EA Goes Private | Halloween Costumes - Tips, Tricks and Treats | Spooky Recommendations

[00:00:01] Speaker A: Hello and welcome to Year nine, issue seven of the Geeky Brummy Podcast. We're virtual this episode because we finished being on tour, but we're waiting for our new studio to be ready for us to move into. But I'm joined as ever, by the effervescent Sam. [00:00:18] Speaker B: Hello. [00:00:20] Speaker A: The sparkling Lee and the carbonated Matt. [00:00:26] Speaker C: Hello. Hello. [00:00:29] Speaker A: Unfortunately, we're not joined by Ryan today who's taking a much deserved break away from us all. So hopefully Ryan's having a nice time with his feet up watching all of the goodies that are available on our streaming services here in the uk. But how has everybody been since the last time we saw each other? [00:00:47] Speaker B: Yeah, no bad things. [00:00:50] Speaker C: Pretty decent. [00:00:52] Speaker A: We lead such exciting lives. But that's all good because we're going to save all of our enthusiasm for all of the stuff that's coming up in this week's issue. So we're going to cover a few things around gaming, we're going to cover a few things around upcoming holidays like Halloween, which unfortunately most shops seems to to ignore, apart from the odd pumpkin. And we've seen everything to do with the dreaded X holiday that's coming up at the end of the year. And then of course at the end of the episode we'll be talking about our One Geek Thing selections. So time for the titles. So if you've been following Games news recently, you might have heard announcements around EA being acquired by another company. So I'm going to hand over to Lee now who's going to fill us in on the skinny about what's happening. [00:02:03] Speaker C: Yeah, so basically there is been a big buyout of EA by three organizations. So we have the big, the big part of this is Saudi Arabia's public investment fund is the first one. But it's also Silver Lake Investment and Affinity Partners which is the investment firm which is founded by Donald Trump's son in law. So I think we kind of see where this is where this whole deal has been able to go through to begin with. But yeah, it's basically those three and it's a buyout of $55 billion which apparently is like one of the biggest buyouts in investment history, like not just in gaming but in just investment in general. And yeah, it's going, they've fully acquired everything and it's going to be run as a sort of private company rather than a public company which has been run as so far. And obviously this has sort of led to a lot of discussion about like what does this mean for ea, which yeah, there's a lot of questions, especially because it involves Saudi Arabia and because it involves some of these other firms. I mean, my opinion just straight out of the gate is that this is not a good thing because private investment buying of companies like this is never a good thing historically. And I fully expect EA to be sold off for parts within a year of this deal going through. [00:03:38] Speaker A: So that sounds like a real kind of problem for the industry because EA is what is still considered one of the big players in terms of games development, even though they don't seem to be as kind of in the forefront of people's minds now. There are certain games over the time, but how would this also affect their relationship with Xbox? Because EA has got quite a tied relationship with Xbox. There's a whole panel in the Xbox Game Pass that is dedicated to ea. [00:04:08] Speaker C: Yeah, it shouldn't really affect anything like that, unless, of course, the new owners have any say over that, but I doubt that they necessarily will if they're making money from any sort of Game Pass things. But then again, we've had other things with Game Pass that suggest that that's not making money. So. But yeah, I don't think it's necessarily going to affect anything like immediately for people. I mean, from what I've read, the deal doesn't fully go through until the end of the financial year. So we're talking about March, April is when. That's when the deal finally goes through properly, I think, like, yeah, like you said, sort of they're not necessarily at the forefront. But that's because, like a lot of the big AAA companies, they're kind of doubling down on sort of we're going to put loads of money into like one or two big bets. So they've got like their sports stuff, so the ea, EA Sports FC and the Madden stuff in the us and the Sims is a big thing for them as well because that keeps raking money, apparently. I read something that it's. I think my fourth biggest earner last year was the Sims 4, which, like, shouldn't surprise me, but it did kind of surprise me. And They've got Battlefield 6 coming out soon, which they've put a ton of money into that because they really, really want to beat Call of Duty with this one, it seems. So. I mean, we're going to see a lot of that go through, but I think obviously there's a lot of discussion over what's going to happen to some of the smaller stuff that they've got. So BioWare, for instance, is a big one that's been brought up as like, what's going to happen to them? Because there's a lot of discussions about how does this, how does the head is sort of the Saudi investment fund specifically involve this? Because a lot of people bringing up sort of human rights records with Saudi Arabia and you know, are we going to sort of with things like the Sims and with things that bioware, there's a lot of LGBT representation and there's concerns that a lot of that's going to get stripped out, but we don't know. And obviously the thing with BioWare is they spent ages developing Dragon Age, Valeguard. It didn't sell that well. And I think there's going to be some discussions there and there's a lot of thoughts that that's going to either get shut down or sold off, if it's lucky. It's probably unlikely that's going to survive this. [00:06:38] Speaker A: Is it likely that they're going to pump the brakes on games that are in development and how is that going to affect the. The games companies that are working under the EA umbrella? [00:06:48] Speaker C: Yeah, it depends really. I think, like, because of the size of this investment and EA's got a. EA specifically has to pay back 20 billion of this. So they are going to be like, you know, there's going to be a lot of stuff that they're going to try and pump as much money as possible out of all of this. So there's probably going to be a lot more focus on those big hits, things like, you know, the sports stuff. And if Battlefield does well, that's probably going to get just hammered with more monetization. There's been things about Apex Legends as well and how they tried to put a lot of aggressive monetization into that and that kind of backfired. So it's like, are they going to try and sneak some of that back in to try and make a lot of money off that? So there, there's a lot of discussion there in terms of they're probably going to double down on the big stuff and just start selling off bits that just aren't immediately making loads of money, which is why, again, BioWare being the big thing. I think there's obviously concerns around things like need for Speed as well, potentially that will get sold off and. Or like, you know, repurposed in some way. So there's a lot of discussion there. [00:08:06] Speaker A: Salmon, Matt, do you have any thoughts on this? Are you kind of big EA games players or have you kind of got the more nostalgic view of ea? [00:08:16] Speaker B: But mine's probably the more nostalgic view. I think it's definitely like one of the big names that was around when I was growing up. I still can't hear EA together without part of my brain going it's in the game. But afterwards. So it's yeah, definitely one of the more well known ones. And I think a big part of that is like we're saying they're kind of sports games which are sort of famously like the one game that a lot of gamers own because they're into sports rather than into gaming. And yeah, it's interesting. It's just such a staggeringly huge amount of money that they've bought it for. I sort of tend to compare these things with the kind of film equivalents and the fuss everyone was kicking up when Disney bought Marvel and Star wars for 4 billion each, which was also a staggering amount of money but pales in comparison to 55 million. It sort of makes you wonder what the reason behind that was given that ea yes is still a huge name in gaming, that it's not what it used to be in terms of kind of popularity and output. Yeah, my theory is those sports games are going to start really pushing the Saudi teams as the big teams that everyone should go and sponsor. And that's how Saudi Arabia get their money, money back in their tourism from people coming to see their sports games. [00:10:08] Speaker A: I suppose. [00:10:09] Speaker D: On that, on that as well. Talk about sort of sports side of things and esports. So I was about to bring that up. [00:10:16] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:10:17] Speaker D: The Middle east have been investing more and more in conventional sports but esports as well with a lot of tournaments happening. So I wonder with the EA purchase as well, what would that do to some of the, some of the esports scene around. Around EA games? Because there's quite, quite a lot. [00:10:42] Speaker B: Of. [00:10:44] Speaker D: Quite a lot of competitive esports. There is, there's a lot from eaip. So it would be interesting what, what they would do with that because also what we've had in the past when, when they've sort of hosted esports tournaments in those kind of locations again you'll have a lot of players who are in a moral dilemma but also logistically as well, there's a lot of challenges that, that that's posed in the past. So it will be interesting to see what happens there. For me, I'm super to Sam. For me it. EA is quite nostalgic brand as opposed to anything today. But I also wonder whether is there some positive out of this? So if it does go the way a lot of people are fearing and you're almost, you almost see like the downfall of of EA and a AAA sort of publisher. Is this the kind of thing we need to. [00:11:51] Speaker B: Sort of. [00:11:54] Speaker D: I'd say rekilter the gaming industry because even though that there's always debate around is the get is gaming in decline? I don't think it is, but it's that kind of. There is a lot more of a move towards AAA what sells executives. It's a lot more of a lucrative business that's ever been. So maybe this could be you know, a step too far that may help sort of Hilter the other way. [00:12:24] Speaker A: I don't know. [00:12:25] Speaker C: Yeah, I think on that point we're definitely seeing like a lot of shifts this year in general. Like some of the biggest games of the year are like smaller teams and you know, things like Hollow Knight, Silksong and Expedition 33. They are some of the bigger games of the year this year and they're not, they don't have a AAA company associated with them. And I think one positive that I do hope comes from this is that rather than a lot of these studios like bioware or, or whatever, rather than them getting closed, that they do get sold and that hopefully whoever buys them is actually going to make better use of them. You know, so you know, there's obviously talk of you know, a new Mass Effect potentially being in development and what if instead of under EA that was being made by someone who actually cared about story driven games and you know, actually wanted to do something good with that. And you know, on a personal level it'd be nice to see if someone would get hold of the Mirror's Edge OP and then make a new one of those. But that's just, that's just me. [00:13:32] Speaker A: In a similar vein, I was just thinking maybe it's time for a wing commander resurrection because we haven't had a wing commander game in what, 25 years maybe something like that. Do you think the average gamer is going to be in any way affected by this or, or this news having any impact on, on the games buying public? [00:13:54] Speaker C: I mean my immediate thought on this is just because of just again the sheer amount of money that they need to claw back from this. We are probably going to see a lot more aggressive monetization in a lot of these games. Especially like the sports games probably in Battlefield as well. And that I think is going to be the immediate impact on actual players because you're just going to see people suddenly like everything. Like you load up a game, it's going to be Even worse than it currently is of just like, oh, spend money on this thing. Spend money on this thing by, you know, why not buy even more Ultimate Team Cards? And you know, we'll jack the prices up on that. You know, we'll. I think that's where we're going to see the worst of it, to be honest. [00:14:38] Speaker A: Do you think we might see them move into more mobile game stuff as well? [00:14:44] Speaker C: I would not be surprised. This mobile game stuff tends to be like a big earner because you can put stuff up quite cheaply, but then sort of through a lot of monetization, make a lot of money off that. So it's quite profitable. I mean, we've already got stuff like Command and Conquer, which only ever seems to exist as mobile games. Today we're probably gonna see more of that. [00:15:09] Speaker A: So it's gonna be an interesting time ahead for ea. I think like you said, until the actual whole merger and stuff goes through in the early part of 2026, we won't really see what the predicted future is, but it'll be something we'll keep an eye on. And if anything interesting comes up, I'm sure that Lee will be the first to report on any interesting developments in, in the ongoing story of EA. So at the end of this month, on the 31st of October, a certain holiday date comes up and it's the best tradition day of the year. Yes. And as is traditional, we are supposed to dress up for the occasion. So as Sam is our expert costume builder, we're going to get Sam to divulge any tricks and tips to help you with your costuming for Halloween. And some of us might also just reveal some of the things that we've got prepared for for our costumes later in the month. So over to you, Sam. What, what's, what's some of the best things people can do to kind of up their game when it comes to dressing up cosplay at Halloween? [00:16:23] Speaker B: Okay, well, so a few things. So I always like to do some sort of mask or kind of headpiece for my Halloween costumes. It's quite a good kind of focal point to build a costume around. And depending on what you're doing, it can make it quite easy to kind of figure out what the rest of you can be wearing as well. So in past I've done things like Anubis, which I think was one of our fancy dress contests in geeky Brummy, but Egyptian gods generally are quite a good one because you can sort of, you can do the mask, but then make like a Kind of toga or something for the rest of it, which is fairly straightforward to do. I've done a minotaur before, which similar sort of thing with the rest of the costume. Venom is quite a fun one. So if you're doing some sort of kind of big headpiece, they're quite easy to make. The way I would tend to do it is get a couple of strips of A4 paper. So generally speaking, if you have two sort of strips taken from the long edge of an A4 piece of paper, you can quite easily kind of get those around your head and kind of staple or glue them, whatever, and then do another piece going across and then front to back to kind of make like a little bowl that will sit on your head. And then you can build the rest out from there using papier mache or just kind of building up the. The papering card on that original frame. For me, it's not a good fancy dress costume in this. It's in some way desperately impractical. If you can see and eat properly, then something's gone wrong. But always worth sort of thinking about that as you're building it as well. So if you are again, basing it around some kind of headpiece, then think about the practicalities of it. How am I going to see. How am I going to get stuff to my mouth if you're building. If you're making something that's a bit fancier for the rest of your outfit, Thinking about things like how am I going to go to the toilet? Can be worth planning in advance as well sometimes. Or like other practicalities, like, I went to fancy dress cost at a Halloween party a few years ago where I'd made for my costume some kind of big, like, bat wings that kind of sat quite high on my back, which I was really happy with. They looked quite effective. I managed to make it so that when I lifted my arms up, the wings kind of unfolded through their kind of system of pulleys going through various pipes. There was lots of planning involved. Got out of the car and the wind immediately broke one of them and then got into the party where my friend who was organizing it had decorated with lots and lots of stuff hanging from the ceiling that was then getting tangled in, obviously, with the wings. So, yeah, another tip would be, if you're going to a party like that and you've put lots of effort into the costume, make sure you get a photo of it very early on before you and everyone else is drinking. What else? So I got in the background, Bub which was my fancier fancy dress costumes. So that whole piece fitted over my head. There's some eye holes. If I can line my finger up around here in the kind of chest area. And this was semi successful. But there was a pipe running from his mouth through to a kind of container built into the chest, which I could then access, like drink through a straw, basically. So you could pour some drink into the mouth and then that would be sat there for me to drink at my leisure later on. Which worked really well the first time I tried it. And then so I was having to get someone to kind of do the pouring for me because I could see really what I was doing. And the second time I tried it, I felt it running down my head. And then I arrived again after that. But it won't be the first time, which is minky. [00:21:32] Speaker D: As the party went on, did people just start using it as like a Beer Keller kind of thing? Get off? [00:21:42] Speaker B: That would have been it fairly quickly came off just because it was a bit challenging to walk around in. But again, made sure everyone got a good look at it first. And lots of photos and that sort of thing. [00:21:58] Speaker A: Are there any materials that you favor to. To build out of? Because I know some people use the kind of the cheap Poundland yoga mats and stuff to. To build some stuff. So do you prefer and are there any particular materials that people maybe should avoid in terms of they might not be good from a health and safety point of view and stuff. If people are making costumes for maybe younger. Younger people or working with them to make costumes in the run up to Halloween. Are there certain things that you'd say these are definitely the ways to go. And maybe some of these things are best avoided. [00:22:31] Speaker B: I do think those cheap yoga mats, I'm a big proponent of those. You can get them incredibly cheaply. They're very versatile and easy to stick together. They could kind of flexible material, but they've got a bit of a texture to them, which can work quite well as well. In terms of stuff to avoid. [00:22:57] Speaker C: I. [00:22:57] Speaker B: Would say think about kind of how things interact with adhesives. So you're going to want lots of glue for a lot of costumes that you're making and that sort of thing. So if it's something more rubbery, that might have a bit of a chemical reaction with the glue, that's not really ideal. Just if you notice that happening, obviously make sure you've got windows open and that sort of thing. It's all well ventilated. I have dabbled precisely once with liquid latex as a kind of thing to get on the face. And that was one of the most unpleasant experiences I've had, especially if you're doing it in the nose and mouth area. It just smells really noxious. So I won't say avoid it completely because that is essentially what it's designed for is that kind of makeup. But if you are going to go down that route, I would say test it first and just know what you're getting into before you sort of put it on your head of a party. Yeah, those are the main ones that come to mind. But all the usual sort of things of be careful when you're cutting stuff out. Like sometimes you want quite an intricate shape which can be quite fiddly. So if you're using knives and that sort of thing to cut those up and make sure you've got all the protective gear in place. Yeah, cool. [00:24:49] Speaker A: So have you got. Is Bob your costume for this year or is there one in the pipeline? [00:24:54] Speaker B: There is one in the pipeline. It's still quite early stages, so I haven't really got much I can show you that will look particularly exciting yet. But my friend who's putting a Halloween party on has set the theme this year for as Twisted Fairy Tales. So my plan is to do a kind of frog costume that will transform into a prince. [00:25:24] Speaker A: That sounds kind of cool. [00:25:27] Speaker B: It's a. Basically it's like a. It's got. I've got like a green hoodie and the plan is to sort of convert the hood of the hoodie into a bit of a frog face and make a bit of a kind of lower jaw for it as well. But then kind of rolled up inside the hood will be a cape. So when the hood comes down, the cape will unroll and kind of both cover the hood and create a bit of a kind of cloak for the prince. And then there's a few other bits and pieces that I'm kind of figuring out on how. How to make it transform. But basically try and go from pretty much all green into something vaguely princely looking without having to take anything off. [00:26:15] Speaker A: Hopefully when that costume is revealed, there'll be photographs and video that we can post up on the geeky brummy socials. So everybody going to be amazed at what this. I think it needs a transformation video that shows this whole thing in because it sounds incredible. Which, again, to be honest, what we expect from you, Sam, it's like, you know, it's always a good one because I remember when we did Panland Cosplay and you. You can Transform to do a clicker out of the Last of Us that you'd basically made with a yoga mat. I was like, it's like impossible. I'm going to throw to you then, Matt, is have you ever partaken in the Halloween dress up tradition? And have you got any kind of tales of a costume that really worked for you? And are you doing anything for this year? [00:27:05] Speaker B: Well, Keith, let's please say that. [00:27:08] Speaker D: So my problem is I'm a visionary, so I have like all these big ideas. I'm also incredibly lazy and. And when I start to like try and do something, I then lose interest quite quickly. So what I've always wanted to do is things like go as Daft Punk and have. And have the full, the full suit, but also the helmet that lights up and all the rest of it and ideas like that. Like, I kind of want to go in or not at all, but I've. I've haven't got the drive to follow it through. But one of my two costumes went down really well. One was quite lazy, but I went as Matt Smith's Doctor who, but it's Matt Smith's Doctor who and made. Made Sonic screwdriver and everything else and that went down very well. But then another one was one of my friends at the time. She was a former makeup artist for Pineapple Dance Studios and she did proper makeup of like Face Wounds and I went as tight as Tyler from Fight Club. So just had. So just walking around town while I was trying to get my costume, just with this, these big old wounds on. But it was made with a wet gum and everything else. It looks really, really impressive and that was probably the most effort I'd put in and it wasn't even me. So. Yeah, these days I don't really get invited to many Halloween parties so I don't have that incentive. But yeah, I'd probably, I'd probably. I'd like to go in all in once, you know. [00:28:55] Speaker B: I do. Like there is something very tired and about walking around in town. [00:29:00] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. [00:29:02] Speaker B: With all the face wounds. [00:29:04] Speaker D: Yeah. Had a few people like, like, look at me like, is everything all right? I was like, no, it's fine, it's fine. [00:29:13] Speaker A: I was surprised anybody even batted an. [00:29:15] Speaker B: Eyelid, to be honest. [00:29:18] Speaker A: It's what you see on, on the streets, Lee. Well, how about you view kind of. I'm sure at some point you must have done some games related kind of costume of some kind. [00:29:28] Speaker C: So off the top of my head, I can think of three occasions where I've like done Any kind of cosplay or dressing up or any kind. First one was like a costume party from the. When I was a teenager, and I went as Arthur Dent because that was incredibly easy to do. You just put on a dressing gown. You basically just go to the party in your pajamas, wearing a dress again, and you carry a towel and you're good. Then I think there was one Halloween party where I just ended up buying, like a cheap Beetlejuice costume from, like, a local shop. But I think, like, the biggest thing I've done was there used to be a small convention in London called Nine Worlds, and it so ran for three days. And I used to go to that pretty much every year because it was just a really fun little convention. And for one of the years, I think the last year I went, I was like, what if for each of the three days I go as one of the Persona protagonists? So I started as like the Persona 5 protagonist, then 4, then 3. And so I did that across the three days. Very few people recognized, but the people who did were just like, oh, my God. There was one person in particular who spotted me on all three days and were just like, you're doing this every day. You're like, you're doing a different one each day. And the reason I did it in that specific order as well was mostly because on the middle day, there was a sort of late night, sort of disco thing. So I figured I would go as the Persona 4 protagonist, but put variant. Put the variant from the Dancing Game and put elements of that into the costume. So then I would go to the disco and I'd have like the armband from the disco from the Dancing Game and things like that. And that is actually immortalized in basically every profile picture I use now online. So if it has my actual face, it's the picture I took of myself on the second day as the Persona 4 protagonist. [00:31:33] Speaker A: I think if you go to the About Us page on the Geeky Premier website, it's got the listing of who we are and stuff that that picture is there. So if anybody wants to see it, that's a good place to see it. [00:31:44] Speaker C: Double check. Yep, that's the one. [00:31:50] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:31:51] Speaker C: I use this for everything. It is. It is also my bluesky profile picture. It is also the picture I've used on Silicon Era on my author page. So. [00:32:05] Speaker A: It'S a good one. Have you got anything planned for this year or are you thinking just see what. How the mood takes you? [00:32:10] Speaker C: I don't really have anything planned this year. I don't tend to dress that often for Halloween. But I mean I did, I was giving some thought earlier of like, if I was to do some sort of Halloween costume. I think one of the easiest options is what, what's come to be known as the where's my wife Fit, which is basically there are so many horror game protagonists who, and in all cases their motivation is I'm looking for my wife. But they're all wearing very similar outfits. They're wearing like green like bomber jackets, jeans and everything. So it's like James Sunderland, it's Ethan Winters from Resident Evil, it's the guy from Evil within. It's an Alan Wake as well. But with Alan Wake you've also got to make sure you wear about 40 jackets because it's the only. Because for some reason he has like a ridiculous number of layers to the point where someone actually wrote an article about like what each jacket supposedly represents, which is a great article. But I think, yeah, that would be like a low cost like option, but just like the, the very kind of alarmingly common outfit of like horror protagonists looking for their wife in a hellscape. So. [00:33:32] Speaker A: I think I don't much like Matt. I don't get invited to many Halloween parties and, but certainly when I was much a much, much younger man and my hair was much longer and it was easy to get props. I've occasionally done Thor with a plastic hammer licensed from Marvel. It actually has the comic look, not the Marvel movies version. This is the comic book one. It's got the text on the side that says whoever, whosoever. What's it this with a, a T shirt with the domes, but only four now you can't get that costume. And it's, it's six, not the same as it used to be. But I'm, I'm a big proponent of props. I think, I think a costume can be made. It's made with props. And I, and because I'm not as, as clever as Sam, I tend not to kind of make my own. So I tend to go and buy cheap toys that then get, get done. So this is, this is a project that's been going for a few years. I had the grand idea that I was going to dress up as a Ghostbuster. Mostly now my costumes are to answer the door to the local kids when they come around on Halloween for sweets and treats. And I moved away from a very horrific mask that I used to wear. It wasn't my face, it was a mask to dress up as a Ghostbuster and then maybe do A few other things. So I've got this kind of Spirit Halloween which you can't get in this country, I don't know why. And I've been to the one in Mary Hill that appears every Halloween and they never have the good stuff. They just have giant talking skeletons. So I've got this, which I've got to replace the electronics because the sounds are all wrong. And you can get a tiny little Ghostbusters PKE meter and you can rewire the electronics. So I've got to do all of that. It's a bit of soldering and whatnot to be done. I've also in the process of doing the. An old Ghost Busters ghost trap that's upside down for those of you watching on video. So that needs. That needs some work. And a vape machine in there to make it go smoky, which unfortunately has labs put out a version of this that did all of that that you bought as a part of a kit. And I've also got a Spirit Halloween proton pack that I'm kind of working on. But I've got. Also got the flight suit and I've got a little badge that says hard luck to do that as well. And also I've solved the going to the toilet problem because obviously, you know, anybody knows Ghostbusters. The flight suit has a little tube for just such an occasion. I'm not going to say whether that's a working model or not, but it's there if you need it. And then more recently, I've gone down the route of cardboard masks, large format things. So I've gone in the past, I've done a Dragon, which was quite nice. That was a pattern that I got off the Internet. And this year I'm playing with. Trying to build a pumpkin head quite large with eye sockets and tights to kind of be able to see through. I was thinking I might try and light it with some LEDs around the frames to have a look at it, but I'm not sure I'll have enough time because I'm supposed to be doing this Ghostbuster. I'll be in trouble if I don't dress up as Ghostbuster this year because that project's been going on for like three years. [00:36:36] Speaker C: But. [00:36:36] Speaker A: But I like masks. They're quite good, quite easy. And I do like the kind of like cardboard engineering that a lot of people are doing online. So I think if you've got. If you're not a person who thinks I can, I can build this, I can figure it out and build it myself. There are quite a few resources out online that you can get patterns that you can just print out and, you know, do with cardboard. And I think a lot of those are really good for kids because you can just tape it down and cut it out and follow the, follow the instructions and you, you can build something and get something that looks really cool. Yeah, that was like quite simply and. [00:37:07] Speaker C: Easily a lot of my Persona stuff, a lot of that came off the Internet, just like pre made stuff. Like one of the things I got was like the Evoker gun from Persona 3. It came as like sort of a laser cut, like wood cut set and I had to sort of glue it all together myself. But it's just layers of wood that you put together and eventually it just looks like a gun. Only reason that I've ever bought spray paint. [00:37:36] Speaker A: So, yeah, I think in the same episode that Sam had dressed up as a clicker, I'd done the cardboard Mandalorian helmet that was just kind of cardboard and, and duct tape, which was, which was quite easy because that's quite. The Mandalorian helmet's quite good shape. It's. It's not that difficult to kind of figure it out. There's plenty of pictures online where you could figure out how to kind of put that together. That was quite simple. But I'm sure I think I've seen more complex ones that have got the Darth Vader that you can make out of cardboard and things like that. So that's quite cool. So have a search around online. There's lots of resources there that you can build something quite quickly and easily. Or something to do with all those Amazon boxes that are just littering your house probably. [00:38:18] Speaker B: Especially if you're in Birmingham and you're recycling. [00:38:21] Speaker A: Yeah, things to do with that buildup of recycling. I meant to just kind of say, Matt, have you, did you have anything that you wanted to show us? [00:38:31] Speaker D: This is exclusive to Halloween, but my partner once bought a mask in a Halloween aisle which I said looked horrific. And then now they spend the entire time, whenever I'm like gaming and stuff, they'll wear it and just stand in doorways looking at me. [00:38:59] Speaker A: It's quite disturbing. I might have to flash up a spoil, a warning there for any, any people of a nervous disposition. [00:39:06] Speaker D: It's proper like, you know, the strangers and that kind of thing is a proper like serial killer mask. [00:39:12] Speaker A: So if you're not expecting it and that pit that appears in a dark, dark doorway, you are going to be quite shocked. I think before we just wrap up this section, I'm just going to say, Sam, are there kind of like a top three tips for a kind of successful costume make. [00:39:30] Speaker B: Planet Advance. Think about the practicalities and have fun with it. It's. It is an enjoyable process. I think making these like, don't treat it as, oh, this is something that needs to be done by 31st October. Treat it as, this is something I'm going to spend a couple of weeks enjoying and treating as a little project for myself. [00:39:59] Speaker A: Yeah. And even if you don't go the elaborate bob costume, there's still quite a lot you can do with a bit of makeup and some dress up clothes and where's my white fit? [00:40:13] Speaker B: I was trying to think of some easy ones from horror films for this year and I think my favorite that I thought of was one of the kids from Weapons. So you just turn up in. You basically just need pajamas or a nightgown or some sort of nightclubs. But the best part of it is don't give anyone any context while the party is going on. And this only really works if you're at someone else's party. But when the party is dying down and you think, I'm probably ready to go home now without saying anything to anyone, go out the door, run off like that and let them discover it on their ring doorbell the next morning. [00:40:56] Speaker A: Absolute genius. Absolute genius. And another one you could do is you could do some a character from a long walk and then you just never stop moving. You keep walking around the house. That'd be quite a good one. Yeah. So if you do happen to dress up for Halloween this year and your costume is. I don't. Good, bad or indifferent, I don't mind which it is. If you've, if you've got a photograph of your costume, then by all means pop it along to one of the geeky brummy socials and let us have a look at what you've been able to conjure up for the the Halloween season. And as I said earlier, hopefully Sam will drop us a transformational video which I'm already in my head is better than the beast transformation that runs at the Disney shows. If anybody's seen that, they've got this animatronic of a beast that turns into a prince. And I'm thinking that that SAMS is already going to be better than that. So have fun building your costumes, have fun dressing up and hopefully you'll have a great Halloween season. So we're going to continue our spooky theme with some excellent recommendations for Those of you who are in the mood for something spooky to tile you through the Halloween season. And so we're just going to kind of some of our favorite spooky items from the worlds of film games, TVs, whatever it is. So I will throw this one over. First of all, I think I'm going to go to Matt. Matt, have you got a spooky recommendation for all of the geeky Brummy listeners? [00:42:24] Speaker D: Yeah. So it's not new, but it's still running. I've been listening to the podcast called Uncanny. So it's BBC Podcast by Danny Robbins. Danny Robbins is a sort of comedy writer, former broadcaster, and he originally did a limited series around the Battersea Poltergeist. He was a. He's a skeptic and he was opening up that case and it was a full series with acted out bits. But also the, the good thing was he had a skeptic, a professional skeptic, and then a professional, a sort of paranormal investigator. And with all of the evidence they would argue for and against, they would run experiments and they would also let the public come forward as well. And then it was so successful. He then ran Uncanny, which then looks at loads of different cases. People write in to say they've had experiences and then they pick them up and they go and investigate. And then this translated into a series on the BBC, see, so you can, so you can see it as well. And they've also got a stage show as well. But I've recently come across it and so I've been listening to it in the spirit of the spooky season. And there's some really fantastic incidents, you know. So his first one in the series, The Evelyn Room 611 is one of the most popular ones and birthed his catchphrase, bloody hell, Ken. And there's. There's another one around a Buffy in the 70s and there's some. I think what I like about it is whether you're a believer or not, you can get sucked in. The way they, the way he presents it as well, it's very unbiased. So you've, you know, he'll ask a professional skeptic and they'll use, they'll use logic, they'll go into different, different psychological states and reasons for why things might happen. And then you've got a paranormalist who will, you know, normally rebuttal that with, with other evidence and then they'll revisit cases because more people will come forward to say, you know, oh, I, I was, I had experienced a similar thing in the same location or they would find new evidence and that kind of thing. So it's really a living, breathing kind of podcast and it's quite chilling at times as well. So that's my. That's my recommendation. You can find it on all good platforms, Spotify, Apple Music, all the rest of it. You can also listen to it via the BBC as well. So, yeah, that's. That's what I would recommend. [00:45:19] Speaker A: How. How spooky and scary does it get? [00:45:25] Speaker D: It depends on what. It depends on which episode. I mean, some of them. So the evening room 611 was a very, very quite freaky one because they have sound effects, that kind of thing as well. So they'll like reenact it. Some of them, not so much. So I'd probably say don't listen to it just before you go to bed, but maybe in the day. We did other things. [00:45:51] Speaker A: So. Not while you're walking down a dark street in the middle of the night. [00:45:55] Speaker D: No. Or rattling around your abandoned mental asylum. No. [00:46:00] Speaker A: So I'm assuming that that's going to be readily available on BBC Sounds for the audio version and then iplayer for the TV series. Yeah, I think they're doing something for this spooky season, I believe. I think there's some more episodes coming up. [00:46:14] Speaker D: Yeah, they're doing a whole series. I think it's an episode a day or something for, for spooky season. But yeah, sorry if you haven't researched that bit. [00:46:28] Speaker B: But yes, they are doing something. [00:46:29] Speaker A: It's. It's a good. It's a good recommend. I did see some of the. The iplayer episodes and reminded of some of the stuff in the 70s that I used to watch and we used to have like magazines that were all about things like spontaneous combustion and all these weird kind of creepy things that used to happen. All the stuff that ended up in the kind of like Scarred for Life books for, for those kids in the 1970s. So I think it's. It's kind of. It's kind of a cool modern version of that. So. Yeah, so that's good. Sam, I'm going to throw it to you. Have you got a spooky recommendation for us? Okay. [00:47:03] Speaker B: Mine also not a particularly new one, but still fantastic if you've not come across it before, is the. The Netflix output of Mike Flanagan, who is a fantastic filmmaker. He's done a number of cinematic films as well. Most recently the Life of Chuck, which was a very sweet film on at the cinema. But what he's probably best known for is his kind of horror series. So there are five series on Netflix in particular the Haunting of Hill House, Haunting of Bly Manor, Midnight Mess, the Midnight Club and the Fall of the House of Usher. They're all one series each. But they're all really kind of spooky, but also emotional. They're quite kind of touching as well. He's really good at kind of developing the characters, making you root for the good guys kind of thing. So Haunting of Hill House and Haunting of Bly Manor are both quite kind of traditional ghost stories, very well told. But the really kind of spooky thing about them is in a lot of scenes he will just have a ghost somewhere in the background. There won't be any attention drawn to it. Sometimes really, really have to be looking out for them to see it at all. But when you do spot them, it is the most chilling thing because obviously the characters don't spot them. They're not like part of the scene necessarily, but it feels sort of special, like you've kind of stumbled across something that you were meant to weren't meant to see. It's a really cleverly kind of worked in thing. And once you know they're there, you do really start looking out for them as well. Which adds quite a fun kind of element to the experience of watching shows. Midnight Mass is a vampire series essentially about a small town in America and the priest running the church there. Again, fantastically well told story. Really, really kind of pulls you in. Midnight Club is more of a kind of anthology series. So it's set around some teenagers telling each other spooky stories in a hospital basically. And so there's the kind of overarching plot which is quite engaging. But also as they're telling these stories, they will get their own kind of special episodic treatment as well. And then the Fall of the House of Usher is the most recent one. It's all based on stories by Edgar Allan Poe and it's sort of. The plot is quite similar to Succession in a way, but with ghosts. I don't know how, how better to describe it really. But yeah, all of his films and shows are fantastic, but these ones in particular just absolutely had me gripped when I first discovered them. So yeah, that would be my spooky recommendation. [00:50:41] Speaker D: I'm pretty sure one episode of the Midnight Club has like the most jump scares in a television show or something. Yeah, because one of the stories, it's just like constant jump scares. [00:50:56] Speaker B: It's a bit of a sort of is a joke. One of the kids is just so reliant on jump scares in their song, you're kind of almost just waiting for the next one. But, yes, I think you're right and. [00:51:12] Speaker A: I think all of those series are available to stream through Netflix in the uk. So, yes, if you've got Netflix subscription, you've got no excuse to scare yourself stupid over the next few weeks with that selection of TV series. Although I have to say, in. Is it Blythe House? [00:51:32] Speaker B: Bly Manor. [00:51:33] Speaker A: Bly Manor. The scariest thing in that is the fact that they make the outside of the manor sound like the cicadas all the time. Which I'm like, what's, what's happening? This is the uk. Are we getting invaded by, like, really weird bugs? Is this, is this something that's going to happen? [00:51:49] Speaker D: Well, also, the, the little girl in it is the voice of Peppa Pig as well. So he gives Peppa Pig a whole new dimension. [00:52:00] Speaker C: So basically with Peppa Pig, so you've got Peppa Pig who's in Bly Manor, and then the dad who's in Dungeon Keeper. [00:52:11] Speaker A: Peppa Pig is going to take a weird swerve at some point in the next few years. [00:52:14] Speaker C: I mean, I don't know if anyone's seen like, the, the edits that someone's done have taken, like clips from Dungeon Keeper and put them over Daddy Pig, because it's the same voice. So it's just like, it's. It's like she's asking her. She's like gone to her dad's workplace and he's explaining, like, what he does. And so she's like, oh, you know, what do you use for your job? It's like a knife. And then like, they enter the office and it's just like, this is where the souls of the damned are kept. And just. You just get quotes like that. The other whole thing. [00:52:48] Speaker B: I imagine you probably have a similar level of fun doing it the other way around as well. [00:52:52] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:52:55] Speaker A: Yeah, that's. [00:52:56] Speaker C: That. Those are. [00:52:56] Speaker A: Those are terrifying thoughts. Unbelievable. I'm sure you've got another spooky recommendation, because you've terrified me already with that one, Leo. I'm going to have to go and look that up. But. [00:53:06] Speaker C: But what. [00:53:06] Speaker A: What would your spooky recommendation be? [00:53:09] Speaker C: So, like, every year what I like to do is try and like, pick up some sort of short horror game that's come out that year and try and play that. And I have not gotten around to. To this year's. But I do want to mention it before I. I have downloaded it, but I haven't actually started playing it yet. And it's a game called Dead Take and it's got like, I think it was described as like, this was cast at like last year's Game Awards or something because like everyone in this game was at like a specific game awards. And it does seem like that, but basically it's sort of like a Hollywood story. And it's got like live action bits with like actors like Ben Starr and Neil Newborn who've been, who've become quite big from game performances over the last few years. And it looks really good, but I haven't played it yet. But it did make me think like some stuff that I've played like in previous years that I've sort of gone, gone through and be like, oh, let's play this horror game. And it made me think of a game that I don't see talked about very often, which I played a couple of years ago called Killer Frequency. It is basically, it's a first, very short, first person horror game where you're a radio DJ in the 80s and you're like in this small town and it's, and there are reports coming through on the radio, on the news that there's a serial killer on the loose. And you basically the entire game, you're, you're just in the radio studio. You don't really encounter anything directly, but you get like callers calling in and it starts out fairly normal and you get like, you know, just general callers, but then you get some people who are being chased by serial killer, by this serial killer and you have to like direct them over the phone to try and save them. And so you keep having this going on throughout the night of like, different things. Like there's one bit where like someone's ended up in like a hedge maze at some local manor house or something. And you need to find the map of the hedge maze somewhere in the studio because like, obviously they've sent like promotional material which has got like a map of the maze. So you have to go dig that out like a trash can or something and then go back to, go back into, go back on the air and like use that to guide them over the, the radio. And there's like lots of little puzzle things that you've got to do while sort of listening to these, these callers and trying to, and see how many people you can keep alive that night just by talking to them over the phone. It's a, it's a really like interesting experience because like, you know, they set it in the 80s, because obviously this is where like you have like, during the 80s, you had like the heyday of all of these sorts of slasher flicks going on in cinema. So they tried to sort of evoke this sort of 80s vibe. They've got like all the different records you can play. They've clearly, like, they're all original tracks, but they've tried to sort of make them sound period appropriate as much as possible. And you can play whatever songs you want on the radio, you know, like in between calls, you can just slap on whatever song you want and you have sort of conversations with your producer and stuff. You never actually, like encounter your producer in person. They're always like on the other side of the wall and the office is always locked and all that sort of stuff, which sort of adds a layer of spookiness to it even more. And because it's like the late night show, the building's just deserted as well. And there are, like I said, times where you have to leave the actual studio and go around the building just to sort of try and find things around the office. And just like, it's just this sense of isolation that you have. I think at one point you need to go into the back. The back alley just to sort of fix a fuse or something. And just the tension you get from going out there, even though you, you know, you're not actually going to get attacked through this, it's just, you know, it's just such an interesting concept for a game that again, I just don't see a lot of people talk about it. Even though I really enjoyed my time with it. I think I basically played through the whole thing, like on Halloween night a couple years ago. I definitely recommend people get. Give it a try. [00:57:17] Speaker A: What. What platforms is that available on? [00:57:20] Speaker C: I know it's on Steam. I have no idea if they've released it on anything else yet. [00:57:28] Speaker B: So it's. [00:57:28] Speaker A: Worth looking over for. Just scare yourself stupid. By the sounds of it, it is. [00:57:34] Speaker C: On PlayStation, Xbox and Switch, so no. [00:57:40] Speaker A: Excuse for everybody to do it. [00:57:42] Speaker C: You can also play a VR version through Meta Quest 2 as well. [00:57:46] Speaker A: Why. Why would you want to do that? Just, please. No, that's not good. [00:57:52] Speaker D: But also team 17, so you can't. You can't go wrong, really, can you? [00:57:56] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:57:57] Speaker D: Of Worms and the Date Everything Sim, which was one of my personal favorites. [00:58:04] Speaker A: I'm gonna take us all back, way, way back in the past when I was completely the wrong age to go and see this movie that I saw in 1982 at. I think it was the Futurist. And it was a film that took a wild swerve for a franchise that had kind of established itself in the previous years. Directed by some guy called John Carpenter. Michael Myers or somebody was in it. So we'd had Halloween and Halloween 2 and then for some bizarre reason they decided to take a radical swerve with the third entry in the franchise. And the idea was that they would start doing each of the Halloween films going forwards as an anthology. And it would be based around the date Halloween and it would incorporate all kinds of different themes. And their first attempt at this was directed by Tommy Lee Wallace, who was actually a person who had played Michael Myers in one of the earlier ones. I think he plays Michael Myers in the closet scene in the original Halloween. And this basically takes the story of an idea of an evil corporation. Boo hiss. We all hate evil corporations. Who's for some reason had decided to create masks that they would ship out and using the Silver Shamrock identity and. And look up the Silver Shamrock jingle and you should be able to find it on. On YouTube. These masks would eventually cause the person who was wearing it for their head to melt and whatever it is and then for bugs and snakes and all kinds of weird stuff to come out of the mask and then attack anybody that was in the local area. And it was kind of weird and really strange and. And it was kind of scary as well because a lot of the. The ideas was that these, these masks were being wear. Worn by children. So it was kind of this kind of thing where kids were getting into the mask and it was being sold to them like, you know, a cool thing. So because there's a whole kind of like Lucky Charms esque ness to the whole Silver Shamrock. It's all kind of happy smiley kind of thing. But you've got this sinister undertone of like evil corporations wanting to get out and kill everybody. And it was kind of weird and spooky. It's a bit cheesy. And I think. I'm not so sure I'm. I'm happy the idea they went back to Michael Myers, but it wasn't a particularly big hit at the time. Even though I. I had a great time with it because John Carpenter still does the music for it. So it has that kind of cynthy, kind of, you know, Halloweeny feel to it through the music. But it's kind of a wild take and I think it's relatively tricky to find. I don't think it's available streaming in hd. I think it's you can find it on Apple as a download, but it's only in standard definition and you can Import it on 4K Blu Ray from America. I think Shout and Scream Factory have done a recent collector's edition of it with a load of extras. But it's an interesting curio as. As a way the Halloween franchise could have gone. But I think the Halloween was suffering from the idea that I think at that point or in certainly in the years in afterwards that you had all the interlopers. So we obviously had The Friday the 13th, I think at a similar time. And then shortly after this film Nightmare in Elm Street's franchise kicked in and they kind of. They went down the hall kind of slasher mad monster man thing and Halloween drifted back into that. But I certainly feel that Halloween, the season of which full title influenced kind of later films like Trick or Treat, which is. It's a great kind of anthology in one film with, with that you, you get. But if you, if you've never seen it and you've. Your knowledge of Halloween is only Michael Myers, I definitely recommend that you. You try to. To find a copy of Halloween Season the Witch and just see where we might have gone with that franchise. And I have a lot of fondness for it and it is, it is still slightly weird and creepy and, and, and, and kind of, you know, unsettling in a way. Probably not in a way that modern audiences would be creep. We did and creeped it out. But I've got that nostalgic view of when I saw it at the age of 14 or whatever it is. I think maybe even in the same year I saw Evil Dead and that was definitely too young to see Evil Dead. That traumatized me somewhat rotten. I wasn't quite as traumatized by Halloween 3, which is probably why I've got a lot more fondness for it. But yeah. So our spooky recommendations for you if you want to scare yourself stupid over the next few weeks was uncanny from Matt and we had the whole the. I'm pointing the wrong direction from Sam. It was the over of Mike Flanagan. Mike Flanagan couldn't think of his name. And then Lee's recommendation was. You have to remind me of the full title Dead. [01:03:12] Speaker C: Was it Deadly Frequency Killer Frequency. [01:03:15] Speaker A: Killer Frequency. So yeah, so you've no excuse to scare yourself stupid over the next few weeks as we run up to Halloween. So if you've got any spooky recommendations that you want to share with us or the rest of the geeky Brummy family, by all means pop it up on our socials and hopefully we will also scare ourselves stupid with your recommendations. So it's time for our regular recommendations of One Geek Thing and this episode we're going to go to Lee first. [01:03:48] Speaker C: So yeah, my One Geek thing that I've been playing for a bit of recently, it's an older game, it's from a couple of years ago. Terranel, which I finally got around to playing, is basically an anti city builder. So unlike a game like Sim City where you are building a city and doing all that, this is about like you're taking, you're trying to rebuild nature and ultimately remove yourself from the equation by the end of it all. So it's like you basically go into like these sort of barren maps and you have to put down machines that can sort of clear the land of toxins and can put plants down. And as you're sort of going through animals will start returning to the area and it sort of affects the climate of the area too. And ultimately then you have to sort of break everything down and leave. And I've been playing through, play through the whole thing recently. Finally it's a game that I've sort of been aware of since it came out and it was like, oh, I do kind of want to check that out. It's a really interesting thing. So each level sort of split into three. So the first stage is always make the land as green as possible. So basically just take this barren emptiness and just make as much of it just green. Just place grass down as much as possible. Second phase is always you have to put down different biomes. So that can be like, there's usually like three or four that you've got to put a certain amount of across the map. So you've got like trees, like things like forests and things like that. Or you get like, you know, wetlands, tundra, different depending on like what the map is, it sort of changes what sort of things. They've all got their own very specific ways of how you implement that land type. So for instance, for a forest you've got to like burn down, burn some land and just let the sort of fire go through a certain bit. And like the ash will be used as like the nutrients for forest. They'll sort of grow in this sort of space that you've created. Other things are like, for like bamboo, you've got to like set it up in a specific location and like rainforest, you've got to sort of place these flags down to sort of create a cover that will cause the rainforest to grow. Under that. So it's, it's all just kind of about balancing your resources and stuff to make sure that everything gets built properly and you get the right amount of everything. And then the third phase comes in where you basically go to make sure every animal on the map is as happy as possible. And then you break everything down and leave leave no trace of humanity behind. And it's just, it's a really, really fun take on like the sort of city builder genre because of it being so focused on nature. And, you know, everything's normally like, oh, build all the factories and build all the houses. And this is like you build the factories specifically to make some forests grow. And then you remove the factory and then just leave it to it. There's some real challenge on some of the maps. So like each, like there's four different, well, the gaming issues that came with all different sort of climates that you have. But then they've recently added a fifth one which was like a sort of desert, like arid desert sort of thing. So I think the initial four was sort of like a temperate, a polar, tropical, and then like what they call continental and that sort of, that's a bit more of a kind of like Asian sort of biome. And so they. Each map's kind of got its own things. Like there's one map, for instance, where it's. It's a caldera, so it's like an old sort of dormant volcano. And one of the biomes you've got to place is lake vegetation, but there's no water on the map at all. So basically you have to set things up so that you increase the humidity and the temperature of the area so that rain comes and then the caldera fills up with water and it creates a lake that way. And then you've got things like in the polar areas you've got a sort of. Of place like kelp forests into the water, but you've also got to clean the water out as well. And ultimately you need to bring the temperature back down so that all the polar bears and penguins are happy. And then like the, the recently added desert one, you've got a sort of. The certain areas you've got a clear of sand and, and things like that. And one of the more frustrating maps was one where you have to like actively build the land because it's just like flooded completely. So you have to dredge the water and then place the land as a map. But you have to like, do it strategically or else you won't be able to break things down. At the end or you just will run out of like good placements for like the different biomes in the second phase. So, you know, that one definitely took a few retries, but it definitely like, you know, I finally got around to playing it and was sort of like, oh yeah, like, let's give this a go. And it was so compelling. I just ended up playing through the whole thing and just had a great time with it. So. [01:09:16] Speaker B: Cool. [01:09:17] Speaker A: It sounds really intriguing. [01:09:20] Speaker B: I like the idea of City Unbuilder. [01:09:23] Speaker C: Yes. [01:09:26] Speaker A: What platforms is that available on? [01:09:29] Speaker C: I've played it on PC and I'm always an advocate for games like that, always being best on PC, but I think it's released on most things. There's definitely. Yeah, there's a switch port. You can play it on mobile as well. [01:09:47] Speaker A: Definitely kind of the keyboard mouse combination best for it. [01:09:52] Speaker B: Cool. [01:09:53] Speaker A: Sounds great. Everybody should go out and download that instantly. We're going to come over to you now, Sam, what's your one geek thing? This. This episode? [01:10:02] Speaker B: Okay, so last episode, Keith, you set a bit of a precedent in my head by the entire concept of cinema is your wagging. So I'm going to follow up on that with something that's similarly been around for a while and will not be a new thing to, I'm sure the vast majority of our listeners, but relatively new to me, as in, I only got into it sort of over Covid and that is Dungeons and Dragons, which I say everyone, I'm sure is familiar with it. It's a role playing game. You can play it anywhere. You just need a few friends and a bit of imagination. There's all sorts of variants. Yes. So Keith, Lee, Ryan and I and a few other people have been playing a game for what, a few months now, I suppose. Yeah, which I've been thoroughly enjoying. It's just a really nice excuse to kind of spend a bit of time together. So we've been going to my seat of chance encounters in. So, yeah, in Digby the Custard Factory, which is a lovely little gaming cafe. It has very nice food and as I say, it's just. It's a nice excuse to get together and play it. I've not had a go yet at being a Dungeon Master, but of the few games I have played, I get the impression there can be a lot of work that goes into it, but I think you can kind of. There's levels of commitment and you can probably decide where you want to pitch it. So Luke, for example, who runs our campaign, has been doing a great job he's got like a kind of book of maps. He's brought some figures for us to play with and kind of obviously puts a lot of planning into it. There's also another game that I've played with some different group of friends where someone had basically 3D print 3D printed the entire scenery and yeah, just huge amount of work had gone into that. He obviously didn't just do it for our game, he's played it for the use of other games he's played as well. But. But yeah, really kind of brought it to life as well. And yeah, it's. It's really satisfying building a character. In my head it's quite similar to what I enjoyed about playing Sims. Sort of taking us back to the EA earlier, which was always like. I always preferred making the people and building the houses and that sort of thing to actually playing the Sims game. And yeah, there's the D and D Beyond kind of app, which makes it really easy to build a character and kind of decide what direction you want to go in. And one of the things I think that put me off for a long time kind of playing it and giving it a go was, was the kind of role playing element. I never massively fancied the idea of like a bunch of people putting on silly voices and making stuff up as they go along, but actually that is quite good fun. You don't have to do the silly voices. [01:13:49] Speaker C: Oh, I do. [01:13:52] Speaker B: There are old snow, you're out. [01:13:54] Speaker C: The is the thing I love about our table is the fact that I'm the only one who decided I'm going to put on a silly voice. [01:14:02] Speaker B: I sort of had the vague intention of doing it when we started, but yeah, it doesn't seem to have lasted. [01:14:10] Speaker A: We're committed now. This is the game that we're playing. It's probably the first time I've actually. I've actually done it. I've had a lot of interest in Dungeons and Dragons for a long time. I think it was Gary Gygax that came up with the whole concept. Late 70s, early 80s. So it's been in the back of my head and I've always wanted to play. Never really kind of in the UK particularly it wasn't the Thing back then. But I've been engaged in a lot of the kind of spin off stuff because there's been comics, DC ran comics in the early 80s that I read that were based on the Forgotten Realms type stuff and there's been plenty of books. It's expanded off into video games. One of my. One of my favorite things that I watched over. I was too old to watch it, but it was the Dungeons and Dragons TV series in the 80s which I really enjoyed. And recently we've had the big screen adaptation with Chris Pine and Hugh Grant. [01:15:04] Speaker C: Which I deserve to do a lot better than it did. [01:15:07] Speaker A: Spectacularly brilliant. Absolutely. And we did desperately need a sequel. And I was so pleased when I watched it in the uk. They spelled honor correctly, which was good. Yeah. So, yeah, it's. It's great for. I'm surprised at how much I actually enjoy it and the. The flexibility that you have got because literally you just go, if you can think it, you can do it. [01:15:28] Speaker B: Absolutely. And then. [01:15:29] Speaker D: Yeah. [01:15:30] Speaker B: And like you say, there's a few things, I think in pop culture recently that are kind of bringing it more to people's minds. So it's been quite a big running theme in Stranger Things, which is having its final season starting soon. There's things like the Legend of Vox Machina has been quite successful. That's all D and D. And obviously Baldur's Gate games have been really successful as well. And yeah, I thoroughly recommend if anyone wants to try it. Just as I say, there's loads of board game cafes in and around Birmingham that will happily let you sit and play at a table for a bit. [01:16:10] Speaker C: There is also a group locally and this is how I got into it, which is basically, they meet on a Thursday and it's pretty much anyone can join you. I think you have to sign up online. They're mostly based on Facebook. I think if you just look up like RPG Birmingham, Tabletop RPG Birmingham, you'll find the group. And I think. I don't know if they still meet up in Selly Oak, but that's where it was the last time that I met in person because, like, the group I was with, we just splintered off and there we do stuff online. But that's how I got into it. It was literally just show up, join a group. That seems interesting and yeah, you're away. And that's how I got started with it. [01:16:55] Speaker B: So I was literally just about to say that. And it may well be the same thing as the Role Players Guild, which meets every Thursday at Hennessey's Bar in Digworth. [01:17:09] Speaker C: Probably move there. [01:17:11] Speaker A: Okay. [01:17:12] Speaker B: But yeah, and it does say on their. Their website, just turn up if you want to turn up. I think it's a couple of quid to help hire the room, but yeah, you can just turn up and join a table, basically. And found out recently that it's actually run by one of my colleagues at work. So shout out to James who got guns at when I was trying to plug the anime festival at work and said he's a follower of the show. [01:17:45] Speaker C: I do want to sort of add to your point about like sort of the difference with DMs and stuff like that is. So I've got in my group we have like a guy who's sort of our main dm. But recently one of the other players, she decided I'm going to run like a short little thing, like a little one off in a. In a casino and the difference in the way they ran their game. So our usual dm, he will put us into Fantasy Grounds. He's got this whole setup going on where it's like just all. Everything's programmed in and all this. And when it came to like the, the one off game, our player with the. The. The sort of PM for that game, she was just like, yeah, it's all theater of the mind. I'm not, I'm not figuring all that out. So it's literally we just did it over voice chat and just figured it out as we went along. But still both very fun way of doing things. [01:18:39] Speaker A: So a quick word of warning for anybody that does get involved in D and D as a tabletop game. It can lead to a serious dye addiction, as Lee will ably demonstrate. [01:18:52] Speaker C: I'm not dipping them out of this on camera. [01:18:56] Speaker A: Matt, over to you. What's your one geek thing? [01:19:00] Speaker D: Contain yourselves because announced is the return of ESL One Birmingham. So for those who don't know, it's a Dota 2 tournament, but it's actually one of the largest esports tournaments in Europe. [01:19:19] Speaker B: Stu. [01:19:19] Speaker D: It's going to be at the BP Pulse arena, which is at the NEC for anyone who's local. But also when you purchase your ticket this year, you also get access to DreamHack, which is also coming to Birmingham at the same time. So you get two for the price of one. And it's the first time Dream Hack's been in the UK as well. So this is super fun. So March 27th to 29th, 2026. And this is a big deal, which I've been trying to say for many, many years and everyone keeps ignoring me. But it's a massive tournament. It's very good for the uk, bringing an esports tournament of this, of this ilk and it's very good for Birmingham as well. Even though I know NEC is technically not. Not Birmingham, but. Yeah. And the prize pools with 16 teams. The prize pool is a million. A million dollars. So very big business. And obviously this feeds into the wider Dota pro circuit, so the points will count towards the road to TI 2026 as well. That's my. Yes, that's my thing. So I've been with my Dota friends from the UK and abroad, we've all been getting our tickets and sorting out our accommodation. Ready for. Ready for that. [01:20:49] Speaker C: Cool. [01:20:50] Speaker A: Is it an expensive ticket buy or is it relatively. [01:20:55] Speaker D: It's. It's more expensive this year. So it's about. So tickets for three days are about £85, but I think the increase is because you also get access to Dreamhack. So you're getting two, essentially two big gigs for the price one. However, this is for you, Sam, if you want to do a cosplay and if you want to take part in a cosplay contest, you get two free tickets. So if you want to make me some Dota 2 cosplay, so I get free tickets, go for. [01:21:30] Speaker C: So. [01:21:31] Speaker A: So remind us of the dates for that again and where people should go to get their tickets. [01:21:34] Speaker D: Yeah, absolutely. So, March 27th, 29th, 2026, and that'll be taking place at the BP Pulse Live arena at the nec. Very accessible from Birmingham New street to Birmingham International. And if you want to get your tickets, it's the ESL One site. So ESL1-SO esl-one.com forward/birmingham or just type in ESL Birmingham. It'll be the first thing that comes up. [01:22:03] Speaker A: Cool. So look at. Look out for that. And perhaps it's probably a good idea to get tickets now because that's likely to sell out over the next few months, I would imagine. [01:22:13] Speaker D: Yeah. And hopefully by the time it rolls around, we'll have our bin sorted. [01:22:20] Speaker B: Right. [01:22:20] Speaker A: So for my pick of one geek thing, I'm. I'm picking something that I hope will temper potential disappointment that people may have had with a film that was released very recently. And I'm choosing the incredible animated TV show Tron Uprising, which was originally transmitted between 2012 and 2013 and was telling the story of events that happened between the original Tron film and Tron Legacy, which was the Legacy sequel that rolled around around the same time. The upside of this TV series is it does feature Tron, kind of the clues in the name. The Tron should be in a Tron thing. And it's. It's a beautifully animated show. It's very stylistically done. If people remember another cartoon series called Aeon Flux, it feels very European. The characters are very long and slender, very stylized. And the world of the grid is also beautifully rendered. And even though it's a kids show, it's very, very intricately written, has a lot of things to say. The lead character is a program called Beck. He's basically an engineer, and events happen around him that draw him into the orbit of Tron. So he kind of is finding out what's happening with a character called Tesla, who appears in the films as well. And it's. It's about rebellion and it's about fighting for what's right. And again, it's a. It's a theme that's perennial and is. Is great in the current environment that we're in, but it's. It's a beautifully made show. The voice acting is phenomenal. You've got people like Elijah Wood in it. You've got Bruce Buckton Lightner, who's reprising his role of Tron. You've also got people like Lance Henriksen in there. Paul Rubens is in there. Tricia Halfa, who people will remember from Battlestar Galactica, is in there. And the voice work is superb. It's. It's really good. It looks fantastic. It's 19 episodes. They run 20 to 30 minutes long, depending on what they are. But for me, one of the standout points of it is the soundtrack. Now, everybody kind of will know from John Legacy, Daft Punk did the music. And it's a big part of why Tron Legacy is so good. But for the TV series, a guy called Joseph Trapanese, who was the arranger of the Daft Punk soundtrack, created the music. So you've got lots of the motifs and sounds from the Daft Punk sound in this TV series. And the score, the score is fantastic. If you liked the Daft Punk version, dare I say this is even better than the Daft Punk album. And if you've not heard it, it's available digitally. I don't think it was ever given a physical release here. I discovered today, even though I've got a download of it that I got many, many years ago from Apple. Strangely, this soundtrack, it's Tron Uprising by Joseph Trapanese. It's not available in the main Apple music catalog. You have to go through the Apple Classic app for some reason. A lot of seems to be that recently a lot of film soundtracks have transitioned to that rather than being in the main one. I'm not sure whether it's available on Spotify. I hope it is, because I hope a lot of people will Give the show and this soundtrack a listen. So if you are kind of looking for a good Tron fix, I highly recommend this. I don't think a lot of people saw it at the time. I think it only went out on Disney XD in the uk, so not many people will have seen it. I don't think it's ever really been repeated, but it is available on Disney plus in the uk. So if you, if you're looking for a. A good Tron show with Tron in it, definitely check out Tron Uprising. [01:26:17] Speaker C: I can confirm the soundtrack is on Spotify. [01:26:21] Speaker A: Yeah, definitely worth less than the opening track, which I think is Beck's Theme. [01:26:26] Speaker C: So this is the problem though. I wouldn't be able to take it seriously because the protagonist is called Beck and as a fan of the singer Beck, I would just be thinking of that guy the whole time. And all it's making me thinking is why didn't they get Beck to do the soundtrack? [01:26:41] Speaker A: That would have been a wildly different show. [01:26:43] Speaker C: It would. [01:26:44] Speaker A: So let's go back around again and just remind everybody of what our one Geek recommendations are for this issue. [01:26:51] Speaker C: So, Lee, yours was Terra Nil. [01:26:55] Speaker B: Sam, yours was Dungeons and Dragons. [01:26:58] Speaker D: Matt, yours was ESL one Birmingham and. [01:27:02] Speaker A: Mine was Tron Uprising. So thanks for joining us on this issue of the Geeky Brummy podcast. Of course, you can find us all on the Geeky Brummy socials every week and also on the Geeky Brummy website where you can find Sam's film recommendations and Lee's games recommendations every week. My comic recommendations go up on the Wednesdays, but if people find the week. [01:27:30] Speaker C: We'Re recording this that your comic of the week is Astrobots. And it made me smile. [01:27:36] Speaker A: Yeah, it's. It's not. [01:27:38] Speaker C: I know. [01:27:39] Speaker A: Quite the same. It's not quite the same thing. It's like. [01:27:42] Speaker C: Yeah, I know it's. I know it's not. [01:27:44] Speaker A: It's not quite there, but if you would like to follow each of us individually. Sam, where can people find you online? [01:27:50] Speaker B: You can find me at SD Edwards89 on Instagram bluesky threads. Yeah, keep. [01:28:01] Speaker A: Keep an eye on those in case Sam drops any teasers for his Halloween costume this week. Lee, where can people find you? [01:28:07] Speaker C: You can find me on bluesky odfitfirer and also my YouTube channel, which is also Bob the Pet Ferret. And I probably won't have anything new until the new year, but new stuff is coming. [01:28:19] Speaker A: Yeah, I highly recommend you do watch Lee's Astrobots series from the PlayStation game. It's a phenomenal piece of work which made me just want to go and play too many games from the history of PlayStation, Matt. [01:28:35] Speaker C: With only a year than something game. [01:28:38] Speaker A: There'S still too many. It was those words are now etched on my brain that was like it's. [01:28:43] Speaker C: Available on the PS4. [01:28:46] Speaker A: Matt, how about you? Where can people find you? [01:28:49] Speaker D: You can find me on Instagram matchstickmat. [01:28:54] Speaker A: Keep an eye on those. And I of course are available on socials under the hard luck Hotel Monica, which if it's not Count Duckula, it's probably me. So once again everybody, thank you for joining us on this issue of the Geeky Brummy podcast. By all means, follow us on your podcasting service of choice, look for us on YouTube and please read our posts on all the socials and our websites every week and we will see you shortly. So thanks everybody for joining us. Thanks for Matt, Lee and Sam for joining me here on my attempt to impersonate the the the puppet geek Ryan Parish. Hopefully Ryan will be back with us next time. But until then, take care everybody and have a great Halloween. [01:29:41] Speaker B: Bye. [01:29:45] Speaker A: This issue of the Geeky for Me podcast was hosted by me, Keith Bloomfield, and I was joined by Matt Lovell, Lee Price and Sam Edwards. The Geeky for Me podcast is produced by Ryan Parish and if you Parish and this was a Geeky Brummy production. [01:30:06] Speaker B: Super. [01:30:06] Speaker D: Feel like it's the end of a. [01:30:07] Speaker B: Kids show. [01:30:15] Speaker A: Rainbow up above the streets and houses, geeks are flying. [01:30:20] Speaker D: We could do like a Blue Peter esque episode like Sam can do like some cosplay. [01:30:24] Speaker A: Here's one Sam made earlier. [01:30:27] Speaker B: Yeah.