Triple Click - The 100th Episode Extravaganza

Episode Date: April 14, 2022

It's the 100th episode! Kirk, Maddy, and Jason celebrate the big milestone with some talk about the past and future of video games, then play some fun games, revisiting two years worth of Triple Plays and competing in some glorious One More Thing trivia! Thank you to all the listeners who have allowed us to make so many episodes of this wonderful show.One More Thing: Kirk: Steam DeckMaddy: NorcoJason: Nobody Saves The WorldLinks:Support Triple Click: http://maximumfun.org/joinBuy a Triple Click t-shirt: https://topatoco.com/collections/maximum-fun/products/maxf-tc-tclogo-shJoin 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

Pop those bottles and put on your party hats. Triple-click just reached the triple digits. Welcome to Triple Click, where we bring the games to you. This week, we celebrate our two-year anniversary and episode 100 by looking back on the past two years of games and one more things. Many happy returns for the next 100. I'm Maddie Myers. I'm Jason Schreier.

And I'm Kirk Hamilton, and we're live on the Internet. It's us. We are live. Oh, my goodness. So wild. And once again, Kirk, you're going to have to throw in some canned applause. Of course. Of course.

Stadium. Of course I will do that. Because otherwise. Oh, my goodness. What was that? That wasn't canned. That was real. That was live.

It could be some live music. Kirk has his keyboard plugged in. He can accompany us at any time. It's going to be nice. Beautiful. That was beautiful. Yeah. It's got some nice little piano music.

No, we're not. I'm barely going to play that. I want you to play. Yeah, I want some like rag time every time we like our energy. You know, anytime there's a blooper. I feel like we need to get some yakety sax in there. Switch to an organ to like silent film, diminished chords when it gets tense. Yeah, you know, you have silent film, which is the main form of media that's influenced

this podcast in particular. And all podcasts, but especially triple click. Well, finally, you'll get to experience it. That's true. playing the piano. And also, if you're listening to this on Thursday, sorry you missed it, but I think it's still available briefly on Twitch.comptv. Yeah. Oh, yeah. It'll be up for a while. So you can circle back and give it a little watch and enjoy it at that point. And while I'm saying just URLs that I think are really cool, there's another one that I really like. And that would

be maximum fun.org slash join. And the reason that URL is so cool is because, because it's where you would become a member of Max Fun. And that means that you would be able to get bonus content from every show on the network, even if you were to only choose to support our show when you signed up, which you could do. You could support our show or other podcasts on the network, but you could just pick us. But you'd get bonus content for everyone,

which I think is cool and maybe even too cool. Like, it's very generous. But anyway, that's something you'd get. And also- You're saying you want to take things. away from maximum numbers. I don't know. It's like you're you're kind of like stealing from yourself if you don't get this great deal.

That's what I'm saying. That's true. So yeah, Maximumfund.org slash join. What about this month's bonus? That's coming up soon, right? We have our own bonus episodes. We do one every month. And the one that we just recorded, although Kirk can tell us when it will be out,

is for Horizon Forbidden West, a very long, big video game with lots of beans to be spilled in it. And we spilled them. We spilled all the beans. We did. We talked about all the plot in that game and all the dinosaurs that we fought and murdered. We took the beans and we sent him on a spaceship off into the unknown. No, we would never do that.

This is Kirk doing a live Bing on the show. That episode will be out next Monday. Bing! Wow, that's soon. Okay, cool. That was impressive, an impressive live bang there. I haven't seen that one before. No, we needed to do it.

Bing! And this is Kirk, editing the episode doing another actual Bing, to say that I was actually wrong about that. And as it turns out, we're going to be releasing the Horizon Forbidden West Beanscast on the 25th at the start of Max Fund Drive. So that'll actually be out in a little bit over a week, a little bit longer than I thought. I think I say later in the episode as well that it'll be out next week, but it will actually be out on the 25th.

Okay, back to the show. Bing! Cool. Anyway, maximumfund.org slash join is the place you would go if you were like, wow, I just can't wait to hear that. That would be where you go. So, Kirk, Kirk, why are we live today? What are we celebrating? Yeah, why are we live?

The question isn't what are we celebrating? It's what aren't we celebrating? We are celebrating two big milestones. This is our 100th episode that we're recording right now. And this is our second birthday. It is. I was just looking at, so I just want to say something gushy for a second. When two years ago when we left Kataka split screen, we were talking about like,

oh man, what are our number is going to look like? Are we going to get? Is our entire audience going to come with us? What's it going to look like? Yada-di-a-da. I was just looking at our current download numbers. We're like bigger than split screen ever was. So like our audience came with us and then some.

So thank you to all of you out there for supporting this show. Heck yeah. New listeners. That's so cool to think about the people who came on board just for triple click. and maybe they go back and listen to old split screens, or maybe not, you know? I don't know. Who can know?

You can just be a newcomer and enjoy this. But you can. Well, now we're two years in. You can go back and listen to a lot of old triple click. It's true. It's true. You really can. You can do a deep dive into the archives.

You can listen to Horizon Zero Dawn before you listen to Horizon Fribbon West and so on and that. Wow. We've gotten to the point where we're doing multiple entries in a series. That's true. It's true. I think that's the first series that we've done the original and then the sequel on this show because we've now been we've been around long enough for that

to work yeah so we're going to look back on the last two years we're really just going to talk about whatever this is going to be kind of we're just going to talk about how great we are that'll be a big change from this show just talking about whatever well it'll be a little less structured even than the show usually is um so i want to start with some big questions about the last two years alden ring how good let's talk about two years ago did you think to yourself I can't wait for Eldon Ring. How soon did you start counting down? I did, actually.

Yeah, that's true, actually. Really, this whole show has just been a big build-up to the release of Eldon Ring. So, yeah, I guess I have three big questions that I want to answer. I was going to look at headlines from the year 2020, and then I forgot to open up the New York Times homepage. What's the easy way? Is there an easy way to do that? I think the easy way is for listeners in the chat to look it up and link it to us.

That's my suggestion. Just Google New York. Times, April 17th, 2020. Okay, New York Times, April 17th, 2020. Oh, here we go. Okay. Oh, it's going to just be depressing. Yeah, it's going to be COVID. Oh, yeah, they're awful. It's like COVID and Trump is everything.

Just headline after headline that's like, you know, man caught up on fire today just from reading Twitter.com. Oh, my God. Yeah. Oh, it's really wild. It's really bad. Trump says states can start reopening while acknowledging the decision is there. Oh, yeah. It's all this awful. coronavirus stuff. So that's what was going on 20 years ago in the world. I was actually reading Polygon from, sorry, not 20 years ago, two years ago, from 2020. 20 years ago, Polygon didn't exist. You were reading it on a stone tablet. Chris Grant was etching Polygon.com into a series of

tablets, but he wasn't releasing them publicly yet. Just a twinkle in the eye of some guys at joystick. So two years ago at Polygon, it was all animal crossing. Everything was animal crossing, which was very, very in the zeitgeist. It was The Last of Us Part 2, and Animal Crossing. Those were super in the zeitgeist. If that puts people in the frame of mind. Another thing that I was actually going to mention before

this show got a new trailer that just came out today was Stranger Things, because I was thinking about it like a week ago and just reflecting on how it felt like the third season of that show happened 500 years ago because it was in late 20 or mid-2019, so a little bit earlier than that and how now they're finally coming out with another season.

The kids are all like middle-aged people at this point. Yeah, they're all like 32. Yeah, and just how the pandemic has kind of messed with our sense of time. It made it feel like two years was a lifetime. When did Game of Thrones end? Was that the year before the Game of Thrones ended? That's a good question. I think so.

Because I feel like we talked about that before we found it split screen. Because you two used to have a little Game of Thrones show that I refused to do with you. I stopped watching that show in protest. And they actually. purposefully gave it a bad ending because of my protest efforts. They were like, we're going to stick it to Maddie. This will show her. Yeah, I don't think 2020 could have borne the weight of also the finale of Game of Thrones happening.

So anyways, that kind of places us in this moment of time. So we have three big questions here. The first one, and I guess, Jason, you can start. How has your relationship with video games changed in the last two years? Oh, man. Well, so mine has probably changed the most out of the three of us over the last two years. because I became a dad two and a half years ago. And that changed some things.

It's funny, the first couple of months, the first couple of months, it doesn't really change that much because you can just kind of plop, plop the little sack of potatoes on your chest and just like play on your switch or something like that, which I used to do all the time. But then as they become more of a person,

and they start, like, being able to, A, like, call for your attention and B, look at screens and pay attention to what's going on. You have to kind of limit your gaming time. And so, yeah, my gaming time has gotten a lot more limited. gotten a lot more selective in like what I play. And when I choose to play it and stuff like that. And so like weekends instead of getting to just like play video games all day the way you two might be able to if you chose to. I have to entertain a toddler all the day. And then if I'm lucky,

I can play at night. But usually I'm so exhausted and I'm just like I want to sit in front the TV with my wife. So yeah, that has changed a lot. I think I've certainly become, I feel like I've become, well, I don't know, I don't feel like my tastes have changed at all. And I feel like I've, I've, I still like the same games. I still am very curious about lots of different types of games, but I've definitely become more reliant on handheld stuff, the Switch and now the steam deck, which is, is a godsend for parents of toddlers. Yeah, I've heard that. Maddie, how about you? How's your relationship with video games changed in the last two years? Well, the main difference for me was that two years ago I bought a switch for my girlfriend, who prior to that was mainly a Sims and mobile game player, would still consider her a gamer for what it's worth.

But she certainly wasn't playing as many games as she has nowadays where she's playing things on the PS5 and we have to negotiate PS5 time. Very respectfully was one of others. Careful what you wish for. Yeah. Yeah. I know. I mean, it was the beginning of the pandemic. Well, you can play the trump card of, hey, it's my job. Yeah, but sometimes it's not. I'm not a liar. I have no stomach for that.

You know what I mean? Like, sometimes I will be like, oh, you know, I have to play this for work. But if it's for fun, I will be like, it's fine. You're like, I need to play the two more hours of Dark Souls for work. For work for my one more thing. Well, for Tripp looked like you can justify everything by saying it's for the podcast. Yeah, I don't think that would fly. I just, I don't do that sort of thing. But I do feel like it has. changed things for me. I have usually dated people who play a lot of games, but I mean, this is more just a corny fact about Dina. I feel like she's actually a lot more compromising the most other people I've dated about sharing the TV, sharing space, and just generally being cool with it in ways that I've had other partners to... Do you think that's why your relationship lasted because she's not a gamer? No, because she is now, though, so I don't think it's that. I think it's that she... I was just saying the gamers are awful, so you don't want to date.

I don't know about the two of you. This isn't the topic of this episode, but like I have dated some people who have not been cool with me playing games for long extended periods of time and not paying attention to them. That has been a conflict that has come up. And maybe we can do a separate episode about that someday. That's a thing. That can be a thing.

A valid issue even, yeah. Early in our relationship, there were some conversations that Dina and I had about that sort of thing where I would disappear. But over time, we got really good at negotiating that. And, you know, I'll toot her horn. I would say she's been the best at negotiating that out of anyone I've ever dated. And she has her own interest.

She has her own hobbies, including video games. And both of us are like, today's an alone day where we both go to our own rooms and we play games. Or today's a together day where like I'm playing a game on the big screen. She's playing a game on her switch. It's very healthy. We're like watching TV together. But we're both playing a game. Like, I've never had a relationship before where we're all consuming media together in that way.

and I really love it. And so that's actually been something really cool that's changed for me in the past couple years, is that I'm in a non-toxic relationship. And it's seriously changed how I feel about video games, which I never would have expected. And I feel like I love them even more, which is absurd because I already loved them. But it means I can play them without feeling guilt, which is really important. That's awesome. That's great.

Pretty rad. You know, yeah, and that, well, I'm sure that flexibility also just speaks to her other positive attributes as a person. Of course. It's funny, that's sort of similar to the thing I was going to say. The last two years have been so isolated in a way, you know, like while we've been making this show and, you know, doing all these other things with our lives. COVID has been going on, and there just hasn't been as much socialization. And that's still kind of true to an extent. Like, at least in the last few months, it's really opened up, at least here in Portland.

People are going out. I get to see people's faces in public, which is like good for a part of my brain that I didn't know needed that. but really needed it. But it's definitely been eye-opening for me to spend so much time here, actually, in my office, playing games as well as working. Because I work in here, I record both the podcasts I make in here. I spend a lot of time in here.

And then also, my video game stuff was all set up in here too. So then at night I'd be like, well, I'm going to go play a game, and I'd go play it. And I would kind of, like, close myself off. Or I wouldn't close the door, but I'd be kind of away. And Emily would be out in the living room, like watching TV. or something hanging out with our dog. And I've found that I don't like that,

or I don't need that as much as I used to. Like, I don't need any more me time, and I like actually being out there. This is something my one more thing is going to be the Steam Deck, which I now have one and have been using. And that's been the coolest thing about it, is realizing, like, it's cool that it allows me to play pretty much every game that I have on my PC away from my PC,

but it's also led me to the realization that I want to get away from my PC. PC. Like, I like the exact kind of like parallel play where we're just, I'm kind of sitting on the couch playing XCOM or whatever, and she's watching Farscape and Appa's like between us on the couch and sort of like, and it's just this really nice like together, but also doing our own thing feeling that I'm realizing that I really have wanted more of. And I think that's partly true because of the last two years and because it's just been like such a weird isolating time. And we've, there's just so much like managing your space and moving from

place to place within a house, especially if you live with someone. Definitely. And also sort of managing your social time. Like now social time has to be really planned out because we're still, you know, obeying pandemic rules and, you know, everybody's taking tests and all that. So it's like everything is super structured. And I actually like that. I don't know why. I just feel like it's better for me to know what's going to happen at any given moment. And it also just has like been good for a relationship. So it's nice. Maddie, you know who else like structure? Is my time. toddler. She loves having breakfast at a certain time. I bet she benefits from all this as well, yeah. And she probably benefits from, like you said, handheld gaming devices. You can like spend

some time with her and pause something and look up and then go back to it. Actually, on Saturday, I pulled up, I bought her this Mario Lego set. And then I pulled up Mario on the Super Mario World on the switch and was showing it to her. And she was just, did not. did not. It was not for her. She was just a swing and a miss. So not a gamer yet. Well, she just wanted to play with like the controller and like the Lego like figure, physical stuff.

She wasn't, she didn't understand the concept because she has zero screen time. So she didn't really understand the concept. That's probably for the best. Yeah, that might be fine. Mario is bad at once. The on screen Mario. Lego Mario is another story.

It's true. It's true. She calls him Mario. Oh, and this morning I was like, you know, Mario is a plumber. And she was like, ha, ha, ha. She was like, that's funny. She was like, Dad, that's not true. She doesn't know what a plumber is.

She doesn't know what a plumber is. She's out here, like, he hasn't given up his plumbing business. She just thought it was a funny sounding word. Like, she doesn't know what plumber is. It is a funny sounding word. She wasn't laughing at the concept, just at the word. This is like enjoying the controller, but not the game. She's sort of a very immediate being at the moment.

Exactly. What's tactile in front of her, what she can hear, sense, or smell. I love it. Yeah, that sounds nice. Well, that's enough personal crap. Let's talk about the video game industry. Great. The second question is, how has the world of video games?

How has the world of video games changed in the last two years? And Maddie, you go first this time. Okay. I feel like, I mean, this is all anecdotal evidence, but I do feel like a lot more people have become gamers. I guess it's not all anecdotal. We could look at switch sales and just see that a lot of people have been going back to gaming because of the pandemic.

And that's been pretty neat, I think, because I remember early on when we were recording Triple Click, we'd get questions from people who are like, oh, I love video games, love your show, but nobody wants to talk to me about video games or I don't have any friends who are interested in that. I hope that some of the listeners out there that's changed somewhat, or at least some of attitudes have changed about it over time. I obviously, the pandemic is the most depressing thing ever, but I feel like the one silver lining, at least in my world, is that it means fewer people are having conversations with me where they're like, I don't understand what you do or why you would cover that or what you're

talking about. And instead people are just like, oh, cool, that seems neat. I just grabbed such and such game. So I do feel like that has changed in just the last two years. Also new consoles came out or something, I guess. Yeah, I was just, I listened to this late political gab fest podcast sometimes, just this very popular politics show. And one of the co-host, John Dickerson, who's like, big TV news guy. He did, like, as his extra little thing at the end of the episode, he's like, so my thing is this game called Eldon Ring that I've been playing. And it was totally out of left field, because usually it's like some presidential biography that he read, some super obscure thing that he's really into. And instead he's like, this game's really cool. He's like,

I haven't played a game in a really long time. And then on the next episode, I guess, a bunch of people wrote in and we're like, what's your build? And so he's like, I'm playing a confessor. So yeah, anyway, a further sign of what you were talking about, Maddie. All right, Jason, what do you think? How has the world of video games changed in the last two years? Yeah, I feel like I'm going to keep this short because I don't want to go too long in this segment. But I feel like short version is I feel like there's been a lot more discussion over the past couple of years about labor issues and crunch and unionizing. Certainly more than there was in the previous two years or the two years before that.

And I think that's really cool to see. It's definitely like the conversation has really, really been elevated. And some of the things you'll see like you'll see people unafraid to talk about. about things on social media knowing that they maybe were more afraid to or reluctant to a couple years ago. Yeah, and I mean, same goes for harassment, Me Too, things like that. I mean, obviously, like in the last two years, that's part of it too. Yeah, the Blizzard lawsuit.

Yeah, people are much more empowered, which is cool. Yeah, it's all kind of tied. Yeah, it's all connected. And QA, I feel like I've seen just a lot more elevation of QA and understanding of the importance of QA testers and, you know, QA departments being brought on. Like, that's also been really neat to see. I don't know if I'd call it a trend yet, but it's cool that it's happening more. and more. That's pretty good.

Well, those are two good ones. I guess I'll mention that this is a kind of recent change, but I don't think this is because of us. I think this is because of Eldon Ring, but it really feels like there's been a renewed conversation about mystery and video games and about exploration. And it really seems like there's I think it is because of this. I think it's because of Eco Tag and everything. That's true. That's true. I just didn't want to say it, but that is what I think. All I see is Eco Tag this, Eco Tag this. Everywhere. They're like, you know, John Dickerson was just talking about it on Slate Political Camp Fest.

He was like, through ecotag. Like, not only does he bring up Eldon Ringy also brings up an eco tag. I feel like that would... Yes, he's really a man of... Make our brains of blood. So anyways, I think that's been cool. Like, it's been neat to see a sort of crystallization around this specific aspect of video games that I don't think was as openly or, like, concisely or maybe clearly

talked about over the last 10 years as the sort of rise of the from game and of that style of game, you know, has that style of game has risen in popularity. And it's just been cool to see because it means that that is a catching trend. And that means it'll be explored in all of these cool ways as we go. And that makes me happy because I like games like that. All right, well, let's do the next one and then we'll move on to our next segment. Final question is, where do we think things will be two years from now? Jason, you're the great prognosticator. You start. Oh, man. I don't know. I mean, I think that we'll be seeing a lot of same trends. I think in two years we will not be hearing about NFTs anymore because all those

companies will have imploded and run out of money. God willing. Instead there'll be some other awful trends. Some new thing. Right. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Well, definitely. I mean, we'll definitely be seeing some other crazy like money gold rush type speculation trend. But I actually, I see a lot of the same course. I think maybe in two years we'll see more game companies have unionized. I think we'll see even more discussion about some of those issues, workplace issues. And I think that the world of gaming is just going to keep expanding more and more and more. Despite the fact that AAA gaming and game development still feels unsustainable, and that might continue to kind of shrink, I think games themselves are getting more and more interesting and will continue to get

more and more interesting and more widespread. Yeah, I wonder about the consoles. It's funny to think. So the year that this show launched was the year of the Xbox Series X and the PlayStation 5. And it kind of, in this weird way feels like those consoles don't exist. Or like they didn't quite fully come out because it's still so hard to get them.

Yeah, because of the chip shortage. Right. Well, that'll be different because a lot of people right now are making games assuming that they're going to be next gen only. Like by the end of this year, we're not going to have too many more cross-gen games. Yeah, so I guess

that's my thought is that in two years, I think we'll feel more solidly in the middle of a console generation, rather than in, especially for this one, the awkward first two years now, which is just still this weird thing where it's like, well, I guess things are coming out on PS5 or Xbox Series X, but not really. And I think that might feel different, but then also it will have been four years since the consoles came out. So it'll be, I guess the midpoint, but it'll already start feeling like, like, there's going to come a point where they start talking about the next consoles. And it's going to feel too soon. I don't think it's going to be in two years, but it's going to...

Well, in two years, they'll definitely, Nintendo will definitely be talking about their next council. I don't know if you consider that. They're always kind of staggered with everybody else, but yeah, that is likely. Maddie, what do you think? Two years from now? It's hard to even imagine next week. This question is a real stumper for me. I hope we're all still here. So in the midst of the water wars, I guess, I hope the chips shortage improves. I feel like that's been causing a lot of sadness for people. I don't know enough about how it would go about improving to make a prediction as to how, but it does feel like something has to give there.

I don't know what that looks like exactly. But yeah, I'm also like, okay, so there's no E3 anymore. How does that change the industry? And how does that result in the further splintering of what we're already seeing, which is PR just dividing up into their own little events? everything's online now. How does that change the way that people interface with games and talk to each other? I think that'll continue to be weird and fascinating and results in some social trends that

I don't think we can't imagine, but will be weird and probably also bad. They'll be like good stuff and then there'll also be some way that people can communicate online that's worse than we could even remotely fathom right now. And that'll be fun too. So can't wait for that. Very optimistic. take a look at the next year. I mean, I don't know, man.

Every day I read the news and I'm like, why did I do that? You know? So that is enough, looking forward. Let's look back. And we're going to do a kind of a lightning round where we go through every single game that we did a triple play for. And to anyone who, this is your first episode of triple click, a triple play, you know, you can guess what it is.

It's when we all play the same game. It's not mysterious. Are you confused already? Okay. Well, we all play a game. It's funny that you feel the need to explain triple play but not being the, cast, which makes way less sense. I didn't know. That's fine also.

Everyone knows what a beans cast says, but triple play, that's pretty confusing. So, okay, we did triple plays of, I don't know how many games, a couple dozen. We're going to go through them all, and we're going to each say one sentence about that game as we look back on it and consider our relationship with the game now. Maddie, you're going to go first, and we're just going to go in this order. We're going to go through all of them, okay. And I don't know what any of my sentences are going to be. I did no prep for this.

Okay, we're just going to make these up, right? This is going to be a mess. Okay. Yeah, we're going to make them up. We are. It's going to be great. All right. First game is Super Mario Odyssey, Maddie. Loved it them. Love it now. Said the boss fights were like a fun puzzle. That's the only part I should remind about. Some of them are weird. All right. But mostly great. That was a long sentence. Yeah, this is too many sentences. That's pretty good. Jason, go ahead. This is the first one. We're learning.

I want my own copy. I like jumping on the big stack of gumbas. You guys are nailing it. Okay. Next. The Last of Us 2. Maddie. you had to kill too many dogs in that game Jason it is not the critic who counts not the man who points out of the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done them better

the credit belongs to the man who's actually in the arena whose face is marked by sweat and sweat and blood strives value who errors to come short again and again because there's no effort without error in shortcoming who does actually strive to do the deeds who does great enthusiasm the great demotions and spends himself in a worthy cause

who at best knows the end the end triumph of my achievement and who had the worst if he fails at least fails while daring greatly so that his place she'll never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat i should have seen that coming thanks so much for that mine is going to be i agree you had to kill too many dogs in that game all right uh next horizon zero don mattie uh i liked the story overall of this one better than for ben west Jason I love shooting robot dinosaurs I'm glad

that I knew about slow-mo from the start sorry if only next up Marvel's the Avengers Maddie Kamala Khan

still great should have just been about her Jason um killed Guardians of the Galaxy okay mine is

this game came out that's me but I mean I just think that all the time I'm like, oh yeah, there was an Avengers game. We did a whole episode about it. Too bad about that. Next, Hades, Maddie.

Zagrius is the greatest character. Jason. Not horny enough. Wow. No. How could that be true? It's a joke. Mine is going to be, I cannot believe that Darren Corb composed the music and also voiced

Zagrius. The man is unbelievable. Next, Assassin's Creed Valhalla, Maddie. Boy, Assassin's Creed games sure have changed a lot. Jason. Skull. Kirk, one day I'll finish this. Next, cyberpunk 27, Maddie.

One day I'll finish this. Jason. They should have just made The Witcher for. Geez. I still can't decide whether to play with a controller or a mouse in a keyboard. Killer man. Hitman 3. Maddie. Wait, you're not supposed to kill people in this game. Jason.

Reminding me how much I love Knives Out. I still need to go and do all the elusive targets. Super Mario 3D World plus Bowser's Fury, Maddie. This was how I learned what Butrock is and is not. Me too, actually. Jason. I got to turn into Maddie's cat. Yeah, I didn't expect that a kaiju cat Mario would be in the offing for this game, and it was, and I was happy for it.

Final Fantasy 6, Maddie. Listen to the entire archives of you're wrong about during this one. Breaking. I hate you both. No, you don't. You love us. Mine is that the opera scene holds up. Loop hero, Maddie.

this came out. I mean, I'm good on this one. It was all right at the time. It was all right at the time. Jason. My biggest turnaround in terms of like going from I really love this to really don't love this of the year. Was that this year or last year? Yeah, I would say that mine was also sort of similar. Let me think that's not, this isn't a sentence. Maybe this can be my sentence and I'll just let it end. Speaking of loops, returnal, Maddie, go. The parts where you enter an actual house were really free. freaking cool. Jason. I died way more than seven times. And mine will be, I died exactly seven times.

Mass Effect Trilogy, Maddie. Didn't finish it still kind of want to, though. Jason. I will never finish it, and you guys won't either. I don't know if that's true. I don't know if that's true. I think that thanks to the Steam deck, I might finish it. And when I do, I will say that I'm Kirk Hamilton.

And this is my favorite RPG remake on this. Final Fantasy 7, remake, integrate, Maddie. Ufi is a perfect angel and I forever stand. Jason. Where the heck is part two? Yes. Fair. Mine is, I didn't know I liked Ufi, and now I do.

The Legend of Zelda, Skyward Sword, Maddie. Really liked Zelda's character and dialogue in this one, more than I remember. Jason. Prototype for Breath of the Wild in some cool ways. Mine will be, did you know that the Ballot of the Goddess is actually this lullaby backwards? Yeah, we all do. Now everyone knows.

Half-Life 2, Maddie. Freaking cool. Jason. Not what I expected. Yeah, holds up, especially episode 2. That'll be mine. Psychonauts 2, Maddie. Never played one?

Don't need to. It owns. Jason. I cannot wait to get back to this. game one day. Also, where the heck is the documentary? Oh, God, yeah. I guess that's a long sentence, but fine.

That is true. Where is the documentary? That's a good, that's a fair sentence. Mine is going to be, yeah, I'm going to finish this on Steam Deck and I'm excited. Metroid dread Maddie. Game of the year, every year forever. Jason. I dread the thought of Maddie not loving this game.

You don't have to anymore. My sentence is, I wish there were a reason for me to go back to this. I want to play more of it because it was great. Guardians of the Galaxy, Maddie. It was fine. Jason. It was cute. Yeah.

Maybe mine is just, yeah, dot, dot, dot. All right, let's keep going. Halo Infinite, Maddie. That grappling hook, though. Jason. I forgot this game out. Yeah, how did this end? What happened at the end?

That's my sentence. I don't know. I don't remember. Now we're up to recent history, dying light too, Maddie. The complexity of Aden stuns me to this very day. Jason? I wanted to be third person. Oh my God, heresy.

My sentence is anyone who would want this to be third person is tripping. Sweet code in two, Maddie. Maybe if I read the book? Jason. The perfect video game. Yeah, and mine is going to be. be surprisingly enough I'm looking forward to playing more of this. Horizon Forbidden West, Maddie?

It had its moments. Jason? I still love shooting robot dinosaurs, but maybe not as much as the first time we're out. And mine is, I still really like this game, and if you want to hear more about it, go to Maximumfund.org slash join it. Become a member and listen to the Beanscast that goes out next week. Final game is Eldon Ring, Maddie. So glad I got Souls Pilled just in time for this.

Jason. I still think it might be the best game ever made. The more I think about it. Yeah, I'm in New Game Plus, and I'm still playing it, and I don't plan to stop, which is pretty impressive. All right, those are all the games that we talked about on the show, and we did one sentence about each of them. Some of those sentences were satisfying, and some were a little disappointed. Just like the games themselves. Just like the games themselves.

So, all right, we've got one more thing we're going to do before we do one more thing. This is something that Maddie has put together. And Maddie, why don't you take it away and tell us about it? Okay. So I created a One More Thing trivia game that I have a feeling the listeners in the chat are going to be a lot better at than we are. So you all can compete as well. So Kirk, no looking at the chat then. No, chat is not even visible to me.

Right. No, don't look at the chat, at least for this particular moment. I will look at the chat. So this is a trivia about everyone. every one more thing we've ever done. I used a spreadsheet that was created by a user in the Discord named Perma Palimpsest. They didn't finish filling out the spreadsheet, so I finished filling it out. So it's their work and mine.

And was that a good use of time? You get to decide. Okay. Question one, I guess I'll just let you guys buzz in using your own names, or you can just shout out answers. This is, you win nothing. You can guess however you wish. which piece of media. That was me buzzing. That was me buzzing it.

Great. Which piece of media appeared as a one more thing most often. Destiny 2. Dark Souls. That's correct. Okay. Hold on. Destiny 2 is the correct answer. Seven times. And it was me every single time. Wow. It was Destiny 2 more than Dark Souls. It was. What do you think was in second place? Dark Souls? No.

Wow. Eldon Ring. That's right. It's Eldon Ring. At six times, Maddie wants Jason twice and Kirk three times. And now, of course, what do you think is in third place? Dark Souls. And it's five times me every time. It was funny because I wrote down Dark Souls assuming it would be the winner. And then as I was actually looking, I was like, wait, Eldon Ring beats it. And then I was like, wait, Destiny 2 beats it. Because I was like scrolling all the way back to the beginning of time. That was your only, that was like your fixation for a long time. That's all you're talking about. It was so funny. That makes sense. Nice. Okay. So how many times has Jason chosen a Final Fantasy game? Has this one more thing?

I'm going to say, I guess we just each guess a number. I'm going to guess six times. How about you, Jason? Four. We're doing Price's Right Rules, which I'm going to say we are. Jason wins because it's five times, and there's only one repeat answer, which is Final Fantasy 14, which was chosen twice. I make sense.

That, yes, that I would have guessed. Okay, nice. How many times has Stephen King appeared as a one more thing? Oh shit, so many times. I thought it was going to be as just king things. I'm guessing, I'm guessing nine. Um, I'm going to say seven, seven. You're both, you're both way too high.

It's actually only four times. Me once, Jason twice. Kirk just once, but kind of twice because you picked two books the one time you mentioned it. I cheated right because I said Salem's line. If I picked every time we talked about just king things. There might be one that I'm missing. We're like maybe right from Mended Just King Things and I just didn't find that. So maybe it's actually five times.

Okay. So this one's kind of hard to word. How many weeks did all three of us pick a game as our one more thing? Like all three of us had a game. It's funny because I always, I just, I feel like I always say that. I'm like, oh, look at these gamers over here. Jason's guesses is 15. Oh, my guess is.

based because I know I say it every time and I don't say it that often I've been to guess seven oh I haven't been looking at the chat enough there's so many guesses in the chat I don't even know how to negotiate this so Kirk is guessing seven Jason wins it's 17 17 which is actually quite a bit look at us look at look at these gamers here I know we all you wouldn't believe it we all I'm curious are you going to ask anything about the breakdown of like TV shows versus books versus absolutely that is going to happen don't you worry okay okay So the next question is, of course, the opposite. How many weeks did none of the three of us choose a video game or gaming-related topic as our one-one thing? I'm going to say 12. Jason wins. It's 11. 11. Are we keeping score? Because I'm not keeping score.

You can keep score when you edit the episode, I guess. Again, you win nothing. 12 is closer to 11, so I think Kirk should win that one. This one is just, I don't know. I second the last question How often did each of us talk about a piece of hardware as a one more thing? Controllers, video cards, consoles.

Does this week's episode count? This episode doesn't count. I only counted 99. How about let's structure it this way? Who do you think talked about hardware the most as a one more thing out of the three of us? Yeah, Jason's guess is Kirk. And he's correct.

Who do you think does it second most often? Maddie. I'm going to say Maddie? Kirk is right. It's me. So Kirk did it five times. I did it four times and Jason only did it twice, which really surprised me. You did a Steam Deck one.

I thought I did him for the next gen hardware last two years ago. Well, for that episode, we didn't pick them as one more things. And this is only one more things. Okay. So now this is a fun part. The OMT statistical breakdown over 99 episodes. So I broke down how often each of us talks about video games, TV shows, movies, et cetera. Oh, my God.

I don't even know how to. ask you guys to guess this. I think you can just tell us. I mean, I guess. Well, do you have a percentage or like how, what kind of breakdown do you have? Yeah. I have like numbers for each category per person. So like, okay, who do you think picked games the most often out of the three of us for

their one more thing? Kirk. I think Jason probably. No way. It's Kirk. 61 games. Yes, I'm the ultimate gamer. I'm the ultimate gamer.

I knew it all win the prize. This is sort of silly because we pick doubles all the time. But anyway, who do you think is in second place? Mine are usually bucks or shows. Well, now, because Maddie picked Destiny 2 in Dark Souls all the time. Maybe it's Maddie, actually. It's in second place. Yeah, I'm going to say Maddie. It's me at 50 and Jason's just at 48.

All the other ones are much too close to be as fun. I thought it was funny that Jason never recommended a podcast, but did recommend 15 books in comparison to My Six and Kirk's three. Because Jason reads a lot of books. I watch the most movies, which doesn't. surprise me. I recommended 11 movies. Deanna and I have a weekly movie night. Both of you recommended six. We're all about equal on TV shows. Jason had 21, Kirk 17, and me 19. We all had like topics that we chose. Kirk, you used to do this a lot more. Like early on, you did like puppies

and playtesting, which was like a really fun topic. Like you used to just come in in the early episodes and just be like, I'm going to talk about a thought I had while falling asleep. And it was very sweet. But usually it's just an excuse for him to talk about Multiple things. I know. I know like two Stephen Kingfuss. Or sometimes rant about public defenders. You never know.

You never know what you're going to get. It's true. And then last but not least, I did want to say out of Jason's nine topics, only three were NFL stories, which I expected to be a higher number than three. But it was only three. There was just a lot of quantity, a lot of quality in each of this. Quality and quality. A lot of meat.

A lot of meat on those bones. Yes, a lot of meat on those bones. Nice. Yeah. So that's the breakdown. and I may have miscounted. I had to kind of like fudge the numbers when there were times where a topic was like related to a game. So I would count it as a game and so on and so forth.

But it was fun. And the spreadsheet is public for anyone. So you can create your own One More Thing, Trivia at home if you wish. Wow, you really can. I'm sure, I'm sure dozens of people will be doing that. Dozens. Dozens of people will be doing that. Well, now that we've looked back on 99 episodes of One More Things,

let's do one more round of One More Things. let's take a break, and then we'll be back for one more thing. Max Fun Drive is just around the corner. 2022. Starting April 25th, it's the best time of the year to support your favorite shows by becoming a Max Fun member, or upgrading your membership. Just two weeks. We've got some great episodes and amazing thank you gifts in store. And who knows, maybe a few surprises.

Don't forget bonus content. So make sure to tune in, starting Monday, April 25th, to get all the digital. juicy details on what each show has in store. Actually, wait, what are the details anyway? And why are they juicy? That's kind of a strange adjective to describe the details. Look, it's a rough world out there, especially lately. I get it.

So let's take care of our minds as best we can. I'm John Moe, host of Depression Mode with John Moe. Every week, I talk with comedians, actors, writers, musicians, doctors, therapists, and everyday folks about the obstacle. that our world and our brains throw in front of us. Depression, anxiety, traumatic stress, all those mental health challenges that are way more common and more treatable than you might think.

The first time I went to therapy, I was so ashamed, and I was like, I can't believe I gotta go into therapy. Like, I thought I could be a man. Humphrey Bogart was never in therapy. And then my dad said, yeah, but he smoked a carton of cigarettes a day. Give your mind a break. Give yourself a break and join me for Depress Mode with John Moe. And we're back,

for one more thing. I'm doing hardware and YouTube are doing games. Let's do the games first. Maddie, why don't you tell us about your One More Thing? Sure. So my One More Thing is a PC game. It's called Norco. And it's set in Norco, Louisiana, the real place.

And if you were to try to Google this game, you would find a whole lot of information about Norco before you found the game. So you got to Google Norco game. That's my hot tip for anybody trying to find the video game, Norco. It's really cool. It's a point-and-click adventure game, really pixelated. art style. It's set in sort of 15 minutes from now version of the future in the sense

that you are a member of a family who sort of lives in this dilapidated area that was like the person, one of the people who made the game lived in Louisiana and their family like an Exxon Oil Company nearby exploded and it like affected their house and everything. And that's also the setting of this video game. And this is like this oil company that's taken over and everything in the town and owns the town. But then also your family has like a pet robot who works for you. And like there's that's normalized. The idea of the existence of robots is normalized. And also just all the companies are like kind of like companies you would know now,

but like a little bit more futuristic. And then also there's some magic mixed in with the sci-fi, which I wasn't expecting. So this game is only six hours long, but it's super. Dents. No, hey, you listen up because this game is like a heady six hours. It's got really purple pros and I do mean that as the somewhat bittersweet compliment that it is in the sense that there would be times where I would read a character explaining to me their life story and I'd be like, no one talks like this and I feel like I'm reading grapes of wrath.

Yeah, okay. Now I don't want to play this anymore. But Jason, but there's so much other stuff in it, that's just very occasional. There's so much other stuff in it that's really freaking. cool and the world building is rad. There's a, I mean, I can't spoil this game because so much of it is impressionistic and kind of vibes. It's a vibes game, although there is, you know, there's actual endings. And since it's a point and click adventure, you can talk to multiple characters and try to try to resolve each person's plot line. And I know there's multiple endings and I would

consider one of them better, quote unquote, than the other. So, you know, it's worth trying to actually get through it all, although there's also things in the game that are purely impressionistic. Like, you sort of discover this being in the swamps and this being that's sort of poisoning everyone's cell phones literally. It's got this very anti-capitalist message where you're, like, dealing with this world, where technology is supposed to save us and unite us, but it's also poisonous. And then also there's this overarching Christ allegory that the game is, I'm not sure whether it's a mockery of the idea of a Christ allegory or, the game is wholeheartedly embracing it.

And I've beaten it and I still don't fully know. But there's like a cult in the game and all the cult members sort of dress like Best Buy employees. Like literally they wear blue shirts. And it's sort of like about the corporatization of religion, I think, or at least that's my interpretation of it. And then also, I don't know. It's got a lot of vibes.

I feel like I'm just listing bizarre things. And I'm like somehow all of this is in six hours. But it's really cool. And it's doing a lot. I'm not sure. always succeeds, but I really dig an indie game that's six hours and is doing a lot. I'm just, I support that period. I think it's really rad. So I think people should check it out. If they like work about climate change and like having mixed feelings about religion and your childhood home

and an oil company destroying everything and owning everyone that you know. And also your cell phone is poisonous maybe. If that sounds cool to you, then Norco is a game. There's a lot of actually very relatable emotions. Yeah. just conveyed there. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It does feel like a hashtag-relatable game in many ways. Jason, what is your One More Thing? Yeah, my One More Thing is a game called Nobody Saves the World.

It's just double-checking this. So this game has been out on PC and Xbox. It is coming to Switch and PlayStation this week. So I'm playing it on Switch. And it's really cool. It's this action game, Top Ten Action Game, Diablo-ish. although it reminds me a lot of a couple other games. It reminds me a lot of Enter the Gungeon in some ways because it's top down.

And it really reminds me of this old game called Death Spank, which is by Ron Gilbert, creator of Monkey Island, who just announced the new Monkey Island game last week, which is incredible. And we may or may not do a Monkey Island episode of the near future to celebrate. But anyway, Death Spank was this kind of like comedic, 2D action game, and this reminds me a lot of that. But anyway,

So this game, it is a top-down action game, and you play as you start off as this kind of like faceless, eyeless dude named nobody. And as you play, he learns how to, or really right away, he learns how to evolve into a rat. And so then suddenly you can turn into a rat. And then you go around and you attack enemies as a rat, and you bite them and you eat them and stuff. And then the more you play, you got these kind of quests in your top left of your screen that are like, kill 10 enemies. as a rat or like use poison damage X number of times or whatever. They're very specific quests. And each time you kind of get one of them, you build experience. And then you power up your rat more. You get them up a level, upper rank. And then you can turn into new stuff.

You can turn into a guard or a hunter. And then from there, you can level up those guys and turn them up into other creatures or kind of forms. And so you wind up being able to transform among like dozens of different forms and use all their different abilities as you're playing, which is kind of a cool, interesting twist on like the action RPG genre. So kind of the point of the game is to do these kind of like little micro quests, which are these addictive little like boosts of endorphins every time you do to level up each of your characters, to unlock new forms and then to play around with each of the forms as you go. So like, and then some of them are super creative. So like, I unlock this horse that has a kick move that only kicks

behind him. So you have to kind of like back up into enemies and kick behind them. And then you can send them a fly. And it's very cool. It's very good. It feels very good to play. It's very tactile, which is important for a game like this. And it's super cool to do because like every time you can switch forms anytime, just like using a radial menu. And then you can start doing all of their quests immediately. And so it has that kind of like gamey, gamey, super gamey thing where you are just really wanting to fill up all those bars on your screen to. unlock the quests and then unlock new forms and like just it has a really satisfying loop and then you're also exploring this big world and there's a story and some silly dialogue um this game is by

drinkbox which are the people who made guacam melee you guys know like those games they're two of um so it's really really good game makers um again it's called nobody saves the world it's because your main character is a guy named nobody and he's saving the world but um it's it's like a plan where it's because it's nobody because he can transform into all these different bodies. And yeah, it's really clever. I'm really enjoying it so far. It's a very good, like, watch TV while you play this type of game because you're spending

a lot of time just like mindlessly killing enemies with cool different abilities. So it's very much like a good, if you got, if you're hankering for Diablo, this is a super good fix for that. Nice. This will satiate your craving. Yeah, I've heard good things. Good game to listen to triple click while you play. There you go.

I like Drinkbox. I played Tales from Space Mutant Blom's Attack. I think on the Vita. like it was like an early game for the Vita and I have these memories of playing that. Yeah, Jankhamelay was also an early Vita. Yes, Guacamelaya, a great game. A Metroidvania, you could say, right? Kind of, you could describe it that way. If you wanted to. I'm sure they would like it. There's a lot of Metroid references, like directly in that game.

That's right, right, right. Well, speaking of the Vita, my one more thing is sort of like the Vita. It's basically the new PC Vita, and that's the Steam Deck. So, I have been playing the Steam Deck now for a week and a half, or I've had one for a week and a half, and I think it's friggin' amazing. And I want to talk about it a little bit. But I want to qualify it too, but wait first. So I have it here. I wanted to show it to chat, because it can play some pretty amazing games. As you can see, it's really powerful, and it can play all the hottest games, such as

Wordle, which I'm playing on it right now. But also, pretty much anything I throw at it, which has been pretty impressive. So, okay, I guess I'm very excited about it and I think it's really good. I should say like qualifications up front or like qualifiers up front. So I did buy this Steam deck through like via Jason's pre-order, which we're doing a whole domino pre-order thing. I know. Each get them as soon as possible.

Jason's the only one who got sent one. Right. And Kirk and I just have to buy it. What? So I'm like, yeah, I'm invested in this thing because I bought it and I want it to be good. But also like all the games I have on it, I've gotten for. free. I've been getting free games forever and I have this huge steam library. So like, you know, when I get to play it, it's like, wow, every game ever is on this. And it's not,

it's just slightly different. So I feel like I should acknowledge that. And also that I'm definitely in the honeymoon phase of any new toy where I'm just like, this is so cool. And like, I'm playing it all the time. I'm out on the couch, just playing every game I can download under it. I got like a one terabyte SD card. So I just downloaded. Like I blew our data camera. Yeah, that's a reminder. Remind me after we were done recording, remind me which one you got because I want to get one. Yeah, you should, it's worth getting one if you're, if you're one of these just to have the extra space. So anyways, I think it's really great, though, despite the fact that I'm acknowledging, you know, sort of being in the honeymoon phase,

and I could, I guess, in a little while, be like, all right, I use it sometimes, but it's not the end all. But right now, man, I am just playing everything on this. It's like, it's the, it's like replaced my gaming PC. Like I was talking about in the first segment, I really like sitting on the couch with Emily and with Appa and just hanging out and being able to play. And I'm playing so many games on this. Like I downloaded all of the, of these games, games I didn't finish, games I wanted to replay. I've been playing a bunch of immersive Sims. It's like replaying, Dishonored 2, and XCOM 2, which I never finished, and I want to play. They made that War of the Chosen expansion. Xcom plays pretty well on this thing. It's

kind of fiddly. So it's playing so many different games. Red Dead Redemption 2 runs on this and like looks good. It looks like the PS4 version. You lock it to 30 frames for second. Looks good. Control, totally playable. GTA 5 is like 60 frames per second. It's a gaming PC. It's a little gaming PC that's shaped like a Nintendo Switch. Although you should the caveat here is that you play most of your games plugged in. Some people who are really playing portable, like Redda 2 will last

like an hour. It'll last like an hour and a half for me. Yeah, I'll get into that. So just a couple of like specifics I guess on it. Yes, I mostly play plugged in. I'm playing around the house. You don't get very much battery life, especially if you're playing at high frame rates, like high performance. And you can limit that. Like you can set it to 15 frames per second for visual novels, which is kind of cool.

And I guess that's related to another thing about this console, I guess, this PC, whatever, the Steam Deck, is that it's really tweakable because it's just a Linux PC, and you can plug a mouse and keyboard into it, just go into desktop mode and just do whatever you want. Like, you can just change anything. So you can run emulators. You can install third-party software. You can, like, it works with things like origin and, you know, other, like, intermediary, like,

third-party clients that those can kind of be annoying. Like, it'll pop up and you have to tap the screen. Right. Yeah, there's some issues. But I did get Final Fantasy 14 running on it, and that was awesome. And that's through a client. So it always takes a little work, like Xcom took some work for me, because, like, the 2K thing comes up, and it's super annoying.

You're like, can't we just... But, you know, it's like PC gaming. It's sort of PC gaming. It's very much a gaming PC. It's so 2015, God. I know. This doesn't make me want to engage with your brand anymore, guys. Like, what makes you want to engage with your brand is making your game easy to play on Steam

or on whatever platform it's on, for that matter. But anyways, so it's kind of fiddly at this point. see them, I mean, they've been constantly updating it and changing it, and it does feel like, you know, a little half-baked, or it's like three-quarters baked. I could see in a year or two, it being a much more smooth experience. I think it'll always be kind of a PC gaming tweaker, you know, experience. But, you know, it's a little bit rough. You do need to get under the hood a bit. But then again, lots of people don't mind that, and I'm one of them. And I actually think it's kind of cool that it's so open. So the thing that this makes me think of, more than anything

else is when I first got an iPod. And that's a funny comparison to make because it's so different from an Apple device in some crucial ways. So I should be clear about what I'm saying. It's the feeling of, oh, all my stuff is right here on this thing and I can just carry it around the house with me and access it all at once and it's just portable, which has just never been true for me for PC gaming, for a game library this big. I mean, I have so many games installed on it. And I remember feeling that way when I got an iPod. So if I was just a the switch was kind of the Walkman or the Discman. This is an imperfect comparison.

But the Steam deck feels... Yeah, the Switch is a mini-disc player. We all know that. But go on. The way the Switch works is like you get a switch. If you bought a switch at launch, it was like, cool. This thing is great. Wow, this concept is awesome.

I can play two games on it. And then there was a period of time where it was like, now I can play five games on it. And then soon it was like, okay, I can re-buy these indie games I already own on Steam. Okay, I guess I will. And it was cool, but it was always this feeling of being limited. Where with the Steam Deck, You turn it on and everything you own on Steam is now on this console.

So if you own a lot of games on Steam, you now own those games on Steam Deck. So it's much more like with an iPod where I was like, whoa, my entire music library is now just in this little box that I can carry around. Bing! Kirk here, interrupting myself, just to say it sounds a little like I'm saying you can only play Steam games on this thing. But again, it's just a Linux PC. So you can play just about anything on it. Some games work better than others. I haven't tested everything.

There's a whole database. But you can play games from the Epic Game Store. You can install Windows on it, I gather it doesn't work that well yet, but you can do that. So then you can just play Windows games and turn it into a Windows PC. So really, you can play anything not just games from Steam, and I wanted to make that clear. Okay, bing!

And that's a really cool feeling. More than anything else, it's just the feeling of this small, compact, self-contained thing that has all my stuff on it, and I'm finding that just really wonderful. And then the last thing, and I know we're going along, is that the controllers, like all the ways that you can tweak the controls

are so cool. I know you both know that I'm a controller nerd, but I didn't know just how malleable it was. And it's a lot like the Steam controller, which you can just buy plug into your PC. It's the same idea. There's like two track pads and two thumbsticks. You can customize everything way beyond what you can do with the Xbox Elite, which I think is really cool. I wish the Xbox Elite were more customizable.

You can set key commands, for example. So I'm playing XCOM. Two of my back buttons are just quick save and quick load, because I save scum so much in XCOM. So I just go, boop, and it saves it. And then if I screw up, boop, and I load it. I don't even have to go into menus. Another cool thing you can do is like triggers.

You can set it so a half trigger pull and a full trigger pull set different commands. So I was playing Metal Gear 5. In Metal Gear 5, a third person game, you pull the trigger to aim and you aim. But then if you pull the trigger all the way on the Steam deck, or I would imagine with a Steam controller, it goes into the first person aim. So it's like you can kind of, it can add functionality to the game that wasn't there. Interesting. When you were playing it, which is really cool.

And there's all kinds of other stuff like that that I have. haven't even started to get into because it's just so customizable. There's tons of, you can download templates from the workshop just when you're playing. So I didn't realize how much I'd like it as a controller. It's comfortable to use. It's just like a nice video game controller. So on top of everything else. Yeah, it's a little heavy, but it's definitely comfortable. It's more comfortable than it seems. I don't mind the weight that much I'll say. Like I think it is heavy. Like you have to find the right pose for it. But it's my arms always fall asleep or my hands fall asleep playing the Vita or the Switch or the 3DS, like they're just too small for me,

they're not quite right. This one might, they never fall asleep unless I'm like really at a weird angle, which happens, but that's on me. That's not, that's not the Steve Xxmo. So anyways, it's really cool. I'm jealous. I could talk about it a lot more. It's pretty great. Natty, at some point my free order will come in and then then we'll all have them and we'll probably talk about a little bit more. And it's so you, you've played around with like emulating, right? Like classic because the emulators, you can just get from a store menu. Like it's the easiest thing in the It's very easy to get it all working. I mean, it's still emulation.

So it's still kind of a pain. You got Sweet Codin 2 on there, which is what everyone is just clamoring. Just dying to play. You get your save on there. It's true. Yeah, it's impressive. And it's exciting to think about like the Steam, or I'm sorry, the Switch being the sort of vanguard of this new thing. And this really feels like, oh, someone else was inspired by the Switch and did another version of this of a hybrid console that you can plug into a TV and take with you that plays pretty much every game.

And I'm like, I would love it. if in five years, this is just how every game system works like this. Why do we have to plug them into TVs? I know there's reasons, but still. It's making me realize how much I like having this option and kind of wish that, you know, the PS5

had a thing that was like this too, like the Vita 2. Come on, Sony. Make it happen. Yeah, being able to have the option of portability in addition to being able to talk it and plug it in to the big monitor and the big TV is really nice. Very, very cool. So I'm super impressed. Good job, Valve.

And you know what, at 640 for the highest end, that's the one with the most storage, right? 640 is what you've made. Yeah, 650. That's, like, pretty good for a gaming PC that runs what this game runs. Like, that's a pretty, pretty good price. Building my gaming PC was, like, two grand. A lot more, yeah. And it's a lot more now with GPU prices are crazy.

So, like, this thing, yeah. Unfortunately, it's very hard. It's hard to get now. I think if you try to get one now, you're probably a year backlog. But I mean, you know, years, as we've learned, years go slowly and quickly at the same time. It's true. Hopefully that the chip shortage will be less of a thing. It seems like they're trying to get it moving.

Two years went by, do you feel like the last two years of Triple Click went by slowly or quickly? Both? Honestly. It's both for me. It does feel like yesterday that we like, we're like, all right, we're going to leave Kataku. We're going to do something new. We're going to try something new. It feels super recent to me.

but then when I was looking back at the one more things from ages ago, I was like, no, it's been a billion years. Like, last was part two, destiny two, I don't even know what that is anymore. I don't even recognize that for me myself. I think that the amount of time as an abstract concept feels very short, like when I just think about, oh yeah, when we started triple click, I remember what that felt like that was just yesterday. But then when I think about the actual specific episodes or the topics,

like talking about Final Fantasy 7 remake, I'm like, that was 1,000 years ago. So that helps kind of anchor me in time, I think, when I do. Yeah, definitely. Yeah, I remember having, this is, so I remember when we were first, like, figuring out what we're going to do, what our new podcast was going to be. I have this vivid memory of being in a coffee shop working on my book because I was on leave and going outside, like stepping outside to make a phone call with an executive of a podcast that worked just to talk about, like, potentially working.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And the reason I bring this up is because I was in a coffee shop, so it was before COVID. Yep. Remember coffee shops? Remember that? Remember working in a coffee shop? February 2020. Oh, God.

Man, well, it's been a pretty great two years. Hopefully it will be another great two years ahead of us. Thanks everybody for listening for 100 episodes. And Jason and Maddie, I'll see both of you next week. See you next week. Bye. Triple Click is produced by Jason Schreier, Maddie Myers, and me, Kirk Hamilton. I edit and mix the show and also wrote our theme music.

Our show art is by Tom DJ. Some of the games and products we talked about on this episode may have been sent to us for free for review consideration. You can find a link to our ethics policy in the show notes. Triple Click is a proud member of the Maximum Fun Podcast Network, and if you like our show, we hope you'll consider supporting us by becoming a member at Maximumfund.org. Find us on Twitter at Triple ClickPod. Send email the triple click at Maximumfund.org and find a link to our Discord in the show notes. Thanks for listening. See you next time. Maximumfund.org.

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