Game and Tell: Resident Evil with Taran Killam

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Hi, yeah, thanks for thanks for coming so short notice.

Of course, of course.

You called the window replacement team.

I'm assigned to the job here today.

So just basically walk me through what it is that you need me to do.

This is a nice house, by the way.

Thank you, thank you.

You know, it's a bit of a fixer-upper, but this front window right here

is obviously smashed to pieces.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

What, you, you throwing a party?

Some kind of crazy party?

Uh, no, so I was just kind of walking around, and I just turned a corner, and as I was turning the corner, some dogs jumped straight through my window and just shattered it, shattered it to hell.

You know, I obviously had, I got scared, so I shot the dogs.

So what I need is I just need some like dog-proof glass if you've got that, because I can't be, I can't be the guy in the neighborhood that's just, you know, shooting dogs.

I don't want to be that guy.

But I also don't want to be replacing my windows all the time either.

Dog-proof glass.

Yeah, just like something thick that a dog couldn't jump through.

Ding-dong.

Hold on.

Sorry, I got a

problem at the door.

Hey,

what's going on?

Hey, neighbor, how you doing?

I'm doing good.

I'm with somebody right now, actually.

Hey, man.

Yeah, it looks like you got a little scare with your windows being broken open.

Nothing got stolen.

Hey, you know, speaking of domestic turmoil, have you seen my dogs?

Oh,

they were in the yard, and I don't know where they ended up.

Were they like, would you describe them as

like rambunctious, high-energy, sort of?

They can be a little riled up, yeah.

You know, if they haven't had their walk.

Yeah, a couple of dobermans.

I haven't seen any such dogs.

I don't want to get in the middle of this, man.

Shut your fucking mouth.

I don't want to get in the middle of this, but I feel like you know where the dogs are, man.

You shut up.

I don't mean to.

Like, I know this isn't my business.

Yeah.

Hey.

Sorry, who are you?

I'm Lloyd's Windows and Fencing.

We operate in this area.

I'll pay for this.

And, you know, if you're looking for a window replacement, a fence replacement, I feel like you got to go harder on this guy because I got a sense that he knows exactly where your dogs are.

And again, none of my...

Yeah, my windows are good right now, but I'll look you up on Yelp.

If I've ever had an issue.

Yeah, I mean, I had a couple, you know, got my couple of Dobermans,

Mitzi and Cookie, and, you know, they love to play in the yard.

And sometimes they can get a little rambunctious, like you were saying.

They can leap over the fence.

And I just wanted to make sure that if I don't know if they got in your yard or if you'd seen them.

So if you have no problems with any of your windows, they're not,

for example, maybe jumping through the windows ever at your house.

Again, I don't want to be, I don't want to get in the middle of this, but ask him if he's ever shot a gun.

Just ask him if he's ever shot a gun.

What?

Ask him if he's ever shot a gun.

I have fairly recently, within the last 24 hours, I have fired a gun.

And

on the receiving end of the gun firing,

were two dogs that scared the living hell out of me

because they jumped through my windows and shattered them to pieces.

As you can see, there's, you know, these windows.

That's why the window guy's here.

And it was just a reflex.

I didn't know what else to do.

I thought they were going to try to kill me.

I thought they had some sort of like vendetta against me or something.

And I don't know what I had done to make them so mad to jump through my window and shatter it to a million pieces.

So I opened fire on the dogs.

Was it Mitzi and Cookie?

Well, yeah.

I mean, I checked the tags.

I checked the tags afterwards to see if they had a name.

And they did have names.

It was your dogs.

And I'm sorry, but I really do think that you owe me some windows.

They were two beautiful, innocent creatures.

It's not their fault they got the T-virus.

All right?

It's not their fault.

Oh, wait, something was wrong with those windows.

They're just going to shoot everyone who's got the T-virus?

I think I might.

I think I might.

Why don't you just shoot me then, okay?

Why don't you shoot me?

You got the T-virus?

Yeah, I get the T-virus.

Here you go.

How's this?

You know how that is?

Doesn't stop me because I got the T-virus.

I'm going to keep coming.

Oh my God, God.

Here, quick, turn around.

Help

with Lloyd.

Come with me.

Turn around.

I'm trying.

I'm trying to move.

I keep running into the wall.

Oh, goddammit.

Lloyd!

I don't know how to move forward.

Slow, Lloyd.

I don't know how to move forward.

We accidentally walk in the wrong direction and are almost a Jill sandwich as we game and tell the original Resident Evil this week on Get Played.

Welcome to Get Played, your one-stop show for good games, bad games, and every game in between.

It's time to get played.

I'm your host, Heather Ann Campbell, along with my fellow host, Nick Weiger.

That's me, Nick Weiger, and I'm here with our third host, Matt Abodaka.

Hello, everyone.

Hello,

everyone.

And welcome back to the premiere video game podcast, Get Played, where we used to talk about bad games exclusively.

And then we started talking about any games.

That's what this is.

This is an any game podcast.

We decided it was a more fertile and more fun format to just have the leeway to talk about whatever.

And that includes once a month, the final episode of the month, we talk at length about one particular game for this month on Monday, August 28th.

That's the next episode.

We're We're going to be talking about Dredge for our We Play, You Play format.

So, if anyone's playing Dredge, listen along.

And even if you're not, listen along.

I don't, I don't want to jinx us.

We're doing a really good job of onboarding listeners to what's going on.

Everybody is like very like, this is what we do.

This is why we do it.

Here's what's coming up.

We're on fire.

This is this rocks.

This is my first listen together.

Oh, God.

Even earlier than I, I was just saying, you know what?

That's on me.

Not even normally his cue is the thing.

No, that's way before.

That's 100% on me.

And all I can do is apologize.

No, it's not on you.

It's absolutely not on you.

I'm pushing it.

I sat him back down in the waiting room.

He's

that's right.

We're all in person.

Hey, we have a wonderful guest with us today.

Very, very excited to have him.

Taryn Killam is here.

Hi, Taryn.

Hi, guys.

Hi, Taryn.

First time guest, longtime listener.

Wow.

God bless you.

I love the games.

I love Heather and Campbell very much.

Nick, I've been a fan of yours actually for a long time, too.

From

Tournament of Nerds.

Oh, yeah.

Way back in the day.

Oh, my God.

Skeletor.

And Matt, our correspondence so far, I may have shot you to the top of the list of people I enjoy on the Zoom.

This is huge to me.

Yeah, Matt's

good energy for sure

this is huge to me because i'm a big fan as well and uh i you know i i pride myself in being pleasant via email so this is really really huge nailed it yeah yeah

uh my bachelor's degree uh in communications paid off

was that your major no it was um that was actually my minor was in communications but it counts I might

be English.

Good emailing is the best explanation of what a

communications degree is good for.

Yeah, absolutely.

Like, oh, yeah, communicating.

Yeah, that makes sense.

I always thought it was like doing the news or something, but it's just like email correspondence.

I can send really good emails, and I've had a lot of friends send me their resumes, and I look at their resumes.

I'm like, that's it.

Have I ever talked about the degree?

that I got as a film major at Northwestern.

Mistress of Crows.

No, I have no idea.

Well, it was, so they showed, they backpacked the whole film program onto a pre-existing liberal arts or I get, I don't even know if I have a Bachelor of Science

in speech.

That's cool.

Is such a strain, like to study film and screenwriting and then to walk out of college with the degree that would allow you to become a speech therapist is, that's, I feel like that's a failure of the education system.

Wait, to not have directed the king speech is really disappointing.

Yeah, good point.

Yeah, yeah, there was only one of us that got to use the degree,

and it was Tom.

What's his face?

Whooper.

Yeah.

Whooper.

Whoop.

Whoop.

There he goes.

I call him the whooper.

Tommy Whoop.

Whooper college buds.

Heather.

Wait, so you, it's like you can become a speech pathologist, or is there any other licensure you need to go through?

I mean, I'm sure there's something, but like, wow.

It's a bat.

I'm a Bachelor of Science.

And nothing in the coursework was like speech specific.

Nothing.

Nothing.

I took a class on

ancient erotic poetry.

Like, there's nothing.

I'm listening.

Quote your favorite for us.

What's funny about ancient erotic poetry is that like there were chapters we studied where it was just fragments.

So it was like

a corner of a tablet.

Yeah, it would be like, it would be like, put the

lotus.

I know what to do with that.

Softly.

That's it.

Yeah, yeah.

I'm ready there.

I'm there.

I'm there.

You got me there.

A lot of them are about like ankles and stuff.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Taryn,

we wear a video game focused podcast, but I have noticed your, I have clocked your Epcot Forever t-shirt, which is

excellent.

Like, are you a theme park guy?

Huge theme park guy.

Wow.

Huge Disney file guy um yeah yeah and and if i could steal one park from florida it would be epcot and if i moved that here i don't know that i would have a reason to go to orlando wow although wow harry potter world is far superior there so the universal studios out there is unbelievably superior um but i'm born and raised in southern california so i'm i'm a i'm a disneyland purist yeah me too i've I've lived in LA County my entire life.

And so that's like the Disney I know and love.

But yeah, I've been to Epcot once, and it is, like, I found it fascinating, but I think I was at the age where I didn't quite have, like, I couldn't process irony yet.

So I couldn't quite enjoy it on that level, which I know is a big part of what people's Epcot appreciation is.

I would assume it's changed so much.

From your last visit,

there is a more sincere enjoyment right now

for me.

I was late to Disney World.

I didn't go till like 2017.

Like, I was was a full adult with children.

I'd only ever been to Disneyland, and I was so excited to go there.

And Epcot did feel like the crown jewel because every Disney Channel commercial had Mickey standing on the big silver ball.

Right.

I was like, that's that's that's the way to do Disney right.

Um, and and like Disney World itself is, is, is just, is just more quantity, but not necessarily more quality.

Um, sorry to get so, so um, controversial, so early.

a political podcast?

Epcot,

right now, like currently for the Guardians of the Galaxy Cosmic Rewind ride, that might be the best ride in all of Disney World, for my mind.

Oh, wow.

In the way that Expedition Everest,

Animal Kingdom, is like the ideal version of Matterhorn, like what we wish Matterhorn would be.

Cosmic Rewind is what is an elevation of Space Mountain that we didn't know we deserved.

Wow.

Yeah.

What is it about that, right?

Because I know that Guardians of the Galaxy ride out here, but I assume it's something different.

Completely different.

And I went in blind, which was amazing.

Are we okay with ride spoilers here?

I think so.

Okay, great.

Thank goodness.

It's basically the

society that Guardians takes place in, the NovaCorps.

Because Epcot is an exchange of cultures, right?

All world cultures are coming together.

And so you can do the World Pavilion, and you can have Mexican food, Chinese food, German food, all in the same day.

The Nova people have come to share their culture with the people of Earth.

And so we're going to be teleported on board one of their spaceships.

And the way they do that is so cool, so fun.

So, like, in the way that Disney is now making waiting in line part of the right experience, sort of galactic

rise of the resistance, They do that in a great way.

There is a Terry Cruise performance that's also worth seeing, like A for commitment, but in a similar fashion to a segment you do here where you do voiceover script reading and then see the actual thing.

It might be worth doing that for Terry Cruise's performance in the

cosmic rerind of the Guardians ride because you're like, whoa, buddy, whoa.

Anyway, the ride itself is a roller coaster, indoor roller coaster in the dark, but it's like you're, it's like you're being transported through space.

One of the

ancients, the eternal people has like come to, come and stolen this power core, and you're helping the Guardians get it back.

Okay.

That's just the story.

You get on the ride.

It loads you in, and it's one of those coasters where the car itself can turn like a teacup.

It's not spinning full, like, like in circles, but it can turn to the side.

It can turn right, it can turn left.

So as much as you're going forward, you're sliding, you're strafing, if you will.

Um, and what's amazing is that they use the element similar to the Guardians right here in California, where there is a pop culture playlist from Star Lords Walkman.

So, knowing nothing, I sit on there and then they go, we're going to blast you into space.

You are doomed.

And suddenly you're in this like launch portal and

Gloria Stefan starts blaring like, come on, everybody, baby, do that gunga.

And you shoot like like California Screaming, you shoot backwards.

It launches you backwards.

And now you're spinning and like all to

that song.

What's that song called?

Feel good.

I think you said the full title when you were.

Yeah.

But they have six or seven songs.

When it first started, there was like 99 songs.

Like it was almost like it was.

a different one or every a different song for every ride of the day then they they pared it down to six, and one of them is Everybody Wants to Rule the World by Tears for Fears.

Oh, that rocks.

If you can get that song,

you will have no better censorial theme park experience for my money.

Wow.

Wow.

I maybe have told this story on the podcast before, but I met Steven Tyler once when I worked for Funny or Die.

We would used to have celebrities would come in and we'd be like, hey,

here's a video we could do with you.

And then they'd do a video and whatever.

That was the whole gimmick of the site for the few years it was relevant.

So Stephen Tyler came in for one of those meetings and we talked to him and he was like,

just a very,

one of those guys who just like over shares and just tells everything.

Anyway, we talked for way longer than we'd expected.

The meeting was wrapping up.

He stands up and starts to walk out of the room.

And Nick Karasi, who also worked there at the time, just asks him real like, real quick, is like, hey, did you ever ride your roller coaster?

Because they have the Aerosmith Rock and Roller Coaster.

And he's like, you ever ride your own roller coaster?

And he spins around, like spins 180 degrees and says,

yeah, man.

And sits back down in the chair and talks for 20 minutes about how much he loves his own coaster and how heavily involved he was in every aspect of it.

Like he was super intense about like, and then with it.

And then when we're going down like real fast, it's got to be loving an elevator.

Living it up.

I'm going down.

It was just like, it was the most passionate I've ever heard anyone talk about anything.

It was Steven Tyler talking about his roller coaster.

The rumor is they tried to get Guns N' Roses first,

that it was supposed to be Guns N' Roses rock and roller coaster.

Oh, sure.

They got Aerosmith.

But I think, to your point, the passion mixed with the creativity, you know, Guns N' Roses doesn't have any going down.

They have, you're going to die.

And you don't think you're like

on a roller coaster, I don't think.

No, it's very literal.

You got an elevator song.

Which he also made a point of telling us, like, that song's about eating pussy, you know.

Like, oh, cool.

Thanks, man.

You dropped your scarf.

Yeah.

We're at work.

Thanks.

Told the rumor just you, Nick.

He had locked eyes with me.

Told me with his mind.

Yeah.

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Okay, well, well, look, I could talk about theme park stuff all day, but we do have some video games to talk about.

And so, the question to the panel and to you first, Taryn, is: what are you playing?

What are you playing?

Wow.

Oh, my God.

What are you playing?

I'm playing.

Wow, very to the point.

That's a Resident Evil murder.

I was going to say, be on the ground.

Yes.

No, I'm very aware.

It's such an honor to meet you.

I have purchased ammo and grip upgrades from you many times.

I recognize you.

I love your wagon.

Love your wagon work.

This is a guest.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

That's right.

This right here is a guest.

I don't know what took you guys so long getting somebody who gets the game on the show.

We need to be critical of the booking process or a lot of our friends or anything like that.

I have been playing, thanks to your,

speaking of guests, your Gabris episode, Diablo 4 pitch.

Wow.

I've never been a big Diablo guy, but I jumped into it because of that episode.

Wow.

And

I was in Canada for a month, just family vacation stuff.

But I've left behind a level 52 Druid and was so excited to return.

And now the season has begun.

And this is my first Diablo 4 season participation.

Wow.

So this is like the first Diablo game you've gotten into, really?

I attempted to, I think.

I attempted it and then got distracted by something else.

Like, I think I actually was on a location.

I was shooting a movie and Kumeo was in the movie, too.

And he and I were playing Diablo 2 together for like a couple weeks, but that's the furthest I got.

And then, yeah, the episode you guys did with Gabris was like, it just got me excited because it was such a positive review of of it, too.

Which I think is accurate.

I've been very much enjoying it.

Oh, I'm glad.

Yeah, I mean, I love that franchise.

It's one of my favorite franchises, as I've said in the pod, but like,

what pulled you towards a druid?

I've always been a druid guy.

I love shapeshifting.

That's like in any sort of RPG, if shapeshifting is involved, that is a big draw for me.

Never been much of a barbarian warrior like that.

There's no drive in me,

no primal urge for slashing but i either like long distance magic or shape-shifting is my tendencies um

do you go yeah or wolf i go i went the way of the wolf wow yeah love that i know i know i did i did wolf with poisonous serpent companion okay and that's serving me very well and then just a ton of lightning

I was going to ask you, Taryn,

how do you feel about a beam?

Do you like beams?

Good question.

Love beams.

Love beams.

X-Men, what was the first X-Men where it was similar to Diablo, where you're sort of that high angle, and Cyclops' beam was just...

Like X-Men Legends?

Yeah, I think it was Legends, right?

Yeah.

Legends is such a great game.

I wish it was a good one.

Where you had the four.

You had like a team of four.

And like, yeah, Cyclops' beam just was unstoppable.

This is, this is perfect.

This is that's wow.

You can answer correctly, Taryn.

Thanks.

Do you think that when you play a shapeshifter, or like if the concept of a shapeshifter was real,

do you think that they are role-playing a wolf?

Do you think that they become wolf?

Like their brain is like wolf?

Or do you think that they are like, I've got to act like a wolf?

No,

because the joystick controls are the same, are as responsive as when you're in human form.

It would be a cool, that would be a cool element to a game that when you go wear bear, werewolf, or whatever, you suddenly lose control of it for 30 seconds or whatever the time of the morph, of the mutation.

That's a, that'd be cool.

That would be cool.

I like the idea that you're role-playing inside of a role-playing game.

Yeah.

Like you're role, you, Taryn, are role-playing a shapeshifter, and that shapeshifter is role-playing a wolf.

Yes.

Well, okay.

So, so that, like, and I, I think we, with the, the rest of us have all been playing Baldur's Gate 3, and I have less to talk about, but I know that the two of you have put some more hours into it.

I've been waiting for console, and I'm curious to hear if if it's worth jumping into the Steam version because I have to wait till September for PS5.

It's cross, the save transfers.

Okay.

So if you put in a chunk of time on Steam and you have the

financial elasticity to be able to double dip on this game, then you can purchase it again for your console of choice and transfer your save over.

Heather, we both worked on SNL.

You know, I don't have that financial flexibility.

Do you, do you, okay?

So,

and first,

well, since we're talking about this, I've been playing with mouse and keyboard, but I understand it controls pretty well with a controller.

Is that your experience?

Matt, and Heather, have you played it any with a with a controller?

I, yeah, I've been playing it on my Steam Deck, so it has, you know, the built-in controls, and uh, that plays, it plays really well.

I will say that there are a couple of times when, you know, there's, cause there's a lot you can select at any given time.

And so just kind of remembering what buttons do what and like sort of navigating the,

you know, the play area and what you want to talk to somebody, but you accidentally, you know, go sit on a log

or something like that can be a little bit frustrating.

I imagine this is a very good thing.

My favorite insult, by the way.

Go sit on a log.

In a way, it's like you're botching a bunch of rolls while you're actually playing D and D.

It's like, I don't want to talk to that guy.

Okay, go ahead and roll.

You rolled a one.

You're sitting on a log.

Yeah.

Wait, you just stole from him.

Yeah, exactly.

Accidentally, I made a merchant so mad because I just like there was stuff outside the, when you talked to him, and I just took it.

And he was like, well, don't fucking take stuff.

And I was like, okay, yeah, you're right.

I shouldn't have done that.

I didn't mean to.

I mean, you'll get yelled at at a CBS for that behavior.

So

not the way I do it.

Whoa.

Not the way I do it.

Is that why they have the plastic now in front of the razor blades?

Yeah, that's always the stuff I'm trying trying to steal.

Because of that, yeah, yeah, yeah.

I'm trying to steal the craziest, worst stuff.

But yeah, I'm playing it on there, and I put in some time this weekend.

I was at a bachelor's party this weekend in Vegas, and I think I played Baldur's Gate for as long as I did everything else that we did when I was there.

I'm not like a, I like getting in the pool, but I'm not being a hot guy.

Like, like, I don't like

in temperature, I mean, only in temperature.

That's that's what I'm saying.

figurative hotness you're all about i'm all that's like that's why you're doing this podcast greased up and shirtless exactly yeah yeah i'm i'm i'm in my fabio era right now

but i i played every time they were like everybody was out in the pool kind of like hanging out i was off to the side in the shade playing balder's gate 3 and uh it it did attract some of my a lot of my friends came over looked over my shoulder it felt very um elementary school kid playing game boy and what your friend you wanted to see what your friend's doing and everybody was very interested in what I was doing, and particularly what the romance options,

how that was going for me.

And I was happy to report, it was going pretty well.

I picture you with like a neck strap for your laptop in the center of the pool.

Everybody surrounded you,

poked out of their brains, watching you.

So, what's going on?

What are you doing?

Watching you level up your beam as a sorcerer.

I'm imagining you're some sort of dark elf sorcerer.

You know, I didn't go beam this route.

I never played Baldur's.

There's no beam in Baldur's.

Well, I didn't pick a sorcerer class because I was playing a sorcerer in

Diablo 4, and I was just like, oh, I kind of just want to mix it up a little bit.

And I had heard that the barbarian class in Baldur's Gate is an easier onboarding for new players to that game.

And I had not had a lot of experience with that.

So I jumped in there.

And it has been pretty easy, but I guess you can re-spec anytime

at a certain point.

Yeah.

Oh.

Right.

It's really, it's, it's apparently really generous with that.

I mean, like, we, have we, have we all found, I think I can just, I can spoil an NPC name because it's pretty early.

We've all found Withers.

Yeah, you can talk to Withers and Withers will let you.

Oh, boy, look for Withers.

You got to go to camp, Heather.

Here's how I know Heather's playing.

She's not going to camp.

She's not healing.

She's not getting hit.

Go to camp.

Camp?

Wait, what's...

Oh, you mean like the sleeping part?

Yeah.

Yeah.

We're all going to party.

I've gone to camp a few times.

You got to meet withers.

There's no people there.

I mean, there's like the two people that I'm partied with.

At a certain point, you'll be going to bed and they'll say somebody else wants to talk to you and you'll be like, huh?

And then you look around and then there's

Bill Withers.

It's Bill Withers.

I found him in the environment, like I was dungeon, like I was dungeon crawling and I came across him.

I like discovered him and then he started showing up at my camp.

That's how he came to,

be as part of my,

not my combat party, but my larger ensemble.

He's a helpful guy, but he's nasty.

I have a dog.

His dog is pretty gross.

There's a dog.

You have a dog?

Wait, you don't have a dog?

This game fucking sucks.

Everybody can just do whatever they want.

You got to get scraps.

Go get scraps.

I got to go get scraps.

Scratch?

I have scratch.

Oh, I do.

Get scratch.

Get scratch.

I do love that, like, in an endless MMO role-playing game, and you guys just explain that there's a mysterious traveling wizard man who will let you change your identity and your magical essence, and Heather dropped dog on you, and both of your minds were blown.

I gotta get this dog, Nick.

I've been playing on a MacBook, so I'm on the worst of all worlds.

So, I don't

right or left shift or right or left-click on the mouse because I only have a trackpad, and it's not, it doesn't support controllers yet on Mac because it's technically an early build.

So I'm, I'm in hell.

Like it is so hard to control the game.

Um, I did have an event this week in the game that I thought was pretty funny.

There's like a

town that's, you know, your perception check check says, oh, you're, you're going to get ambushed if you go into the town.

And I was like, not my thief.

That's not happening.

So I separate the parties and then I sneak, jump all the way through this town, all the way to the back of the town, and then come all the way back up to the front of the town, find the person who's going to ambush me, and then use the shove to shove them off a roof.

The moment my hands connect with them, I enter a cutscene where I'm standing on the ground in the town, having a conversation with this, with this creature.

And they're like, yeah, so, and I pass all of the conversation

without like I pass the conversation checks, and then they're like, Okay, well, you're free to come into the town.

We cut out of that cutscene, and the thing is mid-air and falls to its death.

The cutscene ends.

Boy, I'm glad you didn't shove me.

I'm about to unlock unlimited treasure for you.

What's worse is that that then triggers the other things

to attack.

Right.

Because they've, like, they've all been activated.

Like, it was the stealth checks and all the rest of it didn't matter because the cutscene over, like, it overturns all of that.

Sneak away.

Sneak away.

Fucking frustrating moment.

I, uh, so I've been playing a lot of Baldur's Gate this week because, uh, and I've, I've sort of talked about this on social media a bit or hinted at it.

Um,

two Two weeks ago, as of this record, or maybe a week and a half ago, two weeks ago, I said that right.

My,

if this was a World Warrior segment, it should end with, you lose.

But so it's a, it is a World Warrior segment, I guess.

Um, my wife, World Warrior, Warrior, World Warrior.

Amsterdam!

You lose.

My wife caught COVID.

She, it's the first time she's had COVID.

And

she,

it's the most frustrating fucking thing in the world.

She was getting her hair cut.

And midway through the haircut, the woman was like, oh, I have such a terrible fever.

I am so sick.

And Mary was like, what?

And she's like, oh, it's like, it's like you can't have a fever at work anymore.

And Mary's like, no, you...

you can't have a fever at work, but her hair was half cut.

So the woman finishes cutting her hair, and then Mary bails.

Yeah.

She tells me this story, and I'm like, oh man, that sucks.

I hope you didn't get sick.

She's like, me too.

Four days go by, and Mary starts getting sick.

But it's not terrible.

And neither of us thinks, oh, you should take a COVID test because that just seems unlikely that this woman would have gone to work with full-blown COVID.

The next day, Mary's feeling awful.

Now, I've hung out with her non-stop for the last five days on masked.

It's my wife.

I'm hanging out with her.

Yeah.

My wife.

Yeah, it's my wife.

You got to say that too.

Yeah.

My wife.

And we give her a COVID test, and she is like hard redline.

So on that day, we start quarantining from one another.

The problem is, I have now been exposed for five days to this gestation COVID period.

So I also have to go into quarantine.

And also, in the rules of the Netherlands, is that you have to, if your partner is sick, you also have to quarantine, which means that I have to

cancel

a hangout with listeners,

a full get-played get-together that we had scheduled and I had bought a bunch of fucking tickets for because I was trying to get people in for free.

an interview with a game developer in Utrecht who was going to talk to us about a game.

And.

Wait, that's a place, not just an art store.

There is an Utrecht, it's a great city.

I mean, I can't tell if that was a deadpan delivery of a joke.

Nick has only been in the United States.

Any question he asks about other places is new information for him.

Utrecht Art Supplies has been in business since 1949.

I'm reading from the About on the website.

This is the Utrecht I know.

I didn't realize it was a city.

Nick's actually good about

learning because when he doesn't know something, he asks a question about it.

And I heard that name just now, I just thought, I'll just not know what that is.

So it's now been seven days that Mary has had COVID, and I have still not tested positive.

But I've also had to cancel my trip to Retro Mesa, the Retro Video Game Conference in Norway, and my attendance at Nobu Ometsu's concert and David Wise's concert.

This fucking hairdresser has ruined my goddamn life.

Wow.

Out them.

Out them.

And also

Mary published a negative review of this woman and was like,

not only did she give me a bad haircut, but additionally,

she told me she was sick midway through and four days later I have COVID.

And the woman got so fucking defensive on Google reviews and was like, well, you must have caught it at Pride weekend.

Jokes on her.

Mary and I stayed in all day on Pride weekend

because we don't like crowds.

We have no pride.

We just watch.

You can tell that she's like my soulmate because we watched JFK

by Oliver Stone on Pride Day.

Which is also how that woman probably gives the haircut.

Back and to the right.

Just move your head back and to the right.

I also got COVID for the first time in Amsterdam.

Oh my gosh.

I'm pretty sure I got

last summer.

It was my first time ever there.

Had a wonderful time.

My favorite moment was walking through the red light district in the middle of the day, and my then 13-year-old daughter saw a woman in a window and went, oh shit.

But we went, we went.

I

shared a joint at the Bulldog and I'm pretty sure that's where I got it.

And literally was like, my allergies are acting up.

And then literally like 12 hours later was shivering in bed.

But

it sucks.

I can't believe I haven't caught it, especially since I've been, was with Mary for so long.

And

you've had it before?

No, I'm still

out at zero.

Oh, my God.

You're the LE of COVID.

Wow.

That's huge, actually.

I'm just surprised because, like, when you hear it's like, oh, my barber had COVID and gave me, like, the, and was working, that sounds like a thing that happens in America, like, that it happened in the Netherlands.

I guess there are just dipshits everywhere.

There, I guess, yeah, there are dipshits everywhere.

And also, there's except for Utrecht.

Only the best people.

So pretty.

It's,

God, I can't fucking believe how much.

like, there's like non-refundable flights.

Yeah, that's non-refundable.

It's like so much,

so much of an economic personal fallout from this fucking woman going to work.

Yeah.

There is this sort of Dutch attitude of like

shrug it off.

Right.

Um, that is, that is sort of cultural.

And that also extends to they don't give Paxlovid out here.

So, like,

you, if you get COVID, unless you are hospitalized, you don't have access to Paxilovid because it's like, eh, just sweat it out.

You'll get it.

It'll be all right.

Yeah, have a joint.

That is so frustrating.

That's such bad business ethics.

I feel like even the Resident Evil merchant knows not to show up at the wagon with COVID.

No, I wish I could say you were right.

Shells.

I should have known better.

Yeah, no, the merchant's a bug chaser.

I am what they call patient zero.

Okay.

Okay, that was your bat.

You've heard of a wet market.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

What is wetter than my market?

I guess that's true.

That's true.

You are kind of constantly damp.

It's really unnerving.

Yeah.

It's nasty.

But I'm hoping to reschedule.

I'm devastated about not being able to go to see Nobuo Omatsu perform.

That's fucking like once in a lifetime to see that and him and David Wise at the same night.

That's insane.

But hopefully, most of these other events I'll be able to reschedule.

I know that there were people, listeners, who flew to Amsterdam to be able to participate in this stuff.

And I feel nothing, I'm so sorry.

And I feel so bad.

And I've also gone insane from being in this apartment.

So,

yeah.

I did just want to I did want to mention that first off that that sucks Heather and we talked about that off bot that sucks fucking brutal

but

we we we we were talking druids earlier and Taryn if you do get around to BG3

it's druids yeah yeah yeah so there's a lot of druids it's just the most fun it's just so fun it's just so fun to like you know talk to trees and and turn into bees

you know what I mean yeah negotiate with us that's why it says that on 18 that happens

Do you think Mario is a druid?

Like, class-wise?

Like, when he changes in, when he puts on the tanuki suit, he like he can turn into animals and bees and cats.

And it's all elemental power.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Is he a druid?

Turns to stone.

Yeah, could be.

I mean, like, kind of like a battle mage, too.

Like, he can handle, he can do a little bit of melee, but he also can, like, throw fireballs, you know?

He can do some, like, uh,

some, uh, some, some spellcraft where he's like takes flight or what have you.

But he's so beholden to items, is the thing.

A druid battle mage dwarf.

There you go.

Italian.

Italian dwarf.

Yeah.

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Eastern Time.

Let's talk a little bit about Resident Evil because this is

a big thing we wanted to do today, Karen, with you, which is you told us this is one of your favorite games games or just like a game that like is really meaningful to you?

It's my favorite video game ever.

Resident Evil 1.

Yes.

Wow.

It's the first game that affected me

like viscerally, emotionally when I wasn't playing it.

First game ever.

And I remember I was in Bear City Video.

I grew up in Big Bear City, California.

And we were at Bear City Video renting it.

And my little brother Taylor had just gotten a PlayStation, which was sort of, in my opinion, a spiteful birthday present because I had bought myself, I'd saved up and I bought myself Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis and was like ruled with an iron fist of like who can play it and win.

And I feel like my parents were like, okay, well,

your four and a half year younger little brother now gets, you know, the like premier console in disc technology.

And like he likes sports and stuff.

So he had FIFA, but we went to the video store.

We like, we got to get something new.

And I, the cover, like the cover was

the art on the cover, it's it was white with red font.

And then I think it was Chris Redfield, but like he looked horrified.

He was like pixelated and screaming with a machine gun.

And it's like, what is this?

And there was some random kid, very similar to like a traveling merchant in the Resident Evil franchise who just appeared and said, Don't get that game.

It's impossible.

Nobody can beat that game.

Wow.

And I said, Don't ever tell me what I can't beat.

Don't ever.

And putting that in, like, I'd played games with like,

you know, live-action cutscenes before.

Right.

But the quality of this Canadian non-union production, like,

I hope the casting person for those cutscenes won an award for that opening video because

the likeness of each of like the archetypes of body shape and hair sculpting and accessorizing like has never been matched to this day in my opinion.

It is such a such a time capsule for that era that there is like just full motion video.

Like they shot something for the intro.

Like nowadays, you would like any modern Resident Evil, they're not going to do that.

Any modern game,

they're not going to do that.

But it was, it was like, oh, we can put a video file on a CD-ROM.

Let's go ahead and do that.

And there were a lot of games of the era, like, you know, like Command and Conquer and so forth that had these FMB cutscenes.

And yeah, that's the thing that I like, I played Resident Evil at the time.

I played Resident Evil 2 on PlayStation, and I kind of at times memory hole that they, that, that opening FMV.

Oh my God.

But it is such a big part of it.

The snarling dogs, like Hound of the Baskerville insert, snarling prosthetic dogs.

And like, like Albert, the character of Albert Wesker,

like, They got the guy that physically embodies him.

They'll never beat a better physical live-action likeness than the guy in that opening movie like full dream boat head right like like strong hairline blonde like

played the attitude too and it's all dubbed it's all redubbed right no don't go

because like and it just is off but but horrifying because like you play it and i also love like a like a drawing room murder mystery i get the creep like i love that oh yeah so that like entering hearing the ticking grandfather clock in that first hallway, it was like, was mind-blowing.

And, and the, and the, you know, the first interaction with a zombie past the dining room was horrifying, horrifying.

And like, I think I've never been more afraid than those dogs jumping through the window in that hallway.

I don't think I've ever

had a bigger jump scare in my life since.

It's an amazing

jump scare.

Like, I don't, I, I mean, on consoles, certainly, I feel like the resident evil dogs through the windows which by the way, I went back and played the original this week

on PS5 through the PlayStation now service, right?

And so I got to see that cutscene in HD Yeah for the first time because like when you played it in the 90s you were playing it through composite video on a CRT.

Like a lot of those details were sort of like

Romero

cloudy and like, you know, there's flashes of white to punctuate like gunshots, and you're like disoriented, and you're a child.

So it's also like you've managed to rent a horror movie that your parents don't know you have,

and it is so violent.

Like the blood sprays when you shoot

a zombie is like a quarter of the screen is taken up with like blood mist.

Right.

But for console players, and I don't know if this is true for PC, because I feel like, you know, Doom predates this.

There are scary games on PC that certainly predate Resident Evil.

But for console players, the dogs jumping through the window is the first time any of us had a horror moment in a video game that worked.

Right.

There were gory games, but they weren't like Mortal Kombat wasn't scary unless you were like super young, you know, or like a splatter house on, you know, on PC Engine Turbo Graphics was like, you know, like, but those were like the whole thing was like, oh, there's blood in a game.

It wasn't actually viscerally scary in the way like a Doom or a Resident Evil is.

Before we move too far past it, I wanted to bring up the Resident Evil guy from the box art.

This is the guy you're thinking of, right, Taryn?

I mean, like, look at his face.

It's so great.

It's he's like, it's amazing.

And Chris Redfield has never really looked like that.

No, no.

But it's a little Sylvester Stallone.

A little Ash from Evil Dead.

It's very much Ash, Evil Evil Dead.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

But this is the same thing.

One eye unnaturally open too wide.

It's two faces at the same three faces, really.

It's like an angry guy, a scared guy, and then a burnt guy.

Yeah.

Yes.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Who's with maybe a broken neck?

Either like it's too muscly or it's just broken.

It's like turned all the way around.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

One interesting thing, because you just brought up, Heather, like this is like the such a scary game, and, and, and that was a big part of, I think, of it, of its success.

And certainly it was a thing that, like, like, again, this is, this is a game along with Final Fantasy VII as someone who grew up in a Nintendo household and was a Nintendo loyalist that got me on board with PlayStation.

I bought a PlayStation 1 after experiencing this in Final Fantasy VII on Friend Systems.

And it was...

It was just like, they weren't doing this sort of thing on Nintendo platforms.

It was like something, like, oh, this feels like a grown-up game at a time when I was a teenager and wanted to be a a grown-up desperately.

And also the other thing is that Alex Garland, who wrote 28 Days Later, Danny Boyle directs it, and that's like the movie that kind of has the like leads the resurgence of zombie is now a genre in part because of 28 Days Later, but a big part of where that movie came from, just talking about the Ouroboros of influence, is like.

Like he was a fan of the Resident Evil games and that like put him, you know, like like and those games obviously came from the George Romero zombie canon.

So it's just like, it's kind of interesting how important Resident Evil was as like kind of a pop culture touchstone in terms of where we are nowadays.

There's so much, I mean, this zombie is just like, I feel like that's like what Western used to be.

Yeah.

It's also the first, like, it's the first game that is marketed as survival horror, Resident Evil.

Oh, that's a great point.

Which then becomes, I mean.

So much of the tension of the Resident Evil game is not just, is there a zombie around this blind corner with your pre-selected camera angles so that you can't really tell what you're about to run into.

There's also the constant tension of, I have three fucking bullets.

Yes.

Yes.

And if I run into something,

like that's part of the fear element conjured by the game is resource management.

So survival horror is a sub-genre of video gaming because Resident Evil is like, yeah, what if you only give him like three bullets and one health kit?

Like,

what if you had to deal with it?

It's a game that starts conceptually on hard mode.

Yes.

Which is awesome.

Including movement.

Including like the block step movement where like, like, so many like giggle screams came from like, okay, I lost my three bullets.

Run away from this.

No, why are you backing into a corner?

Turn the other way.

No.

Get it.

That chair's in the way.

My knee is not stuck on the chair.

It gives the player, like, even with control over the character on screen, it makes you as clumsy as people in horror movies.

Exactly.

100%.

Exactly.

You can't quite get out of the room the way that

you are able to in, say, Resident Evil 4 and onward, where it's like, oh, I've got full command of this character.

I'm an action hero.

Yeah, I can get them from A to B without a problem.

In Resident Evil, in this control scheme, in case you're, you know, really young, I guess you don't even have to be that young.

I guess you'd be like 20 now.

If you're 20,

then this game comes before you were born.

What year did this come out?

1996.

1996.

So this game is coming up on 30 years old.

Yeah, if you were born the year this game came out, you're 27.

Yeah.

So, but if you're too young to have played the original Resident Evil games, the cameras were fixed in separate locations in each room.

So there was a cutting from

camera angle to camera angle as you moved through the room.

And that meant that you had to always be able to orient your control based on

the camera angle previous, which means that the only way to move forward is to press up.

So you can continue to hold up, and no matter how many times the camera shifts angles, you're still moving forward through the room.

But you get in a fucking combat situation, and who remembers to hold up to move forward when you are trying to move away from something.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I think it's a learning curve you never really get over because it's just, it always feels unnatural for the direction your character's moving to not correspond with what you're seeing on screen.

And with those fixed angles, like even just aiming, like even if you were to match them, aiming over your right shoulder versus aiming from an eagle's eye view in the top corner of the room, you don't know if your gun is in line with the zombie who is slowly moving towards you.

It's just great.

Like, I do miss that slow tension of the games.

Like, I've heard you guys talk on the podcast before about like the biohazard, Resident Evil, why did we?

But I think for this first one, at least, if it was named Biohazard before playing and I was in the mansion, there's something about the Resident word itself

being in a residential, like there's evil in this residence that, that, I don't know.

Like, I, I, like, I've, I've tried to follow you on, like, yeah, biohazard's great.

And, and that sure, and certainly plays much better for later, later titles, um, uh, of the series, but like, the resident evil and the slowness, and like, I'm in a hall, I'm in this big hall, but I'm so alone.

Like, some of that was the real psychological scare.

It was like, Heather, you're exactly right.

Like, I can't see what's around the corner.

And that's like the tense scare, but like, never was at ease, never felt at ease

with like just being in that main hallway and just being, and you know, like that slow tension, I really miss from

the these later games.

It's a, it's a, it's kind of a key to, and that's a, that's a good observation because it is like you feel isolated.

Yeah.

And I think there weren't a lot of games that necessarily explored that, you know,

even something like Doom, a game I really, really loved, but but like that game is like, there's, there's monsters just just everywhere.

There's not really a point where you're like, oh man, I'm alone and I don't know,

I don't know what to do and I don't know what else is out there.

What do I do next?

And the, and, and then, like, you might go into a room with a statue with a glowing jewel eye, and it might just be a puzzle room, and you might be okay, but it also, like, is such a, it, like, I've, I, it's the only game that I have replayed over 10 times because wow, 10 times

easily.

Well, you know, and that's including like the remasters on GameCube and what have you, but the original game and then like wanting to show it to my kids and like, it's so, it was so, it was such

from storytelling, from character, from, from also like playing the old like archaic version.

Like it's so funny.

Like we had this running joke, me and my siblings, that when Jill survives the room where the spikes come down is going to crash and Barry crashes through the door to save her.

She goes, you know, and she goes, Barry, you saved me.

And he kind of does a head movement where it looks like he's staring at her chest.

And it was the funniest thing to us for forever.

It's like, Gary, you save me.

And he goes, oh,

well, anything for a teammate or whatever it is.

Yeah.

So it's, but like, it just meant so, so, so much.

But it gives it some place to build to that slow pace.

Like in the way that games don't as much.

Like, like, I feel like Tears of the Kingdom.

And more Breath of the Wild like gives you that, oh, you don't even know what you're in store for.

Because by the time you're under the mansion in the umbrella facility fight you know like it does change significantly like yeah like the the look and feel and pace of the game changes so much but they've earned it too so it's so exciting i just i just love it i love it so much the game was but before just just real quick before before we move on uh what how did your kids react when you showed it to them i only showed it to the older one Okay.

And it was too scary for her.

She was like, she's like a little like,

okay, you like this game?

It was that energy.

You like this?

What are you doing?

Why are you?

There's something about like, because I going back and playing some of these, like, in particularly like going back and playing this one even, like.

After, because my first Resident Evil was Resident Evil 4 and like the movement obviously is so much different in that game, but then playing the remake very recently,

going back to the ones where you can't really control it that well feels scarier because

you feel less in control because

you've had it before.

So, like,

taking away what Nick said, like the action hero feel of the games makes me feel even more like a coward than I already am.

It's like, this is awful.

This is a fucking nightmare.

I hate not being able to see

and all that stuff.

Ugh, yuck.

I want to talk a little bit about the director of Resident Evil, who is Shinji Mikami.

He directed Resident Evil.

He also directed specifically Resident Evil 4.

So, I mean, if you're going to talk about like

fucking awesome game design director, this is a fucking dude.

He also directed one of my favorite fucking PlayStation 2 games, God Hand, which is incredible and also features a very strange control scheme.

So it's almost like the guy's like, hey, what if you made like an action game that was a fighting game where you kind of controlled a little bit like Resident Evil?

It's so fucking funny.

It's it's a wild game.

He also oversaw a

frequent me bringing up on this show

GameCube game Killer 7.

Right.

He was the writer of Killer 7.

So this is a dude with

a lengthy career and an enormous amount of influence over like Resident Evil 4 changed the way that all these other video games controlled and like that over-the-shoulder camera play that that happens in like Gears of War and all these other games following Resident Evil 4.

So

first he does Resident Evil, affecting all genres and potentially the growth of the zombie subgenre in film and television.

Then he does Resident Evil 4

and then all the video games are like, oh, we need that camera, that over-the-shoulder camera.

We need to do it.

And then he directs

Godhand, which you guys got to play because it's so fucking good.

It's so good.

Yeah, I know that is a legendarily weird game.

Oh, my God.

And

I only know its reputation.

It's so fucking fun and so funny.

It's like an actual,

like, there are so few comedy games that are actually funny.

And this is one of them.

So the guy's like a real multi-hyphenate.

Yeah.

He's sort of like the, who's the director they keep bringing back to relaunch Bond?

Mark Foster, Mark Forster, something like that.

Like he did GoldenEye.

Let's be Casino Royale.

Like, like, that's what that reminds me of.

Yeah,

it takes

a particular...

I know the Bond franchise well, but it takes like kind of a particular sort of...

mind to not be stagnant and to not be like, okay, well, I did this thing that worked before.

I'll just do it again.

When he goes away from the franchise and then comes back.

And I think we talked about this when we did a Resident Evil 4 remake episode, but he was not the original director of RE4.

He comes on and sort of figures out how to adapt it to a modern audience, which is.

He also redesigns or he supervises a lot of the throwing out of what they had been doing on Resident Evil 4 and being like, no, no, no, it's got to be like this.

It's got to be like this.

He also,

he was the executive producer on Ghostwire Tokyo, which I've heard is really good.

And yeah,

I I haven't played that game, but I hear that that's excellent.

And then

Hi-Fi Rush, which I've seen art for.

Matt played High-Fi.

Yeah, that game of Rips.

It's fucking great.

It's an action rhythm game.

Maybe this dude is like...

Maybe this dude is all about it.

Like, maybe he's a genius.

Yeah.

Maybe he's the best of us

of humanity.

Yeah.

I think so.

I think that's.

He's at the very least very interested in input.

Like, not maybe necessarily like what the story or like the thing is.

He's like, no, this has to control strange.

Like, this has like,

we got to do a new thing with the control.

That's his whole thing.

Yeah.

Every game that Heather referenced was like, oh, he's tapping into an, he's tapping into the experience of the player more than like he's tapping into what am I, what frustrates me?

What it, what brings me joy and relief, like, how, how do we keep the tension so that the achievement feels even greater?

One of the reasons God Hand is so good is that like, so Tom and Jerry cartoons used gunshots when they were punching each other.

Like you'd hear gunshots.

Yeah.

God Hand also uses gunshots when you punch people.

There's one, we were talking about resource management earlier, and the thing that stressed me out, I think, the most from the original Resident Evil is ink ribbons, which is how you'd like, cause it was not at the era of, oh, I could save anywhere, unlimited saves.

It was like, I had to manage when I could end my play session and resume it later.

And I don't know.

I mean, Terren, do you have it?

Like, I certainly think, like, as a kid, when your playtime is not necessarily controlled just by you,

that was definitely a thing I was like really conscious of and always stressed out.

There absolutely were attempts to like circumvent that by leaving the machine on, like going into the typewriter room and then just leaving the machine on while I went to school.

And like, certainly it did not work out well because it just came on like surprised it did not start a fire with just leaving that disc spinning for eight hours.

Um, I remember the stress of that, but I also like the ego of myself as a player was like, how far can I get without more than more than 100% protecting it?

It's like,

am I going to be docked for having saved eight times as opposed to only four?

So, that was a game.

The resource stress for me was herbs, like the herbs

always.

And like getting the best cut, like wanting to have a red and a green, and then ending up with three greens and then combining two of the greens for whatever, and then finding a red and just being furious at myself.

Like that was, that was the real head game of conservation for me during that game.

Matt, even playing the Resident Evil 4 remake, I had, I just had moments like that.

I was like, God, man.

Yeah.

I goes, there was a red right here.

I already combined these.

Harder to see a little bit too.

Like,

yeah.

Yeah.

have you kept up with the the franchise and if so like what are your like what are your favorite uh more recent entries yeah yeah yeah yeah um resident evil where you're in the house with the family and then oh yeah hey we're gonna that's seven yeah yeah that was like oh we're back and again because we're back the the resident element of it was really capitalized on like i i probably was most disappointed by the most recent one because like Werewolves aren't zombies.

Yeah.

You know, like werewolves aren't zombies.

And like,

I liked a lot of the character design.

I liked the mysticalness of the sisters and stuff, but it never like capitalized enough to me in store.

Like, I feel you got a lot more of their relationship in the story of this weird family that, like,

out of the game, like, reading journal entries or whatever.

And then, so I didn't, I didn't love that as much.

Um, four was absolutely great, but it just was different.

Like, shooting axes out of the air.

I was like, that's cool as heck, but that's, this is not the same.

This isn't giving me the same fix

as.

And

this is scandalous because I agree with your take that

five is crazy racist.

Yeah.

But

there is visual and gameplay stuff that I do like

almost like leaning into daytime hot desert,

like

setting as

horribly

as horribly

just tasteless, you know, as

the narrative of that is and pharmaceuticals and robbing third world countries of proper care and testing on them.

There was like

there, I don't know, there was, there was something that I enjoyed about that gameplay

that had nothing to do with the story of it.

Yeah.

Daytime is interesting for horror.

Like, you don't see it that much.

So, like, you know, a movie like Midsummer comes along and the entire thing is in the daytime.

You're like, this is fucked up.

Yeah.

This is worse.

Well, since they seem to be set on remaking the entire Resident Evil franchise anyway, it feels like five is a one they could try to figure out how to mute some of those more offensive abilities.

Oh, they're going to.

I don't know either.

Like,

I wouldn't even...

I don't know, man.

Maybe they'll just skip it.

They might.

They might

leapfrog it.

Yeah,

I mean,

two is fun,

but even the, like, everybody loved the remake.

There was something about the character of of Mr.

Nemesis, like, the fedora, like, it's just, there was a silliness to it.

Where, like, and look, like, not that I'm going to argue, you know, a giant snake in an attic isn't equally silly in its own way,

but

um,

I also like, I didn't feel safe in a police department.

I don't know, it just felt like um, yeah, it didn't have the same oomph for me.

I love zero, I think zero is phenomenal.

Oh,

and I really love the character.

Zero was the game.

It's GameCube, and it's almost

a precursor to, you know, the Alpha Bravo Teams

mashup of the original Resident Evil.

But I really, really enjoyed that one a lot.

But it is like,

because of my experience with the first one,

I have consumed all Kool-Aid.

I will be first in line for any future release.

Do you keep up with the lore?

Or is the lore secondary to the way you like?

Because

I've watched some of these CG

Resident Evil movies, and I'm like, this is so fucking baffling to me.

Yeah, yeah.

Like, do you, like, when you see any characters

Jill Claire dynamics, any Chris Jill Clare relationship dynamics, I do, like, Leon worms his way in, but I'm not like Leon, I could take or leave personally.

Sure.

Um, but anything, like, because it also, like, it just hit on every level because the stars team, there was a predator feel of it too.

You know what I mean?

Alpha team, Bravo team.

Like, we get to the chopper.

Like, it was all of that.

And the specialists of it.

Like, I love a team of specialists.

You're the sniper guy.

You're the muscle.

You know what I mean?

Like, that's that's role playing.

Master of unlocking.

Yeah.

That's the probably my big draw of DD is like, oh, we as a team come together and, you know, compliment and

you know fill in the missing pieces that that otherwise we would be weak without i'm not saying that right but um i think you know what i mean yeah but i just yeah 100 i i

so in terms of like larger world because then it's then it's like the movies never hit did it for me

um

we we we re-watched resident evil

for the podcast and and the newer one yeah welcome to raccoons that's right yeah and and we like it's it's so distinct from the games that it's kind of like, I think if you treat it as its own thing, the Resident Evil 1, the movie is kind of still fun.

I know there are people who are really into

that franchise,

but I haven't watched all of it.

Isn't there a brand new, brand new Resident Evil TV show or movie or something?

There was a Netflix one that was

canceled, and then

where...

Ah, shoot.

Where Lance Reddick played Albert Wesker.

Everyone said that he was the best part, and he's since passed.

But then there is also an animated movie that just came out

pretty recently.

I think it's called Resident Evil Death Island.

Yeah, that's right.

Death Island.

It's crazy how many swings they take with this franchise.

They're just like, yeah, a new Resident Evil.

It feels like once a year, a new Resident Evil property.

The Ninja Turtles of video games.

Right.

Yeah.

That's interesting to think about, too, because,

well, not not to get too into Ninja Turtles, but like, I saw the new one and I really, I quite enjoyed it.

It was, it was a lot of fun.

But then looking back, not a single one of the other ones are reviewed well.

And I was like, well, wait, did people like this enough to keep bringing it back and trying again?

But like, it's the same with Resident Evil.

None of them are technically good, but

they just keep doing it.

Yeah.

It's, yeah, it's, but the Resident Evil games, though, are awesome.

Yes, by and large.

And, you know, I haven't played all of them.

I might, I've, I've definitely got to keep to catch up with the modern entries of the franchise.

I haven't played seven or eight, but these are like extremely influential and important games.

And certainly in the context of when they came out, these, I think these are, these are great games.

And yeah, Resident Evil 1, just, I don't think it had as profound an impact on me as it did, Terran, but it is a game that, like, oh, wow, it kind of changed my concept of what a console game could be.

Yeah, I highly recommend playing seven.

Seven.

I got gotta check it out yeah was it's it's so good they like there's a full there's a full level that like like you're you know your your drew barrymor and scream opening scene level play is phenomenal and terrifying and simple but intense and then the game starts And you're in the house with this fan.

And I was just like, oh my God,

this is the best it's been since the first one.

Wow.

Does it do the move where it hits you with the title card after that?

Yes.

Because I always love that in the game.

Hell yeah.

Yes.

Where you're like, there's a full story.

Like you've gotten a full story before the game starts.

It's amazing.

This is a different franchise, but

did you get to mess with PT ever when

that was a thing that was available?

No, I don't think so.

Oh, oh, oh, oh, the Gueramo one, right?

Yeah.

No, I did.

It's a hallway game?

The worst thing that's ever happened to me.

It's the scariest thing I think I've ever seen or experienced.

It's so fucked.

Oh, wow.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I remember when we covered it,

I played it with Mary and she was like, this, I don't like, I don't like this.

Yeah.

I don't like this.

I like feel bad.

Like it, like, yeah, it's awful.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Heather, should we watch this thing you put in the chat?

Well, so yeah, I put, uh, I put in, I shared with the room

footage footage of the Resident Evil theme restaurant in Japan, um, which we can we can share.

I suggest jumping to like midway through the video because it's it's a promotional piece.

It's very long from Capcom.

Uh, but in um in Tokyo, they often have these theme restaurants.

I once went to a cowboy bebop uh theme restaurant in Akihabara, uh, but this was the Resident Evil restaurant uh in 10 years ago, the biohazard cafe and grill.

That's the grill.

Nightmare of the Ambox.

Here we go.

Pets are missing, or talking about the Arklay Mountains and the mansion up there and the mansion incident.

They have newspapers on the walls.

From just a little bit of Resident Evil series.

Pet Shop, all kinds of little things that really help set the tone.

And as you walk in and enter the Biohazard Grill, it would make sense only to have some ornate crest you would have to adorn the door with before it would even open.

So I assume someone has since solved a very elaborate puzzle puzzle to get this crest up here, which now allows us to proceed inside and see the rest of the restaurant.

You've got your waitresses are in,

police officer outfits.

And then they sort of do a replica of the police station

where

you eat

the menu.

This menu is like

Salisbury steak, and they give you friends

at the table.

That's that is a very different experience in America.

Oh, wow.

Look at the

carvings.

They ordered at the table.

Yeah, they ordered some kind of like beef steak.

It comes served on a skewer, like a body-length skewer, which then you cut off hunks of meat in order to eat.

She like picks up the gun and shoots at it.

Yeah, just a one sauce squirts out of the barrel of the gun.

I love the idea of a dining experience that's supposed to evoke police lobby.

Oh,

boy.

Yes.

This whole thing kind of is like, is deeply cursed in a way that I don't.

Also, those guys making the video are exactly who I think would be eating.

Very bold windscreened on that on that mic.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

We should, because the crest was mentioned, and you talked about this earlier a little bit, Tara, and I know we we talked about this a lot, but I do we should touch on touch on the thing that I fondly characterize as Resident Evil's shitty little puzzles, which I always, which you start in Resident Evil 1, they don't make any sense in terms of the environment.

Like it doesn't really, like, I guess it kind of makes sense in terms of where, like, it being a mansion, but once you're in the police station, once you start to get into different environments and you're still like putting jewels into statues and putting crests onto paintings, it's still, it's like total nonsense.

But I think it, but I do, it is a thing I have a lot of fondness for.

And I always want to see one of these games.

I love the absurdity of its practicality.

Like, if this is a well-functioning umbrella facility, who needs to put a blue and red jewel into this tiger's eye to reveal

basically a gun room?

Like, yeah.

But one out of every five makes sense.

I remember, like, you got to get Rebecca to play Moonlight Sonata on the piano.

And I'm like, there's something cool about this, something eerie and creepy.

Right.

But yeah, it's all.

And also, like, not only the practicality of these mechanisms, it's these, the who,

even if it was like in panic mode under a zombie attack, why did someone put one jewel up in the water pitcher of that marble statue and then another jewel like in the floorboard of the kitchen?

Yeah.

Right.

Well, also, like, one of the very first things that happens is you get a map for the first floor out of a statue's vase.

And it's like, who needed a map of their own house?

Yeah.

Why did they print it?

And then why did they climb up on top of a statue and put it in a bucket?

Yeah.

Yeah.

But thank goodness they did because, boy, it was fun to get it.

Any, any, any closing thoughts, anything we missed, Taryn?

I don't think so.

I mean, you know, some of that, some of that voice acting stuff, I, you know, I've never been able to track down really.

But, you know, also the the, the, the sound of the, of the footsteps, the heavy footstep of the first Resident Evil, the clop, clop, clop, clop, like,

is so, is, is so dear to my heart.

But yeah, Barry, where's Barry?

What a, what a mansion.

Like, to have a time machine and travel back to those recording sessions and just see, like, yeah, all right, but try it again.

Really lean into what up.

There's also one other thing about the game that I want to like sing the praises of, which is in this era of gaming, load screens in between

like individual rooms was such like a chunky part of hiding the programming behind a curtain.

And in like Final Fantasy games, you do a really slow fade in and out when you'd go from area to area.

Resident Evil covers that load time with a door.

Like you, you open a door to go into a next room, and there is a slow,

you know, rendered in real-time polygonal door that slowly creeps open and ushers you into the next area,

which heightens the tension.

It was a great cover.

Like it's

a Kojima level, like, oh, what if, and, and now that you don't need those

load screens to happen anymore, those elements are still preserved in, like, if you're playing it on a PS5, you still have to open the door and it still fucking works.

Like, you're still like, oh, what's going to be?

Am I going to like immediately get a jump scare from a zombie?

Am I going to get like a beautiful, ornate pool room?

Like, what's going to be on the other side of the door?

It's a really good bit of design.

100%.

Well, hey, we were talking voice acting just a second ago, and I think that segues nicely into our segment.

Let's see how we stack up against the most memorable voice acting in video game history.

It's the return of VO Theater.

And, Matt, you got something for us.

That's right, yeah.

I've sent you all a script in your email, so it'll be there.

Should I have sent it before we started?

Absolutely.

Did I send it when we were,

you know, some part through the show?

Because I realized I forgot.

I did.

But it should be, it should be there.

And

I'll do this stage directions.

Taryn, why don't you read Guy?

Why don't you read Guy?

And he's sort of like a, you know.

The role I was born to play.

Yeah, you're Guy, but you're sort of like a like, you run like a boxing gym guy.

So you're sort of like, you're, you're that kind of guy, you know?

Okay.

Nick, why don't you read for

Ryo and, you know, just give that everything you got.

And Heather, you'll be Bear, okay?

Okay.

And Bear is like a big, like, like

a big fighter guy.

Oh, okay.

Big fighter guy.

So this is from Shenmue.

Yeah.

I didn't already see it.

Oh, yeah.

I dreamcast game Shenmue, which Heather and I both played.

Taryn, did you ever mess with Shenmue?

Did you ever Dreamcast?

No.

I missed Dreamcast.

I was so hard on 64 for so long

and then was straight into the PlayStation disc console.

The Shenmue, I think, is a game that I think is kind of a debacle, but it's fascinating, and I'm glad it exists.

Was the Spider-Man game Dreamcast?

There was like a Spider-Man game that came out on.

There was one that was also on.

I think it was, they eventually got it on everything.

It was for PlayStation Dreamcast, and

I think the first one is on Nintendo 64 as well.

You are correct, Terren.

The PS1 Spider-Man got ported to Dreamcast and got a graphical overhaul.

I love that.

I do remember playing that at a friend's house.

There was also a Good Resident Evil under it, Code Veronica, which I don't remember that.

Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

I remember it.

It probably was on PS2.

If you are unfamiliar with Shen Mu at home, this was a game that was sort of a slice of life

in

a slice of life mystery where you play as a guy named Ryo who's trying to solve, I believe, a murder.

It's been so, I mean, it's been so long since I've played Shenmu.

Is it his dad's murder?

Yeah, his dad's murder.

But the game also includes like that, you can get a part-time job

using a forklift.

You can go into an arcade in Shenmue and play old Sega Classics.

So it feels like you're in a town.

And that was

part of the pleasure of playing Shenmue.

But it has a really ambitious game that the world and technology were not like really ready for.

But

the Yakuza games are like a modern version of what Shenmu is trying to do.

Absolutely.

Yeah, you can draw a straight line from Shenmu to Yakuza for sure.

Why don't we keep Matt?

Are you going to read these statements?

Because I know you transcribed this.

You did not find the script for Shen Mu.

Are you going to read these stage directions?

Yeah, I wrote them.

Okay,

I'll read them.

Here we go.

This is from Shen Mu.

Interior, some sort of alley or garage or something.

People are standing around.

Hey, it's you again.

How about some arm wrestling?

He'll be your opponent.

He's 40 per bet.

How about a match?

Maybe I'll try it.

Alright,

let's go.

Time skip.

The fight is about to begin.

Here's a newcomer, a daredevil, all the way from Japan.

Ryo Hazuki, against a monster who broke 99 arms.

Bear Norton!

People are cheering.

Bear is basking in it.

You want me to call a doctor?

Ryo and Bear are now in arm wrestling positions.

Sorry, your arm will make it 100.

We'll see about that.

Might as well get ready.

You'll hear me say fight, then begin.

Ready?

Ready?

Fight!

I got you!

Bear wins.

The crowd booze.

Boo.

We hate bears.

Too bad.

You lost.

Seeing.

Great.

Wow.

Very, very good.

Very good.

That was great.

An incredible rendition.

I will now share my screen to show you

exactly how they did it here

in the game.

And it is

a big

mess.

Hey, it's your again.

How about some more wrestling?

GUV your opponent?

It's $40 per bet.

How about a match?

Maybe I'll try it.

All right, let's go.

Here's an orcomer.

It's like he's recording into a microphone from the other side of the room.

Love Bear Norton's character.

Do you want me to call a doctor?

Surely

your arm will make it 100.

We'll see about that.

Might as well get ready.

You're going to say fight.

Send it in.

I got you.

Too bad you are.

Wow.

I wish he'd given me the Tony Clifton direction.

Arm wrestle.

I'll arm wrestle anybody along.

That's such a perfect.

That's exactly what he sounds like.

I was trying to place it for so long.

He's Tony Clifton.

I also like that Rio, and this is true for the entire game.

Rio's delivery on everything is like he has never said words

before.

That's why I kind of thought Nick would be perfect for the reason that's that's right in Weiger's wheelhouse

like I remember someone who's not believable as a human I get you

burned into my brain is like him interviewing like when I played the game back in the 90s or 2000s

him interviewing kids to be like hey do you have any details on this this murderer that that happened except he asks like hey do you remember what happened that day

and you're like what the like if you're any human who heard that question, you'd be like, I have no literature, no information, and I don't know what the fuck you're talking about.

I'm sorry, man.

I don't deal with solicitors.

I wish you all the best.

Very well.

Perhaps I will learn more from you in the future.

Good luck.

Good luck.

I donate to a lot of places, and so I like to give directly to shelters and causes, but I wish you all the best.

Donation.

Now, there's an idea.

it did it's those graphics seeing those graphics it made me uh real hungry for some time crisis oh yeah oh yeah yeah it was just in terms of like color palette and and the like it just i was like oh i miss me some time crisis

yeah some aggressively visible polygons yes yeah love it

There's something about those like those

early 2000s arcade visible polygons where it's like the refresh rate is 120 frames per second.

It's so smooth and pretty, yeah, but it's also you're zooming in really fast on like a mannequin's face.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

That rock, Matt.

Good, good clip you picked there.

And hey, that's that's this week's Get Played or Engineering is by Alex Gonzalez, Dead Air Alex G on Twitter and Instagram.

And also, we got Get Animate going, which you can find only at patreon.com/slash get played.

Uh, Heather, we're still making our way through Harui Suzumiya.

Yeah, we're watching mid-2000s mega hit, The Melancholy of Harahi Suzumiya.

We're watching three episodes this week from the final arc of season two of The Melancholy of Harahi Suzumiya,

subtitled The Sigh of Harahe Suzumiya.

So come check it out.

If you watch anime, if you don't watch anime, if you just like hearing our rat-like voices squeaking through your speakers,

and also you get our entire back catalog there where we talked about a a bunch of stuff.

So, check that out.

Taryn Killam, our guest.

What an absolute treat to have you here.

Please come back anytime.

So great to talk with you about it.

Such a fan of all of you individually, a fan of the podcast.

Very, very happy to be here.

That's really nice of you to say.

Thank you so much.

I know it's a weird time to be plugging anything, but do you have anything you'd like to direct people towards?

I don't know if you've covered this.

This is not of my own thing, but I just finished Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow.

Oh, yeah.

Have you read that?

Have you talked about it?

We haven't.

We have not.

Oh, it's wonderful, And it feels very appropriate for Get Played.

It's a novel about

really about relationships, this friendship, but

it exists in the world of game design.

And I really loved it.

I love that book.

I really, truly want to read that book.

I cannot fucking wait.

Yeah.

It's really.

If we make it into content, we can justify it.

It does a really great job of playing with chapter structure too, where,

yeah.

And that's all I'll say about it without spoiling anything.

But I just was very impressed.

And I think if you like video games, you'll especially like it.

But if you're just a human with feelings,

it's really an enjoyable read.

Oh, there you go.

Well,

I was planning to read that anyway, but with that endorsement.

He said human with feelings.

He said human with feelings.

Well, I could learn things.

And, you know, I

it brings me no pleasure to do this,

especially because I feel like we just, you know, I feel like we bonded pretty hard on the show with you, Taryn.

And I'm just going to take the bullet for this, even though you said that I was at the top of the list.

And I don't know if this is going to change this for you.

But you got played, and I'm so sorry.

Holy shit.

Holy shit.

And your daughter played along.

Holy shit.

I was the player.

No, No, I was the play-in.

Oh, damn.

I have the feeling in my soul right now

is the sound that they would play on the HBO interstitial series, and it goes, Brain Games is now over.

But I'm going to change brain games with Get Played.

Get Played is now

over.

Quick, time to choose a meal deal with McValue.

The $5 McChicken meal deal, the $6 McDouble Meal Deal, or the new $7 daily double meal deal.

Each with its own small fries, drink, and four-piece McNuggets.

There's actually no rush.

I'm just excited for McDonald's.

Price and participation may vary.

You walk in tired and hungry.

one bad dinner away from losing it.

You don't like to cook.

You don't want more takeout.

You just want something good.

That's why there's Dish by Blue Apron.

Pre-made meals with at least 20 grams of protein and no artificial flavors or colors from fridge to fork in five minutes or less.

Keep the flavor.

Ditch the subscription.

Get 20% off your first two orders with code APRAN20.

Terms and conditions apply.

Visit blueapron.com/slash terms for more.