Vampire Games with LB Hunktears

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Hey, Rancha, I guess Nick is running late, late, so we can just get started when whenever he gets here.

Hopefully it's not too long, you know, kind of a big show today.

Oh, here.

Hey, buddy.

Notice anything different about me?

Where the hell did you were you in here this whole time?

How did you get in here so fast?

Well, I just had to wait for the sun to go down, so it was safe for me to walk through the city streets to get to the studio.

You know,

did you say bleh?

Yeah, but that's the thing I say sometimes.

You know, I come to think of it, I I am noticing something a little bit different about you.

Did you get like a did you get like a tan or something recently?

It's perhaps a bit of a reverse tan.

Okay, uh, you know,

it's not that.

Uh oh, I I I think I I got it.

Are you wearing like new clothes, kind of?

Some would say they're very old clothes.

Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, no, no, no, no.

I d

Wait, what was that?

That's how I laugh now.

Okay.

Gosh.

I do notice something.

I'm just trying to really pinpoint what it could be.

Excuse me, Taylor.

Let me take a drink of this blood-flavored LaCroix.

Oh, that's.

Hmm.

Hmm.

My favorite beverage.

You forgot to say orange.

You forgot to say the blood-orange.

No, it's not blood-orange.

Lose the orange.

It's cleaner.

You Sean Parker did it?

I Sean Parker did.

Okay, if that's, so it's not, you're not tan.

You're, uh, you're you're wearing old clothes.

Uh oh, I is it that have you been working out?

Yeah, I have been working out, but it's not real related.

I was trying to figure out what's so different about you.

You seem so I guess you could say that my lower body has gotten a lot stronger from hanging upside down.

Oh, you got one of those inversion tables or something?

In a matter of speaking.

It's my favorite way to rest is upside down.

Well, my second favorite after lying in a coffin.

God, what is it that's so different about you?

I was just like having such a hard time putting it together.

Ow, I just accidentally cut my tongue with my vampire fangs.

They're so sharp.

Oh my god.

I feel so stupid.

I know what it is.

You went to the dentist?

I went to the dentist.

Oh, oh, oh, oh.

Those choppers are looking good, my man.

Oh, by the way, I'm sorry.

I know that you were running late.

I didn't have time to eat before

I got here.

Do you mind if i just open up this box of garlic fries

we toss holy water projectiles and avoid the sun as gamers do as we discuss all things vampire video game related this week on get played

Wow, it's get slayed, your one-stop show for good games, bad games, and every game in between.

It's time to get flayed.

I'm your host, Ick Diger, along with Bat Apple Dracula.

I'm so thrown off.

I know that I'm supposed to say something.

I literally almost said, What's up, bitch?

Hello, everyone.

And or go to hell, everyone.

I should say.

Wow, there you go.

Oh, my God.

That really threw me for a loop.

I hadn't heard Gets, you know, and it's not.

We've done it in previous years, so I thought we could maybe take it into straight, but maybe I should have given you a heads up.

It's a good thing to, I think, spring on somebody toward the end of the month when we typically would be doing that.

We would have done that the whole time.

Well, there's a one-off.

It's a one-off.

Happy Halloween.

Happy Halloween, buddy.

Leatherface and Campbell is out this week uh but you know who is here our producer uh this is the name i thought for you spawn ranch that was the manson family headquarters i love it

i was gonna say you said that like

ranch doesn't know

of course you know

it's like my my first book i ever read was helter skelter what the hell

Who's your favorite Manson girl?

Ranch, are you a fan of the spooky season?

I do.

I love the spooky season.

Where does your rank in your hierarchy of holidays?

Number one.

Number one.

Wow.

Number one.

Wow.

How about yourself?

You know,

I like Halloween.

I like spooky.

I like candy.

Candy is great.

Love that.

I do think

there is...

This is going to, and look, I feel like I'm going to even get it.

I'm going to get in trouble in this room, I think, for saying this.

Okay.

There's a Disney adult element to Halloween.

That's fair, yeah.

And it's got, everybody's got to just calm down a little bit.

I think it's good.

I like it.

I think it's fine to like a normal amount.

But if you're talking September 28th, it's spooky season, shut up.

Shut up.

Don't do that.

End of October, I think it's fully appropriate for everyone.

It's the most appropriate at the end of October.

On the 31st?

Yeah.

You won't find a more appropriate day for it as far as I'm concerned.

Then when it's November 1st, knock it off.

No, then it's going to move on with our lives.

Straight to Christmas.

Yeah, we're going right to it.

Doing a little Christmas speedrun.

Hey, we have a wonderful guest with us today, a writer, narrative, and content designer.

That demo for their upcoming game, Fledgling Manor, a supernatural horror visual novel, is available on steam and itch.io.

LB HunkTears is here.

Hi, LB.

Hello.

Thank you so much for having me.

Hey, LB, I assume, with your Suspiria hat, a fan of the spooky season yourself.

I love the spooky season, but I agree with there is a Disney adult element, and I never want to be the person being like, it's spooky season, everybody.

Let's get creepy.

It falls into like the category of person I think that like will say, oh, it's the Sunday scaries because they got to go back to work on Monday and stuff.

You ever hear this?

You hear this?

You know about this?

Have I maybe said it?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, you're actually genuinely terrified.

You wake up on a Sunday morning and you're just screaming.

No!

Yeah,

but yeah, there's like the cutesy side of Halloween, I agree.

And then there's also like this, like the straight-up horror side, which is also its own fun.

And I'm not trying to, I'm not, I'm not trying to be a bully or nothing.

Yeah.

I am.

Okay.

Hi.

I'm new here.

Welcome to your audience.

I'm a bully.

I'll be a bully if you like to be a bully.

Let's be, let's buy, who are we going to bully?

Let's bully Nick.

Hey, wait a minute.

Sounds good.

All right.

We have plenty of horror to talk about, but also another thing that's happening before we were recording that we were talking about, and we're a little in advance here,

but baseball will still be ongoing.

The baseball season.

That's right.

LB, I know you're something of a Sporto.

And Matt,

you're a big time Dodger fan.

Love the Dodgers.

Do you have any, where do we stand on baseball games?

Anyone ever play a baseball video game?

Ever get into M.O.B.

the show or back in the day, like an RBI baseball or something?

I'll say for me,

I loved

the backyard series.

Oh, yeah, sure.

The little children's version games.

Yeah, those are fun

of athletes, and those were really fun.

There was a backyard baseball one that I believe I played on the GameCube with one of my younger brothers, and we enjoyed that quite a bit.

Any of the backyard sports, really, I liked.

I've tried in recent years to get into MLB the show

and just can't do it.

There's something about it that I don't love.

There was a baseball game that I actually really liked on the

PlayStation 2 that it's going to be impossible for me to remember which one it was, which franchise it was.

But I remember playing one on there that I enjoyed quite a bit.

But, you know,

The Crack of the Bat.

Oh, yeah, sure.

Peanuts and Cracker Jack.

Right.

Smell of fresh cut grass.

I love all that stuff.

And also, like, come on.

It's a hunky sport.

Yeah, there's some real beefcakes when it comes to baseball.

The Backyard Baseball, by the way, I should note, Backyard Baseball 97, I didn't know this, got remastered and released this year, October 10th of 2024.

So, so very, very recently, Backyard Baseball 97 has been pretty well received.

I should check it out.

Yeah.

LB, do you ever get

any stickball games?

Well, I had a great job working on a baseball game that was also a horror baseball game called Baseball.

That's right.

We have not discussed baseball.

Which was wonderful and I loved.

And yeah, unfortunately, money.

You need that?

Yeah,

they couldn't figure out a way to make money with it.

So it disappeared into the internet.

But

in terms of like a baseball video game, the thing is that I love to go to the baseball game.

I love the Peanuts, Cracker Jacks.

I love to hear the Bat Go Powell.

Get a hot dog.

Get a hot dog.

Once I was an adult, drink a beer.

Any baseball game I ever went to, leave it the seventh inning and beat traffic.

You know, and like that's the part.

If I try to play a baseball game, that's like, I don't like playing baseball.

Oh, sure.

That's not fun.

I can't hit that.

So what I would like, what I'm asking my fellow game developers to do is please make a video game that encapsulates the experience of like being at Dodger Stadium kind of drunk or doing what my uncle does, which is the best, which he goes to Sacramento minor league games, smokes a joint with his friends on like a Thursday.

I'm like, that's, that's the experience that I would like,

you know?

Or I could just go to Sacramento.

You don't want to do that.

No, I really don't want to do that.

A sim game where the game is, you're just attending a sporting event.

Right.

Could be fun.

Sitting in the stands.

Could be soothing.

I could see that.

Can we step back to talk about Blaceball a little bit?

Because Blaceball was very cool.

I mean, I guess it went offline in 2023, was it?

Do you remember exactly when it...

That couldn't have been that.

Yeah, it was June 2023.

Oh, my God.

I mean, they had some ups and downs.

They had like, basically, it launched in 2020 and it exploded in popularity.

It was a huge

pandemic.

It was a huge success.

It was a huge pandemic success.

And they weren't prepared for that at all.

And, like, it, you know, the community became like such an integral part of it.

There was like voting on what the rules would be.

You know, for it was an in-browser free game

where you voted on the rules of baseball.

It was, you know, a simulated thing.

Players could die in the game.

You know,

as people voted, like more and more weird things would happen.

You'd have, there was a peanut god that would, you know, harangue everyone with peanuts or put people into shells.

It was, yeah.

And then they took it down to kind of rework it.

And then it kind of never really came together.

But I think the game band, which is the company who made it, is going to work, is working on some other cool stuff that will hopefully come out in the future.

So.

I know that a lot of listeners, quite a few listeners have in our Discord have mentioned Blaceball and we're like big fans.

People really are.

into it yeah can you talk about I mean like I don't know how much you can you can disclose but like can you talk at all about the process of of your your work on the game when you're writing for it yeah sure well I wasn't writing for it exactly I was working with um so yeah I worked really closely with the two kind of main narrative people um Stephen Ball and Joel Clark and

basically to figure out like, okay,

anytime anything happens in this live simulated experience, what are we going to say?

Like, let's break down every single story beat that can possibly happen.

And, like, what do you want this experience to be?

So, I can help you break it down into how, you know, so I have a spreadsheet.

I still have this, but no, I don't have the spreadsheet.

I deleted the spreadsheet.

The spreadsheet's been deleted.

I had a giant spreadsheet of like every like 3.03 p.m.

This goes out, 3.04 p.m., 3.03 p.m.

one, three, you know, like minute by minute, like 30-second intervals of like messages and, you know, story beats as they happen um which was insane and really cool and yeah i didn't get to do most of it but i don't know it was they are really cool guys um they're really fun people so we're also friends we have a discord server oh that's awesome yeah Well, looking forward to whatever, whatever they develop next.

Let's talk about wrestling a little bit because I know this is something that you also,

this is very much your world.

You and I have met IRL at indie wrestling shows in the past.

Do you have, are there any wrestling games that have spoken to you on the video?

Because

I will say as a wrestling fan, my issue with wrestling video games is kind of what you're talking about in terms of the baseball fan experience is that they are presented as like fighting games.

They're presented as combat sports.

But like what I like about wrestling is like the...

That it's a the pageantry of it.

You know what I mean?

Exactly.

Like I like that it's that it's a show, you know, and I don't know exactly how you simulate that.

That's a tough thing, but like,

those are just my thoughts.

Do you have any wrestling games you've ever responded to?

No.

I don't.

Because

for the same reasons, right?

Like, I became an adult.

I'm a late-in-life wrestling fan.

I got into it as an adult because I like hunks.

Yes.

I like sparkly stuff.

I like big hair.

Yeah.

We're three for three so far.

Yeah.

All makes sense.

I like when a lady does a bunch of flips onto another lady.

That's really cool.

I think flips, one of the coolest things you could do.

Flips are fucking awesome.

Chirock.

I love a flip.

Yeah.

Did you have like a kid at your school who could do a backflip?

Oh, yeah.

And it won every time.

Yeah.

I know.

My guy's name was Maynard.

Your guy's name was Maynard?

Yeah.

That's cool.

Maynard doesn't need a backflip.

He's Maynard.

He doesn't need another thing.

The thing about this guy, he was extremely cool.

He was so awesome.

And he could just like do flips and shit.

He was awesome.

He was really cool.

That seems kind of unfair.

Yeah.

Yeah.

He didn't need all that.

he didn't need all that gas my flip sky kind of sucked but he could do a back flip so everyone loved exactly exactly that's what you want that's what the flip sky does mean that's his one thing

um yeah i have not ever seen a wrestling game that like gets to that experience and yeah it is very fighting based or it's like fighting based and like really really really

like for perverts and perverts like i mean like fire pro yeah sure sure

who are like I'm going to do every little thing.

I'm going to adjust the moveset just right.

And like full respect if you're that kind of pervert.

Nothing but love to you.

But that's not, I'm a different kind of, you know, I'm like a dwarf fortress pervert, right?

Yeah, sure.

Like that's my like

thing.

Or, you know, The Sims, like, which we'll get to when we talk a little later.

But

yeah, like, I don't know.

I would love, I would love a video game that

gets to that like that exciting theatrical weird like anything can happen.

yes, feeling right.

Like, I want the feeling of, like, what is it like to create the character Dalton Castle and like, and like, play that out, you know what I mean?

Like, it's like, like, that's like, to me, is interesting as opposed to, I'm just going to go in and we're going to, you know, we're going to play this like a fighting game with health bars and everything.

And then, when I get your health low enough, I can pin you.

That to me is just like, it's, we're not really simulating what I enjoy about this.

There should be like a

for like cutting a promo, yeah, that could be like a

quick time or like um

a

rhythm-based

mini-game where depending on your success with the QuickTime event or the rhythm event,

that's how good your promo is.

Let's say you nail a couple of notes.

There's like a kind of a similar element in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth during the part where you're pretending to be one of the soldiers, where you have to do like color guard, basically, and you have to like twirl a gun around and stuff.

And it's an extremely long mini game yeah but like you can fail and then like if you like drop your gun or whatever like the rest of the group is kind of like not as enthused about it and i think uh that mechanic would translate well to like cutting a promo or something like that yeah for sure or like the i think it's yakuza zero with the phone sex minigame oh yeah like where you have to pick out the words like that would be great for that's like really good yeah the great perfect game um yakuza zero yeah it's yeah i get the phone sex video game, I got really into, and then that heightens to a point where you start to meet the people in person.

Like that recently, right?

Like you're like,

or am I conflating that with a different one?

I think it does.

I'm thinking about your dreams.

And then you call them and they like you enough where they want to meet you in person.

You wake up and you get to hang out.

They're real.

They're real.

Yeah.

It turns out they come out of the game.

If they come out of the game, you can marry them.

But yeah, that was like...

God, that is a game that has, I'm just, I'm thinking through the myriad mini-games.

There is wrestling in Yakuza Zero.

There is, you can bet on, like,

is it just called cat fights?

I think they're just called cat fights.

Yeah, I think so.

And then there's the, and then there's the, uh, there's, there's also, we're talking baseball, there's, there's the batting cages you go to.

Yeah, but then also some of the characters are so unsubtle in the way that some wrestling characters are too.

Like, what I always forget the name of that guy, but there's this guy that walks around and like will kick your ass if he sees you.

I think it's Mr.

Payback.

Yeah, he's maybe one of my favorite characters in anything.

It's so funny.

Or is it Mr.

Shakedown?

It's something like it's something

Mr.

Shakedown.

Yeah, Mr.

Shakedown.

It's so, that's so funny.

Uh, God, I think we got to play another one of those and talk about it on the show because those games are so funny.

Uh, look, uh, like a dragon, uh, Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii is coming out soon.

So we'll definitely

seem like it's gonna be 200 hours long.

I hope, I hope

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Okay, I want to talk about Dwarf Fortress a little bit because this was a game I tried to get into.

And I fully get it.

Like, I'm messing around with this thing.

Like, I get it, but it's just indecipherable to me.

Like,

what is your level of

like, like, how much time have you put into Dwarf Fortress?

Are you playing the

version with graphics that's on Steam?

Like,

what got you hooked on that game?

So I'm not allowed to play Dwarf Fortress anymore.

Okay, fair.

If you want to know how many hours I've put into it, it's actually not that many because I saw it in myself.

Like, this is dangerous.

Right.

It feels like me with Bellatro.

I was just like, I have to cut this off.

Oh,

I figured out how to.

integrate Bilatro into my life.

All right.

Go ahead.

So it's, you know,

it's not like smoking to me.

Yeah, sure.

I have it on my phone.

Yep.

And it is like smoking to me.

Yeah.

And if it was like smoking, I'd be dead.

Yeah.

Dwarf Fortress,

it just, so I am playing the verge, or I was playing the version with graphics on Steam.

Yeah.

I was kind of afraid to play it for a long time because

I knew.

I know myself and I know what happens to me with certain kinds of like a Civ 5 or a

even like a like Crusader Kings 3 like

these certain these like games that I just am like this is I run this world and I'm gonna run it perfectly and everything's gonna be beautiful and things are gonna happen that I'm gonna need to respond to and like that's my top priority everything else not as important um I'm a like so when I was talking about the like that's the pervert I am yeah that's the kind of pervert I am when it comes to like gameplay on that like bone deep level where I'm like let me get this guy over here and this guy over here and the water wheels going.

Like, I can't explain to you why.

It just feels good to get all your little guys working together.

And Dwarf Fortress is also just a really, really good game.

Because it keeps throwing new shit at you.

Sure.

So like I had a perfect,

perfect cavern like setup.

Everything was beautiful.

And then literally a dragon came and killed everyone.

And I was like, you know what?

All my work, you know, like

one, like maybe like 40 hours, something like that that I put into this was gone.

And I'm like, I deserve that.

I'm looking at it in my life.

I'm like, I deserve that.

Yeah.

That would be like if in Animal Crossing, Tom Nook came out of his fucking store and shot your best friend in the town square.

Yeah.

That's horrible.

Yeah.

But also just torched everything you built.

Right, right, right.

You know?

But yeah, I deserve that.

I was a Sims player for a really long time.

So like, I love a,

a management sim like that.

Yeah, I get the same way with grand strategy games or like 4X games.

I really get it.

I get too into them.

And then I just am like, I do need to cut myself off.

I think just like it was the just the lack of much onboarding in Dwarf Fortress that led me to like not really latch on to it.

But like the civilization games, I mean,

I play those way too much

when I get in on them until I basically force myself to uninstall them.

Okay, Zuckerberg.

Here's the thing I like: he said that

he's really good at that.

He said, He's good at civilization.

Yeah, he said that he's maybe the best ever at it.

Wow, sounds like he'd be a good president.

I guess we'll never know.

I guess we'll never know.

It'd be nice, nice if someone could fix things up.

And I think someone with a great strategic mind

who's played it out in a bunch of simulations so they know what to do.

It would be great.

If it was somebody who recently was given Riz,

it would just be great.

There's just nobody, there's no game like that.

It's a shame.

What are you going to do?

The thing I always liked is building.

Like, I always like, like, because I know a lot of people, like, high-level

Civ players are really good at like warfare.

Like, that's the whole thing.

They go in the military side.

And, like, I, yeah, whatever.

I'll fight wars if I need to, but I'm just always more interested in infrastructure.

I want to build, like, you know, I want to build railroads and I want to

build all the different, you know, granaries in my towns and shit, you know?

I want to build the libraries and the wonders of the world.

They have games that are just that.

Yeah, I know, know, but I also like that it's like you get to span all of that.

I'm going to do war if you want to.

I know.

I like that.

Yeah.

I think that's that.

I do kind of like that threat as an element, like a thing I have to account for.

Yeah, you would love Dwarf Fortress if you were on board.

I'm sure.

Because there is a threat of war.

So you have to, like, I don't know.

I've had games where like goblins keep invading over and over again.

I'm like, I have to build up walls.

I have to get defenses.

And other times like they never show up.

I'm like, oh, okay.

Cool.

There's a trade.

The elves come and you can't trade them anything that's ever been alive.

and they're really, really mean about it.

If you accidentally click the wrong thing, because the interface is like not super clear.

Wait, the lore in this game is that elves, they don't want like a piece of wood or something because of a.

That used to be a beautiful tree.

Oh, so if it used to be a part of organic matter, they're like, they only want like rocks and sand, I guess.

Okay.

Wow.

Is there a...

I'll ask because I know that...

Nick wants to ask, but is like afraid to ask.

Is there like a romance element in these games?

Can you like date the people in the game?

Well, you're God.

And so that would be unethical.

Right.

Tell that to Zeus.

I mean, I have.

Okay.

He responded poorly, probably.

You know what?

We've like, we're in some mediation sessions about it.

At least he's interested in listening and learning.

Yeah.

I mean, it's been a long time.

You know, he's grown a lot since then.

It's been a long time.

They do romance.

They do like get in relationships with each other.

Okay, I see.

And have dwarf children.

But I don't think Nick has to worry about being too addicted to this game.

I mean,

I've developed

feelings of attachment to the other rulers in Civ 5.

Right.

Where I'm like, you're beautiful, actually.

Let's talk.

Let's look some more.

Let's build up an alliance that doesn't benefit me in any way.

Cause I just love seeing your face.

For some reason,

those types of games I can't really do.

But I mean, I guess just because it came out at a time when we all needed something like this, I got super into Animal Crossing New Horizons, and just like everybody just needed that.

That was like a warm,

like, blanket for me at the time.

Uh, and I had, I have this sheep, and I talked about him on the show a lot.

Dom the sheep.

He wears a tie-dye shirt.

He's like a muscle guy.

He likes to work out and stuff.

He's my, maybe, my favorite.

Little guy.

Like, I love, I love Dom.

Uh, and he tried to leave my island a couple of times just like because in the in the years of playing the game and I would not let him I would say absolutely not like I actually need you here or else like we we have nothing like I have nothing if I don't have Dom

so I totally get becoming attached to just like a one of these characters but Dom he's still there I'm glad yeah I haven't checked on that island

gosh at this point I'll say two years

yeah They're doing fine, I'm sure.

Who's your enemy on the island?

Was it Quilson, the guy you were hitting with a net?

I I had this duck,

this green duck who wanted to be a movie star.

He was such a little asshole, and he was so pompous.

And that's just not the vibe.

I was cultivating a vibe of sweeties.

And he comes in and he's like, what you looking at, Toots?

And I was like, what's the, this guy?

I hated him, and I...

I built a wall around his house so he couldn't go out.

I was like, I hate this guy.

I would dig holes around his house to try to trap him in a hole.

You can't really, you can't do that.

No.

One of my favorite things I did was when Nick visited my island, I dug a hole in front of him and told him to get in.

Nice.

I respect that.

I wish there was another.

I feel like I won't be interested in Animal Crossing, though, until there's another one.

Like, I've done all I can with this one.

But once they do another one, add cities.

I would love a city one to do.

I thought you were going to, I thought for a second you meant there was another global pandemic.

And I was like, that's so grim.

That's really grim.

Yeah, yeah.

No, I'm just waiting for the next one.

Yeah, I kind of, I really loved the first one

and had a great time with Animal Crossing because of it.

So if we could speed that up.

You don't have to have to worry.

We're not locking down again.

No one's doing that.

Oh my God.

We tried it.

It didn't work.

No one's missing a day of work the next one.

I was such, I was in such a weird, I mean, everyone was just crazy when that game came out.

So one of my things that I did is I built this like secret area in like like the hills of my, you know, the like the little like cliffs.

Yeah, sure.

On my island.

So whenever anyone would come, I would be like, let's show you around my island.

And it was all normal.

And then I would take them up.

And then there was a shrine to the Joker.

That's so good.

I would change into clown clone.

That's my little crown.

That's so good.

I loved doing it.

I did it a lot.

I just loved, yeah, the experience of of like seeing other people's creativity because like my island was just like a mess.

I picked stuff up.

I wouldn't leave like the trash or stuff, like, you know, like the sticks and rocks lying around.

I picked those up, but I didn't really have like a,

I don't have like a mind for

design.

No,

that's the aspect of the building that I'm never great at is the aesthetics.

And like, you know, and Rancho, I don't know if you ever got an Animal Crossing.

I did in the pandemic, like everyone else.

Yeah.

Well, did you ever visit our our mutual friend Alexis Quasarano's island?

Because

that was like...

Her island was amazing.

It was unbelievable.

It was just absolutely pristine.

And when I was invited there, I felt like I was like, like it was like, there was like almost like a queue of people wanting to visit her island.

So I remember I felt like I was getting like a, you know, like an invitation to the Louvre or whatever.

So I'd go there.

And I was walking around and I was like, this is just a marvel.

This is absolutely amazing what you have crafted.

It makes my island look like shit, you know, in comparison, but God bless you.

And then I'm also like, how did you do all?

Like, I'm just like, how did you do all this stuff and it's like you know it's like asking michael jordan how he dunks a basketball it's like i don't know what do you want from me i just do it i just do it

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I eventually got off that roof when the sun rose.

All right, LB have one more question for you and for everyone, which is, what are you playing?

Are we good?

Oh, wow.

Are we okay?

Okay.

Yeah, the Resident Evil Merchant, I guess, isn't here.

You know, it makes it Halloween.

So I bet the Resident Evil Merchant is all probably trick-or-treating.

Well, I was going to say booked up with other gigs because of being so spooky and scary.

But yeah, possibly trick-or-treating as well.

It's like trying to book Chewbacca on May the 4th, you know?

It's like he's got other stuff going on.

Probably trick-or-treating.

Wookiee Halloween.

Right, right.

In May.

It's in May, and Life Day is in October.

Things are all turned around.

All right, LB, what are you playing?

Well, I thought it would be, I knew I was going to come on here and talk to you about video games.

And like, I didn't want to just say Bellatro because that's that's like, what are you, what are you doing?

Smoking, like,

drinking water, breathing.

Um, I'm playing a lot of Bellatro, um, but I also did pick up vampire survivors.

Oh, hell yeah.

Um, because I was like, I'm talking about vampire games.

I can't just talk about The Sims, which I'm going to end up doing.

Um, I should pick up this game that has vampire and survivor in the title because I made a video game about a vampire reality show that we could have called vampire survivor if that name wasn't fucking taken

by giving us different vampires

and i guess you do survive it's um and then i did have to delete it uh because it is the like you know that meme of the monkey strapped to the chair you press the button to get the juice yeah for me that's that game even more than bilatro that game is juice it's just it's apple juice it's so yes that aspect of it is so fun uh just just like i just

god just the the just running around it just it's a game where you just run around and shoot things.

Run around.

That's all you need.

And you, here's the thing:

you shoot stuff, but you don't really know, you're not really doing all that stuff.

You're really just moving around, pretty much.

It's a relatively passive experience, but then you're also like getting so much loot, which is part of it, too.

And you're constantly incrementing numbers, which I love.

Yeah, it's, it's a, it's an incredible design.

I love it.

Do you have a favorite

in your time with it?

Did you have like a favorite character that you spent time with, or were you just like with like the starter guy?

Knife hunk.

I like that.

Oh, yeah, sure.

is good um

if i close my eyes still i see the jewels going in and the little crosses spinning around because i played so much of it that yeah like the when you know when you close your eyes you see little pictures yeah

that's still what i see it's really upsetting that's when i knew i had to delete it

i was dreaming about knives

uh yeah it's so fun it's such a like it's such a satisfying going in getting the coffins and like finding the maps so you can look around.

And when they just, there's just get to be so many guys.

Yes.

And you have your like shields around you and you're like,

the infinite guys, you can do nothing to me.

I would always try to build around garlic.

The garlic, I think, is really cool because it's like, it's a barrier that keeps people like, or, you know, creatures like away.

Like, they get hurt, like, around you, kind of, and you're not really doing anything.

That was always really fun to me.

But also, and we did an episode about this about this game a couple like, you know, last year or whatever.

Um,

and god, was it two years ago?

I don't know.

Who knows?

I think it, I think it did come out in 2022, actually.

Yeah, so it might have, but it might have, we might have just gotten around to it last year.

Um,

the sounds in that game are so

um, I'm touching my brain.

Yeah,

there's I don't know what it is, but it's like that, this, just the sounds alone are so good.

Yeah, they make you feel so good when you're playing the game.

No, it's awesome.

It's awesome audio, video, visual feedback.

And like, you know, that's part of why it works so well.

Yeah, I like the,

I don't know, I don't know what the meta is now, and I don't think things have been,

you know, I don't know if updates have, have nerfed certain things, but I remember the King Bible when I was playing it a lot.

That King Bible is really powerful.

And then also I like the Santa Water, partly just because it's called Santa Water.

Like everything's just kind of named a little off, which is part of its charm.

I recently booted it up

and forgot about Santa Water and saw it and laughed.

Fun.

Hey, I'll pivot from

Vampire Survivors to very Vampire Survivors-like game, but a little bit more active that I've been putting a lot of time into.

Diablo 4 Vessel of Hatred, the DLC.

So Diablo games kind of aren't really ever really in their final form until that big expansion hits.

I mean, it goes going back to Diablo 2, that was the case.

And this is one where

they've really figured it out at this point.

They've nailed the Diablo gameplay loop.

It's pure fun.

I actually put so many hours into it that I was getting like a carpal tunnel with my thumb.

And I had to remap the controls.

This worked for me.

I'm not sure what's working for other people.

But basically, you have a basic skill that you're pretty much spamming constantly the whole time.

Kind of like what your auto-shooting is in Vampire Survivors, the equivalent of that, whatever your basic skill that doesn't consume any of your mana or mana equivalent resource.

So I map that from, by default, it's like it's an A or where the X button is on a PlayStation controller.

I mapped that to the

right trigger just so I could just like be holding it down with my finger instead of my thumb.

And that in of itself did a lot to relieve any sort of chronic pain I was getting from playing the shit out of this thing.

The new class they added, the Spirit Born, is a triumph.

It is so fun.

It is just an animal,

animal holistic guy with an animal buddy, animal you can summon for supers.

You know, you could do centipede, you can do eagle.

I'm trying to remember what else there is.

There's a few different ones, but I want full gorilla.

I want all gorilla.

Just like I saw the option for a gorilla, and

you know, I just that well, I have the opportunity to

go ape.

I'm just going to do it, right?

Well, as you famously have said time and time again, man has always been fascinated by apes.

Man has always been fascinated by apes.

Go back to the beginnings of entertainment.

We want, we, we are, are, are, are locked in uh with our with our primate relative primate relatives uh so like you know having a gorilla that can come in uh first off the way the the character plays the way the character is built it's super duper tanky which i really like you just get to go in there and just like fucking punch and whack things and you can absorb a lot of damage you have a barrier that's going up all the time and then when you get to summon your gorilla he comes in and he just pounds the shit out of stuff.

He basically does some DK Smash Brothers slaps on the ground pounds and it's really super satisfying.

The story, which was a highlight of the Diablo 4 base game, again, very, very compelling.

And

I really feel like I could have already finished the expansion campaign with the amount of time that I put into this if the seasonal content wasn't so good at encouraging you to dick around.

You know, these games are where there's just like there's so many things on the map, and then I'm in a new area, and I'm like, oh, I've got four different NPCs asking me to do things.

Like, all right, I'll deal with the shit.

So I am getting distracted in a very fun way, but I'm really enjoying it.

I think it's just a really well-done expansion.

And much like, you know uh shadow of the urd tree it's just like they clearly are hyper conscious of what was working about the base game and how to heighten and expand it so uh yeah really really enjoying vestal hatred matt what are you playing

in my restless dreams

i see that town silent hill you promised me you'd take me there again someday but you never did well I'm all alone there now, in our special place, waiting for you.

Waiting for you to come see me, me, but you never do.

And so I wait, wrapped in my cocoon of pain and loneliness.

This is actually longer than I thought it was going to be.

Hey, you're really going for it.

Okay, I'm done reading it.

I'm playing Silent Hill 2, the remake.

And we did the original on the show.

My thoughts then were, this is the most scared I've ever been in my life.

And now I'm playing it

on modern hardware, new coat of paint, full remake, new performances.

Yeah, this is the Bloomberg Team remake, right?

Nobody made me do this.

I had to play it

before, because we did it for the show.

No one's making me do this.

I'm doing this to myself.

And I'm having a...

Am I having fun?

No.

Do I think it's good?

Yes.

I was describing.

Let me know if you think this is true, Nick.

Okay.

Somebody, a friend of mine had asked me if

he should get it.

Because he was kind of iffy on, like some, he's iffy on some horror games, but likes some other ones.

He likes Dead Space, doesn't like Resident Evil.

Yeah.

I said, Resident Evil 4 for me is like, what if a scary video game was very fun?

It was like a fun video game.

Silent Hill 2

on a similar scale is what if a video game made you wish you were dead?

Because it's so brutal.

It is a terrifying experience.

So terrifying.

And upsetting.

It's upsetting and nasty and

mean.

And

it just feels bad.

Like, it just, like, it looks horrible.

Not graphically.

It looks great.

But, like, it's just nasty looking.

It's like all brown and gray and stuff.

And it kind of just, you know, there's nothing nice to look at in Silent Hill.

But I'm enjoying it.

I'm very scared.

This is how I'm playing it.

Take a couple steps.

Yeah.

Pop that map open.

Close the map.

Take a couple couple more steps.

Hey, you know what?

Let's go check out that map again.

Okay, I am going the right way.

Close the map, take a couple more steps.

Oh, dang.

I think I forgot where I'm going.

I better look at this map one more time.

You know what?

Oh, I better look at my key items.

I'm just constantly opening menus because I'm so scared that something is going to jump out at me.

And, you know, there's this part where you can see Pyramid Head

before you officially meet Pyramid Head.

And I saw him, and I almost turned the fucking game off.

I hate him.

He's so scary.

He's so scary.

I am playing it.

I am intending to finish it.

Star Wars Outlaws keeps getting

ejected.

Astrobot comes out after Star Wars Outlaws.

I eject it.

I put it back in.

Silent Hill 2 comes out.

I have to take it out, put it in.

It's going to be tough to get back to, honestly, but

I'm enjoying the bad time as it were because it is I will say a very faithful

uh remake in that

I I honestly think they only remade it so it's not a slog to play on modern hardware right because it doesn't in my mind we played it I played it like two years ago probably it doesn't feel that different really like it controls a little different because it's now third person like more of a third person over the shoulder perspective

whereas the original is not but beyond that, it kind of feels like exactly the same.

You're taking shitty swings at

creepers and mannequins with a wooden plank and stuff.

And that kind of doesn't feel fun, but once you get a gun, you're like, okay, I can at least blast them from a little bit away.

But there is still a scarcity of resources and stuff like that.

But

I will see it to the end.

Well, that's also like kind of that survival horror era of like your character feeling kind of powerless, right?

And like it feeling kind of, but like also it's like it's this is the thing that's so tough with these kinds of remasters it's like once you change the timing of the animation then it's just like you're changing the balance of the gameplay there's like this like so many things start to just you know uh

the start to domino out of control like if you start changing tweaking one thing too much but yeah if they if they made james the way they made Leon.

Right.

That's a different game.

This feels like a different thing.

That's a completely different video game.

You do need to be playing somebody who is afraid.

Like, you need, your playthrough of the game should be James being like, I'm actually too scared to keep walking.

I better look at my map.

But that's what I'm playing.

I think it's great that they did it.

I think it's like of the things that get remastered and remade, I think this was a worthy candidate for doing that.

Yeah, I think people, it seems to have been well received critically.

I haven't played it myself, but

it seems like people are happy with the remaster, feel like it did the original justice.

And I know there was some skepticism going in just because it's such a totemic game.

But it's good to hear they did a good job.

Ranch, have you, you made any progress with RE4?

You bounced off of that at all?

I have.

I think I'm pretty close to the end now.

Oh, wow.

I'm on chapter 13.

Oh, okay.

And I think there's 16 chapters, right?

I've been so obsessed.

I love this game so much, and I'm going to be silent.

That's awesome.

I love it.

That's an all-timer.

I will say I watched someone play Silent Hill on Twitch and then from the back he looks just like Leon.

Yeah.

And then he turns it around and I'm like, uh,

that's not my handsome friend.

No, he's a sad dork.

What do you want?

I will say playing it as

a newly married person,

playing this wife guy game, kind of, it kind of hits a little different.

Yeah, no, I get it.

He's like, where's my wife?

And I'm like, yeah, where is she?

Yeah, I don't know.

That's what I want to know.

Yeah, where'd she go?

Honestly, that's the forefront of my mind most times.

Where's my wife?

Where the hell is my wife?

All right, let's talk about vampire games.

This is a pretty expansive genre.

There's like, I was just going through all the games that classify as vampire games or that have vampire elements.

And it's just, it just, there's just a lot of them.

But LB, I kind of want to start with you because, you know, as you're developing a vampire game,

you're developing a game where Dracula are such a core part of it.

Like, were you drawing on any specific source, game, or otherwise?

Or was this kind of like a general sort of fascination with the vampiric?

So, what happened with Ludgling Manor is

in, I think, late May, my friend Merritt Kay messaged me and said, Hey, do you want to make a visual novel?

It's about vampires on a reality show.

I said, Yeah, I do.

So, I mean, we had,

I've been like a vampire person for a really long time, like many sexually confused children born in the 80s.

Sure.

I was a big Anne Rice kid.

Okay.

Like big time.

Like gender, like kind of gay, confused.

We don't have the words to say what this is yet.

Great.

So, I mean, like, a lot of my vampire stuff is like from that.

I watched so much Buffy when I was a kid.

Right.

I'm a big horror person.

I've watched a lot of like the hammer flicks.

Like,

I consider Dracula my personal nemesis.

Oh, Oh, wow.

Um, and like, I would love to kill Dracula because I think he sucks.

He's really bad.

He's like, really, just, you know, problematic, not cool, not okay.

Um,

doing all that slick back hair, my number one thing issue with him.

Really?

He ate babies.

It's kind of second to his crazy hair, I think.

I'm not wild about him saying bleh all the time.

Knock that off.

Okay, so we're talking, you know what?

And I want to talk talk specifics,

but generally.

Generally, yeah.

Like, like if we're talking vampire games, what do y'all want in a vampire game?

Because

for me, just to start things off, if I tell you what I want,

very good.

If I'm playing a drag, if I'm being a Dracula, I want to be able to change forms.

And this is the thing that Castlevania Simply Nice does so well.

But I want to be able to change into a bat.

I want to be able to change into mist.

I want to be able to change into a wolf or whatever the fuck.

I just want to be able to like, like, because that to me is part of what's cool about being a Dracula.

If I'm fighting a Dracula, I want the classic arsenal of weapons.

Like, again, you talked about the garlic and vampire survivors.

That's fun because it's like, yes, I know that.

That makes sense.

I can wrap my head around that.

You know, Castlevania has holy water, which obviously Vampire Survivors follows.

But I love stuff like that.

I love being able to just sort of be like, okay, I actually feel like I'm Van Helsing.

I actually feel like what a vampire, or like the vampire killers in Salem's lot.

I actually feel like

I'm someone who could take on one of these guys.

Well, Matt, what about about you?

What do you want in a vampire game?

Yeah, like the ability to, I guess it's just a different motor traversal is like pretty cool.

To fly around is pretty sick.

I don't know.

Maybe if you walk in front of a mirror or something, there's nothing there.

Oh, that's fun.

I don't know.

I guess I haven't played that many vampire games, honestly.

Like, I've dabbled in like the first area of a lot of Castlevania games.

And I know that, like, once I sink,

pardon the pun.

I almost don't even want to say it.

No, please say it.

Yeah, I think yellow.

We're all waiting for you to say it.

I'd love to sink my teeth into Symphony of the Night.

I didn't even, it was, here's the thing.

I would have said that anyway, but

we're talking about vampires.

It sounds like, it sounds like I had it prepared.

And I'm just talking.

Yeah.

You're just riffing.

I'm just riffing.

It happens.

Trust me.

I've just...

The amount of times I had to not say something sucked running a vampire game

is so hard.

Because I'm from here.

I'm from Southern California.

I've been saying things sucked since I was like, you know, it was high.

I'm SoCal.

We're all, yeah, we're all from SoCal.

We're all from SoCal.

Pretty cool.

Look at that.

Isn't that scary, listeners?

Happy Halloween.

Are you scared?

You're listening to a bunch of coastal elites.

You guys want to get a burrito with French fries in it?

Actually, fuck no.

Sorry, San Diego.

Back to so I would, I I, I, I know that once I play enough of Symphony of the Night, that's going to be like a game for me because I like that genre of games.

Yeah, the Metroid Vanias.

Yes.

Uh, I've played a lot of the Metroids, less of the Vanias.

Um, but gosh,

you mentioned Van Helsing, and this did give me a memory that I'm a big licensed video games defender.

I played the

Van Helsing movie video game.

Oh, man, I don't even remember that.

Wow.

When was that?

This was,

what, that movie came out in 2002, 2003 or something?

The game came out in 2004.

Okay.

So, yeah, I rented that from Hollywood Video.

Yes.

And would, and I think maybe rented it more than once.

Amazing.

Yeah.

Fantastic.

Yeah.

It looks like it was a Devil May Cry clone, so it might have played pretty.

I remember it being pretty cool.

And as somebody who hadn't realized that movies could not be that good yet,

I saw the movie and was like, this is like, I don't know, this is like any other movie I've ever seen before.

You know, it hadn't had developed taste

yet.

LB, as a vampire enthusiast, did anything you look for in a vampire game?

So the thing is that like, I don't play Metroidvanias.

I don't like any kind of platforming at all.

Sure.

So what I usually look for in any kind of vampire media is just like,

Is this an interesting take on this topic?

Period.

Which is so boring.

It's not a fun thing to to say but it is it is the truth um because it's like you know especially when you're like an avan you're like an anne rice child i'm like i guess i was not a fun kid i was not a fun kid i'm much more fun now than i was as a kid so if kid me is like let's think about mortality yeah let's think about what it would mean to not ever die and what that would think what that would make you think about yourself and about your experience in the world i'm like that's me at nine You can't, you can't ever totally grow out of that.

So actually, when I think about stuff like that, like something like Immortality, I think dealt with those themes really well.

Not a vampire game at all, but like definitely a game about those concepts, right?

Yeah, I played Immortality.

This is the, this is the

same developer as her, no, not, was it her story?

Not her story.

Her story.

Yeah, her story.

And

this was the FMV game that had a bunch of footage from three different horror movies that were shot.

And then, but over time, all with the same actor.

And then you were basically like kind of divining what happened to this person uh through you know examining this these both the footage from the films and then like also the all the dailies the raw footage the outtakes and so forth a really really interesting way to present the game yeah I

so cool so interesting like as somebody who does video editing like oh great a UI I know how to use it

I need to learn these controls like I know this

no that that was I had the same thing because I used to I used to be a video editor and like yeah that was the

just having an NLE that I'm like like, that's the game interface is really interesting to mess around with.

Yeah, that game was really, that game was really cool.

Do you ever like, okay, let's, let's talk about The Sims a little bit because that's a thing like I'm just looking through and I played a couple of The Sims, but I never got super into it.

I understand the appeal, but it was like never like a game I got super obsessed with.

There is a lot of vampire content in The Sims as they continue.

There's so much vampires.

And the best thing about vampires in The Sims.

So you get your base game, The Sims.

And like, like, like any Diablo game, like, it doesn't totally become the game until you get, it's not one big expansion, but it's like a few expansions in

a few patches in.

And then you're like, okay, here's the game.

And that process often starts with whatever the nightlife pack is

and where you can go to the club.

But also there's vampires.

Yeah.

And like, so it starts in Sims 2

and then Sims 3 and Sims 4.

Vampires come with the nightlife pack and not with any of the supernatural packs which weird i just love that though i love that sensibility of like so what do we know about nightlife like you go out you go to the club you drink you flirt you dance there's vampires there um

like there's a city there's high rises they drink your blood oh we can't do that because the ESRB they drink your plasma you get really tired you feel terrible afterwards

You wear mini dresses and like shiny suits.

The vampires can kind of float around.

Like, why is this in there?

That's like a Sims developer was secretly a vampire and it was like, this is what

I do.

I go out and, you know, I see all my other vampires.

One thing I love working about Maxis is they're so flexible about ours.

Do you have okay, so there's vampires in these games.

Like, like, is it the level of, is it like a, like a, like a skyrim where you can like become vampi, you can become vampiric.

You can like have, yeah and then you just like have to sleep in a coffin you can't go out during the day that's sort of like you have to live with that what's it like why

so one of my favorite things to do in in the sims are these challenges that like players come up with right and one of them is the hundred baby challenge um

which is basically there's all these rules yeah

but the goal is you start with like a sim and then that sim needs to spawn you know generations of people to eventually accumulate 100 babies.

And yeah, I will keep a spreadsheet to keep track of that.

And sometimes I'll come up with like a naming convention and try to do the characters to make that make sense because I'm crazy and I love a management sim.

But it's not one individual who is going to be the parent of 100 children.

It is more that 100 children are sourced from this starting point.

Yeah.

And then so then the next generation is the final kid they have before they age up.

But some you each one needs to have a different parent, like a different donor parent.

So second parent, usually like, yeah.

So you need to go out and find, so a lot of the times you will have vampire kids.

And like sometimes you, I don't think, know if you can actually do the challenge with a vampire parent, but like

it's the best though is when you have a baby and you're like, that baby looks a little weird.

What's up with that?

What's with his eyebrows?

Yeah.

Baby's gray.

Because you can't quite tell like with a newborn yet.

Is that a vampire?

Is that a vampire?

And then they drop and you're like, fucking vampire.

Baby.

Little teeth.

Yeah, but you can play as a a vampire.

They do, like,

if you move your sim into certain like parts of the world,

I was doing a thing where I was investing, I was checking out they had like a cottage core pack for Sims 4.

And I did that in the vampire town.

And my sim that I made of myself, which I never do, but I did for this, got attacked by a vampire named Vlad, so cliche.

Yeah.

So corny.

Yeah.

Oh my.

So I made it my mission to destroy his life.

And like became best friends with another vampire named Lilith.

Also pretty corny, but like, you know what?

She was nice.

She had those like kind of death positive Betty Page bangs.

And she was great.

And then so I got her to seduce Vlad.

And then I moved in with them.

Muslim moved in with them.

And I just like locked him up in like a basement full of like con again, kind of the Joker thing again.

Yeah, sure.

Like a bunch of con paintings and like made his house cottage core.

And it was, yeah, really satisfying.

So

he's just there seething, you've ruined my aesthetic.

Yeah.

So I guess like what I what I want out of a vampire game is to like torture a vampire, ruin his aesthetic, right?

Um, destroy his life.

Yeah.

They are evil, we got to remember.

Because in in a lot of video games, even video games that aren't necessarily supernatural, there will be supernatural stuff in it.

Like in

even like, you know, in like Call of Duties, there's zombies.

In the

Red Dead Redemption, there was the zombie mode undead nightmare yeah sure so zombies are always fodder for video games because that's easy people understand what the rules of that are uh and it's just a vessel for being able to

um like destroy as many things as possible i think a cool thing to do would be to do that exact same thing but vampires instead because vampires would pose to me a larger threat because they can be strong i think whereas zombies are like, they mean they can get you still if you get cornered.

But like, I feel like vampires are like actually pretty tough.

Are you is are you sure it's a good idea to say this on a podcast where a lot of people are hearing you?

And now all the vampires listening know

that you're vulnerable to them.

And now all the zombie, the zombie listeners think, know you think they're a joke?

They know.

Make no mistake.

Everyone who knows that they can kick my ass knows.

I just think it'd be because like, I don't know, like we just played, or you know,

Helldivers had the mode where there's like, you go to these planets and there's these bunch of bugs everywhere.

And to me, that's the whole game.

You could just, you could ride off on that game and be like, this was it.

This is a complete experience.

There's another part of the game that's different planets with...

Terminators basically.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And they're so much tougher than the bugs.

There's like, because they can shoot back and like, I don't know, they're just stronger.

So I I don't know.

Like, I'm just thinking just a lot of people.

I thought where you were going was we're going to have another species of vampires that we're going to face in Helldivers too.

No, I would just say, I mean, give me vampires in Helldivers.

That's sort of like bug and man kind of.

I'm getting so, this is such an enriching show.

All right.

I've gotten vampires are bug and man, and I've gotten the ape, the man's fascination with apes thing, which I thought about for several minutes after.

Oh, yeah.

This is the thing.

It's been a genre that has extended through the entire history of film.

It's like

we're shooting apes immediately.

We want to film these things.

We want to be.

And then there's this giant ape is always Bafo box office.

Anytime there's a big ape movie, it's just like, yeah, I'm going to go see that thing.

Go back further.

Fucking Journey to the West?

Sure.

Monkey King.

Oh, yeah, yeah.

There you go.

Medieval Chinese novel?

Monkey.

They love that guy.

You know what?

Because he rules.

Yeah.

Monkeys are really cool.

I love a monkey.

Yeah.

Sorry.

Didn't mean to do that.

No, no, no, no, no.

Save it for the monkey games episode.

We should do that.

We actually, we should do that.

I think we should do that.

I mean, but also video games, like, or one of the early, like, first major video games is fucking Donkey Kong.

It's true.

The monkey game.

Yeah.

What's going on here?

Okay, sorry.

People are saving a whole month, probably, of monkey stuff.

Get played monkey business coming soon.

That's a really good name.

That is good.

Okay, so the Castlevania franchise, that was like my entry point to games with vampires.

it's known as dracula in japan they just call it dracula not castlevia yeah it is cool anyway the castlevania 3 this was the for me the one where like because they introduce a playable vampire character or half human half vampire hybrid depending on the canon alucard dracula's son uh who is the main character in symphony of the night and alucard is just like my like that he's like my favorite i think he's just so cool he's so suave but also his moveset is really like he's super powerful and he and he plays so differently than like the belmonts with their you know their whips and and their more conventional arsenals.

I don't know.

I love Alucard.

I like that's what I think of with the, yeah, because it's Dracula Backwards.

It's really good.

It's awesome.

It's really good.

It's Dracula.

Dracula uses that name to like sign paperwork in the novel.

Dracula Vaporstone.

Which is a really uncreative thing to name your sign.

You already use it

backwards.

I've seen it.

Yeah.

That's so, I wonder.

Oh, wait, what was the vampire character from Metal Gear Solid 2?

That's what I was gonna bring up is vamp vamp is the animal Again, they just got a Dracula in there just for you know and it's just like whatever

There are sort of like supernatural stuff going on, but it's like not it's weirdly not the main thing like cuz like in the third one.

There's like the guy that's like can summon bees Yeah, sure.

Yeah.

No, I mean like look they have stuff that's like fantastical, but like there's it's almost like a different level of like hey this is a character with a lightning gun versus this is like a just a straight up Dracula.

Yeah, that is that is quite a change.

But I guess my point is it's so funny how

little of a deal like the crazy things are in those games.

Oh, and they just take it all in straight.

Yeah, because like they want you to be like, actually the main thing in these is the

political messaging and the

I don't know.

thinking about what memes are and propaganda and things like that.

Actually, this Dracula guide, it's not even a big deal.

It's just like, yeah, whatever.

Who actually cares about this?

Right.

It's a mini boss.

Just move on with your life.

I mean, I've never been that far deep into the military-industrial complex in my real life.

So maybe it's like after the other stuff you've seen, that's nothing.

Actually, yeah, who could say?

If you've seen what, yeah, maybe snakes, like, you know, I've seen a lot.

This, not that big, not that, who cares, actually?

The military is just like UAPs are real.

And so we're like, all right, I guess it's a good thing.

Yeah.

I guess I did forget about that.

It's like, yeah, yeah, that's real, everyone.

Just so you know.

Yeah, just

took it in stride.

I've been horrors upon horrors ever since they said that.

It's like, I guess I forgot.

The other thing I want to talk about is, and we've been talking about vampire survivors, but this is a game that, Matt, that we played for the podcast back in the day.

And Albie, I'm wondering if you have any, you know,

this is a thing you ever messed around with having knowledge of, but the very controversial Sega CD game Night Trap.

This was Night Trap was, this was another FMV game.

This was in a, and I'd forgotten that it's vampires are the enemies in this, but it's a bunch of, it's basically a bunch of girls in a sleepover

in semi-saucy by 16-bit standard scenarios, and they are progressively being murdered by a bunch of vampires.

And then it's your job as basically like the person manning the security cameras to try to take them out with the traps that are in the house.

Yeah, this game was like,

that was like a big point of controversy on the 90s.

That was like one of those games that it was Mortal Kombat and

Night Trap they had Senate hearings about.

So,

so embarrassing.

Yeah.

I would say it's worth checking out.

You played on Modern Hardware.

The Anniversary Edition, I think, you can just get on Switch.

It's an interesting

piece of media, I think.

It's not good by any means.

This looks amazing.

You also, maybe you could probably just watch a YouTube playthrough and totally get exactly.

Because the gameplay is pretty minimal.

It's really just switching cameras and

you know, toggling things on and off.

This looks incredible.

The art on it is amazing.

Are the vampires like wearing like ninja outfits?

Yes.

Sort of ninja.

The character design is all over the place.

Fantastic.

Yeah.

Because I remember them just being killers.

And then I just remember them being like, oh, they're just like psychos.

I was like, no, they're actually like Draculas.

Like, all right.

They're not just psychos.

They're Draculas.

1992 interactive movie.

No,

was not playing that in 92 because that would have been crazy.

Because I was really young.

And yeah, I am not.

That's.

You played that for this show?

Yeah, we did.

I mean, this is a like we've

it's just like one of those like games that I think just has such a

long tail of

fandom because of how like distinct and weird it is and also kind of like how infamous because like, you know, the

Joe Lieberman,

Senator joe liberman was like like kind of like the the point man in terms of saying that like night trap was like evil and like we should ban games like this or we need to like like have content labeling systems the esrb exists because joe liberman wagged his finger at night trap and mortal kombat hard enough uh so it's just it's it's it kind of has it's kind of is a pretty significant game um that yeah has has vampires as an element i know that uh this is i don't i don't know if these are out now or when when they're coming out but this was announced uh a couple weeks ago.

They're remastering The Legacy of Kane

and two Legacy of Cane games, and those are big vampire games.

So Blood Omen, Legacy of Cain, this was a PS1 kind of Zelda-like, and then the sequel, Legacy of Cane, Soul Reaver, and then they made a sequel to that.

I think it was just called

Soul Reaver 2.

Those games were more like 3D action-adventure games, but those were cool games.

And I forget, but someone who worked on Legacy of Kane, um i i one of the directors just ended up having working on it on a bunch of other games we've talked about them before i'll look them up real quick but those were cool those were cool games um and they were cool settings um

uh LB

I'm trying to like I just was going down the the list and I was trying to think of other other Dracula games but like you know I don't know if you ever were someone who was into vampire the masquerade I know that had like a lot of like RPG fans or even something like Blood Rain

were there other vampire games that you ever gravitated towards?

So I was not like a gamer really as a kid.

Sure.

I like came to it again, like wrestling as an adult.

Cause again, I wasn't fun as a kid.

Didn't like fun.

I wasn't a fan.

I actually, Merritt did like

DM a Vampire the Masquerade game that I played.

Oh, that's cool.

Which was really fun.

Yeah, that's awesome.

Which was really, really fun.

And actually, like, one of the characters in, one of the side characters in our game is my repurposed character from that playthrough.

Oh, that's awesome.

Yeah, he's a

a Christian influencer who

was turned by accident in Times Square when he was going to see Wicked in New York before seminary.

Wow.

Yeah.

He's the candle youtuber.

I love him.

I love him so much.

So yeah.

But yeah, that's it's it's like more of my experience is like tabletop stuff.

Like

Monster Hearts.

i loved i i played uh have you ever do you know are you familiar with monster hearts no not at all um it's a powered by the apocalypse uh tabletop rpg um

and it's kind of like it's set in

you're like it's like a teen supernatural thing so it's like inspired by all the the buffies and the so-ons and so forths um but yeah it's it's really cool and you could play as like a ghoul or a Frankenstein or maybe not a Frankenstein, but like a Wolf Man.

Look at all the Monster Mascots.

Right.

Yeah.

Yeah, the serial mascot.

But it's, yeah, it's really cool and fun, and I recommend checking it out.

I worked with several developers on the PC RPG Vampire the Masquerade, and that seemed like from, you know, that was a game that was just like so.

sprawling in scope and like it was kind of buggy on release, but I think it's been really, really well regarded by the fandom.

And there's a sequel in development.

But

yeah, I mean,

I feel like that's like one that has a lot of like, it's certainly a cult fandom.

Yeah.

Blood Rain, I don't feel like anyone ever actually liked Blood Rain, but I remember it was like it was a game,

it was one of those games that was like a B-tier game franchise they decided to make into a movie for some reason, starring Christina Loken from Terminator 3.

Yeah, I think that had to have been a reaction to

the Resident Evil movie, though, right?

Oh, sure, yeah, that makes sense.

Yeah,

we got to get one, we got to get one of these in the can now, and then they just make that because they're just like not thinking about whether it's good or not.

Do you know the detail of Blood Rain?

This is like maybe the dumbest game he ever got.

But Blood Rain,

the title character, Rain,

appeared in a Playboy pictorial titled Gaming Grows Up.

I do know that for some reason.

I don't know if it's because you told me about it before.

What year was this?

I mean, this must have been like 2002 or something.

I'm like, that sounds like such a Bush American.

Bush's

Yeah.

Like the other side.

Yeah, there was the War on Terror and just this like kind of ambient sleaze everywhere.

Right.

And a lot of gaming grows up.

I mean, just like the, I don't know, it's like all the, like every horny advertisement for like a console or a game like on print media.

It's, I mean, if there was, I guess that you can still have a museum if it's like an Instagram thing, right?

Yeah.

Why don't you do a museum of those?

Yeah, I would think.

Yeah.

It was also the era of like the, you know, the horny like Carl's Jr.

Hardy's like burger ad.

That was just like, this is like, this is disgusting.

I don't want to like like,

what are you doing here?

You know, I got to get one of those burgers.

A girl in a bikinis eating a burger?

I'm hungry.

But I just like, I don't even like that conflating that like this big, disgusting meal that's going to like give me a tummy ache and then like sexuality.

I don't want those things anywhere near each other.

And also, I mean, this is for your other podcast, but all the all the crazy burgers at

Carl's Jr.,

they're too much.

Yeah.

They're way too much.

You get far enough with the

Western bacon cheeseburger.

That's about as crazy as I'll go at Carl's.

They were heightening things a little bit.

They've rained things in a little bit, but

they were out of control for a period.

Again, I think that was a Bush's America thing.

The

Dark Stalkers is another one I was thinking of.

Oh, yeah, people like those.

Yeah, these are kind of like, you know, again, like like

a lesser-regarded castle or a Capcom rather fighting franchise, but they had some really cool character designs.

I mean, that's part of what I like about Darkstalkers more than anything is just like looking at the characters.

Yeah,

I just saw that there's a game that is basically kind of what I was describing earlier

called Redfall.

And it's like it's Arcane Studios made it, and it's like a first-person sort of like shoot vampires type thing

not well received though but it's like doesn't mean it should be somebody can't try again yeah and they could even try again I just I would like to see it be good and also like sometimes people are wrong sometimes people are wrong or sometimes everyone's right but like they don't know you and what you want I might like it you might like it I apologize I don't know any of these kids

look we're just talking here

yeah I don't know I do like fun now but I do more like making working really hard so that other people can have fun and And then I will go listen to like a podcast about war crimes or something.

But while I play Bilatro.

Right.

To balance out the dope for me.

Yeah.

Got to have blowback going while you're moving.

Really weird.

This last season with

did not work with Bellatro, actually.

Yeah.

Also didn't work with, I had to do a drive cycle for my car.

where you can't like touch the brakes, but you're on the freeway,

which is really scary.

And I couldn't turn off blowback.

Oh my god.

So that was happening in the season.

Indeed.

Yeah.

Hearing about the horrors done by Kissy Jack.

Yeah.

Good season, though.

Yeah,

it's impressive stuff.

This is just a thing just to see this tableau.

I mean, you can see some of it's kind of horny, and that's part of the fun.

But the character designs in Darkstalkers are rad.

That is cool.

That's really cool, right?

Hey, look at the fucking Wolfman.

He's looking great.

I kind of do think, I mean, not to keep coming back to this.

Zombies are done.

I'm done with zombies.

Get me a Wolfman.

Get me a vampire.

Get me a damn sheet gun.

Yeah, it feels like we kind of exhausted every riff on zombies at this point.

It's kind of like we've, you know, it's kind of run out of steam a little bit.

It's kind of like we had that era where everyone, Western was just a genre.

We're having this era where like, you know, zombie is just a genre.

Now it's time to move on.

Yeah, I think...

Vampires are sexy and sad, which isn't the best replacement for zombies.

So I think Wolfman might be the like, yeah, because they're strong.

Yeah, I love to see them.

They're tough.

They're not so sad because being Wolfman's pretty fun.

Yeah.

It's pretty cool.

They can play basketball sometimes.

That makes them better.

Well, you can also, you can also be like, there's the Wolfman thing of like, I don't, I'm not, like, am I a Wolfman?

Like, that's one way to play it.

It's like, I don't, I don't know, know exactly what happened.

Yeah,

what happened to my shirt?

Yeah, exactly.

I'm shredded now, too.

Of the spooky creatures it's become i feel like wolfman not so bad what about mummies do we have mummy games yeah i don't know what to do with these exactly extremely good too yeah absolutely yeah uh there's a great vampire uh hide in coffee talk which we oh yeah messed around with but there's also like uh you know there's there's also a wolf man in um in coffee talk there's a bunch of just different like create like cryptids and um and fantastical creatures that populate this fictional uh future coffee shop that's That's good.

Kind of monster mash.

Kind of monster mashy.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It all comes back to the monster mash.

It's great.

It's the sacred text

upon which all which stories are made.

I went to a birthday dinner for myself in July.

Happy birthday.

Thank you.

Well, maybe this is that.

Maybe this is...

the second half to that experience because I was at Alltime, which is a nice restaurant going out here

for my birthday.

It's a beautiful, beautiful, warm summer night.

Some people are still streeting off fireworks.

And they're playing the Monster Mash at this restaurant.

Wow.

In July.

In July.

But maybe that's because I was going to be wished a happy birthday on this Halloween.

Wow.

Oh, it could be.

Wow.

So we've come full circle.

Yeah.

The prophecy is fulfilled.

Life is a herald.

Man, oh, life is a herald.

I'll tell you that.

Boktai, the sun is in your hand, another game we talked about on the podcast.

This was the Kojima game that was, you know, it's the, so this actually had a cart, a Game Boy cart, Game Boy.

It was Game Boy Advance, right?

It was Game Banance.

It was a Game Boy Advance cart that had a sensor in it.

And so in order to power up your character, you actually had to

go outside and expose it to sunlight, like actual sunlight.

Yeah, it was a crazy design.

And it was the sort of thing that kind of also kind of sucked because then you had to deal with the sunlight like glaring on your screen.

But

the ambition of it and just like the stupidity of it, I admire.

He...

But you're using that to bat.

In my memory, you're using that to battle Draculus, right?

You're harvesting the power of sun to take out Draculas.

So cool.

He comes up a lot.

Obviously, we love him.

He is a genius and a maniac and all sorts of things.

But I feel like when he cooks in game design, he fucking cooks.

Like, that's like such a good idea.

Yeah.

And some of his ideas that didn't get used are still interesting, but obviously insane, like uh wanting the floppy disc for that one game to smell like blood or whatever he wanted to do oh yes right he wanted actual human blood in it so that way when it got hot enough it would smell like blood i can't remember what that was i don't know if it was a cd or what

it's an interesting idea it's not a good idea but it's interesting

yeah but the thing is you got to get to the good ideas you gotta start with the huge swings that miss.

Yeah, absolutely.

And they wouldn't just, they just,

I don't think they didn't do it because it didn't work.

They would wouldn't let them do it.

Is that illegal?

I don't know.

I think you can sell blood.

Ranch, you ever mess around?

Like, I don't know if you were ever like a Sims person or anything.

No, I never got into Sims.

Did you ever get into any games with vampiric elements or any vampire medium in general?

You never had like a Buffy phase or a Twilight phase or anything?

Oh, very much the Twilight phase.

Oh, there you go.

Very, very much.

Yeah.

Unfortunately.

Yeah, and we talked about Buffy earlier, but like the but there were some Buffy games, right?

I believe so.

I never messed around with them.

I was never into Buffy.

Yeah, I somehow missed it.

There was like all this, like, that was, I put that in the same category as like Dragon Ball Z, like things that people I grew up with were absolutely obsessed with that somehow just never made it across my desk.

Just had no idea, had no idea what the other kids at my school were doing.

Completely missed it.

I loved Buffy.

I was a huge Buffy fan.

Yeah, and I watched it on television.

I watched it on UPN.

It was great.

I got the, I rented the other older seasons and I watched them with my mom and I thought they were fantastic.

And I went on the internet and I got in arguments with strangers about Buffy.

And it was great.

Yeah.

I don't know.

It's, I never played a Buffy video game, though.

I, I wish I had.

Have you visited, have you revisited Buffy

with any recency at all?

Um, it's been a very long time.

I revisited when I was like 21.

And there's like a big, like kind of twisty thing that happens in season

five, I think in season five,

that I realized like actually did make me really angry and did feel like kind of a like a betrayal of the

audience.

Interesting.

Yeah, just like a really major retcon that I'm like, you know what?

I don't feel good about this.

I'm 22.

I'm really angry.

Uh-huh, sure.

About everything all the time.

And this, I'm going to put up with it.

Did you see?

I saw the TV glow.

Yeah, I did.

I really enjoyed it.

Yeah, I really liked it.

As someone who has like nostalgia for Buffy, which I didn't, but I, like, I, for me, I was thinking of, are you afraid of the dark?

Rather, like, I was thinking of, uh, you know, other sort of like adjacent,

uh, you know, like, like, like, like horror TV.

Like, like, like, how did you, like, did...

Did that element respond to it of like, because to me, there's this point.

I'm not trying to spoil anything here, but there, there are, there, as an aspect of the way the character, depending on their age, views this thing they have such a connection for changes, which I felt like really

was super like, you know, real to

how we perceive things.

Yeah, that was really resonant.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, a really cool movie.

Did you see that?

I watched it on a plane pretty recently, and I'm just going to say, plane, not the spot.

No, that's not the spot for that movie, man.

Give that a proper screening.

Yeah.

Because also, there was this lady.

There was this lady right behind us.

and God bless her She seemed like she was having a great time on the plane.

It was quiet zone on the plane by the way.

It was nighttime on the plane.

I Don't think I'm exaggerating when I say she talked for five hours straight on the plane and it was so crazy.

Yeah, so I would like to actually watch it again because like there was I could see what it was going for and I was I was you know

super locked into like I don't know, like some of the metaphors and things like that.

I was like, this is working for me, but I think I would like to appreciate it more on like a actual TV and not my iPad stuffed into the pocket in front of me on the American Airlines free entertainment.

I think you'd really enjoy it in the right circumstances.

Yeah, I mean, like, I don't, like, there's, it's hard to get to everything because just like, again, there's so much, there's so many vampires in games.

There's so many vampire-centric games.

You know, I'm, I'm sure we could have talked about like Kid Dracula for Game Boy or whatever.

Okay, I've played some Kid Dracula.

Wow, okay.

All right, let's wrap it up with Kid Dracula.

Talk about character design.

That is a character design.

When they say like Kirby is shaped like a friend, Kid Dracula is shaped like a friend.

Dracula's my nemesis.

Kid Dracula?

We could hang out.

I love that kid.

He's cool looking.

Yeah, I take him to a ballgame.

Night game.

Okay, I'm seeing Kid Dracula for what I think is the first time.

I love this guy.

This guy is good.

This is really, really good character design.

He has like gray overalls and he's wearing like a white shirt and he has like like white hair and he looks happy.

Yeah, he's having a blast.

I'm seeing the, you know, the arc of time going into the future and 18 months from now, Matt's showing up the studio with a fresh kid Dracula tattoo.

This dog, unfortunately, look exactly like something I would get tattooed.

He's extremely good.

He's acting like him, too.

You can pull that off.

You kind of have kid Dracula energy as it is, honestly.

Yeah, I mean,

this is me.

I love the,

a lot of vampires wear this like jewel.

And I'm like, I don't know what it is or the significance of it, but I do love the jewel.

My great-grandpa wore a jewel.

Did he really?

Yeah, because he pretended to be a prince.

He wore it and a jewel.

All right.

He was from Wisconsin and pretended to be a Russian prince for most of his life, I guess, and wore a plastic jewel and like an ascot and a wig.

Can I ask?

I guess you can't dress like a jacket.

To what, to what end?

Like, what was the

cruise?

Uh, he uh took a business, yeah.

Oh, okay,

cool.

I like, hey, you know what?

I'm all for that.

Why not?

I'm interested.

I just crime, yeah, exactly.

It's before the era of uh, you know, internet research.

You can't, hey, this guy, you know what?

I'm just gonna take on faith.

This guy's a prit.

He's got a big jewel.

At the very least, it's extremely fun.

Yeah.

That is so fun.

That's how you earn.

You said it it was an uncle?

My mom's grandpa.

Your mom's grandpa.

Okay, great-grandfather.

That's a home run.

Yeah.

That's family legacy.

God bless you.

Maybe I could start.

I don't know.

I'm not quite old enough yet.

When I'm a little older, I could maybe pull out the...

Pop a jewel on.

See how that makes you feel.

Maybe that's maybe

that's why I feel this enmity with Dracula is I'm meant to replace him.

Oh, wow.

You got to take up the mantle.

I got to take up the mantle.

I got to take up the cape.

Don't go mad with power.

That's a whole thing that happened with him.

And I hate to see it happen to you.

And don't slick your hair back like that.

I can't.

It doesn't work for my hair.

Hey, let's do a segment.

This is The Price's Bite spelled B-Y-T-E.

Now look.

If this was the price's bite spelled B-I-T-E,

this could be a food segment.

This isn't that.

This is spelled B-Y-T-E, like megabyte, because we're talking the prices of video games.

This is coming about because Baldur's Gate 3 Collector's Edition sealed, which I own, recently reached $3,000 on eBay.

Can you believe that?

I fucking canceled mine.

Matt, why did you do that?

I just didn't need all the little trinkets.

I didn't need it all.

I fucked up.

Anyway, we'll see if that continues to hold or if that they really, hopefully they'll release more and that will,

everyone who's holding, is trying to flip it,

you know, won't be able to do so anymore.

I will read the listing of a retro game or retro hardware.

You will guess the, you know what, I'll take it again.

I will read the listing of a retro game and you guess the current bid or buy it now price in USD without going over.

Ranch, you can play along as well.

All right, first up.

And we have some art here just so you can see a picture of what is being sold.

First up, these are on eBay.

This is an NES first print Super Mario Bros.

3 CIB.

CIB, if you don't know the acronym, means complete inbox.

So this is opened, but this has every element inside, including the manual.

There are 11 bids for this.

How much do you think this goes for without going over?

So I'm going to go ahead and say there's no way it's going for under the sticker price on here, which is $32.99.

Okay.

There's no way it's under.

The Faded Ancient Sea.

Yes.

Which also, to me, seems like a pretty reasonable price.

I'm guessing that wasn't the launch price.

That must have been it.

Yeah, that must have been a pre-owned copy or something.

Yeah, because

I would say that that cost $79.99 in like $19.80, whatever dollars.

Yeah, I wonder.

I'm going to say complete inbox on eBay,

$150.

Matt says $150.

LB, what do you think?

So I'm really, this is maybe the thing I'm worst at in all the world is guessing how much video games cost.

To the point that I have friends who like to make me do this because it's funny.

So I was looking at this thinking like, $1,000?

Is that how much Super Harrow Brothers 3 would cost?

$1,000?

I don't think it's $1,000, but I am going to say it's more than under $50.

I'm going to say it's like $250.

$250.

Ranch, what do you think?

$1,000.

You all went over.

The top bid right now, $127.50, I think, because it's not, you know, it's just that you want it.

It's not sealed.

All right, next up, we do have something that is sealed.

This is a new sealed Elden Ring PS5 Collector's Edition.

Okay, so

this doesn't include Shadow of the Earth Tree DLC?

No,

this is from the launch of the game.

Okay.

LB, you can start for this one.

We'll trade off.

Order.

$1,000.

$1,000.

No, no, no, no, no.

$300?

$300.

Ranch, what do you think?

$79.

$79.

I'm thinking about what this would retail for because it looks like a big box.

It's on a table that is the length of what looks like two chairs.

So I'm guessing there is a statue in there of some kind

or

some pack-in gift of some sort that would make it collectible.

I would guess that this probably retailed for like $300 or so.

I'm going to say on eBay, it's probably somewhere in the $700 area.

LB takes it, $360.

Wow.

You hear that, Mickey Grayson.

You hear that, Mickey Grayson of giantbomb.com.

You hear that.

Now who doesn't know how much things cost?

All right, next up, this is a game we talked about on this episode.

Castlevania Symphony of the Night.

This is not the Greatest Hits Edition.

This is Sony PS1.

This is from 1997.

This is CIB complete inbox.

And yes, this is the black label.

So this does not have the intrusive greatest hits green label on it.

There are two bids for this one.

What is the current bid?

Ranch, we'll start with you.

$19.99.

Ranch says $19.99.

Matt, what do you think?

I just bought a copy of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater on eBay.

It is the Greatest Hits Edition.

It did cost me $10.

Castlevania Symphony Tonight, for the regular...

You're going to pay more for the not greatest hits version.

Certainly a premium there.

I'm going to say it's $75.

$75.

LB, what do you think?

I'm going to split the difference and say like $25.

Matt takes it because this one is actually up to $117.50 right now.

This was not a game that had a huge printing in its original run, in my memory.

So that might be part of it.

All right, next up:

Chrono Trigger, SNES, complete CIB, excellent condition with both posters.

There's a buy-it-now price for this.

Matt, what do you think?

A beloved game, one of the most well-regarded games of all time.

This is everything that you would get with the Super Nintendo edition of it, although it is not sealed.

I'm going to say $1,000.

Matt says $1,000.

LB?

$999.

Wow.

You kind of reverse

prices righted it.

So there's exactly one score

one number where you will get it right.

It's an interesting strategy.

I feel so confident.

I was like, I'm like, this is a slick move.

We'll see if it pays off.

Ranch, what do you think?

$1,001.

Oh, my God.

Here's the thing.

Here's the thing.

LB takes it.

my God.

This is listed for $999.

Oh, my God!

I've become.

Dracula, watch out.

My power limb's getting higher and higher and higher.

You don't even need the jewel.

All right, next up, this is a Metal Gear Solid, not one with a Dracula.

This is Metal Gear Solid 3 Subsistence Limited Edition.

So this is a limited edition that has

the bundle for subsistence, which was the reissue.

Three discs, manual,

and the game itself.

Condition here is very good.

We're looking for the buy it now price.

And it's to me?

This is for PlayStation 2.

And yes, LB, you start on this one.

Sorry.

Okay, but to the buy it now, it's going to be

more than a bid would be.

All those CDs are out, touching the air.

Yeah,

that's going to lower the price.

They're laid out on blue velvet there.

Yeah.

Maybe that's a tablecloth.

I'm not sure what it is.

It's tasting modern air.

That's going to just, that's going to lower the price.

I'm going to say like $95.

$95.

Ranch, what do you think?

$130.

$130?

Yeah.

$130.

Matt?

Gosh.

I'm going to say

$200.

Ranch takes it.

Wow.

$148, right?

Oh, my God.

Everyone is on the board.

Matt has one.

LB has two.

Ranch has one.

Next up, the original Fallout 1997 Big Box PC Windows.

So this was the original version before it came out in a slimmer case.

This was a big fat box.

This is embossed, first print and sealed.

Condition is brand new.

We're looking for a buy-it-now price.

And ranch, you will start.

$600.

Michelle says $600.

Is it possible that when this launched, even this edition was $30?

I think it's entirely possible, yeah, because PC games were, you know, like this one,

they were a little cheaper back then, if my memory serves.

If this one certainly came on floppy disks,

it might have been, this was probably on a CD, but $90.97.

Yeah, this was probably on a CD rate.

Probably already went RPG of the year.

Great question.

This looks like a sticker that they added on later to a sealed box that was in store.

That's my guess.

I'm going to say,

because this is a modern listing.

I'm going to guess that the success of the show is going to drive the price of something like this up.

I'm going to say this is

$600.

So Ranch already guessed exactly $600.

Then I'm going to say

$600.

No,

then I'm going to say $900.

$900.

LB, what do you think?

So, when this first came up, my first thought was like, it's going to be like $60,000.

And only just that.

But

sealed in box,

I'm going to say

like maybe $1,500.

LB takes it.

Whoa.

Still undershoots it by quite a bit.

$5,999.

I'm so glad I didn't guess $60,000.

All right, we got two more here.

Next up, this is...

Can you imagine buying that?

What, like, like spending $6,000 to buy it now?

A sealed fallout?

Yeah, I mean, I don't know.

It's opening such an

understanding what you're doing.

Cool, now I can play it.

All right.

Matt, you're going first for this one, right?

Yes.

Okay, so this is a

listing is Nintendo NES Family Fun Fitness Stadium Events Cartridge and Box Authentic Works.

Now, the reason this game is on this list, this is one of the rarest games ever released in America.

There was a printing of just

as many as several, as few as several dozen, maybe a few hundred copies of this.

This was the original version of the PowerPad game World Class Track Meet.

Nintendo saw this, saw its potential, and purchased the rights, pulled it from shelves, and rebranded it.

We're looking for a buy-it-now price.

$3,000.

Matt says $3,000.

LB, what do you think?

There's only a dozen of them.

Then it should be more expensive than Fallout.

I feel.

And I feel this is this is like museum quality.

This should be in like the Louvre or something, right?

So I think it's probably like

$8,000.

$8,000.

That's what I'm saying.

How much money I'm saying.

Family fun fitness or family and fitness.

Family fun fitness Fun Fitness Stadium Events.

Yeah.

Yeah, that's what I'm going to do.

I love how video games used to be titled.

Family Fun Fitness Stadium Events.

Sure.

Ranch, what do you think?

I'm going to say 10K.

Whoa.

Ranch is going to say 10K.

Ranch is going to take it because this one is currently listed at $54,999.

Ranch has two.

Matt has one.

LB has three.

Still in the lead.

With one left.

Can I just

say about this game?

nick this is a really good game okay i'm glad this is great this is really

we'll reuse this at some point um let's do it next week

uh we have one left this is

mary kaden ashley sweet 16 license to drive for nintendo gamecube this is disc only condition acceptable

We're looking for a buy-it-now price.

Yeah, this one is definitely gotten somewhere.

This might, Is it possible this was your copy ranch?

I actually had a bootleg copy

when I lived in Thailand.

I believe all

versions of this upon release were released as acceptable.

Gosh.

LB, who's going first?

I forgot what the rotation was.

Who went first last time?

I went first last time.

Okay, so LB, you'll go first for this one.

For a buyout now for this?

Yeah.

I think they're probably asking for,

if they're going to bother putting this up,

I would say they have to be asking for at least $5,

right?

Maybe.

I'm saying $5.

I don't think they're going to get it.

No offense to the Olson family.

Rochelle, what do you think?

I'm going to say $2.50.

$2.50.

Matt, falls to you.

I'm going to say $11.

$11.

Here's the thing.

It depends on how charitable I want to be because LBU technically went over.

This is listed for $4.99.

So I think I'll give it to Ranch, partly because of your affiliation for this particular game, your affection for it, and your affiliation with this game.

But LB, I think you have shaken this monkey off of your back.

I don't think you have any sort of

a lack of skill for naming the price of games.

I think you seem pretty adept at it.

Yeah, you're not bad at this specific thing that we didn't even know you're bad at.

You're actually good at this.

I no longer have anything to be ashamed of.

Thank you so much for this.

This thing that you all arranged in advance knowing that I was insecure about it to heal me.

It was really beautiful.

Wow.

Hey, that's this week's Get Played.

Our producers, Rochelle Chen, Ranch, yard underscore, underscore, sard.

Our music is by Ben Prunty, BenPruntyMusic.com.

Our art is by DuckBrigade, designduckbrigade.com.

And hey, check out our Patreon, patreon.com get played, where you can find our entire pre-head gumback catalog, plus ad-free main feed episodes, and our Patreon exclusive show, Get Animated Matt, where I reckon we are watching Uzumaki right about now.

Yeah, we're

and uh

I haven't started it yet because uh Nick and Heather handled the first one, but I'm jumping in uh pretty soon.

And let me tell you, I've been reading it, I'll say that.

Yeah, and that's all I'll say.

I've been reading it.

Yes, this is an adaptation of the Junji Ito manga.

Unfortunately, the animation started off strong, quality started off strong, and then took a bit of a dip, but we were soldiering through anyway.

Patreon.com/slash get played for all that.

LB Honk Tears, Fledgling Manor is the game, is the visual novel.

Tell everyone about it.

Anything else you want to plug.

Thanks so much for being here.

Oh my gosh, thank you so much for having me.

This was so much fun.

Yeah, please check out Fledgling Manor.

I made it with my friend Merritt Kaye and our friend Shade.

It's a visual novel about a vampire reality show.

Think Big Brother meets what we do in the shadows, but like a little bit sexier and a little bit more political.

But unless you think that's woke, in which case it's all sexy all the time, maybe.

Or and it's political in the way that you like it.

Okay, all right.

We have a free demo up right now on Steam and itch.io.

So check it out.

Wish list it, please.

If you, when we get to 2,000 wish lists for the game on Steam, Such an achievable number.

I will put bat wings that I have purchased.

They're costume bat wings, not not from a real bat.

That would be cool.

On my beautiful dog and take pictures and put them online.

So even if you don't want to play the game, but you want to see my cute dog in a little costume, it's only going to happen if we reach that number.

No costume for her if we don't reach it, because I'm a hardliner.

So yeah, please, please, please check it out.

Yeah, Wish, if you're, you know, for anyone who has Steam, Wish listing a game is something you can do for free.

Yeah, Fledgling Matter, check it out.

It always helps out indie games.

And

it's really cool.

And I'm very excited to play the finished version.

i i'll also just say that the you know obviously great pedigree from the the design the design team there design team the writing team uh but also the art is really great oh yeah shade's fabulous um

yeah shade is a comics artist um

really really cool stuff huge vampire the masquerade fan uh oh awesome so has been doing vampires and like you know in in modern times worlds for a long time.

And like, yeah, black and white, very distinct.

A lot of CGs if you're a VN person.

Like, I think we're going to have over over 15 CGs by the end.

So it's going to be worth it.

I promise.

Three romance routes.

This is just what I'm going to say.

You can romance some of these dogs.

So there you go.

I just want to make a record on the show right now.

I've opened my Steam app,

added to my wish list.

Wow.

I got to see this dog.

I got to see.

But I'm also interested in checking this out.

It looks awesome.

I'm really excited to check this out when it launches.

Oh, also, original soundtrack by Kendall, who has a great album also about um elden ring for all the elden ring fans wow you can check out her music at hey lol.bandcamp.com you can sign up for our mailing list at insecretplaces.com and follow me wherever at hunk tears if you want to awesome there you go well hey you know what got played this week

a bunch of vampire games

a bunch of vampire games got you got you got I guess you got played.

I don't know what happened to me just there.

My brain stopped.

Did I, Any of you got garlic on here or something?

Matt, are you a Dracula?

Oops.

Kid Dracula.

Sorry.

That was a head gum podcast.