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Can you believe that it's been 5 years since the Resident Evil 2 Remake came out? Neither could we, so we brought Nomad back onto the show to discuss it with us. Remember the "we do it" t-shirts? Remember the months of speculation? Remember that first time you booted the game?
This is a sample of the full show notes - make sure to click here to check out the full show notes.
Content Warning
There are a few swears in this episode, but none which should be too offensive.
Please listen responsibly.
Show Notes
From active time battling to zombie slaying, waffling Taylors covers video games and beyond.
In this episode, we are joined by OG Waffler and long-time friend of the show Lulu to to talk about the anniversary of Final Fantasy eight on the PS one. In this episode, we cover everything from triple triad addiction, bazooka abuse and the original Selphie.
So without further ado, sit back, grab some snacks, and get ready for this episode entitled "Resident Evil 2 Remake with Nomad - The Spirit Is Strong, But The Ammo Is Scarce."
Take it away guys.
— Squidge
That's right! This episode is all about Final Fantasy VIII. Some say that it's the black sheep, or weird middle child of the group of 90's J-RPGs created by SquareSoft for the PlayStation; but, as you'll find out in this episode, it's the favourite of both Jay and Lulu—with Final Fantasy IX in a very close second for everyone in the episode.
All that set up and Jay fumbled at the 10 yard line:
You have once again stepped into the world of survival, horror, et cetera, et cetera, because I can't think of anything funny to say.
— Squidge
This time, the lads were joined by Nomad of The Retro Wildlands—someone who seems to be on the show talking about Resident Evil a lot, and he is loved very much for it.
But before the show could start properly, Jay asked Nomad to introduce his show:
So, for those of you listening, I have my own podcast, and I call it
The Retro Wildlands.
And the whole premise: I'm going back and playing some older video games that maybe I played when I was a kid, or maybe I missed out on them and I'm playing them for the first time as an adult. So my show is kind of me talking about those games and my experiences.
But as I've evolved over time, my show has kind of turned into I'm taking the listener through the game itself, maybe the opening level, let's say, and I'll try to bring back some of those nostalgic tinglies, if you will, using music and sound effects and things like that.
But if you've never played that game before, this is a great way to learn about a game that maybe you want to dabble in and don't want to dive in headfirst. You want someone to tell you kind of how it is, and that's what I do.
So the Retro Wildlands is available on all the major pod platforms. I made a link tree. linktr.ee/retrowildlands will get you to all our social links.
I say "our," but it's just me. Me and my dog Dee Dee's.
— Nomad
Initial Thoughts on The Remake
Before any deep dive conversation, it's always a good idea to get a starting position, and that's what Jay wanted to know:
I originally played it as soon as it came out. I don't pre-order games very often, but I pre-ordered the remake. I was enamoured with it. I played the original a ton when I was a kid. Probably shouldn't have if mom had her way. But, it was an amazing experience, and I knew the remake, for better or worse, was something I wanted. But I was very pleasantly surprised with how amazing that game was. And we're certainly going to get into it today.
But I replayed the game start to finish twice when I knew that we were going to get together and talk about the game. And I was very excited to dive back into that world, and I was very happy with how everything stood the test of time. Granted, it was only five years, but "fresh" is probably the best word, I think so. I think people, even though this game is five years old at this point, if you go into this experience now, it's going to be just like when it first launched.
Fresh, new, exciting. Mwah. Chef's kiss
— Nomad
And Squidge:
All I can say about it is: I played it on release. But I played it, I think I had the day off when it was coming out and I finished preloading it at midnight, because it was on Steam. And I played it in the dark on hardcore mode. That was a big mistake.
Ever since that night, I still stand by this. What I'm about to say is, "Mr. X, you're a prick." That sums up Resident Evil two pretty nicely: dude's a prick.
— Squidge
Because Squidge had brought up Mr. X, and how he'd modded the original model out for both the Goose from Untitled Goose Game and the Macho Man Randy Savage, it was only right that Jay brought up the short series of episodes which were recorded as Squidge made his way through the game.
Those episodes are:
Jay goes on to talk about how the RE Engine ("Reach for the Moon Engine") hasn't just been used for the Resident Evil remakes, it's also been used on several other titles like DmC: Devil May Cry. And for those who are interested in finding out about the (deeply) technical (as in programming) details of the engine, Jay brought up a talk from one of devs the team about what upgrading to C# ("See Sharp") 8: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDUY90yIC7U
For those who don't know, Jay produces and hosts The Modern .NET Show, so he's always looking into things relating to both C# and .NET. Because of this, the video not only piqued his interest but blew him away.
The video is entirely in Japanese, but there are English subtitles so you can follow along if you'd like.
(quoting the video) "We moved to this version of the tooling, which is a later version, to build the engine and it's become a whole bunch faster and stuff."
Which means they've released patches for Devil May Cry remake, Resident Evil 2 remake, Resident Evil 3, that makes it use less power or is more efficient, things like that. So they haven't actually done anything. They've just updated the tools that they use, which is pretty damn cool.
— Jay
And, of course, Jay brings up the question that's on everyone's minds
Dino Crisis remake in RE Engine when?
— Jay
Full Show Notes
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