00:00.00 Alex And we are back with Archeo Animals episode 65 The last episode of Archeo animals and the episode where we're looking at the zoar archeology of Archeo animals and now it's time to talk about where we've kind of. Failed and we we have failed in being as your archeology podcast most of the time because we have slowly but truly ended up being a video game podcast. 00:25.91 Cpt Granarius But zoo archaeology and video games so still relevant. 00:28.28 Alex True Yes, true. Well, we're really stretching it I think in some cases. 00:34.53 Cpt Granarius Yes, we would like to to point the listeners to a recent predator episode. 00:41.71 Alex Yeah, okay, well but I feel like we it would be amiss if we didn't cover so a highlight reel of some of our our favorite episodes of video game. Talk. And I think before we this one that we're gonna talk about I think we did kind of like a a broad you know this is archeology and video games episode but I want to like start off with our first like real video game episode which was episode 26 I mean it was all about the witcher. 01:14.49 Cpt Granarius Guess that was a lot of fun. Um I mean like the fall bat for a lot of these ah video game episodes so of the whichitch are included was ah um, Alex and myself discussing sort of various creatures in these video game franchises. Um describing so of their appearance and what their skeletal. Ah, Morph would have looked like so um, for the case of the witcher we discussed theryffin which as for those were plada is one of the very first creatures you fight in the witcher 3 so sort of sort of hybrid creature with a feline and bird bits. And 2 subspecies an Arch Griffin and a royal griffin and then sort of that snowballed into the but by archaeologist side of a garalt of rivia who was able to identify elements just the ah age and species of monsters remains as well as paleopathology which you do see in the Griffin quest. But also believed. There's a quested white orchard with a braith. 02:14.60 Alex Yeah, there is um I mean I think the Griffin one we talked about because I was like the first big quest you do in the game and I think when we record it I like kind of started playing the third game. So. I wasn't as informed as you were about a lot of the the animal mountain animals the monsters that you fight in that game. 02:39.39 Cpt Granarius Ah, like I went full out for that episode of thing because I Even even think I even bought this like there was like a witch a sort of companion book that had a beast cheerry and that I bought the book. 02:40.41 Alex You did. 02:50.56 Alex But I mean now now I get it I've played I've played through which are 3 twice now including the dlc and I probably have like you know three hundreded hours in that game alone. Um so I get it I definitely get it now. But I mean it but it it is really interesting because of the way. The witcher kind of mechanics work in the video game where it's very investigative and the way that because he's a monster hunter the 2 kind of crossover in this kind of way that makes with the garralts kind of a bioareologist because he does this whole thing where you know he looks at the remains. He's like oh well. I can't I can't do the voice. Ah I'm like trying to like like brace myself to try and do the voice. He's american in the video game. So. It's fine I could do it well I'm like I'm like mega bits. 03:42.42 archpodnet This needs to be growing rapidly come on Alex I know you can do it just summon up you. 03:46.21 Alex Umm, making myself kind of hysterical trying to do this hold and I just need I need to do like something to like get me in the like when's howling. Okay I'm fine. 03:55.77 Cpt Granarius I. 04:01.31 Alex But he's just like you know he looks at the griffon. He's like let's be a female or whatever. Oh my voice. Oh my throat hurts. So bad Doug how do you do that voice all the time. Ah anyway, epi. 04:16.23 Alex No. 04:16.60 Cpt Granarius But yeah, like Alex and myself have similar video game preferences. So you know I think we both enjoy like nice um world building and thus a very sound creature design which is something all of the games are about to mention have in common. 04:29.98 Alex Yes, and I think the witcher was a great way to kind of do it because like I said because you play as a monster hunter. There's a lot of that lore about you know the physiology and the anatomy of the creatures built in inherently into the stories and the. Video game that it was very easy to talk about like you have like a whole beastieary in the menu of the video game which is extremely useful but we also me and simmona share a love of buywed games. So obviously of course we ended up although interestingly. We didn't do dragon age first we did mass effect which I feel like is a ah weird one to do first. 05:13.10 Cpt Granarius Think it's probably because we mentioned dragon age creatures in our main sort of video game episode in the the generic one but massafact didn't make the cut so we started with a whole episode of mass effect which also think by that time I'd only played Andromeda so I think I was. 05:19.74 Alex Yeah. 05:30.80 Alex Oh yeah. 05:31.53 Cpt Granarius Very confused for a lot of it and I've since played because ah, um, in the meantime, the remaster came out so I got that I played through all 3 other than all the dlcs I think I've done 3 playthroughs. 05:40.80 Alex Um. 05:44.74 Alex Oh wow. 05:48.70 Cpt Granarius Because ah there you go. That's but my hyperfocus for you? um. 05:51.99 Alex I Still have not played and drama. 05:56.29 Cpt Granarius I will still insist. It's fine as a different game. 05:56.55 archpodnet I like I gave up on it I just I was just I hated the planet hopping because it was just just felt so menual. But no, the originals are great apart from you know the 1 thing that we all know about. Yeah, you know that? no all. 06:16.35 Alex Is this about me romancing Kaidden again, we've been through this I already admitted my shame. 06:25.11 archpodnet Um, yeah, okay, that is pretty shameful. Um, yet. 06:29.95 Alex It's a really nice romance. Okay, if you like stick it out for the whole thing. It's like a nice kind of like arc where you have the breakup and the second game and you get back together with their game leave me alone I okay. 06:43.22 archpodnet Doesn't sound like healthy relationship I'm just saying. 06:47.20 Alex Listen if you've seen the people I've dated. You would be impressed that I made it this far with Kaden. 06:51.85 archpodnet Um, there's been a lot. There's there's been a lot of cadence right? Okay, got it got it. But no I was referring to the ending of mass factory of course and but no of course standing that you've not prayed 3 times. 06:57.12 Alex Oh course. Yeah. 07:00.12 Cpt Granarius What ending know that that that star thing which. 07:03.92 Alex You mean the Citadel Dl see the true ending of that game. 07:08.67 archpodnet Okay, fair enough I agree I agree Sol Deal Citadel D Il see was good. 07:13.40 Cpt Granarius I think I played the Sitto Dc like so many times because I tried to get all the various options in terms of like ah the like the types of parties that you could have so have you know like wild party in both segments or like chill party. Both segments of. 07:17.92 Alex Oh course. Yeah. 07:19.22 archpodnet Um, yeah. 07:26.34 archpodnet With people. 07:26.89 Alex Did you did you do a hunt. Did you do a hundreds pull ups. It takes so long. 07:29.40 Cpt Granarius Ah, that all of them. 07:34.43 Cpt Granarius Ah, can't remember now like think remember like my favorite was um, ah when Garrison Zahied Garrison sahid's like. 07:37.87 archpodnet I Can't even remember that. 07:49.31 Cpt Granarius Put all the Booby traps around the apartment. 07:49.72 Alex Yeah, it's fun. This is nothing about zoerareology we're just talking about how much we like the king. But yeah, there is clearly I mean you mentioned Garis there's so many, really interesting alien designs in the franchise and we do talk about a bunch of them. 07:52.99 archpodnet Yeah, it's right. 07:56.81 Cpt Granarius Um, him. 08:07.86 Alex But I really want to just bring back. Ah because I didn't remember this until I looked back at the episode. Do you remember the shifty looking cow. So this is a cow you can find in the first game I believe on a planet entour um, ah it's. 08:13.93 Cpt Granarius No. 08:24.80 Alex So there's a space cow and it kind of looks like a thylacine almost. It's got but it's got like 4 legs and 2 like little arms in the front and it's a herbivore if you interact with it as commander shepherd. It will slowly follow you around the planet and slowly steal all your money. 08:40.60 Cpt Granarius Guess Haveve never interacted with it. Yes, yes so we did. 08:45.30 Alex But we talked about it in the episode. But I guess yeah, um and that's just you know, really important. We talk about on a zoo archeological level. 08:51.69 Cpt Granarius But while we're reminiscing about mass effect just because we will never have a chance to bring this up ever again? Um, the l call Shakespeare it just yeah, it's just. 09:03.72 Alex 1 of the best things I've ever seen in my life. 09:10.90 Cpt Granarius Ah, saying of beauty if if you've not played mass effect just just just look up the video of the elcor Shakespeare production. It's just it's gold. 09:22.81 Alex It's just it's a lot of fun. The Alien designs are so great and really interesting. Um, and you know it's a great.. It's a great game regardless of it's kind of not really sticking the landing but it's fine because we have another bioware Franchise. We can talk about. And that's dragon age and I mean yeah, there's ah there is a lot you could talk about Dragon Age. Although I feel like maybe not as much in some are we we did talk about the dragons. 09:56.90 Cpt Granarius Ah, in a way There is so much to talk about that. It will just be reductive to summarize it. There is just too much. 10:02.60 Alex Yeah. 10:07.83 Cpt Granarius But again I'm very pious dragon age. Probably my favorite game of all time I own literally? Well every single game and deal see Book Magazine every kind of media that has come out on Dragon age I have it. 10:23.66 Alex So would you would you say you're more but a theden expert than a Roman one. 10:25.98 Cpt Granarius So it's. 10:30.74 Cpt Granarius I mean quite likely I think and I think I probably know the the fader sort of calendar bet. 10:41.78 Alex I felt God yeah. 10:43.46 Cpt Granarius But because the world the world building is so like interesting and they've got different different names for the days of the month and celebrations. Of course you know they're very no, not so loosely based on some of our celebation and some of our sort of old let pagan holidays. But um, nevertheless. 11:01.72 Cpt Granarius Great. Well-building. Great creature design. Great sort of companion mechanics and things as in mass effect. We fair. That's also spectacular. So yes, 10 out of 10 would recommend. 11:08.78 Alex And is and it's got nugs which I believe we talked about because in dragon age inquisition. You can. You can find a giant Nug which are basically the cat like bunnies without any fur they do? yeah. 11:23.77 Cpt Granarius Um, but they have horse teeth. It's very strange. It's very strange. 11:28.35 Alex So you can what? yeah and there's a big one that you can ride in the battle in inquisition even though they're usually quite tiny. So that's very important that we had talk about. Thank you. 11:43.60 Cpt Granarius I Normally I usually always go for the big stag. 11:49.30 Alex I go for the Bog ah one It's quite quite cool. Um, yeah, no actually I do go for the the stag as well because I am also a female ah daish. Oh we did a stop before we just. 11:50.27 Cpt Granarius Other the bar unicorns quite cool as well. But just big big because I'm always like a a female elven mage in just like. 12:07.53 Alex This becomes the dragon age podcast. 12:09.52 Cpt Granarius If you would like to see us in the future doing a dragon age only podcasts. 12:14.81 Alex But if we just want to listen to the episode that's episode 31 and I'm not sure where I said the episodes for the other ones but which are episode 26 mass effect episode 29 and we'll go into our next video game episode which is Assassins Creed episode 33 and it has been long enough that I've actually played another assassin's creed Dave who I played. 12:33.78 Cpt Granarius Also I just noticed as well. There was literally every other episode dragon age was 31 assassin screen 3 12:41.53 Alex I know it's really bad. We really had a string of video game episodes. We just could not be stopped. Ah but yeah, good news I played Valhaa now. Great game really enjoyed it. Oh I've I've done every thing. 12:54.83 Cpt Granarius I've still more finished it. 12:58.29 Alex And I've got like another like 200 hours into that game. It's great. 13:01.82 Cpt Granarius I've I've done everything but the very last quest. So like I've stopped playing ever since you've done the last bit of main storyline in the present I got so miffed. 13:09.29 Alex Okay I mean fair, Yeah no I've similarly felt like that. So I get I get that vibe. 13:17.32 Cpt Granarius So like no, you don't get to play any of this I'm not finishing this you made a character. 13:25.21 Alex Ah, but yeah these assassin and C Creek games were interesting because it's it's interesting how well they've been at really making the the fauna accurate to the time period I mean we talked about like the auros and stuff like that you can see in the game and for me. And assassins created rogue which I've never played but I do know the great auck makes an appearance and I love the great ak as someone who wrote about them a lot my ph d ah little kind of puffin looking animals that lived up north and that makes me very happy. So I appreciate that commitment to detail. And the assassin's grade games. 13:59.28 Cpt Granarius I mean of course aside from the big like boss legendary creatures which are like should stress neither Alex or myself believe that those are accurate. 14:09.14 Alex Yeah, yeah, that's our our main problem is that they're not accurate. 14:14.36 Cpt Granarius Look you're saying oh like if they did very like a lot of research in the portray of wildlife things like yeah okay maybe learn not the gigantic polar bear in Norway like but maybe not that or very cool. 14:22.49 Alex I don't know you don't know you weren't there. You were in the animus anyway, the last video who gave episode I want to talk about about with iss episode 34 is the polkeon one I mainly just want to bring it up because it's one of my favorite. 14:29.47 Cpt Granarius Absence of evidence. 14:40.96 Alex Moments of the podcast which is when Simona who is not familiar with pokemon was introduced the concept of pokemon eggs and more specifically the fact that there are ghost pokemon hens. There are ghost pokemon that are hatched from eggs. 14:59.73 Cpt Granarius What what? Why are you making me relieved the religious trauma. Not it. 15:03.52 Alex Because it's amazing and it's extremely funny that that's like the main thing you got out of that Pokemon episode. There's like over you know, like 600 whatever pokemon something you got out of it was. Ovipa is ghosts. 15:22.17 Cpt Granarius I Just know. 15:23.90 Alex Yeah, it's It's a lot to to to take in so to to avoid Simona having a nervous breakdown. Well well, we'll take we'll do a quick toast to some of our favorite recurring characters on the show that I feel like we need to mention. And now that we're moving away from the video game episodes and we'll talk about I Guess somehow do you want to introduce this our first character that we'll be giving a toast to. 15:48.10 Cpt Granarius Yes, sub bele. Will we say our final farewell to our good old friend general Cittophilus Granaius first mentioned in episode 30 is um, the general is ah it a humble species of a grain weevil which is actually a pretty nasty gra pest. Ah, that has been brought into Britain thanks to the romans however, in our imaginary. Ah the general cittophilus granaius which is nothing but a grain weval that has a centurian helmet on and. Um, got a battlefield promotion to general. Ah because apparently um, be sort of pronouncing the latin so that the the scientific name with an italian accent makes us sound like a Roman general. 16:37.82 Alex And I just can't be serious for a moment on this podcast. 16:45.21 Cpt Granarius Um, so that snowballed into a hall like character I believe we have received fan art about the general. 16:51.28 Alex Yes, we have and I'm so glad that the general has resonated with you all as it's run resonated with us and I mean it is incredibly important friend to archaeologists given its obsession. What stores a grain which helped to hitch a ride with the romans to Britain. And helps us with interpreting environmental thingies. 17:13.67 Cpt Granarius Now So we should mention like you know the the general know is since he's got an acting role as well for potentially neither a series of comics or a feature film in which ah general sicophalus Granaiuss is actually a man trapped in the body of a grain weaver. 17:19.81 Alex Yes. 17:31.58 Cpt Granarius That has to like jump go travel through time with the help of pliny the elder so he could recover his human form. 17:37.57 Alex Yes. 17:37.95 archpodnet It. It's very it's very kafkaesque that was a very good reference and I hope that somebody listening understands that but anyway I think we're shall we metamorphhosize into the next one 17:59.40 Alex Yeah, we can hold off our our last 2 toasts for the second set or the next segment. So so we'll be back. We'll leave you all waiting to find out who else we're going to mention. 18:06.86 archpodnet Sure.