The Besties - Silent Hill 2 is the Psycho (1998) of Video Games

Episode Date: October 18, 2024

The new remake of Silent Hill 2 has painterly visuals, killer sound design, and genuinely scary surprises. But why does this remake feel different than Dead Space and Resident Evil 4? The Besties click on their flashlights and search for an answer. Plus, a mail bag dive! Get the full list of games (and other stuff) discussed at www.besties.fan. Want more episodes? Join us at patreon.com/thebesties for three bonus episodes each month!

So there's really this is not a bit. Let me just start off by saying this is not a bit This is a serious inquiry for the group. Okay, and and in my opinion, there's only two right answers this question, but Maybe there's another one. Okay Kirby has shoes. Huh When you take the shoes off what is beneath them Nothing. No. Yeah, they're just attached. They're floating. They're not even attached to his body. They're just shoes. I mean, this is the same as sort of the Rayman conundrum,

right, where if you grabbed one of Rayman's hands and started running really, really fast, could you remove it? Or is the hand still Rayman? Do you know what I mean? Because they're not attached either. Could you remove it? Like, I always or is the hand still Rayman? Do you know what I mean? Because they're not attached either. Could you remove it? Like, I always thought it was like

a gravitational pull situation, so. Right, and you can overcome gravity. Right, true. If you believe in yourself enough and your thetons are aligned. I'm pretty weak, but true. Yeah. If I grab Rayman's hand and take off running,

and I put it under a chair, is he, will he call that back, like Mjolnir? Like this is the- Okay, but let me take a step back and say Rayman wears gloves. So if you were to pull off Rayman's gloves, you would see his hands. His hands.

Which probably look like what Kirby's feet looks like. Does people not remember the Kirby game that was like Conqueror's Bad Fur Day? The one where it like went rough? Oh. Do people not remember that one? Kirby's Curly Crumbles, where he takes off... Kirby's Curly Crumbles is one of my favorites.

Yeah, and that's the one where he runs a feed-only OnlyFans. The whole reason he wears his shoes is he's not gonna give it away for free. That's true. I mean, he doesn't. He sells his games, so it's worth considering that as well. I've never had a free experience with Kirby. That's not true. There's two free to play Kirby games on the eShop store right now.

Yeah. Thank God you're here, Griffin. You're just saying. So it's toes or no? No toes. It's weird, it's his feet. Is it like his hands, they're like blobs? No, his feet are actually really detailed, and he has toes going around the whole way,

like 35, 40 toes. I think his toes are like long ribbons that are curled. Yeah, they're crumbles. Into spirals. Oh, like he's grown his toenails really long, like he's in the game's book? But they're his toes, they're his flat toes, like a tapeworm.

Yeah. Oh, it should explain why he has kind of a bounciness to his jump. Yeah, it's a springing kind of toe. His feet are actually his kids that are attached to, when Kirby's reproduce, they create two smaller Kirby's below them and to sort of harden them for the dangers of playing a pop star, they will run around on their kids.

Like a pouch. It's like a pouch, but it's not attached to their body and they put shoes on the kids. And do the kids eat the larger Kirby once they're big enough? Once the kids are big enough, the two of them will share and eat the larger Kirby. Is there a comic, hey, do you guys wanna do a mind comic with me?

This is a pretty good one. It's where a bunch of Kirby's are standing around at a funeral for another Kirby, and they're like, well, who's hungry? You do? Yeah. Yeah, no. You can see it, well, who's hungry? You do? Yeah. Yeah, no.

You can see it, right? It's funny. Have at it, have at it Penny Arcade! Ha ha ha! Ha ha ha! Ha ha ha! Shh. Shh. My name is Justin McElroy and I know the best game of the week.

My name is Griffin McElroy and I know the best game of like 2001 I think. My name is Christopher Thomas Plant and I know the best game of the week. My name is Russ Thomas Plant and I know the best game of the week. My name is Russ Ruschek and I know the best game of the week. Welcome to the Besties where we talk about the latest and greatest in home interactive entertainment. It is a video game club and the only way to join it is just to listen to this show and then you will join it. Great.

This week we are talking about a new electronic confection that is actually a remake of an older one called Silent Hill 2. What could that mean? Chris? I mean, you kind of said it. It's a remake of Silent Hill 2, one of the most famous horror games ever made. But this time it's made to look super realistic and made by super fans Bloober Team. Hey, alright, well listen, that and so much more context coming to you after the break. If you're a fan of old Silent Hill, if you're not yet, new fans, we got room for all of

you. Follow us. This fucking game, huh? This fucking game, guys. Before we talk about Silent Hill 2, I don't wanna bring things down, but I do have some important information to share regarding Patreon.

Patreon's great, we love all our Patreon supporters. This is very important, this has nothing to do with us, although it does because it obviously impacts the Patreon itself. Oh yeah. Apple is instituting a new rule that if you subscribe to things through your phone, they're going to charge you an extra 30% to like get their cut. Cool cool. Nice.

Kind of kind of a bummer, not something we control. I know Patreon is pretty upset about it as well. But some good news. A if you already have subscribed to the Patreon, the besties Patreon, or really any Patreon, the price will remain the same. So if you're regularly subscribed and you're paying every month

or you paid the annual, whatever it is, it's gonna stay the same regardless. So this really just impacts new subscribers or people that have lapsed and then resubscribed. Again, this starts in November. The other thing to remember, if you're concerned about it and you have any doubts like, oh no, I don't wanna get charged this extra amount,

just subscribe on browser, on a website. That's it. That's all you have to do to save yourself 30% that we are not seeing, that does not see our bottom line at all. It doesn't help us at all. It just helps Papa Apple. So if you're worried about it at all,

just subscribe through the browser or if you already are a subscriber, don't worry about it. It won't increase. The end. That's the scariest thing we'll talk about all day. Am I right? No, not really. This game's scariest.

Yeah, it's crazy. What is Silent Hill 2? Whoa. Contextualize that for me What's Silent... What is Silent Hill 2? Whoa. Contextualize that for me. Well, it's not Silent Hill 1. And I mean that as in it's not a traditional sequel to Silent Hill 1. So if you didn't play Silent Hill 1, don't worry. You're A-OK. Nothing is necessary. Because they're like anthologies, right?

Like they are set in Silent Hill, but otherwise... Well, some of them are set inside a Apartment it's weird man. Yeah weird franchise Silent Hill 2 let's start. Let's start with the story a Man, let's call him Jim He comes to Silent Hill. It's James Familiar you are wants to call him Jim. So let's just call it Let's call him Jim, so let's just call him Jim. I want to call him Jim. Let's call him Jim. Jim is in a bathroom at Silent Hill.

He's looking in the mirror and he's saying, I got a letter from my wife. And she says, I gotta get to Silent Hill. We have memories here. What's been going on? Except his wife has been dead for years. Yeah. Yeah. But he's here anyway,

because he's gotta see this through something's wrong. Did he check the post dating on the letter? So maybe it got lost and then. Oh, yes. I'm gonna guess that Jim did. Jim's relatively clever. He's pretty smart, just kidding.

He may be the dumbest living man. Jim goes up into Silent Hill and he has many warning signs of people saying, do not go, do not go in there, woo! Cause there's fucking flesh puppets and there's little death beetles. And all kinds of crazy shit. It's so fucking foggy.

It's so fucking foggy, there's no one there. And Jim's like, that's all well and good, but I do wanna have a quick butchers cause my wife died and I think maybe here. No one loves reaching into scary holes more than Jim. So where more- His self preservation is- Jim is maybe the worst.

Remake Jim is maybe the worst video game protagonist I've ever seen. His terrible bleach blonde hair makes me root for Pyramid Head, a man for the traffic cone for a head. Now, did this hit anyone? Did this remake James, the facial animation and everything is obviously much better

than the, what was it, PlayStation 2 original? He looks like, and I imagine this is intentional, like a much younger David Lynch. There is something about, I don't know maybe if I was just kind of projecting that onto him. I can't imagine this as intentional, like a much younger David Lynch, there is something about, I don't know maybe if I was just kind of projecting that onto him. Yeah, maybe he is definitely a milk-faced man. Which is, maybe I was just projecting that

because this game is so heavily like Lynchian inspired. Yeah. Just some more context, I feel like Silent Hill was the foil to Resident Evil, right? It was Konami's sort of like, what if we made a survival horror game? But instead of focusing so much on gameplay mechanics and the sort of tent pole stuff

of the survival horror genre of like- And also like science, if, Resident Evil is like a science horror game and this is not, this is like a mystical. Cosmic horror. There's also, I think, a sense in Resident Evil where there's an arc of power that is increasing and Silent Hill, I think, is much more about creating a consistent level of threat throughout.

So that's interesting because it's not as fun to play as a Resident Evil, right? Just fully not fun, but in Resident Evil games aren't that scary. They're not. They can get you with a good jump scare sometimes, but the tension is not that rough when you have an infinite ammo rocket launcher in your pocket.

Yeah, but that happens later. I mean, look at Seven. It's like, shit, my pants scary. Yes, but I do think that Silent Hill 2 is fully designed around the psychological tricks that it places on you. Disempowerment, and all you have is a fucking piece of wood. For a lot of the game, yeah.

There is also, the Silent Hill environment, I think, lies to you a lot more than the comparatively concrete world of a Resident Evil game. That world is not going to be... Because it doesn't work by physics. Right, exactly. This game is very, it's a bad dream,

and it is being shaped by this dude, but things change and dream logic seems to apply in places. And to me, this is what makes this game cool, and it is what sort of enticed me to play this game. I tried it on Steam Deck first on a train, and it doesn't run very good on Steam Deck, but also you can't immerse yourself in it. You really need to be in a dark room, headphones on.

It's also unsupported, to be fair. It is unsupported, yes. No one claimed that it did work on Steam Deck. Don't try it on Steam Deck. I'm saying you need to, to enjoy this game, you need to buy into, I wanna get scared by this game, because if you do that, it will happen, because it is a very scary game.

It is not enjoyable to play. Well, let's talk about what the actual loop of the game, for people that never played the original, what are we actually doing from a minute to minute basis? I mean, it's not dissimilar from, I mean, it's kind of like the Alan Wake loop. It's a lot like Alan Wake. This kept reminding me of Alan Wake 2 specifically.

Yeah, I have comparisons to make as well. I think you are wandering around Silent Hill, this town, looking for your wife. There are moments, it's very much about exploring the world, finding the one to three sort of key items that you need to progress past a certain point. There is a map that is constantly being updated with like points of interest and things like that.

There are monsters throughout that you are kind of encountering. They're not that hard to avoid, but a lot of the times you're sort of like forced into confrontation with them. Yeah. And sometimes running makes sense and sometimes combat makes sense. And you're not really building like a huge arsenal or anything, it's more like resources that keep you alive long enough to get to the next thing. Right, yeah.

Yeah, the weird, I guess, consistency of it is like there's a lot of like, I'm gonna check the map, oh, I need to get to this room because I just found this item which guides you here and you get to that room and there's a note that maybe gives you a clue or there's a key that can get you through this door. There's a lot of backtracking and just finding your way

to the next little breadcrumb, if you will. Yeah, I think the game does a pretty good job of helping you find, to follow the critical path. Because once you get into stuff, it is pretty linear. It does a great job of, if you have found the area map, James will automatically mark it and circle areas of interest. It is funny, because he's in the worst situation possible.

He's like, wait, wait, wait, hold on, let me get that pen. And it's great that he does this, because some of the critical path is so fucking silly and convoluted. We were talking yesterday about there's one puzzle where you need a coin, like a quarter, to put in a jukebox to get it going, but that coin is only in one cash register

in a single business, and you learn about where that business is, because someone mentions it in a card. You also get a coin puzzle after that. A lot of coins. A lot of coins in this one. Justin mentioned this the other day with the cans, the juice cans.

Yeah, there's like, yeah, at one point, one of the puzzles is like a coin gets stuck in a garbage chute and you have to hoist a box of cans of juice. And as he hoists it, he like grunts like, ugh, that's just cause James sucks. I don't know, I got kind of hung up on the remake part of this. I think that there is-

Did you play the original? Yeah, yeah. I mean, I haven't kept up with it. My memory's not great, but like, you know, it's definitely feels like a game from that time period. It feels a lot like those. I will say that I kind of feel like part of a remake at this point, I think there's more of an expectation

on specifically the survival horror remakes that has become its own sort of sub genre, I think with Resident Evil and Dead Space. specifically the survival horror remakes that has become its own sort of sub genre, I think with Resident Evil and Dead Space. I just feel like there's not much thought put into what makes a game feel modern, in addition to just making it look modern. And I think there's a real dissonance in Silent Hill 2

of things that look like a modern game, but don't feel like a modern game. And the big one for me is like, as an example, is barricades, where you have a lot of alleys where there's like four or five boxes, or like a low fence. And it's like, you're bumping into,

it's like, I can't, I can literally step over. I, Justin McElroy, could step over this. Well, you're stronger than James Sunderland. You are, you have more than- Everyone is, everyone is. But I think to me, if you're gonna make a game look like, the problem with making it look like a modern video game is like that, I can see there,

it's three modern milk crates that I can step right over. Like, it's just not the, it's not a design conceit that is something we do. Like it doesn't feel, I'll give you, this is a little one, but it's after, at a certain point, there's a certain kind of monster where if he dies, he like arches his back and explodes acid everywhere, right?

And if you're too close to him, the acid will hit you and hurt you, right? So if you kill the guys, you gotta like step away after you kill them. But there's this moment for about 10 seconds after you kill them, where if you wander over there, you will also get hurt. So you just kind of have to wait for a bit. That's a very 2000s, like early 2000s thing, right? It just isn't given that kind of consideration

to make it feel modern for me. The conversation around this remake has been one of concern because Silent Hill 2, I think it's a hard game to remake because so much of what makes the horror of the thing work is the kind of constraints and limitations it puts on you. And so going from this very canned camera angle, tight, claustrophobic, third person perspective to like a modern, I mean it feels like now

like an over the shoulder modern Resident Evil game. Yeah, the original for people that don't know was like an isometric like for certain sequences was like, oh, they're picking the angle and you have to just like work with it. And so like when you have, it feels more like a modern, what they have done, Bloober Team, what they have done, who has like a pretty great lineage of like indie horror

games, like Layers of Fear. I think it is really laudable that they have managed to fundamentally take the kind of like core foundational interactivity of the game and change it and make it more, I mean, I guess more modern and more pleasant, even though it's not that pleasant, it still like works in this different way without I think affecting the horror and fact, like take some things and does them differently to really enhance what makes the game scary. But like, yeah, there is a lot of very early 2000 stuff

in here that- The cinematics too are not well directed. They're like not in a way that I think is exciting and they go on way too long. Oh my God. It doesn't create an air of suspense. I think the problem for me is this is the most loyal of the remakes.

Yes. Resident Evil is the other end of the spectrum, Dead Space is somewhere in the middle, and this is extremely loyal. And weirdly, I think this is the one that probably should have been the least loyal, both in terms of gameplay and also in terms of literally what you're showing.

And I thought about this a lot. I didn't realize that I had actually played a good chunk of this game as a kid. When I started it, I was like, oh wow, yeah, I have played this one. And I went back and replayed a little bit of it and I watched it like side by side of the boss fights because I could not figure out why this didn't work for me and What I came to is Do y'all remember when Gus Van Sant? Remade psycho I go. Yeah. Yeah that this feels like that where Gus Van Sant was like We're gonna remake psycho, but it's gonna be shot for shot the same but now it's in color

I guess and and it has modern surround sound and it has modern people doing it. So I guess it's as good or better, but what it fails to understand is that the limitations of a psycho are what made psycho special. And I think it's fundamentally misunderstanding what made Silent Hill special versus what made Resident Evil and Dead Space special. I think Resident Evil and Dead Space, the originals, were good despite the limitations.

But if they had had all this modern technology, they would have benefited from it. I think Silent Hill 2 was good originally because of the limitations. Yeah, exactly. I think the tank controls, I think the like weird visuals, all of that I think helps. There was one scene in the side by side

of the boss comparisons that really stuck with me, which is there's a boss fight sequence where a creature grabs Jim by like the head and then pulls him up through the ceiling. And in the modern version of it, it's like watching like a moment in Alien or Aliens where it's like, okay, he's there, and then whoop, he gets like sucked up, you know?

I guess that's scary. In the original version, it's like this thing comes down, pierces him by the neck, drags him across the floor, and then pulls him up like he's like a paralyzed toy and a human claw machine. And when you see that, it's so weird that it's just deeply unsettling. And that weirdness is completely lost here.

Yeah, there's something in the bump up in fidelity that is being lost where it's like, it's a little bit like the lights coming on at the bar where it's like, eugh, okay, yeah, I can see why you guys wanted so much fog. This is a lot of fun. I agree with all of that. I think the sound design of this game is next level great. Yeah, exactly.

I do think that like- Should we talk about the radio real quick, Griffin? Yeah, so you have a radio that you get fairly early on in the game and it just is producing quiet static the whole time, but as you get closer to a monster, it starts to pick up and create static. That lets you know, like, hey, a monster's nearby,

which is great, because you're spending this whole game either in a dark building or a foggy street. And it is great, right? Because at first you're like, this is great. Because now I'll know when enemies are near and I will get ready to fight them. But then once you start getting into a cramped building where you can't see so much

and there's different types of enemies. And there's thin walls where maybe there's a wall from you. You don't know. Then all of a sudden now it's like, you were, I was slicing the pie like a fucking tactical SWAT agent. But also it starts to fuck with you a little bit because then there's monsters that kind of hide

in the environment, they don't set off the radio. And sometimes there's these little beetles that scuttle across the ground. They set off the radio, so you're looking for some big monsters about to kick your ass. And then you see this little beetle scuttle out and you're like, that's crazy I got him. Yeah, that radio's not your friend.

That radio acts like your friend. That radio acts like your friend. The radio's not your friend. It's just another thing to scare you. All of that goes around. Also, just the sound design in general around the game is really genuinely, this game is very, it scared the shit out of me. And I think that's kind of what it's got going for it.

Cause it is fine that once you do get into like the actual fighting of the monsters, it was just about fighting the camera for it. I just find that once you do get into the actual fighting of the monsters, it was just about fighting the camera for me. It was so much more about getting angled up the way I wanted to to get the shots. Basically the way you deal with the main guys, let them puke at you as you strafe past and then bop him a couple of times with that routine. I just felt like I was fighting the camera more than I was bop him a couple of times and keep with that routine. And I just felt like I was fighting the camera more

than I was fighting the guys a lot of the time. I do wanna suggest something for people that are like on the fence or don't necessarily love horror games. I mean, this is probably not the game for you, but if you're interested in trying it out, I played it on Easy, because I kind of thought that if I didn't play it on Easy,

I wouldn't be able to get through it because I'm very, very scared of horror games. And I kind of found that I liked that a lot more because even though there was some challenge, I was still fighting guys and there was elements there, I was a little, I was not as constantly stressed and I was able to like absorb more of the stuff. So it's there, it is an option.

You can turn down the difficulty of the combat and also even the puzzles if you find the puzzles to be annoying. We ran into that with Alan Wake 2 also, right? Alan Wake 2, I think, yeah, I played on normal, but I know some people played on easy for that. And that's great, I love... I did, I set the puzzles to easy when I started

and you can change the combat difficulty at any time, but the puzzles one gets locked in and I regretted it immediately. When the first puzzle was like, the lady sits under the moon and the snake under the tree and then you have to like put these little tokens to have a lady and a snake on it and you put them in the holes under the moon in the tree

and it's like, wow, that was a real fucking brain buster. So like. Hey listen, if it's like, wow, that was a real fucking brain buster. So like. Listen, if it makes you feel any better, it's not like a much more thinker on normal to the dance, very similar. I mean, I just think this game has all vibes, and the things that I don't come to it for are like combat and puzzle solving.

I don't give a shit. Guys, I gotta say, there's something about, I was pretty on board with this thing, and then when I was loading up the steam page to check it out And I did see that price tag. I don't normally get in a price tag. I'm crazy guys $70 is Like I love the idea of preservation. I'm deeply into like and I think that's why the response to it has been good. Because if you like Silent Hill 2, this is very much that game.

Yeah, they're going to be very happy. They're going to be very happy. It is like a, it feels like a, you know, a gussying up a museum quality version of that. $70 for a game that in many ways feels pretty antiquated is ridiculous. I mean, it's just like, I don't understand that at all. Yeah, it looks like a modern game, but it doesn't feel like one. And I think you'd need this day and age

when we look at the Resident Evil remake. It looks like a modern version of Silent Hill too, but I think it is folly to act like the ways that design have evolved in the past 20 years can be like up-res, right? Like we just don't understand games in the same way. Well, I mean, some games can be, but it doesn't necessarily justify a $70 price tag. Like some games have aged well, is what I'm saying. Yeah, well, yeah. Yeah.

I think it's important to keep in mind that like a lot of the reason why people have so much fondness for it is because the original came out in 2001, and this style of a psychological horror game didn't really exist, right? This was the cool, artsy, brainy sort of cousin of Resident Evil. And I mean, this was 2001, I don't remember when the original Silent Hill came out.

It was a PS1, probably 98 somewhere. Yeah, so like it holds a really special place in a lot of people's hearts because it was so different and so genuinely so, so, so, so scary. It's kinda like this is the Lynch and Resident Evil is the carpenter. Like, cause there's a lot of, they're both huge Japanese influences of both of those directors.

And I do feel like both these franchises have a lot of times been in conversation with their work. You mentioned the Steam version. Griffin, you played on PC, I played on PC. For me, I don't have the best PC, but it ran like pretty badly. It did okay for me. I have what was considered a high-end gaming PC about two and a half years ago, maybe.

Sure, yeah. And it works great. I was just getting a lot of jerking around. You can play it on Steam Deck if you turn the resolution down and the graphics down and set it to run at 30 frames. It looks like Pitfall. But no, it doesn't look like Pitfall,

but it does, during cut scenes it really chunks. Anytime there's like a lot of reflections, it really chunks, which bad news is wet streets. These streets are wet, gang. They got to be wet. So yeah, but again, it's unsupported, so like whatever, your expectations should not be high. This is a good corner of the show

that I like this new segment, Griffin complaining about unsupported steam news. Dog, this ain that I like this new segment, Griffin complaining about a Steam Deck. Dog, this ain't new. I feel like I'd complain about the Steam Deck. It really does. It is such a massive differentiator in how much of the game I'm going to play. I will say this, I played on PS5

and didn't have any problems. Okay, that's great. Before we wrap the section, can we talk a little bit about the story? Because that is, I think, the selling point of the game. And people can't see Justin's face right now, but maybe they can feel it. Trying to think about what to say.

I'm trying to think about what to say that isn't like. It's hard not to spoil it. That's one thing which we won't do. Spoiler, I don't know. I think it's very of its time. And I think that's another part where I kind of actually missed the old aesthetic because I'm very curious for people who are experiencing this for the first time if it comes off almost edgelordy in its...

Oh, yeah. ...how far it goes, where at the time, again, games just weren't dealing with topics of like abuse and grief and sexual violence. Where now I think it might come across as like insensitive to people who are experiencing it for the first time, which I guess I'm trying to provide the context here, which is games just were not dabbling in this space, which I think is why the original was so popular. Sure.

Because it was a game that was at least trying. Um, where now, yeah, that's, I guess, part of what also feels weird about remaking it is on every level, it feels like a game of its moment. Right. Yeah. Yeah, I, the narrative for me doesn't do a whole lot, but I do, a part of that is just, I think I need more of it,

and it's like very lightly doled out, especially towards the beginning of the game. It's also one where if you know the twist, then there's really not much to pull you along. And I never finished Resident Evil 2, but I feel like I, but I know I know the twist of it because the game came out 23 years ago. And so like, I think that does kind of attract.

Silent Hill 2 you mean? What did I, oh, I said Resident Evil 2. There are multiple endings and we can talk about one, which is that dogs, Shiva Inus, have been controlling the town the whole time. Yeah, dogs did it. They've been in a back room with computer screens controlling everything.

It is the best ending to it. I don't know if it's canon, but we're gonna say that it is. Yeah, definitely. I feel like we were maybe a little down on this one. It's not a bad game in the same way that, for me, Guest of Insan Psycho is not a bad movie. It's just a question of, like, why would I watch it

when I can go back and play the original? The sad thing here is, going back and playing the original Silent Hill 2, good luck. Really hard to even find. Oh, I think of you, I think this is a fine way to experience Silent Hill 2 and say that you've like gotten the idea. I just don't understand from a price perspective how you are, it just seems correct to me.

I think this game, looking at it now, I think they're different games, but close enough that I would instantly recommend someone play Alan Wake 2 before playing this, because I think they're doing very similar things, but I think Alan Wake 2 is doing something that's much more modern and interesting than where this game is at right now.

I think it's a- You do realize though, how much Alan Wake 2 is like- Totally. Alan Wake, the series, owes so much to both Silent Hill and Twin Peaks as source material. So I totally could give it credit, but like Alan Wake 2 has continued obviously to evolve over the years and Silent Hill kind of hasn't. Unless you count PT, which yeah. I mean that is and I think that that is another like

the extent to which the aesthetics of this game kind of inspired other games of the time period cannot really be overstated. And like, just people in general, like there's still so much cosplay, like just from this game, it's kind of wild. I mean, Pyramid Head is the mascot of this franchise. And this game birthed him. It's such a shame,

cause I feel like this would be a fine recommendation for like spooky season if you want something to play that is scary that is also kind of like historical. This would be great but the $70 is not a price tag that I would want to pay just to like play a spooky game because there's a fucking lot of those guys. Yeah. A lot of those. Okay, should we take a break? Let's do it.

OK, I pulled some mail, some reader mail, for this second segment here. And this first piece of reader mail asks something of Chris Plant, but it's I don't want all of the things that it's asking. OK. Maybe a shortened version of this. This comes from Ben.

I thought of this question specifically for Chris, but I'm happy to hear from anyone, including commenters. This was in the newsletter. I decided to give Criterion Collection a try to expand my horizons a bit more. My film watching habits are definitely more frequent and eclectic than the average movie watcher, but I'm no cinephile.

I've heard of maybe 10% of the movies on Criterion Collection. Of the ones I've heard of maybe 10% of the movies on Criterion Collection of the ones I've heard of Maybe seen half or less Question is if you recommend a small number Let's say two for Chris plant of diverse films on Criterion Collection for someone new or mildly familiar with What would they be How about fresh you give an answer first and then I will give one, because I know that

you... I kind of like something wild. I think that's on Cartoon Network Collection, which Jeff Daniels and Melanie Griffith, kind of a weird Jonathan Demme movie that is pretty approachable. I think there's a lot of stuff on there that is like, buckle up. This is going to be like kind of a tough hang, and that feels like the sort of movie that was like running on Comedy Central

in the mid 90s, nonstop. Yeah, I don't know, naming two things from this is like very, very difficult. Right now, the great thing about the Creativity Collection is they like put everything into curated chunks. So if like right now there's horror effects, if you want to watch practical horror movies, they exist or if you want an entire series on Jalo, which is like Italian thriller horror, you can do that.

So I don't know from those I would probably grab a movie called Tenebrae or Deep Red under Jalo. They're both great They're iconic their movies like people will talk about and then you have something to chat about and I don't know you're at your like next horror movie party and then I watch a movie called pulse. It's a Japanese horror film they have it in their Japanese horror section and it is a honestly a perfect perfect pairing with Silent Hill 2 it is

Really really really upsetting And not like so much other Japanese horror that can be like really um arch like each of the killer which is on here or audition or Tetsuo the Iron Man pulse is like really um arch like each of the killer which is on here or audition uh or tetso the iron man pulses like just really gets you get in your head you're gonna have bad sleeps for a few weeks um so i guess that's it but i don't know i'll put more in the newsletter because that seems like a better place to answer uh this i think Plan is faking it. He doesn't actually watch any of this stuff.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He got me. It's all dance moms. It's all he watches. I just love below deck. We have a question.

This comes from Henry. Griffin has mentioned gaming while on a bike. I am wondering what his exact setup is. Does anyone else do this? What sort of bike or gaming setup Are you using I have chronic pain which means a lot of traditional exercise doesn't work for me It sounds like it could be a good option to get regular cardio. Yeah, no, it is very good There's obviously like lots of options here. I just got one the van sway VAN SWE

They just have like pretty affordable like magnetic resistance Recumbent bikes that are very comfortable to sit in, but you can work up quite a sweat doing it. So I'll just kinda face it towards my TV. And what I've really been doing a lot lately is using the Steam Deck dock, and then playing with a controller

connected with Bluetooth, so I can just kinda, when I'm done working out, I can just kinda pick it up and and get on the go but I find it really really good I've been really losing time playing metaphor refund Tazio on the bike I have logged some truly bodacious cardio sessions just because I'll get into a dungeon in that game and then you know an hour will pass but there's so many different kind of bike options. Some are more comfortable than others. The Vansui one I have has a proper chair

that you just kinda sit and chill in, which is nice. But yeah. Those can be a rough adjustment if you're not used to sitting in bikes regularly. Right. There's some soreness you're gonna have to adjust to there. Yeah. But that's my setup. I do, I have like an old gaming PC plugged into TV that I mounted on the wall,

and that I pointed the bike at, and I just play stuff that like, I basically just assisted shooters shooters like retro stuff like stuff that is just like pure gameplay like lose your brain stuff like children of Morda or Halls of Torment a lot of Hades to stuff like that a lot of those like road We're like a run will last you about a ride Only problem with some of those games is sometimes you don't time it out Just right or you'll die with like five minutes left in your ride That's that that hurts that really adds some some stink on to the to the right to the loss

We have one more question this comes from will Listening to Griffin talk about why halls of torment didn't click for him made me think about why it hooked me so much. I usually have the same issue with games that make your progression trees like a bunch of tiny incremental changes, but Halls of Torment works for me. I think part of it is that you're really doing a 100-hour RPG character build over each 30-minute run, which is really interesting difference between that and other vampire survivors likes. It's a game that really demonstrates

how small numbers add up to big changes. And that's the mental model shift, learning how big a deal a 0.15 shift in one skill versus another is to your overall built in strategy. But I'd also like to say that I've got 40 plus hours in the game. And at this point, I've got way bigger stuff unlocked that leads to more dramatic shifts in how you play.

The game just makes you learn the systems and details before it hands over all the tools to totally break them and make some bonkers builds. So this just came out on mobile, right? It did. I've heard mixed things about the mobile version. The one deal breaker for me on mobile is that it, well, two things.

One, it doesn't let you carry your save over from Steam, which is a big one the other big one Which is probably even more impactful. It does not let you pause a run Like midway and run forget like forget it 30 away. I mean, it's a phone Yeah, you need to be able to make checkpoints. So that's obviously something they need to figure out but it's five dollars on Steam and it's spectacular so it's really not I will check it out at some point I just I don't prefer that small incremental number thing I got really into Brotato I don't know if you guys are played yeah that's a fucking good one but that one is very much like you pick your six

weapons and then you pick this and it's like this adds plus 100 to Your your regeneration like it's so clear and you really understand exactly what's happening every time you you get stuff Yeah, the whole the torment does get to that point I think it would hook you probably in the first couple hours But yeah, I do understand that there's a little bit of a hill there. There's also a lot of games like this. True. There's a lot of games like this is the other thing. Last thing I wanna mention,

this is not so much a question as an info dump. From Winky, Heroes of Hammer Watch 2 demo is on Steam as of today for anyone that is interested. We did an episode on Heroes of Hammer Watch probably three years ago or something, and that game dominated like a large chunk of this podcast. Still one of my favorites, yeah. Really spectacular. Then they went and made Hammerwatch 2, which was not very great.

It's gotten better with updates, but it's, I mean, I put a hundred hours into Heroes of Hammerwatch, like I was so into that fucking game. Yeah, so I haven't played the demo yet. This is a good excuse to definitely jump in and thank you for the heads up. I probably wouldn't have missed it. Maybe we'll talk about it next week. Yeah, we're gonna talk about it next week.

Year to check it out. Cool, that's it for reader mail, extended session there. Any honorable mentions people wanna mention? Did I talk about Golden Bachelorette on this show last night? You have talked about it. New updates you wanna share about Golden Bachelorette on this show last night? You have talked about it. Are there new updates you wanna share about Golden Bachelorette? It's just so good, man. It's just so good.

One observation that I think really makes it special is in other seasons of this show, when people get kicked off, they don't get a rose at the rose ceremony and they go home, it's like, whatever, they're gonna go home and be attractive and successful and now kind of famous for being on TV. When the old dads on this show leave,

they're so sad because they got to hang out with a bunch of their buddies for such a long time. And so whenever people get kicked off the show, they always go out and confessional, like they don't talk about how they're gonna miss Joan. They're like, I'm gonna miss, you know, Stinky Dog and Old Mike and like breakdown in tears. An older Mike.

An older Mike, they had such a great time and now they're gonna go home and be alone. It is a very emotionally resonant television. Is there an age like limit? I mean, what's the youngest? I mean, the youngest is probably like 65 years old. OK. Yeah.

And they just go all the way up. I don't think I've played any other games except this and Metaphor, which still takes ass. It's been a busy time. Yep. Yeah. My only rec is the Simpsons Halloween specials. Going back to them, they're still great.

They still got it. Um, the one that is, how is get the mixed up four and five, uh, Trios of Horror four and five are my go-tos. Uh, I want to, I want to recommend, I want to recommend, God, so many things. I watched, uh, it's What's Inside last night. It's on Netflix. You guys know about that one? Oh yeah.

Okay, it's a good one. Go watch it. Everybody already knows about it. I don't know what that is. Okay, good, well thanks, Russ. Well, it is a, I guess thriller would be more accurate. Sort of like a sci-fi thriller. It feels a little Black Mirror-y, I'd guess.

But it is a movie about a inventor that is like a wealthy entrepreneur, tech billionaire, who goes back to hang out with a group of friends before someone's wedding. And he has brought this machine that basically lets people switch bodies. Oh, right, I watched the trailer for this. It looked interesting. And they play a party game where everyone switches bodies,

then everyone has to try to figure out who's in whose body. And that's, and things happen after. Yeah, that sounds like fun. It's a really good setup, really good. It's one of those where it is very, it's a little Swiss watchy, like you, as you're watching it, you're like,

oh, oh, oh, it's all very clockwork, but like it's put together so smart that it really feels, it's very satisfying to watch. I saw Nightmare Before Christmas in 3D, which is in theaters right now in 3D, and I just wanted to recommend if you can get there and see this movie in 3D at any point in your life, you should go do it.

It was... astounding, because you're seeing, like, the models as they would have looked to see the actual, like, film being composed. I found it kind of moving in that way, and a little bit transportative, because you feel like, I know what the process of making this movie, or, I mean, I've heard, right, I wasn't there, but like,

I know what, like, a labor of love love and what a painstaking thing this was. And to see that in three dimensions was so, so neat seeing another layer of it. But that was done. It was done in post, it was a post 3D conversion, but it is one of the best ones. It's fantastic. It's so interesting to watch. Honestly, even if you can't see that,

seeing that movie, the most recent restoration looks unbelievable. It is similar in that like- So much detail you don't see at home. Yes, that it's like made by people. I mean, it's, what a movie. I thought of another recommendation for a thing I haven't talked about on the show a million times, if I may.

I have been watching, while playing with my adult Legos, I have been watching a seminar series that Brandon Sanderson, author of the Mistborn novels and, what, The Way of Kings books, some of my favorite sci-fi fantasy, mostly fantasy books. He did this lecture series at, I think, BYU a few years ago. It's like a 12-part series that just kind of goes over his sort of fundamental ideas about how to structure plot and character and settings, and it is genuinely illuminating and really great, and it's free, it is genuinely illuminating and really great and it's free, it's on YouTube. So like if you enjoy fantasy works

or like you are thinking about like, I don't know, writing or improving your writing, this is a free lecture series that you can watch that is, I feel like I am learning a great deal while also kind of like becoming more familiar with this body of work that I really enjoy. Does it have a name? No, if you just search Brandon Sanderson Lecture,

you'll find it. Cool. Awesome. Yeah, it's really cool. I've been playing Hotshots Golf Open T2 on PSP. That game fucking rules. Yeah. Sometimes I'll do a drive and my son will be in the car and we get to like my house and I know that if I park the car and try to get him out of the car he'll wake up.

So I have like a gaming device stashed in the glove box and man that is like the perfect situation for that kind of game where you can play for three minutes, finish a whole save and be done with it. It kills me that that franchise is like kind of dormant at the moment. They do have the developer made this game Easy Come Easy Golf, which is on iOS and Switch. It's good. It's not hot shots good, but it's good. And I would love to see either them or someone else kind of approach that arcade golf franchise in a really, really cool way.

It seems like fertile ground. But in the meantime, I've been playing Open T2, which is one of my favorites. That iOS Switch game, it changed its name like eight times, right? Yeah, it started as Clap Hands Golf. And yeah, it's now called Easy Come Easy Golf. I don't know why, because Clap Hands is the name of the developer.

It's not like they lost the rights to that. Yeah. So there must be some backstory on why they changed the name, but here they are. Huh. OK. Hey, we did another episode. We did it. We did it.

Can't say we didn't do it. Can't say we didn't do it. Plant, what did we talk about today? We talked about it so much. We talked about Silent Hill 2. That's what we talked about. You can get the rest of the games in our newsletter because there's a whole bunch of stuff here. Hot Shots Golf, Golden Bachelorette, Brandon Sands, and... Got it, got it. What is that link to get that newsletter and get a subscription?

That's probably the better way of doing this at this point, isn't it? What is that link to get that newsletter and get a subscription? That's probably the better way of doing this at this point, isn't it? Besties.fan. Look how easy that is. And you can have it come right to your email so you don't even need to worry about it. Just subscribe. That's what I do. We also have the Patreon at patreon.com slash the besties. Just a reminder of the stuff I talked about at the top of the show.

If you're gonna subscribe The stress-free way to do it just do it on a browser if you're already subscribed either through iOS or whatever You don't have to worry about it. The price is not gonna increase for you. So Business over what are we doing next week? Oh Steam next fest is here again, and we are going to talk about all our favorite finds within that and There's some very cool stuff that we're looking forward to sharing with you if you guys at home I'm not talking about you guys on the podcast, but you guys at home listening Play anything that you think is super cool

Please drop it in the comments and let the people know and we'll call out some of them on next week's episode Because I feel like it's so easy these days to miss some dope ass shit. So please share that dope ass shit. Like Alone in the Dark. For example, just as an example of one thing you might've missed. Hey, we're gonna check out all of that

and we'll be back to talk with you about that next week. So be sure to join us again next time for the besties, because should the world's best friends pick the world's best games? Besties!