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I Met a Man on the Way to Seven Ives (7th Guest: Part 2)
7 Plays7 months ago
Soo something happened with my mic? I guess? Sounds bad in this episode. Good thing this is a Phil episode!
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Transcript
Introduction to Pixel and Discussion on 'The Seventh Guest'
00:00:00
Speaker
pretty cool.
00:00:00
Speaker
Vanessa Kirby is pretty much the like she's like, oh yeah, no, she is.
00:00:09
Speaker
She is Wonder Woman.
00:00:10
Speaker
She is not Wonder Woman.
00:00:13
Speaker
Miss Fantastic.
00:00:14
Speaker
It's like, yes, who's dormant is like, no, that's it.
00:00:17
Speaker
That she's the she's the winner.
00:00:19
Speaker
And that's the winner.
00:00:19
Speaker
Fan cast.
00:00:22
Speaker
I get that.
00:00:23
Speaker
Yeah, she's not.
00:00:24
Speaker
She's a knockout.
00:00:24
Speaker
Good choice.
00:00:26
Speaker
She is indeed a knockout.
00:00:27
Speaker
You know, what else is a knockout?
00:00:29
Speaker
Who's that?
00:00:30
Speaker
Hey there, everybody.
00:00:31
Speaker
Welcome back to Pixel.
00:00:32
Speaker
My name is Kevin with me as always is Phil on today's show.
Book Length Debate: Novel or Novella?
00:00:34
Speaker
We are continuing on through the seventh guest, a novel by Matthew J. Costello and Craig Shaw Gardner.
00:00:48
Speaker
We're we're rat.
00:00:50
Speaker
We're round in the corner.
00:00:52
Speaker
And then with part two, this is a book.
00:00:56
Speaker
It is a novel.
00:00:57
Speaker
Yeah.
00:00:58
Speaker
Is it a novel?
00:00:58
Speaker
How many words are in this?
00:01:00
Speaker
Oh, is it?
00:01:01
Speaker
I don't know.
00:01:04
Speaker
I mean, you know, I'll tell you it's it's like 210 pages, but, uh,
00:01:11
Speaker
the chapters are really short and the formatting is the words are just a little too big.
00:01:17
Speaker
I don't know.
00:01:18
Speaker
I, it might be a, some might argue it's a long novella, like 150 pages.
00:01:22
Speaker
If you put it in kind of your more standard.
00:01:24
Speaker
Yeah.
00:01:24
Speaker
And isn't even like it's, it's, it's based on word count too, isn't it?
00:01:29
Speaker
It wouldn't be.
00:01:30
Speaker
Yeah.
00:01:32
Speaker
50,000 words.
00:01:33
Speaker
I think 50,000 is when you generally see it as a novel.
00:01:37
Speaker
Yeah.
00:01:39
Speaker
So yeah, something like that.
00:01:41
Speaker
I'm going to count the words in this damn book and I'm going to do it live on the show right now.
Comedic Interlude: Andy Kaufman and Wrestling
00:01:46
Speaker
We're going to, we're going to, we really should wait to stream it and we can like pick a charity and you'll, and you'll chapter one, the word of one.
00:01:57
Speaker
That's one, the word, nothing.
00:01:59
Speaker
That's two.
00:02:00
Speaker
Kevin's going to Andy Kaufman his way through the story.
00:02:05
Speaker
Andy would.
00:02:06
Speaker
Andy would have kept going.
00:02:08
Speaker
Yeah.
00:02:09
Speaker
Oh, God.
00:02:09
Speaker
Yeah.
00:02:09
Speaker
And that would have been that, you know.
00:02:11
Speaker
That would have been that.
00:02:13
Speaker
Or either that or Jerry Lawler, Jerry the King Lawler would have appeared out of nowhere, broken a steel chair over his head.
00:02:20
Speaker
Right, right.
00:02:21
Speaker
You would have.
00:02:21
Speaker
It's like that would be hilarious.
00:02:23
Speaker
We get somebody to like just jump into the background behind you and just fucking pile drive you.
00:02:28
Speaker
I appreciate the fact that Jerry Lawler kept up the kayfabe regarding his feud with Andy Kaufman, even after Andy died.
Cultural Icons: Kaufman, Waters, and Lynch
00:02:41
Speaker
Because that's the way Andy would have wanted it.
00:02:43
Speaker
That's exactly what he would have wanted.
00:02:46
Speaker
And that's the kayfabe is what attracted Andy to it in the first place.
00:02:50
Speaker
How is he not supposed to go for that?
00:02:51
Speaker
It's beautiful.
00:02:53
Speaker
It's tailor made for him.
00:02:55
Speaker
I just remember watching a documentary just on his pro wrestling, Andy Kaufman's pro wrestling stuff.
00:03:02
Speaker
Nice.
00:03:04
Speaker
Years ago, I was a kid and I was like, it was on like,
00:03:09
Speaker
I don't know, the Saturday morning cartoons were over.
00:03:12
Speaker
I was just sitting there and this thing comes on on a channel and it's about, you know, Andy Kaufman and Jerry Lawler.
00:03:20
Speaker
And I was like, this is fascinating.
00:03:21
Speaker
And I remember Bob Saget was on there and...
00:03:25
Speaker
There's a bunch of people interviewed just talking about it.
00:03:27
Speaker
And I think Jerry was obviously Jerry was one of the people interviewed, but it was, it was neat.
00:03:32
Speaker
It was, it was kind of a neat, neat thing.
00:03:36
Speaker
Yeah.
00:03:37
Speaker
Yeah.
00:03:38
Speaker
Yeah.
00:03:42
Speaker
RIP Andy, you would have hated where SNL went.
00:03:47
Speaker
Oh yeah.
00:03:47
Speaker
I would not have been happy unless he could get on there and fuck shit up like once every season or so, then he would have gone with
Appreciating Lynch: 'Twin Peaks' and 'Blue Velvet'
00:03:54
Speaker
it.
00:03:54
Speaker
Yeah.
00:03:55
Speaker
But you were, uh, he was one of those, uh, those people that was way too, um,
00:04:03
Speaker
It's too much for this world.
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Speaker
Too much.
00:04:06
Speaker
Too much.
00:04:07
Speaker
The world couldn't take it and spat him back out.
00:04:10
Speaker
I, I, I'm not going to act like I always understood or appreciated Andy Kaufman's humor.
00:04:16
Speaker
Oh, no.
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Speaker
Like, let me, let me be clear.
00:04:19
Speaker
Majority of his stuff felt falls flat for me, but right.
00:04:22
Speaker
But, but I think it's kind of like John Waters.
00:04:26
Speaker
I'm not, I'm not a huge John Waters.
00:04:28
Speaker
I'm not a huge fan of John Waters work.
00:04:32
Speaker
I just love that he exists.
00:04:35
Speaker
I find people like John Waters to be necessary to the fabric of our culture.
00:04:41
Speaker
And it's Kaufman, Andy Kaufman, David Lynch is in the same category.
00:04:50
Speaker
Although I think I appreciate David Lynch's work more than the other two.
00:04:56
Speaker
I have.
00:04:56
Speaker
I've grown to.
00:04:57
Speaker
Yeah.
00:04:59
Speaker
I think they're kind of in the same space.
00:05:02
Speaker
Have you watched Twin Peaks?
00:05:03
Speaker
Have you?
00:05:04
Speaker
I a long time ago watched it and I keep telling myself, you see, we're talking about how me and my wife are watching the Watchmen TV series.
00:05:13
Speaker
I keep talking about us watching Twin Peaks and maybe that's, maybe you should take that opportunity because we watched, what did we, after he died, we watched Eraserhead.
00:05:23
Speaker
We watched Mulholland Drive and we watched
00:05:29
Speaker
What's is it?
00:05:29
Speaker
It's not wild at heart.
00:05:30
Speaker
Is it?
00:05:31
Speaker
It's, uh, or is it, it's the one with Lord Dern and Nicholas cage.
00:05:36
Speaker
Oh, uh, I think that I thought that was wild at heart.
00:05:40
Speaker
Is it wild at heart?
00:05:41
Speaker
Maybe.
00:05:42
Speaker
Oh shoot.
00:05:42
Speaker
It is wild at heart.
00:05:43
Speaker
Yeah.
00:05:43
Speaker
Okay.
00:05:44
Speaker
Um, yeah, that's totally it.
00:05:46
Speaker
Um, we watched, we watched those in rapid succession, uh, and, and, and,
00:05:51
Speaker
It was a really educational kind of thing because at that point I'd only ever really seen, I, I, I saw it, but barely remembered to raise your head and I'd seen blue velvet.
00:06:01
Speaker
Yeah.
00:06:02
Speaker
Blue velvet I think is, is my favorite of, of his stuff, but that one is fucking fever dream.
Patreon Promotion and Community Support
00:06:10
Speaker
We're definitely going to get to that one.
00:06:12
Speaker
Yeah.
00:06:12
Speaker
With what's it with?
00:06:14
Speaker
I mean, what's his name?
00:06:16
Speaker
Dennis Hopper.
00:06:17
Speaker
Yeah.
00:06:18
Speaker
Getting like doing shots of nitrous.
00:06:21
Speaker
Yeah.
00:06:21
Speaker
Yeah.
00:06:22
Speaker
Baby wants to fuck.
00:06:26
Speaker
Fuck that shit.
00:06:27
Speaker
Shit.
00:06:27
Speaker
Pabst Blue Ribbon.
00:06:30
Speaker
Hi, I can.
00:06:34
Speaker
Oh, man.
00:06:35
Speaker
See, now we have to watch that.
00:06:38
Speaker
I did it.
00:06:38
Speaker
I did it again.
00:06:40
Speaker
You did it again.
00:06:41
Speaker
And you know who else did it again?
00:06:43
Speaker
Are the people over at patreon.com slash pixel.
00:06:48
Speaker
We love.
00:06:49
Speaker
We love so much.
00:06:51
Speaker
You can join for free.
00:06:52
Speaker
We love you for free.
00:06:54
Speaker
You can join at one dollar.
00:06:55
Speaker
We love you at one dollar.
00:06:56
Speaker
You can join a five dollars.
00:06:58
Speaker
We love you slightly less for some reason.
00:07:01
Speaker
I'm just kidding.
00:07:01
Speaker
We love you.
00:07:02
Speaker
Just five dollars.
Diving into 'The Seventh Guest' Plot and Puzzles
00:07:04
Speaker
At $10, we really love you so much that I get to shout out your name in the episode.
00:07:11
Speaker
So speaking of love, Jesus loves you.
00:07:13
Speaker
Kyle Seaman, Ruthless Butter, Middle of Things, Sigma South, Chet Beaks Down a Thick, Langolier, and Friendly Friend, thank you for being a friend.
00:07:26
Speaker
pixelipod.com or patreon.com slash pixel pod.
00:07:30
Speaker
Do it today.
00:07:32
Speaker
Do it today.
00:07:33
Speaker
Do you want to put this body in the marsh or we can- Let's- That marsh seems devoid of a body.
00:07:40
Speaker
Let's rectify the situation.
00:07:42
Speaker
What do you say?
00:07:43
Speaker
Hey, let's put seven bodies in the marsh.
00:07:45
Speaker
Seven bodies.
00:07:47
Speaker
Seven bodies in the marsh.
00:07:50
Speaker
Police have confirmed that the body of the man found dead in the Fenway Marshes yesterday afternoon is that of Timothy Delahunt, an undercover policeman for the city of Boston.
00:07:59
Speaker
And it's appropriate that you say that because in chapter 13, we got at this a little bit last episode, but it's getting very clue.
00:08:08
Speaker
We get the guests have arrived.
00:08:10
Speaker
Everyone's got there.
00:08:12
Speaker
We've been introduced to them at this point, but this is our our beginning of them as a group.
00:08:18
Speaker
So they're all huddled outside of the door.
00:08:20
Speaker
They can't get inside of the door or get inside of the house.
00:08:24
Speaker
They can.
00:08:24
Speaker
You don't want to get inside of the door anyway.
00:08:26
Speaker
I'm not going to Carlin all over this thing.
00:08:29
Speaker
So the magician discovers a panel that will open the door.
00:08:34
Speaker
George Carlin.
00:08:36
Speaker
George, George, George, like getting in the plane versus getting on the plane.
00:08:41
Speaker
Sure.
00:08:41
Speaker
Sure.
00:08:42
Speaker
Sure.
00:08:42
Speaker
Yeah.
00:08:42
Speaker
Yeah.
00:08:43
Speaker
I don't know if Dan Carlin would have much issue with that.
00:08:47
Speaker
You're talking about the history of the door, though.
00:08:50
Speaker
Oh, yeah.
00:08:50
Speaker
It would be fascinating, I'm sure.
00:08:53
Speaker
But yeah.
00:08:56
Speaker
So instead of and I do find this very funny because they get to the door, they knock, nobody comes by.
00:09:02
Speaker
And I think anybody in that situation would just be like, OK, they're not there.
00:09:06
Speaker
We are moving on.
00:09:07
Speaker
But they take this as a test of like, clearly we're meant to be in here.
00:09:11
Speaker
So Temple, the magician, he finds a.
00:09:16
Speaker
a panel in the door that will open the door.
00:09:19
Speaker
They end up in the dining room where everybody's got a plate and a note.
00:09:23
Speaker
And Kevin actually points out it's written in a really weird way where it says seven, seven, seven plates with seven notes.
00:09:31
Speaker
And I'm like, so there's seven notes per plate or seven.
00:09:36
Speaker
And like there's seven plates and seven notes.
00:09:40
Speaker
On the way to St.
00:09:41
Speaker
Ives, I met a man with seven wives.
00:09:43
Speaker
I met a man with seven wives.
00:09:46
Speaker
How many were on the way to St.
00:09:48
Speaker
Ives?
00:09:49
Speaker
The answer is one.
00:09:50
Speaker
144.144.
00:09:58
Speaker
I can't stop.
00:09:59
Speaker
I can't do it without thinking about Jeremy Irons.
00:10:02
Speaker
No, and nor should you, nor should you.
00:10:04
Speaker
We're getting a, we're getting a nice eye full of him as, as Oxum and Deus in the watchman TV show.
00:10:11
Speaker
And he, I forgot how just,
00:10:14
Speaker
Chewy he is with that scene.
00:10:17
Speaker
Yeah.
00:10:18
Speaker
He's on the moon or something, I guess.
00:10:20
Speaker
Yeah.
00:10:22
Speaker
Oh man.
00:10:24
Speaker
He's on the moon and he's Ozymandias.
00:10:27
Speaker
And you don't realize that until like halfway through the series.
00:10:31
Speaker
He's lonely.
00:10:31
Speaker
This guy.
00:10:33
Speaker
Fucking losing his mind.
00:10:35
Speaker
Yeah.
00:10:36
Speaker
Oh, he's so good.
00:10:37
Speaker
They sent him to the moon for his plot, too, with the aliens.
00:10:41
Speaker
Because the series is a sequel to the comics, not a sequel to the Zack Snyder.
00:10:47
Speaker
So it was aliens.
00:10:49
Speaker
It was the comic giant squid monster, squid monsters.
00:10:53
Speaker
And the fact that they have, they keep up the ruse is hilarious.
00:10:58
Speaker
Oh yeah.
00:10:58
Speaker
Random squid like fall.
00:11:00
Speaker
Yeah.
00:11:01
Speaker
Yeah.
00:11:02
Speaker
They it's, it's such a, I gotta say, I, I,
00:11:06
Speaker
I remember when that show was announced and like a lot of shows like that, I was like this.
00:11:12
Speaker
Why are we fucking doing this?
00:11:14
Speaker
This is not necessary.
00:11:16
Speaker
Let's make something new, et cetera.
00:11:18
Speaker
Like I normally do.
00:11:19
Speaker
And I remember watching,
00:11:21
Speaker
because I think you and Keeler and a bunch of other people we knew were like, uh, maybe watch it, maybe watch it.
00:11:27
Speaker
Yeah.
00:11:28
Speaker
And I remember being like, well, this is, this is the wrongest I've ever been about that because they wrote, they truly, uh,
00:11:37
Speaker
understood the world and more to the point, they understood the consequences and how it would move forward without it feeling super fan servicey.
00:11:49
Speaker
And it's just it's like it's basically a tutorial on how to make a sequel long after the
Character Interactions and Supernatural Themes
00:11:58
Speaker
fact.
00:11:58
Speaker
Right.
00:11:59
Speaker
And I know Alan Moore was like, but Alan Moore is not happy about anything.
00:12:05
Speaker
No, no.
00:12:05
Speaker
Alan Moore.
00:12:06
Speaker
I love Alan Moore, but he's out of his goddamn mind.
00:12:08
Speaker
He worships a snake god.
00:12:10
Speaker
Let's all just let's all just chill out when it comes to his when it comes to taking his opinion too seriously.
00:12:17
Speaker
You can listen to the man, but Jesus.
00:12:20
Speaker
Okay, so they got the dining room, St.
00:12:23
Speaker
Ives.
00:12:24
Speaker
They find that they are waiting on a mysterious seventh guest.
00:12:29
Speaker
And as they're discussing this, a cake appears out of nowhere.
00:12:34
Speaker
It's just there.
00:12:35
Speaker
There's a cake.
00:12:36
Speaker
It's a cake.
00:12:38
Speaker
And we find out that it's a puzzle.
00:12:41
Speaker
There are symbols all over it.
00:12:42
Speaker
And the puzzle is to cut everyone a slice that has...
00:12:47
Speaker
the same amount of each symbol.
00:12:49
Speaker
So it's like crossword puzzling, uh, this poor cake.
00:12:54
Speaker
Uh, this is indeed a puzzle in the game.
00:12:57
Speaker
This poor, poor cake.
00:12:59
Speaker
It's poor cake.
00:12:59
Speaker
It's just, it's just turned into Tetris pieces.
00:13:03
Speaker
Uh, it's absurd.
00:13:04
Speaker
And, and, and, uh, and we get the, this is kind of the first like in depth puzzle we get in this book.
00:13:12
Speaker
And, uh,
00:13:14
Speaker
I don't know if I love or truly hate how it's handled because literally the magician just goes here, I've solved it.
00:13:24
Speaker
And that's it.
00:13:25
Speaker
And he like cuts the cake and they don't explain it.
00:13:29
Speaker
They don't describe it.
00:13:30
Speaker
They just say he solved it.
00:13:33
Speaker
And on one hand, he needs to cut the cake up and he's cuts the cake up on one hand.
00:13:38
Speaker
That's some of the laziest writing of all time.
00:13:40
Speaker
On the other hand,
00:13:41
Speaker
If they had gone into detail about it, I'd be bitching about that.
00:13:45
Speaker
Yeah.
00:13:46
Speaker
So, you know, that, what are you supposed to do?
00:13:49
Speaker
There's, there's, there's no, no winning it.
00:13:54
Speaker
We get to chapter 14, Eleanor Knox.
00:13:57
Speaker
Eleanor is spelled E L I N O R. And that will never not drive me crazy.
00:14:02
Speaker
L I nor.
00:14:02
Speaker
Yeah.
00:14:02
Speaker
Yeah.
00:14:06
Speaker
She's getting a bad feeling and we get some suggestion.
00:14:11
Speaker
Eleanor.
00:14:13
Speaker
I, I think I spaced or I misread it.
00:14:15
Speaker
Eleanor is the one who was invited, not Edward.
00:14:20
Speaker
Was it?
00:14:22
Speaker
It's for Eleanor.
00:14:23
Speaker
I think.
00:14:24
Speaker
I think Eleanor is the guest and Edward is the guy who was just there.
00:14:30
Speaker
I think, I think, I think she, he was invited.
00:14:34
Speaker
And she like, they, they, they kind of imply at some point that, uh, that she's just tagging along or something, but yeah, cause chapter two bloody bloody block tried the ponies, uh, gambling debts envelope in his pocket.
00:14:52
Speaker
Um, it doesn't really say.
00:14:56
Speaker
I get the vibe that it was actually Eleanor was the guest and Edward was just there.
00:15:03
Speaker
I mean, that could be interesting.
00:15:05
Speaker
I might be wrong.
00:15:06
Speaker
Well, I know the way that this goes, the direction it goes, if that's the case, that would be particularly interesting.
00:15:12
Speaker
Yeah.
00:15:13
Speaker
And we'll get to that.
00:15:15
Speaker
But Eleanor has this awful, she gets a, she gets a hand solo.
00:15:19
Speaker
She gets a bad feeling about this.
00:15:21
Speaker
Yeah.
00:15:21
Speaker
And we get a lot of little implications that she has these spells where she, she's kind of vaguely psychic.
00:15:28
Speaker
It's very, very, very,
00:15:31
Speaker
well-off white lady, kind of like, ooh, where are your crystals?
00:15:37
Speaker
That kind of thing.
00:15:39
Speaker
She retreats to the kitchen to kind of get her bearings where she hears a knocking at a nearby door and she goes to open it.
00:15:47
Speaker
And we cut back to the dinner party where her husband, Edward, is eye-fucking Martine.
00:15:54
Speaker
Yes, really into her.
00:15:57
Speaker
Yeah.
00:15:58
Speaker
They are flirting with each other like crazy.
00:16:01
Speaker
And Martine's Martine is like super into it.
00:16:05
Speaker
And she suggests that they should partner up, take it however you like.
00:16:10
Speaker
And, and, and they excuse themselves to a bedroom upstairs to make plans.
00:16:16
Speaker
And this is all.
00:16:19
Speaker
And by the way, the whole thing is right in front of everybody except for his wife, conveniently enough.
00:16:25
Speaker
Yeah.
00:16:26
Speaker
And it's kind of like if you've ever been to the bar or party or something with a group of people and you're all hanging out and talking and two of them are clearly just like flirting like crazy.
00:16:37
Speaker
And you're like, oh, you guys are going to swallow each other's DNA after the game or whatever.
00:16:43
Speaker
And everyone's uncomfortable.
00:16:45
Speaker
That's that's basically what's happening here.
00:16:49
Speaker
So we cut to Temple, the magician.
00:16:51
Speaker
He is in a library.
00:16:54
Speaker
He finds that the library, the books are all false shelves.
00:16:59
Speaker
They're all kind of painted on.
00:17:00
Speaker
But then he finds there's a single book there that's real.
00:17:06
Speaker
And he takes it out.
00:17:07
Speaker
It's a book on chess.
00:17:09
Speaker
Um, he looks outside into the garden and this living mist kind of like forces its way up against the window and he can't take his eyes off of it.
00:17:21
Speaker
It really scares the shit out of him.
00:17:22
Speaker
It seems very threatening.
00:17:24
Speaker
And, uh, and he realizes that if, if he has to leave in a hurry, he ain't going out the garden.
00:17:28
Speaker
Uh, I'm going to be honest with you.
00:17:31
Speaker
Gases and mists and such.
00:17:34
Speaker
They don't register on the scary scale.
00:17:37
Speaker
That's a very specific one, I think, for a lot of people.
00:17:40
Speaker
A lot of people, it's like, ah, there's a mist billowing in the cloud, and be like, ah, fuck it.
00:17:45
Speaker
Give me something tangible.
00:17:47
Speaker
Now, The Mist is a scary movie, but that's because the stuff in The Mist is
00:17:54
Speaker
Right, right.
00:17:55
Speaker
And maybe Stephen King's one of his best works.
00:17:58
Speaker
Yeah, same with The Fog.
00:18:01
Speaker
Yeah, yeah.
00:18:02
Speaker
Which I consider a lesser carpenter work, but still, it's because it's not The Fog itself that's scary.
00:18:11
Speaker
But whenever somebody's like, oh, the mist, ooh, but like, eh, you're not getting me with The Mist.
00:18:19
Speaker
Have something hop out of Mist and scare me.
00:18:21
Speaker
Mist me with The Mist.
00:18:23
Speaker
But yeah, but this is actually a rare instance where it's the mist itself that's threatening.
00:18:28
Speaker
Like he personifies the mist.
00:18:30
Speaker
It's not something's in it raking its claws against the window or something.
00:18:35
Speaker
It's the mist itself that is like threatening him, which is kind of rare.
00:18:40
Speaker
It's like smoke monsters or whatever.
00:18:43
Speaker
Oh, sure.
00:18:43
Speaker
Yeah.
00:18:45
Speaker
Like the more recent Fantastic Four where Galactus was a cloud.
00:18:50
Speaker
Oh, yeah.
00:18:51
Speaker
You know, shit like that.
00:18:53
Speaker
Don't don't do if you're just starting out as a horror writer, leave the smoke monster, leave the mist at home.
00:19:00
Speaker
Yeah, it's you might find it scary.
00:19:05
Speaker
Most people I'm going to speak for most people say it's kind of fucking dumb.
Horror Elements and Psychic Phenomena
00:19:11
Speaker
Kevin's got your number.
00:19:12
Speaker
Kevin's got your number.
00:19:14
Speaker
Amateur horror writers.
00:19:16
Speaker
Amateur horror writer.
00:19:17
Speaker
That's what you're watching.
00:19:19
Speaker
Yeah.
00:19:20
Speaker
I'm sure there are many.
00:19:22
Speaker
We cut to Eleanor.
00:19:26
Speaker
She is opening the door that was being knocked on.
00:19:30
Speaker
There's nobody there.
00:19:32
Speaker
She continues around because it's it's this door down at the bottom of some stairs and she continues down this corridor and basically finds herself lost in this maze of halls and corridors downstairs.
00:19:45
Speaker
And there's this shuffling sound that she can't quite place.
00:19:48
Speaker
It's right next to her one minute.
00:19:50
Speaker
She should be able to see something, but she can't.
00:19:52
Speaker
And then she's running her hands along the wall.
00:19:55
Speaker
They're wet and it appears to be blood.
00:19:58
Speaker
And then she is splashed with more red blood and and something cold and dead feels around at her feet.
00:20:08
Speaker
That is chapter 14.
00:20:10
Speaker
Chapter 15 opens with Tad, our boy character, our seventh guest.
00:20:16
Speaker
I said to Phil, the chapter 15 just kind of becomes a Stephen King novel for a little bit.
00:20:22
Speaker
We get super Stephen King-y here.
00:20:24
Speaker
There's no question.
00:20:26
Speaker
Right down to the F-slur.
00:20:29
Speaker
Oh, yeah.
00:20:29
Speaker
Just tossed about pretty casually.
00:20:31
Speaker
Because let me tell you, Stephen King early on was not afraid of the N-word, the F-word.
00:20:39
Speaker
He was not afraid of anything, really, in terms of just casually typing the slur into his work.
00:20:46
Speaker
Right.
00:20:47
Speaker
And we don't want to suggest that he was like, it wasn't Stephen King saying these words.
00:20:52
Speaker
No, it's not Stephen King saying it.
00:20:53
Speaker
It's like, okay, well, you have a character, like he would write a character who would say it a lot, which, you know, your mileage may vary on whether that was, it's totally necessary for the story, but I think he's kind of...
00:21:09
Speaker
Now, if Stephen King wrote that into a script and cast himself as that character who says it about 500 times while they're trying to clean up a couple of hit men who are covered in blood.
00:21:20
Speaker
Tarantino.
00:21:22
Speaker
Oh, right.
00:21:22
Speaker
That's I knew someone had done that.
00:21:27
Speaker
Now that might be a horse of a different color.
00:21:29
Speaker
That might be an F word of a different color, but he's just, he's just, it's yeah.
00:21:36
Speaker
Yeah.
00:21:36
Speaker
But yeah, what we, what Kevin's getting at is that Tad are our, our young man, the boy, they don't really say, I think how old he is.
00:21:44
Speaker
They just, he's they're like 13 ish.
00:21:45
Speaker
Yeah.
00:21:47
Speaker
Yeah, that sounds about right.
00:21:48
Speaker
And it's him and all of all of his schoolmates.
00:21:51
Speaker
And they have one of them is harassing him and calling him a slur over and over again until he agrees to break into the South Mansion.
00:22:05
Speaker
So he breaks in through a kitchen window.
00:22:09
Speaker
There's a pot on the boil there and he smells something weird coming from that.
00:22:13
Speaker
And then suddenly here's a scream outside of the room.
00:22:17
Speaker
Um, we cut to Dutton who is also searching the house.
00:22:20
Speaker
Basically at this point, everyone's kind of like just scattered to their own corners of the house.
00:22:25
Speaker
Again, very clue.
00:22:26
Speaker
Um, everyone's at their own corners of the house.
00:22:29
Speaker
Dutton's searching and he starts hearing a choir in the distance and the choir gets louder and louder and louder until it's just blaring in his ears and he screams and passes out.
00:22:41
Speaker
Um,
00:22:41
Speaker
We cut to Julia Heine, who hears the scream.
00:22:44
Speaker
We get the same shtick with her where she's like, I don't know, the same white lady shtick of like, I've always been a little psychic, which she thinks she's clairvoyant.
00:22:55
Speaker
It's just hilarious.
00:22:58
Speaker
It's it's it happens to both of these women.
00:23:00
Speaker
It's it's but I will say I will say.
00:23:04
Speaker
Her character, Julia Heine's character seems more like the full of shit one.
00:23:09
Speaker
Eleanor is a way more sympathetic character in the sense that you're like, OK, maybe she does have a touch of something.
00:23:16
Speaker
Julia Heine is your friend from high school who started an Instagram account to talk about crystals.
00:23:24
Speaker
Right.
00:23:24
Speaker
That's that's that's what she is.
00:23:26
Speaker
She's getting hammered, by the way.
00:23:30
Speaker
So she she's she runs off to find Dutton screaming.
00:23:36
Speaker
Edward, lucky enough, hears Eleanor screaming.
00:23:40
Speaker
He finds her downstairs.
00:23:42
Speaker
He does not see the blood that she saw earlier.
00:23:45
Speaker
And actually, neither does she.
00:23:48
Speaker
Uh, everything seems fine.
00:23:50
Speaker
Question mark, question mark, question mark.
00:23:52
Speaker
Um, Martine finds temple staring into the mist out the garden window and he, she kind of shakes him out of it.
00:24:01
Speaker
Um, and temple calls a house meeting, uh, like one of your roommates, uh, uh, pissed you off because they never did the dishes.
00:24:10
Speaker
Uh, uh, that's it.
00:24:11
Speaker
He basically says, all right, house meeting.
00:24:14
Speaker
Um,
00:24:16
Speaker
We cut to Stauf watching from a distance.
00:24:19
Speaker
Like, it doesn't say this, but I'm just imagining a control room with like 50 TV monitors.
00:24:24
Speaker
He's watching from a distance and yeah, there's no control room or TV monitors specified.
00:24:30
Speaker
Right.
00:24:32
Speaker
Yeah.
00:24:32
Speaker
So just at this point, imagine he's staring at a wall and going, hee hee.
00:24:36
Speaker
Yeah, yeah.
00:24:37
Speaker
Hee hee hee hee.
00:24:38
Speaker
It's the FMV thing where it just cuts to him going, I'll get them all.
00:24:44
Speaker
Yeah, it does.
00:24:45
Speaker
Honestly, I mean, honestly, that's the scene with him.
00:24:51
Speaker
They imply that basically everyone there is going to meet a bad end one way or the other.
00:24:57
Speaker
Chapter 16, everybody regroups.
00:25:00
Speaker
Um, the trio who was traumatized by different things, try to convince the trio who wasn't, uh, of the things that they heard and saw, et cetera.
00:25:12
Speaker
Uh, and no one seems, uh, convinced, uh, it didn't happen to me and therefore it doesn't exist.
00:25:17
Speaker
Um, and then shortly after that, everyone just kind of scatters again.
00:25:22
Speaker
It goes off on their own.
00:25:23
Speaker
Uh, that was the extent of the house meeting, uh, uh,
00:25:27
Speaker
So we come back to Julia Heine.
00:25:29
Speaker
She is in the kitchen that Tad was in.
00:25:33
Speaker
There's a, you know, the pot with the stew.
00:25:36
Speaker
She finds a bunch of cans on the shelves of the wall.
00:25:40
Speaker
They all have different letters.
00:25:42
Speaker
And she...
00:25:43
Speaker
She rearranges them to say something.
00:25:47
Speaker
We do not know what it is that they say.
00:25:51
Speaker
And I have to assume this is because they didn't want spoilers for the video game.
00:25:55
Speaker
For the game?
00:25:57
Speaker
In their book.
00:25:59
Speaker
This game, this book that came out like two years after the book, by the way.
00:26:02
Speaker
So is that why they don't tell you how to solve the cake puzzle?
00:26:06
Speaker
They just say you solved it?
00:26:08
Speaker
I think that's what it is.
00:26:09
Speaker
I think that's their reasoning.
00:26:11
Speaker
Um, to which I would say, why not create a new puzzle, uh, or something?
00:26:17
Speaker
Uh, so we, we, we find out that basically it is a clue.
00:26:20
Speaker
You're supposed to spell something out, but I think everyone picked that picked up on that.
00:26:24
Speaker
This is also a puzzle.
00:26:26
Speaker
This in the game.
00:26:27
Speaker
Um,
00:26:28
Speaker
So when she puts everything in the right order and it says, I don't know, don't forget to drink your Ovaltine or whatever.
00:26:37
Speaker
She she starts hearing the pot bubbling over behind her, which is crazy because when she got there, the pot was still.
00:26:48
Speaker
Tad has been hiding in the kitchen and he sees all of this.
00:26:51
Speaker
And he basically has a these people are out of their mind moment.
00:26:56
Speaker
Yeah.
00:26:56
Speaker
And just kind of sneaks past her.
00:27:00
Speaker
We got to Temple who has found their dad.
00:27:03
Speaker
The kids to Tad, the haunting stuff is not happening.
00:27:08
Speaker
He's just watching these people like.
00:27:10
Speaker
act like, whoa.
00:27:12
Speaker
And he's like, what the fuck is wrong with these adults?
00:27:16
Speaker
If Tad, if Tad at this age hasn't already had a moment where he realizes that adults are just as full of shit as kids, he's having it now.
Motivations and Plot Twists
00:27:26
Speaker
That there is no such thing as growing up.
00:27:27
Speaker
You just, no, you just become, you just become the same person you were and you keep going.
00:27:35
Speaker
You're kind of given permission to do more of the stuff that maybe you wouldn't do as a kid because you were afraid you'd get in trouble.
00:27:41
Speaker
Yep.
00:27:42
Speaker
That's pretty much it.
00:27:43
Speaker
So that's what he's dealing with.
00:27:45
Speaker
Poor Tad.
00:27:46
Speaker
That's not easy on anybody.
00:27:49
Speaker
Temple is upstairs.
00:27:50
Speaker
He's found their rooms.
00:27:52
Speaker
There are seven rooms with seven name tags for each one of them.
00:27:57
Speaker
Everyone's name is on a different room.
00:27:58
Speaker
Yeah.
00:28:00
Speaker
Eleanor is there.
00:28:02
Speaker
She has found her room and she says that she's not sure that she wants to go in.
00:28:08
Speaker
She points out that she's realized that everybody who's there wants something, whether it's like Martine wants something.
00:28:17
Speaker
I guess.
00:28:18
Speaker
I don't know.
00:28:20
Speaker
And, you know, her husband has debts and he needs to pay off his debts.
00:28:24
Speaker
And everyone's basically she points out that everybody there wants something.
00:28:31
Speaker
And so she looks at Temple and says, well, what is it that you want?
00:28:36
Speaker
I want real magic in the world.
00:28:39
Speaker
Yeah.
00:28:39
Speaker
Yeah.
00:28:40
Speaker
And I don't know.
00:28:41
Speaker
He didn't want the magic for himself.
00:28:42
Speaker
He just wants to know if magic exists in the world.
00:28:45
Speaker
Right.
00:28:46
Speaker
And if that were my wish, if I was up against like people with like millions of dollars in debt and like all that, I'd lie.
00:28:54
Speaker
If it was like, I just want to know if the bunny's real when it comes out the hat, like, I think I'd lie, you know, and say, oh, my, my,
00:29:02
Speaker
grandmother's sick.
00:29:03
Speaker
I don't know, like just something.
00:29:05
Speaker
Cause that just feels kind of silly.
00:29:07
Speaker
Um, and she shares with him that she knows how much her husband is in debt.
00:29:10
Speaker
Uh, and that's probably why they're there.
00:29:13
Speaker
Uh, and you start, and again, this is where you really do start to sympathize with her.
00:29:16
Speaker
She's, she is, uh,
00:29:19
Speaker
just dealing with all of this weird, horrific stuff while her husband has literally wandered away with a piece of ass.
00:29:27
Speaker
So it's just not in a good place.
00:29:29
Speaker
Yeah.
00:29:30
Speaker
Chapter 17 Temple enters his bedroom and finds that it's basically a shrine to him.
00:29:37
Speaker
Uh, it's filled with old magician movie, but movies, uh, posters from like the shows he used to do.
00:29:43
Speaker
And there are relics from, uh, those days and everything.
00:29:47
Speaker
And he finds a turban, uh, that's there.
00:29:50
Speaker
And, and, and, and,
00:29:52
Speaker
showing the sense and responsibility that all adults have inherently in them.
00:29:58
Speaker
Tad, he puts on the turban and it kind of makes him snap.
00:30:05
Speaker
He gets a little manic and he starts and he's like, he thinks something like I'll let the show go on, but I need my beautiful assistant first.
00:30:15
Speaker
Yes.
00:30:16
Speaker
I need my beautiful assistant.
00:30:18
Speaker
At this point, it's just Peter Lorre.
00:30:20
Speaker
That's exactly it.
00:30:21
Speaker
He's just crazy a size.
00:30:24
Speaker
And so Brian Dutton finds him and Temple is summoning a woman, this beautiful, you know, I assume half naked woman who's reaching out to them both.
00:30:37
Speaker
And and as the illusion continues, she begins to age horribly, like down to desiccated bone and then splits in half.
00:30:49
Speaker
like a horrible inversion of an old of the old sawing the woman in half trick.
00:30:55
Speaker
It's it's it's kind of crazy.
00:30:57
Speaker
And I think Dutton like pulls the turban off of Temple or maybe Temple like throws it off or it comes off one way or the other.
00:31:04
Speaker
And Temple gets a hold of himself and and
00:31:08
Speaker
Based on everything that he's seen, these are tricks.
00:31:12
Speaker
As far as he's concerned, these are tricks that staff left for him.
00:31:17
Speaker
This is this is part of his reward.
00:31:19
Speaker
This is what staff wants for him.
00:31:21
Speaker
So in other words, he gets he takes away completely the wrong message of the situation.
00:31:28
Speaker
And he very clearly decides that he wants this power.
00:31:32
Speaker
Temple, you fucking idiot.
00:31:34
Speaker
Temple, you fucking idiot.
00:31:36
Speaker
What's his other temple?
00:31:38
Speaker
What's his, is that his, I can't remember.
00:31:40
Speaker
That's his last name, right?
00:31:42
Speaker
I honestly don't remember.
00:31:43
Speaker
I think it is.
00:31:43
Speaker
I think it is his last name.
00:31:46
Speaker
That's one of those names that I'm just, I'm going to call him.
00:31:48
Speaker
Oh, Hamilton temple.
00:31:49
Speaker
That's Hamilton temple.
00:31:51
Speaker
He's got two last names.
00:31:53
Speaker
Yeah.
00:31:54
Speaker
Yeah.
00:31:54
Speaker
He's already, he was already kicking water uphill.
00:31:58
Speaker
It was never going to work out for him.
00:32:00
Speaker
Hamilton temple doesn't want to throw away his shot.
00:32:03
Speaker
It doesn't.
00:32:04
Speaker
It doesn't, especially if that shot will help him to transform illusion ladies into corpses.
00:32:10
Speaker
You just want to be, it wants to be in the room where it happens.
00:32:13
Speaker
I know.
00:32:13
Speaker
Yeah, exactly.
00:32:15
Speaker
Exactly.
00:32:17
Speaker
I hated that musical so much.
00:32:19
Speaker
That's my incredibly controversial but brave statement.
00:32:23
Speaker
Thank you.
00:32:25
Speaker
I hated it.
00:32:27
Speaker
Chapter 18, we cut to Elinor Knox.
00:32:31
Speaker
She has entered her and her husband's room.
00:32:34
Speaker
It is like very...
00:32:36
Speaker
uh, old fashioned, like very classically, uh, uh, decorated, it's filled with antiques and, uh, you just kind of imagine like strong German wooden furniture, you know, handmade craftsmanship.
00:32:50
Speaker
Uh, uh,
00:32:53
Speaker
We get she comes to a rug that has kind of a maze embroidered on the outside of it.
00:33:01
Speaker
And we get a moment where she kind of follows the maze with her finger and solves it.
00:33:07
Speaker
This is another one of the puzzles.
00:33:08
Speaker
And after that, it just disappears.
00:33:11
Speaker
Nothing matters after that.
00:33:12
Speaker
It's just a thing that she does.
00:33:15
Speaker
Um, nothing ever happens.
00:33:17
Speaker
No, it's true.
00:33:18
Speaker
Uh, uh, she, we get a seminar monologue.
00:33:21
Speaker
She has misgivings about her husband.
00:33:23
Speaker
Uh, she talks about how, like, it's really funny because like, she talks about how, like, she, it's always been the two of them and she could always rely on them until now with this woman.
00:33:34
Speaker
And I just want to be like, honey, uh,
00:33:37
Speaker
if he ran after this one random piece of strange, that hard, that fast, he has done this before.
00:33:45
Speaker
This is not, I hate to break it to you, but this is not his first, uh, uh, uh, cheating rodeo.
00:33:53
Speaker
Um, so, uh, she's feeling some misgivings.
00:33:56
Speaker
And when that, when, as she's thinking about this, this young man appears out of nowhere and basically tries to seduce her.
00:34:04
Speaker
and wants her to like run away with him and everything.
00:34:06
Speaker
And for a second, she's kind of into it.
00:34:08
Speaker
Everybody's getting shining.
00:34:09
Speaker
It's all, it's all the corpse lady in the bathtub.
00:34:13
Speaker
It's that's what it is.
00:34:15
Speaker
It's that over and over and over again.
00:34:19
Speaker
Because, because she starts to get into it.
00:34:21
Speaker
Then she like,
00:34:23
Speaker
Last second is like, no, no, I don't want to.
00:34:24
Speaker
I'm not going to do that.
00:34:25
Speaker
I'm married.
00:34:26
Speaker
I care about my husband.
00:34:27
Speaker
And the old he turns into an old man and basically becomes stauf.
00:34:32
Speaker
And he's staring at her.
00:34:33
Speaker
First, he becomes a tree monster.
00:34:35
Speaker
Right.
00:34:36
Speaker
Oh, yes.
00:34:36
Speaker
Arm turns into a vine and everything.
00:34:38
Speaker
Yeah.
00:34:39
Speaker
Yeah.
00:34:40
Speaker
I liked that.
00:34:40
Speaker
I thought that was because like his hand grips her arm and she looks down.
00:34:44
Speaker
It's not a hand.
00:34:44
Speaker
It's it's a vine.
00:34:46
Speaker
I thought that was very cool.
00:34:47
Speaker
Yeah, it is.
00:34:48
Speaker
It is great.
00:34:49
Speaker
It's a horrifying, horrifying group.
00:34:52
Speaker
More so.
00:34:53
Speaker
I mean, meanwhile, Martine is seducing the shit out of Edward in her bedroom.
00:35:03
Speaker
Um, so I'm just gonna say this now.
00:35:05
Speaker
She is so over the top with how hard she is seducing this guy that in this part of the chapter, I assumed, and we'll find out this is not so, but I assumed at this point that she was possessed by a ghost or something like that, like that, that like that she has, or that she was an illusion version of herself, uh, that staff had like arranged to, to, to take out Edward or something.
00:35:31
Speaker
But, um,
00:35:32
Speaker
That is not the case.
00:35:34
Speaker
So she seduces him.
00:35:36
Speaker
She tells him that she wants to team up and then they have a quick dab of sex.
00:35:41
Speaker
And that's chapter 18.
00:35:43
Speaker
Just a dab will do you.
00:35:44
Speaker
Just a dab of sex.
00:35:46
Speaker
Quick.
00:35:46
Speaker
No, there's no time for a lot of foreplay.
00:35:49
Speaker
We're in a haunted mansion.
00:35:50
Speaker
We're in a mansion and, uh, we're this, we're we playing by the rules of every other horror story.
00:35:58
Speaker
This would have meant that you were the next people killed, but.
00:36:01
Speaker
Oh, 100%.
00:36:02
Speaker
Yes.
00:36:02
Speaker
Yes.
00:36:03
Speaker
Uh, unfortunately that's not the case.
00:36:05
Speaker
Uh,
00:36:07
Speaker
We cut to chapter 19.
00:36:08
Speaker
Tad is sneaking past Eleanor now as she solves the rug maze and he enters the game room because the seventh room, I forgot to mention this temple found the seventh room, which doesn't have a name on it for the seventh guest.
00:36:24
Speaker
And it's a game room.
00:36:24
Speaker
It's filled with games of every stripe.
00:36:29
Speaker
So so Tad finds that area.
00:36:32
Speaker
Temple is also in the game room.
00:36:34
Speaker
He finds a chess set.
00:36:36
Speaker
The chess set has pieces that the seven pieces are carved with all of their faces and the face of a little boy that he doesn't recognize.
00:36:44
Speaker
And he starts to kind of infer that what Stauf is doing is going to require all of their life energy or something.
00:36:52
Speaker
It's a real reach.
00:36:53
Speaker
It's a real stretch from I want to learn these powers to what?
00:36:56
Speaker
wait a minute, you're going to suck away our life force or something.
00:37:00
Speaker
He just kind of assumes something bad is going to happen now.
00:37:03
Speaker
And when he sees that the seventh guest is a little boy, he flips out and he, and he, he will not allow this to happen.
00:37:10
Speaker
And he turns and sees there's Tad, the wide eyed urchin.
00:37:16
Speaker
I do.
00:37:17
Speaker
I can't help myself.
00:37:18
Speaker
I keep.
00:37:19
Speaker
I keep.
00:37:22
Speaker
I keep imagining him as this like Dawkins era, like sorry, Dickensian, like like street urchin.
00:37:30
Speaker
I can't help myself.
00:37:32
Speaker
Clean your chimney, sir.
00:37:35
Speaker
Yeah.
00:37:35
Speaker
I just like for a hey penny, sir.
00:37:38
Speaker
Hey, Penny.
00:37:40
Speaker
I cannot help myself.
00:37:41
Speaker
This is how I imagine it.
00:37:44
Speaker
Chapter 20, the same figure that we met at the very end of last episode, this anonymous figure is wandering the halls, seeing ghosts everywhere.
00:37:55
Speaker
This is a very ethereal kind of character.
00:37:58
Speaker
This character has also heard the nursery rhymes about Stouffe and now hears nursery rhymes with Stouffe.
00:38:04
Speaker
extra verses.
00:38:05
Speaker
Now it's it's continuing the story basically to the verses.
00:38:09
Speaker
And now they have details about the boy.
00:38:12
Speaker
And it very vaguely says now that he knows he knows now what he has to do.
00:38:19
Speaker
So that's so that's chapter 20.
00:38:24
Speaker
Chapter 21, we get Martine and Edward, assumedly post coitus, maybe a cigarette.
00:38:34
Speaker
I assume.
00:38:34
Speaker
Yeah.
00:38:35
Speaker
Yeah.
00:38:35
Speaker
It's 35 or whenever the fuck it is.
00:38:38
Speaker
It's, it's, it's, it's 1930 bad.
00:38:40
Speaker
And it's, you're allowed to smoke indoors without assuming people, assuming you're trash.
00:38:46
Speaker
They find a portrait room.
00:38:48
Speaker
It's filled with old paintings of all these different people.
00:38:50
Speaker
They're all really kind of unnerving portraits.
00:38:53
Speaker
Yeah.
00:38:55
Speaker
And they find a puzzle painting that is a puzzle, basically.
00:39:01
Speaker
And it's like it's like, you know, a move the square kind of puzzle.
00:39:04
Speaker
I have to imagine it's just different colors.
00:39:06
Speaker
And you have to he has to figure out the right way to get all the different pieces so that they're the right color.
00:39:12
Speaker
And it just looks like stuff as the case may be.
00:39:15
Speaker
And when the puzzle is finished, it reveals a background images behind.
00:39:21
Speaker
Yeah.
00:39:22
Speaker
Cause they say the portrait, the figures in the portraits are not all that messed up.
00:39:26
Speaker
It's the stuff happening behind them.
00:39:29
Speaker
Like if you ever, if you, if you never actually looked in the background of the most Mona Lisa, for example, take a look, it's pretty cool.
00:39:36
Speaker
It's, it's, it's foggy and spooky and, and, and it's, it's really interesting.
00:39:40
Speaker
Yeah.
00:39:41
Speaker
And that's that kind of thing with this.
00:39:43
Speaker
So they see in the background of this painting of staff, them, the two of them dragging a little boy towards something.
00:39:51
Speaker
And they realize that they have to find this kid and offer him up to staff in order to get their prize, basically.
00:40:00
Speaker
And then the paintings go nuts.
00:40:03
Speaker
You remember that scene in Black Swan?
00:40:06
Speaker
It just they all go crazy.
00:40:08
Speaker
The little boy painting like a shark teeth and
00:40:11
Speaker
and says something about like, you think my eyes are big.
00:40:15
Speaker
Wait until you see my mouth.
00:40:16
Speaker
And it's like, no one said anything about your eyes.
00:40:19
Speaker
Shut up.
00:40:20
Speaker
And yeah, it's that scene from Black Swan.
00:40:24
Speaker
All the pictures are going and losing their minds.
00:40:26
Speaker
They got a munchkin.
00:40:29
Speaker
Oh, oh, speaking of she came at just the right time.
00:40:34
Speaker
Spooky children.
00:40:35
Speaker
Hello.
00:40:39
Speaker
Hey kid, how you doing?
00:40:43
Speaker
Good.
00:40:44
Speaker
Good.
00:40:46
Speaker
Oh, you wearing an Iron Maiden t-shirt?
00:40:48
Speaker
Are you reading Hamilton?
00:40:50
Speaker
No, we aren't.
00:40:51
Speaker
Then why not hear Hamilton lines?
00:40:54
Speaker
Because there's a guy named Hamilton in this.
00:40:57
Speaker
Yeah, no, we are not.
00:41:00
Speaker
There wasn't enough throwing up for me and your dad for it to be Hamilton.
00:41:04
Speaker
Or at least for me.
00:41:05
Speaker
I hate that musical.
00:41:08
Speaker
So.
00:41:09
Speaker
It isn't.
00:41:09
Speaker
Yes.
00:41:10
Speaker
She's an Iron Maiden shirt, right?
00:41:11
Speaker
Okay.
00:41:12
Speaker
Yeah.
00:41:12
Speaker
Sick.
00:41:14
Speaker
That's awesome.
00:41:15
Speaker
Metal forever, kid.
00:41:19
Speaker
I love it.
00:41:21
Speaker
I love it.
00:41:22
Speaker
Is your hair still blue?
00:41:25
Speaker
You got any blue left?
00:41:26
Speaker
I can't tell.
00:41:26
Speaker
The background's kind of flawed.
00:41:28
Speaker
Oh, yeah.
00:41:29
Speaker
Yeah.
00:41:29
Speaker
Look at that.
00:41:29
Speaker
There it is.
00:41:30
Speaker
He was asking if you have blue hair left.
00:41:32
Speaker
Yes.
00:41:33
Speaker
I said have blue hair.
00:41:34
Speaker
Good.
00:41:35
Speaker
Good.
00:41:39
Speaker
Well, you'll be pleased to know that Graham is walking a little bit here and there.
00:41:44
Speaker
The problem is, is he gets too confident and then he falls on his face and cries.
00:41:49
Speaker
But he's getting there.
00:41:50
Speaker
We're very proud.
00:41:51
Speaker
Yeah.
00:41:53
Speaker
Yeah.
00:41:55
Speaker
Thank you for visiting.
00:41:58
Speaker
Bye, sweetie.
00:41:59
Speaker
Oh, that's cool.
00:42:00
Speaker
She like fades into the background.
00:42:03
Speaker
Oh, that's.
00:42:04
Speaker
Who says the fog isn't scary.
00:42:06
Speaker
Yes.
00:42:07
Speaker
I love it.
00:42:09
Speaker
I love it.
00:42:10
Speaker
We haven't had a munchkin on in a while.
00:42:12
Speaker
That was great.
00:42:12
Speaker
Yeah.
00:42:13
Speaker
It's a good munchkin visit.
00:42:14
Speaker
It's a good munchkin visit.
00:42:16
Speaker
Oh, okay.
00:42:17
Speaker
Yeah.
00:42:17
Speaker
We cut to Julia, who is hammered.
00:42:21
Speaker
She has been drinking since they got in there.
00:42:25
Speaker
And she has she has completed the can puzzle, the mystery of the cans and drinking beer.
00:42:35
Speaker
Well, yeah.
00:42:36
Speaker
And and the pot is bubbling up and bubbling oil over and a horrifying red faced man like just kind of like ascends from the stew.
00:42:49
Speaker
Uh, uh, it starts out as like this big piece of meat and the big piece of meats eyes open and then horrible mouth.
00:42:56
Speaker
It's very hell raisers actually pretty cool.
00:42:58
Speaker
Um, it looks evil to her at first, but then she kind of decides that it's there to help her based on absolutely nothing.
00:43:07
Speaker
Uh, so.
00:43:08
Speaker
I feel like things are going to go pretty well for Julia.
00:43:11
Speaker
I think so.
00:43:12
Speaker
She's right there on the spot.
00:43:14
Speaker
She's got it.
00:43:14
Speaker
She's got it figured out.
00:43:15
Speaker
She knows better than us because she's there.
00:43:20
Speaker
And the chapter ends with them smiling at each other.
00:43:22
Speaker
So what could possibly happen?
00:43:24
Speaker
Everything's fine.
00:43:25
Speaker
What could go wrong?
00:43:26
Speaker
Nothing.
00:43:26
Speaker
Not a damn thing.
00:43:28
Speaker
We get to chapter 22.
00:43:28
Speaker
It's another short one.
00:43:30
Speaker
Stauff is back in his control room watching everything unfold.
00:43:36
Speaker
He has another you think you're better than me moment.
00:43:39
Speaker
You think you're better than me.
00:43:41
Speaker
Yeah, I'm going to show these people like the fucking trash that lived in this town.
00:43:45
Speaker
Look down on me before he's that guy.
00:43:48
Speaker
Here's another one of those moments.
00:43:51
Speaker
And the chapter ends with him implying that the deaths of these seven are just the beginning of something even bigger.
00:44:00
Speaker
And that's the end of chapter 22.
00:44:02
Speaker
And that's the end of the second third of the book.
00:44:05
Speaker
So, Kevin, what do you think so far?
00:44:08
Speaker
It's fine.
Adapting Video Games to Books: Challenges and Insights
00:44:10
Speaker
Yeah.
00:44:12
Speaker
For some reason, it's like it's weird where it's like there's a puzzle happening and we're not going to talk about it explicitly.
00:44:19
Speaker
It feels like there's some weird order from above where it's like maybe there was more written about the puzzles and they're just like, just kind of skip around all that because we don't want people...
00:44:31
Speaker
Figuring it out.
00:44:32
Speaker
I feel like book.
00:44:34
Speaker
I feel like they could have just because there's enough for them to work with here that they didn't need to mention the puzzles at all.
00:44:43
Speaker
And it's like I totally agree.
00:44:45
Speaker
It's just kind of distracting.
00:44:47
Speaker
Yeah.
00:44:48
Speaker
That they're there.
00:44:48
Speaker
But yeah, there didn't need to be any real puzzles, just kind of like investigation into the house or what have you.
00:44:54
Speaker
Right.
00:44:55
Speaker
The only thing I'll say is what really threw me off is when they're when.
00:45:00
Speaker
So Brian Dutton picks up his letter at one point and he walks out of the hallway and he reads it.
00:45:07
Speaker
And and the Dutton is thinking about how staff was pissed off at him for not delivering anything.
00:45:18
Speaker
on time for the shelves for his store or something like that.
00:45:23
Speaker
But then they also, then they also say that Dutton is 30 years old and Stalf is a really old man.
00:45:30
Speaker
And they're like, when the, like,
00:45:32
Speaker
When did the store thing did did staff like build the store and close it in like a matter of a year?
00:45:40
Speaker
What's going on?
00:45:41
Speaker
And here's the thing they do.
00:45:43
Speaker
We mentioned this in the last episode, but they do it again in this section where they kind of address the fact that like when they're all outside of this mansion, it's like falling apart.
00:45:55
Speaker
But they're like looking at it going, wait, wasn't this just built?
00:46:00
Speaker
Like, why is it falling apart?
00:46:02
Speaker
So it's the second time that we're kind of like given this inkling of like time is weird here and something doesn't make.
00:46:11
Speaker
Now, if that connects in the third act here,
00:46:17
Speaker
then I'll be impressed to be completely honest.
00:46:19
Speaker
Cause that would be, that's like they planted the seeds and they gave us a payoff and that would be, I'd be impressed by that.
00:46:26
Speaker
Yeah.
00:46:27
Speaker
But we've yet to see if that's going to happen.
00:46:29
Speaker
Right.
00:46:29
Speaker
So for now it's just, yeah, for now there are just like more questions than answers in terms of like, wait, the timing of this doesn't make, it's like, it's the end of the green mile where it's like the timing doesn't make sense.
00:46:41
Speaker
Does it?
00:46:41
Speaker
Math doesn't add up.
00:46:44
Speaker
Math ain't mathin bro.
00:46:46
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
00:46:47
Speaker
The seventh guest is as high as they can count.
00:46:51
Speaker
uh otherwise i like it uh in a like in terms of like some of the scenes are kind of neat some of the horror is good like like the the beautiful woman who then is like starts aging really fast and she like splits open and like i was like in my mind's eye i was like ah that's that's that's neat that's gross like i'm sure it's really lame in the game uh right right yeah
00:47:19
Speaker
I don't remember to be completely honest.
00:47:21
Speaker
It's been a long time.
00:47:22
Speaker
I should watch it again.
00:47:23
Speaker
There's stuff in the book.
00:47:26
Speaker
There's moments where it's really neat, but it also has kind of like a, I don't know, I'm not
00:47:36
Speaker
It's fine.
00:47:38
Speaker
You know, I don't have much.
00:47:39
Speaker
There's not much thought from me like being generated as I read these pages, you know?
00:47:45
Speaker
Yeah.
00:47:45
Speaker
Yeah.
00:47:46
Speaker
No, I, I, I'm, I'm with you on that.
00:47:49
Speaker
It's not, I, I, I actually totally agree.
00:47:52
Speaker
It's like some of the horror stuff is really good.
00:47:54
Speaker
I think I, and I mentioned this last episode, I think.
00:47:58
Speaker
The thing that I'm admiring about it is when the adaptation aspect of it works, it really does work.
00:48:06
Speaker
It does not fall into outside of the distracting as hell puzzle things that we've already addressed.
00:48:14
Speaker
It doesn't fall into a lot of the traps we've run into with other video game adaptations.
00:48:20
Speaker
And I'm kind of impressed with that.
00:48:22
Speaker
Yeah.
00:48:23
Speaker
So, yeah.
00:48:24
Speaker
So we'll we'll be wrapping this up next week.
00:48:27
Speaker
But Kevin, until then, I just I had a question.
00:48:33
Speaker
What are you playing?
00:48:35
Speaker
Oh, OK.
00:48:37
Speaker
So I'm I'm still back on my bullshit with Warhammer 40K Road Trader.
00:48:44
Speaker
I'm deeper into the DLC.
00:48:46
Speaker
I actually went through a chunk of the DLC content that they added with Void Shadows, where you actually go down to a part of the ship.
00:49:01
Speaker
called the freight line, which is, it's just a really neat addition.
00:49:07
Speaker
You're supposed to be looking for the, the church of the blood spinners or whatever, because you get a blood spinner in your party and, and it's like, okay, you want to be initiated as, as someone who listens to death or, you know, whatever it's, it's the grim, dark bullshit that we all love.
00:49:27
Speaker
Oh, yeah.
00:49:28
Speaker
So you have to go down.
00:49:30
Speaker
It's somewhere you have to start your path in the freight line.
00:49:33
Speaker
So you get down to the freight line and the freight line is literally an area where they take care of the trains that run on your ship.
00:49:48
Speaker
Your ship has a railway inside of it to move cargo and people around.
00:49:56
Speaker
That's how goddamn big this ship is.
00:49:59
Speaker
That's how big your void ship is.
00:50:03
Speaker
So you have this, you're going down to the freight line and...
00:50:07
Speaker
You're like meeting all these people.
00:50:09
Speaker
And along the way, there's a few encounters and you actually are tested.
00:50:16
Speaker
Like these encounters are actually tests as you go through to find the, and you don't necessarily even realize it because some of them that you could, you could actually miss.
00:50:27
Speaker
Like you just didn't talk to this guy.
00:50:28
Speaker
So like you talk to this guy and you're like, you offer him comfort or something like that.
00:50:34
Speaker
And yeah,
00:50:38
Speaker
you go through and there's there's a bunch of other there's a three in total uh and then you get to the end and the guy is like oh well you know when i was it was like that jesus thing it's like oh when i was burned when i was the burned and dying you comforted me when i was blah blah blah you did this
00:50:59
Speaker
So there's like one guy that's burned and dying and you call the care team to like come down and pick him up and and like heal him and put him to work doing something else because like, well, he he didn't die.
00:51:12
Speaker
So it's not his turn to die.
00:51:14
Speaker
So he's just sitting here suffering.
00:51:16
Speaker
And that's the whole thing with the blood spinners.
00:51:18
Speaker
It's like, yeah, we kill people whose time it is not whose time is not not unnecessarily.
00:51:28
Speaker
Right.
00:51:28
Speaker
And then you talk one guy into killing himself, um, because he was supposed to have died.
00:51:35
Speaker
Oh, wow.
00:51:37
Speaker
Wow.
00:51:39
Speaker
God, fucking 40 K so bleak.
00:51:41
Speaker
I love them for it.
00:51:43
Speaker
So he was a failed blood spinner whose final task because he was ejected from the blood spinners was to kill himself, but he never did.
00:51:50
Speaker
So now you have to talk him into killing himself.
00:51:53
Speaker
And he does by jumping out in front of one of the trains.
00:51:57
Speaker
Um,
00:51:59
Speaker
Fucking love it.
00:52:00
Speaker
Fucking love it.
00:52:01
Speaker
40K, baby.
00:52:03
Speaker
I love this universe so damn much.
00:52:10
Speaker
Oh, God.
00:52:11
Speaker
So, yeah, I'm really enjoying stuff that they added, and there's actually a lot of polish that they've added with patches and the DLC over the past year or so.
00:52:21
Speaker
So, even if you played 40K back at launch, played Road Trader back at launch, and want to pick it up again, it's worth taking a look at because of the quality of life updates and
00:52:39
Speaker
There's like added characters now and all that fun stuff.
00:52:43
Speaker
And so I think in three months or so, there's going to be the next DLC is coming out in like three months.
00:52:52
Speaker
And that's going to be.
00:52:53
Speaker
They are not skimping on the DLC like they are really going hard with it.
00:52:58
Speaker
They actually they actually had an interview.
00:53:00
Speaker
Alcat had an interview where they were where they talked about.
00:53:03
Speaker
like DLC and future projects and all that stuff.
00:53:07
Speaker
And they were like cagey about like promising what like saying what their future projects are.
00:53:14
Speaker
They would say what wasn't their future project.
00:53:16
Speaker
And then it's like, then they would be like, so I think there might be another 40 K more 40 K stuff coming from them.
00:53:23
Speaker
I'm not sure.
00:53:25
Speaker
I know there's more DLC.
00:53:28
Speaker
If, if these DLC do well, there will be more DLC.
00:53:32
Speaker
for Rogue Trader.
00:53:35
Speaker
They're a good group to have the 40k universe.
00:53:39
Speaker
They're doing right by them.
00:53:41
Speaker
Yeah, and each DLC, so the first DLC added 15 hours to the game, and then the second DLC adds another 15 hours.
00:53:50
Speaker
So it's like they keep expanding.
00:53:53
Speaker
And what's interesting is if you played the game, then you know that, oh yeah, there's plenty of room to expand because
00:53:59
Speaker
your ship is flying through this Corona's expanse.
00:54:02
Speaker
And there's like, there's plenty of empty planets where they can just go back and be like, okay, no, on this planet, you actually have a thing that you can go, go do.
00:54:10
Speaker
It never ends.
00:54:11
Speaker
It never ends.
00:54:13
Speaker
Yeah.
00:54:13
Speaker
Yeah.
00:54:15
Speaker
So it's, it's, it's cool stuff.
00:54:18
Speaker
I like it.
00:54:18
Speaker
They also talked about Baldur's Gate three and they're like, they're asked about it and they're like, well, Baldur's Gate three hasn't necessarily,
00:54:27
Speaker
we're not sure if it has led to direct sales of rogue trader, uh, but it definitely has, it has upped the awareness of the genre.
00:54:38
Speaker
Um, uh, but unfortunately, and then they said, but unfortunately it might've also upped the expectations of the genre.
00:54:44
Speaker
Yeah.
00:54:45
Speaker
Yeah.
00:54:46
Speaker
Yeah.
00:54:46
Speaker
That makes a lot of sense.
00:54:48
Speaker
And they're, they, then they're like, but we're not too worried about that.
00:54:51
Speaker
They, they said, you know, um, so anyway, good for them.
00:54:56
Speaker
That's excellent.
00:54:57
Speaker
Yeah.
00:54:57
Speaker
Yeah, so I've been playing that and Call of Cthulhu.
00:55:03
Speaker
I started getting into that a little bit more.
00:55:08
Speaker
It hits right in the little first one that came out a few years back.
00:55:14
Speaker
2018.
00:55:14
Speaker
Yeah.
00:55:15
Speaker
Yeah.
00:55:16
Speaker
Yeah.
00:55:16
Speaker
I liked that one.
00:55:17
Speaker
Yeah.
00:55:18
Speaker
It's just right.
00:55:19
Speaker
You know, it's like a, it has, it had like mixed reviews when it first came out.
00:55:24
Speaker
I think it was supposed to be pretty buggy.
00:55:27
Speaker
But yeah, it's like, Oh, I'm going around.
00:55:29
Speaker
I'm, I'm investigating things.
00:55:31
Speaker
I'm clicking on things.
00:55:33
Speaker
I like it.
00:55:34
Speaker
You know, it's I'll be, I'll be very interested to think, uh, hear what you, what do you think about it?
00:55:38
Speaker
If you're finished with it, it's a, it's a very interesting game.
00:55:42
Speaker
Yeah.
00:55:42
Speaker
Yeah.
Gaming Experiences: 'Warhammer 40K', 'Call of Cthulhu', and More
00:55:43
Speaker
Yeah.
00:55:44
Speaker
Um, and, uh, if I recall correctly, wasn't it, wasn't it a game that was, or maybe I'm thinking of something else and I think I have sinking city.
00:55:57
Speaker
They came out around the same time, I think.
00:55:59
Speaker
So at least at least in the same year.
00:56:02
Speaker
Yeah.
00:56:02
Speaker
Cause the sinking city was the one that, okay.
00:56:05
Speaker
No sinking city came out three years later.
00:56:08
Speaker
Are you serious?
00:56:09
Speaker
Oh no.
00:56:09
Speaker
You know what?
00:56:10
Speaker
It came out on steam much later, but I feel like it came out.
00:56:14
Speaker
Yeah.
00:56:15
Speaker
Yeah.
00:56:16
Speaker
So now that I'm saying that.
00:56:18
Speaker
Yeah.
00:56:19
Speaker
Yeah.
00:56:21
Speaker
Yeah, I might play The Sinking City as well.
00:56:26
Speaker
I've heard it's janky, but the people who like it love it.
00:56:30
Speaker
Yeah.
00:56:32
Speaker
Yeah.
00:56:33
Speaker
Yeah.
00:56:34
Speaker
And Frogwares also does those Sherlock Holmes games that seem to... They're pretty good.
00:56:43
Speaker
I played one of them, I think.
00:56:45
Speaker
I've always been intrigued by them.
00:56:46
Speaker
I never played one.
00:56:47
Speaker
Yeah.
00:56:49
Speaker
Oh, and there's an old game that they made called Dracula Origin that's in the same vibe.
00:56:56
Speaker
Interesting.
00:56:58
Speaker
You know it's special when the screenshots are still in 4x3.
00:57:01
Speaker
Oh, of course.
00:57:03
Speaker
Yeah.
00:57:04
Speaker
Dracula Origin.
00:57:06
Speaker
Look at that.
00:57:07
Speaker
Yeah.
00:57:08
Speaker
Oh, wow.
00:57:10
Speaker
Look at these PS2 graphics.
00:57:13
Speaker
Oh.
00:57:15
Speaker
Fucking excellent.
00:57:18
Speaker
Here we go.
00:57:20
Speaker
Dig it.
00:57:22
Speaker
I dig it.
00:57:23
Speaker
Yeah.
00:57:23
Speaker
Sherlock Holmes.
00:57:25
Speaker
Yeah, they do those Sherlock Holmes things that are relatively... Did I?
00:57:32
Speaker
Yes.
00:57:33
Speaker
I've played a bit of chapter one.
00:57:37
Speaker
Sherlock Holmes chapter one.
00:57:38
Speaker
It's good.
00:57:39
Speaker
Right.
00:57:39
Speaker
I would like to get, but it was janky.
00:57:45
Speaker
I think they're going to be, they're one of those Euro jank companies.
00:57:49
Speaker
Are they European?
00:57:49
Speaker
Let's assume that they're European.
00:57:51
Speaker
It's easy to.
00:57:56
Speaker
But yeah, that's about it.
00:57:58
Speaker
Phil.
00:57:58
Speaker
Nice.
00:58:02
Speaker
Oh, well, I played a couple of games.
00:58:05
Speaker
I played a demo.
00:58:06
Speaker
So I'll start with a demo.
00:58:09
Speaker
This game is called Death Howl.
00:58:10
Speaker
Have you seen this?
00:58:12
Speaker
No.
00:58:13
Speaker
It is a I think you're going to like this.
00:58:17
Speaker
I like it.
00:58:19
Speaker
It's a deck builder.
00:58:20
Speaker
It's also referred to as a Souls-like.
00:58:23
Speaker
Um, which is interesting.
00:58:25
Speaker
I think that's mostly the aesthetic.
00:58:28
Speaker
Um, but I will say that the combat is pretty challenging.
00:58:32
Speaker
Um, basically you, you play a mother in this paleolithic era.
00:58:38
Speaker
Your son, I believe has died and you are off on this quest into the spirit world to like bring him back.
00:58:45
Speaker
And you have these different sections of the spirit world that you've got to go through and fight.
00:58:51
Speaker
Yeah, no, I had some ghosts.
00:58:52
Speaker
I have this on my wish list.
00:58:54
Speaker
Yeah.
00:58:54
Speaker
Okay, good.
00:58:55
Speaker
Yeah.
00:58:55
Speaker
I was like, I looked it up and you're like, nope, I wish listed it.
00:59:03
Speaker
I played, I, I, I didn't know that, but I w I was like, I feel like Kevin, if he doesn't know about this, he should.
00:59:10
Speaker
Um, it's, it's the graphic style.
00:59:13
Speaker
It's got that good, you know, um, it's not quite a faith, but it's, uh, it's got a similar pixelated kind of vibe to it and it's beautiful.
00:59:23
Speaker
It's, it's, it's really well done.
00:59:24
Speaker
Um,
00:59:25
Speaker
It's a fun card builder.
00:59:27
Speaker
The mechanics are fun.
00:59:28
Speaker
The, um, uh, the, um, uh, what do you call it?
00:59:32
Speaker
Advancement system is very fun.
00:59:34
Speaker
I played through the entire, uh, demo, um, and really enjoyed it, uh, racked up about three hours and barely noticed it.
00:59:44
Speaker
Um, uh, the, the aesthetic is lovely.
00:59:47
Speaker
You don't see a lot of like, uh,
00:59:50
Speaker
ancient era games like paleolithic era games.
00:59:54
Speaker
That's pretty cool.
00:59:57
Speaker
It has a very witched out vibe, which I'm into.
01:00:01
Speaker
And it's if, if the finished product, I don't think they've set a release date yet.
01:00:10
Speaker
But if the finished product is,
01:00:12
Speaker
uh, has more of what they're doing, uh, and polishes it up some more, uh, and, and, and continues, uh, with the story the way they have, I think we might have something really special with this.
01:00:24
Speaker
Like it's, I, I really look forward to that.
01:00:27
Speaker
Um, I, it was a nice little surprise.
01:00:30
Speaker
Um, so that was, that was a lot of fun.
01:00:34
Speaker
Um, after that I played a turnip boy commits tax evasion.
01:00:39
Speaker
Uh, because, uh, yeah, the, the first one.
01:00:42
Speaker
Yeah.
01:00:42
Speaker
I never played that.
01:00:43
Speaker
And, uh, it, it, it took the better part of an afternoon.
01:00:48
Speaker
Uh, so much fun.
01:00:49
Speaker
Uh, so good.
01:00:51
Speaker
It's so cute because like your only input as turnip boy is, is to rip something up.
01:00:56
Speaker
To rip things up.
01:00:57
Speaker
Yeah.
01:00:58
Speaker
Yeah.
01:00:58
Speaker
And it's for better or for worse.
01:01:00
Speaker
Your tax notification at the beginning and you rip it up and, uh,
01:01:06
Speaker
It's great.
01:01:08
Speaker
And it just starts this whole fucking chain of events.
01:01:13
Speaker
And it's, it's, yeah, it's a terrific little kind of Zelda like, whereas the sequel was had more roguelike elements to it.
01:01:20
Speaker
This is, this is more of your straightforward Zelda like thing.
01:01:22
Speaker
And it's fun.
01:01:24
Speaker
The aesthetic is fun.
01:01:25
Speaker
It honest to God got me thinking, um,
01:01:29
Speaker
if I could design a D and D campaign where everyone plays living vegetables or something like it was that I have that much fun with the world building.
01:01:38
Speaker
They do.
01:01:38
Speaker
It's very silly.
01:01:39
Speaker
It's irreverent.
01:01:40
Speaker
The people who make it kick ass clearly, they're very cool.
01:01:44
Speaker
I mean, there's those, cause D and D has those like, don't they have mushroom people?
01:01:51
Speaker
Yes.
01:01:52
Speaker
Yes.
01:01:52
Speaker
Yeah, there are.
01:01:53
Speaker
There are mushroom people.
01:01:54
Speaker
And the mushrooms are like, they treat mushrooms like gods or something like that in this game.
01:02:00
Speaker
Like they treat, they refer to them.
01:02:03
Speaker
I don't think we ever see them.
01:02:06
Speaker
I knew I was going to, I knew I was going to enjoy it.
01:02:08
Speaker
I just, because I enjoy.
01:02:09
Speaker
I mean, you love Rochabank.
01:02:11
Speaker
Right, right.
01:02:12
Speaker
So completely different genres.
01:02:14
Speaker
Yeah.
01:02:14
Speaker
Right, right.
01:02:15
Speaker
But they play very similarly.
01:02:17
Speaker
And it just it feels good to play.
01:02:20
Speaker
I knew I was going to enjoy the humor they were throwing down when I encountered some of my first enemies, which were snails going back and forth.
01:02:29
Speaker
And there was a sign warning you about this and warning vegetarians.
01:02:34
Speaker
I was like,
01:02:35
Speaker
And then it took me a beat to realize the, and I was like, oh, that's actually hilarious.
01:02:40
Speaker
That's very, very good.
01:02:41
Speaker
Yeah.
01:02:41
Speaker
Yeah.
01:02:42
Speaker
So I beat that.
01:02:43
Speaker
That was a lot of fun.
01:02:45
Speaker
And then I played and finished the thing remastered, which I've been looking forward to since they announced it last year.
01:02:55
Speaker
It is not a good game.
01:02:56
Speaker
Yeah.
01:02:58
Speaker
In the sense that it has – I will give it to Night Dive, who has just got it in their head to remaster all these old horror games and stuff.
01:03:12
Speaker
We talked about Harvester last week, and they did that one too.
01:03:15
Speaker
Every time there's a cult classic, Night Dive is like, we're going to fix it.
01:03:20
Speaker
And God bless them for it.
01:03:21
Speaker
Because the thing about this is, uh, this game is filled with a lot of the same, um, stuff that you'd run into.
01:03:30
Speaker
That might be a problem.
01:03:32
Speaker
If you picked up, if you dusted off your Xbox and played this game as it was, uh, uh, you'd run into a lot of problems, uh, like that you're just not used to, uh, with games nowadays.
01:03:45
Speaker
And they've butched it up a little bit.
01:03:47
Speaker
They've helped out with the – they've got some autosave features in there.
01:03:51
Speaker
They've just got good quality of life improvements.
01:03:56
Speaker
They upgraded the visuals.
01:04:00
Speaker
It's not exactly – you're not looking at PS5 games.
01:04:05
Speaker
level graphics here, but, uh, it's not distracting, uh, in the way that the original would be.
01:04:11
Speaker
It's, it's, it looks great.
01:04:13
Speaker
Um, it feels good to play.
01:04:16
Speaker
Uh, having said that, uh, it, it, it is a silly game, uh, in terms of the storyline, uh, but,
01:04:24
Speaker
And it's also just just there are some things that are old enough that you can't put a new coat of paint on it.
01:04:34
Speaker
Like the fact that the everything is solved with a gun in this game, I think I think if anything, playing through
01:04:42
Speaker
Because at first, it's really super intriguing.
01:04:45
Speaker
It's the sequel to the John Carpenter's The Thing movie, and you're playing a soldier sent down there to find out what the hell happened, and everything has gone crazy.
01:04:56
Speaker
And it's pretty intriguing because they take their time building up the suspense, and you have to worry about the cold, and you have to worry about your teammates' stress, and it's really interesting.
01:05:09
Speaker
But it doesn't...
01:05:11
Speaker
go that far.
01:05:12
Speaker
The stress meter is, it has a lot of flaws.
01:05:16
Speaker
Uh, you can test your, uh, your teammates to see if they are infected.
01:05:22
Speaker
Um, which is a cool idea.
01:05:23
Speaker
However, if the game says that they're infected, it can happen at any minute.
01:05:28
Speaker
So like you can, I literally tested a guy and, and found him to be fine.
01:05:32
Speaker
He never left my eye, uh, for five minutes and then suddenly he transformed.
01:05:38
Speaker
And it's just silly in that sense.
01:05:42
Speaker
And then you get to a point where all of the subtlety and creeping dread that they had built up in the first third of it or so, it just gets dropped out the window and it's all guns blazing and it becomes a full on action game.
01:05:59
Speaker
And it's not that great of an action game.
01:06:02
Speaker
So it got me to thinking like how nowadays with the technology we have nowadays, I think a thing game for this generation might be an order that has some like, you know, the paranoid kind of aspects of it, the choose your own adventure aspects.
01:06:20
Speaker
What was the Rockstar detective game?
01:06:25
Speaker
L.A.
01:06:25
Speaker
Noire.
01:06:26
Speaker
L.A.
01:06:26
Speaker
Noire, you can have some L.A.
01:06:27
Speaker
Noire interrogation shit.
01:06:29
Speaker
And there's a lot of fun things you can do with it that don't come down to just like getting a fucking swarm of head spiders running at you, which is what eventually happens in this game.
01:06:43
Speaker
Yeah, I'd say I'd say the first quarter of the game is excellent.
01:06:48
Speaker
And then it all just kind of falls down a hill.
01:06:51
Speaker
And that's fine.
01:06:52
Speaker
I knew that was coming.
01:06:53
Speaker
You know, I just have really, really good memories of this game.
01:06:57
Speaker
It was one of my first one of the first games I played on my original Xbox that I was like super excited about and it didn't disappoint.
01:07:05
Speaker
So it was nice to be able to relive that.
01:07:08
Speaker
Yeah.
01:07:09
Speaker
So super fun.
01:07:10
Speaker
So, yeah, that's that's that's what I'm playing.
01:07:13
Speaker
Oh, fantastic.
01:07:14
Speaker
So, by the way, as I was clicking through my Steam Discovery queue as we were talking, I found a game called Blood Bar Tycoon, where it is a vampire bar management game.
01:07:28
Speaker
Oh, for God's sake.
01:07:28
Speaker
Build bars, get blood factories, lure humans to harvest their blood, process it, and serve your customers.
01:07:35
Speaker
They're vampires.
01:07:36
Speaker
Research quirky machines and deal with hunters.
01:07:39
Speaker
Expand through Crimson City to become a mighty elder.
01:07:42
Speaker
I felt like that was like I needed to tell you about that.
01:07:46
Speaker
Yeah.
01:07:47
Speaker
This looks like it could be fun as hell.
01:07:50
Speaker
It makes me think.
01:07:51
Speaker
Obviously, it's got a lot of the old school simulator vibes, but it also makes me think a little bit of that game a couple of years back.
01:08:00
Speaker
That was basically Sweeney Todd, the game.
01:08:02
Speaker
Yeah.
01:08:03
Speaker
I know you like that one.
01:08:04
Speaker
Yeah.
01:08:05
Speaker
I like that one.
01:08:05
Speaker
So I might have to take, Oh, no demo, which sucks, but I think I'll have to take a look at this.
01:08:09
Speaker
This sounds silly and fun.
01:08:12
Speaker
I like it.
01:08:12
Speaker
Yeah.
01:08:13
Speaker
Cool.
01:08:13
Speaker
Demo King.
01:08:14
Speaker
I, that's what I've become.
01:08:17
Speaker
That's, that's the, there's always going to be Phil's demo corner.
01:08:21
Speaker
Oh, and there's an idle game called chonkers, which is just about that.
01:08:28
Speaker
Like cats.
01:08:29
Speaker
I love it.
01:08:30
Speaker
I love it.
01:08:31
Speaker
That's hilarious.
01:08:33
Speaker
This is like not my discovery queue.
01:08:35
Speaker
This is your discovery queue.
01:08:36
Speaker
Yeah.
01:08:36
Speaker
You're finding all kinds of shit that I want.
01:08:42
Speaker
Anyway, that'll do it for tonight's show.
01:08:44
Speaker
Thank you so much for listening.
01:08:46
Speaker
Please follow us on Blue Sky and follow us on Patreon for the best and freshest up-to-date notifications from whatever we are doing.
01:08:59
Speaker
And if you're listening on YouTube, go ahead and hit that subscribe button and give us a like and a comment.
01:09:04
Speaker
That would be great.
01:09:06
Speaker
I want to get those YouTube numbers up there so I can start...
01:09:10
Speaker
Fattening it up with ads.
01:09:13
Speaker
That would be nice.
01:09:13
Speaker
Don't.
01:09:14
Speaker
Isn't that what you want, people?
01:09:15
Speaker
Isn't that what you want?
01:09:18
Speaker
Ads.
01:09:19
Speaker
Come on.
01:09:21
Speaker
No ads.
01:09:23
Speaker
No ads.
01:09:25
Speaker
No ads.
01:09:26
Speaker
No ads.
01:09:27
Speaker
Come on.
01:09:28
Speaker
Ads.
01:09:28
Speaker
Fun ads.
01:09:28
Speaker
Fun ads.
01:09:29
Speaker
Cool ads.
01:09:30
Speaker
Not like other ads.
01:09:30
Speaker
Yeah.