Triple Click - Fire Emblem, Wolverine, and Control Resonant (with Lucy James)

Episode Date: September 24, 2026

Jason's on assignment, so Kirk and Maddy are joined by guest host Lucy James of the lookingfor.game newsletter and the FPS podcast! They share some early impressions of Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave, some final thoughts on Marvel's Wolverine, along with a (well signposted) spoiler discussion, and Kirk and Lucy also share some bonus early impressions of Control Resonant. ONE MORE THINGKirk: Control ResonantMaddy: The Guy She Was Interested In Wasn’t A Guy At All (ongoing manga, soon to be anime)Lucy: Ride Lonesome by BeckLINKS & REFERENCE:The timestamp for the Wolverine spoiler jump: 1:03:39Lucy’s newsletter lookingfor.game and her podcast, Friends Per SecondFriends Per Second’s episode on Marvel’s WolverineGame File’s 2024 reporting on the Wolverine leadership change Kirk’s 2017 Kotaku re-review of Batman: Arkham Knight“Ride Lonesome” by Beck from Ride Lonesome, 2026WhiskeyClone.Net - A Beck Fansite Help support this show and unlock bonus content! Become a member at https://maximumfun.org/jointripleclick 🚀 SUPPORT TRIPLE CLICK:Join Maximum Fun | Buy TC Merch 💬 Join the Triple Click Discord 🎮 Triple Click Ethics Policy 📱 SOCIALS | @tripleclickpodInstagram | YouTube | TikTok | Twitch

The fire hose is on, and we are drinking up as many video games as we can. Delicious. Welcome to Triple Click, where we bring the games to you. For our first glass, we have a nice fire emblem fortune's weave to be followed by Insomniac's Wolverine, and then a little spoonful of control resonant. Three games, three of us, but not quite the usual three. I'm Maddie Myers. I'm Kirk Hamilton. And I'm Lucy James.

Hey! You're not Jason Schreier. I know. It's Lucy James. We have Lucy James with us today because Jason is still in Japan. And Lucy, in case you didn't know, is the founder of the Looking For Dot Game newsletter, which is wonderful. And people should definitely check that out. Very helpful newslet.

Also, the co-host of the Friends Per Second podcast, very fun list. And Lucy, thank you so much for coming on the show today and being a... Thank you for having me. This is lovely. I am thrilled to have you and can I just say as the first member of FPS to come on this show or that I've ever talked to you

I think that's such a good name for a podcast It's so good Thank you. It's so good. I'm a real stickler about podcast names and FPS Friends Per Second is a fantastic podcast name. I was joke so we had a big Google Doc

and I suggested that one as a joke Oh it was your pick? It was my idea and then the boys were just like oh, that's it, that's it. I thought we were kidding. So thank you. Sometimes you just know. Yeah, we're picking about names here.

So it's high praise coming from us. And if you know, then you also know that every week we talk about the fact that we're part of the maximum fun network, our podcast network that we love very much. And if you go to maximum fun. dot org slash join triple click, you can get our monthly bonus episodes. Most recently, we released a super double wide. episode that was us talking about Sopranos seasons four and five. I've been seeing Sopranos for the first time. Jason and Kirk have seen it before. It's been a really fun journey. So the bonus has

been amazing has a ton of Sopranos content. But it also has us talking about video games and other TV shows and movies and our personal lives and all kinds of other wonderful things. Also, our upcoming bonus episode for this month, which we have decided to call Triple Kiss, is us soliciting dating advice questions for. Yes, giving dating advice. Can we give it or should we be soliciting it ourselves? Maybe we've decided we can give it.

But I will say we've actually gotten a ton of questions at this point. So no need, unless it's an emergency. I feel like I have to include that. Like if you're listening to this right now and you're like, but Maddie, I'm only now hearing about triple kiss. And I'll just, I won't know what to do if you and Jay Jason and Kirk, don't answer my question. But truly, we have plenty of questions at this point.

I'm really excited to record that and get into that. That'll be a first for us. And since we have so many questions, maybe we'll do it again. Who knows? We'll see how it goes. Obviously, triple click at maximum fun.org is our email. But hey, you don't even need to email us, triple kiss emails. You could just email us regular listener mails if you want.

And once again, to become a member and support our show, our wonderful. wonderful listener supported show. You would go to maximum fun.org slash join triple click, get access to the bonus app, support us, all that good stuff. Okay. Enough preamble. Let's talk about video games, shall we? Yeah, so we're going to talk about a couple video games today. We're fitting multiple games into one episode. And the first one we're going to talk about is Fire Emblem Fortune's Weave, which all of us have been playing. This is a, switched to exclusive that came out very recently. And I, speaking for myself, I have been a Three Houses fan and not so much a player of other Fire Emblem games. So I, I did play Engage and I thought that the combat was pretty fun to play in handheld mode in front of the television sets. So I was really like, Fortunes Weev could go either which way for me. And I, I'm still only a few hours in. I think it's somewhere between those two games in my estimation, but Kirk, I really want to hear from you, because I know that you were really excited for this game, and I want to know

how far you are and what you think about it so far. I am pretty far. I guess I'm like five or six hours in or something like that. It ate more of my weekend than I was planning on. I started playing it with a Code Nintendo scent, but it was at launch, so I've only been playing it the same time as everybody else. And I'm playing Kai's storyline. There are four different kind of protagonists that you pick pretty early in the game. And then you play through their storylines. You play through all four of them. They're all very different in tone and design. And kind of, it really is like, it's like the three branches and three houses only you can do them all if you choose to in the same play through. So I've played that much of Kai. I'm, I think, on chapter eight of Kai's story, if that helps orient anyone

who is playing it. I think the game is really cool, especially the story stuff and the missions. I am much less enamored of the amount of busy work in it, and I am surprised to find myself a little more mixed on like the mercenary recruitment and just the kind of opacity of some of its systems and the way that I feel a little bit like I'm so overwhelmed at all times by information and the tools that the game gives me to sort that information are not quite up to the task. I've found that a little challenging. I've had a good time in our Discord actually just talking to people who've played a lot harder than me and getting advice from them on just like, okay, what do I need to be focusing

on here? And what can I excise? Because I'm just cutting, cutting, cutting, as much as I can. So I can get those good story missions and kind of get that. But man, I am very curious, Lucy, what you think. So I would love to know. And also your history with this series. Yeah, same.

Light History with Fire Emblem. I had one that was on the 3DS, and I forget which. one that was. It might have been awakening. That was the first one I got into. Yeah. That was a great game. That sounds familiar. I really enjoyed that and then I kind of never went and played other fire emblems. I did get into three houses in a big way, a golden deer for life. And I skipped in, I skipped engage. Decent choice. Yeah. I'm also dealing, I'm also doing Kais. So I, I, I, too, by the way. I really wanted to do that Lestat, Griffith looking Alicard man. That's full on Alicard.

Because, you know, a girl's got a type. It feels like you should start with Kai, though, because Kai's on the far left. And once I started Kai, I was like, it feels like the game wanted me to start with Kai. So I guess I did the right thing with the beginner. Yeah, storyline. Yeah, left or right, yeah. Kai has such, it has such, like, soror energy from Kingdom Hearts and, well, I guess more like Roxas energy in Kingdom Hearts too. where it's like the two pals who just kind of tag along.

And I'm really enjoying it. I totally understand what you mean about the busy work. I'm not as far as you cook. But even the dungeon crawling stuff is very strange to me, because I'd rather be moving on my grid. I'd rather just give me the grid. Yeah. Can you explain what that means, like the dungeon crawling?

Because I agree with you, but I think for listeners who haven't played the game, like what do you mean by dungeon crawling versus other types of gameplay? So it's actually it's kind of strange that. Zero company, ZECOM, did this a little bit too. We're pulling characters back into third person, and you walk around in a dungeon, and you come up against enemies, and they're called clashes.

So you're not on the grid, moving things, turn by turn. It is real-time, and basically your entire party has a pool of health. The enemies have a pool of health, and it's just whatever you chip down first. They are phenomenally easy. You can, I never take more than, you know, six to eight damage in an entire dungeon and there's also

a way to just auto battle for you and so I've basically just been doing that and sort of skipping to the and I'm five hours into the game but I'm already doing that so but it's a great way of getting XP

early on but it just does feel a bit superfluous Is that what it's for do we think? Like it is strange that that aspect is there And that's also what I've been using it for so far. It is weird. Like, why would you put a different type of combat into your game that you then make skippable,

which is somewhat of an acknowledgement that this is inessential? It feels a little like, you know, kind of mobile tie-in game or something. Like, it just, and it's, yeah, I'm not really feeling it, I guess. I was about to say that sounds harsh, but I don't mean it that way, but I kind of do. Like, it's not, when you then play a story mission, especially playing as Kai, it's very easy for the first five chapters. But then the difficulty starts to ramp up, and I'm only on normal. I'm a little baby about Fire Ramblum.

I do play with Permadeth, but I play on normal difficulty. And it's gotten a lot harder. And man, each one of these challenges in the kind of Coliseum is really fascinating and engaging and difficult. There's all kinds of new strategies with every single one. Like, I'm really, really into them and into the story. So then when I'm kind of doing this 3D kind of weird dungeon, it just doesn't feel that great. It's not that great to explore. The combat system is this just totally

watered down thing. I'm like, why am I doing this when the other part of this game also exists? Yeah. It's really strange. Because like if you think of, I was kind of thinking in my mind, it's sort of comparing it to maybe Final Fantasy 12. But the joy in the combat system with 12 is that you've set all the gambits up and, you know, you are basically sort of masterminding and watching your plan unfold. Whereas with this, there's no tactical, element to it. It's just these are my guys. These are your guys. My guys are going to win, unfortunately. It sucks to be you. Sorry, sorry you ran into us. Yeah. Yeah. It reminds me a little, the feel of the dungeons reminds me a little of the dungeons in metaphor re-fantazia. I thought of that too, because you have

to run up to people and hit them first. Right. Which is that persona thing as well where you, there's this little bit of kind of twitch. It's not really very twitchy, but you do want to attack first while you're in the dungeon. And just the feel of the world, it has a kind of insubstantial floaty feel to it that reminded me of metaphor. And I didn't love that part of metaphor, even though in metaphor, when you do get into a battle, then you're in the full metaphor combat system, which is very delightful and cool and well-designed. So it kind of makes up for it with that. The thing is, that is like one part of this game that I don't like, right?

And there's a lot of busy work, too, which I've mentioned. And I kind of want to explain it. But also, we're giving early impressions of this game, and I don't want to, like, just spend too long focusing on those parts I don't like because so much of this game is really hitting for me. And I think it's really cool. It actually feels to me like a game that I could play for the next six months to a year. And almost like it was designed to be that. Like if you play through all four of the main storylines in Act 1, then I think they all come

together for Act 2. And then there's an Act 3. You know, I think this is like a 150-hour game or something. And I could see myself burning out on it if I'm just like, all right, I'm going to finish this entire thing as fast as possible. But I really like the characters, the character designs. The music, of course, is killer. Fire Emblem music is always killer.

And like I was saying, those like story combat encounters are, I think, just phenomenal. So far, anyways, I've found them so cool. Yeah, I've really enjoyed the story so far as well. And similarly, those big, you're in the grid, you're doing turn-based battling. It's Fire Emblem. That's the part that I'm really enjoying. And I totally agree with you, Kirk, like the kind of busy work of. There's like a recruiting mercenaries system that just has me opening up a guide on my phone and being like, what's the best gift to give to each of these mercenaries?

I truly don't want to deal with this system at all. I'm literally just... I have a Google sheet pre-saved that someone's already made. Just trying to get through this busy work so that I can get to the part of the game that I find enjoyable. And luckily, that's speedy enough, although it does provoke the question in me of like, well, why have a system like that if it can, so easily be mastered through a spreadsheet. But hey, maybe that's part of the fun. Sometimes spreadsheets are fun. But I do. Look at the successful football managers. Exactly. There are a whole games that are nothing but this. That's true. Yeah. And it's all

kind of building up to the parts of the game that I really do enjoy, which are those big Coliseum battles, as you refer to them, Kirk, which is an apt framing because that's really what Kai is doing in his storyline. I don't know what it'll be like for the other. other three when we get to them, but Kai is basically battling to get this wish granted if he's, if he wins this fighting competition and his father's been imprisoned for sort of archaic reasons, and he's going to be executed. And that's like the premise of his storyline. And he's pretty chill about it for a 15 year old. He's like, oh yeah, my dad's going to die. Kai and his dad are both weirdly chill about it, which is funny. And there is at least like a moment after that conversation has

had where like his dad's being taken away by the prison guards and then kai kind of like admits to his friends where he's like i guess i'm not really feeling anything about this that's weird like he has a line where he sort of lampshades the fact that he's having no reaction to his father being dragged away but we all react in different grief is different for everyone we do it's true everyone deals with hardship in their own way i was going to say that when that bit happened i was sort of there was a sort of not plot hole but it was like you know there was a person there who could have really overturned everything if you think about it. Right.

There's a lot of that. There's a third character that maybe could have stepped in in theory and still could. Yes. Maybe. Prevent it. Honestly, I just thought, you know what? It's fine. I'm just going to get back and fight.

That kind of big picture stuff, especially that, I think that is something very jarring, we're not the only ones to point this scene out where it's a child's father says to him, you're never going to see me again and everyone's being weirdly chill about it. Like there is some writing that's a little off tonally. Also, I will say a lot of the dialogue is very funny and clever. There's a lot of really great writing in this game, or I suppose, localization, where they've done a really good job of just including lots of fun turns of phrase and jokes. There's a lot of good sarcasm that each character kind of has their own voice. So a lot of the writing is really working for me.

And I'm very curious to see the other sort of four, the other three, I suppose, storylines because they're all really different, or that's what I gather. So these four characters to explain to listeners, Kai, who all three of us are playing as, is like a kid. And it's kind of the first sort of Shonen Kid's Adventure story that I've seen in a Fire Emblem game. Fire Emblem games are actually kind of adult in their storytelling, at least. It's usually like war and people dying and a lot of just sort of, I don't know, there's not a lot of kids' adventure vibes in Fire Emblem, as much as it's kind of animated and feels a little bit like a cartoon. Then there's Deitric, who is the Alucard character we're talking about. I gather his storyline is like really intense and there's a lot of fighting. I think it's harder, like, difficulty-wise.

There's like more intense battles. Then there's Alida, who is a very cool character, the musician. She's like a bard on a quest for revenge. I gather that her tone is very dark and very different from Kai, like that those two storylines are incredibly different just tonally. And then there's Theodora. I know Jason is playing as Theodora, and we're going to talk about this game again next week. So Jason will be able to speak to Theodora.

Theodora is like the Amazon. on mega babe, like punch you into the ground like mommy character, basically. I'm glad that's a trope now, by the way. Like, we deserved this. It should have been a trope for our whole lives, but at least now she's here. What I think is cool and what I've seen of the story so far is that, you know, the frame of this narrative, and this is set up at the very beginning, is that your character, like, is actually none of those four people.

It is a, they are like this other kind of spiritual figure who exists in the future where the world has been overrun by undead monsters. and then we're doing a Terminator where like we want to travel back in time and then change our fate so that we can, you know, subtly shift these four characters' fates so that they can then come together to fight the big bad. So you've kind of, that's why you're able to jump between these different timelines. And your character is always kind of present in shifting things, which I think is a neat idea for a framing and also allows for these different tones and lets you play all four storylines without having to restart the game and play it four times, which I like just never had to. time for in three houses as much as I wanted to. And it's cool because playing as Kai, like as far as I've gotten, you're in these, it's like during this Olympic kind of, you know, heroic, this

invitational coliseum competition where like all the greatest warriors in the land and from lands afar have like come so that everyone can fight. And you fight against Dietrich and Lita and Theodora or alongside them. And so you meet them, the first time you meet them, you fight alongside them, but then presumably I'm going to have to, I know actually, I'm going to have to take them on in the Coliseum. I don't think I'm killing them if I beat them. But it's going to mean that I think there are going to be different alternate histories almost eventually.

I can't really imagine how it works because I would have to think that each of these characters will win the heroic games in their timeline. And I think that's all really kind of, it's mind-bending in a cool way. At least I'm into it. Yeah, I didn't really think about whether the characters were going to win in their timelines.

that does seem like it also provokes a question of how that could work. But, hey, we're revealing. We've only played a few hours. Yeah, maybe they all just survive or at the end something happens. I wonder if, I guess even thinking of Fortune's Weave, the title, I could kind of imagine, given that there's so much metaphysical time magic nonsense going on, that they come to the act one break when you've played everyone. And it's like, okay, and now you're all in slightly different places,

but we're going to like weave you all together into one big army to fight the bad guy or something that kind of feels like where it's going. That's not based on me knowing anything. That's just kind of my God. Yeah. I mean, again, we're all really early in the game. And I love that. I love that prediction. I think that makes a lot of sense. But that feels like as good of a place as any to transition the conversation to a different video game that I completed playing and is not as fun to play according to me. me as Fire Emblem Fortune's Weave. It is called Marvel's Wolverine. It is a game by Insomniac, the team, the studio best known for making the Spider-Man games, which we've talked about on the show a ton. I believe we even have a bonus spoiler cast about Spider-Man 2 that people can go back

and listen to if they want to. Big open world Spider-Man games are swinging around New York. This Wolverine game, very, very different from that. It is a linear story. that I completed in about 11 hours. It is a melee action game. And it is very story forward. I am really curious what you think, Lucy, because I listened to their friends for second episode about this, that that was before you had played it yet.

You were like refereeing. I think you did a great job, actually. I tried so much. This conversation between a bunch of different people who had finished it and reviewed. Which is a great conversation, by the way. Really enjoyed it. It really enjoyed it. Very interesting. We'll link that in the show notes.

But we forced Lucy to play it for us. So Lucy, what did you think about this video game? Because I was traveling and I had a PC with a laptop with me, but I didn't have a PlayStation. And so I couldn't have played enough to partake in that conversation. I've got a good few hours in now. I think it's just, it's fine to say that this game isn't for me. I, of all the Marvel properties, the X-Men are my favorite. I would not say that Wolverine is my favorite. But, you know, just in terms of him playing as a playable character, yeah, it's always going to be that guy. He's recognizable.

He's iconic. He is more in the zeitgeist because of Deadpool versus Wolverine or whatever that. I don't like Ryan Reynolds. I can't bring myself to do it. And so this game is really interesting to me because I think it looks really good. Early on at least, I don't know about the ending or kind of where it goes from the middle onwards. but it's, you know, like there are some story stuff that I like that it's doing. There are some moments between Logan and Jean Grey that I really like and feels like really cute.

And it just feels like I'm a little voyeur looking in on something that I shouldn't be. But then when it comes to the combat, it's just very, very repetitive. And I've been bouncing between Blood of Dawn Walker, Control Resonant, and this. And so it feels that, I mean, I think the most damning thing I can say about Marvel's Wolverine's combat, is that I was answering a bunch of text messages. I think I was even emailing you both with one hand, and I was completing combat scenarios with one hand, just square, square, square, triangle to jump.

And then there are these sort of, this game would have killed. It came out in 2010. This would have been the bastion. This would have been the game that we held every tie into. I mean, between this and sort of like, but even Arkham is really good to go back to you now. Maybe not the boss fights, but Arkham Asylum and City, especially. They are so great to go back to you. And the lineage of Arkham is here, and I feel like it's casting a pretty long shadow over this game.

Stood the test of time, whereas this, it's kind of pulling in a lot of AAA design tropes that I'm not a fan of, and that is the excessive handholding. I know the Fart Gas is unfortunately their legacy on this game. has been dialed down in a recent patch, but just... In case the listeners don't know, Lucy's referring to the Wolverine's heightened senses, which allow him to sniff where different characters are going. So if he wants to trail somebody, there's like a glowing gas on the ground that he follows around. Abnoxious blue trails, which I believe Gene Park dubbed fart gas, quite memorably.

Yeah, I think Gene Park came up with that, yeah, which is a very evocative turn of phrase to describe the linearity of the game. and it's kind of like this game's version of yellow paint, I guess, if you want to. And there's also white paint, though. They have that. They have got that too. But the thing is it's just, the trend that I hate in AAA is that they desperately don't want you to lose attention for even a second. You can't get lost. They can be no friction.

And there is no friction for me in Marvel's Wolverine. There are some nice moments. I can just fully accept. It's not a game for me. Kirk, where are you, where's your head out on it? You ended up beating it, possibly because I said I was going to complete it and maybe that socially encouraged you to complete it because you knew I was. Not exactly. So I played a lot of it.

And I made this my one more thing last week. And then I just decided, well, I might as well finish it. I do kind of want to know what is going to happen. And I want to be able to talk about it with you, Maddie. So I went ahead and finished it over the weekend. So people have already kind of heard my broad thoughts on the game. It's kind of a mess. I really like Liam McIntyre's performance as Wolverine.

I think some of the writing is great. There are things that I like. But I think the game just really clearly shows to me that it was rebooted midway through development, which I suppose is something Jason has taught us happens to every single game, so that's not necessarily a sign of trouble. But it seems much more evident in this game than in some more successful games. It seems as though they were working on a more open-world thing. There are these big open-world maps that somebody made,

that you do linear story missions through. It just has all the hallmarks of a game that had that happen. Jason was basically like, yeah, man, like, that is what happened. Like, I can't speak for him, but he was essentially saying that is the case. And we know that the creative director changed midway through. I think more of the Miles Morales people, or at least the director of Spider-Man, Miles Morales, was working on this to begin with. Again, that I quite liked, Maddie.

I think you also did as well. Lucy, were you a Miles Morales fan? I liked Miles Morales, yes. Yeah, I thought quite a bit of that. I liked the smaller scope and was actually reminding myself of Spider-Man 2. I was going back because I'm like, yeah, that was a cool game. But it was very like, for whatever reason, I've memory-holded it. And then I was remembering things that happened with that game.

That game was a mess, dude. Spider-Man 1 is the one, narratively at least, where I'm like, that was a very strong story. And a, you know, a good game. The 2 is kind of pretty messy. But I think what you're getting at is that Miles Morales as a game is very focused and tight. And that can have a lot of benefits, actually, and is not necessarily a bad thing when it comes to this type of game. Right. And while I can't speak to the particulars of development, I could imagine more of the Miles Morales folks at Insomniac coming up with a game that is once again a kind of limited open world game in the same way Miles was. And then it's not working.

They're struggling for whatever reason. They brought in a new creative director. And these are the people from, I think it's two people from Ratchet and Clank, Arrift in Time. A Rift Apart? It's a riffed apart. A rift apart, sorry. These names are all the same. It's fine.

From the most recent Ratchet and Clank, which is not my favorite insomniac game. It's more of the console video game-y thing. And so I get the sense, rebooted it, turned it from an open world game into this linear game. And it just has all the hallmarks of a game where they're like, all this stuff, we have this story, we have all these pieces. We just got to put them together into something that plays from start to finish that looks like a complete video game. and now that I've finished it, yeah, it kind of feels like that. Like, it's pretty messy. And I said a lot about the comment before.

And I think we'll talk some with spoilers right now, because I just think that would be kind of interesting. I mean, not right now, but in this episode. Yeah, we'll give it a few minutes, but I do want to take a break and spoil the game for Lucy, who has admitted to us ahead of time that she's fine with being spoiled. Yeah, I'm not going to finish it. But listeners, don't worry, we'll warn you. We're not there yet. Kirk, go ahead.

Yeah, so it's just like that narrative stuff, like, it's, especially the relationship between Logan and Gene is really interesting. Maddie, you're an ex-man expert. And I would love to hear a little unspoilery like what you thought when you finished it because I think that stuff is just interesting because it's totally new a lot of what they're doing. And that's cool that they were trying to do that, even if narratively it's quite convoluted. And I found myself having to just go look up what the hell happened at the very end to really understand it.

Yeah, this game was really strange to play as somebody who's familiar. with X-Men comic books, but I would argue it should be strange to play for anyone who has even a passing familiarity with X-Men from, say, the live-action movies. Or if you watched the cartoon growing up, because this canon in the game is very divergent from any of those previous ones. Specifically for Wolverine, which is like, this is a story that has been retold in those three formats.

And many, many other formats, there's a bunch of different adaptations of Wolverine. There's even a Wolverine anime. It's really bad. No one, no one needs to watch it. But, like, I really have engaged with all of these things. And, like, his storyline is usually, he's many hundreds of years old. At some point, he gets kidnapped by the United States government for a program called Weapon X. They infuse Adamantium into his bones. He has a healing factor. We all know that. They brainwash him and use him as a weapon. And that's why he can't remember who he is or what his past is by the time he eventually meets Professor X and all of the

X men. And meanwhile, of those X men, one Gene Gray would have been converted into an X man at a very young teenage age by Professor X. That's pretty much always her story as well. She meets her childhood sweetheart Scott Summers at that age, grows up already in love with him before Logan even shows up in her world, thus igniting. Oh, really? I didn't know that actually. I didn't know that they were childhood sweetheart. Igniting the love triangle, the love triangle for the ages. These are kind of like the basic plot beats that we're all familiar with. Every single thing I just said is not the case in this video game.

Weapon X, like, it's not there. And that's obvious from frame one of the game. Like, this isn't me spoiling the game. This is like the opening of the game makes this clear by having this character, Nathaniel Essex, which is a name that comic book fans will know, but I think maybe other people will not, which is fine. is kind of the Professor X character seemingly at the outset of this game. And he recruits Logan to be part of Team X.

It's not the Weapon X version of Team X. It's a different version of it. And this team is also going on Blackups missions together. But the reason why Logan's memories are different seemingly doesn't have to do with brainwashing in the same way. And like that mystery sort of unfolds throughout the course of the game. It is explained by the end. But it's a different explanation than the one we know. And meanwhile, Jean, the gene that we meet in this game, she's not a member of the X-Men because there are no X-Men.

And that is a fascinating choice as well because this gene, this version of Gene is like she's a 40-something character. Like she's a fully adult woman. She's played by 40-something actress, which I think is really cool, by the way, that they cast like older characters in this. But it also means that I'm like, as I'm playing this as a person familiar with these characters, I'm just kind of like, this is like kind of a cool story, but like, I don't know these guys. Like, that's fine. Like to be clear. Like that kind of kept me going through it all because I was just like, this is like a what if comic.

Where it's like, okay, what if Scott Summers never existed and Professor X didn't exist and all the other original five X men didn't exist. And like, who would Gene be in that world? And what if Weapon X didn't exist? And who would Logan be? in that world. And like, let's imagine, let's cast these characters into a world where those things didn't happen. And they fall in love organically with no other love triangles standing in their way. What would that look like? And it's interesting. But I also find it really strange that

insomniac made that choice because I'm like, these are such well-known stories. Like, why you're taking away things that people know really well. And like, as an Axeman fan, I actually like kind of kind of backed my way into enjoying it just because it was so strange. Because I was like, this is such wacky choices. Like, what are they going to do next? And like, that kind of kept me going to the end of the game where they continue make choices that I'm like, all right, that's literally never happened in a comic which we can describe in a second.

But like, that was fascinating to me. However, another non-spoiler thing that we can get into, I just never vived with this game, games combat. I don't know how you two felt about it. I quickly go over that before we break. I know some people like it. I went back and read some reviews now that I've beaten the game and was kind of surprised to see some reviewers actually really enjoyed it.

And we're like, oh, I love the combos. I played it on hard and like really enjoyed the challenge. I just, I thought almost every enemy is a humanoid enemy. They're almost all the same height. Like it just... They're almost all the same. They're all the exact same guy. They're all the same character models.

Yeah, like that... Being attacked by three of the same guy. sometimes there's a bigger guy to be fair. Sometimes there's a bigger guy. And then there's a guy who's like a couple feet taller than you. And then like one time you have to fight a really big Sentinel. Well, a couple times, but like there's only one kind of like official. At the low point of the game, that Sentinel boss fight.

Sentinel boss fight. So like that was that was tough for me and really was part of why I have trouble recommending this game to anyone who isn't in my position personally of being like, I want to see what happens in this story because it's so strange and reads like a what if comic and I just want to know what this Logan slash Gene fanfic writer designed in a world Scott Summers doesn't exist. Yeah, I mean, I think I've seen a lot of people start it and be like, dang, this is pretty good. And I remember saying that as well.

I started it and I was like, all right, this is pretty cool. And then over time, that's when the kind of repetitiveness, the skill tree is just, it doesn't have any branches, you just go straight up it. Yeah, wild. Well, no, and also I got to a stage where they were like, oh, you have unspent technique points, but they weren't unlocked in the skill tree, so I wasn't allowed to spend them. There's a lot of that, speaking of the messiness, that's just kind of got that. Okay, nobody like did a whole blowout of the skill tree at the beginning and then designed the game around it. It feels more like we had to make something that worked.

So whatever, fuck it, we're just going to do like a linear skill tree, basically. And the abilities you unlock are okay, but they're not that exciting. One gripe I have that's, I haven't seen anyone else make, I think that there's a very specific complaint I have about the cool downs of your special abilities. A lot of times that I'm fighting, I want to do the cool special abilities where you do unlock these kind of hit the trigger, press a face button and you do a kind of whirly, you know, whirly bird attack that kills a bunch of dudes or whatever. The thing is they have very long cool downs.

I have to imagine that's because in Spider-Man too, especially, I remember in that game, just only using special abilities because the cool downs were so fast and the special abilities were so good it would be like you know this robot spider would shoot everybody with lightning or whatever and I would just like miles would electrocute like six people at once or whatever and you'd like sick my thumb is tired from punching guys so I'm just going to like bring in my robot spider to defeat everybody so I can see why they slowed them down but I constantly in this game found myself being like all right here's a fight oh man everything's on cooled out all right and then just kind of pressing the two buttons.

And my very specific pet peeve is that many times, at least in the version of the game that I played, you would, Wolverine would do a big fight. And always in the fight, you burn all your special abilities. So I would use all of those. They're all on cool down, and I'd beat the final guy. And then it ends, and there's a cutscene. And Wolverine and Gene talk, and they, like, go back to a place with their friend and have a drink. And then they go to another place, and then they're maybe in another country or something.

And then they're getting ready, and then another fight breaks out. And I'm like, here we go. let's fight. And then all my cool downs haven't budged. They're all still completely blanked out and I can't use the abilities. I was like, wait a minute. Like, come on. At least reset these long cool downs. Yeah, he's an old man now. So that's my very specific complaint. I think it's a very fair complaint. I also think there is, I'm not going to like get into the ludon narrative dissonance of it all, but I do think there is like an inherent trouble with adapting a character who literally cannot die into a video game where.

you can die. And like I do understand. Like I understand that Logan has to be able to not be quite so powerful to be in this video game. But it is something that I found myself chuckling at from time to time. Also, anytime another character like threatens to kill Logan, I'm like, do you know, do you even know who this guy is? Like this is one of the things they did. Man can't die. I wish I could remember because I've listened to a couple of different podcasts talk about this. But someone made the observation. It might have been on Nextland. that it feels as though everyone in a fight knows their role and is just doing it. Because you can't imagine why any of these guys would be fighting Wolverine because they're just going to die.

How do they get the Revers to keep doing this? And they pointed out like there's an ability you can unlock where when you do a really gory, gnarly kill, it makes everyone like recoil. And so they kind of push back from you. But then they just keep fighting. They don't say like, wait a minute, you know. Man, there's a moment in... I don't know if either of you remember this. In Iron Man 3, the Shane Black Iron Man movie,

there's a very funny scene in that movie where Tony Stark is like infiltrating the compound and he like takes out a bunch of dudes and he's like being this super effective fighter and he wrecks them all. And then the last guy is there with a gun and he drops his gun. He's like, you know what?

Honestly, like this was just a gig for me. Like I'm out and he just leaves. And like I feel like everybody in this game would do that. Right? Yeah. To tie on to that, that kind of, you know, Wolverine kills 10 million people in this game, or probably 10,000. And yet is this likable character. I think it's really interesting that Walt Williams is the lead writer or creative narrative

director of this. He's credited. I mean, I think he at least. That's true. I just also want to know that there's a ton of other writers listed on the game. And I was really curious about that process. Yes. He didn't solely write it.

Well, and the reason I mentioned that is, so Walt Williams known as the lead writer of SpeckOps the line. And he's talked about that actually in his book. He wrote a book called Significant Zero. That's his like kind of reflecting on his life and his creative work and also on that game because that game was such a big deal to a lot of people. Speck Offs Align, of course, is a third person shooter that does a lot of really daring and kind of crazy narrative stuff to implicate you the player and the violence that your soldier players are like perpetrating. It's a really, it's an interesting game, a very flawed game, but it has a lot of interesting ideas. And he has said as much about that game

that a lot of the stuff in that game was just a result of the chaos of development and them doing the best that they could. And it was like a really challenging game to make. I get the sense that this also was a very challenging game to make and it like didn't break the same way where you don't end it thinking, wow, they really like said something interesting about violence

in this game, like no, it's pretty messy and that kind of just comes off in the writing. So I would imagine that so many of the narrative issues are just like all these other issues are like born out of what was clearly I think a pretty tumultuous development. I think for me the pacing of the game

this is actually a criticism I have around broader Marvel is that when everything is exciting when everything is the end of the world nothing is exciting and nothing is the end of the world there's a bit early on in the game where you are what are you doing?

Like you're chasing down a group of rogue mutants that Gene is involved with and it's just fight, fight, fight, enormous set piece in a dock than an enormous set piece on a highway and you're on a bike. And the whole time I was just thinking

there is nothing in here because there hasn't been enough downtime for me to properly enjoy anything and everything has been so samey. But then it got to the point where I think you're, what was he doing? He was like jumping on and pulling a gun off a thing

or doing something. And it was all a cutscene. And I was like, This is the coolest thing he's done, and you are not letting me the player do it. I'm watching it. Is this my reward? I don't understand that because that to me feels like a cop-out. Honestly, I'm not going to kind of say like, oh, I mean, I know it's going to be expensive

and time-consuming to do from the development side. But that's my kind of overarching thing is that everything just feels dampened because I'm doing so much of it. It's just lost the excitement factor. Even going into, yeah, and I'm going to bring up Arkham, but, you know, there was, was downtime, there was investigations. And you can see where Wolverine tries to do that, where it tries to have these quiet moments. But it is, again, too afraid to let you, like, exist in those moments of quiet because it wants you to keep going on and doing the next thing. So in Batman,

every time you came up against, you know, a predator room, or, you know, you are gliding around Gotham, you just see a bunch of thugs. You're like, okay, I'm going to go do that. Wolverine just throws it all at you all time. And it's, it is the Zach Branagh. I'll send waves after waves of my own men at them approach to game design that I am just not a fan off. Yeah, that early sequence where Wolverine is like chasing the mutants, I feel like that was also a press, like that was shown at some big press event. Yeah, there was a preview that showed that whole section.

I can start to sense that from games like this now where I'm in the first act and it's because it's the first act, they want to put it in the first act because narratively they don't want to be giving away story beats from the end of the game. But there's this kind of like it doesn't match up, like in terms of the pacing of a story where there's this incredibly expensive looking like bananas, multi-tier set piece like action chase sequence that feels like what should be the end. And instead is like happening kind of early on. I'm like, I feel like this was a press demo. And I think that that one was. And yeah, oh man, we're going to get into spoilers.

And I guess something to set that up maybe or preface it is I'm a huge defender of archa. Knight, actually, the third Batman Arkham game. I'm also an, I'm an Arkham Knight. I'm a re-reviewed that for Kataku when I was writing there. And did, Steve and our boss gave me a ton of time to just like really play the hell out of the game and do this like super comprehensive re-review, which I did. And I wound up thinking, God, this is an ambitious and remarkably successful storytelling experiment.

Like it, I think what they're doing in that game where the Joker is in Batman's mind and a big part of the story is like understanding how that's working, like almost the mechanics of the Joker taking over Batman. And the whole finale, you have to understand that like there are two people inside of Batman and the Fear Gas is like, at this point it's hitting Batman and at this point it's hitting Joker. And then Joker's actually, we're in Joker's nightmare here and not Batman's nightmare. It's like really complicated, like Inception Christopher Nolan stuff. And the first time I played the game, I was like, whatever, that was kind of a mess. Who knows? And then I went back and I truly understood it and was like, oh, that was actually really ambitious, and they kind of pulled it off.

That was really cool. With this game, I had the same feeling at the end. Like I was saying to you, Maddie, I went and looked stuff up and watched the secret ending and stuff, because I was like, what the hell is going on with Logan and Gene? Like, what is this? And I do kind of just think it's a mess. And I don't think I'm going to go back if I ever replayed it and be like, oh, they kind of really nailed this. I don't really think so. Yeah. Maybe we should go ahead and mark for spoilers here so we can tell Lucy about where this game goes. Please do. Yeah, okay. I'll, I'll do the thing where I will remember to say the timestamp. Okay, the timestamp to skip to for one more thing to avoid the Wolverine spoilers is one hour,

three minutes, and 39 seconds. That's one hour, three minutes, and 39 seconds. Okay, Maddie, let's get into spoilers. Okay. I'm ready. I'm ready. This game is a true romantic story in the end. Yeah, it's really a romance story. It goes full romanticcy. Yeah. And it creates, again, this is like wholly original. Like this is. No, you're right. It is romantic. Sorry, Maddie. Go ahead. I'm just realizing what you're saying and it's very true. Yeah. So like it's, you know how in romanticcy stories like it's like the woman tames the beast. Like we're kind of going twilight with it by the end of this game in some ways that I was just like, okay. Like I again, this really feels like a Logan Jean Shipper wrote this game.

I don't know if that literally happened, but there's some big fan fiction vibes that like kind of came out of nowhere at the end of this game. So I think most people know Gene from like the many times the Phoenix saga has been adapted, usually pretty poorly. So in this version, Gene just kind of like has reincarnation powers. And that's never really explained. And so much...

It is the Phoenix force, right? It's like making her be able to be... But I wouldn't say that's the game's explanation. Okay. It's at least alluded to where they're like, she's a real Phoenix, that one or whatever. They kind of like Logan's kind of version of himself in his head that does remember Gene from past lifetimes

because it turns out they've known each other from many lifetimes ago. That's the Lelon. He kind of like talks to himself in his mind during this sort of like astral plane memory sequence near the end of the game, where Logan finally starts putting some pieces together. And if you've been doing these just absolutely odious nightmare door sequences in the game that we didn't even talk about, but they're like deeply unfun little like puzzle rooms.

I can't even call them puzzle rooms. Place in the middle of like a chase sequence. Yeah. Why would Logan be leaving in the middle of like a really breakneck fight to like go do a memory door? They're like, look, we made these and we had to put them somewhere. He's working on himself, okay? He is.

He literally is like, guys, he's the only time my therapist could do. I got to go do a nightmare door. Anyway, so he goes through these nightmare doors. And at the end of each one, he'll, like, recall a memory. And, like, sometimes those memories will, like, involve him pursuing a redhead. But sometimes he'll be doing it in, like, 1932 or something. And, like, I'm playing this. And I'm like, Logan's pretty into redheads.

Like, there's definitely some past redheads of Logan of your, like, you know, sure. Maybe this is like, uh, Heather Hudson or whatever. Like, Rose O'Hara, like, okay, like, we can, throw in some other redheads from like Logan's many 200 years on this planet. I don't know. No, it turns out all of those redheads are reincarnations of gene and that she also kind of existed in past versions over the course of this 200 years. It's unfortunate that listeners can't see Lucy's face right. I know. Lucy's just twisting her face into like squinting like the fry squinting meme of just like what are you telling me right now. And. And.

And so Gene has also somehow forgotten that she is this reincarnatedable being, which again, in my mind, I'm just like, okay, let's just say it's the Phoenix Force and every time the Phoenix Force becomes somebody in this past, it just happens to become a beautiful redhead that looks like Jean Grey. Fine, okay. And in all of these versions of reality, Logan and the Phoenix Force, find each other, have some type of love story. And usually Gene kind of like tames the beast inside him.

And like in this canon, like I said, there's no weapon X. And I would say the implication is that like Apocalypse, who's also kind of like this eternal villainous figure in X-Men canon, that's generally true, kind of recruits Logan as the horseman of death at some unspecified point in time in the past. And that's how Logan gets his power up, which is plausible and like happens in a comic book storyline later on after Logan like loses that on Antiam. It doesn't matter. Who cares? They stick that in and like the past. And they're like, that's how Logan got as Adamantium. And he's kind of like haunted by this time when Apocalypse like made him become this death figure.

And like that time in the past is also when the hand worshipped him as this death god. And that's why the hand is obsessed with Logan in the present day because they like have memories of him. Wait, so that's why he was reflecting on being a death god. He doesn't care about being a death god, which he essentially is. I guess. It's like why in the hand chapters they keep talking about this guy who looks like Logan and they're kind of worship. him or they used to worship him. And it's because it was him because Apocalypse made him the god of death, which is kind of from the comics. It's kind of cool. Yeah. I mean, it's like it's sort of time displaced,

but like, yeah, again, Apocalypse has had Logan in his, in his clutches before. So it's not like totally unheard of us. And I'm saying God of death, but he's like a horseman of the apocalypse. Yeah, we should say he's a horseman of death. He is death the horseman of the apocalypse. But in the hands estimation, he's a god of death. And like, so that kind of like God of death meets the Phoenix force in this sort of tortured romanticcy storyline that plays out over hundreds of years and they'll always find each other. And that's kind of how it ends is that there's like this big culminating fight with Nathaniel Essex, who of course, with Essex is Mr. Sinister. And I was kind of curious how this comes across for like maybe you Kirk wouldn't have

necessarily known that Nathaniel Essex was going to turn out to be a bad guy. Was that like a twist for you? Because as soon as I heard his name, I was like, oh, okay, yes, he's a bad guy. It wasn't for me because I, he was just so evidently evil to me anyways. Like he has red, his eyes are like dark purple red. And when he does his power moves, like, the music is like, oh, it's not exactly subtle. And just he seems like clearly this guy.

And then over the course of the story, it's like, oh, everything this guy is doing is the kind of thing that supervillain in X-Men does. And also Troy, Troy was giving it the English accent, which. Because you know, you know, you know somebody's bad when they're an English gentleman from Victorian times. I get the sense, Troy Baker has enjoyed playing villains lately. And it just, I was like, this guy's going to turn evil. Like, this just has to be how this goes. And then at some point, very early on, I think I saw actually, what's his name from marriage story and from girls?

Adam Driver was like cast as Mr. Sinister. Oh, yeah. He's playing Mr. Sinister in the live action upcoming movie. Yeah. And so I saw that. And I was like, oh, it's the same guy. that's kind of wild that this game has. He's like the villain in the upcoming X-Men.

Yeah. And I was kind of curious about that too, given that Gene and this version of the story is sort of like this vigilante who works with characters, led by Callisto, who in the comics are referred to as the Morlocks, but in this they never actually use that word. But that's who all those characters are. They're like in X-Men comics.

They're known as the Morlocks because they're all mutants that can't pass for human. That's like what binds them all together. And they like live in the sewers, much like, Morlocks in the Time Machine do. And that's kind of held here in this game as well, except that Gene is a part of that group, even though she can definitely pass for human. And that's like kind of the closest the game has to an X-Men storyline, I think.

And at the end of the game, it's like sort of implied that maybe Gene will become a leader of some future group. Anyway, I kind of enjoyed the Mr. Sinister stuff, even though it was really campy. I thought that was like fun and funny. And like I enjoyed it. I saw some people saying they felt like it was rushed. And that's fair. To me, it wasn't.

To me, it was like super dragged out because I was like, we've got to know Mr. Sinister's evil. And because the combat's so annoying that there just came a point where I was like, I just want to know what happens. I'm so sick of fighting Sentinels and whatever. Like, I just don't want to do this anymore. But the other complaint people had that I saw that I think it was a little more fair, is that at the end of the game, in order to save Logan from ever being, like, haunted again by this apocalypse death drive that he has that's embedded in his psyche.

he asks Gene to completely wipe all of his memories, like, including that stuff. And so she gives him, like, a fresh reset at the end of the game, which means he doesn't remember her and their long and tortured romance arc that they've had over many hundreds of years, and it's sad. All those nightmare rooms gone to me. I know. It's so sad. All the, quote-unquote therapy that he was doing is gone.

And so he leaves at the end of the game and is like, I don't know you, bish, and just walks away. And it's like, kind of. Yeah, like he kind of is like, back on the ax, baby. I don't know who you are. Bye. Like, it's strange. Yeah. So I think that story, like, I'm actually kind of a sucker for like lovers across time who keep finding each other.

I don't know. I love that shit. Like I, and I have always liked that. Like when I was a kid, I just have very strong. Like, this is my first love triangle memories of watching the animated show and being like, oh, but he really likes her. Why is she with Cyclops? he's a dork. Like, he sucks.

Totally. Wolverine's tortured and like he's real, man. He's brooding. So I like that as a story. I don't, I'm not sure like where that came up. Like it just has the feeling of something that was sort of superimposed onto an action video game where like there could be a comic run, even like an alternate history comic run or something, that told a story like this that could be really cool if that was the real centerpiece of it.

And I do think that those two actors and their scenes together are great. There are some really nice romantic scenes where they go to the casino or whatever and they're like dancing together and you're spying. Yeah, I love that scene. I don't know. They have chemistry and it's really, it's cute and it's just fun to see them actually get to be a couple in the way that they so rarely are. So I like that in theory. It's just that like putting that into this game is a little odd. And also I guess I came away from it thinking as wild as all this stuff is, especially for an X-Men fan, like it's just totally out of left few.

field, it's also, it feels to me like this could all just be a setup for the X-Men to come together because presumably Insomniac is still making an X-Men game. And that just at the end of this, so one thing that happens at the end that you didn't mention, Maddie, that is pretty minor, but like Sabretooth goes and finds Apocalypse or whatever. Yes. And the dialogue makes it sound as though he is now going to be war. So he's going to be the horseman of the apocalypse that is war, and he's going to be the new Big Bad, which also, side note.

Sabretooth rocks in this game. Like, he's actually amazing. I'm enjoying Sabretooth. Honestly, the Sabretooth, Logan dynamic is the same in the comics. Like,

this is one of the things that they keep. And I'm like, that's kind of cool that like, some of these characters are like, have the same dynamic. Now, they don't have the same backstory. So there's like no explanation

for why they have this dynamic because like weapon X didn't exist and they didn't come up together in it. And so instead it's like, well, how did they get this way? But I was kind of fine with it at a certain point.

I was just like, who cares. There's a scene. There's a scene. Lucy that you probably haven't gotten to, where Wolverine and Sabretooth, like, attack this facility together. And, like, it's so much fun because it's, like, them finally working together. And they're terrifying.

They're just, like, ripping this place apart. And Sabrethew just keeps being, like, you're loving this, aren't you, man? And, like, there's a lot of, like, dudes rock kind of, like, it's great. And, like, the two actors have so much chemistry. It's, like, really popping. That whole part was popping so much for me. So anyways, all that is to say, Sabretooth, a highlight of this game, honestly. And when Wolverine does kill him, it's very funny.

because he like falls off a cliff or something. Another moment where I'm like, he's not dead. You got a quintuple tap in this universe. That was another moment that I was just like, are we supposed to pretend that they could kill him? That he's not. I don't understand. Like the emotional arc of this scene is not landing for me.

And then like later Mystique is like mad at him for pushing saber tooth off a cliff. And I'm like, I don't know why. He's fine. And also he's a huge dick. Like does anyone actually really like him other than me as an audience member? I, you know, I don't know. I did feel for him. There's like this one pivotal moment where Sapertooth like kind of turns to Logan is like,

you didn't ask me to come with you. And I was like, thank God to me, man. It's great, a great moment. There are these moments and you can see the game that, you know, if they hadn't had all these troubles. Yeah, like they have, that's the thing. That's the thing. There was something in the.

There was. There's occasional scenes that I think are really great. And like some of Mystique scenes I thought were really great too. I felt like she was like really herself, quote unquote, and like how tortured she is as a person. And she's like, I never really am anyone. And like I thought that writing for her was pretty on par with her comic book persona in a way that I enjoyed. Even though they very randomly have her married to this character, Tiger, Tiger,

who's like an extremely minor comics character that she's like never even met in the comics. And it's like, okay. Like I don't know. It's fine. I, again, I'm just like everything I say. I'm like, I don't know how we got here, but. It's like a potluck and just reaching in and going, okay, Tiger, Tiger is married to. We're like having some macaroni and cheese and then we're having like some scrambled eggs with it and then we're having like a steak and it was like what is going on?

What is this meal? There's no vegetables in it. I don't know. Yeah, I liked Mystique. I mean, I like Mystique a lot as a character just because there's so much you can do. And what's cool about the X-Men, it's that it's like that old Buffy thing, right? where like each power is a metaphor for something that people struggle with. You know, Jess, we'd literally embased Buffy on X-Ben.

Oh, really? I actually didn't know that, but it totally makes sense. Yeah. Like, Buffy's like a direct kitty pride allegory. I mean, there's a reason why they have such similar vibes. It's a good thing, I would say. It's one of the stronger choices you make. Oh, yeah, it totally makes sense.

And like, when you have, like, Rogue, you know, Rogue can't touch anyone. And so it's like, oh, like, you know, there's so much room for pathos there. And with Mystique, it's like, who am I really? You know, that is the question. It's like, she's a walk. identity crisis and that makes her an interesting character and I wanted more of her and it is like also yeah tiger tiger I'm not familiar with her wife like they own a bar together in madripor I guess I mean this isn't from anything so there's not even be a random and then kind of a bummer that tiger

tiger is just sort of her like bummed out spouse who's just like ugh like what are you even doing like they seem to be disagreeing a lot in the story in ways that I was like I don't really get this like the newlyweds too they are newlyweds they're in a honeymoon period It's going terribly. Some nightmare doors going to be opening up for them. Couples nightmare doors. Yeah, you go in together

and you fight waves of enemies and then your marriage is stronger when you leave. You do wonder about the mystique game or certainly the Jean Grey game. I mean, one of the things that happens throughout this game is like, Jean Grey seemingly could just like annihilate everybody in any of the fights

that I'm in instantly. She's so powerful, which is true of Jean Grey, right? Yes. She is an incredibly powerful mutant. Yeah, she's an omega-level mutant. Mm-hmm. That's true.

And then the way the game ends with Gene, like, walking toward the camera, I'm like, oh, are we going to get a Gene Gray game next? Or is that just going to be our way in to, like, her finding Professor X and Cyclops and Gambit or whoever. Or maybe becoming the Professor X? Was she originally playable? I had read, like, rumor that she was supposed to be playable at some point. Yeah. She's in so much of the game that that would not surprise me.

It would have made sense. It seems like they could have built a lot of. her powers, you know, into it. But again, it's like, if a character is too powerful, then it's not interesting. It's tough. I think that's an inherent problem with these characters. But that's part of why I'm like, the fun part of this game, if there is any fun to be found is in this story that just doesn't always fully succeed.

Like, we've kind of listed off some of the things that I think are really fun about it. But like, every other scene, I'd be like, this just isn't landing. And I feel like I don't totally understand the character's motivations in this moment. And then, like, the next scene, I'd be like, okay. I can kind of map this on to who I think these characters are based on what I know about them. And I can bring my own emotional baggage, I guess, to the table and, like, let that carry me through in some form. But that's almost unfair because it's like, well, the things I like about the game or the times where I'm like, they kind of remind me of my guys.

And I like those guys. And like, that's fun. But it's, it's inconsistent. It's tough. It's kind of left me not knowing how I feel about the game, honestly. like more so than usual. Like, I don't know if I really hated this because it did have some moments

that I thought were really interesting. I don't hate it at all as I'm playing it. I'm just like, oh, you know, go and jump up here. Yeah, triple-A. It's very handsome-looking. You punch and you got claws. Good-looking, well-acted

AAA game that is remarkably frictionless, but that's not a bad thing. Like, it sounds like a back-handed compliment. But honestly, it's just kind of, it's a vibe. game. It is a vibe. Yeah. I mean, it seems to be selling well. Like, it seems to be like, you know, which is kind of, it's nice just in this day and age, honestly. Even while I have a lot of critiques of the game, like, the worst thing that could happen is it comes out. It was clearly a mess and difficult to make and then it doesn't do well. And then Insomniac suffers for that. I'm like, let Insomniac make another game by all means. Like, go make another warring game. Like, keep doing this. You know, keep this cast around. Keep in this direction. Like, this had a lot of cool narrative ideas. And it seems. like those ideas were just necessarily suborned to the chaos and the reboot and the fact that they had to fit stuff wherever they could to make this kind of shambolic game that they could ship that was fun enough to work. And that's kind of what they did. And like sometimes it seems

in game development, that's what you got to do. And yeah, I definitely, you know, it was a pretty messy game for me in a lot of ways, despite the moments that did really work. Yeah. Yeah, I'm really curious where they're going to go from here, though, because it does seem like this is such a different world from the one that I know that I'm just genuinely curious. I'm like, I want to see them make another game in this world because I'm going to have no clue where it's going and no way to predict it. And that can be kind of fun too. Like that, that's really daring for them to make that decision. And I think the changes could end up continuing to be really interesting. Because I definitely didn't hate all of them and found some of them to be really creative and cool. So,

that's, that's Marvel's Wolverine. So, weird game that I both liked and disliked at different points in time while playing it. And with that, let's take a break and then come back for one more thing. It's your captains, Janet Varnie and John Hodgman. As we come in for a landing on season three, we want you to know that all episodes of this season of V-Ploribus Motto are available now. Be ready to binge hours devoted to the Yellowhammers of Alabama. The tree octopi or octopuses of Washington or.

Washington. And motto's official, unofficial, Latin and otherwise from states like Nebraska, Florida, and more. Once again, all e-pluribus motto episodes are maximum fun.org. Meet with us and we look forward to traveling with you again soon. Please stay seated until the podcast comes to a complete stop. Hey Alexis. Hey Ella. What animal has the most teeth? I would guess a shark. A snail. No, snails don't have teeth. They have thousands and they are freaky looking. No, I don't want that to be True. Okay. Did you know that the hippocampus in your brain is named after the half-horse, half-fish sea creature found in Greek mythology? I didn't know that, but we're meant to be doing animal trivia and hippocampus isn't a real animal. Well, that doesn't matter on comfort creatures.

You're right. It doesn't matter at all. Comfort creatures is a cozy show for lovers of animals of all shapes and sizes, real and unreal. If that sounds like your cup of tea, then join us every Thursday for new episodes on Maximumfun.org. And we are back. It's time for one more thing. Kirk, why don't you? take it away. Sure. I will take it away with a new video game that I believe is out today, the day that you will be listening to this, which is Control Resonant, the new one from Remedy Entertainment, and a game that I've been playing over the weekend. Lucy, I gather you have also been playing it over the weekend. Yes. So I'm like three or four hours in. So this is really like early impressions, kind of similar to us talking about Fire Emblem, where we're going to do a dedicated triple play of this game in a couple

weeks just like we will with Fire Emblem and I'll have played a lot more of it by then. So I just kind of want to share some early impressions because it's out and I feel like some people will be curious what I think, especially as our shows, I'd say most rabid remedy fan, the one who likes all their games and even likes the things that some people don't like about their games. So I have been playing this game with great interest. So Control Resonant. Man, where to start with this game. I didn't know anything about this when I started playing it. Lucy, did you know that it was open world and it was in the city and stuff? Yeah, I did a preview.

They had a couple of digital previews for it. And then I did, I played it at Summer Game Fest as well. They had a two-hour, I think, hands-on bit. So I played from the very beginning and then a later mission, the sinkhole, if you're there yet, a sinkhole mission. I think I am. Oh yeah, I know what you're talking about. Yes, I've played past that. So yeah, I've played like through a few areas and beaten a few bosses and definitely have some thoughts. So I guess to really quickly nutshell it, this is a direct sequel to Control, which I believe is a 2019 game. Am I remembering that? I'm going off the dome here. I didn't take good notes. And you play as Dylan Faden, right? Dylan, who is Jesse Faden's brother. Dylan was kind of the antagonist or at least the McGuffin of the first control. And in the first control, Jesse Enter the Federal Bureau of Control, a secret government organization dedicated to basically the backrooms, like to what we now think of as like backrooms aesthetic, like, I don't know, what's the like.

SCP Foundation, Inspire. Thank you, SCP Foundation, like government, like a bunch of creepy crawlies. Yeah, bureaucracy horror. Yeah, bureaucracy horror. Power utilitarian stuff. Yes, brutalist architecture and lots of like possessed items that go to other dimensions. So she broke into this building looking for her brother who had gone missing because the two of them discovered a slide projector that was like possessed by an entity from another dimension. And then that led to a really wild and incredibly cool story I thought opened a whole new like a rift into this extradimensional world that Remedy was building with all kinds of cool stuff.

And in particular, a villain called The Hiss that is basically a nefarious frequency, which I just think is very cool. that it's like it's just a sound almost that just travels like it's not a consciousness except that it is a very cool idea for a villain and these games are filled with that kind of thing so anyways that game was very cool we've talked about it we did a beans cast in the bonus feed like years ago about control one then came allen wake two which actually tied to control in a lot of ways the federal bureau of control turns up in allen wake two so remedy is kind of expanding their cinematic universe and connecting things and here we are with control resonant where you get to take control of who has now been cured of the Hiss possession in the first game and has become, he has become, like, forced warrior on behalf of the FPC.

He has like a chip on the back of his head that'll kill him, but he has a lot of powerful psychic abilities and is very useful in the battle that is ensuing, which is happening because the Hiss has escaped from the Federal Bureau of Control and gone into Manhattan, which is very bad because it's possessing people and turning them into monsters. But also there's something else going on. There's like some kind of a like resonance frequency cascade event that has caused New York to completely lose the thread with physics and reality. It's essentially become the version of New York in the deep subconscious of inception where like sometimes the walls, the roads are going up and sometimes they're on the ceiling and everything is like folded around onto itself into a big series of weird cubes and things are cascading and mirroring and copying all over the place. And then the game itself is actually kind of reminds me of an infamous game. You're like a third person open world superhero game, more or less, where you can fly-ish and jump and there's a bunch of encounters all around and little puzzles. And then you can solve the little puzzles or you can chase down story missions and fight bosses. And I don't know.

I've seen some slightly mixed reviews on it, I guess. For my part, I think this game rocks. I think it's so cool just because it's so visually amazing at every turn. are things that happen in this game. Like, it's playing with three-dimensional space in a way that a game like Gravity Rush did. I think of Gravity Rush when I'm playing this, where the world is so, like, inverted and complex and beautiful

in these really striking and disorienting ways. And I just find myself repeatedly. They're just, like, laughing and be like, man, this is so cool. Like, look at this. How are they even doing this? And then that's on top of the lore, which is cool, you know, the feeling of, you know, discovering, these little hints of kind of weird devices and strange occurrences that happened.

And then really fun little puzzles where you'll see, like, a lot of times there are stores that you can go into because you're just on the street in Manhattan. And it'll be like, you know, a laundromat. And you go in and there's actually a little puzzle where the cash register has something funny written on it and there's a note by the door. And you realize, like, oh, there's a puzzle. And if I actually enter the right number on the cash register, a secret door will open in the back. And then that leads you into this very backroom's kind of, you know, space where it's like the FBC has all these depots or whatever. And just a feeling of like constant mystery hidden all around us and even underneath the layer of reality that we're looking at, that they're, I think, so fabulous at exploring in these games that they conjure with such consistency and such beautiful artistry that like the combat is like, it's fine. It's kind of repetitive.

Like the bosses are like, okay, but it's not onemot, onomusha or whatever. Like it's not like top tier combat. But it's so enchanting and engrossing that I just am like, I just want to keep playing this because the vibes are so cool. So that's my early impression at least. I haven't played enough to maybe get sick of the repetitive parts. I haven't gotten to the end to maybe find the story disappointing. But so far I'm finding a lot, like the things that I wanted from it are really, really there. And I'm enjoying it more than I even thought I would, especially when I learned, oh, it's an open world superhero game.

Oh, maybe I'm like, is that a good fit for control for this world? it's working for me so far. But Lucy, I'm curious what you think from what you've played. I'm also a huge remedy fan. I have the Nightless Night poster behind me. Oh, you do. Look at that.

I've got like the Alan Wig thermos and everything in here. Wow. It's on us for not noticing all those Easter eggs throughout the call that we're leading up to this moment. A very specific thermos.

The way I have to be in my shelves and my background. Oh my God. I will not do that. I've got me neither. But no. So I really enjoyed what I played a bit, and I think the thing with Remedy Games, that is all just about everything in it feels so purposeful and striking,

that even though they're not handing out all of the answers about what the hell the FBC has been doing, or the hiss or anything, it's like, I don't want those answers because just being submerged in that world is interesting enough. And in terms of the combat, I'll take a step back, not in terms of the combat, but in terms of getting around the world, navigation, talking to people, reading notes and everything.

Control Resonant is sort of like the kind of opposite to Wolverine. With Wolverine, there is little to no friction, whereas in control you have to read signs. The map is not good. That is a fixture of remedy games. Like the map is not good. And it's very disorienting. Like the world, right, is so disorienting. Yeah.

And also sometimes you will be walking on walls or, you know, like in different planes that you're used to. And so it's a game that demands attention and then rewards you. by just absolutely being like this absolute feast for the eyes and ears. I also really love the sound design. Like you said, like with the hiss being this entity that can take over by just you hearing it. And then they've just done really incredible things with sound work both in the open world and when you were up against enemies, it's just, it's sumptuous. It would be the word I would describe.

Totally agree. And then also it's just like, you know, there are those Jesse. who was the main character of the original control, the director of the Federal Bureau of Control, has gone missing. The last thing she did was take this spear, sword thing, and just put it into her brother's chest, and that woke him up, and now that is his weapon.

And there's also just, like, even the little things about that weapon, the aberrant. You know, he's sort of tossing it to the side after he strikes it, you know, like discarding these things. Sort of like how Rieper does it in Overwatch. It's just like, just throwing some of the side. stuff to the side, it transforms, it changes form. And so, yeah, and then, so it's all about Dylan. And from what we knew of Dylan in the original control, he was, he was not the brother that Jesse

grew up with. He was taken over by the hiss. He was kind of annoying. Yeah, just speaking riddles to you. Weirdo, yeah. Yeah, weird little freak. And now he is this very, you know, he's this quite boyish charm to him. he is this character who is just, you know, he is reckoning with the fact that he did something terrible years ago, but not necessarily under his own control, but he was responsible for the deaths of a lot of people and is now trying to make amends, trying to find his sister. And then you have resistance within the Bureau itself where they are screwed, Manhattan is screwed, they need every help they can get. But a lot of them, a lot of the characters you can come up against,

will have lost people because of Dylan. And so there's this great little push and pull there where they're kind of reluctant to accept his help, but they know they desperately need it. And I really enjoy the relationship that Dylan has with Zoe, a new character for Resident, who is his handler. And she is this very, you know, she's got to get the job done, got to get the job done. But she's kind of warming up to him in certain ways. She loves music and they're doing a cool thing with, you know,

if you do certain story beats, you unlock another track on her mixtape that she always has. I'm really enjoying it. I'm not as far as I would like to be. The one thing I will say is that I think tuning of the difficulty is maybe a little off. The original control was difficult. This one, I'm finding it more difficult, but I would say that is because I have repetitive strain injury, and so I can't be doing...

Yeah, playing Wolverine this, and Dawn Walker has kind of been a bit of a nightmare. But credit words do the assist and accessibility things that they have put in control, resident are incredible. I tweaked my damage output just a bit, and I increased my... Like, the stagger, and that has made it much more manageable for me, and I'm not getting penalized for it. more comfortable experience for me, and I'm just really glad that that is all in there from

day one. That's amazing, because Control One did not have all of that stuff from day one, and I know it was added later, but I remember, what is it, that Tommasi fight in controls, like kind of notorious. That's like the stopgap for a lot of people, and I still, I don't know, it's a tough one. The hard game. Yeah, I'll totally co-sign that. I reduce, like, the damage that I take, to like 80% because I was just absolute on health constantly in fights. And maybe I'm just bad.

I don't know. But I just wasn't having that much fun. I was like, oh, another group of guys. And they weren't even a story fight. It was just sort of some enemies in the world. And like, here we go. And then I'm just kind of really up against the wall. And that some people will like that for me.

It really helped to just make that one small change. And it is something they added to control. And I heard from a few people about that. Because when I played control, that wasn't in the game. And I kind of just worked my way. work my way through it. But then they added these like amazingly granular controls, you know, and you can make the game harder for yourself too. So you can take more damage or do more damage or, you know, increase stagger, etc. And this is something that has come up many times

Lucy on our show talking about. It started with Silk Song because I wound up playing around with some mods for Silk Song that were very similar to this, where it like increased Hornets damage output by something like 10%. It was a tiny amount, but it just had enough of a impact. that it made the game more enjoyable. And I came away from it thinking, this should be a norm. And I think that it is gradually becoming a norm. I think we're seeing more and more games

give these options. And then when we were talking about Meena the Hollower earlier this year, that's a game that almost gave too many options for some people, and people felt a little overwhelmed by it or not sure how to optimize their play-through. But I think it's really cool

that more and more developers are playing with this. And I applaud remedy for sticking with it and putting all those options right there in the menu. And not shaming you for using it, They tell you very clearly there is an intended way to play this, and that's with assist mode off. So, like, if you want what we intended, play that. Like, they don't, you know, they're clear that that's what they intended. But then, go ahead, like, play with it if you want.

And it's totally made the game, like, more fun for me. Because I'm here for the vibes and the story, for the exploration. I like the fights. They should feel a little challenging, which they still do. I just don't need it to quite push me that hard. And, yeah, I think that's a great feature that I'm really glad is in the game. Yeah, I'm really relieved to hear it. I haven't started this game yet.

And I'm excited to start. And I remember just like strong arming my way through some of those early control fights. And like, yeah, I beat the game the hard way. But like, there were definitely moments where I wish it had just been tuned slightly differently. And it's. It's that thing too where like at the beginning you just don't have as many abilities and powers. And Dylan is just super underpowered. And by the end, I'm sure he's going to be like a god on earth, you know.

And by then I might just kick the difficulty back. That's what's great about control one. Right, which is what control did. Right. So I can imagine. changing it as well. But anyways, yeah, we'll talk much more about it in a couple weeks when we do a full episode on it. But I'm very positive on it so far, I've got to say. It's a very cool game. The movement too. Yeah, it feels good to move around. I love zipping around. And it runs great.

I'm like it on PC and it runs really well. I'm like, I don't have a super powerful PC, but I am continually impressed with remedy with just how gorgeous and well-made their games seem to be. Like that engine they use, whatever it's called. It's like, North Light. Yes, that's right. North Light, some very impressive technology. Cool. All right, I'll go next. So I've been reading this ongoing manga that because it's a manga, it has a very long title and the title is going to tell you exactly what happens in the manga.

And I'm going to read it to you now. It is titled, The Guy She Was Interested in Wasn't a Guy at All, which is a hilarious title. What's it about, Maddie? Who could say? So this is a manga written by Sumika Ara. and it's it's very cute. I got it's about two Japanese school girls. And of course,

they discover that they are both queer over the course of this story. And I, I'm 40 years old. I don't really make a habit of reading queer coming of age stories at this point in my personal journey. Like I, I feel,

I've, if anything, I'm like one of those old queer people that's like, there should be more stories about 40 year olds. And like, you know, I was shouting out Wolverine earlier

for having that, even though those aren't queer characters except in my own fan fictions. But regardless, part of why I recommend this manga, although I kind of like started reading it just sort of like as a joke because I'm like, oh, this is such a funny title for a manga, like what is going to happen? But the like full premise of the manga is that these two teenage girls who live in Japan and have always lived there are obsessed with Western and specifically American rock and roll music from the 80s and 90s.

And so the premise of like how they get together is that one of them works at a record store that's like owned by her Gen X uncle who's like very into like Nirvana and all that stuff. And she wears like a full KN95 face mask and like puts her like super goth hoodie over her hair when she's at work, which is why she doesn't look feminine. And so the other girl comes in and keeps like buying all these Nirvana records and like all of this like rock and roll music that the girl at the counter is like, I can't believe she's interested in this. And so that's how they come to like form this relationship is over this shared love of music. And some of the music references in this are like very comical to me in the way that I think you two can probably relate to if you've ever heard like of rock station that we hear now where they'll play like. like, you know, the Smiths and then they'll play Hubasank and then they'll play, you know,

like red hot chili peppers and then they'll play like fun period. And you're like, okay, yeah, I guess technically all of these are pop rock songs, but they're all from like super different time periods and they'll have like really different cultural context. And like for the first few issues of this manga, I was like running into that a lot where I was like, these two girls are listening to songs that are so random and have like, and are like completely divorced from the time in which they were created. But I also think that's part of what ends up being so charming about it, because it is about and is written by someone who has their own associations with these songs

that are totally different from ours. And these two characters come to them organically and, like, have their own love of them that is divorced from time and space and is divorced from, like, all the cultural contexts that, like, we have, or at least I have about Nirvana and like what we know about it. And like, I'm going to look up this quote. So like on the Wikipedia, which I was reading, because I was like, I want to know like how this story came to be. And like it's just kind of enjoyable to like read.

It actually started as like a joke. Like the artist, like she put it up on Twitter as like one panel or like a series of panels just as like a bit. And people loved it so much that she like wrote out the whole story. And like that's very cute to read about. But also on the Wikipedia, there's this quote from Dave Grohl, who's in the Food Fighters now, but was obviously the former drummer of Nirvana. And he has read it and likes it and was like Kurt Cobain would love this story. And that just like shook me because I was like, oh, that's so sweet. It like makes me tear up to think about because Kurt Cobain was such a like advocate for queer people when he was alive.

And I just was like, wow, okay, that's like really cool. So anyway, that was something else about the manga that I thought was neat. And it's going to be an anime soon. And I will watch it. And so if people want to read it, it's like corny, but it's really adorable. And I ended up being very won over by it in the end. So yeah, it's called the guy she was interested in, wasn't a guy at all. It's actually about music.

And it's pretty adorable. That sounds awesome. Dave Girl approved. Dave Girl approved. That's a very Dave Girl thing to do also. It's to like read a manga like that. It is. And like they've also like approved like the song breed for the anime.

And like I'm so excited about like what other songs are going to be in the anime now. Because I'm like, oh, like they have so many great tracks. Like the girls put together all these mixtapes for each other. And like that'll be really cool if they can like get all those songs in the show. So because obviously reading it is fun. But like watching it I feel like will be even better. So, yeah, I'm psyched. Lucy, what's your one more thing?

Well, I mean, hey, in that musical theme, my one more thing is the new Beck album, Ride Lonesome. Yeah. Yesterday, those is they forgot to blow. I am an enormous Beck fan, have been for a very long time. I'd say Hyperspace didn't really hit for me, but my favorites of his are, unfortunately for him the sad ones

and they're kind of the ones that he always does after big breakups. So C-Change, obviously, being sort of the the go-to sad breakup album after his relationship with Lee Limon and Lilimone. And now, Ride Lonesome is, it's been a couple years now since his divorce from Marissa Ribinski. It sounds right. Giovanni Ribisi.

Yeah. Rebisi. Yeah. Yeah, Beck's had a storied life of romantic relationships and so on. Winona Ryder? Yeah. Yeah, I mean, plenty to write songs about, I'm sure. Oh, yes.

And so for me, it's quite funny listening to Ride Lones and the album because there are these sort of light motifs, I guess, if you want to call them that. But certain chord progressions that he would use in C-Change, there's one, like very specific one from things like The Golden Age, which he kind of echoes in Ride Loneson. And then in the middle of these two albums, if these two starred albums, the bookends, the one in the middle is Morning Phase from 2014, which Grammy Album of the Year. An amazing record for anyone who hasn't listened to it. A beautiful, beautiful album. And I was originally a little skeptical of Morning Phase because it was sort of positioned as this concept album about waking up. And I was like, oh, no, has he gone too up his own ass? But no, it's a stunning album.

And a couple years ago, I saw him. He did a tour performing with local orchestras, and he performed with the Berkeley Philharmonic, and he played, I mean, he opened with Golden Age, and I just burst into tears, and I've never really had that experience at a concert before. So I'm going to see him on Friday here in San Francisco, and I can't wait. This album is, because Beck is that, I mean, the joke from Futurama is that he transcends genres, even as he reinvents them, which is unfortunately the only thing I can ever think of

when it comes to trying to explain the music. But he's dabbled in so many different genres, and I think when it is just him and the guitar and the beautiful string compositions, I think they're done by his father, like David Hansen. Oh, nice. He has just, it's like an ethereal otherworldly quality to the music, and it is just,

it feels like a warm bath that you can kind of, of just let wash over you. And so Ride Lonesome has that, you know, quiet acoustic, but also just like elements of country. And just I'm really enjoying it. I think he is just absolute all-timer of an artist that I feel like doesn't get as much credit as he should. Like the people who get Beck really get him.

And then other people, you kind of say, oh, Beck, and they go, oh, the loser guy. It's like he's so much more than that. I mean, please, here's my copy of mutations. Go listen to it. Yeah, man. I've had a long tortured relationship with Becker. No, I've had a long and winding relationship with him. He's made some interesting choices. He has. So my background, when I was like in high school, I was a jazz nerd and I was a big jazz musician. That was my whole thing.

Not like now. Yes, I am still a jazz musician in addition to other things. And a lot, and I was a big snob. Like I was a big snob about harmony and complexity and technical ability. And that was my whole thing. And I would listen to like Odel. And I just thought this guy sucks. Like that when I was 17 and didn't know anything, I barely listened to it. I didn't give it the time of day. I didn't know what was cool.

I didn't know what vision sounded like. I did not understand that record at all. And I heard it and it was like, this sucks. And totally skipped mutations. And it wasn't until like after music school that I heard midnight vultures. Yeah. And I was like, oh, this is sick. And then I looked at the personnel and realized like, oh, this guy is playing with like some of the top

motherfuckers like in the whole country. And his bands are always that way. Like on this. new record on Ryan Lonesome, he's got Jason Faulkner playing guitar. Blake Mills is on a track who, like, Blake Mills made notes with attachments. She's like one of my favorite records. So he's got these amazing musicians that he's collaborating with. And then I started realizing like, oh, all his records were good.

He was always good. Like Mutations is like one of the best mixed and sounding albums I've ever heard. That album is so cool. I still just put it on like in the studio or like when I'm trying out new speakers just because it's so gorgeous sounding and I've really come, like, I've come all the way around on him and like, I think I totally agree with you. And I'm really digging this record. All that is to say, I've only listened to it a couple times through beautiful sounding, so much beautiful guitar playing. The songwriting is great. There's a lot in there. It's really great. So to co-sign that

really good record. It's unfortunate that the sad, the sadder he is. We don't want to wish for bad things. I don't want him to be sad. And yeah, but he's also, he's also like a great showman live. I've heard that. I've seen him a few, I've seen him a few times. And he's just really good and engaging and funny. You know, sometimes you'll go see artists and they are just, you know, I'm just going to play the song, play the hits, and that's kind of it.

Beck digs into the back catalog a lot. And he has, there's an infamous fan site called Whiskeyclone.com. I'm not sure if it's still around, but they had a list of every single. song the Beck had ever, ever made. And in a section called, I think it was Paper Tiger. Every section of the website was named after a Beck song, and one of them was Paper Tiger. I forget what that was. It's here. I'm looking at it.

Oh, man. And it's just a freaking blog. It rules. It's totally still here. It's awesome. Hell yeah. This is the best kind of internet. Yeah. Just looking at how deep his archives go and how much music he has created. It's, I mean, I think I forget which show I saw him do. but he pulled out, you know, stuff from deriopathic soul manure

and like something that he had on golden feelings that was later on mellow gold and even some stuff that he never really recorded. The one, my one Holy Grail song that I actually did see him perform live a ship in a bottle, which is a Japanese exclusive from Sea Change. Wow.

It was only available on the Japanese release of Sea Change. The deep cuts. And I was like, I'm going to lose it. And so I'm so excited for a Friday. That's so cool. Oh, I hope it's a great show. I'd love to see him live sometime. I've heard it's great. He's on to him? Yeah, I should go. He's on to Yeah, you could. It's just starting this week. Yeah, they had to cut. They had to move the couple of

first shows because of some production issues. So it was originally supposed to be in Portland and somewhere else, and they've moved that. Well, I'm in Portland, so. Oh, well, that means you can go in November. Okay. That's when they moved it to. All right. I'll, maybe I'll go. This is inspiring me. I should go see back. All right. That's awesome. I'm going to check out this album. I had heard about it. I heard it was coming out, didn't realize it was actually out. So this is, this is good. I saw Lucy added and I was like, oh, cool, that new Beck album's out. And obviously, I'm thinking a lot about Gen X music lately because I'm reading this manga. So why not, why not embrace it and make a mixtape and just

baffle my wife by making her a mixtape of things that came up before she was born? Anyway, thanks, Lucy, for coming on the show. Yeah, thank you, Lucy. It's so fun. It's lovely. Do you have anything you want to shout out before you go? Once again, Friends Per Second. Really cool, really cool podcast that Lucy's on. Yeah, we're recording that one tomorrow. Yeah, Friends Per Second on the SkillUp channel or everywhere you find your podcast. And then my newsletter is Looking For Dark Game, where every week I send out video game indie

recommendations, always with a demo so you can try yourself at home. You don't have to take my word for it. And yeah, we've cultivated a really cool community over there of folks who just love games, which is all that matters, really. Everyone's having a good time. Yeah, it's awesome. It's really joyful. It's a great concept.

And I'm curating games is no small feet. So I have a lot of admiration for people who just really devote themselves to that specifically. Inbox is a nightmare, but my steam shelves are so organized. I love that for you. Let Lucy do it for you. All right. And with that, we did it. We did an episode.

Yeah. We did another triple click episode for you. this week and now it comes to a close. And ordinarily, I would say I'll see you both next week. But Lucy, it was a pleasure and Maddie. I will see you next week. Yeah, that's right. Thanks again, Lucy and Kirk. I'll see you next week. Thanks. Bye. Review consideration, you can find a link to our ethics policy in the show notes. Triple Click is a proud member of the Maximum Fun Podcast Network. And if you like our show, we hope you'll consider supporting us by becoming a member at maximumfund.org slash join. Email us at triple click at maximum

Fund.org and find links to our merch store and our Discord server in the show notes. Thanks for listening. See you next time. Artist owns shows. Supported directly by you.