Hey, everybody, welcome the game spot after dark.

Happy Friday, y'all.

You know, Kurt, I've been paying a louts attention to the news, but I'm pretty sure the switch to parers were supposed to be up this week.

Did you get yours?

Did I get mine?

Yeah?

Did you get yours?

I don't had a chance yet.

I figured there'd probably be no issues and I could just grab one later today.

Maybe I I talked to somebody and I may have it locked in.

Okay, if somebody, you know, maybe I paid twenty seven dollars for pre order at a Walmart that they won't rembor that they won't charge me with the wullmot for.

Can you imagine that happening again to you?

Yeah, but hopefully I would actually like the switch to also.

Is that it Jake's ny here?

So I got to do it to a Jean Luke?

Sypeke?

How's that for the switch to switch to?

This motherfucker?

Let's go, Hey, everybody, did you get your switch to preorder?

No?

They would get later today, all right?

They moved to May eighth.

Is that actually when they moved it to who knows?

I'm not sure I'm switching my way out of this boom bot ban.

Uh.

It's it's been a a I'm not gonna say a light week, but a lighter week comparisonal last week and how completely ridiculous that was.

But like I think a ripple effect is still the fallout of it is is absolutely leading away and lots of miscommunication, lots of wrong headlines coming out and people assuming something's this much when it's actually that much, and tariffs this tariff's that being reversed, happening not happening, switches this price for that reason.

Actually no, it's not for that reason.

It's like it's just a constant fucking bomb barden of people just saying things and publishing things.

And I'm not pointing the finger blaming anyone, but it just is emblematic of just how much information is being vomited constantly and the inability to you know, be chasing the vomit and not slipping all over the vomit.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

The best thing I could recommend is to just like sill, chill, stand formed, but relax.

It's better for you or.

You know, read or read you know, look at the look at that, you know, look at your headline that article understand its sources.

What if I want to read some notes in a video game and saw some puzzles.

Oh, it's got a game for you.

Yeah, Laura Line the Laser.

Oh my yeah, that game's pretty good.

I got another one.

It's called Missed.

Gotchat Seeah.

The big game of this of the week, I would say that is the big thing.

That's the big thing this week is UH blue Prints, which people have been raving.

About us, including not us, you and me, but games by the publication Aplication Giant Bombs, the reviewer who gave the game a nine out of ten.

We had Dan Riker on the Game Spot Show and he was saying a game of the year so far for him.

Yeah.

Talk for Dan Regerds.

Whole thing was like, oh, I can't talk about this game because if I say something, I'll spoil it.

No matter what I'm gonna I'm gonna end up spoiling something.

Dan, you talked for sixteen minutes straight and you didn't give shit away because I only just started playing that game last night.

After it's spoken.

All he did was just really eloquently explain how that game works.

Yeah, for those who have not seen that segment, how does the game work?

Are you're asking me, I want to hear.

I want to hear your summary?

How would you describe ballue prints?

For those not in the know, the easiest.

Way to explain the game is kind of works like a like a cardboard game.

And in the way that each you move within a world, you move within a mansion room by room, and those rooms kind of work like tiles, and every single time you exit a room to go to another room, you're given a random selection of three rooms to choose.

Where that goes.

Sort of random, it's not actually as random as you might think.

Well, here's Jean Luke dropping knowledge I didn't quite know, bim bam boom slim bam wham so playing.

But the objective of the game is an old British man is like I love puzzles.

Here my person that I'm blood related to have the it's the oldest fucking grandpa dies.

He leaves the nephews his sole airtance.

Yeah, which is they I've played enough hidden object of puzzle adventure games or that plot has been like thrown around six hundred times.

I will say as as a theme people say about this game, there's more to it than that.

It's an old bait and switch as they and I have hit the point in that game now where you kind of get it, what you kind of understand what the bait and switch is.

We I also have not finished what's going have finished with the game?

How the game plays by the way.

Oh, I'm sorry, let's yes, you should finish.

I'll get to that to the smallest point.

But basically the objective is you have to get to room forty six.

Yes, and you do that, and you are given a map tile system and you have you have to do that, and it's done in a roguelike way in which you could only go like each time you move through a room accounts as a step yep, which is like action points basically, Yeah, and every day you're giving fifty steps, which means you're only allowed to move in and out of those rooms fifty times.

There's buffs depending on the rooms you choose, that give you more steps and all that jazz.

You can find food and yes, but the end but basically if either you run out of steps or you fuck yourself and you can't progress any further because the way you laid your shit out and you have to end your day and when you wake up the next day, the whole thing is reset and you have to go back to it.

Yep.

So yes, now take it that there's more too.

That means the eye of this game, and it seems yeah, common consensus is, like myself included, it takes a long I think it takes an abnormally long time to really get your bearings with what's going on.

Yeah, it's relying a lot on an intellectual intrigue, like the basically the blind faith of.

Don't worry, there's more, but that.

Takes, from what I can tell, several hours until you kind of understand what that is.

Is My biggest criticism of the game is that I think this game kind of can can take a minute to get to it, and that can also very depending on what you find because of the randomization of the roguelike element.

So like you know, uh, Jake, for example, found a room that was like, oh, I found this room and it finally opened up all this stuff for me.

And I think you found it like seven eight days in.

I found out on my first day, hmmm, And so that kind of I had more contact than he did, and I think that is cool, But also it can be like extremely frustrating with this game in a way that is, like every time I hit a moment where I feel like, oh man, this run is just going so great, they'll just be a thing that happens that just completely kills the momentum of the run.

And well, I mean like puzzles too, like because like you, I won't like talk about that a bit because I'm not your you.

You've played more than I have.

Like what is it like to discover something yeah that suddenly have an epiphany moment like oh I understand this now right now, I have to go do this thing?

Yes, And you kind of like are you kind of realize you might have to do a whole another day again?

Yeah?

Yeah?

Yeah, So like you know, there will be because at first glanced you're like, oh, okay, I just gotta go to you through each room, and each room has like a gimmick, but there's more to each room than at first appears, and rooms will have hints to puzzles in other rooms, or they'll have their own puzzle to them that you'll eventually figure out.

So what happened to me yesterday is a perfect example.

I'll be vague, so I won't spoil it too much, but there was a room we found that was like presented a a mystery, and that mystery requires you to go check a bunch of different rooms and and it was really exciting.

It's like oh, like like we're just like, yeah, like this is like it's it's it's you know, fire the brain, Your brain's from all synapses and it feels great and you're like, this is this is like the game at its best and why I love games like these where I'm just like, oh, this feels great and we're going We're like, let's go.

Because it was right at the end of our run, so we had already kind of exhausted how much we could uh rooms we could unlock, So what does it and then what does that mean Like when you say exhausted, it means.

Like basic dead ends.

Yeah, we hit dead ends or all the doors were locked and we had no more keys and gems.

So that's another part of the scam is like you have to you have to kind of design your runs very deliberately in exactly because some rooms will give you gems, which are required to build other rooms.

Some rooms will give you keys, which are required to unlocked doors, but you're not always sure when those locked doors are going to pop up.

Yes, so there's certain things, there's hands hints they give you, but tell you there is a level of randomization still to it.

So because we're like, well, we've gotten pretty far, but we we were like ready to end the run and then we're like, well, this is the last room we checked.

It found this puzzle that was like, hey, you can go check a bunch of the rooms through it previously in and we had enough steps that we could go all the way back through and check all the rooms again.

We're like, awesome.

So we spent like a good thirty minutes like going through each room and grabbing the little pieces we need for this puzzle because we now had context for what it was and it felt awesome.

We did all that hit the dead end, we're like, okay, these are now the places that we haven't got to check because we didn't unlock those rooms.

Next run, we will prioritize going to those rooms and we're gonna like bline it for those rooms only so that we can get this puzzle.

Because we're feeling great about it.

We want to solve it and you know, keep this momentum going very quickly.

We realized that didn't really work because the game as you as you progressed further into the house, it becomes more difficult where more of the doors will be locked, you know, either through the keys or the gems or what have you.

So we actually ended our run extremely early.

We kind of like screwed ourselves and we're like, oh, when we didn't make any progress, and we're like, well, that sucked.

But it was this learning lesson of like, oh, okay, well, I think it's because, you know, because we just rushed it.

We we didn't give ourselves the chance to sort of like build up our resources of keys and gems.

So next run, we'll really take our time and we'll we'll we'll go through all the early rooms that we did to build up all our resources so we can then unlock the later rooms.

And then we still just got stuck and didn't make any progress because we just happened to get bad roles and couldn't do anything even though we were taking it very cautiously.

And that is just really really frustrating.

A real epiphany cock block, yes, because like that's.

Like right on the edge.

You're like, I know, what I gotta do.

I'm gonna figure it out, and then all that momentum.

Is sucked out, is completely sucked out.

And you know games like miss or games like Lore Live.

When you have that epiphany and you go to that moment and you put it in, you're like.

Just fuck up a fucking g Yes, exactly, And this game it's like I know exactly what to do, but I just have to wait.

I have to wait and hope that things get into the right place.

And again there are as you progress, you'll find things that like help you manipulate it, and you know you have to kind of be smart about like okay, like I know I can sort of get certain rooms to appear in certain places or this and that, and I think there is like a satisfaction in doing that on its own.

But you also have that that mental cock block, like you said, right a blue Prince, more like say it blue balls.

They anyways, you know, it took me way too long to figure out the pun and the name.

Well it took me two seconds to figure out that game should have been called instead of blue Prints.

I do do you know why?

Do you know why the Prince is the character is that you play us like it, like the kid.

I finally like, I got a good look at what the character you play as he looks like a sad newspaper boy.

He does kind of Yeah, I don't know why pa, I don't know why he's I don't know why he's the blueprints, or if he even is the blueprints.

I have no idea.

I'm dog yeah, yeh cock block of the day.

I might have a theory though, because they have introduced color, seems to be somewhat of a theme that the kid have.

A poor newspaper boy and shoved him in a bucked up house.

That's he's gonna be.

You have to live in a tent outside of you can't.

That's another thing.

First thing you find I note that's like, by the way, you can't stay in the house overnight, fuck head, go sleep outside, dogs in a goddamn tent.

I mean, camping is great and all, but maybe your uncle's or your grandfather is not as cool as you know, makes himself out to be a real asshole.

And then I'd be like, fuck you, I'm done.

I don't want to I'm not gonna help on this.

Fuck.

Why would I hear this fucking ass just mansion.

If every single fucking day it changes that, I'm gonna go, like walk into a kitchen and find a single apple and the grocery list that go take care of and then I have to wait a whole fuck another day to go take care of it.

I'd be like, give this the next air?

Is that what they call it?

Air air?

Give the next air, and I have him fuck up your goddamn mansion, and he could be your red print.

I know there's a there's a whole thing with red and blue in that game, so and green and purple and some colors yellow.

It's it.

It is a cool game.

I and I and I am having a good time with it, and the more I play, I would say I simultaneously have a better time with it, but then I also get more put off by the parts where it is preventing me from having those those aha moments, which I think is I'm so desperately crave.

Yeah, yeah, you know.

I think that as a criticism that Steve Wats puts under his cons like you kind of just have to wait sometimes for the game for the puzzles to kind of figure themselves out.

So I put about about two a little over two and a half hours close to three hours of the game, and my biggot and I know I've heard from Dan and everyone else under the sun that the game doesn't quite stick in its first hour or two.

It just seems like that's par for the course.

My big that isn't so much my issue.

It's like, I think like the like the the appeal of the game is this story of for a lot of people, I think is mechanical.

It's like the idea of like unlocking things and trying to get further with this with the chance of things.

That's in the nature of rogue likes.

I do not like.

I don't like purely playing on chance.

And I do know that this is like a knowledge based game.

The more you learn, the more the game kind of unravels in its own way.

That being said, it is heavily reliant on on the pure intrigue of what's going on, rather than actually feeding me a nugget of something that seems like I'd give any fucking shits about it.

It very much is so.

And that is my biggest struggle with the game is that at this point it's like I'll carve in a little bit more time.

But at if it wasn't for everyone around me being like you have to give it more time, I would have played this game and be like I am bored on.

Because the mechanical satisfaction.

Mechanical satisfaction is not there, And like as of somebody who is a puzzle snob, we all know I've played.

All I do is play hidden object puzzle venture games.

That is my jam.

I've just like it's just not tickling that part of my brain.

Also, there's a few puzzles I figured out on my own without getting the clues or hints in in other rooms.

But I think that as a part of my hidden object puzzle brain, where I was like, I did it from trial and error by understanding just what the way it works.

Yeah, and I'd be like, I've done six million versions of these and other puzzle in puzzle adventure games where it's like you're basically forced to have to figure it out with nothing.

There's only one other puzzle that I've encountered that I was like, I can tell I don't have the knowledge to understand this game, sure, but a few other ones I've just figured out.

Cool, so we'll see, Yeah, but I'll.

Get a little bit more time.

I'm gonna give a little bit more time.

Everyone's raving about it.

It's Dan Record's game of the year so far.

If you watch the Power the Game Spot Show, and the Power Block, you'll know that Dan Reiker de Throne Adam Fall, which was the top of the list of that of the Power Ranking power Board, and now Blue Prince is at the top.

Blue Prints.

Yeah, just be ready for it to trample all over you epiphanies.

Maybe at least in your case.

I am excited to give it more time, but there is also the part of me that thinks about how exhausting it can be sometimes, especially because people say it like, oh, I've been playing it for forty hours, two hundred dollars, and I'm just like, I don't I don't know if I want to play a game that long right now.

But at that point, I think it's that roguelike sort of thing where it's like Dan Record was explaining that he had already seen a credit screen, but you can keep going because there's mysteries he had not solved yet.

And maybe maybe I'll get to the end and feel satisfied.

I don't need to solve all the miss.

What's your favorite room?

My favorite room that you've you've encountered without spoiling a big deal room, okay, favorite room?

Hmm thinking about it, thinking well, because I'm thinking like, is there Okay?

Well, if I had to pick a.

Room that.

I am that i'd want in my house, Like if I could like take one of these rooms and put it in my own house, it would probably be the library, the multiple flooredary podium in the coil.

But I do quite like their Oh I forget what the name of it is the Rumpest Room.

I like the Rumpest Room.

I don't think I got the Rumpest room yet.

Oh wait, is that like the fun room?

Yeah, it's the fun room.

And there's like a thing they put a coin in.

Oh yeah, I got there.

The guy told me a story and I didn't give a ship that machine.

Yeah I got there too.

It seems like a fun little room.

I also like that.

I was like, we're gonna go up around in the rump room.

Yeah, let's show me your rump in the rumpest room.

Touch rumps, that's what I imagined.

Let's rump it up in the rump room.

That's how they talk of the game too, the newspaper boy you.

Play, Yeah, yeah, the extra extra rumping it up.

Whenever you walk into the rumpest room, there's a little thing because each room says like, oh, you'll lose a step if you enter this room, or you'll lose a coin.

This room's you'll just rump it up.

And you walk in, he's like, rit's rump in time.

That's what he says.

I'm the blue prints.

Let's touch rumps.

That's what my grandpa always said to me when I inherited his mansion.

And then I was like, Grandpa, was that your favorite room?

Oh no, definitely not, absolutely not.

Don't.

I don't don't put me near your rumpus.

I don't want to be just I was only doing what the game does.

I wasn't saying I was interested in touching a round.

Oh oh, of course, of course.

No.

Get like when I in that game, I don't want your rump Get your rump away from me.

My favorite room.

I like a good bathroom, laboratory, oh yeah, And I like a just a very safe passageway.

Oh just an unfinished wall and unfinished wall that leads to somewhere else.

And you always know it's gonna go, yeah, somewhere else.

Very it's very satisfying.

So that's my favorite.

Yeah, yeah, what's your favorite color?

The color?

My favorite color?

My recolor is like a like a maroon?

Is that in?

Not really?

The red's pretty pretty standard red, cherry red.

Rump it out out of here, though, like a maroon or a well, purple's in the game.

It's purple, but it's not quite the purple I like, and I know what it means in the darts game anyways.

Oh, that darts game.

I don't like that darts.

Nor do I leave it at that.

Yeah, no, it's it's we'll move on from blueprints.

But the reason I don't like that is because it and it's a roguelike thing.

Again, it's like you did it and you're like cool.

Every time you restart, you have to do this again.

I don't have to technically, but you should because it gives you stuff and it feels less like a cool puzzle and more like busy work.

I don't This isn't fun anymore.

This has become actual math.

Class gets to the point when I know how the mechanics are feeding into the narrative, because right now I have no idea, and I don't even know what the narrative is other than here's a mention for you boy.

Anyways, none of that.

Yeah, I'm blue in the face talking about it until I play more and I'm like, oh my god, or like, oh oh my god.

So that's been the big that's the big one, the new game.

Yeah, we're not just playing new games over here, not here.

This is after dark because we don't like, we don't like video games this year, So we're playing old game.

When the lights go down and where we need to feel something, we pick out something from the bucket.

The bucket, the old bucket.

If you didn't watch last week's episode, we have the bucket as a giant thing of hundreds of hundreds of PS two, x Men, Xbox games that we could just shove our hand in, pull something out and see what happens.

Yeah, and that's what we've been playing and deliberately.

If this is important, not playing games I've played before, the old games that are new to you, that's an important experience.

I agree, and and I the feel like just does bring up something I kind of wanted to talk to you about, which is I think you and me and a few other people around us we've talked to have collectively felt sort of this lack of interest in a lot of games that have come out this year.

I would say, just and and what happens to me?

My first thought is like, am I just not interested in?

Is it me?

Is it me solids anymore?

The world changing?

Or am I changing?

Yeah?

Yeah?

And the answer is I think the world's changing because I go back and I play some games of other eras that you're playing for the first time.

I'm playing for the first time or never really played it all the way through or properly gave a shot, and find myself absolutely loving them and having a great time with some games.

So I'm like, Okay, I'm not just tired of games.

That's me and Pete and Pete for the show.

It's it's just it's just that right now, there's not the right kind of games coming out for me.

Adam Fall is an outlier, to be fair.

Adam falling outire blueprints.

I'm enjoying enough.

Uh.

I did like Monster hundred Wilds, although it has not held my attention the way World did, and I'm I'm not fully sure why that is quite the case, but uh, down that road.

That might be it.

It could be as simple.

As just like I put all my points in a world and and when I wild is more of the same.

But like it's a good game, it's just you know, not quite grabbing me.

But yeah, like nothing else is year has really kept my So except for the Shrek video game, I did not keep my attention.

But what's the Crock Crock game?

Uh?

Yeah, I mean I played that.

That's an old game.

I played Panos yep, played that one.

Down the list of all your favorite old favorite old games.

No, my favorite old game that I played was Fear before but I never finished.

Oh you didn't tell me that.

I I shouldn't know that, but I never finished it.

I played it and loved it, but I never finished it.

And the reason I never finished it is because it just wouldn't.

I couldn't.

I couldn't finish it because my computer would just kind of like freak out.

It was it was Feared the Fear.

Yeah, I Fear the Fear.

It was like, oh this game was too afraid.

He was too afraid.

That's like it didn't like it.

Hallway filled with blood?

Oh no, with this guy shut down for those who don't know or don't remember Fear Is the.

It was made by Monolith Rest in Peace.

Monolith shut down this year.

That's part of the reason why I wanted to play it.

I was like, I should finally go back and play that game all the way through and see it to the end.

And I'm so glad I did a first person shooter inspired by h John wu films the Matrix and then also like The Ring and Grudge, every said we're gonna, We're gonna.

They watched they.

Move all the time and everything blows up when you shoot it, and we're gonna shove it with long haired spooky girl, spooky girl coming out coming out of well or hallway.

It's it sounds on paper like such a stupid mis mismatch, but it like works really well.

Actually well, they fucking threaded the needle with it, like I think they did perfect.

I think the balance of spooky girl ghost stuff too, like crazy action is, is pretty good.

I would say it's about like sixty seventy percent action.

Yeah, thirty percent spooks, and those spooks are sometimes it can be a little like bah gotcha scary, but for the most part, it's way more subtle it's it's a lot of more just like tension building.

Yeah, it's atmosphere game.

The even in its action moments, that game has such a specific tone that you would only associate with horror because like you're always in narrow corridors, it's dark as fuck, there's very little lighting.

All the lighting is harsh line black lines.

The lighting in that game holds up extly well.

So like the the aesthetic and atmosphere of that game is dark and hard, and when you get into a gunfight, it doesn't feel like a powerful in a weird way, it is power fantasy because you can go slow motion like jump kicks and all this shit, but like the enemies don't feel like these sponges that you are just like mowing through like fel tactical, and they could like I'll smart you and I'll flank you in ways.

So it's like a really cool balance.

And then in between these you have like these horror moments that kind of creep up on you or maybe cheap in some ways, like some scary, but they thread this needle of like, yeah, you have a machine gun, you can go in slow motion and like things feel cool, but also like there's a there's like a refrain in it, like there's like something doesn't feel as like over the top as you would say maybe in a Max Pain or something.

I even though I make the argument that the first Max Pain is a scary, weird fucking game, even shootout, so.

I would I would actually, I would kind of compared a lot to the first Max Pain in that sense where it does have that kind of like balances out the action with the weird, quiet kind of creepiness.

I think this does it more so than Max Pain.

Oh yeah, I think.

I don't think Max Pain was I'm not gonna speak for remedy, but I don't know if they were entirely aware of the tone of how that tone was at the time.

Yeah, but in hindsight you're like, whoa, this feels fucking creepy and weird.

And weird for sure.

Yeah, But man, like a part of the reason I think Fear resonated with me so much and I would recommend anyone play it is because there is just not a game that feels anything quite like that first Fear, I agree, and that is including its sequels.

So why do you think that, Why do you think nothing today?

You haven't played anything since Fear one, Like what like is it, like what are the very specific things that you just don't think other first person shooters okay leaned into.

So one, there is the speed of the gun if you don't use the slow mo, everything happens so quickly.

It is chaotic, and you have the enemies who are like barking at you and the throwing.

Garnades, shouting to each other like where.

You are exactly.

It's like there's been a lot said about like the AI in Fear, but like a lot of it has to do with just the way they like communicate and they say things out loud and it's so specific.

They recorded like a billion different lines for you know, like he's over there behind the vending machine, under the desk.

Well, every thing is.

It's not just like he's hiding.

It's a very specific things exactly.

Like for example, like if you are hiding behind a fridge, they will say like, he's behind the fridge in that corner.

So exacts the sense of tension that you don't get from other games where they're like they know where you were.

You Like, the AI makes it very clearly like vocally aware of where you are.

So everything moves so quick.

You go down very quick.

The enemies also can go down pretty quick as well, and it creates it's just like really tense like where you're like, I have to rely on the the slow mo.

The SloMo also like looks awesome.

And the way the sound like drags out to and you hear a soldier.

Like and yeah, and then they have this sort of like like color like apparition like kind of like effect and they it really sells the slow mo like in in the visuals.

And then there's the part where all the particle effects the the This is where the influence is where the genre influence comes in.

Like if you've seen hard like hard Boiled, and there's like the tea the tea house scene, it's just slower and feathers and sparks that it's like every gunfight is like that, where it's like you don't just make a bullet hole in a wall, you destroy the concrete and the dust from the concrete is filling up the room and then makes it hazy and it's hard to see and there's like sparks flying every where, papers are going.

On, Pigeons are just flying in to gun fire for no reason exploding everywhere and.

Everyone's like where the fuckers He's covered in feathers and the blood like because the environments are all these very stark white office hallways and the blood is like this deep red that just completely paints the wall when you shoot enemies.

And again, narrow corridor, small space.

It just every fight feels so like it feels like it could be the final fight of any other game, Like just like the level of chaos happening.

It's so good.

And that is something that like, you know, it's funny because I when I played for You two, I had actually played it first before I had attempted to play for one, and at the time, I was like, this is a pretty cool game.

You know.

Jump Kick was like much more polished looking.

If it makes oh yeah, there's also a jump kick in this game.

And the junk kick is so stupid.

It's two kicks on harder difficulties.

It's like you shouldn't even be attempting to do it, yeah, but you want to anyway because it's just it's like a one hit kill and it's like the dumbest.

Like running through and like slow motion and jumping.

You just don't do a full kick.

It's like I'm fucking kicking.

Yeah, you do like two three kicks and the and the enemy is like ragged all and they're like, oh, it's so good, it's incredible, so fear too.

It It went for like a cleaner, polished cinematic shooter.

Look, AI is not as smart.

The lighting is.

Still still still model it.

The lights was as good.

Involved in the first one or no, no, WB was not involved in the first one.

WB was involved in the second one.

I forget who was involved in the first.

I think it was Vendi because there was a whole thing where the expansion packs for Fear one were developed by different teams because Vivendi still owned the rights.

But I think when Vivendi, like it was imploding, because originally Fear two was not going to be called Fear two because they owned the rights gonna be called it was just it was just gonna be called Project Origin, okay, because they they owned like the rights to the story, but they didn't own the rights to the name.

But then when Vivendi imploded, they like got the rights back and were like, oh, we're gonna call it Fear two Project Origin.

But like that game is in retrospect at the time felt fine.

When I actually went back and played Fear one, I realized, oh, Fear two was just kind of a retread to Fear one, but worse in every way exactly.

And and like I look back on that game very negatively, where I'm just like, this game doesn't need to exist.

There's no reason to play Fear two and then Fear three.

I think it's just like a fucking train record video game.

That game suckslith or No, that was not made by Monolith, it was produced by John Carpenter.

Well that I'm sure John Carpenter like came in ate a grape like ate a fucking jar of grape jelly, and it was like, yeah, make they got guns?

My ook?

Okay, by I mean like the dude I mean at that time, John Hala was like probably past like Ghost of Mars, It's just a fucking file of shit.

And I think he was like, I'm gonna just gonna go home, smoke weed and play Halo.

There's a I don't I'm not gonna get this quote one right, So, but there there is a There was an interview with him about Fear three where the person was like talking about like, how do you feel about like sexualization in video games?

Because in Fear three there's like a naked, pregnant ghost lady and it's so stupid.

And he's like, you know, like the representation of sex and video game, and then John Carpenter kind of just goes off about He's like, I remember playing God of War and you have the sex mini game where you hit the button to sleep with the women, and he's like, I sure did hit that button, So what happened?

I wasn't then Fear three either, the woman's trying to give birth and you got to match that button.

You gotta have it help it anyways, but you know.

Psychic ghost contractions.

That's all I'll say.

Yeah, if you want to, Like, you've told me.

I've never played Fear three, you've told me what happens.

Oh yeah, that game is awful.

I highly recommend that people go read up on it.

It's really stupid.

It's absurd.

Yeah, in the end of Fear too also stupid.

Yeah, well, very very dumb.

But Fear one also hold on rules.

Remember when speaking of John Carpenter video games, Yeah, remember when that game was announced like either Summer Gamefest or Game Wards.

Oh, two years like John Carpenter or something.

It was literally like John Carpenter's open world zombie games.

Yeah, did that ever come out?

As far as I know all that, he's probably like too busy matching a button.

He's like, I'm pressing that button.

It'll come out when it comes out.

I gotta button the mash on this.

PS two got a war game where there's a sex many game.

I bet you, if you asked him, would even remember, like what, like what it's like?

Death space is cool?

We all knows too.

And by the way, he's on tour right now.

We do music again.

Yeah, well, I mean not on tour, but he's doing a soundtrack for a move some I think like Bong June Hose next film or some shit.

Oh okay, because he used to go around and do tours where he made tours where he would do his like music.

Yeah, he's he just got off a tour.

I'm pretty sure.

Oh fuck, Because I was trying to look that up recently and I hadn't.

I couldn't.

Granted it was maybe a year ago, but I was like, I've always wanted to see.

Him, no, because we wanted to get we wanted to get him for Star Players.

Oh.

At one point and he was on tour and he did a What's in my bag with a MIBA like to kind of advertise that he was on tour.

And while his bandmates, his two bandmates were pulling out like seventies rock, like prog rock records, it would cut the John Carpenter and he'd be like, hey, I got the Horizon zero down soundtrack on on vinyl.

Good game, good graphics.

Yeah, and then he would put that interesting one, it's a great soundtrack in Down, Okay.

Then like the next one would be like another video game soundtracks, like this is the last of us Rock, this is this is a crock soundtrack, this is the Fair three soundtrack.

I don't remember never played this game.

I remember my names on it, I.

Don't remember anyway he pressing that button.

I've always wanted to see John Carpenter before he dies.

I thought I missed my chance, and apparently I haven't, so I should really get on that.

It's not moving much, I mean like he moved.

I mean he does his tours, but he does on tour right then, Yeah, he's gonna do websites.

I was looking at little CYNTHI beats and almost positive he's doing the soundtrack for like a new film for by somebody that's not him cool, which is great.

That's great him because he should do that.

He hasn't made it, well, a good movie in a long time.

No, No, he should just keep doing soundtracks and games and and uh they should keep making bad Halloween movies so that he keeps getting.

Oh yeah comment which has been pretty vocal about.

Yeah.

I was like, oh yeah, going on, yeah, so they can continue to watch basketball and play God of War for the PS two.

Yep.

Anyway, Fear it's a good game.

I do recommend it.

But I do want to go back to one thing you were talking about earlier.

Maybe we could touch on it briefly, so sure we don't come off like grumpy old temical folk, but the idea of like playing things, not finding things this year that are really tickling you, Yeah, and whether or not it's like the world's changing or word changing, and I like alluded to like, but I do want to kind of pick at that for a second, because I deal with it, you're dealing with it.

I know Jake Tecker has mentioned it.

I'm pretty curious, like if other people are feeling as though, like they're not feeling inspired or like over or engaged with the things that they're they're playing these days, like, and that does seem to be a consensus, But I'm curious, like we living sort of our a bubble of like how we consume media, and we.

Are sure it's like a bunch of factors.

Yeah, I'm sure our age has something to do with it, sha And we're privileged enough that we.

Like are exposed to basically like everything that comes out one way or another.

But I but it's not just games.

Like I've been experiencing this with music for a long time, for like the past year now, especially as I try to stay up on new music, and I just see this constant sort of imitation of other things instead of like something new.

So I I too like games well, like even though I listen to all music from all eras and decades, I do find myself finding things that I'm excited about that are older that I've never heard before.

But I'm here for the first time.

So like it just happened to me this week where it's like I go down this rabbit hole of like, well, there's this spanic kind of like, what's this, Like, where's the stem from?

Who's doing this?

And then I find like another band from another subgenre of some shit from the eighties.

I'm like, what the fuck, I've never heard this before.

So it's the same thing.

I'm experiencing the same thing, but with music and as as much as I do with games.

So it's a you know, like, that's the thing is there's so many there's so much music, and there's so much movies and so much games that you've probably never played or read or heard or whatever, right, and that like, you know, if you're not feeling what's happening right now, what's being presented in front of you.

There is a lot of shit you have never heard, never seen, and never played.

And in the case of games, you could get real cheap.

Yeah I got Fear one for a dollar on GGN PC on PC one, right, it is.

It's not the same case for some console games.

No, no, no, yeah, you definitely.

I would say the PC's the place to go for bargain hunting for sure.

But if you like are open your heart to being like, let me try to check out a game that I've never heard of or experienced or want to always want to see the deal was like, you can get some real cool stuff at a at a real real cheap price on the PC.

As a Gog or Gog H called gog.

I've always called it.

I think I'd go back and forth, but sometimes I say, I've said gog.

Good old games, gog it up, gotta gog it up in the rumpest room, the roughest room, and I'm gonna gog all over the place.

Uh yeah, they're uh honestly, I've been.

I've been kind of using their compatibility uh preservation program.

That's sort of like a way to kind of be like, oh, maybe I should check because that's what Fear was.

Fear was added to their compatibility program.

As I mentioned up front, you know the reason I never finished it because I couldn't play it on your PC.

My PC was too scared.

And then Gog says, don't worry, we got it.

We'll patch that out.

Now my PC is not scared anymore.

They can handle it.

Here we go.

So that's cool.

So you know that that game is not more accessible for more people.

They recently U did a patch for Silent Hill four on PC The Room, which is really interesting because and I did not know this at all because I was like, oh okay, like I don't even know that game had a PC version.

Apparently that PC version was like the inferior version to the console version because it was straight up like missing stuff, like it was an incomplete version of that game that got released, and but it was like in there, it just like the code wasn't like enabled correctly.

Delete a decimal point, yeah, or.

Something like that.

And so when Gog was like, hey, we're going to re release this game, they like went in and like re enabled that stuff.

So now that version is like probably the most best way to play it.

I was going to buy it on GoGG.

It was six bucks when they announced it, and I stopped myself because I was looking at the reviews on the site and they were saying that like there were certain incompatible issues like control why still happening like not recently like back like oh well they actually as well as I'm talking about.

Like when sound Hill two remake came out, I was kind of, you know, looking to because I never played on Hill four The Room, The Room, Timmy Way, so sound Hill The Room, but uh I but now that they've done that, it looks like it's fixed, although I mean, you know, I do have a copy of it at home now, but that thanks to our bucket.

Thanks to the bucket, the bucket did have a copy of it.

So I will experience that finally and see what this controversial sound Hill game is all about.

Yeah, the last one the original team worked on.

Yeah, so I'm curious about I would like to eventually, because I did.

I did pick up the GOG version, so I do plan to play it.

But I'm actually playing a sound on Hill one right now, which is another game I never finished.

Yeah.

I mean, I'm kind of just being like, I should go back and finish some games I never got around.

Yeah, it's it's it's okay.

I don't know, it's not.

I like it.

There are things that I appreciate about it.

It's I don't know, this might sound stupid, but I think the first sound Hill is actually more fun to is actually an enjoyable game to play.

No, I do versus silent the original sound Hill two, which I do not find to be an enjoyable playing experience.

Sure, but playing sound Hell one, I was like, I'm you know, I'm kicking these fucking little baby weirdos in the school, which, by the way, did you know about the whole thing with the school from kindergarten?

Cope?

Absolutely fucking absurd.

Then they exist in the same universe.

Is that?

Is that?

Like?

What is?

It's pretty sure if I'm not mistaken.

Isn't the main carrot no that went in check out?

Isn't the main character of sound Hill one wearing like a brown jacket, yes, and like blue jeans.

So are you telling me, Harry Mason's actually just character kicking kids.

He's you're stuck in the in the nightmare.

He wishes he was actually living, so he could you do kick like weird demon kids in that game as I'm talking about, as I'm saying, sound Hill one is just the is actually the nightmare that can grown a cop it's experiencing never left.

Okay, Yeah, that's that town of sound Hill, and he's like that movie.

That's the movie ends with a version of him like killing the abusive dad with the ferrets, that with the kid with the ferrets in his jacket, But in actuality he's he's still stuck there, that's the other version, but in reality's still there taking the kids.

That's a more engaging story.

Who is your daddy and what does he do?

I don't give a shit, kid, That's a more engaging story to me than the story of Silent Hill one, because this one's not psychological horror.

It's like, it's not an old lady.

Yeah, I think we're Silent Hill too.

You It's like that game's weird took.

Some liberties based on the plot of the first game.

Sure, you know, like people say, are like all the dialogue on that game is so like weird, knockwards stilted, But like, I do think that there's like it's going for something where Silent Hill one's dialogue feels more like actually just not very well written and acted.

In my opinion, I think that still has a charm to it, and I'm having a fun time with it.

But I'm I'm not really like taking anything away from it story.

I'm not like, oh man, what a the cop lady Cheryl?

No, Cheryl's the daughter.

I don't even remember Sybil, see, I can't remember.

That's how much I'm compelling.

It's compelling to me.

So are you going to finish it well?

Because I'm enjoying the game, like it's no to be clear, I like the game.

It's fun.

I agree.

It actually is a very playable PlayStation one game.

You think it would be like, oh man, this is like so archaic, and I'm like no, no, no, Like that game is like fun to play.

It's it's like that loop of going into like a new building unraveling it room by room is like incredibly satisfying.

And Blueprints, you know what, what.

If Blueprints just turned into a Silent Hill game, then I'd be like, this is like every other game that's ever fucking come on the past five years, where it's just like it's a psychological horror game.

Sorry, one of the three rooms is just called the room.

Yeah, and then suddenly you're in Silent Hill four.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I mean I've said that every hidden object puzzle the game I played a secretly a Silent Hill game.

I don't know if this has been done or pitched or an idea.

I do kind of have a what if you had a game like Blueprints, but every room you go into is a different video game, I mean sick, and you're constantly shifting between video games, and then eventually the video games start to You can take items from one game and bring into the other game, and then the game start to blend together and become a mess, and it becomes a different game.

It becomes every everything that's a game idea.

Someone should make it.

Why did you say that publicly?

Because I'm never gonna make it.

Well, I got game ideas I'm never gonna talk about.

Okay, that's fair.

I gonna you ever make them?

You never know?

Okay, that's fair.

Maybe I'll make that.

Maybe I'll make my game.

Yeah, do it quick.

You only got you only got one day.

I got uh no time because this is live, so you're too late.

So you're gonna play sold Hill all the way, all the way through almost.

Despite not enjoying the story.

But it's at least playable enough.

But I also don't think that matters, at least for me, Like it's it's it doesn't, it's it doesn't detract my experience with that game.

It's just, you know, would you say that it's tickling you more than new games?

I mean, yeah, okay, I would.

I would say so because I think, but but I would also I think it's just because it's it's like this a curio for me, more like I find that more interesting where I'm like, oh, I want to see what that's about, and like as opposed to like I you know, like, yeah, I guess if if it didn't have that element to it, and maybe it would be kind of you're mess for me.

I don't know, sure, yeah, yeah, yeah.

I go to sleep every night recently, Okay, you go to as supposed to before where you didn't the end, I know, every night before I go to sleep, I've been popping on an old game.

I'm gonna ask.

Yes, I'd like to hear about old games.

The one that I've been playing recently, which I think I might give up on after three nights, okay, is the Godfather game, the game that Jake Decker played because his parents didn't allow him to play Grand Theft Auto games.

However, this game is just as fucked up like as most Grand Theft Auto games.

And I would say, isn't this funny?

How some degree there is a shit you can do in this game that feels worse than anything I've done in like a San Andreas Vice City or Grand Theft three and.

Those old Grand Theft autos.

In my opinion, they're very silly.

Yeah, too, very silly.

Grand Theft Auto.

I'm sorry, The Godfather has no levity because it's the Godfather.

Like, know what I'm saying, You're doing things and it feels like wrong, Like it's like it's weird to be like, oh well, when you play Grand Theft, When you play a Grand Theft ato game, you are a bad guy.

Like, no matter how you see it, you are doing bad things.

Sure, like you're committing criminal acts and most of those times involves you probably killing other people, police officers, so on and so forth.

But like you buy into the idea that you're playing a criminal, but usually your surrounder around the fact that it is like sarcastic, satirical and goofy to some degree.

The Godfather game is just like so you can make your own character, which is one of the most I did not realize you could.

I didn't not you customize your own character?

Can you be a woman?

No, okay, this dude kind of no matter what, just looks Italian?

Like you can give him blonde hair, but like, no matter like how big you're you make his nose, how like small you make it, how fucked up is we gave you.

A character creator, but there's certain he just looks Italian.

You give him Talian and blonde hair.

He just looks.

Can you change his skin color?

Yeah, but like it doesn't you can't like your face just still.

I don't know, it's like you're still Italian.

Maybe because I made a guy that we name mister Lasagna, So maybe that's the other part of it.

Do people call him that in the game.

No, but he hasn't.

But what's weird is I fingered the Lasagna?

You come to me?

How many layers do you got?

You beefing teeth?

You just Jesus ever Conda?

Hey, allodio Mazabella for me, mister.

La anyways, that's not my that's not my uh Marlon Brandon impression.

By the way, well who is Who's an impression of Robert.

Hey?

You know?

Yeah?

Actually mister Laia.

Okay, so he plays mister Lazanna.

I'm playing mister.

No.

Everyone in this game.

I don't know if you know this, you always plays mister like.

That's who the character in the Godfather video game is.

It's weird.

And he talks like Robertson here.

Kar so so uh the weird part and also he has he has a voice actor.

Oh, okay, and create your own character.

But then he what does mister Lazani sound.

Like, I'm gonna extort the ship.

I your bakery shop.

Just keep making your muffins and we'll want to have a problem.

You should have lasagna to the menu.

What is this bakery doing here?

Who Jimny?

Anyways, Well that's what I was gonna get into.

So first, first off, the weird part is this game came out in the Wii.

I'm playing on the PS two, but also got an Xbox three.

Everywhere it came out on everything.

It was the tail end was think two thousand and six right after like even Kin Kong.

But the weird, the weirdest fucking part is I'm playing on the PS two, but it feels very intentionally designed for the Wei specifically, which is not an experience I've had.

Usually you play a game, usually you play a game on the Wii that you can tell was designed for other consoles, usually the other way around.

The reason why it feels that way is there's no punch, but instead you target onto somebody by holding L one okay, and then you flick the analog stick.

Oh and to block you like, you pull back and you can do the sick dance where you like go back and forth a little dance because it sounds so awkward.

Awkward as hell.

You cannot punch freely unless you are targeting onto something, which makes it very weird when you're just like.

What, what makes perfect sense when you hold a numb when you.

Hold that and you have to use your use the remote bizarre.

Then you get a gun, and that's when it becomes even more clear because you can freely aim, but you can when you target on to someone, you can specifically move the radical like to specific parts of the body and it feels like like hold the dumb chuck down and you can like then get very specific and granular, and it makes the gunfights feel so awkward and so weird.

So I have to imagine what happened was because this was still the sort of the tail end of the era of we would make multiple versions for multiple platforms like Generational two.

Yeah exactly.

So you have the three sixty version, the PS three version, which I imagine probably plays like a normal video game.

I want to look it.

I'm curious now, and then maybe they're like, we got a we version, and then they're like, the people still buy PS two's, Yeah, people still play.

It's one of the best of all time.

Well, you wouldn't rob a PS two of Alazaga, would you.

That's what.

That's what mister college kids with the scarface poster.

They know scuffs.

They got PS two, they got PS two, they.

Got to fight club boasters, they got the Donny Doaco boasts they gotta have.

They got on your put the las Onion in your PS two.

So they did that.

You know that thing in the back your PS two you put your hard drive.

That's not for a hard drive, kids.

Oh you put Lasania.

I mean you know it's it's Yeah, makes sense.

Yeah, slide right full hot back there keeps it warm.

So it feels the game feels bizarre as hell.

Like Controlling it is a fucking nightmare because I'm so used to being like, why can't I just press like square two punch.

Nope, you gotta flick that analog stick.

But now what I mentioned, I haven't checked the options to see if you could change it.

Oh, I'll do some research tonight.

Okay, even tho I'm pretty sure I'm done.

I'll do it out of carry.

You'll find out and go.

I'm still not gonna.

So, but the thing though, was saying it was like this game is just as fucked up.

So one, you can like go into businesses and then extort them, and in most cases when you extore businesses, you can also find that those businesses have like shady deals happening in the back, so like they'll have like you know, the secret gambling rings or like brothels, and you can like go and find the women in the lingerie doing their thing, so like that's still a thing in the game, but even more surprising and not, like I don't know, it depends on where you stand on this.

Like you can take you grab people to extort them and then like beat the shit out of them until they submit to you, and it feels like very weird doing it.

And then I I mean, like you know, for me, whatever, I kill people in games.

It's my job.

Whatever.

Everyone has an equal opportunity to die in those games as far as I'm concerned.

But I had to go extort this bakery, and like I don't know, like if people had problems with Grand Theft auto games, so they're like, hey, kid, you can't play Grand Theft if you can play Godfather Little Jake Decker.

But in Godfather you can like go into a bakery, take a woman who owns the bakery and like beat the shit out of her into it and pays you for it.

And that's not really a thing you do in like those early GTA Really this feels weird, like.

This, this doesn't feel good.

You have gamified extortion, yeah, and like you know, I don't know, like you're just beating up this poor woman who's just making croissants.

I like croissants.

You could just extort me with croissants.

If I walked in and be like, hey, I want to make sure your business does good here, So I'm gonna come by every day, give me a croissant, and I'm gonna pay for it.

That's what I want to be able to do.

So maybe it's me.

Maybe it's stupid to me to think I was gonna play golf either game of like not do horrible acts.

But like I guess the point that I'm trying to make is I absolutely expected to do horrible things.

What it did not expect is to hear people younger be like my mom didn't let me play grant the felt let me play this.

This shit was no fucking matter, like at all do you find that it it It is like, as that's the word, like perverse as the Scarface game in the sense I've never played this, because the Scarface game we talked about it last time, is weird in that it is like alternate ending the first movie, Like it goes in completely the face of the first movie by being like, what if Tony actually lived and rebuilt him this guy and he's super cool and awesome actually, And you're like, well, hold on, and that's weird, Like does does this game like feel like it kind of glorifies it?

Oh?

Absolutely, I would say I would say Scarface definitely missed the fucking point with that game and glorified Tony Montana.

Yeah, the weird thing with Godfathers.

I don't know if those movies necessarily glorify it, but there are people who do kind of see it as this macho, masculine way of like I got to take care of my family, got to take care of other people.

And I think people in a lot of ways obviously missed the sure maybe miss the you know, more nuanced point.

So of course the Godfather game fucking misses as far as I'm concerned.

But I mean, whatever, you know, it's entertainment.

If you want to play, in my opinion and actually like good Mafia game, you should play Mafia.

I have Mafia at home, the original.

I haven't played it, but I took him from the bucket, So I'm that's my plan is to be like I'm done playing I'm curious the Godfather, So I'm gonna play Mafia at the original one, the original Mafia.

I'm I have never played the original.

I have heard is it's it's a little difficult to go back to.

There are some difficulties spikes.

I did, but I did play the remake a few years ago, which was I would say, a decent, okay video game, but like a very gorgeous, lavishly produced like interactive Mafia story.

Like the cut scenes and and the storytelling I actually thought was really good.

But you know, and it's like a decent video game, and and normally I I'm kind of like not that into that anymore, but for whatever reason, at that time, I was actually like very into it, and I enjoyed that, and I actually enjoyed that remake quite a bit.

So I'm curious how the original holds up.

Last thing, i think I'm quitting the Godfather game because the controllers are fucking insane, right, But in order to get like you have to use the deep pad to scroll through your weapons, but then you have to like press up on the deep pad to take them out, but then like down to put them away.

And ben if you have your weapons out, people will react in the world like, oh my god, he's got a weapon, and like that's cool.

But it makes getting into a fight that happens somewhat randomly because families want to fight you oh so fucking difficult.

It's so clunky and weird.

So I hit.

I hit my time with that game pretty quickly.

So my plan is to now go back and play Mafia, which I never played, because it's like, you know.

Well, I think at this point we were hitting all the we someone's got to play in the Scarface game now.

Because do we have it here?

That's a good question.

I hope we do, because I mean, like we've what we've hit Sopranos, you're hitting Mafia.

Yeah, not intentional, by the way, It just somehow has happened.

But it's like it's basically like Jake Diker mentioned it on the Like podcast as you were talking about Sopranos, and just the next day we're like, oh, are there any other your's godfather you were mentioning there were like Mafia esque crime games.

We should go play that.

There's there was a c there's like a Mafia c RPG.

I found a Mafia cr yeah, like isometric sort of like I think tactical RPG that I saw what like a fallout like Steam, and I was like, I haven't wish listed because I was like, I want to play.

This is like no, this is like old old and like you basically it's the same deal where you like extort people and like running run a mafia and all that.

Apparently the reviews were terrible, but I have a wish listed just in case.

So we'll just do a listening for all the Mafia games, like not Mafia the game, but you know, yeah, the brand, the genre of Mafia or also known as Lasagna games.

Yes, yeah, are you going to name every character character?

Even every time I get the chance to be mister Lasagna.

I look forward to the furthering adventures of mister Lasagna.

Uh and yeah, that's a podcast.

That's a podcast, baby, you can't But speaking of Lasagna, you can't end it without chicken.

Enchilada.

He thank you so much for listening everyone.

I hope you've all had a wonderful week and a good weekend.

We appreciate you, Kurt, I appreciate you.

No, thank you.

I appreciate you too.

It's nice, it's just nice.

Just look at us, just the two of us, the two of us.

Chick you ja.

Yeah, let's not invite him back next time.

Yeah, fuck him, fuck him?

All right anyway, thank you so much everyone.

We appreciate you all, and we'll see you all next time.

I didn't ta