Triple Click - Gaming's Biggest Night (Aside From Maddy's Wedding)

Episode Date: December 7, 2023

The Triple Click Trio takes on The Game Awards: Who will win? Who'll get snubbed? What's an Action/Adventure game, again? Also, the hosts make some predictions!One More Thing:Kirk: JusantMaddy: Chants of SennarJason: Going Infinite (Michael Lewis)LINKS:Support Triple Click: http://maximumfun.org/joinBuy Triple Click Merch: https://maxfunstore.com/search?q=triple+click&options%5Bprefix%5D=lastJoin the Triple Click Discord: http://discord.gg/tripleclickpodTriple Click Ethics Policy: https://maximumfun.org/triple-click-ethics-policy/ Happy MaxFunDrive! Right now is the best time to start a membership to support your favorite shows. Learn more and join 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

And the winner for Best Audio Design of 2023 goes to Kirk Hamilton for that time he binged in to fix his own mistake. Wow, what an honor. Well, first I want to welcome you to Triple Click where we bring the games to you. And I want to thank my co-hosts, since on this episode we'll be talking about the Game Awards and making some predictions for who we think will win on gaming's biggest night. I'm Kirk Hamilton. I'm Maddie Myers. And I'm Jason Schreier. Hello.

Hi there. Welcome back for gaming's biggest night. Oh boy. Gaming's biggest day? Gaming's biggest. Leading into gaming's biggest night. If you're listening to this later, sorry, but it is gaming's biggest day slash night. It already happened.

The biggest night. You're on the downslope. It's all downhill for you now because you've experienced gaming's biggest night. Right. And now we're just climbing back up the hill again to the next gaming's biggest night, which will be on a Thursday in December 2024. But we don't even think about that right now. Right.

Now we're thinking about this. Right. It's always the biggest night. So we are climbing up again. It's always going to be bigger. Huh. That's a way to think about it. A bigness inflation going on.

It's growth, man. It's capitalism. I was sort of suggesting they were all the same level of bigness, but you're right. Capitalism dictates that gaming's biggest night has to keep getting bigger every year. It just keeps growing. Yeah. If gaming's biggest night doesn't grow 10% year over year,

shareholders are not going to be happy. That's just problem. There's going to be some layoffs that's going to be a real problem. Speaking of capitalism. We're a listener-supported show. Oh, boy. And you should support us at maximumfund.org slash join. You become a member.

You support our show. We love all of you who support us. And to show you that, we make bonus episodes that you can listen to. The latest one is on Spider-Man 2. We've got some cool ones coming up that we've got planned. Next year we're going to do triple cook as we have been teasing at the beginning of episodes recently. I'm so excited for that. On anyways, maximum fund.org slash join.

Become a member. support something good. It'll make you feel good and it'll help us. Keep making this show. All right. Let's get into it. Jason, what are we talking about this week? We are, of course, talking about gaming's biggest night. So, okay. So people who might have been kind of paying attention to our annual predictions game this year might have noticed that there is a legitimate scenario in which all three of us tie in January. Now, we won't get into specifics and of course there's still a few weeks left in the year, but that is a possible. And the three of us said, you know, if we tie, we're not going to play all three games. That would be a little nutty.

And we're not even doing a two-way tie again. It's too many. We're just going to have one way. No, we decided against it. So we decided we are going to come up with a tiebreaker. And that tiebreaker will be a predictions game for gaming's biggest night. Yeah. This isn't complicated at all.

This is so easy. We're just adding on additional predictions on top of the predictions you already have to know about as a listener. but this is actually pretty simple. Yeah, I think it's pretty straightforward. This part is, yes. Whoever wins the most predictions. Yep.

From gaming's biggest tie for the Game Wars 2023, wins the tie breaker. This will only apply if there's an either two-way or three-way tie in the actual predictions game. Yeah, it's not a secret extra point, right? No, it's nice and simple. It is simply numbers. It is just yes or no for each of these.

There's no arguing. There's no debating. We will just have one person who has the point for a tiebreaker. Yes. Unless we somehow all get the same number of categories correct in which case will. We can't talk about that. We can't acknowledge that reality. We really will roll a die. So, okay, so here's what we're going to do. We're going to go through each category. And one of the reasons that I really like this is a game is that it actually sets, it makes it so we care about like who wins each category this year when usually you're just like, okay, whatever, like Zelda won.

So anyway, so we're going to go through one by one. We're going to go through in the order that the Game Awards listed. There are 31 categories. And we're going to pick them all with her. that we actually know anything about the category involved. So let's get into it. And along the way, as we're going through each of these, we can kind of talk about any steps we think are in the picture, or like if there's anything that we think should not be on there or whatever else. So let's get to it.

Can we just say preliminarily, this is such a stacked year for video games. I think this is maybe the first year that I've looked at the game of the year lineup, which is our first entry here. And I've not only played, but enjoyed every single entry on here. That's so rare. I mean, I don't know how you two feel about it, but in looking at the Game Awards nominees, usually I got at least a couple that I'm like, why is that here? And the overall list. But this year, I was kind of like, all right, there's a lot of good video games this year.

And the Game Awards list is a way of tracking that. It's a way of observing that, even if I don't always agree with the winners. Yeah. So let's list that list you're talking about. So number one, category one is Game of the Year. Allen Wake 2, Balders Gate 3, Spider-Man 2, Resident Evil 4, Super Mario Brothers Wonder, and Tears of the Kingdom. Yeah, any snubs do you guys think are on here before we pick our, we each make our picks? Yeah, I think my only issue with this is one that I've seen voiced elsewhere, which is that there is a remake on this list, and I'm not sure how I feel about Resident Evil 4 remake being on here.

What about the Dead Space remake, though? Would you want that on here? No, I think the same reason But it's not But yeah, same reason I mean Cyberpunk Phantom Liberty was so good And given the game of the year

Tends to go to the glitzy things Like there are definitely Smaller games that I played That I liked more than several of the games on here But I really liked Phantom Liberty I think it was fantastic And Resident Evil 4 is just kind of I mean it's a really old game

I know they remade it But I don't know So I think I would maybe swap those out Yeah I don't know if TLC would qualify for this The way that Fandom Liberty like, Phantom Liberty is in expansion. I don't know if it qualifies as a game. I would say that it qualifies more than a remake of a 2004 game.

And, you know, again, I'm sort of making the list. If it were my list, I would definitely put it on there. Yeah. Oh, and by the way, I should say, as we're picking these, we are, of course, we're picking what we think is going to win, not necessarily our picks. So that's an important thing to say out front. Okay, everybody give your picks.

Kirk, what's your pick for a game in the air? Balders Gate 3. Okay. Maddie. I'm going Zelda. Tears of the Kingdom. Zelda. Okay. We already got our first dispute here. I am also going with Baldur's Gate 3. I actually, I feel like Zelda has kind of lost momentum.

You think the recency bias is going to play a role too there, maybe? And I think if I were making my personal pick, it would be Zelda, but I think Baldersgate 3 has just got the momentum. And it also feels more original. Yeah, when you look at the games everyone talked about all year, I don't know. It's hard to argue with Baldur's Gate 3. I love Cheers of the Kingdom, but Balders Gate 3 is unstoppable. my opinion. All right. The next category is best game direction, which is kind of a weird category.

A very strange category. A lot of these categories, it's not actually clear. I imagine everybody is voting as totally different ideas of what this actually means. Regardless, the entries are that pretty much the same as game in the year. Alan Wake 2, Balders Gate 3, Spider-Man 2, Mario Wonder and Zelda Tears of the Kingdom. Everything is... No, as an evil for. Because fuck that game direction, I guess. Well, because it's directed so poorly. Just kidding. I don't know why I'm not that. Very strange. change. What do you guys think with this one? This is tough because I feel like if I wanted to pick my Maddie Myers pick, it would be Allen Wake 2 because I feel like it's so strongly directed, but I don't know if the average voter, which includes fans, not just critics, it includes a whole

bunch of different people. There's a fan vote that plays a role. I think maybe the average person would pick Baldr's Gate 3. I guess I'll go with that. This is a tough one. What are you going to say, Kirk? My pick is Ellen Wake 2 because I think that people, vote based on like the idea of a singular director like the way the kojima it's like kojima syndrome for this award and since sam lake is so present in the game and was so president in the game sort of marketing it is just such a clear influence on it i just feel like allan wake too plus i mean it is a really well directed game in so far as that's a thing jason what about you my pick is also alan wake too i actually think since it's 90 so the the way the voting works is 90%

critic vote and 10% fan vote. And I think critics love Alan Wake 2 and will want to refer it as a dark horse. And since it won't win game of the year, I think this is the game, the award it'll get. But it's nominated for a lot of other awards which are about to get to. So yeah, let's get into it. Best narrative. Allen Wake 2, Baldersgate 3, cyberpunk 2077, Phantom Liberty, Final Fantasy 16, Spider-Man 2. It's interesting to see Final Fantasy 16 there. Not going to vote for it. Just saying it's interesting to see it there. Maybe not the category I would have put it in. All right, Maddie, what's your pick?

Ah, God, I got to do Baldur's Gate 3 for this. I'd be crazy not too. Come on. That's what everybody's going to vote for, right? Even if I think it's Ellen Wake 2 here as well. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter what I think. Yeah, I think I think Balders Gate 3 is going to win.

Best narrative, for me at least, I also think it is the best narrative of the year. I think even people who don't play it would click that because they're like, it's got narrative in it, right? It's Baldur's Day 3. I am with you guys. I think the elders gave three. And I actually think that's the most deserving as well in my opinion. All right, let's keep going.

Best Art Direction. Allen Week 2, High-Fi Rush, Lies of Peace, Super Mario Brothers Wonder, The Legend of Zelda, Tears of the Kingdom. I'm going to do Allen Way 2 for this because I feel bad that I haven't said it yet. Okay. And I think maybe the people will come out for Allen, you know? Maybe for this category. They'll be like, that game's artsy.

I think this is where Zelda takes it. I think Zelda is going to win the crown here. Nice. Well, I picked High Fy Rush for this one. I think that's another strong contender. Yeah, because it's not really nominated for other stuff, but is a really well-liked game from earlier in the year. I really like this game.

It's actually, it's kind of battling it out to make it under my top 10 list. And it does have very cool art and very, like, already art. You know, it looks like very illustrated. And I would think maybe that one over Zelda, I agree, Jason, that Zelda has a good shot. And I agree Maddie. Alan Wake does. those are the three strongest contenders.

It's just that Zelda looks so much like Breath of the Wild that it's kind of... That's why I think it's right now. It's a little like, oh, well, it looks like a game that already came out. I think you may be right, although I think High Fy Rush. High Fy Rush was nominated for one that I'm going to vote on later, but we'll get into that. Let's keep going. Best score and music.

Allen Wake 2, Balders Gate 3, Final Fantasy 16, Hi-Fi Rush, Legend of Zelda's Tears of the Kingdom. Maddie, you're up. This is tough, because I feel like if enough people played Alan Wake 2, they'd say Ellen Wake 2 for this. Yeah, I mean, show me the champion of light. And the old guards of Asgard are playing at the game of words. So I'm kind of like, do maybe people know the songs from Alan Wake 2 at this point?

And that's going to take it. And I don't, I haven't played Hi-Fi Rush. I know it's a big music game. But I feel like Alan Wake 2 has better music than some of these other games, no offense to them. I just really like the Alan Wake 2 is like. So what's your thing? I'm just saying Al-Wake 2. I don't know.

You're doing this live on the show? I don't know. Okay. Helen Wake to you. How do you says? Okay. My pick is the game here that I did an entire episode of Strong Songs about, and that is Legend of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom, which I believe does just like, not objectively, but

it has by far my favorite music of the year. Because High FiRush is like, Jason, I see you're predicting the same thing. Yeah, Zelda is my pick too. I mean, the music in that game is out of control. I would be shocked if that game today. But it includes music from Breath of the Wild. I'm not saying that's fair, but I'm just kind of thinking of how the bias works. No, but like, while having done a whole episode of Strong Songs about it, there's a crazy amount of new music in it.

And it like repurposes music from Breath of the Wild in like all these brilliant ways. It's amazing, I think. I feel like this game awards, I suspect, even though I don't think it's going to win game of the year, I think a lot of people are going to leave it being like, oh, yeah, Zelda was one of the best games ever made. And that came out a few months ago. Because I don't think people are talking about it quite as much. anymore? Like you think it's gonna get a ton of other awards and then BG3 is gonna take the top. Yeah, well BG3 isn't nominate like BG3 has great music but like it doesn't compare

I know it's it is in this category though which is kind of interesting. Yeah no I mean it's it's a great that Raphael song well Mattie hasn't gotten there yet. I don't know you're talking about but I can't that's actually similar to to Champion of Light for Malin Wake 2 a similar moment in that game. That's good. Raphael deserves the music. All right let's keep going best audio design. Alan Wake 2, Dead Space, hi-fi, Rush, Marvel Spider-Man to Resident Evil 4. Hmm. I think I'm going to do Dead Space here. I'm going to do a weird pick.

That's a great pick. I will say, I think Dead Space has amazing audio design. I think that many of these other games do, too. But I'm just kind of thinking, like, what will people vote for? And what will they be thinking themselves? Oh, Dead Space. I remember that. I liked that. Kirk, what's your pick? This is a tough one. I'm going to go with Alan Wake 2 because I think that's what people would vote for. It does have amazing sounds.

Though personally, I think the best audio design of the year was Spider-Man, too. I think the audio design of that game is crazy. It's so good. It's really amazing. But I just kind of think Alan Wake-2 is going to take it. Kirk, you and I have made a lot of similar picks. Alan Wake-2 was also my pick for this one. Wow, you did.

You guys keep being the same pick. Because I just, I think Zelda is going to take music. I feel confident. I think the way that the jury makes up for Zelda for Alan Wake 2 not winning best music is that it'll get audio to sign. All right, this one has a lot of strong contenders. Best performance.

Ben Star, Final Fantasy 16, Cameron Monaghan, Star Wars Jedi Survivor, Idris Elba, Cyberpunk, Melanie Leiberd, Alan Wake 2, Neil Newbond, Baldur's Gate 3, Yuri Lowenthal, Spider-Man 2. What's it going to be, Maddie? I feel like the people love Idris, and the gamers are going to want to give Idris

an award just because you can't. Can't not. Like get him up on stage. Like, come on, we all want that moment. Right? Yeah, that's a strong prediction. I think Neil Niebuon is going to get it. I think Asterian is such an iconic character.

His performance is so incredible. And he's just been so present. Like all the voice actors on that game have been so present. But I've seen him a lot in particular. I actually didn't know who he was before this year also. And I'm now very aware of him. So I just feel like he had a breakout year. And it seems likely that he'll win.

I'm going to change my pick. I had gone with Neil too, but I actually think that Ben Starr, because he carries all of Final Fantasy 16, is going to win it. And I think he's also on social media a lot. I think he's raised his profile quite a lot this year. I think people will know that name a little bit more than Neil Nubon. It's possible to play all of Elders Gate 3 without even talking to Neil Nubon or hearing his voice. So I actually think Ben Starr and Final Fantasy 16 is going to take this one. He's fantastic, a highlight of the game.

All right. Next up, Innovation. in accessibility. We have Diablo 4, Forza Motorsport, high-fi rush, Spider-Man 2, Martle Combat 1, Street Fighter 6. Let's switch up the order a little bit. I'll go first. I think Diablo 4 takes this one because that game has a lot of really interesting accessibility stuff and they've tried really hard to make it accessible to people. I'm going to do Street Fighter 6, which I think will probably also win best fighting game this year.

But it is such a good example. of actually doing something that fighting games have been trying to do for a really long time with having simplified controls and the like classic controls. They've actually implemented that. And I've heard, it's only anecdotal, but I've heard from a lot of parents who play with their kids that it's actually really fun this time in ways that are really revolutionary and just kind of also anecdotally hearing from friends who are like, yeah, I don't really like fighting games, but like I feel like the accessibility mode in this game is great.

They've also added a bunch of other stuff to the game that just makes it easier to hop into it and learn new characters. And I just, I know they've been trying for a really long time. But so was every fighting game. And Street Fighter Six really did it. I think it's kind of an unsung champion of that, at least in the circles that we run in because fighting games is kind of its own island in certain ways.

Like you have to be into them to be like talking about which ones are accessible. But I feel like the people who like it will come out for it, including on the critic and fan side. So I think it has a chance in this category. Kirk, what's your pick? Spider-Man, too. I agree, Jason, that Diablo 4 has a lot of really great accessibility. I think, I just think Spider-Man 2 might take it because Sony has built this reputation

for building in all these nice accessibility options, and there are a lot of great ones in that game. So yeah, anyway, that's what I think will win. All right, next up, games for impact. A space for the unbound, chance of Sonar, goodbye, volcano high, chia, Teranil, Venba. Kirk, what's your pick? I'm going to pick Chia for this one. This is a game that I loved and didn't have much of a chance to talk about on the show. But Game for Impact is kind of the social justice progressive award that we've registered our gripes with before.

Chia is a very cool game with kind of Breath of the Wild-like systems, but it's also set on New Caledonia and paints a cool cultural picture. And I think that fits with this sort of weird category. So that's what I'm going to pick. Maddie, what's your pick? I'm going to pick Venba, which I talked about is my one more thing. last week and I think super deserves this award and hopefully a lot of people have played it and we'll agree with that. Yeah, I don't, I haven't played most of these, but I feel like goodbye, Volcano High has the most name recognition for people. So I think that's what they're going to pick.

Because I imagine most people will not have played most of these. We're judging this. Best ongoing Apex Legends, Cyberpunk 2077, Final Fantasy 14, Fortnite, Genshin Impact. Here is where I think cyberpunk takes, takes the crown. That's my. vote for this one. I'm going to go Fortnite. Fortnite. Yeah, that's a great call, Jason, but I'm also going to go Fortnite because I just feel like

Fortnite has been doing a lot of really cool stuff lately, even though it is impressive the way that CD Project has supported cyberpunk. Best community support, kind of a similar, well, not really similar, but best community support. Balders Gate 3, Cyberpunk, Destiny 2, Final Fantasy 14,

no man sky. I am voting for cyberpunk once again. I think that takes this one. I think that Baldur's Gate 3 takes this one because of the way that they've responded to fans. They've added stuff to the game according to fan requests. And I know everybody's, all these games have done that to some extent, but it's been pretty crazy how much Larian has done that. So I think BG3. I agree. Next up, best indie game, or sorry, best independent game, they're saying. Don't let's out shorten it. Not indie. Well, whatever this means, Kekoon, Dave the Diver, Dredge, C of Stars, Viewfinder. Dave the diver is, of course, not an indie game.

Yes, as we've established, it is extremely not an indie game and it's very funny that it was nominated for this. Kirk, what's your pick? You know, I think actually, I think that my pick is Dave the Diver. I think that's going to win, even though it shouldn't be nominated. It should be nominated somewhere else, maybe. It's a really cool game. I like it, but I just think it's going to win. Maddie?

I think I'm going to go dredge here. I think more people played that than Kikoon, which I like better personally. Yeah, that's it. I was mulling over between those two for the. in the next one, and I'm going to go with cocoon, just to switch things up from you, Maddie, even though I could have gone either way. Best debut indie game,

cocoon, dredge, pizza tower, Venba, and viewfinder. I'm going to stick with my cocoon prediction. Maddie, are you going to stick with Dredge for this one? No, I think I'll go Venba. Venba, okay. I think this is going to be Dredge. I think the reason that Dredge won't win best indie game is that it'll win best debut.

And it is a great debut. Black Star, is that what they're called? The studio that made dredge. Black Salt. Good on them. They did a great job. Best mobile game. Final Fantasy 7, Ever Crisis, Hello Kitty Island Adventure, Han Kai Star Rail, Monster Hunter Now, Tara Nill. I'm going to say Han Kai Star Rail because I think that game is really big.

I don't really play any of these, but I'm just going to say that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's going to win. I think this one's a wash because that's my picture. We all picked it. Well, that's a meaningless kind of. like Ari and we all win. Best VR slash AR. Whatever that means.

Grand Trism 7, Horizon Call of the Mountain, humanity, Resident Evil Village VR mode, synapse. Kirk. Yeah, so weird year because I didn't play any VR this year, even though I do like VR, I didn't get the new PlayStation VR, so I didn't play Horizon Call of the Mountain,

but I do think that that's what's going to win just because I gather it's, you know, it's a VR game, it's not breaking a lot of new ground, but that it's a pretty good one. So I think Horizon. I'm going to do humanity because I've heard a lot of buzz about it. And I don't think it's in any other category. So the reason I'm going with Call of the Mountain, Horizon Call of the Mountain is because I think that most people who are voting on this do have not played any of these.

And we'll just go with the one. That is like horizon. So that's true. All right. Here is where we start getting into a few genre categories, which is really kind of a very dumb thing. Pretty dice. We'll do it anyway. Best action game.

Armored Corps 6, Dead Island 2, Ghost Runner 2. High-Fi Rush, Remnant 2. Here is where I think High-Fi Rush will make it stand. That's my prediction. Maddie, what are you? I'm going to do Armored Core 6, which I played for a little bit during Goody consideration and thought was really fun. Cool.

Yep, I think Armored Core is going to get this one. I played some as well. I haven't had time to get into it because it's kind of a hump you have to get over. But people love this freaking game. And it's cool. that it is incredible. So I think it'll win because it's the only thing

it's nominated for. Best Action Adventure. Alan Wake 2, Spider-Man 2, Resident Evil 4, Star Wars Jedi Survivor, The Legend of Zelda, Tears of the Kingdom. I just want to say,

if you run a game award show and Tears of the Kingdom and Alan Wake 2 are in the same genre category, you might want to rethink your categories. They are pretty different. My pick, by the way, is Zelda. You think Zelda?

I think Spider-Man is actually going to win this one, just because it's like it's got to win some kind of broad, you're a good game award. This is where I was going to put Star Wars Jedi for that reason, because I'm like, it's underserved and it deserves a pity trophy. Sorry to that game, which I like. That's not what I mean by it at all. I'm purely speaking game awards-wise.

Okay, speaking of pity trophies. Next up we have Best RPG, Baldersgate 3, Final Fantasy 16, Lies of Peace, C of Stars, Starfield, the first time, I think ever in the award shows history that New Bethesda single-player game has not been nominated for Game of the Year. I got to say also for Best RPG, again, that I don't think Starfield should be on here because I don't think it's a very good game, but also that I think that Phantom Liberty is a terrific role-playing game and should be on here. Well, Octopath Traveler, too. The fact that that was nominated is really really pathetic.

I think people just didn't play that game. I'm going to go with Baldur's Gate 3. I think it's a shoe-in for this one. Yeah, me too. Me too. But you know what? I'm going to change it up. I'm going to do Final Fantasy for this,

just so we have a different thing here. It's so funny. Final Fantasy is an action game. That's what's really funny about this category. Well, like Liza P is not a whole thing. Yeah, I don't understand these. Souls-like. I know.

Okay, well, here we go. Best Fighting. By the way, it doesn't say Best Fighting game. I know, it just says Best Fighting. God of Rock. And best family. The next one is funny too. The best family in a game. Yeah, yeah, yeah, we'll get to that one. Interesting. I guess Venba? God of Rock, Mortal Kombat 1, Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2. Pocket Bravery, Street Fighter 6. Well, you already know mine. I already spoiled it. You're going on Street Fighter? Yeah, I am too. Yeah, me too. I think that's got it. Oh, this group. I mean, it's just, well, I just don't see anything else winning. Nothing else will win this, right? Like, because Tekken would be the one contender, but that's, but that's. on out.

But it didn't come out this year. Yeah. Like changing our prediction to be different would just be getting one wrong. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Best family.

Yes. You know, the best family. Disney Illusion Island, party animals, Pickman 4, Sonic Superstars, Super Mario Brothers Wonder. Here is where I think Mario gets its one and only category.

Same. I agree. I'm going to do Pickman. Okay. Yeah. Could be. Well, I actually think,

well, next up is. Best Sim strategy. Advanced Wars 1 and 2 reboot camp. City Skyline 2, which by the way was like a totally busted game. I can't believe it was nominated for this. Company of Heroes 3, Fire Emblem Engaged, Pickman 4.

This is where I think Pickman 4 takes it. Yep. Yeah, I can't disagree. I'm sorry. That makes this category useless. Well, do you want to take back your best family or you're sticking with Pickman 4? No, because then that category is useless.

Okay, this one is really important to us. Best Sports Racing. EA Sports FC24, F123, Forza Motorsport, Hot Wheels Unleashed 2, and The Crew Motor Fest. I have not even seen an ounce of gameplay footage from any of these. So I'm going to go with name recognition and pick Forza Motorsport. Oh, no, that's what I picked as well. I'm going to do Hot Wheels Unleashed. Okay.

Just because I think that would be cool. Okay, okay, okay. Okay, cool. Next step, we have best multiplayer. Baldur's Gate 3, Diablo 4, Party Animals, Street Fighter 6, Super Mario Brothers Wonder. Diablo 4, I think. Yeah, that's what I pick too.

God damn it, guys. That's what I was going to pick. That's fine. Well, just because I talked first doesn't mean you can't pick the same thing. I mean, I already picked all these. I'm not doing this in real time. I could show you my whole list. I think we'll all pick the same one for the next one, too.

Best adaptation. That's fine. Pennsylvania Nocturn, Grand Turismo, the Last of Us, the Super Mario Brothers movie. Well, let's pick the winning. I mean, it's obviously the Grand Turismo movie. The Last of Us is clearly going to win this category. Yeah, the last of us is a sure thing. I've never seen.

Yeah, it's rare that there is one that's like this. Castlevania Nocturn pretty good, but it's, I mean, come on. And also, twisted metal, no one watched it. It's pretty fun. Just saying, anyway. Yeah, I've heard that. It's not going to win. But the last of us.

Most anticipated game. stupidest category of all time. Although at least this year, it can't be Zelda because it came out. It's been Zelda the last three years. Final Fantasy 7, rebirth, Hades 2, like a dragon, infinite wealth, Star Wars, Outlaw

Laws, Tekken 8. And I just want to register my objection yet again that Holo Night's Lokeslok song isn't on here, because that is my actual most anticipated. So, well, the rule, the rule for this is that it has to be announced for the year in question. Hallanite Zilk song technically doesn't have a year announcement. It

could come out in December. Like, we don't know. Okay, but I still am going to say that that's stupid and that a game that isn't out yet that I'm anticipated should be on here. Okay. Is your nomination here, Silk Song? Is that what you're... No, my nomination is Hades is Hades, too. As much as I think that FF7 Rebirth is like maybe going to get it, I just am... That's what I vote for it. I'm doing Final Fantasy. Yeah, my vote is also Final Fantasy.

Final Fantasy 7 rebirth for me and Maddie, Hades 2 for Kirk. Okay. Here is where we start getting into the really fun. stuff. I was looking forward to this. Tell her in the weeds. All right. You guys ready? Content creator of the year. Iron Mouse. People make games. Quackety. Spree.

Cyfer P.K. Or is it pronounced cypherp. Cipherpich. So I'm going purely off of things that I've just seen written around like on like a reset era forum title or something. And I'm going to say people make games because

I just feel like I've seen people make games breaking some news this year. And yeah, so I think I'm just going to say people make games. Yeah. I feel like people make games is like the critical darling of these. So I'm going to instead do Iron Mouse, who I have no clue who that is, but it's a name I hear a lot. I'm going to go with quackety because I think that's a really fun name. I just like saying quackety.

Great. Okay. Best e-sports game. CounterStrike 2, Dota 2, League of Legends, PubG Mobile, Valorant. I'm going to Valerant for this one. Not a bad pick. It's tied for me between League and Counter Strike 2. I feel like Counter Strike 2 made a really big splash.

Has a really high player base on Steam charts right now. But League I've heard has had a lot of good updates this year. I think I'm going to go see us too, though, because I feel like new people will come in and want to vote for that. Yeah, I put that down. I put down Counter Strike 2 for this because it's new. Here we go. All right, Best Esports Athlete.

I'm just going to read the nicknames, not all of the names. Yeah, go for it. Faker, Zaywu, Demon 1, Hydra, ruler, Imperial Howl. I'm going with Faker. Oh, hey, so am I. Yeah, Faker's the only one of these I've heard of. Maybe I should pick a different one. I'll pick Demon One.

Give me Demon One. Okay. I just saw, I saw people talking about Faker on Twitter a couple of weeks ago. I hope none of these people are canceled. Please don't judge us for who we chose, by the way. I'll stay with Faker. Yeah, I just saw people talking about Faker on Twitter a couple of weeks. Yes, I don't know any of these people.

And also, just to say, this is not because like we dislike esports exactly. We were just not in that world and don't know a lot about it. Yes, too hard. Can't be in every world. That's fine. We're not in racing in sports games world either. I do like esports.

It's just that none of these are StarCraft too, so I don't know anything about them. Yeah, so true. Best e-sports team. Evil geniuses, fanatic, game-in gladiators, J.D., or is it Guyman, Guyman, Guyman gladiators, JD Gaming, Team Vitality. I'm saying evil geniuses because I know their name. I love that. I want to go game and gladiators because it's almost spelled like Neil Gaiman, but it's gaming. And it also kind of sounds like gaming. So it's like they thought about it too hard. Like is it someone's last name? Are they the gaming gladiators? Okay. I don't understand why they made those choices, but I think they have the chance to win. I like team vitality. And just a fun name. best

esports coach we have Potter Zonic Gunba XTQ ZZZZ and hum

I think it's fun that XTQZZ like do people in these sports people call each other by their handle so you have to be like you know XTZZZ

Yeah you usually have to say it fast Maybe it's like Zotics I think you could find a way to pronounce that Zatik All right. What are you guys going with here? So I think it's cool to see a woman nominated for this award and have no idea of the quality of any of these coaches. I'm assuming they're all good at what they do. So I'm going to say Christine Potter-C-C-T, Pottor-C-C-Z is going to get it.

I like that thinking. I'm just going to vote for XTQ ZZZ because I think that's cool. And I like the idea of somebody coming up in e-sports having that as their handle and forcing them to adapt. I want to learn how it's pronounced. I guess we'll learn how it's pronounced. Yeah, well, we might. They don't always read these ones aloud. Yeah, they usually do it.

They're like, it happens like, right, during a DoorDash commercial. Yeah, DoorDash presents. This is like scrolled through quickly. Like, we're going to have to do our homework to see who won this. Uh-huh, we are. That's a good point. I'm just going to pick a name. I'm going to throw a dart and say gun, but that's my selection.

All right. Last, but certainly not least, we have best e-sports event. 2023 League of Legends World Championship, blast. Dot TV, Maris Major, 2023. Paris major, 2023, Evo 20203, the International Dota 2 Championships, 2023, Valorant Champions, 20203. I'm going to go, since I already picked Valorant, I'm going to go with Valorant Champions 2023.

I'll just say Evo. I don't know. Evo for Maddie. All right, I'll say World's, League of Legends, World Champions. League of Legends, this is going to be fun. I have no idea. It's going to be fun if, imagine for both of these categories, we all lose. Yeah, what if we somehow all tie?

What would we do then? We're going to roll dice. We're just going to have a whole episode where we do nothing but roll dice. That sounds good. Okay, cool. So that's it. So those are our picks. And so we will, at the start of next week's episode, we'll go through them.

Maybe we'll see if we have to, we have time to read all 31 of them, but we'll certainly announce who won the tiebreaker. And then when we do our predictions episode, we'll have that in the bag. All right. Before we go, the Game Awards is, of course, not only. about awards. In fact, I would argue that maybe 20% of it is about awards. And most of it is about new game announcements and trailers and stuff. Is there anything you guys are excited to see, hoping to see, looking forward to you guys or heard anything, any thoughts on the other part of this whole shabang gaming's biggest thing? You know, I would like to hear about that

Eldon Ring DLC. I've had that huge image as my PC background across two monitors. for a while now. With the horse. Yep. It looks so pretty. And it means that every time I minimize my tabs, I'm like, oh, yeah, Eldon Ring DLC. So I might be thinking about it more than the average person. But it does mean that I'm like, all right, come on, Bandai Namcoe, come out, show me something.

Tell me a date. Give me some more Eldon Ring. They did recently say something like it's still a ways away. They made some comment last week. So I suspect that it is not going to be there. Otherwise, they wouldn't have said anything ahead. It'd be nice to have an update, though, of any kind. But that's all I'm really hoping for.

Well, that's what that was, essentially. It was like, hey, we're still working on this. Jason, stop hurting me like this. I want to see something. But we'll find out. I have a few things I want to see. I want to see Death Stranding 2 or whatever that's actually going to be called. Do you think that it's going to be called Life Stranding?

I don't know. Wow, no reaction. Zero reaction. because I feel like, no, because they have that DS2 text on like the first trailer. So I just assume Death Stranding 2. But maybe that was just for that initial kind of press run up where they're like, yeah, of course you're going to call it Death Stranding 2. We're going to kind of acknowledge that by putting a 2 in the marketing materials. But you're arguing, nope, ignore that new title, Lifestranding.

Maybe Stranding is the thing that ties it together. I mean, it's Kozima. All bets are off. Yeah, it's Kojima. How am I supposed to predict anything? I don't know But I don't see what that game is going to look like What else you want to see Kirk? Pretty cool

I want to release date for Silk Song It could happen I could see it I could imagine You think that's a Game Award thing Part of me feels like for Silk Song They're just going to drop it on Twitter And be like hey, games out

I think so I think Jeff knows what people want Like he does understand what gamers want And I think he knows that that would be a huge coup Jeff is clipping that out of the podcast And sharing it everywhere And I bet he has talked to Team Cherry and has been like, please tell me, you know, if you know, like, I would love to feature it and put it in front of all these people. And if I were them, I mean, you know, I'd probably do that.

So I could see it just because he knows what we want. What about Hades, too? It feels like that was announced at last year's Game Awards. It feels like good time to talk more about it. I think they'll probably announce the early access date for that because I bet that'll be in early access for a while. I think they already said March for early access. Oh, did they? So that's kind of a date.

Hold on. Let me double check this. Well, then we probably already kind of know. it's going to be early access and I bet it releases in the fall. Yeah, sorry, they said Q2 2024. So we don't know. March would not surprise me. Actually, a March release date for Silksong wouldn't surprise me either.

But March for early access, Hades and then a fall release kind of seems right. That would sort of feel right. And I'm so jazz for that. I watched the trailer for that. I think it came up on Steam for me and my Steam queue for whatever reason, which, by the way, do you guys ever just flip through your Steam queue? Do you ever just click on that queue and see what Steam thing? you would like. It's sort of fun. There's a lot of games on Steam.

I know. And sometimes they are a game I would like. It's true. It's a game I haven't heard of. Anyways, there's a game called This Bed We Made or These Beds We Made. It's like you play as a maid in a hotel and you're trying to solve a murder. I'd never heard of it and it came up in my Steamfield.

I was like, what's this? Check this out. Anyways, Hades 2 came up and I watched that trailer and I just got extremely jazzed when that like Duna nah nah like Ruff comes in. I was like, yes, I can't wait for this game. So I'm very jazzed for that. It's my most anticipated game for sure, other than than sulkson. Yeah, no wonder what you voted for if we're most anticipated. Are you going to

get on the Game Awards website and say it your vote? Go vote. Ah, we would kind of be breaking the rules if we voted. Well, and Haiti's one game of the year, right? That's another reason I think it'll win that award is that it's a Goaty winner. It didn't win game of the year, though. It did in our hearts, but the last was part two. Yeah, the last of us one game in the year. I'm misremembering. But I get what you've amended that memory in your heart and you're like, like Haiti's one game of the year that year, right? Right? You're just saying that.

Yeah, I guess it was all of our favorite, favorite games. But it was up against Lasmos part too. It was our pick for Game of the Year. It was the official triple-click pick for Game of the Year that year. It was a very good game. Yeah. What do you think, Jason? Well, I have to kind of parse out the rumblings that are floating around,

none of which I will share just because I haven't gone around confirming things and I don't want to share things that don't turn out to be true. But one thing I haven't heard anything about it, and so would like to see is Tears of the Kingdom, DLC, or some sort of whatever, I don't know, update to it. More Tears of the Kingdom. I want an excuse to go play more Tears of the Kingdom, another temple or something.

I know that there was a story floating around a couple months ago. Aegeanuma was like, we're done with this game. No more DLC, but I don't believe him. I feel like that. No, I don't buy it. Do something. Or failing that, at least like a new,

like a Winwaker, Twilight Princess T's or something like that. And here. is a left field prediction. Again, this is not based on it inside information. This is just kind of an out of nowhere prediction. I don't know if you guys remember a couple of years ago, but the Xbox Series X was like first announced at the Game Awards or first shown off at the Game Awards. What if Nintendo comes out and teases the Switch 2 at the game? That'd be interesting, right? The only thing working against that is that it might not be until next fall, in which case it would be a little too early to start talking about it. But still, I wouldn't be shocked

if they were like, we are working on a Switch 6-Exter, please be excited and did some cool, like, Zelda hype trailer, like some next-gen 3D Mario-looking thing or something like that. In terms of things that I think are a lot more realistic, I think there's a very good shot. We see, like, Final Fantasy 16 DLC, which they've been talking about is coming. Personally, not exactly super incredibly hyped for that. But I am very hype for Final Fantasy 7 rebirth, and I think there's a very good chance to see a new trailer for that because that comes out in two months. I almost don't want to see any more trailers for that.

Even though they're really fun whenever they come out. I feel like I've seen so much of the game now. I almost want to just be surprised by it. But you really haven't if you think about how much is going to be packed in there and like how much they're showing. And also how sneaky they're going to be with the trailers. Like they're going to make us think it's showing one thing. But then in context we'll be like, wait.

Just how I feel. I feel the same way where I'm like, oh, but I already know I'm so excited for it. don't give me any more spooky Sephora faces. I already want to see them live and in color for my, for my very own. Yeah. But yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's the job.

I got to watch it. And then as far as, I mean, a lot of the rumblings that I've heard are, um, indie studios that people have heard of that are coming out and announcing their next game. So nothing that like, again, nothing I've confirmed and can be like, and then put it out in the world. But, um, I suspect we'll see some like, faces where it'll be like, oh, yeah, they made that game that was cool. a few years ago. That's sort of thing.

Yeah. Yeah. Do you think there's any chance since we're going to see, we're going to have seen the GTA 6 trailer by the time people are listening to this? Do you think there's any chance that Rockstar announces Red Dead Red Dead Redemption 2 current gen, like a PS5, Xbox series X? Certainly. Certainly. Some people have been asking for. I don't know. And it just seems like the kind of little thing they would do after a big announcement on Tuesday. Right. And like something they might throw to Jeff and be like, look, we're never going to give you our big GTA6 trailer. But hey, we give you this announcement.

for Red Dead 2 PS5. It keeps people talking about them. Do you think they would do it the same week? That seems like it might be counterproductive, but I don't know, maybe. I mean, do you think those are the same audience? I don't know. Well, I mean, GTA 6 is any, or Rux or stuff is like any audience anywhere. They could do whatever they want.

They're at that position. And they always have done whatever they want. But they've also shown up at some events, police station events. Occasionally they'll show up and do some like GTA 5 on PS5 or whatever. I guess I kind of like feel, I get the feelings, Sometimes that Rockstar is very dormant for periods and then they're very active for periods. And so that's kind of what's making me think, oh, maybe they'll be like, okay, we're out from under our rock.

We've rubbed our eyes in the light and here's GTA 6 and also Red Dead Redemption 2 thing and, you know, whatever else. Like maybe something else. They did just do the Red Dead one like port on Switch and stuff that just happened a couple of months ago. That's true. So that was the beginnings of them coming out from under their rock. Yeah, no, maybe.

Could be, I wouldn't be shocked. But I feel like if they're going to do that, it might be like a big, PlayStation thing in the spring or something like that. But I don't know. You could totally be right. That could be cool. All right. Well, we are all excited.

Everyone put on your tuxitos. I will be wearing a suit tonight. I don't know if I'm going to be able to sit in that stadium for three hours and get like... Are you bringing your menorah, Jason? I'm not bringing you menorah. I'm okay. Okay. The key is you wear really comfortable pants because no one will be able to see him when you're

sitting there in a tux jacket sweat pants. That's the way. Kirk, You're sitting in an auditorium where lots of people can see what you're wearing. What I'm talking about on camera, like the people who matter, the people watching the street. Okay, but you're surrounded by hundreds of people who can see what you're. Those people will just see that you value comfort and they'll think that you're a man of taste. Right.

And when the camera sort of scans over the audience, we just see Jason and we see his bowtie, et cetera. You see my seat. No, I will, I bought a suit for a certain Maddie Myers' wedding and I will be wearing that to this show. He looks great. Wow. I didn't have bought a suit for that. I did. I got to see it before gaming's biggest night got to see it. I haven't worn a seat since pre-pandemic and there's COVID pounds.

If we're being real, Maddie's wedding was gaming's real biggest nights. That was so true. That's so true. The real one. All right, let's take a break and we'll be back with gaming's biggest one more thing. Hello, sleepyheads. Sleeping with celebrities is your podcast Pillow pal. We talked to remarkable people about unremarkable topics. all to help you slow down your brain and drift off to sleep. For instance, we have the remarkable Neil Gaiman. I'd always had a vague interest in life culture, food preparation.

Sleeping with celebrities, hosted by me, John Moe, on Maximumfund.org, or wherever you get your podcasts, night night. Somewhere in an alternate universe where Hollywood is smarter. And the Emmy nominees for Outstanding Comedy Series are JetPacula, Airport Marriott, Thruple. Dear America, we've seen you naked. And Allah in the family. In our stupid universe, you can't see any of these shows, but you can listen to them on Dead Pilot Society. The podcast that brings you hilarious comedy pilots that the networks and streamers bought

but never made journey to the alternate television universe of dead pilot society on maximum fun.org and we are back Kirk Maddie and it's time for one more thing Maddie what's your one more thing my one more thing has has been a one more thing in the past of I believe you Jason it's chance of Cyanar the notoriously titled indie game about the Tower of Babel I don't know if that's official but that's more or less what the game is about, inspired by. Yeah, loving it, haven't, haven't defeated it yet, but have gotten past the first level, I suppose. Like, I've completed translating the first floor,

and I've just moved on to the next one. And I loved it. It just, I feel like I play a lot of games that don't require my full focus these days, and not in a bad way. Like, I love listening to a podcast while playing a game. Who doesn't? Or kind of just looking up,

having a conversation with my wife, cutscenes playing, I'm kind of watching it. Chance of Sonara is way on the other end of that spectrum. I am fully in, in a way that I find very pleasurable. Like, matching up what symbols mean different words in this language is so stimulating to my brain. I feel like I'm getting smarter.

It made me feel the way, Case of the Golden Idol, and Oprah Den, and some of those other kind of matching games make me feel, but also Baba is you, another classic Jason favorite. There's just something about a language game that just fully enravels my brain. And I'm like, I got to untwist this. And the music is perfect for accompanying the untwistiness of Chance of Cynar.

So if you want to just be totally sucked into something intellectually, chance of Cynar really, really good for that. Really enjoyed it. Time flew by. Can I piggyback on your one more thing? Because this was almost my one more thing. this week as well, because I've played like probably eight or nine hours of this. I'm up to like the fourth language that you have to learn.

I believe there are five in total. And yeah, and anyone who doesn't remember, this is a game where the whole game you were walking around trying to learn these different languages to basically bridge a series of communication divides among different cultures on this tower where on each level they speak a different language. It's very abstract. It looks a little bit like journey. It's that like clean line art style.

It's very cool looking. And yeah, I started playing this on a plane, which was a great. place to play it because there were no distractions and it does require focus. I really like it. I think it's so brilliantly designed. It's not just language, right? And I guess the moral of this game to me at least has been that language isn't just language, that language and the world and the culture of the world and the activities, they all are part of the same thing. And so language is so much richer than just what does this word mean, which is what you're trying to figure out. but the way that you figure out is so, there's so many different ways that you do it.

The second area, the Warriors area, is really cool, as you'll see, Maddie. There's a lot of sort of contextual understanding where you have to figure out what word would be there based on the way this, you know, sculpture looks. Or based on the way this guy yelled this at this other guy, like, what do you think that means? And then later, like, they're yelling it at me. So I have to kind of know what they mean in order to follow their instructions. There's so much cool stuff like that. And then it's really nice, the way that it ties it all together, is you're kind of increasingly bridging these communication gaps.

It's just a really lovely game about how language divides us and how conquering language can unite us. And yeah, it does have a similar feeling, I think, to Obridaun, in that you're holding this kind of increasing matrix of information in your brain. But like Golden Nidal, actually, in particular, it gives you a really nice set of tools to organize them, and it does allow you to kind of, not brute force, but do some guessing and get some feedback based on your guesses. So it doesn't just totally, you definitely will feel overwhelmed with this game, anyone trying it out for the first 20 minutes.

But then once it starts to get under your control, it's really, really engrossing. And I love it. I think it's so good. Yeah, it's really, really worth. I'm glad you're both playing it. Just in time for our top 10 list soon. Yeah, it'll come up. That is why.

It'll come up. Kirk, what's your, that was it? in your one more thing? What's your one more thing? No, my one more thing is another game, another indie game I've been playing, called Jusant, made by the French studio, Don't Nod, Makers of Life is Strange, and before that, remember me, which is maybe a little more relevant for this game, since it also had climbing and platforming in it. This is a game about climbing, and it's really great. I'm loving it. I believe it's on Game Pass as well, so anyone out there with GamePass can just check this game out. I've been playing it on Steam Deck mostly, though it looks really nice

on a big screen. So sometimes I play it on my PC. So this is a game where you play a young boy who doesn't talk, there's no talking. It has a kind of eco-jorney feel just to the quiet atmosphere. And he starts out, and he's in this desert that looks like a dried-up ocean. There are ships, but it's totally a desert, but there are like hulks of ships on the ground. And he's walking in the sun. It's clearly very hot like this world has dried up. And then ahead of him is this massive rock tower that just goes up into the clouds. It's like supernaturally and possibly tall. And he begins climbing it.

And that's how the game begins. There's no real explanation for what he's doing or why. And then as you go, you discover logs that are written out. I almost wish you didn't discover those, but it's cool. They do flesh out the story and tell you a thing or two. And then you start to figure out where he is, you know, who his people are, why he's doing this, what this tower used to be. So it's got this nice story that it feels a little.

a little like flower. It feels like a that game company echo in some ways like Journey. And really, it's about the mechanics of climbing. And that's what makes it so special. It's a game where you're climbing like in Uncharted. It's very similar looking. If you just watch someone playing it, you go handhold to handhold, up a wall, then you climb over, then you have to kind of jump. You always have a ballet line hooked up so you can always just start swinging. You can drive petons into the rock at any point. So say you're climbing up and you reach the end of your handholds and you need to get over 50 feet to the right. You drive in a peaton, drop down, and then you can do the swing thing, just like an uncharted

four where you build up momentum swinging left to right, like running along the face of the rock wall, and then you can kind of jump and grab on, drive a new peaton, et cetera. So it looks like uncharted four, but mechanically it's much more complex. It's actually closer to something like, well, any VR sickos out there will remember the climb, which was a cry tech game that was a climbing game in VR that was pretty cool, where you have to actually climb. You have to control your two hands moving from handhold to handhold. And you do that with the triggers in this game.

So it's much more mechanically involved, and you can just let go of the triggers and you'll fall. You have a stamina meter that slowly drops, but then you can kind of pause and dangle for a minute. Every time you reach land, it totally resets. And then there's an increasing number of mechanics as you play, like a magical pulse that causes new handholds to grow in the wall, or then, like, heat that's burning and keeps the handholds from growing.

So you have to time things around. them and it just grows more complex as it goes. It feels like a Nintendo game in that way where it's very organic, the way that it develops. But man, it's so cool. It really, it's just so mechanically interesting. It reminds me of Death Stranding, actually, in that way. And I really like games like this,

where just moving through the world is interesting and sort of mechanically involved. And the better you get at it, the more you just kind of feel kind of like you've crawled inside of it and you're moving through it, rather than a game like onchral. where you're really just moving the stick and up Nathan Drake goes, you know, which is just so much less interesting. I don't know that I would want uncharted to do that, though I've always found

the climbing and uncharted or Horizon Zero Dawn for that matter, any of those games to just be so restrictive and kind of boring. So I do really like this. I think there are some great ideas in this game. And it's lovely. I just think it's a really nice, really relaxing, sort of mechanically satisfying and interesting game that anyone, I mean, if you think any of that sounds good, I think you should check it out. Certainly if you have game passed. What have you got to lose? Go play it. It's very good. I don't know if you remember this, Kirk, but in the book, Blood, Sweat and Pixels Uncharted 4's development is detailed. And as it turns out, they tried to do an elaborate climbing system for that game and spent like a dozen prototypes trying to make it work. But because of

the nature of that game, it was very difficult to pull off as opposed to a game like this where the entire core conceit is that you're climbing. It rang a bell, but I didn't remember that. specifically. But yeah, it kind of makes sense when you think about what Uncharted 4 is, though I still don't know, like playing this game, I'm not sure that I would, if it were an option at least Uncharted 4 to turn on immersive climbing or something, I'm not sure it wouldn't make that game a little bit more engaging. I don't know. It's a tough one. It's a tough call. I'm not totally sure. But it certainly works for Jusanne, and I understand why a game designer would make that decision of being like, okay, it needs to be its own dedicated game. For this game, we need

to, like climbing just needs to be a moment when you're relaxing and just not, like, actively playing the game. All right. My one more thing is a book called Going Infinite by Michael Lewis. Michael Lewis is, of course, the famous best-selling journalist, author of Moneyball and The Blindside and many, many other books of varying success and quality, some of which have been turned into movies. And so this new book is about the boy king of FTX, as Michael Lewis.

or the boy genius of FDX, as Michael Lewis calls him. Sam Bankman Free. Never heard of him. It's very interesting. Very interesting. This book was kind of, so Michael Lewis, he set out to write a book about crypto and he found this guy, Bankman Fried, and wound up just kind of immersing with him, which is Michael Lewis's journalistic style, is basically to find a person who's going to be his main character,

or his main characters. I wonder what it was about Bankman Fried that made Lewis go. I think I'm going to stick with this guy. He might be an interesting. Well, he gets into this and talks about how interesting he is. And then in true Michael Lewis style, he was in the right place at the right time because he had already embedded with him for months when FDX exploded last year and it turned into something else entirely and really changed the course of his story. But I think one of the problems with this book is that Michael Lewis,

as a journalist, is kind of credulous to a fault about his characters. And so he looks at Sandbank-Fin-Fried in this lens that you kind of, of are reading it and it's almost like if like you one of your close friends was dating somebody and telling you these stories that sounded really cutesy and fun and you were like holy crap this person is abusing you or like this person is a psychopath like he tells Michael Lewis tells all these stories about how Sam Bankman-Fried talks about how he has no emotions and can't feel things or like doesn't might not feel empathy for people. Isn't this whimsical? And you're like, is it? Yeah. Well, it's kind of written in that way of like the true

Michael Lewis is a genius that like these character studies that really explore fascinating people that are like really talented at something but also super quirky and like I'll never forget some of his descriptions in the book in the big short

where he talks about like one of the main characters that guy Steve, whatever the guy was played by Steve Carrell in the movie telling these amazing anecdotes about his childhood and the way he like even challenge Torah study and like all sorts of crazy stuff. And those are very fun when they're talking about people who like did interesting things, less so when they're talking about someone who turns out to be like this criminal mastermind.

And then, Mike Lewis since then has really been putting his foot in his mouth a lot, talking about how like there's a lynch mob after Sam Bankman-Fried and like how Sam Bankman-Fried actually had a successful business and really been kind of the subject, Lewis has really been the subject of a lot of criticism as a result of his depiction and he's kind of like falling too hard for his subject in many ways which is a very interesting there could almost be a meta story meta book about the relationship between

michael lewis and his characters and especially segment freedom this is when another journalist reveals that he's been in bed with michael lewis over the course of the writing of the spf book yeah it's the machiosca dolls where it's like one inside of the other but yeah no it's it's it's interesting read. I will say it is not nearly as enjoyable as a book I talked about earlier by my colleague Zeke, Zeke Fox, called... That line goes up. Is that what that's called? Yeah, number go up is the name of the book. And that book is much more of a skeptical, like a skeptic traveling the world and seeing what he can find on this crazy crypto experiment. And he also talks to Sam Bankman Fried and right away he can tell that Sam Bankman Fried is full of it.

So this guy's not on the level. Yeah, it's interesting. It's very, two different approaches. And I think that, like, Michael Lewis's approach is just not equipped for discovering that the guy you've been embedded with is actually a major huckster and, like, a sociopath. And there's some stuff in the book that really makes you raise an eyebrow. He talks about how, like, like, Sam and Begman-Fried have this viable business and how, like, nobody could have possibly known until it all came crashing down. And I think there's a lot of kind of bunk there because a lot of people knew or could have known. Or at least some people possibly knew. And pulled out. Well, I mean,

first of all, crypto, first and foremost, like, a lot of people realized that that was all full of scamsters from the get-go, including Zeke Fox. But second of all, there was, like, there was this interview months and months before the explosion where, like, my colleague at Bloomberg, Mount Levine was interviewing

Sam Bank of Green and was basically like, so you're saying you're in the Ponzi business. Like, there's a lot of, there were a lot of breadcrums out there that I think a more, a different-minded kind of journalist would have discovered. And I don't think that's like for Michael Lewis, it was just kind of like what everybody thought was like the perfect story for him to be in because, wow, you could get the real story about this crazy fraud. Turns out to be kind of the wrong guy to be telling this story. So yeah, it's an interesting read. As a journalist, I am enjoying reading this and just kind of like seeing how he approaches it and seeing how he tells the story. But I think if you're kind of, if you look at Sam Bankman Fried and you're like, man, this guy really took advantage of people and defrauded a lot of people, go with that.

Zeke Fox's book number go up instead for a more cathartic, satisfying look at like, oh, this is all a massive house of guards versus this guy, Michael Lewis, giving a more credulous look. But still, an interesting book. This is like when there were those dueling Fire Fest documentaries on Netflix and Hulu. Exactly. Exactly. Yeah, one of them actually interviewed the firefist guy. So kind of similar. That's what I'm saying. They kind of had different vibes. One was a little more of the perspective of the guys who put on the festival. I forgot about that. That was a weird time. Good times. So yeah, going infinite. Louis. It's an interesting book. I don't know if I would full full-throatedly recommend it, but I'm enjoying it reading it regardless because Michael Lewis, everything he writes is just going to be entertaining to read no matter what. All right, that's it for this week's episode. I hope everybody enjoys gaming's biggest night. I will be there. It'll be three hours long. I will want to kill myself after a half. You're going to make it. You're going to be fine. Maybe I'll sit

by the aisle so I can just go back and watch the rest of my hotel after a bit, but we'll see. And yeah, that is it for this week's episode. Kirk, Manny, see you both next week. Yeah, see you next week. Bye. Triple Click is produced by Jason Schreier, Maddie Myers, and me, Kirk Hamilton. I edit and mix the show and also wrote our theme music.

Our show art is by Tom DJ. Some of the games and products we talked about on this episode may have been sent to us for free for 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 maximum fun.org slash join. Find us on Twitter at triple clickpods and email the triple click at maximum fun.org and find a link to our Discord in the show notes. Thanks for listening. See you next time.

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