Triple Click - Gaming's Biggest Night (Since The Last One)

Episode Date: December 12, 2024

Finally, it's time for gaming's biggest night. Kirk, Maddy, and Jason go through each category at the 2024 Game Awards, from Game of the Year to Content Creator of the Year, and make their predictions. They talk about the biggest snubs, what they expect, and which game announcements they hope to see.One More Thing:Kirk: A Man on the Inside (Netflix)Maddy: Scream (2022)Jason: The Diplomat (Netflix)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

My biggest complaint about the Game Awards is that you can't call them the TGAs because the T already stands for the, so that'd be calling them the, the, game awards. Welcome to Triple Click, where we bring the, the games to you. It's time for gaming's biggest nights, so we're here to talk about Keeley's Game Awards, who we think will win, who got snubbed, and just how fully HoloNight Soxong will not be there. I'm Kirk Hamilton. I'm Maddie Myers. And I'm Jason Schreier.

Hello. Hello. Hello. I have one happy game awards. It's gaming's biggest nights. Gaming's biggest night. Yeah. Happy game awards.

Yes, we are recording this a little bit early, but I, as by the time people are listening to us, I will be out in Los Angeles. You're there. Right now. And by attend the game words, I mean, watch from the hotel nearby. Which is very similar to my experience watching it. How many years have you actually gone to the show? Most of them, except the COVID and then maybe I missed a couple here and there, but most of them I've gone to.

But when I say you've actually gone, I mean, like, you've gone and sat in the audience for the show. Oh, no. Most of them I have not done that. No. I mean, if we're saying watching the stream means going, I've gone every year. I'm always going. No, no, really going means going to L.A. being in the vicinity, picking up the vibes, the sweet gamer vibes, coming off of the show without having to actually go be in the room. Meeting Cratos in person.

As long as you're at the after party afterwards. Right. As long as you're seeing people before and afterwards, then it counts. This year, there's, I got invited to a Netflix games viewing party so I can watch from there potentially, or I could just watch from my hotel room. Last year I attended, but the only reason I attended is because our buddies, Russ Fresh Dick and Chris Plant, let me come to the Polygon box. And so I watched from there, which was awesome. Because, like, being able to move around and, like, eat food and stuff as opposed to being stuck in, like, a rose full of, you. loud. It's so unpleasant being there because of how loud it is. But anyway, the box is cool. This year, the box, they've been clamped down. It's much smaller. Don't have the same capacity. I know. We uninvited Jason specifically from the box. It's actually not been clamped down at all. It's just Jason. There's an internal memo. Blacklisted from the box. This is a scandal. Well, and then another fun thing about last year. So usually after the game awards, the kind of go-to hangout spot for a lot of people is the J.W. Marriott nearby, the big bar that they have there, as you

guys saw in Summer Games Fest, it winds up becoming kind of like a locus point for the video game industry. Yes, you two can make small talk and enjoy a $17 glass of whiskey. So what happened last year at the Game Awards is that I guess people who were attending who were just kind of fans also learned about it. And so it was... Yeah, because someone kept talking about it on podcast. Yeah, I was, how could they have learned that? Sure, it's my fault. Who would have said that? All, all of our listeners showed up at the game. So anyway, so the marriage, so it was like so crammed that you couldn't actually move. Um, and that was a little bit less pleasant. Hopefully it will not be like that this time. You need to not reveal the new bar, Jason. That's my hot tip to you. Yeah,

should we pick another one and not tell anyone what it is. We shouldn't pick one live on the air. It's actually at the airport Hilton. Oh, we should disseminate a fake one. That's the place to be. After the game awards. Before we talk about the actual awards, Kirk, what do we need to know about this podcast? Oh, yeah. Oh, right.

I guess we just went right into it. Yeah, that's true. We just love talking about games so much here on Triple Click. And if you want to support our love of talking about games and this platform that allows us to do it every week, you can become a member of Maximum Fun. go to maximum fun.org slash join. Become a member, support our show, and get access to all kinds of bonus episodes. Seriously, so many of them. I don't know, 40 something, almost 50 at this point.

And you will also get to hear the grand finale of Triple Quest, episode three, the two-hour throwdown in which all kinds of things go down. It's incredibly fun. And it'll go out in the main feed at the end of the month. But of course, if you become a member, you also get access to all sorts of other stuff. We're going to be doing our favorite non-gaming stuff of the year. year at the end of the month. We're going to do a metaphor, refantazio. Beans cast. We're going to spill the beans on the story. I don't know, all kinds of good stuff for next year as well. So please

support our show. We really do count on you all and really appreciate everyone who has become a member or been a member at any point. Maximumfun.org slash join. Yeah. Cool. So let's talk about the game words. So here's what we're going to do. So we had a lot of fun last year making predictions and picks for each of a, well, not picks, but predictions for each of the award. categories. And we also use this as our tiebreaker for our annual predictions bet, which we will cover in January at the beginning of next year. And so we're going to do that again. This will be, once again, a tiebreaker. Whoever wins the most of these picks will win the tiebreaker in case there is a tie for the 2024 predictions bet, which to those of you are not familiar is where

we each make a bunch of predictions, and whoever gets the most right gets to pick a game that we all play the subsequent year. So what we're going to do, is first we're going to do that. We're going to go through each category. I'll read through each one. We'll make our picks. We'll talk about snubs. We'll talk about what we like about them, what we don't like about them. And then at the end of the show, we will talk a little bit about the announcement portion of it, because of course, every year the game awards includes a bunch of trailers and exclusive reveals that Jeff Keely, the host loves to show on. Of course, world premieres. And so we'll talk a little bit about the rumors, what we expect to be there, what we hope to be there, etc. et cetera. So first let's do the awards. We're going to go through them. I have them all listed here in the order in which they are presented on the website. And we're just going to go through them.

And so, yeah, so we're going to each make a pick. These are picks based on what we think will happen, not necessarily what we want to happen. So first, let's start with a big one. Game of the Year. The nominees are Astro, Balotro, Blackmiff, Wu Kong, Eldon Ring, Shadow of the Urtree, Final Fantasy 7, rebirth and metaphor refontazio. What do you guys think of this lineup of Game of the Year candidates? It's tough. I mean, it's a weird year. I think it's like it works as well as any other collection of what is the six games. And given that the game of that the game awards skews so heavily toward big games, I guess it makes sense. It's just that this year for me at least was such a year of indie games where so many of the really big expensive games, just either they were fine and

I thought they were fine and a lot of people seemed to not like them, which was true of a lot of games that I was like, yeah, this is pretty cool. Or I thought they were fine and a lot of people loved them. So that's like metaphor for me at least. So it's kind of a weird one for me where I look at this and I'm like, well, very few of these games are like my personal games of the year. So I don't really know what to make of the list. But I, which is a very few. I, which makes me just think, sure, I don't know. Fine, yeah, okay. Yeah, it feels like a real vote splitting year to me as well.

Like, there's not an obvious frontrunner of these picks, which is part of why it was very hard for me to make a decision on this category and a few of the other ones immediately following this one for the same reason, because a lot of these are kind of mid-tier in terms of critical darling status. Like, there's no really obvious one where it's like, well, everyone freaking loved this game. since this is an award that the press votes on, it's the international press and that definitely changes things. But you can kind of get a sense of the prediction just from knowing what was topping websites goadiless. And that is kind of tough to say here. Like, I don't, I had a tough one.

So I'm really curious what you two are predicting. I think metaphor is going to win it. I mean, it really could be Astrobot. So it's between those two for me because they're both beloved games. I don't know. For some reason, I just think it's going to be metaphor. It's totally a gut thing. Metaphor is going to be game of the year. Maddie? I was between metaphor and Final Fantasy 7 rebirth, and I ended up going Final Fantasy 7, which is a tough one. I feel like a lot of times big, splashy narrative RPGs have a strong chance of winning.

And I think that because my colleague, Ali Welsh, has been doing this thing at Polygon called Goody Watch, where he analyzes Game of the Years over many years. And he noticed that trend, so I'll credit him with that. It's part of why I think one of those will win. But I'm also, so I went with Final Fantasy 7 because I was like, I think it's a little more approachable for people than an Atlas game, maybe. But I could easily see Blackmuth just edging it out. So I don't know. But anyway, the one I literally wrote down, Final Fantasy 7 rebirth.

It's funny. Rebirth, it almost feels like if the two towers won best picture, like it feels like they're going to wait for the third game to take it all. I'm not sure, though. Okay, so my pick is a strategic one. You guys are going to love this. So I kind of feel like Bellatro is going to win. That's what my gut is telling me. That would be wild.

But I do not want to pick Bellatro because one of Kirk's predictions for 2024 is that an indie game will win game of the year. And so if Kirk takes that, then I'll lose anyway. So like the tiebreaker won't matter. So according to this logic, you're picking Balotro makes it more likely that that game will win the game of year. No, no, no, no, no, no, you're not following. No, no, what I'm saying. I'm not following. Explain it to me like I'm a child.

What I'm saying is that I want to optimize my chances of winning the tiebreaker. But if I pick Bellatro, me winning the tiebreaker won't matter because Kirk will likely have won the predictions bet for the year anyway. So I'm going with a difference. This is fine. It's kind of, it's pure game for you guys. Oh, it's game theory. Okay. We don't understand, Maddie.

Our little brains don't follow Jason's. towering logic brain. Yeah, totally, totally. It's kind of why he's so good at Bellatro, really, is what this is evidence of. And gambling. Anyway, my pick is metaphor. Refenthaling. All right.

All right. Okay. Best game direction. This is always the funky category where it's like, we're going to give it to the person who's like the biggest personality of a director, whatever that means. It's so silly the video game style. Let me read the nominees. Astrobop Balatro, Blackmuth, Wukong, Eldon Ring, Shadow of the Earth Tree, Final

FNASY 7 Rebirth, Metaphor Refundasio. Same. A familiar list. Identical. Yeah, same ones. Not always identical, but this year, it's identical. No. This year it's identical.

Yeah. So, yeah, what do you guys think? Maddie, why don't you start? What kind of rotate who gets to start first? Yeah, I guess there's nothing really further to say about game direction as a category in general, other than that we all agree it's silly. And we can just move on. It's a hard to define.

I duplicated my pick here for the exact same reasoning. I just picked Final Fantasy 7 rebirth. although I'm certainly regretting it now because you two pick metaphor, but it's fine. I'm sticking by the picks I wrote before the call for some reason. I could have changed it on the fly, but I'm not. Yeah. That's my game theory. I'm going in a different direction.

I'm actually going to Astrobat. Interesting. The reason for that is because, once again, I think that this category just rewards the personality involved. And they have this guy, Nico, who I think would come out and, like, do a speech and become a fan favorite because he's kind of this likable, like, uh, French dude and I can see that going over well and Jeff kind of like doing the 4D chess of like who should win this one.

Karen, quote about you. I'm actually going to go with Final Fantasy 7 rebirth for this because in my mind, game direction is like the best wrangler. Yep. Like the game team that was able to best wrangle the most difficult thing into something cohesive. And FF7 Rebirth was such a bananas project just from a logistics. and like ambition standpoint that why not let's give it to them yeah maybe they'll get yeah and i think

so rebreath you guys might be right because rebirth also has like a very lovable director who will come on and and have this personality that's what i was about to add yeah like that's kind of what this category really is which is sort of unfair as compared to say the film director category where i think it might mean something different in this category in games it's like have you heard of the person who directed this video game and fairly or not well in film direction and In the Oscars, it's also people who make films voting on who are the best director is. Yes. It's a very different vibe. Well, and it's like, the director is an individual person for each film.

We're in best game direction. That's not always the game. It's different for multiple reasons. That's true. And also, director means different things depending on what company you work at. Next up is best narrative. And the nominees are Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, Like a Dragon, Infinite Wealth, Metaphor, Refontasio, Senua Saga, Hellblade 2. and Silent Hill 2. Another friggin' weird one.

Another weird one. Let's talk about this a little because I think this is, I think that this is a category that needs the most work. At least, like, I think that there are the most snubs in this one. And it's the most indicative of the way that these awards are picked, which is just a big group of people vote, and it just always winds up coming down to the games that were played by the most people.

Yeah. Because for me, at least, three games come to mind, a thousand times resist mouthwashing and tactical breach wizards, all three of which were incredible narrative games that, to me, at least, are better or at least as good as the best games that we just listed here. And I'd say that the thing that sort of sums up the game awards to me, and at this point, like, it's fine. Like, the game awards is what it is.

I'm not trying to get it to change. It's fine. I am. But I think that if you want to understand the game awards, you can look at the fact that the remake of Stanley's, Silent Hill 2 was nominated for Best Narrative and Mouthwashing, which is a new game that takes so many of the kinds of narrative concepts and amazing ideas and disturbing techniques that were kind of like in the first Silent Hill 2, you know, were introduced or at least first or early, you know, that was an early exploration of some of those ideas. It takes them in new directions and it's a new game from new people. Like, that's really exciting playing a game like that.

And then Silent Hill, too, got the nomination for Best Narrative. I think that kind of sums up why this category is lacking. Yeah, it just speaks to, yeah, you're right. It's lowest common denominator. It's whoever's played the most games. Let's make some picks for these. I'll go first. I'm going to go with metaphor refontasio.

I think that's going to win it. I agree. That's my pick as well. Same. For obvious reasons. I think it's got an ambitious and interesting narrative. I just feel like of these, it feels like the one the press would pick. Again, I'm like, if I were picking my own thing, it doesn't matter.

That's not what we're doing here. We're talking about what we think the voters will say. Yeah, I mean, for me, actually, among these nominees, I think that Infinite Well, that's the best narrative. That's not what we're picking. Sometimes I feel like I have to clarify that because I don't know. I bet everyone gets it. These aren't what we personally like the best. Best art direction.

Astrobot, Black Miff, Bucon. Eldon Ring, Shadow of the Erd Tree, metaphor refontasio, never. This is a tricky one because I think that Astrobots got a shot at it, but I think that so does Eldon Ring Shadow of the Erd Tree. I believe Alden Ring won this. And Shadow of the Erd Tree is really, really beautiful. And I don't know. It's just hard because we're guessing votes,

and it's a little hard to guess what voters will do. Yeah. How do you give the same? award just like it's essentially you're giving it to the same game that won it two years ago. Yes, it is beautiful, but it's not like drastically different than I mean, my, my pick is Astrobot for what it's worth. Yeah, you know, I think mine is too. Like, thinking it through even here, I think I'm going to say Asterobot just to try to pick the one that I think is most likely to win. I didn't pick Astrobot, even though my colleague Ollie thinks it's going to be Astrobot.

I put metaphor for this too because I was like it has such a distinct visual style and I feel like people would agree with that. And I feel like Astrobot just has the corporateness working against it, even though I agree it's very creative. That's really my knock against Astrobot? Yeah. But I don't know. I kind of think that like a lot of people see Astrobot and it's so beautiful looking at it. And it looks so great in action that they'll be like, yeah, man, this game. Yeah.

I mean, I could be definitely wrong here. We'll see. But no, it's a metaphor is a great pick as well. It's just as likely. Best score and music. Astrobat, Final Fantasy, 7, Rebirth. metaphor we Fantasio, Silent Hill 2, Stellar Blade. Yeah, this is an interesting one, huh?

I can't even remember the Stellar Blade music. If you had a gun to my head, I wouldn't remember it. The song music is pretty cool from what I played. It's like kind of like, it's got like... Oh, I guess now that I'm thinking about it, I kind of do. It's like a dreamy K-pop thing. It feels kind of like playing near Automata. It has that same kind of ethereal vibe.

It's really nice music. Yeah, it's poppy. It's not quite what you'd expect. Yeah. Not what I picked. I know that's a beloved aspect of. that game as well. For me, I would be shocked if Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth

did not win this and so that's my pick. I think, just thinking it through and looking at all of these, for me at least, I actually think that voting will maybe line up with how I feel. Like personally, I think like I've mentioned before that I found metaphor I found the soundtrack for that to be kind of lacking. Like I think

a lot of the orchestral pieces are a little run of the mill, but it has that really iconic battle music. Like they're going to have a guy there. He's going to do that chant for the battle theme live on stage. Yeah, for the game of the year montage. That'll be awesome. It's kind of pretty good.

And like there is a chance that that guy like kind of bulls, like just occupies such a large space in people's minds that they're just like, yeah, that soundtrack was great. Even though like a lot of the, I think the score is not that great. And Astrobot has a really fun score, but it is a lot of reused music from the first Astrobot or like the first two games. And so like that's kind of a knocking ass. And then Silent Hill too, yeah, I don't know. Cellar Blade, I think.

not enough people play it. It's funny you say reused music because Rebirth, like, is reused music in the best possible way. Well, but it takes... Right, very different. That's what I'm saying. Well, yes, but Nobu Maitzu did compose that new song for Ayrth to sing, and that song is beautiful. So there is that. Also, Silent Hill, too.

Also, another remix of a pre-existing game as well. So it's, it's like, it's just funny that these games are in contention for things that they already did. But I also think it's kind of cool. I don't think Silent Hill will win most of the things it's up for. which is too bad. But yeah, it's funny to see it here. I didn't really play it, so I don't know if that's too bad. Best audio design.

Astrobot, Call-Duty Blackop 6, Final Fantasy 7, Rebirth, Senua Saga, Hellblade 2, Silent Hill 2. I'm picking Astrobot for this. I don't really know. Like, I think Hellblade 2 has really cool. Yeah, that was what I chose. I know Silent Hill 2 does as well. I chose Hellblade 2 because I didn't think it would win many other awards.

And I think psychologically people kind of think about wanting to give an award to something that hasn't, you know what I mean? Yeah, I picked that too, because that's the whole point of that game is the audio design. Yeah, the audio is big in that game. And the graphics, but yeah, they talk a lot about the like, binaural audio design or whatever. I just kind of think. If you think about like a bunch of critics like making their picks, they're like, oh yeah, Hellblade, that's the audio game. Right, exactly, exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Pretty, pretty clear. Okay, best performance. Breonna White for Final Fantasy 70 Rebirth. Hannah Tell for Life is Strange, double exposure, Humberly Gonzalez for Star Wars Outlaws, Luke Roberts for Silent Hill 2,

Melina Juergens for Senu Osaka, Hubbley, too. To me, I don't know what you guys feel, but it's so funny that the lead of Star Wars Outlaws is on this because I felt like the performance that that game was so flat and hard to listen to. Oh, I don't agree. I think she does a good job. Oh my God, I thought it was awful. I think she does fine. I think the script is not doing her many favors, though, for what it's worth. No, yeah, I don't really agree. I think she's plenty charming. I mean, she's just, I didn't play Life is Strange, but she doesn't feel out of place on this list to me. I don't think she's

going to win, though, because that game just has, it's the reputation that it has. Well, looking at these two, I think it's probably between Melina Juergens and Brianna White. I think that like playing Ayrith, and especially Aarith's role in FF7 Rebirth, she's my pick. She's my pick too.

Mine too, yeah, I think we're all in agreement on this one. And here's why Malina Juergens has already won it once. for Senua. Yeah. So I don't think she'll get it again in the previous game. It's an incredible performance. I mean, I played probably like two or three hours of Hellblade 2.

And it is like astonishing, like what she's doing. And also like the way they use the technology to render her performance. So she could still win. But yeah, I think we all kind of are saying the same thing here is that playing Ayrh, especially in the FF7 remake game, where Ayrth has so many big moments is such a major like emotional core. And yeah, like you mentioned early, Maddie, she also has like a Disney song that she has to sing, you know, in the middle of the... Yeah, sung by someone else, though.

Not her, by the way. I guess that's a good point. That's not her. For some reason, I thought it was her. But I think in people's minds, but honestly, Kirk, you're playing into something that I think voters will think about where they might not necessarily know that's not her. So the voters will just be like, oh, yeah, she did so much in that game. She sang a song and put her name down. All right.

Yeah. Let's crank through some more. Crank. Let's crank. Innovation and accessibility. College of D.D. Blackop six, Diablo four, Dragon Age, the Vail Guard, Prince of the Lost Crown, Star Wars, Outlaws. Kirk, what's your pick?

I'm going to pick Dragon Age only because I don't, you know, I didn't, like, thoroughly explore all of the accessibility options for each of these games. I know they all had them, and there were just, like, more good accessibility options this year, or, like, every year than there were in the previous year. But I think the Vail Guard, it had good accessibility options, and this might be the only thing that game is nominated for. Yeah, that's my pick too. So I kind of feel like people are going to vote for it for that.

Maddie that's your pick too? Exactly. Exactly why I think it will win. It's a pity vote. All right. Games for Impact. Closer the distance. Indica, Neva, Life is Strange, double exposure.

Senuasaga Helbley two. Tales of Kanzara Zau. Man, someone needs to teach people how to name video games. My pick for this is... least favorite game. My pick for this is probably the worst name, Tales of Kinsera, Zau. And the reason for that is because it feels like a lot of people know him and that guy has been, he's told his story to a lot of different press people.

And I feel like most press people have not played most of these games. And so they're just going to go with the familiar one. I picked Hellblade 2 for the same reason. I thought people would just go Hellblade 2 on this one. Same. Okay. Okay. Though I almost picked Tales of Kinsera.

I think they're the two highest profile games here. And like, because games for impact is like such a kind of vague category and like people don't really know what to go with. They kind of just go with, yeah, like which one has a story associated with it? And those two games both do, Hellblade, too, in that it's like a depiction of mental illness and Tales of Concera in that, yeah, the director of the game sort of shared so much of how this is a story about me and my father and all of that. Yeah, and his father, yeah. Best ongoing, Destiny 2, Diablo 4, Final Fantasy 14, Fortnite Hell Divers 2. yeah, I don't know. I mean, it's a tough one.

I mean, these are all, there's like different arguments for each of these games. What's your pick? I don't know, what's your pick? Holdover's two is my pick. That's mine too. Mine is Diablo 4.

But it's a tough one because I feel like, honestly, like, Fortnite got a lot of really cool updates this year. It could win Diablo, same deal. I don't think Destiny would take it, though. Even though Destiny got the final shape, which was beloved. really good. Destiny is marred by like the... I think destiny is cursed.

I know. I know. Layoffs and like all their bunches issues. There's not a lot of goodwill there right now. Well, so Diablo, I'm picking Diablo Ford just because like I think Vessel of Hatred seemed to have gone over really well and the new loot update and like they really have kind of updated and improved that game significantly over the course of the year and it seems like it was pretty popular and yeah, I don't know. I think people will pick that. Yeah, I just think Hell Divers too, it was so big and hasn't really made an impact on other guys. categories that I feel like this is the one it'll get.

I think there are some other categories later on that Hell Divers is going to do that. Yeah, maybe. We'll see. Best community support. Baldage Day 3, Final Fantasy 14, Fortnite, Hell Divers 2, no man's Sky. So I think that this one is going to be Hell Divers 2. I think that just because Hell Divers 2's community folks, I think it was,

they did a really good job of just communicating with people and there was all that funny stuff where they were like in world and pretending to be like, they're like, oh, all these sightings of new alien types are fake news, like it's propaganda, like being like the super earth sort of, you know, towing the company line. And that stuff was just all really cute and fun. And it kind of kept people interested, especially in those early months as they were adding stuff to the game. And it just seems to

me like that's the sort of thing that voters will look at when they're thinking, like, who did the best job of like communicating with their community. Maddie, what's your pick? Mine is actually going to be Baldersgate 3. They just did so many massive updates to that game this year. But I agree, Kirk. I really almost picked Hell Divers too. I'm torn about it. I think it could easily be either one of these. For just the exact same reasons. I think both of these dev teams

continue to update their games and really communicated with their fans in ways that were just sparked a lot of goodwill among people and still has. Yeah, my pick is Baldur's Game 3 also because I think can't get a game of the years, can't get a game or a spy without giving Balders Gay 3 something.

Best independent game, the nominees are. Animal Well, Bellatro, Laura Lay and the Laser Eyes, Neva, and UFO 50. I just got to say the tactical breach wasers and mouthwashing and a thousand Xers just think those games should be on here. I just got to say that. It's really the strategy game category that I couldn't believe tactical breach wizards didn't manage to get it in. Because there's even a couple indie ones on there. But yeah, I don't know. Anyway. Oh, well. That's just my grape. I don't really, I like feel like I've never heard people ever talk about Neva. I'm surprised that is on here. It's by the developers of Greece, which I know made a really big splash when it came out, but it feels like Neva didn't as much. Did Greece make a really big splash?

It was really lovely. I think so. It made it on some goody list at the time. Yeah. Did people play it, though? I don't know about really big splash. I feel like it did among people I know then. I think it was like a respected indie with lovely art that was kind of like a pretty okay game.

And I get the sense Neva is that way too. I played the first part of this one was like, oh my God, there's like a dog. They're going to kill the dog. I can't play this. Yeah. Like it looked cool. I think it's a good game. But yeah, I mean, I don't know. Like, that's just me. But, you know, of picking among these, I think it's just got to be Balatro.

That's what I picked. Balatro. I just think it's got to be like. I think we're all in agreement. And I'm sure we'll all be in agreement for this next one. Best debut indie game. Just to read the categories. Animal Well, Balatro, Manor Lords, Pacific Driver, the Plucky Squire.

It's just Pacific Drive, by the way, not driver. I can't believe the Plucky Squire is on here. You know, I'm really interested to see, because I've now am in this weird, liminal space where I, I've, in my head, called Balatro, Balatro. I'm really curious what they will call it at the Game Awards. I think maybe we'll get a sense. You're the run who's right. That's a great question. Am I? Is that like technically how it's pronounced? Yeah, that's what it, that's how it is pronounced.

I assume you guys are, we're all picking Balacho for a debut. I picked Animal Well for this. I'm probably going to be wrong, but I, you know what? I have to rebel somehow. No, I don't, I don't know about that, Maddie. Because I think that like, normally, yes, like if the best independent game is also a debut, of course it's going to be both. That just is logical.

But in this case, I think that Animal Well might get it. And for a while I was picking that. And it's because Animal Well, as also the debut of Dunkie's publisher. And so it's like kind of a debut in more ways than one. And I think a lot of people were very impressed that this famous YouTuber for his first game that he ever published published like this phenomenal game. So it could be Animal Well for that reason, but I still think it'll be Balatro.

Yeah. And I kind of see the logic voting wise of being like, well, I'm going to pick Balatro for best indie game. And then you get to the next category and you're like, okay, but I don't want to pick it again. And let me give the award to one of these other ones that's also a debut indie game. All right. Let's crank through some more. Best mobile game.

Arc Journey, Bellatro, Pokemon trading card game pocket, Wuthering Waves, Zenless Zone Zero. I picked the Pokemon game for this. Oh, really? Because I've seen a lot of people obsessing over that recently. And Bellatro just doesn't feel like a mobile game to me, even though it is on mobile. You picked Bellotro, Maddie?

I did. Yeah, I went with Bellotro. Oh, man. I'm really torn between those two. I'm going to say... Are you picking as we go? No, I was going to... No, I've really literally deleted and re-undleaded.

That's amazing. Between Pokemon and Balatro. So I just really am not sure. I think it's going to be Balatro. Okay. Oops. Belatro. Okay.

Best VR. Arizona Sunshine remake, Asgard's Rath 2, Batman Arkham Shadow, Metal Hellslinger VR, Metro Awakening. I picked Batman because it's Batman. I did too. It's going to be Batman. Asgard's wrath 2 is apparently incredible and it might be that game.

But Batman is recent and apparently Batman is spectacular. Yeah, people are really amazing. I got to play it. Man, I got to play it. I got a Quest 3 sitting right here. Yeah, you should play it. Here is the part where we get into these weird friggin genre categories. I can't believe these are existing.

It's extremely stupid. But we're going to read through them anyway. Best action game. Blackmuth Wukong, Call of Duty Black Op 6, Hell Divers 2, Stellar Blade, Warhammer 40K Space Marine 2.

Best action game. Blackmuth Wukong. Same. Yep. Yep. Yeah, that's what I want to do. Why did we all take that?

Because it feels like that's going to win one. This feels like where it would go if it couldn't ice it out in any of the other categories. Yeah, exactly. Big popular game.

Apparently a great action game. Exactly. Exactly. Because it's not going to win the others. Best action adventure game. Whatever that means. So different. Astrobot.

Prince of Persia the lost ground Silent Hill 2 Star Wars Outlaws The Legend of Zelda Echoes of Wisdom I just want to say

it's so funny between outlaws and Plucky Squire it's so funny that like mediocre games are making these nominees anyway

I went with Astrobot for this one Same Yeah me too even though it should go to Prince of Persia it's going to be

Astrobat I mean look we're not here to talk about what it should go to just because Prince of Persia is an adventure It's amazing

It's one of my favorite This is a platformer. It doesn't matter. Here's another weird one. Best RPG. Dragon's Dogma 2. Eldon Ring, Shadow of the Urtree, Final Fantasy 7 and Rebirth, like a Dragon Infinite Wealth, Metaphor, Refantazio.

It's funny. This is the one where I think it's really just a function of Dragon Age coming out so late, but it's wild that Dragon Age is a dawn here. You would think it would at least be nominated for Best RPG. I think not enough people played it in time. I don't know. I think it was a timing thing. I think it was a little bit polarizing.

Yeah, and I think the beginning of it being slow was enough to turn people off. It's good. It's good enough. I don't know. Anyways. I agree. But I think if you look at the like Metacritic, not that Metacritic is an amazing rubric. But if you look at that, all of these have higher scores than Dragon Age.

Between that and the fact that it came out pretty close to, you know, the end of the year. And also people should know the voting deadline is way earlier. Sure. There's that. Anyway, mine is, my pick is metaphor. metaphor for me as well. Oh, that's interesting. I put Dragon's Dogma 2 here.

It's the only award it's up here. Wow. I think it would be rad if it won here, but like, I don't think it won here. But like, I don't know. I'm just going crazy at this point. Yeah, that's going wild. All right. Best fighting game.

Dragon Ball, by the way, the category for this is not best fighting game. It's best fighting. Yeah. Best fighting. Which game is the best fighting? Dragon Age should have been nominated for this. There's so much fighting over that game. Dragon Ball Sparking Zero.

Grand Blue Fantasy versus. Rising, Marvel versus Capcom fighting collection, multiverses, Tekken, 8. I went with Dragon Ball sparking zero. I did two. Okay. I think Tekken 8. Okay. Those were the two that I debated between.

I think Dragon Ball has recency bias on its side. All righty. Best family. Astrobot, Princess Peach Showtime, Super Mario Party, Jamboree, the Legend of Zelda, Echoes of Wisdom, the Plucky Squire. None of these games have families in them, but I guess that's not one of me. I mean, Astrobat is really about the PlayStation family. It's about the PlayStation family of consoles.

That's also why I picked Astrobot, the franchise family. Best Sim Strategy, Age of Mythology, Retold, Frost Punk 2, Kunitsogami, Path of the Goddess, Manorlords, and Unicorn Overlord. I went with Unicorn Overlord. I actually think this is going to be Manor Lords. Oh, really? I went with Kunitsugami. Yeah, I think so. Okay.

Wow. Nice. Three different things. All right. This is the real tiebreaker, folks. Yeah, that'll be it. Best sports racing. F1.24, EA Sports FC-25, NBA 2K-25, top spin 2K-25, WWE2K-24.

2-2-2-4s and 3-25s on this one. Yep, yep, yep. Good stuff. This is a tough one. I didn't play any of these. I went with EA Sports FC. I did too. I went with F-1 because I think those F-1 games are probably pretty cool.

Okay. And I don't know. Best multiplayer. Call of Duty Blackop Six. Hell Divers 2. Super Mario Party Jamboree. Tech and 8, Warhammer, 40K, Space Marine, 2. I think Hell Divers 2 is going to get this one. Me too. Yeah, that's what I chose. Okay. So we're all in agreement on that. Agreement there.

I feel like this next one will probably all be in agreement. Two. Best adaptation. Arcane, Fallout, Knuckles, Like a Dragon, Yakuza, Tomb Raider, the legend of Lara Crofts. Let's all say it together. Fallout. Yeah, I think it's going to be Fallout, even though, while I actually just finished the second season of Arcane, and it was kind of like watching two seasons of a show on 2X speed. It's beautiful looking and I think an amazing adaptation in a lot of ways, though narratively not as strong as the first season. And also, I think that Arcane season 1-1, Fallout is new. And Fallout is just such a great adaptation.

And I think it was so popular. Yeah, I mean, Fallout is. It was popular. It's got to be Fallout. I think especially because it doesn't have great competition here, I think it will win. Yeah. This next category might be the safest shoe-in of all time. Most anticipated game.

Death Stranding 2 on the beach. Ghost of Yote. Grand Theft Auto 6, Metroid Prime 4 beyond Monster Hunters, Wilds. It's hard to see anything but Grand Theft Auto winning this one. Yeah. I didn't even pick Metroid Prime 4 as a joke. No. But it is my most anticipated game.

Content creator of the year. This one is hilarious if you look at the image of this one, which everyone should go do because it's four bearded guys and then an anime girl with carrots in her hair. The content creators are Case O, Ilo Juan, Teco gamers, typical gamer, and Usada Picora. Usada Picora is the anime girl, and that's why I'm picking her. Oh, yeah, I think she's going to win too.

That's what I picked. That's what I picked. Yeah, I was reading about her, and I was like, it seems like she did a lot of stuff this year. people were really having a good time with her streams. Yeah. Yeah. I think she's going to be. Okay, good for her.

Next up is best e-sports game. Counter-Strike 2, Dota 2, League of Legends, Mobile Legends, Bang-Bang. Sorry, Mobile Legends Bang-Bang. It's the comedy bang-bang. Yeah. And Valerance. Oh, no. I'm realizing that I was going to pick Valerant, but then I think I picked that last year.

You can pick it again. It's here again. I don't know if Valoran is going to win again. I'm going with League of Legends. I am too. I know they did things this year that people liked. I know that. From people I know who play it.

I think I'm going to go with League of Legends as well. Okay. I don't think it's going to be a re- Nobody is picking Mobile Legends Bang Bang. That's unfortunate. That's going to win. Best East Sports athlete. 33.

Alexib. Chovee Faker Zaywu and ZMJJKKK Zimchik It's too bad that this category isn't the best episode of Battlestar Galactica

because then I would pick 33 Anyway That was a sweaty joke I picked Faker last year I'm picking Faker again He's the only one I've heard of He's the only one I've heard of Yeah it's fakers to lose every year

This is like like the I don't know LeBron James of Eastport It's like it's like to go anywhere else this year unfortunately they do not have like best e-sports coach or anything like that. Um, or best e-sports tournament. They just have best e-sports team. And I'm going to read the nominees, Billy Billy Gaming, Gen G, Navi, T1 and team liquid.

I'm going with T1 because that's fakers team. Yeah, I almost picked them for the same reason, but I chose team liquid because they're also well known. I'm going to go with Billy, Billy Gaming. I don't know who they are, but their name is fun to say. That means Kirk is going to win. Yeah, we got some disputes here. We'll see how that goes.

All right, so those are the 29 categories. That is it. And those are our picks. Yeah, 29. And yeah, we'll see who takes it all. This will be a fun one. It's a ridiculous show. Before we move on to one more thing,

let's talk a little bit about the announcements portion, which I think is why most people tune in is to see new games get announced and shown off. I know a couple of big things that'll be there By the time this airs Maybe some of them will have leaked So I don't know I won't even get into what I have or haven't heard

The couple of big things that I've heard though Are like actually big Like we'll make an impact on people And also probably won't be out for years So like there'll be those things that you hear about And then don't hear about again for two more years Haven't heard anything about Silk Song, sorry to say Yeah what are the kind of known rumors

That are sort of already out there I don't know. Oh, because you know things and you don't want to like... Yeah, well, I don't, and I don't even know what's been made public. And again, by the time this airs, there will probably be more stuff made public. One thing I'll say that I don't know is that there's been a lot of like half-life chatter. And some people are theorizing that we could see a new Half-Life game here, which would be wild. That would be bonkers.

Right, because they just updated Half-Life 2 and added all that, all that commentary. And Half-Life Alex ended with a tease for a new game. Yes, of course. There is a narrative setup. Yeah, which I guess has been the case for more than a decade that there already was a narrative setup. But yes, they made it clear they were. And then the other thing is that I would be, I would say it's highly, highly, highly unlikely that we would see GTA 6 at the show. Yeah, especially since Rockstar snub the game words last year.

Why would they not continue to snub the game words? Well, they never do like game wars. Yeah, they don't need it. They're just like, hey, we're posting on Twitter in three days. Enjoy. Yeah, exactly. What do you guys want to see or expect to see your performance? that you'll see anything you guys are excited about?

Well, I can at least speak to some rumors. I have no inside information on any of the things I'm about to say, but just from my own coworkers and what they're excited about. There's the game, Don Walker that's like some of the ex-witcher three folks got together, made a studio called Rebel Wolves. People have definitely been waiting for something on that to come about. I-O Interactive's James Bond game. We haven't seen that in a while.

What's up with that? Max Payne remake has been rumored. for a while. We had a fun conversation at work about who would play Max Payne. It's just an interesting question now. And then there's kind of just stuff that I personally wonder about, the Wonder Woman game. Haven't seen that in a really long time. I feel like every show, I'm like, I wonder if we're going to see the Wonder Woman game. Maybe we'll never see it again. And yeah, I think that's it for stuff that's actually kind of exciting. When was that announced in 22? years ago? Yeah. Definitely in development hell somewhere. I spoke to someone, I spoke to someone who was

working on that game a while back and they were like, yeah, our current timeline has us at like 2026 and even that is unrealistic. Oh God. So probably not a big splashy Wonder Woman trailer then. Kirk, anything you're excited about or want to see? Yeah, I don't really know. It looks, I'm just looking up rumors. It looks like split fiction, the new Joseph Ferris game. has kind of leaked and might get announced. And given that he has such a long history at the Game Awards, it seems likely that he'll come on stage and everyone will be like, do the thing, do something silly.

And he'll be like, oh, the Oscars, suck my balls. And then everyone will be like, you did, he did it. He said the thing. And then they'll show, you know, footage from his game or whatever. I don't really know what else. There will probably be like a couple of teases for things that, yeah, aren't going to come out forever. Anything you really want to see of Vin's Silk Song?

That's it. Another half-life game, Kirk, with that experience? cite you at all. That'd be great. I'd be kind of surprised. I guess it'd be cool to see a Valve announcement. Just because Valve tends to do things, you know, on their own, at their own tempo. But of course, I would be very excited to see a Half-Life game. I just, it just feels like Silk Song. Like, it feels like something that will never happen. And then when it does happen, will happen in a way that isn't the normal way that these sorts of things happen. Right. And it's more likely we'll just see, like, I don't know, like something big, like a new

Gears of War teas or something. Yeah. Yeah. That kind of thing where I'm like, oh, okay, yeah, they were probably making another one of those and now they've officially shown a title card. I mean, we did just actually get one. You've just already forgotten it. We got a Gears of War T's at SGF. That's like the prequel game with like a young baby Marcus Phoenix and Dominant. Remember that? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I got one of those. Yeah, there you go. I have forgotten. But it's a good guess. I mean, it's like some of those things that were just revealed. I'm like, yeah, probably we'll see more of them. Like probably some more borderlands for, for example.

We'll get a bigger trailer to that. Yeah, Borderlands is a safe bet. Right. And it's funny because that's not even, like, yours wasn't even a guess. It's more of just like, that's the kind of thing. Exactly. Like, where it's like a consolely, big budgety thing that I don't really care that much about because, of course, you know they're making another one of all these huge franchises. So whatever big franchise hasn't had an announcement lately, there will be some title card announcement. And that's cool and everything. But like, the things I get excited about, yeah, or like, Silk Song, because it's like actually coming out and I'm like, I know it's going to be really good. And it's, it feels unlike.

that that sort of stuff is going to be at present. Yeah, it'll be nice. I mean, usually Jeff shows off some indie stuff, like a cool, like, Hades 2 was announced at one of these or like theirs are kind of cool, unexpected sequels. Oh, maybe they'll announce like a 1.0 release for Hades 2. Oh, yeah, that'd be cool. That sounds right. Yeah, that sounds like we're coming up on time for that.

Yep, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I think that it seems highly unlikely to me that, like, Nintendo would do a hardware thing here. But maybe they'll announce some game that happened that will also be on the Switch too next year when that comes out. Xbox, they have a billion games, as always, that are just forever a way that they could tease. I'm sure they'll throw in something like that. PlayStation, I think, I'm pretty sure we'll have a couple things in there. I'll leave it at that. And then,

yeah, what else? Are there other, like, big publishers that we haven't heard from in a while? Oh, you know, you said, PlayStation, maybe they'll announce a release date for Last of Us Part 2 on PC. Ah, you can see that. Yes. That's the kind of thing that's at this, right? It's not actually exciting, but because you know that's going to happen at some point, but it's still kind of like, oh, cool, all right, a lot of more people.

Wait, did that not happen yet? I thought you were joking. Like, I thought that was, like, another, like... I don't think that has happened yet. Kirk, I really thought you were joking, like, another Last of Us release, like, a release. Yeah, they're making another remaster. No, I think... It hasn't come to PC yet.

Okay. I think it's safe to say it's coming out, but like they'll just announce a date for it. I would actually be really excited for Final Fantasy 7 rebirth on PC. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that'll happen probably next year. So they might have a date for that as well. It would be exciting to see also some of those big square games that haven't been in out,

like the Final Fantasy 9 remake they're working on or like Final Fantasy Tactics remastered. It would be nice to see those for once. and yeah, I don't know, I'm trying to think, like, EA, I don't think they have anything interesting in the works, Ubisoft, maybe they'll announce something, or maybe they'll just show more Assassin's Creed. I don't know, yeah, could be, but there will be some fun things. Yeah, they probably will, right?

Because they're like, they're pretty jacked up for Assassin's Creed shadows, because they really need that game to be a success. I can see there being something else. Yeah, more permission to that. Did you see, by the way, they showed that, I know we're out of time, They showed that trailer where you can go prone. I was like, you can go prone in the Assassin's Creed game.

Yeah. Say no more. Is that what you're saying? I want to play this game now. I was like, what is this metal gear? Like crawling around? Looks great. Yeah.

And then, of course, I think it's like a 99% certainty that we will see the new, like, a trailer for Death Stranding to there. Seems likely. Yeah, I mean, Kajima will show a video game. We know that. That's not a prediction. That's just a statement of fact. He'll be there and he'll show a trailer for one of his games. Okay, cool. Well, yeah, let's get ready for gaming's biggest night. It should be fun times. Yay.

All right, why don't we take a break and we'll be back for one more thing. All right, we're over 70 episodes into our show. Let's learn everything. So let's do a quick progress tech. Have we learned about quantum physics? Yes, episode 59. We haven't learned about the history of gossip yet, have we? Yes, we have same episode, actually. Have we talked to Tom Scott about his love of roller coasters? Episode 64.

So how close are we to learning everything? Bad news. We still haven't learned everything yet. Oh, we're ruined! No, no, no, it's good news as well. There is still a lot to learn. Woo! I'm Dr. Ella Hubber.

I'm regular Tom Lum. I'm Caroline Roper, and on Let's Learn Everything, we learn about science and a bit of everything else, too. And although we haven't learned everything yet, I've got a pretty good feeling about this next episode. Join us every other Thursday on Maximum Fun. People say not to judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree. Which is why here on Just the Zoo of Us, we judge them by so much more.

We rate animals out of 10 in the categories of effectiveness, ingenuity, and aesthetics, taking into consideration each animal's true strengths, like a pigeon's ability to tell a Monet from a Picasso or a polar bear's ability to play basketball. Guest experts like biologists, ecologists, and more join us to share their unique insight into the animals world. Listen with friends and family of all ages on maximum fun.org or wherever you get podcasts. And we are back. Kirk Maddie, it is time for one more thing. Maddie. Kick us off. All right. So we watched Scream from 2022. Doesn't have a number after it. Not to be confused, the scream. 1996. Yeah. We watched Scream 2020.

So this movie is the first one that was made after West Craven died. And if this is your first time ever listening to Triple Click for context, my wife and I have been watching every single stream, scream movie in order. And now we are up to post West Craven. And if it's your first time finding out that West Craven died, we are sorry, our condolences. Yeah, this is how you're finding out.

I'm really sorry. And I'm also really sorry because I thought Scream 2022 was fine. And I would say my biggest gripe with it was that, I was able to guess who the killers were. And I can't say the same for the other screen movies. All of them have an ending where even if you had kind of an inkling, the full scope of the ending, you'd be like, what? In a way that would kind of just mess with your head a little bit and make you reevaluate

what the movie was saying about cinema itself. These are very meta movies. I don't know. They just have really interesting commentary to make about the movie biz and movies as an art form. And Scream 2020. kind of felt more like fanfic. I mean, it is functionally that. It's very high budget fanfic.

I thought the performances were great. The fight scenes were really fun. Great choreography. Funny, really good jokes. No complaints about any of that. They had some fun tributes to West Craven. They had a character named Wes. He's the one who got the sexy shower scene.

I thought that was funny to give a male character that. I appreciated all those things. I just was a little disappointed that the end felt kind of predictable to me. Not sure if I'm going to continue with this. There's a whole Scream TV show and I think another Scream movie after this that will also not have West Craven's involvement. So I'm a little torn. I'll let everyone know if we keep going, but this may or may not be the end. I still recommend all four of the original screams, though. They were really, really, really good. And I just, I think they really hold up. And I recommend them.

Is this the one with Jenna Ortega? Yes. Her performance is great. It's, it's, it's, it's. It's more just the script, I guess, that I'm taking a little issue with. My older niece, who was 14, I've been talking to her about some sort of starter horror movies, like tremors, you know, movies like that that she might dig that aren't too scary. Yeah, this I think is. And I was like, you should watch the first scream. It's great. And she's like, oh, I've only ever seen the 2022 one because it has Jenna Ortega in it.

And so that was the only reason I cared. She probably still like the first one. Because Scream 2020 refers to Scream 1996 quite a bit, as as do all the movies. Yes, that was definitely my advice. But it was just funny because it's like, well, that one's called Scream as well. And this one has an actress I actually give a shit about it as opposed to Nev Campbell. I have no idea who that even is. Yeah.

Yeah. We're so old. Oh, yeah. Kirk, what's your one more thing? My one more thing is a new delightful Netflix show called A Man on the Inside. This is a show starring Ted Danson, created by Mike Schur, creator of The Good Place in Brooklyn, 9, and Parks and Rec. And it's really wonderful. It's also pretty devastating at times, or at least it was for me. So this is actually an adaptation of an award-winning documentary, I think a Chilean documentary called The Mole Agent, which I didn't know when I started watching the show, that it is taking a true story and turning it into a sort of heightened fictional sitcom set in San Francisco.

But it is. So this is a story about a retirement home in San Francisco where there's a PI, a private investigator, is hired at the beginning to find out who stole a woman's necklace, like one of the residents of this really swanky retirement home that's like in Pacific Arts. It's like on Russian Hill or maybe Knob Hill. It's like in a really nice part of San Francisco. And the PI needs to get into the retirement home in order to find out what's going on. So she hires Ted Danson, who is a sort of widower, a retired widower, who is like a, you know, a former professor and kind of this tall, natty nerd. And has really kind of, since his wife died, has kind of, his life has kind of closed down. His daughter is really like, you need to get a life and start doing stuff.

A very common thing. I think anyone in our age range has started to sort of experience. And so he moves into this retirement community. And it's kind of a mystery as he's like undercover. and, you know, each episode is a little riff on a famous spy novel or spy movie. And he loves spy books, but he's kind of hapless as a spy. So it's the story of him sort of getting to know everyone and trying to find out who stole this necklace. And then there are later crimes and more things are stolen.

And they're trying to find out who it is. So there's a bit of a mystery to it, which is nice. But really, it's the story of retirement homes and the kinds of community that you can find at that later stage in your life, which is a really nice rendition of that and a kind of lovely tribute to all of the ways that your life can kind of open up, despite the fact that when you're that old and living among people who are all that old, death is always there. And it's this really, it's like a different challenging part of your life. And of course, like, you can compare it to a lot of other things. The Thursday Murder Club books that Jason you and I have read and talked about are very similar.

And I think have a similar energy where, they really, it's lovely to watch such an endorsement of all of the positive things about moving into a retirement community because it can be so hard to convince your own parents or, you know, loved ones to move into one. And they kind of represent an unattainable goal, I think, for a lot of people. And then I'll say just as a like, not exactly a warning, but just something worth mentioning, this is yet another show that is a lot about dementia. And in particular, it's about surviving, losing. someone to dementia because Ted Danson's, his character's wife died to dementia. And it's tough, or it was tough for me, especially after this summer. And like, you know, my dad, I think people know this, my dad died. My mom has dementia. He would have been Ted Danson

if he hadn't gotten cancer, basically. Like, he would have outlived her and then had to deal with, I think, the guilt and the sort of sadness that comes with that. And, like, the show does a really good job of depicting it, a big part of it. is a big part of Ted Danson's character is that he wants to feel useful. He'll talk about it. He'll be like, well, I like doing the coffee routine myself because it makes me feel useful. And then

this is kind of this fantasy that this young, cool, private investigator hires him and he can go, like, play an integral part in this investigation and his life, like, comes back online because he's being useful and is having so much fun. And I think, like, that's cool on its own. It's really

moving, and I think very true, that he feels so particularly useless because he watched his wife die from Alzheimer's. Because that feeling, there's nothing you can do and it is really, really hard. Like, hard in a way that nothing else is. It's a very particular kind of hard. And the show really deals with it. So if you have dealt with that or that's something that's in your life, it can be a nice

thing to, like, process that a little through this show, to see it. It made me cry a lot, but, like, that's okay because I've just cried a lot this year and, like, I was all right with it. But I'll mention that just as something to, like, think about when you're going into watching the show. And then to keep in mind, as you're watching it, if you haven't had to deal directly with dementia at all, that I think it's just like, it's a really particular depiction. I don't know if, like, Mike Scher or one of the writers, like, has a parent who suffered from dementia. It really feels very personal.

And I found it lovely, if kind of emotionally tough at times. So anyways, I really do recommend it. I think it's a wonderful show. So many great older actors. Man, Sally Struthers is in it. She's awesome. There's another. There's an actor named Stephen McKinley Henderson, who you'll know if you've seen him.

He's a total character actor. A lot of the residents of the home are character actors. He is amazing. He plays a guy who becomes friends with Ted Danson. And it's like they have the best episodes of the two of them together. And it's really great if you like just heartwarming, lovely stuff. So that's a man in the inside. He was in Civil War.

Yeah, he was in Civil War and a few other things as well that I recognize him from. So it's a man on the inside. It's on Netflix. I really loved it. Great show. My one more thing is also a delightful Netflix show called The Diplomat. And The Diplomat is this show starring Carrie Russell. And it is basically, I would describe it as like a nicer version of House of Cards. Carrie Russell plays this ambassador who is sent on assignment to the UK to become like one of the most important ambassadorships in the UK. and a British ship, like naval ship has blown up and people are blaming Iran and she has to dive head force into the middle of this like foreign entanglement quagmire and deal with it. And I think it's an entertaining show and it's got some good stuff going for it.

But the real reason to watch is to watch Carrie Russell play this character who is almost like the opposite of her character, kind of iconic. character from the Americans because in this she is playing like a total mess and she's like super competent but she's also like the type of woman who will like show up to a meeting with like stains on her pants and like her hair is just all over the place and she's just like kind of a total sloppy disaster of a person. There's also some fun interpersonal drama because her husband who she wants to get rid of is kind of like embroiled in the middle of this case and her life and the political atmosphere. And then Michael McKean plays the president, which is very entertaining. He

kind of looks like Joe Biden as he's playing a president, but it's kind of this grumpy, grumpy. I would have voted for Michael McKeon for president. He should have run. He should have run, although you would not want this guy to be president. He's not a fun dude. Actual Michael McCain. He could like sing presidential address. But yeah, but Carrie Russell, as the lead character of this is, just fantastic and a good reason to watch it. I'm not super far in. I'm only like halfway through the first season, I think maybe a little more than halfway. But I'm very much enjoying it so far as kind of like a house of cars that is less of a bummer. Not to say that House of

Carre, I loved House of Cars, especially the first two seasons of that show pre kind of Kevin Spacey like revelations. But the show is very entertaining and very fun to watch. Nice. Once again, it's called the Diplomat in case you missed that the first time around. All right, and that is it for this week's episode. I wonder how many of our triple-click fandom I'll see at the JW tonight.

How many people listening who are like, you know, I'm going to... I believe you mean the airport hill. Right, right. How many you'll see at the airport? No, well, I want triple-click listeners to come. It's the other people. It's like the types of... We have to invent a code language

that only triple-click listeners are interested. Exactly. You want only triple-clist listeners at the J-DU. When we say airport Hilton, we mean J-W. If you're listening to this and you're a capital G gamer, then go to the airport Marriott. Otherwise, if you're like a regular typical listener, then come to the J-W. Great, great advice.

That will work. That will definitely work. This should be a fun evening. Are you guys, Maddie, I know you're watching for work. Of course. You're watching. Kirk, are you going to be watching? I'll watch for a little and then I'll get tired and I'll go do something else.

Yeah, it's a better time zone for you than me, Kirk. I feel like I'm going to be watching. jealous of your time zone when it's 11 p. Yeah, but a four hour award show is long at any time zone. That's a great point. And maybe it should be shorter. It should be like an hour shorter. Yep, I agree.

It is three hours is just too much. All right, we will see you all next week. Yep, see you both 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 D.J. 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 Maximumfund.org slash join. Find us on Twitter at triple clickpod, send 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. Maximum Fun. A worker-owned network. of artist-owned shows. Supported directly by you.