Get Played - Fallout the TV Series with Mary Laws

Episode Date: May 27, 2024

Mary Laws (Succession, Monsterland, Heather's Wife) joins Matt, Heather and Nick to talk about the Fallout TV series!Follow us on Twitter and Instagram @getplayedpod.Music by Ben Prunty benpruntymusic.com.Art by Duck Brigade duckbrigade.com.Check out our Anime watch-along podcast Get Anime'd and our complete Get Played, How Did This Get Played? and Premium DLC back catalogue only on patreon.com/getplayed. Join us on our Discord server here: https://discord.gg/getplayedWanna leave us a voicemail? Call 616-2-PLAYED (616-275-2933) or write us an email at [e-mail] Advertise on Get Played via Gumball.fmSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This is a HeadGum Podcast. I love doing the show with you guys. It's been so many years and I'm really at a good time. It's great. I've always had a blast doing it, but I kind of thought about something. What? I guess we haven't been outside in a while. Yeah, I guess we've been podcasting for four plus almost five years

Wow, we haven't exited the studio. Yeah. Well, I mean to be to be fair It's a really well contained safe environment. Yes. It's a great place to do podcasting and You know until recently I didn't even have the instinct to set foot outside of the studio No, I mean we have everything we need in here, you know cook zero cheese ranch ranch is here. We got chips Plenty of chips. Well a bunch of different kinds of chips. There's been no need to go outside two bathrooms That's good because there are three of us. It's rare that all three of us would have to go at the same time But if someone's in there, you don't have to wait, you know the way Uh, do you guys wanna go outside? Is it crazy? We should let to go at the same time. Yeah, but if someone's in there, you don't have to wait. You don't have to wait. Uh, do you guys wanna go outside?

Isn't it crazy? I feel like we should. Let's go outside. Let's go outside. Let's see what's out there. Let's go outside for the first time in almost five years. All right, we're gonna exit the studio, excuse us, ranch, and we're gonna go over and open the main door to Head Gum.

Hello, daylight! Oh my God. Oh my. What's happened? Oh no. Oh my God, it's a... Oh, no. Oh my god. It's a No fucking wasteland out here, man. Holy shit. How long five years only that was there's so much sand All the trees are dead. What the fuck is happening? Yeah, I'm building this stuff and they're all dead vines cuz it's sand everywhere. Oh my god. It's so hot

All right. Let's let's let's not panic. Let's just orient Panic don't orient ourselves. We gotta start eating rats right fucking now This is this is so bad this sucks so bad for us I guess the only thing I know to do is I'm gonna start drinking my own piss Rats man I'm gonna eat a rat! Oh, there's one, there's one, there's one! I'm gonna go get him, I'm gonna go get another rat! Don't do that, don't do that! I gotcha! I gotcha! Matt, stop drinking your own piss! Stop that! Stop that!

We have no choice! We have no choice! He's gotta drink his piss! And I'm gonna eat a rat! Look, new games have been coming out, we've been talking about them. Clearly the world has been continuing in some capacity. What are you talking about, man the world has been continuing in some capacity What's going on maybe beyond the surrounding area immediately around the head come studio I'm gonna start. Yeah, gosh.

Wait, I have a kind bar. You just watch this. A kind bar full of radiation, you stupid bitch. Throw it in the ground! Throw it in the ground! Use it to find a rat! Yeah. Here's my hand.

Here's my hand. Here's my hand. Here's my hand. Oh, no. Oh, no. This needs piss. Uh. Uh.

Uh. Uh. Uh. Uh. Are you out? Do you need me to pay? I'm out. Do you need me to piss out there?

I'm out. I'm out! I don't wanna witness this. You're both my friends and collaborators. I don't need to be seeing this. I'll campus on my own hand so that Matt can eat it! What? Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Oh, this isn't...

I went around the corner and the world's regular around the corner We used a car exit than normal I think this is just it's just somebody's like doing some construction over here in a different way That's it. It's just like somebody's putting in a new building here Yeah, it seems like you guys kind of overreacted didn't you? I drink all my piss I cut off my hand to peed on it. I drank all my piss. I hit him right.

Pretty extreme that you both went to right away. But you know what? Based on the first impression. I'm picking up on your tone, Nick, and I just want to point out, what did you do? Nothing. You did nothing in a dire situation. I was hesitant.

I said, let's get a lay of the land and let's figure out what's going on. But you know what? At this point, if you can't beat them, join them. No! No! No! Blum, blum, blum, blum, blum, blum, blum, blum! He's doing it for no reason! We power up our fusion cores and turn into ghouls as we play You Play the Prime Video Series Fallout this week on 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. Hey, that's me, Nick Weiger, and I'm here with our third host, Matt Apodaca. Hello, everyone. Hello, everyone, and welcome back to the premier video game podcast where we used to talk about bad games And then we talked about every games and now we talk about games adjacent games and games media, right? We talk about anything if it's got game in the DNA

We're talking about it's a broad umbrella next we're talking about everything that's underneath it next week We're covering the game the pickup artist manual Yeah, that thing doesn't work. It doesn't work fucking we're gonna Matt and I are gonna blow the roof off It doesn't work We have we have a great guest in studio I want I want to get to real quick, but before we do that a past guest the great Craig Lee Thomas But before we do that, a past guest, the great Craig Lee Thomas, sent us a package to the studio. It is the return address. It's sent to the Get Played crew at Headgum Studios. The return address is Super Earth Headquarters 11 Democracy Way, Earth.

And this is just sort of not to put too much pressure on our current guest, but this is kind of the thing that we're expecting from guests going forward. We usually expect the guest to send a thank you. Craig's showing me the fuck up already. Thank you, gift of some kind. Craig's a real piece of shit. The back of the envelope has a code on it. Oh yes, that's right.

It has a little code that we should have. It has an input code. It has an input code. That's pretty good. For anyone who doesn't know, this is a Craigslist from Helldivers 2, and a game we covered last month, or in the recent past.

Anyway, I'm opening this up. This could be a blank piece of paper that says fuck you on it, and it would be amazing. I would love it. The packaging alone is very, very good. Yeah, this is really cool. In the envelope is?

Wow, it is a Become a Helldiver poster. Wow. And this is signed. This is really, really nice. Wow. Wow. They're for each of us. Oh man.

Oh man. Craig, this is awesome. Thank you, Craig. This is so cool. What a thoughtful gift. We'll take pics of these and put these on social. Yeah, those are gorgeous. Wow, I love it. I love it. This is so cool. What a thoughtful gift. We'll take pics of these and put these on social. Yeah, those are gorgeous. Wow, I love it.

I love it. Thank you so much. Just wait till I give you diamond rings. Oh. Okay. I guess I already got mine. That's right. Let's put that so far away from Nick

so he can't spill on it. That's what I was gonna say. This is so in the spill zone right now. I need someone to get this out of arms reach. Those are so cool. Those are awesome. Our guest today, writer and producer from Succession and Monsterland, and Heather's wife, Mary Laws is back. Hi, Mary.

Hello! Hello, Mary! Hello! Hello! That's my wife, Mary Laws! Wow. Hello. Uh, great to have you, Mary.

What? Uh, anything you want to say? Wait, what? Why is...what? I just like how formal it is like greetings hello good to see you this is my wife good to see you hello Good day Who me?

Heather didn't even want to sit on the same couch as me That's not true I wanted to I heard about it no it was pretty crazy actually I'm sitting by Matt No I didn't No Nick was I walked in and Nick was like I'm sitting by Matt. No! I didn't know. Nick was, I walked in and Nick was like, Heather wants you to sit here.

That is not what, did he say that? Because that's not true. Matt was like, would you like a drink? Yeah. Heather was just like, get in here. Everybody in my life comes after me. Everybody. I'll say what actually happened is I said,

because we'd recorded something earlier, and we're sitting in different court Configuration and I I offered to Mary's like which I can move so you can sit next to Heather and you said no, that's okay It is true we do sit next to her all the time. Yes, that's true. It is true. We do sit next to each other. Are you guys, when you're at home, and forgive me if this is too personal, when you're sitting on the couch, do you have a side of the couch?

Absolutely, yes. Or do you switch? Yeah, 100% for sure. We have couch sides. We did switch sides of bed. Yeah. Oh, that's a big move. It was.

I was really upset about it at first what provoked it I? had surgery But now we've adjusted and it's great yeah now I'm like oh closer to the bathroom yeah in the middle of the night. And I'm closer to the dog. I love the dog. You gotta be close to the dog if you love the dog. I do love the dog. I'm sure Mary loves the dog as well.

She does. And the dog loves Mary more than me. Yeah. It's bleak. Okay, so you're sitting on the couch together. Do you ever do the thing, because I feel like we're often doing this in our household where we've got separate activities, but we're in the same space

Or usually when you're together you like oh, we're gonna watch something together Yeah, yeah, we did we did the other day we both like worked and different in the Yeah, on different things. Yeah, we've, we will. Is that parallel play? That's parallel work. Sounds like. Oh, I see, yeah, well, we work a lot. But no, I mean, like, it's not like, I'm not like on the Switch and Mary's watching a movie.

We did that in Amsterdam a little bit. Yes. I did a little bit of like journaling and like watching a movie while you were gaming, sometimes in the same room. Cause I was playing Final Fantasy 16 for this very podcast. Matt is grinning like he's got a secret. I love Final Fantasy 16.

He does. I know. Open secret. Yeah, it's like everybody knows. I hear about it and I start to smile. The big shit eating great dimension of a game you enjoy. I love it. I love Clive, Torgl, the rest.

Torgl! Okay, the game we've talked about in the past, and I want to bring it up again because I think it's a candidate for, if you ever have time to come back on the show, I do want to dig into it. Biker Mice from Mars. You love this game. What was your experience encountering Biker Mice from Mars back in the day? Oh, I played it with my little brother growing up. And I was aware that there was the cartoon,

but I was aware of it only after I fell in love with the game. Oh, wow. And we, I just started playing it when I was really young. And it was one of those things that my brother and I found like, you know common ground I feel like I keep looking at you and I I'm worried Pretend you don't exist. We're on a position on a couch where we're on. I wanted to I just wanted to sit by you though I want to make sure we're on it. We're on the same couch and and while we are sitting next to each other, we're about as

far away as you could be from somebody who's sitting next to somebody. Yeah. Well, there's a space. There's a dead seat between you and me. I brought a bunch of extra pillows. Meanwhile, I'm basically in Nick's lap and it's making me sweat. I believe- It's where you wanted to be, so.

There's a healthy gap. Whatever. It's just one of those games, Biker Mice was just one of those games my brother and I, we bonded over. It was a thing that we always, like, whenever, even if we were in the middle of a fight, it was like we could play Biker Mice, and we would get over it,

and we had all these secret games within the game, you know? And it's like who could press this button first and make their player do a thing first? And we were both equally good at it too, so we could really compete. So it just became a really special game for us. And then as I got older, I went off to college and anytime I came home, that was one of the first things we would do,

is play Biker Mice. And we would like, it was like kind of like the welcome home thing. One of the first things we did was play Biker Mice. It's like that Maxwell House commercial. Oh, sure. What? Where they drink coffee and play Biker Mice.

No, it's like, yeah, the family comes home for Christmas and everybody's drinking the coffee. And it's like, yeah, the family comes home for Christmas and everybody's drinking the coffee and it's like, oh, we're home again, drinking Maxwell House. Well, there's this one very specific commercial. The specific one you're referencing. What? I thought you were referencing the one that's kind of weirdly horny. What?

Have you not seen that one? There's one where this brother and sister are basically like, I'm so glad you're back. Yeah, it's like, it's so good to see you. And they have like real like chemistry between the two actors. Yeah, it was like that. Like the actors probably like fucked in real life. That's how, it was like, it was exactly like that. I was just like, hey, do you wanna play?

And he'd be like, and me the controller, plug it on in. I don't know, it was controller, plug it on in. I don't know, but it was just fun. And it was like, sometimes, you know, my parents would like watch us play and we would just play for hours and hours. And it was like a thing. And it kind of was like, no matter how old we got, we would always like go back to playing Biker Mice.

And it just became really special. What is the thing you do, what do you do in the game? What's the core gameplay? How much biking is in Biker Mice? It's all biking. It's a racing game. Yeah, it's a racing game. And there's like different, different... I don't know, I'm not a gamer, so like, there's different like, kinds of game play you could do.

So you can just do like a one-on-one. Or you could do like, you're playing with like like six different characters and you're all trying to like beat each other or there's like championship mode Where you can like keep like going to see who gets the victory? And then we always played like the same characters, too And it was just Yeah, it's just really fun. I want to circle back to something you just said, actually. You said you're not a gamer. Yeah.

You beat Disco Elysium. I did. You beat, I think, both Last of Us games? Correct. I think you're a gamer. You played Animal Crossing. You played Animal Crossing. On stop.

I did, but yes. You're a gamer to me. You're a gamer. Thank you so much. That's valid. Thank you. I was really proud when we played we played through The last of us recently and I heart one in part one Mary went out of order

Yes, I did and um, but I did all the battles by myself Yes, she did. Um, you you didn't have to like like when we played the last of us to you did have to like When a couple fights for me, but this time I did it all by myself, and I was very proud. That's great. Hell yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Biker Mice from Mars, I looked it up,

and it is, Konami was the developer and publisher, Super Nintendo, but it looks like they actually did another Biker Mice from Mars game in 2006. Are you aware of this for PlayStation 2? No. Critically panned. Oh, by me panned by me really sucks yeah Eurogamer gave it out a one out of ten the American gamer scale it's even lower 10 out of 1? Wait, what?

Sometimes I try to make the smart joke. I have played Biker Mice now a few times with Mary. Well, you brought it to one of our first dates, which was very sweet. Clutch. It was we I we went to Like a little like cabin and one of the surprises that Heather brought was that she brought her System and set it up and had Biker mice from Mars ready so we could like played it in this little cabin. It was so sweet. Hell. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah Oh, that's really thoughtful. I liked this girl

Hell yeah. Yeah. Wow. That's really thoughtful. I liked this girl, guys. It worked out. It worked out. What were you gonna say though? You've played it.

We've played it a couple times now. We've played it both on the original hardware on Super NES, we've played it on an emulator. And every time Mary fucking smokes me. Just annihilates me at this game. Have you gone back to like see the show at all? Did you ever investigate what the show was? I kind of don't give a shit about the show, yeah.

Like, no. I did watch it a little bit with my brother when I was younger and it just, I don't like, don't care. You'd rather just play the game. The game was just fun. It was like a racing game. It was just fun. It's also one of those games where the game, like the reviews for Biker Mice for Mars are like, this game is much better than it should be. Right, sure.

It's like one of those tie-ins, kind of like, I don't know, like Alien 3 for the Super Nintendo. The Chronicles of Riddick game. Or the King Kong, the movie, the Peter Jackson's King Kong movie game. Yeah, sometimes like his talented developer will get their hands on a license. They'll just crank out something really, you know, really memorable Yeah, it's it's it's also like I just looking at the screenshots. It's isometric, right? You're like it's like you're growing at an angle like kind of from a top-down view. It's interesting way present a racing game

Yeah, it's really cool. Yeah Wasn't there like a television it was gonna be like developed into a TV show. Ryan, one of the Ryans. The, the cartoon was gonna be a live action show? That was the game. I don't know. I don't know. One of the Ryans. One of the Ryans was gonna be involved. The Ryan Reynolds?

That one. Ryan Reynolds. It's Paul Ryan, actually. Oh, no. From Congress? Yeah, yeah. Former House Speaker. What's Paul Ryan, actually. Oh, no. From Congress? Yeah, yeah. Former House speaker. It's going to be a week.

What's that guy doing? I expected him to leave and become a pundit or something. Yeah, I think he's just out of the public eye. I don't know. Maybe he's getting the money. He's like, I'm done. You know what he probably is doing? You just find these guys, and they're

just sitting on the corporate board of RJR Nabisco, making $50 million a year to just consult. so I wouldn't be shocked if he's doing something like that. The headline I just pulled up from IGN about this news peg. Ryan Reynolds inexplicably reviving biker mice from Mars and Alf. Alf? Twofer. Okay. He got both. Isn't he busy running the Wrexham football franchise? It's certainly being these mobile commercials too. Yeah. Let him do it. I can't stop working.

Let him keep going. He's already seen what it's like for his career to disappear. Yeah. So part of me is like, it's clear that he's just trying so hard to do as much as he can before it disappears. And I simply must salute a billionaire. There's a compulsion to just keep working, you see, from some people. They're just like, I cannot really do it all.

Me? I'm done. I don't know how much it is. We work to get, what is it called again? Parallel work. Yeah, we parallel work. We parallel work. You better crank that AC because things are heating up at DraftKings Casino.

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Have you seen this before? We have the Resident Evil merchant kind of comes into the studio. It's, you know, it's this kind of regular feature of the show. Oh yeah, yeah. She listens to the show. Okay, okay, got it.

Sometimes he's in our house. Oh God. Sometimes he comes over. I use the wet, the wet room. The wet room? The wet room. You mean the bathroom? That's what he calls it. That sucks. That sucks to hear.

That's disgusting. A bathroom implies that there's a bath. Yeah. But if there's just like a hose, it's a wet room. So you're talking about just like outside You're in the yard with a hose and you're calling the wet room No, it's a it's out back behind the garage. Got it. There's a wet room

You guys don't have this. I just I can't There you keep a shell Hose into our shed into your garden And he calls it the wet room. Oh boy, yeah. That seems like a big pain in the ass. Hot in there in the summer. Yeah, spiders too. Stinks.

How much is that as you, honestly? What, I mean I'm- Nick, don't be rude. Yeah, I'm sorry, that was inappropriate. I'm sorry. I did such a good job several weeks ago. Yeah, no, you've been doing great for us I've been on point

We love you, we're lucky to have you You're as an evil merchant as we have to be over here catching strays What the hell? I love to catch a stray You gotta come here little guy You're starting to sound like the aforementioned Alph Who's that? Well, he's an alien.

What? They're real? It's an acronym for alien life form. No, he's not real. He was a fictional character from a unlike you who is real. He's a fictional character from a TV show. Oh, OK. He was a puppet and he was an alien. He loved to eat cats. Oh, God.

That guy's fucked up. Yeah, Alf is pretty messed up. He's pretty he's a really crazy guy when you stop and think about it. Probably the strangest individual you could think of, Alf. He's got that nose, right? Now I'm remembering. Yeah, kind of a famous, like, kind of long nose. I forgot what it looked like for a second, and then you gestured and then I got it. Yeah, it's kind of gonzo-adjacent, but not exactly. Yeah, it kind of looks like a thick worm.

Why'd they let him on television? I mean, if you have the raw charisma and star power of Alf, you're gonna put this guy on TV. Maybe he's in Scientology. Yeah, I think he must be a Scientologist. Yeah, they like aliens. Yeah, they do. Oh, you know what?

Now it all makes sense. They were getting pretty high concept with the 80s and 90s sitcom. No, do you think there's a show in like, me working at a deli? And I'm like, and it's like, and the characters come in and we make small talk? I mean, yeah, that's like...

Yeah, that's a show. That could be a show. It would be a show that becomes popular that people watch. Nobody watches regular TV the way they used to. I think people might be befuddled by watching that and just trying to understand exactly. This seems a little asynchronous, the Resident Evil Merchant, I from the horror franchise in a deli we should ask Heather what she thinks about the show I mean, I I think that like any show can be a show Yeah, all comes down to the writing like any concept is stupid. Yeah, so I don't know Resident Evil Merchant

I think I think you could I think you could have a show. Yeah You think so? Yeah, I think that would be I don't know. I think I'd like could have a show. You think so? Yeah, I think that would be, I don't know. I think I'd like to see a show that starred somebody so visually upsetting in a regular environment. Right. No, right, okay. Well, I don't wanna stick around and waste your time,

so I gotta ask you, why are you laughing? I just like it, I just like it. It's generous of you to be conscious of our taking clocks. I just I want to keep things rolling, especially since you've got a guest. So, Matt Upadukka, what are you playing? Well, to continue my conversation, our conversation from last week, where we were talking about animal well That's right. We did a whole episode about animal while we don't play now

Play animal we did well hold on a second. Okay, cuz this game fucked me up This like We none of us had finished it and we were pretty spoiler light on the previous thing I'm requesting permission to maybe spoil something and then people want to skip ahead they can skip ahead until when they hear the next person Hmm. I maybe don't want to be spoiled Playing it this is what I'm gonna say that yeah This is document because you've also we should say you have 33 hours in the game Nick Nick Nick Nick Nick no 39 hours 39 hours

39 hours you fit your old credits twice I have 20 of 20 achievements. Yes. Okay, I've never done this. Yeah You've platinum did I if there was a platinum trophy in the steam ecosystem. I would have had achieved that. Yes This game there's so much going on a platinum trophy in the Steam ecosystem, I would have achieved that. Yes. This game, there's so much going on. You roll credits, you can still play it. There's still stuff to do. Yeah. Because you know through traversing, you're finding secret stuff.

You know by the time you finished the, you rolled first credits that you didn't find all the secret stuff. Right. And that's sort of the second part of the whole thing is then you're finding more secret stuff. You have more modes of finding secret stuff. Um, and that's fine. That's okay. I did this. I did all that. I found all the eggs. I got all the tools. I'm happy with that. I got a second set of credits, right? There's more still. Yeah.

And I don't know if I got it in me to do that because glancing ahead at a guide, it looks like you have to be an absolute sicko, a sick freak, a beautiful mind almost. Sure. Because there's some ARG stuff. You're one of those things. I might be one. Wait, there's ARG stuff for the game? You have to like you have to like go online and like look at clues? There's a puzzle that you can't that you have one piece for. Every game has one piece of it. Every game? Every game has a piece of it.

So other people have the other pieces? Other people have different pieces. Whoa. And there's 50 pieces. That's so cool. So you have to get 50 people to tell you what their piece is to do it. That one, I don't know 50 people playing this.

I'm not gonna go talk to a bunch of strangers on here now. Probably look up, use a guide for that one if I end up doing that one a discord Maybe uh-uh you know what I'll pop in a discord why not? But then there's other stuff that I looked up that I was like I I don't know how you would ever figure this out, and I don't know to what end like it's for I haven't gotten that far Yeah, cuz there's like You have to be like a code breaker. Like somebody that knows patterns and symbology to figure out some of these things.

And I was reading a little bit of back and forth with Billy Basso on Reddit, I think. And he was like, yeah, I guess I wasn't expecting people to find all this stuff so quickly, but It's a lot of it's been found but not still not everything has been found And there's a lot of stuff that people are like I found this and this and this is all crazy stuff I I think I might have to tap out because I do feel Sick like I feel like like my brain feels scratchy and I've been just thinking about it non-stop and I've been playing it in all of my spare time and I really do feel like I got two endings. The second ending is considered the true ending because Billy Basso didn't think people would get to the third one.

And that's crazy to me. That's wild. And I'm fascinated by this guy. I'd like to hear him talk about it for a long time. And I'll probably buy the physical copy. That's great. I loved it. That's great. It's good to love something. That's great. I loved it. That's great. It's good to love something. That's awesome.

It's amazing. I really loved it. If you haven't played it yet, I recommend it. Incredible game. Like I said last week, everyone who loves games should play it. I texted you guys over the weekend that I got something, and I was maybe being hyperbolic. Yeah. Because it has its use.

I found an item that I was like this changes the whole game and it did in some cases But it has as limited use cases as some of the other items, you know You're not gonna use that there's not one item that's gonna get you through all of it. Yes And that was honestly a lot of fun figuring out when to use an item and things like that It really really great just great stuff, but that's it for me. I have to play something else. Billy Basso, I read the clip, the solo dev that you mentioned behind this game. But I read the excerpt last week on the podcast.

But I looked it up again. It's just like, yeah, the quote begins from his blog. I'm consciously designing the game to have multiple layers and then list four different layers. The first two are the two that you've experienced, the one part where you 100% the game and get the two ending. The third layer will include far more obscure puzzles whose existence will be unknown to most. I expect the internet will need to collaborate a bit to solve these or they might not solve them. Then finally, the fourth layer will be secrets that only I know.

So I wonder how far into the fourth layer the internet's collective hive mind has gotten so far. I feel like I'm freaking, what's his name from inception? Leonardo DiCaprio. And there's a freaking. Wasn't his name in the movie like real dumb, like Bill Plutt. It's like Full Trickle or something. Yeah, yeah.

I can't remember what it's called. I love that movie, I can't remember. I'm at, I'm living my life, and Animal Well is my spinning top right now. Wow. Wow. You seem passionate and traumatized. I sort of do feel like,

like I don't want, like. You have like the thousand yard stare a little bit. I was sort of like, do I even share this it felt so like because last week on the show I had 17 hours and then cut to today I have 39.1 that's that's sickening that's that's sickening more hours than I ever can can put into fortnight in a week mm-hmm that's great uh it's very cool character it's it's it's such it's so cool DiCaprio's character in Inception is named Cobb. That's it. Cobb. Cobb. Bill Plutt. Sean Cobb. Mr. Corn.

That's it for me. Wow. I love it. That's cool. All right, Nick, what are you playing? Resident Evil Merchant, I am continuing to play Animal Well, but I decided to give Appledock the floor since he has so thoroughly just delved into that game. Instead, I'm gonna talk about Paper Mario, The Thousand Year Door, which is 20 years old, released in 2004 for the GameCube, and yeah, I know that the slow decay of time is maddening.

Anyway, so this week, the remaster is releasing. It will be out by the time this episode is. We're recording it the day before it's out. So unfortunately I have not gotten hands on, but it is getting excellent reviews for its visuals and quality life improvements. And I just really love this game. It's the best Mario RPG that includes Super Mario RPG which you know a lot of people really love and I

understand and that game is great but I just think this is like the perfection of this sort of format the turn-based combat with the active button presses for you know enhancing damage and absorbing attacks the art director is awesome the characters are like all have this 2D sort of paperweight to them, the environments are cardboard, and it also affects gameplay because Paper Mario himself can fold himself into a plane, you know, or roll into a tube that can be blown around, that sort of shit. It also has a presentational element which some of the Marios have where there's like an audience that's watching during combat that can, you know, affects things a little bit.

But it's also just loaded with personality. It's a game that had a really strong script and then the localization was just great and just like absolutely conveyed all the charm that was inherent to it. You know, you have these party members like a sea captain, Boba and an actress ghost and you know, like a lady Goomba. And meanwhile, while all this is happening, while you're playing through the game, you keep encountering Luigi and Luigi is going

on this parallel adventure that he communicates just through dialogue and it's a great running gag where he just talks about like he like went to the waffle kingdom and he negotiated the release of Princess Eclair. You know, he's just like, he has all like this extremely elaborate lore that goes on and on and on, and you don't see any of it.

You're just hearing about it secondhand. It's really fun. But also between chapters, there's these interstitials where there's, you're controlling Peach, and Peach is interacting with a computer, and that's its own thing. And then, but then there's also like, you play as Bowser just plowing through

Mario platforming levels, which is kind of fun in a power fantasy sort of way. You know, there's there's no difficulty at all this game is good. This is just a trivial, a trivial game to play through. It's designed so kids can play through it. But it also the final act in my memory has a world spanning fetch quest, which I kind of was like almost made me not finish at the time. I'm not sure if that is a thing that's been removed as part of these quality of life improvements. I will find out. But it is just such a such a cool game and I'm so glad Nintendo is giving it a proper remasters to its library. I'm so glad this game in particular is apparently getting a really, really proper release. So

that's that's what I wanted to shout out. Paper Mario the thousand year door. Heather, what are you playing? Heather Corsette So I've been Hades Pilled. I love it. I have not stopped playing Hades. I've beaten Hades himself. Oh yeah. And I was a little bit like, I liked post-Hades,

the game's old, so I don't know if these spoilers are not, but I like the post-Hades dialogue you have, and then the reveal that the game continues. Yes. But I felt like I don't know if these spoilers are not, but I like the post-Hades dialogue you have, and then the reveal that the game continued. Yes. But I felt like the, the impetus to continue was a little thin.

Like, I was like, okay, I'll go see what's changed, I'll go see what's different, and there's additional difficulty settings that you then you toggle when you enter. The heat levels. Yeah, the heat levels when you enter into the dungeon again. And I was like, it wasn't enough for me to be like,

oh, I think I'm gonna keep going after Hades with these heat levels so I can unlock bonuses. Like I felt like I did a bunch of work to get gems and purple stones, all that shit, to upgrade myself enough that I could defeat Hades. And I think it was the second time I'd reached him. And there wasn't like a there's like a feeling in Say vampire survivor where you become so overpowered that you're like, let's fucking go

I'm just a barrage of nothing like I'm nonsense bullets and My runs after I beat Hades felt really thin. They felt like there weren't any power ups happening and there weren't any gems happening. And I was just like, I'm just getting a bunch of keys. There's not really a lot of options. I don't need gold. And it just, it wasn't satisfying in the same way that the initial run was.

So I don't know that I'm gonna continue with it, but I am happy to have beaten Hades himself. When you say you beaten Hades himself, you mean you beat the final boss, the titular Hades, you knocked him out one time. Yeah. Got it. Cause I think there is, whether you continue with it or not,

I will say that like, I think the narrative really unpacks in a fascinating and worthwhile way. After that? If you beat it, you have to beat him 10 times and then you get the true ending. Oh my God, what the fuck? But it's really hard.

But you get like, but you get, there's more and more of the story that's coming out each time. And I think all those subsequent runs, whether you adjust the heat levels or not, it's just like, you know, you're finding new ways to play depending on the boons that you're, they're accessible to you or not.

It's interesting compared to Vampire Survivors, which I think was a game that you didn't really respond to, but like, this has a much higher difficulty level than Vampire Survivors, which is kind of like a walk-around game. Right, but I guess I expected once you ma... Like, once you master a technique or something, usually you feel like there's the satisfying moment where you feel godlike.

And in a game where you're playing as godlike characters, I was expecting the post game, what I thought was the post game content, to be a little bit more like either super fucking difficult or super fucking easy. And it was neither of those things. And what's more, it felt less rewarding, like less tangibly rewarding in the drops that were happening

in my subsequent runs through the dungeon. Um, I, I'd be interested to see if you, if you, uh, change opinions at all, if you continue with it. Uh, but, but like, cause like, I like I, I do again, and I don't know how much are you responding to the story or not. I trust you. I'm going to the story in a manner of middle. Well that might be part of the issue. Cause I think part of what kept me going

is like I keep going through it more and more the story is unfolding. Oh yeah, no I skip all that shit. But I will say, cause the story is great and the level of the quality of writing and voice acting is so so good. Oh yeah, no it's gorgeous voice acting and seems like good writing.

I don't mean to be dismissive of all the work that was put into it, but I'm there for the combat. And I'm like, yeah, let's fucking go. It's a game that infinite combat possibilities and randomized enemies, that's my shit. So I was just like, oh, it's like more talking. Yeah, no, I mean, the driver drive is part of, I think, what propels people to keep going.

But I also think like you can jack up those heat levels to the point where it will be the difficulty will be pretty punishing even for you. Yeah, no, yeah, no. Well, I made that happen. And I expected, here's what, here's what I guess I'm not expressing. I thought that there was going to be an equivalent exchange

like, holy shit, you threw so many difficulty levels at yourself that now you're gonna get power-ups that make that difficulty level. That were equal to the, yeah. That you start bouncing back and forth. Like, if you can get past this first few rooms, then you're gonna unlock a new kind of lightning, and that lightning's gonna be visually astonishing

while also making you feel super powerful taking on these super powerful enemies. But instead it was like, it just means that these guys are armored? Like that's it? Like they're armored? That's not fun. Hey, that's really,

I mean, if you're me, that's really hard. It just makes it take longer. Takes a long time. It does. It's really hard. It does. I love the combat engine in that game. It's one of my favorite games of all time. So I'll naturally be defensive of it.

But I'm glad you had some fun with it. No, I mean, like obviously I bounced off it the first time. And then once we played it again, I was like, oh, fuck, I get it now, I'm in. So I don't mean to be dismissive towards the game or speak about it in a derogatory way. And I think that it is a great game and now I am super excited for the sequel.

I'm just talking through my own frustrations post-beating Hades, which I thought was going to be a bigger deal. Yeah. Well, cause what else? Cause you have not beaten Hades. Don't, why is he saying like that? You beat the Hades the character one time,

but to be hitting Hades the game is its own thing. You have to wait what so yeah what you have not You have to beat it ten times in order to beat the game. Yeah in order to see the credit to roll credits. That's crazy isn't that crazy? I've never done it so I mean it's like. Alright fine I'm gonna come back in and say that beat it ten times and. I think it's ten times you have to beat it a number of times.

It is 10. That's a lot of times to beat that game. I think nine additional times after the first time. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't know. That's why he's Hades. You also get, but also I think part of the iteration, iterative process of it is just get faster at knocking out runs, you know. Okay.

Yeah. I don't know. I can pretty consistently get to Hades, but Hades, he's got hands, he's good. He's a tough guy. Got a couple of forms. Okay. He's no joke. But I'm glad you have fun with it regardless. I'll keep going, I get shamed into it, I'm in.

No one's shaming you. Just give me some more context. I can't believe how they didn't do it. I should have never shared this couch. You chose that. You chose your couch. Now sit on it. Mary, are you playing anything? Are you playing games? Or maybe you got a music that you're playing lately?

You could be playing anything It doesn't have to be a game. Yeah, I think you can play in Turn pretty broadly or maybe you see a play I saw a play with Heather. Oh, yeah, it's called fat ham. Oh, really good. We saw that play. That's fun We it was amazing. I've been really into Catan cities and nights lately. Like sort of obsessively trying to get people

to come over and play Catan cities and nights with us. The board game. The board game, Settlers of Catan. Mostly because I'm very, very good at it. And I can beat Heather. It's true. It's true. I beat... She fucking... I get shit floored or whatever you say. Shit house.

Shit floored? Huh? Shit house. Floor only. Shit floor is fine too. You get floor shat. It's fun. It scratches an itch in my brain

where you have to think like 10 steps ahead. So I've been playing that. Lot of crossword puzzles. Mm-hmm. A lot of- It's true. We love doing that Sunday New York Times crossword puzzle. Sunday New York Times.

Is that a collab? Yeah. It is. You hunch over one crossword. We do, we do. We play on our phone on the app, but we are not nearly as good as our friend Courtney. Yep.

Because they time you on the app and our two minds have not yet beat her one mind wow At getting the highest or fastest time and the truth is it's more like one point two five minds because Mary just like flies Through the answers and then once in a while. I'll be like oh, that's the answer to that one's NASA Or like maybe there'll be like a Wario clue yeah, and I'll like, oh, that's Wario. Yeah, anything science or that's your zone. I would also do well on Teen Jeopardy.

Yeah. That's what I've been playing. I guess we played a little Overcooked for a while. Oh, yes. That was really fun. Also with our friend Courtney. Overcooked for a while. Yeah, oh yes, it's true. That was really fun. Also with our friend Courtney. Yep. Overcooked is really interesting

because I feel like it brings out your, sort of like your zodiac sign a little bit. Like what kind of personality style are you? And I'm someone who really, really likes to have a plan going into Overcooked and like, no, like I wanna like talk before we go into the gameplay and be like, okay, this is what you're doing and this is what I'm doing and you're doing the dishes

and then this is how we do it. And my lovely wife who is like an improv comedian is just like, no, let's just get in there. Let's just like go, let's see what happens. And then we play with our friend Courtney, who is kind of like, okay, we did it. We got like a one star, so let's go on to the next level. And I'm like, no, we didn't get three stars.

Like you can't move on until you get three stars. And so we stopped playing. I like rules, I like stress and I like rules. And I think that it was more like work, but I also like work. And so I was turning it into work. And I think for the other two, it was a little less fun. I was having a good time. I was having a lot of fun.

Thanks, honey. It's true. I like being told you're going to wash dishes. And I'm like, all right, I can do that. That's easy. I love that. It's good to know what the rules are so that you know how to break the rules.

Isn't that true, Heather? Rules are important. Is that true? Are you asking me? I feel like that's like, you like to to break the rules? Is that true, Heather? Rules are important. Is that true? Are you asking me? I feel like that's, like, you like to know what the rules are so you can know the sandbox that you can play in and then maybe break a rule or two. Yeah, yeah.

You don't break the rules when we're playing Overcooked, though. Well, you can't break the rules. You can't break the rules. Because then you fail at the task. I also love rules. Yeah. What big rules can I have? Well, are we the four coolest people on Earth?

Do you want to sit on couch with me? I also love rules. Yeah, I think rules Cool couch you were on like the coolest the cool couch, I think yeah Let's talk about Fallout. The prime video series, eight episodes were released as a block on April 10th. The creators and showrunners are Graham Wagner and Geneva Robertson-Dorrit. It is based on the Bethesda video game franchise originally created at Interplay by Tim Kaine and Leonard Boyarsky. And the bulk of the episodes were directed by Jonathan Nolan Where is everyone with the Fallout game series Mary?

My understanding is that you've not played the games at all zero percent Wow and and Matt What's your fall of fall of game experience? I own fallout 4 and I've played maybe like three hours of fallout 4 like when it came out. Yeah And then that was that was kind of it for me So just kind of maybe generally familiar with the world but like and haven't really dipped into it Yeah, and I think at that time like when fallout 4 came out. I was excited to try it So that's a new type of game. I've never really tried to play before and it was immediately too overwhelming And like just like couldn't get into it, but now now it feels like the type of game that I would

Absolutely like sink my teeth into and really like? I played Fallout 1 and 2 back in the day. Those are actually the Fallout games I've played the most, the original two isometric interplay games. And I also played Fallout 3. I played some of New Vegas, but I bounced off of it, even though everyone's like, that's the one to play, the Obsidian developed kind of side story game. I never messed around with Fallout 4 or with Fallout 76.

Fallout Shelter, the mobile game I played some, that's just really fun because it's just like another, whatever, it's one of those mobile games, but it's just like the way it kind of expands the world and plays around with that fault boy aesthetic is is fun somebody I work with Who doesn't play video game? Yeah? Overheard me and a couple other co-workers talking about fallout the TV show and she goes fallout Fallout like fallout vault the vault game on my phone And I found out that that is her only exposure to fall out and that she loves the fallout vault app game It's pretty fun. I love this information. Yeah, either. Where are you with the fallout franchise? Well the fallout 3 was one of my

first Jobs as a video game journalist then I flew out to Bethesda for this like big unveiling event and I had no idea what Fallout was. Some games journalist I was. And so the lights go down and they premiered the trailer for us for the first time in the whole world, and the room went absolutely batshit, and I was just like, huh, this looks fun.

This was this post-bucklips. This looks like a lot of fun. So I felt really connected to it which is like, huh, this looks fun. This was this post-baclips. This looks like a lot of fun. So I felt really connected to it, like because of that strange intimacy that I had. They also gave us a bunch of gear and I was very broke and I went home and immediately put all that gear on eBay and wished that I hadn't. It was like Pip Boy stuff and like Nuka Colas and all this.

Anyway, so I played and finished Fallout 3. I played and I don't think finished Fallout New Vegas. And then sort of the series sort of slipped away from me because I feel like the next one that came out, I only heard negative reviews about. And I don't know if there's been a reassessment of it, but what I remember with Fallout 4 was a lot of people

were like, it's much more like of a shooter than an RPG. And that was like, and also a lot of the Fallout 76 initial reaction was pretty negative to that game. So like, yeah, they were both just kind of stay aways for me, but I don't know. I did, again, like the same experience as Matt is like, I'm kind of more interested in messing around with maybe Fallout 4 now.

I mean,, or 76. Definitely. My favorite thing about the game was the VATS system, which allowed you to freeze gameplay, select a body part of the enemy that you were facing, and then unload whatever weapon you wanted while targeting that body part. And often if you would do critical damage, that body part would explode.

And I feel like one of my favorite nods to that is how often body parts explode in the fallout TV show. Yeah, this is what I could maybe say going back to the fallout series, which we're going to be talking about specifically today. It really does an amazing job, maybe honestly better than any of these adaptations in terms of retaining the charm of the game world and translating it to the screen. Like I'm just like, I'm so impressed by how much it feels like the Fallout franchise just,

you know, just just in in this more straightforward narrative form. But yeah, I think it's like the fault suits, the Vault Boy mascot is all over the place, the Pip Boys that you mentioned, the Stimpaks, all that shit is just so well integrated and so well realized. Yeah. Yeah. It feels, it also is like surprising that watching the show, you're like, they've managed to make all of this crazy bullshit make sense and be digestible in a way that's never off-putting. I thought before we went into Fallout, the show,

I was like, there's no fucking way this is going to work. It's gonna be corny or it's going to be like too weird or it's gonna look like shit. And none of those things happened. Like they they they take stimpaks in the TV show and you don't blink. You're not like you're not like what? You're just like oh I guess that's how they fix shit. Yeah that's how that works and it actually it makes enough sense and it ends up

being you know a narrative element at times. And also like you were just sent like you were just talking about, it looks expensive and it is expensive as far as I know. It was shot on film, it looks incredible. It's just like, the production value is sky high. It is so crazy to me that they shot it on film. Like, it's just like, one, unheard of today. They don't really do TV shows on a film like that.

And it's just like such a huge budget show. And it, I love it. I love to hear stuff a huge budget show. And it, I love it. I love to hear stuff like that. It's just like, I love it. So Mary, okay, so you're a newb to the Fallout franchise. You're not familiar with it at all. You're watching this series and you're loving it. Why does it connect with you so strongly?

It's just like the tone was so my speed. Like it's, first of all, it's like incredibly well plotted. But it was like this, like it's like kitschy and fun, but dark. And I just like immediately connected to it. Heather was like, I kind of need to watch this for maybe the podcast. And so she put it on and then I was like, kind of doing something else in the background. And then it ended up just being like,

totally drew my attention. And then every day I was like, oh, we've got to watch, we've got to watch Fallout. So I think it was like, it was the tone. I love, I've worked with a couple of folks who worked on this show. Greg Nicotero's company in particular, who did all of the, like... The, like, he did all the monsters for my show.

His company does all the stuff for The Walking Dead. And I just think he has, like, this really cool, particular aesthetic to, like, the creatures that is, like, it's just so unique, but it's fun. It's fun. It's not just, like, gross. It's like, there's, like, a fun and a playfulness to it that I think is really, really cool. And it's just charming. The show is just charming in tone. And so, I was drawn to that as well.

It was beautiful.. The show was just charming in tone. And so I was drawn to that as well. It was beautiful, an amazing cast. Walton Goggins is like so perfect. He's an icon. He's so good in everything. Yeah. And I just love to watch him cook. Cause you always know he's having a blast.

And then he's like. He seems like it. He's just, I don't know. In this he plays the gh blast and then he's like he seems like he's just I don't know in this he plays the ghoul and The ghoul is like a Lord there's ghouls a fallout. He's a ghoul Yeah, and ghouls in fallout are like I guess maybe active basically yeah radioactive mutants, so he's been around for 200 years and He's he's, every time he's on screen,

I'm like so excited. Cause I'm like, this is gonna be crazy. He's just so good. But also like his character was very well developed too. Like that's the other thing about the show is that it could have just been like splash and trash and instead like they really went into character development in such a cool way.

So I think that was also part of it that scratched a particular itch for me. It was just, it was wildly well done. Good arcs across the board. Good arcs across the board, yeah. I don't know how heavy of a hand Jonathan Nolan had, you know, as an EP in terms of shaping the overall story, but it is interesting, you know, also being from Westworld,

how it, like, it's the same sort of structure of Ed Harris's character, you've kind of got these two different timelines that you're shifting between. And there's there's a different actor who plays young Ed Harris in that one. And that's eventually reveal. But like that is like, that one gets gets very nebulous and abstract. And at times you have hard I've had a hard time following at least, at least, you know, me as an idiot watching it versus, you know, I did not find that super satisfying but this execution is like so, so well done. And it's like trickling out the right amount of information each way. And then there's like a really like pretty genuinely startling reveal in the final episode in terms of how just watching like, oh, how did this, how did character from in timeline A

turn into character in timeline B in terms of how that was all trickled out? Yeah, I thought that's all awesome. We were so enthusiastic about the show that after we finished, we opened up my Fallout cookbook and made some casserole from the Fallout cookbook. It was really good. Yeah, we've now made two recipes from that Fallout cookbook.

One is chicken noodle soup, which is an excellent chicken noodle soup recipe. It's our go-to chicken noodle soup recipe now. It's the Fallout chicken noodle soup. What makes it a Fallout chicken noodle soup? Well, it's in the Fallout cookbook. Got it, okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I think with all of these, with all of these sort of video gamey RPG cookbooks, it's usually a thing that already exists with a slightly different seasoning or coloring to it. And with this, I think the soup has like, just slightly different seasoning than you'd expect. And it's a good chicken noodle soup as a result. I think it's like paprika, and like, it's a little spicy. Yeah, it's good. It's good.

The other thing I think the show does really well in terms of translating the games is just how grimy and nasty the world is. Like you talked about, like it's got this kind of retrofuturism to it, which is obviously a big part of Fallout. It's like, what if there actually was nuclear war in the 50s and we had a different sort of,

the Tomorrowland future was what we were headed towards and now we're kind of locked in that timeline. But like, it's also just fucking disgusting. Like it's a nasty, violent, like awful world. And so things like, you know, Ella Purnell's finger being cut off and then a corpse's finger being reattached is fucking nasty.

John Daly's fucking chickens. The thing that- It's such a perfect Daly character too, it's fucking chickens. The thing that- It's such a perfect Daly character, it's so funny. Well, and then there's the Johnny Pemberton thing, his character Thaddeus, when he's talking about his history, like growing up on a fly farm,

and he says, like, I was a shitter. That's what we're talking about. That's how we get the flies. It's like my favorite joke in the whole show, and it's also so fucking gross. Pemberton's really great on it, too. I mean, so many funny people on it, but like. Yeah.

Oh, the gun in the mouth is probably my favorite joke on the show. Yeah, they walk up to a guy who's just about to. I feel like the success of Fallout the show, and I'm sure these things are like, are synchronized, you know, between these major brands far in advance. But the enthusiasm in the Fallout community

or Fortnite community over Fallout coming to Fortnite I think wouldn't have transpired in the same way if this series sucked or it had disappeared so quickly. And instead people have been talking about Fallout for the last few months in a way that it hasn't been present in the pop culture conversation. So the fact that it's now arriving in Fortnite, it's like, oh right, yeah,

Power Armor's gonna be in Fortnite, that's fucking awesome. Yeah, like the last big time Fallout was in the zeitgeist prior to this was Fallout 76 when it launched and everyone's just kind of like, oh, this thing's not really, you know, this isn't real, this kind of half-baked. And then I think they ultimately updated it and it's pretty fun and playable now. I mean, I haven't really investigated if that's my understanding. But like, yeah, this is such a huge and incredible injection of life into the franchise. And, you know, obviously we've already talked about it,

but like how it's boosted the sales of the back catalog is all of these applications. Yeah, like Fallout 4 was like number one on the PlayStation Store. And it's like, what? That doesn't, that only happens when one of these major TV shows comes out and is a super hit. Like when Last of Us came out and Last of Us sales

but went back through the roof. Like it's cool to see. Can I take a, just to ask a more general like, like thought on this or? What are movies? Can they see me? Yeah. Here's my more, more general thought about like

just apocalypse fiction, which seems so resonant right now. And this one I think is just such a great, because it's just so narrowly focused on capitalism just completely, the logical endpoint of capitalism, which is the destruction of humanity for the survival of the economic system. But there's this fantasy element, obviously to apocalypse fiction, which is like when we regress to a structureless world,

that all of this kind of, you know, all, yes, we'll have problems, but all of our extremely unfun problems, all of our divides by, you know, ethnicity and religion are going to be dispensed because it'll be just sort of like a more just like stronger, like survival of the fittest sort of primal way of living. No, I agree. That's the optimism.

But anyway, but this current period of apocalypse fiction kind of like ignores all that, right? It's just sort of like, we're just kind of having the fun of that reality, even if it does get grimy and violent. But anyway, my rambling thought, what I wanna center on specifically with this- I'm really scared of the question.

It is. In our current era of apocalypse fiction, we are kind of like doing like this period apocalypse fiction specifically, where like we see this with all three of these video game adaptations, The Last of Us, Twisted Metal, Fallout, where they're all locked in a period of time that's prior to ours.

Where it's just like, now the apocalypse fantasy reached a point where it's just like, we don't even wanna be locked in our current present. Like we wanna fantasize that like a different reality happened where our reality was destroyed in the past and that set us on a completely different path. I would argue though that The Last of Us is an outlier there because when the game came out, Last of Us was happening in the present.

It was set the month that the first game came out. And I think they've been locked into that timeline because of the nature of setting that as the canonical beginning of The Last of Us. Whereas now it's like, when the first game says like 20 years later, and it cuts to 2028 or whatever, now we have almost arrived at that moment here in reality. But when the game came out, that wasn't the case.

And it wasn't 2028, I don't know the actual date. But that- I think it's a 20 year gap. I don't know the actual date. But that- I think it's a 20 year gap. It's like 2013 to 2023 or something like that. But that's why the technology in The Last of Us is locked in 2013. And there are PlayStation 3s under every television. It's just because that was the canonical beginning

of the game. Whereas these other ones, Twisted Metal or Fallout, those do feel more like fantasy apocalyptic, rather than like, what if the world ended on this day and then we in the present continued moving forward in the real world? Right, which is the traditional way of like, doing one of these apocalyptic things.

It's like, this is the time it comes out where that's the apocalyptic event. Right. It's also why I think in the Planet of the Apes movies, their canonical beginning is also when the first movie comes out. Like, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes or whatever. Rise of the Planet of the Apes. Rise of the Planet of the Apes.

Of these new ones. Yeah. The titles are confusing. The one with Caesar. Yes. Yes. Do you think that they just didn't update The Last of Us for television to? to fit this current time period because they were trying to Be true to the game and like serve the fan base of the games like you know what I mean?

That's a good question didn't they change the timeline slightly? Yeah, they did slightly They moved it up a little bit. Maybe just for production reasons, but I. But I don't know when they changed it. It's very slight. Yeah. I don't remember either. But yeah, ultimately it wasn't like they said it in the future future. Right.

It's not like, oh shit, oh shit, Ellie, these used to be flying cars. It's not like that. It's one of them comic book data pads you used to love. What year is it in the first, in the pilot? In the pilot, wait, what year is it in the last of us TV show in the pilot? Correct. That I don't know.

Neither do I. Yeah, I'm trying to look it up and I'm not getting any quick answer. I was trying to remember if there were cell phones. I don't remember, I don't know. That's why I was wondering, cause sometimes I think like cell phones really change plot. Yes.

You know what I mean? And so I was wondering, maybe they didn't update it because they didn't want cell phones. Which is, it's always wild to me that cell phones change plot so much when any film could start with somebody being like, ugh, fucking grid is down. Right.

Like, how crazy is this? Like, do you have cell phone service? Not today. Because like, here in Los Angeles, we didn't have internet for 48 hours where I lived. And it was like a local neighborhood, Brownwell, where we lived. And it was like, what the fuck is happening?

You just know internet for two days. Oh, you mean just recently? Yeah, we didn't know what to do. We were living in the dark ages. Yeah, we played a lot of Catan. We listened to records and we played Catan, and it felt awesome. That's better than what I did.

I sat on the couch and looked at my phone, which is like that, and I kept refreshing my browser on my phone to see if I was still in an outage. So in the Last of Us TV show, the first thing we actually see is in 1968. But then it takes place, the event takes place in 2003. So they made it earlier than it was in the game. So that in 20 years after the event, it's 2023, the year that the show came out. Got it, got it.

Cool, cool. Gotcha. But yeah, Fallout takes place in a time that never existed in the past, and the future of that time. Yes. It's like 2077, I think is when the, I think it's around that is when the show itself starts.

But yeah, it's basically Which is also the year that Blade Runner 2 takes place right Blade Runner 2077 Maybe that's why I said 2077 maybe it's not 2077 It's just too many numbers, and I don't want to do numbers anymore. Yeah, we should put a cap on numbers It is 2077 One two and three only in fallout it is 2077 so 2077 in fallout 2077 in cyberpunk 2049 in Blade Runner 2019 in Blade Runner 1 2023 in the last of us television show 2020 right now too many numbers

Here's the actual sorry. Here's the actual, sorry, here's the actual timeline. The Great War takes place in 2077. The series is set in 2296. So yeah, that's after everyone has been in the vaults for the five generations. So 2077 in Fallout is as if the 1950s had just progressed in the same aesthetic for almost 125 years. We have robots and really nice black and white TVs.

Yeah. We're talking about how well they adapted it and stuff. This is a good enough premise that it kind of does make sense that it made a good TV show. There's a lot of things that they could have done to make it bad or good TV show. There's a lot of things that they could have done to make it bad or, you know, not make sense. To me, like, vaults where people don't know exactly what the truth of what's going on is happening,

it is good. That's, like, interesting. That's an interesting enough thing to, like, I don't know, propel a story forward, I think. It made Heather's dad really think deeply. Yeah, my dad watched the show because Mary and I suggested it forward I think. It made Heather's dad really think deeply. Yeah, my dad watched the show because Mary and I suggested it to my mom and dad. Pretty much anything we like,

we kind of pass on to Heather's parents. And sometimes they'll be like, oh, we love this. And sometimes they'll be like, I don't know if this is enough for us. But they loved Fallout. Hell yeah. And my dad was like,

I wanna talk to you about like, some things I've been thinking about after the... He sent an incredibly long text. Yeah, after the fallout finale. Wow. And it's basically, what do I think... I've been thinking about what people need in order to survive as a species,

and ultimately whether or not we can be trusted to take care of ourselves without destroying. Basically, I think he watched the vaults and was like, that might be the way. Is that a good idea? Yeah. Would this work? Yeah.

Yeah, if you just like obfuscated the truth from a large enough group of people and kept them sealed, would you create peace? Yeah. Yeah, I mean, it all came from like an outgrowth of 1950s, like bomb shelter, like hysteria, right? Like, you know, and yeah, all the, like what you're talking about, like a lot of this stuff all goes back to the first game.

And it's just like, yes, you're right, that all that stuff is inherent to the world that's been created and is so well realized here. I don't know, it's really great. It's genuinely funny, it's got great action. Like you were saying, Mary, it's really well plotted and the cast is stacked. It's just a really fun adventure through this health gate.

Shockingly funny. Yeah, it's very, very funny. Laugh out loud funny. Yes. Even the violence, like, you know, we're talking about people's heads getting crushed by a metal hand Very nasty looking. I was laughing my ass off. That's so gross. When they are putting the the the the guy's got his like foot shot up and they put the boot on his foot oh

grinds up Johnny Pemberton yeah grinds up his foot. Oh gosh. And then it grinds up. Johnny Pemberton. Yeah, it grinds up his foot and until it turns it into like a temporary prosthetic. And he's like, oh God, oh my God, before it happens. And then later Pemberton sitting in like a, he takes off his boot and doesn't he say like, oh no, I'm gonna die. I'm gonna die.

I'm gonna die. Such a stacked cast. Yeah, I don't know how they get away with like, having a dog be locked in a cooler and the audience not just turning the TV off. You know, it's just like. And it's more than there's that's a Second dog violence. Yeah, it's like also the ghoul stabs a dog

Yeah, and then you're expected to like arc your way in the liking. They are really playing with mad Yeah, then they're also there was that earlier sequence where Michael Emerson's character is in charge of like Making the dogs or something, like finding the good dogs, and if the dog isn't good, they're just throwing it in and then. Yeah, yeah. It's a show that hates dogs. My mom has three dogs, she's a big dog person.

She texted me, she's like, I think I'm out on this. And then I was like, just keep watching, it gets good. And I think then she did, I think maybe she did get to the second dog thing, I was like, I can't do this We haven't really gotten into spoiler country is there anything worth that that we should delve into or I don't know I don't know how much we need to we need to talk about the I don't want to spoil Yeah, I don't know that we I would definitely don't want to spoil the show for people because it's it's super fun and

Well written enough that there are things that are revealed that are spoilers. Yeah. I will say, this is not really a spoiler. For some reason, watching, I think Kyle McLaughlin gives a really good performance in this show, and I haven't really seen a lot of his work. I only know some of his work where he's playing like Kyle McLaughlin on Portlandia or something. So he's like kind of- I know his work posed him becoming a meme kind of. Sure. And watching him in this I was like this motherfucker is good. He's really he's really really good.

Yeah, he's a good actor and really well cast. And I must bring it up again. I feel like I've read it up before. My middle name is Kyle and it's because my mom named me after Kyle McLaughlin. Really? Wait, that's true. That's true You brought that up before? I feel like I brought it up before. I don't remember hearing this. My mom My mom watched episode one of Twin Peaks like it came out and like she watched like she's seen all of Twin Peaks She loved Twin Peaks like from the jump. She was just like, you know, she was 21 years old, not to dox my bop And watching Twin Peaks while pregnant with me and she's like that guy is great. I'm naming I'm giving his middle name That was ever ever meet him I'm gonna tell him that story. Hopefully he likes it. That's a sweet story

I'm really sweet story. You have a twin is his middle name also Kyle his middle name McLaughlin I watched a video by so Tim Cain who is what was one of the co-creators You know what do made fallout in the 90s. He has a YouTube channel that's really interesting. It's got a lot of like to just him talking about game development and his perspective on various things. But he talks he has he did a whole video about his ex he got invited to the premiere by Todd

Howard of Bethesda. And I guess it's like one of those things where, you know, the IP was sold to Bethesda 20 years ago. He hasn't really been involved in the series since then. I think there was maybe at the time some bitterness over that severance because it's kind of like my baby is being taken from me. But it's a thing he's made peace with and he's continued to work in the industry and make his own stuff.

He was one of the directors or maybe the director of the Outer Worlds from Obsidian, which was a game I really enjoyed. But anyway, he got invited to the premiere and it's interesting just to hear him talk in a way that has zero bitterness or resentful. There are a lot of people I feel like would maybe have like, and maybe a lot of it is just how he's been handled, but I think there were a lot of people who would be like, hey, I created this thing, it turned into this billion dollar IP and now I have no involvement in it

and I'm gonna be mad about it. But he seems to just be like genuinely excited that other people are taking it different places. And he was like really happy with how the show turned out. And he was really excited by the experience of being at the premiere. And you know, I don't know, it's just interesting to have someone kind of like to have a sanguine

sort of attitude towards all of that. Yeah, that is really cool. That is nice. You saying Severance I have to bring up. Yeah, Zach Cherry. Oh, yeah Hey, it is so funny and everything. Yeah, such a big fan of his me too That's great is has one of the funniest things in the show I think it's in the first episode where the This I'll spoil this because it's all from the first episode. Yeah, there are People infiltrate one of the vaults that shouldn't be there They're called Raiders the Raiders are shooting out the place and it's fucking crazy Everybody's going crazy in there, but they're they're doing this wedding

So they're like about to wheel out like a big jello dessert or something. And he's like, get that out of here. The people behind him just get shot. It's so funny. He's great. I mean, he's so funny. Zach's a very, very talented actor, a great dude, and also a huge Baldur's Gate three fan. You would know. Very very talented actor great dude and also a huge Baldur's Gate 3 fan

Like Nick is like hive minded to all the people who like Baldur's Gate No, he's playing honor mode the dudes into it. Um, yeah, I don't know It's it's it's it's really great. And I think also I Will also just say I think there may be some I maybe this is a bit I don't even need to address this but like yeah, we do know people involved both on the show and behind the scenes and I like But we don't have any agenda in being nice to something just for that sake. Like if we didn't like the show,

we just wouldn't do an episode. We actually genuinely liked it. You don't get anything out of this. No. No. No. No. No.

No. No. We're like Elon Musk showing up at the party being like, put me in Fallout. Like that's us. No. I will make a plea. I would love to be a guy that just gets killed immediately in a nasty way.

That's all. That's the other part of the apocalypse fiction is both like, I would be one of the thousands who survive instead of one of the billions who are vaporized, but then also that like, among the survivors, I'd be one of the people who would like figure out how to stay in it, you know? And then I guess that's part of what the appeal of the games is.

I would die. I would die immediately. All of us would die immediately. We're in LA. We'd die immediately. I'd have a chain around my neck, but I'd survive. Hey, it's that guy from Doughboys! Get him! Make us laugh, buddy! Make him funny!

Too funny! He's like doing the whole thing, or he's pretending to run away. He's going really slow. Eat bits and tell us jokes about it! No, they're gonna get me! Um, any, anything we missed? Ranch, did you, have you watched the show? Mm-hmm, yeah. Any anything we missed? Ranch, did you watch the show? Yeah. What did you think? I really liked it. I hadn't heard of it before

the show. Did you say you were gonna maybe play Fallout? Were you talking about me doing that? I don't know if I mentioned this, but I did download Fallout 4. Okay. And then I spent an hour on character creation, making myself look like me, and then my boyfriend, him. Yeah. And then within the first five minutes, he gets killed.

So, I stopped playing after that. Sorry, Mark. Heartbroken. I remember we talked about this before, but yeah. What fun. What a fun show. It was a fun show. It was a good show.

I'm looking forward to the second season. Yeah, me too. And you know, usually when we do like a We Play You Play, we do a Ryu Crew. Yeah. Yeah. Hello, kid. That thing. I have some Ryu Crews about the Fallout TV series.

Oh, wait. It's time for the Ryu crew Hello again, and you know I don't typically do this I'm just gonna shout out our mods real quick mods in our discord discord.gg slash get played make it a nice fun place We got three comments from mods I'm just gonna read these real quick from drop king loved it glad it referenced lots of things from the game But ultimately forged its own path with a new story. Very excited for season 2 and hopefully some energy weapons. And Surit writes, the rare video game adaptation that tells an original story and absolutely sticks the landing.

Agreed. And Ted Kord says, absolutely loved it. I thought picking a game like Fallout where the characters from the games aren't really that important allowed them to have a visual language already made for them that they could use while not feeling beholden to a specific story. Eight out of 10, very fun show to watch while carrying a decapitated head around the wasteland. Lose them or maul.

That's another just element of grime we are touched on, but just like having the MacGuffin be a severed head. Yeah. Also, they just rot. So good. It gets nastier. It's so gross. It's so gross.

So gross. Really, so gross. So gross. Really, really nasty. This next one is from from Met Black 85. And they write, as someone who has played over 1100 hours in Fallout 4 alone, I'm so glad

they kept it gritty and stayed true to the sense of humor of the games. Now that we've gotten through so much of the world Building setup. I'm excited to see where the plot heads What are my favorite one of my top few favorite shows of the year? Mostly just relieved they didn't fuck it up like the wheel of time slam. Oh boy shots fired Amazon's wheel of time I will you know I'm gonna say yeah, I'm done with the binge Put it out. I'm done with this. Put it weekly.

I, my, like, everything I've heard from, and Mary, maybe you have a perspective on this, but like, I feel like everyone who makes TV prefers things to be released weekly, or like, not released all in one shot. Yeah, I mean, I think everyone who makes it prefers that. I think the networks pretty much like to put it out all in one show.

Yeah, yeah. It's a very bingeable show. It is a bingeable show. But yeah, it is kind of cooler that it could stay in the zeitgeist a little bit longer. Something to look forward to. I like the model that I've started to see happen where there's like the first three come out together

so that you get like a little bit of a arc at the beginning, which I think helps you engage with the show and wanna keep watching like week to week. I think that's a nice little meet in the middle compromise because I think the network's worry people just drop off. But yeah, I'm with you. Because it would still be, it probably would have aired the finale by now,

if it had been weekly since it dropped on Amazon Prime, people would still be talking about it. Yeah. People are talking about it because it's a zeitgeisty thing. Because it's so good, yeah. But I feel like we could be having a more of a conversation about it.

Yeah, more of an event. I remember I pitched an idea for when my show Monsterland was coming out that you do it all in a week, that like a new episode drops every day, and you create like a week of horror so that it feels more event-like. Yeah. But yeah, that network's turned into the Benjable. Well, that's sorry to get political. Uh, this next one is from JJ, JJ, JJ, JJ.

How many is that? Eight? It's eight J's. We're done with numbers here. I don't know if you heard. Nick, I swear to God, if you and I say numbers, I'm gonna lose my goddamn mind. I'm gonna say a couple more numbers, actually, unfortunately. It's eight J's and there's four sets of two J's. I watched four or five episodes

and not sure I'll finish it. It's been an interesting test of my acceptance of violence in different media. Do I like it? Do I like when I shoot a villain's limbs off in Fallout 4? Damn straight. Do I like seeing the same limbs mangled in a TV show?

Not really. It's not realistically similar to the game but hits me in a more negative way. That's interesting. Yeah, it is. So maybe just also something of just like seeing a human being, seeing an actor as opposed to like a, you know,

even a pretty realistic character model. Oh no, I'm gonna die. Yeah. This next one is from E. Mitch. E. Mitch writes, almost a master class in how to adapt a property. Using the already huge game universe to start a unique story,

throwing in a lot of little details as nods to understanding of the source and using actors to tell a totally unique and interesting story. I went in with a very little expectation and came out wanting to play Fallout 3 and 4 all over again. Yeah, I think that's the biggest testimony to the show's success,

is that I wanted to play Fallout. Yes. Like, I was like, I gotta play more Fallout. I installed it and I downloaded the new patch that apparently makes it bad. But I'm excited to get in there and see what's going on. And finally, JARP writes... JAR writes.

Jarp. Jarp. Love the show. My favorite part is Lucy being a lead female character that's capable, likable, and not infallible. Maximus took me a few episodes before I realized, oh, he's just dumb, and I love him for it. Walton Goggins gets another head on his Mount Rushmore

of great TV characters next to Uncle Baby Billy and Boyd Crowder. The script is tight and almost no screen time is wasted. The video game style violence is done really well. I only wish there was even more gross shit in it because I love gross shit. Same life, same ditto. Thanks, Jarp, and thanks everybody who wrote in. And I guess that about wraps us up. What did you say, Nick? I would say that, Matt. What the fuck is happening?

What was that? Do y'all want to spend the same cash? I don't know, I thought I'd just try it. I don't know, I thought I'd just try it. What was that? I don't know. Was Matt tossing me an alley-oop and me slamming it through the hoop?

That's what that is. That's called professionalism is what it is. Okay. That's this week's. That's called professionalism is what it is. Okay. That's this week's Get Played. Our producer is Richelle Chen. Ranchyard underscore underscore sard. Our music is by Ben Prenti. BenPrentiMusic.com. Our art is by Duck Brigade Design. DuckBrigade.com.

And also check out our Patreon. Patreon.com slash Get Played. Where you can find our entire pre-headgum back catalog. Plus ad free main freed episodes. And our Patreon exclusive show Get Animated. Matt, where we're in the thick of animahem. That's right, we're so in the thick of it. Man, what a ride it's been. What a month.

We've watched a random anime each week this month in animahem. Typically, we watch an entire series, and it's a watch-along podcast, but this time, we're watching it literally live on the show, and you can watch along podcast, but this time we're watching it literally live on the show and you can watch along with us as we discover what it is that we're going to watch for the final Animaham this Wednesday.

That's patreon.com slash get played. Mary Laws, thanks so much for being here. Thank you. Thank you, Mary Laws. It's so fun. Always a hoot. I think you'd like to plug? Sure.

Working on numbers. No! Addie Moore? Gotcha, bitch! I think you like to plug sure I'm working on Numbers Yeah, currently working on a series. I'm really excited about for Hulu About Amanda Knox just got announced in the trade. Oh wow coming out Sometime next year to be determined, but stay tuned. I think it'll be a lot of fun. Yeah, no, it's great. It's been a hell of a ride. I know a lot about the Italian legal system that I didn't think I would ever.

Interesting. Yeah, I ever know but turns out Turns out turns out a cab Turns out in Italy they tried trials with spaghetti and pizza My right guys. Yeah, I was trying to figure out how to do the same thing I'm your Ah, silly. Silly, yeah. She... Hey Nick, you got played!