Nothing makes me happier than a new HALO novel or book hitting the market. I look forward to diving back into the lore, stories, and characters from a series I have grown up with. As a man closing in on 40, I can say that new books in the series excite me more than the prospect of a new game. I love spending time with characters outside the main lens of the games. In a sense, I approach HALO the same way I approach STAR WARS where I look to books to continue my passion for the series.

HALO WAYPOINT CHRONICLES is a different book compared to the usual offerings such as EDGE OF DAWN or EPITAPH. This isn’t a straightforward narrative - it is a collection of stories and snippets taken from HALO WAYPOINT. If you don’t know what HALO WAYPOINT is, it’s the official website for all things HALO and its vast lore. What I didn’t know before getting this book, it that there have been short stories written on WAYPOINT for years that I was unaware of.

Jumping between The Spirit of Fire or the events with Cortana on Zeta Halo, the book covers lots of territory specifically for those who have been playing the games and reading the books for years. This is not what I would consider an ease of access point for casual fans because there were even a couple of instances I had to refresh myself on a topic.

Coming in close to 600 pages, this is a substantial piece of work put together by Easterling and Wakeford. Years of stories edited together in a cohesive way along with new content specifically for this release.

Gallery Books over at Simon and Schuster was kind enough to not only send me a copy to read/review but also put me in touch with the editors/writers of HALO: WAYPOINT CHRONICLES VOL. 1.

Jeff Easterling is the senior franchise story lead at Halo Studios, helping guide the brand’s narrative and storytelling efforts across games, novels, extended media, reference guides, and more. An author on Halo Mythos and the Halo Encyclopedia, Jeff has contributed to the creation and curation of Halo’s vast and ever-expanding lore and universe for over a decade.

Alex Wakeford a franchise writer for Halo Studios. Since 2021, Alex has been directly involved in both writing and editorial efforts throughout Halo’s extended fiction and multimedia storytelling, spanning games, novels, online media, and more.

Enjoy my interview with these two creatives!

Jesse: I would like to start with an icebreaker question for y’all - who is your favorite or a couple of your favorite character(s) from the HALO canon? Outside of the obvious answers for myself, I love the Arbiter (Thel ‘Vadam) and Atriox. They both have deeply developed arcs. I would also add Dr. Halsey as I find her complicated and not just “evil doctor lady.”

Jeff Easterling: First off, thanks for having us; it’s been a few months now since the book released but we had this little game thing also come out in between then and now, so we appreciate your patience!

Your first question is both great one and a terrible one—there’s way too many to choose from! I’m going to go with both a more “mainstream” one as well as something way more niche, and because they’re my favorite part of Halo, I’ll make them both aliens lol.

It’s cliché, but I don’t care: the Arbiter is an all-timer. Halo 2 is still my personal favorite of the series, and Keith David could read a cook book and still topple an empire. And for a lesser-known pick, I’ll say Stolt. Who is Stolt, you ask? I’ll give you three words: Giant. Warrior. Grunt.

If I have to pick a human, it’s currently a tossup between Rion Forge and Thomas Lasky.

Alexander Wakeford: It’s the wonderfully layered and complicated characters who have transitioned across the gradients of heroism and villainy. The Arbiter, Dr. Catherine Halsey, 343 Guilty Spark, and the Didact in particular are in my pantheon of favorites—it comes as no surprise really that three out of those four are in this book!

Jesse: I’ll be honest, even though I have been reading HALO novels since Nylund’s 2001 book THE FALL OF REACH, I have been unaware of the fiction that has been added over the years to Halo Waypoint. I think this ignorance stems from my lack of engagement with the site which this compilation novel makes me want to reassess. My question here is, how did y’all transition from fans to writers and did you ever think you would be in the narrative hotseat for one of the largest video games properties?

JE: A lot to unpack there! First off, yes, you should definitely reassess your engagement with all the cool content on Halo Waypoint. From a lore standpoint you have core fiction elements like the Waypoint Chronicles, as well as more analysis and recap features like our regular Canon Fodder blog. But it’s also rich with amazing things that our stalwart Community Team collects and curates, from news and events to mind-boggling epic fan creations. This is obviously a completely objective and unbiased opinion.

And honestly, it’s a bit of a good segue into the latter part of your question; I spent thirteen years being a massive fan of Halo, specifically of its lore and universe, and it’s wild now to think that I’ve now spent almost more time on this side of the proverbial fence. My coming on to the franchise was a combination not just of the passion and knowledge of the franchise itself of course, but also of the craft of storytelling, which I had been honing for two decades before that in other capacities.

And even after twelve years, it’s exciting and humbling every single day to get to contribute to any sort of way to something that means so much to so many. We’re always championing the perspective of the lore-loving fan and always trying to find ways to expand the universe in a satisfying way.

AW: I was seven years old when the original game released. There are a lot of things you are meant to “grow out of” as you get older, and there are many things that have been left behind, but throughout my life Halo has remained a constant. Playing every game (multiple times), reading every book (multiple times), keeping up with the series as a fan never left me.

It just has this compelling mix of existing excellence and future potential. To be a small part of that among so many amazingly talented and driven creatives is genuinely incredible.

Jesse: Like I stated, these stories were all new to me which was exciting because it was like unearthing new lore. I assume there will be many readers similar to me who will get to experience these stories for the first time. In a way, I felt like I was reading the HALO version of FIRE & BLOOD in which I was given added lore to fill in the canon a bit more. When you wrote many of these stories for Waypoint, did you ever think that they would make their way into a published volume for the trade retail market? My second part of the question is, when you did begin to pull this altogether, were y’all taken aback by how much content you had produced over the years?

AW: To the first part of your question, we certainly hoped so! We began this journey in November 2022 with Vertical Umbrage, a short story that was released to celebrate the tenth anniversary of Halo 4 and followed a team of Spartans who appear both in that game and in Halo Infinite’s audio logs.

A few months later we told a Noble Team story which focused on Rosenda and Thom, two characters that were cut from Halo: Reach but have existed in our canon as former members of the squad—that story actually created the free Noble Intentions pass in Halo Infinite where players could acquire the armor of those Spartans. And we just kept going from there.

As we released more of these stories, we were getting data back that showed very clearly that these were being positively received by the community so we just kept going. I don’t recall exactly when we decided that these would be compiled into a print anthology but it was always the hope that we’d be able to do enough to justify that. To your second question, as that collection really came together, we were indeed very much taken aback that it amounted to what it did!

JE: Yeah, we knew it was a solid amount, but when we actually started adding it all up it was one of those “oh…” moments. The real reality set in when our executive editor at Simon & Schuster/Gallery Books, Ed Schlesinger said to us, “Guys, do you realize you’re at around six hundred pages?”

We weren’t quite sure if we should celebrate or apologize. I’m pretty sure in the end we did both. And yeah, while the print anthology was certainly predicated on having enough material to work with collectively, it was more so the passion and response showed by the Halo community coupled with the excitement and interest shown by our publishing partners. In the end it all worked out to form something pretty cool, and we’re excited to build on that momentum in the future.

Jesse: I think that HALO works well in a flash fiction or short fiction format. One of my favorite books is HALO FRACTURES as it truly was an example at the time how rich the lore had become in 15 years. WAYPOINT CHRONICLES tapped into that same part of my brain where I was jumping around different years but somehow keeping track because of how long I have been in this “world” and its characters. Do y’all also enjoy the short nature of fiction writing because you can dive in and out?

JE: I know that when I was a fan, some of the most interesting threads were found tucked in the descriptive text of some armor, or sprinkled throughout an art book or game manual. It was those little glimpses of the wider universe that provided the real seasoning to the game’s main course story.

It made you feel like the Halo universe was lived in, like its history mattered to the characters and factions that you saw pop off the screen and page. One of my favorite things about the Volume One collection of Waypoint Chronicles is not just collecting the short stories themselves, but the other ancillary drops of intel and micro lore that fill in those even smaller spaces in between.

AW: Halo is such a vast universe, you really can dip in and out of just about any part of it and tell a cool, unique, and meaningful story. What does a day in the life of the UNSC Spirit of Fire crew look like while they’re trapped on the Ark outside the galaxy? What do things look like when viewed through the eyes of a Promethean Knight as the human “soul” trapped within this war machine is gaining awareness of what it has become? What kind of things are humans aspiring toward now that they know they’re part of a larger galaxy and are not just fighting aliens but also allied with them?

There are an endless number of fascinating questions that the games don’t necessarily have the space to really delve into, or wouldn’t necessarily fill a whole book, but they’re worthy subjects to explore that—we hope—enrich the grand tapestry of the Halo universe.

JE: Yeah, a lot of times it’s those dangling threads that really make you wonder, like an unresolved note that becomes an obsession to seek out. It’s the “wait, what did that say?” and “does that mean what I think it means?”

AW: Exactly. For example, there’s a single throwaway line in Halo 4’s Spartan Ops mode about “Covenant asylum seekers” living on Earth in Rio de Janeiro. That’s never actually been explored despite being so rich in its implications. In this book, we finally got to go there in Rendezvous with Ramen and see what it’s all about. It’s told through the lens of an Anthony Bourdain-inspired food critic trying out alien cuisines while learning about what life looks like for the Sangheili who were stranded on our homeworld at the end of the Covenant War and had to make a life for themselves. It’s been wonderful to see such a positive reaction to that story in particular because it’s one of those many things fans have always wanted to learn more about.

Jesse: I would like to ask more of the logistical side of all this. The book is organized and segmented out with brief context drops before each vignette. I assume this wasn’t just organized by when you published on Waypoint (like chronologically by date) so I was curious how you edited this large amount of content into its cohesive structure.

JE: Yeah the organization is definitely very deliberate. While the stories themselves over the past few years have focused on a variety of different content releases and franchise milestones, we really wanted to weave a common thread of connectivity through the whole collection as much as we could. That thread was each story’s connection to the larger themes and events explored in Halo Infinite.

As mentioned a bit earlier, there were lots of small bits of fiction we had released to complement the game’s narrative beats—from clandestine intel on events and findings to micro-stories about characters and special weapons. These elements are gathered from a variety of sources, from in-game menus to regular blog features, something Alex is definitely intimately familiar with!

AW: Absolutely. We explored a lot of different ways to structure this book and that certainly was a creative challenge. The overall skeleton is in release order for the Waypoint Chronicles, but interspersed within the larger stories are the much shorter Intel drops and Armory Infinitum pieces, selected specifically to match the themes and context of those stories.

For example, all the narrative elements pertaining to the Battle for the Academy are grouped together so you experience that chunk of the story as a singular whole.

Part of it is also a pacing thing. When you read an anthology it can be daunting to go from one lengthy story to another, so having a bit of a break helps to add a bit of variety to that rhythm.

Jesse: My favorite story in the bunch is “Battle for the Blood Moon.” I wanted to ask if there were any stories you would consider your favorites for either its content or if any mean something more to you.

JE: First off, I love that you love Battle for the Blood Moon, as it’s actually a really great example of how so many things can work together to tell a story from myriad angles. When the multiplayer map “Prism” was in development, we worked hand in hand with the design and art teams as the map was taking shape. When we eventually landed on the theme of basing the setting around a site mining the crystals used in Needler weapons, we started crafting a narrative that we wanted to come through really clearly in the skybox of that map: the civil war in the skies of Suban, one of the moons of the Sangheili homeworld. It was a way that even without any sort of “cutscene” or “mission,” you could just look around at the clues around you and get a feel for what was happening.

But of course, that wasn’t enough for us!

AW: It never is…

JE: Nope. Anyway, we also of course, wanted to craft a deeper narrative to pair with the map—a story that when people read it, they could look around at the play space and imagine it taking place. It’s also a story that really exemplifies how a lot of our story development worked with the Chronicles. With some stories, like Battle for the Blood Moon, we’re working on an outline and literally dividing the story up between us, typically by perspective. So for example with that story, Alex spearheaded the ship-to-ship communications, and I handled the character interactions planetside (moonside?)

With other stories, it might be one or the other of us really driving the main creative and then the other is providing edits, additions, and a creative counterpart to raise questions and hone the final product. On those, if I have to pick a couple of favorites…

Alex came up with the premise for Axios and I just love it. Like I mentioned before, Lasky is a character I adore and I’m also always a sucker for strong sibling bonds. Plus, listening to the marvelous Darren O’Hare (Captain Lasky’s game voice talent) read the audiobook version is the perfect finish.

AW: Lasky has the perpetual look of a sad puppy, one who is silently tortured by his sense of duty and the weight of living up to the image he has of an older brother who died at the age of eighteen. There’s so, so much to mine from such rich character material there!

JE: I also have a particular soft spot for Bella Corsa, which is a bit of a love letter to endurance racing, a sport I’m incredibly passionate about. And it’s narrated by Lottie Van-Praag, a dear friend and colleague who has been the “voice” of Halo esports for many years.

AW: I’ll start with my favorite story that Jeff did, which is Aileron. We went through a few different versions of what that story could be over a couple of years and just never found a place for it, so when we decided to do additional stories exclusive to the book that was where this one really clicked. Jeff had volunteered to take this one and I remember him calling me when he finished the draft, reading it aloud together (a regular fixture of our creative process), and I just loved its mix of high-stakes dogfighting action, pilot banter, the epic backdrop of a shattered moon, and a rather unique utilization of humanity’s status as Reclaimers of Forerunner technology.

For my own, Ghosts of the Gyre is very much the one I look back on with a lot of pride and love. It’s a bit of a love letter to the late Greg Bear’s incredible Forerunner Saga, dealing with the mysteries and cosmic horrors of Zeta Halo pertaining to humanity’s ancient, long forgotten past. It also definitely has shades of Jeff VanderMeer’s Annihilation, and the way I like to engage with this aspect of the Halo universe is greatly inspired by David Lynch—something that is evidenced perhaps most strongly in Tulpamancy.

Jesse: With the remake of HALO released last month (good lord it’s been 25 years), do you see this as an opportunity to not only promote this existing lore but previous novels as well to those who, believe it or not, will be playing HALO for the first time? Maybe on their PlayStation?

JE: Just hearing you say “twenty-five years” made me age faster.

AW: That was happening anyway.

JE: See what I have to put up with? Creative collaboration… both blessing and curse!

AW: It’s also a blessing and curse (but mostly a blessing) that there’s just so much fiction in Halo. That can be daunting for a newcomer to approach, so whenever we’re asked what novel they should start with we typically default to The Fall of Reach because that really is just the strongest foundation for understanding the “ground floor” of Halo.

JE: It’s of course—like you mentioned—also perfect to celebrate right now because it’s not just the silver anniversary of the original game, but also for that first novel, which really laid so much foundational fiction for the universe that would impact it for the decades to come.

AW: To that point, we actually have that book—along with The Flood (the novel adaptation of Halo: CE), and First Strike (which bridges into Halo 2)—coming in a singular volume later this year in the form of Halo: The Master Chief Omnibus.

Those books, really, are such a fantastic gateway into the universe because that’s what they were for us over two decades ago in concert with Halo: CE. I would posit that that’s your most ideal route in, but as with any franchise it really could be any fiction you’re exposed to that ends up being the thing you didn’t know would hook you in—Waypoint Chroniclesincluded.

JE: Agreed, and the Chronicles themselves cover so many elements of the Halo universe that we hope that even newcomers will find stories that interest them and encourage them to dive deeper.

Jesse: With Jeremy Patenaude stepping down in 2023, y’all have taken on more duties and responsibilities with the IP. I was wondering if you could comment on the direction and the future of the series in its many forms (games and books). I know this will elicit a general response as you can’t say too much but any and all comments are welcome!

JE: So, while Jeremy stepped away from the studio itself a few years ago, he remains a close friend and creative contributor—in fact his first full length Halo novel released just last year (Halo: Empty Throne)! Honestly, his impact on the franchise will continue to be felt for many years to come, which I love. And we of course continue to work alongside countless creative colleagues who are ridiculously talented across so many disciplines—it’s just as exciting and humbling to come to work every day as it’s ever been.

As far as “future” direction, we’re indeed going to give you the non-answer you completely (and accurately) expect! However, we will say that we’re both very excited about it. You know, “Just getting started,” and all.

If you want to purchase the book, you can do so over at BOOKSHOP or Amazon.

Hello all!

This week Mitch and I discuss the absolutely brilliant, CINEMA (as the kids say), video game DEVIL MAY CRY 5. While it might be…almost 7 years old now, it was a new experience for Mitch and Me. And boy howdy am I glad we finally got around to it.

I was also playing the port of the Switch 2 edition and the performance is killer on that thing. Capcom broke into the Switch 2 architecture and has been delivering banger after banger port on the handheld. Replaying levels in handheld mode while traveling is a godsend. I highly recommend the S2 version if you need DMC on the go.

DMC5 was not without its controversy (controversy? on the internet?) with the inclusion of a new character named “V.” Unlike Nero and Dante, V’s combat style resembles that of a magic user where you control a panther, a hawk, and a golem to do your bidding. This requires the player to be at a distance from the action and learn an entirely different play style. Both Mitch and myself enjoyed V’s inclusion as it broke up the game because while Nero and Dante also play differently, they are similar.

DMC5 does its best to tie all the games together in a way that’s digestible and even includes a series summery video for newcomers. Funnily enough, they completely gloss over DMC2 but, I mean, obviously. The story, as wacky as it is, is followable and builds to a pretty bad ass moment that leaves the series at a point of optimism for its future.

Enjoy our musings on the game, the series, and everything else on our minds.

Our next podcast will be about HALO: CAMPAIGN EVOLVED

Hello all!

This week, Mitch (Dale Cooper) and I discuss THE EVIL WITHIN 2. This is fresh off our discussion of THE EVIL WITHIN which is a messy, flawed game but one I love regardless. THE EVIL WITHIN 2 is a game I like but I do feel like it lost sight of what made the debut so great.

Mitch and I start the show discussing TWIN PEAKS because I have been rewatching it with my girlfriend lately and Mitch decided to watch for the first time. We do not spoil anything!

Mitch also laments the end of DESTINY 2 and we discuss drama surrounding that. RIP to all Bungie employees laid off (like 400 of them jfc).

But back to the topic at hand…

THE EVIL WITHIN 2 finds returning main character Sebastian 3 years after the events of the first game as a drunken, depressed mess. After losing his daughter in a house fire and no longer being on the force, he is aimless. That is until Kidman shows up again and offers him a chance to JACK BACK INTO THE BIG BRAIN and maybe rescue his daughter?? The story follows a couple of twists and turns with antagonists in the form of a serial killer photographer, a religious fanatic and the corporation running STEM. But…it doesn’t quite have the narrative pull that the first game has. While messy and unpolished, there was something to the story of an abused child projecting this horror world. Now? It’s just like a military operation.

I don’t want to be all down on THE EVIL WITHIN 2 - I think the added polish to the gameplay allows the player to enjoy the moment to moment gameplay more. I was running it off an Xbox Series X and there is a boost to framerate and it was more enjoyable to play than when I first tackled it on the PS4 around release.

Speaking of release! The 2nd game was not directed by legend Shinji Mikami. He decided to take on a producer role which might be the reason why the game feels a little more…straightforward? But THE EVIL WITHIN 2 is far from a bad sequel or a bad game, it’s enjoyable but it just loses a little personality.

Let me know what you think of these two games and we will be back soon.

Hello all,

We are diving back into THE EVIL WITHIN-verse since both Mitch and myself played it…probably around launch? That would be about 12 years ago now….

After Shinji Mikami worked on VANQUISH with his boys over at Platinum Games, he broke away to start his own studio: Tango Gameworks. TG would go on to develop wonderful games and finally fall victim to Microsoft’s "we’ll buy you but then close you” business practice. But we don’t have to talk about that now.

Tango Gameworks ran out of money quickly after they first got started and reached a deal with ZeniMax (the Bethesda parent company). With an injection of cash flow, Mikami and team got to work on THE EVIL WITHIN which may be seen as Mikami’s reluctant journey back into the survival-horror genre. If you don’t know, Mikami was the director for RESIDENT EVIL and RESIDENT EVIL 4 and seen as the grandfather of popularizing that style of game. Whether he wanted to or not, Shinji returned with THE EVIL WITHIN in 2014 and it was met with mixed reviews.

Many praised the game for its ambition, mood and action sequences but critics/gamers became hung up on the performance and at times, frustrating game design. Critics were also mixed on the aspect ratio the game is in. The letterbox format was never a problem for me but I remember the online chatter at the time taking issue with it.

Returning to THE EVIL WITHIN 12 years later I found I still enjoyed it but was less patient with its clunkiness and poor visual fidelity. It’s an ugly game that reminds me of those Nintendo Switch ports where everything is blurry (I played this time on my Xbox Series X - not sure how PC version looks). But outside of that and a couple of “whoops you died unexpectedly” set backs, I actually found myself engrossed in the story more so this time around. Maybe because I knew the game goes off the rails that those expectations allowed me to grasp what was going on.

THE EVIL WITHIN is a clunky boy but one I still have fondness for. I praise Mikami’s ambition here to make a game both familiar and wildly imaginative. Mitch and I had such a great time again that we will be going back to play THE EVIL WITHIN 2 which Mikami was not the director of and it was also a bit of a departure from the first game in terms of its structure. I remember liking it but let’s see if it has aged well.

Another fun fact - the asylum in THE EVIL WITHIN was based of the Winchester Mystery House. If you don’t know anything about that place, GOOGLE IT but here is a picture.

Until next time, enjoy video games while you can still afford them!

Fresh off the release of BAYONETTA, Platinum Games released another SEGA published 3rd person stylistic action game called VANQUISH. While it doesn’t feat. a sexy witch who turns her clothes into monsters to help you dominate your enemies, it does have Sam who can blast around with propulsion devices attached to his experimental suit.

This would be the first and last game internet fav Shinji Mikami would direct for Platinum Games. If you don’t know Shinji, he is responsible for RESIDENT EVIL and RESIDENT EVIL 4 (pretty good portfolio!). But I love him most for DINO CRISIS even if CAPCOM took that franchise in the backyard and shot it.

VANQUISH is about Sam Gideon who works for DARPA and has been given an experimental suit which can boost around, punch harder, and facilitate weaponry. He is asked to test this suit out after Russian evil-man-theater kid wants to nuke New York City. From there, you fight Russian robots for about 4 hours until you find out this was all a big scheme from OUR OWN GOVERNMENT. Imagine our government being held accountable? Video games really do provide the fantasy.

Mikami wanted this game to be open-world but due to crunch and resources, the games was scaled back. He was also smart enough to build the game off the PS3 architecture so that it would run well on PS3 and Xbox 360. If you were not aware, the PS3 was difficult to develop on and even hard to port over Xbox 360 titles so he started with the problem child.

Much of the game’s design was borrowed from the 70s-80s anime CASSHERN.

Mitch and I also discuss MARATHON and RESIDENT EVIL: REQUIEM amongst other things.

I hope you enjoy!

Hello all!

Welcome to another episode of THE DAMAGE PER PODCAST! This week, Mitch and I tackle one of my favorite series - BAYONETTA!

To pull off a character like Bayonetta without it being regressive is a FINE LINE. I mean, homegirl walks around in a skintight outfit in stilettos that ALSO have guns attached to them while only shedding her clothes to punish demons? Incredible. Empowering, sexy, and badass? What a combo. While it’s obvious BAYONETTA has a male following, she has gone on to inspire cosplayers for years. All hail Bayonetta!

BAYONETTA was one of the first games released by the newly formed studio PLATINUM GAMES. Consisting of CAPCOM royalty including Shinji Makami (RESIDENT EVIL) and Hideki Kamiya (DEVIL MAY CRY), PLATINUM GAMES set out to make creative, original titles in a time where that didn’t seem relegated to just the indie market.

Along with MADWORLD for the Wii, they also shipped BAYONETTA in 2009 on Xbox 360, PS3 and PC with the help of publisher SEGA. The game was met with a universal “this is dope” but like every game we seem to talk about, it didn’t make its financial goal (sold over a cool million initially - it has since sold LOTS more but that didn’t help at the time). Luckily BAYONETTA (the IP) would go on to be acquired by Nintendo and we would get 2 more (and I think way better) direct sequels. I’m still not sure Nintendo was the best purchaser of the brand in terms of an audience but hey, they are great followup games.

Hideki Kamiya who was the creative mind behind BAYONETTA clearly wanted to make a new versions of DEVIL MAY CRY but with what he considers his “ideal woman.” That’s a troubling quote to read as it says more about Kamiya’s psychology than it does about anything else but hey, she IS an icon now. Shout out to Mari Shimazaki for the art design and model creation. She also went on to work for POKEMON so figure that out.

Replaying BAYONETTA after both 2 and 3 have graced us is less stellar than the first time around but there is personality bursting from the seams (literally). I mean licking your middle finger and sticking into the ignition of a motorcycle to get it turn on is by far the best way to sum up this game.

Also can we talk about the soundtrack???

Anyway, enjoy the show! Mitch and I will be tackling VANQUISH next!

Not too long ago I had the pleasure of reviewing HALO: EPITAPH. It was a heady and philosophical HALO novel from the perspective of The Didact in his wanderings between this world and the next. Kelly Gay captured a character beloved for their complex nature and deep lore perfectly and made it a send off to Greg Bear. Bear was responsible for the majority of the Forerunner-lore and EPITAPH was both a goodbye to Bear and the character of The Didact. I honestly can’t recommend it enough if you are familiar with the character.

I was again reached out to by Gallery Books, a publisher at Simon and Schuster, to read HALO: EDGE OF DAWN - the latest book from Kelly Gay in relation to HALO. Not only would I be able to read the book early but I could interview Gay again about the book that follows up her 2022 book, HALO: THE RUBICON PROTOCOL. While EPITAPH was a singular book (even if a capstone to years of Forerunner lore), EDGE OF DAWN not only revisits characters from THE RUBICON PROTOCOL, it directly follows up on the ending of 2021’s HALO INFINITE. Many questions were left at the end of INFINITE about The Harbinger and the state of The Banished after the death of their leader on Zeta Halo. As someone who is invested in the HALO-lore, I was sad that there wasn’t any real continuation of the events on Zeta Halo.

Enter EDGE OF DAWN which also has Gay at the mental-helm of Master Chief for the first time. This IS a Master Chief story and she comfortably gets into his voice. I’ve been used mostly to Troy Denning’s work with MC so it was refreshing to get the perspective of a fresh voice whose stories previously had John 117 in the peripheral.

We find Master Chief, The Weapon (who becomes newly named “Joyuse”) and everyone’s favorite and anxious pilot, Fernando reeling from the battle with The Harbinger. While the credits closed on the game, they are all still stuck on Zeta Halo with The Banished who are in the process of grieving the loss of their leader, Escharum. But guess who is still alive after their beatdown from Master Chief? That’s right - Blademaster Jega ‘Rdomnai. Jega, outside of Atriox, was easily my favorite villain in the 343 Industries era of HALO games. Gay fills in the background on Jega and reflects on his partially robotic transformation which is just BADASS.

Another great addition for fans of Kelly Gay and the HALO books are the characters who return from THE RUBICON PROTOCOL and you get to see them utterly changed from their time on Zeta Halo. These are broken people now and one character had to endure capture with The Harbinger and they are trying to break from their own distorted reality.

If you wanted more from HALO INFINITE’s story and closure on story beats then I highly recommend you check out HALO: EDGE OF DAWN. Also, if you didn’t read THE RUBICON PROTOCOL, I suggest you get to that too as they tie into each other wonderfully. But there’s no reason you can’t just jump into this one either.

Here is my conversation with Kelly:

1. EDGE OF DAWN circles back to THE RUBICON PROTOCOL, a book you wrote in 2022 which gave background on Zeta Halo and the Spartans who arrived before Master Chief. How was it to settle back into Zeta Halo and characters such as Spartan Horvath?

Kelly: It was great to get back to Zeta Halo! It’s one of my favorite settings, and it was nice to be able to add more to the environment, create new characters, and bring in some familiar faces, Horvath in particular.

2. Banished Blademaster Jega ‘Rdomnai is a magnetic villain and rivals that of someone like Atriox. As a fan of his inclusion in HALO INFINITE, I was glad to see you give him much needed screen time. How did you approach this imposing character?

Kelly: I wanted to stick with the same feel he was given in Infinite, sinister, dark, very villain-y, but then to peel back the layers, reveal some of his past, why he is the way he is, and what makes him tick. He’s an outlier, doesn’t conform, and at times he is driven by emotions like rage, revenge, and trauma, so these give him an element of unpredictability, which makes him very appealing to write.

3. EDGE OF DAWN is also the first time you tackled writing Master Chief as a character (correct me if I’m wrong). I find even the idea of trying to write Master Chief incredibly daunting as his character is a mix of player expectation and many, many novels of background lore. How did you get inside that character and did you consult with Troy Denning or any of his work?

Kelly: I didn’t find it hard to get into the Master Chief’s head as I had a wealth of information to draw from. The books, games, cut scenes, and other media really give a ton of insight into his character. And the set-up that was done in Infinite with Chief, Cortana, and Joy’s character was a very nice launching point that allowed me to dive deeper into ideas already laid out. While I didn’t personally consult with any authors, I did pour over all the books, game dialogues, and media again, making notes, drawing from aspects of the Chief that I felt were going to play a role in EDGE OF DAWN or elements that I could exploit more in terms of his state of mind then and now.

4. Another 2 characters I was happy to see get added “screentime,” were Fernando Esparza and Weapon (or now Joy). They mirror Master Chief with their grounded struggles such as Esparza and his family and Joy with her comparison to Cortana. Master Chief can be action prone and goal oriented and not one to wallow in his “purpose.” Esparza, in particular, gives an added element of risk and danger as he cannot shrug off blaster fire from The Banished. I guess my comment or sorta-question is wondering if Esparza and later on another character (I won’t spoil) kept the story from going into “guns blazing” every page-territory.

Kelly: Yes, definitely, and that’s kind of the point with this book as it didn’t need to solely be an all guns blazing addition. It’s not always possible to explore deeper story elements in a game, there just isn’t time, so EDGE OF DAWN is really the perfect vehicle for Chief, Joy, and Esparza to further establish their relationship and grow their trust in each other. There is a lot happening as they go from place to place on Zeta Halo, dealing the Banished a heavy blow, launching a rescue mission, fighting, being hunted, fighting some more, learning about the past, and so on, but there is a good balance between those things where the characters can have these deeper, personal moments, and moments where they can lean on each other and build a stronger bond.

5. Your last book, HALO EPITAPH, was a heady and philosophical walk with The Didact as he, at the end of his “life.” wrestles with all he has done. I love that book but I also love swinging back into dropping bombs on The Banished. I think folks not familiar with the books don’t realize that video game related novels can be many things and not just “pew pew pew.” Does this give you freedom as a writer to approach the stories with the lens you feel would be appropriate?

Kelly: Yes, absolutely. Because real life isn’t all action, all the time, even in war time settings and mission-oriented scenarios. I like to approach the writing and the characters with as much realism as possible. There is down time, there are moments of reflection, and these moments are super important because they can really build relatability and growth. It’s awesome that the Halo universe is expanded to allow for novels and other media to exist. As a fan, I love to delve into the kind of side quests and deeper storytelling that books and other media provide.

8. Are there any games you’re playing or books you are reading at the moment that you are enjoying?

Kelly: I am currently in a deep obsession with WHERE WINDS MEET. It’s a ginormous open world, solo and online, RPG set in an ancient Chinese wuxia/Xiania style environment. I’ve been a big fan of the same style TV c-dramas for a while now and playing the game is like being plopped down into one of these dramas and you can just run around and do All Kinds of Stuff—it’s so cool.

7. What is next for you? HALO or otherwise!

Kelly: Nothing! :D I’m enjoying the holidays and the time off. I’m sure something will loom on the horizon, though…

You can get HALO: EDGE OF DAWN at your local bookstore or wherever books are sold from Gallery Books. You can also check out Kelly Gay’s website HERE.

Hello all,

Back at it with another podcast this month about a game that blew my mind in 2012 and all these years later, it still blows my mind.

There is nothing quite like ASURA’S WRATH - it’s a game, an anime, and all around rage simulator. You watch it more than you play it and clocking in at about 6 hours, it strikes prefect balance. The game also sections itself out into episodes with breaks and catch-up vignettes. It’s refreshing to this day with great pacing and characters who you are invested in even with all the silly over-the-top anime tropes.

ASURA’S WRATH was a Gamefly rental for me back in 2012 and I went in blind. Artistically, it looked like a game I would vibe with. But little did I know I would take part in absolute cinema - a game where a fight has a sword go through a moon and for the titular character Asura has to stop the sword with his HANDS. Outrageous.

But as beloved as the game was by folks who did play it, it didn’t sell well. A tale as old as time, I know. Capcom, who published it, didn’t see the need to expand on this formula and Cyberconnect 2, the developers, went back to making games for NARUTO and DRAGONBALL.

There are a couple of smoking guns here. It was hard to sell a $60 game that was over in 6 hours and didn’t require that much playtime from the player. It was also an original IP and public awareness on WHAT this game entailed felt muddy. Was it a brawler? sorta. Was it an area fighter? sorta. Was it an interactive anime? sorta. It failed to find a wide market instead it rocket-punched its way to niche.

The other issue was the DLC. The REAL ENDNG could be unlocked if you payed more money for the other episodes. Yay! That’s what consumers want to hear. I’ve heard there was development issues getting the game done in time but with Capcom at the wheel in 2012 one can assume they were interfering.

Many reviewers at the time agreed that this might’ve flourished as a digital purchase where you could buy chapters at a clip. It would’ve been a better format. And then later follow up with a physical release of EVERYTHING included.

As such, ASURA’S WRATH is now relegated to popping up on HIDDEN GEM lists and WHY DIDN’T ANYONE TELL ME ABOUT…videos. As long as it keeps finding an audience, I can’t be mad but I wish my boy Asura wasn’t done so dirty.

I watched this fun video on YouTube which I’ll post below and in the comment section, there was a great summation of the game that I found so sidesplitting hilarious, I’ll share with you.

Let me get this straight. Asura got framed for murdering the emperor, his wife got murdered and his daughter got kidnapped, then he got sent to hell for 12,000 years just because he wasn’t ok with the deities using his only child, and then he climbed back out so casually out of hell, punched a planet-sized person’s finger so hard he exploded, got killed again for another 500 years, crushed an old guy in his escape shuttle, spent time with baddies in a hot spring and fought his master on the moon, whose katana can go through the planet, got so angry over a little girl’s death he pulled his devil trigger so hard that he destroyed a bunch of spaceships and slashed the queer Shakespeare in half, while his voice actor screamed so hard that he started coughing blood(thank you for your sacrifice,) teamed up with the intentionally blind guy to break into the planet sized man that is actually a machine and proceed to flip Zeus with nunchucks like Two-face’s coin and kills him with a DBZ blast, killed the lava earth kraken who used the earth as his crab shell, and killed the devil lookin dude in control who copied Asura’s giant arms, then payed DLC to watch a spider kill the simp woman and possessed his daughter to become god, who I originally thought was a woman, then Kratos but more powerful became the size of the planet, flies to the center of the universe as his wife and victims cheer him on, and “god” wipes out reality and fights Asura in the void and turns into a freak, then Asura got his daughter back and he punched the fraud god so hard he fades out of existence, and somehow all of this inspires Mortal Kombat before Mortal Kombat. Why would he do all of this? They made his daughter cry.

This is from user hottopichotsauce who we will give all the credit to.

We are taking a break this month for the holidays and will return at the end of January to talk about an absolute banger from Platinum Games. Stay Tuned!

Hello all!

Welcome to another edition of DAMAGE PER PODCAST! This month we are making it just under the wire for a SPOOOKY episode where we tackle Supermassive’s 2022 game, THE QUARRY. Supermassive made a name for themselves in 2015 when they partnered with Sony to create UNTIL DAWN which blew up in popularity as a streamer game and a party-game.

After several releases with their Dark Pictures Anthology, they circled back with a big investor (2K) to make THE QUARRY - a werewolf terrorizing a summer camp adventure with shockingly sympathetic characters (except for 1, maybe) and choices that MATTER.

As someone who never played any of their titles (but always wanted to!), I feel bad that I never checked out their previous work. Shout out to Mitch for choosing this one for October! I am looking forward to their next release (2026 supposedly!).

Enjoy the episode as we talk about THE QUARRY but also Gamepass, Nintendo, and Atlanta!

Thank you so much for listening :)

Hello all,

Quick note: Sorry for swapping Ninja Theory and Team Ninja several times in the podcast. Ninja Theory are the developers!

This month, Mitch and I went back in time to 2007 when video games were embracing GRAPHICS and SCALE. Unfortunately for the PS3, it was a struggle for most of the software in the early days. And HEAVENLY SWORD is no exception!

Ninja Theory was tasked with an ambitious project to create a cinematic 3rd person action game in the vein of GOD OF WAR. To their credit, Tameem and company pulled it off..mostly. When the game came out about a half a year after the release of the PS3 console, it showed off the capability of Sony’s ability to throw dozens of enemies on screen at once and also the integration of motion capture. The problem were and still are the awful frame rates and screen tearing. The inclusion of motion controls also was a silly choice but hey, you can turn those off!

But AT THE TIME, HEAVENLY SWORD was remarkable and I loved it because it did show what the PS3 COULD do. Plus, the game is badass! All these years later, I still enjoy the hell out of it even if performance can ruin momentum.

The big takeaway for me all these years later is the motion capture technology. If you remember Mitch and I revisiting ENSLAVED: ODYSSEY TO THE WEST, Serkis was an important part of that game’s charm and quality. With HEAVENLY SWORD, this is Ninja Theory’s first collab with WETA and their motion capture team. Serkis steals the show as Bohan but all the villains cheese it up so much that you can’t wait to see them on screen again.

Here is some footage of those motion capture sessions:

HEAVENLY SWORD moved about 1.5 million units and while that’s pretty good in 2007 for a video game, it failed to make back its budget. A sequel was planned but after a couple of false-starts, never got off the ground. There is a great Reddit post when early concept art for the sequel and you can look at that HERE.

Enjoy the show and share your HEAVENLY SWORD memories!

Getting over a bug but not sick enough to spend money on games.

Come hang with me while I yap about my haul.

Have a great weekend!

Thinking of trying this new form of GUYS GUESS WHAT I’M INTO RN. Video is a format I am drawn to but can never quite figure out so let’s see what happens here.

In this post I’ll chat the BRUTE FOCE: BETRAYALS novel by Dean Weasly Smith. An enjoyable action romp for the first 100 pages but I hope for more of a plot to show up.

I started randomly playing CRYSIS 2 which is beautiful for a Xbox 360 game. I missed out on CRYSIS 2 and 3 so I plan on checking them out whilst kicking cars across Manhattan.

Lastly, wooooooooo the HEAVENLY SWORD film - I still don’t know who thought it was a good idea. I mean, it looks OK and it’s not GARBAGE by any means but its existence so many years after the PS3 game’s launch is perplexing.

Anyway, let me know what you think of this format!

Hello all!

We are here this episode to talk about our buddy Max again. As we finish up our Remedy-developed run of games, we end on a high note (though Remedy never truly misses except that one military shooter that we are going to ignore).

Mitch and I returned to MAX PAYNE 2 to find an even more enjoyable experience some 23 years later since we both last played it. Reflecting on what makes MAX PAYNE stand the test of time is that it built on what made MAX PAYNE great and didn’t get lost in the sauce of pressures of a follow up.

MAX PAYNE 2 shows the jump in writing and level design (even if the levels repeat locations several times) that would make its way over to ALAN WAKE which would be their next venture. And honestly, I’m amazed that they were able to pull this game off in a 2 year development window.

And the game just oozes charm to this day. Lots of the ambient dialogue is a joy to overhear and encourages the player to sit still and listen. One such example is in the police office. Listen in this video:

The Havok physics engine also made for some HAHAHA HOLY SHIT THAT’S FUNNY moments when bodies cartwheel around after getting hit with a grenade. Stuff like this has been filtered out of game development for various boring reasons and I just miss it!

I also recently posted about the manual art of MAX PAYNE 2 and how wonderful it is - you can read about that HERE.

And make sure to listen to our other podcasts on MAX!

MAX PAYNE 1 and MAX PAYNE 3

And please enjoy more Sam Lake!

Next month we are tackling a Ninja Theory game we have been meaning to revisit, HEAVENLY SWORD. We are turning those fuck-awful Sixaxis controls off, though. We are not ANIMALS.

Thanks for listing and we hope you enjoy the show!

We all know that physical game collecting is a sad, depressed version of its younger self these days. Lacking manuals, heft and overall personality, we are left with chasing our nostalgia more than anything. Hell, sometimes the games are not even in the case! Sometimes you get a code, a key card or 40mbs of data on a disc. Every possibility except the entire game on the disc/cartridge!

These are less than exciting times for us collectors but we still do it and are surpirsed with bells and whistles every so often.

Mitch and I are preparing for our podcast on MAX PAYNE 2 this week and so I was spending time with the OG Xbox case and reading through it. I do this with older games on my shelf to relive the moments of a man 20 years removed from when they originally held the game.

I thought it would be fun to scan in the art from the box and the manual as a way to highlight how beautiful it all once was. I can hear Linkin Park playing on my radio now…

Anyway, enjoy!

PS - I wish you could smell the manual!

In 2001, I was 13 years old and Max Payne’s grimace in marketing material for the game MAX PAYNE looked badass and the Xbox? It looked even more badass. MARIO KART? Hell no I wanted man in leather coat dive into rooms and shoot people game.

It would take about a year for me to secure an Xbox on my birthday and for a while, I had SEGA GT, JET SET RADIO FUTURE and HALO. I already had a job working retail in a local pharmacy so I was getting my own money and eager to spend it on games for my shiny new system. All it took was for me to go to GameStop and for a disaffected employee to sell me an M rated game way before I was able to do so. Thank you, bad employee!

I was already familiar with the mechanics of the game because I had played the demo on one of those Xbox Magazine Demo Discs. What good times. Did you know those magazines were only like $8?? And you got all that content?? Anyway, I had played the subway level and was in love with the “bullet time” function and the ability to dive around like a total lunatic. As a fan of THE MATRIX at a young age, this game clicked with me. But to play the entire game? What a rush. To this day I don’t know how I was able to complete the game on the hardest difficulty. I wouldn’t be able to do that now!

Popping MAX PAYNE in again and playing those opening levels still brings me back to that moment in my life. A simpler and quieter time when video games were comically violent and time wasn’t something I needed to keep my eye on all the time. I didn’t have obligations eating away at my free time. Sigh.

Anyway, Mitch and I have decided to rewind time and tackle Remedy’s earlier series, MAX PAYNE. We are no strangers to our noir-soaked hero as we previously podcasted about MAX PAYNE 3 which you can listen to HERE.

MAX PAYNE was the work of a young team embracing 3D technology - to make 3rd person action games like TOMB RAIDER but with good controls. The tank-like controls of Lara were frustrating even in those early days for players no matter how great the game was.

While they shot for a 1999 release year, the game was pushed back until 2001 which made it seem like they ripped off THE MATRIX with the “bullet time” mechanic. The game was in development with that idea before the movie arrived but instead of fighting comparisons, Remedy embraced them.

Obviously MAX PAYNE was a success on PC and the home console market. The sad thing is we never saw the Dreamcast edition get released as the console was shut down as MAX PAYNE was about to be released. All we have left is like 240p video quality of that build:

MAX PAYNE laid down the framework of what we would see later on from Remedy as well in terms of building their own game engine (MAXFX for this and later NORTHLIGHT) and just storytelling devices. The meta TV shows to the surreal Lynch-like dream sequences, this is still what you see in games like ALAN WAKE 2.

Enjoy the new episode and let us know what you think! We will be tackling MAX PAYNE 2 next and even though that’s a short game, you can see where Sam Lake’s writing style began to grow.

*taps mic* ahem

We are back! Hello all!

Mitch and I have returned to discuss the wildest, weirdest and greatest(?) game Remedy has blessed us with. Part survival horror and part lightbulb swap puzzle game, Alan Wake 2 keeps you in the dark and guessing until the very end.

The other great thing is that no matter how many euros they dump into a game (a total of about 70 million), Remedy keeps their identity and humor through the whole thing. It is also the most expensive product to come out of Finland, officially. Let’s see what Control 2 costs!

The road to Alan Wake 2 is long as Remedy started working on this bad boi since completing the first Alan Wake. Along the way, their ideas were turned into Quantum Break and a side adventure with Control but over a decade of ideas culminated in this ambitious 2023 project.

The surprise for me was Saga Anderson whose sections in the game I ended up enjoying more than Alan’s. In fact, can we just get a Saga and Alex game next?

The game ties perfectly into Control and opens up the world even more.

Next month, we will be discussing MAX PAYNE from 2001!! There is lots to discuss in terms of seeing those early seeds planted for the Remedy-style.

If you need to catch up on any of the Remedy games, I have linked below.

Alan Wake

Quantum Break

Control

Also, Mitch and I both loved the new Final Destination and Mitch wrote up a great article on it but specifically on the GOAT, Tony Todd.

Anyway, talk soon!

Hello all!

Getting ahead of the Switch 2 Direct dropping tomorrow to give your ears our chit chat on Remedy’s 2019 game, Control.

But a Switch 2 presentation is pretty exciting, y’all! I mean, we have to be excited about SOMETHING in these trying times.

Control arrived after Remedy broke off from Microsoft following Quantum Break. Chasing that perfect mix of narrative and player freedom and tying directly into their other IP, Alan Wake, Control was snagged by 505 Games for publishing rights. 505 Games, a prolific publisher, gave Remedy room to make the game they wanted without intense expectations of selling an entire new console. The industry learned so much about what not to do with that Xbox One launch!

While Quantum Break is a great game and one I have learned to appreciate more with time, it was a controlled player experience and heavy on the narrative. Remedy wanted to allow the player to explore a realm on their time. Taking inspiration from Dark Souls and Metroid/Castlevania, they created a game that rewarded the player for exploration and revisiting previous areas. Also, the game is challenging and if you are not paying attention, it will bully you!

Mechanics aside, the story follows Jesse Fayden who has finally tracked down where her brother could be located. It leads her to an unassuming building in New York that is owned by the F.B.C. or Federal Bureau of Control. The FBC is like the boogeymen who go out to stop paranormal events and find “objects of power” which are everyday objects that distort reality. Jesse and her brother Dylan experienced an event as children and he was taken away. Now she can confront those who kidnapped Dylan.

Of course, when she gets there, it turns out there has been a breach in the building and “the hiss” has taken over by possessing staff and messing with the fabric of reality. This framework ties directly into Alan Wake and sets up events that we will get to in Alan Wake 2. It’s truly a rewarding experience.

I’ll can it on story STUFF because the game is still rather recent and where the game ends up was just a joy that I can’t ruin for others.

The miraculous thing about the development of Control is that it was done in 2 years and on a budget for 20 millions euros which is rather modest for a AAA title. Looking at the game you would think it cost more than that but partly that’s due to the enhancements made over the years with updates and ray tracing - I can’t remember the look of the game at launch. It also helps that Remedy has an in-house game engine with Northlight which allows them to have intimate knowledge on how to get the best out of their code.

One of the cool things I found is the inspiration for The Oldest House which is a building in NYC on 33 Thomas St. Look how spooky and cool!

Big Brutalist arch vibes in the game and there is even a post over on Polygon about this with a video. Here is a quote I pulled below and you can also read the article HERE.

A core part of Remedy’s design philosophy is that it should feel like the player has an effect on the world. The Oldest House does that by being made of beautiful, reactive concrete. Concrete is inextricable from Brutalist architecture. You can learn more about that in this great episode of 99% Invisible, which was created with input from the guy who literally wrote the book on concrete.

Anyway, concrete dictates how Control responds to player input. When Jesse Faden hovers and then slams into the ground, you get an impact crater. Bullets leave scars and fill the air with dust. I can rip out a gnarly chunk of wall and throw it, or use it as a shield. If I throw furniture it can explode on impact because concrete is really hard.

We get returning actors to the Remedy world - the late and great James McCaffrey returns as The Director and Dylan is played by Sean Durrie who played Nick in Quantum Break.

The show stealer is Courtney Hope who was also in Quantum Break at Beth and she plays a believably cool and collected Jesse Fayden. She got her inspiration from horror icons such as Vera Famiga from The Conjuring - here is a snippet from an interview she did over at Bloody Disgusting.

I love Vera Farmiga (in The Conjuring). She was very strong. She was calm. There’s something about her that I really enjoy. I did think about her quite often because when she is put up to a task or she’s’ put in front of a demon, there’s a calmness about her. It’s almost like you can feel her heart racing through the screen. But, if you were to listen to her speak, she sounds calm. She did a good job of having her heart race and being nervous, because you’re confronted with something that’s fearful or the circumstances are so high that if you fail it could be a catastrophe. That’s something that I really focused on… Women are portrayed in a multitude of ways in horror films, and there’s so many and it was like which one do I want to be? What is this story? Is this a broken woman that’s coming through and finding something through this? Well, yes. But, I also had to remember that Jesse’s from the streets and she’s not necessarily brittle, but overcomes that. I sort of pulled from a lot of different horror movie females and then found my own as Jesse. The biggest thing for me was reliving her own horror. Losing her brother at such a young age. And losing her parents and that reality of that horror before she even hit the Oldest House. It was kind of compounded.

Playing through Control and reading the interview with Remedy in regards to their Control spin-off Firebreak, I am now looking forward to the multiplayer shooter. I was worried it would be more of what we are seeing in the market but 1.) Remedy is publishing and developing the game and 2.) they are not making this a live-service game where you need to check in every day for fear of missing out. They are making this game for busy people!

Remedy bought back the rights to the Control IP from 505 Games for 17 million euros so they are clearly moving forward with independence post Alan Wake 2 and that makes me happy!

Enjoy the podcast and let me know your Control thoughts!

Here is a great video of Remedy discussing the game and its influences.

Hello all,

In 2016, Microsoft published QUANTUM BREAK which was the next project from developer Remedy. After the ho-hum financial success of ALAN WAKE, MS told Remedy that they didn’t want an ALAN WAKE sequel (which is what Remedy had started work on) but a brand new IP to launch with the Xbox One. Oh, the Xbox One.

Keeping the time altering mechanics planned for the next ALAN WAKE, the team also meshed combat elements seen in MAX PAYNE 1 & 2. The gunplay and mobility of the character reflected that more of Max than Alan but also brought in time-powers while providing a strong narrative.

You might have blocked it from your memory now but Microsoft was adamant about TV melding with Xbox and forcing everyone with an ALWAYS ONLINE console. With this mindset, Remedy created live action episodes featuring the actors from the game IRL (all of whom are amazing - Shawn Ashmore, Lance Reddick, Dominic Monaghan…) that would play between Acts. The episodes would stream live form a server…these days you have to download the episode pack because thankfully Microsoft thought to preserve them. They are truly awesome to watch - reminds me of the JJ Abrams era of TV.

When I first played this game, I fell off it because it just felt like “a lot.” I still think it is - it’s like a Kojima-lite game where narrative is equal (or more) to the gameplay. You spend a good amount of time reading and watching which is just not for everyone. I feel bad for giving on up it about halfway because boy, oh, boy did I love playing QUANTUM BREAK in 2025.

Yes, it’s bloated and the performance is kinda whack at times but zipping around the combat areas and fucking with the enemies is hella fun. I also think the story, which feels baffling for 4 Acts, rounds out in a satisfying way in the end. I was so pleased with the ending, I immediately started a new game so I could make the different choices at the “junctions.”

The Junctions are parts in the game where the antagonist (Paul Serene played by Little Finger from GOT) has to choose binary choices that affect dialogue and if certain side characters live or die. While the overall story is not changed, it is awesome how certain areas feel different when you have Nick the Taxi Driver instead of Amy - the protester.

Also, can we appreciate that there about 100 people who made this game? Even for 2016, that seems like a small crew for such a big budget title.

I was under the impression the game did not sell well seeing is how Microsoft never talks about QUANTUM BREAK but sales were quite good for it (better than ALAN WAKE’s initial sales) and the IP is still active. The game leaves off for a sequel but I could also see a remaster in the future.

I had a chance to read MOST of the book, QUANTUM BREAK ZERO STATE and it’s…interesting. It was written by one of the Remedy-guys and offers different scenarios to what we see in the game. One particular moment involves Jack going back to his childhood home to find Will’s research equipment. There is also scenes with Hatch in the Monarch building. It’s a cool book but I didn’t feel compelled to write anything about it.

As for a connection to ALAN WAKE - well, it’s obvious they exist in the same universe. There are copies of Alan’s books about, you see Alan get interviewed on TV, and episodes of NIGHT SPRINGS play as well. But that’s about all we get. Still!

Anyway, enjoy this trip to 2016 with and myself and let me know what you think/thought about QB.

Don’t worry, folks! I did not forget about my pledge to read all the Animorphs books! After a (extended) holiday hiatus, we are back on track to discuss the weirdest yet most endearing series from the late-90s marketed to children who had no idea the stranglehold it would have on their psyche.

Book 7 of the mainline Animorphs series is called The Stranger and we are back in the POV of Rachel, Jake’s cousin. After the hospital conspiracy in book 6, we take a more grounded and less conspiratorial premise with The Stranger until…

We start with Rachel and Cassie at the circus. As the pair witness the animal abuse and cruelty happening around them, they decide they are going to give the elephant trainer trauma about it. The trainer uses the electric cattle prods on the elephants which enrages the Animorphing pair. 

Rachel morphs into an elephant in order to teach the trainer a lesson and we get another disgusting scene:

People say I’m pretty. I don’t know and I really don’t care. But I’ll tell you one thing - no one who has ever seen me morph into an elephant ever used the word “pretty” to describe it. 

I felt the thickening of my legs and arms. 

I watched as my skin grew leathery and gray as mud. 

I felt a sudden sprouting of my trunk as my nose and upper lip seemed to explode outward. 

“Pinocchio, eat your heart out,” Cassie whispered. 

I felt the teeth in the front of my mouth run together, and then begin to grow and grow into long, spear-length tusks. It’s a creepy sensation, by the way. Not painful, but definitely creepy.

Rachel proceeds to wrap her trunk around the abusive animal trainer and lift them off the ground. Using “thought-speak,” Rachel threatens them to start treating the animals right. Absolute badassery.

The team discovers that there is a portal in the changing room at THE GAP (good lord) where Controllers are going to charge their slug overlords in the Yeerk Pool. While the Animorphs plan for a recon mission, Rachel is dealing with the divorce of her parents. The fundamental Millennial moment of divorced parents plays out on the page which, I think, is a great way to have the discussion. I assume lots of children in divorced households would read books to get away from what was bothering them at home and here was a safe space for the characters to talk about it. The problem Rachel faces, though, is she has to choose between her mother and father. Her mother will stay in the town where Rachel grew up but her father is moving thousands of miles away and if she chooses him, she will leave her mother and the Animorphs behind.

But who cares about that right now? It’s time for the gang to morph into cockroaches in the dressing room of THE GAP and have a meltdown as they watch their bodies contort in the mirrors. 

“AHHHHH” I cried, startled by the nauseating sight of the skin of my back melting into two huge, hard, brown wings. 

Cassie was too far gone to say “shh,” but she held one of her hands up to what was left of her lips. Just then her extra legs came popping out of her stomach, and I think I would have yelped again except that I no longer had a mouth. 

I heard a slurping sound as the last of my bones dissolved and I sagged into my exoskeleton.

If you thought Ax and Marco’s mom were surprises, boy oh boy, now we get to meet The Ellimist. 

As the recon mission goes sideways and as our heroes are about to be eaten by a Taxxon, time stands still and the team is back in human form while Taxxons and Controllers are frozen in time. The group is approached by The Ellimist who states that humanity is doomed and the only way to save it is for these outstanding children and their families to go with him. He wants to save an “endangered” race. Tobias has also appeared here in his human form for the first time since being stuck as a bird. 

The team declines the offer.The Ellimist unfreezes time and they are back, except Tobias, in the mouth of a Taxxon where the team is swallowed. This allows for a gory moment where they demorph inside the Taxxon making it EXPLODE. Sheesh. How gross. 

After their botched recon mission and ending up meeting another new alien, the team disbands and Rachel deals with her unraveling home life. 

The group is then approached by The Ellimist a 2nd time and he’s like Y’ALL I CAN’T CHANGE THE FUTURE WITH ANY SPECIFIC DETAILS BUT MAYBE THIS TRIPPY FUTURE VISION WILL MAKE YOU THINK OF SOMETHING.

With that The Ellimist shows the gang the future of humanity and its destruction. 

I wanted to sound tough, Like I wasn’t impressed. That was a lie. Worms larger than a grown man were crawling through holes in the mall. Skeletons lay across desks in the shattered ruins of our school, and clutched the wheels of rusted cars. 

The air felt strange. The why was no longer the sky of earth. The trees were dying.

In this vision, we also see that Visser Three is now Visser One and Rachel has become a subservient controller working as his right-hand person. Rachel smartly in this vision sees that the EGS Tower is still fully functional and untouched by the end of the world here. They are then pulled back and The Ellimist congratulates Rachel on her observation skills. 

We are then treated to a full out raid by the Animorphs as they head to the top EGS Tower (in current day). The artwork on the inside of the book’s jacket depicts this scene of the team riding the elevator up in full transformations. 

At the top of the building, on the final floor, the team discovers a Kandrona. This is an artificial sun that replicates the one on the Yeerks homeworld - it allows them to live offworld. Rachel barrels the Kandrona out the window with in her elephant morph.

Delaying the Yeerks and Visser Three once again, the Animorphs save humanity…for now. 

To come full circle, Rachel decides to stay with her mother and with her friends. She says goodbye to her father and understands her work here is not over. 

Hello all!

Mitch and I are taking a dive into the Remedy-verse for the first part of the year. Our first target is Alan Wake, the 2010 survival horror shine-flashlight-at-everything simulator that captured the imagination for fans of Twin Peaks and Stephen King. While sales were initially slow for Alan Wake, word-of-mouth propelled this into a modest financial success for not only Remedy but also the publisher Microsoft.

After the release of Max Payne 2 in 2003, Remedy needed to collect themselves after the crunch of putting out 2 of the greatest and violent action games in the early 00s. Remedy Writer/Producer/Everything Man Sam Lake, after going to school for screenwriting, set out to lean into those meta-narrative threads that started to show up in their work. Moving away from glorified violence, Remedy began development of an open world survival horror game where the player would have to scavenge during the day and defend at night. An early look of the game was shown off to publishers and Microsoft purchased it. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately) due to pressure to release a game, Remedy had to scale back the scope of what would become Alan Wake. Choosing to focus on the writer who has to write himself a new ending, the game reflected the development of the game. The struggles Alan faces are similar to those Sam Lake and team must’ve felt as they moved away from straight forward action to a love letter to Twin Peaks.

Alan Wake showcases the beginnings of Remedy’s focus for the next several games. That is ambitious narrative design and unique combat. Max Payne had bullet time (the slow down cinematic shoot while diving mechanic) and by the time Remedy gets to Quantum Break, they play with that formula to a crazy degree. Remedy, as we will see, learns from their failures with each game and sets out to correct the trajectory but also fuck with it just a litte more.

All of this examination excites me for Alan Wake 2 which is the only game of theirs I haven’t played yet. Playing their works back to back will help me appreciate their formula and also help me figure out what Remedy wants to say about storytelling.

Playing the remaster of Alan Wake all these years later made me realize how much of a stamp Remedy has on their storytelling - it also made me realize how much they improved. Alan Wake is a certified classic filled with spooky and vibe-y moments that make me feel nostalgic. Their initial case to make an open world game is apparent in several parts of the game too - especially when you have to run around these open areas (or drive) and explore random buildings looking for manuscript pages. The game falters in its repetitive combat and cheap off-camera attacks. After playing Control, it’s clear Remedy was able to find that balance but we will get there!

I hope you enjoy the podcast! Here are some clips of Sam Lake being Sam Lake.