First Person Shooter

Incoming, incoming!

I'm hit, I'm hit!

Dutch, talk to me.

- It's no good. - My back, it's broke.

- The extraction point is 10 clicks. I'll carry you.

Jesus Christ. Pause.

Hey, Rosey.

Rosey.

Stevie boy.

In here, dipshit.

You took my world, so it's only fair that I take yours.

That was good, but not great.

Should've been great.

It was too fast. Right?

Bang.

Boom. Over.

I mean, maybe 10 seconds from the headset

to the valley of the shadow.

Next time will be slow, methodical,

and yes, magical.

The uniform is ridiculous.

You know that. - I know that.

- The male troopers are dressed for urban combat.

Why is Melinda dressed for a pap smear?

Blame the focus groups.

They wanted to see- - I know what

they wanted to see.

Jesus, I work for a 21 billion-dollar industry

run by 14-year-old boys.

If I can get Zhang to approve these,

we get these into development today.

What's this?

This is new.

No. Well, yeah, it's new.

Holy shit. This is next level.

Yeah, you know, just kinda came to me.

- Oh, man, I do not know how beautiful things like this

come out of an ugly head like yours.

Yeah, it's a wonder.

Morning.

What's up?

We got trouble.

When do we not?

We're falling behind on "Courage for Carnage."

How far?

Only two weeks now.

But Randy's leaving.

Randy. He's gonna put us off our date.

- Not an option. We miss the holidays, we're fucked.

So hire more coders, then.

Can't. We're up against the budget.

You're the one that wanted to expand and reno the place.

I had to pause the construction just to stay on budget.

Bleeding cash and not taking enough in.

So what do we do, then, Zhang?

We miss the holidays, what, we're just supposed to hope

that people buy fucking video games

instead of flowers for Valentine's Day?

Zhang, I need this game, okay? I need it to be great.

I'm sure you meant to say "we."

- It's been 18 months since "Concrete Angels."

We can't dine out on that forever.

How many coders do you want?

Three.

I can maybe find budget for two.

Fine. I want three, but I need two.

Make it happen.

Uh-oh. Cop?

How can you tell?

It's a gift.

Whenever a cop gets close, my taser scars start tingling.

No shit?

A sniper?

That's right, but he didn't suffer.

- Haven't talked to Steve Rosey in, like, four years.

How'd you get my name?

I'm kind of a casual gamer.

- Well, actually, 48% of gamers are female, so...

My favorite game is "Leadstorm."

So you know, then, that that was the last game

I worked on with Steve Rosey.

And that the lead character in "Leadstorm" is a sniper.

Briggsy.

He cuts the bills off his baseball caps

and preferred headshots.

No muss, no fuss.

No body armor.

- So you haven't spoken to Rosey in four years?

At least.

So I have no idea who might've blown his head off.

Mr. Bradford, I don't remember saying

that Rosey was shot in the head.

I mean, I assumed.

You were the one that brought up Briggsy, so...

Actually, it was the upper spine.

Came out his chest.

If you think of anything that might be helpful,

call me, okay?

Don't just keep it to yourself like the Dark Silent Priest

in Level 6 of "Leadstorm."

And so, based on my own personal work experience

with digital designer Steve P. Rosey,

I can heartily endorse Steve for the following skills:

ripping off intellectual property,

bleeding, PowerPoint, and dying.

Fucking derivative horseshit.

What's wrong?

Nothing.

You only drink Jack when you're upset.

Christ's sakes, Molly.

Just chill, okay?

You promised me.

And I will.

I'm gonna get clean, Spencer,

but it's not gonna from you ragging on me.

Hey, put that down.

This is really interesting.

Oh, yeah. Bullshit.

My good ideas aren't original,

and my original ideas aren't good.

Steve Rosey thing has me freaked out.

I mean, somebody shot the guy in his own house.

Mm. How awful.

When we were designing "Leadstorm,"

Rosey and I, we made the bad guy virtually indestructible.

But there was one specific part that you had to hit him,

and it was above his body armor, back of the neck.

Steve and I were the only ones who knew that.

At least that's what I thought.

Do you wanna do me or what?

You're high.

That wasn't the question.

Come on, you don't need me for that.

Oh, but I do.

- How many? - A dozen entitled

digital millennials in your area are waiting to meet you.

Shoot me in the head already.

So why should we hire you?

Two words: Total game changer.

Don't contact my former employer

'cause they sexually harassed the shit out of me.

- I could start this week, but I'm going to Cabo next week.

And that's not really negotiable.

So how many people would I have, like,

under me, on my team?

I want you to interview me hard

and then hire the shit out of me.

- My BS in Information Systems is from Cal State Irvine,

and I did some graduate work in C++.

What do you like to do for fun?

C++.

- And then after my internship at L-Tec Gaming in Montreal,

they actually hired me to write code.

Go Habs, eh?

These are our finalists, huh?

They could all write code.

These two are the ones I didn't want to kill with a shovel.

So what do you want from me?

Gut check.

- Just see if you like them. Or at least don't hate them.

Spencer.

Oh, hey, Frank. Just hang on a second, okay?

Just talk to them.

If they're not dangerous psychotics, hire them.

Yeah?

No, I never use that site. Why?

What the shit?

Kyle White.

Am I pronouncing that right?

It says here you worked on "Anthrax Cloud." Great game.

How was that?

Was okay.

What did you do on that dev team?

Wrote code.

Right. Well, that's kinda the job.

Connor Burns.

Yes. I love this business.

And I would love the opportunity

to work for Spencer Bradford.

I think he's a genius.

- Well, that's something you two already have in common.

I like the Burns kid.

He's a gamer and he gets what we do here.

And he's also got a crush on you.

Well, everyone does, especially the women.

What about the other guy?

Kyle White?

Well, he's got the personality of a drywall,

but he knows his stuff.

Look, we've got personalities.

We need coders.

- Wanna grab something to eat? - I got something to do.

- Your father seems to be tolerating the memantine well.

There's a clinical trial that just started

for a new drug for dementia.

It's been effective for very few patients,

but for those few, the results have been,

frankly, astonishing.

I don't want him drugged up.

Oh, no, Mr. Bradford, I-