We Played Resident Evil Requiem - Kinda Funny Gamescast

Summary

Kinda Funny Gamescast: "We Played Resident Evil Requiem"

Date: January 26, 2026
Hosts: Greg Miller, SnowBike Mike, Madeline Stanley
Special Focus: Hands-on previews of Resident Evil Requiem (Resident Evil 9) and Crisol: Theater of Idols (Blumhouse Games)

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Episode Overview

This week's Gamescast is horror-focused, with an in-depth preview of Resident Evil Requiem—Capcom’s hotly anticipated Resident Evil 9—courtesy of a multi-hour hands-on session by SnowBike Mike. The team is joined by "Queen of Screams" Madeline Stanley for insights on horror games and first impressions of Crisol: Theater of Idols, a new indie horror title from Blumhouse Games. The episode is lively, full of speculation, hype, and classic Kinda Funny banter, making it essential listening for horror and Resident Evil fans alike.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

Resident Evil Requiem Hands-On Preview

(Starts 04:58)

Hype and Series Context

• Excitement levels: Both Madeline and Mike rate their hype at “10/10” despite joining the Resident Evil fandom relatively recently.
  • Madeline: “I haven't been a Resident Evil person in my past, but in the last couple years, I've been all in.” (05:37)
  • Mike's history: Started with the movies, then played RE5, RE6, RE7, RE8, and remakes of RE2, RE3, and RE4.
  • Greg’s recurring bit: Jokes about the evolution of his relationship with Resident Evil and how each title has its own flavor.

Preview Structure & Playthrough Details

• Mike played 2-3 hours of RE9 at Capcom's preview event, coinciding with the public showcase. (06:42)
• Dual protagonists: Leon S. Kennedy (series veteran) and Grace (a newcomer).
• Distinct playstyles:
  • Leon: Played in over-the-shoulder third-person mode, “power fantasy,” combat-heavy, resource management, action-heavy, “grizzled vet with stubble.”
    • Quote from Mike: “The action is cranked up to 11. His oneliners are back and better than ever.” (08:11)
  • Grace: Debuted in first-person, tense, horror-driven, focused on stealth and puzzle-solving, reminiscent of RE2 and RE7's intensity.
    • “With Grace, it was very two and seven. You are in small corridors. You are feeling the pressure of zombies and monsters.” (08:26)
  • Flexible perspective: Players can toggle first- and third-person as preferred.

Gameplay Impressions

• Resource management:
  • Leon still must “count his bullets,” scavenge for herbs and ammo—despite the action focus, survival elements remain.
  • Chainsaw mechanic: Cat-and-mouse moments where zombies can also pick up the chainsaw, adding tension and unpredictability. (10:40)
• Atmosphere:
  • Strong RE2 “police precinct” and RE7 “Bayou house” vibes, with tight environments and sustained tension.
  • “They did another great job of capturing the anticipation and the horror in these more confined spaces. That really get me excited for Resident Evil.” (12:10)
• Zombie design & behavior:
  • Zombies maintain some "human" qualities (e.g., a maid zombie still cleans), adding a fresh layer of creepiness. Zombies utter broken sentences like “must clean, must clean. You're dirty.” (14:22)
  • Mike assures Greg: "You are going to be horrified and you're going to want them away from you as fast as possible." (14:59)

Game Structure & Story

• Perspective switching: Players do not choose freely; the story flows through designated Leon or Grace sections (not like RE2's campaign A/B split). (16:09)
• Setting: The preview covered a hospital/hotel environment reminiscent of the classic police station, but unclear if the full game stays in one location. (17:36)

Fan Questions & Accessibility

• Do you need prior knowledge?
  • Mike: Play RE2 Remake and RE4 Remake for max context, but not required; newcomers are accommodated.
    • “I would say, no, you don’t” need prior knowledge, but you’ll enjoy references more if you do. (25:06)
  • Madeline: “I think they do a good job giving you...where everyone’s place is.” (26:04)
  • Greg: “I think every video game sequel is built for new fans...you could get in and be fine.” (27:34)
• Leon’s hair:
  • Banter over whether Leon’s current look is “a wig” or “Karen haircut” or, as Barrett says, “Tom DeLong’s look.” (23:06-24:35)
  • Madeline: “Maybe he’s losing a little on the top and just wanted to present a best face for the zombies.” (23:16)

Visuals & Technical Details

• Mike played on PS5; visuals impressive, on par with RE2, 3 Remake, RE8.
• “Leon, his character model looks great. All the characters look good. The zombies...looked good.” (22:15)

Potential & Final Thoughts

• Mike, on GOTY status:
  • “Resident Evil Requiem is a contender for a top 10 list for sure. In this building here, RE9 will be on their top 10 lists.” (32:11)
• Team consensus: Capcom continues a strong run; excitement is high for launch on February 26, 2026.

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Crisol: Theater of Idols Preview

(Starts 36:30)

Introduction & Unique Mechanics

• Premise: Survival horror adventure, twisted Spain setting. You play as Gabriel, a soldier sent by a sun god to reclaim an island from a sea god.
• Signature mechanic:
  • Health = Ammo: Your blood is used for bullets—every gun reload costs health, and you must manage both carefully.
    • Madeline: “You are using your own blood to create bullets to shoot the enemies...You obviously can’t lose all of your blood because then you die.” (37:20)
• Enemies:
  • Creepy “wooden creatures” that don’t bleed, requiring different strategies.
  • Dolores: A multi-story tall woman, unkillable—a Nemesis/Lady Dimitrescu-style antagonist forcing players to hide and flee.

Gameplay Flow & Impressions

• Demo experience: Madeline played for about 1 hour, but not from the game’s start (demo starts 3-4 hours in). Story context was limited.
• Survival/Power balance: Resource management and tension are prominent; “I was almost completely out of blood...Basically my strategy was to run around and try to find a body or a dead animal.” (40:23)
• Stealth/horror sequences: Major tension from Dolores stalking the player.
• Reload animations: Viscerally grotesque; guns have spikes that pierce the protagonist’s arm, making you “feel” the blood loss.
  • “As you suck blood out of your arm, your arm will get paler and paler...every gun has its own animation.” (47:01)
• Enemy variety: Multiple wooden enemy types (some fly, some wield weapons), environmental hazards like mines, but mostly wooden dolls and Dolores. (50:11)
• Puzzle design: Simpler than Resident Evil; mostly voltage and key/door puzzles.
  • “I think puzzle wise, it is similar to Resident Evil, maybe a little more simpler, which makes sense because this is an indie developed game.” (51:54)

Visuals & Technical Performance

• Ran well on PC for Madeline, both at the preview event and at home. No performance issues noted. (51:04)

Horror Tone & Inspirations

• Tension present, but less terrifying than RE2/RE7. More “medium horror”—think BioShock level intensity rather than full-on horror. (52:53)
• Devs cited Gremlins as inspiration, but team didn’t experience much humor from the demo segments played.

Price & Length

• Price: $17.99 with launch discount (58:11)
• Length: Estimated 10–15 hours (59:13)

Final Takeaways

• Madeline is in for full release, but wants more story and NPC interaction—gameplay loop satisfying, story potential uncertain.
  • “The only thing like we said is just that story really coming in and where that goes will kind of end up where I’m feeling about this.” (58:46)
• Greg is skeptical unless the story “sticks the landing,” but likes the lower price/value proposition if it delivers solid atmosphere.

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Blumhouse Games Discussion

(Starts 53:46)

• Blumhouse Games’ move into indie horror is promising but early.
  • Fear the Spotlight: Praised as a standout.
  • Sleep Awake: Demo didn’t resonate for Madeline; criticized for being too simple.
  • Eyes of Hellfire: Co-op, tabletop-inspired; positive early reviews, intrigue for fans of multiplayer horror.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Mike (the spirit of RE):
  • “Leon S. Kennedy is a grizzled vet...he might be tired of this, but he’s ready to bring it.” (08:11)
  • “They did another great job of capturing the anticipation and the horror in these more confined spaces.” (12:10)
• Madeline (on RE9’s vibe):
  • “I get that really tense horror vibe from two where I was scared to open any door. And then I also get to kick zombies in the face as Leon, as I do in four. So that’s kind of the best of both worlds.” (19:33)
• Leon’s Haircut Bit:
  • “To me, this looks like a wig that Leon is wearing...Maybe he’s losing a little on the top and just wanted to kind of present a best face for the zombies.” – Madeline (23:16)
  • "Leon looking like he just asked to speak to the manager because it is a Karen haircut." – Cyberich, read by Greg (28:33)
  • "Even Leon with Karen hair, he can still get it, though." – Madeline (28:46)
• Ambition & Technical Prowess:
  • “They're killing it on the horror side. Yeah, they are killing it.” – Mike (27:58)
• Community engagement: Multiple superchat questions answered live; a running bit with the chat spamming “fuck ICE” at Greg’s (amused) bewilderment (61:54).

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Resident Evil Requiem hands-on begins: 04:58
• Dual protagonist/perspective breakdown: 08:02-09:53
• Chainsaw/melee mechanics: 10:40
• Zombie behavioral AI: 13:29-14:59
• Story/structure & accessibility: 15:57-27:34
• Leon’s haircut banter: 23:06-24:35, 28:33-28:46
• Visuals & technicals: 22:15
• Game of the Year contender? 32:02-32:25
• Crisol: Theater of Idols preview starts: 36:30
• Blood as ammo mechanic: 37:20
• Dolores (stalker enemy) discussion: 41:34-43:15
• Visual design, performance: 51:04
• Price/length for Crisol: 58:11-59:18
• Blumhouse Games roundup: 53:46-55:00

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Overall Tone

The episode is packed with energy, friendly ribbing, honest impressions, and a genuine love of horror gaming. It balances hype with critical analysis, while bringing out signature Kinda Funny humor ("Leon’s Karen haircut") and fostering an inclusive, excited community around new releases.

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Bottom Line

• Resident Evil Requiem (RE9): Delivers a confident, scary, action-meets-horror experience mixing the best of classic and modern RE sensibilities. Hands-on preview leaves the team with high expectations, both for series newcomers and veterans.
• Crisol: Theater of Idols: Unique indie horror with a clever health/ammo mechanic, memorable bosses, and promise for genre fans—especially at a budget price—though some need more convincing on its narrative hooks.
• Blumhouse Games: Still establishing its identity, but has promise as a publisher of inventive, diverse horror experiences.

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For more and to join the conversation, catch the full show and submit questions live at youtube.com/kindafunnygames.

Transcript

[Mike]

Are you dreaming of the perfect prom?

[Greg Miller]

But there's just one thing holding you back.

[Madeline Stanley]

Speak English, Mom.

[Greg Miller]

Welcome to Ethnosync Ethnic Modification.

[Madeline Stanley]

What is this place?

[Greg Miller]

We help you reach your true potential. How are you feeling?

[Madeline Stanley]

It's good to be white.

[Unknown Guest]

Hey, new girl.

[Greg Miller]

Hey.

[Madeline Stanley]

Look at what you've done to yourself.

[Mike]

For a new plant to grow, the

[Sponsor Voice]

seed has to die.

[Greg Miller]

Slanted Rated R Only in theaters March 13th. Side effects may occur.

[Sponsor Voice]

This episode is brought to you by Athletic Brewing Co. No matter how you do game day, on the couch, in the crowd, or manning the snack table, Athletic Brewing fits right in with a full lineup of non alcoholic beer styles. You can enjoy bold flavors all game long. No hangovers, no buzz, no subbing out for water in the second half. Stock the fridge for tip off with a variety of non alcoholic craft styles. Available at your local grocery store or [e-mail] your beer fit for all times.

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[Greg Miller]

Let Rocket Money help you reach your financial goals faster. [e-mail] KindaFunny RocketMoney.com KindaFunny if you want

[Mike]

to get our shows ad free and our exclusive shows, go to patreon.com kindafunny.

[Greg Miller]

What's up everybody? Welcome to the Kind of Funny Games cast for Monday, January 26, 2026. I'm one of your hosts, Greg Miller, alongside the master of hype, Snowbug Mike.

[Mike]

What up, Greg? Happy Monday. Great to see you.

[Greg Miller]

Let's talk about what's up, Mike. It's you doing back to back preview duty Here, if you didn't know, this is your second games cast of the day. You guys just talked about High Guard you're going to. But you went to LA and did that. You had all sorts of fun adventures and guess what? What?

[Mike]

We got a special guest here.

[Greg Miller]

We do have a special.

[Mike]

When I see the Queen of Screams here, you and I, that means we're talking about some spooky scary. That's right, horror games. And I love that.

[Greg Miller]

Of course you can see it if you're a video watcher, but if you're not. Ladies gentlemen and bees, please welcome the queen of screams, Madeline Stanley.

[Madeline Stanley]

Hello. I just want to be Snow Mike. Mike, you know. Good morning gamer over here reviewing back to back.

[Greg Miller]

Mike, do people want to be you?

[Mike]

Do people want to be me? No, they don't want to be me.

[Greg Miller]

Let me in on the inside for a second. Mike.

[Mike]

Let me in on the inside.

[Greg Miller]

Should we be Snow Mike? Mike, should we all want to be Snow White?

[Mike]

It's pretty fun. It's pretty fun.

[Greg Miller]

Just ignoring the crushing credit card debt you're racking up for no reason on weird things. Madeline, how are you?

[Madeline Stanley]

I'm doing great, Greg. I'm excited for this horror game talk.

[Greg Miller]

It is a horror gamed episode here. Gamed? It'd be a horror game themed. But I said gamed because I took game and theme. Doesn't matter. We're of course going to be talking about Resident Requiem and Krizal. Is that how you say it?

[Madeline Stanley]

Kreesol.

[Greg Miller]

Oh, see, not even close. Theater of Idols, one of the Blumhouse games. New one there. That'll be the back half of the show. Resident Evil Requiem to start. Because this is the Kinda Funny gamescast. Each and every weekday we come to you with the biggest topics in gaming. If you wanna be part of the show, talk to us live. YouTube.com kinda funnygames you can super chat to be part of the show and have your questions, comments and concerns read here as we. What do you want to know about Resident Evil? What do you want to know about Kreezal? Did I get it?

[Madeline Stanley]

I think that's right.

[Greg Miller]

Krizal. Krizal. The new game from Blumhouse.

[Madeline Stanley]

So Spanish speakers chime in.

[Greg Miller]

Andy, Andy, we need help. Of course, if you want to be helping us even more, you could be a patreon producer. Patreon.com kindafunny thank you Carl Jacobs, Omega Buster and Delaney. The Psalm Twining for now, let's begin with what is and forever will be topic of the show.

[Madeline Stanley]

Tots Tuts Tuts tuts, tats, tots tuts.

[Greg Miller]

Resident Evil Requiem is set to release in one month, February 26, 2026. The Steam description, of course, reads Requiem for the dead, Nightmare for the living. Prepare to escape death in this heart stopping experience that will chill you to your core.

[Sponsor Voice]

Nailed it.

[Greg Miller]

Thank you. I thought so. Of course. Published and developed by Capcom. Mike, we sent you to Capcom to play it. But before then. Madeline, are you stoked for this? You are our scream queen. You are our horror expert. Where is your hype for Resident Evil Requiem?

[Madeline Stanley]

Oh, it's 10 out of 10, gray.

[Greg Miller]

Okay, okay, okay.

[Madeline Stanley]

I haven't been a Resident Evil person in my past, but in the last couple years, I've been all in. Just played Resident Evil 2 remake. Playing Resident Evil 4 remake right now.

[Greg Miller]

Okay.

[Madeline Stanley]

So I'm very excited.

[Greg Miller]

Okay, okay, okay.

[Mike]

Getting her. Leon S. Kennedy on right now.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah. Mike, talk to me about your history with Resident Evil.

[Mike]

Yeah, Greg, I actually started Resident Evil with five and six.

[Greg Miller]

Okay.

[Mike]

Was when I jumped.

[Greg Miller]

Jumped in right when people were like, this is the best.

[Mike]

I should say rewind. I started with the movies, Greg. Of course. I love, love those movies. And so I started with the movies. Then of course I started with 5, 6, 7, 8. Went back now. Thanks. Two awesome remakes with 2 and 3. And now I've also played four, similar to Meline right now. So I have gone through the gauntlet. I haven't played one. I will find one eventually and I will play one. So, yeah, I, I've. I'll say I've played them all, but, you know, I have not played them all. There's a lot more in there. But I have a. A really good history, a recent history with Resident Evil games, which is really nice because I'm all on board for this.

[Greg Miller]

Okay.

[Mike]

Like Madeline, I'm 10 out of 10 hype. And I had so much fun getting to play Resident Evil 9. I played a good chunk of this game, possibly about two, almost three hours of gameplay.

[Greg Miller]

Oh, okay.

[Mike]

So I had a lot of fun.

[Greg Miller]

Okay.

[Mike]

This took place last week while you all got to watch the Resident Evil 9 showcase. I was playing it. So we did pause in the middle to watch the showcase together with me and some other media influencers there. And so thank you to Capcom for having me. And I have been dying to talk about this game with all of you. I'm so excited.

[Greg Miller]

So then what did you get to do? I still haven't touched this. I feel like we've seen a couple different presentations, demonstrations. Leon's there, the girls There, this is what's happening. Yada, yada, yada. What did you do?

[Mike]

I got to play as both Leon and Grace.

[Greg Miller]

Okay.

[Mike]

In an earlier part of the game, I'm going to keep things very spoiler free. I'm probably not going to touch on a lot of names or locations to keep you all excited for, but I'll give you some general overview. But I did get to play as both of your main characters, which was very cool. I got to play in the, we'll call it Almost like a hospital. It's very police precinct vibe.

[Greg Miller]

Okay.

[Mike]

When you see it in the Resident Evil showcase. So what you got to watch with Leon kind of taking in the doctor's office saying, I'm going to get a second opinion. I got to play that part.

[Greg Miller]

Oh, okay.

[Mike]

So it was a lot of fun. Very awesome stuff and so similar to what you will hear from me. You'll probably hear from that showcase. But man, they captured the vibes of Resident Evil 2, 4 and 7 so well. Oh, Leon S. Kennedy is a grizzled vet of the game. He is back now with just the lightest of stubble that just lets you know, like he's been around the block a couple too many times and he might be tired of this, but he's ready to bring it, you know what I mean? And I love that. And then of course, you have a noob to the game, right. You have Grace, who. All of this is going to be new. It's going to be a scary experience for Grace and it was really fun because the big promotion of this one is you can go third or first person views, but when they started you, Grace is in first person, Leon is in third person. So I thought that was a, a fun touch. You can adjust it as you like, but with Leon, it very much felt like Resident Evil 4. The action is cranked up to 11. His onliners are back and better than ever. The, the gore, the combat is super fun and engaging and it's, it's wild out there. And then of course with Grace, it was very two and seven. You are in small corridors. You are feeling the pressure of zombies and monsters around you. You are looking to solve puzzles, be quiet and not be found. And so they did a really good job and they talked about this in the showcase of finding that perfect blend between those three games that you know and love.

[Greg Miller]

So talk to me about this. These you say they start you in specific perspectives. Obviously you said what Leon is third is first. Did you switch out of those? Did you feel they worked did you stick with those?

[Mike]

I wanted to play in all of them, so I switched in and out of them. It's funny. I really like first person. I think first person gets my heart going a little bit more than the third person over the shoulder.

[Greg Miller]

Sure.

[Mike]

So I was playing as both. I think with Grace, the first person really went a long way because it is very tense. It is kind of a slowed down experience because she isn't running around with a giant magnum like Leon is. She is trying to take it slow and like not be caught and found. So it's a little more scary side on that as opposed to Leon where it's like, yeah, show me all the blood, guts and gore that I can see. Let me get those crazy 360 spin kicks and do some cool stuff.

[Greg Miller]

When you're playing this, especially the Leon stuff and the action stuff, how is it feeling in terms of that power fantasy? Are you down to three bullets? Are you actually just running gun and spraying and then Grace is the one I'm worrying about that, like, where that's always the balance. I find that it's always interesting to walk with survival horror, but as the games lean more action, you kind of lose that.

[Mike]

Yeah, it's still very much a Resident Evil game. So you are still counting your bullets. You are hoping to find resources, whether it be the healing herbs or more ammo, whether it be some sort of crafting material to make sure more ammo on top of that. But like, yeah, very much like Leon is the power fantasy because he's been there, done that, but you are still going, oh, man. Like, count your bullets, Mike. Like, don't waste all of them. Okay, what am I gonna do? You start off here, inside of this hospital waiting room. And of course you see Leon with this chainsaw. It's overwhelming. The first part of Leon, he says, you know what? I'd like a second opinion. And there might be 15 zombies on screen at a time that you're running around in this operating room with. You'll grab that chainsaw and you'll use it to your advantage. Also, the zombies will pick it up, right? One guy starts with it, but it will sit on the ground and zombies are going to grab that, pick it up, and they'll use that as well. So it's kind of this cat and mouse game of me trying to get a hold of it while they also have it. At one point, the chainsaw was dragging a zombie on the floor. So it was like cutting up my ankles. And it was like an intense scene of me Trying to grab it. They had it but they were cutting me. It was really good on that.

[Greg Miller]

Okay.

[Madeline Stanley]

Okay.

[Greg Miller]

What was your biggest surprise? I guess from going in there I think you. We all come into a Resident Evil game with our own expectations for you to get in there and actually be able to play this and get a meaty chunk of it.

[Mike]

My biggest surprise. That's a great question.

[Greg Miller]

I mean thank you Greg Miller.

[Mike]

I really enjoy Leon and like his grizzled run. Of course I know Madeline's probably experiencing it right now but like from him as day one rookie in two to four where he is Condor one looking for baby eagle and like he's growing to now where he is in Resident Evil 9 of like I'm this badass. I. I'm tired of. This is really fun. But I think the biggest surprise is capturing that horror once again. We always talk about Resident Evil of like they ramp it up. The stress, the hype, these the moments of getting scared and then you kind of just go oh, it's all done. And then you go more into action. Right. And so this one they did a really good job. Of course I only played two hours. Eventually we'll go off on that. But they did another great job of capturing the anticipation and the horror in these more confined spaces. That really get me excited for Resident Evil. Right. I love two Inside the police precinc. It feels like that, right? I love seven. Cuz you're in the house in the bayou and you're running for your life in these tight corridors and down hallways and stuff. And they captured that really well with Grace and I think that's the excitement. Right. I think we're coming off of Resident Evil 8 where you start to really dip into the power fantasy. This one with Grace you kind of go back of like oh, I'm scared of everything.

[Greg Miller]

I like that. I like that a lot.

[Mike]

Oh also, you know what I really was surprised with?

[Greg Miller]

What's that?

[Mike]

The zombies and the infected.

[Greg Miller]

Okay.

[Mike]

They talk about it. Here you will see zombies that are still doing their day to days. They highlight a maid and inside of this hotel hospital that is still cleaning the walls, right?

[Greg Miller]

Yeah.

[Mike]

And they will. They did a great job at finding a way to make the zombies almost still feel human and doing their normal but also still scary and horrifying because like you'll see her here, she's wiping it down, right? And she's going to stay in that bathroom until you draw her out. And she's kind of on her normal zombie AI walk but she's Doing more human, like, things. And they also have this really fun thing where like, they're saying almost like broken sentences to one sentence that are like, oh, man, you're almost still human. She'll grab you and be like, must clean, must clean. You're dirty. Like, get off of my face, please. No. And so all of these zombies still kind of feel almost human, like, but they are still creepy and they're looking to eat.

[Greg Miller]

Do they go too far with it? You know, I'm such a traditionalist and one of the things that. And I mean a zombie traditionalist, a purist, if you will. One of the things that actually pushed me away from Resident Evil on top of the tank controls back in the day was the insistent that it has to be bigger than just zombies. So when. Even when I'm talking about, you know, George A. Romero, right, And I'm talking about Land of the Dead and, you know, well, dawn of the Dead being not living dead. Dawn of the Dead, Day of the Dead, you start to lose me. And then it's like, now they're fucking. Yes, sky flowers and they all have jobs and shit. I was like, all right, well, now this fucking sucks. I think, personally, is it still scary zombies or am I feeling more sad for these zombies?

[Mike]

They're still scary zombies.

[Greg Miller]

Okay.

[Mike]

You will not feel sad for these zombies whatsoever. You are going to be horrified and you're going to want them away from you as fast as possible. So, yeah, I think they did a really good job capturing that. You also saw it earlier in Leon's gameplay, but they kind of go over the top with the gore and I'll call it, like, finish.

[Greg Miller]

Oh, my God, this baby.

[Mike]

So, yeah, Leon, on top of like, the normal that you've seen where you might jab a knife into someone's neck and or head, there are these kind of like almost finishers now where you've beaten them down or you shot them enough, where they're kind of stagger melee and you really go up and like, he'll jam the gun into their head, he'll rip a pickaxe out of their nose. Like, it goes over the top in the gore sense, which was really cool as well.

[Greg Miller]

Okay, okay, I got a question from the chat here that gets into some of the stuff. I know you're trying to stay spoiler free. I don't think this gets away from it. But let's talk about me. Really good beef chat and says, what is the structure of the game? Can you switch at any time? Are there missions where you play as one and then the other. I know you're only getting a couple hours.

[Mike]

Yeah, only a couple hours.

[Greg Miller]

I don't know how you got to see or anything.

[Mike]

It didn't feel like you're going to be picking at any time. It clearly is like a story that's happening. There are characters that will see each other and, like, you'll switch perspectives here.

[Greg Miller]

Right.

[Mike]

But, like, it very much felt like, this is Leon's section now this is Grace's section. This is Leon's. Right. It asked, I guess, like, it's not like two didn't feel like too. Where it's like, hey, campaign option A. Yeah. Campaign option B is Claire.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah.

[Mike]

No, this felt like one story that you'll be passing the baton off.

[Madeline Stanley]

Okay.

[Greg Miller]

Okay. And then this is both me admitting, hey, I didn't do my homework, but then also saying, hey, I don't want to do my homework. Resident Evil. Especially since Village and, you know, and the remakes, everything. I'm there day one. Can't fucking wait. You know, the joke is, we go around all the time is how I didn't like the last one. Right? Whatever. The werewolf one Village. Why can't I remember his name? And then what was the buy you want?

[Mike]

Oh, Biohazard. Seven. Yeah.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah. Okay, seven. I loved. Didn't vibe as much with eight. Looking forward to nine. I'm there every day for the remakes. Yada, yada, yada. When I look at this and I am excited to watch this, this footage you're showing makes me excited. Right. I didn't watch the direct. Me and Joey went to the Animal Crossing Nintendo Store event. But on top of that, I. Since I'm not part of it, I didn't need to be briefed on it. So I'm sorry to ask a question that might already be known. Whatever. Is the entire game happening, as far as we know, in this hospital, hotel setup that you're talking about that you got to play in that we're seeing right now? Or is it because you keep. We keep talking about Resident Evil 2 with the vibes of the police station. Is this that where we're in there?

[Mike]

The whole the vibes are like that? Is that it? All in this? I don't know.

[Greg Miller]

Okay.

[Mike]

And I tell you, if you leave this area or not, my two hours was pretty much in this.

[Greg Miller]

Okay.

[Madeline Stanley]

Okay.

[Mike]

So we'll see.

[Madeline Stanley]

Okay.

[Greg Miller]

We will see.

[Mike]

It's one of those games. This game was so much fun. Resident Evil has done a Great job with 7 and 8 and onward with the remasters that's like, they're clearly on a trend of they know what they're doing and if you're in, you're in. And you don't want to be spoiled on anything. And it's, like, hard to do this preview because, like, it's so good. I don't want you to know anything

[Greg Miller]

that's this how good the preview is.

[Mike]

We're back, baby. I mean, and it's not like we haven't left in a while. This game is good.

[Greg Miller]

Okay. Okay.

[Madeline Stanley]

Madeline, that's so exciting to hear.

[Greg Miller]

Thank you. I was passing you the baton. Talk to Mike about this. What do you want to know? What do you see in there? What's speaking to you?

[Madeline Stanley]

Yeah, I. I like everything you're saying, Mike. It sounds great. You. When you're switching between Leon and What's her name again? Grace.

[Mike]

Grace.

[Madeline Stanley]

Are you feeling like the gameplay is so much different where you're kind of having a hard time, get going back and forth, or it's similar enough where you're having a good ease between the two, or is there one you're wanting to play more than than the other?

[Mike]

The gameplay is, I would say, the exact same. Right. Madeline like it. It's clearly. They meet up and he passes her a gun. She now has a gun. Right. So, like, the gameplay isn't massively different. She's not like, has less health than him. She's not doing less damage. It is very Resident Evil at its core. It's just the idea of, like, Leon is dropping the onliners. I think Leon, you're more familiar with, so you have that kind of, oh, I'm a badass feel. With Grace, it was very much of, like, every twist and turn was new to her. Everything was scary to her, which now somehow made it scary to me.

[Madeline Stanley]

Right.

[Mike]

But, like, the gameplay is still. It felt like Resident Evil 2, right. Where Claire and Leon aren't that different. Right. They're both the exact same model, moving and happening with all their movement or all their actions.

[Greg Miller]

What else speaks to.

[Madeline Stanley]

That's awesome.

[Greg Miller]

Meline, why are you excited for this one?

[Madeline Stanley]

Having come into Resident Evil in the last couple of years, I really enjoy two for its horror elements and four for the action elements, but still the horror dressings and everything, it's a little less scary. I do feel like this game seems to be based on what we're hearing and seeing and what Mike's saying that a really good combination of those two, where I get that really tense horror vibe from two where I was scared to open Any door. And then I also get to kick zombies in the face as Leon, as I do in four. So that's kind of the best of both worlds.

[Mike]

Yeah, I mean, I think you're going to get the best of both worlds here. And for me, I'm really excited because when I think of Village, I do think of the Dollhouse, right. A lot of people point to the Dollhouse as being like the Mecca of horror for that. And then it becomes ultimate power fantasy. And me, I'm always chasing that dollhouse. And it's tough, right? In any horror movie, any horror game, you can't keep me on pins and needles for a whole eight hour segment. Right? Like, there's going to be the ups and downs. And so I'm excited to see what they do. What is that big wow moment that we all come back and talk about after we play? Right? Because that Dollhouse I do hold up really high. The beginning of seven. I hold up really high. Right. So that goes off the rails. And so what. What is that taker ship?

[Greg Miller]

Like, what the is going on?

[Mike]

Exactly. There's moments there where you will be like that someone in the chat did bring up Grace won't have the crazy finishers, of course. And so, yeah, like, I think that's your only difference you'll see there. But yeah, I was really impressed with this. I'm really excited for this. They had some fun, crazy announcements on the showcase. They're teaming up with Porsche. So the Porsche Cayenne is in the game. It's like you'll see that for half a second.

[Greg Miller]

Of course.

[Mike]

That was fun. This right here, if you're watching, for all the audio listeners, when I talked about kind of the zombies still doing their day jobs, right? There's a singer zombie in this. She's clearly dressed up on your screen right now. But she does have the kind of state of decay to infected screamer moment where she'll scream really loud and alert the whole room. So you'll want to go after her in a silent way or get after her right away because that scream will not only disorient you and kind of stun you for a couple moments, it will wake up the whole room. And that was always a nightmare as I'm trying to do other things. But she was pretty fun of. Like the maid had her cleaning routine. She's there. There's somebody in the kitchen who's still chopping up food, making the food. You're trying to get away from him. Yeah, it's pretty good.

[Greg Miller]

Talk to me a Little bit about what you played on and then visual fidelity. Because what we're seeing right here, you know, it's funny, as we were watching the singer come at you.

[Mike]

Yeah.

[Greg Miller]

I was like, damn, this zombie's animated so well. And like. But is she a star zombie? Like, did normal zombies look that great? The ambiance, the environment, the lighting looks great. Did you see that firsthand?

[Mike]

Yeah. I mean, we played on a PS5 and it looked great. It looked fantastic. It looked like your recent Resident Evil games from the two and three remaster to eight. Right. Like, there was no crazy change in the visuals. It looks fantastic. Leon, his character model looks great. All the characters look good. The zombies, I think you're going to have some star zombies and you have like the normal. Of course. You look fine. You know what I mean? Like, there's. There's no zombies that were like, oh, you. Really bad. They all looked good.

[Madeline Stanley]

Okay, fair enough. Fair enough.

[Greg Miller]

If you can. Barrett, I know you're doing the footage. You're running around it. Can you pause on Leon when we get a good hero shot of him or just a good shot of him?

[Barrett]

Yeah. Because we need to talk about.

[Greg Miller]

Thank you. We go to Super Chat from Science dog official on YouTube.com kindafunnygames just like you can. Who says Leon is way too old for that haircut? Lol.

[Barrett]

Madeline, getting a better angle right now.

[Greg Miller]

Not only are you our horror expert, you are a haircut expert. What do we think of this haircut on Leon?

[Madeline Stanley]

To me, this looks like a wig that Leon is wearing. A wig that is sitting atop his head. Maybe he's losing a little on the top and just wanted to kind of present a best face for the zombies. Is it a wig? We don't know, but we're.

[Mike]

We're suspect Leon's holding onto his great hair. Okay. And he looks very good. I like his hairdo. I like Leon. I think. I guess maybe because I've recently played 2 and. And 4. I ride with Leon and I just like his evolution of like, Rookie Nobody. This guy, this guy looks like he's about to do business and I'm all about that.

[Greg Miller]

The hair. The hair is interesting. The hair is interesting. The face. I like the grizzled. Hey, I'm older. I'm an Ethan Hawke looking guy here. The hair, though, I don't know, Barrett.

[Barrett]

It reminds me of Tom DeLong's look when he started Angels and Airwaves back in 2005. 2006.

[Madeline Stanley]

Deep cut.

[Greg Miller]

But yeah, it's a deep cut.

[Barrett]

People People who know will know. And it's one of those, I wish for this game with how old Leon is, which is probably how old Tom delong is now in real life. Maybe we get to that. You know, maybe we're cutting down some of that length to maybe shape your face a little bit better, because it's. It's just not looking good here.

[Greg Miller]

The question here. I'm sorry. Go, Please go.

[Madeline Stanley]

I was just gonna say it's looking a little emo. It's looking a little late. 2000 emo.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah. Agreed with that. Agree with that. The question here, I want to talk about from a nebulous way.

[Mike]

Okay.

[Greg Miller]

Because I think you'll have some input. Input here, but obviously, any preview won't give you enough of what the full game would be. But Zayn McBoss says, Do I need to play any Resident Evil games before playing this one to understand this one? Mike, I want to know from what you played, how you feel about that question. But then also in general, for Madeline, me, and you, at a general level, what you think about, hey, there's a new Resident Evil coming up. What do I do?

[Mike]

Yeah. For me, personally, I would say, no, you don't. Right. I would love for you to play two and four to know Leon S. Kennedy. I think that's, like, the big pull here is, like, Leon is one of the main characters of the game. Like, if you don't know Leon, you might want to know Leon. But I don't think anytime I started Resident Evil, it's not like, oh, you got to know the history. You got to do this.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah.

[Mike]

Resident Evil Village very much feels like you can do that.

[Sponsor Voice]

Right?

[Greg Miller]

Yeah.

[Mike]

There are nice strings that you'll know and you'll pull on if you've played the previous ones. But I don't think there's ever been a Resident Evil where I'm like, you got to play that one first. But, yeah, in a world, In a perfect world, in a nice world that we're living in right now with Capcom, 2 Remastered is a ton of fun to play, and it's awesome. Three, you can beat in almost a night, if not two nights. That game is great. Four still stands up. I think they remastered as well. Five and six, we don't talk about. And seven and eight, you can play right now and, like, have a ton of fun. But I don't think you need to know anything if you don't have the time.

[Greg Miller]

Madeline, how do you come with the question?

[Madeline Stanley]

I. I think it's always helpful to have context for where the characters have been, especially with Leon kind of returning after being gone. That's part of the reason I went and started playing four was to get into nine.

[Greg Miller]

Sure.

[Madeline Stanley]

But I do think in general, starting at two and then playing four and missing three in between, I do think it's one of those things where you can kind of come and I think they do a good job, A good enough job giving you the world and kind of where everyone's place is. So I believe that they'll do a good enough job where if this wants to be your first one, I imagine they'll give you enough backstory that you'll just get in and have a good time.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah. I think every video game sequel is built for new fans to walk into. However, for a franchise's story to Resident Evil, I think you would miss touchstones here and there. I saw the chat popping off. It's gone now. But of course, this being a sequel and being Raccoon City and a return to Raccoon City and the way you saw Tim in the reaction videos pop off at, oh, my God, it's the crater from where the nuke was.

[Madeline Stanley]

Right.

[Greg Miller]

Like, there's going to be those kind of nods that will mean more to you if you know in the same way you're talking about of 2 to 4 to hear of what this Leon S. Kennedy is.

[Mike]

Yeah, of course.

[Greg Miller]

I think that all matters. But as somebody who has played a lot of Resident Evils, including one, like, I always jump back in. I'm like, all right, what was the story at this point? Like, you know what I mean? Umbrella bad, of course. But like, where did we leave off with what's going on and whatever telekinetic I have to worry about in the future. But are we in that future now? I'm not even sure that kind of. There's always something going on. But yeah, you could get in and be fine, I think, on your own.

[Mike]

And you have grace, right? Grace is kind of that, like, I give you grace, everybody. Character of. Thank you. I love. You know what? You do give me a lot of grace. Thank you for that.

[Greg Miller]

Anytime. Watch the buzz.

[Mike]

Watch the buzz right now. But you have grace as a character who all this will be new and fresh and you'll see it through a new eyes. That'll be your.

[Greg Miller]

Exactly. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And hopefully, if you know that is your first one jumping in, it'll be. Give you enough breadcrumbs to make you want to go back and play some of the really stellar standouts of the series.

[Mike]

But they're killing it on the horror side. Yeah, they are killing it.

[Greg Miller]

You got me excited.

[Mike]

They. Yeah, I mean, I've been excited since 7, where it's like, oh, I just want to play these. I want these all the time. And I think we found a pretty good cadence, especially with the remake remasters, kind of filling in the gaps so it doesn't feel like it's too long. But yeah, yeah, they've done a really good job, Capcom, of nailing the kind of window ever since they caught fire again and keeping you on it, it's been great.

[Madeline Stanley]

Okay.

[Greg Miller]

A couple super chats here about the old Resident Evil Mob X. Hugh says, hear me out, fellas. 50 year old Leon got my attention. And then doing the sly emoji, you know what I mean?

[Mike]

That, like, people love Leon making the

[Greg Miller]

eyebrows at Leon on that one. Yeah. And then in the opposite way, Cyberich says Leon looking like he just asked to speak to the manager because it is a Karen haircut. It is a Karen haircut, if we're being honest.

[Madeline Stanley]

You know, even Leon with Karen hair, he can still get it, though.

[Greg Miller]

Tom, what were you thinking?

[Barrett]

Mid 2000s were. Were an era, you know.

[Greg Miller]

Did you like Angels and Airways?

[Barrett]

There's like two albums that I like, you know.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah. Professor White T says, Mike, did you lose any nuts while playing?

[Mike]

I thankfully didn't get too scared this time where I jumped out of my seats. I did have a moment where I was out loud and the whole room did look at me. So, you know, that happened.

[Greg Miller]

Do you want to explain the nuts thing?

[Mike]

I sat on one of my nuts. Hurt myself.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah.

[Mike]

Trained it.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah. Mob Askews back. It says RE nine coming in hot and heavy. Like Mike on what's the Buzz? Me and my girlfriend are finishing all the Mainline RE games before it releases. We're super stoked.

[Mike]

Nice.

[Greg Miller]

That's awesome.

[Mike]

That's a great way to do it. That's fun.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah. I wish I had that kind of time to go back and replay everything, you know what I mean? Like when a good movie's coming up like Ghostbusters and I go and watch all the Ghostbusters movies back to back, you know what I mean?

[Mike]

But maybe dip your toe into a two campaign.

[Greg Miller]

I love to.

[Mike]

You know what I mean?

[Greg Miller]

I loved to remaster yourself back in the. I'm good.

[Mike]

I got the vibe.

[Greg Miller]

The editing too, is like, I don't want to be burned out on it. You know what I mean? Sometimes the Resident Evil. Not all the time. Especially, you know, two is a great example of them perfecting it. Where in the old days when I would sit down and try to play RE2 on my PS1 because I loved zombies. Every time the fucking tank controls and then being like turned around on a map and lost and annoyed and I would just stop playing. You know what I mean? Whereas two Remake, I thought did such a good job of me making it. I need. I got the key to do the thing, to get the thing. It felt similar. How I always go on and on last year about Hell is us in the master class in level design. Right. Of this is so complicated, but by the end it's just a big circle and I figured out what to do. RE2 felt that way as well. Where I felt power, I felt empowered by going through and unlocking the doors and knowing there'd be a zombie in there or something over there.

[Mike]

And yada, yada, yada, they're masters of level design.

[Greg Miller]

And then obviously 7 and 8, I thought did a great job of making it navigatable. Maybe to a. I mean, those felt like entirely different games. It's what's interesting about this one Requiem is the idea of mashing up kind of what I feel like old Resident Evil with the new Resident Evil and

[Mike]

seeing how that flies, I think you're gonna enjoy it. There's nothing better than that. That little piece of cheese on the string that you get a little nibble, you're like, oh, I unlocked that door, Madeline. Oh, now I got this key. I'm gonna go back over there. You're looking at the map. You're trying to figure out what's the best way to get to it. You've unlocked a shortcut. Oh, my God. Why is Mr. X chasing me? And nothing better than that. And two, when he shows up, you're like, what is your deal, big dog? He's stomping all the time. God, this game. So good.

[Greg Miller]

I'm looking forward to this with you. Megacon64 said Mike Living his best life, and I love him for it.

[Mike]

Thanks, homie. I'm trying my best every day.

[Greg Miller]

You are, and you're doing a great job. Don't worry about that. And that's it for the Resident Evil. Any wrap up? Any final things on Resident Evil you

[Madeline Stanley]

want to talk about?

[Mike]

Yeah, I don't want to tell you anything at all about this game because it's so. I had so much fun. It looks good, it played good. I'm very excited for the release. I hope that they nail this, and I think they will with everything that I've seen and that we've seen out in the public and so yeah, keep your eyes out next month. This a big release to start off the year.

[Greg Miller]

Can't wait.

[Mike]

Big release.

[Greg Miller]

I know. I hate this question, but I'm going to ask it because I'm a piece of shit.

[Mike]

Yeah.

[Greg Miller]

Do you think based on what you just played, is this a contender? Is this that is. That is. Is Resident Evil Requiem that good of a game?

[Mike]

Resident Evil Requiem is a contender.

[Greg Miller]

Okay.

[Mike]

For a top 10 list for sure. I think this year is going to be jam packed of course. So I don't know if it's going to be in the game of the year, the TGA's top five to six.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah.

[Mike]

But I think that a lot of people, I think especially in this building here will have Resident Evil 9 on their contender top 10 lists.

[Greg Miller]

I like that a lot. Thank you Mike for doing double preview.

[Mike]

Thank you. Thank you Capcom as well.

[Greg Miller]

Don't worry, this episode is far from done. We have a Madeline Stanley preview coming up next. But before then, let me remind you that we couldn't do this without your support. Pick up a Kind of funny membership on patreon.com kind of funny YouTube.com kind of funny games, Apple, Spotify. You can give us $10 and get all of our shows each and every month ad free. That's more than 80 episodes. And of course you'd also get your daily dose of Me, Greg Miller and a 15 to 20 minute podcast series on the Daily called Greg Way. On top of all that, you'd get good karma for supporting an 11 person, 11 year old small business. But right now you're not using your benefits. So here's a word from our sponsors. This episode is brought to you by Rocket Money. Do you know how much money Mike was wasting on hidden subscriptions that he wasn't using? Well, it turns out Mike didn't know either until he started using Rocket Money. Rocket Money is a personal finance app that helps find and cancel your unwanted subscriptions. It monitors your spending and it helps lower your bills so you can grow your savings. Rocket Money tracks your subscriptions and has the ability to cancel within the app with a few taps, saving time and avoiding charges. It automatically categorizes your transactions and tags them to reveal spending patterns and add context. Getting ready to buy the Steam Machine. Rocket Money helps you save for big goals by setting budgets and getting personalized insights and regular reports. It consolidates checking, savings, loans and investments into a single dashboard to give you a clear view of your financial picture. Let rocket money help you reach your financial goals faster? Join at RocketMoney.com kinda funny RocketMoney.com/kind of funny. Hey you. Join us in person for our live in review of Howard the Duck. That's right, Howard the Duck joins MCU in review Wednesday, January 28th at 7:30pm at Cobbs Comedy Club for SF Sketch Fest. You can come watch me do all the podcasts within a podcast you love. Andy will be going, Nick will be shopping for pants during it, but everybody else will be there too for you to come hang out and see. All you have to do is go over to kindafunny.com sketchfest right now to get your tickets before they sell out because come and watching a bunch of people talk about a very old Howard the Duck movie is really selling tickets fast.

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[Greg Miller]

And we're back. We have a super chat from the right Hidalgo who says always a treat to see Mads on kf. And that's why we are once again welcoming the Queen of Screams, Madeline Stan Stanley to the stage. Now to talk about Crisol Theater of Idols. Steam says Chris all is a survival horror adventure set in a Twisted version of Spain as a soldier captured by religious dogmatism. You must use your own blood as ammunition without draining to the point of death. Explore the cursed island, uncover dark secrets and battle horrifying enemies. The developer is Vermilius Studios and the publisher is Blumhouse Games, of course, a name in horror movies that made the jump to games recently and has been doing a whole bunch of stuff. This is their next big one. Madeline, we sent you to LA where you live to go play it. Tell me all about it.

[Madeline Stanley]

You know, I had to go to a different neighborhood. It was like traveling. Yeah, I had a great time. I played about an hour at Pre Zol Theater of the Idols. I think this is a great thing to pair with RE9 as there's definitely some Resident Evil inspo here, some bioshock influence as well. I think people are going to be very excited about it. I think the first thing we have to talk about that is the most unique and interesting thing is the ammunition and your health bar, which is that they are one in the same. You are using your own blood to create bullets to shoot the enemies. Every gun takes a different amount of blood and you obviously can't lose all of your blood because then you die. So you have to be very strategic on how much you're reloading your gun, how many enemies you're shooting, and then also taking damage because then you're losing ammo there. And it's a very interesting synergy between those two things that I haven't really ever experienced before.

[Greg Miller]

So talk to me about how this game starts. You're fighting a candle puppet man right now. You've got blood. Did they let you play from the beginning to set you up on how you got here and why you're caught up in this world?

[Madeline Stanley]

So. Not really. Actually. We started the demo, I think they said about three to four hours in. And I also played. There was a public demo that I played on steam. That's another 30 minutes. Also not at the beginning.

[Greg Miller]

Okay.

[Madeline Stanley]

So I'm not exactly sure story wise where we are at.

[Greg Miller]

Okay.

[Madeline Stanley]

But from what we talked about when I interviewed one of the devs, you are this Gabriel. You're a shoulder, you're a soldier and have been sent by God, like your God is the sun God to take back this island who has fallen to the sea God. And so you're kind of on this divine mission. And when you get here, obviously things have gone awry. There's a lot of these wooden creatures that have sort of come to life and are evil and one of the cool things you'll see here is that they aren't people, they don't have blood. So that also is a thing where you can't take any blood for them. So killing enemies will not give you more bullets or more health, but since they're made of wood, they will. You could headshot them, but their bodies will still be going on without their head. And they can still attack you without a head or their legs might still kick you. It's very interesting. And how they stay alive live post killing, you really have to make sure you finish them off.

[Greg Miller]

Okay. And so then talk to me about back to the same thing I was talking about with Resident Evil. Power fantasy versus survival horror. Did you feel like this one, you felt like you were a divine instrument of God and you were in charge and you were on the attack, or was it that you were playing a lot of defense here and you had to make your shots count and you were worried and so on and so forth.

[Madeline Stanley]

I think it's a mix between the two. There definitely is the survival aspect and I would say it leans a little bit more on that because there was a time towards the end of my play where I was almost completely out of blood. I still had enemies I had to defeat. And I was like, I don't know, really know how I'm going to accomplish this. Basically my strategy was to run around and try to find a body or a dead animal because those will be kind of scattered throughout the areas and that's what you can draw blood from if you don't have any. So I had used all my vials, I had one, one vial of blood to my name and I was just running around trying to find that. So there is that bit of resource management there, but there, there you are still empowered to fight all of these things except for one specific villain that you're. You're not going to fight. And that's Dolores. Which is one of the things I think will harken back to the Resident Evil fans. Dolores is like this three or four story tall woman who hates you and she's trying to rip you apart. And so you can't fight her. You kind of have to run and hide and strategy around how to get around her.

[Greg Miller]

Did you see a lot of her in this demo? Because I had done a demo of this at SGF. I forget if it was 2025 or 20. I think it was 2025. I think it was last year's SGF and it was me being chased by her. Different area not this one. I was more like. It was outdoor for a little bit, and then I'd like snake into a. Like a bookstore or maybe like a. I don't know, a ticket counter or whatever in this world I was in. Hide, try to get out, try to run to the next area and get the door closed behind me. Did you see a lot of her? Does that seem like it's the main thrust of it?

[Madeline Stanley]

So I also played that. I think that demo might still be available on Steam right now, but that's what I played after this one that I did in the preview. Got it just because I wanted more. That's a good sign, right? I wanted to play a little bit more. And she. In the one hour that I played, she was there. She wasn't there the whole time. So it seems like there's some areas where she's not present and then some areas where she is, but she seems semi present throughout. I assume most of your gameplay where there's going to be not able to get to and you can kind of roam freely, but you still have the regular enemies. Whereas, like, there are areas where she's going to be a constant presence, you also have the regular enemies. And you have to kind of divide and conquer those things up with the puzzle goals of maybe trying to open gates in that warehouse area. That was kind of my goal, was that I needed to open this series of doors and turn off the electricity so I could move forward. So I had my regular enemies that. That were attacking me the whole time, Dolores chasing me around. So you have to kind of run to different hiding areas, try to take people out as you can, and try to prevent Dolores from finding you.

[Greg Miller]

Okay, so then for the. Oh, yeah, this is the one. I think I was. I remember. Or at least same area. How's it stacking up right now? Based on both the demos you played, the one at this event at Blumhouse, and then of course the one you played on Steam. Where are you ranking it in terms of your hype for it, how much more you want, how one. One note it is. I felt again in my old demo, which is what, 30 minutes? I felt like, okay, cool. I don't feel like this is pushing something forward for me in terms of. Other than I'm hiding from Dolores and I'm shooting a bunch of puppet people.

[Madeline Stanley]

Yeah, I feel like I'm medium high on it. It's definitely something. I want to play the full thing when it's out. I think the only hesitation for me is that I didn't really get very many story beats from. From either of the playthroughs that I did. And I did talk to them about the story and about the world. And those are both very interesting to me. And the things that I learned, I just didn't really get to see as much. You do have these kind of blood echoes throughout the world where you can kind of see the people who used to live there, what was happening in this area. And they're just like in the shape of blood, which is icky and fun. But that's cool. You get some context. But I do wish I had been able to interact with an npc because I know there are some or just kind of gotten a little bit more story going on. And I don't know if that's just me. If I didn't get there because I was playing slow, which I'm a slow gamer, so that happens.

[Greg Miller]

But hey, so can it.

[Madeline Stanley]

Yeah. I like to experience every little minute of terror in my life.

[Greg Miller]

You know, there's a lot in life to see over and over again. Lots of terror on every corner. Mike, are you're a first person shooter guy?

[Mike]

Yeah, she had me on Bioshock. I'm still hung up on that. I really like that. Right. I think that's kind of the hook that got me along with, you know, the Resident Evil look of the first person shooter. But Bioshock got me and I. I do like I'm looking for a story is right. Mads. And it's like you haven't brought up the story yet because you said you haven't experienced much of it. So I'm hoping they deliver in the story with something I want. But I am caught up on the UI and like, I guess the riding the line of the thrill of ammo and blood consumption. Right. What was that feeling like? Was it always a thrill where it's like him? I know I have to spend some to get some and be able to take down these enemies. Did you feel overpowered where you never had that thrill or was it maybe too much? Where it's like I'm constantly at 10 to 20% health because I am using up so much ammo that it is making it more difficult.

[Madeline Stanley]

So for me, the version I played felt perfectly balanced. I do think they said there are going to be difficulty levels that you can customize, so maybe if you are going in and feeling too powerful, you can up it or vice versa. But with the version I played, which I assume is just the normal mode, I think it felt perfect. As far as like, yeah, you have to be strategic. You can't just run and gun. But you never feel so desperate sometimes. In resident evil 2, towards the end of my playthrough as Leon, I was like, I just need any bullet. Just give me a single bullet. And I never felt quite like that maybe one time, but I was able to kind of work my way through it, and I think that's the perfect amount of survival horror. I want to be right on that edge a lot where I know I can do it if I just kind of puzzle my way through it and figure out how to allocate those resources. And that is where I felt with this. It's so cool. Talking about the BioShock. One of the things that you'll see is that the reload animations of the gun, all the guns have spikes on them that stick into your arm and suck the blood out of your veins. It's very visceral.

[Greg Miller]

I love it.

[Madeline Stanley]

It's disgusting. Yep. And as you suck blood out of your arm, your arm will get paler and paler. All the blood is leaving your body. And every gun has its own animation. That's as disgusting as the last one.

[Mike]

When we talk about BioShock, of course, there was the gun, the handgun, but then there was also, like, the extra moves. Is there any sort of levitating control, any sort of other hand moves that we'll have? Or is it just simply the gun with the blood bullets?

[Madeline Stanley]

Yeah, as far as I saw, there was just that. And I don't think there's any other powers or anything. I think the blood being kind of your power and your gun is where that is. And then you do have a knife that you can sharpen. So you can use the knife instead of the gun, if you would like, as more of the melee weapon. But I do think that it has that feeling of. Yeah, like, charge of charging up when you load your. When you load your gun with your blood, and you have to be very intentional about it. One of the things that I ran into is that I'm here to quick load. So I'm just pressing the right bumper really quickly, and you have to fully stick it into your arm. They really make you feel that, which is disgusting again, but also really cool and kind of grounds you into the moment where you're like, okay, I'm sucking that blood out, and I have to hold this button down and feel it kind of pull out of my body.

[Mike]

Can you?

[Greg Miller]

I love the effect of it going up.

[Mike]

Yeah. So it's cool. It's right. No No, I, I love the look. I like how she's describing it. Right over the, over the top. Can you describe? I guess it will be clear when you're playing the game, but when we're watching it, there are blood vials below your health bar. There's a bullet health bar. There's your health bar. What is the flow of this look like for me to understand how much blood I'm taking, how much I'll have left? Like is it coming when I hit reload? Is that coming directly out of my main health bar? Are those little vials filling up my health bar? What does that look like up on the top left of our screen here?

[Madeline Stanley]

Yeah. So on the top left that's your health bar. And when you reload it will take different amounts of those notches depending on what gun you're using. So a shotgun is going to take maybe two notches. Don't quote me on these exact ones, but just as an example. Whereas a pistol will take one little notch and that will directly come out of that bar as you reload the bar. Beneath that with the nine on it, if you're looking at the screen is how many bullets you have based on your blood. So and then beneath that there's three little blood dots and those are vials you can kind of keep on your person and they will fill your blood back up. So you want to keep those on hand. So if you're getting low re health and if you're, if you don't have any of those, that's when you need to find something out in the area. Either a new vial or an animal or a dead person that you can suck their blood out of them.

[Mike]

Okay, we talked about Resident Evil earlier. Now we've talked about this four story tall lady following me.

[Greg Miller]

In this game you love big things chasing you and the Internet loves big ladies stepping on them.

[Mike]

Yeah. What was that kind of diversity like in enemy types? Right. We saw the little flying candle doll there. We saw the generic characters. Are there more to that? Is it kind of what we see right now or will we be surprised with larger over the top enemies as well?

[Madeline Stanley]

So based on what you're seeing, that's kind of all I've seen. There are a couple of different variations of these wooden people that have a little bit of different abilities. There's the flying people, there's kind of like the pig headed people. There's some of them that have weapons, but they're all generally these walking wood creatures. And then there's the flying ones. And then there's also some enemy mines throughout that you have to watch out. I blew up every single one that I passed through because I just don't look for that stuff. And then you have Dolores who is hunting you. But I did not see any other big enemies or any other type than these kind of wooden doll creatures.

[Mike]

Okay, cool.

[Greg Miller]

Similar to this nuts and bolts question, we have a super chat from Foxy Steve. I played the public demo for this and remember it running pretty rough on PC. How well did the latest demo run? P.S. you're killing it, Madeline.

[Madeline Stanley]

Thank you, Foxy Steve. Also thank you right Hidalgo, for super chatting earlier. Hello. For me it ran great. Like I said, I did the preview at Blumhouse last week and it ran pretty seamlessly. I didn't have any issues with stuttering or anything like that. Then I downloaded the demo myself later that night off of Steam and I played the 30 minute demo on my PC and I didn't have any issues with that either. For both of my experiences on PC, it ran pretty well.

[Mike]

Nice. How about the moment to moment we talked about Resident Evil and like that tenseness that you feel, the puzzle solving that builds into the level design, is that very similar to what we'll see with this? And then also like, how are the scares, Madeline? Is it Jump scares galore? Is it? There's the tense feeling that she's chasing you around. What's that like?

[Madeline Stanley]

Yeah, those are great questions. So I think puzzle wise, it is similar to Resident Evil, maybe a little more simpler, which makes sense because this is an indie developed game. There's a lot of those levels where you're doing the voltage thing, which we've seen that puzzle before. And then the opening doors type of puzzles are the ones that I experienced, but maybe a little bit on a smaller ish scale. And then as far as horror and tense and scary, I think this is a great sort of entry or medium horror game. As like BioShock. I would say like BioShock, I wouldn't consider like a full horror game, but it's obviously very scary intense and I kind of feel the same way here. I'm not having like Resident Evil 2 or Resident Evil 7 scares, but there is a tensity as far as someone chasing you around and there being a lot of enemies and you having to sort of strategize. So if you're maybe a little iffy on horror, like I feel like Andy would be okay playing this game.

[Greg Miller]

He's a big worst.

[Mike]

That is good. Yeah. Okay. I like that a lot.

[Madeline Stanley]

I will Say the devs were saying that they took a lot of inspiration from like 80s and 90s horror. Gremlins was one of their inspirations. And so that's like kind of the level where it's like there's horror there, but there's also comedy. I didn't quite see.

[Greg Miller]

I was gonna say this game does not look funny at all.

[Madeline Stanley]

I know. So that's what I'm curious about because I don't feel like we got a lot. Gabriel had a couple of one liners in my playthrough that we're like a little reminiscent of Leon. Not quite Leon, but I'm like, okay, so maybe there is some humor here that's just not coming out. I do think that's the biggest thing that I was bummed about leaving that was just not getting into some of this story, maybe seeing some of that humor because yeah, that didn't really come out through the gameplay.

[Greg Miller]

Interesting.

[Mike]

Madeline. And for you as well, Greg Blumhouse, of course, coming in and helping publish these games from indie developers. We saw the big announcements. They said, hey, we're working with X, Y and Z developers. We got about four to six, I think slated when their first announcement. I'm here on the Steam page right now to see like what other games they've come out with. Right. We have three so far and Fear the Spotlight, Eyes of the Eyes of Hellfire and Sleep Awake. Have you two jumped into those? How is the Blumhouse horror video game going from a fan perspective? Maybe from you guys?

[Greg Miller]

I think they started strong with Fear the Spotlight in terms of, hey, we're giving you this indie game. It looks like a PS1 game. Kids in a library on a, you know, evening streamed with Nick and had a lot of fun with it. And then yet beyond that it's been waiting. I feel like Sleep Awake. I don't. I never touch Madeline, did you touch it?

[Madeline Stanley]

I played the demo for Sleep Awake and it didn't quite hit for me. Yeah, it, it felt a little simplistic where I was like just kind of walking through the levels and there was supposed to be some sort of. What's the word I'm looking for where you're hiding? Stealth. There's supposed to be like stealth aspects and it was so easy and I just kind of felt like it didn't connect with me.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah. Remember when they came out, they had a whole bunch of games. They talked about what we've talked about here and then it was the simulation was the other one a never before seen horror game. Is the only evidence found at a crime scene. As a retired game designer hire to investigate the case, you must. You must find a hidden mode that plunges. That sounds awesome, right? Different grave seasons. I played also at one of the SGF's, right? A charming pixelated farming and town simulation game where amidst all the relationship building and crop harvesting, players must figure out which of the town's folk is a supernatural serial killer, uncover the hidden secrets of Asher Ridge, find a way to stay one step ahead of the murderer, and maybe save the next victim. Memory serves two. Your protagonist in that game is like an escaped con who, like, showed up, got the house, and they. You have to. You're lying to everybody and doing it. Yeah, that one had my. Has my attention as well. Like, ooh, I'm not usually the farming sim person, but put that story on. And the supernatural stuff I liked. Then of course, the big one for me, what they announced back then was codename Project C. This is from Half Mermaid production. This is Immortality. This is Sam Barlow. An ambitious game from the minds of Sam Barlow, who I just said her story Immortality. And Brandon Cronenberg professor Infinity Pool. Prepare to have your mind broken in half by your mind broken by Half Mermaid's most twisted vision yet. So it's that thing where they came out with a lot of bravado as, hey, you know it from the horror movies. Let's do some horror games. And I feel like we're just still waiting on the fruit to come off the tree to really figure it out. It's, you know, Madeline, this has been a great preview and I. I love it. But based on what I had played and even watching it, this isn't my kind. I don't. I'm not interested in the vials and the blood. I need it to. I. I need the final version to come out and people be like, dude, the story is awesome, and you're this angel of God and you're doing okay. Cool. But when I look at it, I'm like, this all looks too samey for me to be interested in the gameplay loop of it, personally.

[Mike]

Yeah, this one gets me. Yeah, I see this one. And I. I see. I feel the BioShock, the Resident Evil first person shooter. I go, okay, like this. This is like a try for sure for me. If the story delivers, I think I'm gonna like this one a lot. And so I'm on. On this one. I also am interested in Eyes of Hellfire. You know, I brought up the three games that are available on Steam right now. Yeah, Two out of them are positive, two very positive. The other one is mixed that Madeline brought up. But Eyes of Hellfire is a co op graphic horror game inspired by a tabletop games but with a twist. The insidious host can manipulate your sense of reality. I'd like to try this. It's got mostly positive to very positive reviews. I didn't hear much on this one.

[Greg Miller]

No.

[Mike]

Yeah, got a very cool look to it. I love a good co op horror game. You don't get many of them, so yeah, I'd like to try that. That are outside the dead by daylights that I love so much. God.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah, it's early access right now. That one there you were just talking about and here we got some footage of it up there. As you go through and deal some cards, get exactly what you want.

[Mike]

You know what I mean? Yeah, I'd like to try this.

[Madeline Stanley]

Okay.

[Greg Miller]

Maybe you should try it on a stream, you know.

[Mike]

Okay.

[Madeline Stanley]

I'll be calling you Mike.

[Mike]

Yeah, I'll be calling you. Setting up.

[Greg Miller]

You won't have to wait long for Chris. All theater of gods that's coming out February 10th. That's right around the corner as well. Yeah.

[Mike]

Okay.

[Greg Miller]

Madeline, are you in line to review this? Are you going to be playing this? Is this like you have to see more of this.

[Madeline Stanley]

Yeah, I think I'm. I am in for it. I had enough fun with the gameplay loop. I want to see the story and I think they said the price is going to be 1799 and there's going to be a 10% launch discount. So at that price point I feel like it's kind of a no brainer for me with the amount of fun I had. I think it's honestly felt like it was punching a little bit above its weight class. The only thing like we said is just that that story really coming in and where that goes I will feel we'll kind of end up where I'm feeling about this. I want a good story to go with the gameplay that I found very fun.

[Greg Miller]

Well, even you know, you dropping that price point on there, I think again sets expectations in a different way where it's like, okay, cool, then how long is this game? That's my other thing. If you come out and you're like, hey Chris, all the story isn't that good, but it's interesting and it's only three, four, five hours. I'm like, oh, okay, then I'm. I'm more willing to give that a chance. And again, I think that's what's interesting. About Blumhouse coming off and doing this is they're not coming out and saying, hey, we're making $80 games. Or we're taking small indies that are doing interesting horror things and doing something with that. I like that.

[Madeline Stanley]

Yeah. I have an answer for you as far as length. Oh, they said 10 to 15 hours.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah.

[Madeline Stanley]

I don't know.

[Mike]

Okay.

[Greg Miller]

I don't know if I want to be in that.

[Mike]

That ones you're hoping to hit because that is a little bit longer time.

[Greg Miller]

Really red and tan and brown environment for me to be in for 10 to 15 hours. I don't feel I'm not going to.

[Madeline Stanley]

Which is interesting because if you see some other pieces of the. The B roll and stuff that, that we didn't show here, but some of the trailers, like there is very colorful areas. There's this whole like central carousel area that's supposed to be your kind of home base. You're safe there. You can kind of interact with people. I wish I had seen any of that. But we didn't get to see that part in my preview. But it looks like there's some more visual dist and some more bright colors, interesting things to do there. But I didn't. Yeah, I just that in my preview.

[Greg Miller]

Well, you did a great preview and thank you, Madeline, for doing it. Going all the way to the other neighborhood in la.

[Madeline Stanley]

Anything for Kind of Funny.

[Mike]

You're the best.

[Greg Miller]

That's dedication. And Mike, again, thank you for your Resident Evil preview.

[Mike]

Heck yeah, man. Looking forward. I'm now looking forward to both these games.

[Greg Miller]

And let's say thank you to our final super chat from Sky. Currently waiting for my luggage at SFO and looking forward to seeing a bunch of y' all on Wednesday. Next stop, the Nintendo store. Of course, Kinda Funny is live at Sketchfest San Francisco Sketchfest this Wednesday evening to do MCU in review live for Howard the Duck. Tickets are still available at Cobbs Comedy Club. Of course you can go to kindafunny.com sketchfest to get your ticket. I mean, why would you even want to be anywhere else right now? It's freezing everywhere else.

[Mike]

Beautiful weather out here.

[Greg Miller]

Gorgeous weather out here.

[Mike]

65 and sunny. Get over here, San Francisco, baby.

[Greg Miller]

Come on, get over here. Of course. Thank you, Madeline. Thank you, Mike for all these previews and thank you for watching. Remember, this has been the Gamescast. Each and every weekday we run you through the biggest topics in gaming. Whether they be reviews, previews, or topics we need to talk about. Like subscribe, share. If you're on Twitch or you're not. And you have Amazon prime. You have Twitch Prime. That means you have a free 30 day subscription to give away. Please come give it to us and set a reminder to do it each and every 30 days. Because they don't remind you. Yes, I'm talking to you, podcast listener who doesn't even use Twitch. It would mean a lot for us and you can do it even when we're off the air. Of course, if you want to go that extra mile, pick up a kind of funny membership. Patreon.com kindafunny YouTube.com kindafunnygames Apple Spotify. $10 gets you all of our programming ad free. Of course it gets you your daily dose of me, Greg Miller in a series we call Greg Way. And of course you get good karma for supporting an 11 person small business that's 11 years old. I missed why? But the chat in Twitch is just saying fuck Ice over and over again. Of course fuck Ice as well. You don't need any. Encourage me. I don't need to know what the topic of conversation is that set that off.

[Mike]

Make a difference. We'll get up.

[Greg Miller]

We're trying. We're gonna do it. Except Barrett. Everybody. This has been another kind of funny games cast.

[Mike]

Good.

[Barrett]

Stop that bit.

[Greg Miller]

Until next time. It's been our pleasure to serve you.

[Mike]

Goodbye.