Triple Click - Our First Dive Into Diablo IV

Episode Date: June 8, 2023

Things get bloody as the Triple Click Trio dive into Diablo 4.One More Thing: Kirk: Mrs. Davis (Peacock)Maddy: Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (Theatrical)Jason: I Think You Should Leave Season 3 (Netflix)LINKS:The LOST chapter from Maureen Ryan’s forthcoming book Burn It Down: Power, Complicity, and a Call for Change in Hollywood: https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2023/05/lost-tv-show-cultureSupport 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

You can spend $3,500 on Apple's new VR headset, or you can give it to us and get a lot of bonus episodes. Welcome to Triple Click where we bring the games to you. Today we are talking about Blizzard's Diablo 4, a new game in which you click, click, click your way to glory, lots of cool loot and some gross atmosphere. I'm Jason Dreyer. I'm Kirk Hamilton. And I'm Maddie Myers. Hello. Hey, hello there.

It's us. It is. It's us. Welcome back for another episode. Hope you guys were able to stop click, click, click, clicking your way through sanctuary long enough to join us for this episode. Hey, they can still be clicking. You can listen to a podcast and play. It's a good podcast game. It is a good podcast game. Today we're going to be talking about Diablo. But first, we should tell everybody a little bit about how we make this show possible. Kirk Maddie, did you guys know that? We are entirely supported by listeners like you two.

You two count as listeners, right? Yes, I am actually a maximum fund member, so I do count. There you go. Yeah, I am too. We are entirely listeners supported by listeners like you two. We are a member of the Maximum Fund Network, which means that we fund our podcast through memberships. And if you become a member today by going to maximum fund.org slash join,

you will help us make this show possible. and you'll also get some cool stuff because we do monthly bonus episodes for our members. If you become a member today, you will get access to the one we just ran, which was a truly chaotic episode where the three of us played a debating game

called debatable. And we argued over things like whether mac and cheese should be eaten with a fork or a spoon, whether the savvy travelers should sit in the aisle seat or the window seat. but also video game related questions.

And actually listeners will get to pick the winner of that because the last question is up for a vote that we will reveal the answer to that on this coming on the next bonus episode. Okay, I was wondering, I asked you the other day and I didn't, I don't think you responded, right? Yeah, we don't know.

We don't know. I don't know. The votes are still coming in. We're going to count every vote. We're going to count every vote until the June bonus episode goes up and then voting will be closed. And then we'll stop counting the votes. Can we announce? I think we can announce this month's episode because we did already.

We did. We did. We did it last week. Oh, we did. Okay. Well, this month we were doing a succession. Beans cast, Spoiler cast, we'll be talking about the TV show on HBO Succession, which we are all big fans of. It's really just going to be a 30-minute loop of the succession theme music. Yes. Yes. Which, by the way, is so, every time I listen to it, I just think of the Oberdeen theme music because they're so similar. I think of Demi Adijibis singing Kiss from Daddy. I think of every time I hear Also very good And also that video of the M&Ms

You guys Yeah that Eminem's video I watch that every few months When I'm feeling down It's a great video So yeah Become a member today Help us make the show possible

Go to maximum fund.org slash join And also before we get into this show A big old happy pride month To everybody out there Yay! It's June Loud and proud

Happy pride everyone All of us A triple click Like, I think, I'd be pride, everybody. I think we're, we're, uh, I don't think we have the bandwidth right now to make a rainbow version of the triple click logo, but imagine that we did. Imagine it. Imagine it in your hearts. Um, and yeah, that's it. So Maddie, what are we talking about today? We are talking about Diablo four. Oh, man.

The rise of Lilith. That's not the subhead, except in my heart, because I'm kind of rooting for her. I haven't finished the story yet, but I'm on her side so far. I pretty much was as soon as I saw her, and that might be true for the entire rest of the campaign. We'll see. This is a very pride-themed discussion. Yes, we immediately start with Maddie talking about Lola. It is, you know, demonic entities, are they maybe fine? Like, Christianity has some problems thinking about it.

Diablo, its portrayal of Christianity is hilarious. We're going to get into it. It's going to be fun. Well, it's not really Christianity. I know. It's really not. It's all Christianity. Fan fiction of the Bible. Is that fair to say? It's very different from anything that happens in biblical canon, quote unquote. I don't know how to, is the word canon fair to say? Guys, I'm a Unitarian Universalist. I don't know how to describe these things. Anywho, this game.

Well, if you're right Bible fan fiction, it's not part of canon. And really, well, so Jews believe that the Old Testament is the only canon. And the New Testament is all fan fiction. When Disney launched the New Testament, they actually. said that all the Old Testament is no longer canon, they got rid of it, which upset a lot of people who were invested in that part of the canon. And some people are still devoted to it to this day. Yeah, that was a major acquisition. Well, I really enjoyed Disney's, uh, what if biblical version where it's like, that's true. That was a little bone they threw to the fans. What if God did it apart the Red Sea? Yeah, totally. I just like the crossovers, you know? It's like when Marvel and DC work together and like when all the religions work together. Guys, is this what we're

going to talk about for the whole episode, maybe. But let's talk about Diablo for a little bit, because I've been playing it and I've been having a great time talking about it with my pals. So I'll just say, I've played a few hours and maybe like level 16. Wish I was further, because I hear once you get to level 25, you get to unlock the ability to alter legendary weapons by unafixing affect, I think it's called, Aspect, Aspect. That's what they call it. You're like starting out talking about the game and you're already into aspects. I know. I'm getting so heady.

And who cares? Because I am a mere basic, basic lowercase G gamer who simply enjoys the clicking of it all. So I'm playing as a barbarian. I've played a ton with some friends. I'm not sure if you two have tried the multiplayer yet. Yes. But I'm enjoying it so far. We did all play the beta and playing this beginning of the game.

There's a lot of similarity to what we already played in the beta. But I'm past that now. and I have some more thoughts on the deeper thing, but not yet at the end game. All right. So if you, if this is your first time hearing about Diablo and you aren't thinking about Satan, this is a video game called Diablo, and it's the fourth one. But it's, it's pretty much, you don't have to care about the story. You don't need to know who Lilith is unless you're, unless you're me.

This is mostly a game about seeing adorable, isometrically viewed diaromas of the most horrifying, gory things in the year. universe and you click on them, be they undead skeletons, demons, or perhaps angels who aren't quite what they seem. It's an ARPG is what people call it, action RPG. When did that become a way of shortening action RPG? Everybody's saying ARPG now. It's cool.

It's hip. Arpica. Yeah. So it's an ARPG and it's isometric as we said. And this is also a game that, at least historically, is benefited by playing it over and over again. I would say that's been a pretty key part of past Diablo games and something that I would expect to come up in our conversation about Diablo 4, whether it rewards replayability and loot, gathering, and grinding. That loop of gathering loot and grinding for new levels is supposed to be

what's fun in this game. But it's also a pretty hard thing to fine tune in a game like this. So I have only played as a barbarian so far in terms of the character class I chose and haven't completed that main mainline campaign yet. But I remember playing and replaying past Diablo's and skipping every cutscene because I already knew them all and all I cared about was clicking on stuff and getting more weapons and loot and leveling up and seeing the numbers get bigger. So Kirk Jason as fellow destiny addictives at one time. We're going to get in. Let me give a little bit. Yeah, we should talk. We should all talk about like how much we played stuff for, but let me a little bit of historical context here because I think it's really helpful when it comes to

understanding why this game the way is the way it is and just a little bit of insight in terms of especially the gore you just mentioned Maddie. So Diablo originally started, it's made by Blizzard Entertainment. Diablo 4 is made by Blizzard Entertainment, but the first two games, which were released in 1996 and then 2000, respectively, were actually made by an entirely different company called Blizzard North, which is in San Francisco. The proper Blizzard, main Blizzard is in Irvine, California, which is about 400 miles south. And what happened was Blizzard North shut down, and Diablo 3, which was in development at the time, 2005, moved to Blizzard South. But there was always this kind of weird tension between Blizzard North and Blizzard South, and a lot of it was

over the way Diablo looked. Blizzard South was always very much like about cartoony graphics and about World of Warcraft style with like big exaggerated shoulder pads and like a lot of light things, a lot of kind of lightheartedness and humor, whereas Blizzard North was always about dark, dark, dark, gritty, gritty. And there were a lot of arguments always about, like, Blizzard North wanting to go super lurid and gross and gory and sexual, and Blizzard North not wanting that. And then with Diablo III, when Blizzard South took it over, they kind of went in the other extreme. And they made it pretty lighthearted, pretty cartoony. They actually had to change the art style a couple times over the course of development and got some blowback from fans.

And then after Diablo 3 came out and some people weren't big fans of that, they decided to go the extreme opposite direction, which is why we have this new Diablo 4. It's made by a lot of new people, a lot of people who haven't been in Blizzard for a while, who just came in over the past five, six years. And it is a game that is extremely dark, extremely gory, extremely like from the beginning you are knocked out cold and placed on a slab and just told that things are grim here. Things are really dark and bloody and gory here.

So with that context, we are entering this new game that is trying to kind of emulate some of that gore of the past. It's really splorchy. That's how I've been describing the blood. There's a lot of like strawberry jam splorches. And everything else is like gray and brown. Yeah, it's very bleak. It's enjoyedly bleak.

There's the sort of second main area after the frozen area, the Act 2 area, is this, it's basically a land of mud where it never stops raining. And there are people who live there and you're helping them. They live in towns. They have farms and they're sitting there on their farms working and they're children are learning how to work the farm. And it's like, okay, so you just live in a mud, rain world where you till crops, I guess, that somehow grow in the dark rain. I had a conversation for a side quest with a guy who said, something along the lines of, well, there's the goat men

who keep attacking the brutal, horrible, unstoppable goat men. And well, spiders have taken over the fields nearby, but, you know, we farmers, we're hearty sort. We make it work. And I was like, okay, I guess you are living your life here in this, in this horrible place, which everybody in this world seems to be doing. Well, it's so funny, it's like you play World of Warcrafting, they're like, I wish I could go to some of these places. And then you play the album before and you're like, I never, ever want to go here, ever, never. Get me away from it. Yeah. And yet it's a world that we're supposed to want to spend a lot, a lot of time in. Well, I mean, I don't want to be a tourist, but I'm, I'm happy. I'm having a great time just running around blowing stuff up. It's sort of, like you said, it's

It's lurid. It's a fun place to visit because it's so appealingly awful. I find the overall just bleakness, the kind of just dower tone, the way everyone is so hopeless to be really compelling. I'm really enjoying the tone of the game. Okay. Well, keep going on that. What are you playing as that's blowing stuff up? Oh, I'm playing as a sorcerer. So yeah, I've played, I've played a lot. We just finished a move and I've been sort of slowly setting up in a new house. And it's kind of a good time to play a game like Diablo. since you can kind of turn your brain off and just blast through it, unlike Zelda,

which I've also been playing a lot of and requires so much creativity. The games are almost polar opposites in terms of how they engage my brain. So I'm finding Diablo to be kind of a nice thing to play. So I played a lot over the weekend in between bouts of unpacking. I am playing as a sorcerer.

We should say we're all three playing on early access codes that were provided by Blizzard, and we all have just been playing during the early access period. And actually, we're recording this a day early. So at some point, the servers are going to go live for everyone, and we're going to see if this game is a debacle at launch like Diablo 3 was or if it goes well. But so far, my experience has been great. I've had no problems getting online and playing.

The game runs great for me and looks great for me. So that's how it's been in early access. And I'll probably Bing my way in here just to give a loose report on how the launch has been so far, though even that'll be incomplete, since, of course, these things are usually like a very long process. Bing! As promised. As invoked, you could say. Here I am, Kirk, in the future, editing the episode here to chime in a little bit about how the launch has been going.

So I'm recording this now on Wednesday. So the game has been live for, I guess, 24 hours, a little bit more than that. And I've played a little bit more on PC. And it's actually been going okay. My sense is that the launch is going okay. It's not perfect. It's not flawless. People are having some issues.

I definitely noticed some more latency when I was playing the game. Just sometimes that weird rubber banding thing where you're kind of the game stops. and then it moves really fast to catch up to where it was, or some kind of hanging where I'm trying to fast travel into a town. I don't know, things like that. But I've been able to get on, I've been able to play. It's basically working. I get the sense that's kind of how it's been for most people, if not everybody.

So not bad for a launch of a new online game. This is definitely not the debacle that Diablo 3 was. So, yeah, you know, it kind of remains to be seen how it'll play out over the next week. But that's how things are going so far. And also, Maddie wanted me to tell you all that she has switched from a barbarian to a rogue and is having a really good time as a rogue, which is something we'll talk about a little bit later as well, where she wasn't loving playing as a barbarian. So that is a little update on how Maddie's doing. Okay, that's all for now. Back to the show.

Bing! So anyways, yeah, I've played a lot. I'm finished Act 2 and I'm into Act 3. I just got to the sort of Act 3 area. I've done a lot of side quests. I've blown up a lot of stuff. and I am now having a really good time. I was stuck at the beginning trying to choose between playing a rogue,

which is the class that I played in the beta. When we talked about the beta, I talked about it some there, but it's a mixed melee ranged class where you have a lot of mobility. You're a little bit squishy. You can really do damage, and you can make enemies vulnerable. That's kind of your thing. So if you do an attack right, they become very susceptible to damage. So they're a very useful part of a squad.

They pair really well with other, like, more damage dealing classes like a sorcerer or barbarian. So I really liked that, and I played the Demon Hunter in Diablo 3, which was similar. So I've played that class a lot. And this time around, I just wanted to try a sorcerer because it seemed fun. Every video I'd ever seen of a sorcerer was just like the whole screen exploding. And I was like, all right, I'm going to try that. So for a minute, I was kind of going back and forth between a rogue and a sorcerer, and I couldn't decide. And sorcerer just wasn't that fun for a little while.

and then I unlocked a couple of abilities that really just had it all jelled together and a couple of those synergies started to work and it was really cool like I just snapped into having a great time and that's kind of, it's a really cool thing about how the classes are designed in this game that I guess we can get into

that you unlock a sort of series of abilities and then you make your build by kind of combining different abilities that synergize well with one another and then figuring out a way to play where they all are kind of popping off and enhancing one another. So while it is possible to play the game

in a just like clicky, clicky, boom, boom kind of way like you described Maddie, I'm finding the game to be a more thoughtful experience, at least for me, and I should say I'm playing on World Tier 2, which is a little bit harder. But I'm finding it to be like kind of, it's not like really involved. It's nothing like Zelda,

but I am kind of constantly strategizing and retooling my build and having a lot of fun with that. I mean, there's also a dodge button now. I mean, that alone, at least changes how I play as a barbarians, since it's entirely up-close combat and melee-based attacks and everything. So I am really thinking a lot about positioning, but it's not, you're making me feel like I should

try a sorcerer. Maybe I'll do that before the next time we talk about Diablo. It's fun. I mean, I think they're all fun. I gather that Barbarian and Druid are really good from level 50 to level 100. Like, they're really great for endgame. And Sorcerer and Rogue, I think, level the best and are the most, like, kind of easiest to work within the early levels. This is just what I've seen online. I haven't played all of them. But they're all, I think they're all pretty fun, like if you're going to play the game long term. And it's also pretty easy to have alts. And I think once you've beaten your end-to-end game with one character, it becomes a lot easier to level up subsequent alts.

So, Jason, what did you pick character-wise this time? Yeah, I'm playing as a sorcerer also, and I'm doing like a frost build, which, as Kirk said, has a lot of cool synergy. And it's fun to experiment with it. The abilities already are just so much better than Diablo three. system because Diablo 3 system, you could just kind of mix and match any time, and it didn't really matter what you were doing. You were just watching effects pop up on the screen. And here, as Kirk pointed out, there's a lot more thought involved. Unfortunately, I have not gotten super far. I'm like not even finished with Act 1. I'm like level 12. And the reason, well, there are two reasons

for that. One is that I have gotten another game on my hands that I'm not allowed to talk about, but we'll be talking about it again in a couple of weeks and that has taken up a lot of my time. but the other more pertinent reason is that the game keeps friggin crashing for me on my computer. And it's such a bummer because it runs smoothly. Everything, the frame rate is great. The performance is great. And then it just will randomly crash every five minutes, every 10 minutes. And I've tried all these solutions that I've Googled online, like changing file, like configuration pieces, like different

toggles and whatnot. And nothing has worked. Obviously, my drivers are updated. And it just doesn't work. So not good. I'm going to wait until that's fixed or until I can really fix it before. I spent too much more time in the game, but I'm into what I've played so far when it's not crashing. I should throw out there that I've actually played a bit of this on Steam Deck.

You can run this via Lutris, which runs Battlenet on Steam Deck. And it plays pretty good. It doesn't look as good or run as smooth as on PC, but it does run on Steam Deck, which is cool because the game really lends itself to handheld play. Yeah, I mean, if I'm going to play a handout game at this point, it's going to be Zelda. I'm hoping that I mean I'm I'm like 80 hours into that game and I still want to see every inch of the world

and play every sack west which is like I've never experienced that before All right alright we talked about Zelda along Let's keep it on Diombo I was about to just focus Well what I was going to say is that I'm going on a trip to L.A. for the next week or so for Summer Games Fest

a.k.a. I cannot believe it's I can't believe it's not E3 and when I get back hopefully Diablo for is fixed for me. Yeah, hopefully. I haven't seen that as like a widespread thing. Like it seems like the game is actually technically pretty good for a lot of people, which is cool. Like I've been impressed, at least on my end, with how polished it's been for me.

You also, as you pointed out a few minutes ago, it's still in early access. Like a lot of people don't have it yet. And I've Googled the error message that I have. And yes, other people are running into it also and they're like suggested solutions. And those are the ones that have not worked for me, all the suggested solutions. Yeah, it's just too early to say too much definitive about the experience. Though, yeah, like I said, my experience is it's cool, like how polished Blizzard games are. There are a lot of really nice little details and touches.

The loading screens are great. It's this kind of looming door that you slowly move toward. And it's just, there's a lot of stuff like that where I'm describing it doesn't sound that cool. But when you actually notice what they're doing, it's really cool. And there's a lot of little flourishes, UI flourishes. There's so much detail and care that's been put into the game. that I do just think makes for a nice experience overall. It feels like very handmade and curated in a way that I appreciate.

What do you think, since you're the furthest, Kirk, about just the difference in terms of it's not as procedurally generated as Diablo's past in the sense that it's an open world game and the open world is what it is. But then when you get inside of dungeons, apparently there is some sort of minimal procedural generation. like slight variations among those areas, although, of course, there will be certain static arenas where it's like, this is the boss arena. This is, that's what it's going to look like for everybody or quest line related objective points that will also look the same, which I think is leading most people to be like, this is the least procedurally generated Diablo. And for some, that's interesting and some not. But we talked about it a little in the beta. So I'm curious for your thoughts at this point. For me, at least, it's not, you know, the game is basically just corridors and open areas.

I mean, you're kind of moving down a little corridor through the woods, and then you're in a kind of open field, and there's a bunch of goat men there, and you blow them up, and then you move into a couple of different corridors. And if you look at the map, it's just corridors and then open blobs connected by corridors. And there's, like, it's cool that it's all hand drawn, like, or handmade, like the art is all handmade. And so you'll be in an area where there's, like, this cool kind of desiccated church with, like, chunks. of cement everywhere and like a weird altar that's been built in the middle. But a lot of it just feels kind of like, okay, I'm just sort of moving through the world and fighting things. Like, it has that same Diablo feels. So I don't know what I make of the open world. The dungeons all do kind of feel the same aside from the main story dungeons, which are cooler, though it's still

just a series of corridors that you move through. And then you'll get to a locked door and you need to go down the two side corridors to get the two runstones that you need to put in the door to open the door. I mean, it's all that kind of design. Like, you're just doing the same thing over and over again. The variety for me really has been in the combination of abilities and sort of character crafting and figuring out efficient ways to fight, you know, to fight enemies. That's kind of where I've been really engaged. The exploration and movement is just sort of areas that I'm moving through.

They're really amazing looking and the art is wonderful, but the actual design of the spaces isn't that exciting. Which has always been the case for Diablo. I mean, Diablo too, which is really considered the pinnacle of the series. at least until this point, we'll see what happens before. The procedural generation was kind of irrelevant, and there were some parts of the game, just like now. There were some parts of the game that were static, that were always the same.

Some certain levels would always look the same, like you'd get to X level of a dungeon, and it would always be the same, or you'd get to X town, and it would always be the same. And it was really just the loot collection and the character building that was the most interesting part, which is really the loop that you have to get right. in a game like this?

Yes, I should say, like, yeah, I'm not, that's not a criticism. I don't care. Like, it's, I'm getting exactly what this game wants me to get out of it, and I'm finding that really appealing. It's very cool how the different abilities work with one another. I played Diablo 3, but I never got super into it, or I don't know, maybe that's its own kind of criticism of the game, because I was never that enticed to do it,

and it was, I don't remember how easy it was to respect. I think it was maybe very easy. Remind me, Jason, I know you've, you know exactly how this works, right? Yeah, it wasn't even re-specking. The way it worked was you had each of your ability slots and each of them could be modified with like these different modifiers

and then you could switch the spell. So like let's say you were playing wizard, I think it was called. You could switch from your fireball to your frostbill and then you could equip a different modifier for each one. So you can experiment a lot of different ways. There were a lot of possibilities and permutations, but there was no stakes and it didn't feel like it felt like you were just kind of creating this,

nagery of abilities, and it didn't matter what your build was in the way that it did in D2 and now does in D4. Yeah, so to get a little granular on it, just to talk about the sorcery builds that I've been playing with, because I think the specifics are kind of where this gets cool. For a while, I was playing a sorcerer build with a range. So you kind of have your free attack that doesn't cost anything. Then your second tier is your, I don't remember what they're called, but their core abilities, I think, that is what they're called.

And those use mana. So you only have a limited amount of mana. It's constantly recharging. So first you can just cast your kind of basic attacks, and then you upgrade. For me, it's chain lightning is really good because it sort of sparks from enemy to enemy. It's a very good skill, but you can't just cast it infinitely. So then the next thing is a defensive ability. So maybe you can teleport or maybe you can cast Frost Nova, which is like an explosion of Frost

that freezes everything around you and on higher levels makes them vulnerable. Or have you been using this now is Frost Armor, which encases you an armor that protects you from a number of hits and also causes your mana to regenerate faster. Then you get a kind of a summon ability. So I summon these hydroheads that shoot fire. They're super crucial and amazing. And then you get a kind of super ability. For me, it's electrical like super-Sayan mode.

I like just start casting incredible, like just electricity exploding everywhere and just destroy everything. And that has a super long cool down. So some things are on cool down. Some things use mana. Some things don't use anything, but are a little weaker. and then you modify them all. And crucially, you only have access to six of them at a time.

So, you know, I'm playing with the controller, so I have the three face buttons, shoulder button, and the two triggers, and you can only assign that many abilities at once. So you have to kind of pick and choose which types of abilities you want to work, and that's where the build starts to come into play, the idea of designing a build where you have different abilities assigned that are going to play well with one another. And it's really cool how, for a long time, I was using Frost Nova,

which I would let guys get kind of close to me, and then I'd freeze them all, they'd become vulnerable, then I'd summon a blizzard, which is another great ability that kind of causes a bunch of ice to rain down from the sky. Then you kind of dodge back from them and start hitting them with range attacks and they all explode. Also, there are enchantments that sorcerers can do, where at level 15, you unlock the ability to take a spell and assign it as a passive ability. So if you put fireball in your passive ability, which I bet everybody playing a sorcerer out there listening to this did, it causes every enemy to explode when you're. kill them. And this was the point actually that I mentioned earlier where the game became fun for me.

It was, I think I got, I finally got a pretty good wand that was doing a little bit more damage and I unlocked that ability, so it was right around level 15. And suddenly I had, you know, I could like freeze all of these scrub enemies next to me, cast chain lightning, which would arc between all of them and then they'd all explode. And the game just became like just explosion city. Like my screen is just like totally covered in explosions. And that's kind of because of the build that I'm going with. So switching from Frost Nova to Frost Armor was like a big change and I kind of realized, oh, okay, and this affects the gems I use. And I'm kind of like constantly tweaking my build. And it's pretty cheap still to totally respect your character and just do it over. So it's all just

been really fun to get into the weeds on this stuff. I'm surprised. So with the sorcerer with that build you're talking about, I think if you freeze enemies and then you use like your other Frost skills, they do more damage. I think that's how it works. I think what I've gathered, it's interesting. that you're playing with like multiple elements because what I've gathered is that like the individual elements I'll work together really well. So if you stick with all the frost abilities, they'll have synergy. That's true. It's designed that way, but it's not really like a lot of the abilities just affect cool downs in general or a lot of abilities just affect critical strikes and critical comes from, you know, different things. But I'm primarily electrical, but I'm finding

that it's really fun to play with a little bit of fire, the hydroheads, a little bit of ice, the ice armor, and the buzzer. It's going to play with a little fire. And like, yeah, it is. Combining all of those actually works really well. At first, I was worried about it. I was like, wait a minute, is the firelight cancelling out the ice? But it doesn't really matter. And in the end, the thing I've kind of found, I read a few build guides, but then I just go with abilities that are more fun.

How do people have build guides? It's been out for four days. Well, people played in early access, and they know those do SEO, as I'm sure Maddie knows. Right, the reviewer, the reviewer period. You can kind of just go with what's fun, especially in this part of the game. Like, it doesn't really, it's never really that hard. So I'm kind of just like, well, I like having arranged the tech, even though I know the lightning whip is better for some people.

But then I just switched to the lightning whip and that's actually fun too. So I'm really enjoying changing it up over and over. I think it's really smart what they did in that you can, you don't have to, or you get free respects up to a certain level and then you have to pay gold, is it? You pay gold. Yeah, but it's, and it's not that much. But it's not that much. But it scales up, right?

Yeah, it gets more and more expensive. The higher level you get. It does. And you can pay to refund individual ability points too. So if you're just like, I wish my primary. ability wasn't, you know, the spark attack and instead was the fire attack. You can just go like ju-ch-chup and like pull those back. As long as it doesn't pull you back a node, whatever, it doesn't matter. You basically can do it without having to fully respect your character. Well, it's just a

smart system because Diablo 2, it was permanent. You couldn't take back your skill points since you use them. Diablo 3, like I said before, you could switch them at any time. This is a good like middle point between those two extremes. Yeah. So Maddie, I want to hear more about how you're finding the game. You're playing a barbarian. How is it? I am and y'all are really having me convinced I need to like just start over and do a sorcerer because I'm having a pretty different experience that is a lot more samey. And maybe this is just a side effect of playing as a barbarian, which classically like the slow, heavy melee characters are my favorite character class across pretty much any genre that I play as. It's hard for me to adapt if I need to play

as like a long range archer or something like that. And just, I don't know. It's not how I like to play games. Can you tell us how far you are? Oh, I'm like level 17 or something. something. So I'm further than you, Jason. I don't remember what act I'm on. Probably two. I'm between you two. So my, the main thing I've noticed that we haven't really talked about that much yet is enemy scaling. And by that I mean just the decision on the part of this game. And I'll admit, I don't really remember how it was in Diablo three. I may have felt this way then too. So in Diablo four, the enemies all scale with you. There are still places that are locked off. Like I might walk up to something and it were not entirely locked off, but sort of they'll warn you that maybe

you aren't quite the high enough level yet. Like it'll be labeled like, this is level 20 and up. Maybe you don't want to be here if you're level 17, Maddie. But all the other enemies around the world are scaled up so that it's actually worthwhile in theory for me to fight any mob that I come across. But that's ended up giving me kind of a weird feeling about just walking around the world because I like it when the game feels a little broken sometimes. Like, to me, that's part of what's fun about Diablo, when sometimes you go somewhere and you're just curb stomping guys, or you get a new skill or a new weapon,

and it just feels like the game has completely shifted, and you're like, oh, my God, I'm so OPE now, which is kind of what Kirk is describing in terms of just playing with his build, and I haven't quite had that experience yet. I'm not really noticing a huge difference when I level up, at least. I've found a couple weapons where I'm like, oh yeah, this is making a huge difference. But so far, I'm feeling like it's mainly weapons that are making that difference and not my skill tree.

This could be me, though. I don't know. Well, and it could be where you're at. Like, because by like level 30, that's when you'll have unlocked those final nodes. And what I found with the sorcerers, it really is transformative. But by the time I have all the nodes unlocked, like now the fact that I can like trigger this ultimate, basically warlock ultimate from Destiny 2, where I become like this cloud of lightning that just destroys everything. I mean, that alone is a really transformative ability that I didn't have until I was, I don't know, level 20 something at least.

So like it could just be there's more stuff you unlocked. And like I said, I've seen people say that barbarian, like whirlwind barbarian becomes super fun, like way later, like once you've unlocked a ton more abilities. So maybe I just am in it for the long haul. But Kirk, even in your experience, don't you feel like it's kind of weird that everywhere you go enemies are at least as powerful as you? Like, no matter what. No, I think it's fine. I mean, I've seen that, I mean, I've only played a little bit online with friends, but it does something really amazing where you see enemies that are at your level, no matter what level your friend is. So you can play with your friends at any level, which is great. And I think really Foster is just jumping into someone's game and not having it be a big deal. So I think that's really clever. I don't know. Like I don't mind going back and doing stuff later and having it still be hard for me. I was doing a lot of side quests, which are pretty cool. They're all kind of the same, like go somewhere, kill some stuff. But narratively, they're kind of, I'm enjoying them. It's all just a little generally bleak and sad story and you

kind of go help someone, but then it ends badly. But I started skipping them just because I've seen enough people saying, well, finish the story and then you can do all those side quests. And if it weren't the case, like if I leveled up super fast, like doing side quests, then it would be, you know, well, I'm overleveled for the story missions and it's a walk in the park or the other way around. I finish the story and come back for the side quests. So these aren't even worth doing. They're no fun. So if that's the alternative, I actually, I'm fine with the way that they've done it with level scaling. Yeah, it pretty much has to have level scaling because it's an open world.

Like in the previous Diablo games, you were going in a pretty linear path. And so you were never going to run into enemies that were like that much higher or that much lower than you. They were basically going to be like similar scale to you. So it makes sense that they're level scaling for a game in which you can go in any direction at any time. Do any order. Yeah.

And even the multiplayer aspect, Kirk, I've super noticed that because I was like level zero and playing with friends who were level cabillion. And I was like, wow, it's crazy that we're all playing together and it's going fine and we're still getting the XP bonus of all playing together, but having totally different experiences. That part's fun. I don't know. I think maybe just the fact that I haven't yet had the experience of having a level up and being really excited to have the game actually feel different in some way is part of what's making the game feel less addictive, which is kind of a double-edged sword for me because I'm like, well, do I really want to be more addicted to Diablo?

But also, that is kind of how it works, right? Like, you press the button for a treat and every now and then you get the treat. But, like, you always press the button and, like, maybe sometimes you get zapped, but most of the time nothing happens. Like, that is the point, right? Like, I would like to occasionally get slightly more of a treat. However, I also know how much Diablo 3 changed post-launch and not even just immediately, like years post-launch, more and more stuff changing that game, and it got better after I stopped

playing. And I still am kind of sad that I missed out on some of those additional things that were added that I've heard are really cool. So in this game, I'm trying to be open-minded and be like, Diablo 4 is also probably going to change a lot after launch. These feelings I'm having now might completely change when somebody starts playing a barbarian in this game six months from now or a year from now. It might be a totally different set of circumstances that are better in some ways and worse than others. But for right now, I'm kind of like, this game is not very addictive.

I am capable of walking away and having a healthy relationship with Diablo 4, which feels wrong somehow. Yeah, it'll be interesting to see. I didn't play a druid, but the way you're describing, the barbarian experience really lines up with what I've seen people saying.

And similarly, the druid, which I think is incredible and really viable in endgame, is just kind of tough to level at first. You just don't feel very powerful, and it doesn't have that moment, I think, where it snaps into place. just comes a little bit later. And yeah, I could see them changing it down the road so that maybe a little sooner you

start to feel kind of powerful. More people try it at first, yeah, because you want to get hooked early on. I mean, you want to have that cool Diablo feeling of like, oh, my God, now that I have this axe, it's a completely different game. It's crazy now. And I'm looking forward to that because I'm only just starting to get unique items. And the path for a character in this game is clearly you start your garbage, then you get a few abilities and you become kind of viable.

then you get the bigger, like, higher level abilities, and you become, like, a really powerful sort of force just with all your abilities. And then you start to get unique items that, you know, are usually custom tailored to one ability. In my case, like, I'll get a, you know, a ring that makes my fire shield even better. And I don't use fire shield. So I'm like, okay, well, that's not for me. But clearly in the end game, you start to chase, okay, I want the best role on, like, that one pair of boots

that makes this my favorite ability super, super good. And that's kind of the end game grind is like you're chasing. these hyper-specific items that make your specific build even more powerful. And I think that's also where aspects start to become a thing, where you're stripping one aspect, you know, a special ability from one item and then gluing it onto another item so you can further customize your build. So I'm not to the item part really at all. I've only got a few unique items, but it's clear that that's where that's going.

And that's also probably where I'll tap out of the game just because it's very similar to destiny, too. I mean, this game feels a lot like destiny in a lot of ways, the way the open open world moves, the way that quests all fit together, the whole just seamless way of playing it, just the fact that it's this kind of really physically satisfying, fun, low engagement game that can get more and more intense if you want to get more intense about it. And then the loot grind of it. I mean, there will come a point where I'm like, okay, that's enough for me. I can't do this again. I can't really commit to this game. I'm going to go back and play Zelda and finish that

or, you know, play whatever other game. Maddie, to your point, I don't think that it's possible to really be addicted to this or any Diablo game until you start realizing what the loot actually means or until you get to a point where you're not just kind of mindlessly being like, okay, the green arrow goes up, so I'm going to swap in this loot because you get to a point where you're actually making decisions and you're getting excited because you found a unique or you found a set piece that'll fit with your set or that you could trade to someone else for a set piece. And like when you get into that loop grind, I mean, right now it's like you're playing a slot machine, but like it's all question mark.

So you're just like, what is this? But when you get to the point when you start to recognize the symbols and you're like, oh, okay, this is what I'm hunting for. And you get that endorphin rush when it drops for you, that's when it becomes addictive. So if you want to remain in this point of like not being hooked on Diablo 4, now is a good time to stop. Like I don't want it to sound like I'm not having fun because I actually really am. And definitely, I talked about this in the beta too, but the multiplayer being so accessible regardless of level is great. I mean, again, very destiny. And also just the way that this game is going to work where it has a sort of battle pass

like system with seasons and rewards that are time-based. Like, I get it. I get that this is more of an MMO than any previous Diablo and that that is a danger for me if like all my friends get really into it and then that becomes the only game I play for a while. I don't think that would happen to any of us again in quite the same way as the destiny days. But I am like, okay, yeah, this is a specific kind of treadmill that I can and joy.

And so I don't want people to think like, oh, just because I'm not having those game-breaking moments with Barbarian, I'm not having a good time. I am having like a good social time. But I also feel like I'm not going to have that much trouble stepping off the treadmill when I get to the end game section where they're like, you need to participate in world events at specific times of day and dates and like do like, wow, World of Warcraft-esque multiplayer challenges in order to advance further in this game

and get really into min-maxing and just trying and trying for one specific piece of loot, I'm never going to be that person. Right, no, having done that before and Chase Gellerhorn or whatever, I don't really have space for that in my life anymore. Can we actually talk a little bit more about the story? Because that I do want to see through.

Yeah, I was about to say, unlike other games of this nature, it's like they put a lot of effort into making the narrative compelling on your first time through. Like so you could enjoy this as just like a one shot campaign experience without having to worry about all the live service stuff. Which is kind of neat because usually Diablo, I mean, I would always, I liked the cutscenes in Diablo 3. I know people kind of made fun of that story.

It's really campy. It's corny. But I enjoyed it. I always was kind of sad when my friends got to the phase of like, we need to skip every single one as fast as we possibly can. And I was like, I don't want to watch them again. So I'm enjoying this one even more because I'm like, they think. tried. There's like actual stuff going on. Well, they tried and I think they made some smart

decisions. Like I think that narratively, this is much stronger than Diablo 3 because Diablo 3 had a diffuse nature to it because there were different bad guys regularly. Like you'd be kind of fighting a different primeval, I guess it was that would rise up. And so there wasn't really a sense of continuity through the story. Your character was really ill-defined, which is okay for this kind of a game. Your character in Diablo 4 is better defined. Let's say the voice acting is pretty good, but there's still kind of a cipher. They just are there to kind of help and kill stuff, and that's about as far as it goes. But there is, first off, there's this main guy, what's his name?

Lou, I mean's with an L, the guy that you need at the beginning. Lorath, Lorath, something like that. Lorath, sounds right, something like that. So he is kind of a recurring character throughout voiced fantastically great voice actor, and just like a charismatic presence that there wasn't really anyone like that in Diablo 3 that struck me the same way. But then Lilith is this crucial character. Like she is the access around which the whole story revolved.

because she is like the antagonist. You're chasing after her the entire time and you're witnessing these great cutscenes of this just incredible, you know, like nine foot tall demon lady showing up and wrecking shit as she attempts to sort of, well, who knows, just bring hell back to sanctuary. And I'm, yeah, I'm into it. I'm following what's going on. I'm aware of the fact that like she and Anarius, the angel, created sanctuary and it's kind of was a place in between the conflict between heaven and hell.

And like it's really simple stuff, but I can at least kind of tell you the stakes in what's going on. And when there's a new big plot twist, which there have been a few, like a big plot development, I'm following it. And I'm like, okay, I want to know what happens next. Sure, I'll go to the next, you know, little golden number on my math that shows me the next act. They've really ramped up the in-game cutscenes and like cinematics and like the points. There are points when like the camera zooms down and you have third person conversations rather than just having an isometric view, which is a huge, huge difference from previous Seattle games.

Yeah, I would say it's not as dramatic, having played a lot more. Like, it's not that dramatic of a change. Like, it pulls in, you get a little bit more. There are some cutscenes where the animation work, they've really just put in the time to make things like really bespoke and beautifully animated. But largely it does, it's not that dramatically different from just watching an older style, like, top-down thing. They front-load a lot, Jason, like, in the stuff we played in the data. I was going to say, even the beginning, that first scene where they're, like,

dragging you along. That is so cool. But there has not, at least for me, there hasn't been anything else on that level where a lot of stuff is happening to my character and I'm seeing them do unique animations. Like mostly I'm just standing there and then some guy talks. There was a recent time where a guy dragged a body while talking to me. He's pulled a like pole axe out of the body and set it down on the ground and then dragged the body and as the body dragged over the like pole axe that was on the ground, its foot like hit the weapon and kind of pushed it a little on the ground and I was like, oh man, that must have been a huge pain in the ass for some animator to get those two objects to collide and move.

So there's some stuff like that, but there hasn't, it's not super transformative overall. Gotcha. It's still cool, though, that their narrative is just neat. It's fun. It's campy and gross and bloody and just bleak and good. Yeah, I'm really digging it. I wish it were even campier because that's always my favorite part of Diablo. And anytime I'm talking to somebody, it's usually like in the side quest and the stuff

that isn't part of the main story where it's like, it almost gets a little too serious. And I'm like, I don't want to think about how bad your life actually is living in the day-to-day world, like the lives of the farmers that Kirk describes. I wanted to just be bombastic metal band stuff, which is partially me saying that so that we could do Kirk's reference to metal bands because I don't want us to forget about this. Because I think about this every time I play a Diablo game is metal band titles. Like skull pile, that's just fun to say. That should be the name of a band.

Yeah, I do have a game that I want to play. And I think the distinction between heavy metal and black metal, which of course is something that people could argue about forever. It is kind of a distinction, a broadly distinction worth thinking about this game because I actually just really like the tone of this game. I don't want it to be campier. I don't think it needs to be more silly. Lilith is, just in terms of character design,

this fabulously bleak, campy, ridiculous figure. But the overall story has a lot of tragedy. There's a lot of just, like, horrible stuff that happens. It just ends a lot of times with someone just crying over a dead, loved one, as your protagonist just sort of wordlessly walks away because there's nothing for it. And I kind of, like, it's very tonally consistent in a way that I appreciate. And I don't need any more, like, actual, you know, demon rises up with fire with, like, heavy metal guitars and stuff. Like, it's not quite on that level.

It's a little more, a little more black metal, a little more stern and drang, and I'm okay with that. So I have this game I want to play. And I'm going to quiz the two of you. And the game we're going to play is black metal band or Diablo 4 side quest name. And this was prompted by me looking at my list of side quest and being like, holy crap, probably 70% of these could be black metal bands. So we're going to go one by one. I'll just pick one of you and then the other one. And I'm going to say a name and you have to tell me whether you think it is a black metal band or a Diablo four side quest.

Maddie, you're going to be first. Great. Ravenous Dead. I think that's a side quest. That is, you are correct. That's a side quest. Jason, Beastcraft. I think that's a side quest, too.

That is a Norwegian heavy metal duo, black metal duo. Norwegian metal duo, unfortunately. Maddie, Blood Sermon. I'm going to go side quest again. That is a side quest, correct? Okay. I should be keeping score. He should all be band names also, though, is the thing.

Yes. And I should say that any of these... Jason has zero. Right. And some of these might be band names. I know rather than is dead is a band somewhere that just wasn't on Wikipedia. Okay, Jason, you're up. Cleansing Flame.

Side quest. Correct. That's one for Jason. Maddie, the funeral pyre. I'm going to just say band because I said cyclist choices. in a row. You're correct. That's a California black metal band. The Funeral Pirate. Jason, Adorned Brood. That sounds like a metal band. You're correct. That is a German black metal band. All right, Maddie. Road to Ruin. Side quest.

Correct. It's a side quest. Jason. Faith in blood. That sounds like a metal band. Oh, that is a side quest in Diablo 4, but that would be a pretty sweet name for a metal band. All right, Maddie, we've got a few more. Maddie, ancient rights. Sidequest. No, that is a Belgian black metal band. And finally, Jason, Pire of Ash. Side quests.

Yes, that is the side quest, correct. I think that puts Maddie in the front overall. It's very close by my count. We're all winners because we get to play a game as metal as Diablo. Everyone is a winner because the listeners will be creating those bands immediately upon listening to this episode. And or emailing me to be like, actually Road to Ruin is a well-known black metal band from Maryland. I can't believe. I know that.

Great, good. That should happen. All right. Well, let's take a break and we'll be back with one more thing. Greatest Trek is the podcast for all your modern Star Trek needs. It's funny, informative, and now it's all so timely. That's because every Friday, right after the release of a new episode of Strange New Worlds, Picard, Lower Decks, Discovery, or Prodigy, we bring you a review of that episode. There's some great new Star Trek coming up, and we're going to cover all of it.

You'll like our show because we're both former video producers, so we bring a lot of insight into the production and filmmaking aspects to these episodes. And we also have a very refined sense of humor, so we make lots of delightful fart jokes along the way. So come see why Greatest Trek is one of the most popular television. ReCAP Podcasts on all of the internet. Subscribe to greatest track at maximum fun.org or in the podcast app you're using right now. Hey there, this is Drea Clark. This is Alonzo Durali. And this is Sparta.

Iffy. Listen, I got 300 on the brain. We just watched the movie 300 in honor of our 300th episode of Maximum Film. That's right. And to celebrate this major milestone, we brought back original co-hosts, Ricky Carmona, and April Wolf. But just for this one episode, right? Oh, if you know we could never replace you.

Some of the voices have changed over the years. Heck, the name of the show has changed too. But through it all, Maximum Film remains The Movie Podcast that isn't just a bunch of straight white guys. Deal with it. Find this and all 300 episodes of Maximum Film anytime on MaximumFun.org. We are back for one more thing. Jason, why don't you go first?

My one more thing is the driving crooner who goes around town and is trying to figure out how to make money off this thing because it's so good he has to make money off of this thing It's such a good idea It's such a good idea He has to I really wants to figure out how to make money off this thing There are people out there trying to kill him though

That is true those frat boys Prat boys are trying to kill him I'm going to kill you driving cruder If you don't know what I'm talking about You should, of course, watch the TV show I think you should leave, which just aired is third season. Last week on Netflix, it's all on there. It's a very fast watch. It is a sketch show by Tim Robinson, and you've probably heard of it and or seen all the memes floating around the internet, the guy in the hot dog costume, the guy in the driving focus group talking about cars and whatnot, saying you have to marry your mother-in-law.

You've definitely seen a reference or two on the internet. and you should just go watch it because it is as brilliant as ever. This new season I've watched through twice already because it is fantastic. It's so good. I was worried it wouldn't be as good somehow. I know, me too. But no, it lives up. And like, as always, all three seasons, they're like, hinner miss catches.

And there's some that, like, don't work. But they're so quick that you just, like, forget about them. And it's not like every single episode, which is each episode is like 15 minutes long. And every single one has at least one just bangers. sketch in there. There's this incredible one about a guy playing a game where he has to feed eggs to small eggs to a bigger egg and the results are incredible. And yeah, just a couple others. This one has some amazing guest stars also. Will Forte has a great one. Tim Hideker is one of my favorite appearances in a fantastic, fantastic sketch about, well, let's just say he plays a heart

doctor. And yeah, I mean, everyone should just go watch it. Go watch. I think you should leave. The new season is great. And I really, I only came on to this podcast for the Ziplime. I'm not going to lie. I'm just here for the Zipline. I'm just here for the zip line. I'm just here for the zip line. Kirk, I feel like you haven't watched it yet because you know, you aren't laughing hard enough at these cool bits. I mean, I can basically imagine the, I think you should leave skit for each of these things you're saying. But no, I have not watched yet, but I very much look forward to it. But of course, what you're imagining is completely different from the pure, um, unhinged absurdity of whatever actually happens in them.

Kirk, what are you up to? Well, Emily and I just finished watching a show called Mrs. Davis that was wild and that I really enjoyed. And I wanted to recommend it to people because I'm sure some people know about it or have seen articles about it, but it did kind of come and go. So I wanted to just say that I watched it and really liked it. So this is a limited series, a one-off single-series show that aired on Peacock. It was co-created by Tara Hernandez, who was one of the people responsible for The Big Bang Theory, a show that I really don't like.

And Damon Lindeloff, who is one of the people responsible for most recently Watchmen and The Leftovers, two shows that I really did like. And it stars Betty Gilpin, who I know from Glow, the wrestling show on Netflix. She was amazing on that show. She's been in other stuff as well, but that's what I know her from. and she is the lead. She plays, I guess her name is Simone, though she has two different names, but she is a, yeah.

Because you watch this, Maddie. Did you finish this? We're halfway through it. Okay, cool. We have not yet finished it, but we are really enjoying it. Okay. So it's, yeah, she plays a sister Simone,

a nun on a mission. And that mission is sort of unclear at the beginning. She is sort of spending her days catching magicians who have gone rogue and are using their magician skills to swindle people. But also, she lives in a, world where an artificial intelligence, sort of like Siri or, you know, like we could imagine

maybe a generative AI in the future to be, has united all of humanity. And the artificial intelligence is called Mrs. Davis. And most people just walk around with these little earpieces and they're constantly hearing Mrs. Davis in their ears. And Mrs. Davis has basically brought about world peace and equality and sort of created a new world order that the world still looks a lot like the current world. Like it's not all that different. But we actually don't see that much of it because we're seeing a lot of it through

Simone's viewpoint. And soon Simone, who hates Mrs. Davis and wants to destroyer, has never interacted with the artificial intelligence once, is on a mission sort of reluctantly at the behest of Mrs. Davis to find the Holy Grail. And man, it gets crazy fast. So

the thing about this show, Jason's face, I'm enjoying. I want to take off my evidence, because I don't want to hear anything about it. I want to just watch it. I won't. Nothing I could say could ruin it. It's unspoilable. I never know. Like, the twist and turn are It's wild.

As the TV critic, the NPR TV critic Linda Holmes described it as, I'm paraphrasing here, basically a show that goes flying through absolute madness and chaos all the way to the finale where it somehow pirouettes to the end and lands in front of you like, ta-da! Which a perfect description of this show, you will be watching this show if you watch it and just be thinking, what the fuck am I watching? Like, it really is a lot of times just like it's just banana stuff. I mean, sometimes it feels a little bit like Cohen Brothers Raising Arizona or the more absurdist sections of Big Lobowski. It's got that kind of desert hallucinated California vibe.

Other times it, I don't know, but it can be very gory, very surprising. It's surprisingly spiritual. It really actually engages with. And we keep being like, what does this show's take on religion? What is it trying to say? I may never know. Which is always true about Lindelov stuff. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Totally.

And especially here, because Simone has an actual relationship with Jesus Christ. Yes. And, like, it is explored in a way. He's a character, Jason. He's on the show. And it's explored in a way that is like, yeah, you don't come away being like, oh, I clearly they were trying to say this or that, like, which I really like. It's just, it's not so easy to pin down. Because as it is, the show, and this isn't a spoiler, it's just very much about the idea of worshiping technology, like this AI that everyone does what it tells them to do and uniting that with the idea. of religious worship, but not necessarily a way that's critical of either viewpoint. It's actually pretty compassionate towards like every way of looking at the world, which surprises me every time I watch. Because when I started, I was like, is this going to be a show that like hates technology? And I don't know. It just, it keeps you guessing. And I'm curious how it's going to end.

Well, it does. And it's, yeah, it is compassionate. It's so much more concerned with just having a good time and showing you unexpected, sometimes beautiful, sometimes surprising things. There's a sequence with pianos early on. It was just this incredibly beautiful image that wasn't really narratively. Like it just kind of came out of nowhere. I just found it's really beautiful. And I was like, wow, someone had this idea. And then they made it happen.

And there's no like villain. There's no clear antagonist. Sounds like that boat episode of the leftovers. It definitely has a lot of leftovers and a lot of watchmen. It also just has its own funky, weird sense of humor. And I just really recommend it. I mean, it begins and it ends. It has a very satisfying conclusion.

Betty Gilpin is incredible. She's a star. She should just be in everything. And yeah, I really really enjoyed it. And just... Oh, man. This is exciting. It's so different from everything else that I've been watching. It is different from anything else ever. It's its own thing. And so I really recommend it. I'm glad it's a limited series, too, because that works really well for watchmen. Just eight episodes, 10? Something like that. Yeah. Yeah, I think it's, yeah, eight or somewhere in there. And yeah, it's similar to Watchmen where you can just watch it and then it ends and they're not going to make any more. And that lets it have an ending, which is really cool. So yeah, Mrs. Davis, it's on Peacock. It's really good. Damon Lindeloff learned from Lost with all these shows. Oh, my God.

Yeah. Learning how to end his show. And of course, we should mention that big story about Lost just dropped a few days ago. Yeah, and we all read it. It's about Lindelof and worth reading if you're going to engage with Lindelof stuff these days. Yeah, it's just worth reading. It's cool that he's working with seemingly different people now. And I didn't realize that the woman who worked on this also worked on Big Bang Theory.

That's like really cool actually that she's doing something totally different now. Anyway, I'll go next. So I saw across the Spiderverse a movie in cinemas. I saw it too. It was freaking great. It was so good.

I loved it. It was so freaking good. I love Into the Spiderverse. The first one, I've seen it a billion times. I think I watched it three times in cinemas alone and then watched it a million more times. This movie might be even better or maybe not. I don't know.

I'm obsessed with it. I love it. I will say, though, I wish someone had told me that it would end on a cliffhanger. So I'm telling you the listener, that it ends on a cliffhanger, and the next one is out next year.

And I don't mind when things end on a cliffhanger. I just like to know. I kind of loved it, but I knew going in that that was going to happen. Yeah, I just like to know. I feel like I wouldn't have been as weirded out by it. Because in the theater, I was like,

I wasn't literally looking at my watch, but I was like proverbially looking at my watch. And I was like, they're not going to wrap this up. Like a lot is occurring. That's what I was wondering. Because there comes a point where it's like, oh, we're working toward a cliffhanger here. This is not all going to get tied up because I've been here for two and a half hours.

Yeah, I was more just like overwhelmed and like worried. I was like, are they going to tie this up in a neat way? Like that sounds terrible. Like they're going to whiff this. And then it just ends. And I was like, okay, I'm kind of relieved, but also surprised because I didn't know what's happening. It is a great ending. It's pretty great.

It's pretty great. A matrix killer cliffhanger. Yeah. Well, hopefully. hopefully a slightly more accessible and understandable plot than The Matrix 2. But I really dug it. It's also like a movie about making movies and a story about telling stories. And I'm always way, way into that kind of thing.

I really like it when the characters have the chance to be like, what's up with stories, man? I guess we like telling them and like having specific beats that we do in our lives that relate to who we are as a person. And isn't that weird? And the characters all kind of have that as their arc, each of them in their own way. And yeah, I loved it across the Spider-Verse. Go see it. It's incredible. The music, animation. Ah, so good. I loved it. Awesome. Lordin Miller, it's so they wrote this anyways. The Recruiters of the

Lego movie that made this. And this is very in that lineage where it's kind of about the thing that it's about, you know, where the characters are sort of self-aware in the same way that Into the Spider-verse was. And they're all kind of aware of comic books as a concept, like just off-screen. It's really neat. Good movie. It is artistically bananas. So underline that, like, the artists were let off the chain in this movie. It is like there are sequences where it's not for any reason. It's just like people are having an emotional reaction and it literally becomes abstract art behind them.

And the character is just standing there while like colors and shapes move around to illustrate how they're feeling. And it almost feels like a music video. It's so visually incredible and overwhelming. I want to see it again tomorrow just because I need more time to process everything that's happening on screen. Yeah, it's incredible. It's, it also has so many jokes that I've like seen people tweeting that I'm like, I miss that because it's so full of just everything. The little text things on the screen that pop up there for two seconds and it's like something

and I'm like, wait, I couldn't even read that because there's eight other visual jokes happening at the same time. It's great. It's great stuff. So that has been another episode of our show. It has been. Create a sorceress, I guess. And I just see how that goes for me.

Oh man. I want to hear how it goes. It's pretty fun. Just stick with it until you, until you get the exploding. I heard Necromancer is super fun too. Yeah, Necromancer seems really cool as well. So we'll see. If you like playing melee and range, Rogue is super fun too.

Like it's our great, a great class and a fun solo. I'm gonna try some other classes. I feel like it's time. I gotta branch out. It's fun to branch out into that new skill tree. So that's our wrap. We did it again, folks. Yeah, we'll see you all next week.

Yeah, see you next week. Yeah, from Summer Games Fest. Yeah. Bye. 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 Maximumfund.org

slash join. Find us on Twitter at triple clickpod. Send email the triple click at maximum fun.org and find a to our Discord in the show notes. Thanks for listening. See you next time. Maximumfund.org. Comedy and culture. Artists owned. Audience support it.