: Nemesis by Alex Sharp. Who is Alex Sharp? No idea, couldn't find any information on them. How's the book? Well it reads like a book you wouldn't necessarily put your name on. So that tracks.
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Transcript
Introduction and Browser Banter
00:00:00
Speaker
Yeah, Opera opera GX ah is, ah I'm trying to use it, but it's a browser for gamers, which... What?! but you know, which means it's kind of racist. um Well, yeah, yeah. that's that's That's just built into the tin right there. that's You know what you're getting. you yeah you say that see that right on the tin.
00:00:23
Speaker
Yeah, boom. Let's see. ah did did did to de What was I looking at? I was looking at... um I was looking at... What was I looking at?
00:00:44
Speaker
Pass.
00:00:48
Speaker
You know who else is pass?
Hosts Introduction and Book Announcement
00:00:50
Speaker
Who's that? Hey there, everybody. Welcome back to Pixel. My name is Kevin. um With me is Phil on today's show ah We're starting a new book, Driver Nemesis by... Fuck, I didn't write his name down.
00:01:06
Speaker
Alex Stone? and like alex home Alex Stone. Is it Alex Stone? Alex Sharp. Close. Sharp. Alex sheli Sharp. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Alex Sharp.
00:01:18
Speaker
Yeah. um So, yeah. what Welcome to Driver Nemesis, everybody. ah or as I like to call it, Shitty the Departed. Shitty the Departed.
00:01:34
Speaker
It's not a cop. This is our most departed. this Get ready because there's going to be some... If you thought we talked about the departed a lot... This is the one.
00:01:47
Speaker
This is the one right here. We've been waiting five years for this shit, my friend. like I have... ah I have in in my notes, I have fucking co-op ah written out phonetically in a Boston accent in my notes. Beautiful. You know, fucking co-op. I love it.
00:02:09
Speaker
ah No fucking cop. um So yeah, the Driver Nemesis by Alex Sharp. ah it's ah We're reading it, and ah before we we we talk about it, i just want to talk to you about a little website called...
Patreon and Supporter Perks
00:02:25
Speaker
patreon.com slash pixelitpod or you can type in pixelitpod.com and it takes you to the same place. ah We got three tiers for you to give us money. One dollar gets you access to the bloggy blog that Phil writes about the books that he's reading. It also gets you access to the early episode, ah which last few weeks has been the regular episode just because we've been recording.
00:02:51
Speaker
yeah it's it's it's been a It's been a holiday season, folks. It's been a holiday season. Yeah, we just have to accept that. We just have to accept that. $5 gets you access to the bonus episode and $10 gets your name shouted out in the episode.
00:03:07
Speaker
To that end, I want to thank... And our end you are hiding. Jesus loves you. Kyle Seaman. Songu85. Ruthless Miter. Middle Things. Sigma Sal. Sanguine. Flatulence. Check.
00:03:20
Speaker
Beaks. Dumbass. Thick and friendly friend. Thank you so much for being a friend. Pixletpod.com. Patreon.com slash Pixletpod.
00:03:31
Speaker
Do it today.
Mystery of Author Alex Sharp
00:03:35
Speaker
So who the fuck's Alex Sharp? I'll tell you who Alex Sharp is. Nobody. This is actually, pseudonym this is, it has to be, but this might be the first time I can't find shit about the closest thing I can find is that Alexandra, I believe her name is Sharp, who is a writer, but she's like a technical writer and she's way too young to have written this when it came out.
00:04:03
Speaker
ah i have I have found squat on this one. Wow. ah it's it's It's that level. ah There's nothing else written by this person. i I just, yeah, nothing, nothing, not a damn thing. So that's fascinating in and of itself, because I think even with our most obscure shit, like the world of power books and stuff like that. Yeah, we're able to. They're usually like.
00:04:28
Speaker
It's like, oh, it's like a YA author, like right at the beginning of their career or something like that. Absolutely. We can usually we can track some ah somebody down something down. And this is the first time I i really i I really gave it my all. And I was like, oh this is a.
00:04:46
Speaker
Whoever wrote this covered their tracks very well. don't think it's like a Sam Lake situation? Remember, you he wrote he wrote the novel for for Alan Wake. Alan Wake, yeah.
00:04:59
Speaker
John Burroughs or something like that. Right. Because Sam Lake is already a... What's funny, it's like he went two pen names deep because Sam Lake is already a pen name that he uses.
00:05:11
Speaker
I think his last name is actually Jarvie or something like that. it's just It's like the English translation of it is like um so. Well, it was written Yeah, it's it. it does See, this doesn't have the same auteur kind of style writer kind of person, although the person's name is Maurice Suckling, which I love.
00:05:34
Speaker
I love that so very, very much. um That's that's a great name. ah Yeah, no, I haven't been able to find anything. And that is hilarious ah because, again, we've been able to find something on some of the most obscure damn books. ah Whoever wrote this either ah is not proud of it and or ah it just doesn't care about being a writer anymore. There was there is, in fact, another writer like a creative writer under this name that I think is also a woman. ah ah
00:06:08
Speaker
but they appear to be like a fantasy, like romantic style writer or something. So I just can't believe that's the same person.
Driver Game Series Overview
00:06:18
Speaker
Although if, if they were, that would be damn impressive based on ah what we're dealing with here.
00:06:24
Speaker
Right. Alex Sharp. If you're listening, call us, contact us. We want you on the show. We want to know about your mystery. We want to know about your mystery.
00:06:35
Speaker
Um, So, Driver, for those of you who are unfamiliar, it was a, um the first one is like, it was a car game, like pretty strictly a car game. um Was it draw Driver the one where you, I think, had to be in the fucking, ah or is that Stuntman? Oh, no, no, yeah, no, the car park. Yeah.
00:07:01
Speaker
ah park level Where you're trying to, it was like the very, it was the opening of the game and you, and like most people couldn't finish the first like tutorial because it was so hard.
00:07:12
Speaker
Oh no. This book is based on the second driver game called Driver 2, Back on the Streets. um Oh, okay. I like that title. I'll give them that. Yeah. Um...
00:07:25
Speaker
So, yeah, you're ah you're you're still, i mean, it's John Tanner in both
Unfolding of 'Driver Nemesis'
00:07:31
Speaker
games. Driver 2 makes it a little bit more GTA-like, where you could get out of the car and and move around and stuff like that. um And there are four cities in the second Driver game, Chicago, Havana, Las Vegas, and Rio de Janeiro. uh rio de janeiro which i assume is a later level in the in the game uh is it has to figures into the plot of the book um as as there's a character named jericho ah that is big in the book that has to do with like uh his his time in rio in uh
00:08:11
Speaker
ah in driver two but the driver series has been uh going on ah let's see the last one was a free-to-play smartphone game released in 2014 which oh man about that's always a good sign yeah it's funny the uh the um i'm well i'm looking at the metacritic scores here uh through the years and it's like they drop precipitously all the way up to the fifth installation driver san francisco where everything popped back up again and then we got a 3ds uh driver game uh that that is possibly one of the lowest i think it is the lowest scored on here yeah except for one of them so
00:08:56
Speaker
ah You don't see that very frequently. That's pretty cool. ah Yeah. just Just the bouncy bounce of quality here is hilarious. ah Yeah. ah Absurd. There is a Driver 76, which is, you know, it just reminds me, there was a game called Interstate 76, which was just dripping with cool. I remember it was in um from the Interstate 76.
00:09:21
Speaker
Interstate 76. 76. Oh, wow. Yeah. Look at that 1997. Dripping with cool.
00:09:31
Speaker
dripping with cool um absolutely blocky as hell. Look at those polygons. Look at those polygons. All the all the polygons are... mean It's like ah they use the polygons. That's like a real artistic use of polygons. Yeah, they they use the polygons, I think, in the right way. like they They're like, just lean into it. Just lean into it yeah and and have fun with it and and don't try to pass yourself off as, you know...
00:10:04
Speaker
High quality, high fidelity shit. Just lean into it. Have Lean into it. Lean into it. Yeah, they did that. You know what, though? Let's ah lean into putting the body in the marsh.
00:10:17
Speaker
Ooh, let's do it. Let's do it. When I tell you to dump a body in the marsh, you them the marsh. In the mind. So chapter one, we get, before chapter one, we get a big old block letters that, this is pre-Hurricane Katrina.
00:10:35
Speaker
ah Jesus Christ. By the way. what a What a hell of a way to start. Like literally the first like four words are New Orleans pre-Katrina. Like that's yeah it's like guys.
00:10:50
Speaker
Does Katrina figure into the plot at all? No. They just want to establish that
Undercover Mission Details
00:10:55
Speaker
it's the old New Orleans story. Not what was left of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. And let's say New Orleans has bounced back reasonably well with for a you know Category 5. Category 5 did levels your city. You you know, that's... You might be out of the city.
00:11:15
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. but That's out. We open with a lot of descriptions of the French Quarter, the party goers, the drinkers, and the humidity before we are introduced to John Tanner, who is currently at the wrong end of a Saturday night special.
00:11:30
Speaker
um The kid holding up John is named Quentin, a skinny, ginger, raggedy-ass exclamation mark of a man. which is i like this This is the best description in the whole book as far as I'm concerned. A raggedy ass exclamation mark of a man. i might have to i might have to borrow that one oh at some point. Because I know what Quentin looks like.
00:11:54
Speaker
Yes. Yes. You know exactly who they're talking about. it's it's it it doesn't It doesn't necessarily get a hell of a lot better from here. ah yeah But they started strong as far as ah descriptions are concerned, I think. He seems very flustered as opposed to Tanner, who is basically the Marlboro man in terms of coolness and looks.
00:12:15
Speaker
ah He's been driving for the crew. ah Quentin is part of for a few months and apparently asked too many questions. and It's got Quentin all riled up. By the way.
00:12:26
Speaker
This characterization of Quentin getting riled up about somebody asking too many questions does not make any fucking sense as the book goes on longer because Quentin is the most scaredy cat character of the crew. Yes. This is a terrible introduction to Quentin. Yeah.
00:12:46
Speaker
to To get to know him. Yeah. um Bowman, a Creole man who's the head of this crew, doesn't seem all that worried about the situation. Tanner just wants to meet the Indian in charge of the overall operation.
00:13:01
Speaker
Yes, the villain's name is the Indian. Yeah. How are we using Indian ah tbd Yeah, we don' we don't know if it's Cahokia or Calcutta. It hasn't and it hasn't been ah established. No one's telling us.
00:13:16
Speaker
No one's telling us. Derogatory. Not sure yet. um but that' that's that's what That's this book, baby. that's what that's much They desperately want to be Grand Theft Auto here. like they're they They're trying so hard to be Grand Theft Auto. And, yeah oh, it doesn't work.
00:13:34
Speaker
It doesn't work. Grand Theft Auto barely works. Barely works. um Tanner disarms Quentin rather easily and beats the shit out of him. Bowman laughs about it and tells Tanner that no one meets the Indian unless he asks you first. Tanner takes out his frustrations on Quentin, who is on the ground now.
00:13:54
Speaker
We're we're chapter two flashback to three months earlier. We find out that John Tanner is a fucking cop. In the San Francisco Police Department, Tanner is talking to New Orleans Police Superintendent Powell about the Indian, a crime lord in New Orleans that is basically a ghost.
00:14:12
Speaker
He kills people in vicious ways like feeding them to dogs, drugging them out of their minds and doing clockwork orange style tricks to them and then burning them alive with an air tube so they're stuck down there for days.
00:14:24
Speaker
ah We also meet Deputy Chief Cochran, the man who's been running the investigation into the Indian. He's annoyed Tanner is there because he believes that he's very close to catching him. He just needs 48 more hours. um Even though four expensive covert ops have failed to pay off.
00:14:42
Speaker
Tanner is there from San Francisco because he's known to be a good undercover operative. He's a great driver and thinks like a villain. So he'll be on loan from the San Francisco Police Department for this mission.
00:14:55
Speaker
Tanner says he's got to be able to run the operation his way. He'll need officer Tobias Jones as his man on the outside and the leeway to possibly commit multiple crimes.
00:15:05
Speaker
Yeah. What is it? They say they're like, you're like, all right, you're cleared for felonies, but don't go crazy with it. Yeah. look what there's what's above a felony i mean sedition what's right what are we right if i hear about any goddamn treason it's gonna ah yeah i'm gonna be i'm gonna snap i'm just gonna be so bad pal agrees yeah pal cochran's dismay and cochran says he's gonna be watching him like a hawk uh
00:15:39
Speaker
Chapter three, ah Bowman, Tanner and Quentin are waiting in a lockup for something to happen. ah So a lockup. aren't We all. Yeah.
00:15:49
Speaker
So a lockup is from what they've described. It's it's like a it's like a shed ish type. It's like a garage off of an alleyway in in this context. Yeah.
00:16:04
Speaker
Bowman is constantly checking his timepiece half an hour earlier. Tanner radioed to buy. Can we just stop with the fucking backtracking? Jesus fucking Christ. christ it's It's constant. It it doesn't stop. ah It's it's way overdone and it's not done well. ah Yeah, you know, I honestly lost track of where we were on the timeline several times as was reading this thing.
00:16:29
Speaker
Half an hour earlier, Tanner radio radioed Tobias that the heist was on. We get a description of how hot Tobias is and how well dressed he is and how nice his apartment is. Tobias ah often goes on long rants about things. And today he was talking about how the Indian about the Indians plan to hit an armored truck that's carrying all the money the cops had recently taken from the crime scenes.
00:16:52
Speaker
The job they're supposed to be doing is. ah ah OK, the job ah job they're supposed to be doing ah has is ah already been briefed through Cochran, the deputy chief. He knows he and the cops are just supposed to let it happen.
00:17:07
Speaker
Suddenly it's showtime and they got to move. Quentin tries to convince Tanner that they'll take his new BMW M3. But Tanner says, no way. We take my car, which is 1970 Dodge Challenger RT with a low slung yellow chassis.
00:17:24
Speaker
but and there's ah This is just the beginning of a lot of car porn. Car porn all over the place. Which which is understandable. That's what we've gotten into. there's I'm not complaining, ah but but but you weren't. We're going to be running into a lot of car porn here. And honestly, not a car guy, but all of anytime they talk about cars from the 70s, all I think about is the end of My Cousin Vinny. with Marissa Tomei talking about the car that they mistook the car for in the getaway.
00:17:57
Speaker
um Anyway, it's ah it's a good movie. Everybody should watch it. movie in a thousand years. I really need to watch it again. You should fire it up. ah Not tonight, because it'll be late after
Car Features in the Narrative
00:18:08
Speaker
we're we're done. But... but like tomorrow, you know, just give give me give me a watch my cousin Vinny and tell me it's not the, one of the best courtroom movies ever written.
00:18:19
Speaker
Um, spoiler it is, uh, because they use it to teach. They actually use it to teach, uh, law students, uh, in law school. Um, it is very accurate. Apparently very accurate. Dead on balls. Accurate.
00:18:34
Speaker
Um, as Marissa says in the movie, um, Let's see. Quentin calls the car a piece of shit until Tanner turns on the engine and it roars. And Quentin's like, never mind. That car is sexy as fuck.
00:18:48
Speaker
ah He knows what he wants. And it's to fuck a car. He wants to fuck. a That's right. As they ride, Quentin gets more annoying. and And because Tanner is playing Motown music and Quentin's like, turn that shit off. Don't you have any kid rock? Oh, my God.
00:19:05
Speaker
Tanner's like, it's my car, buddy. You better get out or get in and shape up or ship out. Tanner finds out the other driver on the job is someone named Jericho, who he's had a run in with before. His cover would still be intact as a criminal, but Jericho might be harboring some ill will towards him.
00:19:25
Speaker
Jericho's car pulls up next to him and he basically stares daggers at Tanner saying, I see you. And they're about to have a cockfight before Bowman interrupts and is like, things are going to plan.
00:19:36
Speaker
And Tanner asks Quentin how long it'll take him to empty the van when they get going. um I'm saying reading this very like sarcastically, but this is like just the vibe I get from the book.
00:19:50
Speaker
It's fascinating, though, because you're right. It is very much of its time. It's that kind of early, mid-aughts kind of thing, or late aughts kind of thing.
00:20:01
Speaker
But at the same time, they're very hung up on like Steve McQueen and Bullet and like that retro kind of thing. Yeah. like Like you said, he he kind of chastises him. The schmuck is is a Kid Rock fan, not our hero. Right.
00:20:18
Speaker
But it still feels like this movie should be ah scored by Kid Rock. you know Right. it's It's weird. It's it's a weird vibe. Yeah. Chapter four, the job starts out smoothly with them stopping the van and taking down the drivers. Quentin picks the locks and gets the money, but then helicopters arrive and tell them to throw down their guns.
00:20:40
Speaker
Cop cars also show up and Tanner curses Cochran for not being able to let his pettiness go. Tanner saves Jericho from a cop ah that decides to try to kill him by ramming him into the van door. Jericho gives him the thank you head nod and then hops into the armored truck and hits the engine.
00:20:57
Speaker
um Everyone is on the run and the cops give chase. We get a copter. We got copters. Yes. Yes. Our first non Resident Evil copter. I was excited. i was I was excited for it. Yeah. Yeah. We got a lot of driving action that I'm not going to describe. ah he uses a ramp at one point to jump onto the highway to get past the cop blockade. And Quentin nearly loses his shit.
00:21:22
Speaker
After the chase, Tanner goes down the down to the docks to relax and he gets jumped by Jericho. He thinks Jericho is going to kill him. And then he shakes his hand. What?
00:21:38
Speaker
Pure badassery. Yeah. Yeah. It's beautiful. beautiful. Chapter five. Tanner and Tobias are hanging out at the zoo, catching up the head inside of the reptile enclosure so that they can get away from prying eyes. Tobias tells Tanner that Cochran's excuse for fucking up the job was that he had intel that the Indian was with him that night and that he couldn't get Tobias or Tanner on their cell phones.
00:22:03
Speaker
That sounds like bullshit. Tobias then realizes that Tanner enjoyed himself and they get into a slight argument over Tanner being a little too reckless with his adrenaline junky ways. And then Tanner basically says, you got to let me unwind my way because it's my neck on the line. And Tobias is sorry. And be like, no, Tobias shouldn't back down. Like Tanner is an impulsive, like this is an era where like, oh yeah, he's a bad dude, but right he's a bad dude for a reason.
00:22:33
Speaker
Right. He's a bad dude for a cause. The rock walking red flag for a cause. It's that's that's all it is. This is just one red flag after the other. And they're usually our protagonist. That's what they're usually. Yeah.
00:22:47
Speaker
Um, They get back to business and Tanner says the whole thing with Jericho might give them an angle to getting to the Indian. And he and Jericho will be partners in their missions from now on.
00:22:57
Speaker
Just then Jericho calls and wants to meet in a half hour. So I haven't read ahead from like, we're going to wrap up by like chapter 10 tonight. I haven't read ahead. ah Rereading those notes. There's no way that Jericho isn't the Indian, right? Right. No way. No way. theyre they the only way the ah ah The only thing that they could do that would actually impress me is make Quentin the Indian. yeah and And they're not going to do that. They're not going to that. So yeah, so it's got to be yeah Jericho. No question.
00:23:29
Speaker
ah Chris Jericho, WWF star Chris Jericho. That's what I was thinking of the whole time. I can't see that name. but Just imagine Chris Jericho.
00:23:42
Speaker
I can't not see it. I'm literally reading a long blonde hair. can't. I can't not do that. I'm reading a book right now where one of the characters name is Carol and she's like mid forties, know, she's my age. Uh, uh, and, uh, I can't not think of Carol Burnett whenever she's doing anything, but I'm picturing in my head, it's Carol Burnett.
00:24:04
Speaker
Uh, and that's not, that's, I know that's not right, but I can't stop. Yeah. Now Chris Jericho could have played this, this Jericho. Uh, I think. yeah Yeah. Um, yeah, that's a little more appropriate. yeah You know what? It's a lot more appropriate. Let's just, era it would have been era appropriate too. Is this, is the or ah late twenty ten s or early yeah.
00:24:27
Speaker
late twenty buttts yeah so yeah yeah um Yeah. So ah chapter six, ah Tanner meets Jericho by the abandoned industrial area by the docks, which, you know, they're always you're every city is going to have one.
00:24:43
Speaker
Just big old area that nothing is happening in. And Jericho tells him to get in the car. This is where ah we step out of the departed and we go into training day.
00:24:54
Speaker
ah Very much so. Yeah. yeah This makes Tanner anxious, but after some mild protest, he gets in. Jericho tells Tanner that the money had all been marked and had to be disposed of. So the thinking is that someone tipped off the cops. um Tanner finds a reason that it was probably the cop who sold them the info that tipped them off on the raid. And Jericho seemingly buys in and says that the Indian will do whatever he wants anyway if he wants to have an inquisition.
00:25:24
Speaker
They drive through central New Orleans and we get some descriptions of the poor living conditions that borders on racist. Oh, very much so. Calls it a feral, lawless place. And I was like, buddy. Ugh.
00:25:38
Speaker
Alex. Mr. Sharp. Yeah. What are you doing here? Yeah. it It starts out, we're we're in New Orleans, so of course we start we we we got some, oh, you go go get some gator. You get that, and that's fine to a certain extent.
00:25:55
Speaker
ah But, oh boy. Yeah. It yeah it it gets hard real fast. Yeah. They are there to pick up money from the drug dealers and Jericho wants to also spend the time, quote unquote, talking as the afternoon wanes on. Jericho digs into Tanner about his past to somehow explain his actions in Rio.
00:26:16
Speaker
Tanner tells him about his past, which is pretty much his real life. But instead of becoming a criminal, he became a fucking cop. Yeah. um really eric like tells him a little about his childhood. And then he says, all is forgiven about Rio. The past is in the past.
00:26:32
Speaker
They continue. God. Thank God. Oh, something almost happened. Something almost happened. The will they won't they on this Rio stuff was getting really tense. Yeah. And they won't. So, and they won't moving on.
00:26:45
Speaker
ah By the way, this book is long as balls. It's way too long, way too long. It had no reason. had no reason. It's like 410 pages or something like that. There's no justification for a 400-page driver book. We're not doing four episodes on it, though. No. No. We're wrapping this up in the usual time, gang. That's all there is to it.
00:27:10
Speaker
um They continue picking up money and Tanner notices Jericho seems to randomly pull out a different style with each drug dealer to keep them guessing. ah Jericho mentions that fame and notoriety are just drugs for weak minds and to not look at the figureheads, but to look at the shadows.
00:27:28
Speaker
He mentions that as something that the Indian figured out. And then Tanner asks him about the Indian, what he's really like, and Jericho responds that he's private. Ooh, more Frankie foreshadowing on Jericho being the Indian. Interesting. If he's not the Indian, I would actually like it more if he wasn't the Indian. would...
00:27:50
Speaker
i i would i would I would like it more, but I'd also be like, come on, guys. Who who are you kidding? Who are you kidding? That's nuts. ah The next person they need to pick up cash from is a dealer named Tycho from the Penny Arcade comic comic series, in case wondering. Yeah. um Who has been skimming from the top and the Indian wants the money back. Tanner's annoyed because it could get Harry, ah but Jericho says it's part of his interview.
00:28:19
Speaker
Tanner nearly gets his head caved in by Tycho with a baseball bat when they enter. And then Tycho runs off. they immediately They begin methodically searching for him. They find him and Tanner has to beat him to ah beat him up a bit to make him talk. And then the book talks about how Tanner knows how to hit someone to put on a good show without doing any real damage.
00:28:38
Speaker
I don't know if that's a thing ah unless you're a professional wrestler.
Tanner's Strategy Against Violence
00:28:43
Speaker
like Yeah. that's More professional wrestler posting by me, but that only works when the other person's playing along. like You know what I mean? When the kayfabe is intact. There's no kayfabe here.
00:28:58
Speaker
i don't know how he's hitting him and not doing real damage. Right. It's, ah yeah, especially if the if if the person in question isn't supposed is supposed be in pain. Yeah.
00:29:09
Speaker
ah be in pain like yeah it's I don't know. I'm sure maybe I'm sure there are places that you could hurt somebody that won't kill him, but it hurts a lot.
00:29:22
Speaker
ah Yeah, it's just a weird way to put it. It was a weird way to put it. Jericho is about to shoot Tycho when Tanner has a, quote, better idea. ah And the better idea is to lash him to the hood of the car and begin driving him around the neighborhood.
00:29:38
Speaker
Tycho breaks and finally says he'll show them where the money is. Yeah, they blood bagged the fuck out of this kid. Yeah. They get the money bag and Jericho looms larger over Tycho and Tycho blames Jericho for his drug use. Tanner expects that Jericho is going to kill Tycho and Tanner will have to shoot Jericho, blowing the mission. Instead, Jericho lets Tycho go and tells him to never tell anyone about today.
00:30:01
Speaker
Jericho then says to Tanner, violence is a cudgel and mercy is a scalpel. ah Yeah. Yeah. I am 12 and this is deep. Yeah.
00:30:11
Speaker
This, this, this blew somebody's mind. Like some kid read somes mind Blew his mind apart. And I say his, and I'm not taking that back. Blew his mind. That's all there is to it. We all know.
Rarity of 'Driver Nemesis'
00:30:25
Speaker
Hey, did you know that this book is completely out of print?
00:30:30
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. I, I, yeah. And I'm shocked. Yeah. I'm shocked. I didn't. i didn't I thought people were better than that. I would imagine it would have been an on the seventh printing by now. but Yeah, but nothing doing.
00:30:45
Speaker
yeah ah Jericho drops Tanner off back at his car and then tells him that the Indian, ah there's Jonesy, ah wants them to try out new drivers tomorrow. You saw him before I did.
00:30:58
Speaker
I saw him crossing by. Yeah. He is, he's a murderer. This guy has turned into a straight up. He's still my sweet boy, ah but he is a straight up murderer. So I live in the house of the murderer.
00:31:11
Speaker
Yeah, probably need to put a bell on him or something just so he stops killing so many birds. He has chewed off every single collar we've ever put on. Wow. He knows who what he's about. you know i know what I'm about, son. I need my stealth. he's never He's never not known that he was a level 20 rogue. That's what he is.
00:31:38
Speaker
that's what he is Oh, God. Chapter seven. The audition for the new drivers is all ready to go when Tanner notices one of them, the only woman being catcalled by the others. He recognizes her as Julia Navarro, who he knew when she was 10 years old.
00:31:55
Speaker
She was the sister of his friend Jason. He pulls her aside to talk her out of the audition. Um... This is also weird because he refers to her immediately as Julia Navarro, even though he wouldn't know that her name is Julia Navarro now.
00:32:09
Speaker
ah Oh, yeah. It's a mess because she went by Julia Jaybird when she was younger. ah I'll take stupid names for 500, Alex. Yeah.
00:32:21
Speaker
She refuses to back. You could tell that this is a British author, by the way, because oh yeah it's T-Y-R-E-S on every. They got rid of the U's. They thought they could they they could cover it up by getting rid of the extraneous U's, but tires with a y buddy.
00:32:39
Speaker
We know what you're doing, you wacky brits. You know what you did. She refuses to back out and gives him the old, how dare you? He realizes she's an adult now with her own life and baggage behind her and leaves her be.
00:32:53
Speaker
He goes back to Jericho and it's starting to rain. He tells them that maybe we should push it back a day because the rain. And Jericho says they'll have to drive in worse conditions working for the Indian. Um...
00:33:04
Speaker
Chapter eight, we get flashback to 15 years earlier. Jason was voicing similar concerns to Tanner about the rain as they got ready for the biggest race of their lives. ah Jason, also known as Slater, ah mentions that he pink slipped his car in order to pay for the race. Julia J. Byrd, present day Navarro, starts talking shit about her half brother to Tanner. Jason tells her to go home or else dad would kill them both.
00:33:29
Speaker
At that time, Julia was the brainy one and wanted to be a science teacher. A man in red leather starts getting the crowd high hyped up. He's just identified as a man a man in red leather. all were all letter All words capitalized. Yeah, man and then man in red leather. That's his code name. Yeah, that's his proper name is a man in red leather. It's his God-given Christian name, a man in red leather.
00:33:54
Speaker
ah oh of the Covington red leathers. um Of course, yes. Very old family, old world. Prestigious. ah Came over on the Mayflower.
00:34:05
Speaker
um okay Someone ah more like the gay flower. Oh. oh
00:34:13
Speaker
Oh, you're fun. And I'm fine. um He waves of someone hands him a flag and he begins to twirl about with it. And then he announced he announces that the cops are all tied up with a warehouse flag fire on the other side of town.
00:34:27
Speaker
We're in San Francisco. There there's nothing that would cause all the cops to be tied up. No, especially because it's a fire. Yeah, it's a fire. I'm not saying that no cops are going to be there. I'm saying that that's not their priority.
00:34:44
Speaker
So there's a whole fire and government organization i tasked with this. Oh, here's the flag and the race begins. We cut back to present day. Navarro is winning the race at the moment, but Tanner feels uneasy for her. Jericho asks how he knew her and he mentions that she was the sister of his friend growing up.
00:35:04
Speaker
After a ah after two cars begin to harass Julia and try to drive her off the road, Tanner objects, but Jericho shrugs it off. We cut back to 15 years earlier as the race in the past continues. The race is cutting through various sections of San Francisco and try to keep as many stretches from the movie Bullet in there. But as is explained in the book, the bullet car chase was little loosey goosey with the geography of San Francisco.
00:35:29
Speaker
Taylor gets ahead of Slater and he thinks he's going to win when at the latest last minute Slater undercuts a turn. And we got back to the present and Julia then counter punches her harassers and and she clips one of them, forcing them off the dock and into the river. But Julia's car begins to spin. She's then clipped by a Chevy, which stops her spin. But her car is dead, is dead for the moment.
00:35:51
Speaker
Several cars pass and then she fires the engine back up and runs it, just decides to run the race again by herself. yeah Back in the past, Slater loses control of the car and ends up flipping it end over end down a hill and crashing into a panel van. Tanner decides to continue racing rather than risk arrest.
00:36:09
Speaker
Slater ended up living, but he lost his leg and was served served jail time for reckless endangerment. He also cut ties with everyone and refused to see Tanner or Julia or his family. ah Tanner decided then to turn his life around and become a fucking cop.
00:36:25
Speaker
And their lives continued on diverging paths with Slater's getting worse and more violent and Tanner's becoming better, but also violent because he's a cop and he is, ah ah commits violence in the interest of capital, but it's better, ah you know.
John Tanner’s Backstory
00:36:43
Speaker
Yeah, it's fine. It's fine. Yeah, I just I wish someone had told them, was like, look, I understand if you want to back up out of this life, but that doesn't mean you have to become a cop. Yeah. ah It's like when i i was at I was an atheist in my 20s and I'm a white male, so I was an insufferable prick for a little while. And then when I realized that was kind of, you know, a shitty way to live my life, I backed off, but I didn't become a priest. Yeah.
00:37:08
Speaker
you know I didn't join the Catholic church. Like it wasn't necessary to go that far. I just said, let's, let's tone it down a little bit. You have deserve and ah diverge in the wood. One is the priesthood. The other is Ricky Gervais.
00:37:25
Speaker
That's, that's a tough one. Are you offended? That's genuinely a tough one. That's tough.
00:37:36
Speaker
Priesthood or Ricky Gervais? Either way, there's going to be a lot of dick.
00:37:45
Speaker
Yeah, I'm going with that. I'm going with that just imagining now. The scene for ah ah from No Country for Old Men, but and Anton Chigurh is flipping the coin.
00:37:57
Speaker
Oh, yeah. But instead of getting the cattle thing in your head, it's like you have to either become a priest or become Ricky Gervais based on the coin flip. Just do the cow killer thing on me. Just do the cow killer thing. Just kill me. I don't want to. No, I don't. This isn't fair.
00:38:14
Speaker
No, that's yours. you're That's your lucky quarter' your lucky quarter. I don't think so. Call it friend. Oh, God, that's a, I gotta, I gotta rewatch that movie or just do what I normally do and re just rewatch all the Anton Chigurh scenes. Uh, love that movie so freaking much. I love it so much. The book's really, really good too. Yeah. Um, I, you know what? It's, I, I haven't read it. It's, it's one of the Cormac's that I have not read.
00:38:43
Speaker
um they they they they I mean, you know it because they followed it really very closely. ah But he's just such a great goddamn writer. You yeah can't ah enjoy that. was he a Was he a piece of shit as most ah a great American novel authors?
00:39:03
Speaker
Yes. yeah But yeah hey, I ah ah still will read a Cormac McCarthy book. Yeah, that's yeah. Plus he's dead now. It's like I don't I don't feel bad for buying his stuff. He's very dead. Yeah, yeah, exactly.
00:39:18
Speaker
Chapter nine, ah Jericho Bowman and Tanner are discussing who should get the job. Jericho thinks Julia was clearly the best, even though she didn't win the race. Bowman thinks she's too much of a hothead. So it's Tanner's decision.
00:39:31
Speaker
Tanner is having trouble deciding what to do because of issues with entrapment. Ultimately, he welcomes Julia to the team and gives her the rundown of where to meet tomorrow night and what to expect. She asks him for a handshake and he says, not tonight.
00:39:45
Speaker
I don't understand. I'm not sure why. um i Yeah, I don't know what's happening there. but It's like, she asked you for a handshake, not for like a blow job or something like that. Like, I don't, I truly didn't know what the motivation was. that It just, it just, I think it was just a matter of like this, it's the rule of cool. This sounds pretty cool. This sounds pretty cool. Yeah. Yeah.
00:40:11
Speaker
Tanner heads back to his apartment to get drunk and think about Julia being involved. And then while he's inebriated an inebriated state, he realized that maybe she can be a witness that he flips for the case. um He's like, so I did a good thing. um So how do they put it to they're like, he sleeps the sleep of the just or something. Yes, he sleeps the sleep of the just. So fucking stupid.
00:40:34
Speaker
but but but The next night before meeting the team, Tanner takes a walk to clear his head and think about some exposition. I can't believe I wrote that in my notes. It takes a walk to think some exposition. Yep. I feel like the ah the readers are going to need something. Let me take a long walk. I got to get a little speed.
00:40:55
Speaker
Yeah. The Indians rank and file have seemingly been chirping more since the van heist went south. So to counter that, they're going to hit ah La Lame Rouge or the Red Blade Gang, read by Jean-Baptiste Lavanche.
00:41:12
Speaker
Here we go. This guy, this fucking guy. Yeah. His thinking is interrupted by Tobias asking if he's ever going to explain letting Julia on the team. Tanner responds by hitting the wire and causing feedback in Tobias's ear.
00:41:26
Speaker
Um... He's so cool. So cool. Tanner goes to the lockup where everyone is waiting for the last of the tough guys to arrive. ah Because it's like each driver is being paired with a tough. um They are shooting the shit, getting their guns in order. John starts to relax a little when suddenly Sean Shields, a henchman from San Francisco's san francisco's Tenderloin District shows up and stares at John Tanner, the man who put him behind bars five years ago.
00:41:55
Speaker
Dun, dun, dun! Chapter 10, we get some backstory about Sean Shields. Real piece of shit. ah Sean had managed to get away with a bunch of things because his defense defense defense was ah able to make ah a fruit of the poisonous tree ah defense with the evidence, and it's what caused Tanner to go into undercover work. This is... i Okay, so like...
00:42:17
Speaker
I hate the book's perspective on this, right? Because it's like, oh, he got off on a technicality. It'd be like, well, no. And they didn't they don't use fruit of the poisonous tree, but that's what that's the defense, or that's what the they asserted in his defense. And fruit of the poisonous tree is also...
00:42:38
Speaker
um part of why Luigi Mangione might actually get off is, yeah um, so basically a fruit, fruit of the poisonous tree is, um, and I might not explain it exactly correctly is like, if something in the chain ah of like the arrest or getting evidence was done incorrectly, then everything that happened beyond that point is poisoned.
00:43:04
Speaker
yeah Right. So if they say got, if they took his backpack and searched it and there's no chain of custody, right, there's no, and then they'll return it and suddenly they found the gun or whatever, but there's no evidence as to when, what the chain of custody was. Well, it becomes inadmissible and everything beyond that point. Like the prosecution can't even say he had a gun because, know,
00:43:31
Speaker
they can't admit that evidence into the court record because it's the fruit of the poisonous tree. Because they did shitty police work. It's not a fucking technicality. It's Tanner being a shitty detective and bad at his job. It's meant to protect people from corrupt cops and bullshit like that. It's meant to protect people from corrupt cops. So fuck John Tanner and fuck this book for making seem like...
00:43:59
Speaker
Yeah. Okay. Sean Shields, if we're just obviously the assertions, we'll just take the assertions in the book or fact that he would like pepper spray people to steal their bags. We're real piece of shit. But I would rather like, you know, this I would, I would rather he walk free, ah because the cops didn't do their job. Then the cops being able to be corrupt whenever they want, because, and they're already able to be corrupt whenever they want. Um,
00:44:27
Speaker
It's already, yeah, it's already way weighted in their favor. So don't give them any goddamn leverage. Don't, don't give it. So in present day, Sean, uh, anyway, this is what caused Tanner to go into undercover work. Uh, in present day, Sean recognizes him and Tanner decides to punch him in the face first and calls him a snitch.
00:44:49
Speaker
They rumble and tumble. And then Sean starts saying that he's a cop, which Jericho doesn't buy it, uh, and shoot Sean in the stomach. Jericho is about to shoot him in the head when Tanner plays up a big moment of laughter and says, just leave him. A gut shot will be more torturous.
00:45:04
Speaker
And he like goes into all the details about the like the hydrochloric acid eating away his insides as it leaks from his stomach and all that stuff. um Jericho maybe buys it and they head out to meet their kitten, a.k.a. a ah Julia. Yeah.
00:45:21
Speaker
Quentin is riding with Tanner and he seems rattled since it was his gun that Jericho used ah to shoot Sean. ah Quentin wants to quit and Tanner says he's got to suck it up for tonight and then he can try to leave town after and he'll cover for him.
00:45:33
Speaker
They meet up with Julia and Jericho gives her a gun and they get on their way.
Phil’s Critique of 'Driver Nemesis'
00:45:38
Speaker
And that's where we're leaving it for tonight. Phil... I know you've been holding back ah your thoughts because you wanted to really take the right the right amount of time and they'll find the right words to praise this work of art.
00:45:53
Speaker
um Yes. What do you think so far? This sucks. ah This is, well, I, if I'm being completely honest, it's not completely incompetent.
00:46:07
Speaker
ah It's, it's, it, it does its action scenes well enough. It's got ah the approach. It's written for the right audience. ah It's just so much of its time And just which means it's just up its own ass with the the macho swagger bullshit completely unironically that it's just it's kind of a ah tough read. And again, as we've already said, it in no way justifies the time that it's spending.
00:46:42
Speaker
ah it is It is way too drawn out. We've got way too many backstory moments, and those aren't done well. Those, I will say, are not done well. ah We get a lot of flashbacks on flashbacks on flashbacks, and they're not gracefully put together. Not so much as a goddamn asterisk between ah the the flashback moments to like keep you on the straight and narrow of where where you are. No scene change punctuation.
00:47:11
Speaker
No, nothing, not not nothing. So um it's, it is, it is not, it's, it's solidly C minus work. Not your best work. now Please see me after class.
00:47:25
Speaker
Exactly. What about you? What are you, what are you thinking? Yeah. Some of the driving scenes are like, eh, it's all right. um But I'm like the characters are like, oh my God, it would be so fun if Tanner got killed. I know he's not going to.
00:47:39
Speaker
Right. Yeah. I know he's not going to, um but um yeah, it not I'm just, bleh.
00:47:50
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah, we're a hundred so and what I just summarized tonight is approximately 130 pages of story. it It's, it's luxuriating, luxuriating in, in like in a massive tub of, of, of story water.
00:48:11
Speaker
It's, it's story bath water and it's selling it to gamers. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. it's It's bad. it's It's just... It's bad. It's very much of its time. Yeah.
00:48:26
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. So, anyway, don't want to sit too much with that.
Kevin’s Video Game Demos
00:48:33
Speaker
Hold on. the I took a bite of this spicy snack wrap and...
00:48:43
Speaker
What are you playing? There we go. I got it out. um As per usual, I've got some demos. nothing Nothing major. I'll go through the demos pretty quick. ah I play the demo for Marvel Cosmic Invasion.
00:49:00
Speaker
um which is probably the strongest one i played this week. um It's basically, you know, you remember the the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles sure rehash beat them up that they did recently. It's that ah for Marvel characters. It's ah it's this it like, think of the old Marvel ah arcade game and combine that with some of the sensibilities of like the Marvel Street Fighter games and stuff like that. um it' It is a very...
00:49:30
Speaker
engaging, fun, colorful beat-em-up. and And it's got a ah bunch of characters. And in the demo, you can play Venom and Wolverine. And Wolverine is in his brown and yellow costume, which I fucking love. Yeah. always liked the bret brown and yellow.
00:49:44
Speaker
Well, that was what he was wearing when I came to the game, to the comic book series. always thought that was his original. it's also what he was wearing in the arcade game, right? In the X-Men arcade game. Yes. Yes, exactly. And it's fun. There's not a hell of a lot to say about it. It's what these games are. It's how they took the standard button mashy beat them up and they've added in moves that you can do and, know, achievements and unlockables and stuff like that just to make it more modern and engaging in that way.
00:50:23
Speaker
Pretty cool. ah Honestly, definitely. I mean, absolutely worth playing the demo at very least. yeah and And if this is your particular brand of beat-em-up poison, ah you know, it's not an expensive game. If I'm remembering correctly, it's like 20 bucks or something. What is it It's 27 bucks. Everything good is is between 20 and 30 bucks. I think that's the sweet spot.
00:50:48
Speaker
and um Anything past 30 bucks and I start questioning things. um I also got to play She-Hulk in it, and and she is she is is is mommy. mommy. So check that out if you get a chance.
00:51:04
Speaker
Jesus. um Yeah, they're like, I don't remember how many, but there are a bunch of characters you can play. ah They really leaned hard into just the fun, goofy, cartoony aspect of it, which in this age of comic book adaptations taking themselves way too goddamn seriously is very, very welcome.
00:51:26
Speaker
yeah um So that's a lot of fun. So I just looked it up. the ah The inflation on the Monkey Island quote, never pay more than 20 bucks for a computer game, is currently sitting at never pay more than 48 bucks and 66 cents for a computer game.
00:51:43
Speaker
I'm good with that. ah yeah that That feels right. That feels right in my head. Yeah, I like that. I like that. can hang with that. Yeah, that that makes sense. I can get behind that.
00:51:55
Speaker
um Yeah. Okay. So right now there are like nine characters you can play, but there's just so, there's there's they've left a lot of room to upgrade this. There's meat on the bone still.
00:52:08
Speaker
lot of DLC to be had. And any one of them that starts with a Venom as one of your core characters is is okay in my books. Venom. but is ah So is Annihilus the main villain?
00:52:19
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Okay. ah that's That's your main thing. And he's it's super robot bugs. Oh, it's got beta repeal. Yeah. Yeah. Bittery Bill. ah You got all it's it's it's they're just having fun with it. It's really great. And it's the really good cartoony cell shady. Yeah. ah Kind of vibe. Oh, it's got the sentinels that I it's it really does have the sentinels that I wish that they we had in.
00:52:49
Speaker
um oh days oh what is it and like the actual movies instead of trying to make the sentinels really cool like just make them fucking purple purple purple and red come on uh that's all we need uh is that phyla vel um yes okay that was i love l dude deep pull i was like she's like she looks like captain marvel but with a sword That's an interesting choice. That's definitely their deep cut for the opening lineup here. found that really interesting. She's deep cut. She is
00:53:25
Speaker
like she is a like cosmic mark, like, because, like, if you're talking about cosmic characters, right, ah you know, you have your... Those in and of themselves. They're the deeper cuts in and of themselves. And, they're like, I mean, the Guardians of the Galaxy, ah people know them now, but, yeah like, um they know the the lineup that James Gunn put out there. They don't know necessarily Phylavel or ah some of the other characters that are, like...
00:53:54
Speaker
ah normally in it. So it's got Nova. um Yeah. Captain America, Nova, Storm, Venom, Wolverine, Philovel, Spider-Man, Rocket Raccoon, and She-Hulk.
00:54:09
Speaker
That's a good line. I got to tell you. that's ah It covers a lot of ground. it it's ah Yeah. i think we got You got your X-Men in there. You got your your Avengers. You got some Galactic shit. like it's It's a good thing. I think there's something for everybody. Everyone's going to walk away happy.
00:54:27
Speaker
And some of the screenshots show definitely show either Jean Grey or Rachel Summers. um So i don't know if she's in it yet, but ah yeah, version or if she's just like someone coming. These are the kinds of games that I like.
00:54:45
Speaker
I'm. pumped to see games like this for the DLC. like yeah this is This is a game that has built-in DLC, and and i'm kind of and I'm fine with that with these kind of games, because you know what you're you're after, and they're being fair. They didn't put Wolverine behind a paywall like Civilization 7 did with goddamn Great Britain. you know it's it's It's fair, it's it's cool, and there's a lot of cool shit that you can look forward to.
00:55:16
Speaker
yeah it It makes me think of like American Truck Simulator or Euro Truck Simulator, where it's just a it is a DLC machine, but you can kind of play it forever. ah So yeah, why not? Why the fuck not? There's screenshot of She-Hulk doing an elbow drop.
00:55:32
Speaker
ah She-Hulk is, yeah, c'est magnifique. I went full idiot with that and played, because you picked two of them. You pick two and you can swap back and forth. So I picked her and Rocket Raccoon to get the ultimate mommy and short king situation going on. Yeah, mommy and short king combo. Yeah.
00:56:03
Speaker
it It was a lot of fun. It's a lot of fun. It's it's a good game. It's as far as the demo is concerned. um That's awesome. I played a couple of other ones. I played a game called Dusk Punk, which is a pretty pretty solid role-playing game. I did not stick... ah For everyone who got into the role-playing game argument ah on the Discord, was that the Video Essayist Discord earlier in the day? tagged you in it. You tagged me and I looked at the the the the the back ah log and I went, no, no, thank you. I threw a smoke bob and left. I was like, yeah, you guys are on your own. ah Absolutely not. I was like, I need somebody who played like D&D version. like
00:56:50
Speaker
what you played You started with advanced, right? I started with basic. With basic. Yeah, basic D&D. I was like, I need somebody who started with with basic D&D to comment here. When elf was your class as opposed to your race. Yeah, yeah. I started with basic.
00:57:06
Speaker
um Yeah, and and what but the thing is, it yeah the the argument was very much about... um What constitutes a role playing game when it comes to video games, which is which is a which is a worthwhile conversation. Tale as old as time. Yeah, tale as old as time. People have been arguing about it forever. um This is a very authentic, I would argue, role playing game.
00:57:32
Speaker
Uh, it has, uh, you know, you pick your character. It's very story based. It's very character development based, um, dice rolling. It makes me think, um a lot of, uh, oh fuck.
00:57:49
Speaker
Disco Elysium. Yeah. was about to say the style of it looks, looks with the, with the, the feed on the right hand side of, of dialogue. Uh, right.
00:58:00
Speaker
Yeah. It's got a similar vibe. ah it's, it's not a CRPG style game. um It's ah the the images are static and everything like that, but it's very cool. It's a steampunky kind of post world one sort of thing. You play a a veteran of the great war that's still going on and you're trying to find your way in this, you know,
00:58:23
Speaker
smog-choked city. and it and And, you know, basically, it's it's it's kind of like a revolution simulator. Like, you can work your way up towards starting revolution. You know what it looks like a little bit? It looks like um Citizen Sleeper.
00:58:38
Speaker
um Sure. where Because it seems like you're yeah you're doing a lot of, like, the navigation between locations and talking to people and rolling dice.
00:58:52
Speaker
Yeah, it's that. Which is pretty much Citizen in Sleeper. Yeah. yeah Except sci-fi. Yeah. Right, right. This is steampunk kind of shit. Or diesel punk, ah one could argue. There are too many punks. um So it's I didn't play a lot of it. ah But this one seems pretty damn cool. It it is out and it's it's got very positive reviews on ah on Steam. um I love the art style and there's a lot of care that's been put into the artwork here and I and i fucking love that shit. And it's clear that you're not using the usual you know bullshit AI generated crap, which you're starting to see more and more. ah it's It's got a really good
00:59:39
Speaker
hand-drawn kind of style, which is is very admirable. Cool. yeah i I'm going to find out later that it was AI or something. I just set myself you know, it does it's not disclosed on the Steam page, but that hasn't stopped people before. exactly. I don't think it is. It's just... No. Yeah. um I also played the demo for a game called Total Chaos, which is a survival horror action-y kind of thing.
01:00:04
Speaker
Okay. It's not a Warhammer thing. No, no, no. Not that kind of total chaos. ah ah moore's More is more is pity. ah It is ah it's got a great this one has a great style to it as well. It's got your cosmic horror survival horror kind of thing um with. ah you know, your, your resident evil puzzles and, ah your, your breakable weapons and all that shit. It's very gritty. I didn't get, again, I didn't get too far in this one. Uh, but I, but I might play it again just because, uh, it, it's got a good look to it. It feels good. This one has also come out. It's got also very positive reviews on steam, um, published by Apogee, uh, which I, I know they're still around, but it's, it still makes me laugh when I see Apogee. Do they have the same logo?
01:00:58
Speaker
I wonder. let me see. I can't it doesn't i can't find it. That would be cool. um turbo It's done by the people who did Turbo Overkill.
01:01:13
Speaker
I would love to act like I know what that is. Apparently was very good. um Anyway, came out a couple of years ago. Anyway, those are the demos I've played. um okay Okay. In the interest of an upcoming book that we're covering, I did start playing Metro 2033 Redux.
01:01:33
Speaker
Okay. Fucking good. Good game. and And I've heard nothing less than that. I've heard that it is a challenging, unique, ah solid game. Man, I can't wait to read this book.
01:01:47
Speaker
Yeah. It is, you are, the video game has got me deep in this fucking world. So I can't even imagine what the book's going to be like. ah It still plays well. um It's got great dialogue. It's got really cool design. um i'm' i'm only a couple of chapters into it, but i'm I'm definitely going to play it all the way to the end. It is it is a cool, cool game and it holds up ah really well considering think it's 11 years old, 12 years old, something like that.
01:02:16
Speaker
um holds up Are we reading the original novel? or Yes, we are reading the novel that it was that this is based on. We're pulling a Witcher. a Pulling a Witcher, okay. Yep.
01:02:27
Speaker
yeah ah And finally, um the last game I've been playing, I have been, us you know, we we're we're coming out of the Black Friday ah holiday sales and all that shit. And i I didn't, I was very, I was good. I didn't, I didn't get much. ah But the one thing I did buy for my Switch ah was the Knights of the Old Republic bundle for my Switch.
01:02:52
Speaker
ah Because I haven't played those games in a few years. Yeah. And it used to be that I'd play one or both of them at least once a year. And it's been years since I've played them. And I am i am about a quarter of the way into the first one. And this game holds up. It has aged so gracefully.
01:03:11
Speaker
ah You know, the the the the visuals are whatever. But... The interface and the way it plays and the the storyline and the dialogue. and God, it it still holds up really, really well.
01:03:27
Speaker
um Yeah. So that's that's always nice. It's always nice to revisit something because Kotor was like. you know Anytime people are like, all right, post your four, the four most important video games to you. Cotter is always the top of my list. It's you know up there with Civilization. It was a very important game for me. ah And it's always nice when you come back to a game like that and you're like, fuck.
01:03:50
Speaker
this still plays wonderfully. yeah You don't have to like go, okay, well, for the time this was, know, it was whatever, you know, it it just, you can hop right the hell back into it. And with a role-playing game, that's especially ah impressive.
01:04:07
Speaker
Uh, because it's not, it's not a ah simple game. Um, right. Uh, it absolutely worth playing. and And I love playing it on my handheld, uh, while I'm hanging out and watching shitty Christmas movies with my wife. Uh, it is, right it is super fun. Uh, so yeah, I've been, gosh, now I say it out loud. I, I, I got down with some games this week. You got down with some games. I did. I did. I'm pretty pleased. Uh, uh, well, so so Kevin, what are you playing?
01:04:35
Speaker
um First, you know, I was just thinking actually is if we're doing Metro 2033, what if we also did um at some point Roadside Picnic, um which is what became Stalker, ah both the movie Stalker and ah the video game.
01:04:56
Speaker
didn't know that. i I'm not familiar with that. That's cool. Okay. Okay. Yeah. Another, like st it's another Russian, you know, we've had, oh, stalker. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh yeah. Let's do this. Fuck yeah. any wrote i gain like good book yeah based on a misery filled russia uh and or eastern europe uh and i i'm up there we've had good luck there with those authors so far i think they' there's only been one but has it been more than one but it was solid as hell uh solid as hell that's great what i have this
01:05:36
Speaker
Let's
Review of the Game Routine
01:05:37
Speaker
do it. ah What I've been playing mostly is ah routine. um
01:05:46
Speaker
routine. Yeah. So ah tell me, kids, do you like Alien Isolation? Would you like to ah there have been another Alien Isolation game? Well, there is one coming. But if you don't want to wait for that, there's a game called Routine set on a...
01:06:06
Speaker
haunted a space station where it's basically it's basically alien isolation but more ah you play like an engineer who you're on the space station you're quarantine
01:06:25
Speaker
Uh, maybe, oh, lunar base. You're on this lunar base. Uh, Moon's Haunted. um you're on this lunar base. Basically, your character was in quarantine when some bad shit went down, apparently, uh, because as anybody who arrives has to stay in like a seven day holding quarantine room. So you just kind of like wait there. Then when you get out, uh, shit's fucked up.
01:06:51
Speaker
um then the robots are angry. ah which is That's alien isolation right off the bat. is to The shit's fucked up and the robots are angry. um You have a weapon that is not a gun.
01:07:06
Speaker
It's a... he um Oh, is that a is that a munchkin? Oh, there's the munchkin. There ya hey The munch.
01:07:17
Speaker
Hello. Hello.
01:07:24
Speaker
How we doing?
01:07:28
Speaker
You good?
01:07:33
Speaker
I haven't bought the tickets yet. Bye-bye.
01:07:40
Speaker
Bye. Bye.
01:07:46
Speaker
Great. Off with you. There we go. There we go. the dog Now we can really talk. Now that the dog's gone. Now that the dog's gone. So basically, you have this diagnostic tool that um it works as a weapon, kind of, because you can shoot like You can ah shoot a little bit of electric shock out of the end. um And it it you can use that to like overload a breaker box or whatever to get a door to open. um
01:08:20
Speaker
And you can also use it to temporarily disable the robots that are coming after you. ah The first time i met a robot, ah so I just i just ah opened a door. I had just shot something ah to open a door and the door is opening and it's opening very slowly. So I'm just kind of like sitting there and I'm just like watching the door open and it's opening very slowly. And then from behind, I just hear chunk, chunk, chunk. And then it's like the robot grabs you and spins you around.
01:08:52
Speaker
like and you're like oh oh shit and then it threw me like 20 feet and you land and you're like oh shit so then you basically are just like i guess this is it i guess this is the thing that's going to be chasing me and i'm running and be like oh well at least there's only one of them and i turn the corner and there's number two and it's got the red eyes and i'm like oh boy um So yeah, you can temporarily disable them with your little thing um and you can shoot, ah you like shoot it twice and ah they'll get disabled for like 30 seconds and you can find time to hide. But your little gun thing only has three charges and then you have to find a new battery.
01:09:34
Speaker
um So that's a thing, a new lithium ion battery. um So that stresses me out just hearing that. That sounds crazy. And then you also use it to access like wireless access points where you like ah you press a button on the side and it connects to like a projector on the wall. And then you can like you can look through all your tasks and your your all the codes that you've picked up and save your game. It's just it's it's so cool.
01:10:04
Speaker
um But it's also one of the more.
01:10:11
Speaker
ah it's It's just so intense. you know like It's one of those games where you're like, oh, okay, i I played for five minutes. I think I'm good for a little bit. right right It's one of those. you know it's It's like right now, if i if I fired up Alien Isolation, I've played through that game so many times where I'm like, yeah, fuck you, alien. I'll hide here, wait for you to move, do your thing. I know how you work. um This game, I'm like, I don't know how you work right now.
01:10:40
Speaker
that's And you need that. I think that's because I was thinking about playing Alien Isolation again, which would be like the fourth or fifth time for me. and ah and that And that's the thing. you' never You never get that first playing of it back.
01:10:54
Speaker
You never get that. that right And so... that's that's very intriguing that sounds fantastic in fact so check out Routine if you're not um if you're looking for something of the flavor of Alien Isolation and you can't wait for whenever Alien Isolation 2 comes out the i don't i haven't seen any form of release date I've seen nothing But I know it's in progress. um What else have
Kevin’s Gaming Habits
01:11:22
Speaker
I been playing? Mostly Powerwatch Simulator 2.
01:11:25
Speaker
Camilla and I have been playing that. um And we I actually beat we beat the game on my save file. So I'm i'm through all the levels ah and we are on we're going through her save file right now um and just going through the levels.
01:11:42
Speaker
um And it speeds up, you know, it makes it a lot easier now that I have all the high end power washing tools. Yeah. um And a little bit of Hades, too. It's and it's a it's a bedtime game. You know, I just kind of sit there while we're watching something and and plug away at it. I may should, I have get made more progress in it for the amount of time I played it. Uh, probably.
01:12:08
Speaker
ah but it's, it's, it's right now it's total second screen. Like I'm not focused on it. So I'm just fucking around until, know, something happens. Um, that's how he felt about ball pit.
01:12:20
Speaker
yeah I was like, I think I should be further along this in this than I am. yeah But that's that's fine. That's fine. that's fine um Yeah, that's it. that's That's what I have been playing. Thank you all so much for listening and or watching. If you can, ah go on to YouTube and hit the subscribe button. If you have a YouTube account and would like to help us out, we're nearing 500, which is our first monetization threshold for YouTube.
01:12:52
Speaker
um So that would be awesome if we can get that. ah i mean, before the end of the year it would be would be tough, but it would be awesome if if that happened before the end of the year. um And if it doesn't happen before the end of the year, just know I'm very disappointed in all of you.
01:13:07
Speaker
ah Follow us on social media. but session we're just We're not mad. We're disappointed. Follow us on social media, Blue Sky, Instagram, TikTok. I think I'm going to... I found a thing that let's ah lets me automatically repost everything from TikTok over the other platform. So I might be doing that more. Okay. What else? Uh... Good night.
01:13:36
Speaker
Good night.